Timelies all!

All this food talk is making hungry and I ate dinner fairly recently.(Pineapple black bean chicken frozen dinner, if anyone cares)

Ganked from a website

# Normally, frozen cheese will lose its characteristic body and texture, becoming crumbly and mealy. However, small pieces (1 pound or less, not over 1 inch thick) of certain varieties may be frozen for as long as 6 months -- if they are handled and stored properly. To prevent evaporation, cut cheese should be tightly wrapped in foil or other moistureproof freezer wrapping, then frozen immediately. Freeze the product quickly, at a temperature setting of 0 °F. or lower.

# Cheese varieties that can be successfully frozen in small pieces are: Brick, Cheddar, Edam, Gouda, Muenster, Port du Salut, Swiss, Provolone, Mozzarella, and Camembert. Small cheeses, such as Camembert, can be frozen in their original packages. When removed from the freezer, cheese should be thawed in the refrigerator and used as soon as possible after thawing.

Probably utterly unhelpful, but that's what I've got.

I had a fairly spectacular non-fall today while trying to help a carfull of octogenarian ladies who were stuck on the ice. Windmilling arms and everything.

God, I don't miss the ice. Were the ladies all okay?

I am going to shoot someone if I can't find this damned spreadsheet somewhere. It's nobody's fault but my own, but still.

Okay people, who's up for another round of financial talk? I'm thinking about switching my mortgage to 2X a month instead of monthly. Pros, cons? (Note - I'm talking 1st and 15th, not every two weeks. I am nowhere near organized enough to stay on top of that since I don't get paid that way.)

When removed from the freezer, cheese should be thawed in the refrigerator and used as soon as possible after thawing.

It's best if you're using it in a sauce or on something where it'll get melty. The defrosted texture won't be as good as fresh at room temp.

When removed from the freezer, cheese should be thawed in the refrigerator and used as soon as possible after thawing.

So keep frozen and hack off chunks as necessary.

Thanks Debet.

I'm a renter, not an owner, but I have heard that 2X a month is better because of interest, but that could be wrong.

Were the ladies all okay?

They were in the car. The car was stuck on the ice. AND they refused my help! The had an octogenarian man drive the car through the parking lot for them because "he knows everything."

You think it was a generation/gender thing? Or was it my hat?

Pros, cons? (Note - I'm talking 1st and 15th, not every two weeks. I am nowhere near organized enough to stay on top of that since I don't get paid that way.)

Mine's taken out every two weeks, which is the way I get paid. Pluses, from what I understand is that the more frequently your payments are, the more of your money is actually going toward the principal and not interest. So it's more of a long term benefit, because it's miniscule amounts right now, but over the long run it will save you significant money.

The disadvantages are that you have to constantly manage your money so that the $$ for the mortgage payment is in the bank. It's not like the monthly hit of rent where you know one paycheck goes for rent and bills, etc., and the other is your living expenses. Mostly, for me, it's a little mentally tiring that there always seems to be this chuck of money coming out of my bank account.

My sister was trying to talk me into weekly payments, but I thought having money coming out of my bank account every damn week would be too stressful.

It's best if you're using it in a sauce or on something where it'll get melty.

Yeah, this is just plain old, extra old supermarket cheddar that I use in cooking, so it will eventually ended up in a melty state.

brenda, we looked at 2x a month a while back because we got it all mixed up in my head with every 2 weeks -- every 2 weeks ends up saving you asstons of money in the long run because you're essentially making two extra payments a year. 2x a month turned out on more careful calculations to make a difference of, like, 3 bucks. On the other hand, if it fits your pay schedule more comfortably and your bank allows it without any penalty, I can't think of anything against it. We ended up sticking with 1/month just because most of our income comes monthly, so without the big extra payoff time, it wasn't worth it.

Do be careful about the very first month's costs, if you do it -- our bank takes payments on the 2x/month plan before the "real" due date, which would've meant a full payment on the first of the month and the first half-payment two weeks later. It comes out to the same amount in the end, but that first month would've been eeen-teresting.

I would accept your assistance, particularly if you were wearing the sensibly fuzzy hat!

A bit of a wait to load, but awesome time lapse of a San Francisco day. [link]