Half-Assed Homemaker

JJ and I went camping in Napa for some hiking and eating. We went to dinner in Sonoma and then thought What Would Jesus Do?

So we snuck into the hot tub at the nearest hotel, the wall was pretty high so getting over it was easy thanks to a nearby flight of stairs. I was able to drop down to a shelf planter thing without a problem. The rest of the drop wasn't planned out so well, I didn't expect to fall into the Koi pond. My shoe dried up in time for our hike the next day.

Halve some red potatoes and poke holes in them with a fork. Boil in salted water for 10-15 minutes or until poking one with a fork does not make any noise. Drain.

Use some in any receipt you choose, pour the rest into a tupperware. Refrigerate and forget about them for up to four days.

Slice into wedges. Place in a large bowl, add salt and fresh ground pepper. Toss. Add some olive oil. Toss. Crumble in some dried rosemary.

Place in the pan that came with your toaster oven. Toast in toaster oven for 15 minutes.

Serve with hot sauce and a mason jar of water.

Update: Forgetting about the potatoes is not necessary, it is just to demonstrate a cooking tip. I always boil more potatoes than I need, the leftovers are great when you want something whole, hot and quick.

Chop zucchini into thin cross sections. Heat up some oil in a pan. Mince some garlic and add to oil. Add zucchini slices and stir around the pan. Add some salt and pepper and leave on medium-low heat. Boil some pasta, drain and add to zucchini. Add a touch of fresh basil and shaved and crumbled Parmesan cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and the kitchen smells like basil. Serve with Italian Red Beer.

I now have comments enabled on this blog.

I fond out that the Citibank Platinum Select Credit Card starting offering 5% cash back on groceries, gas and drug stores. "Score" I said, I have one of those; "I'll stick it to the man so good." "This offer is only for new cards," they said over the phone. "Oh really I said?" Here is my elaborate plan...

Open a new card.
To not blow off the cash back I accrued on my existing dividends card. I keep that around and use it for bills and other non 5% items.
Once I get to the $100 limit on the old card, they'll cut me a check.
I close the old card and move to the new generous card.

The twist:
I see a letter yesterday touting these new feature, "I knew that I said."
I see another letter touting the new features, "Twice?" I asked.
I notice that they each reference a different account number.

It seems all existing dividends cards will get the new features starting September 2004, until then though, my elaborate plan is still useful. Winner!

Oddly enough, early adopters usually sacrifice money for convenience. The Half-assed homemaker makes his own rules.

"As per..."
"I don't know that x is y."

And the most gentlemanly way to say I'm wrong:
"I believe that's correct."

Me: Have an apple.
Josh: Okay
Me: Apples are nature's cookies.
Josh: Nature sucks.

I picked some zucchini on Saturday. I sliced and seasoned them with some salt, black pepper, olive oil and lemon. I brought them to a friend's barbecue and grilled them up. Very good. On Sunday I picked two more and grilled them on my iron skillet with some onion and made veggie sandwiches for JJ and I.

Earth good.

The other day I saw a crow swooping down repeately, apparently hunting a squirrel. It was so odd to see such a wild act be performed in the grassy null next to a building on a corporate campus. A predator hunting prey is not soemthing you expect to see in such a built up setting, not that flamboyantly with the swooping and the scurrying and the hiding.

I thoguht such techniques would require more open land and would be lost in favor of scavenging. Maybe that crow bucks the trend. He or she knows what's best suited for this setting but wants to keep it real every now and then, to be prepared for a huge disaster or just for fun. I guess I can relate.

By the way, the squirrel got a way, looks like it's dumpster-behind-burger-barn time for Mr. Crow.

KQED, KPFA and KCSM are all having pledge drives this week.

So, if you have a crippling weakness for tote bags then stay away from your radio!

He'll be giving a talk titled Perpetual War
and Patriotic Fear in San Jose tonight.

more info

You can always tell when comedic actors truly having fun.

Who doesn't feel good after a snack?

I've gotten into black pepper recently. I've always used black pepper, it's nothing new. I've just been enjoying it a lot more lately. I noticed it in a great new potato chip that I tried recently, I put it in salads, I grind it over potatoes and steamed vegetables and I love it in sandwiches. Again, nothing new but the feeling I get from it is great and new. The thing about black pepper is that it sneaks in a little spicy in an otherwise non-spicy meal. I kind of enjoy biting into a the occasionally too coarsely ground piece, a little "hello" from the spice world.

I used to think it was boring. I remember asking a chef-in-training about it, hoping to hear something exciting about it. All he could say is that it's the oldest spice known to mankind. That didn't really mean much to me back then but living in a time machine and all... now I think that is really cool. I guess I couldn't really have begun to guess the oldest spice before it was told to me.

It reminds me of this comic I read about life's little victories, this isn't really a victory but a simple pleasure that is everywhere. It must be how reality TV fans feel.

This is my house. Living in it (with it) inspired the nature of this blog and I realized I should say a little about the house itself. Coincidentally, my interest in the aesthetic that this place exudes was peaking just as I happened upon it. It has redwood frames, plaster walls, hardwood floors, windows with pulleys and wavy glass and picture molding, ahh the picture molding. It has central heating, meaning there is one floor/wall furnace in the center of the house. The best part is the cellar, yes a cellar; it has door that opens up from the floor! It was built in 1918 and I feel like it is some kind of time machine. We play records, hang out the wash, pickle, rock on the rocking chair and all kinds of keen stuff. Maybe my aforementioned developing aesthetic for the olde tyme is more the reason, rather than the time travel ability of the house but I can't be sure.

Either way, little feats of frontier ingenuity like using a curtain in a doorway to create heating zones just tickle me; especially given the digitized nature of my professional and artistic work.

I can't help but wonder whether the Abu Ghraib Prison atrocities that marred the cause of the war were leaked as an effort to rally war supporters, appealing to some primal rage that exists in all of us.
</conspiracy theory>

So I guess I've never seen a zuccini plant before I grew seven of my own. In all the comotion of learning new things, I made a slight mistake. I assumed that zuccinis grew like cucumbers (which I'm initimately familar with). Big fat error is the scientific term. As such, I strung an elaborate web of string into which the vines were to climb and explore. No harm done, it's just that today I accepted the fact that zuccini plants don't have vines. I managed to untie the string and restring it over the cucumbers whose overlying string was not as intricate. Photos soon.

I transplanted my Spinach plants from their sunny locale to a spot that gets more shade. I don't think leafy things should be in full sun all day so I figured they would last longer if I moved them.

Big mistake, they're dying.