Random stuff…..

It’s that time again….Aram’s random thoughts and updates:

1) The garden is growing great except for the parts that are being eaten by the rabbits that have taken over the area.  I have to put some chicken wire around the garden and the herbs – they seem to love basil as all 6 plants are now gone.  Oddly enough though, they didn’t touch any of the lettuce.

2) Studying for the bar exam is both frustrating and nerve-wracking.  One day you feel great after getting a bunch of multiple choice practice questions right and the next day you get too many wrong and start to worry.  Also, with the multitude of subjects it is hard to know what to study first.  Sometimes I sit at my desk and think “OK…what now?”  It is generally the last thing I think about when going to sleep and the first thing I think about when I wake up.  All  I know is that I’m looking forward to August.  Ignorance of the results will be sweet bliss!

3) The new iPhone software is pretty cool – some nice enhancements are there, but regardless I want the new 3GS iPhone that came out today even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with my iPhone 3G!  I’ll wait a bit though since I’ll probably just end up standing in line for it thinking about how I could be studying instead of wasting time in line.

4) It’s raining a lot here.  My garden is liking it but I am not.  What happened to our June?  I guess if I have to spend most weekends inside studying that it really doesn’t matter to me what it is doing outside, but no sunlight for an extended period of time sucks no matter what you are doing.

5) Why is it that all the items that my Aardvark Art Supply customers are looking for have been discontinued by the importer?  It makes no sense to me – doesn’t demand usually equal the need to supply?

6) Saro and Lerna’s wedding in LA was a lot of fun.  I was agonizing about the speech I had to give for several weeks before the wedding but think I ended up doing a good job.  Aside from a little history stuff in the speech, I decided to give the bride and groom my words of advice from someone who has only been married one year and doesn’t have that much experience to give advice from.  Here goes:

• Laugh with each other.  Laugh and Have fun.  Humor and a smile make everything better.
• Enjoy the time you spend together.  Remember why you fell in love and what you mean to each other.
• Pay attention to each other – listen, understand and support each other.
• Work towards your common goals together and work for your community – both your Armenian and American community and make the world around you a better place.

What else?

I gotta figure out how to incorporate this blog into my aramweb.com website so I can have all my stuff in one place – blog, photos, etc.  I put a twitter box on the site, but am sort of wondering why since I have only posted 3 “tweets” since I set up the account 6 months ago.

OK..that’s enough for now.

Live Long and Prosper.

It’s been a while….

It’s odd that I haven’t had anything to say since October……so here are some links, comments and random musings…

1) I’m hoping to get my 1976 Mercedes 280 back from the shop soon….it’s been sitting in my garage for the last 4 years with a transmission problem….I took it to European Auto Solutions to have them fix it.  I should have it back in a few days!

2) I stumbled across this site by the University of Wisconsin…there’s some good videos there that are worth watching:  http://envhist.wisc.edu/trailers/index.shtml

3) Don’t drink bottled water….boycott the industry!  Buy a nice stainless steel water bottle and re-use them over and over.  If you must filter, get a Britta….It’ll save you hundreds of dollars over the year and make the world a better place.

4) Of course it’s raining today…I washed my truck yesterday.

5) Here’s a site that offers a collection of daily deals and specials…worth checking out – I’ve gotten some great bargains:  http://dealnews.com/

6) I won’t be getting my produce from the Waltham Community Farms CSA this year .  I sent in my payment late, and since joining a CSA is suddenly very popular, the shares were all filled up by the time I paid.  I’m bummed out about it, but will support the local farmers markets instead.  I’m also looking forward to planting the garden and will have more incentive to get an early start on the planting and hope for a good yield.    I do still get my meat from Chestnut Farms, so not all is lost!

Aram’s Good Food Post

OK…so I generally try not to get political on this blog…it’s mostly for fun, mindless, interesting, wierd stuff and things I want to say.  While I am keeping it non-political – which is extremely difficult with all the election stuff going on, I do need to say my peace about the good food movement and supporting the local growers in your area.  The good food movement goes beyond politics…it’s about health – health for our selves, our community, our land, our air, our families and our country.

First, let me throw out the following promotion to benefit Farm Aid and Verrill farm’s rebuilding efforts:  http://freshfromthefamilyfarm.org/.  This is a restaurant based promotion which is putting at least one item on the menu that sources all the ingredients from local, organic, humane farms.  The proceeds directly benefit Farm Aid and the Verrill Farm rebuilding efforts after a devastating fire on Sept. 20.

Next, I want to talk about meat……and where you should buy your meat.  I’ll tell you that where you SHOULDN’T buy your meat is from the supermarket.  The regular meat, often on sale, is from factory farms and processed through the giant meatpacking plants which are riddled with bacteria, inhumane meat processing and working conditions.  I suggest you do what I do…which is to buy your meat directly from a local farm which raises their animals humanely and organically, with no antibiotics, steroids or growth hormones.  I buy from Chestnut Farms in Hardwick, MA.  Each month I get a cooler with 10lbs of meat – chicken, beef, pork and lamb.  I do pay a premium each month ($70), but I can tell you that it is worth every penny.  The meat is delicious, fresh and most of all, I know that it is clean.  The meat processor they use (Lemay and Sons) is a small, family run operation that is USDA certified and inspected regularly.  And speaking of inspections, one of the biggest issues with meat and bacteria takes place in the meat processing plants…..This past summer I thought I was doing a good thing buy purchasing ground beef from whole foods so I could serve nice, organic beef at my summer barbecue.  I found out the day I purchased it that there was a recall on the beef due to e-coli.  What I learned from my research is that Whole Foods, while priding itself on providing good food, organic, etc., still uses the same processing plant that provides meat to Wal-Mart and all the major supermarket chains around the country.  The unclean, inhumane practices of these “factory processors” is what causes many of the problems of bacteria in our meat (particularly the ground beef).

So what I am trying to do is encourage folks to support the local farms, local farmers and good food movement.  It can cost a few dollars more each week, but the payoff is worth the investment.  Good, clean, health food is something we should all have – and once you begin to eat local, you’ll realize how much better it tastes than the supermarket food.

To make it easier for you, I’ve provided some links to guide you in the right direction to purchase good, local food:

Local Harvest:  http://www.localharvest.org/ This is where you can enter your zip code to find local, organic food in your area.

Eat Well Guide:  http://www.eatwellguide.org/ This is a similar site that you can find local, organic food in your area.

I’ll close this by saying that it doesn’t take much to eat good food and support local farmers.  It’s important to eat well to be well.  Make the effort…you won’t regret it.

Aram’s post wedding/honeymoon wrap-up

So for those of you that don’t know, i got married on May 17, 2008 in LA.  The wedding was fantastic and went off without a hitch.  There was lots and lots of planning and errands and all sorts of odds and ends.  3 days before the wedding I was ready to kill someone….printer not feeding paper correctly, errands on opposite ends of LA.  But in the end, everything went great and people are telling us it was one of the best weddings they have been to.  Lalig and I had a lot of fun ourselves and it pretty much ended up exactly as we had hoped.  Also important to note:  There were no meltdowns, no fights, no stressed out bride and groom…..While the wedding itself was very upbeat and fun, everyone and everything was also very chill and casual….just the way I like it.

The honeymoon to Moorea and Bora Bora, French Polynesia (Tahiti & surrounding Islands) was absolutely fantastic…the place is like paradise.  Every postcard you’ve ever seen of the clear blue water with colorful fish, palm trees, coconuts, bananas, pineapple, etc., are all exactly the way it is.  You can check out some pictures here:  www.aramweb.com/fp.

So after a week in LA for the wedding, 10 days in French Polynesia and 8 more days in LA, we are back in Boston, getting settled and readjusted to life in the real world.  Fortunately, it’s summer so the real world is at it’s peak here in beantown.

GO CELTICS!!!!

Aram’s Parking Magic

So Lalig often says that my sister and I both have “Aslanian Magic” when it comes to finding a great parking space wherever we go.  Most of the time I have great luck, but sometimes it doesn’t go my way.

Today it went my way…so much so that I think I might have to buy a lottery ticket!  Here’s how it went:

I decided I didn’t feel like taking the bus to class today – it’s cold and windy and I just didn’t feel like it.  When the decision is made to drive, I know there will be 2 outcomes – 1)   I find a parking space on the street near Center Plaza, feed the 2 hour meter and head to  class – or 2) I don’t find a space and end up having to pay $38 to park.  I admit it is an expensive risk.  But given my “Aslanian Magic” I sometimes take the chance.  Today I took that chance.

As I left the house, I made a “cosmic request” to have the stars in alignment to have someone leave for their car and time it perfectly to my arrival in 15 minutes.  As I drove down Storrow, I relayed my request mentally one more time, thinking about the guy whose meeting or appointment just ended.   As I approached the area near Center Plaza I didn’t like what I saw.  Not only was the entire section of meters across the street blocked with “no parking” signs (thus reducing the amount of available spaces in the area), but there was mucho traffic in front of the plaza, thus allowing anyone in front of me to grab any spot that opened up.  As I sat in the traffic, thinking all was lost, I noticed a guy walk to his car and get in.  As soon as he did, I saw the blinker of the car directly in front of me turn on, thus claiming the spot for himself.  I knew then that I was totally hosed.  Just then, as I thought all was lost – BAM – a guy walks up and gets in the car directly behind the space claimed by the car in front of me.  I put my blinker on to claim that spot, both cars pulled out and me and Mr. Old Mercedes Station Wagon pulled in and took our spots!  It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly.  $2 later, I walked to class happy as can be with my “Aslanian Magic” still strong as ever.

Aram’s Misc. Rants

So I’ve been wondering about something lately…why is it that when I charge something on my credit/debit card, the money is instantly drawn from my account (or at least held as pending), but when I return something to the store, it takes 2-3 days for my money to be credited back?

Similarly, I frequently wonder why one day I read the headline “Oil prices drop due to surplus inventory reports” and then the next day the headline reads “Oil prices surge on weak inventory report.” I’d really like to be the guy whose job it is to report on oil supply inventory…Aside from the fact that you don’t have to actually be good at it, it seems that no matter what he/she says or does, he still has a job and gets headlines no matter what.

This is why I like In-n-Out Burger

In light of the recent beef recall due to video evidence of mistreatment of “non-ambulatory” or “Downer” cows at the beef processing plant in California, I decided to inquire as to what In-N-Out Burger’s official policy was regarding meat processing. In case you don’t know, In-N-Out is one of my favorite burger joints in the world. Aside from great tasting food, they provide fair wages and healthcare to their workers, always use fresh, never frozen foods, hand press their potatoes, don’t use heat lamps, etc. Being concerned about the food I eat, I decided to use their contact form on their website to inquire about their practices in terms of ensuring their meat processors are providing high quality, sanitary foods. Within a few hours of sending my email, I received the following response:

A statement from In-N-Out Burger President Mark Taylor:

“We ended our relationship with Hallmark/Westland on January 30^th. There is no meat from them anywhere in our system.

At In-N-Out burger, we have never purchased any processed patties or ground beef from any supplier. We make every one of our hamburger patties ourselves using only whole chucks from premium, select-type cattle. We pay a premium to purchase high quality beef and we require our suppliers to certify that quality in writing. Our suppliers must all sign our purchase specification agreement which prohibits them from using non-ambulatory or “downer” cattle. They all know we would never accept it.

We individually inspect every single chuck we receive to make sure that it meets our standards. Then our own, in-house and highly skilled butchers remove the bones. We grind the meat ourselves and make it into patties ourselves. We do all of this in our own patty making facility on our property in Baldwin Park, Ca. These steps enable us to completely control the patty-making process and be absolutely certain of the quality, freshness and safety of every patty we make. We’ve always made our hamburger patties this way.

We are confident that every hamburger we serve, and have served in the past, is of the utmost quality and is completely safe and wholesome.”

While the response given wasn’t 100% perfect, I think the statement says a lot about the quality and care In-N-Out puts into their food processing. The question as to how a processor that In-N-Out used was mistreating some animals and not noticed by In-N-Out inspectors wasn’t entirely answered. I was glad to read however, that they do not purchase ground meat from any supplier. Ground meat is one of the major areas non-sanitary conditions and occasional recalls occur.

So needless to say, next time I’m in Los Angeles, I’ll gladly visit In-N-Out and encourage anyone reading this to do the same!

The Dude…..

So we’ve been in a The Big Lebowski phase for a while now…Lalig and I just can’t get enough of it. There’s so many clips to post…I’ve put my 2 favorites here for now:

Enjoy!

Unbelievable….

If I’m ever this gullible, please end my misery:

Man sentenced in bizarre diagnosing scam

December 5, 2007

MONROE, La. –A man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for bilking friends and family out of more than $800,000 by convincing them that his wife was a government agent who could arrange to have their medical problems diagnosed by satellite imaging.

Brent Eric Finley, 38, of Rayville, was sentenced in federal court in Monroe to serve 51 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. His wife, Stacey Finley, was sentenced in August to spend 63 months in prison and both are ordered to jointly pay restitution in the amount of $873,786.94.

The Finleys pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud, according to court records.

U.S. Attorney Donald W. Washington said in a news release following Monday’s sentencing of Brent Finley that the couple convinced numerous people that Stacey Finley was a CIA agent and with her contacts she could schedule a medical scan of the victims’ bodies by satellite imaging that would detect any hidden medical problems.

The Finley’s convinced their victims that, if any medical problems were found, secret agents would administer medicine to them as they slept in exchange for payment, according to a bill of information filed when the Finleys were charged in May.

“These audacious criminals should remind all of us that scam artists will go to great lengths to take our life’s savings,” Washington said. 

What do you say when you want to say something but have nothing to say?

I feel the need to blog as it has been quite some time, but I don’t really know what to say. So I’ll just say whatever comes to mind:

1) Last Wed., Nov. 14, was Reusable Bag Day here in Massachusetts. Don’t think it got much notice, but it is really worth it to get some reusable bags and stop with all the plastic bags they give at the supermarket. They are stronger, make less waste and people will think you are cool – which of course is why I do most of the things I do.

2) Some customer service/tech support people are idiots. I’m not going to get into the India vs. US call center debate or entirely blame this on the fact that I was speaking to someone in India, but I’ll just tell you that the last couple of times I have had to call I have to explain my situation, be told the entirely wrong solution (”we are having problems with our email and technicians are working on it…when my problem didn’t have anything to do with email”) and had to basically re-explain, as if talking to a 2 year old, to get them to not only understand my problem, but then fix it.

3) Keyspan Energy Sucks. They left a note on our door this week asking if I can set up an appointment so they can accurately know where the gas line runs to the street for some upcoming work they will be doing. I called and spoke to a nice woman who asked what was convenient for me. I set up the appointment for today at 9am – she even wanted my phone number so they could contact me for any reason. Did anyone show up? NO. Did anyone call? NO. Will I extend them the courtesy of calling them back next time they leave me a note asking for my assistance? HELL NO.

4)  Laura at Farm Aid bought a horse.  I want a horse.  Lalig tells me she’ll buy me one someday, but I’m guessing I’ll be buying her the Porsche and/or BMW she wants before I get my horse.  On a side note, I found some channels on TV that I didn’t have programmed in, so now I watch RFD TV where they have shows on horses, cattle, ranching, farming and other stuff like that.  I’ve learned how much a bull goes for at auction and know almost everything there is to know about Australian made joint supplements for horses, outdoor watering options for your pasture, what John Deere tractor is good for what tasks, etc.  I’ll never have any use for this information.  EVER.

5)  I saw a cat running through our yard last week.  4 days later I noticed “missing cat” signs up and it happened to be the same cat I saw.  So I ask…is a sighting of a cat that wasn’t missing at the time still a sighting?  Should I feel bad that I didn’t catch the missing cat even though it wasn’t quite missing yet?  Lalig put out food for it in case it came back, but I think a skunk or raccoon ate it all.   I wonder if it is still missing.  And I also wonder if I should call and tell them I saw their cat before it was missing.  Would this information be at all helpful?  I doubt it.

I’d say that is it for now…..GO PATS!!!!!!

The Harvest

The garden is growing well (although my cukes are dying, but they lasted longer than usual so I’m happy.)

Lots of Cherry tomatoes, green peppers and Asian eggplant:

We decided to make Cabbage, Green Pepper and Tomato Dolma with the fixings (Dolma is basically stuffed veggies for you non-Armenians).  Here’s the preparation…..

…..and the pot full of delicious Dolma ready to be cooked!

For our first time, it came out pretty good…..I think we needed more rice, but we’ll work that out for next time.

There be whales here Captain!

So we went on a whalewatch out of Provincetown a couple of weeks ago – man was it awesome.

Here’s a picture:

I’m working on posting some video to YouTube…stay tuned!

Went fishing for stripers…came home with a Blue

Colin and I went fishing for Stripers the other night in Newburyport – the tide, weather and time seemed perfect. We got the Bombard loaded up and went out to find a spot…there was a conveniently empty mooring right near where we wanted to be so we tied on to it and let the tide take our lines toward the Route 1 bridge pylons where we’ve had success before. It didn’t take long for Colin to reel in a couple of schoolies…I was a bit jealous as I hadn’t even gotten a bite yet. Shortly after I felt something on the line…it wasn’t giving up too much of a fight, but there was something definitely there. As I got it to the boat, we realized it was a good sized bluefish. We pulled it overboard and quickly determined we had to be careful as to not get our fingers or toes bitten off – those things have mighty sharp teeth. At this point, we determined we need to kill the thing so it wouldn’t hurt us (I was keeping it for sure so death was imminent!). NOTE: It gets graphic from here. Colin, with knife in hand stabbed the thing in the skull – no death. I then took the mag light and whacked the thing in the head about 6 times – at this point it seemed that he was dead. While still trying to be careful, we then took the hook out (which he had swallowed) by cutting into his gills to free the hook. We definitely thought he was dead now. Stabbed in the head, clubbed and gills mangled. We put the stringer on him through his mouth and gill and threw him overboard to stay fresh in the water while we continued fishing. A short while later, despite all our attempts..the thing started flapping and pulling to get off the line. We couldn’t believe it…I never would have thought that something could live through that. I think the current running the water over his gills gave him fish CPR. So at this point, since the stringer he was hanging from was only a plastic cord which he could bite through, we brought him back into the boat until we knew for sure that he was dead.

I cooked it up the next night and it was delicious. I filet him up into 4 pieces and layed the meat on some foil. I took parsley, mint and garlic in the food processor and added olive oil and salt & pepper. I mixed it all up, poured it over the fish and covered the top with sliced tomato, green pepper and lemon slices. I then wrapped everything up nice and tight in the foil and threw it on a medium/high grill for about 25 minutes…it came out delicious and tender. I highly recommend the marinade I used for all types of fish.

Can’t we all just get along?

I started to notice some of my basil growing in the yard was beginning to become a bit intolerant of all the other vegetables and herbs around it…..comments were made, weeds were thrown around and even set on fire in front of some of the other plants….I’d hear rallies at night…find pamphlets in the yard talking about a yard full of pure, green basil – I found the Thai basil choked to death and the catnip was barely hanging on too…..so I began to search for the culprit – and there it was:

Klu Klux Basil:

I don’t know how it got into my seemingly happy and well adjusted basil plants, who were happy to share the entire yard will all manner of flowers, vegetables and fruits. Now that I’ve located the culprit, I’ve found a way to rid myself of this menace to horticultural society……I ATE HIM WITH A PIECE OF TOMATO AND FRESH HOMEMADE MOZZARELLA. Despite the hatred he spewed, he tasted delicious!

The Raspberries look good….

My neighbor behind us planted raspberries a few years ago. Last year the bush grew over the fence and there were quite a bit of berries hanging over onto our side. Possession being 9/10ths of the law, I proceeded to eat them all up (before the birds got them). This year I noticed that he collected all the branches and tied them up nicely so they are all growing towards his yard – much to my dismay! There are a few small branches hanging over and I also noticed that the plant has started to spread to our side. I think tonight I’m going to cut a few branches and try to get them to root so I can plant them – they really are good….take a look – don’t they look delicious?