It Makes It Look Friendly!

Conversations With A Table

I was going to post about something else entirely, but I saw this clip (h/t) and was reminded, once again, that a) the people protesting against health care reform are clueless sheep who do whatever Faux Noise and Hate Talk Radio tell them to do -- sans any relation to reality -- and, b) I wish Barney Frank was my Congressman.



From the YouTube page:

At a Barney Frank town hall meeting in Dartmouth, MA, a constituent asks, "Why are you supporting this Nazi policy?" Frank responds: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" He then calls her approach "vile, contemptible nonsense." He closes by saying: "Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table."

Old -v- New

I've been using one of Jen's old Spanish/English dictionaries for my classes (both learning and teaching):







But, as you can see, it's... well-broken-in.

Jen's dad is visiting, and brought me this:






Thanks, Dick!

In Case You Want To Try It

I fixed dinner tonight for all of us (including Jen's dad, who's in town for a visit), preparing one of my favorite dishes, tuna casserole.

Now, I suspect many of you have had tuna casserole (or "hot dish", for some of you), but I doubt you've had it the way I fix it -- which I learned from my mom. So here you go....


(Bob's) Mom's Tuna Casserole

1 medium onion
2 T butter
1 1½ cups uncooked rice
3 cups water
1 cube (or equivalent) bouillon -- I use beef, but others would work
1 can Cream o' Mushroom soup
2 cans tuna, drained (save "juice")
As much Colby Cheddar as you can stand (or a 12 oz. package)

Preheat oven to 325°F (170°C)

Melt butter in sauce pot, chop onion and lightly sauté in the butter. Add rice and stir. Add water, tuna "juice" and bouillon and bring to a boil. Cook rice until done (approx 15-20 minutes, depending on location and altitude).

In casserole dish, layer rice, tuna, cream o' mushroom and cheese -- twice. I like to mix the tuna and cream o' together for ease of layering.

Bake for 30 minutes*, serve, and enjoy.

*You want to have a lightly browned top layer of cheese in the final product, so in an electric oven, place rack at bottom of oven, and use both top and bottom element. In a gas stove, put dish in broiler for a couple of minutes at the end -- but make sure you don't burn the cheese.


I would have included a photo of the finished product, but I didn't think about it before we ate.

The New Nexus of Computationing

As Jen has said, we now have a new blogging ops (h/t to Lisa) downstairs.

First, I had to learn how to use Google SketchUp, which, with a li'l help from Jen, I think I managed alright, and came up with this layout:


Then it was get all the stuff in there and set up. It's still a bit of a pile of stuff right now, but we'll get it all smoothed out and arranged to our liking soon, I'm sure.




Also, sorry about the poor quality of these pics, they were taken after dark and my camera isn't the best.




I had to stop taking pictures then. As you can (sort of) see, Raxi was giving me the laser eye from the chair in the lower photo. I've learned it's best not to push teh kitteh.

Yes, Another Sunset Post

This was Wednesday evening. Jen and I were sitting at the new table playing cards and fixing dinner, and I looked out the window to see....

The Guitar Jams in Heaven Just Got Even Better

Les Paul, the man who "was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar", "Paul was dissatisfied with the acoustic guitars that were sold in the mid 1930s and began experimenting with a few designs for an electric model on his own. Famously, he created 'The Log,' which was nothing more than a length of common 4" x 4" lumber with bridge, guitar neck, and pickup attached." (Wikipedia), died this morning at age 94.

Here he is, at age 82, playing the hell out of the instrument he helped create:

Oh.

Busy day today, and we were watching the first few episodes of Torchwood tonight. Yes, I've hooked Jen on another TV show.

Peace on ya, y'all!

The Bottle Was Dusty But The Liquor Was Clean

Today in my Level III Class (#1 -- I now have two of them) I got to talk about The Grateful Dead and Deadheads.

How cool is that?

This Is Almost Perfect...

...except for the fact that it denigrates the Viking Horde:



And this picture is definitely worth at least a thousand words:



These and many others over at Teh Kos.
(h/t to Gordon Smith over at Scrutiny Hooligans)

Get The Government Out Of The Public Sector!

Found via Dr. Zaius, the perfect rejoinder to those "get your gummint off my bidness" morans:

randomnoise Dec 20, 2004, at Something Awful....

I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE SHITHEEL this morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration. At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school. After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department. I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right I'm pretty sure I missed a few. I wonder what kind of fun could fall out from cleaning it up a bit and tossing it at a few newspapers comments sections edit: needs some consumer product safety commission somewhere at least

Tipping Point?

So I've been mulling over this whole load of crap that Big Insurance and Big Pharma are trying to pass off as "grassroots" opposition to health care reform -- which, by the way, polls are consistently showing around a 65 to 70 percent favorable, so it appears that the Loud Noises campaign isn't working -- and I've wanted to write more about it.

Then I read this post by Chet Scoville.

So, what he said.

Duh Of The Day

Oddly enough, via Discovery Channel online:

Wildfires May Impact Air Quality, Damage Lungs

The article is informative -- it is Discovery, after all, but ... c'mon, that's like saying:

Mathematicians Discover That One Plus One Is Two

A $73 Million Retirement Package?!?!?

CNN won't air this ad, but I sure will....



Hat tip to Michael J.W. Stickings, who points out that, despite the stated reason,

“This ad does not comply with our clearance guidelines because it unnecessarily singles out an individual company and person.”

they are most likely refusing to air the ad because Big Insurance and Big Pharma spend beaucoups bucks on advertising -- and CNN won't allow anything to hurt their bottom line.

Even the needless deaths of thousands of people.

Also, it's not too late to contact your Congressvermins (Representative and Senators) and let them know how you feel about the state of health care in the US.

The wingnut sheep have been reduced to trying to shout down legislators, so well-reasoned phone calls, faxes, and emails will likely be even more productive than usual.

Also Too (También)

Remember my post on Monday? About the new class that was supposed to start a couple weeks ago, or maybe this past Monday, or possibly a week from next September????

It started tonight.

This is an upper-intermediate English (second language) class, and these folks are ready to rock and roll! None of your basic parts of speech crap for these people, oh no. Unfortunately, a lot of what I had for this first class was just that, because I didn't really know what level of expertise would be exhibited by this new group.

Best of all, they could understand me well -- which, I've found, isn't often the case for a person (or persons) listening to a non-native language.

This should be fun....

:)

(Found) Photo of the Day

(found at Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!)

Yeah, We Get Some Intense Sunsets Here In Costa Rica

Last night's sunset was so intense that if I was using film it would probably have burned a hole in the negative....

All I did was resize the images. No enhancements.


I went upstairs to ask Jen a question, and saw the edges of this. Of course, I had to go back down and grab my camera and go out into the street (there's a two-story house on the west side of our apartments).


After taking the first shot, I changed the "EV" setting on the camera, which is like a shutter speed (I don't know nothin' about this camera except that it was inexpensive and it has a take-picture-now button), to try and get a better shot. Still too intense.


So I went back inside and shot this out the kitchen window (see the aforementioned house?). Finally, a decent shot!!!

And Another Thing...

Okay, it's not really another thing, but a thing.

At least I don't remember talking about this before.

Anyway, I have a new class that was supposed to start tonight. Another Level III (that's intermediate) Conversational English class. I had a private session with a student this morning (that is new, too), and whilst at the school, asked about the class tonight -- to clarify, because in one place I had written 5 August as the start date, but in an email, the date of 3 August was said.

"Oh, I think that's starting next Monday. Or maybe Wednesday. I'll find out and let you know after your session."

"Okay," I replied, and went off to work with my new student -- who, by the way, speaks very good English (and wants to be even better) and had not, before today, taken any classes. TV and movies. And books. Pretty impressive, IMHO.

So, session ends, I go back to the front desk to verify... "Sorry, he's gone."

"Ummm." Oh, did I mention that the person to whom I had asked the question is the only upper staff person who actually speaks more than a very broken English?

Later in the day, Jen called the school for me and the person who answered the phone (who is one of the front desk workers) looked it up and said, "That class starts next Wednesday."

Good enough.

Oh, by the way, I just logged into my email and had a message (timestamp 7:45 local) from the person to whom I spoke this morning, saying that the class does indeed start next week. On Monday.

And, his answer to my question came through 45 minutes after the class was to have started (if, indeed, it had started today).

Wow, That Was... A Letdown

So, Costa Rica is a seismically active place. After all, there are active volcanoes here. I've been here a little over five months and hadn't yet experienced an earthquake.

Until sometime in the middle of the night on Fri/Sat. Jen told me when we got up yesterday morning that there was a small one.

And I slept through it. How unfair.

Well!! Last night, as we watched Alladin with Julia, I felt a tremor of the couch... and then realized -- just as Jen said it -- that my foot, which was on the tiled floor (on top of a concrete pad), felt the same tremor.

(image from here)

I have now experienced my first Central American earthquake.

My Latest Project

There has been no finish applied yet -- hence the hippie 'tablecloth' -- and I have a couple other tweaks to do on it, but here's the new table I'm building for dining/sewing/gaming/whatevering.

Building furniture is made more complicated by a lack of power tools, but it's not too bad....