Jericho: Chicken Skin

Steph and I are back on a diet, it's day 14. We started the Tuesday after MLK. We're just low carbing it. Steph wants to do South Beach, but her book hasn't arrived yet, and two weeks in I'm not about to go back and do any kind of induction phase! We're just not eating many carbs, we're not measuring anything and eventually we'll get to the gym. I'm sure I gained back most of the fifty pounds I lost over a year ago. I haven't gotten on a scale yet for the sake of my mental health. I am serious about taking off the weight this time, and yesterday I found out just how serious I am.

I hate trying to go out to eat on a low carb diet. All of the choices you love when you are not dieting just evaporate. We don't eat out very much at all when we are doing this diet a) because everyone tends to over eat when we go out to eat, too tempting b) everything on the market is covered in bread or loaded with some other huge amount of carbs and c) when you are eating mostly meat, there's very little money for going out. But, when the main course is flame grilled, high quality steak that you cooked yourself to perfection - going out loses it's luster.

Flame grilling is much facilitated by clear weather. For those of you not addicted to the Weather Channel, Seattle is going through some record breaking wet weather. Even the most web toed of Seattle residents are looking up and wondering if it will ever end. My grill tools are getting pretty rusty. And if you think I'm mad to be grilling this time of year, I'll tell you the steaks and chicken we had two weeks ago (first eight dry hours we had seen in the last three months) were freakin' awesome!

Now, imagine a lazy, wet Sunday afternoon. Neither Steph nor I had eaten yet. Steph was suffering from a sinus headache due to all the weather hiccups. I had been up only long enough to get hungry. We didn't feel like cooking. We went out in the wet to pick up something at the store only to figure out we didn't need it once we were in the parking lot. We decided to grab some food and take it home. All of our typical options, i.e. bunless hamburgers, have lost their appeal. We thought about grabbing some of the healthier dishes at Panda Express (a.k.a. Plastic Panda) - but their parking lot was so packed, we decided on Low Carb Whoppers.

As we are driving toward BK, Steph says we should head to Granny's. The Old Country Buffet in Kent, WA. used to be called Granny's Buffet. OCB is a Temple of Carbohydrates, but if you look hard enough and bribe a few key players, a low carb meal can be had. Since it was nearly 2 PM, we thought we could avoid the lunch rush but still catch the lunch price. It's not an easy thing we were intending to do. Steph loves mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. I'm a HUGE fan of fried chicken and the dessert cart. I lamented at the time "I don't know which is worse: dieting or being fat."

We were hungry - low blood sugar is a dangerous thing, it leads to poor judgment.

Our first mistake was not thinking a little bit harder about our timing. Yes, it was 2 PM, but it was 2 PM on a SUNDAY at OLD COUNTRY BUFFET! We arrived in the middle of the Church Rush. Seemingly hundreds of people who had just sat through hours of preaching, singing and fellowshipping had arrived to drown their concerns about the fate of their eternal souls in the all-you-can-eat taco and baked potato bar. We were too hungry to leave - there was a pile of roasted chicken breasts to be had - only a few meters away. Or so we thought.

It took less time to get through the line than I thought it would, and we were seated close to the buffet. I ran off to the bar first, leaving Steph to guard the table. My plan was to grab a half dozen roasted chicken breasts, a couple of Diet Cokes and return to the table in two minutes. I dodged a few three foot tall people carrying plates loaded beyond the capacity of the plate or the person holding it, grabbed a plate and approached the vat of chicken opposite the vat of fried chicken. But, it wasn't roasted chicken. It was, um, grainy. To my chagrin, they had Shake n' Baked my chicken. Savages!

I returned to the table with a plate of fried chicken. Steph looked stunned "What's that?" she asked knowing full well.

"They used Shake n' Bake on the chicken," I nearly slammed my plate on the table. I am not a huge fan of OCB, only the unlimited fried chicken. I was quite irritated that we had to wait for as long as we did, that we were denied what we had come here for and that I had to eat my meal with 350 children who had not been allowed to talk, cry, scream or run around like wild animals for the last six hours. I was most angry about the action I was about to take.

"What are you doing?" Steph asked.

"I'm pulling off the skin. Last time I checked, I was on a diet." I turned to the grim task in silence. I figured the fried chicken would be easier to decarb than the Shake n' Baked garbage.

"Oh ... " said Steph as she got up to drown her sorrows in the taco bar. She later told me that when I returned with a mound of fried chicken, she figured all bets were off and we were about to get our carbin' on. I am usually the one who leads us into carbtation.

My anger only increased when she returned with a plate of salad and taco meat. We could have gotten that at Burger King, for the same price, less wait time, less driving and less noisy, sick, annoying people! (Read: screaming children.) I spent the rest of the meal taking it out on the defenseless bird bits in front of me. I ate the better part of a whole chicken, swallowed a medium salad and was ready to hit the road in less than half an hour. Steph knew I was ready to go and cut her meal short. I don't know for sure if she did it for my sake or because she, too, was disappointed. Either way, I was SO READY to go and am grateful to her.

On the way home, we were both bitching about OCB, the diet and our poor choice. I was struck funny, I think I even let out a giggle. "What is it?" asked Steph.

"I guess I have my answer."

"What answer?"

"Do I hate dieting more than being fat? I peeled the skin off of fried chicken. Fried Chicken!! I guess I hate being fat more than dieting."

Max: Caption This

Please use the comment thread to caption this picture.

Jericho: They should make a TV show out of that movie ...

I know! I'm always late to the party. But, in this case, better late then never!

Since I left St. Louis, I have pretty much lost touch with TV. This is not to say that I don't watch TV. It's just that when I was younger and unemployed, I followed several shows with eager abandon. I was quite big on X-Files, a couple of incarnations of Star Trek, Red Dwarf - what ever was shown in the States, etc.

However, having a job cuts into TV time. As does having a wife. Having a wife who hates what I watch and vice versa, to the point where we usually end up watching Law & Order re-runs or watching TV in separate rooms, also cuts into what I watch. The decline of good shows with things called "scripts" and "plots" in favor of game shows often called "reality TV" or the good shows only being shown on networks I can't afford, i.e. The Sopranos, deeply cuts into the amount of time I spend in front of the TV. Thus, I play way more video games these days than I used to and I watch TV less and less.

Thus, we end up here. A few years ago, back when Fox had more than just 24 in their Fall line up. Fox introduced a show called "Firefly." The previews looked like it was going to be a sci-fi show. Long time readers know I love sci-fi! But, the previews didn't reveal much more. With a wife who hates ANYTHING EVEN REMOTELY RELATED to sci-fi, I knew I would have difficulty seeing this show.

A few months later, I remember being vaguely aware that the show I was hoping to see, can't remember the name, had gotten cut in mid season. Shucks. Well, time for more Sims!

A while back, people started talking about this sci-fi TV show that was released on DVD. This was just as a lot of older TV shows were starting to be released on DVD. But, there was a real buzz about this show. I heard the title and remembered that this was the show I wanted to see that FOX canceled. Hmm, well, maybe it was a good show and I'd get to see the DVDs at some point. But, I was way more interested in collecting the Red Dwarf DVDs.

Next thing I hear - there's a movie coming out based on the show. But, the show was called Firefly and the movie is called Serenity. Go figure! Either way, tons of buzz. Lots of people talking about how good it was. Enough people said I didn't need to see the show in order to enjoy the movie. I had a doctor's appointment at an odd time one day, so I took off the entire day and went to the movies after my appointment.

Serenity was, unlike most movies from the last three years, worth the price of a matinee. Matter of fact, it was worth full ticket price. That's saying something considering how cheap I can be! The movie rocked and rolled! I had no idea what was going on for a while, it would have been nice to have a little more background. People randomly speaking Chinese and saying "Shiny" (Shiny? WTF?!), insane, psychic girls randomly kicking Matrix-style ass - but, there was enough there for the non-fans to have a good time. Especially the psychic girl kicking ass!

After the movie, I thought it would be good to see the DVDs. I let it go at that. I don't even think I bothered adding them to my Amazon wish list.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine at work offered to let me borrow his copy of the Firefly DVDs. Groovy! American Idol was about to start, so Steph would be glued to that - leaving me with the crap TV in the bedroom or playing on the new computer. Of course, I could watch the Firefly DVDs on the new computer, in their wide screen format and (Gasp!) stereo sound! (The TV in the bedroom is mono - it was cheap!) This sounded like a great plan.

I was eager to watch the DVDs. Not because of the contents, but because I would be trying out a new feature on the new Mac. This would quickly change. I burned through the first four episodes on the first night! There are only 14 episodes! The first four were fucking brilliant! I needed to moderate my intake. There was no way I was going to get through the worst parts the new season of AI if I just watched these things all at once! Aggggh!

Well, my moderation attempts failed. I have lost a lot of sleep and watched the whole set in less than a week. Curses! I am very disappointed! There is no more to watch. There will always be another Star Trek movie or TV show. There will probably be more Star Wars movies - someone will want the money, I'm sure. But, there will be no more Firefly. With the developments in the movie (trying not to be a spoiler, here) even if they brought the show back to TV, it would be very different.

But, I think if FOX has any brains, they should bring this back to TV. They had the next X-Files/Star Trek/M*A*S*H in their hands and they blew it! They let ratings rule them instead of their brains. Hopfully the box office gains and DVD sales on the feature will convince them of the strength of Joss Whedon, the writer/director and of the property itself.

If you have the time and chance, get the Firefly DVDs, watch them all. Then, get Serenity on DVD and enjoy that, too. I think even moderate and non sci-fi people might like them. Not that I have proof of this. The wife read a magazine instead of watching the episode I tried to show to her. *Sigh!*

Jericho: Bill-ding a house ...

Wow. William Shatner, our beloved Capt. James T. Kirk, has a kidney issue and makes $25k for charity.

Is there nothing that GoldenPalace.com will not buy? I keep hoping that I find the face of the Virgin Mary in my Kool-Aid or something so that I, too, can make a small fortune! At least this time it went to a good cause.

Let's hope that whatever bit they next remove from Bill will also go to charity and will make enough room for better acting skills!

Jericho: Still Crazy after all these FarfFELudubbbbb ...

Just wanted to let everyone know that while it's not quite the fourth anniversary of Irate Weirdos, that's a month out, I have indeed paid for the domain and hosting for another year.

So, you will have another twelve months of us frantically bitching, whining and rarely posting. Enjoy!

Max: God Is A Whackjob

On the day that Apple annouced its first Intel based laptops, Apple's share price closes at $80.86.

Jericho: iMac

Did I blog about the fact that we had a death in the family a while back? I think I told you all that my Mac G4 died. A combination of bad circuitry in the house and a wind storm seems to have fried the power supply. I will eventually take the carcass to a repair expert to find out if there is any hope, but for the most part it's just dead - and it's not even paid off yet!

Anyway, for the last few months, we've lived without a primary machine. We have the G3 in the basement, but it's slow, we use it primarily for surfing. We have the PC laptop, it's tough when I want to play a game and Steph wants to do work from home or look something up. We needed an additional machine.

So, I have been lusting after the iMacs, especially the ones with the 20 inch screens. Sure, a full blown G5 with a huge monitor would be nice. But, the iMacs have everything all in one small package. We have limited room in the house, so a small computer with a small footprint was exactly what we needed. I did some research, and then I pitched my ideas at Steph. The idea was that when Apple releases a new version of their machines, they usually also announce a price drop on the previous model.

Steph wasn't convinced. The "iPod" styling on the iMac is, well, unusual. If they had made one in black or even their famed titanium, it would have been better. I can ignore the huge white nothingness at the bottom because of the screen. Steph found this more difficult. Steph also felt that a PC might be a better choice on price. (Later research found that, for what we wanted, Dell or Gateway were either close or more expensive.)

Apple did as I predicted. They released new models and the previous models dropped ... wait, no, they didn't! They dropped a little, but not when compared to the new model. The new model had more features, a faster processor, more memory and was only a couple hundred dollars more! The new built in iSight camera seemed like quite the awesome coolness! I hooked Steph! As soon as my year end bonus came in, we'd scrape the rest of the price together and get one.


For the first time in my life, we were planning to buy a computer with cash! This is a big deal for me. We just finished paying off the G3, the dead G4 is nearly paid and the laptop will be paid off in the next few months. The new Mac would be a large pile of money, but it would be mostly my bonus - it would be instantly paid for. For once, I would feel like I am making the amount of money that I actually do make!

We decided to wait until after the Christmas trip to Maine to buy the machine. I'm glad we did! We got a VERY generous load of gifts from my in-laws, including cash! The iMac was ours. We walked into the Apple store the two days after we returned from Maine and walked out with the new hotness! We then went to Best Buy and bought a surge protector that is insured for up to $75k of damage. We came home, cleaned up the old computer desk and loaded it up.

The first question out of one of my co-workers: "Load it up? I thought Macs came with everything already loaded!" Anything to harsh my buzz!

Yes, you still have to load software on a Mac. Start with all the updates that came out since the device went into the box. Next, there's Microsoft Office. Then, I loaded up Virtual PC - hearing a Windows start up sound come out of your Mac is a chilling thing! Then I loaded up MS Office for the PC. Tons of XP updates, too. I loaded up three browsers (IE, Netscape and Firefox) back on the Mac side. Today, I'm loading up music - most of our music is on the HD of the G4.

In all, I'm in love. It's gorgeous, it's big, it's fast, it's powerful, and, best of all, it's paid for!

Jericho: Northwest Sucks!

How y'all been? Or, more recently, hey, flatlandahs!

Just got back from two weeks in Maine with my in-laws. I already hear some of the noises out there in Constant Reader land, but fear not. Yes, it was a long time to be a guest in anyone's home. But my in-laws are very generous with everything, so it was no problem. My in-laws are the best, I couldn't have ordered a better set from L.L. Bean. Yes, I had very limited access to all things geekish, but, frankly, I ended up missing them very little. I didn't touch a PC for two weeks, I didn't think I could actually do it, but it was really easy. I had people to hang out with and things to do. I had my Gameboy, I read two books and I had Law & Order on Dish Networks - so, yeah, it was easy.

The last time I had two weeks away from work, I was unemployed. I had about two months between jobs, what, seven years ago? We took a week for our cruise about three years ago. Other than that, my time away from work has been limited. I really needed this time off, and I feel much better. I'm not exactly looking forward to work tomorrow, but I'm not dreading it as much as I thought I would.

Having said that, I must tell you this: never fly Northwest Airlines. I mean, if you want to suffer, go right ahead. But, I have had better travel on city buses. Steph traveled on NWA in August, I was forced to stay in Seattle at the last minute. Steph had a terrible trip and her baggage arrived three days after she did. This time, we still had my outstanding ticket, so we had to go NWA again. The flight out was crowded, tight and lacked service of any type. I have had much better service on so-called "economy" lines like Southwest. United blows NWA out of the sky.

But that was just the trip out. The trip back was the topper. The leg from Portland, Maine to Detroit was on the tiniest plane I have ever been on. Mind you, I have been on planes that flew fewer passengers, but I have never had to duck once I stood inside the plane - and this was not even a prop plane! I spent a good portion on that hour and twenty minutes standing in a hunch position because the rows were nearly on top of each other.

Then, we get to Detroit. They get us on the plane, and this plane could not have been any older. We sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half as they tried to get the starboard engine to start - check, please! Finally, we get into the air. We land, de-plane and then we have to wait for our baggage. It took them over an hour just to get our bags to baggage claim, I spent the last minutes of 2005 waiting for our bags - and only most of them showed up! One of our bags went missing - along with bags from just about everyone else on the flight. We finally got in a cab and home about 1 AM - a very long day. Steph went to pick up her last bag yesterday - the only thing we were told is that baggage out of Detroit had been a nightmare all day. What a crock. I will never fly NWA again.