Tuesday Dinner : Garlic Parmesan Noodles

Posted by John Klein III on September 20, 2017
Posted in: Cooking, Games, Podcasts. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Garlic Parmesan Noodles

I made dinner last night . . . on a Tuesday!  We were not super hungry but we still needed to eat so I looked for one of what I thought was several simple pasta recipes.  It took so long to locate this one.  So it won by default.  I’m sure the other recipes are all next to each other in our five binders of recipes.  I really do need to take the time to make specific binders.  Probably make it down to : chicken, breakfast, slow cooker, dessert and pasta – or something like that, I have to work on my list but that’s not a bad start.  I had a breakfast, dessert and a slow cooker binder but either I started throwing items in to fill them up or those binders are one inch and couldn’t be used for much else.  I should get five three inch binders and never need binders again!

This reminds me that I went through a serious basil phase and I believe one of those binders is nothing but basil recipes.  I had a basil phase and a pepperoncini phase.

Onto the recipe itself.  We didn’t have fettuccine so I used bowtie pasta.  Turns out, they are officially called, farfalle.  I’m sure that’s the first time I’ve seen that word.  I used two tablespoons of garlic, as using a measurement of “half” doesn’t make any sense.  I’m sure it means to use a full scoop of whichever measuring spoon and then don’t fill it up nearly as much, the second time.  It is garlic, so I did two full tablespoons, as we like garlic.

Being so empowered by my garlic decision, I quickly put two teaspoons of crushed red pepper in.  And even as I was putting the second spoonful in, I knew it was too much.  So I would recommend only using one teaspoon of crushed red pepper.

We need using Parmesan cheese in our recipes and are constantly buying jugs of it.  We’ve committed to buying the larger container of it but now it seems like we’re using it even more!

So I made it too spicy for myself and Walker Dennis, my wife liked it but next time, it should be better.  I needed to drink so much, I use to handle spices back in my Arizona days but it has been a long time that I have to rebuild my tolerance.

. . .

Denver was amazing, spent so much on food but luckily, I get reimburse for that but still, the money being spent, was on my mind.  I got to see the Colorado Rockies play (and win) against my childhood team of the San Diego Padres.  I’m not sure how this worked out but for a couple years, the San Diego Padres used a facility in Yuma, Arizona has a training ground.  It doesn’t make sense, when I look back at it, but I’ve had others confirmed that was the case.  No one knows why, as that field wasn’t amazing or anything but that was the case.  So the Padres were my go-to team to root for, then I switched and root for the Cubs.  Which, up until last year, wasn’t great but when you like a team, you like a team.

I’m working on a post that presents the keynote speaker’s story, as it was heart breaking to hear but she has made the most out of it.  In the middle of it, I just wanted to jump on a plane and go hug my three-year-old son.  I can’t believe he’s going to be four in three short months.

I need to locate the YouTube video that she referenced, as that’ll be the crux of the post, if I can’t find that then I will have to rework my post.

. . .

While in Denver, I was able to catch up on my Doctor Who, not nearly as much as I thought I was going to do but I saw a few more episodes than I have in a long while.  My next episode is Season 9’s Face the Raven, the tenth episode.  So I watched three episodes.  So I’m three episodes and a special away from finishing season nine and having to figure out how I’m going to watch season ten.  Hopefully the Husbands of River Song is on Amazon, and for free, if not, I’ll have to figure that out too.  Now that I know I’m so close, I really should buckle down and finish that.

Instead of watching a slew of Netflix, which I guess I didn’t watch any Netflix as Doctor Who is on Amazon, but still.  I got crazy caught up on the Living Between Wednesdays podcast and played a slew of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Legends.  I’m crazy far in that game.  Pretty much, I would use up all of my energy (pizzas) and once that was done, I’ll watch an episode of Doctor Who and jump back into TMNT Legends before committing to sleeping.  While playing Legends, with no sound or music, I’ll listen to Living Between Wednesdays.

I’m on episode 52 now, so I’m more than half way, which is intense!  I use the website, Player FM, to download the episodes.  I use that website to also listen to Prinze and the Wolf.  Except, the Prinze and the Wolf has a different interface so I’m able to just leave the website, on my phone, onto the episode and click back page and go to the episode list and download the latest episode and do that, every week.  Living Between Wednesdays, isn’t as easy but maybe it is because I’m not current with it.  Though, I’m almost to episode 60, which is the last episode I see before having to wait the very long 15 seconds for the Pre-60 episodes to load so I can download those.  So 60 has been this milestone moment, in my head, that if I can get there, I can download episodes without having to wait.  It is a small thing but that wait time as me downloading five episodes at a time.  I have last week’s episode of Prinze and the Wolf, and I’m sure this week’s episode is going to be uploaded soon – like today – but I’m really enjoying Living Between Wednesdays and I’m so close to my goal of 60 that I’m putting it on hold for the moment.  Playing Legends, at night, as also cut into my Fighter and the Kid podcast viewing on YouTube, and I really do want to watch the Taran Kilam episode, episode 290.  Which was two weeks ago, so I may be six episodes behind now.  I’m hoping he talks about his wife, Cobie Smulders, on that episode.

So I’m sort of obsess with TMNT Legends but the way the energy works, I can only play it for an hour at a time.  So I try to play in the morning, at lunch now and at night.  Which, really, is enough.  I’m at the point where I’m just grinding away trying to get my heroes stronger as I’m trying to three star missions in Chapter Four before moving onto the next mission but I have two levels at one star each and I barely earn those one stars.  So I need to get my main group of five to be stronger, they are level 26 and I’m level 27 so once I get them stronger, I can try to three star them.  I’m at the point where I need to get them stronger so I can unlock their level 25 moves (it makes sense if you play the game – which you should!) but I’m not strong enough to get the items to improve their skills.  I’m in a weird place right now.

My main team is Leonardo, Karai, Newtralizer (my PVP team), Steranko (my four person PVP team, which I’m doing pretty well there, at the moment) and Stockman Fly.  My goal is to level up Leonardo and Stockman Fly’s healing moves but I also really need to level up Karai and Sternako’s area moves.  Newtralizer is just a good guy, in the game, to have as another enforcer.  So that’s where I’m at in the game.  I believe I have ten characters now and I’m getting closer to getting some other characters, so all the time is finally paying off.  I need more Orange (Swift) and Red (Might) characters, having those characters would make the Gauntlet and the main game easier.  So I have lots of goals in that game.

I’ve learn my lesson about not wasting Mutagen now, I’m only using Mutagen to get my new characters up to level 20.  I’ve also started experimenting with using my T-Coins to go to the Shop and buying a DNA card for the character cards that cost below 500 T-Coins, to get me closer to several characters.  You need either 5/20/70 DNA cards to unlock characters.  I’ve gotten some 5 DNA card guys but their level max is 20 until you get 20 more cards but level 20 isn’t that bad, if you level up their moves quickly.  Which I do like the new practice I’ve started, of getting a new characters, leveling up their one move (or two if they have them) until that move is up to the level 20 standard.  From there, they need items to level up the individual move and the level 25 of the move require items that only certain levels have – and those are the levels that are kicking my butt, right now.  So it is a vicious cycle I’m in.

I have a lot of thoughts with TMNT Legends.  I’m super enjoying the game and I don’t mind grinding as I remember doing that with my RPG days.  Which, this game has really satisfy that RPG itch I’ve been having for years now.  I’m fully committed to this and it really is a fun game.  I unlocked Kirby-Bat, and I have him at 20 and his one move up to 20 but he still isn’t that strong.  But still, I need Orange guys and he was next up.

I’ve also started really playing the Hard levels and going for certain characters DNA, which is something I should have done from the beginning, that’s been another lesson to learn.  I resisted it, before, as those levels cost 12 pizza points instead of six, and give the same items as the Normal levels BUT they provide a DNA card to a character I want, so it is sort of worth it.  Plus, 12 points goes toward my overall experience instead of six, so I’m leveling up myself and then I can get my main guys up to my level and they’ll be that much stronger.

I got a couple characters while in Denver – Chris Bradshaw, Justin, Xever, Pizza Face and Pulverizer.  I must have 11 characters then.  I hadn’t really counted them before now.

I’m pretty proud of the progress I’ve made, progress towards getting other characters and progress in the game.  I’m getting better at PVP and I’m really enjoying the special missions.  I wish I could make progress on the Movie Special Mission but those foes are all level 26 and 27 and my main team is barely 26, they need to be 28 before I can stand a chance.  That’s true for the Gauntlet too!  They might be level 25 but a serious threat at 25.

. . .

Since I was in Denver, we didn’t watch any of our shows together.  We finally saw our first episode of the Office in a week, last night, so our next episode is Season Four’s Chair Model.

I believe that’s everything I watched or played in the past week.

I was irritated that Vudu doesn’t work on my Kindle, it makes sense as Amazon makes the Kindle and they don’t want me watching another company’s streaming device (that allows me to buy movies) so it is a direct competitor but still.  I really wanted to watch Winter Solider (after listening to so much Living Between Wednesdays) and couldn’t as I didn’t have a way to download Vudu.  I could have downloaded it onto my phone, but I barely have space on my phone as it is.

Dancing with the Stars 25

Posted by John Klein III on September 13, 2017
Posted in: Reality Television. Tagged: . Leave a comment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_with_the_Stars_(U.S._season_25)

Dancing with the Stars announced the full cast of their upcoming 25th season, which airs on September 18.

The biggest surprised is that Sasha Farber is being regulated back to the Troupe!  Why the demotion?  Would he have been one of the actual dancers if he had married Emma during the off season?  Did ABC want them to get married on the show and they refused?  They couldn’t hurt Emma, as she’s the reigning champion but Sasha is fair game.  I’ve performed a quick Google search and there were no reasons behind why he got demoted.  He thanked his Twitter followers for causing an uproar but that’s about it.

Anyway, conspiracies aside, let’s get into the cast.

Nikki Bella, the future Mrs. John Cena.  So expect to see him on a couple nights – except it looks like he’s currently a “Free Agent” in the WWE, appearing on both shows.  So if he’s RAW during this show’s run, then he won’t be making any appearances.  I still haven’t seen Nikki in anything, besides like one minute of WWE Total Divas, which featured Cena in the scene.  I had to turn it off, WWE just isn’t for me, anymore.  Apparently, she’s also the longest reigning Women’s champ at 301 days, so she must be quite popular.  Cena makes that possible, I’m sure, but she’s earned those fans legitimately by now.  Nikki is paired with Artem, who I imagine Sasha could have taken his place and regulated him back to the Troupe.

My wife will recognize Jordan Fisher from Secret Life of the American Teenager.  I should recognize him from both Teen Beach films, but I don’t.  He also wasn’t on the episodes of Secret Life that I’ve seen, or the portions of episodes, that I’ve seen.  It is a real shame that Francia Raisa doesn’t work more.  Fisher was also in Grease : Live but, again, I don’t know him.  I could have seen his two episodes of Teen Wolf but there is a high chance, that he showed up after we gave up on that show.  MTV was not kind to its releases, I want to say we gave up in the beginning of Season Three.  He’s paired with Lindsay Arnold, so he should do good.

Nick Lachey and his wife, Vanessa, are dancing this season.  They are paired with married couple, Maksim and Petra – not respectfully.  Which is a cute pairing and I’m sure we’ll see lots of time committed to seeing these two couples.  Which, with two couples, I wonder why they didn’t want to do three couples and include Sasha as one of the professional dancers?

Does the Troupe even do anything, now that we’re down to one episode?  We just see them, for barely a full minute, as we come back from the commercial break.  I guess we’ll see Emma and Sasha dance together during those forced trio dances and such.  Not like that is what I want to see.  Though, they are doing more and more dances that include Troupe members, which I’m not a fan of.  If the official pair can’t perform a dance good enough on their own, then they gots to do go.  It is really diluting the Free Style dance.

Oh and Jenna Johnson is going back to the Troupe, but that reads to me like she wasn’t ready for the official competition.  She’ll come back when one of the other ladies needs a break.

Frankie Muniz, the Malcolm in the Middle, is being paired with Witney, so they should look cute together.  He’s only 31 years old.  Apparently he gave us acting to pursue a legitimate racing career.  From what I’m reading, he wasn’t good at it but I’m sure he loved it.

Oh my.  Pretty Little Lairs, a show I still have no interest in, ended so Sasha Pieterse is available.  She’s tenth listed on the Wikipedia page.  She’s one of the five Lairs though, so that’s still a get.  I wonder why she’s not higher on the list, one would think that you list the five gals and then love interests or so.  That show was on the air for seven seasons and also was treated to a time jump.  She’s paired with Gleb, whose name, I just love to repeat once I hear it.  GLEB, but I saw it super low like as if a frog would say it.  It is fun.  Yet another professional that Sasha could have replaced.

Poor Emma, she’s paired up with Drew Scott, of Property Brothers fame.  I type “fame” but I don’t know him.  I doubt he’s an amazing dancer, so why pair him with the reigning champ?  Does she not get a say in who celebrity partner?  I would think she gets first pick but I’m not sure who would be better suited for her.  Drew is the real estate pexpert and his brother, Jonathan, is the contractor.

Val gets paired with Victoria Arlen, a former Paralympic swimmer, who developed two rare conditions known as transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyeltis.  Who expect her “most important year” to be intense!  Also, that year will most likely be either 2010 or 2012.  Even 2016, when she started reclaiming the ability to walk!

Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcorna gets Keo, yet another guy escaping the Troupe punishment.  Also, Keo’s record on the show is absolute shit.  He does suffer from having to dance with the old ladies, so that doesn’t help.  He’s usually out the third or fifth week.  Except for his amazing season with Jodi Sweetin.  They were Top 6!

Sharma gets former NBA point Guard Derek Fisher.  He played for the Lakers, Warriors, Utah Jazz, Lakers again, Oklahoma City Thunder, Mavericks and ended with Thunder.  he spent two years as the coach for the New York Knicks.  There are times when I’m tempted to name Sharma the hottest dancer of the show but it is tough with Emma and Cheryl around.

Cheryl gets former NFL wide receiver, Terrell Owens.  Makes sense these two get the sports guys, that’s who they usually get.  Emma does usually get paired with reality television stars.  He’s had quite the career himself – 49s, Eagles, Cowboys, Bills, Bengals, Wrangers and he practiced with the Seahawks in 2012, only.

Man, I missed Debbie Gibson’s name, she’s a big get (for this show).  She is paired with Alan Bersten, who doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page!  So they should go super far!

Finally, Mark Ballas gets paired with violinist Lindsey Stirling!  I do enjoy Stirling, I have a Chrono Trigger channel on Pandora and her music shows up quite often.  Which is irriating, as I just want Chrono Trigger music (which there are loads of sweet homages and tributes to that legendary soundtrack) on my Pandora channel but I created a Lindsey Stirling channel, as I did enjoy so many of her songs until I had to start down voting those songs on the Chrono Trigger channel.  It got so bad that I heard five of her songs, in a row!  Oh Pandora, how I have to train you, with every new channel.  Which, I do have to admit, I become obsess with.

Have I miss Ballas?  Not at all.  He’s cute for his first interactions with Len but after Len gives Ballas his first piece of constructive criticism, Ballas really needs to get in line.  Or have Len leave the show, I’m fine with that choice too.

Dancing will be around for at least this season and season 26.  I imagine it keeps getting renewed until Season 30, who ends a show on Season 28?  That is just awkward but the show might be reaching its time.

Referring to the judges, let’s hope Carrie Ann Inaba (which I still hear as Inhabor) quits becoming the female Bruno.  It is getting worst, with each season.  Good thing Julianne Hough is there to balance everyone.

Like every season, I’m dismissive of the cast but they quickly grow on me.  Besides the ones that are clearly destine to be eliminated early and those who should have left early and don’t.

Do I miss the Macy’s dancing segments?  No.  I think two hours of this show, a week, is just enough.

13 pairs, with no one leaving week one and another week where no one leaves (the reason changes every season) so probably get 15 episodes out of this, plus one for the finale.

Ballas has been gone since season 22, he was second place with Paige VanZant, who I barely remember.  Peta won with Nyle DiMarco.

I do recognize that Ballas returning is what knocked Sasha off the list, for some reason.

I really do hope that they quit the “partner switch up” as it is super annoying and nothing really comes out of it.  I’m pretty sure that’s the new reason for the no elimination for the week, buying us an additional week of an episode.

I do look forward to Most Memorable Year and Disney Night, this year should give us a Halloween theme episode and the show should be over by the time Thanksgiving comes around, right?

I’ll be rooting for Debbie Gibson, Frankie Muniz and Lindsey Stirling, one of them is bound to be in the finale.

I’m still waiting for the dream season of James Van Der Beek, Fred Savage and of course, Dean Cain.  If you haven’t watched Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23, you are missing out!  Krysten Ritter and Dreama Walker are super great in it, but JVDB steals that show!  His Dancing with the Stars episode is Season One’s finale, Shitagi Nashi.

Make it happen, ABC!  Just pay them a bunch, and it would be amazing to have them all in one season!

Sunday Dinner : Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken Bacon & Tater Tot Bake

Posted by John Klein III on September 11, 2017
Posted in: Cooking. Tagged: . Leave a comment

http://www.food.com/recipe/cheesy-chicken-bacon-tater-tot-crock-pot-bake-403520

I’m surprised I haven’t written this recipe before now.  This is one of the first dishes that I prepared and is a family favorite.  We eat this when cash is running a little low, we eat it when we’re in the mood for it and we also make this when we have guest coming over.  Almost always a crowd pleasure.

I haven’t really modified it much over the years, mostly, I just add chopped onion once you add the chicken.

We also had some left over green onion, so I chopped some of those and put them on top, I don’t think it added anything.

I cooked it on High for three hours and we were hungry so it only cooked for two hours and 45 minutes, probably could have started eating at the two hour and thirty minute mark.

I also used a full cup of milk, as I don’t have a 3/4 measuring cup, or I didn’t think I did.  I didn’t fill it up to the rim so it was probably more like a 7/8 cup of milk.

We buy the pre-mixed Colby cheese and Monterey Jack Pepper cheese mix so that saves a step in the preparation.  The way I do it, I spend like 20 minutes (or it feels that way) on putting in the ingredients.  I could have cut the bacon into smaller parts, as we didn’t buy the Oscar Meyer bacon bits, like I prefer.  So there were some strips of bacon that were longer than usual.  Which was nice as the bacon usually disappears in the pot.  I didn’t notice a difference in taste.

Sometimes, I do forget to buy an onion which I think makes the chicken taste sweeter.  I did use an heavier hand when the pepper, so that made a difference too.

For once, the top layer of tater tots covered the top, usually I get a good circle around the border but then the middle isn’t covered in tater tots.

Overall, it tasted as good as it ever does, which is pretty good.

. . .

Television wise, I finally got to watch Doctor Who Season Nine’s Woman Who Lived.  Pretty good episode, I really need to watch these two parters closer to each other.

I’ll be heading to Denver this week, for work, so I should have plenty of time to watch my shows.  So that’s pretty exciting.

Except, that I finally got a working Kindle and downloaded the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Legends game.  I’ve tried so much to download it onto my phone but I understand why it wouldn’t work on my Android phone.  It is a very large file and my phone graphics (and size) wouldn’t have been big enough for the game.  There is a lot to do, and it reminds me so much of the Marvel : Avengers Alliance game that I was super addicted to on Facebook, last year.  So I worry about getting as addicted to this game, which if that does happen, I’ll have to delete it and never look back.  It is super fun though, I have a load of characters, I’m on mission three and trying to do all of the side stuff.  I was tempted to bring my Kindle to work but opted not to do it.  My mother-in-law got Walker Dennis a new Kids Kindle, so I got his old one.  The battery life isn’t great but it has been hinted that Santa might get me an Adult Kindle but I’m able to do pretty much what I would have wanted on a proper Kindle, I’m just pretty much plugged into a wall the entire time though.  It is a kids game, so they only give you like 60 pizza slices, which is your time meter, so that goes pretty quickly.  Except, at first, it lasted as I was leveling up all the time.  Which helped me get way into the game.  I have a slew of characters and I feel like I’m doing okay.  Now I’m at the point where I don’t have enough mutagen canisters so I can’t level up my team like I would like.  Which also adds to the limitations of the game.  Which I need, or I would just fall into the abyss of the game.  So that happened.

The game, which I might have to do a proper post on, has the same game mechanics as Avengers Alliance, where each of the five characters classes is strong against another type and weak against another type.  So there is strategy to each fight.

I downloaded it yesterday and I already have – Leonardo, Karai, Newtralizer (the starter characters), Snake Weed, Spider Bytz, Fishface and Stockman-Fly (got this morning).

It is nice that you have five person teams, so I only have two that sit out of each fight.

Our next episode of The Office is Season Four’s Dinner Party.

Our next episode of Person of Interest is Season Five’s Reassortment.  QSO was a pretty good episode too.

We’re in the middle of Arrow Season Five’s So It Begins, we couldn’t quite finish it last night.

I think that was the bulk of our television watching.  I’m going to try to create a list of shows that I want to watch, while in Denver.  As I do enjoy watching an episode of a series and switching to another series.  It keeps it fresh but maybe I’ll just try to knock out Doctor Who, while I’m there.

2017 – 2018 Television Schedule

Posted by John Klein III on September 8, 2017
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Television, Websites. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_United_States_network_television_schedule

I keep finding myself thinking about the upcoming Fall Television season.

I’m using the above Wikipedia page to keep track of upcoming shows that we are interested in, if you want to follow along.

Sunday

I doubt I’ll be watching CBS’s Wisdom of the Crowd but it has Monica Potter of Parenthood and Head Over Heels fame, I’m glad she got another series not too long after Parenthood ended.

I am tempted to give FOX’s Ghosted a chance as I’ll watch anything that has Adam Scott in it and  Craig Robinson is always funny, so the two of them should work wonders together.  I doubt it makes it a full season, but I’ll give the show a couple episodes.  I’ll probably end up watching it by myself.

Looking ahead at a few series, I’m glad that America is finally coming around to the British way of doing television, with ten or 13 episodes making up one season.  Not every series needs 22 episodes, and even those series, probably could do without one or two episodes.

I’m definitely going to follow Star Trek : Discovery onto CBS All Access.  15 episodes sounds like it will be pretty stellar.  Pun intended!

Count me in with FOX’s The Orville, at least the first episode.  I imagine how involved Seth MacFarlane is with this, this being his show, it should be super watchable.  Adrianne Palicki probably isn’t coming back to Agents of SHIELD, any time soon.  Not like we are watching that show anymore, with my wife’s ban on Joss Whedon continuing.  Plus, we are so far behind on shows that, even when that ban lifts, Palicki might be back on that show or in today’s modern television era, her contract might have availability for that show.

Monday

We’ll be watching ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, expect a post regarding that cast once that is known.  Which should be soon, I imagine as the season is set to start in the middle of September.

We’ll be skipping The Good Doctor, good that kid from Bates Motel got a new gig so quickly.  West Wing’s Richard Schiff is part of that show, which is nice.

Bobby Moynihan’s comedy version of This Is Us, CBS’s Me, Myself & I is a show I’ll be passing on.  He left SNL for this (or it timed out that way) so I hope it works for him.

My wife is still watching Scorpion, it does seem like a good show, the few segments I’ve seen of it.

We’re still on for CW’s Supergirl.  We’ll probably watch Arrow and Legends on Netflix, unless we can squeeze those shows in (and if we can finish Arrow in time).

http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/02/cw-flash-arrow-supergirl-legends-crossover-date/

Entertainment Weekly states that there will be a proper four part crossover in November, so no word on any secret two-parters like Flash and Supergirl last season.

I’ll be watching FOX’s The Gifted, the new X-Men series.  Hopefully it is good.  I’ll be watching it just for Amy Acker, if for nothing else.

We’ll also be watching The Voice, now with Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Hudson.  Cyrus has proven herself on the show but the clips seem to be turning Hudson into someone that makes me weary of her inclusion.  I’ll be missing Alicia Keys but she did win a season, so she has to go.  That’s the rule.  I see on the Wikipedia page that Kelly Clarkson will be a coach, replacing the Gwen Stefani / Cyrus coach position.

Dancing and The Voice, in the Fall, is what puts us so far behind on our television watching.  At least Dancing is once a week (I hope they never go back to two nights) and it is good pretty much from the start.  I wonder how many Blind episodes of The Voice will there be.

I deifnitely have no interest in Young Sheldon, on CBS, and I can’t imagine that show lasting a full season.  It is going to be this odd little footnote into the series.

Tuesday

We’ll be watching ABC’s Black-ish, they added another baby, so I wonder how many more seasons will there be.  Tracee Ellis Ross keeps winning awards, and the only one to do so, so expect those wins to earn another season for the show.  Will this be Yara Shahidi’s last season?  I know Zoey is supposed to be “off to college” but she’ll probably still pop up from time to time.

I like the idea of ABC’s The Mayor, but I’ll hold out an opinion until I see a trailer for it.

I do like Jason Ritter, but I’m not sure we’ll watch ABC’s Kevin (Probably) Saves the World.  Maybe if it gets high praise reviews, we’ll give it a shot.

Still be watching CW’s The Flash and keeping an eye out for Legends of Tomorrow in November.

We’ll be watching FOX’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

We’ll be sticking with The Voice on NBC and of course, This is Us.  We really love that show.  The short season means no filler too, which is outstanding.  Once Upon a Time and Revenge as really killed my buzz for 23 episode series.  Be it comedy or drama though my patience with comedy seems to be greater.

NBC’s Law & Order True Crime is tackling the Menendez Murders (for some reason), my wife got caught up in the original case, so we’ll probably give this eight episode series a look.  Though, whenever I think of this show, I always think of that incredible skit from SNL.

First Got Horny 2U

Thanks to Saturday Night Live for hosting that video!

So good!

That show has Anthony Edwards, Sam Jaeger and Healther Graham in it, so that’s cool.

Wednesday

We’re still in for ABC’s The Goldbergs.  I’ve been eagerly awaiting this show’s return as I’m all about Bryan Callen now and he did an interview with Bill Goldberg with Fighter and the Kid, where they confirm that Goldberg is playing Callen’s Coach Mellor’s brother.  That should be super fun.

Thanks to The Fighter and the Kid for hosting their own videos.

It is a pretty good episode.

I’m still working on my Fighter and the Kid post, the way I have it now, it has like 30 videos in it and I really don’t think all of those are necessary, so I’m still tweaking it.

How are they going to work Hayley Orrantia’s Erica into the upcoming season?  Or does she have one more high school year left?  She’s going to Georgia for college so she should only appear for the holiday episodes and a phone call now and again, right?  I’m going to miss her on the show.

We’re still watching Modern Family, still not enough Alex for my taste.  That show has to be ending soon too, right?  Their lack of award nominations tells me that the industry is moving on and the writers seem to be right behind them too.

My wife moved ahead with Designated Survivor so she’ll probably keep with that show.

Speaking of which, CBS’s Survivor’s theme is Heroes v Healers v Hustlers.  We’ll be watching it, I like the competition elements but I do lose interest in the parts surrounding the comps.  Tribal is still good, but it takes me longer and longer to learn people’s names, with each new season.

I’m all in with CW’s Riverdale, Luke Perry is going to survive the gun shot, right?  Right!?!  Probably the only season finale that I’m still thinking about.  Flash was okay but it is clearly going to resolve itself before minute the fifth minute.

My wife will be watching FOX’s Empire.  I’m not sure if she watches Star, it sounds like she does but I don’t know.

Thursday

My wife is still watching ABC’s Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder.  I know it is Scandal’s final season.

We still really enjoy CBS’s Life in Pieces, we do miss that show when it is Thursday and we want to watch the episode but we have to wait until Friday to do so.

We’re catching up with CW’s Arrow but not sure if we’ll be watching it live.

There are times when I wouldn’t mind catching up with FOX’s Gotham.  Orville being on Thursday is a nice sign of confidence.  The Sunday timeslot must have been a premiere night.

I’ve also been tempted to get caught up with NBC’s Superstore.  I’m not sure if I’m watching Will & Grace, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the show, towards the end, but I do like these reunion series that we’re getting now.

Friday

ABC’s Once Upon a Time is being “treated” to a time jump, so don’t expect that show to get renewed.  I’m not sure if we’re even attempting Inhumans, it doesn’t look like any Whedon is involved with this show so maybe we’ll give the first episode a look.  I do like it only being eight episodes.

We still watch CBS’s Blue Bloods, I like the show and I’m glad it continues.  It is one of those rare shows where they can just keep releasing season after season, like an old school procedural.  Though Frank always seems like he’s ready to retire, which would probably be the last season.  I wonder if they are going to do more with Erin and Jamie this season, outside of the two spotlight episodes that they have to get.

I really want to watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the CW, but it is so hard to see an episode on Netflix.

. . .

I guess that’s the 2017 element of the 2017 – 2018 Television Schedule.

I still see series listed By Network, that are not included in the above chart.

ABC has a Dancing with the Stars Junior competition that I’m sure my wife is going to love.

The CW is having Black Lightning, which is NOT part of the Arrow-verse so I’ll probably be passing on that until it is considered part of the Arrow-verse.  Seems pretty dumb to not be included in the fun but Greg Berlanti said that they can jump in at any time, which is really nice of him.  I completely understand wanting to stand on their own feet but it just feels like a shame to not be included, especially being on The CW.  Might as well be on FOX with Gotham.

FOX has New Girl that I didn’t see above, which is also on its final season.  They are bringing 9-1-1 back, now with, Angela Bassett.  FOX also has The Resident that Emily VanCamp is in, she was the only reason to keep watching Revenge and after rewatching Civil War, I could be up for watching her new series.  She looks to be the main nurse on that series but fourth listed on the Wikipedia page.  Though I don’t recognize the first two names, I do know Bruce Greenwood.  I looked them up, the top guy is Logan from Gilmore Girls and the other was in the fourth season of Agents of SHIELD.  I still don’t recognize him.

NBC, the network that spurred this post, has The Awesome Show, with Chris Hardwick.  Which reads, to me, like his Wall renewal contract stated he get a show that is more in line with his actual interests.  It’ll be six episodes, like his BBC show was.  But without the pop culture, it looks like.

I’m not tempted by The Brave show, at all, though it is getting all the Hulu advertising.  Odd for a show that doesn’t have a September or October start date.  Oh, I missed it above, it is on Monday nights, after The Voice.

I wonder if my wife will watch Ellen’s Game of Games.

NPH is hosting Genius Junior, a kid quiz show, in prime time!

They also have Good Girls with Christina Hendricks (maybe on a show I’ll actually watch) and Mae Whitman!  Hey, Matthew Lillard is on it too!  Retta of Parks and Recreation fame is the third lady of the series.

Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman are going to host a reality show, Handmade Project, which might be interesting.

Reverie is a show with Person of Interest’s Sarah Shahi as well as Dennis Haysbert, so that could be good too.

And, finally, due to alphabetical order, NBC’s Rise!  The show that I’m super eager for!  It stars HIMYM’s Josh Radnor as the teacher that inspires a city, via the high school drama department.  It also features Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho as well.  I’m surprised Disney didn’t throw a series at her but I’m glad to have her involved in this show.  Still no release date.  Here is an interview with Josh Radnor, regarding the show –

Thanks to Josh Radnor Videos for hosting the above video.

It is only a minute long but from the upfronts, it sounds like the trailer was well received.

https://www.nbc.com/rise?nbc=1

Hopefully the main page gets updated soon.

Shannon Purser of Riverdale and Stranger Things (she’s Barb) will have a recurring role in it, which seems awkward.  Is she only in six of the ten episodes?

Marley Shelton will be playing Radnor’s wife on the show.  I know her as being the object of affection from Trojan War, though she had no chance against Jennifer Love Hewitt.  She’s in Pleasantville and Never Been Kissed but I don’t recognize her from those films.  I still need to watch Sugar and Spice as it has James Marsden in it.  I’ve seen clips of Bubble Boy, so I know she’s The Girl in that film.  She’s The Customer in Sin City, whatever that means.  From in W, a horrible film.  The deputy in Scream 4, which might be familiar.  Shelton has these great eyes, which do leave an impression, which helps me remember her.  So I’m as familiar with her as probably a small margin of people but she should be good in the role.

This all reminds me that I still need to watch Mercy Street.  I started the first episode, months ago, and didn’t even get to the Josh Radnor scene!  I did like seeing Mary Elizabeth Winstead, again, I don’t see nearly enough of her work.

. . .

Going down the Renewals and Cancellations section.

ABC’s The Middle is ending, a show I’ve seen like three minutes of.  Scandal is ending.

CW’s Originals is ending, my wife likes that show too.

New Girl is ending and probably about time for it too.

I thought there would be more shows to confirm.

. . .

So that’s the list of what we’re mostly watching and what a few things I know I’m already not tempted by.

Sunday Dinner : Cheesy Beef and Potato Casserole

Posted by John Klein III on September 5, 2017
Posted in: Cooking, Fun With YouTube. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Cheesy Beef & Potatoes Casserole

We combined the above recipe with another recipe as I printed one and my wife thought I was making the other.

Mostly, what I did was additions then.  Along with the 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, I added 1 teaspoon of paprika and another teaspoon of rosemary.  Which added some heat to the recipe.  Rosemary, from what I’ve read, is a simple spice that adds a nice savory flavor.

Instead of cream, I used milk and instead of beef stock, I use chicken – as that’s what I had.

Except, when it came time to mix the soup, spices, stock and milk in a bowl, I completely forgot to add milk and stock – like a complete idiot.  I was placing the casserole dish, I used our 9 x 13 as we don’t own an 11 x 7 dish, I saw the measuring cups and realized I left some ingredients out.  So I mixed the chicken stock and the milk and just poured it into the dish.  I figure, the potatoes really need to be soften, so the additional liquid will benefit the dish, I didn’t know about the science of what it would do separated from the proper soup mixture.  I imagine, those two ingredients would have helped during the pouring stages, as the mixture sat there in clumps.  I wrote squares around those ingredients in the directions and the ingredients – hopefully, I don’t forget them again.

This was pretty tasty, probably could have used another potato.  Does anyone know how long a five pound bag is supposed to last?  It seems just shy of two weeks is too long by a bit.

During the browning of the beef phase, along with the onion, I put a 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder, paprika and rosemary, to create a nice synergy with the beef and soup mixture.  That’s what I like to do with the meat, makes it all come together.

What I use I did, was find a way to add some color to the recipe, as it was a lot of white with the potatoes with spots of brown with the beef.  Could have used some greens or reds to brighten it up.  Which, again, is only a thought I’ve had now that I’m taking pictures of my dinners.

The one hour cook time seemed to be plenty, so I wouldn’t change that.  Mostly, the only change for next time would to not be a dummy and include the milk and stock at the proper time.  Usually I place all of my ingredients (with an -ents and not -ants, apparently) on the counter.  I usually don’t with milk, as it is milk but I’m not sure what made me leave the chicken stock in the fridge.

. . .

 The Montana fires are still terrible.  I wish we could use cartoon logic, take all of that extra water that Texas is sadly dealing with, and air lift the water up here.  We could really use it.

. . .

Television wise, we did some marathoning of the Office and our next episode is Season Four’s Launch Party.  So glad that Pam and Jim are together, and we didn’t waste even more time getting there.

We’re on episode seven of Person of Interest’s final season.  That show is getting so good!

We’re on episode episode three of Arrow’s fifth season.  Is season six abandoning the flashback sequences?  Might have my answer if I watch more episodes but I really hope they do abandon that as he was on the island for five years and we should be done with it.  Also, for the most part, the present day storyline has always been leaps better than the flashback sequences.

We saw Captain America : Civil War again, which is nice as I’ve been watching it in four minute intervals and only got to Tony Stark at the college scene.  My wife didn’t recall anything from it, from the time we saw it in the theater to now.  She’s nice enough to indulge me with these films.  Listening to Living Between Wednesdays, I’m finally in 2016 with that podcast, and they are getting hyped for Civil War so I’ve been wanting to watch the film again.  I should rewatch Winter Solder, probably will next, as there are moments in that film I want to see again.

I made it like two minutes into the second episode of Assets, then my son stopped me.

So we’re trying to do this Office – Person of Interest – Arrow cycle, so far, it has been pretty successful.

Last time, I went down this How I Met Your Mother YouTube rabbit hole.  I really wish they had gone with the alternate ending, it would have made that show’s legacy, that much better.

Thanks to YouTUber flavi_us for hosting the video!

That and maybe not undoing Barney and Robin as quickly as they did.  In the alternate timeline, does that mean Barney and Robin are still together?  I hadn’t thought about that until right now.

I must have taken that final season episode, How Your Mother Met Me, for granted, as I started watching it this morning and that episode is amazing.  Cristin Milloti should be in more things, I really wish NBC’s A to Z got a full season.

I want to say that was pretty much our television watching, we got caught up with Master Chef, I’m still not sure who will be in the finale, I guess the Top Five are going to be those from the winning Red Team (Cate, Dino, Eboni, Gabriel) and Yachecia.  I imagine Jason would be in the finale and that Jeff will be gone next.  Eboni’s comment about Yachecia being the new Jeff, had us cracking up.  Then, Jeff didn’t go home and that was disappointing.  We don’t need Old Jeff when we now have a New Jeff.  Also, I wouldn’t even know how to make a truffle, so it is amazing that they all knew how to begin making them.

Similar Songs : There’s Nothing Holding Me Back from Sleeping With a Friend

Posted by John Klein III on September 1, 2017
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Songs. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Okay, this may just be me and how often I’ve heard this song.

Shawn Mendes’ There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back, thanks to ShawnMendesVEVO for hosting this video.

Gosh, Walker Dennis is obsessed with this song!  He just listens to it on a constant loop.  So I’ve heard it so many times.  It is to the point where I have to make up something so we can leave his Kindle behind after the third playing of it.  Or worst, he uses my phone and listens to it there.

At some point, the melody of the song reminds me of Neon Tree’s Sleeping with a Friend

Thanks to NeonTreesVEVO for hosting this video.

Am I crazy or do these two videos share some musicality?

Robot News : Facebook Shuts Down AI Experiment

Posted by John Klein III on August 30, 2017
Posted in: Robot. Leave a comment

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-artificial-intelligence-ai-chatbot-new-language-research-openai-google-a7869706.html

I haven’t been doing a good job on keeping up with disastrous robot or artificial intelligence news.

Facebook was trying to create a chatbox with two programs started talking using English but not comprehensive English.  Things out of hand and not before too long, shut it all down.  Other articles are being written that Facebook really shut down the program as it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do.  I’m just happy that it got shutdown as we don’t need to be experimenting with artificial intelligence.

I still can’t find that article regarding the robot scorpion that cut a Carnegie Mellon University student.

Sunday Dinner : Creamy Chicken Casserole

Posted by John Klein III on August 28, 2017
Posted in: Cooking. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Creamy Chicken Casserole Recipe

They really should have worked the word “Elbow” or “Macaroni” into the title, as once you put a pound of elbow macaroni into a 9 x 13 dish, the recipe becomes 80% elbow macaroni.  Also, it becomes much heavier!

Didn’t modify this too much, as I was cooking it.  I would probably use only 1/4 teaspoon of pepper instead of 1/2 teaspoon, but that could be on me for not sprinkling the pepper in a better fashion.  But it just looked like a lot of pepper.

I would also use two tablespoons of olive oil, as the chicken was a tad dry.  I definitely cooked it at 30 minutes, as opposed to 40 as I knew with the additional 20 minutes of cooking, at the end, that it the chicken was definitely going to get cooked.  Now I’m wondering if I should have cooked it for 25 minutes upfront and added five minutes during the second round?  As our Progresso Panko break crumbs didn’t really firm up.  I don’t trust broiling, it seems high risk and no real reward.  Maybe I’ll try that, next time.  We went with the Italian variety instead of Japanese, it felt right with what we were preparing for.

Apparently Campbell makes a Cream of Mushroom AND Cream of Chicken Soup, in the same can.  So instead of this recipe being 50/50 Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom, it was more 75/25.  So we’ll definitely either buy a can of each soup, next time, or we’ll buy two cans of the combo soup.  I didn’t even know such a combo soup existed!  It looked more like Cream of Mushroom though.

Overall, besides the Panko not being more firm, it turned out pretty well.  I also have to shred the chicken more, as it was still rather chunky instead of being more shredded.  With that much macaroni, the chicken got a tad lost.

. . .

I was able to watch the McGregor v Mayweather fight on Saturday Night.  After hearing about it so much on The Fighter and the Kid and Prinze and the Wolf, I got the idea in my head that I would like to watch it but figured I couldn’t.  I had committed to watching highlights and whatever clips I could obtain but I was able to enjoy watching the fight.  I didn’t realize rounds were like three minutes, so I knew I wasn’t going to be up past midnight.  I still was, though, as I wanted to see if anyone matched my outrage over the Technical Knock Out.  Which, I still find suspect.  A match of this caliber, and on such a large state, shouldn’t be ending on any technicality.  McGregor didn’t even touch the ground!  He could have just moved against the ropes for the rest of the minute and a half and sat down during the brief break.  It did look like he was getting gassed during the seventh round but making it to ten is amazing!  I was super impress with referee Robert Byrd, with lots of his calls but that final call, tainted the whole thing.  I’m glad McGregor said something about that, after Mayweather’s speech.  McGregor was talking fine and was a tad dazed, that’s all it was.

. . .

Television-wise, we finally finished Daredevil Season Two.  I’m not sure when we’ll start on Luke Cage.  We opted to watch Arrow’s Season Five’s first episode instead of making progress on Person of Interest.  It was really late and I had the thought that we started Arrow, when it first came out, before committing to just watching Supergirl and Flash as it aired.  As, at that time, I knew that those two shows were going to crossover and I knew we would be fine with watching the Arrow and Legends episodes of the mega-crossover, without being too lost or spoiled on their individual subplots.  I’ll have to do some research with the upcoming seasons to see which shows we need to follow.  I bet we could do the same thing and just stick with Flash and Supergirl.

Our next episode of The Office is Season Three’s Back from Vacation.

I woke up this morning, wanting to jump back into Jodie Whittaker’s The Assets, so I might try to sneak in another episode of that, as that is only eight episodes, the last one appears to be an interview with the real Sandra Grimes.  I’m on the second episode of that.

 

Thursday Dinner : Ravioli with Garlic Basil Oil

Posted by John Klein III on August 25, 2017
Posted in: Cooking. Tagged: . Leave a comment

http://www.goeatandrepeat.com/ravioli-with-garlic-basil-oil/

Look, I made Thursday Dinner!  My wife had one of our (several) cook binders open and I know how to cook, so I just start prepping it, once we got home.

When I saw that it required 1/2 cup of chopped basil leaves, I was like “gosh, that’s a lot of basil leaves!” It took our entire container of basil leaves.  Once the meal was completed, I chalked it up to it being like a pesto sauce.

I should say, that this doesn’t really make a “sauce,” it is more like a mixture.

My wife didn’t care for it, at first, but after a few more bites, she was enjoying it.  It is one of those recipes where I already wanted to modify it as I was cooking it.  Walker Dennis, on the other hand, loved it – that kid of ours loves pasta.

I used Celentan’s Cheese Raviolis – which were pretty good.

We already had minced garlic, and I used six 1/2 teaspoons – I thought about with ten 1/2 teaspoons but held off.  I really should have, as my wife wanted more garlic.

At no point does the instructions state to include the red pepper flakes, I figure the best place was when I added the basil leaves.  I already committed to using a 1/2 of red pepper flakes as opposed to 1/4 teaspoon.  I think that improvement added just enough of a kick.  Especially compared to how much basil leaves the recipe calls for.  Next time, I will just do a 1/3 cup of basil leaves.  There was plenty of basil so I think a tad less would be okay.

After cooking, I had to add basil leaves and Parmesan to our grocery list.

My picture and the picture from the website looks pretty different.  Our raviolis are smaller, and our basil leaves were already chopped.  We’re a McCormick household and we’re finally getting our pantry filled with spices.  Like most families, I’m sure, we buy the Kraft Parmesan cheese, as well.  For the garlic, I’ve always gone with The Garlic Company of California, 1/2 teaspoon equals one glove.  Which now I see, that the recipe calls for “large garlic cloves” so I should have gone with ten 1/2 teaspoons, at a minimum.

. . .

TV wise, I finally watched the “Girl Who Died” episode of Doctor Who’s ninth season.  I really should have watched the next episode, the second part, but it was already late and I thought I was going to be able to watch it on Wednesday but my son stayed up to see me so I had to go straight to bed.  Which, really, is better for my work day on Thursday.

Our next episode of The Office is Season Three’s Branch Closing – this show, we can pretty much watch anytime.  Usually we watch one episode at dinner, and sometimes, we will watch a second episode (if we’re not done eating or if we just want to) and we might sneak in another episode at night.  We’ve been searching for a good 22 minute show for dinner purposes and The Office is right up there.  Seeing Rashida Jones makes us feel silly that we watched Parks and Recreation last year and dismissed The Office then, too, when we should have been watching the original show this entire time.

 

Classic X-Men 81

Posted by John Klein III on August 23, 2017
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

59296_20060824235135_large

Look at that cover!  Two blue people with a sword, woman against man violence, what ten-year-old boy wouldn’t like that?  Cover by Joe Madureira.   That expression: Heads – You lose! Has stuck with me all of these years.   To the point where I always call Head whenever I get the chance to call the coin flip.  If I win it, I get to say, Heads, You Lose.  It makes me smile, but I probably come off like a jerk.  Which makes me edgy and cool, so really, I get to win twice.  Which is nice.

This is a reprint of Uncanny X-Men 177 by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr.  You really can‘t ask for a better opening to a story.  Mystique is running around a carnival and straight up killing X-Men, one on one style.  This was the era where you could conceivably kill Wolverine by cutting his throat.  Mystique comes up with some great ways to kill the X-Men.  First Wolverine, then Kitty Pryde goes down, after checking on who she thought was Wolverine. Mystique guts Kitty and this angers Colossus beyond belief (as it should!).

He chases her into a Funhouse Mirror room and one of Cyclops’ optic blasts kills Colossus and then Mystique strangles him.  Which I find to be unfair.

Mystique adopts this cool looking wetsuit and uses it to blow up Storm via a gas tank.  Then Rogue shows up and Mystique blasters her with a gun. At this point, we know that Mystique raised Rogue for a time, but they are still only hinting that there is a relationship between Mystique and Kurt.   She prepares herself to stab him but can’t and he knocks her out.

Turns out, this entire exercise is due to Arcade and Mystique is a willing participant in Murderworld.  Sort of like Taskmaster’s training academy, Arcade rents out his Murderwold to fellow villains, so that they can practice their skills.  You have to make a living somehow, and those two figured out the easiest way to do so.

All Arcade wants, as well as payment, is to make sure one of the robot X-Men is set to kill, whereas the rest are only set on stun.  Rogue was the killer this round.

Kitty is dancing with at Stevei’s studio, about to open up about Storm’s new look, 80s Storm, when Storm shows up and ruins the mood.

Lilandra and Corsair say their goodbyes.

Then we move along to the conclusion of the issue.  Double date city!  Kurt and Amanda are out with Colossus and Kitty.  They are going to see a ballet.  Amanda and Kurt make a joke about Colossus and Kitty parking the car.

While on the way back to the ballet, Pyro and Blob start fighting Colossus.  He actually holds his own for a while.

Pyro turns Colossus red hot, then Avalanche destroys these two semis that are holding liquid nitrogen (making Richard Blais and me pretty happy).

Kitty shows back up (after looking for help) to witness a frozen status of Colossus, but sister, that ain’t no statue.