After we came home from the gym this morning, I whipped us up an onion, mushroom and zucchini omelette with Beemster cheese (I like Beemster cheese). It went something like this:
Lightly saute thinly sliced onions in a little bit of sesame oil for about five minutes.
Add some chopped fresh garlic. Saute for another minute.
Add sliced mushrooms and chopped zucchini. Salt to taste. (I also added a bit of butter here because the onions had soaked up all the oil.) Continue to saute until mushrooms and zucchini are soft.
Whisk eggs. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour into pan.
When eggs are almost cooked through, add veggie mixture, and grated Beemster cheese. Fold egg over veggie and cheese mixture. Cook another one minute per side.
Serve with fresh coffee.
Get kiss on the cheek from wife.
Mmm.
Tags: recipe, omelette, onion, zucchini, mushroom, beemster, cheese, breakfast
Saturday, August 23, 2008
More breakfast at Casa Little
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
One year ago today
Last year: Ouch!
Today:
Can't see the scar very well in this shot.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
I don't like Thursdays
When I say, "face," I mean I have to walk up and down every aisle in my section, making sure each and every product is in its proper home, and they are all pulled right to the front of their shelf, or hook, so that the first customer of the day the next morning will be greeted by a store in which every shelf appears full. As I do this, of course, I come across the detrius of humanity.
First it's the empty coffee cups. There are usually going on half a dozen of them scattered amongst the shelves of garden hoses and octane enhancers. Listen, I don't mind if you need your "Tim's" fix. We all do from time to time. But seriously, when I take a cup of coffee into the grocery store with me, I save the empty cup until I have an opportunity to throw it into a proper garbage can. I don't just put it down somewhere between the onions and the garlic. Doing that would make me an inconsiderate slob.
And as if that isn't bad enough, some people actually come in and eat their lunch while they shop. Dude! I have no desire to fish out the half eaten cheeseburger that you stuffed down between the sunblock and the insect repellent. And the left-over "Nachos Supreme" tucked behind the basketballs? That's just wrong, man.
The next thing I have to deal with is the out of place product. Some slack-eyed soccer Mom picked up a box of wine glasses all hell and gone over in the Housewares department, and round about the bicycle tires aisle she decided she didn't want them after all. She could have just left them with the cashier when she got there, but no. I have to find them after closing, hidden in behind a mountain of Raleigh boxes, and lug them all the way back over to Housewares myself. That's a good fifteen minute walk.
Then there's the open boxes. The 12 volt tire inflator box has a glossy, full-colour picture of its contents on the front, but that isn't good enough for people. They have to see what it reallylooks like. But, lacking the basic intelligence and dexterity to figure out how to open a cardboard box, they have to rip the freaking thing to pieces, pull out the entire contents, tear the plastic bag to get the product out and crumple up the instruction sheet. Then, when they decide it meets their approval, and they want to buy one, they leave the open box on the shelf, and take a new, unopened one.
Open boxes, however, can't get my blood boiling half as badly as the empty boxes. Empty, as in: contents stolen. Come on, the two pack of tail light bulbs was only $2.99. But you only needed one, so you ripped open the package, put one in your pocket, and left the other one on the shelf. If you were gonna steal, why didn't you just put the whole freaking package in your pocket? It's not like you were being considerate. I can't sell the half a pack you left behind. Every Thursday night I have to write off at least a dozen items that I've found empty packaging for. And that's on a slow night.
And don't think it's only the punk kids who are stealing, either. I looked it up. Those tail lights were for a Lexus. Doctors and Lawyers are just as likely to rip something off as anyone else. By the time I get home on Thursday night, you could just take a picture of me and post it in the Wikipedia entry for, "Misanthropy."
Here is the latest edition of the Friday Random Ten list. I've found that I cannot listen to all of the songs on the iPod in one week's worth of driving, so this list will only appear every second to third week from now on.
1) Ain't Nuttin' But Music - D12
2) Strange Thing, Mystifying - Cast, Jesus Christ Superstar
3) Her Majesty - The Beatles
4) Turn Up The Night - Black Sabbath
5) I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) - Genesis
6) Never Let Go - Josh Groban
7) Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! - The Beatles
8) Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love - Van Halen
9) Tina - Flyleaf
10) Concerning Hobbits - Howard Shore/London Philharmonic Orchestra
Tags: Kwik-E-Mart, rant, misanthropy, memes, friday random ten
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Can you say, "inventory management problems?"
So, I was doing some re-merchandising of the ignition wire sets, and... What, you didn't know the Kwik-E-Mart sold ignition wire sets? Sure we do. They're just down the aisle from the vacuum cleaners, across from the extension ladders, and right around the corner from the Slur-Pee machine.
So, I'm re-merchandising (that means taking some things off a shelf, and putting other things on the shelf), and I got curious about some of the quantities we had in stock. I decided to look up a few of the wires to see what they were for. The first one I picked up was for a 1989-1992 Mazda RX-7, and that's it. That was the only car it would fit.
We have seven sets of them.
Tags: kwik-e-mart, humour, things that make you go hmmm
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Hammer
I'm forcing myself to write this. Every time I open my test journal these days, I close it again unedited. I just don't seem to have the desire, or will, to put my thoughts down here. Part of that, I'm sure, is the fact that I'm busy. The Kwik-E-Mart demands my time from early morning to early evening. Then I come home and make dinner. By the time we've cooked, eaten, cleaned up, and done any daily chores that need doing, I'm too tired to spare any intensity of thought or emotion for the blog.
Add to that the time I am spending on curling club business (I'm on the board of directors), at the gym (my wife convinced me to join again), walking the dog (he won't walk himself - well, he will, but we want to make sure he comes home again), and doing other daily, mundane things, and I barely have enough energy just to read other people's blogs. Creating my own content seems beyond me right now.
I have no plans to shut this blog down, but I expect postings to remain infrequent for the foreseeable future. I still have a bunch of stuff percolating in the test journal that I intend to finish. Realistically, though, I can't put a timetable on that. So, for those of you who do visit regularly, I'm sorry for being a boring blogger. If you're looking for something interesting (a little bit goofy, but interesting none-the-less) to read, try doing a search for "crackergate." Let me know what you think about what you find.
Here are the last two friday random ten lists from my iPod updates.
July 25
1) Amigos Para Siempre (Friends For Life) - Sarah Brightman (with Jose Carreras)
2) It Would Be So Nice - Pink Floyd
3) Road Buddy - Dar Williams
4) A Saucerful Of Secrets - Pink Floyd
5) Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby - Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch
6) Into Everything - Moist
7) Bus Stop - The Hollies
8) Life Has Just Begun - Spirit
9) Mull Of Kintyre - Ashley MacIsaac
10) You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
July 11
1) Pump Up The Volume (12" US Version) - Marrs
2) That's How... - D12
3) Who Wears These Shoes - Elton John
4) Nebakanezer - The Black Crowes
5) Dialing For Dharma - FM
6) Not Too Late - Norah Jones
7) Better Place To Be - Harry Chapin
8) Superman's Song - Crash Test Dummies
9) Any Way You Want It - Journey
10) Tell Me On A Sunday - Sarah Brightman
Tags: boring blogging, busy busy busy, Kwik-E-Mart, friday random ten
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday random thirty...'n' stuff
Here's Matt looking decidedly dapper at his Grade 8 graduation Wednesday night. That's right, next September he'll be in High School. It is to shudder.Although I outwardly scoff at sentimentality, I have to admit there were times during the evening when I had to blink a bit, because I had "something in my eye." This group of kids impresses the hell out of me. During the graduation ceremony every single award winner was heartily cheered by the entire group. In fact, during the closing presentation, a slide show of student photographs past and present, every single student's picture was met with delighted squeals and cheers. Not one child could claim they were left out, held in less regard than any other. I predict great things for these students over the next four years, and beyond.
For more pictures, visit my Flickr photo set for the event.
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Wish me a Happy Blogaversary. As of yesterday, AWV is four years old. It's still not too late to take advantage of our two-for-one offer.
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Also, Happy Canada Day tomorrow. This July first, Canada will be one hundred and forty-one years old. Sure, that's nothing compared to y'all's two hundred and thirty-two years, but that just makes us younger and hipper.
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Also, also, having been horribly remiss, here are three whole weeks worth of Friday random ten lists for your perusal. Have a great holiday, be it tomorrow, or Friday.
June 13th
1) I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
2) I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues - Elton John
3) Silent Warrior - Enigma
4) Now - Days Of The New
5) Just One Of Those Things - Branford Marsalis
6) Eagle Will Rise Again - The Alan Parsons Project
7) Arnold Layne - Pink Floyd
8) Children And All That Jazz - Joan Baez
9) A Million Vacations - Max Webster
10) Navy Bean - Tracy Bohnam
June 20th
1) Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon) - The Mamas & The Papas
2) Spoon For A Knife - The Jive Kings
3) Thirty-Three - Smashing Pumpkins
4) Good Company - Queen
5) Wild World - Cat Stevens
6) Your Song - Elton John
7) Hello Goodbye - Live On Arrival
8) Dance With The Devil - Breaking Benjamin
9) A Million Vacations - Max Webster
10) Goodbye Cruel World - Pink Floyd
June 27th
1) Why'd You Lie - Colin James
2) Fight - The Tragically Hip
3) Lagavulin - Wide Mouth Mason
4) Lithium - Nirvana
5) Next Contestant - Nickelback
6) Dolly Dagger - Jimi Hendrix
7) Starseed - Our Lady Peace
8) Touch Me - Ian Thomas
9) Supernova - Mike Oldfield
10) Black Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne
Thursday, June 19, 2008
This morning
Me: "Hurry up, Matthew. If you don't leave the house right now, you're going to be late for school."
Matthew: "Well, I'm going to be late, then, because I'm not going anywhere without straightening my hair."
Oh, the many joys of raising a fashion conscious teen!
Tags: family, humour, fall out boy hair
Monday, June 9, 2008
Special characters
"how do you make that little degree symbol, anyway? I can't find it on my keyboard."Well, Bea, don't beat yourself up over it. You can't find it because it isn't on your keyboard. The degree symbol (º), and many other similar symbols, like the Yen (¥), Pound (£), and Euro (€) symbols, or the copyright (©), and trademark (™), symbols are special HTML entities. They are available using the html editor built into your journals software. For example, in order to create the degree symbol, switch your edit text box to the html setting, and type "°" (without the quotes). When you switch back to the text view, you will see the degree symbol.
One of the most useful html entities I have discovered is the 'non-breaking space.' You may or may not have noticed, but the AOL Journals software has a tendency to eat spaces. You'll type something in, click 'save,' and check the result, only to find that the space between two words has disappeared - likethis. You click 'edit,' and insert a space, then click 'save' again. Sometimes that even works, but often, no matter what you do, those two words remain gluedtogether.
The solution is simple. Switch to html view. Find those two words, and right between them, type " " (without the quotes). This will insert a space between those two words which is, in typeface lingo, non-collapsable. It forces the text editor to leave a space in there no matter what. The only odd thing that sometimes comes up is the fact that the 'non-breaking' part of that space means the text editor will never insert a line break between those two words. So if they occur near the end of a line, using a non-breaking space can result in a non-uniform line length.
Sound too complicated? Never mess with the html functions of your journals software? Never fear. The most commonly used of the html entities all have keyboard shortcuts which work in most word processing programs and Internet browsers. If you are using Windows™, these shortcuts use the 'ALT' key and the numeric keypad buttons. For example, the degree symbol can be easily inserted as you type by holding down the 'ALT' key, and typing the numbers 167 on the numeric keypad. When you release the 'ALT' key, the degree symbolº will appear.
Here is a list of available special ALT characters. Your browser may not support all of them. Have fun experimenting.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Suddenly, Summer
Still it wouldn't seem quite so bad if it weren't for the fact that Thursday's high was 19.5, or a lowly 67 degrees. I think we need to relabel our months up here. So far this year, we've had January, January, March, March, March, and August.
Last night the wife and I went down into the city to a little bar - right near our first apartment - to see a band called Headbone Station. One of the band members is an old high school buddy of mine, so we thought we'd check 'em out.
Except when we got there we found out they weren't playing that night, regardless of what their MySpace page said. So we sat and had a beer and listened to the Pete Martin reggae karaoke experience instead. Man, I'll tell you; there's a real feeling of responsibility in being the only members of an audience. It was like we were in some little cabana at an unpopular resort somewhere in the Caribbean. Pete was playing just for us. We felt guilty leaving after only one beer.
Well, not that guilty. He wasn't really all that good.
Now, here are two Friday random ten lists for your perusal...
Friday, June 6th
1) Abacab- Genesis
2) Indian War Whoop - John Hartford
3) Please Love Me Forever - Tommy Edwards
4) The Times They Are A-Changin' - The Byrds
5) Wondering Where The Lions Are - Bruce Cockburn
6) Fast Car - David Usher
7) Every Breath You Take - The Police
8) Obsession (Reprise) - Robert Michaels
9) Betrayed - Avenged Sevenfold
10) The Navy Song - Billy Talent
Friday, May 30th
1) Cocaine - Eric Clapton
2) Kind-Hearted Woman - Colin James
3) Uncle Salty - Aerosmith
4) Spawn Again - Silverchair
5) My Friends - Dar Williams
6) Miracle - Matt Dusk
7) Breakdown - Guns 'N' Roses
8) Nautical Disaster - The Tragically Hip
9) The Fire - Reel Big Fish
10) I Ain't Gonna Be Your Monkey Man - Willie Dixon
