City Girl (Our NYC Trip)

Tihleigh (with further encouragement from Laura and Astrid, but T you're the one who convinced me): you're a genius. The neti pot seems to be working, inasmuch as it stopped six days of NYC pollution from instantly replaying my recent sinus infection. Woohoo!

So, here's the briefest of summations of our 6-day New York City vacation, with no work in sight for either of us. It was a blissful time, and I'm realizing it's super-awesome to travel places that aren't attached to work-related trips.

Thursday:

• flight in, finally seeing Manhattan for the first time
• decided that Times Square is actually more over-stimulating, crowded, and neon than Vegas. WOW.
• love love LOVE Central Park.
• discovered that H&M has 1) awesome clothes that 2) fit me and 3) are about as affordable as Old Navy. Rock on.

Friday:

• began to figure out the complex subway system
• Chinatown: fantastic food, fun shopping (and I can finally use chopsticks)
• Yankees game (tromped Toronto 2 - 1, woohoo!)
• walking down the street after Yankees game
• Gray's Papaya
• finding out Sarah Palin was McCain's VP pick outside of Gray's Papaya (a great day for women, no matter your politics!)

Saturday:

• um… we did… stuff… in the morning. I will probably remember what it was when I look at photos.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Egyptian collection, Assyrian winged guards, Degas, Madame X, and Vermeers
• “The Lion King” on Broadway (awesome—especially loved the dance and use of performers as set pieces)
• street hotdogs—yum!

Sunday:

• Southside Seaport and Brooklyn Bridge
• decided not to wait in TKTS ticket line
• Wall Street
• walking alllll the way up Broadway
• lunch in Soho
• matinee showing of "Boeing Boeing." So. Freaking. Incredible. Best show I have ever seen, period!!
• dinner and dessert in Little Italy (sampled both pastries and gelato)

Monday:

• more Central Park walking and street hotdogs
• American Museum of Natural History: elephants, dinosaurs, huge whale
• dinner at the Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien--tiny, impossible to find, amazing burgers
• another stop at H&M (purple cordorouy blazer!)
• walking along Fifth Avenue by Tiffany & Co., Trump Tower, St. Patrick's, Rockefeller Center

Tuesday:

• Ellis Island
• Statue of Liberty
• taxi driver getting lost
• flew out, and first class flying for my first time!

So... if I can tear myself away from my already-ginormous piles of homework this weekend, I'll upload those photos to Flickr--think we came away with about 7GB total, which for a 6-day trip, for us, is actually remarkably little. (But still a lot to sort, edit, and upload!) Then if by some miracle I finish, maybe I can start going back and uploading the Quebec City photos and other stuff from the spring and summer.

Well, a girl can dream, anyway.

It's July Already?

This post isn't going to be about Alex's adventures in St. Pete, but as I'm spending part of my Sunday afternoon going through our stuff on Flickr, I thought I might post one of my favorite shots from his trip. Gorgeous, eh?

Last night, we went to Fort Worth for a date night. We ate dinner at the Flying Saucer, an establishment so centered around their international alcohol that I thought for a minute the waitress was going to throw us out when we said we weren't drinking tonight. However, the food was quite good; I enjoyed a goat cheese/cranberry/walnut salad, and Alex had a buffalo chicken wrap. Then we indulged in some kind of ice cream/chocolate cake drenched in raspberry sauce.

The Bass was gorgeous, and Avenue Q was great. So, so great. We kept joking throughout the first act that we'd see a bunch of empty seats after intermission, due to the, ahem, controversial nature of the show. And sure enough, the four seats to our left were empty throughout the entire Act 2, despite the fact that one of the guys had been laughing his head off. My theory is that he's going to get heck from his wife for laughing at all.

Today, we've had pancakes and some lazing about, and now we're back to work--Alex literally working on work stuff, me working on getting papers together for house financing, and travel receipts to file tomorrow, then the last three weeks (and four trips' worth) of laundry, and I had been planning on ripping CDs and organizing our mp3 players.... but yeah. So far, I've managed to throw up my hands in frustration over my lack of cohesive plans for my 30th birthday party, and add tags to some images on Flickr. And, er, there's this post.

I've still got a ton of photos and content to post for the last three trips (plus earlier stuff that I'm not even going to think about at the moment)... here are two brief notes:

• I was just in Anaheim, Abilene, and Austin. What's up with the A-town theme?
• I have now come to realize that Austin is the avacado capitol of Texas. And also has the most fantastic waiting service I have ever enjoyed. I have now made my peace with this town, and accept its eccentricities as charming (with the exception of the awful highway system, which I did not personally have to deal with on this particular trip).
  

How Did It Get to Be August?

Wednesday, I got a happy little letter detailing my promotion and raise next month--w00t! Alex and I celebrated at a great Greek place in Plano, Zorba's, with our pals Josh and Stacey, then played Hearts at their place. I cheerfully lost, having completely combined Hearts, Spades, and Pinochle together in my brain for all time.

This weekend, we drove done to ol' San Antone to visit my parents. We had a grand time--Mom and I lost to Alex and Dad at Canasta (quite shamefully, too). We enjoyed key lime pie, some fantastic pecan praline ice cream, and the best brisket I've ever had, hands-down (thanks to Buck & Ozie's Last Chance). We exchanged gifts for my birthday, my dad's birthday, and Father's Day, then watched the end of "Gladiator" and the beginning of "Amistad."

Mom and I had a really great visit with my pal Cherie, who I went to high school with and then roomed with my first year at HSU. She is currently in her fourth battle with cancer in the past five years. She's recently been put on steroids, so she looked great and felt much better, but it always blows my mind to realize that Cherie, of all people, has been chronically ill for so long. She was the sarcastic, sardonic one in high school and here she is with a husband, two kids, and an incredible strength and optimism in the midst of a long illness.

Mom took us both to the Alamo Cafe for lunch, a longtime favorite of us all. We had fantastic food and a lot of laughing--sometimes it's hard to believe the things we did in high school. We reminisced about how Saturdays at Cherie's house, she and I would always eat frozen pizza (Tony's, I think), Dr. Pepper, and make brownies. Every single time. And we wrote a story together with the most fantastic title ever, by passing the paper back and forth line by line. And despite the fact that we've been reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series since our junior year, thirteen years ago, he still hasn't published the last book.

I also got to visit with Cherie's family for the first time in years. Isn't there some song about how everything changes, but everything's the same? Yeah, it was that.

As usual, I have many many photos of the weekend, and yet no time to upload them. Ah well, watch my flickr account periodically and you'll find them in time.

The Weekend

Abilene:

• Enjoyed seeing my good friend Kat, who is Most Greatly With Child.
• Took a ridiculous amount of photos, as usual.
• Played Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, and did not totally suck on the medium level.
• Turned 29.
• Enjoyed many phone calls from wonderful family members (in particular the voice-mail from my father-in-law singing "Happy Birthday").
• Had some really incredible steak and shrimp.
• Held my first meetings as Chair of one of the HSU BYA Committees (as did Alex, Chair of another committee in that group).
• Wore a purple shirt.
• Had Ben & Jerry's Irish Delight Ice Cream.
• Did not sleep a wink Friday night.
  
• Enjoyed driving my Awesome New Ride.
• Enjoyed having the fuel efficiency of a car, not a truck.

Yep, I'm still busy as heck. Check out my photos instead of waiting around for text comments (er, the Abilene photos aren't up yet, though):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekyartistlibrarian/

Fresh-Baked Goodness

After everyone left the party (again), I felt lonesome and sweet-tooth-y. So I baked us a strawberry pie. I kind of combined recipes from two different cookbooks I had, as FoodNetwork.com had surprisingly little to offer in this area. It be tasty.

So, Saturday we had our youngest nephew's 3rd birthday party*, and then our own Independence Day party--er, again. This time, we had about twelve or so people (eight the previous weekend), and we successfully set off a ton of fireworks. We caught them on video this time, and if Alex's computer will ever agree to process it, I'll post it on YouTube and link it here.

I have photos from both of our parties to upload, as well as the rest of California and the rest of DC. I'm operating without a SD-card reader right now, and can only get photos off my leaving my camera on and attaching it to the computer with a USB cable, which transfers photos at a remarkably sluggish rate--hence the sluggish rate of posting to Flickr. Sigh.

*Note: all photos of the birthday party are uploaded and accessible through the link above, but all are unedited, as well. This means they are large, and might be blurred or have odd lighting--if you'd like a copy of something cropped/sized/edited, just let me know.

DC Day Three

ALA is intense. Or perhaps it's just all that walking, combined with the 15 lbs of laptop/backpack I'm lugging around that makes it seem that way. Every time I get back to the Tabard Inn, I just crash with exhaustion.

I'm not going to be at the Facebook party that starts in fifteen minutes--even if I wasn't dead-tired, I have a GODORT thing to interview for at 8:15am tomorrow. Isn't that a spectacularly cruel time to schedule an interview?

So, this morning, I awoke with great hopes of trying a different breakfast at the Tabard--maybe bagels this time, or granola with homemade yogurt. Only--they serve breakfast at 7am on weekdays... and 8am on weekends. I only had time to frown with sadness, then rushed off to my first session, ERT's Digital Natives. The presentation wasn't really anything I hadn't heard already, but there was an interesting, lively discussion afterward, and the room was jam-packed with people. (The link above also provides some notes taken on the discussion, if you're interested.)

Dreanna Belden from UNT went with me to that, so we then got some much-needed coffee and a delish cranberry-orange muffin from the obligatory 'Bucks kiosk, and sat down for some good chat about life, the universe, and everything.

Then I had to run off to the GODORT Update at the Renaissance Washington, where I pulled up a chair and my laptop to Julie Linden's corner (near an outlet, thank goodness). I briefly got to chat with Kris Kasianovitz, who I met in Oakland through NDIIPP, and then met Amy Stewart-Mailhiot F2F for the first time--she's been generously donating some govdocs for some digitization projects of ours.

I met Dreanna in the hotel lobby, and we wandered off to Chinatown, eventually settling on the "Wok and Roll" where Dreanna had some gorgeous-looking sushi, and I settled for an uncharacteristically less-adventurous beef lo mein. I took some fun, colorful photos as we left Chinatown, and we got the giggles as we passed a tableaux at Hooter's. Four orange-clad buxom gals were outside, taunting a slightly-inebriated male librarian with, "Well, we never went to library school." He was amazed that they knew he was a librarian--until they pointed out that he was still wearing his enormous ALA badge. Sigh.

I went back to the Renaissance for GODORT Leg. II. It's not that I'm a glutton for attending meetings for committees I'm not on, but they were discussing a response to the recent CRS report legislation being considered, and of course that's particularly relevant to my work archiving those reports. It was an interesting meeting, and I learned that editing resolutions isn't nearly as boring as it sounds--or else that's the old English major in me, but I found it fascinating.

And afterward, I wandered in the general direction of the LITA Meet n' Greet, but along the way... I met Meredith Farkas in-person! (And sorry, but you'll have to read that link for the story.)

The LITA Meet n' Greet was... well, not as lively as I was hoping. I was mildly interested in the interest groups on Digital Library Technologies and Distance Learning... but if I become more involved in GODORT like I hope to and only increase my courseload in the future... I don't need one more committment. Unless I find a compelling reason, I probably won't renew my LITA membership next year--I can read their articles, blog, and attend their sessions without being a member, after all.

Coming out of the hotel, I ran into Valerie, Kevin, and Brooke--whom I met for the first time, having of course heard glowing things from Val. Which all turned out to be completely true, as Val went back to her hotel to write a CRS letter for Leg., and Brooke and I whisked through the Exhibits Hall for an hour. During which, I witnessed an amazing performance of female flirting that on her the coveted, swag-filled and quality-stitched Oxford UP tote bag. Clever girl, that.

We parted at 7th and L, and I headed once again toward the Metro and the Tabard. I lugged my technological burden upstairs, changed out of professional and sweaty clothing, and briefly hopped out again to traipse up and down the block with the Digi-Lab camera, capturing the gorgeous architecture.

I came back to have some more of the Tabard's lite fare--this time a mozarella-and-roast-pepper salad that really was lite, but had enough protein to keep me going. I dragged myself back upstairs at the ridiculous-for-one-under-30 hour of 6:45, and promptly spent a few hours in blissfully decadent, useless novel-reading and a half hour nap (finished Deboarh Crombie's Dreaming of the Bones). Suzanne Sears called and we arranged to share a cab tomorrow to Cathy's party, and then we sent awhile chatting and giggling.

I called Alex, but he and Jared were watching "Invincible," so I started being productive, and then chatted with him when he called back awhile later. He and Jared watched the last SG-1 today--completely with my full knowledge and permission before-hand--and said there's a possible second spin-off series in the works, as well as some TV movies. Well, there's hope, then! And, of course, I only let Alex watch the episodes without me under the strict understanding that he has to watch them with me Tuesday night, as well.

And now I'm here, having fully intended to go to bed an hour ago, but being sucked into that novel and my blog/wiki/flickr/Facebook ate up several hours of my life. Ah, well. Thus is the life of a digital semi-native.

Now, I think I'll spend a little more time ignoring my headache, uploading some photos, and looking at the GODORT website in preparation for tomorrow morning. And then to bed, to bed.

DC: Day Two

I might be more exhausted than last night, but it's hard to tell. Oh, how I love, love, love this city.

I had planned to get up early and take the Metro in and just wander about a bit taking photos... but instead, I stayed at the Tabard until past 11am. I slept much later than my original plans--6am on a non-morning session day? What was I thinking?!--and then headed down to some of the Tabard Inn's delicious complimentary breakfast. Homemade cranberry scones with some delicious jewel of a jelly--some dark berry with orange that was delightful--and enormous slabs of honeydew melon that I sadly could not finish. The two cups of coffee was probably more than I needed, but was so nice. I wandered about the Tabard a little taking photos, then headed back upstairs to become engrossed in the wifi and photo editing.

I finally realized it was past time to meet Val, so I hopped out into the sunshine. I took the Metro to the WCC and met Val outside, then we walked to the Austin Grill. We had a great time chatting, and I enjoyed a wonderful chile-rubbed tuna sandwich--the tuna steak was an inch and a half thick and covered in avacado slices.... sooooo good.

After our lunch and gossip, Val and I ran into Cathy Hartman, Larry Romans, and Amy West at the ALA registration area, and they all went on to GODORT-y sessions, while I headed back to the Metro for GODORT's tour of the Senate Library.

I was happy to have the opportunity to pass through Union Station again, and snapped photos as I went down Delaware to the Russell Senate Building. I didn't realize the Senate Library was right next to CRS--tempts a nerdy girl to run in there and make off with a bunch of reports. The tour was fantastic--lots of gorgeous, interesting documents and a pristine Serial Set--I know, this stuff should be on my professional blog, but I'll just link it here. I love that the clocks in the entire Senate building, including the restaurants, have lights and buzzers that are all code for different things--five minutes to a vote, a quorum call, etc. So anyone in the Senate buildings always know what's going on, no matter where they are. And for any librarians needing hard-to-locate government information, the Senate Library not only has a fantastic collection, but they're happy to provide reference assistance to librarians (they don't have a public mission, so they don't serve patrons directly). And they have quite a few CRS reports from the 1970's through the 1990's... hmmm.

I ran into Julie Linden on the second tour, then left the Senate building and walked back to Union in that gorgeous sun--although it was a bit warmer than I was expecting, Texas having been so rainy and cool for the past... how long has it been raining constantly? Since February?

When I got back to the WCC, I got all my ALA gear and officially donned my conference badge--not wanting to look like a likely target, I wasn't wearing it outside the WCC. Then it was time for GODORT Legislation I, so I went up to 209 and turned on my laptop--it was worth all the pain of lugging it around all day just to have it there for instant notes on my wiki, let me tell you. I also met Jennie Burroughs, who's a Facebook friend of mine, and Kristin Clark, who apparently reads my (other) blog--I just love the internet! Cathy was in the session, as was Jesse Silva, who after the meeting showed me the awesome things they're doing at Berkeley with their wiki. He's mashing up pmwiki, Camtasia, and the LexisNexis interface so that the wiki plays the tutorial (in flash), then at certain parts the patron scrolls down to Lexis and actually acts out the tutorial--genius! They've also got related RSS feeds in the right-hand column.

Leg. I was pretty interesting--Jesse's set up a wiki for them, and there was some discussion about having some members participate only online, and what roles they might take. Then I took a few minutes to check email and IM, and then joined the GODORT Happy Hour at the Embassy Suites bar. I met quite a few more people and got the GODORT ribbon for my badge, then left with Cathy and her posse to go find dinner.

We walked down 10th--there was a gorgeous crushed glass mosiac walkway that I photographed--and went to a funky little French bistro across the street from the Ford Theater. Yes, that Ford Theater, girls and boys, the one where Lincoln was shot, and the house where he died was right next to the restaurant. But the real treat was the food--I had some kind of salad I don't think I can even pronounce--Chevre Chaud?--with huge slabs of warm goat cheese that was to die for, and afterward a crepe suzette that was about the best thing involving an orange that I've ever tasted. They finally kicked us out after 9:30--we were the last ones there--and we had a gloriously fun, chatty walk back to the Metro, exited at Dupont Circle, and I wearily pulled myself into the room a bit after 10pm.

I've just got off the phone with Alex, who is waiting for Jared to come over and they'll be make firework preparations this weekend. Now I should be consulting my schedule for tomorrow and sleeping--as I have a tremendous headache and am exhausted--but I'd rather read my frivolous novel, edit and upload photos to flickr, and generally glutton myself with technology instead of being responsible. Sigh.

Today was much less lonely than yesterday, and it was just amazingly fun to be out and about in DC. I am always a grumpy, shy wreck the first day of any trip, and the farther away the place is, the worse I get. The first day in Italy in 1997, I hardly spoke to anyone--even my American travel-mates--but the day afterward I was up for wild adventures like I never am at home. Travel does odd things to people.

I succeeded, I think, in creating a great travelouge of my day in photos, but I wonder how long it will take me to get them up. I think I may forget editing them for now, and just upload as-is, willy-nilly, so that anyone who's interested can follow along my trip.

Oh, and that laptop--it's so worth it, but I think I need to hire a... oh I'm too tired to think of the name. The guys who carry your luggage up the mountain. Yeah. That's world-class blogging right there folks: "It was the thing, with that stuff, remember?" Yeah... Ah, well.

DC: Day One

Whew.

Right now, I am snug in bed at the wondrously funky Tabard Inn (my grateful thanks to Cathy Hartman for her recommendation!), checking Facebook, Gmail, and uploading part of today's photos to flickr.

This morning, I rode in to Alex's place of work in Plano, and bummed around on the internet until lunchtime. After a quick bite, we hopped over to DFW Airport--that would be my third time so far this year, folks! After a lot of goodbye hugs, I left Alex (gulp) and got my extremely-too-large suitcase checked. Yes, the gal who tends to share a tiny suitcase with her husband is taking a gigantic one for her tiny self. I think this reveals both my lack of time to make apparel decisions, and my slight insecurity about my first ALA attendance--everything I had any thought of wearing, I threw into that suitcase.

I had no trouble at all finding my gate, for once, and thus had a lovely hour and a half to take photos and edit them on my trusty (but battery-power-deficient) laptop. Then, wonder of wonders, I bumped into Doina, another UNT librarian who happened to be on the same flight. We boarded together, and then proceeded to wait on the tarmac twenty minutes behind seven planes.

The turbulence we went through until we got through the now-ubiquitous rainclouds over Dallas was unpleasant--but you can endure half an hour of almost anything.

I worked on my ALA schedule, looked out the window a lot, took completely unnecessary and probably uninteresting photos, and read a completely frivolous book. In fact, I had no intention of reading it, had never heard of it or the author, but found it in the paperback swap section of our library's cafe, and thought I might as well give it a try. It's actually pretty enjoyable thus far: Dreaming of the Bones, by Deborah Crombie. I'm not a huge mystery person, but it's very British and that feels very "summery reading" to me.

When we got to DC, those rainclouds had apparently followed me. Dark grey was the sky, except for a thin band on intense red that reflected gorgeously on the Potomac. And there was good old DCA, right where I left it with its horrifyingly-short runway.

We landed, and I completely scrapped my original plan of eating at the airport in favor of locating my luggage as quickly as possible. I lugged that huge suitcase up to the Metro station, where I found Doina again, and we took to Yellow Line. I happily proceeded to identify myself as an annoying tourist by snapping photos on the metro, and got a happy lump in my throat when I could see the Washington monument through the window.

Doina and I parted where I switched lines, and then I exited at Dupont Circle. This is when I became fully aware that my suitcase was not suited to: 1) airports 2) metro systems 3) escalators, or 4) street-walking. I walked three blocks south before realizing that I was alone, lost, and nearly unable to lug my suitcase any further. Being a huge nerd, I took a photo to document this.

I then went back another block north, called Alex in frustration, and then realized I was where I needed to be, and walked a half block east to my hotel. I also then took several photos of triumph. Because of my extreme nerdiness.

I checked in with a friendly woman I was so happy to see that I could have hugged her, and proceeded up to Room #5. By "proceed," I mean that I banged, pushed, and pulled my ginor-mo suitcase up a flight of stairs more narrow than it is (no, there isn't an elevator). But it's so homey, elegant, funky that I am extremely happy I'm not in a regular hotel. This is more relaxing, as well as cooler.

I went down to the restaurant and discovered that while entrees started in the $20's, their "lite fare" was more than appetizers and was in the more reasonable $ 8-10 range. I ordered a smoked pork quesadilla and water, and it was almost too much food--but gloriously tasty, and a wonderful treat to eat in the parlor with my book during cocktail hour, while a group apparently from Baylor discussed teacher benefits. I charged it to my room--oh, glorious luxury!--and snapped a few more photos of the room itself.

Since then, I've been in bed with the laptop, spreading my online presence and uploading about half of the photos I took today--I plan on getting the rest up tomorrow morning-ish. I read Alex to sleep over the phone--I think that might have been our sixth phone conversation today. (But then, that's not abnormal at home, really.)

I'll have to post more about thoughts and the Tabard and all tomorrow--I'm having lunch with Valerie, and then it's off to make my ALA debut, baby!

Note to self: stop wearing geeky-phrase t-shirts when you're traveling. You get tired of all those strangers staring at your chest, remember?

And to Alex: good night, my love--I miss you sorely.

Blueberry Goodness

"Instant" Pancake Mix Recipe courtesy Alton Brown See this recipe on air Monday Jun. 11 at 7:00 PM ET/PT. Show: Good Eats Episode: Flap Jack Do It Again

The Mix

6 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (check expiration date first) 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 tablespoon kosher salt 2 tablespoons sugarCombine all of the ingredients in a lidded container. Shake to mix. Use the mix within 3 months. "INSTANT" PANCAKES: 2 eggs, separated 2 cups buttermilk 4 tablespoons melted butter 2 cups "Instant" Pancake Mix, recipe above 1 stick butter, for greasing the pan 2 cups fresh fruit such as blueberries, if desired Heat an electric griddle or frying pan to 350 degrees F. Heat oven to 200 degrees F. Whisk together the egg whites and the buttermilk in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the melted butter. Combine the buttermilk mixture with the egg yolk mixture in a large mixing bowl and whisk together until thoroughly combined. Pour the liquid ingredients on top of the pancake mix. Using a whisk, mix the batter just enough to bring it together. Don't try to work all the lumps out. Check to see that the griddle is hot by placing a few drops of water onto to the griddle. The griddle is ready if the water dances across the surface. Lightly butter the griddle. Wipe off thoroughly with a paper towel. (No butter should be visible.) Gently ladle the pancake batter onto the griddle and sprinkle on fruit if desired. When bubbles begin to set around the edges of the pancake and the griddle-side of the cake is golden, gently flip the pancakes. Continue to cook 2 to 3 minutes or until the pancake is set. Serve immediately or remove to a towel-lined baking sheet and cover with a towel. Hold in a warm place for 20 to 30 minutes. Yield: 12 pancakes

Austin-tacious Weekend

Wow. What a whirlwind!

There are hundreds of photos on our SD cards, and I can only access the ones on the 512 mb one currently (the 2 gb one doesn't like the laptop). So I haven't seen actual wedding photos yet, just bridemaid stuff, rehearsal dinner, and wedding set-up.

Alex and I drove down on Friday for Jaime & Todd's wedding. We stopped and ate at Chipotle first, to foist off both traffic and hunger. We got to Jaime's place later that night and had a blast hanging out with J, T, and meeting more of the wedding party--particularly the amazingly-talented Amanda and the hilarious Jon. Then while they all went out to have fun, we acted like the Old Marrieds we are and crashed on Jaime's rather-nice air mattress.

We decided the next morning that, in our defense, we had not only completed a long drive, but each had had particularly long, rough weeks at work. If we're deluding ourselves, just don't tell me.

Jaime and Amanda treated us to delicious breakfast in the morning, and us gals met John at milk + honey for some spa indulgence. As I still have the artist's misfortunate of short, fragile fingernails, I forewent a mani/pedi and opted to document the process on film instead. Then I walked a block south and met my parents, who were randomly in Austin at the same time for an art show. (Actually, Dad snuck up on me while I was calling his cell trying to find him, which in retrospect was pretty funny.)

My parentals took me to meet Alex at a local gun show, and then we did lunch together at Chuy's, where I had a veggie enchilada (quite good!). It was fun to briefly visit with them.

Then Alex and I jetted north to Cedar Park to hang out with his sister and our nephew for the afternoon. There was fun chatting and tickling. I left my purse there, we went back to get it, and then I promptly left my keys the second time. Sigh.

The rehearsal was fun--if difficult to locate--and the dinner was amazing Thai food. A-maze-ing. Tihleigh, I salute your people (no, I'm not dyeing my hair black or anything). And we got HUGE boxes of leftovers to take with us--so we brought our big ol' box to our pal Jenny's apartment. We got in while she was out--we promptly admired her Ikea decorating dynamic, laughed at her sticky notes everywhere in the apt., and fell into a deep slumber on her rather wonderful sleeper couch.

In the morning, we enjoyed Starbucks and church with Jenny, and then spent some fun hang-out time at her place while scarfing down some of the Thai leftovers. I love me some peanut sauce, let me tell you.

Then it was off to the wedding venue--which was gooooorgeous! We hung lights, inserted chicken-beer-can holders into paper lanterns (to hold votive candles, doncha know), and moved around tables until it was time to hustle into fancy garb. Jaime was luminous, Todd didn't cry, and we all had a great time--and no one spilled any Eucharistic wine.

We got to see some pals at the reception--Seth & Lisa, Pranaya, Ryan, Velma & Andy--and enjoyed cheesecake that melted like butter in our mouths. There was still more amazing food, some ridiculously good reddish champagne, and a coffee bar. Alex and I even did a little dancing while waiting on our coffee.

Then there were hugs and farewells, as we skedaddled out to make our way home for a little rest before Alex's work in the morning. On the way, we picked up my keys at Amy's, got turned around near 183, and were rescued by directions over the phone from Alex's mom. We got home at 2, fell into bed... and I promptly awoke at 4 to discover that the amazing food hadn't sat too well with me.

And thus, I've spent the day in or near bed being a little sick and nonproductive, instead of doing my taxes over Spring Break.

We got to see both sides of our family, and all kinds of friends--all in all, it was a packed and amazing weekend. I would love to experience more like that.

Barefoot and in the Kitchen

This weekend I acted completely out of character by not only baking an elaborate dish (it required 5 pots--and a strainer!), but also by baking two different kinds of cookies from scratch. It's like on Sunday I had a little Betty Crocker Seizure... the lesser-known sister of the Grand Mal Seizure.

Here's a link to the main course recipe on my wiki:
Portobello Mushroom Lasagna

For my vegetarian friends, in particular (Kali, Lilly, pay attention!), this would be a great dish. The mushrooms are hearty enough that they provide a lot of protein. It's provided courtesy of your friendly Food Network and specifically The Barefoot Contessa, a show which I will now have to avoid because it compells me to cook tasty things with a cup of pure butter. Yikes.

By ironic contrast, the cookies were quite healthy. I made several healthful substitutions that, oddly enough, resulted in the tastiest, most perfectly-baked batch of chocolate cookies I have ever made. I started with dark chocolate chips instead of the usual semi-sweet; they're tastier and have more of those "healthy" flavinoids (which is the most made-up sounding substance ever). It was a pear upside-down cake recipe that Alex sent me, that inspired me to substitute applesauce (and a dash of veggie oil) for the butter. Then I got reckless and substituted whole wheat flour for half of the regular white stuff. Then I got plain silly and added a few teaspoons of a fiber supplement and bee pollen (which is supposed to be miraculous for energy and allergies, according to my bee-keeping in-laws).

They were the puffiest, most glorious cookies I've ever made. Now I'm pondering another batch, but substituting honey for half of the sugar.

And in the crossover between politics and comedy...
I can't find the link to the clip from Thursday's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but it was ridiculously hilarious, regarding Hilary and Obama in Alabama. Each, according to Stewart, speaking as if a black person imitating a white person imitating a black person. Ah, politics.

And in geekery...
I've had the Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis theme songs alternating in my head all day. This is no doubt due to the fact that we bought Atlantis Season 2 last week, and as a result, can finally finish watching SG-1 Season 9, since they intersect plotlines. And for the past two days, we've been watching a lot of Stargate.

Life is good... until you get to the last DVD of the season (we've currently got 2 1/2 to go in each show).

My Not-So-Funny Bone

I woke up yesterday to find, to my delight, that snow had once again covered everything! (Where do I live now, Canada?) I ran to get Alex's camera, ran back to the front door, ran out the door to go get some shots of the house--and totally bit it on the icy driveway. I had, foolishly, put on Alex's shoes (that make me look like a mouse in a giant's boots), and one of them slipped off slid across the driveway as I fell with most of my weight on my left elbow.

I'm not a person to swear, normally (aside from "cr4p" which is just fun to say), but I let out the loudest, most outraged, "D*** it!" in my shrill voice that I could mange. I bet it looked hilarious from an onlooker's perspective, but unfortunately for the world, no one was outside to witness it.

I managed to limp to the end of the driveway to take my photo, and then limped inside, where I waited around another hour or so trying to decide if I should go to work, or go in to get my elbow x-rayed. It hurt terribly all day yesterday, and typing wasn't so fun, but was dramatically better this morning. This is just one more instance that proves a) I am the most uncoordinated, ungraceful person who has ever taken a decade of ballet lessons, and b) my childlike enthusiasm usually only gets me into trouble.

Other than that, yesterday was exciting--we're (or rather, I'm) launching two new digital projects at work, and Alex and I had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (I'd never been there before). The avacado eggrolls were fantastic, as was the grilled eggplant sandwich and the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Eating out at such places restores my faith in cooking. Maybe not my cooking, but the fact that somewhere on earth, people are being creative with food and making it well. Can you tell that I'm a little tired of my own fare and its boring nature?

And... that's about it. I worked today (just like I will on two other Saturdays this month), so there will probably be little in the way of interesting weekend activities to report. Alex and I are going to Cabella's tomorrow with his parents, but that's about the extent of it.

The Wii-kend

Saturday was Alex's birthday, which we celebrated in grand style... by staying home and enjoying movies, our Wii, and the warmth of various blankets. I attempted to cook my mom's famous Mexican rice on Friday night as a special dinner, but it was remarkably lackluster. Saturday morning, I gifted Alex with several small things, and then surprised him with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves for the Wii. We proceeded to enjoy the game, which is a compilation of 200 breakneck speed microgames (most are 5 seconds long), which were hilarious and psychotic to the extent that it made Rayman: Raving Rabbids look like a very normal game. A big bonus with Wario Ware is that there are four multiplayer modes, but it only uses one Wii remote, so you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a killer party game (plus I think it supports up to 12 players).

Saturday night, we went out to dinner at Ghengis Grill (yummy!) with Alex's parents and--as a surprise--my parents, who stayed the night and left Sunday afternoon. Afterward, they all came to our place--Alex's parents hadn't seen the Mii versions of themselves yet, and Alex's mom had a lot of fun trying out baseball on Wii Sports. Dad stayed up late with us trying various Rayman minigames (he got a kick out of "Bunnies Don't Know What to do With Cows").

Let's see... here are a bunch of other updates from last week in general:

• The film Brick was really, really great--but if you rent it, be aware that you're going to make good use of the subtitle feature. Lightning-fast, unusual, and mumbled dialogue abounds throughout.
• I fiiiinally got volumes 3 and 4 of Bill Willingham's Fables. Now I can read through my collection (got through volume 8 and the short-story collection, and am eagerly awaiting the Jack of Fables vol. 1 next month).
  
• I got to the second boss in Link to the Past, but my battery ran down after I was killed once, so I need to find my recharge plug.
• Auntie K's out of state today on an interview, and I send my prayers for her safety and confidence.
• I've been reading my bibliography textbook for my Rare Books course, and so far it's all about movable type and the printing process, which I find fascinating. It's talking about the birth of document formatting, such as justification--which is yet another tidbit through which I reveal my intense nerdiness.

Small Pleasures

Does it get better in the morning than creamy, hot coffee and a homemade snickerdoodle?

My thanks to Auntie K for sponsoring this morning’s slightly nutritional breakfast.

Playing Catch-Up (Not Catch)

School's done, and now I can finally blog all the thoughts I've kept pent up in random wordpad documents for the past week and a half.

Thanksgiving Holiday
Alex's first-cousin-once-removed, David, came to my parents' house in San Antonio, and we joined them for a fun three-day holiday. During that time, we:

• played Canasta and San Marco
• sorted through family photos for my school archive project
• tested Alex's awesome new camera-phone
• saw the Riverwalk parade and Christmas lights
• had some really crappy Mexican food (on the Riverwalk, no less!)
• had great Thanksgiving food--oh, the joyous holiday spread!
• came up nearly empty-handed on Black Friday (I won't admit I bought this CD; you can't make me!)
  
• saw Alex's first shooting star

Then we came back and worked on the building, and I dubbed myself the Insulation Queen (to the tune, of course, of Abba's "Dancing Queen"). And had to take two sick days thereafter because I didn't wear a dust mask.

And in the mail: a collection of 50 martyr stories told by various comic artists. Hagiography and graphic storytelling: a bizarre pairing made in my kind of heaven.

Last Weekend
The use of a dust mask this go-round averted further insulation-related misery on my part, although Alex couldn't handle his mask for long and thus suffered, sadly. At least neither of us took sick days as a result, this time.

I spent Sunday working on my school projects--just like old times, before I graduated! Alex went shooting with our friend Brandon (the boardgame geek, not the Star Wars geek), and then they came back to the house and we all played Carcassone the City (which I beat them both at--woohoo!), and Mykerinos (which I was horrible at, but found interesting). We had much fun, but also much sadness, as Brandon is soon moving to Seattle.

And as for the rest of what happened on Sunday... we suffered the Great DVR Crisis. You can read about it in a post I'm titling, "Pop-Culture Junkie."

Starr's Not-So-Chicken Tortilla Soup

I'm currently eating the leftovers of this on my lunch-break:

• 2 large cans diced tomatoes (drain one can)
• 2 cans corn (drained)
• 2 cans black beans (drained)
• 1 can green chiles (with juice)
• 1/2 to 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped (can use green onion also/instead)
• chopped peppers to taste (optional)
• 1 lb pre-cooked sausage OR 1-2 lbs. frozen/fresh chicken breasts

season with:

• garlic pepper (liberal)
• chili powder (2-3 dashes)
• lime pepper (3 dashes)
• taco seasoning (slightly less than garlic pepper)
• (mix together; total amount should equal about 3-4 tbsp)

Place ingredients in crockpot and cook for 4-8 hours (on high if using chicken).
Top with shredded cheese, sour cream, and/or plain yogurt.
Eat with tortilla chips or rolls.

Gingerbread Waffles

Since I haven't backtracked yet to this weekend's activities, I'll give you a "taste" of them by posting this scrumptious recipe we tried. Fair warning: it's yummy, but it took over an hour and five people working in the kitchen. Labor-intensive!!!


Gingerbread Waffles
makes 12 waffles

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 eggs, separated
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup molasses (when we ran out of molasses, we substituted honey for the remainder)
• 1 cup milk (add more milk to use same batter for pancakes)

Ginger Cream Topping

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger (we substituted 1 tbsp ground ginger, because the crystallized ginger kept clumping together)
• pre-chill a mixing bowl in the fridge or freezer

To prepare waffles, combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Ad egg yolks, molasses and milk. Stir in flour mixture. (At this point the mixture may be refrigerated overnight.) In a separate bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into the batter. Bake according to manufacturer's directions in a preheated waffle iron (add more milk to thin batter if making pancakes). Waffles may be kept warm in a 200 degree oven on a cake rack placed over a baking shet. Dollop with cream topping before serving. Goes well with cranberry compote.

To prepare topping, combine cream, sugar and vanilla in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip until mixture forms soft peaks. Stir in ginger. Refrigerate until serving time.


Kristen & Tihleigh, I know at least one of you has got to try this. You're my bakin' gal-pals.

Happy Holiday Feasting

I’ve just committed to making cranberry relish for the UNT Libraries’ holiday dinner. This is a Julia Child dish that my family is famous for taking to holiday events (it makes a sumptuous ice cream if you add whipped cream and freeze it). And for some reason, I thought that I needed some other project for December. Ah well, at least cranberries are healthy!

And just for fun: here are some maps showing the location from which food items traditionally served at Thanksgiving originate.

Why yes, yes I am a Huge Library Nerd.

Ta-Ta to La-La-Land

Alex and I became slightly worried last night, as we listed off major changes in our likes/dislikes lists. Things that haven't changed since before we were married, that are coming fast and steady now. Monumental changes, like... Alex getting on the dance floor. Not once, not twice, but for hours, no wife-dragging/begging involved. Granted, once he realized that it only took a single glass of champagne to make me like being flipped, lifted, thrown, etc. (instead of my usual shrieking "eeeeeeek, PUTMEDOWN!"), I'm sure the whole dancing thing became a lot more attractive to him. After all, what's the good of having a tiny wife if you can't use that tiny-ness to toss her about? I mean, really.

As I still haven't translated my hard-copy blog posts from DC into this digital format, it seems kind of jumping the gun to go into the LA trip. But dude.... dude. You know those weddings in magazines and movies? The ones with sit-down dinners and gorgeous lighting and a talented DJ and more than twenty people on the dance floor at any given time shakin' their groove thang? The ones where you see the photos of the bride and a made-to-order flower girl that can't possibly be real, because of the high beauty/cuteness factors involved? The ones where you could have a polaroid instamatic and still not manage to take a less-than-perfect photo because the entire event is so gorgeously choreographed?

Yeah, it was that.

It was that, plus both sides of the family were gracious and awesome and fun and so, so nice, and all the wedding party and pals were great fun, and the entire weekend involved copious amounts of incredible food. With all this travel/food, coming home to a sinkful of dishes makes me just want to hop on another plane. (C'mon, we've done both coasts; isn't it time for Europe now?)

So, the blow-by-blow will come later, but for now let me say that yesterday, on the twelfth day of November, I spent the afternoon at the beach. In the sunshine. And called my California-born mother to let her hear the beautiful sound of the ocean.

Happiness.

In Other News...

• Ursula Vernon's Black Dogs is reviewed by Library Journal!! That's like a librarian fangirl's dream.
• A great list of Movie Librarians.
• NaNoWriMo: I am trying, actually. I'd like to say I'm still shooting for 50k, that I have hope and belief... but I'm struggling to put out much and I was just out of town for another weekend, leaving me with two weeks left and one of them will be hijacked by Thanksgiving in San Antonio (along with finishing my online archive final class project). Be that what it is, I'm writing anyway. I've neglected this particular novel long enough, and couldn't justify trying on a new one just for NaNoWriMo, so I'm trying to fill in gaps (which is the dirty part of all my creative work: gap-filling). Sorry: no plot details forthcoming until the thing's a done deal. Keep your fingers crossed for a 2007 finish date.

Mental Playlist*:

• Sexyback
• Schnappi
• Right Round
• Ain't No Other Man

*(heavily influenced by wedding DJ--with the exception of Schnappi)

DC Backlog: 10.24.06

I met several people over coffee in the morning, attended a session on Metadata, then enjoyed lunch with the GITCO bunch (my boss is the chair, doncha know) at the Thunder Grill, Union Station. Trying to shake the odd feeling that I was in a Texas restaurant in DC, I ordered the portabello fajitas, which were fantastic, and thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.

Back at the hotel that afternoon, I met Alex, who grabbed some lunch at the Billy Goat, and then we trotted down the Mall for the next six and a half hours. As we walked toward the Washington Monument, I mentioned that I had only recently learned that it had an interior that you could tour, which was news to Alex. Upon finally arriving at it, we discovered that tickets had to be purchased in advance at an office located elsewhere, and all tickets for that day had already been distributed. And then a gracious tourist with two extra tickets provided them to us. It was a killer view out every window, and Alex went a little mad with the camera.

We saw the Washington Monument from almost every location we visited in DC, until it took on the aspect of a celestial fixture, like the sun. And if you had the desire and time to look through the 400+ photos we took in this single day, you'd see that over half of them feature this distinct architectural landmark, in a variety of lights.


Once past this monument, we were awed by the World War II Memorial, which was gorgeous and huge and breathtaking. The bronze plaque devoted to airmen featured a man in the center that look just like my grandfather did in the 1940's, and when we visited the computer kiosk near the memorial, we looked up his name in the WII registry.

I was freezing by the time we were walking toward the Lincoln Memorial, but the gorgeous fall color everywhere kept me moving. Alex and I got our pre-planned photo of a penny back, and once inside, I geeked out at the amazing ceiling, of which I took an obscene amount of photos. As we left the memorial, we were greeted by a sunset that had enflamed the surface of the mall with brilliance.

We headed hotel-ward by way of the Vienam War Memorial, a stark contrast of beautiful design and tragic significance that left us mute. As we walked back through the Mall, we filled the camera with even more images of the Washington Monument--reflected, lit up, behind tree branches. Our photos begin to exhibit the blurred quality of the tripod-less-shot from here on out, save for a few clear images of the Capitol.

We made it to Union Station by about 8:30, just in time to share some dinner at the Center Cafe and commiserate about our tortured feet. From the second tier of the restaurant, we watched the traffic of Union Station pass by, trying to discern a person's personality or their destination by the amount of luggage they hauled. After another chilly walk back to the hotel, we indulged yet again in a pint of ice cream, and fell asleep in the 7th inning of Game 3 (which I discovered the next day had been won by the Cardinals, to my delight and Alex's dismay). Alex rooted for the Tigers both for their decade-long underdog status (although not applicable this year) and ultimately because they are American League, a loyalty that is legendary in his family. I chose the Cards in the end because I've rooted for them in the past, and because Detroit is the ugliest city on TV and the movies that I have ever seen, and my aesthetic sensibilities have thus prejudiced me against the Tigers, despite my soft spot for underdogs.

And if that's not the least American reason behind watching America's Favorite Pasttime, I don't want to know what is.