Weekend accomplishments
Saturday I made eggs and toast for the 'rents and me; went to Asian Market and Rouse's; put groceries away, cleaned the kitchen, made a snack for Phil; washed and dried a load of towels; cleaned out my bureau drawers. Rouse's had catfish filets on sale, so I bought some and David pan-fried them in browned butter and made blue cheese coleslaw and buttermilk cornbread.
After supper I started watching Oppenheimer--thanks to mallorys_camera for reminding me to check streaming availability. I disliked Teller just as much as I did when I read American Prometheus, and as for Lawrence *pffft*. He was exactly the kind of comfortable white liberal King was writing about in Letter From Birmingham Jail. "I want to vote for desegregation, I don't want to listen to a bunch of angry colored people and commies demanding it!", as if the former is just going to magically appear on a ballot in the absence of the latter.
I worked on my printing press while watching it, which made me laugh to myself because Oppenheimer was famously bad at the "physical" part of physics, it's at least partly why he decided to specialize on the theoretical end. (His brother Frank on the other hand was very good at field work and lab stuff. He helped found the Exploratorium! Which is all about putting your hands on stuff.)
Anyway, I got to a point in the assembly where I would be able to tell if all the gears and springs were operating together, so moment of truth...
LJ will not embed this video for some reason so please click for a 5-second YouTube video
It works!! I still have a ways to go, but most of what's left is assembling the facade around the working parts and it should be easy.
I stopped the movie about halfway through because I really like to read for at least 90 minutes before bed, and I've started reading Green Mars, the middle book of the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy.
Sunday I made waffles and bacon for breakfast, which Phil specifically requested. Waffles are part of my normal rotation anyway. I changed/washed the bedsheets and finished Oppenheimer. The most satisfying part of the movie was wondering why Rami Malek was cast in a handful of blink-and-miss-it scenes with almost no dialogue, only for him to show up at the very end and kick Lewis Strauss in the balls in front of Congress and the entire world. Also: Gary Oldman as Truman, LOL.
I had less prep than usual so my afternoon was pretty chill. I made the pie early because it had to be cooled down, then chilled in the fridge, and I made lunch for the 'rents and folded the load of towels from Saturday. I finished my case of Yuengling and had some chili Fritos and read; I even had time to do a little more work on the printing press and watch an episode of Rome. ATTIAAAAA OF THE JULIIIIII I DEMAND JUSTICCCCCE
I haven't made okonomiyaki since I lived in California; it's something I used to make a lot because it was cheap. And since I did a lot of Asian cooking (and shopping in Asian supermarkets, where meat and produce were always cheaper) in those days, stuff like bonito flakes and Kewpie mayo were pantry staples.
It was just as delicious as I remember (and you can't see it under the egg but I got a perfect crosshatch pattern of okonimi sauce and mayo). I served it with some veggie spring rolls I got from the freezer case at Asian Market. Phil has this phrase he likes to say when we serve him anything a little different, "I've never had anything quite like this". Which usually makes us shrug, because his memory is what you'd expect for someone who's nearly 87 and most of the time it's something he's had dozens of times. But in this case it was probably true.
Dessert was Impossible Pie, one of the weirdest recipes in Baking Yesteryear:
You put all the ingredients--which includes a cup of shredded coconut--in a blender for 2 minutes, pour the results in a pie plate and bake for an hour, then chill for at least a couple of hours. It's basically a coconut chess pie, lots of eggs and sugar but very little dry ingredients.
After supper I watched the final episode of True Detective: Night Country. On the whole I'm reasonably satisfied with the conclusion, and I look forward to laughing at the inevitable deranged tweets from the far right online cesspool. IYKYK I still really like the first season of True Detective, but the complaints about it being extremely male-centered, with the female characters being paper thin (or just victims) are not entirely wrong. This felt like a conscious response to that, which makes the connections to that previous season feel meaningful and not just like Easter eggs meant to trigger the "DiCaprio pointing at the TV meme" response in diehards.
After supper I started watching Oppenheimer--thanks to mallorys_camera for reminding me to check streaming availability. I disliked Teller just as much as I did when I read American Prometheus, and as for Lawrence *pffft*. He was exactly the kind of comfortable white liberal King was writing about in Letter From Birmingham Jail. "I want to vote for desegregation, I don't want to listen to a bunch of angry colored people and commies demanding it!", as if the former is just going to magically appear on a ballot in the absence of the latter.
I worked on my printing press while watching it, which made me laugh to myself because Oppenheimer was famously bad at the "physical" part of physics, it's at least partly why he decided to specialize on the theoretical end. (His brother Frank on the other hand was very good at field work and lab stuff. He helped found the Exploratorium! Which is all about putting your hands on stuff.)
Anyway, I got to a point in the assembly where I would be able to tell if all the gears and springs were operating together, so moment of truth...
LJ will not embed this video for some reason so please click for a 5-second YouTube video
It works!! I still have a ways to go, but most of what's left is assembling the facade around the working parts and it should be easy.
I stopped the movie about halfway through because I really like to read for at least 90 minutes before bed, and I've started reading Green Mars, the middle book of the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy.
Sunday I made waffles and bacon for breakfast, which Phil specifically requested. Waffles are part of my normal rotation anyway. I changed/washed the bedsheets and finished Oppenheimer. The most satisfying part of the movie was wondering why Rami Malek was cast in a handful of blink-and-miss-it scenes with almost no dialogue, only for him to show up at the very end and kick Lewis Strauss in the balls in front of Congress and the entire world. Also: Gary Oldman as Truman, LOL.
I had less prep than usual so my afternoon was pretty chill. I made the pie early because it had to be cooled down, then chilled in the fridge, and I made lunch for the 'rents and folded the load of towels from Saturday. I finished my case of Yuengling and had some chili Fritos and read; I even had time to do a little more work on the printing press and watch an episode of Rome. ATTIAAAAA OF THE JULIIIIII I DEMAND JUSTICCCCCE
I haven't made okonomiyaki since I lived in California; it's something I used to make a lot because it was cheap. And since I did a lot of Asian cooking (and shopping in Asian supermarkets, where meat and produce were always cheaper) in those days, stuff like bonito flakes and Kewpie mayo were pantry staples.
It was just as delicious as I remember (and you can't see it under the egg but I got a perfect crosshatch pattern of okonimi sauce and mayo). I served it with some veggie spring rolls I got from the freezer case at Asian Market. Phil has this phrase he likes to say when we serve him anything a little different, "I've never had anything quite like this". Which usually makes us shrug, because his memory is what you'd expect for someone who's nearly 87 and most of the time it's something he's had dozens of times. But in this case it was probably true.
Dessert was Impossible Pie, one of the weirdest recipes in Baking Yesteryear:
You put all the ingredients--which includes a cup of shredded coconut--in a blender for 2 minutes, pour the results in a pie plate and bake for an hour, then chill for at least a couple of hours. It's basically a coconut chess pie, lots of eggs and sugar but very little dry ingredients.
After supper I watched the final episode of True Detective: Night Country. On the whole I'm reasonably satisfied with the conclusion, and I look forward to laughing at the inevitable deranged tweets from the far right online cesspool. IYKYK I still really like the first season of True Detective, but the complaints about it being extremely male-centered, with the female characters being paper thin (or just victims) are not entirely wrong. This felt like a conscious response to that, which makes the connections to that previous season feel meaningful and not just like Easter eggs meant to trigger the "DiCaprio pointing at the TV meme" response in diehards.