I’m Loki. Welcome to my world.

Why he was in Deep Kimchee this morning

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 17:54:38 -0800

That there is one aggravated dog. He’s been intensely growling and barking at something outside since last night. I even took him outside to show him there was nothing going on. Then this morning, he was barking and snarling at the left window (odd). Until I looked out the window to see what he was staring at.

Updates - and Loki in the rare spot of sun.

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:27:55 -0800

I really need to update this silly thing more often, but sometimes daily existence is so mundane I can’t imagine anybody besides me would give a damn. So here’s some updates:

1) The pantry was remodeled, and it is fabulous. Maybe a picture to come. There are empty shelves. Got that? I got all my shit back in with space to spare. Do I know how to organize or what. God bless Elfa (tm)
2) We had some fun with the neighbor dogs. The neighbors went on vacation (truncated, as illness struck one of the travelers as they were going through security) and the dogs were left in the care of me, the dog walker, and their contractor (their house qualifies as the Winchester house of San Bruno Avenue, but it is going to be Architectural Digest quality when they’re done.) Little communication confusion, the baby fur ball took a dump in the house (about 1 hour after I let him out) and the contractor wasn’t sure whether I was letting them out and feeding them or not, called the neighbors, panic ensued. We then figured out that Max dumps on the floor as a matter of course. All was well, and the three dogs (the old yeller lab, max the furball, and Loki bonded in a big way. Max learned to play hard with a big dog, and Leroy, the fun monitor, stood their and barked his annoyance at the whipper snappers.
3) been working like a dog on three appellate briefs. That’s just not sane.
4) SO ready to go to Australia. Neighbors and workmates have been kind enough to ask “have you lost weight?” Makes those hours on the stairmaster and the breakfast celery seem worthwhile.

That is all.

On Another Note....

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:12:32 -0800

RIP Teddy Pendergrass. I miss the days when soul didn’t have to be sung in falsetto.

All that needs to be said.

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:49:16 -0800

Most humans have nothing but sympathy for Haiti. Most Californians think “there but for the grace of God.....”
Of course, the pinheads in the SFGATE comments section couldn’t wait to try to use the Haiti earthquake to slag on the President. Of course, they had no good arguments, so most of them resorted to blatant racism. SFGATE is like that, as most of us believe it is a focus of the wingnuts across the nation who want to pollute SF’s paper with their drivvle. But somehow suggesting that Obama cared more about black people in Haiti than white people in Eureka is beyond legitimate discourse (um, need I mention how many people died in the Eureka quake? Zero as best I can tell? And Eureka/Ferndale are still in the wealthiest state in the Union, even if its government can’t get its crap together....)

But before I could get my rant on, Olbermann took it to town.

Holiday Wrapup

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:00:28 -0800

That up there is my first Dresnder Christstollen. Seriously. Mother traditionally makes this every year, but I wanted to try it. It’s a fruity bread, not overly fruity, and this one came out beautifully after a little bit of drama.

The drama being that my house is too cold in winter to raise yeast dough. The recipe said it may take 3 hours for the first rising, I came back in 3 hours and there was a chilled lump of solid dough in the bowl. Oopsie. This meant I started the process of turning the oven on and off every 10 minutes until it reheated the dough and started rising. I made the dough at 2 pm, it was finally out of the oven 10:30.

Second bit of drama was having nobody, including Trader Joe’s, stock ladyfingers over Christmas, making the Christmas trifle a little hard to make. I call Winedog to vent on this one Christmas eve morning, and she tells me there’s a little bakery in Oakland called “Ladyfingers,” and maybe they make them. I call and ask. “This may sound like a silly question but.....” The woman on the phone tells me not only is it not a silly question, but 1) how many would I like? 2) would I like them separated or joined 3) what time will I pick them up, they’ll be boxed up and ready.

Have I mentioned how real customer service makes me all warm fuzzy and giggly inside?

So the menu was

1) Roast Beef Tenderloin with a beef/merlot reduction with caramelized shallots and mushrooms
2) Green beens with bacon
3) mini-potatoes
4) 3 color pearl onions sauce mornay gratine.
5) trifle.

And it was good.

Winedog gave me shaving stuff from The Art of Shaving, which I would never buy for myself, but now I have it. I went back to the store and bought some of their other stuff, which gives me the opportunity to discuss the jargon phrase which must be eliminated from the English language.

Take it to the next level.
I’m so sick of the overuse of that phrase. Meaningless Tony Robbins Dilbertesque crapola, The use in this case was the woman at the store (who otherwise provided excellent customer service) informing me that the shaving brush “takes your shaving to the next level.”

Great, the return of something classic that was only eliminated during the mass consumerism of the 50s and 60s now is wrapped in the icky robes of 21st century crap-speak.

It is officially phrase-a non grata.

Currently spending whatever spare time I have planning the Australia trip. All my hotels are booked, I got a great 85 dollar a night deal in Melbourne to finish things off. so its 5 days Melbourne, 5 days Sydney, 4 days Cairns, and the last weekend back in Sydney. Cairns is essentially booked up, because there will be one day on the barrier reef, one day in the rain forest, and probably 1/2 day or full day doing the old train to Kuranda thing. My b&b is also right next to the north beaches, which are apparently the best, although you can’t go in the water (???) because of these nasty critters. Apparently the city has built a slightly inland lagoon where you can engage in all your swimming and ocean sports without getting stung and dying in 60 seconds.

Next, I’ve begun the next house project, redoing my pantry. I’ve hated my pantry since I’ve had the house, its small (can’t fix that,) but the shelves are so deep that its inefficient. Each shelf has three levels of storage 1) accessible; 2) inaccessible; 3) future archeological find. Every Christmas, I check it looking for what I need, and every Christmas I buy stuff I already have, meaning I currently have about 5 boxes of brown sugar, 3 jars of molasses, and God knows how much Karo.

And its the Elfa sale. Say no more. I demoed the old stuff last night, to find that I have a lot of repair work to do in the closet and will have to repaint it. Fine. I can do that. Fortunately I’ve done this enough to know that a 2 day project is actually a 7 day project. Don’t stress it. It will have narrower shelves and baskets in a U shape, so that hopefully everything is accessible. Spices and things like that will be in narrow baskets on the side walls, and there will still be lots of shelves. Stay tuned.

And finally, because I sometimes find things so damned funny. Winedog teed off on hypocrites, wingnuts, and religious fascists the other day. M-kay, no argument, but I wasn’t ready to get my panties into a bunch. Then some news started to break last week, culminating in my RSS fees and email literally blowing up with comedy. First, allow me to introduce you to one Iris Robinson.

Wrapping up a decade.

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:22:23 -0800

Blechh.

The time of year when everyone waxes poetic about the end of the year, makes lists of the best of the year, worst of the year, blah blah blah. The end of the decade gets it ten times over as people try to define the decade.

Blechh.

It’s way to easy to sum up the aughties as a great big bucket of suck. It began poorly, went downhill quickly, and ended with a weird feeling of ennui. Anybody who hasn’t figured out where the responsibility for this great big bucket of suck lies is either not paying attention, dishonest, or in pathological deep denial.

But I’m not going to bother with any of that. I’m going to get very personal and consider the highlights of my own personal decade, because, if only on this page, its all about me and the dog. So here are my highlights.

1) TC Gets His Travel On Again.

One of my greatest joys is traveling, and in particular buzzing around Europe. For reasons I don’t need to get into here, I hadn’t done much since my initial forays. In 2001, one of my colleagues was harassing me about never going on vacation. So I walked into his office and said “guess what, I’m going to Europe and you’re watching my cases while I’m gone. “He said fine, when are you leaving?” “September.” “When do you get back?” October. That’s right. 30 friggin’ days. I bought a Swiss army surplus backpack (the best piece of luggage I have) for 30 bucks, backed incredibly light, and went mobile (our theme song from the 1980 3 month hitchhiking trip)

30 glorious days taking the trains across Europe (planes, ferries, an occasional snagged ride....) through Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Venice, Rome, Sienna, Brussels Bruges, Amsterdam, and London. Must have been other spots too, but that’s what I recall right now.

Did notice I was gone in September, 2001? Yup. I was in Berlin on 9/11, and didn’t really know what happened until I hit Prague that Friday.

Some pics from that trip....
2 shots of Prague, one of the medieval section and the river, the other of the art nouveau area.

More Silliness

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:46:35 -0800

Cooking like a madman - my gingerbread men have an odd skin condition that will probably be solved with the liberal application of icing.

Little Christmas Phun.

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:38:19 -0800

Sharing a little cuteness

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:54:54 -0800

I’m actually aggravated as hell at the moment, and can’t really publicly post why, but in honor of the season and the desire not to spread crabbiness, but rather happiness, cookies, puppy love, all that crap,

click HERE. No, really. do it. Do it now!
Or try this one on for size (not Loki, but it could have been.)

All Hail the Sufganiyot

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:45:49 -0800

Happy Chanukah.

What can you say about a holiday that features fried food? Eight days of it! From Latkes to those filo wrapped cinnamon/sugar lamb roll thingies ... Slurp.

My neighbors 1) are rocking good cooks 2) invite rocking good cooks to their parties 3) invite me.

Good neighbors. GOOD neighbors.

And not only did they NOT complain about Loki’s barking at 3 am last night, they knew he was barking at something in their yard, and their attitude was “Good - whatever’s in our yard, Loki’s on the case.” And that’s what Leroy the senior dog was saying - “I’m too old for this shit - let the young buck handle the invaders.”