It’s Poosky

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Frog

I saw Alf walking down the street today. I also saw a wee little princess with a little pointy hat and veil. Also, assorted witches, vampires and hos.

So, I have a problem with a person I know and here’s the problem: she’s a freak. About two months ago, we were sort of kicking around the idea of going on a trip in December and I wasn’t that enthused about it because we’d really rather buy furniture than go to the tropics for three days. Anyway, this friend sent me a travel itinerary for her trip to London. No other info. Just her flight times.

I, of course, smelling bullshit emailed her back and said something like, “going on a trip?” and, perhaps, I asked if it was for work or play. I finally got the story out of her but it was worse than going to the dentist and having to listen to the drill.

Being a good friend, I emailed her this Monday and asked about the trip since I knew she returned over the weekend (what with the itinerary in my email and all I was a freaking expert on when she returned). I have heard nothing about the trip. But, I did get a FoxNews story emailed to me about how dumping soot into clouds may stop hurricanes. This is an old and incredibly tiring conversation she continues to have with me/us (the better-half got the email too and he responded with some scientific geekery). I don’t give a fig about dissipating hurricanes unless, of course, we could also figure out how to have weekly rain, but only rain between the hours of midnight and 5am. My apologies to all the shift workers out there.

I did not respond to the hurricane story because, quite frankly, I asked her about her trip and the flights, etc. and the response was a news clip on hurricane thwarting. This ties together nicely with the email response to my “are you ready for your trip” email about a big fat shark someone caught.

In full disclosure she did send some post cards while gone and so I guess that’s enough chatting about the trip. However, it still pisses me off about the constant teeth-pulling aspect of my relationship with her. I get so sick of having to carry the whole conversation, getting together details, etc. Then, when she deigns it, she’s completely chatty and engaging.

I guess my costume for tonight is the Grinch.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

It was offal. Actually it ROCKED

Posted on October 28, 2007 by Frog

Yesterday we stopped by the Belmont Butchery to pick up some sausage, blue cheese and sweetbreads. I have ordered sweetbreads at restaurants and have really liked them. I’ve wanted to make them for awhile now and decided what the hell, let’s do them this weekend.

So, tonight we made sweetbreads. Tanya at the Butchery gave us some tips and we reviewed recipes in the Silver Spoon and Julia Child’s opus Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

We made Artichoke and Parmesan Risotto and baked asparagus to accompany the sweetbreads. If the sweetbread experiment didn’t work we knew that the sides would be awesome as they are tried and true recipes. As it turned out, any worry over whether or not the sweetbreads were going to be excellent was just silly.

First, we blanched the sweetbreads and then I removed the membrane as well as I could. I cut off all the things that looked like veins and there was an actual piece of red meat that went into the blanch and since it felt pretty tough after the blanching, I cut that off too. Then, the better-half pressed the sweetbreads in between two plates. I cut them into pieces and let them soak in some half and half. I dredged them in a flour/salt/pepper mixture.

As the better-half stirred the risotto, we decided to cook a piece of the sweetbread (in butter) to see how it was going to go–the asparagus and risotto still had time in the oven/on the stove. As soon as I took a bite, I knew nothing but good times were in front of us. The better-half has only ever had sweetbreads as a taste off my plate and immediately decided that he could eat a plate of them if the situation arose.

We browned the sweetbreads in butter and then kept them warm in the oven until the risotto was done. Just before plating everything, I made a sauce (also a first–usually the better-half does this) that consisted of the fond from the sweetbreads, sherry and shallots. I reduced by half.

Oh my goodness, it was good.

Posted in Eating | 1 Comment

I’m not swallowing my voice. I have a disease.

Posted on October 25, 2007 by Frog

Found via Salon’s Broadsheet:

In many women thyroid dysfunction develops because of an energy blockage in the throat region, the result of a lifetime of “swallowing” words one is aching to say. In the name of preserving harmony, or because these women have learned to live as relatively helpless members of their families or social groups, they have learned to stifle their self-expression. These women may, in fact, have struggled to have their say, only to discover that it doesn’t make any difference — because in their closest relationships they have been defined as insignificant. In order for this complex, entangled state of affairs to be resolved, a woman might need to take not only supplemental progesterone and thyroid hormone, but also an unblinking look at what parts of her life and interpersonal relationships need to change.

Here’s the whole crazy article.

Maybe the pain in my foot is from where I’m restraining myself from kicking this woman in her ass.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

Get Up, Get Out

Posted on October 25, 2007 by Frog

I am alone at work today. Let the party begin. El Jefe was here for a little while but she has an all-day, off-site meeting (and yes, it should be La Jefa or something but it has been a long time since Spanish class) and so it is just me. Our cleaning guy came in, we spoke and then he locked back up and left. That will probably be the last bit of face-to-face contact I have in the building today.

I have some actual work I can get done and then there’s the homework I have for class to do today but goofing around on the computer has my attention right now. Last night for the last 30 minutes or so of class we broke into our groups and discussed our group presentations. My group is the last group to go and we are so laid back about it to the point that no one has thought about the presentation in weeks. We all promised to actually review our articles and formulate some thoughts so we can discuss next week. We spent plenty of time talking about how tight Bourne movies are and the languages our Sudanese classmate speaks (Arabic, English, Greek).

The new cat, Simon, is at the vet right now getting a check-up. We’re pretty positive he’s already been neutered as the boy parts are ridiculously small–so small we thought he was a she (which I know is statistically low because of the orange color). I hope he’s healthy and the vet gives us some tips on what to do about the burr-infested tail. He likes being brushed but the tail is evidently a magnet to burrs and other sticky items so we’ve sort of left that alone.

Simon immediately got into the cat bed we got him at PetSmart last night. I wasn’t sure how he’d take to it since we’ve never had much luck in getting cats to do anything we’d like them to do. But he got right in the bed and slept there for most of the night. I hope he’ll continue to sleep in it because I have a feeling it will help with containing the hair. Yeah, I know, there is no controlling cat hair. As soon as we let him roam around the house, that’s it. I’ll be picking orange and white hair off my clothes from then on.

Before Leon died I was always blaming him for the white hair all over my clothes. Then he died and I was still finding hair months later. I realized those white hairs were mine. Ooops, poor dead kitty, I was blaming you for my own shedding.

Best get back to work; the evil overlords may be able to see me.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 1 Comment

No Name Yet

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Frog

So, if a cat walks into your backyard, eats a can of tuna as if his tail were on fire, then comes up on your porch and hangs out to greet you for breakfast the next day (leftover steak) and then you see a very, very old Lost Cat sign and you call and no one calls you back, how long do you have to wait before you say screw it this cat is staying?

Because even though regular cat food is now being served the cat still stays on the porch only leaving to take his business to the edge of the yard. Also, the cat lets you pull ticks off him and rub his belly. Don’t all these things sound like the cat has decided to stay?

Posted in Thinking | 4 Comments

Get A Room

Posted on October 20, 2007 by Frog

Last night we spent the night in Baltimore. The hotel wasn’t much but it was convenient. This morning while we were waiting for our friends to get ready, we made a list of all the things you could do without taking more than 100 steps out of the hotel.

Here’s the list:

  • Get a room
  • Eat at the restaurant
  • Get a drink at the bar
  • Enjoy a conference in one of the many conference rooms
  • Work out in the fitness center
  • Take a dip in the pool
  • Take in a show at the dinner theater
  • Catch a bus at the bus station
  • Grab a slice of pizza before getting on the bus
  • Hang out at the truck stop
  • Get your big rig washed
  • Have lunch at the Road Kill Cafe while having your rig washed
  • Hitchhike with a trucker
  • Pay your respects at two cemeteries
  • Grab a Big Mac
  • Strike matches and leave them in the ashtray of your Non-Smoking Room
    • Posted in Generic Thoughts | Comments Off

    Shiny New Dashboard

    Posted on October 17, 2007 by Frog

    The better-half upgraded the site to MT 4.01 and the new interface is slick and cool and I’m going to have to spend time looking around for all the buttons, widgets and whatsits I normally use. But, I didn’t really sign on today to talk about MT. I came to tell you about how disappointing my lunch was today.

    We went to Ukrop’s which for those of you from out of town is the mecca grocery store in the area. They “own” the grocery store market in Richmond area (with a store in Williamsburg and Fredericksburg too. In fact when a friend of mine moved to Williamsburg a few years ago she thanked the maker for the fact there was a Ukrop’s there). Anyway, they have a wonderful salad bar and lots of prepared foods.

    I had to buy Tom’s of Maine toothpaste since the better-half couldn’t find it at Kroger the other day. I went over to the granola section of the store, picked up the toothpaste and when I got over to the salad bar the line was stupid long. I do not do well with lines.

    I decided I could eat a sandwich but as it was already 12:30 the sandwich area was pretty picked over. I decided to get the London broil on foccacia bread. It came with a mustard sauce. The bread was good and the sauce was OK. The meat was skimpy and had zero flavor. The lettuce should have been composted and the tomato was nasty. Seriously, they couldn’t find a decent tomato to slice? There are still some growing at Dodd’s Farm just down the road from us and he’s a supplier.

    There’s something about the preprepared sandwiches that just make them unappetizing. I suppose the chicken salad is OK and I had a pimento cheese sandwich the other day that was good (but it was pimento cheese–I don’t think you can mess that up) but nearly every other sandwich I’ve had has been bland, bland, bland. To top it off, the salt and vinegar chips from Route 11 were just tiny little chips like someone had stepped on the bag.

    Posted in Eating | 1 Comment

    Watching the Tube

    Posted on October 15, 2007 by Frog

    I came across these two videos on YouTube and have laughed and laughed.

    This weekend was spent:

    • finishing my mid-term

    • the better-half took a truckload of stuff to an e-waste event, then he squired his mother to her 50th high school reunion (he’s paving his way to heaven)
    • we stained a set of steps
    • we finished watching the last movie in the Lucas Belvaux trilogy–pretty good stories all of them. I think I liked the third one best.

    Next up on our Neflix list is Bell, Book and Candle. In case you are dying to know, here’s what is on the top part of our list. I can’t promise that we’ll watch in this order since Citizen Kane has been bumped before. I saw it many years ago but the better-half hasn’t seen it yet.

    Posted in Watching | 1 Comment

    No Poker Face For Me

    Posted on October 11, 2007 by Frog

    Last night in class the professor handed out our take-home midterm exams and then we went over the questions. We have seven questions to answer and the maximum number of pages should be 8-10. The questions start off easy and the last couple are going to take some serious thought. A typical exam. Thank the lord it is essay and not multiple choice because I despise multiple choice exams.

    Just when I think the people in class are pretty smart, the school administrator in the back of the room, the same person who is in a PhD program, raises her hand. There is something wrong with her because she insists on clarifying every single assignment as if she were as dumb as a box of rocks. Her question may as well have been, “Do we need to form complete sentences?” because what she asked was about as stupid.

    This is no one’s first class because of the prerequisite requirement so there should be no excuse for graduate students asking questions like the ones I heard last night. I’m pretty sure the bottom line of all this is to find out if we’ve picked up concepts and if we are able to synthesize the information. Then we must show that we know how to apply the knowledge to whatever it is we’re doing. And, we need to be able to clearly communicate how we know what we know. It’s not that hard.

    At some point during the line-by-line clarification of questions, I realized the expression on my face was one of “what the fuck is wrong with you people” and I quickly turned my face towards the wall and then examined my shoes.

    Posted in Thinking | Comments Off

    Check Your Dictionary, NYTimes

    Posted on October 8, 2007 by Frog

    I’m not keeping up with the baseball playoffs, but this seems like a load of shite.

    According to dictionary.com, trounce means to beat severely. 4 runs does not a trounce make. Now, the score from their first match up where the Indians scored 12 runs to the 3 runs the Yankees mustered seems a lot more like a trounce.

    I suggest the Times editorial staff look up the word bias and take a note.

    Posted in Reading | 1 Comment