| don't say "post" too many times in a row |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|11:53 am] |
Post post post post post -- it's one of those words that starts to sound really weird after a few repetitions.
Anyway, this is my obligatory post-holidays post, brought to you in list form for your viewing convenience.
- I have a newly-discovered passion for hot blended soups. So far, I've made two with a butternut squash base and one with an acorn squash base. They are warm and delicious and I can invent them on my own without needing to find a reliable recipe to follow.
- I loathe Christmas music with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns. It's not just that much of it is expressly denominational and I'm non-Christian, it's that most xmas music is banal, emotionally vapid tripe as music. It gets stuck in my head and the same verse plays over and over and over until I want to carve out my cochlea with a rusty knife. (Yes, I hate it that much.)
- I decided to paint my bedroom "Twilight Dusk," a mid-toned indigo-ish color. I like the shade, even if its name is rather oxymoronic. The pre-painting process (wallpaper removal, old paint scraping, plastering, taping of edges, priming, etc) took way longer than I expected, so I still have to do the actual color painting before spring semester eats me alive.
- My cats seem to think the only way to ensure that I won't abandon them for another week is to sit on me constantly. They don't mind if there's no room for a laptop or a book on the lap. It's a good thing they're warm and adorable.
Okay, time for a (hopefully) final hardware store run and a brief trip to campus, then back to the painting grindmill. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|07:03 pm] |
I've only been living alone (away from Haymarket, that is -- I have two flatmates, but they're rarely around and we're not really friends) for a few days. So far I've spent my time cleaning the place up -- scraping dirt off the kitchen floor, scrubbing the fridge with bleach, rearranging the living room. It's a little more homey now. Not quite Moomers or Haymarket, but not abandoned and full of broken furniture and covered in a gelatinous layer of filth, either.
So far, I find myself cooking more often. Nothing fancy, but good food nonetheless. It's strange to cook for one or two or three people after cooking for 15 to 20 at Haymarket. My internal estimate of "a small meal" is very off. I hadn't made pasta in ages because that's just not what I cook for the co-op, so two nights ago I indulged my craving and made:
- whole wheat spaghetti (from the box, not from scratch :p)
- tomato sauce with onions, mushrooms, green peppers, fresh basil, garlic, and carrots
Hyde Park Produces closes early on Sunday, and I didn't have a baguette, so we were stuck with crusty whole wheat bruschetta. It turned out tasty anyway. I used one of those odd delicious black tomatoes HPP sells, as well as garlic and olive oil and more of the basil. I really like summer bruschetta with yellow tomatoes from my garden, but Chicago doesn't grow tomatoes in January.
I talked Michelle and Rafi into visiting and we ate the pasta, bruschetta, and a simple salad, followed by a bottle of blueberry wine and a bottle of hard cider. Due to my inability to accurately cook for fewer than 15 people, I was still eating the leftover spaghetti and sauce today, so I made:
- a spinach, basil, and red lettuce salad with anchovies
- a dressing of dijon mustard, olive oil, vinegar, and black pepper
to go with it. I haven't made food this simple in a long time, not since I started cooking for the ravenous multitudes nearly two years ago. I can see how cooking for one could get sad, but in the meantime it's enjoyable to just make what I want to eat and eat it. So simple compared to going through The Committee to decide who buys what. Either way, I have a good excuse to have lots of potlucks and dinner parties, and I can always walk the two blocks to the Haymarket dinner table whenever the winter gets too quiet and cold to eat alone. |
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| my superpower |
[Jan. 1st, 2010|12:32 am] |
I can tell it's after midnight because the hills are alive with the sound of rednecks.
Anyway, I skipped a couple of potential parties to stay home and write because I'm on fire this evening. I have discovered that my superpower is to transform loose-leaf tea into fiction. I am finally making some real headway on my SF novel-in-progress after a languishing summer and fall in which I picked away at it unenthusiastically, writing a page here and a page there. I now have 156 continuous pages and almost 50k words overall, which crosses the half-a-book milestone by either measure.
I also finished a final (maybe even final final) draft of my SF story "Ashes on the Water" this week, which is something of landmark piece for me in a number of ways. I need to mail it out soon before I get nervous and screw it all up with unnecessary tinkering.
Any year that comes bearing fiction is a welcome one. Hi, 2010! |
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| AT&T won't sell iPhones in NYC, citing crappy network? |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|03:16 pm] |
Consumerist bags a major scoop: AT&T won't sell new Apple iPhones through their website to customers searching in NYC-area ZIP codes. A CSR seems to confirm that this is carrier policy:
Daphne: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?
Laura: Hi, I was looking at the iPhone 3Gs and the system tells me that I cannot order one in my ZIP code. My zip code is 11231. (Brooklyn, NY) Is this true? Are iPhones no longer available in New York City?
Daphne: I am happy to be helping you today . Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.
Daphne: You don't have enough towers to handle the phone.
Laura: Thank you for your help. So the phone is not available to people anywhere in the city?
Daphne: Yes this is correct Laura. —AT&T Customer Service: "New York City Is Not Ready For The iPhone", Consumerist
If this is true, it's a b.f.d. The phone is the #1 handset in the country, but its exclusive carrier can't/won't support it in the country's largest market? Real Steve Jobs would crap his pants.
What's going on here, asshats?
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| Noël |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|01:48 am] |
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Warmest wishes from San Francisco—
for prosperity, joy, and peace on Earth
with blessings from on high.
Merry Christmas.
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