This is not how I thought this would have turned out, but it beat being Neelix or Deanna!

Your results:
You are James T. Kirk (Captain)

James T. Kirk (Captain) 65% Chekov 65% Data 57% Spock 55% Deanna Troi 55% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 50% Beverly Crusher 50% Will Riker 50% Uhura 45% Mr. Sulu 45% Jean-Luc Picard 45% Geordi LaForge 40% Mr. Scott 35% Worf 35% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 35%

You are often exaggerated and over-the-top in your speech and expressions. You are a romantic at heart and a natural leader.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz

Smoldering ashes, industrial skeletons, radiation.... Godzilla!

Having watched numerous seasons of Hell's Kitchen and seeing many of the chef's get torn a new one over Risotto, I was curious as to what all the fuss was about.  Why would Gordon go on such a rampage about this dish.  Is it nearly impossible to make? 

Then more recently, while in San Diego for Comicon, I was able to experience the true awesomeness of this dish at Croce's Restaurant. 

So, I got home and decided I just had to make this.  After a bit of internet investigation and shopping, I was ready to give it try.  There were tons of variations to try, but since I had tried the mushroom risotto, that was the recipe I tried to duplicate.

After about an hour of prep, this is where things stood...(and yes that's two huge mounds of fungi surrounding the wine bottle!)



I had no idea how long it would take me to thinly slice 2 pounds of mushrooms.  Come on, 2 pounds, really?!  You can see I needed some liquid libations to get me through the process.  Actually the wine glass does contain the wine on the counter, however it was nasty, so I added a little blood orange flavoring to spruce it up.  Ewww, but it served it's purpose.  I'm not a white wine drinker, much less a dry white wine drinker, but the recipe called for it, and well the bottle was open, so you know.  Bottoms up.



Twenty minutes of CONSTANT stirring and broth adding later, and I had RISOTTO!  I paired it with Filet Mignon and had a truly wonderful meal on my hands.  One thing I did learn:  I'm not that huge of a fan of fungus.  Don't get me wrong, it was very good, but I think I could have squeaked by with about a pound less mushrooms. 



Anyway, aside from reading comic books (huge backlog) and painting miniatures, that was about all I did this weekend.  I hope you guys had a great one too!

Just wanted to wish The GoofyCubb a Happy Birthday. Hope you have a great day!

Just wanted to wish a very happy birthday to plannerbear! Let the spankings commence!

Which Norse God or Goddess are you most like? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Freyr Freyr 90% Balder 90% Odin 70% Njord 60% Thor 60% Skadi 60% Loki 60% Frigg 50% Bragi 50% Sif 40% Heimdall 40% Freya 40% Hel 20% Tyr 0%

Question for all you tech-savvy folks out there. I need a new flat panel monitor(s). My system will support dual monitors and I'm wandering whether to go that route or get a widescreen - the 22" widescreens look quite nice and definitely give me a tingle. Any ideas? I don't really need two monitors, but will I be happy with a widescreen? If I play games on it, will it stretch out the games or will it give me an option to play it in a window. Sad, sad questions, but I dunno and all the comparison shopping and reviews reading is killing me.

And...does anyone have a recommendation on brand or actual monitor that they've been happy with?

Thanks....

So I'm frantically rushing about the house doing some last minute "cram" wrapping, cleaning, laudry, packing and suddenly I hear this flutter outside and some loud squawking.  I look and I'm struck by this large lime green bird in the oak tree.  It was a freakin' parrot or a Barry Bonds inspired Parakeet!  It was awesome.  I'm looking around for camera to take a pic - can't find any of them.  I decide to go all Steve Irwin (may he rest in peace) and try to snap a pic with my crap-ass camera phone.  No dice.  I open the door.  It squawks and flies off.  :-(  I was hoping it was tame.  Anyway that was my excitement du jour! 

I'd also like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!  May Santa come down your chimney and leave a bounty of goods!

Well I hope everybody had a happy Turkey day.  We spent T-Day at super_sean's dad's house where I think there was a pumpkin pie for every person there.  The food and company was a lot of fun and we all feasted like it was end of days.  After lunch, we headed to my folks' place in Lafayette, LA to begin our grand adventure across the SE US to get to DISNEY WORLD!

Squee!  (exclamation du jour)
super_sean and I spent the entirety of yesterday on the road.  We would normally take I-10 out of Lafayette, but because of some gas well explosion, the bridge over the atchafalaya basin was closed.  So instead of following the detoured route, we found our own way south along hwy 90.  It was very scenic.  The farmers were pulling in their sugar cane harvests and the mills were churning at full capacity.  We wanted to pick up some cane to chew on, but all we could find were old brown sticks.  I was a bit surprised though by some of the signage down in south Louisiana.  We did actually pass two or three of the Bear Xing signs as the one posted here.  I'm guessing as a warning for Swamp Bears. 

The route was actually a good decision as we got to see the sights as well as make real good time.  Wound up going through New Orleans - I hadn't been there since Katrina and I was still surprised by all the damage that was still evident.  From there we continued on through Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, Tallahassee, and finally Gainesville.  By the time we got there, 10:30pm, we decided to call it a night.  We were both pooped and looking forward to some sleepy time. 

'poke' 'poke' 'poke' <crack of dawn>  "are you up yet - huh huh - you up?  are you still sleeping?  It's time to get up!!!!" 
super_sean is VERY excited to start his day.  And while I am excited too, I'm a bit sleepy.  I'm not such the morning person!  I can't blame him - and well his is so adorable when he gets this excited.

Well we're about to hit the road again.  Today we are headed to Orlando for some fun and games at Universal Studios!  Hope everyone out there is having a great day too!

Jonas needs your help.
Jonas needs to learn how to say "frog".
Jonas needs to be committed.
Jonas needs to learn how to put on a shirt.
Jonas needs the money.
Jonas needs a compilation of stubs and skeletons.
Jonas needs a hero.
Jonas needs to get off Aimery.
Jonas needs you to cuddle him, pronto!
Jonas needs to uncover the conspiracy that has torn the team apart.

Just wanted to wish Teddy (aka TallTed) a happy birthday!

What a great weekend. Thursday, my better half started teasing me by email at work that he had a SURPRISE for me. I was told that we had plans for Friday night. Well immediately, I had to know just what that was. He kept teasing me all day with little hints. It was driving me NUTS I say. Well later that night the surprise was revealed. He got us tickets to the Video Games Live concert at Jones Hall (www.videogameslive.com)!!! For those of you non-geeks - it is essentially a night at the symphony playing homage to video game music. There was a 70 piece orchestra and a chorus of sixty folks! Above the performers was a video monitor. The show started off with a tribute to the video games of yesteryear. As the various clips flashed on the monitor the symphony played the music associated with that title. It was really awesome. At two parts of the concert, they called a couple of audience members up to play space invaders and frogger while the symphony backed them up. Overall - a great night. They closed the show with Halo - awesome music and the chorus just made it kind of haunting. The only downside, one the companies - Square - wouldn't let them show video game footage of their intellectual properties. Unfortunately that included Final Fantasy and there were like 3 songs of the night that featured that music. That was a little boring - especially since I'm not that familiar with their games. The pre-concert activities were fun too. We showed up about 2 hours early and got to play a series of video games, people watch (some folks were participating in a costume contest), and shop at the t-shirt gallery. By the end of the evening we were pooped, but I got to fall asleep to sounds of Sean purring and the theme to mario boppin around my head. Great and unexpected evening. Thank you sweetheart!

Woke up late Saturday - I love to sleep in. It was a blissfully lazy Saturday. We had a few folks show up latter in the evening to help us finish off some of our supplies from the Kilt and Toga party. Doug, Texwriterbear, Chad, and Matt came over. We had brews, snacks, played a bit of Wii bowling then closed out the evening watching Not Another Gay Movie. Ha!

Well as I sit here typing, Sean is cussing at Mario World and I'm eyeing another great day of R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N and battery recharge. I hope everyone else is so lucky.

Have a great rest of your weekend and I'm curious to see who else develops gonorrhea on tonights Big Brother!

Well Sean and I headed out to make our fortunes this weekend gambling in Louisiana. And well, we didn't win. But we did have fun. Went to L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles - really pretty place, but casino not so exciting, then went to Grand Casino Coushatta in Kinder - not so purdy, but huge casino. We were there on 7-7-07 and well it was a lucky day - for the casinos! :-( Anyway we considered our losses a donation to the state.

And I'm a geek - here's a little test I took. I really enjoyed the movie too!



Find out which Transformer you are at LiquidGeneration!

So last night we had Sean's folks over for dinner. Everytime we get together I try and make an awesome desert. First time, I made some really cool chocolate mini bundt cakes that I served up with ice cream, whipped cream, and fresh berries. Last night, I had to out do myself, and I think I did. I made tahitian vanilla, key lime creme brulee. Awesome. The white chocolate so balanced the tartness of the key limes. It keeps getting harder to raise the bar. I think next time I'm gonna go for shock value. Below is a pick of a dessert I made for the office a couple of months ago. And despite itself it was awesome.

I told everyone my cat made it for them...

So a couple of weeks ago, Sean and I innocently decided to head home to Louisiana for a bit of "sport". Anyway one thing lead to another and well...oh I just can't bring myself to speak of it... but here's the photo...

Anyone (aside from Kramer) know what this is and what we were doing?