I have started a new blog dedicated to my wood carving and wood turning. You can find it at http://www.bruceandpamsspot.blogspot.com/. I will still post pictures of the projects here from time to time but the majority including the instructions on how to make some of them will be found on the new blog.
Hope all is well.
Bruce
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Well When You Live in Texas....
After several weeks of record breaking cold more traditional Texas weather has returned. From Wednesday and Thursday that never got above freezing to today (Saturday Feb 13) is a beautiful sunny day in the low 70's and indeed that is the prediction for all week. I am looking forward to it as there are a lot of projects to get done this spring.
I have started a blog just for my woodcarving and wood turning hobbies. The address is http://bruceandpamsspot.blogspot.com/ The title of the blog is Just Fooling Around Woodworks. I will have a link on this site as well.
Hope all is well
More Later
Bruce
I have started a blog just for my woodcarving and wood turning hobbies. The address is http://bruceandpamsspot.blogspot.com/ The title of the blog is Just Fooling Around Woodworks. I will have a link on this site as well.
Hope all is well
More Later
Bruce
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
DeJa Vu all Over Again
Last week was some of the coldest and most treacherous weather in recent History for Dallas. We had just thawed out when it returned. It is 9:45 Wednesday morning and the snow is falling steadily. Schools are once again out and Pam has the day off. This time it is only supposed to last through tomorrow afternoon. I however, am ready for Spring.
When you click on the picture you will see the snow falling. At the time this was taken it had not yet begun to build up on the grass.
Yet another day stuck in the house. Something about knowing that you couldn't leave even if you wanted to that makes is worse. I really had no where planned to go today. The weather just reinforced that.
Stay Warm
More Later
Bruce
Yet another day stuck in the house. Something about knowing that you couldn't leave even if you wanted to that makes is worse. I really had no where planned to go today. The weather just reinforced that.
Stay Warm
More Later
Bruce
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Is It Soup Yet?
Pam and I both like soups and this time of year I make several that she likes usually in the order of her request. This weekend it was tomato. Now this not canned tomato soup it is made fresh and I have messed with the ingredients to make it more healthy. What sou not healthy. Just read the side of your favorite soup and I think you will be surprised. This does not take long to make and we like it. This makes a big batch and I freeze several quarts to be brought out later. This is a recipe that I combined from Rachel Ray and Emeril. So I guess it is mine.
Ingredients:
3-4 Large ripe tomatoes
2- cans tomato paste
2- Fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 -tablespoon olive oil
2 stalks celery
1 medium onion (we prefer Texas Sweet also known as 10-25)
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 tablespoon of fresh minced garlic
1 tablespoon of salt (preferably sea salt)
1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
3 cups fat free milk
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup shredded Italian Cheese
1/4 cup agave nectar (you can substitute sugar but the agave nectar is better for you)
Several Slices of your favorite sourdough french bread or just french bread
Directions:
In a large sauce pan add olive oil and bring up heat. Once pot is hot add onions that have been coarsely diced, celery coarsely diced and garlic. Saute for about five minutes then add the three fresh tomatoes that have been cubed. Continue to saute and add celery salt, salt, pepper. When onions are translucent and tender add the Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (I use Hunts) and quickly add the milk as the tomatoes will temporarily lower the temperature in the pan and the milk will not scald or curdle. Bring to a boil and add the tomato paste. Using an Immersion blender blend the stock up until it is smooth. Bring back to a boil and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. While the soup is cooking dice the bread sprinkle with garlic and give a very light mist of olive oil. Place in the oven at 350 removing when they start to brown. (You have just made croutons) Add the sour cream to the soup and stir well. Check seasoning and add salt if needed. Bring back to boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Just before serving put the Italian cheese in the pot and stir well. Spoon into your favorite bowl and add croutons. Add a grilled cheese sandwich and you have a great winter meal.
This recipe makes a gallon of soup. Serves 10-12
Hope you are staying warm
Good eating
More Later
Bruce
Bruce's Tomato Soup
Ingredients:
3-4 Large ripe tomatoes
2- cans tomato paste
2- Fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 -tablespoon olive oil
2 stalks celery
1 medium onion (we prefer Texas Sweet also known as 10-25)
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 tablespoon of fresh minced garlic
1 tablespoon of salt (preferably sea salt)
1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
3 cups fat free milk
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup shredded Italian Cheese
1/4 cup agave nectar (you can substitute sugar but the agave nectar is better for you)
Several Slices of your favorite sourdough french bread or just french bread
Directions:
In a large sauce pan add olive oil and bring up heat. Once pot is hot add onions that have been coarsely diced, celery coarsely diced and garlic. Saute for about five minutes then add the three fresh tomatoes that have been cubed. Continue to saute and add celery salt, salt, pepper. When onions are translucent and tender add the Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (I use Hunts) and quickly add the milk as the tomatoes will temporarily lower the temperature in the pan and the milk will not scald or curdle. Bring to a boil and add the tomato paste. Using an Immersion blender blend the stock up until it is smooth. Bring back to a boil and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. While the soup is cooking dice the bread sprinkle with garlic and give a very light mist of olive oil. Place in the oven at 350 removing when they start to brown. (You have just made croutons) Add the sour cream to the soup and stir well. Check seasoning and add salt if needed. Bring back to boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Just before serving put the Italian cheese in the pot and stir well. Spoon into your favorite bowl and add croutons. Add a grilled cheese sandwich and you have a great winter meal.
This recipe makes a gallon of soup. Serves 10-12
Hope you are staying warm
Good eating
More Later
Bruce
Friday, February 4, 2011
Now This Is Just Getting Silly
In the Dallas area we are used to a few cold spells during the winter and usually have a couple of inches of snow once or twice in a season. Last winter the total turned out to be 17 inches and there were two days of school called off. This week with the Super Bowl in town Mother Nature decided to show off. So we started of with a couple of inches of ice on Tuesday that just hung around. Never got out of the teens with a wind chill of 0 or below. Schools were called on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday neither Pam nor I can remember them being out for three days in a row. We were supposed to receive a light dusting of snow last night. We woke up this morning to six inches and the snow is still falling though it is light at the moment. Needless to say schools are out again today. We have stayed in and our cars have not moved and will not today. They now think we may see 42 by late tomorrow. Here are some pictures I snapped this morning.
Smokey was intent on scrutinizing what Pam was doing. Oddly enough she was going through the folder with his vet records in it. He just kept his eye on every paper.
It is almost like he is making sure she doesn't throw away anything important about him. When she finished with his file he decided to leave.
Hope you are staying worm.
More later
Bruce
My poor welcome bear is wearing a snow hat.
Click on this picture and you will be able to see the snow falling. It has started up again as of about 9:30
For something different here are the two cats supervising as we went through files yesterday.
Blaze was fascinated by the scanner and sat like this for about 20 minutes.
Hope you are staying worm.
More later
Bruce
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Now For Something Completely Different And Tasty
Some of you may or may not know that Pam has a degree in Homemaking. Now I thought I had everything figured out. Homemaking she would like to cook right. God knows I like to eat should be a match made in heaven well 35 years later the match is good but I now know she does not like to cook. So I have taken over most of the cooking. I am pretty good at it. I clean as I go and there is never a mass of dirty dishes when I am through and I tend to make things that taste pretty good. The other thing is I like simple. So with that background here is today's tip not really a recipe but you will like it. Especially if you are like us and have a weak spot for fresh bread.
Easy Cranberry Cinnamon Almond Bread
To make this bread I get frozen bread dough loafs at our local Kroger. They come in a bag of five for about 3.50. The are basic white bread. We like them as there is no long list of preservatives or additives. Just flour, yeast and water the things you would expect in bread.
I thaw a loaf in the icebox overnight. The dough will be defrosted by morning. I flour the counter and roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch. I then liberally sprinkle with Cinnamon, Damara sugar, dried cranberries,and almond slivers. I roll the dough back up tightly and pull the dough over the ends and place in a loaf pan for the bread to rise. When it is ready to bake it is in to a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. You are left with golden brown goodness. We like this better than the commercial loafs as it is sweet but not to sweet and it is fresh. It keeps for about three days once baked. Longer if you put it in the fridge after a day or so then toast it.
To bad you can't smell it. Time to go eat some.
Try it. It is easy and you will enjoy. You can substitute raisins for cranberries and walnuts for almonds it is good either way. Don't have Damara sugar use brown sugar.
More Later
Bruce
Easy Cranberry Cinnamon Almond Bread
To make this bread I get frozen bread dough loafs at our local Kroger. They come in a bag of five for about 3.50. The are basic white bread. We like them as there is no long list of preservatives or additives. Just flour, yeast and water the things you would expect in bread.
I thaw a loaf in the icebox overnight. The dough will be defrosted by morning. I flour the counter and roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch. I then liberally sprinkle with Cinnamon, Damara sugar, dried cranberries,and almond slivers. I roll the dough back up tightly and pull the dough over the ends and place in a loaf pan for the bread to rise. When it is ready to bake it is in to a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. You are left with golden brown goodness. We like this better than the commercial loafs as it is sweet but not to sweet and it is fresh. It keeps for about three days once baked. Longer if you put it in the fridge after a day or so then toast it.
Try it. It is easy and you will enjoy. You can substitute raisins for cranberries and walnuts for almonds it is good either way. Don't have Damara sugar use brown sugar.
More Later
Bruce
Word To The Wise
Posts have been pretty slim lately as most of my time has been spent dealing with a problem I turned up last week. It has to do with a topic that is pretty common today. Identify Theft. This however, is what I thought was an unusual twist. It involved counterfit checks not my credit cards The Police tell me that it is increasingly common.
Here is what happened. I check my bank account several times a week and have used Quicken since version 1 to do so. Downloading my transactions and matching them against tickets. When I checked on this day there was an unusual transaction I did not recognize. It was a cleared check with a number that did not match with my account. So I then went into online banking where I see images of the checks. The check was made out to Kroger for about 200 dollars. There is only one problem I never write checks to Kroger. In fact our check usage has dropped to almost nothing paying on two places once per month with checks. So I called the local Kroger and had them look up where this Kroger was. I had the store number from the check. Turned out to be in Houston. It gets better. Apparently they had also counterfeited a Drivers license with my correct number and date of birth and expiration. Police assured me this is also increasingly common. If you have never looked there are sited that sell your information for 49 dollars you can get a background check on anyone. I am sure if they used this site they paid with a bogus credit card. That bit of irony is fitting and these sites deserve whatever they get.
Any way I went to my bank we looked at the info and my banker agreed fraud and not a bank error. We froze the account. Luckily all of my monthly bills had already cleared. I then went to the police and filed a report. Giving them the names of the two places who receive checks from us. One is the likely candidate where the information was taken from as it of the two is the only one that had my drivers license on file and the only check I write. Pam writes the others. The counterfeiters had used my signature not Pam's and they had signed it like I signed this check which is the only one I sign that way. Due problems with a stolen credit card number about six years ago I have a signature that I use for each card that is just a little different that allows me to identify that account. Now the problem is just their being able to prove it. The same people tried to buy an apple computer as well but that check did not come in until after I had frozen the account so that transaction did to hit.
We are very carefull and shred everthing that has our name on it. It never occured to me but should have that people could access your checking account with out actually stealing your checkbook. All the have to do is go to the nearest office supply store and they can buy checks that can be doctored on any printer. I now know from the police that drivers licenses can be easily forged. All the criminal needs is a scan or copy of real check to counterfit one. In these times there are a lot of people working for little better than minimum wage that would be willing to scan or copy those where they work and sell them to others that will actually do the counterfiting. It is a difficult thing to catch and or prove so they have little risk. Since most of the attention is focused on credit cards the counterfitters have little risk as well. It would be far different if they had passed the checks here in Murphy as the police would have easy access to survelance tapes and be able to interview the clerks who took the checks. Being in Houston the local department will not have the resources to do much unless there turns out to be a lot of people affected. Even then the lickelyhood will be that the checks will be passed in large geograhic area. The one that made it through on my account was in Houston the second that was caught was in Sugarland. While you would expect the bank would have cought the forgery when it was presented checks make up such a small part of their business these days that there is not enough oversight. Since the crooks used a fair approximation of my signature the checks went through. All of the errors in the counterfit are things the bank does not look at. It had the right routing and account number and it had a resonable signature and the amounts matched so on it went.
I have since spent quite a bit of time getting everything untangled. The account in question had been open for twenty one years so I have to touch each of my online bill accounts and update them. I also have to check through all of them to make sure they were not hit. I said a word to the wise in the title so here is what I learned from this.
1. Even if you use a product like Quicken you need to check daily.
2. Use your online bankiing and set up the alerts. I used online banking but had not set up my alerts.
3. Set up the alerts on your credit card.
4. Thieves don't just target credit cards.
5. Sign up for online banking.
6. Most banks offer online bill pay - use it. Pay all bills with online banking.
7. Do not use your debit card to pay for daily transactions.
8. Have two credit cards and only two that you use for daily transaction. Make all of your purchases on them. The fraud protection is much greater.
9. Set up the alerts on your credit card.
10 Rotate the two credit cards. Three month off and three months on. When off do not use the second account for any reason.
The reason to have two cards is that if one is compromised you can switch to the other will you are dealing with the problem and while your provider gets you new cards.
11. Subscribe to a credit watch service that will notify you when inquires are made on your credit with any of the credit companies. (I use credit watch and have for over 10 years) Make sure they send alerts daily.
12. Pay for small purchases with cash.
13 If the cashier looks suspicsous consider making your purchase somewhere else or use cash.
14. Only deal with large online services and pass on buying items online from small unknown businesses.
15. Do not give anyone a check and if you must do not let them write your drivers license number date of birth etc. on them.
16. Keep all receipts and check them against your account often. I aslo log each ticket into a spreadsheet. It is far quicker when i need to refer to them to see the basic info on a spread sheet and not have to find the ticket in a pile of tickets.
While this has not been fun we were lucky to be able to shut it down quickly and that it happened after all the monthly bills had cleared, which brings me to the final bit of advice.
Know your banker. If you don't or they are not helpful find a new bank. Mine put in a lot of effort to get things handled promptly. And although everything did not work as we expected she did not stop until all awas correct.
Hopefully your life is less eventful
More Later
Bruce and Pam
Here is what happened. I check my bank account several times a week and have used Quicken since version 1 to do so. Downloading my transactions and matching them against tickets. When I checked on this day there was an unusual transaction I did not recognize. It was a cleared check with a number that did not match with my account. So I then went into online banking where I see images of the checks. The check was made out to Kroger for about 200 dollars. There is only one problem I never write checks to Kroger. In fact our check usage has dropped to almost nothing paying on two places once per month with checks. So I called the local Kroger and had them look up where this Kroger was. I had the store number from the check. Turned out to be in Houston. It gets better. Apparently they had also counterfeited a Drivers license with my correct number and date of birth and expiration. Police assured me this is also increasingly common. If you have never looked there are sited that sell your information for 49 dollars you can get a background check on anyone. I am sure if they used this site they paid with a bogus credit card. That bit of irony is fitting and these sites deserve whatever they get.
Any way I went to my bank we looked at the info and my banker agreed fraud and not a bank error. We froze the account. Luckily all of my monthly bills had already cleared. I then went to the police and filed a report. Giving them the names of the two places who receive checks from us. One is the likely candidate where the information was taken from as it of the two is the only one that had my drivers license on file and the only check I write. Pam writes the others. The counterfeiters had used my signature not Pam's and they had signed it like I signed this check which is the only one I sign that way. Due problems with a stolen credit card number about six years ago I have a signature that I use for each card that is just a little different that allows me to identify that account. Now the problem is just their being able to prove it. The same people tried to buy an apple computer as well but that check did not come in until after I had frozen the account so that transaction did to hit.
We are very carefull and shred everthing that has our name on it. It never occured to me but should have that people could access your checking account with out actually stealing your checkbook. All the have to do is go to the nearest office supply store and they can buy checks that can be doctored on any printer. I now know from the police that drivers licenses can be easily forged. All the criminal needs is a scan or copy of real check to counterfit one. In these times there are a lot of people working for little better than minimum wage that would be willing to scan or copy those where they work and sell them to others that will actually do the counterfiting. It is a difficult thing to catch and or prove so they have little risk. Since most of the attention is focused on credit cards the counterfitters have little risk as well. It would be far different if they had passed the checks here in Murphy as the police would have easy access to survelance tapes and be able to interview the clerks who took the checks. Being in Houston the local department will not have the resources to do much unless there turns out to be a lot of people affected. Even then the lickelyhood will be that the checks will be passed in large geograhic area. The one that made it through on my account was in Houston the second that was caught was in Sugarland. While you would expect the bank would have cought the forgery when it was presented checks make up such a small part of their business these days that there is not enough oversight. Since the crooks used a fair approximation of my signature the checks went through. All of the errors in the counterfit are things the bank does not look at. It had the right routing and account number and it had a resonable signature and the amounts matched so on it went.
I have since spent quite a bit of time getting everything untangled. The account in question had been open for twenty one years so I have to touch each of my online bill accounts and update them. I also have to check through all of them to make sure they were not hit. I said a word to the wise in the title so here is what I learned from this.
1. Even if you use a product like Quicken you need to check daily.
2. Use your online bankiing and set up the alerts. I used online banking but had not set up my alerts.
3. Set up the alerts on your credit card.
4. Thieves don't just target credit cards.
5. Sign up for online banking.
6. Most banks offer online bill pay - use it. Pay all bills with online banking.
7. Do not use your debit card to pay for daily transactions.
8. Have two credit cards and only two that you use for daily transaction. Make all of your purchases on them. The fraud protection is much greater.
9. Set up the alerts on your credit card.
10 Rotate the two credit cards. Three month off and three months on. When off do not use the second account for any reason.
The reason to have two cards is that if one is compromised you can switch to the other will you are dealing with the problem and while your provider gets you new cards.
11. Subscribe to a credit watch service that will notify you when inquires are made on your credit with any of the credit companies. (I use credit watch and have for over 10 years) Make sure they send alerts daily.
12. Pay for small purchases with cash.
13 If the cashier looks suspicsous consider making your purchase somewhere else or use cash.
14. Only deal with large online services and pass on buying items online from small unknown businesses.
15. Do not give anyone a check and if you must do not let them write your drivers license number date of birth etc. on them.
16. Keep all receipts and check them against your account often. I aslo log each ticket into a spreadsheet. It is far quicker when i need to refer to them to see the basic info on a spread sheet and not have to find the ticket in a pile of tickets.
While this has not been fun we were lucky to be able to shut it down quickly and that it happened after all the monthly bills had cleared, which brings me to the final bit of advice.
Know your banker. If you don't or they are not helpful find a new bank. Mine put in a lot of effort to get things handled promptly. And although everything did not work as we expected she did not stop until all awas correct.
Hopefully your life is less eventful
More Later
Bruce and Pam
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
And The Fun Continues
Day of the deep freeze that has descended on Dallas. No new rain or snow but the temperatures yesterday never climbed above 20 degrees. So the ice didn't melt and in the few areas that had enough traffic yesterday to turn to slush refroze even harder in the 10 degree temperatures last night. Today's projected high is 16 degrees with another hard freeze tonight. We are not projected to get above freezing until Friday afternoon and then only for a few hours.
Pam's school was canceled yesterday and again today and we are betting it will be for the rest of the week. Part of the reason is the Dallas area is now under rolling blackouts as the demand for electricity has grown so high as people try to keep their houses warm. Space heaters are flying off the shelves and they draw a lot of power.
You can see there is not a lot of change from the pictures I posted yesterday. Our big challenge would be getting the cars out of the garage.
Hope you are staying warm.
Bruce and Pam
Pam's school was canceled yesterday and again today and we are betting it will be for the rest of the week. Part of the reason is the Dallas area is now under rolling blackouts as the demand for electricity has grown so high as people try to keep their houses warm. Space heaters are flying off the shelves and they draw a lot of power.
Hope you are staying warm.
Bruce and Pam
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Winter Act 2
Well it appears this time the weatherman got it right. They have been calling for a severe cold snap for the last week or so. It came in last night and it is supposed to be Friday before we see temperatures above freezing again. We woke this morning to sleet and ice mixed with snow. Not the large fluffy kind but the small icy kind. Pam's school (as well as all the schools in the area) was canceled. Few cars have ventured out of our neighborhood. Other than stepping out to take these pictures (and not far) we have not left the house. Ice and I don't get along.
Hope all is well with you
Bruce and Pam
Our driveway is a sheet of ice.
Backyard is icy too.
Even the patio had a buildup.
Here is how Smokey deals with the ice.
Blaze however likes to watch the now fall.
Bruce and Pam
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