I settled finally after my day to write my post, and low and behold I am two minutes late... it is two minutes after midnight and I have technically missed a day of posts.
The heavy disappointment that I have for myself at this very moment weighs heavy upon my shoulders as the world rests upon the shoulders of Atlas, as a laden diaper weighs heavy on a child learning to walk. I am filled with shame and shit... I have nothing to write... I ramble at this point for the mere fact that I can... and will.
I don’t know if you knew this…
But,
- The Office is not funny. Not at all.
- Cap’n Crunch shreds the roof of my mouth.
- It’s important you be good looking, otherwise I don’t listen to you.
- Coffee is the only thing that I truly desire in life and that is a lie.
- Kilgore Trout as a character truly comes alive in Timequake.
- PBR is my favorite shit beer.
- When I ride my bicycle, it’s the only time I shut off my brain.
- Confession of sins is not for god, it’s for you.
- Hollywood is broken and someone needs to call the repair man.
- The greatest fool in the world is most often me.
- Honey is the only food product not issued an expiration date
- I can whistle the sound of a cricket.
- The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
- Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head.
So I will do that... I will do just that and rest my weary shoulders on the bed, I will relax my legs and drift off to sleep... leaving alone my thoughts for the very next day.
Oh and here is some pictures of my bowl from the glass blowing post, I just got it back after its gradual cooling.
* now it is 25 minutes past. should I change the title to 25 minutes late or does 2 minutes late have the kind of appeal to have gotten you to read this far?
Fuck who am I kidding? No one has read this far... I would be impressed if you made it to the first photo.
Seriously if you have read this far, let me know I will ask for your address and mail you a lollipop. seriously. try me.
your favorite flavor.
all you have to do is tell me that you read this far.
I just got home from another hellish day at work, but yes if you asked me I would tell you I loved every minute of it. I do stink something awful though... which puts a damper on fun of any kind since I am so vain. Despite the fact that I stink, and despite the fact that I am exhausted with only hours until I get to do it again, I am energized...
Why am I energized?
I am energized because I came home tonight to find that today alone I had nearly 1,000 views on this blog... I came home to comments and emails on a variety of posts. I came home and felt like I am not shouting into the shadows and got to respond to every single one of them... pure joy.
Thank You !
Thank you to all of you whom have stopped by and read my rambling.
And my wolf- girl... you have me thinking about what you wrote to me tonight, and I want to answer accurately... so a message back will be coming soon... I'm just still chewing on what you said.
THANK YOU EVERYONE... KEEP COMING BACK!
Every time that I think that my life has taken every possible twist and turn that it could, that every possible "What the Fuck!" moment has occurred... within seconds I am surprised.
Monday's for me at the restaurant are a long day. I arrive at the ass end of a four mile ride round about 9am, I work through lunch, and I work through dinner. When the day is all said and done it is about 13 hours. A thirteen hour day isn't much compared to nurses, doctors, cops and firefighters... but try and tell my lower back that. It still hurts no matter what kind of talking to you give it.
Today being Monday it was going to be that kind of long ass, hot, don't cut yourself, concentrate so you don't make a stupid mistake kind of day... and it was sucking hard. I invited someone just to look at them in the dining room who didn't come... so that potential highlight was gone before it ever came... but in general the entire day was a disaster. The kitchen was unprepared for the onslaught that we would receive, the front of the house was equally unprepared, but received a much more dismal blow to there day.
A particular server... a waiter decided it would be a good idea to do Heroin in the bathroom during his shift. Any of you who have any exposure to heroin personally or through witness accounts know that it has serious outcomes on the user, including but not limited to blanking out completely, mumbling incoherently and "nodding off". This particular server was "nodding off" at his tables.
He was promptly fired.
He spent the rest of the night on the rear loading dock crying, not able to understand why he was fired. He did this for several hours. While the rest of the restaurant was being handed their asses by a fuck ton of people filing through the door, this fucking needler was crying, waiting for someone to give him bus fair because he got fired before he got any tips.
Worthless...
I am not perfect... I have taken some poor roads in my life. Several poor roads, and stayed on them a foolish amount of time... but fuck... when I am getting my ass beat on the line... and I get 90 seconds for a cigarette somewhere in there... don't be outside asking for change... because making the dumpster your new bed starts looking really good to me at that point.
So I went and took a glass blowing class today. Truth be told it wasn't so much of a class as it was a place where for the same amount of money you would spend on a glass blown object you get to make it yourself and keep it. It turns out that this practice of blowing glass is ridiculously old. As a novel glass forming technique created in the middle of the last
century B.C., glassblowing exploited a working property of glass which
was previously unknown to the glass workers – inflation. Inflation
refers to the expansion of a molten blob of glass by introducing a
small amount of air to it. This property is based on the liquid
structure of glass where the atoms are held together by strong chemical
bonds in a disordered and random network,therefore molten glass is viscous enough to be blown and gradually hardens as it loses heat.
Wow!!! I am exhausted from that explanation of glass blowing that I copied and then pasted from Wikipedia. I myself have only a slight idea of how it is done at this point, and very little idea of why. I can tell you this though, that for the many years that it has been done, it has been mastered into a fine art. Some of the things these artists make destroy any image of glass blowing that you might have gotten while wandering Pier 1 for something "unique" for your home. The folks that took the time to let us get our hands dirty blowing glass are artists of a dangerous craft.
Enough of all that, here are some pictures.
Once the bowl that I made is done cooling, I will be sure to post a picture of it. It should only be a couple of days. In the mean time check out what these guys do, and click the link.
Did you think you were awesome?
... because compared to these guys you are not.
sorry to be the one who delivers you a whole bucket of truth.
Last night I headed out sometime around 7:30, to go take a bike ride with a girl and about 100 other people. We both arrived a little early. A bit of light conversation about a hatred for recumbent bicycles and a ," hey do have a light?". It became evident early on in the ride once we got going that we were both too cool to hang with all the hipsters and would much rather enjoy each others company and she took on a casual bicycle tour of downtown Tucson's slightly hidden city. Two hours went by before we truly realized how long we had been at it, and we went in pursuit of a Guinness followed by a few one dollar Pabst Blue Ribbon.
I swear to god I have never been in such a nerdy conversation about cheese before.
To be immediately followed by a talk of Star Wars.
Stepping outside for a cigarette and running into people we didn't want to see or who's names were forgotten.
Creepy guys, grumpy girls and a fella who got out of jail because he had M.R.S.A.
Self control was more difficult to hold onto with each passing beer and we agreed to spend a little more time together if for no other reason than we enjoyed it, and we got to say awesome a lot and high five things both alive and inanimate. Things took an unexpected curve here while banking into a turn.
Our tires rubbed, her handlebars jerked to one side and she became superman flying toward the intersection over and tangled up in her bike. I had never seen anyone fall so beautifully, it was slow motion grace... it was flesh rubbing asphalt with her arms protecting her face.
She jumps up, I jump off my bike... and we begin inspecting her body as I repeat over and over, "I am so sorry." and " are you okay? She insists that she is fine, but I spot the blood before she does. A nerd carries an extra shirt in his bag, and this time that nerd was me and that nerd started wiping away blood to investigate.
I straightened her handlebars. I rode slow along side her as we made our way to her home. I watched her cry as we cleaned out all of her wounds, and the more we looked the more of them we found. This graceful artist of the fall was suffering the end result of my slip up. This touch chick ( that you don't call babe ) made certain that I didn't sleep with my socks on. This tough chick moaned every time she moved in her sleep.
A wonderful and simple bike ride that could have become very quickly a horrible night, was in fact a time I am glad that I had, and I think that she thinks the same, although I bet she could have done without the cuts, abrasions, road rash, bruises and the pain.
So as of late I have been riding a minimum of forty miles a week, this is only for the purpose of getting back and forth to work, and does not include social occasions or just getting out on my bike. I ride down a number of very active streets and the more I ride, the more likely it is that I could be hit.
I have been hit three times in my life, and all just for being stupid and or daring. Once it was because I spotted a pretty hot girl and did something foolish to look cool. I have not been hit recently. I have lights, and safety equipment to get around, so even if I was hit, I wouldn't suffer as I have in the past.
Even though I am lit up like a Christmas tree I still am very selective about the rules I will follow.
I think stop signs and red lights are a mere suggestion.
I don't' always stay in the bike lane.
I have since moving to Tucson put a dent in someones fender who cut me off. Swift kick, not with my head.
I do however toss up a thank you wave to those that let me through.
I do behave when I see a cop.
I do not challenge a bus. Public transportation or otherwise.
I am safer but god damn if I am not still better than you fatties driving your car to the corner market for your twinkies.
I am by no means a traditionalist when it comes to food, I do silly things in the kitchen and make weird combinations. The fact that I make meatloaf in a muffin pan to have the end product of meat muffins is one of many examples. There are certain things about food that bother me, there are approaches that are taken by restaurants to save a few bucks that trouble me. The most recent example of this being that a certain restaurant while serving Osso Bucco is producing their product with a pork shank. Traditionally this meal is made from a veal shank, and anyone who has both pork and veal knows that there is a huge difference in the product as well as a huge difference in the price. I am very aware of this and will spend the extra money for a special product, some will not and it makes me sad.
Today I will be making Osso Bucco, I will not be adhering to any tradition either, but I will not be sinking to the level to use pork. Today's Osso Bucco will be made with lamb shank, and while it may be slightly smaller than a pork shank, the end product is unforgettable.
That all being said lets start with the basics. What is Osso Bucco? Osso Bucco is a dish whose origins are traced back to Milan and is simply braised veal shanks. Usually, osso buco is made without tomatoes (these being unknown in Milan until the late 19th century). It is often served over a basic saffron risotto. The name itself loosely translated means "hole bone", this because the marrow of the bone is part of the appeal of this dish. I personally will be varying away from tradition on a few points in that I will be using tomato and will not be cutting the bones, but rather serving the whole shank. Why am I doing this? Because I fucking want to.
Okay, Lets get started.
We are going to get started with a mirepoix. Usually it is 1 part carrot, 1 part celery and 2 part onion, I have made a more even mixture as it will also be mixed with copious amounts of garlic and a little treat I use for braising certain meats, lemon zest.
You will also note the introduction of beer, this is not used in any part of the cooking process other than to satisfy me.
Once all of these things are in place, chopped up and ready to go, the next thing that I do is take my lamb shanks, and remove a large amount of the silver skin.
Once that trite and menial task is completed, it is time to finally introduce fire and sear our lamb. Once they are seared set them aside saving the remaining butter to sweat your vegetables.
You will want your lamb browned, to achieve this be sure to lightly coat them in flour and sear for roughly three minutes per side. You will want them to look like this.
You will notice in the background a pot of potatoes, if you are interested in my recipe for "Champ" (traditional Irish potatoes) or for my not yet famous "burnt asparagus" drop me an email and I will talk you through it. I almost forgot to put on my Alton Brown glasses, I can't lecture on food without them.
Okay, time to move forward, and time to get cooking. Once we sweat our veggies, we add a hearty spoonful of tomato paste. To this mixture we also add about a cup of white wine ( any white will do ) and about 2 cups of chicken stock. We want to add our meat back to the liquid, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover.
Now we have to wait about 90 minutes. Set the timer, grab a beer and rotate the shanks every 15 to 20 minutes, adding chicken stock as needed. You want to make sure the liquid is nearly 3/4 of the way up the shanks at all times.
You will notice the meat start to pull back from the bone at this point, that is what you are looking for, there will soon appear to be more bone than meat... this is misleading. By using a moist heat method such as braising the meat is still relatively intact, but much more tender than if you had merely roasted it.
*side note : at about 30 minutes left on the lamb I am now thinking about my sides, not that there is much to think about since I am braising.
I mash the potatoes and whip in massive amounts of butter and heavy cream while burning the asparagus and garlic completely on purpose only to revive it with some wine and lemon juice. Now dinner is ready, I call together the house mates, the dog comes along dutifully begging and we eat.
Lamb Osso Bucco, with Champ and "burnt apsparagus".
... and cordelia liked it too...
