Wow

What a stupid, stupid man . . .

Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes

Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes

4 6-ounce pieces skinless salmon fillet
4 medium tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 teaspoon paprika, preferably hot
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
8 sprigs fresh thyme
4 cloves garlic, sliced

Heat broiler. Place the salmon and tomatoes, cut-side up, in a broilerproof roasting pan or on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the salmon with the paprika.

Drizzle the salmon and tomatoes with the oil and season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Scatter the thyme and garlic over the top.

Broil until the salmon is opaque throughout and the tomatoes are tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

Yield: Makes 4 servings

Real Simple, SEPTEMBER 2008

Our Christmas Card

From us to you.

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow's PostSecret Favorite

Are you listening?

Someone from Hallmark Cards' ISP in Kansas City, Missouri spent 45 minutes this afternoon reading yesterday's blog post.

Good.

I'm mad at Hallmark

I like Hallmark ornaments. Over the years, I've spent a fair amount of green on Hallmark ornaments which I've then given as gifts.

Several people on my list get an ornament from me every year (whether they like it or not).

A month ago, when I was in Denver, I stopped in a Hallmark store but the display was overwhelming and 3 people were waiting for me so I bailed, thinking that I'd just order them online when I got home.

Oh no.

Hallmark is no longer selling Hallmark ornaments online.

This is a bonehead move.

According to Hallmark.com's handy little store locator, the closest Hallmark store to my abode is in Grand Junction. Grand Junction is a 2.5 hour drive.

For ornaments? Hah!

I poked around online and the only Hallmark ornaments available are through resellers with a healthy markup. Markup, not discount. Don't they know we're in a recession? Isn't everything supposed to be on sale right now?

So I sent Hallmark the following email:

Why are ornaments no longer available online? The closest Hallmark store to me is 72+ miles away which in the mountains where I live would take me more than 2 hours to drive. I really can't justify this to buy ornaments. In the past, I've been able to buy the ornaments that I give as gifts every year directly from your website. Why no longer? The only websites I can find for the ornaments have a markup which I'll pay if I have to but I'll buy fewer ornaments and it's really a shame.

To which they helpfully responded:

Thank you for contacting Hallmark.

Thank you for looking to Hallmark to meet your gift-giving and connecting needs. Hallmark is no longer offering flower and gift items, including Keepsake Ornaments through Hallmark.com or 1-800-HALLMARK. Please visit your local Hallmark Gold Crown store to find the perfect card and gift for any occasion. To find stores in your area, you can use our online store locator service. Just click 'Store Locator' at the top of any page.

We appreciate your thinking of Hallmark.

To which I responded:

Your response is extremely unhelpful. It's a shame that in this depressed economy Hallmark doesn't value my business.

There are no Hallmark stores in my area. My zip code is 81611. See for yourself.

To which they responded:

Thank you for contacting Hallmark.

Due to the overwhelming amount of spam we have been receiving we are no longer accepting e-mail through this channel.

You will not receive another reply to this e-mail, but we are happy to help you through our online support site where you can get the information you need quickly and easily. You can also contact us from our support site through the "E-mail Us" form once you get there.

http://hallmark.custhelp.com

We apologize we are unable to assist you in the way you expected.

Hmph!

Parental obligations

I'm not a big one for parental obligations like school performances.

Rachel knows this about me.

It's kind of a running joke with riffs about coming late, skipping out early . . .

I whine a lot.

Tonight was the Choir and Band concert.

And it actually wasn't too painful.

The band went first and while it suffers a slight bit from lack of size and while a lot of the music they played was unfamiliar to the audience so we didn't know when to clap, they did a good job. The percussionist, who got to play with all kinds of cool noise makers, was having a particularly good time.

The choir, which does not suffer from a lack of size, was very good. They mostly sang things I recognized and did quite a fine job. Rachel's an alto and with her height and light hair, she was like a beacon in the second row.

And the best part of the whole thing was that it was less than an hour long!

Happy-go-lucky

Disappointing.

The trailer was enticing and the reviewer quotes featured in the movie marketing were numerous and approbative. But this movie wasn't quite as lighthearted as I was led to believe. Or would have liked.

Poppy is a bubbly, eternally optimistic teacher who doesn't let anything get her down. Or does she?

She takes driving lessons from a vile specimen of humanity and these scenes are a drag.

It's more as if she doesn't want to let anything get her down but she's just not quite successful. Or maybe she is; things would be so much worse if she wasn't actively looking on the bright side.

That's a life philosophy I can totally get behind and have in fact espoused but it doesn't seem to make for much of a movie.

This week's favorite

Even though I'm still annoyed with Frank, here it is . . .

Flagging

My resolve is flagging.

But I just looked back and discovered that, in addition to it being the last day of NaBloPoMo, today puts me a month away from posting every day for a year.

One month. 31 days.

So close.

I can't quit now. My charming Type A qualities just won't let me.

(How's that for a pep talk? Yeah, pretty lame)

Making lemonade

Spent a few hours today making lemonade (as in when life gives you lemons . . .)

Had a bunch of extra work dumped on me unexpectedly but wisely turned it into an opportunity to make a bit of extra income.

Definitely lessens the sting and allows me to see that in the long run, this long-resisted change is a really good thing.

Nothing like clearing out the dead weight and solidifying one's position.

109 East Palace by Jennet Conant

Whilst in Santa Fe this summer, we picked up a couple of books about Los Alamos and Robert Oppenheimer.

109 East Palace serves as an interesting and illuminating, if not stellar, social history about the creation of and living conditions at Los Alamos.

Using Dorothy McKibben, the Santa Fean who ran the small office which served as the entry point for the secret Los Alamos installation, as the entry point for the story, Conant's first intention seems to be to provide us with the look and feel of the war time home of many of the best scientific minds of the era. As long as she is working towards this end, her book works.

However, as she strays from this goal and begins to try to become more of an overall historian of the overarching events put into motion at Los Alamos, the book loses its focus and suffers from superficiality.

This superficiality became brutally apparent upon reading just a few pages of the other book we purchased in Santa Fe, American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin.

In comparison, American Prometheus is clearly the better crafted project but, considered on its own, 109 East Palace is a supremely serviceable entry into the subject matter.

Australia

As an example of Baz Luhrman's unique vision and held up to comparison with Moulin Rouge, Australia is a disappointment. As an opportunity to gaze upon the eye candy also known as Hugh Jackman, Australia delights. As a sweeping epic, Australia holds its own but never rises to the top of the heap.

Brandon Walters, the 11 year old Aboriginal novice actor who serves as the movie's narrator, absolutely steals the show. David Gulpilil, the Aboriginal actor who has been named an Australian National Treasure, projects dignity and grace throughout abominable bigotry. It was fun seeing Bryan Brown, the Australian actor I first came to like in the 1981 miniseries, A Town Like Alice, in a ruthless businessman who isn't quite that ruthless role.

Steve wasn't sure that he wanted to see Australia because he thought it looked like a typical commercial big box office film. I persuaded him to accompany us with the argument that it was a Baz Luhrman film. He was right.

But, all that being said, I told Rachel that I'd go see it again.

Here's Rachel's assessment/rebuttal.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

This is the recipe I'm going to attempt for the first time tomorrow. We didn't do candied yams in my family but they're on the menu for the potluck we're going to tomorrow. Putting it here so that I can find it when I need it. Hope they turn out.

CANDIED SWEET POTATOES OR YAMS
Printed from COOKS.COM

6 large bright orange sweet potatoes
1 lb. dark brown sugar
1 stick of butter
2 cups of miniature marshmallows
1/4 cup of white sugar
2 teaspoons of salt

Wash and peel potatoes. Chunk potatoes into 2 inch disks. Put potatoes in a pan and cover with water. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/4 cup of white sugar to the potatoes and water. Cover. Boil until potatoes are fork tender (approximately 30 minutes). Drain potatoes.

Put potatoes in a baking dish and sprinkle with brown sugar. Dot potatoes with butter.

Bake for 20 minutes in 350 degree oven. Sprinkle with marshmallows. Return to oven and bake until marshmallows are brown.

Twilight - The Movie

Despite Rachel's persistent requests, I have not read the book. But, in an effort to be good parents, Steve and I did go to see the movie with her the other night.

The teenage girl in me liked the relationship between Edward and Bella. The adult woman in me disliked the victiminess of Bella. She was quite the little damsel in distress. Steve liked the campy baseball scene.

Rachel is extremely annoyed that I didn't like Bella better. She claims that Bella in the book is nowhere near as one dimensional and is once again insisting that I read the book so that I don't think as poorly of Bella.

Former bosses in high places

My former boss (from like 24 years ago), Ed Tapscott, was just named the Washington Wizards temporary head coach.

Today was his first practice as head coach.

This is kinda cool.

Don't go there today

There's quite the little dust-up at PostSecret today over a particularly graphic image and I have to admit that I'm in the minority on this one.

I saw it early this morning and tried to give myself some time to get over it but here it is 8 hours later and I'm still really disturbed by it.

There's an online poll regarding whether the image should be removed and the nays are running away with it.

That's unfortunate.

I know that by even publishing this post, I may be causing people to check it out but don't say I didn't warn you. Even though the picture is actually a photoshopped hoax, if you're the type that avoids graphic images of things like necrotizing fasciitis and other dermatological conditions, you want to skip this one. If you enjoy those sorts of images, then have at it.

The PostSecret discussion board is full of people who don't see the problem; who think removing the image would be censorship; who, since the image is fake, claim not to be disturbed by it; who think that's it's horrible that people are so bothered by this fake image but not by real life horrors like rape and abuse.

My take is that PostSecret is, by its very nature, censored since Frank chooses what to post each week and that, in choosing to post this image (which doesn't even really qualify as a secret), he was clearly going for the shock factor, the sensationalism. Perhaps this image isn't as disturbing as many real life images but I'm not trying to look at those either.

The fact that there's worse stuff out there doesn't change the fact that this is a revolting image and I wish I hadn't seen it.

I don't like the direction PostSecret is going.

Past my bedtime . . .

Somehow Rachel talked Steve and me into accompanying her to the Isis to see the 6:30 pm showing of Twilight (her second time and our first). She was all sweetness and light and even cooked Steve dinner.

Then disaster struck. As Steve was showering, Rachel, getting nervous since we weren't leaving as early as she'd like, checked the ticket status on line.

Sold out.

Oh, no.

Storm clouds gathered but after a mighty effort, the front cleared fairly quickly.

Even though Steve is exhausted after having boot packed the entire day (can you walk up and down a 35 degree slope in the snow at 12,000 feet for 8 hours?), he agreed to accompany Rachel to the 9:20 pm show. Of course, I'm tagging along too.

Rachel has already bought our tickets. No backing out now . . .

Teenage girls

Steve and I are feeling our age tonight. (That's seems to be a theme recently.)

We're sitting in the family room, reading, while the teenage girls (Rachel and two of her friends) are are in the next room, giggling, listening to music and getting ready to go to a techno-rave at Belly-Up.

Steve's never experienced the social phenomenon that is teenage girls getting ready for a night out. He's rather bemused by the whole spectacle.

He just looked at me and said, "Wow, we're the parents, sitting in the living room, aren't we?"

More small world

I had a meeting tonight with two bankers here in town, both of whom grew up within walking distance of where I grew up.

And now, here we all are, working and living the life in Aspen.

Of course, they're both at least a decade younger than I am so it's not like we crossed paths or anything in our previous lives.

Most of the time when I'm hanging out socially here in Aspen, I'm with my husband's friends and I'm the young one in the crowd.

It was a bit disconcerting to be on the flip side of that tonight. I coped by drinking too much wine (if you call one glass which went straight to my head too much).