I do so hate to be cross, or see people crossed, so let me show this alligator recipe we cooked the other night:

SCALOPPINE OF ALLIGATOR

12 (3 ounce) medallions of alligator
1/4 cup chopped basil
1 T chopped thyme
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt and cracked black pepper to taste
Louisiana hot sauce to taste
egg wash (1 egg, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup milk, blended)
2 cups seasoned flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup thinly sliced pickled okra
1/2 cup diced red bell peppers
1 T minced garlic
1 cup white wine

Pound medallions until 1/4 inch thick. (He uses waxed paper.)
In a a large mixing bowl, combine basil, thyme and parsley. Season medallions with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Dip in egg wash then coat with flour and press into herb mixture. In a 10-inch saute pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Pan saute alligator until golden brown on both sides. Add okra, bell peppers and garlic. Saute 3-5 minutes or until vegetables are wilted. Deglaze with wine and reduce to sauce consistency. To serve, place two medallions over angel hair pasta and top with sauce.

(Please forgive me, Mr. Folse, but this is a good recipe, and not everyone, yet, knows what you do.)

Just to note that Lucy laid an egg at 10:13 p.m. on 2/27/07.

Mmmmmm. Alligator scaloppine with pasta from John Folse, grilled asparagus on the side.

The other other white meat.

I have a question.

Like a good rubbernecker, I looked at the bit about Al Gore's energy usage in his 10,000 square foot Nashville house, coming in at a hefty 221,000 KWH.

I have some mixed receipts for a few years, so I did an estimate for our usage in our middle-aged, inefficient 2000 square foot house in Louisiana. I'm coming up with 16,500 and some-odd, so let's round up to 17,000 KWH.

17 x 5 = 85,000 KWH for a comparable house of 10,000 square feet. That offers 15 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and five areas of about 700-1000 sq. ft., depending on the sizes of the bedrooms.

Anyone with with good taste would have higher ceilings than we have, so I'll pitch in another house and a half, which brings that total to 110,500.

This ABC article reports that half the energy bills were for the pool house.

My question is, what in tarnation are they doing in the pool house that takes so much energy? I thought we were supposed to bring our own energy to that stuff.

When I bought a gift certificate for china for Lyman's soon-to-be-wed niece at Hal Garner's this week, Lyman's patience ran out.

He has been agitating for new dinnerware at our house for a year or two. Not long after we married, we bought 12 place settings of stoneware. The set is in pretty good shape, but a few pieces have been chipped or crazed or broken, and besides, he's tired of the pattern.

After looking around a lot, we've decided to accept our destinies and go with restaurant ware.

To start, we're taking a case of the 10-3/8 dinner plate and one of the 7-1/2 inch menudo bowl. (The menudo bowls will be a good addition to our our kitchen. We frequently eat gumbos, stews and pasta, and they have enough capacity for a decent portion of salad. Our cereal bowls aren't really up to it.) I think we can mix our current coffee cups/saucers and salad/dessert plates with those, along with our seldom used serving pieces, and still set a decent table.

And he won't be standing at the sink trying to scrub away the pattern that he has mistaken for parsley.

Just a note for people watching their portions: restaurant ware allows you to select smaller dinner plates, so smaller portions don't appear so small.

(We looked into ordering from our local restaurant supplier, but even with shipping, Richards was cheaper.)

UPDATE: If they'll let us order single-case quantities, Instawares is even cheaper.

Nate McCord has posted a fun little time waster.

Did I tell you that when I talked to my 92-year-old aunt that she told me that my maternal great-grandfather was from Tennessee? Or so she thought.

Or that he had a family before my grandmother was born, and she went to visit her half-siblings in Baton Rouge?

Charlie has a new phrase: "Are you okay?"

UPDATE: I've talked about how careful we are with language around Charlie. There's no knowing what he'll take to and pick up.

Today, for the first day in my memory, Lyman made a noise that was a quiet "choo, choo, choo." Charlie picked it up as soon as it was out of Lyman's mouth.

The boy has needed a new song with a simple melody. He's still working on "good tidings for Christmas."

Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga choo-choo..."

Or is it the sound of brushes on drums that he likes?

Looks to me that Lynn Pulsifer and Kevin Brodeur are of the same school of art.

(Thanks, Ann Althouse.)

The envelope for my BellSouth bill is stamped with this message:

BellSouth is joining the new AT&T, connecting you to the nation's most complete and secure network.

Not so long ago, but near 20 years, 1984-86, I worked at a small long-distance company that had sprung up in the wake of an enormous anti-monopoly lawsuit to split Bell and AT&T.

I did not dream that. I have a T-shirt.

I just watched two shows of What Not to Wear.

So what do I need to do? Wear a tube top braless to the wedding? Believe me, my sister-in-law and niece would understand for a $5000 shopping trip to New York.

James Joyner posts Amanda Marcotte's description of her arc as a worker on John Edwards' campaign in Salon.

Ms. Marcotte attributes the controversy leading to her resignation to sexism in politics and Bloggerville, and to the rumblings of the mighty Republican smear machine.

I quoted portions of this thread to a daughter of a Democratic legislator (state) who is staying with us this week. She said she wouldn't want the woman near a campaign.

(Yes, Diane, I needed a new dedicated guest room. Sometimes I think we're running a bed and breakfast here. Or a dinner-and-bed operation. It's seen a lot of use since my sister came in October.)

Ann Althouse has a post up about the Mona Lisa today.

It's interesting for a comment from Drew W that quotes a song from Michelle Shocked:

But in between her cracks
You can read between the lines
She'd love nothing better than
To rob the Louvre blind . . .

-- "Looks Like Mona Lisa
4:32 PM

Wouldn't she?

How about a Valentine's Day greeting from a pretty girl redhead?

Tornados in New Orleans

I can't resist, even if it's not new: "I didn't say [he] has a small penis, I said he was a little prick."

(Ann Althouse)

An Ipod Shuffle for my birthday! I'm so cool and up-to-date!

How do I make it work?

Charlie is two years old today.

You figure he's spoiled?

This will be the last announcement precisely of its kind.

Today is my birthday. I am 50, a half-century, on the down-hill slope. I have learned a lot about gravity since I was 40. There will never be another statement of this kind on this blog. Ever.

Today is also Charlie's hatch day. He is two. He has learned a good deal about gravity in the past several months, too. We'll keep track of this handsome boy.

Charlie and I are working on a birthday tape for his fans.

Oh, and I woke at 6:30 this morning from a dream in which I was at a large party with music and dancing. I had three possible dresses to wear and was wondering whether I had proper white heels to match a dress, when I found myself standing beside the bar stark naked and bare-footed with nothing but a piece of poster board for cover.

Does it come down to thinking of wearing white shoes between Labor Day and Easter? Down here I certainly wouldn't be dressed if I did.

So I open the door of the truck and step down into the parking lot of Fred's.

On the puddled lot lies one slice of white bread, still dry on this damp day.

Not to be particularly hateful, but y'all get cut roses and I have a new bloom for Valentine's Day.

I never had an orchid for the senior prom. I also wasn't a senior. (Didn't ever go to a prom, either, for that matter.)

Until about now. I'll be 50 in a few more days.

I'd like to ask Mr. Cowen how many times he has vacuumed the bedroom carpet? Someone must do it, right?

I shouldn't say this, but this Super Bowl halftime is the first time I've ever listened to Prince. Or really seen him.

How did that happen?

Too cool. The second line has gone wild.

Michael went to see them in Natchez last night and brought me a CD.

Hip-hop, jazz, and a lot of brass. Works for me.

UPDATE: Their myspace page has several clips.

UPDATE: I'm listening on the Ipod. The boys make much better music than their lyrics would suggest.

The Johnsons now have a TV star in their midst!

Kiwi, the green bird with the yellow beak, is a male Solomon Island Eclectus. A mate for Lucy would look like him. That kind of "dimorphism" is rare in the parrot world.

It won't work. Not right now.

I bought 12 blank signs from Smith Printing, and duct-taped ten together (for 24 square feet) on the inside so Charlie couldn't get a purchase on those chewy edges.

The enclosure just makes him frantic. No harm done, but no go for him.

However, I plan to keep it around. There might be uses for it later. It folds down to 18" x 24" x 2-1/2".

It would do, I think, everything that the Grrreat Wall can do at 1/5 the cost. So, for a small kitten or puppy or rat, or guinea pig, or young birds, it might be a dandy playpen. Worth trying, anyway.

I am: Hal Clement (Harry C. Stubbs) A quiet and underrated master of "hard science" fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s.

Which science fiction writer are you?

I don't read much science fiction and never have. So I don't know this gentleman at all. (From Sarah)

Pierre C. Shadeaux did not see his shadow this morning.

So spring should be around the corner.

Corrugated plastic sign stock is $1 per 18" x 24" sheet at Smith Printing in Natchez.

18" would, I think, do.