aka Steve - Just another WordPress site

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Now if they were giving away feral kittens … well, I still wouldn’t take any, because my landlord doesn’t allow pets.

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“Meaty, cheesy, bacony.” And obese-ity and heart-attacky!

The BK Stacker, brought to you by Burger King (and perhaps a cardiologists‘ association, to ensure lots of business).

According to Burger King’s Web site, you can have your BK Stacker with double, triple, or quadruple layers of cheese and beef. And it comes with an unspecified sauce and bacon. And here’s the best part: “No veggies allowed.” (That last statement may not be 100% accurate. It looks like the sauce is Thousand Island dressing, which typically has sweet relish–made from pickles–and onion in the ingredients.)

Some highlights of Burger King’s “nutritional” analysis for a double stacker*–i.e., two beef patties and two slices of American cheese: 610 calories, 350–more than half!–calories from fat. 39 grams total fat, 16 grams saturated fat (that’s the bad kind). 125 milligrams of cholesterol. 1,100 milligrams of sodium. One gram of dietary protein.

Wondering about the quadruple stacker*? That’s four layers each of beef and cheese. 1,000 calories, 620–again, more than half–from fat. 68 grams total fat, 30 grams saturated fat. 240 milligrams of cholesterol. 1,800 milligrams of sodium. And still just a single gram of dietary protein.

I’m not sure why I’m including this post in my “Food” category ….

* To see a nutritional analysis for yourself, go to Burger King’s Nutrition page, click “Flame Broiled Burgers”, then scroll down to click the item of your choice.

I took a lot of plant pictures earlier this year, during spring and summer. (Click the album names to see all photos.)
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And now it’s fall.
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Hi, I’m Steve
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(working at a Home Depot store in Tacoma, WA)

Please clarify
Message on my friend Mark’s GPS:
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“Most functions are inhibited while the vehicle is in motion. Please read the handbook for operating instructions. Always obey traffic regulations.” Then, on the right, the option to “Agree” by touching that part of the screen. Which doesn’t actually allow the user to express agreement (or disagreement) about the functions, or the operating instructions, or traffic laws; it just makes the message go away.

Sounds like it’s telling the driver to RTFM (read the freakin’ manual) while driving, even though it clearly disapproves of and prevents GPS functions from working when the vehicle is moving.

Does “inhibited” mean the functions won’t function, or that they will, but they’re shy?

Not to be taken literally
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(“Please do not put anything in the toilet because of clogging. Please put it in the trash. Thank You”)

And I need to know this because …?
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(“Allie’s my sex slave [heart] Sydney”)

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The blue, white, and yellow flower is a dwarf variety of convolvulus (morning glory).

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The town of Steilacoom, where The Boyfriend (TB) lives, is far enough from big cities and the freeway that it still has some wildlife. Aside from squirrels, which can be found throughout Seattle and other cities and towns in the area, Steilacoom has resident raccoons, possums, and deer. TB even saw a fox recently.

As Steilacoom continues to grow, we’re seeing less urban wildlife. Sad, in some ways, but I think it sucks that these animals have to dodge traffic and humans and deal with diminishing food sources.

August 25, 2007

The Boyfriend (TB) and I ate dinner at Georgetown Liquor Company (GLC), 5501 Airport Way S, Seattle; the entrance is at 8th Ave S and S Lucile St, behind ArtCore Tattoo.
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GLC, a “retro-gaming bar,” has a 100% vegetarian menu. Some items are natively vegan and most can be made vegan. GLC even offers a variety of vegan cheese choices: cream cheese, mozzarella, and monterey jack by Tofutti, and Chao cheese by Field Roast, “the original maker of vegan grain meats.” Field Roast Grain Meat Co. is also located in Georgetown.

(When discussing vegan cheese options with our bartender/server, we recommended the Follow Your Heart (FYH) brand. I’ve found four FYH varieties in a few Seattle stores: monterey jack, mozzarella, cheddar, and nacho cheddar. FYH has the best taste and texture for these types of cheeses, and they melt great.)

We started off with a couple of cocktails. TB had a Fresh Peach Martini (Stoli Peach, triple sec, and organic peach puree) and I had a Pomegranate Martini (Ketel One Citron, triple sec, and Pama liqueur). Both drinks were tasty and strong. Very strong.
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For our main courses, we had sandwiches. TB had a vegan Darth Reuben: roasted tomato Field Roast, vegan cheese (the non-vegan version has Emanthaler swiss), sauerkraut, and remoulade on toasted marbled rye bread. I had the Picard: lentil sage Field Roast, roasted red pepper, vegan mozzarella, Tofutti cream cheese, and roasted garlic spread on toasted ciabatta bread, served with vegan au jus. Both sandwiches were delicious and filling.
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PS: GLC’s gaming menu includes Defender, Moon Patrol, Ms. Pac Man, and Atari 5200, among others. In case you’re into that sort of thing.
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Mural by Adam Rosand (206-222-6492), located at NW 54th St. and 9th Ave. NW, Ballard.

I love the different themes and details in this mural: the waving stick figure, the (apparently pissed off) cat, the dive-bombing dragonfly, the peace symbol and heart flowers, etc.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

The Boyfriend, our friend Selena, and I spent a couple of hours with comedian/actor extraordinaire, Eddie Izzard … and several hundred other people. Eddie was in Seattle performing his “Work in Progress” show at Bagley Wright Theatre in Seattle Repertory Theatre at Seattle Center.

Eddie’s standup routines are hilariously original, with historical and observational humor, philosophical bits, current events, and more. Tonight’s gig covered America’s Revolutionary War, religion, speedboats, and spiders, among other topics; bees and jam were also mentioned. Eddie did some improv, too, when he was dive-bombed by a rude, non-ticketholding housefly (theatrefly?). Final score: Eddie, 1; fly, death.

Unlike many other comedians, Eddie does not do unoriginal, tired, stereotypical crap about relationships. I have 5 DVDs and 6 CDs* of Eddie’s standups routines, and I crack up every time I watch or listen to him. (*Circle, Definite Article, Dress to Kill, Unrepeatable, and Glorious on both DVD and CD, plus Sexie on CD.)

Bees make honey. Wait a minute, bees make honey? Do earwigs make chutney? Do spiders make gravy?

I took a bunch of photos with my cell phone camera. They all turned out badly. The Boyfriend also took pictures; his turned out a little better.

About 5 minutes before show time:
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You can feel the audience quivering with anticipation, can’t you? When Eddie came on stage, the crowd roared with approval and enthusiasm.

Here’s my “best” picture of Eddie (and that’s not saying much), highly color-saturated:
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You can tell it’s him, right?

And here’s one The Boyfriend (TB) took:
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Probably more identifiably Eddie than my photo is.

If only we had known that Seattle Rep doesn’t have security checkpoints and doesn’t search purses, we would have brought our digital cameras and the quality of our pictures would be much better. Now we know for next time. And there probably will be a next time–in Seattle, at least, if not at the Rep. One of TB’s co-workers saw Eddie at the Moore Theatre a few years ago.

And … a couple(?) of months ago, Selena and I both sent e-mail to Eddie (via the “contact us” page on his Web site), begging him to come to Seattle. That seems to have worked very well, so I followed up with a thank you and an invitation to return:

Dear Eddie,

Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable show in Seattle on Saturday, August 11th! On behalf of the entire audience … nay, on behalf of the entire city … we apologize for the fly. We think his name was Jeff and he was upset that bees and spiders usually get more attention in your shows, and he dive-bombed you out of spite. We’re glad the little b*****d died.

Again — thank you, thank you, thank you, and please come back to Seattle soon.

Love,
[Steve]

A few months ago, my jeep-driving, meat-eating, yummy-vegetarian-chili cooking friend “Bob” blogged about I Can Has Cheezburger.

In the unlikely event you haven’t heard of I Can Has Cheezburger (ICHC) by now, the site offers “lolcats tagged for your convenience (also for your lol*’s).” (ICHC received some media attention recently from Slate, the New York Times, and the Tacoma News Tribune, among others.) “LOL” meaning “laughing out loud”–pictures of mostly cats with funny, silly, (intentionally) barely literate captions.

Anyway, Bob and I keep each other up to date about assorted cat stuff via e-mail and mutual blog reading. Bob saw my entry about Oscar the death cat and sent me this update: “Several lolcat pix of and about Oscar the Death Cat collected for your convenience. ‘The LOLcat of Death’
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/7060.”