Ranch Dressing: Why Do Americans Love It So Much? Great article, though it leaves out one important milestone in the growth of Ranch Dressing Popularity: The fateful day Kelly McMahon asked the Chili’s waitress for a cup of ranch to dip her tortilla chips in.
Month: August 2006 (page 3 of 8)
I was reading AskMetaFilter yesterday when I came across this comment, which mentioned that the commenter had been stalked at work for years. He pointed to a webpage he’d made about the alleged stalker. Whoa! My attention was snared by the intrigue and scandal of drama amongst the weirdy-beardy anti-censorship geek crowd. It’s fascinating. From there I followed a link to the alleged stalker’s site, where I was surprised to see him asking where all the traffic was coming from. So I told him. I have to say though, part of me was wary of saying anything for fear I’d start being harassed too! (Hence my careful insistence on the use of the word “alleged” in this post.)
Sock Wars. Ohhhh, I just may have to do this! It’s the game of Assassin with a twist: instead of shooting your target with a water pistol, you have to knit them a pair of socks. How cool is that? Anybody else (Miss Fee? M-H?) want to join in? (Link courtesy of crumpet.)
Snookums is puzzled by the Wikipedia article on “pizza”, specifically this bit:
“In Indiana, they recently introduced the ‘ranch style’ variety which has had fantastic success with its inhabitants, especially amongst the South. The ranch is dipped or drizzled on pepperoni pizza.”
Who in the what now? I can easily believe that there are people who put ranch dressing on everything. (Hello, Kelly McMahon!) But this makes it sound like some sort of official thing that’s happening everywhere. Is this for real? Spill it, Hoosiers.
Paging Mr. Kyder, Mr. Al Kyder… HA! Yeah, pretty juvenile humor I’ll admit, but there is a point to it. I was astounded when we flew to Melbourne last month and I never had my ID checked once. I assumed somebody would at least check my driver’s license at the gate to make sure I was the ticketed passenger, but they never did.
While I think it’s a shame that Latvian knitters are being asked to refrain from using traditional design motifs, I can see where swastika mittens might be interpreted wrong.
I hate Mondays.
Customer: “I’d like to exchange these knitting needles. They’re too big.”
Me: “I’m sorry; we can’t exchange needles if you’ve used them.”
Customer: “I haven’t used them.”
Me: “Then how do you know they’re too big?”
Customer: “Well, I knitted a tension swatch.”
Me: “Yeah. I can’t exchange them once you’ve used them.”
Sometimes it’s like I’m speaking a foreign language.
Knitting, knitting, knitting… This damn cabled jacket keeps trying to thwart me with miscrossed cables and extra rows, but I will not be denied. I just keep froggin’ ‘er back and bangin’ my head against the brick wall. This project has brought out a stubborn perfectionist streak that I didn’t think i had anymore. It’s become my Everest, and I’ll finish it or perish in the attempt. I’m literally at the last five rows of the body though, so what else can go wrong? (The house will probably burn down tomorrow.)
Today was the first day in ages I actually felt like running. The Snook and I did a nice long jog down Harris Street to Pyrmont, then around the Fish Markets and into Glebe via Pyrmont Bridge Road. We’ve also signed up for our next event: the Sunday Telegraph 9K Bridge Run in one month. We were tossing up the idea of the Half Marathon, but they have cutoff points and the idea that we’d have to meet some sort of speed minimum scared us off. Next year…
It’s a boy!
No, actually it’s my gallbladder. I’ve had such a crazy week. Monday, you’ll recall, was my first acupuncture session. It didn’t really have any immediately noticeable effect, I thought. Then Tuesday I had one of my worst days of stomach pain in the past two months. It grew and grew all day til Leanne finally sent me home (in the hailstorm) because I looked like I was going to barf. I went straight to my doctor and told him that the current plan of “bland diet” plus Nexium wasn’t working. He agreed. At this point, if it was actually a stomach issue I should’ve been getting better, and I’m not. So he took me off the Nexium and started the next round of tests. I got blood drawn to check for liver function and thyroid issues, and he recommended an ultrasound to check out the other organs that could be causing the gastritis. (Hence, the picture of my baby gallbladder.) I was in such pain I considered canceling the next acupuncture session; it obviously wasn’t doing me any good. But then something amazing happened Wednesday: I woke up feeling great. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t feeling any strong pain; it was that I actually had energy and felt happy all day long. You don’t realize how precious those days are until you have two months without one. And Wednesday was nearly as good! I really don’t know what to attribute it to. I haven’t changed my diet radically, and by all rights I should feel worse after stopping the Nexium. But I don’t. I even had an APPLE on Thursday (which I’d been shunning out of fear of the acidity) and I was fine. So I went into my second acupuncture session feeling skeptical but also more than a little hopeful. After telling her everything that had happened, I got back on the table for another round of five needles. Two in my elbows and one in the center of my belly, again, but also two more either side of my navel. (Looking down, my belly button appeared to have antennae. Take me to your leader.) Friday was the ultrasound and I’ll admit I was feeling some fear. What if he finds a tumor? In the end everything checked out okay, with one minor exception: there’s a dark spot on my right kidney, and the technician thought it might be the formation of a stone. OH, GREAT. (My pregnant sister just had one and sent me a long, excruciatingly detailed e-mail about the pain she had in passing it.) He recommends I have a CT scan to verify. So I’m a little torn here, actually. On one hand, I have a scheduled gastroscopy in three weeks to investigate the possibility of an ulcer. This is a seriously unpleasant procedure though, and my doctor’d been hoping something else would turn up so I could cancel. A kidney stone though? Would seriously suck. Maybe my magic acupuncture shaman can blast it with some chi or something…