mm.. Onions! October 31, 2008

So, there I was last night, making a special dinner, and a stroke of culinary genius inspiration hits, causing me to tweak an old “special day” standby into something just a bit different.

In my wisdom, as a confirmed blogger, and cookbooky kinda person, I decide to take pics along the way. Cool!

Only, for some silly reason, Yours Truly had a series of ah, shall we say, “issues” which resulted in all of one decent pic of said dish.

So much for that cool idea.

But dang, don’t those onions look yummy? All caramelized and delish?

mmmm... caramelized onions....

The next steps involved smothering those little pearl onion flavor power balls with an uber-creamy, spiced bechamel sauce and topping with bread crumbs – yep, I did the little suckers au gratin.

Oh yeah, they were a hit. And there are no left overs.

Where in the world did Roxy break her arm? October 30, 2008

Two months later… Because the 30th of August was a bit of a haze… can’t imagine why… and because the next few weeks were even more of a haze brought on by pain and percocet…

In the interest of knowing where the hell I was when I did myself an injury, I started pulling maps. So… without further ado… We were somewhere right around here:

View Larger Map

Note, since I can’t magically fly or transport myself, that’s still 15-plus rough-ass dirt “road” miles to the lovely and scenic town of Florence Junction. Which is still another 20 miles to the nearest emergency room.

View Larger Map

And if you really want to see how beautiful the desert can be – use the google map tools to check out the area around that top map… It’s amazing!

Because my doctor said “no”… October 29, 2008

This past week has been a bit busy… trying to earn my keep and all, y’know… But on top of that, it’s been full of preparations for deer hunting on Halloween weekend.

Oh, yeah – that would be this weekend, wouldn’t it?

I’ve known all along I was pushing it – going hunting just two months after a broken arm that required surgery to repair. But, chugged along with the “getting ready” just in case all was OK.

Well, my last visit to the doc says all is not OK.

Seems there are still a few spots where the fracture hasn’t quite healed up.

Bummer.

No deer hunting for me this season.

Oh, and I get the joy of going through Modern-Day-Medieval-Torture… I mean, physical therapy.

Hey, maybe I can actually get my penmanship back!

Ooo – better go buy some Halloween candy!

Of Palin, pumps & pettiness October 22, 2008

Alright, I’m no fashion maven – you won’t see me trotting around town in the latest, hottest styles.

To be honest, you’re more likely to see me in fairly classic styles, and maybe a few trendy items here and there. But that’s not my point.

As a fence-sitting voter, one who literally has one foot in either camp depending upon the issue, this has been an interesting election year for me.

I’ve unfortunately been present for more than a few conversations that included debates over whether or not Sarah Palin was “hot” – since when did hotness matter in a political candidate?

One particular discussion stood out – there was a lot of talk about her fashion sense, or lack of it, prior to the image polishing (and her reported $150,000 splurge on a total fashion redux) she no doubt received as part of being the Veep candidate.

What? You think she always looks pretty good?

Naughty librarian discussions aside, I’ll agree. She does look pretty good … now. But style does not substance make.

Meanwhile, what in the hell is her thing for wearing open, platform style sandals with “business attire” – I might ignore it if these were images of her waiting to go through the security check point at an airport. But these are both images of her in her official capacity, at some official function.

OK, so she sacrificed style for comfort. Not so great a crime… except it looks sloppy.

But then I saw this pic:

And was suddenly flashing back to a San Diego Opera production of the Barber of Seville – way back in the early ’90s. One where the set featured bright blue clouds and blood red chairs floating in the air.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a pic of the costumes from the final scene. The costumes where the dress matched the cloud-covered set.

When the Veep candidate is putting you in the mind of a Tim Burton movie, it is not a good thing!

Note – all images pulled from standard sources – right click the image and select “Properties” to view the site link, or follow these links:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Sarah_Palin_seated.jpg/393px-Sarah_Palin_seated.jpg

http://community.adn.com/sites/community.adn.com/files/images/palin-todd.preview.jpg

http://gov.state.ak.us/photos/dscf1254.jpg

http://www.theglitteringeye.com/images/barber.jpg

http://www.moviegowns.com/stripedactual.jpg

Percocet Perceptions and a New Laptop October 21, 2008

I often write a post and save it to be published later. Sometimes, life gets busy and I forget, leaving me with an interesting pile of outdated posts lurking in my “draft” folder, which I periodically clean out.

Other times, the cold reality of hindsight tells me that a particular post is not worthy of publication and should probably be dumped.

Such was the case when I opened a draft titled “Percocet Perceptions” and began to question my sanity at the time of writing it. Then I remembered, I wasn’t sane when writing that post, I was doped. Which explains a lot.

What else explains a post riddled with bad spelling, and an incredibly detailed observation that my favored face wash – the only stuff I’ve found that keeps my skin surviving Arid-zona – closely resembles a bodily fluid particular to the males of the species?

That draft got deleted!

Out with the old...

Meanwhile, my faithful old (and heavy and slow) Dell laptop has been semi-retired and replaced with a brand new toy. It ain’t the Mac Book of my dreams, but that wasn’t in the budget, I’m afraid! It’s just a Toshiba that I got at a helluva bargain.

... In with the new!