What the heck a meme

I needed a break and found something fun to do over at  Got Gauge

The things I have done are in bold.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (Not sure if hiking counts but it was a moutain)
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (I think, not sure but I think there was one as a kid)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors (Granny is an ancestor. Not sure how far back this one required)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (indoor)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (fish count yes?)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant

This is not my list of things I want to do but it was pretty fun to see how many I could bold on here.

Wanna play along? Leave a comment!

Happy Day!

How to Caramelize Onions

If you do nothing else for yourself today, read How to Caramelize Onions on the ever-wonderful Simply Recipes blog. There wasn't a day I learned to caramelize onions, I got better at it over time. Now, when onions are caramelizing in this house, something divine is happening. I can sample (or scarf) caramelized onions from the pan. When that magical chemistry takes place changing the onion from mere brownness to sweet savory goodness, I cannot resist. 

Still in Limbo

I still have a kidney stone. It is a BIG kidney stone. I will have it until it gets blasted into little pieces four days before Valentine's Day. So I have been distracted.

And I had a baked potato for dinner tonight. Although I can write page after page about potatoes, I really thought devouring the potato would be the best course of action. For one thing, it's best to be sure the food you're going to blog about is going to make it all the way through the digestive process. Because we can't take that for granted around here lately.

We've managed to take the dogs to the dog park a couple times this week and they really, really love "dog park!!". Lexi met another wheaten named Lexi. Kirby is meeting every dog in sight. I am amazed that a dog who is so timid of new things feels so happy and at home among big groups of dogs. He is still a little timid, even with the dogs, but watching him come out of his shell is amazing.

We watched the Inauguration of our brand new president and have reaped the rewards everyday since. I might be able to see straight for the next four years.

I experienced the ultimate Facebook indignity today, I was defriended by a high school acquaintance. The high crime? Tagging, second degree. I promise it was not pre-meditated. Oh well, I will get over it. But I thank my lucky stars that I am not going through school in the era of the Internets. I can't even imagine the indignities and the status symbols and the deniable personal slights and the potential cyber-missteps possible for today's kids. The mind reels just to think of it. 

Mobile Moronblogging

This lady is sitting next to me in the urologist's office. She has
sighed broadly every 60 seconds for the last 10 minutes. Before that
she spent 15 minutes shuffling through her medical papers generating
more noise than I even thought possible. I have a shot with her head
in her paperwork, but this one illustrates much better the style she's
working with her uh vintage button down tucked into her high-waisted
pleated, tapered leg corduroys.

Also overheard in this waiting room: "i had a kidney stone and I'm
here to drop it off." This was followed by a man handing a bag of
water to the receptionist.

Sent from my iPhone

Obama's Inaugural Address: The Full Text

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Inaugural Feast

From the official Inaugural luncheon menu:

Molasses Whipped Sweet Potatoes
Yield: 2 quarts (Serves 10)
Ingredients
3 large sweet potatoes, about 3 pounds
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup orange juice
½ tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of molasses
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and roast until easily pierced with a fork, about 1 hour.
3. Peel the skin off of the sweet potatoes while still hot.By hand or mixer, smash potatoes until all large
chunks are gone. Combine the potatoes, butter, salt, orange juice, brown sugar, ground cumin,
molasses and maple syrup in a large bowl. Continue to mix all together until all lumps are gone.
Adjust any of the seasonings to your specific tastes. Can be made the day before.

Things Get Chilly

It's pretty chilly in Arlington, you know, like 11 degrees.

The animals, already wearing their winter best, have resorted to finding warmth wherever they can. That's, I can only suppose, how Lexi decided to curl up in the cat bed on the front porch.

Mobile Medical Moronblogging

Tex here is in the CT scan waiting room with Granny. She doesn't
understand that the grape juice is spiked with contrast dye for the
test she's about to have. She keeps whining that it's definitely not
Welch's and it tastes "off". So Tex wants to know if she really has to
drink the juice. Only if you want the test to work Tex McWhiny (and
dirty) pants. Ah the hospital is full of entertainment.

Waiting for ...

Blog silence lately is due to a few factors...

There's getting back into the daily groove (and/or grind). Work is busy which means I am busy, but happy to be busy.

There's the siren song of technology sucking up my every waking moment. We have a DVD player that streams Netflix which means we've just watched almost 2 seasons of CSI (how we managed to miss two years of the show I don't really know) in about three days. Then there's this thing called the interweb which has a mountain of fresh posts in my feedreader every time I look. Then there's the fact that my family and friends have discovered Facebook. This means that I have to check constantly to see if that girl who sat next to me in middle school honors choir has friended me or not. It also means that I am challenged to numerous WordTwist and WordScraper games. I'd actually like to play more WordScraper and less WordTwist, but we do what our public wants, don't we?

And, in that rare moment when I gaze away from the monitor, there are dogs, cats and a husband wondering if I have some attention to spare. And I do...

Because I am on low speed this week thanks to the confirmation Friday that I have a brand spankin' new kidney stone. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's been hangin' out since Christmas Day. Now I am waiting to see the urologist. I am resting quite comfortably and I am grateful that the world contains a substance known as Vicodin.

I made the Chicken with Dates Tagine again last night. I upped the temp to 250, upped the time to 2 hours, and added (or remembered to list 1 1/2 tsp of cumin). It was good, but the dates disintegrated so I might have to rethink something next time -- because oh yes, there will be a next time. But I have to say, combining a Tagine with rice because that's what you have available, instead of couscous, really has its ramifications. I mean I'm all for fusion food, but I don't know how many desert dwellers have big old wet rice paddies.

Sunrise this Morning at the River

Sunrise this Morning at the River

Science versus Potatoes

Science and potatoes both have their merits, but all things considered, I think I'd still pick potatoes over science any day, even today, the first day of The Year of Science 2009, and most especially today, the day after the end of The Year of the Potato 2008.

Potato revelers take heart, we need not take up in the corner because the 2009 Potato Expo is practically upon us. It's January 7-9 in San Antonio, Texas, and the keynote speaker is Charlie Wilson (Charlie Wilson's War Charlie Wilson!). So finish up that last bowl of mashed or fried or baked potatoes and get to San Antonio.

As for The Year of Science, well, I'm sure there's a blog somewhere for that nonsense.

Happy New Year!