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November 11th, 2008
08:52 pm - oh, those prairie fairies.
on saturday, i went to the fillmore family foundation prairie fairies fowl supper. (try saying that five times fast!) it's an annual prairie tradition that has been transplanted to the west coast, and gayed up. picture 650 people dressed in costumes (this year's theme was "saturday night hay fever"), getting drunk, eating turkey and all the fixings, watching a variety of entertainment acts, and weaving a conga line throughout a greek community centre. it's quite the sight.
( more here )
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November 3rd, 2008
05:26 pm - at least it's predictible-strange and not strange-strange
my mom is a very strange lady. if you've met her, you'll know what i mean. it isn't any one particular thing that she does, it's an amalgamation of weird characteristics that combine to make her a "character", as people usually call her. they also call her "a riot", as if that is somehow better.
she has been in a snit for the past couple of days while she puttered around the house, cleaning. the thing is that she's a clean freak - not quite OCD, but pretty damn close - and so the second that the house gets too dirty for her liking, she freaks out. the problem with this is that my and my dad's tolerance for dirt is a lot higher than hers, so we don't notice the perceived problem when she does.
so she cleans the kitchen floors and dusts (but somehow doesn't see all the spots on the cabinets, which i do while she's cleaning something else), cleans the bathroom, sweeps the front porch, makes a big deal out of picking up the handful of leaves that have fallen since she last picked up a handful of leaves, and is generally unbearable to be around. insert a few passive-aggressive comments about how she's the housekeeper, and it's really a lovely living situation.
all of this was, of course, remedied by my pulling out the vacuum and running it over the carpet once or twice. all of a sudden, i am now pulling my weight around the house and am worthy of being spoken to, rather than snarled at.
the funniest part is that we do this dance every couple of weeks. you'd figure we'd learn how to compromise at some point, but it hasn't happened so far and i don't have the energy to try to figure it out now.
but hey, the house is pretty darn clean.
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October 31st, 2008
01:21 pm - one year later
i've been back in vancouver for one year. how strange.
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October 25th, 2008
04:38 pm - Love songs for melancholy robots
i dragged my proverbial ass off the couch last night to go see the notwist, and was glad that i did. the notwist sound a bit like math rock meets electronica: take lyrics about gravity and algebra, throw in some beeps and boops, beautiful synth-y orchestral music, and a lead singer with an earnest but distant voice, and it's magical.
( germans are strange. )
Current Music: notwist
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October 16th, 2008
03:19 pm - thanks giving
it's a little early for a 2008 post-mortem, but i will say that this has definitely been an interesting year. by interesting, i mean that it was a year of infinite surprises: apparent roadblocks that turned out to be opportunities, dissenting opinions that turned out to be sources of inspiration, and intimidating people who turned out to be valuable mentors or guides.
i arrived back in vancouver almost a year ago, with no clue of what i wanted to be when i grew up. some see that as an opportunity for great potential, but for someone who has spent most of her life on the straight and narrow with a vague plan for the future, it was terrifyingly, soul-suckingly awful. i think i spent all of january lying on my parents' couch watching bad daytime tv.
well, i'm back. i'm taking classes, involved in various committees and organizations, and busier than ever. and, even better, finding that i'm pretty good at what i'm doing, that people appreciate what i do, and that the majority of people i meet are exceptional and lovely.
i've never read the secret but i don't think it's a load of bunk. i read somewhere that you can either have what you want, or you can have your excuses of why you can't. which would you rather have?
in my conscious positive thinking, i am meeting positive people. i've met people with vastly different perspectives who make me think about things in new ways. and i've met so many people who go that extra step to help others, and who really make me think that the human race isn't so bad after all.
so this thanksgiving, i am thankful for all the lovely people in my world who support me, guide me and make me strive to be a better person - even if i don't realize that's what they're doing at the time.
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October 12th, 2008
04:59 pm - a post for G
i'm in rossland, celebrating turkey weekend in G&M's new house. we've eaten ridiculously well this weekend:
-really tasty pizza from the misty mountain pizza company
-silver dollar pancakes with blueberry sauce, stewed cinnamon apples, maple syrup & whipped cream
-rye bread with brie and pears
-organic blueberry yogurt with homemade granola & fruit salad
-tomato-y fish stew
-mac & cheese like it should be
and now we're waiting for the 18-pound turkey that has been stuffed with bread, herbs, onions and celery. there are two pies waiting on the windowsill (one apple, one pumpkin) and i can't wait for mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, squash and turnips. and copious amounts of wine.
i never want to go home.
Current Location: rossland, BC
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August 21st, 2008
05:19 pm - not much to say.
i've been lax in not updating this here blog, so here i am making an appearance.
if job-searching can be likened to mitosis, then i am in interphase. that is, polishing up the CV, working on the portfolio, and trying to teach myself how to use various software applications. it's kind of fun, actually, but the prospect of mounting a full-on job search terrifies me. i've always managed to stumble into jobs or land random contracts, so this is entirely new.
(i'm not about to extend the metaphor any further, though. metaphase? prophase? telophase? what now?)
also, my plans for moving out have been delayed until the winter. this means a few more months of living with the folks, but hey - it's free, right? i just keep repeating that to myself, while turning up the volume in my headphones.
i've been thinking of migrating over to a more food-centric blog so that i can actually use it in a more professional capacity, without prospective employers finding out about my grad school exploits or weekend drunkenness. livejournal? blogspot? some other platform entirely? maybe i can put my mad coding skillz to use.
and, because i know you all care, i'm single again.
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July 10th, 2008
06:37 pm - apparently, i am riding the special bus.
on the advice of my career coach (yes, i have a career coach) to add more "hard" skills to my CV, i am taking an intensive course (12 weeks condensed into two) in HTML and web design at a local college. as it turns out, livejournal is based on html! who knew that this whole time i was posting links to movies, bands and random sites, that i was actually writing in code?
i was a little bit curious to see who else would be in the class, and it has wildly exceeded my expectations.
( the cast of characters... )
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June 29th, 2008
11:06 pm - hot + outside = yay!
i went to victoria to visit LP, and we had a really great visit.
highlights:
-walking along the water, checking out the tall ships
-dealing with the lovely mousey gifts that the next door neighbour's cat left us
-barbecuing, yum
-"sailing" from victoria to sidney - motoring, really, as there wasn't enough wind. it was still pretty chilly though.
-watching eagle vs. shark - so NOT recommended. i think i anti-recommend it.
and then i went hiking this weekend in lynn canyon. it was supposed to be up seymour, but - my god! - there's still snow up there and i was not prepared for hiking up snowpack.
i saw wall-e and it was awesome. i laughed out loud, i cried a little bit, and i would totally see it again.
also. i'm sort of seeing someone.
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June 23rd, 2008
12:55 pm - millennial musings
since my Big Move back to vancouver in november 2007, i have been living with my retired parents. in all honesty, it's not as bad as i would have expected. we get along reasonably well, my mom is usually not home, my dad is usually puttering away at something, and i'm not usually home. the major source of stress usually focuses around dinner time, because my mom gets stressed out if she doesn't know if i'll be home for dinner or not. sometimes, life is hard.
however.
they went to toronto for three weeks to attend my cousin's wedding, and i adored every minute of my newly reclaimed (if temporary) independence. now, i'm happy that they're back and that they had a good time, but their trip was a wake up call for me. i had gotten so used to living at home that i forgot what it was like to not live at home, and now i'm itching to get out.
they got home yesterday, and aside from random stories about the wedding and my dad's family hijinks, my mom has made two pointed comments to me:
(1) that the stove was "disgusting" and it took her hours to clean it to her standards, and
(2) she is "disappointed" that i didn't buy milk.
now, i realize how silly i sound - here i am, almost 30 and living at home. these are silly concerns, given that there are people dying and wars waging. but please. dear readers - most of you know me personally, and some have even had the pleasure of living with me. most of you can vouch for the fact that i am one of the cleanest people on the planet, particularly when it comes to the kitchen. and, well, being a disappointment for not having bought milk, especially given that i am lactose intolerant and therefore don't consume milk, is just kind of humourous. if that makes me a disappointment, well, i can't be doing too badly.
so yes, it's definitely time to move on. the slight catch is that i'm still a lady of leisure, but i've made that mental/psychological transition from a state of purposely-taking-time-off to getting-ready-to-look-for-work. right. now i just have to work on that whole business of not procrastinating.
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June 9th, 2008
May 15th, 2008
04:46 pm - swedish troika
last night i saw the triple bill of anna ternheim + lykke li + el perro del mar.
( klick här till läsa mer )
also, note to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) heuteistmeintag: if anna ternheim brings her new full-length cd (not "somebody outside", not the "shoreline" EP, and not the new EP "lovers dream & more music for psychotic lovers") to the gig you go to, could you please pick up an extra copy and send it to me? i will reimburse you, fo shizzle. let me know.
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May 7th, 2008
01:49 pm - procrastinating.
for those who are out of the loop, i have been "taking some time off" since january 2008. initially it was a situational time off, meaning that i hadn't found work, but since about march it has become purposeful time off, meaning that i started to enjoy the time off to read books, travel, volunteer and do other self-fulfilling things.
anyway. since things never happen gradually in life, i've gone from being a lady of leisure to being completely swamped. i got a gig as volunteer coordinator for a conference in four weeks, which means a lot of legwork to get things sorted out. then an old neighbour called and asked if i could tutor her daughter in high school science. add into the mix all the existing commitments i had signed on for during my time off: event committees, fundraisers and other meetings. and at some point i'd like to see my friends and family.
also i'm cooking mother's day dinner for 10 people on saturday.
so, with all my recent busy-ness i decided the most important thing to do right now was blog about the AWESOME EFFING ELBOW CONCERT i went to last night.
( knee? shoulderblade? no, ELBOW )
Current Music: elbow running around my head
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May 2nd, 2008
09:48 am - new orleans overview
when most people visit a city, they make a note of major museums, art galleries and attractions. when i visit a city, i make a list of food items and restaurants to visit. you can imagine that going to new orleans (for a culinary conference, no less) was going to be an amazing thing.
having said that, this was my list of Things To Do:
-etouffee
-gumbo
-jambalaya
-crawfish
-southern fried chicken
-beignets
-po boy
-oysters
-grits
-biscuit
-praline
-bourbon
you get the idea. more postings to come.
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April 30th, 2008
10:54 pm - some good, some bad
i made a big batch of pizza dough a few weeks ago, portioned it and stuck it in the freezer, and so i've been making delicious gourmet pizza lately. throw in some homemade tomato sauce and carefully selected cheeses, and you have yourself a lovely concoction. so far my favourites have been broccoli/cauliflower/provolone/gouda, and a really simple but tasty roasted tomato/mushroom/baby leek/provolone gouda. yum.
on the day that i purchased said cheese, i was starving and had been nursing, of all things, a mcdonald's craving. i never eat mcdonald's, except for the odd mcmuffin or hash brown, but i'm rarely at mcdonald's early enough to get the breakfast menu. now that i think about it, the last time i had an egg mcmuffin was in the airport in DC while waiting for a flight, and it was disgusting. just thinking about it makes me ill.
however, that thought didn't stop me from getting a filet-o-fish, which is my burger of choice at mcd's. i think it's a chinese thing. when i was a kid, all the white kids were eating hamburgers and cheeseburgers, and i was the chinese kid eating filet-o-fish.
after purchasing said filet-o-fish, i realized how awful it would be to be seen eating it while holding a bag from a gourmet cheese shop, so i ate it as fast as possible, and then got rid of the evidence. the silliness of it all struck me on the walk home, and i giggled to myself for a few blocks. i was going to have it be my dirty little secret until princesselisa drove by and saw me giggling to myself, and i had to tell her. and then i put it here for all the world to see, so there goes any semblance of secrecy.
EDIT: funny filet-o-fish story that i had wiped from my memory (thanks, mjm, for bringing back to light something that my brain felt the urge to repress), in mjm's words:
drunken guys serenading poor mcdonalds employee during homecoming 2005 with "Hey June".
good times. also, that may or may not have been the time i decided that my life's dream was to have a fat orange cat and name it rolo mcflurry. i can't remember.
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April 10th, 2008
April 6th, 2008
11:04 pm - weekend + movies + footnotes
S was in town from the t-dot, which was cause for much celebration. we haven't seen each other since thanksgiving long weekend, when we went to niagara-on-the-lake for a last hurrah before i moved back to BC. i took her to gastown to look at the little boutiques and john fluevog's new store (what a gorgeous space!) and we went for sushi.
then, in true classy style we hung out on the giant hotel beds with a bottle of red wine, sweet chili heat doritos, a giant cadbury fruit & nut bar and watched atonement.[1]
this morning we went for breakfast and then the vancouver art gallery.[2] i renewed my disdain for emily carr and the group of seven, but the kutlug ataman and tree exhibits were interesting. i had high hopes for the photography exhibit - but either it didn't quite pique my interest or i had reached museum saturation, because it wasn't all i had hoped it would be.
also, i have also recently seen the other boleyn girl[3] and happy endings[4].
[1] it's quite deserving of the oscar nomination - the performances are excellent and the writing really crisp. i don't usually notice things like editing or sound editing, but the film really used these tools well. there were great camera angles and scene transitions - and kiera knightley's green dress! gorgeous.
i was also pleased to see romola garai put in a decent performance - she, of course, of my pick-me-up movie of choice, dirty dancing 2: havana nights. glad to see she's moving up in this world.
[2] in naming the gallery, did NO ONE consider that the acronym would end up being VAG? most vancouverites call it "the art gallery", possibly in order to avoid calling it the VAG, but really. is that the best we could come up with?
[3] dear god, it was an awful movie. natalie portman and scarjo gave mildly entertaining performances, and the costumes were beautiful - but eric bana was more wooden than usual, the story had five too many double crosses, and the overall plot was ridiculously contrived. the only remotely interesting character is catherine of aragon, and then she got her head chopped off and i promptly lost interest. i spent most of the movie in women's-studies-analysis-mode and getting angry at men.
[4] such a quirky, well-done movie! quirky humour, lots of tongue in cheek narration, and lovely characters. also, maggie gyllenhaal is in it and in one scene she sports a black hoodie with a pointy hood, and i totally want a pointy hoodie[5].
[5] where would a girl procure a pointy hoodie? it doesn't have to be black.
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April 5th, 2008
10:54 am - birthday catering
Z asked me to cater her birthday party for 20, featuring cupcakes and hors d'oeuvres.
the menu:
[1] carrot cupcakes + cream cheese icing + candied walnuts. kids, i have found my carrot cake recipe, and it's deliciously perfect. it's a slight variation on the description in this post - and that's all i'm going to say. i went back to my standard cream cheese icing, and made a walnut brittle that i crushed and sprinkled on top. i was also sneaky and injected some cream cheese icing inside the cupcake for further distribution of icing goodness.
[2] chocolate cupcake + peanut butter mousse + bitter chocolate ganache + toasted peanuts. unfortunately, as happy as i am with the carrot cake, i'm still looking for a perfect chocolate cake recipe. in my head, it's like mccain deep'n delicious, but obviously without the gross factor. i'm thinking super dark, really moist but light cake...and it's a work in progress. the peanut butter mousse (same recipe as the peanut butter pie) was injected into the middle of the cupcake, and the whole thing was glazed with bitter chocolate ganache and topped with peanuts.
[3] organic veggie platter (carrots, celery, peppers, cucumber and broccoli) with homemade roasted garlic dip. the secret ingredient in the dip is crack, because it's that addictive. i roasted an entire head of garlic with olive oil and rosemary, then turned it into a dip.
EDIT: i made a second version of this dip with lemon zest, and i love it. the lemon gives a nice immediate freshness, and the roasted garlic provides a nice underlying savouriness.
[4] mushroom-leek filo triangles, which i first served at L's parents' 30th anniversary brunch. i made them cuter and smaller this time. when i made them for for L's parents' party, some of them leaked (leeked, ha) so i overcompensated this time by wrapping them a little too tightly. the result: they didn't leak, but they weren't as flaky as i would have wanted. somewhere in the middle, there is a perfect filo triangle.
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April 2nd, 2008
04:43 pm
addendum to the list in this post:
6. i cry at the drop of a hat, particularly in finale episodes of reality tv shows. srsly.
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March 20th, 2008
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