Thursday, September 16, 2004
Speaking of Recipes…
This will be my entry for the next CotR, but I want to memorialize it here ASAP so I can’t lose the recipe again. This is the core version courtesy of my stepmother. I’ll add comments on my sister’s variation and serving suggestions below.
Finnish Pancakes
12 x 16 pan
Preheat oven 450
1 quart milk (I use 1 %)
4-6 eggs (large)
4 TBLS. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup flour
Mix all ingredients together. Brown 4 TBLS butter in 12 X 16 pan in oven. Watch it can burn quickly but do get it somewhat brown. Pour mixed ingredients over browned butter. Bake 20 minutes.
I actually bake @ 450 until it slightly golden, turn temp. down to 300 and than bake for a while. Shut oven off, leave in the warm oven overnight and reheat in morning in micro as people eat it.
I have never tried the overnight in the oven thing, but this dish is excellent for reheating in the microwave, as well as eating cold. As you might guess, it’s rather custard-like.
This can be eaten plain, with maple syrup, with jam, or whatever. You can increase the sugar and make it even better plain. My sister, as I recall, adds a little vanilla and/or cinnamon.
I made two batches for a “food day” at work several years ago. I didn’t have deeper pans handy, so I used two cookie pans that have high (for cookie sheets) sides, about 3/4 inch. Except for having to be careful not to spill it, that worked nicely. It went over very well.
Highly recommended. I’ve been eager to get this recipe, which I had lost, so I can make it for Deb to try.
Speaking of Facts…
Ian has a superb quote from Heinlein today. Damn facts! They ruin everything.
For instance, facts like these presented by Jim, bane to the Kerrys and Rathers of the world.
Speaking of Dogs… (Attention Atlanta!)
Speaking of dogs, some monster poisoned Gravy the beagle, who fortunately seems to be recovering. Sick people out there.
Meanwhile, did anyone lose a dog in the Atlanta area? Even if not, here’s advice for when you are on the finding side of things.
Carnivals
This is it! Last day to send entries to tomorrow’s Carnival of the Recipes. E-mail recipes.carnival(at)gmail(dot)com.
You have slightly longer for Carnival of the Dogs, which could really use more entries and more word of mouth. E-mail mickeym(at)comcast(dot)net.
Finally, for Carnival of the Capitalists you have until Sunday evening to send in your business and economics entries. E-mail capitalists(at)elhide(dot)com.
It Starts With Registering Early And Often
I have a personal anecdote that relates to James Joyner’s alert about the ease of multiple registrations to vote.
Once upon a time, I registered to vote in the town of Plympton. Then after some years there, I moved, then I moved again. At that time, I registered to vote in the town of Bridgewater. Then I moved, moved again, moved again, and moved back to the original address in Plympton. I actually did a couple elections worth of not bothering to register.
Thirteen years after I had moved out of that town, and a somewhat lesser time after I had last registered to vote in one of the intervening locations, I got around to registering again in conjunction with renewing my license. They make it so easy.
From my first election, in 1980, I had always registered independent, unenrolled or whatever they now call it when you want to be coy about admitting which party you are most likely to identify with. I generally voted for Republicans or Libertarians, and had for a few years been a card carrying member of the Libertarian Party before they achieved “permanent” ballot status in Massachusetts. Well, this time around, since it was now an available option, I figured what the heck, I’d be radical and actually register Libertarian.
When I received my confirmation, I got a huge surprise. It went in not as a registration, but as a change of party enrollment. I had remained registered to vote in that town all those years, overlapping my registration in one of the subsequent towns. I was shocked! I simply assumed that when you registered in one place, it was somehow communicated to the previous place, or that you got removed from the rolls if you no longer showed up on the yearly town census.
New Meme Alert: FiskFest!
Katie is starting FiskFest, which will be a carnival collection of the week’s best fiskings. I am not known for fiskings, but I believe many people will be interested, so pass the word along and see this post for the necessary submission details.
The Night They Drove Dan Rather Down
The original got overplayed when it was a hit on the radio, but that makes it no less excellent when applied to old Dan. Great job by Eric.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Happy Birthday
To my oldest nephew, Ryun, father of my three adorable grandnieces.
We’ve told Sadie this would be a fine day for her to come out.
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
September 14 Ultrasound
[Originally published to the old baby blog.]
I have been remiss about scanning and posting ultrasounds of late. Not that you are missing a huge amount, as it is increasingly difficult to get clear ones. She’s dropped way down where she’s hard to see.
This is from September 14, a front view. It’s hard to see here, but I think on the print it looks like her face is under the surface of water, and her fingers are poking above the surface. Click for a larger version.
Fascinating.
I really feel like I should have something interesting to say about currents and airflow and topography and patterns and such, but all I really want to do is point out that this is a cool map:
It’s like that today.
No Comment
I seem to be in a non-posting mood today, instead feeling like commenting over at BusinessPundit, where there are a few interesting posts in a row, and on this post at OTB™.
I am wondering how many bloggers have gotten recent offers to buy or emportalize their blogs. I would think this would make the most sense for blogs with distinct topical focus and/or high existing traffic.
Perhaps my mood will change, or at least I can fake it by posting photos. We went to Plymouth Sunday, as you might have gathered from some of the previous pictures, and I still have ones to post from August 29 as well as Sunday.
Monday, September 13, 2004
Mmmm… Cookies
I was poking around the musty old stuff on one of my hard drives when lo and behold, I found recipes I got from my stepmother. No sign of the Finnish pancake recipe I really want to make for Deb, but this is one of my favorites…
Jam Creamettes
2 ¾ cups flour
½ cup heavy cream
confectioners sugar
dash salt
1 cup soft butter
red jam or jelly
Mix flour, salt, and butter and cream well. Chill several hours or overnight.
Remove dough and let soften about ½ hour. Roll out ½ dough on board sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar to about 1/8” thick. Cut into strips and than squares. Drop small amount of jam or jelly and fold opposite corners.
Bake 350 degrees for 8 minutes ungreased cookie sheet.
Note: use small amounts of jam/jelly or cookies will open as they bake.
They are amazingly yummy and addictive, IMHO.
Way, way, way too cute:
And if cute isn’t enough, we also have confirmation that we enjoyed our wedding night:
Gah. This cutesy crap is addictive. I’m going to go wash my mind out with soap now.
Pajamas?
No thanks. We don’t wear them…
We’re Number Seven!
Heh. We are number seven when Googling for Jeff Soyer.
Why are people suddenly Googling for Jeff (not to be confused with Dialing for Dollars)? Probably because his name was mentioned in a silly article about how Andrew Sullivan makes no money from blogging, so certainly no other bloggers ever do or will. Since Deb and I could live comfortably on what Sully makes blogging, which is significantly more than we make in real life, I declare it nonsense.
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Pajama Power
Most excellent. John Fund accurately covers the role of blogs in exposing Rathergate, in Opinion Journal today.
A Flag In Plymouth
There is a flag that is, I noticed after I took the picture, part of a veteran’s memorial along Water Street in Plymouth, in front of Village Landing. Deb pointed out how it glowed from the sun off behind it at just the right angle, and we made sure I got a picture. Two, in fact.
This is dedicated to everyone working to make the world a better, happier, more sanely governed, safer place, thereby making the United States more secure going forward.
Click each image for a larger (800 wide) version in a new window. Click the link below each image if you’d like the full, original shot taken with the camera.
Carnival of the Capitalists Is Up
The September 13 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists is up at d-42.com. Go there for a head start on the week’s inspirational readings in heartless oppression. Or something like that.
Memorial
This one is dedicated to John.
Avast!
This one is for Ith and Nin. Arrrrrh.
This One’s For CBS and Dan Rather
And of course for those planning to vote for Kerry, who are also apparently “gull"-ible.
Sad News
Chris Muir is suspending Day By Day indefinitely, for family reasons. We wish him well and hope to see his return sooner rather than later. Certainly rather than not at all.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
September 11, 2001
I may or may not post any further commentary besides this. I, too, remember it vividly, and was changed forever by it.
Actually, for commentary here’s what I wrote about my 9/11/01 memories last year:
I got up and fired up the computer per usual. I checked e-mail, probably wrote or replied to some. Basically seeing if anything from clients is in and needs to be addressed.
Then I hit the Internet Explorer button, bringing up my home page of MSNBC. There it was, “breaking news,” the picture of the first tower after it had been hit. I didn’t immediately think of terrorism as I should have, but really my first thought after “oh my God!” was “this must be on TV.” I literally ran to the living room and clicked on NBC. As usual, I flicked back and forth between channels, but largely I watched the Today show at first, where Katie was talking and speculating as they aimed the camera at the tower, with not a great view of the damage to the first one. Remember too, initially nobody had video of the first plane hitting, and it was a scramble.
I was glued to the TV. Then I saw the second plane come along and ghost into the other tower live as it happened. That is when I knew it was terrorism. Everyone did.
For me, not having family in the military or in the area, it wasn’t as personal as for some people. But it was still an attack on my country.
I have to say, I couldn’t get enough of seeing the planes crash, of seeing the towers collapse, of seeing the scene on the ground. On some level it’s like the thrill of watching a hurricane in action; sort of a rush. At the same time, I was angry. I was sad. Seeing it over and over, eating up all I could, fed and intensified that feeling, and that was what I wanted to feel. I was very much in “make the Middle East a parking lot” mode. Then of course there was the desire to get every detail of every event and every nuance, as soon after it was available as possible. I think the thing that really got me was the collapse. I was imagining too vividly being stuck in the building when that happened.
In addition to TV, I kept running to the computer, attempting to see what was on the web, but mainly going on a newsgroup or two, refreshing regularly, seeing what was posted by people all over the country. Usenet performed well that day. While I was at it, I kept e-mailing the receptionist at my big client, seeing what was up there, and reporting to her what I saw breaking on TV, such as when the towers each collapsed, keeping her up to date. The rest of the office pretty much ended up huddled around the TV, which was moved from the 2nd floor break room to the large conference room on the 3rd floor where more people could see it. Then most people went home early. I think they officially closed early and even the receptionist went home.
It wasn’t until after noon that I remembered I had a VCR and blank tapes. Duh. Had I been thinking, I’d have been recording from the time I first tuned in. So I recorded more than 8 hours of mostly repetitious footage which, despite not being able to get enough the first day or two, I have never watched again except right after, enough to tell that it recorded okay.
I remember how much pure speculation there was. There were four planes hijacked, no, five. Airforce One was a target. The White House was a target. No they weren’t. It was a mess, in a way, but we needed as much as fast as we could get it, and it got corrected and updated along the way until it was an accurate picture.
I remember being impressed with the fact that every channel was carrying the news, from some affiliate or another. I don’t have cable, but I normally get at least 12 channels watchably. One is always a shopping channel. One is a shopping channel that at night shows movies dubbed in Spanish. Those had news. I could actually watch CNN on broadcast TV; amazing. Even for the most important stuff, there are usually holdouts. This wasn’t merely important; it was world changing. I knew that… probably about the time of the first collapse.
The day wasn’t for me what it was for some people, but I will sure as hell never forget it, starting with seeing that picture on MSNBC and running for the TV. I cried and cried all day. I get very emotional that way, and have too much empathy. Then I would start crying again those first days afterward, every time I saw a flag, and especially masses of flags. Same thing when all the pictures of spontaneous gatherings of mourners paying tribute all over the world appeared.
And I was angry. Out for blood. I still can’t imagine anyone in this country blaming us for the attack, or thinking our response was too strong.
Finally, more pictures:
Medical Update
Yesterday the doctor’s office called with the titration results for the CPAP from the sleep study. Ironic, as this time around I expected the next place I heard from about it to be the place that services and sells the equipment.
They basically left it entirely in my hands from here on out, as to locating and getting a home health services place to do business with me. In this area, the company I originally was contacted by seems to be the company in the business, so I probably don’t have much choice.
The setting is 8 cm. See how easy that was? $2700 worth of testing to establish that little number, in the days when there exist CPAP machines that set themselves based on cues they measure (he types, having Googled and noticed this in an effort to learn how to set the traditional CPAP machine himself).
But it gets better! The CPAP has a sticker on the bottom indicating the current setting. Yep, it’s already at 8 cm.
Sigh…
Blog Down But Not Out
Peoria Pundit is having temporary hosting problems and is currently blogging at his backup site. This will probably be for the weekend and not much beyond.
Typographic Wonkery
Via Andrea, a superlative analysis of the typeface issues in the Rathergate forgeries.
Friday, September 10, 2004
Frank Martin
He’s a very brave man. Stay tuned to his blog for a full book fisking of Kerry’s The New War, an obscure 1997 book on… terrorists.
Carnival of the Recipes Is Up
The Glittering Eye has the latest Carnival of the Recipes today for your culinary indulgence.
Fractured Traffic
In the middle of the night I was up and wandered to the computer for a “few minutes” to see if there was continuing material on Rathergate (my favorite “gate” name for the scandal so far).
I noticed that Power Line, the eye of the hurricane on this (think of the Free Republic comment as the butterfly flapping), had been linked by everyone. Multiple times, in some cases. Even Drudge, Sully, and a mainstream article or two.
I know it’s a huge rush to see the crush of traffic you get just from an Instalanche, or from a bunch of blogs linking a post as happened to Deb. In that case blogs like Tim Blair demonstrated their power to generate traffic.
So I just had to look at Power Line’s Site Meter to get a vicarious thrill. Figured yesterday had to be good for hundreds of thousands of hits, potentially. I alone went there many times.
It turned out they weren’t using Site Meter. Now, Site Meter is hopelessly inaccurate, but it’s sort of the gold standard for cross-blog or day to day comparison, and ease of use. It always seems odd when a blog lacks it, and just as odd when it’s not public. It’s always possible to use Site Meter as well as one of the presumably more accurate hit counters.
Be that as it may, I checked what was there, eXTReMe Tracking. To my surprise, this page only showed 47,800 hits for the 9th. A lot, but fewer than double the previous day. Huh?! Where are the possibly hundreds of thousands of hits, server crushing volumes, that I anticipated seeing?
Aha! Most of the links were to individual posts. Power Line has made the classic new blogger mistake of not putting their Site Meter eXTReMe Tracking code in their individual post page to get a real traffic count.
Let this be a cautionary tale to new bloggers everywhere.
Why is it important? Isn’t this just being anal or going overboard for traffic bragging rights? Not if you ever have any notion of hosting advertising, pitching and pricing it based on your real traffic. If for no other reason, such as blog to blog comparability. For instance, if we get 450 a day average, and another blog gets 200 a day average but lacks counter code on post pages, we may not really be ahead of them in traffic volume.
Did You Know…
Loud music can collapse a lung?