Well, it does get colder up here.

I was amazed at how much the heating bill was in my first apartment in San Francisco. The place was drafty as hell and had no insulation, so the bills during the 40F-50F winter were almost as bad as a 0F-20F winter in Madison....

Woo-hoo, I have beef stew in the crockpot!

Mine fucking doubled.

ours went from $50 to $400. I am deeply suspicious.

Totally loved reading-after-the-fact with the Firefly watch and post last night ... missed it on account of still sick. But I'm very appreciative of the Chinese translations.

A few somewhat scary things are happening that I hope will all pan out in good ways.

• my boss and I had a really interesting conversation last night that I started, which could let me leave my current position gracefully in June, and keep a consulting gig on the side. Turns out her frustration over the past couple of months is related to outside factors and stress, as well as wondering when I was going to up and leave them empty handed (which I wouldn't do). There may be more than that, but that's the basics. Which is really good... but also - MEEP! Not fulltime employed... great idea during an economic downturn.

• we're talking with our realtor tonight about the house situation and trying to figure out a plan, or two. Not paying two mortgages come June is the goal. Actually, not paying two mortgages come tomorrow would be fine too.

• a local writing group that I've started checking in with just pimped www.travelswithchild.org - which is really nice, and I'm hoping for some pass-along from it. (by the way, Raq hates leeches. so do I.)

• I'm phone conferencing tomorrow about 4 (!) freelance jobs. I could land absolutely none of them, but still.

• Iris is finally back at preschool, after the worst most horrible toddler ick I've ever seen. Complete with fever, coughing, goop leaking from her EYES, and just all out grossness that the doctor gave us the helpful insight of "yup, it's going around!"

I don't know whether to run around waving my hands or just fall down on the floor.

Woo-hoo, I have beef stew in the crockpot!

They have a cream for that now.

Do you brown the beef, or not?

Upsides of browning: much, much better taste.

Upsides of not browning: much, much less work* - and it is not like it tastes bad or anything.

*Browning not only requires actual browning time and cleaning another pot. Ideally you also add browned meat only after other stuff has been cooking a while so meat does not get overcooked.

Or, you brown in the same pot - take the meat out and add the other stuff and then add the meat back in.

Hmm - I'll try that - saves dishwashing. How long does it take to brown in a crockpock vs. a regular pan? (Mine does not have a brown setting, which I know some do, but does have a "high" setting. How long does it take to brown on high?

Ah. Crock pot - that's the part I forgot. Don't know. . . I don't have a crock pot.

The last stew I made (Sunday) I browned the meat in batches, and set the browned meat aside while I cooked the onion and deglazed the dutch oven with beer and broth. Then threw the beef back in with some seasoning and put in my oven for a couple of hours.

We cubed a chuck roast so the meat was tender after all the cooking, instead of tough or stringy.

I'm a fan of browning meat in this kind of application. That way you get to cook the vegetables in all the nummy fond left behind, as well.