It Started with a Journal

Signed my closing papers this morning for my refi. Yay! Not only is Chase paying all the closing costs, I am going to set up autowithdrawal with them (which I currently do anyway, just with another bank), because doing so will give me 1% of my mortgage payment back. Hey, that is no small thing! And anyway it only requires a small change on my part.

Currently in the oven: a tomato tart from one of the Canal House Cooking volumes. I love those cookbooks, even if they're all blase about certain ingredients. "Steam two lobsters..." "Thinly slice a fresh black truffle..." "Pull the lobes of the foie gras apart..." "Use a pinch of saffron..." Yeah, okay, let me just hop into my Rolls Royce and I'll get right on it. Luckily they do also have recipes that the common folk can use, too. ( It's done! Turned out rather well, I think. )

I've finally started watching Supernatural, which Jade recced years ago. It's basically the X-Files with two young dudes, lol. I'm enjoying it so far, but I honestly don't know how long I can last with it because there's nothing to ship. I know, the online community ships Sam/Dean, but they're BROTHERS. I just can't go there. I do enjoy their interactions a lot, though. I thought Sam's girlfriend Jessica was a bit too standard bubble-gum blonde. Right now, between the two brothers I actually prefer Dean, though I don't actually find him very attractive. Then again I also don't find Jared Padalecki attractive, either (maybe THAT'S why I doubt how long I'll last w/ the show), never really have. When he was on Gilmore Girls and Rory was torn between him and Logan, I was so Logan all the way. Mmm Matt Czuchry.

I've been watching Percula's The Craft of War: Blind again, and it's just so unspeakably awesome. It actually makes me feel a tinge of possibly wanting to play WoW again, which is quite an accomplishment. Apparently he's lost interest in WoW himself and won't be making the TCoW series with all the classes as he had originally intended, which does make me a sad panda for the awesomeness that might have been.

I've updated my profile interests, and I can't believe I'm the only person in the LJ community interested in Rhaegar/Lyanna. How is this POSSIBLE?

Well, my plan to finish my D/G Exchange fic this weekend didn't quite work out. It's still not finished. However, it's almost there, so at least I got quite a bit of it done. The panic has subsided somewhat, and if things stay quiet at work today, I may just finish it here this afternoon.

Now what I'm getting nervous about is my trip. I'm leaving on Friday. FRIDAY! How can that be?? I feel like there are a million things I've forgotten to do, but I think that's just a result of the fact that my trip this time is coming together quite differently from how my trips normally go (the airline I'm taking, what I'm doing with Talis, how I'm getting to the airport). I hope. I still need to do laundry so I have clothes to wear ... though of course, if everyone's going around naked at Esalen that may not be a huge priority. I'm sure Jade and Robbie would prefer that I have clothes on when I see them, though.

Of course right before I leave I've gotten on a book-buying kick, which means half of them are going to arrive during the time I'm gone. (That reminds me, I need to go to usps.com and have them hold my mail.) Many of them are cookbooks. ( If you're interested in the list. )

I'm also trying some new fantasy novels. Or at least, I plan to, once I have them in hand. This includes the Kushiel's Legacy series, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, the first Dragon Lance book, the Sword of Shadows series by J.V. Jones, and of course, the Temeraire series ... I've had the first four books forever now. Also, did you know Orson Scott Card wrote a direct sequel to Ender's Game (one of my favorite books ever), called Ender in Exile? Has anyone read it? What did you think? I haven't really been able to get into the other follow ups to the first book, so am not sure if it's something I really want to read or not.

As for the garden ... none of the seeds I've planted in the beds have sprouted, which is probably just as well given the worm thing and the fact that I am going to be away for 1+ weeks. I'll probably just try again once I get back, and maybe the weather will also be warmer. As for the indoor starters, the only ones that have sprouted are the cauliflower. I think it's the cauliflower; I didn't label them. However, I realized that the other seeds were probably planted too deep once I consulted the package directions again, and plus it hasn't been very sunny or warm the last week. So ... I started over with them, following the directions more carefully this time. I'll water them before I leave, and hope that they don't die from neglect before I get back.

I just have great timing, don't I?

Now that I've been brewing my coffee at home (and not even that expertly), I must say ... the coffee at work is really gross.

I'm sad to be at work this early in the morning. I'm usually not even awake at this time, much less in my office. I'm also hungry and the notice that our Friday bagels have arrived hasn't come in yet. :/ I also have to remember not to eat a lot, because tonight ropo and I are going to Icon Grill! I've been wanting to check this place out, because they supposedly have really good mac & cheese. In fact, they have two kinds. The appetizer version, which are like, fried macaroni & cheese nuggets that you dip into sauces, and the side dish: "This Mac n' Cheese is unlike any you've ever had before. Four cheeses, tomato snow, crunchy topping and a final flourish of even more molten cheese." Mmm.

Afterwards we're going to go see HP6 on IMAX. And take pictures along the way (not, obviously, of the movie).

So far Robbie's visit has been filled with a lot of eating. We haven't even done that much, but still haven't found any time to cook at home or make ice cream, but that's partly because I'm not off work until next week.

Yesterday we went to Third Place Books, which is more of an upscale Half-Price Books. It's better because they tend to have rarer material and they're anal about the condition of the books, but it's not as good because they mix new and used books (so you might get excited by seeing something you've been looking for, only to discover that it's a new copy at new prices), and they sell used books for more than half (how much more depends on the book). Considering you can get 30-40% off books at Amazon and when Borders sends coupons, getting a used book for that price isn't a good deal at all. Anyway, I brought a box of like-new, mostly trade paperbacks to see what I could get, and they only took 3 of them! And one of the ones they took was A Nerd in Shining Armor, which was terrible. So yeah, I don't think their book buyers know what they're doing. <g> HPB isn't so choosy, they always take everything, as far as I know.

The cool thing is that I found Tom Douglas's Seattle Kitchen for pretty much half price -- and it was autographed! Tom Douglas is the most famous chef in Seattle; like, if you were entertaining visitors and wanted them to go back with the full Seattle experience, you would include taking them to one of his restaurants. I also found Alice Medrich's Cocolat, an out-of-print book that I bought for $30 not too long ago, for $10. Grrr. I'm going to try and resell my other copy.

Finally, I just have to mention the fun game jade_okelani devised for us. Robbie and I both like photography and have the exact same camera, so she's got us on a sort of photo scavenger hunt. We get different clues (which add up to a larger puzzle that we have to solve, every 3 photos), and she awards points based on composition, style, and her own whimsy. :)) I'll have to share my photos after it's all over (or possibly after each round, if we're allowed), because obviously I cannot let Robbie know my clues.

BTW subject line is in reference to "How I Met Your Mother," which I am really enjoying so far. (Got 3 seasons of DVDs for $15 each on Amazon! Looks like that deal's over, though.)

Also, happy birthday, corianderstem!

1. I am a completely terrible fandomer. This year's dgficexchange is over and the works have been revealed, yet still it's taken me a few weeks to even mention that I actually participated. It was just something I did to get myself in the writing groove again (and to prove to myself that I could actually finish a story). Just a fluffy story that I had fun writing. It's called The Academy.

2. It's snowing. Again. Oh Seattle, how much I'd love you more if not for your crappy, crappy weather. The heaters are on nonstop at my house (and I'm being 'bad' and not restricting it just to my computer room, where I spend most of my time). I'm kind of afraid of my electric bill.

3. For those of you who play Word Twist on Facebook -- doesn't 7 letters seem like SO MUCH MORE than 6?! I know it's only 1 letter more, and yet when the scramble comes up it looks like a SEA of letters.

4. I have become a "victim" of my own "success." I send my food pictures to my mom, uncle, and cousin (they requested it because they're all foodies too), and my cousin is now like, omg you HAVE to come over and cook for us! ( ... )

5. I have found/purchased Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vols 1 & 2. It's supposed to be a seminal cooking book (and I ordered Julie and Julia from PBS, so I'm interested in the source material). ( Why this is interesting. )

6. Food wise, I've been busy. Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks...

- Hodge Podge Salad
- Seared Chilean Sea Bass and Scallops
- Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli
- Meyer Lemon Sablés
- Creamy Scallop Soup
- Copycat attempt at Old Spaghetti Factory's Browned Butter & Mizithra Cheese + Meat Sauce Spaghetti

7. I've been watching Heroes S2. ( Commentary -- please no spoilers for S3! )

8. I'm still loving Two for the Road. There are a number of recipes they share (2 after every chapter) that I'm intrigued by and will make soon. The problem is that they're not exactly health foods. Still, if I don't have it every day it's okay right? Right! A few of the recipes that I want to make: Mama Lo's Broccoli Casserole, Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting, and Chicken Fried Steak

Another cookbook find at a different HPB: Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible. I've also got The Cake Bible, and of course, The Bread Bible, from which I made my first successful free-standing sourdough loaf. I'm going to the Bellevue HPB after work today to see if I can score anything else.

I've never noticed before that Obama is left handed. Wooooot! Go lefties! :P

For Chinese New Year this year our GM got us each a Starbucks Asia "bearista" that's wearing an ox (because it's the year of the ox) costume. It is SO CUTE. I haven't gotten mine yet because when he was giving it out in person I wasn't in my office and apparently he wants to deliver it personally. I'm tempted just to go to his office and be like, "Um, can I have my ox?" I've seen other people's, though. I will take pictures of it and share when I've got it in hand. :D

Quick roundup of news: The set for Dollhouse sounds awesome. It feels like I've been waiting 714237483 years for that show to start. Evidently there was a 4.6 earthquake in the greater Seattle area early this morning that I didn't feel at all. I don't usually sleep through quakes. Even when I lived in LA I'd at least wake up before turning and going back to sleep. O.o at this Facebook scam ... I hope none of my Facebook friends are naive enough to actually fall for something like that. Quite sobering that the security there is so poor. WTF Seattle was ranked no. 3 on a national poll of cities in which people would like to live. There are some positive things about this city, I'll agree, but the 9 months of gloom pretty much neutralizes most of them, imho. Apparently Coke thinks "New Coke" is sufficiently far enough from people's minds that they're going to stop calling it Classic Coke.

It's been two weeks since I made any kind of 'real' post, so here we go!

First, I've been making a lot of food. I haven't even posted it all yet. My food blog has the skinny. One thing I did want to share here, though, which is that this cake:



... was tossed in the garbage. :( It was my Daring Bakers challenge for November, and too incredibly sweet for, well, anyone. It's a shame too, because it came out well otherwise. The browned butter in the frosting really made for an amazing flavor. I knew when I first read the recipe that it had way too much sugar in it and I probably wouldn't like it (and this from someone who definitely has a sweet tooth!). I hesitated to lessen the amount of sugar, however, because that affects the liquid content and other factors of the cake, and I'm not yet comfortable enough with making cakes that I thought I could change amounts and still have it come out well. I suppose I might as well have, since it's going uneaten either way.

I had a very quiet Thanksgiving. It's just not the same when you live hundreds of miles from family and close friends. My cousin and I went to have hot pot, which was nice and comforting in its own way.

It's a little over two weeks until my winter vacation starts, thank God. I'm going to be in LA for 3 weeks. I'm so burned out, I can't wait to get out of here. All I need to do is get Talis to the vet after the 6th for a health certificate, and I'm set for everything else. I think. Speaking of Talis ... a few weeks ago I had a scare because I felt a little bump on his back by his tail. I took him to the vet and she said that she wasn't concerned because a) he's eating and behaving normally; b) the bump was really small; and c) it's common for dogs to start growing warts and skin imperfections as they get older. However, I needed to keep an eye on it. I think it's grown bigger. :( Not by much, but still, bigger is not good. Here's hoping it's just some kind of cyst or something.

I just got The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, but I wasn't allowed to read it until a few days ago (for reasons I will disclose later -- mysterious, ain't I?), so last night I settled into bed with it and it made me so happy, even though my stomach was growling after reading a few recipes. I just love the way it's written. It makes me want to take a trip to San Francisco just to eat there. I hope I get to, at least once in my life!

Also I wanted to thank jade_okelani for her birthday gift. See, Jade believes in the "birthday month," in which the month of your birthday is your whole birthday month. I said that no, one's birthday should only really be celebrated for the actual day of birth, not the whole month. However, she's converted me. Her gift was a month's worth of little notes and/or homemade jewelry, which I opened one per day, and they always brought a smile to my face. At the end of the 30 days (why couldn't I have been born in a month with 31 days? Oh well, at least I'm not a poor February baby), the 'real' present was revealed, which was this awesome scrapbooked picture frame, which not only has many pictures of us on various escapades, but also has little mementos of things that we collected while on those escapades. It is awesome. Yesterday was the last day of my "birth month" so now it's over and I'm sad. Still, I got to enjoy my entire "birthday month" so thank you Jade!

I've started to watch True Blood at the behest of a friend. All I have to say is, people who like the show but diss Twilight are total hypocrites. (If that's you, sorry, but it's true.) They are practically the same thing other than the locations and the ages of the protagonists. I don't hate either, but am not enamored of either. TB's been fairly entertaining so far, but far below the bar HBO has set for their many excellent TV shows. And the vampire lore so far doesn't hold a candle to the Buffy/Angel verses.