| it took a stranger to get me to use Buster's Morale-O-Meter |
[aoû. 12e, 2008|08:24 pm] |
But I've been doing it most of this week, and rather enjoying it...and now that I'm back in the land of the internet (been cat/dog/housesitting the past week), it should get even easier. It's fun -- you should try it. Guess where the weekend is (if you're viewing this anytime soon).
That's right; my new job has been getting me to drink the devil's brew.
...that's right; I finally got a job. They call me a "bilingual call center representative;" I find this hilarious. |
|
|
| there's a lunar eclipse tonight! |
[fév. 20e, 2008|03:45 pm] |
Which I just learned about!
There won't be another total eclipse of the moon (don't sing it!) until 2010, so go check out tonight's if you can. There is also going to be some star and Saturn hanging around it, which is apparently stunningly rare, and won't happen again this millennium. So you'll probably be dead for the next one.
Here is one page about it
And here's another
And here is a pictoral representation of what's happening when, PST-wise.
Hooray for the sky! |
|
|
| citychangin' |
[jan. 19e, 2008|11:25 am] |
| [ | Humeur actuelle |
| |  in gentle denial | ] |
So the first phase of my move to Portland is complete.
Which is pretty trippy. |
|
|
| cooking (mis)adventures |
[oct. 10e, 2007|10:39 pm] |
God. Damn. Bursting into flames. Burner.
Or pot.
Oh man oh MAN I was so excited to finally pop some spices but NOOO. For ONCE I do something involving Very Hot Oil and the part that gets frighteningly smoky is NOT IN THE PAN. (Extra-frustrating since that first wisp of smoke is your signal to toss in the spices.)
Really curious to know whether it was:
1) the burner (or things living under/on it)
2) the pan.
The pan, the stupid bastard, is the frontrunner, because when I took it off the burner IT CONTINUED BEING AFLAME. I was trying to figure out where to put it (no room on the stove) -- how to open doors with no hands, whether the tub would work? (not wet; vetoed) -- and eventually succeeded by putting it down for two seconds on the braided rug and having at the sliding door. (It was a ninja move, and in my defense it had been off the burner and not on fire for a little bit at this point.) It's been raining tons so everything's wet outside, and I moved it around and listened to it sizzle on the deck. Thank you, rain.
Luckily I have been baking a lot of pizza lately, and managing to get olive oil on the bottom of the (screaming hot) oven a few times, smoking up the kitchen in a matter of a minute or two. I have the taking-down-the-smoke-detector-til-things-calm-down thing down to an ART. Because OH MY GOD that thing is loud, and you cannot shush it if the smoke's still there. And if I'm awake and I made smoke I know it's there.
DANG it. I didn't realize how little I had in the way of spices. And now I'm gonna need more sooner. And I didn't even burn them. |
|
|
| time wrinkles |
[sep. 8e, 2007|10:54 am] |
Madeleine L'Engle died. I don't remember the last time I was this sad about the death of an author -- especially not one whose works I haven't read in years.
What a damn cool lady. |
|
|
| fiery like the devil |
[juil. 22e, 2007|11:18 pm] |
Maybe if I start writing oddball little posts, I can trick myself into informing my Internet Friends what is going on in my life in a serious way! Because these Serious Things, they are not lacking by any means. But that'll come later.
There is something about prolonged absences from LJ that make you think that the next thing you write, the Return, has to be something big and crazy and informative and well-thought-out. Phooey to that. The nutshell version? Life is good, except for the irritating parts. Comme d'habitude.
So I was on Amazon today, lusting after and investigating cookbooks. Like you do. And I notice that one of the SIPs for the Real Food Daily cookbook is "large howl." Thinking this must be a mistake, I click it, and notice that indeed, many other cookbooks also call for putting ingredients in a "large howl." But it gets better.
Current cat-sighting count since I moved into the B&B one week ago (not counting the ones that live next to the Staircase From Hell):
3 meandering about
7 in or right next to the newly-harvested wheatfield
There was something else crawling about in there last night, too; I wanted to say some sort of round but pointy animal (I didn't get a great look), like a hedgehog?, but this is clearly absurd and it was surely just a ginormous Field Rat, rotund from its feast of wheatfield cats. |
|
|
| no crying over spilt water |
[juin. 13e, 2007|09:20 pm] |
On Monday afternoon, I suavely got up to go deal with the Internet Box From Hades, and promply emptied I-don't-know-how-much water onto my keyboard, where it proceeded to fly all over and seep through the keyboard, a speaker (well it came out of there later so I'm guessing it went in), and god knows where else. I did as best I could in a short amount of time -- tried to let some run off, tried to dry some off, and then *click*. Off.
There is nothing quite like that moment of quiet panic when you realize that your dear beloved computer, which, sorry, you cannot dream of affording to replace right now, especially since you already spent well over 300€ on it in January, has just turned off because of a bunch of water just ran into all its essential parts.
I took the keyboard off, I learned how to take the silly Airport card out (and its metal bed with associated tiny screws), I popped off nearly all the keys (intimidating, then fun!), and I tried to figure out 1) how much water had gone in, and 2) how much water might remain? The thoughts going through one's mind as one watches water drip out of one's computer are special ones indeed. Water all over the sofa, water running out of a speaker, water all over a good deal of my keyboard, droplets of water on my memory, and thus probably elsewhere...water near the battery contacts, though whether it came from above or below I'll never know...
Delightfully, I had the presence of mind to crack open the other computer here and ask Internet -- Google: "water ibook." Got some excellent advice (give it at least a couple days, open it up as much as you can, don't blowdry), a bunch of terrifying information ("you are SOL if it passed the keyboard"), and then one repair dude who said "rarely are things ruined by just water; I've seen a number of 'dead' computers that are fine once the water dries and stops creating short circuits. The important thing is to wait until you really think the water has evaporated, or you could do more harm turning it on." (I thanked my lucky stars I'm not a soda drinker.) So I waited.
And tonight I started putting keys back on, and I put the battery in, and I plugged in the computer, and by golly when I pushed the power button it started right back up. Bless her little technological soul.
Also I've been high on mail the past couple days and finally finally finally wrote a few people I've been owing postcards to forever. And it is GREAT. |
|
|
| end of may knife |
[mai. 27e, 2007|07:55 pm] |
please someone tell me why I didn't do this a hell of a long time ago
why
why, seriously
it's like the whole world of food just reopened to me. Oh my god; I could sing.
happy early birthday to myself; hot diggity.
(I hate hate hate hate hate the knives here. They are tiny and insufficient and above all, dull as all get out. Cutting cauliflower or broccoli or carrots should not be so hard. I'm frequently on edge here anyway; why do I make it harder on myself at least five times a week just because this family does not own a single decent knife despite being French? And so today I went to get food, but things were closed, so I went to seek out the IKEA that I know is somewhere around here, and oh hot jesus if I knew that 10€ would have made me so happy...)
(yeah, I do still exist)
edit, two days later: 15. 15€. Thanks, receipt. 1) whatever; if I knew it were (was? crud!) fifteen instead of ten I may well have gotten the crappy one instead, and 2) dude either it was unclearly or incorrectly marked. Those Swedish bastards. Whose knife, however, is bringing me untold pleasures (point of fact: it's in a town called Plaisir, making the name of the store IKEA PLAISIR). |
|
|
| mother's day calling -- for free |
[mai. 11e, 2007|08:43 pm] |
In case you live in the US or Canada, and you would like to call yo mama on Mother's Day (or, well, anyone else), calls to anywhere will be free from Skype. Yeah, free. Yeah, anywhere (okay, well not "premium numbers" [??] or satellite phones, but landline and mobile phones are valid). I had to check Google's cache for the details, since Skype is clever and knows I live in France, but that's pretty cool.
It starts at 5 a.m. Sunday, Eastern time (possibly 6 a.m. EDT; they are not very clear but say GMT -5, and you guys are -4 right now), and goes for 24 hours.
And now you know. |
|
|
| pulitzers |
[avr. 22e, 2007|10:49 pm] |
My sister, who writes for the Oregonian, was one of the Pulitzer finalists for feature writing. One might say that we are, as a family, pretty damn proud of her. (Sometimes little girls declare they are going to be writers before even hitting middle school [or junior high], never waver, and grow up to be Pulitzer finalists.)
Perhaps you would like to read some of her writing? |
|
|
| bonne journée internationale de la Francophonie! |
[mar. 20e, 2007|10:17 pm] |
For serious! (It is even on Google today!) It's also my brother's birthday! Happy birthday, John!
A good hearty email from someone I haven't talked to in over a year -- this made my day, I tell you. Sometimes romantic relationships really do succeed in becoming beautiful, rich friendships. Even if you don't talk as often as you'd like. I'm starting to sound old there; whoops.
It's funny, you know, sending emails or letters or whatever to people with whom you haven't spoken in a while. This sort of "here it goes off into the ether" and the inevitable "do I even have a good address for them anymore?" and all those sorts of questions. But I succeeded. And I have to say, it doesn't really shock me that he's the first of the people I've dated (as far as I know, anyway) to get engaged.
Oh MAN -- and my mom and my sister get here tomorrow (!), and I'll see them Thursday, and then I have Friday off and EEE.
I just need to work on getting more sleep. |
|
|
| nouvelles |
[mar. 19e, 2007|07:38 am] |
1. It was just snowing.
2. My mom and sister get here Wednesday.
3. It's almost spring!
Hello, week; here we come!
Also -- saw "La Vie Des Autres" (it's German; I have no idea what either the German or English titles are but it won an Oscar) (and a César) last night. I cannot stress this enough -- if you have the chance, go see it. It is the only non-tra-la-happy-ish film I have enjoyed in a very long time. It makes me understand why people fall in love with the cinema, quite simply. (It also was my first experience seeing a film with no English whatsoever, either in dialogue or in lip movements or in subtitles!) |
|
|
| mobes |
[mar. 10e, 2007|10:32 am] |
Yeah, I went. :)
More later; I'm off to badminton on three-ish hours of sleep. Have unrealized this and must act on it. |
|
|
| and a quick question |
[mar. 9e, 2007|03:09 pm] |
Moby plays in Paris tonight, doing a DJ set, which is incredibly rare for him. I just found out about this.
Do I go?
I'm torn, in case you couldn't tell. |
|
|
| flickr, cats, and my dad (and his awesome camera) |
[mar. 9e, 2007|02:02 pm] |
My dad took some (stealthy ninja) pictures of my (immobile until photographed) cat and sent them to me and my brother (the cat moved to my dad's after my brother left for his two months in Japan, which are drawing to a close -- PB was a little too much for his housemates). My dad, as mentioned in the title, has a freaking sweet camera, and a wonderful eye for using it, too.
And I finally cracked and bought a flickr pro account. Amazed it took me this long. It was that 3-set limit that finally got me, though duh, the rest is pretty great.
 |
|
|
| yo mama |
[mar. 6e, 2007|03:06 pm] |
|
Am I wrong for thinking this is kind of funny? I mean I know that the whole ready-gov thing is a bit odd anyhow, but come ON it is just BEGGING for "your mom" jokes. |
|
|
| trouble and time and bling |
[mar. 5e, 2007|03:21 pm] |
1) I hate always being in trouble. Isn't it funny how, as we get older, sometimes true things our parents said to us as children become Much More True and Way More Relevant? Getting this in spades.
2) dude I am in LOVE with the stupid timeanddate.com pages. They keep answering all my questions, like "what time is it in Japan?" and "what numbers do I really need to dial to reach my little brother there?" The best, though, is the personal world clock. Yeah, I'm totally keeping track of ALL of you(r time zones) this way.
3) Hey bank: I want to put some money in you. Can you please get with the program and have some envelopes for me? Or be open on a Monda-(sound of enthusiastic French laughter subsequently drowns Liene out). |
|
|
| i know what time it is in Japan right now |
[mar. 4e, 2007|01:46 pm] |
Who just talked to their brother in Japan?
Yesssssss.
Japanese phones ring differently, too (differently than American or French ones, that is). Also it's funny calling a number when you're certain it's going to be answered in a language you don't understand or speak. I figured that if I got his name in there they'd figure it out; there was some animated Japanese chatter and then lo!, my brother's voice.
This made my weekend a bunch better.
Among other things, it's cool having a sibling who understands what it's like to start forgetting English words -- things like "accent" or whatever. (Here, among the anglophones anyway, it is also not unknown to occasionally take French words and accidentally pronounce them Englished in an English sentence, such as "Don't touch my pain" or "That doesn't derange me"; I feel like this is probably less of a problem if you're working in a different alphabet altogether.) It was great getting a little set of cultural lessons, too. Beer vending machines. Dinner at six or six-thirty, the second and final meal of the day. Maybe it's only the second for my brother because he doesn't get up real early, but I am still amazed by the dinner hour.
(This weekend has been interesting, in that it's been a TIME FOR A LOCAL VACATION weekend, rather by accident. I texted my friend Kat [of "not deranged" fame] on Friday, to the effect of "oh god can we please go out sometime this weekend I'm going crazy," and she said "I'm just planning on staying home tonight, maybe doing some homework and watching a film and drinking some wine, but you're welcome to come over if you want." And that sounded awesome. So I headed out and told the parents I was going to a friend's and I'd be back the next morning. Which would have been yesterday. And I got home like an hour ago. [Fast fact: Not waking up to screaming/crying is rad. Doing this two days in a row is even better.] But oh well; I feel a million times better, though I still have that "must get into city" urge going on. Also, homework. Dangit!)
Also -- did you know there was a LUNAR ECLIPSE last night? Visible from Europe and Africa, or parts thereof? And that it was AWESOME? It was, despite all the clouds that were strongarming the sky, especially as the moon was becoming fully eclipsed. Man, it was beautiful. Sitting out on the porch with blankets and wine. Lovely. |
|
|
| television |
[fév. 28e, 2007|11:09 pm] |
omg omg omg
So I have made a resolution of sorts to start watching TV here. For the second time since my arrival, I have turned on the TV; for the first time since my arrival, I have made the TV work.
And so I turned on a station and made it come in clearly. And I started watching. And what is this? The start of House? Oh yes it is.
In scary dubbed French. but SIOMDFHSDHJ what the AWESOME this is exciting |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
