Janicek.com

I was going to buy a new bicycle this past weekend but John talked me out of it. Instead of dropping $300 on a new bike, he said he’d lend me his. I think this is all because he wants me to spend my money on an iBook (I check daily for release information). I’ve been really itching to ride a bicycle again since mine (and Elise’s) were stolen last month.

So John brought his and Christine’s bikes over to our house on Tuesday. As a token of my appreciation I told him that I wouldn’t let his bike get stolen and I cooked him dinner. I sent Elise to Central Market for crawfish and prosciutto and I started making dinner. I fixed an on-the-fly arrabiatta with shell pasta, tomato, garlic, onion, basil (from my very own garden!), crushed red pepper, crawfish and prosciutto. I tossed that with a cheap chardonnay reduction, heavy cream and butter. I blush when complimented so John said it best when he noted that the sign of a good meal is when no one is talking. Elise, John and myself sat at the kitchen table without saying much. I had to point out that it was also 10 p.m. so I could have fed everyone cardboard filets topped with Cascade crème anglaise and still received the same response. Regardless, I thought it was good. I’ve enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen for four years now and like it when something turns out right. I become nervous cooking for friends because my friends are the kind who will tell you you have a booger hanging out of your nose while deep in conversation with someone of significance.

So I now have John’s bike. I’m going to ride to work tomorrow. 8 miles. Both ways. Up hill. In the snow. I’m curious as to how long that’s going to take me.

I mowed the front yard for the first time yesterday afternoon. I grabbed the iPod, the lawnmower, cranked up some Britney Spears and went to mowin’.

“But Josh, why would such a manly man who exemplifies all that which is manly listen to Britney Spears while mowing your lawn?” is what you might be asking.

Simply put: Because I was wearing these.

Do not buy lawn aerator sandals from harrietcarter.com. I mowed for approximately ten minutes before looking at the bottom of my feet to find that 95% of the aerator spikes had broken off.

Last Friday Elise and I went to Tommy’s to celebrate his birthday. I ate too many pizza bites.

I woke up unusually early on Saturday, paid bills, called Apple Care in an attempt to get my computer to see the iPod and cleaned my office. The garage door repair guy was supposed to come to our house between 10 and noon. He didn’t show. I called to reschedule for Monday (yesterday). He didn’t show last night either.

Anyway – I took Elise out for a nice lunch on Saturday afternoon. The weather was beautiful we sat on the patio at the Y Bar & Grill. Elise had the Creole Crab and Crawfish Salad Sandwich. I had the Smoked Pork Loin with Chipotle Corn Cream Sauce. We shared the intimate patio with a gaggle of pink-laden baby shower giddies who shrieked “Precious!!!” in unison every time a present was opened.

The food was good for the price but there was room improvements. The croissant that Elise’s sandwich was served on was soggy. My pork loin was dry. For the sandwich I would have toasted the croissant and used lettuce and thin slices of cheese to prevent liquids from getting to the bread. For the pork loin, I’m sure it was precooked or left over from the night before. I’d take the pork loin off the lunch menu or just undercook it when prepping. The Chipotle Corn Cream Sauce was very good though. So good that on Sunday when Elise and I went the grocery store, I bought a pork loin and extra chipotles so I can fashion a similar meal.

After lunch we went TJ Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond and Home Depot. I know we’re supposed to dodge the HoPot in April but we had to go to return the guest bathroom faucets. We stuck to our guns and didn’t spend much.

We then spent two hours at CompUSA where the Apple representative and sales manager tried to figure out why my computer wouldn’t recognize my iPod. No luck.

We went home, Elise worked on the guest bathroom, I broke my computer and ordered a veggie pizza from Mr. Gatti’s. We wasted an hour watching Saturday Night Live and went to bed.

Elise worked a brunch on Sunday morning. I fixed my computer and ate cold veggie pizza from Mr. Gatti’s. Elise came home and we went to HEB and got groceries. We went to John and Christine’s later that evening to watch the Sopranos. I made a very complex queso dip that if I told you what was in it, I’d loose any chance of becoming a renowned culinary adventurer. I can, however, tell you this. One ingredient is cheese that “is made with real cheese”. Elise noticed this on the box of “cheese”.

We drove to Tommy’s late that evening so I could get my camera that I had left over there on Friday night. We hung out for an hour or so as we watched the rain pour from the balcony.

Another short weekend.

We try to come up with three recipes a piece before we go to the grocery store. I winged a few recipes and Elise picked out a couple from one of her Weight Watchers cookbooks (which actually has good recipes). Last night was supposed to be broiled ginger and rosemary tuna steaks but I neglected to read the recipe beforehand which indicated that the steaks were supposed to marinate for 6 hours. I had to improvise which rendered a pretty good dinner.

I stuffed a venison tenderloin with sautéed yellow onion, green pepper, jalapeno, cilantro, cumin, garlic, chili powder and chorizo. I grilled the tenderloin to a medium rare and cut in into medallions. I served it with a mango, jalapeno, garlic, cilantro and vinegar reduction and chipotle whipped potatoes. Elise doesn’t really like game or chorizo but cleaned her plate as fast as yours truly.

While indulging in improvised culinary craftsmanship, we enlightened our minds by watching two hours of Average Joe: Adam Returns.

We try to come up with three recipes a piece before we go to the grocery store. I winged a few recipes and Elise picked out a couple from one of her Weight Watchers cookbooks (which actually has good recipes). Last night was supposed to be broiled ginger and rosemary tuna steaks but I neglected to read the recipe beforehand which indicated that the steaks were supposed to marinate for 6 hours. I had to improvise which rendered a pretty good dinner.

I stuffed a venison tenderloin with sautéed yellow onion, green pepper, jalapeno, cilantro, cumin, garlic, chili powder and chorizo. I grilled the tenderloin to a medium rare and cut in into medallions. I served it with a mango, jalapeno, garlic, cilantro and vinegar reduction and chipotle whipped potatoes. Elise doesn’t really like game or chorizo but cleaned her plate as fast as yours truly.

I’ve been using a Windows-based PC for 10+ years now. I can now professionally answer the question: Why do you prefer a PC over a Mac (or any operating system)? The answer is simple. When you use a Windows computer, you easily learn to never become too attached to anything that is 1) binary and 2) important to you.

My computer wasn’t able to see the iPod for a couple weeks. I called Apple Care on Saturday morning. After an hour, the issue wasn’t resolved. I was told to go to CompUSA to see if they could troubleshoot it there. I spent almost two hours at CompUSA on Saturday evening. It was determined that the iPod does work and is recognized by a computer running XP.

Elise and I went home and I was bound and determined to get my computer to recognize the iPod. To spare you an explicit reenactment and technical obscurities, I reinstalled Windows XP. That didn’t work how I had planned. I left my computer alone for the rest of the evening and started on it again early Sunday. I had to reformat my C: drive. That wiped out all of my programs and Elise’s and my e-mails. I told Elise what had to be done in the name of the iPod and she shrugged it off. We both had files on the computer that we would have liked to have kept. We’ve adopted and ideology to not become attached to anything on the computer. If it’s really needed, I burn it to a CD – If my computer will let me burn a CD.

Waiting on an iBook.

This makes me think of Philip and me:

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail… but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, “Damn … that was fun!”

No mom, I’ve never been in jail.

Austin is a very environment-conscious city but damn, where can you find a tree hugger when you need one? I have a young, perfectly straight, neatly pruned oak tree in my front yard that needs to be removed because it was planted too close to my house. I called six places (nurseries and tree service companies) and all but one didn’t seem to have the time of day. If I had to guess, I’d say this tree would sell for $200 + at a nursery. I want someone to come to my house, dig up the tree, fill the hole with topsoil and haul the tree away. Seems pretty logical, right? A few scoops of top soil for a perfect oak tree?!

I was finally able to get Brent’s Tree Service on the phone and was told that they will come out and dig the tree up for me. This was, of course, after I was told that a job like that would run me around $200. I told him that was too much. I laughed when Will asked me how much I’d be willing to pay. I told him I wasn’t going to pay anything – I went on to tell him that I have an axe in my garage and would take care of the tree myself but that that wasn’t what I wanted to do.

So Will is supposed to come out this week to dig up my tree. We’ll see what happens.

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject(s) financially impotent for an indefinite period.

This past Friday Elise and I trucked southeast in the early evening to make it in time to have catfish at the Cross Roads Tavern in Cat Spring. Definitely something you shouldn’t miss in this lifetime. Elise has yet to eat catfish at Cross Roads. Having said that, it goes without saying that we didn’t make it in time. We didn’t get to my parents’ house until 8:30 p.m. So we drove back to my parents’ house and ate left over El Arroyo chicken fajita sandwiches and clam chowder.

I’ve been indescribably stressed the past few weeks and haven’t been sleeping well. Friday night was no exception. I stared at the ceiling in my old bedroom while laying in bed. I got up and laid on the couch in the living room until I finally fell to sleep. I woke up at six-something on Saturday morning. I showered, ate, etc., woke up Elise and we drove to Brenham for Master Park’s 20th Annual Unified Tae Kwon Do Invitational Tournament. This was supposed to be my comeback tournament. Unfortunately your humble narrator’s ankle collided with his instructor’s knee last week while both were traveling at full speed.

Being at the tournament was exciting. I was able to size up who I would have fought. I could have taken first place. Anyway – we were at the tournament for a few hours and my parents came picked us up and took us to lunch at Billy Bob Jo Jimbob’s Kountry Kitchen Steak & Slaughter Haus (I can’t remember the name of it but it’s that restaurant that serves the best chicken fried steaks and hamburgers and the sort – you know, country comfort food). I have catfish nuggets since we couldn’t have them on Friday night. My parents had burgers, Elise had a CFS smothered in cream gravy. I only mention that because Elise used to never eat anything with gravy on it. I’ve yet to tell her this, but I’ve been playing those subliminal message CDs at night while she’s sleeping. I’m hoping by the end of the year she’ll be fluent in conversational Texan:

Elise: “Hey y’all – I’m fixin’ to go get a Coke… inny y’all want one?”
The y’alls: “Yeah, we’ll take a Coke”
Elise: “What kind do ya want?”

We went back to the tournament to watch the fights in my division. We left around 5 p.m., went back to my parents’ house and chatted for a while before Elise and I came back to Austin. We had a short trip with my parents because Elise had to work on Sunday.

I spent most of Sunday in the backyard while Elise was at work. I pulled weeds, ripped up a ‘sitting area’ where our garden is going to be planted and mowed. That evening we went to John and Christine’s to watch the Sopranos. John cooked some awesome mashed potatoes and pork chops smothered in cream of mushroom soup.

My friend Travis came over last night. I made .6563 lb. hamburgers and we watched American Chopper and chatted. Travis is moving to Belize for a few months to work at a botanical garden and continue writing.

I really miss riding my bicycle to work. It’s been almost a year since I started riding my bike to work on a daily basis. Earlier this month, someone stole our bicycles from out of our garage. What really sucks is that I was
going to start riding my bike to work again that following Monday.

I went out onto the back patio this morning and took a deep breath. I thought: “Man, it sure would be nice to hop on a bike and ride to work
today.” To add salt to the wound, I found this article at Statesman.com.

Elise and I have talked and we’re going to buy me a new bike in the (hopefully) not-to-distant future. I’ve pretty much decided that I want
another Specialized Hardrock.

I miss my old bike.

House Elise and I have been scratching our heads the past couple of weeks, wondering where our money has been going… $923.36 to Home Depot this month alone.

The ol’ HoPot will not be seeing the Janiceks in April.