Massachusetts Hold Em

Poker Kills

from: http://www.all-in-the-comic.com/home.html

On the occasion of my 28th birthday

I have this annoying habit of thinking of myself as the age I will be in that year for the whole year...eventhough my birthday is at the end of November.  So eventhough I am still technically 27, I have thought of myself as 28 for at least 6 months.  I am weird.  This is probably not a shock to anyone who knows me.  LOL

My birthday is Sunday, 11/26.  Happy birthday to me.  :)

Internet Gambling Ban

Here is an interesting assessment of the Internet Gambling Ban passed by the Senate about a month ago (it had already been passed in the House earlier this year).  In case you didn't know (and if you didn't know, then you probably should just stop reading right now because you are probably not going to be interested in this, LOL), Bill Frist attached the Online Gambling Ban legislation to a Homeland Security/Defense bill about port security.  If the bill had come up on its own, it may not have passed.  Since it was attached to a Homeland Security Bill, no one voted against it.

The legislation was basically sold as a moral thing (how shocking) and yet exemptions were made for gambling on horse races.  Apparently one can become addicted to online poker but not online gambling on horse races (insert a big roll of the eyes here).

Anyways, as Slate points out, there may be some large unintended consequences of this poorly thought out legislation. 

More Poker

Perhaps I need to add a poker category here...

I don't generally like to broadcast how I play on the internet, so I don't usually get into hand specifics on here, but I feel like my poker game has come a long way, baby.  I basically started playing a year ago (last Thanksgiving was the first time I played live, though I guess I had been playing online before that). 

I made a killing this week in my two home games (partly due to luck, and partly due to my game), and I just feel like I'm finally improving a few areas of play that hadn't been that great for me before:
1) my ability to gear shift when the game shifts.  I have always been pretty adept at realizing when the game had changed, but adjusting my play took awhile for some reason.  I've definitely gotten better at this recently, though there are a few things I still need to tinker with (sorry, no details, LOL).
2) New games.  I started playing in a Limit HoldEm, Omaha Hi Lo, and Stud8 game and I basically just started playing limit and any version of Omaha/Stud about a month and a half ago.  My learning curve has definitely been a lot faster than my NLHE learning curve was.  I really like Omaha a lot.  In addition to opening up new games, NLHE all the time gets super boring. 
3)Varying my playing style just to be random.  Perhaps I shouldn't be posting about this one.  ;)  One of my greatest strengths is that I am consistently changing my playing style, even when the game has not changed.  A lot of people seem to figure that they know how you play based on a few hands you've shown down with them, and even when they get contradicting information, they still feel like you're playing the way they think you do based on previous hands.  Heck, I've fallen into this trap myself, all the time.  I like to play the same hands different ways just to throw people off (obviously my ability to do so is dependent on what cards are on the board, what people I'm up against, etc.).  It seems to work.  I love getting the vibe that no one at the table is quite sure of what I have, or they are quite sure of what I have and they are wrong (especially afterwards when people try to put me on a hand and they are not even close, LOL).  As with the previous two things, I obviously still have a ways to go on perfecting this, but I surely have gotten better at this, especially compared to July when we were in Vegas and I felt like the good players sitting there could put me on a hand every single time.

Anyways, I know I still have a long way to go, but I am very pleased with my game recently. 

Another thing - I actually got into a long conversation with a guy at Foxwoods in May about how I got into poker.  Honestly, the primary attraction of it for me at first was not monetary (especially because when I first started I sucked!), but psychological.  Playing poker helps me to improve personality flaws that I have (impatience, pride, being too uptight, etc., etc.)  Probably no one who knows me would describe me as Zen (and I'm sure I just caused some longtime acquaintances to spit soda on their computer screen in laughter, just by saying that), but I have gotten so much better at just taking things in stride, which was something I sorely needed to work on before.  Still have a long way to go, but relatively speaking, I feel like I have made a lot of progress on this front as well.

Musical Comfort Food

Not sure why, but around this time of year I always start waxing nostalgic.  Perhaps it is my upcoming birthday, or maybe it is a holdover from Syracuse - I associate colder weather with the oncoming 6 months of depression due to living in the cold dark north.  :)

Anyways, I have been delving deep into some of my cd's that have not been listened to in awhile.  Like old friends, they always make me feel good.  And they always make me think of times past. 

If you are reading this blog and you are older than me you might know the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  If you are my age (or if you are younger and you don't know what albums or even *liner notes* are), you probably don't know them.  One of my friends in college used to throw these parties where he would spin the vinyl of Paul Butterfield Blues Band's eponymous album while we all danced around his living room drinking wine from a box and cheap beer from the keg in the back yard.  Good times.  Parties like that are fewer and farther between these days (boo!), though at least now we have all upgraded our alcohol selection.  ;)

The Departed/The Prestige

We saw both of these films recently and they were both pretty good.  The Departed has an all-star cast, and eventhough I could see where it was headed about 30 minutes before it ended, there were still some surprising twists.  Jack Nicholson stole the show.  I would recommend it.

The Prestige was also good, and, imho, slightly less predictable.  I don't even like Hugh Jackman that much, but he did a really good job.  I love this time of year; most of the good movies come out. 

Hem

I recently started listening to Hem, probably best known by most people for their song "Half Acre" which is featured in a Liberty Mutual ad that started airing earlier this year.  I normally cringe when I hear music I have already found and like used in ads (especially, for example, the horrible Of Montreal shill for Outback Steakhouse that you have undoubtedly herad recently.  Yuck.), but I have to admit *sometimes* ads introduce me to new music that is good. 

The album that "Half Acre" is on (Rabbit Songs) is a few years old, but Hem actually now also has a new album out "Funnel Cloud" which is really good.  (They also have a few other albums which I have not yet listened to).  I highly recommend it.  Hem is one of those groups that is really difficult to categorize, but they are sort of country, folksy, and pop/rock all at the same time.  Their singer, Sally Ellyson, has a *fantastic* floaty voice.  Anyways, most people I know would like this band, so you might want to check them out.

Grad School and Misc other topics

I have not posted in an obscenely long time.  All I can say is that my Ph.D program has been kicking my butt - in a good way.  I have been pretty busy with that.  It is a lot more work than I expected, but I guess that is a good thing. 

I've also been playing a lot of poker.  I found a good weekly home game (1/2 NLHE), and I've also been playing at my weekly department NLHE tournament.  My tournament play still sucks.  I am a much better cash game player.  I think my problem is still the patience thing.  Tournaments require too much patience that I don't have.  Oh well - I'm working on it.  In good news, my cash game is becoming much improved.  I've also started to seriously try to learn some other games and I've been playing a lot of HORSE (that would be Hold Em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud Hi, and Stud 8 or better) tournaments online.  I really need to get around to reading up on those games.  There is a local HOE cash game I would like to play in, but I don't feel like I am up to the challenge of a cash game in Omaha or Stud 8 quite yet. 

Jeff and I are going to New Orleans for our 5th anniversary.  It was between NOLA or Montreal and warmer wethare and a casino that spreads poker won out.  Several people I have talked to think we are crazy, but I have talked to a lot of locals and they have all said that the tourist areas are fine.  Considering we are only there for a long weekend, I doubt we will find time to make it out of the tourist areas.  This will also be the first time in awhile that we are going somewhere that I have never been that Jeff has been to before.  That should be interesting.

We also just got back from a wedding in Alabama.  (Congrats Chris and Ali).  It was actually a Jewish wedding in Alabama...with a lot of non-English speaking Germans.  LOL  We had a great time, and me and a couple people from work managed to do the electric slide to some big band music.  Quite entertaining.  Since the wedding was in Huntsville, we had planned to go to the Space Museum (our hotel was literally next door), but we missed a connection in Detroit (yes, we had to fly through Detroit!) and ended up spending 8 hours in the Detroit airport.  At least now it has been renovated, plus I had two papers to write that weekend, so it wasn't horrible for me.  It was probably worse for Jeff who didn't have a laptop or me to entertain him.  :)

This weekend we are going to our first UMD sports event - I got tickets to the homecoming football game against UNC.  Should be a good time.

Level Up

OK bear with me here - another poker post.  I recently went up a level at my online cash game.  At the casinos I have always played 1-2, despite some of the other good players at my table telling me I could hack 2-5.  They are there for the same reason I am though - to pick up the loose money.  Most people who don't know what they are doing at a casino are at the 1-2, not the 2-5.  But online I had been playing the ultra low limit $.10 -.25 game.  I decided to move up to .25-.50 because I didn't feel like people were "doing what they were supposed to" at the lower limit, which makes it harder for me to actually win when I have the best hand cause the random 6 on the river might make their crap hand the nuts, and also because Jeff rightly pointed out to me that .10-.25 was the highest game at the micro level while .25-.50 was the lowest game at the low level.

Anyways, I was reminded of Jennifer Harman's comment during the live broadcast of the 2006 WSOP final table that people might be surprised that the $4000-$8000 game at the Bellagio (aka the Big Game, and the highest limit game going on) was generally the best game in the room.  Surprisingly there must be something to this logic - the money since moving up a level is pretty good.  I am surprised at how fast it adds up at only .25 more.  Maybe this way I can add to my online bankroll faster.  :-)

Poker

Haven't posted in awhile.  I've been pretty busy with the new house and then quitting my job for school.  I quit my job a few weeks ago and then went to my parents' house to visit with my Mom's side of the family.  I always go to Foxwoods when I am up there because it is only 45 minutes away, and it is always pretty fishy, especially on the weekends.

Friday night after 4 hours of play I was up $238.  This was good considering I lost my first $100 buy in in the first 45 minutes on 3 bad beats.  Then I was able to grind my way back up.  I was getting tired so I left, but I would have loved to have stayed since a guy on massive tilt and a guy who clearly didn't know what he was doing both sat down at my table right before I left.

Saturday night I played for 4 hours again and was up $588.  I would have loved to stay at this table too, but again, I was getting tired.  Guess the moral of this story is more caffeine.

Sunday night I figured there wouldn't be as much action, but I went agaon just because I feel my game improves so dramatically when I am able to play live.  I wish I lived closer to a casino with a poker room.  I was up about $200 and thinking of leaving when I got involved in a hand that ended up with two other people, each with about $200-300 going all in.  I called, made my open ended straight on the turn and won the biggest pot I have ever taken down (probably about $600 that wasn't mine).  I played for awhile after that, but it wasn't a very friendly table after that hand.  One guy in particular started trash talking me, plus I had been there for awhile, so I decided to leave.  I ended up leaving with $802 in profit.

So, for the week I was a professional poker player and made ~$1700 in about 12 hours.  Gotta get to Foxwoods more often.  That is a pretty sick amount of money for a 1-2 NL game.

BTW, the nickname I earned last time I was up there came back on this trip: Silent Killer, LOL.

red paint - the bane of my existence

Just a word of warning - if you ever get the genius idea to paint a room red, don't do it unless you are willing to put in 4 times more labor than any other pain would require.  I recently saw a great room in a pottery barn catalogue that was painted red with all white furniture.  All my office furniture is white so i decided to try it.  I mean, that picture looks so good! First of all there is the tinted primer.  At this point I wonder how many coats we would have needed if we didn't use the tinted primer.  Yikes.  Then, the color I wanted was only available in semi-gloss/gloss.  As we all discovered, gloss paint is sort of a pain to work with.  It tends to get gloppy pretty easily and will run if you are not careful.  Right now there are 3 coats of paint in addition to the primer and I'm going back for the final inspection this morning.  Last night the areas where I cut in still looked a little blotchy.  Do I really care?  Do I really want to put a 4th coat on by myself (I told Jeff he was free after 3 coats and the primer)?  I am so sick of painting!  I probably should have started painting my kitchen cabinets before we actually moved in since that is something I wanted to do, but between being sick of painting due to the red paint in my office and the fact that I am supposed to be taking a 1 day business trip to Chicago on Tuesday, the kitchen looks like it will be staying exactly the same - ugly cabinets, sink, and all.

Haven't posted in awhile...

Things have been really busy.  I got my promotion at work so now I am a senior analyst.  I also got a nice bonus that will help defray new house costs.

Speaking of which, last weekend Jeff, my mom, and I painted 4 rooms in our new house.  2 of the rooms really need another coat before we are done - hopefully we can get around to that this weekend.  The colors I picked came out really well though I am still up in the air about the red I picked for my office.  i think it would be better if it weren't so glossy, but they only sold it in gloss, so I went for it. 

Jeff and I also bought a grill and the previous owners were nice enough to leave us their propane tank, so we got that filled (for free) when we bought the grill.  We're looking forward to getting everything all set up and having people over.

Promotion, Raise, and Bonus

Today was a great day at work -- I found out that I got my promotion to Senior Analyst, a nice salary increase, and the biggest bonus I have ever gotten.  All in all - a great day!  :)

Great Memorial Day Weekend

Just got back yesterday from a fabulous trip to my parents for the weekend.  I took the train up and Jeff, who was already in Boston for work, met me there.  My mom and I sold a bunch of stuff at a garage sale (I made about $90), and I also won money playing poker at Foxwoods.  The first night we went I ended up leaving with $130 more than I walked in with.  The second night I broke even which I guess is better than losing, though I have to admit I was slightly disappointed.  Over the weekend we also went to see the DaVinci Code and the new XMen movie.  I actually liked the DaVinci Code - it wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't as horrible as the critics have been saying.  I was disappointed with XMen just because it seemed really cheesy and deviated from the comics.  It was a good action movie, but not a good XMen movie, imho.

Caity Baxter, M.A.

I have been really busy recently so I haven't posted here in awhile, but this past weekend I graduated with my M.A. and I thought that was worthy of a post.  Our graduation speakers were George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and they certainly surpassed my expectations.  Their speech was probably the best commencement speech I have heard.  The Post even wrote an article about it:

Bushes Banter for GWU Grads
Ex-President, Wife Trade Politics for Humor in Day of Ceremonies

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 22, 2006; B03

When the featured speakers advanced to the lectern yesterday on the Mall, the crowd of more than 25,000 that had assembled for George Washington University's commencement buzzed with anticipation.

Cameras clicked; video recorders whirred. People moved closer to the stage and crowded the graduates in their black robes. What would former president George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, say? Would they be serious? Sentimental? Political?

Nope, nope, nope.

Instead, the Bushes struck a humorous vein.

Barbara: "I'm sensitive about the age thing. Once when I was speaking, a girl went home and told her mother, 'I heard the mother of the president of the United States -- George Washington.' "

George: "I consider that an honest mistake. After all, you look like George Washington."

One after another came the jokes, George even rehashing one of his all-time favorites when he told the crowd that a speech by Desmond Tutu was only "so-so."

The Bush comedy hour drew mostly chuckles from the crowd that included about 4,500 of the 6,500 graduates who received degrees this spring. The pair drew a standing ovation before and after they spoke, with only a handful of protesters.

One woman was escorted off the Mall by authorities after she ignored warnings to close a pink umbrella that read, "No More War." A GWU spokeswoman said the sign violated U.S. Park Police policy against large signs of any kind on the Mall.

Two graduates who taped the peace sign on their mortar boards stood throughout the speech with their backs to the Bushes.

Several other colleges in the Washington area held graduation ceremonies yesterday, including the University of Maryland at College Park and the University of Virginia. About 6,400 students received degrees at U-Md. and 6,037 at U-Va., according to the schools.

The Bushes had the highest profile among the speakers culled from that most Washington of industries: politics. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) spoke at U-Md. and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) at U-Va.

GWU's ceremony was mostly politics-free, despite the storied career of the featured speakers. Aaron Huertas, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in political communication, gave a speech about the importance of using technology responsibly.

GWU President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg told the crowd: "I wrote to President Bush in 1991 asking him to speak at commencement. At the time, he said he would give my request to his schedulers and get back to me. It took 15 years, but he kept his promise."

The Bushes received honorary doctorates in public service before concluding their remarks with some serious thoughts. Barbara Bush urged the graduates to spend time reading.

"Time is the capital from God that is yours to invest," George Bush said. "How will you invest that? With more massive projects under tight deadlines? By playing video games? You'll get a lot more satisfaction by tucking a child into bed, seeing a victim of Hurricane Katrina moving back into their home. It's best to invest in the lives of people."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/21/AR2006052101157.html

MI:3

Considering Mission Impossible 2 is on my list of top 5 worst films I have ever seen in my life, I was reluctantly persuaded to go to see Mission Impossible 3 by Jeff.  I had very low expectations.  MI:3 managed to surpass them...barely.

MI:2 was truly awful.  I still remember my Mom and I trying to stifle outright laughter in inappropriate places.  White doves and hugging each other after catapulting off motorcycles was just too much for us, I guess.

I won't give away too much of the MI:3 plot, but suffice it to say I didn't laugh in inappropriate places.  I did roll my eyes about a billion times though.  And the end was lame. 

Another thing I noticed: I'm not quite sure JJ Abrams has quite gotten the hang of movie directing yet.  There were a couple of points in the film where it felt more like an episode of Alias than a feature film.

All in all I guess I would say that it was entertaining.  I could have waited for it on DVD though.

I am the fastest snipe in the West! Er...

I am a longtime fan of ebay.  I recently replaced our everyday china by buying individual pieces of a discontinued pattern on ebay.  In preparing for our move, I've even started selling stuff (successfully, I might add!) on ebay.

Tonight I was clicking refresh to make sure my bid for something ended up winning.  With about 30 seconds left to go some dude outbid me.  Some dude, I might add, who was not among the original people bidding on the item.  Ha Ha.  I outbid him in the end and won.  In the 7 or so years I've been using ebay, I don't think I've ever been outsniped.  I hope I don't jinx myself by typing that.  Too bad it is not a marketable talent.  :p

Our offer was accepted

We just found out tonight that our offer was accepted.  We are having the inspection later this week and then closing in mid June.  Yay!

Jeff and I just put an offer on a townhouse!

Keep your fingers crossed.  We found a place we really liked yesterday and decided to go ahead an put an offer on it.  It is 3br/2ba and has a basement that has a lot of space in it as well.  It is in Laurel (though SW of downtown Laurel), and is pretty close to the University of Maryland where I'll be a student in the Fall.

I passed my comp!

Just found out tonight.  :)

Lucky Number Slevin

We went to go see this movie last night and it was good, I thought.  The Washington Post review complained about violence, but I didn't think it was overly violent.  It rather reminded me of The Sting, though the twists were somewhat predictable.  I don't want to give too much away, but if you want to see a good movie with Morgan Freeman as a "bad" guy you should go see this film.

My New Favorite Gym

A few weeks ago, I joined a new gym.  It has two things going for it: 1) it is in my building at work.  Specifically, I cannot get from my office on the 8th floor to my car in the basement without passing it. and 2) they have cable tv on every machine!!!  I can watch WSOP on ESPN 2 every day at 5 while I am working out.  Now if only they would get tivo so I wouldn't get bored during the commercials.  I'm kidding...sort of.

Exciting News - Looking to Buy

Jeff and I are looking to buy our first house (or really condo/townhouse, since that is about all we can afford in this area).  No yard/2 unshared walls for us!

We're going to start looking in earnest next weekend.  Wish us luck.  For those of you in this area, we're thinking of buying in Greenbelt.

I would love to move to Silver Spring or downtown DC, but there isn't much in our target price range there.  I saw a 1 br condo in Columbia Heights the other day listed as starting in the low $300,000s.  Um, yeah...how about no.

New Orleans Mayoral Candidate Poses at DL

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/13/nola_mayoral_candida.html

From boing boing:

Kimberly Williamson Butler, a mayoral candidate in New Orleans, is running a campaign photo of her standing in what appears to be the French Quarter, but what, on closer inspection, seems to be the simulated French Quarter in Disneyland's New Orleans Square, home of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, in Anaheim, CA. Note the red circle around the waste-can that shows where the eagle-eyed Justin spotted the tell-tale evidence.

OOOOPS!  Busted!

Weekly Recipe: Chicken with Lime Sauce

4  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4  teaspoon salt
1/4  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2  teaspoons olive oil
Cooking spray
3/4  cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1  tablespoon brown sugar
3  tablespoons lime juice, divided
2  teaspoons Dijon mustard
2  tablespoons water
1  teaspoon cornstarch
1  tablespoon butter

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and 2 tablespoons sauce)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 260(26% from fat); FAT 7.5g (sat 2.7g,mono 3.1g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 40.7g; CHOLESTEROL 106mg; CALCIUM 32mg; SODIUM 382mg; FIBER 0.1g; IRON 1.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 5.4g

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add chicken broth, sugar, 2 tablespoons juice, and mustard to pan; cook over medium heat, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.

Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add cornstarch mixture to pan; stir well with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook 1 minute or until sauce thickens slightly. Whisk in remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice and butter, stirring until butter melts. Return chicken to pan; simmer 2 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly heated.

Atheists: most distrusted minority

The University of Minnesota recently completed a study that identified atheists as America's most distrusted minority. 

From the press release:

"Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

Edgell also argues that today’s atheists play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past—they offer a symbolic moral boundary to membership in American society. “It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, as long as every one shares a common ‘core’ of values that make them trustworthy—and in America, that ‘core’ has historically been religious,” says Edgell. Many of the study’s respondents associated atheism with an array of moral indiscretions ranging from criminal behavior to rampant materialism and cultural elitism."

Pretty interesting...  I am always interested in this kind of stuff, and the difference between groups that are visible (African Americans, for example) and groups that are "invisible" (do you know the religious preferences of everyone you interact with?)

Click here to read the full press release.

Catch up and Comps

So now that my comp is over (!) I have a life back.  It is very exciting...other than the fact I seem to have gone to seven 30th birthdays since January, including another one this past weekend.  That has made me feel old like nothing else!

I haven't found out if I passed my comp yet, but I was very happy with how it went, so hopefully I did pass.  At least it's done.  Now I can resume happy hours at work, weekend movies, etc.  Woo-hoo!

In bad news, some woman in an SUV hit me this morning.  She tried to squeeze around me into a left turn lane and scraped up the whole side of my car - probably just paint damage, but we were thinking about selling my car, so now that is just one more thing to deal with.

Weekly Recipe: Ham, Spinach, and Sundried Tomato Calzones

Another recipe that utilizes Trader Joe's pizza dough!  This was better than I thought it would be.  I served it with Trader Joe's pizza sauce for dipping.  I also used Canadian bacon instead of ham, just cause we happened to have some in the fridge...and I accidentally omitted the parmesan, but it was still good.

Ham, Spinach, and Sundried Tomato Calzones
1 cup part-skim ricotta

3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed,
drained, and squeezed dry

3 ounces lean ham, chopped

6 oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves, drained and chopped

1 refrigerated pizza crust dough

Cooking spray



Preheat oven to 450°.

Combine first 9 ingredients.

Divide dough evenly into 5 pieces; pat each dough piece into a 5-inch
circle. Spoon about 1/2 cup spinach mixture onto half of each circle, leaving a
1/2-inch border. Fold dough over filling until edges almost meet. Bring bottom
edge over top edge; crimp edges of dough with fingers to form a rim. Place
calzones on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 14
minutes or until browned.

Yield: 5 servings (serving size: 1
calzone)



CALORIES 356(32% from fat); FAT 12.5g; FIBER 3.2g

4 days to go and EMP's

My comp is in 4 days...  and I'm feeling like I might actually pass!  LOL

In other news, I am starting to wonder if I am giving off EMP's or something.  My brand new laptop (bought in October) all of a sudden stopped taking a charge.  Apparently I need the motherboard replaced.  Fortunately it is under warranty, but could it have come at a worse time?  I'm off work this week to study and have been holed up in the library with my laptop.  We have to order the part and it will take a few days to get in.

Fortunately, tonight I discovered that it will charge in my docking station.  So, tomorrow I can bring my docking station to the library and look like an idiot instead of bringing 5 fully charged batteries with me and hoping they last 8-9 hours.

Wish me luck on my comp!

Back to studying...

Weekly Recipe: Sweet Potato Souffle

I LOVE sweet potatoes.  I recently saw this recipe and was intrigued.  If you are feeling adventurous, making a souffle is not really that difficult.  Just follow the directions and hey, even if it doesn't look pretty, it will still taste good.

Sweet Potato Soufflé

Cooking spray
1/4  cup granulated sugar, divided
2  medium sweet potatoes (about 1 pound, 12 ounces)
2  tablespoons butter, softened
1/4  cup all-purpose flour (about 1 ounce)
1/2  cup half-and-half
1  tablespoon grated orange rind
1/3  cup fresh orange juice
1/4  cup packed dark brown sugar
1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4  teaspoon salt
2  large egg yolks
5  large egg whites

Position oven rack to lowest setting, and remove the middle rack. Preheat oven to 425°.

Coat a 1 1/2-quart soufflé dish with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Set aside.

Pierce potatoes with a fork; arrange on paper towels in microwave oven. Microwave at high 10 minutes or until tender, rearranging potatoes after 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Peel potatoes. Combine potatoes and butter, and mash with a potato masher until smooth.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, potato mixture, half-and-half, and next 6 ingredients (through egg yolks) in a food processor; process until smooth. Transfer potato mixture to a large bowl.

Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl; beat at high speed with a mixer until soft peaks form. Add remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (do not overbeat). Gently fold one-fourth of egg white mixture into potato mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Gently spoon mixture into prepared dish. Sharply tap dish 2 or 3 times on the counter to level. Place dish on a baking sheet; place baking sheet in a 425° oven. Immediately reduce oven temperature to 375° (do not remove soufflé from oven). Bake 1 hour or until soufflé is puffy, golden, and set. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 259(26% from fat); FAT 7.5g (sat 4.3g,mono 2.3g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 6.9g; CHOLESTEROL 88mg; CALCIUM 84mg; SODIUM 414mg; FIBER 3.1g; IRON 1.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 41g

Poor Jud is Dead, Poor Jud Fry is Dead

My ipod (almost 4 years old) kicked the bucket yesterday.  I guess the battery just finally died, but rather than pay for it to be replaced, I'm going to upgrade.

RIP my first ipod.  You served me well.

And just in case you are wondering, no my ipod is not named Jud Fry.  It's a song from Oklahoma (a musical for you cultural illiterates out there).  And no dad, Oklahoma is not sung to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus.  ;)

Weather

"Blech.  I hope the weather cools down slightly before May."
- me, in a blog post earlier in March

Slightly!  I said SLIGHTLY, damn it!  It was snowing here today!!!  Fortunately it did not stick, but it has been freezing.  I suppose it is better than the 85 degrees and no AC like the week I was complaining about, but c'mon - it is almost April and I don't live in Syracuse any more!!!

Weekly Recipe: BBQ chicken pizza

OK, so this is not exactly a gourmet recipe, but it is good and fast.  I have been cooking a lot of chicken recently and I have gotten pretty bored of the standard chicken dishes I make, but I don't have a lot of time to go looking for new things.  I stopped at Trader Joe's on my way home (I love that store!  I can buy all kinds of yummy, unique food, and I always manage to leave with a bag full of stuff for under $30) and bought some of their pre-made pizza dough (whole wheat, though they have regular too) which retails for a whopping $.75.  This stuff is awesome.  I make sure to always keep some around.  The whole wheat dough is some of the best I have had - on par with the honey wheat dough at CPK, though not as sweet which is fine with me.

But to get back to the recipe...

So I bought some whole wheat pizza dough and some 3 cheese blend (colby, monterey jack, and mozz) and headed home.  I carmelized half of a sweet onion left over in the fridge from last night's dinner and then added the chicken I took out of the freezer this morning cut up into small pieces and cooked it til it was done.  I spread out the dough on a cookie sheet (using Pam with flour on the sheet first - this is very important, otherwise you will have a pizza stuck to the sheet!), topped it with my favorite sweet BBQ sauce, the cheese, and the chicken and onions.  Baked it at 425 for 10 minutes and voila.

Considering I just made it up on the fly, it was really good.  It would have been better with some fresh cilantro, but alas, I didn't have any.

To recap:
whole wheat pizza dough
Pam with flour (or just regular flour)
2 chicken breast halves, diced
1/2 large sweet onion
BBQ sauce
shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 425.  Carmelize the onion.  Add the chicken and cook til done.  Spray a cookie sheet with Pam with flour (or a pizza pan if you have one - I always just use a rimmed cookie sheet).  Spread the dough out on the sheet.  Top with BBQ sauce, cheese, and chicken/onions.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Cut into 8 pieces.

I haven't disappeared

I haven't posted in awhile and that's because I've been super busy studying for my MA comprehensive exam.  I have basically put a moratorium on my social life until after 4/8. 

The one exciting thing that has happened recently:  I finally bought a new phone.  My old one was seriously like 4 years old.  It had a green screen and no txt capabilities.  Sad, I know, but I don't like to spend a lot of money on my phone.

So after being prompted by various things in the past week, I decided not only was it time to get a new phone, but time to leave Sprint behind (I'd been with them since 1999).  I got a great deal on a RAZR phone through Verizon and since Jeff and Sarah are on Verizon too I get free in network txting. Oh and now I have a camera in my phone so I am armed and dangerous.  Muhahahahahahahahaha!

Same number btw - just a different phone.

Weekly Recipe: Hummus

i got this recipe from my mom.  It is yummy and a nice thing to have on hand to use as a veggie dip or sandwich spread.  Whenever I make some it never stays in the fridge for long.  This recipe makes a pretty large amount, but it's a good amount for a party.

3 cups canned garbanzo beans, reserve drained juice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
3/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Pinch of paprika

Puree the garbanzo beans in a food processer or blender (I prefer to use our blender.  It seems like it can better handle the beans).  Stir/pulse in the crushed garlic, lemon juice, salt, and tahini.  The hummus should have a consistency similar to that of mayonnaise.  If it is too thick add reserved juice (I usually add slightly less than the juice from one can).  Pour into a bowl and top with the olive oil.   Sprinkle with paprika. 

Summer Vacation - Change in Plans

Jeff's family is having a family reunion in LA this summer, so in an attempt to save money and vacation time, we figured we would combine our vacation with the reunion.  Our roadtrip to Yellowstone will have to wait.  Instead we plan to fly into LA, rent a car and drive to Las Vegas, and then head back to LA for the reunion.  I'm also hoping we can spend a day or two bumming around LA.

The best news - we had so many miles in our frequent flyer accounts we were able to trade them in for 2 first class tickets...and we still have a bunch of miles left.  I'm still pricing it out, but we are hoping to rent a convertible for our drive to Vegas.  We also found a great online deal at the Luxor in the pyramid. 

Neither of us have been to Vegas before, so if you have any suggestions on what to see and do, they are welcomed. 

Spring Has Sprung

Spring seems to have sprung here in DC.  People are driving around with their convertible tops down.  Women in desperate need of a tan are wearing tank tops.  Uncle Jed's Roadhouse, one of our favorite after-work happy hour spots, has opened up their patio.

And once again I am reminded of why I hate apartment living.  Our apartment doesn't turn on the air conditioning til May.  We seem to be surrounded by other people who feel the need to have their heat blasting  24/7 (Evidence of this fact: We literally never turn our heat on in the winter.  Ever.  Ambient heat from other people's apartments is more than enough to keep us warm.)

Blech.  I hope the weather cools down slightly before May.

This was good for a laugh...

I am signed up with mypoints so that I get points for reading emails they send me and online shopping which I can then redeem for gift cards.  I usually get gift cards for Tower records to fund my music habit.

Yesterday I got a really funny e-mail in my inbox entitled: "Join the William Shatner DVD Club and earn 500 Points!"  After a good laugh about what the heck the William Shatner DVD Club would be like, I opened the email.  As it turns out, it is a sci-fi dvd club.  This begs the question: could William Shatner be any more of a whore than he already is?  Apparently so.

Belle and Sebastian and more...

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been pretty busy.  Instead of making a bunch of posts, I figured I would roll everything into one.  ;-)

Monday night Jeff and I went to see Belle and Sebastian and the concert was great (preceeded by an equally great dinner at Busboys and Poets with Aaron).  I was disappointed by the New Pornographer's opening, but what could you expect when 2/3 of the main vocalists weren't there, and one of the replacement vocalists had lost her voice.  It was actually pretty painful. The (male) drummer was singing falsetto on some of the female backings, then the main singer bust his thuimb open and started to bleed.  I think they spent most of their time on stage talking or tuning their guitars (I'm assuming a nervous tick).  Then they went off early.

But B+S rocked!  And they played one of my favorite B sides: "Your Cover's Blown".  NPR recorded the show I was at and you can listen to it here if you are so inclined. 

Tuesday was fairly uneventful and Wednesday afternoon I took off for Minneapolis for work.  Let me just say that the roads in Minneapolis are tres confusing.  But I am confident that if I ever get on Amazing Race and we end up in MN, I now will have the jump on the other teams.  ;-)  For example:  there is a I-35E and a I-35W.  One would (naturally) assume that this was the same road, runing E-W, right?  But no!  In MN they like to be tricky!  Instead, they are two different roads running parallel to each other and they both run N-S (wtf?).  It took me awhile to figure out that I wanted I-35E North.  Fortunately I picked up a free map from the car rental place.

So yesterday I was on my way back hanging out at the MSP airport and eating a really good burger (and enjoying a very good local brew), I caught the very exciting end of the Syracuse-UConn game.  Then I tried calling my dad to heckle him, but he wasn't home.  Neither was my sister.  Oh well. 

And unfortunately, GW lost yesterday.  (Pops, hurry back!)  At Alexis' birthday last night this seemed to be the hot topic of conversation.

Today in D.C. it is almost 80 degrees.  Good thing I have one (yes, only one) Summer work-appropriate shirt that fits me.  In addition to comps studying I sense shopping in my immediate future.

All Time Favorite Song?

I got asked this by someone last week and I didn't have an answer.  There are *so many* songs I really like.  After thinking about it some more though, I think I might have to go with a very simple song by the Beatles: "In My Life" from Rubber Soul.  This and a hand full of other songs (like Find the River and Nightswimming by R.E.M.) are nostalgic favorites from high school.  They just conjure up all kinds of good memories.

A friend and I campaigned for "In My Life" as our senior prom song (and it won), our group performed it at music camp before we were really a group, I quoted it in my senior yearbook entry, and if the stupid dj hadn't fucked up (don't get me started about our wedding dj) it would have been played at our wedding.  It's not a very complicated song and there are probably other songs that move me more on a musical level, but it just makes me think back to good times.

There are places I remember all my life,

Though some have changed,

Some forever, not for better,

Some have gone and some remain.

All these places had their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall.

Some are dead and some are living.

In my life I've loved them all.

But of all these friends and lovers,

There is no one compares with you,

And these memories lose their meaning

When I think of love as something new.

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before,

I know I'll often stop and think about them,

In my life I'll love you more.

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before,

I know I'll often stop and think about them,

In my life I'll love you more.

In my life I'll love you more.

Oscar Night America - AFI Silver

Last night we went to the Oscar party at AFI Silver, and we had a pretty good time.  The food was decent (good Cuban food from Cubanos among other places).  I was a little disappointed with the drinks (wine and one type of cocktail), but hey it was open bar so I guess I can't complain too much.  It was fun to get dressed up and go out even if some of the other atendees got a little rowdy towards the end (I guess that is another problem with oen bar, LOL).  Here's a picture I made Jeff take. 

Weekly Recipe: Barbecue Meat Loaf

Meatloaf might be passe.  But passe things tend to come around again (like the unfortunate circa 1980s Madonna look, which seems to be making a comeback *shudder*), and besides, there are few better comfort foods than a good slice of meatloaf with a side of mashed potatoes. 

This month's Cooking Light did their cooking class section on meatloaf and offered up several interesting sounding recipes.  I made the first one, barbecue meatloaf, for dinner tonight and it was a big hit.  This is definitely making its way into my recipes file.  FYI - I used a spicy brown mustard, hot chili powder, and Famous Dave's Sweet and Sassy BBQ sauce (which has a bit of a kick).  I also drizzled some extra sauce on the pieces once they were plated.  I served it with veggies, and carmelized sweet onions.  Mmmmmmm-mmmmmmm good.

Oh and lest I forget to metion, the best part about this meatloaf is its nutritional info.  203 calories, 5.4 grams of fat, 1.1 grams of fiber for 2 slices.  For all you WW fans, that means it's only 4 points for 2 slices.  The same as a 3 oz chicken breast!  And it tastes infinitely better.  I have cut red meat almost completely out of my diet (opting for turkey, chicken, pork, and soy), but this recipe might convince me to eat it more. 

Barbecue Meatloaf
1 1/2  pounds ground beef, extra lean (raw)
1/2  cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2  cup chopped onion
1/3  cup barbecue sauce, divided
1  tablespoon prepared mustard
1 1/2  teaspoons chili powder
1  teaspoon garlic powder
1/2  teaspoon salt
1/2  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2  large egg whites
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine
the beef, breadcrumbs, and onion, 1 tablespoon barbecue sauce, and
remaining ingredients except cooking spray in a large bowl.

Shape
meat mixture into a 9 x 5-inch loaf on a broiler pan coated with
cooking spray. Spread remaining barbecue sauce over top of meat loaf.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let
stand 10 minutes. Cut loaf into 12 slices.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 slices)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES
203(24% from fat); FAT 5.4g (sat 2.2g,mono 2.2g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN
27.3g; CHOLESTEROL 61mg; CALCIUM 26mg; SODIUM 517mg; FIBER 1.1g; IRON
3.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 10.5g

Belle and Sebastian and Music Theory

I've been listening to a lot of B+S recently in anticipation of their DC show on Monday.  And I realized that B+S is one of the few bands (the only band I can think of off of the top of my head) that can end a song with a minor chord when the rest of the song (or most of it anyways) has been major.  Pretty much every song that ends like that sounds (to me anyways) like it is trying too hard.  And instead of making me feel angsty (what I guess bands are trying to do), it makes me feel like rolling my eyes and snorting.  It just sounds so cheesy!  But B+S can somehow pull it off.  Hmmmmmmmm...

KT Tunstall

When we were in London I kept seeing stuff about KT Tunstall (she had just won a Brit for best British female solo artist).  Then the other day when I was in Tower they had her album "Eye to the Telescope" on sale, so I bought it.  It's pretty good.  I mean, it's probably not something I would list as one of my favorites, but she has a really great voice.  The album is folky with an edge and wanders around in some parts to jazz.  She sort of sounds like Fiona Apple, but less angsty.  And it's a pretty solid album (unlike, for example, the Ellie Lawson disc I have which has 2-3 good songs and the rest is crap). 

Page France

I just discovered this band recently and I find myself continually taking out whatever I have in my car cd player and putting this in instead.  They are from MD.  And they are playing at Iota in April.  Good music and good lyrics.  Just the way I like it.

Check out their myspace page - you can listen to some of their songs there for free.

75 pounds = $$$$

I hit the 75 pounds lost mark about 3 weeks ago.  I've now officially gone down 4 sizes.  I was taking stock of my closet the other day and literally about 3/4 of the stuff in it didn't fit.  I have NO spring/summer clothes other than a few non-work appropriate t-shirts.  Looks like someone will be going shopping.  Of course, I can't spend too much because I still have about 30 more pounds to lose.  Only 30 pounds -- just typing it makes me happy.

News on the grad school front

Yesterday I got two emails: one a rejection from Berkeley, which was really not very surprising, and an acceptance to Maryland with 4 years of funding.  The funding sounds really pretty interesting -- the first year is an internship with the Maryland state legislature.  Then after that it's RA/TA work.  I'm very excited that now at least I know I am going somewhere.

My dad, the PBS celebrity

I got an e-mail from my dad this morning telling me that he had filmed part of a series for WGBH/The Annenberg Foundation on new literacies in reading instruction for grades 3-5.  My dad is one of the leading experts (or as we in the family like to tease him "the world's greatest expert" ;) ) on new literacies.

More info here: http://www.learner.org/channel/workshops/teachreading35/session5/index.html

Weekly Recipes - Sofrito and Black Bean Soup

I love to cook.  For Christmas this year, I made my sister-in-law a cookbook of some of my favorite recipes.  I'm going to try to post a recipe I've tried and like once a week here so others can enjoy some of my favorite foods as well. 

This week, I'm going to share my sofrito recipe.  Sofrito is a base in a lot of Central American cooking, especially in Puerto Rican dishes.  I usually make a batch and freeze it in 1 cup portions.  That way, I can take it out and use it whenever I want without having to make it fresh every time.  It freezes well in quart ziplocks.  You can really use this sofrito in just about anything.  I use it as a condiment on top of homemade fries, as a sauce on top of chicken or mixed in with rice, and my favorite - in black bean soup (see recipe below).  Enjoy!

Sofrito
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, corsely chopped (about 4 cups)
2 green bell peppers, ribs and seeds removed, coarsely chopped (about 2 1/4 cups)
2 red bell peppers, ribs and seeds removed, coarsely chopped (about 2 1/4 cups)
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 large tomato, cored and corsely chopped (about 2 cups)
3 cups fresh cilantro leaves and stems
salt
pepper

In a 5 quart Dutch oven or pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion. Cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes.  Add bell peppers, garlic, oregano, and cumin; cook, stirring often, about 10 minutes.  Add tomato; cook about 5 minutes, stirring ocassionally.  Transfer to a food processor.  Add cilantro and puree until slightly chunky.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Black Bean Soup
1 cup sofrito
2 15.5 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 14.5 oz can reduced fat chicken broth
1/2 cup water
salt
pepper
12 teaspoons of fresh lime juice (fresh really tastes better than bottled!)
sour cream

In a medium saucepan heat sofrito over medium heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes.  Stir in beans, chicken broth, and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer.  Cook 5 minutes.  Puree with an immersion blender.  Season with coarse salt and ground pepper.  Immediately before serving, stir in 3 teaspoons of lime juice to each serving of soup.  Top with sour cream. 

Self Esteem Boost - Always a Good Thing

Last night Jeff and I went to a birthday party for one of his employees.  We actually had a great time.  Note to self: catering from Hard Times Cafe is the way to go for a party.  The best part of the evening for me though was running into a guy that Jeff works with who I hadn't seen in a couple of years (before I'd lost any weight) who came up to me and told me that when we came in he didn't even recognize me and was wondering who I was.  That really made my night.  :D

Have Some Time To Waste?

Check this out:

Ten Best Flickr Mashups from Webmonkey

More London Photos

More plundered treasure from Greece in the British Museum.  There is a huge controversy between the British (who took a lot of relics from Greece - including the infamous Elgin Marbles (see London Day 2, 4th photo).

The interior of the British Museum.  That is the exit to the main lobby from the inside of the museum.

The reading room at the British Museum.  Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital here.  It has also been used by many other famous British literary figures like Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, and H.G. Wells.  This picture captures approximately 1/4 of the room.  It is a huge circular room.

Murals from Egypt in the British Museum...

This artifact was featured prominently on our map of the British Museum and it is called "Ram in the Thicket."  Jeff and I thought the name was rather pervy.

Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the tower...

Jeff in front of the George Washington statue outside of the National Gallery.  An exact copy of this statue is on the quad at GWU.

View of Princes Square from our hotel room  window.  I lived down the street to the right towards the end of the square in a flat on the 4th floor (5th floor to Americans - in England the "1st floor" is the ground floor and the "2nd floor" is the 1st floor.)

London Day 3

Day 3 started with us grumbling about having to get up so early.  But I really wanted to see the inside of Westminster Abbey.  When I was in London in 1998, I was there during the peak of tourist season and every time I walked by the line was several hours long.  Even though it was the off season, I didn't want to have to wait in line, so I decided we were going to get there at opening.  We ended up getting there about 30 minutes after opening, but there was no line.  Unfortunately photography was not allowed inside because the interior was even more beautiful than the interior of Notre Dame and we got to see the tombs of many famous British kings and queens, as well as several famous British poets, writers, and actors.  After walking through most of the Abbey, we stopped for some breakfast, which for me was the breakfast of champions: hot chocolate and a brownie.  We headed out towards the exit and passed the tomb of the unknown soldier.  There were also memorials to FDR and a Congressional Medal of Honor placed on the tomb by General Pershing.  I explained to Jeff the symbolism of the Red Poppies surrounding the tomb.

We walked over to the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (yet another thing I somehow managed to miss in London, however since the Churchill Museum wasn't open when I was last in London, I was almost glad I had waited).  On the way we passed a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln.  I had never noticed it before and we both wondered why a statue of Lincoln had such a place of honor (right on the traffic circle in front of Westminster), especially considering the British had taken the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War. 

Rick Steves had advised us to get the audio tour at the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum and amazingly it was free with the cost of admission.  Definitely well worth it too.  We spent about an hour and a half walking through.  The Churchill Museum was probably one of the best museums I have been to.  It was pretty small (one very large room divided into sections), but it was so informative and they used some pretty cool technology to make it very interactive.  I would definitely recommend visiting the museum and war rooms when you are in London. 

After that we walked past 10 Downing Street, saw the Queen's Guards and ate a really awesome pub lunch.  Jeff had fish and chips and I had a really good steak and ale meat pie.  I also had a pint of Pride of London, which was probably one of the best ales I sampled during our short trip.  As we were leaving I noticed some French tourists sitting at the table next to us.  It was clear that they did not know that at pubs you are supposed to order at the bar - there are no waiters that will come and take your order.  I thought about saying something to them, but I decided not to.  Be forewarned -- if you go to England and eat in a pub, order drinks and food at the bar.

Next on my list was visiting the National Gallery, but Jeff really doesn't like art museums and I had spent a lot of time there when I was in London previously, so I decided to just grab a bus to Covent Garden.  Covent Garden is now a shopping area and home to the London Opera.  Back around the turn of the century it was a hug flower market and the setting of several scenes in Pygmalion where Eliza sells her flowers to opera goers.  It is also home to another great museum in London: the transport museum which gives the history of the underground, the oldest and largest subway system in the world (another hint for travelers to London -- if you see a sign saying subway, that isn't the underground.  It's an underground walkway.  The "subway" is called the underground on most signs.)  Unfortunately, the museum (which I had already been to, but Jeff hadn't) was closed.  We walked around the shops and I explained to Jeff that punch and judy shows had also originated in Covent Garden.  I spent a decent amount of time in Lush - one of my favorite stores, and Jeff apparently spent his time being accosted by a mime while he waited for me.  I also spent some time in the Transport Museum Gift Shop which was open.  I almost bought a really cool poster which showed the underground system with each line representing a different type of music.

After shopping and Jeff making a narrow escape from the mime, we headed to catch the bus to the London Eye which wasn't open when I was in London in 1998.  We passed a theatre that was surrounded by people and a bunch of bobbies (that's policemen).  While we were waiting for the bus, we asked someone what was going on.  Apparently Prince Charles was at the theatre for some charity event and everyone was waiting to get a peak of him on his way out.  We didn't wait and instead got on the bus.  There was a huge, but pretty fast moving queue at the London Eye and I had time to think about chickening out (I am rather afraid of heights and I hate Ferris wheels!).  I bought tickets and consoled myself that unlike most Ferris wheels, the pods don't swing on the eye.  The whole trip takes about 30 minutes and it was well worth it.  The pod didn't shake and the views were really amazing.

On our way out, I had to go to the bathroom, so Jeff waited in the cafe while I went downstairs to the toilets.  As I opened the door to leave the toilets, I heard an alarm and saw a huge metal fire door sealing off the staircase that I needed to go up.There were a couple other tourists standing in the hallway looking confused.  I was afraid Jeff might have had to evacuate too and that we might get separated since there were so many people, so I wasn't going to wait around with the rest of the tourists.  I started following the green fire exit signs (all emergency fire signs in London are green) which led me through the kitchen and out to a loading dock.  I ended up having to circle the whole building and when I got back to the cafe everyone was sitting there as if nothing had happened - including Jeff.  Apparently only the downstairs bathroom area had had the problem and it was just a false alarm.

After having some coffee at the cafe, we decided to go to the tkts booth and see if we could get some cheap tickets to a show later that night.  We ended up getting half price tickets to see the Producers which coincidentally was in the theatre where Prince Charles had been.  Neither of us were hungry for dinner, and we had some time to kill before the show so I finally persuaded Jeff to check out the National Gallery.  I really only walked through the impressionist rooms (and noticed the original of a print we have in our kitchen that I bought the last time I was in London -- one of my favorite Monet's of poplars).  Then we decided to walk over towards the theatre and grab some dinner.  We stopped at a Pret a Manger on the Strand and had sandwiches.  Then we stopped in at a coffee shop and bought a paper which we read through until it was time for the show.  Bird Flu had just been found in the North of France and it was pretty much all over the news when we were in London.  The Evening Standard had the funniest headline that day which was displayed throughout the city on signs: "Scientists Say Lock up All the Chickens!!!"  Jeff and I both get a kick out of British journalism which is much more candid than American journalism.

Finally it was time for the show.  We had gotten front row seats and had a great view of the orchestra as well as the show.  Neither of us had seen The Producers before and we both really enjoyed it.  All of the actors were really strong, even though Ulla was the understudy.  After the show, we headed back to the hotel.  It was a great last day.

London Day 2

Today started with me waking up at about 2am and not being able to go
back to sleep. I ended up channel surfing until about 4 when I finally
made it back to sleep. I ended up watching Stargate SG-1 and Next Gen.  One of the best thigs about the British is their love for good sci-fi.  Of course, then I ended up sleeping in until
about 10:30. We finally got showered and out the door and headed to the
British Museum. I had been there before, but I thought Jeff would like
to see all the mummies and the Rosetta Stone. After walking around the
British Museum for awhile we had lunch at the Wagamama around the
corner. Wagamama is one of my favorite restaurants in London. It’s a
chain of Japanese noodle bars and I have never eaten anything bad at
one. We were seated without a wait and I had some kind of spicy soba
noodle dish and Jeff had a more bland chicken one. We split a piece of
ginger cheesecake for dessert. Very good.

After lunch, we headed
over to Oxford Circus to do some shopping. We stopped in Hamley’s, a
huge toy store, for awhile and then went to the Virgin Records on
Piccadilly Circus. I bought a few cd’s and Jeff checked out the book
section. By this time it had really started to pour and it was also
pretty cold. I don’t know how it gets to be so cold and wet without
snow. We headed towards Leicester Square and discovered that Sega World
no longer existed. Too bad – it would have been perfect for a rainy
afternoon. We also discovered that the BAFTA’s were going on today at
the Leicester Square Odeon. How exciting! If it hadn’t been so cold and
wet, maybe we would have hung around to try and get a peak of some
celebrities. As it was, we decided that the best option would be to hop
on one of those tourist buses and sit some place dry and warm.

We
killed about an hour on the bus and then decided we should just go back
to the hotel. Jeff wanted to go to a casino on Edgware Road and I was
thinking I would just hang out at the hotel. Jeff and I split up and I
went to the M+S to pick up some quick dinner stuff. When I got back to
the hotel though, Jeff was in the lobby. The tournament he was going to
play in had been moved up to 5pm and he had missed it. So, I put the
M+S goodies in the fridge and we decided to grab dinner at the Phoenix
(formerly Bar Oz). The inside looked exactly the same and I wondered if
they had just renamed the place or something. The ATM even said “Bar
Oz”. I was going to ask about it, but I forgot. We split an order of
nachos and I was reminded what a bad idea it was to try anything
remotely North American in London. We ended up getting a big pile of
Doritos with bad salsa and a container of sour cream on top. I
instantly had flashbacks of the time we went to the Texas Embassy in
London with my flatmates. The concept was pretty cool – a tex mex
restaurant in the building that housed the embassy of Texas, when it
was an independent republic. It was then that I found out how Italian
people must feel when they eat at American Italian restaurants. It was
so bad – pretty much Taco Bell on a china plate! Fortunately I had a
pint of pretty good bitter to wash the “nachos” down. I ended up with
fish and chips again as nothing else on their menu was really appealing
to me. Jeff had fish and chips as well, though he had garden peas
instead of mushy peas. Over dinner, I decided I might as well go with
Jeff to the casino.

What an adventure. We sat around for
awhile waiting for a table of 1/2 pot limit hold ‘em. Jeff got called
to a table first and I sat around and waited. Finally they started up a
new table. When I got there I really freaked out inside as I realized
there was no dealer. The players rotated dealer and I would have to
deal. Yikes! I was seated with a bunch of older men and one younger
guy. The older guys all were foreign (mostly Spanish, I think). The guy
seated to my immediate left was sort of scary and kept telling me I was
dealing “wrong”. Finally, with some encouragement from the other people
at the table, I managed to deal the way they were used to. I actually
won a few hands and then won a huge pot after the guy I was heads up
with folded without showing his cards. About 5 seconds after that he
started pitching a fit and saying that he had beat me and didn’t
realize it. Of course, I had just taken about half of his money. And he
had seen my cards since we were heads up. And no one had seen his cards
since he folded them. After a few tense moments of me not backing down
and giving him his money back as he demanded, the rest of the table
convinced him that since he folded, it didn’t really matter what his
hand was – none of us had seen it. I really would have loved to have
just gotten up and left after that, but that would have no been very
sportsmanlike. We played for another hour and left; it was almost time
for the last train and we didn’t want to have to take a cab. For a few minutes I was really worried that the guy was
going to follow us back to our hotel or something. The casino was
pretty seedy. Fortunately, he stayed at the table when we left.

London Day 1

After an uneventful flight during which neither of us were able to
sleep (though I did get to watch The Constant Gardener), we arrived at
Heathrow and made our way through customs in record time. I guess I
should always visit in the off-season! We were soon on the tube en
route to our hotel, which we hoped would have a room available so we
could catch a few hours sleep before hitting the town. On the short
walk from the Bayswater tube to our hotel, I noticed a few things about
my old neighborhood. Unfortunately, it seems to have gone a bit
downmarket, though not horribly so. It’s still a great place to stay,
in my opinion. Bar Oz – our favorite pub for watching footie – is now
The Phoenix (more on that to come). And although the patisserie on
Queensway is still there – most of my other favorite shops weren’t. Oh
– and they opened a Marks and Spencer in Whiteleys – very convenient!

An
older gentleman approached us and asked us if we needed directions on
our way to the hotel (probably since we had luggage and were rather
wide-eyed and sleep deprived). We had a nice chat with him as we walked
to our hotel. I told him I used to live in the area so we knew where we
were going.

I was very impressed by our hotel: The Somerset
Bayswater. Nice lobby, friendly staff and a complimentary breakfast,
which we never ate. It’s not the Ritz, but we didn’t pay Ritz prices
(or anywhere close to them) either. All the rooms are suites and ours
had a full kitchen including dishes, pots, and pans, as well as a TV,
DVD player, and stereo. It had a nice suede couch as well. Frankly, it
was the biggest room I have seen in a less expensive European hotel
(though definitely not big by American standards). Lots of closet space
and mirrors as well. I was impressed. I’d definitely recommend it to
anyone and we’d stay there again.

After a few hours nap, we
decided to hit the town. But first – lunch! I had read about a new
sushi chain (Yo! Sushi) that was new since the last time I had been in
London. There was a branch at Whiteleys, right around the corner from
our hotel, so I suggested we go there. They had a giant bar that
everyone sat at and the sushi went around on a conveyor belt. You
picked what you wanted and they charged you based on the plates left at
your area when you were done. I really enjoyed a prawn (that’s shrimp)
salad and the smoked salmon rolls. Jeff had these giant maki that
looked rather like California rolls without mayo or roe. We both
thought it was really good. We also discovered another change since our
last visit: Coke Light is now apparently called Diet Coke in London!
For better or worse though, it is still a different formula (still has
the vegetable extracts) and is still low calorie, not non-caloric.

One
of the few places I hadn’t been to when I lived in London was St.
Paul’s. I had seen it from a far, but that was pretty much it. We
headed over there and I noticed some mini Cadbury Cream Eggs for sale
in the chocolate vending machines in the tube. Unfortunately, everyone
we passed was broken (which ended up being a running joke for the rest
of our visit. I finally ended up buying some at Heathrow on our way
home and I have to say, I was rather disappointed after all the build
up!). St. Paul's was very beautiful inside. I was most impressed with
the view looking up at the cupola from the floor. I could not believe
that they let people go all the way up there and made the easy decision
to pass on visiting it even though I’m sure the view is great. Just
looking at it from the ground made my stomach tense up! I was
interested in going up to the whispering wall, but Jeff and I were both
tired, so we passed. The crypt area – where Admiral Nelson is buried
was interesting too. I got a coffee and Jeff a soda at the crypt café
and planned our next move. 

We decided to go to the Science
Museum in South Ken – also someplace I had not visited during my time
in London. I thought Jeff would particular like it since I had read
they had a lot on the history of math and computers. Overall the museum
was a little run down in some areas, but it was still pretty
interesting. They had a cool section on flight with all kinds of
airplane engines. They also had built a difference engine and Jeff got
to explain to me all about how they worked and how some guy had built
one out of legos. It was pretty neat. We passed on the Alien exhibit,
which required a ticketed entry and the IMAX theatre. We wanted to buy
tickets to Haunted 3D, but it had been replaced by Safari 3D instead.
Oh well. We grabbed a snack in the cafeteria, stopped in the gift shop,
which randomly had a copy of Scotland Yard (a great board game we have
been unable to find in the US) for sale, bought the game, and left.

Yet
another thing I hadn’t seen when in London (well, I had walked past it
– do you see a theme here?) was the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B
Baker Street. I wasn’t all that interested in Sherlock Holmes when I
lived in London, but since then I have come to appreciate him thanks to
Jeremy Brett and the Biography channel. It was a gigantic tourist trap,
though entertaining. We got to walk through Sherlock and Dr. Watson’s
apartments, which were filled with curiosities from their escapades.
After about 20 minutes, we were out of there and in search of dinner.
In keeping with the Sherlock Holmes theme, I suggested going to the
Sherlock Holmes pub. We had a great dinner there – I had fish and chips
with mushy peas with bread and butter pudding for dessert. Jeff had
shepherd’s pie and apple pie with custard for dessert. Both were yummy.
I had a pint of bitter, which was pretty good as well. Jeff stuck with
his standard diet coke. Finally we headed back to the hotel to hit the
hay. By the time we got back we were both pretty exhausted – I think we
went to bed around 9pm or so.

An Olympian in the Family?

My aunt sent me an e-mail, and then I got an e-mail from one of our Swiss relatives forwarded from my dad.  Apparently, Evelyne Leu, from Switzerland won the gold medal in freestyle skiing.  Perhaps we are distantly related.  ;)

London Notes

I finally realized why I like London so much on our recent whirlwind trip.  London, as Rick Steves noted in the guidebook I bought, is England's NYC, LA, and DC all in one city.  During our trip we got to see all the government buildings and tour politically-oriented tourist sites like the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms.  There were also protests going on during our visit (one large demonstration about the Mohammed cartoon and the ever present few outside Westminster).  A few tube stops away we were able to walk through Theatreland, visit the tkts booth and get some discounted tickets to see "The Producers."  London fashion week was also in full swing during our visit.  And right next to the tkts booth (in Leicester Square) we walked by the crowd waiting around the red carpet set up for the BAFTA's (Britain's Oscars).  London is a city full of hipness and style, amazing performing arts (including some pretty talented buskers), as well as all the politics and government history sites anyone could ask for.  It takes the things I like about all three US cities and wraps them up into one.  Now if only they could do something about the weather...  ;)

wierd london coincidence

I got an email from the place we booked our trip through.  Seems they had to change our hotel because the one we were booked into was full.  The place they booked us into is a major upgrade -- it's a studio apartment (kitchen, king sized bed, living room area, laundry), and it's in a much more convenient location.  I'm actually sad we won't be there for longer so I could actually go to the grocery and cook us a few meals with ingredients I remember fondly.

Here's the wierd part though -- the new hotel is directly across the square from where I lived in London in 1998.  I lived at 3 Princes Square.  The hotel is 42 Princes Square.  We will be smack dab in the middle of the old neighborhood.

Moment of Panic Last Night

Last night, I got home and was trying to get things organized for our impromptu trip to London.  First thing on the list: find our passports.  Jeff was convinced they were in the fire proof safe in our office, but I looked and they were nowhere to be found!  After a moment of panic, I found them in the top drawer of my desk - next to all my left over pounds/euros.  Oops.

Anyone who knows me knows that for me, planning the vacation is half the fun, so I've been doing a  lot of research and making a list of things we have to see.  Also - of course, food is half the fun.  I'm planning to take Jeff to my favorite sandwich shop: Pret A Manger, Wagamama - a great Japanese noodle place, and my local pub when I last lived there (the Prince Edward).  I'd love to stroll through the old neighborhood and see how similar it is...  I wonder if the French crepe guy still puts his stand on our corner, and if the good coffee shop is still on Queensway.  Jeff has been to the Prince Edward before (or as me and my flatmates used to cheekingly call it: "Eddie's", but he hasn't been to the other two.  A new sushi chain that is supposedly pretty good (Yo!Sushi) has opened up since the last time I was there as well.  Any other suggestions for good restaurants?  I'm all ears.

We're going to London!

A friend just told me about a vacation deal - $399 to London including air and 3 night hotel.  So I figured we had a holiday weekend coming up and we should take advantage of it!  I haven't been to London since 1998, so I'm really excited!

Can't beat that with a stick

I just got my copy of "The Life Pursuit" that I pre-ordered from Amazon.  It was released today.  If I had bought it at a store, I wouldn't have picked it up until tonight.  Amazon rocks!

The Enigma of Tortellini Tapas with Spicy Ranch Dip

I got this recipe sent to me by e-mail from my sister on Friday.  It is sort of a mystery, really.  She hasn't been responding to my IM's recently and I've been meaning to e-mail her, but haven't.  Then I get this recipe...with no message.

I'm assuming she sent it because she knows I like to entertain by making a meal out of lots of tapas.  I have no idea if she's tried this recipe or not.

Sarah, please enlighten me.  ;)

In the meantime, someone else should make this recipe and let me know how it turns out.  :D

Tortellini Tapas with Spicy Ranch Dip

1  (9-ounce) package refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
1  (16-ounce) bottle Ranch-style dressing with peppercorns, divided*
2  large eggs
2  cups fine, dry breadcrumbs
3/4  cup mild chunky salsa
1/4  cup chopped fresh cilantro
2  cups vegetable oil
Garnish: fresh cilantro sprigs

Cook tortellini according to package directions; drain and cool.

Yield: Makes 8 appetizer servings

Whisk together 1 cup dressing and eggs in a large bowl until blended. Add tortellini, and let stand 10 minutes. Drain and dredge in breadcrumbs; place on a baking sheet. Chill at least 1 hour.

Stir together remaining dressing, salsa, and cilantro; chill.

Pour oil into a Dutch oven; heat to 375°. Fry tortellini, in batches, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with dip; garnish, if desired.

*1 (16-ounce) bottle Ranch-style dressing plus 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper may be substituted.

NOTE: To make ahead, fry tortellini according to directions; drain and place on a baking sheet. Keep warm in a 200º oven for 2 hours.

Stolen from Best Week Ever...

I yanked the following from Best Week Ever.  I know some of us were rather disturbed by the Burger King Superbowl commercial.  Well get ready to be disturbed on a whole new level.  Burger King actually paid someone to design a website where you can make your own video.  AND, you can send it to a friend.  Perhaps the link should more accurately say: "Send to someone you hate and want to suffer miserably."

From BWE:

If Piper's McDonald's Sim game didn't satisfy your appetite for online fast food fun, maybe this will.

Remember that creepy Burger King commercial last night where women wearing Whopper-ingredient-costumes all piled on top of one another? Well, if you go here you can make your own Whopper sandwich featuring the Whopperettes.  I honestly can't believe I just wrote that sentence.

I'm not sure what the best part of this site is. Brooke Burke. The King dancing on the side of the screen. The Send to a Friend option. Seriously. If a friend of mine ever sent me an online video of a sandwich he designed, we'd have to have a looooooooong talk.

Don't we have better things to do?

I recently came across this article from the Beeb:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4688300.stm

Seems to me like time and effort on both sides could be better spent.

More articles inspiring the same question:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4686650.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4685298.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4688466.stm

"The Life Pursuit" Take II

I've been listening to this pretty much every chance I get since I pre-ordered it.  Lots of the songs have grown on me more.  I've found myself singing along in my head to "Funny Little Frog".  And as I listen more and more, some of the lyrics are making me fall in love all over again with B&S.  Some of my favorites:

• “Oh, if I could make sense of it all!
  I wish that I could sing
  I’d stay in a melody
  I would float along in my everlasting song
  What would I do to believe?”





• She said “You ain’t ugly, you can kiss me if you like”
  Go ahead and kiss her, you don’t know what you’re missing
  You said “Baby, you’re special,
  But there’s something not quite right.”





• If I could have a second skin
  I’d probably dress up in you





• Sukie was the kid, she liked to hang out at the art school
  She didn’t enrol, but she wiped the floor with all the arseholes
  She took a bijou flat with the fraternity cat
  She hid inside the attic of the sculpture building
  She had a slut slave and his name was Dave
  She said ‘Be my photo bitch and I’ll make you rich’





• Honey lovin you is the greatest thing
  I get to be myself and I get to sing
  I get to play at being irresponsible
  I come home late at night and I love your soul
  I never forget you in my prayers
  I never have a bad thing to report

Lots of places came out with reviews today and they are all pretty good:

• Pitchfork



• PopMatters



• XFM



• NME



• The Observer

Of course, most all of the reviews mention that B&S are 10 years old.  Which is just another thing that makes me feel like I'm getting old.  Wah.

"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was..."

OK, so I know that is Simon and Garfunkel, but that was the first thing that popped into my mind after hearing about this new book.  Looks interesting.  And at only 147 pages, it's something I can probably get through before Summer break. 

thirteenmonths.com

One of my friends just pointed me in the direction of this link: thirteenmonths.com.  Wow.  I wish I had the time/money to do something like that!