Saturday - worked in the office. Meh. Went on a quick 42 mile bike ride afterwards, weather was almost up to 50 degrees.

Ran a few errands afterwards, got a few CDs, a book and went to the asian market and halal market to get a few items that I needed for cooking this evening. Spent the last 3 hours cooking and jamming to the new Modest Mouse and Chevelle CDs.

Made a wonderful curry with chicken and pork (very involved) and made some spanakopita (just the filling - will make the filo dough sheets later tonight or tomorrow morn) - recipe to follow. Been an exhausting day. I wanna curl up on the couch and read my new book.

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Brrrr. It's cold outside. Wish I had someone to hug. Oh how sappy. Worked, then went on a 38 mile bike ride - the weather was actually cooperative. Oh i wish I had a warm body...

Good lord, i must be giddy with the excitement that I have to work the weekend. Assholes. Oh well.

Tomorrow, well - I have to be in the office, but the weather should be ok enough for a bike ride in the late afternoon. Will come home and do a buncha cooking. I'm planning on making a curry sauce for some chicken and fish, in addition to making spanakopita - recipes soon to follow.

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Busy day. Worked late, intense day. It snowed - no bike ride. Came home, ate, payed bills, prepared for tomorrow. Life continues. I wish winter would be over. Meh.

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Sitting here writing this as the Prez Bush is giving his State of the Union Address - talking about Social Security. Blah - why bother to watch him blather on, when in truth - my generation and those to follow will not see any of the $$ we have put into the social security system. It will go bankrupt before I retire to need it.

Was a chilly day out there, but spent most of it inside at work - finishing up a huge ass project, and starting a new one. Makes the day blast on by.

Went on a 32 mile bike ride after work - the streets were almost dry, no ice or snow on the roads - warmed up past freezing today and melted the majority of it. My poor car is sufferring from a dire need of a bath. Not going to happen anytime real soon, every car wash has an hour wait. Maybe over the weekend, if the weather is cooperative - I may wash it by hand.

Nothing else new, except that I need to submit some recipes to a contest I heard of (before the 15th of this month - will keep y'all posted) - and also working on a design for the "Bicycles Belong" Virginia license plate contest (no prize, just the merit of winning and seeing the design on thousands of plates).

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Not too much to write about today, and I'm a little tired (winter is getting to me) - more of the same grind. Just was an overwealmingly busy day at work, teemed with a very cold 29 mile bike ride afterwards, followed up to coming home, dinner, reindexing my bike gears, organizational crap, little tv, some writing, so on and so fourth. SItting here in my PJ bottoms, ratty old t-shirt, cardigan sweater, and my slippers. Ho hum.

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Woke up this morning to a lot of ice - all the snow was there, but covered in a lot of ice. Took me a while to scrape my car and warm it up - then on the road to work. Was a very busy day - the day went by too quick. It was all of a sudden 5:45pm and I was like...welp...gotta change.

The ground was still frozen with snow in parts, but I drove the course of the loop on my lunch break to see what the conditions were. SO i took a very leisurely frigid 28 miles - chump change. But it was nice and crisp. Got back and thawed out.

I was listening to the radio on the way home from my bike ride and this Violent Femmes tune "Blister in the Sun" came on, I was singing to my hearts content, jamming to it. WHen the song was over, the radio announcer says "if you were singing and jamming to that tune, you must be OLD...it debuted in 1983, it's 23 years old..." I about died laffing then realized...crap..I AM old...

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What a fabulous winter day. As promised, Mother Nature layed a blanket of beautiful snow on the landscape (pictured, click on images for larger - pops in new window). I slept in, heavilly as it snowed - felt like a bear hybernating. I read in bed most of the morning, then finally came out of slumber to get out to clear the snow and ice off my car and shovel the driveway.

The task was my excersize for the day - we did get about 4 inches of snow, sloppy wet stuff, with a sleet layer underneath. The pictures were taken after I finished, noticed the nice sunset-like quality of the snow on the trees and purple shadow trademark of a nice snowscape.

I decided that it was too late in the day for me to actually bike on my trainer - afterall, I spent almost 2 hours shovelling, enuff excersize. And I was planning on a huge dinner for my parents (recipe further down). After dinner, I spent the rest of the evening cleaning/lubing my bike while chatting on the phone with brothers and friends. Finished up, crunched out in ice to put bike in car. Sundays are funny in that way.

I present my Angel Hair Pasta with Conch and Mussels in a Garlic Wine Butter Conch Broth sauce:

1 lb fresh Conch, cleaned (boiled and minced* see below, conch broth)
2 lbs fresh mussels, cleaned, debearded
1lb fresh snow peas
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 scallions, thinly sliced
4 sundried tomatos (in olive oil, finely minced)
1/2 lime, available to juice
1 tsp Allspice rounds, ground
1 tsp red pepper flakes
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 jalepeno pepper, roasted, de-seeded, minced
1 large handfull of fresh cilantro, washed, patted dry, chopped
1 cup dried shitake mushrooms, re-hydrated (in 1 cup chardonnay and 1 cup chicken broth), sliced
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbs margarine or clarified butter
salt & pepper to taste
10 oz wheat angel hair pasta

In a medium pot, bring 2 quarts water to boil, and add conch - simmerboil for 30 minutes, remove conch and mince and reserve conch broth.

In a large saucepan over high heat, add olive oil and saute garlic, onion, scallions, green pepper, and jalepeno pepper until onions are transparent. Toss in minced conch meat and quickly stir until browned then add shitake mushrooms with the wine/broth mixture and add sundried tomatos, allspice, red pepper flakes, lime juice, cilantro, salt & pepper. Turn down heat to medium and cover, stirring every 2 minutes and adding a cup of conch broth.

Add a quart of water to conch broth, bring to boil and add pasta - cook for 8 minutes, drain, drizzle with olive oil and set aside to plate.

Add mussels and snow peas to large saucepan mixture, cover and steam for 2 minute intervals, spooning broth and mixture together for another 10 minutes.

To plate, put pasta down, and ladle out generous amount of mussles and conch broth mixture.

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