dynagirl

The jazz is on the stereo, the steak is seasoned, the olives are stuffed with blue cheese, and the gin’s in the freezer.

Why, hello, Friday Night! It’s lovely to see you again.

Where have you been all my life, onion goggles? #nomoretears

Half of our idioms are from Hughes’ movies. Every damned night? On the telephone?!

Now that all our landline phones are old school and corded, we’re tethered to exactly two working jacks. Incentive to wire up the kitchen is on its way, thanks to Richard at ericofon.com:

One of the many neat things about this phone is that I’ll have somewhere to stash the phonebook besides under the couch. The chalkboard is reversible to cork, which is nice, since even thinking about chalk sends me screaming into the other room.

I am become their davenport http://twitpic.com/cl88k

Playing Yahtzee with him in the garden. It’s hot, but there’s cheese & beer & a cat & it’s not unpleasant. Thinking about troubled friends.

In NE Wisconsin and love musicals? Go see “The Music Man.” BONUS: my dad’s starring as Mayor Shinn. http://bit.ly/1X9PVZ

Downloading it now… This gives me hope for the Wii.
via BoingBoing

Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions. Bold all the items you’ve eaten. Underline any items that you would never consider eating.

1. venison
2. nettle tea —no way
3. huevos rancheros
4. steak tartare
5. crocodile
6. black pudding
7. cheese fondue
8. carp
9. borscht
10. baba ghanoush
11. calamari
12. pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. aloo gobi
15. hot dog from a street cart
16. époisses —pretty sure I had this delicious stinker in Paris; I’ll check my notes
17. black truffle
18. fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. steamed pork buns
20. pistachio ice cream
21. heirloom tomatoes
22. fresh wild berries
23. foie gras
24. rice and beans
25. brawn, or head cheese
26. raw Scotch Bonnet pepper oh hells no
27. dulce de leche
28. oysters
29. baklava
30. bagna cauda
31. wasabi peas
32. clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. salted lassi —but that’s an idea (I don’t care for the sweet ones much)
34. sauerkraut
35. root beer float
36. cognac with a fat cigar
37. clotted cream tea
38. vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. gumbo
40. oxtail
41. curried goat
42. whole insects
43. phaal — again, not a masochist!
44. goat’s milk
45. malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. fugu — and won’t ever
47. chicken tikka masala
48. eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. sea urchin
51. prickly pear
52. umeboshi
53. abalone
54. paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. spaetzle
57. dirty gin martini — the only way to make a martini
58. beer above 8% ABV
59. poutine
60. carob chips —gross!
61. s’mores
62. sweetbreads
63. kaolin —except in Kaopectate, etc.; ask me again when I’m pregnant
64. currywurst
65. durian —yuck
66. frogs’ legs
67. beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. haggis
69. fried plantain
70. chitterlings, or andouillette
71. gazpacho
72. caviar and blini
73. louche absinthe
74. gjetost, or brunost
75. roadkill
76. baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. snail
79. Llapsang souchong
80. bellini
81. tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. pocky
84. tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant — but I think that three visits to Sanford counts
85. Kobe beef
86. hare
87. goulash
88. flowers
89. horse —find me some and I’ll cook it!
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. soft shell crab
93. rose harissa
94. catfish
95. mole poblano
96. bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. snake

via Sara with No H

(cross-posted from Ravelry)
Well. Sad all around… but this, too, shall pass. I like Mike McCarthy, a lot. I think he and Brett Favre actually worked well together; Favre seems to need a tough lead. Look back to the Rhodes and Sherman years… or Infante… eesh. We’ve got a good coach, and a good team, and Aaron Rodgers has a lot of potential. He’s been studying under the best for three years now. Breathe deeply and think of the ocean. It’ll be OK. (And my lady-shaped Bart Starr jersey arrived in time for Monday night!)

…And after reading this about Rodgers – as Bob (of Milwaukee’s Bob and Brian Show) put it on Thursday, when Steve Czaban asked if watching Favre would be difficult, like watching your ex-girlfriend dancing sexy-like with a new hunk: “No! I like our new girlfriend. She’s cute,* and not crazy.” Amen!

*…very cute.

We signed up for MG&E‘s wind power last month, and so far have not used 577 pounds of coal.

We also got a new air conditioner last week, after the forty-year old Carrier gave up the ghost. They figured the old unit’s SEER value was about three, and the new one is thirteen. It’s also so much nicer / more efficient that it needs to run a lot less, so it’ll be interesting to watch our usage over the summer. Then again, with the way the cost of energy has been going, the bill will probably stay the same even if the use plummets.

I think it’s a little newer, and I’m hoping to see more Ravelry-esque features, but MyFolia.com is pretty danged neat way to keep track of your garden.

It. Is. Fucking. Snowing. Outside.

(>.<)

Watching John Adams last night, I loved the Adams’ bedcurtains. “How cozy and warm!” I thought—and later, when we were all curled up in bed, I realized: Yeah. Warm like a Dutch oven.

Welcome to the family, Inge Favregrüven!

ZOMG OUR MAYOR ROCKS. If they sell souvenier copies of this, I’m framing one:

“Whereas, the winter of 2007-2008 will go down as one of the most severe in Madison history with record snowfall, strong winds, freezing rain, below zero temperatures and now, on top of it all, Brett Favre retires (for cryin’ out loud), and

“Whereas, these conditions make us better, hardier people of higher character than our friends who have fled to places like Florida where they can’t even get a primary election right; and

“Whereas, even with those advantages, we’ve had ENOUGH already; and

“Whereas, Madison has never been a community that simply accepts the status quo whether that be the results of national elections, the realities of nuclear fallout, general market conditions, or, for that matter, mere astronomical forces; and

“Whereas, Spring is a state of mind brought on by the thought of paddle sports and the sight of sleek new canoes and other cool canoe gear;, and

“Whereas, Madison has been described as so many square miles surrounded by reality; and

“Whereas, Madison has been growing at a nice pace which must mean that reality is therefore shrinking; and

“Whereas, reality is overrated.

“Now, therefore, be it resolved that Spring officially begins in the City of Madison at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 9.”

The cold has settled into my joints; and, despite bottles and bottle of ibuprofen, arthritis! I haven’t knitted anything since mid-January. FEH.

The annual will-Favre-retire-or-won’t-he? BS-fest has begun! This means that surely these nine feet of snow will melt someday, eventually… I hope.

I bought my first furniture that isn’t used and didn’t come from Target! A few weeks ago we saw these funny-looking chairs (in way uglier colors), and I sat down. I thought, “hunh, that’s really comfortable,” and moved on… then slowly got obsessed. Yesterday we found them again at Century House Leather Gallery, and in the car on the way over to the other location that had the colors I wanted (OMG xanadu), I thought, “Wow. My ass actually misses that chair.” The guy at the store said they call it “the buttbucket,” which is probably easier to pronounce than “Hjellegjerde Luna.” I like its OMNOMNOM face.

“Take the twisty off, lower the bag and start eating down,’ Foley told one customer after handing her a sandwich. ‘Don’t take it out of the bag.’” EXACTLY.

Suburpia finally re-(re-re-)opens. Whew! I almost drove to Milwaukee the other day but found out it wasn’t open yet. Back when I worked at the Journal, they had just reopened the first time down on Plankinton, and my friend D was practically hyperventilating about it, and couldn’t believe I’d never had one.* I thought she was crazy, but those sandwiches were as addictive as promised.

For years I’ve wondered about those secret spices. I think soy sauce and celery salt play a part, as do the cut of the onions. We’ll have to get to Milwaukee again soon.

*There had been one on Brady when I first moved to Milwaukee, but what did I know? and it closed fairly soon after that.
via CzelticGirl

Saturday:

white chili CI

Sunday:

leftoversGreatest Hits: chili, prime rib

Monday:

Cuban sandwiches

salad

Tuesday:

Vietnamese pork chops (thit neo nuong vi) VC

Gratin Jurassien MtAoFC

cauliflower

Wednesday:

leftoversGreatest Hits

Thursday:

some sort of fish

maybe some green beans

Friday:

HEY HONEY, TAKE ME OUT FOR RIBS. Thanks! xoxo

on deck:

sülze

sauerbraten

bean soup (use the cassoulet bean water)

Swedish meatballs

*all menus subject to change based on cook’s mood/energy/whim

{jmac} but that’s not this, ’cause it should definitely at least try, and then fail spectacularly

{me} *hearts it when things fail spectacularly.*
  err, ok by things i mean code
  not life-critical things
  err, ok by things i mean code and by code i mean dev code
  not traffic lights and other important real code

{jmac} new horror movie: br****nt coded your pacemaker

{me} omg i LOLd for real

{jmac} <grin>

Good for you! Riding your bikes to work! If I worked closer to home, I’d join you.* But PLEASE put a light on the FRONT of your bikes, too. If I can’t see you in the rear view, hey, sorry, but you’re asking for trouble. (Nothing has ever happened, just a peeve.)

*except during this snow shit, naturally, y’all are CRAZY.

I just got a spam from “Monstrous Schlong Shelley,” and for a second, I thought, “Wow, there were seven-hundred and one hobo names.”

This one is a descendant of Mary Shelley, and, ironically named–indeed, his schlong is monsterous–it is itty-bitty and malformed. It originally belonged to a squirrel.

After Brogen sent me this hott clip from Torchwood, I realized there is one way only I will go see the new fakey Star Trek movie: if the screenplay is written by slash-fic authors. Oh, AND the bring in Gary Sinise to play Bones, because the kid they’ve got is way too young. Kinda sexy, though, so maybe he’s the long-lost son of Dr. McCoy and Nurse Chapel.

Lambeau Field #1 in fan-experience rating. I don’t know how they got $30 for parking, though. We went to the Chargers game this year and felt quite spendy paying $15, but they were also offering tailgating and a bathroom!

Wow!

Somebody asked for nun jokes on ask.me, and my comment lasted all of FIVE MINUTES:

Have you heard the one about the group of women who devote their lives to the service of others, work for one of the richest organizations in the world but face poverty in retirement, and are the subject of nothing but jokes in modern American culture? Wooh hoo! That’s a knee-slapper!

[% IF gimmelove > 0 %]

It could be argued that since this application is built with Perl/Catalyst/Template Toolkit, the answer would never be more than zero… but I still appreciate the Easter Egg!