staten island ferry

shot on 22 June 2007 from the Temptress during the Weakerthans Rocks-Off boat cruise.

alex

i shot this photo two years ago of my work-friend alex. i like the photo.

initials

ironically, coincidentally, fatefully someone had already carved this into the seat we happen to ride on the ferris wheel.

lobster fest 2007

This weekend was Lobster Fest with the Palaitises, the Martins and the Ottingers in Ocean City, NJ. Stephanie, Peter, Dave, Karen, Deville, Maria, Miles,(we were missing Fred) Matty and me. We ate a TON of food and had a great time. Stephanie is going to blog more about the food on Yum Yum Kid Cupcake really soon... I'm just going to post a few images now and maybe a few later on.

Overall it was a fantastic time well-spent with friends we don't get to see enough of, hanging out, talking, laughing, drinking, and eating.
A LOT of eating...
There was Mack & Manco's pizza
There were doughnuts, .
We steamed our own clams

and lobsters.


Saturday night we went to the boardwalk where we also went on the ferris wheel

IMPEACH cheney?

Click the link to vote.
Should Vice President Cheney be IMPEACHED?

tell us the mission

http://tellusthemission.org/

scara

me & christina

ratchets

open letter to speaker pelosi

One of the contributors to one of my favorite 'blogs (FireDogLake) wrote a fantastic open letter to Speaker Pelosi about her comments that "impeachment is off the table.”
Please take a gander here.

Given the horrendous executive power grab of our current administration, nothing should be off the table.

Please check out the great post and pass it around.

seltzer

speed chief

baronet

a lovely new blog

My friend Stephanie has joined us in the 'blog world with one of her own! She's only just begun, so check back often and see what she's got cookin'.
Pun completely intended.

http://yumyumkidcupcake.blogspot.com/

PHOTO SHOW

airport sunset

phillips avenue

nightime in the city

ice storm redux

a tree encased in ice after the storm the other day.
the sky was really that blue.
beautiful.

bah humbug on valentine's day...

I hate Valentine's day. I think it's crap.

Don't think me bitter, it's just.......

It's a day that puts an undue amount of stress on lovers and mates in a forced expression of love and devotion. They should not be beholden to one particular day, where expectations are high and disappointment is bound to happen.
Even though it is meant as a day of romance, because of the high level of presumptions, it's all but killed.

A person should be able to express their love on any day of their choosing and do so in a manner of their own choosing. It should not be dictated by Hallmark and over-priced roses. Why is it that flowers cost so much more on the 14th of February than any other day of the year?

And then, there are those not in a couple who are made to feel like less of a person because they don't have a valentine. They're made to feel small, slight, inferior. It's just wrong.

Profess love on a random day and surprise your partner. For the better part of the past sixteen years I've preferred to be wowed when I'm least expecting it rather than have it be forced and hold less meaning. I like the spontaneity, it's more exciting that way.

p.s. i didn't take this photo. it was found on the google.

love is a mix tape

I literally just finished the book, "Love is a Mix Tape" this morning on the bus.

The book hooked me right away and had me laughing and then crying all in the first short chapter.

For those of us that remember mix tapes, actual TAPES, and LOVE music, this is a book you MUST read! And even if you don't remember mix tapes, this is a good book that describes exactly what a mix tape is and what it means.

It had me reminiscing, waxing nostalgic for that mix tape Matty made for my birthday the second year we knew each other. The actual tape has ceased to exist; it snapped from over-playing, but I still have the cover he hand-made and drew a photo of a bicycle on and wrote sweet things on the inside. It doesn't even have a song list, but I remember some of the gems, that no matter where I am when I hear those certain songs, they will forever remind me of him.

It's a quick read that you're kind of sad to have end. It elicited a whole range of emotions and had me actually laughing out and reading passages to Matty so he could laugh too. I started reading it Friday evening and by Friday night when I was out, I already had to tell anyone that would listen to read this book.

It's a non-fiction work by the Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield. You can purchase the book from here or here. I won't shop at amazon.com any longer, so the links are to Powells Books in Portland, OR and to Barnes & Noble dot com respectively.

As an aside... Amazon likes to contribute a lot of money to Republicans so I don't give them business any longer. Plus, Powells is an independent book seller and a really rad place. If you ever get to Portland, OR go check it out. It takes up an entire city block.

So go buy the book and then tell everyone YOU know to read it too.
It's that good.

uptown A-train

meatloaf muffins with barbecue sauce

Yesterday I was sent a link for something called a "meat cake"... Click here to see for yourself.

I was repulsed and facinated at the same time. Then I had a craving for meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Weeks ago I would have been bummed about this, with our oven being on the fritz and out of order, but it was just fixed last week and I was ready to bake!

Now, meatloaf takes FOREVER to cook. The prep time is negligible, but the cooking... Ugh! You could starve before the damn thing comes out of the oven!

Thanks to the internets, I found a recipe on foodtv.com by Rachel Ray of the 30-minute meal fame. The wonderful thing about her 30-minute meals is, obviously, they're ready in 30 minutes! Now maybe you're wondering how you'd prepare and bake a meatloaf in 30 minutes? Well, I'll tell you how! MEATLOAF MUFFINS!!!

Ingenius!

Like I said, the prep time was pretty painless... For the meat part, you pretty much just dump all the ingredients in the bowl and then mix everything with your hands. The sauce is super simple and should be made in a separate bowl and mixed with a spoon, which you'll use again. So don't throw it in the sink like I did and then smack yourself on the head after, muttering, "Why did I do that? I could have used that spoon again!"

The recipe called for use of an ice cream scooper to get the meat mass into the muffin tin, which is what I did but if you don't happen to have a scooper, I'm sure many other things will work. ...
Fill all the muffin cups and use the remaining sauce (plus that spoon you didn't chuck in the sink) and slip the pan into a pre-heated oven and let them bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

Once they're done, you let them cool a bit and then pop them out and serve!


Now I left out a bunch of steps, which will make sense once you check out the recipe in-full. So if you click here you can check it out at your leisure.


It's also here...

1 2/3 to 1 3/4 pounds ground sirloin
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
2 ribs celery from the heart of the stalk, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 green bell pepper
1 large egg plus a splash of milk, beaten
1 cup plain bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
1 cup smoky barbecue sauce
1/2 cup tomato salsa
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil
(or oily cooking spray, which I found to be easier)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Put ground beef into a big bowl. Put onion and celery into a food processor. Cut the bell pepper in half, rip out the seeds and throw them into your garbage bowl. Cut the pepper into a few pieces and add to the food processor. Pulse the processor blades to finely chop the vegetables into very small pieces then add them to the meat bowl. Add egg, beaten with milk, bread crumbs and grill seasoning to the bowl. Next, mix together the smoky barbecue sauce, the salsa and the Worcestershire sauce. Pour half the sauce mixture into the bowl with the meatloaf mix. Mix the meatloaf together with your hands. Wash up. Brush a 12-muffin tin (1/2-cup each) with vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil. Use an ice cream scoop to help you fill meat into a each tin. Top each meat loaf with a spoonful of extra sauce. Bake about 20 minutes. Cut open 1 muffin to test that the middle is cooked through.

images from oz

been away for a bit...

Right after the elections, literally the day after, I left the country for three weeks on a trip to Australia. It was amazing. Photos will follow soon.