An Octopus's Garden
As with many of my more recent entries, this one isn't going to be terribly thoughtful. Like a garden of our cephalopod friend, it's all about the acquisition of shinies and hopes for the future.
Thursday: I bought my first mortar and pestle. It's a tiny contraption, perhaps 3 inches in diameter; dark green, cute.
For some reason my mother had a kilogram of Assam* which she gave to me. Now that I have a mortar and pestle, I can experiment with making my own chai masala. However, I am not about to buy cinnamon sticks (just so they can be ground up) when I have plenty of ground cinnamon around the kitchen. Slight change of subject: Is there any folkloric basis for a flying mortar and pestle? In Calling on Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, I remember Brandin offerring Telemain use of one. He declined, thinking it terribly uncomfortable. Anyway...
Speaking of which, I'd really like a larger kitchen. There is not much usable counter space. There are two spaces: one has its room taken up by the microwave, and the other is that ever awkward square wedged in a corner between the sink and the stove. It's not unusual for me to take a cutting board out to the dining table or put it on the dishwasher.
This tofu business has really spurred me on the cooking front. I most recently made a Moroccan "meatball" couscous dish. Too many onions for me, but Ryan adored it. For some reason he's just crazy about them. With it was a mixed salad with "Saffron" (i.e. turmeric) Tofu Dressing and glazed walnuts; Mashed Sweet Potatoes à la Julie (not cooked thoroughly so it's a bowl filled with soft cubes and crunchy cubes with some raisins mixed in).
Next time I'm hoping make a simple Paneer Matter, substituting tofu for the paneer. Looking over the ingredients I just need an onion, mustard seeds, a garlic clove, and paprika. Oh, and some bread with which to serve it. Fortunately I've borrowed a bit of paprika from my parents.
I asked for advice on homemade soy milk in
vegetarian. One person responded, recommending I go for a machine that does it. I checked it out on the site and Amazon. Wow, are they expensive. Frankly, I enjoy these little domestic tasks. Mind you, I haven't tried it out yet, so that may be the idealism talking.
Speaking of idealism, we're also holding out hope of one day owning a goat. *sigh* There's no way I can segue this anywhere, so I'll just go ahead and say it. I'm also researching menstrual cups. They seem like an intriguing idea.
I want to have pots of herbs on my windowsill. Chamomile, basil, the works. Which leads me to wonder about composting, specifically vermicomposting. The name makes it obvious that it involves worms. Indeed. You get a small bin, put some air- and drain holes in it, newspapers, red wigglers, eventually some food scraps, and there you go. I'm likely not going to do this anytime soon, since the only plant we have is Oscar. (Unless Bird can make a full recovery from an inpending pruning scheduled later.)
On Friday we went to Ann Arbor. I looked through Dawn Treader for Der Kleine Hobbit and any GGK books, but no luck beyond a battered copy of The Wandering Fire. Then it was off to Orchid Lane to browse through their skirts. Much to my surprise, they've gained some real estate since I was there last. They've apparently leased the property next door, so it's now twice as large. The only problem: you have to go outside to go from one part of the other. I found some wonderful wraparound pants: dark green batik with blue dragonflies. Ryan assured me they would be quite for fun for skateboarding. I asked them to hold it for me while we went next door. We played around there and bought some incense. One of the scents was root beer, so we agreed to have root beer floats when we got home. Much to our chagrin we realized that the store closed at 8:00 and it was 8:07 when we checked out. No pretty wraparound pants for me. We planned to return Sunday.
After my shift on Saturday we saw TMNT with Ellen and Roy (there are entirely too many Mikes, so he's been dubbed "Redonkulous Roy"--he's either Roy or Ellen's Mike). It was enjoyable, but really, is it a requirement that every climatic battle take place in the rain to showcase the filmmakers' impressive CG work? Within minutes of it beginning, Ryan confided how distracting the Fishburne narration was. "I kept expecting him to say, 'This is a war and we are soldiers.'" (Sidenote: For how many TNMT (non-comic) plotlines can we rely on Raphael's resistance to authority?)
At 5:00 AM this morning we went out to Circuit City to sit in the car for a few hours. We got a Wii. Ryan's currently playing around with it. We've merrily been cracking Wii jokes. Such juvenile fun.
After a nap, we headed off to Ann Arbor. The city was absolutely packed with people. We didn't want a repeat of yesterday, so I was dropped off at the corner of State and Liberty. It quickly became apparent why there was such a large amound of people: the Ann Arbor Film Festival. On my walk I was accosted by a pair holding a large sheet of paper. They wanted to know the meaning of life. I smiled and told them I didn't know.
"Well, write that," they told me, returning the smile.
Such a wonderful place... if only they had better public transportation!
I quickly strolled into Orchid Lane, got my pants, and left. To my chagrin, I saw I had 8 missed calls on my phone. All from Ryan. I returned his call and we met up. He wasn't able to find a parking space. The student parking structure that is normally free on Sundays wasn't. I mentioned that it was because of the film festival. He needed to vent for a bit over the lack of public transportation.
At the moment he's checking out Wii Boxing.
I thought I was getting entirely too hippie-ish, but having it all written out like this it doesn't seem to be the case.
The Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay. After reading Ysabel, I was left with the feeling that there was more about certain characters than was revealed. Sure enough here they are in the Fionavar Tapestry. Quite an amazing story and did it ever end on a cliffhanger. I'm borrowing The Wandering Fire tomorrow.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Shame on me. I've never read any Jane Austen. Thus far it's quite enjoyable. I read a bit of it while "waiting for Nintendot."
The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien.
(Stardust, Neil Gaiman. Soon. I'm rereading it to see if it's as good as I remember.
All for Now,
Julie
Thursday: I bought my first mortar and pestle. It's a tiny contraption, perhaps 3 inches in diameter; dark green, cute.
For some reason my mother had a kilogram of Assam* which she gave to me. Now that I have a mortar and pestle, I can experiment with making my own chai masala. However, I am not about to buy cinnamon sticks (just so they can be ground up) when I have plenty of ground cinnamon around the kitchen. Slight change of subject: Is there any folkloric basis for a flying mortar and pestle? In Calling on Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, I remember Brandin offerring Telemain use of one. He declined, thinking it terribly uncomfortable. Anyway...
Speaking of which, I'd really like a larger kitchen. There is not much usable counter space. There are two spaces: one has its room taken up by the microwave, and the other is that ever awkward square wedged in a corner between the sink and the stove. It's not unusual for me to take a cutting board out to the dining table or put it on the dishwasher.
This tofu business has really spurred me on the cooking front. I most recently made a Moroccan "meatball" couscous dish. Too many onions for me, but Ryan adored it. For some reason he's just crazy about them. With it was a mixed salad with "Saffron" (i.e. turmeric) Tofu Dressing and glazed walnuts; Mashed Sweet Potatoes à la Julie (not cooked thoroughly so it's a bowl filled with soft cubes and crunchy cubes with some raisins mixed in).
Next time I'm hoping make a simple Paneer Matter, substituting tofu for the paneer. Looking over the ingredients I just need an onion, mustard seeds, a garlic clove, and paprika. Oh, and some bread with which to serve it. Fortunately I've borrowed a bit of paprika from my parents.
I asked for advice on homemade soy milk in
vegetarian. One person responded, recommending I go for a machine that does it. I checked it out on the site and Amazon. Wow, are they expensive. Frankly, I enjoy these little domestic tasks. Mind you, I haven't tried it out yet, so that may be the idealism talking.Speaking of idealism, we're also holding out hope of one day owning a goat. *sigh* There's no way I can segue this anywhere, so I'll just go ahead and say it. I'm also researching menstrual cups. They seem like an intriguing idea.
I want to have pots of herbs on my windowsill. Chamomile, basil, the works. Which leads me to wonder about composting, specifically vermicomposting. The name makes it obvious that it involves worms. Indeed. You get a small bin, put some air- and drain holes in it, newspapers, red wigglers, eventually some food scraps, and there you go. I'm likely not going to do this anytime soon, since the only plant we have is Oscar. (Unless Bird can make a full recovery from an inpending pruning scheduled later.)
On Friday we went to Ann Arbor. I looked through Dawn Treader for Der Kleine Hobbit and any GGK books, but no luck beyond a battered copy of The Wandering Fire. Then it was off to Orchid Lane to browse through their skirts. Much to my surprise, they've gained some real estate since I was there last. They've apparently leased the property next door, so it's now twice as large. The only problem: you have to go outside to go from one part of the other. I found some wonderful wraparound pants: dark green batik with blue dragonflies. Ryan assured me they would be quite for fun for skateboarding. I asked them to hold it for me while we went next door. We played around there and bought some incense. One of the scents was root beer, so we agreed to have root beer floats when we got home. Much to our chagrin we realized that the store closed at 8:00 and it was 8:07 when we checked out. No pretty wraparound pants for me. We planned to return Sunday.
After my shift on Saturday we saw TMNT with Ellen and Roy (there are entirely too many Mikes, so he's been dubbed "Redonkulous Roy"--he's either Roy or Ellen's Mike). It was enjoyable, but really, is it a requirement that every climatic battle take place in the rain to showcase the filmmakers' impressive CG work? Within minutes of it beginning, Ryan confided how distracting the Fishburne narration was. "I kept expecting him to say, 'This is a war and we are soldiers.'" (Sidenote: For how many TNMT (non-comic) plotlines can we rely on Raphael's resistance to authority?)
At 5:00 AM this morning we went out to Circuit City to sit in the car for a few hours. We got a Wii. Ryan's currently playing around with it. We've merrily been cracking Wii jokes. Such juvenile fun.
After a nap, we headed off to Ann Arbor. The city was absolutely packed with people. We didn't want a repeat of yesterday, so I was dropped off at the corner of State and Liberty. It quickly became apparent why there was such a large amound of people: the Ann Arbor Film Festival. On my walk I was accosted by a pair holding a large sheet of paper. They wanted to know the meaning of life. I smiled and told them I didn't know.
"Well, write that," they told me, returning the smile.
Such a wonderful place... if only they had better public transportation!
I quickly strolled into Orchid Lane, got my pants, and left. To my chagrin, I saw I had 8 missed calls on my phone. All from Ryan. I returned his call and we met up. He wasn't able to find a parking space. The student parking structure that is normally free on Sundays wasn't. I mentioned that it was because of the film festival. He needed to vent for a bit over the lack of public transportation.
At the moment he's checking out Wii Boxing.
I thought I was getting entirely too hippie-ish, but having it all written out like this it doesn't seem to be the case.
The Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay. After reading Ysabel, I was left with the feeling that there was more about certain characters than was revealed. Sure enough here they are in the Fionavar Tapestry. Quite an amazing story and did it ever end on a cliffhanger. I'm borrowing The Wandering Fire tomorrow.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Shame on me. I've never read any Jane Austen. Thus far it's quite enjoyable. I read a bit of it while "waiting for Nintendot."
The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien.
(Stardust, Neil Gaiman. Soon. I'm rereading it to see if it's as good as I remember.
All for Now,
Julie
