In Case You Were Wondering

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2008-11-27T11:57:00.000-08:00

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." -Thornton Wilder

Happy Veteran's Day

2008-11-11T06:43:00.001-08:00

I know not all Veterans have been lucky enough to enjoy this sort of celebration but I think its a hopeful and joyful way to think about today.

And if you're a Veteran and can't find yourself a nurse, perhaps you can find yourself in Bangor Maine. Its not quite as sexy but I think it goes a long way:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/11/03/veterans.maine.troop.greeters/index.html

In case you were wondering, the two people in the picture were total strangers. The sailor is George Mendonsa and the nurse is Edith Cullen Shain. Ms. Shain didn't come forward to identify herself as the pictured nurse for over 30 yrs because "I didn't think it was dignified but times have changed." Oh how they have.

Tepid Tuesday

2008-10-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

Boston plays tonight at 8:07. I have never understood why baseball games don't start on the hour or half hour. They always start a few min before or after the hour or half hour. Dodgers v Phillies start at 8:22. Why? Can anyone posit a good reason?

The new Ray LaMontagne album came out today. It is gewd. It is raspy voiced mellowness, perfect for back deck sitting, glass-o-wine drinking, fall evenings.

Have any of you ever heard of the phrase "stroked a check"? My brother says the term is sweeping the nation of hipster speak. I have never heard of it. . . and neither had google so methinks it can't be that popular.

That's all I've got for today . . . you shouldn't be reading this anyway, it is gorgeous outside. Back away from the computer and go outside and play.

In case you were wondering, "The Sports Gal took the week off for reasons that remain unclear."

How Do You Know the Economy is Bad . . .

2008-10-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

. . . apparently via pictures of insanely expressive stock traders who have nothing else to do but stand around gasping in horror.

Seriously, is the NY stock exchange populated entirely with mimes? And what are they looking at? I mean yeah seeing AIG's stock plummet to 14 cents can't be all that comforting but these people look like they're witnessing puppies being tossed off a 10 story building.

In case you were wondering, this guy's my favorite:

Its Tuesday

2008-10-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

I told you.

Eating into my BoSox joy is the fact that we have another dead mouse. It appears that there may not be a council of mouse elders sending out their more well evolved mice constituents to best our trap but rather a litter of orphaned baby mice almost too light to trip the trap. This is very distressing. . . probably more so for Kelly b/c I keep making her dispose of the little mouse bodies but I might have a solution. Check this out:

In other news, I would like someone to explain to me how a single word can mean BOTH of thee things: To utter in musical or prolonged tones, to recite in singing tones or in a monotone. That is the definition of the word intone, which I always thought meant the first part of the definition - to speak in a sing songy voice. Regardless, I don't see how one word can mean to speak in a sing songy voice AND to speak in monotone. Aren't those two thing pretty much mutually exclusive?

In case you were wondering, a US spacecraft has beamed back some first ever, high resolution images of Mercury. I wasn't really wondering about this but it was the only headline on cnn.com that I could bring myself to bother reading. I mean really here were my other options: "Rumors swirl that 'View' co-host is bolting", "Kimmel, Sarah Silverman back on", and "Power Ranger faces death penalty in yacht killing" Really?

Go Sox

2008-10-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

So the mouse is back. Well not THE mouse I suppose, another one just like him but smarter.

In fact we've had 3 mice: the original mouse who started the tomato caper, the second mouse who was smaller and nearly escaped the trap, (Kelly found him butt first in the trap like he managed to get in, eat, and turn to bolt, before tripping the mouse crushing bar.) and the third mouse who has actually successfully escaped the trap. . . we found the trap tripped but void of smashed mouse and void of the peanut butter we used to lure him in there.

So apparently this is a bit of Darwinism on display. The mice council of elders sends out the big dummy mouse to see what happens. Blam, he gets smashed but they get a little bit of intel about the trap from his buddy who was watching and nudging "no you first Goober, you're good at this sort of thing, you'll be fine, I'll wait right here". So then they think, we just need a quicker mouse to beat the trap and sure enough they find a brave speedy little mouse who's happy to give it a go. He's marginally more successful but still smashed city.

So now they've sent out a new mouse who is apparently the right mix of speed and smarts . . . You've beaten my giant, which means you're exceptionally strong. . . . but, you've also bested my Spaniard which means you must have studied. . . so I can clearly not choose the tomato in front of me.

Anyway, its a Monday and that's all I've got right now. Oh that and the nutter post from Friday:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/081003

In case you were wondering, Boston lost last night but they're going to win tonight so its all good.

Cruzin Cooler

2008-09-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Anna, I know what I am getting you for Christmas. . .

Who invents this sort of thing? And why? What impasse did someone get to that necessitated that birth this invention? I mean part of me is horrified b/c I feel like some lazy booz hound tail gate obsessed American invented it to maximize their ability to be lazy and a booz hound. But part of me is sort of proud b/c really where else but America could you invent, market, and sell such a thing. I wonder if they make a hybrid version.

In case you were wondering, it is illegal to "drive" your Cruzin Cooler while under the influence of the very beverage you're carting around. It carries a non criminal charge of "driving while ability impaired". Seriously: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,428408,00.html

It is also Nutter Day, hip hip hooray. I will warn you all that this is comic genius with a bit of a melancholy twist. Erica, it is likely to make you teary eyed.

Remember its ~3/4 of the way down Bill's article in a right hand column bar:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080926

Oh and I wonder if somehow I can get in touch with The Nutter about the Cruzin Cooler b/c maybe Dooze would like add this to her bucket list:

Possibly Plagiarism

2008-09-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ok so thanks to Becky here is a hilarious SNL skit spoofing Michael Phelps' diet:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/34462/saturday-night-live-michael-phelps-diet

I realize it might be a little bo bo to post other posted content but it is a funny skit and Becky went to all the trouble to find it so I think it should be shared.

Randomly in addition to the SNL skit video I was recently sent two other completely entertaining You Tube videos (yeah I realize the SNL is hulu but whatev). I figure I might as well just have one whole blog entry entirely devoid of original content all in the sake of bringing my loyal audience some chuckles on this gloomy (well around here at least) Thursday afternoon.

So, if you can pardon the lack of creativity I think you will enjoy the following videos:

1. I want one of these as a pet b/c it would be a guaranteed bad day remover . . . head home after a a hard day at work, yell BOO, laugh for hours:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg

2. You are going to find it really hard to believe that this isn't a Monty Python skit but it isn't. Its real:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv14BCnBWXs

In case you were wondering, there is rather large quantity of video's about goats on You Tube. I find this rather odd.

In Case You Were Wondering

2008-09-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

1. That is a new species of cuttlefish recently discovered in Australia. He is actually one of a 100 or so new species recently discovered, which seems sort of environmentally promising. This tid bit is courtesy of Kelly, who described the little guy as "cute" . . . give him a second glance, he sort of is.

2. The nutter didn't write in her husband's column last week. She does that occasionally, just "takes a week off" from entertaining me. I think its b/c she has 2 kids under the age of 3 and a husband who is a 24/7 professional sports fanatic.

3. Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day when training. Ok so this might be old news to some but I just stumbled across that fact recently. I find it astounding. Here is a day in the life of Michael Phelps' stomach:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

I give it another month before McDonald's has a Micheal Phelps Value meal.

4. I know you're not really wondering if PETA is insane but perhaps you were wondering what sort of completely off your rocker things they are lobbying for these days. Well, since I aim to please I can satiate that need to know urge . . . they have petitioned Ben & Jerry's to replace cow milk with human milk in their ice cream. Yeah for real:

http://www.wptz.com/news/17539127/detail.html

The ONLY upswing of this totally bizarre and disgusting idea is the potential ice cream names . . . Double D Chocolate Chunk, Banana Booby Swirl, Your Being Breast Fed Crunch . . .

In case you were wondering, no I do not think breast feeding or breast milk is gross. I am very pro both things when they occur between an infant and its mother. I am just very anti them when someone else's breast milk might appear in my dessert.

I Love the Smell of Bacon in the Morning

2008-09-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

This morning I was listening to a podcast of NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me quiz show when I learned about an alarm clock that awakens you with the aroma of bacon cooking. I of course had to immediately google this thing to see if it was real truth or embellished truth (Wait, Wait never fibs but they do what they have to, to be funny).

Turns out, its real. There really is an alarm clock out there called Wake N' Bacon that will begin cooking a slice of bacon 10 min before it emits the old school 'beep, beep, beeps'. . . .

http://www.likecool.com/WAKE_n_BACON--Clock--Home.html

To be honest, I don't really think it should be called an alarm clock but rather a nightstand skillet that also happens to blast shrill noise at you if the wafting of bacon scent doesn't rouse you.

I feel like are some significant downfalls, not the least of which is that although you might enjoy the smell of bacon for breakfast time and again, do you really want your entire bedroom and sheets and ultimately you reeking of it? And really, does the average American need to eat a slice of bacon every morning? And I sort of feel like dogs would pose a problem as they grow accustomed to the smell of meat originating from your bed room.

Anyway, its out there and perhaps will be a great success. It is certainly a good first step towards a kindler gentler way of starting your day.

In case you were wondering, this is just the sort of thing that prompted me to name this blog as I have b/c hey, in case you were wondering if you could start your day with the sweet scent of sizzling pork porduct, the answer is Yes, yes you can.

For Sean

2008-09-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

I just came across this: http://www.danschawbel.com/personalbranding.htm

And if you read even the first 2 paragraphs you will swear it is an article from the Onion or an SNL skit. But its not, apparently Dan Schawbel, "personal branding expert for gen-y" is a real person with a real service.

In addition to being immediately exhausted by Mr. Schawbel's existence, the site made me think of Sean and a game we used to play decades ago when we were right out of college and living the high life as a ubiquitous yet totally amorphous consultant we used to play a game called Consultant Bingo (yeah yeah, lots of people did just I only played it with Sean). This game (at least between us) really just entailed being vigilantly on the look out for the inane consulting jargon that was infesting even the smartest and most well intentioned of people.

When we came across such nonsensical verbiage we would, in our heads of course, yell bingo and then would email the nonsense to each other. It was really a way of making sure neither of us actually drank the cool aid and succumbed to the paradigm shift of wasting our bandwidth on inside the box thinking. BINGO

Anyway, back to Dan Schwabel, just for a moment. Read the first two paragraphs of his web site and see if you can figure out what this guy is pedaling. He uses about 300 words and so far as I can tell says precisely nothing. Its brilliantly vapid and my guess is that he is actually making money personally branding gen-yers.

It of course saddens me to think that gen-yers (whoever the heck they are) feel the need to create a persona for themselves instead of just actually being themselves. That they believe that Dan Schawbel can craft a better version of them then they actually can just by being whoever it is they really are. But then again how successful can someone who's self proclaimed Major Accomplishment is having interviewed Philip Rosedale and Gina Bianchini. Who are they you might ask? I have no idea but I bet the are very adept at facilitating collaboration among information architects. BINGO

In case you were wondering, I do find the idea of a personal brand somewhat intriguing . . . in a purely for entertainment not in a for profit sort of way. If you had to come up with a marketing slogan for yourself what would it be . . . today ; )

The Nutter is Back

2008-09-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

Ok so long story short, the wife of ESPN Sports Writer Bill Simmons gets a mini column of her own in the middle of his weekly NFL pick column. It is approximately 500 words of pure random hilarity. She is literally one of the funniest people I have ever read, not met, would love to meet.

Anyway, her mini column appears in Simmons' column every Friday. I missed last week's entirely and caught this past week's late. So, here are the past two week's columns:

NOTE: you can find the Nutter's column in the right hand side about halfway down the page. They call it "Sports Gal's Rant" but she never really talks about sports and although it is often times a rant they completely missed the fact that she's delightfully insane, so I just go with The Nutter.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080904

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080912

Enjoy!

Nichole usually provides me with her favorite lines of each post but she's pretty busy this fall so in case kingergarden trumps liesure blog reading . . .

In case you were wondering, here are The Nutter's weekly gems:

Week 1: "There should be a fantasy handicap that works like golf handicaps. Bill writes about sports so he should have a minus-5 handicap. Someone unemployed should be a minus-10 (BTW, I have no idea how golf handicaps work)."

Week 2: "Pursuers plan Vegas weekends or baby showers; pursuees just show up."

Lists, I Love Lists

2008-09-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Wanna know if your city has one of the Top 10 Worst Commutes?

According to a study conducted by the Texas Transportation Instititue, which examined the fuel and time commuters waste because of congestion, overall traffic congestion wastes 2.9 billion gallons of fuel and 4.2 billion hours.

So, wanna know where your commute ranks:
http://climate.weather.com/articles/gotgas2008a.html?page=2

While we're at it, how about the 25 best places to find affordable houses near the water and other desirable activities: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/moneymag/0809/gallery.bpretire_affhomes.moneymag/index.html

Some of the places seem like viable options. North Augusta, SC seems rather delightful in fact. That said, the fact that a Human Pyramid on water skies or proximity to Jackson, MS are listed as high points makes me question that these folks really share my definition of entertainment and culture.

In case you were wondering, yes I find the photos selected in that Top 10 list to be exceedingly odd and somewhat horrifying. Not that accidents don't cause congestion but they certainly aren't the day to day reason behind it and regardless I don't think photos of grisly car accidents are necessary.

September 11th

2008-09-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

There is nothing and everything to say about this day. I have my thoughts and feelings and I am guessing you have yours. And honestly I can't really find a way to express myself. Everything starts to sound trite, or preachy, or maudlin, or melodramatic. So, I decided not to say anything.

So, you might wonder why I would even bother with a post today . . . when, on so many other days that I have nothing to say I just wantonly abandon the blog. Well I guess the one thing I do have to say about today is that it is September 11th and that should always matter. It should always be noted. . . in whatever way you want to note it.

Me personally, I'll note it a few ways today. One of which will be a visit to the newly opened Pentagon Memorial: http://www.defenselink.mil/home/features/2008/0708_memorial/index.html

If you happen to live in the DC area or are gonna come by for a visit some time you might want to add this to your list of sights - I wouldn't pack it in with a visit to the Holocaust museum or The Wall but perhaps after some paddle boating around the Jefferson and a wander through Air and Space.

Anyway, it opens to the public tonight at 7pm and will be open henceforth 24/7.

In case you were wondering other things happened on 9/11, and they were good things. Namely JB and my Uncle Frank were born today.

Success?

2008-09-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

So the mouse is dead. I caved and got a trap that kills and it did the trick. Dead mouse, check.

In other news, I finally joined Facebook. I finally realized after yet another get together with friends I thought I was in touch with that there is this whole other level of "in touchedness" that I am not part of. But like it or not Facebook is slowly killing off such totally useful but now obsolete things like email, IM, and cell phones. All the ways we used to keep in touch are now secondary, dare I say tertiary, to Facebook. And b/c I like keeping up with my friends and seeing pictures of Chandler's first day of kindergarden, I joined. Sheep, lemming, in touchedness, check.

That's all for now. . . I have to go count my friends and figure out what the heck Mob Wars is.

In Response to a Comment

2008-09-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

So, I actually do read the comments you guys leave . . . I love them actually. They make me feel like I have sort of hung out with you a bit, like we sort of had a conversation and touched base.

ANYWAY, Dave's recent comment about sponsoring a competition to build/design a humane mouse removal system made me laugh because it reminded me of one of my favorite stories about one of my favorite people. Let's call this favorite person of mine Dot. .

Approximately 50 yrs ago when I was in college, I took a wood working/sculpture art class. Dot . . was in the class with me and we had the greatest, hippy dippy pot head, free spirited, prof on the planet. I am pretty sure her name was Willow or Pond Frond or something like that. She really might have been the very definition of "Art Professor at a Liberal Arts College" . . . only maybe more so if it were circa 1972 and we were at Berkley. But whatever you get my drift, she saw beauty in everything and applauded all effort regardless of talent.

Well, one of our assignments was to build a trap. In her free spirited way she didn't define the assignment any more clearly that that. As you can imagine this made me nearly apoplectic and made Dot . . just ignore the assignment. So a few weeks went by and on presentation day Dot . . appeared in class frazzled and holding what sort of resembled a mini McDonalds constructed out of scrap wood and covered in still wet paint. The ensuing conversation when something like this:

me: what is that?
Dot.. : a mouse trap.
me: it sort of looks like a McDonalds
Dot.. : it is. its a McDonalds mouse trap
me: how does it trap mice?
Dot.. : they smell the delicious fries, come through the front doors and get trapped b/c the doors only open inwards.
Dot.. : shut up
me: and who's making the fries in there? other mean spirited mice? i mean you can't fit a cat in there.
Dot.. : shut up

The greatest part of this story is that Willow Pond Frond completely overlooked the fact that there was a drive thru (let alone a staff of hair netted misanthropic mice) thereby completely negating any sort of effective trapping and gave Dot . . an A on the assignment.

So, Dave the most humane of all mouse traps has already been designed. I just need to staff it with meanie mice, teach them how to make fries, and put a mini pylon cone in the drive thru, and I am all set.

In case you were wondering, my trap was the Corporate Trap. It consisted of a business suit and button up shirt purchased at Goodwill that I converted into a straight jacket. It was my short lived rebellion against grown ups asking me what I was going to do after college.

Arguably the best trap was crafted by a female classmate who dragged a lazy boy recliner into the art studio, put a cooler of beer and a bag of chips next to it and surrounded the whole thing with a shower curtain covered in taped up pictures of Victoria Secret and Sport Illustrated Swim Suit models. She called it, The Man Trap.

Metaphors

2008-09-03T10:58:00.001-07:00

I recently learned where the term Humble Pie came from and its gross. Not as gross as that guy's butt cut-mustashe combo but close.

The term comes from "umbles pie", umbles being the innards or leftover parts of cows, sheep, goat, whathaveyou. So umbles were what was left over after all the good stuff went to the rich folk. Ergo, someone who was "eating umbles pie" was so po they had to eat icky leftover parts.

Some how in the olden days, eating left over remnant animal parts was humbling. Today you'd pay $6 for the tubular equivalent at a ball park and feel all American pastimey about it.

Humble Pie is also a band from the 1970s . . .

In case you were wondering, it is definitely a mouse eating my maters. I found wee little poops on the stove the other night (this definitely rules Kelly out). It is also apparently on steroids, because despite the placement of a rather heavy (by mouse terms of course, I mean their arms are like a half inch long) ceramic plate the pest got into the tomatoes and ate half of one leaving the rest to goo out all over the others.

I have still not entirely warmed to the mouse trap idea but I'm getting there.

A Mouse in the House

2008-08-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

For real, we have a mouse in the house. How do I know this, you might wonder. Well, oddly enough not through any of the tell tale mouse-in-the-house indicators:

mini poops scattered about - nope, not a one
little gnaw marks on plastic bags full of cookies - also nope
the patter-skid of little mouse feet when you walk into the kitchen - thankfully, uh uh
a half eaten piece of cheese strategically left out on the couter - nope, the freaking chunk of cheese didn't have so much as whisker marks on it from a curious mouse sniffing

So, how do I know there is a mouse in the house . . . b/c it keeps eating my tomatoes. Every morning I walk out to my garden and I pick a bountiful supply of tomatoes. I bring them inside and put them in this nice little wicker'ish basket. And there they sit until I get home in the evening and make a salad or a sauce or slice up some mozz and basil.

Well the other morning as I was loading up the wicker basket with a new batch of maters I noticed that one of the ones on the top from yesterday's heap had the middle chewed out of it. I was flabbergasted. Only one of them was eaten out of and the little bugger didn't even have the courtesy to finish it. Just a few mouse mouthfulls and off he went.

I really wasn't convinced it was a mouse b/c it was only one tomato and it was sort of a smallish "bite" and all the other dry goods on our counter top were left totally unmolested. So I thought maybe it was a bug of some sort. Well the next morning, same thing, different tomato. So, I took to covering my wicker basket-o-tomatoes with a plate. This seemed to work rather effectively for several days. And I figured it was totally some icky punk bug and not a mouse and moved on. I mean a tomato eating mouse? Odd, right?

Then one evening I forgot to replace the plate after using some of the tomatoes. The next morning, TWO tomatoes had bite holes in their middles. The little stinker had totally just been waiting for me to get careless. So now I am finding it really hard to believe that this is a a bug b/c, not that mice are known for their acumen but I sort of couldn't bring myself to credit a bug with that sort of laying in wait strategery.

My counter move? I put a piece of cheese right in front of the wicker basket and went to bed. The next morning . . . NADA. I dunno maybe there is some sort of mouse school they all go to that teaches them that if ever there is cheese just laying about it is most certainly a trap. But whatever, this mouse bypassed the cheese and went straight for the tomatoes.

I actually started getting suspicious that this was Kelly, sneaking into the kitchen after I had gone to bed and carving out a little hole in the tomatoes just to get a kick out of me getting all worked up and playing Nancy Drew and the Mysterious Vegetarian Mouse. I in fact became some convinced of this that I confronted her on it when I found yet another gnawed on tomato After she worked through her fit of laughter she pointed out that there were actually little mouse teeth marks on the tomato.

So, we have a mouse in the house. Kelly wants to kill it. I am having a hard time getting on board with that. She said that if I could find a way to gently trap it she'd be happy to go dispose of it in some field somewhere. As of yet I have not found any mouse traps that do not either snap the neck of the the mouse or glue his little feet to a box bottom until he starves to death. I dislike both of those options.

I sort of feel like my tomato plants are yielding enough tomatoes for both of us. And I am intrigued by this little guy. I mean what sort of mouse bypasses cheese for veggies? A special sort of mouse, I say. . . and I think Erica would agree.

In case you were wondering why I keep using the masculine pronoun to refer to the mouse, I think it is because when I was a kid two of my favorite books were Stuart Little and The Mouse and the Motorcycle. Both of those mice were boy mice.

Mankind is Noodlekind

2008-08-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the instant noodle phenom Ramen Noodles. They were invented in 1958 by Momofuku Ando and today nearly 100 billion are sold each year (this is totally gross to me). Almost more popular than the noodles themselves is Ando, who despite being entirely unknown to the hundreds of college students who consider ramen a suitable form of sustenance, is somewhat of a hero in his home country of Japan.

Ando developed Ramen Noodles at the age of 48 in response to the Japanese post war food shortage. At the time it was highly desired but considered a luxury item b/c of its high cost of Y35 (~75 cents, this is how hard life was in post war Japan). Thirteen years later Ando unveiled Ramen Cup Noodles, which we can thank for dropping the cost to like 14 cents a package and for the proliferation of completely non biodegradable polystyrene containers.

As a result of Ando's commitment to the development of food like products the Japanese government awarded him with numerous medals and accolades. His highest honor was receiving the The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, Second Class. This is the 2nd most prestigious Japanese decoration for Japanese civilians. Perhaps if he had invented SPAM he would have scored the Gold and Silver Star, First Class.

In addition to all of his major awards, In April of 2008 a statue of Ando was unveiled in front of the Nissin's Instant Ramen Museum. I can't even imagine how NOT fascinating that museum must be. The statue's unveiling was attended by (and I quote) "Japanese dignitaries" who were there in attendance of The World Instant Noodle Summit. Yeah, seriously.

This of course is actually pretty small potatoes in comparison to the fact that when Ando passed away in January of 2007 they held his funeral in a baseball stadium with 6 thousand people in attendance. The funeral included speeches by the Prime Minister and a goodie bag that contained, among others things, a Cup of Noodles and a copy of a book of Ando's famous sayings.

I find the whole thing wonderfully inane. I mean he stepped up and fed hungry people in a hard time in Japan's history and had the story ended there I believe Ando would be rightly considered a heroic pioneer. The fact that soggy noodles in salty water with dehydrated corn or its sibling brick-o-noodles has lived on to this very day, does not take away from his innovation in a time of need but it sure is entertaining.

In case you were wondering, here are a few Ando gems:

"I invented instant ramen when I was 48 and Cup Noodles at 61. In life, there is no such thing as too late."

When you enter a market, do it slowly. When you withdraw, do it quickly."

"Flavors taste best to those who appreciate them"

and his most famous: "Mankind is Noodlekind."

Have You Missed Me?

2008-08-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering . . .

The US Women's team has beaten Japan 4-2 and will be advancing to the final gold medal game on Thursday 8/21 at 9am EST (probably on MSNBC). They will be playing Brazil who beat Germany 4 -1 earlier this morning.

If someone at the restaurant Julip in Jackson, MS tells you that it is "Free glass of wine night" and then goes on to explain that means that if you order a full bottle you get a free glass, what they mean is that if you order a full bottle of wine you a free EMPTY glass. No lie. And even if you ask the waitress "does the free glass of wine apply to dessert wines?" Her answer will be "yeah" and then will have no compunction charging you.

If you are a fan of the Pogues and enjoy music in Irish pubs, you should check out the band Flogging Molly. If you have ears you should check out the band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Ok that's all for now. Go USA.

A Heavy Heart

2008-08-06T06:34:00.001-07:00

In case you were wondering, the US Women's Olympic soccer team lost to Norway 2-0 this morning in their opening match. It was a poor performance from the US. Far beneath their potential. Which, as frustrating as that is, is also hopeful that they'll step it up for their next two games and this Norwegian blunder will become irrelevant.

If you weren't wondering, that might be because you had no idea that the Olympics had even started. And officially, they haven't but since there are so many soccer matches to play they start those game a few days early.

Or maybe you weren't wondering because you don't really care about/follow women's soccer. Well, let's see if we can change that. Because you should care, if only for the next 18 days.

Here is a quick cheat sheet: There are 12 teams divided into three Groups: E, F, G (the men have 16 teams and are groups A, B, C, & D). The top two teams from each group advance plus the top two 3rd place teams from the three groups. In their group (G) the US faces, Norway (done not good), Japan (tough but beatable), and New Zealand (krazy kiwis just tied Japan). Confused? Ok, just cheer for the US. After the loss they just suffered, they're going to need all the remote cheering you can muster.

There next game is against Japan on 8/9 at 5:00am on the USA Network (my mom suggests using your TiVo). I know, its early. But hey the Olympics only comes around every 4 years (well the summer edition). And if you can't really muster the energy to watch soccer at the butt crack of dawn well then just see if you can dream about diving header goals, magical first touches, an impenetrable US goal, and a Red, White, & Blue romp.

In case you have an eagle eye, pay attention when they pan the sidelines and you might catch a glimpse of Erica Walsh, assistant coach of the US Women's Olympic Soccer team.

Zero Dollars

2008-07-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today I accomplished something I never thought possible. I walked out of Target without spending a single dollar. . . or cent for that matter.

No Lie!

Here is how it went down . . . I walked in with my list - after one too many Target trips that resulted in me walking out of there with $100 worth of useless nick nackety trinkets I now never walk in there without a list. My list had 5 items on it.

Before I had been in the store 5 minutes I had already loaded my cart with several non list items. This of course is normal and each item had been assessed for 1. entertainment value = check 2. cheapness = check and 3. necessariness = deemed irrelevant see #1 and #2. Then I hit the section of the store where my list items were located. Surprisingly, Target had none of my list items, not one.

So, I started wandering down the kitchen aisle looking for potential new gadgets that I certainly don't need but would assuredly be wicked fun to use every 6 months. Then, so as to not walk out of Target a consumer failure, I started mentally adding to my list. I could for sure use some new shampoo and what about a new CD case for all my picture discs. Ooh and I have been meaning to get new pens, the ones at work are crappy. And then this thought popped into my head "you could just leave, you know".

It took me a minute to process this avant garde concept and while it swirled around in my brain, I took inventory of my cart. . . . a mini globe ($1 and would be so fun at work), airwick refills ($5, on sale, I think I have one of these), pink tie-die croc knock offs ($9.99, pink-croc-knock offs, need i say more), a canvass bag made entirely of recycled materials ($6, dubious claim, i know), and turkey jerkey.

I don't know where the moment of sanity came from but I just stopped my cart in the middle of the aisle and walked right out of the store. I felt so liberated. So, freed from the irresistible siren song of consumerism. I even felt a little bit proud of myself. I realize this seems pretty ridiculous, never the less it is an accomplishment that has always eluded me.

In case you were wondering, I am plagued with guilt right now that I just left a cart full of stuff sitting in an aisle for someone else to have to restock.

Mixed Bag

2008-07-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

I feel like I really shouldn't do another post about my garden or a veggie theme of any kind or I risk chasing off the 4 of you who actually read this thing. Variety is the spice of life after all so today's posting will be a mixed bag of randomness that I have stumbled across and found interesting:

1. I don't know anything about flowers but I like taking their picture:

In case you were wondering this is a flower my mom is growing and I don't have the foggiest idea what sort of flower it is.

2. There is a test called the wonderlic test. It is a 50 question test that is supposed to gauge an person's aptitude for "learning and problem-solving in a wide range of occupations." A score of 20 indicates average intelligence and corresponds to an IQ of 100. Apparently it is the working world's equivalent of the SAT.

(For sample questions: http://www.professormoney.com/wonderlic%20sample%20test.htm)

Ok, so you probably don't think that in and of itself isn't all that interesting and I didn't either until I found out that pretty much the only company that uses this test to screen future employees, is the NFL. They actually make their pre-draft picks take it, no lie. I find this to be hilarious. Not that football players can't be intelligent people but really, is it really a primary criteria? Well, despite making their draft picks sit through the test, it apparently does not actually play that large a role in the selection process. Here are the average scores per position:

Offensive tackle: 26
Center: 25
Quarterback: 24
Guard: 23
Tight End: 22
Safety: 19
Linebacker: 19
Cornerback: 18
Wide Receiver: 17
Fullback: 17
Halfback: 16

And apparently it shouldn't really guide draft decisions because, as one might guess of a standardized aptitude test, it really isn't a very good indicator of how good someone might be at football. For example Vince Young, the Titan's star QB, scored a SIX on the test. And Dan Marino only scored a 14. Maybe if he'd scored higher he would be wearing a Superbowl ring . . . NO WAY. Don't get me wrong, I am not sure how Mr. Young can dress himself and only score a 6 on this test (i'd like to pause here to offer up a sample question: The ninth month of the year is: October, January, June, September, or May) but I still don't see what it has to do with football.

Now to be fair, there are NFLers who do very well on the test. Like this years Superbowl QBs Tom Brady and Eli Manning who scored a 33 and 39 respectively. Anyway, I think its funny that an IQ test is part of being drafted into the NFL. That's all.

In case you were wondering, here are the average scores of non NFL occupations:

Chemist: 31
Programmer: 29
Journalist: 26
Sales: 24
Bank Teller: 22
Clerical worker: 21
Security Guard: 17
Warehouse worker: 15

Someone should go tell the Security Guard that he could be making millions playing wide receiver for the NFL.

3. Leon Kass was the Chairman of President Bush's Council on Bioethics. He is what one would call extremely right wing, nut job, conservative. For example, he finds eating ice cream uncivilized. For you doubters, here is an excerpt from his book "The Hungry Soul"

"Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone --a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive. I fear I may by this remark lose the sympathy of many reader, people who will condescendingly regard as quaint or even priggish the view that eating in the street is for dogs. Modern America's rising tide of informality has already washed out many long-standing traditions -- their reasons long before forgotten -- that served well to regulate the boundary between public and private; and in many quarters complete shamelessness is treated as proof of genuine liberation from the allegedly arbitrary constraints of manners. To cite one small example: yawning with uncovered mouth. Not just the uneducated rustic but children of the cultural elite are now regularly seen yawning openly in public (not so much brazenly or forgetfully as indifferently and "naturally"), unaware that it is an embarrassment to human self-command to be caught in the grip of involuntary bodily movements (like sneezing, belching, and hiccuping and even the involuntary bodily display of embarrassment itself, blushing). But eating on the street -- even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat -- displays in fact precisely such lack of self-control: It beckons enslavement to the belly. Hunger must be sated now; it cannot wait. Though the walking street eater still moves in the direction of his vision, he shows himself as a being led by his appetites. Lacking utensils for cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions, just like any animal. Eating on the run does not even allow the human way of enjoying one's food, for it is more like simple fueling; it is hard to savor or even to know what one is eating when the main point is to hurriedly fill the belly, now running on empty. This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if WE feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior."

In case you were wondering, I am still trying to figure out how it is that you can be unaware of the embarrassment of blushing.

4. I have hired a guard dog to protect my garden from vermin intruders. We decided that in order to maximize success we needed to employ the element of surprise. So, Finnegan has gone deep cover:

In case you were wondering, that's all for today.

No Such Thing as a Cute Squirrel

2008-07-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

I have a friend named Erica. She is what one would call an animal lover. She is one of those special people who feel an intimate and powerful kinship to the creatures of the world and she doesn't really discriminate. She has a favorite of course, her dog Finnigan, but other than Finny all animals/insects/reptiles/rodents are the same.

Now she's pretty normal about it. You're not going to catch her throwing red paint at people wearing baby seal coats - although she'd consider it but pretty much anyone with a soul should consider it. She's just an animal lover and in fact she's heading off to veterinary school in the Fall so she can be a professional animal lover.

So you might be thinking ok, great for Erica but why exactly is the blog spot light on her? Well you see a few nights ago Erica and I were hanging out chit chatting about this and that when before I know it she is showing me pictures, on her phone, of a litter of baby squirrels she rescued not long ago. She kept trying to convince me that they were so very cute - as only an animal lover or the mother of a goopy newborn can - when really they looked like goopy alien rodents. Despite that fact that newborn anythings are not cute (miraculous/amazing/pure joy, sure. cute, not usually) these things were squirrels who I am currently at war with. Now not these baby squirrels in particular. But give it time. I have no idea what the life span of a squirrel is but as soon as they can I know they'll be pillaging my garden just like the rest of their kind.

So far squirrels have ruined the only yellow squash my plant has managed to yield, my very first chocolate pepper, and now my very first tomato. And here's the thing, they don't just bite it off the vine and scurry away with it to enjoy in their icky nests in our attic, they just take tiny little bites out of the veggie and leave it there. So, I go out to my garden and I see a a perfectly ripe tomato and I get so very excited (ok, more so then perhaps necessary but it is my first tomato in my first garden so whatever) . . .

And then gently twist it off the vine and on the other side I see this . . . .

My lovely tomato with a big gross rodent bite out of it and you just know that it has been macked all over by little squirrel lips.

So, Erica this is why I don't think squirrels are cute. Not at all cute. I do still admire your animal version of the Hippocratic oath and I am glad to know that when I mow down a family of garden thieving squirrels you'll be there to get them back on their feet.

In case you were wondering (Anna), these are the veggies we got from the CSA yesterday (pen for scale, that didn't come with the veggies)

Bear Creek Lake State Park

2008-06-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, on a post Parisian trip high, Kelly and I earmarked the week of June 23rd for a return trip to Paris. Our host with the most is soon departing Paris and we wanted to squeeze in one last trip . . you know, Paris in the Springtime la dee dah.

Sadly, as fate would have it two trips to Paris in one year just wasn't in the cards. Wow, just attempting to plan that sounds rather decadent. We resigned ourselves to not going but didn't totally abandon some sort of get away. Instead of gai Pari we settled on a camping trip in central Virginia. Decent trade off don't cha think?

After more research than necessary for this sort of a trip I selected Bear Creek State Park (http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/bea.shtml#contactinfo). It was my first time in a Va State Park and according to the sign on the way into the park we were in for a spectacular time as the sign decleared "Welcome to Virginia State Parks, Voted Best in Country". By whom? I have no idea. When? Also no idea? Were there other State Parks on the ballot? Again, we'll just have to take the sign's word for it. In any case, Best in the Country or not, Bear Creek State park is a delightful little get away.

Its about a 2.5 hr drive from DC, if you don't hit any traffic, and it offers such ammenities as lake side campsites, boat rentals, sandy beachy area, decent trails to wander around on, and some great fishing . . . so long as you don't consider actually catching anything a requirement of great fishing. We were lucky enough to get a campsite right along the lake, which really would have been perfect if the people in the adjacent campsite weren't camping with a toddler that cried in 20 min intervals. And why I say cry, I mean wailed like someone had just dropped it from some great height. And when I say in 20 min intervals, I really mean it. Now I really am all for bringing your kids camping. My brother and I were hauled all around the German wilderness at relatively young ages and I think we're all the better for it - even if my brother never sets foot in a tent again. But seriously, either that kid hates camping or he has only one method of communicating.

Anyway, aside from the wailer they were pretty good campsite neighbors. The husband even came over one evening to tell us that he had just been chased out of the back of his truck by a 6 foot opossum. He seemed rather calm about the whole affair. We were decidedly less calm.

Other highlights:

1. we did get two nibbles while fishing but I was actually rather happy we didn't catch anything since we didn't have the tools to do anything about a fish stuck on a hook at the end of our poles. we did "catch" other things.

2. we got to see a cute little family of turtles sunning themselves as well as a little baby turtle breaking out on his own. yes, this is a highlight.

3. we took a hike/stroll in the woods to go see a swinging bridge crossing the Willis River and when we arrived it was currently under construction as the result of wood rot. Not to be deterred we set off in the other direction to see the other swinging bridge crossing another part of the Willis River. this one was decidedly not under construction but should have been. I skittered across it while Kelly wisely waiting on shore - at the ready in case she had to find some long log to drag me out of the river when the swinging bridge collapsed.

Under Construction

Should have been under construction

4. on the way home we stopped at Chubby's and got gas for $3.82 and a Chubby Cherry Chiller.

All in all it was a nice little get away despite not being Paris.

In case you were wondering, I recently took a ride in an envirocab and it was a delightful experience. Money meet mouth.

This Just In . . .

2008-06-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

. . . Envirocab proves to be a reasonable option.

Ok so within 48 hrs of learning about envirocab I was able to get some "front line" reporting of the envirocab experience. This is either because my brother loves me very much, because I have mastered the art of persuasion, or because its easier to just give my suggestions a try than listen to me argue and sigh. Or perhaps because he is also interested in being a good steward of the earth. Regardless, here's what came to pass. . .

My brother needed a cab to pick him up at my house, conveniently located in Arlington, and trek him to Union Station. I suggested envirocab and he obliged. On his return trip he decided to take one of the zillion cabs awaiting him at Union Station. Below is his compare and contrast of the two experiences:

"A Thursday afternoon cab ride in the envirocab went like this. I called the number and asked that the cab pick me up at your house at 4PM and take me to union station. The deal with them is that the trip has to originate or terminate in Arlington in order for them to come get you. Around 3:50, I got a call from the cab driver who was informing me he was on his way. I got in the cab, he had the A/C cranking, it smelled, but it was a new car, I think it was the cabbie that smelled. His name was Gebbeheyui Maskeratakal… the cab is $2.75, and 30 cents per 1/6^th of a mile, and 30 cents per 48 seconds of waiting time. I’m not making that up, its 48 seconds. They have a pretty cool navigation system in the car that the cabbie explained to me, and near as I can tell, what he said was, when I called to get the cab, they sent him the address to get me and the destination through the system, so he can basically follow the directions to get me there. It tells you how much further and what not. A pretty nice system. So in closing on the envirocab, it was a newer car, a clean car, and a friendly nice driver with nav. The cab fare was $24.50 not including tip

On Saturday night I got into “World Cab” Lincoln town car from the late 80’s. I noticed on the window a sticker that said “Warning: Do not Slam the door” so I didn’t, I just closed it, but it popped back open, so I pulled it shut again, and it popped back open again, the cab began to depart the station and I said “ummm, the door is not shut” and so he said “you have to slam it.” I promise this is a true story. I said “ok, but the sticker says to not slam it” and he said, it won’t close otherwise. So I did and it stuck this time, I immediately put my seatbelt on... just in case. This cab was old, not really smelly, but the leather was torn and old, and it had no A/C, and no window controls, so I had to ask the cab driver to open my window. I noticed on his console it said “Dist. To Empty – 3” and I said, ummm you have enough gas to get there and he said “that’s not right, its about 10 miles off, so I’ll get you there, or at least close” I was like, ummm ok, well do you have a contingency if we run out of gas, clearly a rhetorical question cause he didn’t answer. At idle the car rumbled like we were doing 30mph off roading… We did get there, finally after 68403 speed humps, each of which I swore was going to cause the gas tank to fall out from under the car. The cab fare was $19.50 not including tip.

My vote, its worth the extra money to not have to ride in a total clap trap, and save the earth a little. "

As fate would have it, another opportunity to test out envirocab came along Friday night when an out of town friend needed a cab to get back to my house from a local Arlington watering hole. Around 1:00am said friend dialed up environcab and requested a pick up. Unfortunately, envirocab wasn't going to be able to get to her for 25 min. In contrast there was a Red Top cab right in front of her available for immediate transport.

So, we've got a few questions answered:
1. envirocab seems to be a bit more expensive but safer, cleaner, and more likely to get you directly to your destination.
2. envirocab is licensed to take you anywhere in the Northern Va area so long as your trip originates or terminates in Arlington county - including National Airport.
3. envirocab does not seem to force you to listen to liberal news sources or bad hippi music
4. you're likely to have to wait for an envirocab at 2:00 on a Saturday so call ahead.

Clearly more research needs to be done and envirocab has a long way to go before it can reasonably compete with the other main cab companies in the area. However, I got it on good authority that Red Top is now replacing its retired cabs with hybrids. So, maybe all envirocab has to do is steal a little of the market share to spur on change. I'd call that a success. Of course given the conditions of my brother's World Cab one might wonder if cab companies ever actually retire old cabs.

In case you were wondering, I just went to pick up my weekly veggies and an envirocab was there dropping off one of my fellow CSA'ers.

Arlington PSA

2008-06-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

If you happen to live in Arlingon and ever find yourself in need of a cab ride might I recommend EnviroCab (http://www.envirotaxicab.com/) soon to be the first carbon-negative taxicab company in the world.* This makes me so very happy because its a "no duh" type of thing that can be easily and locally done to ease our impact on the earth without relegating us all to self propelled vehicles. It just makes good sense.

*pending Arlington Transportation Commission's final approval of their taxi licenses.

Now I don't know if the cost of the cab is greater than normal, I don't know if they service National Airport, I don't know if they can travel into DC, I don't know if you'll be forced to listen to NPR or sing rounds of Koom By Ya, and I don't know how long you'd have to wait for one at 2:00am on a Saturday night. However, I have programmed their number into my phone and I am trying to convince my brother to give them a call for his upcoming trip. So I intend to give them a try.

If you live in Arlington, you should too. I mean normal cabs aren't so great that it isn't at least worth a shot. If nothing else they'll smell like patchouli instead of BO.

Ok so, sorry if you don't live in Arlington because I realize that this isn't much of a Public Service Announcement for you BUT it is helping to save your earth and perhaps there is something similar in your neck of the woods.

In case you were wondering, another way to keep up to date on Arlington news is the Arlington Alerts mailing list: https://www.arlingtonalert.com They just emailed me to tell me that the Orange line of the metro is experiencing significant delays. Boy I bet those commuters would love to know abut EnviroCab.

Bull Run Farm

2008-06-10T07:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday marked our long awaited inaugural CSA pick-up. Yessireee, yesterday Kelly and I got our first 'peck' of veggies from our Bull Run Farm CSA. For the past two weeks, Farmer Leigh has been sending some very detailed emails about the process of veggie pick-up. Turns out its pretty simple:

Grab a canvass bag, form a line with your fellow CSA'ers, evesdrop for tips being handed out by "the veterans", walk by a bunch of crates all containing vegetables you've never seen in your life, grab your assigned portion, move to the next crate of unknown vegetables, go home and stare at your bounty with wonder and confusion.

So here is what we came home with:

Pac Choi - yes I mean Pac not Bok although after extensive google research we cannot discern the difference between the two.
Broccoli - ok we recognized this one
Garlic Snapes - totally had to google this one and its worth doing b/c they're apparently tasty treats
Baby Onions
Salad Mix
Calendula - apparently its an edible flower that is a good addition to salads. personally I think it is not tasty
Oregano
Chives
Sorrel - looks like spinach but with bigger leaves

I have to say the entire event took 10 min and was really pretty fun and rather gratifying. I did finally get to meet Farmer Leigh and he's not nearly the character that his emails would lead you to believe. And he has "very nice blue eyes" according to Kelly. I didn't notice, I was too busy trying to figure out what in the world to do with this . . .

Scapes

A lifetime supply of Pac Choi

Calendula - better as a flower than a food

In case you were wondering, my own garden is doing quite well too. . . despite being pillaged by squirrels and rabbits. Before I left for Anna's wedding I had two lovely little squashes, now I only have one . . .

But so far my tomatoes are untouched and looking quite delightful . . .

In the Eye of the Beholder

2008-06-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

Anna and Jody got married this week-end down in Kitty Hawk, NC. It was a beautiful intimate beach ceremony that even the 101 degree, burst into flames temperature couldn't make any less lovely.

This morning I was doing the post event picture review to see what sort of gems I managed to capture. Being in the wedding made it a bit difficult to get pictures of the actual ceremony or some of the reception traditions but I did the best I could. I was pleased with some, entertained by some, and down right confused by others - sometimes I am just not sure what I think I see when I press "click"

Anyway, at the end of the batch were two of my favorite pictures. I didn't take them so I can say that. They were taken by Kayla, the 3 year old granddaughter of the proprietors of the B&B hosting the reception. She was quite an unexpected bundle of entertainment all week-end long . . . running around in her underwear blowing bubbles, following the bridesmaids around parroting "pretty dresses, pretty dresses", and sneaking into the Dywer family photo.

She's not a shy kid and at one point during the reception while I was sitting on the porch steps taking a breather she toddled over and said (arms outstretched channeling Oliver Twist) "camera please". Of course I obliged and then attempted to show her how to use the camera properly. She had absolutely no interest in this lesson and pried the camera out of my hands and started snapping away. After a few minutes of this I managed to convince Kayla that a camera of her very own was way better than my camera and I traded her for one of those disposable wedding cameras. She looked at it suspiciously for a moment or two and then toddled off to fill up 24 frames with pictures that I would bet look a lot like what she left on my camera . . .

In case you were wondering, Anna and Jody left this morning for 2 weeks in Thailand. I think they're going to keep an online journal of their trip and if they do, I'll be sure to share.

How to Bake a Steak

2008-06-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

A while ago my brother's grill was hurled off his deck during one of our crazy thunder/wind storms. As a result he has had to get creative with his cooking techniques and in his quest for grilling alternatives he stumbled upon a rather interesting way to make a steak. He imparted this recipe on to me and I am now sharing with you . . . b/c its GEWD!!

There is a blog that Liz and I frequent for new recipes and the "author" takes a show and tell approach to her cooking blog. So, I have completely poached her style for this blog. All credit goes to: The Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/)

But now back to baking a steak . . .

Necessary ingredients (portions for 2):
1.5 lbs of dry aged NY Strip Steak (my brother has also used Rib Eye)
Sea Salt
Cracked Black Pepper
Vegetable oil (sorry, you can't use olive oil b/c you need a high smoke point)

Prep:
Prehat oven to 275
Place a large piece of tin foil perpendicular across a cookie sheet. Place a cookie cooling rack on top of the foil covered cookie sheet. Set aside

Step 1:
Liberally cover each side of the strip with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Step 2:
Put 3 tblsp of the vegetable oil in a large heavy skillet over high heat. You want the oil heated to the point of a light smoke rising out of the skillet . . . it looks a bit more like a mist not a black smokey smog. Once the oil has begun smoking, carefully place the steaks in the oil. 90-120 seconds a side.

Step 3:
After you have seared each side of the steak, remove them from the oil and place on the cooling rack on the cookie sheet. Place in the oven for 18-24 min. 18 min for rare, 22 min for medium rare, 24 min for medium. This of course can vary by oven but probably won't by more than a min or so. Keep in mind that the meat will continue to cook once you've taken it out of the oven.

Step 4:
After you've baked your steak for your desired time frame remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Tent the steaks with the layer of tin foil for about 5-8 minutes.

Step 5:
Remove from tent and devour

In case you were wondering, I had this with a side of steamed asparagus, roasted red potatoes, and a glass of Estancia Pinot Noir.

I am the Lorax, I speak for the Trees

2008-05-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Ok so all the chatter about global warming and polar ice cap melting and Hummer's single handedly destroying our ozone makes environmental stewardship seem like this huge insurmountable problem. Something befitting a title like 'Saving the World'. It is of course a big, complicated, daunting issue made more so by the political rhetoric denying any problem and the doomsday predictions calling for radical changes in life as we know it.

The truth of course is somewhere in between and likely will never really be fully understood or explained to us. However that shouldn't stop us from doing things that we know are good for the earth - whether its warming or not, its our earth and we might as well take care of it as best we can.

Now, logging is necessary so long as we would all like to live in houses and not thatched roof huts so I am not opposed to cutting down trees. However, trees are good for so many reasons: tree swings, tree forts, shade, gobbling up CO2, and the list goes on and on. Ergo, I figure anything we can do to minimize the number of trees that need to be cut down to support our lifestyles is a good thing.

I am going to go out on a limb (ugh, just for you Dave) and assume that you're all with me and prefer a good wood built house to one fashioned out of mud clay and pond fronds. Therefore you would much rather save a tree in other ways. So, here is a bite sized thing you might consider doing to help preserve our forests:

http://nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp

This link will provide you with an easy guide to certain brands of paper products (paper towels, napkins, toilet paper, tissues) that are made with recycled materials and using clean manufacturing processes. The site doesn't include prices, which I am sure are a bit higher for the tree friendly alternatives but it typically isn't more than .75 or so. Not that .75 is pennies but here is what your extra money could buy. . .

"If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees. "

544,000 trees for .75, seems like a bargain to me ; )

Anyway, I know we all do what we can but I thought this was a useful bit of information and a potentially easy way to cut down on our need for fresh cut timber. I mean wouldn't you rather have a tree fort then blow your nose on a Giant Birch?

Memorial Day

2008-05-23T08:54:00.001-07:00

Its not just about a 3 day week-end, glorious trips to the beach, hideous traffic, and BBQ's. Those are just the things we get to enjoy as a result of the efforts of those we are to remember on Memorial Day.

Now I personally will be spending this Memorial Day on a glorious trip to the beach, hopefully avoiding hideous traffic, and definitely having some BBQ'd treats so I'm not casting stones or soap boxing it or even assuming that you're not totally into the spirit of Memorial Day. I'm merely sharing something that I'm not sure is widely known.

There is an independent government agency called The White House Commission on Remembrance (for real, there is) and their primary responsibilities are:

Promoting the spirit of unity and remembrance through observance of The National Moment of Remembrance at 3 PM local time on Memorial Day;

Ensuring the nation remembers the sacrifices of America's fallen from the Revolutionary War to the present;

Recognizing those who served and those who continue to serve our great nation and reminding all Americans of their common heritage.

(http://www.remember.gov/)

So, at 3PM this Monday push pause, find some stillness, and spend a moment in remembrance and thanksgiving.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

2008-05-23T08:27:00.001-07:00

It is growing quite well actually. Thanks for asking.

Despite the fact that in 2 short weeks giant baskets of farm fresh veggies are going to be appearing at Casa de Lexington I still decided to undertake a garden of my very own . . . well of my own and Kelly's as she's done this before and I am but a neophyte. Also, I have hired my mom as our Gardening Consultant, I'll be paying her in yellow squash. Anyway, so far I love it. I now own gardening tools and I know what peat moss is. I do think I need to get a big floppy hat and some galoshes (my running shoes are covered in dirt) but other than that I think we're all set. I planted the last of the veggies last night and now we're off to the races.

Garden inventory:
variety of red peppers
jalapeno peppers
chocolate peppers
variety of basil plants
tomatoes
yellow squash
birdhouse gourds
burpless cucumber (yes that is a real variety, apparently it is the seeds of a cucumber that make you burp so burpless cucumbers have smaller seeds - personally cucumbers don't make me burp but apparently they do have that effect on enough people that it called for creating a burpless variety)

Sadly there are no silver bells, and cockle shells, or pretty maids all in a row but I think its a pretty little patch none the less.

Food For Thought

2008-05-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Irregardless is not a word. Unless of course by irregardless you actually mean full of regard then go ahead with your double negative self.

Remaining in the realm of the American Lexicon, I learned a new word today:

Bravura:
1: a musical passage requiring exceptional agility and technical skill in execution 2 : a florid brilliant style 3 : a show of daring or brilliance.

Why is it that words like bravura, describing exceptional brilliance, are so seldom used but I hear the "word" irregardless at least 3 times a week. To be fair I didn't actually hear 'bravura', I read, it in an movie review for Indiana Jones. Apparently bravura only happens in the movies.

Now perhaps I am being myopic in assuming that my day to day vocab exposure is somehow representative of larger society (I was raised by a mom who referred to large books as tomes so there is room for bias here). So how about this, count up how many times you hear words like irregardless or see a lot spelled 'alot' (by people older than 12) and then count how many times you heard words like bravura or pablum.

Now despite my ire at lazy, incorrect English, I do love love love idioms. Idioms and movie quotes are linguistic heaven to me. So when I came upon this web site (and by came upon it, i mean Liz sent it to me to explain her father's term Frog Strangler) I was giddy with new word joy:

http://www.jargondatabase.com/default.aspx

Its a virtual treasure trove of nutty words and sayings. Sean you'll be happy to know that 'Value Add', 'Take Away', and 'Level Set' are all in there but sadly no 'Paradigm Shift'. One of my personal favorites is Catty Whompus, which means: something that is very out of place in it's location. Can also mean a situation that is messed up.

I have been trying to work it into daily conversation but I haven't had much luck. Let me know if you can.

In case you were wondering, a Frog Strangler is how you describe a large amount of rain in a small amount of time.

Fast Fact Friday

2008-05-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

I had dinner with Anna last night and aside from just general catching up I also learned a few quite interesting tidbits that I thought I would share. . .

1. Coriander is actually the seed of the Cilantro plant. Maybe you knew this but I sure didn't.

2. There is a drink called: Hop, Skip, & Go Naked. The primary recipe is as follows:

1 bag ice
1 can limeade
1 can lemonade
2 liters Sprite® soda
1/2 gal vodka
1 case beer

Empty a bag of ice into a large cooler. Add the cans of limeade and lemonade, then the 2 liter bottle of sprite. Add 1/2 gallon of vodka and 20-24 cans of beer.

It sounds like a classed up version of the jungle juice that they used to serve during beach week in college. I find things like this rather intriguing. I mean what would ever make anyone think that mixing malt beverage and alcohol would be a good idea . .. ooh right frat boys. Also, what is lime ade?

Oh and as a preemptive strike against any sort of law suit let me make myself very very clear, I am not recommending that anyone make or drink or serve this concoction. If you're not 21 you should not be drinking Hop, Skip, & Go Naked . . . in fact you should be drinking nothing but milk, water, and hot cocoa. Even if you're 21 you might not want to drink something that combines beer and vodka, I can't really say how that will go down . . . or come back up. If you are the parent of a teen ager who has recently imbibed a Hop, Skip, & Go Naked its not my fault don't sue me. Also if you are under 21 or over 21 and not smok'n hot, you should refrain from Hopping & Skipping while Naked.

Hmmm, ok that is actually all I learned from Anna last night. Hope you enjoyed it.

If you're looking to be further entertained here is a completely odd "game" that I came across:
http://ajax.sayitaintslow.com/fontgame/

If you are good at this I want to know b/c I am not and I spend A LOT of time producing boring and mostly worthless documents in MS Word. Copious amounts of such documents and I really can only identify Time New Romans and Arial . . . oh and Wingdings, I know that one.

Here is a YouTube clip of someone who has totally lost they dang mind:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0fsgmktOY

It is a rainy Friday morning, that's all I got folks.

Off Color Friday

2008-05-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

Today's post is about farting. Some of you might find this to be inappropriate or uncouth or just plain rude. And for you all I say read no further and I offer up this as an alternative:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0fsgmktOY

For those of you undeterred by the fart topic, here we go. A while ago my brother and one of his friends engaged in a great theological discussion of the humor potential inherent in the different types of farts. By different types, they mean smelly and loud. The discussion was distilled into the following question:

If you could only produce one type of flatulence for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Smelly or Loud?

The two of them went on to discuss the comic merits of the SBD vs audible cheek flapping and they came to the conclusion that if limited to one variety of farting they would both choose SBD b/c of its greater potential for hilarity. I am not sure I agree with their selection b/c I personally find the toot sound to be far more entertaining than the toot smell. In fact I don't really find the toot smell at all entertaining. When I told my brother as much he said "whatever you're a girl" I will concede that farting as entertainment is for the most part a male pastime however I still think the sound is funnier than the smell.

But more interesting to me is the fact that I believe guys will approach the question of which type of fart they would prefer to produce from the standpoint of comedic potential where girls will approach it from the standpoint of easiest to disguise. Although pure conjecture, I believe that for a girl, which type of fart they would choose to produce will directly relate to which type of fart they can get away with producing without being Id's at the tooter.

Now I know not all girls are the same and not all boys are the same and that some girls out there love to fart for the laughs and some boys out there just want their toots to go unnoticed. But all in all I still believe that boys are going to select the type of toot based on hilarity factor and girls are going to select based on humiliation factor.

Go ahead, prove me wrong.

In case you were wondering which type I would choose, you'll have to keep on wondering.

If an earthquake happens in DC and no one feels it

2008-05-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

did it actually happen?

Apparently, yes: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050601840.html

There was an earthquake in the DC metro area yesterday. It registered 1.8 on the Richter scale, which apparently means that it is virtually imperceptible. I likely would not have even known about our earthquake if Liz called to check in on me. I apparently get my local geological data from Atlanta, Ga.

After talking to Liz I called my brother to see if he had any knowledge of our seismic event and he was as in the dark as I. Since then I have polled a few fellow DC locals and no one had any idea that we had had an earthquake. It was such a non event that I actually had to do a key word search on the Washington post web site to find the article above.

Anyway, I think it is pretty odd that we had an earthquake in Annandale and perhaps even more odd that it is barely newsworthy. I mean just because giant buildings didn't collapse and scores of people weren't rattled about doesn't mean it isn't news. I mean if

"60-lb. pit bull found wedged in engine "

can be a cnn.com headline, I would think "Small Earthquake Shakes DC" could be too.

In case you were wondering, the last earthquake to hit DC did so in 2003. It measured 4.5 on the Richter scale and was equally unnoted by major news sources.

Roving reporter Liz, reporting for duty

2008-05-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

As promised, Liz chronicled her visit to the Shrimp Festival and has returned with some color commentary and photo journalistic delight that is sure to make you drool. Enjoy . . .

Always the first weekend in May, the Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival held on lovely Amelia Island, in downtown Fernandina Beach is a must see destination for shrimp and pirate loving aficionados. This was not my first Shrimp Boat Festival....since I grew up in Fernandina....but it was probably the best in recent memory. Friday night is usually the Pirate Invasion with fireworks, fake pirate ship, fake shots fired from the cannon, and fake pirates running through the cobbled downtown streets of Fernandina. Emphasis on fake. We skipped that in lieu of a bushel of crabs, and my Dad's infamous garlic crabs. Yum. We ventured downtown on Saturday, on the prowl for pirates and shrimp. The weather was perfect, approximately 78 degrees with a light sea breeze, and beautiful sunshine. I think my last SBF, it was 50 degrees and drizzling. Blech. After securing a parking spot not too far from the festival, we started to comb our way through the crowds. I say there was probably a million people there. My Dad says it is probably more like 100,000. Whatever, same difference. It was crowded regardless...given there are only normally about 12,000 inhabitants of the tiny isle. Matt and I weaved in and out of streets, looking at the art, antiques and pirate freak shows - and totally unrelated, saw our friend Eric who just moved to FB from ATL, and he's surviving the cultural differences and was wearing his going out flip flops, as I had recommended - when in Rome...... Finally made our way to the food booths. Here's how you determine who has the best food. Church of God booth - no line. Shrimpers of America - line around the block. Shrimp is shrimp, and we were impatient, so ordered a low country boil box lunch from the nice ladies at the Church of God booth and found a seat on the railway ties....AND found out why there was no line at the Church of God booth - not particularly tasty. So got a funnel cake to tie us over (fresh out of the boiling vat of grease), as we watched the lady pirates throw beads from the pirate ship, Mardi Gras style. We headed back to the car around 3pm, so we could make it home for customary island nap time on Saturdays. ; )

So, in case you were wondering, the Church of God shrimp did come in a distant second to the pirates.

Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. . .

2008-05-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Liz isn't in the office today, which is good for her and not so good for me. When she's not around my daily level of entertain distraction drops off precipitously. But hey, its not all about me. She is headed south this week-end to visit her family, lay around on the beach, and go to the Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival - it is know by the locals as the Fernandina Beach Shrimp Festival so we'll cal it that so we can blend in.

The festival takes place on Amelia Island, FL and is a 3 day event that boast fireworks, boat races, competitions, pirates, live bands, kids rides, and lots of venders selling antique and collectible merchandise. However, despite the name, and I quote

"One thing you should be aware of when coming to the Fernandina Beach Shrimp Festival, the pirates and art show treasures outdo the shrimp."

I'm not sure that's such a great selling point for a SHRIMP festival. Maybe it should be renamed the Fernandina Pirate Festival Featuring Mediocre Shrimp. Or maybe I am just underestimating the allure of adults dressed up like Pirates. Perhaps no food has a snowballs chance against such live action festivity. Fortunately for you (and me) Liz has agreed to be a traveling correspondent for the In Case You Were Wondering blog. She's down there right now snapping photos, sampling the food and drink, and assessing the joy ratio of Shrimp to Pirate.

So, stay tuned for some 'from the front line' reporting of the Fernandina Beach Shrimp Festival. Until then, have a great week-end.

In case you were wondering, Club NII donated 150lbs of food (equaling a $150 match from Mr. Feinstein) and $650 in cash (which will also be matched). Hip hip hooray.

Nalgene

2008-04-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

Do you know what this is?
A while ago, a visit down to Warrenton, I left my Squishy's kitchen counter. A few days later I realized where it was and called her to see if she had found it. The call went like this:

me: hey squishy is my in your kitchen?
squishy: what?
me: i think i left my your counter, have you seen it?
squishy: i have no idea what you're talking about but you left your water bottle here the last time you visited.

That sparked a great debate that has lived ever since. Squishy's basic argument is that no one but me and a few overly athletic others, know what a is and that as such it should just be called a water bottle b/c that's all it is. My basic argument is that is just what they're called. Everyone who knows what a bottle is calls it "a "

This of course isn't a real argument. It is just something we do to tease each other. However, the post regarding the possible poison in the plastic of certain water bottles resuscitated the Great Debate and Squishy decided to take a poll to see just how many people had any idea what a is. Here is the question she emailed to several of her friends:

Hello friends. I am in a little debate with a friend of mine over the word NALGENE. If you would be able to take a minute, please tell me if you know what this word means. If you do not, please do not look it up, but instead tell me what you think it means. Sort of a game of balderdash if you will.

Here are a smattering of responses she received:

#1
I have no idea what the word means, but I know that it is a type of plastic..like Jon's water bottles for hiking are water bottles...they are practically unbreakable, supposedly. But, maybe you are referring to a different ? (because I thought it was maybe a brand name, like Band Aid???)

#2
Ummm . . . isn't that the stuff that beer cozies are made from???? Ok, remember that I hate beer!!!!

#3
You got me and Scott. It does not seem familiar to me and I would like to think I have a fairly good vocab.

#4
I do not know what this word means. - to be neglectful.

#5
I was with Kevin when we opened it and he had no clue. (unless we look it up) Sorry we couldn't help. - to this comment Squishy added the following:

This from my cousin Kathi and her husband Kevin. He runs marathons and was head council president of Jacksonville-the whole city!!

That is apparently supposed to be proof that even those who are very athletic and involved in politics have no idea what a Nalgene is. Therefore, no one really knows what it is and I am a fool ; ) I would assert that her friend Kelly's response in #1 is proof that I am not, in fact, a fool - Kelly knows precisely what a Nalgene is (she even sings its indestructible praises) she just doesn't know she knows. . . by any other name would smell as sweet

Now perhaps Nalgene's are not as ubiquitous as I would assert (the fact that I own four might skew my perception). However, they were on the Today Show for pete sake. Matt Lauer sat right next to HUGE NERD Doctor (who decided it was necessary to wear a stethoscope despite the fact that he was discussing chemically tainted water bottles and not heart disease or respiratory issues. And actually even if was talking about heart disease or other heath issues where a stethoscope might be needed, he sure as all get out isn't checking anyones heart beat on the Today Show. Maybe he thought he was going to be in one of those "I'm Not a Doctor But I Play One On TV commercials) and the two of them knowingly discussed Nalgene's. Sadly, some Nalgenes are fashioned out of the poison plastic. None of mine thankfully, but the one I gave my brother for Christmas is of the poison variety. Don't worry he's aware and I'll replace with a non reproductive organ destroying one.

All in all I believe the debate continues, she's right that to some, perhaps a majority of a certain slice of society a Nalgene is just a water bottle and requires no unique title. And I am right that to others, perhaps a majority of a different slice of society a Nalgene is a very unique drinking container and therefore is appropriately distinguished from the generic 'water bottles'.

This way is actually more fun. Neither of us would really enjoy being "right". It would limit the mockery options. As it is, I can promise you that in 50 yrs I'll be hanging out in Squishy's kitchen drinking out of a Nalgene and she'll be heckling me about it. We're going to be very entertaining geezers (at least to ourselves). So, call it what you like or call it nothing at all. The Nalgene is not for everyone. If it is for you, just avoid the #7s.

In case you were wondering, my favorite reply is #4, Nalgene - to be neglectful. I can go with that. I am going to see if I can work it into a sentence this week.

AFAC

2008-04-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

The Arlington Food Assistance Center is the food pantry for Arlington county. It provides supplemental groceries to Arlington county residents that can't afford all the food they need. According to their web site (http://www.afacinfo.org/index.html):

"In our Fiscal Year 2007 (7/1/2006– 6/30/2007) we served 31,672 families and distributed 897,055 pounds of food. Volunteers donated 14,750 hours of time."

I have had the pleasure of volunteering with some of the folks at AFAC and they're all really sharp and really kind people. A few weeks ago Kelly and I dropped off some surplus Easter baskets to AFAC. Kelly's company had done an Easter basket charity thing and they had some 25 baskets without a home. I called my friendly AFAC contact, Joe, and asked her if the could use the extra baskets. They surely could so Kelly dropped them off and for the next two days I got emails from Joe thanking us for thinking of AFAC. A few weeks later we got a thank you letter from the executive director of AFAC. It was a nice feeling. Giving usually is.

As a result I was in contact with Joe at just the right time to discover that April is Feinstein challenge month. The way the challenge works is that Mr. Feinstein puts up $1 million as a challenge and up to that $1 million he matches all cash donations dollar for dollar and he matches food donations, 1lb of food = $1. So, Kelly in her role as member of the Club NII Charity Foundation, recommended AFAC be Club NII's April charity. And thus the giving commenced.

For the past few days Kelly has been bringing bags of food home from work. The living room looks like a Harris Teeter. The donations had to be made by Friday so we can get everything to AFAC by the 30th. So last night we had all the contributions piled up in the living room and Kelly did a tally of items. She took the paper with all the stats on it to work so she could inform everyone of just how generous they had been, so all I really remember is that there were 24 boxes of cereal, 21 boxes of pasta, 10 cans of canned meat, several jars of pasta sauce, 4 jars of PB and 4 jars of J, and countless other items. And then there was $700 in cash donations.

The food drive is over so I am not rambling on about this b/c I am soliciting yet another can of tuna. Rather I wanted to share this with you b/c last night when I was watching Kelly count through this giant bounty of food stuffs I was struck with a feeling of joyous relief. Relief that there are good people out there, doing good things just b/c they need to get done. Too often all we hear about are bad people doing bad things (FREAKSHOW in Austria, for example). Apparantly, not only do we have innumerable problems, a lot of of them are seemingly insurmountable, mostly b/c, apparently, the average human is bad and doing bad things.

This of course isn't true, it only feels true sometimes. The truth is less grim. There are good people out there doing good things, see . . . .

In case you ARE wondering, I'll get the total tally from Kelly tonight.

In Case You Were Wondering

2008-04-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

So here are a few things that I have come across in the past few days that I thought might be worth sharing with you may adoring fan base, all 5 of you ;)

In case you were wondering just how many calories there are in a blooming onion at Outback, here's the article for you . . .

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04212008/news/regionalnews
/read_calorie_count__weep_107394.htm

NYC is leading the latest attempt at curbing US obesity with new legislation that requires restaurants to inform patrons of the caloric content of the menu items. I will be interested to see if this has any actual impact people's choices. In addition to listing the actual calorie count next to each menu item I think they should institute an icon system - like they do with chili peppers at thai restaurants to indicate spicyness. For example, they could put a picture of John Candy next to the Blooming Onion (2,275 calories) and a picture of Mama Cass next to the Cheese Fries (2,900 calories). What can I say, I am a visual learner.

In case you were wondering when the price of stamps was going to increase, here is a friendly tip. . . as of May 12th the stamp will cost .42. (http://www.usps.com/prices/) And what are you getting for your additional 1 cent? Nothing, the US Mail will still take its own dang time delivering stuff to you. PS - In case you have a large surplus of .41 stamps laying around, I would just like to let you know that I love getting mail.

In case you were wondering, this is how some people celebrated Earth Day . . .

This guy was participating in "the highly popular rain barrel workshop" which involves "recycling pickle barrels into rain barrels, to use to collect rain water from your home and reuse it in your garden." Apparently it also involves shoving yourself into said pickle barrel and rolling around the floor. I'm not making this up: http://www.co.arlington.va.us/departments/EnvironmentalServices/EnvironmentalServicesEarthDay.aspx

I have also had a bit of feedback my post about handicapped bathroom stall etiquette. Apparently in addition to etiquette Sean was curious about the utilization rate of handicapped stalls as "they are the largest real estate investment in bathrooms and it is never used." Good point Mr. Owens but in that vein what about handicapped parking. Talk about prime real estate that it almost never fully utilized.

Squishy also requested that I amend my exceptions to the stated rules of when to properly use the handicapped stall to include situations where you have kids with you. Her proposed revision:

You may also use the handi stall if you have children. Try getting into a normal sized stall with 3 kids (of course this was when they were all little and you couldn’t just tell them to stay outside because they might run away or pull out yards and yards of paper towels while waiting for you to get out. Also, when potty training, you have to go in the stall with them to make sure they don’t pee all over the floor or neglect to wipe their bottoms after a big poop. And you also have to keep the other two kids in there as well b/c of the aforementioned reasons.

I can get behind that exception. I think a handicapped person would prefer to wait a few minutes to use the stall designated for them in lieu of walking into a bathroom filled with crazy kids and paper towel mayhem.

Well I hope this has effectively reduced the number of things you need to wonder about .

Ivy House Update

2008-04-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

Turns out that the Ivy House tulips weren't entirely eradicated . . . .
Ryan took a bike ride past the old homestead and although it isn't quite the beautimus flower garden it once was, apparently Jeff Scott left some of the lovely ladies in tact. Kurt, your legacy lives on ; )

Happy Earth Day

2008-04-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is like where you are but where I am it is gorgeous out. Earth is really showing off and throwing herself/himself/whatever quite a party. If you're interested in the history of Earth Day, here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

The fact my brother is going to get a kick out of the most: the US Earth Day was established by a man named Gaylord.

Anyway, there is a lot of Earth that I haven't had a chance to visit yet. But from what I have seen so far I'm pretty taken with her/him/whatever. Here's to Earth, hip hip hooray.

In case you were wondering, Jim completed the Boston marathon in 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 32 seconds. He averaged an 8:27 mile pace, finished 9,671 out of 25,283, and raised over $9,000. Well done Jim, congratulations!!

Go Jim Go

2008-04-16T12:07:00.001-07:00

Jim is currently averaging a 7:57 mile pace and is somewhere just past the halfway mark in the Boston marathon. If you want to track him yourself:

http://www.baa.org/ Bib number 21742

I ran my one and only marathon in 1999. Just enough time has passed to make me think that I would like to do another one but not so much time has passed to make me forget just how much race Jim has ahead of him. Halfway in a marathon is really not very far. Mentally its pretty grueling to know that you have 13.1 more miles ahead of you. In fact with each passing mile your mind can become more of an issue than your body. I am quite sure my mind would have successfully mutinied and had me quit my marathon had it not been for Wakie . . . topically relevant b/c she's Jim's wife.

Wakie met me at mile 17 of the Marine Corp Marathon and when she found me I was just barely shuffling by. I had already been out paced by a guy NOT wearing shoes and another guy dressed head to toe as Big Bird. Not a good things for one's self esteem especially when facing 9.2 more miles. Had it not been for a very energetic Wakie ready and waiting to escort me around Haines Point I am pretty sure I would have slowed to a walk and then to a sit and in fact I would probably still be sitting on the curb next to those crazies who fish out of the Potomac. But Wakie was there and she herded me past a few water stops, the lone DJ at the tip of Haines Point, and across the 13th Street Bridge, which imports tsunami winds from the south pacific just for race day.

From there we found Tori and the two of them guided me the final 3 miles of the race, which included a few few glimpses of Hammer, McSiracusa, and Jeanine as they peered on tip toes over the crowd. It was hard, I was rendered mute with exhuastion (which if you know me, is saying A LOT), and I couldn't really feel my lower body. But it was one of the best things I ever did. Partly if not entirely b/c of the people I did it with. I can't say I would recommend going out and running a marathon but I do recommend doing something that pushes yourself to the point of needing your friends to help you out. Just ask Squishy and Angie. . . or the Beatles. It is a pretty awesome thing.

Ok, so enough about my marathon and back to Jim's. The whole impetus for this post is that Jim is out there enduring 26.2 miles to raise money and awareness for Homes for Our Troops. He's gotten a lot of support from his friends and it is a pretty awesome thing.

Jim will be hitting mile 19 soon and that's the place most runner's hit their wall. If you get chance, send him a mental "come on Jim, you can do it." Whatever you do, don't send him a mental "come on Jim, you're almost there" NEVER tell a marathoner that they're "almost there" until the finish line is in sight. When you've run 25.2 miles, even one more mile is not almost there.

Good Luck Jim!!

In case you were wondering, the Boston Marathon is run on the same day every year, the 3rd Monday in April - known to those in Massachusetts, Maine, and Wisconsin (???) as Patriot's Day. This is the day they celebrate 'the shot heard round the world'. The Red Sox always have a home game on this day and they schedule it so that the game is ending as the marathon runners are passing through Boston. If you live in MA, ME, or WI and are a school kid, you get today off - so go cheer for Jim.

I'll Kick You Out of My House . . .

2008-04-16T07:13:00.001-07:00

. . . If You Don't CUT THAT HAIR

What do you think, mohawk or flat top? Or maybe Flock of Seaguls?

And in case you were wondering, one of my two basil plants is making a comeback . . . the other one, not so much

2008-04-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

Several years ago (and by that I mean like 6) one of my roommates decided to plant tulip bulbs in the front of Ivy House. The area he selected was a 2.5 by 3.5 foot dirt section outlined by cracked and crooked bricks. It was flanked by the driveway and the road so it was about 1 part soil and 2 parts roadway debris. Despite the rather inhospitable environment, the tulips thrived.

Every April they sprung up with gusto, decorating the front of Ivy House and immediately (though temporarily) making the place look slightly less tenement and slightly more well kept suburban home. I loved watching the tulips come up. I loved how incongruent they were with the cracked driveway, the rotting wooden porch stairs, and the general disrepair of the facade they graced. They were going to come up and be beautiful regardless of their surroundings. Perhaps they even knew that because of their surroundings they would shine a little bit brighter. With Ivy House as their backdrop, they were surely to be noticed. And don't tell me flowers don't care about such things. If they didn't they care about being beautiful they would just be grass.

Anyway, every year they would pop up and every year I would take a zillion and one photos of them. I would wait for one of those perfect spring days, the sort we only have after 5 days of rain and 45 degree weather. Those days where the sky looks like the opening scene of the Simpsons, all perfectly blue with little fluff balls of clouds floating by. On those days I would grab my camera and take as many pictures as my memory card could hold. I shot them from every angle, sometimes contorting myself to in order to eliminate the cracked driveway and the rotting wooden stairs from view.

I would do this for about 20 minutes until I was convinced there were no new way to capture these flowers, colors, and shapes. Then I would make Kim sit through a viewing of all zillion and one pictures. If you know Kim, she did this with infinite and encouraging patience.

Well, I've moved out of Ivy House. It has been returned to its original owner who, for reasons unknown to anyone who ever crossed the Ivy House threshold, decided to actually move into the house instead of having it razed and then starting a new. Several weeks after he moved in I had to go by the house to pick up some odds and ends. It was a late October evening and by then the tulips had long since abandoned their claim to the dirt patch. What should have been there was . . . well . . . a dirt patch. An empty dirt patch anxiously awaiting the following April when it would once again be transformed into a flower garden. Instead, what was there were 4 squat roundish boring shrubs (perhaps boring and shrubs is redundant). Jeff Scott had torn up the tulips and replaced them with shrubs. He managed to tear up the only beautiful not run down part of Ivy House. I stood there for a minute almost in shock and decidedly mournful.

But such is life. It wasn't my house anymore so I no longer had any topiary decision making authority. Time to move on. Let Jeff Scott enjoy his shrubs and I'd always have my 900,000 tulip photos.

So, in case you were wondering what in the world the point of this post is . . . the point is that . . . there are tulips at my new house (well its Kelly's new house but you know what I mean). The other day, tulips starting popping up all over the front lawn. It was such a sweet sight to see the little buds poking through the ground just waiting to erupt into colorful little buds of joy. Yeah, yeah. I know, I am being a over the top but whatever. So I toted my camera out this week-end, because we had one of those perfect spring days, and I took my zillion and one pictures of the Lexington Tulips. They are quite lovely and a suitable successor to the Ivy House Tulips. I'll spare you the full library of photos (Kim is in Spain so Kelly stepped in and was equally patient and encouraging)

2008-04-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well its been a busy week so I haven't had a chance to actually sit down and "blog" - I wonder if they have added that to the dictionary yet. Verb, Noun, its got it all. Anyway, the sun is out, my muse is back, and I actually have quite a bit to share today . . .

#1: I have a great love of Alaska. It is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places I have ever been. Every time I go there I fall just a little more deeply in love . It also has some great husbands - just ask Beth and An. Anyway, telling you about how great Alaska is, is really sort of a waste. You just need to go there, you really do. But in the meantime I thought I would let you know that Alaska week is coming up on the Discovery channel. Check it out:
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/alaska/alaska-week.html

#2: Apparently discussing Nalgene bottles conjures me into the minds of my friends. I had four different people send me the links below (which I appreciate b/c I otherwise would not have seen this and I do enjoy people looking out for my health and well being.):

http://www.plasticsnews.com/blog/2008/04/today_show_slams_plastic_bottl.html

#3: I love the Red Sox and I really don't like the Yankees (particularly Poser Posada) but this is funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp_sr5oYIL0&feature=related

#4: I know this is pretty lame but it is none the less true, I detest having to make myself coffee. I think maybe I just hate monotonousness of having to measure out 3 cups of water and 3 scoops of grounds every single solitary night before I go to bed. It certainly isn't a difficult task and in truth only takes about 3.8 minutes but still, I HATE IT.

Now I am not telling you this to elicit sympathy. Nor am I asserting that this is in any way a real problem or anything more than me whining. I am telling you this to share with you the new love affair I am having with my free Senseo coffee machine. I got it for taking a survey and for paying $15 shipping and handling bucks. And it is coffee making nirvana. It has a big tank that you can fill up and will last for about 8 cups of coffee. It has little pods of coffee - think round tea bag filled with coffee grounds. And all you do is press 2 buttons and coffee comes out. Start to finish it takes 5 min and it is pretty good coffee, even has an espresso'ish froth. If you'd like one of your very own:

https://www.sharesenseo.com/q5/1.jsp;jsessionid=BD80C9610D28361C53E42F037B8F89B7

Say it with me people, Let's Go Senseo, Let's Go Senseo . . .

#5: This week-end is the KICKS Against Breast Cancer Soccer tournament in Maryland. This is mostly only noteworthy to me (and therefore to some of you) because William & Mary is going to be playing against Penn State. What this really means to me is JD vs Ann Cook - b/c I don't know a single kid actually playing in the game. I am just a huge fan of the people coaching the game . . . I will turn your flesh to alabaster, Then you will find your servant is your master. . . .not really but that pops into my head whenever I think of any of us coaching against JD.

#6: The CSA that Kelly and I joined publishes (via email) a weekly farm newsletter. It is written by the farmer. I have never met the man but based on these newsletters I am going to guess that he's an enjoyer of pot, Richard Bach, and VW vans with "give peace a chance" bumper stickers. His newsletters are typically about 6 to 8 pages long and have approximately 5 sentences of information about the actual farm. The remainder of the newsletter is a jumbly narrative that meanders through topics, timeframes, and subjects as if 4 different people are trying to tell 6 different versions of the same story. It entertains me but I never really have any idea what he's talking about. I just received this week's newsletter. It is 6 pages long and this is how it begins:

"Outside my window I see our car parked under the pear tree. And there's a blue bird on a lower limb of the tree.

A male blue bird with its bright shiny blue and rusty red feathers.

And every few minutes, there he goes, up in the air, hovers outside the car window. And then...

He attacks.

Attacking what? I don't know. I'm not a bird, not a male bluebird. I can only make a human guess.

Maybe that bluebird reflection in the window?

All's I can say is, with any confidence, he's nuts,

Male bird nuts.

But then, that's nothing new. this is the season, the time of year for nutty bird behavior."

From there he launches into a four page story about a pair of mating grouses who routinely made him late to work b/c they did their "mating dance" in the middle of his driveway.

At the end of the newsletter he let us know that there are free eggs available if we want to go pick them up at the farm this week-end. Also that the asparagus does not like cold damp soil so it is not ready to be picked.

In case you were wondering, all of my Nalgene's are number 2s so I am not in any danger of drinking nasty chemicals that will shrivel my reproductive organs.

Its Alive, Its Alive

2008-04-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering, Spike is doing really really well.

Day 6:

Day 10:

I think I am going to give him a trim tonight. There isn't enough hair in the back for a mullet but I think we've got the makings of a brilliant mohawk.

All of the Rain, None of the Coffee

2008-04-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

Its been like Seattle here for about a week now. And not the fun, artsy, coffee loving, gorgeous Puget Sound Seattle. The rainy, dreary, gray, read Sylvia Plath, invest in gortex Seattle. Now in fairness to Seattle, every time I have been there it has been gorgeous and sunny. The Seattle I am comparing today to is more like the one in the depressing scenes in Sleepless in Seattle.

Anyway, its dreary all up and down the east coast. I know this because both Liz and
Carden are complaining about there own weather induced dull drums. I am sure if I contacted Melone she'd report the same. The sun has apparently taken a hiatus from the east coast. It is even cloudy in Florida.

Yeah, yeah I know, April showers bring May flower. But whatever, I'm tired of the rain.

However, that is the end of the crabbing in this post. I suppose its half vent half caveat. It is because of above mentioned weather that I have not really felt all that inspired. I suppose sunshine is my muse. Alas I felt compelled to offer up something so here is another grab bag of things you might be wondering about:

In case you were wondering how observant are you: http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

In case you were wondering about a delicious red wine & you happen to be a fan of Pinot Noir from Oregon:Foris, Pinot Noir, Oregon, 2006. Average rating from Kelly & me: 8

Things I will never wonder about: "Facebook unveils instant message feature" This was an actual headline on cnn.com. Really? Is that news?

In case you were wondering more about bathroom etiquette (courtesy of my brother): http://www.justadrop.net/products.html

In case you were wondering, it took Liz all day to complete this puzzle (and I am still working on it):

Oh and lastly, in case you were wondering, I came in 8th place with 79 points in my March Madness pool. This is despite having picked UCLA and UNC to go to the final game with UNC winning. Thanks nutter, it was a great run.

If At First You Don't Succeed

2008-04-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well I am sad to report that the basil is not recovering. And although I will take some if not most of the blame, I do think it has something to do with the fact that the sun has not really been around for most of this week. Regardless they have withered almost beyond recognition and I might just have to turn them into compost and put them out of their misery. I have to say it’s a tad discouraging. However, after a nice pep talk from Liz I decided not to throw in the trowel (yea Dave, that was just for you).

So, I have embarked on a second attempt at gardening with renewed hope. This attempt is what one might call remedial but hey, you gotta restart somewhere. Let me introduce you all to Spike (Cookie the real Spike in still #1 in my heart):

Spike is the pet version of a "Grow-A-Head" . . . (http://www.grow-a-head.com/index/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1). I got him as a birthday gift from my aforementioned Green Thumb Mom. I highly recommend Grow-A-Heads for anyone ages 5 to 85. Fun for kids of all ages.

Anyway, back to Spike. He has Rye Perennial Grass seeds planted in his head along with coir dust, peat moss and fertilizer. These last items are there to ensure that almost no matter what you do Spike will grow grass hair. The process is divinely simple: soak Spike in water, cover Spike with plastic container (provided with kit), keep Spike’s vase full of water and his wick totally submerged, remove container once hair appears. I figured it would be fun to plot this journey together so I will keep you posted on Spike’s hair growth. I already have a request from my brother to turn it into a mullet as soon as possible.

In case you were wondering, coir dust is a renewable resource made from coconut husks. Formerly a waste product left behind during coconut processing, coir dust is often used as an all-natural alternative to peat moss. Cool, right?

Toilet Talk

2008-04-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

It is out great affinity for Mr. Owens that I am posting an entire blog dedicated solely to bathroom etiquette. . .

So, what are there etiquette rules that dictate when you can and cannot use the handicapped bathroom stall (Yes Sean, they have these in women's bathrooms).

Well the easy answer is: If you’re not handicapped, do not use the handicapped bathroom stall. Now I am not saying that is the ‘right’ answer. I am just saying that is the easiest because, as you’re about to see, determining when is and is not the appropriate time to use the handicap stall is a rather complicated process.

First, as a well trained consultant, I have listed the assumptions made when deriving this paradigm.

Assumptions:

1. The handicapped stall is the only stall available

2. You are not, in fact, handicap

3. You are a person who would be embarrassed if you walked out of a handicap stall and found an actual handicap person there waiting for your able bodies self to get out of their stall.

4. Men only use stalls when they have to do more than just pee.

4a. The average man will therefore be in a stall longer than the average woman.

Ok, so the decision for appropriate use of a handicapped stall by a non handicapped person is a function of the following variables:

#1 If you are a man or a woman?

#2 How many handicap stalls are there in the bathroom?

#3 How many handicap people are in the facility you are currently in?

#4 What time of day is it?

It is really all about assessing and minimizing the odds that you’re going to be occupying the handicapped stall when a handicapped person is in need of it.

If you’re a man, and there is only 1 handicapped stall in the bathroom, and you know there is at least one handicapped person in the facility, and it is prime bathroom time (right after morning coffee/right after lunch) you probably shouldn’t be using the handicapped stall.

If it’s not prime time but all other factors remain the same, you probably still should refrain. If it’s not prime time and/or the ratio of handicapped stalls to handicapped people is more equitable then you’re probably ok.

If you’re a woman and there is only 1 handicapped stall in the bathroom, and you know there is at least one handicapped person in the facility, and it is prime bathroom time, you probably shouldn’t either but if you’re gonna be quick about it you’re likely to be ok.

So to summarize, the easy answer is - don’t use the handicapped stall if you’re not a handicapped person. If you don’t like that answer start counting stalls and have your statical data on hand next time you walk into the bathroom.

NOTE: There is one notable exception to all of this. Sometimes when you gotta go, you GOTTA GO. In those situations, all bets are off and all stalls are open for business.

The Cherry Blossoms are here

2008-04-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

It was 76 degrees and sun shiney yesterday, here in the DC metro area. As a result I determined that the best way to spend such a lovely day was walking around the tidal basin enjoying the cherry blossoms. So in case you were wondering where I was yesterday, I was here:

Looking at these pretties:

(Sean, I saw you. The topic is in the bullpen)

2008-04-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

In honor of April Fool's day I was going to write to you all and regale you with tales of the origins of this interesting tradition, dare I say holiday. However, as a poured over the wikipedia entry I realized that the history of April Fool's day is actually really pretty boring and mostly nonsensical. At some point Chaucer was involved and really at no point was it funny. So I will spare you.

What I did find sort of entertaining were the real life public pranks that have taken place over the years. Those seemed worth sharing:

Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article written by physicist Mark Boslough claiming that the Alabama Legistature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.
Spaghetti trees: The BBC television program Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. They had claimed that the despised pest the spaghetti weevil had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees.
Left Handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side. Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger.
Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell."
San Serriffe: The Guardian printed a supplement in 1977 praising this fictional resort, its two main islands (Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse), its capital (Bodini), and its leader (General Pica). Intrigued readers were later disappointed to learn that San Serriffe (sans serif) did not exist except as references to typeface terminology.
Smell-o-vision: In 1965, the BBC purported to conduct a trial of a new technology allowing the transmission of odor over the airwaves to all viewers. Many viewers reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success.
Tower of Pisa: The Dutch TV news reported once in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over.
Crazy Canucks: The Canadian news site bourque.org announced in 2002 that Finance Minster Paul Martin had resigned "in order to breed prize Charolais cattle and handsome Fawn Runner ducks.

I must confess that I am really not a fan of having pranks pulled on me. As a result I refrain from pulling them on others and thereby reduce the chances that I am going to find my office supplies stuck in jello or the toilet seat saran wrapped. So anyway, I wish you all a prank free April Fools Day.

In case you were wondering, New Mexicans for Science and Reason is a real group. They even have their own podcast: http://www.nmsr.org/

Here, There, & Nowhere in Particular

2008-03-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

I am sort of all over the place today. There is no real theme for this here blog post. So, read along at your own peril . . .

First thing I feel compelled to share is some educational entertainment I got from Kim a few days ago. She subscribes to a word-a-day type email thingie and their theme last week was Yiddish - Kim now speaks 4 languages (and Kim, I think Catalun and Yiddish seem to make great linguistic bedfellows so make new friends but keep the old ;)

Anyway, here are a few new words for your lexicon:

meshuga or meshugga (muh-SHOOG-uh) adjective. Crazy; stupid

megillah (meh-GIL-uh) noun. A long, tedious account

schnook (shnook) noun. A stupid, easily deceived person.

Second, I just heard the worst song in the world (at least for now. I am sure someone is out there at this very moment crafting an even worse song. . . in fact probably this guy is).
The song: She left me for Jesus
The "artist": Hayes Carll
I was tempted to include all the lyrics but really I think the chorus is sufficient:

She left me for Jesus

And that just ain’t fair

She said that he’s perfect

How could I compare

She says I should find him

And I ll know peace at last

If I ever find Jesus

I m kicking his ass

Yes, it is a country song. I have nothing more to say about that.

Lastly, there is rumor of some trucking strike tomorrow b/c the price of diesel has reached untenable levels for independent truckers. Liz and I have been mulling this over all day and we can't figure out what going on strike accomplishes when you are your own boss. But we're pretty sure it won't change the price of diesel fuel.

In case you were wondering, I am in 5th place in my March Madness pool going into the Final Four. And although it didn't pan out, this is about the best Final Four selection criteria ever:

"USC has the same colors as my high school, plays 30 minutes from our house and has a best player named "O.J. Mayo." That gets my Final Four vote."

Friday is Fun Day

2008-03-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

Today's post is really just a little bit of silly. One of those 'things that make you go hmmmm'. It comes to you courtesy of Liz. Check it out, its pretty entertaining:

How smart is your right foot? This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over
again to see if you can out smart your foot, but you can't. It's pre-programmed in your brain.

1. WITHOUT anyone watching you (they will think you're going NUTS)
and while sitting where you are at your desk in front of your
computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with
your right hand. Your foot will change directions.

Go on try it again, but this time really concentrate.

On a totally unrelated note, in case you were wondering, the 29th is Anna's bday. If you know her, wish her a happy birthday. If you don't, I bet there is someone else you know who's big day is coming up so go wish them a happy birthday.

Green Thumbs Are Not Inherited

2008-03-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

Green thumbs are not inherited. I know this b/c my mom has a 25 x 20 foot garden bursting with all sorts of hearty, healthy, bountiful goodness. She can grow pretty much anything, anywhere. It was sort of a problem as a kid b/c we always had pounds of zucchini and squash around (yeah Anna, I know, this would be your dream childhood). But we also always had 9 zillion cherry tomatoes at any one moment and those were like little bits of joy. So, it worked out ok.

Anyway the point is, my mom is a tremendously talented gardener. I have inherited a lot of things from my mom (timothy, no comments) but her green thumb is not one of them. I think its sort of a self fulfilling prophesy - like math - I'm not all that good at it so I tend to let others do it for me (now that I am out of grade school that is not considered cheating) so I never get any better and so on. Ergo, I usually leave the gardening to others (see previous post on joining a CSA).

But the other day I went to the store to buy basil for like the 53rd time in 2 weeks. And next to the packaged basil were actual basil plants. And I thought, how hard can it be to grow basil? And then I can stop paying Harris Teeter to be my gardener.

Well, from what I understand, it isn't that hard to grow basil but I still can't seem to do it. I took my little basil plants out of their plastic wrap, potted them in nice little ceramic pots (1/2 potting soil and 1/2 dirt - tip from Kelly), watered them, and went to bed.

I came home the next day (totally forgot to check on them in the morning) and they were mostly a dessicated pile of withered leaves. Only mostly b/c Kelly didn't forget to check on them and gave them more water. Apparently when you pot a new plant you pretty much have to drown it. I didn't do that. I gave each plant about 2 tblsps of water, a woefully inadequate amount, and as a result may have murdered my very first basil plants. Which is apparently really hard to do b/c basil is like a weed, it grows anywhere and a lot.

Not only have my basil plants lost total faith in me, so has Kelly. Yesterday when I got home I went right over to my little basil plants for some water and TLC. . . and their soil was totally soaked. Kelly has taken to watering them for fear that they will never recover under my neglectful watch.

In case you were wondering, they're doing ok as of this morning (day 3). Some of the leaves look well hydrated and healthy. There just might be a home grown pesto in my future after all.

In Case You Were Wondering . . .

2008-03-21T07:00:00.001-07:00

. . . .
Here is a cool new band to check out:
http://www.bearfootbluegrass.com/

They are a group originating out of Cordova, AK. The music is 1/2 bluegrass, 1/4 barber shop quartet, and 1/4 old time country (emmylou, loretta, hank (not jr.), gram parsons, etc). Kelly and I saw them at the Birchmere when they opened for the Saw Doctors and it was a rare treat to want the opening band to linger a little longer. The Lovehammers can vouch for them as well and they're actually IN Alaska ; )

Here is a very tasty red wine to try:
http://www.cosentinowinery.com/cosentino/catalog/view_product.jsp?product_id=1117&cat_id=1003

I am not claiming that it will be the greatest Sangiovese you'll ever drink but I found it to be an easy to drink but still substantial dinner wine. It paired nicely with my cioppino and for you locals, you can get it 1/2 price on Monday's at Argia's (http://www.argias.com)

Here is an easy way to see how the Lovehammer's are doing:
http://www.lovehammer.net/

Not everyone knows the Lovehammer's but everyone should.

HAPPY EASTER

2008-03-21T06:25:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter everyone. Have a great week-end enjoying family, friends, spring, faith . . . whatever brings you joy and lets you share it.

The Nutter Returns

2008-03-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Ok so you may or may not give two shakes about March Madness (it started yesterday with Xavier vs Georgia) but regardless of your interest in the actual tournament (which is really pretty fun even if you don't care about college basketball) you will LOVE this article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080318

You will love it b/c it is penned by The Nutter Sports Girl (aka Bill Simmon's wife/The Sports Gal). She is arguably the funniest person I have never met. She guest writes in her husband's weekly sports column for ESPN. How it all started is a long story that is rather irrelevant. All that is important is that this women continues to get a platform from which to share with us such gems as:

1. "A few years ago, my friend Allie was a one-night stand for Halloween . . . I told Bill about Allie's costume and made the mistake of asking what his favorite Halloween costume was. He said it was the time his friend Geoff dressed as a poop. I guarantee that my second husband will appreciate Halloween."

2. "US Weekly has a feature called "Who Wore it Best?" where 100 people in NYC choose between side-by-side photos of two celebs wearing the same outfits, then the results run in the magazine. I hate this feature because the judges have no credentials and could be homeless or Russian for all we know."

3. " Bill and his friend Hench own a fake baseball team together. I call it the League of Dorks. . . Bill said they won first prize. . .Then he said he's having a celebratory lunch with Hench next week. I said they should order a bottle of fake champagne and fake pour it on each other. I hate the League of Dorks.

Ok. I could do that for hours so instead, here is the full archive of The Nutter in all her comic splendor.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=sportsgal/070105

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bachelor/070403

I sort of wish I could meet her b/c I think it would be awesome to have a friend who was a guaranteed source of insane, random hilarity. But there is part of me that worries that she just might not be as funny in person. Good thing the odds of me ever meeting her hover right around zero.

In case you were wondering, I used her picks for my March Madness bracket. If her totally ridiculous logic is as dead on accurate with Basketball as it is with Football I am totally winning my pool.

Are You My Mother

2008-03-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

The other day I was at David's bridal getting my bridesmaids dress for Anna's wedding altered and let me tell you how fun it is to be fully surrounded by mirrors when you're wearing your winter weight and your skin is the color of raw chicken. And if that wasn't delightful enough my alternations lady spun me around a few times, stuck about 502 pins in the dress, sighed and said "you know, we have breast pads we can add to the dress"

I replied "No thanks, I'm not the bride. I'll stick with my own breasts."

She didn't laugh.

Ok but really that is really just a prelude to the real comedy compliments of David's bridal. . .

After scraping my dignity off the dressing room floor, me and my apparently small but thankfully real boobs went up front to pay for my alterations. As the lady was ringing me up I laid my wallet on the counter. It happened to fall open to that flappy thing used for pictures. And as we're waiting for American Express to accept my card the cashier smiled and said, "oh you have a lovely family"

It is a new wallet, the pictures in the picture flap came with and I just haven't cared enough to remove the pictures (or the picture flap entirely). . . here is my lovely family:

Why Run When You Can Cheer

2008-03-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

Squishy ran a half marathon this past week-end. It was her second go round. Her inaugural 13.1 mile bout was with the Washington DC National half marathon. She ran it last year on cold rainy gray March day. I honestly didn't think she'd run another one and I am pretty sure she uttered words to that effect when we saw her at the finish line. But time is a miraculous balm. It truly does heal, or at least it leaves you with the illusion of healing. It chips away at the edges of your memories so you're left with recollections of the pain . . . 'I could barely dress myself I was so sore.' But the visceral fades away. You no longer remember the actual feelings you just remember that it hurt.

It is this very phenomenon that keeps the sport of marathoning alive. If you don't believe me go stand at the finish line of a marathon and watch the runners come in (not the top runners b/c they all just look like they've been out for a Sunday stroll despite having traveled 26.2 miles in the time it takes most of us to wash our hair). They look like they have just been dragged through the depths of hell, twice. And a third of those people have done it before and half of them will do it again. I don't quite understand it but I have succumbed to it myself so I know where of I speak.

I do believe that a big part of this ability to leap frog over the agony straight to the glory has a lot to do with the fans. More to the point, it has a lot to do with your fans. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing quite like the sensation of having an entire city of strangers cheer you on as you run past them in a race they've wisely decided NOT to run. It is a special sort of euphoria and it can carry you extra miles you otherwise would not have had in you.

But the real joy, the memory bright spots that will overshadow the fact that you wanted to cry like a baby at the thought of having to bend over and untie your shoes, are the fans that are there just for you. The people you know, who drag themselves out of bed, strategically place themselves along the race route, and scream your name like you just won THEM the lottery when you shuffle by. And when they have signs, multiply that joy by a factor of 10. Not that you can actually read by the time you find them but the fact that your friend did arts and crafts for you is just the most wonderful feeling.

So, today's post is a shout out to the world's best 1/2 marathon fan. I was with her in Squishy's first race and she really is about the best fan you could ever ask for. She made me feel suuprted and cheered on and I was just a fellow Squishy fan - and a poor one by comparison. She pops up all over the course and manages to be simultaneously sincerely concerned about your race and totally entertained by the idea that you're insane enough to go running about for 13 miles. She can juggle a camera, extra water, extra food, AND your sweaty clothes. So when Squishy, and her friend Angie, signed up for a second half marathon Kelly was right there as #1 fan. This time around she topped herself with the addition of a sign and a post race donut the size of Jupiter.

So, if you've got a big race coming up you might want to see if Kelly is available. I promise you, you'll have the race of your life. Or at the very least you'll get a sign and a giant dessert treat of your choosing.

In case you were wondering, Squishy and Angie ran the Va Beach Shamrock Half Marathon and completed their 13.1 miles in 2hr and 38 minutes. All told, this is a pretty amazing trio of "a couple of mom's from Warrenton"

Squishy in case you were wondering, the Washington DC National Half Marathon is in two weeks ; )

I'm a Sheep, or is it a Lemming?

2008-03-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Ok so I feel compelled to confess that I have yet again been ensnared by Apple's annoyingly infectious spot on advertising. Yup, I bought the song that plays as they in their new Apple iBook commercials. And here's the thing, I bought it on iTunes for pete sake. And here's the other thing, I watch about 3 hours of TV a week. And in those 3 hours I probably heard that song play for approximately 6.4 seconds. And yet, it still managed to embed itself so ferociously into my right brain that I just paid .99 for the ability to listen to it whenever I want and without having Apple try to sell me a laptop.

In case you were wondering, the name of the song is New Soul by Yael Naim. Other songs on this album include such titles as Shelcah, Yashanti, and 7 Baboker.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2008-03-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

Despite my last name and physical attributes, I am in fact over 50% Irish (despite being one of Mr Owens most favorite Dagos). So in honor of my heritage, I wanted to spread a little luck of the Irish around. I hope you're all finding the road rising up to meet you, the wind at your back, and a green beer in your hand.

I was doing a little googling on St. Patty's day to see if there were any interesting fast fact that I might share with you. And low and behold I discovered that there is a Marvel comics Irish superheroine named Shamrock. Her super power was the ability to alter her luck and the luck of others within a 20-foot radius. I think thanks a pretty wicked great super power. I mean you'd never spill anything on you, drop and shatter anything, trip and make a fool out of yourself, choke, get the hiccups, wait in line, get stuck at a red light . . . and on and on.

On the other hand, I don't know how good of a super power it is. I mean you can only really fight crime in a 20 foot radius around yourself. How much crime is going to go on within 20 feet of someone else - let alone someone dressed in a lime green hero unitard. Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

In case you were wondering, Shamrock's luck finally ran out so she hung up her tights and is now "the most sought-after hairdresser in all of Europe" and serving the likes of Shadowcat and Wolfsbane and Janet van Dyne. IBID: http://www.marvel.com/universe/Shamrock

Exotic Isn't Always A Good Thing

2008-03-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

So the other day I was at the grocery store (wow is that the most mundane opening sentence ever written? I think maybe yes).

But whatever, I LOVE the grocery store. For real, I thoroughly enjoy grocery stores. I love wandering the aisles looking at all the possible things I can make and eat. Its like my own person episode of Iron Chef. I particularly like foreign grocery stores - either those actually IN foreign places or those here in America that cater to a non American nationalities. But I digress. The grocery store playing the role of "scene location" in this story was a run of the mill Harris Teeter.

On this particular day I came across a very unrun of the mill gem. It was a most exotic and eye catching item set among a few other less exotic fruits. It as a spikey, sunrise orange colored, football shaped thingie ma bobber that just looked like it grew must have been plucked from some giant lush green tree deep in some tropical jungle. It was firm and without fragrance and after a bit of looking about I spied the label. My new discovery was none other than the Kiawano Horned Melon.

As I dropped it into my basket I began dreaming of a lovely tropical fruit salad bursting with vibrant colors and luscious flavors. Something that could only be truly enjoyed by someone clad in a sarong, lounging on a sun bleached beach, washing down this delightful fruit with a cool icy beverage. As I slipped out of my day dream and back into Harris Teeter on this cold March day I make a mental note to check the Discount Vacation Packages on the expedia.com page. (NOTE: I really had no idea if the horned melon is actually a tropical fruit. For all I knew it was a native of in central Russia)

I scurried home, (after purchasing a delightful array of accompanying fruits) and got right down to the business of chopping and slicing and dicing. I saved the Kiwano for last. I really wasn't sure what sort of fruit it was going to be when i carved into it. And to be honest it wasn't at all what I expected . . and by that I mean it wasn't at all 'melony'. It was almost entirely filled with seeds. Sort of like a pomegranate but with less fleshy seeds and more mucasie surroundings. I'll spare you a more detailed description of the pulp, meat, insides of this fruit.

In the end, despite the colorful textured exterior and the icky interior the taste was a wholesale disappointment. It was neither exotic or icky, it was tasteless. If I had to ascribe a taste too it I would say it was like eating water flavored jello with the little bits of cardboard sprinkled in. This is vastly different from what it is apparently supposed to taste like, which according to wikipedia is:

"The dark-green pulp of this unique fruit has a delightfully refreshing flavor profile evocative of bananas, limes, and passionfruit."

I detected none of these flavors.

In case you were wondering, the horned melon is native to the Kalahari desert, and is now grown in California and New Zealand. So, not at all tropical, not at all delightful.

Nature's Extermintor

2008-03-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

Liz and I were discussing woodpeckers. Why you may ask, well b/c that is what we do. We discuss any and all things that catch our interest. On this particular day she was working from home and took a break to gaze longingly at her backyard nature scene. She spied a woodpecker, peck peck pecking on one of her trees, took a picture and sent it my way (ain't technology grand?) I mentioned that she might not want to get too friendly with said woodpecker and relayed the agonizing tale of a friend who was repeatedly woken up around 6am by a Woody, pecking. Thankfully her bedroom is in the front of the house and the tree, currently being assaulted, is in the back of the house.

Then we got to talking (b/c this is what you do on IM all day long when you're so good/bored at your job it only takes up 25% of your brain power) about the chance of Woody redirecting his little pointy beak at the wood on her home. I assured her (despite any real knowledge of woodpecker habits) that a woodpecker wouldn't just randomly peck at any old wood. They only assail wood containing insects. She's smart and doesn't always take my word for things (by "doesn't always" I mean "mostly never") so we started a google search. What we discovered was that although it might be annoying to have a woodpecker pecking away at your wooden shingles or trim, it's probably a lot less annoying than having your house disintegrate due to unknown termite infestation.

So what is the lesson here? If there is a woodpecker pecking on your house and not on your trees you probably have bugs living in the lovely wood parts of your house. Or you need to plant some trees in your yard.

In case you were wondering, here is the woodpecker that prompted this post. . .

Community Supported Agriculture

2008-03-05T08:34:00.000-08:00

So, how would you like fresh, locally grown, not chemically enhanced vegetables delivered to your front door - or to a location conveniently located to your front door? You would? You would like that very much? Well, woo boy you're in luck. Let me introduce you to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) . Here let me splain, no there is too much, let me sum up. . .

"A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become "members" (or "shareholders," or "subscribers") of the CSA."

I am excited to announce that Kelly and I have become proud shareholders of Bull Run Mountain Farm (http://www.bullrunfarm.com/index.html). For the bargain price of $360 we get 20 weeks of fresh herbs & produce delivered to a park about 2 miles from the house. We also get a weekly newsletter letting us know how our crop is doing, online recipes (which will be super helpful when we get our crate of Rutabaga), AND we can head out to the farm to visit our vegetables whenever we're in the area.

WARNING SOAP BOX:
I'll be brief about it . . . supporting local agriculture is HUGE for the environment, economy, and our health and well being. Ok, I'm done.

If you're at all interested and you live somewhat near me, Bull Run Mountain Farm just might be the CSA for you. If you're interested and don't live near me, move b/c I miss my friends. Or I suppose you could check out Local Harvest's web site for CSAs near you: http://www.localharvest.org/

It also has info about Farmer's Markets and other sundry things in the agricultural realm. So, enjoy and here's to fresh vegi's and to saving the world one cabbage patch at a time ; )

In case you were wondering, our first Peck will include: Broccoli, Cilantro, Mesclun Mix, Radish, Spinach, Cauliflower, Garlic Flowers, Arugula, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Pac Choi, Lettuce, Stir Fry Mix.

Useful Info You'll Likely Never Use

2008-03-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

This will likely be a reoccurring post because a lot of information falls into this category. Stuff that is interesting to know and could actually be implemented but either has such a small impact that it isn't worth the effort OR you've not been implementing this information for a long time and nothing bad has come of it so why change. These tid bits falls into the latter category, at least it does for me.

Anyway, here you go:

1. Eggs should be stored with the tapered end down to maximize the distance between yolk and the air pocket, which may cause bacteria. The yolk is more perishable then the white, or albumen, and even though it is more or less centered in the egg, the yolk can shift slightly and will move away from possible contamination.

2. Figs make an excellent meat tenderizer, as do papayas and pinapples.

3. Adding a small amount of salt to a grapefruit will make it taste sweeter.

Interesting, eh?

In case you were wondering, I haven't implemented any of those things.

Fun Ways to Celebrate Your Birthday

2008-03-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

As you may know, I am a huge fan of birthdays and not just mine. I am a huge fan of yours as well. I think you should celebrate our birthday to the fullest and if I happen to be around I'd love to celebrate with you. I just think birthdays are to be celebrated. I mean it is the one day of the year that you get to be in your own little spotlight (or if lucky you can share the spotlight with a friend who also happens to have the very same birthday you do) and be happy to have been born. Recently a friend suggested that I should be celebrating my mom on my birthday since she's the whole "birth" part of the equation. I gave that a moments reflection and despite a great deal of gratitude for having been given birth to, I dismissed the idea. That is what Mother's Day is for - celebrating motherhood surely includes celebrating the birthing part.

Anyway, part of what I love about my birthday is that it is a really good tool for prodding others into getting together. On a random Tuesday I'm not going to be all that successful in cajoling a group of my friends to convene for some drinks and laughs. However, turn that random Tuesday into a birthday Tuesday and wah lah, your friends will magically free up their calendars and show up in a place of my choosing. As a result, I feel a heavy responsibility to choose a good place and ideally a place that offers more than a place to sit and beer on tap. That will do for a random Tuesday but is hardly befitting birthday Tuesday.

So, this year the birthday activity was arcade golf. I don't actually know if that is what it is called but that is what it is. It is a fully electronicized driving range where each of your golf balls in electronically fingerprinted as your ball and as you drive it into the range it sends little e-golf messages back to the monitor in your driving range bay. These little messages appear on your monitor, next to your name, as points (or as no points in many cases) depending on where your ball landed in the range. You see the range is riddled with targets with concentric rings (think skee ball or a dart board) and if you happen to land your ball in one of these targets you get points.

Now aside from swinging a golf club and hitting a golf ball this really doesn't resemble golf at all. First of all, the person with the MOST points wins. And then there is the business of earning lots of points for shanking a worm burner 10 feet to your left (or right) while getting no points for long straight 100yrd drives. Regardless, its fun. So I highly recommend it for your next birthday celebration.

In case you were wondering, we went here: http://www.topgolfusa.com/

6 More Weeks of Winter

2008-03-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

Somehow I missed it. Groundhog's Day came and went entirely without my notice. Not that I have big Groundhog Day parties or send out Groundhog Day greeting cards wishing all my beloveds a 'Happy Ridiculous Holiday' cards. But still, its a rather entertaining if not essential American tradition. I mean if Brittany Spears is going to gobble up cnn.com headlines, the least we can do is give Phil his moment in the spotlight. Maybe it did make the headlines and I missed it but I don't think so. Anyway, I was wondering when Groundhog Day was this year so I googled it and sure enough it has come and gone. It happened on February 2nd, which is apparently ALWAYS when it happens. And Phil declared that we would be having 6 more weeks of winter. Actually, according to the Groundhog.org web site, here is how it went down:

After casting a weather eye toward thousands of his faithful followers,

Phil consulted with President Cooper and directed him to the appropriate scroll, which proclaimed:

"As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me.
Six more weeks of winter it will be!"

Now some may dismiss this as hooey but I am just as likely to trust a groundhog who's been at this since 1886 than I am to trust Al Roker. Real weather men actually get paid to be wrong 85% of the time. Phil just does out of a deep commitment to tradition and duty.

In case you were wondering, 30,000 people attended this years ceremony.

In Case You Were Wondering

2008-03-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

So I officially gave up blogging, just like I said I would, once Righty healed (by healed I mean cleared to play soccer with a high dose of drugs and a tape job like armor). Then I started again but only b/c it was such a good cause and I had a partner. But then Andy returned from Afghanistan and Kelly decided that she didn't have anything more to say about a GI Joe Barbie Doll. I filed for sole custody but she won't grant it and to be honest dragging a doll around on adventures veers away from funny and sharply towards sad when done solo. So, I quit blogging for a second time. Now I'd like to say that there was a great cry of despair from my blogging audience when Operation Camo Cake faded to black and that is what has brought me back to the blog-o-sphere but frankly that would be a fib. I did get a few comments here and there from friends who wondered when I was going to start up another blog. And although the comments were somewhat encouraging, they were more along the lines of WHEN are you going to start up again b/c we know that you just can't resist the urge to fill cyber space with mindless prattle. And clearly I can't.

So, here is blog take 3, part trois, the 3rd, III. It'll will be a daily, weekly, monthly, whenever I feel like ity, posting of things you might be wondering about - or might not be but are bored at work and this is better than reading yet another inappropriate/irrelevant mail from someone who can't figure out the Reply All feature in Outlook.