| The sun looks like it might come up today, it is start to try and peep through the clouds. The traffic was fairly light today, not entirely sure why, one always tries to dodge getting caught behind a bus and particularly a school bus, the buses don't have proper bus stops as cuttings into the sidewalk - all rather frustrating. Yesterday I took an alternative route home, 140th instead of 148th and I now remember why I don't take that route, the road narrows at 8th ave and there are invariable some asses who cut in, I hate line jumpers. Jasper was on top form when I got home, in fact so, on form that I took a video of him feeding himself! I was a little hesitant about giving him some of the things I gave him to eat, we ate some Duck Tureen, the usual smidge of pickled herring and his favorite, of the moment, pasta (fusilli) with parmesan cheese. The night was rounded out with my Beujolais favourite of the day!   | |
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| Indeed, it seems winter is 'actually' upon us, though last night was cold, when I awoke this morning, everything was dusted with a fine 1" of powder and though it looked like that was it for the day, as things developed eventually it started snowing with gusto this afternoon. My plans to go to The Darjeeling Limited last night were gazumped by KKL who decided libations were in order and accordingly we downed a couple of the black stuff before parting company. I then went on to see Enchanted, a positively delightful little mindless Disney thingamybob which I thoroughly enjoyed and may make the exception of being prepared to go and see again!! This morning I went to Greenlake and did a couple of rounds of the lake with a friend. Breakfast at the Bluwater Bistro ; a not half bad omellete though I have to say it lacked chives or capers or something.....not enough zing! The walk was fun, I developed a couple of blisters but they will mend in no time i am sure, chin got a bit cold though so at this time of the year it is important to take a scarf too. Max was on top form, well behaved, didnt get too excited by the other doggies at all. The drive back was a little tortuous, the snow was pelting pretty heavily and on the 520 visibility was a little obscured. I got home ok though, just in time for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) autumnthingto get going on her art smack down and tryst. Young JEBJ was on top form, i was feeding him snow today and he was so thoroughly thrilled by the whole thing that it was delightful. I am just now trying to teach him that it is SNOW dear boy, not RAIN! Curried/masala chicken thighs for dinner with pasta - was quite scrumptalicious rounded out with a delicious Rhone Red Parallele 45 2005 | |
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| So the boy and I had courgettes, broccoli, mushrooms and lamb fillet last night, he seemed to enjoy it well enough, his hair was crazy from the perspiration of his sleep. The mushrooms were sauteed in chicken fat - yum! I did the food in the correct order this time and the last step was the gravy, cream, green peppercorns, some herbs, salt and red wine. Since I used the the balance of that splendid Beaujolais in the cooking, I had to simply open another!
I looked at the baklava tray this morning and thought to myself, surely I didn't eat THAT many, amazing what will happen over a period of three or four days, or was it longer?
It is disappointing that they had to find some way to defile it by putting high fructose corn syrup in it, i mean it is supposed to be made from flour, butter, nuts and honey wtf did the corn syrup feature in that product list? All those other ingredients are cited as being in there anyway!
I also wonder at how they can honestly call this Kosher, i mean Kosher foods surely have their origins in many instances based on ethical and principled animal husbandry and agricultural practices. Corn syrup and it production is hardly responsible, and besides the current line of thinking is that along with hydrogenated vegetable oils, corn syrup is in everything and not good for you.
So, inspired by Sinbad's baklava (there's something in a name) I looked up kosher and "corn syrup" and here's what i found for passover.
"Under proper supervision, corn syrup can be kosher for Passover. We can permit some products made from an ingredient that itself would ordinarily be considered "chametz" or not kosher for Passover. The general rule was to prohibit corn syrup when it was uncertain whether the preparation of the corn syrup was done with the appropriate supervision. Secondly, rabbis could prohibit corn syrup, which is a sweetener, as there are other kosher for Passover sweeteners, including potato syrup and sugar. However, under the right circumstances, corn syrup can be kosher for Passover." This is altogether a disappointing response, I mean I don't like it. In fact, since Rain Creek Baking has an email address I am going to write and complain that they have defiled a perfectly good product by value engineering it into a frankenfood. I was inspired to reduce the temperature on the house thermostat, it was set to 70 and I put it down to 60, which was ok through the night however when I came into the kitchen this morning it was thoroughly uncomfortable; when I checked the actual ambient termperature it was 62 so I'd have had to wait a few more hours before it would have kicked the heating on again.
Nice experiment, no thanks, admittedly I only ran it back up to 68 but nonetheless, those 7 degrees made a difference. | |
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| So I succumbed and went out. Well I just got back from Gee's after having had dinner with Nagesh I have concluded that there is hope for us all! He is a nice chap but very particular and even more confused than I am, there was also some neuroses about going up and down hills in the car; very odd. I got to meet the babies today too which was fun, they are very roly poly pups though not spring chickens anymore. Gee dished up beans, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy and prefaced it with a delicious goat cheese, shitake mushroom, pomegranate salad. We drank way too much wine, well not really, one of the bottles was the splendid Moselland arsvitis Riesling kabinett 2006 from costco, a cracker for less than nine bucks, and a not half bad bottle too. Froze my nads off on the way home, it must be like well below freezing my muscles were so spasmed and my teeth chattering so much! I just pulled a couple of items from the wardrobe some shirts that are fraying on the collars and some trousers that are wearing thin as well as some knits that have shrunk in the dryer. A quick gander at Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor) and then I am off to be for beauty. | |
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| I didn't go in today, worked virtually. Or is that, virtually worked....? We were told yesteday that we were moving offices again, 4th time in 6 months, this time out to Woodinville. I couldn't be arsed to find the map, I will likely do it Friday. At any rate, there is apparently plenty of space and although no cafeteria the offices are well appointed. That said, working virtually worked today, there weren't any meetings and no-one pretty much was in office, the St Louis boys were all out of town. Brian called and had some questions which I answered, or was it an IM, I forget and then there was a volley of emails between he, myself and Rick. In the end we concluded it was all to be resolved through enhanced BP's , not something we want to have to handle programatically. I went to COSTCO changed out some items I bought and was really suprised to see that there were so few customers, odd, I thought there would be more. I picked up this splendid wine for less than ten bucks too and nearly polished the whole bottle off. Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages 2006 750ML - This brilliant garnet wine is bright and fresh, with ripe, supple crushed strawberry flavors underscored by zesty nuances of peppercorns, gentle tannins and a clean acidity, finishing on a succulent, refreshing note When i got home i realized I still had the Regal gift card from the previous week so I checked out what was on, online and determined that the only thing on, that I wanted to see, was HITMAN, with this guy Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47. Based on the computer game HITMAN, it was a disappointment. The film was filled with gratuitous violence and poor acting, the plot was obscure and confusing and some of the actors just altogether horrible. It would have been ok if there had been at least a little scenery but you basically only got some views of an orthodox church being damaged by a helicopter gunship and some views of the twin spires of Istanbul. If you have $7.50 to burn, go see it but don't say i didn't warn you. Olyphant is an interesting actor, he is only a couple of years younger than me, in the movie walks like a ramp model, appears to have skinny legs but well enough developed arm muscles. His shaved head is pretty decent looking but the whole sub theme of skinhead assasins with barcode tattoos, is well, just incredibly implausible. Especially when 5 of them are duking it out in a railway carriage with guns and swords. Olyphant could be the next Dirty Harry though, he has those Clint Eastwood looks and even that CE yawl. Eugene called whilst I was in the movies, I called him back and we had a natter for some time about the Zim situation, I told him I would see what I could find out, he would do the same. Harold emailed me, he has a dealer that may be prepared to do some $ deals, I need to find out more information first. | |
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