Go Steelers! WHOOT!
OK, now that I have that out of my system, let’s talk about some other things that happened this weekend.
Me and cooking are kind of funny with each other. I come from an Italian family where everyone and their brother knows how to cook or bake in some way shape or form. Growing up and for the better part of my college life, I could do none of those things. While I was at home I relied on my parents, brother or sister, or some other family member making me something good to eat (always with lots of garlic). At school I usually ate at the cafeteria and never *ever* made my own food, even when I visited home.
Finally I moved out of the dorms and got an apartment of my own, but had no clue how to feed myself. I was famous for making grilled cheese in the toaster then melting the cheese in the microwave, this is how pathetic I was. My mom wrote down a few key directions for how to make the staples such as meatballs, chicken, and pasta sauce, but I was pretty much on my own.
Needless to say, anyone who knows me now knows how much I like to cook and all the different things I make. Being oblivious back then meant nothing once I started throwing stuff in a pot and stirring until well done. If youve seen me cook, you also know I use the Italian method for measuring, meaning I dont. My grandfather is famous for requesting large amounts of ingredients and throwing them all in a bowl to see what comes out, no scale required. What can I say, I’m a natural. Short of the few burned chickens I’ve made because I forgot about them in the oven, I’ve heard no complaints.
So now to my story. I’m not one for recipes, but I found a recipe for these little breakfast egg quiche/muffin things on the internet. I tried them out on Saturday morning and they were pretty good. Basically I threw some eggs, a little less than equal part cheese, a little less than cheese amount of spinach, and some chopped leftover turkey together, stirred it up and put it in some muffin foils, baked it at 350 for 20-25 minutes, and voila. The posting said they freeze and reheat well so it could be a good breakfast on-the-go sort of thing. Ill have to try it with paper muffin cups instead of foil so theyre microwave-safe.
Yeah, long intro for a short story, eh?
Also this weekend (actually, most of Sunday) I proofed and added to an article Jan (founder of OpenUsability.org and fellow KDE Usability maintainer) and I are authoring for the British HCI magazine. It basically gives a little background about the open source usability process and what our challenges and successes are. I’m sure the editor will have some changes for us, but overall I’m please with it; it gives a good summary of whats going on in Open Source usability.
Today (Monday), Justin and I drove to Silver Spring to look at some apartments. The rent at our current place in the Kentlands (Gaithersburg) is going up 6%, which is a bit rediculous (Montgomery county suggested only 3.5%) for how far we are from the Metro (5-10 minutes driving) and where we are (in the middle of yuppie land far from DC).
We saw two places, on either end of our spectrum. One (the Blairs) would cost about what our place we currently have would cost in the next year. The buildings are older, but in excellent condition, renovated, and very well maintained. The community is awesome (its 1 square mile) with grocery, shops, and dining all in its plaza (think Kentlands, but more urban and less yuppie). Across the street from one side of the plaza is the D.C. line and across the street on the other side is the Silver Spring Metro. About three city blocks away is the Whole Foods, more restaurants, and a movie theater. Oh, and free parking.
The other place was called Summit Hill where my friend Scottie from college lives. It was of considerably less quality, about three city blocks from the metro, had nothing around it, but was $200 cheaper a month (re: $2400/year cheaper). Hum. Yes, its cheaper and would help us save money, but part of the reason why were moving is to increase our potential to get out and do stuff and be more accessible to the Metro and interstate 95 (for me going to school).
So I dunno, we’ll review our finances and try to figure out what our goals are for moving. We also need to look at more properties before considering any options (we’ve seen 3, drove past an additional 2 and passed on the viewing). The Blairs is definitely the best we’ve seen so far.
Today is also Martin Luther King, Jr.s birthday. Thank-you Mr. American hero martyr for the Federal holiday (and the paid day off from work)
Things put on the must-do-soon backburner: Put the 2005 KDE Usability reports up on the website (hopefully by the end of the month), start recruiting participation for the card-sort and menu usability test I recently designed, and get back in to playing DDR (and In the Groove) 3 or 4 times a week again. It sucks when you know the steps but youre just too out of shape to play, hehe.
seele :: Jan.16.2006 ::
DC Metro, General, Usability ::
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