Thanks to Bonnie for alerting me to this update of the classic game “Rock, Paper, Scissors!” 

Last night when I got home from work, I was feeling pretty down about the huge hospital bill that we received in the mail (why is it so much more than the 20% that I am supposed to pay as per my insurance plan? Now I have to – ugh – CALL Blue Cross and try to get a comprehensible answer out of them). So Doc and I went for a nice long run/walk to try to improve my spirits. After we got back I was really tired but had already planned to cook dinner so I somehow managed to muster up the energy.

I cooked salmon fillets, sauteéd corn with red bell pepper and lemon butter, and Chinese long beans. I really like the salmon recipe (it’s from my book) because it’s so easy. Basically you put the fillets skin-side down in a skillet with a bit of oil in the bottom, and cook on the stove for about 5 minutes. Then put the whole pan in the oven for about 15 minutes to finish cooking, and voila, delicious fish is ready. I usually put a splatter screen on top of the pan to prevent the oil from splattering all over my oven.

Now, every single time I cook salmon like this, I burn my hands on the 450-degree metal skillet handle. Apparently my brain goes on autopilot and I reach out and grab it barehanded without thinking. But last night, I thought: I am NOT going to burn myself today. I’m going to use a oven mitt EVERY TIME I reach for that pan. 

And I did use that oven mitt on that pan, every time. Job well done!

Except that, after the fish was out of the oven, I reached out and grabbed the metal splatter screen instead. D’oh!

So now I have two painful blisters on two of my fingers, and a big red burned spot on my palm.

But I count myself lucky; at least I didn’t cut off half of my thumb on a table saw like my dad did a couple of days ago. Poor dad, he’s all drugged up on Percocet until he can get in to see the orthopaedic surgeon. Unfortunately they didn’t find the missing piece in time; they had to get to the hospital post haste and couldn’t stop to look for it. 

Speaking of PAIN, Doc got us an extremely comical new game for the Playstation yesterday. It is called “Pain.” Essentially, you launch yourself off a giant slingshot into a city, aiming yourself for various landmarks and hitting things for fun. Extra points if you land in strange ways or rack yourself. Wash, rinse, repeat! I like the giant donut on top of one of the buildings. If you aim right you can sail right through the middle! 

I found myself laughing uncontrollably and feeling terrible about laughing at the terrible predicaments we put our little avatar in.

Thanksgiving went well! We have way too much food left over, as usual. Anyone want some stuffing or mashed potatoes?

Doc’s turkey was awesome; it keeps getting better every year (this coming from someone who doesn’t even really like turkey!). He had to leave it in the oven a full hour longer than he planned, in order to get the temperature up to that minimum safety level (170 degrees F). Not sure why that was; perhaps our 25 year old oven is not working quite right. But most of our guests arrived shortly before it was done, so the timing worked out pretty well in the end.

I have a ton of wine (thanks dad!) left over along with about a cubic meter of stuffing. That ought to get me through the next few days quite nicely :)

Besides the fact that our food seemed to be a hit, the highlight of the evening for me was playing a few lively games of Catch Phrase Music Edition, where you have to get your teammates to say the title of a song that appears in the little device’s window, without saying any of the words in the title or revealing the artist. It took us a while to get into the groove but once we warmed up to it, we had a lot of fun. Bob was trying to get his team (Brittney and Chris) to say the word “from” by telling them “on a Christmas package, not ‘to,’ but …” and Brittney yelled, “NOT TOO EXPENSIVE!” That just cracked me up. Also, “A Gravy Kind of Love” is CLOSE to the name of the Phil Collins song, and appropriate for this holiday, but not quite right.

Today I did nothing but sleep, read, eat, and nap. A few other things like showering and writing a little, too. But really and truly this was a lazy lazy day. It helps that the temperature didn’t even hit 50 today… cold grey weather makes me want to snuggle under a blanket all day. Also, it snowed yesterday! On Thanksgiving! In Texas! It didn’t last long, and turned into sleet after a few minutes, but still, it was pretty cool. We had a fire going all day, and had to turn on the heater upstairs.

Make your California rolls, your sashimi and temaki! Collect the pickled ginger for extra points! Load up on your arsenal of foe-freezing wasabi! But watch out for the evil Tofu, Radish, Mushroom, and Blowfish… the only way to defeat them is to sandwich them into your sushi! Thanks to Doc for this awesome link!!

Flow is amazing. Exquisite, haunting, strangely addictive. Play online or download for Mac or PC. Thanks to Doc for the link.

Look what I found in my closet!

It’s Blip: The Digital Game, by Tomy! 1977!

I can’t believe I still have this thing. I LOOOOOOOVED to play this game. It was like an early version of Pong, where a little red LED light would mechanically move back and forth across the playing field and you had to press the right button, 1, 2, or 3, to send it back to the other side. I think, in fact, the entire thing is mechancially operated, not electronic. It does require batteries, and unfortunately one of the contacts seems to have corroded. I wonder if I can get that repaired??

You had to be really fast with the eye-hand coordination on this game; it was by no means easy.

Depeche Mode did a promo video for the Sims 2 game. The best part is, he’s singing in SIMLISH!

They also offer a version preformatted for iPod.

i am such a nerd.

here is a screenshot of me as a skeleton in westfall, in worlds of warcraft. doc, to the right, used his halloween wand to turn me into a skeleton. i WISH i’d gotten a screenshot of the little skeleton dance… it’s basically a badass air guitar solo!!

the world’s smallest pac-man game lives here. and i thought that the version on my cell phone was small! the scary part is, i was able to clear the first board!

I cannot believe that Arushi and Shyamal are leaving in a week. We’ve never lived more than an hour apart since we were ten years old (except for that year she lived in India when we were 13). It’s going to be so weird with them gone.

I don’t like EverCrack. It’s way too text based. I think it should work more like Diablo. I guess I’ll give it another shot — Doc paid for 2 months of service. I’ll try to get something out of it.

I’m almost finished with my recently-ripped and even-more-recently repaired painting. I need to be done by Saturday so it can have a week to dry before the show. I wonder if I really want to sell it. I haven’t had much time to digest it yet. Maybe it needs to hang on the wall for a year before I’m ready to sell it. This photo is of the one called “Equator Takes Over.” I really like it, so I almost hope that it doesn’t sell. It seems like I only want to sell the paintings that are older, that I’ve gotten tired of looking at. Even the ones I loved when they were brand new, I wouldn’t mind not having now. I only have three or four that I really like anymore. Maybe five.

I’m trying to learn some different styles and techniques, so that my own style can grow and evolve. I actually really like my style. I think it’s kind of unique and it’s not anything that I consciously strived to build; this is just the way I happen to paint. It suits me. But, at the same time, I don’t want to stagnate, painting the same things over and over again for the rest of my life. So I look around, try out some new things. Maybe work on the things that I’ve never been good at, see if I can incorporate some of what I learn.

One more thing: the fall blast is coming Saturday! We’ve had highs around 90 degrees F this week. What the fuck?! It’s the end of October!! Saturday we get rain and temperature drops of about 30 degrees. Finally!!