A friend of mine wants me to go to Vegas with her over Valentine's Day weekend. The only issue is that I'm already flying to California on Feb 25th. Then again, I've never been to Vegas.

Decisions! Why so difficult?

I don't know if this is the right thread for this, but: Apparently Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are getting married! My roommate just jumped up and down going "omg they're gonna have goth babies" for about five minutes."

Always go a new place, Shrift!

(Barring some compelling reason of course)

Giant disco ball should battle it out with that thing the mythbusters built trying to make Archimedes' death ray.

I saw that! And I think they did Archimedes' thing wrong, though I don't remember why. I find these reproduce-historical-builds things frustrating, because they won't go whole-hog, with the disregard for current safety regs and expendable labor. Granted, history grad students cost more than the average slave, but I would think for some extra credit the average grad student might be willing to forego OSHA oversite.

I sneer at you winter-three-day-weekend-having people. MLK Day in the Intermountain West is looked at suspiciously as possibly being a socialist plot, so not many people get it off.

I start pretty much everything with sauteed onions and garlic so I'd prefer to add the fat there than in the crumbles if I'm using them instead of meat.

You know, if I put onions in mine, that makes perfect sense. Since I avoid onions, I don't really have more than 1 step in my process (that step being Open Up Ingredients And Toss In Pot).

Maybe I'll try it with sauteed onions one day.

Holli! That's exciting news.

I start pretty much everything with sauteed onions and garlic

Me too! Which is exactly why I've been excited to find little packages of fresh minced garlic/onion/shallots at Trader Joe's.

It's not all manky like a lot of prechopped garlic. It's really good and cuts the prep time down to nothing.

My veggie chilli has lots of veggies in it, but no fake meat. You can add other veggies and I like mine spicy, so you might want to omit the cayenne and chilli flakes if you don't like it hot.

All measures are guesstimates

1 med onion chopped corasely
3 celery stalks chopped into 1" peices
2-3 med. carrots grated
mushrooms corsely chopped (1-2 c.)
large green pepper coarsely chopped
medium zucchini chopped
hot peppers finely chopped (optional)
can of tomatoes
can of black beans (rinsed and drained)
can of kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
can of corn niblets (rinsed and drained)
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 tsp of cayenne
1 tbsp of hot chilli flakes
1 tsp of cumin
1 pinch cinnamon

Saute onions, add celery and garlic. Saute on medium for a couple of minutes. Add rest of veggies and saute for few more minutes. Add beans, corn, tomatoes,& tomato paste. Allow to simmer on medium until things start bubbling, turn to medium low and let cook another 20-30 minutes.

I caved and ordered in a too expensive plate of sushi.

We're heading out in about 10 minutes to get sushi.

When I was a vegetarian, I use to toss about half a cup of hearty red wine in my chili. I've heard other people say nice things about a good slug of beer, but I'm more likely to have wine on hand.

I still put red wine in my chili, even though it usually has meat these days. I like wine.