Zip +4 Look Up

I was unaware that the US Postal Service had such a handy website. (Link here)

Now if they could just stop losing parcels that relatives send from Indiana to Phoenix...

Merry Christmas, Joyful Saturnaria, Blessed Eid (late), Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year, 2009

Last year, there had been 300 visitors to JustJoeP by this time of the year. IN 2009, there's been a slight increase in volume:

* 9,966 Visits
* 15,431 Pageviews
* 1.55 Pages/Visit
* 71.93% Bounce Rate
* 00:02:19 Avg. Time on Site
* 59.61% % New Visits

...and still advertisement free!

Our son gets here in 3 days. It should be good holiday. Hope you get to enjoy the end of the year in your neck-of-the-woods as well!

Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!

(oh, and that Is a Corneveaux original, behind the tree, that I gave to Dr Desert Flower last year)

Contadino Pinot Grigio Vivace

Trader Joes once again provides a delicious wine at an inexpensive price. The Contadino Pinot Grigio, is OK, drinkable, an adequate white table wine for those who enjoy Pinot Grigio. Last month, I picked up a Contadino Pinot Grigio Vivace, 2007, for $5. A screw top bottle, I was wary at first, but thought "for $5, why not?" Pinot Grigio with a hint of bubbles. It was delightful! Both Dr Desert Flower and I enjoyed it's lightness.

I Googled it, and found others concur (here, here, and here), though I Disagree with Bruce that it could replace "most Champagnes ANY time"... it's not close to a good Champagne, which I've had while visiting the Champagne region of France on a few occasions, but it's good for drinking chilled in warm weather, or with an afternoon snack of cheese.

Neutering the Palms

The pygmy palms around the pool, when healthy, put out palm kernel seed pods, every couple of months. The original owners of our house planted a trio of palms Much Too Close to the edge of the pool, and as they have grown, the seed pods tend to dump into the pool once ripe. So constant vigilance needs to be taken to avoid clogging up the pool strainer & filters with seeds, by proactively neutering the palm.

I think it just pisses off the palm, who then tries to send out another seed pod soon after.
A good pair of Fiskars pruners works really well to take out the pods before they start seed dropping.

Before I moved to AZ and began to own and grow palm trees, I had No Idea that they were arms with really quite vicious spikes along each frond. Birds love to hide amongst them, and wearing gloves when pruning is Strongly recommended to avoid puncture wounds and spilling your own blood.

[Note: the photo to the right shows one clipped, one about to be clipped, and one recently emerging seed pod. Abundant UV and water, and look-at-them-go!]

Californian & Mexican Over Ecuadorian Mangoes

Readers of this blog already know my love of mangoes. I recently picked up a flat of 8 mangoes at my local Costco, which normally has Californian or Mexican mangoes on-hand. It being December, the only place left to get them would be the tropics, and the Costco buyer selected Ecuador for this shipment. Not local, higher carbon foot print, yes yes... but mangoes are irresistible to this Pole.

So these Freska Mangoes (Oxnard CA, 93030, www.freskaproduce.com, USDA Aphis Hot Water treated lot 801, item # 83303, UPC 033383402116) are all very hard and un-ripe when I bring them home, so I leave them to sit on the kitchen counter. You can tell a good mango's ripeness by the smell, with a deep inhale. These were far from ripe. Then, 2 days later, BAM, 2 of the 8 started to soften and turn to mush suddenly. I rushed the remaining 6 into the fridge, and cut up to salvage what I could of the suddenly overly ripened fruits. I found them to be rather flavorless, fibrous, and just not very spectacular mangoes, compared to the Daniella Mexican mangoes last September. Over the next week, one by one, I brought out each of the remaining 6, having hope for each fruit that visually appeared to be fine, almost - sorta smelled maybe ripe, but was disappointed with each new slicing.

Californian & Mexican Over Ecuadorian mangoes, any day. The shipping time, logistics, and early picking, probably have much to do with the lack of ripeness, lack of deliciousness, and inferior quality. Next time, I'll know better.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

Just set my out-of-office for the rest of the year on the work Dell. The weight off my shoulders is akin to hoisting a 12 foot aluminum canoe off my shoulders after a MN/Ontario Boundary Water's 1 kilometer portage. Ugh! I need to do something besides sit here at the computer, as work emails and work messages continue to steadily flow into my work computer 3 feet over there --->

For a vacation musical break, I've a warm spot in my heart for 1983, The Go Go's. (link here) Corny, yes, but fun! And I cannot shirk a proclivity for 80's girls... it's just how my mind works.

If you detest the Go Go's, try this classic from one of my all time favorites, The Tubes (link here). She's a Beauty... just before The Completion Backward Principle. Talk To Ya later!

The Persistance of... moldy camembert

Camembert is a delicious cheese, but what's with the mold on the outside? Yes, the penicillin is used to ripen the unpasteurized cow's milk, but that doesn't make it tasty to me, or easy to "peel" and eat. It's a shame that it is not easy to find Camembert without the moldy coating.

For more ease of eating and less mess, a delicious Gruyère or Stilton or Gouda will be found chez nous. If you wanna eat the moldy crust, good for you - you can have mine too.

How To Repair a Flip Top Garbage Can - Simple Human

Last week, the $100 stainless steel flip top kitchen garbage can we bought 6 years ago broke. By "broke" I mean the pedal no longer made the lid go up. I'd foolishly located the garbage can Just Below an over-hanging counter top, and every time it opened, it slapped the lower edge of the counter. If you stepped on the pedal harder, it slapped harder. Well, injection molded polyethylene is not immune to LCF (low cycle fatigue), and over time, I found the weakest link, as the underside of the actuator failed in torsion.

Using the ubiquitous Gorilla tape and some Loctite cyanoacrylate applied with toothpicks, I attempted a repair without disassembling the garbage can's actuator (see photo above). Dabbing super-glue on the cracked plastic, letting it dry, and then wrapping it in Gorilla tape the best I could. I let it dry over-night, much longer than needed in the low humidity AZ ambient. (see photo below, to the left).

After a day and night of drying, I righted the garbage can in a new location that allowed un-hindered lid movement, and prematurely declared victory! Properly applied adhesives to the rescue!

Then, 2 days later, the lid raised in an impotent fashion, and then, refused to lift at all, no matter how firmly the pedal was depressed. A more thorough solution was needed.

So, disassembly began. Simple Human has straightforward phillips head screw construction. Removal of the pedal actuator, connecting rod, and lid bracket were not difficult. Removal of the 1/2 applied tape was sort of a pain, but I was the dolt who applied it.

Then, the over-kill began. After reading the directions on the liquid Gorilla glue bottle completely, I clamped and glued the cracked plastic. Over a 2 day period, I repeatedly applied thin films of glue until it caked over the joint. [warning, Gorilla glue slowly "bubbles up" in low humidity environments.]






After building up a firm foundation of durable duct tape OVER the hardened Gorilla glue, I reassembled, in reverse order.

It's been reinstalled for 2 days, and functioning very well. I do not think it is premature this time, to declare victory. The new assembly is now strong enough to lift a brick on the lid.
















The tensile, compressive, and LCF properties of the Gorilla tape and glue are close to that of the virgin injection molded polyethylene, and better in impact resistance. I'll be dead and decomposed (or cremated, per will) long before the assembly will fail in HCF (millions of cycles).

If the pedal actuator DOES fail again, I have some left over handles from bath room cabinets that match the kitchen - ugly bronze colored things that Dr Desert Flower could not stand having in the bath room. I can easily install one of those on the lid for lifting if necessary. Il faut voir.

Puttanesca, mmmm

Last week, Dr Desert Flower and I tried a new jarred tomato sauce from Trader Joes that was phenomenal! Puttanesca - I'd never heard of it before - "pü-tä-ˈnes-kä; adjective, Etymology: Italian, short for alla puttanesca, literally, in the style of a prostitute. Date: 1969 : served with or being a pungent tomato sauce typically containing olives, garlic, capers, hot pepper, and sometimes anchovies" (per M-W) .

It was tasty with turkey meatballs. It had a small kick, and should not be eaten with severely chapped lips, but it was delicious. I highly recommend it.

Trader Giotto's Puttanesca 25 oz (709g) [UPC code 00932622]

whole Italian tomatoes
tomato puree
olive oil
black olives
capers
kalamata olives / red wine vinegar / salt EVOO
garlic
anchovy paste (anchovies, olive oil, acetic acid)
basil
parsley
onions
white pepper
crushed red pepper
oregano
[Note the Lack of added sugar!]

I do like to make my own sauces, but when in a hurry, it's nice to have ready-to-serve alternatives. Trader Giotto's Puttanesca will now be part of that pantry arsenal.

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea
I thought I blogged about this earlier this year... but I can't find it... (the memory is the 2nd thing to go!) =P

It was an interesting read, and though it's a little bit dated (written for the most part pre 9-11) it still gives insights into the landscape in Pakistan (socially, psychologically, fundamentally). And since the ISI helped most of the Al Queda leadership escape from Afghanistan into the Pakistani FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) with the green lighting of Tommy Franks and Dick Cheney, this book tells the story about what FATA USED TO be like, before 9-11. Mortenson as former climber, nurse, army private, turned into school builder, philanthropist, girl's education advocate.

Antimony has an atomic weight of 51?

I sent this to NPR today:

In the correction segment broadcast 8Dec09 at 4:48 Mountain time, Robert Siegel said "Antimony has an atomic weight of 51".
????
Is American Science education so terrible, that even during corrections on radio shows, the journalist gets it wrong?
http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/sb.html
Atomic Number: 51
Atomic Mass: 121.76 amu

Antimony has an Atomic NUMBER of 51, certainly. But as Anyone who has passed chemistry 101 knows, "Atomic Number" is the number of protons. Along with those protons are neutrons and electrons. All of those particles combined, make up the Atomic Weight, which is 121.76 amu (that's atomic mass units. You can Google it).

When the host gets it wrong, and the editor and fact checkers can't differentiate between something as simple as Atomic Number and Atomic Weight, it is extremely disturbing and disheartening. No wonder the US is falling so far behind the rest of the world. But you have no shortage of Sarah Palin and Tiger Woods coverage. UGH!

Please be more careful in future corrections.

2 days left...

Not much time for blogging for a few days as I try and cram 7 days of work into the next 2. More wine, chocolate, and cheese blog entries in progress. Check back on Wednesday.

Gabriel - Steam

This song's been going through my head all day. Video here. A very very young Peter Gabriel, and cheesy early '90s video graphics. I think it was the water vapor coming out of the canals and pumping stations at sunrise this morning off AZ 303 that embedded it into my subconscious.

It's still better than the Christian Side Hug! =)

Taken slowly by surprise

I was having my weekly call with my manager today, where he and I discuss some work things, but more of a "1 on 1" shooting the bull sorta session, to maintain a close rapport despite the 100s of miles between my home office and the plant, when I remarked that I'll be using up the rest of my 15 days of vacation later this month (I thought I had 8 days left).

My manager - who started within a month of me at the same company - and I both have 10 years of seniority, that gives us 20 days of vacation with our multi-national conglomerate. Not 15. Duh! I don't have 2 weeks left to work, I have 3 more full days, and (I've decided) 3 more half days, and I am DONE for 2009. I feel quite stupid that I didn't realize the 10th year's extra 5 days all accrue the year that the 10th anniversary falls in, regardless of what month. But it's better to realize it now, and not just work through them.

If I don't find some sort of distraction, there'll be a ton of blog postings later this month! But our son IS coming to visit in 13 days... so I won't be too idle.

My light hearted manager sent me a cookie recipe, that he recommended I take some time out and make over Christmas break. Here it is:

Christmas Cookie Ingredients:
> 1 cup of water
> 1 teaspoon baking soda
> 1 cup of sugar
> 1 teaspoon salt
> 1 cup of brown sugar
> lemon juice
> 4 large eggs
> 1 cup nuts
> 2 cups of dried fruit
> 1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

Sample the Cuervo to check quality.

Take a large bowl,

check the Cuervo again,

to be sure it is of the highest quality,

pour one level cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer.

Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Check the Cuervo again,

Add one teaspoon of sugar.

Beat again.

At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still okay,

try another cup . . . just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off floor.

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.

Who giveshz a sheet.

Check the Jose Cuervo.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

White Rabbit & Hockey, now on Pandora

Thanks to NPR's new journalistic lows, I logged into Pandora for the first time in a week. Finally, they have both White Rabbit AND Hockey listed. Stations have been created. Very cool.

If you're looking for some "new music" that is vaguely reminiscent of the mid 1980s, well produced (in my opinion), and strongly alternative in genre, check out these 2 Pandora stations [and yes Matt, I know you call it "I'll turn it off", but sometimes it's fun to turn my brain off and tap my hi-hat foot under my desk reflexively].

Too bad Pandora is infected with periodic ads now.... but there's always a mute button for those!

[and I cringe as I anticipate Californian and Nevadian negative comments being posted here... but I really am happy that Pandora is catching up with what I've pinging it about, and want to let others in AZ, Ohio, NY, GA, Maine, SC, and various other locales know it's available]

NPR has sunk to tabloid lows?

If Yahoo News, Google News, the fluff channel now known as CNN, and others feel they need to sink down to tabloid news levels and talk about Tiger Woods, that's fine. I can ignore such popular news feeds. But now this obsession with a golfer has infected NPR? WTF?

I've turned off my radio that's tuned to NPR in my office, as they report repeatedly about it. I fast forwarded through 1/2 of Hardball and Countdown on MSNBC last night as they're obsessed with it. I don't care about golf, or what Tiger Woods does in his personal life, or what he puts on his website. Had Tiger gone out and raped nuns and orphans, I'd want to know and hope he'd be punished by the justice system swiftly. If he was sodomizing goats, I'd hope he'd meet justice as well. But there's NO STORY here.

Why are Americans, and apparently large chunks of populations in the rest of the world, pathetically obsessed with Tiger Woods, Michael Jackson, the Salahis, David Beckham, and other 'personalities'? Are they THAT hollow, without lives of their own, to have to obsess about every little tidbit of distracting paparazzi vacuous nuance? I am not in that lot.

I hereby boycott all broadcast information about Tiger Woods, for the rest of 2009. It's not "news", it's fluff. It's irrelevant to my life. Far too much time has already been spent on this non-story. If Tiger Woods starts to again win lots of tournaments in 2010, good for him. If he doesn't, let him fade into obscurity. Who cares. The same goes for all the Jacksons, the Salahis, and Beckhams. Je m'en fiche.

Boyce Thompson Beauty

Dr Desert Flower and I spent last Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on the farrrrrr east side of Phoenix near Superior AZ (links here and here). 75 degree weather, 10% RH, very light 5 mph intermittent gentle breezes. It's a 2 hour drive out to Superior from the West side of Phoenix, but it was worth the trip.

Boyce Thompson has a wide variety of native and imported plants, and many trails throughout the grounds, similar to the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden that I've mentioned here previously. But unlike the DBG, Boyce Thompson has elevated mountain-side trails, a dynamic riparian area, and a much more varied landscape than the DBG. Paths are wide enough to get around those who are semi-ambulatory. It was a lovely hike, and quite an interesting visit. It's sort of DBG-lite, but a different flavor and much more diverse venue.

If you live on the east side of Phoenix, you should drive the hour trip down US60 to this oasis and soak in the beauty.

Betrayed Feline

Thanks to my buddy Jason for this gem. It made me chuckle a few times.

The "Christian Side Hug" - so ridiculous, it can't be made up.

Tip of the hat to my buddies JoeM and Matt for this gem.

The Christian Side Hug (link here) ... and talentless Christian "Rappers" (link here).

As JoeM so eloquently stated:
"Wiggaz, Christian(TM) rap, and sheer stupidity...all rolled up into one fat, greasy deep-fried funnel cake of ignorance."

And as Huffington commented:
"The group has as many emcees as the Wu-Tang Clan and as much power as a barbershop quartet."

Almost as stupid as the premise of NBT (Never Been Thawed)... a parody of itself.

Paranoid, fearful, hateful (link here). It's both funny and sad at the same time.

So incredibly lame, mis-guided, unbelievably narrow. The embodiment of so many things that are wrong with religious fundamentalists, their fears, and their latent, unspoken, deeply seated and equally deeply suppressed desires.

Phoenix Symphony delights with Strauss

Michael Christie broke his typical mould of muted / rather staid / mediocre directing to put on a delightful concert last Saturday. A bumpy start with Alfred Schnittke's Moz-Art a la Haydn was quickly forgotten as Orion Weiss sat down at the grand piano and played a masterful rendition of Mozart's Concerto No.9 in E-flat major. Wow! Young Mr Weiss is a remarkable pianist, and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra accompanied him beautifully. It was truly delightful!

Intermission was too crowded to get a cocktail, but I was hoping the Strauss line up post-intermission would not require any ethanol to enjoy it. My hopes were fulfilled, and expectations exceeded. Christie selected, and did a much-better-than-usual job of conducting Auf's Korn! Bundesschutzen Marsch, Frühlingsstimmen, Feurerfest Polka, Neue Pizzicato Polka, Overture Die Fledermaus, An der schönen blauen Donau, and the "Galop" from Prinz Methusalen op.378. Our 2nd row seats in the 2nd section had excellent acoustics, and the symphony's various string and wind and brass voices sang out beautifully... in piano and Forte. Impressive. Encouraging. Refreshing.