THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Friday, February 27, 2009

Jessica Simpson Story Applied to the Weiss Household

I was in the grocery store reading the highly authoritative tabloids. There was a story about Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo (image on the left). They are dating and Tony told Jessica he was tired of restaurant food (the image accompanies an article about Jessica and her mom after they had just left a Chili's restaurant).

Jessica called Rachel Ray for help. Rachel had Jessica on her (rachel's) show once and they made pretzel chicken.

I told this story to Mrs Perkins (a member of our Synagogue who does a lot of food related work). After discussing the problems with the pretzel chicken (its very 'busy' and also neither Jessica nor Tony need the calories), Mrs Perkins suggested rice and Baked Chicken. This is a two in one dish where the rice is partly done in a pan then put into the pot before the chicken and finished in the oven. It takes a lot less work then the pretzel chicken and has less fat. Beth makes this dish a lot (so I'm told). We'll try it out sometime in our house.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:18 PM

A Happy Service Station Story

George brought one of our cars to an Exxon service station near the Washington Law School (where he attends). It was for an oil change. The station called him later in the day and said that the brakes were making noise and they wanted to check them. This would cost $40.

G asked if the brake fluid level was OK.

The service station said, "yes".

Then G said that both brake pads and both brake shoes had both been changed recently and asked what else could be making noise.

The service station said that they couldn't think of anything else that could make noise and that sometimes, replacement brake parts make noise as they don't fit as precisely as the original equipment. But they still wanted to check.

G gave approval. When he picked up the car the station admitted that they hadn't found anything wrong and in retrospect they had no justification for checking so they didn't charge the $40.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:13 PM

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Diet Staples for George

It seems I am buying 3 or 4 quart sized bottles of cranberry juice a week and G is buying 3 or 4 2 pound bags of pretzels a week.

Since Ann and I eat very little of the latter and drink very little of the former, it seems that at about 50% of George's nutrition intake per week is pretzels and cranberry juice. The cranberry juice we buy is the 'light' kind so a quart has only about 800 calories. The pretzels have a lot of calories but also a lot of fiber. On the other hand, they only cover a few of the vitamins.

Uh Oh.

posted by Martin Weiss # 6:45 PM

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Rachmaninoff Ends Sabbath

Stanley Cohen was visiting us this Sabbath. This was the 6th annual visit (the 5th in the week after President's day).

The lamb/beef dish I made came out quite well. It was a minimum spice dish with just one onion on the bottom of the meat.

After Sabbath was over, we dropped Stanley at the Metrorail and went to a concert given by Lou Essers in memory of his daughter (who died at age 28). Apparently she had loved the Sergei Rachmaninoff's piano concerto #2 because that is what he played (plus some other short personally composed pieces). He is a pcychologist who works at the NIH but many years ago he was an accomplished musician and for the two years after his daughter's death he started practicing again. Personally, I find R's concerto #2 far too complicated to enjoy completely and I liked his composed shorts better. Also, Lou forgot to put on the program that the concerto is in 3 movements and some people clapped after the first movement was over. If I was playing the piano, I would have gotten a bit off my game by this but it didn't bother Lou.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:43 PM

Friday, February 20, 2009

A Downtown Journey

I scheduled a visit to southeast Washington DC for the farewell party for an employee I worked with when I was with the FHWA. This was my first trip to SE DC since September when I retired.

This day just happened to be one with a transit emergency that knocked out much of the orange and blue line. I ended up using a cab for part of the trip on the way there and using a bus for part of the trip on the way back (using a bus for the way there would have made me late).

posted by Martin Weiss # 7:47 AM

Friday, February 13, 2009

I Dreamt I Was A Ghost

I dreamt that I had died and I became a ghost. As a ghost I could appear before people and seem real. I attended my funeral. Two people were giving eulogies. One was named Henry Fleet (which the name of a street nearby). The other was someone named Colonel McBride (I have no idea who that is or is is supposed to be).

In my dream, I spoke for awhile to my father (obviously another ghost). Then I started talking to people who were still alive. I would speak to them for long enough that I could then say to them "Don't you realize that I died?" and when they said, "Yeah", I would say, "Then how do you know its me?" The image at the top left was taken by Reese Pitman and is supposed to be a photo of a ghost.

I fell back asleep and had some other dreams. In one I had cross bred a tulip with a daisy.

For what it's worth, Henry Fleet was an explorer of the Chesapeake Bay before the first colonies in Maryland.

There was a Colonel McBride in the 20th century who developed a more accurate and powerful mortar.

There is a country and western singer named Martina McBride.

There is a drinking song (obscenity alert) called Colonel McBride Raiders.

posted by Martin Weiss # 7:26 AM

Thursday, February 05, 2009

It Seems Strange to Buy Stamps On Line

I think I have purchased USPS Stamps before on line but it certainly seems strange to do it. I bought some more today.

The strangeness would be similar to buying jelly doughnuts in a health food store or buying soda in a liquor store.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:15 PM