Thursday, August 29, 2013

Toss Cookies

8.5.2013

So I'm just past five years as a dad robot, and just when I think things are coming together, things dramatically change.  Kindergarten, for example, is upon us.  It brings a new schedule, new relationships for kids and adults, homework, PTA meetings and a non-stop request for volunteers for various events and positions and of course, for cashola.

I'm waiting for the day that I can win the bake sale.

Ideally I can get access to the school's kitchen and thereby have lots of room to work, several industrial-sized kitchen appliances and big fuckin' ovens.  I'm going to make pies, cupcakes (and not those stupid frosted TV-show cupcakes) and cookies.  I got a killer recipe for cookies.

It's based on the - gulp - Martha Stewart chocolate chip cookie.  The thing I really like about her recipe is she calls for the sugar and fat to be beaten in a stand mixer for 10 minutes.  This obviously adds lots of air and makes for a cookie with a soft center.  20 minutes in the oven gives them a crispy crust.  Super.

My mod to the recipe is fondue.  I add fondue.  We had some leftover chocolate fondue and it would be unacceptable to chuck it, so I melted it, poured it on a sheet pan and froze it.  Then I removed it from the pan, chopped it into morsel-sized chunks and use them in the cookies.  It melts fast and gives the cookies a cool-looking and tasty marbling.

This is the cookie that will bring home the prize.  That bake sale is MINE!


Tonight - Homestead.

Birthday shout-out to Heather Lake.  Come on out and buy her a drink! 


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

The "Family Recipe"

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Gotta Wear Shades (REDUX)

8.4.2013

There's a Rite-Aid right across the street from me and I've found that they have really cold beer that's always on sale. $10 for an 18-pak. I'm going through a few of them 18ers a week (yike!) and it helps to keep the cost down.

I ducked over there just last night to re-fuel and I remembered to check the back-to-school section that was being massively restocked the day before. (I wasn't buying beer the day before. I didn't drink 18 beers on a school night. I was buying Junior Mints for the freezer. They got a good price on them Jrs too and I always have to have something minty in the icebox and none of them little sluts came around whoring their cookies this year so I gotta go with Plan B, ok? (Shut up, Alan.) I chose a bunch of new ink pens (on sale!), got my beer and got in line. I waited as the person in front went through about a trillion coupons until she found the one she needed. I waited. I looked around. Behind me was a Post cereal display and I thought about the eternal debate of whether Cocoa Pebbles are better than Cocoa Krispies (they are better ... way better). Then I noticed the sign: ALL POST CEREAL $1.79. I snagged a box of Grape-Nuts. I like eating very small rocks with milk.

At the check-out, the counterman said, "damn. I ain't had Grape-Nuts forever. My mom used to get that for us." Then he looked at me. "I hated Grape-Nuts." As this guy looks like he's on parole I told him he could put them back.

Tonight - Doc's Clock
See you all there in a timely manner.



bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

3 Strikes

8.3.2013

There's a difference - a big difference - between things that are bullshit and things that are just wrong.  Most of the content on the intertubes is bullshit.  This we know.  Then ya got the things that are wrong.  I just came across one:

From npr.org:

Frank McCourt is a curse word in Dodgers Stadium. He is the team's former owner, pretty much universally despised for putting profits over play. It got so bad, Major League Baseball forced him to sell the team a year ago. He kept the parking lots.
The new owners — a group that includes Lakers icon Magic Johnson — shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to bring the team, and the fans, back. (Baseball fan Gus) Castanis was there through it all.
"So I figure this must be payback," he says. "Penance."
And maybe that's where the magic is coming from here in the Magic Castle. Down by two runs, 2-4 at the bottom of the ninth, the fans still have hope.
"It's exciting no matter what because you feel like you have a chance," Castanis says.
Which is why he stands when Andre Ethier takes the plate, down two, facing two outs. Ethier hits a two-run homer, tying the game at 4.


Soooo ... a lousy owner for a couple of years is all it takes for a historic season turnaround?  For a never-say-die attitude?  For unparalleled success?  um ...

Again from the article:

"There's always a chance," Castanis says. "And I don't know, maybe there's something about, how many people are left here? Twenty thousand people? All believing we have a chance that maybe makes Andre Ethier think that he's got a shot of hitting out to left field. That was exciting."

Ah.  20,000 people believing the Dodgers have a chance is what it takes.  I get it.

Wrong.  Dead wrong.  Wishful thinking.  If "believing" is all it takes, the Cubs would be back-to-back-to-back, etc., etc. World Champs.  Lots more than yr average 20,000 fans + area fans + bandwagon jumpers + Vegas and shit.  Lots more.

The Dodgers have what are called "professional baseball players."

Tonight - Kozy Kar.
Throwing 'em back 70's-style!!


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Gonna go WILD!

8.2.2013

 When I was a wee robot, my sister, brother and I had to devise a ladder to reach the on/off switch of the TV to watch Saturday morning cartoons, cuz my parents did not want to get up as early as we did.  I'm sure most of you experienced something similar.

FF to today and my Little Wife and I are enduring Saturday and Sunday mornings much like our folks did, but in our case, the solution is ... the iPad.  Natch.

He gets 15 minutes of Angry Birds (he was shown how to set the iPad's timer to count down from 15 or whatever).  When he's interrupted by the timer ending, he switches to PBS Kids streaming programming.  He used to watch an episode or two of Dinosaur Train, Super Why! or Wild Kratts, but more and more these days, it's more like an hour or two.

I know it's rationalization to say "at least it's PBS ... it's educational."  But looking back to the crapitola cartoons we used to watch (complete with scads of commercials), he does have it better.

Come on!  He knows what an Angler Fish is, for fuck's sake.

Tonight - The Residence.


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

Thursday, August 01, 2013

Photo Boof (Redux)

8.1.2013

I don't have a lot to say today, but I have a fun post nevertheless. My home email address is very simple and Apple-based, as it was originally provided by my membership to their dot-mac service, (which became ",me" with the advent of their iPhone service, and then ".icloud" when their cloud service was launched. What with the proliferation of Apple Stores around the country, and their internet-enabled "hands-on" demonstration computers laying around within, it wasn't a total surprise that when the camera-enabled computers came around that some snapshots got emailled to me from the store. Call it Spam if you like, but after a few came through I started to save and enjoy them. Here they are, for your amusement. Strangers w/ Apples. Mebbe it's a bug. Mebbe it's marketing. I don't care. I like the snaps.











Tonight - Vesuvio - a North Beach classic!

BTW, none of the above people will be there.


bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!