I must do this quickly as I need to sleep soon.
Friday night? Nothing. Watched Sealab 2021. Nothing.
Saturday? Helped the Betsy half of ‘Jetsy’ prepare the food for her birthday party. Got 2 new recipes for my grandfather’s 80’th birthday bash this coming weekend. Word of advice to people…please PLEASE make sure your knives are properly sharpened before you have someone come help you! I generated a blister at the base of my index finger from fine dicing butternut squash and toasted hazelnuts with a dull knife.
I spent all day at Betsy’s dicing and mixing and sauteeing and being the dog advice person. I left early in the evening with enough time to come home, shower, dress and head back over. The party was delightfully fun, Betsy looked fabulous in her dress! And I must say the food was top-notch.
Sunday! Today we went to brunch and made faces at each other and giggled.
Home with a couple hours to spare before heading over to the Lee’s for SuperBowl festivities. The game was not so exciting this year and Mick Jagfer made me want to rip the veins out of my body. The Seahawks suck.
After the SuperBowl proper we watched the PuppyBowl! Holy crap! On one level it’s just a bunch of puppies playing, not terribly exciting. I mean they’re just playing, they’re not racing or doing agility tests or anything. On the other hand IT’S A BUNCH OF PUPPIES PLAYING!!! So damned cute. That poodle puppy was a fucking jackass though.
It’s late. I need to pull out the notebook and get started on my lists for the party. I think the hardest part is going to be coordinating getting everything over to my sister’s place. The party’s over there, but I’m making the food. I don’t really want to cook it over there, I don’t like using other people’s kitchens (not that I don’t like them, it’s just that I know my kitchen, i know where everything is, i know my tools, I know my way around) and I think it would be best if we kept the mess over there to a minimum. We’ll figure it out. I’m not stressing on this at all.

In anticipation of the inevitable bird flu infestation that will kill me in the next 6 weeks (I’m sure of it, if NPR mentions something 8.2 billion times then it MUST AFFECT ME) I am re-reading Stephen King’s The Stand. I’d forgotten how much I like this book. I am of the opinion that It was the last good book to come out of the man. We’re not talking high art here or anything, it’s just that everything up to It is scary, creepy, has developed characters and coherent plot lines. Everything after, eh…not so good. Things get cheaper, more fart jokes and scat references, more sodomy allusions and uni-dimensional characters.
I remember when Insomnia came out, I was excited. I read it and when I was finished I thought “what the fuck just happened?”. It just didn’t make sense.
But The Stand, good novel. Cheap thrills and great character development. A story that winds through 1141 pages. A good curl up with the dogs book.
shifting gears…
In a week we celebrate my grandfather’s 80th birthday. We’ll be throwing a party for him. Hosted at my sister and her boyfriend’s place (there must be an easier way to say that). I’ll be doing the food (woo) and all the hard stuff is being taken care of by other people. I just have to do foo. Someone else is doing liquor, plates, glasses, cake, candles whatever. I have the easy part.
It used to be that for years if you wanted me to do the food for the party I had to do EVERYTHING for the party. I was all about flow. You couldn’t contribute SOME food to the effort because I balanced all the foods off one another so they would flow together and not disrupt or overwhelm each other. Then I would also pick the beverages, the dishes, the napkins, the candles, whatever. It all went together. I’ve relaxed a bit. Food’s easy. I can do food.
I’ve got about half the menu figured out in my head right now. I need to sit down and figure out a cheese plate (thanks to Mark and Jessi for my cheese books!). I’ll even try my hand at a homemade jam or two. The real challenge is making stuff that can be restocked constantly through the night but won’t have me trapped in the kitchen.
Anybody up for stuffing and rolling croissants? I can make a metric buttload of those. I’m also pondering veggie sushi, I can make a lot of it, but it takes so long to make.
Anybody who’s been to one of my parties and had a favorite finger good, let me know!
Tomorrow I am helping Betsy with her birthday party, maybe she will have good ideas for me to steal!

Okay, so you all know about Overheard in New York right? It’s my addiction. Today’s gem made me laugh because it is beyond true:
Guy: Fuck that shit, man. I still love New York better. Every single time people from Frisco compare cities with New York, you fools bring up your stupid burritos! Well I got news for you: our burritos are catching up.
–2nd Avenue & 5th Street
What the hell is it with people from San Francisco or who go and visit? Are the burritos that good? How good can they be? and are they really burritos or are you just stuffing eerything in a tortilla?
I’ve never eaten a burrito in NYC, at least I don;t think I did. I once at at a shitty mexican place, but I probably had the enchiladas.
Also, I went to coffee with a coworker the other night and I’m sure that if there was an Overheard in Minneapolis, our entire filthy conversation would be on there. She and I talked about hiring greek whores in amsterdam, length versus girth, sex clubs in NYC…and those were the tamer partd of the conversation.
I’m pretty sure no one could hear us over the music, but if anyone did, I apologize to the patrons of the Spyhouse. Sorry.
Why are there no cookies? I think I will make cookies tonight

You know the silly game where you add “in bed” to the end of your fortune cookie fortune? I have these sittingon my desk and I ponder them regularly.
Listen to what you know instead of what you fear.
What we acquire without sweat we give away without regret.
Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort
I’m not sure how this bodes for my sex life, but I fear it will be uncomfortable and sweaty.