Spiders - oh MY!

This is my WORST FEAR.

Check it out and get your earplugs out!

~GAC

FINALS TIME

Finals are upon me now and I've been studying every day since Friday. The library and I are very close friends, one desk in particular. I have my earplugs, iPod (IB replaced his this weekend w/ a 30 gig and now it makes me want to get an 80 gig since mine is 3.5 years old and only holds 10 gig. I have at least four times more music than that - but I digress), water, iced coffee, Vaseline (don't ask) and various study outlines.

My first exam is Monday, next is Tuesday, and the last one is Thursday. I'm getting a little stressed about their timing, but what can you do?

I also have a project due by June 6th but I'm not going to worry about that until finals are over. How hard can the project be? Probably very hard.

No news of note to report - just more grey hair by the minute.

~GAC

B.B. King

I've been listening to B.B. King's Live at Cook County album while doing my homework - I would definitely spend some time in jail if I was guaranteed a concert like that while I was doing time.

Check it out immediately - get it at iTunes ASAP (or if you're IB - just ask me for a copy)>

~GAC

The Declaration of Independence

Just got "The Declaration of Independence - A Global History" by David Armitage from the library. I can't wait to start reading it. He's included several D of I's from countries that have created their own since Jefferson worked his magic. Ever see the Disney movie "Ben and Me?" It's about a mouse who was the real genius behind Franklin. He also apparently helped Jefferson pen those famous D of I words. Cute, real cute.

Ok, I went from an actual Harvard history professor's scholarly book to writing about a Disney mouse. Time for a beer.

~GAC

Google Pedometer

Wow - I just found the coolest website - the Google Pedometer. Check it out - with a little practice, you can plot your running routes all over whatever city, village, or shire you happen to live in. I just started running again and I surprised myself and did about 4.6 miles the other day - it took 45 minutes, but right now I'm just working on being able to run consistently for at least 30 minutes and not worry about how much time it takes me.

And to think in high school when I was on the cross country team, I was regularly running 3 mile courses around 19-20 minutes or so. Oh, those were the days.

The site is great for non-runners too - wanna see how much distance you cover walking back and forth to work/school? Find out at the Google Pedometer!

School is kicking in its last month and AaRF will be spending some time at his country villa so that I can pretty much live in the library all of April. Fun.

~GAC

TEDTalks

I so want to go to TED! Check out this clip from 2006:


~GAC

The Joy of Cooking

I made a great chickpea curry out of my new copy of The Joy of Cooking. Innocent Bystander presented me with the copy on Valentine's Day.

Appropriately, Jonathan Beecher Field wrote an article about The Joy of Cooking for Salon.com today. Check it out - he speaks of internet recipe sites v. good old fashioned cookbooks.

After making the curry from the book last night, I'm on the cookbook camp, but man, I've made some wonderful recipes from epicurious.com as well. Field's point of static recipes is fantastic though - I write in my cookbooks and no matter how many time I look up a particular recipe, it never does change, but when I enter something into Google to look for a recipe, I'm lucky if I can figure out which one to make.

Oh, things are so tough.

~GAC

New England Snow

After getting up early this morning and bringing AArF outside, I put on a pot of coffee and took some time to enjoy watching the snow fall from my third floor apartment windows. It's now 10.30 AM and it's STILL snowing! Probably about an inch has accumulated but it probably won't stay.

I'm going to do more schoolwork in a bit, but the snow is so pretty, it's hard to concentrate. I wish Innocent Bystander was here with me enjoying it as well, but alas, someone has to make the donuts! I wonder if it's snowing downtown as well, or if it's just raining.

On another note (and no pun intended) I took the Ken Burns series JAZZ from the library the other day and have watched two of the ten episodes. AMAZING. I purchased the book from the series a few years ago and got about 1/3 of the way through - something I always wanted to get back to but never think of it. As I was watching an episode last night, I decided to keep a list of musicians whom I would like to add to my music collection. Later, I jumped online and ordered up a bunch of CDs from the library. I can't wait for them all to come in!

Stay warm...

~GAC

Valentine Owl, Part Deux

The roomie and I went over to the little birthday girl's house to give have dinner with her parents (see recipe below for a yummy twist on lasagna) and to give her the crocheted owl I made for her. After dinner, I told her to go into my green canvas bag and get the pink thing out of it. She proceeded to say, "hoot hoot." and look generally excited about it. Until AArF tipped her off that there was something inside the owl (goldfish crackers). Once she unzipped the owl, she pulled out the crackers, and immediately replaced the owl in my canvas bag. She was thrilled over the crackers, and everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

Kids. Makes me want to have five.

Anyway, here's the recipe from Rachel Ray. Allot more than 30 minutes and serve with a simple green salad. To compliment the lemon found in the ricotta, I served the salad with a quick lemon vinaigrette - (1/2 c lemon juice, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 2t. sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 c olive oil).

Spinach Artichoke Ravioli Lasagna

• 1 (10-ounce) packages chopped frozen spinach
• 1/4 stick butter
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 quart milk
• Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• Salt and pepper
• 3 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 packages large fresh ravioli cheese, wild mushroom or spinach stuffed varieties
• 2 (15-ounce) cans artichoke hearts in water, drained and thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for pasta.

Place oven rack in middle of oven and preheat broiler or oven to 425 degrees F.

Defrost the spinach in the microwave for 10 minutes on high.

While spinach defrosts, heat a medium sauce pot over medium heat. Cut butter into small pieces and melt. Whisk in flour and cook a minute or 2 then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a bubble, as it begins to thicken, drop heat to low and season it with nutmeg, salt and pepper, to your taste.

Combine ricotta cheese, a little salt and pepper, lemon zest and garlic in a bowl.

Cook pasta to al dente, 5 to 6 minutes in salted water.

Remove spinach from the microwave and wring it completely dry in a kitchen towel. Open the towel and separate the spinach with your fingers. Pile up the sliced artichokes on your cutting board.

Drain pasta well. Do not let pasta sit on top of each other or it will harden into a solid mess! Yes, I nearly learned the hard way. Ladle just enough white sauce in the bottom of a lasagna dish to lightly coat it. Top with 1/3 of the pasta. Top the pasta with a layer of half of the ricotta cheese dotted with half of the spinach and artichokes. Thinly cover the veggies with more white sauce then top liberally with grated cheese. Repeat these layers then top your lasagna with the remaining 1/3 of the cooked ravioli, the last of the white sauce and some grated cheese.

Place under hot broiler or into a preheated 425 degree F oven until sauce browns and bubbles, 3 minutes

Don't skip the nutmeg. It really makes the dish. After ladling the last of the cream sauce over the ravioli, I sprinkled more of it on top. It looks really pretty and gives it a distinctive taste.

Enjoy!
~GAC

Facmee & Diaz

My professional responsibility professor asked us to find any outrageous attorney ads and to forward them along to her. I found this parody and it really cracked me up. This is just like a real one!

AArF is Bad-Ass Now

Some might think that AArF has run off to join the local pirate union, but really, it's just a toxic gas warning for a dog who is quite deserving of it.

I made the sweater using the same basic shape as his other one and found the chart for the Jolly Roger on the Bernat website. I just used the chart and not the whole pattern.

Apparently this is his modeling spot as you can see from the last sweater picture.

Enjoy!

~GAC

There's Nothing More Useless...

...than a dollar coin.

Check it out:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/brother-would-you-take-a-dollar-coin-please/

Volunteering at WBUR

Since I'm pretty much broke (but usually can scrape together a few dollars to buy a skein of yarn or two) I decided to donate my time to WBUR - my favorite radio station (possibly ever). I got up at 5.00 to be there for 6.45 and spent three hours answering a few phone calls for people who donated $150 to send Winston roses to a Valentine of their choice. I received a dozen white Winston roses from Innocent Bystander as his company sent them to him in sympathy after his father passed away. IB told my mother he didn't want to be mistaken for one of the Fab Five, so he thought the roses would look better in my apartment. He also deftly asked if that means he was off the hook for flowers on Valentine's Day.

Anyway, I met some very nice volunteers at WBUR and one in particular, whose daughter is thinking about signing up for the hell we folks call law school. I told her that I would be happy having her come to a couple of classes with me to see what it was like. I hope her daughter takes me up on the offer.

After picking up a few of the free books that the station is regularly bombarded with, I took a tour of the studios to see where the magic really happens. I stood in the Car Talk studio, saw Tom Ashbrook, and talked with Bob Oaks, whose voice is the first I hear just about every morning.

When I departed, I felt really good about volunteering and I think I'll be back. Three amusing things:
1. A volunteer was very concerned about not knowing she had to memorize the military alphabet when repeating spellings of names back to callers - it was explained to her that any phonetic list she came up with would be fine;
2. A man asked me to have the gift card on the roses read, "to Little Bunny from Big Bunny;" and
3. On my way out of the parking lot, one of my fellow volunteers was in the garage with his guitar out and proceeded to serenade me with a song he had just written a few days before. Apparently the acoustics were really good in the garage - something I know nothing about.

This weekend I've been very productive. I installed shelves in a cubby corner in my room, which now houses photos, old Martha Stewart Living magazines, a few photography and history books, and of course, my acrylic yarn stash for all of the cute little crochet creatures I plan to make (someday). I also did a bunch of homework, so my Monday won't be a complete cram session, and I finished up AArF's third sweater. The second one I am angry at so I've set it aside and won't look at it. I'll post a picture of this bad-ass sweater tomorrow. I know AArF feels like quite a toughy in it!

The last productive thing I did before Brothers and Sisters took me over, was to make Banana Coconut muffins from Epicurious.com. I'm going to get up extra early tomorrow morning and bring some to Innocent Bystander before he leaves for his first day back at work. I hope he likes them! Here's the recipe:

Banana Coconut Muffins

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup regular - next time I'm going to use all whole wheat flour)
2-3 Tablespoons ground flax seed - again - totally optional - something I decided to add in b/c my mother got me on a flax seed kick (I used my coffee grinder to grind up the seeds) - a T in my oatmeal every morning!
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (3/4 cup)
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar (Next time I'm going to cut down on the sugar and maybe use light brown instead)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut Special equipment: a muffin tin with 8 (1/2-cup) muffin cups; paper liners - NB - I used slightly smaller muffin cups and got one dozen - also I just sprayed the tins with Pam as I couldn't for the life of me find my paper liners.

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Line muffin cups with liners.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and 1/2 cup coconut in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened.

Divide batter among lined muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup coconut. Bake until muffins are puffed and golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffins to a rack and cool slightly.

All I'm going to say is that these are awesome and the coconut toasts quite perfectly on top of the muffins. Forget banana bread! This is the way to go!

The girls are coming over for 24 tomorrow night - we have decided on homemade pizza. Should be yummy!

Until Next Time,
~GAC

ps. Support your local public radio station - and law school student.

24

Two hours of 24 next week - 8-10 pm. A few friends are coming over and the roommate and I are trying to figure out a Bauer worthy menu to serve them.

Let's see what happens!

Valentine Owl

Made this for a soon to be two-year-old (on Valentine's Day).

A girl can't start too early with her first purse! I got the pattern from Ana Paula - check it out!

~GAC

President Bush's Interview on NPR

Check it out - I can't believe he had such an extended interview with Juan Williams:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7056082

This link will bring you to both the transcript and audio of the interview.

One of my favorite quotes: "I think that the vice president is a person reflecting a half-glass-full mentality." What?

Another Music List - This Time of My Own Making

Here's a mix I created since I wanted to send Innocent Bystander off with a CD - let's see what he thinks. I kinda like it.

1. Nicotine and Gravy - Beck
2. All We Have Is Now - The Flaming Lips
3. Waltz #2 (XO) - Elliot Smith
4. One by One - Wilco
5. Ball and Biscuit - The White Stripes
6. Stickshifts and Safety Belts - Cake
7. Wave of Mutilation - The Pixies
8. Judy and the Dream of Horses - Belle and Sebastian
9. The Sounds of Science - The Beastie Boys
10. All The Love In the World - Nine Inch Nails
11. Yesterday Threw Everything at Me - Athlete
12. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
13. Radar - Morphine
14. Honey Bear - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
15. Hard Way to Fall - Ryan Adams

AArF Gets Some New Duds!

AArF was subjected to much measuring and trying on of the following sweater. Doesn't he look thrilled? Here's a closer look too. I found the basic pattern online - a rib stitch for the neck and back, and a garter stitch for the body of the sweater - just follow the measurements that are given for your dog's back, belly, neck and stance, and you're on your way to a cool sweater. I used Paton's Wool - the basic worsted wool - with size 6 and 8 needles. The pattern called for one color but I decided to spice up the garter stitch with some stripes. You can use any type of stitch for the body - great way to get some fair isle in for your special dog. Enjoy!

In other news, yesterday was -15 degrees with the wind chill. Some flurries this morning, but we still haven't gotten any substantial snow.

Innocent Bystander is headed up to Canada tomorrow as his father is terminally ill and has taken a turn for the worse.

~GAC

AArF was Confused

AArF and I were on our late afternoon walk when he stopped to smell a tree on the sidewalk in front of someone's house (OK, like a good male dog, he stopped at EVERY tree in the neighborhood), and as he started to squat to mark, this cranky old lady flew out of the house and actually YELLED at me, saying, "you'd better pick up EVERYTHING that dog does there, do you hear me?" I told her not to worry, that he was only doing his usually marking and no number 2, to which she replied, "I don't care. Don't be smart with me - pick it up," and she stomped back in the house.

AArF proceeded to bark at her and I guess I was the one who was confused. Does anyone know how to pick dog pee up from the dirt surrounding a tree, or whether or not you are obligated to when a cranky old lady tells you to?

AArF and I will be walking on the other side of the street or we'll be putting a flaming paper bag on her doorstep - we're thinking it over.

In better news, it was snowing last night and we played "catch and kill the snowball" in the driveway. What fun!

~GAC

Five Minutes 'Til Doomsday

The Atomic Clock has been once again pushed up to five minutes before midnight (or doomsday) as the threat of nuclear annihilation is as close as it was during the Cold War. Check out an article here.

And I thought they moved the clock up b/c of the Marilyn Manson/Dita Von Teese split. If that doesn't signal the end of the world, what does?

Maybe Jack Bauer could help out here....

Obama

Coq au Vin from Martha

I made this last night for the second half of the 24 Premiere and it was amazing. I found it in the current issue of Everyday Food Magazine which Innocent Bystander sent me a subscription of. Make this ASAP:

Wine-Braised Chicken

Serves 6; Prep time: 55 minutes; Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Listed as Coq au Vin in cookbooks and on restaurant menus, the name of this hearty French dish may sound fancy, but its simply chicken cooked in red wine.

3 fresh thyme sprigs 5 flat-leaf parsley sprigs 1 bay leaf 3 slices bacon, cut into pieces 12 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (about 4 pounds total) coarse salt and ground pepper 1 large onion, chopped 6 medium carrots, sliced crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2-inch pieces 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tablespoons tomato paste 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups dry red wine, such as a Pinot Noir or French Burgundy 1 can (14.5 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth 1. Using cotton kitchen twine, tie thyme, parsley, and bay leaf into a bundle; set aside. 2. Heat a Dutch oven or 5-quart heavy pot with a lid over medium-low. Add bacon; cook until browned, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain (leave bacon fat in pot). 3. Raise heat to medium-high. Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Working in three batches to avoid crowding, brown chicken about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate; set aside. 4. Add onion, carrots, and garlic to pot. Cook until onion softens, about 4 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and flour; cook 1 minute. 5. Add wine, broth, chicken, and herb bundle. Bring to a boil; cover, and reduce to a simmer. Cook 10 minutes; uncover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove and discard herb bundle; stir in bacon. Note: To bundle herbs, tie thyme, parsley, and bay leafoften used in soups and stewsinto whats called a bouquet garni. Add the bunch for layers of flavor, then remove it before serving.

The New Semester Is Here and I've Finally Posted my Project Pictures

My first day of classes was yesterday. I'm enrolled in Corporations, Criminal Procedure/Constitutional Law, Family Trial Practice, Trusts, and Professional Responsibility. The first three classes I had yesterday and I think Crim/Con is going to be a doozy. Family Law Trial Practice will be very interactive as it is being taught in a mock courtroom, and Corporations, well who knows? All I do know is that there is a master outline that everyone studies from and does very well on the exam. I'll post anything exciting.

Ok, I've finally downloaded pictures of crochet/knit projects and thought I'd post them here for posterity.

Starting with my first crochet project ever - a baby blanket that I gave to friends that told Innocent Bystander that they were going to have a baby the day I started the blanket. It was destiny for the little one. I started it after Christmas 2006 and finished it by mid-January. It's made with a baby soft acrylic so that mom and dad could wash it several times. Simple but satisfying:

And a close-up of the pattern:

Next up is an Amigurumi bunny - although the face is a little simple - hey it was a first try. These are really fun to make and my favorite amigurumi designer is Ana Paula. Check out her stuff after checking out this bunny:

I crocheted a bunch of cool scalloped scarves, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them. I'll have to make another and post one online - it's a pattern that uses one full skein of paton's wool from the Happy Hooker crochet book (not to be confused with the other Happy Hooker, Xaviera Hollander). I modified the pattern so that it isn't as long and it's much wider. I also add embelishments to the corners of the scarves, like buttons or jingle bells.

Onto the next pattern, a simple garter stitch scarf that I made with handspun and dyed wool I picked up on Newbury Street. I call it my subway scarf as I made it to and from the library during finals this december. One of my first knitting projects (that I've completed).

Next is a hat that my poor dad was given for Christmas this year. You can find the pattern here. I think it came out quite good as I learned fair isle knitting and knitting in the round on this very hat. No practice runs, I just dove right in. I completed the hat in about 6-8 hours.

Last but not least is a pillow that I made for Innocent Bystander from this book. The C stands for curmudgeon, no, cute - ok not really either of them. The pattern was actually quite easy - reversing knit and purl stitches for the outline around the pillow (hard to see here) and for the letter C. The yarn was from Knitpicks.com and it was 75% cotton/25% wool. The funny part was when I gave IB the gift, I had just packaged up the book, yarn, and needles. The book was a baby book - and I made sure to tell him it wasn't what he was thinking! I think he was rather glad. The pattern is too nice not to make up for big babies as well!

That's it for the projects right now. I just received the new Lion Brand catalog in the mail and there's a really cute felted purse I might try to make. Only two skeins of wool so it fits in with a student's budget.

President Bush will be speaking in less than two hours about the 20,000 troop "surge." WTF is up with that word? It's like, heh heh, the American people are already pissed off at me, so what sort of word could I use to piss them off even more? Oh, yes. Surge. I'll be watching.

AArF is BACK!

After over a month long "holiday" in the country with his "grandparents," AArF is back home and is already readjusting to his city dog life. I'm so glad he's able to stay for such an extended time with my family, as my extremely long days in the library would be less than fair to him.

AArF has been struggling to keep weight on for the past year now and has times when he looks quite ribby. He's started a regimen of prednisone recently and it seems to be helping. We are all keeping our fingers crossed.

More on my holiday knitting projects soon!

~GAC