what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[ls99]

Moved global warming, wasted time, read the forum, went for coffee.

Tomorrow MOTS +ice skating.

 

[Nords]

Worked out with spouse, gobbled ibuprofen, spent a couple hours loading up the blog posts for this coming week, cleaned up some of the clutter left over from our daughter's visit, took a nap, and now (that I've done just about everything else I possibly could to avoid it) I'm going to answer our holiday cards & letters... apparently there's some types of writing that I enjoy more than others.

BTW, thanks to those of you who've been reading the blog. This weekend is the biggest one yet-- 57 hits yesterday and 74 so far today (with over nine hours left). Today's hits will be among the top five, and best ever for a Sunday.

I'm reading the search terms that people use to find the blog, and tailoring future topics accordingly... except for tomorrow's post. Monday's post is a sea story. Tomorrow's the first day of my daughter's next semester, so I wrote a post for her to read and discuss with the submariner NROTC lieutenant.

Is it just me, or does this discussion board seem to be filling up with new posters like New Year's resolutions at a fitness center? Mods, do you guys have stats showing how many new posters have been signing up each week or running FIRECalc?

Lunch at our favorite mom & pop Chinese restaurant. They had the KC/Baltimore game on their new 55" wall-mounted HDTV. DW asked, "Why don't we get one of those and mount it over the fireplace?"

Heck, take down the mantle, rock over the fireplace, and go for 60"...

 

[RonBoyd]

Is it just me, or does this discussion board seem to be filling up with new posters...

Yeah, ain't it great!

 

[NW-Bound]

Stock market going up, more people looking to retire...

We went for another hike today, like yesterday. With us being within a walking distance from a mountain preserve that is claimed as the world's largest municipal park with 53 miles of trails, it is a shame that I do not make use of it more often.

Then, I got a call from my mother needing help to look at her rear car door; the external door handle stopped working. After going to her home and taking the inside door panel off to take a look, I scratched my head for a while trying to understand what went wrong.

Then, it became clear to me. OMG! Some guy has tried to break into the car by jamming a screwdriver under the door handle, and ended up breaking part of the latch mechanism without being able to open the door itself. I will have to remove more parts to take to a dealer to buy replacements.

 

[freebird5825]

We started our day at the monthly $7 All You Can Eat breakfast at the local Legion. I behaved and took only small portions. I volunteered to help out with the spaghetti dinner to be hosted by the Auxiliary next weekend. I would have helped today but I still have some minor traces of the flu bug from h*ll. It's not nice to cough in the kitchen during food service ops.

We then proceeded to our 2nd fave Legion 10 miles away and played cribbage and sort of watched football. Lots of folks stopped in all throughout the day, so we talked and caught up on the latest and greatest. There are always lots of interesting characters of all ages to talk to versus sitting home staring at each other and 4 walls. It is really important to get out when the winter weather permits, else cabin fever is a given.

Dinner was slices of roast beef cooked all day long in mushroom gravy and sandwiched between 2 slices of bread. Yummy!

 

[bbbamI]

Washed a couple of loads of clothes, made the bed, fed the kitties, made sure DH stuck to his 'menu' and took his pills on time. Went to my dentist appt....my hygienist could tell something was bothering me. So I talked a bit about what was going on in my life. I told her I needed the good gas today and to fill my tank....boy did she ever deliver.

For a while everything was so peaceful and serene. I didn't have a care in the world.

Not too much planned tonight as DH is continuing his prep and we have to be at the medical center tomorrow at 8 a.m.

Man...sure wish I had some of that good gas here at home.

 

[freebird5825]

Spent the day at home, doing laundry, surfing, making homemade chocolate & Reese's PB chip cookies for Mr B, cooking pork fried rice for dinner, and watching a DVD of a past Lewis Black HBO special.
Mr B suggested I put one of his shows on DVD in the Netflix queue a few weeks ago. We were supposed to get "Bad Santa" but it was unavailable locally.
I never heard of Lewis Black and now I can't get enough. He is beyond bad.

 

[happy2bretired]

Well, my morning started off great this morning. Woke up at 5:00 ate breakfast and watched a movie. Then started to smell something hot and smelly. Sniffed out all over the house and couldn't find where the smell was coming from, getting more scared by the minute.

Turned off the TV thinking maybe it was burning up. Smell went away. Moved the cable box to another TV and attempted to hook it up. Twenty minutes later smelled the smell again. Went back to previous TV location...smell coming from furness vents. Turned off furness and called furness guy.

He's here now...needs new motor - $250 with my maintenance contract discount. Oh how I hate home maintenance.

 

[TromboneAl]

Some guy has tried to break into the car by jamming a screwdriver under the door handle, and ended up breaking part of the latch mechanism without being able to open the door itself. I will have to remove more parts to take to a dealer to buy replacements.

Sometimes thieves walk down a street, trying to open each car with a screwdriver in the keyhole. It works sometimes, but in their wake they leave a trail of cars needing expensive repairs. This happened to us once in Oakland.

 

[TromboneAl]

I tried a trick to make any meat thermometer an instant read thermometer: Before measuring the steak temperature, put the thermometer in a glass of hot water, with the water temperature close to what you want to measure (e.g. 140 degrees). Stick it in the steak, and you'll then know in an instant if the steak is ready: the reading either goes up or down.

 

[Martha]

I tried a trick to make any meat thermometer an instant read thermometer: Before measuring the steak temperature, put the thermometer in a glass of hot water, with the water temperature close to what you want to measure (e.g. 140 degrees). Stick it in the steak, and you'll then know in an instant if the steak is ready: the reading either goes up or down.

I learned a steak trick. Put the raw steak in water of about 140 degrees for about a half hour. This brings up the inside temperature of he meat and makes cooking fast and easy. I like rare so I just sear on both sides for a minute or so and the steak is good to go.

 

[Martha]

I am visiting in southern Iowa and they got a snow storm last night--maybe 4 or 5 inches of snow. I spent two hours this morning shoveling out the little old ladies in the townhome development where I am staying. It was fun, good exercise if you take some care and don't push it too hard, and the ladies provided cookies.

 

[Khan]

Spent the day at home, doing laundry, surfing, making homemade chocolate & Reese's PB chip cookies for Mr B, cooking pork fried rice for dinner, and watching a DVD of a past Lewis Black HBO special.
Mr B suggested I put one of his shows on DVD in the Netflix queue a few weeks ago. We were supposed to get "Bad Santa" but it was unavailable locally.
I never heard of Lewis Black and now I can't get enough. He is beyond bad.

He is fantastic. Lots of his stuff on youtube.

 

[TromboneAl]

I learned a steak trick. Put the raw steak in water of about 140 degrees for about a half hour. This brings up the inside temperature of he meat and makes cooking fast and easy. I like rare so I just sear on both sides for a minute or so and the steak is good to go.

Wow, that's neat, I can't wait to try it. The rarer the better for me, so this solves the safety issue.

Here's another trick:

The Finger Test to Check the Doneness of Meat | Simply Recipes

 

[Aiming_4_55]

Maybe it's to create more business for the auto body repair shops? ;-)

Sometimes thieves walk down a street, trying to open each car with a screwdriver in the keyhole. It works sometimes, but in their wake they leave a trail of cars needing expensive repairs. This happened to us once in Oakland.

 

[travelover]

I'm still working on my Peru trip itinerary. I like to set up the whole deal myself and hire locals to execute the pieces. Right now I'm dealing with the trade offs between getting as far away from civilization as possible - to see more wildlife in the Amazon - and still being able to schedule transportation. I think 4 hours upriver in a canoe is about my limit.

 

[BTravlin]

Shoveled the driveway, twice, and its still coming down! Screw it, I'm not doing it again, not today anyway.

 

[freebird5825]

Woke up to 5" of fresh snow on the ground. The snowplowing guy already took care of the driveway. I'm watching the Weather Channel reports on the winter storm in the Northeast. We will get some snow today, maybe another 4 inches. Or more...wind is NW and that always means lake effect from Lake Ontario.

I will motivate myself at some point to get going for the day. Soon...

 

[sailor]

Trying to decide how many days we want to spent in Norway and Sweden in May.
We booked most of our summer vacations flights, except for short OSL->GDN hop.
Kids are already excited to see new countries and DW is happy that after 13 years of promises I'll finally show her the Malbork Castle.
If all the stars align right, I might even take little sailors to Russia for a day trip ( Kaliningrad Oblast ), although I'm little weary of the "Duty Free" cruises (a lot of drunkards on board).

 

[bruce1]

Snow seems to be over. Cleared 500 feet of driveway with tractor. Took two and a half hours. Now I have hooked the computer up to my amp and am listening to youtube music videos through that. May vibrate the snow off the roof with Once Bitten Twice Shy and Paranoid. In a Heavy rock mood.

 

[ls99]

Moved snow to allow DW go swimming. Piddled on the forum. Conned DW to come ice skating with me. She like I, had not been on ice skates in 30 some odd years. Except now I am 6 sessions ahead.

She did quiet well, though managed to fall once. A good start.

Moved more snow.

 

[Moscyn]

Went for my colonoscopy. Doctor removed a polyp and suspect it is benign but need to confirm so after tests are done. Will be waiting to hear the test results. Cheered myself by having a fantastic dinner of foei gras, rib eye steak, ginger souffle and wine. Life has too many surprises to be on a diet.

 

[73ss454]

My SIL and DD asked me to help them sell their car on Craigs List. They put my cell # on the ad and I spent the day dealing with a bunch of lunny tunes. A few of the people wanted me to drive the car to them so they can look at it, one was 80 miles away. People wanting to trade cars, one with a boat to trade. Dealers calling to low ball the price and on and on.

Finally I had a woman come over to see the car. After jumping through hoops for her for 4 hours she gave me a deposit. Then she said that if her husband doesn't like it will I get my money back. At that point I stopped her and told her no because every 10 minutes I had another call coming in on my cell about the car. After that I had to drive her to an ATM to get the money. Once that was over she said she wants to take the car to a mechanic. Since she was not from the area I had to find a mechanic and have the car checked out. Let's see if she shows up tomorrow to pick it up.

In the mean time this was too much like work.

 

[East Texas]

With a few exceptions, I stayed inside (too darn cold outside). This morning I had some hot chocolate with marshmallows and warm pumpkin bread. Then I watched DVDs and a little TV while I visited some of my favorite forums and news sites. And I had a nap - one of the pleasures of retirement! About every hour or so I'd toss a piece of wood in the wood stove.

 

[REWahoo]

In the mean time this was too much like work.

Did she bite on the pinstriping and undercoating?