Smoke.

First, I want you to see this:



I'm pretty sure that "smoke" is not weather, unless you are in California.

Secondly, today I have read bits of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, a Jim Butcher novel, a vegan cookbook and I am about to take a look at an Ian Rankin graphic novel. Tonight I will continue reading my werewolf book. I am trying to work on the books I so I can justify the Kindle I want. But then, I just read an article that says that the average Kindle user keeps their device for two years. TWO YEARS? I've have books that are older than my mother. I have books from the 1800s. And i realize that the point of a Kindle is basically to have those sorts of books that you read once and then let sit around until you remember to pass them on or take them to the used book store or donate, in a less physical form or something but...two years?

Anyway. Hot. Smoky. Books. That's pretty much the sum of things at the moment.

Flu-ent.

So, here’s how it happened.

I went to Comic-Con. It went pretty well, I worked A LOT and didn’t see as much as I would have liked. But somehow I managed to talk to every damn person in that convention center, touch their money, shake their hands and lick their netbook keyboards. That’s all I can figure. Because I got the nerd flu. And I got it pretty bad.

Well, ok, look, I TRIED to eat right. I had fresh fruit and tea and veggies everyday. I avoided soda. I had a few cocktails here and there but…nothing like I normally would. But then…then there was the tacos, or maybe the it was the late nights? Could have been the air conditioned room. Could have just been all that breathing. But I did try. I washed my hands, I used that sanitary spray stuff every once in a while…but…welll… by the time I got back from San Diego I was exhausted and had lost part of my voice. Then I got a cough, then the aches…and you know how the rest goes. Nerd flu. It could have been worse, I am sure, but it was bad enough to keep me home from work for several days. And then, of course, even after much rest, hydration and vitamins and whatever, there was still the lingering weariness that the flu gives you. Oh and the nausea…there was that one day where I was getting ready to go to work and suddenly couldn’t.. Too weak, too feverish…too…sick. Out of the shower, back into the pajamas, call in sick and then collapsed on the couch. Woke up three hours later.

I am better now. Still a little tired. But hey, this is a hazard of hanging with 140, 000 nerds and I guess I am willing to…hazard it.

So, the convention went well. BFF came along and, I think to her own surprise, enjoyed herself a lot. She got to see David Tennant while I worked. And she was a huge help at the Tired Girl table, writing up sales and fetching beverages and veggie burgers. The table was, once again, very well received and a pleasant time seemed to be had by all.

Sadly, I didn’t have any celebrity customers this time, which is something I get a kick out of. But I did get to see a few famous-ish folks on the floor (Deborah woll, of True Blood, very briefly and Matthew Gruber Grey of Criminal Minds on crutches…some others I don’t remember at the moment…).

I sold some new art and it did pretty well. I did a series of pin-up girls that were inspired by various Doctor Whos. I chose to do girls for the fifth, ninth and tenth doctor and I hope to do girls for the other doctors eventually, and possibly even some BOY pin-ups inspired by some of the female companions. I did these for Comic-Con because…well…geeks…you know. And the ninth doctor pin-up did sell out (OK fine…I didn’t take that many, but I came back with…NONE! Yay!). So it was a good show. I sold plenty of cards, some prints and lots of flirt cards, I had a good time. I saw a lot of people and then I got sick. That pretty much brings us up to date I think.

Here are some "parts" of my girls. I'll show you more and tell you a little bit about them later. But for now...nekkid girls!

Cheer.

So, I am heading out to San Diego Comic Con shortly and this year, more than previous year, I seem to be feeling all the stress that entails. And you know, I’ve done this a few times so it shouldn’t bother me. But it does.

But that’s ok because I have a few things that help me through times like these….

Baby porcupines (known as porcupets) eating bananas and having the hiccups…



Pugs with baby strollers…


Baby fruit bats yawning…(sorry, can’t embed this one but it’s worth the click if you aren’t afraid of bats).


Eighty three year old ladies who can totally rock it.

Inspiring article on acting with a quote that stopped me in my tracks, “I could not be more alive than I am at this moment. I can't do most things in life. This is what I'm for.”

Paper taco trucks.

And the things you really need to learn. Not as cute as a pug with a stroller but important nonetheless.

I’ll be back in a week or so with tales of geekery, Doctor Who pinup girls and with any luck, a photograph of someone famous…but who?

Management.

*Ahem*…Hi. This is what I wrote when it happened…


Oh dear, the LA Times caused a bit of a stir with a stupid (and kind of sexist) little article/slideshow called something like “A Girl’s Guide to Comic-Con.” It features (if you don’t feel like clicking over) some speculation on what cute boys will be appearing at Comic-Con to pimp their movies. Some people are bothered that it seems to assume that women only go to Comic-Con for the cute boys. As a woman who rather likes cute boys (OK, well…men, I am the anti-cougar and have no interest in anyone under the age of 39), I am a little more bothered by the fact that NO COMIC BOOK GUYS are featured in the story. Not a damn one.

Yes, yes, Comic-Con is now considered a “pop-culture” convention and believe you me, I have no problem with that. There was a time when (in my opinion) the movie and tv presence at the convention may well have saved the bacon of many a comic book company by generating a buzz that seemed to have dissipated around comic books. By bringing in the stars of movies based on comics, I think some new readers were led to our booths and tables and hopefully a new wave of fandom was born. So yeah, I’m ok with that pop-culture thing, as long as the comics are still important. And they are. And I love them, and I love the people who make them. And guess what…some of those people happen to be cute boys. I just wish the L.A. Times had mentioned that.


That was…a while ago. In the meanwhile the world has lost…a lot of people and think what you will of any of them, they all made some sort of significant contribution to this world and will be missed.

And other things have happened.

But blogging clearly has not.



This was written a while back too:

About a year ago I was traveling to the east coast by plane (I say by plane, because, as you may know, I am stupid enough to occasionally do it by car…but not this time). I was getting on the plane, waiting on the…what do you call that thing? The corridor leading to the plane? The gangplank? Well, I was waiting there as the inevitable backup had occurred. Someone was probably trying to put a child in the overhead compartment or something. How many times do you people have to be told that children should be checked? Aaaaaanyway, two girls, in their 20s standing in front of me having a conversation….

I’ve been listenting to this great band called MANAGEMENT.
Oh yeah?
Yeah, they are awesome.
Hunh. Haven’t heard of them.


The conversation carries on for a bit when the second girl, who has clearly been trying to figure out how to do this without making her friend look like a complete ass says:

Have you heard MGMT?
Um….that’s what I said earlier. MANAGEMENT.
Oh, I…I think they are called MGMT.
Yeah, that’s what I said. MANAGEMENT. That’s what MGMT stands for.
I…uh…I think they are just MGMT. Like the abbreviation.
Right. The abbreviation for MANAGEMENT. That’s what they are called MANAGEMENT.

It was the modern day “Who’s on first?” with the added twist of abbreviations.

I really wanted to let her know that the band does, indeed, go by the name MGMT and not MANGEMENT. But I was enjoying the conversation too much.

(I don’t really mean to make fun of this girl, I am pretty sure that almost every conversation I have sounds a lot like this.)

And it only serves to remind me that we are all someplace else sometimes when we should be right where we are….get it?

I’m not here. I’ll be back.

In the meanwhile. New cards in the shop.

Facon.

Why do people get so incensed when I mention veggie bacon? Not you…no, no, I know you understand me. But I mentioned having veggie bacon with my dinner (which, I didn’t for the record) the other night and right away got a response…a horrified response, from an old friend. Here’s the thing. I don’t mind bacon. But I don’t care about bacon either. It’s not my thing really. But, man do people get defensive about that. It’s not like I’m saying, I don’t really like…puppies or something. And it’s not that I don’t like bacon. I just don’t care about it. If there were no bacon, I wouldn’t be sad. And it is exactly because of this that I first tried veggie bacon years ago.

Now mind you, years ago, veggie bacon isn’t what it is today. I can’t remember the brand, but I do remember that it had such a strong smoke scent, that everytime I opened the freezer, I could smell it. Frozen and I could smell it. Yikes. It wasn’t good. Neither, for that matter, was the soy milk I tried all those years ago. But now I can’t imagine life without soymilk, it makes everything so much easier for me. But the point is, I tried something new, I didn’t like it. I tried it again, much later, but again nonetheless and I did like it.

When I first started in this job I have. I was often teased for my lunches. They were often (and still are often) vegetarian, and they often incorporate strange (to some) ingredients that my co-workers (Hi Candypants) would often mock. Nowadays, I hear these guys (yeah, you heard me, I said CANDYPANTS!) eat veggie friendly food on a regular basis.

I’m not a foodie, or a food snob. I’m not a vegetarian. I just like to try things. And usually I try them more than once. And sometimes, like with the veggie bacon and soy milk, it’s better the second time. Look, I don’t recommend veggie bacon if you like real bacon. I don’t recommend veggie bacon if you like turkey bacon. It’s not bacon. It’s something else. But it works for me.

Wait…what was my point here? I don’t remember. I just know if I mention veggie bacon people will appear from nowhere to tell me what a terrible thing it is.

Meanwhile, I’ve been watching movies. So far:

Shoot ‘em Up-Liked it. Crazy, over the top violent and v.v. entertaining.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day-Liked it. Surprisingly dark. But filled with pretty boys. Oh, yeah...and good acting.
Strictly Sinatra-Not bad. Scottish gangster type flick.
Othello-Modern version w/Christopher Eccleston, Eamon Walker, Richard Coyle and Keeley Hawes. Liked it a lot. A very nice adaptation with brilliant acting. Highly recommended.
Meet the Robinsons-Kind of all over the place but in an entertaining way. I dunno, I wanted to dislike it because it was all over the place, but in the end, that’s part of the reason that I did like it. Nice art, some good jokes and I loved, loved, loved Goob.

Ok, look, if you don’t work in this office, the one where YOU had to RING in to get through the door, why would YOU, the person who does not work here, just let someone in? Jerk.

Sorry, had to get that one out of the system. I guess I’m feeling kind of ranty today…so here are some bits of my new pinup girls (not THOSE bits)...



As you were.

Things.

Here’s the thing, I’ve been writing a lot lately, but…not posting because I haven’t finished a damn thing. But today, Janet scolded me and I was already typing this so…I’m gonna throw a few of my not quite finished posts up here because yeah, I do feel like a slacker for not having finished any of them. So here are some lists of things because…that’s the best I can do right now.


Things made since last I posted:

Lemon lavender lace cookies-They were good, they just weren’t what I was planning on making. Not the lace part anyway. They were supposed to just be sugar cookies but all I can figure is that I wasn’t paying attention and left out some flour. HOWEVER, they were much lauded and well recived at beach party and I was told by one person that I need not make any other cookie ever again. So…I guess that’s good.

German chocolate cupcakes-these were pretty good. The cake was nice, although I really do just prefer a chocolate cake. The icing was different than the usual German chcoclate cake icing and it was less…sticky and more…pudding-y. which I rather liked.

Almond zucchini cupcakes with a marshmallowy, lemony frosting-these too were pretty good. I really liked the frosting, which was what I think we used to call a 7 minute frosting, which is basically a meringue. No butter. Which was a nice change. But it was sticky as all hell and kind of messy, so I am thinking of tinkering.

Speaking of meringue, there was a lemon meringue pie for a birthday. I don’t like lemon meringue pie and I don’t like making pie crust. But I did it. So there.

Aaaaaand…I think there was an emergency focaccia and some shortcakes in there as well.

There was also a birthday and an anniversary since last time I stopped by and now…well, I guess everything from here on in leads to comic-con. Sigh.


Random images found in my “inspiration” files:
1 moth
2 foxes
1 Alan Rickman
1 Dalek
4 Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian (and yes I know the Comedian is an awful character but I love that moustache)
3 Hellboys
2 Colin Firth
2 Wolverine images (Hugh Jackman style)
2 Thom Yorke images (Hunh? I mean, I do love the man and all, but when did I put those in there?)
1 Christopher Eccleston and 1 image from Doctor Who episode w/Christopher Eccleston (the valet parking ticket from The End of the World)
4 dresses made of paper
1 Trevor Eve
Many cupcakes

and then 3 Cyndi Laupers….

Go figure. That really sums me up, doesn’t it?

And finally, just because…

Rockstars I may or may not have had crushes on over the years:

Mick Jagger
Phil Collins
Peter Gabriel
Corey Hart
Eric Clapton
Adam Ant
Stewart Copeland
Andy Gibb
Donny Osmond
Shaun Cassidy
Ric Ocasek
Roger Daltry
Ray Davies
David Bowie

Have at it. i know you've got something to say about it....


Also, because I have been working while you weren't looking, some samples of new art.
Cupcake treeeeee, how I love theeeeeeeee...



And this is from a piece titled "He said I have a good personality..."

Advice.

Let me help you. Just take it from me that these are good ideas, I tested the theories so you don’t have to.

-Always put sunblock on the tops of your feet if you take off your shoes outside. And if you are wearing shorts, the backs of your knees as well. I wasn’t wearing shorts otherwise I might have remembered the tops of my feet when I did the backs of my knees. But I didn’t do either and my poor tootsies have suffered for my lack of attention.

-While baking is easy for some, it’s still a process that requires some amount of attention. You can always count the eggshells if you forgot how many you added but there is nothing left behind when adding flour. While the lovely, buttery, lacy lemon and lavender cookies were good, they weren’t what I was trying to make. So…um…pay attention.

-Primeval starts up again here on May 16. My advice is watch this show as if you were a fourteen year old boy. It’s easier to enjoy that way. Well, that way or with a cocktail in hand. How do fourteen year old boys feel about Douglas Henshall though? Because…yeah. Just watch. It’s good, stupid fun. But don’t expect, you know, real science or anything.

Then.

I just found this post that I started and never quite finished. So I am posting it. I can do that. It's my blog.

What I’m reading:
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber.
I read about this on The Dutchess of Devonshires’ blog and got interested. I have never been big on French History or the 18th century but I am really, really enjoying this book. I did study some costuming in school and really loved it but didn’t want to make a living at it. This book is making me reconsider that. What can I do that would involve just studying clothes without having to sew them? Because I don’t really like sewing all that much…

Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar I’m enjoying this one a lot too. It’s become a bit of a court machinations sort of book, but I like that. It’s hard to write a good and convincing werewolf story…I’ve read a lot that don’t succeed, but so far so good on this one.

Just about finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie on Daily Lit and trying to decide if I want to do another Christie or if I’m feeling my spring need for some Shakespeare yet…maybe one of the histories that I don’t remember...

What I am watching:
Well, I’ve been trying to clear off the dvr and I did finally watch Wuthering Heights, Oliver Twist and Sunshine. Now it’s on to Richard III with Sir Laurence Olivier, Little Dorritt and a documentary about Nick Drake. I like to run through the channel listings for some of the more…esoteric sorts of channels and record random stuff that I might not otherwise catch.

Wait! Wait…I wrote this awhile ago and I watched that Nick Drake doc. It was ok. It was very…well…dreamy. Lots of time lapse of a shadow falling across the floor and the like but…eh. I don’t know. I really like his music but I don’t have that great sadness that seems to come with being a fan of his work. It was interesting that there was so much family stuff available though. Lots of family film and recordings, which made for some interesting listening. I ended up not finishing watching Richard III though. I wanted to but was running out of room on the dvr and wasn’t enjoying this version as much as I had hoped. Very stylized and old fashioned. If you’ve never read or watched Richard III, it’s one of my very favorite plays but it can be a little hard to follow if you aren’t a Shakespeare fan. I’d tell you to watch the Ian McKellan version, but last time I suggested that to someone it only confused them more. Maybe just read it. That’s probably the best way to go.

Also loving Lie to Me. At the moment I feel like I could watch that show every day, but that might be my eternal crush on Tim Roth. (This just ended for the season and I am looking forward to it's return next season).

Ketchup.

Things that have happened since last I blogged….

-I got to use the phrase “since last I blogged.”

-Easter. Food was good. Strawberry cupcakes not as strawberry as I would have liked but no one else was bothered. Burned the bottom of the buns so I cut the burnt bits off and refused to talk about it. There’s still a container of strawberry cream cheese frosting in the fridge that we have been using on our sandwiches and the like (no, we haven’t but that doesn’t mean we haven’t thought about it).

-HEATWAVE. Which I am enjoying.

-Watched Sunshine, Grey Gardens (the movie) and Twilight. None were satisfying and two were painful. I’ll let you figure out which was which.

-Received photo of the lead singer of a band for which I designed a logo. His anonymity is protected here because I don’t want him to get mobbed by fans.



(Here’s the logo)



-Caught a cold. Recovered from a cold. Meanwhile, my partner caught himself a fractured elbow. OW! Poor guy.

-Wrote a bunch of stuff I didn’t post. I’ll get around to that.

-Got a new computer at work that is so big it actually makes me a little dizzy. It’s kinda awesome. Also got a wee keyboard with none of the extraneous trim and such. Not quite used to it yet so there may be more typos than usual.

-Got an external HD for home. Haven’t hooked it up yet but it’s green. Not in color. Since it’s almost Earth Day I figured I’d mention that part.

-Watched the end of season one of “Ashes to Ashes” and really liked it. Also saw Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (is that the title, I can’t remember…) and really liked that as well.

-Today I wore my hemp shoes and I didn’t even know it was Earth Day. Dirty hippie power even when unaware! Awesome.

Menu.

Easter Dinner

Jalapeño popper dip w/some sort of cracker/chip
Deviled eggs

Roast lamb with parsley, garlic, lemon, breadcrumb and anchovy gremolata sort of thing
Roast asparagus
Spring potato salad (with green onions, pickles, eggs, parsley and celery)
Homemade challah

Strawberry cupcakes w/strawberry cream cheese frosting
Deep-dish brownies


That’s the plan, man. We’ll see how it works out. We’ve had the same basic meal for the past three or four Easters and we still like it so…you know.


I was just having a conversation with someone about how you think you know a person and then they tell you something so simple and basic that you had no idea about that you feel like you’ve never known them at all. Like how they hate chocolate, or how they were raised by bears. Stuff like that. I think I am pretty transparent. It was made obvious when I found this in my inbox (that’s not a euphemism).


Oooh…shiny and naked. My two favorites.

(That's Wolverine there, in case you DON'T know me all that well. I get Naked Wolverine emails. Oh yes I do.)

And in my continuing adventures in hypnosis, I had another hypnotherapy session. Now, I don’t know how deeply I am actually hypnotized. To me it just feels more or less like sitting with my eyes closed, being mellow and listening to my friend’s voice. But it was pleasant, and I did feel relaxed and everything kind of…sloooowsss….dowwwwwn. So that’s good. This session was centered on creativity. It was nice and I do feel good and raring to draw today, but I think I liked the visualization part of the relaxation session more. We’re going to try some other stuff, but I have to say, even if it’s not achieving much, it’s very nice, and it’s 40 minutes or so of deep relaxation. I do feel something though and it’s been different somethings each time, so…whatever. It’s fun.

Finally....look at this. Give it a few seconds to load and then just sit and watch.

Bits.

First, people I know, doing great things:

Nathan’s interview on starwars.com.
His first vinyl toy will be out soon and it’s looking pretty darn awesome.

And Jason has been doing some art that coincides with Nathan’s art cards and although I am not a die-hard Star Wars fan…I now want my own wookie.


Captain Tracy has launched her website. Keep an eye on it for geocacheing opportunities.


Nextly…um…well, work continues apace on all things. I am struggling a bit with my book but not to fear because I am friends with a hypnotherapist and she’s gonna help me unlock my brain. Cool, eh? Actually, I was hypnotized for the first time last weekend. I am not sure how deep I went because for most of it, it didn’t feel like anything at all. But there was one portion that felt so odd, I can only assume that something was going on. The hypno-therapist explained that sometimes the subject doesn’t go under very well on a first attempt because they are apprehensive about what will happen. I didn’t feel nervous, because I trust her implicitly, but I was very curious to see what would happen. And since I have never been hypnotized before, I was unsure of what to expect. But it was not unpleasant, even if I didn’t respond as well as I would have liked. It was still a quite room with peaceful music and a relaxing atmosphere, so nothing lost. The next time we try it will be to encourage creativity. Open that part of my brain that is holding back, I hope, so…well…we’ll see. If I cluck like a chicken then you’ll know it didn’t go so well.

Shaped.

Ok, let’s be honest. Were you listening to Jimi Hendrix out of the womb? Did you start your musical appreciation with The Velvet Underground? Were your first words, “Turn that easy listening crap off. Mommy!”? Because for me, it’s No, no, and no. I didn’t start out this cool…cool being a relative term and all. I grew up listening to what my mom put on the stereo or what my best friend’s mom played on the kitchen radio.

Despite the face that almost everyone in my family (well…not my dad) is musical to some extent, we really didn’t obsess over music during my childhood. Granted, my oldest brother is enough older than I am for me not to really have been exposed to his music during my most formative periods but later he would introduce me to some good stuff. But the only thing I really remember him listening to when I was little was Olivia Newton John. Not that Grease stuff either, the Please Mr. Please stuff. And my mom was all about Jim Croce and Paul Simon.

I didn’t grow up on the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, although someone in my house had a copy of Let it Bleed because I remember being amazed by the cover…still am. I suspect my mother still wouldn’t be able to name all the members of either band. My dad listens to Wagnerian opera, John Philip Sousa, Beethoven and Japanese drummers. I did hear a lot of marching band music…a lot. But that was pretty much it. So when Facebook added this “Five Albums that shaped you” thing…well…you want to see what really shaped me? Because now I listen to music, all kinds of music but then…


Yeah, that’s right, you see what I am talking about…you recognize some of those, don’t you? And if you are that much cooler than me, well let me illuminate you as to what the hip kids of the early 70’s were listening to. From left to right you have: The Muppet Movie Soundtrack, The Monkees, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band MOVIE SOUNDTRACK (i.e. NOT THE BEATLES), Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Theme and Variations, The Purple Puzzle Tree, Supertramp-Breakfast in America, McCartney II, K-Tel’s Songbird collection, Donny Osmond’s Singles and Shaun Cassidy.

You heard me. That’s what I listened to. And I am only slightly ashamed. Not really ashamed, just…well…honest. I was shaped by easy listening, kids Christian education albums, and bad movie soundtracks (The Muppet Movie was not bad, Sgt. Pepper was…not good…oh, and I forgot the soundtrack to the Raggedy Ann and Andy movie!) not the White Album. Don’t get me wrong, I love the White Album but I am guessing I never heard the whole thing until I was…in college maybe?

I remember listening to the radio. I remember Terry Gibbs, Eddie Rabbitt, and Crystal Gayle. I can probably sing you all the words of the “Piña Colada Song” or any number of Barry Manilow tunes. I listened to Super Chicken on the radio and I listened to the Kingston Trio at Christmas time. I LIKED ABBA IN AN UNIRONIC WAY. I STILL DO!

As a pre-teen and teenager, I was exposed to a lot more music. I played in the jazz band, the marching band and the concert band. I danced to disco, classical and showtunes. I watched the Muppet Show and learned about Alice Cooper (whom I later met). My friends and I bought Queen albums and I won an 8-track player in a contest and got Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac and the REAL Sgt. Pepper for Christmas that year…on 8-track, yes.

I get the idea behind that little Facebook app and I tried to turn it into “5 albums that mean a lot to me” or “5 albums that I could listen to right now” but it didn’t feel right. It felt…dishonest. It felt like a betrayal of all that was good and pure and Osmond in the world.

And as for those albums in the picture, I own three of them on cd. But there are a few more I will get eventually…I’ll leave it to your imagination as to which ones.



For the record, the K-tel Songbird album playlist is as follows:
Every Woman in the World-Air Supply
How ‘Bout Us?-Champaign
Crazy Love-Poco
Games-Phoebe Snow
Together-(I think it’s by a band called Tierra but I can’t read the printing)
Biggest Part of Me-Ambrosia
Crying-Don McClain
SIDE 2 (THERE WERE TWO SIDES!)
More Than I Can Say-Leo Sayer (I still love this song)
Looking For Love-Johnny Lee
The Winner Takes it All-ABBA
Fool In Love with You-Jim Photoglo (Can that be right? Photoglo?)
Killing Time-Susan Anton and Fred Knoblock
Her Town Too-James Taylor and JD Souther
Somebody’s Knockin’-Terri Gibbs

Semi.

I know everyone who cooks loves to complain about Sandra Lee and her Semi-Homemade show. I watch it. I am fairly frequently horrified by the ideas she has. But I fully support the concept. 70 percent storebought , 30 percent home made isn’t perfect, no. But it’s certainly better than 100% drivethrough. And it’s a good way to start if you really aren’t much of a cook. So, no, I don’t take issue with it, but I do hope that it’s a learning tool. I mean I use canned beans all the time. Have I used dried beans? Yes, I have. And I like dried beans but it’s pretty amazing that I remember pants most days so let’s not push it, ok. I don’t want to be out a dinner just because I forgot to put the beans to soak. Have I made my own bread? Yep, many, many times. And I love it. But do I still buy sliced sandwich bread? Oh hells yes.

I enjoy a baking challenge. Just yesterday I was reading a recipe for croissants and I thought…hey…I should…no. No! NO! But you know I will someday. I like to try stuff and I like to bake and I wish all my food was perfect and home made and organic and vegan…but it’s not. I can’t pretend that there aren’t Wendy’s nights. And even, once a year, a…dare I say it? McDonalds night (literally ONCE…A…YEAR because it takes me 364 days to forget how much I didn’t like any of it except for the hot mustard. I love the hot mustard.). So I can’t really complain about Semi-Homemade all that much.

Except for one thing. And it’s not the Kwaanza cake because that just defies…everything.


(And just so you know, I am not the only person obsessed with the Kwanzaa cake.)

I was watching the other day and she made a cocktail called the “Risky Whiskey.” She started by saying “Put three cups of Whiskey in a pitcher…”” and I said “DONE!”.

Sandra Lee, I just beat you at your own game. 100% store bought. 100% delicious. Wanna come over for a cocktail?

(Obviously she added other things to the pitcher (maple syrup? really? ew.) but really…why mess with perfection?)

Hi.

This is how I know I’ve been really tired, mostly due to allergies, I think…this morning, when the alarm went off, I decided it was far too early and reset it (didn’t just hit the snooze, actually reset it) for one half hour later. I was pretty angry about a minute later when it went off again and I thought I must have set it wrong. But no, it was actually a half hour later. It only felt like a minute. I never sleep THAT deep or THAT soundly in the morning. Mostly due to the endless construction on the building across the street. Or possibly the endless landscaping of California. Or maybe the dude at the window repainting the trim…yeah, that’s always a fun one. I had my breakfast with that dude the other day as he was painting the kitchen window trim. It was rather shocking to walk into the kitchen for my coffee and encounter a mustachioed man in the window. He seemed nice enough but there wasn’t enough coffee for him too.

My point? Tired. Allergy ridden and tired. Ah spring!

So, in lieu of actually doing anything here, I’d like to show you a few links.
Pride and Prejudice conducted on Facebook made me laugh out loud.

I find Ecofont amazing. No one else seems as thrilled as I do. But people, with this font, you use 20% less ink and it’s very nicely designed, totally readable and you can’t see the holes at normal point sizes. If you have to print things out a lot for say, proofreading purposes, don’t just tell me you print in draft mode, try this. It’s all kinds of awesome. Seriously.

Also, love this palette generator. It’s a nice way to change the way you look at things and it generates a usable palette, so if you particularly like the look of a picture of piece of art, you can adopt the colors to play with at will.

And in a similar vein, this lovely blog captures personalities and feelings in a CMYK palette. Very nice. I am feeling kind of like this at the moment…


(The green represents my allergies. ewwwwww.)


These happy clouds are changing my outlook though. Although, I think if I actually saw one in the sky, not knowing what it was…dude, I’d freak.



Boxed water is better for the earth. So simple. So practical. Interesting.


Finally, I find this endlessly entertaining. Through it , I created a great poem, but then I forgot to save it, so you’ll have to take my word that it was creative genius. GENIUS!

I'll be back. I have other posts a-brewin', I've just been feeling a little 75/50/73/23 lately.

Crispy.

I think I said previously that I have gotten in the habit of roasting things. Did I say that previously? Because I should have. I like to roast things. Or, maybe more accurately, I like to cook as much of my dinner as I can in the oven, so I can do other things while that is happening. Like go to the bathroom.

Seriously. I come home from work, throw things in the oven and then go to the bathroom, change into sweats, find my clothes for the next day, find some pajamas, give the cat her meds, wash my hands and then finish dinner. So, anything that can happen in between throwing something in the oven and washing my hands is good. Very good. Anything that makes dinner easier and faster…very, very good.

So a lot of things get thrown in the oven these days. Most veggies get roasted. I love asparagus, but roasted asparagus? Perfection. Don’t like Brussels sprouts. Roasted? They are awesome. Roasted cauliflower stinks while it’s roasting but tasted great, especially the browned bits and roasted broccoli works great, even with frozen broccoli. So the newest veggie to get chucked in the oven was kale.

Kale is bit of a tricky one. I like it, most of the time. But it’s got a strong flavor and if I am not in the mood…eh. Boiling it just never seems to do the trick, steaming it doesn’t seem to cook it enough and sautéing it used to be the best option. That is, until last night when I roasted it. The husband declared it a keeper and we ate a whole pan of it as a topping to baked potatoes.

Here’s what I did:

Preheated oven to 450°

Washed and spun one smallish bunch of kale dry…actually, I do this backward. I usually cut the kale (lettuce, greens, cabbage, whatever) first, then put them in a salad spinner and wash and dry them. Is that bad? I wash the cutting board and knife before using them again, in case the greens were contaminated, but it just makes more sense to me…anyway…kale is cut into about 1” strips and washed and dried.

Then I put it on a baking sheet and drizzled it with olive oil and tossed it around a bit to coat. You want a fairly healthy covering here, so if you are concerned with fat, this probably isn’t much better than frying or sautéing. But it’s olive oil, so your skin will be smooth and your coat will be nice and glossy.

Chuck the whole mess in the oven for about 10 to 14 minutes. Check it at ten and see what you think. It should still be very green but the edges may start to get brown. That’s about where you want it. Too much brown is bad. Black is also probably not good.
Take it out of the oven and turn the oven off…because I always forget that part.

Drizzle with a little tiny bit more oil, just a little bit and sprinkle liberally with sea salt or kosher salt. I don’t want to be all fancy here, but they do work better as finishing salts because they have a “softer” taste and we’re all about the soft taste over here.

We put the kale on top of baked potatoes and it was good. Like really good. It’s crispy, and almost like a really thin potato chip, only made from kale. And I could eat these leafy greens like chips, just put ‘em on a plate and munch away, they were that good.

I was going to draw you a picture of my potato with kale topping but…that sounded like work, so I didn’t. Here’s a worried tiger instead…

Baked.

Last night I decided that I wanted an egg with my dinner. It was a breakfast for dinner night and I thought an egg would be lovely with the Kashi waffle and veggie bacon. And I was right. The thing I is, I don’t generally care about eggs and I eat them so rarely that I am not very good at making them. I can scramble. Oh yes, how I can scramble (I use water instead of milk or cream…something about the proteins? Or the steam? I don’t remember, but it was in a book.) I can boil, soft or hard. I don’t think I’ve ever poached and egg but I am betting I could. It’s the frying that’s the problem. It should be easy enough but I can’t get the timing right and I either break the yolk or I cook it too long or, worst of all, I don’t like to cook eggs in butter so I use olive oil and they get really, really brown and look gross (but they taste fine, I swear). So last night, I figured it was about time to try something new. Baked it was. And it worked perfectly. One good egg was a perfect serving with the other stuff. It was easy. I DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION TO IT! That’s the biggest thing for me. I get home from work kind of late and I like to be able to put the dinner in the oven and let it go while I change clothes, give the cat her meds, check the mail, go to the bathroom, gather up clothes for the next day, prepare my breakfast and sometimes lunch for the next day and put away some dishes.

…

You know what I’d like even more? Someone else to do all that stuff…

Anyway, it worked well, it tasted good and it’s a keeper. Baked eggs are nothing new but if you are not a fan of standing over a frying pan it’s a nice way to go.

Here’s what I did:

-Buttered small ramekins (Next time I will use olive oil. Turns out, I don’t really like butter all that much. But, I had some in a small dish from a dinner I had served to friends the night before so it was convenient. Live and learn. Olive oil or Earth Balance next time.)

-Cracked one egg into each ramekin.

-Topped with salt, pepper and parsley.

-Added a few drops of soy creamer on top. A very few drops. Just enough to dampen the yolk really. I had read that the eggs could dry out without the addition of cream or milk and I had no cream or milk because I don’t really like cream or milk (or eggs…except last night, or butter…) so soy creamer it was. I was worried that there might be a protein issue here like when you add soymilk to hot coffee....it kind of curdles a bit…but no. No problems. Then, because most of the recipes I read called for it, I added a bit of cheese. Parmesan on one, cheddar on the other.

-Tossed the whole thing in a 350° oven for about 14-18 minutes. I let them cook a little long because I was unsure about how well done they would be. 18 minutes was fine. 14 would have been fine too, for a runny yolk.

-What I’ll do differently next time:
Olive oil instead of butter, no creamer on top, no cheese on top, possibly a wee bit of toast on bottom, and some frozen spinach, and if I have it, a slice of tomato. And maybe some other herbs, like thyme, or some green onion. And despite the fact that I claim not to like eggs (unlike Snarkydork, who REALLY does NOT like eggs), I think I might use two eggs in a slightly larger ramekin…with previously mentioned toast (or bread), spinach and tomato.

Congratulations to me for doing something else that the rest of the world has done for ages. Yeah, I’m not breaking new ground here. But it was really good.

Oh, also, if you are looking for more things to read, I've been posting a bit over here...

Justice.

Where have I been, you ask? I have been doing my civic obligation, my friends. And I hope to never have to do it again. Thirteen days of jury duty didn’t convince me that our legal system is the…well…look, it’s better than some, but it’s far from perfect. And while I can legally tell you all about the trial now, I don’t know that you care. Let’s say words like whistleblower, probation, psychiatrist, forensic accountant and pain in the lower back and leave it at that for now. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t the kind of learning experience I like having and when your 20 minute commute is the highlight of the day, something bad is happening.

For the record, my usual commute is no less than 40 minutes. Today was an hour. Twenty minutes was pretty nice as far as that part goes.

So, that’s pretty much been it lately. I’ve been doing some art for a friend’s website, but not much else art wise…soon though…soon my pretty…

And other than that:

What I’ve been reading: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe, which was, as Scott Pilgrim comics are wont to be, entertaining. But it confused the hell out of me. Characters start to look alike and hey, I thought this was the last one! (Apparently, it's not.)

The Reckoning The Murder of Christopher Marlowe.- I am not so much a Marlovian (look it up, it’s for real) but, as a friend once told me, I clearly have a crush on Kit Marlowe. I’ve only just started this book as part of my “read more non-fiction” initiative and it’s interesting.

Pigeon Pie-Ah, Nancy Mitford. It’s dated (WW2) and snobby and funny as hell. Rarely do I actually find myself laughing aloud at a book, but this one got me several times. It made cheerful reading in the hallway of the courthouse while other jurors were, oh, you know, BEING INCREDIBLY LATE.

Midnight’s Children- Salman Rushdie-Yeah…still reading this…slowly. I don’t know, I get it, I get why he’s famous, I just don’t know if I like it. He’s awfully in love with his words.

What’s next: Well, I just got two books in the mail that are non-fictions about 18th century women. One I bought because it was also written by Nancy Mitford so I am looking forward to that. There’s also a book called Lonely Werewolf Girl hanging out in my living room and I am thinking that’s next for fiction.

Oh goodness…look at the time…you don’t need to know what I’ve been watching (Sheep themed horror movies), cooking (root beer cupcakes) or drawing (cute little girls), do you? No, I didn’t think so.

I’ll get back on some sort of schedule eventually.

Maybe.

In the meanwhile, if you really miss me, I did do a post over here...

Dammit.

Can you believe this shit? I am STILL commuting to the Hall of Justice and I have at least one more day to go. But I have said that before...

Here's the really good part. They are closed tomorrow. I have to go to the office. And then back to the duty on Friday.

I am a good citizen. But I am not happy about being a good citizen.

Fluke.

Ah well, sometimes love isn't pretty. You can find this card in the store. There's no real explanation here except a fluke and a flounder are essentially the same fish except for the location of the eyes. And how you tell the left from the right is beyond me. Basically, it's a valentine joke for my dad. But if your valentine loves fishing, perhaps it will work for them too. Or...you know...if you really just want to confuse someone...go for it.


Ok, NOW I am out for a few days. I just wanted to show you some valentines before I had to go back to the HALL OF JUSTICE...yeah, i only wish Batman was there. Even Aquaman would do.

Post.

Sorry. I've been doing my civic duty for five days and foresee at least five more. I'll be back in touch if and when it's done. Until then...


New cards are available in the store. For the not quite ordinary Valentine.