The odds of me winning an NCAA pool are poor. And yet they’re so much lower yet when my team is THE OVERALL #1 SEED and therefore everyone and their mother’s brother’s monkey will be picking them. But really, this is the sort of problem we should all have. Anyway, join our pool, fill out a bracket. But please, be the least bit contrarian and leave the Jayhawks to me ok*?
For sake of historical amusement, let’s remember that the unlikeliest possible person won our pool last year.
As for those who got in, the fun is going to be in figuring out which high seeds are going out of the tournament first, because they’re not all going to make a run, not this year. Northern Iowa, which won 28 games, will be a threat to Kansas in the second round. Maryland, with seniors Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes, would be a serious threat to Kansas . . . if the Terrapins can get past Houston and Michigan State, which would be a serious threat to Kansas. Georgetown would be a serious threat to Kansas, and certainly Ohio State would be, seeing as Evan Turner of the Buckeyes is the most versatile, most highly skilled player in college basketball this season. I can’t see Kansas, which I think is the best team in the field, going through all four of those teams in the Midwest Region. This, without question, is the Group of Death.
Not a good week for training. It’s been (understatement) raining, and I’ve been unpleasantly sick. So instead, I made cookies with a recipe I stole from Jenny at Snackreligious.
Nutella Cranberry Crisps (hazelnut) — I don’t do a lot of recipe development, but I did create these cookies based on a simpler chocolate cookie recipe. I wanted something with Nutella and something using dried cranberries. After a little internet searching, I decided to combine the two, base it all on a recipe that called for melted chocolate (but substitute Nutella) and see how things tasted. I made a couple of test cookies before I stirred in the entire amount of dried cranberries, and found that I was willing to take the plunge. (adapted from this recipe)
10 oz. Nutella brand chocolate hazelnut spread
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped, or chocolate chips?
1 cup all purpose flour
?3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
?1 teaspoon baking powder
?1/2 teaspoon salt
?4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
?3/4 cup granulated sugar?
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
?2 large eggs?
1 teaspoon vanilla?
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Beat in eggs, then vanilla. Beat in the Nutella. By hand or with lowest speed of a mixer, stir in the flour mixture. Add cranberries and chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. Stir to combine.
Scoop the dough up by teaspoons and space mounds of dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake one sheet at a time on center rack for 10-12 minutes or until edges are dry. Tops should crack and cookies should spread out quite a bit Let cool on cookie sheets for about 1-2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.
Given my predilection for complaining, a secondary suck is that it’s overly easy to exhaust the available sympathetic ear. My friends transition from the nominal sorries! to a more accusatory you still aren’t coming out?! Um, no, dying here. Commiserate you ingrate bitches.
So, to recap why you, harsh cruel internet, should pity me, actual flesh and blood and virus-ridden person.
1) Am sick, quite possibly unto death.
2) Car’s still broke, got no ride.
3) Camera’s still broke, POTDs have been beyond terrible for weeks now.
4) Yarrr it’s too icky cold outside to run.
5) Only sucky netflix vids are here right now.
The only thing that could possibly make this better is KU vs K-State in the Big 12 championship tonight.
My new baby nephew has one of his own, which they’ve foolishly given me administrative access to. Anyway, I’m pretty sure you know I’m right when I say you need more baby blogs in your life. So do it, do it now.
I’m rather enjoying a little controversy that’s brewing within my running circle as to whether our real Ragnar team name is Sole Survivors or Funkstrong. I’m hoping the latter wins. I had originally registered us as Funkstrong before we settled on the consensus alternative but apparently the waivers going out are still saying the old name.
Either way, we’ve got a website now. Eighty percent of success is showing up, and the other twenty is having a dope website*.
MILEAGE UPDATE: March 1-7
Miles to date
Past week
Three week average
Annual pace
Miles to go
60.6
10.0
10.7
335.1
939.4
*not that our POS blog thing is dope, but it’s better than nothing.
I’m in New York for the weekend, ostensibly to see Péter Esterházy speak tomorrow. The snow here isn’t nearly as bad as the news made it out to be – it’s been rather nice weather actually. I went to see Billy Elliot today, which made me notice we’ve covered this ground before
Mileage this week was not impressive. None of the last few weeks has been actually, and I may need to reassess the feasibility of the 1000 mile goal. Extrapolating my current three week average forward for the next ten months leaves me several hundred miles short of the goal. Changes need to be made, somewhere.
The Italians deemed gnocchi night to be an abject failure, and given their overall more refined sense of taste, it’s hard for me to disagree (but I will). The making of the gnocchi, from mashing the potatoes into dough, to spinning out ropes to cut into little cubes to flicking them off a fork to give them a fancy little pattern, all great fun. So whether or not they turned out to be too large, too gooey and potato-y is a side issue of less importance than the overall process.
Anyway, next time we’ll do better, whatever it was that was done wrong. And next time I’ll have a real camara, and we’ll deconstruct.
After a fine day out and about yesterday I arrived home safe and sound, only to have my SLR fly out of my camera bag and bang along down the hill by my house a good distance. My prime lens took one for the team, breaking clean in half. The camera body suffered some damage as well – the contacts that communicate with the lens are not connecting properly anymore. Poor camera barely made it past it’s first birthday (and it’s not like there wasn’t foreshadowing).
Anyway, this is not good stuff. Bad fiscally, worse for me mentally. It’s made my life feel even more disjointed and aimless than usual.
Fortunately, some of quasify’s (semi-anonymous?) benefactors recently gave me a somewhat uncomfortably large small business grant towards resolution #4, wide angle lens acquisition. I have been debating between two options (the Sigma 10-20 or the Canon 10-22), both of which will require a functioning body to be useful.
So here’s my plan, barring a better suggestion. I’m shipping this guy back to Canon for a repair quote. If that comes back prohibitively high (say, more than $200) I’m going to bite the bullet and get one of the new T2i bodies, three generations up from my XSi. And once that spending seal is broke, I’ll get a replacement 50mm and whichever of the wides looks better after checking them out in person.
The lesson learned here is to securely clip the camera bag shut. And be more careful. And buy the extended warranty. And have exceptionally kind & generous friends.
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but YJP’s visit has given me the push I needed. By semi-voluntary consensus our official Ragnar team name is Sole Survivors. Thanks for the suggestion Hondo!
Just FYI, we still have a single solitary open slot on our 12 person Ragnar roster. Email or comment below if you’re interested. The race itself is May 21st-22nd, and the fee is $155 (which will cover our entry fee and van rental).
So I’ve got this new nephew. This is the first male born into our family in quite some time (and first new kid in almost three years). Historically my extended family has trended towards an abundance of girls (I have only nieces, sisters & blood aunts, and very few male first or second cousins). So this little guy is more than welcome to help reset the ratio. As he’s only a small number of hours old, he’s a bit of a blank slate right now, perfectly inable to refuse our various projections on what kind of future he’ll end up having. In reality we really have no friggin clue about what kind of kid he is or will want to grow up to be. Knowing his parents though, I’m guessing he’ll end up making upright choices more often than not, be more capable then me, ably skilled in the practical and yet well aware of the range of big possibilities an aware life offers. Is it possible that I can contribute some small random influence into his life that might lead him in interesting directions? I hope so. The electric guitar awaits.
Anyways, there is he, Eben Samuel. Mad props on making it safely thusfar little dude.
It’s become clear to me that I won’t reach my annual mileage goal of 1000 miles (#1) without more accountability. Towards that end, I’m bringing back mileage sunday tag.
MILEAGE UPDATE: February 8-14
Miles to date
Past week
Three week average
Annual pace
Miles to go
28.4
12.3
7.1
241.0
971.6
A second idea that I’m playing with is revisiting the same 18 week training goals I used for San Francisco last year. If I started that now, I’d finish June 21st*. So, huh, that’d put me in good position for Kona.
Anyway, regardless of whether or not anyone actually reads this, it’s helpful to have it put in print, as statement of fact. This is what I’m going to do, this is what I’ve done, this is where I am now.
Ok, for hondo*, a quick king cake recap. Got up ass early on Saturday to bake for zannejude’s birthday thing at Soulfire. Made three batches of sweet-bread dough, the kneading of which will, the following morning, result in a disturbing amount of shoulder muscle self-awareness. Baking on cakes #1 and #2 wrapped up some five hours later due to massive kitchen inefficiency and my obsessive desire to photograph each stage of the process (with incessant hand washing breaks to keep the camera butter-free). Cake #3 turned out to be the best of the batch (despite being eaten at a point in time where the entire king cake experience was devalued due to repetition), and not just because I got the baby(!!!). The secret to massive success, I believe, turns out to be to use the full bar of cream cheese in a single cake instead of foolishly splitting it in half.
Anyway, here is this year’s recipe. My new photos from this year’s process are the bottom rows here.
*who updated her own blog yesterday, after TWO AND A HALF MONTHS of radio silence. Sheesh.
The last several times I’ve moved I’ve packed and unpacked this sad solitary single-use disposable camera. I was never really sure whose it was or what was on it. Unpacking in Boston yet again, I figured it was finally about time to find out.
Today, I got the photos back from the developer. I know most of the people in the photos, Ambre, BTQ, Katie, YJP etc. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t take the majority of these, I don’t remember being around for when or wherever this was. The exception is the last five, those are definitely mine from some random Fourth of July with Z, possibly in 2007. Any ideas about the others? Australia, Hungary, Italy? Where did you come from little camera? And why has your life been so much more exciting than mine?
OMGWTF Juliette reincarnated as Jacob!!! Who saw that one coming?
Ok, that said. I wasn’t going to watch Lost tonight because some friends are having a Lost party tomorrow due to a work conflict one of them has tonight. First, any boss who schedules a work event for the long anticipated final season premiere of Lost deserves to suffer the terrible wrath of your employees absenteeism. Second, screw waiting. I don’t like to wait. Third, spoilers like the highly accurate one above are going to be de rigueur throughout the internet tomorrow. It’s going to be impossible to even check my most boring of work emails without some jackass writing a company-wide alert about what’s up with Kate & Sawyer.
Point being, I’ve decided to just watch it twice. Ask me no questions I’ll tell you no secrets you don’t wanna know.
As promised, the recipe for homemade hummus, stolen from the MIT Hummus Experience workshop. As it so happens, I’m wearing at this very moment one of their Hummus Junkie t-shirts. I’ve never been prouder of my wardrobe.
George’s Hummus
1 can (15 oz) chick peas
2-4 tablespoon tahini
1.25 fl oz lemon juice (1 lemon)
1 clove fresh garlic
cumin, salt and zhug* to taste
olive oil for garnish.
Blend chickpeas w/ some of the canned liquid. Peel and add garlic, re-blend. In a mixing bowl add the tahini and mix manually. Lastly, add the lemon juice (some kind of funky chemical thing will happen here and it’s important not to mix the lemon and tahini until the latter is suspended in the chickpea mix). Lastly add cumin, salt & zhug then cover with a bit of olive oil.
*Zhug here (pronounced, roughly, skl-oog) is a Yemini pepper sauce made from garlic (2 heads), cayenne peppers (5 big un’s, de-seeded), cardamon (1/2 teaspoon ground), caraway (3 teaspoons), coriander (a big bunch), a pinch of salt and black pepper (2 teaspoons).
Some more information on their taste-off event today since it’s behind a facebook firewall of doom.
January 28 • 12 – 2 pm
MIT • Building 10, Bush Room, Cambridge MA
DIRECTIONS: http://www.facebook.com/l/3387d;whereis.mit.edu/?go=10
Vote for the best home-made hummus at MIT. Help choose the best hummus at MIT’s annual “made from scratch” hummus taste-off! Be dazzled by the variations in flavor and texture. This year’s Taste Off features Hummus ice cream made exclusively by J.P. Licks, live Israeli music, free “Hummus Junkie” t-shirts, and free hummus tubs!
A few photos from Waterville. Short narrative version: I suck at the snowboarding thing, but still it’s fun. The only bad part (other than the soft tissue damage from the repeated wipeouts) was that nobody wanted to play scrabble. Next time.
In the spirit of snackreligious, milkshakes for MLK day. Also present, handmade homemade truffles, both with standard and surprise flavored ganache. Resolution #6 from way back when (ummm yesterday) already having a hard time being heard above the din.
With just under 50 weeks left in the year, I finally get around to resolutions.
1) Run 1000 miles in 2010. That’s 20 miles a week from here on out.
2) Run at least one marathon, and one half.
3) Learn to use external lighting. Buy a secondary light source.
4) Acquire a wide angle lens.
5) Turn my 365 into a 730.
6) Eat better. Embrace my inner Michael Pollan.
7) Run the Ragnar.
8) Make Foss Fest 2010 a financial success.
9) Make Jingle Blast III bigger, better somehow.
10) Finish off everything from last year that got left undone. Specifically discrete objectives 5 through 8. And re-embrace all the vague unmeasurable notions.
It’s on. The Somerville Arts Council (in their infinite wisdom) has decided to fund Foss Fest 2010. We don’t have a date set yet so best to just keep the whole summer open.
It’s a fatalistic mindset, that we have standing reasons to dislike Mondays this time of year, with it’s associated promise of early darkness and unfulfilled obligations. But tonight has improved somewhat upon receipt of a random email from Amazon saying there was a $5 mp3 credit waiting for me. I don’t know why they send me these, some money losing promotion straight outta 1999, but I’ve gotten a few of these recently, thanks Bezos! Coincidentally they’ve got a stack of $5 albums to sort through. Sifting through the chaff there, I found & bought Steve Earle’s album Jerusalem. This is my second Earle album in as many months (the other being the slightly superior Train a Comin’), and one I had been thinking of getting ever since a track of his – John Walker’s Blues – ended up on mixcorp album last year. I’m not going to fake up any sort of coherent album review or anything, it’s just what I’m feeling, where this house is at right now. Recommended.
), and one I had been thinking of getting ever since a track of his –
Recent Comments