Fri - August 8, 2008
Blog Infidelity
I liked using the Curmudgeon blog so
much while on vacation, I am continuing to use it. It is nice to be able to blog
from any computer. It is nice to be able to post to the blog by sending it an
e-mail. It is nice to have comments available for each
post.
Take a look, and let me know if you like it too.
Curmudgeon
Take a look, and let me know if you like it too.
Curmudgeon
Posted at 09:40 AM
Mon - July 14, 2008
Hitting The Road
As we prepare to board a plane
Wednesday for Namibia by way of Germany, it is time to button
up this blog until we get
back.
Blogging from the road will be on Curmudgeon, the site I have been preparing as an alternative and perhaps successor to this log. One of the nice things about Curmudgeon is that I can post to it by e-mail. It also has better support for comments. Comments are moderated, which means I must approve them before they appear. I quickly learned that this is a desirable feature; there are some nasty internet trolls out there.
Blogging from the road will be on Curmudgeon, the site I have been preparing as an alternative and perhaps successor to this log. One of the nice things about Curmudgeon is that I can post to it by e-mail. It also has better support for comments. Comments are moderated, which means I must approve them before they appear. I quickly learned that this is a desirable feature; there are some nasty internet trolls out there.
Posted at 04:59 AM
Wed - July 9, 2008
Team Penning
The OregonLive.com photo blog, "Oh, Snap!" picked up one of my photos from
last week's Team Penning event at the Flying Dirt Ranch in Turner,
Oregon.
Posted at 10:50 AM
Tue - July 8, 2008
Cartoons? Comics? Graphic Storytelling?
Mike Russell does "nonfiction comics"
for the Oregonian. In last weeks paper, they ran a piece he did on Cowboy Action Shooting.
He is quick to say, "I'm no Will Eisner." When he came to cover the shooting match, I don't think he was prepared to encounter a shooter with a cowboy alias borrowed from one of Eisner's fictional characters in PS magazine.
He is quick to say, "I'm no Will Eisner." When he came to cover the shooting match, I don't think he was prepared to encounter a shooter with a cowboy alias borrowed from one of Eisner's fictional characters in PS magazine.
Posted at 08:40 AM
Sun - July 6, 2008
Uh-oh
Used to be that when someone said that
the government was beaming voices into their head, you could count on the fact
that the person making the claim was
crazy.
But oh, no, the government just had to go out and develop technology so that they can beam the voices directly into your head.
It's pretty scary when the people you had counted on being crazy turn out to be right. Of course, for my right wing friends, that is what seems to be happening with climate change. All those scientists they had dismissed as crazy are turning out to be right.
But oh, no, the government just had to go out and develop technology so that they can beam the voices directly into your head.
It's pretty scary when the people you had counted on being crazy turn out to be right. Of course, for my right wing friends, that is what seems to be happening with climate change. All those scientists they had dismissed as crazy are turning out to be right.
Posted at 07:28 PM
Tue - July 1, 2008
Second Amendment Pandemonium
The Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia vs. Heller defined that
individuals have a fundamental right to defend themselves, and that the Second
Amendment gives them the right to do so with a
firearm.
This drives a stake through the heart of plans long cherished by some, to pay lip service to traditions of hunting and sportsmen, while working incrementally to restrict the "right to keep and bear arms" to the ability to check a shotgun out of a repository long enough to shoot a few grouse, then check it back in. These opponents of legal gun ownership operate on the belief that their world would be a safer place if you don't have a gun.
Most of these people have never had a felon with malicious intent in their living room or in their face. After the felon has left, the police are summoned. That is when you realize that to a large degree, the police are society's janitors. There is little chance that they will be there to protect you when the wolf comes to call. That is when you question the wisdom of remaining an unarmed sheep, supposedly for the greater good.
Opponents of legal gun ownership like to couch their advocacy in terms of public health concepts. When advocacy tries to masquerade as science, it plays fast and loose with the facts. Pretty soon, it starts to sound rather like blaming the tornado on the existence of the trailer park. Generally, valid scientific conclusions do not flow from exclusion of contrary evidence, fabrication of data, and incestuous literature references. The canons of scholarly discourse are not in evidence in the antigun health advocacy literature.
Antigun health advocates say that it is simple: more guns means more homicides, suicides, and fatal gun accidents, while restrictive gun laws mean fewer such events. However, this belief is not supported by the evidence. In 1973, the rates of U.S. gun ownership, handguns and all guns, was 176 and 610 per thousand, respectively. The homicide rate was 9.4 per 100,000. In 1992 the handgun and all gun ownership rate had increased significantly, to 304 and 870 per thousand, respectively. The homicide rate was 9.3 per 100,000. While gun ownership rates have increased, accidental gun deaths have decreased. There is no observable relationship between gun ownership and suicide rates. Antigun health advocates will not engage the data that suicide rates are much higher in antigun European nations.
The science which the opponents of legal gun ownership never want to acknowledge is criminology, when it looks at the effects of legal gun ownership on crime. Criminologists generally conclude that gun availability does not lead law abiding citizens to commit crimes, and that the value of firearms in defending potential victims has been significantly underestimated.
But now, the entire debate is shifting. As popular as it is right now for the antigun health advocates to say, "But it's bad for you!," the Supreme Court has said that there is an individual right to own and use a firearm in self defense. The Chicago Tribune at least is intellectually honest about the whole thing, as they call for repeal of the Second Amendment. The LA Times favors a more weasel-like approach, calling for legislation where gun manufacturers are somehow made responsible for target societal rates of gun violence, with surcharges and production limits if the target rates aren't met. Backdoor games to make guns expensive and rare are not likely to meet constitutional muster.
Those who are eager to impose their views on the nation as a whole should pay heed to what those efforts do to their other interests. Democrats have lost many elections because gun owners vote. Sometimes it seems as if the Republicans have the vote of Joe Paycheck despite making corporations supreme and shipping jobs overseas, simply because the Republicans can be trusted to not make a move on Joe's guns. If Democrats wanted to be more competitive in rural America, they could consider the idea of deciding that where antigun legislation is concerned, the voters have spoken against it, and move on to other issues.
One thing you can be sure of is that gun owners are paying close attention right now, to see who is wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth about the Heller decision. Those who see the Heller decision as an unfortunate setback to be overcome are revealing themselves right now. Gun owners do not forget.
This drives a stake through the heart of plans long cherished by some, to pay lip service to traditions of hunting and sportsmen, while working incrementally to restrict the "right to keep and bear arms" to the ability to check a shotgun out of a repository long enough to shoot a few grouse, then check it back in. These opponents of legal gun ownership operate on the belief that their world would be a safer place if you don't have a gun.
Most of these people have never had a felon with malicious intent in their living room or in their face. After the felon has left, the police are summoned. That is when you realize that to a large degree, the police are society's janitors. There is little chance that they will be there to protect you when the wolf comes to call. That is when you question the wisdom of remaining an unarmed sheep, supposedly for the greater good.
Opponents of legal gun ownership like to couch their advocacy in terms of public health concepts. When advocacy tries to masquerade as science, it plays fast and loose with the facts. Pretty soon, it starts to sound rather like blaming the tornado on the existence of the trailer park. Generally, valid scientific conclusions do not flow from exclusion of contrary evidence, fabrication of data, and incestuous literature references. The canons of scholarly discourse are not in evidence in the antigun health advocacy literature.
Antigun health advocates say that it is simple: more guns means more homicides, suicides, and fatal gun accidents, while restrictive gun laws mean fewer such events. However, this belief is not supported by the evidence. In 1973, the rates of U.S. gun ownership, handguns and all guns, was 176 and 610 per thousand, respectively. The homicide rate was 9.4 per 100,000. In 1992 the handgun and all gun ownership rate had increased significantly, to 304 and 870 per thousand, respectively. The homicide rate was 9.3 per 100,000. While gun ownership rates have increased, accidental gun deaths have decreased. There is no observable relationship between gun ownership and suicide rates. Antigun health advocates will not engage the data that suicide rates are much higher in antigun European nations.
The science which the opponents of legal gun ownership never want to acknowledge is criminology, when it looks at the effects of legal gun ownership on crime. Criminologists generally conclude that gun availability does not lead law abiding citizens to commit crimes, and that the value of firearms in defending potential victims has been significantly underestimated.
But now, the entire debate is shifting. As popular as it is right now for the antigun health advocates to say, "But it's bad for you!," the Supreme Court has said that there is an individual right to own and use a firearm in self defense. The Chicago Tribune at least is intellectually honest about the whole thing, as they call for repeal of the Second Amendment. The LA Times favors a more weasel-like approach, calling for legislation where gun manufacturers are somehow made responsible for target societal rates of gun violence, with surcharges and production limits if the target rates aren't met. Backdoor games to make guns expensive and rare are not likely to meet constitutional muster.
Those who are eager to impose their views on the nation as a whole should pay heed to what those efforts do to their other interests. Democrats have lost many elections because gun owners vote. Sometimes it seems as if the Republicans have the vote of Joe Paycheck despite making corporations supreme and shipping jobs overseas, simply because the Republicans can be trusted to not make a move on Joe's guns. If Democrats wanted to be more competitive in rural America, they could consider the idea of deciding that where antigun legislation is concerned, the voters have spoken against it, and move on to other issues.
One thing you can be sure of is that gun owners are paying close attention right now, to see who is wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth about the Heller decision. Those who see the Heller decision as an unfortunate setback to be overcome are revealing themselves right now. Gun owners do not forget.
Posted at 08:07 PM
Mon - June 30, 2008
Preparing For Travel
As we prepare to travel abroad, it
does not does us any good at all to see stories like this:
"NEW DELHI (AFP) - An Air India flight headed for Mumbai overshot its destination and was halfway to Goa before its dozing pilots were woken out of a deep slumber by air traffic control, a report said.
The high altitude nap took place approximately two weeks ago, the Times of India reported Thursday. The report, however, drew a furious denial from Air India."
Meanwhile, my wife, the Thrifty Yankee, is totally outmatched by the types of expenditures required for travel to Africa. She is reduced to looking for bargains on our malaria medicine to satisfy her sense of obligation.
"NEW DELHI (AFP) - An Air India flight headed for Mumbai overshot its destination and was halfway to Goa before its dozing pilots were woken out of a deep slumber by air traffic control, a report said.
The high altitude nap took place approximately two weeks ago, the Times of India reported Thursday. The report, however, drew a furious denial from Air India."
Meanwhile, my wife, the Thrifty Yankee, is totally outmatched by the types of expenditures required for travel to Africa. She is reduced to looking for bargains on our malaria medicine to satisfy her sense of obligation.
Posted at 06:19 PM
Sun - June 29, 2008
Autism Sensurround
Dan is home for summer break. He has
been busily burning new
DVD's.
His abuse of DVD drives is legendary. Over the years, he stuffed so many dirty and damaged disks into the G5's internal drive that it finally gave up the ghost. For the last 2 years, if you try to put a disk into the internal hard drive it is never read, and makes noise which are the mechanical version of wailing and gnashing of teeth for an indefinite period, until that disk's time in purgatory has been served and it is released to go to disk heaven.
So, it was no surprise when the external DVD burner gave up the ghost today. This necessitated a trip to acquire its replacement.
I'll say one thing for going to the store towing a 13 year old with autism and Tourette's: you quickly see which store clerks have any awareness and self preservation instincts. The guys at the Apple Store scored very highly on these scales, meeting me at the door while swearing up and down that whatever I was looking for, they didn't carry it. (OK, in the interests of fairness, they only said that about external DVD burners.) The guy at the Mac store, however, was going to give me his full unhurried chatty customer service.
Meanwhile, Dan went to the demo computers whirring on desks across the store.
I Looked at Dan. I looked at the clerk. The clerk did not take the hint. He couldn't find a DVD burner on the shelf. He flashes a dazzling customer service smile, and offers to go the extra mile by looking it up in their inventory. He strides with purpose to a customer service computer, and ponders the responses to his opening keystrokes.
Meanwhile, Dan has zeroed in on the computer hooked up to the Bose mega sound system, complete with satellite subwoofer.
Earnest Clerk returns. He doesn't think they have any, but he is going to quiz Stockroom Guy, saying "our inventory database isn't the most intuitive." He disappears.
Danny launches Safari. He types "Thomas" into the Google Search window, and uses the thumbnail video screen shots to navigate to the YouTube offerings of Thomas The Tank Engine videos.
Earnest Clerk returns from the stockroom with the external DVD burner we so desperately need under his arm. He tries to patiently explain all its features as I happily interrupt him with, "That's just the one I was hoping you'd have. Let's ring it up!" I speed towards the checkout counter, hoping to pull him along in my wake.
Too late. The opening notes of the Thomas theme reverberate through the store. The steam whistle blows. You know, with a really good sound system, it sounds just like you are really in a train yard.
A rapid calculation ensues. I am at the checkout counter, and Dan is 30 or 40 feet away and very happy. Good luck has led the other customers to vacate the store before the performance started. It's just me and the employees. The calculation is that the best strategy here is to finish the transaction ASAP. Devil take the hindmost.
To their credit, only 2 of the employees appeared to be in pain from being subjected to Thomas the Tank Engine at arena rock volumes.
Earnest Clerk got full marks. He showed no clue that there was anything going on beyond him chatting about which of the three addresses in the customer database he should use and how they came to be, about the return and restocking policy and fee, and did I need a bag?
I thanked him, went with the DVD burner to Dan and entered the keyboard commands to quit Safari, and walked with Dan to the door as peace and tranquility returned to the store.
"Have a nice day! Thanks for coming in" was the benediction as Dan and I did the recessional out the front door.
Somewhere there is a crowd of people who could read this story and be absolutely certain that this story is a shocking confession of failure to exert parental control of a child's behavior. I would be interested in seeing how any of them would do in a 15 minute matchup with a teen affected by autism and Tourette's. They have no effing clue.
His abuse of DVD drives is legendary. Over the years, he stuffed so many dirty and damaged disks into the G5's internal drive that it finally gave up the ghost. For the last 2 years, if you try to put a disk into the internal hard drive it is never read, and makes noise which are the mechanical version of wailing and gnashing of teeth for an indefinite period, until that disk's time in purgatory has been served and it is released to go to disk heaven.
So, it was no surprise when the external DVD burner gave up the ghost today. This necessitated a trip to acquire its replacement.
I'll say one thing for going to the store towing a 13 year old with autism and Tourette's: you quickly see which store clerks have any awareness and self preservation instincts. The guys at the Apple Store scored very highly on these scales, meeting me at the door while swearing up and down that whatever I was looking for, they didn't carry it. (OK, in the interests of fairness, they only said that about external DVD burners.) The guy at the Mac store, however, was going to give me his full unhurried chatty customer service.
Meanwhile, Dan went to the demo computers whirring on desks across the store.
I Looked at Dan. I looked at the clerk. The clerk did not take the hint. He couldn't find a DVD burner on the shelf. He flashes a dazzling customer service smile, and offers to go the extra mile by looking it up in their inventory. He strides with purpose to a customer service computer, and ponders the responses to his opening keystrokes.
Meanwhile, Dan has zeroed in on the computer hooked up to the Bose mega sound system, complete with satellite subwoofer.
Earnest Clerk returns. He doesn't think they have any, but he is going to quiz Stockroom Guy, saying "our inventory database isn't the most intuitive." He disappears.
Danny launches Safari. He types "Thomas" into the Google Search window, and uses the thumbnail video screen shots to navigate to the YouTube offerings of Thomas The Tank Engine videos.
Earnest Clerk returns from the stockroom with the external DVD burner we so desperately need under his arm. He tries to patiently explain all its features as I happily interrupt him with, "That's just the one I was hoping you'd have. Let's ring it up!" I speed towards the checkout counter, hoping to pull him along in my wake.
Too late. The opening notes of the Thomas theme reverberate through the store. The steam whistle blows. You know, with a really good sound system, it sounds just like you are really in a train yard.
A rapid calculation ensues. I am at the checkout counter, and Dan is 30 or 40 feet away and very happy. Good luck has led the other customers to vacate the store before the performance started. It's just me and the employees. The calculation is that the best strategy here is to finish the transaction ASAP. Devil take the hindmost.
To their credit, only 2 of the employees appeared to be in pain from being subjected to Thomas the Tank Engine at arena rock volumes.
Earnest Clerk got full marks. He showed no clue that there was anything going on beyond him chatting about which of the three addresses in the customer database he should use and how they came to be, about the return and restocking policy and fee, and did I need a bag?
I thanked him, went with the DVD burner to Dan and entered the keyboard commands to quit Safari, and walked with Dan to the door as peace and tranquility returned to the store.
"Have a nice day! Thanks for coming in" was the benediction as Dan and I did the recessional out the front door.
Somewhere there is a crowd of people who could read this story and be absolutely certain that this story is a shocking confession of failure to exert parental control of a child's behavior. I would be interested in seeing how any of them would do in a 15 minute matchup with a teen affected by autism and Tourette's. They have no effing clue.
Posted at 03:49 PM
Wed - June 25, 2008
Tue - June 24, 2008
The straightaway
There is nothing quite like the
attraction of a hill which snakes for miles to downtown, on a summer
day.
Posted at 11:25 PM
Mon - June 23, 2008
AAARRGGH!
Yesterday was a troublesome day for
music.
It was Jazz Sunday at church. We were playing as a quartet: piano, bass, drums, and trumpet.
The leader, the pianist, handed out the music at the 9:30 am performance. We ran through the tunes. The leader asked if we could play the closing tune, "Blue Skies," a step down from what was written on the chart, to accommodate the trumpet player.. No problem, we agreed. After the run-through, he looked back and handed me a chart for "Our Love Is Here To Stay," saying that we would play it as in interlude in the middle. No problem.
However, when it came time to play "Our Love Is Here To Stay," what I was playing on the bass sounded horribly, horribly wrong against the melody from the piano. The pianist's head whipped around to look at me. It was clear to the audience that the bass player was doing something really wrong. What wasn't clear to the audience was that the pianist had given me a chart written in the key of C, while he had chosen to play from his chart written in the key of F. I dragged my bass over, to read over his shoulder from his chart for the rest of the tune.
Fast forward to the closing tune, "Blue Skies," transposed down a step. The tune starts. Again, what I am playing sounds horribly, horribly wrong. Again, the pianist's head whips around to look at me. Again, it is clear to the congregation that the bass player is doing something really wrong. I am baffled, until the trumpet player walks back and tells me, "He's not transposing. He's playing it in the original key."
At least the drummer and I managed to go along with the tune that was rehearsed in 4/4 but performed in 3/4.
Now I've got to deal with the fact that I've been made to look like a total incompetent in front of a large group of people.
AAARRGGH!
It was Jazz Sunday at church. We were playing as a quartet: piano, bass, drums, and trumpet.
The leader, the pianist, handed out the music at the 9:30 am performance. We ran through the tunes. The leader asked if we could play the closing tune, "Blue Skies," a step down from what was written on the chart, to accommodate the trumpet player.. No problem, we agreed. After the run-through, he looked back and handed me a chart for "Our Love Is Here To Stay," saying that we would play it as in interlude in the middle. No problem.
However, when it came time to play "Our Love Is Here To Stay," what I was playing on the bass sounded horribly, horribly wrong against the melody from the piano. The pianist's head whipped around to look at me. It was clear to the audience that the bass player was doing something really wrong. What wasn't clear to the audience was that the pianist had given me a chart written in the key of C, while he had chosen to play from his chart written in the key of F. I dragged my bass over, to read over his shoulder from his chart for the rest of the tune.
Fast forward to the closing tune, "Blue Skies," transposed down a step. The tune starts. Again, what I am playing sounds horribly, horribly wrong. Again, the pianist's head whips around to look at me. Again, it is clear to the congregation that the bass player is doing something really wrong. I am baffled, until the trumpet player walks back and tells me, "He's not transposing. He's playing it in the original key."
At least the drummer and I managed to go along with the tune that was rehearsed in 4/4 but performed in 3/4.
Now I've got to deal with the fact that I've been made to look like a total incompetent in front of a large group of people.
AAARRGGH!
Posted at 07:29 PM
Danny's Home
Dan is home for his summer break from
Heartspring.
Turns out that his presence is conducive to blogging. When he is home, it is best not to leave him unattended. So, blogging is one of the ways to spend the time as we play side by side on the twin computers.
Turns out that his presence is conducive to blogging. When he is home, it is best not to leave him unattended. So, blogging is one of the ways to spend the time as we play side by side on the twin computers.
Posted at 07:10 PM
Thu - May 29, 2008
News With Music
I got the idea for this as the big red
guns roll out to bear on Scott McClellan.
Scott said he had to get right with the truth, which he declares to be a higher value for him.
My friend Roger Bertholf thundered in an e-mail about this perfidious book. He is not alone. Karl Rove declared from his Fox News soapbox that if McClellan had any qualms, he sure didn't voice them at the time. As if McClellan was ever asked his opinion about anything. The man was told what to say, he said it; that was his job. Substantive discussion of McClellan's assertions are not on offer. Discredit the messenger, rather than talk about his disturbing message. Congressman Wexler noted:
“The admissions made by Scott McClellan in his new book are earth-shattering and allege facts to establish that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby – and possibly Vice President Cheney - conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the Plame Wilson matter and that the Bush Administration deliberately lied to the American people in order to take us to war in Iraq,"
But I digress. Roger was outraged by this treachery. I responded to him in an e-mail that Red McClellan sounded like this:
However, Blue McClellan might sound more on the order of:
Scott said he had to get right with the truth, which he declares to be a higher value for him.
My friend Roger Bertholf thundered in an e-mail about this perfidious book. He is not alone. Karl Rove declared from his Fox News soapbox that if McClellan had any qualms, he sure didn't voice them at the time. As if McClellan was ever asked his opinion about anything. The man was told what to say, he said it; that was his job. Substantive discussion of McClellan's assertions are not on offer. Discredit the messenger, rather than talk about his disturbing message. Congressman Wexler noted:
“The admissions made by Scott McClellan in his new book are earth-shattering and allege facts to establish that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby – and possibly Vice President Cheney - conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the Plame Wilson matter and that the Bush Administration deliberately lied to the American people in order to take us to war in Iraq,"
But I digress. Roger was outraged by this treachery. I responded to him in an e-mail that Red McClellan sounded like this:
However, Blue McClellan might sound more on the order of:
Posted at 06:27 PM
Mon - May 19, 2008
Fri - May 9, 2008
The Unmonitored Meal
There are no witnesses to any culinary
crimes I commit tonight. My wife is in Wichita, and my daughter is at the
movies. Sort of reminds me of the lyrics to Randy Newman's song,
Rider In The
Rain:
Oh my mother's in St. Louis
And my bride's in Tennessee
So I'm goin' to Arizona
With a banjo on my knee
But I digress.
I was talking about unmonitored meals, the food that guys will fix for themselves when there is no one around to disapprove. The biggest theme is "too too too": too large, too much fat or meat or spice. Sometimes the meals are too easy, or too starchy.
For years, my most frequent unmonitored meal would be braised short ribs of beef. My family would find them to be too fatty, so I had to wait to reacquaint myself with this dish until my family had abandoned me for the odd weekend here and there.
Many times, the unmonitored meal would be something over macaroni or rice. The starch would be a carrier for a flavor I liked, and a springboard to the quantity I craved. Chili or chicken pot pies were frequent candidates for this treatment.
Now, though, I've got the Weight Watchers thing going on. Since joining WW in January, I've dropped 35 pounds, and think that this is probably my lowest weight so far in the 21st Century. So, today when faced with the idea of cooking for myself, I viewed the meal not as a chance for unwise choices, but as a chance to fix myself something really nice since I was only buying for one instead of three. Economies of scale cut both ways.
First course:
Shrimp cocktail. 8 prawns, cooked, with Crosse & Blackwell Seafood Cocktail Sauce. 4 points.
Then, the Del Monico steak, 9 ounces, grilled medium rare with salt and pepper. 13 points.
Served with roasted asparagus. Asparagus stalks drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, spread in a single layer in a baking dish, and roasted at 350 degrees, tossing occasionally, finished with a sprinkling of lemon juice before serving. Zero points for the asparagus, 2 points for the oil.
All washed down with 22 ounces of Lagunitas IPA Maximus. 5 points.
Yeah, baby.
Oh my mother's in St. Louis
And my bride's in Tennessee
So I'm goin' to Arizona
With a banjo on my knee
But I digress.
I was talking about unmonitored meals, the food that guys will fix for themselves when there is no one around to disapprove. The biggest theme is "too too too": too large, too much fat or meat or spice. Sometimes the meals are too easy, or too starchy.
For years, my most frequent unmonitored meal would be braised short ribs of beef. My family would find them to be too fatty, so I had to wait to reacquaint myself with this dish until my family had abandoned me for the odd weekend here and there.
Many times, the unmonitored meal would be something over macaroni or rice. The starch would be a carrier for a flavor I liked, and a springboard to the quantity I craved. Chili or chicken pot pies were frequent candidates for this treatment.
Now, though, I've got the Weight Watchers thing going on. Since joining WW in January, I've dropped 35 pounds, and think that this is probably my lowest weight so far in the 21st Century. So, today when faced with the idea of cooking for myself, I viewed the meal not as a chance for unwise choices, but as a chance to fix myself something really nice since I was only buying for one instead of three. Economies of scale cut both ways.
First course:
Shrimp cocktail. 8 prawns, cooked, with Crosse & Blackwell Seafood Cocktail Sauce. 4 points.
Then, the Del Monico steak, 9 ounces, grilled medium rare with salt and pepper. 13 points.
Served with roasted asparagus. Asparagus stalks drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, spread in a single layer in a baking dish, and roasted at 350 degrees, tossing occasionally, finished with a sprinkling of lemon juice before serving. Zero points for the asparagus, 2 points for the oil.
All washed down with 22 ounces of Lagunitas IPA Maximus. 5 points.
Yeah, baby.
Posted at 11:57 AM
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Published On: Aug 08, 2008 09:40 AM
Published On: Aug 08, 2008 09:40 AM