Happy Hour at Chez Animal Hair Can I get you a drink?

So I’ve had this photo for awhile, but I was cleaning up my phone and thought I’d post them.

These were taken on my cell phone while I was sitting upstairs in the theater. I was taking a photo of Murphy who was laying on the floor right in front of me. As soon as the photo took (no flash, as you can see, it was super dark) I saw the white flash in the screen and it showed up on the photo.

If you have any explanation for this, I’d love to hear it. There are no lights in the near area and as I said I used no flash. I tried to re-create it many times as was able to get a similar photo only once. If interested I’ll post that too, but it looks just like this one. I’ve tried again on other nights and gotten nothing.

As you can see on the second photo I outlined the dog so you can see what’s going on.

This is the same room that Greg was sleeping in recently when he heard his name shouted very loud in his ear by a female voice (and it wasn’t me, I swear!). It woke him up, he sat up and said What? But no one was there.

Posted under ghosts, house

Yesterday I got to work early and the above photo is of what greeted me in the parking lot. The place was nearly empty except for this large community of geese walking from one end of the parking lot to the other and across the driveway to the pond.

There were moms, dads and kids (teenagers by the look of it, not too little) waddling across the pavement. I was planning on bringing my camera to work that day but I forgot. So I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a couple that way.

They sure were cute. Then just as I got inside and thought they were all done, I saw another group nearly running to catch up. You could almost hear them, ‘Hey! Wait for me!� as they toddled behind the rest. Sooooo cute.

Not quite Cute Overload.com cute, but cute nonetheless.

Posted under Random Thoughts

I have cooked since I last wrote, really. It’s just that either the things I made were not great, or they were things I’d already wrote about or I forgot (or got too lazy) to take photos of them.

We got a Kitchen Aid mixer last week. The first thing we made were these cookies

Ultimate Chocolate Cookies

Serving Size : 12

Ingredients

8 Ounces Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1/3 Cup Butter-flavored Crisco
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup Unbleached Flour — slightly packed
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
8 Ounces German’s Chocolate — each square cut 1/2
Cooking Spray

Position 1 oven shelf in the center and the other just above center. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large heatproof glass bowl, heat chocolate for 1 to 2 minutes in the microwave, stirring after 1 minute. All chocolate may not be melted after 2 minutes, but let stand in the hot bowl and it will melt.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then stir in vanilla.

Measure flour into medium bowl. Stir in baking powder and salt, then stir in cocoa powder. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture. Stir in melted chocolate and mix well. Fold in chocolate chunks.

Coat baking sheets (I use commercial half-sheet pans — cookies may burn on dark pans) with cooking spray.

For each cookie spoon 1 heaping tablespoon dough onto baking sheet (I used medium 1½-inch, number 40 ice cream scoop, 12 cookies to a sheet).

Bake until cookies just start to darken around edges, about 9 minutes. Switch position of sheets halfway through baking. Cool cookies on sheet 2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.

Source: “Star Tribune – Taste 9-28-00″

NOTES : This text accompanied the recipe: There is a thin, crisp outer shell, made from eggs. But then you bite in and luscious black chocolate rushes across your tongue. When I tasted Marcel Destinies’ Black Gold Cookies in his book, “Death by Chocolate Cookies,” I had to make cookies like this right away. To get this much melted chocolate with a small amount of flour, I used butter-flavored shortening to keep the cookies from spreading too much. These are serious chocolate cookies.

(me again)

I would have taken a photo but, well, they’re gone. Yes, they were that good.(note 2, I made these again in 2009 and posted the photo then

But really really rich. Actually I’d even leave the chocolate chips out and they would be much easier to eat ten of them. They’re so rich, really I can eat only one…at a time…milk is a must.

Posted under Cookies/Deserts, Cooking

OK then last night we made this yummy steak. We’ve done it before. But this time I got a photo or two.

We made only two steaks and they were probably under 6 oz each. I know I only ate half of mine. That’s way too big for one person! Greg would beg to differ.

Peppercorn Steaks with Bourbon Sauce

Recipe By: Rick Rodgers

Serving Size: 6

Ingredients

4 teaspoons four peppercorn mix
6 6 ounce beef tenderloin steaks
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2/3 cup bourbon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 cup chopped shallot
2/3 cup beef broth

Coarsely crush peppercorns in mortar with pestle. Season steaks with salt. Sprinkle peppercorns over both sides of steaks pressing to adhere. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add steaks and cook to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare.

Meanwhile, heat bourbon in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until warm. Remove from heat; carefully ignite with match. Let burn for 30 seconds, then cover to extinguish flame.

Transfer steaks to plates; tend with foil to keep warm. Add 1 tablespoon butter and shallots to drippings in skillet; sauté 2 minutes. Add broth and bourbon; boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add remaining 5 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until just melted. Spoon sauce over steaks and serve.

Source: “Bon Appetit March 2002″

Serving Ideas : Serve with Double Baked Potatoes with Mushrooms and Cheese and steamed broccoli.

We did actually serve these with the Double Baked Potatoes with Mushrooms. That recipe is here too. We had Brussels Sprouts instead of broccoli though because they were older.

Posted under Beef, Cooking

I am bored at work today. Oh sure I probably could find something worthwhile to do, but instead I am cruising YouTube. Hey, it’s OK it’s still officially my lunch hour.

Today’s favorites are:

American Idol fake audition

This is a funny commentary on how we should all use Mozilla/Firefox browsers

and of course, we’ve all had mornings like this

OK I should get something done before I leave for happy hour!

Posted under Random Thoughts

This morning on the Today show it was made clear to the world (or the states anyway) how yucky AOL is. I mean, most of us already knew this. But there are still some die-hard fans (this I cannot understand).

This guy, Vincent Ferrari attempted to cancel his AOL account and was basically told he could not…or should not. You may think this is out of the ordinary, but it is not.

Years ago a friend tried to cancel her account. The rep would not let her. She kept trying to offer her new/more services, which only pissed her off even more. Understandably. She was eventually told, “You’ve been a customer too long, if I let you cancel I’ll lose my job.�

So AOL’s apology to Ferrari is pretty much bill shit. They train their people to act this way.

I personally had a really rotten experience too. I tried to cancel and they told me that they would not do it that day because I had already paid for the whole month (you pay a month in advance, or used to anyway). They refused. Told me I’d be wasting money, etc. So I (being a chicken shit) agreed. They told me to call back on the 15th of the next month, and then I could cancel.

I called back on the 15th and they told me the next month had already been deducted. It would be stupid to cancel now! You’ve already paid for the next month! When I explained what happened last time I called they said that I must have misunderstood or gotten the date wrong. Oh yes, of course, it’s the customer’s fault. Always. Isn’t that the first rule of customer service? Blame them whenever possible? Yeah, I thought so.

I got really pissed, but also didn’t want to lose any more money and they would not refund it. Said it was impossible. I asked them what the next date to cancel was and they gave me a date.

I called back 2 days before the given date and luckily caught them before they’d deducted anything. I think, if I remember right, that I actually canceled that credit card so they could not charge on it. At any rate I tried again to cancel. Got the run around very much like Vincent did. They only agreed when I threatened to call the Better Business Bureau. So it took me three months and three phone calls to simpluy cancel an account.

Years later when we moved and it came time to cancel my Earthlink account something similar happened. I canceled it, they confirmed it. Then several months later we noticed we were still being charged for it. When I confronted them they said I had never canceled. The problem was I could not prove it. I had been given a confirmation number but lost it when we moved. That was my fault. Well, not my fault that they fucked up but my fault that I couldn’t prove it.

Watch the “Today� show segment

Posted under Random Thoughts

Ever been out to dinner with three old doddering fools with hearing problems? No? Well, that’s what I did last night. Of course all their wives were there too, but somehow I got placed smack dab in between the men. Probably because one of them was my dad. The others were my uncle (Dad’s brother) and Dad’s cousin. They range in age from 65-sish To 80.

The wives were all down at the other end of the table having a nice conversation at a reasonable volume while I sat at the other end translating between them because none of them could hear each other. It was actually pretty comical.

At one point they were actually talking about hearing aids (taking them out, showing theirs to each other) and Cousin, who was seated next to me, said something to me. I don’t remember what, he made a joke or something. And my Dad saw me react and leaned over and said “What did he say!?� and I honestly thought my dad was pulling a hearing aid joke on me so I wouldn’t answer him. You know that line of jokes…

“I got a new hearing aid!�

“Oh really? What kind is it?�

“Oh about 2:30�

…laughter ensues…yeah, like that. So I thought that’s what my dad was doing and I was not going to fall for it. Turns out, he really didn’t hear anything. *sigh*

And speaking of unsuccessful jokes…Uncles wife (she’s not really my Aunt, they got married just a few years ago, I’ve only met her a handful of times) has absolutely NO sense of humor. She’s a lovely woman, very bright and cheery, very sweet. But has absolutely NO idea when one is kidding.

If you know my dad, you can see how this may be a problem. Pretty much every third sentence, wait, make that every other sentence, that comes out of his mouth is a joke, or an exaggeration, or a funny lie, double entendre or some such.

So the night was filled with her saying “Oh my really? Wow!� It was almost painful. I figured the best way to show her that he was kidding (since he wasn’t letting on, he thinks this shit’s funny) was to laugh at his “jokes�. So she’d see me and say, “Oh I see, you’re kidding.� At one point she said “I can never tell if you’re joking� and I said, “Just assume everything he says is a joke, you’ll be right more often than not.�

I think the strangest part of the evening came when my dad’s wife, Jackie handed out little tins of mints for everyone (with the show’s logo on them) and my uncle opened his, poured about a quarter of the mints on his near empty pizza plate and proceeded to eat the mints with a fork. What’s up with that? Other than that he seemed very with it.

Oh no, wait, clearly the funniest part was when my Uncle said, “Not to bring up politics but what do you all think of Bush?�

This, to a table of liberals. Well, I take that back, Cousin said “I’d vote for him if he ran again� and that’s when I knew this discussion could turn very ugly. My dad said, “Gee, what do you want to bring up next? Abortion? Gay Marriage? Oh how about religion?� Good old Dad. We all laughed and moved on.

It was a pretty interesting night full of laughs and “what’d he say?�s.

Oh and topic shift…am I in the Twilight Zone or did they pick the 5 WORST comedians to be in the house on the second finalist episode of ‘Last Comic Standing�? The heavy Latino guy? Are you fucking kidding me? Stella? WTF? They redeemed themselves a little by adding those two ladies at the end but Nikki Payne was ROBBED. She was my favorite of ALL 20 of them.

Oh and they did right by adding Bill Dwyer. I’ve always liked him. But also Doug Benson was not chosen? Clearly that audience was on crack.

UPDATE: It was not the audience voting. It was the producers, which explains everything. They did not pick the funniest people, they pretty much admitted it. Bastards. [Read More] Apparently I’m not the only one who is not happy!

Posted under Random Thoughts

This made me laugh out loud. I’ve never cared for this “chef”. She doesn’t know the difference between julienne and chop. Plus who can trust a “chef” who weighs 49 pounds soaking wet? But this is priceless: Giada gets a bad taste

Sorry Kari, I know you like her….

Posted under Cooking, tv/movies

Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey couple up.

Now that’s a match! [Read the story on People]

Posted under celebrity news/gossip

This came to me via MySpace and since I spent some time filling it out, I thought I’d post it here:

you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 63 things about your friends, and let them learn 63 things about you! Nothing special will happen if you do, and nothing bad will happen if you dont, but maybe you’ll get to know someone better, and they’ll care to learn something about you.

1) How old do you wish you were? I like all my years, so I wouldn’t want to erase any of them…but I do wish I were maybe ten years younger.

2) Where were you when 9/11 happened? I was working at neighborhood newspaper. I lived across the street at the time and I offered to go home and get a TV so we could keep up to date and the boss refused. Said we wouldn’t get any work done. This was a NEWSpaper, people! Assholes. Good riddance.

3) What do you do when vending machines steal your money? I haven’t used a vending machine in a long time but I’m sure I’d swear.

4) Do you consider yourself kind? Yes. Though I have low tolerance for people with low tolerance of others (I know, I know- oxymoron and all that…but I don’t like people who don’t give a shit about anyone else and I am not always kind to them)

5) If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be? I have one already. I don’t know, maybe my other ankle. Didn’t hurt too badly.

6) If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be? Danish. I want to go back there someday and would like to be able to speak with the locals in their language.

7) Do you know your neighbors? I know quite a few of them. Most are lovely. I have a great neighborhood.

What do you consider a vacation? Not having to go to work. Doesn’t have to be a destination.

9) Do you follow your horoscope? I read it, but don’t put a lot of faith in it. Though I am totally a Libra.

10) Would you move for the person you loved? Like off the couch if he wanted to sit there? Sure? I move for the dog all the time. Oh like a city? If it wasn’t somewhere I didn’t want to go. Greg almost got a job in Detroit and I would not move there.

11) Are you touchy feely? I can be.

12) Do you believe that opposites attract? Sure, but they rarely last.

13) Dream job? Getting paid a LOT of money to do what I already do for free (my website, reviews, etc). But I’d also like to own a music venue.

14) Favorite channel(s)? Bravo, NBC, Sci-Fi, Food Network

15) Favorite place to go on weekends? Happy hour.

16) Showers or Baths? Showers. Not in to wasting time. I get in the bath and immediately think of something else I should be doing. Plus I prune up in seconds.

17) Do you paint your nails? Sometimes.

18) Do you trust people easily? At first I think I do. But if there’s even an inkling of unease, I’ll back off.

19) What are your phobias? Being alone. Lonely. I don’t like bees either.

20) Do you want kids? If I do it will be a little Chinese girl (I’m getting too old)

21) Do you keep a handwritten journal? No, but an online one…three actually.

22) Where would you rather be right now? Home, watching TV or at happy hour

23) Who makes you feel warm and fuzzy? My dogs, cats

24) Are you a Heavy sleeper? No not really. I am more so when Greg is in town. But when he’s away I can wake up if the cat sneezes.

25) Are you paranoid? I guess if I didn’t answer yes everyone would make fun of me. Let’s just say I have an over-active imagination and am real good at “worse case scenario� fears.

26) Are you impatient? yes, sometimes. Depends on what I’m waiting for. Come on….next question!!!

27) Who can you relate to? Geez. I have no idea.

28) How do you feel about interracial couples? Same as any other couple. Whatever.

29) Have you been burned by love? Sure

30) Whats your life motto? Motto? Whatever you do is fine with me as long as it doesn’t hurt you or anyone else. Original, I know.

31) What’s your main ringtone on your mobile phone? Depends who is calling me. It’s not a real song, just a weird swingy jingle. But I do have “Could it be Magicâ€?.

32) What were you doing at midnight last night? Sleeping.

33) What did the last text on your cellphone say? “Oooh yeah!�

34) Who’s bed did you sleep in last? My own

35) What color shirt are you wearing? purple

36) Most recent movie you watched? “Wicker Park� just watched it last night. It stars my neighbor Josh Hartnett. Pretty good. Confusing.

37) Name three things you have on you at all times? Cell phone, credit card, ID

38) What color are your bed sheets? Mauve

39) How much cash do you have on you right now? 30 bucks or so.

40) What is your favorite part of the chicken? His laugh. Oh to eat? Wing, with buffalo sauce. mmmm

41) What’s your favorite town/city? Well, I do love Minneapolis, but if I have to pick somewhere else, I’d say Copenhagen, Denmark.

42) I can’t wait till: 5pm

43) Who got you to join myspace? More of a general fear of not being in the In Crowd.

44) What did you have for dinner last night? Macaroni & Cheese (homemade, wasn’t very good)

45) How tall are you barefoot? 5’4� and shrinking.

46) Color of your computer? At work, blue-ish grey, at home silver

47) Do you own a gun? Hell no

48) What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Cranberry juice or grapefruit juice, maybe decaf coffee.

49) What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex? No idea. Haven’t tried to do that in like 14 years.

50) Do you have A.D.D.? I am starting to believe I do. What was the question again? Oooh pretty colors…

51) What time did you wake up today? 7:30am

52) Current worry? That something will happen while I’m home alone and won’t be able to handle it myself.

53) Current hate? That I can’t lose weight even though I go to bed hungry every night.

54) Favorite place to be? My third floor. In a bean bag chair, watching a movie with a package of chocolate cupcakes (see #53)… and my dogs next to me or in my backyard.

55) On your mousepad? *What* on my mousepad? My mouse?

56) Where do you think you’ll be in 10 yrs? Probably in the same place I am right now.

57) Last thing you ate? Ravioli from a can. I know. I’m at work and forgot to bring the bun portion of my pulled chicken sandwich so I had to resort to what was in my desk. It was that or ketchup packets, powdered creamer and Splenda.

58) What songs do you sing in the shower? Depends what’s on the radio. Nothing usually seeing as I don’t know the words to Celtic clog music (I listen to the Current in the morning)

59) Last thing that made you laugh? A podcast where a guy is talking to American Airlines automated menu and he’s messing with them. I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

60) Worst injury you’ve ever had? I’ve been pretty lucky. Probably when I pulled an alarm clock down on my head and required stitches. Everyone in the hospital thought my boyfriend hit me.

61) Does someone have a crush on you? That would be kind of cool. But I sincerely doubt it’s true.

62) What is your favorite candy? Dark chocolate. Dove, preferably.

63) What song do you want played at your funeral? Hadn’t really thought about that. I don’t know that I’ll know the difference.

Posted under Random Thoughts