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January 31, 2006

Paletas de YumYum

Loco-pops re-opens tomorrow.

I'll be there. Will you?

Posted by lisa at 12:03 PM

January 29, 2006

NASA scientist says the White House would like for him to be quiet about global warming

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him [NY Times story]

Climate expert says NASA bids to muzzle him [Reuters summary of NYT story]

"But Dr. Hansen said that nothing in 30 years equaled the push made since early December to keep him from publicly discussing what he says are clear-cut dangers from further delay in curbing carbon dioxide."

Hansen is one of the scientists who are saying now that global warming must be reversed in the next decade or it will become irreversible. He released data in mid-December showing that 2005 was probably the warmest year in a century.

Goddard Institute For Space Studies

Posted by lisa at 10:50 PM

January 28, 2006

reclaiming the long neglected

the weather was perfect today and for once, i made good use of the daylight hours. the yard got many hours of attention and i even gave the spacepod a bit of a wash– just enough to get the first layer of dirt off.

the side yard by the kitchen got a lot of attention today. this is a functional area that the previous owner of my house never worked on, so it's not in the kind of condition it should be. i think for the first year or so that i lived here i didn't realize there is a concrete pad next to the stoop, because it was buried in dirt, leaves, and ivy. today i removed all of that with a rake, shovel, and broom. nice. i cleared all the yard debris out of the whole side yard area and cut back the trees that grow in from my neighbor's yard.

while taking a break, sitting on the stoop, i contemplated this area. with all the debris cleared away, i suddenly saw that if i get rid of the rotting firewood pile, i'll have a really nice little niche where i could put a tool shed and a compost bin. that would be sweet.

after all my work, i now have a huge pile of brush from all the trimming and pruning that i've done. there's a huge log that came down in the back yard, and of course the horrible firewood that's too damp to burn. i started thinking that maybe i should try renting a chipper-shredder. i could probably get the city to come pick up all this stuff, but i'd rather keep the nutrients in the yard. i bet shredded wood would be good for the soil.

giving spacepod a quick wash at sam's on a saturday afternoon when people are just about waiting in line to get a wash stall was like giving the aegean stables a sponge bath. let's just say he's not exactly show car clean. i was dismayed to see bubbling and peeling paint on his front fender. i think that was where a rushed body shop job may have occured. at least it's plastic so it won't rust.

now my foot kinda hurts from all the exertion, but i'm hoping i'll still be up for doing lots of van sanding tomorrow. it's supposed to be a little rainy and that seems like a good rainy day activity.

Posted by lisa at 05:55 PM

January 27, 2006

radioactive kitty

this afternoon, my vet called to give me some test results for moses. he has hyperthyroid.

it's serious, but there is very good treatment available in our area, and we've caught it early.

that's not to say i didn't spend the afternoon in my office with the door shut and the kleenex box next to me, wishing desperately to go home and hug him.

the treatment is expensive, and a little scary-- i definitely have a few more questions for my vet-- but almost magical in the way it works, from what i have read. they give a single injection of a radioactive isotope at a special treatment center. the isotope is absorbed only by the "bad" thyroid cells, no matter where they are in the body, and it kills only those cells. the healthy thyroid cells are unharmed and eventually regenerate. a single treatement cures most cases.

the side effect is that my cat will actually be radioactive.

he has to stay in the treatment center, which is set up to handle radioactive material (and cats), for several days. i won't be able to visit him during this time.

the big question i have right now is, of course: won't my cat get cancer from this?? secondary questions like, "will he glow?" i suppose i can save for later.

anyway, i do find this upsetting, although as my vet said, if he's going to have a problem at this stage, this is the problem to have. and i'm very glad that i'm at a stage in my life where i can provide an expensive treatement for him without it being a real problem.

anyway. go moseman go.

Posted by lisa at 07:47 PM

January 23, 2006

the big list

I guess I probably do this, or something like it, every year: I outline a list of things I need to do with the house.

I don't usually get much of it done, but it's good to know what's on the list.

In no particular order, here's the list for 2006:

MORE...

Posted by lisa at 03:44 PM

January 21, 2006

another new one

woke up unnaturally early today, went out and got jesus chicken for breakfast. headed over to whole foods to do a little shopping, and had to wait in my car for a little while for the store to open.

a sleek silver minivan pulled up and parked next to me. the woman inside was talking animatedly on a cellphone.

the doors to the store opened, so i started gathering my things. out of the corner of my eye, i could see the woman get out of her van, and pause as the writing on the spacepod caught her interest. i could tell that as soon as i got out of the car, we were going to have The Conversation. i resigned myself to it.

The Conversation went as usual, until the very end. she asked, as most people do, "Where do you get it?" "An Exxon station on Duke Street."

Her face fell. "Oh." and then she said, "Well, I mean, it's just a bummer to support Exxon." Seeing that this wasn't going over well with me, she added, apologetically, "For me." I grimaced a little smile, and walked away.

Coming back out of the store, I looked at that minivan. Most of you will not be surprised to learn that I have some idea of the fuel mileage rating of this particular vehicle.

I wish I'd said to her, "It must be a bummer, for you, to get 17mpg."

Seriously, is there a petroleum company that is worth supporting? I don't want to buy any more product from oil companies than I have to. That's one of the many reasons I drive a car that gets more than twice the fuel mileage of her minivan.

I realize there may be reasons to drive a minivan that can't be covered by, say, a Prius, a Highlander or an Escape hybrid SUV, or a Passat TDI wagon, but that doesn't give her room to be smug.

I really do think it may be time to remove the lettering from my car.

Posted by lisa at 12:25 PM

"Nobody goes there, it's too crowded."

twice this week i have gone to federal intending to dine. both times there were no tables and we had to leave. the first time was the usual monday evening post-xdu board meeting time, a time when finding a table is usually not a big deal.

WTF?

so, as d. and s. and i repaired to the new asian bistro at american tabacco last night (tom yum style is yummy!), we decided it's time we broke out our stories about how YOU SHOULDN'T GO TO FEDERAL.

here's my story: the rubber band in my hamburger. yes, one night, there was a large, purple rubber band nestled in the greens atop my hamburger, coated lightly in dijon mustard. ewwww.

DON'T GO TO FEDERAL.

Posted by lisa at 08:05 AM

January 19, 2006

the insane crazy lady

MORE...

Posted by lisa at 11:44 AM

January 17, 2006

what i really want to do on my birthday

so, this saturday is my birthday, and i couldn't find something fun going on to do, like that year that a bunch of us went to see "bubba ho tep", now that was good times.

so the boy is coming down from up north and he's going to take me to dinner, which will be real nice and all.

but i tell ya, if we lived on the west coast, this is surely what i'd be doing on saturday.

Posted by lisa at 09:56 AM

January 16, 2006

kitchen roundup

i woke up this morning feeling awful. started to go to work. had a flat. came home, called AAA. called in sick. slept all day.

so, the kitchen. although i'm not finished with it, i probably won't make any major changes for the rest of the month. the next major things coming up are chairs, which will be a lot of money, and some pots and pans that probably won't be cheap, either.

i thought i'd post a list of the things that have, so far, made the biggest improvements in the kitchen.

the new tools that i use most often are my nonstick skillets (not surprisingly) and my microplanes. incredibly, there is a grating task in basically every recipe i make– how i got along without one before is beyond me. i guess i just avoided all recipes with zest in them!

watching cooking shows regularly has also made a big difference for me. if i see someone make a recipe i think i'd like, i go to the web site and print it off immediately. that way, it's easy to remember that i wanted to make it. i prefer the shows where people make food that normal humans would actually eat, not the rock star stuff like Iron Chef (although Iron Chef is quite entertaining– i just never get any good ideas from it). Top on my list are 30 Minute Meals (yes, she's annoying, but the food is quite tasty); Everyday Italian, and, on christa's suggestion, Good Deal with Dave Lieberman.

I have developed lust in my heart for a truly frivolous appliance: a panini grill. i think it was watching Giada DeLaurentiis make a pound cake/nutella/strawberry panini that did it. gawd.

Posted by lisa at 05:27 PM

January 13, 2006

friday night

tickets found:
2/24/89 - 1000 airplanes on the roof, Duke
2/16/89 - Al Green
4/4/90 - something at the Artscenter
7/1/?? - Royal Crescent Mob
1/24/91 - breaking away, duke bryan center
11/8/90 - in cold blood, bryan center with jonathan
11/?/90 - metropolitan, the varsity
1/5/91 - l'amie de mon amie, art museum
11/27/90 - 8 1/2 - duke
4/2/91 - cyrano de bergerac, varsity
3/24/91 - a room of one's own, lamb's theater, 130 w. 44th st, nyc
4/26/91 - morthiam drums of fire, the palace international, 117 w. parrish st, durham
3/3/91 - sleeping with the enemy
12/16/90 - edward scissorhands
6/20/90 - back to the future III
12/26/90 - godfather III
2/17/91 - la story
6/30/90 - betsy's wedding
5/10/90 - mountains of the moon

i could have gone out tonight, but i really didn't want to. i should have though, because tonight is the night my neighbors spend a couple of hours singing tunelessly to the slow jamz in their head, out on the side porch. good times.

don't ask me why, i just never feel like going out any more, except sometimes out to dinner.

Posted by lisa at 08:52 PM

January 11, 2006

best low carb boxed lunch evar

this may even out-do the picnic lunch i packed for me and sarah a couple of summers ago when we were on a road trip.

chicken cacciatore burgers: i made the burger part of this recipe, using chicken instead of turkey. after they cooled, i put them in little gladware boxes, one per box, and put a couple of slices of smoked mozzerella on each one before i closed the box.

parmesan bread: low-carb bread kind of sucks, as you might imagine. i eat it, but i almost always cook it in a skillet with butter, like when i make a grilled cheese sandwich. recently i started putting fine shavings of parmesan all over the bread while it's in the skillet-- it forms a tasty crust, something that low-carb bread sadly won't do on its own. that gave me the idea to do this on a larger scale, with many slices of bread on a baking sheet in the oven. i crusted both sides of the bread with the cheese, cooled them on a rack, and wrapped them in pairs in waxed paper. both my silpat and my microplane came in handy for this!

arugula: i put a handful of baby arugula salad into a ziploc.

now i can put the burger part into the microwave if i want it hot, and assemble it all at my desk.

:|:

lunch remains the most frustrating meal of the day. i'm sure i won't cook for myself like this all the time, but i love the idea of burger variations, especially using turkey and chicken instead of beef. i ate half of one of the burgers when it was fresh out of the pan and it was quite tasty!

Posted by lisa at 11:30 PM

January 10, 2006

items of interest

fucking indecency laws

so i downloaded a mix from coop, and found an awesome old school reggae song i've never heard before, "wreck a buddy". it's all sexual euphemism, of course, but at first i thought it was unintelligible enough to pass by our FM listeners without tweaking anyone's indecency-dar.

the more i listened to it, though, the more obvious i decided the lyrics are, if you can really hear them. in the end, i decided not to take the chance. but if there's a mystery show slot during safe harbor hours this year, maybe i'll work on an all-filthy reggae/ska show. heh.

here's my transcription of the lyrics, as close as i can get. she's singing in patois so i don't recognize all the words. yeah, it's dirty.

i need a man to wreck a buddy
a big strong man to wreck a buddy
and if he's ugly i don't mind
he has a dick? and i want a mumble, i want a mumble, i want a mumble

my skin is in a terrible state
o lord good lord it's in the mumble
i want a lion mumblemumble
and if it's big i do not mind, i want to grind, i want to grind
me have a crushing buddy

get things off will do you good
use your brush to stiff up your hood
the stiffer the hood the longer the stay
and when it's big you can push it my way, push it my way and let it stay
lord i mumblemumble

i need a man to wreck a buddy
a big strong man to wreck a buddy
and if he's ugly i don't mind
he has a dick? and i want to grind, i want to grind, i want to grind
i have a broken buddy

oh, and it's all to the tune of "little drummer boy".

no more playlist for a while

tonight was probably the last playlist show i'll do for a while. i'd love to do the filthy reggae show, and even more i'd love to do an all mashups mystery show, if no one else has already. i might also sub FDDF (funk disco dance friday) or take a shift of Mondo Mundo. we'll see.

OMFG so cuuuuute!

nabaztag.

the lisa self-indugence hour or so

yeah, my show tonight did not exhibit my usual slavish devotion to the playlist. i sifted back through all the stuff i'd ripped at the station during 2005 and pulled out the highlights, then went off on a few tangents.

playlist.
webcam photo animation includes surprise visit from wxdu's erstwhile engineer!

Posted by lisa at 11:29 PM

on air tonight

8-10pm. 88.7fm or wxdu.org.

Posted by lisa at 06:49 PM

January 09, 2006

a new one

it's not unusual for me to have a conversation about biodiesel with a total stranger. it's rare, though, for me to have to field a totally new question.

so here's a new one: today i had to explain to someone that biodiesel can only be used in diesel vehicles.

Posted by lisa at 09:29 PM

January 04, 2006

"this isn't in the book."

so we took my brothers out for a belated 21st birthday dinner to a local steakhouse. one of them forgot his wallet– so he didn't have his ID with him.

we put this to the waitress: since they are identical twins, is one ID sufficient? daniel removed his glasses to make the resemblance more obvious.

"This one isn't in the book!" she said. she decided she could serve them both. a little while later, she brought a trainee to the table and put the scenario to the trainee.

"I'll have to get them to add this one."

Posted by lisa at 10:32 PM

Financial advice for 2006

via lifehacker

Ten Tips for a Prosperous 2006, by Suze Orman.

For some reason, the sevens are always scary ages for me-- 17, 27, and now in a few weeks, i'll be 37.

I feel the same resistance that I felt in previous decades ("no! i'm not really almost forty!) but this time, i feel a need to prepare for the future that i don't recall from 27, and almost certainly didn't feel at 17.

So, I'm trying to get my arms around retirement savings, and really understanding all of this confusing stuff.

Incidentally, today is the 16 year anniversary of my salaried employment at my company. However, the HR department has June 9, 1986 as my "Most Recent Start Date". This is the date they use to calculate my official anniversary, I believe. That means that this summer will officially be my 20th anniversary here.

Although I was 17 when my company thinks I officially started here, I think I actually had a summer job here when I was 16 that they don't still have on the books for some reason.

Whatever– I've been here a damn long time, any way you look at it.

Posted by lisa at 06:00 PM

January 02, 2006

grate scott!

i know. groan.

today i added a second microplane to my kitchen; this is a small one, appropriate for zesting and fine grating– lemons, nutmeg, that sort of thing. i needed to zest a lemon for a recipe.

astonishing, using the thing. i remembered the first time i tried to zest a lemon for a recipe. i was a teenager, and i think it went so badly that i actually called my mother at work to find out what i was doing wrong. nothing, as it turned out. she probably told me to just put some elbow grease into it and eventually, you'll have some zest. mostly, the zest was stuck in the grater, one of those box graters that are great for large shavings but suck at anything really small.

one swipe on the microplane and i had a small pile of translucent zest. in about a minute i'd zested and entire, large lemon. the thing that struck me about the results was how oily they were. something about the way the microplane works brings a lot of the lemon oil out of the peel, which is exactly what you want when zesting a lemon.

today i also bought a silpat, something i've known about and wanted for years, but they're expensive so i've always put off buying one. supposedly nothing will stick to a silpat (you use it to line a baking sheet). we'll see.

i have this funny guilt about buying nice kitchen things, even relatively inexpensive things that are under $10, which is why i've never done much outfitting of my kitchen. there's always a cheaper tool or a way to improvise; why spend the money if you don't really have to? i've ground nuts with a hammer and waxed paper, before i even had a blender. i've baked cookies in a copper-bottom skillet missing its handle, more times than i can remember. i've steamed vegetables in a colander, and baked deep-dish pizza in an iron skillet.

and yet, i do recognize the value in good kitchen tools. over the years i've acquired some nice small appliances; nothing as frivolous as a bread machine or rice steamer, but good solid stuff, like a stand mixer that weighs more than a small child, and a food processor with a fancy french name.

anyway, i'm getting over this mental hurdle that i have about utensils and small tools. i am definitely fed up with my pots and pans, but it'll take some planning to replace those. i'm toying with the idea that i might one day like to have a very nice dutch oven.

i'm also thinking about replacing one of the biggest tools in my kitchen, but i'll write about that later, when i know more.

oh, and knives. i have to work on the knives.

Posted by lisa at 09:34 PM