Procrasti-wha???

I have, of course, like everyone else have been meaning to update the good ol' blog for quite awhile now. New job, combined with laziness, combined with the mental pile o' crap that I've been meaning to blog but never did is my only excuse. I figured I'd start off easy. With a picture of the dog. I'm happy Morsa's Hazel turned out ok. Having a sick pet sucks. I've had a couple of sick Shelby moments, between the vomiting for 24 hours and the cat scratch in the eye, plus a few others here and there. I'm glad I grew up with my parents, who taught me that pets (and people for that matter) are more indestructable than we think sometimes. Like when my Ma cured Tina's kitty eye infection with some left over people pink eye drops. Anyway.

I've been baking a lot of chickens lately too. It all started with a New York Times article about broiling steaks in a cast iron pan instead of the broiler pan that comes with your oven, which is a great idea. It works good as a small roasting pan too. That pan has quickly become one of my favorites. I'm working on perfecting my seasoning now, since I have figured out how long exactly to cook a chicken without poisioning myself with salmonella. I'm not sure why, but I'm pretty paranoid about raw chicken. Which isn't very logical, considering the amount of raw eggs I have consumed while making cookies. Maybe once it's mixed in with two kinds of sugar, the threat of food poisoning isn't so scary. It's nice to have a good chicken dinner. Then I have a week to eat the rest of the chicken in sandwiches and salads and whatnot. It usually doesn't last that long. Also thanks to big bro for the excellent knife set. I wouldn't be carving chickens every week without it! Any tips on successfully carving a chicken would be appreciated. I get lost around the thigh area, and usually resort to pulling off the meat with a fork or my fingers. It gets kind of barbaric.

My friend Nico was in town last week. It's always great when he's here because he has the knack of bringing all of his friends together in one place for beer and shenanigans. He keeps a pretty random assortment of people as friends, so it makes for some fun times. We spent a sunny Saturday at Coney Island for the Mermaid Parade. Which is part small town parade, and part half assed Burning Man. I liked it, because unlike the big parades in the city, it still feels like a regular people parade, with old time cars and the random motorcyle gang getting in on the parade action along with the freaks on the floats.