Category: FWIW

So, my Wonder Woman’s cat, who is a completely lifelong inside cat, got out a week and a half ago, and we’ve not actually seen hide nor hair of her since, except for the game cam Son&Heir installed under the deck where I have been leaving food and water since the second day. The photos show her in seemingly good health, so that’s good, but syncing up her schedule and ours has not happened. Yet.

So, bought a live trap. It just came, and I assembled and tested it, then put it, unarmed under the deck with her food just inside the trap, to accustom her to it. I’ll move the food and water further back over the next few days (with the trigger set, but the trap disabled by tie-downs) until we have evidence (disappeared food AND photos of her inside the trap) she will take the food past the trigger. Hopefully, this will work.

One hitch: yesterday AM, about 0100 hrs, an opossum showed up on the pics, nosing around the empty food bowls (Catrina–my Wonder Woman’s cat–had emptied the food about an hour earlier). That could pose a problem. Battery was low on the camera, so nothing was caught last night, though the food bowl was cleaned, as always.

Hopefully, the opossum hasn’t run her off.

. . .must come to an end, I suppose. But good endings of good things are a good thing to shoot for.

Back about 10 months ago, I found a pretty nice rice cooker at my fav “fell off the back of a truck” store *wink-wink-nudge-nudge* (really just cheap stuff, returns, and salvage, etc.) for a dirt cheap price–less than a fourth of the price I found the same item for at Amazon. The return notice on it said it didn’t work, so I got a promise I could return it of it dod not. Took it home, set it up, and. . . it didn’t work.

Hmmm. One of “Pournelle’s Laws” states that 80% of computer problems are bad connections (paraphrasing), and I’ve found that applies pretty well with just about anything electrical, so. . . I went to one of my tubs of cables and cords (yes, ONE of them) and selected a known-good cord of the same kind as came with the unit, and the thing has worked well for the past 10 months.

But. The pot started flaking bits of the PTFE coating. Bad pot. Bad, bad pot! I used parchment paper to line the bottom and continued using it for a little while, but I just haven’t felt all that good about it. Now, do note that I rarely used it for cooking rice. I mostly just used it as a sort of “instapot” to cook all kinds of meals, so. . .

Replaced it today with a “pressure air fryer” that has auto settings for rice, chicken, beef, fish, stew, sauteeing, air frying, steaming, slow cooking, yogurt making, and sous vide cooking. Between this thing, the induction plates I really enjoy using, and our lil countertop convection oven, I may need our range/oven only once a year, assuming I actually decide I want to cook a turkey for a holiday meal.

First time: tonight’s meal is around some “air fried” hamburgers. Simple. Worked a charm.