Feeling A Little Monkish
A recent visit to LA found plasticmom feeling a little Monkish. We were cleaning out some closets when the following reconstructed conversation occured:
plasticann: plasticmom, do you have any of the Swifter dust clothes, this box is really dusty.
plasticmom: Here are some Lysol antibacterial wipes.
plasticann: I saw that tub of wipes yesterday, are you guys using these now?
plasticmom: Yes! We saw that Monk was using them on TV and we decided it was a good idea.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
More Misadventures in Bread Baking
Baking bread is definitely not a good use of time, but since school doesn't start until next week, I was at it again with Cheesy Scallion Bread adding 4 stalks of chopped scallions and 1 cup of shredded cheese to the basic recipe. Unfortunately, I added a little too much water to the dough yesterday and I think the combination of salt and green onions in the dough made the dough even more wet since the salt probably sweated the onions over time so I was confronted with a wet soppy mass this morning. I proceeded as usual, trying unsuccessfully to form the dough into a ball, I scrapped the wet dough into my 3 quart All Clad pot for baking. Since the dough was super wet and sticky, I had to bake it an extra 30 minutes. I did use Laurel's handy tip about the thermometer, but I managed to ruin my thermometer since I accidentally left the thermometer in the bread and baked it in the oven. Despite all these trials and tribulations, the bread baked up just fine and is mighty tasty. I really think the recipe is "unbreakable" and utterly idiot proof.
Tips for next time:
Add a little less water to the dough accounting for the scallions sweating or add scallions right before rising and spray pot so bread doesn't stick
Baking bread is definitely not a good use of time, but since school doesn't start until next week, I was at it again with Cheesy Scallion Bread adding 4 stalks of chopped scallions and 1 cup of shredded cheese to the basic recipe. Unfortunately, I added a little too much water to the dough yesterday and I think the combination of salt and green onions in the dough made the dough even more wet since the salt probably sweated the onions over time so I was confronted with a wet soppy mass this morning. I proceeded as usual, trying unsuccessfully to form the dough into a ball, I scrapped the wet dough into my 3 quart All Clad pot for baking. Since the dough was super wet and sticky, I had to bake it an extra 30 minutes. I did use Laurel's handy tip about the thermometer, but I managed to ruin my thermometer since I accidentally left the thermometer in the bread and baked it in the oven. Despite all these trials and tribulations, the bread baked up just fine and is mighty tasty. I really think the recipe is "unbreakable" and utterly idiot proof.
Tips for next time:
Add a little less water to the dough accounting for the scallions sweating or add scallions right before rising and spray pot so bread doesn't stick
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Need More Bread
I can't believe it, but we're almost out of bread. I wonder if Adam and I are eating more than our fair share of carbs and if our behinds are growing at an exponential rate as a result. I am flattered that Wheezymom compared the bread to Iggy's...now that's the ultimate compliment since Iggy's makes amazing bread and my all time favorite bagel, the chewy delicious everything bagel. Given Wheezydad's propensity to glean random leftovers to take for lunch, [I hear he likes to pack a pickle, handful of cereal and anything random that needs "finishing up.] it's unlikely that there will be any bread left for Wheezy tonight. Fortunately, I'm jonesing to make more tomorrow. I'm envisioning cheese, but not Stilton.
I can't believe it, but we're almost out of bread. I wonder if Adam and I are eating more than our fair share of carbs and if our behinds are growing at an exponential rate as a result. I am flattered that Wheezymom compared the bread to Iggy's...now that's the ultimate compliment since Iggy's makes amazing bread and my all time favorite bagel, the chewy delicious everything bagel. Given Wheezydad's propensity to glean random leftovers to take for lunch, [I hear he likes to pack a pickle, handful of cereal and anything random that needs "finishing up.] it's unlikely that there will be any bread left for Wheezy tonight. Fortunately, I'm jonesing to make more tomorrow. I'm envisioning cheese, but not Stilton.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Ginormous BreadI've never posted a photo of myself so this is a plasticann first. I was making the dough last night for the easy no knead bread when I decided to make a double loaf since I was already going through the trouble of peeling garlic. I ran out of time this morning since I was meeting Adam and his coworkers for lunch so I only let the bread rise for 45 minutes versus the usual 2 hours and I baked it in our large All Clad stockpot. The bread was denser than usual, but it did cook through and the crust was as crisp as ever. As you can see, the double loaf was really gigantic...I even panicked a little when I realized how big the bread so I took the T down to Harvard Square to deliver Wheezy a large hunk of bread at work.
Recipe: Ginormous Rosemary Garlic Bread
6 cups flour (all purpose or bread)
3.25 cups water
1/2 teaspoon active yeast
3-3.5 teaspoon salt
6 cups flour (all purpose or bread)
3.25 cups water
1/2 teaspoon active yeast
3-3.5 teaspoon salt
8 cloves sliced garlic
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
8 springs of roughly chopped fresh rosemary
pinch of kosher salt
1. Microwave on low for 30 seconds garlic and oil in small bowl
2. Mix flour, water, yeast, salt, garlic and rosemary in a very large bowl until dough is shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 12-18 hours.
3. Flour a Silpat or parchment paper. Turn dough from bowl onto Silpat. Quickly shape dough into a dough ball, seam side up. Sprinkle cornmeal on top.
4. Gently lift entire dough ball flipping it so the seam side is down. Sprinkle with more cornmeal on top. Cover with cloth and let rise for 2 hours.
5. 30 minutes before baking or 1.5 hours into the rising, place a large dutch oven or stock pot with lid into the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
6. After dough has risen for 2 hours, remove heated pot from oven. Lift Silpat with dough and turn the dough into the hot pot. Sprinkle top of dough with kosher salt. Cover and return to oven. Bake for 1 hour or until crust begins to brown.
7. After 1 hour, uncover pot and let crust brown for 30 minutes.
Note: To bake a not so ginormous loaf, halve the recipe and reduce the initial baking time from 1 hour to 30 minutes.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Day 5: Santa Barbara, culinary highs and football lows
10:00 am: Breakfast time brought us to Tupelo Junction Cafe up the street from our hotel. I found it online and was sold on its Southern theme. We shared the "Buttermilk Biscuit with Sausage Gravy" and the "Mom's Pumpkin Oatmeal Waffle with Caramelized Bananas, Candied Pecans & Real Maple Syrup." They restaurant was funky and artsy with mason jar glasses and the food was excellent. The biscuits were delicious though Adam didn't enjoy the spicy sausage gravy as much as I did and the pumpkin waffle was a nice complement to the biscuits and gravy. We waddled out of Tupelo Junction and headed out to the Santa Barbara Mission.
Noon: Mass was in session when we arrived so we missed out on seeing the sanctuary, but we did pay to take the mission's self guided tour where we dutifully read typewritten placards chronically mission life that were sometimes inconsistent. We were also confused by the vacation policy for the Native American population. One placard said, every five weeks 20% of the population received 1 week of vacation which amounts to about 2 weeks a year. Later on, another placard said, one week of vacation every five weeks which works out to be 10 weeks of vacation which would be pretty sweet.
1:30 pm: We drove from the mission straight to La Super Rica, Julia Child's favorite taco stand. I wasn't sure if we'd make it to La Super Rica, but Cad Cowboy [husband of Laurel] had e-mailed me a few days before our trip raving about the place so we had to go. Sure enough, there was a line out the door. I struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me in line. She looked like she might be an expert. She was calming standing in line with a fistful of ones while the rest of the line was craning our necks to view the menu. She was also wearing a t-shirt that said Mexico to boot. Turns out, she lived two blocks away and La Super Rica was her favorite taco place. She recommended the Super Rica Special tacos, the tamales, quesadillas and the posole. We skipped the posole since it was hot and the quesadilla, but took most of her recommendations and tried the chorizo tacos. When we got to the window to order, I was spellbound by the sight of the kitchen, six people cooking in a tiny space. One woman's sole job was to make tortillas. She took little balls of dough, flattened them in a tortilla press and grilled them. The food was really good and I think it was the fresh tortillas that made contributed the most. The Super Rica special was steak and peppers with melted cheese. Unfortunately, the peppers were too hot for me which dampened my enthusiasm. The Chorizo tacos were my favorite and the tasty tamale topped with the cream sauce was unusual. Next time, I'm going for the plain tacos and skipping anything with peppers.
Afternoon: The Patriots were playing the Colts so we found a dive bar where I deposited Adam for the first hour of the game while I went shopping. I joined Adam after the first quarter for a super exciting and ultimately super sad game as the Patriots lost in the end.
8:00 pm: We scooted out of the bar real fast after the game to avoid any drunken Colts fans and ran up the street to Fat Burger for dinner. We each ordered a cheeseburger and shared a strawberry milkshake and fries. The food was pretty good and the milkshake had real ice cream. With our bellies full, we headed out of Santa Barbara toward LA where we stayed with plasticmom.
Postscript: Santa Barbara wins the Zakun Culinary Best in Show award for the most delicious city. Big Sur wins Most Pretty Award and is worth the windy drive. We lucked out with gorgeous weather and perfect driving conditions and our itinerary worked out really well. All in all, we really enjoyed our first road trip together and didn't want to kill each other so I'd say a definite success.
10:00 am: Breakfast time brought us to Tupelo Junction Cafe up the street from our hotel. I found it online and was sold on its Southern theme. We shared the "Buttermilk Biscuit with Sausage Gravy" and the "Mom's Pumpkin Oatmeal Waffle with Caramelized Bananas, Candied Pecans & Real Maple Syrup." They restaurant was funky and artsy with mason jar glasses and the food was excellent. The biscuits were delicious though Adam didn't enjoy the spicy sausage gravy as much as I did and the pumpkin waffle was a nice complement to the biscuits and gravy. We waddled out of Tupelo Junction and headed out to the Santa Barbara Mission.
Noon: Mass was in session when we arrived so we missed out on seeing the sanctuary, but we did pay to take the mission's self guided tour where we dutifully read typewritten placards chronically mission life that were sometimes inconsistent. We were also confused by the vacation policy for the Native American population. One placard said, every five weeks 20% of the population received 1 week of vacation which amounts to about 2 weeks a year. Later on, another placard said, one week of vacation every five weeks which works out to be 10 weeks of vacation which would be pretty sweet.
1:30 pm: We drove from the mission straight to La Super Rica, Julia Child's favorite taco stand. I wasn't sure if we'd make it to La Super Rica, but Cad Cowboy [husband of Laurel] had e-mailed me a few days before our trip raving about the place so we had to go. Sure enough, there was a line out the door. I struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me in line. She looked like she might be an expert. She was calming standing in line with a fistful of ones while the rest of the line was craning our necks to view the menu. She was also wearing a t-shirt that said Mexico to boot. Turns out, she lived two blocks away and La Super Rica was her favorite taco place. She recommended the Super Rica Special tacos, the tamales, quesadillas and the posole. We skipped the posole since it was hot and the quesadilla, but took most of her recommendations and tried the chorizo tacos. When we got to the window to order, I was spellbound by the sight of the kitchen, six people cooking in a tiny space. One woman's sole job was to make tortillas. She took little balls of dough, flattened them in a tortilla press and grilled them. The food was really good and I think it was the fresh tortillas that made contributed the most. The Super Rica special was steak and peppers with melted cheese. Unfortunately, the peppers were too hot for me which dampened my enthusiasm. The Chorizo tacos were my favorite and the tasty tamale topped with the cream sauce was unusual. Next time, I'm going for the plain tacos and skipping anything with peppers.
Afternoon: The Patriots were playing the Colts so we found a dive bar where I deposited Adam for the first hour of the game while I went shopping. I joined Adam after the first quarter for a super exciting and ultimately super sad game as the Patriots lost in the end.
8:00 pm: We scooted out of the bar real fast after the game to avoid any drunken Colts fans and ran up the street to Fat Burger for dinner. We each ordered a cheeseburger and shared a strawberry milkshake and fries. The food was pretty good and the milkshake had real ice cream. With our bellies full, we headed out of Santa Barbara toward LA where we stayed with plasticmom.
Postscript: Santa Barbara wins the Zakun Culinary Best in Show award for the most delicious city. Big Sur wins Most Pretty Award and is worth the windy drive. We lucked out with gorgeous weather and perfect driving conditions and our itinerary worked out really well. All in all, we really enjoyed our first road trip together and didn't want to kill each other so I'd say a definite success.
Day 4: Solvang and Santa Barbara
9:30 am: Adam had never been to Solvang and it'd been 15 years since I'd last visited. My memories included giant tubs of Danish butter cookies and giant Bear's Claw pastries which were all I talked about when Adam asked what Solvang was. Solvang is a Danish settlement where they've built this Danish themed town for tourists where when I can experience Danish culture like giant pastries and butter cookies. We left our hotel in search of something tasty for breakfast and ended up trying the AEbleskivers pancakes at a restaurant housed in an old greenhouse. AEbleskivers are spherical pancake balls with raspberry jam and powdered sugar. Adam was extremely disappointed that the pancakes were not filled. The AEbleskivers were pretty good, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to get them because they are just pancake balls.
Morning: I wasn't sure if Solvang was going to be utterly tacky or really fun and it turned out to be really fun. Sure it had its share of tacky souvenir shops selling random stuff and touristy fudge shops, but our methodical stroll through Solvang's downtown was super fun and we even bought stuff that we really liked. Adam, who usually frowns upon knick knacks, really wanted to buy this cat figurine at one store, but I convinced him not to "go there." Did he really want to be that guy that collected random cat figurines? I know I'd start buying random cat things for him if he started collecting so I especially had to save him from me.
Lunch: We went back to a German themed restaurant specializing in sausages. I knew Adam would want to eat there especially after he'd initially read the menu and the place was serving, "sausage bites," a pan fried medley of all four of their sausage offerings. The service was super slow which was punctuated by a large group of rowdy college kids who ordered a lunch of hamburgers and giant pitchers of beer. We finished up our tour of Solvang after lunch and headed to Santa Barbara, but not before I bought a box, not a tub, of my butter cookies.
3:30 pm: We arrived in Santa Barbara where we stayed Andalucia Hotel downtown. I'm a sucker for nice bedding so I was really excited. I really coveted the Spanish tiles in our awesome bathroom. We strolled down State street toward the pier checking out all the cool Santa Barbara shops. They have one of those "Nordstroms" department stores, there was even an "Abercrombie and Fitch" and a "Borders" bookstore. I'm being sarcastic, but I had to confess that I enjoy experiencing chain stores in different environments whether it's a suburban mall, historical downtown or in the case of Santa Barbara, a Spanish themed outdoor pedestrian shopping experience. We made it to the pier at the end of State Street where I once again saw pressed penny machines. Adam kindly offered me some more quarters and I was all set to buy a pressed penny when I realized I'd lost my pressed penny from Hearst Castle. I was super sad and felt really conflicted on whether I should buy another penny if I'd lost the first one since I would no longer have a collection. In the end, I decided that pressed pennies and I were not meant to be, it's just too difficult so I'm giving them up. Since our dinner reservations were for 8:15, we shared a small kid sized fish and chips as a snack and then headed back up State Street to our hotel.
8:15 pm: Olio e Limone was bustling when we arrived for dinner. We weren't super hungry so we settled on sharing one of the specials, pumpkin ravioli, and a house specialty, duck ravioli. The ambiance was nice, blah blah blah, let's cut to the important part...the ravioli was unbelievably good. The pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and crispy sage was sweet enough to be dessert and I think there was a sprinkling of hazelnut biscotti crumbs on top. The duck ravioli was a nice smoky contrast with a porcini mushroom cream sauce. Lemon sorbet was the perfect dessert to end our evening. I would totally come back to Santa Barbara just for the ravioli, hands down our best meal so far on our trip and a sign of other good meals to come.
9:30 am: Adam had never been to Solvang and it'd been 15 years since I'd last visited. My memories included giant tubs of Danish butter cookies and giant Bear's Claw pastries which were all I talked about when Adam asked what Solvang was. Solvang is a Danish settlement where they've built this Danish themed town for tourists where when I can experience Danish culture like giant pastries and butter cookies. We left our hotel in search of something tasty for breakfast and ended up trying the AEbleskivers pancakes at a restaurant housed in an old greenhouse. AEbleskivers are spherical pancake balls with raspberry jam and powdered sugar. Adam was extremely disappointed that the pancakes were not filled. The AEbleskivers were pretty good, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to get them because they are just pancake balls.
Morning: I wasn't sure if Solvang was going to be utterly tacky or really fun and it turned out to be really fun. Sure it had its share of tacky souvenir shops selling random stuff and touristy fudge shops, but our methodical stroll through Solvang's downtown was super fun and we even bought stuff that we really liked. Adam, who usually frowns upon knick knacks, really wanted to buy this cat figurine at one store, but I convinced him not to "go there." Did he really want to be that guy that collected random cat figurines? I know I'd start buying random cat things for him if he started collecting so I especially had to save him from me.
Lunch: We went back to a German themed restaurant specializing in sausages. I knew Adam would want to eat there especially after he'd initially read the menu and the place was serving, "sausage bites," a pan fried medley of all four of their sausage offerings. The service was super slow which was punctuated by a large group of rowdy college kids who ordered a lunch of hamburgers and giant pitchers of beer. We finished up our tour of Solvang after lunch and headed to Santa Barbara, but not before I bought a box, not a tub, of my butter cookies.
3:30 pm: We arrived in Santa Barbara where we stayed Andalucia Hotel downtown. I'm a sucker for nice bedding so I was really excited. I really coveted the Spanish tiles in our awesome bathroom. We strolled down State street toward the pier checking out all the cool Santa Barbara shops. They have one of those "Nordstroms" department stores, there was even an "Abercrombie and Fitch" and a "Borders" bookstore. I'm being sarcastic, but I had to confess that I enjoy experiencing chain stores in different environments whether it's a suburban mall, historical downtown or in the case of Santa Barbara, a Spanish themed outdoor pedestrian shopping experience. We made it to the pier at the end of State Street where I once again saw pressed penny machines. Adam kindly offered me some more quarters and I was all set to buy a pressed penny when I realized I'd lost my pressed penny from Hearst Castle. I was super sad and felt really conflicted on whether I should buy another penny if I'd lost the first one since I would no longer have a collection. In the end, I decided that pressed pennies and I were not meant to be, it's just too difficult so I'm giving them up. Since our dinner reservations were for 8:15, we shared a small kid sized fish and chips as a snack and then headed back up State Street to our hotel.
8:15 pm: Olio e Limone was bustling when we arrived for dinner. We weren't super hungry so we settled on sharing one of the specials, pumpkin ravioli, and a house specialty, duck ravioli. The ambiance was nice, blah blah blah, let's cut to the important part...the ravioli was unbelievably good. The pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and crispy sage was sweet enough to be dessert and I think there was a sprinkling of hazelnut biscotti crumbs on top. The duck ravioli was a nice smoky contrast with a porcini mushroom cream sauce. Lemon sorbet was the perfect dessert to end our evening. I would totally come back to Santa Barbara just for the ravioli, hands down our best meal so far on our trip and a sign of other good meals to come.
Day 3: Big Sur to Solvang by way of Hearst Castle
8:30 am: We woke up and strolled down the dirt driveway to the main cabin for breakfast. Adam and I shared a stack of buttermilk pancakes, side of crisp bacon and really deliciously brown and crispy home fries. Coming off our lackluster has brown experience at the Duck Club, Adam interrogated our server on how the Deetjen home fries were prepared. Brown and crispy with a sprinkle of scallions. Topped off with mugs of organic coffee, our breakfast at Deetjen's hit the spot and fueled us for our morning drive down Highway 1 toward Hearst Castle.
12:45 pm: The weather was gorgeous and our drive through Big Sur was breathtaking. We stopped every 10 minutes and we have the pictures to prove it. Unbelievable cliffs, crashing waves and giant boulder islands in the middle of the ocean inhabited by seals and birds. We overshot Hearst Castle by 6 miles and ended up in Cambria before we turned around. [The entrance is poorly marked when you're coming from the north.] While the scenery was incredible, the lunch options were practically nonexistent so I grabbed Luna bars and oranges from our snack stash before we headed into the visitor's center. Fortunately, I think, there was a small cafe in the visitor's center run by Aramark. Adam ate a chicken wrap and I ate a chicken salad. Notice the word, "ate," the meal was unremarkable and served merely as fuel.
1:20 pm: We climbed on the tour bus for Hearst Castle's Tour 2 which covers the private residences of Hearst. We saw the kitchen, Marion Davies' room, WR's room, office and other guest rooms. My favorites were the kitchen where I drooled over the vast expanses of counter space and this cool guest room that was a duplex: a sitting room with a loft for the bedroom and an interior staircase connecting the two. We headed back to the visitor's center after the tour where I become fixated on getting a pressed penny, but I didn't had any quarters. Adam thought starting a collection of pressed pennies was ridiculous, but was kind enough to find two quarters for me which I used to procure a Hearst Castle pressed penny.
3:30 pm: Driving out of Hearst Castle, we turned left at Highway 1 and continued on or journey southbound. We drove through San Luis Obispo where I chattered on and on about how I thought it was weird that some people referred to it as SLO calling it "slow" and why one would want to be called slow especially if you were somewhat slow. Eventually, we switched over to Highway 101 toward Buellton and Solvang where we were staying for the night.
6:15 pm: After checking into our hotel in Solvang, we drove a few miles over to Buellton to the Hitching Post II for dinner. The restaurant was featured in Sideways and they BBQ their steaks over these wood chips and baste them with a special sauce. I ordered the 7 ounce Top Sirloin and Adam enjoyed a 10 ounce New York. Our dinners came with a veggie tray, garlic toast, salad and a shrimp cocktail of bay shrimp [super tiny pellet sized shrimp]. All in all a tasty meal that more than made up for a dismal lunch.
Nitpicky Endnote: Adam and I had an inane argument about whose steak was cheaper per ounce. We were both right, but I maintain that I was more right. He argued that his 10 ounce steak was $27 or $2.70 per ounce while my 7 ounce steak was $19 or $2.714 per ounce. However, I pointed out that since he bought 10 ounces of steak, he was getting somewhat of a volume discount and therefore the appropriate comparison would be a 10 ounce Sirloin versus the 10 ounce New York. Had I bought a 10 ounce Top Sirloin rather than the 7 ounce, my steak would have been $23 or $2.30 per ounce which is significantly cheaper than $2.70 per ounce. There you have it...I'm more right.
8:30 am: We woke up and strolled down the dirt driveway to the main cabin for breakfast. Adam and I shared a stack of buttermilk pancakes, side of crisp bacon and really deliciously brown and crispy home fries. Coming off our lackluster has brown experience at the Duck Club, Adam interrogated our server on how the Deetjen home fries were prepared. Brown and crispy with a sprinkle of scallions. Topped off with mugs of organic coffee, our breakfast at Deetjen's hit the spot and fueled us for our morning drive down Highway 1 toward Hearst Castle.
12:45 pm: The weather was gorgeous and our drive through Big Sur was breathtaking. We stopped every 10 minutes and we have the pictures to prove it. Unbelievable cliffs, crashing waves and giant boulder islands in the middle of the ocean inhabited by seals and birds. We overshot Hearst Castle by 6 miles and ended up in Cambria before we turned around. [The entrance is poorly marked when you're coming from the north.] While the scenery was incredible, the lunch options were practically nonexistent so I grabbed Luna bars and oranges from our snack stash before we headed into the visitor's center. Fortunately, I think, there was a small cafe in the visitor's center run by Aramark. Adam ate a chicken wrap and I ate a chicken salad. Notice the word, "ate," the meal was unremarkable and served merely as fuel.
1:20 pm: We climbed on the tour bus for Hearst Castle's Tour 2 which covers the private residences of Hearst. We saw the kitchen, Marion Davies' room, WR's room, office and other guest rooms. My favorites were the kitchen where I drooled over the vast expanses of counter space and this cool guest room that was a duplex: a sitting room with a loft for the bedroom and an interior staircase connecting the two. We headed back to the visitor's center after the tour where I become fixated on getting a pressed penny, but I didn't had any quarters. Adam thought starting a collection of pressed pennies was ridiculous, but was kind enough to find two quarters for me which I used to procure a Hearst Castle pressed penny.
3:30 pm: Driving out of Hearst Castle, we turned left at Highway 1 and continued on or journey southbound. We drove through San Luis Obispo where I chattered on and on about how I thought it was weird that some people referred to it as SLO calling it "slow" and why one would want to be called slow especially if you were somewhat slow. Eventually, we switched over to Highway 101 toward Buellton and Solvang where we were staying for the night.
6:15 pm: After checking into our hotel in Solvang, we drove a few miles over to Buellton to the Hitching Post II for dinner. The restaurant was featured in Sideways and they BBQ their steaks over these wood chips and baste them with a special sauce. I ordered the 7 ounce Top Sirloin and Adam enjoyed a 10 ounce New York. Our dinners came with a veggie tray, garlic toast, salad and a shrimp cocktail of bay shrimp [super tiny pellet sized shrimp]. All in all a tasty meal that more than made up for a dismal lunch.
Nitpicky Endnote: Adam and I had an inane argument about whose steak was cheaper per ounce. We were both right, but I maintain that I was more right. He argued that his 10 ounce steak was $27 or $2.70 per ounce while my 7 ounce steak was $19 or $2.714 per ounce. However, I pointed out that since he bought 10 ounces of steak, he was getting somewhat of a volume discount and therefore the appropriate comparison would be a 10 ounce Sirloin versus the 10 ounce New York. Had I bought a 10 ounce Top Sirloin rather than the 7 ounce, my steak would have been $23 or $2.30 per ounce which is significantly cheaper than $2.70 per ounce. There you have it...I'm more right.
Uh Oh
The following is a reconstructed conversation between plasticann, Zess and baby Zames who loves to say "uh oh":
Zames: Uh Oh!
plasticann: Uh Oh?
Zames: Uh Oh!
Zess: Uh Oh Spaghetti-O!
plasticann: Uh Oh Spaghetti-O?
Zess: Uh Oh Spaghetti-O!
plasticann: Zess, do you know what's Spaghetti-O? Have you ever had them?
Zess: [shaking her head] No!
The following is a reconstructed conversation between plasticann, Zess and baby Zames who loves to say "uh oh":
Zames: Uh Oh!
plasticann: Uh Oh?
Zames: Uh Oh!
Zess: Uh Oh Spaghetti-O!
plasticann: Uh Oh Spaghetti-O?
Zess: Uh Oh Spaghetti-O!
plasticann: Zess, do you know what's Spaghetti-O? Have you ever had them?
Zess: [shaking her head] No!
Monday, January 22, 2007
Day 2: Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur
8:30 am: Since our room included breakfast, we enjoyed a second meal at the Duck Club. My egg's benedict were tasty and I enjoyed the protein, but I was totally jealous of Adam's fragrant waffle with strawberries. The view of the water was amazing in daylight and breakfast was a good start to day 2. Note: Don't order the hash browns at the Duck Club, they're possibly the worst I've had in recent memory. They were pale while shredded potatoes with little wisps of crispy browness. I had to laugh, it's like they didn't even try to brown them, they were literally white.
10:00 am: We drove the 10 minutes from Monterey to Carmel where we took a walking tour of the town Clint Eastwood was once mayor. I realized while on the tour that I'm an impatient tour participant. I have no tolerance for the other people who might dwaddle or earnestly comment, "that's wonderful" every two seconds. I especially don't enjoy tour guides that don't give me a snappy laundry list of facts and fun stories. I'm here to learn lots of trivia darn it, I want my money's worth. I contemplated abandoning the tour and going shopping, but made a decision to mellow out and relax and just go with it especially after I saw how Adam was admirably doing just so even though we both agreed we were bored out of our minds. The tour picked up toward the end and we did get to see two wine cellers that were cool and we got pretty good recommendation for lunch.
1:30 pm: We left Carmel for the Pebble Beach area for the "17 mile drive." It's a driving route around this residential/resort area with unbelievable coastal views and pretty golf courses. Just like the people I couldn't tolerate just two hours earlier, we earnestly commented, "the view is wonderful," "so pretty," "wow," every two seconds. Our last stop was the Pebble Beach lodge where we admired the view from the 18th hole. "Wonderful!" Hankering for a snack, we stopped by the market and bought an Its It oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwich covered with chocolate.
4:00 pm: We left Carmel and civilization behind and started toward Big Sur on windy roads along scary cliffs and [surprise surprise] unbelievable views. On the way, we stopped by to check out the view from Nepenthe. It was once a house owned by Orson Wells and Rita Hayworth, but is now a restaurant. We finally found our hotel for the night, Deetjen's Big Sur Lodge. It's this super cute rustic place to stay with little cabins built by "Grandpa Deetjen" back in the day. Fortunately, the cabin appeared more rustic than it actually was. The room had a nice bed with a fluffy down comforter, electric heat and even a wood burning stove. I've never been so warm. Restaurants are hard to come by in Big Sur so we ate at Deetjen's restaurant. Adam had the New Zealand lamb and I enjoyed an organic filet mignon. For dessert, cheesecake and fancy chocolate pudding. With our bellies full, we walked back to our cabin on the dirt path with a flashlight in hand just in case. Very nice!
8:30 am: Since our room included breakfast, we enjoyed a second meal at the Duck Club. My egg's benedict were tasty and I enjoyed the protein, but I was totally jealous of Adam's fragrant waffle with strawberries. The view of the water was amazing in daylight and breakfast was a good start to day 2. Note: Don't order the hash browns at the Duck Club, they're possibly the worst I've had in recent memory. They were pale while shredded potatoes with little wisps of crispy browness. I had to laugh, it's like they didn't even try to brown them, they were literally white.
10:00 am: We drove the 10 minutes from Monterey to Carmel where we took a walking tour of the town Clint Eastwood was once mayor. I realized while on the tour that I'm an impatient tour participant. I have no tolerance for the other people who might dwaddle or earnestly comment, "that's wonderful" every two seconds. I especially don't enjoy tour guides that don't give me a snappy laundry list of facts and fun stories. I'm here to learn lots of trivia darn it, I want my money's worth. I contemplated abandoning the tour and going shopping, but made a decision to mellow out and relax and just go with it especially after I saw how Adam was admirably doing just so even though we both agreed we were bored out of our minds. The tour picked up toward the end and we did get to see two wine cellers that were cool and we got pretty good recommendation for lunch.
1:30 pm: We left Carmel for the Pebble Beach area for the "17 mile drive." It's a driving route around this residential/resort area with unbelievable coastal views and pretty golf courses. Just like the people I couldn't tolerate just two hours earlier, we earnestly commented, "the view is wonderful," "so pretty," "wow," every two seconds. Our last stop was the Pebble Beach lodge where we admired the view from the 18th hole. "Wonderful!" Hankering for a snack, we stopped by the market and bought an Its It oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwich covered with chocolate.
4:00 pm: We left Carmel and civilization behind and started toward Big Sur on windy roads along scary cliffs and [surprise surprise] unbelievable views. On the way, we stopped by to check out the view from Nepenthe. It was once a house owned by Orson Wells and Rita Hayworth, but is now a restaurant. We finally found our hotel for the night, Deetjen's Big Sur Lodge. It's this super cute rustic place to stay with little cabins built by "Grandpa Deetjen" back in the day. Fortunately, the cabin appeared more rustic than it actually was. The room had a nice bed with a fluffy down comforter, electric heat and even a wood burning stove. I've never been so warm. Restaurants are hard to come by in Big Sur so we ate at Deetjen's restaurant. Adam had the New Zealand lamb and I enjoyed an organic filet mignon. For dessert, cheesecake and fancy chocolate pudding. With our bellies full, we walked back to our cabin on the dirt path with a flashlight in hand just in case. Very nice!
The Zakun Great Coastal Adventure
was completed successfully last night when we drove in to LA to visit plasticmom. The California coast can be "temperamental" this time of year, but we lucked out with awesome weather the entire trip. Beautifully sunny days with no fog.
Day 1: Wednesday Palo Alto to Monterey
9:00 am: We started Wednesday morning when we picked up our rental car in Palo Alto, drove [slowly] through the Santa Cruz mountains and ended up in Pescadero right on time [according to my carefully calibrated schedule] for lunch at Duarte's Tavern.
11:30 am: Duarte's Tavern Lunch. We enjoyed the cream of artichoke soup, the cream of chile soup, a crab sandwich and a slice of their famous Olallieberry pie a la mode. I'd read about the pie in one of my favorite books about eating pie across the country so I was determined to go to Duarte's. The pie was tasty, but my favorites were the two cream soups. As we were leaving, I overheard a couple ordering, "half and half" which caused me to pause until I surmised that they were ordering half artichoke/half chile soup. An excellent idea indeed and an idea I plan to use next time I'm kicking around the dusty small town of Pescadero. We headed back out on Highway 1 and headed to Monterey.
2:30 pm: We finally pulled into our hotel on Cannery Row after two unsuccessful attempts thwarted by road construction and unexpected one way streets. Tourist towns, we decided, are characterized by the ubiquitous fudge shop and Monterey certainly did not disappoint. The waterfront was lovely and we enjoyed the Monterey Aquarium where we saw otters, sardines, penguins and jellyfish. We did see an octopus, but unlike the rest of the aquarium, it was less than impressive.
5:00 pm: Back strolling the Monterey waterfront, we happen upon the Spirit of Monterey wax museum. I happen to love all things fake including fake food and fake wax people so I insisted we go in for the 20 minute narrated history tour of Monterey's colorful past. I was not disappointed, it was just as kitchy as I expected and very informative.
7:00 pm: Too lazy to leave our hotel and walk 20 minutes to the wharf for some potentially bad food, we decided to eat dinner at the Duck Club in our hotel since plasticmom had offered to buy dinner. My duck entree was delicious, but Adam's swordfish was not the best. Note: The Duck Club has an amazing view of the water, but the view is lost at night since it's pitch black outside so we would not recommend splurging at the Duck Club for dinner.
was completed successfully last night when we drove in to LA to visit plasticmom. The California coast can be "temperamental" this time of year, but we lucked out with awesome weather the entire trip. Beautifully sunny days with no fog.
Day 1: Wednesday Palo Alto to Monterey
9:00 am: We started Wednesday morning when we picked up our rental car in Palo Alto, drove [slowly] through the Santa Cruz mountains and ended up in Pescadero right on time [according to my carefully calibrated schedule] for lunch at Duarte's Tavern.
11:30 am: Duarte's Tavern Lunch. We enjoyed the cream of artichoke soup, the cream of chile soup, a crab sandwich and a slice of their famous Olallieberry pie a la mode. I'd read about the pie in one of my favorite books about eating pie across the country so I was determined to go to Duarte's. The pie was tasty, but my favorites were the two cream soups. As we were leaving, I overheard a couple ordering, "half and half" which caused me to pause until I surmised that they were ordering half artichoke/half chile soup. An excellent idea indeed and an idea I plan to use next time I'm kicking around the dusty small town of Pescadero. We headed back out on Highway 1 and headed to Monterey.
2:30 pm: We finally pulled into our hotel on Cannery Row after two unsuccessful attempts thwarted by road construction and unexpected one way streets. Tourist towns, we decided, are characterized by the ubiquitous fudge shop and Monterey certainly did not disappoint. The waterfront was lovely and we enjoyed the Monterey Aquarium where we saw otters, sardines, penguins and jellyfish. We did see an octopus, but unlike the rest of the aquarium, it was less than impressive.
5:00 pm: Back strolling the Monterey waterfront, we happen upon the Spirit of Monterey wax museum. I happen to love all things fake including fake food and fake wax people so I insisted we go in for the 20 minute narrated history tour of Monterey's colorful past. I was not disappointed, it was just as kitchy as I expected and very informative.
7:00 pm: Too lazy to leave our hotel and walk 20 minutes to the wharf for some potentially bad food, we decided to eat dinner at the Duck Club in our hotel since plasticmom had offered to buy dinner. My duck entree was delicious, but Adam's swordfish was not the best. Note: The Duck Club has an amazing view of the water, but the view is lost at night since it's pitch black outside so we would not recommend splurging at the Duck Club for dinner.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Leaving the Bay Area
We're heading down the coast for our adventure this morning so we're leaving behind Zara, Zess, Zryce, Zames and Adam's parents. We had a fun few days with lots of tasty things to eat. I discovered the delicious Calbee Snap Green Pea snacks from Trader Joe's at Zara's house. The kids eat them as a snack and I kept asking Zess if I could have one from her stash. She was very generous, but on the third time I asked, "Can I have one of your peas," she commented, "You always want one," while she handed over a pea. Fortunately, the bag of snacks were sitting on the counter yesterday so I cut out the middleman [Zess] and went straight to the source eating the peas three at a time. YUM! On another note, Zames entertained us with one of his many really cool trick. When you say "champion baby," he enthusiastically raises both arms in the air and laughs.
We're heading down the coast for our adventure this morning so we're leaving behind Zara, Zess, Zryce, Zames and Adam's parents. We had a fun few days with lots of tasty things to eat. I discovered the delicious Calbee Snap Green Pea snacks from Trader Joe's at Zara's house. The kids eat them as a snack and I kept asking Zess if I could have one from her stash. She was very generous, but on the third time I asked, "Can I have one of your peas," she commented, "You always want one," while she handed over a pea. Fortunately, the bag of snacks were sitting on the counter yesterday so I cut out the middleman [Zess] and went straight to the source eating the peas three at a time. YUM! On another note, Zames entertained us with one of his many really cool trick. When you say "champion baby," he enthusiastically raises both arms in the air and laughs.
Go Pats
Like I mentioned, the Pats won their playoff game on Sunday and Adam was so excited, we watched the highlights of the game on HD on Monday morning. While I was initially humoring him by watching the game, I was really glad to have seen some of the highlights in the end. My favorite, when they went for the 2 pointer and they snapped the ball to #33, not Tom Brady and then Tom Brady pretended to miss the ball and then they faked out the Chargies. I'm a fan of many aspects of the Patriots. I like their nice colors, I like that Belichick wears that nappy gray hoodie with the sleeves chopped off [no suits here] and I like that they're from New England, I don't actually know very many of the players' names except Bruschi, Brady and of course Belichick so most of my football game chatter run along the lines of, "How is Brady doing, is he looking cute?" and "Do you think Brady and Belichick hang out and have dinner?" and "I like Bruschi." The following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: Do you know why we like Tom Brady?
Adam: No...why?
plasticann: He's from California, but he plays for New England.
Adam: [pause] Like us!
plasticann: Yes, except that we're not athletic.
Adam: But, we are from California and "play" for New England.
Like I mentioned, the Pats won their playoff game on Sunday and Adam was so excited, we watched the highlights of the game on HD on Monday morning. While I was initially humoring him by watching the game, I was really glad to have seen some of the highlights in the end. My favorite, when they went for the 2 pointer and they snapped the ball to #33, not Tom Brady and then Tom Brady pretended to miss the ball and then they faked out the Chargies. I'm a fan of many aspects of the Patriots. I like their nice colors, I like that Belichick wears that nappy gray hoodie with the sleeves chopped off [no suits here] and I like that they're from New England, I don't actually know very many of the players' names except Bruschi, Brady and of course Belichick so most of my football game chatter run along the lines of, "How is Brady doing, is he looking cute?" and "Do you think Brady and Belichick hang out and have dinner?" and "I like Bruschi." The following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: Do you know why we like Tom Brady?
Adam: No...why?
plasticann: He's from California, but he plays for New England.
Adam: [pause] Like us!
plasticann: Yes, except that we're not athletic.
Adam: But, we are from California and "play" for New England.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Day at the Zakins
We went over to hang out with Zess and her lil' bro Zames yesterday. Zames is into saying "uh oh" a lot, hard to tell if he's expressing concern for everything around him or if he just really likes saying "uh oh." He's also into saying "ball" and lobbing random objects at people. Zess is as precocious as ever. She called me up with the help of her mom Zara to ask me if we could bake. The answer was, "of course, I'd love to bake with you Zess." Unfortunately, she wanted to bake "orange cookies" which I didn't know much about, but I made an executive decision to make whoopie pies instead. In hindsight, whoopie pies are fun in theory, but require way too much of an attention span for a three year old. The four step process of baking cakes, cooking flour/milk, whipping frosting and frosting cakes was a little too involved even for me. The results were delicious and Zess had the brilliant idea of making a giant whoopie pie so we baked up big whoopie and medium whoopie, 8 inches and 6 inches in diameter respectively. I guess whoopie pies are a east coast phenomenon since none of the west coasters had even heard of them. Zess also asked me six times, "What does whoopie mean?" Not knowing what to say, I gave her the rather unsatisfactory answer, "whoopie is the name of the pie." On another note, Adam was quite excited about the Patriots game yesterday. Since the Patriots were behind for most of the game, Adam's dad and Zryce were egging him on throughout. Zryce even recruited Zess to call the Patriots "the Patsies." I'm guessing Zryce didn't explain just what "patsy" was, but in the end the "Patsies" prevailed so take that "Chargies."
We went over to hang out with Zess and her lil' bro Zames yesterday. Zames is into saying "uh oh" a lot, hard to tell if he's expressing concern for everything around him or if he just really likes saying "uh oh." He's also into saying "ball" and lobbing random objects at people. Zess is as precocious as ever. She called me up with the help of her mom Zara to ask me if we could bake. The answer was, "of course, I'd love to bake with you Zess." Unfortunately, she wanted to bake "orange cookies" which I didn't know much about, but I made an executive decision to make whoopie pies instead. In hindsight, whoopie pies are fun in theory, but require way too much of an attention span for a three year old. The four step process of baking cakes, cooking flour/milk, whipping frosting and frosting cakes was a little too involved even for me. The results were delicious and Zess had the brilliant idea of making a giant whoopie pie so we baked up big whoopie and medium whoopie, 8 inches and 6 inches in diameter respectively. I guess whoopie pies are a east coast phenomenon since none of the west coasters had even heard of them. Zess also asked me six times, "What does whoopie mean?" Not knowing what to say, I gave her the rather unsatisfactory answer, "whoopie is the name of the pie." On another note, Adam was quite excited about the Patriots game yesterday. Since the Patriots were behind for most of the game, Adam's dad and Zryce were egging him on throughout. Zryce even recruited Zess to call the Patriots "the Patsies." I'm guessing Zryce didn't explain just what "patsy" was, but in the end the "Patsies" prevailed so take that "Chargies."
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Rather Enraging Flying Experience
We made it to California, praise God, but not without some mishaps. We got in 3 hours late around midnight PST or 3am EST. We got off to a late start in Boston sitting out on the tarmac for an hour. Fortunately, our plane from Boston was also taking us to San Jose after a brief stopover in Denver so we didn't miss our connection. Unfortunately, we sat out on the tarmac in Denver for an hour and a half while they tried to bolt down a row of seats that were loose and then waited for the plane to be deiced. The following is a reconstructed conversation that occured while the seat belt sign was on and we were waiting on the tarmac in Denver, there's "man" and "flight attendant":
FA: Sir, you need to sit down and wear you seat belt. The seat belt sign is on, you may not stand up and go to the bathroom.
Man: I waited two hours in Denver, you have to be nice to me. Speak nicely to me.
FA: I'm sorry sir, you have to sit down and wear you seat belt.
Man: You're not being nice to the customer, I'm a customer and you're not speaking nicely to me.
FA: Sir, you need to sit down.
Man: You need to be nice to the customer.
FA: OK, you have two options, either sit down and be quiet or we'll pull into the gate and you can get off.
Man: You're not being nice, the customer is always right.
FA: I'm going to repeat myself, you have two options, sit down or get off.
Man: You're not nice to me.
FA: Sit down or get off.
Man: [finally sits down and shuts up]
Oh my goodness, I'm not one to become easily enraged and curse, but I wanted to scream, "Shut the f*&$ up, do you not understand that she'll throw you off the plane and you'll delay the rest of us for another hour because you won't f*&$ing shut up and sit down." Wisely, I rolled my eyes and kept silent since I didn't want to get flagged by the flight attendant for having "air rage." Later, in flight, his cell phone rang twice and he was talking on it while we were flying. I fantasized about kicking him in the shins when we got off in San Jose and running away, but I can't run very fast and I was kinda scared of the scofflaw even though he was a slight Asian man and we've established that my husband Adam is six one and a"really dirty blond." If he was capable of keeping his phone on in flight and standing up when the seat belt sign was on, what else was he capable of doing? I shudder at the thought, but fortunately, we're now in the great state of California. Hooray!
We made it to California, praise God, but not without some mishaps. We got in 3 hours late around midnight PST or 3am EST. We got off to a late start in Boston sitting out on the tarmac for an hour. Fortunately, our plane from Boston was also taking us to San Jose after a brief stopover in Denver so we didn't miss our connection. Unfortunately, we sat out on the tarmac in Denver for an hour and a half while they tried to bolt down a row of seats that were loose and then waited for the plane to be deiced. The following is a reconstructed conversation that occured while the seat belt sign was on and we were waiting on the tarmac in Denver, there's "man" and "flight attendant":
FA: Sir, you need to sit down and wear you seat belt. The seat belt sign is on, you may not stand up and go to the bathroom.
Man: I waited two hours in Denver, you have to be nice to me. Speak nicely to me.
FA: I'm sorry sir, you have to sit down and wear you seat belt.
Man: You're not being nice to the customer, I'm a customer and you're not speaking nicely to me.
FA: Sir, you need to sit down.
Man: You need to be nice to the customer.
FA: OK, you have two options, either sit down and be quiet or we'll pull into the gate and you can get off.
Man: You're not being nice, the customer is always right.
FA: I'm going to repeat myself, you have two options, sit down or get off.
Man: You're not nice to me.
FA: Sit down or get off.
Man: [finally sits down and shuts up]
Oh my goodness, I'm not one to become easily enraged and curse, but I wanted to scream, "Shut the f*&$ up, do you not understand that she'll throw you off the plane and you'll delay the rest of us for another hour because you won't f*&$ing shut up and sit down." Wisely, I rolled my eyes and kept silent since I didn't want to get flagged by the flight attendant for having "air rage." Later, in flight, his cell phone rang twice and he was talking on it while we were flying. I fantasized about kicking him in the shins when we got off in San Jose and running away, but I can't run very fast and I was kinda scared of the scofflaw even though he was a slight Asian man and we've established that my husband Adam is six one and a"really dirty blond." If he was capable of keeping his phone on in flight and standing up when the seat belt sign was on, what else was he capable of doing? I shudder at the thought, but fortunately, we're now in the great state of California. Hooray!
Friday, January 12, 2007
The Great State of California
While Cambridge and by extension Boston may be my favorite city, California is by far my favorite state. We're heading to California to see Zara, Zryce, Zess and Zames as well as Adam's parents. There are rumors of a zoo excursion planned. I'm not big on the animals, but Adam tells me that it's what the cool kids are into. I'm sure if we go, they'll have awesome [unnutritious] snacks I can enjoy, maybe even animal crackers. Then we're driving down the [great state of] California Coast for five days hitting Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, Solvang and Santa Barbara. We'll eventually end up in plasticmom's neck of the woods.
While Cambridge and by extension Boston may be my favorite city, California is by far my favorite state. We're heading to California to see Zara, Zryce, Zess and Zames as well as Adam's parents. There are rumors of a zoo excursion planned. I'm not big on the animals, but Adam tells me that it's what the cool kids are into. I'm sure if we go, they'll have awesome [unnutritious] snacks I can enjoy, maybe even animal crackers. Then we're driving down the [great state of] California Coast for five days hitting Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, Solvang and Santa Barbara. We'll eventually end up in plasticmom's neck of the woods.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Blond or Not...a crackpot theory
My last post, "I wanna be a blond" generated quite a few comments. I stand corrected, many people think of Adam as a "blond." Unfortunately for Adam, I've already mailed in his passport application so he's officially "light brown" for the next ten years. However, I'm still confused. At what point does someone cease to be blond and begin to be light brown? Seems very subjective and I wonder if [here's my theory] those who are "blondish" have a more liberal definition of what's considered blond, namely their blond spectrum is wider than those who are "non-blondish." See, I define blonds as those who are pretty darned blond, like yellow hair that's always yellow in all types of lighting situations. Is the breadth of our perceived blondness spectrum of ourselves and others affected by our own blondness and our desire to be blond? Hmmmm...don't know! Discuss!
My last post, "I wanna be a blond" generated quite a few comments. I stand corrected, many people think of Adam as a "blond." Unfortunately for Adam, I've already mailed in his passport application so he's officially "light brown" for the next ten years. However, I'm still confused. At what point does someone cease to be blond and begin to be light brown? Seems very subjective and I wonder if [here's my theory] those who are "blondish" have a more liberal definition of what's considered blond, namely their blond spectrum is wider than those who are "non-blondish." See, I define blonds as those who are pretty darned blond, like yellow hair that's always yellow in all types of lighting situations. Is the breadth of our perceived blondness spectrum of ourselves and others affected by our own blondness and our desire to be blond? Hmmmm...don't know! Discuss!
Monday, January 08, 2007
I Wanna Be A Blond
Both Adam and I need new passports so I was filling out our applications online this morning. Granted I should probably know these stats, but I never know what color or Adam's hair and eyes. I blame my confusion over and inability to name Caucasian colorings on my being Asian. We have black and maybe dark brown if we're being very specific. Them white folks got blond, auburn, dirty blond, platinum blond, red, green, blue so I had to call Adam at work since passports are official business. The following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: Hey, I'm filling out your passport application. Are you six one?
Adam: Yeah!
plasticann: Hair color, light brown?
Adam: ......I'd like to think of myself as being blond.
plasticann: Buah ha ha! Blond? Yeah right. Why don't you poll your coworkers.
Adam: [muffled] Hey guys, what color would you say my hair is? Blond?
Coworkers: [muffled response]
Adam: [muffled] Brown?
Coworkers: [muffled response]
Adam: They said light brown.
plasticann: Light brown it is. What about eye color?
Adam: I always put Hazel, they always change color.
plasticann: OK, "Hazel" it is.
I didn't even know what "Hazel" is, but according to Merriam-Webster, it's "a light brown to strong yellowish brown." Sounds kinda like plain old light brown to me, but I guess Hazel is more special.
Both Adam and I need new passports so I was filling out our applications online this morning. Granted I should probably know these stats, but I never know what color or Adam's hair and eyes. I blame my confusion over and inability to name Caucasian colorings on my being Asian. We have black and maybe dark brown if we're being very specific. Them white folks got blond, auburn, dirty blond, platinum blond, red, green, blue so I had to call Adam at work since passports are official business. The following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: Hey, I'm filling out your passport application. Are you six one?
Adam: Yeah!
plasticann: Hair color, light brown?
Adam: ......I'd like to think of myself as being blond.
plasticann: Buah ha ha! Blond? Yeah right. Why don't you poll your coworkers.
Adam: [muffled] Hey guys, what color would you say my hair is? Blond?
Coworkers: [muffled response]
Adam: [muffled] Brown?
Coworkers: [muffled response]
Adam: They said light brown.
plasticann: Light brown it is. What about eye color?
Adam: I always put Hazel, they always change color.
plasticann: OK, "Hazel" it is.
I didn't even know what "Hazel" is, but according to Merriam-Webster, it's "a light brown to strong yellowish brown." Sounds kinda like plain old light brown to me, but I guess Hazel is more special.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
My Clean Sleepy Cave
is my latest moniker for our bed now that we just washed our sheets. I'm embarrassed to admit, but it's been too long since we last laundered our bedding. Part of the problem is having only one comforter cover. Also, we no longer have the laundry machine in our apartment unit. Lastly, we've been lazy and busy. Now that the sheets are clean, I just love our bed. I even wrapped myself in our still warm from the dryer flannel sheets and laid there swaddled in the warmth. Pure Bliss! The following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: I love how our sheets are so clean and smell so nice. I think I'm going to skip church tomorrow and hang out here.
Adam: Notice, I put in TWO dryer sheets, that's why they smell so nice.
plasticann: We should wash our sheets more often, clean sheets are so nice. It had been way to long and our sheets were kinda icky.
Adam: It wasn't that long. I mean in college I sometimes didn't wash my sheets for an entire semester.
plasticann: Ummm [genuinely unsure how to respond]
At least he tried to make me feel better, but it didn't quite work.
is my latest moniker for our bed now that we just washed our sheets. I'm embarrassed to admit, but it's been too long since we last laundered our bedding. Part of the problem is having only one comforter cover. Also, we no longer have the laundry machine in our apartment unit. Lastly, we've been lazy and busy. Now that the sheets are clean, I just love our bed. I even wrapped myself in our still warm from the dryer flannel sheets and laid there swaddled in the warmth. Pure Bliss! The following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: I love how our sheets are so clean and smell so nice. I think I'm going to skip church tomorrow and hang out here.
Adam: Notice, I put in TWO dryer sheets, that's why they smell so nice.
plasticann: We should wash our sheets more often, clean sheets are so nice. It had been way to long and our sheets were kinda icky.
Adam: It wasn't that long. I mean in college I sometimes didn't wash my sheets for an entire semester.
plasticann: Ummm [genuinely unsure how to respond]
At least he tried to make me feel better, but it didn't quite work.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Under the Weather
is an understatement. Adam and I have been sick the past week and are now beginning to feel healthier. The upside was I didn't have to miss school or work or anything so I sat around the apartment for the better part of a week. We did catch up on a lot of our tivoed shows while we were both home with the sniffles. We watched a ton of King of Queens and felt justified for watching it after reading this NYtimes article. We started watching Murder in Suburbia and I watched an entire season of Ugly Betty. Love that show!
is an understatement. Adam and I have been sick the past week and are now beginning to feel healthier. The upside was I didn't have to miss school or work or anything so I sat around the apartment for the better part of a week. We did catch up on a lot of our tivoed shows while we were both home with the sniffles. We watched a ton of King of Queens and felt justified for watching it after reading this NYtimes article. We started watching Murder in Suburbia and I watched an entire season of Ugly Betty. Love that show!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Pow Wow
Last Friday, Wheezy and I went down to Charles Street and met up with Steve for lunch. It was a mini pow wow just like the good old days back when we worked together. We ended up at FIGS because Upper Crust and Paramount were unbelievably crowded. Steve wasn't hungry, but had a beer though he did eventually eat some of our food so he could technically claim that he had some lunch with his beverage. After lunch, Wheezy and I walked over to Newbury Street where I bought Adam 18 pairs of socks at the GAP. It was a unbelievably good buy and Adam desperately needed non-athletic socks ever since I informed him that white athletic socks are not particularly "stylish" when worn with leather shoes like his Campers.
Last Friday, Wheezy and I went down to Charles Street and met up with Steve for lunch. It was a mini pow wow just like the good old days back when we worked together. We ended up at FIGS because Upper Crust and Paramount were unbelievably crowded. Steve wasn't hungry, but had a beer though he did eventually eat some of our food so he could technically claim that he had some lunch with his beverage. After lunch, Wheezy and I walked over to Newbury Street where I bought Adam 18 pairs of socks at the GAP. It was a unbelievably good buy and Adam desperately needed non-athletic socks ever since I informed him that white athletic socks are not particularly "stylish" when worn with leather shoes like his Campers.
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