AliThinks

A Few Random Things In Honor, And Apropos, Of Nothing

• Bullets is alls I got right now.
• I'm sitting at the dining room table.
• I got some books in the mail from another blogger. That's cool.
• It's time to take a break from Flickr.
• Sometimes, like right now, I can't think of what I want for my next meal.
• I'm going straight to hell.
• In my new stripey socks.
• Glitter glue is a fun thing to play with.
• I didn't make stripes on my socks with the glitter glue.
• There was this job I interviewed for, and I didn't get it.
• I'm okay with that.
• This is just getting boring now
• kthxbai

Next To Last Day

This is Day 29 of NaBloPoMo, and I've pretty much succeeded in posting every day. Was most of it fluff? Yes. Did I grit my teeth at the thought of this thing? Yes.

But here I am, Day 29, and I'd like to introduce you to my good friend. She's local, but we met through the innernets, via RadioParadise to be exact.

As I told someone the other day, she's a real kick in the pants. In a GOOD way. She makes me laugh and she has been a great friend these past 11 months.

She also started blogging a couple of weeks ago. So please go check out Grits, Tits, And Oven Mitts. Tell her I sent you.

Today's Secret Ingredient Is...

You have to listen to me rant before you can have the pie crust recipe.

We get a number of foodie-type catalogs: Dean & Deluca, Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma, et al. The other day we got a new one called Cooking Enthusiast. I was flipping through it today when I saw the recipe wheel:

No longer do you have to scratch your head over simple fractions when you want to increase or decrease a recipe. Spin the wheel on this ingenious magnet and you can double, triple, half or third a recipe.

Just how hard is it to halve or double a recipe? I'll admit that thirding something might take a little more brain power, but who in their everloving mind thirds a recipe anyway?

And believe me, I'm no math whiz. I quit math after high school geometry and avoided the math requirement in college by taking science courses instead. (Don't ask me the logic of that, but I was damned if I was going to take remedial math in college, and that's what they wanted me to do.) But I can, um, figure out pretty easily that half of 1/2 cup is 1/4. I even know that a third of 1/2 cup is 1/6 cup.

This is a prime example of dumbing-down a process. But we're not stupid, we're lazy. On the other hand, if you don't use your muscles you lose them, and it's the same with brain cells. This is why I will never own a recipe wheel. This is why I still add, subtract, multiply, and divide on paper a lot of the time.

Okay. Rant over. The secret ingredient is VODKA, and the recipe is below the fold.

Good Tired

I'm knackered. Beat. Wiped. Dead on my feet (or my ass, I should say). Dog-tired. Done in. Fatigued. Weary. Bone-tired. Dragon ass.

Well, you get the picture. Bikram yoga strikes again. It was a tiny bit easier tonight. But just a tiny bit.

Time takes time, as a wise friend of mine says.

It. Kicked. My. Ass.

Whazzat?

Bikram yoga.

Allan and I just got back from our first class. I can't speak for him, but I am ready for bed. It was really hard, and we sat out for a number of the asanas. I did fairly well at the ones I knew from my yoga class four years ago, but the rest? Heh. And ouch. And yow. And jeebus.

But sometimes an ass-kicking is a good thing. I can't wait to go back tomorrow.

Pete and Repeat

I noticed that I've been doubling up on adjectives in my last three posts.

tasty, tasty

happy, happy,

very, very

Oy.

23 Years In A Row

That'd be Tennessee beating Kentucky at football.

Mike and Justine attended the game, while Allan, A., and I watched it on TV here. The second half was extremely exciting, with the game continuing into 4th overtime. Tennessee finally won, 52-50.

Once again, I can't believe that I am actually watching football on TV AND ENJOYING IT. I feel like Dominique Dunne in Poltergeist: "WHAT'S HAPPENING?

Friday

Right. It was a day!

Rasafrackin' NaBloPoMo.

Edit: Okay, so that was lame. It was a busy day, and I can't think of any one thing to blog about, except maybe my killer pie crust. Why that? Because I just ate some. Allan took a photo, which you can see here. The crust has a secret ingredient, and if you are very, very nice to me, I might just give you the recipe.

If You're in The United States...

...have a happy, happy Thanksgiving.

If you're not, have a wonderful day.

And no matter where you are, take a minute to reflect on the blessings and bounty in your life. Giving thanks needn't be just for one day, right?

Now, go visit Allan so you can listen to Alice's Restaurant.

Check!

I have:

• made a stock full of turkey and chicken goodness, for holiday cooking and beyond
• whipped up a tasty, tasty cheese ball
• made cranberry-orange relish
• prepared my world-famous stuffing (or dressing, if you call it that)

More tomorrow.

Cameraphone

When I moved here, Allan got me a cell phone and put me on his plan. I decided that since I had a really nice camera, I didn't need a cell phone with one.

Almost a year later, during a trip to France, I got a new cell phone. I've kept my SFR subscription up, you see. And since I've had it for nearly eight years, they like me. I got a really cool phone for a nominal fee. This time I wanted a camera, so my shiny hot pink Sony Ericsson phone has a 2 megapixel job.

This thing is great for snapping photos of bumper stickers and other things I happen to see when I'm out without my D50. Last night I dumped a bunch of photos from the cell phone to my hard drive, and uploaded the better ones to Flickr. This isn't the first time I've done this, of course, but it's the first time all the cameraphone pictures are in one place: my cameraphone set.

After the jump, you can see one of the photos, if you don't want to click through to Flickr.

I Got My Something!

My Something came in the mail today.

While it's not something I will use, it won't go to waste. I mean, SOMEBODY I know has to want a red, radio-controlled race car!

Atrocious

This afternoon my friend A. and I were at that Bastion Of Evil, Sam's Club. While looking around at the baking goods aisle, we heard a voice come on the loudspeaker.

A. immediately said, "That person has no business being on a loudspeaker."

Imagine the Teacher from Peanuts, except speaking "a kind of obsolete vernacular" (A. gave me that quote to use here). Yeah, it was bad.

And then! The person started singing! Happy Birthday! It was an atonal ode for all of Sam's Club to hear.

I burst out laughing. A. tried not to die. Later she said the singing was enough to make her question her existence.

Happy Birthday, dear Carol...

OK, maybe you had to be there.

The Invisible Day

I have no idea where today went. It doesn't help that I woke up much later than usual.

It's been a good day. It's just been...short.

Friday Evening

We watched American Beauty tonight. It was the first time in years that either of us had seen it.

Wow. What a great film.

No, I Wasn't Drunk. Thanks.

 

BN
Video sent by AliThinks

I really was looking at myself upside down in the preview screen, because I refused to let anyone else shoot the video.

Spur Of The Moment

Sort of. This morning my cousin's husband called me. R. was on his way from Berkeley back to Pennsylvania, and was heading east on the highway that goes through Lexington. He asked if he and his buddy could stop by.

I offered them a couple of beds, and R. said, "Can we at least use your shower?" Jokester.

I made us tortilla soup for dinner, got a couple of growlers of beer, and we had a nice, quiet evening.

It's not earth-shattering, but it was nice to welcome R. and his buddy into our home. He's the first person in my family to visit.

Ten Bucks

The premise of this website just tickles me. And makes me wish I'd thought of it.

I just spent ten dollars on an unknown object. That's right. I have no idea what I'm going to receive from SomethingStore. I'll post about it once I get the item.

H/T to kysmet at RP

Gobsmacked

People. It took three minutes and thirty-two seconds for me to clear up something with the French administration. The. French. Administration. And at least thirty of those seconds were taken by the phone ringing at the Hôtel des Impots.

At first I wasn't hopeful, with the ringing-ringing-ringing-and nobody-picking-up-ing. When someone finally answered the phone, I said I was calling about the tax bill I'd received.

"Patientez, s'il vous plaît."

Oh, shit.

But More Seriously

Famille Cheynier de Noblens, originally uploaded by Alison.

Today was what we used to call Armistice Day. Now it's Veterans' Day, and between all the department store sales and football games, we are supposed to remember the soldiers.

I took this photo during a three-day field trip with 40-some 9th graders back in 2004. We visited the D-Day beaches in Normandy, and then we went to the Picardie region of France, where we visited a Canadian memorial to World War I, as well as the cemetery where I took this photo.

There was much to learn at those places. I saw the tunneled landscape at the Canadian memorial. Eighty years later, the ground is still scarred by the bombs and the trenches. And this, all over the region. There are still unexploded bombs there.

And at this cemetery, I saw headstones that weren't crosses, but crescents with Arabic names and plain markers with Chinese characters on them. Not all those who died in the horrific battles were French, but this family lost three men. I don't know if they were brothers, or father and sons.

What I should have done was find the CD with all my photos from that trip on it. What I did instead was cooked up a storm. I guess I was trying to celebrate life.

It's a wonderful life. But I don't forget the fallen.