A busy day!

[elfs]

Well, it's been a pretty good day. In the geek, the video encoding work is coming along, although I'm still getting tragically bad multiplexing audio/video errors more often than I'd like to admit. I fixed a small graphics bug in one of my older customer's wordpress sites, and worked on a pair of site prospects, mostly catching up. I learned today how to put a gradient layer above a complex photographic layer, then use a layer mask with its own gradient to make the photographic layer show through in a lovely fade-in pattern. At first, I didn't like it-- I never like anything I do, because I know what it took, and I assume everyone else can do that too. It's not until later that I decide, "You know, that's not half bad."

The fence in the back yard, not the part I fixed but another part, fell over in another windstorm. I think it's trying to tell us something. I had to bust it up; it had fallen over the path that leads from the neighbor's house to ours through the woods behind the house, and lots of little girls running over it made me worry about all the nails, so I went out with my sledgehammer and broke it up and piled it in the pile to go to the landfill come Spring and housekeeping weather. Today was a good day to do it: 50F and sunny.

I also did some basic yardwork in the front. I found a tarpaulin that had blown under some bushes, so I swept it and folded it away.

Breakfast was slow-cooked oatmeal, and lunch was more ham sandwiches with home-made mayonnaise. I do have my vices. No alcohol today; I think I overdid it yesterday with a full bottle of Dragonstooth followed later by a Dilletante's Hot Chocolate with Bourbon. For dinner, Lisakit's mother very graciously took us out to eat, and the family's choice was Red Lobster.

When the waiter says "Would you like steak sauce with that?" the correct response is, "Why, does your steak need it?" When they just give you the steak sauce without asking, you know you're in for a mediocre steak. And so it was. The next time Lisakit's mom comes up, I'm making steak sous vide with New Orleans peppercorn blackening.

I seem to have plateaued on my exercises at 45 push-ups and 70 sit-ups. Although I hit 46 push-ups today, so maybe there's hope for me yet.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

c'mon, you expect Keg-quality steak at a seafood place? (Hint: I don't go to the Keg for the crab legs!)

OTOH, coating the outside of *anything* ('cept some sort of roast, of which pastrami is a class) in tons of pepper kinda defeats the purpose of a good cut of meat...

radarrider taught me this: Garlic salt, and just a modicum of fresh-cracked pepper. You can grill most anything with that simple blend. (And if you have one of those Lodge Logic grill pans? You can grill indoors when the weather is crappy. You won't get quite all the yummyness of a charcoal fire, but it beats getting soaked immediately before dinner!) Steak, chicken, fish, lamb, pork chops... it's probably a little much for elk; ask Lisakit about the elk, she knows how to do that.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

No, but then I cook better steaks than The Keg does. Still, I expect something when I go to a restaurant other than a hockey puck.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Ooof, true dat!

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Some part of me is convinced that the chefs at seafood restaurants intentionally do a crappy job on non-seafood orders, out of spite.

I'm probably wrong, but i just can't remember getting a decent steak at any of the ones i've visited.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Why did you order a steak at a mediocre seafood place?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

I learned today how to put a gradient layer above a complex photographic layer, …

I initially read that as, "complex pornographic layer."

I wonder what that says about my subconscious view of Elf?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Omaha still makes jokes about "Elf's amazing pornographic memory."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

ROTFLMAO! ^_^

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Closely related to the "phonographic memory"?