Monday afternoon: Absently eating animal crackers

1. Wow. Big day. Welcome, welcome, welcome to cluegirl, l3arcelona, and the newly renamed  mama_hogswatch.

2. Bright sunshine again, and it's going to be that way for a couple more hours. That's kinda cool. But I have not seen my deer herd, or anything else interesting in weeks.

3. But I have seen dead skunks. Five over three days. Which was pretty funny, considering someone suggested last week that we shouldn't rely on a groundhog in Pennsylvania to tell us when it was Spring in the North Country. The suggestion was "the first dead skunk."

4. Today was "Liam Cannot Do Anything Right At Work Day." I got press releases into two newspapers, but each had the name of the organization I work for rendered incorrectly (read, wrong). I made the mistake, but my two bosses missed it, too. I kept printing letters upside on stationary. I still cannot access my work e-mail from outside the county system, even though a monkey probably could. And so on. And so on.

5. Veyr busy week. Presentation about the intiative to 20-25 people at 8 a.m. tomorrow, the big Youth Summit for 300 kids Wednesday, and a presentation for the school board in Argyle Thursday. Next week, two days of training in Syracuse and dinner with the lovely fireroseboudic.

6.  Fascinating food story from the Wall Street Journal. Check out the graphic.

7. And body sushi via bytchearse.

8. Apparently numbered lists are "Liam-like posts," at least according to patrikia and at least one other person I remember.

9. Yeah. Eliot Spitzer. You want to talk about "Fall From Grace." Man had a fricking *mandate* and he peed it away.

Monday evening: More, more, more . . .

1. So I have been singularly unsuccessful in getting myself out of the house on the weekends. Maybe it's because I hate to make plans.

There *is* a chance I might have something going on.

But  . . .

I was thinking about other possibilities:

A. Making Jaji's Guinness Stew and having a beer tasting here at Chez Casa Villa Haus.

B. Finally going back to the Long Trail brew pubs to see what tasty winter delights they have. (It's in Bridgewater Corners, Vt., near the intersection of Route 4 and Rout 100A.

C. Two-stop hop, including Adirondack Brewing in Lake George and Davidson's in Glens Falls.

Anyone up for any of that?

2. If anyone goes to Ceremony tonight and sees a big guy who looks remarkably like me (but with a beard), please say, "Yo, Stevie Z. Liam says Yo."
Seriously. ;)

3. alethea_eastrid may not believe it right now, but I do not try to be annoying on purpose. Really.

If she's listening to an audio book, and the reader says, "The door was ajar . . . " wouldn't any self-respecting guy say, "Was is a door or was it a fucking jar?"

4, Since my earlier post had foodie links, I give you More Cowbell! Interesting concept. But chicken sashimi?

5. Just a note. If you are searching at Barnes & Noble's web site for "Flogging Molly, and you forget to switch from books to music, you get:

"Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism."

Please do not ask if I have the book.

6. Saranac makes a wicked ginger beer.

7. Speaking of beer . . .

 Brown's Brewing in Troy (NY) will host a trio of beer dinners this year, scheduled for April 3, July 17 and Oct. 9. Each five-course meal with choices and house-brewed beer pairings costs $40 per person, plus tax and tip, and reservations are required; call 273-BEER (2337). Brown’s Brewing is located at 417 River St.

The lineup for the April 3 dinner:

• Sampling hour: International cheeses (Poor Richard’s), Belgian mussels (hefe weizen)
• Soup: Chicken corn chowder (pilsner), tortellini (pale ale)
• Salad: Spinach with Gorgonzola, strawberries, almonds, hot bacon dressing (rauch ale)
• Entree: Steak with wild mushrooms (amber ale), smoked-pepper salmon (oatmeal stout), Southwest chicken (dunkel weizen).
• Dessert: Dark chocolate porter cake (cherry-raspberry ale), bread pudding (whiskey porter), chocolate-dipped strawberries (Poor Richard’s)

Anyone interested?

8. We apparently have no phone service at the house right now. It has been windy.

Monday evening: When there is more, there is more . . .

1. Somtimes, I find the best way to unwind is to roam the Internet.

2. 16th century Polish helmet and bracers. Interesting backstory about looted art.



3. From AllHeadline News:

Vatican City (AHN) - In an attempt to give moral and ethical behavior more significance to current times, the Vatican has recently announced seven new deadly sins, published in an issue of the L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper.

The revision of the list comes after 1,500 years, with Vatican officials explaining that the new items address a global "secular" society bent on the concerns in the age of globalization. The sins are said to be an address to the "decreasing sense of sin" in the modern world.

"The sins of today have a social resonance as well as an individual one," said Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary. "In effect, it is more important than ever to pay attention to your sins."

Mgr Girotti named the new mortal sins to be (1)genetic modification; (2) human experimentations, (3) polluting the environment; (4) social injustice; (5) causing poverty; (6) financial gluttony; and (7) taking drugs.

The sins were added, according to the Telegraph, to the original seven, which Mgr Girotti described has having "rather individualistic dimenion(s)."

Bad editing job, though. They let the writer get away without listing the original seven. Will there be a new list of virtues, too?

4. And Charles Stross combines the presidential race and D&D, via John Scalzi's blog.