First, discover that your car is making awful whining noises and feel it get all vibration..y when you turn corners. Come back home, call in to work saying that you are running late because you are automobilically challenged. Discover that your power steering fluid is bone dry. Get some power steering fluid and apply it liberally to your car. Then discover that you should have actually used transmission fluid because your car is just weird.
Second, finally arrive at work only to find that one of your web servers has been compromised. Spend the rest of the day trying to work out how it was compromised, why, and how you can fix it.
Third, come home, decide to grill some asparagus on your grill, and promptly burn it to really nice and crispy long straws of charcoal. Yum!
Stay tuned, I am sure that there is more to come.
Don’t forget to vote in the Third Annual Pumpkin Carve Off if you haven’t already!
Welcome to the Third Annual Pumpkin Carve Off!
As some of you regulars may remember, each year Crickie and I go head to head with our pumpkin carving skills, and then put the results out for you, our readers to vote on the best pumpkin carving. The winner gets to proclaim themselves as the The Great Pumpkinhead for the next twelve months (a dubious, but competitively sought after title between the two of us).
The stakes are high this year. Each of us has carried the title one year. Your votes will determine whom gains an overwhelming lead and crowing rights for the next year.
Vote wisely. Vote well. And make sure you vote before 11:59pm Thursday, when the polling booth officially closes. For those of you that have a LiveJournal account, you can vote at Crickie’s post.
Our contestants:
Contestant #1: Kiss Pumpkins -
Contestant #2: Leatherface Pumpkin -
I vividly remember the day I died, like it was only two years ago.
It was Halloween.
I was washing up in the sink and I had dumped some scraps into the waste disposal. Something was jamming it, so I turned the disposal off and tried poking it with a spoon. The spoon wasn’t long enough to get at the blockage, so I carefully reached in there with my hand and felt around.
And it went rapidly downhill from there…
It was the scene from a post I made back on Halloween of 2005. You can check out the post in Notice of Death
Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!
Some of my posts were picked up by blog carnivals recently:
The Offending Arachnid has garnered the most coverage, probably because there are several blog carnivals focusing on our feline friends. Included among them were the 1001 Cats Blog Carnival. The very friendly Megan and her Bad Kitty Cats included the post when she hosted the Carnival of Cats, Issue 187. 187 issues. Woah.
Kale and Onion Stir-Fry was picked up by Kids Dish on the Vegetarian Carnival.
And finally, My Ass, Well Covered got a new lease on life from Anja Merret’s Blog Carnival of Observations on Life.
Thanks guys!
This simple (you might even say basic) dish is not only deliciously traditional in flavor, it is ready to serve in under 30 minutes, and its healthy as well. Thats three out of three in my book.
Ingredients:
24 fresh asparagus stalks (firm, no wilting allowed)
5 carrots (hard, no bending)
1/4 cup of water
1 tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon of reduced sodium soy sauce
11/2 teaspoons of sesame oil (the dark kind, if you have it)
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds
Serves: 3
Total Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Tip: Once you get this recipe under way, with you know - the cooking bits, there is not a lot of time to sit around and contemplate why we’re all here, or where ear wax comes from, much less chopping things up, and scurrying around in the pantry looking for that bottle of soy you are sure you bought the other day. Have things prepared and ready to dump into the wok when needed. Trust me, its a lot less stressful, and a happy chef makes happy food.
The Eight Step Program:
1. Slice the carrots 1/4 inch thick on a horizontal angle, exposing a large area of interior of the carrot on both sides of the slice. This will allow the heat, sauce, and oils to work on them which provides us with a light caramelization of their natural sugars.
| Carrots are a source of vitamins A, K, C, dietary fiber, potassium, B6, manganese, molybdenum, B1, B3, phosphorus, magnesium and folate. |
2. Trim any gigantic trunks off the asparagus stalks. You ultimately want them to be relatively uniform in size at the base with the bulk of the upper stalk. Slice the asparagus as you did the carrots but to a thickness of half an inch. This will allow the heat to penetrate the thick outer layer and provide us with nice even cooking in the short amount of time that the asparagus will be exposed to the heat.
| Asparagus is a source of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, C, K, copper, iron, manganese, phosphorus, zinc and folate. |
3. Place a large nonstick wok (if you must, a large frying pan will do in a pinch) over scorchingly high heat and give it a brief go around with non-stick cooking spray (or a drop or two of canola oil).
4. When the pan is hot (test with a single drop of water, not any part of your body), bring the temperature down to just barely high, and add the carrots immediately.
5. Stir-fry the carrots for 4 minutes. Keep the carrots on the move and don’t be afraid to lift the wok off the heat and shake the carrots around for a little while to give them a breather if the heat is being a little aggressive (Bonus: anyone watching you will think you’ve got some real wok flare if you do this occasionally anyway).
6. Add the asparagus and water (without looking like a sissy (again in case anyone is watching), keep your tender parts away from the wok when you do this). Toss the carrots and asparagus until they are combined. Cover the wok and let them cook for 2 minutes.
7. Uncover the wok and add the ginger. Make sure you continue stir-frying to ensure that the delicate ginger doesn’t immediately sear to the pan. Continue this for another 2 minutes.
8. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Stir-fry all of the ingredients so that the carrots and asparagus as well coated, then serve.
I’ve been quiet recently because I have been pretty well flattened by the “Cold and Flu” Bus. I don’t know who threw me under said bus but it certainly did a number on me. Thanks! 
I’ve not been able to muster up the energy until now to peep even a squeak (without coughing and hacking up parts of what are probably vital organs).
Instead, I’ve been spending the last several days trying to sleep at night (I swear, as soon as I lay down, I pretty much drown), which always ends up being fitful at best - I have the pleasure of waking up to experience a new cough or sneeze (like I had not already had enough of that the proceeding day).
Then during the day I am exhausted and find myself dozing for hours at a time to catch up on the sleep that the Cold and Flu Bus would not make a stop for the night before. When I am not dozing I am busy cramming vitamins, fruits, juices and god-awful tasting medication down my throat. Which reminds me of a line from the movie Trainspotting that seems appropriate here: “For all the good they’ve done me I might as well have shoved them up my arse…”
Seems though I am finally on the mend. It was hell getting up this morning - my bed seemed entirely too comfortable and leaving it was a cruel torture, but I have managed to stay awake for most of the day. I can mostly breathe through both nostrils.
The silence of sickness is mostly not silent at all. Its fairly raw, loud, harsh and violent. Except perhaps on the internet, where things go quiet for a while.
But I’ll be back imminently, causing a ruckus.
I can’t wait!
If someone ever tells you that painting a house (either interior OR exterior) is fun, avoid them like they were sporting ripe pustules bursting with the plague, for these individuals are some of the most egregious of liars on the face of planet earth.
My desktop wallpaper at home is in the same vein as my one at work. Green, forest, relaxing.
And no bloody lizards!
Click Here For Larger Image
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I have a whole herd on lizards living on my back porch and in the greenery that you will find there.
I’m serious.
Make any sudden moves while you are out there and you might cause them to stampede - the ground to tremble, the windows to shake, and small animals and children to whine for their mothers.
Besides their propensity to stampede, my lizards are otherwise very confident and bold.
Fearless is probably a better word.
They’ll sit on the windows, the plants, scoot around on the concrete paying you naught attention.
Unless they are bored. At which time they will just sit and stare.
They even come into the house and run the gambit against the cats.
Which takes some serious balls.
Today I was taking a screen shot of my desktop to post on The Scott English Show. The wall paper on my desktop is a relaxing photo of some bright green foliage. It helps me to de-stress when I am at work.
Imagine my shock when just as I was about to take the screen shot, a lizard skittered up across the face of my monitor!
Click for larger image.
The little bugger then promptly scooted back down my monitor, onto my desk and then off the side. I expect that its kicking back somewhere under my desk now. Must have hitched a ride with me into work. Unbelievable!
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My wife took her team to the Texas State Fair today.
I knew that meant she would be tired when she got home. So last night I concocted a plan to make dinner this evening.
I picked a dish at random from a list of recipes that I had been saving up to try. The result: Kale and Onion Stir-Fry.
I looked in more detail at the recipe: it seemed fairly bland… yet I went ahead with it and this is what happened…
Kale and Onion Stir-Fry
1 lb fresh kale
1 onion, sliced
3 T white wine vinegar
3 T light soy sauce
1/2 t sugar
Separate the kale leaves from their ribs by loosely gripping the base of the stem and moving your hand up toward the end of the leaf. You should get most of the leaves coming off easily. You may have the end break off in one big leaf. You can leave it as it is (it will reduce later in the cooking process), or just tear it apart into bit size pieces.
Wash the kale off well and dry it.
Heat a HUGE wok if you have one on Medium-High. I say HUGE, because this is a lot of kale to begin with, although when the heat gets to it, it will become much more manageable.
Add the onion to the bottom of the wok and then the kale on top. Stir it for two or three minutes.
Add the rice vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Reduce heat to medium and stir until kale becomes a deeper darker green and floppy, and the onions are tender.
Serve in bowls.
The flavor of the Kale and Onion Stir-Fry is actually quite surprising, and wonderfully good (and very easy to prepare). The ingredients added to the kale and onion really work double time to give it a delicious flavor. This turned out to be one of our favorite uses for kale to date. You should give it a try.
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