Yesterday's Washington Post had several articles on Defense Secretary Robert Gates' new focus in defense spending. The article above the fold http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/06/AR2009040601784.html explained that Gates is moving away from high-tech spending to a focus on lower tech weaponry. The article below the fold points out the impact it will have on jobs in our area: Contracting Boom Could Fizzle Out http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/06/AR2009040604049.html. We are in the DC area, in case anyone didn't know that - the Washington Post IS my local paper.
We own/operate a small engineering consulting company. We don't do govt contracting ourselves, but we get a sense of what's going on because we are active in the local IEEE (that's the Institute for Electrical and Electronic and all other Engineers) Consultants Network. When contractors "contract" (uh, shrink) that means engineers move from being employees to becoming unemployed or becoming consultants. Or both, because let's face it, saying that someone is "really good at marketing, for an engineer" is damning them with really faint praise.
Even before this military spending shift, the IEEE National Capital Area Consultants Network had been getting a boost in attendence because of the economic downturn. The Consultants Network started running a series on how to get started, called the Art of Consulting. In fact, the first session saw a record setting 60 people register for it.
Many, maybe most of those new folks, don't have websites. What websites they do have - hell, even the website for the consultants network itself! - tend to be just awful. The second page of the CN's website still contains that sample Latin "lipsum orem" text, for goodness sake.
All of these new Engineering/Programming/etc consultants need help. They have been thinking like engineers all their lives, and engineers are not known for their social skills, their communication skills, or their marketing skills. They have been employees all of their working lives, so they think like employees and not like owners/business folks. They 'get' Linkedin, sort of, but they don't get Facebook, professional blogs, or Twitter. They understand bullet points, but they don't have a clue about CSS, SEO, or Joomla!, or pleasing/professional looking graphics on a web page.
These newly and soon-to-be minted consultants need the help of the Consulting Network, its experienced consulting members, the greater IEEE (which has SOME articles on consulting on its web site ... with URLs over 200 characters long - I swear I heard Twitter laugh at them), and local resources such as Joomla! or Drupal web professionals, marketing professionals, basic business professionals. It would be great if they could join more expensive marketing education and support services such as Stompernet (we are getting incredible help from Stompernet ourselves).
So, if you are in ANY of the aboved named groups - how about attending the next Art of Consulting meeting? Tuesday, April 21, 2009, in Northern VA. Detailed information is at http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/capitalarea/eSCANNER/calendar.html#CONSULT.
I might even see you there - I've threatened to film the speaker!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
More HW Failures
Last week the car - today the lawn mower. Son reports that not only is one tire wedged against the metal housing, but the engine is leaking fuel thru' the air filter. Son and DH are running machine in to Bob-the-repairman (and rental stuff shop owner) for an estimate and work.
Son was going to mow back yard and then take our pics so we have icons on our blogs/twitter accounts/membership sites/etc. But now son is going to go off and search for just the RIGHT video game for his new DSi. He has all these options because his two-hour long T/Th 8 am class was cancelled today.
I'm still hoping he'll get around to taking my pic in front of the herb garden while the daffodils are blooming. They are my favorite spring bulbs, and we were lucky that this house has them planted in the back yard in great groups. I don't know why no one ever planted any bulbs in front, but I guess I'm glad none are there now. We're still waiting for the landlord to fix the front gutter that came crashing down a month ago, and I'm sure that repair folks would trample them to death.
And, yes, the downed gutter is yet another HW failure.
None of the HW failures are awful, just a bit inconvenient. Oh, if we OWNED the house instead of RENTING it, then birds nesting in the roof due to access from boards that came down along with the gutter would be a problem. Not being able to mow the yard is non-optimal, but the front is mowed and I'll bet that if we ask a neighbor we could borrow a lawn mower. Especially since our son mows the unoccupied house on the street thus helps maintain the neighborhood.
But - for car problems, we have back up car AND son could take two buses and have a bunch of wait time and still make it to school ... and back every day except Monday when his evening lab is later than the buses run. I could walk to do shopping, and have shopping cart I could use to get products to shipper - or I could have FedEx pick up at the house I suppose. Getting our manuals from the printer and son's Monday night class would be the only times we'd NEED a car of some sort. Recent dish washer breakdown was handled by - gasp - hand washing dishes. Broken toaster oven was handled by Freecycle and we hope to fix the old toaster oven sometime.
If we didn't have so many 'things', we wouldn't have so many 'things' breaking down. I think that there is a lesson here somewhere.
Catch you later!
Son was going to mow back yard and then take our pics so we have icons on our blogs/twitter accounts/membership sites/etc. But now son is going to go off and search for just the RIGHT video game for his new DSi. He has all these options because his two-hour long T/Th 8 am class was cancelled today.
I'm still hoping he'll get around to taking my pic in front of the herb garden while the daffodils are blooming. They are my favorite spring bulbs, and we were lucky that this house has them planted in the back yard in great groups. I don't know why no one ever planted any bulbs in front, but I guess I'm glad none are there now. We're still waiting for the landlord to fix the front gutter that came crashing down a month ago, and I'm sure that repair folks would trample them to death.
And, yes, the downed gutter is yet another HW failure.
None of the HW failures are awful, just a bit inconvenient. Oh, if we OWNED the house instead of RENTING it, then birds nesting in the roof due to access from boards that came down along with the gutter would be a problem. Not being able to mow the yard is non-optimal, but the front is mowed and I'll bet that if we ask a neighbor we could borrow a lawn mower. Especially since our son mows the unoccupied house on the street thus helps maintain the neighborhood.
But - for car problems, we have back up car AND son could take two buses and have a bunch of wait time and still make it to school ... and back every day except Monday when his evening lab is later than the buses run. I could walk to do shopping, and have shopping cart I could use to get products to shipper - or I could have FedEx pick up at the house I suppose. Getting our manuals from the printer and son's Monday night class would be the only times we'd NEED a car of some sort. Recent dish washer breakdown was handled by - gasp - hand washing dishes. Broken toaster oven was handled by Freecycle and we hope to fix the old toaster oven sometime.
If we didn't have so many 'things', we wouldn't have so many 'things' breaking down. I think that there is a lesson here somewhere.
Catch you later!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Smoked Cheddar
Blessings, Darlings!
While at the Amish Market in Annapolis about 10 days ago we noticed that they had two types of smoked cheddar. One was the type we bought at Yule - bright orange inside, slightly browned smoked exterior, from Wisconsin. They other was new to us - a white cheddar, a darker brown smoked exterior, from the Amish up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Well, Wednesday after we rescued our son from his second round of car trouble for the week this time in the pouring rain! DH and I went out to breakfast in Annapolis and bought both types of the cheeses. Tonight we made two cheese and mushroom omlettes to do an A/B test with the cheeses.
The orange cheddar had a much stronger cheddar cheese flavor, a big, bold, rich, layered taste. The white cheddar had barely any cheddar taste, but a more pronounced smoked flavor. The white cheddar melted more evenly, melding well with the egg and mushrooms. The orange melted but didn't meld.
The orange Wisconsin cheddar was our favorite for flavor both in the omlettes and for nibbling. The great flavor overcame the melt/meld issue in the omlette, while the Amish White didn't bring enough to the party. It's rather a shame - I'd prefer to buy the more local product, but the one with 900 food miles on it has an huge edge in flavor.
Catch you later!
While at the Amish Market in Annapolis about 10 days ago we noticed that they had two types of smoked cheddar. One was the type we bought at Yule - bright orange inside, slightly browned smoked exterior, from Wisconsin. They other was new to us - a white cheddar, a darker brown smoked exterior, from the Amish up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Well, Wednesday after we rescued our son from his second round of car trouble for the week this time in the pouring rain! DH and I went out to breakfast in Annapolis and bought both types of the cheeses. Tonight we made two cheese and mushroom omlettes to do an A/B test with the cheeses.
The orange cheddar had a much stronger cheddar cheese flavor, a big, bold, rich, layered taste. The white cheddar had barely any cheddar taste, but a more pronounced smoked flavor. The white cheddar melted more evenly, melding well with the egg and mushrooms. The orange melted but didn't meld.
The orange Wisconsin cheddar was our favorite for flavor both in the omlettes and for nibbling. The great flavor overcame the melt/meld issue in the omlette, while the Amish White didn't bring enough to the party. It's rather a shame - I'd prefer to buy the more local product, but the one with 900 food miles on it has an huge edge in flavor.
Catch you later!
Pizza Sauce Update
DH choose to go with "28 oz can of tomato puree and 28 oz can (drained) of whole tomatoes, hand crushed". Not a good choice. Too thick, almost seemed like catsup. He's thinking of heading back towards canned crushed tomatoes next time (DH seems to have forgotten that he hated that when I tried it years ago. Maybe his tastes have changed?). I'd like a mix of hand crushed tomatoes and a tomato sauce.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Sauce for the .... Pizza
Blessings, Darlings!
Tonight is home-made pizza night. DH and I are originally from Chicago and we've been working on re-creating a Malnati's or Pizzeria Due's pizza in our home kitchen for ages. Like - since we moved out of the Chicago area around 1987. We've figured out the cheese (in fact, made it better with fontina instead of mozarella). We've figured out the crust (lots of oil/butter in it). We've improved on the sausage (a mix of cheap pork sausage and the beef sausage from a Mennonite slaughterhouse in Far Western Maryland).
But the sauce has been a problem.
We've tried chopping and draining regular canned tomatoes. We've tried diced tomatoes. We've tried tomato puree. We've dried crushed tomatoes. We've tried various mixtures of all of the above. You should see us dissect pizzas when we're back in Chicago visiting family!
Right now our take on the sauce is that it takes a mixture of crushed tomatoes and tomato puree to have the right texture. If we are doing this from home grown tomatoes (see the post earlier this week on our choice for tomatoes in the garden this year), we crush about a pound and a half of them and puree about another pound. For the puree, chop them first and let them well drain, then puree. And you might want to let the puree separate and pour off the 'thin' stuff at the top.
We season that with a LOT of garlic, then we have to add a significant amount of salt to make my husband happy. Once spread on the pizzas (we always make two at a time) we sprinkle with dried oregano and basil to our taste, and bake.
Proper order of ingredients on pizza: crust, cheese, meat (and other toppings - we LOVE mushrooms), sauce, parmesan cheese.
Catch you later!
Tonight is home-made pizza night. DH and I are originally from Chicago and we've been working on re-creating a Malnati's or Pizzeria Due's pizza in our home kitchen for ages. Like - since we moved out of the Chicago area around 1987. We've figured out the cheese (in fact, made it better with fontina instead of mozarella). We've figured out the crust (lots of oil/butter in it). We've improved on the sausage (a mix of cheap pork sausage and the beef sausage from a Mennonite slaughterhouse in Far Western Maryland).
But the sauce has been a problem.
We've tried chopping and draining regular canned tomatoes. We've tried diced tomatoes. We've tried tomato puree. We've dried crushed tomatoes. We've tried various mixtures of all of the above. You should see us dissect pizzas when we're back in Chicago visiting family!
Right now our take on the sauce is that it takes a mixture of crushed tomatoes and tomato puree to have the right texture. If we are doing this from home grown tomatoes (see the post earlier this week on our choice for tomatoes in the garden this year), we crush about a pound and a half of them and puree about another pound. For the puree, chop them first and let them well drain, then puree. And you might want to let the puree separate and pour off the 'thin' stuff at the top.
We season that with a LOT of garlic, then we have to add a significant amount of salt to make my husband happy. Once spread on the pizzas (we always make two at a time) we sprinkle with dried oregano and basil to our taste, and bake.
Proper order of ingredients on pizza: crust, cheese, meat (and other toppings - we LOVE mushrooms), sauce, parmesan cheese.
Catch you later!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Son has car trouble
Blessings, Darlings!
For the second time this week, the DH and I had to rescue the son as he commuted to college. Tuesday morning, at 7:20 am, he called with a flat tire - he had hit a curb driving but got a couple miles farther down the road before he realized he had a problem. We parental units were awake but still lazing in bed at the time, so we dragged our butts up and hustled out. I dropped DH at the car, where he changed the tire then drove the car in to the garage (that we are at regularly enough that we call them our "corporate partner") for work on the tire, and I drove our son to college. And picked him up later in the day.
Today the call came at 9:00 am - thank the Gods for later classes most days! The car wouldn't respond to gas pedal, and died, under a mile from the house. Might be gas line issue. It was POURING. Took son to class, arranged for Corporate Partner to tow car in and work on it. That was 3 hours ago, still haven't gotten a diagnosis and prognosis. Or even Gnosis.
And now I need to pick the son up from college again. At 21, it's a bit odd to be driving son to and from school!
Dramatic sigh from the spoiled Middle Aged Soccer Mom.
Catch you later!
For the second time this week, the DH and I had to rescue the son as he commuted to college. Tuesday morning, at 7:20 am, he called with a flat tire - he had hit a curb driving but got a couple miles farther down the road before he realized he had a problem. We parental units were awake but still lazing in bed at the time, so we dragged our butts up and hustled out. I dropped DH at the car, where he changed the tire then drove the car in to the garage (that we are at regularly enough that we call them our "corporate partner") for work on the tire, and I drove our son to college. And picked him up later in the day.
Today the call came at 9:00 am - thank the Gods for later classes most days! The car wouldn't respond to gas pedal, and died, under a mile from the house. Might be gas line issue. It was POURING. Took son to class, arranged for Corporate Partner to tow car in and work on it. That was 3 hours ago, still haven't gotten a diagnosis and prognosis. Or even Gnosis.
And now I need to pick the son up from college again. At 21, it's a bit odd to be driving son to and from school!
Dramatic sigh from the spoiled Middle Aged Soccer Mom.
Catch you later!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Tomatoes
Blessings, Darlings!
My tomato seedlings are up and growing! This year I'm only growing one type, Rutgers. They are a home-canner-friendly tomato: 2.5-3 inches around, nice flavor, lots of fruit and determinate. For those of you new to growing tomatoes, determinate tomatoes have fruit that ripens pretty much all at once - great for harvesting all at once and canning. Indeterminate tomatoes have fruit that ripen one or two at a time, over a longer period of time.
Rutgers are also a heirloom tomato, and not a hybrid. It was developed during the depression at Rutgers University. The credit, of course, goes to the professor in charge, and his work was funded by Campbell's (of soup fame). I expect that the WORK was done by poor grad students, spending their days playing bee/cupid to the tomatoes, moving pollen from one of the parent varieties to the other, then between all the offspring of the parent varieties.
I'm not saying that Rutgers is the most flavorful variety of tomato I could grow - as you might have guessed by who funded its creation and my point about canning, it's a great tomato to PROCESS. A PRACTICAL tomato. That's what I'm all about in the garden this year, practicality. I'll blog on my favorite tomatoes for flavor some other time.
Right now I'm thinking I'll put in 6 to 8 plants, and that I'll sink the plastic jugs from gallons of milk between every few plants. I can then use the jugs to water the tomatoes deeply, reducing evaporation and being more efficient with water use. I'll also have to heavily mulch the tomato beds, because my area used to grow tobacco.
Which brings up an interesting point - it's REALLY useful to know the history of the land you live on/grow your food on. I grew up in the midwest - the land was lovely sand loam, you almost had to TRY to fail at growing anything. On the whole nothing nasty had built up in the soil - not even nematodes. Here in Marlboro Country, the soil is clay and acidic, and had been mostly horse breeding stables or tobacco farms. Tobacco farms have left the soil full of tobacco mosaic virus, and that can really mess up your tomato plants. Many varieties are RESISTANT to the virus, but it's still good practice to mulch so that during rain no virus is splashed up from the earth onto the plant leaves. At the organic CSA farm I volunteer on they grow their tomatoes under a shelter and have underground lines for irrigation to avoid the virus problems.
Catch you later!
My tomato seedlings are up and growing! This year I'm only growing one type, Rutgers. They are a home-canner-friendly tomato: 2.5-3 inches around, nice flavor, lots of fruit and determinate. For those of you new to growing tomatoes, determinate tomatoes have fruit that ripens pretty much all at once - great for harvesting all at once and canning. Indeterminate tomatoes have fruit that ripen one or two at a time, over a longer period of time.
Rutgers are also a heirloom tomato, and not a hybrid. It was developed during the depression at Rutgers University. The credit, of course, goes to the professor in charge, and his work was funded by Campbell's (of soup fame). I expect that the WORK was done by poor grad students, spending their days playing bee/cupid to the tomatoes, moving pollen from one of the parent varieties to the other, then between all the offspring of the parent varieties.
I'm not saying that Rutgers is the most flavorful variety of tomato I could grow - as you might have guessed by who funded its creation and my point about canning, it's a great tomato to PROCESS. A PRACTICAL tomato. That's what I'm all about in the garden this year, practicality. I'll blog on my favorite tomatoes for flavor some other time.
Right now I'm thinking I'll put in 6 to 8 plants, and that I'll sink the plastic jugs from gallons of milk between every few plants. I can then use the jugs to water the tomatoes deeply, reducing evaporation and being more efficient with water use. I'll also have to heavily mulch the tomato beds, because my area used to grow tobacco.
Which brings up an interesting point - it's REALLY useful to know the history of the land you live on/grow your food on. I grew up in the midwest - the land was lovely sand loam, you almost had to TRY to fail at growing anything. On the whole nothing nasty had built up in the soil - not even nematodes. Here in Marlboro Country, the soil is clay and acidic, and had been mostly horse breeding stables or tobacco farms. Tobacco farms have left the soil full of tobacco mosaic virus, and that can really mess up your tomato plants. Many varieties are RESISTANT to the virus, but it's still good practice to mulch so that during rain no virus is splashed up from the earth onto the plant leaves. At the organic CSA farm I volunteer on they grow their tomatoes under a shelter and have underground lines for irrigation to avoid the virus problems.
Catch you later!
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