2001-06-04 - 10:58 a.m.

I've been pretty negligent in my writing, for a couple of reasons. The first is that this week saw the return of Da Boss-Lady to the office, meaning that I've had actual work to do in the office, and nothing cuts into my writing time like actual work. I also spent some time at my parents' house, and chose to labor over the sewing macbine and digital cable instead of my parents' crappy modem and unreliable service (MSN, for anyone who cares). Life is such a series of trade-offs.

Anywho, I did have a fun weekend, starting off with dinner at Spice Island and happy hour at the Warhol with Dave, Jess (newly returned from Spain and very tan), and Gus. It turned out to be something of a museum weekend, because, on Saturday, Gus and I headed over to the John Heinz Regional History Center in order to catch an exhibit about the Beatles before it closed on the 17th. It was pretty sweet, lots of good photos, some of which I hadn't seen, with commetary by the photographer, who knew the boys pretty well, and provided lots of cool info. (BTW, of all the Beatles, the photographer was closest to George, making him an obviously credible person and a sensitive and gifted artist. I mean, he was friends with GEORGE for chrissakes. What's cooler than that?)

The History Center is cool because it's very interactive, obviously in a way that's meant to keep children occupied, but being as immature as we are, Gus and I were very enthusiastic about partaking in activities like the Beatles board game (we tied - he gets cooler the longer he dates me, I swear) and trying on corsets (he was pretty good at lacing me up, too, although unwilling to get into one himself. Too bad a men's model was not available.) All in all, I was pretty lucky in that there were a large proportion of exhibits that appealed to me, beyond the obvious Beatles attraction: one about vintage clothing, another about glass (I am a huge dish geek), in addition to an exhibit about Heinz products that was surprisingly fun and entertaining, and another exhibit about making a life in Western PA that we thought was particularly well done.

Afterward, we prepared a chicken recipe so good I feel obligated to include it here. I doubled the sauce recipe in order to have somethign to pour over rice.

You are going to have to forgive the Picasso-esque cut-and-paste job courtesy of Diaryland. The resulting chicken is worth it.

Ingredients ��

�����1/3�cup�butter, melted

1/3�cup�honey

1/4�cup�Dijon-style prepared mustard

4�teaspoons�curry powder

1�pinch�ground cayenne pepper

4�skinless, boneless chicken breasts

�Directions ��1 In a medium bowl combine the melted butter/margarine, honey, mustard, curry powder and cayenne powder. Mix well. Place chicken breasts in a 9x13 inch baking dish and pour honey/mustard mixture over chicken. Cover and place in refrigerator. Marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

2 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

3 Remove dish from refrigerator and bake, covered, in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove cover and bake about 10 minutes more, or until done and juices run clear (baking time will depend a little on how thick your chicken breasts are).

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