Look, I actually cooked!

I finally made the curry! (A couple days ago.) Yes it was easy, yes I could've done this in Japan, but I was just that lazy. If you look closely, you'll notice that the kabocha is nothing but rinds. Oops. One time G and I made curry with kabocha but didn't put it in soon enough and it was hard. Guess I overcompensated.

It's no replacement for any curry house back in Japan, but it's good enough for at home in America cooking. I guess I should try to find a curry place up here.

I also made this pasta thing with bacon and fava beans. It was good, but definitely could've used more bacon and beans. Nice easy recipe, but it still took me way too long because of the bean prep. And the only grocery store that had fava beans was Whole Foods! Rargh. I went to Safeway, Trader Joe's, probably QFC too...nothing. Had to buy stupid organic hippie beans from the expensive store.


Poor presentation, I know. But it was good. And more importantly, one step closer to being able to eat carbonara again.

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But gravy sounds delicious!

What's supposed to be on it? Wikipedia seems to think it's gravy!

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All Muddied up again.

Went geocaching, third time this week and probably the last trip for a very long time. Went stomping through ivy, slid down more than one muddy embankment. I found one in about 30 seconds that M couldn't find after two other trips. He's now found 103, 50 of which I was there for. 50! Pretty amazing. I finally signed up for an account so I can start logging them too. Well, next time, which probably won't happen until I get my own GPS thingy.

My poor neglected kabocha is growing fuzz. Sad.

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Went geocaching again.

His girlfriend is out of town this weekend, so I have a friend again. 4 hours today, but allll walking, even though we probably should've driven a lot of it. We found a nice hidden bench with a view of the lake, and didn't get stung by nettles this time.

Didn't cook, I'll sort through photos eventually.

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I like it here #1

Well, official #1:

It's 11:20pm on a Friday night, and my nasty loud street is mostly silent. A few cars whisper by. No more big rigs, no motorcycles or revving engines. Just a reminder that I don't live in the sticks anymore (ohh--sad realization--I'll miss the crazy loud frogs. And the fireflies. Aw.).

I was going to say that if this were LA, it'd be just as loud (well, without the stupid big rigs) at night, but this isn't the same as Sunset Blvd or Santa Monica Blvd (my sister's place, not mine...). I live less than a mile from the grocery store, the bank, even a movie theater, but I live in a residential area. A neighborhood, with a well-recognized name. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's wonderful.

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Already scheming.

Once I start making money, I'm going to try poutine! On this side of the border! Aren't you proud of me D? (I know I know, I'll try it up there eventually. I'll drag G with me.)

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Hmmm.

What exactly does one say to a friend of a friend of a friend who myspace bulletins her entire friend list (which includes me) to tell us she's getting divorced? Crazy. And a little sad. It's an amicable split, but I don't think I could just lay it out there like that. I guess that's how it works these days.

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Dammit.

I don't know if I should be relieved that I just re-found a sizable stack of traveler's checks or if I should be very very ashamed that I've had a month's worth of rent kicking around in a box for the past handful--no wait--six months. Even longer if you note that one set was from my trip to Malaysia, in 2005.

Oh well, it's a happy ending either way. Now I don't have to live off $50 for the month of June.

And I put together a bench! Three for three!

(Pictures later, I deserve dinner now.)

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No curry tonight.

Today was a gorgeous day. California blue skies and warm. So I IMed M (the guy I stayed with) and we went geocaching. His hobby, not mine. Yet. (In a nutshell, geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunt using GPS coordinates.) How long? For about seven hours. Seven hours of wandering through parks and the city, looking for little boxes. It's a lot of fun, and I'm not nearly as tired as I thought I'd be. Well, we didn't walk for seven hours...lots of driving here and there. The longest hike was about two hours because we had to go down this winding path to the beach.

But it was so great to be outside with a purpose under blue skies! I don't think I'm homesick, but I kept pointing out places that reminded me of home (which could be either Japan or SD. There's a drive along the coast that reminds me of Aji and Yashima.). And now it's 8:20pm, and the sun is still out. Feels like 5pm. Kind of makes me want to go back out again, maybe go take a picture of this awesome view I didn't have my camera for this afternoon (the skyline, with the needle and Mt. Rainier!). But it's just the sunlight getting to me. If it were more evening-like, I'm sure I'd be settling in for the night. This weather is super great, but it also makes me fear the cold dark winters.

Time for dinner, pictures later, I promise!

(Right, and no curry because I'm definitely too tired to mess with it. Not sure if it'll be like real J-curry (highly doubtful), but I'll settle for recreating the curry I grew up with. And hey, the directions on the box are in Japanese (and English). That's got to count for something, right?

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Total Accident, I swear.

I currently have five kinds of cheese in my refrigerator: cream cheese, ricotta, romano, swiss, and american. Other dairy includes milk, cream, and yogurt.

I knew I liked cheese, but I didn't I was that bad.

Another "accident": buying a ten pound bag of potatoes, because it cost the same as six pounds of the unbagged ones. Mmm potatoes. Guess I'll have to get some sour cream.

Goal for tomorrow: Japanese curry for dinner. With kabocha!

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Picture this:

I'm hungry but I refuse to stand up because I got blisters from walking almost six miles in zori. I seriously intend to only eat food that I can reach without standing up.

Good thing I just made a trip to Uwajimaya (Japanese/Asian food superstore) and I haven't put everything away yet. Hooray Pocky!

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It's raining.

I don't think I'll mind it, but ask me again in a couple months. The endless blue of back home can't be traded for all this green. I've got a great view of trees from half of my windows. I did make this realization: even though I live on the top floor, I can't hear the rain because of the attic above me. The landlady said that it's just crawlspace, but I seem to remember there being a window up there. Oh well. It's just weird seeing the rain and hearing the traffic but not the rain.

Oh, and there are two cars parked across the street. Funny, as that isn't parking. Also funny was a guy running by, and then another guy chasing after him. Hmm. I wonder what'll happen. I'll keep an eye out for 911 calls.

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Target trip

Purchases: this pillow, hopefully for the green-black-white bedroom and super glue for one of my poor broken chawan. (Thankfully one from college, not a handmade Japan one.)

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Salad for Dinner!

Here's that salad I ate a few days ago on the new plates I bought. Gold star for color!




I'm proud of the plates mostly because the bowls are good for udon (once I find/make it) and the mugs feel good. I kinda wish it was a set of 6, not 4, but what can you do? Practically speaking, I don't need service for 8.

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Color Ideas

Bedroom: light green (not sure if I want to lean towards yellow or blue), accented by black and white, maybe a little light blue. Like this, but no checkerboard. (Although I would totally do that in a kitchen or bathroom if I had the money and the burning desire to redo the floors):



Kitchen: As the carpet is industrial slate blue (a plus while I sit on the floor, quiet crappy once I start cooking and spilling), I think it'll have to be my blue room. What else can I do really? My plates are blue too. There's this awesome mirror I love, but I think it's only because it's reflecting the colors I want. Someday I'll have a room stylish enough for it (and the pocketbook to pay for it. Almost $200, F that.)



I'd love to sneak in some minimal red accents, like a red tea kettle or a photo of the HEP 5 roller coaster in Osaka (...the red one, with the red whales in the mall, seen it?), but I'd also settle for fitting this photo of my backyard in--just the photo, not necessarily the colors:


No clue about the living room yet. I feel like it should be warm tones, just because I'm going for blue and green in the other rooms. I wish I could furnish things with a bit more sophistication, but without a job, I suppose it's wisest to stick to ikea for now. And I'm not really a showroom sophistication sort of person anyway. Been spending too much time with the Crate and Barrel catalog. Bah.

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Small wtf:

I'm on a roll.

There's a site where you can check real-time 911 incidents, and today, there's a handful of brush fires. Brush fires? So it doesn't rain here for a week and suddenly there's brush fires? No wait, it was raining early this morning.

It's probably just the hobos, or the hooligans or the college kids, and it's probably not in the scale of what I've grown up around, but still. Seattle gets brush fires? Crazy.

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Hey Seattle Drivers:

Since the weather's been nice lately, a lot of you have been driving with your windows down and your sun roof open. I don't blame you. I've got all my apartment windows open, despite the loud rush of four-lane traffic.

But for those of you who play your music loud enough for me to hear in my non-street-side bathroom, know that I take a great deal of pleasure in judging your music. I've heard more country pop (SUVs) than I expected for the Northwest. And just now a mid-thirties yuppie in a nice car was blasting Hotel California. I didn't mind him so much, although his car suggested he was a douche bag.

PS: Thank you for patiently letting me out of my scary parking spot. Somehow I don't think that'd happen in LA without a great deal of aggressive malice on my part.

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Olive Bars?

Olive bars.

Is this a Northwestern thing (I've only noticed them in Oregon and Seattle), a yuppie thing, or a new trend that I missed while I was away? Now, I like olives, and I'll probably break down and buy some for snacking, but it seems a bit pretentious to me. An entire section devoted to fresh olives, as long as the salad bar.

It's almost as strange as the full service gas stations in Oregon and parts of northern California. I'll post a mini rant about that later.

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Ikea Trip: 90% successful.

Dresser and bathroom cart purchased. Extra purchases: plastic colander and utensil holder that will hopefully fit in my plastic magnetic bin that will go on the fridge. Refrained from buying floor cushions, because I'm not sure if I've got the floor space for them. They're frickin' huge! I even put together the bathroom cart within an hour of coming home. Piece of cake.

Minus 10%: The heavy dresser box is still in my trunk. Also, I opened the other dresser box, took out all the pieces, sorted all the brackets and doohickey things, and got thoroughly intimidated at the thought of putting everything together.

Too many damn things to consider. Bedroom first, I suppose.

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Thursday, Day 6

Researched storage containers (how the hell do you convert quart storage to pound storage? I found tips for flour and sugar, but what about brown sugar? Powdered sugar? Cream of Wheat? Do you see why this takes me so long), attempted to shower numerous times, finally succeeding around 3pm. Tried to determine if any Macy's stock the microwave I bought last week, because online Macy's got it on sale for 10 bucks cheaper (doesn't seem to exist in the Seattle area).

Finally forced myself to leave at 7pm for a stroll to the grocery store. (15 minutes, along an interesting street.) Trips to the grocery store are a lot more pleasant when it's no longer necessary to haul milk and juice home. I bought salad stuff, a little cheese, and a couple cans of tomato soup. I did not buy tuna, mayonnaise, or anything else heavy that I wanted. Go me.

I walked home, wondering where Dave Matthews lives.

I had a huge salad for dinner. No meat, and still full! Amazing. Wow, I think today was completely vegetarian. Whoops. I guess it helps that the only meat I have in here is lunch meat and a bit of beef jerky. I wonder what essential nutrients I missed out on.

Well, iodine for one. I accidentally bought un-iodized salt, and even though it was 67 cents, I can't bring myself to toss it. I'm sure there's enough iodized salt in the processed crap I eat...which I really don't eat that often. Oh well. I highly doubt I'll get a goiter.

Didn't get horribly sick from the taco-mobile. Hooray! Although I did pass out for a bit, but I think that's because the apt isn't clean enough, or my hair wasn't dry enough, or something mundane like that.

I think tomorrow will be Ikea day. Dresser, small cart for the bathroom, hopefully very few knickknacks. I'd like to get some floor pillows, although so far I've only seen picnicky ones. I didn't think I'd miss zabuton, but there ya go. I should probably just break down and buy that couch, although big purchases like that scare me. And I'm still not satisfied with the living room layout.

I hate that I'll probably make numerous trips to Ikea, just like Target (I already have a handful of things I want to return) and Fry's. But I just can't plan an entire apartment in one go. The current stumbling block is trying to accessorize everything in blue, because, well, I like blue. But even I've realized that a blue living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom is overkill. The bathroom and kitchen are already blue by fate of stuff I already own. I'd love to get a sage green (like my mixer!) into the bedroom or living room, but right I'm so overwhelmed with everything else that I can't make up my mind.

So here's a new call for opinions (onegai!): colors for the living room and bedroom. I'm not sure I want to paint yet, but I know I'll need to buy sheets and a couch.

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Dinners thus far

So far, dinner has been at most, a five-minute walk away. The closest grocery store is less than a mile away, and once I finish with the massive shopping trips, I'll probably walk over when I want light things like fruit and bread. How awesome is that?

But yes, here are my dinners. When you come to visit, there'll be plenty of fun places to go. I haven't tried the real restaurants yet, as I'm not quite ready to eat out on my own, and I've only gone south, so there's probably a million other fun places to discover.

Saturday night: Deluxe burger and fries from Dick's Drive-in
It totally still looks like a drive-in, complete with rotating sign.

Sunday night: Slice of chicken pesto pizza from Pudge Brothers
You can buy it by the giant slice, and they're open 'til 11.

Monday night: leftover pizza
I bought three slices of pizza. I was really hungry and I figured it'd be good to have leftovers. Somehow it didn't register that I could've just walked over for a fresh slice. It'll take me awhile to get over that.

Tuesday night: plain pasta and corn.
Nice to see you again Apathy. We can also blame that on a poorly stocked pantry and an overwhelming urge to try out my new pans.

Wednesday night: Bravo burrito and horchata from the taco-mobile.
Very disappointed that they only used one tortilla to wrap it, even though it definitely needed two. But they've got tamales, so I'll be going back soon. And it's a taco-mobile! I can't wait to get food poisoning again.

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Time to help me furnish my apartment.

Help me! D, I know you've been waiting for this. Everyone else can play too.

So, here I have this lovely empty apartment, and I need to start filling it with crap. Well, not clutter-crap, I have plenty of that waiting to be unpacked--but real crap, like furniture. I think I'll be borrowing G's bed (a huge queen! I don't need that!), and I've got a coffee table, a small bookshelf, and a small bedstand/end table. That's it.

So you've seen the spaces, now I need some advice. Where do I put everything?

Here's my awesome bedroom thus far:


The lump on the right will be a dresser of some sort, and I might want to put a desk in front of the window. But it's a nice bright window, and it'd be great to have a bright place to sit and read. And yes, I need a nice wide dresser (up to the window), because the closet space is tiny.

Here's the living room:



The boxes on the bottom are where I think I want the couch to go. I've got enough space for a three-seater, right? So here's the problem: where to put a desk? I think there'll be two desks total, so I was thinking, maybe one in the left corner facing the wall, one on the left side of the windows? But I love the view, and was thinking about putting this bench there.

It's the perfect size. If I didn't have to worry about desks and a tv stand, I'd put two under the window, or maybe one with two end tables on the ends, but then you'd lose the wall to lean on. But yeah. I want to go out and buy things, but I also know I need to plan this out.

So what do you guys think? Two desks cluttering the living room, which doesn't have much natural light, or one in the bedroom, sacrificing the bright corner? And what about the bench idea?

Help meeee!

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I HAVE INTERNET!!!!

That's the exciting part. Here's the more mundane stuff:

I drove up from SD a few days ago. I stopped in SJ and in Eugene, (Oregon). Some of it was unbearably boring, especially once I got desensitized to the endless green--quite a contrast to the dusty Central Valley. I got shamelessly excited when I saw Mount Shasta peek through the hills, and I was bummed that I couldn't see Mount St. Helens or Mount Rainier, although you can see Mt. Rainier when you drive south on the 5, and that's a bitchin' view.

Uhm, I've been to Fry's (Electronics) twice, and will probably go back for a vacuum cleaner even though it's a 30 minute drive. 30 minutes is nothing now compared to The Drive. Tonight I chatted with two employees about vacuum cleaners and a lot of other stuff. It's nice to find people as starved for attention as I am.

OOOh! I saw Rent on Sunday. My second time. I might do a long review later, I haven't decided.

So much other stuff, but I'm going to go play on the internet now. It's good to be back.

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The Joy of Acquisition.

I went to bed at two and woke up around 6 or 7 two days in a row. I was barely human on Saturday, when I went to the church (temple) used furniture sale at 7am. I'm still kind of out of it now (Sunday), but I got some good stuff--a shoe rack that I had seen at a real store, a collapsible bookcase painted an amusing shade of green, a small outdoor table (also collapsible), and a sweet coffee table.

The coffee table I'm especially proud of. It's sleek and solid and there's even a page on the web devoted to it. On the underside, the maker, design patent number, style number, and serial number are all branded on. My coffee table has a serial number. Kinda awesome if you ask me. It's probably too big, but it's at a great height for eating. If it's wide enough for a set up of Settlers of Catan, then I'm totally set.

Hmmm. Board games. If anyone sees Looping Louie for under 40USD (including shipping), let me know. It's become the next thing to lust after...

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Yeah, Way Disorienting.

It's 8:50pm, and it's still quite dusk-like outside.

Summer's gonna mess with me. As is winter.

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I have an apartment!

I'm doing it all out of order, aren't I? Oh well. I have an apartment now! It's completely empty, and only a little bit bigger than my Japan apartment (~516 sq. ft.), but I have one! It's part of a house (but separate), and the landlady is really nice. I feel really satisfied with this place.

Hasty pictures are here, on one of the old blogs.

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Lots of TV (and Links)

Tonight is a very Whedonesque evening.

I was watching How I Met Your Mother, which stars Alyson Hannigan, and Tom Lenk (who looks kinda creepy these days as a brunette) shows up as a barista at a local coffee shop. (They were both on Buffy.) Some guy dates that woman from Firefly (Morena Baccarin), and then I see a commercial for Drive, which has Nathan Fillion (also from Firefly) in it. Then we change the channel and watch 24, which has D.B. Woodside as the president. (He was a principal on Buffy.) And while I can think of exactly one of you (hi L!) that would be impressed that I remembered these people, I'm still very proud of myself.

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But what do they say in Osaka?

From the wikipedia article about ochazuke:

In Kyoto, ochazuke is known as bubuzuke. When a Kyoto native asks if a guest wants to eat bubuzuke, it really means that the person has overstayed and is being politely asked to leave.

But I like ochazuke! And I probably would've accepted the offer. Dammit. Glad I don't have to worry about that ever again.

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Having tons of fun, wish u were here.

It's somewhere between day 5 and day 6. Yesterday I bought a wireless card, so now I'm back on my own computer. Hooray internet!

I really like it here. There are a million more buses to take, but so far, manageable. Japan prepared me well for this. I had an awesome sandwich yesterday from a bakery. I went for a hike in Discovery Park with G's brother. I'll share more, but it's 3am, and I just wanted to take advantage of having internet bedside. Yay!

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I should be packing.

But I just realized something interesting, that of course must be shared.

I recently bought a pair of pointy heels for interviews, and I think I've finally broken them in. However, I can't decide if I stretched the leather, or if I realigned the bones in my feet. Gross, huh?

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Getting old.

I have a cousin who's 17. We're myspace friends. She has "Crash Into Me" by the Dave Matthews Band playing on her page. She was 6 when that album came out, and 8 or 9 when I got into the band. I'm grateful she's got decent taste in music, but it sure is weird.

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Send me good vibes.

I'm going up to Seattle on Wednesday, so things will be quiet here. No job prospects, I'm just going. One-way, but mostly because you can get cheap one-way tickets with Southwest.

I am currently the following:

1. Quietly freaking out. Lots of fidgeting.
2. In denial. Plenty of laundry still to be done.
3. Amused that my spontaneity only surfaces big. I have all the time in the world--I could've gone to Disneyland, I could've learned to bake bread, but noooo. It's gotta be a plane ticket. Well, a plane ticket and kitchen stuff.
   
4. Happy that I'm finally disrupting my stagnant life
5. Trying to pack less than four pairs of shoes. Ugh.

I need to go do laundry and tweak my resume. Bleh.

Fun trivia fact: It is almost exactly four years (four years, two weeks) since the last time I visited. Amusing.

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(But I wish it was.)

Yes I stole this from CA's facebook.

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Asian food store bonanza.

[Heads up, this entry is full of Japan stuff.]

To balance out the mediocre curry restaurant, today was also an Asian food store bonanza. We went to Nijiya, Mitsuwa, and Ranch 99 in search of dashi (soup stock) ingredients (the usual dried shiitake mushrooms, dried sardines, and kombu (dried kelp)) and udon flour (which doesn't seem to exist down here, I just got a high-gluten wheat flour instead). I also helped my dad pick out some nodoame (throat-soothing candy, not quite cough drops). He's pretty into it. We also found one of our favorite candies ever, the fizzy Mitsuya cider ones. My dad's a Big Fan. He bought three bags. Awesome. Also grabbed a box of the kurogo pocky, which is full of five kinds of black things, but I can only recognize two. Any exciting new pocky flavors in Japan I should keep an eye out for? I didn't check for the weird kitkats, but those weren't my favorite. Fruit parfait-flavored? Sakura-flavored? Green tea-flavored? Don't miss 'em.

I saw the conditioner I used in Japan. Twice as expensive. Dammmmit. All the other ones--Lux and a few others I recognized--were pretty close to Japan prices.

I also bought a Kateigaho magazine, which I still don't approve of, but it had an article on Konpira-san, so I had to get it. Stupid expensive though. The American subscription price isn't that bad, but I put down almost 20 bucks on a single issue. Ugh.

For people who haven't seen a Kateigaho magazine before, it's a beautiful, glossy magazine about Japanese arts and culture. While there have been some really fascinating articles about woodwork, textiles, and uhm, other stuff, they're fond of putting geisha on the cover. The guilt I feel while reading it is the same feeling I get when I read a women's fashion magazine.

Tonight the dashi stuff is soaking, tomorrow we're having udon! With real (frozen) Sanuki udon! It's packaged by Shirakiku (nationwide brand), so I doubt it was even made in Kagawa, but still, Hooray!

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Mini Food Review: Curry House

There's really nothing special about Curry House (a Japanese curry chain restaurant), so I'm not going to write a long review. The curry was soupy, not much curry spice. Croquettes were small and disturbingly orange. And no pickled onions. I'm pretty sure I've been to the LA branch before I went to Japan, but it didn't leave me with any standout memories.

There were plenty of Japanese people there, the staff spoke Japanese, and the menu was bilingual. But overall, I wasn't impressed. It even made me miss the You-me Town Kirin Curry.

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8am at the optometrist's.

I love my optometrist. He's still the only one I've visited, mostly because I was still covered by my parents until I left for Japan. (Oh dependent student status, you were so good to me.) I still remember the opticians by name, the JA woman who always talks about her daughters and how wonderful they are, and the other woman with the little bitty dogs. Err, they're less obnoxious than they sound. I promise.

So this morning I had my eyes checked, and I was about to stick my face on the...uhm...eye thing with all the dials for changing the lenses...fine, an optical refractor. A phoropter. This thing:

(Except a lot more beige and friendly looking.)

So I lean in, and even without my glasses on, I notice a greasy smear of foundation where you rest your cheek. (There was some mascara too.) I point it out to my optometrist, and he apologizes. The woman who usually takes care of that is out sick...it was probably one of the last patients yesterday...you never know what you can get these days, with our insecure borders...some people have tuberculosis and they keep crossing the border anyway and sometimes they haven't finished treatment and they're all over the place...in our schools and it's terrible, those insecure borders.

Like whoa. Like whoa. It was surreal, like having that sort of conversation with family. And yes, I've got family members like that too. My sister and I cynically decided that's what happens when you get old. You get racist. It's like getting a bad rash, it makes you all sorts of illogical and crazy. And yeah, I understand the whole mental crystallization thing, how it's harder to adapt when you get older...but still. Not exactly shocking, but still jarring. I've been seeing this guy (and his wife, also an optometrist) for...over twenty years. They still have this ratty, dusty clown on a swing up in the corner.

This is turning into a nostalgia post, so I'll save that for later. Just wanted to share my morning.

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Briefly back on the wagon.

And I made chocolate mousse tonight! It tasted...exactly like it came from a Kitchenaid manual-slash-recipe book. (Which it did.) Think like the nougat from a 3 Musketeers bar, but chocolaty. Yeah. Sad. But I got to try the hand blender out (it's huge!) and I didn't have to separate eggs, so yay me. Someday I'll try real chocolate mousse. Someday.

Riiight. I bought a hand blender because it was super on sale. Sue me. Once I started comparing kitchen appliances to shoes, I got all spendy. I mean, I'm willing to drop money on shoes, but I balk at kitchen items? Where's the logic in that? Yes, the hand blender is way frivolous, but so were those silver boots I love so much but have only worn once. And that blender was way cheaper than the silver boots.

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It was bound to happen eventually.

Charlie from Ugly Betty is also Charlie from Heroes. Oh, and her name is Jayma Mays, but that's not the important part.

You think I would've picked up on that.

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Pain has never been so interesting.

"The Schmidt Sting Pain Index [wikipedia link, via boingboing] or The Justin O. Schmidt Pain Index is a scale rating the relative pain caused by different Hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist for whom the index is named."

Not only is it informative, it's well-written. Here, have a taste:
1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.

This post is dedicated to O, who will probably be stung by most of this list, if he hasn't been already. It is also dedicated to him because he's probably not doing much right now. Good luck with the ACL recovery, buddy.

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Eerie.

[Warning: this is the closest I'll ever get to geeking out over something tech-like.]

So I found this great Firefox extension that lets you block ads. (Link to Lifehacker post.) Goodbye flashing ads, goodbye talking smiley faces. But once they were gone, it started to creep me out. Like being at work and suddenly, no one's around. (In Japan, for the non-JETs, this is usually a big Oh Shit moment when you try to figure out if there's an assembly in the gym that you should be at, or if it's a training session that you are mercifully left out of.) I'm sure tomorrow I'll forget I even added the blocker, but right now, it's strangely silent on the web.

Eeriness aside, if you're using Firefox, and you're willing to figure out how it all works, adblock is a great way to go. (Link to developer's site.) It's not automatic, you have to pick out the names of files you want to block, but that means complete control. And you guyses know that's perfect for me.

I'll post screen shots of the difference later.

(There's a few other good extensions, like Down Them All, a better download manager and Foxmarks, a way to automatically backup your bookmarks for the day when your computer eventually crashes.)

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Pat yourselves on the back.

I would like to thank those of you who write/blog for being thoughtful, expressive writers who are witty and observant, grammatically correct, and judgmental only in fits of well-justified rage.

In other words, I've met some blogs over the years that I can't stand, and just like scabs I want to pick, there just isn't enough time in my life to obsess about them.

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If I were a conniving little weasel...

...I would cut off the proof of purchase stickers for the three mixers I've received and send them in for three $30 rebates and six magazine subscriptions. (It'd be three copies each of two magazines, but hey, I've got friends!) All it takes is the proof of purchase and a dated packing slip. Man. But I'm all for respecting karma, so I'll just send in the final one. So long as it arrives by March 31st. If it doesn't arrive in time, I'm totally using one of the old ones to get the rebate in time.

And yep, I think it's about time I added a new label. (See end of post.)

Ohhhhh, and the itchy fingers bought some nice measuring spoons and measuring cups. (Not me! The itchy fingers!) The guilt is pretty bad, but I'll need them eventually! And I went through two sets in college, mostly because I was fond of using the tablespoon for scooping cookie dough. So now, no more paint scraping off! No more rubbed off measurement labels! I'll...buy a melon baller for scooping cookie dough...[updated 3.19: "melon ballers for cookies" are called dishers, and they come in a bunch of different sizes. Another gadget! I'm screwed.] And it's not like I bought the All-Clad ones that are "inspired by their classic sauce pan". Or the ones made to look like normal spoons, as humbly appealing as they are.

For those of you who appreciate how absurd I am, the UPS guy will be coming at least four times in the next week...probably more like six times. He's already been here at least ten times. Blame the mixers. And the itchy fingers.

Look! Shiny!

And shinier! (= more expensive!)

Not as shiny, but I bet I would accidentally use one for cereal.

I also bet I would try to use the 1/2 teaspoon when I ran out of clean spoons.

[Update #2: I am a clever monkey! I bought the spoons just in time! One day later, Amazon is sold out and it'll take 4-6 weeks to restock. The only other retailer sells the set for an additional $4 PLUS $10 for shipping. Yay for me!]

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It pays to be a pack rat.

Today was like Christmas! My dad remembered a bunch of extra kitchen stuff in the den--castoffs from my grandmother when she moved to a smaller house, and from my aunt who left stuff here after she moved--and hauled it out for me. Three boxes! The first box wasn't that exciting...a Laurel Birch mug, (link to image search, you'll know it when you see it), some unappealing stemware, and a box for a sauce pan that contained a couple glasses and a dolphin paperweight that I used to be fascinated by as a child. I might take that.

Boxes 2 and 3 made up for the first box. Pyrex bakeware! A pizza pan! A lead crystal serving bowl! I won't list it all, but much more useful than, say barbecue tongs. Although I do see the merit in keeping those for later. Hmm. Anyway.

All the stuff that should've gone with me to college (well, not the lead crystal) but ended up forgotten in a corner of the den. All the things that should've gone to my sister had she not inherited all of my college stuff. Lucky me! My embarrassingly long list of kitchen supplies has been cut down, and I can feel a little less guilty about buying a giant stand mixer and an immersion blender before getting practical things like, oh, plates and cups. Plates and cups have a better chance of breaking in a big move! Ha. I just came up with that justification.

So yay for saving things! I just know there's more (from where I'm sitting I can see a juice pitcher and tumbler set and more tupperware), but this is a good start. Also, I feel a little bad pawing through my parents' stuff, even if they've never used it.

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Number Three is ALSO going back.

It has as an even bigger patch of missing paint. Like someone smeared it while the paint was still setting.

I wonder how long it's going to take before I get a flawless mixer? I feel a little guilty, because that's another trip for the UPS guy, but I wouldn't stand for a shirt with a hole in it, no matter how small. Yes, it's a cosmetic flaw, and I wouldn't be surprised if I someday chipped a little paint off myself. Yet I'm not going to settle for a $250 piece of equipment that's been "broken in" for me.

::sigh::

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Recockulous.

Mixer #2 is going back because there's a chip in the paint, the size of half of a pencil eraser. There's a chance it'll rust, so the customer service rep didn't want to take any chances. (I even asked if I could keep it once I realized she wanted to send me a new one. I'm going to be really sad if I get downgraded...)

It's a great mixer, works fine. But the time line is getting ridiculous:

2.11 ordered the mixer
2.14 mixer arrived with a nicked electrical cord and a scraped paddle
3.06 mixer #2 arrives with a defective whisk.
3.07 mixer loses paint
3.08 customer service says it's going back.

I should've kept my mouth shut.

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Adventures in Online Shopping

Yesterday I got my package from JCrew. I splurged on final sale scarves. Too bad one came in black instead of the bright blue I wanted, and it's vanished from all retail stores "from Boston to Los Angeles." I think I'll keep it, because it was $15 and I'm too lazy to go to a real store to see if I prefer "heather latte," "heather silver," or "muslin." At least it's not a terrible color, and it's wasn't something I was really attached to in the first place. I'm just a sucker for a $15 scarf.

So that's my JCrew story. Today's story is more exciting.

Today the UPS guy came again (poor guy, that's the fifth time in a month) with my replacement mixer. Hooray! It even came in a pretty box with all the features printed on the sides. (The first mixer came in a regular cardboard box.) And I opened it! And it's...the wrong color. Crap, I thought. Two days in a row. At least it's not white. It's this pearly greenish color.

Which only is available on the pro 600 mixers, the top consumer model at the moment.

And then it sank in, I got an upgrade! For free! Should I tell them? It's on the invoice, so that means they know what happened, right? After I set up the new mixer and checked for flaws (none! except that one of the wires on the whisk was detached--I'll just swap that with the old one), I wondered if I should report the error. That's a $100 difference on amazon. I finally decided to be a terrible, opportunistic person and keep the new one.

Then my mother came home, read the invoice, and noticed this lovely line that I overlooked:
DO NOT TRW NO PRODUCT LEFT.

And that, according to me, means that they didn't have any more pistachio 450 watt mixers. Instead of trying to give me a different color (or maybe because they were completely out of that model), they gave me the closest color in a 600 watt mixer. Hooray! Hooray for KitchenAid customer service! And absolutely, hooray for dumb luck.

I'm going to break it in tomorrow with that molasses cookie recipe. Hopefully nothing explodes on the initial run. But still, yay for happy endings!

They're multiplying.
(I didn't like the pearly finish at first, or the darker color, but I think I can get used to it.)

And here's your bonus for reading my second obsessive kitchenaid post! Say hello to Waffles, my sister's new puppy.

Like Pepper (the family dog), but smaller and dare I say it, smarter.
And itty-bitty! More later.

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Another name mix-up.

Although to my own credit, I had a vague idea about who was who, but I also used to think they were the same person.

Mel Tormé was a jazz singer. He composed the music for The Christmas Song. His awesome nickname is The Velvet Fog. I can't name any song he's famous for, but I do remember that he was on Night Court.

Mel Blanc was a voice actor. He was the guy who did Porky Pig as we know him. (There's been a few others.) His awesome nickname is The Man of a Thousand Voices. I had no idea what he looked like until I looked him up on wikipedia.

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Self-control and a funny picture.

Be proud of me: here is a list of things that I didn't blog about today:

• the putrid throat chunk that dislodged itself while I was eating chocolate. Look at your pinky nail. About that big. One of the few things that actually disgust me is putrid throat chunks.
• almost losing two keys from my keyboard because of overzealous cleaning
• how my left ear finally got unclogged, after at least two years. That, or my left speaker magically started working again after a couple years. I'd be grateful for either.
  

Instead, I'll leave you with this gem, found on a random flickr account:


That would be a pigeon that got stuck trying to eat peanuts meant for the squirrels. And it's totally got that "Oh Shit" look on its poor squashed face.

I did something like that once. I was trying to get something out of a large clothes hamper when I was around 6 or 7. (I could probably still cram into it, it's that big.) And of course I fell in. It's both terrifying and humiliating doing that to yourself. And yet, if I were there watching myself, I'd laugh, for sure.

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Thank You Internets

Thank you for picking up gobs and gobs of websites so that, when you google my name in quotes, there are now two people with my name. Two. Apparently my sister has a common name, so she can be slightly anonymous. (Although her stuff tends to come up first.) PS, please bury that one page about that one group that did that one musical without obtaining the very expensive rights.

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Small Happy Things.

Did you know that the tango song used in True Lies is also in Scent of a Woman? I didn't. I remember the tango scene from True Lies, and murkily remember a tango scene in Scent of a Woman, but I hunted them both down (at the moment, Youtube has clips for both) and it turns out they use the same song. I like it when things click together like that. Even if it's just over a song that's so old it's probably in the public domain.

Bonus trivia: the song's lyrics are about a man's obsessions with horse racing and women. That's the stuff passions are made of, for sure.

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What's it mean when...

...I get all excited when I see famous people that shouldn't be important to me making cameos on TV? Stan Lee was on Heroes. John Hodgman was on Zefrank. I clapped and cheered when I saw both. But I'm not a comic book aficionado, and I haven't seen or read anything by Hodgman except for the Mac commercials, and something about hobo names. But seriously, this stuff is way beyond my brief middle school brush with trekkiness. (Although I did jump up and down clapping when George Takei showed up on Heroes.)

I suppose I got excited because famous people jumped onto a cool thing I like, but it's still odd. I'm not a geek, but I seem to follow the culture. Too much time on the internet, obviously.

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5-7-5 and a raspberry beer.

Back in January, when I went to visit X, we went to a bar and decided to write haiku. I had a pretty awesome beer that mostly tasted like raspberries (a Lambic framboise, for the record). We left them there for the bartenders to enjoy, but I was smart enough to copy them down for later. I don't remember who wrote what, but it was either me, X, or X's dude. The clever ones are probably X's. Enjoy!

X's cleavage wins
Life is better with old friends
Her boyfriend rules.

Commercial divers
work out a lot. That's why N
looks so good topless.

Chubs comes to visit
drunkenness and recalling
"dreamgirls" tomorrow

Tom Brady is hot
I am a football widow
Chargers kill the [can't read it was too drunk]

Now I'll add my scrawl
I'll leave this bar with fuck all
I drink too damn much.

There's a group of boys
behind us. Talking of
their hair. Damn pussies.

In between tonight
and tomorrow we drink late
in a lovely tone

their naked party
will not be co-ed at all
I fuck more than you.

(The boys talking about their hair also talked about having a naked party. They were pretty frat-tastic.)

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Everything on the internet is awesome.

I'm on another "everything is awesome on the internet" binge. (Currently lusting after sneakers in different bright colors.) Luckily, I don't splurge on internet shopping that often. Last week (hat, mixer, cd, books), was an exception. Tonight I found something fitting for Gwynwong:

Pointy!

Clawed ice tongs! Man, I almost think they're funny enough to buy for me. However, $42 is a bit much. Especially since I've only used ice tongs when alcohol was involved. Meh. But still pretty hilarious.

Today I drove back from LA, and stopped at Coronado beach. An excellent way to start a year. My sister's puppy is a-dor-a-ble, I'll post pictures later.

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Well dammit.

Today I got presents! Well, presents from me, and not in celebration of Valentine's day, but still, presents! I got the Cat Empire CD (only 10 bucks! recorded in Cuba!) and my giant kitchenaid mixer. Hooray! It's huge and heavy, and we were totally going to be friends and make molasses cookies, but then it decided to be all shitty.

(Here comes more kitchenaid obsession!)

Well, not that shitty. But the flat beater slightly scraped the bottom of the bowl, scraping the paint off the bottom of the flat beater. I think. I called customer service, and she listened to my mixer over the phone, and made me put a dime in the bowl to prove that it was doing what it was supposed to (all that metal on metal scraping just makes me cringe), and tried to convince me that it probably came that way or it happened at the factory. She was nice though, and eventually gave in and said she'd send me a new flat beater. Whee!

And then I mentioned problem #2, a nick in the electrical cord. The cord's thick enough, right? It's not a big deal, right? Wrong. Dam-mit. Those cords aren't detachable like they are on sunbeam mixers. So that means the whole thing's going back. She was pretty firm about that. I didn't even get to ask if I had a 90-day warranty like amazon.com said, or a year long warranty like the pamphlet says. But it's pretty hassle-free. All I have to do is pack up my old mixer, wait for a new one (a couple more weeks, sigh), and a few days after that, UPS will pick up the first machine for free. For free! Kitchenaid gets an A+ for customer service from me. The only thing I have to worry about is whether the next mixer is the right color and if it's louder than the first one (which, strangely, is an issue). Pretty great.

So, bye bye new mixer, glad we got to spend the afternoon together.

Didn't even get to name it. Bummer.

Edit:
Damn straight that's pistachio. I find it soothing in a retro way. Still don't approve? By the time I found the sale, the only other choices were white on white (no silver band), almond cream (off white), matte dark gray, screaming yellow, or assaulting tangerine. Bleh. I could've gone for the less powerful motor, smaller bowl model in Empire Red (it's beautiful, really), but then I'd have to pay $60 more. Ha. Ha. But that lower model has 24 different colors to choose from, which is pretty great. I'm curious, what color would you want?

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I left the house today!

Today I went downtown to Balboa Park because Tuesdays=free museums (on a rotating schedule). I went to the San Diego History Museum (they had a cute exhibit about Japanese Americans, presented by local student JAs) and the Museum of Photographic Arts (exhibits on women and the narrative in photography). I went to the arboretum and laughed at how huge the stag ferns are. Like half the size of my kei-car. Huge vegetation makes me laugh. Not stuff like trees or corn stalks, but things like pumpkins and, er, stag ferns. Abnormally large things. I guess that includes giant rabbits too. That thing is massive.

I also drove on a street that had a stop sign at this random point of the road. No intersection or crosswalk or anything. And then I pulled up to it, and realized there was a sudden, steep decline right afterwards. Lots of scrape marks at the bottom. It was roller coaster steep. I'm really glad I never came across something like that in Japan--my car would've shat itself.

The arboretum and a random building (museum most likely):

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In the neighborhood.

Up the street, while I was walking the dog, I noticed a well-kept lawn. Deep dark green. It was lush. I bent down to touch it, and noticed the blackness that edged the entire lawn. It's astroturf! Hilarious. It's so surreal. Check it out:

So lush!

And please notice the deep black *soil* edging the lawn...

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Too damn thorough.

It takes me forever to choose books. I don't want to just pick up any book. If I want to waste my time reading, I'll do that on the internet, thanks.) Probably not reading enough book blogs, or talking to enough literary types. (Although I do feel guilty about endlessly borrowing good books, thanks D and L.)

It took me about an hour tonight to find something I wanted to read on Amazon, and I ended up with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dance Dance Dance (Murakami's become crack for me) and a CD (The Cat Empire one). My brain is mush. I kept looking at reviews, feeling no interest, and clicking another poorly written recommendations list.

While I was reading Norwegian Wood, I was pretty paranoid. My grandmother asked about it, and I generalized as much as I could. Plenty of stuff in there not worth sharing with my grandmother. But a good book. I really need to get away from Murakami and his emptiness, but I just keep coming back. I'm reading The Elephant Vanishes right now. So far, seems lighter. The story I'm reading starts with kangaroos. Hopefully that's a good sign.

This is not good blog material, but I'd just like to prove that I'm still alive.

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Hey brain.

Let's keep this one straight:

Spike Jonze produced Jackass, and once dated Karen O.

Spike Lee directed Malcolm X and once tried to sue Spike TV.

Because for awhile, I was trying to imagine the guy who directed Malcolm X dating the girl from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Ack. Wrong.

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Getting fidgety.

Somehow I ended up on home and cooking blogs and I'm getting all itchy to organize things again. This is good. I need to tap this, get to work. Too bad it's 10:30 at night. That means laundry! But first, a quick post:

I made a list of things to do yesterday. I didn't do any of them. I organized my iTunes instead.

I looked at that list today, and finally decided to leave the house and get them done. (I tell you, it's dangerous when you don't have to be anywhere, ever.) I had four places on that list:

1. the bank
2. the pharmacy
3. the mall
4. Target

I even had it all mapped out in my head, how to avoid the traffic, blah blah. I made it to #3 no sweat. I was proud of myself.

And then I parked on the wrong side of the mall, and had to walk across the entire mall to get to the store I needed to go to. Oh window shopping, you're such a tease. I made it halfway and then I noticed that Macy's was having a 40% sale on their clearance shoes. Winter shoe clearance, hooray! Luckily not much was left (less browsing), and I thought I'd get out without buying anything. Ha. Ha. I ended up with a(nother) pair of brown, round-toed heels. I felt guilty because I already have a pair of brown heels I love, I never wear high heels anymore, I rarely leave the house...but then I did some math and said shove it to the rational part of my brain. They were cute, and $40 wasn't bad for a pair of shoes.

Then I went to the register, and got the happy ending:

Final total $26.77, including tax. 40% off clearance! And they were originally $80! (My brain is already scheming to hit up the more upscale Macy's around town.) Hoo-ray New Shoes! I clomped around in them tonight--they've got a small platform, perfect for clomping--and it felt great. Now I just need to find an excuse to wear them.

I never made it to Target (I wanted to walk my not-blind dog before it got dark), but I can always do that tomorrow.

[update: I went to another Macy's the next day, and that clearance sign said 40% off original price. I really hope that the sign was different where I bought my shoes, or that the girl who rang me up doesn't get screwed for giving me something like a 70% discount.]

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Well, I'm back.

Sorry, I thought I posted twice via email, but I guess they didn't make it. Here they are in all their mundane glory:

Feb. 1
I'm up at the grandparents' again, and it's tough thinking of things worth mentioning. I'll be back on Monday, hopefully with a better story. Just know I'm eating a ton of food, as always, and hanging out with family.

Current obsessions include Heroes, Ugly Betty, facebook, and (what I think are) Chinese-style sunflower seeds. Oh, and Betty Crocker chocolate cake. Now that's comfort food.


Feb. 2
So apparently, not only is my sister Ugly Betty, I'm the unemployed older sister. What's next? If I end up as a single mother, I'm suing.

Oh, and not that I've seen it yet, but you know Little Miss Sunshine? I totally had glasses like hers. Except mine were worse. Some of you might've already seen evidence.

And now baby animals are on Jay Leno! Eeeeee!

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Kitchenaid Lust.

[Summary: This post is about obsessing over Kitchenaid mixers. With lots of research links. Just to warn you.]

So I've been baking lately, mostly out of boredom. I've baked molasses cookies (that recipe) five times in the past month, and I'll need to find a new favorite recipe soon, because I'm getting bored with that fantastic spicy flavor. (Say it ain't so!) But since I've been baking, and that recipe makes a pretty sticky dough, I've become very good friends with two stand mixers, a Sunbeam from the 70's (Mom's) and an even older Sunbeam (Grandma's). Lots of coaxing and hand mixing, so the motor doesn't burn out. Grandma's mixer's on/off/speed changer switch no longer works, so you have to plug it into a power strip with a switch to turn it on or off. One speed only. We became very good friends.

So that explains why I've been obsessed with stand mixers. Today as I was procrastinating on the internet (I swear I'll get the car washed tomorrow!), I found a Kitchenaid that's on sale on amazon (sweet sweet amazon!), and told my mother about it. Even though I won't be moving out any time soon, she advised that I buy it. That's probably the longest, most interesting, and most civil conversation I've ever had with her. Over a kitchen appliance. (A lovely, calming, pistachio green one!) It's a step in the right direction, I suppose. I just found the whole exchange bizarre. Here I am, still unemployed, looking at a $250 stand mixer. That I don't need. I guess it's more practical than a pair of shoes, but still.

And just in case anyone else wants to benefit from my research, here you go:

Kitchenaid
Kitchenaid store (they really need both?)
America's Test Kitchen (a pretty good article--18 mixer test.)
Cooks Illustrated review chart (pdf companion to ATK)
Consumer Search reviews
Fanboy account of visiting the Kitchenaid factory

In a nutshell, Kitchenaid wins, hands down. Although they're pretty heavy. If you do bread a lot, a more powerful motor (pro 600) is better. The lower end Kitchenaids (classic, artisan) can handle it, but they kinda jump around, and take longer to knead bread. The artisan has a bajillion colors to choose from (Tangerine. Grape. And then the expensive metallics.) I'll stop there.

But honestly, it's like when you get a new car, or a trendy shirt. You start seeing it everywhere. I was watching Ugly Betty (I dig it), and her family had two Kitchenaid mixers. I always thought their family was supposed to be kind of poor (in one episode they couldn't afford a Christmas tree!), but if Kitchenaid pays for product placement, then I guess a struggling Latino family in the Bronx can afford two of 'em. Maybe they're refurbished. I hear those are a good deal.

Man, I should really look into that LJ-cut hack for blogger.

But wait! Pictures for dessert! I haven't abandoned my picture-a-day thing--although I've missed a handful--but I don't feel like organizing them now. Have some cookie photos instead.

Grandma's mixer. The piece of paper wrapped around the middle informs you that the dial doesn't work.

Batch #1. They're like a soft gingerbread. Or a gingersnap.
But with a big spicy punch.

Batch #3. Look how uniform and puffy!
I wish they always did that. So cute!

Batch #4. Not enough spice! But so pretty.

Grandma's scary old molasses. No one got sick, but still. OLD.

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Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu.

And Happy New Year to everyone else.

I'm back from the land of the dial-up modem and carefully deleted browser history, and doing pretty good. I read a good book (A Wild Sheep Chase by Murakami) and ate like a glutton. I made two batches of molasses cookies on my grandmother's surly mixer, one which turned out pretty and puffy, one which turned out mostly normal but without all the flavor. I really need to get this recipe down for consistency.

Plenty of other stuff happened, but I'll wait until I get my photos organized before I start posting the stories. You can get the other side of things from my sister (you know where she went, right?).

The new goal is to write 30 letters/postcards in the month of January. I haven't started yet, but that's incentive to write thank you notes for once. I stopped writing them because my mother made it torture, but I think I'm ready to behave like an adult (about that) now. Also, I ran across a pretty great how-to written by a respected internetter. It's pretty much the way my mother taught me, but of course it sounds better coming from an outside source.

Ah, right, and I stopped posting because I killed my computer's hard drive, took it in, had all the data recovered (sigh) and got it back. Remarkably easy considering how much it cost. But it was worth it. I hadn't backed up recently (ahem, ever), and there was a lot worth saving (to me). I got a comment about the amount of music I had (15 gigs, probably more), but bah on them. I like my music digital.

Stay warm J-folk, stay sane state-siders.

PS: Might be heading back north in a few days, which means no posts. Sorry for the teaser!

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Let's Celebrate!

I bought another pair of $20 pants! That were originally $80! Oh holiday sales, you're so great.

Other than that, not much has happened. A couple trips to the dentist (stupid inferior J-filling fell out), and some small errands.

Sometime this week I let go all the stress of Figuring Shit Out and just let myself float again. It's nice. Soon I'll feel that halfway terror of floating untethered, and I'll buckle down again. But I just might wait until after New Year's.

Happy Holidays, eat lots for me.

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Dinner at a Japanese Restaurant

Tonight we went out to a Japanese restaurant in town. Nothing fancy. I went there a few months ago with my dad. Here are my thoughts.

Points in their favor:
When we walked in, three asian people, they ask in Japanese how many people. Real Japanese people with a real Japanese kid (exclaiming about the scary goldfish) were eating there. Kirin on tap. Shichimi brought out when necessary. Pretty decent nigiri sushi. They even have natto. Edamame comes with the beer. An actual sushi bar, with the sushi guys making it in front of you.

Points for authenticity, while not in their favor:
They still play American pop music. Acceptable ramen. Japanese menu that I'm afraid to ask for, because I know I won't be able to read it all. The edamame was crap.

Points against them:
Poor ass udon. Lumpy California roll. Dragon roll on the menu. Disappointing gyoza.

I could go on, but in summary, good, but not good enough. Authentic, but the cooking is average. I could take (non-Japan) friends here, kind of order izakaya-style, and have a good time. They can order teriyaki chicken or fried rice.

But during dinner, this lovely topic came up. Here's a (poorly quoted, abridged) snippet of conversation concerning G's hair. I mentioned that it was longer before. My mother doesn't think so, but she never saw his hair in those first few months. Neither has my dad, but he had this to say:

"Yeah, he looks like Mick Jagger."

(Me:) "What? David Bowie, I'll give you that, but Jagger?"

"Yeah, like Mick Jagger" he says.

"Because he's skinny and it looks like he does drugs? Which he doesn't, by the way." I counter.

"He looks English. Is he?"

"His dad is from Seattle, his mom is from Montana!"

"He looks like Mick Jagger."

This whole exchange was hilarious. I even googled to see what Mick Jagger looked like when he was younger. Surprise, he still looks like Mick Jagger. If you squint, he looks like Matt Damon. But his head is still freakishly long. G has a small head! And that's かっこいい！(Really awesome supercool great, according to Japanese people.)

But the only way this photo resembles G is if you put your finger on the face. The hair actually matches, but why my father would know what Mick Jagger looked like in his high school basketball uniform, I don't know.

So thank you, passable Japanese restaurant, for provoking this conversation. Here's your parting shot, decide for yourself.

Can David Bowie even do that with his lips?
Does he even have lips?

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Look at me look at me look at me *TALK* to me.

Oh yeah, and comments are totally okay. The usual rule, no full names. (My name is on some random blog because some other girl asked if that blogger knew me. Good thing it's a clean blog.)

And Happy 1 Year to this blog! Yay! 1 year, two days, 102 posts!

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Rice Post!

My brain is stuck on research mode. After researching apartments and jobs and traffic and weather, my brain just can't let go. I try to distract it with other internet distractions (boingboing! zefrank! gofugyourself!), but it just keeps plunging ahead. I think I started with clothes, and then ended up on food. And the net is full of interesting things about food. For example, someone took the time to explain why fried rice needs to be made with leftover rice. And they even stuck in a few big words. It just struck me as funny, that it needed to be explained. (For once, we hit a topic that I comprehend--fried rice. I guess it's because I've grown up with it. Well, if you tried it, you'd probably consider it bastardized, but it's the way I like.)

On the other hand, I had to look up the difference between salted and unsalted butter, and learned that it all just comes down to control. I'm pretty sure I've looked this up before, back when I loved baking the same cookie recipe over and over and over again. (I'm still certain that recipe was terrible, even though I got requests for it. I guess I'll have to try and replicate it for L some day. She'd tell me if they were horrible, I'm sure.)

The goal for this week? Make molasses cookies. I think I've wanted to make them for a number of years, but I've always been too lazy to figure out what kind of molasses I needed. (Molasses=foreign to me. Back then, I wasn't even sure grocery stores in the suburbs sold it.) Well, thanks to research brain, I'm ready to go. This recipe requires freshly grated ginger and pepper. Awesome. I'll let you know how it goes.

Bonus rice fact! (from the first link)

Apparently, science says rice should be refrigerated an hour after it's cooked! (Or kept above 140F/60C.) One, I don't think my rice cooker kept rice that warm. And two, let's all pause to think of the long journey kyuushoku rice often has to make. No, thank you Mr. Scientist.

And one last thought: I had a Rubio's fish taco combo tonight, and the sodium is killing me. Swollen feet. What the hell? I'm not that old!

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Bake me a cake.*

On relocation: It's really quite baffling to have so much information available to me. Like just now, I wanted to know where the Costco in Seattle was. And two seconds later, I knew. Two seconds! Not 30 minutes of googling and translating and digging through broken Japanese websites. Yes, it'd probably go faster if I were more proficient in the language, but that doesn't help a broken or outdated website.

Current freakout: I can't go back to grad school. I have no letters of recommendation, and no reason for any professors to remember me. I skated by with a letter from my boss that worked in the library. Can google help me there?


*This is post 100. Pardon me for not landmarking it.

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Small goal to tuck away for now

Dear Future Self,
Someday you will have a home that has a backyard, a place where you intend to stay for a goodly period of time, and then you can buy yourself a yuzu sapling so you can make yuzu tea, or a yuzu bath, or even get your act together and make a meal that requires ponzu sauce. If you don't kill it, you can get a sudachi tree too. Because thank goodness, you can buy them in the states. (Hey, if you can't import black pines, and some mikan species (so says my grandfather)...)

PS: Don't confuse yuzu (C. ichangensis x C. reticulata var. austera) with something trendy like a Meyer Lemon, whatever that is.

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Three Snippets

Moon Shadows
Last night was the full moon, and I went outside (in zori and a light jacket at 2am, eat your heart out) to experience moon shadows. It's been a long time since I've been outside in an unlit area for the full moon. Usually it's a look out the window sort of thing--"Hey, isn't it a full moon?" "Eh, sure."--but it was nice to just sit and look at shadows. And it was so quiet! The suburbs are nice like that. I didn't wander around the 'cho at night, I'm sure that was even quieter...except when the frogs were out.

Moving Crap
I've been trying to hash out moving to Seattle (get an apartment first, then a job), and was looking at uhaul rates. $900 for 6 days (it really takes 6 days? I was guessing 3.). Ouch. And then I walked through the house, and tried to figure out if that was enough space. Then I realized that all of my college furniture went to my sister, and the only thing left is my bunk bed frame and an alright set of table and chairs. Oh, and my father's college desk that I used in college. Maybe a small TV. The rest is clothes, books, and computer. Baffling, but such a relief. That does mean I'll have to get a lot of stuff delivered once I get up there, but I can get new things! And I can even justify $900 worth of new things!

Now Retro
Since I spend all of my time at home, my brain has become warped. My parents' dishes look different now. Before, they were just outdated dishes, with a band of olive green that had flowers on it. Olive green to match the avocado green shag carpets. Embarrassingly out of date. Now, I see the dishes through the eyes of those indie people who delight in everything retro, and they don't seem so bad. Inheritable even.

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Five Delicious Foods (+1)

I need to cheer up, or at least distract myself from how overwhelming this relocation/find a job process is. And I'm still on the research phase! To stop my thoughts from snowballing, here are five delicious foods that I like, in no order.

1. Tempura shrimp tails. They taste like popcorn. Sometimes restaurants cheat and hold the shrimp by the tail or something, and then it just tastes like dirty plastic. Sad.

2. Ferraro Rocher chocolates. You know, the ones wrapped in gold that crunch.

3. My grandmother's raspberry jam. Sometimes the proportions aren't right, and instead, we get raspberry syrup. Absolutely not a problem, that just means you have to be more careful with the sandwiches.

4. Perfect medium rare steaks. I had one in at some restaurant and it was beautiful. It was barely warm in the middle, with crusty pepper bits. It was so good I didn't care about the possibility of food poisoning.

5. Choco-peppermint smoothies. At the 50s diner downtown, they used to serve it in a tall fountain glass, along with a tumbler of what didn't fit. They don't do that anymore, which is a bummer.

Now I want a snack. And I feel much better. Goal accomplished!

(+1) Stuffed sole with whipped potatoes. Awesome. It's even good microwaved a few days later. On Friday, we went to some bar and grill on the Chula Vista Marina. (The South Bay Fish and Grill to be exact.) My dad ended up with something crap--mustard crusted salmon, which was a bland piece of salmon with a crust of mustard. With shitty white rice. Like someone decided to whip the rice to make it fluffy, and instead turned it into rice mush. It probably had butter in it. ::shudder:: But mine was good, and that's what counts.

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