Banana Bread

Lee was looking for the banana bread recipe I use. Here you go:

• 1 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. butter, softened (try not to melt it)
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 c mashed ripe TR bananas (avoid frozen - and make sure they're going a little black. Wait! You can't get free fruit anymore - just use store bananas, approximately 3-4 of medium size).
• 1/3 c. water
• 1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• .5 t. salt
• .25 t. baking powder

Oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of bread/loaf pan. Spray works fine, but I think I like to use a bit of butter best. Mix butter and sugar in mixing bowl. Blend in eggs. Add the water and the bananas. Beat lightly. Stir in remaining ingredients. Don't overstir. You'll get something more like a muffin or cake if you overstir. That's no good. It's not very banana bread like. I did this with the last two loaves I made because I was using frozen bananas from the fridge and wanted to avoid the big chunks of banana Eryn doesn't like. Eryn and Pooteewheet liked it fine, but I didn't like it at all, between the cakelike taste and odor the freezer bananas picked up - and kept Ming's loaf so he couldn't taste my shame. If you like nuts, stir in 1/2 c. (I never do...ick. I'm slightly allergic to walnuts). Bake until a toothpick or knife in the center comes out clean. Should be 55-60 minutes. Put it on a cooling rack and run a knife around the edges quickly. Supposedly it'll pull free as it cools, but I've had a few instances where it stuck as I tipped it out and ended up with chunks out of the side. Cool for 5-10 minutes and then remove from pan (just tip it over). Eat it. The center will still be crumbly, but if you like the ends, those will stay together and will be nice and hot. I tend to hand over a loaf to my family that's only the center. Sort of like eating the ears off a rabbit.

Better Health Through RAGBRAI

I had my annual checkup and my every other year blood workup this week. My cholesterol is down 50 points in the last four years. The first reading in 2006 was just before I started training for my first RAGBRAI. Despite not losing much weight, my blood health is headed in a good direction. I suspect I can attribute that to all the bicycling. Nice to see something is moving in the right direction after breaking 40. As an age-related bonus, my doc did point out that my chances of getting testicular cancer almost disappear after 40, so I should hit the grave with my balls intact.

What's In the Box?

It's so close to Kyle's birthday that when I saw this graphic novel at the comic book store, I almost bought it for him. It seems rife with innuendosity. But then two things struck me. 1.) If I'm going to spend $19.99 (and it seems cheaper on Amazon) on a Jennifer Love Hewitt work, I'd get him the book that explains how to vajazzle like Jennifer. I think he could figure out the rudiments of penazzling by inference. 2.) Jennifer Love Hewitt's box is completely in the way of one of her finer assets. Two of her finer assets, depending on how you approach it.

A good, strange, gift should combine some practicality with the novelty. This has novelty, but by putting the box in the way, it destroys some of the practicality. For example, when Kyle gave me the Olivia Munn magazine. Novel. Yet full of good pictures of Olivia and all sorts of good reading, both about Olivia, by Olivia, and marginally related to Olivia in that some articles were just from magazines she likes. Practical. Or the Banana Bunkers or Menorah Game I gave Mean Mister Mustard. Humorous. Yet practical.

So Kyle. No Jennifer Love Hewitt's box for your birthday. I'll look for something better.

Glam Shot

Eryn posing at the park in downtown St. Paul:

Sidewalk Closed

Wouldn't it have just been faster to lay the new piece of sidewalk immediately? And is the sign really necessary?

Burqa Revurka (furtherest down piece is nsfw)

My internet perusal for burqa-related information led me to two other items as well that I felt compelled to share. #1 if work safe. #2 is not. I shall drop another post on top so you don't have to look at the not safe for work (nsfw) Zhaan if your boss is around.

The reverse burqa or reverqa:


A more disturbing revurka, from Hodja (specific post):

Burqa Tower

One of our local water towers has take to wearing a burqa. It must have very nice ankles. Or maybe it's hiding because....it's retaining water. AHAHAHAHAHA.... oh.... classic.


As a bonus because I was searching on burqa, please enjoy this German story about a band in burqas singing the very catchy "Burqa Burqa Blue".

Alton Brown has Ginger Nuts

Well, he does. Ginger Almonds from his Live and Let Diet episode. I haven't tried them yet. I need to get an arbol chile. But I do have a test tin of almonds to try it on once I procure the chile, and I'll be going to the store today. I should add that commercial (Blue Diamond) wasabi/soy almonds are edible, but not particularly wasabi-ish or soyish. But they're still more interesting than vanilla or cinnamon. I may try to make my own to give them a bit of zing.

If you beat me to spreading and basting your nuts, let me know the results!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 dried arbol chile, stemmed and broken into small pieces
1 pound whole natural almonds
1 tablespoon less-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Directions
Heat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Combine the ginger and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Heat the olive oil and sesame oil in a 12-inch saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the arbol chile and cook, stirring frequently, until the chile begins to give off an aroma, 30 to 45 seconds. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently until lightly toasted, approximately 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and cook until reduced slightly and the pan looks dry, approximately 1 minute. Immediately remove the nuts to the large bowl and toss with the ginger mixture.

Spread the coated nuts into a single layer on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the pan to a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes or until completely cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Peculiar Fashion Choice

When I dropped Eryn off for camp at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on Tuesday, there was this guy standing outside as I left that had on a white shirt, overalls, and a severe bowl haircut, with everything below the bowl shaved tight. It immediately brought to mind Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder as Simple Jack. I found a picture of Simple Jack just to be sure I was remembering it correctly, and except for having slightly darker hair, this is how the guy was dressed, and this was his hairstyle.

Based on his location, I wonder if they're doing Simple Jack as a play for the Children's Theater in 2011.

Given the whole "full retard" controversy this created when the movie was out, this is a bold move by the CTC. I hope they know what they're doing.

Tropic Thunder : Film Clip - Nobody Goes Full Retard - watch more funny videos

Advice From The Little Mermaid

For my sister, LissyJo. Advice for life from The Little Mermaid (courtesy of Boing Boing):

My Eyes

I'm sure many people have seen this, but I was a PeopleOfWalmart virgin until today. My poor eyes.

There's a Facebook version with just a few pictures if you use Facebook.

72 Hours

I was listening to local radio last week, and they were talking about the three year old kid in Eagan who wandered out of a bedroom, out to the garage, opened the garage door, and then wandered off to play on the highway. The child is ok. But child protective services will be holding on to the child for 72 hours. The female radio host stated that it was only right child protective services take the kid, because there really needed to be an investigation. Normal parents didn't lose their children at night. They'd immediately know something was wrong.

Having grown up in a era when parents were sometimes willing to put a lock on the outside of a child's door, just not talk about it in polite company, I know she's full of it. There are plenty of children that wander off, get up and run around in the middle of the night, eat dry cake mix with a carving knife (not me, a previous friend of mine), etc. Sometimes parents have gone to the length of putting a cover on the crib. Sneaky kids are sneaky. The only way you can control them is to put up alarms and fancier locks. And you don't know to do that until after the first time they push that boundary. And that doesn't include all the times parents potentially forget their children, like at a bakery.

Back to the radio host. She was convinced the parents were probably bad parents and the 72 hours was appropriate. That's an acceptable opinion, even if perhaps misinformed. And 72 hours is probably SOP in these cases while they do a bit of investigation. I suspect the kid might actually come home sooner. But then she launched into a story about how when she was little she hid from her mother in a store and wouldn't come out, even when her mother was looking for her. It required locking down the store and calling in security to find her. The radio host seemed to think that was funny. Didn't deserve 72 hours. Her mother was still a good mother. The Eagan kid who wanders away out the garage has bad parents and needs family evaluation.

It's the same. You should have been taken away for 72 hours. It doesn't change just because you were fortunate enough to do it in a store instead of in the street.

(found the article at the Star Trib)

Porn Music

Last week I was riding the back elevators. For those of you who work where I do, that's the bank of elevators where there are two available to the public, and one for moving larger objects up and down the building and the elevator is inaccessible without a key card. Because there are only two elevators and it can be a long wait, that bank is used less frequently than the others.

I've noticed lately, because I ride those elevators so often, that the music volume seems to be cranked up a notch compared to the central elevators or the ones down the "new wing". Not only is it particularly loud (for an elevator), but it's almost always this horrible, pseudo-sexy jazz that you'd expect to hear in an old porn movie. Unfortunately I realized this while standing on the elevator for three floors with an attractive blonde. I put a concerted effort into looking at my blackberry while the music built to a crescendo. That wasn't in my head. It was getting louder, enough so that I was trying not to smile because it was funny. She got off on third floor, but then three guys got on. That's not a porn movie of which I want to be any part.

Flashback

There have been a dozen Bud Lights in the fridge since my 40th (really, 41st) birthday party. No one has been willing to drink them, and they're taking up a shelf that might otherwise be used for rotting food. So tonight I had a few of them in an attempt to clear up space without wasting them by just dumping them in the sink. What I didn't expect was a flashback to playing board games, specifically Axis and Allies and Shogun, at Dan'l's uncle's farm and his other uncle Bill's kitchen. When I gave it some thought, I realized that it hasn't been a long time since I had cheap beer, but it's definitely a long time between them, and the time of my life I drank the most of them in any one sitting was way back then. It didn't take too long to get away from Miller and Bud and move to Molson, then Molson Golden, and then to anything that wasn't an American lager.

Then again, maybe it's partially because I'm watching "I Love You, Beth Cooper" (not a very good movie, by the way) and they keep driving around for 80% of the movie, which also reminds me of high school and immediately after high school, which is when I drank crappy beer (although no one I ran with had a Hummer or a cabin). And it's a Christopher Columbus movie, so all the stars are aligning.

Maybe it's just bad beer.

COD

Mostly for Ming. Did you know grenade launchers and rocket launchers in Call of Duty are referred to as Noob Tubes? There are a variety of t-shirts you can get to celebrate your noobishness.

Unicorn Crossing

I saw this on Boing Boing and wanted to repost it for Eryn: "Unicorn Sign," a photo by Steffe from Sweden, from his Creative Commons-licensed Flickr stream. Here's his photo blog.

I have an urge to start putting things like this up in my neighborhood. Given the density of coworkers around here, at some point I'd overhear someone talking about them.

Brad Turns 40

Eryn, Pooteewheet and I went to Mears Park last night to listen to Communist Daughter and Molly Dean and celebrate Brad's 40th birthday.

Communist Daughter - "Not the Kid" from Spencer Wells on Vimeo.

Amusingly, in my Outlook calendar at work it says "Brad's Birthday" and then includes the note "He was 30 in 2000". One more sign that I'm getting old. And so is Brad. We had a good time, although we should have brought lawn chairs as that's acceptable at Mears. Sitting on the wet, cut grass was vaguely uncomfortable. Eryn liked the faux stream that runs through the park and has rocks for crossing it at various places. She managed to get her feet wet despite the rocks being about as big as she is.

For Brad's 40th, we got him a coin to cover his poker cards. That way, when he flops the nuts, no one accidentally mucks his cards.

Here's the front:


And the back:

Dibbler

I was walking on fourth floor at work today and someone said "I'd cut my own throat first!" I've never heard anyone use that expression in person before. I immediately had a urge to buy a meat pie.

Jebus Loves the Naked Ladies

Of course he does. He loves everyone. Playboy Portugal has decided to include him in their most recent issue (via Gawker). I like the comment/picture in the comment area that shows the Madonna was there first.

Lo

Wow...been a week. I've had plenty to blog about, despite being sick for two days, but I just haven't been in the mood. I have a few projects in the works, so I'll just hint that those things are keeping me too busy to blog all the time, and I don't want to blog about them yet.

Ming and I went to the movie The Hagstone Demon at the Trylon a week ago. I had an urge to go to a midnight movie at the mini-theatre and Ming was game. I think we were perhaps the only individuals there who weren't a.) actors in the movie or b.) directors/producers/key grips of the movie. It was strange. Both being there with the movie theater full of in-movie folks, and the movie itself. I think both Ming and I were of the opinion that it wasn't quite worth it. I like to compare and contrast things, and this week I saw Lo on Netflix Streaming. Lo is sort of a scary episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the tv series), right down to a strange singing scene. It was simultaneously scary and funny, despite what seemed to be a budget of close to $0. The Hagstone Demon also seemed to have a budget close to $0, but was neither scary, coherent, or funny. So, my advice, stream yourself Lo and see if you like it. It's the better bet.