Monday, February 08, 2010
What a crummy day: endless wind fiend, can't warm up, arm is all messed up again, new Facebook interface is horrible, don't have enough energy to do anything, and Chuck's on. Okay, none of those things are that terrible really. Except Chuck, of course. :)
Posted at 8:40:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Ow. My wonky arm is throbbing. Grrrrrrrr. This is seriously annoying.
Posted at 7:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I hate it when I can't warm up.
Posted at 6:06:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The most ridiculous part about the very short "Weird Foods I Will Never Eat" section of my Weird Foods list is that I have eaten three out of four of them. (I think. Or at the very least two out of the four.)
Posted at 1:26:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Weird, I just opened a container of Dannon yogurt that says on the front that it's caramel but it's actually coffee. Good thing I like both. But I've never had that happen before!
Posted at 12:58:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
It's insanely windy again. I want to be warm. I was looking forward to going to West Hartford, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow, when it's supposed to be 38° and sunny (nice!!). ♥♥Tart frozen yogurt♥♥ and 40 mph gusts don't sound like a compatible combo. I read on the Internet that they have tart frozen yogurt at Stew's but I'm pretty certain our branch doesn't.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Ran out of absinthe! Hideous. But absinthe + Cel-Ray is still amaaaaazing. Bext mixulation ever.
Posted at 11:22:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
To-night we watched The Greek Interpreter.
Oh: reminder to self, I should fix the color codes, because the ones I used are probably not technically legit. Have to get ready to eat now, though.
Posted at 6:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
!!! My mom just called me and asked if I heard (or felt!) the power plant in Middletown exploding this morning! I didn't know anything about it. Wow. I guess I was sleeping when it happened.
Posted at 5:35:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean is at the hangar giving Tango an oil change, and I just finished updating my Weird Foods I've Eaten list. I changed the background color to white (and some of the edge colors, consequently) because it's sooooo long now, it's hard to read. I added tons of new foods and tweaked a lot of the entries. I hadn't updated it since almost exactly a year ago and there was so much to add. Now I'm all up to date and ready to try new weird stuff in Hawaii! :-)
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Speaking of which, I haven't posted my Top 25 Most Played songs in a while, so here's the current list, according to iTunes. These are only the top 25 played on my iPod and computer, of course, not on CDs in my car, so it's totally skewed from what I actually listen to the most. Still, I think it's interesting to compare how it's changed since last time I posted it, which was June 30, 2007 (!) I will mark the ones that are new to the list with an asterisk.
Posted at 5:09:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
1. Engadine's Dreamy Party - Albert Elms (Instrumental from The Prisoner soundtrack.) (Bizarrely, this is still #1! I've listened to it 179 times.)
2. [...] (Still my guilty pleasure song that I am too embarrassed to reveal. Note that at this moment #1 is ahead of #2 by four plays.)
3. Stars on the Water - Rodney Crowell (I discovered this song because Hunter S. Thompson loved it.) (Also in same position as last time)
4. Everybody's Talking - Harry Nilsson (Up from #11 last time.)
5. Christmas in Prison - John Prine (From Themetime Radio Hour. Up from #12 last time. Note that all the songs so far are on my Tango playlist, but I haven't listened to my iPod much in Tango since we got XM radio because of Dean's GPS with satellite weather. I expect these songs will have fallen in rank a bit by the next time I do this.)
6. Forever Night Shade Mary* - Latin Playboys. (Very impressive! I only discovered this song last January. It was on Themetime Radio Hour.)
7. Quelqu'un M'a Dit - Carla Bruni (Was #10 last time. A song MUD gave me. My fondness for this one has held pretty steady, I think.)
8. Waltz of the Wind - Alison Krauss and Ledward Kaapana (Fell from #4. I had no idea I was so into this song!)
9. A Good Man - King Straggler (John Hawkes from Deadwood's band. Down slightly from #6.)
10. 3rd Base, Dodger Stadium - Ry Cooder (From Themetime Radio Hour and my Tango playlist. Was #25 last time!)
11. Tell Ol' Bill - Bob Dylan (Oh, nice. #5 last time.)
12. All La Glory (Early Version) - The Band (#7 last time.)
13. Will the Circle Be Unbroken - The Band (#8 last time!)
14. Different Drum* - Michael Nesmith (I know why this climbed so high! It's on the playlist that I had set to wake me up every morning when we were in Hawaii last year, using the iHome next to the bed.)
15. Come On Over* - Dennis Pavao (ditto!)
16. Oh Sister - Andrew Bird and Nora O'Connor (A Dylan cover that I twistedly adore. #9 last time.)
17. Darlin' Man* - Peggy Honeywell (MUD gave me this song. I think it's on the Hawaii wakeup playlist?)
18. Instant Pleasure* - Rufus Wainwright (Haha! I got this song in July '08 from a Jeeves/Wooster-themed fanmix I downloaded. I hated most of the songs in the mix, but was obsessed with this one and a couple of others. Pretty high rank for such a relatively recent addition.)
19. Free Fallin'* - Tom Petty (On Tango playlist, but didn't previously rank.)
20. If I Had A Boat - Lyle Lovett (Another Hunter S. Thompson song. Was #14.)
21. Johnny Appleseed* - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros (Theme song from John From Cincinnati! I got this song in July, 2009. Meteoric rise!)
22. Feeling Good* - Muse (Used in one of the episodes of John From Cincinnati! Got it on July 24, 2009, so, ditto!)
23. Jokerman, alternative take - Bob Dylan (Aw, fell from #13. I sure don't have many Bob songs in my Top 25. I guess I: 1) listen to Bob in the car more than on my iPod, and 2) don't get obsessed with individual Bob songs as much?)
24. Ka Manu* - Dennis Pavao (Wow, I'm surprised this is new to the list, and it isn't on my Hawaii wakeup playlist or anything. I've loved it for a long time, but I don't think I listen to it that much... hmmm. Maybe I went through a brief obsession within the past couple years. I bet it was #26 last time or something, though. I am also shocked that two Dennis Pavao songs appear in the Top 25! Wow.)
25. House of the Rising Sun ("electric") - Bob Dylan (Good, this will finally be OFF the Top 25 next time I do this list!!! I still don't understand how it got on the list in the first place. At one point, this was my #1 most-played song (34 times, in March 2005). I have currently listened to it 65 times. How?? When?? WHY?????)
Is a fan of listening to Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Variation XVIII about 23 zillion times in a row!
Posted at 4:32:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Wow! Thumbs up on Gardein brand "Chick'n Scallopini"! I bought this for the first time at Whole Foods the other day, and made it for supper tonight. Not only did both Dean and I think it was delicious, but I would have to say that it was the best fake meat impersonation of a meat dish that I have ever had. What I mean is, it was almost exactly like eating real veal scallopini from a restaurant! The pouch just comes with some frozen slabs that you dust with flour and cook up in olive oil, and on the package it suggests that you make a sauce out of capers, white wine, butter, and lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons, of course). It doesn't tell how much of each ingredient, how long to cook the sauce for, or anything like that (!) so I just winged it, and it was really really good. I used lots of capers since I hate it when restaurants are chinchy with capers. I bet it would be amazing with artichoke hearts added, next time!
Posted at 8:11:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Being on Facebook makes me want to post things on ALB in a Facebookian format, like, right now:
Posted at 5:09:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Laura W. Petix loves Thursdays!
or
Laura W. Petix is in shu-shu-shu shu-shu-shu shu-shu-shu-Sugar Town.*
Or, Wednesday:
Laura became a fan of Lindt Extra Dark 85% chocolate.
But that would be really annoying, so I won't. I also get the urge to "like" (thumbs up) things other people do or say in contexts where that's not an option, and, likewise, from Skype-ing with Dean, to respond to things with a thumbs up symbol in situations where there is no thumbs up symbol available (such as when I reply to a text message from Dean). But of course, I've been a thumbs up-er for ages, since we started using it all the time as a communications symbol underwater. So I have to restrain myself from thumbs-uping out of context all the time, especially while diving when divers other than Dean are around (because it means you want to ascend, rather than that you like what you see).
*Except you can't do href links like that on Facebook, so what the heck I'm talking about would just be mysterious. Only, I wouldn't post that on Facebook in the first place, because, unlike on ALB, I try not to be too weird and incomprehensible. And therefore my true personality is very much dampened down.
I can do 12 push-ups now! Real straight-leg ones! I am impressed.
Posted at 4:07:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
In other news, fat-free half and half is not a good substitute for real half and half. If I'm going to be enjoying a Kona Mountain Coffee experience, the texture is important. Fake half and half may taste similar, but it feels watery and insipid compared to the real thing. Just for future reference.
Aaah! I am obsessed with "Ride A White Swan"! I had to find and download it via unmentionable means because there are no instances of the original version (non-live, non-Fake Artist Remake) available via conventional means. Love it love it love it. Crazy.
Posted at 1:27:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
The John McPhee article was good! It was about pickerel, "the most ravenous of fishes." I liked the part about the pickerel with another pickerel in its stomach with another pickerel in its stomach. It sounds like a good Remy Charlip drawing.
Posted at 10:56:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Note that McPhee says "a sauteed young pickerel is more delicious than most other fish." Obviously, that excludes shad, Alosa sapidissima!
Thursday - Friday swap!
Posted at 6:09:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
!! There's a fish article by John McPhee (he of shad article glory) in the new issue of The New Yorker! I am 1,000 issues behind, but...!!!
Posted at 2:02:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
My arm hurts again. (Agh.) I've probably been doing too much computer stuff.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
I am eating half a raw bell pepper (an orange one), straight, out of hand, like it's a fruit! Past Self would be appalled. It's really good! I don't know why, but I have completely overcome my fear and loathing of pepper, but only for bell peppers. That's because they don't taste yucky like peppers. They're more like raw green beans.
Posted at 6:38:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I'm going to my Massage of the Month Club tomorrow! Must tell therapist to be really careful with my wonky disc area (NO deep pressure in that area, even though I love deep pressure and my super-tense back really responds to it). My arm feels almost totally better, and I don't want to mess it up again. The Arm Guy claimed it can't be screwed up by a massage, but I don't think I believe him. Maybe not on a normal person, but this is me we're talking about here.
Working out regularly makes me feel gooood. Even if it's just 20 minutes of Pilates when I first get up, and weights at NEAC every other day. Not extreme, not exhausting, just sort of... oxygenating.
Posted at 3:52:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I LOVE the car wash. Especially blasting really good music with the pressure wash and foam surrounding you on every side, making its own world. Mmmmmmmmm.
Posted at 3:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Headaches aren't supposed to carry over from the night before! All that scrapey-scrape noise right underneath my ears from the snow-shovellers probably didn't help. And I didn't even know it was supposed to snow.
Posted at 12:29:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I am working on a Very Challenging mix CD. Making some progress, though.
Yesterday I got a Virgin Islands quarter as change! It is now officially out of circulation.
Maybe a nice Aeropress of Kona Mountain would fix my head. Yesterday at Whole someone was grinding coffee and it smelled overmuch inexpressibly good.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Bleagh! The new Chuck is downHILL again!!! They're just TOYING with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaagh.
Posted at 10:04:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Oh no, when I was transferring/reading the 2009 Hawaii blog entries just now, I found out that the Makali'i Cafe closed down! :-(
Posted at 12:51:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
So did the classic King's Shops Starbucks. That makes sense, though--it was two inches away from the new Queen's one. And, in its place is a new Kona coffee place! Sounds good! I do have fond memories of that SBUX, though.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
I'm transferring my 2009 Hawaii blogs to Palma (tedious, but also fun because I get to read them and remember all that stuff!) and at the same time updating my Weird Foods I've Eaten list. I'm a slack, so I never updated it with all the new weird foods I tried last year in Hawaii. I am amazed by all the detailed entries I wrote, though. Thank you, Past Self!! I know it was really really hard and shoulder-murdering and I was exhausted, but I massively appreciate it.
Posted at 7:57:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The only thing I never posted was the underwater parts of our Puako dives, but I'm going to do it within the next few weeks. I have the notes and photos, so it's still possible. I PROMISE I WILL DO THIS.
When we were at the Triple & Shine this afternoon, observing the huge icicles hanging off the car wash, I showed Dean that I carry with me at all times a photo of the cool Triple & Shine icicles. So of course I started looking at all the weird photos that live on my Palma, and that led to...
Posted at 5:42:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Well, here it is: my top nine favorite weird photos that live on my PDA. I have arranged them in chronological order. The oldest ones are carry-overs from Zi, the Zire 72 I had before I got my current Treo.
Top row: 1) Mega Milk! The date on this photo says June 3, 2006, but I know I actually took it on April 15, 2005, because I mentioned it on ALB. It was my first Zi photo and is still one of my favorites. B) Today's Special: Wish Sandwich. Says 6-3-06 again, but it was from May 11, 2005 at the Berlin Convenience & Deli. Classic. But, alas, this sign is no longer. 3) Meat! The date says 6-29-06... I assume it's true. I took this at the Shaw's in Glastonbury. You can't see the details that well in the photo, but it's a frozen foods case with veggie items like Morningstar Farms products, veggie burritos, etc. that has a big excited "MEAT!" label on top. I still crack up every time I go to the Glastonbury Shaw's and see this in person.
Middle row: 1) Some fish at a grocery store in Hawaii (probably the Waikoloa Village Market), from November 11, 2006. I took a picture of it because they were all packaged up to eat, but they practically looked like fish we'd see diving. Yeah, I know, all these top nine photos show that I have a very weird sense of humor. Or something. B) Isamu Oshima parking lot sign! With a papaya tree in the background. I took this on a solo Jeep mission to Mamalohoa Highway in South Kona on March 11, 2008. I ♥ Oshima! 3) Triple & Shine. You can't see the icicles (hanging down from the ceiling, here) very well, but they're there. From February 6, 2009.
Bottom row: 1) Picture of my crown-of-thorns injury, taken that night at dinner at the Ke'ei Cafe, with my seafood chowder in the background. From last year on March 25. Wow, it really was blue! B) Crispy Hexagons! Store-brand cereal seen at Shaw's on July 21, 2009. 3) My first-ever absinthe, December 12, 2009 at the Umstead. I think Dean actually took this photo on his Treo, then beamed it to me.
Hmm, it's kinda weird that almost all my favorite weird Palma photos are food-related. But maybe not, because more than a third of the photos on Palma are of foods or drinks.
Clearly I was not meant to have pancakes today.
Posted at 2:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
[Edit: But a bialy might be even better, and now I'm all stocked up on Cel-Ray!]
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Absinthe + Cel-Ray = excellent combo!
Posted at 10:59:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
WEIRD! WEIRD!! Cel-Ray is so weird! I like it. The smell is reminiscent of V8, it tastes weird, and after you swallow it, it makes your mouth feel like you ate a throat lozenge. Like, the roof of your mouth is a little bit numb and tingly. It's kind of like something you'd use for eye surgery.
Posted at 7:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I've been meaning to get my Weird Foods I've Eaten list up to date, and I think Cel-Ray needs to go on it.
[Edit: Oh, yeah, Chloraseptic throat spray! YES, Past Self, yes!]
Oh yeah, while we were out I read this super-cool article about kayaking at night in the Cayman Islands, in the weekend edition of Dean's Pink Paper. Bioluminescence!!!
Posted at 7:14:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We went to Rein's for lunch and I ordered matzoh ball soup (cup size), kippered salmon salad (with Premium saltines!), and a tongue & chopped liver sandwich! All those elements! They were all good, but chopped liver isn't really the best sandwich ingredient... it overwhelms everything else in sight. But that's okay, because I deconstructed my sandwich anyway. Dean got me two cans of Cel-Ray to go, but I haven't needed them yet! I thought I'd be super-thirsty after that meal, but, strangely, no.
Posted at 7:12:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I asked the waitress what they're going to do for their pickle portraits now that Polaroid film has been discontinued, and she thought I had a very good point, but did not know the answer! I guess they haven't run out yet.
Aaaaaagh my eyes are so messed up now.
Note to self: knitwitting on car trips is a great way to pass the time (only when you aren't the one driving, of course), but don't look up! Trying to refocus makes your eyes go crazy.
Posted at 6:32:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
I forgot to mention yesterday, I've started collecting vegetable broth again so I can make another instance of My Favorite Lentil Soup sometime in the distant future. Currently I have stratified frozen layers of green bean broth, zucchini broth, and rainbow kale broth. It's only about 1/4" deep so far, so this takes time...
Posted at 11:26:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Tonight I'm looking through the Celebrity Playlists on iTunes. I have only heard of about 1/10th of the celebrities. (Maybe 1/5, tops.) And I hate a very large percentage of all the selections of everyone I click on. I had no idea how much music there is out there that doesn't appeal to me at all.
Posted at 5:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dear snow,
You are so pretty and I love you!
-Laura.
I stood outside in it just now, watching the white storm down against the dusky sky, for so long that there was a huge PILE of snow built up on my hair when I came inside!
Tiny tiny flakes now, blizzarding thick; this afternoon, it was lazily falling, delicately outlining every tree in white, and forming a shallow wet layer on my Beag that showed individual star-shaped flakes.
I just had a dream about arriving in Kona and visiting BID for the first time since last year. Norm was there and excitedly told us about all the new changes. They'd added a cafe, and while they were doing it, built their own mini-pool for people to train in, so they wouldn't have to go to Jack's. (!!?) Everyone was apologizing to us about the "cold and cloudy" weather and we were all, "What the heck, are you guys crazy? This is warm!"
Posted at 11:47:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Oh wow, I just looked out the window, and in real life it's snowing. It's all white and beautiful.
I watched The Dead Zone on Netflix "watch instantly" just now! Christopher Walken + David Cronenberg = WOW. I usually love Cronenberg movies (though I haven't seen one in a long time), and this was much less weird than his usual (not that it wasn't weird, just not Cronenberg-level weird) but it was riveting. I don't know why I'd never seen it and didn't even know about it, since I've tried to watch all old Cronenberg movies that aren't too over the top. Walken was amazing. LOVED HIM. Adored him! I kept thinking about that article in The New Yorker I read about him years ago (I remember exactly where I read it... it was on the BWP Dragonfly, on our pond), and how he said he yanks on his hair daily. (Hm, the weird thing is, I'm pretty sure our dragonfly naiad crewmate Cronenbug was in the boat with us!) Every time I looked at his hair I thought about him pulling on it! He was so beautiful in this, really pale and with amazing intense eyes and chapped lips, creepy but vulnerable. And that voice, of course. Christopher Walken is so cool.
Posted at 3:23:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Then I started trying to remember all the bizarrely memorable New Yorker articles that made an impression on me instead of going straight through my sieve brain. Might attempt a list, later. I think I have had a subscription continuously for 18 years. Right now I have a really huge pile of backlogged issues next to my chaise to catch up on, though!
[Edit: Hm, no such article seems to exist in The New Yorker! (As a subscriber, I can view all back issues online.) It must've been an article MUD sent me. From the New York Times Magazine, I think.] [Edit: Yes. This.]
