Monday night

Was tired of making chili with ground beef, so tonight I made a load of Cuban-style Picadillo. Found some recipes on the Internet and consulted them. Came out great. Having it for dinner and will take some to work for lunch. Also made a little white rice to go with it. Had to run to the store to get pitted olives. I'd bought over 2 1/2 lbs. of lean ground beef (on sale) last Friday and had to cook it soon. Also bought a couple of cans of "ready-to-eat" black beans.

Watching Rachel Maddow now. Anthony Bourdain was a repeat of one I'd seen recently (on Chicago). Good but I switched to a new show on HGTV at 10:30. Did some vacuuming in the cat box area to prevent the spread of cat litter throughout the house. I have to say, if I didn't have cats, this place would stay a lot cleaner. But they're worth it.

Did some research on nicotine. Saw this (among other things) in the Wikipedia: "Technically, nicotine is not significantly addictive, as nicotine administered alone does not produce significant reinforcing properties.^[35] However, only after coadministration with an MAOI, such as those found in tobacco, nicotine produces significant behavioral sensitization, a measure of addiction potential. This is similar in effect to amphetamine.^[36]"

This also:

The primary therapeutic use of nicotine is in treating nicotine dependence in order to eliminate smoking with its risks to health. Controlled levels of nicotine are given to patients through gums, dermal patches, lozenges, electronic/substitute cigarettes or nasal sprays in an effort to wean them off their dependence.

However, in a few situations, smoking has been observed to apparently be of therapeutic value to patients. These are often referred to as "Smoker’s Paradoxes".^[45] Although in most cases the actual mechanism is understood only poorly or not at all, it is generally believed that the principal beneficial action is due to the nicotine administered, and that administration of nicotine without smoking may be as beneficial as smoking, without the higher risk to health due to tar and other ingredients found in tobacco. . . .

Switching back and forth between the electronic cigarette and the "analog" cigarette tonight. The e-cig as currently configured is way too strong for me. (I'm doing something about it.) Judging by my experience with this thing, I've realized I'm not that much of a nicotine addict. See this too:

The amount of nicotine absorbed by the body from smoking depends on many factors, including the type of tobacco, whether the smoke is inhaled, and whether a filter is used. For chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco, snus and snuff, which are held in the mouth between the lip and gum, or taken in the nose, the amount released into the body tends to be much greater than smoked tobacco.

Good that the nicotine level in the e-cig can be controlled.