View The Austin Gastronomist blog the traditional way– in reverse chronological order starting with the most recent post.
my friends’ pets!
I am feeling a little raw today. I feel like this:
I haven’t been sleeping well lately (I think I need a new pillow) and there are several pending issues on the horizon that leave me in need of a little comfort. Don’t worry about me, though. I’m going to be happy camper starting tomorrow because my buddy Jen and I are taking a little road trip to Jonesboro, Arkanas to see Dr. Ross. More about him later. For now, I am going to focus on animals. They make me feel better.
How can you frown when there’s a cat in a box?
Or a pup on a stump?
Or a lab on a rug?
Star Wars polls
I am watching Star Wars with my sister and brother-in-law and we are having a little poll. Here are the rules: choose your answer from any character in all six movies. My answer is correct because this is my blog.
Princess Leia or Queen Amidala?
Andy: Leia
Beth: Amidala
Kathryn: Leia
Best male human protagonist
Andy: Anakin Skywalker from Episode I
Beth: Obiwan Kenobe
Kathryn: Luke Skywalker from Episode IV
Best non-human male protagonist(s)
Andy: Chewbaca is awesome.
Beth: Yoda.
Kathryn: Ewoks!
Best villain
unanimous: Darth Vader
runner up: Darth Maul
Luke or Han Solo?
Andy: Han Solo is awesome.
Beth: Han Solo, definitely.
Kathryn: Skywalker on the street. Solo in the sack.
Favorite Musical Moment
Andy: Fight scene in Ep. I between Darth Maul, Anakin, & Obi Wan Kenobe
Beth: Darth Vader theme
Kathryn: Alien klezmer band from Episode IV
R2D2 or C3P0?
Beth and Andy: R2D2
Kathry: C3PO!
Wish List: Bed
I have been thinking a lot about how I will decorate my apartment when I move in September. I get a little overwhelmed if I think about the whole thing at once, so usually I imagine one little piece of it at a time. Today I thought about what I’d like my bed to look like.
Let’s start with the Malm wall-mounted headboard from Ikea.
I already own a wonderful mattress and box spring that I love, and I think this inexpensive headboard would help dress up my sleeping area without adding too much bulk to the room. The dark veneer finish would go perfectly with the Amy Butler Bucharest Sheet Set and Bucharest Tailored Bedskirt that I love, and anchor the LifeModern Rise + Shine Duvet Set in the room.
I know from past apartments that it can be risky to put a white duvet in a bedroom with white walls and beige carpet, but I think the grey sheets and dark headboard would help balance things out. An Arstid wall lamp from Ikea mounted on either side of the headboard would look just swell, too.
The only issue with the duvet cover is that it’s manufactured by an artist in Australia and it costs $400. Details, details. The more I think I about it, I could probably get away with purchasing a cheap white duvet cover from overstock.com and using an iron on transfer and fabric paint to create my own similar design.
No woman’s bed is complete without throw pillows and a few stuffed animals. Enter etsy.com, your source for quirky, adorable handmade goods! Check these out from milkandcookiesCanada’s store:
Oh, and don’t mind Giles and Slater&Sladen. They’re the lil’ aliens I’ve been looking to adopt from Lindsey Banker’s adoptanalien shop.
Music Monday
About 6 months ago I decided I want to go back to school. Around that same time I got a promotion of sorts at my job. I moved into a position that I love, love, so I decided to get a degree online instead of attending a traditional MBA program. That allowed me to stay at work, keep living in Austin, and pursue my master’s degree, all at the same time.
So far things have been going great. I love my classes (even the math) and my current course is more challenging and rewarding than most classes in my undergrad. The only bummer is when people find out I’m getting my MBA and they ask, “What are you going to do with that?”
I understand folks’ natural curiosity, but it gets a little tiresome explaining that getting a graduate degree is a lifelong dream of mine. Also, I’d rather not be anyone’s secretary for the rest of my life, thankyouverymuch. (Just to clarify: very little of my current job is clerical in nature, but it’s really easy to get bogged down in that role if you’re not careful. Or if you’re lazy. Or if you don’t have a graduate degree.)
I really wish people would say, “That’s really exciting,” or, “Do you plan to stay in arts admnistration after you finish?” or even, “What are you learning in your classes?” Then I would have the chance to tell them about all the wonderful things I want to do with my degree. Like create a music education program to find the next Barbara Bonney:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeIVYPEt420&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1]
We need more people like her in the world. Another thing I’d like to do: advocate for music education in the public schools so that more children have an experience like this one.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKPC-T3jjRg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]
We need more people like them in the world. I know this is a pretty long post for Music Monday, so thanks for getting all the way through it. I really believe in this stuff. More than I believe in having a social life and making a lot of money. I also believe that next time someone gives me a blank stare and asks, “What are you gonna do with an MBA?” I’m going to tell them to come read my blog.
to-do list
There’s an Urban Outfitters store near my job. I don’t really like to buy clothes there, but their book selection is always fun to browse. The store is also about a mile walk from my desk, so I really like to stop by on my lunch break when it’s not 103 degrees outside. (That means late November through March here in Texas.) Last time I was there I bought the book, to-do list by Sasha Cagen.
The book is a compilation of random, anonymous lists that were submitted to the author. It has pictures of actual people’s grocery lists, lists of life goals, lists of ex-lovers, lists of favorite songs, and lots of other kinds of lists. The book is actually just a gussied up paper version of Cagen’s blog by the same title.
Besides the voyeuristic satisfaction I get from snooping through people’s vacation packing lists and new year’s resolutions, I love the DIY ideas Cagen presents throughout the text. Listmaking ideas such as:
- Hobbies I’d like to take up
- Ten things I like about myself
- Things I should stop beating myself up about
None of these are exactly rocket science, but there’s something very satisfying about writing out a list. It makes your ideas tangible and definite. Like you have really committed to them. Anyways, look for some posts inpired by to-do list a little later in the week.
it’s bean a while
For various reasons I have been eating out a lot this week. Various reasons include (1) Long John Silver’s was sort of on my way home from work, (2) Lean Cuisine frozen pizza was too hard to cook on a weeknight, (3) Sago is a good way to celebrate Tuesday.
I love to eat out, but when I do, I miss cooking and spending time at home in the kitchen. Plus, it’s rough on the pocketbook. Today I decided to get reacquainted with the kitchen by cooking salmon, bean salad, and corn on the cob for dinner. I stopped by Central Market (also rough on the pocketbook) this afternoon and got all the goodies I would need to make dinner. Besides seeing my friend Amy P. behind the fish counter, I found delicious fresh corn on the cob and hatch chillies in the produce section there.
Here’s the bean salad recipe. It makes a ton, so there is plenty left over for lunches this week.
1 big white onion
1 enormous red tomato
1 big hatch green chile. I used mild because I’m a wimp.
1 bunch cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced. I used 1 tbs. of garlic from a jar because I’m a wimp.
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 can black beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can black eyed peas
salt and pepper to taste
First, open all the cans of beans and pour them into a collander. Rinse well. While the beans drain, cut the pepper in half longwise and use a spoon to scrape the seeds into the trash. Chop the pepper very finely and put it in a big bowl. Next, peel the onion and chop it so that the pieces are about the same size as the black beans. Then chop the tomato so that the pieces are about the same size as the black beans. Put the onions and tomatoes in the bowl along with the pepper. Make sure to scrape all the tomato juice off the cutting board into the bowl.
If you are a very patient person, you should remove the cilantro leaves from the stem before chopping. I am not a patient person, so I just hack off the bottom third of the bunch of cilantro and mince the rest, stems and all. Add the minced cilantro, along with the garlic and lemon juice to the other wet ingredients and mix well. Finally, add the drained beans to the big bowl and use a spatula to mix them gently. I prefer a spatula to a metal/wooden spoon because it is easier to mix the salad without crushing the beans.
Enjoy the salad! All the protein from the beans make it a perfectly acceptable vegetarian entree, and it keeps for several days in the fridge.
Packing boxes
I’m getting my own place in September and in advance of the move I’ve started cleaning out my room. Getting rid of the junk mail, old pieces of dental floss, movie ticket stubs, extra buttons and all the other flotsam that accumulates in the corners of my life when I’m busy. So far I have filled two Hefty bags with junk and I am glad to be rid of the waste. This is always the easiest part of moving: clearing out the obvious trash.
Other things are more difficult to sort. For the past several weeks I have been meaning to pack up my bookshelf, but somehow I keep putting it off. I know that the quickest part to box up will be the books. Some are definite giveaways (I’ve read The DaVinci Code plenty of times) and the rest will come with me to the new apartment.
Hardest to cull through will be a brown and green box that’s also on the bookshelf, next to the Shel Silverstein collection my dad used to read to me when I was a kid. I bought that polka-dotted hat box when I was 18, and the first thing I put inside were high school graduation cards. Next came various good-bye letters from my hometown friends. I have moved six times since then, and I have never looked through the box. It’s just too painful.
After every Christmas I stack up the cards my family sends me, close my eyes, and toss them in the box. In the aftermath of my break up with Carter, I pulled his love notes off my bulletin board and rounded up the sweet letters his family wrote me and tossed them in the box. I am sure there are notes from other romances in there, probably from college friends too.
The worst part of that stupid box is that it will hold the last birthday card my grandparents ever send me. Maybe it already does. Fuck.
I still haven’t decided if I’m going to sort through the box before I move. It’s going to hurt so much to see how much weaker my grandmother’s handwriting was on my 23rd birthday card than on my 18th. Plus I feel like it’s too soon to purge my old love letters. Definitely, it’s too hard to acknowledge that the connection with most of my childhood friends has been lost.
Part of me is tempted to toss the box, unopened, off a cliff somewhere. But I know I would regret that someday. Maybe this weekend I should just spill open the box. Maybe I will find some happy memories, some unexpected joys there. But probably I will not. Probably I will wait for the box to overflow before I open up, and take a look at the ghosts it holds.
*This post was inspired by WritingFix.com’s amazing writing prompt generator: http://www.writingfix.com/Classroom_Tools/dailypromptgenerator.htm. You should try it!
Happy Place
I have a doctor’s appointment today. A ladyparts doctor. Yikes.
This is far from my first gyno visit– I should be used to this by now. And even though my doctor is the best uterus mechanic I’ve ever met, I still get a little uneasy when it’s time to put on the tiny paper gown and put my feet in the stirrups. So when that time comes, I will just imagine that I am here:
Victory! Hair!
So yesterday was pretty much the best day I’ve had in a long time. After work I went to get my hair cut. I go to Larin at Keith Christopher Salon in southwest Austin. I love Keith Christopher. They give me free Diet Coke. They email my appointment confirmation instead of calling me at work. They have RealSimple magazine. Plus, Larin makes my hair look awesome. Check out the before and after:
This is before picture no. 1, taken about 18 months ago
Next is before picture no. 2, taken in San Diego about a year ago.
In the picture above, I was growing out my bangs. Lo, my color was sad and lost. My ends were split and my hair looked sad and floppy. But hark! There was hope! I ditched my old stylist. By sheer luck, I happened to walk into Keith Christopher and Larin was there. Look at this after picture!
I have shiny hair with a definite shape and style. I have also been introduced to the wondrous world of Kerastase styling products. Thanks, Larin!! (Disclaimer: It doesn’t hurt that I am wearing my favorite shoes in the whole world in this picture. The arm candy helps, too.)
See how much better growing out your bangs can look?? This photo was taken about a week after the one above. I can now style the same haircut several different ways. Fun!
