The Finger Factor

Just wondering: has the recent proliferation of touch screen devices had any impact on the popularity of messy finger foods?

My Photographs - Hot Rod Cafe

I haven't posted about a photo in a while, so here's one I did recently: Hot Rod Cafe.

We went downtown to get some lunch at a place that we hadn't tried before. On our way in from where we parked we crossed in front of this hot rod car parked across the street from it. I wanted to take some shots out there, but the traffic was a bit heavy and we were hungry so we scooted on across. While we waited for our food I got a few shots, framing the window & car in different ways, which took a few extra tries with the other traffic driving by.

Lunch was good. I had a fried shrimp po-boy. It wasn't made with proper crispy crusted New Orleans style French bread, but it had been so long since I'd had one at all it did just fine. We also tried French fried sweet potatoes for the first time. Good? Let's just say we've been back a couple times since.

After downloading the images I went over them and picked this one out as the best. I tweaked it a bit to bring out the darker areas, and applied a sepia tone to all but the car to make it pop out a bit and emphasize the age of the cafe. I think it came out pretty good, though since doing it I have learned a different method for masking the sepia which would be easier to edit later if I found any flaws.

Prints and other items featuring this photo are available for purchase.
Hot Rod Cafe Custom Framed Prints and Greeting Cards at imagekind.com
Hot Rod Cafe Posters and Greeting Cards at zazzle.com

What My Wife Got Me For My Birthday

A New York style cheesecake! And a small jar of chocolate fudge topping to go with it. :)

A Story Of A Squishy Gift

I got some nice things for Christmas this year. What I'll likely enjoy most are the DVD sets of Superbad (from my wife,) the complete Blackadder series (from my in-laws,) and the second season of HBO's Rome (from my parents, who apparently didn't notice the first season was still on my wishlist. Oh well. My birthday's not far off.) The most memorable, though, was something much more ephemeral, but it's not memorable for the nature of the gift itself, but rather on what happened to it.

My parents sent us a box of gifts for us, my in-laws, and our niece & nephews on my wife's side. We opened the box yesterday and among the individually wrapped gifts inside were a couple small round-ended gifts for me. They felt soft and I squeezed them a bit, guessing they were socks or some such thing.

This morning my wife and I opened our gifts from each other and from my parents. I squeezed the soft ones again, still speculating they were socks. I opened the first one and found that whatever it was was wrapped in bubble wrap. That was a good thing because it turned out to be a chocolate Hubig's pie. Oops. The other was the same thing. I opened and ate the softer-feeling of the two and it turned out fine, if cracked in one or two places. I think being surrounded by plastic kept the crust a bit moister than it would have been, and therefore a bit less prone to crumbling. That was fortunate. I can only imagine their condition had I squeezed them like I did if they were wrapped unprotected.

Maybe I'll post more later. For now I need to work on some Secret Headquarters business to prepare for tomorrow.

Happy Holidays!

Nine Eggs Fertilized

We went in for the egg retrieval and sperm collection yesterday and just got the fertilization report this morning: Nine fertilized out of an attempted 18. If I recall correctly, last time we had five out of about a dozen, so we're doing better.

The retrieval and collection went about like last time, except for being cold and rainy and my wife's recovery from the anesthesia taking a bit longer. They used a bit more this time because, and we just learned this Sunday, she was moving around a bit during the procedure last time. After she came out of it she was fine except for her blood pressure being a bit low. They monitored her for a while to make sure it was at least stable and finally let us go around 1PM after a call to our doctor for approval. The procedure had been around 9:30.

The sperm collection went a bit better than the first time, or at least the scrub-up before was much less messy. I left a bit of water on the floor the first time. I also don't recall being instructed to scrub to the elbows last time. Hmmm. It didn't seem to hurt things that I didn't then. The collection was in the same room as last time. (Did I ever post the pictures I took of te decor? I'll check and edit them into this post tonight if not.) They had some of the same magazines and some new ones. I went with the new ones, settling on a recent Penthouse. Black Tail also gets credit for an assist.

After they released us we drove to a nearby mall and ate at Panera. We both had some hot soup. It was good to get some food in our stomachs. I hadn't had anything but a glass of orange juice all day, and my wife hadn't had anything at all since the night before. (Though they did give her a few crackers and some ginger ale after the procedure.)

We had been planning for me to do some painting in the house, finally finishing a room where access to one end is blocked by our computer desks, and all the junk that naturally accumulates around them. With the long recovery and heavy post-Thanksgiving Sunday traffic, though, we didn't get home until after 4:30 so I didn't get much more done than mostly cleaning off my desk. I'll do some more tonight, but save the computer removal for last.

The embryo transfer will be Wednesday. We're still waiting for the time. They're supposed to call us tomorrow once they know which couples will be doing what that day. Hopefully we'll have enough develop well to leave us some to freeze. If they all do well I'm inclined to put back four to maximize our chances this time. Embryos don't always survive the freeze and thaw process, so having the other five frozen should give us enough for another try or two if we need it, or want another child later. It should be significantly less expensive and uncomfortable to do another cycle with frozen embryos.

Things can still go wrong, but so far it's better than last time and we've corrected what problems we can that we identified from the first try. I think our chances are good.

Another Week Another T-shirt Contest

In case you missed it, I won last week's Swaggy Challenge. The topic was "grilled cheese" and this was the winning entry. I think it took me about three hours to make. It's not without flaws. The lamp has no switch, though I guess that could be on its unseen base. The light cone ends abruptly at a curve near the bottom of the dark frame. It's a bit subtle, I suppose, so I guess nobody took significant notice of it. The cheese is floating in mid-air, or at least the light isn't hitting whatever it's sitting on. I could pass that off as a minimalist design choice made for the purpose of minimizing distracting elements, but to be honest it's mostly because I just plain forgot to put a circle of light under the cheese. I thought of it after submitting the design, but either in hindsight or in a fit of self-justification, I convinced myself the existing design was the better direction. Good enough, I guess.

At first when I saw the topic of the contest, I hadn't a clue what kind of design I could come up with for "grilled cheese", but soon my twisted little mind hit on another meaning of "grilled." The wheels started turning as I played out the surreal scene in my head. When I imagined the cheese ratting out one of his cheese buddies, I knew what I wanted to do, but I wasn't sure I could do it. I initially pictured a full interrogation room scene, with table, light, crappy walls with barred windows in the background, or maybe a big presumably two-way mirror. I didn't think I could pull it off, but I thought maybe if I took a photo of a block of cheese on a table, lit by a desk lamp, with my finger pointing threateningly at it, I could at least fake a blurred background. The props never came together, so just to see what my limits were I started doing a rough drawing on the computer.

As it came together I soon realized that a simple cheese & lamp scene would be able to convey the whole idea. Throwing the frame and black background behind it let the lamp show up on white shirts and dark, while placing the cheese in a really dark scary place, but partitioned off from our amusing view of it from the outside. (How's that for analyzing art?)

Anyway, the entrants were revealed and I figured on maybe making the top three, perhaps with a tight race for second. The voting went on, seemingly forever. And finally the results were announced. It was a tight race all right, but I had just nudged into first. Wow.

So that brings us to the current contest. Again I will not be revealing my design here until the voting is done, but I can tell you the topic: Bionic Turkey. I think some heavier hitters among the designers selling at Cafepress are taking interest this time around, so my chances might not be so good, particularly since I did another last-day entry but this time not one I could minimalize so well. It was actually my second favorite idea. I'll tell you about my first choice later and about why I didn't go with it. Meanwhile, take a click over to the Swaggy Challenge website and rate the designs.

Your Next Eatin' Out With The Guys Shirt

I'm not sure how I was struck with the inspiration to make this one. I think it may have been sparked after my wife and I had one of out occasional playful exchanges of numerous obscene gestures. Anyway, the concept came to me and worked as an eatin' out shirt so here it is: "Not An Obscene Gesture". The border around the text is a bread texture, and is not present on white shirts. The font was chosen because it looks a bit like it could have been drawn on in sauce squeezed from a bottle. (I may actually revise this a bit, adding some highlights to the text so it looks more like sauce.)

So Friggin' Hot!

I'm eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby. The car thermometer said 103° when we left to drop off a package, and 106° when we got back. I allow myself one of these a month, and, dang it, this is the day for it. I also got a Snapple raspberry iced tea to go with it.

Dad Update

My father was moved to a regular room yesterday. He's impatient to get out, and everyone thinks it's going to be a problem getting him to stick with better diet & exercise habits.

My wife and I were discussing what kind of get-well gift to send him. I thought of how much he loves his native Cajun food and how bad it is for him and did a search. I found a cookbook of Cajun recipes modified to be heart-healthy. It was written by a woman who had written other Cajun cookbooks, after her husband's bypass surgery. It'll be perfect. I found it in an ebay store - it's apparently out of print - so I won't post a link lest anyone else grab it before I can. (I'll add a link afte I order.) We'll probably order him a non-flowering plant as well - something to add a little oxygen to the air without making him sneeze. I can't imagine sneezing while healing a split-open chest would be very pleasant.

A Pre-Lunch Snack

My wife picked up a pack of roasted pepper hummus and mini-pitas this morning to have as a snack today. She finished the pitas but the hummus was only about halfway finished. I'm finishing it off, dipping my whole grain cheddar Goldfish crackers in it. It's all I've got. It's actually not bad.

What do you dip in your hummus?

An Embarrassing Mistake

I'm having Lean Cuisine shrimp & angel hair pasta for lunch today, but when I took it out of the microwave I was scandalized to find some of the shrimp were not cooked. I figured they were supposed to be pre-cooked. I decided to contact Stouffer's and had taken this picture to send to them. I was looking at the box to find their web site when I noticed the step in the instructions I had skipped. I was supposed to stir it and put it cooking longer. Oops! I finished cooking it and it's just fine.

Important News Alert

• Recalled canned goods with botulism still on shelves. Watch out!
• FDA page listing products - Chili Products (Botulism) Recall (Includes Canned Chili, Stew, Hash, BBQ, Gravy, and Pet Food Products)
• FDA page with disposal instructions and FAQ

Busy Little Ant

This weekend as we were leaving my sister in law's house we spotted this ant rapidly dragging a large cake crumb along the front walk. This was the best shot I could get before it went over the side into the grass. I got a bit of video of it struggling with it in the grass, but haven't sent it to my email from my phone.

Anyway, I believe this is my first picture post with a pic taken with my new phone. It's my first phone with a camera - an LG VX8300 - and it's pretty neat.

Last Weekend - Finally

I just realized I said I'd blog about what we did last weekend, but never did. I'm a bit restless in anticipation of tomorrow (see previous entry) so I guess I'll work a bit of that off by writing this entry.

It started off with an invitation to a birthday party for a cousin of my wife's who she hasn't seen for years. Turns out it was sent at the instigation of another cousin we saw at my wife's grandmother's recent funeral. It was to be in relatively unfamiliar territory for us, a couple hours' drive away in Williamsburg, and with mostly strangers attending, so at the last minute, in the hotel suite we shared with my in-laws, we decided to blow it off.

Instead of going to the party, we drove down the street to a K-Mart and bought swim suits, then hit the indoor pool at the hotel. It was nice, about 80 degrees, but a bit salty. I think maybe it was desalinated sea water, but maybe it was some weird chemical they were using. Who knows? We had fun, swimming back and forth (for the first time in a couple years) and playing around. Afterward we went out to eat, ending up at Chili's. On the way out there was a fife & drum playing next door.

Apparently, Jamestown was having its 400th anniversary, and Bush was there exploring his future career options. There were lots of people in town, taking shuttle buses to Jamestown for the celebrations.

While driving around deciding where to eat, we spotted some horses in a field surrounded by a split rail fence. We parked and walked across the street, hoping to put them a bit, but the wandered off to graze. One apparently had an itchy belly. He tried to scratch with his foot but couldn't reach, so he lowered himself to the ground and wriggled around. It was weird.

The next day we were trying to figure out what to do with our Sunday. We hadn't really found anything compelling in the brochures in the lobby. My sisters in law and their kids planned to go to Busch Gardens. My in-laws mentioned that they have a deal for residents where we can get a season pass for the price of a one-day ticket, so we figured what the heck, there's nothing to lose. We went and had fun.

We pretty much followed the same path through the park we followed last July, entering through the England area, then heading over to Italy. My wife insisted on riding the Escape From Pompei ride, getting herself splashed while I took her picture from a covered observation area. Then she rode some other rides. I didn't ride much since my back was twinging me a bit and I wanted to wait until it warmed up some. Did I mention it was sixty degrees when we arrived?

We rode the teacups, or Turkish Delight as it's called there, and hopped the train to the Canada area (or New France as they call it.) We could smell the smoked meat as we got off. Then we could smell the smoke from the designated smoking area and all the designated smokers who were there. We had arrived at the park around 11 AM, so we headed over to the German area and the Octoberfest food pavilion. We got in the cafeteria-style line and got fries, cake, drinks, and some institutional-grade pizzas. Yum! The carrot cake was pretty good. Lots of raisins, though I think it would have been better with a few less. There were German-style dancers and a band there entertaining the crowd and getting everyone to yell out "oi! oi! oi!" Her family showed up there and we talked and ate as families do, and the five-year-old refused to eat as five-year-olds do.

We headed out and took a spin on the bumper cars. I bumped my wife pretty good a few times, and she gave as good as she got. It was fun. The back of my head was hurting from smiling the whole time. After that we rode the Katapult (or Scrambler as the painted-over plate on the center structure read.) Man, that thing really whips you around. It felt like we were about to be flung across the park every time we went around. It was great. If it wasn't such a line I would have liked to go on it again. The bumper cars too.

After that we had about an hour or so before the time we wanted to head out so we'd get home right around sunset. We thought about taking a round trip on the skycars, but we asked and found out we would have to get out and get back in line at each of the other two stations. We skipped that, vowing to ride them next time, and headed toward the park entrance. When we got there it was near time for the Pirates 4-D show to begin, so we headed in.

The seats were wet, so we knew we were in for a little splashing. We picked a pair of dry seats and waited. I marveled at with the 3-D glasses on my hand looked like it was coming right at me. My wife didn't find it quite so marvelous, so I stopped. The show started. It starred Leslie Nielson and Eric Idle (who wrote it) and was obviously made with the kids in mind. The 3-D was decent, and the additional effects - spraying water, blowing air, buzzing seats, added a lot of fun to it. It was actually enjoyable having Leslie Nielson spit water on us.

After the show it was time to go, and we headed out right on schedule. There was a bit of traffic on the way home, but ultimately it only took a half hour extra.

I'm not sure when we're going to go again, but I am looking forward to it. My wife is going to be really stressed in the coming month, and more if we have to try the IVF more than once, so a little fun escape at the right time will be just the ticket.

The picture above is the Griffin, Busch Garden's latest roller coaster, as seen from the train. It was open for a one-day sneak preview opening on Mother's Day. Top center you can see the sigle car, three rows of ten seats each, I believe, poised at the top of the big drop 250 feet up. We watched it a few times from various vantage points. The car stops, hanging over the edge for a few seconds, building the suspense for the riders. The it drops plunging straight down for a portion of the drop, as you can see by the track. We did not go on that ride, though I believe one of my sisters in law did. She's a friggin nut.

A Walk With My Wife - And Who We Met

As part of our attempt to get in better shape leading up to our attempt(s) at parenthood, we've taken to taking walks, ostensibly every day. This weekend the weather forced us into the mall on one day. As soon as we had entered, we were flagged down by my mother in law who was there at the Chick-fil-a with my sister in law. We sat down with them to say hi, and then, at my wife's request, I went and got the two of us some pizza from Sbarro. I also got me a mint cookies & cream shake from Chick-fil-a. (I'm so weak. Gotta be stronger than that. :P ) After lunch and a conversation that largely revolved around the Akon/Snoop Dogg song "I wanna ---- you", we went our separate ways and continued our walk, with a little store browsing along the way. (Didn't buy anything.)

The other two days we were able to do our walking around a 3/4 mile dirt track at the local university's athletic field. At the end of our lap today, we spotted a baby bird on the track. As we approached, it took off and flew slowly a short distance and landed on one of the railroad ties lining the track. After imitating its calls (and those of the birds in the tree above) for a little bit, I approached slowly and poured a little bit of water on the end of the tie, making a small puddle a few inches across. The baby bird hopped hesitantly toward the water, but when it got within a few inches of it I guess it decided drinking in with people so near wasn't something it was comfortable with, and it flew up into the tree. We smiled and hugged a little and went on our way.

Hurt Back

Yesterday we got about ten large packages from FexEx and UPS, and I think I strained a muscle lugging them around. I have a pain on the left side of my back, about midway or so between the shoulder blade and pelvis, on the ribs. It's worse today then yesterday. Evidently it's a muscle that is involved in adjusting the torso to maintain balance while sitting. That's when I most often get twinges, if I have nothing to lean on. I have a deep enough desk at work to have room in front of the keyboard to rest my arms and lean my belly against the front of the desk, but at home my desk has the keyboard on a slide-out tray. I found sitting backwards in my chair helped. I'm glad I didn't put the arms on when I assembled it.

I've tried both ibuprofen and tylenol, and neither seem to have much effect. But then the whole thing seems to have ramped up between yesterday and today, so maybe they did keep it from being worse than it would have been. Maybe I'll try aspirin next, on the theory that the blood thinning will improve circulation to the area and help get the damaged cellular material out and the materials needed to repair it in.

Sleeping was almost impossible. I usually sleep on two pillows, but I guess the alignment isn't really quite right like that because I had to switch to one to get comfortable. And every time I shifted position it would twinge. I could barely move this morning, and my wife had to drive.

Anyway, I had an oriental chicken rollup at Applebee's for lunch, and my wife had a BLT minus the B. (She's a vegetarian, by taste.)

Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon.

What I've been doing...

So... what's up with me since Thursday? Been busy busy busy.

Naturally, I've whipped up a few more designs for cafepress. I'm up to 154, if you include size and layout variations for different items. Most recently I've refined the designs for the mugs, converting many to two-sided wrap-around designs; made a few from some renaissance & other fine art in the public domain (admittedly with a tendency towards nudes - I am what I am); and made a couple to let Katrina and other disaster survivors show a little attitude. The link's still in my links, presumably to your left unless you're reading this after Yahoo does some future redesign.

Last week we ordered new computers for home since the systems we had - still running Windows98SE - were getting a bit long in the tooth and doing an upgrade on them would take too much work. We got them local and when I placed the order I told them we'd stop by with a check so they could get started on building them. It wasn't until Saturday that we had time to do so, but as it turns out they went ahead and built the systems so we took them home sooner than anticipated.

Sunday was mostly spent celebrating my wife's birthday - I'm married to an "older woman" for the next month and a week. We went visit her folks and all went out to Macaroni Grill, then back to her folks' house for cake & ice cream and family time. It was nice. The book I got her turned out to not be a substantial as anticipated - it looks a bit like a trade paperback version of a Time-Life book. Oh well. I guess when you shop Amazon you really have to keep in mind that you really can't judge a book by its cover.

Saturday and Sunday night were spent setting mine up and learning my way around configuring Windows XP Professional. For us, that means switching it to classic mode and tweaking away as much as I can of the random quirky behaviors MS decided to add. (If we could have gotten Windows 2000 we would have.)

The first step was to switch to the classic theme to get rid of the candy/toy user interface. After that it was a matter of exploring all the configuration options offered up by Windows, and research the hidden ones (like the hidden Power User user type) on the ol' interweb. And, of course, transferring over my data from the old PC (whole drive copied over to C:\OldC on the new system for convenience) and installing my software. Let me tell ya... hunting down Y2K patches for legacy software is fun!

It's not over yet, of course. I've got most of the essentials - Agent, SeaMonkey, Miranda-IM, ftp clients, ssh terminal, spreadsheet, VB, PSP7, PageDefrag, etc. Beyond that, and one or two other work-related items, it's pretty much going to be install-on-demand. Then I've got to get my wife's new one set up. Wish me luck.

I'm planning/hoping to compile a list of the tweaks and configuration changes I've made, and my reasons for them. For now, here's a useful little program I used along the way. It makes a lot more Windows components optional than are normally, allowing you to strip out the programs and services you know you don't need, giving you a leaner, meaner, computing machine. There's a free limited-capability/unlimited-term trial version available for download.

Street Pizza

Well, my wife and I are still sick. Fortunately, that has nothing to do with this blog entry. This morning as we arrived at the shop we discovered a street pizza - or, more accurately, a parking lot pizza - right by our spot. That's the actual pizza, in situ, above. Note the tire tracks.

It got down into the mid 20s last night, so I guess the pizza got cold a little too fast for the taste of whatever kids were eating it.

Prints and other items featuring this photo are available for purchase.
Street Pizza Framed Prints and Cards at imagekind.com
Street Pizza Prints and Cards at redbubble.com
Street Pizza T-shirts and Gifts at cafepress.com
Street Pizza T-shirts and Gifts at printfection.com

Habanero Dorito Update

I just finished them off, pouring the last of the crumbs & dust right into my mouth. Yum!

I managed to finish the bag in five servings, making my servings 2.6 times as large as the suggested 13 11-chip servings. Soy muy macho.

The Perfect Chip For Dieters

All I can say is WOW!

Against all advice from the last entry's poll, I went for the Fiery Habanero Doritos. Let me just say the serving size given on the nutrition label - about 11 chips - is probably the most realistic I've ever seen on a bag of chips. These suckers are HOT!

I'm a Cajun from New Orleans, so I'm no stranger to spicy foods. I enjoy wasabi peas when my wife lets me. (She can't stand the smell of them.) The first serving I had of these chips made my nose literally sweat. I've had food do that to me before, such as the aforementioned peas and the Chipotle Chicken Burrito from Carlos O'Kellys, but not after such a small portion.

That is why I think these are the perfect chips for the dieting chip addict: they make it very easy to limit portions. As long as these are the only chips you keep in the house you will never eat too many.