Recently in Family & Friends Category

Mark said "More dog pics!"

Sorry guys, but I'm afraid I have to post a couple more dog pics. Hey, it's not like I have a choice, here.

Taken with the new camera which, by the way, arrived in an 8"x8" box.

Click to biggify

Peeps 'preciating pics of puppies please peek. Pet-hating poopyheads, push off!

Prairie dog photos stolen from websites. Puppy pics all taken with my sucky cell phone camera. Still waiting for my new Exilim!

In spite of boots's bitching, my blog software does not suck and I haven't been poasting because I have been busy, lazy, and not very blogative.

Busy: had a visitor last weekend, went to a NASCAR race. Never been to any kind of auto racing, mostly because when I took auto shop back in high school the teacher would play Indy films (as opposed to Indie films) when he didn't feel like actually teaching us anything or letting us loose in the shop. I got car sick watching the cars speed round and round and round so I figured I'd get car sick at a real race. Anyway, my friend came to 'Zona just to see the Sprint Fresh Fit 500 race and I went with her. Had a good time, especially when the car I chose to follow ended up winning. I figured I couldn't go wrong with a guy named "Jimmie Johnson" because that is so NASCAR-esque sounding and his car was just kind of gradually overtaking all the other drivers, one car at a time, making it kind of interesting to watch. His car was blue-ish. Lowes. And I don't mind Lowes all that much, mainly because their logo is blue instead of that pukey orange that Home Depot uses.

Lazy: strained a muscle or tendon or something in my right elbow so I've been trying to take it easy. Makes shopping really really difficult, but I managed it, and now have a noo pair of shooz for the summer. DSW rocks, shoe-wise. Top labels for discount prices, oh baby!

Blogative: my computer was misbehaving. No, not the blog ware :: glaring at boots ::. Windows Installer stopped working, and none of the solutions offered by Microsoft or all the bloggers and forums (who merely parroted Microsoft's solutions) fixed it. I ended up reformating the hard drive, reinstalling everything, and now it's all back up and running, but damn!

Anyway, the news is boring because we've all been there with Obama saying what he really thought but getting slapped for it, and Hillary lying about what it had been like in Kosovo or wherever, and earthquakes here, tornadoes there, I mean <yawn>. There's only so much you can say about this stuff, y'know?

I'll be fixing tofu tacos tonight (thanks UV!) only they'll be burritos with rice and black beans instead of tacos. Same deal, though. Fry the tofu chunks, make the taco seasoning sauce to saute them, then use that instead of ground beef. Sounds faboo.

My twenty-plus year old Sharp Carousel II combination convection and microwave oven finally burnt out. It served us well, over the years and it took me quite a bit of research to locate a replacement that had the features we had come to know and love, and was reasonably intuitive to use. The new microwave -- a Panasonic -- has a "delayed start" feature.

I decided I would have instant oatmeal this morning cuz I was in a hurry so I checked the manual on using the delayed start feature. (By now, little warning bells should be sounding in your head).

1. Key in the time for delay. Example, to delay start for 5 minutes, key in 5 0 0
2. Select power setting for cooking. Example, to cook at power level 6, press the Power Level button 5 times
3. Key in the cook time. Example, to cook food for 10 minutes, key in 1 0 0 0
4. Press "Start"

The timer will count down, the manual said, then the cooking will commence for the selected amount of time at the selected power level.

• I keyed in a delay time of 30 minutes: 3 0 0 0
• I keyed in a power setting of 8: Power Power Power
• I keyed in a cook time of 65 seconds: 6 5
• I pressed "Start"

I went to shower. <-- AD, take note

When I got out of the shower, the house smelled like something was burning and the dogs had worried, uncomfortable expressions.

The blackened mass in the bowl, formerly known as "oatmeal", was still giving off fumes that had yellowed the interior of the microwave. So much for being in a hurry; I spent a good deal of time wiping down the microwave while the bowl and its super-heated carbon contents crackled as it cooled on a hot pad on the counter. The house reeks.

When I was finally ready to leave for work, the dogs were still wearing worried, uncomfortable expressions and Teegan attempted to dine al fresco. Sadly, her bowl remained inside the house, affording Murphy the opportunity to pwn both bowls of food. When Teegan gave up on attempting to teleport her dish and finally came back in, Murphy let her know that she, Murphy, pwned Teegan's bowl.

I let Murphy know that I pwn both bowls.

Anyone know if dog spit gets rad-hardened carbon off of ceramic?