xtcian

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that got me out of bed and to work today was the promise of a mall chat! I may as well turn off my computer and get back in my car.

Thanks for the Lucy photo. I think that she is at the age where she is actually posing, with assorted smiles for the camera. She is a sly Santa! And, I love those toes.

Good luck with your deadline. In the meantime, I have some questions to throw out there:

1. Scruggs! How was Butter? Is it all I imagine it to be, and more? Did you see any celebs?

2. Where is Expat Mama? Has our omnitopia chit chat made her homesick, or is she glad to be oceans away from the nearest Hardee's (or as my daughter calls it, Stardee's)?

3. How is Chopes and who is watching him while you are on the East Coast?

4. What does Sean recommend at Chipotle? Helen and I checked it out last night, but we could not decide what to order, so we left for more familiar fare.

What is cuter than that???

Good luck to yall with your deadlines! xoxo

OMG - nothing gets the ol' biological clock ticking faster than some baby feet. Wow, what a cutie!!

Oh, those Lucy-blue eyes!!! She is the prettiest elf evah!

ugly feet....

j/k

lfmd, you are so kind to think of me over here, in weirdo-version-of-US-fast-food land! i haven't been able to check ian's blog for a couple days, so i missed the recent excitement.

that said, yes, some of the omnitopia stuff makes me a bit homesick on one hand, but grateful on the other (like, for instance, that in bangkok, "food court" means a huge assortment of cheap, tasty, real asian food).

we have mcdonald's, pizza hut, kfc and burger king over here. they are all sorta similar to back home, but offer bizarre twists as well (like mickey d's samurai burger!). we visit bk and pizza hut about once a month. my offspring love, lurv, LOVE pizza hut. pizza hut has salami instead of pepperoni, however, which is kinda gross.

none of these places offers breakfast. but this very morning (talk about coinciding with ian's topic) i saw a burger king sign proclaiming that they've started serving breakie! woo hoo! scalding, bad coffee and crunchy deep-fried hashbrown circles! i'm all over it -- will probably treat myself once a month or so. will pretend the crappy bangkok post is a washpost or nytimes, tuck into the chow and feel transported back to the states...

lucy makes an adorable christmas elf! ian, are you sure you and tessa didn't genetically engineer her to have perfectly carolina blue eyes?!

All those who diss Jack In The Box must be destroyed.

Hi Expat Mama! You know, I think that there is an audience for the Samurai Burger over here. McD should think about it.

Enjoy your breakfast!

I love that expression on her face. She looks like she's full of personality already.

Holiday cheer ?

She is wearing a Santa hat, that is Christmas cheer, not holiday cheer, we see through your left-wing spin and half-truths.

NPR and the NY TIMES have you brainwashed good.

J. Boogie, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, not Santa. Is the whole idea of Santa a left-wing conspiracy? I mean, all the giving to the poor seems so LIBERAL.

I cannot agree to Kois’ suggestion regarding those who diss Jack In The Box. The consequences would be tragic and unbearable. Perhaps their food is bad in California and not elsewhere? I wouldn’t know. I do know that I have recently developed a certain genuine fondness, one might even say an uncontrollable craving, for their Seasoned Curly Fries and Ultimate Club Sandwich!

LFMD: At Chipotle, Sean usually orders a chicken burrito with black beans, rice, corn, salsa, cheese and sour cream. I get the vegetarian burrito bowl (so i can mix my ingredients up to my satisfaction--the regular burrito is not sufficiently integrated for me), which includes pretty good guacamole. We like it there because the food is tasty and fresh and you get to build the exact burrito/taco/salad you want. The chips are also good and seem to have a hint of lime.

Thank you, Jordi. It all sounds very good. My daughter is not really interested in food that is not in "nugget" form, so she nixed Chipotle. I'll go back there when I am in the company of some adults!

can that kid get any cuter?

In the early 80's Jack-in-the-Box got caught selling kangaroo meat hamburgers. Lucy, you are gorgeous!

Her little toesies are my favorite part. Her feet look normal until she gets excited, and then she splays them out like a little monkey.

You really can't beat the toes-and-hat combo. Adorable!

I was just at Starbucks, thinking of this gang as I ordered myself up some gingerbread monkey ass...

And whoever once called Lucy a cutie cutiekins (LFMD?) hit the elf on the Santa hat!

Kangaroo meat? That’s weird. Is there a market for the stuff? Does any civilized nation consider it a delicacy? Who catches the creatures? Do they raise them on farms for consumption in some places? Like the former emu fad? Strange.

Reminds me of visiting Senor Frog’s in Nuevo Laredo. (Which recently closed due to the narco wars.) I thought, somewhat kiddingly, that my meat dish, which was said to be beef, was actually dog meat. I questioned the waiter about this, and though there was a language communication problem, and I’d had a margarita or two, he confirmed that it was, indeed, “perro.”

Lucy is cute as the dickens!

and would kangaroo meat be cheaper (else why the substitution)?? THAT's hard to believe.

ahh, but the loveliness of Lucy's toes requires no faith at all...she looks like a dancer to me. . . : )

You'd just better not catch a kangaroo in Singapore. Jeeez.

Actually, in my travels to Austrailia about 10 years ago, there was quite the market for kangaroo meat. And alligator meat. I tried them both. Neither tasted like chicken.

:P

Hi Beth. Yeah, that was me. Lucy is the epitome of a Cutie Cutiekins!

I have not been able to get the whole Monkey Ass thing out of my head all week. Thanks, Kent.

Ian, are we going to hear your Hollywood news by the end of the month?

After looking into a bit, I’ve discovered kangaroo meat is quite the thing! Lean and tender. Very popular in Western Europe, Russia and Australia, for those who can afford. ( The Jack In the Box hubbub was an urban myth.)

The kangaroo is a symbol of Australia. Thus some would prefer not to eat a national dish of “kangaroo” steak. There is now a contest on what the new name should be. (Kind of like Bush trying to rename “insurgents.”) How ‘bout a “Skippy” steak? “Yummy”? “Kanga”? They’re all falling flat.

How to market a succulent and healthy kangaroo steak? No one seems to know.

bye, y'all, enjoy your monkey ass and kangaroo meat and everything -- i'm off to phuket (the opposite of omnitopia) for three nights! (our first holiday together without the kids in seven years.)

yeee-haw!

Opposite side of Omnitopia indeed! From what I know about Phuket, you will have an excellent time. How romantic! I am green with envy! Have a wonderful time, Expat Mama!

Right now, I'm on a looong road in Michigan (where I'm visiting a relative) that probably has the most chain stores of any in five states. I asked where the Kinko's was so I could come in here and check e-mail, and someone told me it was "two strip malls down."

Good luck, Ian, w/the TV deadline! Bring us some magic.

Ian, is this you?

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/06/21/clark/index.html

Maybe I should clarify the Monkey Ass thing. Starbucks roasts all their beans darker than I like.

I like espresso OK, but roasting your beans dark just means cooking out the complex volatile chemicals that give complexity to the flavor. Espresso roast beans are about 70% elemental carbon.

Starbucks also brews just a bit past too strong, which is probably where the monkey ass thing comes from. And really when you drink the coffee it's not so bad, but a half hour later the bitter after taste is definitely monkey ass.

And no, I've not sampled actual monkey ass. It's poetic license.

Matt, that isn't me, but this is:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/03/18/smart/index.html

Can you believe two of us write for Salon? I had to use my middle initial.