Its peanut butter jelly time!; or A product endorsement.

I make no secret of my love affair with Peanut Butter. I love peanut butter and all the wondrous things you can pair it with. Hell, Elvis even put it with pickles. I bring this up because I go through a lot of peanut butter and I prefer Adams, organic please. Anyone who has ever purchased this particular type of peanut butter (old fashioned) knows that you have to work for it. You've got to mix mix mix it up the first time you open it because the naturally occurring oil separates. I've always hated the mix mix mixing because it takes 5 minutes of attempts at stirring with oil slopping over the edge. Plus your hand can cramp. Its not fun. Anyhoo, for a while I wanted a peanut butter mixer. I know, I know. Its not very smart to buy kitchen appliances that only do one thing. But I had to.

I found my treasure at a kitchen store in downtown Seattle. I have warm feelings for this kitchen store because every time I purchased something there they always have information about using it. And if they don't, they say as much. The skeptical looking woman who helped me stated, "I can't vouch for this... but I would bet it works because it looks like it functions on the same principle as a dough hook." Good enough! I'm sold!

Now, I've only used the mixer once, but it handled everything beautifully. It will get used again this week I'm sure. If you are at all a lover of Adams peanut butter but hate the mixing, go get yourself one of these.

Peanut Butter RULES!

weekend.

I made it up to Seattle last weekend for the first time in way too long. It was fantastic to hang out, play some pool, see the sights, and just be. Unfortunately I missed two kickball games, but it was well worth it. Please enjoy some of the pictures from the weekend. Among my faves is the brick wall... if you go to my flickr site and see the large version of the image you'll be able to pick out the thousands of pieces of gum that decorate wall of the building.

Respect my Author-i-tay!

That's right people! Its all about RESPECT! Last night I had to officiate a dodgeball game before my own games started. Fine, no problem. We're all adults who look silly playing dodgeball for fun. The rules are fairly simple, follow them and don't be an ass about it.

Not so simple last night.

There was some serious gorilla chest pounding over dodgeball. Apparently some words were exchanged (which I did not hear) between Short Gorilla and Tall Gorilla. Next thing I know, Short Gorilla runs over and gets up in Tall Gorilla's face! I'm talkin' chest to chest, Short Gorilla almost on his tiptoes to make himself bigger... Bah! Nobody on either team was doing anything to stop the escalating situation so I had to go over and stop the staring-content-chest-pounding riff-raff. Are you kidding me? For dodgeball?

Short Gorilla (who obviously had some sort of experience with this before) knew to flee the scene. He started to walk away quite quickly. UNACCEPTABLE!

My response: Hey! Stop! Look at me.
Short Gorilla: walk walk walk, stop turn, continue to walk on...
Me: Stop. Now. Look at me. You can't do that.
Short Gorilla: moves like he's going to walk away again....
Me: I mean it. Look at me. You cannot do that.
Short Gorilla: Am I out?
Me: You're done. For the game.

BAM! Take that! Luckily dude was shamed into apologizing after the game was over. I don't actually believe that means he'll change his behavior in the future, unfortunately. And the people around him didn't seem all that concerned either. What a bunch of wing nuts.

Anyway, let this be a lesson to you. Respect my Author-i-tay!

mr roboto

Ummmmm, Mr. Roboto. Terrible song. On so many levels. Terrible. One thing I will say for it, though, is that its quite fun to say.

Lost in the Queen's Handbag

I called up KFR the other night before the latest episode of Lost. You see, KFR and his lovely wife Re-B got me hooked on the show. I'd roll over to their house about an hour before the show started with an acceptable beer and we'd shoot the breeze, eat delicious cookies, and ponder John Locke. The John Locke of Lost... not the philosopher. Anyway, I called KFR to talk Lost as we used to do and we ended it by agreeing to blog about it. At some point. If one felt compelled. Kinda.

Right.

So! Was I so thrown by Wednesday's episode that I felt compelled to write about it? No! I feel compelled to write about Queen Elizabeth's handbag! You see, before lost started a program on PBS covered the Queen's last state visit in 2007 (commemorating 400 years of settlement at Jamestown, yadda yadda yadda). Catching only snippets of this (as I talked with KFR), I could only wonder what the Queen kept in her handbag.... I figured it out in a dream Wednesday night. All the Secrets of Lost are in the Queen's handbag. She's carting around a polar bear, the weird smoke (to smite down all who get in her way), directions off the island, Jacob's direct phone number, the meaning of the number, as well as the Charter document of the Dharma Initiative.

Some say dreams have the unique ability to provide powerful insights if we only know how to interpret them. Well, I'm listening.

Check the Queen's handbag.

working girl

I saw bits and pieces of Working Girl on TV yesterday and was drawn in by the out-of-date exercise equipment. There she is, Tess, just trying to get her work done in her inexpensive shoulder pads and tennies (with heels safely tucked away in a secondary bag) when she spots the high tech exercise bike sitting in the corner. As you can see by the picture, she proceeds to jump on the bike and exercise whilst working. Is this too much to ask?

The weather has been right over the last week or so to actually get out and run some. Well, its been long enough that the running is interrupted by intervals of walking. Gotta start somewhere. Anyway, I bring up Working Girl because I like exercising during the day. I don't do well early in the morning and I'm not consistent in the evenings. This leaves lunch time. The noonish hour. Now, I work from home quite a bit so this isn't a problem. A luxury, I know.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I should troll Goodwill or St. Vinny's for an exercise bike like the one above? Cross-training,anyone? Woohoo!