The Free-Range Monkey

Wow, a month since my last post. In my defense some of the stuff I'd normally post here tends to go into 100 character bytes on facebook. For the past month I've basically been either working a lot or sick. I finished up in Richmond and am now back in Rockville. Being home all the time is obviously nice, but I've also been surprised at how much I missed my Rockville coworkers. It was a little funny when couple of them started giving me suggestions for what I should call my kids in Chinese, but all in all I'm glad to be back.

It feels like Summer disappeared too quickly. There's a lot I wanted to do but didn't. For instance, I didn't make it to any of Ann's family pool parties because I kept getting sick. I think the long miles I've been running take a toll on the immune system, though a coworker swears I had swine flu. Either way, I'm glad it's over, and I'll be looking forward to seeing everyone at Priscilla's party tomorrow (er, today actually). I've also got some travels on the horizon. Ann & I will be headed to Boston for a weekend later this month. Also, I'm camping with some of the guys next month which is always fun. It's basically an excuse to start a fire and cook lots and lots of meat. Can't beat that.

My coworker from Taiwan introduced me http://us.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php. It's a Chinese dictionary that also has a variety of practice and quiz functions. I've found the quizzes really help improve my understanding of  the radicals that make up each character because anytime I come across a character I don't know I have to do my best to pick which pronunciation and definition are correct. 

I'm hoping it stays cool this weekend so I can make some chili. I haven't really had any college football parties or other occasions for it, but since I'm off Columbus day, why not.

Later

What with it being a really busy summer, and with the Rangers getting most of my sports-attention, football season actually has kind of snuck up on me this year. But, when I saw Boise State on last night I knew it was about time to toss out a few football related thoughts, so here goes.

1) The Cowboys:
I stand by what I said earlier that T.O.'s departure doesn't make the Cowboys better. However, the indications are that Coach Phillips has toughened up this offseason and with no "Hard Knocks" film crews running around the team as a whole is in better shape and may be more prepared for the season than last year. Also, between Jason Witten, Roy Williams, Martellus Bennett, and several good running backs, a lack of receivers shouldn't be the offense's biggest issue. What went largely unmentioned when the Cowboys struggled last season was that most of the offensive linemen either played hurt, or were healthy but didn't perform as well as expected. If the offense struggles this year, they'll be the most likely reason why.

Defensively, the biggest changes were in the secondary. The starters should be better, but with Anthony Henry and Adam Jones's departure there isn't much depth, so another injury to Terrance Newman could be disastrous. Otherwise, the defense should be solid. Much has been made of Anthony Spencer replacing longtime starter Greg Ellis, but anyone paying attention late last season would know that Spencer was already outperforming Ellis.

So, what's my prediction? Most commentators have concluded that Philly and the Giants are elite teams that will separate themsleves from Dallas and Washington, but I'm not really sold on either. I wouldn't be surprised if all four teams finished from 8-8 to 10-6. So I'll say 10-6 and a complicated tiebreaker to see who makes the playoffs.

2) Texas Tech
Expectations are a little lower this season because of Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree's departure. I find that amusing considering how the same people who expect less are the ones who talked about how it was the system and not Harrell. Go figure. Having said that, when Taylor Potts has been on the field he's looked very good, and I expect he'll do more than fine, though like every other new Tech QB since Leach's arrival, he'll have at least one early season game where the D gives him something he hasn't seen and he throws 3 interceptions and we lose. It's almost like an initiation. Also, Crabtree being gone doesn't bother me, Tech doesn't have any trouble finding good receivers. Again, it's more about the offensive line. Last year's was the best Tech has seen, and this year's won't be quite as good, so I'll say 3-4 losses and a decent bowl game.


My thoughts on a couple of the hot issues in the NFL
1) Vick. I don't like him, and I positively hate the Eagles. However, I believe in the right of parties to contract, so if they want to do business together, so be it. I hope the Cowboys stomp them.

2) Favre. Yawn. I haven't paid much attention. The way to handle it is just ignore whatever happens and see if he's on anyone's roster when the season starts.

3) Jumbo-tron gate. This one has been brought up to me because it involves the Cowboys and Jerry Jones, but I think it's way over-hyped. The NFL told Dallas at least 85 feet, and the Cowboys put it at 90. If the NFL wanted it higher they should have said so. At this point though, they should just wait and see how many punts hit it in regular season games, when presumably the punter won't be trying to hit it. My guess is very few if any will.

4) Michael Crabtree's holdout. Crabtree needs to quit listening to his hype team. At one time he may have some bargaining points, but that time is past. This holdout is hurting him a lot more than it is the 49ers, so he needs to sign and play for his next contract.

5) Superbowl predictions.
NFC: Tough to predict because there are a lot of good teams, but none that strike me as particularly great. I think there will be a big mess of teams between 9-7 and 11-5. I'll say New Orleans. They get consistently good offensive line play and, like the Cardinals last season, have an offense that very few defenses can stop when they get going. If they're clicking at the end of the season, look out.

AFC: The opposite of the NFC. There's 3-4 really good teams, a couple decent ones, and a bunch with no chance. I think this ends up being the last hurrah of sorts for the great Colts-Patriots rivalry. Not that they won't still be good, but I think they're both elite this season but declining overall. I'll say the Patriots over the Colts in the AFC championship, followed by a superbowl win over the Saints. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Home again after the contract I was supposed to start today was pushed back to next week. That's probably a good thing, however, since I now have an interview set up for tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I met a Supreme Court Justice the other day. We were at a birthday/anniversary party for a our friend's parents. They have been involved in politics for a very long time, and lo and behold Clarence Thomas was among the guests. Our friend introduced me and I found out that when a Supreme Court Justice ribs you about college football, you just have to take it.

I'm officially registered for the Marine Corps Marathon. Although I didn't initially register, my running group convinced me to go ahead and train with them, and try to find someone who was willing to transfer. Sure enough, I found one so now I'm running it. I enjoy the training and getting in shape, and look forward to the marathon, but I think it's going to be a one-time thing. I'm just too busy to go through a whole day feeling like a zombie after running 15-20 miles in the morning.

Facebook has got me kind of weirded-out right now. It's as though high school has tracked me down and rediscovered me. It's not that I have a problem with any of my old classmates, it's just that when I was done with high school I got out of town, moved on with my life, and never looked back. I guess living a thousand miles away is sufficient buffer to avoid being somehow sucked back in, but it still feels a little strange. Has anyone else had this experience?

Ann & I saw District 9 last weekend. It was an interesting movie and I enjoyed it a lot, not least because it actually had an original plot. It was pretty intense and gritty though, so I can see where it might not be something everyone likes.

It's September and the Rangers are still in striking distance of the wild card. I don't know that they'll make it, but to be honest I'm just happy that they're actually competitive. Meanwhile, football season is upon us, so there's more to come on that topic in the next week or two.

That's all the news that's fit to print. I'm looking forward to the pool party with Ann's family on Sunday.

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. I'm probably headed back to Richmond next week. Things just sort of die down in DC this time of year, though with school starting things will hopefully pick up soon.

Last weekend we headed down to Hartsville, South Carolina for Dino and Karyn's wedding. Dino is a friend from college and there were several other friends there I haven't seen in a while, so it was nice to catch up with them. It was also our 3rd trip to the South this summer, not counting my trips to Richmond, but it was still interesting because I had never really spent any time in that part of the South.

Hartsville is a nice little town with a downtown historic district, plantation houses with wide porches,  a lake, and a small college. It's all very picturesque. We spent the night there on Friday, had some BBQ, and pitched in to help with a couple last minute things for the wedding. The wedding went fairly quickly, with no problems other than a little general confusion, especially on the part of the groom (if you knew Dino, you'd understand).

After the wedding, we headed up to Greensboro, NC, grabbed some more BBQ, and then caught a minor league baseball game between the Greensboro Grasshoppers and the Lexington (KY) Legend. Minor league baseball is a lot of fun. It's cheap, you can sit much closer to the action, the promos and stuff are just plain funny, as are the ads on the outfield fence. The kicker is that Ann is actually more into it than I am. Maybe it reminds her of going to games in Taiwan when she was in high school, or maybe she just thinks the players are cute. I don't know, but she positively has minor league baseball fever.

Now this wouldn't be my blog if I didn't mention the food. In Greensboro we stopped at this place for Carolina BBQ. Now, previously, North Carolina BBQ had not really made sense to me. I grew up in Texas where brisket is king and the best BBQ needs no sauce, or maybe just a little dab. Soaking pork in vinegar-based sauce just kinda sounded weird. Well, now that I've had Carolina BBQ from the source, I get it. It really was quite good, and combined with hush puppies, peach cobbler, and sweet tea, it made for a very good meal.

Besides the BBQ, Ann had her usual favorites -- Sonic, Bodo's Bagels in Charlottesville, and we tried a fast food place called Biscuitville. On the way back (we came up Hwy 29, which is slightly slower but more fun and less crowded than I-95) we stopped in Culpeper, and stumbled on Raven's Next Coffee House, which I'd take over Starbucks or most chain coffee places. They make ice cubes with their leftover coffee, so when you get an iced coffee you don't have to worry about it getting watered down when the ice melts.

One thing I've noticed since I started working in Rockville is the difference in morning vs afternoon traffic. In the morning I'm usually able to get there in about 30 minutes, but in the afternoon I'm looking at anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple hours. I just never know. The result is that some days I just hang it up, stop somewhere for dinner, and wait it out. It means I get home late, but the bright side is I've gotten to try some good places.

Rockville is the best place around for Chinese, and I've found that Bob's and Maxim (美心) aren't the only options. Mandarin Express  at 355 & Gude is a new fav. The Cross-Bridge Noodle Soup (國家米飯) is a must-have. I also stopped by the Maria's Chinese Bakery. I normally just do bakery stuff there, but since I had to pick something up at the REI next door and was really hungry for dinner, I gave the beef noodle soup a shot and it wasn't bad.

On the American food front, Branded 72 has decent BBQ. Not nearly as good the little place we stopped at in Tennessee on our Southern trip, but passable. Also, after trying Urban Burger, I may give Urban BBQ a shot. The best deal if I end up having to buy my lunch though is a shack of a greasy spoon across from the office called Pete's.

Not everything good is in Rockville though. We were helping a friend move recently and stopped by Huong Viet at the Eden Center for some fantastic Vietnamese. They've got more selections than pho places do and are more authentic and better priced than Four Sisters. Meanwhile, here in Vienna Plaka Grill is the place to go for Chicago style Greek that won't be beat (ok so that didn't quite rhyme).

Anyhow, that about sums up the last couple months in the dining department. If you run into any other great hole-in-the wall places, let me know cuz I'm always on the lookout.

The Poblano Pepper. It's maybe the most underrated pepper out there. It's versitile and tasty. It's got a little kick, but not so much that the non-spicy eaters need to fear it, and it's easy to find if you know where to look. But what really makes it amazing is that it's large size and thin walls make it the perfect pepper for stuffing.

Recently, at a get together with Ann's cousins I was working the grill and Kelly brought me some bell peppers to grill. They looked, smelled and tasted so good that I decided the only thing that could be better is if I had peppers stuffed with even more tasty stuff like meat and cheese. So, when some friends had a cookout and said the grill would be open I decided to take the stuffed peppers challenge.

Now, with true chili rellenos, you grill them till the skin peels, then strip it off, dip them in batter and fry them. I don't have a deep fryer though, and the idea of doing them in a wok instead seemed like it'd be time consuming, troublesome, and just plain weird. So, I decided I'd just stuff them and roast them over low heat on the grill and see how it went. Some people out there got to eat the results, so feel free to give feedback (positive or negative) if you can remember that far back. Anyway, here's what I did:

1) First, I had to find the Poblanos. Naturally, H-Mart had them because H Mart has all the best fruits and veggies. H Mart also had Argentinian Chorizo, which I decided would make a perfect stuffing.

2) I browned the meat with some onions. The sausage already had plenty of spice so I didn't do anything to it.

3) I grated up some jack and colby cheeses. Also, since I couldn't resist I de-seeded a jalpeno and chopped it up in there.

4) Stuffing the peppers. With true chile rellenos they have a nifty way of slitting it up the side -- I took a short cut and just cut in from the top and traced around the seed cluster, then popped it off. Then I basically took a scoop from the meat and and a scoop form the cheese and jalapeno and filled 'er up. Then I stuck the top back on so things wouldn't leak out too badly.

5) Roasting -- you gotta cook them pretty slowly or you end up with a burnt mess. My friend's grill had a top rack so I just used that. In hindsight I probably would toss them on the hotter part for a minute to kind of char the outside a little more, but otherwise it seemed to come out pretty well, and once the outside cooled, remarkably easy to eat.

For a while I had a quasi-food blog going on, but obviously I've fallen off the wagon a bit. So here's a catch up session. Actually, maybe I'll break it up into a mini-series. Anyway, here goes:

Since I've got oven-roasted chicken and oven-roasted ribs pretty well down, I've been experiementing with oven-roasted fajitas (the things you do when they won't let you grill within 20 feet of the building). You don't get that fire-tinged flavor, but in all other respects it works pretty well. Here's how I did it:

1)Prep -- I started with your basic fajita cut (skirt steak) and worked up a marinade involving lime, salt, and some other spices. If I'd had tequila, I would have spalashed a little in there. Let that marinade for a few hours. Then when I was ready, I cranked the oven up to about 400.

2) Then I got out the biggest pan I had and got it really, really hot* on the stove. I took the whole skirt and tossed it in there, let it sear for a couple minutes on each side. Make sure the outside is brown and as crisp as possible
*It might not be a good idea to use non-stick pans for this. If you've got an Iron skillet tha't big enough, that'd be the best. My stainless steel also worked fine

3) Once nicely browned, I took the whole pan and chucked it in the oven. Now, since I like my beef pretty pink in the middle, I only left it in 25 minutes. If you want the whole thing cooked through, I'd guess maybe more like 40-45, or you could just jack the temp up a little more. The nice thing about the skirt though is that part of it's thick and part is thin, so even though the thick part was really pink and awesome, the thinner parts were cooked through.

4) Now for cutting, and this is key. You've got to go against the grain. Start by cutting the long strip into about 3 managemable chunks, then slice across the grain so they get that nice, pull apart texture.

5) Get some tortillas, guac, cheese, beans, grilled veggies and such and go-to-town.

你好. 最近我工作不太忙,所以我學中文很多. 看課本,看中文電视,可是我覺得也應該練習漢字軗入. 我打算毎星期寫一個款. 要是我錯,你可以更正在 comments. 謝謝.

I have a number of friends who attended various religious colleges. I've noticed that among them, the schools' attitudes towards male-female interaction is a source of much humor. With that in mind, I think they'd kick a kick out of the idea that their institutions aren't the only ones subscribing to the theory that nothing good comes from sharing a swimming pool.

Blogging at halftime of the Orlando-LA game. More on that later, but in the meantime a few thoughts.

1) Working in Rockville isn't a bad thing, in part because of Ann's family. They not only know the best Chinese places but also provide a nice place to stop on days where the traffic is a disaster. On Tuesday it was raining and traffic lights were out, so instead of just going home I called John and Ruby and stopped by. They fed me while the kids kept me entertained. That was a lifesaver.

2) I finished my Chiang Kai-shek book last night. It was really fascinating book (though long). One thing that strikes me is that it's hard to evaluate someone from a time period as brutal as early 20th century China. For someone who grew up in peace and prosperity it seems horrible, but on the other hand Chiang' s actions were probably much less horrific than the preceding Qing dynasty, the Japanese invaders, or the later cultural revolution. It definitely gives a better picture of some of the things Ann's grandparents lived through.

3) Also on the book front, I saw this at Borders and think it's an interesting idea. I sat there in the store for 20 minutes reading the Texas and Virginia sections.

4) It seems every time I blink someone I know is getting married or having a baby. Now I'm not an etiquette expert, but it seems like there's got to be a better way to break this sort of news than just an indefinite reference in your facebook status. Not all of us have time to check facebook every day. Maybe my wife & I are old fashioned, but if you can't call or say so in person, at least put us on a mass email or something. (note -- if you've done this, please don't take this personally, it isn't aimed at anyone who would read this blog).

5) I really hope Orlando wins this series. Kobe was annoying enough when he wasn't making phony faces and starring in Nike commercials as a puppet. I don't think I can take hearing how he's the "greatest closer in the game" much longer.