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January 10, 2010, a Sunday
Parker (K), Colorado, USA
— Installed the 12VDC clock

J's Stuffed Peppers

Take 6 green peppers and cut each in half so that you have cups. You can cut out the stem from the top half; don't worry that there is a hole left. Then place them in a very large microwaveable casserole dish. A 2-quart Pyrex dish with lid is ideal. Add 1 cup water. Steam them in the microwave on high for about 12 minutes. Check periodically to make sure that they are still somewhat firm. Remove the peppers and drain off the water. Let them cool slightly while you mix up the rest of the ingredients or below.

Mix well:
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 2 tbs dried onion
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp seasoned salt
  • 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
  • 1-1/2 cups instant brown rice
  • 1 cup catsup plus 1⁄2 of the next sauce
Sauce:
  • 1 can tomato soup
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • dash garlic salt
  • 1⁄4 cup Heinz 57 sauce
  • 10 oz catsup
Spray two 9" x 9" baking pans with non-stick spray. Place green pepper cups in the pans. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, fill the green peppers with the meat mixture. Spoon the remaining sauce over the tops of the filled green peppers. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.
It was 21°F (-6°C) when I got out of bed around 8:20. Had breakfast, and made coffee with a custom, never-to-be repeated blend of coffee beans. I used the last of the New Orleans Style Coffee with Chicory from Lucile's (about 1/4 of the grounds used in the blend), then ground my usual LavAzza Gran Filtro Dark Roast Whole Bean coffee, and maybe 1/4 of the total grounds for the blend were from beans that had been in the grinder since before December 30, 2009 when I started using the coffee from Lucile's. It wasn't one of my better cups of coffee. Last night I was looking on eBay for something to buy with my eBay Bucks, and discovered two pairs of new Cabela's Medium-Weight Polartec® Power Dry Drawer - Tall in my size. I contacted the seller to confirm that they were in fact new and to ask what the possible "SS" mark on the tag or waistband indicated. The seller responded and said they were donated by Cabela's to their local search and rescue team for their annual fund raising auction, and the possible "SS" stands for "Store Sample." I quickly did the Buy-It-Now because they were less than half the price from Cabela's. :) I got paid for the Lee Filter that I sold on eBay, so I packaged that up to ship.

Had lunch around 12:10. J left in the Jeep around 12:20 to go visit her friend K. The seller of the Cabela's Medium-Weight Polartec® Power Dry Drawer - Tall refunded some of my money because she only had one pair in stock. :( She refunded it by sending me money, so I was able to turn some of my eBay Bucks into real PalPal funds. (However, PayPal took a cut, so I lost a little.) I started to permanently install the 12VDC clock by the bed. I cleaned out some cabinets and removed some access panels to tap into a 12VDC circuit behind our flat-screen TV near the foot of the bed. I ran the wire down the wall through a conduit I had installed for the inverter and solar charge controller remote panel controls, then under the mattress (OK, that's not exactly kosher) and into the storage space at the head of the bed. I mounted a switch in that storage space so it's easily accessible from outside the bed. The switch is to turn on and off the display of the clock to save electricity. I needed to get some crimp-on butt joints to complete the project, and J came back around 3:40 just in time. I left at 3:50 in the Jeep and ...

Went to WalMart to get the butt joints. Then I went to the nearby Target to get a large bin to put in a "basement" storage compartment to help keep things organized better.

I returned to the RV around 4:40 and finished installing the 12VDC clock by running the wires along the storage area to the clock that's mounted on the far side of the bed. I must say the installation's rather slick. :)

We had dinner around 6:30 of J's stuffed peppers and corn which was tasty.

After dinner, I did some computer work, then prepared an eBay ad for another bare Hitachi 250GB IDE drive. I took the ad live after a similar drive on auction had sold. J had also just sold a hard drive on eBay, but when she tested it out one last time before packing it up, it didn't work. She was going to cancel the transaction and smash the drive to destroy it. Because it was an old enclosure, I asked if I could open it up and maybe use the enclosure if the drive was bad. She said that would be OK, so I opened up the enclosure, and it was in fact for an IDE drive. :) I tested the enclosure with one of my IDE drives, and my drive didn't spin up either — it just clicked. :( So, I won't be able to test some other drives that I'd like to auction.