Easy Beef and Broccoli recipe Ingredients: At least 3/4 lb of beef At least 1 crown of broccoli A pat of butter (roughly 15ml or 1T) A pinch of salt (roughly 1ml) Instructions:     Slice beef into bite-size pieces. Melt a pat of butter in a pan with medium-low heat. Lay the meat in the pan to sauté with a pinch of salt. Cut crowns of broccoli into bite size pieces, and add these to the pan while it cooks, stirring occasionally. Use a lid, and stir occasionally for 5-10 minutes, until it reaches your desired level of doneness.     Makes two lunch-size plat ..read more

          Elephant & Piggie: I will Surprise My Friend! by Mo Williams, the famed author of the Pigeon books.         There are 25 Elephant and Piggie books. This one is one of my favorites because the emotion is very genuine. The two friends decide they will jump out and surprise each other. When they lose track of each other, Gerald the Elephant lets his worries about his friend run away with him. Piggie wonders if Gerald left to get lunch.         Elephant and Piggie caters to beginning r ..read more

Libby  `    Libby is a library app for borrowing books. Yay! Free books! I love it, it has normal books as well as audiobooks and read-alongs.     I love the audio books and read-alongs especially. It gives my little one the ability to read her books while I catch up on dishes. It’s very easy to use. A library card will allow you to borrow up to five books at a time. The borrowed books can be downloaded onto your device for 14 days. (This is in settings, and can be changed to suit your preferences, along with the file type to be delivered). I like it ..read more

Cold Ends: Murder Aboard the Invisible Velvet The lights flickered and went out in the cell of the small jail on Turtle Station, a small outpost in the middle of nowhere. Dr. Dala, an older man of average height, blinked his dark brown eyes in the sudden darkness. The door creaked loudly. It swung in crookedly, in a listless manner that was entirely wrong for a solid out-swinging cell door. Dala saw a figure with a headlamp, a crowbar, and a pocket propane torch beckoning him to come out. He ventured out, and moved towards a crumpled figure with concern. “He’ll live.” The headlamped figure h ..read more

Definition 1: A point is a position without dimensions.  Three dimensional objects have height, length, and width. (A box). Two dimensions create flat plane. (A piece of paper). One dimension is a line without height or width. Without dimensions an object ceases to exist. The point marks a location, but it cannot exist as an object because it does not occupy any space. Definition 2: A line has one dimension. Definition 3: The intersections and ends of lines are points.  A point exists everywhere lines cross or a line ends. Definition 4: A ..read more

        An argumentative essay seeks to support an evidence based opinion with solid facts and research. Choose a topic It’s easier to write about something you are knowledgeable in, or have an interest in. What do you enjoy doing? What do you have questions about? Are there any historical figures you admire? Are you concerned about some current events? What animals do you like? Don’t overthink it, it’s better to start with a random question like “Why are bananas yellow?” over getting stuck with writer's block and procrastinating. Create a thesis statement dra ..read more

        I started a blog almost two years ago now. It’s mostly been a hobby, and when I started I didn’t want to put a lot of money into it. I tried doing WordPress.org and self-hosting through a Google Cloud trial, but it was a lot of hassle handling all that back end when all I wanted was a simple blog. There are plenty of companies to handle hosting if you are set on using WordPress, but it will cost more than $12 a year. The method described below avoids a paid hosting option. It works for my small blog. It starts the website with a professional look, but with ..read more

Winter Driving Tabarka Snow Forest Road by Rotalimus, CC BY-SA 4.0 Maneuvering Slower is better. If the road is very bad, go to an empty parking lot or side street where you won’t hit anything, bring the car up to a safe (and legal) speed, and hit the brakes to see how far you slide. If the car slides, the Automatic Braking System may kick in. This is very useful, especially if the car happens to be sliding straight forward. If the car is sliding sideways, I have found gently pressing the gas to get the tires slowly rolling provides better traction in some conditions. But, brakes are ..read more

Cold Ends: A Brush with Death By Lee Austin Art by Andy Miller The Captain screamed, and her scream was lost to the silence of a vacuum. The void was a horrible shock. Then tether desperately dragged her back, and her lungs painfully at the air now filling her spacesuit helmet.  “She’ll live.” A voice above her. “But this was sabotage.” Two days later, Captain Cade breathed gingerly while resting in sickbay. She wanted to get up, but everything hurt. Of her five fellow crew members, who would want to kill her? Doc had told Cade that Danny had rushed to drag her back into the a ..read more

Passport processing times         I recently went to get a passport (and by recently, I mean June, and it’s November already). I was warned, of course, that it would take eighteen weeks when I had my passport appointment, but it’s not like I’m in a rush to go anywhere. So, standard processing, and it just showed up in the mail last week. This seems like a long time to wait.         Standard passport processing is currently eight to eleven weeks, according to the U.S. Government (United States, 2021). This is 56 to 77 days, if you ..read more