Author: Mark

Mark works as a [REDACTED] for [REDACTED], currently residing in Iowa. CoffeeBear.net is a place for him to blather on about whatever strikes his fancy. He currently spends his "free" time working on a photography project, playing with his cat and attempting to keep his wife happy (not necessarily in that order).

Normally given the choice, I will sleep blissfully through all of Saturday morning, arising from the depths of my slumber only when the morning has past. Unfortunately, I’d gotten stuck at work Friday night till nearly 7 and so I couldn’t get the rent paid the night before. Since rent must be paid within 3 days or you get hit with a late fee and since I’ve had problems before with dropping the rent off in the night deposit box around a holiday weekend; I really needed to get the rent paid while the bank was open. So my alarm was set and awaken in the wee hours of Saturday morning I did. Ariesna decided to go along with me; so went off to the bank and successfully paid the rent and then hit up the post office.

While I was waiting in line there, an old/odd friend of ours was there as well. Elf was farther up in line than I and was trying to be friendly, but I’m not at my best during the morning particularly not during the morning before I’ve gotten some caffeine in my blood. So, I apologize Elf; I wasn’t trying to be rude/mean, I just don’t do mornings. Finally it was my turn and I got my package mailed off1. The post office was kind of nice because my favorite worker waited on me. He’s an older guy who’s always nice and has a smile for everyone. Plus, he seems to take some real pride in his work and his appearance; as I’ve never seen him show up looking sloppy (like most of his co-workers do).
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*whew* I just finished setting up my portal page. It has links to all the blogs, web comics and news sites that I like to read. For the record, I know there’s really more on there than I should be spending time reading but… some (most?) days I get really bored at work.

For the curious, most of blog links I found via the WordPress Support Forums. The web comics, news (including tech news) & other sites came to me through friends, links and hearsay.

Hi, I’m Mark (aka Manzabar1). If you want to know more about me; well, you’ll just have to keep reading this blog and see what you can learn as I go along.

I’ve had this domain for a short time now and finally plunked down the moolah to get a proper host for it (thank you Digital Sense Hosting).

I imagine if you’ve probably got some questions about the who/what/why of CoffeeBear.net, so here are some of the answers. If you have a question that’s not answered in this post; contact me and I’ll reply. Though if your question is too personal, then the reply might be no more than “I’m not going to answer that.”
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I found this tasty recipe in a comment over at The Amateur Gourmet.

Vanilla Monkfish

    Ingredients (Serves 2)

  • 1 monkfish tail (you can do it with filets of any plain cheaper fish too, but monkfish is much better, and if you can afford vanilla, you might as well go for the expensive fish too)
  • 1 lime (clean it well to rub all the chemicals away as we want to use the zest)
  • cr�me fraiche
  • aluminum foil
  • half a vanilla bean
    Directions

  1. Heat your oven to about 180C (about 350-360 degrees F).
  2. Cut the aluminum foil into 2 big squares.
  3. Cut the monkfish into 2 pieces and put one on each sheet.
  4. Open the half vanilla bean and scrape the seeds onto the fish.
  5. Then grate the zest of the lime onto the fish (doesn’t it smell nice?).
  6. Sprinkle with a bit of salt.
  7. Then pour a big spoon of cream on each portion of fish.
  8. Fold the aluminum around the fish until you get 2 airtight bundles (what’s the English for Papillotte?).
  9. Put them into the oven and bake for probably about 10 minutes (I’m being totally random there, but it should be all right).
  10. Serve with white rice, and maybe a couple of slices of mango