Dinner: Pot Roast... Sort Of...

We tried the first of the crock pot recipes last night.  Here's what we did:

2 lbs (approx) stew beef
1 very large baking potato, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 16-oz. bag of baby carrots
1 sweet onion, cut into chunks
3 cups beef broth
1 cup water
Basil and parsley (to taste)

Mix all of these ingredients in a large crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.

Verdict: It was good, but not great.  Next time, I think I'll cut out the water and add onion soup mix.  I'll let you know how it goes.  The cook time was dead on, though - the beef was done and falling apart, and the veggies weren't mushy.

New Year's Resolution: Food Edition

For the most part, I think New Year's Resolutions are a load of crap.  Most people do what they say they're going to do for about a week and then quit.  Hell, look at me: it took me a week just to make a New Year's resolution!  However, The Bastard, who is a huge LifeHacker fan, sent me links to a bunch of articles.  One of these really got me thinking:  The Bastard and I are both employed now so we're not home much; we have a tiny kitchen and not much time to spend in it; and we have a rice cooker, crock pot, and George Foreman grill.  So why the hell do we eat so much frozen pizza?  (As you can probably tell, we did not stick with P90X, although I would still recommend it to the very determined.)  We really need to start eating better, and lack of time and space is no longer an excuse.

So I'm going to share some of these sites that I found through the link above and, if I actually make myself sit down and do it, also write some reviews as I try these recipes out.  I might even actually take some pictures for once.

Potato chips in the microwave (just on principal)
Five-ingredient crock pot meals
Crock pot chicken tacos (these just look awesome!)
George Foreman recipes

If you guys have any other quick/easy/cheap recipe suggestions, let me know - bonus if they're healthy, too.  Also, feel free to try some of these with me and give your own reviews in the comments sections.

Customer Service Fail: Comcast Edition

Customer service for any business is crucial.  Unfortunately, a lot of companies have forgotten that lately.  I'm not going to say that the customer is always right because, well, they're not.  However, if you're running a business, you should at least do what you can (within reason) to make sure that your customer doesn't hate you.

I was tipped off to this one regarding a Comcast customer.  He's been going around and around lately with their customer service/tech support about several hi-def channels that he's paid for but is not receiving.  However, this last rep takes the proverbial cake.  You can read the whole story here, but I also nabbed the screen shots for you.  Check out this nonsense (click the image to see full-size):

"If I cannot help you, no one will!! MWAH HA HA HA HA!!!"

In other words, "Jose" got pissed when the dude asked him to escalate the issue and basically just "hung up" on him.  Really, Jose?  Really??  If you don't know your shit, and it sounds like you don't, pass it on to someone else.  Escalate it to a manager.  Don't get huffy with the customer when he is simply relaying what he's been told in the past and asks to speak to a supervisor.  Now, according to the website he put up, he's not only escalating this with customer retention, but several people who work at Comcast have seen this site and will be investigating the matter personally.  Congrats, Jose!  You may have not only lost your company a customer, but perhaps your own job as well.

Why NaturallyCaron Spa is the Worst Yarn Ever

My dad told me that for Christmas, my sister wanted a hat like my "Meret".  My sister is 8 and absolutely adorable, so how could I say no?  However, this also inspired me to knit something for my 14 year old brother, as well.  Unfortunately, I had this conversation with my dad 6 days ago.  So now I'm trying to knit some fingerless gloves for my brother and desperately trying to finish them before Christmas.

Now, I don't have a local yarn store near me.  The closest one is about 30 miles away, which means I'm pretty much stuck with online orders, Hobby Lobby, or Michael's.  I didn't have time to order anything and getting in and out of the parking lot at Michael's is a suicide mission, so Hobby Lobby it was.

When I saw the skein of NaturallyCaron Spa, I thought it was perfect for my brother.  It's 75% acrylic, 25% bamboo, and 100% soft and squishy!  I knew it would hold up to the abuse that my bro would obviously put it through while still being warm and comfortable.

And it's a great color!

Unfortunately, there's a problem.  Although it seems to be nice and tightly wound on the skein, once I started knitting with it, it became the splittiest yarn ever in the history of splitty yarns EVAR.  Also, while the shininess was part of it's appeal to me, it also seems to be very, very slippery which is seriously fucking with my tension.

This is what happens while knitting with this yarn.  This is bad.

So while I'm going to stick it out and finish the damn gloves, I am never, ever using this yarn again.  Thank the sweet, merciful Goddess that I'm almost done with the first glove as it will seriously say something for my will power if I don't melt the fucking leftovers after I'm done.

Why The Bastard should probably stop playing online multi-player games

So The Bastard is only working part-time right now, so between looking for a 2nd job and his insomnia, he's got a lot of free time on his hands.  To fill this time, when he's not dismantling and reassembling the computers, he plays online multi-player games.  This would not be a problem, except that The Bastard seems to have a certain magnetism for crazy, especially when it comes to the female variety.

At first, I thought it was just "IRL", as the kids say.  For example, when we were in high school, he dated a girl who was so possessive, I once offered to get him a crowbar for Christmas so that he might have a chance to loosen her vice-grip on him.  However, as he discovered the world of online gaming, it appears that it's not just his charming good looks that attracts female bizarreness.

On one text-based game, he had one woman cyber-stalking him and posting all kinds of crazy weirdness in an attempt to sabotage his in-game reputation and relationships.  This went on for months until he finally left the game altogether, although for unrelated reasons.  The only provocation that we could figure is that he was also a moderator for the forums and once had to get onto her for breaking the rules.

There have also been other misunderstandings where "being a nice guy" has been interpreted as "wanting to be in an actual relationship" and the other (read: crazy) party has gotten butthurt in the end.  However, the most recent tops the cake.  Lately, The Bastard has been playing a World of Warcraft style game: fantasy role-playing, real-time play with quests and guilds, as well as the ability to have voice chat with other players.  This game has in-game relationships that give you certain "buffs", depending on what type of relationship you're in and the stats of the other player.  I think.  I haven't actually played it, so I think I've got that right.

Anyway, he "got married" in the game to one of the other guild members.  He considered her a friend and, as he's married and she was in a committed relationship, The Bastard assumed that there was an understanding that this "relationship" was solely for their mutual benefit in the game.  However, he got online the other day and found that she had "unfriended" him, left his guild, blocked him on chat, and sent him a ranting PM, basically saying that he hasn't been spending enough time with her, and that she doesn't deserve to be treated this way.

She was pissed that her fake husband wasn't spending enough fake quality time with her because he was too busy going on fake missions with fake elves, fake mages, and other such fake characters.

I asked him if there was any way that anything he's said could be construed as wanting more, and he said they'd make jokes about spousal abuse when one of them beat the other in a sparring match or whatever in the game, but couldn't think of anything other than that.  I asked him what he was going to do about it, and he said that he was just going to keep his mouth shut and pretend that nothing happened.

He's apparently learned nothing from real life.

Oh, Springs131...hOw we'VE mISsEd yOU!!!11!1!!!!

Big props to loomatic from the Rubberneckers group on Ravelry for finding this little gem!  For those of you who are not familiar with Springs131, she is the restaurant customer from Hell.  I pity the poor abused servers that end up with this nightmare at their table!  If you're not familiar with the screen name, you may also know her by "The rAnCh DrEsSiNg lady" as she is famous for her crazy, excessively punctuated, randomly bolded, erratically italicized, nonsensically capitalized ranch dressing rants.

In case you've missed out on all the fun check out this link, and this one, too.

The Bastard's Job Odyssey

The Bastard is finally employed again!  WOO HOO!!  It's been awhile and I know he's been going stir crazy.  I also know that he's going to be working for a special brand of crazy...

This all started when he got a call from JB, telling him that a spot opened up in another department where he works, looking for general IT and server upkeep.  So of course, The Bastard instantly put his name in the hat.  This is exactly the kind of work that he wants to do for a living, so we were totally excited!

Then came the bad news.  He'll only be working part-time, and his bosses are a collection of intellectual prima-donnas.  None of his predecessors in this position have lasted six months because the couldn't deal with the crazy.

So while I'm completely excited that he's working again, and in a field that he loves, I'm a little worried about the longevity of this job.  However, I do still hold some hope.  After all, The Bastard is still a crazy magnet, so he's had lots of practice with this sort of thing!