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Flight Behavior
“Number one. Bring your own Tupperware to a restaurant for leftovers, as often as possible.” “I’ve not eaten at a restaurant in over two years.” “Try bringing your own mug for tea or coffee. Does not apply, I guess. Carry your own cutlery, use no plastic utensils, ditto ditto. Okay, here’s one. Carry your own Nalgene bottle instead of buying bottled water.” “Our well water is good. We wouldn’t pay for store-bought.” “Okay,” he said. “Try to reduce the intake of red meat in your diet.” “Are you crazy? I’m trying to increase our intake of red meat.” “Why is that?” “Because mac and cheese only gets you so far,…
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Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives, and Rosemary
This is a sad, pathetic picture of a delicious, wonderful dinner. We scarfed it down too quickly for me to take a picture of the whole plate of chicken and veggies, so you get the leftovers in a cold bowl. Sorry. One of my gifts for Christmas was the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. I was thrilled, because I’ve tried a few recipes from Deb’s blog, and I’ve enjoyed them quite a bit. Last night I decided to try my first recipe from the cookbook, and then I decided to pair it with another recipe from the cookbook. Why not, right? Because I’m nice that way, I suggest you try them. Then,…
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Friday Randomness
Jumping right on in here…. I enjoyed my time off from work. Sunday we had some friends over that we haven’t seen in ages. There’s something about having kids who are in school and sports and trying to support them, that doesn’t leave one with much time, so it can be hard to get together. Then there’s work, which is also a huge time suck. So between the work and the commuting and the kids and so on, we haven’t seen them in awhile. Finally we did. I made a huge meatloaf, we laughed and ate and relaxed. It was excellent. Also, went to Stockton to see my Grandma. She’s…
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Dirty Little Secret
I’m pretty open about the fact that I’m an atheist, and that I was raised that way. I’m a little less open about the other lie that we don’t participate in….Santa. To me, they are very similar. Stories that bring lots of joy and comfort, but that are just that…stories. Being an atheist seems somehow safer, culturally. You can tell people that you can’t reconcile the pain in the world, the natural disasters and mass murderers, with an all powerful and all loving God, and people will respect your view, even if they do not agree with it. But if you tell people that you are not raising your child…
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Bookworm
Today is the first day of my winter break…10 days off from work. I feel fortunate to have this time off, as I work in the payroll software industry, and year end is traditionally the busiest time of the year. But I work from home, and if I agree that if something earth shattering happens before Jan 2nd (like Congress gets a plan voted on, and the IRS is then able to put out new withholding tables), I will put in a few hours and get that info to our clients, I can pretty much take the time off. It works well for me. So, aside from Christmas and New…
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On School Shootings and Facebook
I want to write something about the mass shooting in Connecticut. I feel like I should. But it hurts to go into a lot of detail. I hate it. Those poor families. Those poor children. Those poor teachers. That whole, devastated community. I cannot imagine what they are going through. I hate that people get sick enough that they would do such a thing. I hate that we live in a country where guns are so available, that we can have two shootings in one week. It was just Tuesday that I heard on the radio about a guy who shot up a mall outside of Portland, and I quickly…
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Dog in a Dress
This is Samantha, my sweet puppy, lurking through the window of our house in Fairbanks, Alaska. She used to sit on top of her dog house and try to guilt us into letting her in the house, which didn’t happen on too regular of a basis, as she was an outdoor dog, and if you keep your dog in the house in Alaska, they don’t grow all of the fat and fur that they need to survive in sub-zero weather. If it were today, I would do it differently. I think dogs are happier in the den with the pack, and I think the pack is happier with the dog…
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The Hobbit
Our local paper had this to say about The Hobbit: “‘The Hobbit,’ a movie that is exactly one Jar Jar Binks away from being as bad as ‘The Phantom Menace’.” In other words, the reviewer hated it. We read the review, and decided to go see the movie anyway. I didn’t hate it that much, but I’m not sure I really liked it, either. For such a charming story, I’m sorry to say that the film felt bloated and somewhat boring. Part of the problem, I think, is that a book is not a film, and a film isn’t a book. You have to do some trimming if you’re going…
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The Hobbit
In preparation for this week’s release of the film version of “The Hobbit”, I decided that I wanted to read the book. I haven’t read “The Hobbit” since High School, which was a few decades ago. If you haven’t read “The Hobbit”, I’ll fill you in a bit. “The Hobbit” is Bilbo Baggins, a resident of Middle Earth, who is recruited by the wizard Gandalf to accompany a company of dwarfs on their mission to reclaim their kingdom under the Lonely Mountain, as well as their treasure. The mountain has been occupied for perhaps a century by a dragon, Smaug, who has laid waste to the surrounding area, terrorizing those…
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Applesauce
I may have mentioned that Ted is now working for a small local company, writing, directing, and editing a show called, “Fresh From the Farmers’ Market”. The show spotlights the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market, and plays on a local station on Sundays at 4:30. They did a Hanukkah show, and one of the things they talk about is applesauce. From listening to the show over and over again (Ted edits the show at his desk, which is right next to my work desk, all in our bedroom. Bad feng shui, I know, having your office in your bedroom. Worse feng shui would be being homeless because I don’t…
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Super Moist Roast Chicken
(Image courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen, since I didn’t take one.) We enjoy a nice latke and applesauce dinner for the first night of Hanukkah, but we also enjoy a little more to the meal, if you know what I mean. Generally, that means a roast chicken and some easy to prepare veggies. Latkes are kind of worky, and homemade applesauce does take some time of peeling and cutting, so it’s nice to have a recipe that you can pop in the oven and ignore while you make your latkes and applesauce. I saw this recipe on America’s Test Kitchen, and it was just weird enough to make me wonder.…
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The End of -ism
Awesome picture showing that the end of one problem might just be the beginning of another, found here. I’m enjoying poking around on this guy’s blog, checking out his art. You should, too.
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Under the Table
No, not drinking someone under the table. Napping under the table. When I was a kid, I loved to nap. I still love to nap. Now, my favorite napping place is on my sofa with my cozy napping blanket, or maybe on my bed. But when I was a kid, I loved to nap under things. Especially under tables. It felt so cozy, like a little cave, and if there were a party going on, I could hear the adults laughing and talking, and just soak it up until I dozed off. I know, I’m weird. I once fell asleep under a piano on a river boat*, and didn’t wake…
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Friday Randomness
Well, I made it to the end of NaBloPoMo, and I only missed one day, when I couldn’t get onto my blog to post. I’ve resorted to memes, Wordless Wednesday, and recipes. Then again, I like all of those things. I’ve enjoyed having that blog part of my brain tuned in. Like when something at least mildly interesting happens, and you think, “oh, that’s great for the blog!” I missed saying happy blogaversary to Thinking About. I started blogging back in November of 2005, because all the cool kids were doing it, and it seemed like fun. I don’t think I could have guessed that I would make real friends…
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Pumpkin Mac & Cheese
I’m not sure where I came across this recipe…actually, it wasn’t this exact recipe, it was another, but then I found this one, and I liked it even more, because it doesn’t have sage. I’m not a huge fan of sage. I like it in small doses (like in a browned butter sauce for butternut squash ravioli, which actually might taste like this, so sage would probably be good), but not a ton. I’ve overdone the sage in the past, and regretted it. But when I saw it, it sounded so nice and autumnal, plus pumpkin has a lot of vitamins and adds a creamy texture, so you need less…