12/24/2004

Confessions of a raw mix eater

I can’t help it - I know there’s the whole raw egg = salmonella thing - but really, when I’m making a cake, or cookies, or brownies, there’s just something about “cleaning” the bowl. I used to do it when I was a kid. Everyone did. What’s the allure? What’s the thrill? What makes it such a strong childhood memory? I have some thoughts:

1. Smell is one of the most vivid memory markers we have. (Olfaction and Memory) So of course we link the smell of cookies, brownies, cake, deviled eggs, cinnamon, and so on with Christmas or other family get-togethers. And if your family was/is like mine, those were/are good times.

2. Chocolate - what more does one have to say? Brownie batter is fairly close to mainlining chocolate.

3. Texture. There’s something about the texture of batter or cookie dough.

4. A clean bowl. What a sense of accomplishment to look down and see that there’s no batter left. What didn’t go into the pan at least went somewhere other than down the drain.

So, I know I’m living on the edge. I’m sure some of you out there are amazed at the risk I’m taking. Food Poisoning Roulette played with brownie batter. But in my defense I will say this: (1) I do not let my kids lick the bowl and (2) I make sure there’s very little left over to lick.

Besides, other people are out there risking food poisoning all the time - there’s a many people (some I know personally) who have gotten sick from eating at a particular Joe’s Crab Shack.

sparta at 8:14 pm

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Wind Chill and frostbite information

Just because I’m sure you wanted to know this, here is some information regarding wind chill temps and frostbite. And just for further fun, let’s look at the wind chill chart. And while we’re on the topic of weather, here’s this, just because the graphics are pretty cool. And speaking of cool -and I mean that in a temperature kind of way- take a look at this guy’s snow sculpture. See what happens when I go on walk-about around the Internet? Aren’t you happy I’m adventurous? Stop laughing, Cliff, and get your mind out of the gutter - I didn’t mean –that– kind of adventurous…sheesh…I didn’t even mean this kind of adventurous. Finally, I leave this post with a contest: Who looks colder?

This guy: Or this guy:

Until I post again…..Your Blog Goddess

sparta at 5:49 pm

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FORGOTTEN POST: Movie review: Hero

Here’s a post I apparently forgot to put up….

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We watched Hero with Jet Li last night. Jet Li is not one of my favorite martial arts stars, but in this role, he did very well. The story was well crafted, and the choreography was fantastic. There was something more to the movie than just that, though, there was the cinematography. I don’t want to give too much away for those who haven’t seen it - but even without the people effects (think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), there was still a lot going on within the frame. I will ask Andrew’s question, though: “What is it about Chinese movies?” You’ll understand once you’ve seen it - you are going to watch it, aren’t you?

Hero gets 8 out of 10 bananas! Rated R for stylized martial arts violence and a scene that implies sex heavily.

sparta at 12:06 pm

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Yesterday’s Birthday Celebration

So, the boys (AJ, Phil, and John) took me out to one of my favorite restaurants, the Country House, for dinner. I got a free slice of cheesecake with a candle in it! Yum! We then came back to the house, and while I was distracted doing something else, they put up a banner that said “Happy Birthday” and laid in wait for me to return. When I did, they tweeted some noisemakers loudly and said, “Happy Birthday!” On the table was a cake. This cake:

Gir cake

In case you can’t tell, the figure on the cake is Gir, a character from Invader Zim. Learn more about Zim HERE because there’s no way to explain it quickly here. You must learn about Zim! If you’ve never seen the cartoon, go buy/rent the DVDs ASAP because it’s great!

They then presented me with my gifts. I received a “gift certificate” for a day at the salon, a movie called Kiki’s Delivery Service, and a Plug-n-Play TV game system with Atari games. I have to admit it, it’s pretty cool. John likes it, too!

So, that’s the birthday haul so far for this year. My dad, sister, and aunt will probably have some things for me next week. Assuming we get there - they’re still buried in snow down there. Here are some pics (please note: I found these on the Internet; they were not taken by my family):

They had 7 to 16 inches in that area - and of course, it had to blow and drift around. The crews (because they’d never dealt with more than about 5 inches at a time) didn’t mobilize in time, so the storm got ahead of them. That’s why the roads still aren’t clear in some areas. If things don’t improve, we won’t be going. :-( Wish us luck because I haven’t seen them in almost a year.

sparta at 12:04 pm

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12/23/2004

Happy birthday to me!

Yep, today is my birthday! I’m sure that changes your whole day, right? But it’s a pretty big deal for me.

Seriously, birthdays when you’re a grown-up just aren’t quite the same as when you’re a kid. First of all, you very rarely get a party - unless it’s one of those milestone birthdays (21 - 30 - 40 - 50 - 60 - 70 - 75 - 80 - and so on) - I haven’t had any kind of birthday party since I turned 18. And I’ve never had a birthday party with anyone more than relatives. Seriously. I never had a party with my friends at the roller rink, or Chuck E. Cheese, or anything. All my friends were gone for Christmas break and were always so busy during the weekends before Christmas getting ready to go. So, I’ve never had a non-family birthday party as a kid OR as an adult. My 21st birthday was spent with my parents, and for whatever reason, there was no party for my 30th birthday.

So today - so far - has been okay. I had to go to physical therapy this morning, and when I got back, I helped AJ fix us some lunch. Then I had to run over to the UPS Store to send the gifts to my nieces (man was that place busy). Next, I got to make a grocery list for AJ - and now I’m sitting here typing this. Not a bad birthday, I guess. AJ and the boys are supposed to take me to dinner when he is back from the store - and I suppose there will be a present or two from them to open (I already opened the one from Cliff and Cindy (and the Cats) - THANKS! ^_^)

I’ll post an update later.

sparta at 5:28 pm

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12/19/2004

Had to pass this along for others to read

From A Small Victory’s Guest Blogger: The Crap Tree.

Merry Christmas! (6 days and counting!)
Happy Birthday to me! (4 days and counting!)

sparta at 7:54 pm

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12/15/2004

Now how did I get in this shop?

I wander the Internet a lot. I love to go on a cyber-walkabout whenever I can find the time. One link leads to another that leads to another. It can be scary or relaxing or exciting or scary - did I mention scary? - but sometimes it’s way way cool! Sometimes I post those findings here - and sometimes I forget to - but today…I didn’t! Now, I haven’t listened to everything they have available for free listening, but I will later. It’s ManWithAGun.com. I gather they are a place that helps bands sell their CDs - you know - when they’re barely out of their garage phase. I can’t find anything there but mp3 links - so maybe you have to join the mailing list to get the ordering info. Anyway - there’s music there - and music is good for ya’ - so go listen to some.

UPDATE: There are links to the left side that weren’t displaying for me for some reason until my mouse happened to wander over there and one showed up. So now there’s more there to look at - yay!

sparta at 9:18 am

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Mittens

Okay, I personally, have never been much of a mitten person. I’m not sure about the pre-3 era, but I would guess that I complained about them. Our eldest son was/is definitely not a mitten person…and as far as I know, AJ is not a mitten man, although he might not mind these. But then comes along our youngest, who seems to be fascinated with his mittens. I would buy him gloves, but I haven’t found a pair that small yet. The only problem with said mittens is that the way the pattern was cut, there is a kitty face on one mitten, but not the other. This messes with him. Why why why why is there not another kitty on the other hand? I try to explain, but of course, all he can see is that the people who made them were wrong. I will now have to go out and purchase a pair of soft, fuzzy mittens that have kittens on BOTH hands. *sigh*

UPDATE: Okay, I might be able to be a mitten person, if you’re talking about these mittens. Go listen to the two full-length sample mp3s - they aren’t too bad.

sparta at 9:11 am

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12/14/2004

Oops - this one’s not prey after all!

Score one for the good guys! And to the criminals mom, all I have to say is that I know you’re sticking up for your baby and all, but they have him for possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of crack cocaine - no one believes he’s innocent here.

Still, this is a good example of why concealed carry by decent citizens is still a good idea.

sparta at 9:55 pm

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My Physical Therapist

I think my PT sits at home and calls up her aunts or something and tries to come up with the most bizarro stuff she can with which to torture me.

Like today - she literally took a miniuature plunger and suctioned it to my knee. The whole point was to lift my patella up a bit so it wasn’t so much in the way, but man, was that a weird feeling.

Oh, well, we’re getting results, so I’m not going to turn her in for freaky medical practices or anything - at least not yet. ^_^

sparta at 9:43 pm

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A toast to the mommy x 2

Twins having twins. That’s cool!

sparta at 2:54 pm

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Slow blogging season

There are those who post every day (I think they get paid - at least by tip jars), but I am not one of those people. I know things have been a bit slow here, but there’s not a whole lot going on here … at least not things that we can discuss right now … so you will have to wait for the juicy bits a while longer. In the meantime, there’s this….

Dancing Santa!

sparta at 2:51 pm

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12/10/2004

The Knee Report

Okay - so here’s the latest - which I’ve probably already told you, but hey, I was told to post or else. Sooooo - I’ve been okay’ed to walk with one crutch, and I’m doing pretty well at physical therapy. I have moments when my knee is very, very sore, but otherwise, it seems the worst is over. I am getting better at walking with the one crutch, so pretty soon I imagine my PT will tell me to try walking without any crutches. I can’t wait for that day - I mean, I can walk limp around fairly well without them, but the PT doesn’t want people to do that because she says they they develop “bad habits.” I’m not sure what those habits are - maybe it makes you hold your back and/or hips funny or something. Anyway - that’s the latest news regarding the knee.

sparta at 10:30 am

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12/9/2004

Newsflash

There will be no posts today. Sorry, no, all the begging in the world won’t change that. No, really, get up - it’s quite embarrassing. Okay, Okay, if between you all you can raise enough cash - maybe…maybe, I said….I’ll post.

sparta at 11:31 pm

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12/8/2004

Have you noticed….

…that a lot of the world’s wars/revoltions/etc. are mostly being fought because of poorly drawn boundaries.

1. Turkey/Iraq - the Kurds are a divided people - but what divides them is an arbitrary line dividing Iraq and Turkey. They would love nothing more than to be their own country. A tiny one nestled between the two countries, but this will not happen - even though the cultures between the Kurds and the Iraqis and the Kurds and the Turks clash because of - oil, of course.
2. Spain/the Basque separatists - Basque was its own region, as far as I know, and with the drawing of boundaries between Spain and France - the Basques are now divided as well. I don’t believe as many of them still populate that area of France, but I know they still heavily populate their area of Spain. They have some autonomy (Basque schools, police, etc.) and many even speak Basque as a language, but again, they want their own area for their own people and culture.
3. Israel/the Palastinians - big one here. The hardest part of this is that the Palestinians were *not* a country or even a single people. The current Palestinians are those who were migrated out of other areas in the middle east. Israel was established in the aftermath of WWII to give the Jews a place of their own to go. At the time it was pretty much just a bunch of desert that no one wanted, then years later, when they’d made it liveable, and some of the Palestinians were dumped there, suddenly it was prime real estate. The problem with including this one is that the land belongs to Israel, and these squatters are just trying to take it instead of blending into the society there. Well, there are those people who were living there in the region (not Palestinians, but people living in the region known as Palestinians) when the Brits moved them, but the number of families claiming right of return are more than the number that we made leave. Funny that.
4. Yugoslavia - another area that was divided up into regions without regard to cultures or races that - surprise, surprise, erupted into violence.
5. Kashmir - was a predominantly Muslim area; after the Brits left, India became a Hindu land, and Pakistan became a Muslim country, but area of Kashmir was left without definition, and therefore India annexed it. Hmm - Hindu country taking over an area dominated by Muslims? Nah - wouldn’t be any trouble there - would there?

I am sure you can add others to this list. My point is that perhaps we should learn from history past and present and be more careful about drawing those borders. The borders we (as conquerers or arbitrators) move around today might spawn more violence later. Whether by terrorists or revolutionaries, it will still be violence, and probably against citizens, not armies alone. Does this mean we shouldn’t actively work for comprises and so forth? No, it just means that we might want to think a little more about the people who are actually going to be living there after we’re not there. Just a semi-deep thought that popped in my head….thought I’d share.

sparta at 10:01 pm

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Man, I think she’s upset with them…

Read this article by Holly Lisle and see if you think she’s just a teensy-weensy upset with the people she’s describing.

sparta at 9:38 pm

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Informal poll

Okay, informal poll time. Read THIS ARTICLE then post your vote from the following choices:

A. This is a great idea.
B. This is abandonment and they should be arrested or ticketed or whatever.
C. They didn’t go far enough in their effort.
D. The whole thing is stupid and I don’t care.

I’ll give a tally later.

sparta at 7:57 pm

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As Spock said…

“There are millions of other species on Earth, Doctor. Only human arrogance would assume the message was meant for man.” Okay, it’s not a direct fit, but the point is that while the dolphins are out there showing their intelligence by helping divers, the gorillas are showing their connections to man in other ways. It appears that one of the gorillas at Brookfield Zoo had to be put to sleep because of a kidney problem. The keepers then decided to allow the gorillas to have a wake of sorts. I guess something similar is conducted in the wild. I always thought gorillas were cool. I think elephants are cool, too. They have funerals, as well (the actual comment is under the heading about a ‘glimpse into their world’ or somthing like that). I couldn’t find any information on dolphins and mourning - at least not in a 30-second Google search, but if anyone does, please send me the URL or post it here.

I have to say that I find elephants to be the most fascinating of the wild animals on our planet. Elephants rock!

sparta at 5:02 pm

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12/7/2004

This was amazing

Click on this - then make sure you go to Dec. 6th and click on “OMGWTFLOL” No hints - just go.

sparta at 4:15 pm

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Googlisms

You’ve probably seen the Googlisms thing already, but here is the one for sparta and the one for PJ.

See what Google has to say about you.

sparta at 2:06 pm

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