Friday, November 23, 2012

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Maryland Terps vs. the Mountaineers





Add the above skillet contents to a grilled hot Italian sausage, and grilled pineapple that was coated with brown sugar, put it on a hoagie bun and enjoy the beatdown the Mounties gave the Terrapins this past Saturday.

What did you have for half-time break in the game?

I'm beginning to get the hang of taking snaps with my tablet, so look out.


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Observations

Not having written in a long time I've had a lot to think about.  Reading, on the net, and watching television my mind had finally gotten saturated with minutia and I must regurgitate some to make room for more.

Most of my reader know I love to cook and watch the food channel and cooking network far too much.  On twitter I'm following  many of the food network talking heads and enjoy it.  I don't remember when I began to follow Alton Brown,  don't really remember any of his tweets, but this morning I was browsing Wired magazine "net version".. and came upon an article about Alton.  http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/alton-brown-twitter-doodle/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29&pid=992     Now if you will indulge me and  look at the post-it notes.  Am I mistaken, but doesn't Alton's self portraits look a lot like Calvin.  I always knew that the reason Gary Larson stopped drawing was because Calvin had grown up and became Alton.  Mystery though is what ever became of Hobbes?

Roasted, Braised, or Stew,
Tiger tastes of glue.


And now a "Fire Devil"
http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/tornado-brush-fire-fire-devil-video.html


While on the subject of atmospheric phenomenon, this is a picture taken from the porch of Camp Massawomee one Saturday not too long ago.  It's what is called a "Sun dog".




Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Supercell






I be gettin outta the way when I sees this baby coming my way.  Unless I haven't showered in a couple of years.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

It's been a day and change since cold turkey Facebook style and I'm still alive.  Lots of sun, completed two ferocious New York Times Xword puzzles, read about 15 pages of Lisa Randall's newest book and cleaned out the cupboard on the front porch.  Scented the tomatoes with Miracle-Gro and watched a zillion insects do a honeybee's job of passing pollen.  From wasps to Flys, moths to sweat bees, and a bunch of insects I had no idea existed.  I don't think the lack of honeybees is going to put a dent in plants making viable seed for the next growth cycle.  Only difference is....no honey.
     I missed the transit of Venus across the Sun.  but it was a..mostly cloudy....b...much better view on the internet....c..I'm really lazy when it comes to observing  celestial events.  I've got a pretty nice pair of binoculars. I laid out on the pool deck one night soon after their purchase, determined to see our one of our nearest galactic neighbors...The Andromeda Galaxy,   you know the one that's going to smash into us eventually. (don't sell the farm just yet) and after about half an hour of my eyes adjusting to the dark and with my arms straining at the sinews with  holding the binoculars vertical for twenty minutes straight...lo and behold,,the Andromeda Galaxy, our twin sister.  The picture is provided by NASA.  

Monday, June 4, 2012

Goodbye Facebook

    Goodbye and good riddance to my Facebook presence.  They finagled and fleeced me into the timeline template and the only way I can protest is to quit.  Cold turkey style quitting.  Probably should go cold turkey on bad habits at least twice a year.  Hopefully I can stay quit, but that's a moot question and I really don't know how long I can stay disconnected.  But it will allow me to read and study more, and anyway it's spring, hot weather is here and there's absolutely no reason to coop oneself up in a dark room facebook gawking when there's sunshine and fresh air to be had.  I doubt anyone will notice my absence, let alone miss me.  Besides I was getting tired of wishing everyone "Happy Birthday" and not getting a response from them.  I'll miss it, mostly for the lack of instant news rather than listening to friends try to force me to be a good "christian"...LOL.
     Any whosits the tomatoes are going great, as are the chiles.  Oregano and rosemary and spearmint abound. And horseraddish and parsley.  Gonna be hard to wait for that first tomato......yummm.

Monday, April 30, 2012

SRO in Morgantown

     The phone rang this past Saturday.  It was my friend Tim.  Tim's a trumpet player in the Morgantown Community Orchestra and he was inviting me to tag along to the concert they were giving at the CAC at West Virginia University on Sunday night.  I eagerly accepted his offer and patiently waited until the appointed time when they arrived to pick me up.  I don't own a car so transportation is a chore, but Tim's wife Chris is a good driver and we had a pleasant enough trip to Morgantown.  The theater itself was small, seating maybe 100 people and soon filled up to overflowing.  Chairs were brought in, and more chairs, and then more chairs as it soon became apparent they had grossly underestimated the following the Orchestra would draw.  


     The conductor,  Alejandro Pinzon,  was gracious if soft spoken.  When the featured pianist Rafael Smith failed to show, maestro Pinzon quickly and apologetically  rearranged the program and we were underway with  a short piece by a wind ensemble.   Then the meat of the evening, and a bravo performance it was.  Latin American in theme it showed off the talents of our community musicians.  From a pre-teen violinist to a septuagenarian flautist, who had taken up the flute just two years prior, they all played with gusto and verve.  The  highlight for me was "Habanera" from the opera "Carmen" by Bizet, which is the one and only opera I've listened too and really enjoyed.  The orchestra hasn't been together very long, nor have they had many practice sessions, but you couldn't tell it from the music they produced. 


      It was a thoroughly wonderful evening of music,,,topped off by a stop  at the Red Lobster and the cruel murder of a couple of Maine's best lobsters.  What a person will go through to eat some butter.
   

Thursday, April 26, 2012

I am so Stoked


I AM SO STOKED .....    and the reason is contained in this video.





     Now since the time I was able to sneak my older brother's comic book stash and learning to read, I've dreamed that the future for the human race pointed toward other worlds.  In the sixties I thought we were going there, but except for the Apollo program and the Space Shuttle we seemed almost manically set on invading other countries and killing everyone who disagreed with us.  This insanity has depleted our treasury and deadened our collective souls.  But out of the blue of the western sky comes a group of technology billionaires with ample funds with the vision for a better tomorrow, teamed with a group of engineers and former astronauts with the expertise. experience and drive to make my dreams come to fruition within my lifetime.  



Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Camp Massawomee on a Tuesday

     It's a lazy Tuesday, the tomato plant hanging upside down in it's Topsy Turvy basket and the horseraddish, chives, onions, lemon balm, spearmint and parsley are thriving.  As is the algae in the pond. Sunday Steve and Tracy were here and we smoked some chicken on the grill.  I'm still coughing, and my butt is covered in greasy charcoal.  We won't be doing that again any time soon.  
     
     I should thank my friends Chris and Tim for supplying the apple wood for the grill.   It imparts an interesting tang to the meat or veggies done on the grill and I implore you all to experiment with fruit woods in your grilling.  The French use the grape vine cuttings that accumulate when they prune and train their vines, to roast chickens on the spit.  I've tried it and the taste is superb.  

     It's wonderful how you can stumble onto such marvelous things by following random links while surfing the internet.  I subscribe to Phil Plait's "Bad Astronomy" Blog, and today he had this link to "Tree Lobsters" .    Now at the very bottom of the Tree Lobsters page is a set of icons belonging to "Friends of Tree Lobsters".   Selecting the "Atlanta Skeptics" link and scrolling down a bit you find this gem:     


     Enjoy my friends.


Thursday, April 12, 2012

False Spring

It's false Spring but it doesn't matter, warmth is warmth even if it comes with an occasional chill.  There's a tomato plant growing on the porch engendering a fresh thoughtst in our mind and a primal rhythm in our breast and that's all that really counts. It's the beginning of the Pirates season, after the end of the Madness of March.  The over hyped NBA afterseason has begun....ho,hum...NHL drive to the Stanley Cup has once again crept onto our horizon.  Tennessee has voted to teach "Bible" in the place of reason.  Will West Virginia be next to succumb to cultism?   Matters not, Global warming has given us "false" Spring and my mantra is " Don't look a gift horse in the mouth?....Accept and rejoice at the boon.

If anyone would comment on this blog
It would be greatly appreciate

I really prefer to communicate with others and not the void.


.


Sunday, March 11, 2012

03-11-2012,, pretty good day.

We're easing up on St. Patrick's Day, so I'll have to lay in a stock of Guinness Stout, or Murphy's.   Corned Beef and Cabbage soured with Emmenthal on Homemade Rye Bread.  I don't really feel particularly Irish, though I like to tipple the pint or two.  Green is far from my favorite color, though I live in a green house.  And while I do like to tell a good story or two I refrain from winking at the end.  But celebrate I will, for my forebears were Irish, and Scots fore that.  So maybe I'll have a side of Haggis with that Reuben if you please.

I love the robocalls that state "Don't hang up"......'cause that's exactly what I do.
Sorta funny, but perversely I would listen if the robo-voice said "hang up now"...

I added Burning Man to my bucket list.  Thought maybe to have a Burning Couch festival at Camp Massawomee.  Have a "Compassion Play in the front yard centered around a couch that goes up flames at the end.      Well just a thought...Art is where you find it.


In celebration of such a fine day, The First Cookout of the Year 2012.
Bar-B-Que Chicken Drumsticks with a Honey Whiskey  Habanero Sauce.  Baked, Butter soaked potato  and reheated left over steamed mixed veggies.  The occasional wiff of Grill smoke teasing, while solving a crossword , listening to the myriad of motorcycles exercising on this glorious pre-spring day.
We first eat with anticipation, then sight, then smell, then feel/taste.   Yum or Yuck,,,,we all gotta eat.  And on such a fine day as this,,,,well gruel would have been tasty



Monday, February 27, 2012

Fisher's Tower, Moab, Utah


King of the mountain from No Fly Zone on Vimeo.



This is a really neat video....The song is great and please notice the two people walking the rope between two spires just at the end.  There are so many people on those crags....Wish I had the lung power...

Saturday, February 18, 2012

A good meal spoiled

Okay..here's how it all went down.

I was hungry

Had been hungry for a couple of days.

Jonesin for chicken, and rooted around in the freezer and came up with some legs that had a relatively recent purchase date and placing them in the reefer to thaw, began to plan the meal.  But the plans went amiss when my lungs began to act up, I think it's the dry winter air,  and I decided that frying was out of the question,,too much grease in the air.*   I thought of Cacciatore, but I had made Hunter's Chicken about three weeks ago. I had buttermilk, so when the legs thawed I marinated them in some of the buttermilk and liberal dose of Sirrachi Hot Sauce,,,mmmm garlic hot good.   I had a box of seasoned flour for chicken I had found marked down to 50 Cents at the local market which I doctored up with poultry seasoning, powdered cayenne chile, summer savory, and some sugar...I was gonna bake at 375 degrees and I knew the sugar would caramelize and mix with the meat juices and make magic happen.  Pasta shells and Velveeta for the starch, and as the vegetable I decided on heating up a can of Spinach which I liberally dosed with bacon grease that had a large amount of brown goodness embedded.  As the Chicken baked and browned and I made the Mac and cheese, warmed the spinach and grease in the microwave I was taping the Mountaineer girls play DePaul at the Colosseum in Motown.  As things came together on the plate I added the final touch and dosed the Spinach with some reduced Balsamic vinegar which is pure heaven in a bottle.  Chicken was hot and  savory and luscious, the pasta was bland but filling and the spinach....the spinach was sublime.  Three legs worth and almost a whole can of Popeye Power I vegged on the couch and watch the Mountaineer's blow a 14 point half-time lead and lose in almost a rout to a team that had brought only seven players and had four starters with two fouls each and their best player with three fouls at the end of the first half.   What the fuck?   Sad day for the eer's but a great meal.  The meal was so good it made the ice water I had taste specially good.

* note to self...go to Walmart or Lowes and get a turkey fryer so you can deep fry your chicken KFC style knucklehead.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I am not a scientist..That's to say I don't have initials after my name, work in a laboratory, nor have I authored a journal article, Yet I believe in science, in the concept of science, in the belief that the universe and everything in it or about it is subject to study and scrutiny to discern any patterns that it might exhibit. There are things about the universe that are perhaps unknowable, so be it. But you work the problem with what you got. And I'm all for finding out everything we are capable of discovering. I'm kinda fuzzy about what we should do with the knowledge of the patterns that we discover, but I absolutely believe it's everyone's duty to search for them. I'm not a scientist..... I shoulda been a scientist, I woulda been a scientist, I coulda been a scientist.....But I'm not a scientist. And in that vein I give you Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda.
I Am Science from Mindy Weisberger on Vimeo.

But here are some real scientissts
I am a scientist 





Sunday, January 29, 2012

Thought


We know less than nothing about nothing,,
and seemingly everything about everything.
We have a concept of nothing as the absence of everything.
but science says that ain't ever gonna happen.
Nothing is a mathematical concept
and does not describe the physical world
where nothing is impossible.
The rarest vacuum of the intergalactic void
Is rambunctiously alive with particles  
With the internet, information of every sort
Is literally at our fingertips.
To enlighten, teach, amuse.
Ignorance may be bliss,,,
but Knowledge rules the world

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Year of the Dragon


     Today marks the Chinese New Year, its the Year of the Dragon, and Dragons are my favorite fantasy animal. Well Hoop snakes are up there too.  But Dragons seem sad to me,,,they were the dinosaurs who ruled our world and were snuffed out in a cosmic instant, to be replaced by the rodents beneath their feet.  Now we are the dragons and one hopes we fair better than the dragons.

someecards.com - I wish there was a holiday for people who don't do shit all day


If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn't have given us grandmothers.
Linda Hedly


     I wasn't fortunate in having a grandmother to learn from, but I did have Ada McNeil.  And she taught me much about food and cooking and caring and about life.  I honor her spirit in this year of the Dragon.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

I gotta have it

     Okay, I have to admit it.  Didn't want to have to do this what with all my other foibles, but yesterday I was forced to look myself in the mirror and admit that I was addicted. Yes addicted to the internet.  Frontier's service had an eight to ten hour outage and I about went apeshit.  Couldn't get anything done, kept looking at the router hoping that the unblinking red light would turn green and things could be nice and rosy again.  No Facebook, or Twitter, or News.  No blogs to read, or youtube videos to browse through. No Netflix to watch or Golf tournaments to play Wii golf in.  Come to think of it I actually got some work done around the house for a change.  Well not really work..I got a library book about the British Empire in America before the "Revolution" read all the way through.  It's two weeks overdue.  Oh and I started two other books that look really interesting.  One a cook's book "Ad Hoc at Home" by renowned chef Thomas Kellar  and the other an overview of quantum theory entitled " The Infinity Puzzle". I don't believe infinities exist in the real world, but they seem to work in the mind of Mathematicians, though Physicists abhor them.  They go through all sorts of strange contortions to rid them in their equations. It's easier to deal with nothing than everything, although I'm not too sure that "nothing" exist's.  It's a philosophical quandary for sure, and that makes for good reading when the internet is on the blink and the nights are long and cold.


Stay Hungry my friends

Monday, January 9, 2012

The Wry smile of a Septagenerian

     Stephen Hawking is 70, has had motor neuron disease since he was 21, when he was told he only had 4 or 5 years to live.  More life in the old feller that in most of the people I see in my day to day world.  Happy Birthday Stephen.
     Yesterday, Sunday, at Best Buy when I was buying my new computer I couldn't help notice all the eReaders/Kindles laying around in prominent positions throughout the store.  How anyone could be think that reading a book on a small flat piece of silicon and call it a book is way beyond my ken.  A book  is a treasure, it has your skin cells embedded in each and every page as you leaf through, your coughs spatter the pages with your dna, and your  unique brand of   bucal flora and fauna.  You write notes, underline passages, make doodles, saying this book is mine, there are many copies, but this one is mine.  I may never read it again, I may loan it out, give it away, it may be stolen, but where ever it's life path leads it, it will always be mine.
     Pork tenderloin marinated in mustard topped with bacon, roasted over caraway scented sauerkraut. Mashed potatoes and parsnips  boiled in beef broth with half a head of garlic.  The Potatoes will soak up plenty of butter and will have absorbed much salt from the broth.  No I will admit to a little cheating.  I have really cheap packaged pork gravy that I'll doctor up, but the drippings from the roast will be absorbed by the kraut and I won't have any fond to make regular gravy.  Mea culpa, mea culpa.  One thing for sure, I be eating pork and kraut for the rest of the week.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Drunken thought

We know less than nothing about nothing,,
and seemingly everything about everything.
We have a concept of nothing as the absence of everything.
but science says that ain't ever gonna happen.
Nothing is a mathematical concept
and does not describe the physical world
where nothing is impossible.
The rarest vacuum of the intergalactic void
Is rambunctiously alive with particles
With the internet, information of every sort
Is literally at our fingertips.
To enlighten, teach, amuse.
Ignorance may be bliss,,,
but Knowledge rules the world

Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Hills are alive with the Sound of...

"Let's Go Mountaineers"  Burn a couch, burn a couch.

"Let's Go Mountaineers"  Burn a couch, burn a couch

January 4th, 2912, a date which will live in Mountaineer Memory for all eternity.

And I have it TIVOed,

     It all started calmly the morning of the Orange Bowl when I noticed that I hadn't set the game to record on Tivo. When I tried it wouldn't allow me, and when I looked at the schedule I saw that I had the Basketball game to record too, and after skipping Nova and another program I was all set to go.  Then I remembered that the Ohio Bobcats were playing and checking their site discovered that they had a 7 pm start time, the same as the Huggins Horde.  Decisions, Decisions.
The Time was a quarter past seven when after washing the supper dishes and popping the top of a cheap beer I settled myself in front of the computer and brought up the Bobcats game.  Glancing at the TIVO to be sure it was recording, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that seven or eight minutes into the game Mariah Byard announced as the leading scorer.  I was hooked instantly into the game.  I brought up the Mountaineer game on TV and  would watch it while the Bobcat game was in time-out.  Mariah played one heck of a game, coming off the bench, leading the Bobcats in scoring, and hitting on five of seven three-pointers, ending up with 21 points.
     After the Bobcat game I turn my attention to the Rutgers game and the Scarlet Knights were out ahead early and I'm thinking whoops.  The announcers keep saying that Rutgers had just beaten then No 10 Florida in double overtime and lost a heart-breaker to South Florida, hyping up their lead over WV.  But back roared the Horde  of Huggins,  and we take the  Pre-pubescent Piscataway Pushovers  85 to 64.

     Now  the GAME.  I select the Orange Bowl, it's in commercial, and I select Start Over and the game is on. They score first and easily, and I think Oh Fuck!!  Then we score and I think Kool.  They the phone rings and  it's a friend saying "ain't it awful...."  I cut him off,,Don't tell me, Don't tell me"  I shout into the phone.   I'm TIVOed and I've just started the game.  He tells me he'll call after the game, then hangs up, and I've got that word "awful" echoing in my brain, thinking the worst, but I'm a dedicated fan and win or lose I'm gonna plow through.

     WOW.  There are no words to describe what happened next. Four beers and a glass of wine later, my body tingling with our victory and I'm thinking "what the heck was my friend trying to say to me earlier leaving me with the word "awful" pinging my cranium.   Anyone notice how the stands turned entirely to gold after the half....there weren't half a dozen Clemson fans there at the end.  Mountaineer fans probably had to be told to leave.  and I'm sure there was a spontaneous eruption of "Country Roads".

All in all a good night, it would have been perfect if the Carey Crew hadn't got drubbed by UConn earlier in the evening.

But the best part of the entire evening is ""I've got it on TIVO.  

Monday, January 2, 2012

Home Cooked meals

     Those few of you who read this blog know I have a nasty habit of periodically checking out the dirty laundry on Mannington Topix.  I just read an item about the old stock sale down where the Shop and Slop is now and about the food kiosk that was there.  Here is a quote "and every Saturday they had a meal special...always home cooked."  The other day I read on Facebook's Mannington page about Hero's Cafe and their home cooked meals.  It occurs to me that every small, local restaurant advertises 'home cooked meals'.  I would hope  that you readers might think this is nit picking but unless you live in the restaurant or cook at home and bring it to the restaurant to sell it ain't home cooked.  Now I grant you it might be just like home cooked, you cooked it the same way (which you don't) and you served it the same way (which you don't) as you do at home but  that's just exactly what they should advertise.  I've never been in a restaurant in my entire life that served meals like I was served at home.  My family owned/operated a restaurant as I was growing up and while there were certain occasions where occasionally leftovers were taken home (seldom might be a better word to use), it was never, ever, not once in my ken, the opposite.  My home meals and our restaurant meals were completely different.  I'm not really understanding what's so great about the "home cooking"  that restaurants  believe is a selling point.  If I wanted home cooking why would I go out to a restaurant?  Because I'm lazy and want someone else to cook the same dull boring food that I fix for myself.   Home cooked bah...why pay triple for dull food in a sterile space that smells of old cooking oil with all the charm of a grade school cafeteria, when you can sit watching TV in your pjs, eating the same food at a third the cost,  and that you had the satisfaction of creating in your own kitchen.  
     This isn't to denigrate "Hero's Cafe", not at all.  It's a swell eatery.  They have a surveyor's mark on the outside wall if you would care to notice.  I've eaten there several times and the food has always been great, the service adequate.  Their meat loaf is just as tasty as my home cooked meat loaf, and their turkey and dressing is every bit as good as my home cooked turkey and dressing.  And the price wasn't that hard on the wallet.  For a "just like home cooked meal" they can't be beat.

I've made a mess of this post, and I apologize.  It's a small symantic point, and I've wasted way too many words on it and in recompense I give you this......Home Cooked Meal 

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