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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
Read more...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:
[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!
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.
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.)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.
"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.
[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.)
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.
...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.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.
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::
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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