Christopher Avery Sherwin

The White house has apparently proudly announced that 650,000 jobs where saved or created by the 150 BILLION dollar stimulus.

Now let us completely ignore the claims that some of the jobs counted where temportay in cases lasting only a week. I have no personal substanciation of these claims, so let us take the white house # in good faith.

Now according to wikipedia the USA has approximately 300 Million people. Lets put these number next to each other for comparison.

Jobs: 650,000
Population: 300,000,000
Stimulus: $150,000,000,000

Now lets get some ratios

people/Job ~450
Dollars/person ~$500
Dollars/Job ~$230,000

Yeah, I think the Lotto has better returns.

Ladies - you may wish to consider the implications of your lowcut blouse before going for a bike ride...

The announcement brought to you by summer weather, current fashion trends, and navels displayed thru cleavage....

You have been transported back in time to Medieval Europe. You are missing the foods you had access to in the here and now. In particular you are craving BBQ, what do you do?

(There are lots of variations on BBQ in America, so to be clear you are craving meat flavored the sweet-spicy-tomato based sauce available in the condiment aisle)

There are no chilies.
Pepper is rare.
There is no refined sugar.
There is no tomato.

So can you come up with something that will satisfy your craving? Remember only items that would have been available in Europe. (for simplicity if it was reasonably available in anywhere in Europe you have access to it, bonus points if all your ingredients would have been readily available in a single location.)

SO I made it down to Georgia for the end of Newt and the Kids' trip to see her parents. I realized it was the first time I had made it to Atlanta since my youngest brother-in-law graduated from High-school (and he has been out of college for a while now..)

So it was good to see family, and be down there. While I was there two important aquisitions where made, that upon reflection absolutely should not be mixed...

Newt's grandfather is in the stage of getting rid of things he no longer uses. I had completely forgotten an item he says he had promised to get to me, but it had never been convenient to transport before. He was going to be in Georgia, and Newt drove down so we had a car, so he figured now would be a good time. So I now own a Table Saw. I could never have justified buying one, but given that I have one I just need to figure out some uses. He had a really nice setup, with a custom made wood extension to make the table larger. Also it comes with a half-inch bit router with a mounting point for it. Much capacity for producing copius amounts of sawdust....

The other aquistion was made while we stopped in Kentucky on the way back. We passed some distilleries, and I decided to try some quality aged bourbon. I got Elijah Craig 18 year. I have sipped it a couple times, and I am still trying to decide if I like it. I can tell it is smooth and has nice overtones, so I can taste the quality, I am still trying to decide if I like Bourbon, or at least can aquire a taste for it.

Newt is out of town with the kids and so I am left on my own for food. She left yesturday, I leave Friday, and Today is diet day. That means I have two days of interesting eating (Tues and Thur).

Tuesday Lunch - Steak Sandwich
*a cross between a cheesesteak and roast beef sandwich-
*Sub-loaf bread
*Sandwich steak
*Portabella mushrooms
*sliched onion
*cheeze wiz
*horseradish sauce
*Honey Mustard
I fried the onion, mushrroms and steak together then placed with other ingredients on sliced sandwich rolls. Was good, but lacked a zip I waned. I have another for Thursday, may add hot-pepper relish.

Tuesday Dinner - Bbq salmon
Salmon
* single serving Salmon filet, rest in freeser
* bbq sauce
Ginger rice
* 1/2 cup white rice
* large can mushrooms
* Prepared ginger (tsp?)
Dip for Artichoke
* Mayo
* Sourcream
* sundried tomatoe
* garlic powder
* basil
I put the rice incredients in the rice cooker, and turned it on. Not enough ginger, otherwise good. I then set the artichoke (baby) to boil, let it boil the entire time the rice was cooking. I then mixed up the dip. The new garlic powder is stronger then i expected, and overwhelmed, to bad. For the Salmon I had treated with BBQ rub in the morning and put back in fridge. Now I coated in sweet bbq sauce, and got my iron skillet to max heat. I put some seseme oil on it and put the salmon on the skillet, couple minutes a side. Was nice a crisp on the outside (particularly the skin side) and rare on the inside, Not bad.


Thursday lunch - second sandwich from Tuesday

Thursday Dinner- Carnitas tacos
* Stew pork
* Poblano pepper
* Chihuaha chees con/Jalapano
* Corn tortillas
* black refried beans
* cilantro
* sour cream?
PLan - vein the poblan, put ste pork in it, set it on low in crock pot all day. When I get home melt chees, and heat up beans. when ready, get meat and poblano out of crock pot, shread meat, and dice the pobalno, then mix. Heat tortillas, put some meat, cheese, and cilantro in each, garnish with sour cream. Put tacos and beans on place, top bean with remaining cheese...


I think bacheloring it does mean the same thing for me (food wise) it stereotypically means ;)

Yeah, I know valintines day was a week ago, so was this dinner. I am just taking forever to post this. So Newt and I have decided not to go out to eat on Valentine's Day. We try to have a date sometime around there, but this year I decided to cook a special dinner for us. I am wirting this as much to keep a record for future memory as to share it...

There were three parts to this dish:
(I made this up as a went, both when walkiing thru the grocery store and while cooking it)

Manicotti:
ingredients:
14 Manicotti shells - boiled till al-dente
1 small package ricotta cheese
1 package rolled prosciutto and mozarella
2-3 tbs sugar
1-2 Tbs Tucsan Sunset seasoning (from Penzies(R))
directions:
slice the prosciutto/Mozarella roll into 28 thin slices, place two into each manicotti
Mix ricota sugar and herbs, spoon into the manicotti
Place manicotti on a cookie sheet and put in the oven around 200 to melt chees and keep it warm.

Red Sauce:
ingredients:
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1/3-1/2 of package of goat cheese (I know real specific, it was a roll about 1 1/2" diameter and 6" long)
3-4 Tbs sugar
1/3 large package of fresh basil - stemmed and ripped into bite size pices
dash of Tobasco:
directions:
Mix ingredients over low to mid-low heat, and let simmer while preparing rest of meal

Meat & Mushrooms:
Ingedients:
1 1/2 lbs itallian sausage, lose no casings
1 package sliced portabella mushrooms
1 red bell pepper - 1/2" pieces
1 small sweet onion - sliced
rest of package of basil - stemmed and bite size pieces
directions:
coat bottom of pan with sausage, cover with mushroom, onion, and bell pepper. Cover and heat of medium heat to cook the sausage and steam everything else. after about 5-10 minutes, when sausage is looking cooked, stir and sautee together. When looking done, turn off heat, mix in basil, and cover.

Final Presentation:
Place two manicottis on a plate at an angle to each other. Plase a heartying serving of meat & Mushrooms between the Manicotti. Spoon read sauce on top of the Manicottis and the Meat. Top with a couple slices of goat cheese. Serve.

Ideas for next time:
Try unrolling the prosciutto/Mozarello and cutting strips to place in the manicotti.
Instead of using sliced portabello get caps, and cook them whole. Server the meat and mushrroms by placing a whole cap on the plate and placing a mixture of the rest on top of it.

The man has seemed almost as slick as Daley, except if he really was half as good as a Daley at dodging controversy we wouldn't have been so sure he was involved in other incidents...

but now he has got himself caught.

Blagojevich is in trouble for demanding a kick-back for appointing President-Elect Obama's choice for filling his now vacant senate seat. Also in the article are quotes from the taped phone conversation he is busted on, and in it he is less then respectful of the President-Elect.

Now I was no supporter of Obama for president, and I have concerns about what he will do in that role, but I was absolutely disgusted by the language used and lack of respect that Blagojavich showed for our President-Elect. I mean no infringement on free-speech here, and people are free to speak how they want without legal consequence, but I question whether it is appropriate for even a citizen to refer to a President/President-Elect like that and I find it absolutely awful in an elected leader.


In the end I am just glad he got caught before he succeeded in this intended abuse of power, and did so in such a clear fashion that he will be out of office finally. Maybe we can replace him with a governor that won't be guilty of corruption, that would be novel.

So Newt and I have long been ambivalent about Halloween. We have fond memories of dressing up and trick-or-treating as children, getting stomach aches from under regulated candy stashes... On the other hand we have seen the costumes and decorations and the proliferation of both change directions in our lifetimes. Where things were once cute and colorful now they are gory and dark. Were the was once a childish innocence, there is now corruption and evil.

This contrast has been exacerbated in our community. We live in a fairly safe near-chicago neighborhood with a lot of single family homes and duplexes on chicago standard lots (25 feet across) this means it has a high density of accessible doors for trick-or-treating. We have a lot of children living in our neighborhood and even more are brought by on Halloween by the van load (because we are safe and accessible.

We long ago decided that to completely absent ourselves from Halloween for religious reasons would send the wrong message and would most hurt the children that most resemble our found memories of Halloween. So we decided to always hand out candy. Our children have come to understand the concept of trick-or-treating and for the last year or two have asked go themselves. We have allowed this (and taken them on a walk of just are block -not the whole neighborhood. Most of all we have decided to be okay with this.

We feel we would rather be an example of the 'good' Halloween rather then absent ourselves from it entirely because of the 'bad'. In that vein we have decided that this year we would hand out full-size candy bars rather then the smaller treat size. We decided to do it this year because in part because we found a really good price on bars in bulk.

The debate I am under is in the past were Newt and I have discussed the possibility of giving out full-size bars, we have also talked about handing out Christian pamphlets also known as tracks with them. Particularly if we could find a good halloween themed track and one that talks about God's generosity then it would synergize well with the large Candy bar.

So here is my internal debate. Is it appropriate (not legal or do I have the right) to hand religious literature to children many of whom are very young? On the one hand I believe in respecting the parents right to regulate what children are exposed to until they are ready to discern on their own. On the other hand a track is much less invasive then an active attempt to evangelize, it is a presentation of information, not an active evangelism. I have tried asking myself how would I feel about someone else handing MY children a track for beliefs that contradict my own. My internal response seems to be that it doesn't bother me. I think it would present an opportunity for discussion with my children about why we believe differently then the beliefs portrayed in the track. I mitigate this view with the understanding that not everyone reacts the way I do. I also think I would react differently if the track was pornographic or was directly attacking my belief system "Christians are evil because ..." etc., but we would not be handing out tracks that were like that rather ones that presented our point of view. Further in favor of the tacks being okay is that parents should be screening what the child brings home, and if it really bothers them they can just throw it out. For the parents that don't screen I honestly believe they give up any right to object, and given that people of other faiths could be handing out tracks too (a right I support even if I end up not choosing to exercise it), I would rather those unshielded children receive my track also...

So I am asking people of different beliefs "What do you think?" "Is it appropriate?" and if it isn't appropriate what else can we do to be an active force in fighting the dark tone Halloween has taken and to appropriately express our beliefs?

What is it with Hotels and Man hating toilets? Does no-one think to screen for this anywhere?

What is a man hating toilet? A Man hating toilet is one when you prop the seat up, it doesn't stay up. The particularly nasty ones make you think they are going to stay up and then *WHAM* it isn't up anymore. At least most hotels have toilets with seats that are split in the front, that way when the evil, nasty, tricksy, toilet seat falls in the dark in the middle of the night it is startling, and you might get the seat a bit wet, but it usually isn't as painful as it could be...

... or in this case BANG.

I did well on it...

129 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

 For some reason I am feeling the need to rant about toilet etiquette.  In truth their is no recent event to have sparked this, I just sort of started thinking about it.  I want to talk about seat up vs down debate.


1. I am not talking about the situation where you have an actual lid for the toilet and have a rule that when ANYONE finishes the lid should be closed.  I like this rule, we use it at home.  I am talking about either situations where their is no lid or where the rule applies only to the seat not the lid.

2.  So the situation is this:  Most of the time a male uses the toilet he needs the seat up, but everytime a woman uses the toliet she needs the seat down.  Many (mostly women) advocate a household rule or etiquette that when anyone is done with the toliet the seat should be left down.

OKay now my responce.  This is a stupid, anti-male rule that creates more work.  If there is no lid, or if no one cares about the lid the rule should be leave it as you used it.  Why?  lets compare some scenarios:

1.  The toliet was last used seat down, and the next user needs it seat down.
# times seat is moved:
Always down rule: 0
Leave it rule: 0

2. The toilet was last used seat down, and the next user needs it seat up.
# times seat is moved:
Always down rule: 1
Leave it rule: 1

3. The toilet was last used seat up, and the next user needs it seat down.
# times seat is moved:
Always down rule: 1
Leave it rule: 1

4. The toilet was last used seat up, and the next user needs it seat up.
# times seat is moved:
Always down rule: 2
Leave it rule: 0

Under the fourth scenario the seat gets moved twice, but it didn't need to be moved at all!  This is extra work.  The counter argument "Well that is the rarest scenario, so it isn't important."  However, under no scenario is the always down rule better, so it is significant.

The only reason I can think of to prefer the "always down rule" is that women think they should never have to move the seat, which is inherently biased against men, and therefor distasteful to me.  (not because I am a male, but because of my fair mindedness.

I have come across the argument "If a women doesn't look first, and the seat is up, it is rather unpleasant." True it would be (and would be for a man trying to sit too), so look first, problem solved.  "A woman shouldn't have to look first"  Really, then neither should I, and if you think sitting down with the seat up is unpleasant, wait till you try to sit with the seat down, when I didn't check first the last time I used it...


So I say if there is a lid, great have a rule that the lid should always be down, it looks nicer and is equitable.  But if there is no lid there should be no rule about having to put the seat down, it the responsibility of every person to look at the toilet before the use, and change it first.

So yesterday was Mothers' Day, and I cooked a special meal for zathrus as the mother of D, T and J she needs some pampering.  For that special meal I made 2 T-Bones (they might have been Porterhouses, the butcher seemed a little lax in their lableing).  To cook these two 1.25 lbs (a piece) monsters a tried an experiment.  Usually I cook steaks outside on a grill, but my Gas grill is broken and I didn't feal like hassling with my charcoal grill, so I tried something different.  I used a pancake griddle.  Yes, an electric-pancake griddle, and it worked!  
"
Now to be fair what we have is a bit excessive in the electric griddle arena.  It is about 19" x 15" of cooking surface and has an adjustable cooking temperature from 200 to 400.  So here is what I did for the steaks:

Rubbed both sided of each steak with Penzy's 4-s (seasoned salt) and shallot pepper seasoning.
Left them to set and reach room temperature.
For the griddle I had some bacon grease from bacon I had fried for the salad and baked potatoes.
Let the griddle reach 400 degrees
spread bacon greese on griddle
Placed steaks on griddle for 5 minutes
Poored a little red wine behind the steaks so it ran under them
flipped steaks, 5  more minutes on new side
Now the steaks where rare, and I set them aside to equillibrate while I made the topping.

Now for the steak topping is where the electric griddle really shinned.
1 red onion thinly sliced (I love my mandolin)
Sliced portabella, sliced baby bella, and shitake mushrooms
several WHOLE cloves of garlic
a stick of butter (did I say this was healthy)
a healthy sprinkling of paprika
several splashes of red wine

I basically spread out all the parts incredients on the griddle and let them cook, flipping/stirring occasionally.
I think the biggest problem was the garlic was underdone, either I need to cut them into pieces next time, or I need to let them cook with the steak, which could be a really good idea.

Just sharing the success and thoughts, and keeping a record for the future.

 We signed our refinance today.  They keep coming up with new ways to nickel and dime you to death on the fees.  I sure am glad that this is a fixed rate with a very good rate, so I don't need to go through this again.

So in large building the appropriate practice for Tornado Safety is to gather in the stair wells.  So I want to know who the idiot was who put skylights at the top of the stair wells in the building I am in.

Yes, I had to go to the stair well because of a tornado warning.  No, no tornado hit us.  No, I did not get hurt.  Yes, I did get a bit wet from the hail and rain that was dripping in through holes in the skylights.  
 
Edit:

It turns out that the building does not have an intended skylight.  What it does have is a roof access panel at the top of the stairs.  Or should I say it DID have one.  Now it has a glassless skylight.

Exercised Yesturday and Today.

Yesturday upper body, today lower body.   I didn't get to the abs either morning.

There are times when I feel enrgized by exercising, this is not one of them.  I feel like I could go to sleep.

Heard this the other day, our recruiter on the phone talking to a headhunter -  "But I need someone who can speak english, you know, very good."

I had to walk over to my director's office, shut the door and share the laugh with him.

 Did the Lower body today, took to long to get going to do the abs.
Did alright on this one, still having real trouble with lunges, and endurance in general.

 I won!

Almost three years ago I looked at the rates, and decided to get a 3 year arm, at 4.625% because the fixed rates where so much higher and I figured I could absorb some future risk for current benefit.  basically I expected to be makeing more now then I was then, so my ability to cover cost would be better now, so pushing risk to the future was a good idea.  I was very comfortable with this 3 years ago.

For last 6 months my comfort has been getting less and less.  I saw where index rates where, and realized just how much my mortage could go up by, and realized I had gotten to used to my lower rate.  My situation was better able to handle said costs now, but I just wasn't happy with the risk anymore.  So I started looking at refi options again.  I could get myself another ARM, to reduce risks for a few more years, or I could get a fixed rate loan.  Strange thing that recently fixed rates have been lower then ARMs.  In fact I was able to swing a 15 year mortgage and just locked in a rate of 4.875%!  30 years are going at 5.75% and ARMs are mostly north of 6%.

I find it hard to imagine that fixed rates (at least 15 year) have much lower they can go, at some point banks would stop being interested in loaning money, to little a return.  So even if the fed lowers their rates that should not impact fixed rates much, but should impact ARMs and short terms.

I so won,  I am extremely relieved, I have a god low cost loan, with very little risk.

Current Mood: bouncy relieved

So I exercised this morning!

Until yesturady afternoon we had a large number of books on the bedroom floor making Exercise difficult.  Also J has been sick, and rather miserable, reducing energy and motivation.

This morning we got up, Newt tried to exercise, and got some in, but J was not a happy camper, so she had to sit out a lot.

I tried anyway and got through an upperbody workout, with only minimal sitting out.  I really need to work up to doing full sets of pushups, my biggest single weakness.

Here is to completing this week.