I happen to be wearing corduroy today.
Yes, there’s a corduroy day.
Find it, please
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On This Day In My History
I was in college when the Berlin Wall fell. I remember watching it on teevee in the common room of my dorm.
I had been in Berlin 3 years prior to the fall. After traveling there and going through to East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie and experiencing having to wait to eat lunch–3 people come out of the cafe, 3 people are allowed in. No exceptions for American teenagers. It was hard to believe that the wall had fallen. I didn’t think it was ever possible.
I remember riding the train into Berlin and looking over the fence at people who lived in East Germany as the train chugged alongside. Concrete block buildings abounded. The food in East Berlin was horrible, especially after the bureaucratic wait. In our broken German, we asked the guard why we couldn’t go into the cafe, there were seats available. That’s just how it was done and so we waited.
After eating chocolate that was made by German and Swiss angels for several weeks, we were appalled at how craptastic it was in the East. We had to exchange 25 Marks when we crossed and we were expected to spend it all while in East Berlin. I don’t think anyone in our group could. We ended up giving our leftover coins to some kids who were thrilled and chased after us for more; their mothers silent. I kept one coin. A 2 Mark piece that is so incredibly light. Like the government couldn’t even take pride in its money.
I remember my friends and I sat around in the sun, that peaked out of the clouds, at a public park after seeing a few sites, buying a few things. We waited until it was time to meet up with the rest of our group to cross back into Berlin. It was a sobering trip. It’s appropriate that it was mostly overcast that day.
I wrote on the wall and chipped a piece off (on the West side, of course). It looks just like a piece of concrete from anywhere. I still have that piece wrapped in plastic lingering in a drawer.
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Not Inspiring Much Confidence
We upgraded my computer to Windows 7 and saw this during the process. Way to go Dell:
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Lentil Soup
So, yeah, been in a funk. But, what usually fixes the funk? Cooking. Tonight the better-half is taking care of things for his mother and so I decided to make lentil soup (it’s funny that link takes you to a time a couple of years ago when I was in a funk and I made this soup to feel better).
I used French lentils we had in the pantry and the carrots were straight from our garden. Awesome. I still don’t have the bird of paradise spice/herb that Alton Brown’s recipe calls for and so this time I used Herbs de Provence which I bought this summer for another lentil recipe.
This entry is definitely not featuring fancy food photography because it doesn’t look like much…the lentils are really dark. But the soup was outstanding. I cooked it for a little longer to completely make the remaining whole lentils creamy (I used the stick blender to puree everything) and I can’t wait to eat it tomorrow for lunch. And, judging by the amount of soup currently in the pot, we’ll be getting at least one other meal out of it.
When the package tells you to rinse and pick through lentils, it’s a good idea. I found a pretty sizable stone–a tooth breaker.
I’m Scratching My Head
A co-worker just walked into my office and said, “Oh, you are here.” I looked at her like she had 3 heads. She said the marker next to my name on the In/Out board said I was out. I told her there shouldn’t be a marker next to my name because I removed it over a year ago. She laughed and then walked away.
I listened until the coast was clear and then stood up, walked over to the door and looked at the In/Out board. My name still doesn’t have a marker next to it.
She never said why she was checking up on me. And, since I have to walk past her office every time I use the bathroom, she should have seen me within the last hour so she knew I was here. Wonder what that was all about?
Posted in Generic Thoughts
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Smiles
I’ve been in kind of a funk lately. But, the google image today is making me smile every time I go to the page.
Posted in Watching
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Fried
We recently purchased a Krups fryer (we picked the model we did because it has a filter so the house doesn’t stink up) and Friday night was the maiden voyage. We weren’t sure exactly what to fry first but finally decided on fish and chips. The better-half was in charge of frying while I fretted. I was a candy maker during a few summers in college and having lightning hot candy syrup burn you makes for fretting when there are high heat splattery things going on in the kitchen. He once worked at Jungle Man Dan’s French Fry Hut and so he has some professional experience with hot oil and frying things.
Background: Usually when we fry we set up the propane tank outside and then I run back and forth between the warming oven and the fryer while he works. This makes for hit or miss frying results. The indoor fryer is a much better way to fry.
The fries were outstanding and AMAZING (yes, in all caps) and we’ll never fry those outside again. The fish was equally good…cod in a beer batter. Both were sprinkled with malt vinegar.
Speaking of vinegar, we polished off a jar of dilly green beans that I canned this summer (recipe is in the Ball’s Blue Book). Spicy and tangy and oh my sweet hopping john they were good.
Posted in Eating
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IX. The Courtyard, by H.P. Lovecraft
It was the city I had known before;
The ancient, leprous town where mongrel throngs
Chant to strange gods, and beat unhallowed gongs
In crypts beneath foul alleys near the shore.
The rotting, fish-eyed houses leered at me
From where they leaned, drunk and half-animate,
As edging through the filth I passed the gate
To the black courtyard where the man would be….
The dark walls closed me in, and loud I cursed
That ever I had come to such a den,
When suddenly a score of windows burst
Into wild light, and swarmed with dancing men:
Mad, soundless revels of the dragging dead-
And not a corpse had either hands or head!
(first pub. Weird Tales, 16, No. 3 (September 1930), 322.)
This came in an email from the better-half’s friend. The subject line of the email was “A sinister aperitif for Halloween‏”.
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