Kapt Kaos

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Just ran across this article in the Austin-American Statesman.  Just another fine example of why I like to live in Austin, Texas.

The Austin-Round Rock region was ranked as being the fourth safest city in the U.S., Farmers Group Inc.. The insurance carrier’s seventh annual “Most Secure U.S. Places to Live” ranks cities according to crime, weather, risk of natural disasters, housing depreciation, foreclosures, air quality, terrorist threats, environmental hazards, life expectancy and job loss statistics.

Read more: Central Texas ranked 4th ‘most secure’ in U.S. | Austin Business Journal 

For those of us who support Formula 1 racing coming to Austin, this is just one more step towards an amazing few days coming in 2012!

From Austin-American Statesman:

Travis County Commissioners voted Tuesday afternoon to grant a permitting variance that will likely allow promoters of the proposed Formula One racetrack to begin grading work on the site southeast of Austin, perhaps as soon as the end of the year.

Today’s vote, which passed 4 to 1 at the recommendation of county planners, allows track developers to proceed before the county receives FEMA’s so-called Conditional Letter of Map Revision.

My thanks to those that voted in favor of this and for seeing the incredible value and recognition Formula 1 will bring to Austin

Got my October newsletter from The Smoking Meat encyclopedia.  It has a recipe for Smoked Bone-in Turkey Breast. I have decided to give this one a try as it is getting close to Thanksgiving. I mean, really!  Doesn’t this look wonderful?  Now to see if I can reproduce this!  Stay tuned!

Purchased a new smoker last weekend. Have purchased a nice brisket. Have a recipe for a dry rub from a family member.   Now to give this thing a try this weekend.

Smoked the brisket for almost a full 8 hours.  Trying to figure out how much charcoal to use to get the temp. right.  It took much more then I expected.  I also had some pecan wood laying around the backyard from a old Pecan tree in the center of the backyard.  Split this up using the hatchet my girlfriend brought with her when she moved in.  This really added a wonderful smoky flavor to the meat.  Next time I will get a full on brisket instead of what I pickup from HEB.

I have been listening to KGSR for the past 10 years.  Have not called or emailed much over this time.  Today they were have a discussion on tipping in Austin.  Asking if we were tipping any less, more or the same  due to the enconamy.  As I am sitting at work in front of my email I decided to send the following email.

I have always tipped at least 20% over the past 10 years.  I still do today.  I don’t go out as much as I used to but when I do I still spend the same and tip the same.

It wasn’t long after I sent this in that they read a couple of emails on the air.  This being one of them.  It was really cool to know it was my email that they read!

I have been a fan of  F1 racing for many years.  Over the years I have become more and more disapointed by the politics that seem to get involved with all of it.  I just read an article from GP Update.  The article is an interview with the current World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

“I never imagined there would be so much politics when I came into Formula One. It definitely was a shock and there has been too much time taken up with it. Unfortunately, it is the way the Formula One world works for some reason. It’s much nicer in the lower categories, where all the people are there just to race and the teams are there just to race.”

I think this defines the problem the best I have heard it.  Now to get the politics out of F1 and get on with racing.

Read the full article…

REPLACEMENT WINDOWS:

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with that expensive double-pane energy efficient kind, and today, I got a call from the contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the work had been completed a whole year ago and I still hadn’t paid for them. Hellloooo,…………just because I’m blonde doesn’t mean that I am automatically stupid.

So, I told him just what his fast talking sales guy had told me last year, that in ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves! Helllooooo? It’s been a year! I told him. There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up. He never called back. I bet he felt like an idiot.

Okay, so I am a big F1 race fan and this is just plan cool.  Wait for the end….

El Paso, Texas is closer to Los Angeles on the Pacific Coast than it is to Port Arthur on Gulf Coast of Texas. Port Arthur, on the other hand, is closer to Jacksonville, Florida on the Atlantic Coast than it is to El Paso.