Sunday, November 30, 2003

The Gaucho

After a lackluster Thanksgiving dinner (it was good and fun and all, but our turkey ended up in the trashcan, since it refused to cook all the way through no matter how long we kept it in the oven...), we were ready for a more exciting dining experience.

And after walking around downtown in the wind and snow, we were definitely hungry.

Luckily, our hunger for meat and excitement were satiated at Fogo de Chao, an Atkins extravaganza.

Here's how it works. They bring you a basket of bread (which I believe contains no carbs, since it appeared to be made entirely of air...). You go to the salad bar. You eat some lettuce. You take a sip of water. (The water boy promptly fills up your glass after each sip.) You eat some more bread/air. Maybe some more lettuce. Water, filling, etc.

Then you turn the magical coaster green-side-up.

Suddenly there is a swarm of traditionally attired gaucho chefs carrying giant skewers of meat. They offer you filet mignon, top and bottom sirloin, grilled chicken, pork loin, leg of lamb: a total of 14 different kinds of meat, half of which I've never tried before. And they don't stop piling meat on your plate until you turn the coaster red-side-up.

I flipped to green three times. Maybe four. I forget. By that time I was so drunk on gaucho mystery that I could barely see straight.

And then they brought dessert. There was some sort of papaya/milk/raspberry liqueur sort of thing in front of me. I ate it. All seven million carbs of it. So good.

And so worth it.

It was a pretty pricey dinner for the three of us (to the tune of over 200 big ones...), but lunchtime is almost half the price (only 25.50 per person for all the meat you can eat!) in case you're inclined to visit.

Call me if you do. I'll go with you.
11/30/2003 11:56:00 PM link | talk

Monday, November 24, 2003
The Butter

Dear Land-O-Lakes:

Since starting the Atkins Diet, I have purchased a number of your products (specifically, Land-O-Lakes Sweet Cream in the 8 oz container) and have been disappointed each time. Usually time forces me to forgo the recommended 25-30 "softening period" and I end up shredding a small muffin with cold, hard and unspreadable butter. Yet I continue to purchase your products based solely on the fact that your name includes an "O", which I enjoy.

But I digress.

Recently, I had the good fortune to purchase an 8 oz container of your "Land-O-Lakes Spreadable Sweet Cream with Canola Oil". I must tell you how pleasantly surprised I was with this product. Instead of the usual pain and demolition, I was able to spread the butter directly onto my snack with much success.

Which brings me to my (list of) question(s). Why would you bother to have non-spreadable butter in a tub in the first place? Why don't you just leave it in stick form to avoid confusion?

Why must you toy with our emotions so? Why would you force us to soften butter for 30 minutes before spreading? Why must you make us to destroy our food, a necessity for our survival?

Why must we choose between intact, non-buttered food and demolished, buttery goodness?

Sincerely,
Micky
11/24/2003 12:48:00 AM link | talk (5)

 Thursday, November 20, 2003
The Wall

For some reason, yesterday I was struck with a strange chord of inspiration. I absolutely had to to paint something.

So I chose my living room wall.

I'd done a bit of painting in the bar room, but that's not a room that everyone sees daily. I needed something big. Something bold. Something to cover the ugly shade of green that has been slowly driving me insane since I moved in. Something to liven up the chi in my health corner.

I promptly went to the Home Depot and picked up a gallon of Cranberry Whip.

That's right. It's red.

I painted all during The Bachelor, and a little bit during a TiVo'ed One Tree Hill. And by the time they were finished, I had myself a nice red wall. I love it. I can't not look at it when I'm sitting on the couch. It's all I can do to turn my attention to the Friends episodes on the TV.

I can't say that dark red paint is cheap, but it's like an investment in happiness right?
11/20/2003 11:38:00 AM link | talk (1)

 Tuesday, November 18, 2003
The Emails

You may remember that the ex and I use the words "supposedly" and "supposably" almost interchangably, based on a fun Friends episode and the general idiocy of many people that we encounter.

I have recently had such an encounter.

I'd forgotten all about the post until I got this email last week:

To: Micky
From: Beckett
Subject: I supposably request your comments

I took your advice and took your link to Webster and checked out "supposably". Your "friend named Webster" gives two definitions for the word. Care to comment?

May I make the suggestion you don't use your "Friends" for diction advice?

Defender of the vernacular---- Beckett

My immediate thought was, "Wow." Then I decided to write back:

To: Beckett
From: Micky
Subject: RE: I supposably request your comments

can i suggest that you look at the meanings of the words "supposably" and "supposedly"? if you'd bothered to check them both, you would realize that the meanings are different, and that the syntax in which we, and Friends, use the word "supposably" is incorrect.

micky - defender of my own writing

I think it was mostly his pretentious use of the name Beckett and his claim that he defends the vernacular that made me write back. Either that or his excessive use of quotation marks. But I figured that would be it.

I was wrong.

To: Micky
From: Beckett
Subject: RE: RE: I supposably request your comments

yeah- I did look at the meanings and was struggling with the entire situation....which is how I came upon your website. So if you do not mind....which of the below is correct from your persppective (and you aren't from the US are you?):

Both definitions have "to assume" in my research!

1) That report was supposably completed last week.
2) That report was supposedly completed last week.

Beckett- still Waiting for Godot

Kind of makes you feel bad for the dude, doesn't it? I did...a little. But that "still Waiting for Godot" does really chap my hide.

To: Beckett
From: Micky
Subject: RE: RE: RE: I supposably request your comments

i am actually from the us...and here is my take on the difference between the two words:

"That report was supposably completed last week," could also be read as:

"It is possible that one might suppose that the report was completed last week," which only implies the possibility of supposition.

whereas

"That report was supposedly completed last week," actually implies supposition.

See the difference? The root of "supposably" is "supposable", meaning that it is possible to suppose. The root of "supposedly" is "supposed", meaning that something actually has been supposed.

Why are you doing this, by the way?

Sadly, there came no reply. I was going to wait until there were three emails before I posted, but I'm working on my econ final, and you certainly don't want me blogging about that. If he does, in fact, write back, I'll let you know.

P.S. I was trying to link back to the original post from December 2002, but somethings up with my permalinks, and I don't feel like dealing with it now. Sorry.
11/18/2003 12:24:00 PM link | talk

Monday, November 17, 2003
The Blog

So I open my browser this morning, and when my web page pops up, some loser named Laura has filled my link box with about seven zillion "Laura's Blog"s. All of my other links are gone for the moment. I half want to click her to see what's up, but the other half of me doesn't want to give her the satisfaction.

So don't click.

Update: Hmm. It's not just me. All of the links are gone on other sites that use blogrolling too. (Luckily I have a few URLs memorized...) Hopefully this'll get fixed, since that's how I kept track of blogs that I read.

Update Part II: Looks like the folks at Blogrolling have fixed the matter and restored all my links. I'm glad. I'd forgotten some of them were there.
11/17/2003 09:45:00 AM link | talk

Friday, November 14, 2003
The Test: Part II

I got an A!
11/14/2003 09:36:00 AM link | talk (2)

 Thursday, November 13, 2003
The Missing

This is one of those "poor little rich boy whines when his luxuries don't work out" sort of posts.

Except you know I'm not rich. But I do have certain luxuries. At least I did.

[whine]
The headset for my cell phone has disappeared. I even went and had the car washed today to see if it was hidden somewhere. I drove around to all the parking lots I was in yesterday, and no dice.

No headset either. I don't know what they mean by no dice. How often does one go and look for dice?

I'm holding off for a few days before ordering a new one. I know I owuld order it now, and then it would turn up in a week, and I'll have two headsets. Much like when I lost my checkbook, closed the account, started a new accoutn, bought new checks...and then found the old checkbook in my desk drawer.

Let's not have that now, ok?
[/whine]
11/13/2003 03:15:00 PM link | talk

Tuesday, November 11, 2003
The Heater

Just found out that the oscillating space heater I bought (over a month ago) for my desk area is not, in fact, meant to oscillate. All this time, I'd been figuring that it was just broken, but oh well, it still makes things warm, and I don't seem to have the receipt anymore, even though you should always keep receipts for appliances and things.

But no. I've just been curious enough to go look at the box, and discovered that nowhere on the packaging does it mention the word "oscillate". What it does talk about is "swivel housing". Which means that the base of the heater can be stationary, but you can move the actual heater, so that it can be directional.

Which I don't understand. The heater itself is maybe five pounds. Are people so weak that they have to swivel four and a half pounds of the heater on a pivot point just to change the direction of the heat flow? Can't they just lift the whole thing up and point it where they want the heat?

I swear, I don't understand technology at all.
11/11/2003 02:48:00 PM link | talk

Thursday, November 06, 2003
The Test

Accounting midterm in 2 hours. Wish me luck...
11/06/2003 04:03:00 PM link | talk (2)

 Tuesday, November 04, 2003
The Hearing

That's right. I'm going to court today for my public aid hearing. I've been preparing by watching episodes of The Practice and Lyon's Den on my TiVo.

My "representation" (I say that in quotes, since he's a law student and would get in trouble if I called him my lawyer, since there's that whole Bar Exam in his way...I read John Grisham books...I know how it goes...) is meeting me at the courthouse, where we will sit for four hours in a large room with a zillion other people. Then we will tell them that I do not make enough money to pay their gigantic bill, and that they should pay it for me.

I have a carefully planned, nice-ish but not too nice, outfit to wear, featuring work boots and a pair of slacks with the tiniest whole in the leg, to show that I attempted to dress up, but just couldn't quite do it. I'm still debating on the shirt, but I'm fairly certain it's going to have to be something that I don't look very good in.

We'll see.
11/04/2003 10:20:00 AM link | talk (4)

 Monday, November 03, 2003
The Return

The Scary Bug (tm) is back. But this time I was faster. I saw him from the corner of my eye working his way down the wall next to the stairs.

True, this could be a different Scary Bug. For all I know there are thousands of them just waiting until I sit here at my computer (in a poor feng shui manner) with my back to the staircase, unsuspecting, practically inviting them to swarm.

Hm. Like now.

*shiver*

But the point is that this Scary Bug is now underneath the can of Raid. (No, I don't know if it even kills Scary Bugs (tm), but at least he'll be suffocated or something.) And if I want to believe that it's the Scary Bug that has been tormenting me for weeks now, then don't ruin it.

I win.
11/03/2003 01:42:00 PM link | talk (1)
The Attempt

I'm trying to be interesting...really I am. But all I do is homework.
11/03/2003 11:11:00 AM link | talk