Go West Young Man!

Ok, not very far west, but in that direction at least a little ways...

I'm moving out of my place at the end of the month. In my original plan, I was planning on staying in the place I'm in now until I had enough money to buy a house. With my half time hours, this is looking like it will be much farther in the future than I anticipated, and I can no longer really afford to live here any more.

I think I'm gonna miss this place. In reality, it's not very nice. It's got a funny smell, old carpet, angry dogs and annoying people who live below me; but still it's home. It's the first place that I've ever lived in by myself and I've loved almost every minute of it.

Living with a roommate means no more mostly naked afternoons. No leaving the bathroom door open. No option to let the cleaning slide for a bit.

Ah well, at least I'm moving in with someone who is pretty laid back. He's a local musician, and hopefully we'll get along reasonably well.

But still...

Bye bye house :(

Bachelor Food

... or Practical Posta Dishes for the Frugal Man

Let me preface this entire post with the comment that I am not a good cook. Oh sure, I can aspire to mediocrity in my chef-ing skills, but I'll never be as good as the majority of my friends and relatives when it comes to actually preparing a meal.

I'm also incredibly lazy when It comes to cooking, and without a dishwasher at my current place of residence, it usually involves far too much clean up time for my taste. Seriously, I once made instant mac and cheese in a pyrex measuring cup...


Still, cooking is far cheaper than eating out, so I find myself doing it more and more. I've tried to keep myself to a strict $25 a week grocery budget, and mostly succeeded. But as they say, necessity is the mother of strange bedfellows, and my dishes towards the end of the week tend to start becoming increasingly "creative."

So now I present to you what might possibly be the most incredible bachelor recipe of all time:

Tri -Color Pasta With Red Pepper and Steak-Umms

What you'll need:

1 Bag Cheap Tri-Color Pasta (Wacky Mac brand preferred)
2 Red Peppers (Lazily sliced, nice and big)
1 Can Pasta Sauce (Not a bottle. What are we, the emperor of France?)
4 Steak-Umms
1/2 Tbsp of Moms Red Chili Powder

- First off, take off your pants. You won't be needing them for the actual cooking process and you'll be far more comfortable without them. Are they off? Good!

- Wash all the dishes you'll need. They're probably encrusted with filth and sitting next to your sink. You may need to dig around in the pile to find them all.

- Get your pasta water boiling while you cut up the red pepper. Remember, slice them nice and big so you don't have to spend so much damn time. If you "dice" them, you have wasted valuable minutes you can never get back.

- Cook the Steak-Umms according to the instructions on the box. Try to stop yourself from eating them right when they come off the pan. Delicious Steak-Umms...

- Once the Steak-Umms are done, use the grease in the pan to fry up the red peppers. This infuses them with steaky goodness.

- If you forgot about your pasta water, it's probably boiling over at this point. Throw your pasta in and boil it according to the instructions on the bag.

- While the pasta is cooking, open your can of pasta sauce and add it to the pan with the red peppers. Shred up your Steak-Umms and throw them in the pan too. Add your chili powder, mix everything up, and let it heat up on the stove while the pasta finishes.

- When the pasta is done, strain it. A real professional can do this without the use of a collinder.

- Throw the sauce over the pasta, mix, and serve directly out of the pot. If you have a guest over, be sure to have 2 forks ready, and maybe a bowl if they're squeemish.

This dish will probably last you for a few days worth of eating. While you're chowing down, be sure to check out the Streak-Umms FAQ so that you can rest assured that "Steak-umm® Sliced Steaks are made of 100% beef."

Enjoy!

New Tools

Alright, I made it back from Telluride. The trip was great and I've got lots of pictures if anyone wants to see them. I was low on battery power for the second half of the trip and was unable to post. So it goes when you have to vacate your hotel suite...

I bring you this post today from my second choice coffee shop, and after having to fight through frat boy congested Brewfest traffic. The things I do for this blog!

Alright, if you haven't gotten it already, you should download yourself a copy of Firefox 3. It kicks at least 8 kinds of ass! The smart location bar alone is good enough reason to try it out, but the increased speed is certainly a nice feature as well. I've pimped mine out with ColorfulTabs, Adblock Plus and PicLens to make a truly wonderful browsing experience.

I've also been playing around with a great piece of software called Handbrake. Simply put, it's a program that converts mpeg2 files to mpeg4 files. I've been using it to covert episodes of Connections so that I can easily watch them on my computer.

If you've never seen Connections, check it out! I remember watching it when I was young, and it's probably one of many things that led to my interest in social history, science and technology. It makes you see the world in a very different, but very logical way. Plus, it's hillarious! (In a dry, British kind of way)

Day 2 Part 2: It's My Birthday

Did i forget to mention that it was my Birthday yesterday? I guess I did...

My pictures dont want to upload today :( I'll add them if I get time later.

The serendipity continues on the 2nd day of Telluride. I got up fairly early, gave the hotel room the once over, (at least 3 times) and vacated it before the hotel folks kicked me out. G-man and Lauren were getting back at some point during the day, but until then I was stuck with 2 bags and a guitar.

Getting up to the press area with all that excess baggage was not something I wanted to do, so I decided to hang out in Elk Park for all the shows there. Besides having to listen to a very dumb Rainbow Family hippie for several shows, it was pretty fun.

I saw the band competition, a song writing workshop from Tift Merrit and Darrell Scott, Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck, and most of the troubadour competition. Then I got a call from G-man and I was able to dump my bags and guitar in the van.

On the main stage, I saw Tim O'Brien, skipped Paolo Nutuni while set up the tent, and came back for Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby. Wow! They played Mandolin Rain with Chris Thile and Uncle Pen with Sam Bush.

After that, I met up with a friend from the station and a group of her friends to watch part of Leftover Salmon's set. I say part because they had tickets to the Yonder Mountain String Band Show at the Sheridan Opera House; one of the most saught after tickets of the whole festival. A friend of theirs had wandered off with no way to get a hold of her, so they offered me the extra.

How could I say no?

The Yonder shows was awesome! The Sheridan is a pretty small place, with a capacity of only about 250. We danced the night away for several hours of awesome music and celebrated my birthday in style.

I got back to the campsite at about 3. I am tired now, but pumped for the next 2 days.

Day 2: Camping...

Well, it took forever to get this point, but I've finally set up my tent. Today was a little odd, but I'll tell you about it later. I just wanted to post to show that even camping in the middle of a high school football field, I can find a wireless signal.


Thank you PINHEAD!

Now back to the festival...

Day 1 Part 2: Oh yeah, It's a Music Festival!

OK, enough talk about hotel rooms. This thing's about the music!

The only main stage performer that I missed today was Darrel Scott, but I needed the beauty rest. ;)

Next up was our roommates, Cadillac Sky:


...who kept their shirts on for most of the performance.



After them, Uncle Earl who put on a great show. They did an awesome version of the ballad "Willie Taylor" and a song that involved a hand clapping game with bass accompniment.












Next was Arlo Gurthire. (Who I took nothing but horrible photos of) For me, the highlight of his set was listening to "Alice's Restaurant" while sitting next to Bela Fleck! Priceless press pass predicament!

They we're followed up by the always fabulous Del McCoury Band. No real shockers from them, just good solid pickin'.



After Del came Ani DiFranco, who I've never really been that into. My attitude has changed! She put on a great set!














And then came Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. I'll admit, I didn't stay for the whole set. It was wonderful, but it was a bit too loud for my liking in the press area. I did my best to snap a bunch of photos because of the horrible lighting. (for photos anyway) I'm so glad that I got a new camera because this one is much, much better in low light.
Here's a few of the choice ones:







































Tomorrow might prove a bit wacky. We can stay in the hotel anymore since Cadillac Sky is heading to Washington. G-man and Lauren are taking them to Durango tonight so they can catch a plane in the morning. I'll stay here, check out, and set up my tent tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'll be doing for internet, but if I can't steal it, I'll probably use the free wireless at Baked In Telluride.

Stay tuned, music more is yet to come!

Day 1: The Good Life

This trip is going much, much smoother than last year. No locking of keys in cars, no late arrivals, just good old fashioned bluegrass festival fun.

Well, with a twist I suppose.

That fact that I got a hotel room for the first 2 nights is pretty awesome. I'm used to slumming it in the campgrounds. For the first time ever, not only do I have a room all to myself, I'm getting the star treatment. This suite of rooms was meant for a group performing at the festival, so they've definitely pulled out all the stops. I should describe the place. It's 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 floors. G-man, Lauren and I are staying on the bottom floor and Andy from Cadillac Sky has the master bedroom on the top floor. There's also a living room/dining room and a kitchen. It's huge. Mega huge. Probably the biggest hotel room I've ever stayed in.


Really though, it's the little things that make it really spectacular: