PeteCarpenter.com

2/23/2009

• I just finished up a bachelor weekend, with the Lovely Suse out of town and the Lovely Tess at her grandparents’. And what did I do with myself? Not a whole lot. Did some relaxing, watched some TV and movies, read some magazines, cleaned up the house and did laundry, did some shopping, and unfortunately, woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. My one change to sleep in and I wake up at 6am. Not cool.
• One of our school assignments this week is to get on Twitter. Which means that a whole lot of school folks will now know a whole lot more about me. That might be a good thing, or it might be a bad thing. Oh well. I suppose I should start talking in MBA-speak now. Welcome Fast Trackers!
• The Lovely Tess is a talker. Although somehow, she has started saying the dog’s name with a NY accent. Imagine Edith Bunker say “George” and you’ll get an idea of what it sounds like.
• Our favorite sort-of-local Chinese place, Zoe’s moved to a new swankier space across the street from its old spot. Despite the new setting (tablecloths!), the food is still as outstanding as always. The dry diced chicken with hot chili was on top of its game, probably the best version of it we’ve had.
• Since I was on my own, I got to make a dish that the Lovely Suse won’t eat anymore: skate wing. Now the reason that she won’t eat it is a valid one. The last time we made it, our lips got all tingly, and not in a good way. Like in an allergic reaction, or the fish is trying to kill us, sort of way. I took my chances and cooked up some on Saturday night and what was the result? Tingly lips. Weird. I think that there’s some sort of neurotoxin in it that will slowly turn my brain to mush. I hope I don’t die.
• I’ve spent the better part of a week researching ranges. Oh remember how we were going to replace our oven and cooktop with ones? Yeah, apparently that’s not happening. The old cooktop has a larger cutout than newer ones, so we either have to get new countertops, or literally cut the cabinets and counters out to make way for a free-standing range. The latter is our preference (not that we don’t want new countertops, but one step at a time), and looking for new ranges has been an adventure. I really want a nice minimalist, pro-style, all-gas range with a minimum of fancy electronics to break and a maximum of BTU’s to crank out the heat. A few that have appealed to me thus far have been these beautiful Bertazzoni’s, these sleek Electrolux Icon’s, and now, a late entry, these bad-a$$ BlueStar’s. Excuse me while I wipe the drool off of my keyboard. Of course, this all depends on a contractor actually calling me back. I get the feeling that this will not be a quick process.
• I highly recommend Minnesota Public Radio’sThe Current. Excellent indie rock for your listening pleasure.
• Recommended movie from the weekend: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

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I Miss You, Too.

I’ve been posting on Monday morning for the last 10 years, and there have only been few weeks that I’ve missed, mostly due to vacations or holidays. That’s a lot of pressure to have on you first thing Monday morning. I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the less-than-punctual postings here of late. It’s not that there’s nothing to say, or that I’m keeping deep dark secrets from you, but let’s discuss the lack of “free time” in my day. As many of you know, I am currently employed full-time (knock on wood), I am in school full-time, and I am playing the role of full-time husband and father. My day starts at 4:45am and ends sometime around 11:00pm when I collapse in a heap somewhere in the vicinity of my bed. That leaves me with about 12 minutes in my day to do things like watch TV, clean my ears, and work on my cold fusion experiments. The Lovely Suse is equally busy, and as much as we’d like to dream that our lives will someday slow down, we realize that probably isn’t the case, at least not for a while. So please bear with me and know that I still love you all. I’ll keep posting as much as I can, but for more immediate gratification, you’re better off following me over on the Twitter and the Facebook, which I can more easily update while driving at highway speeds. Peace.

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