The Big Green House

Thursday, May 29, 2003

 

In the name of all that�s good and decent, WHY?

Help me out, here � what kind of crazy insane person puts walnuts in pesto? Seriously. I want to know what possible reason there could be for such a crime against basil. Pignoli, sure; although some folks think they make the sauce gummy, pine nuts and pesto work amazingly well together. And while I recognize that there are those who actually admire the walnut (I am not among that group), how could that mealy texture and taste do anything for such an otherwise beautiful sauce? Aside from ruining it, I mean. Just the thought of it is giving me the willies.

Pesto is such a wonderful thing, so simple, so delectable and so versatile. There are very few things I can think of that wouldn�t be improved with a little pesto; corn flakes spring to mind, and most desserts� that�s about it, I think. It�s great on pasta, of course, but I love it in sandwiches and salads, on top of baked brie, chicken, soup, etc, ad infinitum. Hell, it even makes something as retch-inducing as mayonnaise palatable, and that�s saying something.

Just leave the walnuts out.

bmarkey 5/29/2003 08:23:00 PM

 
We have a winner! Not without a little controversy, but it�s all been sorted out. Science Girl was actual visitor 2,000, but since I�ve already promised her her very own mix tape, she has been disqualified. So, the big winner of the Big Green House mix tape is IP address #64.80.226, who dropped in at 2:56 PM Pacific Time. Congratulations! Send me an email with the word "mallet" in the title line so I don't accidentally delete it as spam within the next 24 hours or so, stating which page you came from to get here (so I know it�s you) and a mailing address so I can get your tape to you.

bmarkey 5/29/2003 04:19:00 PM

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

 

Oh grow up

If you�re in the market for a good, hoppy beer (and who�s not?), you could do far worse than Flying Dog pale ale. You�ll have to look beyond their marketing scheme, though, which is pointed directly at the apparently limitless frat boy market � In Heat Wheat? Doggie-Style Pale Ale? Which, of course, must inevitably lead to the �I like it Doggie-Style� T-shirt, etc. C�mon. Any points awarded for somehow convincing Ralph Steadman to create the labels are immediately lost due to the Lowest Common Denominator nature of the trade names.

The beer itself is something else again. True, the body is decidedly on the thin side, but with hot weather coming on that�s not necessarily a bad thing. It�s very nicely hopped, anyway. Too hoppy for Miller Lite-guzzling, thick-necked puds, I�d wager, but the discerning adult palate (by which I mean �ones like mine�) will enjoy the refreshing bitterness. I�d like to see what these guys could do with an IPA.

That doesn�t make me cringe any less when I bring the six-pack up to the checker, though, since I might as well be wearing a fucking Dave Matthews band t-shirt. Shake yourselves, Flying Dog people! Put some body in the beer and pretend, just for a moment, that your customer might have a brain in his head along with the one in his pants.

bmarkey 5/28/2003 10:42:00 PM

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

 
OK, as of 10:15 PM Pacific Time, The Big Green House has had a total of 1,990 hits. As a small thank-you gift to the person who kicks it over 2,000, I will personally make them a mix tape. While I don't think this would be a problem, I'll spell it out anyway: no fair clicking ten times in hopes of winning.

If things proceed in a normal fashion, we should have a winner sometime tomorrow. I will post the ISP of the "lucky" winner, and they will have a day in which to email me their address.

Please, no rioting.
bmarkey 5/27/2003 10:24:00 PM

 

Bugs (all sorts)

Today�s post is brought to you by BUGS. Serving all your infestation needs since before the dawn of time. We were here before you were, and we�ll be here long after you�re gone. Bugs: doing the work no one else wants to. Give us a call at 1-800-INSECTS, or visit our web site. Ha! Get it?

1) As you�ve no doubt heard if you live in the Seattle area, the tent caterpillars are out in force this year. Many of the trees we saw in Magnuson Park this weekend were infested. As it turns out, so was the old cherry tree at The Big Green House. Fortunately only one branch was involved, so I was able to deal with the problem. I think. I borrowed a pole saw from Science Manor, but I still had to climb up into the tree in order to cut the branch off; as it was falling it snagged on not one, but TWO other branches, so there�s a chance that the caterpillars just switched limbs. They�re gonna revoke my tree surgeon�s license.
2) Science Girl noticed a couple of yellowjacket nests in the eaves above the bedroom door of The Big Green House this weekend. If they were in a more isolated area, I would have been happy to leave them alone. Since they were right over the bedroom door leading to the back yard & near the bedroom windows, we decided that they had to go. I did the deed this morning, spraying both nests with some nasty chemical crap that will probably kill us all in the end. But at least we won�t get stung now.
3) Poor Lucy has the worst case of fleas I�ve ever seen. She�s got hot spots where she�s bitten all the fur off of parts of her back legs. I picked up some bitter apple spray that was supposed to keep her from biting herself � it left a bad taste in her mouth, but did not actually stop the biting. I�ve been bathing her once a week in an attempt to keep ahead of the little critters, but they�re relentless. She was scratching again within an hour of her Sunday bath. We went to the vet today; Dr. Darly prescribed Advantage for the fleas, an antibiotic because of the little sores caused by biting the hot spots, and prednesone to stop the itching. So with any luck we�ll soon be flea-free, and Lucy can relax a little.

bmarkey 5/27/2003 06:41:00 PM

Monday, May 26, 2003

 

I suppose you can do better?

And now, the moment you�ve all been waiting for: the traditional Monday �what we did over the weekend� update! Woo-hoo, as the kids say.

Saturday: Lucy and I pick up Science Girl at Stately Science Manor. We head to Magnuson Park for a picnic and walkies, although we avoid the off-leash area. Big dogs like to gang up on small dogs and Lucy, being a terrier, will not take any shit from any dog, no matter what size.

SG, good Scandinavian girl and daughter of the Northwest that she is, craves fish for dinner. I grew up in a house where if it wasn�t meat or potatoes it usually wasn�t on the menu, so fish and I don�t always get along. However, I know a recipe for petrale sole, from The Sicilian Gentleman�s Cookbook, which is easy and quite yummy. We have it with saffron rice, steamed broccolini with lemon juice, a nice green salad, and a bottle of L�Ecole No. 41 semillion.

Sunday: Continuing the Scandinavian theme, I suggest a trip down to Ikea. It sounds like a good idea at the time. What we don�t know until we get there is that this is Tax-Free Weekend, so everybody and their brother is shopping at Ikea today. We battle the crowds for about an hour. SG scores new light fixtures for Science Manor; I pick up some cooking utensils & the beginnings of a nifty ulcer. (I don�t handle crowds very well.)

On the way home, we stop at Spud�s and pick up some fish & chips to bring home. If there�s a better source for fish & chips in Seattle, I�ve yet to find it. I am somewhat dismayed by the absence of malt vinegar to go, however, and of course we don�t have any at home. I muddle through somehow.

After dinner, we round up the dog and take her to Hamlin Park. (This link is to a panoramic view of the park, but since it requires QuickTime I can�t tell you if it works or not.) Lucy has far too much fun running around and playing Wild Forest Dog, and promptly jumps into her chair and falls asleep when we get home.

And there you have it. Nothing terribly interesting for those not personally involved, I�m afraid, but then I am a boring person. Science Girl is interesting on her own, but I�m a bad influence and make her do boring things.

bmarkey 5/26/2003 07:57:00 PM

Friday, May 23, 2003

 

Rock & Roll Roundup

Here are a few quick-hit reviews. Some of these albums I�ve only had the chance to listen to once or twice, so this is very much about the first impression. I reserve the right to change my mind upon further listening.

Wire Send: These guys have aged well. (I can say that because I�m approximately the same age.) Lotsa loud guitars and what singer/guitarist Colin Newman refers to as �shouty bits�, which is an apt description. Some of the tunes tend to get stuck in that techno-disco lockstep groove which so annoys me; Science Girl would probably take issue with that, but she�s much more of a fan of that sort of thing than I. �In the Art of Stopping� avoids this (to my mind) setback, as do �Mr. Marx�s Table� and �The Agfers of Kodack�, as I recall. Overall it�s quite good, thumpa-thumpa aside. Fast art punk by the band that invented it.

We ordered our copy through the Wire mail-order website, so included a copy of the limited-edition live set, recorded in Chicago last year. Frankly, I much prefer the live versions of most of the songs which appear on both discs. No slam on the studio stuff; the live performances just have a bit more room in which to breathe. Play it loud, but be warned that it will frighten the dog.

The New Pornographers The Electric Version: Power pop, in the very best sense of the word. Smart and snappy, New Porn features the dulcet tones of Miss Neko Case on several tunes, including the makes-me-jump-around-and-embarrass-myself-every-time �All for Swinging You Around�. (Neko, if you read this, please get John Doe to record something with you ASAP � you could do a cover of �Jackson� in honor of June Carter Cash, maybe. Think about it.) Anyway, the rest of the band ain�t slackin� off either. I think I prefer their debut album Mass Romantic, but the dreaded sophomore slump seems to have passed this band by.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever to Tell: Yet more proof that the nostalgia curve has caught up with the Eighties. I don�t hate it (and I�m gonna be hearing from cowboy_sally on that, I fear). It�s nice to hear a singer having fun on the job for a change, even if Karen O is detailing the sexual angst inherent in modern life, blah-de-blah . I dig �Y Control�, but guitarist Nick Zinner needs to watch out or he will head straight into Flock of Seagulls territory. Needs more listens, but I think it will grow on me.

bmarkey 5/23/2003 08:10:00 PM

Thursday, May 22, 2003

 

Those snakes are lethal

Granted, It�s been a long time since I�ve driven on anything like a regular basis; something like three years and change, I think. Still, things seem to have gotten a lot uglier on the road than I remember. On my way in to work today, I was passed on the right while I was trying to dodge an oncoming car that had crossed the double yellow line. Yesterday, while I was driving Science Girl around* for a few errands, someone almost backed into us in a parking lot, someone else nearly hit us by making an illegal U-turn, and some hammerhead on the freeway just missed clipping the front end of our car while making a lane change sans turn signal. We also saw someone make a right turn from the left-hand lane, thereby causing the car in the right lane to slam on his/her brakes.

Did they abolish the rules of driving while I was on hiatus? Is it time for me to get my Road Warrior on? Because I can get the haircut, and while our Subaru Impreza Outback Sport** is hardly a V-8 Interceptor we could probably� um, we could� well, we could paint it black, anyway.

*SG doesn�t drive. That�s why I�ve got the car.
**This is not our actual car, but it looks just like this one. Really.

bmarkey 5/22/2003 06:01:00 PM

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

 

Elementary, my dear peabrain

As I�ve mentioned before, we�ve put Science Girl on my insurance. It�s an awful lot of money each month � not much less than what it would cost for her to pay privately, but enough so that it�s worthwhile. Until we actually tried to use it, that is.

Since we are not yet married, we filed for domestic partner status with my employer and The Large Insurance Company we deal with. They made us jump through a bunch of hoops (and are still doing so, actually � some of our paperwork got �lost� somehow, but that�s another story altogether), but eventually we were able to satisfy them. Or at least we thought so, when they started deducting huge amounts from my paycheck.

Since SG needed to refill a prescription today, she called the pharmacy to place her order before we went over to pick it up. It should have been very simple. Instead, the pharmacist told us that she wasn�t covered by my insurance. We called my employer�s main office, we called the pharmacy again; there were a lot of phone calls made. The upshot of it is, some muppet-headed drone with the IQ of a sparrow at The Large Insurance Agency created SG�s account under my last name and with my social security number.

I mean, I understand that accidents will happen, but you�d almost have to be trying to make this one. Let�s examine the situation for just a moment: we�re trying to get domestic partner coverage and we don�t live in West Virginia, so chances are WE DON�T HAVE THE SAME LAST NAME. If we did, we�d probably already be married & not having to mess around with this stuff. All of the many, many pages of paperwork we filled out had Science Girl�s last name on them. You don�t have to be Sherlock fucking Holmes to figure it out.

Well, anyway, we finally got it all sorted out. Not in time for SG to get her prescription refilled today, but she�ll be OK until tomorrow.

Also, the last burner on the stove gave up the ghost today. We were afraid that we�d have trouble replacing it, since it�s an odd shape; all four burners are in a row, thusly OOOO
rather than in the usual configuration
OO
OO
However, SG was able to find a similar model which will just about fit in the space available AND includes a built-in grill. And we can get it installed next week, which is much quicker than we thought would be possible.

So, despite a fair amount of aggravation, the day looks like it will end on a happy note. Cross your fingers.

bmarkey 5/20/2003 08:42:00 PM

Monday, May 19, 2003

 

Unleaded

As I believe I�ve mentioned before, Science Girl is overseeing the restoration of Stately Science Manor to its former level of splendor. In the course of this project, it has become necessary to scrape a little paint here and there. As it turns out, some of this paint has been around since the joint went up, circa 1932. Paint from that era, as I�m sure you know, is chock full of deadly, brain-softening lead.

This is very definitely Not A Good Thing.

However, Science Girl has risen to the challenge, as is her wont. I may be way off base here, but I think she kinda digs this wrinkle in the work. Not because she wanted to be exposed to lead, of course. Don�t be stupid. It adds a little hint of danger to the proceedings, and it�s vaguely Scientific, so I think it spiced up what was otherwise a somewhat tedious job. (Feel free to correct me if I�m wrong, sweetie.) She did an awful lot of research on the web on lead-based paint and its removal, and then we spent a good part of yesterday shopping for paint-removal equipment and some protective gear for her to wear while she�s using it.

Lead is bad for adult humans, yes, but it is especially Not Good for small dogs. Since they don�t make protective suits for dogs, (and I think we�d have trouble getting her to wear one anyway), this means that Lucy can�t visit Science Manor again until most of the work is done. She has a tendency to view small objects on the floor, like paint chips, as potential snacks.

What this all comes down to, for those of you still awake at this point, is that weekends will be spent at The Big Green House for the next few weeks. How does this affect you, the Big Green House reader? Well� it doesn�t, really. For us, it means that I�ll be cooking on weekends again (we only have one burner that works over at Science Manor, and since SG knows the ins & outs of its use I�ll usually defer to her while we�re there). Saturday night I prepared two dishes I�d never made before, in an attempt to match the meal to the Rafanelli I mentioned last week. The chicken in red wine (a variation on Coq au Vin, thankfully omitting the chicken�s blood, from Jacques Pepin�s Table, the cookbook I probably use more than any other) was OK, although I could have reduced the wine a bit longer, I think. To go along with it I tried making something I�d seen this guy make on TV that morning: polenta with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Yeah, it�s a clich� � go ahead and laugh. It�s also pretty damn tasty. I think next time I�d add more tomatoes & try to incorporate the goat cheese a little better, though. Oh, and the wine was as advertised: Very Nice Indeed. Big & lush but still recognizably zinfandel.

Was it a perfect meal? Aside from the nice green salad SG whipped up, not really. It was good, but it could have been better. Next time, it will be so. It was fun to try out some different recipes, and it�s always fun to cook for and eat with SG, so I�d say that all in all it was a moderate success. I have learned not to ask for much more than that.

Edit: Upon conferring with Science Girl, I find that what I mistook for enthusiasm for the project was in fact fear-based zeal. SG is very, very scared of the lead, and rightfully so. She�s been living there, in what qualifies as a toxic environment, for the past month or two, while dust and paint chips have been spread about the house. Her research, while informative, was also terrifying � as such research often is. She was bombarded with tale after tale of the toxicity of lead & it�s effects on the central nervous system, etc. Rather than collapsing into a useless pool of terrified goo, which probably would have been my plan of attack, she saw what needed to be done and set about doing it.


bmarkey 5/19/2003 07:25:00 PM

Friday, May 16, 2003

 

Happy cooking!

I am crushed! I found out tonight that Jacques Pepin will be signing copies of his new book next Wednesday night. I�ve asked for so much time off in the month of June that I don�t dare try to get that night off as well. Science Girl, trooper that she is, said she would try to get up there and get a copy signed for me, but Third Place Books is way the hell up in Lake Forest Park � not the easiest place to get to on the bus, especially at night. I guess I could order one of the pre-signed books, but how cool would it be to have one personally inscribed by the master himself? This is killing me. I may have to play hooky anyway.

bmarkey 5/16/2003 11:08:00 PM

Thursday, May 15, 2003

 
On a less somber note, a great big �Howdy!� to everyone stopping by from seablogs. Apparently I was added to the list from my MeFi account. Oh, you didn�t know about that? No reason why you would. I commented a few times & then became dismayed by the precipitous drop in the level of discourse. Now I stop by every now and again, clicking on a link here and there but carefully avoiding the comments.

Anyway, yeah. Seablogs. Seems like a good idea. (And I know they were just waiting for my approval.)

bmarkey 5/15/2003 08:50:00 PM

 

Love is a burning thing

June Carter Cash passed on today, due to complications from heart surgery.

It�s always an odd feeling when an artist whose work I appreciate dies. It�s not like I ever really had any kind of connection to them, and yet it often seems to me as if I�ve lost � well, not a friend, exactly, but something more than an acquaintance. Some aspect of their work has touched me, some sort of (admittedly one-way) communication has been made, so in that sense I guess you could say that there was a connection. Tenuous, yes, but valuable just the same.

I feel as if I should say something here, but I�m not really sure what that would be. It�s not as if I knew her. She certainly came across in interviews as an intelligent woman with a great sense of humor. I feel sad for the family, and for Johnny Cash in particular. He�s had a long, hard row to hoe in this lifetime, and everything I�ve ever read about him leads me to believe that his wife has been a great source of comfort and support over the years.

So, for whatever it�s worth, my thoughts are with Mr. Cash tonight.

bmarkey 5/15/2003 07:52:00 PM

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

 

This & that

As you may have surmised from last night�s post, we have purchased a car. I will tell that sad story, with all the gory details, but not just yet.

In happier news, I can tell you that I saw not one but two bald eagles this Saturday, flying over the Maple Leaf reservoir. I�d guess they were fishing, in which case they were sorely disappointed. I�d never seen one that close, outside of the zoo. It was pretty damn cool, truth be told.

In even happier news, my boss� boss � who knows how much I love zinfandel � was kind enough to give me a bottle of the 1997 Rafanelli zin. This is a hugely big deal for me. 1997 was a great year for California wine in general and zinfandel in particular, according to what I�ve read. I can tell you that the wines I�ve had from that year have been really good. Also, Rafanelli is next to impossible to find; you either have to go to the winery or get on their mailing list. They do sell to some restaurants, but not to retailers. I�ve never tasted any of their wine (hell, I�d never seen a bottle of it before this one), but I�ve only heard good things about it. So I�m gonna have to come up with an exceptional dinner to match the wine.

No pressure.


bmarkey 5/14/2003 09:24:00 PM

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

 
Y�know, if the God of the Righteous were to swoop down tonight and slowly char each and every used car dealer in, say, Bellevue, WA to a small pile of fine grey ash which would then be destined to blow hither and yon across the face of the earth, eternally seeking rest yet never finding it� why, I�d think that was a fine thing.
bmarkey 5/13/2003 07:11:00 PM

Friday, May 09, 2003

 

Got live if you want it

June is shaping up to be Live Music Month at The Big Green House. Well, not at TBGH, exactly; the only live music we have there is when I torture serenade Science Girl and Lucy with my stirring a cappella rendition of the Bon Scott-era AC/DC songbook. What I mean is that we haven�t been out to a club in donkey�s years & suddenly we�ve got tix for three shows at the wonderful Showbox Theater (in order: The Cramps; Buzzcocks; The New Pornographers, Cinerama, and The Organ) PLUS, as if that weren�t enough, we will also be seeing Wire while we are on vacation in Another City toward the end of the month.

Since it�s been awhile, perhaps one of you kids can help out yer ol� Uncle B � are we still standing stock-still in front of the stage with our arms folded these days, or is it OK to shake yer ass a little?

(My apologies to everyone I�ve just scarred with the mental image of my 42-year-old ass shaking in public. It�s one thing to do it in a darkened club, but quite another to subject unwitting passers-by to the glory that is my sweet, sweet honey-baked ham.)

bmarkey 5/09/2003 08:01:00 PM

Thursday, May 08, 2003

 

Harmony in my head

Has it struck any of you out there that listening to punk rock on CD is somehow fundamentally wrong? First-generation punk, in particular. It was just never meant to sound that crisp and clear; muddy production values were (and, IMHO, are still) part of the charm.

As I write this, it occurs to me that there may be some of you who have never heard punk any other way than on CD.

I think I need to lie down for a bit.

What brought this up was hearing a cut from the Buzzcocks album on a compilation available with the new issue of Uncut magazine. Same ol� buzzsaw Buzzcocks guitars, now with pristine production values. It just struck my ear wrong. Although now that I think of it, The Clash usually had a fairly clean sound.

Maybe I�ll have that lie-down now.

bmarkey 5/08/2003 05:49:00 PM

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

 
Sorry - nothin' to say right now.
bmarkey 5/07/2003 08:58:00 PM

Monday, May 05, 2003

 

I can explain

Here�s what happened. Thursday, I couldn�t log on to Blogger, for whatever reason. Friday, I was in absolutely no mood to write anything that anybody would ever want to read; even if all other written material mysteriously vanished from the face of the earth in some bizarre alien abduction and all that was left was my little blog and the starting roster for the 1982 Seattle Mariners, people world-wide would be fighting to read the line-up and ignoring what I would have written.

So that was Friday.

Saturday and Sunday were spent at Science Manor, relaxing, looking at birds (there is a Western Tanager nesting in our backyard), walking the dog, etc. Oh, and we went down to Pike Place Market & poked around. (Note well, those of you who may, at some time, visit Seattle: it�s not �Pike�s Place�. Calling it that will only mark you as a tourist and/or rube. The locals are too polite to laugh directly in your face, but believe me, they�ll certainly be doing it in their heads.) We stopped into DeLaurenti�s for the first time since they remodeled. I�d forgotten what a great deli they are. The case was full of prosciutto di parma, bresaola, soppresata, coppa� can you tell I like antipasti? And the cheeses! Science Girl is a real cheese lover; I thought she was going to climb over the counter and embrace the wall of cheese behind it. Plus all the lovely little tidbits you�d expect in a decent Italian deli � a bazillion different types of anchovies, olives galore, roasted red peppers, bags of arborio rice just waiting to be made into risotto con funghi (yes, they have the funghi, too), polenta, pastas, gnocchi� I tells ya, a wannabe Eye-talian like myself has to be very careful in such a place or they�ll go home with more food than they could ever hope to eat in one lifetime. I was a good boy, though I�m planning some future meals.

And that brings up to date, more or less.

bmarkey 5/05/2003 10:15:00 PM