Ok that's misleading. I'm sitting on my couch watching the games on TV. I'm not at the games. I'm not even in China. But here are a few observations from Brighton.
Alexander Artemev got robbed on the Pommel Horse. How that didn't get a 16 I do not know. That brings up another observation. No more perfect 10. I don't know about you but I was watching when Mary Lou hit her perfect 10 vault in 1984. That perfect 10 was what all Olympic gymnasts sought after. What is there to work for now? Something over 16? How vague!
This is my observation for today. That and Michael Phelps has some seriously rockin abs.
If you want to check out a real blog about China check out my friend Mike Shaw. The crazy bastard moved to Beijing. Not just for the Olympics...for good.
www.beijingbostonian.com
He's a great guy. Beijing is a lucky, overcrowded, smoggy city to have him. I hope they appreciate our sacrifice.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Resilient Squirrels and Delicious Chicken
If you think these things have nothing to do with each other, you are dead on. It just so happens that they are in my head at the same time. First the delicious chicken.
Below is a picture of my garden gnome, Jim. He stands guard over my recently planted herb garden. If you look closely you can see the basil and some parsley.
I love Jim.
Now that I have fresh herbs in the backyard I have become very inventive with my cooking. I add fresh parsley to my rice and I throw sage leaves in homemade white beans. Deee licious. But I think my roasted chicken has benefited the most from the herbs. I'll tell you my secret.
You'll need:
1 Roaster Chicken
Fresh herbs
Sea Salt
Olive Oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Stalk Celery
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Small onion or Shallot
Buy yourself a chicken of the roaster variety. Clean out the guts and cook 'em up for your kitties. Pick some (or buy some if you are not lucky enough to have an herb garden) fresh herbs. I use a few sprigs of oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage. Reserve half of the herbs aside and chop the other half finely, mix with 2 cloves of chopped garlic, salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons or so of olive oil. Set aside.
Crush the remaining garlic with the handle of a knife and grab the remaining fresh herbs and stuff it in the chicken cavity. cut the celery in 3 or 4 pieces and stuff that in too. Cut the onion in half and stuff that in (as much as you can) you can get creative here. I have stuffed in mushrooms and peppers. Close cavity with a toothpick. This is not stuffing you'll eat it just provides flavor.
Take the herb mixture and rub above and beneath (this is KEY) the skin of the chicken. Roast chicken as you normally would till the juices run clear.
This chicken is delicious.
Now on to the damn squirrels.
We are not fond of these squirrels because they scare away the birds and threaten to topple our feeder. Some friends of ours told us that putting red pepper flakes in our bird feeder would keep the squirrels away. Thus far, the squirrels have not even noticed it's there. In fact the squirrels have become more aggressive and actually sit on the sidelines in wait and rush through the crowd of unsuspecting birdies, then claiming the seed for themselves. They work in pairs sometimes.
If anyone has a better solution (short of shooting them. I'll admit it may be fun but discharging firearms within the Suffolk county lines is discouraged) let me know. For now I'll be taking the red pepper flakes out of the basement and back to the kitchen to use next time I make my chicken.
Below is a picture of my garden gnome, Jim. He stands guard over my recently planted herb garden. If you look closely you can see the basil and some parsley.
I love Jim.
Now that I have fresh herbs in the backyard I have become very inventive with my cooking. I add fresh parsley to my rice and I throw sage leaves in homemade white beans. Deee licious. But I think my roasted chicken has benefited the most from the herbs. I'll tell you my secret.
You'll need:
1 Roaster Chicken
Fresh herbs
Sea Salt
Olive Oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Stalk Celery
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Small onion or Shallot
Buy yourself a chicken of the roaster variety. Clean out the guts and cook 'em up for your kitties. Pick some (or buy some if you are not lucky enough to have an herb garden) fresh herbs. I use a few sprigs of oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage. Reserve half of the herbs aside and chop the other half finely, mix with 2 cloves of chopped garlic, salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons or so of olive oil. Set aside.
Crush the remaining garlic with the handle of a knife and grab the remaining fresh herbs and stuff it in the chicken cavity. cut the celery in 3 or 4 pieces and stuff that in too. Cut the onion in half and stuff that in (as much as you can) you can get creative here. I have stuffed in mushrooms and peppers. Close cavity with a toothpick. This is not stuffing you'll eat it just provides flavor.
Take the herb mixture and rub above and beneath (this is KEY) the skin of the chicken. Roast chicken as you normally would till the juices run clear.
This chicken is delicious.
Now on to the damn squirrels.
We are not fond of these squirrels because they scare away the birds and threaten to topple our feeder. Some friends of ours told us that putting red pepper flakes in our bird feeder would keep the squirrels away. Thus far, the squirrels have not even noticed it's there. In fact the squirrels have become more aggressive and actually sit on the sidelines in wait and rush through the crowd of unsuspecting birdies, then claiming the seed for themselves. They work in pairs sometimes.
If anyone has a better solution (short of shooting them. I'll admit it may be fun but discharging firearms within the Suffolk county lines is discouraged) let me know. For now I'll be taking the red pepper flakes out of the basement and back to the kitchen to use next time I make my chicken.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Dumb Things - July 2008
Unless you live in a cave (or Spring Hill FL) you have probably been to a Starbucks. Even people that are vehemently opposed to patronizing Starbucks grab a coffee in a pinch. How can you not? They're on every corner. My starbucks is across the street from my office building. The people are nice enough but the order taker is really condescending. He'll correct you if your phrasing is off.
"I'll have a double shot of espresso"
"No, you'll have a dopio. Next time ask for a dopio"
Or if your word order is off.
"I'll have a venti iced tea, unsweetened"
"Please say iced first"
But the other day this guy really ticked me off. As you know, if you don't live in a cave or Spring Hill, in busier Starbucks there is an ordering counter, a payment (and tipping) counter and a pick up counter. When I arrived for my beverage there was no one at the ordering counter so I moved on to the payment counter. I placed my order with the girl and she calls out my iced tea and the turkey bacon sandwich. The iced tea order goes off without a hitch but when the coffee order Nazi got wind that I didn't order through him he had a little fit and tried to humiliate me in front of the entire store. Fortunately he's not that bright so his attempt was ridiculous. He came over and in a really loud voice asked me what kind of turkey I wanted.
"Uh...", I said "what kind of turkey do I want?"
"Yeah"
"I just want a turkey bacon sandwich. Since when does Starbucks offer different kinds of turkey?"
He totally ignored my comment and said,
"You should have ordered through me"
So now my Starbucks is the one a half a block away and around the corner. It's a little further away and sometimes painfully slow, but anything is better than dealing with a coffee slinging jackass that thinks he's better than me because he knows the Starbucks lingo.
It is at my new Starbucks that I saw Dumb Thing #1.
The barista (is a male barista still a barista? Is he a baristo?) is a young man I guess about in his early twenties. He is a fairly big guy, reddish brown hair. It's his hair that gets me. He has a regular haircut on the right side of his head and then on the left side it's long and shaggy, like it hasn't seen a pair of scissors in years. He was turning around constantly so I could see the goofy hairstyle from all angles multiple times. I couldn't stop looking at it. I tried to imagine what could have possibly happened that would have made such a coif. Maybe in the middle of his cut the barbershop caught on fire. Or he realized that he only had enough money for half of a cut. Like when you're in a cab and you realize that it's going to cost a lot more than what you have in your wallet.
"Dude, just drop me here."
I have a suspicion, though, that it is entirely deliberate and that the barista in question considers himself "edgy." I got news for you, pal. Not edgy as much as really dumb. You have made my first list of dumb things.
The second Dumb Thing is pictured below:
This is what's called the warm weather scarf. Note, if you will, the breezy summer hairstyle and the short sleeved summer top. All aspects of this model's outfit are appropriate for the warm weather except one. The warm weather scarf. I have seen a few girls around Boston wearing these ridiculous accessories. It's July and, believe it or not, it does get hot in the northeast. We have had a few days well into the 90s and still these girls are walking around in scarves. Being a slave to fashion often puts you in jeopardy of being sucked into dumb fads.
Am I just getting old? Is wearing winter clothes in the summertime and cutting your hair so you resemble one of those half man and half woman Halloween costumes cool? Hip? Did I miss something?
"I'll have a double shot of espresso"
"No, you'll have a dopio. Next time ask for a dopio"
Or if your word order is off.
"I'll have a venti iced tea, unsweetened"
"Please say iced first"
But the other day this guy really ticked me off. As you know, if you don't live in a cave or Spring Hill, in busier Starbucks there is an ordering counter, a payment (and tipping) counter and a pick up counter. When I arrived for my beverage there was no one at the ordering counter so I moved on to the payment counter. I placed my order with the girl and she calls out my iced tea and the turkey bacon sandwich. The iced tea order goes off without a hitch but when the coffee order Nazi got wind that I didn't order through him he had a little fit and tried to humiliate me in front of the entire store. Fortunately he's not that bright so his attempt was ridiculous. He came over and in a really loud voice asked me what kind of turkey I wanted.
"Uh...", I said "what kind of turkey do I want?"
"Yeah"
"I just want a turkey bacon sandwich. Since when does Starbucks offer different kinds of turkey?"
He totally ignored my comment and said,
"You should have ordered through me"
So now my Starbucks is the one a half a block away and around the corner. It's a little further away and sometimes painfully slow, but anything is better than dealing with a coffee slinging jackass that thinks he's better than me because he knows the Starbucks lingo.
It is at my new Starbucks that I saw Dumb Thing #1.
The barista (is a male barista still a barista? Is he a baristo?) is a young man I guess about in his early twenties. He is a fairly big guy, reddish brown hair. It's his hair that gets me. He has a regular haircut on the right side of his head and then on the left side it's long and shaggy, like it hasn't seen a pair of scissors in years. He was turning around constantly so I could see the goofy hairstyle from all angles multiple times. I couldn't stop looking at it. I tried to imagine what could have possibly happened that would have made such a coif. Maybe in the middle of his cut the barbershop caught on fire. Or he realized that he only had enough money for half of a cut. Like when you're in a cab and you realize that it's going to cost a lot more than what you have in your wallet.
"Dude, just drop me here."
I have a suspicion, though, that it is entirely deliberate and that the barista in question considers himself "edgy." I got news for you, pal. Not edgy as much as really dumb. You have made my first list of dumb things.
The second Dumb Thing is pictured below:
This is what's called the warm weather scarf. Note, if you will, the breezy summer hairstyle and the short sleeved summer top. All aspects of this model's outfit are appropriate for the warm weather except one. The warm weather scarf. I have seen a few girls around Boston wearing these ridiculous accessories. It's July and, believe it or not, it does get hot in the northeast. We have had a few days well into the 90s and still these girls are walking around in scarves. Being a slave to fashion often puts you in jeopardy of being sucked into dumb fads.
Am I just getting old? Is wearing winter clothes in the summertime and cutting your hair so you resemble one of those half man and half woman Halloween costumes cool? Hip? Did I miss something?
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