I wanted some pancakes this morning as I was heading home from a super-early crack of dawn golf session (I shot a 41 on a 9 hole par 28 course). So I went to Albertsons and thought about getting the ready made pancakes, but thought it would be more fun to make pancakes instead. I just got some milk and figured we had everything else I needed at the house. I thought we had that Bisquik stuff, but we did not. So I surfed over to allrecipes.com, a site recommended by Christina. I typed in pancakes and looked for the simplest formula. I found an easy one for buttermilk pancakes, printed it out and got started.

There were several problems right away. I did not have 1 1/4 cups of buttermilk. I used 1 cup milk and 1/4 cup of butter instead. The recipe called for 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, but I think we only have olive oil (it may be corn oil in an olive oil bottle, who knows?). So I mix the flour, egg, milk, butter, baking powder, oil, and some baking soda (which I found in the fridge) together. I'm then supposed to 'pour the batter onto the griddle to form 5 pancakes.' I don't have a griddle, so I figure our non-stick frying pan will do. I didn't really want 5 pancakes, so I thought I would make 2 BIG pancakes. My first BIG pancake didn't turn out so well because I ended up having to cook it like an omelet. It ended up as a BIG mess. I decided to make smaller pancakes after that.

The pancakes turned out okay. I won't be putting IHOP out of business anytime soon. At least I salvaged breakfast by also making some bacon (I didn't need help from allrecipe.com for this). Maybe I'll open up an IHOB.

The funniest show on TV: Reno 911. Check out the Milkshake clip if you can. New episodes are on Comedy Central on Wednesdays at 10:30pm with reruns showing through the week.

Another show I really like is Monster Garage.

One show I hate even though it just started its run: Playmakers on ESPN. I am sick of this show. Notice I also said it just started. That's because for the last 4 weeks, a commercial for this series has aired on ESPN (or ESPN2 or ESPNEWS) every 4 minutes!!! I already know everything and every story line that will happen during the 10 episodes based on the 3,765,348,543 commercials I have seen.

For this reason, I also will never buy a McGriddle or whatever that breakfast sandwich from McDonalds is. I am sick of seeing the commercials for it. And no, it is not that bizarre to have the 'taste of maple syrup baked right in.' (Okay, this product is easier to avoid than Playmakers, since I am rarely at McDonald's for breakfast. I cannot avoid ESPN.)

Summer is coming to an end! Kids are going back to school! We just had our Back-to-School Block Party today. It was supposed to be at a local park where we have the event every year, but because of some stiffs at Richmond's city manager office and the county health department, we had to have the party in the back lot of our youth center. Well, God works in mysterious ways because the party turned out better than last year's party. We had a higher turnout and set-up and clean-up were much easier.

At our block parties, I usually just walk around and make sure the volunteers are doing their jobs (or else I fire them!), but today I made sno-cones. Cherry red, blue raspberry, lime green, or the ever popular grape were the choices. We have grape syrup left over from the last 2 parties that I have not been able to use up. The cherry syrup actually smells like cough medicine, but I did not try a taste test.

We have a lot of volunteers at these events (even if I do fire a few), so I don't get to meet them all, but I am sure that a man who was helping at the popcorn booth is the same man who lives in a van next to the King's Club. I was going to fire him, but all I know about him was what I heard from my boss who was probably heard from our big boss. The man living in the van was on trial for shooting someone, but was not convicted due to insufficient evidence. I let him continue popping corn, as he was doing a better job than the teenager originally assigned the task.

Defination of a superstar: Barry Bonds. he says he is better than Babe Ruth. I tend to agree. After all, Ruth had Lou Gehrig (baseball's all time leader in grand slams with 23) batting behind him. Bonds has the 81 year old Benito Santiago a.k.a. The Human Double Play Machine.

I did a little work in the bullpen on Sunday while waiting to play our game. I can throw my curveball, my psuedo-slider, a 4-seam fastball and a 6-seam slowball for strikes. I have no command of the standard 2-seam fastball. I cannot throw a split-fingered fastball or a knuckleball. I can only throw my fastball at about 70 mph. I am a right-handed Jamie Moyer. (My arm's kind of sore from throwing all those pitches. I should have iced my arm with a 10 lb bag of ice. I may need Tommy John surgery now.)

However, once I switch over to pitching with a softball, I become Pedro Martinez. Unhittable and completely dominating. Unfortunately, we usually play team pitching during our softball games, so I am getting my own teammates out. Nevertheless, a no-hitter is a no-hitter.

I have a 8:00 am breakfast meeting at work tomorrow. Usually we have 11:30 am lunch meetings. I do not like 8:00 am meetings. I do not like them in a house, I do not like them with a mouse. But since it's for breakfast, maybe I can bring green eggs and ham.

Speaking of work, I am in Phase II of my fundraising for the Bay Area Rescue Mission's golf tournament. Those of you who have letters from me already, please send them in. Let me know if you can make a donation (even a small one) to the Rescue Mission. Money's not exactly growing on trees for anyone, but most non-profits tend to get less during the non-holiday season, so this fundraiser is a way to boost our gifts until Thanksgiving. It's for a good cause.

I was trying to make a meatloaf yesterday. I used ground beef, onions, mushrooms, peas, carrots, salt, and spaghetti sauce. But I added too much sauce. It tasted like chicken.

I really hate working on Saturdays. You get to Friday and know it's not the end of the work week. That's a terrible feeling. If any of the candidates for governor mandated a three day weekend every week, he/she would get my vote. Unless if another candidate promised either a four day weekend or the end of state income taxes.

Due to insufficient funds, I will not be running for governor of California in the upcoming election. But it is amazing how the all the news networks have gone crazy over Arnold Schwarten-cant-spell-his-name-ger. I think I have heard a reference to every one of his movies. The Running Man, Total Recall, the Governator, and whatever other wacky headline they could come up with. We all know if Arnold loses, he'll be back.

I am expanding my Blogger empire. Check out the 5824 blog, currently dubbed CSI:Richmond. The description just reads "three men, two TVs, one house, a lot of dirty laundry." The three men are Jason, Danny, and Cal. The two tv's are a 32" JVC and a 20" Toshiba (the 27" Sony is out of commision). The one house is 5824, our address in Richmond. The dirty laundry is what we intend to air on the blog. This blog has a free pass to my links list and will not need to battle its way in. Besides, the paint cam has not been cleared by the medical staff for its next fight.

Over the weekend, I watched a 'Last Comic Standing' marathon on Comedy Central. It was another of those so-called reality shows. It was a mix of Survivor and Real World featuring a group of stand-up comedians. They do tasks to gain immunity, then there is a showdown between someone deemed least funny against one of his accusers. They have like 5 minutes to do a stand-up set at a club and the audience votes someone out. Some Asian guy from San Diego won. An Asian guy also won this other singing and dancing show called 'Fame'. When the Vegas odds go up for the next American Idol, bet on the Asian.

We also rented Jerry Seinfeld's movie, the Comedian. It was okay. I didn't think comedy was such serious work. I still think Seinfeld was the best sitcom of all time. Just a shade better than Men Behaving Badly.

Watching all this stand-up has made me think I could do a better job than some of those unfunny losers. It took Seinfeld about 6 months to put together a 1 hour set. I'm going to attempt to put together a 5 minute stand-up bit in 2 weeks. Doing stand-up not that hard. Step one: push the chair away from the table. Step 2: lift your butt off the chair until your legs are fully extended.

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

BattleBlog results are in and the winner by disqualification is......the paint cam!! Get out the brush!!


Coming soon from 5824: BBQ Pimps Inc.

We started talking about running our own business of some sort (because we're poor and need cash to buy groceries), and one of our ideas was to be a BBQ planner. Kind of like a wedding planner, but since we have more experience with barbeques than weddings, this would work better. We would rent bbq equipment (including a canopy), and get food and supplies. We would prepare and grill food for an additional cost. We could even bring over people to pose as your friends.

So a customer could call us up, tell us they are expecting 30 people and need this and that, and by the way we are a little short on female guests, so we need some of them too. BBQ Pimps.

Danny and I just took batting practice outside using a wooden softball bat and an orange. I hit it solid, but it didn't go too far. Maybe I should take some batting tips from Jeff. Smashing fruit in the middle of the night is great fun if you have never tried it. You can also hit vegetables like onions or green peppers that have been sitting in the fridge too long. I have a great recipe for home-run salsa using tomatoes if anyone is interested.

Nothing is more of a weekend killer than working on Saturdays. This is the first of 4 consecutive Saturdays that I have to work.

For the first three Saturdays (well, today plus the next 2 weeks), I have to drive from Richmond to Pescadero (about half an hour south of Half Moon Bay for those who don't know) and back to Richmond. That makes me a professional driver on weekends. Kind of like Jeff Gordon. Except he gets to drive race cars at 170 mph at superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega while I get to drive a huge van at 45 mphs behind a slow minivan going down highway 1.


In other news, I killed a whole lot of ants today. While washing my car, I noticed a lot of ants on the outside corner of our house getting ready to invade. We're out of Raid and weapons of mass destruction, so I sprayed them using some Orange Action Fantastik all purpose cleaner. It worked well. I got about 20,000 of them. Don't mess with 5824. In a related note, our house is out of Orange Action Fantastik all purpose cleaner.


During my five hours of driving today, I heard a radio ad that said 'you are what you eat.' I think I may be a Hooter's hot wing today.

BattleBlog score update:
Paint drying: 1
Elisa: 0
Will the paint cam be shut down? Will Elisa make the cut? Let your voice be heard. Vote now.