My dear friend Eugie Foster is celebrating the release of her new collection of short stories Returning My Sister's Face and Other Tales of Far Eastern Whimsy and Malice. Follow the link to her virtual launch party!

My basset-beagle mix is mad at me right now. He hates his allergy shots and I had to stick him 3 times today to give him his shot because he kept pulling away from the needle.

Yes, my dog is getting allergy shots. We are hoping that the shot course will ease the way he breaks out and gets staph infections all the time. He's mostly allergic to mold. And we have a basement in the house, so there is going to be mold of one sort or another.

The funny thing? Well, Linus is allergic to cats.

I look over my life as a 40 year old and see some tendencies that society, should the know about them, would frown upon...Like my obsession with the music of teenage female performers. Now, let me say that only one of the performers themselves actually offers me anything obsession worthy...the rest seem pretty bland as people. But they are putting out some music that really catches my attention and holds it...which is not what I'm getting from most of the rest of the musical world.

Singers like Avril Lavigne (I could make 1 really really great album from her 3) and groups like The Veronicas are doing innocuous pop, but it's innocuous pop that is fun and bold (for pop) and holds my interest. Add to that the slightly older Sara Bareilles, who IMO should win the Grammy for album of the year this year, as Little Voice was WAY better than anything else put out on a major label, and my musical taste has subverted from old singer/songwriters like James Taylor and Jim Croce to a younger set who has the concerns and desire that I share, even though I'm supposedly to old to really care about such things.

My very latest obsession is Julia Nunes. She's a college student going into her sophmore year who just decided last year that she was going to put out a CD (and she's putting out a second one at the end of this summer)and posts homemade videos of her singing her stuff on You Tube. She is 1) completely cool and I wish I could hang out with her and 2) very talented. While she doesn't always write the best lyrics in the world, she write very strong musical lines and she has some damned fine songs. Some of my favorite songs at the moment. Go watch her: http://www.youtube.com/user/jaaaaaaa. I have to say that one of the most endearing things about her is the joy that she gets from people enjoying what she is doing. She is genuinely floored that people actually like her stuff and deeply appreciative. Most artists I'm seeing in the world today could take a lesson from that. Buy her album off iTunes. Support her or someone like her. We need more of that.

I've been cooking a lot lately. If I were a good blogger, I'd take pictures and post them, while cooking. I'm not so I didn't. But I have discovered my new favorite coleslaw recipe this summer. It's tangy and tasty and creamy which is everything I like in a coleslaw.

Coleslaw, creamy dressing

1 head green cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup of shredded parsnip

Usually this works out to be about 4 or 5 small carrots and 1 large parsnip (that's the sizes I usually find in the grocery store).

3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 shallots minced
2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 teaspoons celery salt
salt and pepper to taste

mix the mayonnaise, sour cream, shallots, sugar, white vinegar, dijon, celery salt, salt, and pepper in a bowl and taste. Add more sugar if necessary.

Mix the cabbage, carrots, and parsnips into the dressing and taste. add more salt and pepper as needed.

This recipe provides about 8-10 servings.

Okay. Fine dining restaurants are expensive. It goes with the territory. However, I was a little shocked to see how much the tasting menu at Spiaggia was after drinks were added. Not that it wasn't good. But $500 for two (including tip), that was a little surprising.

If you've never had a tasting menu (often called a Pri Fixe menu at restaurants that only server tasting menus), it's a series of small portions over 7 to 11 courses.

Tonight we had 8 courses...

1) Buffalo Mozzerella anti-pasti. one with mushroom and fried sage, the other with imported Itallian tomatoes.
2) Savory doughnuts wrapped in proscuitto - one wrapped in San Danielle and the other wrapped in Parma.
3) Poached Dover Sole with some stuff on it.
4) Potato Gnocchi with parmesian
5) Risotto with saffron and marrow
6) Beef with lentils and 100 yr old balsamic vinegar
7) Three cheeses with condiments
8) Lemon Marmeletta

Okay, first let me say that there was nothing bad on this menu. I probably wouldn't eat the fish on a regular basis, but it was okay. The doughnuts were marvelous, and the risotto fantastic. Everything else was good, but I want a meal of just the doughnuts and the risotto. It comes with a level of contentment. However, I could eat more.

Candi had another seizure tonight. It's been 18 months, give or take, since her last one, which is good. And it's about 30 minutes past and she seems alright, if a little tired. But I had kind of hoped that she was done with seizures. They are hard on little dogs and make me feel stressed out, too.

Woot! Epic flight form and exalted with Cenarion Expedition for my druid.

That is all.

So, today we learned what many of us had suspected all along: everything the New England Patriots have done since 2000 is suspect and probably the result of cheating. So, why then did Roger Godell destroy the evidence? Will he be the commissioner that does what a strike almost did? Will Roger's protecting the now dirtiest coach in football history destroy the NFL? It should...

So, WHY are they giving Denise Richard's a reality show? If she wasn't talented enough to entertain me with her acting, why on earth should I be interested in her catty bitch fights with Charlie Sheen? Another piece to add to the long line of evidence that television executives still use mind altering substances on a daily basis for their decision making. No sober person would have done something this monumentally stupid.

So, it's 10 degrees with a -5 wind chill. But that's nothing compared to the silliness at my place of indentured servitude.

See, the mighty fortress of "major financial services" company has taken to a new practice - hiring people even more incompetent than the ones they had. Want a Unix admin? Hire some guy that pissed on a Linux server one time in college when he was drunk. And make sure his native language is Pashtun because we don't want him to actually learn anything.

Or, as an alternative, hire a batshit crazy drama queen (who actually happens to be female). She will demoralize the people who actually know what they are doing so much that all projects that are even supposed to take place on the same floor of the building as her will fail. Spectacularly.

So, they decided enough of that had happened. Which means that they need to catch up with the work that hasn't actually occured while the batshit crazy drama queen was working on 3rd level. This means that 3rd level is way behind and because 1st level is filled with Pashtun speaking Linux urinators (who are almost as worthless as batshit crazy drama queens), they have to raid the only team left that has useful members, 2nd level (I'm on 2nd level). Because if the other 2 teams can't get any work done, why should we? So, this is where I come into the story. 3rd level is calling. And they are calling me by name. Why? Well, see, the manager on 3rd level decided that she didn't really like the whole "hire stupid and crazy people so your projects utterly fail" approach that her predecessor took. It's hurting her performance reviews and keeping her from making executive vice president. So, she wants competent people who actually work (and so do the competent people on her team, that actually work. Both of them). So, the competent people on her team said, "Pick him. He works." Then they added, slyly, "And he knows this operating system that none of us know, which is holding up on of the objectives on your Annual Personnel Torture and Review sheet."

So, that's how I got tabbed to move to 3rd level, only months after being made the external team coordinator for going to meetings and telling people to kiss off (Yes there is actually such a position, but it has a company specific title that I won't reveal here because I need to keep my employment.) Now, if I were an internal employee at this company, I would have to be a black or asian woman to progress this quickly. But I'm a consultant, so it's just a matter of moving who's paying for my contract. So, I profess, I'm glad it's just about money. I hate internal politics and being a white male, I would always be on the short side of them.

I'm sad. The writers have ruined Boston Legal and it is no longer entertaining to watch.

Cheryl has Wayne Newton as a partner and he won't probably last past week 4.

Some obnoxious hip hop chicky is the leader on Dancing with the Stars, and I find her distasteful.

Two and Half Men was only 35% funny, and How I Met Your Mother, while hilarious, sometimes has trouble keeping it's momentum during the season.

To top it off, they are almost certainly killing Sara Sidle on CSI. This season's TV viewing is not appealing to me so far.

I still have a back ache from standing on that cement floor. Other than that, and needing to nag fosteronfilm to start a screenwriting competition and maybe try to get someone for a screen writing panel somewhere in the schedule, I have nothing else. It was sometimes fun, sometimes painful, and awfully drainging.

I met several really cool people, like Amanda, who was there with some of the filmmakers. She's amazing. And I'm her favorite. I just thought you should all know that.

And Larry Bagby, who, for having been the menacer of Xander for 2 seasons in Buffy, is an awfully small guy in person. But he's a really nice guy.

And Alicia Witt. Excuse me while I wipe the fanboi drool from my lip. I only got to say hello, but my is she gorgeous. And gracious. I'm sure she gets tired of meeting the ravening fans, but still.

I'm working on this strange little idea (which may die in vitro, but I'll work on it a little while longer), so I have a question for people.

Other than to stay alive, why do you eat?

you just think you'd have been better off staying in bed. The danger with a "help desk" job is that you will have more than you can possibly do. Now, if you remember, loafing slackers have a better work ethic than most of my "teammates". I mentioned this the last time I talked about work. Actually, that might be an insult to loafing slackers. Anyway, we got absolutely slammed to day. And in amongst all the problem tickets I had to deal with, there was actual work I had to do. Fortunately, this was on the test platform, so it wasn't as vital, because I screwed it all up. One fat fingered server name can just throw everything out of whack in an environment as large and interdependant as this one. On top of that, the work I was doing (patching servers) didn't go well and took way the hell longer than it was supposed to. All in all, I did the work of 4 admins today. And now I am tired, so I'm going to let the dogs out and then go to bed.

Well, it was late and I had to go to bed. But I guess I can tolerate the result of last nights finale. I didn't dislike Julianne (unlike both Kim and Maks) and Apollo was certainly one of the better stars. I did really dislike their freestyle, but I wasn't terribly impressed with any of the freestyles. Joey's was the best, but it wasn't great. And I maintain that Laila and Maks should have been eliminated last week, on the Maks factor alone. This season wasn't as good as last season, and I simply didn't find that many of the stars all that compelling.

Laila and Maks: The Paso? Ugh. It was irritating. 7
What a lame lame lame freestyle. The worst since Stacy & Tony in Season 2. 7


Apollo and Julianne: Their Rumba was okay. Len was right, it wasn't their best dance. That was last week. 9
I'm impressed he could do it. I didn't like it. 7


Joey and Kim: It started out good and then was stupid. 7
Well, certainly the best freestyle. By and far. 9


However none of the free styles were anywhere near the level of last year. Not even close.
I guess we are voting for Joey and Kim. I don't know.

America once again demonstrates that they don't know a fucking thing. Clearly, Laila and Maks were the worst dancers last night. And how could the keep the inferior Kim over the godess Cheryl??????????? I don't care how good Joey is. Kim is lesser.

And the judges anti-Cheryl bias is obscene.

Apollo and Julianna: Quickstep: WOW! WOW! Man, that was good. Best dance of the season. 10
The Cha Cha wasn't as good as their quickstep...Was it great? I don't think so, but the crowd sure did. 8.

Ian and Cheryl: Bitch, bitch, bitch. Oh my fucking God!!! Len gave them some praise! Course, it's the tango, so meh...8
Cute. Fun. I can't help comparing it to the first dance of the night. Is it a 10??? I don't know. 9.


Laila and Maks: Hmmm...I expected more. Their quickstep was the weakest dance tonight. 7. More evidence of bias. 30????
Okay, I actually like Laila and Maks' Cha Cha better than Appollo and Julianna's. 9, I guess.



Joey and Kim: I love the foxtrot. It's my favorite ballroom dance. But that wasn't the best foxtrot on the show. The judges will probably give it 30, but it doesn't deserve that. 8
I loved it. It was great. But I still can't give it a 10. 9.



First thought...Apollo and Julianne's Quickstep was SO good that I haven't seen anything else that deserved a 30 tonight. It was that good. Much as I wanted Ian and Cheryl to have their 30, nothing else was good enough (including Apollo and Julianne's 2nd dance). Not even Joey and Kim's Jive.
Did you note the first round scores tonight??? 3 30s? And who didn't get one? Why? They don't want Cheryl to win again.

Cheryl and Ian were saved FIRST. Finally! I'm a little surprised Joey and Kim were in the bottom 2 (I'd have put Laila and Maks there, mostly because I hate Maks). My joy is indescribably that Ian and Cheryl are going on. And it was time, Billy Ray. It was time.

ou.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

Not as easy as you might think.

1. Where is your cell phone?
Pocket

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend?
Asleep

3. Your hair?
Curly

4. Your mother?
Home

5. Your father?
Aged

6. Your favorite thing?
Unobtainable

7. Your dream last night?
Unremembered

8. Your favorite drink?
Booze.

9. Your dream car?
Unknown

10. The room you're in?
Tiring

11. Your ex?
Violent

12. Your fears?
Trapped

13. Where do you want to be in 10 years?
Obsessed

14. Who did you hang out with yesterday?
Dogs

15. What you're not?
attractive

16. Muffins?
Poppyseed.

17. One of your wish list items?
Willow

18. Where you grew up?
Home

19. The last thing you did?
WoW

20. What are you wearing?
Pants.

21. Your TV?
Off

22. Your pet?
Both

23. Your computer?
antequated

24. Your life?
Antequated

25. Your mood?
Dour

26. Missing?
Desire

28. Your car?
Dirty

29. Your work?
Tedious.

30. Your summer?
Hot

31. Like someone?
Awaiting

32. Your favorite color?
Green

33. When is the last time you laughed?
Single

34. Last time you cried?
Desperation

35. School?
Graduated.