Week in Review
I don't often post daily-life stuff unless it's about hobbies, because honestly, I'm boring. I don't have a job to talk about, I don't have kids, so one day is pretty much like another. But daily-life stuff is why I feel like I "know" people on my friends list whom I've never met, so I figure I'll toss some stuff out here in the unlikely circumstance that anyone is feeling like I under-share. =P
Let's see, since last week... Halloween was really annoying but with mitigating coolness. Kids kept banging on my storm door with their little fists (and in one case, feet) because apparently the complexities of doorbells are unknown to them. Or maybe they're used to people spending all night at the front door just waiting to dispense candy. I wasn't enjoying the process much, except that my front door got lots of compliments. =) Not nearly as many kids as I expected, though, so now I have to figure out what to do with all this extra candy. I know about sinking peppermint patties into brownie batter, and crumbling up Nestle Crunch and Butterfingers over ice cream, but what does one do with a bunch of Baby Ruths and a nearly full bag of mini Hersheys assortment? Eating them is not an option because milk chocolate is way too sweet, which brings me to...
Bittersweet chocolate [brownie] cheesecake! I made this a few days ago for a cooking night we had with friends. And I can eat it! Recipe is in the currently-on-newsstands BHG Holiday Baking.
After several false starts, I've given up on the Sock Knitters Anonymous November mystery sock Knit-Along... wouldn't you know it's one of the very few sock patterns that does not translate well from DPNs to Magic Looping, because it has traveling decreases that sometimes have to happen across needles. But that's okay, because I still have a bunch of Christmas presents to knit.
I sorted out my iPod by moving iTunes to the computer Mr. Brienze had set aside for me (the one he replaced with his iMac this summer). And I took it with me while doing some yardwork this week, starting in on trimming the overgrown shrubberies from hell, now that Halloween is past and they're no longer seasonally creepy. I'll have pics when I get to the halfway point, but blisters on my hand halted progress before I was really ready to stop working (a first ever for me and yardwork, I think). Having music is almost as good as having someone else to talk to while you work.
I'm on the writers' side in the WGA strike, as I think most of us are. My TiVo is so full of unwatched shows (including the last 3 or so Dead Zone eps from this summer) that reruns aren't really going to affect me for quite some time. And once I run out of new content, I can always start watching BSG on Netflix, or the last season of Veronica Mars, etc. Which rather illustrates why the writers are right to want money from such things. =P
My routine is to get up between 7 and 9, depending on how well I was sleeping and whether there's a cat complaining in my ear, feed and medicate the cats at 9, mess around on the computer for a while, possibly watch The View while knitting, eat leftovers for lunch, and then actually get stuff done in the afternoon. Monday was spent on the shrubberies, then going to 4 different stores looking for an 8" springform pan for the cheesecake, getting beads to repair the sequin and bead embellishments on the top I got to wear to Mr. Brienze's Christmas party this year, and grocery shopping at two different stores because the first didn't have lemongrass.
Tuesday I went with my friend Ed, who had the week off, to a restaurant supply store that actually had the 8" springform pan, then shopping for our next night's cooking together, then lunch, then home to actually make the cheesecake. We also picked up a copy of Austin Monthly, which had an article about 52 food and drink items from places around town, one for each week of the year. Looking forward to picking new places to try based on their recommendations.
Wednesday I baked PJ's Stuffing Rolls (you can probably find it on www.bakerscatalog.com somewhere, but I'm too lazy to look) and made the ganache topping for the cheesecake. In between dough rising I drove to two comic book stores that had closed, and finally to one that was still open. They even said they'd let me do a pull sheet with just one title in it, so I'm glad to have found them. No more buying missed Buffy episodes on ebay! That night we went over to Ed's house, where he cooked roasted garlic-herb chicken and mixed roasted vegetables to go with what I'd made. Yum.
Yesterday I went out to lunch with tsarina. We shared this sushi:
Mmm, pretty. They also brought us a little plate of red snapper with, I think, sriracha on it. Yum! I'm really a sushi newbie, so I learn something new each time I have it. Yesterday I learned that I really really like red snapper, and that one should beware of shrimp because wasabi lurks underneath. =) And not that I wish unemployment on my friends or anything, but it's been really nice this week with Ed and tsarina both off work. I feel like I actually have a social life. =P
After lunch I stopped at Petticoat Fair and got an $80 bra to go under my Christmas party top. It's black so it won't matter if the straps show, and is cut both low and wide. My 38Fs do not need any push-up help except in the gravity-mitigating sense, but this bra fits them into the shirt with about as minimal a burlesque look as I can probably expect. As I was leaving I noticed one of the others that I'd tried on was "only" $45, and was kicking myself mentally for not getting it since it was "cheap". And then I walked out the door, sanity returned, and I realized I was considering spending fifty bucks on a bra I didn't absolutely need. My mindset in such places is scary... I will pay whatever they ask if they give me something that fits well. Hell, I even thought the special occasion bra was cheap because it was less than three figures, and yet it's something I'll only wear under a particular sort of shirt that I hardly ever wear.
To cap off my day, I was driving home with my new iPod on shuffle, and it played for me the segment where David Tennant talks about his underwear on national radio. I knew I had that sound clip, but I didn't realize it was in my iTunes. It makes me grin whenever I hear him say that his red-banded Calvin Kliens have nothing lacy nor satiny about them. =)
I made a lemongrass-chile pork with rice vermicelli for dinner, in imitation of the Mr.'s favorite Vietnamese takeout. That's how I figured out the red snapper had probably had sriracha on it. He pronounced it good, but not actually much like the takeout version. Dammit.
tsarina pointed out that I'd missed the ad for this year's LOTR feast in the Alamo's weekly email this week, so after the Mr. got home I ordered before they sold out. Yay! Other friends might be going too if they have the time... RotK getting out at 11pm on a Sunday isn't great for folks who have to be at work in the morning. Still no menu posted, but it's bound to be good. Thanksgiving and then LOTR feast all in the same weekend... November is a good time for my inner foodie. I just have to remember that my outer foodie has to still be able to fit into that bra and top at Christmastime. =P
Let's see, since last week... Halloween was really annoying but with mitigating coolness. Kids kept banging on my storm door with their little fists (and in one case, feet) because apparently the complexities of doorbells are unknown to them. Or maybe they're used to people spending all night at the front door just waiting to dispense candy. I wasn't enjoying the process much, except that my front door got lots of compliments. =) Not nearly as many kids as I expected, though, so now I have to figure out what to do with all this extra candy. I know about sinking peppermint patties into brownie batter, and crumbling up Nestle Crunch and Butterfingers over ice cream, but what does one do with a bunch of Baby Ruths and a nearly full bag of mini Hersheys assortment? Eating them is not an option because milk chocolate is way too sweet, which brings me to...
Bittersweet chocolate [brownie] cheesecake! I made this a few days ago for a cooking night we had with friends. And I can eat it! Recipe is in the currently-on-newsstands BHG Holiday Baking.
After several false starts, I've given up on the Sock Knitters Anonymous November mystery sock Knit-Along... wouldn't you know it's one of the very few sock patterns that does not translate well from DPNs to Magic Looping, because it has traveling decreases that sometimes have to happen across needles. But that's okay, because I still have a bunch of Christmas presents to knit.
I sorted out my iPod by moving iTunes to the computer Mr. Brienze had set aside for me (the one he replaced with his iMac this summer). And I took it with me while doing some yardwork this week, starting in on trimming the overgrown shrubberies from hell, now that Halloween is past and they're no longer seasonally creepy. I'll have pics when I get to the halfway point, but blisters on my hand halted progress before I was really ready to stop working (a first ever for me and yardwork, I think). Having music is almost as good as having someone else to talk to while you work.
I'm on the writers' side in the WGA strike, as I think most of us are. My TiVo is so full of unwatched shows (including the last 3 or so Dead Zone eps from this summer) that reruns aren't really going to affect me for quite some time. And once I run out of new content, I can always start watching BSG on Netflix, or the last season of Veronica Mars, etc. Which rather illustrates why the writers are right to want money from such things. =P
My routine is to get up between 7 and 9, depending on how well I was sleeping and whether there's a cat complaining in my ear, feed and medicate the cats at 9, mess around on the computer for a while, possibly watch The View while knitting, eat leftovers for lunch, and then actually get stuff done in the afternoon. Monday was spent on the shrubberies, then going to 4 different stores looking for an 8" springform pan for the cheesecake, getting beads to repair the sequin and bead embellishments on the top I got to wear to Mr. Brienze's Christmas party this year, and grocery shopping at two different stores because the first didn't have lemongrass.
Tuesday I went with my friend Ed, who had the week off, to a restaurant supply store that actually had the 8" springform pan, then shopping for our next night's cooking together, then lunch, then home to actually make the cheesecake. We also picked up a copy of Austin Monthly, which had an article about 52 food and drink items from places around town, one for each week of the year. Looking forward to picking new places to try based on their recommendations.
Wednesday I baked PJ's Stuffing Rolls (you can probably find it on www.bakerscatalog.com somewhere, but I'm too lazy to look) and made the ganache topping for the cheesecake. In between dough rising I drove to two comic book stores that had closed, and finally to one that was still open. They even said they'd let me do a pull sheet with just one title in it, so I'm glad to have found them. No more buying missed Buffy episodes on ebay! That night we went over to Ed's house, where he cooked roasted garlic-herb chicken and mixed roasted vegetables to go with what I'd made. Yum.
Yesterday I went out to lunch with tsarina. We shared this sushi:
Mmm, pretty. They also brought us a little plate of red snapper with, I think, sriracha on it. Yum! I'm really a sushi newbie, so I learn something new each time I have it. Yesterday I learned that I really really like red snapper, and that one should beware of shrimp because wasabi lurks underneath. =) And not that I wish unemployment on my friends or anything, but it's been really nice this week with Ed and tsarina both off work. I feel like I actually have a social life. =P
After lunch I stopped at Petticoat Fair and got an $80 bra to go under my Christmas party top. It's black so it won't matter if the straps show, and is cut both low and wide. My 38Fs do not need any push-up help except in the gravity-mitigating sense, but this bra fits them into the shirt with about as minimal a burlesque look as I can probably expect. As I was leaving I noticed one of the others that I'd tried on was "only" $45, and was kicking myself mentally for not getting it since it was "cheap". And then I walked out the door, sanity returned, and I realized I was considering spending fifty bucks on a bra I didn't absolutely need. My mindset in such places is scary... I will pay whatever they ask if they give me something that fits well. Hell, I even thought the special occasion bra was cheap because it was less than three figures, and yet it's something I'll only wear under a particular sort of shirt that I hardly ever wear.
To cap off my day, I was driving home with my new iPod on shuffle, and it played for me the segment where David Tennant talks about his underwear on national radio. I knew I had that sound clip, but I didn't realize it was in my iTunes. It makes me grin whenever I hear him say that his red-banded Calvin Kliens have nothing lacy nor satiny about them. =)
I made a lemongrass-chile pork with rice vermicelli for dinner, in imitation of the Mr.'s favorite Vietnamese takeout. That's how I figured out the red snapper had probably had sriracha on it. He pronounced it good, but not actually much like the takeout version. Dammit.
tsarina pointed out that I'd missed the ad for this year's LOTR feast in the Alamo's weekly email this week, so after the Mr. got home I ordered before they sold out. Yay! Other friends might be going too if they have the time... RotK getting out at 11pm on a Sunday isn't great for folks who have to be at work in the morning. Still no menu posted, but it's bound to be good. Thanksgiving and then LOTR feast all in the same weekend... November is a good time for my inner foodie. I just have to remember that my outer foodie has to still be able to fit into that bra and top at Christmastime. =P