7 Quick Takes (Vol 148)

The holidays are over. The new year has begun. And I am still trying to finish up tasks from 2011. Sigh. And here we are gathered altogether to read the first blatherings of the 2012. Joy. Remember when you have thoroughly perused and dissected my ramblings click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of Newt Gingrich’s falling poll numbers, over to Conversion Diary.

And now it is time to bring on the blather!

1.
Well, we finally had some snow this week. About 6 inches on Tuesday and into Wednesday. At one point it was snowing so heavily that I couldn’t see the street. And then the next second it would be sunny.

Sunny-Blizzard-Sunny-Blizzard-Sunny-Blizzard.

Just a typical Lake Effect Snow warning here in the Frozen Northeast Ohio.

2.
Slim Jim was here for a visit last week.

And I didn’t take a single picture of he and Shoe Queen together.

And I call myself a professional photographer. Sheeeeesh!

3.
We are about ready to give Time Warner Cable the big heave ho here at Chez Knit. They charge too much. The cable prices keep coming down and yet they are unwilling to extend those lower prices to long standing customers. And they are rude about it which just makes the whole thing even worse.

And lest you suggest that we go with a dish of some kind….we looked into it and had them come out and the trees really screw up the whole “line of sight” thing. They wanted to put the dish in the middle of the side yard right by the street. Ummmmm, no thanks to that. I questioned whether he was telling me that just because he didn’t really want to get up on our roof to do the install.

So we may just get internet from someplace else and then go with Netflix streaming as well as the DVD portion we have now. Not sure how this is going to play out but I do know that Time Warner Cable is a dirty word in this house.

Stay tuned for updates.

4.
I have yet to take down my Christmas decorations. I have been “consolidating” some of them in one place (the dining room) but most everything else is still up.

January is always a hard month for me to get motivated to do anything as it is. And the thought of having to take down and put away Christmas decorations is just hard to get excited about.

Maybe I can just claim to be very proactive and organized and say that I ALREADY have my decorations up for Christmas 2012.

No?

Drat.

5.
I am anxiously waiting for the next Netflix DVD that is in my queue. It should arrive today. I hope it does…..

It is the last DVD for the first season of Downton Abbey. And since the next season starts on SUNDAY I wanted to refresh my loving memories.

SUNDAY!!!! SQUEEEEEE!!!!!!!

I had better get the DVR set right now so that I can record and re-watch. The thing is, some of the stuff that we are going to see on Sunday has already aired in the UK and I happened to read about some of it.

I am not saying a word here because I don’t want to spoil anyone’s surprise. All I can say is…..

Well, I am not going to say anything. Just know that Sunday night I am going to be glued to the local PBS station.

6.
In the whole 2012 vein of “being more organized” I am also toying with the idea of planning out what I am going to be reading this year.

It isn’t possible for me to totally plan that out, I do occasionally pick up a book at the library that I didn’t know I needed to read. But I think it is possible to have some sort of a reading plan. I have done it in the past but not kept it up very well. All those literary rabbit trails get me off track.

I am sure that I will expand this into an entire blog post when I have it more nailed down. That shouldn’t surprise you. I will tell you that the first book that I will finish for 2012 (today I think) is The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden. It has been very interesting and gripping reading. Non-political, factually based, deeply researched. The non-political part was particularly appreciated as 9/11 has become SUCH a political hot button.

For those of you who are intense readers, do you plan out your “reading course” for the year? If so what does it look like? I am always curious.

7.
I might have mentioned last week that I am participating in 52 Food Adventures sponsored by Dandy over at Spontaneous Clapping. She is blogging on it every Tuesday. I will be participating but I am not sure if I will be producing an entire blog post on it every Tuesday. I will try to but I may also just do a “blurb” on the weekly new ingredient/technique/food when I write my 7 Quick Takes. I totally fell down on the job the FIRST week (which doesn’t bode well) because, even though I cooked with an ingredient new to me….I didn’t take any pictures of the process or what I made.

Insert dope slap here

I made 5 Bean Soup with Chorizo and Chipotle. It was VERY good. And the ingredient I had never used? Chipotle peppers in adobo. I know, I know, how could that be!! But it is true. Oh those little suckers pack a punch. I put in only half of the peppers called for in the recipe and it was still pretty darn smoky/zippy. Just what we needed for a frosty Winter night. It made a big batch so there is some that went right in the freezer to be pulled out some time later.

I will admit that I am still perfecting my “cooking beans from scratch” technique.

They are supposed to be slightly crunchy right?

Right?

Hello?