The one with tonight's experiment

So that I have a record of what we did:

1 lb bowtie pasta

In the wok to start:

• 2/3 of a (big) red pepper
• 1 (big) bunch of kale, in 1" strips
• 1 can quartered artichoke hearts (in water)

added near the end:

• about 1/4 lb sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
• a small~ish container of kalamata olives

add it to the pasta, mix in

• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• capers
• some tbsps olive oil

top with

• freshly grated parmesan, a decent amount

Really good. We liked the way each of the elements stands on its own. That is, you can taste each, but they mostly work well together. Jill's favorite part: the sun-dried tomato. Then the cheese, then the red pepper. Mine: the artichokes with the capers.

It's already share-worthy. But next time:

• the kalamatas are a bit overpowering. Maybe slice, and press/drain
• use garlic, black pepper, a bit more oil, more cheese

That is all.

The one where the Olympics rocks

While watching the Australian Open I made the observation

"If she ever gets some focus, Na Li will win a major".

(Or, her name may properly be written Li Na...I've seen it both ways, and I don't fully understand Chinese names...) I'd only seen her play a doubles match, lackadaisically, and they lost in straight sets, but apparently I still have my eye. This week she beat the world No.3, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the opening match and an American named Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, coming back from 1-4 in the first to win in straight sets.

She just lost in semis to Dinara Safina--she lost the first set tiebreak, then served for the second at 5-4 but couldn't finish and lost 7-5. But she's still in the hunt for the bronze, and if you get a chance sometime you should watch her play. Apparently she's kinda old (26), so maybe a major is unlikely, but I've never seen a woman who so consistently hits her spots, with unbelievable angles and troublesome depth. Such nice strokes!

Speaking of the Olympics, I just watched the end of her match live. The streaming video is awesome. And does anyone have any idea how Phelps won the race shown above? And I thought tennis was a game of inches?

The one with another AB

Odin's birth story is up on the Africa blog.

Pictures are on my latest crossword blog entry, his first picture is at Phil's photo site, a few more at his brother's photo site.

Now they go north, and I get lonelier,
sg

The one with PMTB

Paige and I went to the Twins game last night to do crossword puzzles and watch baseball with some friends. (Phil was off wedding photographering...)

We parked on Franklin and took the light rail down to the stadium; it's really convenient, but the trains were packed. Heading back after the game we wound up in the middle of a train car as we pulled up to our stop. We started to push our way through the crowd when someone yelled out "Her water just broke, let 'em through!" Everyone laughed, and we escaped fairly easily.

I think she really needs to play the pregnancy card more while she still can. (She'll have a different card soon.)

Anyway, today marked my debut on Rex Parker's crossword blog. I wrote about today's New York Times puzzle (don't read it yet if you do the puzzle in syndication!) and the game.

I'll have more guesting soon, and of course I'll let you all (both) know when I do.
chao,
sg

The one with Chinese cookers

My parents had a $50 gift certificate to JCPenney, and there was nothing they wanted from JCPenney. Same for me and Snu. But then I remembered that I was thinking about buying a wok, and they had a stir-fry skillet available for ~$45.

Two weeks later UPS showed up with a really big box. I figured they'd just over-packed, but it was really heavy. I opened the box to find a case of woks.

There was no packing slip, no phone number on the shipping invoice, no indication of who it was from, so I couldn't figure out how to even try to return it. And my parents had used a gift certificate, so there was no chance that we'd been overcharged for the extras.

Maybe mom just didn't notice the "Buy 1, Get 5 Free!" sign?

The one on Saturday

Phil's visiting his mom, so I got to hang out with Paige all day.

We started early. The Lifetime Fitness Triathlon, with a $250K prize pool, takes place about a mile from my house. The pros started at 7am, so Sarah W came by around 6:45 and the three of us headed over.

Didn't make it quite for the start, but wow are those people fast. The pros race Olympic distance, which is 1.5K swim (just under a mile, under 20 minutes), 40K bike (~25mi, a bit over an hour), 10K (6.2mi, a bit over 1/2 hour) run. And the fastest men do it in about 1:48; the fastest woman in 1:58.

We watched the pros finish their swims and run off to transition, then headed over to watch some more normal people start, then the transition area for the pro bike to run, then watched men and women at the half-way point of the run, then finally over to the finish line. (We weren't actually going around too far--all that we watched took place in a fairly small area, with each race segment leaving from and then finishing back near the same point).

I think someone said there were 10? Olympians competing? Anyway, it was pretty exciting, and I'll do what I can to convince cousin Deb to come out to run it next year. (That's a LOT more likely than me running it...ever.) I'll maybe post my pictures soon.

A bit before 10 we left to head over to Firefly for some breakfast and cribbage, after which Sarah went to work while Paige and I went to play some more.

Afternoon, we headed over to the Richfield public pool. We read, lied in the sun, maybe laid in the sun if I have the wrong transitive case, played in the pool, Paige swam laps while I went down the big slides. It's kinda expensive to get in , but it was a pretty big place so there was room to not be anywhere near teenagers, and it was a really nice day.

We finished at the pool and went to Edina to buy cute pregnancy jeans. Paige is Very pregnant, but these are a gift for her also pregnant sister. Her pregnant sister-in-law can buy her own damn jeans, or maybe can just borrow from her was-pregnant-now-has-toddler other sister-in-law. Lotsa new grandkids for the Andersons!

Finally, we went to see Iron Man at the $2, which is now apparently a $3 theater. I liked it.

Thanks Paige!

More crossword and other news soon, in the meantime I'll try to keep this updated more often.
Hasta,
sg

The one where Carey and I are famous