August! That’s like so last year.

So, what’s going on?
The main thing is my Cholesterol is through the roof. We went for checkups back in November and I was “somewhat surprised”. So I’m now on a healthy eating phase. I went back a month later and my Triglycerides (the chemical form in which most fat exists in food) dropped from 259 to 203! Which the nurse said was significant. So I’m on the right course.

Christmas and new year came and went. And now I’m looking to 2010. Still eating health. Although I did have a few rashers of bacon last night. It’s weird, but I can really taste the fat now. I mean, it’s bacon and was yummy, but fatty. You know?

What I really want is Pizza. So might by some whole wheat pizza base, or pita bread, low fat tomato sauce, 0 fat cheese, and a few veggies and see what i can come up with.

AND I’m looking at one of the new Android phones. I was all set on the Droid. But then Google released the Nexus last week and it’s so sleek that it’s calling to me. Plus it runs the same apps as the Droid.

Since the Android phones are so linked to Google, I’ve been updating all my google apps (email, calendar, contacts, bookmarks etc) to be tidy and completely online, so that when I do get a Nexus it will automatically have ALL my junk ready and waiting.

I think that’s all. Happy new year.

I made pancakes for breakfast and I always warm the maple syrup for 10 seconds so that it flows better and doesn’t cool the pancakes down (I learned that from Martha). But without thinking I put in 1 0 0 rather than 1 0. :-S It cooked these few tables spoons of syrup for about 45 seconds before I realised. Opening the microwave door I was welcomed with to the sight of syrup bubbling up over the glass and covering the bottom of the microwave.

Another amazing thing is just how sticky molten maple syrup is.

Pancakes turned out well though and the syrup certainly didn’t cool them down.

Yesterday I seriously considered buying Maya 7. We had a version come into the store and since it was sealed it would never have been registered. I could have bought it for $200 after my discount. This is a programme worth thousands. But I didn’t. Maybe if I was still doing as much CG stuff as I used to I would have jumped at the chance. After all, Carrara which I do use is over $500 itself and to own a true professional programme would be awesome. I don’t think I’d make any money with it though. With Wings and Carrara I sell models to a particular crowd. If I had Maya I’d have to up my game a LOT. The interface scares me too. I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to use it to it’s full without training. It would be like going from flying a private plane to piloting the space shuttle, just by reading a PDF document. You might know the general idea, but you’ll still probably never get the shuttle off the ground.

It was the right decision. For now….

When I first moved out, my parents (or my sister) gave me a book called How to Boil an Egg. Simple recipes for lots of favourite food. Including things like cottage pie, braised sausages in mushroom and cider sauce and macaroni and cheese.

I’ve made this hundreds of times and even took it into work a few times. It’s really easy but seems to go down well. So, for those who have tried my mac’n'cheese and liked it, here it is…

I’ve long since forgotten the amounts, so these are guesses.

You need:

Milk 5 cups (approx)
Pasta Mugs worth
Flour three tablespoons
Strong Chedder 1lb!!
Mustard – English would be best.
Salt
Pepper

Boil some water for the pasta. Add salt and a little oil (stops the pasta from sticking)

In a bowl put about three heaped tablespoons on flour and add a bit of milk and then mix it to make a paste. This will stop the sauce from being lumpy.

Put some milk, probably 3 or 4 cups into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
In the meantime put the pasta in the boiling water for however long the packet says to get al dente.

When the milk is almost to boiling take it off to stop it boiling over and slowly mix it into the milk and flour mixture. Stir this all the time to stop it going lumpy. The sauce will thicken. Return it to the pan and over a low heat.

Add salt and pepper and a teaspoon of the mustard. I also add a squirt of cracked seed mustard for texture.

Slowly add the cheese and stir it into the sauce to melt the cheese. The heat from the sauce should melt it, but being over a low heat will help. Add as much cheese as you can (or like) but save some for the topping.

At this point you could add leek, ham or anything else you like. Leek is really good.

The pasta should have boiled, so you need to drain it and put it into a greased dish.

Pour over the cheese sauce and mix it into the pasta. I make a really thick sauce so you will need to mix a lot. You may even fix it easier to add the pasta to the sauce, if you pan is big enough. This will make sure it all gets covered.

Either way it should end up in the dish.

Put the remaining cheese on the top and shove it under the grill (broiler to my Yank friends).

When the cheese started to bubble and turn gold take it out and allow it to cool a little to really thicken up.

And that’s it. nothing to it really.

It was the hottest day of the year, so we decided to do yard work. Mad fools and Englishmen. We bought a ton of mulch. Amazing how some wood chips can make any untended garden look halfway decent.
We even added a water feature:

After this hot work I slaved over the oven for a while making a mac and cheese.    Which I then took to Madhavi’s (my boss) baby shower.  I’ve not often seen her lost for words.  It was very touching though.  She seemed very touched by us all being there.   I will miss her if she decides that being a home maker is a better life than working around smelly books.    Times are changing.

I’ve updated the galleries, both photographs and art to use highslide to show the images.   This means that, besides looking really cool, you can see larger versions of the images.  You can even use the arrow keys to switch between photos.   I’m looking into the slideshow option, but it seems to have an issue working with the Zenphoto subalbums that I use.

If you haven’t checked in a while, you’ll notice there are only three albums in the photography page.    Showcase, Artistic and Snap Shots.  I’ve also increased the number of thumbnails per page to make browsing through easier using the arrow keys.  unless you live in the 80’s and have a 9600 modem, it should be fine.

Showcase – Will just be a handful of my favourite photos.

Artistic – Shows a larger collection of artistic photos

Snapshots – All my photos divided into albums.   So all my vacation snaps, day trips etc….

Anyway, please go take a look.   Photo Gallery and Art Gallery

Yesterday I was working, tomorrow I’m working, but what better way to spend the day in between than having a picnic with family in Michigan.  Gale and I drove up last evening after I got home from work.  Which pretty much finished Saturday.   There were probably a dozen people staying in my Sis-in-law’s house last night, so it was sleep where you can.  Gale and I had an airbed next to Chloe.

I slept well enough considering I’m about 2 feet longer than the bed.   To wake gently and naturally.  I lay in bed and a head pops around the corner, Layla.  Then a smaller head pops around, my grand neice Gretta.  I reach out and they try (and fail) to drag me out of bed.

But I’m up now and trying to find ways to play with the girls which involves the least amount of action from me.   Drawing the picnic we’re going to have seemed to work for a while.    Now I’ve used the old trick of I’ll play again in five minutes.   Trouble is,  girls concept of time varies.  Not just little girls, but all girls.  So I might have 10 minutes, or a I may have 20 seconds.

Looking forward to lunch though.  Laura always puts on a great spread.

We have two cars.  Which we needed when Gale still worked away from home.   We have the Pontiac Grand Am (which is the main car) and the Mitsubishi Mirage which doesn’t get used often.  (Like once in the last two years).    It hasn’t been started for at least a year.

During the recent storm it sustained quite a bit of hail damage.  Which the insurance will pay, but they have to see the car at a garage.   Which meant I had to get it working.   Which is doesn’t.     I’m not that mechanically minded.  I can put gas in it, check the oil and water and change the battery.   So if the problem wasn’t one of these, I would be stuck.

Since no lights came on when I turned the ignition, I hoped it was a dud battery.   I tried charging it, but the charger just gave an error.   This morning I went to Sears, bought a new battery, hooked it up and turned the key.   It kicked in to life as if it had never stopped being used.  What a great car.   I drove around the cul-de-sac and it was a little wallowy and made a grinding sound, but probably because the tyres have been flat for a while.    Once I pump those up, I should be OK to take it to be assessed and hopefully they’ll write it off.  We’ll either put the cash towards a new car, or buy the Mirage back and keep it as a run-about.  Ideally they would write the GrandAm off too, which also was damaged and we’ll buy that back, since there’s nothing wrong other than a  few dents, and then put the money from both cars towards a new one as our second car. (or first car if it’s nicer than the Grand Am)

Today we celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary.  Which was actually last Wednesday, but today is the first day neither of us were working.

We went to Trader Joes and bought picnic things.    Meats, cheeses, crackers, salads etc.   Today we packed it all up and drove to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.   We sat in one of the gardens and ate our fill before walking around the nursery and then Lilly House.   At the entrance to the house are some benches and this little guy didn’t just freeze, he actually jumped on top of a nearby bench in order to see what we were up to.

After walking around the house we went around the museum itself.     It really is a nice place, although not huge.   But still we only managed to go around one floor before it closed.

A perfect day.

Two weeks of cream teas, biscuits, real chips, bangers and mash, candy and more candy and I come home, sit in the car and the suspension breaks!  Coincidence?

We needed to go out and get a few things (milk, bread, eggs, replacement toilet parts)  the usual.  So we get int he car, which has been sitting for a few weeks and start her up and she creaks but then rolls but sounds funny.  I get out to check for a flat, but can’t see anything.   So we drive a bit further and it still sounds weird.  But I think it’s just getting the rust out.   We get to the main road and a car honks at us.   I can see black smoke coming out the back.  We pull into the memorial garden near us and I take another look.  This time I see smoke coming from the front wheel.   I take it off to see what’s wrong.  pretty obvious once I do that.  The suspension spring was broken at top and bottom and the jagged piece was cutting into the wheel.   Blurgh!  So we now are without a car for at least today.  Possibly until Monday.

Hey ho.