All the best parties are in the basement
HI GUYS. We are in a temporary lull at work, which is KIND OF AMAZING. It's the calm before the storm, but I will take it! So, having actually managed to read and even periodically comment on LJ for a couple of weeks now, I am venturing an actual post. HAI. HAAAAAAAAI.
Baseball is happening! Crazy baseball shit is happening! The Mariners, of course, are not involved, because they are hanging out in the basement having a rousing drunken foosball tournament with dugrival's Twins. For a while it looked like they were thinking of leaving the basement, but then it turned out they were just going on a beer run. (Okay technically they are not in the BASEMENT, since there are several teams who have worse records. If baseball was a two-story house, the M's would be, like, at the top of the basement stairs.) I have hope for next year, though! Actual hope! We have some guys who have been unexpectedly awesome, we have some (okay, like two) guys who have been expectedly awesome, some hot prospects knocking on the door, and money to spend in the offseason. And next year, we welcome the Disastros to our division. (Even if you don't click that link, just check out the URL. It's amazing.) Yesssssssssss. In the meantime, I am mostly enjoying baseball again, and learning some new statistics, and discovering that online Mariners fandom exists and it is fun to lurk there. Go Orioles and Tigers!
In news of much greater import, my brother is getting married next week! I AM EXCITED. I think I have most of my ducks in a row for the trip, except for, you know, my bridesmaid dress. AHAHAHAHA. Yeah. I decided to have it made by someone local, since the bride has been very chill about her requirements (she gave me a color, basically), and if I was going to spend a lot of money on a dress, I wanted to make sure that it would fit and that I liked it and it was the right color and all that, plus my brother and SIL are very into supporting local businesses, so it seemed appropriate. Unfortunately, I apparently picked someone flaky, so it has been a fairly stressful process, and I still have not seen anything resembling an actual dress. I'm supposed to go in for a semi-final fitting tomorrow, and as of yesterday, the seamstress still didn't have the actual fabric for the dress (she was allegedly going to pick it up on her way home). It's a simple pattern (basically a 50's party dress style, with a circle skirt and simple bodice), so she SHOULD be able to throw it together quickly-I've seen her work, and she obviously knows what she's doing, so at least there's that-but dude. I leave in a WEEK. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THAT I WILL NOT BE STANDING UP THERE NAKED DURING MY BROTHER'S WEDDING, KTHX. So… yeah. That's been fun. I am super looking forward to the trip, though, and to seeing family and friends and Boston fangirls, YAY!
What else what else. I finished my 90 days of P90X (\o/), and have since moved on to Insanity, which is hard-core cardio and body-weight resistance stuff, and OMG. OMFG. The first workout literally made me CRY. (There may have been hormones involved. But STILL. It's REALLY HARD.) I'm now in the middle of my third week, though, and it's amazing how much less traumatic the whole thing has become already; it's still definitely DIFFICULT, but not WEEPING difficult, so. I feel pretty good about that! Of course, in a couple of weeks I go into the second phase, where the workouts get longer and more difficult, and I will probably die, but whatever. At least I will die knowing the first part didn't kill me! Hee.
Aside from baseball, I've been kind of in a lull, fannishly; MCR is being stupendously adorable and awesome in their hiatus, and there will be NEW SONGS SOON OMG and I CANNOT WAIT, and Parks and Rec is filling me with flaily flappy-handed glee and I LOVE EVERYONE SO MUCH, but I am not currently in full-on obsession mode about anything, which is good! I'm sure the next thing will be coming along any minute now, but in the meantime, sleep is good! I am okay with this! :)
We've had a lovely, sunny fall so far, but there is a definite nip in the air lately, and thus it is SOUP SEASON. I have an apparently endless appetite for sausage-based soups, so here's a delicious one I made recently: Pasta, Sausage, and Bean Soup. I used chicken sausage instead of pork, and cannellini beans instead of kidney, and added some kale just for extra veggies, plus a dash of sherry vinegar and a little bit of lemon juice to brighten up the flavors. And I left out the pasta, since I was serving it with bread. Anyway, it was DELICIOUS. Quick to make, tons of flavor, and so cozy for fall! And it's a really hearty soup, not too brothy, which I like--kind of minestrone-ish. NB, though: I used sweet Italian sausage and the soup was still pretty spicy due to the red pepper flakes, so I'd use spicy sausage OR the red pepper flakes, but not both.
And finally, I wanted to pass along that Kris Delmhorst and Peter Mulvey are going to be playing some shows in the northwest in the next couple of weeks-Corvallis, Portland, Eugene, Bainbridge Island, and Seattle. I'm going to miss their shows here because I'll be in Boston (which is hilariously ironic, because they both live in Massachusetts and do tons of shows there, usually), and I'm pretty heartbroken about it, so you should go on my behalf, okay? I've already waxed rhapsodic about Peter Mulvey here, and apparently I've never done a concert report for a Kris Delmhorst solo show but believe me when I say, she is AMAZING. She has such a beautiful voice and she's phenomenally talented and just her ENERGY onstage is so great-she glows like a candle up there, all warm and bright and peaceful and giggly and passionate and amazing. She has this gift for unguarded emotion that never fails to touch me. And she and Peter Mulvey have been friends for a long time and clearly have a WONDERFUL time together. So. You should go if you can! I promise you won't regret it!
This post is also at Dreamwidth! http://brynnmck.dreamwidth.org/289125.html Comments at Dreamwidth:
Baseball is happening! Crazy baseball shit is happening! The Mariners, of course, are not involved, because they are hanging out in the basement having a rousing drunken foosball tournament with dugrival's Twins. For a while it looked like they were thinking of leaving the basement, but then it turned out they were just going on a beer run. (Okay technically they are not in the BASEMENT, since there are several teams who have worse records. If baseball was a two-story house, the M's would be, like, at the top of the basement stairs.) I have hope for next year, though! Actual hope! We have some guys who have been unexpectedly awesome, we have some (okay, like two) guys who have been expectedly awesome, some hot prospects knocking on the door, and money to spend in the offseason. And next year, we welcome the Disastros to our division. (Even if you don't click that link, just check out the URL. It's amazing.) Yesssssssssss. In the meantime, I am mostly enjoying baseball again, and learning some new statistics, and discovering that online Mariners fandom exists and it is fun to lurk there. Go Orioles and Tigers!
In news of much greater import, my brother is getting married next week! I AM EXCITED. I think I have most of my ducks in a row for the trip, except for, you know, my bridesmaid dress. AHAHAHAHA. Yeah. I decided to have it made by someone local, since the bride has been very chill about her requirements (she gave me a color, basically), and if I was going to spend a lot of money on a dress, I wanted to make sure that it would fit and that I liked it and it was the right color and all that, plus my brother and SIL are very into supporting local businesses, so it seemed appropriate. Unfortunately, I apparently picked someone flaky, so it has been a fairly stressful process, and I still have not seen anything resembling an actual dress. I'm supposed to go in for a semi-final fitting tomorrow, and as of yesterday, the seamstress still didn't have the actual fabric for the dress (she was allegedly going to pick it up on her way home). It's a simple pattern (basically a 50's party dress style, with a circle skirt and simple bodice), so she SHOULD be able to throw it together quickly-I've seen her work, and she obviously knows what she's doing, so at least there's that-but dude. I leave in a WEEK. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THAT I WILL NOT BE STANDING UP THERE NAKED DURING MY BROTHER'S WEDDING, KTHX. So… yeah. That's been fun. I am super looking forward to the trip, though, and to seeing family and friends and Boston fangirls, YAY!
What else what else. I finished my 90 days of P90X (\o/), and have since moved on to Insanity, which is hard-core cardio and body-weight resistance stuff, and OMG. OMFG. The first workout literally made me CRY. (There may have been hormones involved. But STILL. It's REALLY HARD.) I'm now in the middle of my third week, though, and it's amazing how much less traumatic the whole thing has become already; it's still definitely DIFFICULT, but not WEEPING difficult, so. I feel pretty good about that! Of course, in a couple of weeks I go into the second phase, where the workouts get longer and more difficult, and I will probably die, but whatever. At least I will die knowing the first part didn't kill me! Hee.
Aside from baseball, I've been kind of in a lull, fannishly; MCR is being stupendously adorable and awesome in their hiatus, and there will be NEW SONGS SOON OMG and I CANNOT WAIT, and Parks and Rec is filling me with flaily flappy-handed glee and I LOVE EVERYONE SO MUCH, but I am not currently in full-on obsession mode about anything, which is good! I'm sure the next thing will be coming along any minute now, but in the meantime, sleep is good! I am okay with this! :)
We've had a lovely, sunny fall so far, but there is a definite nip in the air lately, and thus it is SOUP SEASON. I have an apparently endless appetite for sausage-based soups, so here's a delicious one I made recently: Pasta, Sausage, and Bean Soup. I used chicken sausage instead of pork, and cannellini beans instead of kidney, and added some kale just for extra veggies, plus a dash of sherry vinegar and a little bit of lemon juice to brighten up the flavors. And I left out the pasta, since I was serving it with bread. Anyway, it was DELICIOUS. Quick to make, tons of flavor, and so cozy for fall! And it's a really hearty soup, not too brothy, which I like--kind of minestrone-ish. NB, though: I used sweet Italian sausage and the soup was still pretty spicy due to the red pepper flakes, so I'd use spicy sausage OR the red pepper flakes, but not both.
And finally, I wanted to pass along that Kris Delmhorst and Peter Mulvey are going to be playing some shows in the northwest in the next couple of weeks-Corvallis, Portland, Eugene, Bainbridge Island, and Seattle. I'm going to miss their shows here because I'll be in Boston (which is hilariously ironic, because they both live in Massachusetts and do tons of shows there, usually), and I'm pretty heartbroken about it, so you should go on my behalf, okay? I've already waxed rhapsodic about Peter Mulvey here, and apparently I've never done a concert report for a Kris Delmhorst solo show but believe me when I say, she is AMAZING. She has such a beautiful voice and she's phenomenally talented and just her ENERGY onstage is so great-she glows like a candle up there, all warm and bright and peaceful and giggly and passionate and amazing. She has this gift for unguarded emotion that never fails to touch me. And she and Peter Mulvey have been friends for a long time and clearly have a WONDERFUL time together. So. You should go if you can! I promise you won't regret it!
This post is also at Dreamwidth! http://brynnmck.dreamwidth.org/289125.html Comments at Dreamwidth: