Ciao, Torino!

The Olympics are coming to a close tonight. Which means no more curling until 2010. Apparently, the sport has become a lot more popular this year. In part, no doubt, because of the USA men’s team taking home the bronze medal last night.



This photo shows John Shuster and Shawn Rojeski celebrating the victory. A moment later, they missed. This was followed by awkward laughter and snorts.

In other news, Mik has a blog on myspace. It’s very funny. You should read it.

Also, Mayor O'Malley has a petition against the sale of our ports to Dubai. If you want to sign it, there's a link on MartinOMalley.com

FOOD UPDATE: The baby zucchini did not go bad! I made it for lunch today. Very good, simple recipe from the Williams Sonoma Florence cookbook. You just cut them into one-inch lengths, sautee with some garlic in olive oil until soft, then toss with salt, pepper and chopped fresh parsley. Yum. Unfortunately, still no progress on the baby artichokes. Sad to say they might go to waste. I probably won't be cooking anything again till Tuesday.

Dog Days of Winter

Today was a good day. And not just because Charles In Charge Season One is now available on DVD.



Today, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the children were nowhere to be seen. Nothing spectacular happened today, really. The sun stayed out just long enough for everyone to bring their dogs to the dog park after work . It was a zoo, actually. There were at least 15 dogs there. Natty was in puppy heaven.

Which means that she’s going to sleep tonight. Which, more importantly, means that I’m going to sleep tonight. And that makes me happy. (Doesn’t take much these days.)

In other news, Natty is meeting her sister on Sunday.



My Mom’s friend adopted her a few weeks ago. Should be interesting to see if Natty recognizes her. (Although I’m not really sure how I’ll tell. She pretty much throws a victory parade anytime she sees any dog.) Regardless, it should be fun to see the two of them playing together. I’ll take lots of pictures.

Not much else going on. If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t bet on me staying up late enough to watch Kimmie Meisner in the skating finals thing. Guess I'll have to catch the results on the Today Show tomorrow morning.

FOOD UPDATE: Lameness prevails lately. I nuked some leftover frozen chili from the freezer last night and had it Cincinnati-style on top of some whole wheat spaghetti. There's enough left that I'll probably have the rest tonight. My baby artichokes are still sitting in the fridge longing for a recipe. Ditto for the baby zucchini.

...And gosh darnit, people like me

Here it is. Proof that I have friends. My MySpace Page

If you're on myspace, drop me a line and let's be friendsters.

I feel you, Green Day.

See that little box at the top of the page? With the Google stuff in there?

That’s right. I sold out.

See, the thing is, if enough of you click that little box and buy whatever it is that they’re hawking, I get paid. (Just how much? They won’t say. I’m guessing a nickel.) But that’s one nickel that will go to good use. Like putting food in Natty’s dish.

So go ahead and click on that little box and buy their stuff. Because otherwise, this poor, innocent puppy will starve.



And then you’ll have it riding on your conscience for all eternity. You’ll lie awake in bed at night, riddled with guilt, wondering, “if only I had clicked on that web banner, maybe that poor, innocent puppy wouldn’t have starved.”

On the downside, now you’ll never know if my content is purely objective, or if it’s being influenced by product placement.

Damn advertising. It always ruins everything.

FOOD UPDATE: Tonight I’m having Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I find that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is so much cheesier than those other brands of macaroni and cheese. And so full of calcium to help build strong bones. Whenever I think of Macaroni and Cheese, I think of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I could eat it every day. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, that is.

Breaking News: Dog invades North Korea.

I tried to warn her about the nuclear warheads, but she didn't seem to care.

Buns of Bread

After five or so months of grotesque laziness I finally put my ass back on the abs diet. (I also put the rest of my body on it). I’m actually re-reading the book right now in an attempt to get motivated to stick with it. The idea is to be in pretty good shape by the time kayaking season kicks off in May and (maybe) enter some races this year. The kayak for hemophilia event was a lot of fun last year and I’d like to do it again and (maybe) not come in second.

Having fun with the new camera, despite the fact that it’s been too damn cold to go out and play with it much. I took it to the dog park a few times, and tried out some of my Dad’s crazy industrial strength lenses on it on Sunday. I took his 300mm lens up on the roof deck and it’s pretty crazy how huge of a difference it makes.

Here’s the Natty Boh guy, actual distance with my old camera’s zoom lens:



And here it is with my Dad’s Steroid-enhanced lens:



I tried to stay in bed for 10 more minutes this morning but Natty was whining, so I let her out of her cage. Which was cool because I got to stay in bed for 10 more minutes. But not cool because, apparently, she was whining because she had to poop. Which she did all over the office floor. Maybe the 10 more minutes in bed wasn’t worth it after all.

FOOD UPDATE: I made the seared halibut with crushed potatoes and tomato, sweet and sour shallot confit from the Balthazar cookbook over the weekend. It turned out pretty well, despite the fact that I royally screwed up the sweet and sour shallot recipe and turned it into some weird burnt shallot caramel thing. Luckily, the shallot caramel loosened up when I mixed it with the tomatoes, so it didn’t taste too screwed up. Just mildly screwed up. Anyway, the crushed potatoes were a winner. A nice change of pace from mashed or baked. Next time I think I’d add chives or parsley or something. Also, I discovered I really like halibut. Don’t know that I’ve ever really cooked with it before. It’s kind of Chilean Sea-bassy but without the whole guilt-over-eating-an-almost-extinct-fish thing. Wegmans had baby artichokes for pretty cheap so I got a pack of about 8 of them. Trying to decide what to do with them before they go bad.

Finally, another gratuitous Natty picture from Sunday night:

You've got a little dirt or something.

For the record, dog mud wrestling: not that fun.

(At least not for the human who has to give the dog mud wrestler a bath afterwards.)







Needless to say, Natty is currently at the groomers.

Buy stock in Kleenex.

I have a cold. It’s annoying. I’ve burned through enough Kleenex in two days to wipe the noses of an entire army. (assuming the army had runny noses.)

I had Campbell’s Select Chicken with rice soup for lunch. It was blah. Dinner is going to be pizza on the Boboli crust that’s been taking up room in the freezer for 4 months with the tomato sauce that’s been in there for two years. I’m fully expecting to find a frozen caveman in there someday.

Natty almost has the “lay down” command figured out. Soon we’ll be able to move on to “stay,” “heel” and “bring me a beer.” (A guy can dream.)

I got my new digital camera yesterday. It’s a Canon Digital Rebel XT. It’s great so far. Lighter than I expected. And it takes really sharp pictures. It’s gonna take awhile to learn all of the fancy shmancy features on it. But I definitely have the point and shoot setting down. Gonna be fun to play with different lenses and stuff on there. Natty is already sick of having her picture taken.

Now if only my nose would stop running on the LCD display.