didionville

i thought it worthwhile to post the follow up to yesterday’s lesson …

pure genius. (of course, original stuff here.)

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on another front … i have been writing comments here and there on a few blogs and have realized that i am making typos all over the place. YIKES! anyone who knows me knows what a grammar freak i am (yes, in spite of the fact i write in all lowercase, except for those random intervals when i binge on all caps and exclamation points). i’m afraid people are going to think i or — worse — didion is illiterate.

enough whining … back to cleaning the bathroom and doing laundry …

lordy, do we love us some scott adams over here. his seemingly limitless ability to identify and isolate the inanity of bureaucracy and corporate operations is truly a gift to anyone living in a post-industrial world. when i saw today’s strip, i thought, “yep. that’s how it is.” but then i also had the jarring realization that dilbert’s new m.o. is exactly what dick cheney has operationalized effortlessly and unfailingly in the bush administration for the last eight years …

it’s simple. you really can make your own truth. and then you can expand deficit spending by several orders of magnitude … and launch wars that are fun for your business friends to play … and ignore with hatred and disgust any living organism that dares disagree with you …

(if this site actually got any traffic, i would likely get in trouble for posting today’s dilbert without permission. you can visit scott adams and his pantheon here; though, we at didionville sure are unhappy with the dilbert site’s new interface.)

lately, didion has had turned it up to eleven all day, every day … during business hours, that is. when steven comes home, didion has usually calmed down from his busy, frenetic day, and i suspected steven didn’t fully understand how exhausting it is to entertain and feed and change and soothe and entertain and feed … yadda-yadda … a baby 8-10 hours straight. last weekend, i thought steven would finally get to see our tasmanian-devil spawn in action and would, therefore, find “frazzled mommy” an entirely appropriate persona. but last weekend, didion outsmarted me by taking naps on both saturday and sunday … and not short naps, mind you … they were three-hour naps.

but today, didion was even extra on fire, and he didn’t slow down when steven got home. steven finally had the opportunity to fully experience “didion as supernova” … bouncing, kicking, singing, howling, jabbering, eating, peeing, lookin’ around … doing all of it over and over, and — i swear — a couple of times, all at once …

steven asked me with innocent wonder in the inflection of his voice, “has he been like this all day?”

…

i can happily attest that steven, right at this moment, looks as beat down as i do.

a kid … i say that because he is, like, 24 (???) or certainly not much older … has an amazing, amazing, amazing blog … (click on image) …

he’s an nyu law student and — as we found out on facebook — a rice alum (go owls) … his intelligence and analytical skills and writing style are all impressive … grandpas jer and chuck, i think, will really appreciate ames‘ writing. apparently, he just started the blog — seriously, like in late april — and already he is tackling the big philosophical, political, and legal issues that mainstream media won’t dare blink at …

i only hope he is able to keep up with the blog. i can’t imagine he doesn’t have a lot on his plate. in fact, i’ll be surprised if we don’t see a lot more of him in the future in non-blog arenas … he has “going places” written all over him.

Last weekend, I bought some new seed for the bird feeder. (It was a long winter’s drought for the poor birds.) Since spring arrived, though, we have seen quite an array of birds around the neighborhood: robins, cardinals, mourning doves, various finches, starlings. Ergo, it was time to fill the feeders. All weekend, I watched. And waited. And watched some more … And nothing. Zip. Nary a bird in sight. Then tonight, Didion and I saw a cardinal couple eating and scaring off the other birds. (Cardinals are not as friendly as gold finches.) We managed to get this picture from inside the house:

We decided we needed some better shots, so we sat on the porch, but, sadly, the birds deserted us. I did manage to get this excellent shot of Didion:

And now for some photos worth looking at….

An ingenious astronaut figured out how to build a camera that could take sharp nighttime photos from the International Space Station — a mean feat considering the long exposure times required, the speed the space station travels, and the fact that he supposedly did this from “spare parts” he found lying around the station. The story, some great photos, and a neat video are here. Seriously, read the article; watch the video. The guy controls the camera’s movement with a cordless drill (!!!).

Something telling: The Las Vegas Strip is the brightest spot on earth. Says a lot about what is important.

yes, i am committing plagiarism by posting this recipe. it is straight from cook’s illustrated (issue 87, july/august 2007). i suppose now i’m actually not plagiarizing since i am citing; though, i am posting without permission. christopher kimball can call my attorney, if i had one, that is.

this sauce is very tasty and super easy to make. it’s a little on the sweet side, so if you like spicier bbq sauce, this might not be for you. though, i am going to try to make my own spicy sauce, using this recipe as my base. if it works, i’ll post it.

bottom line: we like this sauce so much, we will likely never by bottled sauce again.

(for reference, this recipe makes enough to thoroughly baste four butterflied cornish hens or six boneless chicken breasts.)

1/2 cup ketchup (we only use heinz, and if you know me, you know I KNOW ketchup.)

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp yellow mustard (good ol’ french’s to the rescue!)

1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed … you want about a tsp of minced garlic.

mix everything in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sauce reduces a little and thickens. cook’s says it takes about five minutes. i think we usually end up cooking it for closer to 10 minutes.

use this to baste chicken on the grill, or you could cut the recipe, making only about a fourth of it. shred one cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast and add it to the sauce. use the chicken breast to make bbq-chicken pizza … or bbq-chicken nachos … or bbq-chicken burritos … YUM!

i just found a really cool blog by a guy in raleigh, north carolina.

mr. mcCord seems like a man who is trying to do similar things as steven and i: raise a healthy family, behave responsibility, be kind to others and our earth, and indulge in good food and good humor.

here’s a funny video from his site. it’s an oldie, but a goodie … one that never fails to elicit a laugh and more than a few reminiscences, however hazy they might be.

oh, and he posts interesting recipes. here’s one for beet cakes, which sends me all atwitter. though, it will surely make lisa retch.

o.k. i’m back in my office, and i am really on the go … traveling around like crazy.(this one is a lot shorter than season one … only a couple of minutes … xo!)

from vimeo.com posted with vodpod

in my office, i am the boss. i go around in circles, put stuff in my mouth, and end the day with a meltdown. mommy says i’m just like a real boss.

(this is likely going to entertain only the most loyal of my fans as the video is seven minutes long. yikes!)

from vimeo.com posted with vodpod

Someone needs to figure out how to automate this so we can see it in real time for all politicians.