Thanksgiving Leftovers, a la Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers reminds us: don't throw away that turkey carcass!
Take that home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato...
Baby, you've got a stew going!
= October 2005 = Main = December 2005 =
November 28, 2005
November 26, 2005
Sorry Neko...
You're great and all, but Fiona Apple is still the sexiest woman in rock and roll.
The view from the Warfield's upper balcony -- though our seats were much better than my camera phone indicates.
November 24, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving!
That's all.
November 23, 2005
Not back, avenge death.
I'm about to brave the Thanksgiving-eve crowd at the Berkeley Bowl. If I don't return you'll likely find my trampled body near the persimmons, clutching the last bunch of sage in my cold, dead hand.
November 21, 2005
The Golden Ratio?
Sean Carroll has a solid line in this enjoyable Ode to the Martini:
Four-to-one [gin-to-vermouth ratio] is about right, although there is room for variations in taste. But this worthy discovery has devolved into a pointlessly macho competition about whose martini is the driest. Bartenders now regularly splash vermouth into their shakers and then pour it out before adding the gin, leaving behind a helplessly thin coating of the original spirit. The next step is to simply pour chilled gin into your glass while doing a Google image search for 'vermouth.'
Many years ago I saw Bill Murry on a late-night talk show describing his perfect martini: a glass filled with ice cold gin while gently whispering the word "vermouth" onto the rim. Or his alternative, adding a thimbleful of vermouth to a humidifier and letting it run while preparing the cocktail. I probably fall on the side of Dr. Carroll on this one, but I'm always interested in hearing new ways to describe a humorously-small volume of vermouth.
November 19, 2005
Dancing Machine
I was out of town last weekend, so Marie partook of the time-honored tradition of men with out-of-town girlfriends everywhere: she bought a video game. So this past week we've been playing DDR: Mario Mix quite a lot. Some have lodged complaints that the game is a watered-down version of the original, and that even its hardest settings would only rank as a four- or five-footer. But for casual and often-drunk gamer that I am, DDR:MM is about perfect.
November 17, 2005
Science Points
I started an account at Ep-Points today, mostly because it reminds me of the Kool-Aid point system from my youth, which provided me and my brother endless fun and a pair of walkie-talkies. Once I run through a king's ransom in Eppendorf lab products on DOE's dime, I could step myself into a "free" ipod shuffle. Science, ho!
Note: for those who don't spend their lives in chemistry labs, you may still recognize Eppendorf products... they outfit the entire crime lab on CSI: Miami.
November 15, 2005
A Grim Audit
I sat down this afternoon to attempt the potentially huge mistake of auditing my weekend. My online bank statement showed a few more withdrawals than I originally thought, (curse that $100 fastcash button), so I wondered if I could pinpoint where all the money actually went. I had to ballpark some figures like cab fares and bar tips that I don't really recall, but things actually worked out okay. There are, at present 40 unaccounted-for dollars which probably went to a certain early-bird blackjack table on which I thought I breaking even.
So in conclusion, Las Vegas rates far worse than Bryan's bachelor party in total dollars spent, but a bit better in terms dollars remembered being spent. I'll call that a win, because after some of the bets I made, I need every win I can get.
November 14, 2005
Overheard
John Yoo was part of a panel discussion at the Jewish Community Center this evening, and (of course) a group assembled to yell anti-Bush slogans at the participants as they filed out. This all played out right outside my bedroom window, so as protests go I found it more annoying than most.
Overheard from our apartment: "We're going to drown out the Bush regime with a cacophany of sound!"
Right, buddy. A cacophany of sound in north Berkeley on a monday night will be quite a blow to the beating heart of the GOP.
Back. Sleepy.
If I were a freshman in college and a woman I might blog a list of my "top moments" from our recent trip to Las Vegas. But I'm not, so I won't.
November 09, 2005
America's Playground
I'm going to Las Vegas friday morning to meet several jokers with whom I rolled in college. The boxing match we were planning to attend was postponed, so there's currently nothing specific on the agenda. I'm sure whatever follows the breakfast beer will be entertaining enough, but does anyone have any suggestions regarding things to do?
November 08, 2005
If you want to culture some T cells you've got to crack a few spines
My scientific career has steadily been leading me towards the world of traditional biology, and today I took a major step along that path: I "sacrificed" a mouse. The little guy never saw it coming. His cage got a ten second burst of 100% CO2 and he was whisked off to slumberland. I then held the even-more-defenseless-than-usual mouse gently at the base of the skull, and gave his tail a sharp tug, severing his spinal cord. And that was the end of that. Andy and I proceeded to excise his spleen, and harvest the sweet, sweet T cells that lay within.
The whole thing was creepy. Aggravating the situation was that, in the next room, someone was blaring Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone". There's one more breezy pop hit lost to visions of grisly animal death.
November 07, 2005
Annyong!
Free?
The Excellence of Execution
How have I lived here for three years without realizing Berkeley has a street named after The Hitman, himself?
November 06, 2005
More on 77
The bleeding-heart Berkeley liberal in me hates the thought of joining Arnold, but I have yet to hear a compelling reason to oppose proposition 77. Speak Out California!, who've been popping up in the advertisement sidebars of various liberal bloggers, offer these words on the "Redistricting power grab":
With all of the problems our state is currently facing, this initiative is merely a distraction. Redistricting should only be done in connection with the next Census, and only then should we decide how that process should unfold. This proposal rushes the process for the 2006 election, and disregards the diversity of California by putting redistricting in the hands of retired judges, who are predominantly white men.
I'm having a hard time finding a group photo of my state senate, but I'm fairly confident that redistricting is already predominantly in the hands of white men. And while it's unfortunate this initiative couldn't appear on the ballot during a census year, I think it's ridiculous to presume that Californians are too wrapped up in other political issues to carefully assess the prop as it appears.
These guys are even more shrill. I don't understand how people can, with a straight face, argue that a panel of judges [cue scary voice] "selected by politicians" would be any more partisan than the politicians themselves.
November 05, 2005
A good reason to hate special elections
Yes, that is John McCain telling me to vote yes on 77. I thought we hated Arizona for stealing our jobs, water, etc.
November 04, 2005
Mandatory Science Link
And here's my mandatory science link for the week: China plans manned moon landing around 2017.
The project also includes setting up a moon-based astronomical telescope, measuring the thickness of the moon's soil and the amount of helium-3 on the moon -- an element some researchers say is a perfect, non-polluting fuel source.
Talk about your nuclear crisis... are we seriously going to let China get to the moon before us and take all our Freedom Fuel? God took that extra neutron off the helium on the moon for the US of A, and it's high time we claimed what's ours.
Club Loser, Norcal Chapter
There's little new to report out here. Wednesday night, Jon, Paul and I begain a frankensteinish beer-brewing experiment, combining ingredients from our collective piles of leftovers into the two largest pots in Paul's kitchen. Paul assures me it's been bubbling ferociously for the past day or so, which is exciting. Paul's been whispering sweet nothings into the yeasts' ears, and apparently he has a friend with a kegging system, so morale is high.
November 03, 2005
Surviving
Marie recently downloaded the new greatest hits album of a certain commercially-successful female R&B trio. I'll admit that I had forgotten all about this particularly brilliant set of lyrics:
I'm not going to hate on you from the magazines I'm not going to compromise my Christianity You know I'm not going to diss you on the internet Cause my momma taught me better than that
That's all.
November 02, 2005
Scab!
Berkeley's always been known for its measured, yet informed political discourse. So I was hardly surprised that the organizer's of today's protest walkout had canvased my route to school with sidewalk chalkings, featuring such heady and incisive slogans as "Bush sucks! Walk out Nov 2!"
I'm sure, right now at this very moment, our President is muttering to himself the wise words of Monsieur Colbert: "stone cold nailed me!"
November 01, 2005
Not a bad seat in the house?
I took the plunge a couple weeks ago and purchased tickets to go see Fiona Apple when she comes to Frisco in November. I've always been a fan, and I figure she could flip out at any moment and never tour again, so I should probably seize the opportunity while I can.
Anyhow, I meant to purchase tickets the morning they went on sale. Of course, I forgot all about it until the following morning, and was upset to learn that the general admission tickets for the lower floor were sold out. The Warfield has plenty of balcony seating, so I went ahead and purchased the best seats ticketmaster could find for me. Well, the tickets arrived in the mail today and I actually took a glance the seating chart to see where I wound up. Take a look below the cut... can you guess?
Upper balcony, seats 57 and 59! Boo-yeah!
Anyone ever sat up there? Should I bring my binocs?