Close, but no Cigar

I came home today to the Michigan-Illinois basketball game on my TiVo. Michigan's basketball program hasn't done very well since they cleaned up the program, so I didn't have high hopes for the Wolverines versus the 14th-ranked Illini. But I figured I could fast-forward through the parts where Michigan was behind by more than a basket or two. I expected to be through with the game in a few minutes. To my surprise, Michigan took an early lead and hung in there most of the game. Sadly, the operative word is "most". They ended up falling 68-60. Oh, well.

Tacos Grantham

I made Tacos Grantham on Monday (with Christina's assistance). I spent some amount of time looking for the recipe. As a service to my readers, and so that when I can't find it next time, I'll know where to look, I'm posting the recipe here.

The Recipe

1 lb. ground beef

1/3 C chopped onion

1/3 C chopped green pepper

one 8 oz. can tomato paste

1/3 C water

1 clove garlic, minced (or powdered)

1 1/2 t salt

2 t oregano

1/4 t cayenne powder

1 t vinegar

Brown meat in frying pan; add remaining ingredients. Cover; simmer at least 10 minutes. Serve with corn tortillas and lettuce, tomatoes, onion, cheese, etc.


No doubt the recipe has some other origin, but I'm claiming the recipe for my family under eminent domain.

Home Insecurity

My house was visited by the fire and police department this morning. Sound like trouble? No, actually just false alarms. Well, maybe I should do something about it. Oh, wait, I had a new alarm system installed. This morning. Which is what caused the false alarms.

Because of all the false alarms and how sick ADT was of coming out to repair my system, they offered to upgrade mine cheap. Good. It seemed like a simple thing, except the guy was here all morning trying to take care of it. At one point I heard him talking to someone, and I assumed he had to call another ADT guy for assistance. Nope; it was the fire department. He explained to him that he had been unable to get the system on “test”. About 15 minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I assumed it was my next door neighbor wondering about the fire trucks. Nope; it was the police department, responding to a silent alarm. The ADT guy popped out and explained what was going on. Hopefully now that the new system is in, false alarms will be a thing of the past. They always seem to happen when I travel across the country, and I'm going to do that again on Sunday.

Freshly fallen shroud

Well, I was home from work this morning (explanation later), so I was able to capture these unexpected flurries.