No Chaser

Bring on Spring Pasta

Last night, I made a really tasty and super easy pasta.  Here's how. 

Boil some penne and throw in bite-size pieces of asparagus at the last minute, drain.

Heat some olive oil in a pan (in this case I used the awesome new pan Nellicious gave me.  Thanks Nellie!).

Add some chopped garlic and sauté until soft.  Throw in the pasta and asparagus along with some smoked salmon and butter and flip it about in the pan for minute or two. 

Remove from heat.  Add salt, pepper and lemon juice.  Stir.  Serve.  Garnish with Asiago.

Totally satisfies your salt craving.  If you are scared of salt, you could use fresh salmon and/or not add salt or Asiago.

Sorry, no photo.  I ate it up too quickly.

posted by: NoChaser at April 30, 2008 14:42 | link | comments (2) |

Yay! Sun sighting!

Little Miss Sunshine is visiting the state of rain, and we are all so delighted to have her here. 

Last night we went out for dinner.  I wore my Volcom cords.  She was wearing full skater gear as usual.  We talked about girls.  We ordered beer.  We got carded.  It was rad.  I was stoked.

I want to congratulate my dear friend on two recent accomplishments. 

First, she just finished her Masters with a very fine thesis.  Whoop!  Girl has some brains on her.

Second, she has gone from someone who could do only about 60 sit-ups to someone who does 600 sit-ups every other effing day.  We calculated this at 22,200 sit-ups in the last two-and-a-half months.  You should see her freaking abs. 

And, I'll tell you something else.  She is now ready to kick some serious ass both physically and verbally.  Do not mess with Little Miss.  Shout!

posted by: NoChaser at April 24, 2008 11:46 | link | comments |

Two things I like

Thing One:  Good-Humored Bitching

I was reminded of the importance of including in one's life the utter joy of some really smart, funny bitching now and then.  I'm not talking about whiny commiserating or ultra-negative the-world-is-shit misanthropic ranting although I suppose these have their place. 

I am talking about what the Sandlot Poet and I got up to over good Belgian beer on Wednesday and what Random Girl and I spent much of our office hours in grad school doing.  Just a well-considered cultural, institutional, or social critique filled with hysterical insight and likely solutions, none of which will ever be enacted because, sadly, we do not run the world.

Thing Two:  Volcom Pants

My first pair of Volcom pants were purchased from a thrift store about five years ago.  They were very plain, grey duck canvas chinos that fit me perfectly.  Since then, Volcom has branched out, and I have purchased three more pairs of their pants, all of which fit me perfectly. 

The mens pants are made for slender skaterboy types and are quite stylish.  I am currently wearing my favorite pair, slate blue cords.  I heart these pants.  I also happen to love that their slogan is "Youth against Establishment."

posted by: NoChaser at April 18, 2008 14:13 | link | comments (1) |

When honesty pays

You know as well as I do that honesty does not always pay, at least financially, but yesterday, for me, it did.

I was at my local market, trying to buy some salmon for dinner.  They had three crappy tail pieces of previously frozen Coho for $14.99/lb. that looked pretty dessicated.  They had lots of big moist fresh wild-caught filets of Blackmouth for $23.99.

I decided that since I had my 10% off coupon, I'd just go for the good stuff.  When the nice butcher wrapped up my fish and handed it to me, I noticed he had charged me the Coho price. 

I handed it back and said, "Oh, you charged me the wrong price.  You charged me too little."

He looked at it, shrugged, smiled and handed it back to me, saying, "Honesty's got to count for something."

So, I got a nice chunk of $24 dollar salmon for $15 + 10% off.  I was good, and so was that fish.

posted by: NoChaser at April 11, 2008 11:44 | link | comments |

Stripes Week

Apparently, this is vertically striped sleeves sweater week for me.  I realized this morning that today is the third day in a row that I am wearing such a sweater. 

I didn't even know I had so many.  Sadly, I have only three. 

Tomorrow, I will have to wear a vertically striped sleeves sweatshirt, which now that I think of it, I believe I wore on Sunday. 

How will I manage to keep it up through Saturday?  I may have to go shopping.

posted by: NoChaser at April 09, 2008 10:36 | link | comments (2) |

Cleaning 101

Even though I have a job, I really want to be a librarian, so I have continued to cruise job sites.

Today, I found an internship -- to prepare science-based content for the website and establish a long-term management plan for a large archive of scientific data and information -- with the Soap and Detergent Association.  Who knew?

Their domain name is kind of awesome.

posted by: NoChaser at April 02, 2008 15:18 | link | comments |

Tooth Extraction

Sucks.

It all begins with shots of novocaine, including a truly heinous one right into the roof of your mouth.  You then endure 45-50 minutes of someone yanking at your tooth with various sets of glorified pliers and other prying devices.  You can feel the tooth pulling away from the gum, you can feel your sinuses moving, you can hear the bone cracking.  You also are treated to the dentist scurrying back and forth between you and her instrument table, a vision that evokes with surprising precision the torture scene in Brazil.

The next day you have a freakish large hole in your gums and feel as if you've been punched in the face.  Fortunately, there is Vicodin.  There is also the best possible excuse to eat a lot of ice cream.

posted by: NoChaser at April 01, 2008 13:15 | link | comments (4) |