Assume: A spherical, frictionless chicken, in a vacuum.

Happy Anniversary Michael!

I love you, and I’d do it all again if given the choice.

Really. I would.

My mother-in-law’s husband died Thursday; I probably won’t be posting for the next several days.

Just so you know.

New poll over on the sidebar: Worst Christmas Song Ever.

These are the songs that make me want to smash the radio and throttle the singer.

You get to choose from my least favorites. If you want, you can add your hated songs here in the comments, and I’ll make another poll later.

Caveat 1: We’re talking songs, not a specific version by a particular artist.
Caveat 2: This is something you’re likely to hear when you leave the house and go Christmas shopping. Not something that was played once and then disappeared.

I am thankful for…

Michael, and his well of infinite patience
My grandmother, and this opportunity to spend time with her
Chocolate
My friends, who support me when I am in need and cheer me up when I am down
My job and a steady paycheck
Pumpkin pie
Having a home and a place to relax
Books
Indoor plumbing and showers
My family
Modern technology, including cell phones with Internet
Spell check
Modern pharmaclogy

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, which is a holiday for me. But I shan’t be lallygagging around, instead I’ll be making pies and doing prep for tomorrows dinner.

How exciting!

So today’s word is: busy

I love nutmeg.

For a long time, nutmeg simply met pumpkin pie, which is a good thing. But then I discovered fresh nutmeg, and feel in love.

If you have a container of ground nutmeg in your spice rack, and have no idea when you got it, then you have absolutely no idea what nutmeg truly is, and you have no idea what you have been missing.

All spices should be replaced once a year, as once they are exposed to air, they lose their flavor. Makes me wonder why most spices are sold in such large containers, since few people can go through that much spice in a year. But if you care about food it is worth your while to replace our spices every year. Unsurprisingly, I replace mine around this time of the year, right before the Christmas baking frenzy.

But back to nutmeg.

You should be able to find whole nutmegs in most any grocery store now, and although a box grater is fine, I cannot recommend highly enough a Microplane grater. The spice grater is perfect for nutmeg, although the zester grater works just as well.

Once you grate nutmeg, you’ll notice it’s fabulous smell.

The other thing you’ll eventually notice is that a nutmeg looks slightly different when it is fresh grated than after it’s been sitting in the jar for awhile. That visual difference I think gives you an idea of how much flavor is lost when it is pre-ground.

So what is nutmeg good in? First and foremost, pumpkin pie. But I also like to add a little to my apple pie, and it’s fabulous in bread pudding, and even better in the whiskey sauce that goes with the bread pudding. I also have a recipe for nutmeg cookies that everyone loves–think of sugar cookies with a little extra something.

But this week, of course, nutmeg will be staring in pumpkin pie.

Mmmmmmm!

I love Thanksgiving week in Morgantown.

Students are gone the entire week. Since WVU faculty and staff have to work other holidays (like Veterans Day) because of the class schedule we get Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off this week. Which means that a lot of people take the entire week off, which means that things at work are incredibly slow. So I have a two day work week, and those two days are gong to be slow, so it’s a good time to get caught up. (There will be a lot of cleaning these two days.)

Even better, traffic is almost non-existent, since almost all the students are gone, as are some faculty and staff members. You can get across town with no difficulty, so this is a good week to take care of all those errands you’be been putting off since school was back in session.

And of course, there’s Thanksgiving itself. I love Thanksgiving. No gift giving, and it’s all about food. We pick up our fresh turkey Tuesday evening–they’ll be at the Spruce Street parking lot Tuesday evening from 6 to 7. I’be never had turkey this fresh to the best of my knowledge, so I’m very excited.

And of course I get to make pies. I’m planning on pumpkin and sweet potato, but I may make an apple next weekend since it is Grandmom’s favorite.

Only bad thing is this is also the beginning of the pre-Christmas insanity. Of course, that make me even more thankful, since most of my shopping is done already

By the year 2020, you won’t need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.

Scientists at Intel’s research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors implanted in people’s brains.

Interesting you say. Yes, it is. Excellent for those who are paralyzed or have lost a limb–again true.

But I still think this is something that will go horribly, terribly wrong if implemented.

Why? Here’s the second headline of the article: Brain waves will replace keyboard and mouse, dial phones and change TV channels

Change TV channels.

Think about that for a second. You’re sitting down watching TV, when suddenly the TV switches to professional bowling. You switch it back to Baywatch:Hasselhoff and the Girdle of Doom. It switches again back to bowling.

Can you imagine a scenario where this does NOT end up in fisticuffs?

Me either.

Or more accurately, Kat Blogging.

Better Be Good to Me

Because what’s not to love about Tina Turner?

It’s right there!

Look! Over there!

You didn’t see it? Hmm…. Must just be me then.

Let’s associate!

Today’s word is: bacon

When we say Avenue Q on Sunday, I realized I’d heard one of the songs before: Schadenfreude.

I actually like the song quite a bit–nice and upbeat and extremely funny.

But later I started thinking about the song. And realized that although I enjoy the song, I don’t quite get schadenfreude as a concept. Yes, I know what the word means, and I understand the idea intellectually, but I don’t really feel the concept.

All those teen movies where horrible things happen to the characters for comedy? I cringe. Those YouTube videos of people falling down the stairs or off ladders taking a nasty tumble? I can’t watch them.

Anything along those lines horrifies me. I have to look away and feel almost ashamed at having seen someone’s suffering.

Let me make it clear, I’m not saying I’m a better person because of this. I’m most certainly not a saint, and I will admit to feeling a certain satisfaction when I hear something bad has happened to someone who was cruel to me in the past. But I don’t like to hear about anyone suffering a physical trauma, no matter what they’ve done. And I know entirely too well what it’s like to be laughed at, and it’s a feeling I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.

I know there have to be other people who have the same reactions I do. But a whole lot more people seem to get it.

Maybe it’s the fact that (to the best of my knowledge) I don’t have any German heritage.

Since I have this new stove to try out, I need to make lots of different thing. Just to test it out of course. Since Grandmom can eat oatmeal cookies, I decided to riff on one of the recipes I’ve used before.

I’m not sure how I feel about the spices. I might drop the cloves next time, since they’re a very strong flavor.

Oatmeal Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
6 tbsp corn syrup
2 tbsp half & half
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups coconut
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cream butter and shortening. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and spices, salt and baking soda and beat until well incorporated.

Add egg, corn syrup, and milk.

Add oats and flour, mixing well. Incorporate coconut and chocolate chips.

Spoon onto greased cookie sheets (or silicone sheets).

Bake 11 minutes.

Cool. Eat.

Blackberry or iPhone or Android or other?

Show your work.

Just got back from seeing Avenue Q.

It was good, although prude that I am, the puppet fornication made my blush.

Happy Birthday Grandmom!

You have to wish that you could relax as well and as frequently as cats do.

Thank you Anne! You ROCK!

This weeks game of word association was postponed due to my Veterans’ Day post. But I couldn’t let a week pass without a game, so here we are, better late than never.

Today’s word: Duck