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.

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?

Ow.

“Ice pick headache.” I think the name pretty much says it all. It keeps happening and then there is a moment of “Oh god, I didn’t think I would die this way!” and then it’s gone. Fun times were had by all. Yuck.

There was no baking this weekend (there were no headaches either, that just started) but baking was received and approved of. Dad likes those brownies and he was kind enough to share his father’s day present with Mom so all is well at the sugar shack. I hope they are eating their vegetables too.

Currently life is moments of sheer panic followed by moments of…slightly less sheer panic. Well, that’s an exaggeration…things are getting tense as the days count down to comic-con. There is much to be done and quite frankly, very little desire to do it. It’s summer! I should be on a beach somewhere with a boat drink and a trashy novel. Wait…I don’t think I have EVER done that. OK, maybe not. But ‘tis the season for freak outs and I know I am not the only who is well on their way. On the upside, my eye hasn’t started twitching yet. So…that can only be good.

But other than that, life is fine. No tragedies that aren’t of my own making. No real problems that I can’t overcome. It will all get done eventually because it has to. Right?...RIGHT?

But late at night, when I know I should be either sleeping or getting a little work done, I have been watching things like “John from Cincinnati” and “Meadowlands.” I liked them both, so now I have one more reason to put things off. Heh.

Oh, one other thing. I brought some left over biscuits and chickpea gravy in for lunch the other day. I find it curious that three people said “Oh, that looks/smells good!’ and one said “Oh my god. What happened on your plate?” it is quite good, actually. But I guess every one’s taste.

Let’s see…anything else? No, not really. Everyone is telling me how hot it is but I’m still in sweaters (although I am wearing flip flops and freezing my toes off out of sheer stubbornness…it’s summer dammit!). Let me just leave you with some entertaining links before I got bang my head into a wall for a while…

The Darwin Correspondence Project. I love to read other people’s letters. Mostly dead people since it would be pretty rude and illegal to open other people’s mail. Darwin is endlessly fascinating to me. So reading his letters…pretty groovy.

Have I shown you this before? The Life Sized Whale? I find it oddly soothing.

Trying to figure out that song at the end of House last week? Try this.

Something I keep forgetting to show Jodi .

And another book site that I wander to occasionally.

And finally, just in case you ever get lost.