Tami, the One True

2012-05-10T10:41:00.000-04:00

I just read this: Obama who? Gay marriage foes seek to extend gains, and I have to say this, again, I just have to.

Stop it. Stop trying to dictate which person can marry which other person. The ONLY person you get to decide whether or not gay marriage is right for is YOURSELF. People marrying each other when neither of them is you is NOT YOUR BUSINESS. Even if it's your kid, or your brother, or your mom, it's NOT YOU.

Your right to flail your arms, buddy, that ends at the nose of others. If you promise not to mess with adults that want to live as a family and mind their own business, I promise to not to force you to marry someone of the same sex. Oh, wait, NO ONE WAS EVER DOING THAT.

Imagine how angry I'd be if I was gay? Honestly, I don't know why there aren't more homosexual violent rampages, they way they get treated most of the time.

Still Down With OCD

2012-03-28T15:59:00.003-04:00

Know what bothers me about this ad?

Those aren't cubes.

Abuse/Beholder/Whatever

2012-02-24T12:04:00.002-05:00

I just spent a few minutes clicking "report abuse" on Yahoo! comments. I was reading the article about Maher giving Obama's PAC $1 million, and a lot of the people making comments are conservative Obama-haters. That's fine. You think that small government works better than big government, and I disagree, and neither one of us can prove our points to the satisfaction of the other.

The people who made comments about the white comedian being stupid for supporting the black Muslim, though, those guys got reported.

Disagreeing with me is one thing, but being intentionally stupid is abuse. Stop abusing me, idiots.

Unexpected Consuquences

2011-10-19T12:08:00.002-04:00

I've started making macaroni & cheese from scratch. I use corn starch or flour, butter, skim milk, spices, cheddar, gruyere, and Dreamfields macaroni. It's lower in fat than the pre-made mixes, higher in protein, and very, very tasty. What surprises me about it is the cost.

A serving of my homemade mac & cheese costs 10 times a comparable serving size of the boxy powdered stuff, and 5 times the cost of the "deluxe" boxed mix that has pre-mixed cheese sauce.

A serving of my mac & cheese is about $2.33. It's pretty cheap, as meals go! I can imagine making a more expensive version with higher quality cheeses, but I cannot imagine cutting the price any lower.

Real food costs 10 times more than things pretending to be food.

Eating healthier turns out to cost more, every time. It's a point that I bring up from time to time, and I thought that I'd just trot it out again, today, for fun.

Go F*** Yourself, South Dakota

2011-07-01T10:04:00.003-04:00

From http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifJudge blocks new SD abortion law from taking effect:

In South Dakota, supporters of the three-day waiting period say the Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls gives women little information or counseling before they have abortions done by doctors flown in from out of state. They say the bill would help make sure women are not being coerced into abortions by boyfriends or relatives.

Leslee Unruh, founder of the Alpha Center pregnancy help center and supporter of the law, said that Schreier's decision was not a surprise and her organization plans to intervene on Friday.

"We're in it for the long haul," Unruh said after the ruling Thursday.

Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, said the law represents a blatant intrusion by politicians into difficult decisions that women and families sometimes need to make.

"We trust women and families in South Dakota to know and do what is best for them, without being coerced by the government. And we stand with them in our efforts to overturn this outrageous law," Stoesz said in a statement.

Discussing the major step of giving birth and raising a child with relatives or boyfriends is a GOOD thing. The boyfriends are most likely the fathers of these unborn babies, and relatives are the people who are your support system when you expand the family. If they express concerns that bringing a baby into the world isn't a good idea at this time, isn't taking their concerns seriously a very reasonable thing to do? One assumes that your family members can't all be against having children, otherwise you wouldn't be here, right? Religious or non, pro-choice or pro-life, your family is your family, and they're pretty likely to know and love you. The odds are higher, at least.

Manditory counseling by strangers that are most likely members of anti-abortion groups isn't counseling - that's coercion. So f*** you and your stupid required counseling law, SD. F*** you.

Tragedy Doesn't Make Me Any Nicer

2011-05-25T09:30:00.001-04:00

Floodwaters in South falling, but misery remains

'There wasn't nothing I could do ... I just had to sit up there on that hill and watch my house get more and more underwater'

I'm guessing that the misery starts with their lack of English teachers.

Discovered a Skill

2011-05-17T09:40:00.002-04:00

You know what I can do? I can listen to a person say a single sentence that dances around terrible news that they can't bear to say out loud, and get it. Even more than that - when I get it, I am able to say "OK", in a calm, significant way that lets them know that I understood the actual message, and that they do not need to say anything else out loud, risking their tenuous hold on composure.

Nope, you don't have to say anything else - I get it. Also, I'm sorry. I've had enough bad news of my own that I remember how it feels for you. I'm really, really sorry.

Not Actually Going to Kill Anyone

2011-03-21T13:33:00.001-04:00

My dad is killing me, again. I was on the phone with him, telling him my schedule, and when I got to the part about being home before 9 because I wanted to get at least one batch of Saturday's cookies baked off, tonight, when he exclaimed, "Again?!".

See, Dad is upset that I'm baking cookies, because I'm fat. He told me so. He also told me that it's a shame that I'm a good cook, because I eat too much of what I make. I'm going to have to euthanize the son of a bitch one of these days.

Especially since he was a fat, fat man all his life, until illness took away his appetite.

Winners

2011-02-17T15:51:00.000-05:00

On the Ships & Dip 4 cruise, I met a guy with a banjo. His name was Zach Daniels.

It turns out that he's in the band Oakhurst. I haven't heard them, they appear to play bluegrass, which I mostly like. It's not my bread and butter, but I own some on purpose.

Zach was one of the most fun people I met. He came to karaoke wearing a white luchadore mask that had giant golden horns on it. Kind of like this one, but different colors:

He signed up for a karaoke song as "Zakka Kahn", and sang "That's the Way of the World" by Earth Wind and Fire.

Also, his wife is unreasonably hot. Zach, meeting you on vacation was a total win.

Official Report

2011-02-14T14:40:00.001-05:00

Best Cruise Ever.

While I am not thrilled at the idea of being thought of as "The large woman who sings Heart", the fact that I was thought of in the first place is absolutely thrilling.

OMFG!!PONIES!!!!!1!!

2011-01-31T22:04:00.001-05:00

I'm going on vacation on Saturday!

Not as Pretty as the Staged One

2011-01-11T13:56:00.001-05:00

The inside of my actual cupcake:

Better in a Cupcake

2010-12-21T09:01:00.005-05:00

This weekend I attempted pumpkin pie filled cupcakes, a la Bakeitinacake.com.

I didn't bother with the crusts. Crust in the middle of a cupcake feels like a waste to me.

I also made pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling. I messed with the recipe and came up with this:
(Ingredients are listed in the order used. I pretty much just mixed them in the mixer)

8 oz pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup barley malt
(This was my contribution, the original recipe called for boiled cider or dark corn syrup. Any dark thick sweet syrupy substance would probably work, like molasses)
1/3 cup skim milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons (to 1 tablespoon to taste) of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour

preheat oven to 350.

You'll notice that there's no added fat in the recipe. That's fine. The pumpkin is plenty moist, the barley malt is moist, and the eggs have fat in them.

Mix the pumpkin with the sugar. Add the barley malt and mix. Add the milk, mix. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the spice, salt, and powders, mix.
Mix the flour in carefully, so as not to make a mess, I did it in 3 batches.

Cream cheese filling (optional)
1/2 package cream cheese, microwaved for 30 seconds or so
1/4 cup sugar

Grease a muffin pan, or use cupcake papers, or both, I guess. Drop a heaping tablespoonful of batter into the well/paper. Drop a scant teaspoon of filling carefully on top. Cover with more batter (skip the fussy measuring if you're skipping the filling). Bake for 18-20 minutes, until they look good and solid on the top.

These are fantastic warm. I made mine in my fancy new pumpkin muffin pan. Here they are, posing in front of my pan of tiny pumpkin pie fillings:

Idiocracy

2010-12-09T10:37:00.001-05:00

I've just heard that there's a plan to put a cafe in the current periodicals reading room at the Alexander Library at Rutgers.

Whomever came up with this plan loves $2 of latte profit more than they love KEEPING FOOD AND DRINKS OFF OF LIBRARY MATERIALS.

Idiots. Replacing the destroyed reading materials will cost more than a cafe could ever bring in.

Facing East

2010-11-12T10:30:00.003-05:00

Give it a couple of more years, everyone will understand that China owns the US, and that they have for a long time.

G 20 Issues

Lucky thing for me I like that kind of lifestyle.

Backbones Are Still Invisible

2010-11-08T11:10:00.003-05:00

Today I read that "Older Americans" are the backbone of the Tea Party. Maybe they are, but that doesn't change the fact that "Batshit Crazy Americans" are the public face.

Attention All Casting Directors

2010-11-01T08:50:00.002-04:00

Someone needs to hire Randy Quaid right now. The man will bring the viewers in to your comedy like lemmings to a cliff.

In case you didn't notice, Quaid and his wife, Evi, are giving interviews, talking about how there's a group of people who exploit and murder movie stars in order to take their money.

There is no such thing as bad publicity.

More Pointless Facts

2010-09-20T08:53:00.004-04:00

I had an *awesome* weekend.

Friday night I went out with work friends to The Melting Pot. I got to dip raw meat in boiling oil, then dip the cooked meat in sauce, and then eat that. There was chocolate. I drank an Algonquin, which is my new favorite cocktail.

Saturday I went to the gym, then headed to a farm store to see what the produce of the week was. It turned out to be acorn squash, 2 pears, and a pint of raspberries. I splurged on a half gallon of local cider. Delicious, but pricey.

When I got home, I mashed the raspberries up on the bottom of a pitcher, and poured the cider over them. I then drank raspberry cider all day. That's yummy, in case you wondered.

Then I relaxed a while. I read a book, played with the plants a little, watched a TV show, just regular lazy stuff. I put the acorn squash in the oven to roast, because that takes a long damn time.

In the late afternoon, I finally tried the sage pesto experiment that I've been threatening ever since the sage plant went insane and took over the planter. I took sage, walnuts, garlic, and olive oil for a spin in the trusty ancestral Cuisinart, and then salted to taste. I sliced open some chicken breasts, and smeared the pesto inside and out, and then baked them. So dinner was sage pesto stuffed chicken breasts and roasted acorn squash. That was nice. I ate it while watching "Race to Witch Mountain" on Netflix, and drinking an Algonquin.

Sunday morning, after putting in the laundry, I realized that I had a bunch of squished up raspberries in the bottom of a pitcher, and instead of wasting them, I made raspberry chocolate chip muffins. They were really wet, so I added extra flour after the raspberries, and it all worked out just fine. I ate some while drinking coffee and watching "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" on Netflix. Yay, Netflix! Then I went and hung out with my dad for the rest of the day.

Recipes:

Sage Pesto (all measurements are approximate)
about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sage leaves,including green stems
about 1/2 cup salted shelled walnuts
about 4 T minced garlic
unmeasured olive oil

Put 2 T of garlic in the food processor bowl, add sage leaves. Pulse to process into a paste. Add walnuts, pulse until reasonably smooth. Add olive oil in a stream to the mixture while the FP is running, until desired pesto texture is achieved. Check this quickly, it goes fast. Taste. Add salt to taste.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins
2 cups flour, plus more to adjust batter consistency
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, depending how sweet you want this (I used 1/2 cup)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 Tablespoons melted butter or canola oil (any mild oil will work)
1 egg
1 cup milk (maybe more, depends on how wet your raspberries are)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used extra bittersweet)
random amount of raspberries, whatever you have. I had a cup and a half of mashed raspberries that had been soaking in apple cider

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Put dry ingredients (except the chips) in a mixing bowl and mix slowly to combine.

Whisk together the butter, egg, and milk in a separate bowl.

Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix to combine. Add raspberries, then chocolate chips. The batter should be thick, not smooth liquid. If it's too wet, add 2-3 Tablespoons of flour and mix, repeating until the batter is the desired consistency. I added at least a half cup of extra flour until I was happy with the results.

Bake in a greased (or papered and greased) muffin pan for 20-30 minutes, or until the muffins are slightly brown around the edges, and the tops spring back when touched.

American Freed!

2010-08-27T11:09:00.002-04:00

Carter gains freedom for American held in N. Korea

... Carter haters heads explode across America.
I don't know how Carter got this guy out, but I bet he's really grateful.

Really, I read the article, but do I trust the press to present me all the facts? No, I don't. My point here is that it looks like President Carter did something nice for another human, and I expect angry articles to pop up about why it was the Wrong thing to do.

People are like that.

This Weekend In Success

2010-08-09T08:41:00.000-04:00

I bought sequined platform heels with magenta skulls on them. The main sequin area is black, and yes, the skulls are also done in sequins.

I made something called "5 o'clock biscuits" which are canned biscuits folded over smoked oysters.

What'd *you* do?

Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On

2010-07-23T07:52:00.002-04:00

This morning, as I often do, I was driving to work. The last leg of my commute is up a winding mountain road with a state route number. It's one lane each way, or a two lane road, however you think of it, my point is that it's a winding mountain road that goes through a residential neighborhood.

As I traversed this part of my route, I noticed a deer running hell-for-leather diagonally across the lawn to my right, headed - headed for a collision course with my car. I slammed on the brakes. I wasn't fast enough, or it was too late, because BAM! I hit the deer and it went down. Pretty sure I was yelling something like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" while that happened. My heart beating a mile a minute, I watched the deer flounder, then stand up, shake itself off (minus some huge tufts of fur) and RUN AWAY. Jesus, deer are tough. I slowly hit the gas on my car, and everything seemed OK, driving-wise. I noticed that the car in front of me had slowed, but it took off when it saw me moving.

Shaking like a leaf, I continued the approximate 3 more miles in to my office. I looked at my car, and the frame for my license plate is broken. The plate itself is still riveted to the car, so, OK. A seriously small amount of damage, considering what could have happened.

Still shaking, I walked in to the office, headed to the ladies' room, went to the fridge to put my lunch in, and started thinking about how the car in front of me had slowed down...

The car in *front* of me.

I am now so, so glad that there wasn't a car behind me.

Economic Recovery

2010-06-30T09:13:00.002-04:00

Today in the mail I got:

A letter explaining that a certain Corporate Bank can help me if I'm having trouble making my payments
2 Debt reduction/debt forgiveness solicitations
A letter explaining that the limit on my Macy's card, which has a zero balance, has been reduced
An offer for a new credit card that will give me airline miles

In my email, I received a notice that, since I'm such a good customer, the limit on one of my credit cards has been increased.

This gives me the impression that, as a nation, we don't know what the f**k we're doing.

Smuggling Golf Balls

2010-06-22T08:05:00.001-04:00

"My throat feels like it's closing up," he said.

I offered him tea or coffee.

Why didn't I put on a surgical mask and keep 20 feet back?

My throat feels like it's closing up. Bah.

...And Then I Went Soft

2010-06-07T09:12:00.003-04:00

Seriously, when did I start liking babies?

I wasn't even washing her off as dinner preparation or nothin'! In fact, it was her mother washing her off in my sink, but man, that's just cute.

Proud to Have Known Her

2010-06-04T15:14:00.003-04:00

My cousin (1st, once, removed) Lila Weinberg passed away last weekend, this is her obituary from the Chicago Tribune.

I am proud to have known her, and lucky to have been her relative.