tdjohnsn | Recent Entries

I just unfollowed a guy on Instagram because he is posting about the “weight loss journey” he is on because he can’t stand how bloated he looks at ::checks notes:: 11% body fat.

A video for

kung_fu_monkey : https://youtu.be/p2bvPzvFlP8

Being dairy intolerant (lactose? Who knows, I just know its not worth how awful I feel) sucks. Cheese is the best thing ever. In theory small amounts of butter (its mostly just fat) and hard cheese (ditto) are okay, but its one of those things that sometimes I can get away with it and....sometimes I cant.)

Hippie Dust is my favorite name for popcorn topping made from brewers/nutritional yeast and various spices. In the form that you usually find recipes for it, it is only okay. It is often billed as a salt substitute, but without salt you don’t really activate the cheesy/umami flavor of brewers yeast. As a result an awful lot of recipes for Hippie Dust fall into the category that Ron refers to as, “penance food.”

How this comes together is the discovery for a recipe for non-dairy Parmesan cheese. It was originally a penance food recipe using a salt substitute, but I misread it and used salt instead.
___
Non-dairy Parmesan/Hippie Dust Base

1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2tsp salt

Put it in a two cup container, shake, store in the fridge.*
___

It has salt to activate the flavor of the nutritional yeast, and fat for flavor and mouth feel, and it is just plain yummy.

Using this as the base, you can then use the spices from the various hippie dust recipes depending on what you are in the mood for and what you are putting the fake Parm on. I really like a spice mix variously called “pizza mix” or “taco mix” that is pepper flakes, oregano, and onion powder, but you can use anything. Herb du Provence, fancy pepper, those little bottles of Japanese flavorings for rice, and so forth.

What motivated me to type this in is that it is squash season** and my Hippie Dust Base with a sprinkle of spices on top of it is insanely yummy on squash. It has been my go to for broccoli at dinner time for awhile, and I dip jicama in it for a snack in the afternoon, but it -really- compliments cooked squash.

* Your almond flour should be in the fridge too. It goes rancid quickly once you open it.
** squash needs to cure after it comes out of the field. Buy some extra squash now to just store until the end of October/November. It will be way tastier.

http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/SesameStreet

Why do Swedish warships have bar codes on the sides?

So that when they return to port, they can Scandinavian.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Location: US, Washington, Kenmore, King, 67th Ave NE, 19316

Since sunday's can be a day to think about stuff, so i thought i would post a couple different things to read on subjects I have been thinking and struggling with a lot.

An essay, well, really a commencement address by David Foster Wallace. I had never heard of him before and since I read this I have run across him a couple times just the last couple weeks.

And an excerpt from Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

( Read more... )

I've been listening to the audio version. The language in the book is truly beautiful. I highly recommend it. Especially, I realize now, if you read it as a teenager. I suspect it is one of those books that you pick up very different things from depending on how old you are.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.

Wow ... This is ... words can't ...

MeTube: August sings Carmen 'Habanera'

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Location: US, Washington, Kenmore, King, 67th Ave NE, 19312

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt)		100%
Deanna Troi		80%
Jean-Luc Picard		70%
Geordi LaForge		70%
James T. Kirk (Captain)		50%
Spock		45%
Chekov		45%
Uhura		45%
Beverly Crusher		40%
Data		40%
Mr. Scott		35%
Will Riker		35%
Worf		35%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)		30%
Mr. Sulu		25%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed,
and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable.
That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you
were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first
episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

I'm a O90-C58-E4-A63-N90 Big Five!!

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Location: US, Washington, Kenmore, King, 67th Ave NE, 19300

It's been an, "I need more chocolate" kind of weekend. But we did go to sky nursery just to go look at plants.

Spent yesterday cleaning the deck and getting the tables and chairs and barbecues covered or put away for winter. Lots of stuff to do, not much motivation to do any of it.

Today I left the floor cleaning robot going while we were out of the house. A sensor must have failed since it took the plunge off the stair landing. It appears to be alright, but I don't know what went wrong in the first place. I suppose a cat may have pushed it. They're like that.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Location: US, Washington, Kenmore, King, 67th Ave NE, 19302

It is a little alarming to realize how many people on my friends list have personal journals that begin much like Calvin's.....

Read Calvin and Hobbes comic here: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2012/08/29/

Black cats are often not adopted because of superstition. Wow. Is is 1650AD already? Black Cat Appreciation day brings awareness to the problem and promotes adopting black cats from shelters. Kitten (and puppy for that matter) season is in full swing if you have space in your life for any color cat or dog, but the black kittens need you most.

http://blog.cheezburger.com/community/black-cat-appreciation-day-august-17th/

Thought I would type while I have a real keyboard connected to the internet. I love my iDevices, but they aren't very good for typing long form prose.

We have had a series of thunderstorms rolling through the area bringing clouds and spotty rain. During one of them on Friday our internet went out and never came back. Frontier (our provider) will be out this coming Thursday to see what is up.

We are not amused. A fucking week to check a service outage? Really?

I also got to send a certified letter to the IRS this morning. I got a letter from them saying I had underpaid my taxes to the tune of almost $4000 dollars. Ya, that didn't happen. Since Ron and I are registered domestic partners, we have to file jointly as singles. (Don't think about that too hard, it will make your head hurt.) When we combing our income and divide it, the amount I claim for income is way more than the deductions on my W2. We sent a nice but tersely worded note along with a copy of our worksheet telling them they should look at that again taking Ron's return into account. You notice they didn't send a letter saying Ron had overpaid. Just a coincidence I am sure.

With summer finally, or at least mostly, here we are getting the deck set up. The storms put a stop to my water proofing of the deck, but I will be able to finish that this afternoon. We are also really looking to a visit from

theoctothorpe in a couple weeks. He has been away too long.

We are going down to the Oregon Brewers Festival in Portland with him, so that should be a lot of fun. I know he and Ron are going to the Boeing factory one day when I am at work, and we are driving up to Port Townsend for my Birthday. The next weekend we are driving up to Levenworth and Lake Wenatchee for a day trip which should be a great deal of fun. Did I mention how much we are looking forward to his visit? A lot.

Nothing much else is happening. We are on budget lockdown and winter is coming so we aren't doing much else. We had wanted to find a way to see

kung_fu_monkey and

dr_tectonic this summer, but there was no budget for that.

I need to post pictures of my garden. It is doing pretty well despite the wet June. Everything is really far behind though. I'm not sure the squash will have time to squash unless we get a really nice September. (We usually do, but it has been unpredictable the last couple years.)

Thats it for now.

Adopt a lucky black cat!

The shelters are full of kittens and puppies right now. It's that time of year.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Location: US, Washington, Kenmore, King, 71st Ave NE, 19055

It's going to be one of those days that remind us why we live in Seattle. Bright and sunny enough to see all the colors and the perfect blue sky and the mountains in the distance, but not so sunny that it is oppressively hot.

It was cool and foggy on the way in on the ferry, and as I drive to work the mist lifted in a perfect day.

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Current Location: US, Washington, Suquamish, Kitsap, State Hwy 305 NE, 16546

Everyone who knows me knows that I am clear that days have dates. And that days are assigned days of the week. I am not good at combining the two. "Calendar challenged" is the kind term I use to describe this.

Thus, I knew that Brian, Kent, and Michael (

bjarvis,

kent4str,

cuyahogarvr) were going to be dropping in on their way back from Vancouver, BC on the 3rd. I did not know it was going to be Tuesday. So I was quite surprised when I got a text from Ron saying they were 15 minutes away.

I was at work, so it would be a few hours till I got home. Ron kept them entertained, then I arrived home and collected hugs. They are looking great. Kent has a cute haircut that makes him look like a greying Dr. Quest. (Mmmmmm. Dr. Quest.)

The five of us (plus

theoctothorpe who was in my pocket providing commentary) went to Cactus in Kirkland for dinner. They have really good food and really good drinks, a gluten free menu, and choices for vegetarians. We read on the menu last time we were there that the chips are fried in the same oil as gluten containing items, so I stayed out of them. Sure enough, I didn't get sick this time. This did mean no convenient guacamole transport devices for me though.

After a huge dinner at which everyone ate far too much, there may have been Gelato. (Which I also didn't have...I will be nice and not name names of the people who did....)

It was very nice to see they guys. They need to move out here. We have a lot of rain, but we don't have high humidity or a need for air conditioners, or hurricanes, or insane amounts of bugs, and most people drive like there are other people on the road here. It seems like an obvious choice to me.