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I finally made it to Disneyland yesterday! I got to help buzz lightyear save the galaxy! Disney was cool…more on that later.

…is that men don’t pee standing up, of course!

This guy is hilarious! This is either some sort of joke, or he is completely nuts. In any case, an interesting sermon on the KJV phrase: “I will destroy him that pisseth against the wall.”

Thanks to RLP for pointing out this one to me.

Whenever possible, I like going to new places. They could be new places like Antarctica (Which by the way, is where God wants me to go, maybe more on that later), or new places like a park down the road. Some are more exciting than others, of course. But most all of them are better than sitting around at home. So I’ve decided to start posting information about places to go. Or rather, places I’ve been. Places that maybe you might like to go, or, if you can’t, you can at least see pictures and know they exist.

The first place in what may (or may not) turn out to be a long series of places is way out in the desert, on the Mojave National Preserve. It is just a pile of sand, really, and we came across it completely by accident. It proved to be a fun challenge though, and I liked it enough to include it as the primary graphic on this web page. Yup. You’re already looking at it at the top of the page. For more information and pictures, continue on… (more…)

So it seems Trader Joe’s is opening a store in Richmond (Short Pump, I think). Believe me when I say, that this is good news for any one in Richmond! You will now be able to go to TJ’s and purchase all the ingredients to make one of my favorite quick dinners:

What you need:

- Chicken Breasts, sliced into strips
- Some green pepper, sliced
- Can of sliced bamboo shoots
- Trader Joe’s Red Thai Curry Sauce
- Optionally, some chopped up garlic

That’s it. Just stir fry the chicken in a Wok or other such skillet with some peanut oil (or oil of your choice, and I like to season the oil with garlic prior to adding the chicken). Stir fry the Veggies, put the chicken back in (if you ever took it out!) , pour the sauce over it, and let it heat through. In the mean time, I hope, you’ve been cooking some rice. I also hope you’ve gotten the water content just right, and have a neat-o rice scoop so you can get that perfect restaurant looking ball of sticky rice to serve with it.

Enjoy! I’ve become a recipe blog, I guess. I had to add a new category for it! I have about as much topic focus as I have readers around here, it seems.

Oh the things that cross my desktop…

I present to you:  Dancing Parakeet (Courtesy of the Guitar Girl, who was nice enough to point it out to me)

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.

-Patrick Young  

You actually purchase a Hummer H2.

My brother and I were recently discussing the H2 after arguing the manliness of our Toyota’s not-so-great 0 to 60 times. Turns out his corolla will do 0 to 60 in 8-9 seconds (depending on who you ask), and my Prius is more like 10 seconds. Ok. He wins, though neither is a speed demon. But back to the H2:

First of all, don’t get me wrong, the original hummer is quite possibly the toughest go anywhere vehicle ever produced (at least at that size). I’m not sure it is something I’d recommend for cruising around town in, but it has its place. The H2 on the other hand is a GMC Yukon frame, with a new shell slapped on to give it the look and name of a Hummer. At a base price of ~$56k and a fuel economy of about 10MPG, I think you pretty much have to be an idiot to buy this car. In particular, the kind of idiot that buys a flashy car with the name Hummer on it, so you can say “look at me, I have money to burn, and I’m an idiot!”. There are a lot of them around LA, I might add. Dustin pointed me to this great video illustrating the awesome off-road performance of the H2:

These have got to be the coolest looking primates ever! And, altruistic: They were willing in experiments to give crickets to a friend!

Image from Science

“I’m going back to belly dancing. I need to satisfy my soul. Forget my ass, my soul needs rejuvination.”

Mary and I have a weekend tradition: we go to Panera for lunch, she does her stats homework, I read or work on something else. Sometimes, maybe, I accidentally overhear other conversations going on. Like the quote above. There you have it: Belly dancing is great for the soul (if not for toning your behind). 

First off, I want everyone to know how lucky I am to be alive. I nearly died over the last few days. OK, maybe it was just the flu. But when you’re freezing and sweating profusely at the same time, you start to wonder. I’m feeling better today though, and got back to work finally.

Secondly, Happy Valentine’s day, or singles awareness day, or hallmark’s “sucker the poor insecure mate into buying their significant other silly things day!” However you choose to look at it. I won’t even be seeing the girl tomorrow. But Friday we are going to dinner and to see a play at the Getty Center. The only downer is that the show is in an outdoor (greek style) theater, and even though it has been really warm, it now seems to be getting colder. Ahh well. And Mary: just so we’re clear, I won’t be buying you any silly stuffed bears or heart shaped boxes of chocolates. I won’t completely rule out flowers though…;).

Finally, I will leave you this evening with this clip from the Daily Show last night. I am really, really glad that it is becoming clear that Huckabee has no chance for the nomination. I am a bit saddened though that he was able to get as far as he did. But McCain is a republican I can definitely live with. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to vote for either Obama or Clinton. But if McCain wins, I won’t feel like I need to leave the country!