Zachs of a Feather

A truth I hold to be self-evident?

All Zachs like making the bed.

A Tale of Two Moussaka-teers (with Tears)

This is a story of what happens when two friends celebrate Labor Day by having some fun cookery times on the Sunday night.

Brian and I have cooked before, and we've cooked since, but I haven't documented our adventures in a while. Fortunately, this time our recipe didn't call for any chilis, so no one's privates got scalded.

Brian found this moussaka recipe on the internets, so we decide to give it a go.

Herewith our ingredients. My portion was purchased on the day of at my local Trader Joe's; Brian's portion was made with love the night before.

First thing you do, you take massive $1.49 TJ's eggplants and stripe them.

Also, you chop the onions. Even though I wasn't the chopper I had tears coming down my face worse than at the end of Pete's Dragon.

This photo illustrates a recurring mishap now that I finally own a sharp knife. Blood in the tomato water.


Also, never do this.

Here Brian demonstrates onion stirring. See the Vornado on the floor behind him? Helped with the weeping.

Then, the tomatoes got plopped in. We were near to overflowing.


Meanwhile, the eggplant was all cubed up...

...and then added to the tomato onion mix. As you can see, we had to split up the portions. I really need to use that BB&B coup and pick up a larger pan.

I don't have a lid for the cast iron pan, but my cheapie nonstick Ikea pan fits right on top!

Almost done!
To wit, our servings:


I ended up combining mine because I liked how all the flavors danced together in my mouth.

Et, voila. Enjoyment!


And that, is what Moussaka Friendship is all about.

The Japanese Google The Darndest Things

Some mornings, I choose to reflect on the what's and why's of the Internet.

For instance, a few months back I posted what I thought was a rather innocuous post to celebrate my friend Jesse's birthday.

Lo and behold, it's received the most comments of anything I've ever done.

The comments are all more or less like this
And of course if you click on the poster's name, you get taken to a Japanese Porn website.

I get one or two new comments a day from these folks. Are they googling each other's Japanese words and then landing here? Or are they all googling the same keywords from my post, which to me don't say anything about Japanese porn?

The Internet, and Foreigners. Full of mystery. And probably, peas and vinegar.

Letting Sleeping Pusses Lie

So innocent. No idea about the shark sneaking up on him.

And what's Manatee doing in the back there?

Labor Day RULES.

A Room Of One's Own

In case you're dying to know, here's what it looks like to be me all day.

Note the flat screen, a nice upgrade from the old digs.


Not sure why I have two of those Pixar lamps though, but so far they are my friends.

The view? Not so bad either.

Casual Friday! Time to put on my dungarees.

So This Is What I Do All Day

So, one of the last emails a friend at my OLD job sent me was a link to this bit at the HuffPo. It's a collection of some of the scariest children's books. And, since I'm so pooped from starting work, here's a redo.

Am I the only person I know with a fear of conjoined twins? Maybe I should have been read this as a child instead of Saggy Baggy Elephant.

This one is scary, but also bilingual!

This one just makes me sad.

Back to Poop! At my new job we publish books with this character in them, and I KNOW I won't be able to make it through new title meetings without giggling. Again.

Huh. All Animals Are Equal. Still, glad not to be the chicken here.

Yep, I'm scatalogically obsessed. I can't help it, I laugh.

In conclusion, The End. Now for Day 2!

First Day of Work!

Deodorant: check. Dress Shoes: check. Long Pants: check. Lint Roller: check. It all begins!