Baseball is in the air

Check it out! It's me and Orioles' play-by-play guy, Jim Hunter!


FOOD UPDATE: Blueberry smoothie for breakfast. Turkey sandwich and mixed greens salad with fresh sliced avocado over the top for lunch. And for dinner I seasoned a salmon filet with the Napa Valley seafood seasoning that I bought at Copia. I served it over a bed of cannellini beans dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and some fresh fennel fronds from the garden. Looked very impressive for being made up on the spot.

I guess "The-Doors-Open-At-7:00-And-The-Show-Ends-Around-11ish-Club" was too long to put on the tee shirts?

Saw Jamie Cullum at the 9:30 club in Washington DC last night.

(This picture is not actually from the 9:30 club last night. It’s from the Brooklyn Bridge. Also, in the picture, it’s daytime. Possibly 9:30 am. Hard to say. But you can imagine what it would looked like if it were 9:30 pm and he were in front of a curtain at the 9:30 club in Washington DC instead of in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. Can you picture it? Good. See? Now it’s almost like you were there with me. But not.)

Anyway, it was a great show. One of the best I’ve seen, actually. That guy is crazy talented. He did a great duet cover of Rocket Man with Brandi Carlile.

I’m running to Soundgarden to buy her CD this morning. You should too. (Unless you don’t live near Soundgarden. Then you should run somewhere else to buy her CD. Unless you’re in really really good shape and can run that far. In which case, by all means, run to Soundgarden.).

This morning I looked at my watch and it said 9:30. And the stamp on my hand said 9:30 too. That was trippy. (Until 9:31.)

In other news, some ass crashed into my side-view mirror while I was at the office yesterday. At least the guy left a note and offered to pay for it. I’m no driving instructor, but crashing into stationary objects should really be the first sign that maybe you should consider the bus.

Consider the Bus would be a good name for a rock band.

FOOD UPDATE: Haven’t cooked a damn thing all week. Unless you count thawing the Dinosaur Pulled Pork BBQ in the microwave. Gonna have to look through some cookbooks and find something to make tonight. I need to make sure my stove still works.

In defense of shit.

Why is shit such a bad word?

At some point, someone had to make a decision that, of all the millions of words in the English language, shit is one of about five that are inherently bad.

Why?

Who decided that shit was taboo, but poop is fine? And why is crap somehow middle ground between the two. Naughtier than poop, but more acceptable than shit. How can there possibly be a continuum of badness between three words that mean the same shit?

I can at least understand where people are coming from with fuck. Fuck means something inherently adult. So society made fuck a bad word so adults can avoid explaining it to their kids.

But there’s nothing grown-up about shit.

Granted, its meaning is unpleasant. But there are certainly plenty of words that mean worse. War. Hate. Motor Vehicle Administration.

I don’t get it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go drop the kids off at the pool.

Sticking it to the man

I finally finished doing my taxes last night. Had dreams of getting tons of cash and rolling around in it while cackling maniacally. But my accountant said he’s filing my taxes electronically. Rolling around on my laptop while cackling maniacally just doesn’t seem the same. Regardless, I should be getting back a decent refund check. In your face, Whitey!

On Friday, we rang in St. Patrick’s day in the traditional setting: Taco Fiesta. Nothing says “Kiss me I’m Irish” like refried beans and queso.

I found some embarrassing floofy St Patrick’s Day collar thing to put on Natty at Doggie Depot. I think she was kind of pissed about it.

Until she realized what a big hit she was with all of the people eating pit beef on Canton Square. (How come nobody gave me any pit beef when I wore the thing?)


The dog park was pretty crowded over the weekend. In fact, you might say that Natty had a ball. (Get it? Had a BALL? Cause she’s got a…oh nevermind)

FOOD UPDATE: Used some of the leftover cornbread to make Frank Stitt’s Cornbread Panzanella.

Sooooo good. Even with the lousy out-of-season tomatoes from Whole Foods. Took kind of awhile to make, but well worth it in the end. I had seconds. Also, thirds.

For St. Patty’s weekend, I made the traditional Red Snapper with fennel confit and tomato saffron sauce from the Balthazar cookbook.

Not only did it taste excellent, but it looked really impressive too. Which, really, is half the battle. Again, not too shabby for lousy hydroponic tomatoes.

Would You Rather?

Would you rather be able to run like a cheetah, but have an uncontrollable urge to chase cars
OR
Swim like a dolphin, but smell like a fish?

Would you rather speak every thought that pops into your mind
OR
Have one arm that hates the rest of your body and is desperately trying to escape?

Would you rather shoot fire from your nose whenever you sneeze.
OR
Have springs for teeth and when you bite down it goes BOING!

Would you rather chew your food with your armpits
OR
Smell with your nipples?

Would you rather have x-ray vision but an uncontrollable lazy eye
OR
The ability to fly but only while singing “It’s raining men.”

Would you rather look like Brad Pitt but talk like Gilbert Gottfried
OR
Look like Tom Cruise but have the personality of Tom Cruise?

Would you rather have the head of a human and the body of a sheep
OR
Have the head of a sheep and the body of a human (who is in ridiculously good shape)?

Would you rather have grass for hair and have to get your haircuts from a herd of goats
OR
Have cymbals for eyelids that crash every time you blink?

Armchair Philosopher

It’s easy to sit back on your laurels and watch the world go by.

But every once and awhile, something comes along that makes you stand up. Something that you want so badly, you can almost taste it.

These are the times that you have to take action. You have to look fate straight in the eye and say “I’m going out there and I’m not coming home until I’ve eaten a burrito.”

Spring Fever

Natty noticed birds for the first time. I can say with some degree of certainty that I run no risk of being attacked by pigeons. (Blenders, on the other hand, I’m screwed.)

Went to the zoo on Sunday. Decided that I want a goat.


Went to the dog park afterwards. A Beagle peed on my shoe. Decided that I don’t want a beagle.

The weather was perfect today, so I used a vacation day. Took Natty to Kiss Café for awhile this morning, then over to Ft. McHenry for a picnic this afternoon.







FOOD UPDATE: On Saturday, I made Jamie Oliver’s grilled tuna with mixed beans and loadsa herbs. It was terrific. And not too hard to make either. Especially if you use canned beans. (I used up some of the fresh butter beans and black eyed peas from the farmers market that have been taking up room in the freezer since September.)

Tonight I did Frank Stitt’s Grilled Strip Steak with Charred Red Onions, Corn Bread and Salsa Verde.



Fortunately, you can’t tell from the picture that I overcooked the steak. It wasn’t a total hockey puck. Just a partial one. But I think the point of the cornbread on the bottom was to catch the juices from the steak. Which doesn’t work when the steak is as juicy as my belt. (I was going to say shoe, but it just sounded wrong following the Beagle comment). Oh well. That’s what I get for grilling after dark.

GO CUSE!!!!!!!!!!

I’m sitting outside of Kiss Café and they’re playing an R&B song over the loudspeakers. The song has a nice slow beat and soft-spoken harmony. Throughout the song, the band members croon the following:

I wanna hit it from the siiiiiiiiiiiide.
I wanna hit it from the siiiiiiiiiiiide.
I wanna hit it from the siiiiiiiiiiiide.
Then I wanna get up in my riiiiiide and go.

Who says they don’t write any good love songs anymore?

Huge win for Syracuse over UConn today. I managed to catch most of the second half and overtime.



Glad I’ll actually have someone to root for in the NCAA tournament this year. Also, Josh Boone is still really, really ugly.



FOOD UPDATE: Went to Matthews Pizza for lunch today. Haven’t been for about 5 years. Might be another 5 before I finish digesting the one I ate today. Making Swordfish Milanese for dinner tonight.

Natty's Sister

Been awhile since I’ve posted anything, so I figured I should put something up.

Natty met her sister, Maggie. Who looks exactly like Natty if she got caught in an oil spill. Maggie’s smaller, and her fur isn’t quite as thick, but their faces look almost identical. Don’t you think?





Watched Shaun of the Dead the other night. One of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile. Wish I’d bought it instead of Netflixed it. (Can Netflix be a verb?)

In other news, it turns out Barry Bonds did steroids. Shocker.



Also, rain is wet.

FOOD UPDATE: Had a meeting in DC last Monday so I headed down a bit early to grab lunch at Galileo. I had penne in a spicy tomato sauce (pictured below).



As you can see, it was very good. The penne was home-made (I think. At least it seemed home-made) and was cooked perfectly al dente. The tomato sauce was flecked with red pepper flakes and had some nice rustic chunks of cherry tomato mixed in. I’ll be ripping off that recipe for sure.

I made Jamie Oliver’s Spanish Roasted Chicken on Sunday night. It’s the first actual recipe that I’ve cooked for awhile. Pretty good, although I had to use Andouille sausage because Safeway sucks and they didn’t have Chorizo. Oh well. I prefer his other roast chicken recipes better anyway. This one didn’t have as much flavor in the chicken itself.