Raging Hulk of a Man.

I will start with the inane: I just finished watching the movie, "I Love You, Man." Bromance. I loved it- Paul Rudd was great, per usual. His awkwardness reminds me of a young me, especially the scene where he's setting up the 1st man-date over the phone...but the line delivered in the tux shop about James Bond was the finest one of the film. I'd recommend it to dudes who need to score some points with the ladies, but really don't want to have to watching something f'ing terrible starring Kate "I cannot act my way out of a wet paper bag" Hudson. Seriously, she needs to never be given a role again.....

My rage has subsided, like the Hulk.

Other goings on, some disappointing work going ons today. Bottom line: I am a free agent, and I need to find a job that will pay me the schmulians. But I knew that already, so it's nothing new, it's just staring me in the eyes. I'll be ok, I'll find something out there in the city.

I also had big plans to wash and fix my car, which will happen tomorrow, unless the rain comes and washes away my dreams to Wednesday. I got some spark plugs that boasted "NASCAR performance" and I told the parts store guys I was scared what that was going to do to my dart. I think it'd blow up or something....anyways, I'm rambling now, as I do. I should sleep, as I failed to do that last night.

Lush.

Yesterday was a fine day off- the weather nice, and the beer cold.

And I cooked for friends.

We had "chicken nuggets." Salt and pepper fried chicken thighs with my own-made kim chee. That was great with the beer (and my friend somehow bought a sixer that got rung up for $1.34. And the counter woman didn't bat an eye apparently).

Next we ate a pile of sweet corn, sweet potato and mixed chili rice and cranberry beans. That segued into a salad of spicy greens from Alm Hill farms with a plum and black pepper vinaigrette. Simple and fresh.

Then we ate the lamb necks with carrots I had been cooking for hours. Finished with basil, they were like an excellent osso bucco, ultra rich from the marrow and gelatin. The basil gave a fresh bite to clean that richness off the tongue.

At this point we had moved to value Iberian red wine, which was (perhaps incorrectly) consumed with Jax's nectarine cobbler with vanilla ice cream. At that point, the lights came on outside, the music turned to Van Morrison, and the rye bottle slowly emptied its contents. A crisp fall evening that no one around could've beat....

Market Day.

I went to the Lake City farmers market for (hopefully not, but maybe) shebang of summer produce. I got many exciting things, which will encompass multiple cooking and preserving techniques. I have a busy next two days ahead of me, but it'll be fun. I need to do this more often!

My haul:

Fresh Cranberry beans. They're basically pinto beans. Buy and eat as many fresh shell beans as you can any time you come across them! They cook up so creamy and amazing. These are going with something later down the line....

Pickling Cukes. I'm going to make fermented pickles with them. A little experiment....I've never done this before, so it'll be interesting.

Corn. Sweet, sweet corn. I will be eating that on Saturday afternoon. As in sweet corn chow-chow. I think.

Spicy salad mix with nasturtiums. And basil to go with the tomatoes.

Lamb Necks. A little snack. I'll braise them in tomato sauce and eat them with the corn chow-chow.

Sweet peppers. This pic really doesn't do justice to the amount I got, nor their beauty. Pictured: Big yellow- banana, green/red ones- Jimmy Nardello's sweet Italian frying pepper, the little yellow guys are a yellow cayenne pepper (pretty hot!) But mostly sweet ones with a mild-ish heat level. The little yellow bastards are going into the hot mustard pickles.

'Maters. Seconds from Billy's Organics. The best damn tomatoes ever. Period.

That my friends is what's known as an Armenian cucumber. It's over 2 feet long, and has a nice, sweet flavor. That's what's going to be the base of my spicy mustard pickles!

Wow. Maybe if you're lucky I'll take some pictures, or if you're really lucky, you'll get to eat some of these late summer wonders. It's a special time for me, foodwise. I only have a couple more weeks of this! And then it's....months of rutabagas! shock! horror!

Return to Power.

I am back on them internets. My hard drive died, as you know. That I could buy a new one, and replace it myself for less than $100 was great.

How do you spend the 4.5 hours installing your OS and downloading updates?

By cooking and drinking cold beer!

Contrary to the weather, which was insane for the 1st day of fall (30 degrees C!), I made fall-ish food. I celebrated Oktoberfest by making a braised pork dish with fresh cabbage, honeycrispapples, Hatch chili, and beer. And some other stuff. What beer do you drink whilst celebrating your hard drive return/Oktoberfest? Why, Molson Canadien of course. You hoser. It's Canada's second oldest company (after the Hudson Bay Company) AND North America's oldest brewery.

(All this Canadian trivia is for you Beth.)

Some random pics from the scene:

Seersucker. This is a man of action, not words.

The rental in Cali. Yeah, right.

Isak plans on searching for Incan Gold.

Broke.

Computer is broke again- horrible sounds eminate from within its white plastic innards. Death soon? Or to be saved?

I leave for San Diego tomorrow for one of my step sister's wedding. With searsucker. So basically, the bottom line is blogging will be not happening for a bit.

Sorry, but you don't need to live tentatively through the alligator for a little while, right? (ok, maybe you do....)

Yeah Right.

Read this news story, look at the picture, and then read the last line of it.

Please tell me if this will ever happen in a million-gajillion years.....

It's like a Tui advertisement.

Pervese and Often Baffling.

My feeble attempt at a Friday Linky. Feeble! HA! I will show you! (Is this a split personality blogging? Apparently!)

I was reading the perverse, and often baffling Vice Magazine, and it's issue this month is the Film Issue. There's a piece on Nollywood movies- that's right, Nigerian films. "a veritable movie factory that churns out 25,000 films a year at a budget of less than $10,000 each."

And in that story, it mentions this, which I looked up and was blown away, even more so than the Turkish Superman of a couple months back:

So that's pretty crazy.

And then there's this, which was a big deal a few years ago, and I remembered it whilst thinking about bad film adaptations. But of course, this is a GOOD one.

OK. My linky is short, but condensed full of awesomeness. Maybe not.

Otago.

Some have seen this picture:

You know what it is? It's a rare photo of a drawing of a rare bird: a little brown spotted Kiwi.

The story? Great.

When I was on the road on the South Island a few years back (January of aught 7), I was out on the Otago peninsula. I was invited to go to a party at someone's house, after watching the Ashes (For US readers: cricket match, Australia vs England) at some bar. I thought it would be a fine thing to do- meet the locals, who were bogans to the end.

During the party a man who spoke with a harsh throaty voice, such as someone who has had cancer of the throat began to yell at me for no reason. His friends calmed him down, and told him to draw me a picture. They assured me he was a fine artist, and he proceeded to illustrate the above picture. Approximately 4 minutes after its completion, he started yelling at me to give it back. He had forgotten who I was, and why he drew it. I was told to keep it, and I mused out loud that I needed to get back to my tent, so I'd hit the road.

I was given the drunkest drive back, down a wind 2 lane road, with no shoulders that had the bay on one side and a cliff on the other. I remember the moon in the water winking at me just a few, precipitous feet below the truck.

I went to bed blow away I was still alive after that jaunt to a hamlet out there on that wonderful Otago peninsula.

And I've found this drawing in my stuff during the move, and just found the cable to attach the camera to the computer, so there you go kids. Enjoy.

Bowling.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day with my little sister Sophie.

I took her to get some legit Wonton soup at Wonton City, and she surpassed what I thought she'd order, and she got the same thing as me, the brisket/wonton soup. She also ate some of my gai-lan with oyster sauce. And when I explained how said sauce is made (cooked down oyster broth) she didn't flinch. She just said, "hmmmm." That's a good sign in my book.

And then we went bowling. At her insistence, the bumpers remained. And with the bumper's help, she actually BEAT me the 1st two games, since she kept picking up her spares, and I couldn't. But then, I said to myself, "an alligator doesn't lose at bowling to his 10 year old little sister. Pick it up son." So then I went on a frenzy, and bowled a 143, finishing with a turkey. And then 2 more wins followed that, comprehensively I might add....

And then it was paying time, and I thought the guy said $16 dollars, and I thought, "that's not bad...." and I handed him a $20. But he said, "No, I said $60." My jaw dropped. I wanted to say, "WTF?!? This wasn't worth it!" But I just payed, and stewed. The problem with bowling with 2 people is that you go very quick. Games add up. That and bowling isn't that great. That's the other problem with bowling....

And also, I almost forgot that when I entered the lanes, I saw this girl and my instant reaction was "why is Beth Davie here at the bowling alley?" Her true doppleganger exists in Bellevue. It was insane in the exactness of Beth.

SeerSucker.

I got it. I got it!

My seersucker suit arrived today; I was going crazy, thinking it may never come. I lament it'll need to be tailored properly before I wear it, but really only because of the pants needing to be hemmed. The jacket should be taken in a smidgen. But only because I want to be as much of a dandy as fully as possible.

This is what I bought; in fact, the suit also makes me look like the model. I'll be rocking a white shirt with a blue power tie I think. I might go red tie on the blue stripes, but then I'd have to get a blue shirt....or I could go pink shirt no tie- Miami Vice style....

And I have white shoes, which are the best part, as they're Sanuks, which means they're basically flip-flops with shoe coverings. Comfy-as bro, comfy as.

I am a happy, dapper dude.

Bacon. Dumb.

I'ma lazy today. I'ma gonna post dumb things today. There'a gonna make ya dumb too.

What happens when a kid gets bacon taken away from him. This is serious y'all!

When too much free time and rollercoaster riding is combined. (may have already posted this.)

When you need that meaty drink.

Actually not dumb, but the results can make you dumb: online brewing calculator for those aspiring home brewers out there. Just pick some random stuff, ferment it, and apparently you have alcohol! Yeah Nature! (and boo nurture!)

Enough Dumbness and Bacon and bad, lazy blogging for today! (where is all the good stuff I had planned?)