Ritzy Wedding

A few weeks ago, Boyfriend and I flew to San Francisco for the wedding of some very good friends of ours. We took both Friday and Monday off because it takes all day to get from DC to San Francisco. I feel a bit weird complaining about that, because when you play Oregon Trail or read Little House on the Prairie, you realize that it used to take people the better part of a year to travel that far. I mean, I can't even comprehend traveling that far at a rate of twenty miles a day. Still, six hours in the air is an awfully long time. It was long enough that even though I brought food on to the plane to eat, I almost broke down and bought more before we landed. But Boyfriend kept me strong.

A bunch of the groomsmen were all landing in SFO at roughly the same time so we could consolidate trips to the tux rental store. We were the first, so we hung out with Bride and Groom and played games while we waited for the rest of the people to land. Then we got the tuxes and dinner and headed over to the Ritz to check in.

I was (possibly unreasonably) excited for an excuse to stay at the Ritz Carlton. And it did not disappoint. We got a free glass of wine just for checking in. The room had a fireplace and a fireplace channel on the TV. One provided warmth, and the other provided the sound effects of a log fire. We had a huge, comfy bed that was so wonderful Boyfriend and I were asleep by 8:30. The jet lag may have also had something to do with that.

In the morning we woke up super early. We showered and got dressed and went in search of breakfast. But nothing opened until 6:30, so we took a walk around the hotel and watched the sunrise. It was gorgeous and I wish I were actually coherent enough to appreciate sunrise more often. In winter, the sun is usually rising right around the time I'm heading to work, but I'm not exactly awake at that point. So it was a real treat to see the sunrise and hear the waves crashing against the cliffs and be able to actually enjoy the morning.

The Ritz had a nice gym and a full spa with free access to a sauna and a steam room. So after breakfast I went for a jog. I actually managed to run over half a mile, which is something I've never been able to do before. In high school and college gym classes, I was hard pressed to make it halfway around the track before I collapsed in a heap of exhaustion. So continuously jogging for half a mile was a pretty big deal for me.

We had the rehearsal brunch at noon where we met up with a bunch of college friends, met the rest of the bridal party and the families of the bride and groom. We also got yummy french toast and bacon. Then there was a party at a nearby pub for the younger wedding guests. It was a lot of fun, but I only lasted an hour before exhaustion took over. Apparently I missed some epic karaoke.

The day of the wedding dawned gray and wet. But it was supposed to clear up, so the couple went forward with their plans for an outdoor ceremony. The girls hung out and drank champagne and ate eggs and sausage and did hair and makeup and played SkipBo for a few hours. Then we all trooped outside for photos. I like the idea of doing pictures before the ceremony, because it helps maintain the flow of ceremony -> reception. Especially when I'm one of the people in the wedding.

We got all the pictures done, and then hung out inside and watched football for a while. The rain stopped and the clouds rolled away just in time for a gorgeous ceremony with views of the ocean. I even managed not to cry all the way through, though the same can't be said for the best man. Boyfriend was standing across from me occasionally making faces, so that helped stave off the tears.

Following the reception was a cocktail hour, during which we all found out which tables we'd be sitting at. All of the tables were named after games, which I thought was really cute. The wedding party was mixed up among the guests, so we all got to sit with people we actually knew. I thought that was a nice departure from putting everyone together at a single table. Bride and Groom shared their own table and came around to greet everyone between courses. The food, by the way, was amazing. And there was plenty of wine all night long.

After toasts, the dancing started and the whole thing really turned into a huge, fun party. My dress didn't quite make it through the whole night (I changed into something more comfortable with about an hour left), but I actually did. I even made it to the after party, where we played a game called Cards Against Humanity and passed around a bottle of Jack Daniels in a weird game of tag.

The whole weekend was a ton of fun. It was great to see so many people from college that I hadn't seen in months or years. And it was wonderful to see two dear friends who had been dating for seven years commit to each other for the rest of their lives.

We get to repeat the whole thing next August. Thankfully that wedding will be on the same side of the country as me, so I'll have a better party to travel ratio.

First Thanksgiving

I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time ever this year. Despite all the stress we'll pulled it off and, everyone had a wonderful time.

Since we were out of town the weekend before Thanksgiving, all of our prep got condensed to the day before and the day of. It definitely contributed to my stress. Thankfully, Boyfriend had managed to delegate a lot of the food to our guests, so I didn't have a ton of cooking to do. But getting the house clean was no small feat. I was definitely driving Boyfriend bonkers by the fifth time I asked him to vacuum the stairs and was refusing to let him put dishes in the dishwasher. Ultimately, I managed to get the house up to company standards in time.

Boyfriend was in charge of the turkey and I was on stuffing duty. Since we were cooking the turkey on the grill, we opted not to stuff it, which gave me a lot more time. And that's definitely a good thing. I was chopping ingredients for over an hour, which just goes to show that I'd never make it on Top Chef. It didn't help that when Boyfriend saw how much I'd chopped, he asked me to double the recipe because he didn't think we'd have enough. we ended up having more than twice as much as we needed, but that meant I got to eat stuffing for breakfast all weekend.

Boyfriend told me that people would be arriving around 2. In my family, that means that people show up at 2. In his, it apparently means that people start trickling in around 3. On the plus side, I was good to go an hour before everyone arrived and actually had some time to relax a little - and listen to Alice's Restaurant Massacree.

Dinner was a wild success. Everything was delicious. Everything except the cranberry sauce made it to the table on time, and I remembered to grab that shortly after I sat down. The eight of us went through 14 bottles of wine while we ate and talked and generally had a great time. It's a good thing I didn't have to drive anyway afterwards.

Setback

It turns out that in Blogger, Ctrl +z does not mean undo. For some incomprehensible reason, it means delete my entire post. The fact that Blogger auto-saves every thirty seconds makes this "feature" fairly disastrous.

Also, the mobile app I downloaded is refusing to sync with the site, so I can no longer use it to edit posts.

Stupid Blogger.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Where did November go? I just turned around and realized I haven't updated this thing in two weeks. I've been too bust flying across the country, seeing old friends, hosting my first Thanksgiving, and getting ready for the holidays.

This time of year always seems to flash by much faster than I expect. Maybe it's because the days are shorter. Maybe they're just fuller with the holidays coming. At any rate, I've had almost no time to blog. So now I'm really far behind on life stuff and book reviews and all that. But it is coming. If slightly out of order.

In the meantime, here is our totally awesome Christmas tree.

Christmas tree!

We got it on Saturday morning and decorated it on Sunday. This right here is my favorite part:

Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!

The only sad thing is that it's in an otherwise empty room. The only place I can sit and admire it is the dining room table, and that's not so comfortable. One day we'll move one of the couches back upstairs. Hopefully.

With the tree set up, I am ready to embrace the holiday season and all the ridiculousness that comes with it. Though I do wish that it felt a bit more wintery. The temperature has yet to dip below freezing, and today it was warm enough for me to wear a sleeveless blouse. Winter, where are you?

Sometimes I Fail Being a Woman

A friend of mine is getting married in a few weeks. This has posed an interesting challenge for me that most people probably don't face when it comes to weddings. See, I don't wear make-up. I don't own it. I don't really know how to put it on. I can do stage makeup really well, thanks to years of performing, but that's a bit much for people seeing you from closer than 20 feet.

One of the other bridesmaids can do most of my makeup for me, I just need to bring foundation. Which means I need to buy foundation. Which is far more complicated than I ever thought possible. Which is probably why I don't wear makeup.

I was at Target today grabbing a few things when I remembered that I needed foundation. I ventured down the beauty aisle to pick some up. Thankfully I watch enough TV to know what the basic brands are, so that part wasn't overwhelming. Everything else was.

There was an entire wall of vaguely skin-shade makeup. Some was in bottles, some in tubes, some in powders. Some of it might have been blush or eye shadow. Nothing actually said foundation. It did say SPF 15 or SPF 30. It said it made pores vanish. It said perfect fit or age-defying or acne-fighting. It said for oily skin or for dry skin. I'm guessing I should probably have some sense of whether my skin is particularly oily or dry. The fact that I don't makes me think I might be in the normal category. I'm not sure that category exists, though.

I quickly decided I needed help, so I paid for my purchases at Target and drove to the Ulta across the street. I also awarded myself 5 points for knowing that Ulta sold makeup (I went there once to get makeovers for a friend's 13th birthday.)

I walked in and was immediately greeted by a girl who seemed willing to help. I told her I needed foundation and she started asking me questions that didn't make sense. So I backed up to inform her that I don't wear makeup and don't know much about it, but my friend is getting married and I need some for the wedding.

She seemed okay with that and grabbed a bottle of foundation and a brush. She put some on my face and decided it was too dark for my skin. Of course it was the lightest shade that brand offered, so she switched brands and tried a new one. She painted half my face and declared it a success. Great!

Then she told me it was $40 a bottle.

$40 for something I'm going to wear once? I actually asked her this and she looked a bit ashamed of herself. I had told her this was a one-time deal. I was expecting something closer to $5.

She directed me to the other side of the store with the cheaper brands. The brands I recognized. But she warned me that it's harder to match skin tone since they don't have testers. She suggested I buy one and, if after a few days I didn't like it, to return it. I didn't bother explaining, again, that this wasn't for daily wear.

At Ulta, the cheap brand section was about three times as big as at Target. I gave up and left.

The new plan is to go to the CVS on the way to work on Monday and buy the lightest shade of the cheapest brand. If it ends up being too dark, I'll just have to go without foundation. I'm sure the photographer can remove my pores in post-production if necessary. They have that technology now, right?

Leveling up

I'm actually starting to enjoy going to the gym. I think it's because I finally have some sense of how to lift weights, and weight lifting can actually be pretty fun. It used to be that when I went to the gym I would ride a bike or run on the elliptical for half an hour. Frankly, that's pretty boring. Even with the TVs all over the place. My eyes aren't good enough to read the closed-captioning on Jeopardy, and not knowing the answers makes that game a lot less fun.

But then I had a session with a personal trainer and he gave me all these weight lifting exercises to do. He also gave me a table that recorded the sets, reps, and weights for each exercise. There were extra columns so I could update the weights as I built my muscles. This is key to me enjoying the gym because I can watch myself level up!

For example, I started out a few weeks ago doing 40 lbs on the leg press. And now I can do 60 lbs. That means I gained two levels! We'll just ignore the fact that in high school I could do 130 lbs on the leg press because I was dancing ballet then and had ridiculously awesome legs.

I've leveled up on almost every exercise, except for the squats and chest press. Chest press is like bench press, except with hand weights instead of a bar. So if you drop the weights, they don't pin you to the bench. It still scares me a bit. When the trainer was there to spot me, he had me start with 10 lbs in each hand. But once I started doing it by myself, I immediately dropped down to 5 lbs. I've since worked my way back up to 10 lbs, so perhaps I'll level up soon.

Squats leave me deathly afraid. I'm only using a 12 lb bar at the moment and I have no desire to try anything heavier. The one and only time I attempted to do squats in high school, the bar was too heavy and I ended up dropping it and tipping over backwards. It was really painful and I don't want to repeat the experience ever again. So I won't be leveling up until I'm absolutely sure I can handle it, which is more of a psychological thing than a strength thing.

My running has also greatly improved, though I'm not sure how to measure levels for this. I'm supposed to warm up before lifting weights with a 5 minute walk then a 5 minute jog. Then I reverse the order to cool down at the end of exercising. At first, that 5 minute jog was brutal. It was all I could do to keep breathing (thank god for treadmills; I was able to focus exclusively on breathing, rather than terrain or changing course). Thirty seconds in I was watching the clock, wondering if I could make it all the way through.

It's a lot easier now. I don't start to lose my breath until the end of the jog. And when I say "lose my breath" I don't mean start to breathe hard; that still happens for the entirety of the jog. I mean I physically lose the ability to inflate my lungs. But now it's only the last 30 seconds that I have to focus all of my attention on the "in through the nose out through the mouth" mantra.

More importantly, the other day I actually felt like I had found a rhythm of sorts. There's this scene in A Separate Peace that my mind immediately flashed to:

After making two circuits of the walk every trace of energy was as usual completely used up, and as I drove myself on all my scattered aches found their usual way to a profound seat of pain in my side.  My lungs as usual were fed up with all this work, and from now on would only go rackingly through the motions.  My knees were boneless again, ready any minute to let my lower legs telescope up into the thighs.  My head felt as though different sections of the cranium were grinding into each other.

Then, for no reason at all, I felt magnificent.  It was as though my body until that instant had simply been lazy, as though the aches and exhaustion were all imagined, created from nothing in order to keep me from truly exerting myself.  Now my body seemed at last to say, "Well, if you must have it, here!" and an accession of strength came flooding through me.  Buoyed up, I forgot my usual feeling of routine self-pity when working out, I lost myself, oppressed mind along with aching body; all entanglements were shed, I broke into the clear.

I'm still not really a runner. You'd definitely want me around if you ever got attacked by a bear (though I certainly wouldn't want to be there). But for a glorious moment I got to experience this. I just wish I had a way to quantify my running progress so I could actually see my improvements.

Murder Tastes Good

In college every year our dorm threw a huge BBQ the Saturday before Halloween that was dubbed Halloweiner. We ordered all sorts of exotic meat, from ostrich to shark to alligator, and had a lot of fun throwing things on the grill and tasting new things. We'd advertise and raise funds with t-shirts and beer mugs using the tagline "Meat is murder. Murder tastes good."

Last year, with everyone in town for the Rally to Restore Sanity, we had a perfect excuse to start the tradition back up. This year we have a whole house to accommodate a bunch of guests, so we had to throw it again. And despite the snow it was a huge success!

We put a tarp up to protect the grills from the snow.

My best friend made some delicious appetizers in the form of pumpkin seeds, guacamole, and corn dogs while we waited for the local guests to arrive. It was all delicious

vegetarian appetizers

These appetizers had all the important food groups: meat, cheese, bread, and black sesame seeds

She also decided to roast the rabbit. In past years we've grilled the rabbit, which results in some fairly uneven cooking. The outside gets cooked while the inside stays raw, so we always end up picking at the outer bits while we wait for the inside to finish cooking. It's not the greatest situation. But this year, the rabbit turned out great.

Raw bunny, with a belly full of stuffing

Bunny's all tied up and ready to roast. 

In the above picture you can see the bunny's guts. We didn't eat them, but I believe we identified them as the heart, kidneys, and liver.

Basting the bunny

Delicious roasted rabbit

Stuffing

Bunny's aren't very big, so there wasn't a whole lot of stuffing. But it was delicious.

Cooked bunny

Most of the bunny meat is on the legs. It didn't last very long.

We cooked the rest of the meat on the grill under the tarps. We started with a whole bunch of burgers. We had buffalo burgers

Buffalo burgers

Wild boar burgers

Wild boar

Venison burgers

Venison burgers

And kangaroo burgers!

Kangaroo burgers!

We threw them all on the grill at the same time, but Boyfriend was able to keep them separate and remember which was which

Grilling the burgers

They were all delicious. In my opinion the kangaroo was the best. It was surprisingly tender with just a hint of a gamey aftertaste. The venison was the chewiest and ultimately my least favorite. The buffalo was pretty standard (but still delicious). And I decided that the boar burgers tasted like "Winter is coming". That was partially because it was snowing and partially because one of our friends was in the middle of A Game of Thrones. He was drinking any time anyone said "Winter is coming".

Mmmmm, venison

After the burgers came some wild boar loin and kangaroo loin

Boar (left) and kangaroo (right)

The boar had a distinct pork taste; it was super pig! And, again, the kangaroo was surprisingly yummy. That's fortunate, since we bought a bunch of kangaroo and still have two loins in the fridge. So much kangaroo.

We chopped the loins up into easy-to-share bite-sized pieces.

Super pig!

Delicious kangaroo

Next we moved on to some slightly more exotic meat: elk and alligator. Well, elk is a little less exotic, at least for someone with relatives who hunt it. But it's certainly not an everyday thing, which is what this party is all about!

Elk medallions (left) and alligator (right)

I can't remember eating the elk, so I don't know how it came out. The alligator was better than I was expecting. It's usually like a chewy fish, but this was closer to chicken in both taste and texture. Not to say it tasted just like chicken, because that's a cliche. But it was certainly tastier than I had expected.

Finally we cooked a rattlesnake

Rattlesnake!

This was probably the biggest letdown of the evening. We were full of anticipation because none of us had ever eaten snake before. But it turns out snakes are almost entirely skin and bones. The meat needed to be sucked out from the middle, and it didn't taste very good. Oh well, live and learn.

We also cooked some normal meat for the less adventurous guests. And for the moments when you just needed something familiar. We had kielbasa, sausage, and an entire chicken.

Sausages and kielbasa

Chicken

All in all, it was probably the most successful Halloweiner ever. Everyone got to try a bit of everything. We discovered that venison should not be made into burgers, kangaroo is delicious no matter how you slice it, rabbit is better roasted than grilled, and snake isn't worth the effort.

I can't wait for next year!

Home Improved

We made our very first home improvement over the weekend. It wasn't anything huge, just installing a shelf, but it was nice to be able to just do it without having to consult a landlord or worry about the possibility of forfeiting a security deposit. And now I have a place to put my purse when I get home from work!

My Momma Told Me There'd Be Days Like This

+First physical training session went well.
+Apparently I have good form, and I didn't fall off the balance ball like most people do.
-I have a really hard time jogging for 5 minutes.
-I'm nowhere near as flexible as I should be (This has been true my whole life. It took ten years of ballet before I was able to do the splits, and I've never done them since)
-Got pulled over on the way home. While sitting at a stop light
-My tags are expired. On a car I bought less than a year ago. I guess the registration got tied to my old car somehow
-My license is suspended. Has been since March. No one told me
-Apparently there was some mix up with my insurance. I've been paying them $120/month every month, but my car hasn't been insured all that time. This is why they suspended my license.
+The cop couldn't prove I'd been notified of my suspended license, so I'm not getting a ticket for driving with it
-However, he did confiscate it
-I can't drive until I get my license back
-I also can't buy alcohol until I get my license back (unless I can find a place that doesn't card)
-I have to drive to the DMV to get my license back. Not sure how that's going to work.
-Boyfriend had to come pick me up because the cop wouldn't let me drive
+I have the best boyfriend
+I just got a $100 pair of sunglasses for free because MyEyeDr was running a special for people buying contact lenses

I don't even know what to feel right now. And the day is only half over.

Commute From Hell

I arrived at the metro station shortly after 5:30. Signs had been posted to inform everyone that there were severe delays on the metro and alternate routes were suggested. I didn't have another option, so I walked through the turnstile and down to the crowded platform.

While I was waiting for the train, a recorded announcement on a loop informed me that a passenger had been struck by a train, and the metro was not running between Rosslyn and Ballston (that's five stops). Shuttle service was being provided for passengers between the two stations (if you lived somewhere between them, I imagine you were on your own).

The train arrived and, miraculously, I managed to squeeze onto it. Fifteen minutes later we had traveled the two stops to Rosslyn. Since the track was closed beyond Rosslyn, we had to wait for the train ahead of us to unload, then back up to the track switch before we could pull in.

The platform was beyond crowded. There almost wasn't enough room to unload the train. And once we did all squeeze onto the platform, no one was moving. Every now and then the people on the escalator would ascend a few steps and everyone would shuffle forward. It took me twenty minutes to get upstairs.

I was waiting in the crowd on the upper platform when there was an announcement that the station was closed and everyone needed to exit. That sent a wave of laughter through the crowd. What else had we been trying to do for the last half hour? But closing the station did help, and we began to move a little faster.

Eventually I made it to the foot of the escalators where I discovered the bottleneck problem: none of the escalators were running. Everyone had to climb up the stairs. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except that Rosslyn has incredibly long escalators. Every so often someone would faint or find themselves unable to move on. Then we would need to wait for the escalator to clear out so paramedics could descend and offer water and oxygen to that person before helping him or her to the top.

I finally made it to the street around 6:30. The line for the shuttle to Ballston was too long to comprehend, and traffic was barely moving at this point anyway. So I started walking, following the mob of people who had the same idea. During this walk I heard snippets of gossip. The man who had been struck by a train had apparently jumped in front of it. He was alive and conscious. Trains still weren't running.

Half an hour later I got Boyfriend on the phone and asked him to meet me in Clarendon for dinner. Stopping for a glass of wine and some food seemed a much better option than walking the remaining mile to the Ballston station where the trains would hopefully be running. So he came to meet me and we had a lovely dinner and drinks and didn't go home until traffic had cleared up. At least I got my silver lining. And between the huge staircase at Rosslyn and the hike to Clarendon, I didn't even feel guilty about not making it to the gym.

I also manged to read about 10% of A Feast For Crows since I didn't really have anything else to do. I might actually finish it by the weekend.

Happy Coincidence

I was on the metro coming home and re-reading American Gods again. I finished The Graveyard Book over the weekend and started Slaughterhouse Five last night. So, naturally, I was thinking to myself "Man, I should really get back to A Feast For Crows" (I was also thinking, "I'd really like to live in Lakeside", but that's beside the point.) I'm still only halfway through the fourth ASOIAF book, even though I started it a month ago. But I hate the Ironborn so much, and all of the Dornish characters still confuse me and there aren't nearly enough Sansa or Arya chapters, so I've been drifting towards other books.

Anyway, I had just recommitted myself to AFFC when the lady sitting next to me needed to get off the train. I let her out and scooted toward the inside and noticed a book sitting between the seat and the wall. I'm all set to call after the woman that she left her book when I see a notice taped to the cover:

Traveling Book 

I'm not Lost - I'm on a journey

I turned the book over and discovered a classic: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. There are instructions for registering the book on a website to track its journey and pass it on when you've finished.

Now if you know me, you know I'm not one to pass up an opportunity to read a book. Especially since The Graveyard Book, which I'm still kind of ambivalent about, was based on The Jungle Book. It's like the universe telling me I have to read this book to gain a better understanding of the book I just finished. Or at least a really awesome coincidence.

So now A Feast For Crows has been pushed back another week while I dive into The Jungle Book.

There are just way too many books out there that I want to read.

TV roundup

It's officially Fall, which means that television shows are starting or starting back up. I already watch too much TV, but with Boyfriend out of town, I have even more time to waste in front of the idiot box this year (or at least this month). This means that I watched a ton of TV last week. I'll have to figure out how to narrow it down before Boyfriend comes back. Thankfully I have a few weeks to weed things out. In the meantime, here are my thoughts on my massive TV binge

How I Met Your Mother - I love this show. So much. I mean, I'd probably be okay if we never met the mother at all (though I bet we do either this year or next year). But we know that Barney's getting married eventually (possibly at the end of this season, though maybe not until next season, hopefully to Robin). Lily and Marshall are pregnant. Marshall got his dream job at an environmental law firm. And Victoria's back! So excited for Victoria! I predict an interesting season. As long as Nora doesn't hang around too long.

2 Broke Girls - This was fun and has a bunch of potential. I like the concept - two girls trying to raise enough money to open their own cupcake store. They work at a diner together, and one of them also nannies for a family on the upper west side. I can see all sorts of get rich quick schemes and various financial setbacks as they work towards their goal of $250,000 (currently they have ~$350). There's a bit of an odd couple dynamic between Max and Caroline. Max currently works two jobs just to get by and seems to have been doing this her entire life. Caroline grew up rich, but recently lost everything, a la Cordelia Chase. The fact that this comes on right after How I Met Your Mother greatly increases the odds that I'll stick with it throughout the season.

Castle - I just can't stop watching this show. It's really nothing special, just another goofy cop procedural. But it has Nathan Fillion and I've fallen a bit in love with Beckett. This could get booted if I get too busy, but as long as I have time I'll probably continue to tune in. The pilot was a bit heavy, since they had to deal with the aftermath of Beckett getting shot and Castle admitting that he loved her. I'm hoping the rest of the season is more lighthearted, like it has been in the past.

Glee - Oh Glee, why can't I quit you? I honestly wasn't planning to come back to Glee this season. It's still a fun show, but incredibly uneven. Character development doesn't seem to matter and nothing really sticks from week to week, except for the storylines concerning gay characters. But then they brought Marti Noxon on board. Noxon is responsible for some of my favorite and least favorite Buffy episodes. She wrote the What's My Line? arc, I Only Have Eyes For You, The Wish, The Prom, and Doomed, which are all excellent. Of course she's also responsible for Bad Eggs, Beauty and the Beasts, and Living Conditions.I suppose it's still early in the season, but so far things don't look all that different from last season. But the musical numbers are fun and I'm excited about the rumored lack of theme episodes. Because those got old. I like having more of a mix and not knowing what to expect until they break into song.

Ringer - This show appears to be heading into silly soap opera territory. I guess it's just a matter of how long SMG can hold my interest and whether or not any other characters become interesting. Bridgett is bonding with Juliet over the whole drug thing. I think she's still pretending to be pregnant so she'll have a valid excuse not to drink, but that seems like the worst idea ever.

New Girl - I watched the pilot. It was alright. Not really funny or anything. And I don't really care about the characters. The main girl, Jess, is more annoying than cute. The guys she lives with are kind of awful, but at least they have a "douchebag jar" that they must contribute to whenever they do something really douchey. It just didn't catch my interest, so I'll probably be avoiding this show. Which is actually a relief.

The Big Bang Theory - This one may not last too much longer. The early seasons were fun, but it seems to have stagnated. There's never any real progress in any way. I like the introduction of Amy Farrah-Fowler, and she's still a really interesting character. But the show itself just isn't holding my interest the way it used to. The seem completely unwilling to maintain a storyline for multiple episodes. For example, in the season premiere, Penny is lamenting the fact that she hasn't been able to get an acting gig and is considering moving home to Nebraska. Then, right at the end of the episode, she gets a callback for a commercial. And I got really excited, because it looked like we might go back to dealing with Penny as a struggling actress, or maybe see some of what she goes through filming the commercial. But nope, the episode ends with a screening of her completed commercial and by the next episode it's like it never even happened. It gets frustrating.

Parks and Rec - I marathoned all three seasons of this show over the summer and kind of fell in love with everything about it. The premiere was good, if predictable. The big question at the end of last season was whether Leslie would give up her dreams of running for office in order to pursue her relationship with Ben, dump Ben so she could run for office, or try to have her cake and eat it too. But she's Leslie, which means there was only ever one thing she could do. Though it will be interesting to see if she and Ben can actually stay broken up through her campaign. And I'm really excited to see more of Tammy 1.

Community - As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the best shows on television right now. But I can't watch it yet. Boyfriend and I always watch NBC's Thursday night block together, so these will just pile up on the DVR for a few weeks.

The Office - I guess James Spader is joining the cast. But not as the new Michael Scott. I guess we'll see. This is another show that I have to wait on until I can watch it with Boyfriend.

Pan Am - This looks like it could be fun. This show follows four fairly different stewardesses back in the 1960s. Maggie was grounded for refusing to wear her girdle and will probably be the feminist voice of the show. She joins the crew as a last minute replacement for a stewardess who didn't show up (Bridgett). Kate is an international spy, working with the CIA and MI-6 and doing spy things. Her younger sister, Laura, is a runaway bride looking for adventure. And Colette was sleeping with a man who turned out to be married. We'll see how long the show holds my interest.

Three Weeks

After a summer when, despite buying a house together, it felt like we had reverted to a long-distance relationship, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Boyfriend just left for another three weeks in Alabama. But at the end of that he should be home for good.

Since the beginning of June, Boyfriend has spent most of his time in Alabama. All of June, three weeks in July, one in August, four weeks in September, and one week in October. We managed to get weekends together here and there, most of which had been planned vacations. We visited friends and attended a couple of weddings. We spent a week in August on the lake and moved into our new house. But mostly we haven't really had much time to just hang out. To establish a routine in the new house and just live our lives.

In three weeks that should be over. He should be home for good and we can hang out without running all over the country to visit friends. There's another wedding, a few more trips with friends, and the family filled holidays to round out the year. But we'll have the weeks. Evenings after work and time to watch Community and eat dinner and stuff.

Three more weeks.

I can do this.

Ringer Pilot

Spoilers for the pilot episode of Ringer follow. Massive spoilers.

Let's be honest. I'm a total sucker for Sarah Michelle Gellar. I mean, I grew up on Buffy*. So of course I tuned into tonight's season premiere of Ringer. It's probably a good thing that I didn't exactly have high hopes.

First things first, Ringer is not Buffy. Despite an ad campaign that focused almost exclusively on the fact that SMG would be returning to the CW** on Tuesday nights, the show makes it clear right off the bat that this is not Buffy in an opening scene that has SMG on the losing end of a fight with a masked man.

From there, the show proceeds to throw a dozen balls into the air. And I guess we'll spend the rest of the season either witnessing an impressive juggling act or a complete disaster. So what happened in the pilot? I believe we need a list.

• Bridget (played by SMG) is a former stripper and recovering addict. They never specify what her drug of choice was, but she's been sober for six months
• Bridget is the key witness in a murder trial for some big bad guy. Possibly with ties to the mob? If I heard correctly, he killed her fellow stripper by dismemberment.
• Bridget has a crush on her sponsor (I believe that's against the rules). Her sponsor seems to reciprocate those feelings
• Bridget is so terrified of the big bad that she breaks out of protective custody, assaults a cop, steals his gun, and runs to New York
• In New York we meet Siobhan, Bridget's estranged twin sister. They haven't spoken for six years. What better way to reunite than a boat ride? 
• Siobhan conveniently hasn't told anyone that she has a sister
• The boat had some of the worst green screen/CGI I've seen in a long time.
• Bridget takes a nap, like you do, and when she wakes up Siobhan is gone, along with all her prescription drugs
• Naturally, Bridget assumes that Siobhan killed herself. The next logical step is to assume her identity
• Bridget calls her sponsor to tell him all of this.
• There's an FBI agent looking for Bridget because of that whole key witness thing. Also the assault of the police officer thing.
• Siobhan's husband, Andrew, is distant. They don't seem to have any sort of relationship anymore. He doesn't trust Bridget's attempts to mend this relationship.
• Siobhan had a big orange book that she wrote down all of her appointments in to keep track of her busy life. This would be pretty handy for Bridget to flip through, but she seems to forget about it the moment she discovers it
• Siobhan's best friend Gemma is renovating a penthouse apartment for Siobhan and Andrew
• Gemma thinks her husband, Henry, is cheating on her
• Henry is cheating on Gemma. With Siobhan
• In 2005 Siobhan had a son named Sean (quite the tongue twister). She does not have said son any longer. Bridget may have had something to do with this.
• The FBI agent visits Bridget-as-Siobhan to ask her about Bridget's whereabouts. Bridget lies and says they haven't spoken in years. (Technically it was true a week ago)
• Siobhan has a teenage stepdaughter, Juliet. Their relationship rivals the one I have with my own stepmother. But Bridget doesn't know this and is trying to play nice, despite having walked in on Juliet having sex with some random dude.
• Juliet just got kicked out of boarding school.
• Apparently it was for possession of the same drug that Bridget used to be addicted to
• So Bridget tries to kick Juliet out of the house
• A doctor calls to inform Bridget that Siobhan was pregnant. Bridget missed the appointment because she didn't bother to read her sister's incredibly handy appointment book.
• The baby is probably Henry's but there's a slim chance it could be Andrew's. Clearly Bridget herself isn't pregnant, though. But she seems to think this could repair her relationship with Andrew. Glee already did this, and it didn't work out so well.
• The FBI agent finds the letter that Bridget sent Siobhan (she stowed it in a bike locker in the Hamptons. Of course he found it.) He deduces that Bridget-as-Siobhan lied to him. But he still thinks she's Siobhan.
• Gemma calls Bridgett and asks to meet her because she knows who her husband's having an affair with.
• A masked man attacks Bridget (this is where the episode opened, before flashing back to "nine days earlier")
• Bridget shoots the masked man with the gun she stole from the cop
• The masked man was actually looking for Siobhan (if you consider that he accosted her in the very place Gemma asked to meet, this doesn't seem quite as suspenseful as the show wants you to believe it is)
• Siobhan is still alive. And apparently trying to kill Bridget. There must be an easier way to fake your own death.
• Somewhere in there the man that Bridget was supposed to testify against kidnapped her sponsor.
• There are mirrors everywhere. I guess for the symbolism. Nobody owns that many mirrors though. Someone will walk out of the frame, and then you'll see them again crossing the right side of the screen in a mirror. Then they'll appear in a mirror on the left side of the screen. Then they'll finally have exited the scene. It's ridiculous.

So all of that happened in the hour-long pilot. Which is really only 42 minutes when you account for all of the commercials***. Some of these plots seem unnecessary (do we really need a pregnancy?). Some of them probably could have been held off for a few weeks (Juliet's drug possession and expulsion). Some things could have been utilized better (Oh my God, Bridget, read your sister's appointment book). But it will be interesting to see where the show goes from here. I predict disaster. Hopefully it will be an entertaining disaster.

*Probably the best role she's ever had
**Though Buffy actually switched to UPN before the WB became the CW
***Apparently they're remaking The Transporter with Ryan Gosling as Jason Statham.

Worse Than Talking to a Brick Wall

I ordered some stuff from Amazon, but accidentally had it sent to my old address instead of my current one. I tried calling USPS to figure out where my package is and how to get it.

Here's how that phone call went

Thank you for calling USPS. For information about hours and locations, please say "locations". To track a package, please say -
Oh my God
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that
Hmm?
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Please repeat your selection
What? No
Did you say-?
NO
*pause*
For information about hours and locations, please say "locations". To track a package, please say "track package"
Track package
To track a package, please say your label or tracking number
<FYI, this number is 20 digits long> xxxxx
I'm sorry I can't find any information on that package. To track a package, please say your label or tracking number
This time, I typed it in
I'm sorry I can't find any information on that package. To track a package, please say your label or tracking number
Let me speak to a person
To track a package -
I want to speak to a person
To track -
No, let me talk to a person. A human.
To end this call please hang up
I don't want to. I want to talk to a person. Please. Person. Human
To end this call, please hang up
Menu?
To end this call, please hang up
*click*

There are few things I hate more than these machines that you actually have to talk to.

Moral of the story: double check your address before using Amazon's handy one-click feature. Also, computers don't care if you yell at them.

Kicking Off Wedding Season

The bridesmaids, bride's brothers, and bride's nephew. Stolen from my cousin's Facebook

I spent Labor Day weekend back home in Colorado for my cousin's wedding. It was an incredibly busy, incredibly fun weekend. And I managed to fit into my dress, which was a huge plus. (It was touch and go for a couple of days there. Apparently this was a common experience among my fellow bridesmaids, most of whom had managed to gain some weight since buying the dresses 8 months ago. One had just given birth and had the opposite fear. But it all worked out)

We arrived Thursday night (half an hour early!) and picked up our rental car. The lady at the counter tried to convince me that I needed a six cylinder engine to make it up the mountain, which is completely not true. She then "upgraded" me to a little red sports car, that would supposedly have an easier time with the hills. It's possible that I should have told her that I needed a car that could handle dirt roads and that a 6% grade really isn't that big a deal. At any rate, we hit a pothole on 285 and a piece from the bottom of the car came loose. Boyfriend knew the name of the piece that half fell off (he also knew what kind of car we'd gotten) and was sort of able to stick it back together. But the next day it completely fell off on the way to the rehearsal dinner at my aunt's cabin. To be fair, though, "road" is sort of a stretch for what we were driving on. It's more a strip of dirt through the field on which grass no longer grows. There was also a hail storm that completely dinged up the car. It's a good thing I got insurance.

We had the rehearsal on Friday, during which the guys were already drinking beer and being fairly obnoxious. I also managed to get slightly sunburned. Then there was the rehearsal dinner, followed by the bachelorette party. This party was a bit more my speed than the one in Vegas. My cousin's 5 and 7 year old nieces were still running around when I showed up. My aunt and the mother of the groom had complete control of the music, which mostly consisted of Eric Clapton, James Taylor, and Joe Cocker. Copacabana came on at one point and my aunt made sure we all knew that it was the best song ever recorded. We all just hung out in the kitchen, drinking beers and talking.

My schedule had me arriving at my other aunt's house the next morning at 10:30 to start getting ready. For a 5:00 ceremony.  I showed up closer to 11:30 and sat around drinking mimosas for an hour. Then I put on some eye shadow and had a sandwich and another mimosa. I finally put my dress on around 1:30 when the photographer showed up. We took the "candid getting ready" pictures, then went to the site for more formal pictures. At 3:30, the guys showed up for their round of pictures and we went off to kill time before the ceremony.

This hour was probably the longest one of the entire day. We were hanging out in the reception area, which was being decorated, so we couldn't touch anything. And we couldn't leave for fear of the groom and guests seeing our dresses. Finally the wedding began.

The ceremony itself was short and sweet. The procession actually lasted longer that the ceremony. But with 7 groomsmen, 7 bridesmaids, and family that needed to be formally escorted in down an incredibly long aisle, that was probably to be expected. The wedding planner spaced us out really far, too. There was a fair amount of dead time between bridesmaids.

After the ceremony came more pictures! Pictures and pictures until it started to rain. When we'd finally finished all the family and wedding party pictures, we escaped inside while the bride and groom took more pictures. Two and a half glasses of wine later, they finally finished and we got to eat.

There was much food and merriment and dancing. The photographers hung around until nearly the end of the reception. Apparently the digital age allows you to get a lot more bang for your buck, since it takes longer to fill up a memory card than a roll of film. My cousin and her husband are going to be sorting through pictures for a week, though.

I'm looking forward to doing this all again in November, when I get to wear the same dress in a different color for my friend's wedding. Hopefully I won't squirt sunscreen on it moments before the ceremony next time.

My Owl Finally Came

I didn't discover Harry Potter until the summer I turned 13, so I'm not one of those people who approached her 11th birthday with secret hopes that an owl would arrive with an acceptance letter from Hogwarts. Nevertheless, the world captured my imagination and, in some ways, I grew up right alongside Harry, Ron, and Hermione. But I was always doomed to be a muggle.

Well no more. With the creation of Pottermore, and my luck to be one of the early Beta testers, I finally got my letter! And now I can begin my journey to Hogwarts.

Pottermore is an interactive, online website that leads you through the books. There are a few neat illustrations for each chapter, done in layers. As you move your mouse side to side, the layers shift and you get a bit of a 3D illusion. There's also a few animations and hidden objects to collect. These object include everything from Chocolate Frog Cards to the salt and pepper shakers from the Dursley's breakfast table. Apparently Harry is a kleptomaniac? Because I cannot figure out why I would want to keep those in my trunk.

The part that has me the most excited is the plethora of new information. There are tidbits all over the place, explaining, among other things, how Vernon met Petunia, the history of the Hogwarts Express, and Wand Lore.

Then comes Diagon Alley. and the world just opens up. You get an account at Gringotts, along with a shopping list and access to all the stores. Well, half of the stores. I can only assume that the rest will be unlocked later on, probably in the third book. Buying the books and school supplies is fun, but the interface is a bit clunky; it works like the stores in a Zelda game. Each item must be bought and paid for separately, which got really frustrating in Flourish and Blotts. Eight books, purchased one at a time. I think the point of this is to give you the blurb about each book as you buy it, but it got a little bit frustrating.

There are also several items for sale that aren't on the school list, mostly advanced potions ingredients. You can buy water from the River Lethe, for use in forgetfulness spells, which made my inner geek squee. And then there are the standard snake fangs and such. I spent a long time trying to decide between a tawny owl and a screech owl for my pet. These are very important decisions.

The last item you buy is a wand, which involves a quick personality test. Once you buy your wand, the site provides a bunch of information about wand lore to explain what your wand says about you. I got an ebony wand with a phoenix feather core, 10 3/4 inches, unyielding. This seems to imply that I'm an outsider who doesn't much mind it because I'm comfortable with who I am and that I'm fairly resistant to external pressure to change. I think that's fairly accurate. Even though it also appears to make me susceptible to the Dark Side.

My only problem with the website is that it is unbelievably glitchy. It seems to crash every fifteen minutes and then takes a long time to come back. On one hand, I understand that this is the beta period. There are bound to be things that need to get ironed out. On the other hand it's seriously eating up a lot of time. As far as I can tell, the site has more downtime than uptime. It gets frustrating.

But I did finally get sorted (Gryffindor!) and learned Minerva McGonagal's epic and heartbreaking life story. Plus, Pottermore! I can't complain too much.

Holy Crap, I Cooked!

Yes, I actually cooked something. From scratch. And here is the photographic evidence for homemade, from-scratch, ricotta gnocchi. Because it turns out that ricotta gnocchi is a whole lot easier to make than potato gnocchi. And by a whole lot easier, I mean Holy crap, that was easy!


So first you mix most of the ingredients together in a bowl. Here's what you need:

• 1 15 oz thing of Ricotta cheese
• It should be noted that ricotta is, in fact, a dairy product. And it makes up the majority of this dish. If you're lactose intolerant, like me, make sure you take a lactaid pill before consuming the gnocchi.
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 10 grinds of pepper (I hope you have a pepper grinder. I don't know how to translate this to teaspoons)

So you mix all of that together and you get this:

Yes, it's very exciting. I know. Technically you're supposed to whisk those ingredients together. But I don't own a whisk. Like I said, I don't cook much.

Anyway, once that's all mixed together, you start adding flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until you get a "soft dough". I'm not entirely sure what a "soft dough" is, so I went with the recommended 3/4 cup of flour, at which ponit it became difficult to stir and looked like this. Note that you are supposed to use a spoon, not a whisk, for this step. Which means that I actually saved on the cleanup part of this experiment.

Once you have your soft dough, put another 1/2 cup of flour on your cutting board and put your dough on top of it. Then knead it, adding flour, until it doesn't stick to your hands anymore. I don't think I added the right amount of flour, it was either too much or too little, but the end product tasted good. My advice is to not worry too much about this step. Knead and add flour until you feel it's right. Make sure to drink wine during this process. It helps with the end result.

Now things get tricky. Slice your blob of dough into six equal parts. (That was the tricky part, especially after all the wine.) Then, roll each section into a snake, just like 1st grade art class with the clay, and cut the snakes into bite-sized pieces.

This is what it looks like when it's been all sliced up. Mmmmm, raw gnocchi

Boil some water (actually, you should start the water boiling back when you start kneading the dough. I hope you read through this whole thing first. If not, don't worry, it's not the end of the world.) Then dump the gnocchi into the water. My pieces actually all stuck together, so I had to pull them apart and toss them in a few at a time. This resulted in a splash of boiling water each time that usually landed on my skin. It hurt. But it was a temporary pain, and the gnocchi made it all worth it, in the end.

Gnocchi floats when it's done cooking! It's nice like that. When all your gnocchi is floating, wait 30 seconds or so and then drain it. That 30 seconds is to make sure it's actually all cooked.

Let's be honest, this is all just a vehicle to get pesto into my belly. You can freeze the cooked gnocchi, but this recipe only makes a few servings, so that seemed kind of silly. I added pesto to all of the gnocchi, because I've found that pasta dishes keep a bit better in the fridge when the sauce is already mixed in. So I'll eat some tonight and refrigerate the rest for tomorrow. Hopefully it works out

Here's a tip: don't dump the freshly cooked gnocchi into a metal bowl. Metal transfers heat really well. Also, that's not the same metal bowl as the earlier pictures. It's a much smaller metal bowl.

Start to finish, this all took me about half an hour. It might go faster if you actually know how to knead dough. Or it might go slower, if I didn't knead it for long enough. Who knows?

Whale!

This almost makes me wish I had an iPhone.

Dinner With Famous People

Cross-posted from Google+. Because I can

I saw this on the internet and became intrigued. After a whole lot of thought, this is the answer I've settled on:

1. Jane Espenson
2. Joss Whedon
3. Jon Stewart
   
4. Carl Sagan
5. Isaac Asimov
6. Terry Pratchett
7. Neil Gaiman

It took me a really long time (weeks) to come up with this. I still don't know that Jon Stewart really fits in with the rest, but I wasn't sure who else to put there. I do think he'd contribute to conversation and keep it interesting.

Interesting conversation was really what I was going for. I chose a bunch of writers (some of whom also do other things) because I think they'd have a lot to say. I think there's a big cross-section of interest here. (Again, Jon Stewart being the only non sci-fi/fantasy writer in the bunch). Basically, I would just sit back with a glass of wine and listen to these people talk. The dinner would need at least four courses.

Who would be on your list?

Lake Placid (Vacation 3)

On Wednesday we left Big Moose Lake for Lake Placid. The drive was a surprising two hours long (I didn't think the Adirondacks were all that big). Boyfriend's mom rented a condo for us right on Lake Placid. It was really nice not having to cram into a hotel room.

The bulk of our time at Lake Placid was spent at various Olympic sites. Though we did also spend some time wandering through the shops on Main Street, tasting wine, getting a massage, and playing games.

We bought an Olympic "passport" that gave us access to the Olympic Center with museum and ice rinks, the ski jump, the bobsled track, and Whiteface Mountain. The museum was small and the rink where the US team won the game that inspired that movie Miracle would probably have been more exciting to someone else. I did like the stuffed animal versions of all the Olympic mascots dating back decades, though. Especially the Snowlets from Nagano (sorry, I didn't get a picture)

After the museum, we drove over to the ski jump. At my last job, I worked with a guy who had almost gone to the 2006 Olympics for ski jumping. I have to say, standing at the top of that jump, I'm not sure how he ever worked up the courage. Especially the first time.

Looking down from the top of the ski jump

The tower was so big it was hard to get the entire thing in frame. Thankfully there was an elevator to the top. Although there was a second, 90-foot tower that did not have an elevator. I would not like hauling a pair of skis to the top of that

The 120-foot ski jump tower. On top of a hill we took a chair lift to the top of.  The sign said they were pouring the concrete for 15 days straight to build it

After the ski jumps we went to the bobsled and luge course. Apparently, one of the things that makes Lake Placid unique is that you can see all of the Olympic sites from all of the others. I took a picture of this from the bobsled course

Other Olympic sites

You can see the ski jump (left) and ice rinks (right) anyway. Mt Whiteface is off to the right and was hidden by clouds, so I didn't take a picture of it.

They actually gave us the option of walking down the bobsled track, which was fun. I hadn't been expecting that, and it was kind of a neat way to experience the track.

The beginning of the bobsled track

Heading into the first curve. The ceiling got really low when the track went horizontal

The next day (when it was sunnier) we took a gondola up to the top of Whiteface. (A whopping 3700 feet above sea level) (Forgive my snark) Anyway, here's a cool picture of Lake Placid from the peak of the mountain

Lake Placid is shaped more like a figure 8 than a circle

After we were done with the Olympic sites, we went on a short hike to see some waterfalls

Waterfall!

More waterfall!

All in all it was a very fun trip.

Natural Disasters

While on vacation last week I completely missed the earthquake that hit DC. I came back to work to find a whole lot of emails about it. Apparently my building was evacuated and everyone got to go home early. Except the earthquake affected public transportation so a lot of people ended up with 4-5 hour commutes home.

We have a bit of damage that needs to be evaluated in our home. Hopefully there's nothing too serious. There are a bunch of cracks in the walls, but it could just be paint and dry wall damage. Fingers crossed.

Hurricane Irene interfered somewhat with our drive home from Lake Placid. We came down I-87 initially, but ending up driving west to Harrisburg, PA to avoid the storm for as long as possible. That's quite a bit out of the way, considering that the initial plan had been to come down the Jersey Turnpike. Oh well, we did make it home.

We actually didn't encounter the storm until the very last hour of our drive across Maryland. It never got worse than a heavy rainstorm (we live pretty far inland). The Safeway told a different story, though. I went to pick up some food, since we'd been out of town for a week. Despite the fact that it wasn't supposed to really get that bad where we lived (heavy rain over night and early Sunday morning) you'd have thought the world was ending. There was no water in the store. I got the last carton of eggs and the last loaf of bread. The only milk left was whole milk.

As predicted the storm wasn't that bad. We briefly lost power overnight, but wouldn't have known if we hadn't needed to reset the clocks. By the time I woke up and looked outside on Sunday the sun was shining.

Frankly, I'm disappointed. I'm a little sad I missed the earthquake, especially since I lived in LA for four years and never felt one there either. I definitely would have felt this one. Though I am glad I didn't have to deal with the awful commute that followed the earthquake. Instead I was playing losing Settlers of Catan again. The hurricane wasn't even the heaviest rainstorm I've seen. Even my brother, who is stationed on the North Carolina coast, summed it up with "I've seen worse blizzards"

I know other areas were hit harder. And we still need to assess the earthquake damage, which could very well be extensive and costly. But I expected more from the end-of-the-world predictions I was hearing.