GIF Dump

Some of the animation clips I made over the years and re-discovered recently (converted to *.webp file format for this page).

And the sexiest scene in movie history .....

Well . . . I have temporarily taken over as chief household chef, and (after 5 tries) my crockpot chicken-vegy stew is pretty (make that "very") good at this point.

The ingredients are shown up there ( I left the boneless chicken breast out of the picture ! .... my brain ...). => Chicken broth, cut up boneless chicken breast, potato, sweet potato, tomato paste, carrots, celery, Worcestershire sauce. The bags up there have way too much carrots and celery - just put in a reasonable amount based on the potatoes and chicken you are using. I used about 2 tablespoons of Worsestershire.

Cook the broth, tomato paste, Worcester sauce and chicken pieces (pre-warmed to room temperature) in the crockpot for 2 ½ hours (on high) before adding the vegys. Cut up the vegys into bite size pieces, warm them to room temperature or higher, and add them. If you add cold vegys, you will lower the cooking broth temperture and slow down the cooking process, Cook for another (approx) 2 hours: taste test as the time approaches. Tweak time as needed.

Fidgeting today with my time lapse camera, I got bored and unhappy because its lens does not have a wide view angle.
I shopped around for options that don't cost $$$ and didn't find any. Felt the Gods were plotting against me and I uploaded a few harsh words to Them on that account.
But .... then .... I stumbled into Youtube and discovered that my Samsung S25E phone can make time lapse videos, and has some easy to set options for doing that.

This was shot through a window and you can see my ghostly reflection moving around just left of center.

The Gods are now pi$$ed at me and I need to go into hiding until this whole thing blows over.

Deb at the Crossword Puzzles

For various reasons, we've had lots of doctor visits, and new prescriptions and blood tests (complicated by the variety of many prescriptions!). Deb's back and leg problem remain undiagnosed (she can't stand up for 60 seconds!) - waiting for scheduled MRI and expert appraisal...... stressful days.

Here she is chillin' with her favorite passtime these days.

Some books really need (and deserve) to be physical, printed-on-paper harcovers.
I do have a lot of "e-books" - they are text-only storybooks and novels.
On the other hand, Art and photography books really really need to be printed on paper (good paper, good ink).

Also, some storybooks fall in the middle - they are text+pictures that do well on a computer (not a cellphone) screen and on paper. These are books where the pictures are spice and the text is the meat. (With Art and photography books, the text is spice and the pictures are the meat.)

So ....? .... I'm coming to that ....

In the early days of davesjournal (you're reading it) I was not sure what it should look like, what it should be about, what kind of writing "attitude" I should take with it. It actually took me a few years to settle into a web page style and a bunch more years to settle on the current page layout: each topic is enclosed in its own html page division and the divisions appear in sequence one at a time vertically (the page is easy to read on a cell phone or tablet).

My inspiration for the page layout came from Peter Ashely's 'blog Unmitigated England. That design is simply Heading-Picture-Text for the body of the 'blog. Peter had sidebars with ads, but I didn't get into sidebars or ads.

Peter is a very talented (professional) writer, and turns out he published a few books using the content of his 'blog (which sadly he stopped adding to in 2018). I just got one of his books and it is a pleasure to read - very entertaining style about English places and products that are long gone. His style is definitely English, so you must flow along with that kind of personality.

Anyway, I read a few of his stories sitting on the porch, when I should be outside pulling weeds or spraying fox urine to chase the rabbits away.

Well ... a CafeAmericano and two espressos pulled me through my yard work for the day. I am now on my break with Tux in the window and a
Founders Breakfast Stout.

The beer is pretty nice (first time here) and 90% lives up to the website description.

(Tux, of course, always exceeds expectations.)

May.23

The local vintage car night at Kimball's happened yesterday. Turnout was so-so but it was nice to kickstart the season. I got two decent images before my camera/lens setup died !!!...I mean DIED - the investigation is currently pointing to the lens.

Here are two very nice cars ....

Yesterday

For various medical and family reasons, we took 3 trips to Worcester this week. Yesterday's trip: Deb had appointments with 2 doctors at 2 locations regarding 2 issues (long, ongoing saga). The nicest part of the day was eating pizza in the atrium at St. Vincent Hospital (that's it up above). You gotta hand it to the architect, that is a seriously nice public area for a hospital. That jungle on the right side surrounds a nice little waterfall.

Pizza was tastee .... salt and lots of fatty bacon won the hour.

Coincidentally my blood tests came back and my cholesterol was the lowest it's ever been - 132 !! (Thanks to the olive oil I pour on everything I eat.)

May.26

On the way to lunch (with Mike @ Rise&Grind), I dropped into Coggshall Park - haven't been there in a lot of years.
Sat on a bench and soaked in the ambience - families, kids on swings, workers on lunch break.
Nice pond.

Later: an avocado & egg sandwich & coffee - Mike had a strawberry & peach slushy (I think that's what it was).

---

Tearing up the street ... again !!!

Peculiar thing: they are making tons of noise .... and I am enjoying it !
Reminds me (seriously) of times back in Brooklyn.
I will probably get over this but at the moment, it is kind of cool.