Raving Amicks

The snakes were enjoying the spring rays today.

On the same note my friend Adam McRae and I came up with a name for dad’s snake the other day. We’re calling him Neville which seems to pair with “Benji” the other snake pretty well. It only took about a decade to name two pets but I think the wait was worth it don’t you?

I convinced mom and dad to get out of their comfort zones and take a cross country ski class with me on Mount Hood. I’m still shocked that they actually agreed to do it, but in the end we all had a lot of fun. The class was only 2 hours long but we managed to take away quite a bit of knowledge. We even journeyed out by ourselves after finishing our beginner’s class exploring a few different trails.

Well, we’ve had the puppy for a little over a week now. I guess Tyler and I were just too lazy to take pictures, upload them, and write a post. Oh yeah, we were also busy reorganizing the apartment. And later Tyler was busy with battling what was potentially the swine flu. It was a flu anyway—a flu that he conveniently came down with 48 hours after attending a video game expo where there was a swine flu outbreak. All those video gamers not washing their hands and then eating lunch makes even me feel sick.

So now we have a cute, fluffy puppy that loves people and loves to snuggle. But oh the whining. Oh god, the whining. This is the whiniest puppy I’ve ever met. I feed her food, she scarfs it down—while whining. I give her a walk, she bounds around happily—while whining. I look at her, she whines. I hold her, she whines. All I can guess is we’re simply not giving her enough attention. Or maybe she’s just pissed that we haven’t given her a name yet.

On the flip side, she makes a really good bookend:

I have a big pile of media equipment under my TV, so when Dieter suggested that someone try out the Belkin Conserve, I got all excited and started running around the house plugging random things into holes. The Conserve is designed to force electronic devices – which usually continue to slurp and gargle power even when they’re off – to truly dislodge and leave the power in the wall where it belongs. We have one 26” Samsung flat-screen TV, as well as an Apple TV, an electric sheep, and five video game consoles (Wii, PS2, N64, Super NES and NES), which means we have ample equipment with which to test out the Conserve. (more…)

Here’s the dinner I made for me and Tyler tonight. I went a little overboard—especially with portions, which is a constant battle when making new recipes for just two people. The bottom left corner of the plate features the carrots that Father Amick gave to us last week. I wanted to use the fingerling potatoes we also got from Father Amick, but I had some older potatoes in the fridge that I felt I should get rid of.

The dinner was: pan-fried salmon that was marinated in lemon juice and herbes de provence, potatoes that were also pan-fried and cooked with aged goat cheese and more herbes de provence, a simple baby mixed green salad with olive oil and balsamic, and glazed carrots with tarragon and chervil. I used only half of the carrots, and the recipe really brought out their tasty homegrown flavor. It was so good that I think I’ll make it again with the other half of the carrots later in the week.

Here’s the picture of that cool tavern sign I told you guys about. I just put it up on my wall a couple hours ago. It replaces the venerable Japanese-styled cloudy mountain painting, which goes back into the poster tube.

Keep a close eye on your boobies, lest they wander into my trappe!