Friday, May 9, 2008

Something Fishy

Thresher shark and halibut to be exact.

Wednesday night the Mom-in-Law was over, and would eat dinner with us only if we were having fish.

 

No problem there, it is Halibut season! So I stopped off at Albertson's to pick up some of this ridiculously priced ($17/lb) yumminess, and picked up some much more reasonably priced ($9/lb) shark steaks so there would be enough food for everybody (of course I invited our roomate Luke to eat with us as well).

 

DaNece and her Mom are big fans of white fish, so halibut fits the bill there perfectly with its light and subtle flavor. Personally, I like the stronger, wilder flavor of the shark.

 

Both were prepared the same way - sprinkled with seasoning. Salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, and a touch of old bay. The shark got the remaining thyme, rosemary, some salt and pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and some paprika.

 

The oven was preheated to 400.

 

Each of them hit a pre-heated pan with a little oil in it, and were pan seared just until there was some decent color, and then they were put in the oven for ~10-15 minutes until cooked through.

 

Accompanying the fish was green beans, some rice, and something new; green kohlrabi!

 

This awesome little vegetable is a type of cabbage, closely related to the rutabaga, and is something that my dad loved to eat. So when I saw it at the store, I just had to get it. It tastes slightly like broccoli stem, but is much sweater. I just stuck it in a medium-heat pan with some olive oil, butter, salt, and pepper and let it cook until soft (with many tests along the way of course). VERY TASTY!!

 

So that's the mom-in-law meal, and I have to say I really enjoyed it (everybody else seemed to as well). Now if only fish weren't so expensive here we could eat it a lot more often! :)

Friday Fun

Stuff from around the blogosphere:

- 75 Skills every man should master - entertaining list, with a lot of truth to it. But seriously: #69 Tie a knot: square not?!?!  Let's get everybody to tie a knot with little value beyond its ease of construction.

 

I did like #55 though, how to point north at any time using your wrist watch.

 

- National Geographic amazing images

image

(via)

 

 

 

- An upstart band can't afford the camera equipment to create a music video. So they setup in front of CCTVs, then request the footage under the Data Protection Act, and stitch it together. Brilliant!

(via)

 

- Dynamite Surfing (truly idiotic!):

 

 

- Stupid kid gets owned by a tuba player:

 
http://view.break.com/499528 - Watch more free videos

 

- This guy didn't want to get any more telemarketer calls (NSFW language):

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Pic of the day

A baseball in disrepair, has been swept away by floodwaters and left to rot in a creekbed.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Pic of the day

Taken on my way to work on Monday morning. This little prop plane crash landed in a field about a mile away from us sometime Sunday night. In less than 24 hours it was cleaned up and gone. The front landing gear was 50-75ft from the body of the plane, and the propeller was all mangled up. I couldn't help but stop and take a few snaps.

I can't believe I finished the whole thing.

600 pages. I finished a 600 page book. Now, 600 pages isn't normally something I would be terribly proud of (being a bit of a book worm I read a lot), but these 600 pages I was very proud of.

 

The pages to which I refer are contained within Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged edition). This was a book that was hard for me to get into, because the first three hundred or so pages of it are very SLOW moving. And you spend a lot of time wondering when you will get past the background information and character development to the good bits.

 

The two hundred pages that follow the slow pages are primarily concerned with laying down all the plot lines, twists, and turns. These pages are better, but still not terribly engaging. And it is easy to get confused by the sheer number of characters involved, and how their family histories relate them to the story.

 

It is the last hundred pages of this book that really shine. All the strategies converge, a brilliant flash of light occurs as you understand the full extent of what has happened, and then.... nothing. The book is over in no time flat. 2 months of off and on reading to get there, and then 45 minutes of truly great reading, and you are left hanging. Even though you know what has happened to the characters, you feel like there has to be more.

 

Overall it was a good book, and as always it was better than the movie. Would I read it again though? Probably not.

 

So now I move onto the next book: Unweaving the Rainbow which was borrowed to me by a co-worker. Thanks Greg!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Two nice photo blogs.

I'm digging them:

Michelle Ellis

Jasmine Star

Weekend review - ridiculous amount of picturage

So I'm finally caught up. Weekend pictures are sorted (from 170 down to 40) and, to an extent, corrected. I've finished about 75% of the work on my desk (which is a far higher percentage than usual), and I'm ready to blog again!

 

Where to start though? How about Friday night? Right!

 

Me and DaNece went on a date. Not the type of date that we are currently accustomed to, but the type that we used to go on when money was tight and it was more about the quality of time spent together. She packed an awesome picnic meal of ritz crackers, salame, ham, some tuna fish, cheese, strawberries, a slice of cake, and a bottle of sparkly apple-cranberry cider. It was perfect! We drove the truck out to a backroad that I thought I had seen that would overlook Watson and Willow lakes, with a beautiful show of the sun setting behind granite mountain. 4-lo and 25 minutes later and we had arrived. We setup our picnic food in the back of the 4Runner, got the cameras out and started snapping pictures. What a great way to spend a Friday night!

 

The setup (and DaNece doing  a great job of holding still for a full 4 seconds for the shot):

 

The view (the sunset was very lack-luster. But you can see Watson lake [blue] closest to us, and Willow lake a little farther away and to the right):

 

On the way back home I snapped this pic of Prescott Valley at night:

 

Saturday was actually a pretty uneventful day. DaNece spent most of the day at the hospital waiting for a friend to deliver a baby, so I was home alone all day. Oil changes were done, cars were washed, groceries were purchased, books were read, and a laptop was fixed. Thankfully not my laptop, as it wasn't broken. The laptop in question belonged to my sister who was in town for a few days:

 

In the midst of preparing for a presentation she was suddenly unable to get windows to load properly. Turns out that having some corrupted system files, 7 viruses, and about 300 bits of malware on your computer will cause that. Who'd have thought?

 

As an exchange for fixing her laptop she graced us with her presence for dinner on Saturday along with my mom. Dinner was a ridiculous display of mexican heathenism. Nachos. Monster Nachos. Homemade flour tortilla chips topped with homemade spanish rice, beans, spicy meat, fresh guacamole, cheese, black olives, tomatoes and sour cream. I couldn't even bear to take pictures of the insanity.

 

I even made dessert, which is something I almost never do (I'm a savory type of guy). Sadly though, I hadn't planned on making dessert, so it was whipped together quickly and with few ingredients. Vanilla ice cream, surrounded by fresh strawberries, and some lightly baked pear slices with cinnamon and sugar. Not too shabby for 5 ingredients and about 15 minutes:

 

Sunday we had resolved to go take some pictures around town in the early morning light. Of course by now the sun is rising at about 5:00AM, so we didn't quite get dawn light, but we also didn't have to wait 3 hours to get coffee at Cuppers either, so it was a good compromise.

 

A trash bin on the square from festivities the night before, with a bit of wisdom on it:

 

We walked over to my old middle school, where they are putting up a new mural:

 

And took a few snaps of the old building entrances, and gave DaNece the nickel tour:

 

On our way to Cuppers we saw a rare find for Prescott, an old Bentley:

 

Finally, caffeine fix in hand, we sat down at the coffee shop, and enjoyed a latte and smoothie (respectively). I also had the supreme opportunity to annoy DaNece with my camera:

 

From there we drove to Yavapai College, where we parked and started hiking along Granite Creek. The goal in my mind was to make it all the way to the Prescott Lakes overpass. Sadly we didn't make it that far, due to a minor sprain to DaNece's ankle. We did make it about half way though, and got to see a lot of cool things.

 

Like the bird nests under highway 89:

 

A bit more graffiti:

 

Cottonwood trees starting to pop their seeds (I'm sure Rich is thrilled):

 

As well as a very large street making machine of some type:

 

We walked back to the truck, and stopped in at the VA to take some pictures. The memorial sculptures always catch my eye:

 

So that was the weekend. And it was a darn good one! I'm so glad that the weather finally permits walking around. It is truly hard to beat Prescott's spring season.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Holy Blog Slacking! and a missed pic of the day.

Okay, work has been SUPER crazy today so haven't had time to blog any of the silly things that find their way into my inbox. Work has been hectic like nothing else, I'm sorting through about 170 photos that I took over the weekend to get some good ones, trying to schedule a mini-vacation to california, and dealing with a renewed Grand Theft Auto addiction.

 

I promise I will post something of substance in the coming days, since pic of the days, and random videos don't really count as substance.

 

I also noticed that my pic of the day didn't post on friday. Hmmm..... anywho, here it was; a F/A-18C Hornet fighter jet that was doing fancy maneuvers around the Prescott Airport. I didn't get any in-flight shots (setting camera settings, framing shots, and trying to get something other than a blur is surprisingly hard while driving), but I did make it to the airport right as he landed, so was able to take some pics there. Here he is, parked next to a Navy A-6 Intruder:

Friday, May 2, 2008

Great food blog

French Laundry at Home is probably one of the funniest food blogs I've ever read. The food is fancy, but she sounds a lot like me when I'm cooking. E.g. - forgetting whole steps, overcooking things and trying to salvage them, eating things that she is pretty sure she won't like.


Good stuff!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Deeply philosophical ponderings.

"Think of the biggest number you can. Now add five. Then, imagine if you had that many Twinkies. Wow, thats five more than the biggest number you could come up with" — This quote came from a 6 year old. It pretty much blew my mind.

 

See more kiddy goodness here.

(via)

Pic of the day

An Airstream seen in the Downtown Trailer Park, thought of Rich when I took it:

Man's world, In Stereo!

Stereo languages that is. James Brown sings his song alongside Luciano Pavarotti:

(via)

A rough day at the office

If you are a rally car driver:

(via)

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Pic of the day

My mom came over for dinner last night and showed me this photo that a friend of the family had given her of her parents. Not sure of the exact age of the photo, but my guess would be late fifties or early sixties.

I scanned the original faded photo and cleaned it up a bit, and cropped it so I can get it printed tomorrow for her:

 

Considering that I am no photoshop magician for old photos, I think it turned out pretty good compared to the original:

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Pic of the Day

A busted up Toyota truck. The thing that caught my eye when I took it was that the bumper is in good shape. So they owner got into an accident, and instead of fixing the damage they just bought a new bumper for it and slapped it on the front.

 

Hilarious!

 

A Dell rant.

Dell has some issues. I have never said that they are a perfect company, but for businesses they do offer some things that are nice.

 

Like Gold technical support. When I have a problem, I talk to somebody in America, who has no accent. I talk to people who know a lot about computers, instead of just reading the script from a diagnostic program. And when I tell them what is wrong with a machine, the just say 'Okay, I will get a new part on the way.' No beating around the bush, not quadruple checking to make sure that this is indeed the problem, and no un-necessary time spent on the phone. I would say my average service call takes 10 minutes for most basic problems.

 

These are all good things! I also have to choice of whether I want a Dell technician to install new parts, or just have the part itself shipped to install myself. This is also nice, since most Dell technicians in my area are one small evolutionary step above baboons, and aren't qualified to work a microwave, let alone replace computer components.

 

But possibly the best part of Gold tech support, is the shipping. I get my parts the next day. No matter what. They do whatever they can to make me happy. One time, they shipped me the wrong part for a server that had gone down. When I informed them of this they had a courier in go to Phoenix, wait for the correct part at the Dell warehouse, and then DRIVE it up to Prescott for me. At 10:00PM! Yes, way.

 

One thing I do not like about Dell though, is their parts. We use Optiplex systems almost exclusively for our workstations here, and Dell ended up putting faulty capacitors in many Optiplex systems. What this means is that every time a machine won't boot up, I have to strip it down to the motherboard, look for leaking capacitors, and then call dell to get a replacement motherboard.

 

Now this isn't such a big deal. Matter of fact, I'm getting really good at replacing these things (I'm up to about 40 now).  I can take one of these (bare motherboard):

 

and, in just a tick over 5 minutes, turn it into one of these (a functioning machine):

 

What IS a big deal is that many of the motherboards that they ship me have issues when they arrive. The one picture above had a bent back-plane, so the side lid wouldn't stay in place, because all the tabs that hold it there were bent out of whack. 20 minutes of bending metal later and I finally got it to stay.

 

They sent me one motherboard that had bent processor socket pins. So not only did the machine not work, but it fried a perfectly good processor when I did try to turn it on. Thanks Dell!

 

I've had them arrive with thermal grease smeared all over the board.

 

But my all-time favorite thing wrong with a motherboard shipped? Gore. Yep, Dell shipped me a nicely-packaged motherboard that was smeared with blood. Not just on some capacitors or on the mounting plate. No, there was blood INSIDE the CPU socket, memory sockets, fan connector, and spattered throughout the rest of the entire thing. No, I am not even kidding.

 

Seriously? What technician cuts himself, shakes the resulting carnage all over an electronic device, then packages it up and calls it good-to-go for a customer? I opened that puppy up, took one look at it, and sent it right back to dell with a note that said "Abortion should be the customer's choice."  Okay, I didn't send the note, but I totally should have.

 

I would say that out of the 40 or so motherboards I have replaced, 10 have had a problem of some sort. 25% problem rate? Come on Dell, look at the freakin things before you ship them to me!! Otherwise you are wasting your postage money, and more importantly, MY TIME!

Sinkhole Closes Aubrey Street

image

A sinkhole has formed on Aubrey St. near Montezuma St. closing down a that section of Aubrey Street.

The hole appeared about 1 p.m. Monday, say city officials, and apparently opens into the remains of an old mineshaft. City Director of Public Affairs Kim Kapin reported that the city brought in its sewer camera van to photograph the mineshaft

 

Dang, now I feel the need to leave work immediately and go take a look at this thing. :)

 

Located here

Interesting Graffiti

I love when somebody creates a piece of art that makes you think. Like this ISBN number that somebody stenciled on to the Humber Bay Arch Bridge.

image

So what book does the ISBN refer to? Henry Thoreau's Walden; Or, Life in the Woods.   (via)

 

Being the sucker that I am, I totally ordered the book after seeing the image. I figure if it is important enough for somebody to spray paint on a bridge, it is important enough for me to read, right? I think maybe my logic is a little off on this one... :)

 

And since I can combine shipping through amazon I also ordered:

Leaves of Grass, The Road Not Taken, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays, and pre-ordered Confessor.

 

The best part? Since most of those are the thrift editions, the total for 5 books before shipping is only $23! Gotta love that!

 

In other Graffiti news, I found what is possibly the coolest bit of street art I've ever seen under the Gurley Street overpass of Granite Creek yesterday:

 

Yep, totally an awesome cloud-covered earth with the Southwest of the USA and Mexico popping through the white. Totally awesome, and very hand-painted. So beautimus that it deserves another image:

 

Those and others from under that overpass added to my Graffiti Flickr Set.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Weekend Review

Ahh, the hectic workday is done and blogging can continue.

 

Friday consisted of cooking up dinner at Chris' house (ribeyes, asparagus, mushrooms, etc) followed by a trip into Starbucks to meet a new friend Ralph for a few games of chess. Man, do I wish there was another coffee shop open late! I hate paying the starbucks devil! Anywho, fun was had, everybody won at least one game (Chris was totally psyched to win his first bout against a live human!)

 

Saturday was supposed to be oil-change day, but the oil dump at Autozone was full, so that totally didn't happen. So we ended up running into town, running some errands, and stopping by Barns and Nobles to pick up a Moleskine. Saturday night we went out to dinner at Poor Red's Roost (thanks Catalyst for the recommendatioon!) out in PV. I had the tortelini portico (tortellini, shrimp, scallops, and spinach in a white sauce) which was absolutely stellar! DaNece had prime rib, but didn't really care for it. More of a texture problem than anything. All in all, it was definitely a good time!

 

Dinner was followed by a trip to the local watering hole, Pinon Pines where a co-worker's band was playing. The band was good, but the sound setup sucked and left my ears ringing all day Sunday. We left after about two hours and headed home, it was WAY past our bed-time (I am totally turning into an old man. I get cranky if I'm out past 9:00).

 

Sunday the plan was to go hiking the Lava River Cave up near Flagstaff. Everything was going well until we started to descend into the cave. Then Mr. Scrappy Doo dog decided to wig out like we were delivering him straight to the pit of hell. The claw marks that he left in the stone was enough to persuade us to pursue other endeavors for the day. So we ended up hiking around the King Mtn. area for about an hour where I started showing DaNece how to work some of the features on her DSLR, then headed home to grill some burgers and enjoy them in the early-evening sunshine. Arizona is a great place to be right now!

 

So there you have it, all the news that's fit to print, and plenty that isnt fit for anything but a blog post.

Pic of the day

Super busy day at work today.

The pic is from friday night, playing chess with Chris, and a new friend Ralph: