It Started with a Journal

Over the weekend I saw Les Miserables at the 5th Avenue Theatre. :D It was GREAT. The cast was much better than I'd been expecting. (I never have fears/doubts when I watch shows on Broadway, but touring companies can be so hit or miss.) God I love this musical. I found myself so moved I was weepy in several parts, which I honestly don't think has ever happened during the previous times I've seen it.

Anyway, K. and I were disappointed initially because for our performance, the understudies were playing Jean Valjean, Javert and Mr. Thénardier. PRINCIPAL ROLES. >< However, Valjean was actually very good, though he had a bit of trouble with the high notes (hard to top Colm Wilkinson; however, he had a more pleasing baritone). Javert started out kind of weak, but got better as the show went on. His rendition of "Stars" (possibly my favorite solo from the musical; link goes to YT and Philip Quast's version <3) was fabulous. I get chills just thinking about it! (One Day More is my favorite ensemble piece, just for the record.) Even Marius and Cosette were tolerable. I usually can't stand them, especially Cosette. Marius might fare better in my eyes if he didn't have the poor taste to fall in love with Cosette -- her appearance, really, since he knows shit all about her. -.- Fantine was a bit weak. Eponine was fine (but Lea Salonga will always be the 'real' Eponine for me). And we had the cutest little Gavroche. He was the youngest Gavroche I've ever seen!

ANYWAY... OK, this is all over Tumblr today. So Marvel has developed some sort of app (I don't even understand half the things that get made available these days... oh for the days when email and AIM were fabulous new inventions and I was living on the edge of progress) for the Avengers and Natasha's dossier is available, so we get some details about her movie incarnation's past that we've had to guess at previously, but for which we now have some answers. As well as more questions. But anyway. ( These are the details. )

I just don't even have the energy to fully absorb this info. I'm not sure if it totally changes my headcanon, or if I just need to make minor adjustments. Sigh.

Also this weekend I was supposed to have a massage, but it got canceled. :/ My last massage was just over a month ago, but it seems like ages. I've just been in a low-grade funk, I guess. Maybe because it's finally feeling like summer here and I'm usually stuck at work. Ugh. Those 5 minutes a day when I leave the building to go grab some lunch from the café is like, YAY SUN. And then it's back to fluorescent lights. :( Though it's apparent that I've really grown my Seattle skin. It's 77°F and I'm like, ohmygod, the sweltering HEAT! LOL. My LA badge is about to be revoked.

One of the best/funniest things I have seen on Tumblr recently: "You know how you get those posts with Americans and Brits bickering over freedom and tea and scones and spelling. And the rest of us who aren't from either country are just looking on like oh just kiss already."

Maybe my next post will be more useful, with recs and stuff. Maybe. >.>

Gasp... we have joined the ranks of those hooligans in California! Liquor can now be sold in grocery stores! (Thanks to ropo for the link. I truly don't keep close tabs about the sale of liquor. I'm not akscully, for pete's sake.) Sounds like it'll be good for the state economy. Or something. And also Costco, they clearly had a lot invested in it. It's never been a huge deal for me, of course, being someone who only buys liquor rarely, and then only because I use it in cooking. Plus there was a state liquor store right next to the Safeway down the street from me, so it was already convenient. It was just a very odd thing during the first year or so after I moved here to realize that I couldn't get booze at the grocery store, that Washington had state-run stores. It seemed very quaint. What a cute, uncorrupted little place I've moved to! Now, of course, it's just as bereft of morality as any other decent place. :))

LOL just heard this from a coworker, I guess it's making the rounds on Facebook amongst Seattlites: "There are four seasons in Seattle: spring, summer, autumn, winter, and enough." It's officially spring, but it's like 37 outside. It is totally ENOUGH right now. I am so done with how cold it's been. It snowed AGAIN on Saturday before T and I met up!

Finally saw The Walking Dead finale last night. ( Zommmmmbiiiiiiies. )

I am in love with the following songs at the moment:

- We Are Young, fun.
- Some Nights, fun.
- Drive By, Train
- The One That Got Away, Katy Perry
- Lights, Ellie Goulding
- A Thousand Years, Christina Perri (I wanted to leave this one off because of its association with Twilight, but I didn't know that when I started liking the song, so)

I'm back in Seattle, and it's pouring down snow where I am. What a difference from the last week and a half in SoCal. Sigh.

Being sick while on the plane was awful. My ears kept popping as we climbed, which was uncomfortable but OK. The absolute worst was going down -- then my ears kept getting plugged and my usual tricks to pop them didn't work. It was so painful and uncomfortable. :-(

Anyhow, I survived, but promptly did the most idiotic thing once we'd landed and I'd retrieved Talis and Jaime. If you were sick and traveling solo with two pets, what would you do to get back to where you'd parked your car?

a) take a taxi
b) take a shuttle
c) call someone to see if they'll pick you up, even though you'd be a huge inconvenience
d) take the bus, even though there's two transfers and a fair bit of walking involved and you don't really know the routes

( GUESS WHICH ONE I PICKED. )

This isn't the first time, either. I did it to jade_okelani once, when we were in Washington, D.C. Because of my insistence not to take a cab, we walked for sooooooo long in the wee hours of the morning to get back to our hotel (the Metro was closed). In my very minor defense, I didn't realize how far it actually was; I had thought it was closer than it was when we walked it. But still. I think that was the most done she's ever been with me. Or if not the most done, then probably at least rates in the top 3.

ropo will also say that I did it to her in Chicago, but believe it or not, that was very minor compared to these incidents. Those were (mostly) walkable distances. I guess I just have this anti-cab thing and I don't even know why, other than that I find them ridiculously costly. Maybe that's the only reason.

I just have better things to spend my money on, I guess is what my brain thinks. And sometimes it's true and sometimes it's not. Like if Jade and I had actually gotten mugged because I wanted to spare us a $100 cab ride, that obviously would not have been worth it. But I'd rather spend it on a new camera (which I have in my hands, eeeeeee!), or Talis's eye. Yeah, so it turns out that Talis has an ulcer in his left eye. Took him to the vet before we left and they gave me some medicating cream to put in it for a week, but apparently it didn't help. Today's follow up showed that the ulcer was still the same size, so now I actually have to take him to an animal eye specialist. Yeah, THAT'S going to cost a pretty penny. But fine, as long as it helps him, worth it. Now, of course, I'm so worried about him and my heart breaks whenever he looks at me with his one good eye and one squinty eye. :-(

I'm caught up on S7 of How I Met Your Mother. God I love that show, it's so good. And funny. Even though they drive me CRAZY with how they won't let the stupid Ted/Robin drop and how they keep doing the "will they/won't they" with Robin/Barney.

Also, I'm midway through S2 of The Walking Dead, which I'm enjoying a lot. ( Spoilery thoughts so far. )

Meanwhile, another tax form came in. Apparently I sold some stock last February, which I don't recall doing at all, which will require me to upgrade to a paid tax preparation suite if I want to do it myself online. Bah. Also, I think all financial institutions should be required to mail out their stuff to you by January. I mean, I could've already filed! I almost did! And then I would've had to file an amendment and everything.

Right now I am marathoning City Hunter. It is just as good as I hoped. :D I love when that happens! I'm on episode 12 or 13. I Frapped and uploaded this fight sequence from one of the early episodes to YouTube. Such a good role for Lee Min Ho. <333

Context: Using undercover work, Yun Seong (LMH's character) has just exposed a scumbag politician admitting to the crimes the latter has committed. YS's been captured by said scumbag politician's thugs... but not for long. Long live the spoon. ;)



( More spoilery comments. )

I couldn't get Death Note Vol. 7 from T. yesterday, due to all the snow. :/ (Reports are that my area got 7 inches!) I've ordered it from B&N and it should be here in a day or two, but the snow might stop that also. I don't know if the USPS still abides by their motto of delivering the mail through all kinds of inclement weather.

Also due to the snow my mom and I ended up going to Boiling Point (we went like 5 or 6 times while she was here; we LOVE that place) instead of Lola with K. Thankfully her flight wasn't canceled, the big snowstorm didn't come in until yesterday.

Tonight I'm supposed to go to Spring Hill's fried chicken dinner with the two Ks and C. I really want to go and also try out my drama-Korean on K and C, but it's still lightly snowing outside so I don't know if I want to make the trek all the way out to West Seattle for it. It would be lame of me not to, though, since it's a set dinner for 4 people. Sigh, why couldn't this have happened next weekend, when I have nothing planned?!

I've worked from home the last two days because my cold symptoms were so bad (though I feel okay otherwise) and people at work were making the sign of the cross at me and such. Also because yesterday we knew there was a snowstorm coming, though that didn't happen until much later than predicted.

Talis is such a little freak because he likes the snow. He hates the rain and I have to practically drag him out when it's raining, but for him snow is cool and he'll stay out forever if I let him. He doesn't even seem to feel the cold. I know he has his own fur coat and all, but what about the paws?! Whenever he goes in the snow I always have to wash all of his feet in order to get out the caked-in snow. Sigh.

Speaking of freakish pets, today is day I-don't-even-know of wearing my glasses, which I hate. While I was in CA, Jaime ate one of my contacts. Yeah. He is still obsessed with food. He stole various scraps out of the trash while at my parents'; a couple of times, my mom woke up, went downstairs, and found trash strewn all over the place due to Jaime's noctural foraging; and once, he even tore into a bag of sugar cookies and ate a couple. Seriously, do all cats do this?! I'm trying an experiment with his dry food. I'm trying to free feed him again, but am leaving out a giant bowl of food instead of just a cup or two. It seems to have made him less anxious, but the bad thing is that I can't really tell exactly how much he's eating per day. Certainly a lot more than I was giving him (as recommended by the vet and the cat food bag), but maybe it's not a terrible thing. He's not overweight...yet.

The last two days while staying home I mainlined Dexter S5. I'd forgotten Desmond Harrington was in it. He's one of my crushes from way back when, and due to only one movie. I thought he would disappear into obscurity after that, but here he is again. Anyway, I saw him in The Messenger with Milla Jovovich and was instantly like, I LOVE THIS GUY (like Christian Bale in Newsies). And I still think he's a right hottie. ( Spoilers for Dexter S5. )

I'm also watching Inbetweeners. It's basically British American Pie. Or maybe the male version of Georgia Nicolson. It's funny but kind of raunchy ... not as well done as Misfits, but then few things are. One of the guys reminds me of Peter from the Narnia movies. Anyway, the show requires even less of a commitment than Misfits -- 6 episodes in a season, and each episode is like 22 minutes long.

Finally, I've caught up with The Sopranos through S4. The scenes between Tony and Carmela in the finale were SO good. While I enjoy the show very much, I still don't get why it's considered the best TV show that's ever aired by so many people.

It's currently 60°F and rainy, and I'm wearing a tank top, skirt, and flip flops, but I'm not even going to bitch. After hitting the 90s in the last few days, I've decided that this is better. I mean, if it has to be one extreme or another, I prefer this. But what I would love even better is a normal Seattle summer, where it's just gorgeous and perfect for 3 months. The good news is, it looks like after today, that's exactly what we'll be getting for the next 10 days -- 70-75°F the whole time. Squeee!

My vegetable garden is soldiering on, even though they're all like WTF from this insane weather that has a 30° difference from day to day (much as we all are). A few more little tomatoes are peeking out, and I saw a little bee near the tomato flowers yesterday. Pollinate your heart out, little bee! I've started to pinch my basil plants, but my lesson learned from this year is that I need way more basil. Pinching a few at a time doesn't really give me enough to work with, it's not enough for pesto, and once pinched, it doesn't keep well. With more plants, every time I pinch I should have enough to make pesto, at least. The carrots are getting super crazy leafy, except when I dug down to check on the carrots themselves, they're PUNY. I guess my soil isn't loose enough for them. Seriously, the leaves give the impression that they must be huge; they're just making a whole lot of noise over nothing. The birds keep getting to my strawberries before I do. They think the netting is a joke and are laughing at me behind my back. The garlic leaves seem to be dying down, but not as much as K.'s; it'll be awhile before they're ready to harvest. The little zucchini plant is doing well, it's now surpassed its predecessor, but it's not big enough to develop flowers yet. I bought a little jalapeno pepper starter, and it's insanely greedy for water. If I don't water it daily, it droops. O.o Finally, after a second bout with the neighborhood cat, I've moved the catnip indoors to my office, which door I am keeping closed so Jaime doesn't wreck what's left of the poor thing. I don't know if it will fare well inside, and if it doesn't I guess I'll move it back out and just hope that the darn neighborhood cat doesn't succeed in killing it entirely.

I have like four or five story outlines going right now. This is exciting because it's been awhile since I've had that many story ideas clamoring to be written. The difficulty is in concentrating on one of them; I'm not good at multi-tasking when it comes to writing. If I try to write two stories at once, they both suffer. I just need to let one of them take over. Unfortunately, the one that's calling out the strongest right now is also the one I don't have all the answers for, plot/story wise, so I can't start writing until I have all the answers, that's just how I work.

C.'s 5th birthday party on Friday was fun, though dealing with little kids -- even peripherally -- exhausts me. The Molly Moon's truck gave out ENORMOUS scoops of ice cream, HOL-EE. In pictures the scoops are like half the size of the kids' heads. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that a photographer from Seattle Weekly was there (K. had to ask all the parents if it was okay with them that he take pictures of the kids with their ice cream), and little kids with giant ice cream cones make for better photos. I also made these mini sugar donut muffins (idea from romanticalgirl), and they were an huge hit. I wasn't there when they broke them out, but D. says that kids were double fisting them and cramming them into their mouths. He also said that he tried to hoard some of them from the kids because he liked them and wanted to eat them later (shameful).

Jaime feels that he is now mature and independent enough to have his own place. Therefore, he has obtained a share in a new development that was miraculously built overnight, and is now the proud owner of a new ( kitty condo! )

The weather deities heard my bitter tirade and things have slightly improved today. It's 64°F (which is still way too cold for summer, but better than 51°F), not raining, still cloudy, but here and there the sun is being allowed to peek out.

My shoulder is still bothering the heck out of me. I mean, in terms of injuries, it's fairly minor. It's not like it doesn't function. But when something just doesn't work/feel right, it's really disconcerting. I should be able to pick up a grocery bag or open a door or stretch my arm up without feeling a twinge of discomfort. Still going to physical therapy, but I have to say I'm kind of skeptical.

Oh no, ropo, what are you going to do?! Campbell Soup recalls SpaghettiOs

Speaking of R., she linked me to this awesome clip. Newsies meets Lady Gaga! Christian Bale and co. dance to "Bad Romance"! Etc. Maybe y'all aren't as big Newsies geeks as me.

TV Show Meme, Day 01 - A show that should never have been cancelled.

Like obtabius, who I gacked this from, I have to go with "Firefly." It was not only one of the most unique premises I've ever seen -- seriously, is there another show/movie/book about space cowboys? -- but so well done. The characters were rich and well developed, even though they only managed to put together a small number of episodes before being given the axe. Great cast, great writing, great direction. Unfortunately, it seems it was a bit too brilliant for the masses. (And definitely too brilliant for FOX.)

I have somehow misplaced my checkbook. Ughhh. I hope it's just been lost in the shuffle of purse switching and not that I've actually lost it, because that would be a nightmare.

I made my Korean meal!! It was mostly a success. All about it on my food blog. :D

Based on a recommendation from corianderstem, I'm going to be starting a new teen series soon: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It sounds soooo good. I've always been into the whole post-apocalyptic thing. They were always my favorite kind of XF stories, when I was into that fandom. And it's probably why I love Ender's Game so much. As for finishing Breaking Dawn ... it'll happen ... one day.

I am getting really, really annoyed with the weather. I bought a little rosemary starter and a bigger marjoram plant at the farmer's market yesterday, planted them in the evening, and it freaking HAILED in my neck of the woods this morning. Not to mention it's been cold, cold, cold and super rainy. All the stuff in the raised beds look like they're freezing and/or drowning. Seriously, is spring EVER going to arrive in this godforsaken place???? Yes, I am totally losing it over the lack of warmth, which I do every year, but is even more pressing this year due to my enthusiasm over the garden -- a garden that has not grown one bit (in fact, it's gone backwards -- the basil starter I planted is pretty much dead), thanks to this horrible weather. I think I am going to start some indoor herb plants, because the ridiculous 9 months of cold we have around here just does not leave me with any confidence. In less ranty news, the marjoram smells sooooooooooo wonderful.

So, it's snowing. Again. What a complete and total pain. Not to mention cold. When I was younger, I loved snow. Well, the idea of snow. I lived in Southern California so I never really experienced it myself. The first time I ever encountered snow was when I was in New York with my dad for some reason, I was probably about 6, and the memory is vague. After that it was when I went skiing for the first time, with my uncle. So to me, snow happens in places you go to, not where you live. The first time it ever snowed where I actually lived was when I was in Virginia/D.C. Boy was that not fun -- I didn't have a car so I took the Metro everywhere (though even if you do have a car there, it's still probably better to take the Metro under usual circumstances). And even though I lived close to a station, a 15-min walk, tromping through snow to and fro wasn't a blast.

Anyway, on Thursday afternoon I went back to Circuit City, hoping to find that they had lowered their prices further and to see if the open box D90 I was looking at last time was still there. They had lowered prices on more things -- TVs and video games now included -- but get this: the D90 was MORE than the last time I saw it!! It was now priced at exactly the same as a new, untouched D90! I talked to one of the sales reps and he was very cool, he explained that the liquidation was now entirely responsible for prices, and CC didn't have a say in it at all even though they were trying to get the liquidation company to lower the prices on the open box items, as it was completely ridiculous to charge people the same amount for an open box item as for a new, untouched item. Seriously... liquidation company, you fail. I really have to laugh that during a going-out-of-business liquidation the one item I was interested in went UP in price.

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year. I'm having lunch with my cousin at a Chinese restaurant neither of us has been to. It's got mixed reviews, and being that it's Seattle, this is iffy indeed. But oh well. Occasionally my mom, who is of a superstitious nature, has me do random things for the new year. There was the year she called me up and said that she wanted me to do something: wear jade for a year, as it would fend off the bad forces and bring me good luck or whatever. So I sighed and agreed; that's when she was like, "Oh, and it has to be in the shape of a cow." !!! This year, I have been tasked to buy a chunk of meat, and lightly whack at it with a knife 33 times (the age I'll be this year on the lunar calendar). Compared to wearing a piece of jade in the shape of a cow for a whole year, this is actually fairly easy. No, I don't know why. Jade asked, but I explained that the less I know, the better. The superstitious reasoning always gets me irritated, and this way my mom and I are both happy.

I have been fairly productive on the cooking front this weekend. Yesterday I sliced up 10 onions to make about 2 cups of caramelized onions spread, as per this article/recipe at the LA Times. I've made white fish stock today for a cream of scallop soup (which I will be making after posting this). I got the fish head/frames for the stock from Whole Foods, which reserved it for me when I called them in the morning the other day. They charged me $0.99/lb, which is not a lot, but if it was stuff they were going to throw away anyway, kind of short sighted of them. If they'd given it to me free, it would have been a gesture of good will -- I'd been there just the day before, I would have felt good about them, and it probably would have forced me to buy something else when I picked it up. But since they charged me for it, I gave them their $1.31 and left. And on Friday Jade and I both made salmon steaks with pinot noir sauce, and I also made an apple tart cake, which I am enjoying a lot. I've made apple cake before, and I've made apple tart before, but this was the first time I ever made a tart cake ... there's really no other way to describe it because the texture cannot really be pinned to one or the other.

The one thing I meant to make this weekend but didn't was January's Daring Bakers challenge. I'm still undecided on whether or not I'm going to participate this month.