The Vet Who Did Not Vet

Cute. Cutting.

Yes We Carve!

Deep Thought

Is it possible that the man who processes my travel expense reports, whom I have never seen, is the nicest man on earth?

Dropbox

www.getdropbox.com.

Hopefully this will prevent me from almost losing lots of files when I think they are on my laptop, but really they are not, and I delete the only copies from my USB drivekey thingie, only to search and search and search through my laptop at home and then through my emails and then through my sent emails. The IT people at work claim we will all have something like this very very soon, and all the stuff on our shared drive, which is only available in the Baltimore office and therefore pretty useless to our field office staff, will be up in the cloud. I kind of love the cloud. And this Dropbox, it syncs things, so when I'm working on my minutes from the net use meeting 3 weeks ago, I don't have to save the latest version onto my USB thing and then take it to work and copy over the last version on the work computer. Everything updates, you can share things, you can get a link to a document to send to someone who doesn't have a Dropbox account, and it has this cute little icon that has a rotating arrow when it is updating your stuffs.

Kind of yucky day today at work for no good reason, took off to search for the lost document in the afternoon, and now, of course, feeling a bit better because I found the doc, made changes, and sent it to a nice man for review before our nice phone call tomorrow. Accomplishing actual things always clears the funk. Now off to confit some leeks for a near-future goat cheese tart thing, and figure out dinner.

Mulled Cider

I'm in unfocused mode, milling around the internets, and this recipe reminded me of the delicious cider cocktail with aromatic gins that I had last Sunday. Did I mention that it was delicious? Because it was. And the aromatic gins are HOMEMADE, people. Ginger and orange and clove and YUM CITY.

This one caught my eye because of the black pepper (and Alec should totally make a black pepper gin!) But where will I find star anise and allspice berries?

Oh wait, that's a rhetorical question. And J, if you're reading, do not try to get them before the bus tomorrow. Seriously.

1 gallon apple cider
10 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns, lightly crushed
2 strips orange peel, about 2 inches long
6 dried allspice berries
4 heads star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced
Orange twists, for garnish

Combine apple cider with all other ingredients except orange twists in a large pot and stir well.

Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for 10 minutes before serving.
Serve cider in a heatproof mug, garnished with an orange twist.

A fine fine chili

I made this chili for a birthday potluck a few weeks back, it was a big hit, and made lots of leftovers that I froze during my trip. So nice to come back bedraggled and have comfort food all ready to go. Also I replaced the water with stout so you know its good. Bon Appetit, Nov 2002

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 pound chuck steak, fat trimmed, cut into 1-inch cubes
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups water - why use water when you can use Chocolate Stout!
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 6-ounce cans tomato paste
2 teaspoons sugar
3 cups diced fresh tomatoes
3 cups diced onions
3 cups diced red bell peppers

3 cups canned black beans, drained, rinsed (from three 15-ounce cans)
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 3/4 cups (about) beef broth (or water)
Grated cheddar cheese

Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add ground pork and ground beef and sauté until brown, about 3 minutes. Add cubed beef and garlic and sauté 5 minutes. Add stout; bring to boil. Add cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt, and cayenne pepper. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and sugar and simmer 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, onions, and peppers and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Add black beans and cilantro to chili. Add beef broth 3/4 cup at a time, until thinned to desired consistency. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated.) Bring chili to simmer. Ladle hot chili into bowls; top with grated cheddar cheese and serve.

Luuuurve

"Weaponized spinach"

Also I have the greatest parents and the greatest funky kitchen supply store in Urbana IL.

That is all.

Yes We Carve

www.yeswecarve.com

Phew

Just unsubscribed from Andrew Sullivan's blog and now I feel I can finally keep up with my google reader. And that my news/election feeds aren't full of blither anymore.

Suffering from Exhaustion

Just like the celebrities!

So last week I flew to Geneva for this meeting I had organized on closing the gap between mosquito net ownership and use. 15-30% of households that own a net aren't sleeping under it, so we wanted to look at why, and what we could do to change it. The meeting went ok and then I flew to Wisconsin for Claire's wedding.

Claire's wedding was great and so nice to see Kira and Jay and Aaron and to catch up with Bridget and Ben and Kevin and Sarah. Everyone got really tired about 8pm though and since Kira and I had early flights, we pooped out after the dancing was over.

Then I spent all day flying, and all night flying to Accra, where I promptly fell ill with my standard sore throat/congestion/fever/fuzziness Airplane Crud, which has now descended a bit and given me a nice productive cough. The first day of meetings was brutal; the second everyone else went on site visits, which I, fortunately, could justify skipping since I'd gone out to several on my last two visits, so I slept all night Tuesday night and more or less all day Wednesday, minus a few hours watching bits of "American Dreamz" (only watchable in a sick/fuzzyhead state) and "Grosse Pointe Blank" (always, always watchable).

Thursday seemed to be a little better but then the afternoon hit and I couldn't take it anymore. Intending to lay down for 20 minutes I quickly passed out for three hours. Managed to get up for our musical interlude/dinner thing, and then went back to bed, taking a Nyquil, which, I will warn you, is effective for over 12 hours. Do NOT expect to be awake anytime before your 12 hours are up.

I have my 4th transatlantic flight in less than two weeks tonight starting at 3am. Obviously not an ideal itinerary, but I felt guilty about making the cost too high because I was using project money to get myself to a wedding in the middle of my work trips, and so I didn't make them change it. However, since I'm routed through JFK I get to spend some time with some good people and also get to bed earlier than if I had stayed on the flight back to Dulles.

What the...

How is it possible that between the time I go for drinks (8pm) and the time I return (midnight) there are 54 blog posts awaiting me, almost all election-related?

Seriously, I cannot keep up. I saw something like Obama up 7 points nationally. That's all I need to know at this point.

I'm Sticking With The Union

I know this election is about a lot of things. But this here, this is one of those things. A white AFL-CIO guy giving a speech about racism that makes me tear up? Seven minutes, but all worth watching.

Mad Dog Climbing Skills!

In our world, we call this "stemming". Love the look on the other doggies faces at the end!