Nine-Twelve

Gainesville

Watching football again-- the Monday night double-header. Wretched excess! Sorry that the Skins couldn't pull it out at the end, but still a great game. In the current game, I find myself rooting for San Diego, where usually I'd be for Oakland. I just think the Chargers are long overdue, and I like LT.

Marty, you're doing Fantasy Football?! Do tell all! What venue? Who is on your team? About 15 years ago I did a fantasy baseball team-- back in the days of 2400 bps modems and Genie. Baseball is so relentless, playing almost every day, and I spent an ungodly amount of time reading Baseball Weekly, The Sporting News, and following minor league teams so I'd know who I could bring up when my guys got injured. I could still tell you nearly every member of The Twisters (named after my dog Twist), and followed all of their careers ever after. I won my division, but never again. Football might be less time consuming, but on the other hand, I understand how baseball works, what all the stats mean; football, much as I love it, is mysterious to me when it comes to the details.

Should mention that we were also unhappy to see the Bucs blanked in Tampa yesterday in an otherwise good day.

Also forgot to mention yesterday that we had a measurable earthquake yesterday. Say what? We didn't feel it here at the house, but apparently people on the upper floors of both Library East and West were scared out of their wits as the buildings shook, rattled and rolled. Whoa! I doubt building codes here are very strict about earthquake-proofing. Local experts speculate that this may be an after effect of Katrina-- dramatic increase of silt runoff overloading plates in the Gulf-- but will take more research to know.

Mom, your mention of getting a new slicer in Saalfelden reminded me I wanted to ask what's a good slicer now? I have one I inherited from Dan, but it's got broken parts-- I have to hold it together to use it, which is scary, and it's nearly impossible to clean. I hardly every use it, but there are times when a good slicer would come in handy. I'm still too terrified by the mandoline I got several years ago to get it out of the box.

Got through a Monday at work. One more to go (next week off). Days are dwindling down. Did a nice thing with frozen chicken breasts tonight: dipped in melted butter/olive oil combo, then a lot of parmesan and a little oregano, paparika, salt and pepper, then baked at 350 for half an hour. I've decided my oven is on the low side, so I cranked it up to 365 after about 10 minutes. Seemed to work well. Bill and Carrot were both effusive in their approval, and I liked it too.

Geez, enough of the 9/11 stuff. It's over already, at least on this coast. I tuned in to watch a football game, not a political rally. The event itself it still a raw wound I do not appreciate having opened, let alone poked and prodded for fun and profit. Feh. This is just one of my growing discontents with the way football is being presented these days. More to follow, no doubt.

Ah well. We're all too well connected tonight, as some replacement hardware arrived today and we once again have TV in the kitchen-- i.e., the TV is a slave to the master in the TV room. This means I can listen/watch to football or baseball while cooking. Sports are perfect cooking noise, as I can follow it, and turn around to watch anything that's crucial. Makes the drudgery part of cooking a lot more tolerable.