Technology Tales of Terror!Two Computer Stories

WARNING: While this post does utilize my unique writing style, and
therefor in my humble opinion it is interesting, it is quite LONG and
delves into technical issues on computers. So, if you like that read on!

if you are looking for a recipe, go away!

Shoo! Scat! Scoot! I have computer issues to deal with!

Still here??? Then, by all means you must read on!

For our less technical visitors who decided to brave this out since no recipe was forthcoming, note that MB and GB used below refer to megabytes and gigabytes.

Not too much been going on worth note except in the realm of computers. Hence my lack of posts, but, since I felt I needed to post something.....on to the technical tales of terror!


Mom's Computer:
On Saturday I ended up going down to Mom;s house to help her with her computer. She was having some issues easily fixed, and one not so easy. The constant crappy performance and effects of using Netzero. Most often evidenced by Internet Explorer displaying the vague dialog that it has encountered an unexpected error and has to close.

Netzero, a company that I really, really, do not like. Not only do you have to pay these miserable people for access, but they provide NO FREE SUPPORT. So, if you are having an issue that is their fault you have to pay to have it fixed!

The best solution is to remove it, but Mom's locked into a yearly agreement. So, in the interim I set her up with a Gmail account and the went to export her Netzero address book so I could import it.

GUESS WHAT! Those nasty folks have NO WAY to export your address nook! I guess they do not want to make it easy. I ended up doing a print the address book which they do provide and copying/pasting the data out of the print preview window. I then reformatted this into a CSV file I could then import into Gmail. So, that was a fun way to spend four hours, but I got some time to chat with Mom and Dad, and I got lunch so that was OK!

Note too that this is also after having Mom's PC at my house for a week for hardware burn in testing, deep cleaning, performance tuning and optimization. We were able to verify the internet worked flawlessly by both Danielle and myself using Mom's PC for two days on my high speed connections without a single Internet Explorer crash or hang.

I spent countless hours on this, and five minutes after Netzero was connected her Internet Explorer started having those issues. I am hopeful that using Gmail will alleviate a good deal of her issues.

Oh! We won't even mention the first call I got when Mom had taken her PC home and the monitor would not come on......no....we just won't!

Finally, did I mention I really, really, hate Netzero??

Now....the preamble into the next story......

Over the past five days I have been trying to embrace Windows Vista. After all, I have a free copy of the ultimate edition which I got for being a Vista Beta tester. I had loaded it on my main PC after the beta in early 2007 and found it to be totally unacceptable. It was the worst resource hog I had ever seen, and was just so slow as to be unusable.

After talking to my good friend (who I do not blame for this!) David a couple of months back who sang the praises of Vista, I decided since Vista SP1 had been recently released, and supposedly this fixed a lot of issues including performance, to update my Vista partition on the home office PC. Having done many service pack upgrades on all versions of windows in the past, major and minor, I figured this for a few hours worth of work......I could not have been more wrong. WHAT A NIGHTMARE IT TURNED OUT TO BE. The Tale is told below:


Day 1 of the Vista Upgrade Experience:
I booted up into the dusty and disused Vista partition and immediately I felt a cold chill! It started with the fact that the network card was no longer being detected by Vista. So, no big deal I booted back into the XP partition (Love XP! Love Dual Boot systems!), looked up the hardware designation of the network device which turned out to be a 3COM 3C940, and went off to the 3COM web site to get the Vista Drivers.

NO JOY here! No mention of this existed anywhere on the 3COM site! I began to google the model number and soon I was led back to the motherboard manufacturer as this was an embedded Ethernet controller. On the Asus web site I entered in my motherboard info and then went for network drivers. NO VISTA ONES!

Further googling was required, a lot of further googling as their were simply no drivers for Vista for this model! I finally found an obscure post from some intelligent person (after many dead ends and downloads of supposedly Vita compatible drivers) who mentioned that even though this is branded 3COM is is really a chip set made by another manufacturer entirely. One I had never heard of!

Armed with this info I was finally able to get a driver and get the Vista OS to see the Internet! After a quick update of the AntiVirus program and Spyware definitions, I set out to install some updates and SP1.

So, after much much chugging, and me already hating the performance of Vista, Windows Update says it has about 60 critical patches to install and about the same of optional patched, updates, etc. It says in needs about 256 megabytes of disk space. The Vista partition has about 1.5 Gigabytes free so I click on OK and go on about my business.

I came back to the office later in the evening, close to bed time, to find only 22 of the required patches had been installed and the rest had failed due to lack of space. Vista had eaten all 1.5 GB of free space!

What to do, what to do! I decided to disable hibernation mode which would delete the one gigabyte hiberfile.sys file and give me more free space. In XP this is simply done via the GUI in a couple of places. Not where to do this in vista though and the built in help was useless.

Back to Google! More frenzied searching to find out that the only way to disable hibernation in Vista is via a command line command! I did this, restarted Windows update, and went to bed.


Day 2 of the Vista Upgrade Experience:
So after work I checked the PC, only 10 more updates had been applied! 10! And the gigabyte of space was gone again! 2.5 GB gone to apply updates!! Frenzied cleaning of the file system commenced scouring for temporary files, I cleaned the internet cache, temporary directories, logs not needed. This got me another 200 MB back. Windows Update would consume this like the mint on the pillow at a fine hotel! And you what that does....it makes you want more mints!!!!

So what to do what to do...... Part of me wants to chuck this idea and be done with it! Microsoft just extended end of life support for XP into next year! HOWEVER the tenacious part of me, the part that hates defeat, the part that will not be defeated would have none of this! I would beat this beast as I had beaten many other computer issues in the past! It make takes weeks and in rare cases months but I have always been able to fix any problem with my own systems! I am admin, hear me roar!!!! Vista would be my be-yatch!!

So, I fire up my trusty copy of EASEUS Partition Manager, an AWESOME piece of freeware and look at the partition map for the drive that contains Vista. It has three partitions, the Vista one sandwiched between an old unused partition of 500 MB, and my prized XP partition which has about 5GB free.

Thinking of the facts that many partition managers (let alone a free one) have issues with mixed XP/Vista partitions, partitions on a large volume, which this was, and the fact that resizing partitions always has inherent risks, I command EASEUS to delete the unused partition, shrink the XP one by 500 MB, and Grow the Vista one by another 500 MB. I hit the Apply Changes button, and after the expected message that I must reboot the PC, I headed off to bed. Partitioning takes time!


Day 3 of the Vista Upgrade Experience:
I was very pleased to note after arriving home and rebooting the system that all was well! Another job well done by EASEUS Partition manager, one of the more risky ones I have used it for. XP/Vista partitions were fine and had been sized as expected. I restarted Windows Update and let it churn over the last 10 updates to apply. A couple of hours later I did a remote desktop connection to the XP system from the system I was doing my office work on, and discover the following:

Good News! All the needed updates had been installed!
Bad News! Of the first 2.5 gigabytes of space that had been reallocated to Vista before the partition resizing, NONE had been recovered! I would think most should be and will have to run Vista's dreaded Disk Cleanup tool.

I decided to go for broke and went over all the option updates. Of the 50-something, the majority were language pack files. Out of the remainder I only needed four, and two of these were driver files. The system is booting up now. I will login and the kick off the disk cleaning operation!

Well the built in Disk Cleanup was next to useless, I need something more intelligent because what I envision has happened here is that with the running out of disk space Windows Update got confused and I have multiple versions of files, installation kits, etc. lying about. I will have to look into this further!

I downloaded one trial version of a duplicate file finder; it had a limit of 30 files per operation and since there were thousands of duplicates I went in search of another tool. I found a tool called Duplicate Cleaner which was free, and, after some tweaking of the settings I recovered over 2 gigabytes of file space!

SOOOOOOO.....after all this, all thee updates and patches.......Vista SP1 still has not been installed! It is downloading now........which means the Vista Update Tale of Terror is not over yet......

Looks like we will be going into day 4.....the 2.6 GB of free space is now gone and SP1 was only 94% downloaded!! I downloaded the stand alone SP1 kit which weighs in at about 450 MB. I had it on a different drive than Vista. I looked at the release notes. A minimum of 7 GB free space is needed! If you have a 64 bit installation you need 13 GB!! My current XP partition, fully up to date, with lots of installed programs, is taking up about 5 GB of storage space!

Almost tasting defeat, but refusing to, I launched EASEUS again and shrunk my C drive (used mostly by Vista's boot loader, and my XP partition, and then grew the Vista one to have 7.5 GB of free space. Knowing that was going to be it for the night, I clicked Apply Changes and headed to bed, haunted by visions of failed upgrades that screamed in my head......


Day 4 of the Vista Upgrade Experience:
Thursday - I have a personal day from work and have errands and family business to take care of. I check the PC when I get up, once again EASEUS has done it's work well, and the Vista partition has 7.3 GB of free space. I kick off the upgrade and head off to take care of business. I check in at one point and it is at a screen that says stage 3 of 3 is 100% complete, and warns not to turn off the computer. i continue with what I need to do. Three hours later the same screen is still being displayed, but by the frenzied (perhaps panicked?) flashing of the hard disk light I know Vista has opened a can of Whooop Ass on my hard drive! I wander away and will check back later.

Many hours later (almost 12 from when I started this morning, the same screen remains. The system is responsive in that I can make a remote terminal connection to it, but, like on the physical console the same 100% message is still displayed......I am afraid this must lead into


Day 5 of the Vista Upgrade Experience:
Since this occurred after midnight it is technically day 5. It's over. Upon sitting by the office computer I noticed it was not stuck at this screen, it was periodically rebooting and going from 0 to 100% within a matter of minutes, and then after a few more minutes, rebooting.

Some googling returned the fact that, for all practical purposes, my Vista installation was now boned and I in fact, was Vista's be-yatch who must hang my head in shame and defeat! This is a known issue with Vista SP1 as documented at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949358

Because I had system restore disabled and because I had no vista media (I downloaded it ages back as a thank you from Microsoft for participating in the Vista beta. I then burned it to DVD's which were subsequently destroyed over a year ago when my disgust of Vista's gluttonous nature towards system resources had shown no satiety! So, I can use none of the methods described to fix the issue.

Heck, if I had the original DVD's I would just blow the whole partition and do a clean reinstall. While researching this issue I also discovered that Microsoft is offering free technical support for Vista and Vista SP1 installation issues, so, in an attempt to amuse myself, I opened a support call. On that note I will close this Technological Tale of Terror, which I can always revisit at a later date!

A Picture is worth a thousand words

Look at the following picture....imagine the thousand words....and then check back to see a future post entitled

Technology Tails of Terror! Two Computer Stories

that provides the thousand words and then some!

Something New

In spite of what happened when trying something new as described in my post entitled Chris' Cooking Disaster, I was at Forest Hills Foods just now and they had a sample of a food I had never tried, but heard about countless times, particularly during reruns of Hogan's Heroes:

So, what was this new thing I tried today? Wiener Schnitzel!

One of Colonel Wilhelm Klink's favorite foods on the aforementioned TV show. It was very good! So good in fact that I took a copy of the recipe they had out. I will have to make it one day with some Sauerkraut.

I was surprised that my preconception of it having something to do with hot dogs or sausage was not true; it's always good to learn something new. I am glad I tried and liked it because I must admit my "try something new" philosophy took a beating with last nights kitchen disaster! I can still taste it.......ugggggghh!

Fun Food Facts

I learned something new about food today while watching Dinner: Impossible during my exercise bike ride. I learned that true Sushi chefs spend 3 years learning and practicing how to just make the rice part of Sushi!

Chris' Cooking Disaster

You know I enjoy posting my recipes that pass my own rigorous standards. I will not post an "OK" recipe; in my humble opinion it has to be really good, delicious, fantastic even! I am truly proud of every recipe I post and refuse to hoard them like state secrets. Good food should be available to all!

I am not a master chef, I've not attended any formal cooking classes though one day I would like to. I do think that from cooking since I was around 10 years old that I have some skill in preparing tasty and nutritious food after 40 years experience.

While I may post recipes, I've rarely talked about my failures and I have mentioned on occasion that a recipe did not turn out as good as I thought it might. In fact, over the weekend I made some stuffed grilled red peppers that I filed with a mixture of broccoli and chicken marinated in olive oil. oregano, and garlic. It was good but not great and needs to be revised before I can consider posting it here. In any event it all gotten eaten and was certainly better than fast food or anything packaged at the store.

Note though that last night's food failure was remarkable enough in the fact that I fed an entire frying pan of a new recipe to the food disposal in the kitchen sink after a single taste! That's how foul it was. Tails had been sitting around meowing and begging so I just took the spoon from the pan and held it out for her to smell. With a loud Meow! she took like a shot off and hid under the couch.....I think she came out hours later.........

With a failure this bad, I just had to blog about it here. I'm human, and with 42 years of cooking experience, as well as many pounds under my belt, I make mistakes. This one was a doozy!

It started out innocently enough; I wanted something using Steak-umms. For those who have never enjoyed them, they are chopped, formed and frozen thin steak slices perfectly suited for a quick and very tasty steak or cheese steak sandwich.

Keeping with my quest for better nutrition I decided to fry up onions and peppers and use those with the Steak-umms so I could stay within my nutrition guidelines. Besides, I have done onions and peppers with Steak-umms before and it is great!!

The biggest thing that set me up for failure here was trying something new, something I am always after the kids about.

SO! I went to Forest Hills Foods in search of onions and peppers. Of course, since some lunatic (cough! cough!) had been buying up Poblano peppers all week long, there were none to be found.

I could have gone with a safe bet of Sweet Red peppers, and kind of made a steak fajita type roll up as I was planning to user tortillas anyway, but oh no! I had to try something new!

There was a pepper type I had not tried before, a bit bigger than the Poblanos and simply labeled Hungarian Peppers. I thought about how much I had been enjoying the Hungarian Paprika I had bought at the start of Poblano Pepper Madness days, and thought these peppers would be worth a try!

So, I went home and in a pan I sauteed onions and these peppers with some of the aforementioned paprika, cumin, and chili powder. I then took three Steak-Umms and broke them into pieces.

I also made an interesting discovery after putting my finger into my mouth, THESE PEPPERS ARE VERY HOT! Not too hot for me mind you on a heat basis, but talk about your staying power! I had a shower last night plus I've washed my hands numerous times after the dinner preparation, I rubbed my eye this morning and the BURNING from the pepper residue was unbelievable! And impressive! Now, for the first time in my life I understand how pepper spray can totally incapacitate a crazed 300 pound attacker!!! If the staying power of these peppers could be put into other products, well............

Anyway, after adding the meat I cooked gently for about 10 minutes and then took a taste to see if the onions were tender. IT WAS HORRIBLE! I did not mind the heat, and once again I must inform you that I have never sauteed and eaten an old sneaker, but, I think I know how a spicy one would taste!

I hesitated only a moment (while quick and easy Steak-umms are NOT cheap) and ended up dumping the entire pan into the disposal. I did notice that this morning the stainless steel sink was unusually shinny, so, at least there was some benefit to this exercise is culinary sabotage! I will NOT be trying these peppers ever again.....besides.....I am sure another load of Poblanos will arrive soon, and there were still a couple of varieties of pepper I had not tried, but still will.

I hate September 28th

This is, and always will be a crappy day of the year for me. It's the anniversary of my Mom's passing and my former Wedding Anniversary, in fact my mom died on our first anniversary. That put a stigma on the day while I was still married. Now at least that's not an issue.

I managed to do my exercise bike ride, and went to the store to get the ingredients for dinner. Just me and Tails, the kids are at their Mom's this weekend.

Tails and I are weathering the day as best we can. I just started pre-heating the oven for dinner, if this recipe works out well it will be posted tomorrow.

Sigh....I really hate this day of the year......... It's even worse this year with my dad gone. I know many people are without their parents, but, it takes some getting used to.

Recipe:Poblano Peppers with Stroganoff Stuffing

I have really been enjoying the Poblano peppers this past week! I picked up another batch at the store yesterday and was trying to decide what to make with them. For some reason I thought of Beef Stroganoff and decided this would make a fine stuffing as shown in the picture below:

Click for a tastier, larger version in a new window!

Ingredients:
1 large sweet onion
12 ounces sliced mushrooms
8 Poblano peppers
2/3 cup light sour cream
1/2 lb 92% lean ground beef
2 tbs Hungarian Paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt

Preparation:
Chop sweet onion. Spray a large frying pan generously with PAM-type Olive Oil spray and put on medium heat. Add onions and sprinkle with salt. Stir occasionally for five minutes. While onions are cooking, coarsely chop mushrooms. Add mushrooms to pan, remove from heat, spray top with olive oil spray, and add chili powder and paprika. Stir well return to heat, cover pan, and stir occasionally.

While onions and mushrooms are cooking remove stems from peppers, remove seeds, and cut in half. Add ground beef to frying pan, crumbling when adding. Cover pan.

Now's a good time to go pre-heat your outdoor grill. Cook contents of frying pan another five minutes or until onions are tender.

Spray both sides of peppers with butter flavored cooking spray and place skin side up on the grill. Cook for three minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and remove from grill.

Make sure ground beef is well broken up and remove frying pan from heat. Stir in sour cream, mix well, and leave covered for five minutes.

Spoon mixture into pepper halves and place back on grill for an additional three minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

The Ramon JournalsEntry Number 5

This selection was labeled New 200 Nyang Ramen noodles- Spicy

You can click the product name above to open an order page on the companies web site in a new browser window.

This was the only Ramon selection that came in a bag verses a cup or bowl. For this variety you had to boil water in a pot, then add the noodles, seasoning pack, and dehydrated veggies pack. You then simmer for 4 minutes. The advantage over the bagged Ramon soup is usually cost. Yes, you have to prepare it and wash a pot, but it costs less, usually at least 50% less than the price of a comparable bowl of noodles. 

This was a very tasty bowl of Ramon! Spicy as well, but not overwhelmingly so for our more......sensitive diners out there! The veggies included welsh onion, dried carrot, and dried mushroom.

This item will be re-ordered!

An Unusual Tails Tale

Yesterday Danielle picked up Tails and something must have startled her. She kicked in with her back claws (front is declawed) to get away and left several 6+ inch and smaller scratches on her arm and hand. One hour, half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and most of a pack of cotton balls later I had it all cleaned up and the bleeding stopped. There was no way band aides were going to handle this mess however! I ended up having to run off to the drug store to get a bottle of liquid skin to cover and protect the injuries. Since it has antiseptic in it, it stings until it dries.  On long scratches like this too it pulls the skin a bit when the affected areas are moved.

Danielle did not like this and suggest I wrap it up in gauze and I explained to her how that would rub in the scratches and  and would have to be changed often and if she though the liquid stuff felt weird the gauze rubbing her scratched skin would feel a lot worse.  The nice thing about this stuff is you put it on int he morning and the evening and you're done with it and it brushes on very quickly.

She got hugs after medicating and Tails got glares, I got her (Danielle, not Tails as I was a bit ticked because it's not like a gunshot went off outside the screen door!) Chinese food for dinner and let her eat on the couch and helped her as her hand and arm were still drying. She even tried some of the stuffed grilled Poblano peppers I made for myself.

Bless Danielle's heart though she took it in stride and was not upset with the cat, though she was not really happy about having to have the stuff applied this morning; it smells like nail polish on steroids.

This morning, while holding her arm over the gale force breeze of my tornado vortex fan in an attempt to speed the liquid skin drying process, she was joking that her friends and teachers thought she might have gone Goth and be scratching herself. I said if the school called me I would say I knew nothing of cat scratches!

"Oh my god she did what to herself! She said the cat did that? We don't even have a cat!!!!"

Contrary to my expectations she was amused by this!

Recipe - Roasted Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Why should I go to bed when there's a recipe to write up??

As the 8 new varieties of Ramon noodles arrived this evening after buying the ingredients below this will probably be the last recipe for awhile; in fact, as my 'dessert' I had one of the smaller Ramon varieties and it was awesome!

In any event this meal turned out really well, and Danielle, who, had no interest in it based on the description was intrigued by the smell after she had her dinner, and ended up eating one of the pepper halves.

Ingredients:
1 large sweet onion
5 Poblano peppers
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 lb 92% lean ground beef
4 slices Kraft fat free cheddar cheese
4 large leaves of fresh basil
2 tsp packaged taco mix (I use Old El Paso)
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preparation:
Chop sweet onion. Spray a large frying pan generously with PAM-type Olive Oil spray and put on medium heat. Add onions and sprinkle with salt. Stir occasionally for five minutes. Turn on outdoor grill for preheating.

While sauteing onion remove stems and cut peppers in half and remove seeds. Add curry powder, basil leaves, and taco mix to frying pan along with ground beef. Cover, and cook another five minutes or until onions are tender.

Make sure ground beef is well broken up and add frozen corn, cooking an additional two minutes. Add cheese slices, turn off heat, and leave covered.

After adding ground beef to pan above, spray both sides of peppers with olive oil spray and place skin side up on the grill. Cook for three minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and remove from grill.

Stir mixture in frying pan until melted cheese is thoroughly mixed in. Spoon into pepper halves and place back on grill for an additional three minutes. Remove from heat and serve. A dollop of fat free sour cream makes a nice topping but is of course optional!

Not only is this meal healthy and low in fat and calories, it was absolutely delicious!

Recipe - Southwest Cheeseburger Roll Ups

I guess I still have not had my fill of peppers......I offered this to the kids last night and they balked so I made them Ramon from Forest Hills Foods, while I enjoyed this recipe:

Ingredients:
1 Habanero pepper
1 Poblano pepper
1/2 lb 92% lean ground beef
1 clove garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp Hungarian Paprika
1/2 tsp hot chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 slices fat free Kraft Cheddar Cheese
4 Smart & Delicious Tortillas

Preparation:
Cut peppers in half and remove seeds. Those who like more heat can retain the seeds from the Habanero pepper. Reserve half of the Poblano Pepper. Finely dice (I used one of those kitchen helper type chopping tools) remaining peppers and garlic.

In a bowl combine all spices, diced peppers and garlic, and olive oil thoroughly with ground beef. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and put in fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat your outdoor grill. Shape meat mixture into a large rectangular patty about 1/4" thick. Ideally it should be a tiny bit longer than the width of the tortilla. Spray both sides of the remaining Poblano pepper half lightly with olive oil spray and very lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place meat and pepper (skin side up) on grill and cook three minutes. Flip meat and pepper and top meat with 1.5 slices of the cheese, with the remaining half slice going into the 1/2 Poblano pepper. Grill an additional minute and remove from heat.

Cut meat patty lengthwise into four equal potions and put one in each tortilla. Add whatever additional accompaniments you desire such as diced tomato, lettuce, etc. Enjoy the cheesy pepper on the side! I did and saw it as an excellent alternative to a pickle.

This dish, in spite of the Habanero pepper came in at a medium heat on the commercial scale. Note that's with the seeds removed from the pepper. Keep them in at your own risk.

Beware that this meal gave me an idea for something I may try this evening; stuffed grilled Poblano peppers; if that works out well I will post the recipe.

The Ramon JournalsEntry Number 4

Note: Post updated with correct picture on 9/24

This selection was labeled "YukGaeJang" Spicy Beef Vegetable Ramen Cup Noodle

You can click the product name above to open an order page on the companies web site in a new browser window.

This was the only 'cup of soup' size I had in this order. The taste was similar to the product described in Ramon Journal Entry Number 1, though perhaps not as spicy and a bit less savory. That is not to say in any way that it was not a delicious cup of Ramon as it was. The veggie bits in this variety included Kimchi and green onion.

It was your typical preparation of peeling the lid back partially, dumping in the contents of the seasoning pack, filling to the line with boiling water, covering, and waiting five minutes.

Note that the smaller size is perfect for lunch or a snack, verses the larger ones I've posted (except the bean curd one!) which are perfect for dinner.

This item will be re-ordered!

Posting from the road

This is a test using my mail to directly send a post to my blog!

 

As if you did not have to put up with when I had time to sit at home and post!

 

NOW IT IS EVEN WORSE!

Recipe - Chicken Chorizo Sausage Roll Ups

I've been enjoying the produce at the local store and after Friday night's chili I decided I had to use most of the same spices yet create something different on Saturday. I had some leftover tortillas in the fridge and I decided some type of roll up was in order. Here's what I came up with.

Ingredients:
1 Habanero pepper
2 Poblano peppers
6 ounces (two sausages) Chicken Chorizo sausage
6 "Smart & Delicious" low carb, high fiber tortillas
1 cup Egg Beaters
1 large white onion
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Hungarian paprika
1 tsp hot chili powder

Preparation:
Spray the bottom of a large frying generously with olive oil spray. Slice onions lengthwise, cut peppers in half, remove seeds. Slice Poblano peppers into strips, about 8-10 slices per pepper and dice the Habanero pepper.

Heat frying pan on medium-low heat and then add onions and peppers sprinkling salt on top. Stir occasionally and when onions just being to brown add last three ingredients above, stir, cover, and reduce heat to low for five minutes.

Remove casing from the sausages and crumble meat. Add to mixture in frying pan leaving uncovered for five minutes before adding Egg Beaters. Cover and cook on very low heat for five minutes. Stir mixture, cover and let rest for five minutes.

Divide between tortillas and top with optional items such as shredded cheese, fat free sour cream, or use what I did, some nice imported hot Mexican taco sauce.

Serves three.

Note this is less spicy than the chili in spite of the use of the Habanero pepper whose heat is mitigated somewhat by the cooking process. I'd rate this a medium on the commercial scale.

Recipe - Three Alarm Chili

I decided to take a break from Ramon posts because last night I made some ground beef chili and it turned out awesome! So good in fact I had to share the recipe! The two types of fresh pepper plus the imported Hungarian paprika give it a unique taste. If you can't find Hungarian paprika at your local store use any good smoked paprika. There are many variations on chili recipes; I hope you enjoy this one!

Ingredients:
1 large white onion chopped
3 Chili peppers chopped
3 Jalapeno peppers chopped
1/4 cup Sambal Oelek
1.25 pounds 92% lean ground beef
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
8 cloves garlic
1 small can red kidney beans
1 cup water
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp Hungarian paprika
2 tsp hot chili powder

Note: Once again I must caution you to use GOOD Sambal Oelek; I have tried over a dozen brands and only the Conimex brand has the heat with the subtle tastes of the peppers! The rest are just tasteless heat. Click the link above under the ingredients and rest easy as I have ordered from this place multiple times with no hassles.

Preparation:
Spray the bottom and sides of a four quart sauce pan with olive oil spray. Using the flat edge of a knife crush the garlic enough to remove the skin. Cut peppers in half and remove the seeds if you want three alarm chili, use them if you'd like a three.5 or 4! I removed them in this case.

Using medium-low heat add the onion, pepper, and garlic to the pan and sprinkle salt over the top. Sweat for a few minutes stirring once or twice. Break up the ground beef into the pan and cover for five minutes.

Remove lid and using a large wooden or plastic spoon break up the ground beef. Sprinkle in paprika, cumin, and chili powder and mix well.

Add tomato sauce and water, stir well. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add kidney beans, stir, cover and simmer gently for 45 minutes. Remove lid and adjust heat to that mixture simmers slowly. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or longer until liquid is thickened.

Stir in Sambal Oelek, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and let rest covered for 15 minutes. Serve as desired with your favorite toppings such as fat free sour cream, low fat shredded cheddar cheese, etc.

This is a nice spicy chili, maybe not for those who can't tolerate any heat, but not too fiery. it goes down easy and leaves a nice sweat on the forehead after eating! For people with normal taste buds I would rate this between medium and hot for commercially labeled products.

This evening I think I shall make Mexican roll ups featuring Poblano peppers, onions, chicken chorizo sausage, and egg beaters. If it turns out well another recipe may follow, if you would like to see it.

Footnote: I made the roll ups I mentioned above for dinner, and they were great!

The Ramon JournalsEntry Number 3

This selection was labeled Japanese UFO Ramen Bowl Noodle soup

 

You can click the product name above to open an order page on the companies web site in a new browser window.

This is what started me down the entire Ramon trail.  Lili, my x-brother-in-law's wife, gave me one off these to try when we visited New Jersey at the end of August.  I brought it home and made it a week later and it was excellent.

This was the only Ramon sampled thus far that has the seasoning pouch in liquid form;  the rest were all powdered.  In addition, there is an optional pack of .....something....... that look like little tiny balls or seeds.  I added them as well.  The little bits of vegetable in the green variety (mostly cabbage I am thinking) were in with the dried noodles.

It was your typical preparation of peeling the lid back partially and filling to the line with boiling water, covering, and waiting five minutes.

 

Perhaps it is the liquid based seasonings on this, but, thus far having sampled all 8 varieties in the shipment I ordered, this one is my favorite though Entry Number One would be a close second!  The flavor is very rich and pronounced, and while following along with what I call traditional Ramon flavoring, though very rich and pronounced.  I will have to ask Lili what is in that second seasoning pack.....if anyone would know she will.

This item will be re-ordered!

The Ramon Journals Entry Number 2

This selection was labeled Japanese Noodle Bowl with Fried Bean Curd -3.99oz

You can click the product name above to open an order page on the companies web site in a new browser window.

In all my 52 years this has been the worst Ramon I have ever tasted! Perhaps even the worst food! I'll have to ponder that for awhile.....

In addition to the noodles, spices, and some bits of vegetable this had a large sponge-sized piece of fried bean curd in it. Sponge-like indeed! I have never eaten a sponge before, nor have I ever been possessed by the urge to do so!

It's a moot point however,because now I truly believe I know the flavor of a dirty fecund 3 month old wet kitchen sponge! It was terrible! Even the soup and noodles were inedible due to the flavor. This was not just my opinion, but my younger Ramon connoisseurs Scott and Danielle agreed with me.

Usually I enjoy bean turd....uh.....curd....but....not in this case. Thinking about this just now made me queasy!

I have another variety of this soup from the same manufacturer, I am hoping the seasonings will be different! I dread making it! (Note: Turns out I will be eating this in a few minutes!)

Is it needless to say that this item will never, ever be re-ordered!!!

The Ramon JournalsEntry Number 1

This selection was labeled Very spicy Hot ramen noodle bowl.

You can click the product name above to open an order page on the company's web site in a new browser window.

This was the first variety I tried out of the 8 I ordered and it was very, very good! If the rest of them are half this good it will be a most pleasant experience!

The soup was spicy, but in my opinion it did not rate a very spicy as the description indicated, and it was also very flavorful with your typical Ramon broth. Because of the different spices and other ingredients vary by brand and type, the tastes vary, though most share a similar 'base taste'. Where a selection features a notable deviation from this I will mention it.

The tiny bits of veggies included green onion, mushroom, carrot, and red pepper.

Preparation was simple; peel back the lid a third of a way, tear open the spice packet and add to the bowl along with boiling water, reseal the lid and wait. While times for steeping a bowl of noodles varies, I find five minutes works great on all varieties.

All an all an excellent bowl of Ramon!

This item will be re-ordered!

The Ramon Journals Revisited

After getting some comments and e-mails I have decided to go through with the Ramon Journal Posts after all.

So, for each post there will be a picture of the packaging, a link to that particular item on the web page of the company I bought it from, and their name for the product.

Of course there will also be my (half?) witty repartee as well as I review each selection and share my impressions on it.

I may post the first one this afternoon if time permits and there will be eight posts in total. If you read them and like them, please post a comment, as I will be ordering another 8 varieties to sample and will be happy to post reviews of those here as well.

Waiting for the repair man......

Working from home today waiting for the gas company to come look at my refrigerator.

Yes, that's right. The gas company!

Tails, my faithful feline companion, is resting comfortably on the foot rest next to mine, curled up in a ball, washing herself. She will undoubtedly remain positioned near me for the majority of the day. Ahhhhhh!

Update: Tails has moved to my Chest and is purring loudly!!

Day 12 of I have the Kids

As I had mentioned in a previous post about Scott and I being sick, I've had the kids for over a week now as the X has been out of the area working on a project that overran because of manufacturing defects and the rainy weekend.  Last night the kids were supposed to go back to her house after Danielle's birthday dinner.

Evidently there were additional problems at the job site that she heard about via a phone call during dinner, and she decided she had to head back instead of departing early this morning.

So, the kids came back to my house at 9PM last night, and Scott's stomach was bothering him intensely, though, bless his heart, he did make it off to school today even though he still had not fully recovered this morning.  I've had them now for 11 nights and 12 days, the longest I think since the divorce, with the possible exception of that time her company worked down in Florida.

Happy Birthday Danielle!

My 'little girl' turned 14 today!  We'll be taking her to dinner this evening with the X's folks and giving her some presents.

The one plus side of the X's job taking so long is I got to see my girl this morning before she left for school!

Because she's at those teen years where she sometimes has trouble talking to us about certain things I wrote her a long heartfelt letter and emailed it for her to read, reminding her how much we love her and will always be there for her in good times and bad, and other mushy sentiments like that!

Seems like just yesterday I was breaking all land speed records rushing to the hospital for her delivery.  For those of you who do not know the X had MAJOR complications with Danielle's pregnancy.  She spent weeks in a special wing of the hospital with an operating room right by her room.  Danielle was born weeks early and the X ended up with medication induced asthma from all the medications she had to take to get the baby's to mature quicker so she could have  a normal birth.

Every time I see my daughter I realize what a miracle it is to have her!

And yes, I'm very happy too that the X made it through!  We could easily have lost one or both of them!

Sick with Scott

Scott and I have been sick since last week. A bad case of fever, clogged head, congestion, scratchy throat, and noisy cough. With only a single wall between his room and mine sleep has not been easy, particularly with him coughing a lot more than me.

What makes it worse is that the kids were supposed to go home Friday evening for their week with their mom, but the job from hell she's been working in another part of the state went bad because of all the rain we've been having from hurricane Ike over the weekend, so, they will not be going back until this evening. 

It was a rough weekend all I wanted to do was.....nothing! As much as I love my kids I was looking forward to them heading to their Mom's so I could retreat to my bed and stay there.  Since I was having trouble breathing and needing to clear my throat I would stay up in the living room until Scott settled down (evidenced by the cessation of coughing from his room) and then I would head to bed so as not to disturb him.  The idea of making food or cleaning house was just too unreal to even think of!  I ended up ordering out food each night which I will regret when the credit card bill comes in.

Scott and I spent most of the weekend on the couch with him spending some time on the computer.

Today I am feeling somewhat better, past the worst of the symptoms but very weak. So weak in fact that Tails sense this before I left for work and pinned me to the ground until I promised her an extra serving of canned cat food!

Farewell my iPod!

For those who have been reading this blog you know I've mentioned my iPod Touch on a frequent basis; believe it or not I may be selling it and all my iPod equipment in a very attractively-priced 'bundle' to buy one of these:

Click the image below which will open a detailed description in a new web browser. I am just waiting for them to come into local stores so I can do some hands on before making the final decision to purchase one. I figure with what I can get for the old equipment and some Amazon gift certificates I already have, my net out of pocket cost will be around zero!

New Jersey Trip Picture

One of these days I must write up a post of our vacation trip to New Jersey at the end of last month. For now, here's my favorite picture from that journey.

We were at the Cranford Canoe Club with my brother who happens to know the owner. To snap this picture, I had to run across the street (which being a bridge over the river made it more difficult) and then cut through some parks on the riverbank to get to the spot I could snap this before they got out of range. They were moving quite quickly!

Click the picture for the full size image of Scott and Danielle in a canoe.

Thus ends The Ramon Journals

I posted the Ramon Journal entry two days ago, since there are no comments I'll take that to mean no one is interested in that series. 

I guess my idea of what's interesting varies with those who visit, I thought this would be more interesting than my usual ramblings.

The Ramon Journals

Scott and Danielle have been enjoying packages of Ramon Soup from the local grocery store for many months now. Unlike some of their previous food fads it seems to be something that they are going to keep eating for awhile. I like it as well, but, not as much as the two of them.

While we were in New Jersey their aunt Lili made Scott some of her style Ramon which unlike the ones the kids are used to contained herbs and some decent flavor. Scott did not like it as much as his usual bowl of noodles because of this....it was a change over the typical noodles and chicken broth he was used to and Scott does not like change. I, on the other hand, loved it.

She gave me a package totally written in oriental to take home of another variety which I did. I had that early last week and it was just so much better than the ones the kids have been eating. It had little bits of vegetables and herbs in it, and such a rich flavor as well.

So, I decided I wanted more and went online in a effort to find them which I did from an eastern importer. I also found countless other varieties and thus ordered eight different packages to sample.

I hope you can join me on what promises to be a tasty journey!

And so it begins! "The Ramon Journals" will unfold as I, your intrepid taste tester and connoisseur of all things edible share with you my findings of the following 8 Ramon variations.

For a much larger image click on the picture above; do it NOW!

After I had written the above, Danielle and I ended up making three of the eight packages. Originally I figured we would make two, splitting each one, and that would make a serving for each of us. This was not to be the case however!

One of them tasted horrible, and the food disposal ate heavily of it after we each had a taste.

So, which one was that? How were the other two? What three varieties did you sample???

If you hunger for the answers to these questions dear reader, you'll just have to return as I post the reviews for each variety.

Have A Better Birthday With Worms

My 52nd Birthday on Sunday was nothing special , and I had a decent day.

I thank those of you who sent birthday greetings, and well, for those of you who did not....... :)

I arose around 8:30 AM, puttered on the computer for awhile, played cone of the video game I got from Kevin and Lili when we were in New Jersey, and then rode the exercise bike.

After getting cleaned up, Scott and I headed off to McDonald's to get a lite bite since we knew we would not be eating dinner for awhile, and we brought home something for Danielle, who was too involved in teenage drama to come with us.

Around 1:45 PM we headed to the vet with Tails....which means I need to mention that Saturday when Scott was petting tails something white, small, and wriggly ended up on his hand, and, a visual examination of her......uh.......posterior showed an additional worm peaking out! So, we made her the Sunday appointment (which surprised me because heaven help a human who needs to see a doctor on a Sunday!!!)

So, we arrived at the vet, the doctor did a patient history and examination of Tails and a topical medication was applied to her neck behind her head. In two weeks she would be tape worm free. Tails being an indoor cat I was puzzled about this until it was explained that the eggs can be tracked indoors on footwear, and, Tails does love playing with our sneakers and sandals and such. usually though outdoor cats get this from eating infested rodents.

The only downside to us is this medication will stay somewhat moist for days so you have to remember not to pet the cat there.

Anyway, after returning home I watched TV with the kids, and played more of the aforementioned (Dark Sector) video game. Around 4PM the X arrived and we headed over to Texas Roadhouse where the X's parents met us, and I had a marvel opus T-Bone and dessert. Scott and Danielle had their usual prime rib though Danielle shared hers with her mom.

They overcooked the X's Mom's steak and took quite awhile to rectify it, so, instead of the birthday treat of a small bowl of vanilla ice cream they brought out three of their chocolate fudge cake and ice creak desserts for all of us and took the price of the steak off the bill. The X's dad paid for dinner, and her Mom gave me a bottle of spicy Buffalo Wing sauce, a bottle of After Death hot sauce, and a bottle of Bone Sucking sauce which I really liked.

The X gave me one of those motivational books which I promised to read....hey....I love fiction after all!

Scott and Danielle gave me an amazon gift certificate. The X dropped us off back at my house where the rest of the day was spent in TV watching and Game Playing, plus I made some Ramon soup for all of us as a snack later in the evening.

All and all an OK birthday. not great, but, not too bad.

Tails KittyFirst year in Pictures

Last month marked the end of Tails' first year with us! It has been a most enjoyable year for all of us whose lives Tails have affected. We really love our kitty.

Press the play button below to see all 13 pictures; enjoy!

Note you can click on any picture in the album to see them in larger size.

Video of the DayMy Morning Walk

This would not have been my first choice for my morning walk but I must have made a wrong turn somewhere!  Click below to play the video as it is most awe inspiring!

This is the El Caminito del Rey (The King's pathway) is a walkway, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in Málaga , Spain . The walkway has gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. It is only one meter in width, and over a 700-meter fall, and over time it has also lost its handrail. Some parts of the walkway have completely collapsed and have been replaced by a beam and a metallic wire on the wall. Many people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years. After four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the loca l government closed the entrances. However, adventurous tourists still find their way into the walkway.

Recipe:South of the Border Chicken Nachos

I've been trying really hard before and after vacation to stick to the diabetic dietary requirements. Last night I wanted something good, without exceeding those. I created the following and was quite pleased with the results!

Ingredients:
1 pound frozen boneless skinless chicken breast tenders
1 cup white onion diced
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp crushed garlic (I used jarred here)
1/2 tbsp hot chili powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp powdered cumin
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Slices fat free Kraft Cheddar Cheese
6 ounces Tortilla Chips (I used soy chips for less carbs and more protein)
PAM type Olive Oil Spray

Optional for topping:
Fat Free Sour Cream
Taco Sauce
Sambal Olek
Guacamole

Perparation:
Spray a non-stick saucepan with PAM spray. To bottom add water and crushed garlic. Add Frozen Chicken, and spray top lightly with PAM. Sprinkle on chili powder, paprika, cumin, and black pepper. Cover, and and simmer on very low heat for an hour.

Stir contents. At this point chicken should be soft enough (you used tenders, tight?) to break up. Using a wooden or plastic spoon press down on tenders until they break into smaller pieces.

Add chopped onion, cover, and again simmer on low heat for an hour. Remove from heat, add cheese, stir, cover and let sit for several minutes.

Arrange tortilla chips in a single layer on a large platter and then spoon chicken mixture on top. Add whatever else you like at this point such as guacamole, taco sauce, fat free sour cream, etc. I just topped mine sparingly with some Sambal for extra heat!

ENJOY! Serves four as an appetizer or two for dinner.

Birthday Blahs

Feeling kind of bummed with the birthday coming up this Sunday. Birthdays used to be such a fun family thing....now....they are just another day to me. Nothing really to Celebrate here.

Sigh!

That's not the main reason I have not been posting a lot. I had lost my lunch time internet connection but it's abck now so there will be some posts, including a new recipie shortly!

In New Jersey

We made the trip in 11.5 hours which is not too bad.

Scott, Danielle, and I will be going out shopping for a laptop for Camille in a bit, while my brother goes to play a gig with his band Crash Cart.

This is a short post as I am using my iPod touch to post it

Shocked on Sunday

Sunday the X, Danielle, Scott, and I went to dinner at Braun's. It's a decent steak place and I had my free 8 ounce sirloin sizzler coupon I obtained last September 7th on my birthday. Scott had a 18 ounce prime rib and Danielle and the X shared a ribs and chicken combo.

Afterwards we drove out near the lake to look at some used cars for Scott. To make a long story short we'll keep looking for now.

Later, the X and I were standing outside my house, and I was telling her how weird the weekends were since every weekend I wanted to call my dad. Yesterday was three weeks now since4 his passed away, and I still can't believe it, and the urge to pickup the phone and call him is very strong.

Suddenly a black car screeched up to the curb, and my dad got out. He walked over to me and said he did not like being dead so he came back. He gave me a hug and I sobbed uncontrollably telling him how much I loved him and apologizing for anything wrong I had done as kid.

I woke up at 1:30AM with a gasp, totally stunned. The dream was so real in it's clarity. The tie in with the real events of the day (dinner and car hunting) made it all the more believable!

I arose from bed shaken, quickly turned on some lights and adjourned to the living room where I put on the TV. There was no way I was going back to sleep quickly after that! I wanted to talk to someone about this, but, due to the late hour I did not. I'm glad the kids were not here so they did not get awakened.

New Jersey Bound....Again!

As the kids and I had planned to be leaving for New Jersey this coming Friday, we decided to still go. We do not want our last trip to New Jersrey memories to be the ones of my Dad's passing. I also need to pickup some items of my dad's I could not fit in the car last time, so, I'll be renting a full size car.

If anyone reading this wants to get together, I will be in the following areas.

Saturday August 23 through Tuesday August 26th Millington New Jersey, and Wednesday August 27th through Friday August 29th in West Caldwell. I realize folks have jobs and families and such, but, I just wanted to throw this out there.

We'll first be staying with my Brother and his wife, then with the Kids Uncle Kevin, his wife Lili, and their daughter Luci. It will be good to see them again, particularly in much more pleasant circumstances!

It will be a good trip, though I am really not looking forward to the drive both ways. As the car rental places want to charge you $30 a day for drivers under 25, Scott will not be able to help with the driving, and like our previous trip I'll be doing all the driving.

Life with Chris

Last night the X was supposed to pickup the kids between 9 and 9:30 as she has an appointment about an hour away from here. We were going to eat around 7 since we had a late lunch. I had taken the kids to Noodles and Company since they have several dishes I can eat calorie/carb-wise.

So, I'm making the Pasta with Hearty Meat Sauce recipe I posted this morning with a projected dinner time of 7PM and the phone rings, it's the X and she'll be there in 10 minutes.....

To make a long story short I invited her to eat with us and she, Danielle, and I had the aforementioned pasta while Scott had pasta with jarred meatless sauce (he does not like meat, veggies, etc. in his sauce).

They left around 8:30 and the usual what to do now that the kids are gone blues set in. Tails and I ended up watching TV until bedtime.

So, how am I doing these days? OK. Kind of blue though. I'm really missing my dad. I know Danielle is sad about that too I had to put away some of the mementos of him I brought back from New Jersey as they were affecting her. Work is no longer what I want to be doing but I feel locked in because at least I have a job that pays me what I need to have to support myself and the kids and pay support. My plan right now is to make it through the four years until Danielle turns 18 and comes off of support, and then evaluate where I want to be in life and what I want to do. Until then, it's focus on getting the kids out of the house and off to school, life, whatever, while making them as happy as I can.

Recipes - Cooking with Chris

The other night I took fresh onions, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, and some packaged jalapeno-chicken sausage, tossed with a few teaspoons of olive oil and crushed garlic and sprinkled it lightly with curry and chili powders. I also added a light sprinkling of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper. I baked this at 350 for about 45 minutes and then removed the foil and baked for another 10. It was great. Is that enough of a recipe for folks? When I say lightly sprinkled does that make sense? Well, anyway because I did not notice how much I used, I did not make a recipe out of it. It WAS very good though!

I realized I have about 8 pounds of Dreamfield spaghetti in my pantry so, as you can see from my previous recipe post I have some serious pasta to be going through and using. When I eat alone I use four ounces.....so that could be a lot of recipes.

Regular readers here know I make quite a few recipes from scratch, perhaps one in five get posted for various reasons. Sometimes it's because I threw something really together really fast and did not pay attention to exactly how I made it, other times it me be good, but, in my opinion, not good enough to share. It was good, not great.

Other times I used some packaged ingredients that I don't know if they are available elsewhere. Such as pre-made Pad-Thai sauce in jar which I've used a couple of times this past week. When such items, such as Sambal Oelek are used, I do try to provide a link to a place where you can mail order them.

So, this evening I shall make something with pasta again, and we shall see how it comes out. Perhaps Pasta with over-roasted veggies and chicken? We shall see! If it works out there could be a recipe.

RecipeChris' Pasta with Hearty Meat Sauce

Ingredients:
3/4 pound ground beef (92% lean or ground sirloin)
3 ounces Hormel sliced turkey pepperoni, diced
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup diced white onion
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 cloves crushed fresh garlic
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh basil (shredded)
12 ounces Deamfield Pasta
Freshly grated Romano to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:
Heat olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat and add garlic. Once garlic begins to sizzle stir in onion and pepper cooking for two minutes. Add mushrooms and sprinkle to taste with freshly ground black pepper. Cook to desired doneness (I like my onions, peppers, and mushrooms just starting to get brown) and add ground beef and diced pepperoni cooking for two minutes.

Add 8 ounce can of tomato paste and warm water. Stir until tomato paste and water are well combined. Add basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Stir, and then cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

Have a pot of water boiling when there is 10 minutes left on sauce and prepare 8 ounces Dreamfield Pasta (I used Spaghetti this time) to package directions, drain, and top with meat sauce. Sprinkle freshly grated Romano cheese on top.

Serves three to four.

Video of the DayWhere's Waldo?as told inThe Waldo Ultimatum

If you grew up with "Where's Waldo?" or had kids who enjoyed it, you'll never be able to look at Waldo the same way ever again!

Due to a few 'naughty' words you may wish to preview this before sharing it with our younger viewers.

Me - Before and After(or What a difference a gray makes!)

You may have noticed the new profile picture of me.......no, I did not find the fountain youth in case you are wondering. For quite awhile now my brother has been suggesting I color my beard to get ride of the gray as he's been doing for some years now.

When I was out in New Jersey earlier in the month he and his wife brought it up again. As I would be seeing relatives and people I'd not seen in many a year why should I look like the older brother? While I've never felt myself as an overly vain person, I must admit the amount of gray in my beard has bothered me on occasion, so, I decided what the hey.

So, after asking the kids ("We don't care!" was their response), I decided to do it. The procedure is quick and painless, particularly after you do it the first time, and I am pleased with the results. When I asked the kids how it looked, Scott said. "This is change! Change is not good!", but I think they like it.

In fact, this morning I showed Danielle the before and after pictures below that my brother had taken, she basically said I look like an old man in the before picture and much younger in the after shot.

Tails, bless her furry little heart, does not seem to have a preference!

So, what do you think? Do you think it looks better? I'm still not quite used to the reflection I see staring back at me in the mirror.

If you can stand the HORROR of it, click the picture for a larger version!

Thanks Bev (and some weekend ramblings)

Thanks Bev for your comments on my previous post, which have driven me to resume posts. You're a great and caring friend and I thank you!

So, it's my weekend with the kids, I have them for the week and got them Friday night. It's been tough getting back into the dieting groove with them. I decided when I returned from NJ I really needed to take better care of myself, so, began watching my weight again. Today makes day 6. With the kids here it's a bit harder since they want real food, so I pick them up Chinese from the local place or go to Wendy's with them and sip a soda while they eat, and then come back here.

Today though I have some nice lean NY strips that will soon be marinating in anticipation of grilling later, and I got some excellent ears of corn on the cob. I saw an interesting technique for cooking onions on Grill It with Bobby Flay this morning, I may try that. You take a large onion, half it, in the middle put garlic and butter (I will substitute something for the butter) and some spices. Wrap in foil and then put on the grill. It looked tasty, I think I will wrap the corn in foil as well today and put it on the grill.

Last night on BBC America was the premiere of a new Science Fiction show called Primeval which is promising. The basic premise is that a temporal rift allows dinosaurs from the past to come to the present.

The X will be by soon to pick me up; I mentioned I had to go to Meijer's and since she had to go we decided to go together, and I invited her to dine with us later since I have an extra steak.

Not much to say

Still trying to come to grips with the past couple of weeks, there's just nothing positive to say. I could go on for pages on how bad I feel about my dad's passing, loneliness, etc. but why bother. No one wants to read that anyway.

I don't expect to be doing a lot of posting in the near future. For the few people who sent kind thoughts, I thank you.

Thanks Steve

In a week that has left me and mine at one of the lowest points I can remember, I want to thank my friend Steve for being there Friday at my dad's funeral mass.

Thanks Steve, it meant the world to me and I'm sure to my dad too.

NJ Nightmare continues

Today was no better, in fact worse with all the extra running around we had to do int he AM; my dad owns a crypt where my mom is entombed and we still had to drive all the way down there to sign the paperwork to allow my dad's space to be opened. They would not take a fax.

After that we spent the rest of the day going through so much of my dad's things. We realized we learned even more that we did not know about him, we also threw away so much stuff he had accumulated over the years....some of the weirder items were a collection of little balls of string, bags and bags of rubber bands, and about 300 dead hearing aid batteries, just to name a few.

Tomorrow is the wake....which I am dreading. Danielle in particular is very fragile right now and even Christopher, age 19, is visibly shaken. Of all the kids he was closest to his grand father and spent so much time together with him when we were living in the mother/daughter house in Great Meadows with my dad.

Here's the text of the obituary in the Star Ledger today:

View/Sign Guest Book
Enrico M. Falco
FALCO Enrico M. Falco Tool-and-die maker, WWII vet, lived in Glen Ridge, 84 Enrico M. Falco, 84, of Hackettstown died on Sunday, July 27, 2008, at home, after a long illness. A Funeral Mass will be held at Sts. Peter and Paul R.C. Church, Great Meadows, on Friday, Aug. 1, at 10 a.m. Entombment will be at Hollywood Memorial Park, Union. Arrangements by the Scala Memorial Home, 124 High St., Hackettstown, (908) 852-2420. Friends may call on Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. Mr. Falco was born on Dec. 16, 1923, in Belleville to the late Joseph and Angelina Falco. He resided in Glen Ridge for many years before moving to the Hackettstown area 29 years ago. Mr. Falco retired as a tool-anddie maker after many years and last worked for Chatham Precision in Chatham. He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II, serving from 1943 to 1946. He was a member of Sts. Peter and Paul R.C. Church in Great Meadows and its Seniors Club; the Great Meadows Busy Seniors and the Sunshine Club of Blairstown. Mr. Falco is survived by his companion of many years, Julia Pirrello; sons, Rick Falco of Millington and Christopher Falco of Grand Rapids, Mich.; sister, Kay Testa of Parsippany; and three grandchildren, Chris, Scott and Danielle. Published in the Star-Ledger on 7/30/2008

Nightmare in New Jersey

Frankly stated it's been hell thus far....A nightmarish 720 mile ride to New Jersey after no sleep the night before causing me to rely on energy drinks.....waiting until after the police finally finished their investigation today we were at last allowed access to my Dad's apartment and we could start the laborious task in front of us. My dad left no will, little assets and apparently has not discarded anything since the 1930's. Happily though I'm taking home stacks of old pictures to scan and preserve and I've been finding out things about my dad I had no idea of.

A few people have asked for details on the arrangements so I've pointed them here


Viewing is Thursday July 31 from 4PM - 8PM at
Scala Memorial Home
124 High Street
Hackettstown, NJ 07840
908-852-2420

Mass is Friday August 1 at 10AM at
St Peter & Paul Church
360 US Route 46
Great Meadows, NJ
908-637-4269

Funeral is Friday Augsut 1 at 12 noon at
Hollywood Memorial Park
1500 Stuyvesant Avenue
Union NJ 07083
908-688-4300

In lieu of flowers please dontated in the memory of Enrico M. Falco to
The American Lung Association
61 Broadway
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8:20 PM Update on my Dad

The latest word from New Jersey is the police have retained my dad's body so they can perform an autopsy. I won't hear anything further until sometime tomorrow.

Scott, Danielle, the X and her parents and I had lunch at Red Robin and then the X took me to the airport to rent a larger car for the trip. Chris is on his way home from College right now and will arrive later this evening. We'll be heading out between 6 and 7AM in the morning depending on when I wake up.

What a day it has been; I had just returned from business in Ohio Friday so it's been doing assorted loads of wash and repacking, getting the kids the stuff they need from their Mom's house, taking Tails over there. The X has been a big help and I really appreciate this.

With any luck I'll have the car loaded in an hour and I can sit down and hopefully unwind a bit before bed.

2:40 PM Update on my Dad

My brother called about an hour ago after arriving at my dad's place. There were police and detectives investigating because as they put it there were signs of 'foul play'. That's all my brother has been able to get from them.

The X, bless her heart, rented a larger car for me which we will pick up this evening so the kids won't have to take turns being cramped in the Mustang. We'll leave between 6 and 7 tomorrow morning which should put us in NJ by 7 PM tomorrow.

In Memoriam of my DadEnrico Micheal Falco1925-2008May he Rest In Peace

Me, my Dad, and my Brother at a family dinner at our Budd Lake NJ house in 1999

Sadly the kids and I will be heading back to New Jersey at dawn tomorrow. My dad passed away this morning.

I was just getting ready to go to the store to shop for the ingredients for lasagna when the phone range around 11:30. I had just showered after an intense exercise bike ride, trying to recoup for time last week while on my business trip I guess.

It was my brother's wife Camille, telling me my dad's girlfriend had called to tell her the news and that the police were at my dad's place treating it like a crime scene and they would not allow her inside.

My brother was in the shower so she was going to tell him and then they would rush up there and find out what was going on. I await his call now.

I told Danielle and we both cried hugging each other, then we headed over to her Mom's house so she could get more clothes. I told the X what happened and then I cried all over again. I cried when I imported the picture above. Obviously I won't have any trouble letting my grief out.

Anyway, I am making arrangements with work and such, the X will be watching Tails for us. Her mom (the X's, not Tails'!) just called to offer support and such which was greatly appreciated.

So, off to New Jersey for a most unexpected trip to put my dad to rest. I'll try and update this post with more details as they become available.

On the road again

Well, right now I am sitting in a hotel near Cincinnati after a 6 hour drive, tomorrow starts four days of meetings.

I'll have my IM on wherever I am in the hotel, gblandishment is my AOL IM if you want to help keep me sane!

Time to call room service and start working that expense account!!

Ho Hum what fun

Same old same old.....so no new posts lately but I am still here....not much new, Dad still doing poorly, Scott still going to Chiropractor and doing OK. I've been kind of blue so have not really felt like posting all that much.

Kids went back to their Mom's for her week yesterday, that always brings me down for a day or two.

Speaking of kids, I am doing a bunch of laundry in preparation for my departure tomorrow and the family room door next tot eh unfinished portion of my basement opens (adjacent to my home office) up and in walks Scott carrying Tails (that's right I forgot for a moment he was coming for lunch and to watch Psych with me and his Mom).

I call out "Uh, I have no pants!"; he stops short, backs up and exists to my cry of "Hey, I have underwear on!". I told him I'd be up in 10 minutes......

And thanks though to my friend John for checking in to see how I am doing which prompted me to post this little blurb here.

Fun with my iPod touch!

For those of you who have spent the last few months on another planet, or at the bottom of the ocean, etc. Friday was the release of the iPhone 3G, the newer faster model.

While I have no desire to own one because of the high costs of the service and two year plan requirement, I did decide to upgrade my iPod touch to the new 2.0 firmware which opens it up to use applications for Apple's Application store. As of this service's opening on Friday there were 532 applications and half of these are free with many prices at 99 cents.

SO! I backed up my settings and wiped the iPod touch on Friday only to have to wait until yesterday to be able to do the upgrade because apple had MAJOR problems with their authentication servers Friday.

To make along story short I then had to reload my songs, video, and pictures, but, I was pleasantly surprised, my picture collection easily takes up about 20-25% less space on the device which means more space fr songs, videos, applications, etc. I will post again on this subject after I have had some hands on with the applications I downloaded and the new firmware.

Weekend thus far

Not really much to post about the weekend thus far, I mean how many "I got, up, went to Forest Hills Foods to procure the fixings for today's steak dinner, came home, rode the e-bike" posts do you all have the stomach to read!!???!!!!

Anyway, "I got up around 9AM, went to Forest Hills Foods to procure the fixings for today's steak dinner, came home, and" did not ride the e-bike....yet! Will be doing that around 11AM so the kids get a chance to stay asleep as we wee up late, Danielle up until 11:45, and Scott and I until around 1AM.

The weather today is GORGEOUS, sunny, blue sky, breezy, around 70 right now with low humidity, which will prevail for the next couple of days; it was quite muggy Friday and Saturday. The day just begs for me to....Cook With Fire!

Last night the kids and I watched Cloverfield off of DVD that my friend Brian lent us. Speaking of Brian that reminded me I forgot on the Scott driving test post to mention that I headed over to the X's when she called to tell me Scott passed where I began preparations for dinner which she invited me to. I do enjoy when the five of us, as my son Chris was there, can eat dinner and simulate a family. That not withstanding, she sprung for steaks!

Anyway back to the movie. I must admit that the trailers on TV do not do this flick justice, and even with the jerky home movie style photography it is an excellent movie, with a decent plot and plenty of drama and action. Even the seemingly bore first 15 minutes of so, which at the time hardly seemed necessary, served to acquaint us with the main characters and understand the relationships between them. I highly recommend this movie! Now for a spoiler....the butler did it!

Christopher headed back to school yesterday; I hope he got settled he is not staying in the dorms in this, the beginning of his sophomore year, but with several others in a rented apartment close to the school. We don't even know if they readily have an Internet connection though the apartments are affiliated with the college. It will be an interesting time for Chris, more freedom and more responsibility; last year on campus he was paying for board so he got three square meals a day down in the school cafeteria, now it will be procure, create, and clean up after your own meals. I will really miss his by-weekly visits for out Sci-Fi watching!

Speaking of Sci-Fi last night heralded the start of the new season of Stargate Atlantis, plus repeats, starting with the premier episode, of a show I had never seen called Joan of Arcadia on the Sci-Fi channel which I have yet to watch, though I recorded it.

The Sci-Fi channel also began repeating a show called Jeremiah, a show starting (of all people!) Luke Perry and Theo from the Cosby show. A very gritty look at what happens after the end of the world, and, surprising good! After being type cast as Theo, Malcolm-Jamal Warner does a very good job portraying Jeremiah's (played by Luke Perry) street wise sidekick.

I just sent the X an e-mail inviting her for dinner later if she can make it; she had a rough weekend having to stay overnight because of the distance of her appointments from here. She unfolded a tale of horror film like proportions of being so far off the beaten path with dark, deserted foggy forests and a bizarre 'motel-hell' like motel stay in the middle of no where......so...I figured she can use a nice dinner. We'll see if she is able to attend, if she does not we'll just cut the extra steak into threes!

Footnote: I think I broke my own record for number of labels on this post.

The Weather

Well, I may not moan and groan about the weather other than during the winter, but, today is supposed to be the worst heat/humidity day of the year thus far, predicted as "temperatures in the 90's with steamy humidity levels".

Oh boy! Glad my car and house have AC, but, we have had a lot of humidity lately and I shudder at what the next power bill will bring cost-wise!