Tuesday is it? Yep...well stay home today and do everything possible with these hands and feet to better the place a bit.  First to attack the umbrella in the yard, tie it to stationary objects like buildings so it won't fall over again and break and arm like it did a few days ago.  Now fixed the arm is doing well and is holding the umbrella from the barn side.  Another is wired to the kitchen wall and then another to the laundry wall.  That done I tackled the unfastened and bulb missing lamp cord that rings the umbrella for night sitting in the rain, sleet and drizzle.  Then upstairs to attempt to get one of these damned computers to see the 3G SFR connection that lies hereabouts in the ether. 


Shit! Shit! Shit! 1.5 hrs and no such luck, can't even see it on the wireless connections list in either machine...XP on one and Vista 64 on the other.  Oh well. Damned SFR anyway. The only thing |I can think of doing to recreate the situation before I did the 1st install and actually connected to a 3.6 Mb/sec "High Speed" wireless signal is to remove all traces of Vodophone and this junky SFR driver stuff and reload it fresh again.  Of course I could lose everything of the slow speed "normal" dialup wireless but what the hell...it's worth a try anyway, isn't it?  Anyone with some experience with this SFR 3G Dongle please enlighten me as to how I reliably get the high speed connection and do the install correctly as there are no instructions whatsoever with this thing!  What a bad joke this has become.

Making Chicken stock now, Chicken thighs and legs, 2 med. onions, a couple of stalks of celery and a couple of cut up carrots w/enough water to cover...some herbs from the garden, rosemary, thyme and tarragon tied into a bunch..a bouquet garni.  4-5 hours is about the right time to cook it, then pull the chicken and the vegetables and continue to reduce the stock for another hour or so.  Do not salt!  Risotto tonight with sdhitake mushrooms and slightly used boiled chicken.  It'll be good and it's a thrifty way to make stock.  Make your stock and eat it too!  Fun!