Today is was back to work after 5 days off. We headed out to St.Louis this past Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving at my parents. It was the typical trip, with lots of cable television watching and eating. I watched my first MTV in about 5 months, catching up on "My Super Sweet 16", the best/worst show on TV. In a way, the show is produced to be a sort of mockery of the kids getting these insane parties because it highlights their whiney, self-centered, pathetic lives where they cry if daddy won't get them the Range Rover they wanted, but instead they have to settle for a Benz. But in the end, it's sad when you realize that hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted on these parties, money that could have done so much more somewhere else.

Also on the subject of TV, I was very disappointed with "Man vs. Wild" which is a lame knock-off of 'Survivorman' (which I recently discovered rules). And after a few friends strong recommendations, I'm finally on board with '30 Rock' after watching about half of season 1 via Netflix's streaming video service the other weekend.

I also managed to score some tickets to the Cleveland Indians home opener over the weekend. So this year's game will make my 5th straight opener. I was hoping to see the Indians do more in the offseason than just sign a Japanese relief pitcher, but I suppose there is a long time between now and spring training. But when I read the Yankees re-signed A-Rod, and are now in talks to get Johan Santana, I start getting nervous.

---------
Tonight's blog post title comes from the song "That Right Ain't Shit" by The Books. Watch a live performance of this song here.

Labels: Thanksgiving

Today was one of those extremely stressful days at work where you wish you could go back to the beginning of the day and chose to stay in bed. The lousy snow/rain/sleat mix, a day after 60+ degree temps, didn't help much either. And the last time I saw the sun in these parts? Can't remember.

So what does one do to try to erase the memories of a bummer of a day? Well, if you're me, you dive into one of your new interests, cooking. After attending the Fabulous Food Show this past weekend at the I-X Center, I was feeling ambitious with my cooking, which I've slowly been expanding on over the past year. Tonight's meal was Rigatoni w/ Turkey Sausage & Peppers, a recipe from Food Network star (and Italian beauty) Giada De Laurentiis. I'm not a big red meat guy, so I was lured in by the recipe actually calling for turkey sausage instead of having to sub it in myself. It was also my first time cooking with wine. I'm happy to report that it turned out very well, and will yield lots of extra meals since it's a pretty big recipe. And my cooking confidence increased another notch. Before you know it, I'll be on TV challenging the newly crowned Iron Chef, Cleveland native Michael Symon.

I feel like knocking back a few stiff drinks to get my mind off the day's events, but I'm not much of a drinker, and all I have on hand is some beers. So I'm currently enjoying a Goose Island Christmas Ale. Pretty good though I still prefer the Cleveland favorite, Great Lakes Christmas Ale, which is selling out at grocery stores around the area as usual for this time of year.

P.S. - Tonight's title is courtesy of the Long Winters song 'The Commander Thinks Aloud' (acoustic, from WOXY circa 2005), one of my favorite bands

Labels: cooking