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Showing results for tags 'from KIE's laboratory...er...kitchen'.
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Ever since I moved out from under my parents' roof in February 2005, Thanksgiving has involved traveling. I [and later Amanda] jumping in a car and driving an appropriate amount on I-10, I-20, I-55, or US 165 and arriving at my parents' [or her parents'] home for a Thanksgiving meal. (Except in 2007: that year we were on baby watch for Oliver in Baton Rouge.) Not so this year. For the first time, family is coming here for Thanksgiving dinner. Our cozy little house of 3 will become 11 in a few short hours, and cooking must be done. Good Eats, don't fail me now. I will be attempting to implement the Good Eats Nobel Prize Pending Roast Turkey recipe found from the 14th episode of the famed cooking show, named "Romancing the Bird." In the absence of time, I will refer you to the Food Network archive of said recipe, although a search of the episode's name will surely elicit 45ish minutes of high quality turkey talk. I will say that as my mother-in-law has an apparent allergy to sage, the sage will be replaced with garlic and/or bay leaves, in a quantity not yet determined. As I have a bajillion other things to get done, both with cooking and with work, I will bid you, dear reader, adieu, and wish you the warmest and heartiest of Thanksgivings, even you Canadans who jumped the gun a month ago. Don't go dropping frozen turkeys into a too-full pot of hot oil. -KIE
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The end of September is always a favorite time of the year for me. Not only because September 25 is my birthday, but because Olive Garden always has their "never-ending pasta bowl" special. All you can eat pasta and sauce for $7.95$8.95...I think. For $2$1.50$1.95$2.95 more, you can get meatballs or italian sausage (like the pizza topping) or chicken with every fillup. I like pasta. I'mI was OCD over my wire-mesh colander, because I like my pasta. I tinker with cans of tomatoes, fresh onions & garlic, to make a good sauce, because I like my pasta. But Olive Garden is better at it than me, so I defer to their expertise. I give you: KIE'S GUIDE TO THE OLIVE GARDEN'S NEVER ENDING PASTA BOWL First things first, I will explain the different types of pasta. Spaghetti: You know it, you love it. A long noodle with a circular cross-section. Linguine: Spaghetti that has been flattened some. Not round, but more of a rectangular cross-section. Also comes in a whole-wheat variety. Fettuccini: Linguine flattened even further. A flat noodle that is often served with alfredo. Penne: Tube pasta cut at angles. "Rigatoni" has ridges running the length of the tube, but penne doesn't necessarily have them. However, they always look like they were cut in a miter box. Capellini: Also known as "angel hair," this is spaghetti that shrank in the wash or something. Very small, very delicate, very easy to snap and get all over the kitchen if you bought it at the store. Farfalle: The famous "bow-tie" pasta. Best for hanging on to chunky sauces. Orecchiette: Foreboding name. Shell pasta.Actually means "little ear", and is basically a large dimple. Neat. That's not all the pasta there is. You've got vermicelli, which is somewhere between spaghetti and angel hair. You've got ravioli and tortellini, which are filled shells. You've got lasagne, which warrants its own dish. The six (7 if you count whole-wheat) are just the choices you have at Olive Garden for this promo. Then, the sauces. This is less an explanation and more a critique, so that you will not waste a dish getting something you don't want. Alfredo: I didn't get this, but I have it on good authority that Olive Garden doesn't screw up an alfredo often. It's a white cheesy sauce that's not chunky at all. Marinara: A chunkier, spicier variation on the tomato sauce you know & love. If you're going to get meatballs, this should be your first choice on sauce. Meat sauce: All this sauce really is, is bland. Meat cooked down with some tomatoes, it's just oily and bland. Fleh. Despite the illusion of being able to cheat the system and get meat without paying for it, this sauce is just not worth it.Olive Garden has made some effort to improve this sauce. My folks thought it was okay, but I didn't have any the other day. And then, there are some non-standard sauces. Sun-dried tomato parmesan: I tried this sauce twice: once in Kenner and once in Lake Charles. Both times it was just...bland. The tomatoes didn't really add any flavor, and the base parmesan is not alfredo. It was missing something. Maybe garlic salt. Maybe garlic or some other herbs. I don't know for certain, but this sauce is incomplete as it is served now. ThreeFive cheese marinara: This sauce I remember from two or three years ago (I didn't get the chance to pig out on unlimited pasta last year: Katrina and Rita both closed the Olive Gardens that I would have been able to visit.), though it might have been a three cheese marinara at the time. The sauce is a smoother marinara, mixed with a five cheese blend (I can't tell you what the cheeses are, but it's cheese, right? It's not cottage, cheddar, or pepperjack so it all tastes the same.). Easily the best sauce they have. Might be too rich for meat on the side, but I definitely recommend this sauce for the younger palate. Sausage & peppers marinara: Italian sausage and red & yellow bell peppers in marinara sauce. Lovely to look at, but I'm not one for the taste of bell peppers. I confess: I didn't have the opportunity to taste this one. Smoked mozzarella alfredo: Alfredo with more cheese on it. Divine Asiago Alfredo: My brother said "It's good." I take his word for it. Tomato Basil Caprese: Light & tasty. Very good stuff, if only a bit runny at the bottom of the bowl. Highly recommended. Roasted Portobello Pomodoro: Whew. They bill this as a marinara sauce, but it's not anything like the multi-cheese marinara. If you've had the Capellini Pomodoro off the regular menu, this is the same sauce. If not, prepare for a spicy take on marinara. How they do it without chile peppers, though, is beyond me at this time. I am interested to find out though... Oh, and the portobello mushrooms contribute nothing: the pomodoro sauce well over-powers it. This isn't a bad sauce per se, just poorly described. Creamy Parmesan Florentine: It's cheese sauce. With spinach. Nothing. Special. Just. Disappointing. Chianti Three Meat: In a word, disappointing. If you've ever had the Chianti Braised Short Ribs from the menu, you know of the absolutely wonderful sauce that comes pooled in the bottom of the plate. This tastes nothing like it. It's spicy; it's heavy; it's greasy; it's disappointing. Creamy Parmesan Portobello: Oh, what did the cremini mushroom market do before they started marketing the oversized ones as portobello? Still, if a sauce has the name of a mushroom in its name, I would expect it to have some element of meaty umami in it. Instead, the sauce literally tasted like pasta water. I don't know who dropped the ball in the kitchen, but they would've done better to just drop some mushrooms in their alfredo and called it "done." Olive Garden's "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" ends in early October. On a side note, unless Donald Driver single-handedly beats the Philadelphia Eagles tonight, the Moss Bluff Cruisers will defeat the Poplarville Stallions and return to a .500 record, just in time to visit the Cookie Crunchers in Week 5.Assuming David Akers has a quiet night and Rashard Mendenhall has a ho-hum game tomorrow night, the Moss Bluff Cruisers will climb back to .500, going through the undefeated Waveland Wusses in the process.The Cruisers in globo laid an egg. Clinton Portis, Kurt Warner, Baltimore D/ST, Antonio Gates, Brandon Jacobs....it's going to be a long season.Hooray for fantasy football. -KIE (Yes, this is a republish. It will be republished every year, as applicable.)
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I never knew how green my wife's thumb could be until we moved to Illinois. One of the perks of the house, when we came to visit and house hunt, was a garden spot behind the garage in the back yard. Taking the advice of people to not plant before Mother's Day into account, we planted seeds and plants in early May. Then, we covered the plants for a week or two because we planted before Mother's Day. All told, however, our plants made it. We planted 5 Better Boy (a readily available hybrid variety of tomato plant) plants, two different packets of heirloom variety tomato seeds (I can't remember what they're called; the packets are long since thrown away.), three packets of straight neck squash seeds, four crook neck squash plants, four honeydew melon plants, two watermelon plants, and one each sweet basil, greek oregano, german thyme, and mexican tarragon. I don't know if it was that the previous tenants had not planted last year, or the 9-12-12 fertilizer we used, or more likely Divine Providence, but to say that our garden was a success would be an understatement. The melon vines withered, and the tarragon was accidentally uprooted, but these were the only setbacks to be seen in our plot. I tell you, we've gotten at least a bushel of tomatoes from 5 plants. 5 plants! From Wal*Mart! With such a plethora of savory berries, a new recipe had to be developed. The following is a modification of an "application" seen on the Good Eats episode "Tomato Envy", but strangely, it did not make the book Good Eats: The Early Years. The original called for chanterelles & morels, two mushrooms I can't get without a half-hour drive to Whole Foods. (When you have a lot of tomatoes to go through, this would make for a lot of trips for mushrooms.) Also, there's the issue of a splash of chardonnay, which I'm not going to get just for one dish. (While I will cook with wine, I have my reasons for not bothering with it in this dish.) Behold: I'm still not much better at making tomato sauce, but I had practice. Kinks were worked out, and, I know what to expect from home grown tomatoes going forward. Bon Appetit! -KIE P.S. If anyone has ideas for a large quantity of fresh sweet basil, I'm open to suggestions.
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I'm still here, but boy did I have a scare the other night. By the way, I'm working on the 2009 version of Not For Burgers, but it may be Friday before I post it. Monday night, I was trying to make potato soup. Was more like mashed potatoes, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, I didn't account for the saltiness of the bacon fat and oversalted the pot. Blech. In the process of cleaning up, however, I accidentally blended the tip of my left index finger. To borrow one of my dad's aphorisms, I tore it up real good. No stitches, because there was nothing to stitch back together. It may be May before the bandage is off to stay. And then would probably be physical therapy. Lesson: if the box says Dishwasher Safe, there is no reason to clean it ANY OTHER WAY. -KIE
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All my life, my parents have fed me, in one way or another. Okay, not my entire life, but it has been them buying or cooking me food. Tomorrow, the tables turn. Amanda tells me that I now have two dishes in my back pocket, to pull out on command as it were. One is the chicken parm, which I still tweak now and then. (Once I get good at making tomato sauces, it'll probably settle.) The other is a variation on Asian short ribs. These are beef ribs cut flanken style (across the bones, as opposed to with the bones), marinated, and grilled hot. My marinade for tomorrow's picnic in City Park: I forgot the hoisin this time, and I didn't feel like adding a garlic clove. With the ribs, will be five-spice rubbed sweet potatoes, sliced and baked in butter spread (whatever one would call Smart Balance). The best part, though, is that Amanda will be here this weekend, which makes any rain immaterial. -KIE
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Bah. I tried to force myself to write this entry Saturday night before heading to bed, but then I realized it was 1 AM Sunday morning. So, this had to wait until I got back tonight. Let me tell you about my weekend. *collapse* The fun started awful early, as Wednesday afternoon found me in an auto accident. Nothing major: the other driver (who was in his first accident in 45 years) clipped me in the process of avoiding me. We're both fine, but I still haven't had time to start to file a claim (which is something I will hit tomorrow). I suppose it would be just as well: I was driving no farther than Baton Rouge anyway, as my mother & I were going to take one vehicle to Monroe for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I left the paperwork concerning the accident in my car. This is why I have to call them tomorrow. Since I'd only gotten half an hour of work off, we were still middle of the night getting in...ten minutes until Thursday to be exact. (Next time I'm going to take Friday afternoon off. Honest.) While catching up with my fiancée was great, something upset me getting to the bed: Something (I don't know what) upset my costichondritis, and I spent all morning (from 1 AM on until 7ish) wheezing in bed. Amanda got me some ibuprofen, and I did get to pass out for an hour or so. Thursday morning saw me doing my chef thing. I give you... I understand it got rave reviews, but I don't know for certain: without breakfast, the squash splitting took quite a bit out of me. Compounded with the lack of sleep the night before, and I was in fairly bad shape at the end of the recipe. In fact, I missed the meal entirely, sleeping off my first fever in at least 8 years. Friday found us doing no shopping for gifts, but instead shopping for hotels in Monroe for the wedding. Weather was bad and most of us were distracted by the goings on in Little Rock that afternoon. We drowned our sorrows in fried seafood. Amanda did pull this one large bag from that shop, though.... Perceptive people: don't act until we get stuff set up. Saturday was a trip to Hallmark after Ollie's first birthday card turned up missing, and the trip back to Baton Rouge. Once there, I had put in enough time on the Wii in Monroe, I was feeling up to challenging my brother to a game of Wii Sports Tennis: the two of us against two computer opponents. It matched us up against some near-perfect competition, so good that we had to "kill" the game a few times. By the time we'd gotten adjusted (There's always rust to knock off.), it was time to leave to pick up take-out. Upon our return, I took on the same competition alone, and to all our surprise, I got a fair amount closer to pro than I would partnered with my brother. Feeling overconfident, I switched to Baseball (a sport I went from *9* skill back to *0*), and proceeded to obliterate the computer: 15-0. Maybe it's because I try to swing through that everything I hit in real life bounces in the infield...maybe I should start swinging down to create some loft over the infielders.... Feeling supremely confident, I went for Bowling, and proceeded to regain my Pro status there. Gosh, I feel protective of records on a system that's not even my own. Sunday afternoon was Ollie's birthday party. Quite windy, but I think it was a good day for Ollie: he got his first LEGO set, a bag of QUATRO bricks I'd bought better than a year ago. I would have a link, but I couldn't even find them on shop.lego.com anymore. Anyway, I see that it's now technically Monday. I best close this off and go in hiding for another week & change. -KIE
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Thursday night, I earned all possible points in effort and in degree of difficulty. That was barely enough to avert disaster, though, and there is a lesson to be learned. For Valentine's Day, I thought I'd get fancy, and pulled a recipe from foodnetwork.com for Pistachio-crusted tilapia & chard with prosciutto and gorgonzola. Because Amanda doesn't like pistachios, and I have no idea where to find chard, I made some substitutions in the recipe. It starts simply enough: chop up some oregano, thyme, garlic and macadamia nuts for the crusting. Salt & pepper the fish filets, and brush with honey mustard before crusting and frying in olive oil. While the fish cooks (2-3 minutes on each side), the prosciutto, some pine nuts, and the field greens flash fry/steam in olive oil at a higher temp. Two pans going at the same time. Mistake #1, I forgot to add the honey mustard before applying the crust. It all went downhill from there. Mistake #2, I was tending to the fish filets while the oil was heating up. I'm trying to set the macadamia into a filet a little better, and all of a sudden, I hear a *foom* behind me. THE SMALLER SKILLET CAUGHT FIRE. Spontaneous combustion of the olive oil. I had LIQUID FIRE in my as-of-yet unused aluminum skillet. Mistake #3, I had never complained to the management about my not having a fire extinguisher. Adding water to an oil or other liquid-fuel fire does not help put it out: it only provides a manner of fuel transportation. (A mist of water is a different thing: the mist displaces some of the oxygen in the air.) I realized this, and knew not to run it in the sink. Pouring it down the sink was also not an option: fire would certainly tear up the PVC piping or the food disposal. I couldn't blow it out, as I was quickly losing oxygen myself (semi-cramped kitchenette) to olive oil smoke. The only option, remove the pan & fire from the apartment. I took it outside, as if to say "Now what?" Fire needs 3 things to survive: Fuel (olive oil), oxygen (air), and heat (the pan). While I couldn't do anything about the first two components, I could do something about the third. Fire rained down at Flowergate apartments Thursday night. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Mistake #4, I didn't have the sense to stop while I was ahead. Undaunted, I pressed on with the menu. After cooling the skillet, I put more oil (at a lower heat), and tried to continue in the still smoke-filled kitchen. While I got the prosciutto in for the right amount of time, the pine nuts were in a bit too long, and they looked more like coffee beans when the greens were done steaming. Amanda (who bruised her knee during the pan evacuation episode), was still impressed with the fish, but I clearly bit off more than I could chew. Two lessons. 1: NEVER EVER EVER leave a pan on the stove unattended. EVER. 2: Make reservations for Valentine's Day. -KIE
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200½ lb., 25.0% body fat Is this what it's like? Every time I turn around, there's something to remind me of Amanda, and every time Amanda comes to mind, I start with the stupid smile again. Not that I'm not enjoying it or anything. Finally, a new recipe. This would have already been posted, except that I was acquainting myself with the epicenter map in Team Fortress Classic. I'll have to run it on a private server to get a feel for it, but in the interim, never underestimate the value of explosion-proof sunglasses (Demo man, my second favorite class after Medic) in separating a red flag from a flying flag runner 5 steps from a capture point. I'll tell ya, though: I really need to get acquainted with the flagrun map. Blue team kept getting it handed to us there. I don't think I've mentioned Team Fortress Classic before, so I think that'll have to wait for another entry. Anyone out there play, send me a message on Yahoo and I'll try to hook up with you. I confess, this a meld, so to speak, of two different chicken marsala recipes out there on the net. And yet, it is not a marsala because it doesn't use marsala wine. It was GOOD. The mushrooms tasted fruity, and the sauce, albeit small in volume, was rich & flavorful. We actually only made enough sauce for two, so I doubled it in the process of posting. Of course, the chicken ate so well the next day that you might just keep the front half of the recipe for frying chicken portions. In softball, we're about to go play Williams Boulevard Baptist Church, the team that plated 3 in the bottom of the last inning to tie us at 5-all in the regular season. -KIE
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Got something new to work with in the kitchen: speckled trout filets. Kurt & Frank (two of my bosses) went fishing over the weekend, and caught several (40, give or take). Kurt fileted them and more or less donated them to whoever wanted them. I picked up a bag of 3 filets. For the record, it's a lot easier to take the fish out of the salt water than it is to take the salt water out of the fish. Too bad I don't have a fryer like everyone else. (Small gulf fish filets like those are usually corn-battered & fried, like catfish.) But, I did find something that worked: 8 minutes on the Salton griddle (also known colloquially as a "George Foreman grill"), and sandwiched between some linguine and store-bought roasted garlic alfredo sauce, made for a tasty dinner. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'll take an apocalyptic tropical cyclone every 40-50 years, just to live so close to God's bounty of seafood. Oh, and Doritos taste-test X-13D tastes just like cheeseburger Hot Pockets. Just thought you all would like to know. On a less random note, I'd like to wish you all a happy Fourth of July: in about 2½ hours, I'm going to leave for Lake Charles, and drive to Houston for an Astros game tomorrow. I don't expect to get back until late Wednesday night. -KIE, who did get his new computer on the internet by power-cycling the cable modem.
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199½ lb, 23.3% body fat Just for starters: tomato paste I squandered multiple opportunities to make this post over the weekend, but I feel as though I made the better choice. Since it is now Monday, I figure I should let the lot of you know what became of the past few days. FBC-Kenner is still undefeated, but we didn't beat Williams Boulevard BC. They scored 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie it at 5 when the game was called due to time. Last run was walked home on 5 pitches. I knew I should've gone and reminded Neil after the 3-1 pitch that there was no defense for a walk. Oh well. 3-0-1 isn't as bad as it feels. Oh, and I went 0-2 with a strikeout. Struck out looking (I can't swing at anything in the inner half of the plate, honest.) in the top of the second, and then grounded out 4-3 in the top of the fifth. I would have led off the seventh inning had the game continued. Batting well below the Mendoza line for baseball (much less softball), I could say that if there were a feeder system, I would have long since been sent back down to the minors. I should also mention that it took a Texan chef challenging Iron Chef Japanese, in Battle Chile Peppers (Morimoto waaaay out of his element, whereas Love knows chiles like the back of his hand.), to finally see the Iron Chef lose. And then, only by a razor-thin margin. Gosh, if I didn't know any better, I'd say the challengers don't get a fair shake from the Iron Chef America judges. Oh, and Dinner: Impossible is one of my new favorite TV shows. To follow up on the opening shot of "tomato paste," I should mention that I did some cooking Saturday. When Hurricane Rita hit, I wanted to have a meal cooked for my mom & dad who were evacuating to the house Michael (my brother) & I had just rented. I tried to cook a marinara, to serve on bowtie pasta. Well, it didn't come out: the sauce was chunky, runny, and the onions weren't cut NEARLY fine enough. Saturday, I revisited this quest for homemade pasta sauce. A tomato sauce that doesn't need meat to complete it. And, while it's not perfect, it's certainly closer than I was last time. No ingredient list: you just have to follow along. I can't write in stream of consciousness, but I can certainly cook in it. It's.... passable. It almost tastes like a real sauce, and I'd take a gander that it has less salt than what you'd get out of a can or a jar at the store. If I can get it to taste good, however, it's at that point that this will become a worthwhile venture. Or, if I develop high blood pressure, and have to limit my sodium intake. Yeah, that too. Back to work.... -KIE
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For those of you thinking the title was reverse psychology, and that this was me posting a MOC, well, haha: I wasn't joking. This is not a MOC posting. Seriously, did you see "digital camera" in the list of gifts I got? Anyway, I'm not a MOCist. I lack a creativity gene, it would appear. I can't create anything truly original. I can certainly modify, or improve (in my mind) something already built. Little here, little there. But I can't pull from nothing but my mind. The same goes with cooking. I confess; the hash brown "recipe" I posted 4 months ago is little more than an adaptation of a dish I saw on Iron Chef. The original one, before it was canceled in Japan. Why even yesterday, I did some more embellishing. The Women's ministry newsletter was in the church bulletin yesterday, and, while trying to stay awake during the services (Not because it was boring, but because I was in dire need of a nap.), I notice a simple enough recipe therein. I figured I wasn't sufficiently conscious to cook the marsala I'd had planned for Sunday anyway, and this would use the chicken breasts I had thawing in the fridge. Man, I need to clean the bottom of the fridge this week. No doubt a LOT of germs there, because KIE didn't remember to put a plate under the paper towels on which he placed the chicken to thaw. A quick note: this recipe uses a slow-cooker, trademarked as a Crock-Pot. All you SAT whizzes can understand this: Crock-Pot:slow cooker::Frisbee:flying discA slow cooker typically has two settings: Low and High. It's designed to cook slowly: you can leave it going on your way out the door in the morning, and it won't be burnt when you get back at lunch, or dinner. Anyway, here's the recipe after I modified it a little: Tasty, but I'm not about to stuff myself with it. Very salty; I might go for a low-sodium soup next time the opportunity presents itself. In any case, it was great to have that going so I could FINALLY take that nap. -KIE, who isn't going to Chicago next weekend.
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I'm not posting my weight, if only to say it's too much. Right outside my office door, on the counter across the hallway is the coffeemaker. There is both significance and irony in that fact. The significance is that there is often congregation outside my door. The irony is that I do not drink coffee. I don't know...something about coffee beans has never stroked my taste buds well. Nasal passages, sure: I can appreciate the aroma. But I've never acquired a taste for it, and caffeine just doesn't do that much for me. I mentioned modafinil a couple of weeks ago, maybe I should get a prescription or something....nah. While not patronizing the coffeemaker, I need something else for a warm drink, especially since the A/C is hardwired to 68°F (20°C, yeah, that's cold when it never heats to that temperature). Thus, I keep single-serve packets of hot cocoa in my desk. ------------ I kid myself sometimes that I work for peanuts. Well, I'm not mocking my salary, but there are times I'm just goofing off, listless as it were, and digging the peanuts out of the 3½ lb. tin of mixed nuts (since I've already gotten out all the cashews). ------------ I bet you're wondering how I'm going to tie those together. Well, if you're allergic to milk, soy, cocoa, peanuts, or tree nuts, look away. I shall call it: Reese's cocoa. -KIE
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Not just reeling anymore: Writhing. In pain. I take solace in that there was nothing I could have done to win this past fantasy game against Dahveed's Dominion. This week, the Cruisers host the comissioner's team, the Touchdown Titans, in a battle of 2-4 teams desperate to get off 2 and 4 game schneids, respectively. Odds are, I'm taking the loss here. Still only 3 games back, though, as Frank's team didn't show up last weekend, making him 5-1 on the season. In the spirit of the autumnal season, I've created a new blog category as can be seen above. This is will end up being where the recipes I post will congregate, but those entries will not be just recipes, like this one. To celebrate, I pilfered a copy of one of my mom's favorite recipes, for you to try in your kitchen. It's good, and is almost a dessert. A high-in-Vitamin-A dessert. With pecans. I added a couple of blogs to the content block. Would add more, but the Evil Lord Survurlode has reared his u-gly head today, preventing my perusal of the archives. I think I'll leave the Blog Lists entry as is, and maybe link it later. *shrug* -KIE
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196 lb, 22.7% body fat There are times when I get upset about not being able to blog what's on my mind, simply because I don't have time at work. But today is not one of those days. Thanks to the AFL-CIO, today is a national holiday. So, I give you, all 15 of you (give or take), the full form of my weekend today. Friday, my parents donated the old TV in the living room to me. It's not that old, but I have no cable TV service, so all I get to watch is white snow, and not the Team White Snow from IGPX. Not only that, but GN's Bounty Hunter (as seen at Brickfest 2006) was returned him, along with an admonishment that he and his brother help "free the band." Saturday, my little brother and I went out to play disc golf at Highland Road park. We played match play, and although I had a considerable distance advantage on him (by throwing sidearm, something I can't do with a normal frisbee), he was 2 up through 11. I won 12 & 13, and then we halved the next four holes. 18th tee, I went for the win: I threw the orange, throwaway, Valkyrie sidearmed (which gives it a left to right, instead of right to left when throwing backhanded). The same creek that claimed my pearl blue Valk the time before last couldn't catch the orange one going directly across, instead of running along. Michael, who won't throw a disc any way but backhand, was forced to layup. I won 1up. We also went hunting for furniture. Bought a chest of drawers to replace the one I lost to Katrina. $350 +$105 taxes & delivery. Sadly, I'm not going to find another dresser as skinny as the one I had before. (Now, to figure out how to afford that much money immediately after Brickfest.) Sunday was uneventful, except getting to go to church for the first time in a couple of weeks. Monday has been, well, lazy. I do like the fact I've been able to have the day off to go jogging and then come back to cook breakfast. What did I have? See, that's something I've learned about trying to lose weight. Half of the battle is eating the right foods. But, even if you eat too much of the right foods, you're not going to lose weight. Portion size is something to be paid heed. Okay, time to waste the rest of the day, and crunch tomorrow at work. -KIE
