This is how the world ends.

[rinue]

My current cell phone (Samsung SGH-A777) is irritating for a number of reasons, several of which it optimistically lists as features. The main problem is that the battery life is nothing, which is pretty obnoxious in a cell phone. We're talking three hours of talk time. This means that about one in three times I get a phone call, I have to cut the person off in the middle of something they're saying that interests me to say, "I'm sorry, but my phone is nearly out of battery and I have to go." And since this happens so often, I'm starting to get paranoid that people are going to think I'm lying and just want to get off the phone. I am much more suave than that! I'm sure everyone in the world hates me.

Meatloaf is in the oven. It is the first time I've ever made meatloaf. I made the recipe up based on what I had in the house and what I remembered meatloaf tasting like. I'm in tremendous suspense for the next hour at least, because I couldn't taste the meatloaf to check it before it went in the oven, given that it includes raw beef. I am going to die. The only uncertainty now is whether it will be from terror or hunger. And in either case, it means I will never get to find out what the meatloaf tastes like.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Last time I bought a phone (I didn't like the ones that were offered with the plans!), I sorted only for battery charge time and talk time. Really, nothing else matters!

Have you checked the specs? it could be that the battery is pooped and a new battery might have better life?

I love meatloaf. I looove meatloaf sandwiches. I haven't made it in ages, and I always used to put a layer of canned tomatoes on top, drained and kind of broken up but not chopped, like having built-in ketchup.

[rinue.livejournal.com]

It's a phone that was sent to me by my plan provider, in the way that they do sometimes. It has some fun stuff like a camera and an audio recorder, but none of that is useful at all given how quickly the phone dies. I'm thinking of switching back to my old crappy one that did the very few and pathetic things it did with at least some kind of reliability. Sadly, this really is the life of the battery; it's listed at 4.5 hours talk time and 15 days standby time, but everyone who's tested it says 3 hours talk time and 10 days standby time.

The meatloaf turned out well; I used leftover pasta sauce for the tomato/ketchup stand in, baked on top, and it worked really well. (I generally tried to maxmize the use of things I always have around the house.) In terms of calculating the spice mix, I sort of tried to think of it like making a giant sausage without a casing, and that helped me. This is the recipe I came up with:

Mince: 1 onion, 1 slim carrot, 1 celery stick, 2 cloves garlic. Saute in maybe a couple teaspoons of olive oil for 5-10 minutes until the onion is vaguely transparent.

Combine with 1.7 lbs ground beef (80% lean), 2 tsp pepper sauce (worsteshire is the standard, but tabasco or sport pepper sauce would be fine and I used Valentina, which is a lot like Cholula), tsp salt, tsp pepper, tsp cumin, tsp fresh minced oregano, dash of dried basil (I doubt I used exactly a tsp of any of these; I was just tossing things in using amounts that looked right), heaping 3/4 cup dry oatmeal, 2 eggs, a couple tablespoons tomato sauce (in this case, arabiata).

Mix together with your hands until it's pretty mixed up. Put in a pan, shape into a loaf. (My pan was metal and had high sides.) Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce on top. Bake for an hour and 10 mins; let stand out of oven 5 mins. Serves six amply.

[rinue.livejournal.com]

*at 350 degrees

[valancy.livejournal.com]

That sounds fantastic. I have no idea if C likes meatloaf; must ask.