A hot, steamy bowl of awesome [s]

I started working on a killa chili recipe hoping to pass quals for the Manbird Invitational. Since I'm an open source kinda guy, I'll bore you with pictures and descriptions later.

While the digital negative converter works its magic, I'll to quickly digress into the topic of playoffs. Wild card weekend was pretty meh, except:

• Hooray for the Pats getting embarrassed.
  
• Also, go Cards. Now, I hate Zonies as much as the next guy, but Warner is practically the same QB as Rich Gannon (well, with a ring) and Fitzgerald/Boldin are just great athletes. That game made watching the others worthwhile.
  

Actually it'd be great if they became the USA Cardinals. If the Patriots can claim New England and the Cowboys are America's Team, why can't a franchise that's resided in so many major cities claim such a constituency? Then I'd have no guilt about cheering for them.

Here's to the improbable Az-Min NFC Championship.



I thieved/rescued Megan's Italian Stone Pine and I bought a Norfolk Island Pine to add some (eventual) vertical greenery to the yard. Likely spots are the middle section of the front yard and next to the barbecue.



35w halogens have replaced the bulbs in the living room. They're much more directional and suck enough current to make the motion sensor happy.





I painted a piece of osb. You know, for whatever.



Since I could turn a deaf ear to most of the handegg, I re-reorganized the in-wall entertainment center. Now it has room for the woofer.

In other news, plywood continues to go up in the master bathroom, I have some monkey board ready for the next step. Since there's much drywall affixing to be done, I bought a corded drill/driver for the added power.



Onto the chili. Since this was my first attempt, my m.o. was to use quality ingredients not being able to rely on a magical synergy of flavors that is developed over many attempts. I readied all my favorite seasonings, with no intention of using them all - but you gotta be ready.



Copious onions and orange peppers, chopped small because the only chunky thing in chili should be steak. And maybe a very softened garlic clove (gotta try this next time), like the ones at hot pot. It was all sauteed in olive oil and butter, per Rob's instructions.



Next was to cook the beef. With lime, of course.



Quality ingredients, yo. I threw in some nice Italian sausage and greek olives.



Once the meat was about done I added various seasonings. Chili powder, ancho, rosemary, peppercorn, basil, tapatio, and Fire Rock pale.



Then simmered with a can of black beans and half a jar of tomato sauce. Also in lieu of brown sugar I added some of the maple syrup SFS's mom mules across the border for me.

It occured to me that so much work/seasoning is put in to overcoming the tomatoey flavor. I wondered if I just needed to simmer the pot for a very long time (crock style) to let the various elements coalesce into the medium. Or maybe my chili platform should be to use as little tomato as possible so that you can taste the beef, sausage, olive, sesame oil, etc.

The liquid part of the chili isn't bland, but it isn't distinct. The WIN comes when you eat a piece of beef, sausage, olive, or combination thereof. The flavors seem to cling to the elements, rather than suspend in the medium. I crumbled some gorgonzola on each heated bowl to effect some tartness, but never followed through with my aspiration to add a nacho cheese layer.

It's a fascinating problem of taste engineering, and I look forward to further study. Next batch will certainly include bacon, chilis, and more sesame oil.



No chili for the pooch.

Christmas and New Year's [s]

Erik's got a blog now. My forecast is interleaved Penn and Teller Bullshit-style rants and updates on the reich rocket (pictured). If only Connie, Curt, and me could convince him to join the photo class there'd be some great imagery to go with it. Relatedly, sign up for intermediate black and white at UnEx if you like to party.

Rob's got another photo site/blog/what have you. How long before he assumes another alias and registers a new domain? Only time will tell.

To show my support for these newly registered bloggers, I'll throw some ancient memes into the rest of my post. But it's not all love toward StrippedThreads and RoughOperator.There's an enormous amount of material getting dumped in the tubes closest to mine, I hope this doesn't mean kilroy will get delayed or I'll have to get a separate internet for it.

On Wednesday I enjoyed a low key New Year's with the aforementioned Allegoren and two fine ladyfolk. Team xy maintained a 3:1 margin over team xx in both Trivial Pursuit and champagne. But it was all in the spirit of good holiday fun. High fives to Jes for triumphing in the battle of table talk/psyche outs, Kat for partying through sickness, and Erik for verifying the floor's resistance to ember exposure.


Notes: almonds in cashew jar, classy champagne bucket, Kat's characteristic trail of hair bindings, neatly-placed tools where the fire was burning the night before, painful new Trivial Pursuit color scheme.

Connie stopped by to say hi. She got me a house gnome. In case you don't know, but end up at my house, here is a gnome primer:

1. Gnomes are always on the move. If you see one, help him find a new spot.
2. Gnomes are like flies on the wall. They see all, but go unnoticed. Gnomes do not hide, but never stand out. Likely places to find gnomes are on bookshelves (at the edge of the highest shelf), on window sills, and occasionally atop a cluttered desk.
3. Gnomes do not like to be pigeonholed as lawn-dwellers.
   

You know that dream where you're on a plane and the flight attendant comes on the pa and shakily inquires if there's an electrical engineer aboard? So you retrieve the multimeter from your carry on, stride confidently to the cockpit, and save the day? Well it came true on Monday. Sort of. The overhead lights (fasten seatbelt, service, reading lights, etc.) on the port half of the cabin were nonfunctional and (presumably) faa rules wouldn't let the plane take off. Of course the Patriot Act would forbid any sort of superherolike intervention so we sat on the tarmac for over an hour while throngs of Virgin personnel stood around. The captain ineffectually 'rebooted' the plane and eventually resolved to fill out the paperwork required to fly without fasten seatbelt lights. Somehow the lightless survived.

So mixed impressions about Virgin America. It was nice to play Doom on the flight up and back even if I should have brought headphones. The jets in Virgin's flock are modern but euro-proportioned (Airbus, you know). When the electrical malfunctioned the crew didn't do much to make the wait more palatable, but at least they didn't cancel the flight and declare bad weather as most patriotically-branded airlines would.

The northward trip featured several grudgematches of Jon's new pasttime, Settlers of Catan (+ Seafarers). More complex than Risk, more distilled than Axis and Allies, Settlers is like putting Sid Meier on a coffee table.

The annual Christmas football game was great fun. Newcomers included Mom, Ted, and Christine. Team Laura/Ted/Chris triumphed over team Mom/Arthur/Jon. Keys to the match were Ted drawing the number one coverage while Laura raked in the receptions - not so much on account of loose coverage, rather a legendary ability to hang onto the ball. MAJ played the traditional no-huddle offense while LTC deliberated and fully utilized the reverse, flea-flicker, and wildcat. The play of the day had to be Ted's asomugha (read: awesome) pick-six, followed by Jon's failed attempt to juke a parked car.

It was good to see Dave in classic form. When I invited him to poker Tuesday before Christmas, he explained that he hadn't finished shopping, but could attend if he did. As I was taking a break from the table I got a text, 'Well so far all I've managed to buy is a latte. So, not that it needs saying at this point, but I'm not gonna make it tonight.' It happens every year...

He did manage a visit later that week, and capped a three hour stint of catching up/Halo 3 with, 'I've come a long way [since Goldeneye].'



Moving things to the new property was made difficult by the mud. The Bobcat was clutch, especially in setting up a decent failblog contribution.

Distractions [s]

Scene It
Ty and I cleaned up on Saturday. Three comeback victories in a row against the roomies and their girlfriends.

Mud football
Jon organized a match of mud football. There was much more of the former than the latter; the completion:interception ratio was somewhere around 2:1. Sure the ball was slippery, but the predominant reason had to be that we were running nothing but fly routes on account of not being able to cut. Well, that's not entirely true, Erik and I sported cleats whose advantage declined as the grass turned to mud. Everyone else... well they brought the proverbial knife to the gun fight.

Fantasy football
Next week will be straight out of Genesis. Kevin takes on Brian, and I'm playing Jon. Let's hope the older brothers fare better than they did in the elder vs. younger Wiilympics all those months ago. But what's there to worry about with Wayne against Oakland and Moss against the Jets? That's seven tds right there.

Mass Effect
Bioware did a really good job here. KOTOR was awesome, but comparing it to Mass Effect is like comparing Mario 3 to Mario 64. Both great games in their own right, but the sequel adds so much depth that all you can really say is they're the cream of their respective generation. Elaborating on this would be difficult to put into a reasonable number of words, so let me just say that it's a great game to lost in.

VR4 photo session
I finally got out with the car and camera for a quickie shoot to play with the ever-so-difficult auto photography and hdr. The car is lots of fun and you wouldn't imagine how much free boba I've gotten.


The bottom shot is a single exposure. The top is a hdr merge of several. The most readily noticeable difference is the detail on the overpass.

XLI II [r] [s]

So yesterday was the Player's Sports Bar Super Bowl shindig. It was all you can eat, all you can drink for a modest $75. And in the event that either half's kickoff be returned for a touchdown, everyone would get their money back and ten g's would be up for grabs in the raffle.

As it turns out, the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown. At that point it didn't matter the color of your jersey, we all cheered for free food and drink.

Our crew of nine arrived at noon to begin the seven-hour, lifespan-shortening orgy of food and drink. One individual made it his personal goal to expand the bartender's repertoire upon learning that they 'might' have the proper ingredients for a mudslide. His subsequent orders included a rumrunner, tokyo tea, and grateful dead. Apparently both the bartender and waitress derived passing amusement from having to research each concoction.

Another enterprising individual appointed himself the sportsbook and took, um, imaginary bets. I won all of mine:

• Coin toss comes up heads
• First interception thrown by Peyton
• Colts win by more than seven
• Grossman QB rating < 75.0
  
• Brian doesn't cry when the Colts win
  
• None of the white, female journalists on the field would interview a coach at half (facetious high-five to the South!)

Other unique ones were that there would be a Budweiser commercial before the first Pepsi commercial, and that the sports book would take a net loss for the evening.

Late arrivals to the game included horse and bear mascots that distributed gummy candy. Fox News and a local news radio station did some recording. The most auspicious Colts fan in our party was micced twice and we ended up making the ten o'clock news.

So serious props to Players. The food was fine, the drinks were plentiful, and the door prizes were worthwhile ($10 gift cert, insulated travel mug for everyone). And a big thanks to Devin Hester.

Here's what the sports book might have looked like:

The new ish [s]

So the Pendleton Mud Run is coming up in five months. CS and KO have enlisted the resources of personal trainers. I prefer the old fashioned pathway to fitness - performance enhancing drugs. But I can't just sit on the couch and play Zelda letting the hormones turn me into the white Lance Armstrong, I have to benchmark myself every so often to gauge the quickness with which I effortlessly approach peak physical performance.

Hopefully this will take the form of a weekly sporting activity in the Mesa; last weekend we had a 4v4 football matchup. The highlight, of course, was Jon catching a football with his eye. A fairly extraordinary event, not because he injured himself, but because it was on the rebound from a tree placed conveniently in their end zone. Not only did the ball achieve the improbable by deflecting off the tree into his eye, but did so having originated fifty yards away where Bret clearly achieved the greatest kickoff in history.

Serious, I YouTubed The Play immediately afterwards. I said, 'After Bret's kickoff, this looks like a bunch of rhinos dooked partially-digested monkeys on a field and the monkeys are writhing toward one end of the field where there are a bunch of shiny dook monkeys.' Then I went to ebaums and found a video of a bunch of partially-digested dook monkeys on a field writhing toward one end of the field where there were a bunch of shiny dook monkeys. Exactly the same.