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Sherlock Holmes. Chris and I went to see it tonight, and he and I both thought it was good. He even said it was "DVD worthy." For my part, I was pleased that the movie wasn't dumbed down, as so many action movies seem to be these days. I never felt like my intelligence was being insulted. So check it out, if you haven't already.

Great success!

I have a rather unusual window in the south wall of my house. It is actually nine windows, each about 26" high and 46" wide set in three rows of three and forming, in effect, one huge window. As I told a contractor giving me an estimate on a modern replacement, it's basically a glass wall.

Unfortunately, it's a single-pane glass wall. To avoid losing huge amounts of heat through it in the winter, I've long made a practice of fitting it with that tape on, shrink with your hair dryer plastic stuff, which works well. Where once I'd have tons of moisture build-up on the glass every morning when I drew the curtains, the panes behind plastic are condensation free.

One little problem is, since I got Max, I couldn't put plastic over the bottom row of panes, since he would no doubt shred such plastic any time a squirrel, other dog, or pedestrian went by. I've known of a solution for a while, but laziness kept me from implementing it. This year, being laid off and looking to save on my heat bills, I finally remedied the problem. I taped on and shrunk the plastic film, then, over the two panes Max would actually have access to (the one behind the couch is safe, I think) I installed 1/8" thick sheets of plexiglass. Those keep Max and his claws at bay, and there is no more morning dew on those panes. I can't really notice a temperature difference, but I'm sure I'm losing less heat, and that means lower bills for me.

Caffeine sensitive?

I think I may have reached a point in my life where I can't tolerate nearly as much caffeine as I used to be able to. I made a pot of coffee late this morning. It was dark roast, and so had less caffeine than a lighter roast like Breakfast Blend. I drank less than half of it, and not all at once. About 1:30/2:00 p.m. this afternoon I warmed up my still half full cup and downed a swig. Within a few minutes I felt twitchy, a touch short of breath, and like my heart was beating faster. These are all symptoms of caffeine overdose. I used to be able to drink as many as two pots a day, though that was a rare occurrence. I seem, though, to have been slowly decreasing my caffeine intake over the last year or so. Maybe I was subconsciously aware that my tolerance was decreasing, and cutting back in response. I know there were nights at work, toward the end, where I wouldn't even finish the thermos of coffee I brought with me every night.

Right now, an hour or so on from the start of my symptoms, they've dissipated. Strange that there is such a thin margin of tolerance.

Winter Wonderland

Today is much nicer than yesterday was, as the photo shows. It's bright and sunny, with little wind (at least in town) and not terribly cold at seven degrees above zero. The only downside is that, just after I snapped the picture, a city plow came by filled in the end of my driveway. Fortunately the snow is dry and fluffy, and it only took me a few minutes to clear it away.

I also won $2.00 in the Hot Lotto! Woot! I'm rich...or at least, less poor. I almost broke even.

Winter is here.

As you can see, winter has decended on north central Iowa with a vengence. Our first real snowfall of the year turned out to be a bona fide blizzard. Fortunately, while the wind gusted as much as fifty miles per hour, it wasn't all that cold. So I spend a half hour this morning trying to start my snowblower, which didn't want to run.

It is an inexpensive (i.e. cheap) Simplicity single stage blower, and pretty anemic even by single stage standards. After many tries and several removals and cleanings of the spark plug, I finally got the thing started, after which it ran fine. Once that was taken care of the driveway and sidewalk went quickly enough.

As I write this, the snow has all but stopped falling. The wind is still blowing fiercely however, and travel isn't recommended. In town is fine, but there are white-outs in the country, or so I'm told. All in all, a good day to stay indoors.

Cookin' up a storm

With so much free time these days, I'm starting to watch more TV. Specifically, the Food Network. As a result, I've started to do more cooking. Not super fancy stuff, but more complex than usual.

For example, I got a receipe for tomato soup off the Food Network website. It involved canned tomatoes, yellow onion, carrot, celery chicken broth, cream, and so forth. Yesterday I whipped it up. It wasn't bad, but it was awfully rich. That was no doubt due to the 3/4 cup of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter the receipe called for, in addition to the cream.

So I went back to the store, got more ingredients, and tried again. This time I cut the olive oil to 1/4 cup, substituted skim milk for the cream, and added tomato sauce to make up for cutting the amount of carrot, celery and onion in half. When I was done it was less rich, but still too rich, to my way of thinking. The texture was disappointing as well. I have an immersion blender, which I used to puree the soup, but I think I need a regular blender to get really good results.