bed time
It is New Year's Eve (and we may go to some friend's house), so I guess since I've been up since 3:30 I should get some sleep or I'll be dead by 8:30 and look like I'm old or something. :-)

Sushi - the list
And because I save EVERYTHING... here is the list of the sushi that I made:

• Nigiri
  
  • Shrimp
    
  • Tuna
    
  • Salmon/Avacado
    
  • Braised Beef
  
  
• Hosomaki
  • Tuna/Chive
  
  
• Ura Maki
  • California w/ Smelt Eggs & w/ White Sesame Seeds
    
  • Shrimp/Asparagrus w/ Black Sesame Seeds
  
  
• Maki
  • Shrimp/Asparagrus/Avacado

I also made Grilled Terryiaki Beef & Grilled Curry Chicken (because not everyone likes sushi perhaps, and everyone likes these - even if they like sushi) as well as Edamame and Rice.

On a lighter note
Speaking of kids... and stories. OK... maybe I wasn't speaking of stories, but I'm thinking of blogging, which is telling stories (kind of), so it ties in.

I've been thinking I should blog some "life stories" every now and then. Not everyone may find them interesting, but I told Jacque this one yesterday and she cracked up.

Jacque mentioned that Bobby has always loved different food, every since he was little.

Tiffany also. Before she was two she was eating shrimp cocktail and stuffed mushrooms. We used to have people stop at our table and tell us how they were watching her and how well behaved she was. This 18 month old, sitting their politely muching on stuffed mushrooms.

But she always loved to eat everything. She was never one of those kids who only eat a few things. One of her favorite things to eat at that age was fresh mushrooms dipped in blueberry yougurt. How she came up with this I don't know... but she was always asking for it. At 18 months old!

When she was born I was part owner of a reasturant in Montana. I'd take her into work with me and put her in my apron. Head out the top, arms out the sides, legs haning out. She'd just kind of hang there and watch as I was closing up. And I'd stick her in her bassinet on the counter as I was making sandwhichs, tacos, etc. Once she was old enough to sit, I'd just plop her down at the back of the counter and she'd sit there and smile and watch me cook.

But I always had to keep and eye on her because she'd always be getting into the food. I'd get a full wheel of tickets and be cooking away and grab a hamburger bun and there be'd these little tooth marks in it. "Tiffany... don't chew on the hamburger buns" - or I'd look up and she'd be reaching into the butter and sticking it in her mouth - "No!". She was always pretty good - just curious about what everything tasted like. Happy, smiling and watching. Usually one NO was all it took. But then I'd get an order for sauteed mushrooms and I'd reach into the cold table and pull them out... and I always had to check them. Sometimes there would be four or five of them with little nibble marks. She just loved mushrooms. I never knew why she'd put them back. Maybe she was worried about getting caught. Grab one, take a few nibbles and throw it back and get a new one.

Some things you just never forget. This 12 month old, sitting there, kind of like a weeble in her diaper. Nibbiling on mushrooms while her dad was cooking burgers.

And we still love to cook together. Love you sis!

Rose Bowl
And so the question comes up... do I play the "hey... you aren't going to be living at home that much longer" dad card one more time?

Pretty much every year since I went to UofM, I watch the Rose Bowl (or whatever Bowl game they are in). Tina is not a sports fan and so we don't watch much football. But I usually try to catch at least the bowl game every year. And every year I watch it with one of the girls. (Used to be Tif when Jaime was really little, then both of them, then lately just Jaime). Its usually kind of a big thing. I make Tuna Dip & Chips, Guac and Chips, usually sub sandwhichs, and some kind of Stewart's soda or something. We get the food all ready and then eat, watch the game and yell at the TV.

Jaime has always been a funny kid when it comes to loyalty. She used to turn the TV off when AT&T ads would come on, once I started working for MCI. And she'd always yell at the other teams. It cracked people up when she was little. We may not follow the sport all year long, but come Rose Bowl day, the other team is the hated enemy! It really makes it fun :-) If you are going to do something, you might as well be passionate about it! So we always watch the game with a great deal of enthusiasm and fun.

Well this year she isn't going to be home. She is supposed to be leaving on Thursday for a D*group outting. (Youth discipleship group). Her group (about 5 girls and the leader) are going up to a cabin in the woods and then coming back on Saturday in time for Jaime to make it to worship team practice. So... she isn't going to be home to watch the game this year. And we just got a 55" TV for Christmas.

So... do I let her go, or do I pull the "Hey... you're not going to around for ever, and I want you to stay home and watch the game with me." dad card? I know... kind of selfish of me... but she isn't going to be home forever. And she'll enjoy it too. Plus it is a tradition and it always kind of marks the end of the holiday season. After that its back to work, school, church, etc. So... I've got a few more hours to think about it before she gets up. (Which is one of the things I was thinking about at 3:30 when I woke up).

Children
A reflective post...

This Christmas was pretty hard on all of us (Tina, Jaime and myself). Tif wasn't home this year. Her and Brian went out to his mom's. Jaime was crying off and on all Christmas Eve day, sobbed that night, and starting crying once when she opened one of Tif's presents. Tif wasn't home the year before last (without this effect)... so what made this year so much harder?

I think it was a combination of Tif not being home... and realizing that Jaime is getting close to leaving too. Tif's leaving kind of snuck up on me. I knew she was getting older, I knew she would leave home eventually... but I didn't fully appreciate the impact. With her gone, I'm well aware of it. I think we all are. So I think it wasn't just Tif not being her, but it was that along with the realization that Jaime may only be home one more Christmas.

Its really weird, but I think about it quite often. Jaime is the kind of person that really doesn't like people staring at her... and she'll frequently catching me just looking at her and say "What!" - "Nothing... I'm just looking at you".

Jacque and I ran into a store yesterday (I was picking up a couple more sushi plates and she was getting something for Bobby's birthday.) She mentioned that Bobby and David were over at CBC registering for classes and she couldn't believe he was 18. "Yeah... I know. I can't believe how old Jaime is either." We both started to choke up... said, "OK... well see ya later" and walked off. I feel kind of old... like a grown up or something, writting that. When you first have kids it is hard to believe that you'll ever have these kind of feelings and that they'll leave home. That is something "way down the road" - but here it is. Faster than you think.

I am so thankful for my kids. I have been lucky to really become good friends with both of them in their later teen years. Not just a parent, but friends. Jaime and I go to the movies together, listen to some of the same bands, go out to eat. At this point in my life (and her life) the time we have together is precious. I just realize how fast she is growing up, and how soon she'll be leaving the nest. And I cherish the time we have left. I know it is sometimes hard on her, as she doesn't like to be smothered and has a VERY ACTIVE social life. Which is very cool. She does a lot at church and hangs out with her friends a lot. Tina and I try to balance our desire for her to be home with her need to be with friends. She is just so cool that everyone wants to be with her. ;-) So... she probably doesn't get to do EVERYTHING she'd like to, but all in all I think we share her pretty well.

Anyway... kind of rambling (hey... its 5:30 AM - what do you expect?). Really all I wanted to say was how great she is. How much I enjoy her. How much I'm going to miss her (even though she won't be gone for at least another year and a half), and that if you have kids... enjoy your time with them. As everyone always says (and as I have learned), they grown up way faster than you think.

Sushi
Tina got me some sushi stuff for Christmas. I of course had to try it out! And as Tina says, I had to "go off the deep end" and do it in a big way. Spent Monday driving around getting ingredients (that I could get the day before) and looking for oriental stores. Found a couple off of Academy and Pike's Peak. Then went to Par Avion yesterday to get fresh salmon, beef and tuna. Spent a couple of hours cooking and preping stuff and then about 30 minutes to an hour making sushi. I of course had to try different kinds, so made Nigiri (just fish and rice), Hosomaki (small rolls), Uri Maki (inside out rolls - of which a California Roll is a type) and then just a normal maki or roll.

I found some Black Sesame Seeds (as well as normal ones), so had all kinds of different colors and textures... which after all is part of the point of sushi. All in all it turned out pretty good. Not the best sushi I've ever had, but considering it was the second time I've every made sushi, and the first time I've made most of these kinds - it was pretty successful.

My favorite, from a "wow - that's a cool new taste" was a Tuna & Chive Hosomaki. I used a small julienne of tuna and 3 chives. The chives gave it a very nice bite.

The overall favorite (and one I almost skipped) was a Nigiri beef! Yes, beef! I had seen a recipie for nigiri beef and thought about making it... but then decided it was a little too weird when about 1/2 the people coming weren't too thrilled with the idea of eating anything raw in the first place. Then when I was at Par Avion and looking at their meat - and figuring how easy it would be, I just couldn't resist - but figured I'd braise it, rather than servering it totally raw. I bought 1/2# of filet, trimmed off all the fat, marinated it in a mixture of olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper for about 3 hours then braised it on the grill. Then refrigerated it and sliced it just before serving. As a number of people said, "wow, melts in your mouth." I braised it for maybe about a minute of each side. Just enough to brown it maybe paper thin.

I got the filet at Par Avion because their meat is local and free of hormones, etc. If you decide to use raw beef, I'd make sure and buy it somewhere similar!

Pastor Joe came over and Michael was going to be home alone, so he came too. Jaime and Michael helped serve and then cleaned up the mess (for a couple of HOURS - lots of sushi plates, etc.). They were awesome. I love this kind of thing so much (going and buying all the ingredients, prepping, making it all and then presenting it). And it was such a blessing to be able to finish it up, go eat with everyone and then by the time everyone left to have it all cleaned up! The "kids" did an awesome job. Thanks much again to both Jaime and Michael!

And speaking of "presentation" - Tina got me sushi plates and "dipping dishes" for Christmas. Hand glazed, very cool. And then she went and bought bamboo place mats and a cool boat yesterday and some other cool dishes. So it was all very beautiful.

It was a blast! I'll have to do it again!

Leeks, Tarragon and Morels
Erika made a comment on my Tarragon & Chicken post, "Please define: leeks and tarragon. Thanks!". A picture is worth a thousand words, so I figured I'd google it and see what showed up. One site that showed up was Wild Leeks/Ramps. I had never heard of ramps before. Very cool that they also mentioned Morels. Morels are a wild mushroom that cannot be domesticated. We used to go "hunt" them in Montana. Once you found where they grew, you closely guarded the location - keeping it a secret lest everyone come and pick them. I spent many an afternoon out hunting along the rivers looking for morels. I'm going to have to buy some now that I've found an on-line source for fresh ones! (Hmm... I"m not sure it is a good sign when you go to a food web site and it says "Free shipping with orders over $125" ;-)) - Wow... just took a look at the page, which also has recipies. Yeah... I'm definately going to have to remember to order some Morels when they come in season. (Almost makes me think a trip to Montana is in order -- just to see if I can find some. Fresh morels and wild asparagrus. That was always cool).

Anyway... ramps are wild leeks - and don't quite look like the ones found in stores. This site has a nice picture of a domesticated leek (as well as a discussion). This is the type I've always used. Always available at Kings Sooper.

Tarragon is an herb - Herba Dracunculi - or the dragon herb, because it was thought to drive away dragons in medevil times. I just learned that on Gernot Katzer's Spice Dictionary. Very cool info. Emeril mentioned the other day that tarragon was a less fashionable spice, not currently in heavy use. I've always liked it and first ran into it in a French Chicken Casserole recipe (which I'll have to post some time). Besides that dish, I mostly use it in scrambled eggs and lately in a chicken sauce as well.

Thanks for asking the question Erika. Led me to some cool sites!

Christmas programs
In my experience of doing "Christmas programs" at two churches... I pretty much find them to put the people involved into a most un{spirt of the season} type mood. At least for me.

Easter programs are usually way more work... and because of that, started way sooner, involve way more practice, and come off smoother.

Christmas programs (probably because of the time of the year) are done with less people (everyone is off to the relatives), far less practices (usually only a few weeks) and therefore more stressful. I remember at an old church they'd usually start the first week of December... at the earliest. And we'd always vow to start them in Nov the following year (which we never did).

I had to laugh Sunday morning. I'm behind my congos... practicing, messing up the timing, not coming in right... starting to stress a bit, and the kids are running everywhere screaming and making noise and I feel like ripping someone's head off. It was then that I realized "the reason for the season" and decided that maybe I just needed to lighten up a bit. :-)

It all came off great, as it always done because:

• kids are always really cute, no matter what they do
  
• the Holy Spirit covers much
  
• most the musicians are performing, i.e., most the people in the congregation are not musicians and don't notice minor mistakes.

All in all it came off great, was great fun to do, and I'd do it again in a second. (I usually place stuff I don't traditionally play in normal services which is always fun). It just seems a bit ironic that in celebrating His birth, we usually are more stressed than at any other time.

Tarragon Chicken
I made Tarragon Chicken with sauteed Leeks and Garlic Saturday night. Jaime was off doing something and Tina and I were home alone for dinner. It was really good. Easy, quick, tasted great, nice presentation. A pleasent sauce with some nice accompaniments. But then again I really like tarragon.

Tackling Hunger
Up to 4,365,681 cans.

Happy Holidays
That's it for me at work... on-site anyway. I'll off till the 2nd. I'll be working here and there from home, although my off-hours working generally decreases over a break. The further out I get, the less desire I have to get on and work "just for the fun of it". Too busy playing X*box, cooking, etc. :-)

Anyway, based on that I may not be posting as much over the next two weeks.

BTW: If you are in the neighborhood this Sunday, you should stop in at ICC. This Sunday is our Christmas service, and we are doing some special music. I was at practice last night, again tonight, and maybe Saturday morning. We are doing some cool drum stuff and I'll be making the floor rattle with my "big drum." That is always a blast. :-)

Human contact
A group of people, sitting in 6'x8' cubes, head-phones on, listening to blaring music, talking to each-other on the computer. Getting up and walking 10 feet to talk to someone is just way too much of a pain. Besides... its intrusive.

/me goes back to tappin' & hackin'

Its a good day
Sitting in my cube, Evanescense blaring, hacking CLIPS to generate code and drinking Diet MtDew. Yeah, life is good.

JoelOnSoftware: Biculturalism

By now, Windows and Unix are functionally more similar than different. They both support the same major programming metaphors, ... There's not much about the core set of services provided by each operating system to limit the kinds of applications you can create. What's left is cultural differences.

A good discussion of programming cultures. And yeah... I most program for programmers.

It was worth it
What a great movie. It was well worth getting up at 4:00 to get some work done, and then standing in line starting at 8:00.

Doors opened at about 8:15, so we didn't have to stand outside long, and they were seating immediately. I had to hang out in the lobby waiting for everyone to show, but we were in around 9:15, and by then the place was packed. Jaime and Nat had gone in at 8:15 and saved seats, so that was good.

I think it was the best in the series. They all have their good parts, but this one of course finishes the story. Peter Jackson was great... but how to you do something as good again? Where else do you get such an epic great story that you turn it into 3 movies that take 2 years to see?

Anyway, awesome movie. I can't wait for the extended DVD to come out and see the extra scenes. I'll probably go see it again during break. Even though there are other movies I want to see too, it was so good I just have to see it again.

And fyi: It is 3 and 1/2 hours long, combined previews and movie.

Woo hoo
Hey, it's 28 degrees outside. Maybe by the time we get to the theater to stand in line it will actually be above freezing. That would be nice. :-)

Isn't it ironic?
And then I find, February 8, 2002 Health journal: Tanning booth dangers, on the Ladies' Home Journal site, with a sub-title of, To stay healthy, steer clear of tanning booths.. And the "sponsored links" are:

• Tan Discount Central
  
• Discount Salon Lotion
  
• Fake Bake 1/2 off Special

Close to home
Women who use tanning booths at least once a month increase their
risk of malignant melanomaby 55%, according to a recent study by the Journal of the National Cancer Institue

• CBSNews.com
  
• seattlepi.com

Prayer
NicholeR goes in for an MRI at 8:30 tonight. Please keep her in your prayers.

Today is the day!
Girls up at 6:30, have to leave at 7:45, because we HAVE to be at the theater by at least 8:00 to get in line. Not for tickets (we've had those for close to 3 weeks), but for good seats. Movie starts at 10:00. 2 hours early should be good enough.

I'm psyched. :-)

Lighten up folks
Getting on the highway at Woodmen today. 2 lanes merge into one on the on-ramp. Which then merges into 2 lanes that are packed. Moving slowly, but moving. As I'm coming on (and watching my rear-view mirror... 'cuz you always have to make sure someone isn't cutting you off as you "merge in") I notice this woman behind me start freaking out. She is driving some good size SUV (I think it was a Jeep) and she is just really ticked off. She starts waving and screaming. Hmm... guess someone didn't let her in quick enough. She just keeps making all these gestures to someone behind her.

I keep watching this as I'm merging in - still on the on-ramp. She is about 3 cars behind me. We are in about 1.5 lanes, and now she swerves onto the shoulder and cuts this guy off. More yelling and gesturing. I'm starting to get a bit nervous. You can never tell when two people's battle is going to spill over into the surrounding cars.

I'm now into the merge section of the highway, trying to pick a spot to merge into the highway traffic... but she's getting closer. Uh oh... her she comes. Even though we are down to one lane of merging on traffic, she decides she better take the shoulder to make SURE the guy behind her doesn't beat her onto the highway. Now she comes up behind me and is right behind me... We are talking maybe 2 FEET. So now I'm watching her and not paying much attention to the other traffic. She is right on my tail and won't let up. Great... now I'm getting pulled into this mess. I'm now in about 1/2 a lane of traffic and realize that I'm merging into the highway without paying much attention, so look in time to let a car get by me and merge in. And she just keeps coming. Good thing is that she is close enough that I get her plate number. She then blasts past me on the shoulder and pulls onto the highway in front of me. I double check her plate number. Now the other guy merges into the fast lane and is going with the flow, which passes her (since her and I are in the slow lane). She takes this oppurtunity to flip him off one more time and then jerk into the traffic behind him and follow him down the road.

I take this oppurtunity to call 911 and give them her license number. Luckily no accidents occured.

I proceed on to work, getting off at Garden of the Gods Rd and traveling up it to work. Witnessing much sliding and packed traffic, and one more occurence of someone trying to merge into a lane which results in them blocking two lanes, rolling their window down, and screaming at the car that didn't let them in fast enough.

All this on 5 shots of espresso. Yeah... some days its just a fun drive in.

Jitters, what jitters?
Stopped at Starbucks on the way in and got a triple-Venti. Yeah, that's 3 shots of espresso. But the guy messed it up and only made a double - so he then made the triple and asked if I wanted the double as well, since he'd throw it away otherwise. So yeah, 5 shots on the way in.

Guess I won't be having that MountainDew at lunch today.

Ties
Need to get a tie for someone this holiday season? How about one of these infectious ties? Perfect for the artist or scientest/geek amoung us. :-) I think the plauge (#1224) is kind of cool looking.

Quote of the Day
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails! Bertha Calloway

Is this really a witness?
I don't agree that this guy should have been arrested and fined... but I also don't think that getting people upset is really spreading the good news and being a true witness. Show 'em the love, not the hate.

AdBlocker
Tired of all those annoying ads that are always popping up? If you've are using a Mozilla browser, you can use AdBlocker. Which is downloadable via this link.

I just installed it. Pretty nice. I do wonder if enough people use these things, will free web services go away? Things like Blog*Spot, free web pages, etc. exist because of the ads they run...

Countdown

• 2 days until the King returns!
  
• 10 days till Christmas
  
• 11 days till I no longer wear contacts
  
• 18 days till I no longer wear glasses (at least all of the time).

BTW: Jaime will be wearing her Pippin's Girl shirt opening day. :-)

At Home
Working at home today. Tossed and turned last night, woke up with sore muscles, sore throat and generally just not feeling "myself". But hey, I can work from home. The snow is outside blowing, and I'm here, working, blogging and drinking Earl Grey tea. All in all, not too bad.

YahooFinance: Thirty-Year Fast-Food Veteran Sheds 40 Pounds and Gets Thin by Eating 'Thick'Yeah... that's what I'm talking about. Lose 40 lbs by eating $6 burgers. :-)

USAToday.com: 2 fast-food chains give buns the boot.
Carl's Junior has a no-bun $6 burger.

Italian Tomatoe & Cucumber Salad
Made a snack of Italian Tomatoe & Cucumber Salad last night. Stuck in on my other blog in case anyone wants to give it a try!

Fixed
I fixed my web site. Had to mess with the frames and add some dummy ones in, but it is all working now. Same color schemes, frame along the top so you can jump from any page to any other. More "modern"... I think. Anyway, a step in eventually moving to my own domain and web site. :-)

Home
Redid my home page. I still have to update the "home" part, but redid the index and all the sub-pages. Mostly just the "skin" - color, frames, etc.

Hmm... and I just now loaded it and it doesn't look too hot. I didn't think about the fact that angelfire is running its ads in frames. So, its frames have totally messed up mine. I'll have to give this another shot... when I get some time. :-S

CNN.com: Student finds largest known prime number

The number is 6,320,430 digits long and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than 2 million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number.

SiliconValley.com: SCO's Mind-Bogglingly Bad Faith
SCO is told to hand its source code over to IBM... so it does... on 1 million sheets of paper.

Cancun kitty
Obviously someone had

• time to spare
  
• a knife
  
• a lime
  
• a cat
  
• a camera
  
• and perhaps too much tequila

ComputerWorld: Online brokerage scam targets investors
When it sounds too good to be true...

TheAtlantaJournal-Constitution: Former WorldCom CEO John Sidgmore Dies
Wow, only 52. He seemed like a good guy from what I heard from him while he was the CEO.

snopes.com: The Butter Truth
Yeah... any good cook can tell you that butter is better than margarine. :-)

We're in the Rosebowl
Probably old news, but I'm finally posting it. RoseBowl this year is UofM vs USC. Should be a cool game. Carl (a guy I work with) played with USC "back in the day" as a line backer, and helped USC beat The Wolverines in a RoseBowl. But I don't hold that against him. :-)

Usually I watch Michigan in a bowl game every year. One of the few games I catch. Usually with one of the girls. This year it will be all alone. Jaime has a D*group camp-over. :-( But it will still be fun. Soda, food, yelling. :-)

eXcite: Cerritos, Calif., Goes Wireless Citywide
Pretty cool. Wireless connections from anywhere in the city.

Another year...
Entering meeting minutes and just entered that I've scheduled the meeting for 05-Jan-2004. Yup, another year almost over.

Mozilla upgrade
I've installed Mozilla 1.5 with Tabbrowser Extensions. I've got 10 tabs open, with 6 different colors for the different groups I'm in (various wikis, bbs, etc). I'm digging it.

Countdown

• 7 days to ReturnOfTheKing
  
• 15 days till Christmas
  
• 16 days till I no longer wear contacts
  
• 23 days till I no longer wear glasses (at least all the time)

3.3M cans of soup
TacklingHunger is up to 3,368,494 cans of soup, with the Broncos donation being 82,745. This thing has been picking up steam lately. Broncos are up to 12th.

Grandparents
I'm getting rather grand-fatherly feeling lately. Not because I am one, or even that I'm about to become one or anything. Tif has said it will be at least 10 years (but that was about 18 months ago... so only 8.5 years now!) and Jaime said at least 6 (given she doesn't even have a boy-friend and is still in high school... that's cool).

But I was out on some sites today looking at UofM stuff... and they have some REALLY COOL stuff for little kids and babies. Since I'm past that stage in my own life, I have to wait for my kids to have kids... so I can be the cool grandpa and buy them all kinds of neat UofM stuff. :-)

Legal drinking age?
I never realized there was a legal age for viewing a web site. Just seems a bit weird.

Chopsticks
As I sit here eating yogurt with chopsticks I think, Yeah, I guess I can eat pretty much anything with chopsticks..

And although that is true...

Note to self: Next time you think, "Do I have a spoon at my desk?" - just go ahead and bring one in, just in case. Cuz chopsticks work... but for yogurt they are kind of slow.

Tackle Hunger
Almost 3 millions cans of soup given away on Tackle Hunger. Broncos are in 13th place with 72,634 cans. They were ~46K last week. Nice increase.

Don't forget to go back every day!

Lunch
Eating left-over Sauteed Chicken and Fall Veggies which I whipped up last night. Fast and yummy.

Stress balls
A note to stress ball manufactorers... Foam balls with writting imprinted into them works better than balls with a color shell with writting on it...

I'm picking flecks of yellow paint off my clothes, from one, while the pink one is working just fine.

BBCNews: Art's glass toilet tests courage

An artist has created a usable public toilet in a glass cube to challenge the curiosity - and bravery - of people passing London's Tate Britain gallery.

I think this is hilarious.

Yum
Last night for dinner I made:

• Grilled Asian Pork Chops
  
• Shrimp and Avacado Salad
  
• Romain and Tomatoe Salad

I wanted to grill some pork chops I had bought the night before, and I didn't want to do plain BBQ sauce... so decided a soy/five spice/lemon grass marinade would be kind of cool. The terriyaki sauce just made it simple (then added the other seasonings.

And cause I was running late and knew it would take some time to marinade/grill, I decided to make some Shrimp Cocktail to hold us over... and then say the limes, thought about cervichie... and the avacdos were on sale... so that is how that came about. :-)

And had to make a "normal" salad for Tina. She wasn't feeling great, having gone through some surgery Tuesday. But she thought the chops were really good... which just shows how much her tastes have changed. Now eating Vietnamese and Asian food all the time. :-)

Seasons Greetings
Online Holiday Snow globe

Got it to work on IE. Didn't work with Mozilla.

Battlestar Galactica
I have to check out Battlestar Galactica. I would have gone to the opening at the movies, but it was showing the day we left town for Vail.

And there is an XBox game!

Friendship
There are very few friends that you run across in life that are true friends... for every, regardless of effort. You know, the kind of friend that you may not talk to for months, and when you talk / get together / whatever, its like you just talked yesterday. No hard feelings about "not keeping in touch", no condemnation, none of that. You're just friends, and you know you'll always be.

I have some friends like that and I'm so grateful. I'm a terrible letter writter, don't do well at keeping in touch, etc. Could be considered a character flaw. But I'm just so happy that I have some friends who love me and who I love, no matter what. And no matter how long its been. Takes all the work out of it. Thanks guys (and girls)!

If you have some friends like that, keep in touch (even if infrequently). They are rare.

Using images
Usually I don't post images on my blog. At most I'll post links to them. But I figured I'd try it out. Seem to work ok, although it does seem to mess up the placement and push the entry up into my "header" area. We'll I'll see if posting this helps. At most I'll probably only post images once in a while.

Revenge

Another blogging mishap
Blogging and absent-mindedly eating... Food from the cafe is cold (yeah... heat, what a concept) so nuke it for a minute. Click on the blog throw some food in my mouth and spit it back out... Yeah... IT JUST CAME OUT OF THE MICROWAVE!

Note to self: pay attention to the temp of the food when blogging! ;-)

Very cool
A friend is the webmaster at this church. Very cool. Nice job Elizabeth!

30 degree change
Walking into work from the car -

Yesterday: Cloudy, windy, cold. 26 degrees. Wearing a long sleeve shirt and my winter coat. Looks like winter is here.

Today: Sunny, calm. 56 degrees. Beautiful day. Wearing a polo and my vest. Guess winter isn't here yet!

ComputerWorld: Asian software pirates already selling next Windows OS
Gee... and for only $1.58!

Microsoft corporate attorney Jonathan Selvasegaram. "It's not a ready product. Even if it works for a while, I think it's very risky" to install on a home computer, he said.

In my experience, that is true of all Microsoft OS's... They all seem to degrade "after a while" ;-)

Quote of the day
From MightyGirl: Video Golf is just about the whitest thing the world's got going.

Tweet and Raptor
Just in case anyone was confused, when talking about naming our boxes Tweet and Raptor, yeah, I mean some Linux Servers running on Intel boxes, i.e., computer node names.

ComputerWorld: U.K. to consider national biometric ID cards, database
I don't know much about the technology, but yeah, I agree with Vansevenant,

expressed serious doubts about the security of a national database. "It is a pretty bad idea, especially the database, which would be an ideal target for hackers and terrorists."

ComputerWorld: Cool Stuff: Super-Geek Specials
Hey... if anyone has a spare $17,500 and is wondering what to get me for Christmas, the 92in monitor would be cool!