Seestur

Cook away my CSA Challenge

2009-06-13T12:02:00.002-04:00

I just signed on to take the "Cooking away my CSA challenge," so I will be posting about once a week about how I'm using my CSA contents that week! It sounds like my CSA started a little earlier (end of April) than some other folks, so I have a bit of a head start. Therefore, I may be getting some warm weather vegetables earlier than others (like cucumbers.) I will also be using produce from my one-woman-CSA (my own garden.)

This week, in my CSA, I got the usual lettuce and raddiccio (delicious salads all week!) some little yellow squash, a big fennel bulb, beets, mini broccoli (called "happy-rich," love that,) garlic, leeks, and baby pac-choy. I also received a dozen eggs and a four pound chicken.

I've got big plans to do grilled spatchcocked chicken (that's just a fancy word for chicken with the backbone cut out and flattened. I just love the word,) veggie packets on the grill, and rice. I love to marinate chicken in just basic olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice for about an hour before grilling. It really enhances the flavor and keeps it moist without overwhelming it. These CSA chickens are so delicious on their own!

I'm going to cut up the squash, fennel, and an onion and add some herbs from my own yard and balsamic vinegar and grill those up next to the chicken.

I'm also making cucumber salad with cucumbers from my yard, just basic rice wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little bit of sugar with some vidalia onions. I start it in the morning and then shake it throughout the day.

My favorite thing to do with the whole "choi" family is to make wilted, chilled sesame-vinagairette salad. You blanch the greens and then chill them in a bowl of ice water and squeeze them dry. Meanwhile, whisk together some sesame oil, vinegar (I use rice wine vinegar,) Sake, Soy Sauce, garlic, ginger, and whatever else looks good that day (crushed red pepper? mirin?) toss the dryed greens in the dressing and *try* to let it chill for an hour (I hardly ever make it, it's so good I eat it all straight from the bowl. my husband has never gotten to try it.)

There's not much of the mini broccoli, but I will probably saute that and then squeeze some lemon on it for a side sometime this week.

I'll be chopping the garlic and leeks and mixing them with the rice for dinner tonight!

Asian made easy

2009-04-10T17:08:00.001-04:00

I made this delicious beef and broccoli dish from one of my favorite food blogs today, SimplyRecipes, courtesy of another one of my emerging favorite food bloggers, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen. It is super easy, quick, and involves like five ingredients, always a bonus for asian food!

If you don't have oyster sauce on hand, try experimenting with whatever you do have: hoisin sauce, black bean sauce, whatever! That's the best part about cooking at home, experiment!

Cooking is easy.

2009-04-06T19:12:00.006-04:00

No, really, it is! Let me show you how easy it was for me to make a delicious roast chicken, on a monday. Really, it is. Sometimes I even do it in the toaster oven, and since my toaster oven has convection that makes it get done even faster!

First, I hoofed it up to trader joes after school today and bought a chicken. Then, I came home and preheated my oven to 375 degrees. I put the chicken and some cut up potatoes, onions, and smooshed garlic in a pan and drizzled everything with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and TJ's 21 spice salute.

I threw that in the oven for about 1.5-2 hours, depending on the size of the chicken. It helps if you have one of these to help you know when it's done.

I usually take it out at 165, but I overshot this one some and took it out at 168.

Some of you are like "ewww, 165 isn't cooked enough" but this thing seriously carried over at least 8 degrees in like ten minutes. If you DON'T have a thermometer, you can tell it's done when you pull gently on the leg and it does this.

DO NOT depend on one of those silly pop up timer, things.

I also threw together some brussel sprouts, drizzled them with salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vingegar and threw them in while the chicken finished/rested.

I took the chicken off on a plate when it was done and put the potatoes back in, too. I like mine really browned.

See how easy that was? Things to keep in mind is if you mix some herbs/spices with butter and put them under the skin on your chicken, the flavor gets in there even more. Lemon zest works well, too. Leftovers are awesome, and, of course, it's born for homemade chicken stock. I take the giblets out of my chicken and just roast them in the pan with it, and then throw them, the chicken carcass, leftover onion, carrot, and celery ends (keep a bag in the freezer for just that purpose) in the slow cooker or pressure cooker, depending on what kind of mood I'm in.

I also prefer the potatoes cooked in their own pan, they get a lot crispier and carmelized and, well, less covered in fat. This was easier and made less mess, though!

p.s. I had the most infuriating time ever trying to upload these pictures! For some reason firefox doesn't recognize them in my "last import" folder, and I guess flickr merged with yahoo and now I can't log in anymore?? Finally made it work with picasa after much angst.

I have not abandoned you

2009-03-23T21:28:00.002-04:00

although you have been all but replaced by twitter. Of course, you have twitter to thank for this post, since stickyheels st patty's day post inspired me to write it.

anyway, I made homemade ravioli last night! it was actually really easy, I had leftover roast chicken, and some othe rstuff. I think you could use whatever you wanted, just about, and it used wonton wrappers for pasta!!

Here's the rundown. First, I processed some cottage cheese until smooth (you could use ricotta, but cottage cheese is just as good, cheaper, and I had some) I then dumped that out, and processed the chicken until chopped pretty fine. I combined all that, some italian seasoning, some parmesan, some thawed, chopped frozen spinach (squeezed dry, of course) and two eggs. Mix it really good with what AB would call the best implements ever, two clean hands.

You could probably refirdgerate for a couple of days at this point, if necessary.

Then, lay out some wonton wrappers
and put water around the edges (I just used my fingers, I ruined my pastry brush using it on something hot. probably a chicken.)

Then, put a little tablespoon full of filling on each one, and press another wonton sheet down on top.
seal well.

I forgot to mention you should have some butter warming in a skillet at medium to low eat at this point.

saute the ravioli's for, well, awhile. until brown on one side.

I then flipped them and browned them on the other, because more stuff browned in butter is always better than less.

While they saute, you can experiment with your graduated cookie cutters and other shapes.

Or make raviolis like chinese dumplings, with one ravioli per sheet.

When you have this many ravioli made

and this much filling left over

remember that's why God invented lasagna.

add them back to the pan, and dump in some marinara sauce. I broke one of my main rules last night and used jarred sauce (homemade sauce is really easy to make, and then I can it) the trader joe's sauce is good, as is newman's own.

Simmer them for awhile, until they are nice and soft. serve with garlic bread. they were reeaaalllly good.

it never rains but it pours

2009-01-22T17:52:00.002-05:00

so things have been kind of hairy around here. Im not sure how much of this I have shared, but todd and I have been dealing with quite a bit of bad luck, lately. First, our house in VA never sold. We finally got a tenant, and as they were doing the final walk through, they opened the door . . . and water came pouring out. Our upstairs toilet had broken, overflowed, and flooded the entire house. Basically most of the house had to be gutted and replaced. They finally finished the work, and on saturday we got a call saying the property manager was showing it to another family, and it was flooded AGAIN. This time it was a frozen pipe, adn the damage wasn't as bad (looks like the kitchen will have to be gutted, though) but SERIOUSLY? twice? are you KIDDING?

On Tuesday, todd and I came home from risking life and limb to go to work, and our heat was out. Again, SERIOUSLY? I fell like that lady on Greys anatomy that kept yelling at God.

Really, we are very very lucky, because all our flooding damage has been covered under insurance, and our broken heat was covered by warranty (really, thank God, because we are broke.) Also ,our neighbor is an HVAC guy, and he really saved our tail by lending us some space heaters and working late at night to fix our heat in a timely manner. I am, repeatedly, forever in his debt.

Just when I thought our luck couldn't get much worse, the law of averages kicked in, and we had a little good luck! Directv mistakenly (I think) emailed us an offer for a free HDTV upgrade! (we have TIVO, and I think it was only supposed to apply to directv dvr customers.) The Directv "guy" was here today, and we ahve a new dish and a new HD DVR! I would prefer an HD Tivo, but considering we finally have real HDTV and it was FREE, I'm pretty stoked.

Five things

2009-01-01T01:10:00.002-05:00

that were commonly said in our house in 2008

1. Place. Ass. Now. (sorry, that might not be the official vocabulary they learned.)

2. I wish the mechanicsville house would sell

3. Would you . . .

4. Too bad she's a pee pee cat

5. I just mopped like yesterday!!!

TMI Alert

2008-12-27T19:42:00.002-05:00

I know you dont' want to know this gory detail, but I need to spread the word about this home remedy, so here it is: I have had a big, fat, ugly, painful, coldsore for the last few days. a bad one, too. (Sidenote: those always make me think of joanne.)

I swear by Lysine as a remedy for coldsores. L-Lysine is a dietary supplement, and I think it's an amino acid. Apprently, coldsores need one type of amino acid to develop (dont' ask me which one, I'm not that technical) and Lysine is the "other" kind of amino acid, and it inhibits cold sore development. I usually take Lysine at "the first tingle" (if you get coldsores, you know what I mean) and it can head them off at the pass. This time, I wasn't on it enough to do that, so starting with the second day or so of my cold sore, I have been taking 3000 mg/day, broken up into two or three doses. It has managed to shorten my coldsore from the usual 8-12 days, to starting on Tuesday and being almost gone by today, I also think it has made it less painful.

OK, TMI over, if you get coldsores you can thank me later, if you don't, good for you and I'm sorry for the oversahre.

Sanctuary

2008-12-26T11:36:00.002-05:00

as mad as I am at Sci Fi Network right now for cancelling BOTH stargates (and stargate atlantis, may I say, with very little fanfare and what will clearly be very little closure) I have been unable to resist their new series, Sanctuary. Amanda Tapping is the star, who I love, and she's so good I dont' even think of Samantha Carter when I look at her new character. The whole thing is also done in a green room, with the sets CGI'd in, but I wouldn't be able to tell that if I hadn't seen a special on it. It is CREEPY, but it is GOOD.

Fridays at 10, if you're keeping track.

Five Things

2008-12-25T19:41:00.001-05:00

To do tomorrow

1. Tell husband goodbye when he leaves for NY until sunday :(

2. Make sandwich bread

3. Grade those stinkin-papers.

4. Walk the dogs

5. get all the stuff together for the sewing I need to do and possibly run to walmart.

Poll Time!

2008-12-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

What are you having for Christmas Dinner? What is your favorite Christmas Tradition? What are you looking forward to most on Christmas Eve/Day?

A very locavore weekend

2008-12-22T14:31:00.003-05:00

We had a very "local" weekend. Basically the only time I've left PBO since Friday is to go to church (I keep hoping for a good PCA church in chatham county, but I'm not holding my breath, )and yet I've still managed to stay busy doing exciting things!

My In-Laws were in town this weekend, and they stayed at the Rosemary House in downtown PBO. I had always seen the Rosemary House and wondered what it was like, and it was completely delightful. They felt very welcome and comfortable, and they said several times hwo reasonable the rates were.

We had dinner Saturday night at my Dad's house, and then brunch on Sunday at the PBO General Store Cafe. I hadn't been to the general store for brunch before, and it was very good! Their huevos rancheros was slightly heavy on the bean side of the bean-egg ratio, but it was still delicious!

Sunday afternoon Naomi and I went to a store downtown, New Horizons, and bought Danskos (I bought one pair, Naomi bought two!) and I got to use my discount for being a teacher at the local high school. Several local stores are giving discounts to educators for the holidays (and some year round) and I am very very grateful for it. It's nice to feel appreciative. A big thank you to them for their generosity and the PTSA for their hard work in making it happen.

Sunday Night we went out for Todd's birthday at the PBO Carolina Brewery. I wasn't very excited when I heard the brewery was going in in PBO because I've never been a huge fan of their food, but I have been very pleasantly surprised. It's a great environment, great beer, and GREAT burgers.

Today I went to a local salon, Salon Blue, for a facial and a haircut. I'm still a little out of it after the facial, so I'll post more about it later, but it was incredible and well worth the cost for the facial (which are even on special right now!) I'm going to try to get another facial in a few months, even, and I'll make my usual resolution to try not to go six months without a haircut again (and probably fail.)

It's nice that pittsboro has grown to the point that you can do shopping and eating out without having to drive to Chapel Hill. At some point I stopped assuming I would have to drive to Orange or Wake County to buy things and do things and started being a little annoyed when I can't find somewhere that sells something in town!

What I am not doing today

2008-12-22T09:18:00.002-05:00

1. getting up early and running out the door to go to school.

2. running around making last minute copies before class starts, therefore breaking a sweat before 8am.

3. asking anyone to sit down and keep their hands to themselves.

4. telling anyone to be quiet and that word is not appropriate for school.

5. governing anyone elses bathroom usage

Five things I am doing today

1. Sleeping in (check.)

2. Leisurely drinking my coffee on the sofa in my pajamas

3. Hanging out with my inlaws some more before they leave

4. Going to see the peanut!!!

5. Hopefully, taking a nap!

Five Things

2008-12-21T08:24:00.003-05:00

I'm still kind of at a loss with what to do with the internet, these days. As you can tell by the unprecendentedly frequent blogging. I know I could just go find another forum, but that wouldn't be the same. One of the things I like about this one is it was people in my community, and it was a really good way to find out what was going on in a town with not much by way of local news. I will have to find a way to fill the politics void at some point, but, until then, here are five things I can do now that the BBS is closed

1. Read the NYTimes that comes to the house on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

2. Walk the fourleggeds

3. Take more pictures for fourleggeds

4. Finish that dress I started in august

5. Read all those books I got for coaching before practice starts in february.

Dear Chatham BBS: WTF

2008-12-20T11:01:00.004-05:00

I am a nerd. I admit it. I am fairly well socially adjusted, but I have an adversarial personality and I enjoy arguing about things. There, I admit it. This means I am pretty inclined to post to internet web forums. A long long time ago there was a little BBS called NANDO here in the triangle. I was a NANDO regular, and I made lots of friends there that I still have to this day (well, some of them.) Eventually, the operators of NANDO closed it down, they gave us several months warning. It was sad, but we were able to transfer the most important relationships to the "real world" and stay in touch with the people we had grown to care about.

For the last few years I have been posting on the Chatham BBS. It was a great place to get information about my community (recently, two teachers were able to get their donorschoose grants funded through the bbs, and many people posted classified, announcements, etc. I once rented my house through it.) as well as good political discussions (sometimes heated, as is human nature, but always informative.) That is, I have been posting on the Chatham BBS until yesterday.

You see, yesterday, randomly, for no apparent reason, this BBS was closed. Not just locked, but closed. All the posts, gone. All the contact info for other users, gone. Nothing. Fini. I know it sounds weird to be attached to people you've never actually met (except I know many of you reading this know exactly what I mean) but I am sad. I have spent the last few years talking to these people, and now they are just gone. They probably live less than five miles from me, but I have no idea who they are, and probably never will.

I understand that the owner of this BBS can do what he wants, it's his BBS, his bandwidth, etc etc, I can understand how it got tiresome, I guess, but I can't help but be a little mad, too. It's very dicombobulating to have the rug pulled out from under me like that with no warning, no explanation, and no chance to get any kind of closure. I guess, at the end of the day, I only have one thing to say.

Bah Humbug.

It doesnt' cost you anything

2008-11-11T10:40:00.002-05:00

I know Keith Olbermann isn't for everyone, I'm a big fan, though. I am appalled by the passage of Proposition 8, and I am ashamed of the people who share my religion and use it as an excuse for these kinds of laws. Homosexuality is mentioned in the Bible, and lots of people have lots of opinions about what those passages mean. My basic attitude about it is: it's none of my business. I have my own life to deal with. I have plenty of my own mistakes to pray about and ask for conviction about and ask for strength and grace to overcome. I am busy. I do not need to concern myself with matters that are between other people and God.

Beyond it being none of my business, and concerning gay marriage in particular, it's not my problem. Same sex marriage doesn't cost me anything. Even if it IS redefining marriage, I dont' see expanding the definition of marriage to be cheapening to my own marriage, which is unique and special because it is between me, my husband, and God, not because of the exclusive club of other people who are also allowed to get married. Narrowing the definition of marriage does not make my marriage any more special, and expanding it doesnt' make it any less special.

All of these arguments about the bible and definitions and history are simply excuses to justify fear and prejudice and (sometimes) hate. It is absolutely analogous to allowing interracial couples to marry, or even, as Olbermann points out above, allowing black people to marry eachother. Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves. This is about civil rights and respect for other human beings. There is a protest in Raleigh next weekend, I can't go because I have to work, but you should. Join others all over the country in insisting that ALL Americans have equal rights. Stand up and say we wont' tolerate this kind of hate in NC, despite the image we may have as being part of the "bible belt."

http://www.jointheimpact.com/

and then they ate their young

2008-11-05T21:37:00.004-05:00

The gossip floodgates are opening about Palin, now. It's like all the McCain aides are saying "Oh HELL no, we're not keeping quiet after she threw us under the bus." My personal favorites so far are:

1. She actually spent far more than 150k on clothes, including close to 40k on clothes for Todd, and even made staffers pay for some of her clothes. Apparently, new bills for clothes are still coming in. Expect the shit to really hit the fan here when the RNC books get audited.

2. She didn't know AFRICA WAS A CONTINENT.

3. She wanted to talk after McCain's concession speech (I *thought* I saw her dive for the mic) but they wouldn't let her.

4. She once greeted McCain staffers who came to her room in only a towel

5. She made the first Ayer's attack before it had been approved as a strategy within the McCain Campaign (and when it was still facing major opposition from high level staffers.)

Check out more at the HuffPo article on Newsweeks special election project, some special behind the scenes tidbits reporters are allowed to pick up after they agree not to publish them until after election day. The first chapter is pretty good.

Google Trends

2008-10-27T21:41:00.003-04:00

This is the google trends data on how much Obama, Palin, and McCain (blue is Obama, red is Palin, orange is McCain) have been searched in the last year. Apparently, the data pretty closely following polling data, right down to the quirks and the preferences during various periods. You can see the convention "bounces" for both candidates, for example. It's incredible to see that Palin's line only picks up in the last few months, around when she was announced as the veep nominee, and I'm surprised that Obama still outdoes her in searches.

The data only gets more fascinating if you go back several years. You can see spikes when Obama gave the 2004 convention speech, and when Palin won her gubernatorial race.

I am a marilyn

2008-10-16T22:18:00.001-04:00

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz ...

You Are a Marilyn!

You are a Marilyn -- "I am affectionate and skeptical."

Marilyns are responsible, trustworthy, and value loyalty to family, friends, groups, and causes. Their personalities range broadly from reserved and timid to outspoken and confrontative.

How to Get Along with Me

* Be direct and clear
* Listen to me carefully
* Don't judge me for my anxiety
* Work things through with me
* Reassure me that everything is OK between us
* Laugh and make jokes with me
* Gently push me toward new experiences
* Try not to overreact to my overreacting.

What I Like About Being a Marilyn

* being committed and faithful to family and friends
* being responsible and hardworking
* being compassionate toward others
* having intellect and wit
* being a nonconformist
* confronting danger bravely
* being direct and assertive

What's Hard About Being a Marilyn

* the constant push and pull involved in trying to make up my mind
* procrastinating because of fear of failure; having little confidence in myself
* fearing being abandoned or taken advantage of
* exhausting myself by worrying and scanning for danger
* wishing I had a rule book at work so I could do everything right
* being too critical of myself when I haven't lived up to my expectations

Marilyns as Children Often

* are friendly, likable, and dependable, and/or sarcastic, bossy, and stubborn
* are anxious and hypervigilant; anticipate danger
* form a team of "us against them" with a best friend or parent
* look to groups or authorities to protect them and/or question authority and rebel
* are neglected or abused, come from unpredictable or alcoholic families, and/or take on the fearfulness of an overly anxious parent

Marilyns as Parents

* are often loving, nurturing, and have a strong sense of duty
* are sometimes reluctant to give their children independence
* worry more than most that their children will get hurt
* sometimes have trouble saying no and setting boundaries

This makes a lot of sense

2008-10-16T21:12:00.002-04:00

From the huffington post live blog of the last debate

10:20 - Jason Linkins: Let me ask you: Can you remember a debate in which some moderator did not bring up poor math/science scores? Schieffer says the problem is an "obvious" one. Seems to me that it's not, considering that it keeps coming up, again and again. Here's the truth: America is best in the world at education the students that America WANTS to educate. When you exclude the children that no one cares about educating, U.S. scores exceed the world by every measure. Now, who are the kids that no one wants to educate? Well, I'll put it this way: there's a reason that hearing John McCain call education a "civil rights issue" sets my hypocrisy alarm off.

Golly gee whiz

2008-10-09T22:03:00.002-04:00

they don't MEAN anything when they use his middle name, honest!

liveblogging the veep debate

2008-10-02T21:39:00.006-04:00

by request from dotty, my thoughts on the VP debate. Fair warning,
Palin makes my blood boil.

1. Palin did NOT lower taxes as mayor. She raised sales tax to pay
for the 32 MILLION in debt her town took on (up from NONE) Mind you,
they took on that debt in spite of RECORD earmarks that she got for
wasilla (about 3k per resident)

2. Palin/McCain's healthcare bill WILL cause FEWER people to be
insured, not more. If you have employer paid healthcare, you very
well might lose it if it becomes taxed. Right now it's a good deal
for your employer to ensure you; it seems like more compensation for
you at less cost to them; that will end if it is taxed, it will be
better for them to make you insure yourself; to the tune of TEN
THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR. I have never been so grateful to be a state
employee

3. Regulation. McCain is against it. I am mostly against it.
However, when Palin says she wants to regulate Wall Street more, she
is presenting a misleading view of her running mate's position, as
well as an unrealistic view. How would you simultaneously regulate
Wall Street and make government smaller?

4. Did you hear her say she wanted to "eliminate the false state
boundaries for healthcare" (not a direct quote) again, how do you
overrule the authority of states AND have smaller state government.

5. She is not an energy expert. She was the chair of the energy
commission in Alaska, as a consolation prize for losing the lt.
governor race her first time out. She quit because it was too hard
and she didn't like it, and spun it as she was upset with a fellow
republican for running campaign business out of his state office.
This was a smokescreen. We know it was a smokescreen because she
ALSO ran campaign business out of her mayoral office. She may have
run campaign business out of her governor's office, but she kept her
email's "private" by using her yahoo address for state business, so
we can't be sure.

6. Climate change "blah blah blah" you think it's man made or you
don't, either way gas is too expensive and we need alternatives.
Please give us some, thanks.

7. Clean Coal: Biden is right (and I'm not a huge Biden fan, really)
this means american jobs, NOW, and less emissions. I have been to NE
Penn, and if you haven't, you may not understand the importance of
this, but it really matters.

8. Domestic energy solutions: both candidates are basically the same
on this issue; I am surprised that Palin is acting as if this is a
major difference between them. Another deception. (side note: did
you hear her call him "o'biden?" stay of the net, woman.) Either
way "drill baby drill" is not a solution for energy independence.
That is simple math; we have a fraction of the worlds supplies and
preponderance of the worlds demand.

9. Same sex benefits: yes, they should have them, get over it. I do
not think the counter argument that we should deprive part of our
population of civil rights to be even worth equal time. Nobody said
anything about marriage, gidget, dump the catchphrases (oh, wait is
it sexist to call her gidget?)

10. "foreign policy" I do not consider a position based purely on Iraq to be a position on "foreign policy," there is a great big wide world out there, folks, and most parts of it dont' have oil! The surge is working, I agree, I love Petraeus, too, but McCain is NOT responsible for that success, Petraeus is. Obama's saying he still would vote against the surge given the same information is NOT the same as saying he thinks it's not working, he has admitted its working (side note: did you hear her say talibani?)

11. Iran and Pakistan: I like Petraeus, again, but the war on terror is NOT in Iraq.

12. Israel: when people like Sarah Palin defend Israel it is for one reason: MONEY. I think Israel deserves to be defended, but if you want to know if politicians listen to lobbyists, pay attention to how much they defend Israel

13. "meeting without preconditions" has been so overdone. Kissinger has endorsed meeting with Iran. The presentation of Barack and Kissinger's position is deception.

Israel israel israel, yeah, we get it.

14. McCain is just like Bush: yeah, sorry, he is.

15. Executive experience? Business owner? what business did she own?

Ok, goodnight.

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes - NYTimes.com

2008-09-13T22:30:00.001-04:00

Please read this, then make whatever decision you want come november

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Signs of migration

2008-08-13T10:50:00.002-04:00

Having recently moved, I went through a familiar pet owner experience: buying new tags for the animals. All of my dogs are micro chipped, but I like to have reliable tags on them, as well, so that they can be more easily returned if they get away. There are lots of options for pet ID out there, usually I would just go to Petsmart and use the in-store tag machine, but given our new locale, that would require a special trip to Durham. Also, those tags are not cheap, but they are kind of chintzy.

Instead, this time, I decided to go with a Boomerang tag. From boomerangtag.com or collartags.com, these tags go directly on the dogs collar instead of hanging from a loop. These decreases the chance of the tag falling off. Here is the rather impressive array of Pet ID that came in the mail about four days after I ordered it:

and here is what they look like on the collar:

overall, considering I paid about the same price I would've paid at petsmart, I am very pleased. They are good quality tags and hold lots of information, and they are quiet!!

Another idea I had, sadly AFTER I ordered these tags, is to create a basic website that had all your contact info for you pet, then, rather than list all of that on the tag, put the basics like a phone number and the website on the tag. That way, when you moved, you would only have to update the website, not buy new tags. It's not foolproof, but something to think about.

Since we're on the subject of migration, I want to let you know that the blog will be migrating, as well. Seestur.com will still be here, but I am moving the bulk of my blogging (what little of it there is these days) to www.fourleggeds.com, which will be a completely unabashed pet blog. Those of you have fourleggeds of your own, if you would like a place to blog about them, guilt free, I would be happy to let you blog there, as well.

Embarassed to even say

2008-07-11T22:08:00.001-04:00

We waited in line for SEVEN HOURS today for iPhones. We got to the
mac store at 7:30, they opened at 8:00. The line was reasonable, but
then things started going horribly wrong! Because there was an in
store activation this time, the servers were swamped and super slow.
By 10:00, we figures we had
Waited so long we wanted to stick it put (and we didn't really have
anything else to do) by noon, we were SO close! By 1:30 we were done
(we had used our strength in numbers
To leave the line and get food, etc by now) and by 2:30 we were out!

I don't usually wait in line for stuff like that, and is I had known
how long it would be, I probably wouldn't have, but, in retrospect, it
was totally worth it! (especially considering my old phone broke, and
we don't have Proper Internet at Home yet)

Uhm, X-FILES MOVIE???

2008-06-30T23:10:00.001-04:00

Excuse me? I just saw a preview for this, am I the last person on earth to hear about this?