AntSaint

Bread, Baked Brie & Blackberries

• Preheat your oven to 350ºF
• Get out that brie you've been dying to bake (Eugene note: we get ours from either Market of Choice at 29th & Willamette, or the Trader Joe's in Oakway Center)
• Put brie in a baking dish, pie tin, whatever
• Smother it in blackberries (fresh if in season, but frozen is fine too)
• Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until not too melty, but gooey, and the berries are warm but not hot
• Enjoy with warm slices of a bread of your choice

Gads, just typing this makes me want another...

More on the 4th Annual Eugene Irish Cultural Festival

Release about this awesome Eugene event of all things Irish culture:
Come experience locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally acclaimed Irish traditional musicians, scholars, and dancers at the 4th annual Eugene Irish Cultural Festival on Saturday,March 3rd, 200. These remarkable participants will perform, teach workshops and share their enthusiasm and skills in Irish music and other aspects of Irish culture. This may be one of our best Eugene Irish Cultural Festivals!

One man's Broadway: Think small

What to do with downtown Eugene, and especially with the Broadway stretch, has perplexed this town for decades. The director of the Tango Center, at Broadway and Charnelton, has a novel idea that just might work:

Link: One man's Broadway: Think small - The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Greg Bryant is no developer, but he's got an idea for enlivening the sleepy stretch of Broadway in the heart of downtown Eugene.

Eugene Irish Festival - Sat., Mar. 3

Irish music! Irish culture! Irish beer — wait, no that last part may just be wishful thinking. From kids activities to concerts, head out to Sheldon High School from 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, for the Eugene Irish Festival.

That evening there will also be concerts, held at the UO's Beall Concert Hall. Doors open at 7 p.m., concert starts at 8 p.m.

Get full schedule, kids activities, directions and more: Eugene Irish Festival

Google to sell online software, taking on IBM and Microsoft

Fascinating. I'm sure pundits galore are noting how this is one more chime to the end of the desktop application as we know it, and the beginning of the dominance of web-based apps?

Link: Google to sell online software, taking on IBM and Microsoft - The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Google Inc. will begin selling corporate America an online suite of software that includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and calendar management, escalating the Internet search leader's invasion on technological turf traditionally dominated by Microsoft and IBM.

your site sucks.

Fresh from the Antsaint inbox:

I feel strangely proud of this. As Jodie pointed out when she read it, "Your blog must be doing well if someone hates you."

Now, I'll get to the sagacious comments of Jared in a moment. But I will say, that I know my blog isn't, well, all that great. The design needs some sprucing up. I could be a lot better about a lot of the content. And those things — have a "someday" attached to them. But for now, I'm blogging as I wish.

I'm also very curious. And grinning. This email has had me grinning all day. See, it could be that I just rubbed someone so much the wrong way, that they just had to tell me. Or... it could be that they're ripping the mickey out of me, to see what I'll do. Or maybe it's a sort of piss-ripping weird guy respect thing. I don't know. Hell, it could even be my cousin Jared from Virginia (I haven't seen him in years, so you never know — is that you, cuz?) No matter what, I'm curious.

Enough blather; it just makes my site suck more. On to Jared's email:

"I chanced upon your site via google while looking for a pork chop marinade recipe. After a quick look around I quickly deduced that 1) you are one ugly sob AND 2) your site sucks (hence the snappy e-mail title.)

I'm writing this e-mail to make a public plea that you remove your site indefinitely for the good of the Internet at large. Unfortunately I have no personal resources to see to this myself but hopefully you will see it in your heart to do what's right.
Thank you,
Jared"

No, Jared, thank you. Your email has been the source of much mirth today. I hope you at least found a good pork chop marinade recipe. By the way, congratulations on your upcoming wedding, and I hope the dogs are well. Write back anytime, and please let me know how the site could be improved (though I'm afraid it will keep going).

Thanks for the email, and hopefully my site won't suck so much in the future.

Wood Pellet Shortage Eases

Have a pellet stove? Then you're ready for a bit of good news. According to Lane Forest Products, a major pellet supplier for the Eugene/Springfield area, the wood pellet shortage is easing. It's been a rough winter for us pellet stove owners — but it looks like things are looking up.

Lane also has provided a handy pdf list of Eugene/Springfield-area pellet fuel suppliers. You might want to keep it wherever you stack your pellets.

For me and Jodie, were conserved well and had also keep stocks up pretty nicely. For next year, though, we'll be laying in a ton or two during summer, and I hope you will too.

Colcannon - Potato & Cabbage goodness

It's the night before our next Good Food Easy delivery, and here's me and Jodie with a small head of cabbage, a rutabega and some blue potatoes. Time to bust out Taylor's Colcannon recipe, along with some butter, milk, garlic and Italian seasonings:

Link: Colcannon - Stinging Nettles.

The IRS

I'm going to spare you the cliches about government and the IRS being scary and all that. Yes, the taxman cometh, yap, yap, yap. So get ready — and be relieved about one thing. For all the nastiness, real or exaggerated, associated with the IRS, they have a simple, clear, easy-to-use website.

Whether your return is easy — literally, of course, with the 1040EZ — or if you're like me an suddenly find yourself in the middle of Form 1040 land, there are heaps of resources for you.

Here are some of the things I'll be diving into this evening (definitely over coffee at Perugino too):

• Free File Home - Your Link to Free Federal Online Filing
• Telephone Excise Tax Refund
• 1040 Central
• Split Your Refund Among up to Three Accounts with Direct Deposit
• Tax Law Changes for Individuals

Mattresses: Cutting through marketing hype

There are many things in this world I thought were a combination of difficulty and B.S. — but apparently, buying a mattress is one of them:

Link: Going to the Mattresses� - By Seth Stevenson - Slate Magazine.