Yum!

I made a yummy dinner on the fly tonight: I grilled some vidalia onions in a pan with some olive oil,

and while that was cooking, I cooked some rice, and some black beans in some chicken broth. Then I took the onions out of the pan, put some turkey burgers in there, and sauteed them in some more of the chicken broth. Once they were cooked, I put the burgers on a plate, topped them with the onions, had the beans and rice on the side. Heavenly scent, delicious! The broth had the burgers nice and moist, great flavor.

Not fancy, but really delicious! Washed down with a beer, and even better!

Da Boys

I could tell the boys were growing again, so I weighed and measured'em...

B1: 4'9" and 80 lbs.
B2: 3'10.5" and 44 lbs.

Both boys have grown a quarter inch in the last two months, and both of them have grown 4.5 inches in the past 2 years!! Amazing! B1 is definitely going to be taller than me, at the rate he's going. I mean, I was 5'3" in 7th grade, and I grew to be 6'3" by my senior year -- B1 is already 4'9" in 4th grade!

Overacting Hall of Fame

This piece amused me, the Overacting Hall of Fame. Bahah! Pacino, of course!

Coconuts

These are deadly-good...

Not my hand, btw.

I'm always buying the last couple of boxes before they're sold out. It's always a competition to score those before they're gone, so others realize that they're food of the gods, too.

Falling Leaves

Went ambling through the city last night, since the weather was so good. Lots of people out, enjoying it. Already nearing the end of September, with October nipping at one's heels. This month flew by. I need to buckle down and get into my autumnal writing groove. I've got so many pieces to work on, it's going to be hard to choose. At this point, I'm tempted to just do them alphabetically, but I know that'll never work with me. I'll need to do them based on either how soon they can be completed or else which ones inspire me most. I just know how I am, especially for first drafts -- I have to go with inspiration, first, just to get that first draft done. Then the discipline part kicks in with revision.

Did you see that stuff about neutrinos? I am hoping it's corroborated, because that'll be awesome, will pull the rug out from under physics for generations, which'll make for a lot of excited/perplexed/enraged physicists. We'll see. Science is fun. Haha!

Bahah

My favorite classic Bond moment...

Brrr

Brrr. Cold this morning! Definitely flannel jammy weather nowadays!

I asked the boys what they wanted to be for Halloween. B1 wasn't sure, yet; B2 wants to be a gremlin, planned it all out, wanting a green shirt and green pants and what-not. It was cute, watching him plan it all out. Hard to believe it's a bit over a month away. Once Halloween hits, it's like the Holiday free-for-all, the rush to the end of the year. Amazing how 2011 has come and gone. And next year should be insane, with the whole presidential election stuff, and the 2012 Mayan Calendar crazies going loopy. And turning 42. What the hell is that all about?  Ah, Entropy, you blithering bitch goddess!

Bird-watching

I keep seeing goldfinches in the city, which is kind of awesome. I love goldfinches. Apparently they hang out in Chicago all year-round, but it seems like there are more around lately. Not sure if that's right, or it's just my perception of it, having seen a lot of them. Either way, I'm not complaining. I'm happy to see more goldfinches, less sparrows!

I bought some knit gloves to help for the bike rides, since it got chilly so quickly! Brrr! I also got B2 some really cute rugby tops. He's gonna love them, is gonna look fab. As ever, between Exene and me, I'm the only one who buys clothes for the boys. But I actually like getting them nice stuff they can use, what can I say?

1111

Heh, this is my 1111th post on this blog. Not that this means anything, but it's still mildly amusing, I suppose.

I've been watching "Battlestar Galactica" (remake) on DVD, after having only seen the first season when that show was on  real-time. It's an entertaining show, although the endless gravitas of it kind of wears down on me a bit. Starbuck is particularly vexing -- she's straight, but they play her so butch, she's like one step short of crunching cans of beer on her forehead and putting cigars out on her tongue. It's like they wanted her to be macho Ms. Badass, without having the greenlight to make her gay or something, which would've been the ballsier move, pardon the pun. So, instead, she's Butchie LaRue and digs guys. But the half-hearted thing they have with her and Apollo reads just so wrong -- no matter who many muscle shirts they put Apollo in, he's like a nancy boy next to Starbuck, who looks like she could break Apollo over her knee. Other than that, and maybe that urgent piano score they do that's like the Cylon "Jaws" theme (typically heralding Number 6's appearance), I'm enjoying the show a great deal. Glad I'm finally watching it. Some of their narrative conceits remind me of HBO's "Oz" or "The Wire" -- like the writers just pull a character and situation out of their asses, because they have "the fleet" to draw from. "Oh, that's from the Belisaurius, a Caprican ore freighter." Sure, why not? I love that Richard Hatch, the original Apollo, is a recurring character on the show. That amuses me.

Punkin' Pie

I hit Target today for a bit, got the boys some fall/winter supplies, like hats and what-not. The weather is autumn-lovely today, that cool-but-sunny thing going on, very pretty. Good sleeping weather, really.

I had an idea for another story pop into my head, quite out of the blue. Well, really it was something I was mulling over for awhile, and then, while at Target, it just clicked, and one of the characters really cohered for me. That's a great feeling, although it sometimes happens when one hasn't any pen or paper handy! D'oh! That's when the iPhone is a real blessing -- the Notes function on it is useful for that, even if the Tic-Tac tap-buttons on it are so tiny, it's cumbersome if you have hands larger than a leprechaun's!

They have Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts at Target! I had to try them, and they actually were really good. Limited Edition, naturally, but damned good. See?

Falling

I should be writing this morning, but am enjoying the early-morning quiet too much right now. Fall is already here. The chill is in the air. The city smelled curious -- apparently there are wildfires in Minnesota, and the smoke from that is wafting into Illinois. There is a faintly smoky smell hitting the city, like the smell of burning pine. I noticed it yesterday, and did some searching to confirm it. Kind of amazing, really -- I didn't even know they were having wildfires of that magnitude in Minnesota, let alone that we'd be downwind of them.

Just a wrinkle in city living for the moment, I guess. Pine-scented apocalyptic smog! It somehow adds resonance to the change of seasons. That wood smoke smell feels so autumnal to me, anyway, and that it is derived from massive wildfires adds a macabre element to it, which also fits well with the season.

I love autumn. My favorite season.

How random, right? B2 wanted me to take a shot of the orang with the toy gun in  its hand. Haha!

Crashing

Saw ANOTHER car crash downtown. Not as bad as the one I'd seen last week (was it only last week? I can't remember, now). But roughly the same distance away, and me at an intersection, and another SUV, this time slamming into the back of a cab. Mostly a fender-bender, but the SUV then drove off and disappeared, leaving the cabbie in the lurch. I think it was the SUV's fault, judging from how it went. Can't believe I've seen two crashes in close succession like that. Sheesh.

Saw some bikers have a tiff of sorts, too. I only came in on the end of it, but some super-biker guy was yelling at some gal biker. Not sure what the deal was. Some of those super-bikers are insanely hardcore about biking, so who knows what the deal was.

Performance review went very well at work; there was a lot of good talk about the positive contribution I've made for the group, and what that means for my future there, and so on. It was really heartening to hear, to be honest. I am trying to do a good job, but to have that good work appreciated (and for this to be communicated to me), so much the better. Made me happy to hear it.

Am sleepy, gonna crash, I think.

Epicurean!

I love it...

http://www.salon.com/books/what_to_read/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/09/11/swerve

As an admitted Epicurean, I love seeing Epicureanism get a tip of the hat!