whatever goes
bumbershoot was great - we saw some fun comics, ate some tasty food (hi, fire-roasted corn), & then had a dessert of ken jennings. he answered my question during the q&a after the trivia contest (i wanted to know if there were any plans to put his string of jeopardy! episodes on the net - there aren't), & was then out signing books. so i now have a copy of his _trivia almanac_ with this in it:
i shook his hand (with the very hand that touched peter steele), & told him that during a vacation i made scamp & geoffrey take me to their home so i wouldn't miss an episode. he apologized for ruining my trip, the little charmer. i then tried to convince him to let me come over & watch his recordings of his jeopardy! spree; though i promised to only put my mouth on him if he asked me to (which tickled the crowd & flabbergasted ken), somehow i didn't get the invite. >_> it was pretty cool to touch meet him, anyhow.
i hosted another movie marathon recently, attended by me & gorthok, girlgoth & magnus, stephen & his new girl amelia, sic737, & travis. we watched cube, cube 2: hypercube, & cube zero. i first watched cube with rich when i lived in illinois, & joe & i had marathoned these ourselves a couple years back when we learned they made a sequel & prequel. they were more enjoyable this time, though having a bunch of friends around tends to give that effect. i wore bismuth in my lobes for their cube-i-ness - joe's genius idea. (i almost chose my portal plugs for the companion cubes, but i wore them last marathon.) we did not eat cube steak or bouillon cubes or diced salad with croutons or jello, nor did we make these, but it was still a blast.
we also got to use our other amazon local coupon to spur gastropub, the sister restaurant to the coterie room. the drink they brought me was passionfruit, orange, & grapefruit juice mixed into lemon soda, & it was lovely; joe had two yummy drinks that he reported were very rum-heavy, & the second must've had jalapeño juice in it with the way it finished hot.
we started with their summer tomato salad with mozzarella ice cream, arugula, tomato water granita & verjus gelée. this was so fresh & perfect, the thin layer of satiny ice cream bringing to mind tangy yogurt, but the real apex were those tomatoes. they were so absolutely ripe & red they just SCREAMED tomato, & i was reminded of violetta in portland. the gelée was fantastic, too, a welcome bright note on the palate. for mains, they brought us braised pork cheeks, summer corn pudding, roasted chanterelles, & charred pluot. OMG. the cheeks were beautiful, so well met by the toasty pluot, & i basically want to put chanterelles in everything now. the corn pudding was in two parts - the corn just barely cooked through, crisp & juicy, & a velvety corn purée. the server started to detail how the latter is made, & cut herself short with, "let's just say it's worked." we laughed, & it was delicious.
the dessert was a quenelle of huckleberry sorbet, a white chocolate & strawberry soil, honeycomb toffee, & red ribbon sorrel. the sorbet had a story: apparently someone in the kitchen ordered twenty pounds of huckleberries, & no one could figure out why. so they turned it into sorbet - & it made just two quarts. & every tiny bite burst forth with so much flavor & impact that you could taste all of the two pounds of fruit it took to produce your serving.
on the way home, joe was informed by a guy on the street, "you have excellent taste in women". we cracked up, & joe agreed. X)
speaking of excellent women:
Netherlands is special because she signed a postcard to my aunt & uncle with her name, Esther - & i was able to use "ther" in sequence, plus the s at the end with the tail of the r. (the E went to Egypt.) i also like the fancy preface to the e in Peru - she had written that to begin the character after the P i used, so i decided to keep it. for all i know, it was caused by the paper getting stuck to her hand or something, but the whole point is to make it look like she wrote these out herself, so i love using all the one-off variations i can find. :)
with separate capital letters, like Ethiopia & Peru above, i even overlay the original word so i can get the spacing right between characters 1 & 2.
so the trip to scarywood was cute though overly silly imo, but joe & travis & paul all seemed happy. considering i FUCKING HAD PNEUMONIA at the time (yep, that was a fun two & a half weeks - anyone want the mp3 i made of my death rattle?), i mostly stuck to the hotel hottub & repeatedly stole joe's hollyhat when outdoors.
some food logging:
4oz barely seared sashimi-grade albacore tuna & organic zucchini & yellow squash with coriander & ginger. such good fish i didn't even season it. 265 calories, 9g carb, 33g protein, 12g good fats, 3g fiber.
today's pretty lunchbox: organic carrots, a red pepper, celery, strawberries, half a bartlett pear, green leaf lettuce, & a zucchini. this is pretty carb-heavy, so i'll probably have sashimi or chicken breast for lunch. with a low-sugar packet of oatmeal & an emergen-c, this is 444 calories, 97g carb, 13g protein, 25g fiber, tons of A & C, 8mg iron & 2750mg potassium.
delicious seared opah & garlic baby bok choy. 166 calories, 6g carb, 27g protein, 114% each vitamin A & C, & a fifth of the day's potassium. it was a light dinner because i had a pretty heavy breakfast with lots of nuts, & it stayed with me.
finally feeling well enough to make a proper dinner. here's organic free-range no-antibiotic no-hormone vegetarian-fed skinless chicken breast tenders (what a pedigree) with a bit of thyme over sauteed peppers, onion, & roma with basil. i'm really happy with the chicken - it came out well seared & super juicy, & i have plenty for tomorrow too. 216 calories, 11g carb, 31g protein, 4g fiber.
rare seared ahi tuna & a salad of organic green leaf lettuce, red pepper, carrot, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, craisins, & a touch of pear viniagrette. i had the same thing last night (with the other half of the tuna steak) & it was so lovely i required an encore. 243 calories, 15g carb, 29g protein, 8g good fats, 4.5g fiber, 12kiu vitamin A & 99mg vitamin C.
3oz of delicious, juicy swordfish & a salad of organic mixed greens, criminis, red pepper, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, & a bit of pear vinaigrette. 252 calories, 13g carb, 25g protein, 11g good fats, a third A & two thirds C.
dinner tonight wasn't pretty enough to photograph, but i had a bowl of roasted spaghetti squash with heart-healthy mushroom spaghetti sauce, chopped fresh mushrooms, chopped clams, & pumpkin seeds. 278 calories, 41g carb, 13g protein, 9g fats, 8g fiber, & a fifth of the day's potassium. i have an identical mix for lunch tomorrow & can't wait. :D
i got to try a new kind of grape/cherry tomato recently - "sugary tomatoes". the name does not lie. i bought them thinking they were normal grape tomatoes, & they're SUPER sweet, utterly delicious. i ate an entire pint at work & made joe go buy three more while whole foods still had them.
i discovered recently that a guy i briefly dated in florida still, at 38, lives with his parents. i was surprised at the time, but he was going to school to become a nutritionist/physical trainer, & schooling is one of the only good reasons to live at home as a 30yo adult. he basically had a wing of his folks' gated-community mansion, which was neat but still kind of weird... like he had his own 2br/2bath apartment with no kitchen or living room. from what i can tell, he never finished school & apparently saw no point in moving out. i'm also amused to note that his teeth have yellowed horribly - what, he's not on mommy & daddy's dental plan? yes, there are many reasons we only had a few dates, haha.
anyhow, saramwrap is visiting this weekend for no reason whatsoever, & there's an impromptu movie marathon coming (based around paranormal activity 4), so that'll be fun. & in almost no time at all, we'll be flying across a large expanse of ocean, & our seat cushions may become floatation devices. omgchina!
i shook his hand (with the very hand that touched peter steele), & told him that during a vacation i made scamp & geoffrey take me to their home so i wouldn't miss an episode. he apologized for ruining my trip, the little charmer. i then tried to convince him to let me come over & watch his recordings of his jeopardy! spree; though i promised to only put my mouth on him if he asked me to (which tickled the crowd & flabbergasted ken), somehow i didn't get the invite. >_> it was pretty cool to touch meet him, anyhow.
i hosted another movie marathon recently, attended by me & gorthok, girlgoth & magnus, stephen & his new girl amelia, sic737, & travis. we watched cube, cube 2: hypercube, & cube zero. i first watched cube with rich when i lived in illinois, & joe & i had marathoned these ourselves a couple years back when we learned they made a sequel & prequel. they were more enjoyable this time, though having a bunch of friends around tends to give that effect. i wore bismuth in my lobes for their cube-i-ness - joe's genius idea. (i almost chose my portal plugs for the companion cubes, but i wore them last marathon.) we did not eat cube steak or bouillon cubes or diced salad with croutons or jello, nor did we make these, but it was still a blast.
we also got to use our other amazon local coupon to spur gastropub, the sister restaurant to the coterie room. the drink they brought me was passionfruit, orange, & grapefruit juice mixed into lemon soda, & it was lovely; joe had two yummy drinks that he reported were very rum-heavy, & the second must've had jalapeño juice in it with the way it finished hot.
we started with their summer tomato salad with mozzarella ice cream, arugula, tomato water granita & verjus gelée. this was so fresh & perfect, the thin layer of satiny ice cream bringing to mind tangy yogurt, but the real apex were those tomatoes. they were so absolutely ripe & red they just SCREAMED tomato, & i was reminded of violetta in portland. the gelée was fantastic, too, a welcome bright note on the palate. for mains, they brought us braised pork cheeks, summer corn pudding, roasted chanterelles, & charred pluot. OMG. the cheeks were beautiful, so well met by the toasty pluot, & i basically want to put chanterelles in everything now. the corn pudding was in two parts - the corn just barely cooked through, crisp & juicy, & a velvety corn purée. the server started to detail how the latter is made, & cut herself short with, "let's just say it's worked." we laughed, & it was delicious.
the dessert was a quenelle of huckleberry sorbet, a white chocolate & strawberry soil, honeycomb toffee, & red ribbon sorrel. the sorbet had a story: apparently someone in the kitchen ordered twenty pounds of huckleberries, & no one could figure out why. so they turned it into sorbet - & it made just two quarts. & every tiny bite burst forth with so much flavor & impact that you could taste all of the two pounds of fruit it took to produce your serving.
on the way home, joe was informed by a guy on the street, "you have excellent taste in women". we cracked up, & joe agreed. X)
speaking of excellent women:
Netherlands is special because she signed a postcard to my aunt & uncle with her name, Esther - & i was able to use "ther" in sequence, plus the s at the end with the tail of the r. (the E went to Egypt.) i also like the fancy preface to the e in Peru - she had written that to begin the character after the P i used, so i decided to keep it. for all i know, it was caused by the paper getting stuck to her hand or something, but the whole point is to make it look like she wrote these out herself, so i love using all the one-off variations i can find. :)
with separate capital letters, like Ethiopia & Peru above, i even overlay the original word so i can get the spacing right between characters 1 & 2.
so the trip to scarywood was cute though overly silly imo, but joe & travis & paul all seemed happy. considering i FUCKING HAD PNEUMONIA at the time (yep, that was a fun two & a half weeks - anyone want the mp3 i made of my death rattle?), i mostly stuck to the hotel hottub & repeatedly stole joe's hollyhat when outdoors.
some food logging:
4oz barely seared sashimi-grade albacore tuna & organic zucchini & yellow squash with coriander & ginger. such good fish i didn't even season it. 265 calories, 9g carb, 33g protein, 12g good fats, 3g fiber.
today's pretty lunchbox: organic carrots, a red pepper, celery, strawberries, half a bartlett pear, green leaf lettuce, & a zucchini. this is pretty carb-heavy, so i'll probably have sashimi or chicken breast for lunch. with a low-sugar packet of oatmeal & an emergen-c, this is 444 calories, 97g carb, 13g protein, 25g fiber, tons of A & C, 8mg iron & 2750mg potassium.
delicious seared opah & garlic baby bok choy. 166 calories, 6g carb, 27g protein, 114% each vitamin A & C, & a fifth of the day's potassium. it was a light dinner because i had a pretty heavy breakfast with lots of nuts, & it stayed with me.
finally feeling well enough to make a proper dinner. here's organic free-range no-antibiotic no-hormone vegetarian-fed skinless chicken breast tenders (what a pedigree) with a bit of thyme over sauteed peppers, onion, & roma with basil. i'm really happy with the chicken - it came out well seared & super juicy, & i have plenty for tomorrow too. 216 calories, 11g carb, 31g protein, 4g fiber.
rare seared ahi tuna & a salad of organic green leaf lettuce, red pepper, carrot, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, craisins, & a touch of pear viniagrette. i had the same thing last night (with the other half of the tuna steak) & it was so lovely i required an encore. 243 calories, 15g carb, 29g protein, 8g good fats, 4.5g fiber, 12kiu vitamin A & 99mg vitamin C.
3oz of delicious, juicy swordfish & a salad of organic mixed greens, criminis, red pepper, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, & a bit of pear vinaigrette. 252 calories, 13g carb, 25g protein, 11g good fats, a third A & two thirds C.
dinner tonight wasn't pretty enough to photograph, but i had a bowl of roasted spaghetti squash with heart-healthy mushroom spaghetti sauce, chopped fresh mushrooms, chopped clams, & pumpkin seeds. 278 calories, 41g carb, 13g protein, 9g fats, 8g fiber, & a fifth of the day's potassium. i have an identical mix for lunch tomorrow & can't wait. :D
i got to try a new kind of grape/cherry tomato recently - "sugary tomatoes". the name does not lie. i bought them thinking they were normal grape tomatoes, & they're SUPER sweet, utterly delicious. i ate an entire pint at work & made joe go buy three more while whole foods still had them.
i discovered recently that a guy i briefly dated in florida still, at 38, lives with his parents. i was surprised at the time, but he was going to school to become a nutritionist/physical trainer, & schooling is one of the only good reasons to live at home as a 30yo adult. he basically had a wing of his folks' gated-community mansion, which was neat but still kind of weird... like he had his own 2br/2bath apartment with no kitchen or living room. from what i can tell, he never finished school & apparently saw no point in moving out. i'm also amused to note that his teeth have yellowed horribly - what, he's not on mommy & daddy's dental plan? yes, there are many reasons we only had a few dates, haha.
anyhow, saramwrap is visiting this weekend for no reason whatsoever, & there's an impromptu movie marathon coming (based around paranormal activity 4), so that'll be fun. & in almost no time at all, we'll be flying across a large expanse of ocean, & our seat cushions may become floatation devices. omgchina!