Alfredo pesto pasta

 

Alfredo pesto pasta

  • Angel hair or your favorite spaghetti or linguine
  • Alfredo sauce (If you are ambitious, you can make your own, but I just bought the one that had cream instead of soybean oil as a major ingredient.)
  • Pesto (Again, I’ve made my own in the past, but it’s a lot easier to just pick up some at the store.)
  • Zucchini
  • Tomatoes (grape or cherry size)

Start boiling the water for your pasta. Put some Alfredo sauce in a pan over low heat.

Cut the little tomatoes into quarters. Slice the zucchini thin, then cut the slices in half or quarters.

Add some pesto to the Alfredo sauce. You’ll have to use your own judgement here, it depends on how much you like your pesto. Try a teaspoon or a tablespoon to start out, mix it in and taste it.

Add the zucchini and tomato to the sauce. If you really need your zucchini cooked through, you might want to use a separate pan. I’m okay with it being warm and a little crunchy. It adds texture.

Cook your pasta when the water is ready.

Stir the Alfredo occasionally, slowly heating it so it doesn’t boil or burn.

When everything is ready, serve the pasta with the Alfredo on top. Delicious!

Enjoy!

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The Chad P_______ Method

Once upon a time, I was living in a house with four other people for the summer.

There was someone named Chad P_______ who either lived there or spent a lot of time there – it’s been a long time. I actually know the whole last name, I just don’t want to use it here.

I think of him often when I use the microwave.

This was what I learned from Chad: you don’t have to be so specific when you use the microwave. If it says 2:00 in the directions, you can set it to 2:22. You’re not going far, you can stop it if you need to.

If it says to nuke it for 4:30, 4:33 is good. You don’t want to jump more than a half minute or so, but you can save all that extra effort of changing from one number to another. Repeat digits whenever possible.

1 minute? 1:11.

It may seem like such a little thing, but over the years, it adds up. My life is simpler now.

It’s the Chad P______ method.

 

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Video: Responsibility

One of the things that I look for in a company that I might want to work for is a sense of trust that they know what they are doing with the information they have access to.

I found this video interesting enough to share. Sensitive viewers, beware: there is cursing. Unethical viewers, beware: there are consequences.

Liz Abinante – The Social Responsibility of Coding

Hmm, how do people make the video image show up? Something new to learn.

Got it.

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Picture of the Week: Boggling

Boggle game

Yes, it’s a Boggle game!

After quite a long break, our group got together for a night of Boggle.

Chat, food, and finding words.

Yes, I won. 🙂 But our host was suffering from some kind of watery-red-eye malady, so she wasn’t at her best.

 

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I Have Nothing to Hide

This is what some people say when you tell them that their privacy is being taken away: “I have nothing to hide”.

It’s not about hiding. It’s not about keeping your sordid past a secret. It’s the same reason we don’t just run around naked: respect and protection.

You may feel like you aren’t vulnerable, but you are. Not because you’ve done something wrong, but because you are exposed.

When you are exposed, you don’t know what might hurt you.

We wrap ourselves in clothing to protect ourselves from the weather, from embarrassment, from needless injury. It makes sense.

Why would we run around without protection from other forces?

If someone was going through your mail, wouldn’t you be bothered? How is it okay for all of your email and other communications to be monitored and used to study your behavior? Where is the respect?

I know I can’t do certain things without losing some privacy, but I try to be aware of which things they are, and I do weigh the hidden costs with the conveniences. I check permissions on every app, and I will read your privacy policies. (If your link is broken or it is full of typos, I’m a lot less likely to engage.)

I’m a good and honest person, there is little I want or need to hide. But I hate feeling vulnerable. Next time you are tempted to say “I have nothing to hide” in response to a privacy argument, think about how vulnerable it makes us all if we lose what little we have.

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Favorite: Meetup.com

I don’t even think of this as a favorite, because it’s more like a tool. One that lets me find out about all kinds of groups and meetings the area that I can go to.

https://www.meetup.com

I still have a special fondness for its younger and cheaper and not as successful relative, meetin.org, because that’s the one we used when I met my hubby.

But for today’s world, Meetup is the way to go.

There are still the occasional floundering groups that look interesting but don’t have any meetings planned, but there is usually a good selection of options for a geek like me: code groups, walking groups, free events, writing groups.

You just have to be brave enough to go out and meet up with people you might not know.

Because eventually you might meet your future spouse, or employer, or best friend.

Yup.

It’s possible.

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So Close

Mileage on car: 55569

But I wasn’t paying attention.

It must have happened on Sunday when I was driving back from IKEA.

It would have been cool because you could also turn it upside down and it would the same.

So close.

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How to get lots of exercise and never go to the gym

Once upon a time, I was looking for a job and my neighbor was working at an architectural firm. He suggested I apply there and I got the job.

I worked in the mailroom, which was in the basement. Three times a day, I would walk up the stairs to pick up outgoing mail.

There were five floors in the building, so that was a lot of stairs.

I got a lot of exercise.

Plus, I knew all the addresses of the people we worked with, and all the names of the 200 employees, which included my neighbor.

So, if you want to get lots of exercise but never go to the gym, all you have to do is have an architect neighbor who rides the bus (because if he drove a car we wouldn’t have talked about the job), who is working in a place with 5 stories (I think more would be too much) and an open mailroom position.

 

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Quote: Learning

“Learning is hard work, but everything you learn is yours, and will make subsequent learning easier.”

Eloquent JavaScript

http://eloquentjavascript.net

 

Don’t you like knowing that everything you learn is yours? That’s the best.

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The Thin Blue Line

If the thin blue line represents the line between order and anarchy, the Blue Line train is named appropriately.

Picture taken from train, "blue line" reflected in reverse in the window.

Granted, there is more order than anarchy, but within the constraints of an operating train line, the riders are in the borderland.

Yes, I will freely admit I am a car driver. I rode the train to avoid parking hassles since the stop was a mere block from the conference I was attending.

Picture taken from the train, "blue line" reflected in the window, building in front of sunset.

I just sort of thought that everyone on the train would have shoes. But there I was, sitting across from a woman with only socks on her feet, no shoes nearby. Her jeans were covered in red pen ink marks. She was barely able to stay awake.

The next day, I was in a car with a muttering man, who cursed fairly steadily for two stops before getting off and throwing a plastic cup into the roof of the platform.

Is it just my luck or is this normal?

Picture from train, sunset and mountains

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