Sampain

Today (as I write this, it remains Saturday, October 30th), we had Halloween part one. See, due to the fact that Halloween falls on the Sabbath this year, the City of Chico decided to celebrate its city-sponsored event on Saturday. Every year, the Downtown Chico Business Association gets the downtown stores to participate in "Treat Street." For three hours, typically 2-5pm, families take their kids to all the stores, the stores give kids candy and, presumably, this increases sales for the stores later. I've been taking the kids to this every Halloween since 2001.

Due to the fact I've broken or sprained my right ankle due to volleyball more times than I've counted, I now have arthritis in that foot. It only acts up when the weather goes through abrupt changes. In California, that's generally only two times a year--late November and sometime in March. Remember when I mentioned our weather has been about twenty degrees colder than it's supposed to be? I spent hours this morning soaking the ankle, downing meds and walking on it, well hobbling on it in order to numb the pain so that I could take the kids out trick-or-treating at Treat Street. Aeia was a princess and Lash was Hellboy. Both great costumes and I have pictures but since I can't find a decent server to hold photoc online, I shant be posting any here (I suppose people could e-mail for 'em). Halloween being my favorite holiday, there was absolutely no way I would let a little thing like debilitating ankle injuries that refuse to be walked upon stop me from letting my kids beg for free candy under threat of "tricks."

After the first half-hour, I was able to move at the kids' pace, as the pain had reached that place where it hurts so badly you can no longer feel it. I'm looking forward to enduring the real deal tomorrow.

Weekend at Home at the Movies

Saw two rented movies this week: Ghostwatcher and Saved!

Ghostwatcher has the distinction of being really really crappy. For camcorder-fare it was decent, but too much logic was often left at the door. Worse, a plot point ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to the film was relegated to the deleted scenes section of the dvd rather than placed in the movie itself. On the plus side--there was one fart-funny gag reel, for those with more purile humour. Sadly, the basic idea of this film was astounding. Done well, I would have loved to see a horror movie about an agorophobe who discovers her home is haunted by a malicious and evil ghost.

Saved! I'd been wanting to see badly and just never had been able to. For the last 13 years or so I'd had this mindset that movies where Macauley Culkin dies are good movies, and movies where he doesn't are not good movies. After last night, I have to re-assess. Not only did he survive, but he was an enjoyable member of the cast to watch. Not being a Christian, I thoroughly enjoyed how well the movie performed at being somewhat tongue-in-cheek about various extreme religious personalities in today's youth while simultaneously making a really positive message about the nature and importance of faith. A message I thought it nailed wonderfully without being heavy-handed or religion-specific. And did I mention that the humour was dead-on groovy? Eva Amurri speaking in tongues is was worth the price of rental alone.

Top 5 of the Day

In the vein of my cultural snobbery, today I present my Top 5 movies that are considered classics and yet I personally find them incredibly bad:

1. On the Waterfront
2. Citizen Kane
3. Apocalypse Now (A movie that starts well for me, but always leaves me sleeping before the end...)
4. Rebel Without a Cause
5. Taxi Driver

I JUST saw Taxi Driver for the first time this week, and I want my two hours back.
Also, having Taxi Driver on the mind, I effed up and added another Deniro pick here that I hadn't seen (and mentioned as such in my buddy Drew's blog) so I had to fix that.

And Drew, I HATE 2001 too. Almost enough to swap it with A-Now.

Cultural Snobbery

I am such a snob. Whenever Denise and I are watching something and she doesn't recognize somebody on the telly from their other role or roles on other shows or films, I just can't seem to let her off the ridicule hook. People as mentally bereft about pop culture as she often is really get the snobby disdain from me. I can't seem to control it. The same thing goes to people who like music or film or tv that I obviously feel to be inferior. Like those legions of over-eighteen fans of boybands. They are all on crack.

It's probably why High Fidelity made my top five list a couple weeks back--I see so much of myself reflected in those three record store clerks. No one who has taste and isn't in a coma wants to listen to "I Just Called to Say I Love You." Sometimes peoples' tastes in pop culture hurt me physically. I get ill.

To this day, I continue to shake my head in dull shock that Denise still has not seen the Godfather or any of its sequels, but she likes the new editions of Star Wars just fine.

More in Iraq

The co-owner of my comic shop is in the Army Reserves. He's been reactivated and is leaving for Iraq two days after Christmas. Happy holidays. :(

Top 5 Soundtrack Songs

I've been really glomming on to random songs from movies and tv I watch lately, and in that vein I've compiled a top five list of favorite songs prominently featured in a motion picture soundtrack.

1. One April Day by Stephin Merritt/Magnetic Fields (film: Pieces of April)
2. Ray of Sunshine by Go Sailor (film: But I'm a Cheerleader)
3. Falling From Grace by the Gentle Waves(film Pumpkin)
4. I'll Never Tell by Emma Caulfield and Nicholas Brendan (tv show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode: Once More With Feeling)
5. Outdoor Type by the Lemonheads (film: Tao of Steve)

Chicken Cordon Bleu Burgers

This is a great way to fudge the taste of cordon bleu (my favorite dish, AND cook it quickly.

You need:
pkg ground chicken
pkg Canadian bacon (or other fully cooked pre-sliced ham would suffice)
grill seasonings
shallot
sliced swiss cheese
garnish & buns

preheat grill, add a little oil (extra virgin olive for me) because chicken is stickier than beef.

Throw a couple teaspoons of grill seasoning (and maybe a little sweet paprika and cumin) into the ground chicken. Dice up the shallot and add it to the chicken. Mix it all and then form into burgers.

Grill the burgers.
Put ham on the grill and heat to warm.
When burgers done, put ham on burgers, put swiss on ham. Turn off heat to grill. Tent aluminum foil over burgers and allow then to keep cooking themselves through while they melt the cheese.

Move to bun and garnish to taste (a dijon mustard/mayo/chopped tarragon sauce is nice. Use about 1-to-2 ratio of mustard to mayo).

Tastes great with lettuce buns for low carbers too.

Top 5 John Cusack Movies

SO I watched Hi Fidelity for the upteenth time yesterday, and in the vein of that film, my first Top 5 blog list--my top 5 movies starring John Cusack (in no order of importance):

1. Hi Fidelity
2. One Crazy Summer
3. Say Anything
4. Identity
5. Grosse Pointe Blank

Maybe I'll keep the top five list idea goin every now and again. Suggestions for the next? What are your top five Cusack movies? He's only been in 47 films, surely you've seen some of them.

Evan's Theory of Complacency

Yesterday I was watching a Smallville re-run when, half way through the program, I tried to figure out why I was watching the show. I don't like it. At least I despised it enough when it first came out that I chose to stop watching it about a quarter of the way through the first season. That got me to thinking about how Denise's Law & Order has come to be less annoying to me (another show I downright dislike), or how both of us are able to sit through an episode of CSI: Miami even after the death of Rory Cochrane's character. It all comes down to what I'm dubbing my Unified Theory on Television Complacency.

Unlike watching a car wreck, bad television has this capability to seep into you in such a way that before you realize it, you're a consistent viewer of the show (I have absolutely no other explanation for Out of Order). See, it doesn't matter how bad a show is, or how much you dislike it. If, for whatever reason--reruns everywhere else, sheer boredom, remote control laziness, amnesia--you make yourself sit through a bad show again and again...soon it stops seeming as much like a bad show to you. Eventually it becomes routine. Smallville is on my satellite's daily recording schedule now. Admittedly, #3.2 loves it, and the other kids like it, but I don't have to watch too... As viewers, we numb ourselves to bad television programming.

I need to be very careful to avoid further exposure to Pride of the Family and dr. vegas.

On a brighter side, I gave Desperate Housewives a try. It was...entertaining. I think it might be able to become the next Twin Peaks, and I think that the fatc I didn't come to that conclusion until close to the end of the program bodes well for its ability to, hopefully, stay fresh. Because any show that can make it believable that Terri Hatcher would struggle for a date has got to be worth watching.

A Walk Down Gay Cinema Lane pt. 1

I finally got around to renting Latter Days last night. My general response to gay cinema is that much more often than not, it sucks. "Landmark" films such as Go Fish, Bar Girls, Longtime Companion... they all just bore the piss out of me with either bad acting, too slow story telling, or horrendo as it is: both.

Anyway. Being a lapsed Mormon (and no return in sight, honey), and being an Amber Benson fan, I've wanted to see this film ever since I first read about it some many months ago.

It's a love story centered around, rather cliched, gay party boy Christian who falls in love with one of the Mormon missionaries (Aaron) who move into his apartment complex. Well, initially, he pursues Aaron in order to win a bet, but the Mormon with a heart of gold, assisted by AIDS crushed Eric Palladino (who held perhaps the most interesting and enjoyable part in the film, well, along with Bissette), turns Christian into a caring, loving man in need of a relationship.

OK, I've read that and have to admit it sounds about as cliche and cheese-filled as does any other typical gay film. But this one had its nuances. Careful attention was placed on making the Mormon stuff as accurate as possible (the only slip up I saw was having Aaron wear a blue shirt in one of his missionary scenes)--they even had Aaron in the correct underwear (yes, I notice these things, as would any other good Mormon boy--or lapsed bisexual Mormon boy like me). I was bothered at the harshness portrayed by Aaron's family. While accurate to the experience of many in the LDS church, I've found just as many who were more lovingly excommunicated. I thirsted for a bit more compassion (and as it turned out, the dvd has a deleted scene with Aaron's sister than should have stayed in the film and handled the absence of familial sympathy so absent from the theatrical cut) from Aaron's family members. I was, however, just as happy that they didn't sugar coat things (except maybe the attempted suicide. The cut scene mentioned above was cut because it was the extended suicide scene and was deemed too graphic--I don't really agree with that take, and don't think many other viewers would) and really shone a light on the difficulty of being Mormon and gay, and the struggle Aaron faced coming to terms with his homosexuality, his abandonment by church and family, his feelings for Christian.

The movie,a s a drama, did for me what so many gay dramas don't: it made me care about the characters progression through the film instead of making me want to go out for coffee so that I can be chemically induced to sit through the entirety of the film.

Final thoughts: strong performances by all actors. It could have worked a little harder to abandon so many of the cliches of the single gay male. It could have had more Amber Benson. Subject matter was great and the characters felt real.

It's joining a small contingent of gay films that I'll actually be willing to sit through more than once without coercion (as yet, that list consists of Bent, Jeffrey, the Laramie Project, Psycho Beach Party and Big Eden

Slow News Day

So I pulled myself from my pit of apathy and sat through the Presidential Debates last night (of course, I recorded them so I could watch and pause at my leisure rather than sit through it start to finish). In a very odd paradox, they were both more boring than I expected them to be and less boring than I expected them to be. Perhaps I could clarify...

I expected a long-winded, circlical speaking and overly intellectual contribution from Kerry. Surprising me, he proved only to be long-winded (though by my count, Bush was the only one to ever exceed his allotted time limit). I was happy with how Kerry handled accusations of indecisiveness, and felt he did an excellent job of explaining and defending his position on the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism.

Bush was surprisingly better than I expected, though it's not hard to be good at speaking only one point--over and over and over and over again. After 90 minutes I get that Bush's camp wants me to think John Kerry is only a flip-flopper and will destroy America because of it. That really was the only straw he tried to grasp and hold on to for the entire debate--which is why it was more boring than I expected. More time was spent on accusing Kerry of being too indecisive, and on Kerry having to defend against this point, for the debate to be all that interesting (granted, there was a nice deal more done, but please, who can remember they talked about North Korea or nuclear proliferation when you think back on the giant monkey head going back to the flip-flop card, despite its inability to work in the debate?).

There are people I know who, when you have a debate/argument/discussion with them, no matter how carefully you word yourself, they just can't seem to respond to what is actually said (or more often typed). It's a major failing in our ability to hold discourse, and it's a major failing I saw in Bush's ability to debate last night.

All that said, though, I hold to my dreary prediction that it won't make a difference and Kerry won't be elected. This is a race that's clearly to be decided by the swing states and the voters who don't traditionally vote. The problem? Those voters weren't watching the debates, and they won't be watching the remaining debates. The majority of the LGBT population don't actually turn out for elections, and despite how heated a time this is for LGBT issues, I continue to see more and more apathy from members of the community than I would expect from reading the vocal minority in the news and in the HRC.

The stoned slackers in the Daily Show viewership sure weren't watching. They were toking up. Ignoring the innaccuracy of the Daily Show viewership being stoned slackers, the real stones slackers, wherever they are, weren't watching the debates, and are just as likely to not vote as they are every other election.

On a final note, I'm going to stop harping on the communities that don't traditionally vote, and aren't expected to vote this time, and harp on one last thing: Theresa Heinz-Kerry. Could she have looked any frumpier and frazzled? Can't someone in the Kerry camp buy this lady a smart, well-fitting suit?

Religiosity

I was (re)watching the "Inauguration, part 2" episode of "West Wing" today when I was reminded, by the show, of something that came to mind for me during my San Diego vacation back in July. A portion of the episode involved hotel Bibles, as does this particular post.

When we stayed at the Marriott, not only did it have a King James Bible, but it also had a Book of Mormon. I suppose I should google, I mean research, this...is the Marriott an LDS (Latter Day Saint, aka Mormon) run company? Perhaps just the Residence Inn offshoot? Perhaps just whomever was in charge of supplying the hotel Bibles? Maybe other hotel rooms had different religious texts (THAT would be keen in my book). My older friends may joke and say my ex knew i was going to be there and planted the book...

Anyhow, I've come to expect the inevitability of the hotel Bible, regardless of my lack of Christianity, it doesn't bother me. I've gotten used to it like I've gotten used to the Pledge of Allegiance (though I had a quiver when Lash first reported learning it). However, I was somewhat bothered by the placement of a Book of Mormon in my room. Regardless of my lapsed Mormonism, I thought it pushed the inevitable too much further.

Just once, I'd like to find a hotel room that is missing its Bible, and in its place has the Koran, the Torah or even the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Now that would be something.

Date Night

It's been a good long time since Lash and I were able to spend any time together one-on-one, so I decided to make Friday a father-son night and let Lash pick the doings. He picked going to a movie--cool. He picked Anacondas... well, he's my son and I love him and so we watched Anacondas.

One of the trailers was for Shaun of the Dead. Enjoyed the trailer though I thought it gave away a bit too much. Also had a trailer for Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The trailer we've been seeing on tv has had me deciding not to see the film in theaters; the trailer at the theater has me rethinking. The Lickers look awesome.

OK, Anacondas. The pluses: when the snakes are seen swimming in the water--really nice. When the snakes are moving so fast that you can't linger focus on them--really nice (the cgi is great, but the speed and frenetic chaos of snake strikes is caught better in the parts where you don't have lingering glimpses of the snakes. Plus, less snake equals more suspense and for a bad movie, it had decent suspense and more than a few instances of good "jump out of your seat" moments (I actually twitched once, and that NEVER happens) Lash watched the whole movie peeking through his fingers. The biggest plus: he loved it.

Minuses:
1. Every now and then, as background mood music, the composer put in a quick rattle. Anacondas are not rattle snakes.
2. Anacondas hunt in the water, not the trees.
3. Anacondas rarely attack humans, so multiple Anacondas going to town on humans is a bit odd, but able to be thrown away easy enough for the sake of the film.
4. Anacondas usually mate in the water, not on mud flats. While the mud was crucial to the film plot, since the anaconda will typically mate in water, our resident anaconda expert in the film should have said that instead of saying that they'd find the anacondas mating on a mud flat...
5. Perhaps most important: the plot takes place in Borneo, Malaysia. Anacondas live in South America. Malaysia is not in South America. Malaysia has no anacondas.
6. Lake Placid syndrome: too many people survived. And the end was far too predictable.

Shaun of the Dead

So, I've seen Shaun of the Dead (due out in theaters September 24th) and am very impressed.

Ever see one of those older, 80s zombie movie crapfests that are just too funny because they suck so much? Thankfully, not the case here. Shaun's funny in all the right ways--because it's a freaking comedy and the comedy of the movie works really well in this horror flick gone awry.

From the opening sequence in the Winchester (the pub he frequents), to the scene where he tries to convince his mom to let him rescue her and not step-dad, to the reality-sports footage at the end... the show never disappointed.

Zombies are definitely my favorite horror genre, and I'd been thinking I wouldn't see another good one until Romero's Land of the Dead comes out. Now, can't wait to see a less-grainy Shaun when it hits theaters in three weeks.

Definitely fabulous, and funny in a good way.

Out of Work

Well, as it turns out, students who are enrolled in fewer than 3 units a term (as I am, while on adjunct enrollment status) are not allowed to work for the University. Apparently, the fact that I worked for the University while adjunctly enrolled last semester was some sort of miraculous fluke. So now I have no job in the English Department (those poor Freshmen will have to learn how to write a sentence in high school now or something) and my boss in the Agriculture Department is trying to convince the Dept. to hire me as an independant contractor so that he doesn't have to replace me. One good thing from this: as an English Masters Candidate, it warms my heart to be treated as someone who is indespensible by the Ag. Dept. such that they'll try to loophole the system in hopes of not losing me. It's too bad my own departmental peers lack that level of confidence and loyalty.

Meanwhile, I dodged the Boy Scouts bullet with Lash again this past week. Quite evilly of me, I denied his Scouting request as partial punishment for his fighting at school and explained to him that Scouting would be something he has to prove himself responsible enough to be a part of and he'll have to show good behaviour from now until next recruitment drive before I'll consider it again.

May Day

My friend Drew's blog today reminded me that a couple weeks back I mentioned I would have some things to say about Bowling for Columbine and Elephant.

Of course, I don't really have as coherent a grip on what I wanted to say now as I did then. I remember one level of emotion--a small sense of peevedness over how America started to blow up over the evils of school shootings after Columbine, that it was a spark to light the flame of gun control debate for the coming decade or longer, as well it should be.

I graduated from high school in June of 1992, in a small California town named Marysville. Our sister and rival school was one called Lindhurst High. All but one of my closest friends in high school were Lindhurst High School graduates (including ex-rommates the Chrises).

On May 1st, 1992 Lindhurst High was taken hostage by a former student, who killed three students and one teacher and wounded many others. The female contingent of the Chrises was one of the hostages and to this day can't even sit through a film like Bowling for Columbine or Elephant. People I knew and loved were killed there, wounded physically or emotionally, or both.

I remember running the two miles from school to home when the news broke so I could try and reach my friends, to find them still alive and safe. We all cut school so frequently it was a good, though losing, bet that they wouldn't have even been there. That day was misery, and I wasn't even physically there. It profoundly changed me, changed my friends.

This was one of the many tragedies of my life, one of the sadder turning points for me ideologically. I'm glad the NRA never came here with Charleton Heston and held a rally after this happened, and I wouldn't have wanted the media in my face or my friends' faces, but sometimes it makes me feel like Americans didn't care about the tragedy of school shootings before Columbine, like the lives of my friends were somehow less, as were the lives of school shooting victims before Lindhurst and since pre-Columbine.

I don't understand how any rational mind could actually be against more strict gun control laws.

Detention

Today, Lash received detention for pushing another boy at his school (Rosedale Elementary). In no way do I condone Lash doing this, but this kid he pushed has been bullyinh him for more than a year, so I can understand where the frustration that caused it would come from. I am so effing tired of how frequently I see kids, victims of bullies, get in trouble when they finally lose their cool and retaliate, but I never see the bullies receiving the same treatment.

I've decided to write a letter to his school over this, though I expect there to be nothing good to come from it.


8-23-04

To Whom It May Concern:

In no way do I condone my son Lash pushing his classmate Marcos, nor do I condone any misconduct on his part and feel that the detention he is receiving is quite fair.

I do, however, wonder where the teachers, or playground attendants, were when Marcos provoked the pushing he received by shoving my son to the ground, and hope he is facing similar discipline. I wonder where the supervision is, where the safety of my child is, when, with increasing frequency, I pick Lash up from school sporting new bruises from the same two children who kick, punch and shove him on a nearly daily basis; or on the occasions I pick Lash up from school in clothes that have been torn by other children inappropriately laying their hands on him.

Late last Spring, I witnessed a girl choking my son on the playground before school. The playground attendant was less than ten feet away and wasn’t paying enough attention to notice or break it up. I made no fuss because she had told Lash it was a game and he believed her. Last week, one of his classmates punched him on the nose during recess. By his report, he told the playground attendant and nothing was done. I made no fuss because she told Lash it was an accident and he forgave her.

I applaud you in ensuring this other boy has a safe environment to learn in, and I’m disappointed in my son for resorting to a physical answer to the behaviour he receives from this other boy. I only wish someone would put the same amount of care into my own son’s safety for once, as I haven’t seen that occurring to date.

Jobs

My ex-roomate has this tumor in her foot that's been horrible to her for some months now. As she is a veteran of the good old US Army, she has health insurance through them (she has other insurance but it isn't as comprehensive AND if she uses it at all, the VA will cut all her benefits... gotta love their loyalty to their soldiers). It's taken them approx. 4-5 months to finally get her set up with a Dr.'s appointment about this TUMOR. And being as efficient as they are, rather than have her see an oncologist in town (or in 90-minute away Sacramento or Redding), they give her an appointment in Martinez (4 hours by car). Given the pain driving causes her, this distance is impossible for her, so her husband has to take off work to drive her. This leaves her needing someone to watch her two young children, pick them up from school, etc. Enter me.

I've nothing better going on Thursday (yesterday), so when she asks the favor on Tuesday, I happily agree to help out, especially given how ridiculous the US government is being about treating one of its veterans.

Fast forward to Wednesday. I've been waiting all summer for news of whether I'd have a teaching job again this year. I was approached about it in May, and have heard nothing since--to the point I've resigned myself to just continuing the TA job in the agriculture department (where the pay is actually better and the job is more stable). So Wednesday, just before the closing of business hours, I get ab E-MAIL from the head of my section of the English Dept. to officially offer me the job, and let me know I would need to be at a special meeting the following morning (Thursday) from nine to noon.

How preposterous is that? I've worked for the guy for two years before losing my job to budget cuts last year. He knows I can't just drop everything with zero notice, and has my home number. Why I had to get an e-mail when it was too late to even reply that day is beyond me.

So, as should be obvious, I had to reply that I wouldn't be at the meeting, as I would be busy caring for the young children of my ex-roomate on her ridiculously distant trip to the doctor. And so, I didn't go to the meeting. And so, I don't expect I'll actually have the job.

But wait, there's more. So now it's Thursday. The doctors know she's coming from Chico and they know how far Chico is. So they wait until a half hour before her appointment to call her cellphone and tell her they need to cancel her appointment because they only scheduled her for fifteen minutes and would actually need a half hour. Excuse me, but how fucked is that? They didn't check their logs early enough to save her from wsting eight hours on the road? They couldn't have squeezed her in (what's fifteen minutes more at a doctor visit)? So now she has to go through the whole ordeal all over again.


In other news, I hate spaghetti. Today on 30 Minute Meals Rachael Ray had a spaghetti with meatballs recipe that actually made me eager to try it out. That'll be sometime next week. Tonight is MY family-famous enchiladas.

Food Good

Like some people, I love watching Food TV. It's equal parts entertainment with equal parts fun in trying to replicate. Right now I'm really digging "Good Eats" and "30 Minute Meals." Not that big a fan of the FOOD on Good Eats yet, actually, but what makes it really watchable and cool for me is that the host explains the little details about things like the equipment that I never knew before. Rather than say I need to use a doible boiler, he says I need to use a double boiler, what a double boiler does, HOW to use a double boiler and why. It's really good for people like me who, being somewhat of an idiot savant of cooking before this, is really retarded as to the function of my cooking materials.

A ceramic mortar and pestle are best for grinding your own spices, by the way. Marble is too smoothe and too difficult to get good traction on the spice. Iron is great for texture, but too corrosive.

The best steak I've had:
The thickness you choose will determine the redness/wellness of the meat, so if you like a well done steak, go for something thinner (but not sandwich thin). If you like it bloody like I do, go for something at least a half inch thick. Experiment with the cut until you get the right one for you.

Start by putting some cooking oil on a plate (they suggest Canola. For something healthier, and nicer tasting, I go with extra virgin olive oil, or whatever olive oil is handy).

Preheat cast iron skillet on high (if you don't have a cast iron skillet, use any old skillet that will survive a trip inside your oven), and preheat your oven on 500 degrees farenheit.

Coat both sides of the steak with the oil from the plate. Coat sides of steak with salt and pepper to your taste (actually, I also replace this with steak seasoning. Most grocery stores have a few varieties, all usually sporting some combo of garlic, onion, pepper, salt, red pepper, sometimes cumin...again, try different kinds out and find the one that works best for you. I find it MUCH tastier than just salt and pepper, though just salt and pepper makes a really tasty steak here too).

Now that you have a wet and spicy steak, fry it in your skillet for 30 seconds, flip it for 30 more seconds, flip it and place the skillet inside the oven and cook for two mintues. Then flip the steak and cook it inside the oven for two minutes again. Then you're done.

This meal has a tendency to get very smoky, it's a result you should expect so ventilate well.

Garnish with whatever else you like. Sauteed mushrooms are good. Lately I've really been digging sauteed zucchini with almonds.

Go West

Last week, we took in a new foster kid, #B2. He's fairly nice and easier to deal with.

So I finally borrowed a friend's copy of West Wing seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and have been watching them (and hence not posting here). I avoided the show for quite some time, as the premise seemed very very uninteresting to me. Then, on one of my Fridays at the Chrises, I saw the episode where Ainsley first meets the President while dancing in her bathrobe... which, coincidentally enough, is now how far I've gotten in sequential viewing after borrowing the aforementioned disks. It's proven to be a much more enjoyable show than I'd ever thought it would be. Between it, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans and the Food Network (have I got a great steak recipe for you) I've finally decided to bite the bullet and return to being a television subscriber. Hoping to get on to Dish Network, where I can record my shows Tivo-like to watch at my leisure.