Monday night

Enough about food. The stew was great, by the way.

I recently ordered a 128 MB SmartMedia card for my Olympus digital camera. It arrived today at work. When I got home and inserted it into the camera, I kept getting "Card Error." The thing wouldn't format. (I even cleaned it with Glass Plus.) I'm requesting to return it to MemorySuppliers.com (where I bought it). Meanwhile I bought a card at Amazon that's expressly for the Olympus. (The other one was for Olympus/Samsung.) The Olympus card is more expensive and didn't include free shipping, as did the other one. Amazon really got me on shipping this tiny thing (>$8). All I have to say is, it better work or it's going right back. I wanted to use the digital camera on my vacation, since it takes great pictures.

Tonight I got gas and ran by the store. When I got back, my gate-opener wouldn't work for the up ramp (it worked for the down ramp, however). The security guard said to park in the guest parking and tomorrow talk to the maintenance guy, who gets here at 8:00. That'll work, since I've got Home Depot coming here and will be up early for them (they're supposed to be here between 8:00 and 10:00). They're coming to fix some trim that's preventing the dishwasher door from closing properly.

Later

Beef stew turned out excellent (and it's even better the second day.) The best ever. Up until I started making this recipe, the best I ever had was when I was a Boy Scout (Troop 222) and we made a huge pot of it for a fair (a meet?) at the Tropicaire Drive-In at Bird Rd. and the Palmetto. (Maybe it was Gaston Beef Stew.) (It's an old recipe.)

Regarding the Bill Moyers show and what the insurance executive said. The health insurance companies have no incentive to do anything about rising medical costs. That's not their job. As costs rise, they'll pass more and more of them on to the policyholder. All they care about is keeping their outlay for medical payments at 80% (or even lower) of what they take in in premiums (with 20% for dividends and overhead, including private jets, etc.). It was noted that the percentage was 95% back in the early '90s, when Clinton was trying to pass health care. If a public option passes, the companies will have more pressure to pay out more of what they take in. The overhead for Medicare is 3%. But the important thing is that costs have to be contained. See "The Cost Conundrum" here.

Watching "Renovation Realities" now.

Today I decided to rearrange the furniture in the bedroom and clean as I go. Where the bed is now, sunlight comes through the door in the morning and streams directly into my face, waking me up too early (even though I wear a blindfold). (The blinds on the slider in the living room are closed, but the light seeps in at the edges.) (I keep the bedroom door open to allow the cats to come and go.) I'll move the bed to the opposite wall and rearrange everything else accordingly. I should have done this years ago. I already have a light-blocking shade at the bedroom window and keep the hurricane shutter closed. (The windows are floor-to-ceiling, one in each bedroom.)

Tomorrow I go to the dentist at the end of the day. Tuesday morning the Home Depot contractor comes to fix something in the kitchen.

Tired!

Back at Starbucks...

for an egg salad sandwich and a tea. Had no trouble connecting tonight.

Sunday evening

Stew is cooking now.

"60 Minutes" is not new, even though the program info says so. It always says it's new, even though it may not be.

Along with baby carrots in a bag, I used some tiny potatoes for this stew: Green Giant Klondike Gourmet Red-Yellow Fleshed Potatoes and Melissa's Baby Dutch Yellow Potatoes ("No Butter Required"). Along with a stalk of chopped celery, they cook separately from the meat and are added to it during its last 15 minutes of cooking. I think what gives this recipe its great flavor is a few cloves and sherry wine. Also, the meat cooks in beef broth and tomato sauce, etc. My mother made great beef stew, but it wasn't this recipe (even though "Joy of Cooking" was her main cookbook). I was never really good at beef stew until I discovered this recipe. (I'd add a lot of Heinz 57 sauce to it, which was good but not cheap.) I've also adapted this recipe to the crockpot.

Sunday afternoon

Going to make Gaston Beef Stew from "Joy of Cooking" later. Have to go to store first.

Bill Moyers interviews former insurance executive

Must watch. A 35-minute education on American health care here.

'She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It'

See Frank Rich here.

SARAH PALIN and Al Sharpton don’t ordinarily have much in common, but they achieved a rare harmonic convergence at Michael Jackson’s memorial service. When Sharpton told the singer’s children it was their daddy’s adversaries, not their daddy, who were “strange,” he was channeling the pugnacious argument the Alaska governor had made the week before. There was nothing strange about her decision to quit in midterm, Palin told America. What’s strange — or “insane,” in her lingo — are the critics who dare question her erratic behavior on the national stage. . . .

Later

Lucky's favorite playthings are the feathered plush balls that he's chewed the feathers off of. Lately I've noticed these have gone missing (so he plays with some other balls). I've looked around for them but haven't seen them. Tonight I looked behind a dresser in the bedroom and found five of them. (Obviously he can't get at them when they go behind this dresser.) He was standing right there where I retrieved them, one by one, and threw them in his direction. He acted amazed. Just now, a while later, he brought one to me to play fetch with (he only plays fetch with these). So that's what we've been doing, playing fetch.

About time to go to bed. Cat boxes are cleaned.

When I go on vacation, the cats will be roughing it somewhat. My neighbor will not be coming here three times a day to open cans of cat food. The cats waste canned food like crazy. They'll have to deal with it. I had amped up the canned food when Lucy got sick, and then after she died and Lucky came along, I kept it up since Lucky was still growing (and Bootsy was used to it). I think Lucky's grown now and Bootsy meanwhile has gotten fat and should lose weight on account of his kidney problems (the vet said).

Saturday night later

[Back at home.] Tonight before my session at Starbucks, I went to Chicken Kitchen again and ordered a Caesar Wrap. (The last time, I ordered a Mexican pita pocket and the thing fell apart.) I figured the wrap would hold the ingredients better. So what do they put my "wrap" in? A pita pocket! I was going to say something but just decided to see if I'd have better luck this time. It was much worse. The whole thing fell apart almost immediately. So I sat there eating chopped chicken and romaine lettuce off the paper wrapper with a soup spoon, Caesar dressing on the side. I ate the rest of the pita bread afterwards. Wasn't going to waste it.

Will call my friend in Canada. He got a new computer this week. No answer.

I was going to do some stuff around here today (I did water plants) but I had to go to Home Depot and talk to the designer about the toe plates, which have absorbed liquid and become discolored from my cleaning the floor. (They're made out of flimsy fiberboard.) I took her a sample of the material the contractor used. She said that was standard. I just wanted to know. I can repair it myself. She suggested putting some real wood down, and we checked out moldings. They have them there--wood, pre-primed, not expensive. Meanwhile I'll paint the toe kicks with white kitchen ceiling paint when I get around to finishing everything off.

While I was out, I stopped by Office Max for some printer ink and and then by Radio Shack (in the same mall, next to Home Depot) to get the mouse for the netbook computer. I love the mouse. The touch pad was horrible. As one reviewer wrote in Consumer Reports: "Make sure to get a mouse. The touchpad is almost unusable." I concur.

Saturday night at Starbucks

On the WiFi with the Acer and a new Logitech cordless optical mouse I got today. What an improvement over the stupid touch pad!

I got it at Radio Shack, where I bought the netbook, and it was the last one. When I got it home, I noticed the packaging had already been opened and carefully sealed back up with tape. I also noticed a battery was already installed. To make a long story short, the mouse wouldn't work. I did everything the troubleshooting program said, including putting in a fresh battery. The instructions said that when all else failed, send them a detailed email, including model number, part number, serial number, etc. Meanwhile I'm doing all this with the damned touch pad. Finally, when I was ready to send the email, it wouldn't send. I was about ready to pack it all back up and return it to Radio Shack when I tried putting the battery in "backwards." It immediately lit up and briskly went about its business.

The mouse transmits to a receiver that plugs into a USB port. When you've finished using the mouse, you remove the receiver from the port and attach it to the bottom of the mouse (which also turns the mouse off). Found this review here. It's a good one.

Anthony Lane reviews “Brüno”

One movie I won't be seeing. See "Mein Camp" here.

I’m afraid that “Brüno” feels hopelessly complicit in the prejudices that it presumes to deride. You can’t honestly defend your principled lampooning of homophobia when nine out of every ten images that you project onscreen comply with the most threadbare cartoons of gay behavior. A schoolboy who watches a pirated DVD of this film will look at the prancing Austrian and find more, not fewer, reasons to beat up the kid on the playground who doesn’t like girls. There is, on the evidence of this movie, no such thing as gay love; there is only gay sex, a superheated substitute for love, with its own code of vulcanized calisthenics whose aim is not so much to sate the participants as to embarrass onlookers from the straight—and therefore straitlaced—society beyond. . . .

I realized, watching “Borat” again, that what it exposed was not a vacuity in American manners but, more often than not, a tolerance unimaginable elsewhere. Borat’s Southern hostess didn’t shriek when he appeared with a bag of feces; she sympathized, and gently showed him what to do, and the same thing happens in “Brüno,” when a martial-arts instructor, confronted by a foreigner with two dildos, doesn’t flinch. He teaches Brüno some defensive moves, then adds, “This is totally different from anything I’ve ever done.” Ditto the Hollywood psychic—another risky target, eh?—who watches Brüno mime an act of air-fellatio and says, after completion, “Well, good luck with your life.” In both cases, I feel that the patsy, though gulled, comes off better than the gag man; the joke is on Baron Cohen, for foisting indecency on the decent. The joker is trumped by the square. . . .

A comment from Firedoglake here.

something about straight guys playing gay guys to the stereotype reminds me of white guys doing blackface.

My sentiments exactly.

Friday night

After I went to the store, I went over to Starbucks with the netbook and went on the WiFi. I need to get comfortable with the new computer. There was a problem with the WiFi and one of the baristas (female) helped me out. Had a tea there, then I was hungry. Ate roast beef and a beef and bean burrito back at home. That's why I'm up so late, but that's OK.

TGIF

I'm so looking forward to my vacation.

Tonight I had a nice nap with the cats and then went to the gym and the store to buy them a load of cat food, etc. Since I locked Lucky out of the bedroom on Wednesday evening due to his jumping around while I'm trying to nap, he's been on his best behavior.

Ate like a pig today, at breakfast time at least. I love it that we have free breakfast on Fridays. I O.D. on the all carbs. (We used to have eggs and bacon and sausage, but they cut that out.) Then today, to top it off, my supervisor was going to be late so she stopped at the grocery store to get us our favorite ice creams. Glad I did my walk this morning and went to the gym. I want to be in good shape for my trip. Fortunately my supervisor slipped up and bought me reduced-fat Edy's butter pecan ice cream instead of the full-fat version. (I don't eat a lot of ice cream, but if you give it to me, I'll eat it.)

Roy Blunt: “Best” if Medicare, Medicaid were Never Created

See post here.

As Christy points out, Republican and insurance-lobby whinings about "rationing" and "more choices" sound particularly silly when you realize that health care already is being rationed by a system that makes it impossible for anyone but the rich to take full advantage of the choices it provides.

GLAAD: 'Bruno' reinforces negative gay stereotypes

See complete story here.

Jul 10th, 2009 | LOS ANGELES -- The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said Friday that "Bruno," the new film starring Sacha Baron Cohen, reinforces negative stereotypes and "decreases the public's comfort with gay people." . . .

Universal Pictures, which released "Bruno," sought GLAAD's input on the film and invited staff members to advance screenings, Barrios said.

The organization "shared a number of concerns, and unfortunately, the scenes that we had the biggest concerns about remained in the film," Barrios said. . . .

Thursday night

Watching Anderson Cooper. All this stuff coming out about Michael Jackson's drug use. Reminds me a lot about B. I really didn't know about B.'s drug use until after he'd moved here. (They try to keep it a secret because they still want to be loved.) A few months after he'd moved in, we went on a cruise together. He was acting very strange, e.g., passing out for hours and difficult to wake up, which couldn't be explained by some beers and Grand Marnier.

At one point while he was passed out in the cabin (we had a nice cabin with a terrace, although behind some lifeboats), I went through his suitcase and found a Zip-Lock bag of various pills and flushed them down the toilet. Big mistake. I think it was the next morning, when we were getting breakfast before arriving back in Miami, he collapsed at the breakfast buffet and went into a seizure on the floor. He dropped his tray and everything, with all these people looking on. (A long story.) Then when we got back home to the apartment, he had another seizure. I had no idea what was going on. Then we went over to his "best friend's" (who I didn't know at the time was a drug dealer) and (unbeknownst to me) he got more drugs.

The drug dealer died eventually from an overdose (at age 50 or 51) and then B. had another seizure, at his place of business. (Another long story.) That's when he ended up in rehab. And then this new guy comes along supplying him drugs again... (Where he's living now.)

As much as I still care about B. (for no good reason, it seems), I'm just glad that this is no longer happening under my nose. It was very difficult to deal with. And I'd already dealt with my mother's bipolar disease back in my 20s and very early 30s, until she died. (I have lots of long stories.) (Including AIDS stories that were happening back then.) I was whooped already.

Thursday night - Roast beef edition

Came home and put a bottom round roast in the oven (on sale at Publix for $2-something/lb.). Took a nap and then got a Mexican pita pocket at Chicken Kitchen by the Starbucks. Ate that outside at Starbucks after getting a tea. Good sandwich -- lots of chopped chicken breast, plus shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream--worth the $8, I guess. (I only got it since Starbucks had run out of turkey and Swiss.) But the pita busted open half-way through and I ended up eating a lot of it with a fork, which was OK.

Bottom round roasts are really a great deal (esp. when on sale). Here's a comparison between an 85 g. hamburger (ground sirloin -- 10% fat) and an 85 g. serving of bottom round roast beef.

Calories: 196 for the hamburger, 144 for the roast beef

Fat calories: 92 for the hamburger, 41 for the roast beef

Cholesterol: 25% for the hamburger, 20% for the roast beef

Protein: 25 g. for both

(Source)

(Ground sirloin usually costs a lot more, even when it's on sale vs. the cost of the roast on sale.)

And nothing could be easier to prepare than a roast beef. I preheat the oven to 325 F. Then coat the roast with salt, pepper and garlic power. Then throw it in the oven for however long it takes to get it to the doneness you prefer (approx. 1/2 hr. per pound). I use a digital thermometer to test for doneness. You can go out and run errands while the roast is in the oven. (It probably uses more electricity than frying a hamburger, but there are multiple servings in a roast.)

I also made a great gravy tonight just from what was stuck to the bottom of the roasting pan (the "fond"). First I put water in the pan to soften it up for a while, then heat it up and scrape the bottom of the pan with a fork or whisk to dissolve it, then thicken with gravy flour (Wondra). (I always coat the roasting pan with non-stick spray before roasting.)

Sometimes I also embed fresh garlic inside the roast [see photo]--just make a channel with a sharp steak knife and push the garlic down inside the roast with your finger. I use half cloves.

Wednesday night

Back at the gym tonight after a brief nap. I've been noticing a guy in there who looks like Ben Affleck, only better looking.

Email the President about preserving the public health care option

Here.

It's telling that health insurance company stock prices rose when Rahm Emanuel talked about embracing "triggers," which let business go on as usual, i.e, trying to deny health care for people in need. Meanwhile the health insurance industry is spending $1.4 million a day lobbying against a public option.

Reid to Baucus: Stop Chasing GOP Votes on Health Care

From Firedoglake here.

Roll call is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill:

Reid, whose leadership is considered crucial if President Barack Obama is to deliver on his promise of enacting health care reform this year, offered the directive to Baucus through an intermediary after consulting with Senate Democratic leaders during Tuesday morning’s regularly scheduled leadership meeting. Baucus was meeting with Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) Tuesday afternoon to relay the information.

According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.

Whip it!

See here and here and here too. Digby has a lot on this too.

And see Josh Orton here.

Tuesday night

After work, I drove down to Home Depot to return an unopened box of cabinet trim left over from the kitchen remodel. That'll be credited to my account. I wanted to return it when the kitchen designer was there so she could process it. (It's been sitting on my living room floor for months.) I also showed her a couple of pictures I'd taken of the irregular sealing job around the sink and a crooked piece of filler wood that the dishwasher door has been catching on. One more thing I forgot to tell her about--the kickplates are made of some kind of cardboard and have become stained from soaking up liquid when I've washed the floor. I would think these should be rubber or plastic. (I guess they can be painted, but why should I have to do that?) I'll tell her about that tomorrow. There aren't a lot of these and I think they could be easily replaced or just have rubber ones glued over them. We'll see what she says.

Tonight I sauteed 1 3/4 lbs. of chicken livers in butter and olive oil with chopped onions and a little white wine (vermouth, actually, which is what I usually use for cooking--learned that from Julia Child). Came out great. Had some for dinner and will take the rest to work tomorrow. These only cost $1.59/lb. (vs. $4 for hamburger) and have to be better for you. Well, I looked them up here. They're very high in cholesterol (but it doesn't say which kinds). But my doctor says I don't have a cholesterol problem since I have a high level of good cholesterol.

Watching a little of Michael Jackson's memorial service. Very nicely done. But enough for me. Watching "The Stagers" now.

Karl Rove on Sarah Palin's quitting office

From this WSJ story.

"If she wanted to escape the ethics investigations and save the taxpayers money, she's now done that," he said. Unfortunately, he added, her decision "sent a signal that if you do this kind of thing to a sitting governor like her, you can drive her out of office."

From Salon

Monday night

My friend in Canada got his new computer today. He'd told me yesterday he wouldn't have it set up till Friday, but he had it up and running shortly after he bought it. I suspected he would, since he told me he became suicidal when the old computer died. He sent me an email earlier today (from the new computer) and I called him when I got home. All is going well on the northern front.

I loaded Thunderbird email on the new netbook, just to see how it works (it came with Outlook Express). I also got a Gmail account. People rave about it so I thought I'd try it. (I used to have Hotmail, etc., etc., but always preferred the email installed on the computer since it was faster.)

Today was really busy at work.