Changing the world...one MMP at a time!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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As long as you give it back in good condition.
Or you can rent it… :slight_smile:

Thanks for the explanations. I guess… You had my head spinning half way through the second paragraph, and I consider myself to be pretty technologically savvy…! Basically, you’re saying that modern on-board computers are capable of handling more than just Gasoline + 80/20 N[sub]2[/sub]/O[sub]2[/sub] mixtures, and fixing the ration between Gas and air, but are pretty much capable of handing arbitrary A/B/C/D ratios of Gasoline, N[sub]2[/sub], O[sub]2[/sub] and H[sub]2[/sub]?

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Soooooooo sleepy right now. And I have a meeting at church tonight. I hope my snoring doesn’t interfere with them actually getting business accomplished during the meeting. :o (That’s me yawning.)

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I have 3 more class periods until I am done with grad school. Glory be.
And I need to start my paper tonight. I have the sources, at least. #2 son’s doctor’s appt was canceled because they changed the rules on me and now he needs a 6th grade physical, not a 5th grade one. So, I pulled him out of school early and he missed orchestra for nothing. :rolleyes:

I am in a funk. I did some yard work earlier, which was good. I just don’t want to do this paper. It’s dull. Library practicum tomorrow. My life is boring.

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It’s not so much that the computers can handle all those different substances, per se, as it’s more that they adjust FASTER. On an old carbureted car there’s no adjustment at all–that’s why old cars used to go sluggish when you’d go up a mountain, air pressure differential caused the fuel mix to be off. OBD-I cars can react to changing conditions by adjusting fuel to air but they don’t poll the engine very often so there’s a lag time–as you continue to supplement with hydrogen they lean out but the initial settings will cause the fuel to be overrich at first until the computer catches up, so there will be unnecessary gas usage at the start of trips that gets fixed later on. Newer OBD-II cars are monitoring themselves on every cylinder combustion and can diagnose problems and work around them–if you have a malfed spark plug on one cylinder the computer can see this and help to route around the problem a bit, for instance. The newer car can see that for some unknown reason the fuel coming in is inextricably rich and will correspondingly lessen the amount of fuel it’s putting into the mix to compensate for the added richness–which means you use less gas throughout the trip. They also monitor emissions as a diagnostic tool as well, because your outputs can be indicative of something gone awry somewhere in the system. It’s telling that adding an HHO generator does NOT cause a “check engine light.” The car is fine with it.

65

I made a yummerrific chickie-noodle soup and we had 2 bowls each. There’s plenty left for a couple of lunches. And the pineapple upsidedown cake smells really, really good!! We’ll be snarfing it down a little later. It’ll be cut into 9 squares, with a cherry on each. **FCD ** claims I made only one piece of cake with 9 cherries. I foresee much discussion about that.

It was an on-line recipe. If it’s as good as it smells, I’ll share the link.

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Mm that sounds yummy Mooooom. One of the guys at work just sent an email about Girl Guide cookies, but I don’t think I’ll see them until tomorrow (the tease!)

Maybe I’ll just break down and stop at the Mac’s for a slush and a chocolate bar. Something small to keep me from giving in and stopping downtown for fast food.

I’m going to try a new recipe next weekend, there was a yummy sounding one for scallop chowder and it doesn’t make too much so if it doesn’t work, then I won’t be wasting a lot like I did the last time I attempted a chowder.

Almost time to leave…

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ok - all caught up

Smarty - all I can say is wow! That and I wish you success as you and your teammates work out the kinks. I’m all for going back to spending less than $20/week on gas.
er, I read everything - I just haven’t retained anyting beyond the OP… :smack:
okay - tales:

Chapter One: In which it is amazing I made it out of the house at all.

If you recall, I was quite under the weather most of last week. And according to all reports, I was looking at another lousy weather day for the drive. But I got up early, did the mending that needed doing, organized my tote bag, and started looking for the blue bag o’ bling in which I keep all my Sweet Adelines related jewelry. It was not anywhere that I looked, and I looked every logical place. I looked in last year’s tote, September’s tote, the top of the piano (which is near the ironing board on which sits the suitcase when I am not travelling - downstairs so I don’t have to lug it up and down everytime I go somewhere). I looked in totes I haven’t used in years, I looked on shelves that haven’t been dusted since the year of the flood. I was very upset and ready to say ‘screw it’. (yeah - I hadn’t had any caffeine yet). But I resigned myself to having to restock my collection, and loaded the car and took off to pick up my friend.

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Hey! Where’s chapter 2? Damned electronic books, they don’t make 'em like they used to…

Off to make dinner and start book 3, Brilliance of the Moon: Tales of the Otori.

What paper?

69

It was Haircut Day for this building today. This is one of the very few commercial buildings in SF that are covered with ivy on pretty much every vertical surface that isn’t a window. and it was really scraggly, so the gardeners came by and gave the place a trim.

And to think that at home, my treatment for ivy is liberal and repeated applications of Roundup.

I’m just zonked. Did I mention how much I hate The Crud when it’s a lingering after-effect of The Sick? Worse is I can’t say more than about five words without wheezing and losing my voice.

70

I’m going to hazard a guess that your bag o’ jewelry was in the car, Rosie, but that’s just me. Things do have a way of hiding, don’t they? Papa Tigs spent a frustrating hour yesterday trying to figure out where on earth his debit card had disappeared to. After hunting everywhere it could be and a lot more places it probably couldn’t, it turned up right in his wallet where it belongs, which he claims was the first place he’d looked and it wasn’t there the first time. We blamed the spacewarp. :smiley:

I’ve been having a frustrating day. I’ve been working as best I can, but I feel really, really crummy today. Just aching all over, and ridiculously tired. I really hope I feel better tomorrow; I’m waaaay behind on work, but today I just couldn’t work my way up to giving a rat’s patootie about it. :frowning:

I forgot to say that HRH just gets cuter every picture you show us, Dotty! With those curls, she is one doll! Was that necklace really a practical gift for a toddler, however? :dubious: Or is there some cultural thing I’m missing here? It sure looked like she could break it with one good yank, but that’s just my maternal paranoia speaking up. (Motto: It’s not paranoia if they really ARE watching you!)

Okay. Back to struggling to finish the last bit of this stupid and annoying job.

71

I want the turkey hash recipe, please.

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Very interesting OP, Smartie. Any viable solution to reduce the amount of petroleum-based energy we use would be very welcome.

I WANNA read chapter 2!!!

Also: Eleanor <insert middle name here> Rigby, you sit yourself down and get started on that paper!!! You do realize that it and a few paltry hours of classes are all that stands between you and graduation? Right? A graduation you (and we) have LONG looked forward to. A graduation that symbolizes your escape from nursing into a nice, warm life of librarianship. So, no more Tales of the Otori until you’ve made an honest start. Or else. We’ll ground you. Or force you to work extra hours with Annoying Ethnic CoWorker. (Yes, I know, I always use too many words.)

Of course Nat is ahead of the average baby! He’s a Mumper Baby. And a ninja.

I’m making noodles (form to be determined yet) with jarred sketti sauce. I’m tired and seem to be exhibiting flu symptoms. My boss has been out with the flu for more than a week and one of my other work friends just come down with it over the weekend. I CANNOT GET THE SICK. I have too much work AND fun things to do in the next couple weeks!!! I’m hoping it’s all psychosomatic and/or allergies and that I’ll be able to sleep it off by tomorrow morning.

It’s beautiful outside. I went out for a walk at lunch. Also, when I left work, it felt wonderful to be out in the sunny warmth (over 70 Amurkin degrees). Yay!

I’m sure I have more to say, but I can’t remember what it was.

GT

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Me too. (This is one of the items I forgot. Oh, and I have co-workers who make turkey boobies in a crockpot. They don’t really add much outside of salt and pepper and say it comes out yum. I would add what others upthread have suggested.

I’m done for now.

Really.

GT

74

No, Tigs, I have not yet found the little blue bag o’ bling. And I did replenish my collection - no exactly, but close - with a few new things added. Keep in my that I am a clutterbug, so the chances are reasonable (50/50) that I will find it eventually - if I ever get around to declutterfying.

Chapter Two: In Which Sheraton goes on The List

Friend and I arrived at the hotel around 2 pm. (we’d have been earlier, but I got us lost - along the exact same route we’ve taken the last 7 years.) Naturally, the room wasn’t ready, but we’d expected that. At 3:15, friend went down to see if the room was ready yet - it was not. At 3:40, I went down to see if the room was ready. It was not. I was fuming. Why wasn’t the room ready yet? Because some Starwoods Gold member had requested a 4pm checkout. So I asked to see the manager. “How do you authorize a 4pm checkout when you know you have a convention coming in that day?” “He’s a Gold member - he’s entitled to it” “I’m a Gold Member! What about my 2:00pm check in?” “If you don’t mind being on a different floor than the rest of your chorus, we may be able to accomodate you” :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: “But don’t worry, he’ll be out of there shortly and housekeeping will have to room ready for you by 4:30” Meanwhile, I have not had a chance to change into my walking outfit (a casual costume worn by choruses when not on stage) and we were going to dinner at 4:45. So at 4:30 I asked about the room. Nope, not yet. I asked at 4:44. Nope, not yet. We got back from dinner around 6:30, and my cell phone was ringing (I’d giving the desk my number so I could go back to the convention and out to dinner) “Your room is ready now.” Like I said: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: . So I took it out on my wallet. No, no, I indulged in retail therapy. :rolleyes: But Sheraton is now on The List.

75

The cake was very good. Slight changes - I didn’t use walnuts, but I did use butter in the cake batter. And I used a 9" square pan instead of a round one.

One of these days, I’m going to make a chocolate cake from scratch. mmmmmm chocolate cake…

Incidentally, anyone have a good chocolate buttercream frosting recipe?

76

Gulp. [sub]I seemed to have attracted GT’s ire.[/sub]

Well, I only read one chapter, and now it’s getting dark out so I’ll have to do something on my paper. And I DON’T HAVE a middle name. So there. My parents thought Eleanor was enough of a mouthful. Hey! Rigby could be my middle name! :smiley:

of course. The Tales of the Otori has some ninja like people in them. They are The Tribe–paid assassins, out for money. It’s a fantasy trilogy set in a sort of medieval Japan type world.

And now I have to go write an executive summary about gender issues in the library. Yawn.

77

Thanks bear! As it happens, I do have kosher salt, 'cause it’s, um, better! I also tend to put some apple and lemon inside the cavity inside any poultry I cook, so there I go! :smiley: I’ll get it in the oven in about 45 minutes, that gives the Teens and skiffman time to get home, wash up and change. (Well, probably just skiffman will change, as he is doing boat work…peee-yew!) And thanks smartie, turkey hash sounds yummy!

It is just supremely gorgeous outside. The only place prettier than the PNW when the sun shines is here on the isle. When The Son gets home I am going to make him go outside with me and take pictures of what is sprouting in the yard.

li-li I had my babies back in the day when you wee supposed to put them on their tummies, the thought being that if they were on their back if they urped they would choke on it. TNC is just a little more advanced than other babies his age. He’s gonna be fine. My grandbaby has sprouted teeth, the two front bottom and the two top which are supposed to be next to the front teeth! Babies are weird, but fun. Challenging, too. The next time TNC has one of “those” days, think about this, my kid called me last week, and after I said hello she said “How about I just put this bad baby in a box and mail her to you?” Seems my kid has a bad cold, and Tea was using her as a trampoline, lol! It’s kinda funny, from a gramma’s point of view! (Karma, baby, karma!)

Dotty your husband is a cutie, but HRH was totally The Bomb in her birthday pics! What a pretty little girl she is, and oh! Those eyes!

Yay on being done with school rigs!

Aww rosie, I hate it when stuff like that happens. Personally I put my stuff where I will remember where it is, but skiffman is famous for deciding that I will find things in “better” places, and is always moving my stuff. As for the hotel not having your room ready, that is just wrong, and I would write a scathing letter to the corporation.

Well, it just turned 4:00, I better get to the kitchen and begin slaving away! I’ll let you know how supper turns out later, perhaps with garden photos!

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Forgot to post that IMO, rosie’s jewelry bag is in a locker in the women’s lockerroom in my local health club.

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There were other issues with the hotel - it used to be a Wyndham - and when it was a Wyndham, we hardly ever had problems - just rubber chicken banquet dinners. When it was a Wyndham, the ladies rooms in the lobby and on the ballroom and mezzanine level had handicapped stalls. (I’m guessing the men’s rooms did as well, but I never checked) Sheraton took it over late in 2006, and removed all the handicapped stalls and made one “Family Restroom” in the lobby. So I would have to wait for the freakingly painfully slow elevator, cross to the opposite side of the lobby, recycle, recross the lobby, again wait for the freakingly painfully slow elevator, and rejoin the group. I ended missing 15 minutes at a stretch for a two minute recycle. AND the Family Restroom stank of cigarettes, I am going to assume from hotel staff that did not want to get caught, or maybe from some mom puffing in her kid’s face as she changed the diaper. (singers don’t smoke…much) There were other issues that did not directly affect me, but the buzz is that we will be looking for new quarters.

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Eerily simple Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

1lb Butter, softened
1lb Chocolate Chips, melted
1lb Confectioner’s Sugar
Milk, Cream, or Water as needed

Beat butter until fluffy. Add chocolate and beat until color begins to lighten. Carefully add in sugar. Add liquid of choice until the frosting reaches desired consistency. YUM!