Our microwave oven has decided to become a not-wave-at-all oven. Were I employed, this wouldn't be a big deal. As it is, I'm annoyed. I think it might just be that the fan broke, but when it went out it took the fuse with it, so it might be more than that.

We looked at replacements today at Home Depot, Target and Best Buy and we were not impressed. Tomorrow I'll check out Sears and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Any other suggestions?

It is annoying that the microwave broke so soon, they don't make things like they used to!

emilytheslayer and I went to see Whip It yesterday and it was a great movie. Both of us were thinking about wanting it on DVD before the movie was even half over. I'd go see it again in the theater. And it wasn't even just for all the Drew-Barrymore-aliciousness in the movie! It was an excellent movie in all aspects from what it chose to focus on to the acting to the soundtrack. I'll certainly be getting the soundtrack.

In addition, it isn't playing on many screens around here right now and we had a choice between Harvard Sq. and Danvers. We went to Danvers in hopes of getting a bigger screen and we did! Statium seating, 23 screen theater. I'll be going to more movies there, it is only around 1/2 an hour away.

As I was taking emilytheslayer to work this afternoon I noticed a sign on an auto-detailing shop near our place. It stated "All work done by hands". Naturally I started making fun of this. Em and I came up with the idea of dressing models in clothing made of shamwows and having them clean your car by rubbing their asses on it. I was trying to come up with a name for this new business when I hit upon one that I don't think quite works:
Baby got Back Wash.

I decided to make hard boiled eggs. One of the sets of instructions I found on-line said to bring the eggs to room temperature before boiling. I set them out for around 40 minutes, put water in the pot and was about to put the eggs into the water when I thought "are they room temperature?" I put my fingers on one to check and *cra-splush* I broke the egg in my hand. Perhaps I need to stop going to the gym. It is a good thing I don't have a kid.

"Aw, honey, do you have a fever? Let me check." *cra-splush* "NOOOoooo! Your head!"

We'll see if I manage to hard boil them correctly.

There was a show like Project Runway, but it was for mad scientists. I was in the contest and during the competition for repurposing outdated computer ports, I grafted one to mutated cells on the back of a Scottish Terrier and captured an malevolent alien intelligence in the dog.

Had a dream the other night that I was in a musical contest. We were each presented with a large grid of piping. The piping was actually teapots and other similar containers in L and T and + shapes. We were to dismantle the grid and pour water from them. When the water was poured out, it would play a song from the 1920s, 30s, 40s or early 50s. We had to sing the song and reassemble the grid based on the music.

I won! The game was tons of fun and I wish it actually existed.

Just how closely related are you to your cat?

Now you can have a shirt that lets everyone know!

I just won the Monopoly City & Streets game!

I am now the proud owner of Pickle Rd. in NJ.

emilytheslayer and I were going through the fridge and found we had some leftovers, mostly veggies. So I went on-line and found a recipe for spinach and onion, which is mainly what we had. We didn't have the same proportions and ingredients, so I modified the recipe and it turned out very nice.

The recipe called for 1 bunch spinach and 2 onions. We had 2 bunches of spinach and 1 onion plus 2 jalapenos and 1 tomato. It called for cheese, but never said when to add it. We also had some pre-cooked Perdue italian chicken bits that we thought we'd add.

I diced the onion and jalapenos and added them to 1 cup of chicken stock. Bold Chicken stock, that is. It said to cook it until there was around 1/4 cup of stock left, but I didn't really know how to judge and likely didn't cook it long enough. This is fine as it turned out quite nicely, if a bit soupy.

I then wilted all the spinach and chopped it. I added the spinach and 2 1/4 tbs of melted butter (emilytheslayer melted the butter in the microwave for me as I tend to make it explode) to the onion mix and heated it as I mixed. I seasoned all this with salt, pepper and a little garlic and then added the pre-prepared chicken.

I mixed this all over low heat until I thought it was well mixed and poured it into a casserole dish. I put the dish into the oven (oven pre-heated to 350) and left it there for 15 minutes. I then took it out and put mozzarella on top, 1 package of the pre-shredded Kraft stuff. Then it went back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

While the mixture was in the oven, I washed and sliced the tomato and ate it with a little salt.

We took it out, let it cool a bit and dug in. emilytheslayer likes hers with saltines. We each had around 1/4 of the dish and it was tasty and filling! Plus, we used nothing but stuff we already had and kept it from being wasted. Now we also have dinner for tomorrow. I estimate each serving to be around 350 calories.

I just watched an episode of The Bob Newhart show on Hulu. It is the episode where Carol quits to see what she wants to do with her life. There's a young man who replaces her as secretary while she's away and I thought "Gee, I wonder if he went on to do anything else". I looked and while he had a few minor roles back in the 70s, including a shot on Emergency, he didn't do much as an actor. However, he IS the director of a TV show you may know: Lost.

From Butch Hancock of the band Flatlanders:

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love."

I am playing the Monopoly City Streets game. I'm Lynxreign there if you'd like to "spy on" me. Add me to your friends list is what you'd actually be doing. Who else has signed up and what's your user name?

I had 3.5 chicken breasts left from the package after making some grilled chicken for emilytheslayer and I earlier this week so I decided to make a dinner. ioianthe and rayan4d2 came over and helped us eat my concoction.

I started by trimming and dicing the chicken and then marinating it for a few hours. The marinade was 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup lime juice. I also added a little salt and a generous amount of powdered garlic and black pepper.

While this was sitting in the fridge, I diced yukon gold potatoes in large chunks and a yellow onion in smaller slices and put them in a casserole dish. I seasoned them with salt, rosemary, garlic and pepper, put a little butter on the top and set them in the oven at 475 for around an hour. Next time, use Pam on the dish first as they stuck a little.

While the potatoes were roasting, I sliced summer squash, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled them. While they were grilling, I cut up some bell peppers, diced another yellow onion in smaller pieces, cut up 2 jalapenos and set them aside.

Then emilytheslayer and I shucked the corn and got it ready for boiling as one of our sides. The other was just cherry tomatoes and required little preparation. I then diced the grilled summer squash in around the same size pieces as the potatoes.

Then I poured the chicken and marinade into a frying pan and let it start to cook. When the marinade started to boil, I poured it off into a bowl for later use and put the chicken back on the stove. After a few minutes of browning (it is really hard to tell when it is browned after it has steeped in balsamic vinegar) I put in the prepared vegetables.

I cooked this for awhile and then took the potatoes out of the oven and mixed in the chicken and vegetables and put it all back in the oven. At ioianthe's suggestion, I then reduced the leftover marinade. I was just going to pour it in the dish. rayan4d2 poured a bit into a mug and added flour and returned the mixture to the pan as a thickening agent. We then poured the result into the casserole and mixed, returning it to the oven for another 10 minutes.

I steamed/wilted/whatevered some spinach and by now the corn was done, so we took the casserole dish out and I placed the spinach on top.

The jalapeno contrasted with the citrus of the marinade. While still good, perhaps those two shouldn't be combined next time. The nice thing was that nothing in particular was very spicy, but the jalapeno kick was present in the whole dish leaving you wonder just why your mouth was burning.

We had cantaloupe and pineapple and strawberries for dessert and that killed the spice heat nicely.

This dinner also helped my goal to eat more corn on the cob while it is in season.

All in all, not a bad seat-of-the-pants dish. I have some ideas for what to try next time.

Do you remember this post? In it, a Mt. Holyoke professor endorsed a really crappy biology book. I held out hope that he hadn't actually hadn't endorsed it and he hadn't!.
In response to an inquiry, he stated:

The answer is No. I never authorized using any endorsement by me of Stuart Pivar's book. I did hear that something of the sort might happen and called to prevent it, but I was too late.

Murray Gell-Mann