So, Darrell is getting really into cooking lately so I got him a pasta machine and this weekend we used it for the first time.. OK I used it... and it was kinda fun! I am just happy that I managed to produce a substance that was unquestionably pasta. I thought I would mess up. Then I got an eggplant and fried some up and made some version of Eggplant Parmesan. This is the first time I've cooked in ages and it felt good. Eggplants are neat, if you manage to get them breaded and cooked right they seem kinda like meat. Which I'm sure I'd appreciate if I became a vegetarian for some reason. Of course I didn't exactly cook them all the right way, I let my bread crumbs get clumpy and then some of them were not properly coated or properly cooked and they taste very definitely like vegetables. But still edible at least. Also I went to Target to spend a gift card and I couldn't really decide on any expensive items we needed so I just wound up buying groceries. Target has really good deals on certain groceries. OK, that is boring though, when you have a gift card you are supposed to buy something nice, so I got some Frey chocolate, which was delicious. I got the cinnamon and blood orange white chocolate. Sounds weird perhaps, and a lot of people don't like white chocolate, but we loved it! It had such vibrant and delicious flavors. Kind of reminded me of when I was younger and our Swiss relatives always used to mail us a big yellow box full of Swiss chocolate for the holidays. Well, nothing in those boxes tasted of cinnamon or blood oranges but it reminded me all the same. I guess the fact that this stuff is available "exclusively at Target" makes it kind of irritatingly non-authentic but I was happy to find it and will surely try some more flavors.

Then I ended the weekend by messing up and now I feel like crap. No I can't talk about it to anyone , just felt like saying that just to be irritating.


Prayer for the Paranoid

Denise Sawicki posts whatever she feels able to post without serious consequences Read more »

Lost Things

Darrin's sheet and pillowcase disappeared some time back, and I just discovered my nice black pants are missing. I almost always wear jeans so I have no idea how long they have been gone. We searched thoroughly for these items and the only theory we can come up with is that Darrin's ex-girlfriend took them. Go »

More about the coat obsession

I know I already put the pictures on Facebook but I have such an infatuation with this coat that I need to post about it a bit :P. Here is the real dude in the real coat: Here is Darrell in our coat we just bought: Here's me in the coat: Here I am in the coat again (brighter shot): Anyhow, generally when you find pictures of this guy he has on the suspenders and no vest. He does wear a vest sometimes though! Go »

Don't go computer shopping at 6 AM...

So, we have an old and crummy computer that's been bothering us for years, and for reasons that I can't get into, it suddenly became critical to go computer shopping at 6 AM on Saturday. :P I got a digital video camera for my birthday and Darrell took some awesome videos of Philip and we wanted something that would be capable of video editing. I headed out to Walmart at 6 AM on Saturday, looked at the stats of the various computers,. Go »

Our dog is smart

Our sheltie, Philip, is really smart. Here is his latest Oscar-worthy film, where he shows off his ability to mimic Darrell doing the following actions: turn a circle, stretch, sneeze, lie down, roll over (partway), hop, and speak: link Philip also knows how to read a few words, kind of, though I think he gets bored with it :-). Currently he's in school for agility, which entails learning how to run around a course jumping hurdles and using tunnels and seesaws in a prescribed manner. Go »

Now I remember why I live in North Dakota

It got hot all of a sudden the last few days, or what passes for hot in ND in early April (50s). It's like a spring break video out there, people prancing around in bikinis yelling "woo"... OK not quite but there is a marked change in demeanor. Go »

Writing frightening verse to a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg

The identity of my birthday RB card will be public soon enough, I'm sure, so I figured I'd write a little about it. I won't state its identity outright, in hopes that I can encourage anyone who's not familiar to click the link :P. First, I didn't know a "wimpy" band could wind up ranking quite so high. Go »