I was talking with my boss about his kids and their tricycles and, out of curiosity, I wanted to see what Big Wheels looked like in this day and age, so I hit Amazon.com to see what’s out there. I found this cool new trike that seems to convert between a big wheel and a coffee maker.  What will they think of next?

On this date in 1977, Star Wars opened in theaters.  I never got to see it in the theater until the Special Edition came out.

I have a very vivid memory of the first time I saw Star Wars, that I assume most men have.  I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I was pretty young.  I was with my parents and we were visiting my father’s colleague’s country house.  They had a new fangled contraption called a VCR which allowed you to watch a movie on a VHS tape, and my father told me to give Star Wars a chance.  He sat me down in front of the TV and I never realized that he left the room.

I was totally lost by the story (I was pretty young), but I loved the Stormtroopers and Darth Vader.  To this day, I can still recall the room, TV, and bed I was in at the time, and see the opening of the movie when the Stormtroopers break down the door of the Tantive IV.

Whenever I interview prospective employees these days, I always ask the question, “Star Wars or Star Trek?”

Here’s a photo from a convention (I’ve never been to one), and I’m almost ashamed to say that I find it totally hot:

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We dove right into the class lecture this week both because there was no general introduction to go through and because we were roasting chicken and making chicken stock so we needed as much cooking time as possible.  Lesson two was all about stocks and roasting and the chef described how to truss a chicken, what aromatics to cook it with as well as what aromatics to use when making stock.  She also gave us her six or so rules to making good stock, which was quite interesting because all of them made sense after being explained, but I would have broken almost every one of them if you asked me to make stock on my own.

She then showed us a few ways to cut a pear and use a melon baller to remove the core nicely.  Then she moved on to how to roast garlic and stuff a tomato.  Then she opened up a package of pork belly and to prove that it really was from the actual belly, she showed us the nipple that was still on it.  With the pork belly she showed us how to cut it in different ways and how one group would be using “lardons” for their salad.  She then showed us exactly how to prep a chicken for roasting by removing the wishbone, tucking the wings, cutting some fat, placing butter between the skin and the flesh, and finally, how to truss it up properly.

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I was cleaning and found this disk.  Based on the system requirements, and the fact that it names the PCjr., I’m very sure that it’s version 2.0 from 1984 (there’s no copyright date on it).  I can’t test it since I don’t have access to any 5.25” floppy drives, but I’m going to guess it won’t work.

Check out that Microsoft logo!

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Last night was the first class of the five, and to make sure that I wasn’t late, I left work slightly early to make sure I had enough time to get downtown and find the school, and by “slightly early” I mean that I left at the time that I officially work till as directed by the employee handbook and my job description.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been having amazing luck lately when it comes to the subway.  It seems that I either arrive right as a train is pulling in, or about to pull in.  During rush hours, I never need to wait more than two minutes for one.  And yesterday afternoon was no exception.  As I was going down the stairs to the N/R/W tracks, there was an empty train pulling in.  Within 15 minutes, I was at 23rd and 5th, getting rained upon.

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For many, many years, I’ve been threatening to take a cooking class to improve my confidence in the kitchen…and if the class prevents me from poisoning myself, well, that would be a bonus.

Well, I’ve stopped threatening and I’m taking action.  I’ve enrolled in a recreational fine cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education.  For the next five weeks, I’ll be attending the class one night a week from 6pm-11pm and learning about knife skills, sauteing, roasting, braising, grilling, and cooking shellfish.

As I prepare to embark on the first phase of Josh 2.0, I wonder what exactly I’ll take away from this class.  After enrolling I started to wonder what it would take for me to think of this class as being successful and worthwhile.  Maybe I’ll find some hidden talent that I didn’t know I had, or maybe I’ll fall in love with a food I wouldn’t normally find appetizing (like asparagus—yuck!), or a way of cooking that I didn’t understand.  Maybe I’ll walk away with the confidence to not be intimidated by complicated recipes, or maybe I’ll have the ability to find something in a grocery store and be able to understand how to cook it and shop for sides without having to go home look up a recipe and go back to the store to pick everything up.

It wasn’t until today that I think I found a good line in the sand that will define whether the class was useful or not.  If, after the class, you ask me what the most important utensil is in my kitchen, and I don’t answer, “the fire extinguisher”, then it will have been a success.

I seem to have done a number on the middle-finger of my right hand.  It’s swelled up about as much as it can, and it’s quite painful if any real pressure is applied to it.  I can’t clench my fist because of it.

This happened Friday, and since then, I’ve found out how much I depend on it to do basic things in my life, and I’ve had to make adjustments…

• Let’s get the most important one out of the way first.  Wiping.  I’ve had to make adjustments to my normal wiping technique.  This is by far the most disturbing change I’ve had to make due to this injury, especially considering that I’ve used the same wiping technique for as long as I can remember.
• I normally keep my apartment keys in my right-hand pocket.  I can’t get anything out of my right-hand pocket easily now, so I’ve had to shift them to my left-hand pocket.
• I can’t play with my Wii (sounds strange, don’t it?).
• It hurts to write.  Not impossible, but it’s not comfortable.  The interesting thing is that the only writing with a pen I do, in general, is to sign credit card receipts.  Typing is fine because there is no real pressure applied to the finger.
• Operating my light switches.  Most of my light switches are dimmers and are the circular type, and it hurts every time I turn on a light or turn if off.  I never realized that I used my middle-finger that much when using the switches.
• Smoking a cigar.  What good is having a 2005 Limited Edition Cohiba if it hurts to hold it?
• Forget about opening a bottle.  Even using my left hand to open it leads to the middle-finger hurting while holding it in my right.

Perhaps I should get it checked out?