I am now officially addicted to World of Warcraft. Thanks to the the $1.00 14-day trial DVD-ROM in the clearance bin at Wal-Mart (the only place to shop in Montevideo, MN that sells toilet paper in 24 packs) bought on impulse. The talkative kid at the check line, whose topic of choice with the lady in front of me was of the death of his great, late uncle and some other esteemed relative, said to me "You know, you're getting this for a Whole Dollar and it use to be a Dollar Ninety-Seven!!". Um.... Thanks for that piece of useful information. Its always a good feeling when a high school kid points out that 1) you are a nerd who wants to play a silly, yet entertaining computer game, and 2) that saving a whole dollar is a great and wonderful experience. This kid is going to grow up to sell used cars, or maybe office supplies.

and in case you are wondering, my character is now a Level 13 human warrior, who knows how to skin animals (Wasting is wrong- even if its digital!)

Salsa Time!

Here it is, the long awaited super easy salsa recipe, with pictures.

Ingredients
Tomatoes
Garlic
Fresh Cilantro
Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Any Other Ingredients, like peppers, or um green peppers, or habanero peppers, or onions, or... well, you get the idea.

Step One
I used two medium sized tomatoes* that I cut up in dime sized chunks. You can use more, or less tomatoes, and cut them to be finer, or more coarse according to your preferences.



Step Two

Cut up other ingredients. I had some bell peppers that I had to use up. Again, I cut them in dime sized chunks, and I used about 3/4 of a pepper. If you like hot salsa, add a habanaro, or Chile pepper. You can also add onions, or other vegetables.



Step Three

Add the garlic! I like garlic. I used two cloves. I also used a garlic press (from Ikea!) to mince the garlic. You can slice it, or mince it using the side of a knife, whatever way works for you!. The garlic is essential, but you don't have to use two cloves. One clove will be great plenty.



Step Four

Chop the fresh cilantro. It's gotta be fresh - don't use dried! I used about 5tbl spoons or so. I just eyeballed it. No measuring spoons were used at all - add more or less according to your preferences



Step 5
Add two pinches of salt, and a teaspoon or so of black pepper. Black pepper can be omitted, but the salt is absolutely essential to get the flavors to combine in a salsa yummy way!

Step 6

Stir. Lightly! - you don't want to go making mash out of this!

Step 7

Wait an hour, or eat it now, but by waiting an hour, you give the salt time to pull out the flavors of the tomatoes, cilantro, and other ingredients, to join in yummy goodness.

*Alternately, if you use a ripe avocado in place of one of the tomatoes, you have guacamole.

Enjoy!

American Idol Prediction

Jordan, All the way!

Which is too bad, because I like Blake because he is different, or at least tries to be...

Carrie

Cue the Twilight Zone Theme...

I know I promised a super simple salsa recipe, but you'll have to wait a little bit longer while I tell you this little story.

Back in December - I got new glasses. After spending like 5 minutes staring at frames, I chose a pair that I absolutely loved, and since it was buy one, get one free- I choose another pair that while I didn't exactly love, were still very nice.

In January, The first pair disappeared. At first, I thought I had left them at my folks place but after searching I decided that they weren't there. Then I thought they had gotten behind my bed, but again, they weren't there. So I was sad. Very sad. First pair of glasses I really loved, and they went missing. So, I started wearing the other pair. But only at night and on weekends because they were nice, but not comfortable in public nice...

so comes February, and March, and half-hearted attempts at finding my lost pair of beloved new glasses until today... when they appeared, magically, on my bed, next to the pillow, as if they never left and have always been there.

They weren't there last week. Or the week before that. They weren't hiding in my pillow, or the comforter, or between the sheets. I've washed my linen at least 15 times since January - stripping down my bed to the mattress. I'm pretty sure they weren't there this afternoon when I changed out of my work clothes. So the question is: Where were they, and why did they suddenly appear?

Making New Friends

What have Grendel and Bentley been up to for the last few weeks?

They've been making new friends, Of course!






This is Mr. Chipmunk.
I'm thinking that he's an Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), although I haven't found a picture with markings quite like his. He's very handsome. Of course, Bentley and Grendel want to make friends with him. I'm encouraging this friendship, but as window friends only- you can look, but not touch! I'm afraid that the cats will play too rough with their new friend, and Mr. Chipmunk won't survive the encounter.

The cat's other new friend happens to be a sparrow, a chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina), to be exact. This sparrow is decked out in his summer colors. According to the Stokes Field Guide to the Birds, this guy eats seeds and insects on the grounds, which is mainly where I have seen him. The Grendel Monster really wants to be friends with this bird, but I'm betting any friendship on the sparrows part is one-way only.

Promoting cross-species friendships is always a good thing, especially when you have friendly cats who are always up for play with their smaller, more edible feathery companions, but bribery with food sure does make these friendships happen faster! When I first put up the bird feeder, for months I never saw any birds, and now I've got a regular bird and mammal crew showing up throughout the day. It definitely keeps things interesting, and the cats out of trouble.

Some More information about:
Eastern Chipmunks (Smithsonian Webstite)
Chipping Sparrow(Cornell University Website)


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