Chad Chandler

When the wife and I moved to Greenville, SC from Washington DC, we didn’t really know anyone. I set a meeting with mayor to talk about the city, the local economy, and get a sense of what’s in store for the metro area. We spoke for almost an hour and I enjoyed the conversation very much. I didn’t think my meeting request was weird at the time, but everybody now laughs at the mere mention of it. Anyway, I told the mayor that the main reason we chose Greenville over other cities across the southeast was the city council’s commitment to urban redevelopment and the relatively low cost of living. He suggested I write a guest column for the local paper about our decision-making process, so I did.

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The wife and I have bee trying to eat more vegetables. Whether its cauliflower, cabbage or anything from our garden, we’ve been making meals out of it. I’ve never been a big fan of carrots (except in soups), and I can’t eat them raw at all. After playing around on the interwebs, I ran across a recipe that looked like something I could sink my teeth into.

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Our bathroom remodel is finally finished. Here are the before and after pictures:

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I really let this project drag on. We’ve had a functional bathroom for weeks, but I haven’t really had a chance to finish the drywall and paint. We entertained guests a couple of weekends ago, which made me put off sanding the drywall mud. After they left, the wife broke the central vaccuum. She somehow sucked up a three foot long rubber band that she uses to work out. After disassembling it a few times, I eventually got it out. Last weekend, I finally got around to painting the beadboard and trim.

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I could go on and on about how there are 75 movie remakes and reboots currently in the works, but countless barrels of virtual ink have already been spilled on that topic. And I don’t want to talk about the annoying ubiquity of young hero sagas that employ the same mythological structure. You know the story; a lonely youngster doesn’t fit in, he’s told by a wise mentor that he’s destined for greater things, he discovers a secret power and/or secret world, he stumbles but eventually learns how to wield his power responsibly, and then he faces down his character’s antithesis. You’ve seen this story in everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter to the Matrix to pretty much every comic book movie ever made. Even Twilight is a variation on this theme, albeit a bad one. No, I want to specifically talk about Hollywood’s unfortunate fascination with twist endings and their growing comfort with Deus ex Machina.

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Most people don’t know, but this isn’t my first blog. I’ve had several websites in several formats, including one I built from scratch just to teach myself HTML/CSS. I maintained an eponymous opinion/political blog on Google’s Blogger platform starting in early 2005. I learned pretty quickly that the secret to building a reliable readership is short, frequent posting. I was never very good at being brief, but I was pretty good at putting up new content.

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Figs were on sale at the market, so I got some to make a tart for the wife. When I bought the wine for the chicken marsala, I also picked up a bottle of rose port. After tasting the port, the wife decided she wanted to sweeten and dry the figs.

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I’ve been trying to get some of my pan sauce recipes online lately so the wife can cook them when I’m not around. Chicken Marsala is her favorite.

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I love veal scallopini served with almost any pan sauce, but my favorite is piccata. Whenever the wife and I eat at high-end restaurants, I usually order the veal picatta as a way to gauge the quality of the kitchen. But more times than not, I prefer my own version to the restaurant’s.

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Consumers are lectured, attacked and demagogued at every turn these days. We’re supposed to choose paper over plastic bags so we can cut down on waste to landfills. Never mind the trees that were cut down to make the paper. We’re supposed to buy organic food because it’s better for our land and our bodies. Never mind the fact that “sustainable” farming methods generate more erosion/run-off and have no measurable health benefits. We’re supposed to run out and buy the new plug-in electric cars because they have no emissions. Never mind the coal-burning power plants that likely provide the electricity to charge them. And now, as if to push the limits of consumer credulity, we’re being told that we need to opt for real corks in our wine bottles over artificial ones, because not cutting down five million acres of cork trees kills endangered species or something like that. Confused? Me too.

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