Monday, July 17, 2006

Birthday Number 80



My mom turns 80 tomorrow. I threw a small party last Saturday night to commemorate the event. It was the first time my brothers and I were all together since our father's death in 1998. Two or three of us – frequently, but rarely all four of us.
With all of my air-conditioners cranked up to the limit the house was comfortably cool and it was pleasant enough to eat out on the deck once the sun went down. Mom-Mactech is notoriously heat-sensitive but she didn't complain once.
The menu:
Filet mignon and sirloin steak, green salad, tomatoes & mozzarella with basil, a surprisingly good watermelon and mint concoction, my own special potato salad, and a fabulous coconut angel food cake from The Two Little Red Hens Bakery.
We had purchased the meat (huge quantities) at the new Fairway in Red Hook, a couple of nights before. My first time in the store and I was pretty impressed. We filled the cart in no time. Luckily we have an extra fridge in our basement where these bulky items could be stored until needed.
About twenty-four hours after the Fairway shop I took a FreshDirect delivery of more food stuff (you can never have too much food stuff at a party) and began hauling it down to the basement where I discovered that the refrigerator door had not been properly closed the night before. The motor was panting and the inside of the thing was sweating bullets. It did not feel the least bit cold in there either. Yikes! All that meat! I closed it tight and immediately called Tech-husband at work, not being willing to shoulder this distressing news by myself (and after all he was the one who put all that meat in there and then didn't shut the door)
"Let's just throw it all out and start over tonight with another trip to Fairway." I announced with resignation.
"Shit." he exclaimed.
MachTech husband was not going to take this lying down. He immediately called the owner of a rather celebrated restaurant in the Slope, a finicky guy who knows and loves food, and explained the turn of events. He brought the chef out of the kitchen to consult.
The verdict was this: The refrigerator would not have "lost its cool" for several hours and in fact was still running and reducing the temperature of itself and the area around it. The meat, due to its size would not warm that quickly to the core. We would be cooking it to 127 degrees, killing off - whatever - I don't want to think about that. And anyway that kind of bacteria only affects small children and old people. (did we mention it was an 80th birthday party with a 2 year old in attendance?)
End of story. We cooked and ate the meat. It was delicious. Everyone was fine.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Terror Target List



Soon after September 11th, when we were constantly being warned that we were on Orange Alert in NYC, mactech-husband mentioned that we should air-drop (on potential terrorist countries in the mideast) maps of possible targets in the midsection of the US. "They only seem to know about places on the coasts. It's a big country."
Apparently he was on to something. Today's Times has a front page article on the National Asset Database. (This is the "data" by the way, by which Homeland Security divvies up their zillion dollars worth of antiterrorism grants).
According to the list of resources that could be potential sites of "terror," Indiana, with 8,591 posible targets, has more than any other state. New York has 5,687, California, 3,212.
I'm sure glad the Times is getting this news out. Leave us and the left coast out of the terror-planning, you terrorists. We're small potatoes.
Amish Country Popcorn (on the list), in Berne, Indiana - watch your back.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Away

I'm liking the new head of BCS. The first e-mail I ever send to him? mind you, he doesn't know me from a hole in the BCS wall - is a request to take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off this week, you know, to make it a whole week away from school. Technically, I'm on duty all of July and off in August, but since I probably will need to work a good part of August too, it didn't seem a far-fetched request. Coming off of a couple of years where we all seemed to be challenged to compete for the title of who can work the most - I was a bit skittish about asking.
His response -"if you say it works, it works for me, enjoy the time with your family."
We drove out to Quogue, Saturday morning. The house has had some improvements over the winter and we're loving the new outdoor shower. Baby Mactech was up at six today so an early trip (open at 8:00) to Target was in order. His B-day is this week so whatever he hauled off the shelves went into the basket.
"Buy it. Buy it."
What a red-blooded American boy.
The picture below represents the first celebrity sighting of the season. Adrian Grenier (Entourage) was at the beach.