Evening folks.
Took a day to myself, did wonders. Back to work tomorrow. Hope you all had a good day and weekend.
Recovered from being sick, hoping not to repeat the song and dance if I can help it…
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Thank you human.
Me no eat brain.
Me warm.
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its warm here we got a fire going! and you can keep brain safe too
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Brrrr…
Got all bundled up and went for a walk this morning. It’s super-cold (they’re telling us it’s the coldest stretch we’ve had for six years). By the time I got back, Onyx had a frosty beard, the stick she carried for two and a half miles was frosty, and my hat, eyebrows, eyelashes, and face mask were all covered with frost. Now, maybe I can work in peace, since Onyx should be a bit tired out.
Starts the coffee and puts out some bagels with appropriate spreads
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I despise onions so I’d love a pot roast without them. Stews are also good. Mmm…carrots and potatoes. Two of my faves.
I don’t know why, but every time I’ve looked in this thread recently it’s just been making me hungry. 
Morning folks, back at work. Doing what I can to avoid illnesses but should be a nice day otherwise, minus the bitter cold.
Weirdly I do like the cold for walks, or at least being cool. Beats having the sun glaring down on you being like, "Hey, I’m hot. Here’s some heat 
".
Happy it was a fruitful, if chilly, stroll!
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We’re pretty lucky here - lots of tree-lined streets, with big old trees, so lots of shade. Plus the lakes mitigate a lot of the heat (but not the humidity). I really dislike all the “new” neighborhoods that don’t have any trees or shade.
Yeah, I’m noticing that a lot. Just about every neighborhood I’ve seen around here has maybe a tree in the front yard, and that’s it. A lot of woodland in the area is treated like wilderness that you dare not step foot in.
Plenty of paths, but all of them skirt away from forests or anything resembling shade. Bit baffling to me.
-18°F with a wind chill of -30° (-28° C and -34°C, respectively). My weather app says we should claw our way to the other side of 0°, with a high of 6°F. The extended forecast leads me to believe I may be able to have the car washed again tomorrow.
Currently trying to make a choice on tonight’s dinner. I have what I need for a big pot of (spicy) creamy wild rice soup with chicken. Or I can do a big pot of chili. Both sound really good. Losing choice gets prepared next week, methinks.
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And it’s about five feet tall.
And with as much grumbling I do about it, that’s the kind of neighborhood I’m going to end up in when I get a house.
This is the answer. These things go together.
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I think you’re right. Have just been reminded that there is a pack of hot dogs in the freezer, so… chili tonight, chili dogs tomorrow. 
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I can’t help but notice after taking a long break…at the bottom of some threads there’s a thing about threads closing automatically after two months. Bout time.
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Every time we have a cold snap, my store runs out of oyster crackers and saltines because people like them with chili. Personally I prefer cornbread or rice if I want to add carbs. Sweet cornbread is so good with savory bean dishes.
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This is logical! Sounds really good. I have the beef for pot roast or stew thawing right now. It did not thaw at all overnight in the fridge! So, water bath it is!
/Grabs a sturdy insulated mug of coffee with some half and half and a bit of foamy milk added to the top. Sets out the rest of the beverage buffet. Hot water for tea and other drinks, cocoa, cold juice and beverages for the upside down folks, all the milk, half and half, creamers, marshmallows, and other assorted toppings/add ins. Toasts up a rye bagel with cream cheese and munches on it.
Glad you feel well enough to work! Also so glad you have a great group who seems willing to be accepting as you get your strength built back up and get back into the groove of working. Have a fantastic day!
I am sort of imagining you looking like your troll avatar with icicles.
Personally, I am staying inside today, cooking the pot roast or stew, maybe making some bread, and starting the Diablo 4 season! Need to look up builds.
Hopefully I can go back to Sorc or Necro this season. SB was fun, but I don’t think I want to do that two in a row.
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Just ran a last-minute LFR on the last two bosses. My Healbot overwrote my spells; I hate when it does that. To top it off, lag was insane - World was in the 700+ms range. Fortunately, we survived, and I got gear.
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Back to exploring the Milky Way in ED. Haven’t played this in a while, so feels good to play something good again… Until I get bored of it.
It’s going well so far! Although I may have jumped the shark a bit. 
Got an email from the receptionist that works under my PsyD. This email contained the personal, and medical, information of someone I never met or know anything about, minus their birthdate, full name and patient number. This email was forwarded to many individuals, including myself, and also contains the direct email of doctors who were included in said forwarding.
In the IT field, we call this a ‘massive security breach’, and that’s usually applied to bad actors.
Shortly after received another email saying to delete said email. I did, but with that sort of thing merely sending it out and someone sharing it with others is a wild personal breach, especially in the medical field.
I’m kinda infuriated by it: That could have very well happened to me.
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That is a pretty big screw up but at least it did not contain those critical things!
That is probably not protected information. But certainly can cause issues if they don’t usually want patients emailing docs directly.
This is an accident caused by human mistakes and it seems at least some systems are in place to prevent the Personally Protected Info from getting out (name, birthdate, patient ID, phone number, address)
I think I am numb to a lot of it though. The US Govt was hacked several years ago and the bad actor stole all the information submitted for security clearances. We are not talking about JUST name, address, birthdate… it is an extensive life history with full names, social security numbers, contact information, work history for a decade, a lot of personal questions about life styles, medical issues, credit history, foreign contacts, etc. There is nothing else anyone can steal from me.
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I am not a good cook and I didn’t even make it right and it still came out good enough that I had to stop myself eating the entire batch.
Here’s my, uh, recipe, if that’s the word.
- Decide to try new enameled Dutch oven for something besides bread. Notice it is dusty, so wash it.
- Put it on a high burner to dry so the exposed edges don’t rust.
- Discover that it is stuck to the burner and (after it cools) that it looks and feels the way something would if the coating on it melted.
- Decide this requires more investigation before cooking anything else in this pot, and choose a big, deep oven safe saute pan instead.
- Cut up roast into big chunks and cut out as much fat as you can (or want to).
- Preheat oven to 275F (135 ish C? I did that in my head, could be wrong).
- Sear meat in the pan with a little oil.
- When it’s seared enough, or you give up on searing because you did it wrong, add a little flour (for a bit under 2 pounds (4 kg) of meat, I used a big heaping spoonful) and cook for a minute.
- Add beef broth until the meat is about half submerged.
- Cover it, and put it in the oven a couple of hours or until the meat is getting tender but not all the way there. Add water if it gets too dry.
- Add whatever vegetables you like, cut up to maybe half an inch to one inch thickness (1-2 cm). Celery, onions, carrots are good. And potatoes, or you can serve it over mashed potatoes instead. I used only carrots and potatoes because that’s what I had. Also a little garlic from a jar. Fresh garlic put in at the beginning would have been better, but I forgot.
- Put it back in the oven until the vegetables and meat are tender. Could take another hour or more at this low temperature.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
TLDR: Cook meat and veg low and slow with liquid, cover to keep from getting too dry, a little flour for thickening; put veg in partway through so it doesn’t get mushy before the meat is done.
Edit: metric conversions are not very precise because this dish doesn’t require any precision.
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