No meat non-vegetarian cooking

Trying to change my diet and support my wife's mostly vegetarian requirements, so I tried a new French Onion Soup with portabella mushrooms. It was good, but the mushrooms did not add anything new: I also cooked Lentils and Red beans: This is simple tasty and full of protein. I know the beef broth, butter and cheese is not vegan, but it makes the soup taste so good! Now if I could just finish off the Christmas cookies without gaining any weight I will be all set.

Next steps

Had my annual Boy Scout required physical and all is well except my weight. You would think that food poisoning and 5 days of not eating would have helped me lose weight. So what else could I do but start backing Christmas cookies Now that the visiting with family and eating all day thing is over it's time to try and do better what I tried to do last year: Eat better, learn to cook a few more dishes, exercise more, do well at work and spend more time with friends and family. The getting into shape thing is now more important because in August I have major Boy Scout trip planned, carrying a 45 pound pack is extra hard when you are carrying an extra 20 pound belly...

My thoughts on picking a camera. First my constraints: Good point and shoot capability – My 75% use case is not “art” Rugged – Backpacking and hiking are not easy on a camera Always with me – Too big, too costly or too delicate to risk in bad weather hiking is not OK SLR like – Good & easy control over camera features Can produce an acceptable 11x17 print My current camera – Kodak Z1012 Good point and shoot Not very rugged – buttons stick, lens grinds Always with me – Yup it's been dropped on many national parks SLR like – Most of the functions I want Can produce a very good 8x10 print. 11x17 is not acceptable. My test of the Nikon P500 Point and shoot is poorer than my Z1012 Rugged – Looked solid, no field experience Always with me – On the high end of price and size $380 (US dollars) SLR like – Good set of features Photo quality was poorer than my Z1012. Poor color and a soft focus (could be corrected in post processing, but a lot of unnecessary work) My test of the Kodak Max Z990 Point and shoot features a good, easy to use, many more functions than the Nikon (or Z1012) Rugged – Looks solid, no field experience Always with me – $260 I can feel OK about it being ruined on a backpacking trip. Size/weight is my limit SLR like – Good set of features I'm still learning Photo quality – It looks to be better than my Z1012, but not dramatically better.

Kodak Max Z990 vs Kodak Z1012

Kodak Max Z990 vs Kodak Z1012, a set on Flickr.

My first few test shots with a Z990. The first impression is that it's a good solid camera. The automatic mode works well and produces sharp color accurate photos, you can't ask for much more. Still playing with all the wiz bang features, but the 90% use case is automatic and it hands down beats the Nikon P500 for that (but so does my Kodak Z1012).

Republican Presidential Candidates Reaffirm Commitment to Big Brother Government

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is working hard to outlaw many forms of birth control, create new laws about marriage and in general reduce personal rights and our ability to chose. So why are so called Conservatives fighting trying to one up each other in promising to support the goals of the Faith and Freedom Coalition? Could it be that they truly believe in bigger government and limiting personal rights and freedom of choice?

Troop 755 Camp Food

100_8715, a photo by cdrdwd on Flickr.

Potatoes, Carrots, Onion and Hamburger never tested so good. 30lb of dutch oven bread was consumed to the last crumb by 100 scouts and scouters

Food, Friends and Lawn Jobs

Started the day with a trip to Costco to pick up a few last items for company today and Easter company tomorrow (I also manged to pick up three Blue Spruce and two Weeping Cherry trees for the yard). I also picked up another bottle of Marquis Philips 2008 Shiraz (yum). I spent a few hours prepping dinner of: Tabbouleh, a rustic French boule, grilled asparagus, grilled peppers and grilled chicken with goat cheese and dried tomatoes . I was prepping some shrimp for an appetizer when I heard my son yell from the backyard. A White Acura MDX was driving through our backyard! Christopher and some neighbors got the license plate and called the police. Novi Police showed up and toke some information and the plate number. An hour later I got a call from the officer, the plate matched an Acure MDX in Northville, but the parents swore that their son was home with them and the care never moved. More to come when I hear it.

On to dinner; we had the Stones over and had a very nice time, ate shrimp in the back yard with a nice riesling, than moved into the dinning room for the main course. Wrangell was well behaved and happy to see people. Renee fixed Tiramisu for dessert and I had an espresso. The only thing that could have gone better is Dominoes. I did get high score...