NVOU

Near miss. About half a mile from the house I hit a road block this afternoon. Known destruction a few hundred feet past that, so the tornado missed by about 3/4 mile. The distance to the shop owned by Becky's cousin is, per Google Maps, 1.2 miles.

I made a map on Google that shows the path of the storm with a few notes and one photo I took. My parents are still without power. Obviously I have power, which is weird as their house is actually about 3 to 4 times as far from the path of the storm. (See map.)

I spent the twenty minutes of tonight's storm driving through the northern end. Eight miles south, at least three people died. The death toll in the county where I live is probably in the low teens. Nobody died in the county just north, where I happened to be (about 2 miles north of the county line), though the storm sirens were going full blast.

I didn't to come home until 2 AM after hearing at 6:30 that there was a lot of damage and possibly a fatality in Granby. The house is insured, obviously, so that didn't worry me. I was worried about my dog. This may seem selfish when 14 people are dead, but I knew my parents were okay and I spend more time with the dog than with any people. (My parents were right in the path of the thing, but in a bermed/earth sheltered/semi-underground house. No power, but no damage.)

The interesting thing driving around Joplin, mostly the south end where it straddles the Jasper-Newton County line, was that half an hour after the storm started the skies had cleared and there was sunshine. There was no serious damage in Joplin, but the roads to the two hospitals had ambulances running to and from the worst hit area at speed with lights and sirens. The helicopters were flying at both hospitals, too. I still haven't seen any real damage (a couple of tree limbs down in my yard, but less than from the Great Ice Storm of 2007), but I watched at least a dozen ambulances inbound to the hospitals from where the storm hit between 6:30 and 8:30.

God maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust and sometimes he sendeth tornadoes with the rain.

I've managed to find any number of ways to procrastinate this week and I'm obviously looking hard, as I'm writing here instead of elsewhere. At least a few of the diversions were semi-productive though.

I got an "Early Review" copy of Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real Life Adventures in an Inner City Ambulance from LibraryThing and finally finished the review. The quick review is this - buy it! The funny parts are hilarious. The thoughtful parts are worth reading without being overly preachy. (Partial review here at LibraryThing and full review here on MyLibrary, for those interested.) I had to put "Early Review" copy in quotes since the publication date on the book, at least the first edition, was sometime in 2006.

Pork chops. I discovered a while back that the local grocery store, which is generally way overpriced on everything and spotty on quality, has thin sliced breakfast pork chops cheap. I've used these things in fried rice, seasoned and grilled and actually on a couple of occasions with eggs for breakfast. Tonight, I did a five minute supper for the dog and me. I can't justify putting it in recipe format, but it was so good I have to share. Garam masala, garlic salt, turmeric, chili powder sprinkled on one side, popped in skillet on medium high with a little olive oil, seasoned side down. Season the other side and wait two minutes. Flip. Wait two more minutes. Eat. I suppose I should have some vegetables at some point. Oh well, I need to make up for blood loss...

I was wanting to buy myself a kayaking trip in January as a birthday present, since no one else bought me one in two or three years. I decided to take the Clarence route - selling bodily fluids that don't require exciting reading material - and ended up with a bruise half the size of my left arm. The lady who stuck me thought it would sound better when I said something was wrong if she said, "You have a hematoma," rather than "Oops, I popped a vein." It sounded worse and technically at that point what I had was still just a hemorrhage. Either way, I just looked away and tried not to pass out. It looks like other financing will be in order as with only one good vein and a tendency to bruise on that side in a smaller way, it would take until 2012 to pay for the trip. I can afford it by scrimping if airfares don't go up too much, but making an extra $2,500 before then would have given me money for a luau, a day of deep sea fishing and maybe staying at a nice hotel one night. (My plan is to stay at a hostel and hope that no crazy Czech women try to sell my body parts. Selling my blood is one thing, but losing a kidney is right out.) Looks like Mardi Gras is out though...again...

The Chicago Sun-Times decided to use one of my posts. Not a very good one, actually, but I'll live with it - it has half a dozen direct links back to my website.

Welcome Back to the Minority

I started using Firefox several years ago because it was, at the time, a more humble web browser, devoted to giving users an enjoyable, secure web experience.

The latest update screwed all that up. Google News, Amazon.com, Typekey and Livejournal all have issues with the latest (non-beta) version at least on this version of Windows.

Google News and Amazon display huge amounts of white space. Amazon actually displays the information at the bottom after you scroll through dozens of pages of white. Google News...nothing but white.

Typekey's entire login page is all one big link to a Spanish language error message.

Livejournal's login page is all one big link to the Manage Setting Page, which at the top has a link to...the login page. (There is a back way in, logging in through pics.livejournal.com instead of livejournal.com.)

The solution in the Firefox support forums? I should tell Google, Six Apart and Amazon that they aren't complying with "web standards" and ask them to redesign their sites.

Yeah, or I can use another browser.

(One person did also suggest clearing my cookies, which is like suggesting turning on the power. If I went to a support forum without clearing the cookies and cache and rebooting at least once, I should get the "put the computer back in the box, you're too stupid to own one" response.)

Or you can call me Rosco, or you can call me Bosco, or you can call me Ray or you can call me Jay, but you don't have to call me Johnson.

My hobbit name is Fosco Dogwood of Shadydowns.

I apparently have an elf name, too, but I'm not concerned with it.

And not as a serial killer...

Apparently they picked me up for their blog service at some point.

Here's my piece on Giuliani's tax cut plan at one place and here they have it at another.

It looks better on their site. Of course, I have better chance of making a few cents if someone reads it on my site...Oh, well.

• 02:17 Made 250% more than on Xmas. Drunks tip better than Xtians. #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

100%ALCOHOLIC

• 22:22 Watching the puddles freeze #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

• 16:52 Working. Volunteered for the fat tips and no one is calling. #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

• 02:53 Singing to my dog. Please don't tell the ASPCA. #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

• 21:09 Happy Thanksgiving! #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

• 01:14 Global economy watching tinyurl.com/2qlotv #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

• 01:12 Getting dressed up to go to Wal-Mart. tinyurl.com/3dhcrt #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything.

• 04:12 Never feed an inside dog eggs #

Twits translated to LJ by LoudTwitter

I made this for myself and ate a bit more than half at one sitting, but I'm a big eater and it could easily have been stretched to almost double the portion by using another $1 worth of rice and mixed vegetables.  Sunny also gives it a thumbs up.

Easy Chicken Casserole

1 can (10.5 oz) Cream of Celery Soup
1 can (5 oz) Chunk White Chicken
1 cup leftover rice more or less
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
2 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
Salt, pepper, other seasoning to taste
8" square aluminum cake pan

Layer leftover slow cook rice in the bottom of the pan.

Drain chicken and sprinkle over the rice. 

Pour frozen mixed vegetables over chicken.

Pour Cream of Celery soup over everything.

Give it a few quick stirs.

Sprinkle cheese over the top.

350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, until cheese browns on top.

Notes: 

I actually didn't use any salt or pepper.  The cream of celery soup would be enough seasoning for many people.  I added some black pepper on the plate.  Next time, I'll put some black pepper right on the rice before the other ingredients.

I used generic (Best Choice) cream of celery soup and frozen vegetables.  The Chicken was a brand from, I believe, Dollar General - Butterfield Farms.  I used Kraft Cheese because it was on sale cheaper than the store/generic brand, but there's almost no difference in taste or quality. 

Slow cook Basmati Rice has a little over half the glycemic load instant white rice, so for anyone with insulin resistance issues, weight issues or just a desire to eat as healthily as possible use basmati.  It's also got more flavor. This is not quite Phase II South Beach Diet material, but it's not going to throw Phase III into a tailspin by any means.

You could use a glass baking pan, of course. The aluminum pans are cheap and can be recycled, washed and reused or thrown out at your discretion, making this an almost zero cleanup meal.

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Serenity (Firefly) You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 100% SG-1 (Stargate) 100% Moya (Farscape) 94% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 94% Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) 88% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 88% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 81% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 81% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 75% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 69% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 56% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 56% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 50%

An opossum wandered up on the carport about 9:30 tonight and started helping himself to the catfood.  I had been wondering why the skinny little cat was eating something like 4 times the recommended amount every day and reaching panic level about how I could afford to continue feeding her.  Mystery solved.  Possum.