The Joys of Lutefisk

What? Why are you laughing?

For those of us of Scandinavian descent, eating lutefisk during the holidays is a Sacred Event. (Or, for the less fortunate, an abominable torture.) My parents and I dutifully ate it (with boiled potatoes, peas, & lefse of course) every Christmas Eve before going to candlelight services. Well okay, so I didn't eat it when I was very young; my parents were merciful enough to fry me a hamburger instead. I did grow into it, though (a possible explanation of my short stature?).

Please note: despite what some people say, properly prepared lutefisk is not gelatinous. (At least not much.) Plus I think most people assume that The Odor is some horrific fishy smell. It doesn't smell (or taste) fishy in the least, it's actually quite, er, unique. If you don't believe me, let me put it to you this way: my cats won't touch it. (Now are you afraid?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

I wasn't sure I was going to buy lutefisk this year, since it was yet another bittersweet reminder this holiday season. But the durned stuff pounced on me at the grocery store, and how could I say no? (The lefse talked me into it.) The evening of Christmas Eve, however, I was not feeling overly lutefisk-ish, and it occurred to me that I did not have to fix it, that no one besides me was expecting it. (So liberating and yet so sad, all at once.) So I had leftover curried broccoli casserole (yum) & was relatively content.

Now forward to New Year's Eve. Keep in mind that I bought my 2 pounds of lutefisk (way too much, btw...1 pound would have been fine) a good 2 weeks before Christmas. But fear not, my fellow food safety warriors, the stuff's sell date was January 7th. (If that doesn't scare you, nothing much will.) The lefse was gone (molded, sigh), but I had my potato (microwaved, which I'm sure was a mortal sin) & peas, and dang if that wasn't some good lutefisk!

So lutefisk, a bottle of Brut, and the best critters in the whole wide world helped me to ring in the New Year & say good riddance to the dregs of 2005. I wish you & yours all the best as we dive into 2006...may it bring nothing but blessings.

the sum of the meme is greater than its parts

Just like the beloved (or dreaded depending on your point of view) email quiz (y'know, vanilla vs chocolate etc.)....I present a MEME! (Blame Mel. It's her fault.)

SEVEN SEVENS (you'll get the idea)

(Seven) Regrets, I've had a few....

1. Not putting my first kitty to sleep (he had end-stage feline leukemia virus) when I had the chance, so he died alone in the kitchen on a Sunday while I cried in another room.
2. Not staying in contact with my piano teacher when I went off to college; she died just a few years later.
3. I regret that I have but one life to....oh wait. That one's taken.
4. Telling my mom I was thinking about joining an "adult children" group before I really knew what they were about; if I had known, I would have been more vague so it didn't hurt her feelings.
5. Not taking just those 2 extra religion classes in undergrad which would have given me a second minor.
6. Not staying on top of my piano skills. (But honestly, when would I have practiced??)
7. Not going to bat for a manufacturer rep (who had done nothing wrong) when the evil empire was gunning for her; she asked me to call & I didn't. She may have been demoted, I don't know.

Seven things to do before I die:

1. Go back & tour the U.K. properly.
2. Have a family of my own (one where I'm not the only human!).
3. Be successful (and happy) in my career.
4. Make the world a better place. (What, too underachieving?)
5. Play the violin.
6. Visit every significant dinosaur museum in the world at least once.
7. Get Yang happily swimming in his new tank.

Seven things I cannot do:

1. Touch my nose w/the tip of my tongue.
2. Dance (nor do I ever, EVER want to).
3. Ever be without my good friends celexa & welbutrin (or their cousins).
4. Not snore when I sleep (unless I am using my c-pap machine which is pretty much a prerequisite for me to be anything near awake during the day).
5. Eat chicken livers.
6. Enjoy music that involves screaming in place of lyrics.
7. Be a spider doctor.

Seven things I say most often:

1. Dammit gumby!
2. Children, please! (usually directed at kitty squabbles whilst fixing their dinners)
3. If you would be so kind.... (My employees asked me to quit saying that because it meant I was going to ask them to do something unpleasant.)
4. Shit.
5. Dude! (it's all about Hurley)
6. I'm workin' on it! (toward above-mentioned kitties when their food is not arriving in timely fashion)
7. HEY! (breaking up critter malfeasance of any sort) (Do we sense a pattern here?)

Seven Pet Peeves (oh I know you have them too):

1. You are not going to the gas station (or other location) AND get gas (or other activity). You are going to the gas station TO get gas.
2. There is no such thing as a golden lab. It's either a lab that's yellow or a retriever that's golden.
3. There is no "c" in shrapnel & I feel there should be. This is a rather personal peeve, as that damnable "c" was my spelling bee demise.
4. The assumption that science and religion must be polar opposites and cannot coexist. In a nutshell: science = how, religion = why. Get over it.
5. Drivers who pull in front of me and then slow down.
6. Apathy of U.S. voters.
7. Fundamentalists/zealots of any stripe.

Seven Things I Would Rather Not Do Without:

1. Critters.
2. Beethoven.
3. A sustainable planet.
4. J.S. Bach.
5. Birkenstocks.
6. Corrected vision.
7. Chocolate.

Seven Important Cultural Influences In My Life (of varying Importance, as you will see):

1. Star Wars ('nuff said)
2. My undergrad religion classes at PLU (hence the devout liberal you see today). (And no that is NOT an oxymoron!!)
3. Peanuts
4. Bloom County
5. Calvin & Hobbes
6. C.S. Lewis
7. The Muppets

nuts galore

In the spirit of holiday nuts (quite tasty if I do say so myself), I offer this small list of things driving *me* nuts.

1. It is physically impossible to keep a new pair of earrings attached to my head for over 6 hours. Recovery rate is 50%, tops.
2. For every item previously owned by my parents that I am able to donate or otherwise make disappear, 2 other items expand exponentially, thereby decreasing my living space even further.
3. The previous owner of my (destroyed) business called to "chat" and see if I wanted to do some relief work for him. Oh the horror.
4. Despite my best efforts, holiday candy keeps invading my house.
5. It appears I have a readerless blog. Most annoying. (Ed.- correction, I have 2 readers!!) (Ed.- THREE!)
6. Household maintenance is subject to a clumping phenomenon: Items that were running smoothly the day before (aquarium filters, carpets, yards, dogs) all suddenly need cleaning/attention at the same time. I sense a conspiracy.

Taking Umbrage at Matt & Trey

Let me be clear: I don't watch all the time, but I generally enjoy South Park. One of my favorite movies is The South Park Movie. Yes, I get uncomfortable at times -- one of their trademarks is making their audience squirm now & then as a means of making their point. Yet if you look past the shock humor & gross gags, the very best part of South Park is that there is always a quiet message -- a sermon, if you will -- a moral of the story quietly & rationally issued by one of the boys. Kudos to that, I say.

Until this time. This week's episode had Stan's dad attending an AA meeting. I'll save the show's details (plenty of squirming for both Catholics & ACOAs alike) for your own viewing pleasure. But the sermon -- the quiet message of clarity, rationality, & common sense -- was complete and utter bullshit. Stan told his dad -- TWICE -- that alcoholism was not a disease, AA was nonsense, it was only a matter of DISCIPLINE, and he could drink in reasonable amounts if he wanted to. If he wanted to.

O.M.G.

It has taken me 3 days to blog this because I don't even know where to begin.

People abuse alcohol (and/or drugs, food, even sex) for one reason: it works. For even just a little while, it allows you to numb that black, dank, bone-crushing, soul-numbing, hideous pain that consumes your soul. Think that's an exaggeration? Then stop right now and thank God that you have never been there.

Assuming we ignore genetics, neurotransmitters, brain scans, biochemistry, & all the other bodies of physical evidence, if alcoholism, any of the other "-isms", or even clinical depression (a logical extension of the boys' assertions) is not a disease, then of course it would just be a matter of discipline. Get over it. Stop cramming food in your face. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Don't be so damn lazy.

Heaven forbid we allow advances in medical science to interfere with our pre-conceived notions.

So does the recovery from such diseases have nothing to do with choice or discipline? Of course not! If you have a cavity you elect to go to the dentist & then squirm in the chair long enough to have it fixed. If you have cancer you choose your therapy option & then work on getting through it. The same with any "-isms" or depression: you have no chance of getting better unless you choose to do so. (The snag is that first you have to realize that there even is a problem, a painful process in and of itself. It's not the equivalent of noticing you have a lump the size of a baseball on your butt.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pull on my bootstraps some more.

kick-ass cool science news!

Somedays it's pure joy to be a science geek...look at all these articles! And yes, Virginia, these WILL make a difference in your very own existence.

http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp/20051205/newcarnivore.html?dcitc=w01-101-ae-0000

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051207/hl_nm/creativity_tied_sexual_success_dc

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051207/hl_nm/cancer_metastasis_dc super-duper important!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051207/ap_on_sc/doggie_dna

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051207/ap_on_re_eu/italy_lion_surgery

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20051207/sc_space/detailednewimagesofthesanandreasfault click on the pic link to see the fault up close & personal

the heck w/Xmas, how 'bout putting Christ back in everyday life?

From the Washington Post:

This month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent
out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his
close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season."

Many people are thrilled to get a White House Christmas card, no matter what the greeting inside. But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings. "This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has
suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in
our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights. Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical
Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the
conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as
soon as I got it."

Religious conservatives are miffed because they have been
pressuring stores to advertise Christmas sales rather than "holiday specials"
and urging schools to let students out for Christmas vacation rather than for
"winter break." They celebrated when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
insisted that the sparkling spectacle on the Capitol lawn should be called the
Capitol Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce. Then along comes a generic
season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National
Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the
presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White House
lawn.

"Certainly President and Mrs. Bush, because of their faith, celebrate
Christmas," said Susan Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary. "Their cards in
recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than
Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths." [Me here...who woulda thunk I would ever agree w/the current White House on anything...]

That is the same rationale offered by major retailers for generic holiday catalogues, and it is accepted by groups such as the National Council of Churches. "I think it's
more important to put Christ back into our war planning than into our Christmas
cards," said the council's general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a former
Democratic congressman. [Amen, Reverend, Amen!]

Iraq

Some of you may not have heard of Congressman Jack Murtha before the hullabaloo caused by his Iraq proposal last month. My first knowledge of him came early in the Iraq War when he called for the reinstatement of the draft. (ACK!) A 35-year, battle-decorated Marine, this man is a warhawk -- in that sense he reminds me of the late, great Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson (from my humble home state, tyvm). He cares greatly about the men & women in our armed forces & is a major proponent for them. He is respected & trusted by the U.S. military & is often their go-to congressman. So, when Jack Murtha says it's time to get out of dodge, it is critical to realize he is not some namby-pamby, cut & run, wimpy fat-cat chicken. (Sorry for the painful metaphor...a fat cat w/feathers??)

I am one of the growing numbers of Americans that believe we need to extricate ourselves out of this "Mess O' Potamia" (kudos Jon Stewart). (Hell, I'm part of the minority that never believed the Bushies in the first place.) Even I have my concerns about pulling out everything...but Congressman Murtha makes some very compelling points. It is time to listen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120701588.html?nav=rss_politics

cool science stuff

No matter your opinion on Microsoft, you really should give Bill Gates credit for his humanitarian efforts. Check out some of these coolio projects!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/health/06gates-all.html

pearls of wisdom (from my cats)

1. Every now and then it is a good idea to run through the house with wild abandon.
2. Just give up and allow your cats on some of the kitchen counters. Apparently that is why God invented kitchen cleaners.
3. When all else fails, take a nap.