Industrious Woman

Posted on August 8, 2005 by Pamela

Good Freaking God, what happened to today?

I was up early and super industrious. Working on all these loose ends that I’ve been procrastinating on forever. I did a bunch of online things that necessitated my opening at least 6 new user accounts with usernames and passwords — I only have about 10 trillion of those right now. Yay, isn’t the Internet making life easier? And how about having to click a half million times to buy my 6 items? Yeah, only a teeny bit easier than actually going to the store. (If the store was close by and had a competent person standing there just waiting to help me.)

I was doing all this stuff and suddenly it was 4:30pm so ran to the kitchen to make peach pie (which turned out godhead, by the way. I used Cook’s Illustrated, except I didn’t like the spices or the sugar ratio, so I read the Betty Crocker recipe, except I didn’t want the flour in the filling. I used less brown sugar and more white sugar plus 2 t. lemon and 1 t. lemon zest and 1/4 t. cinnamon and tapioca for my thickener. I’ve never made a peach pie before but this is going in the rotation. I guess I’d better write down what I did while I’m thinking about it.) (I mean write it on a recipe card. I’m never going to remember to look here for my peach pie tips.)

After the pie I made this baked chicken recipe which was easy but had lots of steps including “browning” it on the stove top in a pan which means “get oil splattered everywhere” so I figured while I was there I’d just disembowel the entire stove top and clean it all.

And after that was done I had to get started on the watering. What a fantastic day. I never turned on the air. I just had the windows open and the breeze felt great. Watering still needed to be done. I’ve modified my watering routine to do intensive watering every other day rather than half-assed watering every day. But intensive watering takes forever so while I was out there I did yard work and by the time I finished it was almost 9pm. Then I had to eat my chicken and pie.

I’m completely filthy and smell like a stinky hippy but it’s too late to bathe now. (I’m sure 90% of you are appalled. Yes, I’m fastidious but I will go to bed stinky and dirty with barely a second thought.) I’m also sort of wound up. Sitting here at the computer typing is not helping.

Point being: I still don’t have your train pictures – I did start working on them this morning. And I don’t have my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story or any of the other stuff I have jotted on scraps of paper that are scattered all over this room. Maybe later this week.

Meanwhile. I’d just like to point out that something I didn’t do this weekend is go to the Willamette Writers conference. I think I’ve attended at least part of it every year but one for the last 4 or 5. Wow, and I’m not feeling totally humilated or like I wasted my money. Coincidence? I think not.

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Priests for Life

Posted on August 5, 2005 by Pamela

I have so many notes here of things I want to add, but I’m not quite there yet. Also, still to come: photos and narrative on the train journey.

Here’s a tidbit for now:

We rec’d an item in the mail this week that our waranty on our KitchenAid mixer was about done and do we want to extend it. I set it aside to examine more closely although, don’t they tell you to buy the KitchenAid mixer because it lasts about 30 years?

It comes with an addressed “no postage necessary” envelope and while I was gathering together a weeks worth of stuff that I’d “set aside” I noticed that the envelope was for “Priests for Life” in Staten Island, NY. There’s even a boldfaced notice with three (3) exclamation points informing me that my stamp will help PLF save more Moms and their babies.

I can’t tell you how long I looked back and forth at the KitchenAid form and the envelope — trying to figure out why the Priests are running the warranty program. Finally Bob comes up and says: the direct mail company screwed up. That’s the wrong envelope.

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Star Wars Confession

Posted on August 2, 2005 by Pamela

I’m still not in the mood to recreate my train trip post and I still haven’t posted the photos (well, I’ve posted 2 but that happened by accident and I wasn’t in the mood to fix it).

This weekend I continued my bitter project of tossing writing crap. I don’t think my attitude is completely healthy but whatever gets you through. I’m making tons of rooms on my shelves and drawers and getting a tiny smug sense of satisfaction. It reminds of this relationship I had in my mid-20’s that ended with particular tragedy and the guy gave me a cassette of Edie Brickell and something else, I think a folk singer. I *STILL* can’t listen to Edie Brickell. I taped over what he gave me with Megadeth and Racer X.

Petty, childish and strangely satisfying.

Also I cleaned out my closet and I FINALLY hung up the giant vinyl signs that Steve and Denise gave me for the Attack of the Clones DVD sales. I now have a giant Boba Fett that looks over my desk and a giant Yoda and light saber in my yoga handstand practice area. It’s awesome. I hung the Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin one in the laundry room. It pleases me greatly that I have better Star Wars stuff than pretty much all the other kids. I have an Obi-Wan bank, talking Yoda, life-sized cardboard C3PO cutout, Darth Vader phone, and R2D2 mini-robot and a photo of me and young George Lucas that was a photo on the wall at a Cafe 50’s type diner in San Francisco. (Mel’s?). I know. Sad but all true.

I also have a moleskine that I put a retro Princess Leia sticker on and I got a great compliment in line at the movies the other day. Also an awesome Anakin Skywalker backpack that Bob got for me in Chinatown in LA. The clerk asked if it was for his son and he said, “No, my wife.”

If Revenge of the Sith is still on big screen this weekend I’ll see it again. It will be #9. I saw (big screen) Phantom 13 times and Clones a mere 7. I saw the special editions on big screen: Ep IV (5), Ep V (3) and Ep VI (3). I have no ideas how many times I’ve seen them on DVD or VCR. I’m not a TV in the background type of person but I often plug in one of those movies when I’m doing an extended cooking project. I watched IV and V the past few weekends — the old “before special” edition and thought it was cool.

I have no idea why I’m writing out this extended Star Wars confession. I feel perfectly healthy and at relative peace with the world.

Also, completely unrelated but I think I’ve discovered my pie crust problem. It’s the fat. I went back to my Betty Crocker recipe this weekend and was extra generous with the shortening and it was about 90% more successful. Yay.

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Bob’s Secret

Posted on July 30, 2005 by Pamela

We got a coupon in the mail for free panties from Victoria’s Secret and it was addressed to Bob. Should I be worried?

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Conversion

Posted on July 27, 2005 by Pamela

Regular Yoga Practice May Help Prevent Middle-Age Spread

SEATTLE — July 18, 2005 — A new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that regular yoga practice may help prevent middle-age spread in normal-weight people and may promote weight loss in those who are overweight.

Perhaps I will have more success converting people now. In my 9 years of serious practice I’ve managed to get, I think 3 people, into a class.

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Smells Like Rock Swings

Posted on July 26, 2005 by Pamela

Did you know Paul Anka has an album out called Rock Swings with covers of songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit, Wonderwall (one of my fave songs of all time), Jump and Eye of the Tiger? Yeah, I know. Eye of the Tiger. If you have iTunes, charge up the Apple Store and listen to some samples. I’m speechless. And not necessarily in a bad way.

I wasn’t going to write about this but screw it. I did totally officially quit writing the weekend before last. And it was simultaneously heart-breaking and liberating. I’d also been in the process of a pretty determined run at law school and I gave that up too. See my touching story in [cheezy women’s magazine] “I gave up all my dreams on the same day.”

But you know what? This is great. It’s all good.

You need to break it all down before you can build it up again and I need to figure out how to see myself in the world without writing or something intended to make up for it.

I’ve got a great life and work I like and I only have to be there 4 days a week and I don’t have kids and I have an independent husband so I can more or less write my own ticket. And when I think of the things I want to do: garden, cook, yoga, draw, photography, learn German — and so forth. It’s all making things and learning. The other afternoon we had an afternoon rain shower and Bob and I were on the back porch inhaling that incredible fresh smell and I danced around like a little kid: “And I’m going to be an interpretive dancer, and an artist and a photographer, and master chef and a … .”

I’ve spent so much time not doing things because I was preserving time to write — which often, I did not do. So now I’m doing those things. Like yesterday I went to Araline’s for the annual work party. I was berry vine woman. You could argue that I won, but I am covered from wrist to shoulder and knee to ankle in berry scratches. It looks nasty but I’m sure it’s meaningful on some symbolic level.

In the meantime, if I get a yearning to tell a story, I can always drop everything and start writing again. And I do tons of other writing that I like so not like I’m really “quitting.”

This past weekend I cleared off my bookshelves and dumped about 90% of my writing books and cleaned out some notebooks and files of saved articles. It’s like breaking up with a worthless boyfriend. Toss all that shit. Good bye and good riddance.

Seriously. It’s good. Chuck it all right now.

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Better Photos

Posted on July 21, 2005 by Pamela

I’m learning to take better photos. I met Hal at a party and he gave me a few tips and then I thought, hey, why don’t I actually read the book that came with the camera?

This evening while the sprinkler is going on the garden I took some flower photos which you can view here.

The TV is all effed up because between the dvr box and the tv itself and the combo video/dvd drive — the magic buttons were not pressed in alignment and all we can do is view video/dvd or snow. Not optimal but hey, a night without TV is like a gift from the gods. Go take pictures of your dahlias.

When we were in Germany at Christmas time for some reason I brought 2 half-dead camera batteries instead of fresh ones so when my battery finally died I had to buy one in Garmisch, a tourist town, with the crappy dollar so it was like a $25 camera battery and I’m thrilled to report it’s still going strong. I have two new batteries sitting here but haven’t had to touch them yet because the $25 Bavarian battery is kicking ass.

The Tribes are going back to Scotland. BBC link here. (The BBC knows my tribe exists. How cool is that?)

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Personal Belief System

Posted on July 19, 2005 by Pamela

May you be forever touched by his noodly appendage.

Excerpt of an open letter to the Kansas School Board:

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. ... We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe.

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Movie Geeks

Posted on July 17, 2005 by Pamela

This is what happened at the movies the other night. It’s not nearly as interesting now as it seemed when I jotted down the notes.

I arrived at the theater early (planned) and sat on a bench in the shade, enjoying being outside and drawing in my notebook. I noticed some people sitting against the wall and wondered if there was some nerd thing opening that night.

You know the guys. They had lots of electronic gear: cords, earphones, things of various size they were tapping on. Bad skin, the quietly aggressive bearing that those with sketchy social skills possess. Serious faces. No sign of humor in this bunch.

They sat in the shade behind a single canvas band. A man from the theater wearing a mauve shirt and black slacks and a walkie-talkie clipped to his belt came out and told them the screening was canceled. In all theaters.

The guys hop up in passive outrage and get on their cellphones. They take their Suncoast bags and wander off, no doubt to go home and bitch about the situation in a chatroom.

More people arrive for the screening and 15 minutes later another guy comes out to dismiss them.

Turns out the screening for The Island and I immediately develop a theory that the movie stinks and this is damage control. I want the movie to be good. It stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson and the premise is fantastic – clones and stuff. “Please don’t suck” I thought when I first got a whiff of the trailer. I hope I’m wrong.

None of the people from the canceled screening paid to see another movie. They left.

Later, when Kathy and I went to our movie, (Mr. & Mrs. Smith – very entertaining!) we saw them letting people into the screening which wasn’t canceled after all and I felt bad for the filmgeeks who got in line before 5pm and were sent home for nothing.

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Random Round-Up

Posted on July 17, 2005 by Pamela

The Oregonian did a big “any moron can make a pie” pep article with a completely foolproof crust recipe which I tried and had my biggest disaster to date and there was more of it. I was completely fearless about adding water because I read that it depends on how dry the flour is and given my long history of patching together sandy piles of flour, I figured this had to be it.

Nah. Super big pile of sand that I desperately patched together. And she said to use parchment paper when rolling it out and she’s a crazy lady because everything that wasn’t sand stuck to the parchment paper.

When done, it looked pretty and brown but also I sort of over-baked it because I was doing too many things in the kitchen at once. Have you ever done this? You hear your timer and you think, okay I’m just going to finish doing this — whatever and wash my hands and then grab that thing out of the oven then suddenly 10 minutes have gone buy and you’re like: oh shit! That’s what happened.

The crust was way too tough. I could tell the minute I tried to put a knife into to take out the first piece. It’s perfectly edible, but still not right. My next tactic is to buy a kitchen scale and exactly measure my ingredients. Maybe that will help.

***

Also this week I dreamed that I read the new Harry Potter in paperback. It was a small throwaway book and I didn’t know what all the fuss was about.

***

Last night Bob and I watched an incredible movie called The Sea Inside. It won the Oscar for best foreign film and I’m not going to lie, it’s a tough one. But it’s beautifully made and fantastic acting and an amazing trio of women characters supporting Javier Bardem. Worth the effort.

***

This is an item about movie theaters that is good food for thought. This guy suggests that theaters offer monthly passes so that for a flat rate, a person could see as many movies as he or she wants. The idea being that people will try more movies they wouldn’t ordinarily see. For me, I’d be more likely to go to movies on weeknights because I’m too cheap to pay full movie price and usually go only to matinees. But here’s why it wouldn’t work. First I’m not sure how the box office would be reported and whether Hollywood would like that comingling of $$$). Second, when you went to the movies people would be more likely to go in and out and try different things which would severely diminish quality of experience. I personally go to less movies because I don’t like dealing with parking, crowds and jackass people who talk and are noisy.

Here are some super cool pictures of clouds.

And finally, here is a HILARIOUS story about an illegal copy of Revenge of the Sith and the subtitles. (added: looks like this site might be down and I don’t have the inclination for research right now, so good luck.)

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