We upgraded our business software here at UCSF. It's the software I support and code for. It began on 2am PDT Sunday and finished that morning, but we're still finding little surprises that either didn't come out in testing, or we failed to adequately test.
Occasionaly twelve hour work days are good for the soul.
Hmm.
I wonder what bad thing you have to do to get a Hello Kitty Armband (via Towleroad).
Finished the last Harry Potter book.
It was good.
1) I was right about Snape (with lots of stuff I had no idea about)
2) I was wrong about Dumbledore (and not at all displeased to be proven wrong)
3) There's quite a body count in the book (50+), one of which shook me up (by design, and early in the book), one of which actually -- and surprisingly -- made me sad, given that the character was annoying
Meow!
Cat in nursing home a feline Grim Squeaker, good at knowing who's near death.
*reads article*
*looks down at Bella in lap*
Bella: Murweeow?
From Joe. My. God. He's quite right when he says this is a remarkable entrance (wait until at leat 00:25 into the clip). I can't really think of how to top this without pyrotechnics and actually setting herself on fire. An invisible jet maybe?
Finally, a month late and three slipped ship dates, they arrived. They arrived early too, for that matter. The hutch and dresser made it here okay. The movers were not happy about having to get that hutch upstairs to my room though. It's heavy. And the doors don't come off (which I should have asked them to make them).
And from about 9:30am until I quit around 5:30pm, I emptied out my old dresser and desk extention and began to absorb eveything into the new pieces. There's a few mods I see that I will have to make on the hutch, that I didn't think of to begin with (a sliding board for the tower itself would have been smart, as would more space cut out of the rear panel for wiring), but all in all, I'm quite happy with them.
That's the dresser. About twice as big as my previous one. Even so, I got rid of a bunch of clothes at long last.
That's the computer hutch , next to my fireplace. To the left, the black garbage bag is full of clothes for Goodwill. The white, shoes. You can see my old desk on the right side of the picture. I think I'm going to be hanging onto it for a while. I'm only putting computer-y stuff in the hutch, some of which was in the desk. Trying to make the desk more, um, desky, with stationery, pens, papers, pastels and my much neglected art supplies.
Here's the open hutch. You can see the Green Machine (i.e. my new PC) on the bottom left. Yes, it's glowing. With my new mac-daddy monitor and super speakers, I'm in gamer wet-dream heaven.
Mixed bag of stuff. Link-tastic!
This is a follow-up to the whole "China Is Trying To Kill Us" thing. Well, they're also killing their own people, and not just by accident or greed. It's open season on corrupt ministry officials: they have executed the Chinese version of the FDA head for accepting bribes to approve untested medicine. Original article that Wonkette linked to is here. Dude, that's harsh. It's, like, the other end of the spectrum from, say, George Tenet getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It's such a perfect looking-glass reflection that it should have a goatee.
This is for Mr Fresh, occasional visitor to the iRant: Nate Berkus' freakishly beautiful gaze.
More freakishly beautiful eyes, the new, fuzzy Daniel Radcliffe. Boy is growing up fine. I admit, I raised an eyebrow in his bathtub scene in Crotches of Fire. Um, Goblet. Goblet.
Pope to World: "Other" Christians Not True Churches.
Jews to Pope: Your point, you brownshirt heretic?
Also, Barbie of Willendorf. (Andrew Sullivan pointed me to it. Here comes lunch!)
In other news, my furniture, now a month overdue with a succession of four slipped dates of delivery, finally, really, truly, will be here tomorrow. I hope.
Because all of the cool kids are doing it. The criteria it used was funny, mostly because it happened to catch my current blog page in a particularly goth mode, what with the Henry James.
Mingle2 - Online Dating
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
One of my colleagues, a lovely Polish lady, is about to go on maternity leave after today. It's her second child, and the second time she's gone on leave here. She is HUGE now, noticeably larger than Baby #1, and she's feeling it.
Me: Oh, hey! This is your last day, isn't it?
Her: Yes, I leave tomorrow.
Me: Well, you look tired.
Her: Yes, walking around is so tiring, especially if I've been sitting down.
Me: You just forget about your legs?
Her: Pretty much.
Me: Well, you'll soon be carrying that around [nods to her belly], only, y'know, in your arms. Same weight, but --
Her: Different place, yes. It's too bad we don't get pregnant on our backs.
Me: Hur hur hur!
Her: You KNOW what I mean!
Me: Oh, yeah. *Snicker!* "Hey, Sally, are you developing a hunch?"
Her: "No, it's a boy!" Heh heh! It would be so much more convenient to carry them on our back.
Me: Or if your womb was shaped like a papoose.
* - "She is pregnant" in Polish.
First off, seasonings!
[Cue 1950's homemaker music in a Kitchen of Tomorrow!]
Herbs are a versatile way to spruce up that flat, flavorless supper. Sweet, tangy, aromatic, spicy -- herbs come in a variety of flavors. Add a little mint to a lamb rack. It's that oregano in the sauce for delicious pasta. Rosemary and chicken were made for each other. For an exotically green flavor, sprinkle some marijuana atop that --
[sound of needle being scratched over vinyl]
Marijuana?!
[Cue Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love"]
Yes, you heard me right! Indonesians are in some ways even more conflicted about the Demon Weed than their counterparts in the States. It's used with some regularity in Aceh (that place on the northern tip of Sumatra that was hit very hard by the tsunami a couple of years ago) in curries and coffee. Given that most of Indonesia is Muslim and there are some strong religious Islamic prohibitions on intoxication, most of the ruling class is quite against pot's legalization as a drug. But as a condiment in cuisine? Bon appetite!
Now for the salad part.
Z-Man is getting into salads, and can pack it in when he tries. I have always like salads, but usually resort to using various spring mixes and such rather than do my own, since I can get smaller amounts of pre-mixed greens than if I were to buy all of the separate, exotic greens I want to try. But with an audience to show off for, well, stand back, honey.
Friday nights are Z-Man's "finally able to relax a little" nights -- he's busy studying nearly 15 hours a day for the Bar exam -- and I have forgone my usual preference to eat right at sunset (as various folks and ayurvedic philosphy supports). Lemon risotto with fresh peas has become something of a popular dish -- it's easy and tasty, and when Jennconspiracy brings me Meyer lemons from her sister's tree, well, why *wouldn't* I make it? But last Friday, I wanted to make it more complete of a meal and, given such motivation, also produced a Meyer lemon soufflée (not bad), but I also wanted a mixed salad of something a bit more unusual and substantial and varied than just the usual spring mix.
I had two main inspirations: Café Jacqueline, the soufflée place here in San Francisco does a crazy-delicious white endive and roquefort salad. But back when I traveled to Australia in 2001, I took a fantastic walk from Bondi Beach around Tamarama, past a beautiful cemetery right on the edge of the world, to Coogee Beach.
Above: More or less the view I had when I was at Coogee Beach. This is facing north, toward Tamarama, the next little inlet you can see past the northern point that juts into the Pacific. Above that, is famous Bondi Beach, which is where I attempted to learn how to surf, with somewhat mixed results. Coogee picture courtesty their Chamber of Commerce and used without permission, but with much fond remembrance and longing. Sigh!
That's a nice walk, and I was pretty hungry when I got there. I wish I could remember the name of the place -- might have it written down somewhere. Likely suspects I've Googled include Deep Blue or Aquarium, but it could be something that totally came and went. Anyways, the arugula (cutely known in Australia and England as "rocket" for reasons I'm probably better off not knowing) salad had figs and blue cheese, and that was the first time I ever had a fig that wasn't Newton-ized. The sweet, but not overpowering, taste of the fig went so well with the stronger cheese, that it's probably the only salad outisde of Jacquelines offerings that I not only remember, but remember quite fondly. Anyhow:
Salad:
1 bunch dandelion greens
1 head frisée or escarole or curly endive (all varieties of the same thing)
1 handful fresh tarragon, chopped
1 red belgian endive
1 white belgian endive
several slices of fresh fennel or anise bulb
2 green figs, quartered
several chunks of roquefort (or other strong snappy) cheese
slices of scallions, including the white parts
1 clove crushed garlic, to season the wooden salad bowl
Dressing:
1/4 to 1/3 cup high-quality olive oil
1/2 teaspoon or less black truffle oil
1 tbsp lemon juice (meyer or otherwise)
salt
pepper
thyme, and whatever other herbs you like
Assembly: However the heck you want to assemble everything, is fine. I was feeling a bit faux chef, so I went for presentation. The colors and leaf shapes are so nice, and it didn't take any more time than if I'd just thrown it all together, but if you're in a hurry or, I don't know, serving the blind, all this is optional.
I seasoned my Ikea wood salad bowl with the garlic, cleaned and washed everything, and -- and this is always important -- dried everything scrupulously. Seriously, wet salad is kind of a downer, doesn't mix well with any oil dressings, makes stuff stick together, blah blah blah. Just dry it, okay?
All of the greens -- dandelion, frisée, tarragon -- go in first. It's hard for me to gague how much tarragon I put in, but don't overdo it. It's strong stuff when it's fresh. I probably used less than 1/4 of a cup, possibly in the 3-4 tbsp range. Start small, add more if you like.
Then, with those cute little belgian endive hearts, break off the leaves and arrange them in alternating red and white round the rim of the salad bowl. They'll get smaller as you go inward, so if you're feeling retentive, you'll want to save the very center ones for later.
Following that, slice in the fennel/anise (I use a mandolin -- careful!) and the scallions. Arrange the quartered figs, pink side up, in a ring in the center. Within that ring, put in some cubes of the roquefort you managed to slice. Roquefort is creamy and gooey at anything above refrigeration temperature, so don't even think of taking it out until you're ready to cube it up. It won't melt like brie or anything, but it will make slicing it with a knife difficult. Hm, note to self, use the cheese wire next time -- although I still wonder if that will save me any time and mess.
Chill the salad until you're ready to serve it.
Assemble the dressing, taking care to mix everything really well. I've taken to using a hand mixer's milkshake attachment to really whip up the dressing and mingle the ingredients thoroughly. Do this right before you're ready to serve.
Pour over the dressing -- conservatively! You don't need a lot of this type of dressing -- and then toss the salad thoroughly in front of your audience. Make sure you get maximum coating on the leaves, leaving them slightly glossy, but not drenched. The dressing is light because the salad leaves themselves have so much flavor.
Enjoy!
It's too bad Elizabeth Edwards isn't a politician. She's refreshingly open and tough and forthright with her convictions. On the other hand, if she were a politician, she probably wouldn't be open and tough and forthright. Politics and pandering are pretty inseparable these days, at least for national politicians, who must forge broader and broader coalitions of increasingly diverse people. Unfortunately, this often means "The lowest common denominator."
But let me engage in a little Liz Love nonetheless.
She was here for Pride weekend in San Francisco, and made it unambiguously clear that she supports equal marriage rights. She also, in what I think is a classy way, made it clear that her views were her own and that her husband's views were different from hers. "[He's] struggling with this," she said.
John admitted his difference of opinion, and acknowledge -- gasp! -- that they disagree from time to time! I think I can remember the days, especially prior to Clinton, where a spouse's deviation from her husband's ideological orthodoxy was considered, somehow, a weakness in a leader. Oddly, it's not their divergent views that make him seem weaker, it's his own actual views: "She actually says what she thinks...But I'm not quite where Elizabeth is yet." Unfortunately, his candor is revealing, at least in terms of the dissembling we've come to expect in our leaders. Wither integrity? I guess not for the Presidency. Also revealing was his depiction that "where" Elizabeth is is a destination, a journey. And that he's not there "yet." The impression with being on his way "there" is a nice bone to throw, but I'm tired of bones. They've been picked clean already.
Finally, Elizabeth vs Ann Coulter. Coulter is possibly one of my least favorite pundits shills entertainers liars ho's people, who has an almost pathological interest in cutting down the Edwards family. The video this link takes you to is of Elizabeth Edwards asking Coulter to please stop doing things like mocking the Edwards' mourning of their dead son to score political points in a sham "debate" of ideas. Whoah.
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