Clumsy cooks with no alcohol tolerance should refrain from cooking with a cup of wine, drinking two glasses, then using fussy yet razor sharp knives to chop parsley.

Just saying.

I did get a pretty awesome risotto out of this, though.

BTW, I'm adorkandhispork on twitter, so if you'd like to follow me there (and aren't already) you may. Thanks.

The same thing happens to me every Friday.

I keep a running post-it note listing all of the healthy, positive, productive and interesting things I want to do over the weekend...

...and then I promptly loose the note.

It's a wonder I get through the day.

I really, really needed this past weekend. I think I can turn the emotional autopilot off and get back to work.

Hope you all enjoyed the sunshine. :D

This made me smile:

http://www.shopflick.com/stores/beardhead/Beard-Head-Knit-Cap

Things are okay. Not perfect.

The tiny parking lot behind the building is still Donnerpartyesque, with the Hoopty's right front tire stuck in a six-inch deep ice crater and not able to drive out of it. I might have to wait until spring.

I've forgotten, in this past year, how liberating it feels to be carless while at the same time annoyed at how long it takes me to get to work. My commute is like six minutes tops (i work basically on the other side of Mitchell, so it's just up Clifton and around). But there is no way I can get to work in less than 100 minutes or so due to how the buses run. The 51 to Reading and transferring to the 47 is theoretically quickest but the timing of the two routes typically means I JUST miss the first 47 and have to stand and wait for another one 40 minutes later. Anyway.

And! it's now more expensive to use public transportation than it is to drive. I only drive to work and back and put between 8-12 dollars in my tank every Friday, and now it's $1.75 with a transfer. RRRG.

So this looks to be a good weekend. My friend is taking me to Amol for a belated bday lunch, I'm making chicken stock tonight (I'm half tempted to cool it under my car so that it melts everything away. Carbon monoxide would add a nice tang, no?) and watching movies tomorrow.

Hope you are all happy and warm.

.:ETA:.

I was able to move my car about 18 inches this morning with the help of a hammer, my bench scraper, a screwdriver and my nascent rage. I give up.

My chicken stock, however, was beyond awesome.

Mother. of. all. toothaches. Last few days, along the gumline. Searing, throbbing, hurts to chew. Ice deadens the pain slightly. This is new.

I think I need to deal with this toothache like an adult. (Also new.)

By that I mean, I think I need to deal with this toothache the way an adult would deal with a toothache, not the way I would deal with an adult.

Tell me this, people. Why do so many sadists choose pediatric dentistry as a career? You would think there would be some sort of screening process. Bad memories.

I'm making an appointment first thing monday.

Hello Eljay

So I just deleted a fairly long and extremely whiny post, bemoaning the state of my job and my Hoopty Car and my anemic exercise routine these past few days.

Seriously, people, if "being a slacker with a starting-to-rust old car who has fallen off the jogging wagon for a few days." is the worst I can say, how bad can things really be?

Perspective is sometimes a good thing.

Oh, funny thing happened today. A daydream started drifting into a "real" dream, and in this daydream a cop car suddenly pulled out of a driveway, which instantly roused me. Ha!

Anyway, hi. Hope you're all well.

I cannot express how difficult it is for the nerdier men of my generation to discover that in reality we are not really that good at Stratego

Back from a day in Indy.

Let's just say that I have a bad headache and crave Funyuns.

Imma take a nap.

Okay, this is weird, but...

I found myself oddly touched by this. Come see it with me.

What a crappy day. Rainy and blaah and stressful and smelly and I think I am going to make some cocoa and crawl under my bed and go to sleep.

No, not my "blankets," I'm going to crawl under my actual bed.

Sorry to whine. G'Night.

This picture was accidental but I really like it.

Fell asleep at work
Problem wasn't the snoring.
It was the drooling.

My new bento box has the words "Lube Sheep" on its lid.

I'm... not going to touch that one.

Night.

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=phc/2008/11/01/phc_20081101_64&starttime=00:35:40&endtime=01:05:11

Sometimes music has a way of just reaching its hand inside your chest and grabbing you by the soul.

They play a song (I think it's a traditional number) at about 37:00 that I've been listening to over and over and over.

Please listen. Once. For me.

I discovered this today. Large collection of historical photographs of Paris. So beautiful and touching.

http://www.parisenimages.fr/en/

Enjoy.

20:30 Saw Jonathan Richman play the Southgate House. It's obvious that he is older, but he still has that mesmerizing combination of vulnerability and goofy abandon that makes me love his music. Mostly newer material with a couple of Modern Lovers' tunes thrown in.

23:45 Pimenton on roasted potatoes = yum

08:14 A friend invited me to the outlet mall near Columbus this afternoon. I'm not a huge shopper but it would be ostensibly social.

09:30 I find my DVD of Smilla's Sense of Snow wedged far beneath the couch, along with a couple of socks.

10:30 I am struck by this thought: The question is not WHY I should make Bacon Egg-Nogg, rather, "Why Shouldn't I?"

12:30 Meet my little friend and her little friend at Habanero. Arroyo Hondo. Laugh non-stop at this flier reading "Free Bookmarks!" with blank strips cut into the bottom where the phone numbers usually are.

14:00 I buy little, but I do pick up a $3.00 book of Hot Cocktails, many of which I am eager to prepare.

15:30 Immensely flattered by this.

18:45 Alma Mater beats Michigan for the first time since 01 (and frankly we had some help that day) and the first time in A^2 since 90. Yay.

19:45 I've been jogging for a week now, and tonight I broke through and made it over a mile-and-a-half. I feel great.

20:37 Laundry is done. Dishes are done. All I have left to do before Monday Morning is a bunch of fun cooking.

Hope you're all having a good weekend. :7

I am going went jogging. Yay!

I think my lung is somewhere on Cornell, but you get the idea.

:)

So my office-mate had a Rabbi on speaker phone this afternoon. (Long story short it had to do whether certain materials could still be considered kosher after being loaded into a rail car of dubious pedigree.)

Dan (office mate): "it comes from here and here, and my boss thinks it's okay..."

Rabbi: "I'm sorry, Dan, but MY boss DOESN'T think it's okay."

I admit that this exchange was incredibly cheesy. But it made me laugh.