jr conlin's ink stained banana

Wow, twenty-eight kids and it's only 7:15. And yeah, of course i haven't been able to get a picture of any of them. Kids are more Grab and Run than pose, but hey, they're on a sugar rush.

Hopefully as the crowd ages, i'll get a chance to take a few.

Oh yeah, and JIM's pumpkin rules (It's even better than my smoking one.)

Ok,

• 60 full sized candy bars (mixed pack from Smart & Final, unlike Reducto, i hate "fun sized". Nothin' fun about getting gyp'd.)
• about 60 light-sticks, various colors and on lanyards.
• Carved pumpkin outfitted with blinky light fog machine. (mad pumpkin, MAD PUMPKIN!)
• around 30 hand-out cards thanking folks for letting me put their pictures up on Flickr (and letting them know how they can download copies for themselves.)

Although i'm starting to think that i if i want to endear myself with the folks in my neighborhood, i should hand out cups of cocoa and shots of bourbon to help them warm up.

Granted, the police might question me handing out the bourbon to the kids, but i'm betting the parents will agree that nothing cuts through that sugar rush quite like a fifth of Kentucky gold. Plus the cocoa will keep their hands warm while walking with the kids.

Yesterday, Anne Marie headed over to the neighbors for dinner (i had a headache most of the day and was feeling a tad anti-social. Possibly due to an automated check-out stand. Best leave that alone.), the menu featured barbeque baby-back ribs. At the end of the evening, Anne Marie was handed a gallon sized bag filled with the uneaten ribs and told, "Please, take them. We don't eat leftovers."

This, i'll note, is not the first time i've encountered someone with that philosophy.

It's one that i definitely don't subscribe to.

i love me some leftovers.

i love them so much that i'll roast a whole chicken in the afternoon, let it cool to room temperature and then reheat it for dinner that night. For me, cooking the food and eating it right away is like munching on the ingredients.

Understand, there's a good reason for this. There are two times that you can really imbue flavor on foods. The first is to marinate them before you cook. Doing that you introduce flavors into the cooking process that alter from heat. The second time is after you cook. At this time, the cell walls and tissues have broken down, moisture has left and all those nicely heated pockets of air are cooling down looking for anything they can draw back in. Plus, sugars take time to build back up again, and in the cooling process oil based seasonings coagulate and become stronger.

Plus, you've got more ingredients you can huck into other stuff to make the flavors REALLY come out. Some of those ribs went into the Chili i'm making for Halloween night (a Conlin family tradition of mine), and let me tell you, those burnt bits of marrow at the ends of the ribs add an incredibly rich, smoky taste to the chili, plus the sweet barbeque glaze adds just enough sugars to balance out the heat from the peppers. i'm starting to think that this might be a darn addition to the permanent list for that chili.

Look, it's not a question of being frugal. If you've ever eaten tuna out of a can, most hot-dogs, or heck, a can of soup you've eaten leftovers.

G'won, save some baked rigatoni and warm it up in a 350° oven for thirty minutes* the next day, add a bit more sauce and some extra cheese if you like. Serve with a green salad and some toasted bread. Betcha it tastes better than you remember it tasting the night before.

(*Sure, you can use the microwave, but you'll miss the crunchy bits of pasta and burnt sauce.)

Don't eat leftovers? Man, save'em for me then.

i try to be a nice guy. i really do.

i smile a lot and try to be nice to folks like checkout people no matter how bad they may seem. We all have bad days and me pointing out just how bad their day is already isn't going to make things better.

This, of course, does not extend to the automated checkout stands. For those, it's a nearly nonstop spew of hatred and anger. i'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because if the store refuses to treat me like a human, then i get to return the favor to the appliance that stands between me and getting the heck out of there.

Maybe it's the soothing helpful voice that demands i try and put the large plastic containers on the small check out scale. Maybe it's the fact that no, i can't find the coupon slot. Maybe it's the fact that there aren't any actual human check out people working any of the other stands and this damn gift card's going to get used and stop them from getting one more dime of interest.

Miserable f'ing Bastards. Hope they burn and rot.

The machines.

i mean the machines.

maybe.

Hellboy Animated: Hellboy: Sword of Storms

Got my tivo locked and loaded.

Hmm… wouldn't it be wonderful to get a Hellboy / Screw on Head double feature?

it'd beat the hell out of most of CN's Adult Swim lineup.