Category: Diary (Page 16 of 38)

Taking advice from Alton Brown of Food TV network’s “Good Eats” programme, we grilled a butterflied chicken for dinner.

You need good kitchen shears for this – our “Tullen” snips were only just up to the task. Basically, you flip the bird on its front and cut the rib cage on either side of its neck, heading towards the tail. Then pull the backbone out (and save for stock). Then open the bird like a book and use a small knife to separate the breast bone and cartilage from each side of the breast meat, finishing up with the shears or a heavier knife to extract the bone completely.

When you’ve done that, the bird kind of flops flat without help.

You can push seasoning under the skin at this point.

We fired up the grill to medium hot, plopped the bird skin side down on the top and pressed him flat using a cake rack and a handy brick.

10 minutes later, we flipped him over and gave him 20 minutes on a lower intensity heat.

Conclusion: Very juicy bird. Took a bit longer to finish him off than I expected – the extra 10 minutes was worth it to ensure there weren’t any pink-raw bits. Lisa suggested using a thermometer next time, but I still prefer checking it out visually.

Is it better than pickup up a ready-roasted chicken from the supermarket? Depends if you have time. If you like a drier chicken (which I do) then the pre-cooked birds are definitely more convenient. However, juicy birds with presentation panache and custom seasoning opportunities are sometimes a very good thing.

Tickets for the YES show went on sale today, so we made use of our Saturday to get a number of chores done. Put gas in the car; drove down to the Hard Rock Hotel and got excellent tickets (third tier back but dead center at the front of the rail so no one will be in front of us).

Then we drove along Tropicana Ave to an Office Furniture place that sells Herman-Miller Aeron chairs to see if we can get a deal on two of them. They had a couple on display so we got to sit and see which size we liked, and how adjustable we wanted them, but there was a lead time for ordering and we thought we’d look around some more.

At Meadows Mall we camped out at Wolf Camera for an hour or so as they created a set of two Passport photos for me, and then I tried to get some good quality reprints of various photos of sunsets that I’ve taken over the years. Some of them are pretty good, if I do say so myself, and I’ve always wanted to blow them up and hang them on the wall.

The technicians were very helpful and tried different lightness settings and color mixes to ensure that I was happy with the results. This was good, but then they kept mis-identifying the negative numbers until I was as confused as they were. Took a while to get it straightened out.

I broke my office chair today. I leaned back and the metal support under the seat snapped in two. Looks like a fatigue fracture.

I’ve had it since… let’s see… university days. I’m trying to think if I had it at Grafton Hall dorm, and I think not, because desk chairs were part of the standard furnature there. Certainly the year after that, when I went flatting, I must have acquired it around then. So it’s over 13 years old.

Lisa’s office chair is probably older and has problems of its own, so we’re going to go chair shopping.

This just in – YES are swinging back through Vegas on the later half of the second leg of their Summer 2002 tour. I’m astounded. This time they’re playing at the Hard Rock Hotel venue called “The Joint”. Tickets go on sale in the next few days.

I’d much rather they were in the studio recording a new album, but hey, even as a touring-only nostalgia band, I’ll make time and $$ available to go see Messers Howe, Wakeman, et al.

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We noticed in the paper today that JW Marriott (formerly known as The Regent) has re-opened its buffet. The Regent used to have one of the best and cheapest buffets in town, but after they went bankrupt and I guess Marriott bought them, they’d closed for remodelling.

So, we decided that after Lisa’s chiro appointment this afternoon we would drive down to Summerlin and check out the new buffet, before heading home via the Mandalay Bay to pick up tickets for the Pat Metheny concert this Friday.

The news is not good. It’s cheap, but boring. Not recommended. On the other hand, we can confirm that the Irish Pub is still open, so perhaps we’ll take Josh there when he comes to visit in January.

The paper this morning announces a Republican swing in the Senate. Well, President Bush got what he wanted. All we can do now is sit back and see what he does with it.

Also in the paper today: an ad for “Mars Music Closing Down Blowout Sale”.

Long story short: New keyboard in trunk of car.
Short story long: Full details here.

On the way home I bought 2 dozen bagels, posted some items of mail, and got my hair cut.

Lisa has had the flu for the last couple of days, but she was feeling a bit better today so we decided to go out to a local craft market we saw advertised in the local paper. Actually it’s odd, because there’s another, much bigger craft market being held in one of the big function halls in town at the same time, but this one was nearby and you never know what you’ll find.

It was being held in the parking lot of one of the newer strip malls – Craig Road Marketplace. We’ve driven past it a number of times, and each time more places seem to be open for business. We’ve seen “opening specials” advertised, and interestingly it seems to have a different collection of merchants than the usual cookie-cutter strip malls that seem to be the standard template. The only thing in common would be the Albertson’s Supermarket and a Bank. Instead of BlockBuster Video and China King III, we have “The Honey Tree” – a Greek diner (!?) and Sushi Ko, which also does Teppan Yaki. And a big surprise: a Goodwill store where we could donate clothes, records, or whatever (not that we have much of that kind of stuff left…)

The craft market was, I guess, the usual: paintings, jewelry, candles, pottery, glass sculpture, a hammer-dulcimer artist – and a wood carver.

We’ve been looking for something to hang on our bathroom wall to keep our balancing whale toy company, and the wood carver had some cool pieces, including a realling interesting one we kind of fell in love with: a branch with lizards crawling around it. Ok, it sounds kind of gross when put like that, but it’s actually charming, and we fell in love with it.

With that task accomplished, we had an early dinner at The Honey Tree, using one of our opening special coupons culled from the weekly coupon book that comes in the mail. The idea of a Greek Diner sounds a bit suspect, but we can now report that the food was cheap, good, and seemed to be relatively authentic if you chose from the greek part of their menu. We will probably go back some time.

We returned to the vet at Creature Comforts, this time with both cats, determined to see some progress. Karma gets a clean bill of health, and takes his immunization shots with stoic grace.

Kami finally relents and provides a urine sample. We did find out something rather interesting: She doesn’t pee in a cup, per se. They palpitate the bladder until they feel that it has something in it, then they go in through the side with a needle, just like taking a sample of amniotic fluid from a pregnant mother.  

Anyway, she’s clear. We fixed it. Kami gets her shots too.

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Michael and Roslyn Rychter flew in to Vegas yesterday on their way to England, and tonight we’ll be entertaining them here, so there’s a little bit of food preparation to do. We decided to try marinated chicken kebabs on the grill.

Our mint plant is doing really well in the herb garden, so Lisa picked out a recipe that involves marinating the cubed chicken pieces in chopped mint and garlic, then skewering them with slices of red onion interleaved with whole mint leaves, then grilling them while basting them in lime and lemon juice.

Later in the afternoon we arranged to pick them up at 5:00 at the Paris hotel & casino where they were staying.

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With the skewers all prepared and the rice cooker activated, we drove off into town. North Rancho Drive was chock full of traffic crawling the other way, and the northbound lane on 95 was also sluggish. Hmm. Didn’t look good travel-wise.  It *was* rush hour, but even so, the traffic looked heavy. We debated changing our plans and finding a place to eat in town.

After parking at the Paris car park, and meeting Michael and Roslyn in the lobby, we decided to risk the traffic and head back to the house. The 95 exit was still more-or-less blocked, and I basically missed the off-ramp anyway, not quite on purpose but traffic was really clumsy so I didn’t try terribly hard to correct my mistake. North on 15 it was! This is a pain because it basically heads North-East and although we’re North of the city, we’re more West than East. However, recently a segment of the 215/Beltway has opened up that connects 95 to 15, heading East-West right across the northern part of the valley, so I figured we’d head North on 15, then head back West on 215 and exit on Decator which is basically right at our doorstep, relatively speaking.

This plan would have worked well, except that traffic on 15 North was also crawling. Lanes merging, off-ramps full, and I was usually in the wrong lane. The traffic didn’t clear up until just South of the 215 off-ramp.

A small concession: The view of the Las Vegas city lights spread out on our left as we headed West on 215 was pretty cool. Michael and Roslyn graciously said so anyway.

Dinner worked out really well, with the kebabs taking 10 minutes on the grill, the rice cooker didn’t mind keeping the rice warm for an extra 30 minutes or so, and Lisa’s greek salad was very delicious.

We had a great time talking to Michael and Roslyn, and they had a great time observing all the little costumed groups of kids who knocked on our door demanding treats. The quality of costumes was pretty high this year, and everyone who came to the door deserved a treat.

And so we dropped the Rychters back at their hotel, said our goodbyes, and drove home again. Another busy month has gone by, filled with various traumas and excitement. How lucky we are!

We’re taking today and tomorrow off from work, in an attempt to reduce our outstanding days off that we either have to “use or lose” before the end of the year.

We took Kami to the vet again this morning for her 2-week checkup to see if the nasty medication we’ve been feeding her twice daily for the last two weeks has cured the urinary-tract infection. Typically, once again she refuses to pee, so we left her there and came home again.

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We go back to pick her up shortly before 6:00. Still no urine sample obtained. Stubborn cat!

Lisa actually spent last night at Toni’s in a sleeping bag on the floor. Toni wasn’t doing so well, throwing up and not really being safe on her own. I don’t think Lisa got much sleep what with Toni’s cats and the ticking of the pendulum clock…

Our cats were very happy to have the extra space on our bed.

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I sat down in the sun in the back garden this morning to perform my bi-weekly beard-trimming ritual. I have a rather good Norelco beard trimmer that has worked really well, it’s rechargeable and goes months without needing a recharge.

I visually checked the setting (I use “5” for my beard), switched it on and ran it up an over my chin. Very quickly I realised it didn’t feel right… the guard mechanism had slipped back to “1” and I’d just shaved a big chunk out of my beard! Argh. I played with the settings for a minute or two, but I couldn’t reproduce the problem – it locked at 5 quite securely.

I went inside to check the damage. Hmm. Might be salvageable.

“You’ll just have to shave the whole thing off,” said Lisa, in an encouraging voice.

“I *like* having a goatee,” I replied. “I’m gonna try and salvage it.”

I used a setting of “2” which is closer than I prefer, but still acceptable, and I figured the uneveness wouldn’t show except in close-ups.

Of course, the reliable Norelco beard trimmer ran down its charge before I’d finished. I had to go back inside and plug the thing in and finish up in the bathroom.

None-the-less, it’s an excellent beard trimmer.

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This afternoon we had appointments at the eye doctor, Lisa to check her prescription and me to just have a checkup to make sure I still don’t need glasses. I always find the optometric tests to be very interesting.

Apparently my eyes are a little less good than they were in ’97 when I had my last test, but still fine. I don’t need glasses, and probably won’t for a while yet.

Lisa’s going to get a couple of pairs of glasses with a new prescription and then trial them for a while to see if it’s an improvement.

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This evening we ate Chinese takeaways over at Toni’s place, and watched “Jackie Brown” on DVD. She was not too drugged out to enjoy it.