Adopt a Hymnal

Fun surprise at church today: we could each take home a hymnal. They were dedicating the new hymnals (brown cover) to use from now on. The pastor announced that if we wanted, we could take one of the old ones (blue cover) with us, and give it a good home. I got one out of the choir loft, so it is in really great shape. Because of the occasion, and that it was Cantate Sunday, all of the songs today were about singing. Brian declared it meta-singing.

Yesterday I tried adapting a cookie recipe to use all-Core ingredients. See, flour isn't Core, so there are no official Core baked goods. I did have luck the other week making pumpkin pie Core. (Start with the recipe from the can of pumpkin. Bake in a casserole dish with no crust, Splenda instead of Sugar, and fat-free evaporated milk.) But now I've discovered why the WW message boards all repeat the same thing: yes, you could bake a cookie with Core ingredients, but you aren't going to like it.

I took a very simple cookie recipe that didn't have any added fats (unless you count eggs) to begin with, and switched out oat bran for the flour. It got really dry, so I added a serving of applesauce to moisten it enough to spoon out. The first two sheets, the cookies didn't spread out at all while baking. I had used a cookie scoop to portion them out, so they are all spheres. For the next two sheets, I tried flattening them with a fork, which failed, because they WANTED to be spheres, I guess.

We all know the shape doesn't matter, it is all about the taste and texture. The finished product is a really pathetic cookie. But, it works well as a giant granola-style cereal puff. So I added some spheres to my plain, fat free yogurt this morning and called it breakfast.

Minor Political Involvement

[Edited post title on 7/9/08]

http://www.americasnewtanker.com/

Here's the text of the automatic letter that you can send to your representatives through the website above:

Subject:
Support America's new tanker - Northrop Grumman's KC-45
Required text:
(This text will be included in your message)
As your constituent, I'm writing today to let you know of my support for the United States Air Force (USAF) decision to award Northrop Grumman a contract to build the KC-45 Tanker. The facts behind the USAF decision are straightforward and compelling.

Northrop Grumman is an American company headquartered in Los Angeles with over 120,000 employees across the United States.

The tanker decision was based on an open and transparent process and the best team won. The USAF ranked each bid on five criteria and Northrop Grumman won on four out of the five and tied in one category. Both sides praised the USAF for the fairness of the competition before the award was announced. Both sides agreed that this was the most rigorous acquisition process in the Department of Defense's history.

The men and women of our military deserve the most modern technology to perform their mission. The existing fleet of U.S. military tankers is over 45 years old. It is critical to begin construction of the new tankers as soon as possible. The first aircraft for the United States Air Force is already built and flying. Northrop Grumman's tanker is proven and ready for production and deployment.

Northrop Grumman's KC-45 tanker will support 48,000 jobs in the United States and includes over 230 companies in 49 states that will economically prosper. There will be no jobs sent abroad.

I am requesting that you support the United States Air Force decision to award this contract to Northrop Grumman.
Your Closing:
Your Name:

Worldwide Inconvenience

Ugh. I just got off the phone with Discover Card. I had logged in to my account to pay my bill online, and was greeted with the message that my account number had been changed. Curious, I called their customer service line.

They have actually changed the account number for EVERYONE with a Discover Card. EVERYONE. Now I, and everyone else, have to call all the places I have automatic billing through the Discover card, and tell them my new account number. And I've got to log in to all the websites that know my credit card number, and update it. IF I can remember all of them. Now Discover Card does say that they have "made an attempt" to contact all of the automatic billing places to update the numbers. But they still say that we need to "call to verify" that merchants have the corrected numbers. And since EVERYONE is calling to do the same thing, good luck getting through.

Also, the rep said they only did this for MONTHLY billing places. So those yearly subscription renewals, or occasional purchases (IPASS, for one), haven't been contacted at all. I'm planning to go through my last two years' yearly summary report to catch all possible merchants.

Look for your new card in the mail, I guess. Yeesh.

What's Going On

Multi-Topic Post!

1) Diagnosis: ITB tendonitis in my right knee. The massive dose of Ibuprofen gave me a headache for two days (how is that even possible?) then heartburn that felt like painful hunger. So, on to the next anti-inflammatory drug. It was also a lot of trouble to find someone with a Cho-Pat strap in my size - they were all out of mediums at the doctor and the home-health pharmacy. I had to drive to Elk Grove Village today after my physical therapy session to go to the other doctor's office and pick one up there. Oh well, at least I have a name for the pain now. And thank God for health insurance.

2) Take Jessie's survey on blog use. It is for her graduate class in market research, and it is about why people read blogs. Help us skew her data set!

3) My bike is in the shop for a tune-up. This is the first tune-up since I bought the bike, like, oh, seven years ago. I do intend to ride it this year, I promise! We've got such nice paved trails in the forest preserves around here, I really shouldn't be making any excuses not to ride.

4) USGS has a website where you can download, for free, their topographical maps. You can also order printed versions. I've got one of the White Rock, AZ area, from when I did that summer internship in Los Alamos. If you think maps are nifty, you should play around with this website for a while.

5) My aunt and uncle got me a Nintendo DS for my birthday! Red, of course. My favorite game so far is PRISM. (Not a surprise.) All Optics nerds should be required to get this game. It also has an interesting cooperative two player mode for download play.

6) Many people spend winter pouring over seed catalogs and planning gardens for the coming spring. I was online ordering more car-care products. On Saturday, the weather was warm enough to wash and wax both cars. I used Zaino Z-7 Show Car Wash and Z-AIO to start with. Results are nice, but once I get the Z-6 and Z-2 on my car it will really start to look as good as it did four years ago when I first used the stuff.

7) My brother had an amazing senior recital. I didn't know clarinets could make such expressive sounds. I wish him the best of luck with his upcoming auditions for "real" jobs.

8) It's all who you know. My manager's wife was chosen to be interviewed in "W" magazine because she had done the hair for the wedding of the sister of the assistant to the beauty editor. Or something like that.

9) I'm glad it's acting like spring now. I was even glad to see mud again - that means the ground isn't frozen anymore.