Updates in the form of bullet points:

• I have a bruise on my where it got crushed by cleats. It doesn’t hurt like it did yesterday, it just looks cool.
• Only 178 days until Dragon Con and I already have my tickets for this geek festivus.
• My husband needs to go and get a passport so he can go to Poland in August. Lucky bastard.
• 30 gig black and chrome iPod video loaded with happy Utopia music and movies makes the day go faster.
• Fuck you Shitty Bloggers. Shitty Blogs Club will destroy you because we are assholes and make no pretense of “nice”.

This will be my last post on this blog. You can find me here from now on:

http://www.abstractutopia.com/blog

Update, or don’t.

Like I care.

I’ll put up a redirect later. Maybe.

Want to know a secret nifty thing? all three of you who still read this blog.

I will be using Serendipity to set things up. Woo hoo. I'm different.

It is next to impossible to be in a foul mood while listening to Ska music. No matter what is going wrong all day, if you have a background of ska music, it’s hard to be angry about it.

Remember when Ska was cool back in the mid-90’s? I talking the post Madness coolness of Ska. I wonder if anyone even remembers that Madness was a Ska band at times. I mean, how many people can name a song aside from “Our House”? Does anyone remember the One Step Beyond album? Or Baggy Trousers? I have come to the conclusion that a horn section makes bands cool. Look at Cake … even one horn adds to their coolness.

I think one of the problems I have with music these days is that it’s so fucking angsty. I’m not saying that music hasn’t always been burdened by it’s angst, it has. I’m talking about all these bands that take themselves and the music way, WAAAAY to seriously. Now, when I was younger I liked my share of angsty music, but I had to offset it with other stuff as well. I turn on the radio now and all I hear is this post-grunge-pseudo-punk-wannabe blur of bands that pretty much all sound the same.

I am speaking in generalization of course. There are exceptions of course, but I miss people who are up for a little fun.

Remember those lyrics that were utter non-sense? I mean, like the B-52’s and the Pixies. Hell, even Queen had it’s moments of utter silliness. Rock Lobster? Quiche Loraine? Fat Bottomed Girls? Monkey Gone to Heaven? Ridiculous lyrics that don’t really have to mean anything for it still to be music.

I blame whiny emo boys and their bad haircuts.

Damn you emo boys.

If I could find your leader, I would kick him in the knee. Twice. That would give him something to really whine about. All you emo boys remind me of that kid who would whine and moan and wear black, then go home and secretly sing show tunes to himself. Hey, guess what, I can mindlessly strum four minor chords badly on a guitar too.

So, emo boys, go out and see how many times you can say “pick it up” in ten seconds. Then write a song about a peanut butter and jelly omelet.

So, at work we’ve got these potlucks. We generally have them once every other month or so, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less. To most of them, I bring fresh baked bread. Quite frankly, I get bored of always bringing the same thing. Other people always bring the same thing (fucking green bean casseroles), but I think that is because they always eat the same thing at home.

I will be the first person to admit that I am a cheap bastard frugal. So I don’t like to spend a lot of money on these things. I’ve made some things before that were nicer, but I don’t think people truly appreciated them. So, fuck ‘em.

I made up this recipe sitting at my desk. It’s cost effective because bulk mushrooms are cheap as is couscous. The sundried tomatoes are also pretty cheap if you don’t go to those fancy hippie stores to get them. I get them at my local farmers market for about $2 a container. I should hope that anyone who is going to make this already has the spices laying about.

So anyway, this recipe is not only kosher, but also vegetarian (I think even vegan … I don’t know if they use egg in couscous or not). I am actually modifying it out of one of my Jewish cookbooks.

Spiced Couscous with Mushrooms and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

1 cup dry couscous
1 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 to 1.5 cups mixed mushrooms (Portabella, shitake, white caps, oyster and whatever other mushrooms you like will work. The mushroom mixture is purely up to the chef…this makes it different every time)
2 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1.5 cups water
~1 teaspoon cumin
~1 teaspoon turmeric
~1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 clove garlic, chopped
chopped parsley
chopped cilantro

1. Place the sun dried tomatoes in the water to reconstitute. Let sit for about 30 minutes. Go spend some quality time with your spouse, or call your mother on the phone. Maybe pick up a good book and read a couple of chapters.
2. Remove tomatoes from water and slice along with the mushrooms. You can food process the tomatoes if you really want to, I don’t suppose it really matters.
3. In a large pan, slowly heat the olive oil before adding the mushrooms, tomatoes and garlic. Cook until the mushrooms are barely soft. They should cook down a lot, 1.5 cups of fresh mushrooms never equates to 1.5 cups of cooked mushrooms.
4. Add in remaining spices, parsley and cilantro. You can dabble here, you may want more cumin and less cinnamon, that’s fine, just make sure that you have enough spices to get some on all the mushrooms. I usually just eyeball spices.
5. Add couscous to the pan and briefly mix with the mix until coated in olive oil. you may have to add a touch more olive oil depending on what sort of mushrooms you used. Some mushrooms absorb more oil than others when they cook (like portabella).
6. Add water used to reconstitute tomatoes making sure there is still 1.5 cups (you may want to add a touch more water if you used extra mushrooms). Many people cook the couscous separately and I disagree with that method, no matter what you do when you cook it separately, it always comes out flavorless. Cook everything together so the rich mushroom and tomato flavor permeates everything.
7. Mix again and cover. Turn to low heat and let simmer until couscous is tender.
8. When done, take off heat and fluff with a fork before serving.

Options: Substitute part of the sun dried tomato with dried red chili for a spicier couscous. You can also add chili powder or cayenne as one of the spices. Yum!

I got a new plant for my office.

Yes, yes, I know I am Utopia the plant slayer (a.k.a. Mrs. Black Thumb, Killer of Things Green, The Foliage Destroyer), but we were tromping about Wally World late Sunday eve and they were selling little Canadian cacti for 97 cents. I know, a cactus grown in a Canadian greenhouse isn’t right, but it’s still a cactus. It makes me feel a little bit more at ease just to have a plant that could do some damage to someone around me … especially the cubicle ninjas who have been going out of their way of late to thwart and destroy my spirit.

Anyway, this leaves me with a quandary. What should I name my new cubicle companion?

I already have Bruce Wayne and I gloriously destroyed Wally West. I also have Diana in the form of a little succulent. So, what next? I sense my cactus is a “She”. it just gives off that vibe to me. It’s quite spiny and makes me happy so I was thinking maybe Selena Kyle. This way it can have a love/hate relationship with ol’ Bruce-ee. I was also thinking perhaps Edward Nigma, but like I said, it’s a girl.

One day, I’ll get holoscan comments for this blog since MT has been utterly infested by spambots. But, I’m lazy. So, in an effort to make jeckles happy and add to the already shitty discussion in the Talk Shit Forums, I added a whole new topic to discuss the name of my cubicle cactus.

So… go and banter here.