Gadgetry

The DVD player achieved its third strike last night, so today I sallied forth and picked up a new one -- for about a third of the price of the original. It occupies about the same volume as the old one, too, but with a different aspect ratio that necessitated some rearrangement and a great deal of plugging and unplugging and untangling of the insane rats-nest of cables in that corner of the living room, but it's all squared away now.

In the course of wandering around the home-theater department of BestBuy, I noticed that most of the TVs on display are now HD flat-panel models. I also noticed that if I wanted to replace my basic 19" CRT (not that I do) I'd have to go up to a 26" to get the same size picture.


Edit:

I meant to put Stargate in the music, not the location -- but clicking on the location link will actually get you to Cheyenne Mountain.

Also, my computer is Scrabble-enabled again! The version I had didn't work on XP; the new one is billed as XP-compatible, but also runs on Vista just fine.

Dinner: stir-fry-up

There wasn't any appealing fresh fish at the grocery store, so I ended up with 2/3lb of 'stir fry beef' instead.

I don't think I've ever tried cooking fresh beef before. (Not a big red-meat eater; I think I grew up mostly on pig products, with lamb on Sundays, chicken as a rare treat, and beef encountered only in stew; these days I mostly go for fish or chicken.) Anyway, for dinner tonight I diced up some mushrooms and eggplant, sliced a couple of tiny Mexican Grey squashes (which are basically lighter-colored zucchini), and threw them in the old frying pan with some oil -- probably a little too much oil for proper stir-fry -- meat (about half the package) first and veggies as soon as the meat was brown on all sides. I ended up stirring with chopsticks because I was out of clean wooden spoons, and I was too busy dodging splatters to do any seasoning, but it came out edible and satisfying. (One of the problems I've been having with the vegetable-heavy cookery is that I tend to forget starches and sometimes come up with tasty meals that leave me almost as hungry afterwards as I was before.)

What I forgot to pick up at the grocery store was something with which to scrub pans. (Also, peppers.) I may or not find the time and energy to trot down there again tomorrow.