September Playmate

This frisky Capricorn enjoys long walks on the beach at sunset, cozy candle-lit dinners for two, and dancing until dawn at the local discotheque.

Meatball Madness

Growing up there were a few special dishes my mother would make only for parties or special holidays. Anytime we would have guests over, I'd hope that one of those dishes would magically appear: kringle, cinnamon rolls, or beer meatballs. Mom made the meatballs as an appetizer during the seventies--I don't think I'd eaten any since last November when I made them for our annual Craft Party.

They were as tasty and popular as I remember.

When CraftMaven announced her upcoming marriage, I offered to make her some for the wedding. CrafterKat and Critter came home Saturday and looked around the messy kitchen, spotting the tray of meatballs. "Is that it?" I nodded. "You better make another batch..."

Not only are these tasty, but they're fun to make. You even get to make meatball madness faces as you squish up the ingredients.

There's Beer In Here Meatballs

Meatballs:

1 to 1.5 lbs. of hamburger

1 to 1.5 lb.s of pork sausage

2 small eggs

1 to 2 cups of bread crumbs (depends on the amount of meat used)

1/2 c. milk

salt and pepper

garlic powder or mushroom powder

Mix up the meat and gradually add the eggs and milk. Once combined, add the seasonings and bread crumbs, a bit at a time so everything gets absorbed. Shape the mixture into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Place them close together--the meatballs will shrink a bit as they cook. Should make enough meatballs to fill one standard cookie sheet.

Set the oven to 500 degrees and cook for ten minutes.

Sauce (mix up in a crockpot/slow cooker):

1 lb. brown sugar

1 bottle of chili sauce

1 bottle of beer

Stir until the sauce is combined. Add the meatballs to the crockpot and cook on low for about an hour.

And remember to make the meatball face:

Noble Software

Back in 2000 when I first began working for the Evil PXE, I was asked to buy some entertainment software for the people who live and work on campus. I purchased some Hoyle games, a family tree tracker, and software to produce flyers, greeting cards, etc. It's been eight years now, and the software just isn't keeping up. We asked our intern, BMW Aficionado, to look online for the latest version of Print Master.

"We've got Print Master 12," I told him. "I'm sure they're up to 20 or so, by now."

He checked online and found that Broderbund had indeed updated the title. "They've got Print Master Gold 18 and Print Master Platinum 18," he reported.

Evil PXE smirked. "What? Are they doing the Print Master Heavy Metals series? Can you get Print Master Tungsten?"

BMW Aficionado grinned. "The next version is Print Master Noble Gases."

Different Worlds

Part of my job entails going into teacher classrooms and prepping their computer for the new school year. It's entertaining to see how each classroom corresponds to the teacher's personality: one teacher has a couch from the Meszoic area, another has quotes from famous poets and authors in fancy calligraphy, and so on. Oftentimes, as I sit waiting for software to load, I'll glance around at the art their kids made, or wedding photos, or the stack of music CDs and think "they're not too different from me."

And then I find something that shows we are world's apart. How many of you have this on your To Do List?


Fix Fender Bass Amp
Tubas (check) Souzas

The End of an Era

Last month marked Princeton's final day working summers in our department. To celebrate his new job, we took him to lunch at McMennamins and listened to tales of his engineering adventures with a company in Newberg.

Princeton: So they've got this AutoCAD program that we used when I worked on the NASA stuff but it's all coded in French and so sometimes the translations aren't quite right... You'll make a modification on a design and then click to adjust it and the program will say, "Unable to render model because model is dirty."

JewelGeek: And after the error message does it surrender to the Germans?

Evil PXE, throwing hands high over his head: To close the error box, click the Capitulate button!