THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Friday, December 30, 2011

Product Upgrade

For many years, one of my favorite cooking spices has been lemon pepper. I use it on beef, poultry, cooked vegetables and in casseroles and stews.

One of the problems with this product was that it absorbed water vapor and by the time I was half through the bottle it had become a solid mass rather than a shakeable powder.

This year (2011) was a nice change. Somebody fixed the water vapor absorption problem, at least on the brand (usually the house brand) of lemon pepper we use.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 1:03 PM

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Diet Results after two weeks.


On the left is chicken breast stuffed with spinach and mushrooms and tomatoes with broccoli on the side. It is pretty close to an ideal low carb meal. I haven't done this yet because it is too difficult to make.


However, after two weeks on the diet I have lost between 8 and 10 pounds. Of course it is pretty common for the first two weeks of a diet to be successful. The medium term and long term are more critical. We'll see.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 7:12 PM

Practical SpidySense

Spiderman famously has something called 'spidysense' which gives him a tingling sensation when there is danger around.

George has something similar but it alerts him when new bottles of Coke are being placed in the house.

Today, I came home from shopping with some Coke bottles (and cans). After about 45 seconds from the time I put them in the storage place (in a nook inside our 'florida' room which is about the same temperature as a refrigerator during much of the winter), George came down to get a bottle.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 3:32 PM

Sunday, December 25, 2011

First Use of Reusable Grocery Bag

We picked up a few groceries today (KosherMart was open). We used some of our reusable bags for the first time. Montgomery County has created a 5 cent fee for using the throwable bags (both plastic and paper) effective in a few days.

One the good side, you can put more into them than the thin plastic bags; for example, 3 of the two liter Coke bottles fit into the reusables, whereas only 2 fit into the thin plastic bags.

On the bad side, once the reusables are in the house, you have to remember to take them back to the car so they can be used again next time. Also, we are supposed to wash the reusable bags every month or so to avoid the bacteria problem. Also, we need the throwaway bags to line our various trash bags at home and for removing the used kitty litter.

I wrote an 'anti this tax' letter to the Gazette on this subject and they published it but the county council had their mind made up.

.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 3:49 PM

Friday, December 23, 2011

G Persists to Victory over Comcast

It took a half dozen calls (all by G) over three weeks or so (see Dec 4 post) but Comcast finally fully compensated us for the $900 mistaken charge they placed on us. They also gave us $20 credit toward the next month's bill (we'll see if that actually materializes).

Ten points for Griffengeorge.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 2:27 PM

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Merry Ambiguous/Confusing/Implicit Holiday


Beth sent us the card that her company had created.


As she says, they "go to great lengths to say happy holidays, and then include a santa claus."

Of course in the case of Kornit, the only present that Santa delivers is a device for digital printing on fabric. This is a modern update of generic printing on fabric.

I suppose if you are not one of the three families (or companies) that is getting it for Christmas, then you have to buy it from Kornit.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:30 AM

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Weekend in NJ

Ann and M went up to Morristown, NJ on Dec 9 to attend the Bar Mitzvah for Teddy Droar (a cousin) - second high on the left.

We stayed at about the corner of Madison and South. The synagogue and post service party Dec 10 were between James St and Mt Kemble (south of South Street) and the brunch on Dec 11 was near where Washington St bends.

A fair number of my cousins were there e.g., Judy Singer Droar (Teddy's mom - top left in the people photo), her husband Paul (second highest on the right) ; Steve and Phillip Singer (Judy's brothers - about myself and Ann), Miriam Gilman (a cousin) and Jimmie Maltz (another cousin) - both in the lower part of that picture.

In the town square, Ann had her picture taken with George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and a messenger announcing the soon arrival of the Marquis de LaFayette (an event that took place in 1780). Then I joined her in a similar picture. (two images)

I used I-95, US 1 and I-287 to get from the Delaware Turnpike to Morristown and I-287, US 206 and I-95 to get from Morristown to the Delaware Turnpike. This avoided the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the NJ Turnpike.

The car got very good gas mileage on the trip; above 35 mpg. In city driving it is between 20 and 25 mpg.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 11:31 PM

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Roses to Last

After over a decade of Ann requesting that I plant roses, I did. It took the development of the 'knockout' variety which requires no fertilizer or insecticide and is drought resistant and slow growing (but produces no fragrance - yes you have to pay the price).

We had a light snowfall the day before Halloween (see image).

As of Dec 8 (left image), the rose bush was still blooming reasonably well. This could be because the summer and fall were very wet and even though we've had a number of days with frost, the ground hasn't really frozen yet.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:17 AM

Sunday, December 04, 2011

A Problem with the Bill

Comcast is our provider of telephone, internet and cable TV. The bill is supposed to be about $140/month (including some hefty govt fees).

In Nov we got a bill of about $1090. We have automatic to Mastercard billing so it was paid quickly. G called Comcast who admitted it was an error but the error was so great they had to have a meeting with management to know what to do about it.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 9:41 PM

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