Good morning all:

Weekly non-quote:

“The right to have access to bubble baths that smells like diesel exhaust for us manly men.” one of a very few things not offered as a perk during this week’s SOTU event.

By this time you’ve probably stopped being plain giddy after all the speechifying, hand clapping, huggings, and teary eyed bliss we all experienced last Tuesday evening during The Speech. Me? I am sorry to say I missed the goings on. Instead I watched PBS where for an hour I observed the dissection of a fifty foot beached sperm whale on a strip of remote English shore.

No rip-roaring back-slapping evening for me. But, I did learn a whole bunch about those leviathan mammals and found it fascinating. OK, coffee is done so let’s get going (the preceding was time filler while the coffee perked—sorry).

Polpettona Ripiena – Yes, Marcia actually made Polpettona Ripiena last weekend. And, after feeding five and giving some away we ate it all week. Let me explain. What is one of the best foods to eat when it’s “grauw en nat” (bleak and wet)? Meatloaf, of course. And Marcia had just watched the preparation of an Italian meatloaf on TV. There is either a huge downside or upside to knitting a lot and watching TV simultaneously; I haven’t figured that out yet. However, that TV recipe put her into a zombie-like must-have state.

Ground beef, gound pork, various Italian sausages including something called Mortadella were procured—it took racing through three stores to do this. Also to be included in all of this was a grated Italian Romano cheese and some type of soft goat cheese (also Italian). Fresh spinach, carrots, and an awful lot of scallions had to be added to the mix.

Anyway, she eventually was able to assemble what must have been a fourteen pound monster loaf of delicious, artery filling, but totally satisfying meatloaf. The final product would have readily fed all the inhabitants of some remote village.The photos will explain:

It’s all in the numbers – This week I had a business discussion with some folk in the UK. One and a half hours on Skype with excellent sound and perfect video. During this time the call dropped one time – it was conducted at the height of the much touted solar flareup.

At the conclusion I puzzled a bit over the “how”. How does Skype make its money when a one and a half hour hookup is absolutely free? No advertising, no constant prompts about a ‘free’ number of minutes before you pay. Nothing. Turns out that about 7% of Skype users opt to Skype-out, meaning they are on Skype but call a non Skype user and they do pay. When you have millions of users apparently that 7% is enough to pay the mortgage and put bacon on the table. Once in a while it’s good to be in the majority.

I am beginning to see where some groups are beginning to classify themselves as actually being part of a percentage; like I am the X% of the Y%, and you can put in your own numbers such as; 99 and 1.

Animal Planet – I am on the mailing list of a Canadian birding group. Yesterday I received my January mailing. The first item’s headline I spotted read; “Participez au Grand dénombrement des oiseaux de février” (Get Ready for the 15th Great Backyard Bird Count). I just hope that some poor family in an outlying town in Quebec didn’t get mailed the English edition.

Closing – I just took a little break to check out Kirstin’s photos from last evening which she just placed on Facebook. For her birthday they went to a Karaoke bar where she, Vince, and friends reserved one of the private rooms where they could sing their hearts out. Good to see some serious smiles!

A far cry from the way Marcia saw me get up and try to straighten myself yesterday – with a crick in my back. But then, I am a few years older than her. Today it’ll be a five mile walk, that will straighten me out.

Make it a great week everyone and be safe.

Cheers,
Dirk