That was easier than I thought

I thought I was going to get bent out of shape selling enough shares of my old Oracle ESPP stock fund -- possibly all of them -- so I could pay all my bills this month.

No sirree!

Turns out they won't even let me have my money unless I give them "an alternate mailing address that is not a PO Box."

I do not give out my street address. Period. I am sick and tired of folks abusing it. These folks won't even let me have my money unless I give them a street address at least 24 hours in advance of when I want to pick up my check.

I chose to close out the account. They were insisting they were required to have this unnecessary "information" because of the PATRIOT Act. E*Trade doesn't require my street address. This is crap.

I will happily no longer be doing business with Smith Barney by the beginning of next week.

Culinary hits and misses

Believe it or not, I do other things besides work. I've been doing some culinary experiments to keep myself going.

Hit: Ginkgo nuts. I bought fresh ones at Berkeley Bowl because They Were There. I then learned I had to cook them before they'd be edible.

To cook, I shelled and skinned them, then boiled them for about half an hour. I tasted one and decided a) it needed to cook more and b) it was a tad bitter. I added a few packets of Splenda, then boiled for another half hour. The resulting nuts were very tasty.

Hit: Garlic pierogies with Garlic Sauce. I took some Cheemo garlic pierogies, boiled them, then created a "sauce" out of about ten roasted and two fresh cloves of garlic, crushed, and a little bit of diet margarine. I then downed a couple of Mint Assure tablets so I wouldn't reak.

Miss: Lobster bisque. Actually, it wasn't a total lose, but it was too salty. I used the recipe on the lobster bisque base package, then wound up adding another cup of milk to cut the saltiness. If I'd known it was going to be that salty I'd have made a big batch to take to Metro Networks this past week, as salty food helps me stay up all night.

Hit: Spaghetti Squash. At $0.19/lb, how could I lose? I took two small squashes, sliced them across, scooped out the seeds (good for salting and roasting later), then microwaved them for 15 minutes. As it cooled I cooked up a couple of cans of flavored cut tomatoes -- one roastd garlic, and one basil & oregano, and augmented them with some high-octane garlic powder (I was feeling lazy). I then added the spaghetti squash and cooked gently to get some of the water out.

I now need to come up with a good dessert....