I haven’t written anything in a few days. That’s because I decided to take on a pretty big project. Specifically, I’ve been moving stuff around in our dining room/studio. The idea hit me last week, when I realized that we really need to have a better “studio” space for recording podcasts and music. Starting on Thursday night, I began disassembling things and moving them around. (Jen helped with the fish tank. A note to aquarium filter companies: YOU SUCK!!) I’m done with the heavy stuff. Now I’m getting the smaller details in order. I’ll have an update in the next few days. (With pictures.)

Jen’s been working on a book about her experiences as a teacher in Illinois. Awhile back, she submitted some of the manuscript to a contest held by The Memoirists Collective. Jen didn’t win the contest. But as a “consolation prize,” the Collective has been posting the contest entrants’ submissions on its MySpace blog. Jen’s writing was chosen for the Collective’s latest blog post. What’s posted is from the second draft of her book. She’s still in the process of revising and editing. Anyway, I’m proud of her for putting her work out there, and I think she’s got a great story to tell. Now she just needs to get it published, get it on Oprah, and wait for the sweet, sweet cash money to roll in.

I was out for a walk a few weeks back. I needed to pick up a few things before heading home. I decided to stop into Laurel Lane Liquor. (I wasn’t buying booze!) I gathered up the few things I was after, including a Don Miguel breakfast burrito. I picked up the burrito so I’d have something to eat later that night at work.

As you can probably tell from the above photo, I chose the breakfast burrito. The packaging is simple, but the heating instructions are impossibly small to read. (They’re at the very bottom of the package in the photo on the left. But hey, it’s not like it’s all that complex to microwave a burrito.) As I was unwrapping the burrito from its paper sheath, the ‘rito started falling apart. Not sure if the burrito wasn’t structurally sound, or if my eagerness to experience its breakfasty goodness was too much. Regardless, I managed to get all of the burrito onto the paper plate. It was now ready for cooking. I placed it inside the microwave and decided on 2.5 minutes as a good warming period for the liquor store burrito.

(Before I continue with the review, I urge everyone to check out the official Don Miguel website. I’m not certain what’s going on in the animated Flash intro, but… mariachi!)

After a healthy dose of radiation, the burrito came out of the microwave nice and hot. You can see in the following photo how it had started falling apart during unwrapping.

I decided to rip it apart the rest of the way to make it easier to eat. The burrito was filled with the usual breakfast fillings: Eggs, cheese, sausage (maybe potatoes?).

There was also a slight hint of pepper. Nothing too strong, though. (However, it’s that kind of peppery flavor. You know, the kind you tend to find in things like liquor store burritos.) Overall, not a bad-tasting little burrito. It’s got nothing on the breakfast ‘ritos from Higera Street Cafe. But, for something out of the liquor store cooler - not bad.

What was bad is how it affected my digestive tract later that day. I’ll spare the details. Suffice it to say, in this regard, Don Miguel’s Mexican cuisine is truly authentic.

(Photos also available through Flickr.)

Last Friday night, Jen and I met up with some friends at a local bar called Z Club. I had been warned that the place is a dive. And I guess if you compare it to Mother’s Tavern (where we’ve gone for karaoke in the past), it kinda is. But overall, the place isn’t that bad. Sure, the floor is perpetually sticky, and there’s an elevated stripper poll in the middle of the place. But it’s not that bad.

Like most evenings of karaoke, this one began with the procurement of drinks, followed by the process of finding the right songs. I was impressed with Z Club’s massive selection of karaoke tunes. Z’s catalog is WAY bigger than what they’ve got at Mother’s. Me and Jen both scoured the book to find our backing tracks of choice. We then filled out our song-selection slips and turned them into the DJ. (”KJ?”)

Jen’s first performance was “Under The Milky Way.” My first song was “Electrolite” (a personal favorite). Of course, we weren’t the only ones singing that night. Over the next hour, we heard an interesting collection of Joy Division, Cardigans and U2 songs (among others). Then, Jen was back up with her take on “Our Lips Are Sealed.” She struggled with some of the high notes. But she did OK. My next song was “Army.” And talk about struggling! I flubbed the first verse (I couldn’t hear the backing track that well) and barely recovered the rest of the song. Another hour passed as we heard karaoke-ized versions of Eminem, Bon Jovi and Nancy Sinatra tunes (again, among others). Jen capped her evening with a fine rendition of “Only Happy When It Rains.” Her voice is a good match for Shirley Manson. My last song was “Pictures Of Lily,” and I believe I redeemed myself with this one. It helped that I know this song really well, and it’s a little closer to my range (whatever exactly that is).

Not too long after that, the night started winding down, and our group began to head in separate directions. We had a good time, though. It was great to get out there and sing again.

And getting back to the whole “dive bar” thing: On our way out, we had to squeeze around some guys on a ladder who were working on the front door. We asked what had happened, and their only response was, “Someone broke the door.” I don’t remember ever hearing of something like that at Mother’s.

Every time some new thing comes along that sweeps across the Internets, I always swear that I won’t get into it. I said the same thing about Twitter. Well, a couple nights ago, I succumbed and signed up.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is like a “hyper blogging” service. And while blogs can be used to provide timely information, Twitter is specifically designed to tell people what you’re doing right now. Twitter entries are limited to 140 characters, so it’s not the right platform for posting a 1,000-word diatribe on why “Mr. Belvedere” is the greatest sitcom of all time. But if you want people to know that you’re cooking dinner, it’s the perfect tool.

Really, the main reason I even signed up with Twitter was to add a little “supplemental blog” to Shawnogram. I’d like to update this site often, and if there’s ever a lag between posts, readers can check out the Twitter badge on the right-hand side of this page to see what’s going on.

And while I may have caved in when it comes to Twitter, I’m still not using Flickr. Not yet, anyway.

(If anyone reading this would like to add me to your Twitter friends, please feel free.)