Puddle Jumping in DC

Goal Progress

So, 11 months from the last resolutions and contemplating the next, it's time for a reality check.

1.) Loose 30 pounds before I turn 30
Well, I revised that one to 30 pounds in 2005 and I am well on my way. From Fitday.com " You are currently 7.6 lb above the target weight. The deadline for your goal is 32 days (4 weeks, 4 days) away. To meet your goal you need to lose about 1.66 lb per week." And, since I never make it to the gym in spite of the lovely classes they offer and the hot tub, I finally joined Curves yesterday - simpler anyway; maybe fewer choices will help.

2) Run 26.2 miles on October 30, 2005
Done.

3. Teach the bird to come on command.
Oh, my. I was a total failure on this one. I don't think lessons even got past January. I'll have to think some more on this.

4. Water the plants
Well, they are alive . . . but they still live in semi-arid conditions.

5. Make the Bug Blog more socially relevant.
Sort of. I don't find the stuff I write for school translates to blog particularly well since it would require so much backstory to make sense (if I posted my analysis of federal trade adjustment assistance, for example, or a 30-page conflict analysis of the DC lead crisis, good grief). I think I was doing alright until April but then grad school didn't really leave me any spare analysis capacity - maybe, next year.

Sometimes Spam Is Fun

Some blogs that I watch have been discussing interesting spam. I got my favorite spam so far today:

From: Post@cia.gov
Date: November 22, 2005 2:57:16 PM EST
To: michael.generazo@earthlink.net
Subject: Your IP was logged

Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.
Important: Please answer our questions! The list of questions are attached.

Yours faithfully,
xxxxx xxxxx*

++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA-
++++ Office of Public Affairs
++++ Washington, D.C. 20505
++++ phone: (703) 482-0623
++++ 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time

attachment: list.zip

*name omitted just in case.

editors note 11/28/05: Just because it's funny, doesn't mean it's harmless. Don't open the attachment. Of course, if you have an nothing would happen anyway.

Is Bug in Hiding?

It's been so long since Bug made an appearance on the Blog that she wasn't even on the main page anymore -- the injustice -- the indignity -- the outrage.

Well, there's not much going on in Bug's life and too much going on in Mac & Jen's. It is self evident that Bug's people spend way to much time staring at computers and muttering about schoolwork and no where near enough time playing with her. She gets out regularly and wreaks little green havoc wherever she can, but still no blog entries. She might worry that her public misses her (probably not, but you might miss her anyway). This isn't even really a Bug entry, but it will have to tide you over.

Remember Spike II? (little red fish on the left)

Well, Spike's habitat hadn't been looking so sparkely lately. So, back when I did that big fish tank clean (last Friday), I gave Spike's tank a good cleaning too. A couple days later, he got a technology upgrade.

Here's Bug checking it out:

 

 

How long do you think that nice, blue silicone hose is going to last? The bubbles are fascinating too, by the way.

 

(click on the picture for a zoomed out view if you need more context)

 

 

 

I Didn't Know It Was a Phenomenon

I think of myself as a rather adventurous cook. I've been cooking regularly since I was 14 and declared I was going to be a vegetarian. My parents had a fit; I was pretty stubborn; they calmed down; I learned to cook. I borrowed tons of cookbooks from the library and started my recipe collection. I discovered heath food stores and tofu, but, as I didn't drive, had a pretty limited capacity for getting specific ingredients when I wanted them, so I learned to make do. I've been playing "fast and loose" with recipes ever since, using them as guidelines for combinations of quantities, spices, and cooking times.

Since I've been cooking more, that makes Mac nervous. When we moved in together, 10 years ago now, he took over most of the cooking. Recently, I was going to cook fish (which we do occasionally even though it's not strictly vegetarian) but wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I was also spending the evening cleaning the fish tank (the irony, no?) and didn't want to do anything complicated. I decided to just toss some canned black beans and diced tomato (w/green chili) over the fish and bake it. That was way outside the box for Mac (but, apparently he thought I was putting spaghetti sauce on the fish). Mac liked it even better than I did. Turns out that all the juice from the beans and tomato makes for very moist and tender fish.

But, back to the phenomenon, Google Cooking. What? The advent of wireless internet has made cooking much easier. I can plug the primary ingredients that I want to cook into a search engine and it spits back dozens (if not hundreds) of possible recipes to choose from. The Washington Post wrote a whole article about this "phenomenon" today. You can see photos of the carnage from my last foray into Google Cooking. Our vegetable guy gave us two enormous cashew pumpkins so I made huge pots of pumpkin peanut butter and thai pumpkin coconut soups (generally, of course) for a recent potluck - it was a lot of pumpkin.

This morning's article lead me to tofu, cauliflower, peas, and orange for tonight's dinner.