My friend Chopper of Cars! Cars! Cars! sent me an email challenging me to join in updating my blog everyday this year. The 365-posts-a-year thing, intimidated me, but then I realized that I can make my own rules.

So, Chopper, I accept your challenge, but I’ve decided on what seems like a more realistic schedule for me. I’ll try to post every work day: that is, Monday through Friday, not counting vacation days, holidays and sick days. Hopefully, having a blogging buddy will help me stick to the schedule.

Update: Okay, so this is just embarrassing now since I so clearly have not updated my blog in, like, forever. I think I’ll leave the post here though as a reminder to myself not to make outlandish promises — especially when I’m working AND going to school part-time.

I’m now adopting a new philosophy: Blogging without Obligation. Sorry, Chopper.

Today one of the research fellows at work regaled my boss and I with the following joke:

[A classicist] goes into a bar.

[At this point, both of us started laughing already since the jokester used the actual name of our resident classics fellow.]

He walks up to the counter and says “Give me a martinus.”

The bartender says, “Don’t you mean a martini?

The classicist bangs his fist on the bar, ” If I wanted a double I would have asked for it, dammit!”

How do you say ba-dum-chuck in Latin?

Well, folks, I survived National Blog Posting Month, posting 30 times in 30 days. Now I’ve decided to continue with this blog madness by doing my second annual virtual Advent calendar of posts (aka Julkalender, since it was originally inspired by a Norwegian TV show Swedish blogger).

The goal is to put up one post a day from December 1 through 25 just like you open one door on a traditional Advent calendar for each day leading up to Christmas.

Here are my some thoughts for those of you stopping by during December:

• I may back-date posts, but I’m still planning on doing 25 of them. Some nights I’m tired and go to sleep early and post the next morning. This gives you plenty of excuses to check back for updates.
• Don’t expect many actual Christmas-related posts. I’m more likely to post about Squidmas. That doesn’t mean that I can’t use the Advent calendar conceit. I was brought up Christian, and I still celebrate Christmas in an eating-Chex-Mix, exchanging-presents, home-for-the-holidays sort of way. These days, I’m a born-again non-believer, though. (And if parents are godparents are reading this, well, sorry ’bout that. The scientists got a hold of me.)

Today’s fiddle tune is a polska I wrote as part of my final project in a music theory and composition course last spring. I wrote the melody on the piano, so it’s a little tricky on fiddle in the B part.

Yes, the Gävlebock is back, and he’s started posting on his blog.

Workers installed the goat at the Castle Square (Slottstorget) in Gävle today in preparation for the big opening-day ceremony on Sunday.

I’ve linked to the English version of the blog, but if you can you read Swedish, you might want to check out the Swedish version as well since there are some details that go missing in the translation — like the fact that the goats horns were a little mussed after his summer storage — or are contain amusing misspellings — such as the goat being “tiered” instead of “tired” after today’s intensive activities.

What could be better than chocolate or bacon? How about chocolate AND bacon?

Vosges Chocolate has introduced Mo’s Bacon Bar — deep milk chocolate with applewood-smoked bacon and alder-smoked salt. They’d already sold me on the glories of chocolate, salt and smoke with their Barcelona Bar (deep milk chocolate, sea salt, hickory-smoked almonds), so there’s no question that I’ll have to try the new addition to their line.

A local gourmet shop sells Vosges products, so guess where I’m going after work tomorrow.

What is it with Sweden and giant animals these days?

Not to be outdone by the goat-builders of Gävle, Swedes in Norsjö in Västerbotten province have decided to build world’s largest moose. (Yes, I know the article headline says “elk.” That’s “moose” to those of us who don’t speak British.)

You can read more about the plans for the moose at the project Web site. (I love the scale drawing that lets you compare a “real moose” and a “BIG moose!”)

Or, even better, check out the virtual video tour of the inside of the moose, which will feature a 350-seat concert hall, a restaurant and a state-of-the-art conference center. The best line from the video has to be, “Inside the mouth, between the teeth and the tonsils, you’ll find the reception and gift-shop.”

[Honestly, I swear I'll stop posting about Sweden one of these days, but I just can't help myself when I keep encountering stories like this.]

Evidently I’m not alone in loving library smell. CB I Hate Perfume has come out with a fragrance called “In the Library,” which the Web site describes as “Russian & Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish.”

In case you’re a fan of other unusual scents they also sell fragrances called “Burning Leaves,” “In the Summer Kitchen,” and “I Am a Dandelion.” I might just have to order “Memory of Kindness,” though, since it features one of my absolute favorite smells: tomato vine.

Via: Salon.com’s holiday gift guide.

I’ve been having a kasha craving for a week or so now. It must be the change of season. Toasty, fluffy buckwheat is one of the best things I know to eat when the weather gets damp and cold.

I resurrected a dish I used to eat all the time when I lived in Washington, DC five years ago. This is the way my cravings work. I get hooked on a particular meal and then cook it until I’m tired of it. After a few years, I can start eating it again.

• 1 cup stock, broth or water
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 egg white, whisked until just frothy
• 1/2 cup kasha
• 1 10-ounce box of button mushrooms (or a combination of various types of cultivated and wild mushrooms), washed, stemmed and sliced
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/4 cup sour cream (low-fat is fine)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring stock and 1 tablespoon of the butter to a boil in a small sauce pan.
2. While the liquid is heating, stir egg white into dry kasha.
3. Spread the grain in a medium non-stick skillet over medium high heat.
4. Add kasha and toast until grains are dry and fragrant. Stir constantly to break up any clumps that form.
5. Add boiling stock to skillet. Reduce heat to low. Cover and steam until liquid is absorbed and kasha is fluffy — about 7 – 10 minutes.
6. While kasha steams, heat butter until foamy in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté.
7. When the mushrooms are almost cooked, stir in paprika and sauté a minute more. Stir in sour cream and reduce heat to low. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. When kasha is steamed fluff with a fork and serve topped with the mushrooms.

Serves: 2 (or 1 with leftovers for the next day)

Am I the only one who’s bothered by the fact that Jerry Seinfeld voices the lead in Bee Movie?

It’s not that I have objections to Seinfeld, but aren’t worker bees female?