Saturday, December 24, 2011

Just found...

I was going over some items in the room where I keep my computer. One of the items that I went through was a clay cup in which I keep my odd coin collection. Now, I generally go through the collection as I find new odd coins, so after I recently got a Canadian quarter, I decided to catalog the cup's collection to see what I now own. Here it is:

-a 1984 Canadian quarter (the new coin)
-a 100 Japanese Yen coin (this came from my friend David)
-a 2003 Chinese 1 Yuan coin
-3 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar coins
-a 1977 Kennedy half dollar coin
-a 1973 Kennedy half dollar coin
-2 more Canadian quarters (1974 and 1978)
-a British 10 Pence coin (not sure what year)
-a 1980 Greek 5 Drachmai coin
-a 1973 5 Centavos coin (think Mexican, but not sure)--this one is smaller than a US penny
-2 Canadian pennies (1980 and 1994)
-a Norwegian 5 ore coin from 1974
-4 US nickles from 2004 to 2006 (featuring the alternate designs for the face and back)
-3 game tokens from some of the locations that had video games in my local area (the only one that is still good is for Chuck E. Cheese, but there are no local outlets in my home area). I'm not sure about one, but I do remember the Space Port arcade that was on Green St. in the heart of Campus Town (University of Illinois)
-three shells that I collected back in high school when my band took its Florida trip (I got them from Daytona Beach)
-a bracelet that I got as a Christmas gift from my parents many years ago
-a spent rifle jacket. I got this from my best friend (at the time ), Rick Kessler. Rick lived outside of Foosland, IL, at the time, and we got together as much as 4th graders could. The one other thing that I remember about his family was that his father was in the Illinois National Guard (hence why he gave it to me). That still will bring me to a stop.

Anyways, I'll add to this list eventually. I know there are other odd coins out there that are circulating as US coins.

Friday, December 23, 2011

The start of Christmas

Well, here are my reflections about today. This was supposed to be a holiday day-off for me, but I went into work for around 6 hours. This is a first for me, as in the past other people in my department dealt with this duty. It turned out to be some of the easiest work I've had in some time. It was mostly taking care of paperwork and making sure that last-minute entries were dealt with.

Now, about the holiday day-off bit. I know that the holiday is supposed to be December 26 (that is, the Federal Holiday). But this has to do with the company I work for. My employer has established their own fiscal calendar so that there is a bit more regularity with scheduling. Every month begins on a Monday, ends on a Sunday, and has either 4 or 5 weeks in it, depending on which month it is. These months on the company fiscal calendar fall roughly where a normal month is, but there are some variances. Because the fiscal calendar ends on December 25, all of the entries needed to be dealt with before that (thus some work being done on the 24th). The other irregularity was that Christmas for 2011 for the company would actually fall in the fiscal calendar of 2012, thus the company shifting my holiday to December 24. I know this all sounds odd, but I did not complain. It just meant that I got around 6 hours of double time pay, plus my holiday pay. So I got a good bonus.

Anyways, I then got in my regular grocery shopping afterwards. I met a couple of people I know from my work. Hello to Maria D. and George from ATS.

Later was dinner with my local family. Dad was out of the hospital, and looking a bit better. My nephew got to open some gifts, and a decent amount of Monical's pizza was eaten by all. I even introduced my nephew to Angry Birds on my computer, but he was having a difficult time trying to manipulate the birds on my laptop's monitor (he's only played Angry Birds on my mom's Nook). Anyways, time for bed. I'll be having Christmas dinner with Mom and Dad at a local restaurant and not at their home. With Dad having been in the hospital for the last week, Mom has not had any time to take care of their home this last week, and dinner there is not an option. And I did not plan on making dinner myself. Hmm....

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Favorite Recipes (part 2)

OK, here is the second of my favorite recipes. This one came from my sister (Hi, Deb!).

Ham Hash

Ingredients:
-half a teaspoon of Garlic
-half a package of Southern Style Hash Browns (defrosted)
-half a cup of Diced Ham
-half of a green pepper, diced
-half of a onion, diced
-half tablespoon of butter
-half tablespoon of oil (olive oil is best)

Start with heating up the butter and oil in a skillet. When the butter is melted, add the green pepper and onion. Cook them on medium high for around 5 minutes to soften the pepper and brown the onion. Add the ham and heat it until it begins to crisp. Then add the garlic and heat for around 1 minute. Add the potatoes, and cook until the potatoes are hated thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I estimate this will make around 4 servings, although I usually get two dinners from each batch.

One more recipe which I recently discovered. This came from a package of Don Marcos flour tortilla shells. They called it Mexican Morning, but I refer it to:

Breakfast Tacos

Ingredients:
one half cup of skim milk
dash of pepper
one 4oz. can of mushroom pieces and stems, drained
one cup of shredded cheese
one 16 oz. container of egg substitute
one tablespoon of margarine (low fat preferred)
package of tortilla shells of your choice
salsa

Combine milk, egg substitute, and pepper in a bowl and whisk until well blended. Melt the margarine in a skillet and add mushrooms. Heat for one to two minutes over medium heat. Stir in the egg mixture and heat. When egg mixture is nearly set, add cheese. After heated, remove from heat and spoon into heated tortilla shells. Top with a little bit of salsa and serve.

I also like to add either ham or green pepper to the mix, adding them with the mushroom pieces. I will heat that part for about a minute longer before adding the egg mixture.