Smoked Paprika

Yesterday Iris and I went to the video store as part of her planned Bring It On afternoon. She was having friends over to watch those movies and to maybe also watch a Heath Ledger movie (or two).

Alas -- and of course -- the video store was all out of Heath Ledger movies. And the only Bring It On movies were the second and fourth ones. Until yesterday I thought there were only two of those movies.

Even Fred Meyer's electronics section didn't have what we wanted. But I did find a used DVD of Paprika, an animated feature I've heard nothing but good things about.

And PAPRIKA has played a large part in my life lately. At the end of last year the local paper's food section printed a "best of the year" article. I don't read the food section of the paper all that often. I'd link to the paper right now, but their web site is frustratingly difficult to navigate. As a public service, I won't send you there.

Among the best 2007 best recipes was something with "smoked paprika." It sounded good. I'd never seen smoked paprika for sale, and I shop at both 7/11 and Plaid Pantry.

I went to the internets to see where in Portland I could buy the stuff. Most of the results were from fancy-schmancy Portland restaurants -- menu items featuring smoked paprika. "It's the spice of the year!" I told my wife, in between rants about how stupid things are and why I'm smarter than everyone else except her.

I asked my pal Greg, owner of the Corbett Fish House, and yeah, he'd heard of it, but didn't know where to get it. We both looked around at exotic-type spice stores (in my case, the nearby Mexican grocery and the nearby Caribbean spice grocery). A week later Greg ordered some from the internet tubes.

He gave me a pound of it this week. My first thought was to roast some potatoes with it, so I walked to Trader Joe's and endured that crowd.

But lately I've been making pastes with the mortar and pestle for Thai-style foods, and, well... I made a paste with the smoked paprika and prepped some vegetables. But I ended up sticking it in the fridge and doing something completely different for dinner. Golly, the paprika vegetables smell good, though.

Smoked paprika had become some plate-o-shrimp thing. And here it is a month later, I have some in the house, and I still haven't tried it.

This morning Amy and Cleo and I went over to the Hawthorne district. Cleo shopped for a birthday present, while we went to Powell's to spend a gift card. We first stopped at Pastaworks. We bought some cheese. On the spice shelf they sold smoked paprika... but now I don't need any, do I?

And one of the cheeses we bought? We got home and discovered it was covered in... smoked paprika!

I Call This One "My Conscience"

Falling Iris

Falling, Not Flying

Luna and Iris

Jumble from the Archives

Who2 Anniversary

Saturday was the celebration of the tenth anniversary of Who2. We went online in the first part of 1998, or so says part-time company archivist Fritz Holznagel.

We gathered for lunch at Pazzo's, the restaurant below the Vintage Plaza hotel, where we were all staying. Ryan and Julie came in from Cincinatti, Hans and his son Clifton came in from Cleveland, Mike Duffy in from whatever the hell town in Texas, and Adam and Jenny from Portland -- like us. The five Who2 fellows met at lunch to talk. The family members huddled in a wet corner on the street, I guess.

It was the first time all of us had been in the same room. It was the first time I'd met Mike Duffy, with whom I've worked for six or seven years now. It was a great time.

Dinner that evening at Mamma Mia's downtown was swell, another good time and way too much food. A nightcap at the hotel bar finished up the evening. It was fun and full of good feelings.

Basement Reorganized

My old office:

The new Rec Room (formerly my office):

Stepping down into the basement:

The New Office

We switched the rooms around in the basement. We put my office back in the southwest corner, and moved the PC/Playstation stuff to the southeast corner. Now my office is about half the size it used to be, but the PC/Playstation area is nice and big (about 18' x 12'). I'll see if I can dig up some comparison photos. In the meantime, here's what my office looks like:

Past, Stab, etc.

We cleaned out and reorganized the basement over the weekend. A lot of ugly stuff turned up, including this ID card from when I was a junior in high school in California. I like how it says it's not a student body card.

I must not have met the requirements for one of those.

Religious Radio Message

A person must live "an uncompromising life" to be a "person of character" or a "person of integrity" -- as God intended.

That was today's message on Grace To You, a radio show I sometimes listen to on 93.9 FM (KPDQ). They told about Daniel in the lion's den, and how important it is to do "whatever it takes" for the God you believe in. That's what makes a godly person, they said.

(Ironic that a program with the word "grace" in the title would emphasize good works as a way to get to god, but that's theology, that troublesome interloper with whom sermonizing holds no truck.)

Like so many of those shows on KPDQ, Grace To You makes me wonder if they ever listen to themselves. They condemn people of other faiths for doing weird things in the name of that god, then turn right around and preach about an "uncompromising" life to please this god.

I know, I know, they'd say "it's different... we mean the one true God and they mean that fakey god."

Ironic, You Bet

From a 1967 Mad.

Balmy and Clod

We watched Bonnie And Clyde the other night. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are pretty good lookin' in that movie. There's a lot of shootin'. But Clyde doesn't do enough as far as Bonnie's concerned. This snippet from the 1967 MAD magazine satire (which I still own) says it all:

Good Ol' Boy

Amy says "Imagine the smell."

iHair

While I was in the Mac store recently I noticed that all four sales guys had funky facial hair of some type -- a sould patch, a goatee-mustache, a goatee-sans-mustache and a skillfully shaped sideburn-little-beard combo. I came home and did a quick illustration, because pictures are louder than words (but obviously they don't say as much, as I have just illustrated).

Cleo's Birthday

Today Cleo turned 17. She had friends over at lunchtime and they had cake that Amy made last night. I was out getting birthday stuff. Cleo got a little iPod shuffle, some chocolates, a little shoulder bag, a cake-decorating kit, a gift card to Victoria's Secret, a lamp, a game (Blokus) and I don't know what else.

For dinner we decided to try a place over on Alberta called Zaytoon. Amy and I had a terrific Lebanese pizza there last summer, but since then every time I go over there the place is closed. Tonight we went in, sat down, looked at the menu, got our water... and when the waiter finally came to take our order he meekly told us there were no minors allowed. Their site says they celebrate diversity, but now we know they practice age-istism.

So we went over to Ya Hala, another Lebanese food joint on SE Stark. There was a wait for a table. The place was packed. So we went to Hoda's on SE Belmont. Also Lebanese, also packed with a wait for a table.

We ended up across the street at the Tao of Tea, which was also very busy. We had a nice dinner and got home just in time for Lyle, Andrea and Honor to arrive with a gift for Cleo.

Then we watched a chunk of RAISING ARIZONA, then it was bed time.

I got a funny comic book from the Perry Bible Fellowship today. I'll post one of his cartoons, and include another photo funny:

Sunday Photo Funnies

2008's First Bird Photos