Playa del A-side

Oh hell yes:



Off to sunny Mexico to witness El Lopez tie the knot. I'll be back in a week: tanned, relaxed, and brimming with swine flu and explosive diarrhea!

First day of fall 2009: autumnal equinox

Tomorrow, September 22, is the autumnal equinox and the official first day of fall for 2009. The equinox occurs twice a year: the vernal (spring) and . . . more

Unbelievable

For two years running, James Montgomery's first show at the Blues Barge is canceled due to weather.

Is Boston the new Seattle? Or the new Amazon basin?

Brand New Day

(Just got that song from the new Target ads - "Brand New Day" by Tim Myers ft. Lindsey Ray. Upbeat and infectious - much like yours truly.)

I don't have to tell you that watching the Sox sweep a two-game series in the Bronx on a drizzly evening in early May is not a bad way to spectate. Big props to 45 for organizing yet another great event in which things were to be had. 30 pts. Guess it's always gonna rain when I watch the kids play Satan's team. The new stadium is nice, certainly, but I have to say it scores a goose egg in the character department. Of course it's hardly fair to compare anywhere to Fenway in this regard. No beer lines, if you're eager to spend nine bones on one.

The "Yankee Clipper" - definitely the way to travel from Hoboken to the Bronx.

Megabus - definitely the way to travel from the Hub to Gotham. Functionally it's very similar to the Fung Whoa but get your tix in advance and you can pay almost nothing. The poor man's Limoliner.

MFNYY fans - abhorrent in general, but exceptions do exist.

---

On a more serious note, let's hope Remy has a complete recovery soon. Just found out about this a couple days ago.

A-Side @ MFNYY

Taking Megabus - $15.50 round-trip* - down to NYC this AM in order to watch the Sox play the Yankees in the new stadium this evening. Dunndee's in line for a big dime's worth of points for setting this up.

Here's hoping the rain cooperates. The last time I saw the Sox play the Bombers at their old house there was a 2-hour rain delay in the middle of the game. Of course this was in 2004 during the ALCS and featured the Sox winning it off Rivera's blown save in the 9th.

So that was fine. But let's kill the rain by gametime, shall we?

*Prices vary depending on when you book.

Back to Square One

Just got back from a run for the first time in, oh...since Bush was in office. What a horrendous idea! Felt truly, truly awful. I blame Scottolance Johnstrong. It's not enough for him to bike everywhere, he has to run as well? Talk about guilting Fatty McButterpants* into a fitness program.

Beautiful day. Almost shockingly so - two in a row? In March? Will President Obama usher in an early spring along with scientific progress, universal health care, positive foreign relations, free tacos for all and a booming economy? Pushing 60 on a weekend in early March - now that's change I can believe in!

Although now after cooling down, drinking 10 glasses of water, and taking a few Bayer to stave off cardiac arrest, I feel pretty good. It's the kind of relief that can only come from being revived from clinical death.

A good thing: This? Great running tunes.

Another good thing: Turning the clocks forward. This is one of my favorite times of the year, because I love a) warm weather, b) sun, c) long days. And this time around I have the small bonus of not really losing an hour of sleep since Mass DUA has remarkably flexible hours.#

*F. McButterpants, for the purposes of this discussion, is I, recent compliments to the contrary notwithstanding.

#This is actually a gigantic negative. Just being folksy.

Ah, New England!

It's been a while since I ranted about the weather on here. Let me just observe, for the record, that it was beautiful, sunny, and in the high 50s on Friday. Friday. Two days ago.

Today it is 23 and snowing.

Ed: And we're apparently getting hammered with 15 inches tonight. Tough commute tomorrow!

I Can't Believe We Made It!

A somewhat belated post-New Year's "Happy New Year!" post to my fellow blogospherians. Some highlights from spending the final night of '08 and early days of '09 in the Empire and Garden states:

• Driving down during the Great Blizzard of '08 in Dunndee's Trans Am, AKA the Car with No Traction, Wiper Fluid, Functioning Wiper Blades, Rear Windshield Heating Element, or Headlights. At one point I thought we were going to be stuck in a rest area parking lot on 84 until 2009.
  
• Great New Year's Eve party "in the village," as they say, replete with bottomless Strong Islands, lots of A-side peeps, and vaulting bartenders
• 24 hours on Dunndee's couch on Jan 1st. Quite literally.
• Seeing the outside of an old law school building at Rutgers Law, Newark, AKA "City Law University," the law school Mike McD attends in Rounders, a film I watched approximately 146 times in college. Damon, Norton, Malkovich, and Turturro at their absolute peaks.
  
• Getting serenaded a cappella by five cheerful gentlemen in the wee hours of 2009 on the PATH train from World Trade Center back to Penn Station, Newark, NJ. A brief but comical Hall & Oates stint - "Hey, what you wanna listen to? White people music? What do white people listen to? Hall and Oates!" - was followed up by a little Sam Cooke at my request. A few bars of "A Change Is Gonna Come" were all too appropriate at that point.
• Calamari pizza. Don't knock it 'til you try it.
• Sauerbraten, AKA the "best thing on the menu" over at Cafe Steinhof in Crooklyn, NY. Nothing but steins, schnitzels, and spaetzle over there.
  

Lovely.

I'll take this gladly in October.

Clemency for Inclement Weather

It's been an odd summer in general - seems like we've had a lot of thunderstorms, especially this past week. Overcast, cooler, and rainy - very annoying. This evening was no exception, but I'll give a tip of the cap to Mother Nature this time. Few things are better than having the heavens open and release gallons of water when you're 3/4 through a run. First time I've run through an absolute downpour in a long time.

Refreshing.

(But I want sunshine for the clamboil tomorrow. You're on a thin rope, Madre.)

Really. Really?

Scattered thunderstorms tonight? Why, God, why?!? Why dost thou throw a wet blanket upon such undeniable schtonk?

An Open Letter to Mother Nature

Dear Mater Natura,

Um, wtf?



Not a fan. Please change your ways or I may have to find another metaphysical matriarch.

Regards,
MRhé

Victory Chili

Today was a frigid, blustery one in the horrific climate that is winter in New England. I needed a hot, hearty meal, and decided that chili would be the perfect compliment to the Patriots-Chargers game at 3:00. I was inspired by Ernie's post last week (and it looks like he brought out the "Victory chili" again for today as well). Since Ernie hasn't posted his recipe yet I made my way over to SimplyRecipes to see what Elise had on file. (A fantastic recipe blog, by the way. Great pics and instruction.) She actually had recently posted a list of several chili variations a few days back. I was planning on making a simple beef chili, but her turkey chili looked good. I followed her recipe with a few minor changes:

• I used a pound of ground turkey
• Upped the garlic to 6 cloves because that's how I roll
• I used 1 can of crushed and 1 can of diced tomatoes (28 oz. ea.) because I like the tomato chunks
• I used a can of red kidney beans and a can of white kidney (or cannellini) beans (19 oz. ea.) mainly for color and taste variation
• I added an entire diced jalapeno pepper
• I used about half the required cumin, accidentally (thought I had more left). I would definitely add the full tbsp next time to enhance the flavor profile.
  
• I used 1 Tbsp of oregano instead of a tsp, because I was concentrating on the Pats (didn't hurt)
• Probably used about 2 Tbsp salt and 1 Tbsp sugar
• I used about 1 1/4 cups of turkey stock, and I used my own! This was an incredible culinary experience, let me tell you. This is the first time I've used the excess stock I made for use in my turkey soup. It's been sitting in my freezer since right after Thanksgiving. It felt so rewarding. You probably wouldn't understand unless the prospect of simmering poultry bones and vegetables for several hours appeals to you.

Followed Elise's instructions from here, although I tossed the jalapeno in to sauté along with the rest of the veggies first, and then after they were all soft and translucent I put in the ground turkey to brown up before adding the rest of the ingredients. I also let it simmer for about 3 1/2 hours (I had added more liquid so I wanted to achieve a thicker consistency).

I served it topped with a mixture of mild and sharp cheddar, a healthy dollop of sour cream, and minced red onion and scallions. A chunk of Jiffy cornbread (delicious and basically free at $0.79!) adorned the dish, as you can see here.

I ate the first bowl before I realized I was nearly full, and finished the second just as this realization hit me. As I write this now I am overstuffed, but also over-delighted with how this turkey chili came out. Very flavorful. The heat level was near perfect - not too hot off the bat, but after several spoonfuls a sort of residual heat builds up, and the different heat sources add different flavors as well. An awesome cold-weather dish, and I made enough to last me all week.

Are any candidates running on a pro-gobal warming platform?

Because this is what I'm talkin' about!

A Chilly Reminder

Ugh. Days like this remind me why I want to move out of New England.

Crazy Chinese Commies

Only red fascists would try to suppress free rainfall.

Whiteout

03/16/07

Snowing like a bastard out. As annoying as this is, it's kind of cool. A ticklish onset of a cold to be remedied by repeated ingestion of CVS AirDefense and a hermitlike existence this evening.

An Open Letter to March

Dear March,

I noticed that it is going to be snowing over the next couple days, with temps in the 30s. This lack of sun and warmth following a 60+ day yesterday is just ridiculous. Please refrain.

Kill yourself,

MRhé

Firsts

Today marked the first outdoor lunch of 2007! It's just lovely out there today. This makes me happy.

Today also marked the first iced coffee of the warming climate - Red House with a shot of 'azelnut. Treatful.