THE WEISS CHRONICLES

 

At the bottom are some birthday cards for Ann.

Just above the vase are some Azaleas.

To the right of the Azaleas are some red bleeding hearts.

The top right is a money plant.

 

To the left of the money plant is a blue iris. Just below and to the left of the blue iris are some lilacs.

 

There are also some lilacs, some blue bells (on the left in front of the azaleas) and some white wedding flowers (on either side of the blue bells).

 

I like chicken wings.  I especially like chicken wings that are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Cooking them in oil works but it is messy and the wings absorb the oil to some extent. A wing air fried is about 100 calories. A wing cooking in oil is about 200. A wing battered and deep fried is about 300 calories.

Broiling works to make them crispy on the outside but also dries them out and you have to watch it to avoid burning.

So I bought an an fryer (the GoWISE 3.7 quart GW 22638 for $69 from Walmart including tax and delivery).  I made my first batch. Unfortunately the recipe I wanted to use requires a 15 minute cooking at 430F.

The fryer doesn't go above 400F. I found this to be true for several other air fryers.  So I ended up cooking it an extra 5 minutes.  This was basically a guess so I'll probably change the cooking time. Also, I'll be experimenting with coatings. For this time I used very little coating (just some salt, some oregano, a few drops of oil and a tiny bit of baking powder).

I also made some wings broiled and I'll see if the family (including me) can tell the difference.

 

On the top left is a money plant.

On the top center is an iris or two.

Just a bit above the vase are lilac flowers.

Actually there are some other purple or blue flowers in the yard, for example some more grape hyacinths.  However, they are too small to show up in the vase.

 

Also I have some bright blue irises but they are not in full bloom.

 

Ann had a root canal today.  She had one on October 3, 1999 (which I found on this blog - it was before I started using images).

This time, it is not the end of dental intervention as she will have to have a crown repaired or replaced.

The operation went smoothly and ended on time. 

I dropped her at the endodontist. Then I went to the restaurant and lit the ovens, washed some vegetables and had some fries. Then I went to pick up Ann and on the way she called to say she was done.

 

Good timing.

 Today- 

 

Pre op exam for my urolyf next month; Ann's Physical Therapy Intake, My 2nd Covid Vaccine, receipt of picture magnets from Israel with Oz's picture and two knobs from Sears to replace the broken one on my range.

 

Although no credit card applications.

 For Friday night dinner we had half fried, half baked chicked (frying first).  Both images show this using different theories of coating the chicken pieces.

Ann and George seemed to like it. 

I don't like full frying because the more you fry, the more oil splatters, especially at the end of the full frying process.

Coincidentally, I had half fried, half baked chicken again today at the caterer.  I asked the chef why he was doing it that way. He said that because he can't regulate the temperature of the oil he doesn't want to risk a full fry that would come out too dry.  So he fries it enough to make the outside crisp and finishes it with just a few minutes of baking. His came out better than mine by the way.

I went on line today and found out a number of people agree with the chef.  I saw one interesting recipe that I will try out soon which supposedly provides the fried taste without using the oil.

 Before Passover, I brought home three 5 pound boxes of matzoh. We finished the first today.

 

We use a lot of matzoh because it is useful when you should have two loaves (e.g., the 3 sabbath meals).

In the week or two before Passover, some stores have matzoh as a loss leader. For example, one store had a free 5 pound box if you bought $25. So that's why we have the 3 boxes (I got Yehuda brand).

Let's see how long the other two will last.

 

This past week was Israel Independence Day.

I have some sort of white and sort of blue flowers that come out about now. 

 

The daffodils are the white ones with a light yellow center.

 

The blue ones near the lip of the vase are grape hyacinths. 

 

The purple ones over the daffodils are irises. They come from a patch near the parking pad (noted in 2nd image)

That is Hadassah in the background of the first image. She likes to prevent problems (or take care of them).

I have daffodils in other combination color. I also have and iris in other colors (e.g. pink and champagne yellow) but they are not out yet.

 

 

The first image show a fading row of cherry trees.  It is on Timberlane Rd just north of Montrose.  The cherry trees in the DC metro area are comprised of a variety of sub species. The blooming periods are different for each. The one in the image is one of the later bloomers.

The second image shows a grove of three red bud trees. It is one Farmhaven Rd, also just north of Montrose, about 1/4 mile west of the cherry trees in the first image. 

In that image there are actually three trees (click a few times to enlarge). Unlike the cherry trees, pretty much all the red buds bloom at the same time in the DC metro area.

The cherry trees produce a fuller bloom but have some defects, e.g., sometimes entire branches go dead and some of the roots get above the ground. Also they are not native to our hemisphere. 

I happen to like the fact that you can see the branches in the red buds more clearly.  I think it gives the form a graceful quality. Also the wood is darker which makes a better contrast.

The third image is of a grove of red bud trees in the front of the Presbyterian Church on Seven Locks Rd near our house (it is the north most of a string of 4 religious buildings, going south from that church there is a Baptist church, then the synagogue with which we affiliate and an Episcopal church).

Both cherry trees and red buds have proliferated quite a bit since we've been in our house (we moved here in 1996).  Many of each tree have been planted in public areas, e.g., landscaping interchanges and many by home owners.

 Ann had an appointment to get the J&J vaccine today. 

 

However due to 6 cerebral venous thrombosis (a severe type of blot clot) events in the previous 7 million vaccinations, the USA has paused all J&J vaccinations. 

 

So Ann got the Moderna vaccine (same type as I got, Beth got the Pfizer) 

 

Info on the J&J situation is here..

 

At the blood donation center again on April 8. Metrics: pulse=80, BP=120/80 MG=15.5, antibodys- Reactive (I had one vaccine dose).

I did a triple donation because of what Red Cross said was a severe shortage. It took longer than expected because the machine wasn't feeding me my own blood, less many platelets, as fast as it did last time (when there was also a shortage and I did a triple). I ended up seeing two movies this time (from start to finish with all the MST3k overview also).

The first movie was "Star Crash".  It is a 1979 movie and a 'Star Wars' imitation. It has an incomprehensible plot, cheap CGI and awful screenplay. It also has bad

costuming except for Caroline Munro (second image where she is  captured by some sort of blond female space gang members who hate brunettes). Munro seems to be beautiful in anything. In the front of the first image are Christopher Plummer (wearing a cape) and David Hasselhoff (of Baywatch fame) is to Plummer's left.  The woman to Plummer's right is Munro. She played in many horror movies as well as being a Bond interest in "The Spy that Loved Me" and a slave girl in "The Golden Voyages
of Sinbad". She was the eye candy and was given awful lines which she made worse with poor delivery. Jerry Seinfeld has a bit part in the MST3k overview plot on the Space Station where Jonah is forced to watch cheesy movies (Jerry plays a space venture capitalist interested in buying some of the space station 'intellectual property').

Some great lines:  As Munro (who is called Stella Star) is piloting a spaceship, they are surrounded by pink spheres. One of the robots says, "Oh no. Glinda (good witch of the North in 'Over the Rainbow-the movie') clones are attacking us."  As they are going through space, strange streaks appear across the horizon. A robot says, "Look. Screen Savers in Space." In 2020, the Guardian actually recommended people  watch this film.

Then I saw a 1975 movie, "The Land that Time Forgot" which mostly follows the book by Burroughs (the Burroughs plot is full of incongruities so fidelity to the book makes the film worse). Doug McClure is the lead in this. There were some nice Dinosaur fights but otherwise stupid and corny (except for one scene where the explorers dine on dinosaur meat). The fourth image shows Jonah and the robots watching "The Land that Time Forgot"). 

 
A great line: A caveman attacks the explorers and they restrain him. A robot says, "I won't let you go until you tell me how to save a lot on my car insurance (a reference to one of my favorites, the Geico 'cavemen' commercials).

 

I had a dream in which I was in charge of an event at the company from the Dagwood comic.

It may have been triggered by the comic in the image (which was the Apr 8, 2021 issue which I think I saw on line). The event was a big one in what I think was in a social hall that the company (I think it is a construction company) must have rented. Dagwood was there as was his boss, Mr. Dithers. I don't remember seeing Blondie. They had small sandwiches, not the large ones made famous by Dagwood.

We had our second Passover in a row with no guests.

In addition to the mistakes I made for the Sedar, I made another before the last two days. I was obscessing about a missing fork (which I found) and lost track of the time and put on the Yarzeit candle after Sabbath started. 

But it is spring and I found a great image of cherry blossoms near the Smithsonian. Some blossoms still on the trees, others making the sidewalk pink.

 

Some other images I like that were shot recently.  '

 

One is a rainbow over a truck delivering Guiness Beer, presumably in Ireland (driving on left side of the road).

 

The other is of a volcano erupting in Iceland as the Northern lights are presenting.