spring break 2007
Last week was my spring break; I spent it in California, staying with assorted friends both fannish and non-, and had a lovely time. Some high points relevant to the normal contents of this LJ:
On Saturday, laurashapiro took me to the Ferry Building Marketplace, which was great fun; the actual farmers' market part was not quite as extensive as my beloved market of yore, but the array of shops within the building itself was quite impressive. We bought asparagus, kumquats, heirloom beans, chard, salad greens, potatoes, eggs, herbs, shiitake and oyster mushrooms, at least two kinds of cheese, pork roast, lamb chops, pancetta, two loaves of bread, olive tapenade... it was a terrific experience, and sharing it with Laura made it that much better.
That afternoon, we hung around playing vidsongs for each other and discussing our ideas for them, which was fantastic, as it always is. And then we put together a dinner for morgandawn, cofax7, falzalot, oyceter, makesmewannadie, and danceswithwords: bread, cheese, and olive tapenade for starters; cream of asparagus soup (which turned out reasonably well despite my not having access to my favorite recipe); asparagus and chard frittata with a mushroom cream sauce on a bed of greens (largely improvised, but seemed to turn out fine despite my forgetting the goat cheese that we got specifically to put in it - threw some of the cheese in the cream sauce and it all balanced out, I think); pork roast, which turned out to have a lot of annoying bones in it but which was delicious all the same. After we adjourned to the living room, the meal concluded with a choice of ice creams topped with Laura's homemade caramel sauce (OMG YUM). The food turned out nicely, the company was delightful, and then we watched a bunch of vids, which was an added bonus.
Sunday I made Laura take me out to used CD shops and bookstores, and of course I found fun stuff nearly everywhere we went, but actually managed to resist temptation and buy reasonable, though substantial, quantities of stuff. We strolled through Castro and the Mission, stopped for lunch at a nice little French bistro, walked past a park full of shirtless gay boys enjoying the sun and each other, and generally had a lovely leisurely day.
That evening, Laura fixed a terrific dinner of penne with asparagus and pancetta in cream sauce, and then we watched some MST3K (Pod People!) and talked about vids and vidding.
Monday morning, Laura showed me the first ep of Heroes, and then we headed off to Berkeley for lunch at Chez Panisse cafe, which was every bit as wonderful as we had expected. I had a salad of arugula and roasted beets in champagne vinaigrette, topped with goat cheese shavings and toasted almonds; the entree was spaghetti with roasted cauliflower, pine nuts, bread crumbs, saffron, and something else I can't remember; my dessert was apple-huckleberry tart with a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream. Truly a terrific meal, and that salad is definitely on my list of restaurant dishes to back-engineer.
Later on Monday, Laura fixed another wonderful dinner (lamb chops, roasted potatoes, broccolini, plus pots de creme for dessert, which I helped with) and then we watched several more eps of Heroes; I am now well and truly pimped. (Also, I have Thoughts, which I will save for another post.)
Tuesday night I met up with falzalot for Indian food, and then tagged along to the rehearsal of her a cappella group, which was great fun; I sing a lot, but not with other people anymore, and this reminded me how much I miss it. (It also reminded me how much sightreading skills degrade when not used; ouch.)
For the next several days, I reveled in being free of plans and commitments. I stayed with various friends, slept in, met other friends for lunch and conversation (and cardamom ice cream!), read when I felt like it, wandered around on foot and via public transportation whilst listening to my iPod for hours at a time, and... actually, that's pretty much it. Yeah, San Francisco has museums and parks and other Big City things, but I was pretty much there for the people, the food, the change of scene, and the chance to get away from (rather than merely avoid) all the work that would be hanging over my head at home. I was not there for the sunburn, but I ended up with one anyway; ah well.
Late in the week I made a pilgrimage to Amoeba Records, because, seriously, how could I not? And I only bought twenty-four CDs! Of course, that's partly because I put back more than half the stuff I found. ::cough:: Actually, I could have justified additional purchases - there's only one place to buy CDs here in town, and it really doesn't deserve to be dignified with the term "record store," so my music-buying has been severely curtailed in the last few months, but twenty-four was about all I figured I could fit in my little bag (I ended up mailing them home to myself the next day so that I wouldn't have to deal with repacking them). Anyway, it was exactly the experience I wanted; I found some relatively new releases at good used prices, dug a few gems out of the bargain bins, picked up some world music I haven't been able to find elsewhere, and had a nice long conversation with the skinny emo boy at the register, who recommended some stuff I'd never heard of.
And I got to spend a bit more time with oyceter late in the visit - just long enough to walk out for coffee (hers) and pastry (mine), meet the rats, and watch Mushishi, which was very pretty and very weird.
In conclusion: yay, vacation!
And now I'm home, trying to keep my head together school-wise, trying to make time to vid, catching up on Heroes, listening to the new CDs (joy!), and realizing just exactly how much I needed that vacation.
On Saturday, laurashapiro took me to the Ferry Building Marketplace, which was great fun; the actual farmers' market part was not quite as extensive as my beloved market of yore, but the array of shops within the building itself was quite impressive. We bought asparagus, kumquats, heirloom beans, chard, salad greens, potatoes, eggs, herbs, shiitake and oyster mushrooms, at least two kinds of cheese, pork roast, lamb chops, pancetta, two loaves of bread, olive tapenade... it was a terrific experience, and sharing it with Laura made it that much better.
That afternoon, we hung around playing vidsongs for each other and discussing our ideas for them, which was fantastic, as it always is. And then we put together a dinner for morgandawn, cofax7, falzalot, oyceter, makesmewannadie, and danceswithwords: bread, cheese, and olive tapenade for starters; cream of asparagus soup (which turned out reasonably well despite my not having access to my favorite recipe); asparagus and chard frittata with a mushroom cream sauce on a bed of greens (largely improvised, but seemed to turn out fine despite my forgetting the goat cheese that we got specifically to put in it - threw some of the cheese in the cream sauce and it all balanced out, I think); pork roast, which turned out to have a lot of annoying bones in it but which was delicious all the same. After we adjourned to the living room, the meal concluded with a choice of ice creams topped with Laura's homemade caramel sauce (OMG YUM). The food turned out nicely, the company was delightful, and then we watched a bunch of vids, which was an added bonus.
Sunday I made Laura take me out to used CD shops and bookstores, and of course I found fun stuff nearly everywhere we went, but actually managed to resist temptation and buy reasonable, though substantial, quantities of stuff. We strolled through Castro and the Mission, stopped for lunch at a nice little French bistro, walked past a park full of shirtless gay boys enjoying the sun and each other, and generally had a lovely leisurely day.
That evening, Laura fixed a terrific dinner of penne with asparagus and pancetta in cream sauce, and then we watched some MST3K (Pod People!) and talked about vids and vidding.
Monday morning, Laura showed me the first ep of Heroes, and then we headed off to Berkeley for lunch at Chez Panisse cafe, which was every bit as wonderful as we had expected. I had a salad of arugula and roasted beets in champagne vinaigrette, topped with goat cheese shavings and toasted almonds; the entree was spaghetti with roasted cauliflower, pine nuts, bread crumbs, saffron, and something else I can't remember; my dessert was apple-huckleberry tart with a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream. Truly a terrific meal, and that salad is definitely on my list of restaurant dishes to back-engineer.
Later on Monday, Laura fixed another wonderful dinner (lamb chops, roasted potatoes, broccolini, plus pots de creme for dessert, which I helped with) and then we watched several more eps of Heroes; I am now well and truly pimped. (Also, I have Thoughts, which I will save for another post.)
Tuesday night I met up with falzalot for Indian food, and then tagged along to the rehearsal of her a cappella group, which was great fun; I sing a lot, but not with other people anymore, and this reminded me how much I miss it. (It also reminded me how much sightreading skills degrade when not used; ouch.)
For the next several days, I reveled in being free of plans and commitments. I stayed with various friends, slept in, met other friends for lunch and conversation (and cardamom ice cream!), read when I felt like it, wandered around on foot and via public transportation whilst listening to my iPod for hours at a time, and... actually, that's pretty much it. Yeah, San Francisco has museums and parks and other Big City things, but I was pretty much there for the people, the food, the change of scene, and the chance to get away from (rather than merely avoid) all the work that would be hanging over my head at home. I was not there for the sunburn, but I ended up with one anyway; ah well.
Late in the week I made a pilgrimage to Amoeba Records, because, seriously, how could I not? And I only bought twenty-four CDs! Of course, that's partly because I put back more than half the stuff I found. ::cough:: Actually, I could have justified additional purchases - there's only one place to buy CDs here in town, and it really doesn't deserve to be dignified with the term "record store," so my music-buying has been severely curtailed in the last few months, but twenty-four was about all I figured I could fit in my little bag (I ended up mailing them home to myself the next day so that I wouldn't have to deal with repacking them). Anyway, it was exactly the experience I wanted; I found some relatively new releases at good used prices, dug a few gems out of the bargain bins, picked up some world music I haven't been able to find elsewhere, and had a nice long conversation with the skinny emo boy at the register, who recommended some stuff I'd never heard of.
And I got to spend a bit more time with oyceter late in the visit - just long enough to walk out for coffee (hers) and pastry (mine), meet the rats, and watch Mushishi, which was very pretty and very weird.
In conclusion: yay, vacation!
And now I'm home, trying to keep my head together school-wise, trying to make time to vid, catching up on Heroes, listening to the new CDs (joy!), and realizing just exactly how much I needed that vacation.