Level Five, Grey (Matter) Sector

Gainesville

Tonight we have slightly improved video capability-- Bill spent all evening (until now) working on getting things hooked up again with the new Black Box. We now can see the satellite's programming, but TiVo isn't getting any signal. We can talk to it, and it remembers what it's supposed to be recording (my various season passes), but all it's recording is green screen. We also have picture to the kitchen TV, but no sound in there yet. It's going to be a long, iterative process. Truth to tell, I haven't really missed it that much.

Made it through one more boring day in the Tank-- and after a day working at home tomorrow, I'm off Friday and the entire next week. I know I mention this every post, but I'm just so happy to have this looming ahead of me, I kind of revel in it.

An unfortunate dinner tonight-- I knew when I looked at the recipe it wasn't going to work, so why did I persist in doing it anyway? Baking porkchops with tomato juice and sliced onions at 325 for 30 minutes is crazy talk, but, well, it looked wonderfully easy... Of course they were nowhere near done, so I miked them for about 5 minutes, turning them into overdone shoe leather. Live and learn. The leftover fauxtatoes, 4-bean salad and broccoli were fine, though. And the cat absolutely loved the pork.

I loved the article on the opening of the Rancho! I had forgotten that it was Lee Gentry's dad who designed it. It really was far ahead of its time, and is still a very pleasant place to shop. We were lucky having that within walking distance. Good to have the date fixed, too-- this means that it had been open less than two months when I began that 1952 diary.

Glad to hear you had a good shopping/errand trip. And that you feel so spry-- that is really good news! I think you're allowed a break from NT when you shop til you drop.

I found a strange post tonight where you apparently pasted my blog from yesterday into a new one. I was very confused for awhile, but once I figured out what had happened, I deleted it.

Bill insisted on G&T again tonight, even though we are limeless. I made them with RealLime -- oh the horror! My bartender pride is deeply offended, but he is satisfied. And after the first one, the pain lessens considerably. (I, of course, am sticking with See Throughs, with one Sacred Olive per evening.)

I know I mentioned my pride in completing a 4-star Sudoku last week, but think I forgot to brag about the Level 5 on Monday-- huzzah! It didn't even seem all that hard, and I don't know what it was in my brain that finally clicked into place and let me see how to solve them. But here's the really weird part: I can't do even the simplest ones with pencil and paper-- I have to do them online. There are no special helps or clues (except a square or a row will shiver a bit when it is filled in uniquely-- but not necessarily correctly), and it does tell you at the end that you got it all right. On paper, you can't tell til you go compare the correct solution block by block. Yuk! If I could find the right interface, I could see getting a handheld of this game. It's a level of abstraction beyond crosswords or cards. It's nice I can tell myself I'm actually exercising my brain as I waste time doing this.