It Started with a Journal

As I'm writing this I have "The Tournament" on, which looks terrible, just terrible, but I'm watching it because Ian Somerhalder and bonus, Kelly Hu, are in it. OMG there's a scene in a diner in the UK and there's a bottle of HP sauce on the table. Awesome. OMG WHAT the way Kelly Hu just took out that guy in the church was badass.

( Merlin 3x07 spoilers. )

Also, I finally finished The Hunger Games trilogy. ( Mockingjay spoilers. )

Edit: Oh, what the heck. ( Spoilers for How to Train Your Dragon, The Tournament, and Iron Man 2 )

OMG. I'm reading Mockingjay, and no plot spoilers, but I've just gotten to a part where we meet two minor characters, brothers, who are named Castor and Pollux. The second I saw those names it struck a chord of recognition in me, so I went to Wikipedia. And I was right!! Those are the names of the brothers in Face/Off (one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies)! Castor Troy (played by Nicolas Cage) and Pollux Troy (played by Alessandro Nivola)!! Now that I know Suzanne Collins must be a Face/Off fan as well (I mean, I just can't believe those two particular names could be coincidental), I'm super tickled. Yeah, and how big a fan of Face/Off must I be to recognize those names like that? LOL.

Edit: OMG, whatEVS you smarty pants with your knowledge of mythology and what not. Way to be a buzz kill. It was so much more fun to imagine SC being a fan of Face/Off. Also, it's pretty sad that after loving mythology all through school and even taking a class on the subject in college, I never once learned about brothers Castor and Pollux.

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Can't really tell yet if the antihistamines are working. My eyes seem less itchy, maybe? Hard to tell re: my arms, since they already have the rashes going on it'll take time for those to heal on their own before I'll really be able to help if the antihistamines are going to prevent them from happening.

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Tried Zippy's Giant Burgers in West Seattle today. It's gotten tons of write ups. I think there's a bitter feud between them and Red Mill Burgers, which is possibly Seattle's most well-known burger joint. I've only been there once, and that was a long time ago, so I can't directly compare the two. But Zippy's grinds their own chuck in the morning and hand-shapes their patties, which is great. I prefer the fries at Five Guys, though.

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I curse and love corianderstem for introducing me to Ciao Bella's key lime graham gelato. It is AMAZING. The only thing, in my mind, that would make it better is chunks of graham cracker crust. I bought some of Ben & Jerry's key lime pie flavor because theirs does have the crust, but it was disappointing. The flavor of the ice cream isn't as good as Ciao Bella's (and, being ice cream instead of gelato, the texture isn't as creamy), and the chunks of crust aren't really all that great either. I think I may actually just make a graham cracker pie crust and crumble it on top of the Ciao Bella gelato. In the last few days I've eaten so much ice cream that I've run out of spoons before washing, which hasn't happened in I don't know how long.

OMG!!!!!!! Amazon Fresh is finally delivering in my area! *does a dance* I've been waiting for this for sooooo long. Some of you may not have heard of it because they're only in the Seattle area right now, but I know so many people who use Amazon Fresh and LOVE IT. I know, I thought the whole grocery home delivery thing was dead, but Amazon has somehow made it work. I have not heard one bad thing about it, only people raving about how great it is.

It is ridiculous how excited I am about this.

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OK... I have Mockingjay in hand (thank you, Amazon, for the expediency), but I don't actually feel like reading it. I read the first few pages, and it just sunk me into depression. I guess I'm just not in the mood for dark, post-col (as we used to call the genre in XF fandom) stuff. :/ I do want to know what happens, but I also don't want to ruin the book for myself by reading it before I'm ready. I'm going to wait, and will hope that everyone will be very careful about spoilery information!

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trashy_eats is currently in LJ Spotlight and we have soooo many people posting now, I can barely keep up. Yet I can't look away. It's like a gastronomic car crash.

I joined the comm thinking that there would be a lot of food that's bad for me, but prepared in creatively delicious ways (like English muffin pizzas), maybe some different but interesting combos (say, chocolate-covered bacon), or maybe just stuff that's bad for you but also yummy, like the deep-fried Twinkie I've always wanted to try.

But I've found that a deep-fried Twinkie is child's play to these people. I thought I knew about trashy food; it turns out I know nothing about it. I am constantly amazed by the ingenuity (and iron stomachs) of these posters. Some examples (which my uncreative mind would never have come up with) follow. Keep in mind that these aren't just things people eat because they were dared to or something, but because they honestly find it delicious (and many times come about due to lack of funds -- truly, necessity is the mother of invention):

• Warm a tortilla in a pan till it's a bit brown. Slather with mayo. Roll up and eat. Proclaimed by the poster to be "HEAVEN... I swear it's awesome."


• Variations of peanut butter ramen. Cook ramen noodles until soft, then add spoonfuls of chunky peanut butter. Add other ingredients such as scrambled egg or scallions if you are "feeling wealthy." So many people have posted their versions of this dish.


• Ramen, period. Apparently I am the only person on the planet who has never used ramen for anything other than making ramen (though I will dress it up with egg or veggies or whatever). So very many posts about what else you can do with ramen. And the best trashy post ever, for "Gourmet Ramen a la Felon" -- recipe from a guy who learned how to make his variation in prison after bartering some cigarettes for food.


• "Deathwiches." Basically, sandwiches inside sandwiches, your creativity is the limit. Example: Go to McD's and order a Big Mac and McChicken sandwich. Open up the Big Mac. Place McChicken sandwich on top. Place the other half of the Big Mac back on top. Eat. (This is a fairly tame example. Apparently McD-specific ones are called "McGangbang.")


• Instant stuffing + instant gravy + canned chicken + crushed pineapple. Proclaimed "a staple meal."


• This entire post, in which the poster has made trashy eating a lifestyle.

I love this community, though in a different way than I thought I would. There are very few things shared on the comm that I would actually want to make and eat myself (though I AM intrigued by chili dog pizza), but I am constantly entertained by the posts and taking my brain to places it never would have gone on its own.

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To those of you who asked for books from me and provided a way for me to get them to you, I plan to mail them out today. :D What with those and the PBS and Half.com orders, I'm going to be one of those annoying people at the post office who have more things to mail than I can carry at one time.

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I've started rewatching The X-Files from the beginning, and am on S2 now. (I'd burned myself out on XF so much that I couldn't even watch a single ep for YEARS.) There are so many little things I'd forgotten! Krycek started out as Mulder's partner! Scully was young and chubby! Skinner is interesting! It's amazing how quickly they became "Mulder and Scully." There were only like, 3 episodes in which they seemed like they were getting to know each other. And then it was all familiar touching and glances that lingered a second or two too long.

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Wow, I guess I've blabbed enough for one post. So I'll end with...

TV Show Meme, Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)

HBO's A Game of Thrones, of course! I am so flipping excited for this one, it cannot come soon enough.