Lake Neuron

It’s interesting to me that there are two different advertisements airing right now referencing the same joke — a restaurant ad using the joke as if it’s current and funny, and a movie trailer mocking the very same joke as a worn-out cliche.

In an ad about the recent remodeling of the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain, the spokesman pops up next to a restaurant booth and snatches up the Tiffany lamp.

“The 70s called,” he says, replacing the old lamp with a different type. “They want their lamp back.”

Meanwhile, this exchange is featured in the trailers for the movie “The Rocker”:

Robert ‘Fish’ Fishman: 1991 called, they want their teenage angst back.
Amelia: No, they just called again. They want that joke back.
(Transcript from IMDb)

Guide to Springfield - The Simpsons, originally uploaded by TheCamerons.

Wow …. this is absolutely incredible.

I fasted yesterday.

It’s not a spiritual discipline I’ve taken very often, if ever — I think I recall having done it once during college, but I’m not sure. I was down about some things, and felt like I needed a special time of prayer and renewal, and I’m glad I made that decision. I didn’t get any booming voices from heaven, but I feel like I re-connected with my faith a bit.

Anyway, the fast was physically draining, and I’m trying with varying amounts of success to resist the urge to overeat today. I had some leftover mac and cheese for breakfast this morning, and a big lunch from Captain D’s.

My co-worker David put some Milk Duds in the office candy jar this morning, and I love Milk Duds.

Unfortunately, Milk Duds don’t quite go with crowns, and sure enough the sticky candy pulled off one of mine.

It has been a bad summer for me and crowns. A week or two before the Costa Rica trip, I had a crown pop off, the dentist glued it back, and it popped off again the next day. They re-glued it with a stronger adhesive the second time.

Then, when I was in for my regular cleaning a couple of weeks ago, the dentist discovered a flaw in one of my crowns. He said it was his responsibility and that he’d replace the crown at his expense. I couldn’t remember which tooth that is, and when the crown popped off today I thought it might be that one. But it wasn’t; it was the crown next to the flawed crown.

The crown is sitting in a soft drink lid on my desk. I have an appointment in a couple of hours to have it put back on.

I blame the Milk Duds.

I’ve been trying to put something on DVD this weekend for a co-worker, and I’m having some computer problems. It may be fixable, or it may be that my four-year-old computer is reaching the end of its lifespan.

From McSweeney’s, the untold story of H.P. Lovecraft’s days working for the Whitman’s Sampler people:

Nut Cluster Crunch

This eerie candy will test the sanity of all but those who possess the strongest of constitutions. Strange congeries of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios dance hypnotically within, promising to reveal their eldritch secrets to anyone foolish enough to take a bite of these ancient nut clusters!

Be sure and read the rest of it.

8 oz. Miracle Whip (the smallest-size jar)
2-3 oz. crumbled blue cheese
3-5 cloves garlic, put through a garlic press
3 T. apple cider vinegar
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients and chill to allow flavors to blend. This recipe yields a thick consistency; add more vinegar if you want the dressing more pourable. If you have bought the 8 oz. jar of Miracle Whip just for this recipe, you can shake the vinegar in the empty jar to liberate the dressing which clings to the sides.

Well, I couldn’t wait to make the ice cream — even though I won’t eat any until later today, I went ahead and put it in the freezer first thing this morning. It’s done churning, and now it’s resting in the freezer for a half hour or so. I’ll transfer it to a plastic container after that.

I have to admit that I cheated for the first batch. Next to the freezer on the shelf were some ice cream mixes from the same company. I got the “cookies and cream” flavor — just add milk. Of course, the mix contains all kinds of additives, which kind of takes away one of the reasons for making your own ice cream, but I knew that the consistency of that first batch would be just right — and if it wasn’t, the fault would be the freezer’s, not the ice cream mix.

As I posted the other day, I wanted to step up from my 1-quart tabletop ice cream maker to a larger model. I was lusting after a 1 1/2-quart Cuisinart but it was out of my price range. And I couldn’t find any ice cream makers of any sort at my local W*l-M*rt.

Well, on our way to Nashville tonight to pick up my brother from the airport, my parents stopped at a W*l-M*rt in Antioch, and I found something that seems to be just the ticket. It’s a 1 1/2-quart Rival tabletop unit. I like several things about the design, and I think the added quantity will help the consistency of the finished ice cream. And it was just $29.92 - far less than the Cuisinart, and $10 or more less than I’d seen similar Rival models selling for on Amazon.

The two-part freezer bowl (it collapses for easier storage) is in the freezer getting cold, and I’ll make my first batch with the unit on Saturday. I can’t wait.

I had the chance to spend some time tonight with my out-of-state brother and 2-year-old niece, neither of whom I’d seen in 18 months. They’re in the process of moving from California to North Carolina (which will allow us to see each other more often!) My sister-in-law Kelly and my nephew drove cross-country a week and a half ago, so that she could begin orientation at her new job. Mike and the baby stayed behind to supervise the loading-up process before flying from L.A. to Nashville today. My parents will drive them the rest of the way to North Carolina, starting early tomorrow morning. Their stuff will arrive on Saturday, thanks to my sister-in-law’s truck driver father.

Anyway, when Mike got off the plane today, he told me that this was one time he wished that he had his own blog. So I promised him I’d tell the story on my blog.

Because he was traveling with a two-year-old and a (tranquilized) cat, he cashed in some frequent flyer miles and got an upgrade to First Class. While boarding the plane, he noticed country star Marty Stuart at the same general area of the gate, and sure enough Marty got onto the plane. He heard various passengers greeting Stuart (”Man, I love your stuff,” and so on.) The seat across the aisle from Mike and the kid was open, and Mike briefly wondered if Stuart would alight there. Mike had checked Marty Stuart in one time when Mike used to work the VIP checkin desk at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

Anyway, it turned out that Marty Stuart did not sit in the seat across the aisle. Mike shrugged and turned his attention back to the baby.

He looked up a few minutes later, and someone was now sitting in the seat across the aisle, reading the book “Simple Genius” by David Baldacci.

It was Malcolm McDowell. That particular flight continued on from Nashville to New York, which is apparently where Mr. McDowell was headed. Mike said he was studiously focused on the book, in the way that celebrities probably learn to do as a defense against constant attention-seekers.

Anyway, I had a pleasant but far-too-brief time with Mike and the kid, and I hope to get out there later in the fall for a more leisurely visit.

Express lane, originally uploaded by Omega it’s jameth.

Warms your heart to see proper grammar, doesn’t it? This was favorited by Brittney, which is how I saw it.

Newscoma is now the number one Google result for “Bob Costas toupee.”

That is all.

I tried to post this from within YouTube but it doesn’t seem to have worked. If it turns up later, and I haven’t taken down the duplicate yet, I apologize.

I’ve had a small tabletop ice cream freezer for several years now — the kind which requires you to freeze a liner rather than using ice and salt. It’s not bad, but sometimes I have trouble getting just the right consistency with it.

Yesterday, I used it to make two batches of blueberry ice cream to take to our church chicken dinner today. I don’t know if it was the recipe, the freezer or the operator, but the ice cream was a little too hard and had to be scraped, rather than scooped, out of its container after sitting in the freezer overnight.

I want a new ice cream freezer. What I really want is a big Cuisinart model which is a larger version of what I already have — I think working with a slightly larger quantity of ice cream would actually be helpful, in this case — but I even thought yesterday about buying an old-fashioned ice-and-salt model (electric — I’m not quite that old-fashioned). Believe it or not, I couldn’t find a single ice cream maker, of any sort, at Wal-Mart yesterday, even after asking two different employees for help.

I probably won’t end up doing anything — I don’t need to spend the $50 for the Cuisinart right now.

Well, I haven’t gotten a whole lot accomplished today. I used my little tabletop ice cream maker to make two batches of blueberry ice cream to take to a luncheon we’re having at church tomorrow. I made meatloaf for dinner tonight.

I haven’t done a whole lot else. I will, of course, be hard at work all morning tomorrow on the luncheon, which is being hosted by our Sunday School class. I could have gone and helped with some of the prep work this morning, but it’s been a long and busy week, and I was a vegetable today.