Random thoughts

Stick a sign on the front lawn...

2010-09-14T14:39:00.002-04:00

I'm moving!

Not actually moving. Just moving the blog. It's been fun hanging out here at Blogger, but... I have a confession to make.

I've been cheating on you with another blog.

I've had a LiveJournal account for about three years now, in addition to this blog, and at first the two had very different content, so I wanted to keep them separate. But over the years, they've sort of merged together, until I was basically just crossposting the same stuff to both of them. Except I'd usually forget and one would get the post a week later than the other one. :-P

So I'm consolidating. And also moving. I've created a new journal at Dreamwidth called Next to Normal, with a lot of my old LJ content (I can import that, but not the Blogger posts). I like the format there much better than Blogger - I can put posts under a cut, which means you'll be able to avoid spoilers when I talk about TV and scroll more easily past posts you're not interested in. And I've been getting a ton of spam comments here, which is really annoying. Also, there are ICONS. You'll see. (I am an icon whore.)

I encourage you to create an account there (I have invite codes if you do), or you can create an OpenID using your Blogger log-in. Or, hey, comment anonymously. I'll think you're creepy, but that's okay. I probably already do. :)

See you there!

Now I kind of want a flaming piano...

2010-08-26T16:22:00.004-04:00

This is either really awesome, really insane, or both. I can't decide.

I think my favorite part is OMG he did that IN THE HOUSE.

Oh, and I will be going to New York this weekend with Christi, so I will probably have gushy things to say about musicals when I get back. :)

TV news!

2010-08-24T13:53:00.003-04:00

So, it appears James Marsters is starring in another SciFi - excuse me, SyFy - series called Three Inches. It remains to be seen whether the quality will be BSG-esque SyFy or bad B-movie-esque SyFy.

I am also still plugging away at my TV-watching project. I finished season 2 of Six Feet Under this weekend, and I kind of remembered why I didn't get through this season the first time. I mean, I still think it's a great show, but it is definitely not up to season 1's standard. I think part of it is that, although the Fisher family is as fantastic as always, I find a lot of the supporting characters to be terribly grating, especially Brenda, Lisa, Nikolai, Rico's family, and Keith's niece Taylor. I did get a huge kick out of seeing Glenn Fitzgerald as the cancer patient who forms a relationship of sorts with Nate, since he and Peter Krause played half-brothers later on in Dirty Sexy Money, and Brian was one of my absolute favorite characters on that show.

Anyway, I love Nate's fascination with and fear of death, and his desperate need to figure out the nature of life after death brought on by his medical condition. I also loved seeing Claire discovering her talent and her passion for art and Ruth being so happy to be a grandmother. As much as my enjoyment of this show comes from how fucked up the Fishers are, I really just want good things to happen to them, lol.

Since I immediately followed SFU by starting Dexter season 4, I was of course completely blown away by Michael C. Hall (again, in reverse). It's weird how he seems so much older on SFU, I guess because David is so uptight and clueless and proper and Dexter's all scruffy and, you know, a serial killer.

I'm also glad to see the end of Kroehner. I honestly felt like that subplot was played out by the end of season 1. Exchanging Gilardi for Mitzi made it more fun, but I'm tired of Fisher & Sons constantly being under siege.

Kitty Picspam

2010-08-23T15:17:00.002-04:00

Well, Chelsea seems to be eating a bit, but still won't go near medicine, no matter how I try to disguise it as people food. Needless to say, I am feeling rather pissed/frustrated/annoyed/sadface at my kitty right now, so I thought a little picspam would remind me how cute she is when she's not spitting medicine at me. :)

Responsible kitty pays the bills.

Giving me the evil eye. Kitty doesn't like getting her picture taken.

"Note to self: Find better hiding spot."

Pillow: You're doing it wrong.

"What? It's comfortable."

The fearsome watch-cat guarding my front door.

Close-up!

Thwarting photography efforts by attacking the camera.

"No more meds or I'm staying under here!"

Well, where do you store your spare kitty?

The saga of medicating my cat

2010-08-22T13:29:00.002-04:00

My darling little furball started sneezing on Monday, and when it hadn't gone away by Thursday, I took her to the vet. Turns out she most likely has feline herpes, and now we are going through the usual song and dance routine to get her to take her meds. I have learned from past mistakes and opted NOT for drugs in pill form when the vet gave me the options. One of them (Lysine) comes as treats, which started out okay. I put a few in her dish Thursday night and she gobbled them right up. But she's refused to eat anymore since then despite coating them in cream cheese (I dunno, it was the vet's advice), soaking them in milk, or mixing them with tuna.

Medicine number two (antibiotic), on the other hand... oy. It's a liquid that I'm supposed to feed her via dropper. The first dose wasn't so bad, once I'd bribed her with catnip so she'd even come close to me (she knows when something's up), chased her around the apartment a few times, finally tackled her and squished her between my legs while trying to pry her mouth open, and only spilled a little bit on my carpet. :\ Friday morning... well, I sort of squirted it in her face by accident (OMG NOT MY FAULT SHE WOULDN'T STOP WRIGGLING!), which makes it highly unlikely she'll ever let me try THAT again. I tried mixing this one with tuna, too, but no dice. Wouldn't even go near it. She spent most of yesterday hiding under the bed, and pretty much runs away every time I come close to her, so I'm thinking there will be no more medicating until she's less traumatized.

Meanwhile, I have been nursing a cold of my own. The sore throat started last weekend and progressed into full-on nasal congestion over the course of the week. I have gone through an obscene amount of tissues. And I'm only a little ashamed to admit that when Chelsea started sneezing, I thought, "Is it possible for cats to get human colds?" Our new nicknames are Sneezy and Sniffles.

However, I did get a new camera recently (actually, it's a hand-me-down from my parents, and my mother took the liberty of taking pictures of herself and Patches before she gave it to me. "I knew you'd want them," she said), and have been taking pictures of Chelsea being adorable, so expect another kitty picspam soon.

Mad Men and a fun link

2010-08-19T21:08:00.001-04:00

Mad Men is not a show I typically think of as funny. I mean, it has its moments (many involving Roger Sterling), but lawnmower antics aside, most of the humor is pretty dry. Not really laugh-out-loud funny, you know?

But sometimes it just hits it dead-on.

OH DEAR GOD Pete Campbell is going to be a father.

"What the world needs is another Campbell." Ken, honey, I ROFL'd. Literally. I didn't think that actually happened in real life. I thought it was just a funny internet expression.

Also making me LOL - Don pretending there's a fire to get off the phone with Lee Garner, Jr. and Peggy peering over the divider to see into Don's office.

Speaking of which, holy shit, Allison! Don so had that coming, but I was extra amused because I just watched the Six Feet Under episode where Claire's school counselor encourages her to throw stuff to release tension and she trashes his office. :) And again, I LOL'd at the replacement Joan found - an old lady that Don won't try to sleep with (...oh, God, I hope not. There's not enough "Oh, Don" in the world for THAT).

On a more serious note, I like how they are doing things with Pete and Peggy's relationship, but it's all very subtle. I've never had any desire to see them together (plus I love Trudy too much), but I enjoy the little ways in which they relate to each other.

Also, If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses. HILARIOUS.

TV stuff

2010-08-18T20:42:00.002-04:00

I'm free! For two weeks, at least, now that my class is done. And my boss is on vacation for most of next week, which means lots of TV watching. I finished The Office (UK), which I have to say, got harder and harder to watch. The special was just horribly unpleasant. Definitely, definitely voting for the US version as the superior Office.

I'm now watching Six Feet Under. I'd seen season 1 before, and rewatching it reminded me of how much I LOVED IT. I love every single one of the Fishers and their fucked-up lives so very, very much. Onto season 2 now, which I started long ago, but for some reason never finished. The funny thing about it is that originally I didn't have any impressions of the actors except for Peter Krause's role on Sports Night (which I loved), but this time around, nearly everyone is from some other show. Peter Krause's now on Parenthood, Michael C. Hall's on Dexter, Rachel Griffiths is on Brothers and Sisters, and Lauren Ambrose I need to watch more of because damn, she is awesome. I was impressed with MCH's range watching Dexter, when I knew him as David, and now it's happening again in reverse. Also, I don't hate Brenda as much as I did last time around, but I still find Sarah Walker to be infinitely more tolerable.

I've also started - dun dun dun - Lost. Thus far I've seen all of season 1 and am pretty much hooked. I am trying very hard not to think that anything means anything, because I know that way leads to madness, but I can really see why people got all fanatical about that kind of stuff. If I'd been watching it as it aired, without the benefit of knowing that it's complete and utter lunacy to try, I'd probably be writing essays about all kinds of thematic and symbolic shit.

I will say, though, that I am enjoying the story qua story. I like the way they are handling the flashbacks, and the character development seems to complement the tension from everyone keeping secrets and all the scary shit on the island (seriously, there sure are plenty of ways to die on that island, aren't there? It's a freakin' death trap).

Time for another book post!

2010-08-10T14:28:00.002-04:00

Well, another class is nearing its end, which means I've got quite a few books to add to my "read this year" list. I'm gonna try to do these more frequently, so I don't end up with a ridiculously long list like last time, lol.

1. Prairie Tale: A Memoir, by Melissa Gilbert - This was kind of disappointing. See, when I was a kid, I wanted to be Laura Ingalls SO BAD OMG, so I thought it would be really cool to read about the real person behind the character and all the behind the scenes stuff. As it turns out, Little House is only a very small part of the book, and the rest deals with her celebrity life, abusive relationships, and addictions. And frankly, her life's pretty boring. I wasn't particularly looking for a sordid Hollywood tale, but if I was, there are much more sordid ones out there.

2. The Kommandant's Girl and The Diplomat's Wife, both by Pam Jenoff - This is the same author I recommended in my last post. She's an adjunct at the law school, so my mom knows her or something, and she's come to their book club. Apparently, there's a sequel to Almost Home coming out (or already out? I'm not sure) and she's working on a third in this series.

My mom liked these books better than Almost Home. I'm undecided. They're very different. Almost Home is modern, with intelligence/spy type intrigue, whereas this series is historical fiction starting in World War II. The Kommandant's Girl is about Emma, a Jewish girl disguised as a Gentile to avoid capture, working with the Polish resistance by getting close to a high-level Nazi official who's attracted to her.

3. The Diplomat's Wife centers around Marta, Emma's friend from the resistance, who has survived the war and fallen in love with the American soldier who rescued her from Dachau. She is devastated when his plane crashes on its way to England, and ends up marrying a British diplomat, only to find that her years with the Polish resistance may be useful with the Cold War beginning.

I found both books to be really interesting and engaging. They're well-written and really evoke a sense of history. The only thing that bothered me is that Emma and Marta's character arcs are very similar. I can't really be more specific without giving stuff away, but I did at times feel like, "Oh, are we doing this again?"

The rest of them are books for class, so proceed with caution. :)

4. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, by John Kingdon - Painfully boring. Don't bother.

5. Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making, by Deborah Stone - This one was actually really fascinating. It probably helps if you're a political dork and interested in stuff like this, but there's a whole section that talks about "stories," and framing political arguments using literary devices and techniques like narratives, synecdoches, metaphors, and ambiguity (or polysemy). It was a cool intersection of my two interests. It's also a really great book if you like to debate, because it basically deconstructs an argument into its components, which is helpful to think about in structuring your own thoughts.

6. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, by Clay Shirky - This is another one I'd recommend for fun reading outside of class (sometimes homework CAN be fun!). It's all about the digital networking age and how the internet has made it possible for people to come together in new and unorthodox ways. He talks about things like the creation of Wikipedia (and why it's a success), the use of Twitter and Flickr in political contexts (e.g. as a way to get information out of a country with restrictive reporting), and social networking. It also raises the issue of the millenial generation's tendency to "live out loud" - how we've always had computers and that makes us more comfortable putting our entire lives out there for everyone to see.

7. The Congressional Experience, by David Price - Also really boring. Don't bother.

8. The President's Agenda, by Paul Light - Ditto.

9. Bureaucracy, by James Q. Wilson - Okay, I found this interesting, but unlike the other two, this is probably ONLY interesting to policy wonks and holds zero appeal for normal people. It's an exploration of how bureaucracies work (and why, more often than not, they don't) but its basic thesis is that no two bureaucracies are alike, and so it's a very big-picture approach with some intriguing real-life examples. But be warned - it is LONG, so skimming is definitely advised.

Food stuffs

2010-08-05T11:54:00.005-04:00

I don't know why I decided to make pork chops. I hardly ever eat meat anymore, but I had them in the freezer and figured I ought to do something with them. I saw this marinade recipe on cooking, but I didn't write down who posted it. I'm pretty sure it was a family recipe or something.

Pork Chop Marinade

1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar
4 1/2 oz soy sauce
4 TB dark brown sugar
2 tsp dry mustard
1 TB oregano
1 TB thyme
2 tsp garlic

Mix it all together and let the pork marinate for around 24 hours, turning to cover it all every 2-4 hours. The recipe is for about 12 pork chops, so I ended up cutting it way down. I also didn't have any dry mustard, so I used regular mustard instead (1 tsp dry mustard = 1 TB prepared mustard, I looked it up!). I baked the pork chops in the oven, but you can cook them any way you like. The marinade was really tasty, tangy and sweet. I ended up freezing the leftovers, since I didn't want to eat meat too many days in a row. Hopefully it'll still taste good later!

Now that broccoli is an "only for special occasions" food, asparagus has become my new go-to green vegetable. I also, on a whim, bought goat cheese at the supermarket (they had free samples! Wave something in front of me and I will buy it!) and so I decided to make this Creamy Fettuccine with Asparagus recipe from my cookbook. It was pretty yummers. One thing I will say, though, is that one cup of pasta water was too much - I ended up draining it out because it was so soupy (and then of course I had to add more cheese and mustard because I'd drained most of that with the water).

Another thing I've really been wanting to try is risotto. I actually bought arborio rice a while ago, but didn't have any specific ideas to use it. On a whim (are you starting to see how I shop? lol) I'd bought some scallops and I decided they might go well together. Here's the recipe for the risotto, which was on the back of the rice container:

1 cup uncooked rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
salt and pepper

1. Saute onion in oil and butter for 3 minutes.
2. Add rice, stirring for about 2 minutes.
3. Stir in 1 cup of broth. Continue cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed.
4. Gradually stir in remaining broth 1 cup at a time, cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed before adding the next cup.

Yields approximately 3 cups cooked rice.

Since this was all rather spur of the moment, I didn't have any onion, so I just threw the rice in with the butter and oil and went from there. Also, probably the ideal would've been to use fish stock with scallops, but since I didn't have any, I used half chicken and half beef stock (apparently, now that I don't really eat beef anymore, I can make do with beef-flavored rice, lol). I sauteed the scallops like I usually do, then deglazed the pan with a splash of white wine and added both scallops and wine to the risotto when it was just about done cooking. Mmmmm yummy in my tummy. Maybe next time, if I actually plan ahead, I might do something more adventurous with the risotto.

Movie stuff

2010-07-29T15:24:00.001-04:00

I watched Dear John the other night. Even though I swore I would never read a Nicholas Sparks novel, or watch a movie based on one, my love for Amanda Seyfried is STRONG. I was so not in the mood for a sappy love story, but I figured, hey, it's Nicholas Sparks, so somebody's probably gonna die, right? And my faith was rewarded! People dying all over the place! \o/ I was, of course, predisposed to cry my eyes out, even though it was INSANELY cliched, but Amanda Seyfried is adorable as usual.

Last night, I saw Emma Caulfield's movie, TiMER, which was really cute. It's got a sort of "sci-fi lite" premise, which it uses to do some interesting things with the concept of soul mates. Love is now in the domain of science thanks to an implanted device (the titular timer) that tells you exactly when you'll meet The One - an idea that assumes, of course, that there's only one true love for everybody. It was supposed to make things easier - and it has apparently cut down on divorce - but it also raises a whole host of difficult questions: How do you deal with the arranged-marriage nature of forming a relationship with a total stranger you'll eventually love? What if you meet your one at 16? Or what if you won't meet your one until far in the future - do you wait around for them or have sex with no strings attached, knowing it won't go anywhere? If you meet someone you really like, but they're not your one, do you risk the digitally doomed romance? In the midst of all that, Emma's character illustrates how frustrating and scary an uncertain future can be. Her one hasn't gotten a timer, which means that hers is blank, leaving her in the dark about when - or if - she'll ever find her soul mate. Tired of obsessively searching for Mr. Right, she takes a risk on a guy whose timer has only four months left. Now she has to decide - trust the technology or follow her heart?

I also watched Seven Pounds, which was... meh. I tend to feel this neighborly affection for Will Smith, since he went to my dad's high school and all, and he does turn in a decent performance. But the movie doesn't really deliver much of anything. It's kinda icky on multiple levels, and yet not really dark enough to be intentionally disturbing. I'm also confused whether it's actually supposed to be a mystery or not. It seems like they sort of wanted a twist at the end, but telegraphed it so blatantly that it's hardly surprising by the time we get to the reveal.

TV stuff

2010-07-28T14:10:00.003-04:00

I think I am losing stamina in my TV-watching project. It is quite a lot of work, but my Netflix queue is hovering at a perilous 499 (the max is 500) and I feel almost obligated to clear it out a bit.

I finally finished Rome. I don't know if it was me or the quality of the show, but I found myself getting bored a little more often in season 2 than in season 1. I liked it, but in a very detached way, such that I really didn't care about any of the characters. I mean, a LOT of people die in season 2, and I can't think of a single one that made me do more than shrug. (And it's not the "history is a spoiler" issue - I knew Caesar was going to die, and it still worked.)

I have noticed a pattern with the painfully long premium channel credits, though. The more I like a show, the more likely I am to fast forward through the opening credit sequence and not waste time getting to the next episode. I never watched the credits with Dexter, I watched them about half the time with Dead Like Me, and I always seem to watch them with Rome because I can't be bothered to fast forward.

I started watching Fawlty Towers, and unfortunately, was not terribly impressed. I can't help thinking it's just not as funny as it thinks it is. Maybe because it's old and all the jokes seem cliche now? I watched up to episode 5, but it felt like a chore to finish it up before moving on to the next show, so I decided to abandon it and skip to something else...

Which was series 1 of The Office (UK). It's weird how there's this sense of deja vu (especially in the first episode, which was almost identical), even though I know the UK version came first. I don't think I have an opinion yet on which is better, though at the moment I lean toward the US version, both because I saw it first and thus it is the standard to which the other is compared, and because I can identify with it better. Sometimes British jokes go over my head. :(

Family stuff

2010-07-27T16:11:00.000-04:00

My parents were here last weekend. My mother, of course, brought with her cheeseburgers, broccoli salad, and corn on the cob, which is pretty much a trifecta if she were trying to kill me. :-P If she'd included bran flakes and strawberries, she'd have had Crohn's bingo. On the plus side, I finally managed to go eight weeks without my symptoms coming back (with the exception of certain foods), so we may have finally found the right dose on the Remicade.

While they were here, we finally (FINALLY) went to the Verizon store to get new phones. My parents have been complaining about their phones not holding a charge forever, and I couldn't get a new phone on my own because I'm on a family plan, which means my dad had to be there to sign the contract. Anyway, I ended up with an LG en-V Touch. I don't really know how it works yet. I almost got a Droid, but I didn't want to pay for the more expensive data plan.

A couple days later, I got a voice mail from my mother: "Hi, it's me. I got your call but I couldn't figure out how to answer my phone."

*sigh* Oh, Mother...

I have been delinquent...

2010-07-27T16:06:00.002-04:00

And now I have a lot to catch up on.

First, foodie things. Ever since I got sick, I've been eating a lot less red meat, because it does icky things to me, and you know, as much as I like chicken and fish, I can't really eat it all the time, so I've been trying some vegetables (I know!).

Anyway, every summer I crave fried eggplant. When I was a kid, my mom and I used to make it together - she'd do the slicing and battering, and I'd do the frying in a portable deep fryer out on the deck in the backyard. It's one of those things that's not really hard to make, but it makes me feel grown-up to be able to make it myself simply because I associate it with my childhood. I don't know how that works exactly, lol, but it makes sense in my head.

I don't think you really need a recipe - slice, dunk (in egg, then bread crumbs), and fry pretty much covers it. I, unfortunately, had to make do with frying them in a big pan on the stove, which I worried would be terribly messy, but it actually worked out pretty well. I love to eat 'em plain when they're hot and crispy right out of the pan, but I saved some to make eggplant parmigiana, too.

The other thing I have been super excited about is spaghetti squash. I don't know, maybe it's not a novelty to most people, but I just discovered it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. It's squash that acts like spaghetti, how awesome is that? I found a recipe for Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta, Sage, and Pine Nuts and was dying to try it. Sadly, I'd had a lot of trouble finding said squash in order to make it. My regular supermarket didn't seem to carry it, but I tried a different store one weekend and lo, there it was!

It was almost as exciting as I'd anticipated, although cleaning out the seeds reminded me why I don't usually bother carving Halloween pumpkins, lol. But there was this total "OMG awesome!" moment when I scraped it with the fork and it came out spaghetti-like. (I'm easily amused.) It's super easy to make, although I noticed the recipe doesn't say anything about draining or wringing out the squash before mixing with the cheese... there was a bit of a puddle in the bottom of the bowl with my leftovers. The other quibble I had was that the recipe was a little bland. I couldn't find fresh sage (WTF, supermarket?) and used dried instead, so that may have been a factor.

I did a stupid thing...

2010-07-15T13:07:00.003-04:00

I was warned.

When I went to Becky's house for 4th of July - Becky, of course, being the one who's been telling me to watch Dead Like Me - I mentioned that I had finally seen it, and I was almost done with season 2, and she said, "There's a movie. Don't watch the movie. You're gonna want to watch it, but don't. It will make you want to gouge out your eyes. It ruins everything."

But I thought, "How bad can it be, really?" So I did it. I watched Dead Like Me: Life After Death.

Holy shit, was I wrong.

It really is that awful. I know you're skeptical, but TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. Think of the worst possible continuation of the show imaginable, and then multiply it by ten, and that's how bad it is. Let's just skip to the hail of bullets, shall we?

Things I hated:

No Rube. Who in their right mind thought it would be a good idea to do a Dead Like Me movie without Rube? Honestly, I can't blame Mandy Patinkin for wanting to stay far, far away from this dreck, but I want to know who thought it was a good idea to go ahead without him in the first place.

Daisy. Seriously, what the fuck? I didn't think they could make Daisy MORE awful, but you know what? THEY DID IT. Y'all know I hate Laura Harris, right? The only way they could possibly have made it worse is if they replaced her with Sarah Wynter. So, of course, that's what they did. (Although I did get a tiny bit of amusement out of the fact that they played sisters on 24.) She always looks constipated, she's horribly wooden, and she has NO idea how to play a character like this.

What was even the point of Cameron? I totally did not understand why he was there. I mean, I realize they had to replace Rube with someone, but generally you'd expect there to be a purpose behind choosing someone else. What exactly was his plan? What was he trying to achieve by leading the Reapers astray? Does he just get a kick out of evil?

There was a lot of potential in Reggie finding out about George, and they totally wasted it. Not to mention the fact that they blatantly violated the rules - they were VERY CLEAR that George couldn't tell her mother who she was. She was literally rendered speechless when she tried, and later Rube confirms she's lost the memory she tried to share with Joy. And yet, George has absolutely NO problem talking to Reggie. Why couldn't they just have Reggie figure it out without George blurting out a bunch of memories?

I can accept that they had to get new sets after five years, and although Happy Time was way too posh, I could've lived with it, but THEY BLEW UP DER WAFFLE HAUS! AND DIDN'T TELL US IF KIFFANY WAS OKAY! I am now incredibly worried about her.

Things I... nope, there's actually just hate here. Oh, I suppose the one positive thing about the movie was the return of the "Boom Boom Ba" song, which was totally stuck in my head for all of season 1. I missed it in season 2, so it was nice to hear it come back at the end there. But it was so not worth watching the whole movie when I've already downloaded it and can listen to it without being assaulted with horrible characterization and plot holes.

This is one of those situations where they really should've just left well enough alone. Other than Reggie finding out, I don't see how the movie adds to the show in any way (and it sure detracts a whole hell of a lot). It wasn't for "resolution" or "closure" because it doesn't leave things in any better of a place than the last episode did, and in fact introduces a whole mess (and I do mean mess) of changes that don't relate to the TV show at all.

Dead Like Me (again)

2010-07-13T10:00:00.001-04:00

Or should it be Dead(er) Like Me? Either way, I finished season 2 and liked it more than season 1.

Um, these are mostly criticisms (I really did like it, I just don't have much to say about the good parts). But they're in bullet form!

I really hated Daisy's religion kick. I dislike Daisy enough already, making her self-righteous on top of being self-centered and airheaded is just cruel.

I thought it was cool that we got some background on Rube. Unfortunately, the show didn't last long enough to really do much with it.

I love Mason (apparently "snarky British fuck-up" is a kink of mine), but he is really annoying when he's mooning after Daisy. I can't decide if it's just because I hate Daisy or if he really gets whinier around her. Either way, I could really do without it.

Roxy's bad-ass. We need more Roxy. Especially when she's threatening Mason with bodily harm.

What is up with George's sudden abundance of midriff-bearing shirts? News flash, George, this:

is a vest. You're supposed to wear a shirt UNDER IT.

What is the deal with Misty the office slut? The show has somewhat toned down the over-the-top stuff, which makes her stick out like a sore thumb.

I had some SERIOUS Friday Night Lights flashbacks with the whole Ray murder thing. Didn't Mason learn from Landry's five-state killing spree that violence doesn't solve anything?

What the actual fuck happened with Ray? Was he possessed by the graveling, and that's why he was such an asshole? Was the graveling trying to provoke Mason into killing Ray? Why? And why was there no actual follow-up on the death without a post-it? Isn't that breaking the rules? Shouldn't there be consequences, aside from an annoying graveling? (Oh, right, I forgot, this show doesn't bother with "rules" anymore.)

Happy anniversary to me!

2010-07-06T15:47:00.002-04:00

Well, this is quite a landmark weekend for me. First, July 3rd was the one-year anniversary of my move to DC. Yay! Second, obviously, was the 4th of July. I celebrated by going to the pool, then heading to Becky's house for a barbecue and watching fireworks on the Mall, which was pretty awesome.

I tried a new stir fry which was simple and delicious - Honey Walnut Shrimp. I started with this recipe and made some modifications. I used 12 oz. of shrimp, 1 cup of carrots, 2 cups of sugar snap peas (I don't like zucchini), and maybe a 1/4 cup of walnuts, which made about 2 servings. I also ended up adding extra honey (maybe another tablespoon?) when it was in the pan because all I could taste was the soy sauce. I probably could've added even a little bit more, but it still tasted good as is. I served it over rice.

Also, I finished season 1 of Rome. I liked it, but I have very little to say about it. I will admit, I had a lot of trouble following it in the beginning, because I couldn't tell the characters apart. The only people I recognized were Polly Walker (from Caprica), Suzie from Torchwood (whose real name I don't remember), and Kevin McKidd (whom I completely can't buy as an ancient Roman. He's just so... Scottish). Everyone else was a jumble (too many old guys, mostly), and so I had to follow along with the Wikipedia episode summaries to know what was going on. After a while, it got easier, once they used people's names enough times to match them up with faces. (Am I the only one who thinks that the guy playing Caesar looks like Alan Rickman, lol?)

Pretty much my entire knowledge of Roman history comes second-hand from my college friends who were classics majors (um, I remember Catullus), so I don't know how historically accurate it is, but the costumes and sets sure look spectacular.

Doctor Who

2010-07-02T11:23:00.000-04:00

I think this is quite possibly my favorite season of Doctor Who yet. There were definitely some dud episodes, but I'd say it had the same number of brilliant ones as usual, and I thought the pay-off in the finale was much better than RTD's brand of wrapping things up.

The only thing is that I wish they'd set up Amy's parents coming back a little better. I don't mind the happy ending, and it was mentioned in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it sort of way that Amy's parents had disappeared because of the crack, but it would've been nice to build that up a little bit more.

But I loved the Doctor bopping around in time, I loved the fez (and I loved River for blowing it to bits), and I loved that Amy's memories could bring back the Doctor - this show has played around with memory a lot, in mostly negative ways (most prominently with Donna), and so it was a nice reversal to have memories actually save the day. Plus, the Doctor's subliminal message using the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" to describe the TARDIS was clever.

Overall, I loved the different feel of the season, less sci-fi and more fairy tale - which is weird, because I'm way more into sci-fi than fantasy, but for some reason it suits Who better. I think it's because of the aura of the Doctor as an age-old legend, like River's line about hating good wizards because "they always turn out to be him." There's always been that sense of the Doctor being present throughout history, someone people called on in times of trouble, but this season really crystallized it.

Matt Smith has totally grown on me, especially in that way he has of conveying alienness and incredible age while looking so young. I hesitate to say he's better than David Tennant (whom I think of as "my" Doctor) - he's just different, and it's such a delight watching him.

Amy is by far and away my favorite companion, no matter what age she is. I love her feisty, outspoken attitude - even at seven she's giving the Doctor what for. And, this needs to be said, I love her red hair. She's... a lot like Donna, actually, but with less baggage. And I especially loved the dynamic of having Rory around. Would you believe it, I've finally found a Who ship! I am so in love with Amy/Rory it's not even funny.

I am one of those people who thinks the Doctor should be asexual. I do recognize the attraction of a hot, funny, brilliant guy who's basically the awesomest awesome who ever awesomed, so I don't mind companions crushing on him, but (a) when it's whiny and schmoopy "twu wuv" angst like Rose and Martha, it's ANNOYING, and (b) the Doctor should never, ever return the attraction.

I was worried there for a while, when it seemed like they were not only setting up Amy's attraction to the Doctor, but even after Amy chose Rory, it seemed killing him off was a convenient way to shuffle Rory off-stage and make way for a Doctor/Amy romance. So I cannot tell you how happy I was to see Rory come back. (OMG HE WATCHED HER FOR 2000 YEARS!!! They are EPIC!) I liked how the finale echoed their earlier exchange, when Amy calls them "my boys":

Rory: [scoffs] We are not her "boys."

The Doctor: Yeah, we are.

Rory: Yeah, we are.

Then later, we get:

Rory: I'm not Mr. Pond. That's not how it works.

The Doctor: Yeah, it is.

Rory: [glances at Amy] Yeah, it is.

This time, it's not about the three of them - it's Rory and Amy, with the Doctor on the outside. As it should be. And I am super-excited about a married couple as companions.

I even liked River Song, and her relationship with the Doctor intrigues me. I can see how she could be annoying, being better at Doctoring than the Doctor, and how she's all coy about the future, but she's also kinda badass and I like that. At first it seemed very Time Traveler's Wife-ish, which was a pretty terrible movie (I didn't read the book, but I hear that was terrible, too), but I think it's way less creepy of a set-up here. River is a time traveler, too, and not just living solely for the Doctor, and that makes a huge difference.

Dead Like Me

2010-07-01T10:11:00.001-04:00

I've finished season 1 of Dead Like Me. I liked it, but it's not something I'll dwell on very long.

Things I liked:

George. She's snarky, which is always a plus. I liked that the first few episodes were about her learning lessons on being dead and being a Reaper, and the family dynamic of the Reapers is cute. As with most teenage characters, I am torn between being older and wiser and finding their teenage angst juvenile and at the same time feeling sympathy for them because I was just like that when I was that age. Ellen Muth seems young for an 18-year-old, though - I know she's not (I looked her up on IMDB and she was 22 when Dead Like Me was on), but she looks young.

Mandy Patinkin!! You know how someone can play an iconic role, and then forever after it's impossible to see them in anything else without thinking of that character? This is like the opposite of that. It probably helps that he's older and heavier and has better hair, so he doesn't really look much like Inigo Montoya anymore, but every once in a while, he'll say something or make a facial expression that reminds me of Inigo, and it makes me happy.

Mason. He's cute and British, need I say more? He seems kind of David Tennant-ish, but dumber and with poorer hygiene.

Things I disliked:

The excessive quirkiness. Now, I like dark humor (I did just watch Dexter, after all), but this seems too over-the-top sometimes. Like the wacky and ridiculous accidents that kill people. It's funny once in a while, but when it happens every episode, it starts to get old. The same joke will only be funny so many times. I also thought George's family was too OTT, like Reggie's toilet seat obsession (and honestly, killing George with a flaming toilet seat from space was one of the most ridiculous deaths of all. It would be funny if it were unusual, but it seems that in this 'verse, it's an everyday occurrence).

The inconsistent world-building. I mean, if you're gonna make up rules, at least stick to them! I realize that there were issues and Bryan Fuller left and so things changed, but it's really annoying when they've established something and then contradicted it in a later episode.

Daisy Adair. I kind of hate her. This is partly because I'm bitter that they replaced Betty, and partly because I have loathed Laura Harris ever since she played the whiniest terrorist ever on 24. As with quirkiness, a little bit goes a long way, and Daisy's self-centeredness and her stories about her sexcapades got old really fast. (I minded her a lot less in the last couple episodes, where she was being less obnoxious and played off Mason and his issues instead.)

I do read books, too!

2010-06-27T23:37:00.002-04:00

Since I have a take-home final to write this weekend, I am obviously procrastinating. :) As you've noticed, I've been talking a lot about TV shows and movies I've watched lately. I hardly ever talk about books, though. Which is partly because I'm in grad school and so most of the books I read are NOT FOR FUN.

But just for kicks, I thought I'd do one of those "books I've read this year" lists, and I was a little surprised at how many fun books I managed to squeeze in. This is everything I've read thus far in 2010, roughly in chronological order:

Luncheon of the Boating Party, Susan Vreeland
Skeletons at the Feast, Chris Bohjalian
How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
Total Lobbying, Anthony Nownes
Congress: The Electoral Connection, David Mayhew
Congress and Its Members, Roger Davidson and Walter Oleszek
Congress Behaving Badly: The Rise of Partisanship and Incivility and the Death of Public Trust, Sunil Ahuja
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing American and How to Get It Back on Track, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein
Congress Reconsidered, Lawrence Dodd and Bruce Oppenheimer
Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress, Barbara Sinclair
So Damn Much Money, Robert Kaiser
The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America, Robert Brownstein
Changes, Jim Butcher
Almost Home, Pam Jenoff
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
Broken Paradise, Cecilia Samartin
Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government - and How We Take It Back, David Sirota

Plus scores of articles, essays, and reports on various topics for class.

Catch-up on TV stuff

2010-06-26T20:01:00.004-04:00

I watched Tin Man, the Sci-Fi miniseries based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and I rather enjoyed it, despite Zooey Deschanel being stoned out of her mind the entire time (or at least that what it seemed like). I generally can't stand her acting, with the spaced-out expression and the bizarre, flat speech patterns. It's actually rather similar to her sister's acting style, but at least Emily plays a character who's supposed to be totally out of touch.

The special effects are way better than you usually see in a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. Or maybe they've gotten better since the last time I watched the Sci-Fi Channel (which was before they changed the stupyd spellyng). I really wished they'd stop talking about "the O.Z." though. Every time they said it, it reminded me of The O.C. and I found it incredibly annoying.

I finished Dexter season 3, and okay, first, let's just get this out of the way: OMG JIMMY SMITS' MUSTACHE! I admit, it took me a little time to adjust and not think of him as President Santos, but that mustache... lol. Anyway, it felt like this season was a little off, but I'm still a big fan. Overall, I thought it was poorly paced and started off really slowly, but the Dexter/Miguel interactions were worth it. I really hope they try a new formula next season, though, because it's starting to feel repetitive.

I was disappointed in Rita's arc this season. She felt very much like a pregnant woman cliche, and although she and Dexter had some nice moments, overall it seemed like she was there more because she had to be, and not because they had anything interesting to do with her. On the other hand, I think I like Deb better now. Although I thought that at the end of last season, and then this season started and she was back to being dumb and obnoxious and had to work her way back up to mature and competent again. It's kind of starting to piss me off, that she has the same character arc every season, and then the next season it's as though it didn't happen.

I've started watching Dead Like Me, which I like so far, though I find it a little too quirky. (I thought the same thing about Arrested Development and Bryan Fuller's other show, Pushing Daisies, and both of those became so quirky as to be unwatchable, so we'll see). I'll probably post a reaction once I've finished season 1.

So how was your week?

2010-06-25T11:01:00.000-04:00

With the drama out of the way, here's how my week has gone:

I went to DSW on Sunday to return a pair of shoes (because they hurt my feet), and came home with three new pairs of shoes - one of which, it turns out, hurt more than the ones I returned. I swear to God, the women's shoe industry has ceased to make footwear and is now deliberately constructing torture devices. I love DSW for their wide selection, because for every three pairs of shoes I buy, I return two of them.

A big storm on Tuesday night knocked out the power in the whole area for about four hours. I happened to be watching an episode of Doctor Who at the time (the one with James Corden) and the power went out just as time went wonky, which was a bit freaky. The batteries were dead in my flashlight, and I didn't want to light candles after last time (I ended up with a singed and traumatized kitty cat), so I wandered around using my laptop as a source of light, lol. (My mother commented on the fortuitousness of having a pet who can see in the dark. Ha! She tried to trip me!) I woke up around 1:30 to find the power had kicked back in (and, thank goodness, the A/C was back on), so I went around and turned off all the lights and went back to sleep.

I had an impromptu shopping trip on Wednesday. As I may have mentioned, my boss is out of town this week, and so, assuming I wouldn't have to go anywhere (and since it's 95 degrees out), I declared it casual Wednesday and decided to go to work in a T-shirt and capris. *sigh* My boss called to say there was an event on the Hill that he wanted me to go to this afternoon, which necessitated proper attire. So off I went to Dress Barn, trying on anything that might match my purple shoes. After ruling out several ill-fitting dresses, I eventually decided that the capris were fine and went with a dressier top.

The event, btw, was Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, who was in town to support our lobbying campaign and performed with three musically talented members of Congress. I was impressed; they were pretty good. They did "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and "I'm a Believer," which Micky made it a point to mention that he was singing that song way before Shrek, lol.

Also, I was talking to my mother yesterday, and I mentioned that I'd been reading Budget Travel magazine and now I want to take a cooking class in Italy. We also talked about work a bit, and then this happened:

Mom: "So, did you pick a class yet?"
Me: "Uh... no."
Mom: "Don't you need to do that?"
Me: "Not right now. It's kind of... early."
Mom: "When's the deadline?"
Me: "Um, I think they pretty much have them all year round. There aren't any deadlines."
Mom: "Well, we have classes all year round, too, but we still have deadlines."
Me: "...Are we talking about the same thing?"
Mom: "I'm talking about your [grad school] class that got canceled. What are you talking about?"
Me: "The cooking class in Italy!"
Mom: "Well, you probably want to wait until you've booked airfare before you choose a class."
Me: "I know! That's why I thought you were so weird. Weren't we just talking about Italy?"
Mom: "Oh. I move quickly. Try to keep up."

*sigh* I should never have introduced her to witty banter.

The final straw

2010-06-25T10:52:00.001-04:00

I finally deleted my Facebook account. Not that I really used it ever, except as a glorified address book and source of birthday reminders. I have been increasingly annoyed at their encroachments on privacy, and the last straw was today when I logged in (to deny a couple friend requests from people I don't know) and was confronted with another change to profile settings. Apparently, you are now required to link any information on your profile (particularly education, work, and interests) to their Facebook pages. If you don't, then you can't fill in anything and you have a blank profile. Which is bullshit, because I don't mind telling people that The Princess Bride is my favorite movie, but I don't think I should be OBLIGATED to link to its Facebook page on my profile. So, goodbye, Facebook. I probably won't miss you.

Also, unsettling news. Our president lost his election this week, which means that we're getting a new overlord. Who may want to clear out the old staff and replace them with his people. No one really knows what's happening or when, but I'm updating my resume. The most likely scenario seems to be that I'll keep my job, but my boss will be replaced, which is still somewhat worrisome.

Yep, another movie post

2010-06-19T14:19:00.001-04:00

This batch is better than the last one, but still nothing that wowed me.

The Business of Strangers - Julie (Stockard Channing), a workaholic corporate executive, befriends Paula (Julia Stiles), the young technical assistant she just fired, when they end up at the same hotel for their business trip. There's a definite edge of competition in their relationship, but it's mostly friendly, with a little UST - until things take a dark turn. Julie gets more than she bargained for when they encounter a young man whom Paula claims once raped her best friend, and the two of them decide to get revenge in a gender-reversed take on In the Company of Men. It's a very unsettling story, and I'm not really sure if I liked it, but both actresses turn in fascinating performances.

Crossroads - As a lapsed Catholic, I was intrigued by this story of a Jesuit seminarian struggling with his calling to be a priest. His decision only gets more complicated when he goes to work at a soup kitchen and falls for Jill (Amy Acker), the winsome humanitarian who volunteers there. Although the characters' religion is a major part of who they are, the movie is surprisingly free of preaching or propaganda. It's somewhat predictable and the storytelling is a little clumsy, but it's kinda cute.

Then She Found Me - Helen Hunt plays a schoolteacher in the midst of a midlife crisis. In the space of a few days, her husband (Matthew Broderick) leaves her, her adoptive mother passes away, her biological mother (Bette Midler) comes back into her life, and she starts dating the father (Colin Firth) of one of her students, all while she is desperate to have a baby and is worried it's too late. It wasn't bad, per se, but the story is somewhat weak, and all the big name actors are very stereotypically themselves (Helen Hunt is very neurotic, Bette Midler is very brash, Matthew Broderick is very immature, and Colin Firth is very... British).

Boys from the Dwarf

2010-06-17T15:03:00.001-04:00

As the culmination of my Red Dwarf rewatch, I finally got to see "Back to Earth." And I have to say... not impressed.

I'm completely amused at the "Nine Years Later" opening. I've learned not to expect this show to EVER resolve its big cliffhangers, so it mostly just gives me a giggle to see them blatantly ignore things like Red Dwarf being blown up and everyone but Rimmer being in the mirror universe when it happened. Series 8 is easily my least favorite, so I don't really mind pretending it doesn't exist. I appreciated the return of Red Dwarf (I love Starbug, but it was getting claustrophobic), but the return of the whole crew with it totally threw things off. Plus, it basically reset Rimmer to series 1 levels of smegheadery. I love Rimmer so hard in the later series, and as much as it breaks my heart when he leaves to become Ace, I love seeing how much he's evolved, so it's frustrating to have him return to form.

But this is supposed to be about "Back to Earth." The two things that annoyed me most were the "Hey, we're characters in a TV show" premise and the return of the despair squid. Seriously? Has Doug Naylor been reading bad fanfic? Because the "characters discover their fictitious nature" thing is pretty much a staple of bad fanfic (of course, it usually comes with a Mary Sue who can tell them everything they're doing wrong). And then to resolve the whole thing by using the same plot as a previous "warped reality" episode? Bah. Especially since "Back To Reality" did it MUCH better.

I have to admit, the Starbug Smartcar totally cracked me up (I want one! It would fit in my living room). Other than that, though, I didn't find it particularly funny. Certainly nowhere near their best episodes. Sadly, it really doesn't add anything to the series, except that it hammered home just how long ago this show started, because damn, the boys are starting to look old.

AND WHERE THE FUCK IS HOLLY? (Actually, I remember reading that Norman Lovett was really cheesed that he wasn't invited back, and I have to say, I am pissed on his behalf. This needed some Holly.)

More movie reviews

2010-06-15T13:53:00.000-04:00

I watched several movies over the weekend - unfortunately, none of them were all that great. I've been on a kind of indie/low-budget kick lately, but even though I keep going for movies with actors I like, I don't seem to have much luck.

Dare - starring Zach Gilford as Johnny, a bad boy loner who ends up in the center of an awkward love triangle. Alexa (Emmy Rossum, who is as bland here as she was in Phantom of the Opera) is using him to gain sexual experience, which she thinks will help her become a better actress, while her best friend, Ben, is using him for his own sexual awakening - and Johnny is so starved for affection that he doesn't realize they're both using him. Unfortunately, the guy playing Ben played him like a total creeper, and he looked like he was molesting Johnny when it was supposed to be consensual, which was just uncomfortable to watch. Really only worth it if you have a vested interest in seeing Zach Gilford play a different kind of kicked puppy.

Up - I really don't understand what all the hype was about. Okay, yes, the first half-hour was cute, and I recall a lot of people saying they wished the whole movie had been about the old couple. Agreed 100%. The second half-hour was pretty dumb, and by the final third, I was like, "WTF is even happening? This is absolutely ridiculous, even for a children's movie." Oh, Pixar. You let me down. Toy Story 3 better be better than this.

Deepwater - Note to filmmakers wanting to do a creepy thriller with a twist: be less obvious! This one is about a young drifter named Nat, recently released from the hospital, who comes across a car accident and saves the life of motel owner Herman Finch. In gratitude, Finch offers Nat a place to stay and a car, in exchange for Nat fixing up the rundown motel. In gratitude, Nat has an affair with his wife. There's something not quite right about everything, and Nat comes to believe that Finch is into some bad shit with the mafia, and possibly a murderer. Except it's pretty frickin' obvious from the way certain scenes are shot that Nat's perception doesn't match reality, and besides it's a RUNDOWN MOTEL. Everyone knows crazy shit happens at rundown motels!! So it's really hardly a surprise when we find out that Nat's a psychopath who escaped from a mental hospital. HE'S the one who murdered all the people, and a good deal of what's happened in the movie was all in his head (including the affair with Finch's wife). Sadly predictable, and Kristen Bell wasn't in it nearly enough.

Shades of Ray - Zachary Levi stars as a half-white, half-Pakistani actor named Ray who is torn between his white girlfriend of two years, to whom he's just proposed, and another half-Pakistani girl whom he's just met. I think it was supposed to be about racial identity and accepting who you are, but it kind of ends up seeming anti-interracial marriage. Ray's father feels he ruined his life by marrying a white woman, and is trying to prevent Ray from making the same mistake, so he introduces him to Sana (Sarah Shahi) - and somehow, after exactly four conversations with her, Ray is breaking his engagement to be with Sana because she "gets him," by which he means "is also biracial." Not that I don't understand the value in being with someone who comes from the same cultural background, but we don't actually see them connecting in any meaningful way. Presumably, he had a good relationship with his girlfriend, if he wanted to marry her, and he throws it away on a whim (which is a trope I LOATHE that comes up often in romantic comedies), and we're given no real basis for it except race. It could've been a decent story if their relationship weren't so poorly developed. Also, y'all know I love Zachary Levi to itty bitty bits, but Pakistani he is not. I especially found it impossible to buy the scenes of him auditioning for roles and being stereotyped as an ethnic actor. Seriously? They couldn't find an actual South Asian actor?

Movie reviews

2010-06-14T15:35:00.000-04:00

Taking a break from the all Dexter, all the time that I've been doing lately, I watched a few movies. I tried Southland Tales, because I'll watch pretty much anything with SMG, but I definitely felt like I missed something... like, the point? I ended up turning it off after an hour and switching to Company, which is a Stephen Sondheim musical. It's surprising, because Into the Woods is my favorite musical ever, but I really haven't seen many Sondheim shows, so I'm attempting to fix that. This one was okay, but not going on the favorites list or anything.

I also watched a movie called Women in Trouble, because it starred Connie Britton and Adrianne Palicki and Sarah Clarke. I thought it was cool to find a movie whose cast is 90% women, especially with someone as awesome as Connie Britton, right? I should've known better. Lots of female characters does not a feminist movie make. Aside from the fact that pretty much every character is reduced to her sexual drives, it's kind of lacking direction and painfully cliche-laden at times. Bah. I think this review says it all.

Dexter

2010-06-12T15:23:00.004-04:00

I've finished watching seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter, and I am officially hooked. If you've never heard of it, ~~you live under a rock~~ it's about a forensics consultant for the Miami PD who moonlights as a serial killer, but only kills other murderers.

First, let me say that this show definitely makes me think, "Wow, this is clearly on a premium channel," and you know why? It's not the nudity or the gore or the f-bombs - it's the insanely long intros. Only a show without commercials could spend five whole minutes on previouslies and the opening credits sequence. I know that a lot of people love the opening credits, and I give them kudos for being innovative and creepy, but damn. Longest. Credits. Ever. I have to admit, after the first couple episodes, I just started skipping straight to the beginning of the episode.

Anyway, I am a big fan of the morally ambiguous protagonist. (See also: Angel, Don Draper, Patty Hewes, Dr. Horrible.) However, it took me quite a while to get to the point where I felt more than a detached interest in Dexter. Like I'd be intrigued about what happens next, but not terribly invested in whether Dexter gets caught or someone close to him dies or whatever, and that's because Dexter starts out as a very emotionally detached character. I did think it got better over time, and by season 2, Dexter is much more capable of emotional connection. And while I still don't think I'd like to have a beer with him or anything (he is a serial killer, after all), I found myself caring very much about what happened to him and the people in his life.

I love Julie Benz like candy, so Dexter's girlfriend Rita is one of my favorite characters so far. I really didn't like Deb, Dexter's obnoxious sister, and I felt like the office politics at the police station were totally unnecessary, but I've really enjoyed the season-long arcs involving the Ice Truck Killer and the Bay Harbor Butcher investigations.

So, anybody else watching?

Movies

2010-06-08T11:18:00.002-04:00

I've started watching Dexter so expect reaction posts forthcoming, but for now, I'll mention a couple movies I watched last week - The Hurt Locker, which is about as amazing as everyone said it was, and Carolina, which pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting a typical romantic comedy - it stars Julia Stiles and involves her best friend who secretly pines for her while she's oblivious - but it turned out that the relationship drama was rather perfunctory, and what sucked me in was the family drama (yes, I am predictable). Julia's the oldest of three sisters who were raised by their wacky grandmother (Shirley MacLaine), and is a bastion of normalcy in her eccentric family. It's really sweet. I love families!

Also, this is random but Cleolinda blew my mind a little bit, so I want her to blow yours, too. As it happens, I parted my hair on the other side the other day, just to see if there was a difference. No one else noticed, but I found it rather annoying to have to keep forcing my hair to go against its natural instincts. Oh, well.

Food post

2010-06-07T12:09:00.000-04:00

I hadn't done much cooking lately because I'd been feeling sick (on the bright side, I could do my grocery shopping for the week and spend about $10), but since I went for my treatment and then had a three-day weekend for Memorial Day, I decided to try some recipes.

On Saturday, I tried a "recipe" for Hawaiian Chicken, and I put that in quotes because it came from my mother, which means it's more like vague guidelines than an actual recipe, lol. I marinated chicken in a mixture of Lowry's Hawaiian marinade, pineapple juice, and white wine. I don't really have measurements, I just kind of poured. I used about half the bottle of marinade, a couple splashes of pineapple juice, and one splash of wine, lol. My mom browned the chicken in a pan and then simmered in the sauce, but I was lazy and decided to bake it instead and served it over rice. It was yummy and easy to make.

On Sunday, I made Asiago, Ricotta, and Spinach Rigatoni. I really need to get myself a regular food processor. Remembering the parsley sauce failure, this time I tried the immersion blender to combine the spinach and cheese, which sort of worked. I cut the recipe in half-ish, and did the bread crumb topping my way (melt butter and mix it with the bread crumbs before adding it to the dish, instead of drizzling the olive oil). It was good, but somewhat dry when reheated as leftovers.

The experiment for Monday was to duplicate a dish that I had a while ago at The Cheesecake Factory, their Roasted Pear and Blue Cheese Pizzette. I didn't bother to roast my pears, but it came out pretty similar. Here's the recipe:

pizza dough (I used Pillsbury refrigerated dough - I recommend thin crust, but any kind will do)
1 Vidalia onion, thinly sliced
pinch of dried thyme
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup beef stock
1 Bartlett pear, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp crumbled gorgonzola cheese
handful of arugula
salt and pepper

Follow instructions on package for pizza dough (mine had to be prebaked for 5 minutes at 400 degrees).

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion and thyme and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to brown. Add the stock, a tablespoon at a time, until the onions are caramelized to a dark golden color.

Drizzle pizza dough with olive oil, then spread onions in an even layer. Top with pear slices, gorgonzola, and pecans. Bake as directed (mine took an additional 10 minutes at 400 degrees), adding arugula when there's about 3 minutes left.

Now I have leftover gorgonzola cheese, and also havarti cheese, which I bought by accident and don't know what to do with, so if anyone's got any recipe ideas, let me know.

Because rape isn't a crime, you see...

2010-06-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

My parents were here this weekend, and since the only time I do anything touristy is when my parents come to visit, we went to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. The museum itself was really interesting and fun, but I was most fascinated by the glaring omission of anything to do with rape IN A CRIME MUSEUM. As we were walking up the steps to enter the museum, I thought, "I wonder if they'll address rape at all." And... no. They didn't.

The museum chronicles the history of crime (though it's more of a highlights version than a comprehensive history) that includes medieval times, the Salem witch trials, the Wild West, the "public enemies" of the Depression era, mafia families, and notorious serial killers, as well as sections on crime scene investigation and forensics, imprisonment and famous prisons, capital punishment, cold cases, and America's Most Wanted. There were exhibits about murder, kidnapping, robbery, arson, identity theft, counterfeiting, assassinations, fraud, terrorism, and more - and yet, the only mentions of rape were incidental references in, say, the bio of a serial killer who also raped his victims. No exhibit, no statistics, no profiles of cases. Nothing about other forms of sexual assault or domestic violence.

Not exactly a surprise, but still a disappointment. And unfortunately, completely representative of society's attitudes toward rape.

Genderswapped Chuck

2010-06-01T16:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, this is kind of brilliant/hilarious: Chuck, with all the characters' genders flipped. I love the casting. Alison Brie as Chuck? Yes, please. Kristen Bell as Captain Awesome? OMG!!

Which raises some interesting thoughts, actually. I mean, I would pay huge amounts of money to see a female version of Casey. Like, HUGE. That goes without saying. But the thing I actually enjoyed about Chuck/Sarah in the beginning was the role reversal - Chuck is most often the damsel in distress and Sarah is the kick-ass hero who saves him. I love even more that they've grown into a couple who kicks ass together and saves each other's lives, but I don't think it would have been nearly as appealing if Chuck were a nerdy girl who always ended up in danger and had to be saved by the manly man CIA agent all the time (who, of course, she promptly falls in love with, because that's what women do with men who save their lives, right?).

Lazybones

2010-05-31T12:01:00.003-04:00

I have been doing nothing but watch TV and movies lately. I've made a nice dent in my Netflix queue, but I've still got 286 things left. Thus far, I've seen I'm Reed Fish, Spiral, Open House, See Jane Date, Series 2-5 of Red Dwarf, Heathers, Secondhand Lions, District 9, and Seasons 1 and 2 of Party Down.

So, I've been doing a rewatch of Red Dwarf, and sadly, it didn't cheer me up as much as I'd have liked it to, though I did have the amusing realization that my professor from last semester is exactly like Rimmer when he's had his anger removed by a polymorph. :) This, however, will never stop being funny. I'm on Series 5 now, aka the series with my two favoritest episodes ever, "Quarantine" and "Back to Reality." *bounces* Except I haven't seen it since I watched Buffy, and it's doing strange things to me. I was watching "Demons and Angels" and I couldn't stop thinking of "The Replacement," and I now want to see BtVS versions of "The Inquisitor" and "Terrorform." Also, it occurs to me that "Back to Reality" = "Normal Again," but funnier.

I also watched See Jane Date, starring Charisma Carpenter - who, btw, has enormous post-pregnancy boobs and fantabulous short hair that is not at all like the awful things they did to it on Angel. (Zachary Levi is also in this movie, but I'd already seen pretty much his entire scene on YouTube.) It was cute, although it kind of got my feminist hopes up, only to disappoint me. It starts out with a typical romantic comedy situation: Jane, tired of all the criticism and relentless nagging from her family and friends because she's single, lies and says she has a boyfriend - who, of course, is now expected to be her date at her cousin's wedding. So now Jane has two months to meet and fall in love with a guy, so she can bring him to the wedding and avoid getting caught in an embarrassing lie. After a string of horrible dates and her cousin's snide (albeit true) accusation that this supposed boyfriend doesn't really exist, Jane flips out, delivering an awesome and empowering rant about how trivializing it is to be judged on whether or not she has a boyfriend. She's a great person, and has a great career, and she's really satisfied with her life, and how dare they determine her self-worth based on her dating status. So Jane proudly ends up going to the wedding alone... where, of course, she meets the man of her dreams, and the movie completely undermines its message by being unable to deliver a happy ending unless its heroine is in a relationship. *sigh* I should stop expecting things from romantic comedies.

Big Chuck Post

2010-05-31T11:49:00.002-04:00

I know, I know, you've all been waiting for my reaction to the Chuck season finale. :-P Sorry, I have Monday classes now, and they're fucking with my Chuck. I actually did watch last week's episode, but wanted to rewatch before talking about it, so here's my belated thoughts on the last three episodes.

Chuck vs. the Living Dead

Heh, I love that Ellie and Papa Bartowski have a code using the classifieds. It's so old school.

Morgan: "Did you check his pulse?"
Chuck: "Well, he fell into a river."
Morgan: "He fell into a river?! Well, of course Shaw's alive! Haven't you ever seen a John Carpenter movie?"
Hee! And then the callback later when Sarah shoots the CIA guy and Chuck tells her to check his pulse.

Hahaha, Sarah intimidating Morgan into telling her about Chuck's dreams. It's like they listen to me - I said more Morgan and Sarah, and what did we get? More Morgan and Sarah!

Casey: "Reviewing pictures of people you killed? I do that myself from time to time." *snort* Of course he does.

You know what's funny? When Chuck is trying to convince his dad that he's no longer a spy, and he says Sarah's his girlfriend, they seem SO fake, with the "Hi, honey" and the kiss. If I were Papa B, I totally wouldn't have bought that. And yet, it's actually the truth...

Okay, I have to be honest, when the CIA guy gave Ellie the speaker, I was expecting it to be something more dramatic. I didn't buy the "it blocks listening devices" explanation - in fact, it occurred to me that maybe it was actually a way of planting a bug in Ellie and Awesome's apartment, but I was also kind of expecting something like a bomb. When it turned out to be a gun, it was a little bit of a letdown. But then she clocked Casey with the frying pan Anya-style and it was all worth it. :)

Hahaha, Casey torturing Sarah and Chuck with details about her and Shaw. And Chuck's "Objection! Relevance?" Hee!

I got a chuckle out of the sitcommy setup where Ellie is getting more suspicious of Casey, just as Casey promises Chuck he'll be Ellie's shadow. On most shows, it would be too cheesy to take seriously, but Chuck manages just the right level of cheese that you snicker and go OF COURSE. I also enjoyed the misunderstandings that came out of it (especially everyone thinking Ellie's having an affair, lol). I also appreciated that we're seeing the softer side of John Casey, who not only respects Chuck, but cares enough to make sure his family is safe. It's nice foreshadowing for the next episodes, when Casey's trying to protect his own family.

"You threw a knife at my face!" Heh, reference to the Buffy movie? I'll take it.

You know, the first time I watched this episode, I didn't notice how many times Chuck calls himself special, but after having seen the finale (where it turns out he really IS special), I picked up on it in this episode.

Papa B: "Does she have the Intersect, too?"
Chuck: "No, Dad, that's all her."
Awwwww! Also, can I say again how much I love kickass!Sarah? I missed her in the first arc of this season.

Lester has the hips of a six-year-old girl! lol

Chuck vs. the Subway

Okay, I have to admit, when I saw the title of this episode, I thought it was going to involve Chuck's most prominent sponsor. But this is good, too.

Haha, so as soon as Chuck saw Shaw on the subway, I thought, "If this were 24, Jack would call Chloe and have her use the security cameras to find him." And then Papa Bartowski did just that, lol! He's Chloe to Chuck's Jack Bauer. Hee!

Drunk!Awesome! I noticed there were multiple plays on the name joke this episode, first with Devon realizing Morgan's serious because he called him Devon, and then Morgan saying, "Awesome," to the Buy More guys and Devon thinking he's talking to him.

"Our mission is to grab Shaw, or kill him, whichever's quicker." Heh, Casey says that with just a little too much glee.

Can I just point out that Zachary Levi looks really hot in these episodes? I love him being all confident as a spy, and for some reason, that black jacket really does it for me.

Hahahahaha, I love Awesome blurting out the truth to Ellie. The look on his face when he realizes she didn't know about Chuck is priceless. The poor guy has been struggling to keep this secret all year, and he thinks it's finally okay to talk and he just gets in more trouble. And Ellie trying to get information out of him and Morgan! "I have pockets of missing knowledge." "You need to find me somebody who knows a lot more than you do." Loved Morgan's description of the Ring, "a nefarious criminal organization hellbent on world domination."

LOL, Casey in the diner, communicating only in grunts. Also, now I want pie.

So, the bit where Chuck says he's choosing to protect Sarah by running away pinged me because of the patronizing tendency of guys to protect girls who don't need it (see also: Angel). But it didn't bother me this time because Sarah can take care of herself, and moreover, Chuck knows that, so it's not about her being weak or incapable or anything. It's about not wanting to be the cause of bad things happening to the people he loves. Of course, it's also portrayed as the wrong thing to do, since Chuck and his dad are doing a U-turn (to a very nice song, btw) in no time.

Haha, Alex really takes after her dad, doesn't she? "I got an A in my self-defense class!"

"This is the last time I'm gonna walk away from you." Um, yeah, could we be a little less obvious here? Although, for some reason, my first thought was that Ellie was going to die, and then I realized that was pretty unlikely.

Dammit, Shaw made me laugh. I'm still determined not to like him (he's so painfully wooden), but his deadpan "muhaha" after explaining his evil plan got me.

"Don't know when it happened, but our boy became a man. Bartowski's a spy. You picked a good one, Walker. Finally." AWWWWWW. And also hee!

Noooooo!!!! They killed Papa Bartowski! ...right outside a room with a cellular regeneration machine, so who knows, maybe he'll come back. It's like Buffy. No one ever really dies on this show.

Speaking of connections to Buffy, there's been a distinct thread running through this season about emotions being a weakness - Chuck's emotions interfere with the Intersect, everybody says that emotions will get a spy in trouble (which is one of the reasons Sarah was opposed to a relationship with Chuck in the first place), etc. Shaw uses it to his advantage twice in this episode, first by playing on Sarah's emotions to trap her, and then killing Chuck's father in order to make him unable to fight. And I can't help thinking of Buffy's line, "My emotions are total assets." I don't know that we've gotten quite that level of subversion, but since these are our heroes, it doesn't seem like the notion of emotions=bad spy is totally true, either, since our team is pretty successful despite their close personal ties. Even Casey's got some affection for both Sarah and Chuck (and hell, even Morgan) at this point.

Okay, so, the very first scene between Morgan and Alex, I totally started shipping them. And I thought, "Oh, man, Casey would love that." Heh, "You might wanna stand back. This could explode."

I love love love the Team Bartowski second string coming in at the end, just when Chuck's lost all hope. Also, the music in this episode is awesome.

Is it just me, or does flashback!Ellie look like a younger version of Erica's sister Sam on Being Erica?

Heh, Morgan and Awesome. "This is Casey's car!" Yes, it certainly is. The two of them arguing over who has to take the gun, and "You used my missile!" And Casey's reaction when he realizes exactly who saved them, lol.

Okay, when Shaw opened his eyes after the explosion, I seriously for a second wondered if he was supposed to be a robot. That's not even meant as a criticism of his acting (although it is), I legitimately was like, "OMG Shaw's a robot! That explains everything!" Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Chuck vs. the Ring Part II

Zac Levi, still looking hot. Yes, I'm shallow.

Awwww, Chuck and Ellie. I love them as siblings, and I feel like their relationship has suffered from Ellie not knowing - well, obviously from an in-show perspective, but also from a meta perspective. It's been very hard to like Ellie, because she ends up seeming shrill and controlling, and we haven't had a good sense of what Ellie and Chuck mean to each other because of that interference. But these last few episodes are really all about the Bartowski family, and I love it.

Hahaha, Chuck played Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof. (Fun fact: I was in Fiddler my freshman year of high school.)

"Why do you have my daughter's phone number?" Baahaha! Remember how I totally called Morgan/Alex in the last episode? THIS was the scene I was hoping for.

I love Chuck's calm demeanor confronting Shaw, and of course him muhaha-ing back at Shaw (er, even though he wasn't there to hear Shaw say it), which I think goes back to the emotions thing, and shows that he can at least keep his cool when it counts. Even if his brain is completely fried.

"Ellie - she's gonna be so mad at me if I die." Aww, Chuck.

Heh, Morgan dialing the iPhone with his nose. I also love Alan Sepinwall's reaction: "I was skeptical that you could actually work an iPhone with your nose, but I tried it after seeing Morgan do it, and dammit if the buttons didn't respond to the ol' Sepinwall schnozola." Awww, but the poor guy broke his thumbs, only to have Jeff and Lester pull the fire alarm for him. At least he earned Casey's respect for it.

Chuck is now wearing a white t-shirt and... yep. Still hot.

The Intersect-on-Intersect fight to Jeffster's "Blaze of Glory" - OMG. I am loving the show's tradition of having a Jeffster performance coinciding with a big battle in the season finale, though I think the wedding might have an edge, what with the live Jeffster performance and Casey crashing in through the skylight.

Heh, I love Chuck deciding to let Shaw live, and then Sarah braining him with a pole. She is so my kind of girl.

And Morgan blowing up the Buy More! And Jeff and Lester becoming fugitives! I love how they're like, "Did we do that?" This is exactly what I want from a Buy More plot - something totally zany that ends up intersecting with the spy plot in a significant way. Of course, now that the Buy More has been blown to smithereens, who knows what they'll do with the subplots next season. I can't imagine this is the last we've seen of Jeff, Lester, and Big Mike (though that would thin out the cast and give them some wiggle room in the budget).

Speaking of big changes, it looks like Chuck will be a rogue spy, after retiring from the CIA on the goodwill of having saved multiple branches of the US government (hee!), pursuing some of the things his father was working on. I'm guessing Team Bartowski will stick together in some capacity (though I didn't notice that Casey or, more importantly, Sarah got the easy dismissal that Chuck did), and Ellie will again be in the dark about Chuck's extracurricular activities. It's a big change, but I thought they handled the Intersect 2.0 seamlessly, so I trust them to do this, too. It feels a lot like Graduation Day for Chuck, you know? He's finally a real spy, he's outgrown his CIA training, and now everything changes. And I, for one, am very curious who they'll get to play Mama Bartowski - my vote is for Mary McDonnell.

In conclusion? Awesome.

The Story of Maude

2010-05-25T10:07:00.002-04:00

Lately, my mother has taken to calling or emailing me to tell crazy stories about my aunt's cat, Maude. Have I ever talked about Maude before? I don't think so, so let me give you some background.

Maude is (was) my cousin's cat. Maude is a Bad Kitty. My cousin and her boyfriend at the time found her as a stray in an alley in Chinatown, and decided to take her home before she ended up as somebody's dinner. She wasn't much more than a kitten at the time, and obviously had never been spayed, so they took her to the vet and got her fixed. A couple days later, my cousin came home from work to find Maude (and the floor of the apartment) covered in blood - she'd ripped out her stitches and was bleeding all over the place. So they took her back to the vet and got her restitched - which she proceeded to tear out again.

The trouble with Maude is that she's a revenge pooper. My cousin has moved apartments a couple times since she adopted Maude, and has on occasion come home to find feces smeared on the wall of her new apartment. Yes, smeared. Maude didn't just poop outside the litter box, she actually smeared it on the wall with her paws to express her displeasure. She's also been known to vomit on my cousin's brand new (expensive) boots, there was an incident where she fell in the toilet (and was blow-dried with a hair dryer for her efforts), and she has managed to completely terrorize my cousin's poor other cat.

My cousin has had Maude for several years now, and understandably is rather fed up with her. In fact, back before I got Chelsea, I had mentioned I wanted a cat, and my cousin said, "You want mine?" I, of course, replied, "Not with the stories you tell!" Finally, things came to a head when my cousin moved in with her fiance, who has a really dumb dog, and so the cats, rather unhappy with this situation, went to live with my aunt (which worked out well, really, because my aunt needed a pet or two to keep her company).

So, the other day, I'm talking to my mother on the phone, and she says (apropos of nothing), "Oh, did I tell you? Aunt Donna had to spray Maude with Pam."

"Pam?" I reply, completely befuddled. "Like... the cooking spray?"

"Yeah."

"Um. Why?"

"Because she was stuck in a jar."

O_O

Keep in mind, Maude has a history of such things. She once got her head stuck in a wine glass. (She also had a habit of tipping over full wine glasses, which did not go over well with my red-wine-drinking cousin and her white carpet.) This time, she'd managed to get her entire head, one leg, and a shoulder stuck in a large jar, and my aunt couldn't get her unstuck. Apparently, wetting her down with water didn't work, and she contemplated trying to break the jar, but she was afraid of hurting Maude with the glass. So she opted for the "grease her up" method and sprayed her with Pam (which worked, btw, in case anyone ever encounters this situation).

Then, the other day, my mother emailed me to tell me that one day, Aunt Donna was in the car on her way to work and Maude popped out of her tote bag, which of course scared her to death, and then she had to turn around and take her home.

Bad. Kitty.

Food post

2010-05-24T12:40:00.001-04:00

This is a dinner I cooked a couple weeks ago. I've had pork chops in my freezer for a while, so I made Pork Chops with Apples and Shallots. I am not terribly happy with the broil function on my toaster oven. It seems to be rather inconsistent, and I ended up having to broil the pork chops forever in order to get them cooked through, which meant that my apples and the spinach were both done and sitting around while I had to wait for the chops. Not good. But once they were cooked, the dish was pretty good, although it could've used a bit more sauce (I think all the wine cooked away while I was waiting for the pork chops). I've added a little more wine when I heat up the leftovers, so that there's some liquid.

Unfortunately, the Wilted Spinach with Nutmeg was a total flop. It was bland and soggy and tasted like baby food. I dumped parmesan cheese on it to make it edible (this is my solution to every cooking failure), but I ended up tossing what was left, because I had no desire to eat it again. I don't know - is it possible I cooked it too long? Can you over-wilt spinach? Mushy vegetables are, like, the worst thing ever to me. You know what I would like to try? Deep fried spinach. I've had it in a restaurant before, and it was amazing. Mmmmm, crispy spinach. Not sure if I could do it at home, though. I'm not big on deep frying.

And one more

2010-05-24T11:18:00.003-04:00

An addendum to my last post... CW has also announced its schedule, and the only show I care about is Life Unexpected, which is no longer in the same timeslot as Chuck and HIMYM, which was murder. So, yay.

Also, just as an FYI, in my last post I mentioned The Good Guys. It's bad. Really, really bad, y'all. I couldn't even make it through the first episode. So, boo.

Fall TV

2010-05-19T14:44:00.004-04:00

Just a heads up regarding the announcements of fall TV scheduling from the networks: NBC, FOX, ABC, and CBS.

My schedule:

Mondays
8:00: Chuck (NBC)
8:00: How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

Tuesdays
10:00: Parenthood (NBC)

Thursdays
8:00: Community (NBC)
9:00: The Office (NBC)
9:00: Fringe (FOX)

Fridays
9:00: The Good Guys (FOX)

I am so happy that Chuck was renewed, but can we please do something about the scheduling conflict on Mondays? Meanwhile, Parks & Recreation being bumped to midseason puts an annoying hole in the middle of my Thursday night, and I refuse to switch back to Bones. The only new show that looks interesting thus far is The Good Guys (which actually premieres tonight). It stars Bradley Whitford from The West Wing, so my attendance is pretty much required, even if he has a porn 'stache. And Colin Hanks earned some goodwill by being on Mad Men, so I'll see where it goes.

Stuff people should be watching, part 3

2010-05-19T14:37:00.001-04:00

If you're not watching Chuck, I'm not sure I could talk about it more than I already do, but I'm always up for convincing people. This is a show that seems to specialize in providing a little something for everyone.

You want mystery and intrigue? As a spoof of the spy genre, Chuck delves into an ever-expanding web of conspiracies. The Intersect, the computer in Chuck's head that's made him an unwitting spy, is a top secret intelligence project, and plenty of rogue agents and shadowy organizations would love to get their hands on the technology.

You want comedy? This show is hilarious. I mean, Casey alone is comedy gold, with his Jayne-esque love of guns and his ability to communicate only in grunts. You'll never tire of watching him trying to cope with an inept Chuck (or, more recently, Morgan). But then you've also got the Buy More crew, who are pretty much insane, and the go-to guys for wacky antics. And then there's Devon, who's so perfect his nickname is "Captain Awesome," but may be in over his head with the spy world.

You want action? This show has kick-ass fight scenes. In the beginning, we had Sarah and Casey kicking ass and taking names, but now that Chuck knows kung fu, we're getting to see what Zachary Levi can do with a stunt team. One of my favorite fights this season involved Chuck and Sarah having to fight the bad guys while handcuffed together.

You want romance? Chuck/Sarah delivers. Sure, the will-they-won't-they lasted a little too long, but Zac and Yvonne sell it so hard that you can't help wishing those two crazy kids could make it work. And now that they're finally together, the show's got lots of new ground to explore.

You want family drama? Ellie and Chuck are as close as siblings can be - except for the huge secret that Chuck's been keeping from her. Now she's close to finding out that Chuck's a spy - and I can't wait to see her reaction when she realizes that just about everyone (including her husband, Awesome) is in the know except her. Plus, the always fantastic Scott Bakula pops up occasionally as their wayward mad scientist father.

You want nerd love? This show manages to mine humor from its video game-playing, sci-fi movie-watching, comic book-reading, electronics-repairing characters, without making nerds the butt of the joke. (Dude, Chuck saves the day by playing Missile Command.) Plus, the pop culture references abound.

You want random musical numbers? I give you - Jeffster!

In summary: Watch Chuck. It's awesome.

Stuff people should be watching, part 2

2010-05-18T11:46:00.001-04:00

Community, which is my favorite new show this year. If you've never seen it, ~~what's wrong with you?~~ it's about seven very different (slightly crazy) people who form a Spanish study group at a community college in Greendale, Colorado. The study group was initially a ploy so that Jeff, a lawyer who was disbarred after his bachelor's degree was deemed invalid, could score with the hot chick in his class, but everybody's kind of bonded and now they're really good friends.

So, why do I like it? It's straight-up hilarious, for one thing. The cast is stellar. One of the things I love about it is that the characters are funny in just about every combination you can think of - the show does a good job of mixing it up so that different characters get to play off each other every week.

But I think the best thing about Community is the way they use meta jokes and references. It's sort of a defining characteristic of the show, particularly since Abed is a pop culture junkie who relates to the world through movies and TV. Thus, the show is ridiculously self-aware and the references come at a rapid-fire pace. But what I've noticed about the last couple episodes (where they did an episode-long extended homage to Goodfellas and then action movies) is that the jokes are funny even if you don't get the reference.

One of the pitfalls of pop culture is that it's not the same for everybody, whether because of generational differences or cultural differences between countries. (BtVS, for example, sometimes loses its international fans with very American references.) Community has addressed this head-on in some cases - like when Troy says, "It's a cookie wand. Me and Jeff made it because it made you look more like the Cookie Crisp wizard, which is not even a reference I get because the Cookie Crisp mascot when I was growing up wasn't a wizard. It was a burglar."

But the brilliance here is that I've never seen Goodfellas, and I still thought the chicken finger crime syndicate was fantastic. I don't need to identify every action movie being spoofed to find the paintball war hilarious. Because - as Alan Sepinwall recently pointed out - everything they do is "tied to honest efforts at characterization to work long-term. The Goodfellas episode was ultimately about how Abed and Jeff each relate to other people. A recent episode where uptight study group members Annie and Shirley turned into a pair of bickering buddy cops was largely about how both of them resented how they were perceived by the group."

The jokes come from the characters, not the other way around. Plenty of shows are guilty of bending a character just to get a good punchline, and ultimately I think viewers resent that. I know I certainly do (I'm looking at you, Bones). When the references are funny not because it's a reference, but because it's a character moment, then it works whether you get the reference or not. And if you DO get it? Bonus. You get to laugh doubly hard.

Stuff more people should be watching

2010-05-18T11:42:00.001-04:00

Being Erica, because it's utterly adorable. It's a Canadian show that airs on SoapNet in the U.S., but the first two seasons are up on Hulu.

What if you could go back in time and fix all your regrets? That's exactly the chance Erica gets when she meets Dr. Tom. She's unhappy with her life - 32, single, unemployed, and currently hospitalized after going into anaphylactic shock - and there are so many things she wishes she'd done differently. Each week, Dr. Tom sends Erica back to a significant moment in her life and gives her the chance to do it over and change the outcome. But of course, things never turn out the way she expects.

It's got time travel! Crazy '80s outfits! Erin Karpluk being the most adorable Canadian ever! (Plus she has amazing hair, OMG.) Sebastian Pigott, who reminds me of a younger James Marsters. And he sings! (I am SUCH an Erica/Kai shipper and OMG that scene makes me cry.) It's funny and it's heartwarming, without being too sappy. It'll definitely put a smile on your face. But it's also got depth to it - Erica learns some very hard lessons about herself and the things she cannot change.

Plus, did I mention the time travel?

What is with Facebook continually trying to encroach on my privacy?

2010-05-14T09:54:00.000-04:00

So, after hearing about the latest privacy-violating feature that's been made opt-out rather than opt-in, I'm about ready to delete my Facebook account. WTF Internets?? Why is it so hard to understand that some of us might enjoy limited social networking without having our personal information automatically shared with every other site we use? Like that Google Buzz thing. That was horrifying.

I also saw this Evolution of Privacy on Facebook feature today, which is similarly disturbing. And even though the OP says, "I hope your takeaway from this infographic isn't 'I'm deleting my account;' rather, I hope it's 'I'm checking my privacy settings right now, and changing them to a level with which I'm comfortable,'" I can't see how making "OMFG I have to check my privacy settings RIGHT NOW" a typical response to policy changes is a GOOD thing. I don't want to feel threatened every time a website I use introduces a new feature. And I DON'T want to have to rush to the site to opt out in order to protect myself.

Food post

2010-05-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

I tried a new recipe for Steak with Parsley Sauce from my Great Foods Fast cookbook, but I couldn't find quite the same one online. I wouldn't worry, though, because while the steak came out fine (I just browned it in a pan with olive oil), the parsley sauce was major fail. It was supposed to get pureed in a blender, but there weren't enough ingredients to cover the blades, so it never really blended. For a while, I tried scooping the mixture onto the blades and then blending, but eventually I gave up and just threw it away. It didn't taste that great anyway. Here's the recipe if you're curious:

Parsley Sauce

1 garlic clove, chopped
1 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

In a blender, puree the garlic, parsley, olive oil, and 3 tablespoons water until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Makes 1/2 cup.

I also made Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan as a side, and that came out really well. The recipe in my book didn't include the breadcrumbs, but that does sound tasty. I am kind of hit-or-miss with asparagus, but this was very good, tender and not stringy at all.

Some thoughts on Chuck

2010-05-11T12:28:00.000-04:00

I haven't done a Chuck post in a while (aside from some Zachary Levi squee), so let's talk about how this extra-six-episodes arc is shaking out.

I thought it got off to a really great start with the Honeymooners episode. It's pretty clear that Chuck and Sarah finally getting together is hardly going to be the downfall of the show. The relationship conflict was a little silly - haven't we already been over the "Do you want to quit?" "Do YOU want to quit?" stuff already? But then, I guess we've gone back and forth so many times, it could be confusing. First Chuck wanted Sarah to quit so they could be together, then he decided he liked the spy stuff and didn't want to give it up, but meanwhile Sarah had decided she DID want to quit to be with Chuck, and she wanted Chuck to quit because it was changing him, so now we're finally coming back around to them both wanting to be together at the same time and what does that mean for their spy careers? Anyway, I'm glad we got that straightened out and out of the way, and in the meantime, it gave us a pretty hilarious episode.

It was cute how they both accidentally caught each other sneaking around the bad guy's cabin, and I LOVED the fight scene with Sarah and Chuck handcuffed together. I kind of want to write a Spuffy fic that incorporates handcuffed fighting now. I also enjoyed Morgan being weirdly brilliant and useful for tracking down Chuck. And the scene in the cafe with Chuck/Morgan and Sarah/Casey talking in front of the terrorist - you could totally see him becoming a Chuck/Sarah shipper before our eyes, lol. Plus, a Jeffster! performance? Awesome.

I haven't been as thrilled with the next two episodes, though. The one with the older spy couple was silly, and although I adored everything to do with that tiger, the whole "Chuck and Sarah get a glimpse of their future" thing was cliched and didn't do much for me. I also felt that they were starting to get too reliant on the character pairings - even before Sarah and Chuck got together, the last few episodes have been putting those two together (usually with much drama) while Casey and Morgan do a comic relief thing on their own. One of the things I miss is the Team Bartowski dynamic, which hasn't been right all season because of Shaw, and especially I miss Chuck/Casey interactions. In taking Chuck's place as the bumbling idiot on the team, Morgan also seems to have taken Chuck's place as the one who receives most of Casey's disapproving glares and grunts. I also think there's a LOT of comedy to be had by pairing up Morgan and Sarah, as that bit in the kitchen proved.

Last night's episode gave me a little of what I wanted, switching things up to put Chuck and Morgan together (at a Beethoven concert!) with Sarah and Casey pairing up to keep Chuck out of hot water. And yet, I wasn't really fond of this one, either. I think Alan Sepinwall hit it on the head when he said the balance of comedy and drama that this show does so well just didn't work for this episode. There could have been a lot more suspense with more build up on both the "Chuck's having crazy dreams" thing and whatever's going on with Ellie and the Ring operatives. Chuck being locked up in a psych ward isn't a big deal when we don't have any doubt that he's right about the bad guys, so you gotta give us some kind of stakes. Even the return of Anna Wu was less than I'd hoped for. She seemed really different, more snooty and full of herself. Well, okay, she was always that, but she used to be awesome, too, and now she's just stuck up. I was happy to see Morgan leave her in the dust.

Coming up, it looks like Papa Bartowski will be back (yay!) and perhaps also Shaw (boo!). Plus, there's still the chance that Chuck might really be crazy someday.

Gah!

2010-05-08T15:50:00.002-04:00

I forgot to wish Megan a happy birthday! It was Thursday. I can't keep my days straight. My Mother's Day cards are all going to be late, too.

Have more Zachary Levi singing!

It's official

2010-05-07T23:49:00.003-04:00

Move over, NPH. Zachary Levi is my new TV boyfriend. HE SINGS, people.

"I always hate it when people watch a musical and they go, 'Oh, it's so unrealistic. No one just breaks into song in the middle of their day.' Yeah, they do. They do, if they're me."

ME TOO, ZAC! ME TOO!

Freedom!

2010-05-06T12:47:00.003-04:00

I am officially DONE with this semester - emailed my last paper to the professor last night. Which means I'm free... for a whole two weeks, and then the summer session starts. Oh well.

Anyway, it's that time of year, so if you're curious whether your favorite shows will be back next year, here's the chart for you. I'm happy to see that only two of my shows are "on the bubble" - Chuck, as ever (eat more Subway!), and Life Unexpected, which was cute, but I probably won't miss it. Getting the axe are 24, which I knew about and am ready for the end, and Dollhouse, which was canceled in the spectacular chaos of "let's cram five seasons worth of plot into the last six episodes" six months ago, so I'm not sure why it's even worth mentioning.

Food post!

2010-04-26T21:20:00.000-04:00

Oi. This has been the busiest week EVER. Between trying to put together a big event for work and writing final papers for school and my friends deciding to be social this weekend, of all times, I am about ready to fall over dead.

I haven't had much time for cooking experiments, but I did try this recipe for Halibut with Mustard-Nut Crust earlier this week. It was really good. I used the key lime mustard that I bought in Key West. I emailed the recipe to my mother, and she replied back, saying, "Did you shell, skin, and toast the hazelnuts??" No, Mother, I did not. I did what any sane person would do and bought a bag of chopped hazelnuts (already shelled and skinned) and then smashed 'em up with a salt shaker.

I think I need to invest in a set of stovetop pans that can go in the oven. For this recipe, I had to start out cooking it in a pan on the stove, and then transfer the whole thing to a baking dish to put it in the oven. Which wasn't awful, but it's one more thing to clean, you know? It took quite a bit longer to cook than the recipe said - I think I baked it for about 17 minutes, because it wasn't even close to done when I checked it after 10 minutes.

Also, halibut has bones in it. Consider that lesson learned.

New computer!! And 24

2010-04-18T15:12:00.002-04:00

After a week of angsting about it, I went out this weekend and bought myself a new computer. I've hated the Dell since I bought it (two and a half years ago), and although I very much dislike change, I think I'm going to be happy with my Samsung R480.

Also, I've been a few hours behind for a few weeks now, but I finally managed to catch up and... wow. I know 24 is even more merciless than a Joss Whedon show when it comes to killing characters, but two silent clocks in a row? Damn.

Hassan's death was rather well done, I thought. I have to give them credit, they've gone to the "terrorists use a live internet feed and a hostage" well many times before, but the pre-recorded thing was clever, and seeing Hassan with his throat slit while the recording was still playing? Jesus. I felt as bad as Jack did.

Renee, on the other hand, was sad but predictable - as soon as she and Jack kissed, I thought, "Well, she's dead." (Thank you, Joss Whedon, for ruining that for me forever.) I admit, I didn't feel like their relationship was very well established. The development was okay over the course of the season, but I definitely felt like there was a big leap forward in intimacy between last season and this one, which we didn't get to see and was very conspicuous in its absence. But the other thing is, when she and Jack first kissed, it struck me as odd (but, um, still kind of hot) to see Jack kissing someone, and I realized that for a male action star, Jack hardly ever gets any, y'know, action. And then Renee got shot and I remembered why Jack never gets any. Because anyone he loves always gets kidnapped or killed or both. The man is like relationship kryptonite, seriously. (Has anyone checked on Kim lately?)

Anyway, there is one cool thing that's come out of the last episode. I've never really thought much of the way 24 portrays women - even having a female President, I don't know what it is about her, but I can't stand President Taylor. And don't even get me started on the travesty that is Dana Walsh. But then Dalia Hassan stepped up to the plate, and she just rocks my world, man. I kind of am in love with the idea of her taking her husband's place and seeing his vision through, especially in a Muslim country where hard-liners just assassinated the president for daring to negotiate with the West. Apparently, martyrs' wives taking up leadership is a kink I never knew I had. (Unfortunately, her daughter really kind of sucks. Her lines sound like they were written for a five-year-old character, and they're delivered by a truly terrible actress.)

Ugh, Charles Logan. That guy is so slimy, and I'm tired of him popping up all the time. But OMG when the camera panned over and Reed Diamond was standing there, I literally pumped both fists in the air and said, "Dominiiiiiic!!!" Granted, all he did was get kicked out of a room without saying a word, but it made me grin like an idiot to see him again. Even if he is working for a slimeball.

Stuff...

2010-04-15T11:14:00.003-04:00

I will spare you my f-bomb and capslock laden rant about last week's Bones and just advise you that you won't be hearing more from me about that ~~bullshit~~ show.

I still haven't caught up on Fringe or FlashForward since they've been back. I am more likely to watch Fringe, but neither one seems to have been missed. I'm also at least 3 hours behind on 24. I'll be happy when this semester is over.

And in funnier things, this.

The Problem with Parenthood

2010-04-10T19:37:00.001-04:00

(It’s mostly good stuff; I just liked the alliteration.)

So, I’m really enjoying Parenthood so far. Mostly the Peter Krause and Lauren Graham stuff, but that’s kind of what I expected anyway. I really enjoy seeing them interact with each other and with their kids. I loved last week’s episode where Drew was all excited to play baseball with Adam and Max and, like, actually have a father figure, and with Max obviously adoring Drew. And then Sarah getting all mama-bear about her kids – first with Julia when she was reluctant to have Amber babysit, then with Adam for letting Drew down. And somehow I’m managing to find the fact that Sarah and Amber both have a crush on Amber’s teacher to be adorable instead of creepy. :)

The whole Haddie and Yo-Yo saga is silly in the way that teenagers always are, but I kind of adore Adam’s reactions to his daughter’s boyfriend. It might possibly remind me of someone I’m related to. :) And I thought they touched on some depth for Haddie when she talked about how it’s always been all about Max. Another thing I liked was this week’s interaction between Kristina and Max’s behavioral aide. I remember reading that Jason Katims actually has an autistic child, and it definitely shows in the realistic way he portrays the struggles the family is going through.

I’m slightly less fond of the parents and Crosby, although they had some great material this week when Crosby broke the news about Jabbar, who, by the way, remains absolutely adorable.

So what’s the problem? Julia.

For one thing, I can’t buy her as a high-powered lawyer AT ALL. She looks like she’s fresh out of law school, if that. And the frazzled career woman role was played much more realistically by Rachel Griffiths on Brothers & Sisters. She was okay when she was giving Crosby advice on his situation, but I just can’t bring myself to care when she gets stomped on every week for being a bad parent (even though she’s usually right), and I really can’t get invested in the whole “stay-at-home husband who cheats” thing, which was also already done on Brothers & Sisters. Hey, maybe Julia can do something illegal and run off to Mexico, and we’ll never have to see her again?

More fun with YouTube

2010-04-09T13:30:00.000-04:00

"I don't dance."

Clever Title

2010-04-09T10:28:00.001-04:00

Witty recommendation for this youtube video.

Good show/bad show

2010-04-08T15:13:00.001-04:00

It's like good cop/bad cop, but with TV. First, Chuck. Well, that definitely felt like a season finale, didn't it?

Hahaha, I love Chuck being a real spy and leading a tactical assault, only to find out it's completely unnecessary. "And the tank. Uh, cancel the tank."

Sarah totally broke my heart with her "I was a good spy" line. Yvonne does play emotion so well, so finding out she killed Shaw's wife was nicely done. I just wish she hadn't been drugged and helpless for so much of the climax. That bugged me, even though Chuck/Sarah is basically a gender reversal - she's been kickass for three seasons now, while Chuck was more often the one in distress. So I understand that it had to be Chuck who saved the day all by himself, and that the only way it'd be okay for him to kill someone is if it was to save Sarah's life. (But I still like Sarah being awesome!)

Speaking of which, I'm still kind of bothered by Sarah's hypocrisy on the killing thing. She thinks Chuck killed someone and she can't be with him, because he's not the Chuck she knew (he's the Chuck he thought she wanted him to be). Then she finds out he didn't and suddenly it's all okay again. She does realize he's a spy, right? And that sooner or later, he's going to have to kill somebody? That, in fact, at some point their lives might depend on it?

...like, oh, fifteen minutes later with Shaw?

I'd feel better about it if they were playing more subtly, if it was about Sarah's guilt for turning Chuck into a killer, rather than just being morally offended that Chuck might do the same thing she's been doing for five years. And I don't feel like it was resolved at the end, with Sarah suddenly okay with it because he killed someone to save her. It just seems too easy.

Anyway, I'm kind of skipping all over the place. I never realized just how tall Adam Baldwin is until he walked through the door at the Buy More and his head was almost touching the door frame. Has he always been that tall? Have I never noticed?

OMFG is there some kind of law that Mark A. Sheppard must appear in every show I like? I'm kind of getting sick of him. Loved the hostage thing in the elevator, though, lol.

Drunken Guitar Hero and Morgan tied up with the gaming cables! LOL, between this and the cheese ball obsession early in the season, depressed!Chuck is kind of awesome.

General Beckman and Morgan - hee!! First of all, who knew Casey had a soft spot for Morgan? And Morgan as a spy? "I gotta go quit my job!" "Don't do that." I'm curious how they're going to integrate Morgan into Team Bartowski. Part of me thought it was just a way of humoring Morgan, letting him think he's a spy but not letting him near anything actually dangerous, but I have to give Morgan a little credit - I think he'd catch on to that at some point.

Casey giving Chuck a pep talk on the plane, aww. I did like the reminder that Chuck is more than just the Intersect, that he does have his own skills and he's a damn intelligent guy.

But the best part is... SIX MORE EPISODES YOU GUYS!

And now, "how to write really badly," brought to you by last week's Bones.

Holy crap, heavy handed much? I feel like too often this show uses a sledgehammer to get their point across. Did we really need Sweets to talk to a guy who was cured of cancer and then immediately killed? Surely something a little less over the top could've caused Sweets to reevaluate his life. My God, talk about a walking cliche.

I also rolled my eyes heartily at Daisy being cluelessly self-confident and never having been dumped before. She's just a little mini-Brennan, isn't she?

And the whole book plot wasn't really any better, with the ridiculous caricature of a reporter. It's like they have something against nuance. What did nuance ever do to you, Hart Hanson? Did nuance kill your wife and now you're out for revenge or something? (See what I did there?)

Hopping down the bunny trail

2010-04-07T11:20:00.002-04:00

Hope everyone had a good Easter. My parents came to my house this year, in order to avoid a big family gathering of future in-laws at my cousin's house. :) We did some sight-seeing - went to the Cherry Blossom Festival, which was kind of a let-down, and two museums, the Freer Gallery and the Museum of African Art, which were also let-downs. Then we went to Georgetown and ate outside on the waterfront and I got a sunburn.

Anyway, so this was my first time cooking a holiday dinner. I made a couple of my favorite recipes of the ones I've tried, which came out very well. My mom also made her pineapple casserole, which I'd love to give you the recipe for, except she didn't exactly have it written down.

For dessert, I took a risk and tried two new recipes: The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. and That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had. The results? I am reminded of this quote: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

The cake came out decently, and my dad thought it was better than a regular box cake, but my mom and I concluded that it tasted about the same, which in my book usually means it's not worth the effort to do it from scratch. I didn't make the frosting that goes with the cake, which in retrospect was possibly a mistake, but I took both of these recipes from Ree's blog, and when she made the Best Frosting Ever, this is the cake recipe she paired it with.

The frosting came out like crap. It didn't taste terrible - my mom liked that it wasn't too sweet - but it wasn't very good, either. The major problem was the look and texture, though. It did not look like frosting. My mom has no experience making her own frosting, so she couldn't tell me what went wrong, but she was suspicious of the flour in the recipe. I don't know if that's what screwed it up, or if it was that the sugar and butter weren't creamed enough, but the frosting definitely had a clumpy, grainy texture to it, and it didn't spread well at ALL. It was also really watery when I first made it, but I refrigerated it overnight, which made it firmer and somewhat more frosting-like, but still not enough to save it.

I really wanted to go to the store and buy a tub of frosting, but my parents insisted it wasn't that bad and we ate it. They are sometimes too kind. :) We did not, however, ice the entire cake, so I'll be tossing this frosting and using the store-bought stuff for the leftovers, that's for sure.

Vacation!

2010-04-05T11:43:00.002-04:00

FINALLY have my pictures from vacation - I don't have a (working) camera, so we took all our pictures on my mother's camera. That meant I had to wait until they came to visit to get my pictures, since she wouldn't have known how to email them even if there weren't way, way too many to email without wrecking my inbox. The complete photo album is here.

We left on Saturday, and this trip started out slightly complicated, since I was flying from DC, my parents were flying from Philadelphia, we wanted to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at approximately the same time, and I had to use a specific airline, since I was using my airfare credit from when I canceled my trip to San Francisco last year. And yet, somehow, we managed to get there with relatively no trouble. My flight was overbooked AND overweight, so they were actually kicking people off the plane (oddly, the plane was only half full when we took off, so there must have been some serious overpackers for us to be overweight).

We rented a car in Ft. Lauderdale and drove down the Keys to Key West. If you've never been to the Florida Keys, it's basically a 120 mile string of islands, many of them just wide enough for one road. US 1 runs the whole way, which made it kind of hilarious when my mother pulled out a map, as though it were physically possible for us to be lost without driving into the water.

We got to Key West around dinnertime, but since we'd eaten lunch so late, we weren't hungry for dinner and decided to go straight to dessert. My mom and I ordered key lime pie, of course, while my dad ordered this monstrosity known as the "Cookie Monster" from Caroline's on Duval St. And yes, he managed to eat the whole thing (with our help).

We stayed at this adorable bed and breakfast called the Curry Mansion Inn. We got a full breakfast AND happy hour, which was pretty awesome (my parents loooove happy hour, lol).

Sunday turned out to be too cold to go to the beach, so we visited the Hemingway House, where my mother took way too many pictures of the six-toed cats. Afterward, we stopped at Fat Tuesday's for drinks, a bar which I'm told was featured on The Real World, but I can't verify that since I've never watched it. We went to Mallory Square, the hotspot to watch the sunset, where they have all kinds of vendors and street performers - including the famous cats who jump through flaming hoops, which is about the only thing I remember from the last time I was in Key West about 15 years ago.

We ate dinner at a bar called Guy Harvey's, and Toryn Green, the former singer for Fuel, happened to be performing there, so I got pictures and an autographed CD. Then I had to explain to my parents who he was, which was pretty hopeless. :)

Monday was a beach day - we went to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. The thing about Key West is that the beaches all kind of suck. (This is the other thing I remember from the last time we were there.) Someone explained to us that it's because they have a barrier reef, and you can't have both a barrier reef and good sand. The waves break on the reef and all the broken shells and rocks wash up on the beach. Every beach we went to was really hard, and the shells were so sharp it was painful to walk on, which made it hard to go in the water. Of course, the water was also pretty freakin' cold, so we didn't go in much anyway. Still got plenty of sun, though, and I have the freckles to prove it!

Monday was, of course, my 26th birthday, so we went to a French restaurant/bakery for dinner. This was, hands down, the best meal I had all week. My mother had called the bakery to order a cake, which was also awesome. Check it out - isn't it gorgeous? Anyway, after dinner we went to the bar on the corner of our street and watched Drunk Santa make friends with Drunk Graduate.

Tuesday was cold again - they told us this was an unusually cold winter, and it normally isn't this chilly this time of year - so we stopped by Harry Truman's Little White House and then went to the Shipwreck Museum. That night we did a ghost tour, which was super lame. Apparently, Key West doesn't have many ghosts, so much of the tour was spent taking random pictures of places that have "a lot of energy" to see if we could get orbs in the pictures. We were hoping for good ghost stories not an episode of Ghost Hunters, so we were pretty bored.

It rained on Wednesday, the only rain we had, so we went to this Nascar Simulation place (my dad's a big Nascar fan). My dad drove one of the races, competing against two little kids, a boy and a girl, both under the age of 10. My dad - who has, by the way, driven an actual race car on a real Nascar track - only managed to beat the little girl. It was kind of sad. :) After that, we went to Peppers for our sauce-tasting, and then visited Kermit, whose key lime pie was featured on the Food Network.

We had lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company, and then walked around the harbor. By that time, it was starting to clear up, so we decided to go on a dolphin watching cruise. OMG so awesome! We were the only ones to sign up, so we had the entire boat to ourselves. And we saw SOOOO many dolphins! We also saw a great sunset.

Wednesday was also St. Patrick's Day, which is why I am wearing green. :) My parents were a little afraid of the spring breakers, lol, so we stayed in the harbor area for dinner and drinks.

We left Key West on Thursday and drove to Bahia Honda State Park to go to the beach. Proof I went in the water, even though it was coooold.

On our way to Key Largo, we stopped at a little dive called The Wreck and Galley Grille in Marathon, right next to the Dolphin Research Center (that's where I swam with dolphins for the first time). We collectively decided that this was the best key lime pie we had all week - and then, of course, my mother insulted the place by asking the bartender, "Where do you get your key lime pie?" The bartender replied, "Uh, we make it." Oops?

Frday was another beach day, this time at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which was definitely the worst beach ever. We lasted a couple hours, and then went back to our hotel, which had a little lagoon in the back. My dad made friends with a squirrel, whom he named Rocky and plans to teach to jump through a flaming hoop, so they can have an act in Mallory Square (get it? Rocky the flying squirrel, heh).

That night we went to dinner at a place called Ballyhoo's, and I have to recommend it because they were awesome. The food was great, but even beyond that, our waiter gave us free drinks, an order of crab claws, and key lime pie, AND gave us 50% off our check, because we told him it was my birthday and because we had to wait a little bit for our dinner to come out. Seriously, seriously awesome service.

Saturday we drove back to the airport, with a little detour through Hollywood while my parents picked out their retirement home, lol. As it turned out, we probably shouldn't have spent so much time driving around, since my parents almost missed their flight home. (Oops?) I was fine, since my flight wasn't for another two hours.

Wow, I am kind of exhausted all over again, just from writing that out, lol. And I still want to quit my job and move to Key West. Who's with me?

Last week's Chuck

2010-03-31T09:56:00.001-04:00

Still chugging along with the TV... I did watch this week's Chuck, but haven't had a chance for thoughts yet, so we're still on last week.

I loved that Chuck's mission instructions self-destructed, but I loved even more that Chuck's reaction was all, "That actually self-destructed. Just like in the movies."

Am I the only one who found Casey's "I made my bunk, now I have to lie in it" extra funny because of Jayne? I gotta say, Casey tormenting Jeffster in the Buy More is comedy gold. Also - "It was a thoughtful felony." lol

Ah, the Subway product placement is out in full force, lol. Usually that kind of thing is really jarring for me, because it's never integrated well, but for some reason, it works on Chuck. Or maybe I'm just more tolerant because Subway is saving the show.

I was a little bit relieved to see Chuck and Sarah actually making some progress in talking about how they feel. Not, as I've said before, because I'm necessarily rooting for the ship, but at some point the dancing around gets to be a bit much and I just want them to get to the point already. I do feel a little bit annoyed at Sarah, that all this time she's kept Chuck at a distance because their respective roles meant they couldn't be together - but when he does what he has to do, becomes a real spy in order to be with her, she decides she doesn't like that Chuck. I said before that I liked the genuine conflict there, with them both changing so much that they'd passed each other, with Chuck getting more spylike and Sarah getting softer, but it does make it seem like Sarah wants to have her cake and eat it, too.

I'm also curious to see how things play out with Chuck not actually passing his test on his own. Casey's not always going to be around to kill people for him. One of the cool things about the extra episode order on this season is that things feel like they're really heating up to a big finale (which will be two weeks from now)... but then we still get six more episodes!

This was the first episode I really noticed Zachary Levi's stunt double. I don't know if it's because Levi's really good at doing the stunts (in one of the interviews at the end of S2, Schwartz and Fedak said they were thrilled at how good he turned out to be once they really let him do stuff), so the double doesn't get used much or what, but it was kind of distracting.

More on health care

2010-03-31T09:49:00.002-04:00

Here's an interesting piece on how the health care reform bill is actually conservative policy, and how the Republicans benefit from refusing to admit that. Also, I kind of want to give a "hell yeah!" to this op-ed on extremism in the Republican Party.

Several weeks of Community

2010-03-30T13:13:00.002-04:00

Let us commence with recording the workout I've given my On Demand lately. Community is easily my favorite new show of the year. I don't really have deep thoughts, just lots of awesome quotes:

Jeff to Annie: "I can't say no to those big doe eyes. It's like strangling a mermaid with a bike chain." Annie manipulating Jeff is my OTP.

Troy and Abed in the vending machine! "I think I hit G-13..."

Troy: "Oh my god, Pierce is going to be the only person ever to drown in a parking lot... twice." The entire sailboat-in-the-parking-lot thing was hilarious. Captain Shirley! Hee!

Pottery Teacher to Jeff: "Congratulations, you failed a class so easy that people passing in the hallway get contact credit."

Abed on Annie and Shirley teaming up: "That's a buddy cop movie I would watch." ME TOO, ABED. ME TOO. And Annie would so be the badass. Check out the way she slammed Jeff's head on the table ~~and she loves him~~.

Troy to Britta: "You're more of a fun vampire, because you don't suck blood. You just suck."

Annie and the pepper spray OMG. "This is self-inflicted friendly fire, okay?" And Abed doing the black police chief, lol.

Troy and Abed in the Morrrrning!

TV Stuffs

2010-03-30T10:17:00.002-04:00

I've been catching up on all the TV I missed while I was on vacation, so expect some reaction posts a bit later. For now, I bring you a David Boreanaz interview (Bones returns this week after a looong hiatus - but with the NBC comedies being so AWESOME on Thursday night, I haven't missed it at all).

Also, it really, really, for serious is the end of 24. Except for the movie, of course.

Two very different recommendations

2010-03-25T14:19:00.003-04:00

First, Maureen Dowd on health care = required reading.

Second, I've been pretending I'm still on vacation, and wanted to eat something that reminded me of places more tropical, so I cracked open the Key West Bahama Village Jerk Sauce that I bought and marinated some chicken. (I also had a Malibu and Coke. I'm thisclose to breaking out the blender and making pina coladas.)

It only rained one morning, on our last day in Key West, so we occupied ourselves by going to a shop called Peppers of Key West, where you could sample lots of their products. Between my parents and me, we managed to come home with the jerk sauce, Key Lime Mustard Sauce, Raspberry Wasabi Mustard, and this Key Lime powder stuff that you mix with cream cheese to make a dip. I swear to God, it's like key lime pie on a bagel. Soooo good. I also liked the Pineapple Coconut Mango Tequila Sauce and I think one of the chutneys, but we tried to restrain ourselves.

Definitely check out their website, but be warned - a lot of this stuff is crazy hot! After we'd gone through about a dozen samples, the lady asked us if we'd like to try some of their hotter sauces. My mother said, mouth burning, "You mean... this wasn't the hot stuff?"

Health Care Reform

2010-03-24T10:22:00.003-04:00

You may have noticed that something kind of big happened over the weekend. I'd not been paying close attention, since I was on vacation last week, but I hear through the rumor mill that Congress voted on some controversial bill or something. :)

Be informed - how health care reform will affect you. Also, this is an interesting piece on partisanship.

I'm baaaack!

2010-03-23T13:36:00.003-04:00

Actually, I was back at work yesterday, but as is often the way in these tales, work was crazy busy, trying to make up all the things I missed last week. (Thanks, Congress, for passing health care reform while I was away. That didn't crazy things up AT ALL.)

Anyway, in one of the many gift shops we went in this week, my mom found a book titled, "Quit Your Job and Move to Key West." That's pretty much how I feel right now.

Vacation was AWESOME. I am so unbelievably freckled, it almost looks tan. (Seriously, WTF, parents? I am 3/4 Italian and I still ended up with the Irish freckle gene.) We had great weather, only one rainy morning, even if it was unusually chilly for this time of year and we couldn't really go in the water. I will probably be posting lots and lots about it once my mother sends me the vacation pictures, which are all on her camera.

Also - and I say this with no hyperbole - best birthday EVER. I think we should do this every year. :) (It's kind of surprising, actually, considering that this confluence of my birthday, St. Patrick's Day, and Spring Break happens every year, that I've never done a trip this time of year.)

Spring Break!!

2010-03-12T13:20:00.001-05:00

Woo woo, vacation! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Key West, and will be on vacation all week. See you when I get back. :)

The end of 24

2010-03-11T11:39:00.004-05:00

Sounds like this really will be the final season of 24. I can't really say I'm disappointed. The show definitely bounced back after the dismal sixth season, but nothing in 7 or what I've seen of 8 has captured my attention the way the earlier seasons did. We've gotten to the point where everything's recycled, and I'm only tuning in to see how Jack's gonna be awesome this week. (Although, I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the junior terrorist who got himself blown up this week. It's a fairly predictable plot, but the acting was well done.)

But seriously. Any show that makes me dislike Katee Sackhoff is Doing It Wrong. I'm almost appallingly fascinated at how they've managed to take someone who played one of the most kick-ass female characters on modern television, and given her one of the most unempowering plot lines I've ever seen.

I bet the movie'll be cool, though.

So that's the sound of liberty...

2010-03-10T14:51:00.001-05:00

EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Best Chuck EVER!

I love Awesome freaking out about Chuck's secret life (but I will be really, really sad if he and Ellie do go off to Africa). And the Buy More rebellion! With the FLAG OMG. Casey and Jeff! And Morgan! We've waited three years for Morgan to find out, and that was the perfect, perfect reaction. And the look on his face when he and Chuck came out of Castle? Priceless. "You flashed on Duck Hunt." Hee!

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better - JEFFSTER.

VICTORYYYYYYYYYY!

TV talk

2010-03-03T10:52:00.003-05:00

With the Olympics being on, and all my shows being either preempted or in reruns, there hasn't been much to talk about. But this week, shows are back!

OMG how much did I love this week's Chuck?? SO hilarious with Chuck being undercover, just cool enough to fool the bad guys (and how ridiculous were they, lol), but still lapsing into talking about cupcakes and sterile torture instruments. I have to say, I am really loving the new, more confident Chuck this season. I think they've got a great balance between making him kick-ass enough that I totally have a TV crush on Zachary Levi, but still maintaining that goofiness and occasional ineptitude that makes him Chuck.

After the whole crazy shipper thing that resulted from the last episode, I did get a chuckle out of the meta exchange about "will they/won't they" couples, but I imagine the crazy haters were probably not pleased by the outcome of this episode. Hannah's gone, but Sarah/Shaw took a giant leap forward, meaning that it's still an obstacle to Chuck/Sarah. To be honest, I would've preferred the opposite (lose the Sarah/Shaw stuff but keep Hannah around), which is surprising, because I thought I would hate Kristin Kreuk a lot more. Or at all.

I also watched the premiere of Parenthood last night. It's been on my radar because I absolutely love Lauren Graham and Peter Krause, and I wasn't disappointed by them. Lauren Graham's character kind of reminds me of Lorelai, if Rory had been a huge troublemaker instead of the perfect daughter, lol. Overall, though, the show reminds me more of Brothers & Sisters, but with more likable actors. (To be fair, I like both Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths a lot more after having watched B&S than I did before.) I had a lot of trouble keeping track of all the characters, since I didn't recognize many of the actors, and I'm still not sure how everyone's related. But the dialogue was fast-paced and snappy, and I do have a weakness for big zany family dramas (it's the only child thing, I think), so I'll keep watching.

I used my crock pot!

2010-03-03T10:50:00.000-05:00

This weekend, we had the inaugural outing of my brand new crock pot, and I was only slightly paranoid about leaving the house with food cooking. :)

I love clementines. Last week, I did one of those things where I bought a whole crate of them at the store, and when I got home, I looked at them and thought, "What was I thinking?" Because as much as I love them, I don't think I can eat five pounds of clementines before they go bad. So I started looking for some recipes involving clementines so I could use up some of them, and I found this slow cooker recipe for Sweet and Sour Clementine Pork Chops (third one down). It came out reasonably well, although I was expecting it to taste like Chinese sweet and sour pork and it was totally not that.

As a side dish, I made Gingered Sugar Snaps, since I thought the ginger would go well with the Asian pork chops. I didn't actually have snap peas, though, so I used snow peas. Still worked out pretty well. I'm also still using the ginger paste I bought the day of the snow storm instead of fresh ginger, and it's quite a time saver.

Last one for a while, I promise

2010-02-19T13:23:00.002-05:00

I don't know if any of you watch the Olympics. I generally don't, although I did go through a phase in college where my roommates and I were obsessed with curling. Mainly, I am just cranky that all of my shows are either pre-empted by the Olympics, or in reruns because they think no one wants to watch anything else. When stuff comes back on, hopefully I'll talk about it. In the meantime, I talk about food.

I loooove French onion soup, so I was really excited to make this French Onion Tart. It came out pretty decent, but definitely needs a few warnings. First, the "crust" on the puff pastry is completely unnecessary, especially if you're planning to cut it up and serve it as an hors d'oeuvre. You end up with some pieces that are all crust and no topping. Just leave off the extra strips and spread the onions almost to the edges. Also, I added some grated gruyere cheese on top of the onions before I put it back in the oven, since that is an essential element to the soup.

I ended up with a few strips of leftover puff pastry, so rather than let them go to waste, I baked them and made some dessert. It was kind of a cross between a cannoli and a profiterole, which is a French pastry sort of like a cream puff, but with an ice cream filling. I had leftover ricotta, so I used the cannoli filling (recipe here) instead of ice cream, topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. It was yummy.

I also had a chocolate chip cookie craving over the weekend, which resulted in what I am calling "multi-chip" cookies. I used the good old Tollhouse cookie recipe, but I didn't have enough chocolate chips, so I just used whatever I had leftover from other recipes. I ended up with chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips all mixed in. The combination of the white chocolate and the butterscotch makes them very sweet, but you can't go wrong with the Tollhouse recipe. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but when I was a kid, my mother - who is an excellent cook in all other ways - would totally fail at making chocolate chip cookies. They always came out hard and flat as a pancake. But these were nice and fluffy and soft on the inside.

More food

2010-02-18T15:07:00.003-05:00

I am almost caught up with chronicling my cooking, so I'll stop spamming you with food posts for a while. But first, I have to tell you about these amazing Butter-Pecan Sweet Potatoes. OMG so much yum! This is definitely up there in the top three of things I've made so far.

Modifications: I cut down the recipe like woah, since I am not eight people; I used dark brown instead of light brown sugar (is there really much of a difference?); and I used a red-and-black pepper blend instead of cayenne, which I didn't have. Still tasted like awesomesauce.

I also made this casserole dish, to use up the half a package of frozen spinach I had left over. Its official title is Spinach and Hot Ham Fake-Baked Pasta with a Crispy Top. Seriously? Only Rachael Ray could come up with a title like that. I didn't have any ham, hot or otherwise, so I just left it out. Also, FYI, she claims the recipe makes about four servings "among big eaters like me and my family." I don't know if her family has a lot of extraordinarily large people in it, or maybe a hollow leg runs in the family, but I cut the recipe in HALF and still got four decent-sized servings out of it.

I added some extra milk, though, since the mixture seemed rather dry with only 3/4 cup. Also, I've made bread crumb toppings before, so I know how they're supposed to look, and you need way more than 2 TB of olive oil for that amount of bread crumbs. Personally, I prefer to use butter instead of olive oil, but I followed the recipe this time, and the bread crumb/cheese mixture was basically dry. Didn't taste like I'd added anything at all, and sprinkling dry bread crumbs over a casserole isn't very appealing to me (it also makes a big damn mess when you try to serve it - the bread crumbs go everywhere).

Waste not, want not

2010-02-17T20:54:00.002-05:00

The theme for this post would seem to be "use up the leftovers!"

I made Broiled Apricot and Cheese Toast for breakfast, which I stumbled upon while searching for things to do with apricot jam. As you'll recall, I bought the jam for the Pecan-Apricot Chicken, and then used it again for the Butter and Jam Thumbprint cookies, but I still have about half a jar left. Ordinarily, I am not one to open a container of ricotta just to have something to put on my toast, but I knew I'd be using it for dinner, and wouldn't need all of it, so I guess you could call that "pre-leftovers." Anyway, I really liked the flavor combination, but the broiling did not go as well as I'd hoped. The edges of the bread got crispy, but the parts that were covered with the jam and cheese did not, so it was kind of just hot bread rather than toast. This is the first time I've tried the broiler setting on my toaster oven, so maybe it's just not that great. I'd probably toast the bread partway first, then put the topping on and broil for a couple minutes to get the cheese hot.

Dinner was Florentine Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken, which used the leftover prosciutto from the Fettuccine with Prosciutto and Peas, as well as the pine nuts I bought for the Chicken Rigatoni with Pesto Cream Sauce. I cut the recipe by half, since that was all the chicken I had. The chicken was again the thin cutlets rather than whole breasts, so instead of stuffing them, I just put the spinach and ricotta stuffing on top, and then laid a slice of prosciutto on top of that. I'd be suspicious of that 18-20 min baking time, though - my chicken was cooked in 20 min, but I would imagine full-sized stuffed breasts would be much thicker and would take at least double that. Anyway, the chicken came out moist, the prosciutto was nice and crispy, but overall it could've used a little more flavor. Maybe I'd try chopping up some fresh basil with the spinach.

As a side dish, I made Sauteed Peas and Red Onion, because I also had leftover peas, and... okay, here's the thing. On one of my recent supermarket trips, I bought this enormous red onion, and I have no idea why. I'm sure I meant to use it in some recipe or other, but I can't for the life of me remember which one. And I don't like raw red onion (I think it has an overpowering taste), so it's not like I can use it up in salads or anything. So I've been trying to find ways to use up this friggin' mutant onion (seriously, it's bigger than a softball). I used some of it in my Quick Crab Stew, but that only called for "one small onion," which was less than half of this sucker. Anyway, this seemed like a good, simple solution, although I cut the recipe waaay down, since I only had 6 oz of peas, not 30, so I still have a lot of onion left. I also added a teaspoonful of minced garlic, because that's just how I roll.

Sometimes, my experiments fail

2010-02-16T23:08:00.003-05:00

For dinner the Friday night of the blizzard, I tried Fettuccine with Prosciutto and Peas. Interestingly, the recipe online calls for 2/3 cup of heavy cream - the recipe in my cookbook only called for 1/4 cup, which was seriously not enough. They keep referring to the "sauce" throughout this recipe, and I'm thinking, "What sauce? This isn't even enough liquid to keep the pasta from sticking together!" So perhaps if you use the larger amount, it will come out better than mine did. Of course, if you read the comments, apparently people had some trouble with the cream curdling when the lemon juice was added. I obviously didn't have this problem, since there was barely any cream in there, but it might be worth it to add the cream at the end like the commenters recommend.

One other quibble I had with this recipe - the pasta shape was inappropriate for the ingredients. Twirling fettuccine around a fork meant the peas kept falling off the fork, and it was virtually impossible to get a bite with all three components of the dish. I ended up alternating between a forkful of pasta and a spoonful of prosciutto and peas. Maybe it would have worked better if there was actually some sauce, but I'd recommend using a shorter shape of pasta with some texture to it, so it clings to the peas more.

Saturday, I made Coconut Shrimp Soup, which also didn't go very well, but that wasn't the recipe's fault. See, I went food shopping on Friday. Day of the blizzard, weekend of the Super Bowl? Yeah, the grocery store was practically out of food, so I ended up having to make some substitutions. They were out of fresh ginger - you wouldn't expect a snowstorm to cause a run on ginger, but there you have it - so I bought this ginger spice blend that was kind of a paste. That worked out fine. But I also couldn't find any coconut milk, and therein lies my downfall. I called my mother in the supermarket and asked if cream of coconut was the same as coconut milk. My mother: "Sure, I guess so." Well, it's not. Cream of coconut is way sweeter, and while that's awesome in a pina colada, it made my soup sickeningly sweet. Fortunately, I had the foresight not to put in all the shrimp - since seafood doesn't usually reheat well, I figured I'd just throw in one serving of shrimp tonight, and then I could add more each time I reheated it. So I didn't waste 1 1/2 lbs of shrimp, thank goodness. And my mother has accepted responsibility for this culinary failure, and has promised to google before advising me in the future.

Food for thought

2010-02-15T15:05:00.001-05:00

I stumbled across this transcript of a keynote speech by Hart Hanson (aka the creator of Bones), and I thought he had some very interesting things to say. Some of them I agree with, some of them I don't (namely this: "My entire audience wants them [Booth and Bones] to get together." Um, not all of us, punk. Personally, I think you're killing the show by forcing UST where there isn't any).

One potentially controversial statement: "...without exception I’ve never seen anything on TV that rivaled a good novel." Which, on the one hand, is probably true, given that novels and TV are two very different types of storytelling (finite vs. infinite, standalone vs. episodic). But it also sounds very much like that "TV isn't art/literature because it's pop culture and pop culture gets no respect" mentality that really bothers me. As BtVS fans, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that there are TV shows out there with just as much depth and quality storytelling as a good novel.

He seems to suggest that writing for TV means writing for an audience, whereas writing a novel means writing for yourself. Which is all well and good, as long as you don't ever plan to sell your novel and make money from it. If you want to do that, well, you're probably going to have to take the audience into consideration. I think - again - he simply denigrates TV when he should be looking at both TV and novels as falling into two categories: those designed for mass market (pulp novels, TV shows like Bones, CSI, or American Idol) and those intended to be art (literary novels, TV shows like Mad Men). Every professional writer wants to attract an audience, no matter what type of writing they do.

Anyway, a lot of it is talking about how to be successful writing for a mass audience, and the answer seems to be, "Write about things that appeal to a large number of people, but don't pander," which is probably much easier said than done. This quote in particular stood out to me: "But if you cleave to, if you support – as an entertainer – the basic values of your culture and society, you have a much better chance of reaching a mass audience than if you challenge the mores and morals of a society." And I couldn't help but immediately think of Dollhouse. But you know what, Hart? For all the problems (and they were legion) that Dollhouse had, I'd still rather have that on my television than Bones, ten times over. Guess TV aimed at a mass audience just doesn't appeal to me.

I have to admit, I was pretty confused about the whole "redemption of Sweets" section. Did I miss the part where Sweets needed to be redeemed? 'Cause I kind of loved him from the beginning.

Oh, but then there's this: "And America is anti-intellectual, in a way. I find… it’s very anti-intellectual. They tend to… if I hear one more person say, “He’s a president you can have a beer with!” Jesus Christ! I don’t want him to have a beer; I want him to make me feel stupid." WORD.

More cookery

2010-02-14T20:26:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day. I am celebrating by watching Veronica Mars. (She's a marshmallow.)

Anyway, more food stuff. I made Sauteed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce, since I still had leftover heavy cream (seriously, one pint of that stuff lasted for, like, five recipes). I totally recommend this one. I wasn't too enthusiastic about it, since I've been making chicken with honey mustard salad dressing for years, and it's really good, and I figured why go to the trouble of making your own sauce when you can just use the stuff in the bottle? Oh, man. This sauce is amazing. It's tangy and light, and it tasted delicious on the chicken. I even added it to my woeful Orzo and Snap Pea Salad, and it was a definite improvement. I didn't make four servings of chicken like the recipe says, so I had some leftover sauce that I put on, like, everything until I'd used it all up. :)

Remember the snowpocalypse that started a little over a week ago? Nothing better than a hot bowl of soup on a snowy day, so I made Quick Crab Stew for lunch that Friday. It's kind of a cheaty recipe, since it uses cans of condensed soup, but I had a lot of recipes picked for this weekend and wanted something quick and easy. (I do have a real crab soup recipe, also from Paula Deen, which I will probably try eventually.) It came out a lot like New England clam chowder in color, consistency, and taste, but I'll take crab over clams any day, so it's worth it to whip this up rather than just opening a can of clam chowder. I gotta say, though, if you're gonna make it, make sure you use the right crab meat - if you get the "special" grade that's shreds or flakes of crab, it'll disappear into the soup. You definitely want the nice lumps of meat in there, plus the claw meat has a stronger flavor than the white meat.

Cookies!

2010-02-13T19:54:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I had a dinner to go to, and wanted to bring something other than a bottle of wine, so I tried two new cookie recipes. I got an email from my dinner hosts saying that they couldn't stop eating my cookies, so I guess that's a good review, lol. :)

I started out making Butter and Jam Thumbprints, using the leftover apricot jam from my chicken recipe a few weeks ago. Following the tips from the commenters on the website, I refrigerated the dough for about 15-20 minutes before adding the jam and baking. (It's best to scoop the dough onto the baking sheet and shape it first, before refrigerating, otherwise the dough will be too hard to work with.) They came out looking very nice, and they taste yummy. I decided not to bother rolling them in sugar, as the recipe suggests, which was fine, but I don't think it would hurt if they were a bit sweeter. I just didn't have the time, since I was also making...

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze. These suckers came out huge - they really spread out in the oven, so I'd advise making your scoops much smaller than the recipe tells you to. Also, I didn't have enough lemon glaze for all the cookies, but maybe I was spreading it on too thick. The cookies themselves are a little bland when eaten plain; the glaze really gives them the lemony flavor.

I did some more baking today, and I have what I am calling "multi-chip" cookies (chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips) cooling as we speak. If they're any good, I'll let you know.

Melt, snow, melt!

2010-02-12T13:44:00.001-05:00

I am finally (finally!) back at work after a full week of being snowed in. I was starting to think I wouldn't see the inside of my office again until spring. And weirdly, I am happy to be here. Not that I mind having days off, mind you, but if I'm gonna have free time, I'd much rather be able to go out and DO things. Books, TV, and the internet can only keep me occupied for so long before I go stir-crazy.

Anyway, recipe for today: Chicken ~~Fettuccine~~ Rigatoni with Pesto Cream Sauce. I'm Italian, which means I currently have five different types of pasta in my kitchen, but none of them is fettuccine, so I just used whatever I had. It's all the same stuff, really, just in different shapes. I did not make my own pesto (what do I look like, Martha Stewart?), but my supermarket has freshly made pesto in their fresh foods section, and it worked just fine (and tasted good, too). I also added some toasted pine nuts to the dish - just spread the pine nuts out on a baking sheet and pop them in a 350-degree oven until they turn golden brown. Incidentally, my cookbook said to toast them for 6-8 minutes, so I set the timer and let them go - and they were completely burned in about 5 minutes. Maybe it's because I was using a toaster oven instead of the full oven? I don't know, but the second batch I watched more carefully and took them out when they were the right color, which was maybe 3 minutes or so. Anyway, the pesto cream sauce was delish, and it doesn't use a lot of cream, so it wasn't terribly rich or heavy.

I heated up the leftover pasta the next night, but instead of the usual garlic bread, I made some Pesto-Mozzarella Crostini to go with it. (I was inspired by the crostini on the episode of "Worst Cooks in America" that I'd watched the night before.) I sliced up a French baguette and, since I don't have a grill pan, toasted it about halfway in the toaster oven. Then I spread the leftover pesto on the toast and topped with a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese, and put it back in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted.

Recipe for today

2010-02-10T14:11:00.003-05:00

On one of my adventures in the kitchen, I made Pan-Seared Scallops topped with the Scallion Beurre Blanc sauce from this recipe (maybe next time I'll actually try it with the chicken, but I wanted to do something different since a lot of my recipes include chicken). The scallops were sort of a challenge to myself - I love seafood, but I very rarely make it at home, and when I do, it's usually just cooked frozen shrimp or canned crab meat. Scallops can seem intimidating, because there's a very fine line between undercooked and overcooked, but mine came out really well. I also got to try out the fresh seafood shop down the street. Anyway, I seasoned the scallops with just salt and pepper, and then dredged them in flour. The trick to a good pan sear is to make sure the oil is really hot, and once you put the scallops in, don't move them around. Just let them sit and get that nice golden-brown crust. They only need 1-2 minutes on each side, and will continue to cook once you take them out of the pan, so you want to cook them to just almost done, but not quite.

The beurre blanc sauce was delicious, of course (it's basically butter, how could it not be delicious?), but a little thin - which I notice was a complaint from some of the commenters on the website. It was just fine for the scallops, but it definitely didn't look like Rachael Ray's picture there. I really liked the flavor the scallions added - I've become something of a scallion fan, I think. (I even added them to my eggs the next morning!) The recipe made way more sauce than I needed, so I had it over pasta with shrimp later in the week, which was also rather tasty.

Yep, you guessed it...

2010-02-10T12:27:00.004-05:00

Another snow day. Got an email from GW, and they have adopted the term "snowpocalypse," so you know it must be serious. Meanwhile, a flock of crows have taken shelter in the tree outside my window, and it is driving Chelsea craaaaa-zeeeee. She is hopping from window to window, meowing furiously (although sometimes it sounds more like a pathetic "Mommy, do something!" whine), while the birds blissfully ignore her.

Speaking of crazy, guess what Chuck shippers are up to. If you're just joining us, the latest development in the Chuck/Sarah forbidden love tale has both of them being paired up with other people (oh the horrors). Chuck's hooking up with fellow Nerd Herder Hannah, while Sarah's showing some attraction to fellow spy Shaw. (Weirdly, both love interests are played by Superman alums - Kristin Kreuk from Smallville and Brandon Routh from Superman Returns.)

I personally am not terribly invested in Chuck/Sarah. Yes, they're obviously meant for each other, but I'm in no hurry to get there. On the occasions when I wish they would just get together already, it's usually because they're pushing the "we can't be together" angst over the top (as they did in the first few eps of the season), and not out of any particular desire to see them consummate their love. I don't have any problems with this newest obstacle - I actually like Hannah, which is a little bit of a shock, given that I generally avoid anything (or anyone) Smallville-related like the plague. It seems a little weird to me that Sarah and Shaw would want a relationship, given that they both have a "spies don't fall in love" rule. Granted, Sarah's spent the entire run of the show breaking that rule with Chuck, but specifically because of that, I'd expect her to tread more cautiously here.

Still, I'm willing to sit back and see where the show takes this. Crazy-cakes shippers, on the other hand, seem to think this has absolutely ruined the show for good, and one "fan" even suggested a boycott so that low ratings force the writers to get Chuck and Sarah together. Alan Sepinwall explains why this is completely idiotic. He also talks to the show creators about the controversy, which only seems to emphasize how much the fans are overreacting. I swear to God, if my shiny show gets canceled because whiny Charah fans executed a completely useless boycott, HEADS WILL ROLL.

Snowed In: Day 5

2010-02-09T12:54:00.002-05:00

Guys, I have not been to work since Thursday. We're supposed to get another 6-12" tonight. I don't think I'm going to drive my car again until spring.

Anyway, two more recipes from my experimentation:

I decided to take my brand-new immersion blender out for a spin and made Potato-Leek Soup. (The immersion blender is a godsend for pureed soups - all that pureeing in batches in the regular blender is a pain, plus the immersion blender - my parents call it a "boat motor" - is much easier to clean.) I'd never eaten leeks before, and given the ratio of leeks to potatoes, I was a little worried whether I'd like it, but it came out very tasty indeed. Even though there's only one potato in there, it definitely tastes potatoey. The recipe recommends the soup be served chilled, but it tastes just as good hot.

I also tried Orzo and Snap Pea Salad, which was my first... well, I wouldn't say failure, but it sure wasn't a success. I still have leftovers sitting in my fridge, almost a month later, because I don't want to eat them. I didn't have orzos, so I used the slightly smaller risos (pasta the size of grains of rice) instead. I also halved the amount of vegetables, which seemed to be plenty. Not sure if that's because of the smaller pasta.

I wasn't sure whether this should be served hot or cold, but it seemed to taste best hot, right off the stove. The salad came out bland (I even added extra Parmesan cheese and some garlic), but the snap peas and squash still had a nice crunch. Unfortunately, they got soggy in the refrigerator, so the leftovers weren't nearly as good - and this recipe made a lot (about 12 cups), so I had a good bit left over. I felt bad throwing it out, so I tried to come up with a sauce to mix in to make it less bland - first this lemon dill yogurt sauce, which was painfully gross, then a lemon vinaigrette, which wasn't bad, but I think it suffered from using concentrated lemon juice instead of the fresh stuff. I wouldn't make this dish again.

Snowpocalypse Part Deux

2010-02-08T12:59:00.002-05:00

I mentioned in my previous post that I've spent the snowstorm cooking - now that I'm feeling better and can eat food, I decided it was time I learned how to cook. I've actually been doing a lot of it in the last few weeks, but so as not to overwhelm you with recipes, I'll post maybe one or two a day.

Since I was just talking about it with Kelly, here's my Pecan-Apricot Chicken, the first thing I made, while my parents were visiting, post-hospital. It was sort of an amalgamation of two different recipes. It turned out really well, and my parents seemed to like it (or at least they pretended to). I'd definitely make it again, and my mom, who is notorious in our family for her endless supply of chicken recipes, said she'd be adding it to her repertoire. I kind of didn't measure anything, since I was mostly just winging it once I got passed the concept stage, but here's what I did, if you want to try it at home:

I used thin chicken cutlets, but you could use whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts if you wanted. Place them in a baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Spoon apricot preserves on top of each piece. Make the pecan topping by smashing up the pecans (I used the "put them in a plastic bag and pound them with something heavy" technique) and then mixing them with bread crumbs. Add just enough melted butter to moisten the mixture so that it sticks together. Spoon on top of the preserves, and then sprinkle with parsley. Bake at 375 degrees; cooking time depends on the thickness of the chicken. My chicken was very thin, so it only took half an hour. I served the chicken with roasted potatoes and a tossed salad.

Snowpocalypse

2010-02-08T11:51:00.003-05:00

So, if you don't live in the DC area, we got about 2 feet of snow this weekend. I had off Friday - my boss (a bit prematurely, as it turned out) decided on Thursday night that we wouldn't open the office on Friday, since they were predicting snow to start around 10 am. Which it did, but it didn't start to accumulate for another six hours, so... oops? But I got a day off, so I'm not complaining. And I'm off again today, because there's no above ground Metro service, which means I can't get into the city.

I've spent much of my time cooking (I'm getting pretty good!), reading for class, and catching up on TV from last week. Here's a few thoughts:

24: I don't actually try to make sense of the plots anymore; I just turn my brain off and watch Jack be awesome. This season is pretty rockin' with the new cast members - pleeeeeeease let Katee Sackhoff and Callum Keith Rennie have a scene together at some point. Not just for the BSG reunion, but also to save Starbuck from her idiotic subplot. (Cougar came early this season, apparently. It's only episode six.) Also? David Anders! Love him. I stopped watching Heroes because they killed him off (and also because the show spiraled into nonsensical drivel). I love him most when he's suited up and being menacing, so it works out well that he's one of the bad guys.

Bones: Holy product placement, Batman. Are they perhaps trying to highlight the voice-activated GPS in Brennan's car? You know, I'm not opposed to product placement - in fact, I am all for Subway sponsorship of Chuck if it'll keep the show on the air - as long as they don't smack you in the face with it. If it's distractingly out of place, it pulls you out of the story. Also, they don't actually call mental institutions "sanitariums" anymore, do they? Seriously? And continuing the familiar guest stars theme, in this ep we have Joshua Malina, alumnus of everything Aaron Sorkin's ever done.

One final observation - is it just me, or do they repeat the same B-plot every time the Muslim intern is on? It seems like every time that guy shows up, the case has something to do with religion, he makes some comment about it, which Cam or someone else misinterprets, only to realize later that they've horribly stereotyped him. If they don't have anything to do with him except say "hey, he's Muslim, but he doesn't hate Americans," then can we please move on to other, more interesting interns, like Wendell or the British trivia-spouting guy?

Question

2010-02-03T09:36:00.002-05:00

I've been getting a lot of anonymous spam comments on my journal lately, and it's getting annoying to have to keep deleting them. I'm thinking of switching the comment settings to registered users only, but I don't want to inconvenience anyone. If you don't have a Blogger account, you can always log in using OpenID. Would that be a problem for any of you guys?

Life Unexpected

2010-02-02T10:05:00.003-05:00

Hi, guys. Still doing okay - taking lots of meds, but eating normal food and actually gaining weight (but hopefully not too much...).

I started watching a new show this week - Life Unexpected on the CW. (I know! I haven't watched the CW since Veronica Mars was canceled.) It's been billed as the next Gilmore Girls, probably because it features a quirky, intelligent teenage girl and her very young, got-pregnant-in-high-school parents. The difference is that in this case the young mom, Cate, didn't keep the baby, and so Lux (the daughter) ended up in the foster care system, and has only just found her birth parents in an attempt to get emancipated at age 16. Anyway, the third episode aired last night, and so far I like it. It reminds me of the old school WB shows I used to like.

Except you know what kind of disturbs me? When Gilmore Girls was on, I was Rory's age. She was the character I identified with (although I sometimes wished my mom was as young and hip as Lorelai). But with Life Unexpected, I find that I'm actually closer in age to the parents. Eeek! Granted, it's biologically impossible for me to have a 16-year-old daughter, but still... it kind of makes me feel old.

Finally, good news to report!

2010-01-19T12:20:00.003-05:00

Rejoice, gentle readers, for I am feeling BETTER. Of course, that was prefaced by me feeling abominably worse, but hey, I'll take it.

So, last time I posted I was on the toast-only diet due to some unexpected vomiting. Well, despite my best toasting efforts, the vomiting continued until last Monday, at which point I'd lost 7 lbs in two weeks, I wasn't really eating anything, and my doctor was like, "Get thee to a hospital!" It turns out that the walls of my intestines were so swollen, it was starting to block the pathway where the food is supposed to go. So I spent the night in the hospital, they pumped me full of fluids, started me on steroids, and gave me my first infusion treatment of the immunosuppressant that will hopefully put the Crohn's in remission.

And seriously, people, it's like a miraculous recovery. On Thursday, I was still on a liquid diet; by Saturday, I was eating crab linguini alfredo and Caesar salad (OMG I have missed salad). It's all because of the steroids - they're like a fire extinguisher, a quick blast to get rid of the inflammation really fast - but they only treat the symptoms, not the Crohn's itself, so of course as soon as I stop taking the steroids, all the pain and discomfort would come back. The plan is to stay on the steroids until the other meds have a chance to work.

I'm already kind of feeling the side effects of the steroids (I have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night, and I'm hungry ALL the time), but I can actually eat food, so for the moment, I'm like, "Steroids are the most awesome drug EVER." I started cooking this weekend - I've been watching the Food Network a lot (vicarious eating, yo) and feeling like I wanted to learn how to cook better, but there's not much point in cooking when all you can eat is toast. But now that I'm feeling better, I bought myself a cookbook and plan to start making meals for myself more often. I did a pecan-crusted apricot chicken for my parents (who came to stay with me when I went in the hospital, and just left yesterday), and made potato-leek soup and pasta salad with snap peas and squash (the leftovers of which I will be eating all this week), and it was all very tasty.

I'm still taking 13 pills a day, and there are still some foods I can't eat (anything greasy, spicy, or high in fiber), but compared to the last six months, this is like FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!

Not dead yet

2010-01-05T12:55:00.002-05:00

Though I'm starting to think it might be preferable to the alternative.

I am, as should come as no surprise, still f'ing sick. Worse, even, if the pukefest yesterday is any indication. Back on the toast-only diet. Am now reaching the point where losing more weight would no longer be seen as "the bright side."

I went to the doctor last week, and we're changing my medicine yet again. The new drug will require me to go in every few weeks for 2 hours to get medicine via IV rather than taking pills. If it works, I should see results in 1-2 weeks, which would be lovely, but I have to wait for pre-approval from my insurance before I can start treatments.

In other news, I went to my parents' house for Christmas, and we had our entire family over for Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Day we went to my cousin's fiance's parents' house for dinner, which was slightly weird. Also, my grandmother spent 3 days at our house, and still has no idea that I'm sick. It's not like we're even trying hard to keep it a secret at this point; she's just completely oblivious.

I came home on Monday, and my mom came with me, since she has the week off between Christmas and New Year's. We had a lot more planned than we actually accomplished (mostly due to my not feeling well), but we did manage to get to the Botanic Garden to see their Christmas display, and the Renwick Gallery, both of which were very cool.

My dad came down for New Year's Eve, and we went out for what turned out to be a really horrible dinner at Bistro Bistro in Shirlington. Never going there again. Ah, well, we all agreed it was an appropriate end to a pretty crappy year. We did manage to make up for it with a nice dinner on Saturday, after going to see the movie "Up in the Air," which I highly recommend.

Yes, we are STILL ON THIS

2009-12-11T11:06:00.003-05:00

Hi, guys. I'm really sorry about the lack of posts lately. I am, believe it or not, still sick. Thanksgiving was challenging and not a whole lot of fun (sorry, Megan, I'd have liked to see you, but I was feeling pretty crappy on Friday), and the only good part about being home was that my mommy was there to take care of me.

I went to the doctor again yesterday, and they changed my medication. My MRI showed inflammation in my small intestines as well as my colon, but the old medicine was only treating my colon, which is presumably why there's been no noticeable improvement. The new pills are 8 a day instead of 6, and even bigger than the last ones, which I didn't think was possible.

School is, for the most part, over for this semester. I have a final on Tuesday night, but I got a 102 on the midterm, so I'm not terribly worried about it. I managed to avoid my take-home final for my other class - the professor basically said, "I'm busy and don't want to grade a lot of exams, so if you're happy with the grade you have, you don't have to take it." So I'm not taking it.

My holiday spirit is nonexistent. The box of Christmas decorations is still sitting in my dining room, unopened. I'm dreading the whole Christmas shopping thing even more than usual, since I don't exactly have much stamina for mall excursions. Why is everyone I know so impossible to buy for? I want a new family. If you have any suggestions for gift-giving, I'm quite open to them.

Crazy people...

2009-11-25T09:47:00.002-05:00

So, yesterday, I came back from some meetings on the Hill and found our entire street blocked off by police cars and caution tape, and they wouldn't even let pedestrians through to get to our office. Later on, I found out why. Good to know the crazies are alive and well and protesting outside my building.

In other news, I've been on the medicine almost two weeks now, and still haven't seen any improvement in my intestinal nonsense. My mom was optimistic that I'd be better by Thanksgiving, but it looks like that's not going to happen. (That means no pigging out for me on Turkey Day.) I'm in work today, and driving to my parents' house tomorrow morning.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Answers (finally)

2009-11-16T13:52:00.002-05:00

Well, I have a diagnosis - Crohn's disease. I've started on medication, but no improvement yet. I have to go for a small bowel MRI on Thursday so they can check whether there's inflammation in my small intestines as well as my colon.

Still feeling crappy and eating like a bird, but now that I've got a diagnosis, I'm more impatient than ever to get better.

Something different for a change

2009-10-30T09:54:00.003-04:00

Good news - we're getting six more episodes of Chuck, and the season may start sooner than previously expected (March), due to all of NBC's new shows completely tanking.

And a trailer for the new (and final) season of 24.

So tired...

2009-10-29T11:59:00.003-04:00

Had my colonoscopy yesterday. The prep wasn't as bad as I expected. The actual procedure was worse than I'd been led to believe, but I think that's partly because most people who go in for a colonoscopy are going for just a routine check. Given that my colon's pretty much on fire even without a long camera tube snaking through it, it hurt every time they tried to move something around in there.

So yeah. Definitely some red-hot inflammation going on. Still no idea what's causing it, since the doctor had to take some biopsies and I won't get the results back for another two weeks.

This shit is seriously starting to wear me down.

Still sick, if you can believe that

2009-10-23T14:36:00.003-04:00

I'm holding out hope that I'll be able to post an "I'm better" post one of these days. Today is not that day.

So, I had more tests done, and went back to see the doctor yesterday, and the good news is that the bacteria is officially out of my system. Unfortunately, I'm still experiencing symptoms, which means there's something else lurking in my intestines. My test results showed elevated C-reactive protein, so the doctor thinks it's an inflammation in my colon, and that means... Colonoscopy! Wednesday is the big day.

On this very special occasion...

2009-10-08T15:46:00.000-04:00

I'd just like to take this opportunity, on our two-month anniversary, to recognize the bacteria living in my intestines.

Bacteria, we may never know the exact date on which you took up residence in my intestines, but it was two months ago today that you first made your presence known, even though I initially mistook you for the consequences of eating too much pizza and ice cream the night before.

It hasn't always been the easiest relationship - you've made life rather unpleasant these past two months, and you've probably been offended by my repeated attempts to evict you via antibiotics - but you've managed to stick it out through the tough times and refused to let my behavior drive you away. It's all because of your determination that we're still together today.

We did have our good times. After all, you helped me to lose those twenty pounds, necessitating a completely new wardrobe. Without your firm discipline, I'm sure I wouldn't have the willpower to eat nothing but crackers for weeks on end. Even as I attempt to broaden my diet, the abdominal cramps after every meal are a constant reminder that you care about what I eat. Thanks to you, my digestive system will never be the same.

And so, on this special occasion, I raise my probiotic yogurt to you, Bacteria, my microscopic frenemy.

Still kicking

2009-09-24T12:39:00.002-04:00

I'm not actually healthy yet, but I am better than I was before I started taking the bad medicine, so that's good. I'm back in work, in any case.

So, entertainment news. Sarah Michelle Gellar had her baby, Damages has added some cool cast members, and they're making a Sweet Valley High movie. Did anyone else love those books as a kid?

Can I be dead now?

2009-09-21T21:27:00.002-04:00

Ugh. Still unpleasantly ill. Worse, in fact.

So, this whole thing started several weeks ago (it was around my mother's birthday, which is August 7th), when I started getting stomach cramps and diarrhea. Started out occasionally, then more and more frequent until I basically couldn't eat anything without my digestive system staging a full-scale revolt.

Couldn't go to the doctor until Sept. 1st, when my insurance kicked in, so that was almost a month of unpleasantness, at which point I'd pretty much eliminated anything with color or flavor from my diet. The doctor sent me for tests, and it turned out to be an intestinal bacteria called C-diff, which sounds like a rapper but is actually a type of bacteria that commonly results from taking antibiotics and is often found in hospitals. It's unclear how I acquired said bacteria, since I've neither taken antibiotics nor been in a hospital recently, but that's neither here nor there.

And yet, ironically, the way to treat this bacteria is to give the person - wait for it - antibiotics. So, my doctor prescribed some, which I started taking on Tuesday. By Thursday, I had a whole new set of unpleasant symptoms, including nausea and vomiting. On the plus side, my stomach cramps have gone away, but that's possibly because I can't keep anything down long enough to anger the bacteria.

I called the doc on Friday, who suggested that this might be a side effect of the medicine, but if I could stick it out through the weekend, I should see some improvement. Today, when it got to the point where I couldn't actually stand up without feeling the urge to vomit, I called back and suggested that maybe this wasn't working according to plan and could we maybe try something else? She prescribed a different antibiotic, which I will start tomorrow.

In the meantime, I am just waiting for the old meds to get the heck out of my system. My dad has a theory that the meds make me more nauseous on an empty stomach, but it's a vicious cycle - the meds make me nauseous, so I eat less, so the meds make me more nauseous, etc. So now I am trying to resist my instincts and eat MORE whenever I feel like throwing up. Surprisingly, it's kind of working, but I'd still like to be better soon.

And the most ridiculous part? I've only missed two days of work this whole time (Friday and today). I'm insane.

Blech

2009-09-17T16:44:00.004-04:00

Not dead, just sick. Intestinal nastiness lasting for weeks. Couldn't see doctor until health insurance kicked in. Finally got drugs. Hoping for improvement. Still feel nauseous.

Anyway, so, apparently I moved out of Pennsylvania and... they went insane. They still don't have a budget, which was due July 1st, and Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia is taking drastic action to force Harrisburg to act. Fun!

Also, tonight is the season premiere of several shows I care about, including The Office, Fringe, and Bones (roughly in that order, if Bones continues to suck as much as it did last season). I think Thursday is going to be the new Monday in terms of scheduling conflicts.

All by myself...

2009-09-03T11:41:00.002-04:00

My boss is on vacation (again!) so I'm all alone in the office for the rest of the week. So, I am making baby announcements.

Well, just one. David Boreanaz and his wife Jaime have a baby girl named Bardot.

More good news - Mad Men has been renewed for a fourth season.

Not so good news - bad Superman actors are descending on Chuck. Brandon Routh (who I thought made a horrible Superman) and Kristin Kreuk (the worst actor on Smallville, which is an impressive feat) will both guest star next season.

skool?

2009-09-01T15:05:00.003-04:00

I am officially a student again - had my first grad school class last night. It seems like it's going to be interesting and fun. I have a different class tonight; we'll see how that one shakes out.

It kind of just occurred to me on Saturday that I ought to go shopping for a bookbag and notebooks and, like, school supplies stuff. I'm so out of practice, it didn't even occur to me that I'd need this stuff until now.

In other news, I think Joss Whedon is conspiring to make me watch the second season of Dollhouse. It's like he heard I wasn't thrilled and said, "Hmm, what can we do to make this show more appealing to Laura?" and obviously he couldn't fire Eliza Dushku, so he went with the next best thing. Hiring Jamie Bamber, Michael Hogan, and Alexis Denisof to guest star. If James Marsters shows up, I'll know something's afoot.

In other-other news, Leverage was renewed for a third season. Yay!

"The dream shall never die."

2009-08-26T09:45:00.002-04:00

Sad news today - Senator Edward Kennedy passed away last night after a battle with brain cancer. I don't have pretty words, but you can read about his incredible life and his impact on US politics for the last 50 years. It's truly the end of an era.

It's sort of timely, I suppose, that I'm currently reading "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy," which I highly recommend. And let's hope that, in his memory, we can fulfill his lifelong goal of enacting health care reform.

Best news ever!

2009-08-18T21:01:00.001-04:00

When fandoms collide... James Marsters is guest starring in "Caprica," the BSG prequel series. Squee!

Let's use some of those tags I've got there...

2009-08-18T14:43:00.005-04:00

Remember when I used to post TV news here? Well, it's been a long, slow summer, but we're starting to get more interesting things to talk about again.

First up, HIMYM tidbits for next season. Two words: musical episode.

Also, David Anders will be on next season's 24. He is, like, my second favorite blond, immortal misunderstood TV villain with a fake British accent. (On Heroes, anyway. No word on whether he'll be doing the accent on 24.)

And finally, in honor of the season premiere Sunday night (omg I love this show), Which Mad Man are you? I'm apparently Salvatore, which cracks me all up.

Oh, and for those of you who might be jealous, Megan and I will be in New Jersey this weekend, as James Marsters has decided to come visit our Garden State again. :)

sneaks in quietly

2009-08-14T15:07:00.002-04:00

Maybe no one will notice I was gone. Eh?

Sorry for the lack of updates. Chelsea is fine, btw. She only took about a third of her medicine, though, so it's a good thing her bladder issue went away on its own. I am psyching myself up for another trip to the vet for the shots she was supposed to get the first time we went to the vet, but which had to be postponed until her bladder thing went away.

Work has been alternately crazy busy and very, very slow. Or, rather, it was crazy busy right up until Tuesday, when my boss left for vacation, and it's been party time ever since. :) I've been catching up on the Daily Show, since I'm now an 80-year-old woman and go to bed at 9:30. (Seriously, I did that one day this week.)

I had a fun-filled weekend last weekend, by certain definitions of the word "fun-filled." Friday was my mother's birthday, so I (the good daughter) called to wish her a happy birthday. While on the phone, my dad says, "Remember how we talked about coming to visit this weekend?"

Uh... no, actually.

"Well, we're coming."

Oh, goody.

But tough noogies, because I had plans for Friday night and I wasn't canceling. I still hadn't seen Becky since I moved, and she only lives SEVEN MILES away. Keep that number in mind. So, we decided I'd drive over to her apartment, and we'd order pizza and watch movies (The Usual Suspects and Dr. Horrible) and play with her new kitty. I Google-mapped, Becky corrected the Google map directions, and I brought along my trusty GPS.

Forty-five minutes and four U-turns later, I arrived at Becky's house. Forty-five minutes. To go seven miles.

I hate driving in this city.

We're not even going to discuss the drive home, which happened of course at 1am, when it was completely dark and I couldn't see street signs or my directions, not that it mattered, because I arrived there on one-way streets, so I had to go in several circles in order to find the way back, and the GPS was NO HELP, because it kept telling me to turn on streets I was ALREADY ON, and telling me to turn on streets that didn't exist and... okay, I guess we are going to discuss it.

Anyway, I got up early on Saturday to clean my apartment, in the futile hope that my mother would criticize it less, and then my parents arrived half an hour early, while I was in the shower. We spent the weekend putting up curtains, assembling my new headboard, hanging pictures on the wall, and shopping for a mat to go underneath Chelsea's litter box. Fun-filled, let me tell you. Then there was the whole thing with it being my mother's birthday, except of course I didn't know they were coming, so I wasn't prepared with, like, a cake or presents or anything, which I think was disappointing, but hello - advance notice, people!

So, this weekend, a friend of mine is coming to visit from New York, and next weekend, Megan and I are going home to see James Marsters!