The musings of a madman...

Fatherhood has done some strange things to me. F'rinstance, I was THINKING about making a chicken salad all week, and the other night (perhaps last night... fuck if I remember anything these days) I fell asleep on the couch watching the food channel, and they made a chicken salad that appealed to my sensibilities. Well, at least partially... They added some things I did not like, and the dream I thought I was having turned me another direction. Anyway... Today, I made up my mind that I was making chicken salad on Monday after work. Speaking with an asshole friend of mine, I was pretty much challenged to go ahead and do it, so I grabbed the last pieces I needed to do it and went in. Start with chicken: what you see here is a combination of white and dark meat, since I deal with what is in the house most times... Season the chicken as you choose, dash some Italian dressing in with it, foil the pan and put it in the oven at 350° until done (about an hour). Go to the store while that i...

You know, the things we did in the course of our childhood would in current times be considered damned stupid at best, and get our parents locked away for neglect/abuse at worst. The topic of today is Street Football. As kids, we would stake out a long stretch of road in the neighborhood, generally one long block or two tied together, totally what we estimated as several (50ish-75 yards long) and picked teams, usually 5-on-5, to play football. The rules, as the 32 year-old me remembers back on 20-25 years ago remembers, changed VERY wildly based upon our imaginations. This was not terribly dissimilar to Calvinball . How goes it? I will start by explaining the basics… 5 players on each side (more if the street was pretty wide or if people just HAD to play)* A player would be considered “downed” if he was touched with 2 hands – but more on this in a few* 4 downs to score or get a first down 2 completed passes equals a first down No “punting,” you scored or first down, or give the ball aw...

Strange how we spend all 12 months of the year working on our yards when – at least in NC – we are allowed only about 5 or 6 actually enjoying the fruits of our labor… I moved into my house August 2009 and the yard was a weedy mess, considering the house had been empty for several months, save for the contractors who did the work on getting the new carpet/paint/appliances/etc. together for them to sell the house. That being said, we were bare minimum as it related to the yard and I would have my work cut out for me, and I didn’t bother taking a SINGLE picture of the yard for the whole of the first year we were in the house. [ Phlip note – the brutal weather we had last fall and winter also led to this, more on that in a bit] From August 2009 through October 2010, I cut the grass about once a week and that was it, knowing that I would be doing some more extensive work in the coming months. Then it started raining once a week – sometimes days at a time – for the whole of October through...