Recipe: No-fat Peach Cobbler

 
No-fat Peach Cobbler
 
1 cup self-rising flour
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup dried milk powder
1 15-oz can sliced peaches “lite; no sugar added”
 
Reconstitute milk powder using 2/3 cup juice from can (which should contain right amount; add water if needed).
Mix flour, sugar, milk until smooth.
Pour into 8” non-stick baking pan.
Lay peach slices on top.
Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.
 
Convenient for camping! No refrigeration needed. Carry dry ingredients in zip-loc bag, mixing in bag when ready. Don’t forget a can opener. Heat Dutch oven in campfire coals, use 3 pebbles to raise baking pan from bottom of oven.

Surgery: success

Seems all went well. Am very tired. More details later.

Surgery: Gallbladder

Long story short, here I am in a hospital bed waiting for my anti-coagulation reversal so I can get my gallbladder yanked out torrow afternoon. Karen is napping, and Kirsten is figuring out how this bed works. I'm trying to ignore the pain in my upper abdomen caused by gallstones, an inflamed gallbladder, and possibly a plugged pancreatic duct. And I'm sharing it with you! Soon I get pumped with "fresh frozen plasma" to bring my blood clotting rates back to near (but not too near; see last year's heart surgery) normal.

Not sure what else to add. Next post may be after surgery, and I may be groggy/incoherent.

Movie: Bridget Jones - The Edge Of Reason

This sequel to Bridget Jones' Diary is, as sequels are, a distillation and enhancement of the more memorable portions of the original. In this case, we get our heroine looking less fashionable, more unduly idiotic, and more pitiable, all garnering more affection from the audience. It's just one tantalizingly embarrassing moment after another, culminating (and wallowing) in sweetness. Likewise, we get our hero looking ever more cold, heartless, and misunderstood to conceal the sheer depths of his affection and devotion to her. And of course, we get our villain ever more cavalier, attractive, self-serving and heartless, so much that when he gets his due we don't really care - not for lack of making us care, but because he has so earned his complete lack thereof.

Let us hope there is a Celebrity Extreme Makeover show just so news-anchor Bridget can finally look the part for her man.

Rant: Minimum Wage Increase

The dollar is about to be devalued again, as minimum wage will soon be increased to $7.25/hour. Remember the "gold standard"? now we have the "commodity labor" standard. ...and the standard is about to be adjusted downward.

$1 will now be worth 8 minutes and 17 seconds of commodity labor (mundane jobs like floor sweeping which virtually anyone can do).

This change will have a ripple effect whereby prices will adjust to reflect the new value. During this adjustment period those getting "minimum wage" will have a temporary advantage in the marketplace. Over time this ripple will settle out, and those making minimum wage will be back in the same position in the economy as before.

The value of commodity labor and the value of commodity goods will, on the whole, maintain their relative proportional balance. A gallon of gas will, after this economic ripple effect settles down, still cost 1/3rd hour of work - no matter the numeric declaration of the medium of economic exchange. Whatever a dollar is, and no matter how many of them you get for sweeping floors for an hour, you'll still have to sweep a floor for about 20 minutes to buy a gallon of gas.

Movie: Knowing

Eeeexcellent.

Setting aside the obvious questions of "how could it be THAT precise?" and "why did they take THAT path instead of just grabbing 'em?", an amazing what-if tale of knowing exactly when, where, and how many a series of horrible events would take. Just one piece of paper with a series of numbers, leading to a discovery of meaning that destroys one's philosophy of cause, effect, and probability.

The intensity is sustained, believable, and fresh. Great drama, great horror, thought-provoking. The previews I expect you have seen show imagery hinting at what I can reveal is an absolutely spectacular sequence of total devestation, winning this stage of the ongoing struggle of filmmakers to evoke the most mind-blowing depiction of the destruction of a popular location.

Movie: 28 Weeks Later

The first part of this instant franchise, 28 Days Later, told of the "Rage virus" outbreak in England, which killed nearly everyone by either becoming a zombie* or being eaten by one. The few who survive do so by their wits and risks, being picked off as the relentless packs cross their paths. A stronghold against the outbreak is found, but human nature being what it is even the safest place is not. Little of 28 Days Laater involves zombies, but that little more than makes up for the disparity via sheer frenetic intensity. Insofar as the ending manages to be happy, it is a happy ending (meh).

In typical sequel fasion, 28 Weeks Later takes the most memorable bits and spends most screen time addressing that material: lots of action, punctuated by intense social drama. This time, however, the standard degrading formula really works as the distilled essence pulls the material into a more powerful and accessable story. Having been revealed in the first story that England, being isolated, did not infect the rest of humanity, we learn some 28 weeks after the initial outbreak that the Rage virus has burned itself out and that London may be rebuilt and repopulated. ...at least until two children return from their well-timed trip abroad (having saved them from the outbreak) and, evading adult authority and containment as children tend to, they return home to find their treasured belongings - and their presumed-dead mother. The virus isn't gone, but there is, for a few, a natural resistance to the disease which must be preserved and exploited at all costs. The remaining tale follows the consequences of this discovery, which is simple and dramatic, and may not be predictable. Those of us who appreciate such horror films will, to be obtuse, look forward to 28 Months Later.

* - A trait of modern zombie movies is to never use the word "zombie".