Colorado has turly beautiful summer nights. Rarely hot, never humid, they're so … pleasant. We don't even have that many bugs (having fairly little water helps). So it's no surprise that we have a plethera of outdoor events in the summer, especially in the evening. Recently I discovered the Boulder Outdoor Cinema offering such movies as Spiderman2, American Graffiti, and Singing in the Rain and the Starlight Summer Movies Series in Castlerock featuring movies like City Slickers and Ghostbusters. I definitely plan to see some more Film on the Rocks and I might need to pop down to Boulder and check out a movie or two – they're a smidge cheaper and always on weekends. Sadly, Castlerock is too far to travel for a movie. 
Continue reading “More Outdoor Movies”
Conehead Returns
Hello, Loki here, faithful pup to Matt and Jess (faithful humans to me). I had a rough last couple of days. See on Saturday, I was minding my own business and rifling through the trash when I was sent outside for no reason at all. Lucky me, though, I found the holy grail of unguarded food … raw chicken. With yummy spicy seasoning. Being as that I have been subsisting on primarily dry cereal since I can remember, I took my opportunity and stole a chicken leg. I was very careful not to ruin my humans meal, but they were upset anyhow and chased me around the yard until I was forced to swallow it down. They got all upset and put me in my box and then for some inexplicable reason, though they seemed to be annoyed with me, they fed me a loaf of bread. My lucky day! Chicken and bread!
Everything was going hunkey-dorey for a while then. I went to the lake and got to run around it a lot and chase a prairie dog and go swimming. But then the next night. Oooer my tummy. So in the morning, Matt (he's the male human) took me to this large place with lots of other dogs. I thought it was doggy daycare at first, and though I didn't feel much like playing, that was OK with me. But then another dog told me it was the vegetarian and it was not always a nice place. Continue reading “Conehead Returns”
Ka-Ching
An update: After scoping Loki and trying to remove the bone(s) that way (for $200) they figured out that they couldn't and will have to preform surgery on him (for $1200). Sign up for Pet Insurance now. I should have…
Loki is doing alright. I'm concerned about him having surgery, but they say it's not a big deal. He'll still have to recover there for a bit and have a bucket on his head so he doesn't lick his stitches afterwards. So no doggy day-care. Poor guy. He'll be so bored!!
Mixed Bag
This weekend was such a mixed bag. Lots of fun/good/neat stuff happened and the reverse as well. Friday I went to dinner with my mom and sis. Then we picked up Matt at the airport (yea!) and we went to see Bewitched. Truly excellent movie. We all really enjoyed it. When we got home, we found that Mr. Loki had messed his box (kennel). We got to spend a generous half hour cleaning out his box. Eeeeew!
Saturday started out poorly. I was grumpy and Matt as grumpy and we basically managed to argue for most of the morning. But we got it together and had a nice day together running errands and the like, including running to Super Target to get the ingredients for a new recipe, Jerk Chicken. We got home, did some housey stuff and made the marinade for the chicken. Then we took Loki down to Standley Lake. We rode our bikes and he ran along side us and took the occasional swim.
When we got home, we fired up the BBQ and got ready to cook the chicken. Matt had the corn on the grill and had set out the chicken. Loki was inside with us, but he started to get into trouble, so we sent him outside. Just after I had closed the door, Matt realized the chicken was unguarded. I had thought it was on the grill. I ran back just in time to see him grab a drumstick from the bowl. We chase him around the back yard and thought we got him to drop it and put him inside while we searched for the chicken. But we couldn't find it and came to the conclusion he swallowed it. We called the vet and asked about it and they told us to wait and see. Continue reading “Mixed Bag”
Jerk Chicken
from: Everyday Food June/July
Ingredients
1 bunch scallions, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 jalapeño chile, chopped (seeds and ribs removed for less heat, if desired)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for grates
1 tablespoon light-brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Coarse salt
8 pieces bone-in chicken (drumsticks and thighs), skinned and trimmed of excess fat
Directions
Make marinade: In a blender, combine scallions, garlic, jalapeño, lime juice, oil, sugar, allspice, thyme, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons water; blend until smooth. Set aside 1/4 cup for brushing.
Place chicken in a shallow dish; season all over with salt. Pour remaining marinade over chicken; toss to coat. Cover; refrigerate, turning once or twice, at least 2 hours, or up to overnight.
Heat grill to medium-high; oil grates. Lift chicken from marinade, letting excess drip off (discard marinade); place on grill, and cover. Cook, turning occasionally, until chicken is blackened in spots, about 10 minutes.
Move chicken to a cooler part of the grill; brush with reserved marinade. Grill, covered, until chicken is cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes more. Serve immediately.
Nutritional Info (1/4 chicken(
249 calories; 11.8 grams fat; 27.3 grams protein; 8.4 grams carbohydrates; 1.6 grams fiber
Moved, but Still Unpacking …
Well, Jesser.org is at its new home. We moved from Hurricane Electric to WebSiteSource. And so far, we're very happy with the move. We're paying $19/month less and we get loads more featues. It's one of those pesky little things that I've been meaning to do for a long time and now I've done it.
For those of you interested, the interface is pretty much entirely GUI (graphical) and I've been very impressed thus far with the sheer amount of features. I've had to look around some to figure things out, but I haven't come up wanting for anything. So exciting!!
In other news from the nerdery, I taught my first class at work today. My job is weird. I do tons of stuff. I program, I do administrative tasks and I teach. So today was my first class for a group of adults. I'd done a one-on-one session before and I taught two summers at Ace Computer Camp, but never to adults. It seemed to go pretty well. I think (hope) everyone learned something. I know I did.
Outage?
I'm moving Jesser to a different server so there might be outages over the next couple of days. Stay posted. We'll be back.
Skinned Alive!
I'm very happy to say that I've completed another 101 objective … skinning jesser. You may already be noticing a new look around here. Well, you've got the power to control it. There's a little drop down to the right where you can select your skin. Blueberry is the old fave, but there are three new ones to choose from.
This project has taken me over a week, grabbing a scant hour or two as I could, but I know the hard-work will be worth it, because now that I've retro-fitted Jesser, I can add new skins (fairly) quickly and easily. Such good possibilities!
Film on the Rocks
Tonight kicks off another season of Film on the Rocks. At the world-famous Red Rocks Ampitheatre, they start out with live music and then sum up the evening by showing a new-classic film right on the rocks in the beautiful Colorado night.
To kick off the season, they're showing one of my all time favorite movies, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I'm so excited to see this!! I never saw it in the theatre, and I can't imagine anything better. Except perhaps The Princess Bride playing 2 days before my birthday!!!!
I ♥ summer!!
Boring, but Good
We had one of those weekends where almost nothing was scheduled. This is pretty rare for us. We spent Friday night working on my lap-top trying to restore it to some of its former glory. We had the hard drive that was in it and one Dell sent us to replace the one in it. We put the one inside the machine into a hard drive enclosure (like the one pictured left) and effectively turned it into an external hard drive (a very small/cute one at that). Then we put in the new hard drive and pulled over necessary files from the old one. All of this is part and parcel of a 101 goal, but unfortunately, it's not done yet. I still have to format the hard drive on it, but I'm reluctant to do it so far, because I don't want to lose some data I forgot to take off.
Saturday we took a ride from hell around Green Mountain. I stupidly did not eat before we left and when it was time to climb the big hill, I crashed bad … not physically … but I had 0 blood sugar left and I got all dizzy. So not a terribly successful ride, but I did go farther otherwise than I ever had before, so that was good. And we spent the rest of the day chilling out and watching errands. Continue reading “Boring, but Good”