It Started with a Journal

Just picked up from the library:

- Dr. Who S2
- Merlin S1
- 500 Days of Summer
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish film)

Eeeee!

Still in the middle of:

- Tongues of Serpents (Temeraire)
- Mockingjay (Hunger Games)
- BSG (Blu-ray rewatch)
- The West Wing S1

The BSG series is so awesome right from the start, particularly considering the mini-series was rather slow going. I'm kind of stalled on Mockingjay... just not that into it, partly because I'm loving Tongues of Serpents, even though it might be the book in which the least amount of action/progression happens, at least so far. Not sure I'm going to be able to make it through The West Wing. That speed-talking jabber thing that Aaron Sorkin is so well known for bugs me. I was able to work past it on Sports Night, but that was a half-hour sitcom that only lasted a season, if that. I don't know if I can put up with 7 seasons of an hour-long drama in that style.

Just bought off Amazon:

- Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens. It's supposed to be one of the best if not the best Nikon lens to use in low light, and since I'm often photographing food in restaurants with bad/low light, I'm really hoping this will be awesome for that. Won't know for awhile though, because I had it sent to my parents' house to save over $40 in taxes. Freaking Amazon being based in WA state!

- My very first kitchen apron! I know, WTF that it look me this long. It is so adorable, lol! Fashion and function!

OK all you people who live in Seattle and enjoy food: Restaurant Week is back again! Oct. 17-28 (minus Fri. & Sat.). WHO'S WITH ME?? $25, 3-course meal, awesome restaurants! You know you want to go! I am keeping that entire week+ open so I can go to as many as possible. <g> So let me know if you're interested and we shall plan to go. There are a few restaurants I want to hit for sure -- Dahlia Lounge, Mistral Kitchen, Spring Hill -- but am also open to anything.

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Speaking of food, I've actually been cooking quite a bit, and have just posted a big roundup about it here.

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Dealing with some work insanity the past couple of days. Sigh. And I so tried to avoid having this happen. I wish my work didn't so often consist of making sure other people do their jobs. You're not in control of your own destiny when that's the case, and there's a lot of sitting around worrying about how other things are going so that your bigger picture can fall into place. The good news is that everything went well, despite Murphy's Law coming into play.

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Did someone recommend Patricia Gaffney's To Have and To Hold to me? Was it maybe when I was talking about Laura Kinsale's Seize the Fire and that novel's bastard of an anti-hero? I ask because it was apparently in my library queue so I picked it up yesterday. But what I found odd was that it was an "inter-library loan" (meaning not one of the 16ish libraries in the Sno-Isle library system that basically share a catalogue) -- it's from Harvard-Westlake School in California. O.o How random is that? For that reason it cannot be renewed, so I pretty much have to read it right away (there is a serious back up in my reading queue).

The problem is that there's another one I also have to read right away -- I just got Tongues of Serpents! I think there's a big waiting list for it right now, so I probably won't be able to renew and if I wanted it again would have to wait in the queue all over. It always takes me a page or two to get back into reading a Temeraire novel, because of the language. But it's cool because once I'm back in it, it reads like any other book.

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I finally caved and bought the BSG series on Blu-Ray. There's conflicting reports on exactly what's included (The Plan y/n?), so I'll have to see when it gets here if it's missing anything.

Finally on S6 of XF. I know a lot of people didn't like that season... but I don't know why. It's hands down my favorite season. Almost every episode is totally rewatchable (unlike the second half of S5, after Bad Blood). I guess I like the lighter fare, though I will admit that the lighter fare wouldn't be as good if all the dark stuff hadn't happened to them before that. Still, just last night I saw Triangle, the two Dreamlands, and How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, and I'm only on disc 2! I LOVE YOU SEASON 6, I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS.

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And the VERY LAST TV Show Meme!! I started this way back in June. Wow. O.o I took my sweet time with it, didn't I?

Day 30 - Saddest character death

Since this is potentially spoilery, ( my answer behind a cut. )

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 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. ( What I got... )

Just gonna keep updating as I watch...

( Midway through S4. )

( Blood on the Scales )

Crap. I just realized I never saw the Webisodes after episode 12. >< Guess I'll do that now. Better late than never?

( The Face of the Enemy )

In case you haven't heard: HBO has green lighted "A Game of Thrones"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh it will be an epic series. I just hope I'm not so attached to the original text that I'll be freaking out about every change they make, lol.

It's March and that means the start, once again, of Dine Around Seattle! Lots of places are doing a $15 3-course lunch, including Dahlia Lounge, so if any Seattlites are interested (lunch or dinner), let me know. I am always down for going to one of these.

My wireless keyboard at work started freaking out (it's intolerable when you're typing and it doesn't catch every letter) so I have a new wired one. The problem is that it's not an ergo keyboard and I'm not used to that, so the typing is still typo prone. :/ I'm having an ergo one ordered and I hope it gets here soon.

So you know how I may be going to Esalen in April? I hope I DO get to go, and I hope the weather is good, because I will have the chance to take photos like this. I can't seem to find a way to paste it here directly... stupid Flickr. Anyway, that photo was taken by a user name twoeightnine ... isn't it gorgeous?? Esalen has baths that are carved right into the mountainside. When you're done with your bath and you let the water out, you can see it cascade down the mountain. How awesome is THAT.

I love potatoes. I know very few people who don't. So it's a big deal when I say that I have discovered my new favorite way to make/eat them. I think it is better than any other way to prepare potatoes, which is saying a lot. I am talking about Tom Douglas's garlic smashed potatoes. They're not mashed, they're smashed. I had them first when I went to Lola with J. They were incredibly good, so I looked for a recipe for them in the Tom Douglas books I have. I found a very similar one for Greek Smashed Potatoes, which seemed exactly the same except it had oregano, so I made it without. And they were just as good as what I had at Lola, but didn't cost me $8. It is, I will say, very time consuming. It's simple and easy and the active time is practically nil, but it does take almost 2 hours. That's why it's best to make a whole bunch at a time! The recipe for these is here, along with my adventures in making/eating Julia Child's Langue de Boeuf Braisee, Calcutta, or sliced fresh beef tongue braised with curry. :D

Finally, ( spoilers for BSG Razor. )

I love deathmatches. In this case, the contestants are snack foods! LOL. The people pimping the deathmatch on my flist are dark chocolate M&M fans, which might be why, in a very tight race, that candy is now edging ahead. Therefore I must take up the Skittles banner and call all Skittles lovers to fight! Fight! Fight for the freedom to taste rainbows everywhere!! Vote here!

So. I am now 2 episodes away from the end of BSG S3. I started episode 19, and they've skipped the credit sequence and have put the credits in during actual plot/action, so something Big must be coming. ( OMGWTFBBQ? )

Okay. I love nature, except when it's insisting on coming into my house. There are definitely critters in the crawl space above my room/below the roof. I don't know if they're birds or squirrels (I'm not entertaining any other possibilities atm), but they make a lot of noise in the morning, scratching and running back and forth and what not (it wakes me up). Also it's creepy.

Then there's the damn woodpecker. In the past, I've heard it on the roof, this rapid tapping like someone's trying to drill into the house. Recently it's taken to sitting on the metal chimney stack (I think that's what it's called? No real idea) and drilling there. It echoes down the chimney really loudly and freaks Talis out. I have to go outside and scare it away by clapping my hands loudly or yelling. I'm not in my house all day though, so who knows when that woodpecker comes back and does it again? I don't want to have to pay for repairs to the damage it does!

Effing woodpecker, squirrels, and birds... GET OFF MY LAWN!

I've watched some more BSG... I think I am almost done with 8 episodes from S3 now. ( Spoilers. )

My cousin is coming here at the end of March. He got an interview at UW for a PhD program, so they're flying him up here. First of all, I changed his diapers and fed him formula as a baby. HOW can he possibly be applying for PhD programs?! It's like, wut. Second of all, I'm excited because this will give me an excuse to go back to Senor Moose! "DoyoulikeMexicanfoodgreatIknowwherewecango!"

I'm on book 3 of the Twilight series. I HATE this series. It's so horribly written and stupid. I'm sorry to those of you who love it, but I just don't get it. I've read tons of fanfic that are written better. Why anyone would find this series compelling -- much less exceptional -- is seriously beyond me. ( Ranting. )

On the TV front:

- Started this show called Pushing Daisies. I'm not sure how old it is, but it's no longer airing and I think it was only on the air for 2 seasons. It's cute, but I find the lead heroine fairly annoying. It's narrated by Jim Dale! I love Kristin Chenoweth (her character name is Olive Snook -- how great is that), though of course I always wish she were singing.

- BSG season 3 FINALLY finished downloading. ( Spoilery comments. )

On the food front:

- Julie and I went to this AWESOME authentic Mexican place in Ballard this weekend, Señor Moose Café. ( My raving gets a little long. )

- I don't think my boeuf bourguignon came out the way Julia Child intended. It's good, but it's not fabulous, and I think it's supposed to be fabulous. Her recipe seems to indicate that there should be way more sauce than I had. Every step of the way it seemed like the heat I was using was too high, even though I was just following instructions. I think I need to use less heat next time. And I confess that due to the Señor Moose excursion, I may have taken the boeuf bourguignon out of the oven 30-60 minutes too late. Also, I have to say that some of the instructions are not as clear as they could be.

- The snail butter came out great. It's really just an herb butter. It smells terrific, and the specks of parsley, garlic, and shallot dotting the butter just looks sooo good. I haven't downloaded the pictures I took yet, but I'm definitely making a post to the food porn community about it.

- Currently I'm soaking beef marrow bones. You have to soak them in salted water (with several changes) for 24 hours in order to get all the blood out. I plan to roast them. This is my second attempt at this; the first time I didn't like it much, but I don't think I followed the soaking instructions so I'm giving it another shot. It always sounds so good when I read about it in Jennifer McLagan's book Bones.

On the work front:

- I celebrated my 10-year anniversary here on Friday. I cannot believe it's been 10 years. My manager's manager joked that I'd been here for 40% of my life, but actually I thought about it, and it really IS 33% of my life, so it wasn't that much of a joke. It's kind of wild to think about, and strangely depressing (even though I'm glad I've had a very good job for so long). I got my 10-year crystal sculpture thing, there were drinks and chocolate cake, and it helped keep my mind off of things going on in my life that could totally cripple me if I let it. So that's good. :-)

On the writing front:

- I have a basic outline worked out for my dgficexchange story, which is a Good Thing. Jade is always a great sounding board for this kind of stuff. Sometimes I use her ideas and often I don't, but everything she brings up is worth thinking about, and it helps me hone exactly what I DO want to do, which is usually the hardest part.

Okay, I finished BSG S2! Apparently there are webisodes in between S2 and S3, and since S3 is downloading at a snail's pace, I'll need to find/watch them. Just a couple of comments on the S2 finale eps... ( Spoilers. )

I'd really like to join a book club, one that meets in person. I don't know if there's a really good one near me, or if people even do that amongst strangers anymore. I'd also like to volunteer at like, a soup kitchen or a library, but it seems like most places have more volunteers than they need already. Gosh!

Today from the cafeteria I am having blackened catfish, mashed potatoes made with blue/purple potatoes (it's so pretty!), and steamed broccoli/cauliflower. It's actually pretty good. I must say, our office move in one sense has been great -- this cafe is a lot better than our other one! Also for a limited time 12oz lattes, mochas, etc. are $1 from the espresso bar. :O I am going to be so wired...

Too much to update, too little time. Not that any of these updates are all that riveting. But I find that if I don't post to LJ on a semi-regular basis, I just drop out of the habit for weeks/months.

On the book front:

- I finally bought and read the last Georgia Nicolson book (sad face), Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?. I was actually surprised to learn it was the last one, because like The Princess Diaires, it seemed like it was going to go on forever. In the case of both series, I was both sad and relieved. Sad because they've been so enjoyable; relieved because the longer the went on, the longer it drags out the problems of the two people you want to see get together. Meg Cabot actually pulled off a very decent (if abrupt) ending for PD. Louise Rennison was less successful. ATMBISBM was enjoyable, but not as funny as other books in the series have been, and failed to be emotionally moving. :/ It wasn't BAD, but it wasn't the send off the series deserved, imho. ( Now I get really spoilery. )

- Partially through My Life in France, Julia Child's memoir. One thing I have to thank Julie Powell for is the renewed interest in a true cooking great. (To be fair, I liked Powell's book, even if in the movie version her life paled in comparison to Julia's... not the least because Amy Adams played her very annoyingly and Meryl Streep was a wonderful Julia Child.) I'm enjoying it so far, though I find the parts about the food far more interesting than the parts about France/Europe/the world. >.>

- Also, I've just started Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane. It's really a shame that I've waited this long, considering that when the book came out I actually MET him (thanks to corianderstem) and have an autographed first edition of the book. I'm finally reading it because the movie's coming out soon and I decided I wanted to know what I was getting into. Plus, the venture is intriguing in general because it's like, what, Dennis Lehane wrote a horror novel? Leonardo DiCaprio is going to be in a horror flick? And it's directed by Martin Scorcese? I just don't expect to see those names attached to the horror genre.

I'm still watching/enjoying BSG. I am about midway through season 2. I think my favorite character is Boomer. I dig her romance with Helo, which is surprising because I hated that actor in Dollhouse, lol. I alternately like/dislike Starbuck, and while I sorta dig her quasi-thing with Apollo, I also think Apollo has a very girly voice, which so does not track with his enormous arm muscles. I generally like him, though. Not a fan of Commander Adama for the most part, though I like him way more than I like Tigh (and omg Tigh's wife Ellen needs to DIE). Surprisingly (because I feel like I should find him annoying), I like Dr. Baltar, though not so much his Cylon shadow (and the stupid music that accompanies her whenever she shows up). Finally, I like the President, a lot.

Yesterday I had brunch with my friend J., then we went to the Ballard farmers market (bought nothing) and nearby Kavu (bought a jacket and a purse, neither of which I really needed), then watched Valentine's Day. J. loves sappy romcoms, and while I usually don't, I was willing to watch it for her sake, since we don't really watch movies together all that often. I pretty much agree with this review, which trashes the movie, however, I liked it more than the reviewer did, because I went into expecting it to be the kind of movie it was. So while everything the reviewer says is pretty much accurate, I was more forgiving of its flaws. There are a gazillion storylines (a la Love Actually, though possibly with even more), and all but one followed a very predictable path (for me). It's just a really, really fluffy piece with little redeeming value other than in-the-moment entertainment, starring some very familiar actors: Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Garner (too bad they didn't have a scene together -- Will and Sydney back together again!), Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner (okay, the two Taylors were amusing), Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, Queen Latifah (who was wasted), Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel (two Jessicas I normally can't stand, but they were both OK in this movie), Patrick Dempsey, Shirley Maclaine, etc. etc.

After the movie we went for a walk in Discovery Park, which was really muddy, then to Trader Joe's, where I got the ingredients for a potato leek soup. And! Very exciting -- a bottle of wine that I actually intend to DRINK (as opposed to using in cooking)! I usually don't like wine (or alcohol of most kinds, as I respond in an allergic way), but I had this one at work last week and it was really good. I think I can drink half a glass of it with actual enjoyment! (This is huge for me.) It's this Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling. I'm sure I like it because it's sweeter than most other wines I've had. Maybe for dinner tonight I'll have some of this wine with some Brie I acquired recently. How very French!

Oh, I have a question though, for you wine buffs... you know how some wines are meant to be aged (they get better) while others start to degrade? How do I know? I'd like to run out and buy a dozen bottles of this wine since I know I like it, but since that would probably last me quite some time I wouldn't want to stock up if they're just going to spoil before I get around to actually drinking them. (Did a quick search and it would appear that Rieslings might age better than other types of white, but are still meant to be drunk "young," within 1-2 years of release. Is that generally accepted to be true?)