Arizona Restaurant Week Spring 2012 – My Recommendations

ShareTweetArizona Restaurant Week Spring 2012 is almost upon us! As you know from my previous post o

When a Grandma Isn’t of the Cookie-Baking Variety

ShareTweetDespite not growing up in a religious household, I was a pretty spiritual kid.  I was bap

Email Hell: Welcome to My Nightmare

ShareTweetIf there’s one thing that drives me batty in my professional life, it’s receiving an e

 

Arizona Restaurant Week Spring 2012 – My Recommendations

May 16, 2012 in The Menacing Gourmand

ShareTweetArizona Restaurant Week Spring 2012 is almost upon us! As you know from my previous post on the matter, I am a huge fan of restaurant week.  Spring doesn’t have the same level of participation as the fall restaurant week, but there are still many excellent options to choose from. If you are new to Restaurant Week, I’ll give you the 411: for one extended week in the spring and one extended week in the fall, some of Arizona’s best restaurants put together three-course price fixed menus ranging from $20-$40 per person, depending on the restaurant.  This is a way for them to show off their chefs’ mad skills and staff’s great service, and it is a great way for you to enjoy some of the finest restaurants in the Valley without breaking the bank! Of course, not all restaurants are created equal; if you’ve been to a few restaurant weeks, you’ll find a few places present rather uninspired menus.  And of course, not everyone is a four-diamond restaurant – sometimes, you encounter service that can be a little disappointing for what you are paying.  But fear not! I looked over the list of participants and menus for next week’s [...]

Tags: , , ,
No Comments »

When a Grandma Isn’t of the Cookie-Baking Variety

May 14, 2012 in Virgin to Life

ShareTweetDespite not growing up in a religious household, I was a pretty spiritual kid.  I was baptized as a Catholic, and that was the only time I was in a church until I was 15.  I’ve always had an odd relationship with Christianity.  I was out of the traditional fold of religion, but tended to be very religious and spiritual nonetheless.  As a child, I wanted to be in that fold.  When my grandmother lived with us, there was a period of time where I would hold a “Sunday Service” in her room.  I’d bring my stuffed animals into her room to act as parishioners, we’d sing a few hymns from my grandma’s hymnbook (“Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” were my favorites, likely due to Little House on the Prairie), and I’d read a random bible entry.  My grandma got a kick out of it. Grammy Gene was an interesting part of my memory.  She lived with us from when I was in Kindergarten until some time in second grade.  As an adult, I have snapshot memories of her.  After my grandfather died, our family offered to care for her and we all moved to a [...]

Tags: , , ,
No Comments »

Email Hell: Welcome to My Nightmare

May 9, 2012 in General Humor

ShareTweetIf there’s one thing that drives me batty in my professional life, it’s receiving an excessive number of bad emails.  Life is short, my time is limited; please don’t make me sift through blank/vague subject lines or 10 MB emails that only have one record I need to view. While the vast majority of employees generally understand email etiquette, as with anything, a few people ruin it for everyone.  In all of my professional years, there are three types of senders who are the bane of my corporate existence: 1) The person who either doesn’t “get” email or is playing dumb to shirk responsibility At a prior job, there was a guy who worked remotely – we’ll call him Sage.  Sage was one of the most charming men you would ever meet. When he visited on-site once or twice a year, he’d make a point to chat with everyone in the office, and he’d always chuckle pleasantly at your jokes.  Once a year he’d have a cake delivered to the office for all of us.  Great guy, right? Well, the problem with Sage is no one had a freaking clue what Sage did all day, let alone all month.  All [...]

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

Todd and Margo, Round 22

May 6, 2012 in Virgin to Life

ShareTweet[Note: because I believe in fair and balanced reporting, you will note that I allowed the husband to respond to my accusations in brackets]. In the 16 years we’ve been together, Chris and I have seldom had an all-out argument.  In fact, I can only think of two times in our relationship where we really argued over something to where we were truly angry at each other for more than 15 minutes.  Instead of fighting, we occasionally bicker. We are very, very good at bickering. I’d go as far as saying if bickering were an Olympic event, we’d be the Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the sport. If part of the event involved Chris telling me what to do while I’m driving, it would be a record-setting moment. This past Friday, I came home to a very sick dog.  Her stomach was upset and she had a couple of different kinds of accidents on the carpet.  I began the cleaning process as I called my vet.  Chris came home when I was in the middle of this.  He stood at the edge of the family room and stared at me as I cleaned. [Chris: This is a very [...]

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

The Fine Line Between Self-Defense and Manslaughter [Open Salon]

May 2, 2012 in Elsewhere on the Web

ShareTweet This week, I posted an article for Open Salon discussing the very gray areas of Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” law in respect to a fairly recent shooting in Scottsdale.  It doesn’t fit my editorial vision for The Menacing Kitten, so instead of cross-posting it here, I’d like to direct you to the article on Salon (http://open.salon.com/blog/menacingkitten/2012/04/30/the_fine_line_between_self-defense_and_manslaughter).  Check it out, and please rate it if you like it. As I did my research for this article, I found my opinion changed with each piece of information I collected and reviewed. Let me know what you think either in the comments below, or in the comments on Open Salon. Image: vichie81 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tags: ,
No Comments »

Les Miserables – Hollywood, Please Don’t F this Up

April 29, 2012 in Entertainment Stuff

ShareTweetLes Miz fans have been waiting for years – years! – to see the musical come to the big screen.  I am no exception – I first saw Les Miserables at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway when I was in high school.  We went on a field trip to see it, and it was so moving and engaging, even the metalheads and punk guys in my class dug it.  They all bought the soundtrack and would start reciting parts of it at random times (the Javert/Valjean confrontation was a particular favorite – and is apparently also a favorite of Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segal and OK Go).  As for me, I am not a huge musical theater person, but I fell in love with Les Miz because it wasn’t your typical goofy musical.  Like Phantom of the Opera, it’s more like a modern day opera and tells a beautiful tale of redemption.  I owned both the Broadway soundtrack and the Complete Symphonic Recording, and there was a point in my life I could recite all three hours of the musical by heart.  I have no doubt I am but one of many, many fans who can do that. Now [...]

Tags: , , ,
No Comments »

Tales of an Almost Runaway

April 24, 2012 in Virgin to Life

ShareTweet I was very young when I first wanted to run away. When I was two or three, my mom bought me a black raspberry ice cream cone at Friendly’s while she chatted with one of her friends for lunch.  The ice cream was delicious and the prettiest color of purple I had seen.  I joyfully ate the treat while my mom and her friend talked grown up stuff that was of no concern to me.  Once ice cream time was over, we walked out of the restaurant and the most id, primitive thought entered my little mind – what would happen if I ran?  I was right beside my mother as she was chatting her goodbyes to her friend.  She wasn’t holding my hand – she had no reason to distrust me.  Until now, muahahaha. Without any further thought I ran with all my might down a pathway.  I heard my mother call after me, and I began to laugh.  I did it! I did it! I had no idea where I’d go, but it would be new and fun and different.  It felt like I ran a block, but in reality I probably ran about 15 feet.  My [...]

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

Building Off a Dream

April 18, 2012 in Announcements, Catnip

ShareTweet[Note: If you don’t want to read all of this and you have an RSS feed, please skip down to the 4th paragraph that starts with the word “Finally”] Over the past few nights, I’ve been having recurring dreams about packing.  After consulting with one of my favorite sites on the interwebs, packing suggests moving on and getting ready for a change of scenery.  I don’t plan on changing jobs any time soon – I actually really like my current employer, but maybe I am dreaming about this because of the simultaneous insanity going on in my life.  My employer has changed hands more often than a student loan, and all the while I’m enjoying this side thing as a blogger.  As I was packing away my things in the most recent dream, I knew more than anything else I had to keep my music stuff and my flash drive.  What does that mean? Well, all creative things are kept on my flash drive – all music files and writings that I have done.  I’ve interpreted this dream as meaning whatever changes occur in my life, my creations are closest to my heart and need to travel with me no [...]

Tags: ,
No Comments »

HB2036: When Republican isn’t Conservative and Pro-Life Isn’t Pro-Life

April 15, 2012 in Catnip, Op-Ed

ShareTweetAs part of evangelical politics’ extinction burst,  we are witnessing a bizarre war on women in this country.  My home state of Arizona, in an attempt to retain its Heavyweight Champion Belt in Yosemite Sam-ism, recently took the lead in this war by introducing overreaching, extremist legislation that would make Barry Goldwater turn in his grave.  I’m assuming that a few of the elected cockroaches in the state capitol building realized that their lives were still incredibly shitty after driving out all the “illegal Mexicans”, and decided to make women number two on their Shit List.  It couldn’t possibly be because they are horrible people who make horrible decisions, could it? Never! It’s got to be the Mexicans and the bitches. While I gave Governor Jan Brewer a polite golf-clap for suggesting Debbie Lesko’s anti-birth control bill appeared to be a gross invasion of privacy, I take back any and all praise when she signed the other oppressive, anti-woman bill, HB 2036 into law.  While sites like Mother Jones have done a decent job of covering the part of the bill making abortions after 20 weeks illegal, there are a number of disturbing points within the law’s 27 pages of [...]

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

Le Nom, Volume II: A Polynesian Feast

April 11, 2012 in The Menacing Gourmand

ShareTweetAfter our successful Italian Dinner Party, we decided to go to the other side of the globe and try our hand at Polynesian cuisine.  Polynesia is a series of islands in the South Pacific that include Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, and all of those beachy places they use on Survivor.  It’s a beautiful part of the world: lush, green landscapes, waterfalls, coral reefs and delicious warm-water seafood like mahi mahi, opakapaka, and tuna.  Even though we are land-locked in a desert, we did our best to imagine a cool, saltwater breeze and recreate a few foods inspired by the Polynesian islands.  Polynesian culture celebrates with food, Le Nom celebrates food, so it sounded like a perfect match!   One of the most authentic dishes of the night was panipopo, a Samoan bread that has a sweet coconut milk glaze on the bottom.  While bread was introduced later to Samoan culture, coconut milk has always been a common ingredient in Samoan cuisine.  Other common ingredients in Samoan cuisine are not surprising – taro, breadfuit, bananas, fish, chicken and pork are all common staples. Due to the remote nature of the islands, many foods have been around for only the past couple of [...]

Tags: , , ,
No Comments »

← Previous Entries