Interesting pairing

Fat Bastard shiraz with Five Guys cheeseburger (with jalapenos, tomatoes, mustard and hot sauce) & fries. Trust me, it works.

Scotch Watch 2008

In the case of my ever-evolving palate, I’ve decided to find out about the best single malt scotches (to me, that is, of course), experientially. To that effect, I’ve been trying a few and here are my latest (but by no means last) observations:

Laphroaig: I recently tasted this at a local pub-sterant ($10 a drink). Let me just say that the smell of it turned me off right away. Chemical, nasty. Taste was the same. No go on this one.

Macallan 12-year ($45/bottle): Good. Edges, but not harsh. Drinkable.

Glenmorangie Santa Rosa ($80/bottle): Beautifully light and smooth, with just a hint of sweetness. Aromatic. Very drinkable. DH Jeff & my only negative observation: …but is it worth $80/bottle?

Tamdhu 10-year ($20/bottle): I was persuaded to try this by a Sikh liquor store employee who doesn’t even drink. Note to self: don’t trust the advice of someone who doesn’t actually drink the stuff. The edges on this puppy were so hard they could cut. I found this scotch to be undrinkable. Using it for cooking.

More on this story as it develops. There is a dizzying array of scotch choices, even from the same distiller. My question: would we actually be able to tell the difference between a 12- and an 18-year scotch? We will see…

Book Review: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is just a wonderful book. Jeff’s Aunt Joan had recommended it to me awhile ago and since then, numerous others have recommended it to me as well. I finally had a chance to read it and was blown away. I said it before when I reviewed A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini’s second novel: he’s a very effective and engaging story-teller. What’s more, Hosseini is really good at characterization: his characters are layered, faceted, flawed, compelling, nasty, selfish, brutal, redeeming, sympathetic and sometimes lovable. Furthermore, he gives us glimpses into elements of Afghani culture that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

To wit, The Kite Runner revolves around a certain defining kite flying competition and the events that occur therein. It deals with the relationships between both master and servant, and two best friends at the same time. It’s a story about the lack of courage and loyalty, and yet the possibility of redemption for nearly unforgivable wrongs. Hosseini draws you in and the 400 pages just fly by. If you haven’t already done so, go read it!

Buh-bye!

A hopeful story in the WaPo this morning: Virginia is submitting names of immigrant sex offenders to the Feds so that they (the Feds) can deport them. About time.

But of course you have those who will object...after all, we NEED to import sex offenders, we just DON'T have enough AmCit sexual predators of our own. Diversity and all. Harrumph! [end sarcasm]

Read all about it here.

How can I get a job like this?

No oversight for twenty years. In a government job. Wherein you could just steal $50 million. And conspicuously, brazenly spend it to boot. Much of it gone for good. And only now you get caught. Nope, you can't blame this on Bush. It's the DC Tax Office scam. Investigators are finding it's a lot worse than they thought & went on for a lot longer than they thought. Read the whole thing here.

What I did on my summer vacation...

...i mean, long weekend.

- DH Jeff & I had a zombie movie marathon on Saturday

- my dear husband alsso graciously shared his cold with me

- but we had no plans to go out

- and had carpet picnics

- as a result of the cold & equal measures of laziness, I didn't work out all weekend

- but I made a whole chicken plus veggies in a crock pot

- I put too much liquid in the pot

- but the chicken turned out great

- & we had ready-made chicken soup for lunch the next day

- and what's better for a cold than chicken soup?

- I didn't get to start my Arabic lessons (Rosetta Stone)

- but we moved around our apartment

- and we both went "SNONK!" every five minutes

- the "den" is now a cozy bedroom

- and the bedroom is now the workroom...in progress

- the other night my lamb chops turned out a little bit overdone

- but tasty and moist nonetheless...

- and much better than my last attempt!

My apologies...

...for being such a sad, sad blogger. I've just been letting silly little things (work, school, sleep) get in the way of quality commentary.

Tsk, tsk. I'll try to do better...soon!

Fight the real enemy...sangria?

Yes, folks, Virginia has hit a new low: still on the books from around prohibition times is a law that prohibits the serving/sale of sangria in restaurants because it's wine mixed with spirits (brandy). Too intoxicating! But not only is it still on the books, but restaurants such as Jaleo in Crystal City have been fined for it. They've now altered their recipe so it doesn't include brandy (Jaleo in the District has not changed its recipe because DC doesn't have such stupid law).

This from the state who refuses to pass a smoking ban in restaurants and bars. Unbelievable asshattedness. Read the whole story here.

Just give me a scotch.

Don't you hate...

...when you wake up at 4am and feel like you've drunk a few shots of espresso in your sleep and now your mind won't shut up?

Revolting.

I read a truly appalling article in WaPo yesterday morning about how even though the rate of abortion is generally decreasing in this country, use of RU-486 is on the rise. What’s really disturbing is that women seem to be keenly well-read about this pill, but utterly clueless or callous (probably a bit of both) about pills that prevent the pregnancy – or anything else that prevents pregnancy for that matter. Why bother, after all – you’re progressive! Just kill the offending thing – it’s easier than ever and private! What’s also offensive are some of the comments of practitioners concerning the “normalizing of abortion” and how RU-486 feels more "natural" to the user. What?!

All I can say is for shame! This isn’t modernity or power or whatever euphemisms abortionistas embrace – it’s backward and sad. Read the whole article here.

Happy New Year!

Ok, so it's been awhile since I've posted, after I said I'd be out of commission for a week or so...so I'm back with a few of my New Year's resolutions - some of which I've gotten a start on:

1. Get my credit report. Done - well at least one of three. You can get one free report a year from each of the three credit agencies - Equifax, Experion & Trans Union - and you don't have to get them all at once. It's easy & here's the link on how you do it. Thanks to DH Jeff for sending me the link. The agencies also inform you about what to do if you think you've had your identity stolen. Fortunately for me there were no surprises.

2. Cook more. Well on my way: I tried a shrimp & pasta recipe for Jeff that my mother made for me while I was visiting over the holidays. I also discovered that snow peas are one of the easiest veggies to cook right (still crunchy). On a different night I baked salmon steaks and sauteed a veggie medley. All turned out well.

3. Straighten out and organize the mess of wires associated with my desktop computer and printer. I know - pedestrian - but it's been bothering me for a while and I'm just getting to it. I'll need more of those nifty velcro ties to finish the job however.

4. Lose about ten pounds (ie, get rid of the goo around my middle). I've been a complete couch potato thru the holidays, but now I must get serious & start working out regularly again. Uggh.

5. Get more sleep. I'm really bad about getting to bed before midnight. After I finish this post, however, it's to bed with me!

Hell Week is nigh...

...so posting will be sparce until a week from Tuesday. I have a presentation to prepare for Psych class for this coming week, the second crime scene write-up (unfortunately, I have to coordinate with others for this - uggh) for next Tuesday & both finals that day. Oh yeah, and then there's work. So, I'm going to put my nose to the grindstone until then, with no time for Rants-on-parade. Wish me luck!

And a big Bravo Zulu* goes out to...

...my DH Jeff! That's right, folks: he finished his 50,000-word novel for the NaNoWriMo contest late last night & ahead of the deadline (November 30)!!! While I don't think you can access the novel from the site, I bet Jeff would share it with you if you asked nicely. :) This is quite an accomplishment - a whole novel in a month!


*Ok, once I worked for a Navy guy.

The Other Picard

Remember the "what if" Next Gen episode in which Captain Picard sees how his life would have turned out had he not taken all the risks - even the rash ones (like the bar brawl with the Nossican*)? And how he ends up toiling in obscurity, unappreciated, instead of the captain of the Federation flagship? Well, I often feel like that other Picard.

It frustrates me, it infuriates me, it mystifies me. I feel like I've wasted a lot of time & energy spinning my wheels. Having jobs, but never a coherent career. Yet always clinging desperately to each job like my very life depended on it. My constant refrain being "I need the money." That attitude is getting really old. Especially when my boredom and frustration (not mutually exclusive, let me tell you) do self-defeating things (more on that later). And all along I'm thinking, what the hell did I do wrong in the place? What could I be doing differently? What if I do something else and get the same results in the end?

I'm now almost finished with a program that cost me a lot in terms of time, money, effort and aggravation, yet I don't know if any of it was worth it. And I absolutely do not want to start all over, at the bottom, making crappy money just so I can "work in my field." What to do, what to do? Yet, I know I'm capable of doing a lot more than I'm doing now. Sigh.

*I don't care if that's not how you spell it, it was a TV show for gosh-sakes.

Not a big surprise - HIV in DC

I think we can very safely call DC "Kinshasa on the Potomac." Now I've opined this before, how DC is a backward city but...well, more depressing news: 80% of all HIV cases identified from 2001-2006 were African-Americans; DC has the HIV highest rate of any US city (almost twice that of NYC). And, until federal funding requirements mandated HIV tracking in 2000, the city just didn't bother.

Hmmm...maybe it's a matter of too few men snapping on the latex and too few females demanding it. The saddest part is that babies, who have no choice in the matter are being born with it. What a legacy.

The part about not tracking HIV incidence until 2000 is just par for the course for DC "government."

Book Review: Princess

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, by Jean Sasson is the life story of a Saudi princess as told to an American journalist. It details the dysfunction, hypocrisy and imposed inertia of the royal family in general, and depravity of some members in particular. Most of all, it describes the gilded but treacherous cage in which royal women are forced to live, and the vulnerability of all Saudi & foreign worker women in the Kingdom.

On a personal note, if I thought the Saudis were a bunch of troglodyte degenerates before, this book only reinforced that impression. There are some passages in the book that I’ll never forget although I’d just as soon purge those scenes from my brain. Princess “Sultana” (through Sasson) tells a compelling story and there’s plenty of sympathy to be had there. Some criticize Sultana’s narrative, though, saying that Saudi Arabia isn’t like that anymore and her story doesn’t apply to all Saudi women, blah, blah, blah. I say she was just telling her own story as a royal woman living under those specific rules. She also states that if change is going to happen, it would be provoked by middle class women, thus declaring that there are differences in society dynamics. Definitely worth a read – to get an idea of this particular Saudi’s life – and to better appreciate one’s own.

Post Thanksgiving Slump

Well, we held Thanksgiving at our place for around nine people (including ourselves) and I think we pulled it off pretty well. Yeah, I’ll have to work on the stuffing (turned out kinda soupy if tasty), but on the whole, everything turned out great and folks seemed to have a good time.

Sooo…Friday and Saturday we proceeded to do a slow, measured clean-up. We’re pretty much back to normal except for the roasting pan which I’ve been purposely avoiding. Remember when we just bought the aluminum version which we could just fold up and throw away? Yeah, now we’re all sophisticated and have an actual “non-stick” roasting pan. I suspect it’ll become more non-stick after soaking it in hot, soapy water – for a while.

For the last two days, we – DH Jeff and I – have been clicking-clacking away at our laptops, him at the NaNoWriMo contest (write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November) and me at my 10-page paper on Postpartum Depression/Psychosis (yeah, the same one I’ve been plodding through for the past month or two). Neither of us had bathed or left the apartment since Thursday. Yesterday, I finished the first draft of my paper, decided I needed to be somewhere besides the apartment and eat something other than leftovers. I convinced DH Jeff to go get sushi with me…which prompted showers. Halleluiah!

Book Review: Edith's Diary

Edith’s Diary by Patricia Highsmith was a kind of hand-me-down of sorts (the best way to acquire books), from a now-deceased uncle who said that “I would like her style.” It was actually later that I discovered (like “duh”) that she was the author of Strangers on a Train upon which the Hitchcock movie was based, as well as the Talented Mr. Ripley series of books. The former ended up as a book club selection & we also watched the movie for comparison. I’m still working through the latter. Highsmith has (“had,” I guess, because she’s dead now) the very interesting talent of making a sociopath, well, sympathetic. Thomas Ripley only murders people because he “had to,” but with everyone else, he’s the perfect gentleman. But I digress.

Edith’s Diary is a stand-alone novel about a couple and their young son who transplant from New York to a small town in Pennsylvania. The situation has a veneer of normalcy but the reader starts to question that veneer pretty quickly. Then the reader finds him/herself in the midst of a slow corrosion. The book moves slowly at parts, but doesn’t allow you to become bored. Well, let’s just say that I realize that Highsmith also crafts characters that very effectively get under your skin.

How can you be irritable...

...when the nice lady from Whole Foods is offering you a truffle? You know the candy in question - the one with dense, wonderful, um, chocolate, with a dusting of decadent cocoa. Don't pretend you don't. The answer is: even I can't be too curmudgeonish when presented with that.

Actually, it's a totally brilliant scheme by Whole Foods to 1) short-circuit the impulse toward mass murder while waiting for one's turkey and 2) a good way to advertise the truffles (as if they really needed it). And in actuality, the crowds today were not that bad today and no more irritating than any other weekday afternoon.

I was also able to pick up a pot roast because DH Jeff insisted that we have one in addition to the 20-lb. turkey we're serving. You know, so that the small army we're feeding is fortified to fight that...battle or something after leaving our apartment...in the next state, under harsh conditions. ;) Just giving him a little guff - it will all be amazing!

You know you've arrived when...

...you start getting flamed. In this case, it wasn't on this blog, but rather, on Goodreads.com about my review of the book Nickel and Dimed. Read the same review here.

Basically this chick thought I was heinous because I opined that unless people (working poor in this case) fully considered all the costs associated with having and raising children and could actually provide for them, they shouldn't have any. Besides the obvious issues of survival, to have children thoughtlessly (or should I say "to get pregnant thoughtlessly"?) effectively limits children's chances at success and conveys the idea that poverty and dependency is the norm and inevitable. She thought I was a bad person for saying so.

Her reaction is so typical of the left, that everyone should have absolute freedom to do as they wish, with no thought to the consequences. Liberals talk in terms of ''rights'' but not responsibilities. Like ''reproductive rights'' - in this case, to have kids when you can barely support yourself, then rely on public (read: tax payer supported) social programs - Medicaid, food stamps, etc., to ensure the basics. Stick someone else with the bill ('cause let's face it, your taking from the pot is likely to be a lot more than what you, the working poor, put into it...just sayin'). Doesn't that sound childish and irresponsible (of both the breeders and the ones advocating the behavior)?

That's one of the differences between liberal and conservative worldviews: we conservatives believe that you and no one else is responsible for what you choose to do - and thus you should bear the consequences, good or bad.

One last shot: reproduction isn't a right, it's a biological urge. We as human beings have the unique capacity to consciously plan our reproduction until our personal conditions are more optimal and we all should understand the obligation to do that. Flamer girl just doesn't get that.