August 31, 2009 at 11:16 pm · Filed under Technology
If you’re thinking about installing Skype, and you use Firefox, be careful. Nay, be afraid! Skype will install a add-on to Firefox. This will surely eat up your PC resources and generally slow down your computer until you uninstall the Skype plugin. It’s bad news.
I would like to finish this post with a question. Considering just how dangerous the Decepticons are, do you find it strange that the Autobots would delegate so many important tasks to teenagers (referring to the animated series)? It just doesn’t make sense.
BTW, if you’re reading this on a windows PC and you’re not using Firefox, it’s about time that you got with the program.
August 29, 2009 at 5:39 pm · Filed under Sports
Some people call me the Godfather of bike racing. I see myself as more of a favorite uncle though. Not just any uncle, but a really smart one. You could say that I’m the James Brown of bike racing. Actually, come to think of it, I guess that makes me the Godfather of bike racing. Sluggo!
Add two tbsp of fish sauce, one tsp of sugar and remove from heat. Garnish with cilantro and Pedro’s citrus cleaner. Goes well with Vitamax Energy Drink.
– excerpt from Chap. 5, “Secrets of Thai Cooking”, Sluggo
August 28, 2009 at 7:20 pm · Filed under Just Stuff
I made my first pseudo homegrown salsa verde this evening. I grew the tomatillos and cilantro for it, and used serrano pepper, anaheim pepper, lime juice, onion and garlic from the store. Maybe next year I will grow everything in the garden except the lime. And the onion, I have no interest in growing onions. But back to the salsa. It was easy to make and tastes damn good. I’ll make another batch in a few weeks and this time I’ll probably use homegrown thai chilies instead of the serranos.
Salsa Slugga
1 clove of garlic
1/2 onion
12 tomatillos
1 serrano chile
1 anaheim pepper
1/4 cup lime juice
Boil some water, chuck in the tomatillos and simmer them over medium heat for 5+ minutes. Meanwhile, take some prongs and hold the anaheim pepper over the flame of your gas stove. Roast it for a few minutes and then put it into a paper bag. Do the same with the serrano chile. Leave for 5-10min. Chop the onion and garlic. Once everything is ready, throw it in a blender and whirrrrrr it until you get a nice salsa that you’re happy with. Drink a beer while doing all of this, and listen to Rush’s “Tom Saywer.”
August 28, 2009 at 7:20 am · Filed under Just Stuff
I’m not one for buying fancy-shmancy house furnishings, nor do I like the thought of wasting money on things that aren’t useful (ie things that aren’t electronic devices). However, I came across a sweet, sweet shower curtain on the ‘net. This thing is the bomb. It’s not plastic, I assume the curtain rod holes won’t tear, and it looks kind of ok-ish. Yup, I’m talking about a hemp shower curtain.
Check out the reviews, one person “recommends it to anyone that showers.” That’s a pretty strong endorsement I’d say.
All I need to do is come up with 80 clams/big guys, and I can finally tear down our vinyl shower curtain that is almost falling off anyways.
August 19, 2009 at 11:24 am · Filed under Just Stuff
Seeing how I’m not making much money these days I thought it would be a good idea to get a good handle on where the best place is to do grocery shopping. I was pretty sure that Super Store would be the best but I really don’t like going there. If I knew exactly how much money I could save then I would know how important it is to drive there to shop.
I decided to compare prices of foods that are bought every 3 to 5 days, the staples so to speak. My list included: milk, yogurt, bread, chicken legs, chicken breasts, sirloin, ground turkey, canned beans, canned tomatoes, cheese, oranges, apples, bananas, broccoli, and carrots. I thought that would give me a pretty good sampling of the typical foods we eat. Other common foods in our house include cereal, rice, juice, pasta, and various other vegetables and sauces, but I didn’t think I would get much different results by including these items.
After I priced out the goods, I made a hypothetical grocery list that would cover us for about 4 or 5 days. This included:
500g chicken breast
500g chicken leg
500g sirloin
1 loaf bread
500g cheese
4l milk
2 tubs of yogurt
2 cans of beans
2 cans of tomatoes
2lbs oranges and apples
1lb broccoli and carrots
The three stores I compared were Safeway, Super Store and Famous Foods. One of the reasons I didn’t compare cereal is because Famous Foods doesn’t carry brand name cereals. I also know that if a person is not picky on cereal type, a box of cereal on sale at Safeway will compare to cereal from Super Store. I started making a separate list for organic foods as well, but this idea didn’t get very far because Super Store hardly carries any organics.
On the whole, Super Store was 13% cheaper than Famous Foods, while Famous Foods itself was 13% cheaper than Safeway.
Dairy was about the same at Safeway and Famous Foods, while Super Store was 25% less expensive.
Meat was 16% and 35% less expensive at Super Store compared to Famous Foods and Safeway respectively. Famous Foods was 22% less expensive than Safeway for meat.
Famous Foods was the cheapest for vegetables and fruits, followed closely by Super Store. Safeway was 25% more expensive for fruit and veggies.
When the food is broken into three groups including meat, dairy and veg (includes vegatables, canned vegetables, fruit and bread), the dairy and veg each take up approximately the same amount of the budget: around 35% of the total bill. Meat typically took up 25% of the bill. With this in mind, the greatest savings are achieved by buying all dairy at Super Store. Milk at Super Store and Safeway were about the same price though, the big difference was in cheese.
As expected, it makes sense to do a weekly trip to Super Store to buy dairy, meat and other pantry items such as juice. All other shopping can be done at our local Famous Foods store, and even meat can be bought there with minimal effect on the budget.
One last thing to consider is the quality of food. Some of the items at Super Store, although cheaper, weren’t that appealing to me. I thought their yogurt selection was really poor and the cheapest yogurts could hardly be called “food.” In this regard, Famous Foods rates very well. Some of their selection may not be great but there are good deals to be had. For example, organic canned beans from Famous Foods cost the same as regular cheap canned beans at Super Store. I didn’t price it out but I think the best gains in money would be in food selection and not store selection. If you buy cheap yogurt, the cheapest cuts of meat, fruit only when in season, etc, you can really save some money.
