I'd like to introduce you guys to a favorite new blog of mine, Food-Furious. It is a joint venture between my brother and my cousin out in Portland, Oregon, and is amusing because of 1.the photos, 2. the descriptions and 3. the fact that my brother has a food blog, yet does not know how to cook anything more complicated than Lucky Charms. In my opinion, they set the bar really, really high with the sushi project. I'm interested to see how they can possibly top themselves.
Bon appetite!
*****
We have returned home and are semi-recovered from the long haul of football to basketball, or as it is sometimes called around here, The Six Months of Hell. (That is what I sometimes call it, I should clarify that point.) Baseball season is up next, but that is hardly even work for the husband - it's his favorite thing in the world. If it isn't stressing him, it isn't stressing me.
Other points of interest from around the league -
- We went to the aquarium in Chattanooga and had a great time. Here are a few shots I pulled out of the stacks:
Pooks loved the sharks, but was terrified of the butterfly garden.
Mom and Pooks enjoy the serenity of the ocean tank through a fishbowl window.
I love the jellyfish. I could watch them all day long. If I lived near an aquarium I'd buy a membership just so I could go there on my lunch hour and sit in the dark, transfixed and stoned by their aimless, gorgeous, dangerous floating.
Pooks liked them too, but not as much as she liked the sharks and turtles.
There was also an octopus, and it was one of the coolest damn things I have ever seen in my life. The room was fully dark, though, and my lens couldn't even focus on him. I apologize for the horrible quality of these images, but I have to include them. He was just amazing. He was also big. For scale, I included a (terrible) shot of a kid standing beside the tank. (Yes, I was using a fisheye lens. Yes, I overused it. Sue me. Where can you abuse a fisheye lens if not at an aquarium?)
So there is our trip to the aquarium. Because I'm me, there is also a gallery with hundreds of shots from the weekend, but I'll not subject anyone to that!
I have shots of Pooks gleefully petting sturgeon and stingray, shark and (faux) penguin. A good time was had by all (except, of course, the Incident with the Fluttery-Winged Monster Bugs of Death)
- Pooks is speaking in full (mostly hilarious) sentences these days. She'll run get in her red rocking chair and declare, "I sit. I rock. I read-ee tha book."
- Her hair is out of control, especially in the mornings. I have a water sprayer bottle intended for large houseplants that I spritz her down with each morning to try to grapple with the nest. I have varying degrees of success with this method.
- It's been a really good week at work. I have gotten several new projects that make me feel needed and good at what I do, which is something I crave. When I don't have much to do I tend to feel very superfluous and it gets tedious for me to just sit there. So yay for work!
- I have to get a skin cancer screen done tomorrow. Ick.
Please oh please, random doctor I've never met, let me strip down naked so you can inspect ever square inch of me and scrutinize each bump and discoloration. I bet my Bullfrog sunblock and whistle lanyard that they find at least one thing that looks "suspicious" and needs to be looked at further - so I have to go back in for another consult and they can hit me up for another co-pay.
A friend complained that all I ever talk about on here is my kid and that I used to talk about "fun nerd stuff." I responded that I actually don't talk on here much at all lately, and that at least a kid update is an update. Sheeyit, I can't talk about Terminator and Watchmen all the time. I'm not a 12-year old boy! But I'm here to please, so here is an update that is nerdish and has nothing whatsoever to do with my spawn:
I wish people would stop bitching and being offended about Resident Evil 5 being racist. It's set in Africa. People who live in Africa tend to be dark-skinned. If you're looking for something race-related in the series to be offended about, how about all those pasty-ass naked Caucasian zombies in RE2? They were all flabby and had no muscle tone, plus they were trying to eat you. Eww.
As far as RE5 goes, I'm more offended they aren't releasing it for the Wii. Why don't I get to shoot zombies? I want to shoot zombies, but I'm not buying a whole new system just to do so.
RE4 was a great game on the Wii and it sold over a million copies, you'd think that would be enough to justify transposing 5 over to the platform.
{EDITED TO ADD} Whoa whoa whooaaa!
Hold up a sec ... here's some nerd news for you, Mr. Don't Talk about Your Kid Because you Used to be So Funny... this is relevant to our interests.
Appears that Hollywood proper is going to take a crack at everyone's favorite coming-of-age-novel about an interplanetary arachnid who uses her nefarious psychic powers to lure children into a sewer and then feast on their fear and flesh! I may have just given a bit of a spoiler there, sorry.
You want another spoiler, a storyline that was conveniently left out of the other adaptation? After apparently slaying the creature, the kiddies have an orgy in the slimy dank sewer. That's right. They all hit it with good ol Beverly to seal the pact.
I read that book in 5th grade or so, and besides the death, dismemberment, and general feeling of unease I recalled later about it, I remembered that scene the most. And not in a good way, in a "Was it totally necessary to do it* in the shit-filled tunnel to make the oath? Couldn't they just have pinky-sweared to come back if some further extermination was needed?"
But perhaps it was necessary - once when I was 11 or so I did a so-we'll-be-best-friends-forever "spit on palm and then shake hands" type swear, and you know what? I haven't talked to that girl in ages.
I guess saliva doesn't form as strong a bond as other bodily fluids.
* - I also read the book when I was really too young to quite understand just exactly what "doing it" entailed besides the purely "science textbook" definition. Stephen King as sex ed: that's how every parent hopes their child learns about the psychopomp birds and killer bees.
You are totally going to give mom a complex for not stealing that book away from you. The real question is "if a kid in the 5th grade can make it through the over a thousand(?) pages of text, should you stop really stop her?" No. Lack of experience and understanding censored it for you I'm sure.
Sadly the Wii can't graphically support RE5. Get BoomBlox instead - it is pretty badass and includes cartoon zombie animals that are pretty funny.
Your aquarium pics are cool. I like "bad" quality photos if the subject is interesting enough to merit closer analysis (beavis and butthead chortle at 'anal'). The ones of you and pooks really give me a 2001 vibe.
And thanks for the shout-out about food-furious; Lucky Charms 4ever!
Posted by: geoff | March 14, 2009 at 04:13 AM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Joannah
http://myscones.com
Posted by: Joannah | March 21, 2009 at 07:52 AM
I have to disagree with you on your bro in the kitchen. Last Thursday, he made chicken with a mole (molé?) sauce that absolutely fantastic.
Posted by: Amanda Hensley | April 07, 2009 at 06:50 PM