So, would you like "The Tour?"

"No. I get it." - Larry David.

We've finally gotten all settled here in Slater, Iowa. This is our awesome house. I love being a homeowner, but I hate property taxes. We live kinda on the edge of town. The street that runs in front of our house is by far the busiest in Slater. About three blocks from our place it turns into a highway that runs 9 miles north to Ames, home of Iowa State University and the Cyclones. People are really, really into college sports here. I think I'll stay out of it.

Here's the backyard and our oldest tree. Unfortunately the wind usually blows in the direction that would make the tree fall on our house in a big storm. It's still a sturdy tree, but we'll have to cut it down in the foreseeable future. Storms in the midwest are way different than Montana storms. The wind is crazy and the thunder is louder than I've ever heard.

Darcy and her mom painted the kitchen last week. Before it was a mint green. It looks waaaay better now than it did.

We picked this metal table up in Des Moines, which is about 20 miles to the south.

This table also came from Des Moines. The awesome China hutch came with the house. And here is photographic proof that Jeffreys survived the 18 hour car ride from Missoula. He did really well for the first 17 hours, then got ansy and scared for the last hour. All in all he made the trip like a real trooper.

Owning a couch set makes me feel really old. But they're really comfortable, so who cares. We also go to bed around 10:30 most nights. Uh oh.

We finally got our entertainment center hooked up and the speakers are fully operational. It's good to be vindicated after hauling heavy speakers accross the country. Darcy admits they sound better than the TV.

Upstairs we just have 4 rooms. They're pretty boring and not really ready to make their debut yet. Once they're painted and set up, you'll see them.

Egg-celent

On Saturday we dyed some awesome Easter eggs. Using vinegar with the little capsules makes the colors super bright. These are my favorite eggs I made, plus Darcy's adorable little Jeffreys egg.

Our Cat - The Gourmet

This was Jeffreys treat this evening. Yeah, he's ballin'.

Alert But Defiant

Our new camera showed up today! It's not really anything too special, but we've been without a decent camera for quite a while now. I realize I've leaned too heavily on camera presets in the past, so I'm going to try and post at least a few photos a week shooting on manual mode. Here's my first, Jeffreys rocking it "Orange" style. That's alert but defiant, if you didn't know.

Small, Furry Business Loan

Even in this recession economy, Jeffreys seems to have gotten himself a small business loan. It must have been the fancy tie.

Jeffreys: The Next Viral Internet Star?

Probably not. But this marks the introduction of video to this blog. Sure I've linked to videos, but these are the first videos produced here our apartment. Darcy took these amazing shots with her cell phone, hence the quality.







Feel free to share with your friends and mock me for my falsetto voice. I take it as a compliment.

The Cat Days of Summer

It's hot. Just ask my cat. He's almost melting off the table because it temperatures regularly reach 90 - 100 degrees in our apartment when the weather is like this. Plus he's covered in fur.

I listened to the single worst album as of yet in my alphabetical trek through my iTunes catalog. I've always claimed to like him more than his song stealing, egotistical bandmate but never again. I'm talking, of course, about Art Garfunkel. His album "Some Enchanted Evening" isn't even suited to be played as elevator music on a ride down to hell. To say that it was boring would be a compliment. It was offensive to every musical sensibility I have.

Luckily, the next album up was Asahi's "Head Above Water." There's more to like about Asahi than the fact they're named after my favorite Japanese beer. They played Jay's Upstairs in support of "Head Above Water," and my roomates and I were the only people there (aside from the regular Jay's patrons sitting at the bar not paying attention to the music). I'd just come back from Bellingham, WA and had met the guy who put out their album, so we chatted briefly after the show and all of us got free shirts and I picked up a copy of the album, which is great. It was one of my go-to sleep albums for two or three years. If you ever see it, do yourself a favor and pick it up. The lead singer/songwriter, Tomo Nakayama, has now moved on and started a new(ish) project called Grand Hallway, which is equally great.

In other news, Darcy and I have been hooked on a Wii game called Super Swing Golf. It's totally anime and lame, but fun. So that's been consuming a lot of our time. I'm not sure if I mentioned how awesome the Wii is. We've played the Wii at least twice as much in a month as we ever played our X-Box 360 during the 10 months we owned it. So much more fun. I just wish it supported DVD playback out of the box, that's a little frustrating.

Finally, it's starting to cool off a little bit. Time to get back to the fake golfin'.

My Goose Is Cooked!

My Christmas project this year was to cook a goose. Daunting, I know, but I did my research and it turned out better than I thought it would. I'll break it down for you in the easy steps I used to get the job done.

1. Go out and buy a goose. I found mine at the Pattee Creek Market, because I know they carry some of the stranger meats in town. But on Christmas Eve I saw a couple in Albertson's as well, so they aren't too hard to find. And come to find out, one of my co-workers raises geese, so I could have gotten one from him. I should have bought a bigger one though, because there isn't that much meat on a goose. Mine was 8.13 lbs. and it served about 5 of us. But we weren't expert carvers either, so that could have made a difference.


2. Clean the goose. I let mine sit in the fridge for a day and a half before I attempted it, and it was still very frozen on the inside. Be ready to pull out a spine and other innards with the massive amounts of fat. I foolishly tossed these, which I now regret, because anything cooked in goose fat is delicious.


3. Put the goose in boiling water for a minute or two. This supposedly separates the skin from the actual meat. I'm not so sure it works, or else I boiled it for too short of a time. But maybe things would have ended tragically if I had skipped this step. I also poked lots and lots of holes in the skin with a skewer. This step was essential, as it allowed the delicious goose fat to escape and flavor the vegetables in the roasting pan.


4. Let it dry in the fridge for at least a day and a half. This also gives you plenty of time to do the rest of your cooking prep work, and buy enough alcohol for you and your guests, since no one wants to go shopping on Christmas day.


5. Arrange lots of aromatic vegetables in a roasting pan. I used carrots, parsnips, celery, onions and lemon. I also used a cookie cooling rack at the bottom to keep the goose out of its own fat. I know, I've told you how delicious it is a few times already, but don't worry, there is more than enough fat in the goose itself.


6. Have someone very special mix up some stuffing for you. If you don't have a ultra cute wife like me, then one of your drinking buddies will do just fine.

7. Stuff the stuffing inside the empty cavity. This will be messy. Vegetarians and need not apply.


8. Apply your glaze of choice. There are tons of recipes out there, just Google it, or head down to your local library and check out a book or two. I used extra virgin olive oil, cracked peppercorn, fresh thyme, salt and chopped garlic. You'll want to make enough to apply a little each time you check on the bird. I pre-heated the oven to 45o and let it cook for half an hour, then dropped the temperature to 350 and checked every half an hour. In retrospect, I would cook it at 375 the next time, because it took longer than I thought to cook.

9. And since I had so much extra time, I was able to sing karaoke while I waiting for it to get done. Be sure to invite friends over, as you'll be waiting around for a while for the goose to cook.

10. Carve the bird. I am by no means proficient and carving any sort of fowl, and so it was a laissez-faire approach to getting meat. It was every man for himself.
11. Be prepared for the aftermath. Everyone will have their fill and this is what you're left with. Be sure to budget time the next day to clean up the remains, and get that goose smell out of your apartment.


The goose was a big hit, although not as much as Darcy's insanely tasty mashed potatoes and stuffed mushrooms. I thought the veggies cooked in goose fat and stuffing held its own, but Darcy also can take credit for the stuffing. All in all, a great success!

...and no, Jeffrey's did not partake in the goose. He's on a diet.

Ron Paul 2008

I went home to Kalispell for Thanksgiving and my dad showed me the Ron Paul hat he made. Pretty awesome. Ron Paul 2008!


When we got back home we cooked Jeffreys up his own game hen. He ate some of it, but I think I had more. It was pretty good.

Halloween Madness!

Halloween is by far Darcy's favorite holiday, and I like it quite a bit too. She came up with a great costume this year. I was a magician and she was my assistant who I had really sawed in half. Most impressive of all was the incredible saw she crafted while I was at work. It looked pretty real.

Jeffreys really wanted to dress as a cat for Halloween this year, but had to settle for being a fire chief.
The party at the Badlander was pretty incredible. I should have gotten some pictures of the Zombie Brothel, because it was totally impressive, but I was too enthralled watching. There were zombies of all kinds, even a spaceman zombie. Both the Badlander and Palace were packed and almost everyone was dressed up, which made it super fun. Pleaseeasaur was great as usual, I got a picture of him wearing the greatest shirt ever. I am smiling. Classic.

Volumen played a great Rocky Horror set even though I haven't yet seen the movie. I think I will now. I was way too far back to get a decent picture, so you'll have to take my word for it that they went all out with their costumes. Someone who was familiar with the movie told me they really took the songs up a notch. I always love watching the Volumen, they put on a great show.

All in all, a great Halloween.

Breaking Radio Silence

I've really let this blog slip, and I'll spare you my usual, "but I have been busy!" excuse. I don't have time to write about everything I've been up to, and you wouldn't want to read it anyway, so here's the last month and a half in pictures. Concerts, Touring, and just hanging out being my cool self.

My Cat Is A Model

My cat loves to wear clothes. He thinks he's people, and it might be the greatest thing ever. He came to us sans clothes, so we picked him up some clothes to relax in.He wants more treats, so we told him he would have to get a job and pay for them himself, so we went out and bought him some work clothes. Anyone looking for a hardworking cat who has a background with the Microsoft Office suite?