26 September 2006
GOP still clueless:
Mickey Kaus notes today that the
WoPo reporters seemed shocked at the anti-illegal immigration feeling in a
district in Ohio. Of course, they drop the illegal so it can sound more like us
common folks are racists. Apparently the incompetent hacks
highly respected and professional media does get it anymore than the GOP
National Committee, President Bush or Senator Frist does. A whole lot of us out
here are sick and tired of our laws being broken, our hospitals and schools
being swamped, and our borders being an open highway so that certain industries
can get cheap labor and so that the racists of La Raza, LULAC, MEChA, et al.
aren't offended. I've been sending their fund-raising letters and emails back to
the GOP for almost a year now with no money and a note explaining as soon as
they start fixing the borders, I'll think about donation money and time again.
No answer. I get standardized letters back from my senators and congressman
saying the right thing, but the Fence Bill, an ID bill, or any other enforcement
bill gets passed. All I keep hearing about is guest workers, path to
citizenship, and other forms of avoiding saying amnesty.
Let's see: no financial restraint, no border controls, no profiling of terrorists and activities to curb their US based supporters, still a backlog on conservative judges...I'm supposed to be happy and send money, why? I can always just go out to dinner on Election Day instead of vote. This comes from someone who has been a Republican and voted in every election he could since he turned 18.
Just build the damned fence already.
UPDATE: What do you know! The Senate did pass it. Now if Bush holds true to form...
I stopped in one for a soda the other night and after being ignored for 15 minutes while the help chatted in Spanish with a friend, asked if I could order. I got no answer and instead the counter-lady turned away and walked into the back room. I left and when I got home, bitched on their website. Yesterday I missed the call from customer service. Being mildly pleased by such a prompt response, today I called them back. I got dumped into a waiting queue for 30 minutes and when I hit 0 and got an operator, they were rude. I guess it wasn't bad service, it was just company policy.Nice to know Jack doesn't want my business, because he ain't getting it anymore. I will email him the permalink thro.
UPDATE: Well, they finally got in touch with me and the gist of the story is after wasting 30 minutes of my time verifying every possible detail, they really don't give a damn. Jennifer said I'm sorry once in that time and then ended with something like "these things happen. Bye." This has been the perfect example of how to make sure the customer never comes back, because I sure won't.
Finally: He did it. Last night at class, my senior student was able to kick a wine glass on my hand and slosh the wine without knocking it over, breaking my thumb, or missing totally. There is hope. And Noah realized that shingyi requires lots of practice. Like lots. Daily. Wow! 2 satori in one day. Someone must have drugged me.
She's got to love the title: Fox News entitles its front page link to Senator Clinton's defense of her husband's childish behavior with the line: "Sen. Clinton stands by her man." What a great line about someone running for President. Note: the above link is to the story but you got to see the frontpage title on FoxNews.com. Priceless.
25 September 2006
Col. Jeff Cooper died today.
Col Cooper was a warrior, scholar, teacher and a true gentleman of the old school. I had the honor of attending Gunsite back when he was still teaching the classes personally and still remember his trying to convince the goddess to take the pistol class with me. He seemed a bit puzzled he couldn't convince her to. Apparently that hadn't happened before.
May his Memory be Eternal and Perpetual Light shine upon him.
24 September 2006
If so, then what: Sam Harris, noted atheist and advocator of removing all religion from the public sphere, has a new book "Letter to a Christian Nation" where he using small words tells Christians that we are idiots. As is the trend in modern scientific circles, he doesn't even accept that belief in an evolution guided by God is acceptable. So having read his first book and the question and answer on his publisher's webpage, I have a question. If their is no god, if we are just the products of random forces without rhyme or reason - and Lord knows I've had more than a few periods in my life when I felt that - why should any of us then care about anything but our immediate comfort? Because if Harris is right, then Mao was too when he said "power comes from the barrel of a gun." Therefore my actions should be totally focused on gaining as much advantage for me as possible.
Cases for atheistic ethics come from arguments about human dignity, genetic survival, common heritage, etc. Okay if we are freed of God and the obligations that come from Him, you can use that. Except you have no argument at all against mine that we are totally free to act anyway we please. That includes nuking other countries that cross us (damage to the Earth? so what? Remember random forces? I'm just another one), exterminating enemies and inconvenient species, committing what is now considered crimes and atrocities (those scum that rapes the girl in Iraq...hell let them go as morality doesn't exist), re-instituting slavery and serfdom (hey if they aren't strong enough to prevent it then what rule stops me? - consensus? Well, Harris thinks the religious are too stupid to vote and why should I care what the majority thinks? What makes them more right than me?) Someone said that people who say if God didn't exist they would have no morality scared him because what happens if they lose their faith. Well, be afraid because I was a damned bastard when I was an agnostic and if I ever stopped believing in God, I see no reason why I should care about anyone or anything. After all, if it got really bad, I'd just off myself.
The failure here is the same type of failure that the Libertarian approach to society runs into. Without a common code, and a reason for it, society falls apart and the rule of the strongest takes over. Of course, I am avoiding arguments for the existance of God or the truth of the Gospels to make a point. The alternate is an animal-like existance made worse by man's incredible ability to destroy...
Williams wrote: "The Chi-Rho like all words is but a scratching. But when the sky turns, the Chi Rho is the only scratching." That actually was what saved my soul, total despair - if the logical extension of my life was a meaningless search for something among random chances, why should anything be wrong? And yet parts of me, what I call the firewall installed by Grandfather, kicked in at certain points and said "any farther, and you'll fall and never arise." There is that point, although none of us can say where it is for any one person, and once its crossed, I believe we are damned to the point we can not accept the Grace of God. At that point, the Glory of God becomes as fire and we run from it. I have seen people descend into Hell, as Williams so horribly detailed in the book of that title. And so unwillingly, unhappily, and with great reservation, I turned back to the faith in Christ God. I've not always been happy with my choice but I've been content as the alternative is either total amorality or Harris's self-deception.
Harris, like others of his ilk who argue for ethics without faith, wants to draw, has to draw on the ideas of virtue and rights that come from a Christianized worldview. If he didn't, he would have written a very different book, one similar to the stuff published by Larry Flynn.
23 September 2006
If it's true: and Bin Laden died from fever about a month ago, that's great news. Why? Because martyrs don't die from disease in their own safe spot nor are the favored of Allah stuck down by disease. If we had killed him, he would have died fighting the infidel, but no, if true, this means the judgment of God has fallen on him... after all, all things are Allah's will, no?
Let's read it a bit differently, shall we: Michelle Malkin posts a letter about herself from a VP of the Assocaited Press. I'll skip the issue she posted it over and ask instead you to read these paragraphs:
Journalists interview and photograph murderers, child molesters, kidnappers, and, yes, even terrorists, when they cover news that the public has a right to know, such as the reality of the insurgency in Iraq. To cover the conflicts in our world, journalists must have contact with the people who engage on various sides of the conflict. While AP understands that its journalists may be detained briefly during a military sweep on occasion, indefinite detention without charges is not acceptable.
AP is insisting that the U.S. military follow accepted due process under the law and the Geneva Conventions – that is, give Bilal Hussein the chance to see any evidence and answer formal charges; if the evidence is not there, release him.
So basically the AP wants to have access to scum with no obligation to society or their country to turn them in but wants the US to honor a convention that our opponents haven't signed. What absolute gall! How about we just start treating the AP staff like what they act like? You know traitors and enemies? I think those are the words for those who work with people trying to destroy you and who sell our their country for any reason? (Editor: but its a good reason. This way they get to see American soldiers tortured and killed and that warms their little liberal hearts)
I swear I'd rather have my kids tell me they were crack whores than journalists.
22 September 2006
Answers to the Poetry Quiz: Not that anyone seemed to try this time. Ah, well, a man born out of time, that's me. The part I used for last weeks Carnival is in italics.
Daddy fixed the breakfast
He gave us each a waffle
It looked like gravel pudding
It tasted something awful.
Mommy Slept Late and Daddy made Breakfast by John Cairdi
One of the goddess's choices, althro the Daddy in his house, like his father, can actually make waffles from scratch.
Once in a while, King Solomon said
Watching his quarrymen drill the stone
We will club our garlic and wine and bread
and banquet together beneath my throne
and all of the brethren shall come to that mess
as fellow craftsmen - no more and no less
Banquet Night by Rudyard Kipling
One of his several poems with Masonic imagery...
And they drank their health and gave them a feast
of dumplings made of beautiful yeast
And everyone said "if we only live
We too will go to sea in a sieve."
to the hills of tje Chankly Bore!
far and few, far and few
are the lands where the Jumblies live;
their heads are green and their hands are blue
and they went to sea in a sieve.
The Jumblies by Edmund Lear
For cows do greatly love their ease
which doth insures best grade of cheese
To us it is a glorious theme
to sing of milk and curds and cream
Were it collected it could float
on its bosom small stream boat
cows as numerous as swarm of bees
are milked in Oxford to make cheese
Oxford Cheese Ode by John McIntyre
Rillons, Rilletes, they taste the same
and would by any other name
and are, if I may risk a joke,
alike as two pigs in a poke.
Rillions, Rilletes by Richard Wilbur
These are different regional names for same type of meat paste served on toast that include pork or pork fat. Those of us exposed to Deviled Ham in the can have seen the dark side of the lovely rillion.
The common cormorant or shag
hides its eggs inside of paper bags.
The reason you will see no doubt
is to keep the lightning out.
But what those unobservant birds
have never noticed is herds
of wandering bears may come with buns
and steal the bags to hold the crumbs
Birds, Bags, Bears and Buns by Anon.
Yes, I know it sounds like Lear or Carroll but its author is apparently unknown, according to the book I learned it from. It's one the goddess insisted I include as I tend to recite it at random and it makes her laugh.
I do not like the simple life
besides I can not stand the grub
I want a mash and
sausage, "scored"
Will someone take me to a pub?
A Ballade of an Anti-Puritan by G. K. Chesterton
There were so many food, beer and wine choices in Chesterton it was hard to pick one. I had the same problem with Kipling.
Simplicity and Moderation
distinguish all the brute creation
but man -proud man (as Dryden sings)
though wolfing quantities of things
smoked salmon in transparent slices
A Reproof of Gluttony by H. Belloc
From his lovely book, Cautionary Verses, it was supposed to go under the entry where we were promised planked salmon recipe but I misplaced it and it made less sense where it ended up. It's still a silly yet instructive poem.
It's in Bolton Hall and the clock strikes one
And the roast meats brown and the boiled meats done
and barbecu'd suckling pig's crisp'd to a turn
and the pancakes are fried and beginning to burn
The Lay of St. Cuthbert by R.H. Barham
And the menu goes on but the guest is late so the host curses it all. Oops. The devil takes him up on it and then it gets interesting. A very silly poem with an amazing menu. I'd had been early.
And this reviving herb whose tender green
fledges the river-lip on which we lean
ah, lean upon it lightly, got who knows
from what once lovely lip it springs unseen
The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam (translated by Edmund Fitzgerald)
Like the Psalms in the King James Version, this translation is great poetry in English and has not in my opinion been matched. I had originally planned to use the best known of the Rubaiyats verses to flirt with Shawn, but decided that she might not take it well from a stranger old enough to be her father. So instead of:
A book of verses beneath the bough
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, - and thou
beside me singing in the wilderness -
Oh, wilderness were paradise enow!
She got the supper suggested by Jonson (see below) instead. These lines above still fit our adorable and lovely carnival mistress, but you gotta be careful with them southern girls as Florence King warns...
my ladder. And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
After Apple Picking by Robert Frost
Another of the goddess's favorites poems as well as favorite times of year and one of the few things from New England I miss in Texas - fresh apples
Oh the wild joys of living, the leaping from rock to rock,
The strong rending of boughs from the fir tree, - the cool silver shock
of the plunge into a pool's living water - the hunt of the bear,
and the sultriness showing a lion couched in his lair
And the meal - rich dates yellowed over with gold dust divine
and the locust flesh steeped in the pitcher! the full draught of wine.
And the sleep in the dried river channel where the bulrushes tell
that the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well
How good is the life of man, the mere living!
Saul by Robert Browning
I tripped over this in Other Men's Flowers by A Wavell, and that's when I started reading Browning. This stanza is a great cure for those dark fey days that come with winter's gloom.
Now when thumbs are muscled with the power of goodwill
corn comes to the mill and flour to the house
bread of love for your women and my men
at the turn of the day and none only to earn
in the day of the turn and none only to pay.
for the hall is raised to the power of exchange of all
Bors to Elayne: on the Kings Coins by Charles Williams
Williams, the unknown inkling as a friend called him, wrote everything from theology to novels to poetry is rarely read today and its most commonly known line is from Lewis' That Hideous Strength, where one of the heroes quote it: "All lies in a passion of patience" Williams has been one of my favorite poets for years although I found him through his novels. These lines come from a discussion about money...
Light up your pipe again, old chum, and sit awhile with me
I got to watch the bannock bake - how restful is the air
While the Bannock bakes by Robert Service
A story of strong friendship with a twisting ending...
Great Chieftain o the puddin'-race
aboon them a' ye tak your place
Painch, tripe and thairm:
Address to a Haggis by Robert Burns
Come on, y'all got this one, didn't you? Everyone knows about the Burns Supper, I hope? How can you be a foodie otherwise?
Yet shall you have, to rectify your palate
an olive, caper or some better salad
ushering the mutton with a short-leg'd hen
if we can get her, full of eggs, and then
lemons and wine for sauce, to these a coney
Inviting a Friend to Supper by Ben Jonson
The meal goes on from here for a bit but its the guest that makes it special. Hence the use of this for Shawn, also because I was afraid my preferred verse above would have her take a restraining order out on me. <is joke> Actually compared to some I've been know to quote, it is tame
We that have done and thought
that have thought and done,
must ramble and thin out
like milk spilt on a stone.
Spilt Milk by William Butler Yeats
That's the whole poem and it's wonderfully fey Yeats.
Kilmeny, Kilmeny where have you been?
Lang has we sought baith holt and den
by linn, by ford, and green wood tree
Kilmeny by James Hogg
The story of a girl who got stolen by the fairies and come home elf-stuck. The better known lines are those speaking of her being touched by the glamour of Fairie and not able to speak of it. Elves and Fairie are dangerous to those of mortal clay, a fact everyone but Terry Pratchett seems to have forgotten today
While I do sing "Any food, any feeding,
Feeding, drink or clothing
Kind maid or dame, be not afraid
Poor Tom will injure nothin'
Tom o' Bedlam's Song by Anon.
I was tired and I know this one by heart so it got stuck it. It's a very strange old English folksong and there is several mentions to foods in it but bacon or cockle pottage didn't really fit either.
So how did you do? Let me know in the comments.
17 September 2006
Cheese-making Try 2:
The ricotta or cottage cheese was so easy that we tried mozzarella this
morning after services. First thing is why the hell do they send you rennet in
tablet form when 
all the books, websites, and tapes say use liquid rennet. The
dang stuff is as impossible to get into solution as I remembered. <sigh> So
anyway, we took
1 gallon whole milk
1.5 tsp citric acid in a cup DI water
1/4 tablet rennet dissolved into 1/4 cup DI water
iodine-free salt
In a large pot heat the milk and the citric acid solution to 88 F. Remove from heat and add the rennet solution. In about 10-15 minutes we got a very soft gel with a clear whey. Should have taken 8-10. Letting it sit another 5 didn't help. Next time I'm using either more tablet or the liquid stuff. I am sure it all didn't dissolve. So we cut the curd into chunks using a frosting knife and dumped them into a colander to drain. The drained curds were then squeezed to remove water and put in the microwave and heated for 1 minute on high. They were remove and kneaded with a spoon to remove more whey. I repeated this three times and then started to heat in 30 second intervals until a elastic and shiny curd resulted. Internal temperature was 140 F. We stretched and pulled the curd and then salted it with 2 tsp of plain salt and reheated. (note to self: cut the salt in half next time). We put in a glass bowl lined with wax paper and chilled in the frig until cool.
Not bad. A bit soft, but not bad. I think we messed up with the rennet and we need to pull more.
Carnival of Recipes #109
The Poetry Quiz Edition
So I had no clue of what to do as a theme. Therefore, I punted and we have the Carnival of Recipes Poetry Quiz. The recipes are roughly in the order received and the poems stuck in where I could. I'll post the authors and titles next week.
Our first recipe this week came from Peggy at Blabber Heads. She sends us this recipe for Crock Pot Chili, which looks really good. I could point out that beans don't belong in chili but the goddess doesn't listen to me on that, so why should Peggy? Anyway this looks like a nice dish to come home to on those cold autumn nights, which should hit Texas in about 2 months. Much better than the pancakes or waffles some of us make in a rush...
He gave us each a waffle
It looked like gravel pudding
It tasted something awful.
John from EclectEcon sends for his first submission to the Carnival a recipe for Peanut butter Pasta. An adaptation of the Szechuan classic, its a nice dish for vegatarians or those pesty Orthodox fast days. We make something similar so I may give this variation a try next Wednesday. The garlic in this lead me to:
We will club our garlic and wine and bread
and banquet together beneath my throne
and all of the brethren shall come to that mess
Anywhere in the south, you got to know how to make fried chicken if you claim to cook. Bill of World Famous Recipes sends us a nice recipe for basic fried chicken. It's nice recipe using buttermilk and with lots of room to play and add your own secret spices. What goes well with chicken?
And they drank their health and gave them a feast
of dumplings made of beautiful yeast
My own recipe this week is for homemade ricotta or
cottage style cheese. As one of the commenter's said, you can spice it up or
you can add it to eggs noodles and minced onions fried in butter for a
quick meatless meal. Speaking of cheese:
For cows do greatly love their ease
which doth insures best grade of cheese
To us it is a glorious theme
to sing of milk and curds and cream
and continuing with the cheese theme, Jennifer at
Keewees Corner sends in a recipe
I hope to be able to make from scratch
by Christmas. She's making
Cheddar Cheese Soup and I can just imagine it with a venison rillion
and a nice french bread:
Rillons, Rilletes, they taste the same
and would by any other name
and are, if I may risk a joke,
alike as two pigs in a poke.
Another crock pot recipe comes to us from Thally at Chicken Recipes. It's for a crock pot version of Chicken Casablanca and it looks wonderfully spicey. Now not a chicken but still
The common cormorant or shag
hides its eggs inside of paper bags.
The reason you will see no doubt
is to keep the lightning out.
But what those unobservant birds
have never noticed is herds
of wandering bears may come with buns
and steal the bags to hold the crumbs
Joanne of Nourished down in Australia sends us a recipe for biltong, a form of jerky. Now this is one my boys, both who love to make and consume jerky, will love. Joanne does suggest its difficult to get anyone over three to eat a lump of raw meat...well, I'd never disagree with a lady but my kids (and me) think cooking meat ruins it. Maybe its a Texas thang?
I want a mash and sausage, "scored"
Will someone take me to a pub?
Gerry sends us a recipe by Joel Fuhrman for a pair of desserts gone nutty. The banana one would sure be a hit here and no one refuses ice cream pies. There are also some recipes at Disease Proof for soups my boys would hate: veggie rich soups that look pretty tasty and look pretty easy to make.
Simplicity and Moderation
distinguish all the brute creation
but man -proud man (as Dryden sings)
though wolfing quantities of things
smoked salmon in transparent slices
Allen has a blog that just the title of makes me interested. From Tasty Pork Recipes, we get this lovely recipe for Sweet Caroline Ribs. Now, normally I prefer Texas BBQ but I could be induced to try these a time or two.
And the roast meats brown and the boiled meats done
and barbecu'd suckling pig's crisp'd to a turn
and the pancakes are fried and beginning to burn
Over at Rebuilding Eden, John has a surplus of tomatoes. Now what can he do with these? My sister-in-law would make sauce, but John goes for Salsa Time, and he doesn't mean the dance. Lots of detailed instructions in the subtleties of turning tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro into salsa.
and this reviving herb whose tender green
fledges the river-lip on which we lean
Diane at Out of Ambit has
a two part post on an
Apple Tart that looks just lovely (see below). The first part is
here.
Apples are one of the things I really miss in Texas. Unlike places like North
Georgia and New England, we are limited to what's in the grocery store. Can't
you just see the above with some lovely
Arkansas black?
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
Riannan from In the Headlights has a recipe for a spinach canneloni that looks just great. I'm no fan of spinach, except as prepared in India food, but I think this might get me to eat the stuff. It looks wonderful.
And the meal - rich dates yellowed over with gold dust divine
and the locust flesh steeped in the pitcher! the full draught of wine.
From Kicking over my Traces, Cehwiedel sends us a recipe for Ginger Bread Men that makes me wish it was cool enough to bake down here. <sigh> Maybe next week...
corn comes to the mill and flour to the house
bread of love for your women and my men
at the turn of the day and none only to earn
in the day of the turn and none only to pay.
Gary from Foodies across Borders is making Lemon and Fennel Risotto. A lovely recipe that went well with his cedar planked salmon (a dish we love here too, and it gives us something to do with cedar board ends.) He leads us on however, with promises of that recipe soon and it sounds like worth waiting for.
Light up your pipe again, old chum, and sit awhile with me
I got to watch the bannock bake - how restful is the air
Next week's host, Men in Aprons,
sends us this dessert recipe for
Rice Pudding with
Chocolate Sauce. Adam's
got a winner here at my house. The goddess loves chocloate and the boys and I love rice pudding in all its forms. Speaking of
another type of pudding:
Great Chieftain o the puddin'-race
aboon them a' ye tak your place
Painch, tripe and thairm:
Our hardworking and incredibly sweet carnival manager, Shawn, has sent us a recipe for Roasted Sweet Potato Salad from her blog, Everything and Nothing. Roasted sweet potatoes are a wonderful thing and something I discovered only on moving to the South. Up north they do bad things to them. We cook a lot of them on the grill in foil and this recipe looks like a good way to use up left over ones. I was going to be flirtatious with this but decided instead to consider a dinner I'd like to share with her:
Yet shall you have, to rectify your palate
an olive, caper or some better salad
ushering the mutton with a short-leg'd hen
if we can get her, full of eggs, and then
lemons and wine for sauce, to these a coney
And that's it for this week. See you next week at Men in Aprons. Send your submissions in by either the Blog Carnival or directly to recipe.carnival@gmail.com. We're also listed on the UberCarnival and the Conservative Cat.
We that have done and thought
that have thought and done,
must ramble and thin out
like milk spilt on a stone.
LATE ARRIVALS: Just one but it does make one does ask
Kilmeny, Kilmeny where have you been?
Lang has we sought baith holt and den
by linn, by ford, and green wood tree
From a carnival regular, triticale - the wheat / rye guy, we get a post entitled Pizzadillas, Elvis Burritos and S'moretillas, which has three quick recipes for what looks is fast comfort food. Comfort food is a good thing in my book.
While I do sing "Any food, any feeding,
Feeding, drink or clothing
Kind maid or dame, be not afraid
(Okay I'm pushing it on this one....but its late and I'm sleepy)
UPDATE: Haloscan had some "issues" with some of the trackbacks, so if you didn't get one and expected one, please email me the information and I will try again.
16 September 2006
Fisheye lens: It finally got here. My 8mm fisheye for the Olympus E500. It's dang cool.
Look! A badgie in his burrow
Another example of Islam's tolerance, twisted reporting and Patriarchal sell-out: So the head of the Roman Catholic Church quotes on well-known set of comments from an Orthodox Emperor to a Persian about Islam's habit with killing and enslaving non-Moslems in the context of suggesting all religiously motivated violence is bad. How does the religion of peace respond? With violence, threats, street-demonstrations, and accusations of prejudice. They act as if the Pope suggested that we in the west should start treating Moslems like Copts are treated in Egypt, Orthodox in Kosovo, or Christians in Saudi Arabia. Islam as a whole can accept no criticism and will tolerate no disagreement. (For example, note the number of Christian and Jewish houses of worship in Saudi.) This is why I think Reynolds is wrong in his disagreement with the Vodka pundit. (Reynolds position on the pope's statement I do agree with; my concern is the difference in cultures is so great as that most Americans do not see the risks and dangers. We are facing fanatics who make communists seem open-minded.) Until a greater part of Islam than not looks at this behavior as disgusting and shameful, there is no way the West can safely accept its presence among us without risking its own safety. Australia's government is right: if you are not willing to tolerate differences, learn and accept our ways, and live with others as equals, you don't belong here. It is Islam's problem in that it has never been able to deal with other faiths except in a state of war (see Thailand, India, Iraq, Kosovo, Russia, etc) and as long as we accept the claim its just the fringe, rather than the majority of the faith, that tolerates and enables this behavior, then we are lying to ourselves. If it was the majority of the faith wanted peace and co-existance, these people would be as isolated as Phelps and his damned ilk are among Christians. Yes, there are Moslems in this country that are beginning to speak out against the insanity but the group that claims to speak to American Moslems, CAIR, has advocated the establish of Sharia law in the US as well as routinely supports this crap. Where is the general outcry against them? How come the Moslem objections only come when other Moslems die and not when non-Moslems are slaughtered? I know moslems who oppose this crap but they are terrified of speaking out.
Interesting through how the news all says religious leaders rather than Moslem leaders. Funny, when Jewish or Hindus disagree with Christians the religion is right in the title. It took two paragraphs before it mentions, these religious leaders, well, okay they are Moslem... If it were Protestants or Jews and Catholics, that would have been the title. So along with falsifications and bias in reporting, we have cowardice? And the media wonders why they are trusted less than politicians and crack whores? BTW, Benedict did not reference an obscure medieval text but a well-known Byzantine one, at least to the historically literate. Of course, a knowledge of history as well as math and science is not required to be a journalist...but they are more dependable than bloggers. Just ask them.
We'll skip explaining that if you are Christian by any reasonable definition, you have to believe Islam is a false religion. Sorry if it hurts their little feelings, but I understand my Jewish friends feel the same way about my faith. They'd have too unless they are planning to convert and I don't think the pope has expressed his desire to embrace Islam either. Similarly my coworkers and friends in other religions don't believe Orthodoxy is right either. I got over it.
And then we have the Patriarch of Constantinople, who by the way is not the Head of the Orthodox Church, sucking up to his Turkish masters... No wonder the Church of Greece wanted its own head. Now I can understand his fears as the little forgotten episodes of how the religion of peace dealt with the Armenians and the Greeks of the Pharr (while the western world watched and did nothing...you should read how the English warships let Greek women and children die in the water rather than help and offend the Turks.) However, he of all people should be willing to admit the truth as that text was written in his city when it was free of Islamic rule and when Hagia Sophia was a temple of Jesus Christ and not a bloodstained mosque.
UPDATE: And the pope wussies out. And Moslems kill more Christians.... And apparently the US is now threatened with nuclear attacks.
UPDATE 2: Better said than I ever could.
14 September 2006
ACS Meeting in San Francisco: The ACS Meeting
was, as always, interesting from both the science presented, so of which was
fascinating, and the social. The old saying that when chemists have a convention
the bars close early and the whores go on vacation seems to still hold true.
Evening sessions were as well attended as the ones in the day. Chemists of both
sex seem to think that tee shirts and jeans are acceptable everywhere and that
strangers will be interested in their research. I felt so at home - well, until
I walked out into the pit of a city that liberal social policies has ruined. The
only place I felt at home there was Chinatown. One of the best attended booths
in the expo was these two guys who created a
card battle game using
the elements
as Pokemon-like creatures. Your valence electrons are your hit points and the
other powers come from the element's properties. My young geek-lings love it
already. I also ran into the New Scientist magazine, which seems to be a
great way to keep up on the harder sciences Science News doesn't cover.
That assuming you can cope with the anti-religious/catholic and "reality-based"
community crap...these are the first people I've seen that think "reality-based
community" is a good thing. I obviously need to get out less...
Doc and Laura rescued me one night and dragged me out to the Stinking Rose, a garlic themed restaurant, which caused me to sweat garlic for the next two days. Lovely food and great company.
The photos are a sunrise and a night view of the city and bay from my 44th floor balcony...its not my employer has decided to spoil me but that the Hilton messed up and gave away my room. So they stuck me in the sitting room of a suite with a pull-out bed for 3 days. The view was great but didn't quite make up for the lack of a real bed, bad internet and no storage space. Since I was mostly at the conference, I guess it could have been worse.
11 September 2006
May God have mercy on their souls.
Never Forget.
9 September 2005
First attempts at Cheese
making: Not really, if you count the egg cheese we make at
Pascha, but the first attempts to systemically 
understand how this all works. My
first attempt was a really simple cottage cheese made with the recipe from
this site. I used a variation
based on this
cheesemaking book but its basically acid, hot milk, and salt.
1 gallon whole milk less a pint
1 pint heavy cream*
1/2 cup white vinegar
salt to taste
Heat the milk to 190 F and add the vinegar. Mix well and remove from the heat.
Let cool to room temperature (I put in the sink with ice water - see above) and pour the cirds and whey into a
colander to
collect the curd. (Feed to the whey to any available teenagers - since we don't
keep pigs). Add salt to taste and cool in frig. Eat. You get roughly 2.5 pounds
of cheese (about a quart), depending on how much you drain it. Cost about
5.50 worth of milk and the vinegar. Time about a half hour.
It's really as simple as it sounds. This stuff actually looks and tastes like the small curd cottage cheese you could buy in delis where I was raised as opposed to that chewy stuff they sell in stores. Cold, its going to be awesome for breakfast with milk, sugar, and sliced fruit. It's very similar to what you can get in small towns in Louisiana as Cajun cheese.
*Everyone warns you about using ultra-pasteurized milk and cream. While none of the local milk was UP, almost all the heavy cream and half-and-half was.
UPDATE: Worked great in lasagna. Just like good ricotta. As it dried in storage, it looked more ricotta like. Technically due to the cooking temperature, it is a whey cheese and hence a ricotta. Apparently true cottage cheese is made a lower temperatures.
8 September 2006
They think we're stupid: Today a Senate report says Saddam had no links to Al-Queda before the war. However for the last couple of months, Fox has been running translations of captured documents that show the links to terrorist, the Taliban and other friendly people. We already know that the previous Democratic administration believed the links were there. Then there are all these people have been translating documents showing Saddam's support of terror. Then we can talk about how the 9-11 commission had members who had things to hide (like that little idea of Ms. Gorlick's) and skipped unpleasant stuff like Able Danger . So now we have the claim pushed by the news media that all that was so wrong - no link existed. Is it they all think we are too stupid to notice the contradictions or are the Republicans so pussy-whipped by the Democrats that they enjoy being the abused spouse?
We apparently are: Guess what today is! Today is
Feingold-McCain Day, when your First Amendment rights to state your opinion
about people like Kinky Freidman, Rick Perry, etc. are abolished under the guise
of campaign reform. Yep. Thanks to all you people who wanted to stifle
clean up the whole messy campaign finance thing, (you know that bad stuff where
people and groups supported candidates they liked) we are no longer allowed to
say what we think about the parasites who run the government. And many of you
want to make McCain the GOP nominee? Gee, no free speech, anti-gun, pro-illegal
immigrant? I'd comment on what that is but it might be illegal.
And we re-elected the people who voted for it. That's stupid...
6 September 2006
It's a bad book: When I ordered the phosphate binder for sausage from Butcher and Packer, I didn't want to pay 12 bucks shipping on 4 bucks worth of chemicals, so I ordered "Charcutirie, the art of salting, smoking, and curing." Wow. If you thought Steve's book, "Eat what you want and die like a man" was high fat, well, it looks like the American Heart Association cookbook compared to this baby. Lots of recipes for sausages, pate, and, most wondrously, confit. Take a pork loin, salt and spice it, then poach it in duck fat to cook. Then roast and serve. Who needs sex?
Sorry, Steve, your book is really the second most unhealthy cookbook. They got you beat.
Now I need to make a cold smoker for the back yard....If I put a hot plate and wood chips in the firebox with a fan, I might not need another box...Hmmmm?
UPDATE: I ordered 4 pounds of duck fat...badger confit here we come.
Small world: The day after Juan calls in, who do I meet at the coffee shop but Randy. He's back from his tour as a medic and back in school at UNT. Looks well and sounds like he's doing good.
5 September 2006
Juan in Iraq: I heard from my unofficial son in Iraq tonight. He called just before dinner to tell me he was settled in Tikrit and that "things are good." He sounds healthy and happy. He's got enough time to ask for some shingyi tapes and to train a bit. Considering he's 3/4th troll to begin with, that is very scary.
Prayer for his safe return are gratefully accepted.
Pig on a smaller scale:
We can't always cook a whole pig so we
decided to try a roast. We wanted a picnic shoulder with the skin on but no one
in town had one. Several people did recommend Dan's, who was closed for the
weekend. So we tried the fatty-est loin roast the local Albertson's had. We made
a brine consisting of 2 cups salt, 1 cup sugar in a gallon of 1:1 orange juice -
water. (I'll cut it in half next time as it was a bit salty.) Then we made a
paste of:
16 cloves of fresh garlic
4 tbsp ground lemon zest
1 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp ground cumin
4 Tbsp dried oregano leaves
4 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 Tbsp chipotle
1 Tbsp rum
enough olive oil to make a smooth paste
6 pound loin pork roast
Heat a gas grill to about 500. Score roast on all four sides. Coat roast with paste. Turn off middle burner and put roast over that burner in a pan with a foil tent over it. Let cook as oven cools to 300 F and adjust side burners to keep at that temperature. Cook until the center reaches 160 F ( about 2 hours on my grill), basting with paste every 30 minutes, and remove from heat to rest for 30 minutes. Take the pan dripping and heat in a sauce pan with 1 cup of the paste, 1/2 cup of hot water with 1 Tbsp arrowroot added, and 1 cup of dark rum. After bringing to a simmer, adjust taste as needed. Serve pork sliced with sauce on the side.
Another try at Bulgogi: Okay the last batch was a tad spicy so we tried a very simple version this time. This is the basic recipe:
2 cups soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sesame oil
1 bunch scallions, sliced into rings
2 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds
1 Tbsp garlic
pinch red pepper
I found that the local Mexican meat market has this beef steaks cut to about 1/16 of an inch thick. Soak those in the above marinade for 24 hours, saving 1/2 cup for cooking, and cook on a very hot grill or in a hot frying pan until the top is no longer pinkish. Lift over, brush with marinade and finish the other side. Serve hot with either rice or the boys like them on fresh tortillas.
My binder and sausage casings are in: So its time to make sausages and gyros at home. If this works, we'll try smoked sausages as its getting cooler and running a smoker is no longer a death sentence. It's all Gerry's fault.
Now if the rennet would just get here...
29 August 2006
Recipes from the Road 5 - Biscotti Variations: As our three regular readers know, we are kinda into biscotti here. Well, during the road trip we picked up a couple of recipes for variations.
Almond, Lemon and Anise Biscotti
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 tsp aniseeds, crushed
1.25 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Cream the eggs and sugar, add the other items and blend until smooth. Slowly add:
2 cups flour
1 cup whole almonds
Knead together until smooth and form into a loaf (I cheat and use a biscotti pan. It makes the cutting strips part easier.) Sprinkle with vanilla sugar* and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool for 10 and then remove from the pan. Cut into strips and lay out cut side up on a cookie sheet. Bake another 10-15 minutes then turn them all over and bake again for 10 minutes.
* Take 2 cups of sugar and put in a glass jar with 3-4 vanilla beans. Let sit a few weeks. I guess you could buy it too.
Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
4 oz semisweet chocolate
1 cup brown sugar
Blend together in a food processor until very fine and powdery.
1 3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/5 tsp ground coffee beans
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup toasted hazelnuts chopped
Beat the eggs together with the almond and vanilla extracts. Mix dry ingredients together and add slowly to eggs. Add the chocolate sugar mixture. Knead well. Continue as above. Dip in chocolate as below.
Chocolate Coating for Biscotti (and other things*)
8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
2 tsp oil (canola or vegetable - don't use olive or peanut)
Break chocolate up fine and add the chocolate and oil to the top pan of a double boiler. Heat until the chocolate melts, stirring constantly until smooth. Drip biscotti into chocolate and let drip decoratively.
*like strawberries and cookies. Whatever were you thinking?
28 August 2006
Sales Meeting Blogging: I'm here listening to someone from Human Resources read me his PowerPoint slides via MS Live Meetings. I'm way behind with blogging after the last two weeks and will try to catch up as I sit here and listen to how performance reviews will be handled this week. Thought for the day:
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity"
-Sigmund Freud, General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
which ties into my comments below on liberals and disagreements.
Tristan and Mary Beth's Wedding: On Saturday, I flew into Newark where my bro Gerry picked me up and drove me down to Tristan's wedding. It was a very nice service and his martial art students did a sword arch for him and his bride following the service. Tristan is one of those people whose lives are best described by words we misuse these days like heroic. The best living martial artists I know is also a decorated veteran, having earned a silver star for valour as well as being one of the most honorable, gentle, and decent men I've ever met. May God bless them both.
Tristan and Mary Beth
God grant them many years!
Afterwards, we attended the reception in their backyard and it was a hoot. Tristan's first marriage produced a large crop of absolutely beautiful young women. The food cover the mixed Irish-Slovak background of the bride and the Indonesian of the groom. The music and dancing cover pretty much everything. Having 3 hours of sleep the night before, I left at 9 pm to go to sleep but I understand the party pretty much ran to dawn.
Examples of Liberal Tolerance and Open Mindedness: One of the better parts of last week's training was what they called responsive listening, or techniques to use to let information get out. It's got a lot of applications but they all require you learning to shut up and not respond. So the instructor had us supply hot topics for us that our partner would argue against. I found it interesting that our resident vegan-pacifist could not even do the exercise with the instructor and opted out of the partner drill in anger. Recapping showed that all our liberal coworkers were unable to listen to someone argue against their position. It isn't easy but the point was if you can learn to listen to someone defending something you know is wrong, you should be able to listen in a business setting.
We also did some stuff on figuring out what drives people to make decisions. Wanna guess what mine is?
More examples -this time run-away secularism: I was too busy to note this on Reynolds's site last week. Apparently, being believing that God is the force behind evolution is now not distinguishable from believing in creationism to the press because it all must be totally secular. (First link). It's all random and you must reject any believe in God to be pure. Unless you are Moslem. Then we'll tolerate any shit you want because we're a nation of cowards. So we won't see this despite Mr. Blair's wishes.
Interestingly if you follow the whole thread, it appears the title is another case of interpretative journalism. A 73 year old priest and scientist retires is no where near as cool news. I'd say something about Glenn's original snarky comment but hey, he's a libertarian and we all know that means a republican who likes free love and drugs....(guess the reference?)
19 August 2005
What I did this weekend: Helped the kid build a gamer's PC. Dual core processor, hot FSB, and a fast hard-drive. Dang thing boots Windows XP in about 6 seconds. I think I'm jealous.
I did some other stuff like cook a bit, did some martial arts, worked on mandolin and get my first lesson in the Pose method of running from the immensely cool Jack Becker, but the PC was damn cool. I wonder if I used a server's motherboard if I could run two of those things.
18 August 2006
Totally not getting it: Rynair is threatening to sue the British Government because of the actions taken to attempt to protect travelers against terrorism? Yep, really. Nice to know how much they care about safety...
Of course, if we could profile, ask impertinent questions, and maybe a wage a war for real, we might not have to.
They are out there: Just in a corner of the blogosphere I hadn't stumbled across yet. Anyway, two cool chem-blogs can be found here and here. If I ever grow up, I want to write like Derek. Lots of links from there to other places including this cool place.
Not a lot of blogging today - I'm busy reading.
13 August 2006
Oh my Lord: Any of you like my buddy Jim who actually thinks the Democratic Party still stands for something like personal freedom, diversity, and rationality need to go to Ann Althouse's blog and read this. Not only the article with its incredibly ugly insults on Sen. Lieberman but also the comments. There are people who see nothing wrong with what Lieberman is called but also think Catholic Hospitals should be forced to close if they will not voilate their own faith. Reading the comments makes it clear that Ms. Coulter and Dr. Dotson are right: the left has become so anti-religious as to demand that the law force people to violate the dictates of their religion or their consciences if it disagrees with leftist beliefs. I wonder if they would feel the same if the draft started and the US Army applied the same logic to the idea of conscientious objectors? Or if they ever read the history of the opposition to slavery and the civil rights movement in this country? What is being demanded is as horrifying as the Cultural Revolution in China or the Stalin Purges. All morality is to be subservient to the state. (Editor: but isn't the state, aka the USA, the source of all evil? Me: No points are being given here for rationality.) It's damn scary. So scary I am seriously thinking that I should never let a democrat near my children again....
Recipes from the Road 4 - Stuffed Pickled Jalapenos: Larry makes the most awesome pickled jalapenos with mixed vegetables. The kids steal the carrots and green beans out of the jars, while I got for the asparagus. All of it comes out hot. The peppers themselves take a sweet flavor and while he wouldn't share the recipe, he is generous with the product. So if you can find some pickled jalapeños, here's a great way to cook them. You can use regular ones if none of your friends pickle.
6 pickled jalapenos, cut open and seeded
1/4 pound cream cheese
1/4 pound cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup flour
2 Tbsp oil
Mix the cream cheese and cheddar together well (I used a blended). Fill each pepper with the mix and close (I cheat and use a tootpick). Then dreg the pepper in the egg and then the flour, let it dry a bit and repeat for a second coat. Heat the oil to shimmering and fry the pepper until golden on one side, flip and repeat. Eat hot with Fat Tire's beer.
Recipes from the Road 3 - Green Chili Burritos:
My buddy, Larry, gave us this recipe from the Western Slope. Add an egg to it and it's breakfast. This came at a great time for us as the Las Cruces Green Chili crop is coming in and every grocery in Texas seems to be roasting and selling them right now. (If you live North of the Red River and need help, holler.)1 - roasted green chili, seed and chopped
1/4 pound ground meat or loose sausage
1/2 cup fresh tomato, cut into chunks
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
1 large tortilla
Fried the sausage or meat until brown, remove and drain most of the grease. Add the onion and cook until soft. Mix in the meat, green chili, and tomato. Lay on top of the tortillas, add the cheese. Roll the tortilla up and fry in a clean pan with a bit of oil until golden, flip and fry the other side. Serve. Larry makes everything up the night before and just rolls and cooks the tortillas for breakfast.
Piri-Piri Sauce just for Riannan:
Our charming host of this week's Carnival of Recipes is sadly deprived when it comes to food. She didn't know what a caja china is (Not reading Val's blog enough I suspect) and she never heard of piri-piri sauce. Now not everyone's favorite commie is Jose, but still...So just for Miss Riannan, here's a recipe to some heat to add to your own roast piggie once you get your own caja china, which makes a great first welding project. Now according to Jose, there is not supposed to be a lot of flavor in this, just heat. So:12 or more African birds eye peppers
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup olive oil
1 cup cider vinegar
Add the peppers, salt and vinegar to the oil. You can blend it up or just let them soak. Put it in the back of the frig for a couple of months. Use as need to add heat to dishes. There are more complex recipes but this is close to Jose's as I remember. I think Doc and Laura skip the oil and just let the peppers soak in the vinegar. Pure heat. I add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic to mine.
9 August 2006
Recipes from the Road 2 - Salmon Spread: I love a salmon spread on bagels, especially as no one does lox any more. BTW lox is not salmon, its smoked whitefish. Rich people ate salmon, regular folk ate white fish.
1 pkg. cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp fresh dill
1 tsp horseradish
4 oz smoked salmon, broken into small pieces
Dump everything into a food processor and mix together until mostly smooth. I like some fish pieces, you might not. Refrigerate until cool and it sets up a bit. Apply liberally to freshly toasted bagels.
Catching up - Castle Rock,
the BBQ, and traveling home: For
a bunch of stuff, after the last day of Calcon we drove down to Castle Rock for
the demo and annual Animal-List BBQ. 
We tried the caja china on a wild pig that
James got from a friend, a nice little one about 50 pounds dressed (gutted and
skinned). After much discussion, we quartered it and baked it in the caja china
(recipe below). The BBQ was a great time, lots of cool martial arts, fun people,
great food, and music...it was one of those great parties where laugher was
common and people were honestly glad to see one another. I demo-ed a shing yi
form in an oxygen starved environment again and Noah did his very first demo. He
did great. Both the boys got us lots of compliments on their behavior and their
cooking abilities. Doc even tried to set Noah up with his 15 year old niece.
Justin even offer to take Ben home if he could stuff him first. And Doug learned
why it can be dangerous to tease small boy: they grow up and buy chainsaws. The
twelve hour drive home wasn't fun except for visiting an extinct volcano in
eastern New Mexico. That was cool but the rest was just long...too long.
Recipes from the Road 1 -Green Chili Stew in the Slow Cooker: Connie found this recipe in a book while we were on the road. We used venison which required a marinade overnight. We used the following marinade on the venison, which we ground as chili meat (very coarse grind). So if you use another meat, you can skip the first step:
5 pounds venison chili meat
1/2 cup vinegar
2 minced garlic cloves
2 tsp salt
enough cold water to cover the meat
25 roasted, peeled, and seeded green chilies
2 Tbsp oil
2 large onion diced
3 Tbsp flour
2 tsp cumin
6 minced garlic cloves
2 tsp salt
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 tsp chipotle powder
sour cream (for the weak)
Let the meat soak overnight in the vinegar, salt, garlic cloves and cold water. Then drain the meat. Heat the oil and add the onion. Cook until lightly browned. Add the meat and cook until no longer pink. Add flour and stir until meat is browned. Add meat mixture and the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker, mix well, and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Adjust thickness with flour. Serve with fresh tortillas and sour cream, if needed, to cut the heat.
Moab variation: Make a brown roué like for a gravy and add to the chili until it has a gravy-like texture. Use as a sauce over breakfast potatoes or meat.
Roast Wild Pig in the Caja China: We used a recipe for Cuban Pork Roast and soaked the little
50 pound carcass overnight in a brine containing 10 gallons of water, 5 pound of
brown sugar, 6 pounds of kosher salt, 2 medium garlic heads, (cloves
peeled and crushed), and 5 gallons of orange juice. The pig was then quartered
and cut so garlic cloves could be inserted in the cuts (every inch). A rub was
made in the blender using:
60 garlic cloves
10 Tbsp ground cumin,
10 Tbsp dry oregano
10 Tbsp salt
15 tsp black pepper
15 oz orange juice
5 oz white vinegar
5 oz olive oil
a good slug of piri-piri sauce for heat.
The bone side was rubbed with this and we loaded it into a preheated
caja
china (with 40 pound of charcoal on top that had been let get hot) bone or
inside up. After 2 hours, remove the pig and turn over. Rub the fat with the
remaining paste to form a coat and cook another 2 hours until a thermometer
reads above 165 F at the coolest. This will give you slightly pinkish pork but
its above the 145 needed to kill all the bad things and it is much more moist
and tender than the 190 F people normally cook pig to. It was probably the
best pork I've ever tasted: and we cook a lot of pork. I am going to have to try
the same approach with a smoker. Imagine adding the bite of mesquite smoke to
the citrus and garlic flavor that permeates the pork. And the skin...next time
we shave or wax the beastie and not skin it as we did this time. Wild hogs are
very hairy compared to domestic pigs so we took the easy route but, in
hindsight, I think that was ill-advised.
Photo of the cooked pig's hind quarter - courtesy of Eric S.
3 August 2006
CalCon, Boulder, and things: We're done with day 4 of the conference -well. Larry is because the booth is done but I have sessions tonight I want to attend yet. Springer has 3 new book on DSC I ordered and my own publisher has a new book on Isothermal Calorimetry. We had lunch with Paul, my godson, and spent a lot of time talking to people about our posters on high speed DSC techniques. Now we pack, tomorrow I go to talks until 12, and then head down to the BBQ for the great pig baking experiment, my afternoon class, and Noah's demo.
31 July 2006
Moab, the Western Slope, and 20 square miles surrounded by reality: We had breakfast (if you can call chocolate shakes that) at the Union Diner and headed out for a short visit to the Arches National Park yesterday. That turned into most of the day with us finally making Boulder about 11 pm. We did get to see a lot of the Western Slope in the evening and stopped for peaches at some little stand outside of Grand Junction. However, the delay was well worth it as we spent hours at the Arches Park were amazing. We took a long of the walk and saw geological formations, petrographs <sp>, ravens, fox tracks, eagles, chipmunks, and rabbits. For some reason, ravens really worried the badger. Something about birds that big being smarter than monkeys, and if you were taking too long to die, would help you along. It was a cool way to spend our anniversary, even if I couldn't get her rumpled.
The western slope was lovely looking, with lots of orchards and cropland. Boulder is just like always, where I got asked to sigh a half dozen petitions for stuff I think we should hang people for in the first hour of the conference. Today I spent the day listening to talks on calorimetry of proteins and on high speed DSC. Some of the best were developing the idea of the rigid versus mobile amorphous regions in glassy polymers.
Hopefully tonight I can find either Brian or Jonas for coffee after the 7:30 session, and a coffee grinder. I got this kickass coffee from Craig Sellman in Phoenix I can't use until I grind it..
UPDATE: Jonas was kind enough to take time from a very busy schedule and have a cup of coffee with me. And I got a grinder. Now I need filters, dang it!
UPDATE 2: Lab filters work BTW.
30 July 2006
Happy Anniversary Goddess!
I love you.
29 July 2006
Ruins, Monuments, and Shopping: We took a leisurely drive today from Flagstaff up to Moab, and when though the Valley of Monuments and the Lapoki Ruins. We introduced the boys to the joys of Navajo tacos, watched as a carver finished a bear fetish/paperweight for me, looked for gifts and earrings for Connie, and crawled into Moab in time to visit this cool used book store and internet cafe. I'm working there now and drinking decent coffee. Tomorrow we head into Boulder and hopefully met Brian and Jonas for coffee...
Earlier tonight Noah and rehearsed for his cane demo next Friday and did a couple of rounds in the parking lot. He was a bit embarrassed when Ben told him he had collected an audience of about a dozen people. They all left when we started the kettlebell drills...
28 July 2006
Happy 14th Birthday Noah!
God Grant You Many Years!
Albuquerque, Socorro, Phoenix and
Flagstaff: We made Albuquerque the nigh
t of the 25
after driving across so dead flat places and stayed downtown at the Hotel Blue, which was an old art deco style building being
restored. The next day while I headed down to Socorro, the family went wandering
and walked over to the zoo. I was surprised at the number of Brazilian
restaurants and the fact I saw two Capoeria <sp?> schools as stand alone martial
art schools. Connie would not let me visit... On the drive back from Socorro, I
got to watch localized thunderstorms over areas of the plains surrounded by
sunlight.
The next day we drove t
o Phoenix, where again I did work while my family saw the
botanical gardens and then hide in mall to escape the heat. Possibly my favorite
part of the trip is the drive from the 7000 feet altitude in Flagstaff to the
1200 of Phoenix. You go from mountians and streams to total desert with a change
of a mile in 2 hours. You also go thru the region where the cactus from
Snoopy and the Austin Lounge Lizard song grows. We then went over to
my Shing Yi Chuan sifu's class and worked out. Well, Noah and I did. Connie
knitted and Ben napped. Tom then lead us back to Paul's house, where we had
dinner and talked about shing yi, people we knew, and told stories of Gong-sifu.
Tom gave
us a tape of his old band from the 70s and we all got tee shirts from
Paul. Paul and I got to play a bit and Noah may be hooked... The drive up to
Flagstaff at midnight kinda sucked although the CD helped keep us awake.
Today, I spent the morning at another customer in Flagstaff and this afternoon, we're off to Grand Canyon and to find a place to celebrate Noah's birthday.
More to follow if I survive the planned bike ride...
Later that day: We got to the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon, following a rainstorm, so it was cool and comfortable. The light was lovely for photography and it was actually chilly enough to require a jacket. We walked around for about 3 hours and the boys want to come back next year and either walk across to the North Rim or raft the canyon.
UPDATE: I almost forgot that I got the greatest compliment from my sifu. We were doing the eagle-bear drill and he did something weird to steal my root and I blocked him. He grinned and said " well, you have learned something."
Happy bear!
25 July 2006
The summer migration starts...
24 July 2006
Are we finally waking up? Anyone remember Kipling's the Truce of the Bear? It would have served as a great tag line for this column on the reality of dealing with Islamic terrorist, or maybe even Islam in general.
"When he shows as seeking quarter, with paws like hands in prayer
That is the time of peril, - the time of the truce of the bear...
There is no truce with Adam-zad, the bear that looks like a man."
Days that suck: 4 gallons of vodka, 75 bucks worth of herbs, 5 pounds rusty nail, and 5 years aging. One crack and the jow is now all over my garage floor. I am going to go cry now.
23 July 2006
So glad I don't live in California: It appears that LA County and the State DOJ has decided that stuff like illegal immigration and murders aren't really as important as whether a rifle has a flash suppressor and whether an explosive bullet or five might be sitting around unloaded. And politicians wonder why most folks would rather have their kids become crack whores than go into politics. I guess it makes sense as it was a Californian who told me the Constitution forbad me to pray in any public building...
And of course the media is covering this one: Yeah, just about as well as they are covering the destruction of Orthodox churches in Kosovo by the Albanian Muslims or the treatment of Christians in Saudi Arab or Egypt. After all, we all know Islam is the religion of peace, unlike Christianity whose founder said to murder unbelievers or Judaism that says strangers are to be abused. It could be worse than the kids being politicians, they could be journalists. At least, charges are being filed here. Now how about a RICO suit on suppression of speech?
Finished:
With both the razors (I now have 12 for
my class...11 of mine and the old one someone made for me years ago) and with
the CCW. The latter was a bit of a bummer. I shot 248/250 this time and the
Kimber extractor didn't. So its off to Scott the Gun Doctor. I'm grouping low
with this XS sight, which never happened before and didn't happen when I
borrowed Art's gun, so I think the new sights are a tad off too. It didn't seem
to be me...
The razors need some finishing but I don't have time to sandblast the metal and work them in. I suspect they will loosen up with use so I may have the boys play with them on the drive. We can finish an rough edges on the drive too. But its only been 4 years or so I wanted to get this done...
UPDATE: 1/4 inch thick aluminum blades and that plastic knife sheath material for the handles. That's why I couldn't chat, Dave!
21 July 2006
BBQ Ready: Well, not quite. I still got the practice razors to finish and a bowl to turn for John. But the caja china* is done, the herbal extracts are finished, and the auction bowls are ready. I may even get time to make another one if they can't fix the van before Tuesday...
* thank you Val for those plans. I did mine in all steel but your plans were the starting point.
UPDATE 7/22: Pancho, James and Joe came by and loaded the caja china into James' pickup. Off it goes to Castle Rock. And the blades for the razors are done!
Time Flies: Let's see...there is a lot to cover and a ton of pictures to post. We started the run with visiting Connie's brother in Pennsylvania and my mother in Connecticut. Both trips went well, although I was surprised at how sad the house made me without Dad being there. Surprised because I was not raised in that house: my parents moved there when I was in graduate school. Sad because the images of my father remain and I mis
