tamara's Journal

Unread Books meme
Ganked from

smonsterbite

According to a LibraryThing survey, these 106 works are the ones most often marked as “unread”, That is, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded.

Bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones read solely as a curriculum requirement, italicize the ones you started, but didn’t finish.

Final touch: denote (*) the ones you liked, and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you did read them for school in the first place.

( It's more fun to make up the list than to read it, so cutting... )

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: DH on a conference call

That was stupid.
I just looked at the Coachella lineup. For this weekend. When there's no way I can go.

I was much happier not knowing what I'll be missing.

Current Mood: crushed
Current Music: The Verve, Northern Soul

Happy Passover
We are doing Pesach all wrong. Well, maybe not every single bit entirely wrong, but an awful lot.

The only cleaning of chametz I did was moving the bread box to the kitchen counter from next to the table. We had to run out this afternoon to buy matzoh and parsley and that took going to three different stores because of the great matzoh shortage (that I didn't know about until yesterday. This is what I get for not reading the paper. And, yet, we somehow ended up finding Manischevitz (we prefer Yehuda but could only find NOT FOR PASSOVER boxes). Used a goose bone for the seder plate.

I ordered one of these pre-assembled meals for the seder - just do the last minute heating up, broiling, etc. I assumed since it was advertised as a seder meal that it would be kosher, or at least kosherish, but the vegetables come with parmesan on top and the entree was flank steak, so, no. I'm guessing the artichoke dip and horseradish sauce not pareve, either. And we're already done, ages before sundown. Mostly done, I guess we are actually paused while DH runs out to meet another obligation. We'll have dessert and that little goat song and the last glass of wine after he gets back.

But we did get a couple of really interesting Haggadah randomly earlier in the year. Didn't have time to really delve into the commentary today, but enough of a taste to want to spend more time on it, and we didn't have to skip anything. So, not entirely wrong.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: nothing

I think this is the book quiz I was seeing earlier
Not a surprise.

You're Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!

by Lewis Carroll

After stumbling down the wrong turn in life, you've had your mind
opened to a number of strange and curious things. As life grows curiouser and curiouser,
you have to ask yourself what's real and what's the picture of illusion. Little is coming
to your aid in discerning fantasy from fact, but the line between them is so blurry that
it's starting not to matter. Be careful around rabbit holes and those who smile to much,
and just avoid hat shops altogether.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

So much to post, so little time
I keep thinking about stuff I would like to post about but not doing it. It seems like I should be able to get everything I need to get done in a day actually done, at least some of the time, but it isn't happening lately.

Anyway, this is really just a note to myself to go back and write some stuff up. To wit:
What I Did on my Spring Vacation
Working, External Motivation, and Me
Passover Prep
Do I Keep Reading Norman Spinrad?
Wheee, Piano!
Things that Bug Me on TV (Terminator and Blood Types, Mud on Bones)

That looks do-able. Take that, brain gerbils.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Colbert Report

Timely TV
I successfully flew from Oakland to Dulles on Jetblue today. It was a near thing, we were the last people on the plane and had to sign a "voluntary separation" ticket for our luggage, though it did make it onto the same flight so all was well.

Once we got here and got settled and had dinner, we decided to put on Comedy Central and catch last night's Fake News. There's Jon Stewart telling everyone on watching him on Jetblue that he's sure they'll be fine but maybe they should switch over to VH1 Classic before the We're All Going to Die story. The only reason I didn't see that on the flight was, yes, because I was watching VH 1 Classic (This is Spinal Tap - still genius)

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: South Park

I have learned NOTHING!
So, now I am making broth out of goose neck and wings and it smells delicious.

Why, yes, I AM a completist who watched too much TV: TV Meme
1. Bold the shows of which you've watched every episode
2. Italicize the shows of which you've seen at least one episode
2a. Star the shows you consider "the best" (Addition by tidesong) {I'm not doing this one}
3. Post your answers

( My answers behind the cut )

So, that's half of them that I've seen every episode and several more that I'm working on seeing all of but haven't quite made it yet.

My Goose is Cooked
As I may or may not have mentioned, I bought a goose a while back. Not a live goose, wandering around scaring the cats, a frozen goose suitable for eating. It was sitting in my grocery store and I thought "how often do I get the chance to pick up a goose at my local store?" and bought it. After all, I really like duck and goose:duck::turkey:chicken, or so one would think.

And then it sat in my freezer for ages because, really, who has time to roast a goose? And, as it turns out, there is apparently always frozen goose available at my grocery store. I don't know why. Maybe there is a large goose farm nearby that I don't know about.

I finally got it together on Sunday, made stuffing, fried up the liver and had it on melba toast, the whole nine yards.

Turns out, I don't like goose. It tastes like tough, chewy nothing much with a thick layer of grease. Normally, I like grease, but this is not tasty delicious grease, somehow. And I've got 8 or 9 pounds of it in my fridge, along 3 cups or so of rendered fat and some partially made gravy (I tried to follow the recipe rather than making it the way I always make gravy and it is Not Right but I think I can fix it with a roux).

I'll put it in the freezer tonight, because I'm going out of town tomorrow morning, but I will have to do something with it eventually. The practical thing to do would be to just toss it all, but I don't think I can. Is it too late to, I don't know, stew it or something? Will slow cooking help once it is cooked?

Current Mood: exasperated
Current Music: DH on a conference call on speaker

I'm mostly doing this for #7
1. Your rock star name (first pet, current car): Buffy Corolla

2. Your gangsta name (fave ice cream flavour, favourite type of shoe): Coffee Spectator Pumps

3. Your Native American name (favourite colour, favourite animal): Purple Penguin (this is my cell phone's Bluetooth name)

4. Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born): Marie Martinez

5. Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, the first two letters of your first name) Skata

6. Superhero name (2nd favourite colour, favourite drink): Pink Diet Coke

7. NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers): Oleg Weed

8. Stripper name (the name of your favourite perfume/cologne/scent, favourite candy): Citrus Kit Kat

10. TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Polk Pittsburgh

11. Spy name (your favourite season/holiday, flower): Thanksgiving Violet

12. Cartoon name: (favourite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Plum Shorts

13. Hippie name (What you ate for breakfast, your favourite tree): Pizza Manzanita

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: none

Daily Progress
Of the 16 things on my To Do list I have accomplished 2. That means I can take a nap, right?

I don't even know why I am so tired unless it is leftover from my really great weekend at the Yosemite Association Spring FOrum - more walking and more sitting in the car than I usually do, but also more sleep and a good night's rest last night after I got home, so I should be raring to go at this point. But I am not.

Current Mood: tired

Silly Test Result

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

Bwahahaha! That is so not me, I could actually go for a nap about now.

Current Music: none

Ch-ch-ch-changes
I think I have decided on 2 simple changes I can make that would have a big impact on my quality of life.

As epiphanies go, this is not that exciting, I suppose, but it's pretty good for me. I think my last epiphany was along the lines of All the walls in the living room do not have to be the same color. Or possibly I don't have to paint the kitchen. Definitely paint related.

Anyway, the two things are 1) Cook for myself more often and 2) Exercise every day. Simple, right? I feel like the rest of my life is manageable enough to coast on while I concentrate on those things.

Now I just have to figure out how to implement this change and I"m onto Step 3: Profit! The complicating factor is that usually I can successfully focus on ONE thing I want to change, but I don't think I can choose between these two. They seem equally important and, like, synergistic but I'm afraid that dividing my attention will somehow empower the already strong Inertia Fairies.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Dexter, On Demand

Topsy-turviness
My beloved coffee betrayed me today. My second cup made me nauseous, to the point that I had to pour it down the drain. Alas. And what settled my stomach? Leftover fried chicken.

Madness.

Current Mood: bemused
Current Music: birds

Unpacking
We officially moved in here the weekend after Thanksgiving, so that's four months of unpacking. I might be half done. Or I might be unpacking or the rest of my life, it's hard to say.

Anyway, this morning's box contained cutting boards and wine glasses (I had the movers pack up my stuff and they weren't big on labeling the boxes, so I get surprises like this. So far, nothing has been broken, so I can't complain.) I knew I didn't know where the cutting boards would go, this is a perennial problem for me but they are okay just out on the counter leaning against the wall. The wineglasses, well, I seem to have completely forgotten that I own wineglasses. I don't know what I'm going to do with them. My crystal I have been worrying about and actually bought two new-to-me china cabinets so that I can be sure I have a place to put my crystal when I find it, but these are not that. These are logoed wineglasses from wineries and fundraisers and the plain red wine goblet things we bought at Linens-N-Things because I wanted something with stems early on in our apartment furnishing days. They used to live on one of those racks that lets stemware dangle down, but that rack goes on the wire shelves that have been banished to the shed. Do I likewise banish the wine glasses? Maybe, that's where the wine is, after all. And eventually that's going to be a sort of living space, a detached den, if I can actualize my vision. Meanwhile it is full of boxes and gardening tools.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: the whish-whish-whish of the washing machine

I Can Haz Jeans
I decided that i need to accept that I am my current size and buy some clothes so I can get through a whole week, because no matter how aggressively I diet and exercise I will not get down to the size most of my clothes are in a few days. One of the things I ordered were some cropped jeans from Target, because not having any jeans is just bizarre. It wasn't until I got them that I panicked over not looking at the measurements on a size chart or anything and just ordering the size that my one pair of pants by a different maker that fits me is. But, hooray, I put them on this morning and not only do they fit just fine, the "cropped"-ness puts them pretty much at my ankles. I don't need to hem and I can wear them if I haven't shaved my legs- double win. Triple, maybe.

Between this and all the bright colored flats I bought from GoJane on sale, I feel like I have a whole Spring wardrobe.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: train whistle

The Current Comfort Zone Meme
Yeah, I won't be doing that. Posting the little I do on the tiny number of subjects that I feel comfortable with is challenge enough.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: None, not even birds

Observation O' the Day
I don't think there is any upper limit to the amount of Ray Davies's music I can listen to happily.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Imaginary Man - Ray Davies

Prime Cake
Sunday was my husband's birthday, so I baked him a heart-shaped cake. It's something my mom used to make for me because my birthday is near Valentine's Day (she got the idea out of a magazine, she tells me). Basically, you bake two layers of cake, one in a square pan and one in a round pan with the same diameter as the side of the square. Then, instead of layering them vertically, you slice the circle in half, turn the square diamond-wise and plunk the semi-circles on the upper edges of the diamond. Voila, cardioid cake. Icing helps it look like one cake and not several discrete pieces, of course.

What I realized this time is that while I cut my square cakes into nine pieces, I tend to cut circular cakes into eight wedges. If I follow that with the heart-shaped cake (which I have so far - we're eating one piece each a day, this cake will last us a while), we will end up having 17 servings. Not equal servings, but are they ever? Not when I'm cutting.

I did the math and an eighth of the circle is less than a ninth of the square [pi/32 < 1/9]. However, I did not take into account what must be a difference in height because I used the same recipe for each "layer", implying that they should be of equal volumes, in which case 1/8 > 1/9. So, roughly equal is probably a pretty good approximation.

Current Mood: silly
Current Music: None

Mostly Meme
I think I've gotten Quicken all set up for this year. I decided to start from scratch siince so much has changed since last time I used it and I've been working on it since Friday morning. Now to actually pay my bills and track my finances...

ION, ganked from

thesoniashow

Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be. [sidenote, uploading all my CDs to iTunes is one of the things I have only done in half-assed fashion]

How many songs total: 2762
How many hours or days of music: 9.3 days

Most recently played: “I've Been Wrong Before” by Cilla Black
Most played: “The Way I Live (Saints Remix)” by Baby Boy Da Prince
Most recently added: “Tranquilize (Feat. Lou Reed)” by The Killers

Sort by song title
First Song: “Abbaon Fat Track” by Tricky
Last Song: “9027 KM” by OK Go (by letter, "Zurich is Stained" by Pavement)

Sort by time
Shortest Song: “Chanukah Under the Stars” by Fountains of Wayne
Longest Song: “A Long Day” by The Polyphonic Spree

Sort by album
First album: “Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld” by The Orb
Last album: “1999” by Prince (by number), last letter “Zenyatta Mondatta” by The Police

First song that comes up on Shuffle: “You Have To Be Joking (Autopsy of the Devil's Brain)” by The Flaming Lips

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death - 24
Life - 47
Love - 143
Hate - 6
You - 378
Sex - 19

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: The Colbert Report