Saturday, September 13, 2008
Trill
The bird has decided that her favorite sleeping place on me is scooted underneath my fingers when my hands are on the trackpad. I so wish I could get a picture of it, because it's incredibly cute. She tucks her head over my thumb just like she tucks it into her back. Meanwhile, the dog is asleep across my legs. I am a prisoner of my sleeping animals, thinking of all the things I should be doing...vacuuming, dealing with the kitchen floor (which is crazy dirty after all the cooking I've been doing lately), grocery shopping, oh, yeah, the really boring Saturday stuff. But how can I disturb the sleeping dog and bird? Starting to type woke the bird, though, and now she's trying to nibble me.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Waiting for Disaster
This week contained the most invisible 9/11 of the past seven years. It seemed to slip by without mention. Where were the moments of silence? The memorial services? Despite never having worn a ribbon for a cause in my life, I think I want a 9/11 ribbon, something to demonstrate visually that on that one day a year, we still remember and we still mourn. Even if the things we mourn are a lot more complicated than they were seven years ago.
Maybe because it's that week and memories of disaster linger, I'm feeling really anxious about Ike. I keep flipping on the television for brief moments and then walking away from the nothing that is the news. Just a few minutes ago, I watched a clip on CNN and in the background, a woman in yellow was posing flirtatiously on the beach. I wanted the CNN reporter to run across and get her name, so that we'd know if she was on the list of the dead later. But even the thought seemed overly paranoid. Still, hanging out in Galveston right now seems like a really stupid choice.
My anxiety, of course, is translating into food. There's a bowl of bread dough rising on the counter, and the house already smells of the beef stew I started an hour ago.
Maybe because it's that week and memories of disaster linger, I'm feeling really anxious about Ike. I keep flipping on the television for brief moments and then walking away from the nothing that is the news. Just a few minutes ago, I watched a clip on CNN and in the background, a woman in yellow was posing flirtatiously on the beach. I wanted the CNN reporter to run across and get her name, so that we'd know if she was on the list of the dead later. But even the thought seemed overly paranoid. Still, hanging out in Galveston right now seems like a really stupid choice.
My anxiety, of course, is translating into food. There's a bowl of bread dough rising on the counter, and the house already smells of the beef stew I started an hour ago.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Ready for the job
Said to the boy tonight, "She's my age. Am I ready to be President? No!"
His response: I think you'd be an excellent president. People would hate you but you'd do a good job.
I thanked him for the compliment. He repeated that I really would do a good job, but I'd be despised.
Why do I feel like that was a warm fuzzy?
His response: I think you'd be an excellent president. People would hate you but you'd do a good job.
I thanked him for the compliment. He repeated that I really would do a good job, but I'd be despised.
Why do I feel like that was a warm fuzzy?
Twitter?
I am completely mystified while trying to figure out how to make my twitter updates show up in this blogger blog. And it occurs to me--we got a proposal for a twitter book recently. I was skeptical. But aha! Perhaps this is why people need a twitter book. Meanwhile, I turn a tweet into a blog post just because I can. Because this is a tweet if ever I've written one.
Lunch 2
Well, breakfast really. Threw some marinated artichokes and a bunch of different kinds of shredded cheese into the food processor, spread the resulting mush onto rosemary bread, toasted it, sprinkled it with garlic powder, ate. Pretty yum, but not a 10 or anything. Definitely a solid 6 or 7.
For lunch, I actually had the steel-cut oatmeal that I'd been meaning to have for breakfast but got sick of waiting for. I'm going to have to try the oatmeal on a different setting of the rice cooker.
For lunch, I actually had the steel-cut oatmeal that I'd been meaning to have for breakfast but got sick of waiting for. I'm going to have to try the oatmeal on a different setting of the rice cooker.
100 Foods
I saw this food meme, created by Andrew at Very Good Taste, a while ago, and thought it looked like fun. Hmm, maybe subconsciously it's why I tried to log into this blog again. But anyway, 100 Foods for Omnivores...let's see if I can manage a copy and paste! (As expected the copy wasn't the problem, but fixing the formatting annoyed me.) One is supposed to bold the foods one has tried, and cross out the foods one will never try. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do a strike-through. Eesh.
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea (I'm sure I would try this, but unless it comes packaged in tea bags in the grocery store, I'm not going to make any effort to try. Nettles hurt!)
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (like many others, I have eaten alligator. But not crocodile. Does America even have crocodiles? Yep, I should know that.)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari (Rory will not let me eat calamari anymore--he wants to study squid some day and believes that they are the intelligent animal that will take over the world after human life dies out. But Michelle and I used to make it together in London and it was probably the first truly exotic food that I ever ate. Exotic to me, anyway.)
12. Pho (With Pam in Seattle for the first time. Also had it here in Florida and got food poisoning. Alas.)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (Hmm, an interesting one. I think yes, but am trying to remember when that would be. My life doesn't offer too many street carts. Does the cart outside Home Depont count? It's not nearly as romantic-sounding, but it's a cart, it's on a sidewalk, it's a hot dog...)
16. Epoisses (A cheese I have not eaten? But it's unpasteurized, and I bet that makes it very hard to find in the US.)
17. Black truffle (Not in any real sense. I think I had some in a sauce over ravioli once, but I'm not going to count that since it was such a minute amount it couldn't be tasted. The restaurant was probably Citron, in Oakland.)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (This reminds me of the dandelion wine Michelle and I made in Chicago. Oh, how nasty that was! But I think I've tried strawberry wine at a winery in California, too. Either way, I have this one.)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (Living on Pine Street in Santa Cruz, we'd walk down the alley and pick the fresh raspberries on our way to the beach.)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (Epcot Food & Wine Festival!)
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (This sounds yum. I might have to try to make it.
31. Wasabi peas (Can't say I like them, though!)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (In San Francisco, on the wharf. How cliché can one get? And yet it tasted great.)
33. Salted lassi (Lassi, yes. Salted lassi? I think no.)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea (I'm assuming this isn't tea made with clotted cream, but tea the meal with clotted cream for scones or some such thing. There was a tea shop in London that I so loved--I wonder if it's still there. It was actually on Oxford Street I think.)
38.Vodka jelly/Jell-O (Unbelievably, I believe I made it through college without ever trying this. And I'm never going to. But I don't know yet how to cross something out. I'll try some pretend HTML and see if that works...)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (Maybe at a Korean restaurant? But maybe not, too. I'm calling this one a no.)
41. Curried goat (I have eaten goat, but only Mexican-style, not curried.)
42. Whole insects (Inadvertently yes, I'm sure, but not on purpose, so that's a no.
43. Phaal (Tasted, yes, eaten, not really.)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (Debating whether to cross this one out. For that matter, how would I know how much the bottle is worth if someone else serves me the whisky? If you pay $20 for a glass of whisky, then the bottle must be worth that much, right? And I have tried whisky that's supposed to be comparable to a $300 bottle, but I didn't actually pay that much. This one feels like a trick question. But I'll leave it as I would try it, but probably haven't.)
46.Fugu (An exercise in trust, and I am not that trusting.
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin (I think I tried sea urchin in sushi once and hated it. But I'm not completely sure, so I'll leave it unmarked.)
51. Prickly pear (Mexico, with the Thomases.)
52. Umeboshi (I had to look this one up! A Japanese food that I've never even heard of, I'm appalled at myself. But it's a no.)
53. Abalone (As a parent, I feel really quite pleased that my son has eaten a food that I haven't eaten--and this one is it. It's been endangered as far as I knew since I've been old enough to choose my food, but he ate it this summer in California from the sustainable fishery there. He rocks, my boy!)
54. Paneer (I'm thinking this is bread? But I'm going to have to look it up. Oh, it's the cheese--yes, of course I've had that.)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (Probably a sip during an F. martini phase. Never liked martinis, though.)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (not even sure what that means.)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian Michelle and I bought some, all unwittingly, to eat on the train to France. The smell alone made me so sick that we wound up trying it early and throwing it away. Even now, the thought gets my gag reflex going.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Had funnel cake at Epcot just a couple days ago. It does not belong in the same link as a good beignet!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73.Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76.Baijiu (Fifteen years ago, some of my answers would have been different. But at this point in my life, I'm not really going to drink strange alcohols, even for the experience.)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (Every day!)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (Another Epcot food! I think that might start to get embarassing.)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. ( I wish!)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (I wonder if there is a distinction between hare and rabbit. One wild, maybe, the other not? But I tried rabbit for the first time way back in my first year at college, in Canada, and I'm counting it.)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89.Horse
90. Criollo chocolate (This one actually isn't in wikipedia, but I assume it's crillo cocoa, rather than a brand name.)
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (Also not in Wikipedia. I've got harissa paste in my cupboard for making chickpea stew, but I don't know what the rose part might change.)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (Kinda, sorta, but I'm voting it has to be the real thing, pure. I had some coffee once that was mixed with Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, and it was just...coffee.
100. Snake
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea (I'm sure I would try this, but unless it comes packaged in tea bags in the grocery store, I'm not going to make any effort to try. Nettles hurt!)
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (like many others, I have eaten alligator. But not crocodile. Does America even have crocodiles? Yep, I should know that.)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari (Rory will not let me eat calamari anymore--he wants to study squid some day and believes that they are the intelligent animal that will take over the world after human life dies out. But Michelle and I used to make it together in London and it was probably the first truly exotic food that I ever ate. Exotic to me, anyway.)
12. Pho (With Pam in Seattle for the first time. Also had it here in Florida and got food poisoning. Alas.)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (Hmm, an interesting one. I think yes, but am trying to remember when that would be. My life doesn't offer too many street carts. Does the cart outside Home Depont count? It's not nearly as romantic-sounding, but it's a cart, it's on a sidewalk, it's a hot dog...)
16. Epoisses (A cheese I have not eaten? But it's unpasteurized, and I bet that makes it very hard to find in the US.)
17. Black truffle (Not in any real sense. I think I had some in a sauce over ravioli once, but I'm not going to count that since it was such a minute amount it couldn't be tasted. The restaurant was probably Citron, in Oakland.)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (This reminds me of the dandelion wine Michelle and I made in Chicago. Oh, how nasty that was! But I think I've tried strawberry wine at a winery in California, too. Either way, I have this one.)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (Living on Pine Street in Santa Cruz, we'd walk down the alley and pick the fresh raspberries on our way to the beach.)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (Epcot Food & Wine Festival!)
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (This sounds yum. I might have to try to make it.
31. Wasabi peas (Can't say I like them, though!)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (In San Francisco, on the wharf. How cliché can one get? And yet it tasted great.)
33. Salted lassi (Lassi, yes. Salted lassi? I think no.)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea (I'm assuming this isn't tea made with clotted cream, but tea the meal with clotted cream for scones or some such thing. There was a tea shop in London that I so loved--I wonder if it's still there. It was actually on Oxford Street I think.)
38.
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (Maybe at a Korean restaurant? But maybe not, too. I'm calling this one a no.)
41. Curried goat (I have eaten goat, but only Mexican-style, not curried.)
42. Whole insects (Inadvertently yes, I'm sure, but not on purpose, so that's a no.
43. Phaal (Tasted, yes, eaten, not really.)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (Debating whether to cross this one out. For that matter, how would I know how much the bottle is worth if someone else serves me the whisky? If you pay $20 for a glass of whisky, then the bottle must be worth that much, right? And I have tried whisky that's supposed to be comparable to a $300 bottle, but I didn't actually pay that much. This one feels like a trick question. But I'll leave it as I would try it, but probably haven't.)
46.
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin (I think I tried sea urchin in sushi once and hated it. But I'm not completely sure, so I'll leave it unmarked.)
51. Prickly pear (Mexico, with the Thomases.)
52. Umeboshi (I had to look this one up! A Japanese food that I've never even heard of, I'm appalled at myself. But it's a no.)
53. Abalone (As a parent, I feel really quite pleased that my son has eaten a food that I haven't eaten--and this one is it. It's been endangered as far as I knew since I've been old enough to choose my food, but he ate it this summer in California from the sustainable fishery there. He rocks, my boy!)
54. Paneer (I'm thinking this is bread? But I'm going to have to look it up. Oh, it's the cheese--yes, of course I've had that.)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (Probably a sip during an F. martini phase. Never liked martinis, though.)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (not even sure what that means.)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian Michelle and I bought some, all unwittingly, to eat on the train to France. The smell alone made me so sick that we wound up trying it early and throwing it away. Even now, the thought gets my gag reflex going.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Had funnel cake at Epcot just a couple days ago. It does not belong in the same link as a good beignet!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73.
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76.
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (Every day!)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (Another Epcot food! I think that might start to get embarassing.)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. ( I wish!)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (I wonder if there is a distinction between hare and rabbit. One wild, maybe, the other not? But I tried rabbit for the first time way back in my first year at college, in Canada, and I'm counting it.)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89.
90. Criollo chocolate (This one actually isn't in wikipedia, but I assume it's crillo cocoa, rather than a brand name.)
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (Also not in Wikipedia. I've got harissa paste in my cupboard for making chickpea stew, but I don't know what the rose part might change.)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (Kinda, sorta, but I'm voting it has to be the real thing, pure. I had some coffee once that was mixed with Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, and it was just...coffee.
100. Snake
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Everything Wants to Be Updated
Insanely frustrating day today. Microsoft Word just would NOT work. It's so easy to start taking our tools for granted, but without a word-processor, I'm almost useless. Without email and a word-processor, I'm completely useless.
So I come online to play some nice soothing video game, and Windows wants to update, iTunes wants to update, the virus software wants to update...and I would like to scream.
So I come online to play some nice soothing video game, and Windows wants to update, iTunes wants to update, the virus software wants to update...and I would like to scream.
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