The chili was more liquid than I wanted - almost filled the saucepan - so I left it on low and slow to reduce. So slow that I fell asleep, actually, and then woke at 2AM to find my chili reduced by about 3 cups and getting burned on the bottom. It was fortunately salvageable, but the clean-up this morning took some work. A nice half cantaloupe for breakfast, a scramble dog wrap and maybe a half-serving of chili for lunch, a banana to carb up, a second coffee because I just wasn't feeling the energy for ... (...more)

Seems Merona black A-shirts aren't a thing at Target anymore. Kind of a shame, because their "small" fit me just right as gym wear, whereas a Fruit of the Loom small might fit me less tightly than a sausage casing when I get my weight back down under the 171-173# inflection point. At this time, that stuffed-sausage look is not a good one for me. So with my heavier gym schedule I need to expand my supply of gym shirts. Unfortunately, FotL and Hanes do not package A-shirts in single colors. You will buy a... (...more)

A few weeks or so ago I noticed Flora 4-cheese tortelloni (not tortellini, whatever) at the Big Pubilx's half-price entryway displays. Aside from being half-price, they were sealed to store at room temp with a "best by" date six months off. And tortellini is comfort food. So, that was attractive. Comparing with Celantano frozen tortellini at $3.79 a bag, 4.5 servings per bag with 9g protein and 270 kcal per serving, and I'd split a bag into 2 meals. The Flora is $2.99 a package (full price), 3 servings... (...more)

Aside from VB.NET 2k2, it turns out this Canon CanoScan N650U scanner also never got Vista or Win7 drivers. XP drivers are not compatible, of course. So here's another use for my XP Mode VM. If you full-screen the VM window, in the title bar along the top there's a "USB" menu. Assuming the scanner is attached to the host, it will appear in the menu as an attachable device, and of course you have to attach it in the VM. The VM session will detect the new device, and from there you install drivers and sof... (...more)

Discarding a bunch of old media. Orphaned partial seasons of Farscape and Trailer Park Boys. The original FFXI install CD set plus CoP, ToAU, and WotG. If need be I have an "ultimate collection" install DVD around somewhere. An assortment of disc-burning software discs that were bundled with desktop optical drives, where desktops are firmly last decade's tech to me now. James Taylor's Greatest Hits, which Drunk Girl abandoned and which I find intolerably saccharine. The Jayhawks' "Tomorrow the Green Gra... (...more)