Hailing Frequencies Open

This weekend, my Chromie homies and I had the pleasure
of performing at the Shoreleave Star Trek convention as
the Masquerade half-time entertainment. The Masquerade
is a costume/skit contest. The half-time entertainment
keeps the room full of sci-fi fans entertained and
occupied while the judges tally their scores. Plenty
of Klngons in the running, and even a Phantom of the
Opera duo. And an amazing Jack Sparrow. They were all
winners in our book.

The guest of honor at the Conn was Nichelle Nichols,
Leuitenant Uhura from Star Trek: The Original Series.
She was gracious, warm, outspoken, chatty and beautiful.
She remembered narrating a planetarium show called Hotter
than Blue, which features our song High Energy Groove.

All the more exciting for us is that we had our Shoreleave
Special Edition of our brand new CD hot off the presses!
It's called Committed, and we still have a few copies left.
go to our Website to get one!


Phew. We're so happy the CD is done we don't quite know
what to do with ourselves. Enjoy the second half of 2007
perhaps.

My "Trifle" Recipe

I admit it: I only have a vague idea of what a "trifle"
really is, and I am far too lazy to visit Wikipedia to
find out. I don't want to let my vague idea become marred by
reality. But I make a mean "trifle" of sorts, and it is an
easy and crowd-pleasing summer recipe. So here goes:

Go shopping for the following:

Sara Lee frozen pound cake (only store it in the fridge)
A couple cans of whipped cream
whatever kinds of FRESH berries you like (say, 2 cups)
whatever exciting alcohol is not in your possession:
(options: apricot brandy, Chambord raspberry liqueur, Grand Marnier,
you get the idea) Could be replaced by fruit juice and almond
extract if you wanna go virgin.

You probably have a big clear glass bowl or dish. Get it out.
Some of us even got "trifle dishes" along the road of life.

A few hours before dessert:

On a deep plate, mix to taste your alcohol.
Maybe 1/2 cup total? Your call.

Cut the entire pound cake into 1 centimeter-sized
little cubes. Then toss them onto the deep plate
so they become alcohol-infused.

When the cubes are moist, but still fairly solid, transfer
to a bowl and add enough whipped cream so that they kind of
stick together.

Meanwhile, slice your berries into fairly small pieces. In
a separate bowl, mix sliced berries with similar combination of
alcohol (say, 1/4 cup booze, your call). Let that meld a bit.
You can mash any blackberries or raspberries for more effect.

Now, in the clear glass bowl, layer in the following order:

-the pound cake mixture
-the berries mixture
-just whipped cream
-the pound cake mixture
-the berries mixture
-just whipped cream

Repeat those layers til you run out of stuff.

Make sure the top layer is just whipped cream.

Add a few artistically placed whole berries right on top.

Serve and enjoy!

Winner's Circle

The Indians, my son's little league baseball team,
won the Greenbelt World Series last night, taking
the first two games (in the best-of-three series)!
And the boy got his first legitimate hit, which
scored the last run of their season. We are all over
the moon delighted. What an amazing way to end your
first year ever in an organized sport, eh?

There was no big party afterward, and if I'd known
that would happen, I'd have spent an hour decluttering
the house and buying beer, wine, nachos and Gatorade
and hosted one myself. But I wasn't even that prepared,
so the season appears to have ended with a whimper, as
one parent after another slowly gathered their brood,
said goodbye as if it were just another game night,
and drove out of the parking lot of 7 Southway court.

I hear there's an awards banquet in September. Maybe
that'll give me enough time to organize a post-banquet
get together on our deck and in our basement. Maybe we'll
even splurge for a foosball table by then!

Go Greenbelt! Go Indians!!!