AliThinks

I Done Been Cookin'*

Earlier today I read Loulou's blog post about pasta with salmon and peas, and decided to make it. As I commented on her post, I probably wasn't going to follow her recipe, but she did inspire me.

On a weird whim, I decided to broadcast my cooking. It's been six months since I've used USTREAM, so I dusted off my login and started a broadcast. Allan helpfully posted a link to my broadcast on Twitter and elsewhere, and pretty soon I had a few viewers. Woo-hoo!

I stopped the broadcast while I was waiting for the pasta water to boil; the salmon and peas and cream were ready to go. Mari was watching, and she asked me to post a photo of the finished product. This is for you, Mari:

Because you can't go wrong with Loulou's recipe, I'll just tell you what I did differently:

• I only used olive oil. (Lexington locals, I buy my olive oil in bulk a refillable bottle at Lexington Seafood on E. High.)
• I used a medium-sized onion instead of shallot, because I had no shallots.
• I used half and half instead of whipping or heavy cream.
• I forgot the chèvre. (And we had some lovely goat "cheddar" from a Ozark Hill Farms, no linky.)
• I used eensy-weensy farfalle instead of little shells.

Something tells me that Loulou's recipe turned out better than mine did. But! I had fun cooking, and it was tasty. And! I made a salad of romaine hearts and homemade vinaigrette.

Here's the recipe for my vinaigrette, with full props to my ex-husband, who taught me how to make it:

1 part dijon mustard
1 part vinegar (red wine, white wine, rice)
2 parts olive oil (or canola oil)

Whisk the mustard and vinegar together in a bowl until homogeneous. Add sea salt to taste, and blend. Add olive oil drop by drop, then in a thin stream, whisking the entire time (pretend you're making mayonnaise) until the oil is incorporated into the mustard/vinegar. Taste, and add more oil or vinegar if needed. Add a few grinds of pepper to taste, and mix. Drizzle onto salads, steamed vegetables, avocados, or whatever strikes your fancy.

So. Mmmm, yeah. Bon ap! Next time I broadcast my cooking, I'll storyboard it (okay, maybe not) and record it so I can post a link here.

*It's not as if I never cook. I just don't blog about it.

On Perfectionism

If you looked at my Flickr stream, you'd never guess I've taken over 1000 photos in April alone. I've posted exactly 36 37 to Flickr. This weekend I've taken 350 photos. A lot of them are crap, sure. But that's a lot of photos to look through and decide what's worth processing and posting online. (Fortunately, my new camera takes both hi-res JPEG and RAW photos — the D50 took low-res JPEG + RAW — so sometimes I can use the JPEG straight out of the box.) Still, it can be overwhelming when you've taken hundreds of photos in a short amount of time, and I have two strikes against me to begin with.

First, I have a major inferiority complex about my photography. Sometimes it's hard to be married to the guy who took this photo, or this one. Sometimes we actually take the same photo without even realizing it, and I'm pretty sure his photo is better than mine (whether it is or not). Yeah, I need to get over this. I know.

Second, I'm a perfectionist, and not just in the realm of photography. Perfectionism leads to procrastination which leads to paralysis, at least in my case. If it won't be perfect, there's no point in doing it, whatever "it" is.

This has kept me from a number of creative endeavors; writing and photography come to mind. It is my hope that admitting my fear of not producing something perfect will help me get over it.

So in that spirit, here is a photo I took yesterday, with no post-processing done on it. This is Ben Sollee:

He participated in Record Store Day at our local shop, CD Central, and was just one of several very talented artists there. I will post more of my photos to the Flickr set, but not just now. I need to get ready to go see The (English) Beat at The Dame.

I'm taking my camera.

On Tea Parties

I'd heard about the Tea Party thing, because there was one in Lexington a couple of weeks ago, and the Tea Partiers were upset that our local paper didn't cover their event. I thought that the Herald-Leader probably didn't have enough reporters, seeing as how they'd just laid off a bunch of staff.

This past Saturday, Allan and I were walking around Pittsburgh's North Side Shore Side Shore, when we happened upon a Tea Party. Alan Keyes was the keynote speaker, and while we didn't stick around to hear his speech, we did get to see him dump tea (or some facsimile thereof) into the Allegheny River.

I took a few photos, which you can see here. We did hear some words from the man who organized this particular Tea Party. I didn't catch his name, but he did say that Congress passed the stimulus bill without even reading it. The crowd cheered, and I said "What about the PATRIOT Act?" No one heard me except Allan and maybe the woman with the Sarah Palin button on her hat; we were on the Roberto Clemente bridge, and the speakers were on Allegheny Landing.

And then the man said, "There are laws, laws we have to obey. Can you imagine that I had to get a permit to exercise my First Amendment rights?" The crowd cheered, and I said "Maybe because it's a question of public safety, and no one is infringing on your First Amendment rights?" He went on to say that the government was above the law. I'd say it is, because no one challenged George W. Bush's decimation of our Constitution.

I can't say I didn't understand some of the sentiments I witnessed on Saturday. I did. But most of the signs the folks were holding had me saying "Really?" à la Kyle (or Stan — I can't remember which one said it, in which episode, but it was a high-pitched, head-tilted question) from South Park.

I also can't say I'm happy about the whole stimulus thing, but I'd like to know what the opposition has in mind, and I want them to spell out how it will be better than what the Obama administration has done so far.

While I Ruminate About My Next Post

...let me share a link to the Apostrophe Catastrophes blog. Go on. Click it.

I Should Have Taken A Photo Of My Boots

Oh wait, I did.

I love Pops Resale.

A Bit Of Red

A Bit Of Red, originally uploaded by Alison.

I took this photo on Tuesday afternoon. My friend Jeorg has a theory about the freezing rain, but it's not safe for work, so I won't post it here unless things get really bad.

On the other hand, things are bad; we didn't go to see Alejandro Escovedo at The Dame.

I still won't post what Jeorg told me without her permission. Just know that all this freezing rain has something to do with the debbul.

A Salute

I've been silent because my laptop couldn't connect to the wifi where we were staying. No matter, I was in France to be with my kids, not be on the internet.

So we did it. I cried when I turned on Sky News early Wednesday morning; they were tears of joy and pride and my kids didn't quite understand my reaction.

We did it. Yes, we did.

But despite our historic choice of president, despite overcoming deep-seated prejudice to elect an African-American man to the highest office, we still have a long way to go in the quest of equality for all.

Unless you've been under a rock the past couple of days, you'll know that Prop 8, which bans gay marriage in California, has passed. The margin was slim, 52 to 48%, I believe. Similar bans were passed in Florida and Arizona.

But those of us who believe that marriage = love, that sexual orientation doesn't and shouldn't matter, are saying "enough." I got the idea for this from AndreAnna, who got it from Swistle, who got it from Allen.

So here's what this newly-married heterosexual mother thinks about Prop 8:

Update: Catheroo has a better explanation and a better photo than I do!

Des Bloggeuses à Paris

Yesterday (this would be Wednesday, July 2; I'm not changing the time stamp on my blog just for three days, and it's nearly 5 am in Paris right now) I had lunch with one blogger and dinner with another.

Polly and I connected recently, and I was delighted to meet her at the same café I had a Perrier with Jeorg at last year. (And it was a total coincidence, which makes it even better). We had each had a tarte salée, salad, and a glass of rosé for lunch, then coffee. Then another coffee. The second coffee we had out on the terrasse, because the rain had stopped, and coffee on a café terrace is one of life's better pleasures. See here:

Polly's lovely daughter and her adorable friend joined us for a while, then we all went off to do other things. In my case it was a reconnaissance mission at La Droguerie.

Samantha and I arranged to meet at 7 for dinner somewhere. She crossed the Seine and we met at Les Halles, which was kind of her, since it meant I only had to walk about 300 meters. She'd heard of an Italian restaurant with great ravioli; I knew there was one on the rue Montorgueil. It turned out the be the same place, so we had ravioli (hers with figs and Parma ham, mine with truffles, Parma ham, and button mushrooms) and the house red.

By 9:30 I was back in my room, exhausted. An hour later, I was asleep. A dream woke me at 3:00, and here I am.

But what matters here is the people I met. Blogging is such an amazing thing. (YES. I know I said I thought about quitting.) You encounter people via the blogosphere, and if you're lucky enough to meet in person, you automatically have a connection. My jetlag-addled brain can't think of a better way to say that.

In any case, spending time with Polly and Sam was a great way to spend my first day in Paris. (My second day in Paris will actually involve fast trains, the city of Bordeaux, and picking up my children.)

Merci, les filles !

(Now, do I try to sleep a little more, or do I hit up the hotel breakfast in 40 minutes?)

Farewell to The Dame

Farewell to The Dame, originally uploaded by Alison.

Tonight The Swells and Hot Club of Cowtown performed at The Dame*, which will close its doors in an hour or two (it's 1 am as I write this).

Lexington has lost something special. I'm too tired to write about it now. More photos and commentary to come.

*The Dame's MySpace page actually has more info; you can see a list of musicians who have performed there and get an idea of what a HOLE the closing of The Dame is going to leave.

It's A Small, Small, Small, Small World

It's A Small Small Small Small World, originally uploaded by Alison.

OK, I know I said I wasn't blogging, but my kids are asleep, and this is something I wanted to post last week while I was in France. However, I didn't have the USB cable for my phone with me, and the e-mail setup didn't work (this photo is floating around in the ether right now), so it had to wait.

Here's what I posted at Flickr:

I couldn't believe what I saw as I sat at a stoplight in my former hometown in France: a University of Kentucky bumper sticker on a car in front of me. First of all, the French don't do bumper stickers. Second, The University of Kentucky, located in Lexington, Kentucky? The place I now live represented in the place I used to live?

If the light hadn't been about to change, I'd have gotten out of my car and knocked on the driver's window. As it was, I was lucky to get this shot.

Click on the photo to see the note I placed on it, and view it large here.

This One's For...

Betty C., who wanted to see photos.

Jeff, who wanted a photo of Pittsburgh.

My SIL, who wants me to update more often.

This is the loo at The Beehive on Pittsburgh's Southside. For more information about The Beehive (and a view of the men's room), click here.

Heureux

Heureux, originally uploaded by Alison.

Look at this cat. Is he not the cutest? He's sofa king cute, I can't stand it.

I Told You!

In my last post I promised that this wouldn't turn into a yoga blog. And it hasn't. Here's something cool I want to share with you.

One of my photos was used on National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel blog today!

This week the blog is featuring Paris, and here's a link to the entry that uses my photo.

*blows on fingernails*
*shines nails on shirt*

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.

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.

Girly, Part 2

Girly, originally uploaded by Alison.

Okay, sportsfans, here you go!

I applied makeup. I tried to do what P. did the other day.

It's subtle, but then I'm not really an in-your-face kind of person.

Deluxe Diner, Crystal City

Deluxe Diner, Crystal City, originally uploaded by Alison.

This is where we ate brunch this morning.

Dough

Dough, originally uploaded by Alison.

Reflets Cuivrés

Reflets Cuivrés, originally uploaded by Alison.

I had my hair done today, and asked for both blonde and copper highlights. It's October, don'tcha know.

Hot Pink For The Cure

Tour Eiffel Rose, originally uploaded by Alison.

This is a keychain I bought in Paris a while back. It's something I've been meaning to photograph, but this month's Passionately Pink For The Cure seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

I used Allan's camera, as it had the macro lens already on it.

The other photos I've posted to the group can be seen here and here. And here, too.