Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
motorcycles

dog run 2006

We were debating all week whether to attend this year’s Dog Run party. We went last year and had a great time, but they raised the rates this year and we didn’t feel that it was worth the $60 seeing that I don’t drink beer and that is the only alcoholic beverage served. Brian finally made up his mind that we were going to just do the run, but not go to the party. As it turns out, no one could have watched Jake for us this evening, so it was a moot point. And, given the fact that it’s been raining since 6:30, I’m rather glad we didn’t have plans to go.

But, we “unofficially” did the run along with one of my friends from work, Jeff. Brian tried to get some of his biker friends to go, but no one was available this weekend. I’m glad Jeff went with us because it’s definitely more fun to ride with someone than by yourself–at least for something like this.

I think Brian was bummed about not going to the party because this evening, he expressed an interest in going to next year’s party and camping there overnight. Unfortunately, he did not read the fine print of our prenup agreement–“Except as otherwise provided below, Prospective Husband and Prospective Wife waive the following right: camping.”

auto

meaty ochre

As you may have read, we installed a new radio and cd changer in my car a few weeks ago. I’ve been enjoying the changer, but I was not happy with the sound coming from the speakers. Not one bit. We tried tweaking the EQ and every other setting on the radio, to no avail. The sound was mediocre at best, crappy at worst. So, the only thing left was to buy new speakers. We installed these on Labor Day, and oh, what a difference a few speakers can make. It all sounds quite wonderful now. The only thing I don’t understand is how is it that this is the most expensive vehicle I’ve owned, yet it had the crappiest speakers of all my vehicles. I’ve replaced a few radios in our vehicles over the years, but I’ve never had to replace the speakers. I’m sure we could’ve gotten a better sound if I would have, but the point is, none of them sounded bad until this one. I just don’t get it.

food & drink

sauced up

Last year, I was looking for a way to process my garden tomatoes for sauce. I didn’t have any luck last season, but I found this cool attachment for my KitchenAid mixer in the fall, so I grabbed it up and have been patiently waiting to use it ever since. Before Hurricane Ernsto blew through over the weekend, I picked all of the ripe tomatoes from my garden. I didn’t have quite as much as I normally use for sauce, but I thought it would do for a test. So, I attached the fruit and vegetable strainer to my mixer and started to process the tomatoes. It worked like a charm. The good stuff came out of one end of the strainer and the seeds and skins out of the other. My sauce turned out a little thinner than I like, but that happens to me every time I make sauce from fresh tomatoes. Next year (or if I get really lucky with my crop, next month), I’ll have to try cooking it longer to thicken it up. But, I do think this is the permanent solution for my tomato problem.

movies

the aristocrats

We watched this movie last night while munching on black bean dip and sipping Margaritas. This was a documentary about a joke whose punchline is “The Aristocrats”. This joke has been used as an exercise by comics since the beginning of comedy. It’s premise is to tell this obscene story and be funny about it. As a joke, it’s not really all that funny. They talked to countless comedians who told their version of the joke. Most were just disgusting, though there were a couple of really funny ones in there. The joke was probably told close to 100 times during the course of the documentary (it seemed like it, anyway), so it was surprising that it kept our interest for the full 90 minutes of the film.

I haven’t watched stand up comedy for a while, so it was interesting to see how all of the comics have aged over the years. And it was fun trying to recall their names. So, if you’re into stand up, you might like this–unless you are easily offended, then you might as well forget about it.

me

karma

It’ll bite you in the ass every time.

Today, we had to go to a hearing for the guy who caused the accident we were in last month. We were witnesses in said hearing. It was interesting on an intellectual level because I’ve never been to anything like that before. It was in front of a district magistrate, so it was pretty laid back. Fortunately, the magistrate wasn’t buying the guy’s story and his citation stands. Actually, the outcome of the hearing wasn’t going to affect my life one way or the other but my annoyance factor over this whole situation has been elevated lately, so I was hoping he’d get yelled at by the magistrate (I heard they do that sometimes), and I was not disappointed. The State Trooper who was in charge of the prosecution thinks that this guy might appeal the verdict and we’ll have to do this again in a month or two at the county courthouse. Terrific. Brian and I actually don’t believe he will appeal, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Stay tuned for more information next month.

In even better news, his insurance company called me last week to tell me that they were accepting responsibility for the accident. We’ve already received our “lost wages” check from them for the sick day we took after the accident. Now, I’m just waiting on our insurance company to refund my deductible and at least the insurance part of this situation will be done with.