06/26/2008
I Pinch
So I pinched this from Nossie just for kicks and giggles. Enjoy.
Who is your all-time favourite author and why?
It's a toss up between Tennyson and Baroness Emuska Orzcy. Two totally different genres of writing, but Tennyson is one of my all time favorite poets and Baroness Emuska Orzcy is the author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, a fabulous historical fiction.
Who was your first favourite author and why? Do you still consider him/her to be among your favourites?
Eric Carle. Are you kidding me? The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the best book ever. EVER!
Who is the most recent addition to your list of favourite authors, and why?
Joseph Conrad. I had never read any of his stuff until my last year of college when I had to read Heart of Darkness. It's the most fascinating novella I'd ever read. I highly recommend reading it and then coming to talk to me about the nameless woman he encounters on the shore from the deck of his boat. We'll have ourselves a great conversation.
If someone asked you who your favourite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?
Tolkien. Matt is making me read The Hobbit again. I read it as a kid and hated it, but in the midst of his portestations of 'you're crazy for not liking The Hobbit' I've given in and started reading it again. So far, so good.
If all else fails, however, I adore the Lord of the Rings triology. I've always loved those. I tend to like stories that have some adventure in them. I get to live vicariously through the characters. That's also one of the reasons I write stories myself.
Shakespeare. He's an oldy, but a goody. Matt and I saw Pericles a couple weekends ago at an outdoor amphitheatre and I had forgotton how good Shakespeare really is.
Steinbeck. Matt is reading Cannery Row again because it's his favorite book. He reads it at night when we're in bed, so sometimes I curl up to him and read along. I must admit, I'm not a Steinbeck fan, but reading the parts of Cannery Row that I have, I'm slightly amused by the writing. I might have to read it cover to cover when he's done with it.
Also, I'll have to read The Pearl by Steinbeck. It helps that both books are really short.
Homer. The Odyssey is amazing. I'm not so hot on The Iliad, but The Odyssey is freaking brilliant. AND I read an article yesterday that reported how scientists are using star locations and constellations to pinpoint exactly when Odysseus returned home to slay all his wife's suitors. They pinpoint it to around April 16th, 1178 B.C. You can have a gander yourself here.
Sedgwick. Catherine Maria Sedgwick is an odd author in that she was a woman when her novel, Hope Leslie was written. I mean, she was never man, but being born in the late 18th century and living in the early 19th century, it was odd that someone would publish her writing.
Hope Leslie is a wonderfully surprising delight. It's not llight-hearted reading, but there's something very noble about her heroine, Hope Leslie. I had to read this for an American Literature class that spanned the 17th and 18th centuries. I fully expected not to like it, but it ended up being my favorite book of the whole semester in that class.
Zora Neale Hurston. She lived and wrote during the Harlem Renaissance and was a contemporary of Langston Hughes and F. Scott Fitzgerald. She wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is quite possibly the most beautiful book I've ever read apart from our next contender.
Yasunari Kawabata. Author of Snow Country. He's one of the world's most celebrated authors, not to mention his native country of Japan. This book won him the Nobel Prize for Literature. I really should re-read this one.
Twain. What's not to love about Mark Twain?! He's brilliant. His books are hilarious, thought-provoking and complex all at the same time. Among writers of satire, I'd say Twain is the best. Shakespeare ranks way up there too, but Twain is overtly satirical, making him delightful.
Of his works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court are my favorites.
Aaron Sorkin. Let's skip out on some of the classics and move to more contemporary, still-with-us authors. Aaron Sorkin is the creator and writer for The West Wing series. The man is brilliant. If I could write like him, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd be working somewhere in New York or Los Angeles in the entertainment business.
Tina Fey. The woman is freaking hilarious! 30 Rock is a testament to this and for anyone who hasn't seen 30 Rock, RUN to somewhere that sells it and buy it. I'm telling you, you'll need to watch it with the pause button close at hand because you WILL need to stop it playing in order to laugh.
Mitchell Hurwitz. Creator of Arrested Development. He's admittedly much too funny for most of America. Most Americans prefer the stupid humor, whereas only a very small portion of us actually understand and enjoy more subtle, more advanced humor. If you like the latter kind, this is a show for you.
John Cleese. Original. Hilarious. Ground-breaking. Cleese is a class act. I mean, come on...Fawlty Towers? 'Nuff said!
My dad. He'll deny it, but he's a fantastic writer.
Bello. My great-grandfather. He was an orator, he was a member in the House of Representatives and a poet. I have a book of his writing in my house.
Later Days,
Arty
11:15 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
06/25/2008
Found
Having my own place, I've really come to notice certain things in my flat that are always found there in the cupboards and in other various places. In my flat you will always find: - Flowers - Books - A few anthologies, three on British literature, two on Shakespeare, a couple on British culture. - Shade - Light - Color - Laughter - Memories - Interesting art - Something from IKEA - Something from Pottery Barn - Something from Craigslist - Something Matt and I traveled a long way to find - Brown, burgundy and black sharpies to fix the little knicks that spring up in the furniture - Pens - Soap - Olive oil - Balsamic vinegar - Good wine - Cheese - Beans (dried or canned) - Butter beans - Lemons - Limes - Greek yoghurt - Nuts and seeds - Pasta - Spices - Tofu and/or other soy products - Paper - Clean sheets - Clean towels - Hardwood floors - Circles/roundness - Crystal flower vases - White dishes - Tea - Coffee - Free range eggs - Butter - Nutella - Marmalade - Marmite (although I'm working on getting rid of this constant of the cupboard) - Cholula - Onions - Frozen green beans - Corn - Organic chicken breasts - Music - A view of the fountain in the courtyard - Comfort - Family and friends - Lots of shoes (thanks to me) - Australian kangaroo paw flower products for my hair - Witch hazel - Medicine - Two people ready and willing to have a good time with others - Mac geeks - Mac computers - Mac-made iPods - Very soon, Mac-made iPhones - All the Indiana Jones films - All the Star Wars films - Arrested Development - The West Wing - Psych - An Oxford atlas of the world - A book of photographs by Ansel Adams - Wine corks (don't ask me why) - Curtains - Rugs - Soft things - Minimal clutter - Baking soda - Flour - Sugar - Cake tins - Baking sheets - Kick-ass knives - Rum - Really good tequila - Margarita mix - Giant green olives (and yeah, if you didn't catch on, those are the makings for a margatini, which I always have on hand) - Ice - Juice - Cream top milk - Cornflakes - A crystal pineapple - Candles - Elderflower cordial - Energy saving light bulbs - Big (and admittedly, rather awesome) speakers - Balled up socks - Smiles - Sleep (when you're looking for it) - Neosporin - Bandaids - Breezes - A smoke detector There are a few other things you'd find, but in light that it's kind of late, I'm going to leave it there and go get my shower and crawl into bed. Later Days, Arty
20:35 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
06/23/2008
Parties and a Cake!
*sits down on her sofa with a glass of Kagome juice*
As I sit, the smells of cake are filling the flat. It's lovely. I've been talking off and on with Matt today and he's having a rough day at work and a rough day all around, so I decided to make him a cake. It's a lemon cake with some poppy seeds thrown in for good measure. I'm a sucker for lemon poppy seed stuffs.
I've come to realize that I need to find a good ice pick. I really have no need for one, but nothing beats my grandmother's ice pick for checking whether a cake is done or not. I know, I know...use a toothpick like normal people. I have good reason not to be normal people with this, though!
For one, an ice pick is easily cleaned and reusable, which is good for the environment. Secondly, an ice pick keeps one from getting burned by hot yumminess while it's still at molten temperatures. Thirdly, an ice pick is compact enough to fit into my baking drawer with everything else I have, including my sifter! Lastly, and most importantly, I just don't want to use toothpicks. 'Nuff said.
So the cakes are like two minutes from being done. I'll be forced to use a toothpick, thus risking a third degree burn from which I'll scream in agony and beg pity for three weeks hence. Once tested for done-ness, I'll set them out on the counter to cool off near the window. I'll probably be tempting fate with that, not to mention some winged intruders which will face a quick and violent death should I catch them.
Once cooled, it's a trip out of the pans they're in, layering and then a lemon glaze that I'll make in a little while to drizzle over the cake. I see three fresh lemons in the citrus dish that are begging to be used.
The next cake I make will probably be a poke cake, which is loved and adored by anyone related to me. My grandmother is famous for them, so I need to extract the recipe and technique from her so I can carry on the tradition of insanely good food.
So I joined in a harrowing experience today at work with Linda and Nancy. You all know Linda as my cohort in office crimes, more commonly known as the school secretary. Nancy is one of the teachers upstairs who happened to be in the office at the time.
Well, a bird wandered into the office this morning and decided to terrorize us for a while. Now, Linda and I wanted to help the thing get back outside, but like most birds it ran away when faced with something fifty times its own size. So here we are, three grown women, cowering in the presence of a common robin as it flew past us and in some cases straight at us.
Amidst tons of screaming and tons more laughter, it took the bravery of Sarah (one of our high school students) to pursue the bird fearlessly until it went outside again. Even as I write this, I have a big smile on my face just thinking about it.
Matt and I have found a church that I think we'll be making our own. We've been going a couple months now and despite some things I'm not quite used to (and thus find a bit weird) it's a place of good people with a solid footing in the Word of God. They're doctrine is sound from what we've observed and heard.
Last night Matt and I had Eric and Paula over for dinner. They're a couple from church with two kids and last night Isabella, their daughter, came with them. We had a lovely time laughing and getting to know one another better and getting to know about the church more. They brought us a big pot full of flowers, which is now sitting near the door looking all happy.
This past Saturday my cousin Rachel had a baby shower. She's very pregnant with twin boys and she's due to deliver next week, all things permitting. Both boys are over five pounds, which is really good for twins. They're names are going to be Anthony and Jose Jr. (the latter being named for his father). Apart from being grossly hot and really big, Rachel looked good and was in good spirits.
I got to spend the afternoon sitting at Aunt Addie's feet. Aunt Addie is my grandmother's sister-in-law and of all my great-aunts, Addie is my favorite. I know you're not really supposed to have favorites, but she's it. I love her.
Aunt Addie managed to distract me with something shiny after which she stole my chair and convinced me to get her some food. At least that's what I'm teasing her with. In truth, I gave her my seat and offered to get her a plate of food along with some water. The rest of the time I spent on the floor in front of her while she talked to me and some other family that had gathered there.
One such person was my grandmother, who was seated next to Aunt Addie on another chair. Needless to say, Diana (Addie's daughter) had fun telling stories about the two of them. And needless to say, there was lots of laughter.
This coming Saturday, a cousin on my grandfather's side is getting married so we'll all be going to her wedding. I'm kind of excited because Matt's going to be in a suit with a tie and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him in a suit of any kind with a tie. I'm hoping to find a new dress before then to wear. It's the first wedding we'll be going to as a married couple, so I want to look extra cute for the occasion.
The following day (Sunday) Jeff will be having his graduation party. We're calling it Sundae's in the Part with Jeff just to amuse ourselves with something. It should be a good time. Family and friends will be there and Jeff has asked our dad to plan and organize the games, which is something my dad is the master of. Seriously, I have no bad memories of any games he ever planned as a child.
I remember this one time we had a sleep over at the church as kids and for one of the games, my dad had us going on a snipe hunt through a dark church, crawling on our stomachs underneath the pews. It was amazing. That and commando when I was in high school are the two games that stick out most in my mind, though admittedly, my dad didn't plan out commando.
Commando consisted of four teams, each with different colored tokens. We were given the tokens on one side of the gym, which was dark save for a search light mounted on a platform at the other end doing sweeps of the room. The rest of the room had various tables turned on their sides. There was also a fog machine going so there was a thin layer of fog along the floor.
The object was simple: get to the other side of the gym, past the searchlight without getting 'swept' up in the light while running from the cover of table to table. Once at the other side, you put your token in a collection bag kept by a counselor and went down the stairs and up the other side having crossed underneath the gym in a hallway that's there. It was excellent fun!
Anyway, the point of that story is to say that I'm really excited my dad is planning and organizing the games for Jeff's party. It promises to be a good time if he's in charge.
Well, the boys are heading over for dinner tonight, so in an hour or so I'll throw together a shepherd's pie with leftover stuffs from last nights dinner of homemade gyros. I have some ground beef to add to the ground lamb that's already cooked off. Some veggies and some gravy will be added and then it'll all be topped off with some mashed potatoes. It's not super fancy, but it's good eats.
That said, I think I'll sign off and enjoy the rest of my Kagome, maybe wander into chat for a while.
Later Days,
Arty
17:07 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
06/18/2008
Insult and Injury
So it's been two weeks since I last blogged. Two weeks! Wow, that time went by fast. To be fair, the school year was winding down at work and things were absolutely crazy. Manic, I tell you.
So two weeks has seen a lot of stuff.
Went to the beach with the family for a barbeque. Grilled up some chicken, steak and salmon. Roasted up some s'mores. Watched the boys play frisbee. After all was said and done, the boys and I ran to the water's edge and threw rocks into the water. No matter how old we get, it never loses its appeal.
Have a baby shower for my cousin Rachel coming up this Saturday. She's pregnant with twins. I'm hoping she's got the genetic curse of twins in our family for our generation. That'll mean I won't have twins. But we'll see.
Going to another cousin's wedding weekend after this one coming up.
Planning a graduation party/bash/show-down/grand old time for Jeff. It'll be called 'Sundaes at the park with Jeff' and only the clever people will see the humor in that.
Been the only one at the office this week. It's been nice, but creepy at the same time, if you know what I mean.
Decided, after watching live coverage of the House of Representatives, that Texas should be sawed off from the continental United States and allowed to float around aimlessly in the Caribbean until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean at which point its fate would take any number of turns, none of which I really care about. And I'll tell you why.
A Representative from the House asked the Speaker for five minutes to present a motion. It was sustained and said Representative was yielded the floor to talk about CFL light bulbs. That's right. He made an argument that CFL were stupid. Why? Because they contain mercury. And because they're only manufactured in China. And because, if they break, they're hazardous to our health and we 'must vacate the room, use duct tape to pick up dust particles of the broken lightbulb' and do everything short of calling in all the men geared up in HazMat suits.
I could make the same argument for thermometers. I mean, really. Those are worse because the mercury is in a liquid state. That stuff can bead up on the floor and not be seen again for years! In that instance, we'd expose ourselves to hazardous material every single day without knowing it. Yet is there a case being made to destroy those? Not at the moment, no. At least not on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Between him and Bush, I think there's sufficient evidence to not elect anyone from Texas to any position of power for the next two hundred years. Arkansas suffers the same fate because of Clinton. Gosh, our last few terms have sucked eggs! And to think, there's an entire generation that's never known anything but a Bush or Clinton in office.
We seriously need to rock the vote this time around.
Moving right along, I went with Jeff and my grandmother to see my uncles out in Dublin today for lunch. We took BART and went to Red Tractor Cafe where I was insulted deeply by a woman who is really nothing more than a tri-valley cow.
I was returning to my table with my glass of iced tea in hand when this woman approached me and said:
'We need three glasses of water. We're sitting outside.'
At this point, she gestured to her family seated outside. I followed the gesture, looked at the family and then looked back at her. I said:
'I don't work here.'
I should have said:
'I don't work here. In fact, I don't serve your kind at all. What makes you think I would?'
I didn't know whether to be insulted or amused.
In other news, I went to the pool earlier and swam for half an hour straight doing the breast stroke. It was great. It felt wonderful, but not as wonderful as coming back to the house and showering. That was pretty amazing.
I was eating dinner...actually I was eating my dessert, which was a giant piece of angel food cake, and I bit myself. We're not talking a little bite. I seriously did some damage to the inside of my upper lip. I had to go stand over a sink with an ice cube on it for a while.
Thus my day was filled with insult and injury.
And now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to wrap up the blog and head back home to my flat to await the arrival of my husband, who is out having a good time with some of his co-workers tonight. Well...maybe I'll head home in a little while. Alton Brown is on TV and when he's on TV I geek out.
I'll go home in half an hour.
Later Days,
Arty
19:59 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
06/05/2008
My Boys
Howdy kids! Well today is Thursday. The week is almost over and I'm pretty happy about that. It's been an exciting one. My boys have done relatively well for themselves this week. And when I refer to 'my boys' I'm referring to Matt, Jeff and Jeremy.
Uncle Benny already blogged about this, but I feel like doing my own version of things.
Jeremy is walking as valedictorian for his middle school, which makes me a tremendously proud sister. Valedictorian is a hard thing to get because it means that you have to maintain a 4.0 throughout your time at a school. Jeremy has been able to do that. The little boff.
And what's more is that Jeremy is one of those kids that excels in academic realms, but at the same time he's very social and very easy-going and just an all-around cool kid. He's the kind of kid you'd love to hate. Except you can't hate him. It's too hard. And for that you hate him more. Except, again, you can't. It's a vicious circle that way.
Jeff is graduating from high school tomorrow night. He's not valedictorian, but he'll be walking with multiple honors and cords from the Performing Arts Academy at Skyline.
Every year there's an awards ceremony for the performing arts academy kids and this year, Jeff apparently did a clean sweep, bringing home three trophies and a handful of medals. While the trophies are a bit much to carry for graduation, he's totally going to wear his medals. He'll be wearing those with his cords.
Now, the cords are there to mark you with honor. The Performing Arts Academy has always decorated its graduates with cords to honor them and set them apart from the other graduates. They do this because PA (Performing Arts) kids go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to school. In order to enter and remain in the academy, you must maintain a 3.5 GPA (that's a B average across the board), but what's more is that these kids maintain top grades while putting in countless hours of extra work into shows and productions.
If you come from the PA Academy, you know what hard work is, and you're honored for your work. I keep my cords from the academy in my Christmas box and I put them in my tree every year along with my medals and my tassel. It's good to remember where and what you've come from.
Lastly comes Matt. God has been good to me with him. Very good. My patience and faith were tested last year, but more and more I'm coming to trust the Lord with providing goodness to us. More and more I'm being shown that His plans for me are to prosper me and not to harm me. And yet with all the learning, I never cease to be amazed by the goodness God has given me.
Yesterday I went with Matt to the USCIS in downtown so he could be fingerprinted. Neither of us knew what the next step would be, but when he was finished, the woman told him that that was it and his green card and work permit would be sent out in the mail. So he's done. For the next two years he's done.
Amen.
In other news, there's gonna be a big party tomorrow night at the house to celebrate the three aforementioned things, but mostly to celebrate Jeff's graduation. There's gonna be drinks. There's gonna be food. There's gonna be laughter. And the there's gonna be a whole lot of people there.
You see, the house is already pretty full. Six people live there now that I've moved out. Uncle Benny is coming over and spending the night. Matt and I are crashing in the living room on an air mattress because neither of us wants to be a des and Doug is driving in from Atwater to hang out for the weekend. All said and told, ten people will be crashing out at the house and it's gonna be interesting and fun all at the same time.
Matt and I stocked up on some good tequila this past weekend. And when I say good, I mean really good. Tequila is something both of us are willing to plunk down some extra cash for because cheap tequila not only makes you feel cheap and tawdry, it makes you violently ill. We're talking Alf-lost-his-dignity-in-an-airplane-lavatory-not-to-mention-countless-other-places ill.
So the point of the story is to buy the good stuff.
I'll be making margatinis with Julia's legendary recipe. I have big, fat Spanish olives for them along with the good tequila and margarita mix. My mom is stocking up on the Triple Sec that we need so I'll be good to go.
I'm taking some martini glasses, some shooters and some martini picks with me today over to the house in preparation for the big event. I'm also taking my shaker. We'll be needing more than one shaker with the number of drinks we'll be making.
Doug and I alone can each tuck away four margatinis easily. Of course, after the third one, Doug tends to forget my name. I'm still pretty lucid after four. And I know some of you might be shocked by that, but consider this: the olives are so big and they take up so much valuable real estate in the glass that there's less room for alcohol. And I like the olives, so I normally have two in each glass. That's TWO giant olives taking up twice as much real estate in my glass. Doug likes the olives too, but he's a bit more lightweight than I am so the real estate that the alcohol DOES take up affects him faster than it does me.
Oh, the good times we've had with Craig and Julia!
Let's see. What else? Oh!
I made eggplant melanzane for dinner last night. And I've never been one to like eggplant because the times it was prepared growing up, it was gross. Still, Matt likes eggplant and I agreed to try my hand at making a melanzane because he had a really good one the other night when we went out to dinner.
For more information, go here
So yeah. It's gonna be a good weekend following on the footsteps of an even better week.
Salud!
Later Days,
Arty
09:00 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
05/29/2008
Search History
So, I thought I'd give you an idea of what my internet search histories are like. The following is a search that took place yesterday within the span of about an hour.
It began with Uncle Benny's blog:
This is the search that followed:
1) Google search for Meadow Gold Yogurt
2) Google search (which led me to Wikipedia) for Haupia
3) Linked to Blancmange
4) Linked to Bavarian Cream
5) Linked to charlottes
6) Linked to Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
7) Linked to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Side searches included:
1) Redirection from Blancmange to almonds
2) Linked to almond milk
3) Redirection from Bavarian Cream to Irish Moss
4) Redirection from Bavarian Cream to Panna Cotta
5) Redirection from charlottes and Queen Charlotte to King George III
6) Redirection from Queen Charlotte to HMY Royal Caroline
7) Linked to sixth-rate
8) Linked to National Maritime Museum
9) Linked to the Royal Observatory Greenwich
10) Linked to The Queen's House Greenwich
11) Redirected from Queen Charlotte to strelitzia reginae
12) Redirected from King George III to porphyria
13) Redirected from the National Maritime Museum to "Princess Charlotte Arriving at Harwich, September 1761"
14) Redirected from haupia to cordyline fruicosa
09:45 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
05/27/2008
Memorial Weekend
Hello!
So this weekend was Memorial Day weekend, which meant that most people had a holiday of sorts. Call them bank holidays. Most school kids got Friday and Monday off, leaving them with a four day weekend to love. I always loved Memorial Day weekend for that reason. Still, some kids only got Monday off, which still left them with a long weekend.
I work in one of those places that gives just a three day weekend, but that's better than nothing!
I thoroughly enjoyed myself this past weekend. It started Friday night.
Now, for those of you who don't remember, I wasn't feeling too chipper last week. I had a bad cold and was getting over that, but luckily I was well enough to keep my date with my wonderful husband on Friday night. We went to the symphony to see Brahms' requiem. And I must confess that although I'd listened to a recording of it and quite liked it then, it didn't hold a candle to seeing the thing in person. It was so amazingly beautiful. So much so that I actually wept towards the end of the second movement.
I always love going to the symphony. There's always little surprises that happen. For example, the symphony didn't start until we actually got there. See, we were a tad late getting going and we were worried that perhaps it would start without us and we'd have to wait until intermission to be seated, which really defeats the purpose of going at all in some ways. So that was a nice surprise.
They also started the night with a few of Shakespeare's poems set to music. The chorus was pretty impressive. It was just a solid mass of people garbed in black with black binders all singing in German. maybe impressive isn't the right word. Maybe intimidating is more appropriate.
Of course, in going to the symphony, I got to see my favorite part of it. I love the tuning more than anything and I wrote about a year ago why. I won't go into detail about it. I have it archived somewhere in a folder on my computer. I'll pull it out sometime.
Anyway, tuning is my favorite part of the symphony. The moments of silence in between movements, of course, is another favorite thing. Why? Because those pauses always make me laugh. Inevitably, everyone sits with bated breath until the conductor lowers his hands to his sides. But then...oh, but then...the hilarity ensues. In those pauses, there's always a cacophony of hacking and sneezing.
Perhaps that noise from the audience is always there, we just never notice it because we're so enthralled with the music. Perhaps I just notice it in those moments of silence. Regardless of circumstance, however, I always find it amusing.
Matt and I got home late Friday night only to be awake early the next morning. We had an appointment with the wedding photographer to put together an album after which Matt got to telling me that he wanted to do something and not just go back home. That said, I got to thinking:
We're in Lafayette already. We're only about ten minutes from downtown Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill. It's only 9:30 in the morning and most people are still lounging about their houses. Why not go catch an early showing of the new Indiana Jones film?
And that's exactly what we did! We saw a 10:35 showing of the film in Pleasant Hill with a moderately filled theater. The audience, I must say, was exceptionally good. Everyone was mellow and laid back and happy to sit through the ridiculous number of previews for upcoming films. There were no screaming or talking children, although there were kids there!
I, personally, spent most of the movie with my feet pulled up under me or draped over Matt's lap next to me. I was mildly creeped out, so that's the reason for that. Still, all and all, it was an enjoyable film. Certainly not the original ones. Because, let's face it, the original films kick major ass. Major. Ass.
Sunday my family came to visit the church that Matt and I are attending. I had a good time sitting with my brothers and then having lunch with everyone afterwards. After lunch the family left and Matt and I stayed for the prayer meeting before heading home ourselves. We took the 'scenic' route home, which is a way of saying we took Redwood Road home through the hills instead of catching the freeway. It was really nice. We had the windows down and everything.
That, of course, was after the pie incident. I made a pie for dessert to take to church, as well as some salads to share with the family. On our way to church, however, I went to go move the pie and it exacted its revenge on me by spilling sweet sugary juice all over my clean brown jumper. That said, we had to pull over so I could clean some and stick the pie into a plastic bag.
When I called Jeff to tell him that we'd be a little late, he just laughed at me over the phone. The punk.
Yesterday consisted of having a much-needed lie in followed by the slowest-moving morning I've had for a very long time. Seriously, I walked around wrapped up in my dressing gown for a good two hours before finally mustering the will to hop into the shower. It was great!
After the shower, I went about tidying the flat, getting all the dirty clothes into a containment unit of some kind (clothes seem to mysteriously get everywhere in the flat) and doing some dishes. After that is was a matter of getting said dirty clothes into the car along with some watermelon and heading over to the house for a barbeque.
The watermelon was tremendous.
And the boys and I ('the boys' referring to Jeff, Jeremy and Matt) laid around like third base in Uncle Arnie's room and watched The Bourne Ultimatem. I had never seen it before, so I was busy freaking out during the film. I was doing laundry during this showing, so it was hard to focus on the laundry. And Jeremy can prove that with the following conversation:
Matt: The washing machine just went off, love.
Me: I heard it.
Matt: Are you gonna go take care of it.
Me: As soon as the scary music stops.
Jeremy: Oh, the scary music never stops in this movie.
Me: (screaming because an assassin just tricked Jason Bourne) I can't deal with this.
Jeremy: I'm telling you it's like this the rest of the time.
Me: (getting up) I've gotta go wash something.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening. The evening ended with bell rehearsal. We're playing a piece called 'Canticle' in a couple weeks and last night was the second to last rehearsal for it. It's a really hard piece. Like...uber hard, so we've been working really hard on trying to get it down. Jeremy plays next to me and he and I are sharing bells like crazy. He's having to play some of mine in a couple places just because I don't have enough hands to play them myself (I'm playing two parts at once on this song).
We were doing pretty well by the end of last night. Just some more practice and a few things that need to be tweaked and polished and we'll be good to go. You can listen to a part of the song here:
That's the Raleigh Ringers playing it. They're playing it insanely fast as well. We're not going nearly that speed, but we're going pretty fast, so it's really exciting. Jeremy and I are going nuts, whooping and hollering all over the show. We also have a tendency so talk to each other while we're playing. I tell Jeremy to get ready to play one of my bells and he tells me to move so he can do it. It's actually pretty amusing.
So yeah, that was my weekend. It was back to the grind this morning. I'm actually not that sad about the whole thing. It's pretty good to be back today. It's been productive thus far and I haven't been bored yet, so everything is great here.
In other news, I'm trying to get Rubio's to build a location in Larkspur for Matt. It's a plan I have in the works. We'll see how much ground I can cover with that. I have a feeling I'd be the best wife ever if they put a location in Larkspur. I'd get serious points for that.
Mike is in the office at the moment heckling Linda.
And I really should end this blog and do something else. I'll write again soon.
Later Days
Arty
14:06 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
05/22/2008
Forfeit
You have a type
A tendency
A pre-disposed affection for them
Girls with dark hair
Girls that leave you lonely
Girls that perpetuate your melancholic disposition
It’s because they’re all like her
In some form
Or another
They’re all like her
Mistress of the north
Ice queen of the heart
She gives you ultimatums
She tells you that “it’s going to have to be her”
“Or it’s going to have to be me”
“You can’t have both”
“You just can’t”
But why?
It’s because girl B is not girl A
Girl B vastly overshadows girl A
In everything
Girl B has everything girl A doesn’t
Or so it appears to everyone
But it isn’t so
Both are gifted with magnetic
Flirtatious
Winning personalities
But one is given to jealousy
Rage
Self-loathing
While the other remains unaware
Funny
Blissfully enjoying her life
And it’s this that you are drawn to
Inexplicably drawn to
Forced to notice
It’s this vast ocean of difference
Despite the dark hair
And the dark mystery
You’re drawn to the happiness
The sunny qualities
The lack of self-doubt
You’re drawn to it
Because it’s not who you yourself are
You’re not like girl B
And you’re more like girl A
The one who forced you to choose
Even though you didn’t
But you did
You chose a long time ago
And although you say you didn’t
Girl B knows better
You chose girl A
Despite the nastiness in her spirit
The green poison of jealousy in her soul
Girl B knows this
And she knows why
She understands why
It’s because darkness can hide a multitude of sin
The light of girl B would have exposed you
Laid bare the blemishes you have taken such care to hide
You chose girl A because she has the same scars
The same insecurities
Perhaps even uglier marks that she hides
You chose her because she’s most like you
Because you stand a better chance with her
Because darkness cannot marry light
But guess what
You chose foolishly
Because although it’s true that darkness cannot marry light
You forget that light destroys all darkness in due course
It works slowly
But it creeps into the darkest corners
And makes the darkness light
That’s what girl B could have offered you
Had you been wise enough to accept it
But you retreated into darkness
And there you stay
Behind a screen that keeps you from the light
From happiness
From a life without ugliness
But you chose her over me
And I have no sympathy for you now
No unexplained need to save you
Because I was being dragged into that darkness
But unlike you and unlike her
I saw the dangers it held
And I fled
Because sometimes you have to do what’s right for yourself
Despite how much you want to help the others
You just can’t sometimes
So forfeit yourself
Forfeit your joy
Forfeit your chances
Forfeit the light
So choose her over me
Wallow in your self pity
Your levels of self worth
But for the love of everything good
Everything pure
Flee from the darkness of her
Forfeit her darkness
Even if you can’t forfeit your own
The light begs this of you
Choose nothing over something poisonous
Choose to run away
Choose to be brave in the face of uncertainty
Learn to stay afloat
11:21 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
Show
So I went to see Bow Fire last night with Matt and my parents, even though I wasn't feeling too hot. My mom had gotten tickets weeks ago for it and I, not anticipating the sickness that's racking my body, said I'd go.
It was an interesting show, to say the least. A whole bunch of amazingly talented, well educated in their craft, violin players got up on stage and did crazy things with their instruments. It really was unlike anything I've ever seen before...as was the audience.
We were seated a row in front of a group of people that quite literally fell off the turnip truck on the way from one barn raising to another and somehow found their way inside the theatre. They were SO annoying. So much so that I wanted to turn around to one of the guys in the group and punch him in the nuts.
There was a conversation to that effect:
Me: Gosh, I wanted to turn around and punch that guy in the nuts!
Mom: They were enjoying themselves.
Me: Good, because that's probably the most cultured thing they'll ever attend in their lives.
Matt: You're a snob.
Me: Yes I am a snob. I listen to opera and go to the symphony. I come to places like this to enjoy the experience of music, not be held hostage to a row of yokels.
Matt: That doesn't make you better than them.
Me: There was a very evident lack of knowledge when it came to etiquette. For example, it's rude to continuously kick the seat in front of you since the person in that seat might find it annoying.
Matt: Yes, but...
Me: Furthermore, it's impolite to whoop and holler during a performance while it's happening.
Mom: They were enjoying themselves.
Me: Well they can enjoy themselves when they go back to Kansas to raise a barn via the tornado that brought them here to my emerald theatre.
It's important to note that the Paramount is a gorgeously awesome art deco theatre in downtown. A large portion of the art deco reliefs are done over in green and bronze, so the emerald theatre comment fits. And yes, I'm capable of being a snob. I'm not really a snob deep down. Just on the surface sometimes.
Anyway, I thought I'd write about my experience there. Right now, however, I think I'm going to try and get some sleep...which will be made very interesting considering I'm at work.
Later Days
Arty
10:14 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
05/19/2008
All Things New
Afternoon, kids! I thought I'd take a moment to blog this afternoon just for kicks. A lot of new things are happening where I live and it's all very exciting. I need to tell someone and since you're a captive audience, I might as well share things with you.
Firstly, my mother and I are going to start exercising on a regular basis. She was telling me yesterday that she was seriously considering joining a gym, but I quickly talked her out of that one. I mean, joining a gym would be a great thing for her, but knowing my mother as I do, I think it'd be a big waste of money for a membership fee.
That said, I convinced my mom to try something else entirely and I agreed to do it with her. I agreed to go swimming with her two to three times a week at my alma mater, Mills. As an alumnae, I get a discount on the pool fees there as do my immediate family. Woo!
I suggested swimming because it's low impact and won't shock my mother's knees. She's not a big swimmer. She prefers to just sit around in the pool and float in the shallows, but again I convinced her to split a lane with me. She can use a kick board to kick around and I can do the hard core swimming...because I LOVE swimming. Absolutely love and adore it. While I can pretty much do any stroke (excpet the butterfly because that's just not worth the effort for me!), I'm a huge fan of the breast stroke, so I'll be swimming laps around my mother as she paddles her way from one end to the other.
It'll be really good to get back into the water. It's been too long. And it'll be great for both of us!
First Trefethen Day is tomorrow. Woo!!
Secondly, Alameda has been in the throws of refurbishing a gorgeous old movie theater that was built in the 20s. That's right. We're talking Art Deco in all it's glory and it's absolutely cool. They've been refurbishing it for a long time now, but last week they finally took down the temporary fences, erased the temporary lane markers and repainted the street so that it's back to normal.
They're doing the finishing touches on the theater now...stuff like rewiring the marquee and setting up the lights around the 'coming soon' posters. I'm really looking forward to seeing the inside.
The old theater had one screen. The new theater has the newly refurbished old screen room plus an additional seven screens. And guess what the opening movie will be on all those screens. Oh yeah, baby! The new Indiana Jones movie will be playing and I'm about ready to wet myself in excitement. I'm a big Indiana Jones fan, which actually works in my favor because Matt loves Indiana Jones.
As a side note, I also love Star Wars. The original ones. Not those CGed, mind-numbing, painful, 'I want to take my own life right now' newer ones. Honest to goodness! I mean, don't get me wrong. George Lucas has amazing visionary talent. He just can't direct worth beans. So that aside, I'm a huge original Star Wars fan...and I know...I'm every guys dream for that.
Thirdly, I got myself a hot date on Friday night. Matt and I will be heading over to the city to see the symphony play Brahms' Requiem. He's very excited.
This date orginated at Christmas time when I gave Matt the gift of Yoshi's. For those of you who don't know, Yoshi's is a local jazz club. Since Matt didn't see anything he liked playing at Yoshi's, he asked if we could go see the Requiem instead.
Now, I hesitated at first because between getting to go to a jazz club for the evening to hear some jazz or going to the symphony to hear a requiem, I'd choose the jazz club. Luckily, Matt had a recording of said requiem and I sat and listened to it with him a few weeks ago. When asked what I thought of it at the end, I said I'd gladly waste another two hours of my life listening to it, which was my way of saying I approved of the requiem while still giving Matt a bad time about it.
So given that story, I agreed to take him to the requiem instead of Yoshi's, so Friday night is the night. Hot date in the city with my favorite man. It's gonna be great.
Fourthly, the second Trefethen Day will be this coming Saturday. And just because I realize now that I didn't explain that before, Trefethen is the name of the aquatics center at my alma mater. And I've nicknamed the days that I'm going to the pool with my mom Trefethen Days.
Fifthly, June sees in the beginning of the summer season around teh Bay Area. What that basically means is that throughout the Bay Area there will be festivals, outdoor theatre, symphony in the park gigs and a host of other awesome seasonal fun to be had.
Matt and I have tickets to go see Pericles at an outdoor Shakespeare festival theatre that's local. Then a week later we'll be heading back to the city to see the symphony perform Beethoven's 7th. Matt's very excited about this too.
Somewhere during the months of June, July and August, we'll probably be attending Woodminster for a show or two with the entire family. The same Shakespeare festival that's performing Pericles will be performing Oscar Wilde's The Ideal Husband, Uncle Vanya and then closing out their season with Twelfth Night, another fabulous Shakespeare play.
I'm not so hot on the idea of Uncle Vanya, but Oscar Wilde never disappoints and Shakespeare certainly never does either! So we might be going back later this summer for some more Shakespeare.
In between all of that there's a slew of Trefethen Days. And of course there's work to keep me busy, a husband to keep me company and a family to keep me laughing.
All in all, I'd say I'm looking forward to summer in a very big way.
No doubt there will be trips up north to the coast, trips to beaches, perhaps a trip to southern California. The possibilities are endless! And it's all very exciting.
Now, you know what would excite me even more? Some current blog posts from the likes of DJ, Aimes and a few others. Seriously guys, what's up? You disappear for aaaaages and then say nothing for aaaaages and leave me wondering what the heck you all are up to. What's that about?
Sixth, a new bookstore just opened up on the island. It's a Borders, which pleases me immensely, but having gone inside it, I'm not that bothered anymore. It's small and not well stocked with the kinds of things I like to read, so I'm a bit disappointed with that. Still, a bookstore is a bookstore.
Seventh, a Daphne's is going in three blocks from where I live. All I have to say is this:
Eighth, pasta salad for dinner. 'Nuff said.
Ninth, I'm uber excited for my brothers. They're both graduating this year, Jeff from high school and Jeremy from middle school.
As we speak, jeff is in New York for a week. He called to say he'd gotten there safely about two hours ago. He'll be seeing four shows, having a behind the scenes session with the cast from one of them, he'll be participating in an Alvin Ailey session and eating a Nathan's hot dog. I'm somewaht jealous of him. He'll have a great time, though!
And just so you know, he's there with a whole bunch of people from school that are part of the Performing Arts Academy, which is what I belonged to in high school and what my mother and uncles belonged to in high school. There's a long legacy of involvement there and it's continuing on now this week with Jeff.
We're all really happy for him.
Tenth, Sara's party was yesterday. She's all official and everything! Cum Laude official and interviewing for a job on Wednesday. A good job it sounds like as well. I mean, the work schedule would be crazy for her, but she asked my opinion on the matter and I told her if she was offered the job to take it. She can always give notice if it turns out to be too much for her, but I told her that it's near to impossible for a recent college graduate to find a job right away like that.
God is being good to her and our family. It took me six months to find a job after I graduated, but in retrospect I can see that my grandmother was absolutely right in telling me that God would provide a job for me at the right time with the right people. And He has. God has provided for me exactly what I needed and when I needed it. It's an amazing thing, really, the more I think about it.
But now, if you'll excuse me, I have a student who's been in the office all day not feeling well. Thing is, although I don't doubt she's feel a bit stuffed up (who isn't?!?!), I very much doubt she's as ill as she's making out. She just wants to go home and her mother said 'no' so now Linda and I are having to deal with fake coughing and tears and 'tight chest' syndrome. Well, if you stopped blubbering, your chest wouldn't feel tight!
Gosh!
Later Days,
Arty
14:36 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
05/16/2008
The Not-So-Fabulous Life
Hello blogdom. I trust you all survived in my absence for a few days. Since I last spoke with you, some things have happened.
There's a heat wave hitting our little slice of heaven. The projected high as of last night for Oaktown was 100 degrees tomorrow. I was pleased this morning to see that the liars have since chipped away at the insanity and settled for a more modest 94 as the projected high for tomorrow's temperatures.
Amy (co-worker of mine) and I are going to be cleaning out the staff fridge tomorrow. A good time should be had by all. There's is something funky coming out of there and it is NOT okay. I'm therefore braving the science fair-esque cultures and cleaning everything out in an attempt to get rid of the funk. I'm also being sent out for some supplies tomorrow and while out and about I'm going to buy baking soda to throw into the fridge.
I love baking soda, by the way. It's the best thing ever.
I have a sneaking suspicion that our janitorial service here at work is stealing from us. Nothing terribly huge, but things have been going missing at peculiar times. I mean, I order 16,000 paper towels for each site every month. You'd think that that number of towels would last us for the month. Granted, I know they're a commodity that's used very regularly, but 16,000 for a month should cover us.
Also, the brand new gallon of Simple Green...the cleaning solution that uses two ounces added to a full gallon of water to reach cleaning potential...has turned up missing. Brand new. As in, I ordered it two weeks ago. I've got a bug in my boss' ear about that one.
So, forigve me at this point, but there's been a slight lapse of time here in this blog. I started writing it Wednesday, but for one reason or the other, it's now Friday and I'm back at the blogging. So...just fast forward a couple days.
The weather has been fortcasted the last couple days to be misery on a soda cracker. That's a pretty accurate description of it too. Yesterday it was hotter than blazes on the island, which is the coolest place in the East Bay. At least it's supposed to be. I called my grandmother a couple times to make sure she was drinking her water and staying downstairs at the house.
For those of you that don't know, the house is split level, so the bottom-most level is actuall partially underground. It's got concrete floors and everything. That said, it's the coolest place in the house when heat takes over. Uncle Arnie's room is down there, so she had a TV to watch and other stuff to keep her occupied. Personally, I'd have slept. But then again, given that choice amongst a plethora of others, I'd choose to sleep every time. I'm that kind of girl.
So today is hot too. It's not supposed to be as hot, but I think I'll downgrade it to misery on a Triscuit today. Once again the lights in my office are off to keep it as cool as possible and between Linda and me, we have five fans going, each in a different direction. I don't know how much of a difference it's making, but they're going anyway.
I'm considering going to Home Depot after work to pick up one of two more fans for the apartment. We have a little one that we used last night, but it's actually one that we gaffed from the house a while ago and just had in the back closet until yesterday. Problem is, while it still works and does it's job, it makes a lot of noise, which bothers Matt when he's trying to sleep. I could care less about the sound so long as it's cool.
We need to look into a ceiling fan.
Game Show night is upon us! Tomorrow night is the big night. All the planning that my uncles have done will finally come to fruition. I'm actually really looking forward to it. I've been regailed with stories of the good old days when Game Show night was done a lot more than it is now.
Slated are:
- Jeopardy (a personal favorite because I'm an all around nerd)
- Family Feud (I've actually been asked to host this one...yay!)
- $25,000 Pyramid (which is a favorite of Uncle Benny's).
All in all, it should be a fun night full of many, many laughs. I'm told that I was asked to be the host of Family Feud because of my razor-like tongue. All I'm saying is I have no idea what people are talking about.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some ice to get because it's THAT blasted hot.
Later Days,
Arty
11:03 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
05/08/2008
Pink, Green and Silver
So a few things have been happening lately.
Played the flute for the first time in a long while. Did it with Sarah.
Have very girly, very pink toenails.
Have hair that's getting rather long. Something must be done about it.
Looked at Julia's website today to see if there was any new stuffs I want. There is.
Have dew-like skin thanks to Aveda. I loves their product line.
Still admire my wedding ring.
Made stuffed peppers for dinner. The better half enjoyed them. Made me feel somewhat better for the fact that the peppers weren't quite cooked long enough by telling me that my stuffing for said peppers was amazing. *grins gleefully* Amazing is what he said.
Been bored at work lately. There's a lack of work between the beginning and the end of the month. You know, that incessant period known as the 4th through the 29th or so. Banes.
Got a birthday card from Uncle Ron and Aunt Becky with some moneys in it for iTunes. Woo! Now I can buy that song that Jeff never sent me like he said he would. Douche.
Got my first formal invitation today in the mail as a married woman. It was strange to see just my name on it without my mom or grandmother's. It was a married name at that. Yeah. Weird.
Had Marco and Nicole stop by last night with our wedding gift. It was our other hamper, which pleased me very much, but what pleased me even more was that they had taken the time to go and fill it with laundry things. Detergent. Wrinkle release spray. Mesh washing bag for 'delicate' items. Tide-to-go pen. Like I said, I'm pleased beyond words with that gift.
Been thinking about Ginger lately and I don't know why. That's Ginger the person, not the spice.
Been thinking a lot about Sara as well and how proud I am of her for being a cum laude. Also how happy I am she was in the wedding. Also about how sweet she is for the present she got me and gave me on my wedding day.
Discovered that Nob Hill sells pre-made crepes. Yumminess factor still has yet to be determined.
Saw Ava last night. She's a girl that works at the UPS Store here on the island. I remember her and her name very vividly because she's the kind of person you have trouble forgetting because they're so nice and pleasant.
Got my new bank card and medical card with my married name emblazoned on them. I worry about identity theft now that I have a common last name. Matt says to guard against it, I should refrain from giving out my social security number like candy.
Surprised it's already Thursday.
Have tons of thank-you cards left to write. We had to re-stock our stamp collection because we ran out. Matt went to the post office place today and got 60 of the bad boys...so there's no excuse now. It makes me sad.
Matt might have possibly talked his boss' wife into getting us a new car for a wedding present because 'there's nothing left on the registry.' British racing green mini FTW. I'd also accept a Nissan Murano in gunmetal gray. Don't judge me. It's a sexy car.
Have a mountain of laundry to do. I miss having machines at my disposal in my own house.
Had an infection. Took antibiotics for it. Now I'm better. I blame Matt for it.
Still wondering what Matt's infatuation is with organ music. And Bach. And hi-fi equipment. And smelly French cheese.
Had a whole glass of red wine on an empty stomach last night. It was great.
I've been thinking we need a smaller coffee table, especially since Matt likes pulling his speakers out from the wall and leaving them there.
Thinking about spending some time soon to sit and listen to Rimsky-Korsokov's Sheherezade with the full score in front of me. There's something very sensual and sexy and mysterious about that violin solo
Becoming a jazz fan more and more.
Thinking about going to a baseball game this summer with the husband. Also thinking about going to see a Shakespeare play in Orinda.
Sad because I can't take Jeremy to see Phantom of the Opera.
Being heckled to learn discretion.
Later Days,
Arty
20:44 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
04/29/2008
Banana-Nut Squared
So I have a sister blog now, only it's going to be strictly dedicated to food. That doesn't mean food won't make an appearance here anymore, it just means that's where everything is going to go.
I'm linking you up:
http://stock-pot.blogspot.com/
And remember that comments (i.e. sharing) is a good thing, so spread the love!
Later Days,
Arty
16:15 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
04/25/2008
Cumpliaños
Morning my lovelies! Well, it's my birthday today and I'm all caught up with my work, my boss is away, my partner in office criminology theory is out and I'm all alone in the office at work with the faint sounds of education drifting up to me through the open door.
There are some flowers on my desk, not for my birthday, but for Administrative Porfessionals Day, which is really just a PC way of saying I got flowers for Secretary's Day even though I'm not a secretary. I was really surprised to get them, actually, but pleased nonetheless. I like staring at them from time to time.
So, as you can probably guess, I made it home from Sedona safely. I'm not one to actually enjoy the experience of flying, but the journey was made more bearable when our plane taxi-ed up to the gate and I saw, emblazoned on it, a giant California state flag. Oh yeah. It was a Bear Flag Republic plane! It was the greatest thing I've ever seen on a plane. And it pleased me immensely. That and the fact that Matt and I had a whole row to ourselves.
What didn't please me was the fact that I had to pee for almost the entire flight and the lavatories were always...ALWAYS...occupado. Still, I was in a Bear Flag Republic plane.
Upon arriving to the airport, Matt and I had to manuever our way through an inslaught of airport phenomena people. By that, what I mean is this: have you ever noticed that in airports, people seem to be dazed and confused? They walk at irregular speeds, stop without warning right in front of you and stand to look at the flight information screens right where they'll be most in the way? Yeah. Those are airport phenomena people. They wander around elsewhere too, but there always seems to be the largest concentration of them at airports.
So yeah, running the gauntlet was fun. Especially considering I needed to pee.
Jeff picked up us and took us back to the apartment, which was very nice of him. Our place looked as though it had vomitted all over itself in our absence. There were unwrapped gifts lying about, half-opened ones on top of those, rubbish everywhere, clothing that didn't make the honeymoon packing cut...it was really bad. Like, really bad.
Still, it was good to be home with my fog and my bay and my husband.
Matt and I tried to make some sense of everything before our plans got going once again. To welcome us home, my mother and grandmother toiled over tomatillo sauce in order to make some enchiladas verdes. But oh man, was their toiling worth it. Those enchiladas were freaking and amazingly yummy. So much so that I had to go back for second helpings of them.
So that was that. I haven't been over to the house in Oaktown since then. But that's going to change tonight.
You see, the rule growing up was that when it was your birthday, you got to choose what you wanted for dinner. It's a rule that has pervaded our lives and made for some really rockin' memories. I was torn this year between a taco bar and barbeque.
A taco bar would have consisted of soft flour tortillas, crispy corn tortilla shells, meat, beans, Spanish rice, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro and queso cotijo. We would have filled the crispy shell with rice and meat and whatever other toppings we wanted. The flour tortillas, however, would have been spread with a thin layer of beans and then wrapped around the crispy shell. Oh man. That's some seriously good eats right there.
Still, I opted for a barbeque tonight. The weather here is beautiful today, so it'll make for some nice times around the dining room table with food, family and, as always, fun. I imagine the windows will be open for some nice breezes and the dining room table will be extended to accommodate the number of people in my family.
The food is gonna be great. We're having barbequed ribs with potato salad (grandma's homemade potato salad no less! *excited*), green salad, corn and maybe watermelon. It's still a bit early for watermelon, but my mom said she'd see what she could do about that. There's a chocolate cake with strawberries for dessert and in the midst of all that, margaritas will flow plentifully.
I'm heading over to the house right after work so I might pop into the backyard to see if there are lemons on the tree to make some lemonade. It's a shame Jeff won't be around for that part. He loves my lemonade. Maybe I'll freeze some in an ice cube tray for him.
Jeff is the only one who won't be there tonight. He's leaving for Sodom, which is to say he's leaving for Reno, the biggest little city in the world. Every year there's a jazz competition there for all the states west of the Mississippi River. Jazz bands from all around go and compete for top honors in the west coast division, so Jeff and his band are going to represent our Titans!
Good luck, guys!
That said, Uncle Arnie and Uncle Benny both will be at the house tonight. I haven't seen Uncle Benny since the wedding, so I'm excited to see him. I've been promised a night of games, so I reckon Trivial Pursuit might be pulled out as well as some other trivia-ish games. Have I mentioned that I come from a very competative family? Game night should be awesome.
So lately I've been having moments where I fondly remember something either right before the wedding or during the wedding. I don't know why, but each time I smile.
One memory is of Lisa. We were at the market two days before the wedding and she just disappeared for a minute only to return with a big box of Cheez-Its.
Another is of Liesl. We were all sitting in the bridal room at church the day of the wedding. All my girls were in their slips and sitting on the floor so that their skirts wouldn't get wrinkled. Liesl was regailing us with the story of how she had been walking around the church barefoot the day before and when she got home, the bottom of her feet were just black. We were all pretty grossed out.
Yet another is of Sara helping me and Lisa build the arch for the cake. Good times doing that! The three of us also decorated the birdcage. And for those of you who don't know, I used a Victorian birdcage and decorated it with flowers and leaves and ribbon so that people could slip their cards into it. It's an easy way of keeping all the cards contained as opposed to a basket, which is easily tipped over and spilled.
Another fond memory is all my uncles working together for the backdrop for the cake. Uncles Arnie, Ben and Kevin were amazing.
My aunts were amazing too. Aunt Barb and Aunt Becca were there helping with anything that they could. I can't imagine setting up for the wedding without them. They made it all possible.
There was also Eddie, who told me when he got into town Sunday night that he had been hoping all along I hadn't chosen anything pink for the guys to wear because he looks horrible in pink. I laughed when he told me that.
Well, the annual barrage of phone calls made on birthdays hasn't really happened this year. I suppose it's still kind of early for that. My mother called me first thing this morning, so she did her motherly duties. I'm looking for my uncles to call me, as well as my grandmother. Jeff better call me, the bum! He's leaving and he needs to call his only sister on her birthday.
Work has been pleasant so far. I had a couple cards waiting for me on my desk this morning. Room 101 and room 102 sang happy birthday to me when I went in to do my thing. It was great. Alex wished me a happy 21st birthday because he's wonderful like that. I laughed when he said that. And he got into my good books because although I'm not that far off from 21, he still made the effort to be charming.
I made some chocolate pistachio fudge and brought it in to work today. Two pieces have already gone away, but I look for the rest to disappear as the day progresses. I've learned today that apparently it's never too early for fudge. Okay...so scrap that first number. I just took a piece. Don't judge me.
Well, I have some actual work to do at the moment, so I think I'll go away. It's nice being back!
Later Days,
Arty
10:19 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
04/19/2008
Red Rock, Wildflower Bread and Lost Bets
Evening, kids! This will most likely be my last blog before I leave Sedona and go back home. In truth, I'm kind of looking forward to getting back home. I miss my family. My brothers especially and how they make me laugh. Plus, it'll be really good to get used to being in a new home, which will be the flat I have with my husband. It still sounds weird to say that. My husband.
Sedona has been wonderful. Lots of things have happened here and lots of things are going to continue happening here once we leave. Interstate 179 is going through a huge renovation to make it nicer. And it's working wonders on the parts that have already undergone the transformation. Sedona has decided to employ roundabouts here instead of stop signs. It's actually a brilliant idea for the area, but the problem will be educating all the tourists how they work. Seriously, it's insane how many drivers I've seen just barrel through without looking around to see what's happening. But then again, that's the story of drivers generally speaking no matter where you go.
So tonight Matt and I went out on a hot date. We dressed up and everything to go to Cucina Rustica, which is owned and operated by Dahl and DiLuca, not to be confused with Dean and Deluca...which is what I lost a bet on. That's right. Matt and I bet on whether or not Dahl and DiLuca was in Napa Valley, but I was wrong because what's in Napa is a Dean and Deluca, not a Dahl and DiLuca like I thought. Yeah. It sucks. And he's totally rubbing it in.
Meh.
On another note, I'm in love with Wildflower Bread Co. and it's eats. Oh man. It's seriously good eats. We got some pastries for breakfast tomorrow morning instead of fighting the onslaught of douche-bag tourists that came here as of yesterday. They take up all the parking spaces and make the place noisy. Heh heh heh.
So yeah, the rest of the evening will probably be a continuation of the hot date with plans to watch Iron Chef America, battle coffee. I know. We really know how to have a good time on honeymoon. As Matt said, we've been married a week and with the 'fire' we have going, we're still going strong.
Also, Matt and I have decided to employ a butler. He has to be named Eves.
And with that lovely thought, I'm off!
Later Days,
Arty
22:08 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
04/17/2008
Sizzlin' Southwest
So Matt and I are back at the suite. Housekeeping has been in, so the bed is all nice and laundered and he's next to me taking a nap. There's a good reason for it too, and no, you dirty minded people, it's not because of that! Allow me to elaborate a little for you.
Last night Matt and I went to dinner at someplace called The Cowboy Club. We had made reservations there, only in the Silver Saddleroom, which is part and parcel of the same place, but anti-children. And I'm all for anti-children in a restaurant.
Our reservation was for 7pm. We weren't seated until half past, which left us both peeved and me just generally very cranky due to low levels of blood sugar. To make up for having us wait so long, the manager person comp-ed us an appetizer platter, which had some pretty out there foods.
In fact, I think I one-upped my brother last night in the bizarre foods category. You see, for a while there he was top dog because he had gone to Louisiana and eaten alligator. Before then I had been the winner with ostrich and jellyfish. But now, after a period in the shadows, I have once again emerged victorious. And I think I'll keep the title for quite some time.
On this platter were the following items. I've included how I liked them as well.
1) Buffalo skewers - I love buffalo. It's delicious.
2) Cilantro fry bread - Now, I know most of my readers aren't familiar with fry bread and that's okay because it's a regional delicacy that's specific to the southwestern United States. It's basically tortilla dough that's flattened out just a little and thrown into some hot oil until it puffs up, gets all crispy on the outside and stays all soft and chewy on the inside.
This too, is delicious, but add to it the divine leafy cilantro leaf and man, is there a feast going on!
3) And this is where I start to one-up my brother: Chicken and rattlesnake tamale - It's a tamale. What's not to love?
4) Rattlesnake skewers - Supreme one-upsmanship with Jeff. I can't say I really care for rattlesnake, but the point is I ate it, thus the victoriousness.
5) Cactus fries - That's right. Real cactus cut up into strips and flash fried. I actually liked them. Matt wasn't so sure what to think of them. They're definitely a different taste and texture to anything else I've ever eaten, but overall, I think they work as an edible item.
So there you have it. The last three things gave me the boost I needed to pass my brother and his alligator from the south. I have dined on the exotic meats that Sedona has to offer and I have won.
It should also be noted that along with that stuff there were three dipping sauces on the plate too. There was a tomato sauce that I didn't care for at all. It tasted like tomato soup that had been watered down with vinegar and water. Yeah. Not so nice.
Second was a southwest peanut sauce that was served up with the buffalo and man was it tasty! So much so that I asked our waitress for the recipe, which she gladly obliged to give to me.
Lastly was a prickly pear and tequila dipping sauce that I also got the recipe for. Oh man, we're having some tasty eats when I get back to California.
I've also been buying things whilst here:
- Blue corn meal
- Prickly Pear syrup
- Southwest cornbread mix
- A cookbook dedicated to nothing but salsas
- Presents for my mother and grandmother
In other news, there's a place called The Wildflower Bread Co. and it's better than Panera Bread. That's right. I said it. It's BETTER than Panera Bread. http://www.wildflowerbread.com
Go there. Be amazed. It's my new favorite thing.
So now would be a good time to elaborate as to why Matt is napping and why I'll shortly be joining him. It's called the Grand Canyon. Oh yes, cyberspace. I have seen it. I have touched it. I did it all this morning. And I hated it.
Don't get me wrong. It's breathtakingly beautiful there, but when we decided to come to the Grand Canyon State for honeymoon, I wasn't prepared for a visit to the tundra. It was effing freezing at the Grand Canyon and this was manifested and made worse by the fact that we were there for sunrise.
That's right. I said that too. Sunrise.
This involved getting up at 3:30am and driving for two hours north to see this spectacular wonder and then coming back to Sedona. All before 10am.
There was still snow along the south rim of the canyon. Snow. That's how cold it was. In fact it was so cold I had to call my tios to complain about it. And you want to know what they did? They laughed. They laughed at me. How I hate them both.
So yeah, Grand Canyon, rattlesnake, recipes, shopping...not a bad way to spend a honeymoon so far. But you know what would make this honeymoon even better right now?
That's right.
A nap.
Later Days,
Arty
12:56 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
04/14/2008
Sedona
So the wedding bells chimed, the bouquet was tossed, the garter came off (and surprisingly went onto Zach's head), the rings are on our fingers and the absolute mad-house craziness of my wedding is finally over with.
That's right all you cool cats, this is Arty comin' at you from Sedona.
It's just a note, really, to let you know that we made it to Phoenix in one piece (almost!). It was a bit rough on landing, which was not (I repeat...NOT) okay with me. But thankfully it was just as we were getting within two thousand feet of the runway. We got our rental car with a free upgrade to a Nissan Murano. I know. Even I can't believe I'm driving an SUV. To be fair, though, it does ride like a dream.
The drive north to Sedona was absolutely beautiful. And you knew when you got to red rock country. Oh man, was it breathtaking. I love me some red rock country. It reminds me of Colorado.
So, a few things I've noticed whilst here today:
1) Arizona has lovely roads.
2) Arizona has it together when it comes to speed limits. It's generally 55 mph through the cities and then it gets bumped up to 75 mph in the country. We were rocking and rolling.
3) Red rock is even prettier at sunset. We're going to see what it looks like during sunrise while we're here.
4) There are strange birds wandering around.
5) Same as above, only with giant insect life (NOT okay!).
6) The desert, although hot during the day (it was a toasty 94 degrees upon our arrival to Phoenix), it rocks at night. And I mean, ROCKS. It's cold outside and the stars are everywhere.
7) Most of Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings time. I know. Weird. So although we're technically an hour ahead of California, we're still the same time right now because California lapsed into a spring forward mode.
And now, even though it's only 9pm, I'm exhausted, so over and out from Sedona. More tomorrow.
Later Days,
Arty
21:08 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
04/09/2008
News Break
So let's all take a good long look at the last week and a half in the aviation world. It's all very interesting and I have several things to say about it all.
Sunday, March 30th - News is sent out that Aloha Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will no longer be flying after Monday, March 31st. Aloha ticket holders were told that their tickets would be honored by United Airlines and Hawaiian Air. but only a stand-by basis.
Now, Matt and I were supposed to go on honeymoon in Hawaii and we booked with Aloha Airlines, those bastard people!
Long story short, we tried several scenarios, all of them ending in not having enough of this or not having enough of that, so we scrapped Hawaii (it'll still be there a year from now) and decided on something entirely different. Instead of sand and water, we'll have rock and desert. High plateau desert to be precise. More on that later.
Wednesday, April 2nd - ATA announces that it too has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It's last flight is April 3rd from Honolulu to Phoenix.
Uncle Benny, Diana and Alf booked with ATA to go to Hawaii in May. I have no idea when, how and if their tickets will be honored or by whom.
Again, bastard people.
Monday, April 7th - United Airlines announces that it has not filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but has grounded hundreds of flights for 'safety' reasons.
Wednesday, April 9th - American Airlines joins the club, grouding well over 800 flights today alone. The reason: loose bundles of wiring in the wheel wells of their fleet planes. Sources within the airline stated that grounding the flights was the best and most logical way to prevent any 'mishaps.'
Well, yes and no, you idiots.
Yes, grounding the planes is the best way to prevent 'mishaps' as you call them. Why wouldn't you ground them?
Still, it begs this question: Why would say it's the most logical way of handling things? Clearly you aren't very well educated as a truly educated person would not be judged for worth based on the degree they hold from MIT. A truly educated person has common sense instilled in them by their parents, mentors, friends and relatives. So then the conclusion we can all draw from that, having just heard you say it's the most 'logical' way to handle things, points to your relatives, friends, co-workers, etc. being a bunch of idiots too.
Surely the most LOGICAL way to handle this is to ensure that your planes are in remarkable condition in the first place. If a plane in your fleet breaks, you fix it. Plain and simple. I mean, that part of the job isn't rocket science.
And no, don't you dare throw the financial strain into the equation. You're literally taking the lives of hundreds, no...of thousands of people into your hands each and every day to cart them around the country. What gives you the right, let alone the sheer lack of moral aptitude to take those lives and say, 'oh, we don't have the money to fix wiring bundles in the wheel wells of our planes?' What?
Nothing gives you that right. Not your money (or 'lack' thereof). Not your higher ups. If anything, you should be calling your supervisors on the carpet and calling into question their moral and ethical fortitude for making the decision to let things slide. That's your prerogative. It's your job, first and foremost to keep us safe.
I don't care about finances. Either you ensure my safety or you cut down on the number of planes in your fleet to make sure each aircraft is kept to impeccable standards. That's the way you play this game. Yeah, I know...your blithe poker face just twitched and I noticed. So bite me, American Airlines. You too, United. And Hawaiian? Don't think you can escape my observation either. You can bite me too for jacking up the prices of your tickets just because you can. Just because now you have a corner on the market.
It has also come to my attention that there are some planes somewhere with cracked wings. WTF?! If there's a crack in the plane, you bolt its tires to the tarmac and fix the damn thing before sending it anywhere. ANYWHERE! Bottom line.
So to you, my dear and beloved airlines, I give you this message on behalf of all the people in the country that have been hoodwinked, swindled and outright stolen from us: get it, the flip, together. We pay you premium money to be kept safe. Do your jobs. And do them well.
And while I'm going on in a ranting mood, I think I'll say my peace about the Olympic torch that's being run through San Francisco today.
To the protesters: get over it.
The Olympic torch is a symbol of kinsmanship and honor that has yet to be attained. The symbol of antiquity to remind us where we came from, where we have ended up and all the right and wrong choices we made to get there.
It isn't about politics. It's about sport. And because it's about sport, it comes with the territory of sportsmanship. Assaulting a torch bearer is shameful. There is no honor in that. Nor is there anything to be gained. Yes, you'll be remembered, but only for a moment. The propensity that the Olympic torch moves with, the symbols of what it bears, are far bigger than you. Than your protesting.
So do me a favor. Stop wasting the time of our police and other law enforcement agencies. They're time is much more worthy when spent tackling drug kingpins, or as the case may be in my opinion, hauling your ass to jail to spend the night in crowded, misguided proud solidarity.
Stop scaling the Golden Gate Bridge. What's the matter with you? Is there a doctor somewhere in the states that prescribes pills to induce idiocy? If so, he should be called in for questioning by the FBI and electro-shocked for his own good.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I have just discovered that perhaps my crankiness is hunger induced. It doesn't mean I'm not right about airlines or idiots. I'm going away to eat.
Later Days,Arty
12:14 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
04/05/2008
A Long-Lived and Long-Awaited Saga
Hello darlings! I trust you're all doing well in your respective places of habitat and employment. It's good to be back to the blogging pages. It really is. It's like coming home in many senses.
So, it's Friday, for which I'm supremely thankful for. The kids have just left the campus which means a few things will happen within the next hour. Bren, Alex, Jason, Jeremy, Ron, Mike and Allan will gather in Bren's classroom and play some poker. It's like a ritual for them on Friday afternoons. I've been invited, but I've declined, stating that I wouldn't like to see grown men cry with my shark-like poker playing abilities. It would be sad on many levels.
Nothing much apart from gearing up for the wedding has been happening as of late. It's consumed all my time outside of work and continues to demand that I pay homage to it, even now as I write. The RSVP list is up to more than 350 people that have said they're coming, so my mom and I are getting ready for the madness that will be my wedding. Still, even with all the people there, I'll enjoy myself. All of them are people I know and love dearly and I couldn't imagine sharing my wedding day without them there to be witness to it.
Matt's friend, Steve, was here for a week. He stopped here on his way to New Zealand to see his girlfriend, Andrea. Now, Steve was a little skeptical about coming here for holiday. For years he's been moaning about how rude Americans are because once he had the great misfortune of having to take a stop-over in LAX. That's Los Angeles for those of you not up to snuff on your airport codes.
I told Steve that I hate America too, having shared his misfortune of having to fly into LAX for a lay-over. It's a nasty, nasty place.
Biut as fortune smiled upon Steve, he was able to fly into SFO (San Francisco International) and experience the joys of northern California. He arrived week before this last one and stayed at the apartment with Matt. I didn't get to spend that much time with the boys, but last weekend I did.
Saturday the three of us drove north into Napa Valley and did a circuit of wine tasting there. I was the des, so I didn't drink. It was interesting, however, how quiet the car ride home was. Meh heh heh.
We started out as Groth Winery, which we couldn't get into because they only took reservations for wine tasting. They lost our business.
Second was the Robert Mondavi Winery. There were statues of naked women who looked like they were melting all over the place, but despite that there was also a very cute sculpture of an elephant out of one solid piece of soapstone. He was adorable and received all my attentions.
Anyway, Matt and Steve did a three wine sampler there and Steve bought a book about the various wineries and history in the Napa Valley for us. I was secretly thrilled, book lover that I am, to get some new reading material.
Next on the list was some winery I don't remember the name of because I wasn't that interested in it. Apparently, however, Matt and Steve were treated rudely there. I wasn't witness to it because I was off in some corner buried in a book about the Napa Valley and it's history. Big surprise, eh?
After that shunning, the three of us headed on over to V. Sattui for some lunch. V. Sattui is an exclusive little winery that only sells its wines on site in the Napa Valley along route 29. For Matt and Steve, the wine was too sweet there, but what it lacked in palatable wines, it more than made up for with the little deli there.
Matt and I split a few things whereas Steve went for a bad-ass grilled salmon sandwich from the barbeque outside. Matt and I split some pasta pesto, a delicious ham sandwich and a couple helpings of heaven balled up and breaded. Okay, so that last item is actually called arrancini balls. They're delicious! They're like thick risotto balls with a piece of cheese stuffed into the middle before being breaded and fried.
I kid you not, they tasted like asopao in ball form. They're amazing. I totally want to go back for more.
So, sufficiently fat and sassy, the three of us went on our way to Twelve Vintners, which is like a co-op of smaller, still local, wine makers. Matt and Steve each picked up a bottle of something called Watermark, which smelled really good. Hey, I said I didn't drink anything, but that didn't stop me from smelling or buying.
Last on the list was Beringer Brothers, which is the oldest, continuously operating winery in the valley. The Beringer brothers came here from Germany in the 1800s and decided to stay. They built something called the Rhine House, which has every element of it imported from Germany and their old home near the Rhine River. Of course, when the brothers bought the land, the Hudson House was already there, which was the home of David Hudson, a revolutionary from Sonoma that was key in California winning its independence from Mexico.
That last part I have many things to say about, but that's another blog and another time. Suffice it to say that Beringer takes pride in having the Hudson house on property because of its part in the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846.
But that's not the point. The point is the Beringer brothers picked up the Hudson House and moved it so that they could build the Rhine House in a prime location. Granted, it is a beautiful house.
Lastly, an interesting fact I like about this particular winery is that there is an old oak tree on property known as 'The Leaning Oak' of the valley. It's been declared a bicentennial tree because it's well over two hundred years old and was there, in the Napa Valley, when the signing of the Declaration of Independence took place 3,000 miles away on the opposite coastline.
To honor the lifespan of this tree, Beringer produces a line of wines called 'Leaning Oak' that are only sold exclusively at the winery.
See what happens when you cross my path with some history? I freaking love history.
So that was Saturday. Sunday was much more laid back. In the morning, Matt and I went to church, leaving Steve at the apartment to do some running. After church, we picked him up (showered already!) and headed over to my house for lunch. My dad and Steve chatted happily in the kitchen while I dosed against Matt in the living room.
The afternoon consisted of going back to Mills, my alma mater, for some bocce ball and lounging. The boys played bocce ball while I dosed, yet again, on a blanket in the sun. It was glorious.
That afternoon also involved some kite flying, meeting up with Jeff at the Cascades and making some Greek food for dinner. It may also have included some Guitar Hero showdowns, but I'd rather not talk about that.
Steve was off on Wednesday, which left Matt and myself glad he had come, but utterly exhausted.
Now, something that overlapped the time Steve had here was the great plane debacle. Let me explain a few things before telling the story.
1) Matt and I had plans to go to Hawaii for honeymoon.
2) We were all booked up at a five star resort on North Shore on the island of Oahu.
3) We were both really looking forward to it as we've had enough drama the last year to last us a lifetime.
4) Aloha Airlines, which is who we booked with, are utter bastard people.
Okay, so this story goes something like this:
Once upon a time, Matt and Arty planned a honeymoon. They chose Hawaii. Matt bought the plane tickets and Arty bought the stay at the resort. Everything was in place and great. They were excited about going there.
But two weeks before they were to leave, Arty awakes to read news that Aloha Airlines has filed for chapter II bankruptcy. Arty checks the websites to see if it's true. It is. Arty then reads that United and Hawaiian Air are picking up the slack and honoring Aloha ticket holders. Arty is somewhat relieved until she finds out that her ticket will only be honored with a stand-by basis.
This means that Arty and Matt can go to the airport the day they're supposed to fly out and simply hope for the best. If the plane is filled to capacity, Arty and Matt forgo their five star resort and waste their hard-earned money on the whim of a chance.
Arty curses the island airline and then hears three days later that ATA, which is another airline, has followed suit in declaring bankruptcy.
Again, Arty declare them and Aloha bastard people.
So yeah, needless to say Hawaii isn't on the options list anymore. Instead, Matt and I are heading to Arizona. Don't ask me why. Just know that Red Rock country is God's vacation country when He's not in California. Okay, so that's not true. I'm just horribly and unashamedly biased a