Tag: Everything else

A Peppermint Nightmare

Jack White is the Boogey Man under my bed… or so it seems :p

I was fixing up my room when I spied the corner of a photograph peeking out from under my bed. It was a picture I took at a White Stripes concert ages ago. I’m talking film photograph here, before I ever even owned a proper digital camera… which places this picture somewhere in the pre-2005 era. No idea what it was doing under my bed or how I happened to notice it now.

He’s quite swoon-worthy in this picture, if grainy.

I think it’s time for a little Hotel Yorba.

on farm animals in the ‘burbs

The rooster that appeared last summer, Dorothy-style on the end of a storm, is cockle doodle dooing away from the top of a tree… I keep wondering who owns this creature and why they seem so unconcerned that their poultry may be wandering into hostile territory. I know the kids in this neighborhood are vicious little beasts and it’s only a matter of time before they notice the chickens. Girl chickie hasn’t been around in a few days, we suspect chicklets will soon appear. Will there be peeps for Easter? And why would anyone want to have chickens as pets in the first place, especially when there is not a bit of farmland in sight?

Sundays at Work

Tutoring on a Sunday has to be the one of the slowest jobs ever. Students barely come in during the week, I don’t know why we even bother offering services on Sundays. I am breaking about 5 center rules right now in an effort to keep myself from succumbing to sleep.

I am commiting the following crimes:

  • listening to music (oh noes!)
  • having a snack (double noes!)
  • wasting time on Gawker (only to be topped by wasting time on YouTube)
  • checking Facebook (only slightly less illegal than YouTube)
  • Texting/IMing (it is the end of order as we know it!)

Yes, I am behaving very badly and setting a terrible example for the young’uns.

I am certain blogging would be against the rules as well, if the head one were familiar with the concept.

I should have brought something to work on 😦

a mid-week week in review

So Monday was all sorts of hell. Lots of things went awry.

Tuesday signaled the beginning of an awful lot of unusual happenings on campus, or maybe not unusual… but unexpected?

First, there were the half-naked firemen. Yes. Half-naked firemen. ‘Nuff said.

Then, there was the return of Scary God Man (as I like to call him). A super-ultra-conservative preacher who turns up around finals week each semester to make with the smiting (he threw a Bible at a student once). He has a sign. Actually, he is a sign. He wears an outfit covered with random lines about why God hates everyone but him.

The irony, while scary God man was raining down the fire and brimstone, the hot firemen were taking pictures with giddy girls.

With Wednesday came the on-campus Green Market and Scary God Man part deux. Green Market 1, Scary God Man 0. The allure of exotic veggies, smoothies, and free green bags drew all the crowds away from SGM.

Plus, there were coconuts. There was a guy climbing the palm trees by the library and tossing down coconuts. Sadly, no coconut water (or yum yum coconut meat) for me; the lingering sense of confusion and annoyance caused by Monday‘s happenings made me forget that the market was going to be held, so I had no cash on hand.

But today was happy mail day! Making up for all prior mishaps.

I arrived home from work to find two packages waiting for me:

1. The beautiful cameo locket that I ordered from the Spellbound Wings Etsy shop

I realized it was big when I saw the measurements on the site, but I never imagined it would be so big. It completely exceeded my expectations and I could not be more pleased 🙂

2. I also received my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. With all the thesis madness, I forgot that I had pre-ordered this, so it was a nice surprise. Probably the last Harry Potter related book I will ever buy 😦

Amazon’s packaging was great, I especially love the instructions.

the brighter side of life

I experienced taste-bud heaven on Saturday evening. Went to Smith and Wollensky with some friends. We had dinner on the “cheap”, since they were participating in the Miami Spice event.

Dinner was just amazing. I had their conch chowder, filet mignon, a side of steamed vegetables and mushrooms that we shared, and a key lime “brulee”. And a lovely glass of Acacia wine. The conch chowder was a bit of a surprise. We were all expecting something similar to a clam chowder, but it was more like a gumbo. Very tasty and spicy. The filet mignon was just… O-worthy. And the key lime brulee was creamy, calorific sin. I enjoyed every bite and didn’t give a damn about the fat content.

This happy little bread roll alone was a slice of buttery decadence in a pan…

lost in translation

I’ve always wondered what Blanc Mange tasted like (I read far too many British books, so my quest for food cited by “INSERT RANDOM BRITISH AUTHOR” is never-ending)… Well, it seems I’ve been eating it for years, as my mom makes it for my dad all the time. Except, I only knew it by its Spanish name: Natilla. And my mom doesn’t go for the molded look, she just sets it in ramekins, so I never made the connection between the images of Blanc Mange that on Google image search, and the stuff in my kitchen.

So, a while ago, I asked my mom to make me some as a birthday treat, after finding a recipe on an English Recipes blog, and she just looked at me incredulously and told me that its the same recipe she has always used (minus the lemon peel, apparently my dad doesn’t like it). Go fig. At least I can now name the stuff when a non-Spanish speaker wants to know what it is.