Having A Winter Blast



Well, as predicted, my wife stayed home from work today because of the winter-like weather. The bottom half of the stairs to our apartment were (and are) treacherous, to say the least, and our van is covered in about 1/4" of ice. We ran the engine for about 5 minutes today, just to keep the vehicle active and not too cold for too long, but we didn't drive anywhere. We couldn't have if we'd wanted to; the windshield wipers were frozen in place by the ice on both windshields.

We did take a walk together down to a nearby convenience store late in the afternoon. That was before the latest round of sleet happened. It was nice to get out for a little bit but we did have to be very careful. Most of the streets looked okay but parts of sidewalks and almost all the grass had a layer of ice over it. I feel bad for all the people who had car accidents or fell down or had other ice-related accidents today.

They say we could get 1" - 3" inches of snow overnight and another 1/4" to 1/2" of ice. It's a good thing I have some leave built up at work because I think I'll probably have to use some of it tomorrow. I love my job but I'm not going to endanger my life or my vehicle just to get there. We'll just have to see what happens.

We've been following the weather closely, since it's been slower to move through the area than expected. The Winter Weather Warning has been extended to Wednesday at noon now. Schools in the area have been closed, which was predictable.

I'll blog more when I know more. There really hasn't been that much to photograph yet but if we get snow accumulations, I'll be sure to snap some pix!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Nothing Like A Winter Weather Warning...



Well, this is Texas...and the weather is one of the least predictable things about this state, usually. Today, it's not that unpredictable. As you can see in the radar image, there's a hugs line of icy weather that's practically on top of us at the moment. With ice accumulations of 1/4" to 1/2" expected by morning and the fact that Central Texans do not know how to drive in these conditions (they can barely handle rain), I would say tomorrow will be a good day to stay indoors and play games, cook and watch movies...that is, assuming we have power.

I have Mondays off and the kids have the day off tomorrow for MLK Day. My wife would normally work but given the likely deteriorated road conditions, the job will probably understand if she plays it safe and stays home. We've had ice and even tidbits of snow, but this could be a storm the likes of which Austin hasn't seen in maybe 20 years! I'm not worried, really. We should be okay if we stay in and take it easy. I'm more concerned for those who brave the icy roads because, even if you're a great driver, someone else might not be.

Have a nice MLK Day and stay warm and safe, wherever you are!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Saturday Sage Wisdom



I read this quote in an all-races forum and had to relay it here, for a couple of reasons:

One, because I liked it; and
Two, because whether you agree with it or not, there is an aspect to it that is true.

When you think about it no two people are alike so we are all from mixed marriages.

I know, I know, not everyone's parents were married when they were born, but the point is still a good one. And considering that there is no such thing as a person who is 100% any ethnicity or "race," we are all mixed somewhere in our DNA, even if it was 15 generations ago.

Best Wishes,
Allen

Not In The News Friday (NITNF)



NITNF will usually be a bit of trivia that I found interesting and thought you would like. It may be IR-related and it might not -- but should always be fun...or at least fascinating.

This week, we have a real treat: Japancast.net. This website is run by an interracial married couple, Paul (who is a White American) and Hitomi (who is Japanese). They are dedicated to teaching people the Japanese language and culture via their website and downloadable podcasts.

My wife has been very interested in all things Japanese, which is how she came across their site. I have found it a fascinating experience as well, although I'm not as fast at learning languages as I am at fixing computers...alas...but I am trying!

Back to Japancast.net: Their podcasts are both informative and fun. Their website also contains lots of trivia, pictures (they have some cute kids), videos, a blog and forum -- as well as the podcasts. Check them out today!



Best Wishes,
Allen

A Double Dose Of Cuteness!



Don't raise your ears too much --



-- but it's time for some hot doggin' -- er, Cold Doggin'...

Um, Cute Overload let the dogs out, that's all I can say!

Back Up And Running



Well, it took a couple of days but the home pc is back up and running again with a new 200 GB hard drive (the drive that died was an 80 GB drive). Fortunately, we had backed up the vast majority of our files on another computer, so the main inconvenience was just reinstalling the Operating System (OS) and the software and the ridiculous number of Windows Updates. (60+ updates for Windows XP -- geez!)

So, life slowly gets back to normal. Sometimes, it's good to be a geek.

Best Wishes,
Allen

A Long Way To Go...



On Saturday night, the hard drive on our beloved main home computer, well, died. Yesterday was one of my days off, so I thought I'd ride the bus over to the computer store and get a replacement hard drive.

I got to the bus stop at about 9:15am. A few minutes later, a Hispanic young man walked up and sat down at the other bus stop bench about 10 feet away. A few minutes later, a Black woman who I'd seen a couple of days earlier at the same bus stop walked up. Since we'd spoken before, I said "Good morning." She looked at me with an odd glare and walked back in the other direction and waited about 20 feet away from the Hispanic young man. Weird but whatever, right?

Several minutes after that, a young Black woman walked up and stood about 10 feet on the other side of the bus stop. And a couple of minutes after that, a Black man walked up and started a conversation with the young Black woman.

Now, maybe I'm being oversensitive, but seeing a scene of complete volunteer racial social segregation at a bus stop, of all places, was sort of surreal. I did not feel personally discriminated against for my race but it was an odd experience.

Is it possible that those two people already knew each other? Sure, but it didn't look like it. There wasn't a look of familiarity between them, it just looked like they were passing time till the bus came.

I think it is sad that some people feel that they must place that much physical space and social distance between themselves and someone of another race -- or that the only thing necessary for a person to feel comfortable enough to strike up a conversation with another person is the color of their skin.

I've had plenty of days where I wait at the bus stop and people of different races stand next to each other, even if noone talks (although usually at least one person will)...so this wasn't an everyday experience. It's just odd that there are enough people being socially indoctrinated to this kind of behavior that it's possible at all.

Best Wishes,
Allen

There's Not A Not In The News Friday (NITNF) This Week


Mea Culpa by ~ginaNL on deviantART

My apologies but there's a couple of things that are occupying my attention this week. And while everyone in my family is just fine, myself included, between work and some of the things that are on my mind, I've just had to let this slide this week. I'd rather not have it seem forced, I prefer to have fun with it. I hope you understand.

NITNF will return next week!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Start 2007 With A Dose Of Cuteness...



...and nothing says "cuteness" like Cute Overload!

Here's to more cuteness in 2007!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Happy New Year and Happy 4th Anniversary, IR Haven!


Garfield is Copyright © 2007 PAWS, Inc. All rights reserved.

Well, IR Haven officially started on January 10, 2003 but we'll just be happy and celebrate the whole month, okay?

We had a great New Years Eve 2006 and New Years Day 2007. As we have done for the last 10 years, we brought in the New Year at church. There's something very special about bringing in a new year with prayer, reviewing one's life over the previous year and seeing if there's anything that could be done better now, and asking for help with that. It's also wonderful to be together and worshipping with people you know, love, trust and respect.

On New Years Day, we went over to the in-laws and had fun conversation, played board games, endured television football, played a DVD and devoured some really good food! I have not had good chitterlings (also known as "chitlins") in years! And with chalula (hot) sauce (mm-MMMmmmmmm!)? That's the stuff!!!



We also had roasted chicken with homemade dressing, blackeyed peas, rice, fresh-baked rolls and more! I got full not once, but twice with all that food...and it was worth it. We all had a great time hanging out with family on a lazy, cold (for Texas) day and didn't leave till dark. I am very grateful that I feel very loved and appreciated by my in-laws, especially being in an interracial marriage.

Well, that's all for now. Take care!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Not In The News Friday (NITNF) - Late and 2006 Year-End Edition



NITNF will usually be a bit of trivia that I found interesting and thought you would like. It may be IR-related and it might not -- but should always be fun...or at least fascinating.

My apologies that this is on a Saturday and not an actual Friday. Yesterday was nuts. I work in a call center and Austin had a major thunderstorm yesterday. We even lost power temporarily in the call center (which is bad, it reboots all the computers and servers, etc.). Call volume was very high, of course, from customers impacted by the storm, and I just didn't have the concentration I needed. Today is another matter.

2006 has been an incredible year. My family and I have been through a lot of changes. We had our first experience with identity theft. My wife and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. I bought a brand new Palm PDA. I started up NITNF at IR Haven (and it's been 6 months already!). We got a new cell phone. We moved from our duplex of 10 years into an apartment (that was a major adjustment, but it's worked out well).

It was the 5th anniversary of the 9.11.01 attacks. My wife and I witnessed the formation of a tornado from a funnel cloud. I added videos to IR Haven. I was in the hospital for 4 days with severe dehydration and pain caused by food poisoning. IR Haven transitioned to Blogger Beta (now Blogger Beta). And we had a Merry Christmas! Now we're almost in 2007.

That's the amazing thing about blogs: even if you don't think a lot has happened in a year, your blog will remind you what you've been through, good and bad.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Best Wishes,
Allen

And A Good Time Was Had By All...

We had a great Christmas this year! It was fun, we enjoyed the company of both sides of the family, had yummy food (about half of which my wife did an incredible job preparing) and of course, cleaned up on presents! Woohoo!

I won't go into all the boys' gifts (too many!) but my wife's big gift was a 30 GB Creative Labs ZEN Vision:M Video and MP3 player!



Me, I scored my first laptop! My brother-in-law was kind enough to refurbish a Dell Latitude CPi. I used to work with those all the time, so I'm extremely familiar with them. It's not the fastest but it's extremely upgradeable. Plus, they're solid little workhorses. I've already equipped it with a wireless pc card and an ethernet pc card -- for less than $30! It came with Windows 2000 Pro (which I'm also very familiar with) and I've been customizing software, etc. It's my new pet project, so just move outta the way! Heh. Just kidding about the "move out of the way" part. But I have been having fun playing with my new "toy."



Well, that's all for now.

Best Wishes,
Allen

This Blog Should Not Take Over 2 Minutes To Load



Starting last night, IR Haven was taking an incredible amount of time to load...and it was still acting up this morning. So, when that happens, I figure one link or one graphic, etc. is the culprit. The tricky part is eliminating the potential culprits without losing the HTML/javascript codes, so you can add back in what does actually work. It took about 20 minutes, but I finally tracked it down to the translation link. I like the capability to translate the site to other languages but if it takes 5 minutes to load the site, translation is goooooonnnnne!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Have Yourself A Merry Dose Of Cuteness... (Sing Along Now!)



I had to get in at least one more shot of cuteness before the holidays officially begin! Merry Christmas, Cute Overload!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Not In the News Friday (NITNF) - Christmas Edition #2



NITNF will usually be a bit of trivia that I found interesting and thought you would like. It may be IR-related and it might not -- but should always be fun...or at least fascinating.

Christmas Edition #2: The Christmas Tree

There are few signs of Christmas more beloved than the Christmas Tree. Here are some of the facts. There are nearly 35 million trees sold every year. The Christmas tree has been sold in the United States since 1850. Before that they were mostly cut in the forest by individual families. The Scotch Pine is the most popular tree for decorating.

The tradition of bring inside a tree was begun in the 1400-1500's. Some attribute the first Christmas tree to Martin Luther. He was a monk in Germany during that time. He brought home the tree because it reminded him of the beauty of the moonlight as it would shine through the evergreen trees in the winter. He put candles on the tree to represent the stars and moon light. The tradition spread from Germany to England in about 1841. From there it was inherited by the rest of the world.

Once the invention of electricity became more reliable and widespread the candles were replaced with electric lights. These are much safer and can be used for long periods of time.

Today's trees are both live and artificial. Whatever kind of tree you chose be sure to decorate it in a safe manner and enjoy it as a true symbol of the season.

Source: Tree Facts

Canon As You've Never Heard It Before!



This was very entertaining. Five minutes is a wee bit long but this guy is really playing all of this. Kudos to him!

Not In The News Friday (NITNF) Christmas Edition #1



NITNF will usually be a bit of trivia that I found interesting and thought you would like. It may be IR-related and it might not -- but should always be fun...or at leastIt took m fascinating.

Today's NITNF is definitely not in the news. It's about one of my sons and something he did today that was very much in the Spirit of Christmas. I got a call from my oldest son's school guidance counselor this morning, something that would usually be cause for concern...but this time it wasn't. She was calling to tell me that my son brought little toys from home to give as Christmas gifts to his fellow classmates (he's in 5th grade). She wanted to know if this was okay. She described what he brought and I told her, "Well, they're his toys. If he wants to give them away to others, then he can do that." She also told me he hand-made individual Christmas cards for each of his 18 classmates, with personalized messages for the children. It really was very sweet of him to do, with no prompting from anyone.

The counselor was very touched by his behavior but not surprised. My son is just like that; he's very loving and very giving. I'm proud of him, too, and I wasn't surprised, either -- but it was very heartening to hear, first thing of the morning.

So much of Christmas is about giving, and giving because you want to, not because it's expected. This morning, I realized that my son has already learned an incredible Life Lesson: the happiness you see in others when you give to them without expecting anything in return is its own reward. It's amazing to me that he's learned that when he's only 11 years old. In my opinion, it's something the whole world could benefit from learning.

Best Wishes,
Allen

Christmas Lights, Gifts, Music -- and Ghetto Pizza?



With a title like that for a blog post, you can't go wrong! So yesterday, I had a day off and I finally got motivated to finish the Christmas decorating in the apartment. It's our first Christmas in the apartment and we all want it to be special. Angel had so far been able to do about half of the decorating, some of it with the kids help/input (both of the kids wanted to be involved with the decorating this year). I had been wanting to help for about a week but had been waiting for some time and inspiration.

Yesterday morning, the inspiration hit me and I had the time. I looked at the apartment and was able to visualize a pattern to decorate with the set of multi-color/multi-fuction lights. I turned on Pandora.com and set up a new music playlist based on a Christmas song ("Silent Night"). A few seconds later, Pandora started playing some pretty nice Christmas music for me to hang lights by.

It was some work putting those lights up, because the set of lights is long enough to go around the entire living room, the hallway to the kids' room and the entire dining area! Still, looking at it afterwards, in combination with the existing decorations, was really pretty, very Christmas-like. I was pleased! And I had the satisfaction of surprising Angel and the kids with it, since I did it on the spur of the moment while noone was there.

Angel's been ill with the flu off and on this week but she did make the effort to go into work yesterday for a half-day. I got to surprise her when I brought her back home at lunchtime. The kids got the surprise when they got home from school.

Last night, the kids and I went to church while Angel stayed home to recover. There was a brief service then a rehearsal for this Sunday's Christmas program at the church. We're also gearing up for First Light performing at the Operation Christmas Gift (OCG) program next Thursday evening here in Austin. OCG is sponsored by our church as a way to provide uplifting Christmas music and free gifts to underprivileged kids in Austin (and around the world) as well as a Christmas message of hope from our pastor. First Light has been performing at these events for the last several years, since it started actually, and this year, we were chosen to be the official entertainment for the event from now on (we're excited about that)!

This morning, I got munchy hungry before going to work but I didn't really feel like eating pasta so soon after breakfast, so I decided to try Ghetto Pizza! I made angelhair spaghetti yesterday with a doctored up version of Emilio's Mushroom and Onions spaghetti sauce (I don't recommend it, his Roasted Red Pepper spaghetti sauce is much better). I tend to add a lot of paprika and extra pepper to "my" sauces. I also add a pound of either ground beef or ground turkey, often cooked with onions and garlic (or this time, with sauteed onions and mushrooms) to the sauce (after draining the meat, of course). I used wheat bread, put a couple of tablespoons of sauce on each slice and topped each slice with 3 pepperoni pieces and toasted it on medium. The pepperoni was a very nice addition to the sauce, added some missing spice and distracted from the extreme tomato taste the original sauce has. It was also filling as promised (the meat may have had a little something to do with that, being loaded with seasoned ground turkey and pepperoni slices).

Well, I think I've said more than enough for now. Tomorrow's a new NITNF. I'll have to start looking for Christmas and holiday trivia! Should be fun...

Best Wishes,
Allen

Making The Transition To Blogger Beta



So yesterday, I got the mass email about Blogger Beta being ready for me to upgrade my blogs....so I thought to myself "Why not?" I've been curious about Blogger Beta for months. So I took the plunge -- and aside from having to reinstall one javascript code, it all worked well. In fact, I really like some of the new features!

It took me hours to apply "labels" to all 284 blog posts from the last (almost) 4 years but it was worth it. You can now view all of the Not In The News Fridays or all the videos or all of the non-dairy recipes, etc. In addition, it's much easier to write and edit blog entries. So, that's the reason for the subtle changes you may have noticed in the site.

Have a great weekend!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Not In The News Friday (NITNF)



NITNF will usually be a bit of trivia that I found interesting and thought you would like. It may be IR-related and it might not -- but should always be fun...or at least fascinating.

Today's NITNF is, well, a little silly. But that's okay, that's where we started with NITNF. It's a recipe, it does use dairy (cheese - although you could always use soy cheese, if you can find some that melts well) and it is fun and interesting! For our bit of trivia today, totally not related to anything IR, I give you:

Ghetto Pizza

Note from Cheap Eats Editor in 08.22.06 post: I don’t mean ghetto in any derogatory way...like, if you live in or near a sketchy neighborhood, I’m not saying this is the only type of food you would eat. In fact, you probably eat much better than me...

Warning - extremely Cheap Eats up ahead. You may want to look away if you’re adverse to main meal recipes with only three ingredients.

If you were ever a hungry latch-key kid coming home from school, chances are you’ve made an afternoon snack like this before. I call it Ghetto Pizza, although maybe it should be called “Starving College Kid Pizza”. I happen to think this is quite good for lunchtime meals as well (as long as you eat other stuff with it, veggies would be nice!).

I actually wasn’t a latch-key kid until high school, but I still found occasion to make these every so often. The recipe is stupidly simple, has endless modifications, generally tastes “good” and can be fairly cheap as long as you don’t go putting any gourmet toppings on top.

We haven’t had a recipe on Cheap Eats in awhile, and I know that this doesn’t really count, but hey it’s cheap isn’t it? Here are the basics:

2 tbsp spaghetti sauce from a 26 oz. $2 jar — $0.07
1 slice of white bread — $0.10
1 slice cheese (mozzarella, swiss, etc.) — $0.15

optional pepper, dried oregano — negligible

Total: $0.32

If you can’t figure out how to make this, then I don’t know what to say. Put the sauce on the bread and cover with the cheese. Optional dried oregano and pepper on top. Put it in the toaster oven and toast it until the cheese is bubbly. That’s it.

You probably want to make a couple of these to fill you up. You couch potato guys, I’m talking to you…

Although this is pretty dumb and lame-easy to make, here are a few tips to making your Ghetto Pizza experience truly worthwhile.

Varying the type of bread can do wonders. I particularly like to use English Muffins as the base, because they are round like a mini-pizza, they have nooks and crannies where sauce can get into and because they have that extra crunch that normal toast doesn’t have. Another favorite is the Ghetto Pizza Bagels.



By the way, I know they have all these “mini-pizza” things you can buy in the frozen food section. I try and avoid those, because these are so easy to make.

If you’re REALLY hard up for sauce, well you can try using Ketchup. I can’t particularly stand Ketchup Ghetto Pizza though, there is just too strong of a taste to the sauce. I’ve tried mixing tomato sauce, tomato paste, and some herbs but it’s rather bland. The best sauce (other than making your own for cheaper) is the ready-made kind in a jar, about 26 ounces for $2 is the going rate. Probably cheaper on sale, and if generic.

The good thing is that you can store the jar in the fridge for a long time, and then just take a few scoops out for Ghetto Pizza as you need it. I like to get the sauces that have stuff in them, like Garlic and Mushrooms… that one works pretty well.

The cheese is probably the most expensive part of this equation. But you can easily get away with American Cheese on top, or even canned grated parm cheese. In the photos here, I had procurred a load of Swiss Cheese from the inlaws so that’s what I used. Mozzarella is of course the favored one, but I actually find it tends to pull off the bread easily since it’s so stretchy.

I find it tastes better to sprinkle some dried herbs and pepper on top. Use your imagination for other toppings… whatever you have leftover in the fridge will do.

A tip for putting this in the toaster. You may want to cover the grille with aluminum foil before making these, especially if the cheese is larger than the bread. Burnt cheese on the bottom of the toaster is kinda bad. Also, I like to use the “oven” setting because I find I need a longer toasting period on my crappy toaster to get the cheese nicely melted. Just don’t forget about it in the toaster or you’ll have a nice burnt mess.

For me Ghetto Pizza ranks right up there with the best Cheap Eats for people living at home… it is extremely cheap, uses readily available ingredients, can be used as hors d’oeuvres in a pinch, and doesn’t get boring if you vary the toppings. Why not make a few today in your toaster today? End Ghetto Pizza Commercial here…

Price: $0.32
Cheap Eats Score: 9/10

Source: Ghetto Pizza at Cheap Eats