Uncle Billy's

It really wouldn't be a visit to Austin without some barbecue.  This time we went to Uncle Billy's.  We brought the puppy, so we sat outside (which made things cool off quickly, but wasn't too bad).

Obligatory menu picture.

OMP #2.

Started with chips and queso and salsa.  The chips were tasty, I think because they were loaded with salt.  Queso was creamier than most, but since we were outside, it congealed a bit.  The salsa was spicy, but had a decent fresh flavor.

Someone made a mess with the queso.

I went with the two-meat plate, choosing moist brisket and sausage as my two meats.  I thought both were fine, and the burnt edge you can see on the one slice of brisket was super delicious.  The sausage had a bit of spice, but nothing overwhelming.  The mac and cheese I got was a bit lacking in cheesiness.  More cheese is never a bad thing, especially when it's the second ingredient in the name.  The onion rings were close to the top of the best I've had, with a light crispy coating and sweet onion insides.

My dinner.

Other people got other things.  There was an incident with the one BBQ sauce, but other than some clothes and a certain puppy with an ear covered in sauce, it wasn't a disaster.

Other people's dinners.

 Also I miss cider.

I had a Strongbow, since this is pretty much impossible to find in Hawaii.

Pile of links

• A pikachu/snorlax transforming blanket? I really want one of those.
• Kitty and Bunny are Friends.
• Math joke.
• That's sad to hear.  I really liked his tv show, and he was fun to read online.
• Politics.
• Auctioning kids.
• Christmas Red Panda
• I fucking hate pate, too.
• These kind of pictures are really cool.
• No, seriously, macadamia nuts really do burn well if you light them on fire.  I think other oily nuts do as well, but we had macadamia nuts, and I know I've done that before. Kukui nuts should burn better, but those are kind of rare.

Fucking delicious

Today's lunch was to be foodcarts at the corner of 6th and Waller.  We got there a bit late, so a number of them were already closed for lunch.  After a quick tour around, I found this one:

It may be hard to read the sign, so I'll sum it up: chicken tacos, using a waffle as a shell. Best. Idea. Ever.

They were out of drinks, so I picked up a Mexican Coke at the pizza truck next door.

 Here's my first taco. "The Brady": swiss cheese, hot sauce, and honey in a bacon waffle.

 I should have read the menu closer, as this one has no chicken. :(

Gooey cheese.

 I fixed that problem with taco #2: "Ms. M": chicken tender, bacon, and swiss cheese in a regular waffle, to which I added hot sauce and syrup:

Making it basically the previous taco with chicken added.

Om nom nom nom.

This is basically the greatest idea ever in the history of "I want food now, and don't care if it's healthy."  I'm going to be craving this as soon as I get home.  Also now. I'm still full, and I kind of want another one of these to eat.

I took this picture just to catch this lady in the out-of-season warm weather fur stuff.  It was like 68ish out.

Also, I'm Batman

It is too cold inside

So I will just sit here in the sun.

Quiche? Quiche.

It turns out that quiche is remarkably easy, and tastes less like eggs than I always assumed it did.  Recipe:

• One pie crust
• Two eggs
• A cup of cream
• Whatever crap you have that you want to eat, but don't really feel like just eating plain.

The top-right one is cheddar/bacon/(icky) broccoli, and the lower-left one is gouda/mushrooms/prosciutto.

Definitely an idea I'm going to have to steal and use in the future.

Travelling: part 2

The flight from IND to IAH wasn't very eventful.  I did get the exit row, which was nice, as that plane/route/whatever doesn't really offer the large area of larger leg room seats.  I did discover that IND has a Qdoba before security, so now I'm tempted to get a burrito there next time before I fly out.  I figure that they must see burritos all the time, right?  They know that a burrito is not a bomb? 

Also: Note for Future Me:  There's a secret "Expert and Frequent Flyers" lane at IND, which you can totally use if you just try.  Basically, you skip standing in the line with the regular people, and get to jump immediately to the guy who checks IDs.  I wonder if you're an "expert" just by virtue of not standing in line with other people.

Then I got to Houston.  Houston has the A/C turned up way too high in the airport.  Since I'd seen the burrito place earlier, I had them on my mind, so when I saw the place making these:

I had to stop in and get one.  I should probably ask for the salsa on the side next time, though.  You get a free tiny bag of chips, and they're not very good plain.  Besides that, I got the habenero salsa, which is hotter than I was looking for.  It was fine on the top of the burrito, but there was a puddle of salsa at the bottom, which nearly killed me.  I had to go to the newsstand to get a bottle of water and bar of chocolate to get rid of the heat.  I have no clue what the guy at the counter thought, but given that I could barely see through the tears, I'm sure he knew that something was up.

On the flight from IAH->AUS, I had chosen another exit row, but did get the upgrade.  That's totally worth it for the 25 minute flight.  Oh well, kind of a #firstworldproblem.  The nice thing about this flight was that it had DirectTV for each seat on the plane.  I'm not sure if this is a regular thing, but I really hope that the flight next week from IAH->HNL will have this.  I spent the flight watching Powerpuff Girls and Teen Titans.

Starfire.

Raven, Cyborg, Robin. In the snow.

Beast Boy. Also in the snow.

I then got to pet a puppy when I arrived:

In her sweatshirt to stay warm.

Completely unrelated other puppy that I had in the queue:

Snow!

Probably would have been more appropriate yesterday

cthulhumas

Saturday: twidroyd is now ubersuck

I hate when android app developers think that they need to keep expanding and updating their programs until they're piles of shit.  I used to use twidroyd, and although it was kind of crappy, it at least let me read all my tweets with only a minimum amount of hassle.  However, they updated, and pretty much broke everything.

• It now has ads.  I'm not against people trying to earn money, but not when you make it as annoying and offensive as possible.  Why would I ever want to see an ad that takes up half of my screen?  I'm not going to click on it anyway, because a) I already have a mobile phone (duh), and b) if I want pizza, I'm not going to order it from a leeching middleman.
• It's now less responsive than using smoke signals to alert a team of turtles that I'd like them to personally deliver my tweets.  Which UI genius thought that I wanted to wait for user images to load while scrolling through the timeline? I can read, Captain Slowdown, I don't need to see the picture if I'm in a hurry.  If the picture isn't available, keep moving, and cache it for next time.
• Looking at it funny makes it reset the timeline to the top.  If you have a link and image preview feature, but I can't make any use of it because I'll then have to scroll back down from the very top, then you don't have that feature, because it's useless.  There's already a way to jump back to the top (although you move it on the menu every damn version), so why would I want that to happen automatically?

Basically, I wish these developers would try to think up new ideas instead of shitting all over the things they've already made.

Friday: om nom nom

Thursday: I didn't take any pictures today.

So I have nothing to post.

I did help work at a community dinner thing, so I guess I'm in the holiday spirit.

Wednesday: cookies

Just pretend these are in order.  The blogger app decided that I wanted them in a random order, instead of the order I added them.  The ingredient list is "one stick," "one sleeve," "one can," "one cup of X."

Tuesday: pretzels!

The blogger app also doesn't mind that the pictures have a defined orientation.  It just ignores all that.  I'm also wondering where the dithering pattern is coming from.  Anyway, pretzels are tasty, especially with cheese and mustard.

Something was happening at gate C9 at ORD. They had at least two firetrucks there trying to sort it out.

Monday: travel

After putting in a half-ish day of work, I then had to finish up errands and get ready to fly away.  This didn't leave much time for food, so I had a banana and then waited until the airport to get something else.  Oddly enough, the security line at HNL was longer than I've ever seen.  This was the case despite having all three scanners open.
Which brings up the question of why even have the radiation box scanners if people can just choose another lane without them?
I did pick up a margarita pizza at the airport, which made me "that guy who brings a damn pizza on the plane, making everyone else jealous." I didn't care too much, it was a good enough pizza (although it was a bit heavy on the cheese relative to the other toppings).
I also discovered that my phone can take decent enough pictures f the moon from an airplane.

My phone actually took a reasonably nice picture of this crescent moon above some random town.

Sunday: unsuccessful errands

One of the things I wanted to do today was go see if I could find a mini/micro usb converter.  That way, I would only need to bring one cable, and could convert for the devices that take the other cable.  Radio Shack claims they have this one in most stores, and list the price as $1.98.  Decent enough, given that it's basically four wires and a sheath in a chunk of plastic.  However, the actual store was selling it for $17.  Dear Radio Shack, this is part of the reason no one wants to buy things from you.  If your markup is 750%, then you can go fuck yourself. I'll tack one on to an amazon order in the future and take two cords on this trip.

I did stop in to get lunch at Curry House Coco Ichiban at the mall:

Not bad, although I tend to like my curry full of veggies and meat and stuff.  This was basically just a sauce, although it was pretty tasty.

Apparently I only have Pokemon links today:

• Puns are funny.
• So wait, they're making this game, but this game is just a mock up? The universe is not fair. (In case you don't want to look it up, Nobunaga's Ambition was a decent strategy game I remember playing on the NES.  It was reasonably complicated, but still rather fun.  Pokemon Snap is one of the greatest games of all time, where you ride a car on a fixed path and take pictures of Pokemon.

Saturday: sick

woke up early, felt terrible all day. super dehydrated, but kept puking up everything I ate or drank. finally eating a banana, and it's sunday now.

bye bye carefully planned weekend getting ready for travel. hello super rushed cram session tomorrow.

Friday: I regret having to clean up my apartment all weekend

But it's kind of a mess, and since I'm leaving next week, I need to get that fixed.  It is somewhat reassuring to have the motion detecting webcam setup to spy on the place while I'm gone.  Hear that, flying ninjas? I'm on to you.

Dinner was another lazy fast food day, because I was lazy, and for some reason I've been extra super hungry this week, and didn't want to wait for food to cook.  I need to figure out something to eat for this weekend, but a three-day/no leftover plan is kind of hard to design.

I really like these old filing cabinets that the MSU surplus store is selling, but I have no way to get them, nor do I have anything that needs filing.  My current filing cabinet is still full of cable and water bills from a decade ago.  I should really throw out more things.

• Me Lost Me Cookie At The Disco is such a sad song.
• Stupid 2012. You had to be a stupid leap year didn't you?
• This would be cool if it had the apache.conf file necessary to configure your webserver to show the appropriate cat.
• I suspect that this is another reason that traditional print journalism is going away.

Thursday: Blah

I was super hungry today after work, and just got some tacos instead of cooking.  The fact that I put my chicken in the freezer on Monday and forgot to take it out has nothing to do with this.

I've also gone back and tagged all my past taco posts.  That made me think how nice it would be if you could tell blogger to define tag subsets.  For example, all "tacos" posts are "food" posts, as are all "nom nom nom" posts.  Therefore, it's a bit redundant to need to tag each taco post as a food post, when tacos implies food.  If blogger understood this fact, then I would only need to tag this post (and those) with "tacos", and it would still show up when someone clicked "food".

• I was going to make an "X, X everywhere" joke today, but totally forgot what it was going to be about. Probably would have been funny, though.
• Yay collusion! That's way better than living in reality, isn't it?  I'm glad I'm sticking with regular books.
• I'm glad I visited London last year, because I'm pretty sure I don't really care to go back anymore.
• My legos never had a chalkboard.
• Potentially NSFW, but then again, it's also fine art.  In any case, I'm with Morbo on this one.
• Squirrel!
• 
  

Wednesday: Not the most appetizing looking dinner ever

That's my attempt at a crab salad.  Had I not been dumb, I would have realized that adding a bit more butter and a bit of egg, and then cranking up the heat would result in "crab cake," which is easy to convert into sandwich form.  Also, planning things better would have resulted in plain chips, as that would match better.  The pineapple was good, though.  The sandwich wasn't bad either, although Safeway seems to think that bread just sometimes molds on the shelf.  I had thought about going out for dinner, but decided instead that finishing up the crab would be a good idea.  I'm not sure how long that would really keep in the fridge.

Magneto Bunny is safe against your thoughts, Charles.

• I'm not sure how many astronomers actually read this, since it's mostly about food and pokemon, but this is kind of an important thing.
• Economic logic -or- why your family is not a government.
• I just thought this was funny.
• Disney movies would be much better with lightsabers.  Seems like that would solve a lot of plot points quicker, too.
• I wish we lived in the future of the 1950s.  The downside is we probably wouldn't have the internet.  The upside is we could live in houses like this.

Like no one ever was

• He only wanted to be the very best.
• I kind of feel bad for this bear.  He's clearly learned that if he waves, sometimes he gets food.  I felt really bad for him when about 45 seconds in, when they drive away a bit, and then stop again.  :(
• Squirrel!
• She makes the important point in here: to many people, you have to justify the lack of equality (technically equality of outcome) by assuming that there must be an equality of opportunity.  Admitting that this isn't true means that some action actually needs to be taken. It's far easier to simply assume that everyone has the same set of opportunities, and if they don't succeed, it's because they've squandered that opportunity. Therefore, the lack of outcome equality is a natural result which punishes slackers.

Tuesday: Mushrooms and Pokemon

That's the end result of today's dinner.  It wasn't terribly hard to make, but was kind of a time-sensitive meal.  I didn't take intermediate steps, mostly because I had to continually do things.  Here are the steps though:

1. Clean asparagus and big portabello mushroom.  Preheat oven to 425, set water for pasta to boil.
2. Oil asparagus, and place it on a baking sheet and set aside.
3. Pull out mushroom stem, and then scoop out all the gills.  Mince a clove of garlic, and a good chunk of green onion, and the removed mushroom bits.
4. Melt a gob of butter in a pan, and saute the mushroom bits, the onion, and the garlic.  When the moisture is largely gone, add half a tub of crab meat (I used the cheaper claw meat, since I don't really need nice lump for this).  Sprinkle with some pepper, old bay, and a bit of salt. Quickly cook that until the crab meat is heated throughout (I think pretty much all crab is sold pre-cooked).  You should put the pasta on to boil around here, too.
5. Remove crab mixture to bowl, add some mayo, some dijon, maybe a tablespoon of bread crumbs, and some parmesan.  Mix it all together, and scoop it into the mushroom.  Add the mushroom to the baking sheet, and place in the oven.
6. While the aspargus and mushroom bake, mince more garlic and onion, and melt another chunk of butter.  Add the garlic and onion, and stir constantly to brown the butter (keeping track to not burn anything).  Add some herbs (I used sage and rosemary, since I had that). Add vermouth to thin, and let it reduce slightly.  Add fully cooked pasta, and follow with more parmesan, stirring to let the cheese thicken the sauce.
7. Plate the pasta, and follow with the veggies, which should be done about the same time (the mushroom deflates a bit, and the top is toasted, as shown above).

Here's a cross section as I was eating:

The dark gills have turned the crab mixture a bit purple-y, but the flavor was wonderful.  I probably could have added a bit more flavor to the pasta, but it worked ok as a base to dress up with the crabby stuffing.  My thought was to do something similar for new year's eve, although almost certainly using regular size mushrooms instead.  Still, I wanted to at least try it out first.

And now I have half a tub of crab meat that I need to use.  Maybe make something like this stuffing and have a crab roll sandwich for dinner this week?

I then spent the evening watching "Pokemon the Movie 99: Victini Totally Cheats for Ash, and Then Random Shit Happens."  Here's Victini:

Wait, what's that he's eating?

Macarons?  Seriously Pokemon, now you're doing food trends in the movies?  That surprised me a bit:

Me: "Macarons?"

Cilan: "My homemade macarons!"

Me: "WTF?"

Anyway, pretty much the same as previous movies. Pros:

• Cute new Pokemon eating desserts.
• Reasonably funny.

Cons:

• Not enough Team Rocket.
• Lack of clear villain.
• The second half kind of degenerates into completely opaque set of plot points required to save the world.
• Ash almost dies, making this movie #99 where he almost dies.

Dear Open Office,

This is totally a face.

Monday: And now it's super rainy again

I probably should have cut the salmon like I did last time, as this was kind of a lot of fish to eat in one sitting.  Another thing that I would probably do if I had the hardware would be to burn the top across the entire fish with a brulee torch.  That burnt bit was the tastiest part of the entire meal.  The honey nicely caramelized, giving those bites a wonderful sweet/salty taste.

The asparagus was just thrown under the broiler with the fish, but it did pick up a bit of the marinade run off.  I did the mashed potatoes using the steaming method, and threw in a couple cloves of garlic as well.  I finished them with a bit of the shiso furikake, which may now by my favorite thing to put on mashed potatoes.  It adds all the salt that's needed to finish them off.

"gimmegimmegimmegimmegimmegimmegimme!"

• Panhandler kitty (unfortunately I couldn't find a proper news story).
• When in doubt, claim a prior engagement and run away, because otherwise you're going to show everyone that you're basically a bigot. And running for president.
• Probably wouldn't post this, except those are two of my favorites (it's still creepy, though).
• This was today's Honolulu groupon (link to the actual people).  Unfortunately, despite what they claim, none of the "name a star" things are real.  That makes it a bit depressing that "over 60" were bought. Sure, it's great that they mail a your name and your fake claim up into space (where it inevitably burns up on re-entry, just like your dreams), but it doesn't really mean anything.  So, I'm going to save myself the $14 per star, and claim all 31ish of these stars.  Then, I'm going to write that on a piece of paper, and throw it away.  See, I just stole $434 from this company, and I used more than one groupon at a time.