Rastl’s blog

Beef Barley Casserole (slow cooker recipe)

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:47:34 -0600

1 pound beef round steak, cut into 1" squares
2 cans beef broth (14 - 15 oz cans)
1 cup barley (not quick cook)
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup (pound) carrots, julienned

Brown the beef and onions. Put into the slow cooker. Lightly toast the barley. Add to the slow cooker. Add all the other ingredients. Stir to mix.

Cover and cook 3 - 4 hours on high or 5 - 6 hours on low. Barley should be "exploded" when done and there will be some liquid left in the bottom.

Notes:

I use the baby carrots and cut them into quarters lengthwise and then in half. Adjust the onions/carrots/mushrooms to your liking.

Sear the meat well to get some real flavor in any slow cooker dish. Yes, you can put it into the mix without cooking it at all but I find it comes out rather bland.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A bit of a positive post, for a change

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:21:56 -0600

I've been a tad on the distracted and negative side lately and anyone who knows what's going on is being pretty understanding. For those who don't know just bear with me for a while longer and I'll be my normal cheery (hah!) self again.

Today was an unexceptional day. I got some stuff done, I gave away some things (the last one is still sitting on the front stairs waiting for a new home), I packed up the car so I can stop at the thrift store on the way to work and give them more stuff, got the shopping done, and then came home to make cherry jello, brownies and tidy up the kitchen afterward.

Doesn't sound like an exciting day, does it? Well that's kind of what I'm after for a while. I've set myself a deadline for getting things done around here and that's done a surprising amount to perk me up. I think having a goal to achieve is going to help.

I'm still not doing any hobby stuff but I'm ok with that for a short time. With any luck I won't have to use down time to do hobbies since it will be UP time. I know that doesn't make much sense but trust me, it will.

On a funny note one of the dogs has finally learned how to 'play'. Mimi never really seemed to know how to play but in the last couple of weeks she's started taking squeaky toys away from Muffy. Then the two of them play together seeing who can take the squeaky toy and run away. It's fun to listen to but I can't go watch because as soon as Mimi sees me she stops playing and wants me to pay attention to her. Hearing the squeaking, the growling and the skittering feet makes me smile.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

My life for sale, it seems

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:47:34 -0600

The purging process I've been going through has been mostly good. All kinds of things I've been hanging on to for so long I really don't need. I've found boxes that haven't been touched since we moved into the house 7 years ago. And many, many things that I kept out of habit.

Craigslist has been my friend in all this. I've gotten rid of so many things to deserving new homes and it's still going on. The free items have been quickly snapped up and the other ones are moving well. Work has an internal posting board as well which generates a lot of interest and a few sales. Some things do hit eBay if they seem like they need a wider audience and can be shipped relatively easily. The rest of the stuff goes into the garbage or to the thrift store I like.

The no-kill cat shelter (where we got Popeye) got 2 garbage bags of unneeded linens since they do need them. I can't contribute much but I know that they can always use towels and the like.

I've also found long-lost items that have made me smile. I'm taking almost all of those with me even if they are completely useless except to make me smile. Purging can only go so far before it becomes regretful.

One really odd thing that has come out of this is a slightly better relationship with my brother. He stopped by this weekend to pick up an old radio and I gave him a few other things he'd appreciate. Then he offered to help me move things to the garage and into the moving truck if I need him. I think this is the first time he's ever offered to help me in any way. It made me feel good and I'm going to take him up on that, looking at the stack of boxes in the dining room.

I'm progressing on packing little by little. All the easy stuff is done and now it's more a case of trying to keep the items in the boxes similar and actually filling the boxes. Balancing packing with what needs to be out for daily use is also interesting. Slows stuff down now and will make for frantic packing later. That much I know.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Potpourri

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:14:46 -0600

Yes, I used the fancy word for 'a variety of things I felt like posting'. Kinda girly, now that I read it over. Oh well.

There's a radio commercial I end up hearing at least once per day and I find it completely annoying. I don't mind naming the company and product - AT&T Uverse. I'm not sure if it's playing in all markets but here's the summary:

Mother wants to let the kids watch TV in what is assumed to be the living room. Father is just sitting down to watch 'The Game'. Mother's justification is that they can record games and watch them on any TV so Father should watch his game in the basement. He refuses to leave his lucky couch and Mother peevishly takes the kids to the basement to watch their show.

Here's why this annoys me. Obviously Father watches his games in the living room. So why should Mother expect him to give up his spot just because the kids want to watch something? When I was growing up Dad owned the TV and if we wanted to watch something when he was in control we were SOL. When did it change so that kids got priority?

My packing slowed down considerably as I fell into limbo and just couldn't get up the motivation to continue. That changed last night (for a few reasons that aren't worth noting) and I got a few big boxes packed up. I can't move them to the garage until the weekend but they're stacked mostly out of the way. I was working in the craft room because the reading room hasn't been completely cleared for me to finish. I might hit that tonight. The hardest part will be pulling things out of the storage cubbies since they were meant for long term storage. Which means 'things I put away so I wouldn't have to think about them'. No longer. That means it will probably be a bit of a morose evening but it will be done.

The house is now cat free. This saddens me. I haven't been without cats for 20 years and the house is very, very quiet without them. One of the dogs seems very happy they're gone, the other is still looking for them. They went to a very good new home and hopefully Mr. Rastl will get his feet under him and be able to reclaim them soon enough.

I've become a texting fool. I finally got a phone and plan that has unlimited texts so I can send them whenever the mood strikes. I've found the instant communication is addictive. But I have not and will not Twitter. That's just insane.

I gave up and joined Facebook and have been having fun playing a few games and keeping up with friends. Turns out that every picture where I've been tagged I find to be a terrible shot. I don't feel I take good pictures so I'm not that upset about it. Oh well.

If I actually do things in a coordinated manner I might have 1 room and 2 closets completely cleared out and packed this weekend. The thrift store has been making out like crazy and I've been using Craigslist a lot as well. I plan on posting a bunch of furniture in the near future because I'm tired of dragging it around. It's time to pare down my life and these are things I'm just tired of having. I really don't need a dining room table that seats 10. It takes up a lot of room and makes an apartment look really cluttered.

I have way too many office supplies. I'm finding them all over the house. I'll split those into 2 sets so I don't have to take them all so that should help. Standard pens don't even get tested. They get tossed. It's not worth my time to test every pen and find out if they work. It's amazing how many pens pile up.

I do have to do some sewing before the machines get packed up. I need to make curtains for the downstairs bathroom, an apron from a kit as a present for a friend, and a zippered, padded bag for some of Mr. Rastl's personal electronics. Nothing difficult and it should be a nice break. Once they're done I can pack up all the sewing supplies that haven't been packed already and that whole corner will be done. The craft room closet is currently empty so that's where I'll store the sewing machines. I don't want to put them in the garage, especially the embroidery machine.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I want to paint!

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:46:59 -0600

Really I do. But right now packing up stuff is taking priority over things like having fun.

Luckily my painting supplies are "portable" so I can keep them out while everything else is packed away. This should let me paint up a bunch of the minis that have languished on the shelf for so long. I'm not going to try army painting when I'll have to keep putting the paint supplies away so single figures it is.

I'm giving away all my partially completed buildings and my partial modular dungeon. Two reasons for this.

I don't want to move them.
I'm not that interested in building set pieces any more.

I really like the arena style pieces since they're even more modular than my modular dungeon and they can be arranged into anything. I can still make all the accessories I want but I'm not limited to room size or shape.

My FLGS is going to luck out/get dumped on for this and I'll be glad to do it. I know they'll either keep them to use in the store or find a good home.

I still say I have too many hobbies.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

No time to take pictures!

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:57:32 -0500

I brought the camera to OshCon but didn't get to take pictures since I was playing in the demos. Oh well.

And I can't really take pictures right now because the minis aren't accessible.

I promise that as soon as I can I'll get them posted. They're way cool.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

So tired ...

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:38:24 -0500

But progress is being made!

I'm too busy painting to take pictures right now but between the stuff I had already done and the new miniatures I have enough for 4 demo armies.

I'm still finishing up the last ones. 5 of them need lining. 4 of them need shields attached. All 5 of them need to be sealed. The last one got a base coat tonight but he should be easy enough to paint. Simple monster.

The 2 new factions aren't based, much to my shame. I'll try but won't kill myself to get it done. They're painted and that's most important to me. The official rules say paint is optional but for demonstrations a painted army is best.

I will have to use some proxy figures but that's OK. I need to remove some abilities since I'm sticking with straight melee. I can still use the same figure, I just put a different data card with it. Technically I'm breaking a rule with one faction by having the same data card and 2 figures but I'll deal with it.

I had to lower my demo armies from 400 to 350 points because of my own mistakes but that's still a nicely sized army for a demo.

The terrain is complete and I need to pull out 2 pieces of felt in 2 foot by 2 foot sizes. That's the game board size.

I forgot that the round counters I wanted to use kind of belong in the gaming group and they are gaming this weekend. So rather than take them out I'm making new ones for myself. The first half of construction is done (drying) and tomorrow morning I should be able to do the final construction. That will let me paint and seal in a timely manner. Even sealing is optional for this time but I'd like to do it if I can.

I'll try to get pics of the demos in action since those are always cool pictures. And I will get pictures of all the things I've painted up recently.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Well that was a waste

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:23:14 -0500

I'm currently working on painting the Dragon Turtle and pretty much everything I painted today is going to get repainted. In short I picked the wrong colors and I was trying to do too much.

Longer story.

He's got plating on his arms, legs, neck, tail, etc. I had already painted the skin to match the guy down below and was working on the underside of the shell, the plates under the tail and all those other places I just detailed. And some around the face. All those other places I was going to use the same tans as on the body wrap of the grunt so that the shell would stand out more. And I was trying a new technique that suggested taking the base coat a shade darker to make the effect really pop.

I did all that and it just didn't work. The colors were completely wrong against the bright skin. I should know better than to pick colors when I'm in an unhappy mood.

A friend gave me links to his painted figure. His has the plating the same color as the skin. Only the shell, underneath the shell and the plates under the tail are a different color. That looked much better. So I pulled out the skin colors and painted over all the stuff I did. And yes, it looks much better. I still need to highlight it and I'll probably pull the highlights one shade higher than on the rest of the models just so he pops more.

I also prepped 2 more minis that I need for this demo army. I'll be pulling out the epoxy tomorrow and these guys need to have their arms attached. Since I'll have epoxy mixed I'll use it wisely.

Oh - I put the base coat on some new arena pieces.

I'm doing all this in preparation for doing Warlord demos at Oshcon next month. With the new rules and datacards I need to make sure my armies balance. I did get new models for new armies so I really need to get painting. I need 4 demo armies that balance. I need to check my Crusaders to make sure those are the same and then work up 2 more. I don't think they'll take as long as these since they're not nearly as complicated.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Wow. I'm surprised you're still checking this

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:07:41 -0500

I'm making the assumption that you are.

In a nutshell, I have too many hobbies. I went on a complete sewing binge and that kept me from the paint table. Heck, I even used the chair there as storage. I'm a bad, bad painter.

But now that's over and I'm back to painting. I'm finally making progress on the Reptus demo army. Or as I like to call them 'leezards' after the Taco Bell commercial.

Grunts 03

Grunts 04

I painted up 4 of these bad boys. They're not based but they're painted and lookin' mean.

I tried for an enameled look to the armor and I'd say that I pretty much succeeded.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Thoughts on life

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:51:30 -0500

Today would have been my parent's 47th wedding anniversary. I say 'would have' because my mom died 4 years ago. No, not on their anniversary which would have really been unpleasant. It was 3 months later.

I called my dad just to let him know I was thinking about him. I didn't bring up the event, the significance of the day, or anything else but he knew why I called.

Mr. Rastl made the mistake of asking how I felt about him leaving it on the calendar. Funny thing is that I have it on my personal calendar and I was fine. His asking made me atypically weepy. It didn't help that I've been corresponding with someone and Christmas came up. That was her favorite holiday. So the two rather combined with predictably results.

The thing that really brought it home was a small, well-taped box my grandmother gave me many years ago. It contains a relatively inexpensive sugar and creamer set. The only significance to it is that it was on the table for my great-grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary and has the '50th Anniversary' on it in gilt. She gave that to me so we could use it for my parent's anniversary. That's packed well away and I don't know exactly what I'll do with it.

Granny couldn't use it because she never made a 50th anniversary. She knew she wouldn't due to having lost 2 husbands so she gave it to me because my parents were going the distance.

Happy anniversary mom and dad. 43 years is damn good even if it should have been a lot more in a more fair world.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend