Archive for June, 2008
- So, we were on vacation in Maine for the first half of last week. Although the word “vacation” is a bit of a misnomer with a one year old and a dog in tow. The Lovely Suse was at conference meetings for the majority of the time, so I corralled the kids for a couple of days. I’ve never balanced so many things at once in my life. A kid in one hand, sometimes in a stroller and sometimes not, a dog leash in the other hand, a bag strapped across my back full of various camera equipment, sunscreen, hats, sippy cups, snacks, beach toys, and whatever else I could shove in there. Definitely not the most relaxing of times, but the Lovely Tess enjoyed her time in the pool, on the beach, and on walks along the ocean. On the bright side, we did eat some awesome fried clams at The Clam Shack. I might even go so far as to say that they were every bit as good if not better than the ones at The Clam Box, plus no waiting in line for an hour.
- Want to see some incredible news photos? Check out The Big Picture, my favorite new site.
- We still have no bathroom ceiling and the oven is still broken. Hopefully the oven situation will be dealt with this week as I took apart the oven yesterday and found what I think is the broken part. I ordered a new one today and will attempt to replace it later this week. If I’m successful, I will add this to the highlight reel of my DIY home repair projects. If I’m not, then we’re getting a new stove and installing a ductless hood. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that despite how nice it would be to have a brand new shiny stove.
- I’m pretty sure that our kitchen cabinets are made out of some sort of rock-hard space-age titanium infused wood. Trying to install the last of the child-proof locks, I broke a two drill bits and created smoke when trying to drill pilot holes. I even tried a masonry bit will little success. What the hell? Are my drill bits that dull or am I missing something here. They’re wooden cabinets for crissakes. I did finish them, much to the Lovely Tess’s displeasure. She really liked that drawer with all of the plastic bags and aluminum foil. She will be happy to learn that we took the locks off the cabinet with all of the tupperwear, so she is free to wreck havoc there. By the way, we have the most well organized tupperwear ever because we have to put it all back every single night after she has pulled everything out of the cabinet.
- I made collard greens for the first time last night (thanks to our CSA). I must say, those are so damn tasty greens. Although it’s hard to go wrong with anything that includes pork fat. I also smoked some chicken legs over hickory wood that made the entire neighborhood smell like BBQ.
- A new season of Weeds has begun. Last season was sort of weak, so let’s hope they step it up a bit.
- I really want to go see Wall-E. Anyone want to babysit?
Thursday, Jun 26th, 2008
Categories: 2007
We’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming next week.
Monday, Jun 16th, 2008
Categories: 2007
- The Lovely Tess and George got me Guitar Hero III for Father’s Day. Tess likes to rock out. So does the Lovely Suse now that she figured out how to play it.
- An update on the bathroom: we still have no ceiling. After a week and a half, my insurance company finally informs me that the claim should actually be handled by the master insurance policy for the house. Great. Like they couldn’t tell me that a week and a half ago? At this point, I’m ready to staple a tarp to the rafters and call it a day.
- I’m really tired today. I’ve stayed up for every Celtics playoff game and now these late starts are starting to catch up with me. Four and a half hours of sleep after a jam-packed exhausting weekend doesn’t work so well. Hopefully the Celts can get it wrapped up tomorrow night so that I can get some sleep.
- If you were wondering, yes, everyone survived the week with the Lovely Suse away at a conference. Despite a few total meltdowns, everyone behaved themselves. The Lovely Tess had some bite marks on her arm, but I had nothing to do with that. I guess I won’t feel so bad when she eventually bites some one else.
- We had friends over for breakfast on Saturday. I believe one of the definitions of getting old is making plans with friends and sending emails that ask “Is 9:00AM too late?” On the bright side, our house still smells like bacon. I’m pretty sure every kid likes bacon. Actually, I’m pretty sure every adult likes bacon too.
- An update on our oven: still broken. I think I might make a last ditch attempt to get it repaired before throwing in the towel on it. Otherwise, I think we can survive the rest of the summer without an oven. Luckily, the cooktop still works. I guess that means that I’ll be grilling pizza for the rest of the summer, which is fine by me.
- We got our first farm share last week, and here’s what we got: kale, broccoli, kohlrabi, spinach, bok choi, green garlic, and arugula. So far, we sauteed some of the kale with garlic and olive oil for Tess, which we keep stealing from her because it’s so good. Last night was a stir fry of kohlrabi and bok choi long with some grilled chicken. I used the arugula for a salad with peaches, fresh mozzarella, and spiced nuts. We’ll use some the spinach and broccoli in a quiche, more of the arugula to have with some fish, and the kale and whatever else is left over with some pasta or with some grilled sausages. It really forces us to use ingredients that we wouldn’t otherwise buy, and it forces us eat seasonably. This is how people used to eat. Eat what is grown nearby and use every bit of it. Knowing what went into growing it really makes us think twice about throwing any of it away. Plus, the vegetables are damn tasty.
- It was in the high 90’s last week, and I couldn’t have been happier. I don’t know how people complain about the hot weather. Waaaaah, my car is hot when I first get into it and I’m all sweaty! Would you prefer a foot of snow? Go cry me a river.
- We went out for sushi on Friday night and apparently, the Lovely Tess really likes seaweed salad and pickled ginger. Is there anything this kid won’t eat?
- Things happen in three’s, right? First the tree branch falls on the Lovely Suse’s car, then the bathroom ceiling caves in. Next, our oven died Saturday night. Just as we were getting ready for friends coming over for dinner, it just wouldn’t turn on. In a brilliant move of improvisation, we took the loaf pan of cornbread batter, put the back burner of the grill on high and cooked the bread with indirect heat in the front. Worked like a charm. The oven is over ten years old, so I guess we can’t really ask for much more from it. Who needs an oven anyways? The real problem is that we have a downdraft gas cooktop with a wall oven postitioned directly below it, which isn’t ideal. The downdraft doesn’t really work well and the heat from the oven literally melts the plastic parts in the cooktop. We’d love to replace the whole thing and put in a full slide-in range, but the idea of having to rip apart mulitple walls to put in a hood doesn’t really appeal to us. Downdraft ranges actually exist, but they’re not cheap, and apparently don’t work very well. Sweet.
- Saturday was one of those days of the year that I dread the most: the day I put in the air conditioners. Seriously, I’m getting too old for this. One of these days, I’m going to drop one of them out of the window while trying to lift it in. It turned out not to be too bad this year with only one scratch on my arm and a couple of cuts on my finger from the aluminum fins on the back. And for some reason, they didn’t feel as heavy this year. Maybe I’m getting stronger, or maybe they’re getting lighter?
- The Lovely Tess may be renamed Tornado Tess or Hurricane Tess. She leaves a wake of destruction in her path these days.
- I washed my car for the first time in about six months over the weekend. It was pretty disgusting. I get an immense amount of satisfaction from it, especially the vacuuming part. Speaking of which, I finally got around to buying a shopvac last week. I don’t think our other vacuum appreciated being used to pick up chucks of plaster and ceiling, so this will come in handy once the ceiling repairs begin.
- Go Celts!
- The Lovely Suse will be heading off to a conference tomorrow, which means that I’ll have Hurricane Tess all to myself for the rest of the week. Pray for me.
- Our CSA starts this week. We will be eating lots and lots of veggies for the rest of the summer.
- Not that I’ll ever need another watch, but if I ever do, these vintage Rolex Tudor California watches will be on my short list. Apparently, these aren’t really Rolexes as the internal movements are made by another company and Rolex assembled them and sold them as Tudors. People recently began restoring them and adding these unbelievably cool two-tone faces and adding the Rolex logo, which originally was only on the backs of them. They can be bought on ebay for a fraction of the cost of “real” Rolexes. Gimme gimme gimme.
- Speaking of vintage, I’m currently wearing khakis, my white Jack Purcell’s with no socks, and a pink polo shirt. The Lovely Suse called my a “50’s hipster” this morning. I can live with that.
Wednesday, Jun 4th, 2008
Categories: 2007
An abridged top ten for the week…
The new Greatest Ingredient in our Pantry is piquillo peppers. I keep hearing about these but we finally got around to picking up a jar of them a couple of weeks ago. They’re from a particular region of spain, they all come roasted and canned or jarred, and they’re delicious. A little fruity and sweet, a little spicy, a little smokey. Try stuffing them with cheese browing them in a pan with some olive oil until the cheese starts to melt. Man, that’s some good stuff.
My new favorite comic strip is pearls before swine. Funny stuff.
It’s a nice feeling knowing that we never have to buy another can of formula. I don’t think I’ll miss my bi-weekly trips to Costco, although now all I smell when I open up the fridge is milk. We’re definitely not milk drinkers and the only reason we ever have milk in the house is for making ice cream, so it’s weird seeing a big giant jug of milk in there.
After two years, we’ve finally shut down the George-Cam. We’ve had the camera set up in the kitchen so we’d know when the dogwalkers came. The program that I used had a motion sensor that would email me pictures when it sensed activity, and then we could pop on to the live stream to watch him playing. It’s not that we didn’t trust our dogwalkers, because they’re the best in the whole wide world, but because it was fun watching him run around the kitchen like a crazy puppy. But with the Lovely Tess constantly playing with the cord and grabbing the camera and bashing it into the ground, it was time to remove it. Hey, one less thing to deal with, which is fine by me.
I plan on watching all of the Indiana Jones movies before finally going to see Number 4. Although I sort of want to skip Temple of Doom because it sort of sucked.
Our garage door opener broke last week. You can always tell when something is about to happen to it because something just sounds different. You try to convince yourself that it’s normal, but in the back of your mind, you just know that something bad is going to happen. this time, the motor was working fine, but the part that attaches the door to the drive-screw wasn’t catching. It took two people to get my car out of the garage on Friday. I held the door up while the Lovely Suse backed my car out. It was pretty pathetic.
We had back-to-back Malkovich sightings within an hour on Saturday. First at Paper Source in Porter Square, and then again at Formaggio about half an hour later. I think he’s stalking us, and really, can you think of a creepier celebrity to have stalking you?
