head, meet desk

From the Washington Post this morning:

"I think Obama would be a disaster, and there's a lot of reasons," said Pollard, explaining the rumors he had heard about the candidate from friends he goes camping with. "I understand he's from Africa, and that the first thing he's going to do if he gets into office is bring his family over here, illegally. He's got that racist [pastor] who practically raised him, and then there's the Muslim thing. He's just not presidential material, if you ask me."

The article also mentioned a false rumor that's circulating about Obama being "possibly gay." First of all, who cares. And second, wow. That's one I actually haven't heard before.

Someone point these people to Snopes, stat.

Kanush!

I've never really been a big baseball fan, but I've been watching the College World Series regularly the past week or so. It took the Fresno State Bulldogs to make it into the CWS for me to care about anything in college baseball. They weren't supposed to be there, but they won the WAC tournament, then went on a long run of upsets over teams ranked in the top 25. They beat Long Beach St., San Diego (twice), Arizona St. (twice), Rice, North Carolina (twice) and Georgia (twice) for the championship.

This makes Fresno State the lowest seeded team to win a NCAA National Championship in any sport ever. They also tied the record for total runs in the CWS with 62 including 14 home runs in their 7 games. And all I can say is it was the first time I've really enjoyed watching baseball.

the basil sprouteth

ch-ch-ch-chia

Last Christmas my friend Lynda gave me the Chia Terra Cotta Gourmet Herb Garden, which is the embodiment of my childhood dream of owning a Chia Pet (never came true) and my adulthood aspiration of becoming a top gardener (also probably will never come true) all rolled into one.

I figured that this would be a good time to try it out, especially now that I've got the space and a sunny area to grow the plants. The kit comes with four terra cotta pots and six herb varieties; I chose sweet basil, chives, parsley, and cilantro. I planted the seeds on Saturday morning (i.e. sprinkled them on top of the patented "Chia Growing Sponge"—hey, every top gardener has to start somewhere), gave them water, and covered them with sandwich bag greenhouses, just like the instructions said.

The basil is supposed to germinate in five days (Thursday), but when I checked it yesterday it looked like it was already doing something...meaning that the seeds were looking kind of slimy and growing something that might be roots. I have no idea if that's what they're supposed to look like or if they're being smothered by some kind of disease. Maybe I should do some research on this.

If I can manage to get anything to sprout and stay alive for a few days, I'll consider this project a success.

Soy What!?

Now that we've moved into a better apartment with a bigger kitchen I've made a summer goal to become a top chef. In order to do that I thought I should learn how to make foods other than Mexican. For my first attempt, I chose crispy breaded tofu with vegetables. I know you're thinking that Lauren probably just did it all and now I'm taking credit for it, but she was merely my sous chef. She made the rice and prepared a lot of the vegetables, but I didn't let her touch the tofu. And to prove that I actually did most of the cooking, Lauren took pictures. I even did the plating of the food.

The recipe turned out pretty good. I improvised and used soy sauce instead of teriyaki sauce. I also used slightly larger amounts of soy sauce and red pepper for added flavor.

out with the old

Dear Ex-Apartment,

I'm so happy it's over. I remember the day we first met—the whole arrangment was so full of promise, especially in comparison to our last place: you had an extra bedroom, a shower with good water pressure, a garbage disposal, and several well-placed windows for ventilation during the summer months.

However, it wasn't long before your true colors started to show and our relationship became strained. You were either cold all the time or too hot. You always let worms in the front door during rainy days. You harbored mold and ants and were composed entirely of dust. You were impossible to clean. I blame you for the endless rash of allergies and eczema that plagued us since we moved in.

Maybe I'm being too hard on you. Maybe one day I'll look back on our time together and laugh. After all, I had similar feelings of frustration towards the perpetual toaster oven of an apartment we lived in before you came along, and I tend to look back on those days with affection. However, that apartment did have the nostalgic distinction of being the first place in which TJ and I lived together since getting married. You might call that an unfair advantage, but life isn't fair, is it?

I feel sorry for the people who will inhabit you next.

Lauren

did not see this coming

So I'm here at my desk pulling my hair over a subpar submission I'm working on when I click over to the New York Times and see this breaking headline at the top of the page:

Tim Russert is Dead at 58

I'm feeling so jarred and sad over this. I didn't always agree with Russert, but he was a pro, an icon of American political journalism, and the one guy on cable news who at least tried to be decent and fair.

I think one of the saddest things about this — apart from the shame of dying so young and leaving behind a family, obviously — is that he was so passionate about news and politics and seemed particularly excited about this historic election season, and I just wish that he could've had the opportunity to see it through.

Wow, the upcoming election coverage is not going to be the same.