Tank, I need a primer on how to deep-fry.

Matrix III is all set. Friday night (unless you're reading this within an hour of me posting it, that's "tonight"), at the Harkins in Scottsdale Fashion Square, for the 10:00 pm showing. The plan is to rendezvous by the elevators in front of the theatre at 9:30, but I'll probably be there somewhat earlier, since I'll be home from the track around 7:15 and all I'll be doing is sitting around in high anticipation. Anyway, if anyone needs a ride, email me (tfg46@cox.net) sometime tomorrow.

It's been an interesting week. Dad's up in Wichita getting a new load of dogs situated, and our trainer from up there, Lazaro, drove down a load of dogs from there to take to Apache when it opens later this month. On the trip down, he got horrible gas mileage, so Dad told me to take it to Tommy Bishop's to have it tuned up. On the way out of town Tuesday night, though, Lazaro called and said he couldn't get it over 45. He came back and stayed the night, and in the morning we took it back to Tom's. Turns out the catalytic converter was totally shot, and the muffler wasn't far behind. So Lazaro had to hang around until 2:00 in the afternoon while we had the whole exhaust system replaced ($600), then had to drive all night to get back into Wichita by 6:00 this morning. Bleh. I felt badly for him, but if he'd mentioned to us that the truck sounded like a top-fuel dragster and wasn't running right three weeks ago, we could have had it fixed up there before he made the trip. He'd heard it, he said, but he didn't think there was anything wrong. *cough* Oh well... we got through it.

The dogs are running a little better this week. It's a cyclical thing... they're not going to be in peak form all the time. The best trainers, though, know how to extend the upswings while minimizing the downswings, espeically by paying attention to dogs who are starting to slip off form. Catch them before they lose too much confidence, and you can have them right back on the active list in no time, with just a week or so off spent doing light workouts.

Tonight, I also reaffirmed the fact that I can't use a deep-fryer. If I were stranded on a desert island with a deep-fryer and a bag of frozen french fries, I'd starve. (Well, okay... I'd probably gnaw on the frozen french fries, and, well, I guess they wouldn't stay frozen for long, but you get my point.) I don't know what the big secret is to having my potatoes come out all perfectly crisp on the outside and not soggy on the inside, like the hashbrown sticks at Del Taco. Oooohhhhhhh.... those little buggers are marvels of potato perfection. I mean, Sonic's tater tots are good, but Del Taco has got chopped and formed potatoes down to a T. The only tots I've ever had that were better, I got at a place called Taco John's. (Seriously.) There was one down on University and Rural for a while but they closed up shop a long time ago; they're actually really big in Kansas, which is where I first tried their Potato Olés. Little flattened tater tots, seasoned to perfection, soooooo delicious with a dollop of sour cream. McDonald's hashbrown patties can be good sometimes, but then again, everything else on the breakfast menu at McDonald's sucks (much like Del Taco) so it's hard to justify making a special stop there.

Anyway, back to the crisis at hand... I just don't know what it is. I used fresh oil, didn't overfill my cooker, only filled the basket half full, cooked them at the right temperature for the right amount of time, and they still weren't GBD (that's Golden Brown & Delicious... cookspeak). So I cooked them until they looked right, and they were somewhat crunchy on the outside, but the insides tasted like Idahoan insta-potato granules mixed with lukewarm tap water. And then they just soaked up the ketchup like a sponge, so instead of having that tang when you first bite into them mellowed out by the delicious interior of the tot, it's just sort of this bland, ketchup-and-mashed-potato taste all the way through. *sigh* Like my title says... this is where being jacked into the Matrix would be handy.

Anyway, I'm gonna head back to watch more TV. Housesitting for my parents last weekend left me behind on my programs. I made it through last Thursday and Friday earlier, and now I'm working on Saturday fare: America's Most Wanted and L.A. Dragnet. Among things to look for on here soon is my opinions about the shows I'm watching, including the new ones I've checked out. I heard they already cancelled Skin on Fox. Aww... well, the guy from Timecop will have to find a new gig already. I hope the cast enjoyed those prime seats in Yankee Stadium that Fox kept showing them in, because that was the pinnacle of their popularity: before the show premiered.