May 30, 2016

Cookies and cream ice cream

I like homemade ice cream. I have two cookbooks specifically for ice cream, and I'd like to get more.


This time I made cookies and cream ice cream from the Ben & Jerry's ice cream cookbook. Okay, technically it was called vanilla Oreo, but it was cookies and cream. Oh, and it was GOOD. Soooooo good. I have no desire to eat an Oreo. But if said Oreo is crushed up and put in something like ice cream or a milkshake or a cheesecake, I want to eat it.


Dave liked it, too. I'll definitely make this again. But not too often...Dave and I ate the whole batch in one day.

May 24, 2016

Trexler Nature Preserve

When I heard there were bison and elk roaming around the Lehigh Valley somewhere, I had to go find them.


So Dave and I headed out to the Trexler Nature Preserve a couple of weeks ago. And we saw bison and elk!


We hiked around some of the trails. It's beautiful there.


After walking around the preserve, we stopped at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. It's a small zoo, but there were some cool animals. I liked the penguins. I was disappointed that the otters were missing. All in all, it was a good day.

May 13, 2016

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks

The Whoathon resumes with the first story of the 2nd Doctor. Hooray! Unfortunately, every episode of this six-part story is missing from the BBC archives, so I had to watch a terrible quality reconstruction with telesnaps and the audio.

Checking out his new face

New Doctors are usually a bit crazy and finding their way in their first story or two. It feels even more so here, since no Doctor had ever regenerated before now. Plus, new Doctors are often doing a story written for the previous Doctor. The 2nd Doctor did pick up a recorder right away, which I thought was cool. It's one of his main quirks, and they defined it right away as part of his character.


Recorder!

So on to the story...Polly realizes immediately that it's still the Doctor, but Ben is skeptical. That didn't surprise me. Polly is pretty smart, and Ben is kind of dumb. Polly even noted to Ben that the 1st Doctor said that his body was wearing a bit thin before he collapsed.

They land/materialize and go out exploring. It turns out this planet, Vulcan (?), has colonists from Earth. One dummy found a capsule with dormant Daleks in it and has been experimenting with them, trying to bring them to life. The Doctor freaks out and warns them that this is a very bad idea. Obviously, they don't listen, and here come the Daleks.

Pretty glad the Second Doctor ditched that hat

At first the Daleks pretend to be serving the humans. Let's remember that this is still early on, so people from Earth don't really know about the Daleks yet. Then again, they always seem to be forgetting about them. Something I thought was interesting was that the Doctor wondered how the Daleks were moving around when the floors weren't metal. It's like the show cared about continuity for a minute! Haha, good thing that didn't last.

Exterminate!

Well, then there are a ton of Daleks, and they reveal their true nature to the dummies. You just can't trust those wily devils! Oh, and there's a coup going on in the colony, but that's far less interesting than what's going on with the Daleks.

I don't think this is a great introduction to the 2nd Doctor, but the next story will be better...We meet Jamie McCrimmon!


THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: Second
Companions: Polly, Ben
Episode: #30, "The Power of the Daleks," six parts
Adversary: the Daleks
Classic Lines: the Doctor, talking about a Dalek: "Yes, it will end the colony's problems - because it will end the colony!"
Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: This is the 2nd Doctor's first story. The Daleks recognize the Doctor even though he has just regenerated.
Next Up: "The Highlanders"

May 10, 2016

Kenobi turns 15

Kenobi's birthday is this month! He turns 15 years old. Approximately. He's a rescue beagle, so his age isn't exact.


I'm not sure what to say about the gentleman beagle that I haven't said here, here, here, here, or here. And then there's here, here, and here. I didn't realize I had written so much about the little guy. He is doing well, despite his health issues. He ignored BB-8 at Christmas.


He made a bed out of an old jacket and some clothes I had lying around in my office.



And then there's this.


He's a good boy, and I love him. Happy birthday, Kenobi!

May 5, 2016

Trout!

I cooked trout for the first time last week.


My father-in-law likes to fish, and last month he showed me how to cook and de-bone trout. Then he went fishing and brought some over for me and Dave. Yum!


It's easy to cook up the whole thing in the pan. Put butter in the pan, watch the fish change color from the bottom up, flip it over when it's half done, and cook it the rest of the way through. I had never cooked fish in a form other than fillets before now.

He told me something interesting: The trout in the rivers around here are stocked, so their meat is white because of what they're fed. If they stay around in the river for too long, they turn back to their natural color. He happened to catch one like that, and here's the difference...


Pretty cool! I was able to do a side-by-side taste test, and there was definitely a difference. But they were both delicious. You can't beat fresh fish. When Dave's dad dropped them off, he said they had been swimming in the river three hours ago. You can't get much more fresh than that.

Yes, those are planet plates.
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