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ARCHIVES:
FEBRUARY 2004
02
27: FRIDAY
-- The plan this weekend
is to paint the back bathroom. The biggest challenge with painting
is just getting the paint and by that i mean, getting to home depot
on sometime other than saturday and sunday when the paint line is
long. The color will be light orange.
-- Now that i'm out for 3 weeks on gluten parole, I will be baking
those blondies from the feb issue of Martha Stewart and I will be
eating them at the oscars.
-- Right now, i am tired and allergy-ridden. Luckily, its a sunny
friday.
02
26: THURSDAY
-- The other night
at dinner with friends we went around the table; each of us shared
a vivid memory -- all of them similarly "mind-expanding".
There were stories of childbirth, traveling, car accidents, hairy
rice, waves of milk, etc. My story isn't about hairy rice, sorry.
Mine is about an installation peice I saw when I took my first trip
to San Diego with Snail, many years ago. The location was the Contemporary
Art Museum in La Jolla. This Robert
Irwin peice is essentially a giant window with a perfect square
hole cut into it. The window overlooks the palm trees, the ocean.
It's a pristine view.
What was partly striking was that i hadn't been exposed to this
category of art. Everything i had seen to this point was largely
your typical nice conservative works in D.C. -- all things i had
seen and learned about in books in art school.
The thing about this window hole, to me, is that it embodies San
Diego. The hole is perfect.
The air coming through the hole is perfect. What
i'm seeing through it is perfect.
02
25: WEDNESDAY
-- I went to see the
doctor today about the gluten diet experiment. I told him I was
feeling a lot better, but would still like to know if i have this
disease. Technically its nice to know what you may be passing
along to children and that family members may have this too. In
order for these blood test to be done properly, i have to start
eating gluten again and then have the tests in 3 weeks.
How long do you think it took me to leave the doctor's office and
get a peice of bread in my mouth?
Just the time it took for me to drive to this great little bakery
and buy a loaf of their cinnamon bread -- about 4 minutes. I really
wanted to go straight to Krispy Kreme but it was just a little far.
So, yeah, i go in this tiny local bakery. Its the kind of place
that only takes cash and is only open for about 3 hours a day and
only on certain days. So, I had my Cinnamon ( with no raisins )
loaf all bagged up and asked if i could just remove a slice and
butter it up for the road ( its one of those
quiet small businesses and i didn't want to just do my thing without
communicating ). Instead, he sliced a fresh peice off of
their sample loaf and I slathered a bunch of butter on it. It was
good butter too....and had been sitting out all day.
As
soon as I got out the door, I was eating it. I think I floated back
to my car on my buttery bread boat.
02
24: TUESDAY
-- Since I went gluten-free
about 6 weeks ago, I have become more involved with corn and rice
derived food items. Last night, I made some polenta
-- which i've never really eaten or cooked. (I
can already tell you that around our house, we will not be resisting
the urge to laugh and call it placenta.) Its odd stuff
with its thickness, but i can see how versatile it is. For my lunch
today, i topped it with sauteed zuchini and a little jack cheese.
Its surprisingly tasty. I will need to continue to reasearch different
ways to use it. The next thing I want to make is rice pudding. I've
always had a special place in my heart for colorless hot mushy foods,
and since i had to abandon Cream of Wheat and oatmeal, i am eager
to find some adequate replacements.
--A few days ago, Snail picked out some extra large avocados. i
have to admit that I was a little suspicious that they would be
any good. But, he IS the avocado afficianado, being from San Diego
and all. On Sunday, he busted one open for lunch and made us some
guacamole: mainly just lime juice, and salsa and pepper. While he
did that, I melted some cheese on the tortilla chips. That was some
seriously good eats and there was plenty there for both of us. HUZZAH
FOR AVOCADOS!!!!!!
02
19: THURSDAY
 --
Our landscaping guy discovered a
dead half-eaten cat on top of our air conditioner
and brought it to Snail's attention this afternoon (long before
I ever got home). I guess it appeared to have been there for a few
days. Which is made more odd because I saw a dead cat on the road
when I was leaving for work earlier in the week; presumably the
same unfortunate soul. We can only speculate that the cat WASN'T
dead, stumbled through the small fence opening (damn me for not
closing the gate all the way) and met his final resting place on
the a/c unit. Snail reported that the essence of cat is all worked
into our a/c unit. By summer, we hope that all remains will be good
and dried up.
For being a man, taking care of an ugly situation and not whining
about it, Snail gets the YOU-DA-MAN-AWARD. He is
my hero.
He called me at work to tell me about the ordeal, right before the
clean up. He had a few "choice" words to say about it
all. He said that he was allowed to use that kind of language before
disposing of dead things and I agreed with him.
Rest in peace my furry friend.
02
17: TUESDAY
 --
It's NO easy task winning smell praises from me. I would even say
as as rule, i don't like most scented things. This stuff, however
is the nectar of the Badger
Gods of the Wilderness. I keep it at my bedside, so that i
can lay there at night while watching Good Eats and smelling the
Badger. Its smells like something i want to drink. Kinda like sweet
tea. Sweet fresh minty sun brewed tea.
This was one of many wonderful treats in my Valentine goodie bag
from Snail. Also, i should add that it has a good consistency to
it. I don't like sticky lip stuff.
-- I really can't post tonight and not offer up my review for the
Belleville Triplets film. And yet i can't seem to write about something
when its good, as well as i can when its bad. And by that i mean,
this movie was terrific on so many levels and that's all I will
say.
02
15: SUNDAY
-- I woke up on valentine's day at 7am with an eager-faced snail
peering at me to get up. "Have you looked out the window?!?!?
It's covered in snow outside!"
We got showered, left the house and got some breakfast. It was
there that we decided to take a much needed trip out of town to
san antonio. Mainly, we hit our favorite art stops (
note: if you are a city art museum, you should
not have wicker chairs for resting in your galleries. Spend a little
extra money and get the benches that all respectable museums
have. If you don't know what i'm talking about, spend a little
more money, visit D.C. and take notes. ), had lunch and
then came back home. It was a short trip. For dinner, snail cooked
steak and shrimp, sauteed green beans, baked potatos. (YUM) For
dessert, I made chocolate fondue, with bananas, apples, cherries,
strawberries, and pound cake for dipping. That was my first time
making fondue: next time, the chocolate shouldn't be quite so rich.
It was a lovely day!
In a couple of hours, we are going to see that bellville movie.
-- My little red precious car is officially up for sale. I cleaned
it all up today and taped the signs in the windows. All proceeds
will be put towards more dinners at UCHI.
02
13: FRIDAY
-- I don't know what
we're doing this weekend, but i hope i can find time to go see Les
Triplettes de Belleville. i'm up for something animated that
hasn't been touched by Disney. I like the color palette: subdued
and murky.
-- Happy Valentine's Day!
02
11: WEDNESDAY
-- In
the hours of twilight, i enjoyed an elegant sampling of delicacies
at hearth's edge.
Snail and i met for dinner, after work, at this stoney cozy italian
romatic place with amber lighting. The perfect spot for a rainy
week night getaway. We had drinks at the bar and an appetizer of
fig with proscuitto. When i say bar, i don't mean a counter that
girls dance on with alcohol behind it. I mean a sofa/tables nook
just OFF of the "bar."
The nicest thing about our bar/sofa nook was that it was empty and
that we were seated fireside. For the meal, we shared a sirloin
with a something or other reduction sauce and crispy potatos and
vegetables. The entire event finished off sweetly with a flourless
chocolate torte (seen below) topped by dried/soaked cherries with
a sauce.
02
09: MONDAY
-- Prince opened at
the grammy's last night and it was nice to see him again. He doesn't
come to the surface very often. Prince has been my all time favorite
since about 5th or 6th grade when i joined one of those cassette
mail clubs. I respect the fact that he remains a bit aloof but
when he steps back into the mainstream i can't help but be a little
afraid that he'll have done something weird to himself...you know,
gone off the deep end a tad.....in a jacko kind of way. I was relieved
to see he looked perfectly normal. Some day i'll post my top ten
favorite Prince songs.
-- I am thoroughly enjoying the new vehicle. Its good to feel safer,
what with my commute being on the lengthy side. And its nice to
listen to music and not wonder if that weird background noise was
made by a part falling off my car..... And it was great to ride
home tonight in the rain, and not have to hear the clackity clack
of my old wind-shield wipers. Oh, and that six-speaker stereo can
really soothe the drive home.
02
05: THURSDAY
-- I bought my first
car tonight. Brand new. Scion XB.
WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
i've been driving my precious little honda civic for 13 wonderful
years. That car has seen me through many adventures (at least that
sounds like something i should say...). At last, it was time to
move on. Its crazy to think all the time i've spent in the honda.
It all seems pretty unreal. It will take some time to get used
to a working speedometer and power windows and cupholders and fun
things like that.
You've been a real trooper, honda civic. A real trooper.
02
03: TUESDAY
 --
Football cake!!! wooooo!!!!!! I've always wanted to buy a cake
shaped pan...of couse there are other more exciting ones than the
football, but that's ok. I think we can reuse this shape to make
an eye for halloween.
The best part of the football is the pigskin texture that we added
by poking the icing gently with the end of a straw.
02
02 : MONDAY
-- I threw away my only pair of khakis last
night. I had tried to get a stain out without much luck. I would
have kept trying, but they already had ANOTHER barely visible stain
on them from when i dropped my mexican lasagna leftovers on them.
I swear i never spill anything when i'm wearing jeans. I must get
to old navy soon and replenish my khaki supply.
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