Incidents and accidents

I created this recipe though trial and error over about a year. I’ve been perfecting it for quite some time, but figured you might want to give it a try. I have NO clue how much fat there is in it, but it’s pretty damn tasty.

What you’ll need:
Chef Paul’s Poultry Magic - Thanks to Larry for turning me on to this. It’s stunning on just about any kind of poultry.
Adolph’s Seasoned Tenderizer - Make sure you get the yellow-capped bottle!
Lawry’s Garlic Salt - This is great for other things as well. Love this stuff.
Sweet Basil Leaves - Flavor not noticable to me, I use for the smell.
Parkay - Sticks or tub
Chicken. - Pick up some Ready to Cook, Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast Tenderloins that have been individually frozen. You’ll find them in big bags near the fresh chicken. You can use fresh chicken, but the frozen is easier to work with.
Pasta! I prefer radiatore or cavatappi, but shells or rotini work almost as well.

Ready the Chicken: Grab a plate and your bag ‘o chicken. Pick out two med-small tenderloins per person being served. Place on plate and dust the bottoms with Adolph’s and Garlic Salt, then dust the tops with Poultry Magic and Basil. Throw it in the microwave! Mine works for 1 minute per side per two filets. If I’m making for just myself, then it’s two minutes. If I’m making for myself and John, then it goes for 8. Yes, the chicken will be cooked most of the way through when you’re done. This is because it’s MUCH easier to cut up, and I’m paranoid about food poisoning.
Ready the stove: Pan for pasta, skillet (non-stick is great) for chicken. Turn the pasta pot to high, turn the chicken pot to medium or med-low if your stove nukes things like mine does. Put a pat of Parkay in the bottom of the skillet and lightly dust with Poultry Magic. If you’re making a sizable amount of chicken, wait to turn on the skillet until you’re 3/4 of the way done. Otherwise, you’ll Just have butter popping everywhere.
Chop that chicken: Cut the chicken filets into centimeter to inch sized chunks. This can take a while, so make sure to watch that skillet! Once the chicken is chopped, add it to the skillet (watch your hands for butter popping!). If you waited too long, just add another pat of butter. If you were too fast, let the butter cook a bit more, other wise the chicken will take forever to finish.
Cookin’: Lightly sautée the chicken chunks. Add some more Poultry Magic while it’s cooking. I like it to look a bit brown from the seasoning. Throw the pasta in now. Your chicken bits will be done before the pasta, but if they finish at the same time the chicken will be way too hot to eat. It needs to sit around a bit to cool while the pasta is getting done.
Prepare the plate: Grab a dinner plate (or more) and the Parkay again. Add two pats of Parkay to the plate, then throw some Garlic Salt all over the plate too. I know it sounds like we’re getting waaaaay satly here, but the blandness of the pasta will balance it out.
Grab that chicken!: Once the chicken chunks are done, throw them onto your plate with the butter and garlic salt. I like my chicken dryish, so I let it sit in the skillet until all of the butter is gone and the chicken is getting a little tan. If you let the chicken get too dry, bits of it will begin to flake off, making your pasta a pain to eat. If it’s too juicy, the whole dish will be too wet, and it’ll be really nasty as it cools.
Eat it: Mix up the chicken bits, pasta and butter. Eat! The plate sure doesn;t look like much of a recipie, but it sure tatses good. If you find it a bit bland even with the chicken bits, add a little table salt to the top and mix in. Be very careful with it though, as it can quickly become too much.
Let me know if you try it!

I updated the Hummingbirds Album today. I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of the ones at my window feeder, but I’ve been lax in uploading them because no one but me really gives a crap. I figure that since this is my web page, I’ll go ahead and fill up more disk space with stuff that I care about anyway. I have a lot of hummingbirds around the apartment these days. Two adult males, four adult females, four immature females and two immature males. I know that many of them will be moving southward soon, so I’ve been taking lots of photos. Maybe this year I’ll be lucky enough to have a Winter hummingbird, or even a vagrant Rufous stay for a few days. I thought I might have one already, but closer inspection of the photos proves that she’s just a cinnamon washed Ruby-Throated.

I’ve also been geeking out about cameras this weekend. I loaned my camera and extra bits to Larken’s stepfather (who is also a camera geek and was thinking of buying it), so I was re-researching what to buy is case he wanted to buy it from me.

What I would buy if I had tons of cash:
Small for everywhere: Canon SD500 - $400 - $500 on Ebay
Large for nice nice photos: Canon 20D - $1200 - $1500 on Ebay

What I will buy for much much less:
Small for everywhere: Canon SD400 - $250 - $300 on Ebay
Large for nice nice photos: Canon Rebel XT - $800 - $900 on Ebay

If I sell the Sony for $500 and add that to the $375 I have towards the camera fund already, I’ll only be short about $400. Much better than the $600 it was pre-research. I was going to go for the SD500, but I figured that my daily-take-everywhere camera didn’t need 7MP because the one I’m using now has 5MP. The SD400, at 5MP, will be just fine for $200 less. Yay me for being smart!

Edit: Just checked the prices for the Sony on Ebay. Even with all the acessories I have for it, I could only hope to get about $300 tops, which puts me right back to $600 short. Damn damn damn.

Scott Feldstein posted a quick personality test a bit ago. I never can remember what I am, so I took it again. I came out the same as ever, my INFP.

Taken from Here:
INFPs, more than other iNtuitive Feeling types, are focused on making the world a better place for people. Their primary goal is to find out their meaning in life. What is their purpose? How can they best serve humanity in their lives? They are idealists and perfectionists, who drive themselves hard in their quest for achieving the goals they have identified for themselves
INFPs are highly intuitive about people. They rely heavily on their intuitions to guide them, and use their discoveries to constantly search for value in life. They are on a continuous mission to find the truth and meaning underlying things. Every encounter and every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through the INFP’s value system, and is evaluated to see if it has any potential to help the INFP define or refine their own path in life. The goal at the end of the path is always the same - the INFP is driven to help people and make the world a better place.

Taken from here.
Healer Idealists are abstract in thought and speech, cooperative in striving for their ends, and informative and introverted in their interpersonal relations. Healer present a seemingly tranquil, and noticiably pleasant face to the world, and though to all appearances they might seem reserved, and even shy, on the inside they are anything but reserved, having a capacity for caring not always found in other types. They care deeply-indeed, passionately-about a few special persons or a favorite cause, and their fervent aim is to bring peace and integrity to their loved ones and the world.
Healers have a profound sense of idealism derived from a strong personal morality, and they conceive of the world as an ethical, honorable place. Indeed, to understand Healers, we must understand their idealism as almost boundless and selfless, inspiring them to make extraordinary sacrifices for someone or something they believe in. The Healer is the Prince or Princess of fairytale, the King’s Champion or Defender of the Faith, like Sir Galahad or Joan of Arc. Healers are found in only 1 percent of the general population, although, at times, their idealism leaves them feeling even more isolated from the rest of humanity.

Taken from here:
INFPs feels tremendous loyalty and commitment to their relationships. With the Feeling preference dominating their personality, harmony and warm feelings are central to the INFP’s being. They feel a need to be in a committed, loving relationship. If they are not involved in such a relationship, the INFP will be either actively searching for one, or creating one in their own minds.
INFPs tendency to be idealistic and romantically-minded may cause them to fantasize frequently about a “more perfect” relationship or situation. They may also romanticize their mates into having qualities which they do not actually possess. Most INFPs have a problem with reconciling their highly idealistic and romantic views of life with the reality of their own lives, and so they are constantly somewhat unsettled with themselves and with their close personal relationships. However, the INFP’s deeply-felt, sincere love for their mates and their intense dislike of conflict keeps the INFP loyal to their relationships, in spite of their troubles achieving peace of mind.

What are you? Here’s a quick/fast test: here.

Edit, 8/28/2005: John’s an ISTJ, the exact opposite from me except for the Introvert part.

In the last few days, Walk-Smash-Walk has sort-of taken on a life of it’s own in our place. It’s just so awesome that John and I both have to play it at least twice a day. The following took place while was cooking up some pasta in the kitchen. We have a window-wall (one of those walls that has a big square hole in it so you can see the next room) that goes from the kitchen to the computer-room.

Me: Put on some music, eh?
John: How about smashing robot music?
Me: YES! Me like smashey song!
John: -Puts on viddie-
Me: Louder, man! I’m cooking your dinner in here!
John: -turns it up to near blasting volume-
Me: Bwah hah hah! -procedes to rock out-

I just love it. The kitty/bunny short gets played at least twice a day now too. I found a new one that just knocks me off of my chair: Dad’s Home. When dad’s head is on fire and he puts it out with the cat, you know it’s fucking funny. For those that enjoy a interactive game, try Dad’n'me. You’re a little purple dude. You beat the hell out of all the kids on the playground.

Walk-Smash-Walk - An adorable little robot that loves to smash things. Then he gets attacked!
There she is! - Bunny loves kitty. Bad for kitty.
There she is, part 2! - Witth kitty make it to bunny’s birthday? Will he fight off the scary ninja bunnies?
Get a job - Mario tells Princess Toadstool to get up off her ass.
The Egg - A chicken finds a rather large egg. What will hatch?

25

Stolen from BrianL
Southpark Studio 2.

I just watched National Geographic’s Inside 9-11 tonight. It was the premire. It’s a 4-hour documentary detailing it’s beginings in the 90’s all the way through July 2005’s London bus attacks. I caught the first part last night, and I was so stunned by the quality of the program and research that I had to catch the second part tonight, even though it puts me an hour past my bedtime again. Both parts re-air on September 8th at 7pm - 11pm, and I can tell you, I’ll be watching it again.
It’s been such a long time since I watched any footage of the tower attacks. More than 3 years, actually. It makes my cry, to tell the truth. I wasn’t watching the news that day, but I remember hearing it on the radio on the way into work that day, and then listening to it all day until I got home to see it on the news. I flipped on the radio that morning just minutes before Tower 1 went down. I remember sitting in my car driving down the road and thinking it must be a joke. I recall wondering what day it was, trying to think if it was April fool’s day or something else that would explain it. I was on my way to work , it was 9:50am. At 9:59am, it crumbled to dust. The radio station I was listening to had someone with an apartment that faced the towers on a live call. I was driving and I remember the man saying “Oh, Oh God. It’s falling.” He paused for just a few seconds and I could hear the whine of my car in the silence, then he said “It’s gone. The first tower is gone.”
My mouth dropped open. By that time, I had come to the conclusion that it wasn’t April Fool’s day, and that it was no joke. I arrived at work at about 10am, finding the entire store frozen in front of the radio. I almost turned around and went home, but several other employees had already called in and told the managers that they feared more attacks here and were staying home. I thought “Yeah, terrorists are going for the Athens, GA Petland. You bet.” Since I was one of the few people that actually showed up, I was stuck there for the day. Not that we had any customers anyway. America froze that day. Everyone was at home watching the news. I called Meggie and made sure she had the news on, then did the same with John.
At 10:28am, the second tower fell. The store had the radio tuned to the same station I was listening to in my car, so the caller was still on the line. We all heard him gasp and yell into the phone “Oh! No! NO! The second tower!” He paused again, then into the silence he said softly “The second tower is gone. The Twin Towers have fallen.” Everyone in the store was just glued to the radio. I remember thinking that this must have been similar to the JFK assasination. As the day unfolded, we learn that the Pentagon had also been hit (by something.. some people claim it was no plane at all, but a warhead), people were jumping out of windows, all the firefighters that went in Tower 1 were dead, and some brave passengers over Pennsylvania had saved countless lives in the capitol building by rushing the cockpit in the last hijacked plane. Later, all flights are cancelled, the stock exchange closes, and Tower 7 falls.
Sometime at about 6pm that day, I get off of work and go home, where Meggie is sitting in front of the TV, where she’s been for the past 10 hours. I look at the TV, where they’re showing pictures on the hijackers. I then asked “Does it look as bad as it sounds over the radio?” She looks at me with tear-streaks on her face and says “Worse. It’s worse.” Just then, they flipped back to shots of plane 2 ramming the second tower. It wasn’t until later that the news found one lucky video of the first hit. Meggie was right. It was worse. I just sat there with her and cried. I don’t even know how long I sat there in tears. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the people that had died, terrified.
Even now, I still cry when I see video of the towers falling. 2973 people either burned, were crushed, were blown to bits or jumped from the windows. I just saw this site: here, and find it interesting that the building clearly explodes before the plane actually hits it… may be a fake, dunno. Go see for yourself.

Larken called me over yesterday to help out with a Baby Benjamin crisis. It seems that a hair or thread or carpet fiber had gotten wrapped around one of his toes, cutting into it. She called me asking for help, because Munchie wasn’t taking the situation too well. I came bearing a set of tweezers and a rounded set of tiny scissors. After much wrestling with the baby’s foot, he finally calmed down enough for me to take a big deep breath and go for slipping the tip of the scissors under the invisible thread. I did it quickly, while I had the chance. i should have had enough sense to know that when I cut it, the pressure and release would make the entire thing bleed a little, which is what it did. Unfortunatly, I took this as a sign that I hadn’t gotten it, so Larken took Benjamin to the ER. They said they thought I’d gotten it since there was nothing there when they got to it, but they gave her some antibiotics to prevent a nasty infection. When they got back, Benji seemed just fine, calm and unimpressed. She got Munchie to bed, then played with Benji for a bit. As she was changing him, he suddely got quite silly, smiling at everyone. That was the first time he’d ever smiled at me, and it was adorable. Especially considering I’d made his poor toe bleed a few hours before. I had to catch myself before I began talking to him in baby-talk, which would have ruined me. Yay for happy babies!

Yoinked from porknbeans

Go to http://www.musicoutfitters.com/
In the search box in the upper right hand corner, enter the year you graduated from high school. The first item returned should be the top 100 songs from that year. Cut and paste them into your journal.
Bold the ones you like.

Underline

your favorite.
Strike through the songs you loathe.

1. Candle In The Wind 1997, Elton John
2. Foolish Games / You Were Meant For Me, Jewel
3. I’ll Be Missing You, Puff Daddy and Faith Evans
4. Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton
5. Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down, Puff Daddy
6. I Believe I Can Fly, R. Kelly
7. Don’t Let Go (Love), En Vogue
8. Return Of The Mack, Mark Morrison
9. How Do I Live, LeAnn Rimes
10. Wannabe, Spice Girls
11. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), Backstreet Boys
12. MMMBop, Hanson
13. For You I Will, Monica
14. You Make Me Wanna…, Usher
15. Bitch, Meredith Brooks
16. Nobody Keith Sweat
17. Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind
18. Barely Breathing, Duncan Sheik
19. Hard To Say I’m Sorry, Az Yet Featuring Peter Cetera
20. Mo Money Mo Problems, Notorious B.I.G.
21. The Freshmen, Verve Pipe
22. I Want You, Savage Garden
23. No Diggity, BLACKstreet Featuring Dr. Dre
24. I Belong To You (Every Time I See Your Face), Rome
25. Hypnotize, Notorious B.I.G.
26. Every Time I Close My Eyes, Babyface
27. In My Bed, Dru Hill
28. Say You’ll Be There, Spice Girls
29. Do You Know (What It Takes), Robyn
30. 4 Seasons Of Loneliness, Boyz II Men
31. G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T., Changing Faces
32. Honey, Mariah Carey
33. I Believe In You And Me, Whitney Houston
34. Da’ Dip, Freaknasty
35. 2 Become 1, Spice Girls
36. All For You, Sister Hazel
37. Cupid, 112
38. Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?, Paula Cole
39. Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin
40. It’s Your Love, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
41. Ooh Aah… Just A Little Bit, Gina G
42. Mouth, Merril Bainbridge
43. All Cried Out, Allure Featuring 112
44. I’m Still In Love With You, New Edition
45. Invisible Man, 98 Degrees
46. Not Tonight, Lil’ Kim
47. Look Into My Eyes, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
48. Get It Together, 702
49. All By Myself, Celine Dion
50. It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion
51. My Love Is The Shhh!, Somethin’ For The People
52. Where Do You Go, No Mercy
53. I Finally Found Someon, Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams
54. I’ll Be, Foxy Brown Featuring Jay-Z
55. If It Makes You Happy , Sheryl Crow
56. Never Make A Promise, Dru Hill
57. When You Love A Woman, Journey
58. Up Jumps Da Boogie, Magoo And Timbaland
59. I Don’t Want To / I Love Me Some Him, Toni Braxton
60. Everyday Is A Winding Road, Sheryl Crow
61. Cold Rock A Party, Mc Lyte
62. Pony, Ginuwine
63. Building A Mystery, Sarah McLachlan
64. I Love You Always Forever, Donna Lewis
65. Your Woman, White Town
66. C U When U Get There, Coolio
67. Change The World, Eric Clapton
68. My Baby Daddy, B-Rock and The Bizz
69. Tubthumping, Chumbawamba
70. Gotham City, R. Kelly
71. Last Night, Az Yet
72. ESPN Presents The Jock Jam, Various Artists
73. Big Daddy, Heavy D
74. What About Us, Total
75. Smile, Scarface
76. What’s On Tonight, Montell Jordan
77. Secret Garden, Bruce Springsteen
78. The One I Gave My Heart, w Aaliyah
79. Fly Like An Eagle, Seal
80. No Time, Lil’ Kim
81. Naked Eye, Luscious Jackson
82. Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix), Los Del Rio
83. On and On, Erykah Badu
84. Don’t Wanna Be A Player, Joe
85. I Shot The Sheriff, Warren G
86. You Should Be Mine (Don’t Waste Your Time), Brian McKnight Featuring Mase
87. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, Madonna
88. Someone, SWV
89. Go The Distance, Michael Bolton
90. One More Time, Real McCoy
91. Butta Love, Next
92. Coco Jamboo, Mr. President
93. Twisted, Keith Sweat
94. Barbie Girl, Aqua
95. When You’re Gone / Free To Decide, Cranberries
96. Let Me Clear My Throat, DJ Kool
97. I Like It, Blackout Allstars
98. You’re Makin’ Me High / Let It Flow, Toni Braxton
99. You Must Love Me, Madonna
100. Let It Go, Ray J