![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In spite of their recent antics, I renewed my paid LJ account the other day, so I guess that means that I am here to stay for at least another year. I haven't posted much here lately because, in truth, I haven't had a lot to say. That is not to say that I have been bereft of post-worthy things in my life, but I recently find myself at a loss for words as often as not.\\
I could post about work - heck, I could post from work (they have taken away my read access, but they kinna stop the post!) - but anything I post on that subject runs the risk of quickly degrading into whinging and epithets. Other people have it worse; I'll get over it.
Alternately I could post about life at home, but there is very little to report about here. Thanksgiving came and went. We entertained some friends and tried our hand (with mixed results) on a 100-mile diet. When I say "mixed" I say it with a leaning toward the positive, and I won't rule out trying this experiment again at another time. We had another Thanksgiving gathering last weekend with a somewhat larger group of friends, and taking the advice of y'all here, I made a large pot of comparatively mild chilli. I made it on the fly, but under threat of thumbscrews I could probably relate most of what went into it.
Ground Bison
Diced Elk
4 diced Roma tomatoes
2 small heads of garlic
1 large, red onion
A package of fresh, sliced mushrooms
2 cans of tomato paste
A bunch of chilli
Ground cloves
Ground ginger
Ground cinnamon
Ground nutmeg
Ground Cardamom
Lots of Cumin
A bunch more chilli
2 chopped habanero peppers, and a whole pepper on top.
A good dollop of unsweetened cocoa
More chilli
Most of a pint of oatmeal stout
1 large can of red kidney beans
salt, white pepper, and a bit more chilli.
Enough corn meal to thicken it
I cooked it for about three hours and then transferred as much of it as I could to the crock pot. The rest went into a Tupperware container in the fridge for a later (today's) lunch. I know that some of you purists are probably cringing at some of the ingredients on my list but.. meh. All the more for me! =9 It was pretty good chilli.
We made a second foray into Magtheridon's Lair this evening and got him down to 45%. If we hadn't run out of time I think that we could have got him to phase 3.
Nonsequitur aside, we had another interesting development recently. The snow blower that we bought a couple of autumns back made it onto a recall list for a design flaw with its Briggs & Stratton engine. Apparently it has a tendency to continue pumping gas after it has been shut off. And bursting into flames. A bit. Sears contacted![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atara while I was out and made arrangements for a repair guy to come by our house around 15:30 yesterday to make modifications that would render the engine less likely to burst into flames. 15:30 came and went, but the repair man did not. I finally called Sears at around 17:15 when I began to suspect that he might be a little late showing. They expressed puzzlement over the fact that he had not yet shown.
"I see it's only 4:15 in Winnipeg, so there's a chance he's running late..."
"5:15"
"Oh, right, that time-zone thing. He only works until 5, so I think that it's unlikely you'll see him now."
They called back about ten minutes later and explained that (unbeknownst to us or them) there had been arrangements made to send out an after-hours relief guy to help with the workload. The replacement mechanic finally showed called at around 20:30, and showed up 15 minutes later. He modified the case, installed a shunt, and then changed the spark plug and oil. He also gave me a small tube of gasoline stabilizer - enough to get us through the winter - and delivered a mild rebuke over the fact that I had probably stored my snow thrower all summer with un-stabilized gasoline. He was mostly right, in that there was some (but probably not enough) stabilizer in the gas. I'll wander out there tomorrow and sniff what is left jerry can to see if it is still good. I'm not quite sure what I will do with it if it has gone bad - maybe pour a stream of it down the alley in the middle of the night and set it alight.
In any event it is nice to have a snow blower that probably won't explode when I use it now.
I could post about work - heck, I could post from work (they have taken away my read access, but they kinna stop the post!) - but anything I post on that subject runs the risk of quickly degrading into whinging and epithets. Other people have it worse; I'll get over it.
Alternately I could post about life at home, but there is very little to report about here. Thanksgiving came and went. We entertained some friends and tried our hand (with mixed results) on a 100-mile diet. When I say "mixed" I say it with a leaning toward the positive, and I won't rule out trying this experiment again at another time. We had another Thanksgiving gathering last weekend with a somewhat larger group of friends, and taking the advice of y'all here, I made a large pot of comparatively mild chilli. I made it on the fly, but under threat of thumbscrews I could probably relate most of what went into it.
Ground Bison
Diced Elk
4 diced Roma tomatoes
2 small heads of garlic
1 large, red onion
A package of fresh, sliced mushrooms
2 cans of tomato paste
A bunch of chilli
Ground cloves
Ground ginger
Ground cinnamon
Ground nutmeg
Ground Cardamom
Lots of Cumin
A bunch more chilli
2 chopped habanero peppers, and a whole pepper on top.
A good dollop of unsweetened cocoa
More chilli
Most of a pint of oatmeal stout
1 large can of red kidney beans
salt, white pepper, and a bit more chilli.
Enough corn meal to thicken it
I cooked it for about three hours and then transferred as much of it as I could to the crock pot. The rest went into a Tupperware container in the fridge for a later (today's) lunch. I know that some of you purists are probably cringing at some of the ingredients on my list but.. meh. All the more for me! =9 It was pretty good chilli.
We made a second foray into Magtheridon's Lair this evening and got him down to 45%. If we hadn't run out of time I think that we could have got him to phase 3.
Nonsequitur aside, we had another interesting development recently. The snow blower that we bought a couple of autumns back made it onto a recall list for a design flaw with its Briggs & Stratton engine. Apparently it has a tendency to continue pumping gas after it has been shut off. And bursting into flames. A bit. Sears contacted
atara while I was out and made arrangements for a repair guy to come by our house around 15:30 yesterday to make modifications that would render the engine less likely to burst into flames. 15:30 came and went, but the repair man did not. I finally called Sears at around 17:15 when I began to suspect that he might be a little late showing. They expressed puzzlement over the fact that he had not yet shown."I see it's only 4:15 in Winnipeg, so there's a chance he's running late..."
"5:15"
"Oh, right, that time-zone thing. He only works until 5, so I think that it's unlikely you'll see him now."
They called back about ten minutes later and explained that (unbeknownst to us or them) there had been arrangements made to send out an after-hours relief guy to help with the workload. The replacement mechanic finally showed called at around 20:30, and showed up 15 minutes later. He modified the case, installed a shunt, and then changed the spark plug and oil. He also gave me a small tube of gasoline stabilizer - enough to get us through the winter - and delivered a mild rebuke over the fact that I had probably stored my snow thrower all summer with un-stabilized gasoline. He was mostly right, in that there was some (but probably not enough) stabilizer in the gas. I'll wander out there tomorrow and sniff what is left jerry can to see if it is still good. I'm not quite sure what I will do with it if it has gone bad - maybe pour a stream of it down the alley in the middle of the night and set it alight.
In any event it is nice to have a snow blower that probably won't explode when I use it now.
