You're Doing It Wrong

Here’s a photo of the “to read” pile. It’s actually over 2 months old and some of that stuff has been cleared out with new stuff added. But I’m too lazy to bring all the stuff from the various piles around the bed, nightstand and other reading supply annexes and stack them in one handy place for a new photo. (Is there some funky plural to annex? I’m too tired to look right now.) But aren’t the Han Shot First bookends awesome?

Sorry if the titles are blurry. I think the stack on the upper left is the magazine pile which is greatly reduced since that time. I’m going to read like a fiend over xmas vacation.

On Friday I had to run just a couple of routine errands but about fifteen minutes in I was confident that I never have to hear “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” ever again. Why is that song so annoying?

I’ve had another busy weekend. I’m so tired I can hardly see straight. I still haven’t cleaned off my desk. There’s a stack of “you have to do this” notes which I’m planning to ignore.

Last night was awesome.

I wasn’t sleepy at 8:30pm. I wasn’t sleepy at 9:30 or 10:30 or even 2am. Yeah. I never could fall asleep until about 3:30am and then I woke up an hour later.

I was quiet and boring all weekend and but I feel like I’ve been up dancing all night.

– – –

Last week during dinner Bob gave me a serious look. “I have bad news.”

When people say they have bad news, isn’t that usually a warm-up to “I crashed your car” or “I gambled away your life savings” or news that somebody died?

His bad news: my Gilmore Girls DVD wasn’t available from netflix so they sent one of his movies instead. What’s he going to say when he really has bad news?

They sent me a GG DVD later and I watched it this weekend. I’m new to the show and I love it. A million episodes to look forward to.

Looking north on Interstate 5

I’m having an unfortunate sleep problem. This has been going on every night for two weeks. About 8:30pm I’m so tired I can’t keep my eyes open. I sit in bed with my book on my lap, checking the clock every 5 minutes.

As soon as it’s 9pm, it’s lights out. I fall asleep in two seconds.

I awake between midnight and 2am. I remain awake until about 30 minutes before I want to wake. I spend those waking hours fretting about random things: seemingly minor health issues, pending first fiction publication, zombies, the economy, aging, that scaly bit of skin on my ankle, bad breath, fiction writing, alien abduction and so forth.

I’m getting to the point where I’m so tired I’m either going to sleep through the night or go on a murderous rampage. I know what my first choice would be.

Bob and I had a fun weekend that included a number of long walks with steep hills. I have faith I will be able to button my pants for at least another couple weeks.

My mother-in-law is a zoo volunteer. On Wednesday night she took us to see the ZooLights. This was my first time seeing them and it was fantastic. I didn’t take many photos but I liked these flying pigs.

Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough

On Wednesday I went to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. My thinking was that the day before Thanksgiving was not going to be a mob scene at the DMV. I was right. Thirty minutes and I was driving back home.

But here’s the thing that amazed me: I was the only person in the waiting area who brought stuff to read. Why would you go to the DMV without anything to read?

I took this photo because of the pumpkins. All the cute flying monkeys and giant rhinos but I took photos of the pumpkins. Also, I’m sending the zoo the following suggestion: aliens and a spaceship. Who wouldn’t want to see that in lights?

Dinner preparations yesterday went okay. Not as smoothly as I would have liked.

One problem was this *&^% pie. I thought about doing the pie on Wednesday but I was feeling lazy and thought: how long can it take to throw some pumpkin in a shell and bake it?

Ha ha.

While I was going through my recipes I found the handout from my pastry class. It has almost a full page single-spaced narrative which gave me hope that I could make a decent pie crust if I just read the words. I have a lot of faith in words.

Bob and I went for a nice walk and he wanted to do some kitchen things so I did yoga and then when he was done I thought I’d get the pie out of the way and then tackle the recipes.

This pie crust recipe was the most high maintenance recipe ever. Do X and then let it rest in the refrigerator. Do Y and then let it rest in the refrigerator. All it has to do is hold baked pumpkin. How much rest does it need?

Meanwhile the filling was high maintenance, too. “Put the pumpkin in your food processor. Then heat it in pan. Then put it back in the food processor.”

Nope. I’m already washing everything in this kitchen twice today. We’re not hauling out the food processor for a freaking pie.

I FINALLY got the pie done and I still had all my other things to coordinate. Oh, also, when I quizzed Bob on the details on his acorn squash fries, he said he needed a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes.

“Yeah,” I said. “Until one of us makes enough money to buy a house with two ovens, we’re not having acorn squash fries on Thanksgiving.”

So I substituted with a Mark Bittman that I can’t find right now but involved roasting (cover your eyes AngelaWD) beets and tossing with olive oil, red wine vinegar, chopped toasted hazelnuts and gorgonzola.

The salmon cakes were a HUGE hit. I thought they were a tad too limey and I thought so when I was doing the recipe so I did the 2 tsps. of juice but I think I had barely 1 tsp. of zest. If I make again I’d cut back on juice and just do a sprinkle of zest.

The other big hit, which surprised me, was the quinoa, wildrice, sausage “casserole”. Bob made an epic leftover plate today using that as a foundation.

The pie was delicious even though it was a pain in the ass to make and nobody went home hungry. So success overall.

We got new recycling bins. Instead of sorting our stuff into three little bins, we dump it all into this big bin. Except for glass which goes in a separate little bin. I probably should read the instructions in more detail. Our garbage cans are so small, you could maybe fit a 12 year old in one. This thing is so big you could fit a 12 year old, me AND Bob in it.

Part I

Last week when I was at the airport, I went to LameAss Airlines to see about the potential problem with my plane ticket.

The LameAss guy shook his head and said, “Oh no. That’s a problem. On an international flight the ticket must be issued exactly like it says on your passport. But I can’t help you.”

LameAss Airlines has been purchased by Ginormous Airlines. This is the second time that LameAss Airlines has allowed me to purchase a ticket to fly on one of their planes but when I had a question told me they couldn’t answer it, I had to deal with Ginormous Airlines.

So I walked to the other side of the airport where everyone at Ginormous Airlines was on a break. I flagged down a lady and she listened to my problem and then flapped her hands at me like how could I be so silly. “One letter different? That’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re sure?” I said. “I don’t want to arrive for my international fight and find out I have a problem.”

Her smiled disappeared. “I’ll ask my colleagues.” She then goes back to where the Ginormous Airlines employees were sitting around and said, “One letter off on the ticket isn’t a problem is it?”

“Nope,” they all agreed. “No problem.”

I’m doomed.

Looking south on Interstate 5

Part II

Here’s the tentative menu for tomorrow

Matt’s Salmon Cakes with Easy Remoulade Sauce

Cedar Plank Salmon

Mark Bittman Quinoa-Wild Rice dish (#24)

Bob’s Acorn Squash Fries (I don’t know where he got the recipe. I think he said a vegan resource which if you know him, is pretty hysterical.)

Jay Lake’s Knot Rolls.

and Cooks Illustrated Pumpkin Pie using pumpkin I grew myself.

I’m going to do a computer free day tomorrow since I haven’t done one in forever and I want to spend the day hanging around the kitchen.

Photo courtesy of kworth30. Thank you for CC licensed photos. The photo was taken in Jan 04. There is no snow on the ground right now.

This morning on the bus in I saw a spectacular sunrise over Mt. Hood and then saw Rudolph on the Made in Oregon sign as we pulled into downtown. I didn’t think they lit his nose until after Thanksgiving.

I want to get a new raincoat. The one I have is at least 5 years old and has a broken zipper. I think I can justify the expense. I had Bob help me with this arm measurement that they want you to do for the Internet order and took my data back to the size chart and learned that with that arm measurement, I am an extra-large.

When it comes to clothing I find it hard to believe I’m an extra-large in anything except children’s sizes. Then Bob and I tried again and then decided to just take a couple inches off and use that measurement. It’s sure going to be funny when my hobbit-sized raincoat arrives.

I’m working on my menus for food I want to make this weekend. I’m loving this 101 ideas list from Mark Bittman. We’re probably skipping the traditional Thanksgiving dinner although I’m still up for making it if things change. Otherwise we’re having salmon and I have a giant hunk so I’ll probably try a couple of different things. I’ll crack into my pumpkin supply and make soup and a pie. I’m thinking about doing a pot of gumbo.

I’m talking about over the whole long weekend, not just Thanksgiving dinner.

This past weekend I made my second favorite bread recipe, the Cook’s Illustrated sandwich bread. It’s fantastic toasted with butter or Nutella. Or both.

I started this post this morning and then got busy so I’m finishing it in a big rush. Back to work.

We did our annual Bob’s Red Mill trek this morning. Serving breakfast starting at 6am. (We didn’t get there until 8am)

Misheard Lyrics

Bob and I went on an long walk this afternoon when the rain stopped.

On the way home Bob randomly said: “What’s up with that Madness song? ‘Our house, in the middle of the street … ‘ Was it really in the middle of the street?”

I said, “In the middle of OUR street.”

He thought for a few seconds and then said, “OH. Like the middle of the block. I get it.”

But that reminded me of my favorite song lyric of all time. I’ve probably already blogged about it because I love it so much.

It’s from the classic Warrant album Cherry Pie from the song, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and it goes like this:

Me and Uncle Tom were fishin’ it was gettin’
Pretty late
Out on a cypress limb above the wishin’ well
Where they say it got no bottom say it take
You down to Hell

– – –

They were fishing in a bottomless wishing well!?!?!?

I just hope I get to meet Jani Lane someday so I can ask him about it.