Lately I've been hooked on a song that I always hear on the radio coming home from work. Totally dig it. It stays in my head and plays on loop for the rest of the night, but I don't mind. The lyrics could use some tweaking... personally, I'm tired of this weather, but I can see its charm. Boston is nice. :)
1.29.2007
1.24.2007
All work and some play
Been busy - too much to blog about, too little time. Short trip to Erie, Feuerzangenbowle, more wine, virtual shopping in Australia, plans for the Jakarta trip, fleeting thoughts on various topics...
Jack is back - everyone's really psyched about the new season of 24, but personally I'm more excited about the mid-season return of Battlestar Galactica. Sunday's episode had a nasty cliffhanger - who are the final five?? Some speculate that Starbuck is one of them, despite it being highly implausible. My money is on Cally. Now that the D'Anna model series has been boxed, it'll be fun to see how Baltar will convince the others to rescue Xena, so the final five can be revealed. Ooh the suspense...
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Discovered this website lately. Cool beans! I was hooked on the Flash games, notably this one and this one. Very clever. Much like this series of games, though a lot more forgiving.
Time for bed... hope I'll be able to write more soon.
Jack is back - everyone's really psyched about the new season of 24, but personally I'm more excited about the mid-season return of Battlestar Galactica. Sunday's episode had a nasty cliffhanger - who are the final five?? Some speculate that Starbuck is one of them, despite it being highly implausible. My money is on Cally. Now that the D'Anna model series has been boxed, it'll be fun to see how Baltar will convince the others to rescue Xena, so the final five can be revealed. Ooh the suspense...
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Discovered this website lately. Cool beans! I was hooked on the Flash games, notably this one and this one. Very clever. Much like this series of games, though a lot more forgiving.
Time for bed... hope I'll be able to write more soon.
1.13.2007
Appetite for the World
It all started with our cotton anniversary.
E and I celebrated 2 years of not killing each other yet by going out to dinner. Last year we went to Casbah, a Mediterranean place with a stocked wine bar, which was pretty good. This year we decided to split one fancy dinner into 2 nice meals, for the heck of it.
First, we went to Abay, Ethiopian cuisine on S. Highland Ave. Very neat. There was regular seating, as well as tables that looked like oversized rattan tagines. We got a platter with kay wat, doro tibs, kay sir dinich, and tikil gomen, along with a steaming pot of yekemem shai (very much like chai tea). I was so proud of E, Mr. I-hate-eating-with-my-fingers, who dove in enthusiastically with the injera, Ethiopian flatbread. The stews were arranged neatly on the injera like paint on a palette. It was amazing; we're definitely going again.
The next evening, we went to our favorite sushi joint for the usual chirashi. Best sushi in town!
Then things got a little crazy. Two of E's associates from work flew in from Atlanta; we had to take them out to dinner every night they were here. First, we took them to Joe Mama's for hearty American-Italian - I had to get the giant tiramisu-in-a-mug. Then we had South/Southeast Asian fare at Spice Island Tea House, where I had to get the Belgian raspberry wheat beer. We took a break the next evening (phew), then picked up again with Greek/Lebanese/Middle Eastern food at Aladdin's (the grape leaves are to-die-for!).
From injera to nan to pita, from Africa to Japan to Italy to Burma to Lebanon, our tastebuds toured the world in 5 days. (We now have leftovers in the fridge to last us a week, and I can't bear the thought of walking into another restaurant for quite some time.)
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Last night, after eating Rice Krispies for dinner (see above for why), I headed to Lauren's for my first book club meeting. It was a meeting of a dozen or so impeccably dressed young women, all from the glamorous world of marketing and publishing, to talk about this month's read, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a movie in making and virgin novel by local writer Michael Chabon when he was 21.
I put my contribution of a Louis Jadot Chardonnay on the table, together with 16 other bottles already there. I wondered how much we would be drinking... (book club? wine club?) I was the only one who didn't know anyone else besides the hostess, and NOT being from either marketing or publishing, I felt pretty out of it. I wished there were "Hello, My Name Is" tags for everyone. I bonded with a writer at Whirl, whose office was a few blocks away from mine. It was a fun estrogen fest where we spent 10 minutes actually talking about the book, and the rest drinking and picking at hors d'oeuvres and gossiping.
The fiances and husbands started streaming in around 10pm, E included, to make fun of all the drunks and drive them home - not before a rowdy video game on the big screen in the basement. At the end of the night (12.30am), we kicked eleven bottles of wine (not counting the 4 or so bottles that went into the mulled wine) - damn. The next meeting will be in March, reviewing Shoot the Moon, a murder mystery by Billie Letts.
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Congratulations to my best friend, my mentor and tormentor since we were 13, who recently got engaged to his gal of 8 years. It's about damn time! :) I wish the two of you nothing but the best for the future. Come visit us when you get the chance!!
E and I celebrated 2 years of not killing each other yet by going out to dinner. Last year we went to Casbah, a Mediterranean place with a stocked wine bar, which was pretty good. This year we decided to split one fancy dinner into 2 nice meals, for the heck of it.
First, we went to Abay, Ethiopian cuisine on S. Highland Ave. Very neat. There was regular seating, as well as tables that looked like oversized rattan tagines. We got a platter with kay wat, doro tibs, kay sir dinich, and tikil gomen, along with a steaming pot of yekemem shai (very much like chai tea). I was so proud of E, Mr. I-hate-eating-with-my-fingers, who dove in enthusiastically with the injera, Ethiopian flatbread. The stews were arranged neatly on the injera like paint on a palette. It was amazing; we're definitely going again.
The next evening, we went to our favorite sushi joint for the usual chirashi. Best sushi in town!
Then things got a little crazy. Two of E's associates from work flew in from Atlanta; we had to take them out to dinner every night they were here. First, we took them to Joe Mama's for hearty American-Italian - I had to get the giant tiramisu-in-a-mug. Then we had South/Southeast Asian fare at Spice Island Tea House, where I had to get the Belgian raspberry wheat beer. We took a break the next evening (phew), then picked up again with Greek/Lebanese/Middle Eastern food at Aladdin's (the grape leaves are to-die-for!).
From injera to nan to pita, from Africa to Japan to Italy to Burma to Lebanon, our tastebuds toured the world in 5 days. (We now have leftovers in the fridge to last us a week, and I can't bear the thought of walking into another restaurant for quite some time.)
---------------------------------------------------
Last night, after eating Rice Krispies for dinner (see above for why), I headed to Lauren's for my first book club meeting. It was a meeting of a dozen or so impeccably dressed young women, all from the glamorous world of marketing and publishing, to talk about this month's read, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a movie in making and virgin novel by local writer Michael Chabon when he was 21.
I put my contribution of a Louis Jadot Chardonnay on the table, together with 16 other bottles already there. I wondered how much we would be drinking... (book club? wine club?) I was the only one who didn't know anyone else besides the hostess, and NOT being from either marketing or publishing, I felt pretty out of it. I wished there were "Hello, My Name Is" tags for everyone. I bonded with a writer at Whirl, whose office was a few blocks away from mine. It was a fun estrogen fest where we spent 10 minutes actually talking about the book, and the rest drinking and picking at hors d'oeuvres and gossiping.
The fiances and husbands started streaming in around 10pm, E included, to make fun of all the drunks and drive them home - not before a rowdy video game on the big screen in the basement. At the end of the night (12.30am), we kicked eleven bottles of wine (not counting the 4 or so bottles that went into the mulled wine) - damn. The next meeting will be in March, reviewing Shoot the Moon, a murder mystery by Billie Letts.
---------------------------------------------------
Congratulations to my best friend, my mentor and tormentor since we were 13, who recently got engaged to his gal of 8 years. It's about damn time! :) I wish the two of you nothing but the best for the future. Come visit us when you get the chance!!
1.07.2007
Christmas/New Years post
Feliz Ano Nuevo to one and all! First post of 2007. Feel like I should take a moment to revel in this moment. Mmm. Okay.
** I added "tagging" to this blog, awkwardly I think. The pesky thing about porting a Wordpress template to Blogger is that it looks like Wordpress, but is still confined by Blogger rules, meaning no category tagging. I resorted to a crass del.icio.us hack - not the most elegant solution, but it'll have to do for now. **
Spent the holidays in Connecticut again. We packed the minivan full of wrapped gifts, food, snacks, suitcases, and zipped down the Interstate eastwards. We heard our hosts got a dog, and were worried that Tweety, the family cockatiel, had kicked the bucket at the ripe old age of 22, but we arrived to hear barking and incessant screeching. Good to see the bird again.
Nothing terribly exciting (other than the Boston sidetrip - see previous post), it was another PG-13 family vacation with a few things of note:
And since I'm fond of lists, here's another one for my Christmas loot:
Hubby went all out this year. The first gift I opened was a Sigma bike computer - spot on. I rattled the next box, which was pretty light... After undoing the tangle of wrapping paper, the package revealed... an iPod Nano! Probably the most overrated and common gift this holiday, but whatevs. Back when MP3 players haven't become a mainstream must-have, I had gotten E the 4th generation iPod. Recently, I've been taking it with me to work, so I guess this was a clue that he wanted it back. :) Just as I was bubbling with joy, E pointed out the engraving he had ordered on the back, and I started bawling. (Okay, so I'm a girl.)
My gift for him was outdone by the wee music stick, but he still jumped for glee - 1GB of extra RAM for his new laptop. I got 4GB of memory, and he got some too. Fair's fair! (Though it was uncanny how we spontaneously got each other tech toys. A pair made in geek heaven.)
Boy's gift to me
My gift to boy
C'est ca, the Christmas line-up. On NYE, we toasted with the Spumante from our trip to the Finger Lakes and played with too many sparklers outside.
Phew. Mighty post, I'll say... so there you have it!
** I added "tagging" to this blog, awkwardly I think. The pesky thing about porting a Wordpress template to Blogger is that it looks like Wordpress, but is still confined by Blogger rules, meaning no category tagging. I resorted to a crass del.icio.us hack - not the most elegant solution, but it'll have to do for now. **
Spent the holidays in Connecticut again. We packed the minivan full of wrapped gifts, food, snacks, suitcases, and zipped down the Interstate eastwards. We heard our hosts got a dog, and were worried that Tweety, the family cockatiel, had kicked the bucket at the ripe old age of 22, but we arrived to hear barking and incessant screeching. Good to see the bird again.
Nothing terribly exciting (other than the Boston sidetrip - see previous post), it was another PG-13 family vacation with a few things of note:
- Every year we have a theme, and this year it was 'Down Under', complete with didgeridoos, aboriginal clapsticks, costumes, and a scavenger hunt, where we needed an Aussie slang dictionary to decipher the clues.
- Jess went to the Bahamas and brought back some local rum. Our eggnogs were noggin' real fine.
- We tried cranberry panettone for the first time, and it was incredible! Can't believe what we've been missing all this time.
- Made our own pizzas one night - a regular chicken and vege, and a Hawaiian. To my surprise (horror?), the in-laws have never tried the latter. Sacre bleu! Unfortunately, after trying a piece, they didn't care for it.
- Got a glimpse of how house-training a dog can be fun and a pain in the butt. Lulu, the new dog (Jack Russell/unknown breed mix), has only been there for 3 months; getting to know a dog can be tricky business (pun intended). One of E's aunt's Christmas gifts was the Dog Whisperer training DVD set with Cesar Millan. We watched the entire first disc (after showing the folks the South Park episode with Cartman - we just had to)... wow. Other than being unnecessarily dramatic and a little far-fetched, it was pretty entertaining. But I'm glad we don't have a dog.
- I tried my hand at pottery for the very first time! Very cool. I loved the feel of cold wet clay; making something out of a pile of mud is a lot harder than it looks. My first pot turned out kinda gimpy, it's definitely not symmetrical but my mentor generously said it's "got character".
First pot!
And since I'm fond of lists, here's another one for my Christmas loot:
- Sudoku puzzles and... a Sudoku Rubik's Cube! *evil*
- Silk Pashmina wrap
- Fresh Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans - just add rum/vodka to make my own extract (neato)
- Fuzzy socks!
- Barbara K toolbox
- Cool pieces of pottery
- Assortment of fancy tea
- Swarovski pendant
- Homemade honey from Jesse the beekeeper
- 2 Haruki Murakami novels in paperback
Hubby went all out this year. The first gift I opened was a Sigma bike computer - spot on. I rattled the next box, which was pretty light... After undoing the tangle of wrapping paper, the package revealed... an iPod Nano! Probably the most overrated and common gift this holiday, but whatevs. Back when MP3 players haven't become a mainstream must-have, I had gotten E the 4th generation iPod. Recently, I've been taking it with me to work, so I guess this was a clue that he wanted it back. :) Just as I was bubbling with joy, E pointed out the engraving he had ordered on the back, and I started bawling. (Okay, so I'm a girl.)
My gift for him was outdone by the wee music stick, but he still jumped for glee - 1GB of extra RAM for his new laptop. I got 4GB of memory, and he got some too. Fair's fair! (Though it was uncanny how we spontaneously got each other tech toys. A pair made in geek heaven.)
Boy's gift to me
My gift to boy
C'est ca, the Christmas line-up. On NYE, we toasted with the Spumante from our trip to the Finger Lakes and played with too many sparklers outside.
Phew. Mighty post, I'll say... so there you have it!
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