There are now three, count them three, alarms that go off each morning and still I manage to go back to sleep. I need a good three-day period where I am completely tired and not able to take a late-afternoon nap so that I can get back on to my desired sleep schedule.
My life has been extremely boring this past week, that’s why the daily blogs have been rather bland. Tonight I hope to concentrate on event planning for the near future so that I feel like that I am doing things again because right now I feel like I am just going through the motions.
ITP Flickr Pic
I eat out a lot, too much in fact. Everyone always talks about how much cheaper it is to eat at home so I thought I’d make a stab at it. This is a pan-seared tilapia dish. It is served with cherry tomatoes, capers, garlic, basil and a sauce constructed from white wine, butter and lemon juice; this was all served over a bed of linguine and garnished with freshly ground pepper.
With the exception of the garlic, butter, and pepper I purchased everything for the dish from Kroger last night. Here’s the breakdown.
tilapia – $2.05 (half of a package which cost $4.10)
tomatoes – $0.75 (quarter of a package which cost $3.00)
capers – $0.50 (fifth of a package which cost $2.50)
basil – $0.50 (quarter of a package which cost $2.00)
white wine – $1.00 (half of one bottle from a four-pack which cost $8.00)
lemon – $0.35 (half of one which cost $0.70)
linguine – $0.33 (third of a package which cost $1.00)
For a grand total of $5.48, which is cheaper than eating this in a restaurant. The price difference is not as great as I would have imagined, but I guess if I throw in the price of drink(s) and a tip the gap increases considerably.
Apparently Legs Are Easier To Replace
Last night I got around to attempting to install new memory into my old Windows laptop. You may recall that the heart transplant (new hard drive) ran afoul last week when the laptop rejected it so I wasn’t overly confident about this operation. As soon as opened up the memory door I was even more concerned when I saw only a 256MB (yes, this was indeed MB) stick in the laptop. I knew that the machine previously reported 512MB and I thought that I had read that it could only recognize 1GB. I extracted the 256MB stick from its holder, stuck in the new 1GB stick I had purchased, turned the PC back on, and hoped. Much to my surprise everything seemed to go swimmingly. Even better the machine recognizes all 1.25GB of memory now installed. Most excellent!
Seattle Is A Car City?
I am starting to do research for my trip to Seattle. For some reason I always considered Seattle to be a progressive city and that I wouldn’t need to rent a car to get around. Right now it looks like I have been completely mislead. Does anyone have pointers for Seattle?
Seattle is a Flexcar city. Maybe I will look into this service.
It also looks like I’ve managed to plan my trip in such a way that I will miss all of the Seattle-area hashes. Bummer.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – frustrated
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Avalanches — “Frontier Psychologist”
Website Of The Day – Flying somewhere soon? If so you can check on flight delays thanks to the FAA’s Flight Delay Information – Air Traffic Control System Command Center. Just don’t tell The Terrorists about this, okay?
Exercise (b)Log – none (seriously, this is stupid)
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car (this isn’t so bright either)
May Goals
1) Lose five pounds. (starting weight 200+ lbs)
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
You can add 6/14: a drink (and glass) at the Taco Mac to your event list. 🙂 Phil’s joining us too (and anyone else who wants to).
And question: did you really make half of all of that, or did you really make it all for leftovers and are only counting moneys as it pertains to your meal? Because these sound like good leftovers too!
I keep forgetting to update my ITP.com calendar. I’ve got that date marked on my Google Calendar and am looking forward to it.
I made one meal’s worth. I wanted to see what the cost of one meal was.
I love Seattle. You must eat at 13 Coins. It’s open 24 hours and has two locations — one by the airport and one in town. I don’t really know how to describe it, but just go there. 🙂 Pike Street Market is fairly over-rated in my view, but the fish tossing is kind of fun to see… once. There are beautiful parks and scenery around Puget Sound and I think it would be great fun to take the ferries out to some of the really picturesque “bedroom” communities. I’m jealous…
Hey – last time I was in SC, I was getting my own Diet Cheerwine fix and came across Cheerwine in glass bottles. I still have 2, if you want them.
@Debbie: I’ll have to look into your references. I am really just starting to research. So far I’ve heard about the Pike Street Market and its fish throwing, and I will be seeking out where Real World Seattle was shot. 😉
@Elizabeth: If you can remember to bring them the next time we meet up for a photostroll or meetup (note: I am not going to be there on Sunday) then I’ll gladly take them from you. Hell, I’ll buy them for you for $1 each. 🙂
I think you also have to cook dishes that create a few more meals/lunchs/dinners for later in the week to get real savings. If you cook 4 meals in one shot, you are also saving 4x your time/food/gas/tips/beers/wine/spices etc I also don’t think you get the quality out/freshness that you get at home, usually. An exception to this I think is dishes you wouldn’t often cook at home that have special spices and ingredients… many Asian/ethnic foods etc.
I think you could set-up quite a nice little bistro on your back brick patio FWIW!
I wonder if renting a bike would be worthwhile in Seattle?
And I’d like to make a reservation at Chez Paulie.. or maybe Wee’s Wee Bistro.
-FP
Very true. The problem with cooking enough for leftovers is that you have to eat leftovers.
A bistro in my yard, eh? The liability insurance that I’d have to get in order to allow non-hashers to mingle in the backyard would quickly put me out of business however.
I thought about renting a bike as well. I will be looking in to that as an option.
I went to Seattle last year for 3 days and we found out there’s not a lot to do. You can do some walking but you will need a car. We checked out the Pike Market and the fish tossing is entertaining for a minute, but the rest of the market is semi interesting depending on if you like to looks for strange foods because they have them. We checked out the Fremont neighborhood and there are some cool CD shops and bars and small restaurants. Definitley worth a visit. Other than the Space Needle not too much to see. Definitley take the ferry across so you can drive to Olympic National Park. The scnery was amazing and bring warm clothes. We were there at the end of July and there was still some snow and the temps were only in the 40’s. Then we went up to Vancouver for a few days because it is only a couple of hours away. The city is much cooler than Seattle in my opinion.
I remember parts of Seattle as being pretty hilly, but it was many years ago when I was in college (so that was a few brain cells ago). Definitely take the ferry across the Sound, there are so many cool places to see. I remember going further north & camping in the Olympic National Forest, it was incredible. This is making me think I should try to track down my old high school friend that lives out there.
Oh, if you do rent a car, go out & check out some of the winery tours. The Chateau St. Michelle if I remember is beautiful. (plus we saw a Heart concert there, so you now know it was the 80s).
Excellent information Mike and Barb (just a few brain cells ago? :)) Thanks!
I am also making a swing up into Canada, so warm clothes will definitely be in my suitcase.
The Cheerwines were 89 cents apiece, and the cashier says they’ll sell you a case if they have enough (and if not, they can make a mixed case with other bottled drinks). It’s the BP at Exit 14 (I think – it’s the Pendleton/Clemson Research Park exit, which is the back road to my parents’ house).
For some Seattle-area photo ops, check my friend Tim’s stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timhendrix/sets/
I think I’m visiting them in August for a few days.