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Well, that’s like comparing apples and some fruit nobody’s ever heard of.
I have found a new espresso drink to love: the Americano. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's basically the exact same thing as a latte, but made with water instead of milk (so if you're like me, you have to add your own cream and sugar separately). It's got a lovely, strong coffee flavor, and is harder to 'screw up' in case you're not sure of the barista. It also costs less than a latte, but not THAT much less considering there's no syrup and water is much cheaper than milk. Still, it tastes really, really good, especially with pastries.
K. and I went to Mistral Kitchen last night. It was the first night of Seattle's Restaurant Week. She and I are planning to take full advantage; we both have 4-5 restaurants that we're planning to go to. Tomorrow night we're going to Canlis, then on Thursday I'm going to Crush with my friend S., who's in town from Oregon. (I'm actually seeing him tonight, too -- we're going to Bai Tong, which I've heard from a number of sources is the only Thai restaurant in Seattle worth going to -- we shall see.) Then on Monday I am going to Seastar with![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
corianderstem, to Dahlia Lounge with J. on Wednesday, and finally to Union with my mom on Thursday, the last day of Restaurant Week. Whew!! I do so love eating out.
That's also a good segue way to the fact that my mom is visiting soon in order to help K. out with the kids while K.'s husband is out of town. It'll be really cool to see her, of course, but not THAT exciting since I JUST saw her recently. Plus it means there will be EVEN MORE eating (too much of a good thing in too short a time). She's already made me promise to take her to Senor Moose, and she'll be joining me and K. at Spring Hill for their special, by-reservation-only, fried chicken dinner. K. and I have been looking forward to that for AGES. Also I'm planning to cook at least two dinners while she's here -- a Korean-themed meal and an Indian-themed meal. Hope I can pull it off. What IS really cool is that she'll be here over Mother's Day, and while she's here K. can show her how to use her pressure cooker, which is identical to the one I just got her.
If you haven't already seen, a fabulous mystery artist drew this for me as part of the D/G Fic Exchange. Squee!
The newly repackaged (making a number of improvements, and adding one of the movies) Blu-Ray set of Battlestar Galactica is now available, and Amazon is selling it for $149.99 (retail price is $349.99). So... tempting...
I'm in the middle of 3 books at the moment. I've started Breaking Dawn, which is torturous so far. It's somehow even worse than the series has already been. I find myself wanting to throw it aside in disgust every other line. The worst part of the series is how much Bella HAS, that we are somehow supposed to feel sorry for her for having. Her life is SO DIFFICULT. Not. (To be fair, it is sort of like Mia whining about having to be a royal princess in The Princess Diaries, except Mia is likable. You know, to me.) The only way I am getting through it so far is by allowing myself to stop after every chapter, or every few pages because the chapters are so long (at least, it seems like it -- and ugh that the book is as thick as OotP), and reading something else. Which brings me to the other two books that I've started: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a real-life story pieced together about this guy who abandons everything in his life, goes off into the wilderness of Alaska, and is found there 4 months later, dead; and Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, the second book in the Temeraire series. The latter two are so engrossing that I find myself really reluctant to put them down in order to go back to the dreck of Stephenie Meyer. BUT I promisedjade_okelani that I would finish the series, so I will, and plus once I'm done I can list all 4 books as a set on eBay.
Finally, a confession: I have cheated in my garden. I am a total garden cheater. I went to Flower World yesterday, and if you've never been, it's basically like a giant amusement park for gardeners. It is ginormous. There's a map, just like an amusement park, to help you get to different parts of the nursery because it's that big. There's even a part where you can kind of drive through to look at all the big potted trees for sale. Also, there are chickens.
But anyway, back to my confession about cheating in my garden. I have alllll these little seedlings that have sprouted, that will hopefully be ready to transplant in 3-4 weeks. But their growth, at least to my eye, seems to have stagnated (true leaves have just barely started to develop, if at all), and part of me wonders if they'll ever really get to the transplanting stage. So when I was at Flower World and saw all their wonderful starter plants at such reasonable prices, I couldn't resist. Here were plants ready to be put in the ground, so lovely and well grown! Who knows if my little seedlings will ever get to that point? I could totally mess up at some delicate point and kill them all (I still haven't even thinned them, btw). Plus, it's almost May, and summer is so short! Isn't it better to have some advanced plants growing?
There were sooooo many lovely starters but I resisted most of them and got ones for things I really wanted to be able to harvest from the garden this season: tomatoes, basil, and strawberries. Four tomato/strawberry plants cost $1.89! Seriously, next year I'll probably just skip doing seeds and just buy starters from a nursery. They're far more expertly grown and are way more advanced in their growth stage earlier in the season, and are totally reasonably priced! And -- no waiting! So yesterday I planted 4 each of: strawberries (Hood), strawberries (Tri-Star), tomatoes (Sun Gold), and tomatoes (Big Beef), plus 1 basil plant. I rationalized that I didn't have any Sun Gold tomatoes or strawberries growing from seed. Now I just have to hope that they grow, and if they do, that the birds won't eat them all before I get to them. Honestly, those damn birds, first ripping out my attic and now stealing from my garden (potentially)!
I also bought some tomato cages and a small aloe vera plant. I looooove aloe vera. My best friend in college was the one who first introduced me to them. They're succulents, so they barely need any watering (and in fact, die from overwatering more than anything), and they're easy to propagate, supposedly -- you just snip off new growth and plant it. All it needs is a lot of light (and dryness). So it'll be difficult for even me to fail. But the best part of aloe vera is that you can break off the leaves that grow, and the insides are all wet and cool and slightly slimy. You can rub it on sunburns or just over your skin and it'll feel very refreshing. My plant is super tiny at the moment, but hopefully I can turn it into many aloe vera plants, some of which I can start using! And maybe some day I can even give little aloe pups as gifts. :D
K. and I went to Mistral Kitchen last night. It was the first night of Seattle's Restaurant Week. She and I are planning to take full advantage; we both have 4-5 restaurants that we're planning to go to. Tomorrow night we're going to Canlis, then on Thursday I'm going to Crush with my friend S., who's in town from Oregon. (I'm actually seeing him tonight, too -- we're going to Bai Tong, which I've heard from a number of sources is the only Thai restaurant in Seattle worth going to -- we shall see.) Then on Monday I am going to Seastar with
corianderstem, to Dahlia Lounge with J. on Wednesday, and finally to Union with my mom on Thursday, the last day of Restaurant Week. Whew!! I do so love eating out.That's also a good segue way to the fact that my mom is visiting soon in order to help K. out with the kids while K.'s husband is out of town. It'll be really cool to see her, of course, but not THAT exciting since I JUST saw her recently. Plus it means there will be EVEN MORE eating (too much of a good thing in too short a time). She's already made me promise to take her to Senor Moose, and she'll be joining me and K. at Spring Hill for their special, by-reservation-only, fried chicken dinner. K. and I have been looking forward to that for AGES. Also I'm planning to cook at least two dinners while she's here -- a Korean-themed meal and an Indian-themed meal. Hope I can pull it off. What IS really cool is that she'll be here over Mother's Day, and while she's here K. can show her how to use her pressure cooker, which is identical to the one I just got her.
If you haven't already seen, a fabulous mystery artist drew this for me as part of the D/G Fic Exchange. Squee!
The newly repackaged (making a number of improvements, and adding one of the movies) Blu-Ray set of Battlestar Galactica is now available, and Amazon is selling it for $149.99 (retail price is $349.99). So... tempting...
I'm in the middle of 3 books at the moment. I've started Breaking Dawn, which is torturous so far. It's somehow even worse than the series has already been. I find myself wanting to throw it aside in disgust every other line. The worst part of the series is how much Bella HAS, that we are somehow supposed to feel sorry for her for having. Her life is SO DIFFICULT. Not. (To be fair, it is sort of like Mia whining about having to be a royal princess in The Princess Diaries, except Mia is likable. You know, to me.) The only way I am getting through it so far is by allowing myself to stop after every chapter, or every few pages because the chapters are so long (at least, it seems like it -- and ugh that the book is as thick as OotP), and reading something else. Which brings me to the other two books that I've started: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a real-life story pieced together about this guy who abandons everything in his life, goes off into the wilderness of Alaska, and is found there 4 months later, dead; and Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, the second book in the Temeraire series. The latter two are so engrossing that I find myself really reluctant to put them down in order to go back to the dreck of Stephenie Meyer. BUT I promised
jade_okelani that I would finish the series, so I will, and plus once I'm done I can list all 4 books as a set on eBay.Finally, a confession: I have cheated in my garden. I am a total garden cheater. I went to Flower World yesterday, and if you've never been, it's basically like a giant amusement park for gardeners. It is ginormous. There's a map, just like an amusement park, to help you get to different parts of the nursery because it's that big. There's even a part where you can kind of drive through to look at all the big potted trees for sale. Also, there are chickens.
But anyway, back to my confession about cheating in my garden. I have alllll these little seedlings that have sprouted, that will hopefully be ready to transplant in 3-4 weeks. But their growth, at least to my eye, seems to have stagnated (true leaves have just barely started to develop, if at all), and part of me wonders if they'll ever really get to the transplanting stage. So when I was at Flower World and saw all their wonderful starter plants at such reasonable prices, I couldn't resist. Here were plants ready to be put in the ground, so lovely and well grown! Who knows if my little seedlings will ever get to that point? I could totally mess up at some delicate point and kill them all (I still haven't even thinned them, btw). Plus, it's almost May, and summer is so short! Isn't it better to have some advanced plants growing?
There were sooooo many lovely starters but I resisted most of them and got ones for things I really wanted to be able to harvest from the garden this season: tomatoes, basil, and strawberries. Four tomato/strawberry plants cost $1.89! Seriously, next year I'll probably just skip doing seeds and just buy starters from a nursery. They're far more expertly grown and are way more advanced in their growth stage earlier in the season, and are totally reasonably priced! And -- no waiting! So yesterday I planted 4 each of: strawberries (Hood), strawberries (Tri-Star), tomatoes (Sun Gold), and tomatoes (Big Beef), plus 1 basil plant. I rationalized that I didn't have any Sun Gold tomatoes or strawberries growing from seed. Now I just have to hope that they grow, and if they do, that the birds won't eat them all before I get to them. Honestly, those damn birds, first ripping out my attic and now stealing from my garden (potentially)!
I also bought some tomato cages and a small aloe vera plant. I looooove aloe vera. My best friend in college was the one who first introduced me to them. They're succulents, so they barely need any watering (and in fact, die from overwatering more than anything), and they're easy to propagate, supposedly -- you just snip off new growth and plant it. All it needs is a lot of light (and dryness). So it'll be difficult for even me to fail. But the best part of aloe vera is that you can break off the leaves that grow, and the insides are all wet and cool and slightly slimy. You can rub it on sunburns or just over your skin and it'll feel very refreshing. My plant is super tiny at the moment, but hopefully I can turn it into many aloe vera plants, some of which I can start using! And maybe some day I can even give little aloe pups as gifts. :D