Gimme Indie Rock!

First- I ate fish this weekend! Raw fish! It was... not bad and not good. It was 100% neutral. But I'm willing to try it again.

Second- this show on CartoonNetwork called Chowder is the weirdest, most entertaining thing ever.

Third- thanks to cayetana for recommending this week's This American Life. Jerry Springer's life story turns out to be absolutely fascinating. Harvard Law? Really? I would totally vote for Jerry Springer if given the chance.

Off to kung-fu! We've been plunging ahead really fast with some forms, it's been awesome lately.

What? How is it possible that Kickass Cupcakes is expanding? I do not support this supporting of crappy cupcakes. Speaking of cupcakes- a few weekends ago I tried cupcakes from Patsy's Pastries in Somerville, and I am somewhat happy to report that they were not that good. Lyndell's still wins, which makes me happy because I walk to Lyndell's from home, and I kind of fear finding the Perfect Cupcake someplace outside of reasonable walking distance. I guess if this is one of my concerns in life I'm doing pretty well.

I'm getting weirdly excited by the prospect of shopping at local farmer's markets this summer. I also think that once it gets nice, we may be able to obtain hay within a 30 minute drive for much less than the $50-60 a month we currently pay to get it shipped in from the midwest. But then again, it may not be early cut western Timothy hay, and I can't be serving lame hay to my bunnies. They have discerning tastes.

How much did The Office rock last night? Answer: So much! I want to host a dinner party. But a remarkably less awkward one.

Why is it not Friday yet? My God this has been a long week. Also, why did I not go outside to get my lunch at that delicious Chilean sandwich place? I have made poor choices with my life.

Speaking of food and poor choices, I think tomorrow night may be the night for a foray into Sushi Town. There's a new place in Allston that jawalter has noticed, and from Yelp reviews it looks pretty good (it's called Privus). Can I cajole anyone into sushi-ing it up tomorrow? they also have tempura and other non-fishy items

Finally, I really want to have a Sarah Vowell-esque adventure. I want to research some arcane subject and then visit weird little museums devoted to said arcane subject.

Alright. I have decided that I need to make a valiant effort to get rid of my picky eating habits. If, after a valiant effort, I still don't like stuff, I think I'll have earned the right to not like it. To that end, I made some lamb souvlaki last night. I'll have to give lamb a couple more shots, but there's some sort of weird taste I get from it that is just unappealing. I think I can tolerate mini-lamb chops, so maybe my chunks o' lamb last night were too big and thus too... lamby.

Anyway, so also to that end, I need to make a good faith effort into fish. It would be nice to have some protein options for dinners other than beef/pork/poultry/cheese, and it would also be nice to not have a crippling disgust for a food that's eaten by tons of people in the world. All the advice I'm getting on good old Metafilter is that sushi is the way to go to attempt to get over my fish thing.

So I think sometime soon I'd like to have a sushi dinner at some sort of nice sushi place around here. Because if I'm in polite company I probably won't cry like a baby while eating fish. What? I have a lot of disappointing-others issues tied into eating fish, it's a problem, I know.

Ok, last week for, like, two days there were girl scouts in the T station shilling cookies. And they were kind of loud and obnoxious, as little girls in groups tend to be, so I ignored them. But now I needs me some peanut butter chocolate girl scout cookies. And there are no girl scouts to be found. I actually went onto the web site and entered my information into their cookie finder database. I have no pride left.

And it reminds me of

( this (TSFW, too stupid for work )

It smells like bacon in my building, and right now there is nothing I want more than a BLT. While I could walk down the street and get one, I'm being a good doobie and eating my homemade cooking light chili. No bacon for me.

So, another thing that I kinda want is to maybe go to King Richard's Fair. I've never been to a ren fair (fayre?) before, and it sounds rather amusing. Would anyone else be interested in the nerd fest?

Ugh, Atlantic Ave. is freakin' Waterworld today. I am soggy.

So, yesterday I picked up my wedding dress from the cleaners, and nearly had a heart attack from how much it cost. Is it normal for it cost $130 to clean a dress? WTF, if I had known it would cost that much I would have just let it sit in my closet with grass stains, it's not like I'm going to be wearing it out ever again. I'm convinced that the minute anything has the word "wedding" attached, dollar signs light up in people's eyes. Rawwwr. So I had my semi-quarterly freak out about money last night, as is my wont, and I think I've decided that I need to put one of my student loans back into forbearance for a year (where it can join the grad school student loan, which I'm not touching until the credit cards are paid off). Debt totally sucks.

But, to end the entry on a high note- Friday I get free sushi. Free! Sushi! I mean, vegetable sushi! Who doesn't like the sound of that?!

I feel so healthy. Lunch is a turkey sammich with baby spinach and tomato on whole wheat/flaxseed bread, and a nectarine. If there's to be pool-ifying in my near future, I'd best get rid of some of my beer, pasty and cupcake pudge for my cute H&M swimsuit.

Oh, ew. I just noticed that my sunburn on my delicate bosomy parts is starting to peel, and that is really quite gross. And now I just shared that with you all. I loaded on the sunscreen before leaving for our Harbor Islands adventure yesterday, but I probably should have reapplied some in the afternoon.

So yeah, this weekend was fun and hot, and... seriously hot. I think we're going to have to rig up a temporary night-time bunny headquarters in our bedroom with the AC if things keep going this way. The poor things are looking really listless and unhappy in the heat.

I have found myself slouching in my seat far too often at work lately, so I've stuck a little note on my computer that says "sit up straight!" I hope it works, as I'm too short to afford crappy posture.

So my class last night was awesome. It involved a sweet but slightly crazy Eygptian guy. He played a few of his cds (as in, cds of him singing). I'd never heard O Sol Mio sung in Japanese by and Eygptian, but now I have. It didn't actually involve us cooking, we just sort of stood around watching him, but it was fun. He made: rutabega stew, sauteed okra, fava bean salad, red lentil soup, and a dessert whose name escapes me. I felt bad for the vegetarians in the group, as he cooked some meat for the stew and kept stirring everything with the meat spoon. He also dumped chicken broth into one version of the stew and mixed up which was which, such that the vegetarians had a few unfortunate mouthfuls before realizing his mistake. I met a girl who's also getting married on June 4th, we chatted for a while. All in all, very fun, and I'll definitely take another class. I think to actually get to cook I'll have to try the Culinary Institute in Porter Square, but sitting and watching is nice, too.

We got our itinerary for our cruise the other day. It's going to be so cool! *squee* They'll even do some grocery shopping for us and load stuff onto the boat before we get there. We could have a boat full of pasties if we want!! Mmm...pasites. I have a problem.

I've been having the weirdest food cravings lately, for thing that I never eat. Yesterday I wanted tator tots like nobody's business. Alas, I was foiled, and only had oven fries. I also really want sloppy joes, for no good reason whatsoever. It's probably because we don't eat much red meat or fat; I have a rule that we can only eat red meat once a week (and I try to weasel out of that whenever I can, much to c_m_i's dismay).

So I was attacked by the Old Guy again on Tuesday. He was complaining about the stove (which, by the way, is immaculate right now, so I know he hasn't seen inside our place since Feb. Why won't he leave us alone?!

Oh man, I am so confused. I think I require komos's help, but maybe someone else knows the answer. So, I thought that an "applewood smoked ham" does not need to be cooked, given that it has been smoked. My Google-fu is failing me on the subject, some appear to need cooking and some don't. I made a German potato salad with a smidge of ham that I just cut up without cooking, as it seemed fine to me. Will we get horribly ill if we eat it?

So we had a pretty good weekend, all things considered. My Sunday was spent on the couch recovering from Saturday, but all is well. Folks came over for Carnivale and chili on Friday. Saturday was the Beer Summit volunteer party. I think I've even managed to come out of my cooking funk. For a few weeks, most of my cooking really sucked, but I think after the chili, yesterday's frittata, and tonight's cajun chicken, I've de-slumped. Grendel is currently being a jerk and bugging Robocop. I'm really looking forward to seeing incandes_flower and the rest of the Bates Girls posse later this week.

Well, that was about as satisfying as a weekend can get. It involved a huge amount of lounging, and lounging is good.

Friday night we headed over to the Second Circle for tv and, um, camaraderie. Yay for camaraderie. Saturday Drew & I spent the day lazing about. I made 2 sad looking loaves of bread. They taste fine, they just didn't exactly rise much... or at all. Now that I think about it, though, I don't remember seeing bubbles in the sugar-water-yeast mix I made, so I think maybe the water wasn't warm enough. I need a thermometer for cooking stuff. Yesterday we hit the Galleria for a little shopping, then went to komos's place to watch him brew.

And that was that. Next Sunday I'm seeing Slint again, and they will rock.

An AskMetafilter question reminded me of the greatness of Tullycraft, and I looked 'em up, and lo, I see that there's a new album in the works! Twee Pop!

I am making Siracha bread. The dough kneading was very satisfying. One of my fondest childhood memories is of my dad baking breads on snow days. It's kind of funny just how much I love cooking- it must be the act of creating something with my hands. Since I can't really do many cute human things with these clumsy little hands, this is the best I can do.

So we think things went ok with the Old Guy last night, but we won't be 100% sure until we get a lease signed. He rambled for a while about his life, our cleanliness, and the rabbits. Apparantly back in the old country, he had a stable, which was overrun by bunnies. Hee. A stable full of bunnies. That must be the cutest thing in the entire world.

Today's adventure:

Wherin our heroine learns that if a recipe calls for cooking on high heat for 5 hours, it does not necessarily mean you can instead cook on low heat for 10 hours. It leaves dinner sort of desicated. Drew is a sweetheart and claims that it's edible enough for lunch tomorrow. Back-up dinner to the rescue.

'Least it's not as bad as pineapple lasagna.

I seriously love Cooking Light so much. That magazine is the best thing ever. Made some meatball subs for dinner that were sooo good. That and a spinach & pear salad. Num num num.

Last night I gave our landlord the pumpkin pie I made on Sunday. He looked skeptical at first and asked if I made it myself; when I said "yes," he had a huge smile. Made me feel all warm & fuzzy to have made someone so happy with so little. I think maybe he's crochety because he's lonely.

So much to do tonight! Then we are off at 7AM. I'm glad we're doing Thanksgiving south this year, as that means we do Christmas north. I haven't seen snow on Christmas in 2 years.

Work is doing such a nice thing to celebrate the Sox, there's pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, tickets they're giving away.... I entered for the tickets, but am abstaining from the fat bombs of food, as last night Drew & I celebrated our anniversary a little early with a meal at Gargoyle's in Davis. It was super tasty, but I'm getting way too used to my own cooking, so anything cooked with more than a tablespoon of olive oil (or, god forbid, real butter and not Benecol) makes my tummy feel squidgy later. Mmmm, fancy-pants dinner.

For those of you who don't read read Drew's journal, here's a picture of our bunnies celebrating Sox pride:bunnies!

Hmmm, what else.... I talked Hollywood Express down to $20 from the $100 late fee. Fear my powers of persuasion!

I need to stay away from Peanut Butter Cups. Seriously. I have a problem.

Never underestimate the comfiness of hanging about the house in a bathrobe.

That said, had a very fine weekend that saw the return (for good and temporarily) of some friends, and had a lovely phone call with halninek this evening. Stuff of various kinds was done, and lo, it was fun.

Apparently I owe Hollywood Express a fine in excess of $100 for Twisted. For the love of all that's holy, I could've kept the damn thing and bought them a new copy for $15. We'll see how this plays out. They are seriously not getting that much money for that crapfest. Seriously. I returned the case, unknowingly leaving the dvd ensconced in the dvd player. I am smrt. I must have given them my home phone number instead of my cell when I signed up, which also meant that I never got any messages they left, since we don't check our home voice mail (note to anyone who might have that number- don't ever leave us a message there). Oy.

There is a hilarious remix of Ashlee Simpson's "performance" on SNL that has her doing the ho-down to the Benny Hill theme. Priceless.

Pumpkin cake in the oven on a fall day is among the best things ever. Walked all over creation today to obtain litter for the bunnies, but it was gorgeous out, so it was well worth the trouble. I think fall makes up for miserable New England winters; it's such a sensual time, so many smells and sounds and sights all popping out.

There's a John Wilkes Boothe special on tv, and it reminds me of the "It Wasn't Me" JWB montage. Heh.

Apologies to cosmicserpent and starflow for sucking out on the plan to go dancing last night. I left the Beer Summit volunteer thingy to come home for dinner, and my limbs were too heavy with sleep to get it together to head out again. I haven't been sleeping well lately, but that's not a great excuse.

Yesterday I did manage, though, to find The Dress. Now I'm a little kurfuzzled, as The Dress is way more expensive than I had hoped (even on discount web sites), and I'm not sure if it's within my dad's price range. We'll see. It's very purty.

I also owe some kudos to tenillypo for lending Good Omens to me. I'm not terribly far into it, but so far it's amazingly good. Thanks!

*happy sigh* I've been experimenting with curries lately. Tonight's was too soupy, but Thursday's was right-on. I've also been experimenting with setting the damn house on fire. Friday night I learned that wax paper, when next to a hot burner, will catch fire. I also learned that my reflexes in such a situation aren't so great, as I just yelled for Drew, then said "fire," and "water." Drew put out the flames. Good lord. It was a good thing I stayed away from the stove all day yesterday. Also met up with cosmicserpent and starflow before hitting the Butterknife show.

Yesterday we ventued up to Vermont/Western MA for some farmy good times. cayetana's sister-in-law put together a great day for the bunch of us, that was the best way to ease into fall. We visited a cheese cave (which is more like a Hobbit house than a cave... yes, I was expecting a drippy dark cave more than a well-controlled basement), a cider farm, and The People's Pint. The Pint was awesome; such good food, all local and organic, and fantastic beer. It was such a great day. By the time we got home we just crashed, and I'm still a wee bit tired from the trip. Spent all day today lazing around. Ran some errands, checked out the new bookstore in Porter Square (it so happens that one of Jeremy's friends, Josh, works there, so it was nice to see a familiar face). The bookstore hasn't received all of its inventory yet, so the shelves are a bit bare, but I'm so happy to have a real, not Buck-a-Book, bookstore in the neighborhood. Drew & I then headed to John Harvard's to read our books and have a few beers. I'm hoping tomorrow brings some quality girl time and more relaxing.

All of the foodie threads on Ask MetaFilter are making me want to cook fancy food. Tonight I'll settle for Herbed Chicken Piccata and Broccoli with Shallot Butter. I've got these shallots that I really need to use- have you ever tried to look for shallots in the grocery store? It's tricksy. I thought they'd be with either the herbs or the onions, but they were hanging above the mushrooms, way out of my line of vision. I really wish I had a MeFi account, as I really wanted to chime in on one thread with one magical word: "Brine!" Brining is amazing. That's all. I've got to nuke myself some lunch now.

I have the most powerful craving for steak ever. I stopped by McKinnons on the way home and picked up so-cheap-it-sketches-me-out filet mignon; we will be dining on steak, potatoes and broccoli tonight. Beeeefy....

Uh. So on my way out of the store, I ran into someone I hadn't seen in ages, which is always cool. What's not cool is that I'm 95% sure who he is, but not 100%. I'm pretty sure he's one of Jeremy's friends, Josh, and I sincerely hope I didn't have that "I'm an asshat who doesn't remember your name" look on my face when I was chatting with him. He was wearing a Bates shirt, which is what threw me off, because he did not go to Bates, but did grow up in L-town and hung with the contingent of Bates professors' kids (that would be "college-age kids"). While I actually have a pretty good memory for faces & names, I have an uncannily lousy ability to actually register that I recognize someone until about 5 minutes after they walk away (this is, of course, only when confronted with a familiar person out of context, if I expect to see someone in a certain place I'm usually set). Drew will point out that I'm just utterly unobservant, which is indeed true.

The house that caught fire a few blocks away last week is now a pile of charred rubble. Freaks me out.

Alright, onward to steak.

Whoooo! That was a fine, fine dinner. Happy birthday to wisdom_seeker! I am so freakin' full of tapas and a bomb of fudgey chocolate cake that I can't get to sleep, despite my extreme tiredness. Too...much...cake. Tonight, I ate bunny. But only 'cause Drew promised to give me $50 for doing so. I'll do anything for $50, that's a lot of money. the bunny was pretty scrumptious

Well, the cold with which I was stricken for the weekend appears to be on its slow way out. I can almost smell again, which means I could almost taste my lunch of leftover veggie quiche. I have discovered that quiche is an excellent way to get rid of vegetables that you otherwise would not have much use for. Specifically, summer squash. I don't mind summer squash, per se, but don't have very many uses for it. Add some spinach, red pepper, and eggs, though, and there you have it. Throw some cool whip, strawberries, and angel food cake together after that, and voila.

So this is what a Saturday really feels like...

Had a blast last night getting curry and then hitting the Tiki Room. I'm so glad you all could come out, I love the feeling of sitting at a huge table surrounded by such awesome peeps. I also love pina coladas. Sorry we jetted early, but I'm feeling so very rested and pleasant that I think it was well worth it to do so. Can I also say that I really hope this newfound feeling of financial security actually lasts, 'cause I really like that for the first time in my life I don't have to feel guilty about buying unnecessary extras at the grocery store, and may even be able to buy some unnecessary new cds.

Oh yeah, if you're interested in catching Anchorman for either the first or second time tomorrow, drop me a note so I know to include you on the planning.

Now I'm going to make pasta salad, chocolate banana bread and mango-banana frozen yogurt. I have a crapload of organic bananas to use up.

I'm so pleased with how this weekend turned out that I'm not even sad to be heading to work this morning. Friday night I succeeded in filling my needs for both delicious curry and hanging out. Saturday Drew & I headed up to my dad's wife's camp in Maine for some wholesome family barbeque time. My stepmom's family is just so normal and sincerely nice that it kind of weirds me out a bit. Or maybe it was the lack of beer at a barbeque. We got to dangle our feet in a pretty lake and see Lake Bunganut (heh). Thanks to the hospitality of ms_ntropy and her mom, we got to bask in a pool, eat too much food, and have an excellent time with a bunch of excellent people on Sunday. I didn't even feel too squidgy about wearing my teeny-bopper bathing suit. Yesterday I killed a lot of brain cells, but not by drinking. Alan, Tenille and I had a little movie marathon wherein we watched The Perfect Score and Eurotrip; the former being a big old pile of crap, the latter being one of the most hilarious films I've seen in a while. I also made some super-tasty chocolate zucchini bread that might just be my new favorite thing ever. All in all, it was a solidly great weekend.

One of my pet peeves is the obsessive focus on "low-carb" products that's the current rage. -I'm not getting all down on Atkins, just the people who are jumping on the bandwagon for all their worth- A particularly egregious example of this is KFC; they had been airing ads that claim that a bucket of fried chicken is good for "low-carb diets," and choosing KFC is choosing "healthy." Heh. I just read that the FTC totally nailed their asses for false advertising. Every once in a while, perusing these legal publications at work yields entertaining results. I will say, however, that their ads featuring "Chicks for Chicken" shirts make me giggle.

Over the past few days I've regained my cooking prowess after some hilarious fiascoes. Corn on the cob with lime-cilantro butter, cherry cobbler, cajun-garlic pork, and oven-roasted sage potatoes are all most excellent things.

Though I swallow my pride a little to admit it, last night I watched For Love or Money 3. Yup. It was pretty entertaining.

Looking at my birth control pill pack, I see that I'm PMS-ing, and that explains some snarkiness and an insane craving for salt. Luckily, the salt arrives in the form of one of those Healthy Choice frozen meals, which probably contain my daily allotment of sodium (and I actually hunt down the lowest-sodium ones I can find). Endorphins have also kicked in from some cardio at the gym, so am feeling better.

Tonight I have an orientation at the animal shelter, and then I will officially volunteer to play with homeless bunnies. I'm totally going to want to bring them home with me. Depending on what time that gets out, I may attempt to make a cherry cobbler tonight.

Last night I finally did it. I cooked a dinner that was so thouroughly inedible that I threw it away and went out to buy us something from the place down the street.

I'm not sure if it's a testament to his memory or my "familiar face," but the guy who works at my gym said "4 times in a row this week, that's awesome!" to me when I went in today. I'm walking tons more lately, but need to keep toning with weights. My calf muscles are insanely toned by now, but I'd like my arms to catch up to their buffness.

As others have mentioned, I'm a little sad about the end of the Buffy era. I never got into Angel, and stopped watching after Buffy itself ended, but still. It's rare that I'll enjoy a tv show that much, but those were some well-written/acted programs. Heh. Though I did have a little bit of a sniffle at the Las Vegas season finale this week (stop laughing!). Sometimes I'm just a sentimental sap.

Veggie stir-fry is the best easy dinner ever. So colorful! So healthy!

I think I may be the only woman on earth who craves broccoli and salad more often than chocolate.

I've become marginally obsessed with the magazine Cooking Light. Things come out looking fancy-pants, and it caters to my hatred of butter and oil.

What a quiet day.

So, as basha pointed out: Farscape is coming back! Well, sorta. But still, that excites me so much. Hold on... sorry... my geek is showing.

Tonight I am off to a Britney Spears concert. My brother had a ticket that was going to waste, and he wants company at the show, so I figure it'll be good karma to keep him company amidst the sea of 14 year olds.

Last night komos came over and I made a tasty (least I hope it was tasty) dinner for us all, and we consumed the Best Beer In The World. I believe it was called Quelque Chose, and it was really quite good.

I almost forgot- for those of you who, like myself, enjoy potatoes and bread, I read today that studies show a diet that's high in carbs and low in fat is just as effective for weight loss as Atkins. Take that, Atkins, your steaks covered in alfredo sauce have nothin' on my mashed potatoes! That, and I believe carbs release serotonin in the brain, which means they make you feel goooood.

In keeping with Resolution #1 of this year, I went out to the record store and purchased a shiny new cd this afternoon. It's the Stratford 4, a random indie band the bartender was playing at Bukowski's one night; I liked it so much that I had to ask what it was (I actually end up doing that a lot at Bukowski's... sometimes to the chagrin of my inner rock goddess, as I sometimes ask who it is when it's some major band I should know... or like the time I was unwittingly enjoying Ween *shudder*). The girl at the counter even asked me about them, making me feel 1)not old, and 2)slightly hip. The last time I was there she asked me about whatever it was that I bought, if I remember correctly.

Also, in keeping with Resolution #2, I have been very judicious with my money lately, and am pleased. This also means that we've been, like, eating healthy now that I insist on cooking dinner at home a few nights a week. I'm also learning that I'm actually fairly decent at cooking stuff that's not tofu pie. Heh. Maybe I'll bring tofu pie to the Superbowl party ;)

I am pleased. Just made successful vegetable chili; though I was looking for clear-the-sinuses-spicy and ended up with rather sweet. I dumped in cumin, chili powder and fresh cilantro. Maybe it needs paprika?

Am now living a stereotype and am drinking tea while watching Sex in the City on HBO On Demand. But fuck it, it's been a long day.

Am feeling so darn domestic lately. I need to cook things!
I love the way salad looks, all bright and colorful.
So right now is the very first time I've been our apartment alone, and it's neat. I just made salad and fake meat for dinner, am blasting indie rock (and singing off-key), there's a breeze coming in through the window, and bunny's doing...something bunny-like. I'll be off to Miss T's soon for some girly tv-watching and cookie-eating time (though we'll see how well my "fat-free oatmeal chocolate chip" cookies fare). Forgive me for being a bit sappy, but I'm just feeling so happy right now. It's been almost a year, and Drew still makes me feel as giddy-happy as I did back in the day. Ack! So sappy.
So there's this girl in one of my classes who works in The Masons' library. How kickass is that? Apparantly crazy guys go in all the time to try to get members' names and to tell her their various "problems with the Masons." tee-hee.
Also, what the hell else is "Grendel" an allusion to besides the creature in Beowulf? My library director looked at me like I was insane when I told her the name of my rabbit.
I need a good recipe for banana bread, as the changing seasons make me want to bake stuff.

My face kinda hurts from the constant smiles/thoughtful looks I had to give this morning.

Also, I'd like to extol the virtues of Kashi products. That and cutting cheese out of my diet (well, for as long as this fad lasts anyway). Am feeling healthy and energized.

So I made a Big Decision this weekend.
Though it was pretty anticlimatic and not altogether that big a deal.
But I'm off the vegetarianism, at least for a while. It's been 2 years since I started, and I'm quite surprised I managed to stick with it that long. But I fell for a dish of Flaming Chicken. And I just had chicken for lunch today. I've developed too much of a cheese problem lately, so to cut back on the cheese I figure I should add something else to my nutrition or else I'll be stuck as a vegan and that's just a royal pain in the ass.
Meh. What can I say, I just like things that are on fire.