Adventures with food

So I was making mashed potatoes (from scratch) for dinner tonight. Charlie had watched me peel, cut up, boil, and mash the potatoes.


Him: Did you season the potatos yourself?
Me: /inquisitive look
Him: /looks back, waiting for an answer
Me: No dear, I grew the potatoes already seasoned with dill, garlic and butter



*sigh* Men! :-P

Homeowner adventures

So, Through some friends of Mom and Dad, we were able to get a Free, though used, dishwasher and stove. Kevin and Greg brought them over for us, and installed the dishwasher without a problem a couple weeks ago. Since the stove was Gas, we decided to call in the big shots for it. Aka, Dad.

Now we knew the basic procedure - turn gas off, pull out old stove, put in new stove, turn gas back on, relight pilots. End of story, right?

So dad comes over, and they set about turning the main gas line off (the one to the house mind you - so bye bye hot water, furnace, and the stove.) He takes his wrench, and turns the knob 90 degrees to the "off" position. Took some strength to do, but it moved consistently. Well, as soon as he did that, he realized it was suddenly very loose. Apparently there's a catch in there that you need the "special we only sell to professionals" tool to turn it back on. *gah!* Well, Dad doesn't have one of those, but, he called up Kevin, told him the dimensions, and asked him to make a tool.

So, the gas is now off at least, and while we're waiting for the tool they decide to replace the stove. So, they pull the stove out, turn the gas line off at the connection (to prevent the line filling up with air) , disconnect the stove and carry it outside. I scrape 25 years of grime off the linolium while they're doing this :-/ ewwwww.

And in comes the new stove, with quite a bit more grunting and griping than the one going out. Apparently it's heavier. So they get it up, and near the opening, and I stupidly ask "What's the plug for?". So, after a few minutes, we determine the stove has electric starts, and not pilot lights (woot!). We thought it was still a pilot lit stove, and were't too happy about it, if only for the safety factor. Of course, that now poses a 2nd problem - it's a 110V plug, and we have a 220V outlet. Oh well, it can reach to the one next to the opening for now.

So Dad's on the floor, about to connect the gas line, and realizes something is amiss. Apparently, Stove gas lines are not universal.

Which means the boys are now out getting a new pipe fitting for the stove... not that we currently have a gas supply to cook with :-(


I'll update this with the remainder once it happens :-)

So, we found some holes in out backyard - thought it was a woodchuck (still do). But we got a have-a-heart trap and put it out int he back yard. This is our furry friend we found in it on Monday after work :-)

I didn't really want to get too close to get pictures!

Gambling...

Phoey... we didn't win the megamillions...

....

Don't you hate it when you think of something great in the car on the ride home... and then forget by the time you get there?

Life..

Life goes on around here. Nothing really overwhelmingly interesting is going on. Work is, well, work - and like most people, we wish we were millionaires so we didn't have to do it. The house is in it's usually state of disarray, even more so since I started digging through the boxes in the spare bedroom this morning :-)

I wouldn't mind time off to be lazy and just do what I want... but that's not going to happen. it's too much work to go somewhere, and if I stay here, i'd feel guilty if I wasn't doing something :-) So, now i'll just feel guilty for sitting at the computer when I should be doing stuff :-)

We're going over to chunky's in an hour anyhow to see The Simpsons movie :-)

Television

So, I decided to eat lunch at my desk today, and poked around on Cnn.com, for lack of other available sites to go read (Just about everything non-work related is blocked, as well as about half the work related stuff – and for a while they were talking about blocking Google!) I came across this article about how TV ratings are down. http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/09/tv.missingviewers.ap/index.html Well, apparently there's a whole concern for the advertisers, etc…. not that I really care. What got me was the following statement. < "We let them get out of the habit of watching television a little bit, and it's going to take some time to get these people back in front of their television sets," said David Poltrack, chief researcher for CBS (owned by CBS Corp.).>

Wait a minute!!! Every time I sit down to watch TV, it's always telling me how I need to get out and do stuff, and not be lazy. Right now in my life, I don't watch much tv (I spend my time in front of the computer – not necessarily better, but I don't count in the Nielsen ratings :-)) Stop telling me I need to go outside and do other activities, do things with the family, or get exercise, and then make the statement that you want me to come back and watch TV… I don't like being confused!!! Well, doesn't help them that I don't like a lot of the new shows that are out – I'm definitely not into the reality shows. My television watching includes the news in the morning as I wake up, whatever version of Star Trek happens to be on when I get home (currently, Voyager), and Futurama and Family Guy at night before we go to sleep (or while we go to sleep)

Sorry Mr TV exec – now that the warm weather's here (it's 78F (26C) outside right now!!! (why am I in work?) ) I plan on spending less time watching you, and more time outside :-)

I get to go on a bike ride this afternoon!!!