Booboolina: hungry

I have been persuaded to join the Relay for Life event in August at Skyline High School.

Want to help out? We need more people for our team! We need money to reach our goal!

Join our team here (click on the "Join team" link), or you can donate here.

We're fun people and at least one team member will be celebrating a birthday, so 
there will most likely be cake or cupcakes or something else really excellent to help 
us pass the time.

This is the only one of those myspace memes I have found worth reposting. And rather than keep it just for me and those in my circle, I'm posting it for the world to see.  Who knew these things could be so accurate??

And now you know when my birthday is, so feel free to check out my wishlist (ha!).

pick the month(number)you were born on

1 - I killed
2 - I needed
3 - I ran naked with
4 - I shot
5 - I banged
6 - I cuddled with
7 -I ate
8 - I am shirtless with
9 - I stabbed
10 - I slept with
11 -I peed on/with
12- I killed


Pick the day (number) you were born on

01 - a stripper
02 - a dog
03 - a jew
04 - a whore
05 - Santa Claus
06 - a homo
07 - Barney the dinosaur
08 - a prostitute
09 - a pickle
10 - a jar of honey
11 - a whore
12 - a condom
13 - a bag of weed
14 - a glass of milk
15 - my crush
16 - the cool-aid man
17 - my lover
18 - a horse
19 - an orange
20 - a crackhead
21 - an easter egg
22 - trojan man
23 - paris hilton
24 - a toothbrush
25 - a homeless man/women
26 - a pornstar
27 - a bowl of cereal
28 - your dealer
29 - a French fry
30 - My Ex
31 - Ur grandma

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing

White - Because thats how i roll
Black - because im sexy as hell
Pink - Because the lil people told me to
Red - because I'm a pimp and your jealous
Blue - because I have AMAZING boobs
Polka Dots - because I hate my life
Purple - because I'm gay
Gray - because I love marijuana
Other - because I have double D's
Green - because I'm good in bed
Orange - because I smoke crack
Turquoise - because I have a noodle in my nose
Brown - because i had to
Shirtless - because I've got abs

YOU ONLY HAVE 3 MINUTES AND 69 SECONDS TO REPOST THIS AS WHATEVER YOUR RESULTS WERE OR YOU WILL HAVE BAD RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

It's true, kids.  Go to it.

From today's LA Times horoscopes:

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Someone could easily fall for your style, not your substance. Oh, well. You can't expect everyone to get the deeper parts of you. Besides, the attention is nice either way.

Darn tootin'.

Snow Patrol + Ok Go = more fun than you can shake a stick at

Went to see Snow Patrol, Ok Go and the Silversun Pickups tonight and wow. 

Just ... wow. 

I wish I had smuggled in a compact digital camera, 'cause the girl in front of me was getting some great pictures.  My feet and knees hurt and my ears are a little numb (but not as numb as you'd think!), but I had a great time to show for it.  Even my CL ads worked out, and the guy who met up with me to buy my ticket and hang out was nice and interesting and into the whole experience.  And he drove me to my car in Oakland "on his way home" to San Jose.

PS - I love that when I copy/paste recipes into here, it completely removes the numbers.  They were there before I hit 'save', I promise you! I'll put them in later.  In the meantime, if you want measurements, click the links to the originals.

Made yet another awesome chicken dish, this time a cold one!

Chicken with Fruit and Olives

This dish really marinates twice. Chicken soaks in a vinegar-oil-garlic mixture before it's cooked, then it chills in the cooking juices, making for very tender meat.

cup red wine vinegar
tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
teaspoon salt
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
garlic cloves, minced
cup pitted prunes, chopped
cup dried apricots, chopped
cup pitted green olives, halved
pounds skinless, bone-in chicken breasts
cup dry white wine
cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Combine first 5 ingredients in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish, stirring with a whisk. Add prunes, apricots, and olives; toss well to coat. Add chicken; turn to coat. Cover and chill at least 6 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 450°.

Pour wine around, but not over, the chicken; let stand 15 minutes. Bake at 450° for 35 minutes or until chicken is done; let stand 15 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove chicken from the bones; discard bones. Return chicken to fruit mixture; let stand 15 minutes. Serve with a slotted spoon

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 328(26% from fat); FAT 9.6g (sat 1.7g,mono 5.4g,poly 1.7g); PROTEIN 38.2g; CHOLESTEROL 102mg; CALCIUM 42mg; SODIUM 393mg; FIBER 2.4g; IRON 2.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 19g

Notes:
I couldn't find either skinless, bone-in chicken breasts or non-stuffed pitted green olives. I used about 2.5 lbs chicken breast strips and they are working just fine.  As for the green olives, just buy some stuffed green olives (maybe garlic stuffed? will save you the peeling of your own cloves, although you might end up with a lot more garlic than you want) - it'll be a lot easier to remove their stuffing than to do your own pitting, trust me on this.

Then I made some Creamy Parmesan Orzo to go with it:

Unlike traditional pasta, this orzo isn't cooked in a pot of boiling water. Instead, it's cooked slowly in a flavorful broth that captures its starch.

tablespoon butter
cup orzo
cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
cups water
cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
tablespoons chopped fresh basil
teaspoon salt
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
teaspoons pine nuts, toasted

Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add orzo, and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until liquid is absorbed and orzo is done (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat; stir in cheese, basil, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle with the pine nuts. Serve immediately.

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 236(24% from fat); FAT 6.4g (sat 3.2g,mono 1.8g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 9.9g; CHOLESTEROL 12mg; CALCIUM 82mg; SODIUM 412mg; FIBER 1.7g; IRON 1.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 34.8g

Notes:
I had to do the final simmer of the orzo for a lot longer than they said, I think because my definition of simmer is a lot lower heat than their idea.  And I had never toaste pine nuts before. Probably better to do that separate from everything else, rather than during the orzo cooking, since I think I almost burned them. Still, they're pretty good regardless.

Tickets have been sold, in case you were wondering.

I have to go to a wedding and will miss a concert I've wanted to go to for a long time.  But hey, the wedding will be fun too, I'm sure.

Do you want them? All I'm asking for is what I put out for them: $100 for the pair.  I'll eat the $.45. Suchadeal!

Large view here.  CL ad here.

Killer ... er, *Killers* tickets for sale

Ever wonder why customer service folks talk to you like you're an idiot?  Well, we don't, really, but we wish we could sometimes.

I'm turning 35 in 10 days.  I know! I can't believe it either. I still seem so ... so ... so non-adult-like.  I believe my parents are both in denial about my age, especially as it reflects on them.  Also, they still give me money for gas and airplane travel.  And I still take my laundry Home (hey, at least I don't make my mom do it for me. I just use her machines, and her detergent).  And I still file the 1040 EZ because I can't handle the thought of deductions and stuff. 

Anyway, I'm having a party next weekend.  Wanna come? 

Details:
When: Saturday, February 10
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Where: The Saddlerack

Note: if you're so kind as to travel all the way to Fremont to celebate my birthday, keep in mind that the cover goes from a somewhat reasonable $10 to a highly outrageous $20 at 10:00.  So I'd suggest getting there before 10.

Not sure why you'd want to go to the Saddlerack?  Think mechanical bull.  Think people-watching.  You'd be surprised how much fun it is.  Here are some pictures from last year's birthday party.

What are your Superbowl plans?  What's your prediction and why? 
Submitted by danatmedog.

My Superbowl plans include cleaning my apartment, and then maybe heading into SF to do some shopping.  My prediction is that most of this will be accomplished because (as of this writing) I have already cleaned the apartment as much as it's going to be cleaned.  Now I have only to clean myself up and make my way over to BART.  I anticipate that the shopping will be easy-peasy because only the football widows will be out and about at this hour.  I'm a little bummed that no one invited me to any parties, but hey, I only just remembered about  10 minutes ago that today was the big day, so I guess it wasn't that important to me to begin with.  I do enjoy the commercials though. I suppose I'll get those tomorrow (yay youtube!).

Happy Superbowl Sunday, folks!

Show us a photo of someone else taking a photo.
Submitted by ydnar.

I'll do you one better: A photo of someone else taking a photo of someone else taking a photo of something else.

Mark capturing Beth