“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.

He’s at his best when a movie truly annoys him. In my opinion, they should keep Gitmo open just so we can stick Bay and Ratner in there for crimes against humanity.

Ingredients:
1.5lb ground beef (extra lean)
1 egg
1 lb penne rigate
1/2 head garlic, chopped
1 med. onion, chopped
8oz mushrooms, sliced
fresh basil
~.75 tbsp garlic powder
~.75 tbsp onion powder
3 tbsp worchestershire sauce
~pint heavy cream
1tbsp olive oil
1/2 can vegetable broth
splash of citrus soy sauce
1 tsp black pepper
some salt
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 cup frozen peas
some red wine
2 lemons

cook the penne in lightly salted water until al dente, set aside (may
do this while meat is cooking)
in mixing bowl, combine ground beef, egg, garlic powder, onion powder,
worchestershire sauce, soy sauce. mix by hand. brown in large
skillet.
add mushroom, onion, and garlic to cooking beef
when veggies are cooked to satisfaction, add 1/2 can of vegetable broth
add crushed tomatoes tomatoe
stir in heavy cream and red wine to tomatoe meat mixture
heat marinara until it bubbles, then turn down to simmer
salt to taste (pepper if you want, too)
add peas and basil. stir
juice the lemons. Add first lemon at beginning of cooking. Add rest throughout.

Add wine, lemon, seasoning to taste as it simmers.

simmering for 30 min or more makes it taste better, but it’s ready to
serve as soon as the peas are unfrozen. this amount will probably
serve 6-ish, depending on the size of plates and seconds.
theoretically, it could serve 8, but 5 is a guarantee.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, cut into strips
marinate breasts in mixture of soy, ponzu, teriyaki (2 kinds - soy vey and maruchan/kikoman), some hui hui, and touch of sriraccha

veggies:
1/2 onion, chopped
1/3-1/2 cup carrot, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
broccoli florets (as much as you want)
1/3-1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tbsp unsalted butter
add seasoning to taste (i used cajun and salt)

noodles: somen, the thin spaghetti asian noodles

Directions:
all concurrently:
cook meat in iron skillet, set aside as finished
cook onions and carrots in separate skillet - this will be stir fry skillet
after they are well browned, turn to simmer, add garlic and brocolli
pour 1/2 remaining marinade over veggies
cook noodles
deglase meat pan with *red* wine sauce
pour meat sauce over veggies
drain noodles, add to stir fry skillet
add peas, red pepper flakes, remaining marinade
stir noodles to mixture until peas are cooked

can add meat if you want or keep separate

Taste is wonderful, cost is low. Good times. 5/5

Only downside is that the diptards don’t have an RSS feed. Ijits.

If you can watch this and not be in awe of Nadal then … you must not be a tennis player. Djoker was doing great too, but JFC, Nadal is a force of nature.

Just to prep for my trip to TX. The two orange ones are my current co-lead favs and need to be strung. In addition to these 6, I have 2 more that need a redo so I can better judge the quality, but I’m going to play those out a bit more until I don’t feel like a jackass cutting out super nice strings (gut and poly) that I just happened to string at too low of a tension. I know, I know, sunk cost and all… wev.

Update: done!

Side note: somehow the pumpkin racquets (the orange ones below) are amazingly heavy. I never noticed before, and I love the racquets, but they’re actually heavier than the notoriously heavy K90 (the Sampras/Federer racquet… well, public versions. There’s a public new “Sampras” racquet that is actually heavier but I digress). Anyway, truly a racquet for a beast. A beast like ME.

Seriously?!? I’ve got calluses up to (points chin) here, I religiously go and see Miss Rosy Palm, and now you lay some soft hand shit down on me? Why, tennis gods, why?!? (Proper form is a bitch, I guess.) I did play until the one in the heel of my palm burst and I got blood all over my overgrip so it wasn’t a 30 second surrender, but still… Captain Never Enough strikes again!

Oh, and I’m back to getting nice and red in approximately 0.7 minutes of sunshine apparently.

Other than that, it was a great day. Seriously. Ghostfinger was awesome and we got lots of time together. We fed a squirrel some grapes (and my still good-and planned to be eaten-peanuts!). Saw some cool birds. Watched stuff. It was cool.

Oh, also: nuskin or superglue are pretty good, athletic or medical tape not so much. I only had tape on the courts, so I alternately cut off blod flow to my hand and/or got blood all over the racquet. Good times. Problem with nuskin is that everything smells like that stuff for at least 7 hours after you put it on. Dinner? Nuskin. Toothpaste? Nuskin.

1-1.5 lb chicken breast, cut into small bits
7 oz canned green chiles
14.5 oz diced tomoatoes with chiles (e.g. Ro-tel)
1 can chicken broth
14oz ~ (1 bottle) salsa verde (alternatively - you can use tomatillos, though that changes the end flavor)
1 can white beans
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeno
2 ears of corn
1 tsp+ coriander seed
1 tsp+ cumin
1 tsp+ oregano
1 tbsp sour cream (regular)
1 lime
salt
pepper

Note: on my first try, I made double the amounts above. It’s a good thing I like it because, doubled, this serves about 30 people.

Steps:

1. Cut the chicken. Season it to your taste (I used salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning). Cook and set aside
2. Chop the onion and jalapeno (de-seed the jalapeno), dice the garlic
3. In a big pot (5qts+, 3qts is fine if making a standard batch as above), brown the onion, garlic, and jalapeno
4. Add the tomatoes, broth, green chiles, salsa verde, seasoning. Bring to a soft boil and then turn down to simmer. Let simmer for 5-10 mins.
5. While simmering, cut the kernels off the corn, set aside.
6. Add the chicken, beans, and corn. Season to taste. Squeeze 1/2 the lime in. Simmer 5-10 minutes.
7. Add the sour cream and squeeze the last 1/2 lime.
8. Let simmer for “a while”, season to taste

Serve with tortillas, sour cream (if you like), and cheese.

Total food cost: ~$15 (1/2 of that is the meat)
Serves: 10-ish. Verrrry affordable.

Review: 4/5. Excellent! It’s only moderately spicy; keep the jalapeno seeds and add a dash of cayenne if you want to make this actually spicy. This soup/stew/chili is sort of the companion piece to my Garlic Stew (with Other Bits), in the meat + bean + verde semi-spicy things category, and it’s just as delightful. The flavor is wholly different from the GSwOB - much lighter, with an electric zing rather than the heavy, round, wallop in the beef stew. I found it delicious and plan on having it many more times. Which I have to because, see note above.

A standard serving size should run you ~260-300 calories, not including the tortilla(s), extra sour cream, or cheese you may add.

Maryhill Winemaker’s Red 2006. ~$15

Well rounded blend of reds, the resulting wine was full, smooth, and tasty. Not too acidic or harsh, it was a perfect compliment to salad and marinara pasta. It was a complex flavor without being overbearing, without any real variation in sensation from early taste to aftertaste.

“This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” the federation said in a statement.

Light it up, Mikey. You’re not doing anyone any harm and if Aquaman doesn’t deserve some down time relaxation, I don’t know who does.

Oh, and the federation can blow it out of their sanctimonious pie holes. Yeah, yeah, it’s illegal to smoke, but so are u-turns in many states and I don’t see people losing sponsorship deals or having to deal with an unending stream of Sistah Toldjyahs for it.

And to the douchebag who took the private photo and distributed it: you are a douchebag. Keep this shit private and no one is harmed. Idiot.

Austin drivers making their morning commute were in for a surprise when two road signs on a busy stretch of road were taken over by hackers.

I actually had all of these done by Monday (plus one for a friend). That’s the kind of exciting life I lead. That’s how I roll.


Match statistics from Spaniard
Rafa Nadal's 7-5 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-2 victory over Switzerland's
Roger Federer in the men's singles final at the Australian Open
on Sunday.

Nadal Federer
1st serve percentage 64 52
Aces 4 11
Double faults 4 6
Winning % on 1st serve 74 of 112 - 66 66 of 90 - 73
Winning % on 2nd serve 30 of 63 - 48 37 of 82 - 45
Winners (including service) 50 71
Unforced errors 41 64
Break point conversions 7 of 16 - 44% 6 of 19 - 32%
Net approaches 15 of 26 - 58% 43 of 60 - 72%
Total points won 173 174
Match duration four hours 23 minutes

Nadal won, but all you need to know is that after 4 hours and 23 minutes of play, Federer was ahead in points 174 to 173, but Nadal ahead in games 26-25. Nadal became a truly great player now that he can play on all courts and Federer remained one. I don’t think I’ve seen any player as mentally tough as Nadal. He’s like the fuckin terminator. A singular focus and intensity and determination, it’s remarkable.

I still like watching Fed and Murray more, but Nadal is a sight to behold.

Update: Rewatching the match, I was struck by just how psyched out Federer was. he has the skills to beat nadal, but he came into the match seemingly pre-defeated (or ready to admit defeat at the first adversity), but the key thing was he had no plan with which to attack Nadal. I was shocked, really, but just how aimless and passive Federer was throughout most of the match.

against Verdasco, you could see Nadal was vulnerable on service returns (particularly those out wide) and his own second serves and Federer did not seem to attack that at all. nadal, on the other hand, obviously had a plan to hit federer’s bh and hit it hard and frequently.

part of federer’s problem is that his skill set is a poor match against nadal; that one handed backhand is tough to hit with authority when the ball is at shoulder height. but i think if federer actually had a coach who convinced him of a game plan (as above, plus early attacking on balls for hard angle winners - when he did this in the match, he won the point like 70% of the time).

Given how Fed basically beat himself, it’s remarkable that he actually won more points and almost won the match. a couple little changes and a proactive approach and we wouldn’t be having this self-reinforcing death spiral of Federer confidence.

It’s really the first consistent adversity Federer has ever faced, so … Rog, … get a coach and listen to him, wouldya? It doesn’t hurt to admit other people may know some things every now and then.

Um… yeah… I should probably get to it. Down to 3 left with strings!

Maybe I’ll have a Super Stringing Parrrrrty while folk are watching that other game from that other sport this weekend.

It should probably be noted that I know next to nothing about classical wine, grapes, or other things sommeliers care for and describe. I only know what I like.

The first entry is: Graziano Zinfandel Mendocino 2004

Price paid - $19 @ Central Market

This wine was quite the surprise. I saw it (on the top shelf, hidden away, no less), was in the mood for a zin, and thought “why not”?

I don’t know if it’s because of the organically grown grapes, the weather that year, or the tears of virgins, but this is some good wine. The taste is bold. For me, it was very peppery, with a good initial taste and lingering taste, with a round, fruity feel. Ghostfinger got a lot of chocolate out of it as well. In any event, it was the most pleasantly surprising wine of the new year and my favorite of the last few months. If you can find it, give it a shot.

Just sayin.