Thursday, May 29, 2008

Elvis.

Well! How about that? I got to see the future ex Mr. This is so silly! the other night. That’s right, you read me! ELVIS LIVES and rocks! He rocked the Hollywood Bowl anyway…and my heart. While he rocked, my inner sixteen year old girl just about freaked out. Then, when he sang “Allison” and this slender blonde dude took the stage to sing along…my inner sixteen year old girl fainted. Dude, it was Sting! STING! Of course that was because Elvis Costello and the Imposters opened for the Police. Or really, they played before the police because my man, he don’t open for no one, he headlines and then lets other bands play after him, because he is nice that way.

Yeah, so, enough. I saw Elvis Costello and the Imposters and The Police the other night. It was several shades of awesome. I did enjoy it immensely. And when Snarkydork showed up and made fun of me for not dancing, I showed her…by not dancing some more. Still, I get why people would dance at a Police show, even, to some degree, dancing to Elvis Costello, even though I don’t. I just still don’t see Crowded House as dance music, but apparently I am the odd one out.

You know what else I don’t get? The weed. Why people? Why? It hurts me. And that’s just mean when I pay a pile of money to listen to pretty men sing that you have to go and blow smoke in my face and then my throat swells and my head aches and I have a concert hangover the next day. You’re mean. Is it really that hard to make the brownies? Isn’t it more convenient anyway? You can take a brownie into the Bowl easy peasy. Or go big time and do the shrooms. I hear they are pretty good in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Just…no more smoke, ok? It hurts.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Recently.

Well , it was another exiciting weekend over here that involved a lot of dozing on the couch. Seriously. But it also involved a preview of the new Simpsons ride in Universal Studios, Hollywood, some dinosaurs, a “rock and roll music” concert, extremely high temperatures and…dozing on the couch. Most notably, we turned the air conditioner on…twice! How exciting is that? Very exciting in our house. But high temps and too much sun gave me a migraine and the only thing that would soothe it was cool air and a couch.



To be fair. The picture above was taken near sunset. When the sun is actually hitting the wall on which the thermometer is positioned. So, one wall of my living room is getting the 114 degree blast while the back of the room isa more reasonable 95 degrees. The room itself stayed cool-ish. But the air conditioning helped get it down below 85.

So the Simpsons ride? Very cool. Very fun. Very fast. As one of the guys I was with pointed out, the most exciting part of it was being on a ride that was not yet sticky from the hands of a thousand tourists. Personally, I am not much a fan of Universal Studios. There’s not a whole lot there and…eh. But I can see it from my back window so when the chance came to ride the ride, I didn’t turn it down.

The Simpsons Ride before it gets all...sticky.


Apparently, the style of the ride is similar to the old Back to the Future ride (which it has replaced) but I don’t remember if I was ever on that ride (my husband claims that I was, but he also claims that my favorite cookies are gingersnaps and he is wrong so…you know…grain of salt and all that). It’s a virtual thing where you kind of start off in a virtual rollercoaster and then the story progresses into a wild chase. All your favorite characters are there and it’s pretty darn exciting. Lots of detail went into the whole set up, from the entrance throughout. I enjoyed it immensely. And I would say if you are a Simpsons fan, it may be worth it to go to Universal just for the ride.

And while I was in the park, I got to ride the Jurassic Park water ride for the first time ever. I am assured by those in the know that it was much more awesome ten years ago. Nonetheless…yay! Dinosaurs! So, you know…cool. I did try to get on this ride one other time, maybe 8 years ago. I made it all the way to the front of the line when they closed it down due to too many baseball caps in the water filtering system. Yeesh. But still..dinosaurs! (Stegosaurus is my favorite.)

What else? Oh the rock and roll musical concert was Crowded House. Very nice. It was the husband’s birthday and he was gifted with a ticket so away we went. Nice venue. Good music and lots of old people rocking out. What more could you want? Ok…old is a relative term. They were all about my age. Which is old. But clearly not too old to rock out because that’s what the audience did. And I personally never thought of Crowded House as a WOOOHOO! YOU ROCK! I GOTTA DANCE! Sort of band, but the rest of the world apparently does. That’s ok, have fun old people. I’ll sit here quietly and watch.

And then there was the dozing. And the cleaning of the bathroom. And the nice sushi dinner. OH! and Doctor Who! With Tim McInnerny. I love him so very much. Thank you Doctor Who writers. You are doing a bang up job of employing my favorite actors. How about a little Alan Rickman now? Or maybe some Stephen Fry? You know you want to…


OH MAN! In searching for a wee picture of Tim McInnerny because you know I can’t resist, I came across a review of him in OTHELLO, my favoritest of favorite Shakespearian things. I had read the glowing reviews of Eamonn Walker’s Othello and somehow glossed right over the fact that one of my favorite actors played my favorite part in my favorite play. Tsk. I should pay closer attention. I know you think I am a little goofy when I get all swoony over him, but dude...talent.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Thots.

Ah, well, it’s been a weird and crazy few weeks and now I am thinking gee whiz, I haven’t blogged in a while and then I think…eh. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just...well, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately. But I am getting over that so here’s some of what’s been filling my head lately:

Pie crust. I hate making pie crust, I really do, but I also don’t care for ready made pie crust all that much and when I make pies, they are generally as a gift, so it seems like the cheap way out to fake it, since I know how and I am capable of making it from scratch. So I do. And I hate it. But the crust came out ok. First there was a strawberry and cream pie for a friend’s birthday. Then there were jam tarts made from the leftovers. This week there will be a chocolate satin pie for the husband’s birthday. It’s all good. I just don’t get the same joy from making a pie that I do from making cupcakes. Silly me.

Brining chicken breast. I don’t brine turkey. Two reasons for that. I generally buy a frozen turkey because…I do. And most frozen turkeys are already treated with a “solution” which means salt. Secondly, when you brine a turkey you probably shouldn’t then stuff the turkey or make gravy from the drippings. You COULD and I have. But it’s pretty salty. And while I like turkey, what I really like is stuffing and gravy. So…no brined turkey for me. But recently I was watching a cooking show where the chef brined some chicken breasts. I had some chicken in the fridge that I had defrosted a few days before and I kind of hoped that brining it might kill of anything scary in it. Well, no one got sick, so that part was fine. And the chicken was super-tender and very nice. But a little salty for my tastes. So last night I tried again. I used less salt and sugar in my brine and I started with frozen chicken breasts instead of thawed. I also only let it sit in the brine for about 2 hours, on the countertop while it defrosted. Perfect. Excellent chicken. Super tender, fork tender, and not at all salty. I didn’t use an exact brine recipe. More like one hand full of salt to one half handful of sugar and two limes, squeezed into a gallon or so of water and then the rinds thrown in as well. There are plenty of recipes available online though. If you find plain old chicken breasts dry and boring, this might be your solution…heh…get it? Because you soak them in a solution? Nevermind.

Rare Birds. I don’t know if you read Rare Bird Finds, but I’d like to suggest that you do. It’s a site devoted to cool online shopping. They post new finds everyday and they are very conscious about affordable choices. Well, I say “they” but I really mean “we” because I am now a Rare Birder too. Well, I am starting to contribute their awesome site as the finder of “Cool Guy Things.” See, they had filled all the positions except that one and when the call went out, I thought. “Oh sure, I could apply for that, why not?” and next thing you know…I suspect that I was the only applicant but shhhh…don’t tell me that. Let me feel good about it for a while. Annnnnyway, check out the site for help tracking down those really unique gifts. And if you come across any cool guy stuff, let me know. I’ve got a huge list but it’s gonna run out eventually.

Comic Con. Due to a paperwork error, we initially were not accepted to Comic Con. We were on the waiting list and I guess someone dropped out because BAM! now we have a table. I was totally down with taking the year off because it is exhausting (I work TWO jobs there!) but now we have a table so now we are going. I do love to sell stuff though so it’s good. But, as I say, it’s exhausting, so it’s bad. But hey, there is good and bad…in everyone…we learn to live and we learn to give…(you see where I am going with this so I will stop…). If you will be at the San Diego Comic Con this year, please do stop by and say hi. You may have to wake me up but it will be nice to see you.

Headaches. I’ve been having a fair amount of headaches due to stress and allergies. Nothing new. We pretty much all have them in the spring, no? I am not a fan of the optical migraines but I can deal with those. What really pissed me off the other night was the headache I had in my sleep. Sure, I’ve had the kind of headache where it’s there when you go to bed and it’s there when you wake up but the one that actually makes a guest appearance as a significant element of your dreams? That just seems mean.

Pumpkin pie. I changed my shampoo and now every time I turn my head I get a whiff of pumpkin pie…because my shampoo smells like pumpkin pie. Not because my shampoo is toxic and damaging my brain or anything. It actually does smells like pumpkin pie. Which is nice…I guess.

Hey, look, it’s one of those things where it all leads back to the beginning because I started out with “Pie crust” and I ended with “Pumpkin pie”. I like when that happens. Even if I don’t care that much about pie.


p.s. Captain Blogger, I haven’t gotten very far in Midnight’s Children yet. There are a lot of bodily fluids in the first 50 pages though. I’ll call it “earthy” for now and reserve judgment until I get further in. Also, um…you blogging anywhere these days?