DangerChicks

Marcy: Moving On

Tue, 08 Feb 2005 18:38:04 GMT

Hello, world. Anyone there? Yeh, I thought not,

Jules off to China to collect her daughter and I am entertaining myself with a somewhat less life-changing project. Interested readers will find that we have moved our project to a different host, and obtained a domain name, and all kinds of things geeky and overwhelming.

You can now find us here.

Jules: before I go

Sat, 05 Feb 2005 02:18:52 GMT

For somebody who's getting on a plane to China in a few days, I'm feeling unusually placid. I think it's because I have accomplished the crucial tasks, meaning I've been arranging for us to have money while we're there.

Regarding reaching one's bottom (ew! not like that!): I'm familiar with 12-step recovery ideas and the Low-Bottom-Drunk/Addict/Whatever is the most mysterious, in the way that some people resist the plain evidence that Something Is Very Wrong Here to astonishing extremes. (I had a friend whose mother systematically drank herself to death in her early 50s; according to my friend, she was hospitalized with serious drinking-related problems and on the verge of admitting that she had a problem when her doctor came breezing in and said, oh no, dear, you just have too much stress. And that was enough: she was a drunk until she died within a couple of years.)

Whoa, dark. Moving on then...

So, just to pick a trivial topic, how are you feeling about the state of reality TV these days? I'm enjoying TAR and am peeved that we'll be out of the country for the finale. I've got it queued up on the TiFaux, but I still have to beg: dood, can you tape it for me? Just in case? Because missing it would suck bigtime.

And, you had questions!
1. Ok, time for a confession: I rarely cook brisket. Mostly because any big honkin' piece of meat around here usually gets smoked and that's Eliot's department. Also, before we got the smoker I usually just picked up pre-smoked brisket from a barbecue joint, which brings up the oddity that I almost never eat brisket that wasn't smoked. Hm. Not sure why. Though my mom does an oven-roasted brisket that tends to be tasty enough but kind of boring, probably because she religiously trims off all the fat before she cooks it; most brisket is fatty enough not to get too dry when she does that, but it lacks a certain fat-a-liciousness.

2. Flank steak? Stir-fried, mostly. I haven't made fajitas in ages, because it's so cheap and easy to get pre-fajitaed around here.

Gawd, if I'm not careful, I'm going to turn into Sandra Lee: no actual cooking occurs in the kitchen. In my defense, it is usually summertime when I'm craving fajitas. Oh, and I have to confess: I've never boiled beef. Those New England Boiled Dinner recipes have always horrified me, as if someone suggested that I boil the Thanksgiving turkey. But for vaca frita? I'd boil beef, fer sure.

3. Latest good book? Maria Tatar's Annotated Classic Fairy Tales has been interesting, though not exactly kid-friendly. As is the Rough Guide to China. And did you know that Christopher Isherwood wrote a children's book? It's a bunch of dark and funny poems about animals.

4. Your next vacation? Austin! Ok, I get it, your next exotic vacation... how about that Iceland? If for no other reason that to be able to say, I'm taking an island vacation and then scoff at people who start babbling about the tropics.

My turn:

1. Are you taking an interest in the new season of Survivor? I'm not sure, because the last season was so disappointing in so many ways. The ads show a lot of pretty people looking very unhappy, which is kind of meh.

2. What's your favorite Chinese food? I love all things Dim Sum, with the lone exception of chicken feet, which are a poor ratio of meat to bone. Of course, I should try to remember that in China, it's just food.

3. Have you ever cooked mutton? I don't think I've ever eaten mutton, and had hardly tasted lamb before I lived in NC. Beef, it's what's for dinner. [in Amarillo. And Lubbock.] I wonder if mutton could be smoked... and I'm pondering expanding my culinary horizons, meatwise.

4. Speaking of one's horizons... what's your limit, foodwise? I have two limits that I can think of offhand: I don't think I can eat any creature that I've gotten to know (note: one doesn't get to know lobsters, and don't even talk to me about clams; it's not about if they were alive in my presence, it's whether they had a personality that I'd been aware of). I had an uncle who was a rancher and there was an ugly family scene when the wife and kids became aware that when "Blackie" disappeared, he ended up in the freezer.

The other limit I can think of is any vegie that smells/tastes/has-the-mouthfeel-of dirt. Grit in the spinach, parsnips, inadequately scrubbed potatoes, all make me shudder and I canNOT soldier on with the dish--it's a dealbreaker.

I have a feeling I may learn more about my food limits on this trip; those two things are the only ones I can think of at the moment that will stop me cold. I'll even eat liver on occasion (depending on preparation, that sort of thing), so I think I'm fairly broadminded.

Well, that took the edge right off my appetite.

Say, dood, just want to say, thanks for all your support while we've been preparing to make this trip. It means a lot. I can't wait for you to meet her! Y'all are gonna have SO much fun!

Marcy: Wanting to get this in before you go to China....

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 21:59:45 GMT

I had a very relaxing holiday, actually. I slept a lot, relaxed a bunch, and then slept some more. I might even be caught up with my sleep at this point. Of course, catching up took most of January.

It seems like the theme around me is alcoholism, even though I personally hardly drink at all. Between people deciding that they are possibly having a drinking problem and having dinner with someone celebrating 25 years of sobriety, the topic seems to be everywhere just now. I find myself thinking about the notion of "bottom" a lot.

In case you are not familiar with this idea, "bottom" is where an individual has to get before she is really ready to do something about her drinking. The idea is that different people have different bottoms. For one, getting so drunk that they miss a day of work might freak them right out, and cause them to re-evaluate their drinking habits. Other people have to lose a spouse, a house, and a career, and end up on the streets before it occurs to them that the cost of drinking might be too high. These latter people are called "low bottom drunks". (I assume one would call the other kind a "high bottom drunk", but I personally have never heard this phrase used.)

Anyway. I was also thinking that people in marriages have bottoms. For instance, some people leave the first time they get hit, while others stick around and try to work it out, taking beatings for years. And some of those beaten people leave the first time the spouse smacks the kid. Some people tolerate years of infidelity, while others have a zero-tolerance policy for that. What interests me is the set of people who have admittedly difficult marriages who just suddenly seem one day to hit their bottom. From the outside, it's just the same old, same old. You know, honey, that man has been boinking other people in your bed for years, and you've known about it and whined about it, but never left him, so why is this incident, which looks the same to everyone out here with our noses pushed up against the glass, so different?

Well, onto less depressing topics....

You had questions, so let's see if I have answers....

1. How many variations of Monkey Bread do you figure we can come up with?Thousands. Yours sound good. How about chorizo and pepper jack cheese? Or caramelized onions and swiss cheese? Or cloves, orange rind, and mint? (I didn't say they would all taste good!)

2. What's your favorite emergency snack? Sliced pepperoni, microwaved for 30 desconds until it gets crispy. Fakes me into thinking it's real and warm. If there are hardboiled eggs in the place, it's not an emergency! I make devilled eggs out of them and snack away.

3. What's your favorite Christmas gift this year? I dunno. My mother got one of the authors of a book I wanted to autograph the thing with a quote from my "About You..." page at amazon (the thing about reading too much, thinking too much, and sleeping too little), which just tickled me pink. The book was pretty good, too.

4. What is it that disturbs you most about all the destruction from the tsunami? That it much of the loss of life was preventable, if only the early warning systems like we have on this continent had been in place.

Now feel really obligated to think of something more cheerful to say. Well, now that you-know-who is gone from TAR, I have two excellent reality shows to watch: TAR (of course) and Project Runway. Also, I am over my previous TV-grrrl crush on Debbie Travis, who lost me forever when she said that a particular episode of her show proved that "men" cared about their houses less than "us girls". That's just all kind of wrong, starting with the fact that she's forty if she's a day, and the woman she was talking to was well into her thirties. I'm looking for a replacement, but haven't found her on HGTV, Perhaps I need to check out other channels.

And in the best TV news of the decade, that Elizabeth Rohm chick finally got kicked off L&O.

What? Me? Watch too much TV? Why? What makes you say that???

And now it's my turn!!!

Not that I have a lot of creative ideas for questions, which is one reason I slacked off so long....

1. How do you cook brisket? I used the recipe in the recent Cook's Illustrated and it made the best (non-BBQ) brisket i ever had. It's sort of a pain in the butt, but totally worth it.

2. How do you cook flank steak? I usually make a stirfry of some kind. Right now, I am sort of craving oyster sauce beef, and that would be a good thing to make from it. When I have way too much time on my hands, and it's warm enough to open all the doors while the beef boils (because I loathe the smell of boiled beef), I make vaca frita. Yummy, amusingly named, and a whole lot of trouble to cook. On extremely rare occasions, I stuff it, roll it up, and grill it.

3. Read any good books lately? My favorite recently is What's the Matter with Kansas?

4. Where should I go on my next vacation? I was thinking of Nepal, but the place is under martial law right now and turning away flights. So what should I adopt as Plan B?
</b>

Mm, homemade-ish...

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:06:17 GMT

How was your holiday? I liked my gifties, of course, and have been learning all about corpsy (or, if you prefer, cadavery) stuff. Not around mealtimes, though...

I had a lot of fun at Mom's house for the holidays. Pretty low-key, though we had another big wacky gathering, you know, Mom's gentleman friend, his daughter, her boyfriend, his brother, his girlfriend, his mom, her husband, etc. It's always kind of fun when we get to put all the leaves in the table.

And since you asked...
1. My favorite semi-homemade treat? We had a couple at Christmas dinner: the classic green bean casserole (with canned green beans, canned mushroom soup, canned fried onions, yum! The dish barely made it around the table once.) and ambrosia, this time made with coconut, canned pineapples, canned mandarin orange sections, sour cream and handmade marshmallows. Bear in mind that I didn't make the marshmallows, I bought them at Whole Foods, but they were super-absorbent, so they soaked up lots of fruit juicy goodness.

That brings up my biggest problem with Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Crap: she seems to go out of her way to use not just canned food but plastic food, like white chocolate and cool-whip, both of which are icky. Plus they're poor imitations of the real thing, namely real chocolate and whipped cream, neither of which is all that hard to work with.

Fun Christmas moment: I described the Semi-Homemade Yule Log to Mom (you know, take a grocery store jelly roll, slather with Cool-Whip, use a fork to make wood-grain markings, dust with cocoa powder) and she said "Ew! That sounds like what they feed the prisoners. You know, like at Huntsville."

2. Labor-intensive food that's totally worth it but only rarely actually made? I'd say Mexican sauces--there's a tomatillo sauce for chicken enchiladas that's totally awesome (but is also kind of a pain). Another item is homemade bread, which I don't make much because I tend to eat way too much of it hot out of the oven.

3. Death is not an option? Well, Twila is my obvious choice, just because I know (and like) women like her already. I have to confess I've had friends like Ami but it never lasted because eventually I'd flip out because of the domineering, passive-aggressive, knife-twisting bullshit and we'd have a huge falling-out, usually where I behaved like a screeching harpy and she and her friends would shake their heads going, whoa, bitch crazy.

Not that I'm bitter. I just like the Twilas and Scouts of this world a lot better.

4. Favorite street vendor food? Hot pretzels with mustard. I salivate at the thought of them. Sadly, the street vendors on the UT campus mostly suck, and some were arrested for fencing stolen property.

I ask you...
1. How many variations of Monkey Bread do you figure we can come up with? For instance, they could be baked in those oversized muffin cups and served out individually. Or they could be made with biscuits dipped in butter and layered with a brown-sugar-cinnamon mixture. There was also a version that used undiluted orange-juice concentrate and something else... and then there's chopped apples, or rasins...

2. What's your favorite emergency snack? I'll eat a hardboiled egg when I'm starving, standing over the sink and salting and peppering as I go. Eliot will eat a piece of cheese. Or, when there's not much else around, I'll drink milk straight out of the carton. (You know you're still transitioning to adulthood when you have to wipe lipstick off the milk carton.)

3. What's your favorite Christmas gift this year? I'm enjoying everything (especially the books) but was especially touched by both grandmas' gifts for the new baby: an asian baby doll from Judy and a completely adorable (and girly) baby outfit, featuring Baby's First Bluejeans (which are embroidered with teensy flowers, as is the matching ruffled shirt and jacket).

4. What is it that disturbs you most about all the destruction from the tsunami? It's all disturbing, but something about the on-the-scene footage taken of the actual waves really got to me: in some locations, it looked as though the usual ocean waves just kept coming. As in, you're at the beach, you watch the waves go out and come in, and then--the ocean just rolls across the land, the water gets higher and higher, across the beach and the grass and the roads. It's something I never could have imagined and it's unsettling.

And since there's so little else I can do, I'm putting these links here. Not that I don't know that you're already aware of these organizations.

https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.architectureforhumanity.org/
And here's a useful summary of the relief efforts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_response_to_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

Take care, dood!

Marcy: Busy time of year....

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:26:19 GMT

Those Zanotti heels are the BOMB!! Has Eliot seen them? The red rubber boots are sweet, too, but the heels? *Swoon*

Your questions

1. Can you really get both knees replaced at the same time? I also always figured they did that one at a time. But it turns out not.

2. Speaking of reality TV, has this season's TAR made you revise your dream vacation list? Not really, because I have always wanted to go to Africa. However, as long as I am doing that, I might try to fit in Goree.

3. And, again on the TAR subject: whose relationship has been the most appealing to you? I actually liked the relationships of all the teams eliminated so far. Kristy's extremely patient and loving support of her sister when she was looking for the hay clue: awesome! Don and MJ remind me a bit of my parents, the way they like each other so much, the way they persevere, and the way they will surprise you with a bit of adorable vulgarity when it's appropriate.

4. And what are you doing for Christmas? Going to spend time with the family? Sleeping and studying, dood.

Whenever I watch Semi-Homemade, I think of the party at your house last winter, which had lots of food along the lines of what she *should* be doing. But no, she is just RUINING food for the heck of it. Because she can, I think. HGTV has a few shows I really like. Remember those houses we looked at several months ago, which were all in buildings converted from other purposes? Building Character, it's called and it is well worth watching. Also, my new TV girlfriend is on that channel.

Most of my MP3s are ripped from CDs, which I do so I can listen to music at work without hauling CDs around. Also, I can then easily make mix disks, like the one I am sending you. I found a cute little utility that puts my current music in my AIM status, too. So it's easy to see what I am listening to, pretty much whenever you contact me.

My turn...

1. So what is your favorite Semi-Homemade treat? Not from the show, but in general. I'm torn between that monkey bread you made for the party and that casserole with the frozen potatoes, cheesy creamy sauce, and crushed Fritos on top. Of course, I am also a fan of stews that use a couple canned ingredients. (See the recipe for Estofada I put on here awhile back.)

2. And what do you not make very often because it's a lot of trouble, but every time you do make it, you think "Oh, this is good, I should make it more often!"? Homemade potstickers. Where by "homemade", I mean both the filling and the wrappers.

3. Death is Not an Option: You must develop a close friendship with one of the women who were on Survivor this season. Which one? It's going to have to be one of Scout or Twila. Pretty much hated all the rest. (Except Dolly, but she seems so vapid, who would want to be colse friends with her?)

4. What is your favorite street vendor food? It's a toss up between the Char Siu bao from one of the vendors by the Berkeley BART station, and htis insanely good chicken sandwich that you can buy from a vendor at the west edge of the UOregon campus.

One thing I have decided about these on-line journals is that they are dangerous. What I mean is that some people who seem reasonably interesting in Real Life turn out to be vapid and not very interesting when they go online. I hope that is not true for us!

Jules: Mmm... sleep...

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 12:52:50 GMT

Can't get enough of it these days. I've had a nasty cold for the past few days so I've had very little extra energy, despite all the other excitement around here. Getting our baby photos is pretty thrilling, so if I wasn't all stuffed and logy I imagine I'd be bouncing off the walls. So perhaps it's just as well...

You were asking...
1. What shoes do I want for Christmas? Well, a pair of sexy Zanotti heels is always welcome, of course, though given the $560 price, I'm not exactly holding my breath: http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?cmCat=search&itemId=prod15210107

As a more practical matter, I could really go for some ankle-height rubber boots:
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/2389657/c/7542.html

Also, those blue tennies are way cute.

2. The House and Garden channel? I hadn't actually looked. I have to confess I don't watch much in the way of how-to shows unless there's an Iron-Chef-style hook. By the way, I finally saw "Semi-Homemade Cooking with Scary Lee." Dude, that is some horrible stuff, and I say this as somebody who's capable of fairly low-brow food indulgences--but really, some of that was nasty. Naaasty.

3. Solo vacation? Tough question, because I've never actually vacationed alone. I think I'd enjoy any big city with a lot of museums, but Chicago especially would be great fun, because they have a fantastic art museum that I haven't seen since I was a kid. And the shopping is incredible, according to my mom, who would know.

4. I have almost no music squirreled away as MP3s. The reason being that I don't download much music, aside from a few singles. Which is why I don't get to use the "detect" function to fill in the "current music" category, I just fill in whatever I've had on the car CD player.

Oh, plus this:
http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collection=comfort_stand&collectionid=csr049

All I'm saying is that I really really like a certain type of 70s-style guitar groove music.

So, tell me...
1. Can you really get both knees replaced at the same time? I always figured they did that one at a time, so you could recuperate after each one. And the taking-off-and-putting-back-on is creepy, but I think I'd get over it if I'd been in terrible pain and couldn't get around. Still, ick. Did you notice on the Survivor finale that Scout said that the docs had given her the wrong size knee? Yowza. I'd be pissed.

2. Speaking of reality TV, has this season's TAR made you revise your dream vacation list? I have to say not yet: I've been to Oslo (and that very ski-jump, as it happens, which was hard to find even with a local taking us there) and Stockholm, both of which I'd happily visit again. Going to the Viking village could be cool, but then I'm kind of a sap for all things Viking. Go figure.

3. And, again on the TAR subject: whose relationship has been the most appealing to you? I really love Gus and Hera, partly because I'm enjoying watching them getting used to interacting like teammates and travelers instead of whatever old patterns of father-and-daughter they'd established--I think they're learning to respect and appreciate each other in a new way. Also, I really enjoyed Don and Mary Jane, because even when they were frustrated and tired they would stop and apologize for snapping; plus they really obviously adore each other. And they were graceful losers, sniff!

I'm not even going to ask who has the most appalling relationship, because there's no doubt: Jonathan and Victoria are just awful, awful together and he's an abusive freak. Screaming, shrieking, blaming, it just goes on and on. Turkish prison? Absolutely.

4. And what are you doing for Christmas? Going to spend time with the family? We're going to Houston for a few days. I'm hoping to be over my cold before we go, though I'm not so sure I can pull it off, alas.

And to you and all our readers (assuming we have any): Merry Christmas! Happy Festivus! And, as a variation on Tiny Tim's plea, Lord Help Us All.

Marcy: Slouching towards...sleep?

Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:47:05 GMT

I am exhausted. I have no idea why. I have been getting a fairly normal amount of sleep, and when I felt absolutely hammered yesterday, I went to bed at 8-freaking-o'clock of the evening, and slept 12 1/2 hours. So how is it even possible that I feel quite tired today? Admittedly, it's not as bad as yesterday, when I was pinching myself in meetings to stay awake, but it's pretty bad.

Questions from Jules....
1. Dude, you don't drink coffee?I almost never drink coffee. When I first started hanging out with Mark, who makes excellent coffee, my consumption shot up from one cup a day to about eight cups a day and I could see I was well on my way to a serious addiction. So I stopped. I occasionally drink a cup, but not very often.

2. Since you asked about alcohol, what's your favorite cold weather libation? Hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.

3. Speaking of which, do you ever make seasonal alcohol-enriched desserts ( of the non-flamed variety)? I sometimes make myself a pan of really fudgy brownies, then poke holes all over it with a fork and dump a bunch of Kahlua. Then put some ganache on top of that. I used to sprinkle crushed espresso beans over the top of that until I made myself sick eating chocolate-covered espresso beans and went off them for life.

But my mother makes brandy balls (vanilla wafers, walnuts and brandy, near as I can tell) a few weeks before Halloween. They are okay, but I don't miss them when I don't have them.

4. And, because I'm running out of ideas, do you prefer twinkly lights on the Christmas tree or steady-burning? Clear or multi-colored? Twinkly and clear. Or else steady and colored. I'm shocked that you did not ask me if I like big ones or little ones while you were at it (little ones).

The weather is quite odd here today. For example, it was 15F colder at my house than at my office this morning, and it's less than 20 miles from one to the other. Also, it can't decide if it's sunny, foggy, hazy, or rainy. Finally, it's been really dark all day long except for that too-bright sunshine in my front yard as I tried to see whether I was accurately scraping the ice off my car.

Do you think that once Eliot has a child to share Christmas with, that his attitude might change?

My mom had both knees replaced last week and is up and wandering around already. In fact, she was up and wandering around really fast after the surgery. It's such a weird operation. They cut your legs off and then stick them back on using fake-o parts. I mean, that's what it comes down to, and that freaks me out to think about. My brother came back from Central America in time for the operation, which I think my dad appreciated.

I'm glad you want to do the book. Maybe you could dig out the old draft book proposal and make some changes to it?

This week's episode of TAR was disturbing, although it was certainly beautifully edited. First, we see Gus waxing profound about the Middle Passage and the Berlin Wall, talking about how everywhere on earth are the artifacts of people's inhumanity towards other people. Then we get to watch that appalling man hit his wife, as if to say, and yeh, Gus, it's still going on. I'm a fan of Kris/Jon, Gus/Hera, and (to my surprise) the rasslers. But it won't kill me if the wife-hitter ends up in a turkish prison.

My turn...

1. So, Jules, what shoes do you want for Christmas? I want these, in blue.

2. Does your cable company still withhold Home and Garden TV from you? The best thing about switching from analog to digital cable was adding that channel in.

3. Where would you go on a solo vacation? I am thinking of going to Singapore and taking the train to Bangkok, up through penninsular Malaysia and Thailand.

4. How much music do you have squirreled away as MP3s? It turns out that I have 4600 songs, which is 12 days of music, or about 18.9GB. I should probably admit that I had to delete about 6GB, because I was running out of disk space on my PowerBook.

From Jules: Irony and Idiocy

Sat, 11 Dec 2004 21:13:18 GMT

By which I mean, what kind of person puts up a new artificial tree all by herself? Answer: an idiot with a husband who loathes all things festive and Christmas-related. I'm proud to announce, however, that I managed to get the thing up and lit without hurting myself too much. And even with a tree that came with the lights already on it, it was freakin hard. And I bought a fresh wreath so we get the piney smell, minus the nightmarish allergies. And, ironically, I'm just finishing with the lights and the arranging of branches when the Grinch comes home, squints at it, and allows as how it maybe doesn't look too bad.

I think that a big part of the appeal for him is that it's just a fake tree with lights: no ornaments, no tinsel, no garland, no star on the top, nada. (Rhetorical question:--which is why it's here--What kind of person is such an overbearing asshole to children while decorating the tree that the kids, when grown up, can't abide Christmas trees? Short answer: a drunk. But still.)

Also, I'm annoyed that you loaned Mark a vehicle without remembering to sabotage the brakes first. Ha--kidding! Like you'd damage your nifty little SUV.

Oh, right, questions...
1. Regular or decaf? Regular or Premium? Iced or hot tea? Chocolate or vanilla? Regular (until 5pm, then decaf). Regular gas, because Hank is a regular kinda guy. Iced. Chocolate, unless I can get fudge sauce, then vanilla.

2. You betcha we'll write this book. In fact, I've been looking forward to it, though I've realized that you're very busy. It's exactly the sort of project that I can fit in during naptime and stuff like that.

3. Chinese dessert...Have you ever made those little sesame seed balls? They're just a little sweet so they make a nice dessert with a cup of tea.

4. Hangover cure? Dude, have I got the advice for you: before you go to bed, take a long hot bath while drinking your half liter of water. If you don't want a bath, at least take a long hot shower. The hot water seems to help metabolize the alcohol so you don't go to sleep drunk, which is part of the morning-after fatigue since the bed spins just aren't restful.

I know this because I went to a lawyer's conference and drank unwisely: tequila, red wine, then more tequila. I know. But the bath and water, plus two aspirin meant that I made it to the next morning's sessions.

So, I ask you...
1. Dude, you don't drink coffee? That is, since you said "neither' to regular or decaf, unless there's a third option that the advanced-coffee-drinkers of Seattle have come up with.

A coffee-related story: the exterminator was here and, since I had a pot on, I offered her a cup of coffee. She sipped it thoughtfully, nodded and said, this is good coffee. Where do you get your coffee? Is this fresh ground? And I was thinking, who does this remind me of? Later I realized: Harvey Keitel's character in Pulp Fiction. (Good news, by the way: no termites, and the ants are dying in large numbers.)

2. Since you asked about alcohol, what's your favorite cold weather libation? I'm fond of hot chocolate with about half a shot of cognac, but it's not like I get to drink much of it.

3. Speaking of which, do you ever make seasonal alcohol-enriched desserts ( of the non-flamed variety)? By which, I refer to rum balls or bourbon balls or whatever. My parents used to make bourbon balls, which I disliked as a kid (of course) and never developed a taste for. Though I adore amaretto cookies. And then there's rum cakes and that whole thing, which I only like in tiny quantities.

I always suspected the bourbon balls were made so that they could have some Christmas candy that didn't get gobbled up by the kids.

4. And, because I'm running out of ideas, do you prefer twinkly lights on the Christmas tree or steady-burning? Clear or multi-colored? I'm liking twinkly white lights right now.

Marcy: Yes, I will visit you sometime!

Mon, 06 Dec 2004 20:39:27 GMT

Weird days seem to be the theme of the month. You are not the only person I know who has had one lately.

Before I step off into the recital of the recent events in my life, I want to take a moment to record this quotation from Susan Saint James. Having resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other guy dies. Yes, indeed it is. I hope I can remember that at moments when resentment is threatening to bubble up and over.

Anyway, this was the weekend of irony. For example, Mark has decided to go to the Oregon coast and see if he can get caught up on his thesis. Me, I told him he could take my car, since it really is more appropriate for that kind of driving. Of course, he left on Saturday, and then I woke up in the middle of the night thinking, "Hmm, what is that odd sound?" And then, "Oops! That is the sound of wet snow falling out of the sky and landing on the roof outside my window." So there I was, all Sunday, stuck at the top of a hill with a Honda Civic, which is not what you want to drive around in snow with, having let my 4WD baby out of my sight. Really, what was I thinking? I wish it had included, "Hey, wait a second! It's December, and that means snow, and you live at the top of a hill, you idiot." Oh well. At least we had a heat wave last night, and the 40F air melted all the damn snow.

Now that I think about it, that was more like "idiocy" than "irony".

I'm spending the week alone in the house with a bunch of cats who hate each other. I have decided to try to get Mozart back on a reasonable diet, which he hates. This makes him cranky, and then he starts being irritable with the other cats, who then take it out on each other. He also deals with the stress of Not Enough Food by licking parts of his body until first the fur comes off and then he starts to bleed. I think this is something like Kitty OCD. Do they have pills for that?

We're working on hiring developers, which is a pain, because whenever we do, the fanboys come out of the woodwork, and send us resumes about how they don't know how to program, but would really, really, REALLY like to learn, and they can't think of a better place to do that than here.

And school just feels like a major pain in the neck right now. I spent several hours on the phone with Micki yesterday (well, I couldn't go anywhere, after all!), and we redesigned the program to be less gendered and less annoying. She's looking for a PhD program in leadership and/or international studies. I think I might be looking for a PhD program in fixing broken things. Do they have one like that? Because I am sick of not knowing how to make things better.

So that's the report from Seattle today. I think I would like to see a blue sky for a few hours. And no more damn snow until I get my car back! (And yes, I do realize I did this to myself, but I still want to be snow-free until I get my car back.)

Shockingly enough, you had questions! How surprising....

1. Do you ever get the urge to ask a bunch of pointless questions? Such as: soup or salad? Paper or plastic? Cup or cone? Fries or baked potato? Of course. Soup. Paper. Cone. Mashed, please.

2. So I'll resort to asking about food: Did your family eat a different meal for Christmas than Thanksgiving? It mostly depended on where we were eating said meals. Different people had different ideas about what one ought to eat on those days of the year. My mother has recently started serving a huge roast beef dinner on Christmas Eve, which is great, because then you can have the artery-clogging breakfast on the day itself, and content yourself with leftovers and soup that afternoon.

3. What about holiday desserts? Are you doctrinaire on the issue of Christmas cookies? I'm not. Lynne and I used to make Yule Logs, getting fancier each year. I think that the last one we made had meringue mushrooms and ganache leaves in various colors, and a spun-sugar cobweb with a carved-from-licorice spider. It was fun to make and very impressive.

4. And now, wild card question: Have you ever won anything by being the tenth (or whatever) caller to a radio station? Never.

My turn...

1. Do you have answers for pointless questions, such as: Regular or decaf? Regular or Premium? Iced or hot tea? Chocolate or vanilla? (Neither, Premium, Iced if it has no lemon in it, and Vanilla most days.)

2. Do you think we are ever really going to write this book? I have to admit, doing so is one of the things I hold out as a reward for myself for finishing this degree. But I keep thinking that it's really going to be a burden to you over the next year, and I don't want that.

3. What is the right thing to eat for dessert with Chinese food? I ask because I have never figured that out. I have this great meal I can make for the purposes of a dinner party, but it has no dessert, and I don't much like tossing fortune cookies at people after a home-cooked meal. Ideas?

4. Best way to prevent a hangover, short of abstention? Four aspirin and half a liter of water before bed. Take a large gulp of water every time I wake up all night long. It turns out that whoever told me that a hangover was largely composed of dehydration was onto something.

L8R, dood.

Jules: So come visit us another time!

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:23:22 GMT

Yesterday was a weird day, though I think with no lasting results. First, I had a disturbing dream before I got up. (More about that later.)

During breakfast I said, you know Eliot now that I'm finished with the book project I'm free to do Christmas stuff, is there anything you want? And he just gave me this evil glare. I blurted, ack, what's with that, and he's all, do I ever care about Christmas or find it anything besides a chore? So I said, jeez, I was just wondering if you wanted me to make fruitcake or cookies or something. I realize now that he wasn't exactly listening and only tuned in time to think I was on the verge of trying to get him up on the roof stringing lights or something. Ha! That'll be the day.

After breakfast, there's the ant problem: we've had ants here and there in the house but we've managed to chase them away without too much trouble. The other day there were a few in the shower and Eliot ran the hot water and rinsed them away, muttering something about calling an exterminator. Then yesterday there's a multitude of ants in there, running around in a hostile manner in the tub. And they appear to be fire ants, too. I went online to find an exterminator (by Googling, I managed to find a GLB-friendly exterminator, so that was good, except that she can't come by until next week.) Then I showered in the other room, so as to not be attacked by the swarm of ants, but first I scattered some ant bait in the tub because I fucking hate fire ants and the feeling is absolutely mutual. And then I'm sitting around looking at my email and realize that the house cleaners are coming today: I'm not dressed (bathrobe, hair towel and slippers), my hair is wet, plus the house looks like a small-but-crammed-with-books room vomited its contents all over the house and two or three pieces of luggage exploded (this would be the Thanksgiving luggage). And there's ant bait in the tub, plus a couple of million angry ants. On top of all that, it's 10:00, and our deal with the house cleaners is that they can arrive at any time after 9 am.

So I do the sensible thing: freak out completely. I turn on the hot shower in the tub and frantically try to rinse out the ants-and-bait mess. Leaving that on, I run into the other room so as to not be naked when the house cleaners arrive. I dress halfway, can't find a shirt that's warm enough for this weather, so I peer around the corner to see if the house cleaners are in the driveway. They're not. Dash to the laundry room, frantically put on a sweater and run shivering into the bathroom (because the laundry room AND the sweater were both damn cold) where it's nice and warm because the hot water's still running. I use a toilet brush to help rinse out the by-now-furious-ants and the bait. Then I briefly pondered whether to hang around and warn the cleaning people about the ants and bait and decide, screw that, they're professionals. Plus I checked the tub again and there's no bait and the few remaining ants are clinging irritably to the shower curtain. And then I flee, because I really do have errands to run, not just because I don't want to face angry ants or house cleaners.

Oh, and the dream: One of those annoying dreams where you think you got up but you're still in bed, dreaming. I'm walking through the living room and look down and see a little red light glowing deep in the carpet. I bend down and poke at it but it's planted deep, in the concrete slab, with the light barely visible through the pile of the carpet. I think oh God is that a bug? A camera? And I look for a knife to cut up the carpet so I can find that thing. Then I woke up.

And now, yer questions!
1. Sauna or hot tub? I'd go for the sauna if I could also have a cold plunge pool. Because, zowie. Otherwise, hot tub.

2. Post election web-reading? I like the sites you mentioned, but I've also been enjoying some shadenfreude: http://fuggingitup.blogspot.com/ and doing some shopping: http://www.enokiworld.com/frontpage.htm Have I mentioned that I haven't quite figured out how to do links? Politically, there's this one: http://www.democraticunderground.com/

3. Loft or 1920s flat? The flat, I'm thinking, because of the architectural details and because keeping all that brick dusted would be a pain. But mostly because architectural details from that era are so cool.

4. More annoying, the person who I like but who doesn't like me, or the person I loathe who likes me? Oh, the latter, absolutely, because there were so many of those people in law school (probably because so few of them were likeable at all).

So, tell me...
1. Do you ever get the urge to ask a bunch of pointless questions? Such as: soup or salad? Paper or plastic? Cup or cone? Fries or baked potato? (My usual answers: soup, paper, cone, fries. Depending.) Yeah, sometimes it's hard to come up with questions.

2. So I'll resort to asking about food: Did your family eat a different meal for Christmas than Thanksgiving? My family didn't, except when the holiday featured the Mom's Huge Family Buffet (her family is huge, thus the buffet is, too). On those occasions, there'd be a turkey AND a ham, plus all the side dishes and pies. Often a fruitcake, too, that somebody had hoped once and for all to get rid of--did you know fruitcake is much improved with a generous slathering of whipped cream? But then, what isn't?

3. What about holiday desserts? Are you doctrinaire on the issue of Christmas cookies? I have to admit that molasses-ginger cookies or butter cookies in holiday shapes seem more right for Christmas, but I won't turn down chocolate chip. Also, there's a Southern (ok, really, Redneck Fundamentalist) practice of baking a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cake. Creepy, but I have no idea why.

4. And now, wild card question: Have you ever won anything by being the tenth (or whatever) caller to a radio station? I have, twice. I won a Kenny Rogers album and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I never opened the former, and my parents swiped the latter to practice dancing to during their disco phase.

Marcy: I love you guys and all, but I am NOT flying on Thanksgiving weekend!

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 19:35:17 GMT

What is King Ranch Casserole? Hold on while I look it up on Google . . . Yes, it does look like it's similar to Chicken Sopa, except that King Ranch Casserole has tomatoes in it. Also, most versions of KRC seem to call for Rotel, which as far as I know is a Texas thing.

This weekend, I roasted a bunch of whole chicken breasts, with lemon and garlic and fresh rosemary under the skin. Yum, crispy roasted chicken skin. Then later, there is cooked chicken meat for things like chicken salad sandwiches. Did I tell you that by the time I came home from India that time, the one thing I was craving was a chicken salad sandwich? I have no idea why that was, because there were all kinds of other things I did not get to eat in India, such as beef, that you would think I might have missed. But no, it was chicken salad on whole wheat bread.

Today I am making myself beef turnovers. This is comfort food, not very fancy but really satisfying. I make a recipe of pizza dough and set it to rise. While it does that, I fry up some minced onion and lean ground beef with salt and pepper. When the beef is cooked, I add a cup of really good quality beef stock and then cook it down so that the liquid all disappears. Let the filling cool. By now the dough is ready to go. I roll it out and fill it with the beef. Then I put cubes of monterey jack cheese on the beef before I seal the pastries. Bake until golden brown and then remove from the oven. Rub butter all over the hot turnovers and sprinkle with kosher salt. Yum yum yum. Comfort food.

Now, in the spring, I make a different kind of turnover. Herb chicken. Use roasted chicken meat, some cream cheese and fresh herbs. I really do seem to have a thing about food and seasons.

You had questions, ma'am!

1. What's the weirdest food anyone ever brought to a Thanksgiving meal? I'm with you about those grain-y weird things people bring to holiday meals. However, I have a barley casserole I always make if there will be a vegetarian at a holiday meal I am hosting, which I guess qualifies as a weird grain thing. Except that I am a good cook, so it's really good! Basically, you take whatever vegetables you want to use and chop them up small and sweat them in some butter (or olive oil if your guest is a vegan). MIx them in a casserole with 2 cups dried barley, 2 cups vegetable stock and 2 cups tomato juice. Cover and bake at 350F for 90 minutes. (I adapted it form a recipe where you do the same thing, except use chicken stock and stick some skinless chicken thighs on top of the barley. That stuff is really good, and so is the vegetarian version.) Also, I'm pretty sure that at one of those graduate-school-poverty-stricken meals, someone brought McDonald's apple pies.

2. What does your family do on holidays besides cook and eat? Read. At Christmas, we open stockings then have the artery-clogging breakfast, then clean the kitchen, then open presents (which takes a good long while). Then we sit around and read our new books. Which we all have.

3. And, a non-holiday, non-food question: What do you think is the best approach for decorating a baby's room? I think I would do a mural of the sort that a small child would like, as well as the baby. The way to do this is to rent an LCD projector and use your laptop to project the image on the wall. Although other times, I think that I would just do primary colors and neutral walls.

4. What kind of home-improvements do you consider doable yourself, and what requires a professional? Before I killed my knees, I would do basic plumbing, basic electrical, and basic anything. Now that I busted my knees and squatting is more or less out of the question, pretty much everything requires a pro. Except painting, if there is someone else around to do the baseboards. What color carpet in the baby's room?

Sometimes I worry about how much I write about food in this forum, but then I recall that this is more or less the point of the exercise, modulo the four questions. And speaking of the four questions, here are mine for you...

1. If you were going to install one or the other: sauna or hot tub? No question but that I want the hot tub. I love love love sitting in a hot tub when it's raining (not during a thundershower, but during ordinary Seattle winter rain).

2. What URLs have you found since the election that you find comforting, or annoying, or something? Here are three: first, one that is overly histrionic and drama-queeny, but has some interesting ideas in it; second, another way of thinking about those ubiquitous reb-and-blue maps; and finally, a new project from the folks that brought you TWoP, FameTracker, Frolic and Detour, Tomato Nation and other such wonderful sites.

3. Should I live in a loft or in a 1920s flat? I don't know the answer, actually. I'm just curious about your intuition.

4. Which is more frustrating, annoying and/or irritating: a person you like who doesn't like you, or a person you loathe who likes you? I have recently begun to suspect that it's actually the latter.

Thanks for the invites, dood. I am currently saving all my holiday time for my thesis project in the spring, so I am not going anywhere for any holidays this winter. However, I am definitely going to come see you and your new daughter once I manage to graduate.

From Jules: What about a Texas T-giving?

Sun, 21 Nov 2004 16:16:59 GMT

Hey, you could always join us for Thanksgiving. True, it's the worst time of the year to travel but at least you'd have a great meal and maybe even a little sunshine.

And, I promise, no lime jello with strawberries. Which, really, what were they thinking? Going for the red-and-green Christmas theme? Ick.

Your description of Nasty Oyster Stew sounds like the evil twin of a similar recipe that a friend fixed for me way back in high school: briefly saute fresh oysters in butter, then add milk, salt and pepper and that's it. No margarine, and the oysters were cooked perfectly. Also, I'm glad somebody besides me thinks that cranberry relish recipe sounds horrible: horseradish? onions? Are they insane?

Answers:
1. I'm not a big fan of Trail Mix, though when we would go camping, Eliot would make his own using raisins, peanuts and M&Ms. I tend to eat it when I'm so hungry that I'd eat just about anything, like when hiking, so I'm not fussy. Know what they call that stuff in Austria? "Studenten Food". Like it's essentially Purina Student Chow.

2. Mm, sickening sweet. I adore 7-layer bars, even though I make a point of rolling my eyes when Eliot insists on making it around the holidays. It's especially yummy with a cup of coffee. I think Eliot's recipe is the same of yours except with butterscotch chips instead of toffee chips. And, toffee chips? Zowie. I didn't know such a thing existed. Worth investigating. In the nostalgia category, I always loved Dad's divinity, which is essentially fluffy white candy with nuts. Haven't had it for years, because it was so tricky to get it to set up in Houston's humidity.

3. Too much convenience food? There is such a thing? Ha! Kidding. Actually, I'm not much of a fan of stuff-made-with-canned soup, though I never analyzed why--I suspect it's the canned taste. And that casserole (your version) sounds tasty, like a variation of King Ranch Casserole. As for stuff I've made, I tend to find out such things by accident, like the other day when I discovered that Frito Pie made with homemade chili is WAY better.

Also, I've only made mac and cheese from a box once or twice in my life because that cheese powder is an abomination. Eliot's personal version of mac and cheese is pretty simple: cook macaroni, layer it in a casserole with handfuls of grated cheddar, bake until melty. It's better than the boxed stuff, but just barely because the cheese separates and gets oily. I've made it with a proper cheese sauce, but the ratio of appreciation to workload was too unrewarding to inspire me to make it often.

4. Uh, poetry? Ok, I feel kind of lowbrow admitting this, but I rarely read poetry and when I do it's because I ran across it in another publication. When I subscribed to The New Republic (before it went all NeoCon) I used to read the poems and occasionally copy the best ones into a little notebook. The poetry in The Atlantic and The New Yorker aren't as consistently good, but there are some gems. Rarely, I'll dig out the notebook and copy one down, but I have yet to become a fan of a particular poet.

Questions for you:
1. What's the weirdest food anyone ever brought to a Thanksgiving meal? I had an aunt who brought a greenish pumpkin pie. I have no idea why it was green, because I was not about to investigate. Also, I've been to those gathering-of-orphans Thanksgivings (where people aren't so much as orphans as too broke to make the trip home) where somebody brought a pointedly alternative dish, usually a casserole featuring unusual grains or tofu. "Want to try my kasha-tofu-brown rice-soy bake?" "Um sure." [Takes a polite spoonful, smiling politely. Pokes with a fork until it looks like it's been tasted.] Stomach space at Thanksgiving is far to precious a resource to waste on anything suspicious.

2. What does your family do on holidays besides cook and eat? My family? We gossip, mostly. Which means, football-watching is a side activity at best, but most of the time is spent with food preparation, hanging around in the kitchen chatting, and peeking over the shoulder of anybody who's cooking. We usually try to take the dogs for a longish after-dinner walk to tire them out and to build up an appetite for a light supper of leftovers, but that's a new thing. I've heard of families that always do some family sporting activity or that spend the afternoon glued to the football games, but that always seemed strange to me. At Christmas, there's gift-giving, but that's fairly brief, followed by playing-with-gifts, which is much longer.

3. And, a non-holiday, non-food question: What do you think is the best approach for decorating a baby's room? I only recently learned that a lot of people select a theme, often something available commercially, like Beatrix Potter, and decorate accordingly. Or they say, we're doing a circus theme and they get clown lamps and put up a circus-parade wallpaper border. I'm thinking I'm going to paint the walls a creamy white and maybe paper two walls with a cream background with colorful flowers, then everything else can be bright multicolors. Any suggestions?

4. What kind of home-improvements do you consider doable yourself, and what requires a professional? Me, I wouldn't touch plumbing, but Eliot is pretty happy to do basic stuff. Ditto in both cases re. electric stuff. I wouldn't consider paying a professional to paint one room (but the whole house? Oh, yeah.) or to wallpaper. Meanwhile, my parents did every kind of home repair/renovation I can think of except advanced plumbing and wiring: wallpaper, roofing, painting inside and out, upholstery and wood refinishing. And, now I'm happy to report, that we (ok, 80% Eliot, 20% me) carpeted the baby room, using these carpet tiles: www.interfaceflor.com

Have a great Thanksgiving! And call if you want to come to Texas. In fact, consider yourself invited for the Christmas holidays, too.

Marcy: Speeding Things Up

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 02:10:48 GMT

I have decided that there is no reason I shouldn't answer you, even if it is only two days since you posted. Hence, I am here, writing away, with no idea at the moment what I am going to say.

I fired someone last week. I hate that almost as much as anything I ever have to do. It seems like an admission on my part of managerial failure, even though I know that it is not precisely my failure that we are talking about here. Beyond clearly laying out the requirements and setting standards, and spending as much time as I could coaching and encouraging and reminding, there is nothing I can do. That's what personal responsibility means. Nevertheless, it made last week harder than I wanted it to be. (I'm not self-absorbed enough to think I was the person involved who had the worst week, or anything. Just, it was pretty bad.)

I got a new pair of shoes, which I really like, although they are not sexy or anything. What they are is COMFORTABLE. Really, really comfortable. You can see a pair here. While it's true that they are a bit clunky, they are not as stupid looking as Earth Shoes, but I think they may be the most comfortable shoe I have owned since my last pair of Earth Shoes died in about 1981.

I grew up in California mostly, so of course I am used to beans in chili. I like that okay, but it's not my favorite way to eat beans. I think my favorite way to eat beans is Greek Navy Bean Soup.

You wanted to know...

1. Any thoughts about slightly-non-traditional holiday food? When I lived in San Francisco, Lynne and I used to eat Chinese food for Christmas supper. We'd have the big dinner the night before, and then send for delivery on the afternoon of the day itself. Yum. (This is after the harden-your-arteries blow-out breakfast, so really after the roast the night before and the breakfast, we skipped lunch and then had Chinese food for supper.)

2. Hm, any guesses as to how the term "short" got to be used to describe baked goods that are buttery-and-crumbly as opposed to flaky? I always thought it was because such baked goods are higher in fat (or shortening), but I realize as I type that perhaps I just made that up when I was 10 and never bothered to find out if it is actually true or not.

3. Also, whither cranberries? My cousin Tom makes this cranberry-and-horseradish chutney-relish thing that he learned about on All Things Considered one evening about 15 years ago. I loathe it. Most people seem to love it, however. I like dried cranberries reconstituted and used in place of raisins in spice cake.

4. What food do you think is Just Wrong (or, more sensibly, Not For You) when associated with various holidays? My Grandfather always ate oyster stew on Christmas Eve, and believe me, there is no more WRONG food in all the world. You take oysters and suck them into a pan of milk and then you simmer it until the oysters are rubber. Serve it in bowls with a pat of margarine in each bowl. Ick Ick Ick. Also, sliced strawberries in lime jello is NOT a good Christmas day dessert.

It's hard to believe next week is T'giving already. I have no idea what I am doing for that day. Maybe I will just go for a long drive on the Olympic Peninsula and have a picnic on the beach in the rain. Or maybe not.

Anyway, I do have questions for you...

1. What do you think belongs in trail mix or gorp? What should never be in there? I think gorp should be raisins, peanuts and M&Ms. Period. End of discussion. Trail mix can be more creative, but it should never have dried pineapple in it, because I am allergic to that, and so I can't eat trail mix that has it. I like dried cranberries in trail mix, and also dried cherries.

2. What's your favorite sickeningly sweet thing to eat? I like 7-layer bars, slightly modified. My layers are butter, graham cracker crumbs, coconut, pecans, milk chocolate chips, toffee chips, and condensed milk. Much more sickeningly sweet than the original, and damn good, too.

3. Have you ever felt inspired to reverse engineer a recipe that was polluted with too much convenience food? In the 1970s in California, there was this casserole that all the moms made that they called Chicken Sopa. You made a sauce from a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of cream of celery soup with a can of chopped green chilis in it, then you layered that with cooked chicken, shredded corn tortillas and a whole lot of cheese, then cooked it until it all melted together. I loved it as a kid, but when I made it as an adult, I hated the taste of yucko canned soups. So I tried it with a sauce made of homemade chicken broth, a little cream cheese and some sour cream whisked together, and then chopped scallions and chopped green chilis. Much, much better.

4. And on a non-food note, and a non-holiday note, have you discovered any poets that you like, but had not heard about a year ago? I think I must have been hibernating or something, but I had not run across either Mary Oliver or David Whyte until last fall.

Jules: mmm... bitter

Sat, 13 Nov 2004 15:47:46 GMT

The subject line refers to my mood, though I'm also enjoying some nice coffee, which is also kind of bitter, but in a good way. It's been wintry around for the past couple of days, so a nice hot cuppa joe is just the thing. The bitter mood, as I'm sure you know, is the result of the election result and (like you) I'll avoid going on at length, except to say that I'm glad we'll be able to send our child to private schools and we should be able to survive retirement with no help from social security. Bummer for the folks who can't, though.

Oh, and FYI, wintry weather in these parts means cloudy and chilly, with highs around 50F. Good chili weather, and I know what you mean about chili-ground meat, which looks like ordinary ground beef except that the grind is coarser, about as big around as my pinky. Stores carry it around here, but mostly just in the fall and winter. It's a lot easier to use than the traditional method, which is to cut the meat into 1/2" cubes, which is way too much work and gives me achy wrists.

My parents, by the way, won a chili cookoff (along with their team of workplace cronies) using that method, which they chose primarily because they could afford the best meat if they bought it whole instead of ground. Plus, many hands = light work, blah blah blah. As I recall, they used a recipe that omitted beans but included tomato paste (no chunks of tomato) and fresh spices. I wasn't a big fan of the chili of my childhood, by the way, which included squashy lumps of tomato and kidney beans, both of which I disliked for texture reasons and laboriously picked out.

Full disclosure: I know it's not acceptable to purists, but I don't actually mind beans in chili, as long as they're pinto or anasazi beans (or similar), which tend to meld with the meaty texture instead of standing out like little firm lumps, as kidney beans tend to do. That compromise comes from years of using the beans to extend the more expensive meat--a way of serving a lot of guests on the cheap (and when we lived in NC, nobody had any notion of beanless chili).

Have I ever told you the Chipotle story? Back when we lived in Chapel Hill, Eliot was at home making chili and we'd brought two cans of chipotles home from our last visit to Texas and I was at work. He asked how to use the peppers and I said, oh put one or two in the blender and dump it in the pot--which he thought meant one or two CANS (and I'd meant one or two peppers). You can imagine the scene: I got home, we tasted the chili and staggered around with flames shooting out of the tops of our heads. Rushed to the store and bought giant cans of beans. Guests arrive immediately after that and say, oh but we like hot food, so we hand them each a tortilla chip and say, taste it first and THEY stagger around and rinse their mouths out in the kitchen sink. Two giant cans of beans go into the pot and we all enjoyed the chili, with a box of kleenex on the table to wipe our eyes. Days later we compare stories, Where Were YOU When The Peppers Hit? One reported that she was in the Operating Room (in her job as an OR nurse) and had to flee in haste, then return and re-scrub. Also, the leftovers just got hotter and hotter until they turned into the subject of dares, as in, go ahead, I'll bet you can't eat half a bowl.

Ahh. Good times.

Now for the Questions:
1. Oh, I am SO looking forward to The Amazing Race. Especially since Survivor has turned out to be a boring guys-versus-gals story.

2. Do I have trouble thinking of questions? Dude, I asked you hypotheticals about superpowers! Of course I have trouble thinking of questions. But I agree that it's a good discipline, and it gets us interacting in regular sort of way.

3. Mm, winter food... Roasted and stewed meat comes to mind first. Plus I really love winter squash, usually just roasted and served with salt and butter, though I also admit to a real affection for acorn squash served halved and filled with butter and brown sugar. My grandmother used to make, no kidding, squash pie, which was a lot like a pumpkin pie except with squash and slightly different seasonings (more nutmeg, I think, and less or no cinnamon). I wish that I'd gotten her to write down how she made it, though she told me at the time that she just threw it together.

Generally: Autumn, roasted meats (including poultry); Winter, ditto plus soups and stews; Spring, smoked meats and Mexican food; Summer: salads, grilled meats and Food Prepared By Others.

4. Ah, scallops. I've avoided scallops lately, since I've had Trouble With Bivalves, even though I adore them. Of course, you can't go wrong with garlic, pepper and white wine (and butter, too, I assume? Ha! Snuck in a question on the sly!). What about scallops baked in their shells (or a shallow dish) with seasoned breadcrumbs?

So, tell me:
1. Any thoughts about slightly-non-traditional holiday food? For instance, last year we made buttermilk-pecan pie (modifying an old buttermilk pie recipe, which is a traditional chess pie but more sour and less mind-bogglingly sweet) with extra-short crust (the result of Eliot's accidental use of twice the usual butter). That was good, but in Hawaii we had a coconut-pecan pie that was heavenly. I even brought home some coconut syrup in the hope of re-creating that recipe.

2. Hm, any guesses as to how the term "short" got to be used to describe baked goods that are buttery-and-crumbly as opposed to flaky? And am I using the term correctly? I could look it up myself but then I'd have to come up with another question. Still, I like it that there's a word for it, because it's the sort of thing I care way too much about.

3. Also, whither cranberries? Hee! I love the word "whither." I'm thinking it would be interesting to put cranberries in something other than sauce or jello salad (both which I love, by the way). What about half an acorn squash filled with chopped apples, cranberries, butter and brown sugar? Hm...

4. What food do you think is Just Wrong (or, more sensibly, Not For You) when associated with various holidays? There's the traditional stuff, like turkey for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, Ham or Lamb at Easter, that sort of thing. I've never made Christmas Tamales, will happily eat them when prepared by others (and made them at home now and then) but never really considered eating them for Christmas Dinner. I've never eaten a Christmas Goose and don't have much interest in making one unless it was for a different occasion. Oyster stuffing just makes me shudder, though if I'd ever seen it in person I might change my mind. And I like oysters, when they're not making me ill.

Oddly, it's much easier to come up with questions when I'm deliberately avoiding some topics, like politics and How The World Is Going To Hell.

Also, you're getting near graduation? Awesome, dude! When? And will there be a ceremony and stuff? You rock!

Marcy: Okay, I Think I Am Coherent Now

Mon, 08 Nov 2004 18:35:43 GMT

I am very depressed about what we have done to the world. However, I am going to avoid spewing my vitriol in this forum, because that's not what it's for. The thing I just can't let pass without comment is my memory of all the offended "I would NEVER!" crap our newly re-elected president was saying before the election in response to reports that he would privatize Social Security in his second term. I wish "lying in order to get elected" were a capital offense.

Oops, there is some vitriol. Sorry.

On Friday night, I was channel-surfing, as a way of avoiding climbing the stairs and crawling into bed, when I ran across a 20/20 show on SEX MYTHS. Now, normally, I would have surfed right on by, but they were showing a teaser for the segment after the commercial, and I couldn't pass it up. Nope, I had to stay glued to the TV set where I then got to watch some bozo male reporter who was clearly concerned for his own sexual prowess engaging Joy in a discussion of whether size matters. I feel dirty just typing this.

When I lived in San Francisco, I used to do my grocery shopping at a market that was really five different businesses under the same roof. There was a cheese shop, a produce market, a dry goods market, a butcher, and a fish/poultry market. I totally adored it, especially since it was walking distance from our apartment, and I could stop there on the way home from work if I took a fancy to make roasted duck for supper, or something. The poulterer and the butcher were both wonderful. For example, that poulterer is the one who showed me how much easier it is to bone a double chicken breast than to bone a half breast. And the butcher sold this fabulous chili grind which was ground beef, only really coarse. It made a surprising amount of difference, and I have never figured out how to make it for myself.

I did, however, make chili this weekend, in between lengthy naps and long sleeps at night. In my view, the trick to making good chili is layering the flavors carefully. And also, using freshly ground spices that have not had time to lose their oomph. No beans, of course. And tomatoes are optional. I did put tomatoes in this time, as it happens, largely because last time I did not use them.

Ah, you have questions!

1. Been reading any interesting non-fiction lately? I read a remarkable book called The Way of Transition by William Bridges. It's many things, most of them valuable, but I was most struck by a lengthy section on his first marriage (which ended when his wife died of breast cancer). I don't believe I have ever read a more honest description of an ordinary marriage.

2. Will you be following the election returns? I watched briefly, became depressed, and then retreated to reading space opera.

3. Do you have any favorite post-election consolation reading? I've used a variety of things in the past to console myself. This time, it's space opera, because the underlying assumption, that we will survive long enough to colonize the stars, is strangely comforting.

4. Speaking of Heart of Darkness: Have you ever read a work of non-fiction that changed the way you viewed a work of fiction? Probably, although nothing leaps to mind. Like way too many people, I read Daughter of Time as a teenager, which forever changed how I veiwed Shakespeare's Richard III. You know, made me think of the play as a work of fiction.

Me, I have questions, too....

1. Are you looking forward to new TAR good times, starting next week? I know I am.

2. Am I the only one who has trouble thinking of questions to ask? Actually, that's not an entirely fair way of asking the question. Sometimes, it's difficult to limit myself to four questions, and sometimes I sit here and look at the empty screen, and have No Ideas Whatsoever. I suppose the discipline is good for me, or something.

3. What dishes do you think are quintessentially Winter Food? For me, the most winterish of all foods is a truly good roast beef. I can really only afford to make one prime spencer roast each year, so it's become inextricably linked with the turn of the year in my mind. In fact, each season for me has an archetypal roast and an archetypal stew-ish dish. The roasts are... Winter: beef, Spring: duck, Summer: salmon, Autumn: turkey.

4. What's the best way to eat scallops? I have this thing I make with scallops, garlic, white wine, spinach, and fresh pasta (and lots of black pepper) that I really like, but I need new ideas for how to cook scallops.

I'm taking today off to get my ducks lined up for school on Friday, and a Degree Committee meeting on Thursday. Other than that, my life just carries on in its normal path. It's hard to believe that it's only seven months until graduation. I think by then, I will be able to say, "I learned a bunch of stuff, got a useful (I hope!) credential, and made a really good friend." I can think of worse ways to spend two years of my life.

P.S. As far as I know, there's no rule that says we have to make these entries strictly alternating. Really.

Jules: yeah, but it was down for days and days

Tue, 02 Nov 2004 20:18:19 GMT

Happy Election Day! I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous, given the nastiness of the campaign, but I want to focus on the good part: no more stupid ads! And, while there may be a giant fiasco involving voter intimidation, lawsuits and such, today I can pretend that Kerry will win by a high enough percentage that it'll all be over with by bedtime tonight. I can dream, can't I?

I'll be at the polls this afternoon, which means I'll be hanging around my precinct's voting station (aka the elementary school two blocks over) handing out fliers and reminding people of their rights, like the fact that they can cast a provisional ballot if there's a snag with their registration. Word is that the lines were already pretty long first thing this morning, so I'll be bringing snacks for people who are still in line at 7 pm. So far I have little bags of pistachios but I think I'll pick up some remaindered Halloween candy. (I made Eliot take all the leftovers to the office yesterday, so as to avoid temptation.)

Speaking of food, it's finally turned cool and I'll also be making my 3-day beef stew. It's the classic recipe: Day 1: marinate chunks of chuck roast in red wine with onions, carrots and celery. Maybe a bay leaf and some thyme, too. Day 2: take the chunks out of the marinade, dry them a bit on paper towels, then dredge them in flour and brown them. Dump the vegies in a dutch oven, reserving the marinade, and put the browned meat on top. Deglaze the pan with the reserved marinade mixed with more red wine and some tomato juice. Dump all the liquid and yummy pan scrapings over the meat, add beef broth to submerge it all, then cover it and put it in a 350F oven for 3 hours. Take it out, eat some if you must, but put the cooled stew in the fridge. Day 3: skim the congealed fat, heat and add pearl onions and peas. Mushrooms and potatoes, too, if you want. I use frozen pearl onions because I'm too lazy to peel them. Sometimes I freeze some of just the meat and broth and haul it out later to make Beef Stroganoff.

Did I mention the cool weather? Once again, Austin weather has skipped seasons: we went from Springlike (highs in the 80s and rainy) to Winterish (high in the 50s, with clouds and possible rain) overnight.

Oh, and the Halloween party: I went as a corset-wearing vampire, with some great fangs (held on with Super Polygrip--note to self, take care of teeth or you'll have to use that nasty stuff all the time) and my pointy Bitch Boots. Plus some scary-ass red nails. Eliot wore his tux, blackened his hair and wore a goatee, plus the fangs.

And now, answers!
1. Yep, I saw the Tomato Nation contest and I did contribute, helping buy computer stuff for a school library. Way cool. Don't even care if I win. Mostly.

2. Fiction? Not so much, though I did start yet another Aubrey-Maturin seafaring novel.

3. Fixing stair carpet disasters depends on the circumstances. It would be awesome to do something cool with the intense colors if you're gonna stay in the house. If you're going to sell, I'd go with something fairly bland, since homebuyers tend to want to paint over the previous owner's creative efforts. You could wait until the last minute and then uncover the undamaged softwood treads, which will be appealing to prospective buyers. Also, it's less work.

4. Oooh, new disk? Bring it on! I'm totally bored with what I've got.

And now, Questions for you:
1. Been reading any interesting non-fiction lately? I finished Seymour Hirsch's book about the Iraq war and it was really horrifying, just in time for Halloween. Eeeek! Made me want to sleep with the lights on.

2. Will you be following the election returns? I plan to watch Desperate Housewives on Tivo, then watch the Daily Show. Because otherwise? Too scary. Unless the poll-watching runs really late, then it's direct to Jon, my hero.

3. Do you have any favorite post-election consolation reading? I've resorted to Heart of Darkness once (Jesse Helms, shudder) and the book of Job (Jesse Helms, redux, argh!).

4. Speaking of Heart of Darkness: Have you ever read a work of non-fiction that changed the way you viewed a work of fiction? I'm thinking of King Leoopold's Ghost, which made it clear that Conrad did NOT exaggerate at all when he described the colonial atrocities in the the Congo. I'd thought that the description of Kurtz's compound was fanciful in its horror when in reality it was a pretty factual account of the sort of thing that happened at the time.

Edited to add: Aw, crap. Do we really have to look forward to four years of delusional foreign policy, gay-bashing, and a renewed draft? I'd rant at length but I don't have the heart for it.

Marcy: Dood, you've had wireless in your house before....

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:18:35 GMT

...I know, cuz I've used it in your living room. Haven't I?

Anyway, here in a probably-blue-but-maybe-not state, things are heating up in the electoral process. I realized I am tensed for an October Surprise, and seriously considering moving to Canada if one happens. Which seems like a way of letting the Bad Guys Get Away With It, but is still tempting. Especially when you consider the many ways in which I am on their radar...

Anyway, I got my ballot last night, and will be voting this evening. Locally, our Senate race really matters. I've developed a special loathing for the Republican challenger who has resorted to ads suggesting that Senator Murray is a fan of Osama bin Laden. I sent an email to his campaign saying that this particular ad had sealed my vote against him, and I got a response that basically said, "Hey, the ad is working with more people than it's alienating, so we are going to keep on keeping on." We also got to see the Bush/Cheney ad against Kerry using the wolves. Have they even bothered to show that one in Texas? (If not, you can see a funny response and get a pointer to the actual ad here.)

At the same time, the Republican running for the Congressional seat I get to vote for is a total fascist. I use that word advisedly. He's got an enormous amount of pull on the public, since he is the sheriff who actually caught the Green River Killer, but he's the kind of reactionary that us left-coasters like to pretend only exist in benighted parts of the Deep, Deep South. (Well, I never believed that, but it does seem to be a common misconception here in these parts.) Every time this guy appears in public, he makes a fool of himself, and so he's pretty much decided that he will be the invisible man in this campaign. Lots of ads, but he doesn't do interviews or debates or stump speeches. For some reason, he thinks it's better to import freaking Tom DeLay to give speeches on his behalf than to speak himself.

I found an interesting new Chinese restaurant. Remember that great place we went to in Vancouver? This place has some dishes that rival that place. Alas, it also has some mediocre and puzzling dishes. However, if you can content yourself with a meal of handmade noodles, mongolian beef, steamed bok choy with garlic, and dry blasted green beans, it's a terrific place to eat. Now if I could only figure out how to get back to the freeway without getting lost....

Questions, you had questions....

1. What are you doing for Halloween? I might go to the work party, or I might sleep. It depends on how well I sleep the next couple nights. Lately, the leg cramps have been awful, and I haven't wanted to take narcotics because of the next-day hangover. But I really need to sleep. So if I haven't had a good night's sleep until then, I'll be sleeping most of the weekend, in an opium-induced haze.

2. Did you see Jon Stewart call Tucker Carleson a dick on TV? I watched it more than once, in fact. I confess it was seeing him on Crossfire that made me decide to buy his book.

3. What do you do with the marinated mozzarella? Antipasto tray. Smoked beef, grilled marinated vegetables (see recipe below), some mozzarella balls, and sugarsnap peas in walnut oil, and you have yourself one heck of a great platter to impress people with.

4. What TV theme song would you consider using for your cellphone ring tone? I never heard that Dick Van Dyke joke before. I had an MP3 of the Amazing Race theme for awhile, but I prefer a MIDI ring tone. If one shows up of TAR, you can bet I'll switch back.

Grilled Marinated Vegetables

Well, this is not much of a recipe. It's more of a template. Take some vegetables, such as zucchini, yellow summer squash, red onion, eggplant, and tomatoes. Slice them about 1/4" thick and brush with olive oil. Grill briefly over warm-but-not-hot coals until the vegetables are al dente and marked with grill marks. While they are grilling, make a light vinaigrette out of olive oil, champagne vinegar, salt and black pepper. (You can add garlic if you want.) While the vegetables are still hot, toss them with the dressing and let them sit until room temperature. Yummm.

Sugarsnap Peas in Walnut OIl

1 lb fresh sugarsnap peas
1/4 c walnut oil
whole pink peppercorns

Clean the peas and then blanch them until they just turn color. Shock them in ice water to hold the color. Toss them with the oil and the peppercorns. Chill overnight.

My Turn!!!!

1. Have you seen the new Tomato Nation contest? It's pretty cool. And if you play, you get a very nice personal note from Sars. You can see it here.

2. Read any good fiction lately? I recently read The Time-traveler's Wife, and I haven't yet decided if it is good or not. But other than that, I've been mostly wallowing in social science monographs and business philosophy and stuff. Not a lot of time for fiction. I've promised myself that when the work for this quarter is done, I will read Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange. I hope it's good.

3. If you had carpet on your stairs that had been worn through by a decade of children running up and down, and totally destroyed by a cat in the grasp of a psychotic episode, what would you do? I was originally thinking of painting the risers in random bright colors and staining the treads, but it turns out the treads are made of Very Soft Pine, so I don't think that would be terribly durable. My new idea is to paint the risers and the treads and the hallway above in some nice intense color (probably a deep slate blue) and then put a runner of durable light grey up the steps and down the hall.

4. Are you in the mood for a new disk of songs? I was thinking the other day about you, and your house project, and your new daughter, and I found myself inventing a playlist of randomly, vaguely relevant songs. If you want, I'll burn you a disk and send it to you.

Here's hoping for a new day in America....

Jules: Yay, wireless internet at home!

Mon, 25 Oct 2004 23:42:55 GMT

Bummer about being sick--that sounds especially miserable. I'm impressed that you found the strength to make Carbonnade, though it's certainly worth the effort. Speaking of which, the weather might actually turn cool enough to make a stew appealing. Yeah, it's October, but it's felt more like June.

Meanwhile, the political climate around here has gotten edgy. For example: a rumor was going around that the electronic voting machines around here have been changing a Straight Democratic Party vote to a straight ticket EXCEPT for a vote for Bush-Cheney. (Texas has early voting, which has been going on for a couple of weeks now.) And immediately, I got a series of emails from the Democrats saying, don't panic, it's user error, you just have to be very careful to check your vote, but DON'T PANIC, IT'S ESSENTIAL THAT YOU DO NOT PANIC!!!! Then the local news did a story on the rumor and the totally non-tampered-with voting machines and again urged people to NOT PANIC!! Just check your final ballot VERY VERY CAREFULLY! AND CALMLY!

You'd think that since we're in an irretrievably red state we wouldn't care but here in Austin people are starting to fully realize how completely we were fucked over by DeLay's redistricting scam--I voted for a US House representative in a district that includes people in Katy, a suburb of Houston. Parts of Austin are voting with Fort Worth residents or with Del Valle residents, who live near the border with Mexico. Our votes are meaningless because we're outvoted at every turn. Three hundred people showed up to protest the local paper's endorsement of Bush, even though the endorsement editorial was so lukewarm you'd wonder why they bothered.

I can't imagine another debacle like the 2000 Florida election only because people are so angry and suspicious. There are so many attack lawyers in place and snarling at the ends of their leashes, so many poll-watchers from foreign human-rights organizations (which should be humiliating to those local scumbag election officials) and I can't imagine that the Supreme Court, even this Court, would be stupid enough to hand down another Bush v. Gore-type of travesty. I don't want to be melodramatic or anything, but I don't think the Republic can take it. To have a two-term president who was never legitimately elected? It would make the Dred Scott decision look like genius. If there is another contested election, it'll be a debacle of a whole new kind.

Whew! Can you tell I'm still bitter? Not just about 2000, but the election-day bullshit I saw in North Carolina, too. Rrrr! I miss the leash, just a little. (Though all I got to do was take affidavits from people who'd attempted to vote and were turned away because the machines were "broken." Unless you wanted to vote a straight Republican ticket.)

Answers!
1. Biggest double-take? At a coffee shop (for the free wi-fi) I looked out and saw a truck drive down the street. In reverse. It took a second or two for my brain to figure out What Was Wrong With This Picture.

2. On Survivor? I'm still amazed how thoroughly Scout's team has screwed up. Why vote off people who lose challenges when you can vote off people for No Reason Whatsoever? I'm actually liking Team Fat Dude, just by comparison.

3. Surprising but flattering thing? The other day, I was blathering on about how we're planning on planting really thorny rosebushes under our daughter's bedroom windows and both Vanessa and Sherry said, aw, y'all are gonna be such great parents.

(By the way, dude, your faculty member is right. Not crazy. Believe me.)

4. Guilty TV pleasures? Dude, I watched part of Manhunt and, I have to say, it's odd. At first I think, wow, those guys are really really hot, and then they actually talk and the lust just evaporated. They're SO young and stupid. I just wanted to make them pancakes and try to talk them into getting a real job. The big guilty pleasure for me has been Desperate Housewives. So soapy! Whee!

And now, Questions for you...
1. What are you doing for Halloween? We're going to Joanna's annual costume party but haven't quite settled on costumes. I'm trying to talk Eliot into dressing as Ganesha (with a latex elephant mask) and I'd go as Kali. But she's intimidating--black skin, red eyes, corpse earrings, skulls and severed hands, etc. Not sure if I'm ready for that level of commitment. On the other hand, I have a gorgeous sari to wear. I could go as the goddess Durga, but she has 8-10 arms. Hard to dance with.

2. Did you see Jon Stewart call Tucker Carleson a dick on TV? I downloaded the clip, which was awesome. I've tuned in now and then to Crossfire when they have a guest I'm interested in hearing and have been frustrated with the way they avoid discussing any substantial issues.

3. What do you do with the marinated mozzarella? Yes, I know, "eat it." I mean, besides in a salad or on its own. With sliced tomatoes? I'm thinking I want to experiment. Oo, I could take some to Joanna's party on an antipasto tray...

4. What TV theme song would you consider using for your cellphone ring tone? I actually have a totally boring deedle-deedle-deedle kind of ringtone, but it would be cool to have something silly. Like the theme to Dynasty. Or the Dick Van Dyke show. (Did you ever hear that old joke? That his name was originally "Penis Von Lesbian" and they made him change it?) Or The Amazing Race.

Marcy: Being sick sucks

Mon, 18 Oct 2004 18:45:04 GMT

Okay, here's my litany of annoying disorders. First, I had a major leg cramp on Sunday night that Would Not Go Away. On Monday, I tried potassium (to the point where I made myself throw up, I took so much . . . *sigh*), muscle relaxers, anti-spasmodics, and pseudo-narcotics. It finally passed, but I had a post-medication-binge hangover all day long. Too much methocarbomal is not a Good Thing. Then on Wednesday, I found that a little bump that had been hanging around forever had suddenly grown into a huge wad of skin, filled with god-knows-what and attached to my body by a stalk that appeared to have been made of white plastic. Had to get rid of that, complete with pus and blood and guts. And *then* the pain meds gave me the worst intestinal distress ever. Finally, I tore the site of the former growth wide open on Friday morning -- more blood, more pus. Generally not a good week, healthwise. So I spent the weekend wrapped up in a blanket feeling sorry for myself. whine whine whine...

Luckily, one of the cable channels was playing a marathon of a show that has this host I find surprisingly hot, so I just watched her redecorate people's houses for them most of Saturday. Sunday, I assuaged my crankiness by cooking a big ol' pot of Carbonnade. Tonight, I will probably make Ecuadoran chicken and Estofada.

Look what I learned: mozzarella is easy to make!

How to make Marinated Mozzarella Balls, start to finish

Part One: Make the cheese

1/2 rennet tablet
1/4 cup cool, chlorine-free water (most bottled waters are chlorine-free)
1 gallon milk (2%, 1%, or skim -- don't use whole milk in this recipe)
2 teaspoons citric acid

Crush the rennet into the water and stir to dissolve. Pour milk into a nonreactive pot (no aluminum or cast iron). Place over medium heat. Sprinkle the citric acid over the milk and stir a few times. Heat milk to 88 degrees. Milk will begin to curdle.

At 88 degrees, add the rennet solution and continue stirring slowly every few minutes until the milk reaches 105 degrees. Turn off the heat. Large curds will appear and begin to separate from the whey (the clear, greenish liquid).

With a slotted spoon or mesh strainer, scoop the curd into a large glass bowl. (If it's still too liquid, let it set for a few more minutes). Press the curds gently with your hand and pour off as much whey as possible. Microwave curds on high for 1 minute, then drain off all the excess whey. With a spoon, press curds into a ball until cool. Microwave two more times for 35 seconds each, and continue to drain the whey and work cheese into a ball. In the meantime, place the whey over medium heat and let it heat to about 175 degrees.

When cheese is cool enough to touch, knead it like bread dough until smooth. When you can stretch it like taffy, it is done. You can sprinkle 1 to 2 teaspoons salt into the cheese while kneading and stretching it. The cheese will become stretchy, smooth and shiny. If it is difficult to stretch and breaks easily, dip it into the hot whey for a few seconds to make it warm and pliable. Then pick it up again and stretch it into a long rope. Fold over and stretch again. Dip in hot whey as needed to make the cheese pliable.

When the cheese is smooth and shiny (this takes just a few minutes), it is ready to use. If you want it for later, shape it into a log or a ball, and store in water in the refrigerator. For Mozzarella Balls, break off walnut-sized pieces and roll into ball shapes.

Part Two: Marinate the cheese

all the cheese balls you made in Part One
1 c olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced tiny
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
12 black peppercorns, crushed lightly in a mortar and pestle
1/4 t salt
1/4 t red papper flakes

Heat the olive oil over a low flame and add all the spices. Remove from heat immediately and let cool to room temperature. Remove the rosemary sprigs. Pour the oil over the cheese balls and store in the refrigerator overnight.

Note that start to finish, this takes less than one hour, including making the cheese. However, if you don't want to make your own cheese, you can usually buy fresh mozzarella balls at an Italian grocery store. You can also buy a block of fresh mozzarella, cut it into cubes, and marinate the cubes.

You asked me questions, I have answers....

1. Having you been watching the election debates? I failed to watch the first one. Then I heard about the "lump on Bush's back" conspiracy theory, so I watched the second and third, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the alleged device. I did not catch said glimpse, but I did confirm my opinion of the Leader of the Free World.

2. Any public displays of your political views? I live in a terribly Republican neighborhood. It makes me happy to drive to Seattle to work, and watch the signage change along the way. The challenger for Patty Murray's Senate seat is a despicable creep who runs ads suggesting she admires Osama Bin Laden. While I am not putting signs up, I *am* giving money to various campaigns, moreso than usual. I gave money to Barbara Boxer's campaign for re-election, too, since I grew up in California. And last night, I was called by a Gallup poll.

3. What was your favorite Halloween costume? I had two favorites. One was a geeky thing, some years ago, when computers were not so common. I drew big boots out of cardboard, and then put pictures of thermometers on them. One showed 0F and the other showed 90F. Then I wore black pants and turtleneck, and tied the boots together like a sandwich sign, with one in front and one in back. Only about half the people at the party I went to got it, but those who did could not stop laughing.

The other was when I dressed as the night sky. I wore my college graduation gown, died my hair black and put on blackface makeup. I painted a silver crescent moon on one cheek and put little rhinestone stars all over the gown.

4. What's your favorite Halloween candy? Caramels.

Now it's my turn...

1. What's the strongest double-take you've done lately? At my most recent class session, we had some visitors and a short reception for them. I was standing in a group with several people and we were chatting about various things when the subject of therapy came up. This one guy made some comment about his therapist and I was all, "Dude, this is so none of my business, but what is your therapist's name?" Well, you can guess the answer. It was almost as creepy as meeting someone who once had sex with my mother (besides my father). I guess that must be the transference, but at least we both had the same reaction. We changed the subject, you betcha.

2. Were you surprised at how poorly Scout divided the tribes? I was, a bit. But I knew which tribe Sarge would choose as soon as Scout put Rory on one of the mats. It seems like she got the tribe she wanted, too. She's either nuts or a very canny player, indeed. or both.

3. What's the most surprising (but flattering) thing anyone said to you recently? One of the faculty was giving feedback to individuals in a group, and she said to me, "Marcy, you are one of the most brilliant people I have ever met," which was not the surprising part. That was the second half of her sentence, which was, "and often, brilliance is accompanied with a kind of intellectual arrogance, and yours is not; instead, there is a sort of humility about you that is very inviting." I was shocked, because I am secretly afraid that am Just Too Damned Arrogant For My Own Good. I wondered later if she's crazy, but mostly, I was just surprised.

4. Any new guilty pleasure TV shows? I watched the first episode of Manhunt on Bravo the other night. I have no idea why I found it compelling, since looking at attractive men is not really my thing. But it's like watching a train wreck. It confirms all the stereotypes I have of handsome young men. And there is even one guy on it that I like. I am sure he is not long for the competition. Most of the TWoPpies getting all hot and bothered by the show are gay men and straight women, but I am not the only lesbian who is finding it oddly engrossing.

P.S. Did you see that they have set the time for the premier of TAR6? November 16 (a Tuesday), at 9, 8 Central. Starts with a two-hour premier. Whoooo!

From Jules: Pain, pain, go away...

Sat, 09 Oct 2004 12:28:58 GMT

The PT agony continues. It's getting better, which is good, and my range of motion is approaching that of normal people, but there's still a lot of pain.

Funny moment: I was lying on the table while the Evil Physical Therapist was bending my arm and shoulder into painful positions. I was mulling our conversation here: honestly, dude, I can't remember the last time I cried because I was in (physical) pain. I've cried with pain combined with frustration, or fear, or whatever, but not just, "that hurts" followed by tears. And I remember being called a crybaby as a kid (as part of that training that manifesting one's suffering is the mark of weakness) so it's not like I've never done that. It's just that I don't remember having done that as an adult. And, like you, I'll deny that I'm in pain even when it's obviously not true. But here's the funny part: I was mulling this, dry-eyed and staring silently at the ceiling, and the EPT glanced at my face and said hastily, ok, that's enough of that, and stopped. Heh.

Reminds me of the Louden Wainwright song (that Johnny Cash sings on the American Songs disc) about a guy who never cried and after a lot of horrible stuff happens to him, he finally cries and dehydrated himself to death after 40 days and nights. But there's a happy ending, because he goes to heaven and terrible things happen to all the people who hurt him: the prison burns down, his ex-wife dies of stretch marks, etc, etc. It's dark and yet really really funny.

Or maybe my sense of humor is really messed up.

I hear people say now and then, oh, just let it out, crying is so healing, it's just so wrong that people hold it in, blah blah blah. But I'll say this: yes, they're right and all that, but it's also true that it takes extraordinary strength to suffer in silence. It's my party, dammit, and I'll cry if and when I want to.

Whew! Dark. Maybe I shoudn't write this sort of stuff first thing in the morning.

Answers:
1. The "My Ox is Broken" t-shirt IS red, dude. I thought it looked orangey on my screen, too, but the description on the ordering page says it's red. And, why, yes, I have ordered one: I was telling Eliot about the TARCon and how a bunch of people showed up with homemade MOIB t-shirts and he said, oooh, I'd love something like that, so my decision was easy, even if it was orange.

2. First favorite book? Tough one. I remember loving a book that had these beautiful images of snowy woods with leafless trees (I think I'd seen snow in an evergreen forest before, but not a whole forest of bare trees--not so unusual for a Panhandle childhood).

The first book I remember the title of was Alice in Wonderland, which my mother read to us when we were very small--and I remember thinking the pun of the Mouse's Tale/Tail was just amazing and cool.

3. Mia or Johnny Fairplay? Oh, Johnny Fairplay, as much as it pains me. I've had girls like her as a summer camp bunkmate and I'd rather deal with JFP--those girls will mess with your head in ways that Fairplay could never conceive; meanwhile, you can just kick his ass, a language Fairplay understands. Yeah, hitting is against the rules, but the counselors can't be everywhere.

4. Read minds or project thoughts? At first I thought, oo, mind-reading, but the more I think about it the more I think, ew. Too much information. Better to not know. Plus, projecting thoughts into other people's minds would be so totally awesome that I'd probably just go stone-cold evil and do it all the time. Wheee! Evil is fun.

Seasonally-themed questions...
1. Having you been watching the election debates? I have to confess that not only have I not watched the debates, but I've been getting most of my information about them from The Daily Show. Watching the president struggle to form a sentence makes me cringe and the thought that he could be re-elected gives me the shudders.

2. Any public displays of your political views? I've been slowly adding things but now I have a Kerry/Edwards sign in the yard (our block has quite a variety of signs, from not only the Repubs and Dems but also the Libertarians), a "Proud Democrat" banner on the front door and a bumpersticker that says "I don't have to like Bush to love my country." More than most election years.

3. What was your favorite Halloween costume? Mine was the year in high school when a friend and I dressed up as Joan and Christina Crawford. This was soon after Mommie Dearest came out and the abuse in that book was new and horrifying. So we got into a box of my grandmother's old clothes and Renee wore a sweet navy blue suit with tiny white lacey ruffles around the neck and hem, which she accessorized with navy mary janes, white tights, little white gloves and a massive purply-green black eye (so that green eyeshadow didn't go completely to waste, because, what was I thinking?)

And I wore a black suit with huge shoulders, black ankle-strap pumps, black gloves plus makeup (black eyebrows, RED lips, dramatic like Miss Crawford wore) and hair (the big upswept roll above my forehead) that made me unrecognizable. Really, a friend stood right next to me and said, where's Julie? The double-takes I got all evening were hilarious.

4. What's your favorite Halloween candy? I love those teeny candy bars but as a kid my favorite was candy corn.

Marcy: Nice Chair!

Tue, 05 Oct 2004 04:36:48 GMT

I believe that your idea of a pillow using Hawai'ian quilt techniques is a good one. You can see if you like to applique and then I can quilt it on a lap frame, so I can come to your house and do it!

Questions from Jules

1. Which [pain] type are you? Dude, I am a moaner, trying to keep it quiet. I was raised to believe that complaining about pain makes one a weakling and morally bankrupt, as well. I usually sit there biting on the insides of my cheeks and wishing I was the kind of person who could just scream. The other thing I do is LIE about it. "Nope, that doesn't hurt much at all."

2. Follow up to #1: Is one approach better? Indeed, perhaps screaming would help. It at least seems more honest.

3. If you could choose between two superpowers, would you rather be able to fly or be invisible? Fly.

4. Would you rather be able to move objects with your mind or have super strength? Telekenesis. That way, after physical therapy when I would rather die than get up and get the book off the table across the room, I would not have to!

Right back atchya....

1. Are you getting yourself a "My Ox Is BROKEN!" t-shirt? I might. It's orange, which is a deadly color on me, usually. If it were blue or red, I'd have sent my money already!

2. What's the first book you remember absolutely LOVING? Blueberries for Sal, although my father claims I loved Rattle Rattle Dumptruck even earlier.

3. Death is Not an Option, which would you prefer to have as a summer camp bunkmate: Mia or Johnny Fairplay? I think I have to go with Mia, even though I loathe her with the burning hatred of twenty thousand suns. Because I don't think I would get leprosy if I accidentally touched her the way I would from JFP.

4. Another superpower question: Read minds or project your thoughts into someone else's mind? Easily the latter.