This is our new dog, Boden. He is eight weeks old.
Our neighbor's dog had eight Bernese Mountain Dog puppies (seven boys, one girl). He was the smallest of the pups when we saw him at two days old and he had a tough time fighting his way in to get milk from mom. We decided to keep an eye on him and a few weeks later he wasn't taking any crap from his siblings and was growing well, so we chose him for his gumption.
He is in my office right now, accompanying me back and forth to work while we crate train him. That way the little guy isn't home alone sitting on wet newspapers. When he is full grown, he will top our around 100 pounds and will stand 28 inches at the shoulders. We hope to train him to pull sleds and carts full of firewood and kids, because that is what his breed 'does' ever since the Romans brought them to Switzerland.
Every Spring in Chicago the homeless people start to appear in large numbers. The winters are awful, but they're peaceful and the homeless disappear for a while along with all of the tourists. But it's May and a little warmer and already I've had several run-ins with drunken homeless bastards. They're seriously pissing me off. At one of the towers that I work at, the homeless like to set up a camp under the interstate and harrass the shit out of us workers when we park our cars near their area. Well, I'm sorry you homeless fucker, but this is my fucking parking spot and I've got to go to work. Go drink your fucking beer and shout at people eslewhere! And no I don't have any fucking cigarettes to give you! And no I'm not going to pay you to watch my fucking car! We recently had a camera installed at work that points at our cars and rotates 360 degrees so that we can monitor them since the homeless often fuck with our vehicles. A couple of weeks ago I was working up in the tower and I started hearing loud whistling and popping noises. I swivled the camera aound and caught a homeless guy smoking a joint and lighting off bottle rockets and firing them up at the tower while tossing beer cans over the fence towards my car. I called the police but nothing was done. I couldn't leave the tower to confront him because I can't leave moving trains unattended. Yesterday, while walking down Michigan Avenue with Myriam and her mom, we stopped to look up at some building or something and I heard a mumbling and angry sounding voice coming towards me while we were all staring up into the sky. I looked behind me and saw some drunken homeless fucker coming at me with his fist clinched and cocked back as if he were going to take a swing at me. Instinctively my first reaction was to push Myriam and her mom along and out of the way of this approaching angry drunken bum. He was staring me right in the eye and saying something that I couldn't understand but it was obviously very threatening shit. I wanted to lay him out so fucking bad but rather than cause a scene I just walked off. Seriously, he was so drunk that I could have just simply pushed him down and he probably would have blacked out. Everyday when walking down Diversey to go to my gym I get asked for money on an average of about 3 or 4 times per day. And they don't take no for an answer. They always have something smart to say and sometimes even follow me for a bit until I stop and yell "no" a second time to them. But today, however, today was the breaking point. I was in the laundry mat, minding my own business, when a homeless guy that I've seen around the place several times before who I've seen on a few occasions come in and just shout "fuck you" at the people doing laundry, this guy walked by today and stuck his head in the door and tossed his empty beer can right into my damned laundry basket! I grabbed the beer can and ran out the door with it and threw it back at him as hard as I could. Luckily, the owner happened to be there collecting money out of the machines today and he ran out with me and yelled at the bum and threatened calling the police, etc. So, the owner of the place apologized to me and offered to let me re-wash all of my clothes for free, which I did, even though I didn't notice any spilt beer on them. Now I certainly feel sorry for some homeless people and I believe that they really do need help, but I rarely see them. Most of the homeless around here are just cocky fucking drunks who decided to stop taking their medication and ended up on the street because of it. There are free programs out there to help you get your ass off of the street, but these assholes would rather roam around fucking with the public instead. I'm fucking sick of them all.
This is an awesome Spring meal. Don't use any other pasta but cappellini for this.
8 -10 oz cappellini pasta
4 ears fresh, sweet corn, kernels removed
6 cups spring salad mix
6-7 TBS lemon juice
half cup chopped fresh parsley
one-third cup chopped fresh chives
one-third cup chopped fresh dill
half cup chopped fresh basil
6 cloves garlic, whole, roasted
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
half cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
one-eighth tsp salt, or to taste
one-eighth tsp pepper (optional)
How to roast garlic: Put 6 or 7 cloves of garlic onto tinfoil with enough olive oil to coat them all. Wrap them completely in the tinfoil, sealed so none of the oil can escape during roasting. Cook at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes
How to bake/roast corn: Put corn into bowl, drizzle 1 tsp of olive oil (use more if desired) and toss so corn is covered. On a cookie tray, spread out the corn so it is one layer. Cook at 400 for 20 minutes.
When both the corn and garlic are roasted, take them out of oven and combine them. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, plus salt and pepper. Add cheeses (ricotta and parmesan). Mix throrughly.
Cook pasta in salted water according to directions (this type of pasta cooks extremely fast). Add a tsp of olive oil after it is cooked and drained so it doesn't stick. Cut the pasta in the colander if possible, or break the pasta in half before cooking it.
Combine pasta and cheese mixture and mix thoroughly. Add salad greens and herbs. Mix again.
I'm sittin at home alone and I just made a peach meringue pie. peaches aren't in season though so I used peaches from a jar and the filling's too watery.
In contrast to others, my schedule is not nuts because I don't think anyone is interesting or worth knowing or talking to unless they're one of my few friends or have something to offer me and nobody does because everyone's a waste of time. Not just in this town either.. like everywhere basically.
Well ok I know of some interesting people but they don't go anywhere either and I guess that makes me feel better about it since I'm 26 and still can't get over the 6 years of a social life I gave my best effort at.
I took some valarian root and I'm waiting for it to kick in. Then I wake up in the morning and go pick weeds at the arboretum. One or two of the people there seem worth knowing actually. I guess. My boyfriend talks to the neighbors and he told them I work at the arboretum and I am still irritated because I don't like anyone to know anything about me ever unless I choose to tell them.
Oh yeah I'm an "actress" in a stage play going on in a few weeks.
There's this quote that only Chris X will know.. this guy saying "you don't really have to talk to people when you have guns around," and thats how I feel about metalworking basically.
I like baking for people though. And a few weeks ago I was going to go to a real play at Center Stage but then I didn't.
I remember when I was highly literate or at least I looked at the screen when I typed and I composed paragraphs about my feelings and eliminated repetitive phrases and everything was supposed to be eloquent.
I don't feel like writing that way much anymore because I don't like the formality it implies.
I just took a video of the cats wrestling. I could watch that shit for hours. I love it when they wrestle
My girlfriend pointed out that we don't have pet names for each other. Now, we've only been dating for 3 months, and we've only been "official and monogamous" (her housemate's words) for 2 months, and she's still getting used to the "boyfriend/girlfriend" nomenclature, after being a very independent operator for years.
"Ham slice" is probably a non starter.
I doubt that "Oyster plate" would have legs, either.
What's your time line for pet names? BF/GF? Monogamy?
Are the time lines linked or independent?
As a rule, I don't use pet names. I have a couple of diminutives I use to show affection to people I'm close to-- Sweet Child and Kiddo, and occasionally Kid or Sweetheart. I use these with her, and with my best friends (male and female), and with my younger brother, and sometimes my pre-teen and teenage cousins.
Do you have favorite pet names? Are they unique, or do you re-use them with new lovers/partners/fuckbuds?
And do you have any suggestions?
Maybe Tulip? And Dumpling?
On Wednesday night, we brainstormed a few dozen on beer coasters, with a little bit of help from Courtney, who knows people in real life that I know in real life, which was so weirdly... real...
In case you are looking for something to do in the Baltimore/DC type area in the next few weeks, here is what _I_ am doing...
Tonight
First I have a photo shoot at BIG HUGE GAMES, for MICA. Maybe I will meet Brian Reynolds!!!! Then I will be going to Sonar to photograph DROP THE LIME, BLAQSTARR, DAVE NADA, TROUBLE N BASS.
Sat. 10th
Scottie B. and Blaqstarr are playing (Blaqstarr is just hosting) at the Rock N Roll Hotel in DC, with Gavin Holland. I am unsure if I am going to this.
Sun 11th
I'm taking photos at my studio, let me know if you want to be in PICTURES.
Mon 12th
I am photographing BONDE DO ROLE, THEDEATHSET, DJ SEGA, OLD HAUNTS, FUTURE ISLANDS at Sonar... don't miss this show!!!!!!!!
Thurs 15th
i am shooting the MICA ArtWalk
Fri 16th
i am going to Artomatic and seeing Pygmylush and Turboslut play.
Sat the 17th
Going to a minor league baseball game in Bowie! Kara, Ben you wanna go? Then I am photographing Black Kids/Cut Copy @ Sonar
Sun the 18th
is the crawfish boil! y'all better pay up.
Mon 19th
i am shooting Triac @ Sonar
Tues the 20th til the 25th
i will be in New Orleans. hit me up!!!
This is Kiki McClean. She's a Clinton campaign adviser or something. She's on CNN a lot. She is the most annoying lady alive and I hate her. That is all.
Now that I have a decent digital camera, I'm taking more photos and using Flickr more. I just uploaded a bunch of new stuff, and there are some pretty cool ones from my trip to New York last month. The above photo is of some guys playing soccer at a park in Brooklyn. I think Ben probably got some better ones of this. Check it out.
* Note : Price is actually $21 to cover paypal fees...
Crawfish boil is back!
We will need $21 upfront by Sunday 5/11/07 (or sooner - sorry I'm posting this so late) from everyone who plans to eat crawfish (20 for the fishes & $1 for paypal fees - paid through the paypal button below). This is going to be an expensive party, & there is really no way we can do it without the money upfront. Should buy you more than enough to eat. If there is extra money it will be spent on beer. I'll let you know about the beer status in the responses to this post later, but you should plan to bring your own drinkage.
We'll need at least 20 people to make this work (but no more than around 40 or so). Feel free to invite other people. If for some reason it doesn't work out, I'll return everyone's money.
If you know nothing of crawfish boils, here is wikipedia's decription:
A boil is usually done in a large pot (60 to 80 quarts) fitted with a strainer and heated by propane. Seasonings include crab boil packets, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, salt, lemons , and bay leaf. Ears of corn, new potatoes, onions, and heads of garlic are usually included in shrimp and crawfish boils.
First boil will start at around 1 or 2. Boils will get progressively hotter / spicier, so if you want to eat less spicy batches come early. If you can't make it until later, I'll save a batch for paid latecomers (or if everyone needs it to be later we can move it back a few hours).
Non crawfish eaters are welcome to bring something to grill (although we have a pretty small grill). I'll get some charcoal for it. I'll probably make some sort of jambalaya or red beans and rice thing too. Any extra food you'd like to bring will be welcome.
I imagine we'll project Wii / RockBand onto the back of the house again.
Also, this is Kim's Birthday. She likes Hello Kitty a great deal. < wink >
Would love to see you here. If you need a ride, or if you plan on coming from NY or elsewhere, we can probably find a place to put you up for the weekend. Please discuss in the responses...
I was about to see if anyone wanted to go for some odds for a Jim Jones style murder-spree followed by mass-suicide/ascension.
But apparently he was just thrown in jail.
The crazy is strong with this one, if you feel like taking a break from rational thought and diving into some seriously fucked up christianist cat-logic, by all means, indulge.
So, some of you may know that my day job is an expense report auditor. It's perfect for me really because I don't have to deal with people on a face to face 'customer service' kind of basis that much and I get to write politely caustic emails fairly often.
So I come across an expense report that has this thing attached. It's a plastic credit card type card that says "Taste of Vino" on it and the Whole Foods label. Hmmmmm. Is it a bribe? I check the report and find nothing that seems to indicate that they would have tried to pass this thing off as a receipt. I take the card out, put it on my desk and toss the report in the file pile when I'm done.
I come across the card again today. I have no idea who's report it was attached to at this point. I decide to google.
Wine lovers can taste before they buy or just have a little drinkipoo while they shop at the new Sauganash Whole Foods. Stop by the cheese counter to get your rechargeable Vino Card and add any amount you’d like in $5 increments. Snag a real glass from the shelf, peruse the 16 selections available “on tap”, and select the wine you’d like to try. Prices per taste are illuminated above each offering, ranging from 75 cents for a nice Spanish rose to $3.25 for a fancy Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon. Just insert your card, position your glass under the desired spout, press the button, and out comes your wine at the perfect serving temperature. You might just find yourself volunteering to do the grocery shopping more often.
Dude, so should I totally try and use this thing or not?
I had a crazy animal week including seeing some rare birds. We have over 100 black widows in my front yard right now. I stopped counting at 80 that I'd killed. Never seen anything like it. There have also been serious beetle and moth infestations all over San Diego. Here's some photos all from this last week.
Okay, that's a bit hyperbolic but the claim is based largely on the fact that this band took ten years off and came back with a record that very easily could have just been another Portishead album that relied on the sound they're already known for. Nope. That's not what they did at all. While a return to the Portishead sound of old would have been welcomed with open arms, that just wasn't in the cards for Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons. I'm sure the fact that "trip-hop" the genre they helped lay the blueprint for has long since died had something to with the direction the band has taken the P'head sound.
What Portishead did was simply intentionally destroy the "Portishead sound." Obliterate it. If you thought Dummy and Portishead were melancholy affairs then Third is flat out apocalyptic. This album is ugly, it's nasty, it's unpleasant, it's uneven. It's a jarring slap in the face from a band absolutely DARING you to play this in the coffee shop you may work in. (Which is EXACTLY what I'm going to do!) This is NOT background music. This is the soundtrack to the end of our days, and it absolutely rocks.
