Rotate the foodstuffs!

Little bits of info.

I've been spending a lot of time away from my computer, which is unusual for me.  But I think it's also good for me.  One side-effect is that, though I'm reading LJ, I'm not posting.  Sorry.

My Chacos broke at MiRF -- the footbed of the left sandal split almost all the way through -- and I just got a brand spanking new pair in the mail yesterday, 100% free.  They really do mean it about that lifetime warranty.  And hey, even though my color of strap has been discontinued, they must have had some lying around, because the straps are obviously new, but still in my color.  Yay!  I am free of the tyranny of socks (for another couple of weeks, at least, before it gets cold).

Meg, Brian, and I did end up going to the shrimp festival, which was hilariously tiny.  But we had a lot of fun finding it, eating fish and shrimp, listening to over-earnest Christian rock from a little stage, petting a sturgeon, hand-picking shrimp out of the world's largest cooler, and also picking up some frozen trout fillets, which were quite reasonable.  Oh, and smoked salmon spread for them (how was it, anyway?).  And then a couple days later we had a shrimp-beheading party (they freeze better without their heads).  Never fear: the heads are separate in the freezer, and will become stock.

I seem to have developed a huge crush on one of the farmers/boothies (unclear) at the farmers' market.  And while he does ping my gaydar, I'm honestly not sure if that's because I'm actually getting that reading, or because I want to get that reading.  Oh, wish fulfillment.  Hilarious.

Speaking of said guy, he sold me something like 30# of roma tomato seconds for 15$ two weeks ago.  I made a batch of crushed tomatoes so large that it wouldn't fit in my stockpot, and I had to clean out a Rubbermaid tub to use as a container first for quartered tomatoes and then for the strained product.  I now have 13 qt. of crushed tomatoes in the chest freezer.  Ridiculous.

Fall is officially here.  Amanda and I went on a spree Saturday night and used a pie pumpkin to make both pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, then used a defrosted pack of ground venison (thanks, Ike) and a butternut squash to make a butternut and venison rice bake.  And some toasted pumpkin seeds.  And pie crust cookies.  It was a bit much :)

The quarter started.  I'm doing well.  More on that later.

Other things, too, I'm sure.

I teared up when I read rnbowpixy's "I'm alive and well" post.  I didn't realize how worried I was about all of my Louisiana folks.  I know that my friends are smart and safe, but it's a fucking hurricane, and I can't get out of this weird flashback to frantically searching the internet for one of my coworkers who I knew was still in NOLA when Katrina hit.  I love you all, and you're in my prayers.

I swear my days are slipping away from me.  I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I've done in the last couple of days, and I feel as if I'm missing chunks of time.  Course, I may have slept late for a while, so there's that.  I do know that I went out for drinks with a number of creative writers on Thursday night, and by drinks I mean 'a drink,' since (a) it was 10% ABV (b) it was $8 (c) I'm old.  The Piraat beer at Surly Girl is tasty, though, I'll say.  And it was really good to see those folks, since many of them I haven't seen since June.

And then Friday morning disappears into the mists.  But on Friday afternoon, I headed down to Thurn's Specialty Meats.  Y'all, I've been meaning to head down to Thurn's for a long damn time.  And it's well past time I did so, since I bought 2.5 pounds of the most beautiful andouille sausage, and it was only $12.40.  Love it.  I'll be telling you about it.  I already used some in a breakfast thing, and it was delicious.  Red beans and rice, here I come.

Anyway, Friday night was a going away party for Nick and Tania, two of my friends from way back when I lived with Kyle sophomore year.  They're headed off to New York, and I feel a little bad.  I fell out of touch with that whole group of people, and right as I'm getting back in touch a couple are leaving!  But hey, at least I made it there.  It was an elaborate ruse: fake reservations at the Columbus Fish Market, flimsy excuse to go drop things off at the party location, etc.  They were very surprised :)  And hey -- potluck! 

( More rambling and food photos follow )

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On a totally unrelated note, I am officially a HUGE Valentina Hasan fan.  I say this without sarcasm.  She's got moxie.

Hi folks!  As some of you know, I've been off on a whirlwind loop through Louisiana and Texas, visiting family and friends.  I flew down to New Orleans last Monday, rented a car, and drove to Baton Rouge.  Let's pause and give that act its due.  I felt like a Real Live Adult what with the whole renting-without-a-surcharge and signing-off-on-hundreds-of-dollars and not-having-anyone-meet-me-at-the-airport.  I've done parts of that before, but not all three at one fell swoop.  Anyway, I ended up with a Saturn Aura, which was larger than I expected, since I requested (and paid for) an economy car, and that's a midsize.  I've actually grown to like it, though, so that's nice, since I've put over 500 miles on it already.

Anyway, I crashed at Mandi's house in BR, where we feasted on chickpea salad, buttermilk curry, and tasty beers (I had Tilburg's Dutch Brown Ale, which is just lovely).  After watching the Olympics for a while (I suspect we may have watched Phelps massacre one of his own WRs, but I've really lost track at this point), I went to sleep so I could head to Nacogdoches the next day (after chatting with Carla for a while at her new place).

And that's where I've been for the last couple of days.  It's been a fun time, busy in a good way.  Hung out with Megan and Kate Tuesday night, which included some tipsy Facebook messaging by committee, saw Therese and Ann-Marie on Wednesday and then hung out at the Kulhavys' for, yes, more Olympics, and drove down to Lufkin today to see Cliff before coming back home for dinner at Clear Springs and (you guessed it) more Olympics.  What can I say?  I'm happy to be part of the Olympic mania.  (I mean, what about Nastia Liukin tonight: she's amazing!)

So tomorrow it's off to Lafayette to meet up with the CBC folk, and then on to BR for the weekend.  I already feel like I've gotten my vacation's worth, and I've barely hit BR at all.  It's been really nice to see people, and I hope it continues on through the weekend.  If you're down in the pertinent areas and haven't talked to me... do so!

Well, this is going to be a little mixed.  Yay!

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I shouldn't be allowed to manage money, my own or anyone else's.  I just looked at my bank account, and it's at a level that's more appropriate for, oh, I dunno... the very end of the month?  And this is before I've finished my Christmas shopping, or paid a couple of bills that need paid, or, you know, driven to and from Texas.  Ack.  I think I should be able to hack it (thank God for a savings account), but it's disturbing.  I haven't even been really flagrant, I've just... not been as frugal as I should, I guess?  But I can only really point to one, possibly two expenses on my statement that I can classify as 'extravagant', so... that's upsetting.  Yay. 

I'm thinking about maybe trying to tutor for the Writing Center or for Student Athlete Support Services... I know people who do both, and it apparently pays pretty well.  I had really looked forward to a somewhat lighter quarter in the winter (no lit course, just workshop), but it's only 10 hours a week, and it doesn't go home with you, unlike the teaching (which I will, of course, also be doing).  So I hope this works out.  And I hope I make it to the end of the month without a negative number in my bank account.

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Up until I tried to die of money-stress just now (which I'm getting over), I've been having a really nice, relaxed holiday.  Lots of sitting around, reading, watching Sex and the City.  We've had some random snow events, which have been fantastic for nesting.  Nothing better than sitting around drinking tea and reading books you've wanted to read for a long time.

Of course the nesting instinct is enhanced by some curtains that my sister has been making.  Kevin and I went with her and Francis on a big shopping trip, which was... maddening.  Finding the right fabric, especially for the big room, was all but impossible... not only are there budgetary concerns, but also we needed in excess of 14 yards of fabric for that room... dear God.  So we ended up with some waffle block muslin, which actually looks pretty nice.  And some microsuede for the study.  We'll get fabric for the bedroom at some point.

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Had some lovely nights of eating and gaming.  Last night Amanda and Meg came over (with Brian joining us later).  We had radish root-and-green and leek risotto, wheat-free cornbread (an experiment that went SO well -- absolutely delicious), and a green salad with cranberry, pecan, and pepita.  It was all fantastic.  Go us.

And then a few nights before Aaron and Heather came over, and we had quinoa-stuffed roasted acorn squash, a pot of chipotle red beans, and some of Kevin's famous snickerdoodles.  The squash and beans came out of an amazing book I think I've mentioned before, Peter Berley's The Flexitarian Table.  It has a beautiful take on food, a whole series of recipes that can be prepared with or without meat -- and the vegetarian options are pretty much guaranteed to knock the socks of meat-eaters and vegetarians alike. 

It's really an inspiration.  I don't tend to like bifurcated preparations (that is to say, recipes where at a certain point you split the dish in two and complete it, separately, in two different ways).  Or to be more accurate, I *used* to be very mistrustful of them.  Basically, I worry that if you add in the meat at the very end, the flavors won't properly meld.  And at that point, why bother?  But Berley has come up with some really interesting techniques, *and* he knows when not to attempt the split.  Hardest thing to know.  Really great book.

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And now my drive down to Texas has snuck up on me... it's looking like I need to leave town in a little more than 24 hours.  I'm not ready, not physically and not mentally.  I don't really feel like driving yet, and I don't feel like leaving Kevin yet :(  I know, I'm a sap.

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That's it for now.  Maybe more later.

Holy Jesus.  I just came back from Neil/Dodridge, and the roads are super-shitty.  It's completely ridiculous.  Can we get some fucking salt trucks on the road?  I mean, Jesus, it's like a half-inch of snow; can we not deal with a simple dusting of snow?  The answer is, apparently, 'no', since that light dusting has now turned into a smooth plane of ice in the travel lanes.  Honestly, Columbus, what the hell.

In other news, I've had a pretty good day.  I spent some time tonight at the Hop along with gothicsquish, lucki_dog, piobaireachd, cmd_bakotl, and Squish's friend Adam.  We drank a good number of tasting pours of wines at Camelot Cellars (25 cents per taste, at least during the Hop; it's a steal!), saw some really wonderful paintings at... um... that gallery that always does member-curated shows just south of Camelot Cellars, wandered in the (at the time) lovely snow, and all in all had a nice time.  Following our time in the Short North, we retired to Neil/Dodridge for a tasting of various scotches that Pio had brought back from her time across the pond.  Sweet Jesus, 16-year Lagavulin is a delightful wallow in peat.

Before that, I did some work on my final project for my art seminar.  I'm planning on doing a multi-layered text piece, using some ivory broadcloth and the magic of iron-on transfers.  I had thought to maybe try and do a simply embroidered illuminated capital for the top sheet, but it turns out that that is too far beyond my skills to even contemplate.  So instead, maybe I'll do some illumination digitally before I print that one onto the transfer paper.  Anyway, I went out to Jo-Ann's to buy some fabric.  I had forgotten how much I hate fabric stores.  I think they're poorly labeled, in general.  So unless you're looking for, say, cottons, you're screwed.  I was in fact looking for cottons, but I also needed some other notions, and they weren't easy to find.  Seriously, just some labels.  A little signage.  That's all you need.  It did snow on me a bit as I was driving home, so I guess tonight's mess isn't a total surprise.

Anyway, I'm just doin'.  Gave a successful presentation on my progress on my final project for Editing/Publishing, so all I lack's finishing up in that realm.  Lots of editing to do on my poetry (and another poem to submit tomorrow, mustn't forget), and a paper to write for Medieval, but I think I'll get it all done without too much ulceration.  Oy!

So.  Friday after work, we got in the car and drove to my parents' house in Nacogdoches.  The trip, I must say, goes a lot faster with other people in the car; takes away the monotony.  We got in around 11, at which point I spent another 2 hours searching through listings AGAIN before finally going to bed.  Poor Matthew, the girls all slept in Elisa's room, and I slept in his bed, so he had to sleep on the couch. 

So on Saturday, we headed off to Dallas.  I had intended to let somebody else drive while calling places to check availability/do basic triage, but that only half-worked.  Mandi did indeed take over driving after I had taken them on a brief driving tour of downtown/SFA/Nac HS/etc, but I had forgotten that you just can't use a cell phone in between cities in rural East Texas: there simply isn't reception most places, and when there is the hills cut you off.  So I sat in a Dairy Queen parking lot in Jacksonville and made a bunch of calls, narrowed it down.  Mandi continued driving until there was some trouble with the po-lice outside of Athens, at which point I drove.

For our first stop, we went up to Plano, where we saw the Jetta I referred to before leaving.  It seemed pretty decent, fairly clean, etc.  The sunroof was having some issues, but I was willing to try it out.  I had some trouble getting it in gear, but I assumed that was just a consequence of me not having driven a standard in a while.  So we pulled out onto Preston Rd. (people who know Dallas just went 'oh, shit!') and proceeded to drive.  Sort of.  But not really, because the clutch was not cooperating.  Even Mandi couldn't make it work, and she's been driving manuals the whole time she's been licensed.  And there was this smoking smell.  And then when I tried to just loop back around to the dealership I ended up on the PRESIDENT GEORGE FREAKIN' BUSH TOLLWAY.  I started shaking a bit at some point in there.  When we got back to the dealership, shaking and cringing (and not just the car, us too), we got out to the smell of burning petroleum products.  Why?  The left rear tire was molten and smoking.  Not to mention the clutch was all but completely shot.  As Mandi so aptly put it in a comment to the previous entry, OMG DEATHTRAP.  Needless to say, I did not purchase that vehicle.  Boo, Toyota of Plano.  In fact, we made a sign:


Lunch and a Shiner Bock at La Madeleine helped a lot.  Come to think of it, the fact that I had only consumed coffee, soft drinks, and a tamalito in the 12 hours previous to the DeathTestDrive may have had something to do with my frazzled nerves.  The oddly poofy hair we'll also blame on that.

The second place we looked was so much better.  Since we were in Plano already, I decided to go on up to Lewisville to Huffines Chevy-Subaru, which had been last on my list (Lewisville is past the north side of tomorrow).  Huzzah!  This place felt so much better.  The salesmen were warm and personable, gave me an exact list of what they had done to prepare the car for sale, and even gave me pointers on driving the Jetta (German transmissions are a little odd; I nearly drove into the dealership because getting into R involves movement in 3 dimensions; I hadn't ever had to reverse at the first place).  Once I got the hang of it, the car drove beautifully.  I am not a car person, generally.  I rarely turn my head to follow a nice car.  I just don't care generally; cars are a form of conveyance to me.  This one, though... it's sexy.  It is a sexy beast.  It growls and purrs.  I actually enjoyed the test drive.  So, yeah, I bought it.  Pix, I didn't read your note until after I got home, but I'm feeling pretty good about this one.  It's been well-maintained, has almost no cosmetic damage, runs very smooth, etc etc.  Though you may of course reserve the Right of I-Told-You-So.

The car is also fiscally handy!  I had intended to put $4k down upon purchase and finance the rest, but I got this one for just under $6k through a combination of luck and miscommunication among the pre-owned sales team, so the banks wouldn't finance the resultant small amount.  Instead, I put down $3k, and the TTL fees are rolled into the loan.  This means I still have $1,646 left over from the insurance payout.  I'm going to use the money to get the car looked over/tuned up (even though they had it looked at, always a good idea to have somebody do it whose only allegiance is to you and your money).  The remainder will help me get over the rocky gap between the end of summer and the first fellowship check.  The remainder of that remainder will then be applied to the loan, since there's no early payment penalty.

The drive home was largely uneventful.  Mom is a saint, and thus held lasagna for us (two kinds, meat and veggie, just for Katie's benefit), before shipping us off to an Econolodge for the night, because my aunt, uncle, their three kids, and Hannah's friend who came along had prior reservations at Chez Bierschenk.  We watched an ep of Entourage on the free HBO, and now I must see the whole thing (dammit). 

Sunday we had lunch with the whole big gang at my parents' (where the air conditioning had just crapped out, ugh).  Leftover lasagna, a huge amount of marinated, grilled chicken, squash casserole, salad, cake and ice cream.  Wowsers!  I now have tasty leftovers in my fridge.  Score!

Two pictures to leave you with.  Neither is a clear picture of the car by itself, ridiculously, because we never got around to taking one, and I keep forgetting until it's already closed up in the garage, at which point laziness takes over.  Nevertheless.

( pictures )

Blah.  I have stayed up to my bedtime now, eating out at Chelsea's with French Dept. people, drinking beers at same Chelsea's, watching Buffy at Erin's, drinking too much Danish cherry wine stuff at same Erin's.  Mandatory meeting (rescheduled from Wednesday, bah) tomorrow morning at 8am.  Boo.

I'm leaving straight from work sometime midday and driving to Austin for a family reunion.  So... there were a couple of folks I was intending to speak to tonight, and I didn't, and I apologize.  Y'all should know how to get in touch with me, but if not information is in the usual places.  I'll be coming back Sunday; probably back in the evening hours if everything goes right.

'Til then,
Mike

Hello.  Yes, I realize it's been a few days.

First off, the trip down to Metairie was quite successful.  It ended up being just me, Shane, Rebecca, and Vanessa.  We had dinner at the amazing Casablanca, a kosher North African/Middle Eastern restaurant.  Is it an hour away?  Yes.  Was it worth it?  Double yes.  Everything was absolutely amazing.  I stepped way the hell out of my comfort zone and ordered the fish tagine.  I'm not generally a fish eater, so ordering a fish stew... that's weird for me.  I was not disappointed, as it was delicious.  Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and some sort of whitefish, in a delicately spiced red broth, mmm.  The appetizer platter we started off with was also wonderful, with the first tabouli I've ever had that I didn't dislike, a smoky hummus that I still haven't figured out, and some sort of almost barbeque-y brown stuff that I adored (plus other good stuff like regular hummus, falafel, and spanakopita).  And then came dessert.  First, I had some delicious fresh mint tea, which pleased me.  But I also had what they called "sweet cigars."  Think baklava, but instead of layered phylo it's rolled into a tube, and then deep-fried.  And topped with honey.  SO.  GOOD.

Thanks to Ben, I got my Request for Master's Examination signed, and it's now turned in.  Whew.  Now I just have to, you know, write the rest of the thesis, heh.

Tonight Mandi got me to leave my house and go see a movie.  We ended up seeing Mrs. Henderson Presents, which is both funny and deeply affecting.  Topnotch; you should see this movie.  Coffee Call afterward was in no way a bad thing, either.  So there you go, caught up ish.

Oh, BTW: I've had multiple people tell me in the past few days that I am, in one domain or another, somewhat intimidating.  Er... ok?  I guess I can see it, maybe, but seriously: no need to be intimidated.  I'm all smoke and mirrors.  Presentation, presentation, presentation.