cocovelocity

2011 Year in Music

2012-01-23T22:41:00.000-08:00

I always enjoy the year in music mix creation. It's a good time to scour through my music tastes of the year. I usually start when traveling for Christmas and take at least a month to finish - this year was no exception.

2011 was the year of the singer-songwriter for me apparently. There are so many pretty vocals! It was hard to do my standard mix tempo with that many of them, but there is the usual mix of rock and electronic - with just a dash of hip-hop. I hope there is a little something for everyone in here.

Without further ado, track list below followed by links to download my mix. If you hear something you like, please support the artist by buying their music through your favorite music dealer.

1 Revival - Deerhunter (Halcyon Digest)
2 Under Mountain, Under Ground - The Lighthouse and The Whaler (The Lighthouse and The Whaler)
3 Let England Shake - PJ Harvey (Let England Shake)
4 Stinging Nettle, Honeysuckle - Blessed Feathers (From the Mouths of the Middle Class)
5 Cannons - Youth Lagoon (The Year of Hibernation)
6 Two Steps, Twice - Foals (Antidotes)
7 Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution - Cut Copy (Zonoscope)
8 That's Your Call - Gauntlet Hair (Gauntlet Hair)
9 Put the Days Away - Sun Airway (Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier)
10 Abducted - Cults (Cults)
11 Oh Yeah - Wild Flag (Wild Flag)
12 Run for Love - Joan As Police Woman (The Deep Field)
13 Flagstaff - Atlas Sound (Parallax)
14 Tusk - Arms And Sleepers (The Organ Hearts)
15 Whispers of the Waves (With Gord Downie) - Buck 65 (20 Odd Years)
16 Holocene -Bon Iver (Bon Iver)
17 Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes (Helplessness Blues)
18 Futile Devices - Sufjan Stevens (The Age of Adz)
19 I Don't Want Love - The Antlers (Burst Apart )
20 A Phantasy - The Octopus Project (Hexadecagon)
21 Rano Pano - Mogwai (Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will.)

Go here to DL a zip file with the songs and a playlist file.

If you want a simplier browsing method, go here to sample the songs on iTunes, and buy if you hear what you like.

Year of the Dinner Party #11: Fire and snow

2012-01-22T21:49:00.000-08:00

How do you fit in dinner parties into December? There are office parties, and Christmas parties and travel - there is always travel.

December was busy and plenty full of Places To Go With Decadent Food. That said, there was no way that we were ending the Year of the Dinner Party without having a December dinner party.

So just 2 days after Christmas, the last dinner party of 2011 happened in the Smoky Mountains with Phyllis and Don at their log cabin. While we enjoyed the candlelight and fire, just a dusting of snow landed on the porch!

My photography set up was primitive - my iPhone. Christmas suitcases do not have room for camera equipment. I did, however, find room for a small stash of pine nuts, dried cranberries and walnuts.

MENU

Appetizers

Good ol' shrimp cocktail

Salad

Mixed greens with walnuts and dried cranberries tossed with balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Main

Filet Mignon steaks (grilled in the snow by Kent)
My Mom's decadent mac & cheese
Green beans w/ red pepper & pine nuts (recipe also from my Mom)

Dessert

Apple & pear cobbler from the Food Network with vanilla ice cream

Wines

2, possibly 3, delicious bottles that I did not take pictures of.

THE PREP

I intentionally picked an easy to prepare menu. After all, we went to the cabin to relax and hours and hours of cooking would have interfered with all the reading and napping on the couch.

In the morning, I made the mac & cheese and cobbler, and trimmed the green beans. I started the rest of the dinner around 6 pm. We were digging in by 7:30 pm.

THE VERDICT

Delicious, with a side of over-stuffed.

The cobbler was the only new recipe (wow, I finally had a tried and trued menu!) and OMG was it is winner. The dessert for 8 was demolished before bed. It has been moved into my permanent recipe collection.

Kent did a great job with the steaks, and my mom's mac & cheese recipe got high praises all around.

THE EYE CANDY

You can see all the (iPhone) pictures on Flickr. I have a long way to go before I am internet celebrity for my ability to take amazing pictures with just my iPhone.

THE RECIPE

The apple and pear cobbler! The recipe be found on Food Network website.

Year of the Dinner Party: The Melting Pot

2011-11-30T21:22:00.000-08:00

The first rule of dinner parties is never, ever use an entirely new menu for a dinner party. I break this rule most of the time. For November, however, I actually made a main course I've made frequently. So I decided to channel all risk into the guest list and dessert.

Our small group had never met until the Melting Pot Dinner Party. Great conversationalists + fancy cocktails ensured that everyone enjoyed themselves through dessert. OMG! Dessert!

MENU

Cocktails

Rosemary Fizz from Dave's Dinners

Appetizers

Crudites with green goddess dressing from Martha Stewart
Dates wrapped in bacon from Dave's Dinners

Salad

Fennel, walnut & apple salad from Dave's Dinners

Main

Lasagna
Handmade foccacia from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Dessert

Peanut butter banana pie from Epicurious

Wines

2007 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosche
2010 Brachetto di'Acqui
2001 Rosso Ca' del Merlo

THE PREP

Prep for this meal spread over 2 days. Friday night I prepped lasagna, rosemary syrup, salad dressing and Green Goddess dip.

Saturday I started EARLIER THAN PLANNED and for once, ran ahead of the below schedule.

10:30 - Make pie crust

11:00 - Start bread

11:30 - Cut veggies

12:00 - Pre-heat oven

12:00 - Make pudding

12:30 - Put bread in oven

1:00 - Take bread out of oven

2:00 - Make peanut butter filling/finish pie

3:00 - Prep dates & grate cheese

6:15 - Bake dates

6:30 - Prep salad ingredients

7:00 - Lasagna goes in oven

THE VERDICT

The dessert was, as predicted, the best item on the menu. The lasagna was perhaps the best I've made yet. I dialed back ~~the cheese not to be named in front of Kent~~ ricotta, and used a fairly shallow tray. Two layer, not three layer lasagna is my new go-to. The dates packed more flavor pleasure than I expected. I could have made twice as many and we would still have finished them all.

My bread was the biggest disappointment, but since it was my first and remotely edible, I considered it a win. It was not nearly as light and fluffy as I hoped. Turns out, whole wheat flour is not for beginners.

THE EYE CANDY
More on Flickr!

THE RECIPE

Epicurious already did all the work for me. Go check it out there!

Year of the Dinner Party #9: Invasion of the Parents

2011-11-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

After following my dinner parties from afar, my parents ~~demanded~~ suggested a Dinner Party for their October visit. Happy to oblige, I centered a menu around the King of the Roasted Meats - a standing rib roast. The menu was nothing but decadent.

My mom saved dinner - twice!

MENU

Snacking Treats

Mixed olives
Mixed nuts
Cheese, salami & crackers

Appetizer

Spicy Shrimp from Silver Palate (and featured recipe from July Dinner Party)

Main

Mustard Seed-Crusted Prime Rib and Roasted Balsamic Onions from Bon Appetit December 2010 issue
Potato & Leek Gratin from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Braised Carrots from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Dessert

Apple crisp and vanilla ice cream from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Wine

1998 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosche
2009 Unti Segromigno
2009 Copain Syrah

THE PREP

8- 11 am ~~Grocery store, make crisp, cut carrots~~ Laying in bed cursing myself and moaning after late night out with fellow mofos.

2- 5 pm My mom saved dinner the first time. If I didn't have help in the kitchen, we would have eaten at 10 pm. There was quite the amount of peeling and slicing to do. With 2 people we made quick work of my long list of preparations since I didn't spend my morning as planned.

THE VERDICT

Delicious. All of it. It was well balanced fall menu. The meat was the clear winner, but the gratin came in a close second. Cooking potatoes in milk = heaven.

My mom suggested I check the roast long before I expected to be done after an accidental oven turn off. I found a perfect medium rare roast. Once again, mom saved dinner.

My only criticism was of the horseradish creme fraiche sauce accompaniment for the roast. It made about 12x the amount we needed. I had over 1 cup, and we used a tablespoon each. It was a nice accent, but the meat was so good on it's own with the au jus, the creme fraiche was just interference.

THE EYE CANDY

Complete set on Flickr.

THE RECIPE

The Prime Rib (of course)

2/3C + 1 t Dijon mustard divided

4 medium onions, cut into 3/4 inch wedges with some core attached

5 very large shallots, quartered through root end

3T balsamic vinegar

2T olive oil

1.5t coarse kosher salt + additional for sprinkling

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 9.5 bone-in standing prime rib, trimmed That serves 8. I used a 5.5 lb (2 rib) roast, which was plenty for 5 with leftovers

2T yellow mustard seeds

1/4C brandy

2C low-salt beef broth

** This recipe included a creme fraiche dip that I am not including here. **

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss onions, shallots, vinegar, oil, and 1.5 teaspoons coarse salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle roast lightly with coarse salt and generously with pepper. Stir 2/3 cup mustard and garlic in a small bowl. Rub over roast. Place roast, bone side down in roasting pan. Sprinkle mustard seeds over, pressing to adhere. Roast 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees.

Arrange onion mixture around roast. Return to oven. Roast until thermometer inserted into center of meat reads 120 degrees, stirring onion mixture occasionally - about 2.25 hours for medium rare. My roast took about 1.5 hours. The math said it would take 2 hours.

Transfer roast to work surface. Tent with foil, let rest for 30 minutes. If necessary increase oven temperature to 450 degrees and return onions to roasting pan and roast until deep brown and very tender. I didn't need to do this. Using a slotted soon, transfer onion mixture to serving bowl.

Place roasting pan on 2 burners on medium-high heat. Add brandy, stir 30 seconds. Whisk in broth and remaining 1t of mustard. Boil until reduced to 1 1/4 cups of au jus, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Slice & serve roast.

Year of the Dinner Party #8: Night of Meat

2011-10-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

September Dinner Party aka "The Night of Meat" was a big format departure from previous dinners. I made the meats and dessert and asked guests to bring a side. We also invited more folks than fit around the dinner table so it was decidedly less formal. And also one of the most enjoyable dinners I've hosted.

Everyone brought amazing sides and we drank wine until well past midnight. With 10 people, it was a lot of wine!

MENU

Meats

Pork & Chive Dumplings & Lantern Sauce from Epicurious
Beer-braised pork belly from Cook, a oui chef journal
Coffee-braised short ribs from Paula Dean son's recipe

Sides

Gazpacho (Lulu)
Gratin Dauphinois (Caryl)
Roasted ~~Artichokes~~ Brussel Sprouts (Monica)
Asparagus, Onion, Red Pepper Salad (Kara)

Dessert

Chocolate Cake with Ganache Icing from Dave's Dinners

Wines (and a beer)

2002 Trentadue Port (with dessert)
2006 Unti Benchland Syrah
2008 Sempre Vive Malbec
2008 Clos Du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon
2010 Toulouse Anderson Valley Pinot Gris
2010 luli Pinot Noir
Pliny the Elder beer

THE PREP

This was the easiest meal I've made yet. All that food that appeared with guests was obviously a huge help.

The weekend before the dinner party, I spent an afternoon in the kitchen making a metric ton of dumplings and then froze them. Yes, I actually made something 7 days in advance and did a trial tasting(I regularly break the "don't make something for the first time for a dinner party" rule).

I started the pork belly dry brining Thursday morning before going to work (who am I?!?!).

Saturday morning, I picked up the last ingredients, made cake and dumpling sauce and started my braises in the afternoon - not quite as early as I should have, as it turns out.

THE VERDICT

The dumplings were the hands down winners of the meat dishes. I can't believe it's even possible for dumplings to be that good (apparently the fatty ground pork is the secret). After starting the braises a bit too late (note to self: earlier is always better!), the short ribs turned out quite tender. I will definitely make them again though I think I will experiment with different braising sauces. The sauce for this one didn't blow me away.

The pork belly was my least favorite of the meat dishes. It was properly tender (omg, was it so tender), but the flavor didn't have quite the gravitas I was hoping for - the sauce never thickened so that is where I suspect I lost it.

The chocolate cake was obscenely decadent. Not sure I would do it again, unless for a die-hard chocolate lover. Sure did pair well with the lovely port Caryl brought though.

THE EYE CANDY

The full Flickr set is here.

THE RECIPE

from Epicurious

I 4x'ed the recipe and used 2 pounds of pork.

1/2 pound fatty ground pork

1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1/4 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Vietnamese chile-garlic sauce (preferably Huy Fong brand)
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated peeled ginger
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar (not seasoned)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of white pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro stems
3 tablespoons finely chopped flowering chives, flat Chinese chives (garlic chives), or scallions
24 to 30 round dumpling wrappers (preferably with egg)

Combine all ingredients (except cilantro stems, chives, and wrappers) in a large bowl, then stir in cilantro stems and chives. Set bowl in a larger bowl of ice to keep chilled while forming dumplings.

Place a slightly rounded teaspoon of filling in center of a wrapper and moisten area around filling with water. Fold in half to form a crescent and press to seal. Moisten one corner and bring corners together, pressing them, to form a tortellini-shaped dumpling. Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers.

Cook dumplings in a large pot of gently simmering water until pork is just cooked, about 3 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a platter.

Cooks’ note: Dumplings can be formed (but not cooked) 2 hours ahead and chilled; or 1 month ahead and frozen on a tray, then transferred to a freezer bag. Cook frozen dumplings in 3 or 4 batches, 7 to 8 minutes per batch.

Dumpling Sauce Recipe

Dinner Party #7: Someone else's kitchen

2011-09-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

Kent and I were lucky enough to spend the first weekend of August at Lake Tahoe with our friends Mike and Alana. The promise of warm summer evenings and a view of the lake called for the Year of the Dinner Party to relocate.

So Kent and I packed the Saabaru with a metric ton of food and headed out of town. We learned an important Bay area lesson: if you leave for Tahoe at the wrong time of day it can take 7 hours to get there. Good thing we overbought ice.

THE MENU

Appetizers

Cheese and crackers, including the addictive Angus Barn blue cheese spread

Salad

Spring greens with warm goat cheese croutons and shallot vinaigrette dressing from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Main

Grilled steaks (from CSA) prepared by Kent
Spicy shrimp from the Silver Palate (intended for an appetizer, but too messy for a finger food)
Potato and Tomato Gratin from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Corn on cob with herbed butter from Dinner Party #6

Dessert

Blueberry crumb bars with vanilla ice cream from Smitten Kitchen

Wines

Several bottles of them - both red and white. Man, i really need to find a way to remember to get the names of the wine we drink.

THE PREP

Thursday night I went to grocery store and got everything I needed except what had to be bought day of (bread & shrimp).

Friday morning, I made the blueberry crumb cake and the potato & tomato gratin. Saturday prep was the easiest yet. On our way back from lunch, we stopped at the store for last items. Around 4 pm I headed into the kitchen to prep the shrimp, corn and salad dressing. The gratin cooked for a couple of hours. When cheese and crackers went out, the grill went on and the croutons went in the oven. With all this, I still had plenty of time to read a Thomas the Train book with Owen, play with Callie and drink wine with the non-toddler crowd.

THE VERDICT

This meal with the perfect balance of simple summer with enough complexity to be interesting, which I strived for and failed at in the July dinner party.

The stand out recipe was the shrimp appetizer (see recipe below). The steaks and blueberry crumb bars were excellent (and easy to make), and I would definitely do the salad again. The gratin was a huge disappointment. Even though I doubled the cooking time, the middle layer of potatoes were undercooked. It was missing something flavor-wise. Perhaps the cheese & cream that every gratin except this one usually has.

I really liked cooking away from home. I didn't care whether the house was spotless (which I am pretty sure is impossible with toddlers), and it forced me to prep enough in advance that Saturday was super relaxing.

THE EYE CANDY

THE RECIPE

from The Silver Palate Cookbook

1 3/4 pounds large raw shrimp

2T sweet butter

1T olive oil

1T finely minced garlic

2T finely minced shallots

salt & fresh ground pepper, to taste

2T lemon juice, or more to taste (I used a bit more)

2T finely chopped fresh dill

1. Peel & devein shrimp.

2. In large skillet over low heat, melt butter with olive oil. Add garlic and shallots and saute for 2 minutes without browning.

3. Add shrimp, increase heat slightly, and cook shrimp for 3 minutes, or until just done to taste. Add salt & pepper to taste and toss well. Remove to bowl, scraping in all the sauce.

4. Add lemon juice and dill; toss together well. Cover and refrigerate 3-4 hours before serving. Adjust seasonings to taste.

5. Serve as first course or on the ends of long bamboo skewers as an appetizer. (Or in a bowl for people to scoop onto their plate next to their other food.)

Dinner Party #6: Summer Dinner in the Fog

2011-07-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

Summer in San Francisco is not like summer in most American cities. It is not hot and is only sometimes warm. Daytime can bring blue skies and sunshine, but evening brings cold wind and fog so thick you can see literally see it moving over buildings. July evenings in San Francisco call for soups and stews, but the plentiful produce calls for summer dishes meant to be eaten on patios in shorts.

For the July dinner party, I summoned American summer to our apartment. The menu was quintessential summertime and I kept the house warm enough so we were comfortable in t-shirts.

THE MENU

Appetizers

Lamb meatballs & mint-yogurt dip (with lamb from ours CSA) from Epicurious

Fig & blue cheese grilled bruschetta from Williams-Sonoma Entertaining: Dinner Party

Salad

Arugula & spinach with radishes, bacon, goat cheese & lemon vinaigrette

Main

Grilled halibut w/ herbed butter from Williams-Sonoma Entertaining: Dinner Party

Orzo salad with tomatoes, olives and basil from Williams-Sonoma Entertaining: Dinner Party

Dessert

Lemon Semifreddo with Summer Berries from Epicurious

Wines

2007 Ladera High Plateau Cabernet Sauvignon

2008 Gevrey Chambertin Burgundy

2010 Chaudoux Verdigny Sancerre

THE PREP

I went to the super hippie, bulk-bin galore SF grocery store Friday night to stock up on produce, dairy, and spoonfuls of items like currants. Early Saturday morning I picked up fish and flowers.

My phone has been ringing non-stop. Paris Hilton wants me to introduce her to all the hot SF spots.

Prep for this menu was actually pretty easy. Everything could be made ahead of time (except the fish) so there was not a lot of timing to manage. All in all, I probably spend 4 hours in the kitchen - often intercepted by email. (Side note -we shipped!) My poor time management made me more hectic than I needed to be so I forgot to take pictures of a number of finished items:(

THE VERDICT

This meal was a bit disappointing actually. None of the dishes were stand out stellar in my opinion. While the grilled halibut was good it lacked the gravitas of a platter of roasted meat. The lamb meatballs were over-cooked & over-seasamed (oops - timer was set for 8 hours, not 8 minutes). I liked the lemon semifreddo - it was fun to make & looked great abut wasn't as plate-licking good as other lemon desserts I've had.

I will continue to experiment with dinner party menus that are not roasted meats, though I think they will need to have a layer of complexity to their preparation for me to be satisfied.

THE EYE CANDY

See complete (meager) collection on Flickr.

Dinners, but no party

2011-07-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, a June dinner party didn't come to fruition, but it was a month full of home-cooked dinners. This was our first month as a member of the Marin Sun Farms CSA. Every month for the next six months, we get a box of meat straight from a local farm. They give us a combo of beef, pork and lamb ground beef, braising cuts and steaks. It will be a little different every time.

For June we got a pork tenderloin, butterflied pork chops, spareribs, lamb stew meat, ground beef and ground lamb.

The freezer full of meat is intended to encourage more at home cooking, and in June it worked! Not only did we plow through the Box of Meats, I also tried my hand at pizza from scratch.

Some highlights from our June Dinners

Slow Braised Pork Sparerib Ragu Sauce from Cook's Illustrated
Lamb Shepard's Pie from Fannie Farmer
Homemade Pizza from Deborah Madison (sauce and dough) and my head (not that mind-blowing toppings)
Molasses Glazed Grilled Tenderloin (over grits) from Epicurious
Lamb Burgers - One with a beet salsa. One with lots of chili powder. Do not recommend the salsa.

Eye Candy

It's easy to forget about taking pictures when cooking. Here are just a couple.

Someone else's cooking

2011-06-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day Weekend, Kent and I did an overnight trip to Napa. Mostly because San Francisco is too cold to wear this cute summer dress I have, and because we wanted to have brunch on the patio of Auberge du Soleil. We've been lucky enough to enjoy it a couple of times with Kent's father. Their view and food are spectacular.

Our solo visit was no different. Beautiful day, beautiful view and amazing food.

In addition to Auberge, we did a tasting at Freemark Abbey and tasting and tour at Ladera. Post trip, we have a strict one in, one out wine bottle policy in our ~~obviously too small~~ wine rack.

My meal

Brunch Cocktail: Bellini
Starter: Onion Tartelette with smoked salmon, crème fraîche and watercress
Main: Wild hopper shrimp risotto with asparagus, Meyer lemon and yuzu emulsion
Dessert: Crisp filo wrapped chocolate dumplings with tarragon ice cream, and Arbequina Olive Oil

Kent's meal

Brunch Cocktail: Mimosa
Starter: Poached hopper shrimp with butter lettuce, avocado and navel orange
Main: Sauteed chicken with roasted potatoes and a medley of wax beans
Dessert: Toasted Angel food cake with roasted strawberries and strawberry gelato

Wine

2008(?) Cakebread Savignon Blanc

The Eye Candy

See complete Flickr set.

Dinner Party #5: Tasty tasty lamb

2011-06-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Our May dinner party was a spring menu with a side of entertaining guests. Lamb, strawberries and asparagus all made an appearance. The lamb was so tasty, it's inspired a new section to these posts - the stand-out recipe from the meal! Run, do not walk to your nearest butcher and get a leg of lamb and marinate it as below.

THE MENU

Appetizers

Leek & Blue Cheese Toasts from Smitten Kitchen (coincidentally a fellow Rutgers Prep graduate)
Cheese toasts courtesy of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Soup

Carrot & Orange Soup from the The Silver Palate cookbook

Main

Leg of Lamb from The Silver Palate (see recipe below)
Mashed Potatoes from Deborah Madison
Roasted Asparagus with Blood Orange Dipping Sauce from Williams-Sonoma Dinner Party

Dessert

Strawberry & Rhubarb Galette Williams-Sonoma Dinner Party

Wine

Barnett Vineyards 2005 Spring Mountain Merlot
Charlie Clay 2008 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
Pride Mountain Vineyard 2007 Merlot

THE PREP

Saturday started early and went all. day. long.

9:00 Shopping

10:00 Marinate meat

10:30 Galette

11:00 Blood Orange Sauce & Leeks

12:00 Soup & Peel potatoes

THE VERDICT

I took the lamb out a little too early, so dinner started way later than I hoped as I had to throw it back in the oven. Having a-much-better-than-me cook around was super helpful for sorting out The Lamb Situation. (Thanks Lulu!)

That said, OMG the lamb was really, really good. It was definitely the stand out recipe. The toast appetizers were both tasty. The flavor of the leek & blue cheese toasts was great.

The creation of the first galette had a comedic error that required help from Kent to rectify. Apparently I can still learn a baking lesson at every step. They tasted fine, though they certainly didn't look like they came out of an adult's oven.

The blood orange sauce was a disaster and didn't make it to the table. Proportions were all wrong and instead of blood orange dipping sauce I got mayonnaise flavored orange juice. Bleh! I seasoned the asparagus with salt, pepper, butter and lemon instead - always a win.

I learned another important lesson - a never-been used before cookbook is a gamble, and perhaps 2 recipes + a dinner party may not be the way to break it in. The Williams-Sonoma cookbook was way off on the galette cooking time and the dipping sauce proportions. Love the suggestions and pictures it has, but the next recipe I try, I'll plan to be suspicious.

THE EYE CANDY
See the complete Flickr set

THE RECIPE

from The Silver Palate Cookbook

3T crushed dried peppercorns, an equal mix of white, black, green (I used whatever I had. It probably wasn't an equal mix)

1T fresh rosemary or 1.5t dried

1/2C fresh mint leaves

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2C raspberry vinegar

1/4C soy sauce

1/2C dry red wine

1 boned but untied leg of lamb, about 5 pounds (weighed after boning)

2T prepared Dijon-style mustard

1. Combine 1T of the crushed peppercorns (or all of them accidentally), the rosemary, mint, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce & red wine in a shallow bowl. Marinate the lamb in the mixture for 8 hours, turning occasionally.

2. Remove the roast from the marinade and drain; reserve marinade. Roll the roast, tying it with kitchen twine.

3. Preheat oven to 350.

4. Spread mustard over meat and pat 2T of crushed peppercorns into the mustard (or skip this step because of the step 1 mishap). Set roast in shallow roasting pan just large enough to hold it comfortably. Pour reserved marinade around, but not over the roast.

5. Bake for 1.5 hours or 18 minutes per pound, basting occasionally until internal temperature is 140. Roast will be medium rare. Bake for another 10-15 minutes for well done meat. Let roast stand for 20 minutes before carving. Serve pan juices in gravy boat along with lamb.

Dinner Party #4: BRUNCH!

2011-05-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

Just 13 hours after wrapping our Surf and Turf for 2, we hosted our 4th food gathering with friends. Brunch!

I've always loved hosting brunch. It's not too difficult to pull something great together. This particular menu was balanced with Saturday's dinner. I knew I wasn't going to use all day Saturday prepping baked goods.

I fried some bacon and parboiled asparagus. I gave myself 2 gold stars for that.

MENU

Drinks

Coffee, of course
Orange Juice

Savory

Bacon, Asparagus, Goat Cheese Quiche (My go to recipe that is a modification of a Fannie Farmer recipe)
Breakfast sausages

Sweet

Jam-filled Sweet French bread French toast (from a Moosewood cookbook )
Fresh fruit salad with bananas, strawberries, blueberries & ~~full-fat~~ whole-milk Stoneyfield vanilla yogurt

Wine

Super tasty green wine Clint and Anne-Marie brought.

THE PREP

This was pretty easy, as planned. I bought the quiche crust (I've almost got the nerve and equipment to try my own) and took care of cooking the quiche fillings on Saturday. Sunday morning I threw the quiche in the oven and Kent was responsible for the jam-filled french toast. He knocked it out of the park, I must say.

THE VERDICT

As far as brunch goes, it was great. Excellent company and satisfying breakfast foods served at a table with nice dishes. It wasn't a stretching my wings cooking opportunity that I am looking for. It did, however, stretch the dishwasher packing skills of Kent and I. There is no room for error when trying to recover from a massive dinner dish whirlwind in less than 13 hours. Well done, Kent!

THE PRETTY PICTURES

Go to Flickr for full collection.

Dinner Party #3: Just the 2 of us + 3 sticks of butter

2011-05-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Dinner party #3 was an intimate affair - Kent, me, a bottle of wine we've been saving, and an unconscionable amount of butter.

It was delicious.

I used it as an opportunity to stretch my skills a bit and use decadent ingredients. It was our "we've been married a month and have new dishes" celebration. Perhaps we'll do another Dinner Party when we've been married 51/365 of a year and the moon is nearly full.

Anyway, this meal was the least convenient so far in the "everything effortlessly comes together" category. In fact, it was decidedly not that, but dishes did finish when they needed to, and I kept the lights low enough to mask the glean on my forehead.

MENU

Appetizer

Scallops with Ginger Lime Beurre Blanc Sauce

Salad

Arugula, Pear, Pancetta & Ricotta Salata

Main Course

Grilled Filet Mignon and Lobster Tail with Spicy Garlic Shallot Butter
Roasted Sugar Snap Peas
Roasted fingerling potatoes (courtesy of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)

Dessert

Strawberry Shortcakes

Wine

2005 Del Dotto Cabernet Savignon

THE PREP

I started prep WAY later than I should have, due to an ambitiously scheduled hair appointment.

I basically started prep at 2 pm and worked straight through the main course. Oops. On the upside, I did manage to sneak in a tiny bit of prep for Dinner Party #4, aka the Brunch we were hosting THE NEXT MORNING! (another meal, another post)

You can see below the busyness around the second course, and also how comfortable I was letting Kent handle grilling, since there is no mention of it anywhere. For the record, he started grilling right after salad and we didn't start eating at 8:05.

7:30 Serve Scallops

7:45 Serve Salad

Turn broiler on

8:00 Make snap peas

8:05 Serve dinner

THE VERDICT

The scallops were great and my beurre blanc sauce was an excellent consistency. I would use bacon instead of pancetta next time for the salad. The pancetta was too salty.

The main course was excellent - steaks were perfect, the butter was an excellent pairing with the lobster, and the simple prep for the snap peas was delicious. After buying all the potatoes, I realized that a risotto would have been the perfect pairing with the lobster and steak, but that would definitely have been more hands-on prep sweat that I could have hidden with low light.

The most disappointing part of the meal was the shortbread. I mean, it was only as disappointing as a fresh strawberry and whipped cream dessert can be. However, the shortcake was too dense. I believe I used the words "hockey puck" to describe it. I have a lot of learn about baking, and this attempt was a great lesson in butter consistency and over-worked dough (my friend Caryl taught me after-the-fact). Thankfully, Caryl gave me some great pointers on how to avoid the same problem next time so this dessert might make a second appearance soon.

THE PRETTY PICTURES
You can see the complete gallery on Flickr.

Shout out

2011-05-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

Our wedding got a shout out in a weekly Friday column on Green Wedding Shoes - an artsy DIY wedding blog that I checked out pretty frequently for ideas when planning.

After spending months looking at wedding blogs that featured super cool, well designed weddings, I gotta say, I'm flattered.

They feature a lot of Scott's weddings. They might be BFFs for all I know, but they are validating that my taste isn't terrible. I'll take it!

At some point soon, I'll do a more in-depth post on The Biggest Dinner Party We'll Ever Throw, aka Our Wedding. Awaiting the full caboodle of pictures from W. Scott Chester.

#2: Kent’s Favorites + secret birthday dinner

2011-04-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

Since Kent’s birthday was the next day and we were 2 weeks out from our wedding, dinner party #2 featured a significantly simpler menu than our first. I had only one untried recipe, and took the Easy Way Out (tm) for dessert.

I had deemed this meal Kent’s Birthday Dinner, so he had approval rights on the menu.

MENU

Speciality Cocktail

Rosemary-Lemon Fizz with vodka or gin (from Dave's Dinners: A Fresh Approach to Home-Cooked Meals)

Appetizers

Olives
Cheese board with crackers (I forgot to write down what cheeses we had)
Cantalope wrapped in proscuitto

Salad

Iceberg wedge with bacon & blue cheese dressing (various recipes)

Main Course

Peppercorn-encrusted Beef Tenderloin Filet (from Pioneer Woman Cooks)
Green beans w/ red peppers & pine nuts (from my mom)
Boiled Red Potatoes - with butter, salt & pepper

Dessert

Bi-Rite Creamery Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake

Wine

2008 Ladera Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
Again, I forgot to write down the wines (I blame the Ladera), but they were tasty.

THE PREP

Shopping and cooking did not start nearly as early in the week this time, though I did again stick with the detailed prep plan. Way. too. Detailed.

A snippet.

6:45 - take out cheese, crackers

7:00 - take meat & butter out of fridge

7:15 - start boiling water

7:30 - meat on stove

- start potatoes

7:40 - meat in oven

- peppers on stove

8:00 - serve salad

8:15 - server dinner

THE VERDICT

Dinner was a rousing success! Perhaps it was all the wine. The meat came out perfect. The potatoes were soft & creamy. And the ice cream cake was, of course, a well-received finale.

The tricky part of this menu was the blue cheese dressing. It was an unmitigated disaster. I made 3, yes 3, different recipes and they were all terrible. In the end, I sent Kent to the store to buy edible dressing.

I have a newfound respect for good blue cheese dressing and will continue my search for the perfect recipe. I suspect it involves buttermilk. I am not convinced mayo is required.

THE PRETTY PICTURES

You can see the complete Flickr gallery here.

Dinner Party 1: Pork Roast with more pork

2011-04-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

2011 is the Year of the Dinner Party. Conceptually, this means Kent and I are aiming to host a dinner party a month. I am using it as my opportunity to plan menus, buy flowers for the table and put on makeup for a dinner at home.

January was a cooking-challenged month so a dinner party didn't happen. Our first dinner party happened at the end of February.

Not to start small, I decided to make an almost entirely never-been-made before menu, and several complex multi-step dishes.

THE MENU

Appetizers

Crudites with avocado lime dip from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Gammy’s shrimp wrapped in bacon - My grandmother Gammy’s cooking was mostly terrible, but this appetizer made it to my recipe box. I would not call it gourmet, though I would call it delicious.

Salad

Field greens with toasted pine nuts, pears, Gorgonzola and shallot vinaigrette (also from Deborah Madison)

Main Course

Roasted pork stuffed with proscuitto and lemon with a white wine sauce courtesy of Bon Appetit: December ’10
Roasted Broccolini with lemon (also Bon Appetit '10)
My mom’s macaroni and cheese recipe. It’s decadent and in high demand in NJ.

Dessert

Homemade chocolate chip cookie and (not-homemade) vanilla ice cream sandwiches

Wines

There were a variety of white wines brought over for dinner. After 2 days of cooking and several glasses of said wine, I forgot to write down what we had.

THE PREP

Menu planning happened off and on for weeks. I had some constraints: 1 pregnant vegetarian, 6 hungry meat-lovers, and a no-go on beef for this meal. Once I settled on pork over fish or lamb, I created a grocery list and detailed prep plan. Here is just a snippet.

6:00 broil shrimp, arrange salad, put aside sauce stuff

6:30 put roast in, arrange broccolini on pans

7:00 appetizers/drinks

7:15 put mac & cheese in

7:35 dress salad

7:45 pull roast out, put broccolini in, make sauce

8:00 serve dinner

I made cookies on Thursday and prepped mac and cheese on Friday night (my social calendar is smoking hot).

THE VERDICT

There were no disasters. However, it might have been wiser if the entire main course was not never-tried recipes. The pork was OK - it was too dry, too lemony and took way longer to cook then expected. The clear winners were the mac & cheese and the ice cream sandwiches. There was nothing but silence for the 5 minutes it took everyone to devour their dessert. Success!

THE PRETTY PICTURES

See complete collection on Flickr.

2010 year in music

2011-02-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

Music highlight of 2010 was Coachella. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the format.

You can check out my favorites in music in 2010 by

- Going to my iTunes playlist and responsibly buying each song after you listen to the 90 second sample.

- Dowloading a zip file of mp3s.

Playlist

1. Ambling Alp -- Yeasayer (Odd Blood)

2. Tell 'Em -- Sleigh Bells (Treats)

3. Dominos -- The Big Pink (A Brief History of Love)
4. Kiara -- Bonobo (Black Sands)
5. Dirty Old Man -- Miss Li (Dancing theWhole Way Home)
6. 3 Birds -- The Dead Weather (Horehound)
7. Sweetest Kill -- Broken Social Scene (Forgiveness Rock Record)
8. Blood Bank -- Bon Iver (Blood Bank)
9. Moon Boil -- Octopus Project (Golden Beds)
10. I and Love and You -- The Avett Brothers (I and Love and You)
11. 10 Mile Stereo -- Beach House (Teen Dream)
12. In My Room -- Best Coast (Make You Mine)
13. Still Island -- The Cape May (Glass Mountain Roads)
14. Dog Days Are Over -- Florence + the Machine (Lungs)
15. Hand Me Down Your Love -- Hot Chip (One Life Stand)
16. Home -- LCD Soundsystem (This Is Happening)
17. Wide Eyes -- Local Natives (Gorilla Manor)
18. Young Adult Friction -- The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (The Pains of Being Pure At Heart)
19. Lisztomia -- Phonenix (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
20. Work All Day -- Portugal The Man (The Satanic Satanist)
21. When I'm Small -- Phantogram (Eyelid Movies)
22. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains -- Arcade Fire (The Suburbs)

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2010-04-04T18:34:00.001-07:00

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sunny

2009-06-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a gorgeous weekend in San Francisco. Kent and I decided today was a good day to walk across the Golden Gate. I mean, we've been here since October.

The bridge is massive. Easy to miss that when driving over in a car.

Awesomeness

2009-03-16T19:58:00.001-07:00

Surprise!
Originally uploaded by ChrisKaty

Chris & Katy got some great pictures from birthday weekend. Surprise face for one.

Covert Operation

2009-03-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

Kent turned 30 on Friday. To celebrate, he and I went to a Golden State Warriors vs. Mavericks game. Unbeknownst to him, his best friends, father and sister were already at the stadium waiting for him.

It was a layered surprise. Steve, Miles, Brian, Chris and Katy were in the seats when we got there. Dad showed up right after the game started. Heather and her boyfriend came by a bit after that. Icing on the cake - his mom got "Happy Birthday Kent" put up on the jumbotron during half-time.

It was one of the best sneaky surprise events I've ever done. Kent was super shocked - he really had no idea. I was super grateful that so many people flew into SF for the weekend, and we all had a blast.

The game was followed by some roasting, toasting and storytelling (and lots of drinks) at a bar in SF. Saturday we had drinks down at Beach Chalet overlooking the ocean, then dinner and a party in my neighborhood.

This morning, we had breakfast together, then Kent took the boys to the airport, while Chris, Katy, Brian and I went to the DeYoung. (I'm a member now. Add free art to the list of reasons you should come visit me.)

After some slices of leftover ice cream cake, I dropped them off at the airport.

We all had a great weekend, especially Kent.

Looking forward to seeing pics from the rest of the crew. My small collection only captures part of our weekend.

just 20

2009-01-08T22:49:00.000-08:00

I just spent a few hours sorting through pictures I took last year. Took a while, but I found my 20 favorite.

ocean

2009-01-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

for new year's weekend, kent and i headed south to monterey for some relaxation.

the trip was naps, food, beautiful, driving, music, ocean, aquarium.

More pics here

Motherload

2008-12-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

The photographers from Kelly & Greg's wedding posted the many, many, many pics online. If you like looking at weddings, my family, pretty dresses, or action shots of people dancing in formal wear - do it.

I will publicly thank my ever considerate sister for getting us great bridesmaid dresses. I will happily pull these pics out when I am at whatever age it is where reminiscing about the days of my youthful 30s is on the day's agenda.

And of course, Kelly & Greg look fabulously happy.

Adventure

2008-12-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

Kent and I adventured to Marin today to go hiking at Point Reyes National Seashore. We planned to do a pretty long hike, but it took a lot longer to get out there then expected. (Who knew Marin was so large?)

We hiked to the light house instead.

Bummer for us, eh?

We had lunch overlooking the Pacific, holding down our food so it didn't blow away.

It was great.

Perfect

2008-11-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

This was the perfect 4-day weekend. I explored the city, went to the actual beach (as it turns out, I live minutes from the Pacific Ocean), took several naps, played games, read my book, went to fantastic yoga, watched some movies, saw friends and finished my new bathroom curtain!

And the laundry pile is even clean!

I got a brother in law!

2008-11-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

Kelly & Greg got married a couple of weeks back. The wedding was fantastic & Kelly looked amazing! Check out some pics.

And now I have a brother-in-law! It's fun to say.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

This is the delicious meal I shared with Kristen and her family.

This is view from Kristen's apartment.

I'd like this view. I overlook apartments and a parking lot. I'm looking for the hot guy who likes to walk around in the buff in those windows, but so far no luck. But more important than a view is that the Saabaru has a place of its own to sleep at night.

parked

2008-10-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

I parked my car in my garage spot tonight. Tomorrow morning, movers come to bring me my worldly belongings. My apartment is in the Inner Sunset. I am 1/2 block from Golden Gate park, and there are more restaurants than I can fit on my fingers on my block.

Slowly, but surely I am settling in. I am a pro at public transportation, found my favorite eatery near work, can orient myself in at least 3 neighborhoods, and successfully drove up some steep hills without stalling or burning clutch (through use of the rolling stop).

Work has been very busy, but totally awesome. I showed up right before we finished the first two games!

I can't wait to get my settled into my apartment, stop eating out ,get used to driving next to bicycles, and start really exploring the city.

8 years, and no more counting

2008-10-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

I have officially left Austin. I’m sitting in the San Diego airport waiting for my connecting one-way flight to San Francisco. I am excited about my new adventure, but I am sad to have left the Austin life I built. If I were still in Austin, I would be marking my 8-year anniversary of my move there on Sunday. I started my Austin life as a barely out of college 23-year-old. And now, well now, I am no longer in my 20s.

The life I came looking for in 2000 is certainly not the one I have now, though I am infinitely glad that my Austin path led to me to where I am today.

I made great friends. Many of them remain, many have moved onto other cities as well. I fell into a career I love - thanks to friends.

And I’ve created a life. I have a condo I fixed up just how I like it. (Here’s hoping I find a tenant that likes it too!) I have favorite restaurants, bars, and, of course, only one movie theater. For much of my time, I had a wonderful dog. Some of my favorite Austin places – the Greenbelt, the hike and bike trail – I never would have frequented without her. I had a (mostly) weekly cooking night, where I learned, among other things, how to really make salad dressing. And, for years, I had monthly book club, which is far more about friendship than about books.

I had many adventures. I camped, swam under the stars, visited the vast beauty that is Big Bend, went skydiving, watched the city light up under violent thunderstorms, laughed at our snow storms, hosted visitors, lost my hearing at rock shows, enjoyed cocktails at my pool, and of course, did this all with people I love.

Austin changed me – for the better. Not only do I camp, but I have my own equipment. I run! I say “y’all.” I own cowboy boots. I speak much slower than I used to.

I always said that when I left Austin, I wouldn’t come back. But now, I’m not so sure. There is much about life there that I love. I certainly look forward to visiting, where I get to line up nothing but my favorites places, and of course, people!

And now, onward to hilly San Francisco where I will rely on public transportation, reintroduce sweaters and tights to my wardrobe, become an expert on emergency brake usage while stopped on hills, and of course, get to live near my bff again!

Crossed off

2008-09-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

~~Alamo Drafthouse - SLamo and Downtown, as many times as possible~~ Actually I am hoping to sneak in one more trip.

Show at Emo's - I go see Cut Copy on Monday.
~~Casino for burgers and whiskey~~
~~Club Deville, just because~~

Kerby for an Eggs Francisco breakfast

Maria’s for as many breakfast tacos as I can stand

Barton Springs for frigid swimming

Hamilton Pool if I get really lucky

Salt Lick and/or County Line to make myself sick on BBQ- Outting planned for Sunday
~~Curra’s for an avocado margarita~~

~~NXNW for a burger and a beer~~

Hike and Bike trail for one last FLAT outside run

One last violent thunderstorm (Ike might oblige me this weekend)

Bouldin Creek coffee shop for the obvious

Green Belt to hike and remember Amber playing there

Chuy’s for chips, creamy jalapeno sauce and a stomach ache from too much of both

Austin Land & Cattle if I can afford it and have time to actually shower

Bucket List

2008-09-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

I have a 3 page to-do list to get ready to move. And I don't mean 3 pages of scribbled notes in my gigantic handwriting.

I mean a Word file in 12 point Times New Roman font, with some bullet points and headings. It includes many things like "What do I need to do about locks, if anything?" and "Figure out what NOT to move."

Lest I get so caught up in the many, many things I need to do to pack up, I included a section called "Austin Bucket List" (Kent gets thanks for that name).

Should it concern you that I have a to do list for fun? Possibly, but I've got limited time here, and if it isn't on the list, I might not get to it.

I've embellished my list a bit below to give context. I'm not so busy that I need to remind myself why I want to go to these places. People interested in coming to play - you know how to find me.

Bucket List
Alamo Drafthouse - SLamo and Downtown, as many times as possible
Show at Emo's (bonus points if I also get to go to one at the Parish)
Casino for burgers and whiskey
Club Deville, just because
Kerby for an Eggs Francisco breakfast
Maria’s for as many breakfast tacos as I can stand
Barton Springs for frigid swimming
Hamilton Pool if I get really lucky
Salt Lick and/or County Line to make myself sick on BBQ
Curra’s for an avocado margarita
NXNW for a burger and a beer
Hike and Bike trail for one last FLAT outside run
One last violent thunderstorm (Ike might oblige me this weekend)
Bouldin Creek coffee shop for the obvious
Green Belt to hike and remember Amber playing there
Chuy’s for chips, creamy jalapeno sauce and a stomach ache from too much of both
Austin Land & Cattle if I can afford it and have time to actually shower

Now off to meet Liz for some Club Deville drinking followed by the Tokyo Police Club show at Emo's. 2 down!

Mine!

2008-08-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

I finished my clutch bag this week!

It's the most complicated project I've done yet. I got the pattern from Amy Butler's In Stitches.

The bag didn't come out quite like I expected it to. The sides aren't as stiff I thought they would be, but I love the fabric and I can't get enough of the flower. It's my favorite detail.

I have to repair the Velcro closure. I accidentally ironed it while finishing the bag, and that makes it not sticky. Also, it ruins irons.

But now I just need the right occasion to bring this baby out!

Slowing it down

2008-07-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

I went to Montana to visit Melissa and crew for 4th of July weekend. As usual, my trek to the north was relaxing and inspiring. Highlights

Meeting 4 month old Ella. She is full of smiles.
Playing with 3 year old Aspen. He’s charming, sincere, imaginative, curious and pushy all at once. I even got some cuddle time. I had a blast with him, and it required several naps.
Making enchiladas for 20.
Drinking cocktails and talking with Jay, Mel and their amazing friends.
Sharing the RV in Jackson with 7 other people and 2 dogs.
The amazing weather.
Soaking in the Jackson Hot Springs.
4^th of July fireworks.

See all pics on Flickr.

2 more down

2008-06-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

I've been on a sewing rampage this week. After all that time off, I finished 2 projects this weekend.

First are the place mats & napkins from Amy Butler's In Stitches book that I started working on last week. I finished them on Friday, and am really happy with how they came out.

This is the biggest project I worked on. All in, I spent 10-12 hours on these - maybe more. I learned I have about a 2 hour threshold to work before I get tired and need to do something requiring less concentration. I also learned if I push it, I make mistakes.

I worked with a new type of interfacing. It is material you sew or iron onto the back of fabric to give it shape and comes in many variations of strength/thickness. I did a bit of improvising for this project, which came out fine though next time I will use thinner interfacing that doesn't require ironing.

I finally feel like I am getting an intuitive knack for interfacing use, which is nice. I'm collecting me some sewing knowledge!

So the place mats have the same fabric on the back as in the front middle (Amy Butler pattern).

The napkins are reversible.

For the first time ever, I like these so much I actually want to give them away. Usually, I am sad I am being so generous with making items for others!

Yesterday, I took the Monsters, Dolls and Plushy Toys class with the fabulous Leslie at Stitch Lab. I haven't had such a fun 3 hours in a long time.

I made this Owl!

And I am very sad I am not keeping it. The class was great because the options were endless. I basically showed up with a bag of fabric. Leslie had lots of felt and buttons for us to use, and more patterns and ideas for stuffed toys than I thought was possible. This class really was all about imagination. And I definitely will be using this inspiration for new projects.

One woman drew her design from scratch. Another woman did a very adorable 2-headed dog, and the fourth woman did a camouflage squid for her son that was just amazing.

I totally want to have a plushy doll party! Like that place in the mall where you make stuffed animals, but they will have more personality. Cause you can't get eyes like this at the mall.

As for my plushy owl, she is destined to watch over a cute little Montana baby girl... if I don't try to sneak her home with me, of course.

Next up is a clutch bag from the Amy Butler book. A bag I have every intention of keeping, and assuredly won't change my mind when it's finished.

Productive!

2008-06-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

So I bought myself a brand spanking new Kenmore last week after my night of frustration. The problems are very possibly user error, but I need to give Liz her machine back soon, and Sears had the model I wanted on sale. It was just time to get it.

I love my new machine!

It has speed control, a feature I apparently desperately needed. I can sew straighter lines when my lead foot doesn't take over. And it's working like a dream!

Thursday, I hemmed up some of Brian's curtains and finally finished my pillow for my couch!

This project was fun because I really didn't follow directions. I combined a couple of sets of instructions to make what I wanted, which of course gave me lots of opportunities to make mistakes.

I started this pillow with a red trim. Corners are tricky! However, I also mis-measured the pillow form, and the pillow case ended up being too big. Whoops.

So I cut it down and decided to make it with a zipper instead. I had no more trim, and didn't love how it looked anyway.

I love how this pillow looks on my couch and in the room!

Yesterday, I got started on a new project. Placemats and napkins from the Amy Butler: In Stitches book. With such detailed instructions, this round should go better than last year's attempt.

I fell in love with the fabric, and think it will make great placemats. They won't match a single thing of mine, but they sure will be pretty!

Yesterday I cut out all the fabric, and today I hope to finish the machine sewing of the placemats.

Sewing, Interrupted

2008-06-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Two months ago I bought a lot of fabric for new projects and not a single one is complete yet. This is mostly due to travel and tri training, but a recent sewing machine malfunction contributed.

So last night I got back to the sewing. Everything was going smoothly... right up until it wasn't. The machine suddenly started jamming again in the exact same way I just spent $50 to fix. The bottom thread bunches up and doesn't sew at all. This makes sewing impossible.

Tonight, I tried a new bobbin hoping it would fix it, but it didn't. (The guy at the repair shop indicated it might.) These constant problems with sewing machines are unbelievably frustrating. I just walked into Kent's house and dumped a slew of curse words on him. I bet Martha Stewart doesn't drop f-bombs when discussing her projects. Well maybe she did in jail. To be tough.

I just don't know what is going on. I got rid of the first sewing machine assuming it was a bad apple, but now I've had the same problem twice on the second (which is actually a loaner).

Am I doing something wrong? Is there some special threading trick I am just missing? Do I just need a better machine? Is there some magic wand I need to wave to get through more than 10 minutes of sewing at a time?

Tell me sewing god(dess), why is this happening?

Am I being punished for that stuffed animal I refused to finish in 7^th grade Home Ed just because it was expected of me? I was 13, just discovering my angsty defiant self (and punk music).

But now those numbers are reversed, and defiance holds less thrill. Sewing god, I would like to finish my accent pillow, and I have more onesies on deck. Oh, and I have that stuffed animal sewing class coming up next week.

At this point, I am favoring the option where I throw money at the problem. Tomorrow, I am most likely going to buy a brand new mid-range Kenmore that comes recommended by Leslie, my local sewing teacher/expert. And if that one has trouble, I am putting out a call for hired guns. There will be a sewing god with a bounty on her head.

Finished!

2008-06-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

I completed my second Danskin Triathlon this morning, though I didn't do it faster than last year's 1:58:51, as I hoped.

I think this was for 2 reasons.
- WIND! My tailwind had me cruising up at 26 mph. And the headwind had me fighting to get up to 10 mph. Going downhill.
- I pegged my heart rate really high, really early and it just stayed there. By the time I started then run, I was tired! Usually I try to stay in my aerobic zone of 155-165. I hovered between 170-192.

Of course, I finished, and it was just as awesome as last year, but I was more wiped out from this race. I barely could stay awake to eat brunch!

We were totally fortunate to not have blazing hot weather. All that wind came with some clouds, and that was definitely a good thing.

I'm not sure how much my extra training helped me out today. I don't think I've ever biked in wind like I saw today. But it did get me into better shape overall, so I'll take that.

If I do Danskin next year, I might join a training group to really push my time, and have some event buddies.

My times this year were
Overall: 1:59:38
Swim: 25:07
Transition 1: 6:49
Biking: 48:35 (Avg: 14.8 mph)
Transition 2: 2:54
Running: 36:11 (11:40 min mile)

Best part about today - 80 year old woman competing. I passed her (barely) on the run. I hope I am in good enough shape to think about doing a tri when I am 80!

Almost. There.

2008-05-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

The Danskin Triathlon is next weekend! After getting into great shape for it last year, I followed it up with a slow decline into the worst shape I've been in years. Without a goal, I floundered, then got bored, then got busy, and then just stopped.

So I started pre-training in Jan, and actual training in March. I modified last year's program to be harder. Frankly, it was a little too easy for me. This year, I took the training and basically doubled distances and ramped intensity faster, with time off for my travels last month.

And at this point, I can kick your ass. Well at least if you are small and exercise less than me. OK, so maybe I can kick a pre-teen girl's ass. Or that small grandmother I see at the gym, but I'm not down with grandma beatings.

I digress.

My point is not beatings. My point is that I feel really fit and healthy, and it feels great. I thought I was in the best shape ever last year, but I have definitely progressed this year. I bike faster. Swim faster and longer. And hate running less, though haven't made much headway on increasing my plodding 12 minute mile. I don't get wiped out by my work outs, and they are long.

Last week, for example.

Tues - Ran 3 miles than swam a mile intermingled with funny dances to shake out a crippling Charlie Horse in my foot.
Wed - Biked 16 miles home. It took too long, but I hit like 40 lights and some headwinds.
Thurs - Swam a mile. Skipped "walking" portion cause that is boring.
Ended up taking Friday, Sat and Sun off due to camping and camping recovery so....
Monday - Did 15 mile hilly ride on stationary bike in 50 minutes, followed 4 mile run. It would be really nice to do a tri in the A/C. Also I would appreciate if the Texas rain would be more attentive to my training schedule.

Today I biked home from work again. This ride was a million times better. Longer - 18 miles - but better roads and less lights so I finished significantly faster than last time. I averaged 12 mph, which Brian tells me is really good for that route.

I'm not going to end up on the cover of any fitness magazines any time soon, but I gotta say, I look (and feel!) pretty damn good. Though I am really, really looking forward to having my evenings back. And dialing back this work out routine. Think I can keep this well sculpted ass with a a diligent routine of aimlessly trolling the Internet in the evenings?

My goal for next Sunday is to beat my time from last year - I need to swim 1/2 mile, bike 12 miles and run 3 in less than 1:58:51. I feel ready!

Packing it up

2008-05-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

Australia and the US share similar histories. In the grand scheme of things, we are young countries. We do not have centuries of protecting our land and people from warring neighbors. We were founded by white Europeans determined to crush indigenious people. The expanse of our land is vast. Waves of immigration have shaped our populations and diets.

And in many ways, my time in Sydney and Melbourne has felt familiar. There are no cobblestone streets leading to decrepit castles here. Many people have cars. The cities sprawl and lead to vast suburbs with big houses. There is no lack of good Italian or Asian food. I see Weber barbeque grills on many apartment patios.

But Sydney is distinctly different than say New York. It’s cleaner & safer. The people are much more friendly, and don’t carry that grim determination of bustle and rush that American’s tend to have.

And of course there is the lovely accent, the backward driving and those pesky doorknobs, which I’ve narrowed down to possibly being an attribute of this cool old brownstone Liz lives in.

New cities and countries are always measured with the “how much would I like living here” stick? I think Australia would feel most like home, which puts them pretty high on the stick.

While I barely had any time in Melbourne, I think I would prefer it over Sydney. It’s smaller, and has a pronounced streak of community around art and music that is specific to the city. Like Austin, but bigger! Though Sydney has miles and miles of swimmable ocean beaches, which is awfully tempting.

Sydney

2008-05-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

Any band who says that Austin is their favorite city to play in (and there have been many) are lying. Or haven’t played in Sydney.

Sunday night, Liz and I went to see Architecture in Helsinki at Metro, a medium sized venue with good sound. When the band came on some people screamed and ran in from the bar. And the dance floor was teaming with bouncing, joyful, dancing kids. The reckless abandon was infectious, and makes a much better show then the overly-reserved self-conscious head bobbing hipsters at Austin’s indie rock shows.

My time in Sydney was fantastic. We had perfect weather and my jet lag wasn’t crippling at all. I got home last night, and still feel mighty out of it, but that’ll pass….. eventually.

Friday night, Liz and I grabbed tapas in the Sydney Harbour and ogled the bridge and opera house. Saturday morning, we went running in a gorgeous city park complete with an equestrian area and several sport fields. We followed this up by stuffing ourselves silly at a packed dim sum restaurant.

We headed back to the harbor to catch a ferry to north Sydney to go on a gorgeous walk along the coast line, and followed that up with more eating, and then some drinking in Newtown. Liz’s hottie boyfriend met us out for a bit and watched me shove falafel in my mouth on the street. It was lovely. Really.

Sunday, we had a leisurely breakfast over some Internet, and then headed down to Bondi Beach for the market, lunch and another gorgeous coastal walk.

Monday, I hit up a local breakfast spot for some coffee and a tasty ricotta, pumpkin, sun dried tomato omelet, and then stared at tall buildings on my way to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. I was lucky enough to catch the exhibits for 3 annual painting prizes. One was for portraits, and was endlessly fascinating. Afterwards, I wandered through the immense Botanical Gardens mesmerized by sizable spider webs and wombats!

Tuesday, Liz and I hit the Fish Market, which is the biggest market outside of Tokyo. We got ourselves some fresh off the boat sushi at 10 am, and then headed to The Rocks to wander around. We hit up the Modern Museum of Art. After lunch we headed to Paddington for window shopping and dessert. My time was cut short by an urgent need to hang out in the bathroom. We missed our fabulous dinner at a Thai place, but otherwise I was fine. At this point, my various travel illnesses are comedic.

Quick

2008-05-13T04:50:00.001-07:00

Coffee shop is getting ready to close so here is a quick post.

PICTURES!

I fly back tomorrow. More then.

Doorknobs

2008-05-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

I am here.

To open a door you turn the door knob to the left, not the right. Stay tuned for details on this and other bizarre southern hemisphere quirks. Coming soon.

Melbourne

2008-05-07T01:52:00.000-07:00

I am here after 6 hours at SFO, an impromptu dinner with Randy in LA and a 15 hour flight. I am getting good at these obscenely long flights. I didn't take drugs. I didn't sleep the whole time and I didn't get stir crazy. Thank god for on demand movies in the seat backs.

I spent much of today wandering around Melbourne city center. It looks like this.

There is a great combination of Victorian architecture with hyper modern buildings. I liked the juxtaposition. While there are the clear homages to their British heritage, the city itself feels more like home. It's big. Not L.A. nightmare sprawl, but definitely not crammed together like a small European village.

I didn't get to see a lot of the city today, but I was just so glad to be walking outside.

I grabbed a bowl of Pho (chicken soup) at a super crowded Vietnamese place for lunch that just hit the spot, checked out the artsy Fitzroy district, and the art centers down by the river.

2 random observations
- Australia is expensive. Bottled watter is a minimum of $2.50. Cheap clothes were hovering around $50.
- There is no lack of good looking men to oogle at down here. Yummy eye candy.

Perfect: The Roundup

2008-05-07T01:24:00.001-07:00

So our Napa trip was basically perfect. Amazing food and wine. Great company. Spectacular weather. I am freshly arrived in Melbourne, Australia and trying to stay awake the ungodly hour of EIGHT PM. But more on Melbourne later.

So, Napa. Pictures!

We stayed at Rancho Caymus Inn in Rutherford, which was build from a 80-year-old barn in Ohio that was dissembled and moved out to California.

It is also home to La Toque, the fabulous restaurant where we had dinner Friday night. Sadly, I was feeling a bit under the weather so I skipped the wine pairing, but the food was amazing.

Saturday we hit the already mentioned Larkmead and Barnett vineyards.

Sunday we had lunch at Auberge du Soleil, which was my favorite part of our vacation. It's a secluded hotel/restaurant up on one of the hills in Napa. We sat in the sun on the deck and had a long leisurely lunch and some delicious white wine. The food presentation was as gorgeous as the view!

After that, we hit up the ornate Darioush and Del Dotto wineries. Del Dotto built their new facility in the past year. Personally, I wasn't that impressed. It is ornate Italian that is too clean and obvious. It doesn't have the charm of their cave space.

All of this amazingness was followed by an epic nap and a raging hangover that kept me from pigging out on our light dinner - a delicious collection of Oakville cheeses, breads, salami and olives.

But let that not detract from a fabulous vacation. I didn't want to leave, and I was heading for Australia!

Perfect

2008-05-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

I am in Napa. It's basically perfect here. Today we visited the Larkmead & Barnett Vineyards. Barnett is up top of Spring Mountain, which has a very fun, windy road to get there.

They got themselves some nice digs, huh?

At both places we were graciously hosted by recent Austin transplants. The husband at Larkmead & wife at Barnett. They seem quite happy with their new Napa Valley life....It's just so tempting.

Upcoming

2008-04-26T16:38:00.001-07:00

At the end of next week, I leave for a long weekend in Napa Valley with Kent and his dad. We will sample wine and food, and be merry. I expect it to be fabulous. From San Francisco, I take off for Australia, where I will do a couple of days of work, and then spend a few days in Sydney with Liz. I can’t wait for my epic trip, even if it involves entirely too much time in airplanes.

Kent leaves our Napa trip and heads straight to Rome (well via NYC and London) for work. Aren’t we so very cosmopolitan?

Stay tuned for many pictures. Hopefully I won’t look as tired as I expect to feel.

On June 8th, I will be doing the Danskin Triathlon again. I’d like to beat my time from last year. I’m just about midway through training, and I’ve modified the training program I used last year to be a little harder. At this point, I am just about swimming/biking/running the tri distances. (1/2 mile swim, 12 mile ride, 3.1 mile run)

I’m trying to double all the distances before June. My upcoming flurry of travel involving more time zones than human fingers may put a damper on that plan. But I’ll do the best I can. Regardless, I am getting stronger. My underarm skin no longer sways when you poke it!

Tipping my nerd hat

2008-03-27T18:12:00.001-07:00

So I find economics interesting. I find the cross section of economics, the financial industry, government and human behavior totally fascinating. I got hooked the first time I wrote a news story, as an intern, where the headline dropped a stock price in a matter of minutes. The

So my nerdiness is a fascination with these types of dry, academic matters. And there has been lots reading to satisfy my inner nerd lately.

Alarmist news stories aside, there is a lot to be learned right now. This NY Times article explains our current banking/housing situation is A) well written B) totally enlightening. Check it out!

#*&!%$! Finished or Sewing Projects 6 & 7

2008-03-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

After 3 months, much frustration, a sewing machine replacement and 47 miles of thread, I have finally finished sewing projects 6 & 7.

Project 6: The Sewing Machine Cozy
It's amazing I haven't quit sewing after this. For this project I had to use a Teflon foot with vinyl, and let me tell you my new-to-me sewing machine was not a fan. Said machine is now chilling at Goodwill, and I have Liz's much more competent Kenmore. This is the second pattern I made from Diana Rupp's Sew Everything Workshop In addition to new material (vinyl!) & the foot, I got to use bias tape. Now that I understand how it works, I think it's great.

I don't love this cozy, but I can't begin to express how excited I am that's it finished. It will sit lovingly on a sewing machine until that vinyl disintegrates.

Project 7: The Onesies
I got the idea for this project months ago, when my friends were all barely pregnant, and I saw some very cute, albeit pricey, onesies on So Congress. "I can sew this!" I said as I fingered a onesie with an adorable rocket ship patch. I printed out pictures of cowboy boots, rocket ships, cupcakes and ducks to use as patches.

Suffice it to say - my original vision of cute boot patches didn't quite match my beginner sewing skills. Months later, Rita's excellent advice got me to my 3rd and final version.

Clothing for little people is pretty adorable, even when it only involves very simple shapes.

Step 1: Cutting
I traced a CD for the bottom round patch and the interfacing on the back of it.

I drew a heart by hand. Cause I'm a bad ass heart drawer like that.

Step 2: Sewing
I sewed the patches together, after I ironed the interfacing to the circle. This made the fabric sturdy. The heart fabric for both the girl and boy version was corduroy so it was fairly thick.

After the patch was together, I sewed it to a onesie. The stretchy material made this trickier then expected. It was easy to misalign the patch due to the the stretch of the fabric and trying to manipulate that tiny thing around the sewing machine.

But 4 of the 5 came out great and are en route to new babies!

Another SXSW down

2008-03-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

As usual, my hearing is slightly worse than it was this time last year. What was unusual about SXSW this year was the awesome new technology involved in planning for it, and the number of good bands I went to see. 15 of the 28 bands I saw were fun, interesting shows, and I will now begin the quest to track down albums. I didn’t kill myself to go to shows in every slot, which cut down on the number of bad bands.

This SXSW was all about embracing Web 2.0, which basically means being a communication connection obsessed teen with the attention span of a goldfish. First off, some bored programmers/SXSW attendees finally built the perfect web-based scheduling tool for SXSW. This saved me 4 billion hours. Secondly, I did most band research on MySpace. Seriously, I think I found my Dad's band's page.

Lastly, I attempted to utilize Twitter for downtown communication with friends about show attendance. But more often than not my Internet-equipped phone failed to connect. Damn you T-Mobile! Thank god for old fashioned text messaging.

Anyway, the band reviews.

The Top 4

Yeasayer - Hippie-esque band, but none of that long-winded jamming. Super tight, layered music by 3 very competent, if unfashionably dressed, musicians. This was the best show I saw by a long shot.

Fuck Buttons – Yet another band with a stupid name. Their show was far better than expected. Super loud wall of sound electronic noise. Not unlike Holy Fuck in that respect either, but more drone, less dance.

Cloud Cult – I am pretty sure this album is going to go into heavy rotation when I get it. Many band members, strings, keyboards. And you can see Steve & me in the video from their day show!

White Rabbits – Followed Steve & Kent here and so glad I did. Fun indie rock band of short men with 2 drummers. Seriously, I think the lead singer was my height…. On stage.

Enjoyable, but not tops

Shout Out Louds – Swedes! Who rock! With the pre-requisite hot blond girl on keyboards!

Grand Ole Party - Drum kit is set up front and center stage. Girl gets behind drums and puts on headset microphone. There are some ornamental hot men on some guitars or something. Who cares? The girl drummer is singing with a smoky voice from the 30s and making awesome faces. I was mesmerized!

The Big Sleep – Angsty rock band that Kent loves. . Live show had lots of energy so I totally enjoyed that.

Portugal the Man – 40 minute jam fest that didn’t get boring or derivative. Nice work rocker boys.

Lykki Li – Cute, poppy Swedish girl with quaint lyrics. Played 4 million day shows.

Bon Iver – Once every 5 years, I tolerate and then love the heartfelt crooning of a singer songwriter with a guitar. Bon Iver should hold me over until 2013.

Sea Wolf – The only band besides Yeasayer that I heard before SXSW. This is because my childhood friend’s brother is the bassist, and Diana keeps me up to speed on the local Hillsborough musicians. But they were great live, and I’m not just saying that cause of Ted!

Team Robespierre – Their MP3 lead me to believe I was going to see an electronic band. They managed to hide their punk roots for at least 30 seconds. Great punk band with a ton of energy, duck taped ankle braces, and none of the super simple repeatative drums that bore with me some punk.

Back Ted N Ted – Saw them at a super tiny theatre with seats so their show was decidedly low energy, but they were great poppy/electronic indie rock. The guys were like a trio of Buddy Hollys. I had a crush on the red headed lead singer with the cute dance moves in a suit.

The Deadly Syndrome – The band we were meant to see just didn’t show up so we saw this one instead. Considering they weren’t screened at all, they were pretty fun. Best encore ever. The entire band started playing the drums together.

Not so bad as to ignore the friend/water/seat option here

DJ Rhettmatic – Look I play records of songs other hip hop artists, and occasionally I scratch the record.

Scissors for Lefty – Skinny, pasty lead singer takes of his shirt and women swooned. It was troubling. I saw them a couple years ago, and thought they were great live. This time they were boring, even shirtless.

Evangelicals – Been done a million times before pop rock.

Santogold – More stage presence then MIA, but clearly a rip off, with really boring songs.

This Will Destroy You – Post rock. But boring.

Radar Bros –Not my cup of tea - twangy alt country singer songwriter type – but not an offensive way to spend 30 min in the Parish while waiting for the Shout Out Louds.

Tokyo Police Club – I was super excited to see this band. And the 4 song acoustic set by the singer was fine, but not what I wanted. Also, he’s like 19. The lead singer of a fairly successful indie rock bank was born in 1987! No worries, I’ve already pick out my coffin.

The Dodos – More indie rock. With a hint of Irish? Or interesting percussion? Good live show, but I can’t remember why I liked it so it’s been relegated here.

OMG, I must get the hell out of here

Indian Jewelers - It was so bad I already banned the specifics from my memory. Cow bell? Growling? A synth on repeat? AWFUL!

Toxic Avenger/Totally Michael – I was early for Shout Out Out Out Outs and had a comfy seat in air conditioning. They were so bad they chased me out of my chair and I never came back for the band I liked.

Tokyo Sex Destruction – Red Eyed Fly was running behind. Saw 2 songs and left. Boring and bad.

Dandi Wind –I went to this show on purpose. Apparently I hated them last year too. While I credit the girl’s relentless energy and fake blood on her shirt, the annoying techno and screaming felt more like “punishment” than “musical performance.”

Duchess Says –Dandi Wind, but with screeching & instruments. Just say no to experimental electronic music from Montreal.

San Francisco

2008-02-26T18:52:00.001-08:00

I made my annual trek to San Francisco last week for work. In addition to the conference, I saw friends, went shopping in the rain, ate several good meals, spent hours taking pictures at the Farmer's Market, broke my phone, and got a mild case of food poisoning.

Other than the last 2 items, the trip was great. There are only pictures of the Farmer's Market outing. Fruit doesn't complain when you take out a big camera.

Refusal

2008-02-25T17:32:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for the free service at Calalog Choice where you can unsubscribe from all the mail order catalogs in one place.

It's a great site. Easy to use, nice UI, a database full of catalogs. I am excited to de-clutter my mailbox. I am a proficient Internet shopping. I do not need catalogs.

Today, I logged in to find out that Performance Bicycle refused my request to cancel my subscription I didn't ask for and don't want. I called customer support to complain about this crappy policy and ended up in looping voice mails that never connected me to anyone.

Nice work Performance Bicycle - I will never shop with you again and now have posted on the Internet why you suck!

Project 5: Pillows

2008-02-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Since Christmas, I've collected a proper sewing tool collection. I have chalk, *really* nice dress shears, a bobbin holder case, some fancy feet for my machine, and, and and... the list goes on.

I've flipped through my 2 sewing books earmarking projects several times. I've found 65 places to buy fabric online. Everything is perfect... except the sewing. I've worked on a couple of projects over the last couple of weeks that either didn't turn out how I expected, or didn't turn out at all.

But this weekend, in a project completion frenzy, I was determined to finish something I liked.

Pillows!

I followed the instructions from Diana Rupp's Sew Everything Workshop to make a pillow with an envelope back.

The first pillow took about an hour - I spent about 20 minutes measuring and cutting fabric, another 20 minutes dealing with a jam, and another 20 sewing and ironing. The second pillow took about 20 minutes total.

I bought the fabric a couple of months ago with no specific ideas on how to use it. I have no idea if they will match with anything the recipient owns, but she'll love them anyway (I hope).

I think they are adorable, and best yet, they are machine washable!

I am still getting the hang of my machine. I really like how easy it is to control speed, but I do get jammed pretty often. I haven't figured out why yet, so that pretty frustrating. Oh, and it's European so the metal plate ticks off centimeters. I am going to have to mark my 1/2 inch seam allowance in marker.

Later this week, my friend Tara is hosting a craft night. For that, I am going to work on a cover for my sewing machine - also from Diana's book. And hopefully collect some advice to move forward on my so-far-unsuccessful "onesies" project. There are no less than 7 babies slated to receive said onesies!

Shopping = happiness

2008-02-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

I've had a couple of good weeks on the collecting material posessions front.

I got this awesome necklace from Sprout on Etsy. Dangerously, my Etsy favorites items list is growing by the day. Some prints are up next.

Also, I finally got an SLR camera!

I got a great deal on used Canon EOS 20D & 50 mm lense from someone at work. The camera is pretty intimidating, but I am excited to have it! And my 17mm-85mm lens is on the way. I expect this to be my primary lens.....friends, get ready to smile. Here's hoping I get the hang of this thing before 2009.

2007 Ends In 21

2008-01-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

I am not usually an end-of-the-year mix type. Typically, it's too much bother for me to put together what is ultimately a mix of music that only I will love.

But last year's music buying was unprecedented, and really why shouldn't I make the ultimate mix for myself. This mix is notable in the number of new albums that didn't make the cut. The cut being a totally artificial 80 minute CD limit. I have no intention of burning this to CD. But what can I say, I like the constraint.

I figure that there is at least one song on here that at least one friend will like, so I'm sharing it. If not, I can use it as the foundation of a loathsome "my music taste is better than yours" debate.

2007 Ends In 21 can be downloaded here

Here's the track list.

1. Nature Of The Experiment - Tokyo Police Club, A Lesson in Crime
2. Conquest - The White Stripes, Icky Thump
3. Sick, Sick, Sick - Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris
4. The Greater Time - Electrelane, No Shouts No Calls
5. Mystic Song - The Berg Sans Nipple, Along The Quai
6. Anti-Anti - Snowden, Anti-Anti
7. Free Stress Test - Professor Murder, Professor Murder Rides the Subway
8 Metric - Ellen Allien & Apparat, Orchestra Of Bubbles
9. Someone Great -LCD Soundsystem, Sound Of Silver
10. 10 x10 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Is Is
11. Past In Present - Feist, The Reminder
12. it's because... we've got hair - tunng, comments of the inner chorus
13. Back In Your Head - Tegan And Sara, The Con
14. Midnight Coward - Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War
15. The Subtleties That Count - Yppah, You Are Beautiful At All Times
16. Knock 'em Out -Lily Allen, Alright, Still
17. Dang - Buck 65, Situation
18. Running out - Stateless, Stateless
19. Frau wav - Clark, Body Riddle
20. Intervention - Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
21. Tell Me in the Morning - Cold War Kids, With Our Wallets Full

(In case you are curious why the beloved on-ever-best-of-'07 Radiohead In Rainbows album isn't on here, it's because I didn't actually possess it until Jan 3rd)

Sewing Projects 3 & 4

2008-01-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

I made my sister and my mom handbags recently. Kelly's was a very late birthday gift, which I did in a sewing class with the fabulous Leslie at Stitch Lab/Glitzkrieg.

(Seriously, if you live in Austin, I highly recommend Leslie's classes. She's preternaturally patient, and focuses on teaching details that made my bags look really professional.)

Anyway, Kelly's bag was a variation of the one I made myself earlier this year. It was slightly longer with a pocket.

I made my Mom the same bag I made myself for Christmas. I added the pocket to this one too. I made this at home without Leslie looking over my shoulder. There are a couple of mistakes that I didn't catch until too late, but it still looks pretty good. I was excited about the fabric pairings for this one.

This was my first project on my new-to-me sewing machine. It was made in the 70s so learning how to thread it was an exciting standalone lesson.

I already have the fabric for my next project, which I will tackle later this month. I recently bought some basic supplies and Amy Butler's In Stitches book, and have a couple more projects earmarked. So I think this sewing thing might stick around.

Nap a day

2007-12-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

I spent my Christmas holiday in Cozumel with my family. The beaches are beautiful. The snorkeling with a blast. The island was, well, a cool little island full of mopeds, huge expanses of desert jungle, and a crowded town center of colorful buildings. The family had a great time. We had a strict schedule of daily naps, long beer lunches and early cocktail hour.

Pics are on Flickr!

The only downside was the food poisoning/Mexican sickness I picked up on Christmas. Shockingly, airplane toilets are not the best place to get comfortable for some puking.

Now, I am in the rainy North Carolina mountains with Kent and Steve until after New Years.

Yesterday started with a trip to the doctor's office and some prescriptions to ward off the last of the Mexico sickness so I'm feeling great.

I have another 3 days of daily naps, blissful eating, and hot tub trips in front of me. I plan to enjoy every minute of it!

Published

2007-12-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

A photo I took in Seattle got published in a free online travel guide with questionable UI design.

It's this one.

Check out the Schmap website, if you feel so inclined. Good lucking finding my photo!

Things I like these days

2007-12-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

etsy.com - It's like the ebay of hand-made jewelry, art and crafts. I am coveting stuff from at least 3 artists.

Sewing Projects 1 & 2

2007-09-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Months ago, I took a sewing class, with the goal of making myself some curtains. I just finished!

This is actually the second sewing project I’ve done since my classes. The first was a birthday gift for my mom. I decided to make her placemats and napkins. Seemed like a nice easy first project. It had lots of straight lines and right angles. How hard could it be?

Sewing Lesson #1: The amount of cutting and measuring required drastically increases the complexity and time of a sewing project.

For the placemats, I found this pretty, dramatic blue floral print, and decided to put a solid navy material on the back. To give the placemats some stiffness, I used interfacing, which is basically a stiff material you iron onto fabric. Very popular in craft projects.

I originally planned on doing 6 placemats and 6 napkins. This meant I needed to cut 32 pieces of material. Interfacing fell just an inch short of what I needed, and 5 is a weird number of placemats so I did 4. I spent 3 hours on a Saturday cutting fabric for the placemats, so I was happy with my scope reduction.

In the course of making the placemats I learned more important lessons.

Lesson #2 – Fabric choice makes a HUGE difference in how well your project goes. A slippery fabric that doesn’t crease well is not a good option to put behind a stiff fabric attached to interfacing.

Lesson #3 – When the fabric bunches up, it’s not that it sucks. It’s that thread tension needs to be changed. (Thanks Book Club!)

Lesson #4 – When the first placemat comes out look puffy and really stupid, you should bring it with you to whine to your boyfriend. He might have a brilliant idea on how to fix it. (I added a seam around the finished placemat to make it lay flat. It also added a nice contrast line that made it look more finished.)

After finishing the placemats, I tackled the napkins. I’ve been looking at napkins everywhere I go and knew what I needed to do. Fold over the edges and make as small a seam as I could, then fold them over again to have finished edges. A couple of folds, a couple of seams, and I was set.

Lesson #5 – Slippery thick fabric that won’t crease is a TERRIBLE choice for napkins.

Lesson #6 – Small seams and folds are time consuming and involve getting stabbed with pins a lot.

I spent an hour on one napkin which was long enough to realize that I should go buy napkins. Crate & Barrel had beautiful matching green ones, as featured in the pictures.

I am, however, determined to try napkins again. This time with better material. Overall, I am satisfied with my project. I learned a lot and if I did placemats again, they would come out much better. I, of course, can see every crooked seam and bunched bit of fabric in these. That said, I’m glad they are on display on my mom’s table.

Sewing Project #2

Curtains were up next. I’ve had a particular idea for a fabric for the kitchen and when I found something on sale, I was psyched!

I looked at patterns at the store. They were confusing as hell and mostly ugly so I decided to wing it. I remembered my mom making curtains for my room when I was kid. Again, I figured how hard could it be? (I did all my material shopping before I started any home sewing- back when I was full of joyous naivete.)

This time I was right. The curtains were easy and fun. I mean, I made them twice, but still it only took a couple of hours each time.

I originally planned to make 2 panels that went to the sill with tie backs. I finished the first panel and learned some more sewing lessons.

Lesson #7 – Measure twice, cut once. The curtain was ¾” short of the sill and the slot for the curtain rod was too tight to fit the rod in. (Funny, this is the same lesson I learned from my dad with regards to wood and cutting).

Lesson #8 – Fabric choice makes a HUGE difference in how well your project goes. Stiff upholstery fabrics won’t fold well under a tie back for a window curtain.

Fortunately I had a lot of fabric so I was able to start over. This time I made one short curtain. It’s a little longer than normal to cover the ugly metal of the window (another good suggestion from Kent).

Lesson #9 – If you move the pedal away from you, you have smoother sewing speed. If you keep it right under you, you drive the sewing machine like a blind midget jamming a wood rod at the gas pedal.

I’m happy with my curtains. I haven’t been sure I would actually like the fabric in the room. It doesn’t really match the countertops, but the room needed more color. And these did it!

At this point, I think I am going to get my own sewing machine. I’m not sure I’m going to start making brocade dresses, but I will definitely use it for simple projects. And someday I will make some good napkins!

Comparative Analysis of Shanghai Rub Downs

2007-08-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

I’ve had two massages while here in Shanghai. They were very different in every way except for this.

They were cheap. ($24 and $12) and they both made me sick! I get the distinct impression that massages here are a therapy to remove “toxins.” And remove they did.

Massage #1 was a typical Chinese massage- it was dry. You wear pajamas and the girl massages you through those and focuses on a body part at a time. I liked, but didn’t love it.

Afterwards, I took a large nap and woke up not well. I was freezing cold for a couple of hours, with a determined feeling of puking. There was no puking, but sufficient to say there are other methods of toxin removal. After a couple of hours, I felt super hot, and then it just…went away.

Not to learn lessons the first time, yesterday I headed to a different place – recommended by co-workers. They said it was amazing, and there definitely was oil. I figured it’d be more like the amazing relaxing massage I got the first time I came here.

Wrong. The girl twisted my body and joints in directions that weren’t comfortable. She moved so hard and fast up and down my back, you could hear the muscles moving under her hands. And. It. Hurt.

This massage ended with a two drinks. The first was cold, green and cloudy, and had a good amount of solid-ish stuff in the bottom. It was too thick to be tea. It may have been some fermented bean drink? I didn’t like it. The second one was also cold. It had a familiar taste, though I wouldn’t call it tea like. It lacked leaves, which is typical in Chinese tea, so I don’t know what it was.

Friends accomplished in Eastern medicine – any ideas on either of them?

I loaded up on water after massage 2 to avoid another bout of sickness. My body was super achy, and my neck just hurt. I felt odd, but not sick, and I was super excited about our dinner plans at the “unmissable” Japanese restaurant. It was amazing. I can’t even begin to describe the modern concrete space.

Just after I finished eating (about 3 hours after the massage), I felt suddenly and strongly nauseas. I left the guys with the bill and hopped in a cab. I prayed for a swift return to the hotel. This time, with a belly full of food, I did puke (nasty), and there was those other affects as well. After a couple of hours, I felt better, and passed out.

Bottom line – Austin-based massage therapist/excellent friend Liz is far better!

Unrelenting

2007-08-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

Today, after melting under the oppressive Shanghai heat, I went to the nearby mall to go shopping. There was a small Buddha statue outside the entrance of this tower of commerce.

That juxtaposition is quintessentially Shanghai. It’s my third time here, so I am not struck with the wondrous amazement of the lights, the ridiculous skyscrapers, the fashionable restaurants, and the unapologetic consumerism. But I am still a student of this city’s vastness, of its unrelenting crowds, noise and growth.

It is, frankly, exhausting. Today, I left my hotel filled with fresh energy to explore on my own. I wanted to crawl through every corner of the French Concession, a pretty-tree lined section of French architecture. In walking shoes and a cute sun dress, I was ready to adventure.

I made it to a famous local dumpling stall where I handed the girl slightly more than 50 cents in exchange for 4 delicious pork dumplings. I looked for, but failed to find, a good sized Antique and Bird Market. I walked about 2 miles into the northern edge of the French Quarter.

I stopped in a couple of clothing shops housing the cute dresses that every woman I pass here wears.

I left the hotel excited to explore dumplings, clothing and art shops, but in the end, I only managed the dumplings.

Two hours after I left the hotel, I was sick from the heat. I had large sweat stains mid-torso on my dress. My hair was sticking to my face. Even my necklace felt sweaty.

So I hailed a cab and took another white-knuckled, death-defying (or at least accident-defying) cab ride across town to guzzle water and lay naked in my hotel room’s air-conditioning.

Once I recovered, and showered, I headed to the massive 7-story “Brand Name Mall” around the corner in search of a sundress. But even in air-conditioning, the crowds and pushy saleswomen are overwhelming.

I will likely leave Shanghai without a new dress, though by the looks of it, this economy doesn’t need my money.

I will leave here full of new, more subtle Shanghai experiences – a traditional Chinese massage, a teahouse, a mid-city temple surrounded by skyscrapers, a geographic familiarity with this city, an opportunity to have favorite as well as some try new foods.

Sadly, I know no more words in Mandarin than I knew last time. I just can’t keep them in my head. And my food adventures still firmly stop far short of innards and cartilage.

(Pics are on Flickr... I think. I was able to upload them, but I can't see them. Hopefully you can)

Buried

2007-08-23T02:45:00.000-07:00

Until this week, I haven’t been doing much adventuring this summer- at least not with passports and plane tickets. Instead I’ve been whiling away my time with some really fantastic books - the kind that you dive into like a new city to explore.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Diodon - Brutally sad and honest, with an beautiful precision of language. It’s the primer on what your mind will do when you lose your life partner. Read it now. Or if too sad to contemplate for now, remember it for when it might be a more useful choice. And best not to fool yourself into thinking you won’t need to be reading this.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - This is only my second Murakami book. There are talking cats, ghosts, and characters so vulnerable you want to wrap them up in bubble wrap. I enjoyed this story far more than Wind Up Bird Chronicles. I will now read every book Murakami has written

Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver – Well written, precise yet visual language that makes me smitten with a writer crush. A la Sliding Doors, this story follows both paths of love and infidelity– the one of cheating and the one of not. So engaging I read over 200 pages in one sitting on my flight over to Shanghai.

rattle

2007-08-23T02:43:00.000-07:00

I am in Shanghai. Yesterday, I had fried snake at lunch. It was delicious!

A tourist in a familar land

2007-06-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Kent & I went to NYC. He's never been so we did all sorts of things I've never actually done either. I've been back too long to do a big write up, but it was a great trip.

The weather was gorgeous. We walked miles. We ate all my favorites - bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches, bagels, pizza. I got to see friends and family! We managed to get in some shopping.

We were busy. We went to:
- Jersey City (we stayed with my friend Billy)
- Battery Park
- Statue of Liberty
- Drinking at several fine East Village establishments
- My friend Diana's 30th birthday party
- Mets vs Yankees game at Yankee Stadium with my family
- Frankie & Johnnie's (also with my family)
- Central Park
- Grand Central Station
- Empire State Building
- MOMA (Thanks Marilena)
- St Paul's Cathedral
- Rockefeller Center

We rode the subway and Path a lot. We saw one transvestite prostitute, and a decent shouting match at the baseball game.

Pictures! Kent took way more pics then me so I may add some of his later.

FINISHED!

2007-06-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

I am officially a triathlete. I have the Danskin 2007 medal to prove it! My first triathlon was this morning and it was AWESOME! I felt good doing it, I felt good when I finished and I feel great several hours later after a shower, some food and a nap.

I expected to take 2 hours, 15 minutes, maybe 2.5 hours to finish. I estimated the following.

Swim- 30 min
Bike - 50 min (maybe an hour - there are lots of rolling and some steep hills)
Running - 40 min
Transition area total - 10 min

Here are my final times (modern technology has this posted to the web already!)

I finished 1352 of 2601 and I have a class rank of 91 of 389 - not sure what that means other than I did better than nearly 300 others.

Swim: 23:29
Bike: 49:33- avg 15.7 mph
Run: 35:05 - 11:19/min mile
Transition1 5:46
Transition2: 4:46 (which included a pee break)
Final: 1:58:51

I finished in less than 2 hours, going faster in every category! My bike ride was awesome. I was just cruising past athletes the whole time. I love my road bike. The swim was good. There was some doggy paddling involved as I negotiated around swimmers. Running was hot and hard, but I still did better than I expected.

The event itself was pretty inspiring. 3000 women of all shapes, sizes and ages (and I do mean all) hauling ass in the Texas heat. Everyone was friendly and supportive. Volunteers and spectators were out in droves.

I am really proud of myself. I've trained for 11 weeks, and was definitely ready. I missed only 4 workouts, 3 due to travel. I am in better shape than I've ever been. Two weeks ago, I swam 1/2 mile on Friday, ran 4.1 miles on Sunday and biked 28 miles on Sunday. I have discovered a new activity I love - road biking.

I am not sure what I am going to do now that I don't *have* to work out 6 days a week, but I hope to keep up with my newly cultivated muscles. They aren't big, but they are mine.

I am totally doing this again next year. Now who is coming with me?! I need partners!

Kent and Erin took many pictures of me, which I will post after I get them and filter out the really embarrassing ones.

Kent, Kate, Erin and Susanne get big props for hauling out to East Austin this morning to see me. Kent left with me at 5:45 am. It was so great to see friends cheering me on as I went through my events. Thanks guys!

See more pics here!

Westward

2007-05-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve spent the past few days on the West Coast for work. Today I am in San Francisco, and before this I was in Seattle. I was lucky enough to extend the business part of my trip to fly into Seattle on Saturday morning to check out the city and hang with former-Austinite/friend Sean.

Erin, another former Jersey girl, and I landed Saturday morning to shower Sean with Austin love in the way of salsa and airport trinkets. Sean’s place is in Queen Anne, which is very cool neighborhood on the top of a very large hill.

We had an excellent weekend checking out Seattle. Saturday, we grabbed delicious falafels near Pioneer Square before heading on a tour of the underground city. The tour was great. Our guide was humorous, and Seattle development history is fascinating.

Afterward, we head to Pike’s Peak Market. We looked at the original Starbucks, but the coffee isn’t worth waiting in a big line for, so we grabbed some at a shop next door. We wandered through the market admiring ridiculously cheap large bouquets of flowers. We purchased some sweet potato pasta to make with our Seattle Cooking Night ™ Sunday dinner.

Erin was the official trip photographer. Her pics are here. My much less impressive collection is on my Flickr.

After checking out downtown, Erin and I went running- triathlon training follows me everywhere - on a path along the Puget Sound. To say the least, the views are much nicer than down at Town Lake.

For dinner we headed out for delicious Seattle sushi, after which Sean took us jetlagged girls home and I immediately passed out.

Sunday, we woke to some overcast rainy Seattle weather. This comes as no surprise to, well, anyone, but Seattle is colder and rainier than Austin. Intellectually I understand that. However, whatever part of my brain (clearly not the intellect) was in charge of packing, didn’t understand that.

So I lacked proper gear. We headed to the fanciest REI I’ve ever seen, complete with its own 2 –story waterfall to stock up. A fleece and rain jacket later, I shouldn’t get caught unprepared in wet-kinda-cold-but-not-freezing weather again.

We headed out to Snoqualmie Falls for a short hike. The landscape was gorgeous. The waterfall was beautiful, the ground lush and green. The rain and fog didn’t detract at all. Afterward, we hit up a local Pho shop for gigantic bowls of chicken soup.

Getting lost on our way to the ferries provided us with our best plan of the weekend – to get drunk in the middle of our Sunday afternoon. We hunkered down at a bar near Sean’s, had a couple pitchers of cider and chatted about all sorts of things. We followed up the bar with grocery shopping, and drunk cooking. The first inaugural Seattle cooking night involved bread and brie, the sweet potato pasta with chicken and walnut, cheese sauce, some asparagus, and large bowls of ice cream topped with sautéed peaches. Erin and I followed it up by immediately passing out on Sean’s couch. At 9 pm.

Monday morning, we had breakfast at Sean’s local Texas-themed food spot, and then Sean and I headed into our respective jobs.

I landed into SF last night, and am crashing with Becca while here. Last night we went for (more) sushi. I was lucky enough to finish up work earlier than expected today. The weather is gorgeous so I shopped on Valencia, grabbed coffee toffee ice cream at a local ice cream shop, and enjoyed just a little bit of down time sitting on Becca’s couch enjoying the breeze.

Tomorrow I head home. I am very much looking forward to my 3-day weekend back in Austin. I hear we’re going camping! And I’m not in charge of organizing it!

4 weeks down, 7 to go

2007-04-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

On June 10^th, I am doing the Austin Danskin Triathlon. It’s a ½ mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile run. I found an awesome 11-week training schedule online at Tri-Newbies.com. It’s a 93-page document that goes into excruciating detail about exactly what I need to do every day, and what to expect on race day – such a people swimming over me and flaring tempers in the “Transition Area.”

The first week of work outs were pretty easy. 15 minutes of running or 8 laps of swimming, but it’s scaled pretty quickly. I am starting Week 5 tomorrow, and I go to 6 days of week of exercises and start “Bricks”, which is just a fancy way of saying “Pretend this is race day and get off that bike onto your run like you mean it.”

My exercises continue to scale up for the next 5 weeks, and the last 2 they ramp down before the race. In a couple of weeks I will be exceeding the race needs with 20 mile bike rides and 60 minute runs.

So I reckon I’ll be in great shape by mid-June. So far this training process has been awesome for many reasons.

I haven’t missed or skimped on a single work out yet. I’m surprised at how much less stressful it is now to work out. I’m doing all sorts of stuff schedule wise to make the work outs. Swimming after sewing class, bike rides at 8 am, but I am not stressing over whether I “have time” or feeling guilty if I don’t make it. I just do it, like dishes or taking a shower.

I’ve wanted to skip a couple of times. In fact, I hoped to wake up sick one morning.

And every time I go when I don’t want to feels great. I would be so mad if I just decided to skip. I am going to miss a couple of work outs in May due to travel, but I hope it won’t be more than that.

I’ve learned a ton about training, aerobic zones, and nutrition. I have a heart rate monitor that mostly does what it’s supposed to.

Best of all, I’ve realized that I might actually like biking. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with it. After much prodding by Brian, I rented a (very nice) road bike. Riding it was like a dream. I was so much more comfortable than on my hybrid. But road bikes are expensive so I didn’t want to rush into purchasing one just for this race.

So I’ve been riding more on my hybrid the last few weeks, and I like the bike rides! I get to see new parts of the city. And I kept thinking about that road bike as I busted ass to cross the street, or had an achy neck from my bad posture on that bike.

So last week I unexpectedly opened a sizable refund check from my mortgage company for overpaying my escrow last year. Free money! As my dad said “it’s like god and the mortgage company wanted me to get a new bike.”

So I did! I got a Specialized Dolce Elite. It’s fast, comfortable and pretty. Kent and I did a 10 mile ride today and I can’t wait until I get to do longer rides.

When I signed up for this triathlon, I thought it would be my first and last, but now I am not sure. Maybe there are triathlons in my future. Or some big long bike rides.

We’ll see. Let’s see how I feel after June 10^th. I am most nervous about the swim. I can swim ½ mile pretty easily. But that’s in a pool, with lanes. Let’s see how I do in open water with hordes of people splashing right on top of me.

Unsolicited

2007-04-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

I am going to go on about my recent sewing class, but here’s the important thing.

I made this bag below, and it looks awesome! And not just to my friends who have to tell me looks nice. I got 2 unsolicited compliments on it so far! You’d think I won a Pulitzer about how excited I am about my bag.

It's hard to tell in these pictures, but the print is this cool Asian-esque floral scene with a woman on a boat.

Anyway, since I’ve been doing less travel this year, I’ve been using my time in town to take on new interesting projects. Projects like this sewing class.

I’ve always been attracted to the idea of sewing since it’s creative and practical. I remember my mom making curtains and dresses when I was a kid. And hey, I could do with some more curtain options in my still fabulously-new kitchen since everything I find is A) god awful ugly B) nice but obscenely expensive or C) doesn’t fit.

So I’ve been thinking about theoretical curtains for months. Last week, I finished my beginners sewing class. The class was fantastic. I would highly recommend any of Leslie’s classes.

In 3 3.5 hours classes, we became intimate with the sewing machine and learned basic techniques. Ironing is apparently one of those "basics."

I choose fabric for and made a round pillow with a zipper, and the previously mentioned handbag. Leslie really had us focus on the details of cutting, pining and stitching. And it really shows on my bag. It doesn’t look a beginner made it. That is partially because I took care in sewing straight lines, and mostly because Leslie provided a great pattern and the details of how to put it together.

My 10.5 hour taste of sewing has me excited to get a sewing machine at home. Even the boring parts of the sewing (i.e. the ironing) were OK. There is payoff shortly thereafter when everything is put together and looks good. And it’s a different type of experience for me. It requires patience, and using my hands, and that feels really good. I spend a lot of time using my hands to type and that doesn’t have nearly the contentment as creating something from pieces.

I’ve been eyeing all sorts of things around my house that I could maybe make. Like dinner napkins - I never find ones that I really like that don’t cost $10 each. Or more bags! Or a duvet cover of some fantastic luxurious fabric that would cost me $400 to buy at the store. And of course, gifts!

First up is to get a used sewing machine and find just the right fabric for these kitchen curtains. And see how I do without the ever patient and skilled Leslie looking over my shoulder. When I find the right fabric, I’m going to buy some extra… just in case.

The Recap

2007-03-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

This year’s SXSW had a great line up. I planned on spending a lot of time sifting through new band MP3s to hit the best shows that wouldn’t be crowded, but I didn’t do as much pre-planning as I hoped. I relied heavily on recommendations of friends, and was pleasantly surprised to find that “tag along with Kent and Steve” worked out more than I expected.

I saw 31 bands in 4 days. I spent 34 hours consuming music. Much of it was new. A lot of it was good…. And electronic. Some was terrible. Almost all of it was with friends. Here’s the break down.

GREAT
Holy Fuck (really, they need to change their name) - I saw them last year and they were awesome. This year was the same. High energy, tight playing … of all sorts of random stuff like film. Good way to end the first night.
Girl Talk – I had never heard of this guy. He was in the middle of day showcase with Fujiya & Miyagi and others. He was great. One nerdy guy with a laptop, who essentially does super fun mash-ups. But unlike laptop musicians, he was super energetic and all over the place. I’m not sure his album is going to hold up, but I will give it a whirl.
Galactic w/ Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab & Boots Riley – This was part of the Kent & Steve plan that was randomly awesome. Galactic is a hippie jam band, which I usually loathe. But they played with 3 hip-hop guys doing vocals and it was super fun.
Buck 65- I love Buck 65 shows. He has a great stage personality. He’s interesting, smarmy and smart. This one had a lot of new material and a cute DJ that I had a crush on. He made great faces.
Ghostland Observatory – The band I showed up to see had cancelled. They are apparently a local dance-y electronic band that I will now seek out at every opportunity.
The Berg Sans Nipple – When Drumcorps ran me off, I hit this show and was so glad I did. Fantastic energy. 2 French guys with a variety of percussion instruments. I bought their album at the show (rare) and love it.
Kid Koala – This was probably my favorite show of SX. He had a ton of energy, and is super engaging, cute and funny on stage. Also, he had the best merch ever. I got bright yellow oven mitts with little robots on them.

GOOD
Menomena – Indie rock band I vaguely listened to while taking great interest in afternoon Bloody Marys. I will check out an album, but I won’t remember this show.
Nick Butcher – Ambient, quiet. Might check him out some more.
Peter Bjorn & John – I really like them, but their live show wasn’t overwhelming, and I couldn’t ignore my hunger. So I left for sushi happy hour.
Fujiya & Miyagi – Competent live show. Enjoyed it. Not sure I would make an effort to see them again.
The Big Sleep – Caught their very loud day show. Seeing them live makes me like their album more.
Kid Beyond – This guy’s technical and beat boxing skills were impressive. He was awesome to watch, though the music didn’t really grab me.
These Arms Are Snakes –The lead singer of this band is unbelievably pretentious. He stands out in a sea of pretentious bands who invaded from the coasts. This show was no exception. He got all pouty about having to stop playing. That said, they rocked loud and hard and had a ton of energy.
Yppah – Random band we caught while waiting for Kid Koala show. Seemed pretty good, and the album, which Kent is aggressively pimping after buying it post-SXSW, is great.
Amon Tobin – I am in the minority with my opinion, but I liked this show. It was a hard-core DJ set, which I listened to from a bench on the side. The last show on the last night is always tough. He didn’t play any of his recognizable stuff. But I don’t listen to much of his stuff so it didn’t bother me. I thought it was fun.

OK
The Panda Band – Generic indie rock that wasn’t offensive… or interesting.
Bonde de Role – Brazilian dance-y band that was trying to hard to be hip, and didn’t sound very good.
Daedelus – His live show wasn’t nearly as interesting or dynamic as his album.
El-P – Caught the end of his show. It didn’t blow me away.
The Pipettes- Their matching 50s outfits were cute, the music was saccharine pop. It was a good way to pass 45 minutes. I had a seat!
Diplo – Did a straight up electronic dance set. It was pretty good, though it could’ve been anyone.
Three More Shallows – Better than the crappy hip-hop I was trying to avoid at an inside stage.

BAD
Kiiiiii – Loud screamy Japanese girls who can’t play instruments or sing really. It hurt. I was glad when Brian showed up so he could chug my beer so we could leave.
CX Kidtronik – Misogynistic, unintelligible rap.
Bleubird – Nerdy hip hop. Promising lyrics, but ruined by all sounds wafting from the stage.
RJD2 – I saw the first couple songs… twice. Man should stick to turn tables. The live band hurt. The Rub – I don’t even remember why I marked them terrible.
CPC Gangbangs –This was a mistake. I thought it was a hip hop band I would like. It was bad Southern rock.
Flosstradamus – Another unintelligible hip hop group. There was a whole gang of them dressed quite ironically in brand new 80’s wear.
Drumcorps – This is where the “Kent and Steve” plan failed me. Super aggressive loud DJ remixing metal, and sometimes playing live guitar. He made good faces though.

I'm Someone Else...Officially

2007-03-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

I just registered for the Danskin Triathlon here in Austin June 9th-10th. And yes this is still Kristine.

I start training at the end of the month, which basically requires me to do my normal gym routine, minus all my recent slacking, eating terribly, and drinking a lot.

I'm quite the quitter when it comes to physical exertion getting even just the slightest bit too tough. So this is going to be a good physical and emotional adventure for me.

Overall, the race segments are within my reach. 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile ride, 3.2 mile run. I could do any of those alone.... and be wiped for the day.

I've got some training and racing buddies (Lizzie - this means you!)to enjoy Austin's spring weather with until June.

Also, I am one day away from reappearing on the face of the earth, after my dropping off earlier this winter to prep for my busy March. SXSW festivities end tomorrow after 15 people come over for brunch. Friends/family - I look forward to actually talking with you!

A touch of OCD for your SXSW

2007-02-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again - preparation for SXSW has begun. This time with the full force of collaborative nerdiness making it more efficient!

Brian, Randy and I are going to collaborate on sorting through new bands to find good shows. Brian made a Perl script to pull mp3 files off SXSW's page. I am hosting a Google spreadsheet for us to add comments about all the MP3s.

For the last couple of years, I've hosted a shared calendar that had recommendations for people to pull potential bands from (an idea I stole from my friend Lulu). It's good to have lots of options since lines can be unpredictable. The bitch of it was that I was the Excel monkey who had to update it every time someone gave me a list.

Not this year! Google spreadsheets to the rescue! Here's the shared online SXSW calendar. It updates every 15 minutes. It can be subscribed to by RSS feed and has multiple authors.

If I can track down the person who is making a big Google map of all the SXSW music venues, we'll be all set for prepping for SXSW.

Now all we need is the schedule, and sample MP3s.

Budapest Pics

2007-01-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

Pics are up! See them all on flickr!

The Land of Frigid Paradoxes

2007-01-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned for pics. Coming soon!

Zsolt, the host of my Budapest trip loves Budapest because “it is full of paradoxes.” And he is right. Bleary Soviet buildings of hard angles and drab colors squeeze between the curved, ornate decoration of Renaissance buildings. Then there are the sections of town that were re-built after being leveled in WWI. But graffiti marks ugly and beautiful buildings alike, and can be found everywhere.

The churches are Byzantine, Christian and Orthodox. The biggest synagogue in Europe is here.

Buda on the west of the Danube is steep hills of history and wealth. Pest, the flat Eastern area of the Danube is politics, commerce and business. The rich, in their gorgeous homes on the west, overlook the ugly Soviet-built apartments that house the poor.

But these paradoxes don’t make Budapest ugly. Instead they make it culturally vibrant, diverse, and lively. Budapest is quintessentially European, yet nothing like its Western neighbors.

Budapest has incorporated all the cultures that have come to it, and its history is centuries of invasion. The abridged overview took 30 minutes for Zsolt to tell. Most recently there were the Soviet tanks that arrived after WWII. Before that was Germany Nazis. Before that there were Austrians, Ottomans, Hapsburgs, Turks, and even Romans.

Enough of me waxing poetically about Budapest’s history. Hundreds have written before me, and much better at that.

Let’s talk about the weather. Many people travel to Budapest and rave how it’s their favorite city in Europe. These people must not come in January. I’ve learned that hell isn’t full of brimstone and fire. It’s frigid and cold, with biting wind that can turn looking at even the most beautiful surroundings into a feat.

Like any diligent tourist, I drank and ate my way through the city. Hungary makes some very good wines, and of course, beer. I had bread made from a recipe unchanged for 200 years. There was goulash, chicken soup, and a variety of meats in stews or creams. There was duck liver (man do these people like their duck) black sausage, paprika, and dill. There were a copious number of crepes, desserts and coffee.

There was a trip to the famous chocolatier shop for cake and coffee. Gerbeaud “invented” liqueur-filled chocolates.

Meals were cheap, but conversion was challenging. 200 forints to a dollar does not make for easy shopping.

In my short time here I managed to see a lot of the city. My old building-cum modern Art Hotel is right on the Danube in Buda across from Parliament. There were the requisite church visits, one which was built into a cave.

There was a somewhat awkward trip to one of the many thermal baths in town. I’ll give it to the locals; they know how to deal with winter. Inside. In very pretty pools.

I forgot a bathing suit and had to rent one from the Gellert baths. To say it was ill-fitting is a kindness. But at least I was covered, and allowed into the baths.

While the pools were gorgeous, I was a little too concerned about my stuff going MIA (justifiably so –someone took my rented towel 5 minutes after I put it down), so I couldn’t really relax as much as very hot thermal pools with healing waters really warranted. I admired the experience, the intricate beauty of the building, and the smallness of some bathing suits for a bit, and then headed out. It was not the 2-hour soak I envisioned, but it was still quite nice. Most importantly, my shit wasn’t stolen.

Sadly, I’ve learned not one Hungarian word. I dislike being the American tourist who doesn’t even attempt to butcher their language. But I didn’t have a cheat sheet of words, and Hungarian (called Maygar) doesn’t really map to anything familiar. Its closest relatives are Icelandic and Japanese!

Overall, my time in Budapest was great. The biting cold didn’t dissuade me from liking the city. Next time, though I’ll come in summer, bathing suit and cheat sheet of words in hand.

Now, I am in Chicago, where the 9 degree weather and biting wind make Budapest feel like the tropics. I can’t wait to get back to Austin, and after this real winter adventure, I may never leave!

Snow day

2007-01-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and today the office has been closed due to weather. I had a snow day for my birthday!

On Sunday, I took Kristen and Becca - both visiting for my birthday - on a driving tour of Austin. A lot of sentences started with "If it were nice, we'd get out and....."

They came to see me and Austin's glorious winter weather. Too bad Austin has a personality disorder and thinks it's Detroit. On Sunday, I thought the furor over the upcoming weather was a bit much. But man, it's nasty out there. AND COLD!

I'm finished!

2007-01-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

See more pics of the finished kitchen and the whole remodeling process on my flickr!

And don't forget what my kitchen used to look like!

Heaven is just past hell

2006-12-30T12:32:00.000-08:00

Everyone has one truly hellacious travel experience. Karma, irony and Murphy’s Law all indicated that mine would be for my relaxing fun holiday vacation. That understanding, however, didn’t make it easier when I got stuck in the middle of my travel hell to meet my family in Mexico on Christmas Eve. Whatever bad thing you can imagine happening, short of the airplane falling out of the sky, happened to me on Sunday. There were delays, missed connections, re-routing, assholes, lost luggage, and 2 meltdowns.

But I did get to our resort on the Rivera Maya on Christmas Eve (barely), and my family was awaiting me with hugs and cocktails. I was dirty, tired and luggage-less, but quite happy.

Christmas morning we woke up to blue skies. We opened Christmas presents near the tree in the lobby, sipping our complimentary mimosas. Brunch was followed by pool time and the swim up bar. The afternoon was cloudy. My Dad and I read books in covered cabana beds on the beach listening to the soft sound of rain on the thatched roofs. I napped in my hammock. I used the Jacuzzi in my room.

Our hotel, El Dorado Royale, is a palace wedged between jungle and beach on the Rivera Maya – about 40 minutes south of Cancun. It was beautiful, but not overwhelming - white curved buildings surrounded by impeccable landscaping. The hotel is a little over 400 acres and has just over 400 rooms. There were more than 6 pools of varying sizes, all with swim up bars, and comfortable lounge chairs with bar service. There were peacocks and huge iguanas around the palace. The food was excellent. Every meal I had – from hamburgers and beer to high end Italian was perfect. In short, this is the nicest place I’ve ever stayed. Luxury was way of life - a relaxing, enjoyable way of life.

My sister and I treated each other to Christmas massage and body scrubs. This included a power jet shower, with 16 shower heads. If I am ever rich, I am getting one of these installed in my house.

We went snorkeling on a nearby reef, filled with fish of all colors and sizes. Mesmerized, I don’t think I blinked for the first 30 minutes.

My Dad and I took a bike ride. My Mom and I took a walk. I went running. I read and laid in the sun. We drove ATV’s through the jungle, and then took speedboats on the Caribbean.

We visited Playa de Carmen, a busy little city bustling with tourists, for dinner and some shopping.

And now, I am snuggled in First Class due to an awesome booking fluke, not payback for bad travel. I just finished my snack of fruit, brie cheese, and prosciutto with proper dinnerware and a cloth napkin, and am on my way to the second leg of my relaxing holiday vacation - Kent’s family cabin in the North Carolina mountains.

My hellacious travel from Sunday is becoming a distant memory. Well, except for the carry on bag I have with all my clothes for the cabin, and the scorching letter I have drafted to Continental.

See pics on Flickr!

Shameless Promotion

2006-12-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

So Kent, lover of critiquing musics, movies and books, has found a channel for all his enthusiastic ranting for media he loves.

Check out his review blog! I've been known to listen to an album recommendation or two. He even suckered me into 1100 pages of Stephen King after talking about how good The Stand is for months.

Now friends, you too can experience the Kent that takes over my car stereo, turns the music up really loud, and makes funny faces at the parts he loves, then turns it down to say "that's dirty" followed by a 2 minute technical explanation of why.

But don't worry, the writing isn't boring and technical.

RSS feed link

pics speak louder than words

2006-12-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

but in this case, these pics are more like a whisper of vague words.

Singapore pics are up, but I don't think I did a great job of capturing the city. Or I did. And it's just not as interesting looking as other places. I did, after all, say it was a nicer, cleaner version of LA.

I'm melting, I'm melting

2006-12-11T03:46:00.000-08:00

It’s the little things that tell me how a place is - that give me glimpses of how people might actually live. Singapore is full of small things that make it unique and fascinating.

People don’t have drinks with their meals, nor do they use napkins. However, they use forks and spoons (occasionally chopsticks, but no knives).

Christmas decorations and songs are EVERYWHERE.

Singapore is a melting pot of Southeast Asia cultures. There are huge Chinese and Indian populations. There are Malaysians, Filipinos, and Indonesians. There is a boatload of British ex-pats. But these aren’t separate populations that share space. They mix and mingle, which is unlike other parts of Asian. School kids come in packs of straight and curly hair, and a variety of skin colors.

Flip flops are the shoe of choice. Fat people don’t exist. My American ass is apparently a big ass here. I barely fit into a medium.

There are no beggars. Everyone is friendly, but not overly pushy.

Riding the subway requires you pay extra, which is refunded when you stick your card back in the machine – to force reuse of the plastic cards.

******

My time in Singapore is coming to an end. A cab picks me up at the hotel at 4:30 tomorrow morning (Tuesday) to bring me to the airport. I like my Singapore Airport in the middle of the night.

This morning I wandered around Little India, arriving earlier than many shopkeepers. The streets were mostly quiet at 9:30 am. But as the morning went on, music and incense wafted from the stalls along the streets, and garlic and curry smells made me consider lunch at 10 am.

By 11:30, I was exhausted from walking around in the heat, which was making me decidedly not hungry. Regretfully, I headed out of Little India before lunch time. I came back to the hotel, decadently ordered room service, and then went to lie at the pool to let the afternoon heat pass by.

Late afternoon, I headed out to Chinatown, where I wandered through more stalls, though these were hawking cheap Chinese instead of Indian wares. Afterward, I headed back to the cool comfort of air-conditioning at one of the many multi-story malls for some unsuccessful shopping, and good dinner.

Last night, I wandered around the river area, Boat Quay, and had the famous Chili Crabs for dinner. I didn’t like them. They were ridiculously messy and hard to eat. I needed a bib and a roll of paper towels. I got one wet nap. I am glad I tried them, but I like my meals to be less like a sporting even that requires a post-eating hose down, and more like a relaxing sit down with some food.

I’ll post some pictures when I get home.

The radiation trip

2006-12-09T13:18:00.001-08:00

It's 5 am Singapore time, and I am awake for the day. My body thinks it's 3 pm. Also, I went to bed at 8 pm last night.

When it gets a little lighter out, I will stare longingly out my window at the large pool a couple of floors beneath me. At lunch time, I'm heading out of the conference to go check out Singapore, and that pool is high on the list.

I'm 85 miles north of the equator. Swimming and getting a tan is one of the things to do here.

My flight over was very long and very delayed, but considering I sat my ass in an airplane seat for 20 hours, it wasn't too bad. I slept most of the time. The pharmaceuticals industry is really onto something with that Ambien stuff.

In exciting flying news, we had to fly lower than normal due to solar flares, which cause radiation! Since we were flying lower than normal, there was more wind resistance, which meant we used fuel faster and we had to make a quick pit stop in Anchorage for gas. At midnight we landed in Hong Hong. At 3:15 am Saturday, I landed in Singapore.

At 11:30 am Saturday (yesterday my time for those trying to keep track), I did my talk at the conference. It was the best presentation I've given. I was really proud of myself. I was not nervous at all. I broke out into dance midway through when some random music appeared suddenly from somewhere. I am going to incorporate the feelings of extreme jetlag and confusion into all future presentations.

The tiny bit of Singapore I've seen is decidely not Asian. All signs are English only. It is overrun with Europeans. There are wide streets with orderly traffic, high end shopping, Christmas lights, and palm trees. It's like the nice part of LA, but cleaner and, well, nicer. I feel more comfortable about traveling alone here than I did in Spain.

I'll head out of the shopping district, where I am now, today and go to the more ethnic parts of town, aptly named Little India and Chinatown.

Singapore has a fascinating history, and in my research, I've discovered my new travel companion - wikitravel.org. It's run by the fine, fine folks at Wikipedia.

On my to do list for this afternoon and tomorrow are the aforementioned pool, Little India and Chinatown. There is also
- the famously delicious and messy Chili crabs for dinner
- lunch and snacks at a hawker center
- Standard Singaporese breakfast of kaya toast and kopi coffee
- Arab Street
- the Japanese shopping mall on Orchard Street
- A wander around Boat Quay
- Maybe the zoo or night safari

Notice, I plan to eat a lot, since that is the national pastime. Well it comes in second to shopping, but there are only so many 7-story Asian malls a girl can hit before the mall sickness of indecision and crabbiness comes on.

WOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEE!

2006-11-24T19:56:00.000-08:00

Kitchen Project week is complete. Insert virtual cartwheels here.

Well it’s not actually complete. Not by a long shot, but the work my dad set out to do for the week is finished. Cabinets are installed with doors and handles. All the electrical and plumbing work is done, and the sink is temporarily set up.

And my incomplete kitchen is fucking awesome! I have a long ass list of things I need to finish – painting, sanding, ordering some doors, but as is, this kitchen is a million times better than before.

This weekend will be spent finishing up some of the quick tasks and cleaning the beezejesus out of my house so I can put all my dishes away.

We put in a few hours yesterday morning, sniffing a neighbor’s roasting turkey as we worked. For lunch, we ate cold Lo Mein standing up in the dining room. Mom and I worked on cabinet doors while Fred continued to be surprised by the electric wiring.

I discovered just how rancid the inside of a garbage disposal can get when it’s disconnected before making sure there is no partially mashed food inside.

I had gloves and a big bottle of lemon juice, but that didn’t make the fly encircled bit of smell goo less revolting.

After the disposal incident and another surprise zap by live wiring, we called it quits since it was a holiday and all.

We did, in fact, have Thanksgiving dinner, courtesy the chefs at the Four Seasons. We followed our gluttony up with some very long naps, and some cards and drinks at Brian & Erik’s with the cooking night crew.

This morning started early, with yet another Home Depot trip, and finished early with beers on the deck. Dad finished plumbing, I worked on door hardware, and Mom helped with cleaning and microwave installation.

My kitchen is far from complete, but it’s already awesome. I have a ton more space, it’s bright and clean, and the layout is much more efficient. I am going to giggle with delight over all the details for weeks.

We topped off a week of hard labor with celebratory dinner at Austin Land & Cattle. Tomorrow my parents head home. I bet they can’t wait to plop down on the couch in NJ and only move to get ice cubes and water from the fridge whenever they want.

See more pics on Flickr

Day 6 & 7 Stats
Times "fuck" uttered: um, a few
Trips to Home Depot: 1! (thank god for national holidays)
Near Electrocutions: 1
Times I gagged cleaning out nasty garbage disposal: 3
Number of times my dad's eyes rolled back in head upon tasting delicious steak: 1

The sandbox in my kitchen

2006-11-22T21:49:00.000-08:00

Day 4 started with another layer of spackle, followed by a long stretch of putting together cabinets. Pointing a hair dryer at the joint compound, willing it to dry faster happened occasionally.

Cabinets took over the entire dining room. The chair was pushed in front of the TV, the coffee pot is on the side table next to my couch. It was like an Army obstacle course in my upstairs. Generally, my place was a disaster.

Day 4 = chaos.

Day 5 started with sanding. There is a layer of dust everywhere in my house. The remotes are covered, and the couch and floor could be swept down to make a little sandbox.

Cabinet installations are where the excitement is at, apparently. Walls are rarely even, and it’s difficult to get cabinets lined up exactly level in all the right places. However, the plans I have assumed that we could do that, and after spending 45 minutes working on the first one, it became clear that the plans were… incorrect.

We needed a slightly smaller SPECIAL ORDER cabinet “like we need air,” according to Fred. Lucky, lucky, lucky us were able to get exactly what we needed from the first Home Depot I called on a return. It was discounted even. If we didn’t, we would have been totally screwed.

Anyone need a 33x30 inch white wall cabinet? I have one to spare.

With our emergency revision, all the cabinets were installed in a quick 9 hours with a lot of shims, some 1x2, a good level and copious cursing. But the cabinets are in! And I am getting my house back. The table is back in the middle of my dirty dining area, the fridge opens all the way, and I am envisioning what is going to go in all my new awesome cabinets.

Stats:
Times “fuck” uttered: Fred 15, Kristine 5
Trips to Home Depot: 3
Person we want to meet: Guy (or girl) who designed the cabinet drawers
Best way to ease the pain: Tito’s

Kitchen – days 2 & 3

2006-11-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

The notable events of yesterday & today are sneezing and errands. My sore throat has turned into full-blown sickness, which is really fucking bad timing.

Yesterday started with a 2-hour trip to Home Depot run to pick up the supplies for plumbing and electrical work. My dad spent most of the day untangling the puzzle known as the crazy, yet brilliant electrician’s wiring scheme so he could get it to do his biding. As far I can tell, it’s a miracle that this condo didn’t combust into flames in the last couple of decades.

Yesterday wasn’t exciting, but it was crucial, and involved lots of last minute supplies. Mom and I made 4 runs to Home Depot, one of which involved renting another gigantic truck to haul sheetrock home.

Today started with another Home Depot run, and then the plumbing work to run a copper line behind the wall from the sink to the fridge for the ice maker. This involved using a blow torch near insulation with a fire extinguisher near by, just in case.

Once the copper pipes were welded in place, we moved on to hanging sheetrock. Well, I made it about one screw into hanging sheetrock and then disappeared into a fog of sickness. I was pretty much useless all day. My sneezes outweighed my Dad’s cursing, by a factor of 10. If I could find a way to harness the energy of my sneezes, I think I could provide enough energy to fuel my morning commute.

After my parents finished sheet rocking, I mustered enough energy to help tape and float the walls. This too, involved another emergency Depot run.

We, OK dad, made a ton of progress today. We capped off the work with some delivered pizza. Tomorrow we’ll add another layer or two of joint compound and put together the cabinets.

Day 2 & 3 Stats
Times “fuck” uttered: Notably, not enough to count
Trips to Home Depot: 8
Near accidents in Home Depot’s rented truck: 1
Sneezes: 50 would a be a conservative guess
Definitions for the word “compass”: 2
Miscommunications stemming from the engineer and the camper discussing a compass: 1
Person we are in awe of: electrician
Notable injuries: 0

See pictures on flickr!

Incident free…. Almost

2006-11-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

All in all, day one went well, though not without some….. excitement. Demolition, as it turns out, doesn’t have to take a long time. By 11 am, most of the heavy work was done. Ripping that god awful Formica off the walls was delightful.

We threw all the cabinet and countertop pieces off the back of the deck into the bed of the GIGANTIC DIESEL truck that I rented. I could swim laps in the bed of thing.

While I’ve known that the builders took every short cut they could when they built this place, I learned today what that really meant.
- No sheetrock on one of the walls behind the cabinets.
- Random live wires hidden behind or on top of cabinets
- A plug installed into the outside of a cabinet…. The outside that was flush against a wall.
- 3 power lines into one circuit box that took my Dad at least an hour to decipher, and caused the second incident of near electrocution.

There was much puzzlement and cursing over the specific choices that were made in building this kitchen. Arguably, there were several options that were “the stupidest (bleep)ing thing” my dad had ever seen.

By 2 pm, we had pulled off all the sheetrock (and by we, I mostly mean my dad and Kent). Dad and I headed to the dump, and afterwards sat in terrible traffic bringing back the truck.

Delighted to be rid of the truck, I got into my car and rolled into a parked truck behind me. Neither car was damaged, though I knocked off the license plate holder. Woops. I hope the handwritten note I left on the windshield expresses my sincerest apologies.

The afternoon was spent puzzling over the mysterious wiring in the kitchen. After several circuit tests, and half a dozen theories, and re-labeling of circuit breakers, Dad determined a plan for tomorrow’s work.

This was followed by showers, dinner and cocktails. Theoretically, today was the hardest day. However, it went fairly smoothly, so I expect we still have some hard work ahead of us

Now, I am off to take some Advil to pre-emptively convince my back and shoulders that they aren’t sore from all the lugging and throwing.

Today’s Stats
Times “fuck” uttered: ~20
Times “fuck” uttered in close session with many other curse words: 0
Close calls with electrocution: 2
Parked cars backed into: 1
Person we want to meet: the electrician who wired this house
Notable injuries: 0

See the pics on Flickr

all the boxes (post 3)

2006-11-16T21:11:00.000-08:00

i just finished packing my kitchen into many boxes. All the cabinets are empty. See! It's pretty much impossible to show my kitchen in entirety, which might make it difficult to show daily work progress.

But today's work is finished. The kitchen is packed. And as a bonus, I cleaned the weird gross sticky stain I discovered on the top of my fridge. I suspect fruit rotted, since it where I kept my fruit bowl.

The Final Countdown (kitchen post #2)

2006-11-12T12:57:00.000-08:00

I could build some housing out of all the cardboard in my dining area. And I’m not talking about a shanty either. It’ll be more like a condo with a couple bathrooms.

There are the gigantic collapsed boxes that will soon be spread on my wood floors to protect them. There are the fruit boxes from the kind pomegranate stocker at Whole Foods where I will pack my dishes.

Then there are the 30+ boxes of flat cabinets that a forklift placed on my driveway Friday morning, which gave Kent and I our morning cardio as we made many trips upstairs.

And just for good measure the rest of the recently purchased items that will make up my kitchen – a sink, microwave, and ceiling fan - are boxed up as well.

Oh, the door handles! Those are in plastic. Sadly, not enough to make windows in my cardboard house.

So the oft-mentioned kitchen project starts in full force next weekend, and lasts…well that’s a variable. My Dad and I should be able to do a bulk of the work in a week. But it will be 4-6 weeks before the countertop is installed. And I can’t install the sink until I have the countertop. Good thing I am traveling a lot in December. I can keep my paper plate usage low.

My remodel is modest, but it’s going to be fantastic. It’ll be modern, but warm. I will have a ton more cabinet space and a much more practical layout. It will inspire new greatness in cooking!

It will be MUCH BETTER than this

The project schedule should go something like this:

- 1 day demolition
- 1-2 days electrical & plumbing work
- 1 day installing sheetrock
- 1 day for Turkey or at least a few hours of it part of it
- 1-2 days cabinet building installations
- 1 day (hopefully) to install temporary countertop & sink

This is, of course, assuming we don’t discover disaster behind the walls – like terrifying mold, or plumbing that doesn’t make sense. Since every other project in this house demonstrated that the builders took every shortcut known to man, there is a fair chance that at least one unexpected challenge awaits us.

My mom just got an awesome new camera, so she’s appointed project photographer. She can start with the grumpy look on my face when we start knocking shit down at 8 am on Saturday.

Drinks & Drugs

2006-10-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

I am barely recovered from a Halloween party last night. I was a drunk housewife, Kent was my rich stockbroker husband with a coke problem. Oh, and we existed in the 70s.

To see pics, head to my flickr (since mysterious errors are preventing me from posting images here.

I did my part of remaining in character. I got very drunk and passed out on Kent's couch 3 minutes after getting home.

Post 1 of 433 about my kitchen

2006-10-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

When I closed on my condo 3 years ago my kitchen was the first thing I was going to fix. But kitchens are expensive and a lot of work so it’s remained a snapshot of the mid-70s since I’ve moved in.

But I hate it. The cabinets are cheap and way too small. The countertop is marigold Formica and it climbs up the wall. Even the paper towel rack is crooked.

So it’s time. I am ripping out everything – shitty particle board cabinets, stained Formica, ugly floral door hardware, atrocious ceiling fan, and even the sheetrock, and I am replacing it all.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve picked out cabinets, countertops, door hardware, lighting, etc. Adjectives to describe the new kitchen – modern, clean, simple, sleek, warm, efficient, useful.

For the amount of time I spend in the kitchen, I expect that this remodel will have a positive impact on my life. I like cooking. I dislike playing Jenga with my bowls to fit them into the cabinet.

The best part of this kitchen adventure is that my Dad offered to come down here to help me do it. And by “help me” I mean he’s the captain and I am the skipper. Or deck hand. Or whatever the boat term is for “helper person.”

So the week of Thanksgiving, I will be hauling, hammering, cutting and cursing it up with the parents in the kitchen. I’ve taken the lead on the pre-planning since, hey, that’s what I do. I was really tempted to block this project out in Microsoft Project, since it would the only time the software would actually function properly. But I decided that asking Dad to purchase expensive software for my kitchen project was overkill.

I plan on posting updates throughout the process. It will be just like you are with me, except I won’t put you to work and you might miss out on the good cursing. Though that is likely to make for entertaining posts, so maybe not.

Today was the first day of real work. I replaced the shelves in my pantry, and learned the hard way how to remove door knobs that don’t have visible screws.

Travel Jealousy

2006-10-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

My December is an action packed month of exotic locations. In the first part of the month, I am heading to Chicago and then Singapore for work. I will barely be in Singapore long enough to justify the 40+ hours of flying, however it will be 4 days longer than I’ve ever been there before.

My real travel excitement is my Christmas break. My family has been discussing doing a trip in lieu of trees and gifts for years. So we’re heading to Mexico -to a swanky resort south about 30 minutes south of Cancun.

Each room has a whirlpool and a hammock. There are many pools with swim up bars, bicycle paths, and several restaurants. There are Mayan ruins nearby, as well as some scuba and horseback riding options. The Coco’s will be blissfully relaxing with margaritas and books poolside on Christmas.

From Mexico, I fly to Raleigh for New Years to meet up with Kent, and hopefully some others, to head to his family cabin in the mountains in North Carolina. Here there is also a hot tub, as well as a fireplace and views that look like this.

Beaches, mountains, sun and snow all in one week. I can’t wait. Of course I am more than mildly worried that my bragging is going to land me a case of Asian sickness or Mexican stomach cramps. But I will hydrate, sleep well, and remain grateful for such a fun upcoming Christmas. Hopefully Murphy’s Law will only come looking for a suitcase.

Pimping the Historic Future

2006-09-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

Photos!

Jumpers are coming back, and I don't mean the British word for sweater kind of jumpers. I mean a Jumpsuit - with tapered legs, a waist and a zipper up to the neck. Where one wears a gray sweatsuit jumpsuit is beyond me, but H&M has a vision. I hope all the fashionable school girls with their mini Catholic uniform plaid skirts and pointy toed heels know how to make it the perfect outfit. What did happen to the days of measuring a uniform skirt to the knee? But I digress.

Newcastle is not only about the retro, futuristic fashion being peddled in all the shops. It is "real" England; much more like our Midwest than London. It's a maze of new modern and old industrial buildings. It's regular people - not thin, fashionable or rich enough to incur visitor jealousy. This is a area of regular working people. There is a healthy dose of tattoos, punk rock slacker kids and people in tracksuits. The accent is strong and muddled like the Scottish accent. I strain to eavesdrop. I am currently at about a 5 to 1 ratio of words said to words understood - a slightly better ratio than in Spain. However, there is still the trace of British loveliness where curse words sound rhythmic and meaningful.

This city - actually it's Newcastle on the north of the Tyne river and Gateshead on the south - is undergoing an impressive revitalization. An old ship building and factory town, it is now being pimped as a vacation destination for shopping and art. For such a tiny city, there is an impressive amount of modern art museums and galleries. Today I went to the Baltic, a free modern art museum and the SAGE Center, a shiny silver bubble of performing art.

I hiked across town to The Biscuit Factory to covet buyable art that was well outside my price range even before the depressing conversion rate.

My travels around town mostly involved me walking to a street, pulling out the map, studying it for 5 minutes, squinting while looking for invisible road signs, heading up a street, stopping at the next intersection, and pulling out map. Walk. Stop. Look. Repeat.

I walked for hours today, mostly because my ability to buy an all day metro/bus pass was foiled by my inability to carry 5 quid in coins. The modern convenience of buying travel cards with ATM cards has not made it Newcastle. A water and coffee purchase later, I have an all day travel card.

The upside is I got to see a lot of town. There were the old historic buildings, the revitalized river area called the Quay, the Millennium Bridge that opens and closes like an eye, the street full of mattress shops, the pedestrian shopping street, the diner full of old people having the breakfast special, and the crooked narrow streets loaded with Indian restaurants and kebob stands.

Next up, a trip to Chinatown for dinner, and then perhaps in search of a pub. Tomorrow, I head out to Alnwick Castle, better known as Hogwarts! There is a gigantic 6,000 feet high tree house, the Labyrinth and Poison and Serpent Gardens. If I get back early enough, I might head back to the shops. While the jumpsuit isn't quite my thing, the rest of 1983 was calling me. Dark jackets with big buttons! A polka-dotted school girl dress with a big belt, and my favorite - those dressy shirts with the big poofy necktie things. It's all ridiculous, but I can't stay away. Good thing I've got time to settle into the inevitability of me wearing this stuff, since it'll be another year before we see it in Austin.

Life Wrangling

2006-09-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

The mental to-do list has been nagging me. "Write blog post" is blinking red. It's beneath "clean nasty bathroom!!!" but above "back up computer". For months, this domain has been rolling around my thought space. This item on my list has ballooned into a much larger task than was hastily written down.

cocovelocity feels directionless. It sits stagnant for months. Its readership a phantom list of friends and family who likely have gotten used to the settled dust, and have stopped checking for polish.

The smell of foreign air, the sound of unfamiliar accents, languages and even bodily noises mark spikes in writing production. Adventures and events are an easy subject.

But what about those other times? Those times when I am living the life I do have, not the one I imagine myself having in the whirlwind of somewhere new. This space, after all, was meant to force me to write; to spend time crafting sentences worth a damn.

But life now is both challenging and rewarding. And private. There is no humorous detail in my dog dying, or of the complications of relationship. It is all, frankly, not the Interweb's business. Even if this address is like a secret present for those I know.

So what to do here? Travel blog exclusively? Continue with the infrequent posts that are two or three times removed from my heart? They lack grace, feeling and often a decent spell check.

I contemplated politics, but that is a crowded space, and I doubt I craft words better than others trying to hopelessly change the minds of others. Nor am I a preacher. I do not need to tell anyone what they already know.

I've thought of blog retirement. But pictures alone don't tell my stories. Perhaps, I will continue to plod along as is. New adventures are still piled in front of me like Christmases. Story-telling doesn't need a schedule, nor divine inspiration.

Life, after all, is about the journey, which try as I might, does not conform to my schedule, quality standards or even direction. Life is as much the hilarity of the curses my father & I will spew while we wrangle my kitchen walls down in November as it is my anticipated wonderment and fear as I navigate Singapore without a guide.

As I search my heart for who I am as I approach 30, perhaps I can let go of the need to define it publicly, and with great clarity.

Southern Corner

2006-09-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

According to the map in front of me, I am over the corners of Alabama and Tennessee. The red arrow will achingly crawl its way across the Atlantic before it dumps a tired, achy girl in front of British immigration.

"I am here," I'll say to no one in particular. I will turn on my cell, compulsively looking for contact from home. There are only a few who would message me.

Traveling - with its black, empty vastness out this window and lack of solid time zones - brings quiet to my roaring mind. The contemplativeness of this temporary time travel is almost hypnotic. I will work on my short story. I will write a poem, perhaps. It is likely that tears will collect in the corners of my eyes, perhaps escaping to my cheeks, but not with such speed or in such numbers to detract my neighbor from his physics magazine.

Here, barreling over land and sea, my uncertainty and unsettledness is a comfortable sweater. Here lonely is a friend, not the silhouette in the corner that my eyes work to avoid.

Tainted Love

2006-09-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

80s cover bands are an excellent choice for a wedding band. Tainted Love got an encore even.

The Jersey girls dug the Bon Jovi. The Billy Idol "White Wedding" choice seemed, perhaps, poor given that we were a gorgeous Napa Valley wedding.

Alana & Mike threw a great party. She's never seemed happier, and we stayed in this beautiful old Victorian house with a wrap around porch.

My fellow housemates/bridesmaids gave me a fabulous idea. Blogging about my upcoming kitchen remodel!

Wedding pics!

fall

2006-08-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

i am in chicago. it feels like the end of summer here, which is a nice change from austin's crispy summer.

friday was kristen's birthday. we drank copious amounts of wine and had a sleep over. today dan, ilana and i went to the botanical gardens. they were gorgeous.

check it out!

summer of sun

2006-06-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

Upon my return from Montana, I've been itching to get some outside Austin fun in. And frankly I have some good summer fun lined up, if I do say so myself.

I went tubing on the Guadalupe on Saturday. A crowd of us rented tubes, and tubes for our coolers of beer... and floated. It was a little MTV spring break meets trashy Texas, but only in the best guys crushing beer cans on their foreheads way. In all seriousness, there were some guys who had a beer funnel set up camped out on one small bank. Incidentally, they made friends with the boob job Texas bikini girl. For the rest of us, we hooked our feet together, laid back and floated on by.

This weekend, a bunch of us are heading out to Lake Travis for more floating with beer, and possibly some jumping off cliffs.

Sunday I leave for what will be my craziest week of travel ever. I am going on a Studio Tour, which involves 4 cities, 5 airports, several hotels, a ton of meetings and hopefully, some good food. My week looks like this:
Monday - LA
Tuesday -San Diego
Wednesday - Seattle for not even enough time to go walk around the office :(
Thursday - Chicago
Friday - short morning meeting in Chicago office, followed by decadent lunch that runs stright into happy hour

Actually I am staying in Chicago through the weekend to hang out with some friends, including my bbf. I've never been to Chicago and I hear this is the time of year to go.

In late July, I am heading to Palm Springs for Alana's bachelorette party. It will involve wine, a pool, spa treatments, and no strippers. We're staying at the Viceroy, which is apparently a totally cool, swank place to go. Normally, I'd say bachelorette parties aren't my thing, but who the hell can say no to a summer weekend in Palm Springs.

In August, we're going camping at Inks Lake. The park seems quite pretty and it has lots of stuff to do - kayaking, swimming and hiking. We're going to cheese out a little and get mini-cabins, which are essentially air-conditioned tents. But it's Texas August, and A/C camping seems better than the camping where I stab Kent for using the last ice cube.

Labor Day weekend, I head up to Napa Valley to participate in Alana & Mike's hitching ceremony. They are all over the vacation for friends ceremony, and I gotta like drawing summer (well technical summer in Texas at least) to a close tasting wines at 10 am before getting ready to tuck into a bridemaid dress.

Friends in Wonderful Places

2006-05-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

There is something about the mountains, and visiting Mel & Jay's life that fills me with both love and wistful longing.

I long to live somewhere that I cannot for a minute forget how beautiful the earth is. Somewhere that the view from the back deck makes me stop mid-step and give thanks. And I am filled with love for my friends, my family, my life - for all the blessings I do have.

While this visit to Montana was short, it was no less the relaxing, fun, inspirational trip. I met Aspen for the first time. I saw one of my best friends who I've known more then a decade as a mother. And I got to chill out, laugh, enjoy time with friends in an epic way.

(Click here for pictures)

We soaked every day in the hot springs pool at the lodge. The water was between 106-109 degrees, and gave me goosebumps when I got it because it was so hot. I think it put me on the same sleep schedule as Aspen.

We drank wine, ate delicious food, went up to the National Forest behind their house a lot. I went to bed early and got up even earlier. One night, I was in bed before it was fully dark.

I played with Aspen a lot. He's an amazing kid. Super smart, very mellow. He's a white light already. At 11 months, he's walking around, and had just learned to pull himself up without help when I got there. His smile and laugh melted my stress. An expressive, inquisitive child, I never got tired of playing with him.

We made a day of hanging out in the forest on Tuesday. Mel & Jay's friends came up with their big raft to float on. We grilled, rode the 4-wheeler, and had an amazing float down the river. Us girls drank tasty champagne fruit smoothies, and did some yoga, while the boys went to do some quick, unsuccessful fishing.

I was sad to leave, but have been so relaxed since I've been home. I'm going to enjoy this 3 day weekend. Stacy is in town. I've got a house project and plenty of fun stuff to do. I expect to float into the (new!) offices on Tuesday.
No worries people, I am not planning a move out to the country.... At least not yet.

Yuppie- fied

2006-05-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Amber isn't wear a rhinestone collar, and I am not sporting Polo-plaid, but it's possible I might have taken one small step toward yuppiville.

But my step is shiny, beautiful black and goes very, very fast.

I bought a Saab. A 9-2x Aero to be exact, which is actually the Subaru WRX sport wagon with a Saab logo slapped on it, which means it's a non-yuppie Japanese sports car.

Look at me trying to justify myself. Fuck it. I bought a new car and I love it!

Ever since I got my license, I've wanted something 'faster' and now I have it. In fact, it's kinda silly how much punch this car has. Really, no one needs to go from 0-60 in 6 seconds (for the record I haven't actually done that yet).

I've been hemming and hawing over getting a new car for months. Finally I decided to just do it. It's not like starting a car payment is ever going to feel awesome. Plus my civic has been feeling a little cursed. After 7 years of smooth driving, I've had 3 incidents in the last 2 months. I had one terrifying 360-degree skid out on Lamar in the rain, where I miraculously didn't hit anyone. Then on my way home from testing driving Subarus a couple weeks ago, I got into an accident and banged up my front bumper. Then Saturday, right after I signed the civic over to the dealership, some guy cut in front of me. I missed him by a literal inch. Cursed!

But not this car. Someone at work calls the car the Saabaru, which is fitting. It's a sleek, but cute car, just like the name.

Car & Driver has all sorts of exciting stats that I don't really remember, but I know this. I smile every time I accelerate. In fact, I've just barely stopped squealing with glee every time I mention, see or think about my new car.

I suspect I'll be smiling every time I drive for the next 6 months. I will even smile as a I pull away from my first trip to the gas station, which will no doubt make me choke when I pay to fill it with fancy gas.

Also, I think I look mighty sexy driving my saabaru, but that is currently unconfirmed. Let's see if I get out of the inevitable speeding ticket that comes with this gas pedal. It's WAY too easy to go fast on slow roads.

I can't hear you

2006-03-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

There is a permanent din of noise in my head - a cacophony of drums and singing, beers clanking, and my friends laughing. The ringing in my ears will, I hope, subside in another day or two.

SXSW 2006 is complete. I have a wrist full of fading clubs stamps. I've ridden my bike around downtown in the rain, with traffic, and back up the same streets many times. I've resorted to a coffee, shitty beer and greasy food diet. I've been sleeping until noon since Thursday.

And it's been the best SXSW ever. I've seen 34 bands in big clubs, little clubs, inside, outside, and in bars I've never heard of. There weren't many lines. I have a list of CDs to buy, of bands to track down and keep an eye on. I own albums for only 5 of the bands I saw. Several of the shows I was most looking forward to were disappointing. Though the magic of the great shows - of some band no one knows getting their 40 minutes to shine in one of the most prestigious music conferences in the world - more than made up for it.

And this year was the first year I've taken off for SXSW to fully experience the madness of day shows. The streets were packed with trendy, hip music business visitors. I was relaxing with friends drinking beer at 4 pm in some east side bar I've never been to. I was biking through crowds of people. It was a vacation at home. And I never want to do it any other way.

Overall, this was not the year of rock. With a couple of exceptions, the rock bands were disappointing. Bad acoustics washed out the vocals, and bounced around sound until it was a cluster of of uninteresting noise. Acoustics wasn't all to blame. The rock band instrument formula can only carry so many sounds, and after a while, they all sounded the same.

Now the electronic bands were a different story. Loud, danceable, and almost entirely from Canada, they made my SXSW.

Favorite Shows
Hot Chip
Holy Fuck
Shout Out Out Out Out
Shy Child
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Tunng

Biggest Disappointments
Thunderbirds Are Now! - I love their album, but the vocals got destroyed by bad acoustics.
Ladytron DJs - I thought their performance was actually "in between sets" background music.
Straightlight Run - MP3 led me to believe they could have a NIN, gothic sound. They were a generic Christian pop band, which would be fine if that's what we
were expecting. They deceived us!
Pink Mountaintops - Just boring. However, the free beers I got from being at the venue kept the day
Belle & Sebastian - Well I wasn't expecting much, but why the hell are they so damn popular?

The rest of the shows I saw that were neither the highlights or the low points: kiss me deadly, new pornographers, wooden wand, ad adstra per aspera, mogwai, the islands, raheem, zzz, plan b, you say party! we say die!, poni hoax, gem, elliot lip, We Are Wolves!, disco ensemble, pink mountaintops, minsk, scissors for lefty, the boy least likely to, veto, birdy nam nam, boyskout, the duke spirit, tullycraft

this condo has a dance floor

2006-03-12T17:09:00.000-08:00

we moved the table outside, and the chairs downstairs. mary dimmed the lights. randy set up his laptop. yet, i was dubious. my condo, is not the dancing-party type of place.

not so! give people cocktails, nowhere to sit and some prince, and they'll dance all night long. with a limbo stick even!

The pictures to prove it!

The ATX--> NYC going away party for Mary was a blast. Even the 45 minutes of mopping every inch of laminate flooring this morning was worth it.

Next up, SXSW is this week! I have plans to take off work, hang out with friends, drink and further my loss of hearing. Mammouth shared calendar has been quite the undertaking, but worth it.

After that, GDC in San Jose, where I will stand in front of strangers and sound all smart about outsourcing. It is an understatement to say I am nervous. Good thing I have SXSW and visitors to distract me. Just after I finalize my slides and practice in front of a video camera, of course.

And then the beginning of April will appear. And I will blissfully be doing nothing, except reading a book and riding my bike.