THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Friday, August 28, 2020

Calandiva as a Base 

The Calandiva makes a good base.


I discarded the day lily stem from last week a few days ago.


Today, I got some pink roses (left) and red roses (right) and stuck them into the Calandiva pot.


There are many more that I could have picked but with the thorns and checking for insects I didn't want to do the work.



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posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:02 PM

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Elizabeth Warren Inspired Scrambled Eggs 

When Senator Elizabeth Warren was a professor at the University of Oklahoma, she contributed to a cookbook called "Pow Wow

Chow".  

This book is, as of the day of this post, available from ebay for $30 or Amazon for $75.


The recipe (click on image to enlarge) was actually plagiarized from the NY Daily News (as reported in the Daily Mail and other places) but in any event, the concept is to incorporate a mild fish into an omelet. 


The recipe also calls for a lot of 'filler' including an enormous amount of heavy cream and butter as well as, what I consider, redundant herbs.


Anyway, today I did a dumb down and proletarian version of this, using the left over skin of a salmon fillet we had and the low priced eggs discussed on an earlier post.  The skin is good for this kind of purpose because it has a lot of fat that helps in the cooking.  I didn't use any cream or butter.  Tasted pretty good. 


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:10 PM

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

My first Tel-Medicine Experience 

 My first tel-medicine experience got off to a bad start as I was on line holding for about 45 minutes waiting for the doctor (yes this also happens for in-person medicine). 

After it started the experience was pretty good.

The problems, such as they were included getting the doctor to see my toes (as this was a gout follow up).  The worst problem was squeezing my big toe since I can't do this easily as my flexibility is bad.

Anyway, the doctor's directions, given that I haven't had a gout attack since the one in July, were: 

-off colchicine unless there is a gout attack (in which case immediately take 2 tabs, wait an hour and take another);

- continued 'no beer';

- allowing moderate use of other alcohol products (e.g., half wine, half grape juice for kiddush);

- allowing beef in moderation once or twice a week; and,

- next blood test in Oct to be followed by another tel-medicine exam.

Bonus - there are a lot of really great tel-medicine cartoons on the net.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 11:46 AM

Monday, August 24, 2020

Eggs: surprise price 

 I got two dozen eggs today at the kosher grocery.  I didn't see a price at the display but when they rang it up it was $1.29 per dozen (this story frequently forgets to price the display).  



Also, as you can see they were very big eggs, advertised as jumbo.



According to this website, eggs averaged about 60 or 70 cent a dozen 70 years ago.  I suspect that back then all the eggs were the about the same size and were about the size of today's medium egg (about 60% the size of a jumbo). 




No doubt this has something to do with breeding chickens for their eye laying productivity as well as optimum feeding and probably some caging techniques that won't look good in a video (but do not change the kosher status of the eggs).  So it is not just machine made stuff that has gotten cheaper over the decades. 



This reminds me of the many times I have heard people remark that the minimum amount of matzah to eat on Passover after the  'commandment to eat' is one k’zayis which is somewhere between one third and one half of an egg in volume and where some people think eggs were much larger in Talmudic times (which is almost certainly wrong).



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posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:40 PM

Friday, August 21, 2020

One from store, one from yard for Sabbath 

I could have filled the vase (actually several vases) with  crepe myrtle but chose not to because it creates a bit of a mess.


Instead I went with the day lily from last week (actually I had to take about a foot off the stem) and a store bought Calandiva. 



The Calandiva was partly because we have some empty space in an inside hanging planter.  


Supposedly, the plant will bloom by itself in late winter if we keep it dark during the winter (also if we don't let it freeze or overwater it, etc.)


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 2:55 PM

A Good Deed, or Maybe it Wasn't 

 The front of the east wing of the Boiling Brook Shopping Center (a.k.a., Randolph Hills Shopping Center) has had a gentrification addition (see images taken early in the day before customers get there). 




Basically, it converts parking spaces to parklets (parking space sized parks in commercial areas).

 
A week or two after the work I noticed that the small planter boxes didn't have weep holes and consequently, the vegetation in them was flooded (close up in second image shows some die off of vegetation). 

 
I sent an email to the real estate person who sells rental space in the Center and she forwarded it to the landscaper who placed the boxes.  A few days later weep holes had been drilled in the boxes.  There is a good chance that because of this the vegetation will survive.



Was this a good deed?



Assuming the vegetation was worth about $100 per box and the work of replacing it was about $100 per box and the cost of drilling the weep holes were about $10 per box, that would be a savings of about $1900 (for 10 boxes) plus some inconvenience for shopper during the replacement..  


But, if you assume the landscaper (or the shopping center owner) would have gotten a subsidized and forgivable government loan and assuming the modern monetary theory that government debt basically doesn't matter, my deed may have cost the economy about $1500 that would have gone to labor, transportation companies, etc.





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posted by Martin Weiss  # 12:27 PM

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Another Shortage Product 

For some years now, we (the Vaad Ha Kashrut of the DC area) have been using Nature's Promise Automatic Dish washing liquid in the 'check vegetation for insects and arthropods' process. 

The company seems to no longer make this product as they only make automatic dish washing pods.

So we have switched to the dish hand washing liquid.  This has the defect of producing more bubbles and this will slow the checking process but it's good enough for now.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 4:26 PM

Monday, August 17, 2020

National Shortage of Kosher Ramen Noodles 

Add caption

A quick and easy meal and a versatile ingredient in more complicated dishes is Ramen Noodles.

In the previous half dozen or so trips to various grocery stores I looked for the stand alone kosher package and couldn't find any.

So today, I went on line.

Surprise. Both Amazon and Walmart were sold out with a note saying they didn't know when more noodles would be available.  The Manischewitz Corp. which markets Tradition products still sells the soup cup but not the packages.


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 8:48 PM

Belated Adoption of a technology 

I used my Wells Fargo AP today to deposit a check.

This was my first use of this technology.  For many months I had been doing it the old fashioned way of accumulating a month or so worth of checks and driving to the bank.

But today I didn't feel like it.

The most annoying part of the electronic mobile device deposit is the check picture.  It took a bit to get the background dark enough and the check centered and completely boxed in (the woman in the image seems to enjoy the process used by Kennebunk Savings).  

The second most annoying part is that you have to keep the check somewhere for a few weeks to make sure it clears all the little digital verifications.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 6:17 PM

Saturday, August 15, 2020

False Liver Disfunction Alarm 

In late July Ann had a blood draw.  The results showed an alarming change in one or more of the liver function indicators.

Earlier this week she had a follow up. The results were normal liver function indicators.

This is not the first or even second time this kind of thing has happened.  Both our cat and me had alarm levels of creatinine (a kidney disease indicator) a bit more than a year ago.

 See this post.

So this is three different labs that have hit the alarm button by mistake.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 9:26 PM

Friday, August 14, 2020

flowers again wide spread 

The top right is, what I'm pretty sure, the last day lily flowers of the season.





The far left is, what I'm pretty sure, the last Anastasia Lily of the season.



Near to the vase are, on the right, the end of the purple cone flowers.


Near to the vase on the left are the second season of pink roses.




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posted by Martin Weiss  # 3:23 PM

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Blood Donation Again 

I was at the Red Cross today. 

 
It was the first time in two months. I missed last month because my arthritis doctor didn't want me doing it while I was dealing with the gout. My metrics were pretty good. 

Pulse was 76. 

Blood Pressure was 110/80.

Since I had a gout attack I was eating more dairy than normal. I had fettucini in alfredo sauce on Monday and Tuesday and Ice Cream for breakfast today.  So my blood was a bit more thick than normal but I still got the plasma and platelet bags filled. It didn't look as bad as the first image (which is whole blood not plasma).

Because I haven't been eating beef I was a bit worried about my hemoglobin count but it turned out to be pretty good (16.3 d/L)

I saw the movie "Working Girl". I especially liked Sigourney Weaver (Signourney is on the right in the image, Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford are the others) as a villain. But the movie dragged more than I remembered it (it is a 1988 movie).

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 8:01 PM

A Soccer Dream 

I don't generally think much about soccer and when I do think about it, it is about how boring I find it.

Notwithstanding, I had a dream in which I was building a soccer practice field.  I had guideposts like in the image but I had mounted them on Roomba-like devices. They would look like the second image (which has a big vacuumed material  retention box) except sleeker.

I also had the soccer field tilting to make it harder for the forwards to control the advance.  

One of the coaches was talking to me about my design and how to get the players, who would be trained, on this practice field.

Then I woke up.


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:47 PM

Friday, August 07, 2020

All Crepe Myrtle Sabbath 

Crepe Myrtles have both good and bad properties.


On the plus side: I've never seen any ants on them. I've never seen any bees on them.  The florets are abundant and long lasting.


On the bad side: When the tree is weighed down with the florets, the branches droop.  There are so many florets they tend to get all over the place when being placed in a vase. 


Plus for some/bad for others: No fragrance. So many florets they over power any other flower in the vase.


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 4:15 PM

Thursday, August 06, 2020

Odd Coincidence or Responsive Corporation 

A few weeks ago I went to the service desk at Harris Teeter and asked if my receipt included information on how much my 'membership' discount had saved me.

They said it wasn't on the receipt.

I said, "Well if you could ask corporate HQ to put it on the receipt I'd appreciate it."

Today, it was on the receipt.


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:47 PM

Front Yard Early August 

I decided to take a picture of where, at least some, of where the table flowers are.



George is over 6'.  The flowers on the Anastasia lily tree upper branches are above him.  The flowers on the lower branches bloom first so there are a lot that have already bloomed and fell off.



To the right of the lily tree are some of the second outing of the pink roses. 





In back of George is the crape myrtle tree.  It is not in completely full bloom but only a week away or so.




The second image shows the red rose second outing in front of all the other things.  


There is a lily tree to the left of the red roses but it is not in bloom. It does get a few more blooms from the lily tree near the pink roses.








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posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:42 PM

Bizarre Dream 

In the dream I had been hired by Trader Joe's to conduct a seminar of some kind. 

I suppose it must have had something to do with kashrut but I don't remember that. 

I was going through a slide (my dreams have apparently uploaded power point) when a person opens the door to the room and asks me if there is space for an important guest. 

I said, "Sure".  In walks Bill Clinton.  He asks if I recognize him. I said that I did and that I was in government while he was President and worked with Rodney Slater (who was a self identifying 'Friend of Bill', Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration and later Secretary of Transportation)..

Clinton asked me to tell some Rodney Slater stories.  I gulped... and then woke up.

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Labels: work story

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:31 AM

Tuesday, August 04, 2020

Torrential Rain with Tropical Storm 

A tropical storm passed by to our east today.  The center of the storm went over the lower bay and the eastern shore of Maryland.

We probably got at least 2" of rain but others must have gotten much more.

This a.m. one of the posters on the capitalweather blog, Pete Piringer, posted the images. One is a tree down, the other is the car that the tree struck.  The tree was pushed out of the street before the photo was taken.

The incident was on Tuckerman Lane at West Lake Drive which is only about a mile from our house.

No apparent problems in our neighborhood.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:42 AM

Monday, August 03, 2020

New Washing Machine 

I am not sure but the washing machine we replaced today, a Maytag, may have been the same one that was here when we bought the house 25 years ago.

A few weeks ago it started to leak from the top.

Given the age of the machine we decided to get a new one.

All kinds of fancy products are available and some of them take extra size loads. I was tempted by the latter option but that risked not getting them in the door.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 7:49 PM

Sunday, August 02, 2020

Kosher Giant Shrimp 

For our lunch on Saturday we had lox and kosher giant shrimp. The latter is a new product at the kosher grocery.

The shrimp is made from mixing minced fish (fish mechanically separated from fish bones) with various soy and other products and forming it into the right shape.

For the shrimp 'bounce' they must have added something.

I thought it was OK.

Ann thought it was awful and only ate half of what she took.

George refused to even taste it (after Ann's pronouncement).

The image also has kosher bacon bits.

Tamar reports from Israel that a relatively new stricture in Haredi circles there prohibits the 'look a like' foods like kosher shrimp and bacon.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:53 AM

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