Dairy Overload

Brie cheese + horseradish cheddar + egg nog + cheese cake = a very unhappy tummy

And to think at the time I was a little sad because I didn't have room for the peppermint stick icecream.

A New Christmas Tradition

Last year, myself and some friends decided that it would be fun to get together, watch some old Christmas specials, decorate Chrsitmas cookies, drink egg nog, and generally have a merry time. I made up some sugar cookie batter and brought it to the party. For some reason, I lined the cookie sheets with wax paper instead of parchment paper. I discovered the mistake when the oven got a little smokey. Yeah. I'm a bad baker.

This year we carried on the now-annual Christmas get together. I joked about my past cookie problems. This year I just bought a tube of sugar cookie dough and let the others go at it. I'm not sure what happened, but the couple of batches were all burnt on the bottom and still raw on top.

Sonja and I have decided to rename this the party the Annual Let's See How We'll Mess Up the Cookies This Time Party.

Actually, other than the burnt cookies, we had a really fun time. Here's a shout out to Sonja, our hostess, who let us dirty almost every dish in her apartment. It was fun.

The Annual Christmas Crafting Conundrum

Every year I get it into my head that it would be really nice and special if I gave everybody homemade gifts. And then every year I procrastrinate about starting said gifts. And then every year the realities of the amount of spare time available during the Christmas season catches up with me. And then every year I vow to either, A) start these projects a whole lot earlier, or B) not try to do so many homemade gifts.

And then, of course, me being an intelligent creature, I promptly forget that yearly vow and do the same thing over and over again every year.

Don't get me wrong. Every gift I make for someone is a labor of love. Plus, I just really enjoy sewing. I'm slightly (OK, more than slightly) neurotic and stress about every imperfection that I wouldn't care about if I was making it for myself. I'm getting better at that.

The trouble is, there are only so many things that I make for gifts and I have to keep track as to who I gave what in previous years. This person's already got mittens? OK, then, it's a blanket for you!

Should I Have Been Concerned?

I saw a strange sight today as I walked to work. Walking up the hill was a disheveled looking young man wearing a leopard print bath robe. I couldn't help wondering if I should have been more concerned about that, although he did appear to be wearing pants and shoes.

Just A Second

Well, it's been a long year, and it looks like it's going to get longer. December 31 will be just a second longer, as a leap second will be added on to the last day of the year. The extra second will be added between 6:59:59 and 7:00:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time.

Apparently, there are two time scales - one based on the Earth's rotation and the other independent of the Earth's rotation. Atomic time is based on a signal emitted by electrons changing energy state within an atom.

The International Earth Rotation Reference Systems Service monitors the two timescales and makes adjustments when necessary. The Earth does not have a steady rotation and is gradually slowing down, causing the time scales to get out of synch. Leap seconds have been added at various intervals since 1972. The last leap second was December 31, 2005.

2008 is the first year with both a leap day and a leap second.

2008 is not, however, the longest year on record. That goes to the year 46 BC, when Julius Ceasar introduced the Julian calendar. In order to correct the difference between the calendar date and the season, determined by the position of the Earth in its rotation around the sun, Ceasar added 2 months and 23 days, making the year a total of 455 days long.

Tell Me What Comes To Mind

OK, people. Let's play word association. I'll give you a phrase and you tell me what pops into your head. There is a method to my madness, so humor me and play along.

Today's phrase is:
Chocolate Bacon Bar

A Public Service Announcement

Christmas cards make it to their destinations a lot easier if you remember to put a stamp on the envelope.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

This year was my first time in charge of the Thanksgiving feast. I think it turned out rather nicely. We had a small gathering - my brother, his very pregant wife, her parents, and myself, so of course I cooked enough food for about a dozen or so people. With all said and done, everything came out nicely and I was able to put every dish on the table that I had anticipated.

I tried to get as much local food as possible. The bird came from Adams Turkey Farm in Westford, most of the produce came from Mazza's farm in Colchester, and the wine that we never got around to opening came from Boyden Valley winery in Cambridge. I am trying not to sound smug about this, but I do think it is important to purchase as much locally produced food as possible.

On a slightly humorous note, my geeky self made a spreadsheet of all of the ingredients that I would need. Hey, I was on hold at work for over 45 minutes with a computer in front of me. I started writing a quick shopping list and then as time went by, I got fancy. The spreadsheet actually helped tremendously, since I was taking everything down to my brother's place in Montpelier. It made the shopping quicker too, as I had sorted it by department.

I started prepping the meal around 8 on Thanksgiving morning, and by 9 the turkey was ready to go in the oven. I did not brine the turkey, which was recommended to me by several people. Instead, I loosened the skin and applied a rub of butter, pepper, and other spices. I put a little extra on the outside of the skin as well. Jenny has a set of silicone basting brushes that are wonderful and are going on my Christmas list.

With that done, I started working on the giblet gravey. This actually wasn't nearly as complicated as the recipe made it sound. I had anticipated this being the most difficult of the meal components, as it had a lot of ingredients, quite a few steps, and I had never made giblet gravey before. It turns out the only real difficult part was the chopping of the vegetables, and that was more tedious then anything else. My knife skills still leave a lot to be desired.

On another note, truffle oil smells awful when it's in the bottle. I put in slightly less than the recipe called for (1 teaspoon, instead of 1.5 teaspoons) because I was afraid this stuff would ruin the gravey. It ended up with a very subtle truffle flavor. In retrospect, I should have put in the entire amount, but I thought it was best to err on the side of caution in this case. So, was the truffle oil worth the expense? No, not really. It did lend a nice flavor, but I don't think it would have been missed if it wasn't there.

The veggies came out nice. I ended up doing the brussel sprouts as well as peas and onions at my brother's request. The peas were the only vegetable that I wasn't able to buy fresh. I had to use a bag of frozen peas, because there aren't a lot of fresh peas in Vermont in late November, but James won't eat many vegetables to begin with and I didn't want to deny his one request. Jenny helped me out by peeling the potatoes (both the regular and the sweet) and fetching me dishes as I needed them. She also made a last minute run to the grocery store in the morning for some forgotten items, including the bag of peas my organized self forgot to grab out of the freezer while packing up all of the groceries. And, on top of everything else, she made me breakfast. Thanks, Jen!

The meal itself wasn't difficult to cook. It was mostly chopping of vegetables and stirring of pots. I did take a couple of short cuts, though. The cranberry sauce came from a can. You know, the kind that holds the shape of the can after it's out. I love that stuff. The stuffing came from a mix, but I doctored it up with some vegetables and herbs. It was pretty good, for stuffing. I've never been a huge stuffing fan.

One thing I did notice - for someone who isn't a fan of onions, I put an awful lot of them in this meal.

Jen's father brought rolls and an assortment of pies, so I was let off the hook, baking wise. I didn't get to sample all 4 pies, as I had intended (no more room in the belly!), but the coconut cream was absolutely delicious.

For your viewing pleasure, here's some food pictures of our meal.

Jenny looks on as James learns the fine art of carving a turkey

Here's the spread. The table wasn't big enough to hold all of the food!

Here's hoping that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

A Quiet Office

It always makes me a little nervous when all of the managers are missing from the office. I wonder what's up.

I'm an Aunt!

On Sunday, November 30, we welcomed my brother and his wife's first child. Alyssa Amber weighs in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces and is 20 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing fine and should be coming home on Tuesday.

Here's Alyssa with her proud papa.

Office Lunch Room Redeux

I am happy to report that my sandwich survived today and made it through the office refrigerator in its original unsquished form. Yay!

And on an even better note, someone brought in cookies. With frosting. And sprinkles. I consider this an appeasement for 2 days of sqished sandwiches.

Refrigerator Etiquette

My workplace, like many other offices, provides a refrigerator in the break room. Mostly people store their lunches in there. This is the second day in a row where someone has piled something large and heavy on top of my lunch bag. The results have been 2 days of squished sandwiches. Not the end of the world, and still edible, but irritating all the same. I swear, if this keeps up I'm going to install a hidden camera in the break room to catch the guilty party, and then take every oppurtunity to squish the culprit's lunch.

And so, I've taken it upon myself to educate the masses in office refrigerator etiquette.

1. Try to pack your lunch so that it takes up a minimum of refrigerator real estate
2. Make every effort to place your lunch in a clear space
3. If you must move things around to make room for your own lunch, be gentle
4. If you absolutely have to stack lunches, put the squishy stuff on top. Put the sandwich on top of the tupper wear

Remember kids, only you can prevent squished sandwiches.

Let the Feast Begin

The eating season is upon us. As the roommate so aptly pointed out the other day, the holidays aren't sneaking up on us, they're roaring on by. I'm not sure how it is for the rest of you, but for me it seems like I start eating on Thanksgiving and don't stop until after New Year's. Not that there's anything wrong with that, or anything.

This year I will be attempting to cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner. I like to think that my cooking skills have improved greatly over the last few years, but the thought of a full blown holiday meal is a little daunting.

I've been looking over some cooking magazines and scouting out recipes online. Waht can I say, I obsess about things, and this has given me something to obsess about. Also, it's a good excuse to spend an entire day cooking, which is something that I actually enjoy doing. I've got most of the menu planned out. This is what I have so far.

• Roast turkey - Duh!
• Turkey gravey with truffle oil - I've never used truffle oil, but it sounds intriguing despite the fact that many chefs think the stuff should be banned
• Mashed potatoes - Again, duh!
• Bruleed sweet potatoes - I got this recipe from Cooking Light. It is absolutely delicious.
• Sauteed brussel sprouts with leeks - Yum! I've made this for a few formal meals. It's good. Trust me
• Some other form of vegetable - Possibly peas and pearl onions, or possibly green beans. I'm open to suggestions.
• Stuffing - This will be a mix. Let's not get too crazy with the cooking. Most of the stuffing recipes I've found seem overly complicated for what you get. And I don't even like stuffing.
• Cranberry sauce - From the can, just like mom used to make.
• Rolls - Store bought. My baking skills leave something to be desired. If I'm feeling frisky, I might break out the Bisquick.

On a related note, I went to a free cooking workshop offered by Williams-Sonoma. The work shop was on cooking side dishes. On the plus side, it didn't turn into an hour long sales pitch. With that said, I was disappointed in the class. It was way more basic than I had anticipated. Williams-Sonoma is a high end kitchen store. I would assume that people who shop there know how to blanch vegetables, otherwise, what the heck are they doing with all of their overly priced gadgets and gourmet ingredients?

Next week's workshop is on pie. I haven't decided if it's worth going. On one hand, I already know the basics. On the other, I am pie crust impaired. Seriously impaired. Even when I follow the recipe exactly. I can make a pretty decent pie filling, but I have to get a pre-made pie crust. It's a tragedy, I know.

Gendered Toys

I was in Toys R Us today shopping for a birthday present for a 1 year old. Walking through the store, I noticed a disheartening trend with the toys. Toys that I always thought were gender neutral have shown up on the shelves with a feminine equivalent. There are now sets of Legos and TinkerToys that are "designed exclusively for girls". The difference? The girls' version comes in shades of pink and purple, as opposed to the bright primary colors of the regular version. WTF?

Time For Change

No, not another post election post. This time I'm talking about change in my personal life. I like to start small, like with my blog, here. The two of you who actually read this thing may have noticed something's different. I think I'm trying to shed my pirate persona a bit, which is unfortunate, considering the name of this thing. Anyway, I hope you like the new format.

In other change news, I had my first professional hair cut in some time. I decided that I had gotten my hair caught in the car door for the last time. I also recently managed to catch it in my top desk drawer. Everything was fine until I rolled back in the chair. Ow! So, 15 inches came off. It sounds drastic, but it's still pretty long.

What will be my next change? I'm feeling restless, so at this point only time will tell.

Yes He Did

As the dust settles on the 2008 elections, I thought I would weigh in with my two cents.

First, the good news. This sums things up nicely...

America has its first black president with Barack Obama defeating John McCain. Not only is this a historic first, but we also have a progressive leader who has some good ideas to repair the damage that has been done over the last 8 years.

Now that we're done doing our happy dances (or pouting in a corner and pointing your finger at Sarah Palin, if you happen to be a Republican), lets not forget that we were voting on more than just the president on Tuesday.

The good news is that the Democrats picked up a few more seats, making it easier for our new progressive leader to pass through his agenda. Dems picked up an additional 6 seats in the senate, giving them a 57-40 majority. The bad news is that they did not reach 60 seats, the magic number that will give the Democrats a fillibuster proof majority over the Republicans. Keep in mind that Republican fillibusters have been a huge reason why the Democrats have not been able to accomplish much since taking control in 2006 with a razor thin majority.

In more good news, women will be represented at a historic high in both houses. 17 women (13 Dems and 4 Reps) will be in the senate and 74 (57 Dems, 17 Reps) will be in the House. While I'm happy women are gaining ground in politics, we're still abysmally under-represented. Think about it. Women are 50% of the population, yet hold only 17% of the seats in congress.

In more good news, voter turnout in this election was at an all time high. Turnout is estimated at 64% of the eligible voting population, besting the previous high of 63% for 1960 election where JFK squared off against Richard Nixon. A quick look at the statistics for other presidential elections put voter turnout in the low to mid 50's. It's even lower in non-presidential election years, hanging somewhere in the 30 to 40 percent range. People were excited this time around. That's a good thing.

Ballot Initiatives

There were a few ballot initiatives I was keeping an eye on. It turns out that America is pro-choice but anti-gay. Sigh. Here's the run down.

The most well known ballot initiative in the country was California's proposition 8, a law banning gay marriage. An estimated $74M was spent on this ballot initiative, the most for any campaign this season after the presidential campaigns. I am incredibly sad that this passed. There is no word yet what will happen to the estimated 16,000 gay married couples in the state.

Another gay marriage ban, Ammendment 2, passed in Florida. And yet another anti-gay item passed in Arkansas. Act 1 banned gay couples from adopting or becoming foster parents. On a happier note, Question 1 in Connecticut failed. Question 1 would have paved the way for more anti-gay ammendments by changing the state's constitution.

On the pro-choice side of things, the big one, Colorado's Ammedment 48, failed by huge margin; about 73% voted no. I am extremely relieved that it failed so spectacularly, but still disheartened that it got on the ballot in the first place. The ammendment would have defined a fertilized egg as a human being, with full rights under law. Had this passed, not only would all forms of abortion be outlawed in the state, but it also would have affected in vitro fertilization and hormonal birth control. There is no word on whether or not an autopsy report would need to be filed every time a woman gets her period.

South Dakota's Measure 11, an outright ban on abortion in the state, also failed. This is the second attempt for this piece of anti-choice legislation aimed at challenging Roe v Wade. Measure 11 contained an exceptions for rape, incest, and health of the mother ('impending organ failure') that were not included in the 2006 bill. The good news is that it still failed. The bad news is that these anti-choice groups just won't go away and have vowed to put another abortion ban on the ballot for the 2010 election.

On a related note, Proposition 4 in California also failed. This was a parental notification law that required minors to wait 48 hours to have an abortion after a physician has informed her parents. Isn't that a wonderful thing to do to a kid who's already terrified? The law did give an exception so that another adult relative could be notified in the case of abuse, but the abuse needed to be reported to the police by the physician, and the court would then decide on a case by case basis. It's wonderful stuff for a very time-sensitive procedure.

Lastly, Initiative 424 in Nebraska passed. This will eliminate equal oppurtunity language from the state's constitution and bans affirmative action programs by state agencies. What does this mean? Among other things, state institutions, such as public schools and universities, can no longer offer scholarships for minority students.

Local Elections

In local news, Jim Douglas won his re-election bid for governor with enough votes to avoid a runoff election. No surprise there, though I would have liked to have seen a Progressive as governor. I did in fact vote for Anthony Pollina. I console myself with the thought that a Vermont Republican would be considered a liberal in other areas of the country.

Representative Peter Welch easily won his first re-election with over 80% of the vote. I'm glad. One of the reasons that I like him is that Vermont's lone representative is very responsive to questions and concerns. I am one of those annoying people that write letters to Congress. The responses that I've gotten back have been timely and worded so that they actually address the issue that I asked about in the first place.

Also, I was very happy to learn that Kesha Ram won her bid for state representative, upsetting Progresive incumbant Chris Pearson. Remember her name. I predict that we will have be hearing more from the 22 year old in the future.

Your thoughts?

Get Out And Vote (And Get Some Free Goodies)

Election Day is finally upon us and it looks like we're in for a doozey. I will be braving the crowds after work and casting my vote in Burlington's very populated Ward 1 district.

A few companies will be offering nation wide incentives for people to vote. Most of these require some proof that you actually voted, so show up with your 'I Voted' sticker or some form of proof if you voted early or absentee.

First up is free ice cream. Mmmm...ice cream. Ben and Jerry's will be offering a free scoop of ice cream nation wide on election day from 5pm to 8pm. I do wish that the offer was good for later into the evening, since polls here close at 7 and with long anticipated wait times, voters may not be able to take advantage of the offer.

Next we have an offering of free caffeine. Starbucks will be giving away a tall cup of regular coffee to voters on November 4th.

In the sugary treats category, Kispy Kreme will be giving out star shaped doughnuts with red, white, and blue spinkles. Dunkin Donuts, are you gonna step up to the challenge?

And if you really want to rock the vote....Babeland (Note - don't click this link at work!) will be giving out a free silver bullets (for the ladies) and sleeves (for the guys) at their New York and Seattle locations.

[UPDATE: I voted after work (around 4 pm). There was no line and check in was smooth. There were even parking spaces available in the area, which is amzing in itself on any given day.]

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. It's a toss up for me if I like it more than Christmas, although Halloween might have a slim lead for my favorite holiday.

This year, I'm attending a Star Wars themed Halloween party. And so, in true Quartermaster fashion, I finished the costumes at about midnight last night. Let's hear it forthe last minute!

The roommates flak vest for his X wing pilot costume actually came out good. For the past three days I've been extremely frustrated by how it was turning out. I attempted 3 or 4 different methods of construction, none of which worked. Yesterday, I had the epiphany to just cut strips of fabric, fold them in half, and sew them on to the vest to create the ribbed look. It was tedious but not difficult. I wish I had thought of that 3 days ago.

His orange flight suit that I ordered off of Ebay hasn't arrived yet. I'm nervous about that since it is the main part of the costume. If it doesn't arrive, the backup plan is to get a pair of orange sweatpants and shirt from Wal-mart. It will look cheesey, but it will get the job done. I really hope I don't have to go that route.

I still need to put on the straps. We bought some grey ribbon that will look the part. I'm just going to loop it around him and sew in some velcro closures.

I got the lenses glued into my mask for the Jawa eyes. I think I'm just going to tape the leds into the lenses. If I have time when I get home from work, I'll sew a pocket into the hood to hold the battery. Otherwise I'll just wear the battery around my neck necklace style.

I should (operative word, should) be getting out of work today around 3:30. That will give me a little time to do the finishing touches on the costumes.

More On The Halloween Front

You get extra special credit if you just read the title as 'Moron, the Halloween Front'.

I have to keep telling myself that this is a Halloween costume, not a convention costume, so I don't have to be spot on. That's good, since I'll be possibly the galaxy's tallest Jawa.

Jawa Robe - Done! It's more like a Jawa dress then a robe, though. I was going to have it openable in the front (like a bathrobe) but I think it will be less work to just leave it closed. This means no hemming the slit and and not having to sew in velcro to keep it closed.

Hood - Mostly done. It's all sewn together and hemmed. I just need to sew to snap closure on the neck part and put in the velcro for the face covering. Speaking of which, I still need to cut out and hem the face covering.

Eyes - I ended up buying these already assembled from Ebay. They work great. I need to figure out how to mount them. I'm thinking I'll just fut some eyelets in the face covering and mount them in the eyelets.

Shoes - Not started yet. I did locate a pair of hard bottomed slippers that I have but never wear. They'll be sacrificed for this costume and covered with scraps of left over burlap. My intention is to sew the burlap on, but I think I may take the easy way out and grab a bottle of fabric glue.

Badoliers - Started but not done. The pieces are cut out. I put one of the pouches together last night. It didn't take too long but they're all going to have to be hand sewed. I was trying to avoid that. I might just do a couple of real pouches to hold my stuff (car keys, ID, money, chap stick) for the evening and do the rest as 'fake' pouches, like the fake pocket flaps you sometimes see on blazers.

Ion blaster - Not even started. I think I'll take a look at toy guns at the dollar store this weekend. If I can't find anything worakable, I'll just nix the entire idea.

As for the roommate, he's finally committed to being an x-wing pilot. I threatened to put a box over his head and call him an AT-ST if he didn't make up his mind. His original idea was to be one of the imperial guard. The costume itself isn't bad, really just a red velvet cloak. The helmet is the tough part. It turns out that these things are pricey, somewhere in the $300-$400 range.

I ordered the rebel pilot helmet on ebay earlier today. We had talked about getting just a generic white helmet and putting on rebel alliance stickers/decals. It turns out that the cost of the decals isn't much less than buying the completed helmet. Go figure. Since I'm not artisitic enough to paint the things on, ebay it is.

Now he just needs some orange coveralls and a few accessories. Looking through my box of scrap fabric, I found some grey vinyl that would work well for the flight suit scraps and also possibly the vest thing that the pilots wore. We also need the chest box, which will probably be a box with some miscellaneous switches and buttons swiped from the odd parts bin here at work glued on.

We've got a week to go. I think we can pull this off. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole group together. It should be a geeky good time. Hopefully, we can win best group costume at one of the local costume contests.

Snow!

It's not even Halloween yet, and I awoke to white flakes falling from the sky. What gives? Well, the Old Farmer's Almanac did predict a long, cold winter in the northeast.

On a related note...
My personal pet peeve of the day: people who claim global warming doesn't exist because it's cold outside. Or even worse, people who claim that global warming is a good thing because it's cold outside.