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

We did order the vacuum and I hope it’s here by Friday so that we can clean the carriage house for our new housemate, Kadi.

We’re excited to have a new roomie, but will miss Gillian and her puppies very much. I might try and steal Clara when she’s not looking. That dog makes me laugh every day. Even her poops are cute. Seriously, they’re tiny!

We have changed the date of our Halloween party. It will now be on October 21st instead of the 28th. I decided that I did not want to try and have two big parties on the same night (the Rachael Sage house concert is on the 28th).

So everyone, mark your calendars for October 21st to come over and hang out and dress as something related to a freak show.

We’re meeting with Jen and Mary to discuss party plans, invites, food, etc, this weekend too.

Then hopefully, come back the next weekend to see Rachael Sage perform.

Gotta run Kadi is coming over tonight to unload some of her stuff.

Posted under Random Thoughts, house, party

We’re hoping to get one of these….

Dyson DC14 Animal Upright Vacuum

Anyone have any comments bout them? I’ve heard only good things.

I also want one of these, [here] but that’s more of a luxury.

Posted under Random Thoughts

Please forgive the quality of the photo. Camera phone.

Are you as sick of looking at that chicken as I am? I’ve cooked a little, just have been much to lazy to go upstairs to get the camera. Either that or the food hasn’t been marvelous looking.

Last week my delusional self thought that it would be a good idea to go on the South Beach Diet again. I’ve done it several times in the past but have never been able to stay on it for more than 5 days. I’ve always lost weight (a little) and the one time I did it before a cholesterol check mine had dropped over 20 points after being on it for only 4 days. Now that’s what I call cramming for a test!

This time I followed the menu to the letter and guess what? I gained weight!! Yep. So as soon as I realized that, I had a plate of pasta and a slice of chocolate cheesecake. Haven’t gained another pound. In fact, I lose a couple since then. So no more diet for me. But some of the recipes are pretty good. This is the salmon you’re supposed to have the first night.

Grilled Salmon with Rosemary

1 pound salmon
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Pinch freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried, crushed
Fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)
Capers (optional)–not to me! I love ‘em

Cut the fish into 4 equal-size portions. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary in a bowl. Brush the mixture onto the fish.

To grill, arrange the fish on a grill rack or use a grill basket sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Grill over medium-hot coals until the fish flakes easily (allow 4-6 minutes per 1/2″ of thickness). If the fish is more than 1″ thick, gently turn it halfway through grilling.

To broil, spray the rack of a broiler pan with olive oil cooking spray and arrange the fish on it. Broil 4″ from the heat for 4-6 minutes per 1/2″ of thickness. If the fish is more than 1″ thick, gently turn it halfway through broiling.

To serve, top the fish with capers, if using, and garnish with rosemary sprigs, if desired.

This was really yummy. I broiled it. The second day I was supposed to have a salad with tuna on it. I couldn’t find a can of tuna at the store so I just had the leftover salmon on the salad and it was quite good.

Posted under Cooking, Random Thoughts, Seafood

Last night we went to Happy Hour at Aura (great place, it’s always happy hour, or Happy Aura as they say). Just as we sat down a large man walked in and gave a shout out hello to our friend Tom the bartender.

“Hi Tiny!� said Tom. Tiny? Yeah.

So Tiny sat down next to us and asked Tom if it was all right for him to tell us what he does. Tom gave him the OK. He told us that he is a poet and singer of songs and poems of gospel and love. He performs all of his own original work. He explained that he does this because he’s homeless and is trying to raise money to eat and wash his clothes, etc. So he charges for his songs. But if we don’t like it we don’t pay a cent. He said that he knows other folks just ask for money but he wants to give something in return.

I have to say, that’s one thing I enjoyed about the homeless in San Francisco. They didn’t just ask for a handout, they were creative. Some sang, some danced, one made up a phony story about his daughter raising money for her school. We knew it was bullshit, but I figured he went to a lot of trouble to think up the story, get a clipboard and make up the petition, so he was working for it.

It was entertaining, and I was much more willing to shell out a few bucks than to someone who just wanted me to give them money just because. Like I’m obligated to do so.

So we agreed to listen to Tiny. We chose a song rather than a poem. And we chose the topic of love over gospel. I will say that the “love� song involved god too but I won’t complain too much. He has a really fantastic voice. There was one note toward the end that he held for what seemed a millennia. Quite a set of lungs. Really honestly impressive.

We told him he should try out for American Idol (but my guess is that he’s over the top age). I really wished I’d had my camera with me so I could take a video of him singing. I could put it up on You Tube and you’d all be able to hear him. But alas, I only had my cell phone, so the photos are pretty crappy.

If you’re ever in the Uptown Minneapolis area and you see this guy, ask him for a song. You won’t be disappointed!

Tiny with Tom.

Posted under Music, happy hour

I love love loved TechTV and watched many of their shows for years. The Screensavers was my favorite. I adore Leo Laporte and the other hosts (especially Martin *swoon*) and I learned something valuable every time I tuned in. I honestly believe that this station, especially that show and Leo’s other show, Call for Help are what got me so interested in furthering my computer skills and knowledge. They made computers fun and cool for me where before they were scary.

I was heartbroken when they basically unplugged the station and replaced it with that stupid gaming channel. I still watched their equivalent of The Screensavers for a little while but it got too juvenile for me. I like me some video games, don’t get me wrong. But that’s all they talked about! Boring….unless you’re a 14 year old boy.

Well, I have just learned of some fantastic news. Leo and the gang are reuniting and forming their own website called UndoTV.com (don’t bother visiting now, it’s not fully registered yet and it just a spam-link site)

Here’s the full story

I must say that I got very excited thinking that it would be a television show, and quite disappointed to learn it’s only a website, but that will have to do for now. Maybe they can make a show out of it soon.

Posted under Random Thoughts

Sunday it was my uncle Rome’s 80th birthday party. It was a surprise party. I know what you’re thinking but he was fine. He knew there would be a party, but he thought it was going to be at my house and he didn’t think there would be a lot of people there.

My dad had planned this whole big shindig. He had family members tending bar, taking photos, singing, playing piano, and decorating (me).

My dad does not do anything lightly. Oh no siree. Everything is a major production. No, I mean a real show. Singing, dancing, over-acting, the whole thing. He had asked me to sing a song and I politely declined. I think he pretended that he did not understand me and kept insisting that I was singing. I actually had to look him directly in the eye and say with a complete straight face, “I am not singing. And if you try to make me, I will leave� and I chose a chair closest to the door. I think he finally got it because he didn’t ask again. He did ask me to do a dance, but all I had to do is give him a look and that was the end of that nonsense.

It was pretty entertaining what with my dad as ringleader and the crowd being in the over 70 range.

Dad doing his Thang.

I tried to take some video of them singing together but it came out really teeny tiny and blurry. When I make the resolution larger it only will record for like 10 seconds and no it is not because that’s all the card can hold. There’s plenty of storage and plenty of battery charge. The camera is just possessed.

Then after the Geriatric Afternoon the cool people: my cousin Lyn and her stepsister (my step cousin?) Angela came over to the house and had some drinks and talked. I hardly ever get to see Lyn as she lives in another country and I’d never met Angela before (she lives out of state and her mom has only been married to my uncle for a few years) but she is great. I tried to convince both of them to move into the carriage house in the future, but I’m not sure how successful I was.

Greg and Lyn surely discussing something very profound ~~ Angela laughing

Lyn with Killer…I mean, Lazlo.

It was a nice time.

Posted under family, party

Bear is shedding. When I said ‘shedding’ I mean blowing her coat. I mean the hair is falling out in clumps. It’s everywhere. It looks like she’s dropping little Hitler mustaches everywhere.

We can’t keep up.

mein OH-, das eine Menge Haar ist!!

Here’s what it looks like ON the dog:

Posted under pets

This was a busy weekend! Friday was nice and relaxing; we watched TV and not much else.

But Saturday was Greg’s birthday. We went to the NEW Guthrie theater to see “The Great Gatsby”. We’d not been to the new theater yet (it just opened a few weeks ago, I think) and WOW. It’s pretty nice.

It did seem odd that the gift shop was still filled with museum-y things. It made sense when the theater was in the Walker Art Center…an actual museum. But seemed out of place here. Still, you don’t usually go to the theater to shop in the gift shop, right?

We walked out on the cantilevered “bridge” that over looks the river. Really nice view. That area is really coming together. It was fun to see the old biddies (it was a matinée…the silver show) get so excited to walk out there and look around.

Here’s a photo of Greg out on the balcony thingy. He’s not really mad, the sun was in his eyes.

Then I took a couple more of the view. It’s not Paris, but, hey…

The show was pretty good. It’s not a very happy story. I wasn’t expecting a body count. I read the book in school but that was longer ago than I want to admit and I didn’t remember anything about it except that he was a guy who lived in a huge house and threw lots of parties.

The woman that played Daisy was way too over the top. I get that the character is supposed to be like that but I was wanted to holler down to the stage to tell her to dial it down a notch or three. But all in all it was a good show.

Next up on the agenda was dinner. Greg had been wanting to have a good Japanese meal for awhile now, so I made reservations at Ichiban. This is the kind of place where the chef makes your food right at the table. You know flying knives and all…

Check this out

The meal was really good but I ate too much and either had a panic attack or a heart attack. That part wasn’t so fun.

All the tables seat 8 people so we were with a family. It was a mom, dad, daughter, son and two of son’s friends. It was the boys birthday celebration. Because I felt bad about stealing the little boy’s thunder, I didn’t tell them it was Greg’s birthday. I felt bad for him, especially when everyone was singing to the kid, but I would have felt worse if I’d demanded the same treatment for Greg. I was a little surprised that they would take these young kids to this kind of a place. I mean, surely young boys would enjoy the flying knives and the fire and all, but holy crap! The cheapest entree on the menu was $32. I can think of a lot better things to do with $300 than spend it on a 12 year old’s dinner. So it was ungodly expensive, but I guess you’re paying for the show too. It was delicious.

Then back to the house to watch “V for Vendetta�?. That was a good movie! Scary as shit because it often feels like we’re becoming that world, but good. Eye opening. I wish everyone would see it.

Sunday was my uncle’s 80th birthday party, but I’ll save that for another entry…

Posted under Cooking, Friends, Movie Reviews