utenzi

It's like magic, takes half an hour to make but disappears in an instant. Sure tasted good! I ate most of the green stuff but I drew the line at the sprig of parsley.

According to CNN, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, 69, is retiring after the current court term recesses in June. Justice Souter has served more than 18 years on the Supreme Court. This will be the first empty seat on the court in 3 years and filling Souter's seat will be President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointment. With the Senate and House in Democratic hands, this should be a relatively easy event. One hopes, at least. GOP president's have appointed most of the court, including Souter, so it'll be nice to shift things a bit to the left again. Despite being appointed to the court by President George H.W. Bush, Justice Souter was a moderate voice on the bench. Conservatives weren't pleased, and speaking of Conservatives... A second story on CNN involves conservative church goers in the USA. According to the story: "The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new...

I was glancing over the last issue of Forbes (dated April 27, 2009) before tossing it and thought I'd mention a small article on page 32 titled "Wall Street's Highest Earners." Lots of empty headed commentators, many of which seem to work for CNN, have been talking about how everyone on Wall Street is losing money. Well, that would be news to the 10 men listed in the Forbes article. #10, David Harding, no doubt was embarrassed by only making $290,000,000 last year but the rest of us would have been pleased as punch by that much moola. And yes, that is 290 MILLION. Number one on the list made almost 10 times more. James Simons "earned" $2.8 billion (yes, with a B) running the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund. Part of that was from fees (for example, his Medallion Fund charges 44% of profits + 5% of assets) and part was from his equity stake in the fund. That's a pretty decent paycheck in a year that most people lost money. No real surprise that his big...

Between last night and tonight I watched the last 8 episodes of "Volume 4" of Heroes , aka the second half of Season 3. While I liked the second half of the season more than the first half (volume 3--what was supposed to have been the second half of Season 2 before the Writer's Strike changed things), I thought the ending sucked on a number of fronts. The prelude to Volume 5 was interesting but I suspect that it'll be as flawed as the last season was. The themes of Sylar possibly emerging from Nathan (don't ask) and Tracy surviving her deep freeze just aren't much to hang an entire season on. Truth be told, Heroes has never fully delivered on the promise that the first season offered. Even now, the tagline Save the Cheerleader, Save the World still works. Oh well, at least this past season was a lot better than Season 2. Semi-Spoilers follow: While the episodes going back to 1961 and the internment camp provide background, as far as I could figure, Noah Be...

Forbes Magazine publishes a supplement a few times a year called Forbes Life. It can be an interesting read in as far as it is an observation of a lifestyle very few of us will ever experience. We're talking about some seriously conspicuous consumption here. These are people who plop down thousands for a pair of shoes, hundreds for a couple of pairs of socks to go with the shoes and 20 grand to pop over to the little village in Italy to watch the cobbler put the shoes together in his quaint little shop. Nice, huh? One of the articles in this issue (April 2009) is about how simple things are back in fashion due to the hard economic times we're enduring. The article suggests taking off those fancy blocky watches and replace them with a more simple enduring look. But while they might be simple, they're not cheap. Of the 11 watches profiled in the article the cheapest was the watch over there on the left, a Jaeger-Lecoultre Master Ultra Thin with lists at $6,850. Most of the o...

I think I've mentioned once or twice that the back strain I get from time to time is often eased by the motions of kayaking. As a result I decided recently to make a purchase at Amazon. It's a rowing machine. All the way from Germany. Nice box, huh? As you can see, it's a Kettler Kadett rower of the Outrigger style. The retail is a little north of $800 and it's usually priced at $619 on Amazon. However a few weeks back it was on sale for $550, so I snapped it up. I hope it helps my back! It sure did thin my wallet out a mite. The machine is very well rated and I wanted a rower that was both sturdy and functional. I'm not getting it so much for the workout aspect as the rhythm and motion. That's what I hope will help my lower back. In the picture below you can see most of the parts that were in the box. It was a little intimidating to see at first. But it all came together without a whole lot of trouble. Not too surprisingly, the instructions leaned heavily to...

It was a very quiet Saturday. While we got up early, we didn't seem to get much done before going out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch at 11am. The heat was our excuse---mid to upper 80s all weekend long---but I think basic laziness was the root of the problem. Here I am later in the day, when it was cooler outside than inside, and Julie and I were out on the deck enjoying the breeze. An awning over our heads to keep that nasty sun off was essential. Here I am socializing a bit with a local. He didn't talk much and after a while kinda bugged me. And after taking a number of useless photos, I finally settled in with a book. Damn allergies made my eyes watery though and it was hard to read. *ahhhh-cho*