I have an old aluminum skillet that I played around with anodizing myself a couple of years ago in about the most redneck way possible. (WARNING: Don’t do this unless you know what you’re getting into!) It had a PTFE coating that was flaking off, so I sandblasted it to bare aluminum first. Then I set it in an ice…

I thought that looked like sumac in the pic. I’ve become a big fan. It grows wild here in the Midwest U.S., and a couple of years ago I harvested and prepared some of my own. It has a surprisingly lemony, earthy flavor. Good on veggies, fish, and chicken. It almost has a chili-lime vibe, but it’s not really spicy at…

To expand on that, Circulon is a brand that makes hard-anodized pans, and other cookware. I have several Circulon pans, and I like them a lot. The anodizing process creates an oxidized aluminum coating on the surface of the pan that is harder than steel. It’s generally safe to use metal utensils with these pans, and…

Finally just heard back from my appraiser. They’ve agreed on a value that’s actually fair, and more than twice what the insurance company initially offered. Well worth the cost and hassle of getting an appraisal and going through this process. And it should be enough to fix it, which is the important part.

Grown like this, each plant only produces one fruit after three years! Then you start a new plant from the top of that fruit, which is a clone of the original, and grow another plant that produces one fruit, etc.

Nope, not ripe yet. I’ve been growing pineapples in my window at work for about 15 years now. A new plant takes about 3 years from rooting the previous pineapple crown to producing a new ripe fruit. They’re small but delicious!

Oh, the insurance company is totaling it. But in Illinois you can retain the title instead of automatically getting a salvage title if the car is over 10 years old. I’m fixing it. I’m just haggling with the insurance company over the value.

Here’s my 2004 Dodge SRT-4, which I bought new way back then. Mechanically it’s fine; it runs great. But after a freaking tree fall on it in March, it needs:

There’s also the issue of the non-easily-replaceable lithium batteries used in almost all phones these days. If a lithium battery lasts 3 years, you’re extremely lucky. Most phones are not going to have a useful battery life after 3 years.

Google has already said they will be supporting the Pixel 6 line with 5 years of security updates.

I don’t know. I drove a friend’s once, and I really felt disconnected, I think because of the drive-by-wire throttle. Although from what I can find it does have a clutch cable, the clutch felt weird, almost like it was electronic or something, too. Maybe I’m spoiled from driving higher hp turbo fours, but it just felt…

Heh-heh-heh-HEHHHH-heh.

I have a theory that whatever we had when we were in high school we think of as the best. Pizza from that place we hung out on Friday nights? Those greasy burgers from the diner across the street from campus? That concert we went to at the stadium? Best ever! Maybe it’s something that gets chemically fixed in our…

I think the only time I’ve ever really made a dumb joke to a server was when my daughter was a senior in HS, and we were driving home from a college visit in Chicago. We stopped at a Buffalo Wild Wings, and it was almost completely empty, with only one table occupied in the whole place. When the server said, “Sit…

I looked up pictures of Patrick Stewart where you can see his hands clearly, and yes, that is definitely his left hand. The pattern of veins is a perfect match.

A dust cover! I don’t know why it never occurred to me to look for one, but it would be very useful. Off to search for one now! I bought a KitchenAid used about 10 years ago for around $180, and that thing is a tank, made to last. I recently built some shelves in our pantry that are strong enough to support it, so we…

Dunno. There is also tabbouleh without cucumbers, but the first recipe I came across when looking it up to double check was titled, “My Mother’s Lebanese Tabbouleh,” and it has cucumber in it. I was first introduced to tabbouleh by my daughter when she was living in the Middle East. Very refreshing dish, as long as…

Put potato chips on any sandwich, veggie or not. They can really help any kind of cold cut sandwich be tastier.

There are cucs in tabbouleh, FWIW.

It looks like the figure was 17.x million per year in the U.S. from all manufacturers for the years from 2015 to 2018. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, that declined to 14.7 million in 2021 due to the pandemic.