Asberry.org

Author: aron

  • Monday Down

    There were a lot of meetings today and they went well enough, it was good to see things getting to the finish line. Although I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. I do like the paychecks but I don’t care for the work, I’m really damn good at it though…

    It’s $99 for the AZ-900 certification test, I need to commit to getting it knocked out, that cert doesn’t really do anything for me but it’s a new cert and then it’s off and running for the data, I can do this.

    Speaking of doing this, I’m on day 3 of sit ups. I still really hate them but I’m up to 30 per day which is 30 more per day then I did last week.

    I’m tired, I always seem tired though. I don’t know if that’s something I should worry about or not. I mean Brittany takes naps every weekend and shes 20 years younger than I. I think I’m just suffering of lack of things to look forward to. I was looking for some property today, in KY and you could get 100 acres for 140k. That’s cheap but still more than I’ve got. I need to learn AI and have it pick stocks for me. I’ll be good with a cool 2 mil.

  • Botanic Gardens

    So my entire life I’ve been calling them the botanical gardens to find out today it’s actually the botanic gardens. We had a nice walk around the grounds. I actually got to see the Japanese gardens which was a new one on me. After that we parked over by the Trinity river trail and biked into downtown Fort Worth. We actually biked over to moms and although it sounds like a long ride, the whole round trip was about 13 miles so nothing too out of the ordinary.

    Got home and had biscuits and egg with bacon and cheese for lunch. I had cereal also and lots of milk along with the calories that brings. Although I just looked it up and there are 120 calories in 2%, 100 in 1% and 80 in skim, so you’re getting calories no matter what with milk, I think that moderation is the key here.

    I got some sun too, all told I’m kind of tired considering. I actually have work to do tomorrow also. It’s moving some stuff to a production server and the only challenge is that they probably are going to have to do the changes to the file locations in notepad. Oh well, what can you do.

    Tomorrow starts another week, I hope to make the most of it and keep things moving forward. Peace out party peeps.

  • Homework Done

    After being out of town last weekend, it was time to do some house work at home. Laundry, changed sheets, cleaned the kitchen from the schnitzel debauchery last night, cleaned the carpet in the bedroom. It was a productive day.

    Kind of needed to get stuff done today as we’re going to the botanical gardens tomorrow. I really have no desire to go but Sandy wants to, why I’m not sure. I wanted to go early tomorrow and she’s pissed because I wanted to go when there were less people. Like we should wait until it’s packed so we can people watch at the botanical gardens… Oh joy.

    I need to clean my office. That’s on the agenda for tomorrow hopefully. I need to clean the garage too and I was wanting to get car work done this weekend but that just doesn’t look like it’s happening.

    I checked in on the RV today, loving the dehumidifier with the hose into the sink, no more forgetting to empty the water. It’s nice and dry in the RV, keeps things from getting moldy and smelly. It also cools down nicely when there’s no humidity in there.

    Lastly, my weight goals are slowly but surly coming to pass. I’m down 8 pounds from my high and steadily heading down. The big difference is that I’m making smart choices. No cookies or candy and moderating my sugar intake. It feels good to get skinnier and I’ll be excited as more of the pounds fade away. Hopefully next week I’ll be firmly into the 180’s. I’m even thinking about changing from whole mild to 2%. I was blown away realizing that a 12 ounce serving of whole milk is 225 calories. Sigh, that one hurt.

  • Pork Schnitzel with Dijon Gravy

    One would think with my background that I’d have some ability to cook German food. Nope, I can almost grill a brat and my sauerkraut comes in a jar. About a month ago we went to a German restaurant and it was awful, which got me to thinking about making a pork schnitzel. Turns out it’s not that difficult. This recipe is wonderful but rates high on the difficulty level because it’s hard to do both at once. Make sure you have a meet tenderizer for flattening the pork and pre-flatten and season the pork. Then make sauce and then fry the pork. It’s tricky but definitely worth it.

    Crispy Pork Schnitzel in a Creamy Dijon Sauce

    Ingredients:

    • 4 pork loin chops, boneless
    • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
    • 2 eggs, beaten
    • 1 cup breadcrumbs
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
    • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
    • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
    • 2 Tablespoons butter

    For the Dijon Gravy:

    • 2 Tablespoons butter
    • 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
    • 1 cup chicken broth
    • 1/2 cup heavy cream
    • 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
    • Salt and pepper to taste
    • Large skillet
    • Saucepan

    Directions:

    • Place each pork chop between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound to 1/4-inch thickness
    • Season the pork chops with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika
    • Dredge each pork chop in flour, then dip in beaten eggs, and coat with breadcrumbs
    • Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat
    • Fry the pork chops for 3-4 minutes per side, or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from skillet and keep warm
    • To make the Dijon gravy, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat
    • Stir in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes
    • Gradually whisk in chicken broth and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes
    • Stir in heavy cream and Dijon mustard
    • Season with salt and pepper to taste
    • Serve the pork schnitzel topped with the Dijon gravy

  • One More Day

    Yey, Friday is almost here. I actually have enough to do tomorrow to make the day fly by hopefully and then it’s the weekend. I hope to get a lot of things done so I should probably make a list and prioritize what to do. Car work, house work, cleaning, carpets, laundry. Always stuff to do and I’m thankful for it.

    Work went well today, finally got the hours turned in so maybe they’ll quit complaining.

    I forgot to mention that I got the hard drive expanded yesterday using Gparted, I needed to expand the underlying partition and then I could expand the root partition. The later in Mint, prior was booted to.

    Oh and I got the pictures up on the photo site from our trip to Virginia. Some of them came out pretty cute.

    More tomorrow cats and kittens!!! Be thankful for the yarn!!!

  • Hump Day

    I made a pick up order to stock up the freezer. Got about 10 pounds of skinless/boneless chicken, 2 packages of polish & 2 packages of smoked sausage and half a pork loin. Got ripped off with the chips that I thought were on sale but weren’t. Oh well, I just need to pay closer attention. This is also an oddity in that I bought chicken without picking it out. The logic is that it’s prepackaged so even if they’re just grabbing what’s on top there’s a good chance they’ll get something decent. It worked out.

    The chicken has been portioned and labeled along with the sausage and is in the freezer. I do like having a stocked freezer with labeled food for dinner.

    I didn’t freeze the loin as I’m going to try to use it to make pork schnitzel tomorrow.

    I also found 4 extra cold oat jars while looking for cables, now we have 10 total. We’re going through some oats and I’m happy about that because it’s rather healthy. I think that we may even try the oatmeal cookie recipe that’s on the oat can.

    While this post has been all about food, I guess that I should include an update on the diet. Made it down to 192.2 this morning but today was a 3 meal day. Oats for breakfast, Chic-Fil-A for lunch and fried eggs with toast and sausage for dinner. And ice cream for dessert. So I’ll be up tomorrow but I’m moving.

    I do have an issue with my right foot on the outside bottom, it hurts and I’m not sure why. I’m not a big fan of this growing older thing, but, it sure beats the alternative.

  • A Day of Acquisitions

    It’s back to work today. Evidently my time is now going to be approved on a monthly basis. I mean it makes no never mind to me but I’ve got payroll yelling at me and my approver approves on a monthly basis. Sigh… I guess if that’s the only issue I’m blessed.

    I picked up a new gun today. A Hi-Point 45 ACP gen 2. It’s a cannon for sure. But it has some goofy issues with the grip, it digs into your skin. I’ll have to sand that down. It’s heavy and it’s pre-threaded for a suppressor. I hope to shoot it within the next calendar year.

    I also picked up a new SSD for the Mint Linux box. I had a 512Gb SSD in it and kept running out of room. Best Buy had a 2Tb SSD for $109 and I could pick up a holder for it to mound it in the 3.5 bays. I used foxclone to clone the drive and spent the evening tearing it apart and dusting it out and putting it back together. I messed up and put in a 3Tb instead of the 8Tb but I’ll mount that in tomorrow.

    The new drive is in but I’m having an issue taking advantage of the new space, it’s unallocated but not letting me use it. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. It’s nice to put it back together and clean it up. I didn’t realize the space I had for drives in that case. And it looks like it can handle 8 devices instead of 6. Nice…

  • Pure Exhaustion

    We got back today and I’m exhausted. My day started at 3:45am in Virginia Beach and after 8 hours I made it back to DFW, I was fit to be tied but we made it.

    We had to fly around a storm system so we went due south to Mobile, AL and then to Houston and then up to DFW. So instead of a 2:45 hour flight, it was closer to 4. Then we landed in terminal B but that’s under construction and I took us the wrong way. Ugh.

    I napped for about 2.5 hours and I’m still exhausted but it feels so good to be back in my own bed.

  • Travel Day

    Well it was an easy travel day, although I wounded Myself by the amount of walking we did when we got here. Virginia Beach is a long a boardwalk, which isn’t actually a boardwalk it’s cement. I made the mistake of wearing my sandals and we walked about a mile and a half on the beach and then another three four miles after that before I put sneakers on. All told it was almost 14 miles. I’m sore.

    It seems like they are getting ready for a big celebration here. And it has nothing to do with the wedding we are here for. We saw a band this evening called the deloreans. They are an 80s cover band, lots of energy and fun.

    We were watching them waiting for Britney and Austin to show up. Once they got in, we went to eat dinner at Abbey Road pub.

    Just got back to the hotel and I’m crashing, more tomorrow!

  • Yikes… I’m Traveling Again

    And flying, on Memorial Day weekend to boot. Normally I’d be bitching about this but I think I’m in dire need of a break. I’ve been on duty for the FRB job since 1/13 with no days off except what they take off. I’m taking one personal day and lining it up with the Memorial Day holiday and viola, a four day weekend. Now the problem with this is that everyone else gets a four day weekend and wants to go places too so they will be in my way… No, they will be along my path and I will enjoy people watching 1000’s I will never see again, this is a gift I’ve been given that some don’t get. Enjoy it and make the most of it.

    To that end, I’ll try to put together a blogging protocol that can be used in other vacations allowing for blogging to be seamlessly integrated with the trip. Had I thought about this, I should have set up a inbound VPN. Oh well. There will be other times.

    I’m good and sleepy today so I’ll keep this on the short side and bid you a fond farewell.