day eighty-eight

funnest things first - i threw a little sushi dinner party this weekend (#60) and it went super well! i was sort of intimidated by having to provide sushi sustenance for some ten friends that came over that night, but really the most labor intensive part is preparing the ingredients (especially skinning the fresh salmon - tasty and worth it but ugggh). quick trips to uwajimaya (asian grocery superstore) and a fresh fish vendor in pike place gave us everything we needed: salmon, tuna, crab meat and tofu to be paired with carrot, cucumber, asparagus, avocado, sweet potato and cream cheese. oh and can't forget the nori (seaweed) and sticky rice that hold it all together. after a short tutorial, everyone took turns making their own rolls which we all happily picked at over a couple of hours.

my prettiest roll of the night

success!

we really should've gotten a picture when the sushi table looked prettier, before we had stuffed our faces and this is all that was left. i will most definitely be making more sushi at home - the fun and tastiness combined with the cost-effectiveness make it a must-do-more-than-just-once-for-your-list kind of thing.


i also watched the first of the twenty oscar-winning films i promised myself i would: "ordinary people" (#33). the movie came out thirty years ago and won awards for best screenplay, best supporting actor (timothy hutton - who i could've sworn carried the whole film, but oh well), best director (robert redford), and best picture. and wow, it was really good. it's the story of a family dealing with the drowning of a son and brother, and the three leads (donald sutherland as the father, mary tyler moore as the mother, and timothy hutton as the younger son) all deal with it, or not, in different and brilliantly portrayed ways. it may seem like a simple movie with no real, meaty plot guiding it, but the authenticity of the familial interactions and how ugly those relationships can get drew me in. and like i said before, damn, the acting.

fun fact: i keep stumbling upon stories that take place in familiar, umm, places. i had no idea ordinary people was set and filmed in my hometown of lake forest, illinois. it struck a number of chords in that respect - the surroundings, of course, but the characters even moreso hit really close to home. the film really captures what it can mean to live in an upscale suburb where image is everything and any messy realness is carefully hidden not just from neighbors but sometimes also from family.

and finally, in postcrossing news (#92), i've recently received cards from portugal, finland and australia. getting them is the perfect reminder that i need to keep sending them out, and so i did - three more to russia, austria and alabama.

day eighty-four

writing prompts, here we go (#48).

i found this website a while ago and thought it would be a fun way to pass the time whilst keeping what little skills i had fresh. i've never been very good with the arts, at least not compared to my infinitely more talented friends. i blame stats. and policy memos. my entire post-grad experience, really - mpa curriculum doesn't exactly lend itself to writing of the creative variety. although i guess there's a fair bit of self-selection going on there. anyway! i've decided to pick writing prompts from the site at random and run with it.

i started with number two: "a picture is worth more than a blank page. take out those dusty photo albums. pick out photo fourteen. count however way you like, but make sure you stop at photo number fourteen. look at the photo for two to three minutes, then for ten minutes, write all the feelings that photograph made you feel. don’t censor yourself."

i only have one photo album and it’s sort of a catch-all that covers the day i was born up through grad school. i decided to count the last picture on each page, and fourteen pages in, the bottom-most picture was this one:


i’m overwhelmed with guilt. that poor, poor gerbil. i understand the appeal of putting a little critter in a clear plastic ball so he can explore his surroundings without threat of escape into a hole he can’t retreat from, or worse yet, fear of being stepped on. but we thought it’d be fun to let our beagle, tasha, play with the ball. i mean, the gerbil can’t actually get hurt, right? but the terror! i had two gerbils. i don’t know which one this is – not only because they looked perfectly alike but also because i changed their names every month or two. god i treated them so callously. i don’t even remember doing this, but that is definitely my ring on that finger, so i’m busted. and because i’m wearing that ring i’m at least twelve. i really should know better. and to back up a moment - i did say “we” up there – “we” thought it would be fun. someone is taking this picture – likely my mother. the accomplice.

another thing i’m noticing is how young and vibrant tash looks. my most called upon memory of her is how she looked on the day my mom had to put her down – literally an old lady version of this. bloated, grey, sad-faced. i never thought that i was doing myself or tash a disservice by remembering her that way, but now that i’m revisiting this picture i’ll do better to think of her as the happy doggie she was for twelve or so years.

finally, why the hell did we decide this was a moment to capture on film? and furthermore, why did i include it in the album? have i changed so much so quickly that i’m this deeply offended and embarrassed now by something that i didn’t think twice about (or even, gasp, looked upon fondly) a mere three years ago? should i really be this upset? do all kids do this? and if they do, do their mothers typically stop them? i don’t mean to throw anyone under the bus here, but seriously ma, what were we thinking?

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in other news... i just finished another book that's been sitting on my shelf (#6):

"lottery" by patricia wood

it's the story of perry crandall, a mentally challenged man who wins the washington state lottery. this one started out really slow for me - if not for all the pacific northwest references (it takes place in everett) i might've lost complete interest. i'm glad i stuck with it, though. i got invested and found myself wishing i could protect perry from the crooked family members that descend like vultures upon his fortune and who spend the entire story trying to get him to sign over his winnings. the plot sort of dragged along until, towards the end, the author kills off a major character who i'd just learned to love. i actually threw the book on the floor - because i thought it was a desperate plot device, or because i was actually bummed out, i can't say for sure. anyway, i walked away from the last page pretty pleased - it had a happy ending and offered up some simple yet poignant wisdom thanks to the main character's uncomplicated outlook on life. not bad.

day eighty-two

despite the balmy seattle weather i had a pretty wintery, listy weekend: i went ice skating (#27) and learned how to make chicken pot pie (#59). mom would be proud, if she was at all domestic. although i suppose she still could be - maybe even moreso because i'm forging new culinary territory as far as our family's matriarchs are concerned. yep, forging new "mom" territory with chicken pot pie. i said it was bad... but let's start with the ice skating.


<--- it was fun! that's me waiting for the zamboni to clear out - and yes, that's how excited i was to get back out there. or was it to take a break? irrelevant. i'm pretty sure maddox and i were the only ones in our age group at the rink that day (our age group being eighteen - forty-five). i took a few years' worth of lessons as a kid but haven't been skating since, and i was hoping it would come back to me just like riding a bike (although i haven't done that in almost as many years either, so the jury's still out on whether that phrase even makes sense to me). anyway, i was wrong. it felt super foreign to get on the ice, and i spent about ten minutes shuffling along the wall and shouting ahead to maddox that this was the worst idea i'd ever had. but i eventually got the hang of it and was relatively cruising after the zamboni break. my absurdly flat feet, however, never stopped screaming. i remembered them hurting quite a bit during those middle-school lessons, but not like this. we still had a good enough time that we've decided to go back - me with arch supports in tow.




look at us go! err, look at us not falling! for some reason we only took pictures in the beginning when we sucked. we've promised ourselves to get better shots next time - it's harder than it looks.






onto the pot pie! here's what it takes:

one pound skinless, boneless chicken breast - cubed, two cups frozen veggies (carrots, peas, corn, and green beans), half cup sliced celery, one third cup butter, one third cup chopped onion, one third cup all-purpose flour, half teaspoon salt, quarter teaspoon black pepper, one and three quarter cups chicken broth, two thirds cup milk, and two unbaked pie crusts.


and here's what you do:

in a saucepan, combine chicken, frozen veggies, and celery. add water to cover and boil for fifteen minutes. remove from heat, drain and set aside. meanwhile, in another saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. then stir in flour, salt, and pepper. slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. simmer over medium-low heat until thick. remove from heat and set aside. place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust and pour hot liquid mixture (aka delicious gravy) over it. cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape. bake for thirty minutes at four hundred and twenty-five degrees, then cool for ten minutes before serving.


it turned out pretty well - it was a bit bland although it looked perfect. and it reheats like a dream! in fact, i took it to work in my brand... new... wait for it...


...bento box! i brought some leftover pot pie, super tasty four-bean salad, and cheese slices to work today. during my walk to work some beans did sneak over to party with the cheddar, but otherwise it was a success!

day seventy-seven

i think it's high time for a little lesson in brewing, no? (#61) shoutouts to kyle and jake for doing this - frequently - and for sharing the wealth of both knowledge and beer. here's the abridged version:

1. mill the base grains (we didn't do this - they came pre-milled. or milled. whatever.)

2. soak the grains in approximately one hundred and fifty-five degree water for twenty minutes to an hour, then drain the sweet, sweet liquid (called wort) into a large kettle.


3. repeat step two (called sparging) two or three times.

4. once you have enough wort (for us, six gallons for a seven gallon pot) bring it to a boil.


5. once it's boiling, add the hops according to whatever "hop schedule" you're working with - typically bitter hops go in first, then aromatic hops. we put the first hops in right away, the next hops forty-five minutes in, and the last hops just a few minutes before taking the pot off the burner.



6. remove the kettle from the heat and cool the liquid down as quickly as possible. they use an immersion cooler - essentially you feed cold water through a copper coil via a hose from a tap, the water runs through the coil, cooling down whatever the coil is immersed in, and then exits the coil much hotter than when it entered, via another hose. check out the journey from sink to tub.



7. once the liquid has cooled down sufficiently (about fifty-five degrees for a lager), pour it into a fermenter. in this case, it's a giant glass jar - ok, carboy - that allows air out but no air in. really anything airtight will work.

8. after pouring it into the fermenter, add the yeast and let it do its thing - eat all the sugars and produce the alcohol - for weeks.

9. (optional) ferment it again a couple weeks in by moving the liquid into a clean fermenter and leaving the nasty grains and yeast collecting at the bottom behind.

10. enjoy beer!

so there it is, more or less. ok, significantly less - but in the interest of maintaining blog order i just wanted to give a brief synopsis. the truth is it takes a fair amount of patience and commitment. some other lessons learned: it's less complicated than i anticipated, you can take several liberties (intentionally or accidentally) and it still comes out allright, and the main difference between lagers and ales is the temperature at which they ferment. oh, and sanitizing is super important.

switching gears... here's a fun bit of word origin-iness (#8) i picked up yesterday: umpire. from the french, noumpere, it means a person without peer - that is, someone who could be fair in rendering a judgment because s/he is bound to no one party or family. i'm loving how so many seemingly short, self-contained words are turning out to be combinations of other, even shorter, more self-contained words. only a week in and i think i could be a lifer in this little linguistics club.

finally, i'd like to wrap up with a little post-mlk day inspiration that i'm finding applies to several decisions i've made in the past year or two (particularly when it comes to this never-ending cycle of contract employment i just can't seem to break). again, courtesy of the calendar: "faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase." - martin luther king, jr. short and sweet, just how i like my insights.

day seventy

with the new job keeping me more than adequately busy for a little while i decided it's time to cross off some of the more easily-achieved (read: just gotta drop some cash) goals. so, with my amazon christmas gift card (did i say drop cash? sorry. i meant cash in on my family's holiday-inspired generosity) i purchased a word-a-day calendar (#8), a lunch box (well, bento box technically - they have such cool designs) and reusable sandwich bags (#95). hooray! pictures of the bento box and bags being put to good, earth-saving use will come when amazon delivers those items to my door, but this arrived today:




i went for this word origin calendar. and since it's already mid-january i've got some catching up to do. allow me to drop some of my newly-attained knowledge:

poodle comes from the german pudelhund, which means "puddle dog" and originally referred to a much larger breed that would hunt in shallow waters. puddle dogs! i hate poodles but that is adorable.

ninja comes from combining the japanese nin and sha - words that mean "invisible" and "person," respectively. funny how that works.

and finally, xanadu. it denotes a kind of earthly paradise, much like shangri-la, but it comes from genghis khan's summer palace shangdu. marco polo visited the palace in the early thirteenth century and introduced the word into several european languages, including english. then olivia newton-john threw some roller skates on it and gave the phrase real relevance.

oh! a quick last minute discovery to add: the backs of each of the calendar days have little extras - word searches, jumbles, and yes, trivia! someone got her (gifted) money's worth.

oh oh! one more thing. i went to another one of kyle's shows last weekend. it was fantastical. but i realized that it probably serves the purpose of this endeavor better to only count towards my goal those live shows that feature bands i haven't seen since i started the list. that is to say, no repeats.

day sixty

back in business! this december has most certainly been one to remember, and i am kicking some serious tail on this list. because it's been so long since i've posted in earnest, and i've completed so many tasks in the meantime, i believe bullet-point format serves me best here. so here we go, in the approximate order in which they occurred, to the best of my memory:

* new recipe (#59): moussaka. i had this greek dish for the first time during my thanksgiving trip to portland and loved it so much i had to ask my lovely host for the recipe. kyle and i made it upon my return, and while it wasn't quite the same (i chose the wrong size pan so the cheese sauce didn't cover the dish entirely) it was still pretty dang good. so check it: one pound hamburger, one chopped onion, one can tomato sauce, one eggplant, half cup bread crumbs, one fourth cup parmesan, one can white sauce (which kyle made in lieu of buying it, and i don't know for sure what he did), one egg, and nutmeg. brown the meat, add in the onion, tomato sauce and teaspoon of nutmeg and let simmer. cut the eggplant into half inch slices, cook in thin pool of water until the strips are tender, pat them dry then layer them in a greased pan. in a bowl, beat the egg and mix in the bread crumbs and parmesan, then add to the meat mixture. pour the meat mixture over the layer of eggplant, add another layer of eggplant, then more meat mixture. top it off with the white sauce (to which you can add another teaspoon of nutmeg and more parm). bake at 375 degrees for forty minutes or until the sauce is golden. delicious!

* burlesque show (#30): "homo for the holidays" - part drag, part burlesque, all camp. i can't get into too many details here (trying to keep this family friendly) but good times were had by all. it all went down in the lovely oddfellows building where maddox got us a table front and center. good music, great dancing, and even greater outfits, the show was hosted by ms. honeysuckle, a retro-gorgeous blond who taught us some jewish holiday traditions, including how to make latkes. and lemme say, lady can grate a mean potato or two. i'll leave it at that.


(kyle doesn't quite know what to make of what we just saw, but i clearly have some thoughts. and they include that hot buttered rum is delicious.)

* volunteered two hours with the bus (#91): now that i live six blocks from their office, i'm more easily able to drop in any time. which i plan on. i visited them conveniently on their lunch hour (we went to honey hole - their sandwiches are wow!) and then cranked out the aforementioned letter to future campaign managers that i had put aside for a month or so. with my new job starting tomorrow (!) i don't anticipate having a ton of time for more volunteering, but in the meantime i've been playing around with this great volunteer site in case a cool weekend type of opportunity arises.

* spinning class (#77): i joined a gym closer to my new place and turns out they offer a spinning class! i really dug it - our pace is set to whatever song's coming out of the giant speakers, and on this particular day the instructor had a special phil collins mix for us. she is awesome. since it's a full hour i expected the hardest part would be keeping my legs from turning to jelly, but turns out that wasn't so difficult. don't get me wrong - a fantastic workout - but that seat? yeah, that's the hardest part. in more than one sense of the word. the other gym-goers warned me i'd be sore the next day, and they didn't mean my legs. they were right, but i expect i'll be more used to it next time.

* surfing (#39): i did it! the actual surfing part was way easier than expected. the paddling out after catching a wave? yeowch. not only is it tough as hell on the shoulders and neck, but i had a real motion sickness problem in the moments that i wasn't up on the board and had to call it quits after forty-five minutes or so. i am lame. luckily both maddox and i caught enough waves (six or seven for me) to get plenty of awesome action shots from shore. allow me to illustrate how it's done:

step one: with your arms at your sides, elbows up, lift your chest and look forward while staying centered (intense facial expression optional)

step two: bring your left foot forward and rise up on one knee

step three: bring your back leg up and twist your body so that both feet are pointing to the right

step four: SURF


* kayaking (#75): now, i've done this before - several times - but always in lakes of various sizes. none as big as the pacific, though, and it was tough. lida, maddox, dave and i rented some kayaks in kailua (dave and i took singles, lida and maddox were in a double) and we rowed out to a couple sets of islands one and two miles off shore (you can actually see them on the google map link there). heading straight out to the first one was no problem, but getting to the second set was, in all honesty, perhaps the most physically demanding thing i've ever done. between rowing against the current and navigating around the reefs, those were some intense forty-five minutes. i made sure to give my camera to maddox in a plastic bag, but she neglected to remove it from said bag before taking a picture of me rowing it up. hence the blurriness. i was pretty bummed that we didn't get a good shot, but they totally capsized shortly after the picture was taken so i've decided i'm ok with her decision.


* honolulu farmer's market (#66): lida, eth and i went to kapi'olani community college's farmer's market - honolulu's premiere market and the only one on the island featuring only hawaiian grown and produced foods. it was huge! with the coolest stuff too. i bought something i became a bit obsessed with while on vacation - portuguese sausage - and for a really good price got to eat it for breakfast three times before leaving. unfortunately, i also took a huge bite of something that i thought was cheese but turned out to be butter. gross.



* books (#6) - handmaid's tale by margaret atwood: i vaguely remembered reading a chapter or two in high school and liking it - seems my feminist sensibilities, concern for the future of reproductive choice and technologies, and interest in dystopian societies took root at a fairly early age. loved this book.

* field museum (#2): my milwaukee friend kristen came down to visit me in chicago (hooray!) and we went to the field museum. the building is just as beautiful as i remembered from school trips as a kid, but (of course) it seemed like there were fewer exhibits. we were able to see pretty much all of it, though we skipped the "nature of diamonds" display - we would've had to pay extra plus i'm not really down with our cultural obsession with these non-rarities. my favorite part was ancient egypt. the mummies were soooo creepy and cool. we also walked through the evolution exhibit, which took forever, appropriately enough. learning about all the mass extinctions our planet's faced was pretty fascinating, but the scary red lights that flashed as we encountered annihilation after annihilation got a little intense for me.



* postcrossings (#92): i sent some more! to saint petersburg, beijing, and the netherlands. i've been getting them back like crazy too - from new york, krakow, taiwan, estonia, and belgrade. yea buddy!

in other news, i've identified the first flaw on my list. i said i would start sending real birthday cards (#97) and i have been, but it's not something i can exactly measure so i don't know when i will consider that goal accomplished. probably not until the last day, and i'll just have to make sure that those people who would ordinarily get e-cards, texts, or phone calls from me also get cards in the mail.

finally - wow, i have spectacular friends and family. several of the christmas gifts i got this year help me accomplish things on this list - so thoughtful! i received a copy of a friend's favorite book (#7), a dvd to help me learn how to juggle (#26), a one-thousand piece puzzle featuring beers of the world (#42), a beautiful journal that will hold all the recipes i learn (#59), and a ride in a seaplane (to be taken in the spring - #16). feelin' the love!