This is going to be an extremely long post. I’m sorry about that. This is the problem with being 1) goofily happy with someone and 2) recovering from ugly sickness. These things are unrelated, but both keep me too pre-occupied to post. So, this will be long, but I will try to divide it up so you can read it in chunks!
Risotto
I made a curried buternut squash risotto on thursday night. It was different, but entirely delicious. A 1.5 pound butternut squash, half of it was roasted face down, the other have cut into 1/4″ dice and tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garam masala and roasted until crispy. The regular roasted squash was mashed up and added to the almost mostly done risotto, the diced was added at the end. I used half veggie broth and half water with a dollop of mild curry paste (indian style, not thai). I want to make it again, but next time not veggie broth, the reduction of the broth was too too rich.
Risotto pt:2
This is a pointless ramble about this one time I had really bad risotto. Went to dinner at Sydney’s once. Sydney’s is supposed to be one of those upscale restaurants with smart and trendy dishes, the reality is that their menu has a number of upscale, smart and trendy words and phrases printed on it, but the kitchen is full of second rate ingredients, pre packaged, boil in bag food and uninspired, untrained grill jockeys. I ordered the smoked chicken and dried cherry risotto, I had foolishly high hopes. Now, risotto, as we all know, is a rice dish. the word risotto means ‘tasty and comforting bowl of rice food that is kind of tedious to make but the results far exceed any time spent over the stove”. Sydney’s never got the memo. The dish I was served had SOME rice, but mostly it had overly sweetened dried cherries and 12 pounds of ‘chicken’ cooked some weeks before on the mother shipped, smoke flavored and vacuum packed before shipped to earth. It was horrid. I learned a brightly valuable lesson. Why am I telling you this? who the hell knows.
Secret Confessions
Friday night we headed to Bryant Lake Bowl to see the Secret Confessions show with the Mean Sisters. Very cute, lots of fun. Sadly, the waiter brought our beer but never came back fr our food order. That’s fine, after the show, David and I headed over to the Longfellow Grill instead. I had me the Elvis burger (best burger in town by far). Friday night ended up being a date. I love dates. I love dates in that stupid, goofy romantic way.
Love them.
Ganymede Elegy
I finally re-purchased the Cowboy Bebop DVD’s. Quite an investment, you can’t really get the 6 dvd set anymore, they sell the shitty 3 dvd set and I really did not want that. I held out and finally found the set for a reasonable price on eBay. Good price for the brand new set, but the shipping took for-fucking-ever! Started watching them. I’d forgotten how much I loved Cowboy Bebop. Now I get to veg out to Cowboy Bebop as much as possible.
�Cachapas!
Another wonderful breakfast at Maria’s eating corn pancakes (cachapas), this time with James (as he needed a ride to the airport). I forgot to order the single pancake so I ended up with the double and having way more food than I could eat. Are there enough superlatives in the world to describe cachapas? No.
El Doggies
of course I write about the dogs, I love the dogs, the dogs rock hard. Dog park for a while, but not long enough. Maddie does okay for a bit but becomes overwhelmed and thugs out on the other dogs. Levi happened to be there with Milo and Bela, Hooray! Ghengis LOVES Milo, they’re very evenly matched (for now, Milo is only 6 months old, eventually he will get to be too big). We’ll have to start bringing Ghengis to the park without Maddie every once in a while. I like getting Maddie out there to socialize her and exercise her, but being there for only 20 or 30 minutes is not enough for Ghengis. We’ll keep working on it though. Ghengis also got to play with a coupld of dachshunds for a while, they were so damned CUTE.
Rabbits!
Went to see Wallace and Gromit last night (I know I know, it’s late, I always see movies late). It was good, but I think they do better with short form. It just wasn’t as tight as their other stuff. Still, though, It was cute and fun and the theatre was full of cute kids.
BABYSITTERS
Last night, David and I cuddled up in bed and listened to the This American Life archives. Shopping, life in the navy and babysitting, those were the topics we hit last night. It was kind of like a date only it involved maximum cuddles and falling asleep with my face on his chest.
El Doggies Pt:2
We also played a game with Ghengis last night called “In other parts of the world”. We let him know that in other parts of the world, small brown doggies are not allowed to take up so much pillow real estate and in other parts of the world small brown doggies are eaten for dinner and in other parts of the world small brown doggies are beaten in their sleep for no reason. Ghengis is a good small brown doggie and he took it all with good humor. Maddie, on the other hand just tries to get as much cuddling as possible.
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Today was cake and ice cream at my dad’s for his birthday. We got him monster movies and champaign and it was fun for all!
Meatball
For whatever reason I was in the mood for italian food, not real italian food (but also not Olive Garden), I was in the mood for red sauce and noodles and italian sausage and all that. We went to Vescios in Dinkytown. I got exactly what I was craving, a huge huge plate of rigatoni with generic red sauce, italian sausage and a scoop of ricotta cheese. The salad was straight up iceberg lettuce with canned olives and boring dressing, the bread was 2 degrees from wonder bread. It was not authentic, it was fabulous.
When we left, David hit the nail on the head, the place has the ambiance of an old tractor tire. It’s so old school. Dark panelling, uncomfortable molded veneer booths, I even saw them pouring red sauce into the big pot from a giant bucket. This is the kind of place your grandparents went to for Italian food and they thought they were in for a treat. Sadly, the prices did not reflect the atmosphere or the lack of effort, it still cost $36 for dinner and we only had water to drink. Oh well, we probably won’t go back again, but I have enough leftovers in the fridge.
puke
Came home to 5 piles of dog puke on the floor. What the fuck, doggies? Seriously.
so long
I apologize for the length (and this is the edited version, I didn’t even tell you about the cranky pharmacist with the cold sore and practiced disinterest). I’ll try to be updating more often, I just need to find the time and wherewithal!
Monthly Archives: November 2005
Smile
Last night I took a sleeping pill in the hopes that it would help me sleep. It did not help me fall asleep immediately, but when I did sleep I slept hard which was really really nice. It wasn’t enough sleep, but it was nice to get a good solid chunk of sleep.
The other benefit, though, was the amazing dream I had. To describe the dream would leave you wondering why such a collection of boring events would be so exciting. It wasn’t so much what happened in the dream*, but that I was so damned happy and content the whole time. It was amazing. It was this entire, hugely detailed day of happiness and fun. I woke up feeling so happy and contented. Most of the activities in the dream took place with David and I was left with such a feeling of joy.
You ever have one of those dreams where you get really furious at someone and wake up and you still feel angry and you can’t quite reconcile it with the reality? This was like that except no anger and I get to bask in the happy feeling.
Some of the happy feeling dissipated in the freezing cold air of the morning, but the coffee shop cheered me up! and I was hugely productive today!
I’m off to catch up on the dishes and laundry that got neglected in my illness. Go me!
* flying to nevada with my ex’s sister and someone else I didn’t know, flying from the austin airport (i could tell because of how small it was and it’s amazing lack of hardcore security), shipping a case of Drunken Holy Goat Beer with me to nevada, going to David’s parents ranch in nevada (they don’t actually have a ranch in nevada), watching the kayakers race in the olympic kayak course built to run through their house, having the rain leak into my room so much that I would have to share a room with David during my trip, wearing the goofiest clothes, going into town with friends, getting too hot in town and taking off my jeans and putting them in David’s pocket, going to a gamer and comic shop and being mean to the people there (actually, this was weird, I was uncharacteristically mean to the people in this shop. I have no enmity towards gamers and comic people!), taking off my underpants in town as a joke, putting my jeans on to cover my butt, wandering back to the ranch and stumbling into another dream I’d had before where I had to promise a cop to get my act together and leave town, ending up back at the ranch and watching the sun set, checking out the giant red dodge durango david bought for his parents, packing to leave, watching the wild penguins migrating across the property and falling in love with the baby penguins, watching the angry mother penguins chase a ranch hand around for getting too close to the babies.
Car paranoia and othe things disturbing
I have eternal car paranoia. The faintest sound or smell or bump sends me into an internal panic. Part of this is the earlier-mentioned lack of confidence problem I have, I’m convinced I made a totally retarded decision in my car. Logically, there’s no reason to believe that I chose a bad car and in fact most signs point to a good car. It was a bit of an impulse buy, i was looking to offload my Saab, with its dead turbo and shot suspension, so I sat down one afternoon and decided “I’m going to go buy a car” and within the week I had my car. I didn’t really tell anyone that I was going to buy a car because I knew I’d get a lot of advice that I didn’t want to hear, “get a car that is bland but reliable!” “get a car that filters pollution out of one gallon of ocean water for every mile you drive!” “Buy my uncle’s car! It mostly doesn’t smell anymore!”. Also, I didn’t want anyone to talk me out of my dream car should I have a chance to buy one cheap (i didn’t but there’s still hope).
I did my research and found the car with the options I wanted, in my price range, good mileage blah blah blah and bought it that day. Again, I didn’t consult anyone because I wanted to prove that i could actually do this by myself. It seems like a good plan, but if you are me you are then stuck worrying for the rest of the time you own the car that something will go wrong and it will be your fault for not asking someone smarter than you to approve your decision and when people see what a huge car-related mistake you made they’ll all be there to say “you bought a stupid car because you are a stupid person and you do stupid things!”
ANYWAY, this is all coming up because on the drive home today I started to smell the bad burninating car smell. All the way down Portland Ave I was freaking out about the burning car smell. The gauges were all in their happy normal ranges, nothing was really happening, but there was the burning car smell. Fuck, what if the engine was catching on fire? then I’d be a stupid person with a stupid burned out car!!
Then the car in front of me turned onto 40th Street and by the time I hit my turn on 42nd Street the smell was gone. My car was not burning up! The white cavalier was burning up! Good for them, I hope it goes well for them, the burning up and all.
Phew.
The funniest sad thing ever is when Maddie decides to chew on Ghengis’ rawhide and no amount of pushing her with his nose will get her attention and so he is left to put his nose on the floor and make the sad honking noises he makes. His other option would be to go get any one of the 500 other rawhides he has laying around and chew on that.
Although it seems he has chosen plan ‘C’: chew the tag out of my jean jacket.
Also, today, the dogs decided to enjoy the better part of a 1 pound block of Callebaut dark chocolate. Assnuggets.
My health is returning slowly, but the snot only shows minimal signs of abating. I was moderately useful at work today which is pretty damned good if you ask me.
Cold windy rainy day with the threat of snow overnight. Tomorrow I will be the short one on the corner screaming “FUCK YOU” at the sky.
Booger
This is the obligatory “i’ve been at death’s door” whine. And for Julie’s reading pleasure, it will include descriptions of snot.
It was your standard fill my head and lungs with snot and pain. My ears hurt, my throat hurt, my soft palate hurt. My abs are totally RIPPED from all the coughing. When I open my mouth I can see actual rivers of snot running down the back of my throat directly into my stomach. In fact, there is such a constant, heavy flow of snot that I am amazed that 1) my body can seemingly produce and consume an infinite amount of snot and 2) that my head has not shrunk or my belly exploded.
I am also coughing up copious amounts of snot laden loogie.
I sound like a pteradactyl sodomized my vocal chords.
On Friday my mother came down for birthday dinner. It was somewhat overwhelming, my mother, her father, my boyfriend, my sister, HER boyfriend and his parents. I tried to remain low-key, i didn’t have enough cold pills in my system to last me very long, but 2 glasses of retsina conspired against me and the cold pills wore off with a vengeance. Ow.
Dinner went well, and at the end I even managed to tell keith’s parents that i was usually more charming than this.
David brought me to Walgreens and I got to do the special “we’re watching you so don’t make meth with these medicines” thing! You can’t just buy drugs that have pseudoephedrine in them anymore (and believe me, you cannot get a cold pill without it). You pick the medicines you want, take the special label card off the rack and bring it to the pharmacist. He gets the pills for you and then fills out a special binder with your name and address and the total number of grams of pseudoephedrine you buy. Cool. I don’t think he’d ever seen anyone so excited about something so mundane.
I had to be excited because the alternative was to acknowledge that the reality was that no one was ever going to look at that book or cross reference it with any other books and that while it might slow down the small time producer, it will do nothing to stem the tide of meth flowing in from Mexico.
Am I opposed to the war on drugs? To an extent, I think there is a huge discrepancey between money spent and results seen, and some of the results we’ve seen are asinine. I am, however, opposed to meth more than I am opposed to the war on drugs. Meth is a filthy drug, the physical and environmental costs of meth are enormous. You wanna smoke a little weed on the weekends with your friends? Hey, if you can hold down a job, pay your bills, whatever, then go ahead and spark up. Meth isn’t the same, and I have yet to see a tweaker that didn’t go from good times to bad shit on the short path.
but whatever. I signed the book and rejoiced and then pondered how much you have to buy before the authorities got inolved. I figured two boxes of cold pills weren’t going to trigger anyone’s alarms. Just in case, though, they could come see the amazing Rio Snot winding down my throat.
Saturday found me freaking out and needing to get Maddie to the et as soon as possible but also needing David to bring us there as I was hugely sick and unable to do it alone. Oh dear god we had to go so fast, the vet closed at noon and I couldn’t make her wait until MONDAY! Yes, I freaked out and ran the dog to the vet to find out she has allergies. Her eyes were all gooey, I was convinced she had a terrible infection, I could not make her wait all weekend!!! I got some goo for her eyes and she’s fine. The vet also looked at her foot and proclaimed the swollen pads to also be allergies and to continue treating as I had been, but her foot’s not getting better so back she goes.
What the hell is it with these dogs?
Saturday night! Betsy’s housewarming! I remember being pilled out of my head, I remember eating huge amounts of belgian honeyed goat cheese, I remember not having a voice, I remember delicious crab rolls, I remember the cutest little dog EVER!! (seriously, I need to get a picture of Gary, he’s so damned CUTE). I remember having a great time and I remember coming home and going to bed.
Sunday, I did nothing. I hauled my snot filled body from the bed to the sofa, I watched the Simpsons all day. David made me some cream of wheat at some point. I completely buzzed out on Robitussin with Codeine. I never got dressed. I was a dead weight.
Then I went to bed again. Everytime I fall asleep I start sweating like a freak, it’s really gross. I want this cold to be over.
Today I felt like jelly and mostly sat still and did not move. The cold pills killed my appetite, i managed to eat 1/2 a grilled cheese before my system threatened to revolt. David made me some sesame-miso noodles but I could only eat a little but. Anything that isn’t sweet tastes off, like metal or burnt wood. I ate a little peanut butter, but still, couldn’t eat much.
I’m going to let the dogs out and then soak in the tub. Alex sent me Dan Simmons’ ‘Ilium’ and I am anxious to get started on that, but I have to finish re-reading ‘House of Leaves’ before I start anything new.
There, I posted, I hope Julie is happy with how snot filled this post is!
The blob is my savior
In a fine example of my eternal retardation I decided to self medicate last night. All I had were daytime cold and flu pills and I knew those would keep me awake all night. I needed to sleep, but I would not sleep if I took those pills, and I would not sleep if I did not take those pills.
The solution? Take a vicodin! Mix it all up, take the pills and go to bed! Did it work? You’re reading about it here so you can safely assume it did not work. You can also safely assume it turned me into a snot filled rubber bed monkey for the night.
To add to my confoundedness yesterday i was trapped in this bizarro conversation:
unnamed person: you look so cute today! Your hair is cute and it looks like it has a barette in it
sick me: it…is…a barette?
unnamed person: but it looks like a barette
sick me: indeed.
God I hate being sick. I have so much to do this weekend, I don’t have time to be sick. I need a nap.