It Started with a Journal

I am really useless. I STILL haven't finished A Feast for Crows, and it's like the shortest of the ASoIaF books. But in my defense, it's also probably the least interesting (but not uninteresting), and I also know that if I finish it there will be no more ASoIaF to read. That will be a sad, sad day. In happier news, my cousin is in the middle of A Game of Thrones and is enjoying it. :D I love spreading good readage.

I really only have one thing to say in between when I last commented on AFFC and now: ( Spoiler. )

ceilidh linked to some guy who created a blog to write down his impressions of AGoT for his friend. Two of my favorite comments: ( Spoilers. )

Still no change to the garden, except the lettuce looks very wilted and practically drowned. It's been raining way too much here, and is in the upper 40s/low 50s. I saw on my weather gadget that it was like 80 in SoCal yesterday, which makes me curse its inhabitants and also want to move back.

Last night I made a dish called "smothered chicken with mushrooms" -- it wasn't as good as I was hoping. :( I have been eating out way too much, unnecessarily so. (The Rock has too-delicious pizza.) The night before, my cousin, mom, aunt, and I went to Tavolata and I had short rib braised in a red wine reduction with this creamy polenta, and ohmygod it was soooooooooo good (it was a small portion but also a steal because on the regular menu it was $24 on its own!). My mom got rigatoni with tomatoes and sweet, spicy sausage. I got an octopus salad as a starter (as part of the 3 for $30), and we all shared a smoked halibut bruschetta. All very, very good. For dessert we shared some zeppoli and a lemon-flavored panna cotta topped with quince that was good, but not as good as the panna cotta jade_okelani and I had once at the now-defunct El Greco.

I've also been playing my Wii more. I had $30 to spend at Best Buy, so I got Raving Rabbids (S. was like, "You know this is a game for 5 year olds, right?" But I don't care) and a micro SD card that I'm going to use for DS games. Also S. and I got all caught up playing Rock Band - Beatles while in the store, so now I've gotten the Guitar Hero 4 Band Kit off eBay (decided to stick w/ the GH franchise since I already have a GH guitar).

Today's cooking plans: ice water crackers (though they should be called insane butter crackers, because that's what they are), peanut butter cookies, cinnamon apple ice cream (the custard, which I'll freeze tomorrow), and chicken noodle soup (made the broth yesterday, so this will be easy). I don't know if I will get to all that, but that's the plan.

I have a new autumn mood theme, but it's really feeling more like winter around these parts. :(

Happy birthday, corianderstem!

Okay, now summer is officially over. It's 62°F and cloudy today, and it looks like it's going to max out around 70°F in the next 10 days. :/ Bummer. I really, really want to move further south. I've been here for 8+ years and the constant gloom is really getting to me.

My new computer arrived, but I haven't been able to test out WAR yet, because it took over 24 hours just to download the beta bits. WTF. It finished overnight so I should be able to check it out tonight. Hopefully my new monitor will also have arrived and it will be an Experience.

I totally rock on Guitar Hero. :)) Well, on the beginner level. But I totally suck at DDR. Even the beginner levels are way hard, wtf. "Driving" with the Mario Kart wheel is a lot easier than I thought it'd be (that's right, you're looking at the 50cc Mushroom Cup champ -- go baby Peach!), but supposedly if you actually want to do well you need to use the old school controllers.

It turns out that my mom has about a dozen or so high-end designer handbags (Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry, etc.) from back in the day when she was all into such things (I knew it! It's genetic! Therefore not really my fault), but doesn't use anymore, and I've offered to sell them on eBay for her. She is so excited by the prospect of actually getting money for these bags that she doesn't use anymore -- and it's insane but I'm quite certain that I can get at least a couple hundred dollars per bag due to how well these designers have managed to sustain their brand. A new LV, for instance, averages between $1-2.5K, so getting an older bag that's been well cared for, for $200, is a steal. Well, for eBay shoppers who care about such things.

I have a 2-hour meeting coming up that I am positively DREADING. After that I get to go home and clean my floors. Yay. I can't wait for this day to be over. (No offense, A.!!)

It isn't often that I have a number of things to share that are all good, so yay!

1) Every year around bonus time, I splurge on one 'big ticket' item in order to reward myself (and a number of little things too, ahem). Since this year also came with a promotion, I was immediately at www.louisvuitton.com trying to decide if I wanted a Vernis or Damier Azur. Handbags -- one of my many frivolous weaknesses. On Friday, however, we had a work BBQ, and the coworker who hosted it had a Wii. And Rock Band. And I became totally hooked. Instead of adding to my modest LV collection, I decided I'd get a Wii instead, and all the games I really want. Thanks to jade_okelani I found a really good deal on eBay with a preowned console that came with 18 games, about 5 of which I actually really wanted. I think I'll probably sell the rest to recoup some of my cost and help fund the games I want that it didn't come with. I am super excited about this, and hope that the system/everything comes in working condition and it won't be a PITA eBay thing. ( Checklist of the games I want. )

I'm already planning a Wii/Lambrusco night with corianderstem, haha. Has anyone here had or has heard of Lambrusco? It's apparently a sweet red wine (I found it in the dessert section at the liquor store) that's popular in Wisconsin but I've never had it. I don't typically like alcohol as my body doesn't process it very well, but given that it is sweet it may be one of the few drinks that I'll like (like the ale I drank when I was in the UK -- haven't been able to find that kind of ale in the States).

2) There used to be a semi-decent Chinese place just down the street from me, but they went out of business and the space they occupied has been empty for awhile. Today I noticed that they're preparing for a new occupant: Mayuri! Nothing will ever compare to the Indian food I had in the UK so I'm not even using that as a bar, but Mayuri is my favorite Indian restaurant in this area, and I've been to many, so I am super excited. Their chicken makhani is sooooo good. Plus I love curries in general. The only problem is that delicious Indian buffet 2 minutes from me = not good for my diet.

3) My brother wrote the other day saying he was done with my computer! He put it together in less than a week; amazing. He's just waiting on an extra sata cable because I have 2 DVD writers and apparently the motherboard didn't come with enough cables. And then it will be on its way to me!!! As with the Wii, I can only hope that nothing gets damaged during shipping.

4) I have learned to make Vietnamese spring rolls. /cheer I think Vietnamese might be my favorite cuisine of all time. And I'm not just talking about pho. Pho is just a small sampling of Vietnamese cuisine. It's good, and it's prevalent, but it's not the best the cuisine has to offer. That is reserved, in my mind, for sugar cane shrimp and barbecued meats (preferably grilled yourself at the table) that you wrap in translucent rice/tapioca paper with your choice of veggies/herbs, rice noodles, crushed peanuts and/or hot sauce, then dipped in nuoc mam. Damn that is good stuff. That kind of Vietnamese food has been near impossible to find here (much easier in California), though just the other week I was finally recommended a place nearish me that served these kinds of dishes in addition to pho. After eating there for the first time I actually had the thought that if I died right then, I was glad that that had been my last meal. But I digress. Back to spring rolls, which are fairly common, but a bit frustrating for me because they always put cilantro in them and I can't stand cilantro. Plus sometimes they have pork and I like shrimp only, some places don't have basil and I like basil, etc. So after reading a post about it on another food blog, I decided to make my own. ( Results here. )