alexist

I have 2 invite codes; let me know if you want them...

(though I'm still posting here, from laziness ;) )

I'm up at my parents' for a few days. It took me 7 hours to get here. They closed a lane of I-78 and it took me over an hour to go 7 miles (there are mile markers). Then I ended up at the Holland Tunnel, had to get uptown, and it all meant I didn't hit the Midtown Tunnel till 3pm. Ugh. I was so tired I didn't notice I was in a cash only lane and got stopped by a toll taker. I apologized profusely. (I've gotten used to roads where all lanes take EZ-Pass.)

Today I had a doctor's appointment. It would seem that I have managed to lose 35 lbs over the past 8 months, including 10 in the past 6 weeks. Wow.

It has rained here for most of the past 2 weeks. Except, oddly, the weekends. We got a total of 7" in May and 1.6" so far in June. When it hasn't been raining, it's been humid. Yuck.

We took Aliza to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, which was a hit (though, McDonalds sponsorship in one exhbit, tut tut). She was a little young for a couple of things, but she had a great time playing with everything--especially the walking piano and the drum set. Unfortunately my camera flash decided not to work, so no pictures. Afterwards we went for Italian food. Aliza was well behaved (though she got out of her chair and stood in the corner behind our table) until she took a mouthful of Neil's pasta, which had crushed red pepper in it. I had to take her for a walk to calm her down.

She's also finally found another fruit she likes, besides bananas. She now loves blueberries. She wasn't sure what to do with strawberries. If we get a run of sunny weather (I hope, I hope) I'll take her to the strawberry U-Pick and see if I can get her interested.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Braised-Beef-Short-Ribs-235923

Sans bacon, and I used a bit more onion and garlic in the cooking, and beef stock instead of veal (because that's what I had). Also, the sauce does need to be boiled down, although I knew (from comments) that it needed to be thickened with a roux as well (which I did). I used 3 Tb flour to 3 Tb oil, to err on the safe side--as predicted, not enough, though I wouldn't want to be over-reliant on a starch thickener.

If you make it, braise the beef the day before, and refrigerate it, so you can remove the fat. Then all you have to do is make the vegetables. I served it with egg noodles, but potatoes would also be good.

If you have a food processor, you can shorten the prep time to almost nothing by chopping the vegetables in it--they're going to cook to mush anyway so there's no need to cut them into tiny neat dice.

It was delicious--the meat was falling apart tender and the sauce was flavorful.

$1500!!! FFS. It included 6.5 hours of labor, which is silly, but hey.

Submitted a claim. Oddly, it's a relief, mostly because it's so far over the deductible.

This morning, we headed to the DMV to get new licenses. This had involved minor drama. PA requires proof of residency (bills, etc). Further, it requires you to re-register your car within 21 days of moving to the state. Finally, in order to register your car in PA, you need a PA drivers license. Um.

Anyway, I got a Verizon bill yesterday, and along with our lease, that sufficed. Neil was a bit nervous as he didn't have a bill, but they accepted the letter from Pennsylvania Power & Light demanding ID since we'd never been customers before. I then re-registered my car and got PA plates.

Unfortunately, when I had to bring my car up (they needed to check the VIN against the title) I hit a concrete planter and cracked the goddamn bumper. Honda bumpers are practically disposable. It's not worth submitting it to insurance (we have comprehensive, but it's a $500 deductible). I'm not happy. We've had so many expenses lately, and we still have more to come.

A week after we got FiOS installed, we began to have problems with our upstairs set top box. It kept resetting itself. I called Verizon. After navigating my way through the prompts, I was told that the 7000 series has a known fault where it keeps resetting itself if the TV is plugged into the box (daisy chain style) rather than into the wall. I fixed it.

Still kept happening. I called again. This time they remotely reset the box.

Still happened. I called AGAIN, and they promised to send me a new box.

The next morning, I got a call from UPS. Verizon's fucking address problem meant that they couldn't deliver our box. I gave them the correct one. It didn't turn up.

Next day, Neil called Verizon. He sorted out our address, and got a tracking number. UPS' website claims it was rescheduled for delivery today. However, no tracking information later than Friday and there's something about them sending me a postcard to reschedule delivery. WTF?

(see: http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/track?HTMLVersion=5.0&loc=en_US&Requester=UPSHome&trackNums=1Z5X18F21323043903&track.x=track)

I just called UPS and they claim it IS going to be delivered today by 7pm. Hmm. I'm suspicious.

ETA: Delivered! Somehow they put ZIP code 17575 on it. Which is not exactly local.

1 (could be 2 but I think only 1) of the boxes of books I left in my parents' garage has gone missing.

I am now missing about 60 books :( End of the alphabet for trade paperbacks, beginning of the mass market paperbacks, several linguistics books, 3 cookbooks, and a couple of random hardcovers. I actually want many of these books, so they'll have to be replaced over time. The only silver lining is that Neil owns a few of the missing ones, so I don't have to replace those.

To make it even more fun, some of the books were cheap mass market paperbacks that I picked up used to begin with, but they're no longer published in those editions and I don't have a good used bookstore near me. With shipping, it may not make sense to even try to find them online. (I have Amazon Prime for anything I buy new, so the Amazon discount isn't eaten by shipping.)

I was discussing Caesarean recovery with some friends. blah blah blah, give my experience, "I don't know what exactly they put in the epidural for post-op pain, but apparently diamorphine is the standard, so I assume that's what I got."

Friend (CNM): "Dude. Diamorphine is heroin."

Um. No wonder I felt fantastic. That explains a LOT.