Lamb

We had a leg of lamb cooked in the rotisserie for Christmas. It was, as always, excellent. I've said one hundred times to one hundred people that it is worth buying a rotisserie even if you only use it one time each year to cook leg of lamb. The rotisserie earns its keep with $5 chicken dinners, but it displays its real gusto with lamb.

Here's an article by Alex James from Blur about butchering a lamb and about how he got to the butcher's counter after 17 years as a vegetarian. My feelings on Blur are mixed: I find some of their stuff wonderful and lots of their stuff dull. My feelings on lamb are much less ambiguous.

Jonathan 12/29/2006 11:29:00 AM

 
Ramnesia

Overheard in NY has become my preferred choice in daily comedy. I could link to something funny there probably every-other day. Not that I post that often, but the really funny stuff is there. Lately, I've been looking for an opportunity to work the newly coined term ramnesia into conversation.

I don't know what it is about her. Last night she was a complete bitch, and today she's the perfect hostess.

I'll tell you what it is, man. Ramnesia. And you can all thank me for it.

Something like that.

Jonathan 12/27/2006 01:44:00 PM

 
Ford

Reading the obituaries on President Ford makes me suspect that his presidency influenced my father strongly. I'm reading many tidbits that sound reminiscent of the sorts of sage advice that my father has often repeated to his kids: things like the absolute importance of honesty. That makes sense. My father would have been in his early 30's during the Watergate scandal and subsequent period of healing that Ford helped to initiate. What must it be like to be in your 30's and have a president that you can respect and admire? Admittedly, I was hopeful in both the first terms of Clinton and Bush. They both turned out to be liars and not to be men of very great character.

I thought it was most interesting in reading the excellent Washington Post obituary to read that the obituary writer actually predeceased the president. Odd. Makes me wonder if I should be working on the initial draft of my obituary so that a thorough history is available when the time comes. I need to update my resume first, which I guess is really just the same thing.

Jonathan 12/27/2006 08:40:00 AM

 
Speaking of Feasting

On the way home from work today I decided that The Feasty Boys might make a good name for a restaurant or catering company.

I was also thinking that if Roy Yamaguchi ever changes his focus away from seafood, he might open up a new line of restaurants called Beasty Roy's.

"And if you don't like it then, hey, fuck you!"

Jonathan 12/26/2006 07:46:00 PM

 
And We're Back

Ok, the little internet hiccup is fixed. There was a slight problem with the settings on my subdomains when my host migrated my account to new server hardware. I figured out the general gist of the problem pretty quickly, but just didn't get around to submitting a help ticket during the last few days of feasting. I entered my ticket tonight as low priority, and they had the issued corrected within about an hour.

Jonathan 12/26/2006 07:42:00 PM

 
Snow at my House

Left work early yesterday, stayed home today, and might even end up with the day off tomorrow.







Jonathan 12/21/2006 03:31:00 PM

 
Walking

I took the day off yesterday to do my Christmas shopping. I started the morning with a physical therapy appointment. Then I headed out to the malls. I did a full lap through Colorado Mills, laps upstairs and down at the Flat Irons, then a bit of wandering through the Westminster mall, followed finally by a trip or two to specialty stores. It was far and away the most walking I have done since my injury. All in all, I'd say it went pretty well.

My legs and feet and knee definitely got tired and sore. I took several, short, one or two minute breaks just to take the load off. That seemed to help. I walked more slowly than I used too. A big part of that though is just focusing on the mechanics of my gait.

I put in 8½ or so hours of shopping before meeting up with my sister for a burger and beers at a pretty cool bar near her place. A couple of Stellas went a long way toward healing my leg.

On a side note, I'm now dealing with a nasty knot in my good leg that is also affecting my walking. It's painful, causes me to drop my hip when I walk, and, in turn, leads to lower back pain. My physical therapist seems to have figured out a good way to destroy the thing, but it's gonna take a bit more time to destroy.

This morning, my bad leg feels decent - just a bit tired as I might expect following any increase in physical activity. The knot in my good leg is feeling a bit gnarly today. The knot held up pretty well yesterday after the work done on it in the morning by the therapist, but today it seems to have flared back up.

The treatment is to use a small vibrator on the spot to break it up. I've considered sending an email to the ladies in the office to inquire whether any of them carry a small, personal massager in their purse that I might borrow to treat my leg. But, really, I more greatly fear a slew of yes responses than nos.

Jonathan 12/20/2006 08:42:00 AM

 
Blizzard

They're calling this morning's weather a blizzard. I just saw an updated news story that said we're going to get 14-24 inches in the city. Whoa! I overheard someone else say that it's so bad that the buses may shut down. Then I might really be screwed. Somehow, I need to get home this afternoon, speed wrap some presents, and find a way to make it to the post office in order to get the folks' and sister's presents out the door. My boss called in and said he's going to come in late. It's only a matter of time before he calls in and says he's working from home. Must be nice. Of course, I'd be doing the same thing had I stayed working for S&P.

Jonathan 12/20/2006 08:38:00 AM

 
One of These Days...

I was standing at the bus stop this morning staring up at the nearly full moon and trying to visualize where on the south pole our colony may end up. I found myself wondering whether NASA might need any good MBAs to go up in the first couple of waves. I'm available if they need a good business generalist up there.

Jonathan 12/07/2006 10:08:00 AM

 
Hawai'i

I'm heading to Oahu at the end of January. We'll do 2, 3, or maybe 4 days of scuba diving, and I am psyched about that. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll be bringing along resumes. Is my knee now so wrecked that it's no longer sensible or important that I live near the mountains? I don't know; it's frustratingly difficult lately. Perhaps the water would provide better recreational opportunities.

January brings big whales and big waves to the islands, and I am psyched to have the opportunity to visit Oahu after having been to Maui in September of 2001 and to Kauai in March of 2006. I saw a couple of whales far in the distance this last trip, and when I dove deep enough while snorkeling I could occassionally hear their songs. There should be a bunch more of them around in January as compared to the end of March, and I hope we get the chance to see and hear more of them.

The NYT has a special section today that focuses on the rebuilding of the Pacific fleet that took place after the bombing a Pearl Harbor. I hadn't realized how many of the destroyed ships were returned to service. Impressive. "...he worked at Pearl Harbor, and people there had neither the time nor the inclination to fret about whether they were doing something important. For the first and maybe last time, Hawaii was at the center of everything. With the Pacific fleet in ruins and the Japanese over the horizon, everybody had a lot to do."

To commemorate the day, lots of Hawaiians may be out surfing as the waves will be hitting the north shores at 22 - 28 feet. Whoa! I don't think I'll take a surf lesson this trip, but I do hope that we make it up to the north shore one day to watch the big wave riders.

Jonathan 12/07/2006 09:42:00 AM