Monthly Archives: February 2008

February 10, 2008 · 11:28 pm

Happy Mondays

This post has nothing to do with the band of the same name, with which I am totally unfamiliar. Catching up from the weekend:

If you’ve been here before, you’ve probably noticed that I changed the layout. The old look was appropriate back in November, but I grew tired of the bleak Seasonal Affective Disorder theme, and wanted to brighten things up a bit. I’ll be switching out the header shortly… that photo of the Eiffel Tower is one I’m particularly proud of, but with the narrow crop it looks surprisingly (or perhaps not) phallic. And, if one is to believe the rampant accusations floating around at Alison’s birthday party Saturday night, I prefer boobs. (For the last time, here in black-and-white, THE GUYS STARTED IT. Erin and I were given a choice of topics, and ‘boobs’ was the only one we could actually weigh in on (Tanks and Exploding Dogs being the other two options). I still don’t know how it eventually became blamed on me.) So yeah, anyway: new header coming soon.

Back on Friday, I announced that I was going to sew, or at least start sewing, a new dress. I did no such thing. But I did take a whole slew of photos of items I shall soon be posting to eBay, in an attempt to offset the cost of an amazing, vintage (still with original tags!) gold lamé swimsuit that I hope-hope-hope will fit and be flattering. Otherwise, my diet for the next two months will consist of seltzer and the occasional cup of vegetable broth. And the blood of any innocent bystanders who cross my path when I don’t get enough carbs.

Today’s Key lime pie looks good, but it’s too early for me to cut into it. It needs to chill a bit longer. I went with bottled Key lime juice this time, in hopes of getting some consistency into the recipe. After I popped the pie in the oven tonight, I noticed that one recipe instructs the cook to beat the filling with an electric mixer on High until fluffy. Hmmm, haven’t tried that yet. That specific recipe also says to remove the pie from the oven after 6-8 minutes, or when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out “hot but clean.” Let me tell you, NONE of the recipes I’ve been futzing with would give you a clean skewer after only 8 minutes. Would fluffing up the filling mixture make that kind of difference? Tune in next week for the answer.

Villanovababy has posted a completely new interview with me. I’m pretty sure this will do it for the interviews… at least until after I accept my Pulitzer prize. Har har.

2 Comments

Filed under food, shopping

February 10, 2008 · 12:54 pm

This is a test. This is only a test.

This is a test of a new layout and header. This blogger, in voluntary cooperation with no specific authorities, has developed this system to keep you informed in the event of a new layout. If this had been an actual confirmed layout change, the RSS Attention Signal you just read would have been followed by official information, news or instructions.

1 Comment

Filed under blogging

February 8, 2008 · 8:25 am

commercial break: PSA

Has anyone else heard the Pearl Jam-minus-Eddie support song for Barack Obama? It’s painfully awful. Barack Around The Clock?! I’m sorry guys, but what were you thinking? I’m over here on the sidelines, supporting Eddie’s abstention from this particular project.

Okay, that’s about as close as I get to actually discussing politics. I’m sure there are undecided folks out there who can be swayed one way or the other; I recommend that those people head over to SelectSmart to answer a few questions about how you would want your ideal candidate to vote on the issues that are important to you, and it will go through the current candidates’ records to find a match for you. My own friends and family tend to be the sorts who are pretty well read up on the issues that concern them, and as strongly as I believe in “my” candidates, they believe in theirs. I don’t actively try to shift anyone around. I do try to make sure that everyone makes their own, educated choice.

That being said… if any of my readers are that curious as to who I’m backing and/or why, Greeblemonkey has eloquently summed up many of the same points that have been floating around in my head.

We now return to our regular programming.

matzoh brei

For some inexplicable reason, my house often smells like roasting chicken when I get home from work. I have determined that it has nothing to do with anything in the trash, or anything regarding my furnace filter (unless there happens to be a succulent chicken IN my furnace), and beyond that, I’m pretty much tapped out of Where Is That Smell Coming From ideas. I kinda figure that one or the other of my neighbors (I live in a townhome, and am attached to folks on two sides) roasts a lot of poultry for dinner.

Tonight, even more inexplicably, I would swear my house smelled of matzoh brei. This is “more inexplicable” not only because I’m not even sure if the supermarkets around here sell matzoh at this time of year, but also because I have Irish Catholics on one side of me, and Hispanic Catholics on the other. Curious. But, because I actually have eggs AND matzoh in the house, I’m taking it as a sign to make some for dinner. I’d post my recipe, but I don’t really have one. I just kinda DO it, so it looks a little something like this:

1. Run 2-3 matzohs under warm tap water so they’re wet on both sides. DO NOT SOAK THEM. Stack on a plate to sit while you…
2. Scramble a couple of eggs in a decent-sized bowl.
3. Crumble the dampened matzoh into the eggs, and stir to coat.
4. Pan-fry in a little butter as you would scrambled eggs.
5. Salt & pepper to taste.

See, the whole THING is done to taste, I mean, the ratio of egg-to-matzoh and the time you cook it and some people DO soak the matzoh (which, to me, is so WRONG) and even though my mom taught me to make it, my own ratio has probably taken a turn away from hers by now, and a whole lot of people are going to tell me that I’M doing it wrong because THEY (or their mom or uncle or whomever) make it like so… but really, it has, like, TWO main ingredients so how different could they all be? I like my farina sweet but my grits salty. To each his/her own.

1 Comment

Filed under food

February 6, 2008 · 7:04 pm

ow ow ow ow ow

I’ll blame it on the 60mph wind gusts we’ve been getting today. Because I swear, I did not POKE myself in the eye, although it’s felt like that all afternoon. I have spent the last few hours with tears streaming down my face, and my nose running in sympathy, because I did not have a contact lens case and my glasses with me. I took out the lens, cleaned it, popped it back in… nope, didn’t do the trick. By the time I left the office, I was starting to get concerned that I had done some real damage somehow, but now that I’ve been lens-free for the last 20 minutes or so, it’s starting to feel better. Whew!

Okay, let it be heard here first: I am going to sew, or at least start sewing, a dress this weekend. There, now I’m obligated to do it. Because I also have to make Key Lime Pie #5, attend a birthday party, and accompany my mother to her Artist Trading Cards meeting. I am planning on starting Butterick Retro ’52 B4790 (as seen in this post) because I happened to pick out very dark fabrics for it when I bought the pattern, solid black and a black-and-red chrysanthemum print, and if I actually get it done I can throw a cardigan on and wear it now. So yeah, that’s the plan.

Also this weekend, I will potentially be making ten, count ’em, TEN personalized ID tags for a SINGLE CUSTOMER, assuming she gets me her list of names by then. Shout out to Cindy for ordering tags for all of her friends! CPBR thanks you.

1 Comment

Filed under blogging, fashion, sewing