I Need a Checkup from the Neck Up
Whee! Mia is feeling at least a smidge bit better. I think sitting around for 14 straight hours yesterday consuming tea and (finally) reading the QC archives did me some good. Of course, now I have to actually suck it up and do some homework, like reading half of The Odyssey and more Parzival, but oh well. STUDENT LYYYYYFE, y'all.
Man, I almost forgot, but last Sunday my aunt and uncle came down (all the way from Pinole) to take me out to dinner as a belated birthday present. We went to this rad place called Shadowbrook, in Capitola. The food was decent (I got a tasty cioppino) and the setting was great; it's on this hillside and there are all these beautiful plants and a view of the river where they have the Begonia Festival floats in the spring, and a little funicular (or "hillevator") to take you down from the entrance to the restaurant if you don't want to walk down a billion stairs. Anyway, it was a grand time, and my aunt and uncle were very understanding of the fact that I wasn't interested in having anything alcoholic despite being 21 and got me a very tasty virgin margarita. I was rather sad to find out that they aren't hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner at their house this year and are instead going on a cruise, which means I won't be seeing any of my relatives since Mike wants to go to his grandmother's family lunch thing and Mom's still going to be all the way up in Washington, but oh well. I'm lucky to see her as often as I do, and there's always Christmas vacation to catch up with her and Dad.
Mike was nice enough to do some grocery-shopping for me at Winco last night when he had to take Pepita there anyway, so once he comes down sometime today we should be able to rock out with a bomb corn chowder or two (since he hates celery and red pepper and Z doesn't eat bacon). Like, seriously, in planning the meals I want to make over the next week or two, like all of them have been soups. Corn chowder, tortilla soup, cream of butternut squash, goop (which is a sort of backwards-ass cousin to chili made with a billion cans of crap including cut-up tamales)...I am a soup fiend. I want to try making tom kha gai, this friggin' delicious Thai soup with coconut milk and mushrooms, but when I went to find a recipe it was all "galangal this" and "lime leaves that" and I was like "maaaaan." I'm not sure Winco stocks lemongrass, knawwhameannnn? When I'm in a more vigorous mood I'll hunt all that crap down at Lion Market or something.
In a couple weekends Z and Mike and I (and whosoever else of the household we can talk into going) have tentative plans to go to the Casa de Fruta renfaire and then to APE 2009 in San Francisco to ogle over Kate Beaton (and, for me, Dylan Meconis) and learn more about independent comicking. Should be educational! Not sure if I'm more interested in the webcomics panel on Sunday or the queer comics panel on Saturday, but I'm sure we'll work something out.
I guess Mike's and my second anniversary-ish thing is in the next week or so; I'm kind of horrible at pinning down one particular date because for me it wasn't just a sudden event but sort of a gradual getting-together. In light of that, I've ordered him this completely absurd gift that, if I know him at all, he will love. If he doesn't, then fuck it, I'm keeping it for myself! While I had the credit card out I went a little hog wild because I haven't just bought myself anything fun in forever, and got an Avenue Q poster and preordered a resin figurine Space Coyote (aka Nina Matsumoto) is putting out through Patch Together, which is sort of like Threadless for awesome toys. It's fun getting junk in the mail! Speaking of which, I need to send letters out to Tia and Joy again.
Okay, this got really long and boring and ramble-y. I guess I'll make more tea and crack down on reading about the Round Table and what a dumb pretty-boy Percival was.
Man, I almost forgot, but last Sunday my aunt and uncle came down (all the way from Pinole) to take me out to dinner as a belated birthday present. We went to this rad place called Shadowbrook, in Capitola. The food was decent (I got a tasty cioppino) and the setting was great; it's on this hillside and there are all these beautiful plants and a view of the river where they have the Begonia Festival floats in the spring, and a little funicular (or "hillevator") to take you down from the entrance to the restaurant if you don't want to walk down a billion stairs. Anyway, it was a grand time, and my aunt and uncle were very understanding of the fact that I wasn't interested in having anything alcoholic despite being 21 and got me a very tasty virgin margarita. I was rather sad to find out that they aren't hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner at their house this year and are instead going on a cruise, which means I won't be seeing any of my relatives since Mike wants to go to his grandmother's family lunch thing and Mom's still going to be all the way up in Washington, but oh well. I'm lucky to see her as often as I do, and there's always Christmas vacation to catch up with her and Dad.
Mike was nice enough to do some grocery-shopping for me at Winco last night when he had to take Pepita there anyway, so once he comes down sometime today we should be able to rock out with a bomb corn chowder or two (since he hates celery and red pepper and Z doesn't eat bacon). Like, seriously, in planning the meals I want to make over the next week or two, like all of them have been soups. Corn chowder, tortilla soup, cream of butternut squash, goop (which is a sort of backwards-ass cousin to chili made with a billion cans of crap including cut-up tamales)...I am a soup fiend. I want to try making tom kha gai, this friggin' delicious Thai soup with coconut milk and mushrooms, but when I went to find a recipe it was all "galangal this" and "lime leaves that" and I was like "maaaaan." I'm not sure Winco stocks lemongrass, knawwhameannnn? When I'm in a more vigorous mood I'll hunt all that crap down at Lion Market or something.
In a couple weekends Z and Mike and I (and whosoever else of the household we can talk into going) have tentative plans to go to the Casa de Fruta renfaire and then to APE 2009 in San Francisco to ogle over Kate Beaton (and, for me, Dylan Meconis) and learn more about independent comicking. Should be educational! Not sure if I'm more interested in the webcomics panel on Sunday or the queer comics panel on Saturday, but I'm sure we'll work something out.
I guess Mike's and my second anniversary-ish thing is in the next week or so; I'm kind of horrible at pinning down one particular date because for me it wasn't just a sudden event but sort of a gradual getting-together. In light of that, I've ordered him this completely absurd gift that, if I know him at all, he will love. If he doesn't, then fuck it, I'm keeping it for myself! While I had the credit card out I went a little hog wild because I haven't just bought myself anything fun in forever, and got an Avenue Q poster and preordered a resin figurine Space Coyote (aka Nina Matsumoto) is putting out through Patch Together, which is sort of like Threadless for awesome toys. It's fun getting junk in the mail! Speaking of which, I need to send letters out to Tia and Joy again.
Okay, this got really long and boring and ramble-y. I guess I'll make more tea and crack down on reading about the Round Table and what a dumb pretty-boy Percival was.