a place of miscellany
Its a good evening! Both the snakes have an interest in food. Neither of them have taken any interest since September; and now that they’re back on feed it means I’ll be back to 100% rating on have pets that have a will to continue their own existence!
Over on the SomethingAwful forums, someone posted a “tell me how to make the best of my commute” thread. most of it is filled with “get satellite radio” or “listen to audiobooks.”
I just use that time to think about how unhappy I am and how much work deeply usurps my confidence. The drive home is largely similar but there are less cars.
I have a twin out there apparently.
Tags: car, commute, driving
As I’ve posted before, Toowoomba Pasta from Outback Steakhouse is my favorite food of all time. Outback decided sometime in 2005 to stop putting it on the menu, and adding $3 to the prices of everything else, giving us no reason to ever go back there. There was a point we were at Outback two to three times a week. They knew us there. One of the waitstaff used to take his breaks at our table to chat.
Then they dumped it, and Ive been looking for over 3 years to find a decent recipe. Ive tried with 4 other recipes, and nothing I could do to tweak them ever got close. Every now and then, Outback will put it back on their menu, but that only happens once every six to nine months. The last time I found it was around Thanksgiving, and I had to drive into CT to get it.
Someone over at Recipezaar came up with a near exact replica. They account for not having fresh crawfish available, but do note its a bit spicier than the outback dish. Thats easily taken care of.
Outback Steakhouse Toowoomba Pasta Copycat Recipe Recipe | Recipezaar
Tags: copycat, crawfish, outback, outback steakhouse, recipe, secret recipe, shrimp, toowoomba, toowoomba pasta, toowoombah, toowoombah pastaWell, it looks like everything is set with my car finally. I’ve got a 2003 Toyota Matrix, which I got 6 years and 1 week ago today, on April 10th. You’d think I’d have more than 52,000 miles on it.
Kudos to my father for hearing about a recall on the radio and remembering I havent used my driver’s side power-windows in 6 months. It wobbled a little TOO much and made weird sounds. I just really didnt have the $ to fix it. Its not worth $600 now to make things easier at a drive-thru.
But yeah, 662,000 cars recalled due to power window faults. My VIN was on the list of affected models. Toyota didnt even sent out the notification letters yet, so they were pretty surprised I even knew and that I wanted to get it fixed this fast. I made an appointment for today at 7:30. I got my snow tires off yesterday and got the annual inspection done with. Everything was done quick.
Apparently a little too quick.
Toyota took about an hour, and when they went to check me out they noticed my inspection was expiring at the end of the month.
“It shouldn’t be. I got it taken care of yesterday at 1″
“Well.. they didn’t replace your sticker, and they missed your dead brake light bulbs and dead license plate bulb.”
“”Allllllright. OK. I will be calling them as soon as I get back to work”
North Road got things squared away almost immediately. I was back in during lunch at 1 to get the inspection done. The person who worked yesterday on my Matrix missed the “inspection” on the bottom of my worksheet, even though I was charged for it. I can’t blame them, they were HUGELY backed up due to a 4.5 hour late equipment delivery that used up a bay. I was back out in 20 minutes, my car cleanly passed, and my lightbulb work completed at no charge.
So, thanks to North Road to fixing me up fast and getting me back to work within my lunch hour. It was a goof and it was caught early, and they got me in ASAP to address it. Thats the reason I go back. Donna had an issue with a faulty spark plug there that they got fixed immediately too.
I’m just glad I had the work scheduled at Toyota, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have noticed until I got pulled over for an expired inspection or dead brake lights
Tags: 2003, 2004, automobile, car, maintenence, matrix, North Road Auto, pontiac vibe recall, Poughkeepsie, recall, toyota, toyota corolla recall, toyota matrix, toyota matrix recallIts weird the things you don’t think others really pick up, but when stuff like this hits the news you realize who really pays attention
Longtime TV actor Stanley Kamel, who has played a number of creepy characters and most recently was the long-suffering psychiatrist on Monk, has died of a heart attack at age 65.
Monk’s psychiatrist passes at 65
I got eight contacts today (so far) that Stanley Kamel had passed. I guess people realized I am a HUGE fan of Monk. I know a few people, such as my parents and Donna, knew I liked of the show but I didn’t realize I had dropped hints to others, or had posted online that I was so fond of the show. Its one thing if a major character passes, but its another for a tertiary one to go like this and people still keep you in mind.
Honestly? I think it will be great for the program. For Season 5, we’ll see the show start again with Adrian devastated by the death or “relocation” of the psychiatrist he’s had for over a decade. There will probably be a sub-plot of replacing him, and going through a handful of substitutes until he finds a new doctor to fill the void. Probably one that offers a new slant on his condition. I forsee the search taking 2 episodes minimum, but probably 4-6 to make it clear that the change is difficult for Monk.
With today’s networks and low American attention span? I’ll settle on 3 episodes. If USA and NBC try to do it in 1, I’ll be very disappointed.
Charles Kroger wasn’t a primary character in the show, but still an important one. I’m sure the writers will have another psych cast, because leaving him out from the remainder of the series would leave a noticeable void.
Godspeed, Doctor Kroger. You will be missed.
Tags: adrian monk, charles kroger, dead, death pool, doctor kroger, monk, nbc, stanley kamel, usa, usa networksThank you Orbitcast for bringing this up first. I will continue to have radio to listen to!
Opie and Anthony have renewed their contract with CBS Radio to continue to broadcast their morning radio show on both CBS and XM Satellite Radio.
[Opie & Anthony renew contract with CBS - Orbitcast.com]
Tags: anthony, cbs, contract, opie, opie & anthony, opie and anthony, radio, renew, renewed, satellite, shit radio, terrestrial, viacom, xm, xm radio, xm satellite, xm satellite radioSling Media is doing a lot these days to anger me. First Slingplayer 2.0 was pushed back, and now the Slingcatcher is offset. Theyve been showing this off for over a year now. This is getting old
SlingCatcher delayed–again | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
The makers of the popular Slingbox have been promising the SlingCatcher for almost a year and half now. And once again, the projected release date will come and go quietly.
Come on guys, this is all I’ve wanted since it was announced. Right now I’m watching my sling stuff from CT piped to a dying laptop, running various programs to either hibernate the system or kill the processes and turn off the monitor. I dont CARE about streaming media from a local machine on the network. I want to capture a stream from a remote source, put it on my television, and thats it. The fact you’re giving me a remote with the package is 10x more than I expected.
Watching television on a laptop screen blows. Come on sling.. help me out
Tags: delay, sling, sling catcher, sling player, slingcatcher, slingmedia, slingplayerYou are currently browsing the gambit.org weblog archives for the month April, 2008.
