Poilce Stop

A couple of nights ago Ms. Allclick and I got the "Joneses" for some delicious take out ice cream. We hopped into the car in sweat pants and t-shirts we wear around the house and set off on our merry way. The bank is only just over the hill so we thought "why not just pick up some cash while we are out?". Great idea until we crested the hill and realised it was 10:00pm on a weekend and a perfect time for police to do a sobriety check point. Luckily the traffic wasn't too bad going one way so I was quickly approached by a poilce officer. "Good evening folks" he said, shining his light into my eyes and then the back of the car "Haven't been drinking tonight......havewe?" He crammed those last two words together quickly. I laughed a little and said no and he let us on our way. We hadn't been drinking but I was still a little nervous from the situation. My previous experience with police had been more formal and cold. This police officer was polite, friendly and asked us about our drinking like a dad would his son on the way home from prom. I couldn't help but be amused. After reaching the bank we then had to turn around and come back through. This time a lady officier approached the window. "you guys not been drinking tonight have you? Well, actually I don't care if she has been drinking but have you?" I laughed a little again. She was so casual and we really didn't look like we had been to a bar that evening. Again, I said "no" and we moved along. Thanks local police for doing a great job. I hear Pittsburgh might need some training from you.

Food Dominance

About 2 million years ago man was evolving. There was a daily battle for survival which involved staying safe, hunting and looking after the family. Simple but dangerous and hard times indeed. A lot has happened since then including the way we look at the one of our most basic needs: food. It progressed to a three day meal cycle of breakfast lunch and dinner (although my grandmother insisted on supper too) but even three meals a day is not enough it seems. Now, food seemed to have permeated every aspect of our lives like microwaves into a pot noodle. It has become a constant companion akin to the mobile phone and wallet. No, we aren't carrying around minuscule, space age meals-in-a-pill but we are allowing it into areas of our lives it doesn't rightly belong (In this, I include taking a bottle of water to just about anywhere you go acting as if we are in a third world country without adequate clean tap water). People now eat just about anywhere. In their cars, at their desks at work, in business meetings, in lectures at school, in the classroom, at sporting events, concerts, the movie theater...the list goes on. It is no wonder that the obesity rates are increasing as our availability of food increases and our external restraints on where food is allowed are increasingly removed (I think we all know that we need those external restraints as TV and the Internet destroyed our willpower several years ago). I fear that if food was in the air would we "breathe" it 24/7 until our vast, blubbery bodies gave out on us.

It's a social obligation that we must make eating food more taboo. Fatty foods could be taxed, sure. We could ban food from certain places (although cinemas would go out of business), but I think to have the most impact we need to become revolted by the sight of say, someone eating a burger in a moving vehicle. It needs to become absolutely disgusting for a person to chow down some grub in the doctor's waiting room. Eating food in the classroom should be the pinnacle of bad taste, lame-ness and should be completely wedgie worthy.

Thus I implore you to stop eating all over the place and try and resist that bagel during the meeting today. Your making us all hungry.

Mildy annoying things that people say

1. People who say "Legos" instead of "Lego".
2. People who say "uh-huh" when I say "Thank you".
3. The additional item they offer you at the drive through - "..and would you like a new fish taco burger melt with that?"
4. The saying " At the top of the hour". Especially when it is overly abused by HLN's Showbiz tonight.
5. The phrase "Biased Liberal Media" without actually saying who they are talking about.

Bah, it's Monday!

Test post with meat and cheese

Nothing says a "test post" like a half pound of lasagna.

Vote for Barnaby

Vote for Barnaby!

What a sunny day can do

Ever been in the car on a sunny day, windows down, and cranked up the radio to a great song. I don't know, something like this:



And then you park, do some shopping come back to the car and THIS blares out at full volume:



Hurts, doesn't it?

Chocolate Rice Krispie Easter nests

It's that time of the year. Easter that is. Not the time of year that I cook. My mum always makes these so I thought I'd give it a whirl this year, Americano style. So here is this quick and simple and kid friendly recipe:

6oz chocolate
4 oz rice krispies
Mini chocolate eggs

Simply melt the chocolate in a microwave (only a few seconds at a time) or I actually boiled water in a saucepan and put a glass bowl over it and melted the chocolate that way, turning off the heat when the water boiled.
Pour in the rice krispies and stir it up.
Then, divide into paper cup cake containers place a couple or three mini chocolate eggs on top and put in the fridge for at least 30 mins to set. Voila!

Substitutions: Now, these SHOULD be made with Cadbury's Dairy milk chocolate and Cadbury's mini eggs but these are ultra expensive here so I went with 7oz of Hersey's milk chocolate and Ms. Allclick likes Robin Eggs so I used a couple of those instead. Oh, and I got the Wal-mart rice krispies alternative to save some pennies. I also used a lot more that 4oz. Probably closer to 10oz. Just pour in a cup and if it still seems chocolatey add more kripies.

Vote for Cooper!

This is one of my cats, Cooper. I liked this photo because the basket was just sitting there before it went upstairs and he just decided to jump in and then look at me. He probably wanted a free-ride upstairs. Vote for Cooper please!

Vote for Cooper!

A question for ya

Something that's been on my mind recently is this: What does "hard work" look like? Seems that I've heard it a lot on the news. "Dave, a hard working American..." "I've been working hard all my life and now this is what happens to me?" etc.. but what IS hard work? Is it the doctor? Years of training, long hours of work, taking people's lives into their hands? Is it the coal miner? Working in poor conditions, long hours, physical, exhausting work? The soldier? The server at Bob Evans? The homemaker? I mean who has the right to say they work harder than someone else? Perhaps within the same profession you could compare two colleagues and distinguish a difference. One may work longer hours, get more accomplished and produce a higher standard of work. However, what if the under achieving individual finds the job very difficult? Surely then it is THEY who are working harder.

There is a great saying that if you find a job you love then you will never work another day in your life. With that in mind, I hope none of you are hard "workers" and instead just enjoy what you are doing with the majority of your time.

This is Allclick saying: Life is short. Work smart, not hard!

Wins!!!

I got this in my email a few days ago. It's just too perfect not to share. Don't forget to send your full details so that you names can be issued a check!

Happy St. Paddy's day

Hope y'all had a good one! I didn't get to drink any Guinness (thankfully) or green beer but still had a lovely day soaking up that sun! Now don't you all forget St. George's day (23rd April). I expect to see everyone wearing bowler hats or drinking umm Newcastle brown ale and eating Heinz Beans.

Which reminds me. Anyone see Watchmen yet? The beans that Rorschach eats in Daniel house are Heinz in the Comic but clearly not Heinz in the movie. How disappointing.

Hot, chickin, dippin sauce

Just time for another quick recipe; something I knocked up last night.

1 can of chicken
1/4 cup hot sauce
1/4 cup blue cheese dressing
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
4 oz cream cheese.

Bake for 20 mins on 350F and eat!

My advice with this one is to a) have milk on hand and plenty of chips for dipping and b) use an expensive or super nice blue cheese dressing and full fat cream cheese to get it tasting extra rich.

12 days and nothing

It's been a while so I posted on the ole blog so thought I'd at least put something up here to show I'm still in the world of the living. Things have been pretty hectic in Allclick's world so am waiting for things to calm down before I get back into having time to write about stuff. I will say that Watchmen kicked ass. I was delighted to be able to watch it with the guy who introduced me to the graphic novel, The Film Geek. I hope that those who haven't read the novel can get enjoyment out of the movie as well. Next movie on the list is Terminator: Salvation.

Watchmen - Japanese Trailer

Terminator Salvation Trailer!

Looks like a trip to the ER for me

Too much PlayStation may cause painful lumps

Hope my health insurance covers "PlayStation palmar hidradentitis"

An Englishman in West Virginia

On the rare occasion that I speak to a stranger for more than a few moments I usually do not have any problems. Small talk seems to be universal no matter what accent. There have been those special moments in which what I'm trying to convey is just lost in translation and I wanted to share a few highlights while I was thinking about it.

1. Every time I order at the drive-thru at Tudors. Here is a real life example:
"Dot-tea, please."
"What?"
"A Dot...Tea biscuit."
"A BLT?"
"No."
"Oh a dau-tey."

2. Ordering water. Again, a true story:
"A bot-tal of warter please"
(confused look from the server)
"Erm, would you like Coleslaw with that?"
(Even more confused look from me)
"Um, no thanks. Just the warter"

3. Trying to tell Hoyt I wanted to see Paul Blart: Mall cop
"I want to see Paul Blart: Mool cop"
"Which movie?"
"Mool cop"
"What?
"Mool cop? With Kevin James."
"Oh... Maul Cawp"

That makes me think. "Maul Cop" could be a great horror sequel.

Crap list: update

Crap list additional:

Hallmark - For the worse valentines day commercial. The one where the sweet, handmade gestures of the kid's parents (like cutting the sandwiches into a heart shape) are viewed as inferior to the vastly expensive Hannah Montana valentines day card with recordable sound.

User Fees - Paying a fee to work? What kinda topsy-turvy world is this? It is especially strange that the fee is the same for everyone. Mr CEO pays $3.00 and Fred the cleaner pays $3.00. Doesn't really seem fair to me.

Live Nation - For charging a 33% "ticket fee" for....selling you a ticket. It wouldn't be so bad if there was any other choice but guess what? Their biggest rival just merged with them (ticketmaster) and between them actually own 200 of the biggest venues for music.

Hot list additional:

Bamboo and bamboo products.

Deadspace.

Cheese-topped tilapia

I'm not much of a chef but I don't mind trying out a new recipe every now and then and here's one I tried recently that I thought the Evil Twin's Wife and Chris James might get a kick out of. It's pretty simple (hence why I was able to cook it).

You need:

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (yum!)
2 tbsp. butter at room temp.
1 1/2 tbsp of plain yogurt (or Mayo *gags*)
1 tbsp lemon juice (although I didn't use this it would probably add to the flavour)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
oh and 1 bag of Tilapia Fillets

You need the broiler for this one, so fire it up. Then get a baking sheet ready with aluminium foil and then spray it with cooking spray. Next, get a bowl and mix the cheese, butter, yogurt lemon juice and the seasonings. I used extra cheese. Put the fish on the baking sheet and broil for 3 mins, then turn them over and broil for another 3 mins. Remove them from the oven and put the cheese mixture on and then put back into the oven to broil for 2 more minutes. Mmm good.

Putting on the cheese mixture can be a little tricky cause it likes to melt with the heat of the fish and the above amounts doesn't leave you with very much mixture per fish. So, you may want to increase your amounts of cheese and yogurt and seasonings so you have plenty of cheese coating.

Enjoy!

Power Out

Last night the power went out. It's not the first time it's happened to me but probably the longest time that I've ever experienced and certainly the earliest in the day that I remember the power going out. It starts off being a bit of an adventure. Laughing at suggestions to do things like "Let's just watch a DVD till the power comes back on" or flicking the light switch still every time you enter a dark room. After about an hour and a half I was freaking out. It's funny how many things we depend on for power and these things looked somehow pathetic without power. The ceiling fan, television, laptop, all just eye-sores if they can't function. Just useless pieces of metal and plastic.
The power eventually came back on around 4am and I count myself very lucky as I know there are thousands still without power today.