The Empirical Manifesto

My wife accidentally bought a bag of chicken thighs (she usually purchases boneless chicken breasts). I haven't grilled anything on the bone in a long time. I threw them down on the grill once it was ready and decided almost at once I wouldn't grill them, I would barbecue them. With the flame set oh so low, I tossed a packet of Jack Daniel's smoking pellets on one of the burners and smoked them for 20 minutes or so prior to dumping an entire bottle of BBQ sauce on the thighs and slow-cooking them for about half an hour while the wife and I sat adjacent the grill smoking cigars and drinking red wine. I tossed on another smoking packet just for good measure at that point, and 20 minutes later, removed them from the grill. It was the most tender, most flavorful chicken I've cooked in quite a while.

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Putting my little girl to bed last night, she was showing me she could whistle. I showed her how she could make songs by changing the pitch and duration of her notes. As an example, I whistled the theme to SpongeBob Squarepants. She was fascinated. She began picking out books for me to whistle about. For a book on butterflies, I chose Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee for lack of anything more appropriate in this impromptu recital. When she pulled out Sleeping Beauty I immediately began Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same name. When I left, I went looking for my CD. I've been neglecting some of my classical music here lately, and decided I wanted to listen to it while I was working on the pics of my kitties last night. Much to my surprise, I found that I didn't own it! So...I'm now in the process of downloading it in the interim, and researching which conductor/orchestra/label I should purchase. I also found that I don't actually own Swan Lake either. As many classical music CD's as I have, and I don't have those staples (and I really thought I had Sleeping Beauty on a cheap label disc). Well, researching the perfect album is half the fun!

Speaking of music, I revisited my TELARC discs this morning, and chose for the drive in, my introduction to the label, the 1984 "Time Warp." It made me wish I had something (anything really) in the car other than the stock stereo. What a great disc.

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MY wife read in a magazine that "The Game of Life" was an excellent tool in which to help teach children to read. Because the children want to play "Star Wars Monopoly", and I'd rather swallow my own tongue than to do that again - she bought "SpongeBob Squarepants The Game of Life" today. And that, my friends, is what galinda822 and I are doing for movie night tonight. This is also the reason I'm picking up a 12-pack of Pilsner Urquell after work.

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Nine days in NY. Lots of eggs and such for breakfast at the various hotels we stayed in. There was only one thing I wanted with my bacon and biscuits and eggs: Gravy. Thick, sausage, white cream gravy. Bill and my boss laughed and laughed at my 'forgetting' what part of the nation I was in that I expected gravy with my breakfast. Alas, on the Tuesday before I left, the Hampton Inn had an entire vat of sausage gravy! Looking back, I don't recall if I actually ate anything with my gravy, or if I consumed the gravy as a standalone item...

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I'm booked for D.C. Friday the 6th through Saturday the 14th. I have lots going on that week. On my flight to NY I picked up John Irving's newst book, Until I Find You. Now, this is no small undertaking (and George Eliot's Middlemarch is going to have to take a backseat to this one) because this is a rather lengthy composition. As is his usual style, he's running the gamut of epic proportions by encompassing (what appears to me at 1/3 through the book) the majority of the lead characters lifespan. So far, so good (if you're into John Irving) but I've forbidden my wife to read it as it contains quite a bit of unsettling graphic material that I know she won't care for. Most of the John Irving books I've read have had a great impact on my life (though admittedly I did read the majority of them as an impressionable young man) but I really don't expect this one to be any different. I'll let you know what I think, and I would enjoy hearing your thoughts on the matter if you're a fan.



Low and behold, as I was reading this entry to my wife, she mentions, "You have Swan Lake. I put it in our daughters room." She found it in her bureau. I thought I had that one! She said Sleeping Beauty was in there too.

Ate mostly cheese for dinner. Is that wrong? I had a nice salad for lunch, but that was 7 hours ago, and I was starving. Drove to Wichita this weekend - smoked a cuban on the way there. It was fantastic - thanks Phil! I think I'll give up scooby-snack for awhile. Have my eye on a new humidor and about 100 cigars. That should last me awhile. Had a good time with the kids, we went to the fall carnival and rode all the rides. I think Chamber of Secrets is the best Harry Potter score. Lori sat and watched every episode of BSG Season Two, back-to-back, uninterrupted. I am watching the mini-series again, as a prelude to watching Season One followed by Season Two. Tony just picked up the US DVD Box Set of Season One. This is going to be a hard week to recover from. As I was driving to Wichita, I noticed the East-bound traffic from Kansas City to St. Louis was pretty much grid-locked. For 200 miles. I decided then and there I was going to drive back early Sunday morning. I went to bed at 1945 and got out of bed at 0100. I figure I got a good three hours of sleep. Drove to the hotel, showered, shaved, put on my coat and tie, and went to work. Ten and a half hours later, here I sit, gut full of cheese, and wishing I could just pass out.