My older daughter has been participating in this program Girls on the Run for about two years now, with each year having a sping and a fall session. The grand finale of each session is running in a 5K here in town. Last fall, my wife participated, and this spring, the 5K was the same weekend we had already planned to go out of town to Republic. This time though, there was nothing saving me from being volunteered to accompany my daughter.
Because I was in a state of denial, I did nothing to get ready for this 5K, and for once, not getting my way saved me. One of my...issues with the Girls on the Run program is it's more about 'girl power' and less about the running...they don't really 'push' the girls to run any faster or further...it's all 'do your best at your pace', which is fine I guess...it's just not how boys were taught to participate when I was growing up.
Talk about a life-saver. If my daughter had been really running for 2-years, I would most likely be dead somewhere out on the course. As it is, I was able to let her set the pace, with me doing some very light 'prodding'. We probably ended up doing about 1/3rd running, 2/3rds walking, and I was never once the limiting factor, more through shear 'mental toughness'. No way was I going to let my 10-year old outrun me, which meant I had to push on through some hellacious chafing. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of physical discomfort marathon runners put up...it's beyond my comprehension how anyone can enjoy running. Back in high school, I used to run to cut weight...but never once have I ran because I 'enjoyed it'.
In the end, we finished, we were in the middle of the 'not taking it seriously' pack, and we had enough strength left to smile.
Over the weekend, my wife had been shopping at Fred Meyers and found one of those 'deals she couldn't resist' on turkey...buy X amount and recieve 'Y' amount off per pound for the turkey. Since she didn't buy anything we didn't need, it was a good deal. The only problem is, I still haven't bought a 2nd freezer, so there really wasn't room to just throw it in the freezer for later. Instead, she had to cook it on Wednesday, which still isn't a bad thing.
Even being a smaller bird, and me not being 100% efficient at stripping every last bit of meat off the carcass, there was over 4 pounds of left over meat...and still not a lot of room in the freezer. It seemed like as good a time as any to break out the pressure canner.
After taking as much meat off the bird as I could, I shredded/chopped it up, and threw it in a pot with some chicken broth, to heat it back up.
In case you didn't know what turkey in broth looks like.
I always forget how long pressure canning takes...I mean, yeah, 75 minutes to process pint jars of most meats, but, the time to get to pressure, then the wait for the canner to cool down to atmospheric pressure on it own. That kind of feels like a lot of work for the end result, but...what else was I doing sitting around the house with that 2 hours of my life?
So, in the end, canning takes much longer than properly vacuum sealing these things for the freezer would take, but, the cannin might be better, and not just from a 'prepper' point of view. It's shelf stable even through power losses, and it's ready to use Right Now. Forget to take something out of the freezer to thaw? Just grab a can of beef or turkey from the garage, heat it in a pan with some corn starch to ticken the browth to gravy, and dump it over some rice or mashed taters!
At work today, we were having our 2nd Annual Chili Cookoff. Last year, I had training on the day of the competition, so I wasn't able to participate. This year, I was able to compete, and like they say, if you ain't cheating you ain't trying.
In this case, cheating involved using a recipe from Brigid's website, her Range Chili.
It's not really cheating I guess...I still had to do all the cooking, and I modified the recipe a bit: leaving out the onions, using 2 cans of black beans and two cans of kidney beans instead of 4 cans of kidney beans, and dicing up three chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to add a bit more heat.
What most likely won it for me is the shear amount of meat in this chili...6 pounds of meat don't leave room for a lot of beans in a crock pot...and bacon makes everything better.
One of the 'Pro's' offered up by folks in support of I-502(legalizing marijuana) was the revenue generating opportunities of legalized and regulated pot sales. One of the things that was touched on slightly less is the money that could be saved in the courts and the jails by not having to waste time and resources on folks having less than an ounce of marijuana, a misdemeanor under existing laws.
Well, that is the first benefit we are actually going to see from the initiative passing here in Washington, as the prosecutors office in several counties, including King, Pierce and Clark have announced they are dropping charges against everyone who was facing misdemeanor marijuana possession charges.
That's a pretty major step forward...and unusually rapid progress by any level of the government. What interesting is that the counties are moving forward on this, even as Governor Gregoire spent the day back on the east coast talking to senior Justice Department folks about just how the Feds are going to react to the decriminalization of marijuana. What the state would hate do is spend money they don't have on creating a program to regulate the production and sales of marijuana, just to find out The Man is shutting the whole thing down.
All in all, I have to say I'm somewhat pleasently surprised by the State and Counties reaction, especially since Governor Gregoire was against the passing of I-502.
Whenever I hear the media refer to the upcoming 'fiscal cliff' there is only one thing I think of:
Yup...that's Obama and Boehner...holding hands and heading off a cliff, with the taxpayers running after them: 'No...Wait! You need to actually do your F-ing job and make some tough decisions for once! You can't keep kicking the can down the road to the next Congress or President. You guys wanted to be where you are...now DO SOMETHING!!!!!'
Or something like that.
As Federal Contractors, the whole 'fiscal cliff/sequestration' thing is more than a slight concern. At home, I'm kind of using it as an excuse(okay, it's not an excuse...it's a real worry) to not do anything super serious about buying a house until after the new year.
I would hate to see us hit the automatic tax increases and spending cuts just because that is LAZINESS on the part of our elected leaders, not because it's not needed. The problem is sooooooo bug right now, I don't think it can be fixed by JUST cutting spending, or JUST increasing taxes on 'the rich'. What would I do if I was in charge?
Glad you asked.
We NEED to cut spending. As someone who has worked for The Man one way or another most of my adult life, I think the 10% cuts that 'sequestration' would bring about is a good start. I'm convinced there is enough slop and inefficiency at ALL levels of government that a 10% cut would not result in much decrease to services provided. We can also roll forward with pay freezes....but that's just a place to start. Payroll is a very minor portion of spending, and a lot of our spending can't be touched without totally breaking our promises(pensions and retirement) that folks have been counting on...and I don't think you can do that without some warning. That doesn't mean you can't start telling folks like me, in our mid 30's, that we need to start making some other plans.
I haven't needed to be told. I've already connected the dots...I'm not going to get to retire, not in the traditonal sense. My big hope is that someday I'll be able to take the easiest, lowest paying job with the best benefits.
As far as increasing the revenue stream(can't say raising taxes)...it needs to be done, but it can't just be on the rich. What would really make me smile is a non-confusing flat tax...I think where a lot of folks get mad is the perception(and reality) that rich folks with better lawyers and accountants, get away with paying less taxes than the 'middle class'. A flat tax would with minimum(no) deductions and loopholes would fix that.
Finally, you can't have folks with a negative tax load. I have some family members in the Northeast under this plan...4 kids, one income, and I know they are getting income tax money back that they didn't pay.
Now...I don't argue that these changes won't hurt...they will. A 10% spending cut will mean people let go. There will be less money in the economy, and we might dip back into recession...but it's either slightly painful now...or really painful later. The game of russian roulette comes from 'how much later'. Would it be 8 years as our bond rating suffer, or could we limp along another 30 years? Either way, it's going to happen right as my daughters are trying to live their lives...and call me idealistic, but I think we owe it to them to start fixing things now.
Now, I wish I had seen this about two weeks ago, because it might have been funnier before the election...but it still made me giggle, so I figured I would share. Besides, as we approach the 'fiscal cliff', it will still sound like this anytime you turn on the news.
In this case I'm not sure which ones the Republicans or the Democrats, but I figure Adam Sandler is The Media, while the swan represents the Libertarians.
I'm not a big coffee person. If my wife makes a pot, I will drink some, and at a restaurant, I will order it with my breakfast, but at home, I prefer my hot caffeine come in the form of tea. Preferably with milk and sweetener(either the pink stuff, the yellow stuff, or honey), which is also the way I drink coffee, when I do drink it.
Obviously, I'm not in it for the flavor.
My mother-in-law IS a coffee person, and to make up for the lack of a constantly ready pot when she was visiting, she picked up some Folgers Classic Roast Singles, which are basically a tea bag, but with coffee in it. She has since gone home, but we still have a few of these pouches in the cabinet, so this morning, I decided to make one...just for research purposes.
Ummm.....yeah, it tasted just like a cup of coffee should...which shouldn't be a surprise, but is. I have several jars and cans of 'instant coffee' in the house, and on more than one occasion, I have tried some, just because...and I have never ONCE been satisfied with the finished product. To steal from Douglas Adams, the product produced by Maxwell House Instant Crystals is something almost, but not completely unlike, coffee.
The only thing I can't testify to, since I didn't buy it, is the price efficiency of these 'singles' packages. I'm willing to bet it doesn't compare well with normal cans of coffee...but if it would be willing to pay more for it than I would be 'instant coffee'. A few boxes of these, taken out of their package and then vacuum sealed, would be quite handy.
