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1999. Ron Livingston, Gary Cole, Jennifer Aniston
I can see why it wasn't big at the box office. I just didn't think it was very funny. I barely made it through the whole thing. I know several folks that regularly make references to some of the dialogue but this movie just isn't me.
...but were afraid to ask.
1971. Woody Allen, Burt Reynolds, Louise Lasser. Tony Randall, John Carradine, Gene Wilder, Lynn Redgrave, Lou Jacobi, Anthony Quayle. Directed by Woody Allen.
Woody Allen takes seven questions from the book by the same name written by Dr David Rueben and turns them into seven silly vignettes. All 7 are in a different presentation style. Some are OK, some are great. Overall I liked the movie but I could see why a gen X person might not because some of the basis is seated in values prevelant at the time. Woody Allen is a brilliant director but much of his story lines get mired in the technical. I recently tried twice to watch Match Point and gave up because it moved too slow. For the most part this movie moves along quickly while retaining Mr Allen's attention to detail.
Association of Woodworking and Furnishings Suppliers
Every two years they hold a trade show. Initially in Anaheim, in 2005 they moved the show to Las Vegas. This is where folks who build cabinets and furniture go to see what is available in machinery, raw goods and hardware. I have been attending since 1991. I have two reasons to be there; I need to see what my customers have available to them in the way of machinery and tooling and because many large wood products manufacturers have in house capabilities to do what I do the suppliers to the sharpening industry are there too.
Because of the economy this years show was poorly attended by vendors and potential customers alike. I leisurely walked the majority of the show in one day and chose to drive back earlier on Saturday rather than go for just a couple more hours to see the few things I didn't on Friday. It did allow me to spend more time with the folks I did meet up with.
Driving over I went through a couple of good sized storms, one of which had me down under 30mph and still couldn't really see where I was going. The bridge at Hoover dam is making good progress as they get ready to do the last pour on the arch which will connect the two sides. They are starting to widen 93 on the Arizona side so it will be 4 lanes all the way to and over the bridge. They have already moved the Homeland Security checkpoint so that only those vehicles going down and over the dam will get inspected after the bridge is open. 93 was chosen as the NAFTA route in the West so they are trying to make it as smooth flowing as possible. The bypass around downtown Wickenburg is almost complete. Much of 93 between Wickenburg and I40 is now 4 lanes. I am not sure if any additional road widening is scheduled.
While there I met up with some friends from Grand Junction and Tucson. All of us went to dinner Friday night. I was really excited about taking them to Mizumos in the Tropicana. Turns out, after over 30 years, they had closed. Nobody could tell us why but I knew the parents had turned over much of the operation to the kids and last time I was there in December I remember them screaming at each other in the kitchen. So we went to Legends steakhouse a few feet away and I had the worst filet in my life, filet is supposed to melt in your mouth not have the consistancy of shoe leather. At $36 with potatoes I expected much better, David, our waiter, did toss in an extra beer for the road but I doubt I will ever go back. Every body else's meat was perfect. My first night there some of us visited the Garden Bar in the Flamingo which was nice and quiet for talking but void of any food so we took off to Margeritaville and shared a volcano of nachos which the 3 of us did not finish. Their Landshark lager, I thought, was much better than their margerita which I had had in December. Both mornings I was there I had breakfast in the buffet at Imperial Palace, for $13 it wasn't bad at all. After dinner on Friday I took my friends on a tour of some more casinos, including a stop at Swenson's, and even being the oldest managed to walk all three of them in to the ground. Bad thing was with staying up late 2 nights in a row I kept dozing off at the wheel on the way home, but I managed to get back in one piece.
aka: This summers vacation
A few years back I decided I needed a summer break from work as much as anybody else. I have been closing for the week tied to when the 4th of July is celebrated. If I stay in town I will go to work anyway so I try to get out of town for 4-5 days. This year I took a trip to see some friends I had initially met on a woodworking forum up in Grand Junction, Co.. They had been down here a couple of times for spring training and 2 years ago we all met up in Las Vegas for the Woodworking equipment show. This trip was supposed to have happened last summer but got postponed because gas was $4.00+ gal.. It worked out good this year because he was slow enough at just the right time in his woodworking business I became an excuse to take it easy for a couple of days, something he would have had trouble doing last year.
I totally walked away from everything for this trip. I had no computer access, I turned off my phone, even though I had plenty with me I didn't even smoke a cigarette (nor did it bother me, took me 3 hours at home to start up again). I did not even turn on music in the truck, just me and the road noise.
It is roughly a 10 hour drive, probably 11 for two people. I took a lot of pictures, the entire album is posted on Facebook.
I got to see Monument Valley, several rivers, the Colorado National monument, attended a Thursday night farmers market in downtown Grand Junction. And I relaxed, and napped on the patio, and drank some beers, and talked woodworking. I was treated like royalty, wasn't even allowed to clear my own dishes. I had lots of great food. The last stop on the way home was in Flagstaff where it was 59° and pouring rain and 2 hours later when I got home the sun was shining and it was 104°.
Heading North on 89 out of Flagstaff
Service station, tourist trap in Tuba city on the Hopi reservation.
Thursday night farmers market in downtown Grand Junction.
Rockslide microbrewery, Grand Junction, CO.
Independence monument. Within the Colorado National Monument.
In the background is the Colorado river and Fruita, Co.
I decided on noodles to go with my grilled pork chop Saturday. I wasn't really in the mood for tossing it with butter, seasoning, garlic and Parmesan. What I really wanted was Alfredo but I didn't have the stuff to make it with. So I cooked up the noodles, drained, and stirred in a can of cheddar cheese soup. It was better than I expected, in fact better than some of the boxed macaroni and cheese I have had. Certainly not gourmet though. :-)
So I am picking up some things at Albertson's last week and in a stand alone case between the eggs and the frozen entrees is a selection of Starbucks ice cream. It was on sale for $2.49pt. I chose a chocolate chip frappuccino. Last night I opened the pint. It did not taste like frappuccino. The chocolate chips were a bit bitter. The ice cream had been allowed to thaw and refreeze, probably several times, so it was brick hard and crystaline instead of creamy smooth. All in all it was not a good experience, and I still have 1/2 pint left. I very seldom get drawn in to impulse items placed conspiculously in my way and this is just another reminder why.
Not sure why I thought this would be weird but when I Googled it I got lots of variations. Most of them were variations on a basic theme. All of them were based on 2lbs (32oz) of frozen hash browns. Well, just like ice cream, hash browns do not come that way any more. All the bags I found were 24-28 oz and I decided that was close enough. The seemed to be little agreement between using 8 or 16 oz of sour cream so I used 12 and that gives me some for something else. I decided to add diced green chiles to mine and found out the Macayos brand is much tastier and a little warmer than the generic brands I usually buy. Overall I think it turned out quite tasty. it made 4 good sized servings. Another thing I did was use a 3 quart fairly tall baking dish rather than the 9x13 all the recipes called out. That allowed me to use the smaller counter top convection oven which throws off less heat and uses less electricity than the full sized oven. I cooked mine for one hour and feel it could have gone another 15 minutes as it never browned and the potatoes tasted almost not done. I am thinking I need to check the accuracy of the thermostat in the small oven. This is the way I made mine, you can Google for many more variations.
2 lbs frozen hash browns
1 can cream of chicken soup
12 oz sour cream
1 diced onion
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese ( I grabbed two handfuls of the cheddar/jack I had on hand)
7 oz can diced green chiles (optional)
bread crumbs (optional) I left them off
Thaw hash browns, mix ingredients together, fill 3 qt (or 9x13) baking dish, bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.
1994, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson
An independent film about two clerks in a convenience market. I was not impressed but not so much that I turned it off early. It won several awards at Cannes and Sundance. Researching to write this I found it was in black and white originally. I watched the Clerks X version which was released in 2004. It appears I may have missed some good additional material by sending it back after only watching the movie. It is considered a cult classic. I may or may not view Clerks II which was released in 2006.
Not in the sense that Facebook uses the term. Well sorta, maybe. For several decades I have been using the same dry rub from Susie Q in Santa Maria, Ca.. It is the rub used at the Far Westerner in Guadalupe and marketed by a member of the family. I was about to run out again so I looked at the ingredients. I had all but two items: MSG and something long winded to keep it from clumping. MSG does add some flavor and I wasn't sure where to buy it. I did a bit of research on the internet and found a half dozen basic ingredients plus some optional ones all of which I have anyway. So last night I had a couple of lamb blade chops to grill and stirred up some stuff from memory and sprinkled it on. It worked great and if I only make it in batches sized for one or two meals I can learn to tweak it. I certainly did not miss the controversial MSG.
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