Mmmmm, Steak

I have now pan-seared a steak. The taste was very good - not quite as good as grilled (nothing beats grilling), but the searing part had some _issues_. The smoke generated when I put the oil-coated steak on the scorching hot pan set off all of my smoke alarms. I already had the windows open and started a fan going, but the smoke alarms decided they needed some exercise. That was annoying. If I can solve that problem, it's hard to beat a steak that tasty in about 10 minutes (I cooked longer than the recipe called for, I prefer something closer to medium-well). Grilling a steak, I have to start the grill before anything else. Pan searing, I just about finished everything else before I even started the steak. Another key is to completely thaw the steak. Lee's was still a little frozen in the middle and had to be re-cooked just to get to medium. No harm, no foul, just delayed things.

Work is quiet . . . too quiet. Something is going to blow up (in a bad way) very soon. I can feel it. Part of it is that they're going to try to hand the ground testing over to me. No one has said that, but I'm about to be the only government guy working on ground tests. There's a contractor in ground tests, and flight tests are handled by two contractors (no government lead), but I can just feel them trying to put me in charge. I don't wanna be in charge.

I like watching Food TV. It gives me good ideas. Sometimes the ideas are crazy, but, like the pan-seared steaks, some ideas are worth trying. More tomorrow.