Cooking

On Thursday, I had a ridiculously good turkey burger, which I'd made myself! I'm not a cook, and most of my eating at home involves a box of something frozen or dried that I just heat up. But, three Thursdays ago, I decided to make some lettuce wraps before sitting down to the television marathon that is Thursday night at my house. I pan-fried up some chicken and my niece did the same with tofu. We had some cellophane noodles to crush up in our wraps (a la P.F. Chang's) and some peanut sauce and organic butter lettuce to keep it all together. We decided to make real cooking a weekly thing and made pizzas the next week. My white sauce needed more garlic and some salt (and 5 fewer minutes on the flame), and my dough should have been rolled thinner. However, the cheese and bacon I topped it with were excellent. So, last week I had some fresh ground turkey and threw in salt, garlic and herb mix and 2 crushed cloves of fresh garlic. I baked the patties in the oven for 10 minutes at 400 and then panfried each for 5 minutes on both sides. I put them on wheat buns with a slice of provolone to finish them.

Couch Potato

Here are all the TV shows I have ever watched with any regularity. None of these should be viewed as an endorsement. It was actually painful to admit watching some of these.

Epguides.com was a big help for me in compiling this list, especially their list of shows by year. They have a current grid of primetime lineups and it includes shows currently on hiatus, with an expected return to air date. They even have some RSS feeds for newly added shows and cancellations.

1959 - Twilight Zone
1960 - Flintstones
1962 - Beverly Hillbillies
1964 - Addams Family (73?)
Bewitched
Gilligan's Island
Munsters
1965 - I Dream of Jeannie
1966 - Batman
1972 - M*A*S*H
1974 - Happy Days
Little House on the Prarie
1975 - Jeffersons
One Day at a Time
Saturday Night Live
Wonder Woman
1976 - Alice
Laverne and Shirley
Quincy, M.E.
1977 - Fantasy Island
Incredible Hulk
Love Boat
Three's Company
1978 - Dallas
Different Strokes
Mork and Mindy
WKRP in Cincinnatti
1979 - Dukes of Hazzard
Facts of Life
Hart to Hart
Knot's Landing
1980 - Bosom Buddies
1981 - Falcon Crest

1982 - Cheers
Family Ties
Knight Rider
Newhart
Remington Steele

1983 - GI Joe
He-Man
Mama's Family
Scarecrow and Mrs. King

1984 - Cosby Show
Double Trouble
Night Court
Transformers
Who's the Boss

1985 - Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Amazing Stories
Golden Girls
Growing Pains
Jem
Moonlighting
Mr. Belvedere

1986 - Designing Women
Head of the Class
It's Gary Shandling's Show
LA Law
My Sister Sam
Perfect Strangers

1987 - Beauty and the Beast
Degrassi Junior High
A Different World
Full House
My Two Dads
Out of This World
Star Trek TNG
thirtysomething

1988 - China Beach
C.O.P.S
Dear John
Empty Nest
Just the Ten of Us
Roseanne
Whose Line is it Anyway (UK)
Wonder Years

1989 - Coach
Doogie Howser, M.D.
Life Goes On
Saved by the Bell
Seinfeld
Simpsons
Young Riders

1990 - Beverly Hills 90210
Blossom
Bobby's World
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Law and Order
Northern Exposure
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
Wings

1991- Civil Wars
Dinosaurs
Homefront
Home Improvement
The Ren and Stimpy Show
Rugrats
Sisters
The Torkelsons

1992 - Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Mad About You
Melrose Place
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

1993 - Class of '96
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Frasier
Grace Under Fire
Living Single
Lois & Clark
The Nanny (US)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

1994 - Chicago Hope
The Critic
Duckman
These Friends of Mine / Ellen
ER
Friends
Inside the Actors Studio
Models Inc.
My So-Called Life (entire series)
Party of Five
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
The Tick (1994)

1995 - The Bonnie Hunt Show
Caroline in the City
Central Park West
Dexter's Laboratory
The Drew Carey Show
Earthworm Jim
Freakazoid!
Hope & Gloria
Ned and Stacey
NewsRadio
Pinky and the Brain
The Single Guy
Star Trek: Voyager

1996 - Boston Common
Early Edition
Everybody Loves Raymond
Hey Arnold!
Kenan & Kel
Men Behaving Badly (US)
Suddenly Susan
3rd Rock From the Sun

1997 - Ally McBeal
Angry Beavers
Cow and Chicken
Daria
Dharma & Greg
E! True Hollywood Story
Fired Up
Just Shoot Me
King of the Hill
The Practice
South Park
Veronica's Closet
The Visitor
Working

1998 - Bob and Margaret
Conrad Bloom
Dawson's Creek
Felicity
The King of Queens
Lateline
Powerpuff Girls
Sex and the City
Sports Night (entire series)
That '70s Show
True Life
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (US)
The Wild Thornberrys
Will & Grace

1999 - Dilbert
Family Guy
Freaks and Geeks (entire series)
Futurama (entire series)
Home Movies
It's Like, You Know...
Jack & Jill
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
The League of Gentlemen
Popular
Providence
SpongeBob SquarePants
Stark Raving Mad
Strangers with Candy
Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane

2000 - Big Brother
Boston Public
Clerks
Coupling
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dark Angel
Queer as Folk (US)
Survivor
TV Funhouse

2001 - The Amazing Race
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Dinner for Five
Fairly OddParents
Grounded for Life
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
The Oblongs
Primetime Glick
Scrubs
Six Feet Under
The Tick (2001)
24
Undeclared

2002 - Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Firefly (entire series)
George Lopez
Good Morning Miami
Less Than Perfect
Life with Bonnie
The Osbournes
Still Standing

2003 - Arrested Development
Coupling (US)
Last Comic Standing
Miss Match
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Reno 911!
Star Wars: Clone Wars

2004 - The Apprentice (first 1.5 seasons)
Blow Out
Entourage
Joey
life as we know it
Lost
Quintuplets
Significant Others (2004)
Wonderfalls (entire series)

2005 - Grey's Anatomy
How I Met Your Mother
The Office (US)
True Life

2006
The Class
Heroes
How to Get the Guy
Lovespring International
The New Adventures of Old Christine
The Nine
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
10 Items or Less
30 Rock
Three Moons Over Milford

2007
The Sarah Silverman Program

248 so far

Dollar Coins

I have been out of the loop. I just heard on Jeopardy the other day that they are releasing dollar coins featuring each the Presidents, including two for Cleveland's non-consecutive terms. The coins were launched today.

Vote for the new seven wonders

What should they be? Check out the candidate list and cast your vote until July 6th.

Gin ears or John Ruhs

Genres exist so morons don't forget what they like to read.
--David Miller

Did you know...

That your family tree probably contains duplicates?

When the Children Cry

White Lion's "When the Children Cry" came up on my iPod today. I was transported back to fifth or sixth grade when we learned the song in Music class. We were practicing it for an upcoming concert, and were given sheets of paper with the lyrics on them. Those lyrics include the line, "No more presidents, and all the wars will end, one united world, under God." Somehow, the principal found out the song would be performed and told the music teacher to pull it, because of that line. It wasn't because of the anti-war or religious parts, but the "anarchistic" bit about no more presidents. That teacher was one of my least favorite to begin with, and I remember her telling us about pulling the song and implying that it was our fault. She said one of us must have left the lyrics sheet somewhere to be discovered by the person who eventually complained. That same teacher refused to let us sing the Beach Boys "Kokomo" because of the line, "Come on, pretty mama." I hated Music class, almost as much as PhyEd, and I think part of the reason was the cheesy songs we had to sing.

This, That and the Other

On February 17, 2009, broadcasters will have to stop broadcasting an analog signal.

Frozen dishwashing liquid makes a great ice pack.

Celebrities I have seen in person

At Book Signings or Staged events:
Sean Astin (see below)
Brett Butler
Patricia Cornwell
Malcolm Gladwell
Danny Glover
Kevin Smith - St Cloud State, February 17th, 2006, the man talked for nearly 5 hours with no break!
Margaret Thatcher

On the Street:
Kevin MacDonald
John Kerry
Numerous Minnesotan politics, sports and news people at the Fair

In Concert:
Liz Phair
Sheryl Crow
Dido
Prince
Chumbawumba
Everclear
Smashing Pumpkins
New Kids on The Block

Sean Astin Book Signing November 23, 2004 Mall of America

My niece and I stood there, dumbfounded, elbowing each other and squealing a little bit. Were our eyes deceiving us? Could it possibly be true that, in a few weeks, Sean Astin, Samwise Gamgee himself, was going to be signing his book mere feet from where we were standing? I checked my mental calendar and found that I already had that whole week off of work, since it was Thanksgiving, and I figured I could miss the first part of my evening class.

I picked her up early from school, since the signing started at 5:00 pm, but we knew the line would be huge. We got there about 2:15 and went to eat, finally getting to the rotunda at about 3pm. There were about 45 people in front of us, but we sat down, paged through the book and drooled over the pictures of him and the other cast members. People in front of us in line had laptops and were watching various parts of the Lord of the Rings movies. Some of them also had on t-shirts from the Minnesota Tolkien Society that announced a screening of all 3 extended edition DVDs at a church in Maple Grove on New Year's Eve. We agreed to go and invited others, but nobody else was up to it.

Back in line, as the time neared my niece gasps and says she saw him behind the curtain. She straining to get a look at where he went when the emcee woman comes up on stage and announces him. He comes out and pumps up the crowd a bit by naming a few of his movies and asking those who liked them to clap. Then he takes questions from the audience and shows off the t-shirt from the Tolkien Society that he was wearing.

Then it was time for the line to run through. There were people there who would take your picture so I handed him my digital camera and asked him to try to get my niece, and he actually got a nice shot of both her and I smiling like goons at him. I overheard him say. "Oh, you're sweet," to my niece and I didn't have much to say aside from thanking him. I was one of those moments that is over before you know it, and that you have to keep replaying in your head so that you know it was real. We went up to some of the higher floors to watch the line for a while and get some aerial photos of the whole thing.

Random Movie News

Bio Pics

• Antonio Banderas is in talks to play Hadrian
• Benecio Del Toro is playing 'Che' Guevara in Guerrilla, but it has been pushed back to 2008
• Christian Bale will be one of several different actors (including Cate Blanchett) portraying Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.

Superhero Flix

• Bale is also taking another turn as Batman, this time in The Dark Knight, where he will battle Heath Ledger's Joker. There were months of speculation and rumors before Ledger was announced.
• Also causing tons of casting specualtion was Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman, but it looks like it's not going to happen. There might still be a movie, but Joss won't be involved.
• Spiderman 3 releases May 4th with new villains Sandman and Venom, as well as Bryce Dallas Howard playing Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane's rival for Peter Parker's affections.

Animated TV shows being made into movies

• The Simpsons Movie - Comes out July 27th, 2007.
• Futurama - There are up to four direct-to-video, feature length versions of the show, set for a December 2007 release. This, in addition to the series returning to television in 2008, is very good news.
• Transformers - With Michael Bay directing, this one has a release date of July 4th, 2007.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe written by Adam Rifkin and starring Christopher Showerman as He-Man, this one is due out in 2008

Local Blog Shoutout

Local blogs

• Aaron was the only local friend of mine who had a blog that was regularly updated and that the average person could access.* But then myspace came along and more of them started and Aaron switched over.
  
• Jodi is almost always funny, except when she's not.
• It makes me sad that Tequila Mockingbird only posted twice last year.
• One of these days, I will actually go to one of Scooter's Game days.
• MNSpeak has a local blog aggregator and City Pages has local directory.

*Are you a local friend of mine who has a blog that I don't know about? Why are you reading mine while keeping yours a big secret, huh?

I haven't been neglecting to post on purpose, I was just a bit busy moving 90% of my worldy possessions to a new apartment.