Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Gail! Love you BIG!!

Salsa, Part III

Ok, I know it's been a while. Shortly after the last post, I did indeed make my second attempt, as planned. The one change I made was partly planned, partly a happy accident. I wanted to make it a little spicier, so I was thinking I'd use the whole peppers, and not seed them. When I got to actually making the salsa, one of the two peppers I had bought was kinda mushy and discolored. I threw that out, and just used the one pepper, seeds, membrane and all. Wow, was that good! Just the right amount of heat. Very tasty. I haven't made any salsa recently, because we had some Screamin' Mimi's Sweet Hot Salsa left over from our Derby party. That's almost out, though, so round 3 should be coming soon! Hopefully, I can duplicate round 2's success...

Salsa, Part II

So a couple of weeks ago, I finally did my salsa experiment. It turned out pretty decent. Not fantastic, but good. I brought it to a family get-together at my Mom's and everyone who tried it (including my bro-in-law, the chef) liked it. I kind of tweaked & adjusted as I went, but these are the ingredients and about the proportions that I wound up with:

8 roma/plum tomatoes, seeded & chopped
1 sprig cilantro
2 jalapeno or cerrano, seeded & chopped
2-3 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 chopped white onion
juice of 1/2 lime

I put it all in the food processor and pureed it, then simmered it in a pan for about 10-15 minutes. Only about half the recipes I saw called for the cooking at the end. I found it really added depth to the flavor and smoothed everything out. Much better.

So anyway, I got the ingredients, and I'm going to give it another shot. I think this time, I'm going to leave the seeds and membrane from the peppers in. I want a little more bite this time around. I think I'll puree it for a little bit longer, too. It was a bit thick last time. We'll see how goes round 2!

I'm Torn...

Wow. The Skins traded a 2nd round draft pick this year and a 4th round pick next year to the Eagles for Donovan McNabb. On the one hand, I feel really bad for Jason Campbell. That guy has put up with a ton of shit from this team in the past few years. Anyone who has talked Skins football with me for more than 30 seconds knows I'm a big Campbell fan. On the other hand, I'm really excited about the possibilities of a QB of McNabb's level being on this team! With the way the young guns in the receiving corps coming on in the later part of last season, one has to wonder how much better they'll do with an offense like Kyle Shanahan's in place, and with an elite-level QB like Donovan throwing to them. I'm guessing this is the end of the Redskins part of Campbell's career. I can't imagine him staying after this. Hopefully, he can go to a team that will appreciate him, and give him some protection. Hopefully, he goes somewhere with a strong offensive line and kicks some major ass. Hopefully, in another division...

Salsa

Ok, so for ages now, I've wanted to try an experiment in making my own salsa. I don't like the chunky, pico de gallo-type salsa. I lean more toward the pureed (mostly) type of tomato salsa (not salsa verde). Most recipes I'm seeing online don't specify the type of tomato. I'm thinking of using plum tomatoes, which I seem to recall someone saying was good for salsa. Some white onion, cilantro, jalapeno (or serrano) pepper, lime and probably some garlic. So I ask anyone who has made their own salsa, or even anyone who just likes salsa or knows anything about making it: Does that sound pretty decent? Any particular recipes out there that you particularly favor? Any proportions I should keep in mind, or warnings I should heed (e.g. use gloves for the peppers, add lime juice slowly)?

Kiwee Toolbar and Unlocker

Ok, maybe someone out there can help me. Does anyone know what this damn Kiwee Toolbar is? It popped up a couple days ago. We did not download it, or anything else that it could have been piggybacking on. It just appeared one day. We used Control Panel to uninstall it, and it just popped back on the next day. Every time, it keeps doing the same thing. I tried Googling it, but every item that mentioned it either involved individually removing about 120 lines of code from the registry (which I don't want to mess with), or downloading another unknown program called Unlocker. So it's either deal with unknown, unwanted toolbar, or load questionable unknown, unwanted program to remove unknown, unwanted toolbar. Any suggestions?

Zorn Era Ends, Shanahan Era to Begin

Well, it should be official today. Or, as rumor has it, if Buges announces his retirement today, then it should be official tomorrow. That would be the classy thing to do, so as not to overshadow someone who has been with this team for so long and has meant so much to it. So, they'll probably announce Shanny today. It will be interesting to see what he does, once he gets here. The scuttlebutt is that he's cleaning house in the coaching staff. Not shocking. I think we could stand some new blood with the assistants. Supposedly, he's bringing his son in as Offensive Coordinator, and Mike Zimmer from Cincinnati as Defensive Coordinator. Not bad. Cincy's got the 6th overall defense in the league. And.... really? The Texans (where little Shanny currently is OC) is the top passing offense? And 10th overall offense? Wow. Ok. Anyway, given our dismal record, and the flashes of talent we showed, I think a shake-up may do some good.

The real interesting part will be seeing what Shanahan does with personnel. GM Bruce Allen said in his press conference yesterday that the new coach (he refused to name him yet) would start off with the players here, implying that wholesale change is not in the cards. This could be good news, or this could be disaster. Word is that Shanahan likes to draft young QBs and mold them to his system. This could be a fiasco if he tries to do that here, at least right away. It seems glaringly obvious to me (and to 95% of the announcers and analysts on TV & the Internet) that our top priority needs to be the O-line. If that isn't addressed this offseason, it won't matter if we put Peyton Manning in at QB. Well, maybe not Peyton, but nearly anyone else. I've made my case for Campbell here previously, and my opinion hasn't changed. He was running for his life nearly all season and still managed to throw for over 3,500 yards, 20 TDs and only 15 INTs. If you look at what he has done when he got protection, you can see he's thisclose to taking his game to the next level. I say give JC the protection he needs and keep him around. If coach wants to mold a young QB, draft one in a few years and begin the process. If Shanahan comes in and addresses the line, I will be hopeful. If he comes in and tries to draft Bradford or Claussen, then my suspicion would be that Snyder's still pulling the strings and we're in for another tough year.

Decisions... Decisions....

Well, it's that time of the year again. I have a Christmas gift card and Christmas cash. Now, I just need to decide what to spend it on. The first thing that popped in to my head was to buy a Nintendo Wii. Now, I'm not a huge gamer, but a few months back, I was at my friend Keith's house, and he has a Wii. We played Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and it was bad as a MoFo! That would be my primary reason for getting the Wii. Not only could I play alone, but I could connect over the Internet and play against Keith, and others who have it. Also, Wii has the Wii Fit games that you can use to get exercise & burn calories. However, as I understand it, the Wii does not play BluRay, like Xbox and PS3 do. I believe Xbox and PS3 will also stream Netflix movies. But PS3 is also $100 more expensive. There also remains the option of simply getting a BluRay player, and bag the whole idea of a game system. Or I could go another direction entirely. So, I pose the question to you, the audience. Which way do I go? Thoughts, please?

City of Brotherly Love

Well, I had something exciting happen this weekend. We were in Jersey for Thanksgiving and Chrissy's Aunt Fran's 90th (!) birthday party. The original plan had been to head home late Saturday night, hopefully after the traffic had eased. However, at the party, we were talking to Chrissy's cousin Joe, who lives in Winchester, VA. Joe shares Eagles season tickets with a friend of his, and had been planning on taking his brother Mike, who was at the party too, to the Eagles/Skins game on Sunday. Unfortunately (for him), Mike had a flight leaving out early in the morning. Joe's wife, much like mine, would go with him and enjoy the game, but would rather him go with another real fan who will enjoy the game. After a little discussion, he asked if I wanted to go to the game! I'm sure he would rather have gone with an Eagles fan, but at least this way, he didn't have to find a sitter for the kids.

Fortunately for me, we had brought laundry to do, so I had one of my Redskins jersey's. And, of course, I had my Skins hat. So, steeling myself for plenty of ribbing, I met up with Joe and we headed to the Linc. I wasn't overly fearing for my safety for two reasons: 1) I'm not the type to come back at drunken idiots yelling at me. I'll just let it lie. 2) What were they going to say that I didn't already know? "Redskins suck"? I'd just shrug and say, "And?..." While I certainly think we have potential to play much better than we have, we are currently 3-8.

So we head to the park and look around for a parking spot. On our 3rd side street, we finally find a spot and pull in. There are two guys sitting in lawn chairs enjoying some pre-game beverages. Of all the possible spots on all the streets and all the fans milling about, guess what? One Eagles fan and one Skins fan! So we chatted with them as we ate the Wawa hoagies we picked up on the way in. Once we were done eating and pontificating, we headed to the stadium. As many people as we passed, I was surprised not to hear any comments until I was about a block from the stadium, when a police officer directing traffic shook his head ruefully, sighed and said, "I know you can't help it." This brought me to attention of another fan who called out, "Here's an asshole!" After that, I made it the rest of the way to the stadium relatively unscathed. A few times, I hears "Redskins... mumble mumble..." muttered under someone's breath behind me.

Before the game, Joe showed me around the stadium a bit. A little mini-tour. It is a very nice stadium. A lot more character to it than FedEx Field. There was HeadHouse Plaza, an area where various vendors hocked their wares while a band played on stage. In addition, there was an Interactive Zone with activities for kids, including Play 60 activities. I even saw a few Skins fans milling about, though not nearly as many as there were Eagles fans at FedEx four weeks ago. Inside, next to the pro shop, there was a hall of fame area that had names on the walls of past players, glass towers showing notable past players, photo collages showing key moments from each decade. In the South corner of the field was the Miller Lite Phlite Deck, where a band played at halftime.

After the tour, we headed toward our seats. Upper level, row 5. However, in our section, there is what I believe was an area for handicap seating, which took up the first four rows, and was lower than where our seats were. So, for all intents and purposes, we were in the front row of the upper level! Naturally, on the way there, I heard "asshole!" a couple more times, as well as "Redskins suck!" Once we made it to our seats, the people around us were very nice. The one exception being a Redskins fan two rows behind us. He was so annoying, I wanted to smack him, and we were rooting for the same team! He was much louder than I was, and repeatedly called for Philly players to get injured or killed. I'm all for healthy competition, and good-natured "insults" between fans, but he crossed the line. I don't want anyone (even Cowboys players or fans!) to get hurt or killed. I just want a good game, hopefully that the Redskins win. I did get a good game. Unfortunately, we lost 27-24. Not a huge surprise, but disappointing. On the way out, one Eagles fan in the row behind us even tapped me on the shoulder and said admiringly, "You guys played a tough game!" Guess that's about the most we're going to be able to hope for this season...

Letting Go and Moving On

I was looking at my sporadic blog, and at my earlier post about our new cat, Mister. I realized I hadn't posted a picture of him here. I had put some pictures of him on my Facebook, but not here. There may be some people who see this who don't see my Facebook, and vice versa. So in any case, this is Mister:









This segues nicely into the subject of my post. I've been struggling recently with letting go. I saw a comedian (I think) a while back talking about friends who have died, and how long you should wait before deleting them from your cell phone. Oh, wait. It was George Carlin. It was his last special on HBO before his passing. Interesting. Anyway, in a similar fashion, I don't know how soon is too soon to change my digital presence to reflect Buddy's passing. I have a picture of Buddy for my avatar on several different sites to which I regularly post. I have a pic of Buddy as the wallpaper on my phone. A few times, I have gone to change it, wanting to put a pic of Mister on there. But I always stop before I do. I feel like somehow I'm betraying Buddy's memory by doing so. I know that's completely irrational, and strictly an emotional reaction, but there it is. So, how soon is too soon?