n_maher

Thanks all. It's a bit difficult to comprehend (at times anyway) where the time goes. I remember a lot of what's happened in the last 25 years or so but at the same time don't. But I think I'll continue Operation Ostrich and try not to have today feel like much more than any other day. That said, minus work it was a great day of catching up with some friends and family and having good food at home and now breaking my no-drinking-till Thursday rule to enjoy a wee dram of the good stuff.

A very happy birthday, Craig!

Happy birthday, Naaman!

Stay safe Knucks.

Looks like NH mostly dodged a bullet, well, as long as you call only 10-12” of snow dodging. A friend in RI is stuck outside the US and being told he cannot get back until Friday. He got 33” of snow at his house just south of Providence. Yikes.

Happy birthday, Dan!

I use what I think is a very simple recipe, from Melissa Clark (NYT cooking), with slight tweaks based on what I actually have in the kitchen. Ingredients Yield:10 to 12 biscuits 230grams (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour 50grams (about ½ cup) cake flour 15grams (about 1 tablespoon) baking powder 8grams (about 2 teaspoons) sugar 6grams (about 1¼ teaspoon) fine sea salt 9tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed 1cup buttermilk, chilled I rarely have cake flour so just use 2-1/2C of whatever I have. I rarely have buttermilk so use a substitute of 1T of white vinegar and a scant C of whatever milk is in the fridge. If I am feeling really lazy I'll use salted butter and scale down the salt or sometimes I don't have unsalted butter. The technique is simple, whisk together all the dry ingredients, cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, stir in the buttermilk while try not to over mix. Turn onto a floured surface, roll until ~3/4" thick, and I use a biscuit cutter to cut the rounds making sure not to twist the cutter. Allegedly that seals off the outside and doesn't let them rise properly while baking. I've never had this recipe fail. I'm lazy, so I never brush the tops with butter - which is what 1 of the 9 (heart-attack-inducing) TBS of butter is for. So I usually just use 8 in the dough.

WCPGW? I used a leftover biscuit this morning to make breakfast.

I made and ate biscuits, but I'm afraid to post pictures for fear of what could happen next...

Happy birthday, Colin!

A very happy birthday to you, Dr. Wood!

Fax is on.

Some quick googling suggests that if you contact Niche, they'll sell you a motor that six months or so ago would only run you ~$70+ import fees (~$50 at the time). Might be worth a shot? If you decide to move on, let me know. I'd like to have a go at fixing it.

^ In - glad you asked for help, Peter.

Happy birthday to you, Jeff!

Hell yeah, Adam! The only advice I have is get after it and as someone else I follow on Strava would say, "This suffering is a privilege." Well, maybe one more thing - don't ever worry about comparisons to others. One of my good friends from 30+ years ago rides 8,000+ miles a year (pilot) and when he rides centuries with us barely breaks 140bpm at 50+ years old. I just can't be him. I'm a year younger but have always outweighed him by 40lbs even when we're both fit. He also doesn't know how to have fun, so as usual balance is the answer.

It’d been six weeks so I dialed up empanadas again.

In better, and somewhat hilarious news... I'm especially fond of the 14,000 vs. fewer than 40 metric. Tell me how your bill failed without saying your bill failed...

I'm going to need a second job...

@grawk - does it have a first name? I used to think poorly of bologna until a butcher friend made me a sandwich with their house made stuff. I STFU after that.

It's been a day. Got up this morning and came downstairs to the thought, "man, it feels cold on the first floor of the house." First call was to the boiler guy, praying that a circulation pump had crapped out overnight. Verdict - WRONG ANSWER. He quickly determined the boiler was doing it's thing but the pipes for the zone that heats the first floor were not. Shit. Phoned a friend whose husband is a plumber. Started chasing frozen pipes a little before 11am. Finally found the culprit at 2pm. Had it fixed and flowing heat again by 2:30. All told, it felt like a bargain at under $1000 given that a pipe could have burst and we've got another 10 days or so of freezing temps ahead of us. Still managed to make scones for Lily's best friend who slept over last night and turns 18 next week (JFC) and also still made dinner - pork chili verde with cast-iron-skillet cornbread. There will be barrel strength bourbon in my future. Oh and we've already got almost a foot of snow and I've cleared the driveway once. I believe I will sleep tonight.

@HemiSam - goddamn, that thing is awesome! I hope you enjoy the hell out of it.

@crappyjones123 - For the longest time I've been shooting landscapes for work, where the A7IV is honestly way more than enough and I also managed to pick up an A7RV for work last year as well. But with both topping out at 10FPS as I've started to shoot more sports it's been a little limiting. Which is to say my skill is limiting and some of the improvements the A7V offers would certainly be helpful. I am tracking the lack of RAW support but I've had really good luck tweaking settings and shooting SOOC jpgs and doctoring a little in Lightroom after the fact. Fine art is not on my menu. Those lantern festival shots are fantastic by the way. RE: Nikon focus issues - I consistently had back-focus issues with the various bodies that I owned over the years. Some less so than others but shooting wide would often produce results like you posted above. The camera would think it was nailing focus but the results showed otherwise. I have not had this issue with either Sony body.

Happy belated Birthday!

@Voltron I thought Red Oxx was still around?? I hope everything is alright, Marc.