“Hi Ted, this is Rachel, I unfortunately I was calling show that we have your parents if you have any questions just give us, call us in touch soon bye bye freak out. Thank you.”

Oops, maybe that was just the jewelers telling me my watch was fixed.

And that’s when the trouble started. I initially tried to set up a subdomain installation (bus100.learningbusiness.net and bus263.learningbusiness.net), but after some slight gnashing of teeth found out that my hosting provider doesn’t allow WPMU subdomains. No problem. I uninstalled WP then reinstalled and set up networking using subdirectories (learningbusiness.net/bus100 and learningbusiness.net/bus263). Dashboards for all sites worked fine; direct link to posts on all sites worked fine; links to subdirectory sites gave me 404s. I called the hosting provider. No love–they don’t support anything other than installation of WP. I searched the web and read through lots of postings on the wordpress.org support forums, the wordpress.org documentation, and the wordpress MU documentation, all to no avail. I searched the hosting provider’s wordpress support forums. I tried everything–copying the .htaccess file to the bus100 and bus263 subdirectories, changing the 404 page behavior, but nothing worked. I did notice that a broken link pointing to the main html directory would redirect to my 404 page, but a bad link pointing to either subdirectory would still give the hosting provider’s default page. I called to see if there was a way to fix it, but they said I’d have to write a custom script and, once again, that they couldn’t support that. Just for kicks, I tried typing in an address for a subdirectory where there wasn’t a blog, and lo and behold, I got a wordpress 404 page. Hmmmm. . . I thought, that’s odd.

That’s when it hit me–the existing directories named bus100 and bus263 were from my failed attempt at a subdomain installation, not WPMU. I deleted those directories, and SHAZAM! it worked.

After we moved into a new, wooded neighborhood 5 years ago, I’ve finally given up trying to grow a garden. Last summer we planted 3 tomato plants, and got one tomato, which a squirrel ate before it ripened. Now I’m having a go at indoor gardening.

Here’s the first prototype for an indoor garden box. I had some 3/4″ oak plywood leftover from a previous project, so I sized it to fit the materials I had on hand: 24″ wide, 24″ tall, 12″ deep. I’ve since enlarged the vent holes on the front by cutting between each outer pair of holes to create 2 wide ovals instead of 4 round holes. Inside I have 2 computer fans for ventilation. I’ll be using 2 CFL bulbs for lighting. 85-watt bulbs will fit and provide 8400 lumens, and I hope won’t run too hot. For now I’ve got a single basil plant rooting in a small hydroponic unit, but next I’ll be growing lettuce in a single deep-water culture hydroponic unit. For more details, see my Flickr hydroponics set.

I’ve never liked eggplant. The flavor is just, well, unpleasant. However, we’ve been getting regular distributions of eggplant in our CSA distribution, so I thought I’d give it another try. I found a recipe on Epicurious that I slightly adapted to fit the ingredients on hand to make eggplant with peppers & feta. The toppings were great, but underneath it was still . . . eggplant. This would be pretty good, if you like that sort of thing. Me, not so much.

1 eggplant, sliced into 3/4″ (19mm) rounds
Olive oil to saute
1 tsp capers
6 Kalamata olives, chopped
2 oz feta cheese
1 sweet pepper, sliced into rings

Saute the eggplant over medium heat, then place on a baking sheet. Top each slice with a pepper ring, a couple of capers, a pinch of chopped olives, and some feta. Broil until the cheese is melted and starts to brown.

And now the city seems eager to repeat these mistakes. Rather than cooperating with the Army Corps of Engineers to “to determine the feasibility for the city’s future river projects,” taking “into account Federal Emergency Management Agency standards,” the city has decided that “the study would be a waste of money since no concrete project plans have been set.”
When the riverwalk condos were first proposed, they couldn’t get federal approval because too much of the site was within the 100-year flood zone. The developers spent a great deal of money resurveying and convincing federal officials to revise the flood map. Nearly a decade later, the project hasn’t broken ground, and the developers have spent over a million dollars. City employees have spent countless hours evaluating plans and meeting with developers about project proposals.
Maybe, just maybe, we would be better off if we studied the riverfront to see what kinds of project would be appropriate for the existing conditions rather than deciding what development we want to build and then fudging the data to shoehorn it in? After all planning first and studying later has worked really well for Riverwalk Place so far, right?

To our elected officials, however, gathering data about the condition of the river before planning what to build would be an obvious waste of time: “The data we would get out of this would be worthless,” Mayor Walt Maddox added. “It would be money down the drain.” Not like the money spent so far on Riverwalk Place.

tomato pasta

Originally uploaded by ted_major

This is a recipe I got from my cousin Liz years ago. As you can see from the photo, I don’t always peel and seed the tomatoes, and it also works well with halved cherry tomatoes. Though it is good right away, you really have to let it sit overnight for the flavors to develop.

3 c peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes (about 2 lbs.)
1 clove garlic, minced
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
a few grinds of pepper

Mix and let stand 1 hour.

Cook 1 lb pasta (I like spaghetti rigate, but use whatever long, thin pasta you like), toss with olive oil, and cool.

Toss pasta with tomato mixture and add the following:
3 Tbs white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
3 Tbs chopped fresh basil
1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

stuffed peppers

Originally uploaded by ted_major

Adapted from recipe in Saveur magazine, using peppers from Snow’s Bend Farm, the lemon zest really makes up the flavor of the filling. The leftovers reheated nicely.

Four 3″-5″ sweet red peppers
4 oz feta, crumbled
2 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup Greek-style yogurt
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup grated parmesan

Set a rack 6″ from the broiler and broil the peppers until they just start to cook, but don’t let them start to brown. Take them out of the oven and invert a bowl over them so that they continue to steam as they cool.

Mix feta, oil, yogurt, lemon zest, parsley, oregano, and yolk. (I like to leave it a little bit chunky rather than blending until it’s smooth.)

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and remove the stem, ribs, and seeds. Fill with feta-yogurt mixture and then top with parm. Broil until just browned on top.

Leaving aside the fact the superintendent evaluations seem to happen only every 5 years, unlike the annual evaluations teachers have, there remains a serious problem with his characterization of her scores. A 3.1 out of 4 is a 78, or a high C; in other words slightly above average. A 2.4 out of 4 is a 63, or a low D, barely above failing. That’s not “getting down toward average”: that’s nearly failing.  With these kind of low expectations for administrators, is it any wonder that the Tuscaloosa City School system ranks 101 out of 124 school districts in Alabama? (And let’s face it, coming in at 31 out of 51, Alabama as a whole is below average, so we’re at the bottom of the rankings in a state that’s near the bottom to begin with.) Hey, at least we’ve got a good football team, right?

This is a tasty and easy way to cook okra that has a similar flavor profile to fried okra (crunchy & browned, not slimy), only easier.

Preheat oven to 425F (use convection if you have it)

Take a bunch of okra (small ones work best) and wash & slice off the stems. Spread them out on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Roast for 20 mins at 425F, and stir them up at 10 mins or so.

Take a few frozen bananas, cut them in half lengthwise, and remove the peels. Break them into a few chunks, put them in a food processor, and process until smooth. You’ll have a frozen banana puree with the consistency of homemade ice cream. If you like, you can add a bit of honey, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Would would be good, as my dear wife points out, is to mix in some chocolate chips once you’re done pureeing, or maybe some chocolate sauce, or maybe even both.