Ingredients
4 fresh medium artichokes
2 cups French bread crumbs
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp. chopped fresh garlic
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 anchovy fillets, chopped
3 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
1/8 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
Juice of 1 large lemon

1. Thoroughly wash artichokes. Carefully trim off top inch off each artichoke, as well as the pointy ends of the bottom leaves. Trim the stem so that the artichokes will sit straight up on their bottoms.
2. Soak the artichokes 30 minutes in 1/2 gallon of water with 2 tsp. salt dissolved in it.
3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet and saute the garlic and crushed red pepper for about a minute. Add the wine and bring it to a boil.
4. After half the wine has boiled away, add the bread crumbs and brown them lightly. Add all remaining ingredients except the lemon and continue cooking, stirring frequently, over low heat until everything is well blended.
5. Spread the outer leaves of the artichokes and spoon in the stuffing all around, starting at the bottom.
6. Make a foil “bowl” that will cover the bottom third of each artichoke. Place the artichokes into a large kettle or Dutch oven with two inches of water in the bottom. Squeeze lemon juice liberally over all.
7. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes. Do not boil dry. Artichokes are done when you can no longer lift an artichoke by pulling on one of its inner leaves (it comes out instead). Cool until you can touch them, then dig in. They can be refrigerated and held for a few days, and reheated in the microwave with a little water in the bottom of the dish.

So it has been a while before I actually journalized.

I think I am going to try and make at least one real, meaningful entry a week; that way I can have some actuale spangle thrown in with all my dross. Keep the pyrite sensors from completely disavowing my existance.

However, I guess the idea that this stupid little blather database is part of the validation of my existance is somewhat telling to begin with. Perhaps I should just leave it at saying I will try to write more.

I always use 100 words when I should use 10, and am reduced to 10 words when I need 100.

So lets see, what’s news; work has been hellish last 2 weeks, with a heavy shitty front moving in from the northwest over the next month or so. Rebecca has put in her notice, so we are going to be shorthanded, and without a content editor.

I can feel the rivets in my inbox straining already. Its a funny thing having rivets in your inbox; I redid the piece in steel and aluminum after Ben passed away. It helped prevent the enevitable buckling or cracking of plastic.

I think maybe I’m going to have to upgrade to adamantium and mithral.

Anyway, yeah, work = busy.

chellez is currently between jobs, which is stressing her out, despite my telling her not to stress about it. She gets stressed, then I get stressed… bad circle karma.

Other than that though, things are wonderful between us. The third roomate is in Florida this week visitng family. We just spent the weekend on a kickass ski trip. Well, perhaps I should revise ski trip. I believe it was an even break amongst those who went out on the mountains of Eastern PA, between snowboarding and skiing. I did not partake in the mountaineering. I did, however, partake in what Richelle referred to as “extreme barbecuing” (which i found amusing). I cooked burgers and dogs sat night, in really cold and dark conditions with a half-broken propane grill that kept getting blown out by the wind.

All and all though, it was much fun. I think Richelle really enjoyed getting back in the slopes; and my parents seemed to enjoy her dog enough that it was not a big deal. My mom turned 51. She seems to be taking it much better than she took 50.

She tells me my grandfather is not doing well. I do not know what to think about that. Where we were this weekend was not 10 minutes away from thier old manse, yet I could not bring myself to go. Perhaps it is a thing for the best overall.

I am going to find soemthing to eat I think.

Current preoccupations include:
Game Stuff
-Metroid Prime, the beating of
-Metroid Fusion, the potential purchase of
-Neverwinter Nights, the completeion of my launch module
-Xbox live, the figuring out how to connect it to my network/the internet

Research Stuff
January appears to be the month of witches, thanks to a nice tome I got for xmas…
-Covens, Witchcraft, and the Infernal elements infused into it through mainstream Christianity over the last thousand years, with careful attention paid to the founding of this coutnry.
-Correlations between many of the traditions predating European expansion, and the older European rites
-Influence of Aztec/Incan pantheon on development of tribal spirit tradtions; chicken/egg – who learned what from who, and what survived why?
-correlations between Proto-Uralic panthoens and traditions throughout Eurpoe and central/southamerican traditions – focus: what elements survive(d) from both, and are found in “modern” witchcraft.
-correlations between infernal imagery mishandled when dealing with witches from @ 1200’s to present and Proto-Uralic figures/myths.
-Language focus: latin, hebrew; especailly in regards to older pagan traditions/leviticus.
-further investigation of Moldavites, re: cult signifigance, potential aetheric properties

Fun Link of the day:
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=lemonlye&itemid=19097&view=100249#t100249

So yeah, I did it again, started condesing myself back to lists and links.

Perhaps Orwell was right; newspeak will eventually eliminate the flowers and fruit of our language. I hope not.