FOAS,I have pretty much stayed out of the sous vide discussions but I'll jump in this time. I tried half a dozen or so stove top sous vide experiments last winter and this spring with success in all but one attempt (although bemoaning having to listen for the alert beep of the probe thermometer when the temperature fluctuated). The one failure was with lamb shanks which came out tasting so gamey that they became dogfood. They were large shanks and maybe from an older animal. They were seasoned with a little salt, pepper, garlic and bits of preserved lemon and should have been great. I think the fault was with the meat and not the method. This spring Max got me a Sous Vide Magic temp. controller and a Fresh Meals Magic bubbler/heater that came with an 18 liter Cambro type vertical container and lid. I would say that on average I use the entire setup about once every ten days. I like that you can cook more than one kind of meat at time, as long as they cook at the same temperature and as long as you write down and set timers for the amount of time each meat requires. I use the heater with my ten cup (probably six quart water capacity) rice cooker for cooking smaller amounts of meat and bringing previously sous vide cooked and frozen meats up to a serving temp. I would say I use the rice cooker setup at least 5 times a month. I have a two and a half pound chuck roast reheating now, and what I have learned about chuck roast is that I should cut and seal it in smaller amounts, more like a pound, because while it reheats and sears beautifully ONCE, it is not so great if you have leftovers at that point. Although Oliver, the 76 pound poodle in the house, thinks they are wonderful so nothing is wasted. As with anything there is a learning curve and I have kept notes on what I've cooked, the time and temperature, and whether any adjustments needed to be made in the future. I'm not sure how or if altitude affects the whole process. I have Doug Baldwins book and since he is at the University of Colorado here in Boulder I can only assume that since his book does not address altitude there are no modifications needed. My questions, earlier this year, about seasoning cast iron pans were in order to have more successful post sous vide searing and I do now have a number of well seasoned pans that I'm happy with and use them and my cast iron grill pan to do most of the finishing. We are only a two person household and don't eat dinner at the same time every day (basically we eat late, and later) so it is a great convenience to just be able pull something out of the freezer and thaw and heat in 45 to 60 minutes. Of course there are many other ways of achieving a good and quick dinner and I use them too. The meats that I have cooked repeatedly and like are: eye of round, cooked to just below med rare with one dinner using the hot roast and the rest chilled, sliced thinly, frozen and used for sandwich meat (beefy red-pink all the way through and tender); pork loin done the same way as a roast and sandwich meat and also with one inch thick boneless slices to finish as pork chops (pork cooked to 138�), boneless, skinless chicken breasts to use in many ways, chicken hindquarters bone in skin on cooked in a confit style; short ribs; chuck roast, lamb shoulder chops (very successful unlike my one attempt with shanks), ribeye steaks and prime grade sirloin steak. Only once did I cook pork too long and noticed that it was harder to slice neatly and had a slightly softer texture than I would have liked. So I'm glad I have it, I wouldn't want it to be only cooking method for these meats but we have been pleased with the results. I haven't tried fish in it because fish is so quick to cook in other ways but I'm sure I'll get around to trying salmon since one of our favorite ways with that is low/slow roasted at 225�. I haven't tried eggs, or vegetables, but I am intrigued with using it for yogurt and dulce de leche. Lee P.S. You are probably right about the sub $100. version, but wait we'll send you two, on a late nite infomercial - someone is already marketing a modified deepfryer/sous vide unit.

"I must ask, Mascara. If it is hours away, and apparently a hassle and lots of effort for you to get to London, why would you expect the mom to take your message of offering to take child to treatments and/or babysit for an evening out seriously?" To answer this, as I said before I offered this before the transplant. She only lives 5 minutes from me, they are only in London at the moment because it is one of the only hospitals in England with transplant facilities. "Mom considers you a 'Teenage Babysitter' person. You want full 'Pseudo-Parent' status. (Now - recently) Dad hasn't taken a firm and public position about your role. Bottom line, you can't 'move up' to Pseudo-Parent status until Dad insists on it and Mom allows it." This is what upsets me the most. Firstly, when she was my age she already had a 2 year old child with a young boy she practically forced into conceiving with her just so she could have a baby. Yes I know he had his own mind but he wont say boo to a goose and he has never been able to stand up to her. She then moved, stopped him from seeing his child and only spoke to him over the next two years to throw abuse and obcenities at him. Suddenly, she realises her son will not get a kidney through waiting on the list so conveniently decideds that daddy needs to be a part of his life again, "oh and by the way I need your kidney." Now I admit that I have been selfish and I have been immature at times. But I have never ever ever been that selfish, so what right does she have to judge me by my age when this was how she was behaving at my age? I have already said to him that she wont want me playing a part in his life if she doesn't think I'll be in it for long, so he needs to talk to her and make her understand that this is something we are in for the long run, and all I get is, "I didn't have a chance," "I'll get round to it" etc etc. Now as I said, he is a bit of a pushover, but he has no trouble saying what he thinks to anyone else but her, he just gets so pathetic around her. And if he does ever say no to her - for example, she has asked him to last minute come over and babysit and he has a prior engagement - she has a very clever way of manipulating him by making him feel guilty that he missed the first part of his life when it was her that cut him out. He says that he doesn't want any conflict with her because she stopped him seeing his son once and he thinks she will do it again. Now no matter what I think of her as a person, she is a wonderful mother. She raised him from birth on her own and he is one of the most kind and polite children I have met. She would never again stop him from seeing his dad because she knows they love each other and she knows it would come back to her in the end. I also explained to him that she has no grounds to do this on anyway so if it did come to that he could get a solicitor. But he hates confrontation, so our relationship ends up with the conflict because he refuses to have any conflict with her, no matter what the situation. I feel like I've now done everything I can to make this better and it keeps getting worse, I literally feel like I'm trying my best and I cannot do anything right.

Hi, I went through this exercise two years ago to install a Cummins Onan 20kw Generator. You are correct in that there are lots of trades involved here: 1) Electrician 2) Plummer for Gas 3) Gas propane supplier 4) Builder for concrete pad 5) Generator / Tunner I did not buy my generator from a turnkey place because those places are expensive. I bought my generator from Costco. It took a bit of doing but I think it came out O.K. The first issue was when the generator was delivered it was missing a few parts. Small issue in that a hinge pin was missing. A bit of going back and forth between Costco and Cummins Onan. Costco in general had no clue, you get the usual customer serrvice rep more accustomed to handling pots and pan returns. Cummins Onan was another story. These guys although dificult to get to the right person via Costco. Once there they were very good. In total they came to my place four times. 1 came out to check over the genset, 2 replace ths missing pin (free both times). I paid for them to come out for on-site turn on and tuning, And one more time to fix on a Goverment recall notice (free). I paid only once for the turn on visit. They were prompt and responsive on the phone was good. I recommend them, The installation was handled for me by a Electrician who had generator installation experience. The Cummins Onan was over 1000 lbs in weight, so my electrician used a small back hoe to put it in place on concrete pad. He also did all the trenching for the gas lines. The propane gas tank we had to purchase from the propane company. They hooked up the tank and put in the gas line and installed a gas regulator for the generator. The propane company were NOT willing to hook up the gas regulator to the generator! So we had to get a plumber to do the final hook up. My electrician had a licensed plummer to do that bit. Took him all of 30 mins and was a buddy so the charge was not too high $US 200 I think, Final turn on was done by Cummins Onan. They came checked the wiring and the tuning, My electrician was also there to make sure no back feeding to the local utility side. My ATS came with the generator as a set. The ATS has a number of additional hookups for my genset. 1) Heater on 120v to keep the genset warm for fast start up reduced engine wear 2) Trickle charger cable to make sure car battery in gen set constanlly topped up. Something like a battery tendor / charger. 3) power cables for output power. (not switched neutral) 4) Various engine start etc controll cables. My supply is 400 amps coming into two panels. My electrician rewired one of the 200 amp panels to be the 'BACKED up' panel. All the circuits that we wanted genset powered was on one sub-panel. The ATS then controls power to that panel. The non-backed up circuits were moved off to the other not backed up sub panel. I would advise that you ask your electrician to also install a whole house surge supressor on the incoming power lines. That way a lightning strike will not take out your genset, or at least less likely to.... The whole exercise took about 4 months from start to finish. The electrician was the general contractor and I think did a good job in coordinating all the trades. The only bit that I did was the gardening, planted a new lawn over all the earth excavations :) so yet another trade ..... Best, Mike.

My opinion on Ruggable: my daughter bought one 18 mos ago (8x10/light gray). She has baby, toddler, dog and 2 messy, red wine spilling adults (lol) (oh, and sometimes messy me visiting). She has washed that rug countless times, both by spot cleaning and washing machine. It comes out great. I loved the idea of one myself but needed a 9x12 and at time they did not offer it. Now they do (you just have to check to see if your washer accommodates the size) & I bought a cream/white one. I LOVE it. Me and Messy Marvin here + 2 dogs and visiting grandkids, granddog, and messy adults have given my ruggable a workout. Spot cleaning for me has been a breeze-have not had to throw the entire thing in wash yet but I anticipate no problems based upon daughter's experience. (truly just about everything has been spilled, spewed, painted, chalked, thrown on these rugs and no problems washing clean, no staining). In case you are wondering about real life hard workout for this brand.