My Baked Beans Recipe

For everyone who enjoyed my baked beans on Saturday, here's the Secret Recipe. Its based on how my mom makes beans, and also on the recipe from the Virtual Weber Bullet site. Mmmm, beans

16 oz Bush's Baked Beans
1 Tbsp Ketchup
1 Tbsp Mustard
1 1/2 tsp Molasses
1/2 onion, chopped

Combine ingredients. Heat until warm, stirring occasionally.

Also good barbecued, in which case its good to use a disposable pan to simplify cleanup.

Bought Toy Story

As I mentioned earlier, I've been wanting to get Toy Story for a long time. Well, I went to Sam's and saw it there, and on a whim I bought it. It includes a coupon for Toy Story 2 when it comes out in December, so buying it first may have saved me a little money. Unfortunately, since I already bought The Incredibles, the coupon for that doesn't do me any good.

Both the movie and the extras are nicely done. John Lasseter claims in an intro piece that they used "more bits" on this version. I had forgotten that the movie was only 80 minutes long, so I guess there was plenty of room on the DVD. The sound is supposedly improved, and sounds fine on my 2.0 system (i.e. just plain stereo). There are also interesting interviews about the movie with a number of people, and some making-of videos.

I'm sure you can find better reviews than I could do elsewhere, so I won't go on about the content, other than to say this is one of my favorite movies. I think I may like The Incredibles more, and Toy Story 2 certainly has a more complex plot, but Toy Story creates the great characters that return in the sequel. I will get Toy Story 2 as soon as its reissued.

Credit Card Fraud

I got hit by this credit card fraud. The credit card company is crediting me, but I am still considering replacing my card. In the mean time, I plan to check my account often.

I was looking through my statement and noticed a charge from "DIGITAL AGE 888-529-98 CYPRUS, SE $24.99". I didn't recognize the name, but figured it might be the official name for some mail-order place I had used. So I did a web search on "DIGITAL AGE" and found a number of pages like this one. Wow! I called the credit card company immediately, and they said they would credit my account, so all should be well.

Check your credit card receipts closely this month.

I'm a big fan of KlearScreen

A friend asked me:

Do either of you know the best way to clean my laptop screen?

I told her:

I use the cleaner and cloths from KlearScreen.

http://klearscreen.com

The screen cleaner comes in single-use packets or bottles and separate cloths. I mostly use the bottled version. I've been using the one bottle I've bought for 5 years now. If you clean the screen weekly, it stays really nice.

You can do a search for KlearScreen and find mail-order places that sell it. The company also sells it directly, but I don't know whether its more expensive that way.

Serenity is a good movie

I saw Serenity last night. It is an excellent movie. I had not seen any of the TV episodes before, but that wasn't really a problem with understanding what was going on. Plot holes really bug me, but I didn't spot any here. It was definitely the most enjoyable new movie I've seen this year.

Speaking of enjoyable movies, I see that Toy Story is back out on dvd, and Toy Story 2 is coming out later this year. I need to get these before they sell out as the original release did, but I don't know whether to wait for a combined package, or just buy the individual ones.

A home for my important musings

I've been meaning to put up one of the blog things for some time. I'm not under any illusion that anyone cares what I think, but at least this is a way I can share interesting things I find.