Bryan Robb

Inflation hurts, but some things are still much cheaper today because of exploitation of foreign labor. A pair of Levi’s was $50 25 years ago. Today they’re also $50.

Levi's 511 Native Cali Slim Men's Jeans are being offered at a discounted price of $48.65 with an available coupon for savings.

We went and saw Aziz Ansari last night in Portland at Arlene Schnitzer. It was nice to have a night out.

A man and a woman are smiling indoors with an ornate ceiling and chandelier in the background.

Happy about it still be slightly light out at 7:00 p.m. I walked a couple of miles with the dog while listening to a book, The Arsenal of Democracy. Light rain, lots of flowering trees. I love how early they bloom here.

I love the simplicity of BIuesky feeds. One of my faves is just ‘Mutuals’. Sure, I like to follow some bigger accounts and news services, but when I need to cut through the noise, there are the real people, there are the topics I’m interested in. 🔵

Feeling pretty okay that I divested myself of equities on February 18. Don’t even mind if I miss any upswing, I can’t stomach this guy’s manipulation of the market.

Giving this recipe a shot tonight.

French Onion Pot Roast

Source: instagram.com

Ingredients

  • 3ish lb chuck roast
  • 1 tbsp Garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp dried Rosemary
  • 1 tbsp dried Thyme
  • 2 tbsp Avocado Oil
  • 1 stick Butter
  • 2 large Yellow Onions, halved and sliced thin
  • 4 cloves Garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup Red Wine
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 5 cups Beef Broth
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 French Baguette, thinly sliced
  • 2 cups Mozzarella cheese
  • Chives for garnish

Instructions

  1. Let roast get to room temp before preparing.
  2. Preheat oven to 400 F.
  3. Coat roast with garlic powder, Rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.
  4. In a dutch oven, add avocado oil and heat over medium. Add roast, sear both sides (4ish minutes per side, should be lightly browned with a crust starting to form). Remove roast from Dutch oven.
  5. Add butter, garlic and sliced onion into the Dutch oven on medium heat, cook for 5 minutes or until onions start to become translucent. Add in wine and worcestershire sauce, cooking for 5 more minutes.
  6. Add roast back to pot and top with beef broth and bay leaves. Cover and transfer to oven for 30 minutes at 400 F.
  7. Reduce heat to 300 F and roast for another 2 1/2 hours or until roast is fully cooked to your liking. Remove the lid and discard the bay leaves.
  8. Remove roast, shred and place meat back in the dutch oven.
  9. Top with sliced bread and mozzarella cheese. Place back in oven uncovered until the cheese turns golden.
  10. Remove from oven. Garnish with chives and serve over mashed potatoes!

One benefit of having CAD experience is that I can easily concept plan home renovation projects. Rather than move into a larger house and blow up our budget, I’m looking at expanding the kitchen and converting the garage into living space. Much easier to communicate ideas and troubleshoot this way.

Thinking about switching back to my old school barber. It may be a little less convenient, but those dudes take their time and make me feel like a human, unlike the ladies at your average sheering factory, e.g. Great Clips et al.

After a couple week delay, I got my clear aligners today! 😬 Pretty excited to be starting, and I feel grateful to be in a position to get this done, even if later in life.

Definitely don’t envy anyone in education, or the kids about to go off to college, or researchers. We are all the beneficiaries of that knowledge, and entire system collapses without funding, either through Federal funding for research or from student loans.

Russia has nearly the same GDP and population as Mexico. The EU and US could stop the war by next week if we threatened a 100% stop on trade.

I had my doubts there would be demand for the 12 EV chargers I just had installed at work, but since last week we’ve consistently had 8 being used at all times. Cool to see we’re at least meeting underserved demand, and I think it will probably induce more. Glad we bored/wired for expansion.

Some songs just lend themselves to an opening montage to a movie that practically writes itself. Today was I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney.

Portlanders like to complain about Beaverton and Hillsboro being sprawling car centric suburbs, but they both have higher population densities than Portland. They have neighborhoods near MAX stations that are denser than most of Portland’s east side neighborhoods. They are building dense housing.