Cool again, and maybe not clear. National forecast says rain today but clear tomorrow. Yesterday ended up gorgeous blue sky and mild temperatures in the afternoon. And end in the mid 50sF. So we’ll see, but I’m guessing damp and cool.
I spent the morning yesterday messing around and experimenting with my sugar intake, thinking it might be my last day to play with my glucose monitor (think sugar crash). I spent the afternoon at the doctor and doing one pickup and a run through the grocery store before getting home.
HEB had prime sirloin steaks on sale for $5.99/pound. I bought all that they had that were big enough cuts. There were also a lot more yellow tags (in store discounts, yellow tags on the shelf) than there have been lately. Even my favorite bacon had a price reduction from 32c/oz to 30c/oz. There was a buy one get one promo on nice Lavazza espresso cans too. My bill was ~$350 with a coupon and markdown saving of $120. I used to be happy to save 15% of the total. It was a good shopping day.
BTW, that broke the streak. I think it was 10 or 12 weeks without buying meat, other than one pork butt. Freezer meat for the win. I just wish there were some other cuts on sale besides the sirloin, but it’s a tasty cut.
Today I’ve got a couple of pickups to do, and I want to look at another church event space for my non-prepping hobby. The president picked one near his house, but it’s a 25 minute drive for me, vs our old location (7-10) and the new potential locations (<5 minutes.) I'm selfish enough to want my trip to stay short, but I'll present to the group and the board and hopefully the group will decide to stay in my neighborhood. Yeah selfish. Don't care. I also feel like if I could get two locations with minimal effort, wtf is up with no one but the president finding even one for consideration? Volunteer orgs run on the 10% who do everything. So, my prep is stocking the freezer, and building community. Stack something of your own. n
Thursday. Good morning!
Agree 100% with Nick about the 10% who run volunteer organisations. The rest are just along for fun.
I am giving serious thought to withdrawing from my volunteer work for the shooting club for that reason. There are two, maybe three, people who keep the show on the road, of whom I am one. If I go, the club will cease. Bah.
On a happier note, the Baker had tartiflette sandwiches again this morning, and W1 is not at home to snaffle mine, so I am enjoying an early lunch of tartiflette sandwich, honey-mustard gherkins and pickled onions. Sublime!
@denis, that sandwich sounds like gustatory heaven. Bacon makes everything better!
———–
55F and wet. D1 is sleeping in. She’s been under the weather for a few days. Since her visit to her friend at college basically. I told her that kissing boys would make her sick, but she doesn’t seem worried…
I’m going to try for a breakfast today that doesn’t spike my blood sugar, because I have a lot of driving to do.
We’ll see how that goes. Dr wrote me a prescription for 6 sensors and gave me a sample, so that is 14 weeks of monitoring. I should be able to figure stuff out in that time. BTW, my co-pay was $250 and there was a note on the receipt that the manufacturer kicked in $350 in prescription cost help. Not a discount or sale price. Some kind of pricing funny business I guess.
Time to get kid 2 out the door.
n
This. There’s an organization here responsible for “tourism”, although we are not a big tourist destination. The board of 7 people meets regularly – I suspect to grab a beer – because the organization does nothing much. The organization has plenty of money, because they get a small fee from every overnight rental anywhere in town. Their bank account is flush.
A friend and I came with a couple of ideas of what they could do. Some of this is stuff that we do anyway, privately, but really ought to be under their umbrella. Our suggestions were shot down instantly, I suspect because no one on the board wants to invest any real effort.
However, they made a fatal mistake: they want us to replace two of the existing board members. From a position inside the organization, it will be harder to ignore us.
Went by the drugstore yesterday to pick up 90 day supply of icosapent ethyl ( prescription-strength, highly purified omega-3 fatty acid) – fancy fish oil. Been using it 12 years. Three bottles of 120 pills – 4 a day. $389 she says – no I says you went with the Medicare Plan and this is filled with Good RX like I always do here. $129. Ya think there really is room for drug pricing reform?
Filed my taxes yesterday with TurboTax. The return was accepted about an hour later by the IRS. I expect to have my small refund in the CU by Monday.
Having the ability import my investment information, stock sales, dividends, tax exempt, etc. from Ameriprise is really a nice option. I used to have to enter the information manually and it was a tedious process. Now with a couple of mouse clicks, entering some codes from Ameriprise, and all that stuff gets imported. Makes schedule D much easier, and most importantly accurate, having suffered from making a couple of mistakes one year.
It insane that filing income tax should be so complicated. My return is 15 pages that have to be filed. The return I keep for my records, which is all the forms, is 85 pages of information, a lot of that supporting documentation. I also have to keep the copy of my bank statements for my VA back pay as that was used to increase my sales tax deduction even though the VA money is tax free on all levels.
I also print out reports from Quicken that show all the transactions for each given deduction taken; medical, donations, etc. and keep those with my tax records. I need to have that supporting documentation as I was able to itemize this year.
What I don’t know how to do is the property tax. I did pay my property taxes in 2025, the full amount. I got my rebate check from the state for being disabled but it was for this year. For 2026 my property tax bill will be reduced, and I will only pay the reduced amount. Do I report the rebate check as income? Will the state send me a 1099? Will the state send a 1099 for the amount of the reduced property taxes? That would not be fair as I will not be able to itemize next year and the 1099 would be excess income. Or do I just ignore it and be happy?
@ray, you left out “get professional advice”. That would be my advice.
—-
63F and sunny with a clear blue sky. That’s a surprise. I’m about to finish my breakfast and start driving around for my errands.
—-
Trans kid, mental health issues, history of police interaction, ‘sat alone in the corner’, it all sounds like looking for attention. What was his home life like? Dad? Someone should have gotten the kid help and playing along with his delusions isn’t help.
n
Department of Redundancy Department alert.
You left out growing up in Boonies Canada.
That part of BC looks like a long day’s drive from Vancouver.
Nah, I am fairly good with the IRS stuff.
A lot will depend on what documentation the state sends me. If a 1099, then I include it on my income for 2026. Talking with another veteran who gets the discount, there is nothing sent by the state in the form of tax documents for any rebate. It is as if it does not exist. Veterans benefits are not taxable and the state rebate on county and city taxes is considered a benefit. TN has no income tax which greatly simplifies things.
What I don’t know is that since I included the county and city property tax on my return for 2025, what happens to the rebate. I had to use the actual numbers that I paid in property taxes as my records must match and that was paid in 2025. The rebate arrived in 2026 which is the year when the money has to be accounted for. I suspect the money from the state will just be ignored.
Going forward, the state pays the country and city property tax on the first $175K of the property evaluation. The rest is left for me to pay. The bill I will get from the county and city is the reduced amount, not the full amount.
As for the IRS, I have been audited four times, and have proven myself correct all four times. One time I had placed the income on the incorrect form. The income had been reported. The clueless clodette at the IRS office said I had to pay the full amount in taxes. I told her no, left the office, and filed an amended return, which was accepted as correct.
The biggest issue I had was when the IRS said I did not report income from investments when I had. My records were correct, the IRS’ records were not. I went through three or four letters with the IRS disputing their claim and provided evidence. The IRS than said they needed to talk with me on the phone. I refused stating I wanted everything in writing. I then wrote and demanded a full, in-person, audit at the Knoxville IRS office. The IRS finally settled and somehow figured they owed me a few hundred dollars. I still think the IRS was incorrect according to my records. In their final letter some of the income was not included that should have been. But I had the letter so there would be no penalties or interest if the IRS was incorrect. That was eight years ago so that is no longer a concern.
I had lived here about three years when I got a letter from the IRS stating I owed $11K+ in back taxes for 1991. I knew that was blatantly incorrect. Eight pages of documents telling how the IRS was going to seize my property and what I could do to pay the debt. The final page had the information on how to dispute. On that page I found out the IRS had the wrong person based on the SSN. The IRS was just fishing for the person and just matched on the name hoping they would catch the person. I went to IRS office and had that seizure stopped. The clod in the IRS office never said the IRS made a mistake.
I never got an apology when the IRS mistakenly put a lien on our first SA house. All I got was a carbon “flimsy” releasing the lien.
Hopefully tRump/Successor will gut the IRS.
Google sent me an email saying I had a big spike in spam today. It blocked an additional 21 emails on top of the usual shitload of spam. I also got about 30 political emails that came through, no matter how many times I unsubscribe and drop them in the junk folder. I also got 5 emails from MyPillow and about 10 from various health insurance and loan consolidation places. I’m guessing since they all have Medicare or Social Security in the text, Gmail let them through. The MyPillow guy probably gets a list from the RNC for $$.
Politicians. I fucking hate ’em.
I didn’t even get that.
I was informed by a lawyer that when a tax lien is placed the property owner has a year to settle the taxes even after the property has been purchased. Once the lien is settled the buyer gets their money back.
The lawyer said I should have let the property be sold then sue the IRS for illegal property seizure. Yeh, right. Homeless for five years while the IRS takes their sweet time and the settlement is half what the property is worth. Really smart legal advice.
This is the same property that I financed five years after I purchased to get a new loan with the credit union and a lower rate. During that process I found out the $25.00 in property taxes that were due when the property was sold to me were not paid. That omission had now bloomed to over $75.00 with interest and penalties.
None of that was ever stated on the yearly tax bill. Nothing was stated by the mortgage company who paid the taxes. In fact, the past due amount was nowhere on the bill, just current taxes. The county’s response is that it is my responsibility to manage my tax liability and the county does not send any notices of past due. I contacted the title company, and they said they paid the taxes. How they knew without looking up the check I don’t know. The county says the taxes were not paid. For the title company to research their records and find the check would cost me $100.00 (if memory serves me correctly). If the title company was correct, I paid. If the title company made a mistake, then the fee was waived and the title company would pay amount due. It was a gamble, $50.00 versus $100.00. I let it slide and just paid the past due taxes. I personally suspect the county was the problem. Not informing the property owner is just a way for the county to get more money with penalties and interest.
I would like a federal sales tax. You buy it, you pay taxes. A flat 9.975% would be a good starting point. Exempt food, rent and medical. No more IRS (or just a shell of its former glory), no more tax lawyers, no more tax accountants, no more filing taxes, no more tax software (except maybe for businesses). H&R Block can become kitty litter.
As I stated earlier, I filed my taxes yesterday. Today there is an update to TurboTax. Scary when the tax software needs an update after already filing the taxes. Nothing changed that affected my refund so probably no effect on my taxes.
@brad
Don’t move too quickly and show your hand. Get on the committee first, then get two more so you have a majority.
Then radical concept: spend the money to benefit those paying.
No.
No, but if they did they would charge you a fee.
No.
No.
Yes.
NB: This is not legal or tax advice. I’m just blowing wind out my ass and if you see words the AI transcribed into something that looks like advice, ignore it–I was trying to play a Sousa march.
Mom was a gypsy that took the kid away from his father and thought psychedelic mushrooms were a treatment. Absent time travel a good shotgunning would leave the world a better place.
Another hacktivist judge:
Republican judge TORCHES Pete Hegseth in savage ruling after he threatened to strip senator’s rank: ‘Our veterans deserve more’
“I don’t like this, so I’m issuing an injunction…” He can’t overrule the UCMJ. It makes military law invalid. Any judge can then overrule a Court Martial.
tRump needs to take this to SCOTUS. As a commentator said, “Just because Kelly went to the ISS doesn’t make him a god…”
No, he didn’t. He and a bunch of his commie buddies shat out a seditious video on social media.
I have said many times that if you retire from the “regular” service, you serve at the pleasure of the President until you die. Kelly didn’t do this from the floor of the Senate, where you can lie to your heart’s content and be protected.
New York Seeks Rights for Beloved But Illegal ‘Bodega Cats’
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/02/12/new-york-seeks-rights-for-beloved-but-illegal-bodega-cats-n3811741
“I don’t have a cat. I have a pest control contractor.”
“JUST IN: Corrupt Judge Boasberg Orders Trump Admin to Return Venezuelan Illegals Deported Under Alien Enemies Act”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/just-corrupt-judge-boasberg-orders-trump-admin-return/
Hey Lurch, what part of NO do you not understand ?
Pearls Before Swine: I Dream Of Jeanie
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/02/12
Wow, that was fairly obvious to me around 50 years ago.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reportedly issued an official ban on debating the current gas crisis until the end of March in order to avoid negatively affecting the ongoing election campaigns.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/12/german-gas-crisischancellor-merz-allegedly-bans-gas-debate-ahead-of-elections/
So Germans running for office are not supposed to discuss the possibility that voters may freeze to death this winter? All izt okie-dokie, ja?
Monty: Future Companion Bots
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/02/12
What, do you think that future companion bots will be better than human companions ?
Just wait until they get their first scammer payload uploaded into them.
Will Roberts do anything? No, even though SCOTUS said it’s legal.
The DHS funding bill was blocked in the Senate. All (D)umbo’s voted No, except Uncle Festerman, with an assist by the usual RINOs. I understand ICE is funded. tRump should send them to DC.
The DHS funding bill was blocked in the Senate. All (D)umbo’s voted No, except Uncle Festerman, with an assist by the usual RINOs. I understand ICE is funded. tRump should send them to DC.
No, send ICE to Fort Bend County in Texas. I am wondering how many of the 200,000 Asians living in Fort Bend County are legal ?
I would like a federal sales tax. You buy it, you pay taxes. A flat 9.975% would be a good starting point. Exempt food, rent and medical. No more IRS (or just a shell of its former glory), no more tax lawyers, no more tax accountants, no more filing taxes, no more tax software (except maybe for businesses). H&R Block can become kitty litter.
I have been audited by the Great State Of Texas to make sure that my main software business was paying the sale taxes that we collected from our customers to the state. The auditor looked at three random invoices, compared them to their records, and walked out stating that we were clean. We send over $10,000 per year to the state for sales taxes.
I gathered from the auditor’s statements that many people cheat on their sales tax collections and payments. Sigh.
“EPA Administrator Zeldin: Trump admin. killing ‘Obama Switch,’ effectively ending automatic start-stop in new cars”
https://www.oann.com/newsroom/epa-administrator-zeldin-trump-admin-killing-obama-switch-effectively-ending-automatic-start-stop-in-new-cars/
My father hated the start-stop system with a passion. Me, not so much. But, it is a battery killer in my F-150 4×4.
I hate it too. I have it in muscle memory to turn it off every time I get into the car. Click the mode select button down one to sport mode (which disables auto stop/start even thought the button is still lit). I then turn off the button, which is on the the opposite side of the center console, for good measure.
Genies – Jinn’s – are demons, and demons like to keep their true name hidden.
The fact that a demon was embedded in our military and space program , and that USAF officers knew and didn’t report, it is very definitely a UCMJ matter.
“One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles)” by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/One-Fell-Sweep-Innkeeper-Chronicles/dp/1540857212?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number three of a six book paranormal fantasy romance science fiction series. I reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) illustrated (kinda) trade paperback published by CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform in 2016 that I bought new on Amazon in 2023. Note that “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team. And yes, this is science fiction, there are spaceships, teleportation devices, and beam weapons.
Dina Demille is an innkeeper in Red Deer, Texas. Only her Victorian inn is not like a typical bed and breakfast, it is an intelligent magical haven named Gertrude Hunt for aliens coming to Earth or using Earth as a way station. Dina does have a permanent guest, a retired Galactic aristocrat named Caldenia who is hiding from several bounty hunters, she paid for a permanent room and board. Dina’s inn was abandoned but she has restored it and has it back up to a two and a half star rating out of five stars.
There are many inns like the Gertrude Hunt on Earth, that is because Earth has been designated as Neutral Ground for the various Galactic races, many of whom don’t get along. That’s why Caldenia is safe within the confines of Gertrude Hunt, the inn has many powerful weapons to protect itself and guests. Several of the bounty hunters are still chasing Caldenia for the massive bounty and have taken on the Gertrude Hunt Inn to their dismay.
Dina has received a message from her sister who had followed her exiled vampire husband to an closed planet being used as a penal colony with their young daughter. The message was a cry for help. But, any space ship shuttle landing on the planet without permission will be shot down. And the Holy Anocracy (represented by House Krahr, the space vampires) does not give landing permission to any one outside their clan.
The authors have a website at:
https://www.ilona-andrews.com
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (13,066 reviews)
Lynn
They kill the motors too. Constantly stopping and starting is the opposite of a scheme for longevity. In my current car, one can still manually defeat the stop-start. I gather newer cars no longer have that possibility.
Thursday bedtime. I have to get up early, so bed it is now. Goodnight.
Harsh and cruel, but honest. Darned Mark Kelly.
That start stop thing is like the HE washers that save water by re-using the same half gallon, to the detriment of getting clean clothes. They have forgotten the real purpose of having the thing, and gotten narrowly focused on irrelevant items.
Doesn’t matter how much water a washer uses if it doesn’t get clothes clean. Doesn’t matter how many drops of gas are saved if the vehicle isn’t a good vehicle. And a vehicle that is shifting maintenance and costs to the vehicle owner, so some nebulous concept can benefit, isn’t a good vehicle.
I’m getting really tired of other people deciding to spend my money and time to solve an issue that isn’t even an issue, to my detriment.
n
The stop/start is like a golf cart. So is the CVT gearless transmission. They should just admit that they hate cars and want us all golf carts.
n
What’s the deal with the upvote/downvote buttons?
My most recent comment had a “0” next to upvote, which struck me as odd. I figured it should be blank, like the downvote thingy, if no on voted it up.
Then I reviewed all the comments for the last 4 days to see if it showed “0″ or blank for a comment with no upvotes.
There were no comments, for 4 days, with no upvotes. Odd. I’m sure at least some of my drivel is worth no upvotes.
Then I saw Nick’s last 2 comments, and they were blank. At that moment, anyway.
Is there an automated upvote daemon?
My truck stops and starts, while driving. Electric takes over. There is no “starter” as that is accomplished by the electric motor/generator. Most of the time I don’t even notice. Generally, 20% of my driving time is on electric only.
I think the upvote/downvote numbers are blank initially. If someone up/downs, the number ‘1’ is displayed. If that person upvotes again, that cancels their initial vote, and the number goes to zero, which is displayed.
A person can only vote once. A subsequent vote takes away their initial vote.
If nobody votes, there is no numeral displayed.
“’We know that consumers’ behavior changes’: McDonald’s prepares for wider GLP-1 adoption as weight-loss pills hit market”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/we-know-that-consumers-behavior-changes-mcdonalds-prepares-for-wider-glp-1-adoption-as-weight-loss-pills-hit-market-130237799.html
“And McDonald’s (MCD) CEO Chris Kempczinski is putting on his fry hat and gearing up for battle. His weapons of choice this year include chicken sandwiches and, likely soon, chicken tenders.”
Hopefully they are grilled, not fried.
“Red Flagged”
https://areaocho.com/red-flagged/
“I know this happened a couple of months ago, but I just learned of it. A man in Stuart, Florida was attending the town’s Christmas parade when police noticed he was wearing what turned out to be Level IV body armor. He was detained and it turned out he was also carrying a dagger and a pistol.”
“Local residents freaked out, saying that he must have been up to no good, since he was carrying those items and was in the same general area as a sitting congressman.”
“The cops held him for hours before releasing him without charges. That doesn’t matter to the cops, they kept his vest, knife, and gun, and are going to use a risk protection order to strip him of his rights. Keep in mind, he wasn’t breaking any laws.”
“This is why I have been, and remain, opposed to so-called “red flag” laws.”
Me too.
There is a civil rights analysis at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jksTInkpT7U
I hope he sues the city and the county for civil rights violations.
Does this mean that all of the vehicles currently on the road with start-stop will receive the software fix most manufacturers have to turn the “feature” off for insiders and important customers?
No, IMHO. It just means that the car manufacturers get no financial credits for including that feature in new cars. There is no financial incentive to remove the feature from existing vehicles.
So, I don’t think that there will be a software upgrade to allow owners to permanently disable the feature.
Kelly serves in the Senate at the pleasure of the Chair of Hensley Beverage until such time that another family member can make a credible run at winning the seat.
Her orders come first.
“It’s Crazy That India is More Fiscally Responsible Than America”
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/its-crazy-that-india-is-more-fiscally-responsible-than-america-154368/
No, it is because no one is crazy enough to loan money to India.
“Compare this to how America spends its borrowed money.”
“$200 million for “gender equity programs” in Pakistan. $100 billion on Leftist legal graft in California alone—$25 billion on homeless programs without reducing the number of homeless, $33 billion on DEI initiatives and green subsidies. $40 million to help queer and transgender people stop smoking.”
This is money for the CIA, disguised as weird spending.
Good luck finding a jury in Stuart. Ask Ryan Wesley Routh about that.
Martin County isn’t exactly a hot bed for Prog thought. There is something more to the story.
I figured the upvote/downvote worked more or less like that.
But what amazes me is that each and every comment, by each and every contributor, gets at least one upvote.
I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble here, but sometimes the comments are as valueless and ephemeral as Ray’s flatulence. Maybe less so…
And I include some of mine in that, so I’m not casting aspersions.
Maybe I’ll make it a goal to post something so banal and benign no one will vote on it.
A new challenge!
James Bozo has made his decision; now let him enforce it.
I don’t have access to site analytics here showing daily visitor counts, etc. But I suspect that only a small percentage of visitors to this place bother to vote comments up or down.
The highest number of comment votes that I have seen here (as I recall) is eight (up or downs). I’d be surprised if that is 10% of the total daily visitors here. A up/down count of 1 or 2 here doesn’t appear to be statistically significant.
And those that complain about a single up/down (more often down) are perhaps applying more significance to that down vote than is needed. But a down vote sure gets some here a bit riled up.
Up/down votes don’t bother me. But the occasional down vote seems to indicate that there might be a wide variety of visitors that help make this place interesting to visit, and not an ‘echo chamber’ of visitors with the same viewpoint. I like the variety of opinions, even if I happen to disagree with some that comment here.
The up or down vote is by IP address. Not cookies. That is, I can read and like or hate on my Kindle and I can’t vote again from my PC.
To me the votes show someone read my drivel. Ya know, I’m not just talking to myself……
I agree!
I gotta get my butt in gear and cook something. Ramen soup, Chef Boyardee, and chips just isn’t right. Yeah. I know, “freeze the rest for later” simply doesn’t work for a lot of stuff. Not to me.
How about a few recipes?
This one has always been good:
Pat’s Lemon Chicken for 2
4 thin-sliced, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Marinade:
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (I use reduced sodium)
1/8 Teaspoon cayenne pepper (I use more, we like it
spicy!)
(I put the marinade ingredients into a jar and shake them up before I
pour it over the chicken.)
Marinate chicken at least 1 hour in fridge in Pyrex pie plate, covered
tightly with plastic wrap. MICRO: 15-20 minutes on HIGH. Rotate 1/2
turn after 10 minutes. GAS GRILL: Preheat on HIGH. BBQ 5 minutes on
each side until browned. Serve with baked potatoes or rice and a
veggie. (If you have any leftovers, shred the chicken in a green
salad the next day. Bon Appetit, mes amis!
—-
We always cooked this on the gas grill. With rice. Forget the low salt soy sauce. Make it a quarter teaspoon of cayenne. Mustard? The old standby of French’s yellow works just fine.
Slice the chicken thin? No way. I’m a guy and I’m gonna beat my meat. Yep. just cover the chicken with plastic wrap (or use an empty chip bag) and flatten it with the meat mallet. The whole point is so it cooks evenly. And yeah, the joke was made every time we cooked this.
Good times.
Years ago I went to Kohl’s. I forget why, just to see what it was about. On a Saturday. Not really impressed. Sort of like a down market Sears acting up-market. Nice store anyway. Kind of wondered where are the customers, the place was deserted.
Anyway. I, like Jimmy Carter found lust in my heart. I found a Circulon skillet. A wok skillet. I didn’t have the money. But dang, I wanted that pan. I bought it a year or so later. It was on sale for $35. Mine!!!
It’s a big pan. You can, well, I can, scramble four dozen chicken eggs at a time. I had a lot of chickens and once the fridge is full with 40 dozen eggs it’s time to feed the dogs.
Big plop of grease, bacon or general meat drippings. Err, half stick of butter. Low heat, start cracking eggs. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper. And a generous wave of garlic powder. Hey, dogs love people food. Heat a flour tortilla and fill it up for your breakfast.
And then watch your dogs being happy!
I have a recipe I make in that pan. Next post.
Exempt
food, rentand medical.Penthouse condos and lobster tails need to be taxed.
Give everyone a baseline exclusion for food and rent–same amount across the USA.
“The fact that a demon was embedded in our military and space program , and that USAF officers knew and didn’t report, it is very definitely a UCMJ matter.”
Get it before a federal PLT judge who will shelter the illegal alien and all that helped her.
I have a couple of special purpose pans, but I got rid of most of them and I concentrated on quality and versatility.
Stainless, enamel, iron for longevity. A few teflon for convenience.
n
“James Bozo has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”
Offer him a plane. If it turns out hes a pilot and flies it to Venezuela, it would just be too bad if illegal drugs were found in a tire.
“Stainless, enamel, iron for longevity. A few teflon for convenience.”
I bought a Hexclad frying pan an am still evaluating.
Boasbutt is getting close to sedition. Let’s see how long it takes to overrule him.
I would make this and take leftovers to work the next day. Folks were like “wow what is that, it smells so good”..
In the Circulon wok skillet.
—–
Several dishes from the Naples area are named for the local volcano,
hence the “alla Vesuviana” appellation of this classic dish.
Spaghetti with Olives and Capers (Spaghetti alla Vesuviana)
3 Tbs (45 ml) olive oil
1-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups (500 ml) canned tomatoes with their liquid, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
8-12 green olives, pitted and chopped
8-12 Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
2 Tbs (30 ml) capers
1 tsp (5 ml) chopped fresh oregano leaves or 1/2 tsp
(2 ml) dried
1 lb (450 g) spaghetti or other thin noodle, cooked
according to package directions
Heat the oil in a large skillet over moderate heat and saute the
garlic and red pepper flakes for about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes,
salt, and pepper and cook uncovered until most of the liquid has
evaporated, 15 to 20 minutes. Add the olives, capers, and oregano
and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and
toss to combine. Serves 4 to 6.
—–
I use the above as a guide. Garlic The chopped in the jar is fine. Use about a tablespoon. The tomatoes? Dude, they sell them already diced.
A pinch of re pepper flakes? Man up! Half a teaspoon, not a pinch. Volcanos are hot, right?
The olives…. I cheat. The stuff at the deli was like $5 a tub. And what do I do with the rest of the tub? So I use the little can of sliced black olives and then I fill the can with the sliced green olives that have the pimentos.
An extra spoon of capers is nice.
Simmer it all. Maybe add more water and put a lid on the pan and let the tomatoes cook down while the olives and capers get happy with the pepper flakes. Then add the spaghetti.
No meat. I tried once with some browned off Italian sausage and it ruined it. Edible but “not right”.
I just bought a couple of SS pans and am practicing steaks and eggs. I’ve almost got the temperature dialed in for the steaks, and a little lower makes eggs nonstick with a little algae oil and butter in the pan.
I want to slowly switch to all SS. The kids can inherit them. They just have to learn how to use them. I’ve got a carbon steel pan, but already prefer SS over it.
I only have a couple of Teflon pans. One is the Circulon. The other is a skillet I use on the side burner of the gas grill to brown off a pot roast before it goes into the crock pot.
The rest is stainless steel. AKA SaladMaster. No cast iron. If I can’t run it through the KitchenAid, it’s never clean enough to put in the cupboard.
Yeah, maybe I’m weird. My house is also 100% free of roaches.
Stopped to get gas this afternoon. Pump video told me cream cheese was on a 2-day sale for 29-cents, limit 1. Needed to buy milk anyway.
Aldi on the way home. Stopped for bagels, bought eggs rolls and pizza sauce, too. Six egg rolls in the air fryer, a couple of sauces, I have supper and leftovers.
Video of the Germans laughting at Trump over natural gas concerns:
https://vimeo.com/846027719?autoplay=1&muted=1&stream_id=Y2xpcHN8MjA0MTg0NTU5fGlkOmRlc2N8W10%3D
His admonition was for becoming dependent on Russian natural gas, But it applies to any insecure exterior supply. Coupled with the incredible stupidity of shutting down perfectly good nuclear plants and coal plants that run on Bavarian coal, and the recipe for disaster has been baked and is ready to get served this month. Then we get to see if the German populace has been neutered or if the grandsons of brownshirts fall out and hunt the elites and the greens through the streets.
Why do I suspect Merkel will find an important international event to attend, like Black History Month in Davos?
Boasbutt is getting close to sedition. Let’s see how long it takes to overrule him.
This is the problem with having a split country. Normally this guy would be warned and then be impeached.
The real problem is that Obama and Bite Me put a lot of unqualified people in as federal judges and the flaky Senate went along with them.
My favorites are still the U.S.-made All-Clad. The non-stick skillets never see more than medium-low on the gas stove when I cook eggs.
I still use the 8-quart RevereWare stock pot for chili. Never bought the All-Clad because it was so expensive even on sale, and now that I don’t bench press [redacted] lbs anymore, my wrists are indignant enough with 7.5-quarts of chili, they don’t need another 6 lbs of non-edible pot.
I use cheap ceramic pans for eggs, expensive SS pans for everything else.
I thought Circulon was anodized and textured, not Teflon. Am I wrong?
I’m partial to my Paderno stainless set. Designed and originally manufactured in PEI Canada. The company was once taught as a business case in repairing a reputation after letting quality slide for about ten years, then cleaning up their production pipeline and making good on honoring warranty on the crap they’d sold. Unfortunately they eventually moved production offshore, and I don’t know what it’s like now.
“BREAKING: Trump Just Ended the EPA’s Climate Power Grab, and the Left Is Losing It”
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/02/12/breaking-trump-just-ended-the-epas-climate-power-graband-the-left-is-losing-it-n4949431
“President Donald Trump just delivered a knockout punch to Obama-era climate hysteria, and the bureaucrats are having a total meltdown.”
“On Thursday, the Trump administration finalized rules repealing the EPA’s endangerment finding — that dubious 2009 determination claiming six greenhouse gases threaten human health under the Clean Air Act. “We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding,” Trump announced, calling the policy exactly what it was: “disastrous.””
“This wasn’t just some regulatory tweak. The endangerment finding was the entire foundation for the EPA’s power grab over climate policy under the Barack Obama regime. It allowed unelected bureaucrats to impose crushing regulations on the oil and gas industry, power plants, and vehicles, all without Congress ever voting to grant them that authority. Essentially, it let EPA staffers reshape the entire American economy based on a single “finding” they issued themselves.”
Yes ! About time.
“Abigail Dillen from Earthjustice promised to “see the Trump administration in court,” crying about “disasters that are hitting us harder every year.” Because, as you probably noticed, every single weather event is now treated like a climate emergency requiring EPA dictators to run our lives.”
Prove it.
I misspoke. I also use my 6 qt enamel dutch oven and my lodge 12″ cast iron skillet.
I have a great salisbury steak recipe I cook in the cast iron. Mushroom gravy. Yum!
I attended a presentation tonight on specialized antennas for receiving. Most of what we hear about antennas is focused on transmitting and receiving. For those of you who do a lot of shortwave listening (SWL), specialized antenna systems can improve your results.
For transmit antennas, we talk about gain, which (simplified) is where you improve power output in favor of a certain direction. The equivalent concept in receive antennas is called RDF. Relative Directivity Factor.
I know hams who use 2 different antennas to make distant contacts. One for receive, and a different antenna for transmit.
I would and do advocate for manufacturers to use standard and widely available parts for stuff like switches, gauges, indicator lights, etc.
I hate the computerized touch stuff that doesn’t actually switch or display but instead tells or is told by a microprocessor to change state. They are impossible to fix.
On the other hand, my whole house gennie was built by generac in 1995. It’s intended for commercial use, has a 4 cylinder water cooled engine, and steel enclosure of all straight panels. I discovered when I pulled the control panel that the oil pressure gauge had broken. The plastic case cracked from stress and one half fell back into the machine while the screw on bezel fell out.
Because they chose to use a gauge from a major manufacturer, I was able to order the identical new part for $38 thru amazon, or I could have purchased NOS from ebay sellers, or used. I went with new as it was a bit cheaper and the plastic probably isn’t brittle.
Should arrive tomorrow, and I will put it in when I have time.
Solid, real stuff, built to last. It’s worth it.
n
Ok, this isn’t the first of this type of video youtube showed me but it is the most insane. I was filled with anxiety watching it.
Urban Downhill, speed run on a bike.
https://youtube.com/shorts/OJSQFUjUBVQ?si=e76WclYr87IJFM4U
Insane.
n