oh, hello....yeah.............

Right, so I barely blogged over here, right? And when I did it was never so horribly important that I couldn't share it with my grandmother, my neighbour, or whoever. And then SO and I decided we wanted to move. And originally we thought we'd be moving in October-ish and we wanted to start a blog so family can keep up with us. So we switched over to wordpress and began our own site; and if I or he ever feel the need to be private, wordpress offers a password option for its blogs. And, really, I'll just give out the password to anybody that asks, but honestly...who is even going to want to bother going to that much trouble, just having the password there will be deterrent enough from whomever the post is being blocked.
So, I'll leave this up for a month or so, and then I may just shut this blog down entirely.
I only know of two people who have the address to this anyhow. (hi, J! hi, E!) And I'm not even sure if they are reading it either.

But the new blog:

PetlerInn dot wordpress dot com

you should come by and say hello.

in which I participate as part of the worst bloggers ever

**I am deeply apologetic for all of the parenthetical expressions and the sentence fragments and the over abundance of exclamation points--we're going to blame it all on the whiskey, okay??**

Other blogs take up so much of my internet time, that it is horribly shameful. I'm that awful sort of lurker. I only De-lurk if I feel the absolute need to say something...or if there's a contest (you know, poor girls who don't speak need love too!).
And all I seem to do here are list-updates on my life and book/movie reviews (which, by the way are SO UNBELIEVABLY far behind, that I cannot imagine I'd actually ever realistically catch up).
I had a birthday recently and I'm a big believer in birthdays; it's the German in me, a birthday is more important than any other holiday to these people.
But I was unbelievably lucky enough to receive from my parents a ....you ready?? A KITCHEN AIDE!!!! AND IT'S GREEN!!!!! LIME GREEN!!!!!! Oh-My-God!! I could not be any more excited if I tried. Also, SO gave me the ENTIRE collection of (prepare for super-nerdom) Sailor Moon--including the movies!!! (although, the first part is still in the works, I only have the second half in my possession) and he also gave me a Holga camera TWIN LENS!! (I didn't even know they made a twin lens!) And Sister gave me a beautiful handmade necklace and an art book from Hieronymus Bosch...just so many wonderful things did I receive from those who love me!! :)
Also, SO and I went to Savannah for the weekend; to look around and see if it could be the kind of place we could live. And of course, I loved it. (Although if we're being totally honest it's about in 6th place of places Sassy should live next; however my poor little Rock Star just loathes cold weather) I should probably dedicate a separate post to the Savannah trip and the debates (read: lengthy arguing) contained as a result, and really, I'm in much to pleasant a mood to delve into it.
Happy Thoughts to any who happen to pass by!!
:)

where I talk about updating, but don't really follow through

I love mornings like today: pre-storm sunlight filtering in through the windows is gray, and we lay tangled up in our sheets, sleepily nuzzling until I delicately extract myself to start the coffee brewing.

I've got book/movie reviews to write, but I'm beginning to see that's about all this blog has become; which isn't exactly what I wanted so I'm going to try to get better about it. Also, I'm still tossing around the idea of switching over to wordpress and taking my blog to a more-public venue (i.e. give my family/friends the name); with wordpress I can password-set any blogs I don't want any particular person/people to read. Although everyone can always ask for it....I'm just unsure, still debating
really.

Also, I think we're going to be traveling down to Savannah in a few weeks for the weekend to re-check out the city. Of course, the date we chose the only hostel in the city is closed for renovations, so we may or not be living out of our car. We'll see.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

The movie for this book, which I did see first, seemed to drag quite a bit. So I picked up the book with some apprehensions about its content. I knew I wanted to read it, as it is a true account, but I was unsure how much I would actually enjoy this book.
The story is of Chris McCandless' tragic foray into the Alaskan wilderness in the spring and summer of 1992. Krakauer was drawn to the story by his own adventures as a young man; he followed McCandless' trail from the point at college graduation when McCandless donates several thousand dollars to charity and takes out on the open road for a few years before making his way into Alaska; Krakauer spoke to most of the people that McCandless encountered on his trek as well as included the few postcards and letters McCandless sent not to his family (who did not know where he was) but to those he encountered on the journey within the book.
The book, although dry in parts, was an easy read with quite a bit of information involved. Krakauer intersperses McCandlesss' story with other wanderers throughout history as well as some of his own past. I thought the book was very interesting, although it tended to get bogged down in information in parts (although I found it to be quite interesting).
It seems that reaction to this book was greatly varied; some people saying McCandless was a nutcase who shouldn't be glorified for his stupidity and others who expounded upon the tragedy that cut short his brilliant life. For me, McCandless was a spoiled strong-willed, intelligent young man, who lacked quite a bit of common sense. I wouldn't go so far to say he deserved his death, but he knew the consequences of his actions when he made the journey; although he may have realized too late what he wanted out of life, the decision to travel into Alaskan wilderness without so much as a compass will always remain his and only his decision.

The book did raise a desire in me to see the southwest portion of my country; it made me realize the ridiculousness of wanting to see Europe or India when I've missed out on the majority of my own homeland.

I would only recommend this book to those who enjoy travel and/or travel books as it does get dry for the casual reader--it is entirely true, so there are no dramatic plots to follow within its pages.

Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen & Bruce Coville

This is a wonderful piece of young adult fiction! The two authors write alternating points of view from Marina and Jed, the two main characters as they live out what their church believes to be the end of days. Marina at 14 years is the oldest of six children whose fanatical mother follows Rev. Beelson to the top of a mountain to wait out the Armageddon he prophecized. Jed is the 16 year old son of a father who found comfort in Rev. Beelson after Jed's mother left for another man.
The writing follows each character as they leave their lives and head up to a camp on top of a mountain where only 144 people are going to be left alive to rebuild the earth in Jesus' name. The conflicting thoughts of the adolescents as they are pushed into adulthood from these extreme conditions are riveting.
Interspersed between the chapters are letters, sermons, and FBI files that keep the reader informed of all that is going on around the teens. As the two weeks on the mountain play out, the characters begin to see how dedicated the adults on the mountain really are; there is an electric fence that keeps the Believers locked in as much as it is keeping the non-Believers locked out; guns start appearing as soon as the population hits 144 people and things quickly turn downhill for the narrators as the story progresses.
It is a very well written book; and I really do not wish to give too much away in the review of it. Wonderfully entertaining and gripping. A great book!

Tumultuous Tokens of Tenderness

*also called How I Get Way Too Excited About Alliteration*

June is the month for birthdays. Baby-girl last week, the Celt this week, the next weekend is Father's Day, and then it's SO's birthday.
By the way, I'm HORRIBLE at gift giving. I hate having to wait until a specific day to give someone a present. As soon as I buy one, I want to give it away immediately.
So much time is spent on picking out something(s) that lucky guy/girl will just absolutely love and will want to keep forever that as soon as I bring it home, I turn into a four-year-old, "Guess what?!? I bought you something!! It's a surprise!!!!! ....wanna see it?!?!!??"
Even now, I know SO will occasionally pop into my blog and read all the nasty things I say about him, so I can't even put my secrets out into the world wide web. I am forced to sit on them in high anticipation, teasing him with the occasional (alright, fairly frequent--I'm sorry, sweetie!!), "You are gonna LOVE your gifts!! Want a hint?....You are going to be so excited!" And I do this type of thing with such frequency, that as soon as the special day arrives, I start getting nervous. Did I over-hype it? What if he doesn't love it as much as I thought he would? What if I led her to believe it was something else, and this isn't what she was expecting/wanting at all?
Apparently my ease of mind rests on the perfect gift-giving experience.

Bridget Jones

Bridget Jone's Diary
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
both by Helen Fielding

(also, I've got this major vendetta about books with their dvd/movie poster as the cover)

I've read both the Bridget Jones books and let me tell you they are both supremely adorable!! The movies were always very cute, but never on my list of favourites, and I'm not quite sure how much I was expecting to like the books. But I was in a very stressed place and the books I had been reading when I picked up each of these were heavy and very dark.
If you've seen the movie(s) then you are fully aware of the book. Especially in the case of Diary, the plot was barely changed. The books are written as if they actually were Jone's diary for the year. Each post (re: chapter) beginning with the time, date, location, caloric intake, and various other fun facts to which the character is currently concerned;such as smoothies drank, cigarettes smoked, days between shagging, etc..
Typically reading about a character with such insecurity problems would normally drive me mad (see any of the Jennifer Weiner books); that sort of incessant complaining about weight, looks, lack of romance should not be published, women do not need any encouragement for this type of behaviour.
But Fielding manages it in such a way to make it quite funny and often hilarious. Jones' problems you see, normally turn out all in her head and once she gets what she wants, she realizes it was better off before. It's got that slightly bizarre English humour that I love so well.
I would recommend these books to anyone looking for a light read and a great laugh.

Lots of stuff currently going down:

1. I haven't blogged in quite awhile. This is mostly due to the fact that I have a partially written blog about our no-longer-with-us family dog, but every time I go to write a paragraph (because, yes it is that long) I start crying for him all over again.

2. My (only) baby sister just moved over 900 miles away from me--it's very strange knowing that she and her sweet dog will not just be dropping by my house ever again.

3. I am just freaking out about my lack of money right now; and yes, at least I have a job in our god-awful economy; and at least I have the sweetest partner who has no problem taking care of me; and yes, I have a huge family that would support me if something really terrible happened and neither I nor SO could handle it...but still, I AM FREAKING OUT.

4. Today marks the day many many years ago when SO and I decided that any other person in the whole wide world would not compare to the happiness we find in each other.

5. Lately I've been in a super-cooking mode (probably due to the fact that I've not been able to for about a week) and I managed to persuade SO to go to a party without me while I stayed home and nursed the migraines of the sinus-headache world. While at home I decided I wanted cookies, and instead of getting in my car to drive to the store (only FOUR minutes away!!), I thought it sounded like a better idea to just make it from scratch--which I did; also, didn't even bother with the oven, because, let's face it, cookie dough is really the goal of a cookie cravings in the first place.

6. My house is a wreck: laundry needs to be done, floors swept and cleaned, dog bathed, rug beat out, bathroom cabinet needs to be reorganized (to prevent the morning spillover resulting in one of the first words of my day being "OH, GOD-DAMN IT!!!"), chairs need to be painted, carpets cleaned, and grocery shopping is greatly needed too.

7. And I've not gotten a haircut since last September--yes, I know it's a long time, but my hair is usually okay with it, but it is really beginning to bug me.

HOO-RAH!!!

Alright, yes, I know I'm several days late on this news, but I celebrated the night I found out; and now it's time to share. Are you ready for this???
It's extremely exciting!!!!

Here it is:

VERMONT LEGALIZES GAY MARRIAGE!!!!!!

yippee!!! This means the number of states that allow gay marriage in one week HAS DOUBLED!!

I cannot believe how well this bodes for the nation...I have such hope.

*************

In related news, albeit BAD news...apparently all those who oppose gay marriage have gotten quite scared at the liberal takeover for civil liberties and has launched this terrifying commercial to run for the next two months, up to eight times a day in California where Prop 8 is back on the table for revocation.

These people, man, I just want to know how it hurts them for other people to be happy. WHY does it bother them if their neighbour is gay?!?? Someone PLEASE explain it to me.

Reason #5 to leave TN as soon as the lease is finished:

(This post could also be called, In which I use WAY too many paranthetical expressions and get very sidetracked)


The weather here blows ass.

I'm not kidding. It is the worst weather of anywhere I've ever been. Sure, because we live in the valley, we really don't get much in the way of a major league storm; hurricanes, tornadoes, and such are all stopped by the mountain ranges. There are practically no earthquakes here as there are no fault lines anywhere close to us.

But there is a saying here, "If you don't like the weather, stick around for a day and it'll change."
And this is unbelievably true.

For example: Sunday? Just three days ago? SO and I ate our regular Sunday breakfast (mmmm......eggs in a basket, bacon, orange juice, milk and LOTS of coffee!!) on the back deck.
Yes, it was so gorgeous outside that we ate breakfast (admittedly it was probably 11am, so I suppose it could be considered brunch) outside!
And then what did we do? A whole bunch of our friends came over for an impromptu kickball tournament.

And while we waiting for all to arrive, some of us (obviously not this uncoordinated girl; meaning myself) preformed various gymnastic feats and we tossed around the frisbee--despite what this image suggests, we are a group of musicians and artists and Curly here was one of just two or three people that actually had a pretty good control over his/her muscles. (By the way, I did try to locate a kickball photo, but everyone's faces are in it, and I'm just not sure that's somthing I should be doing). All in all it was a really good day as after just two or three innings everyone got tired and we headed back to my house; oh yes, someone was wise enough to suggest walking down to the park that's just two (country, not city) blocks away to play rather than stick around in my yard to see who can break which neighbour's window first. And then we finished the day by driving to get half-priced sushi and drinking LOTS of sake....perhaps a little too much sake than is proper on a Sunday evening?

But the weather? Oh yes, THAT. The next day it dropped by about, oh, I don't know 20-30 degrees and on Tuesday? IT SNOWED. ALL DAY LONG THERE WAS SNOW!! I'm still nursing a nasty sunburn on my arms and I'm putting on heavy socks, multiple layers and my SNOWBOOTS to get to work.
Seriously? It's driving me mad.
Sister is in Boston looking for a place to live and on the seventh day in April that we folks here in the south are NOT enjoying gray skies and slushy HEAVY snowfall (it didn't stick by the way, the ground still had to be very warm from the 75 degree Sunday), she was enjoying walking around BOSTON, very northern, in a sunny 50-ish degree temperature.

Yes. That is just another reason to really hate TN.

GAY MARRIAGE=CIVIL RIGHT!!!!!

I'm so happy right now. Yesterday Iowa declared gay marriage a civil right; that by declaring marriage to be between a man and a woman violated their [Iowa] constitutional rights--YAY!!!!

That makes it the third state to allow gay marriage!!! I'm so very proud of them.

This is just another step closer to equal rights!!

friday night

and full of red wine....sweet red Cabernet Sauvignon as I listen to my sweet rock star sing god-awful Manofwar with his drunk friends...



...honestly, I really don't believe other people can be as happy as I am.

on moving and my Other

Tennessee summers are rather mild as summers go; surrounded by the mountains it cannot get too hot and it gets nowhere near the humidity of the more southerly states. However, I do believe I'd like to try living in a place that perhaps never gets cold; or rather, perhaps rarely gets cold. SO, of course, has such a natural abhorrence for any temperature below 55 degrees Fahrenheit that he simply LOVES this idea. Right now, the top contender is for Savannah, GA. We both fell in love with Savannah the moment we stepped out of the car. I don't believe 24 hours were even spent in that beautiful city and we both knew that it was a perfect place for us.
I'm still keeping hope for Boston (I know, the opposite of warm year-long) open right now; Sister is moving there within the month and I have such a fondness for the north-eastern cities (i.e. my beloved New York) and the trains and the theatre and the people (Northerners are my kind of people, none of this foolish, lets-talk-to-every-single-bloody-individual-in-a-seven-mile-radius-of-where-we-are-standing Southern hospitality shit); plus Boston is simple a TRAIN RIDE from Manhattan, and not just any train ride, a SHORT train ride--anyplace that gets me closer to my city is definitely high up on my Places-Sassy-Should-Be list. But SO doesn't want to move someplace he's never visited before, and despite this severe rationality of his, I'll go along with it; I'm just so happy I'm getting my little homeschooler to move away from the only state he's ever known.

and in other news...

In an interesting turn of events the other day, Sassafrass was thrown off track when she realized that she had been spending so much energy trying not to turn into her mother that she had inadvertently turned into her father!!

Oh, yes. It's true. I carry a lot of my German mother's neurotic tendencies; and with these, I try not to turn into the gigantic ball of emotion and stress that is my mother. I do a pretty good job at avoiding this; largely in part thanks to SO.
However, I've been working A LOT lately as Baby-Girl is still on tour; to make up for her absence, I've been pulling double shifts, for about two weeks.
The better part of Thursday morning was spent in a MAJOR argument with SO, basically boiling down to he had been treating me quite rudely because he was now expecting it as soon as I get home; that I would be so stressed out from my job and the double work of it and I wasn't properly separating my job stress from the peace of being at home; of coming home to a wonderful man who was cleaning the entire house, buying and prepping all the dinner so all I would have to do is throw it in a dish and cook; and basically taking care of everything I needed.
This? This is EXACTLY how my father acted (and still does) while I was growing up. He was rarely at home due to the difficult climb up the corporate ladder, and when he would finally come home, he would snap at my mother, my sister, and I.
To use a common southern term, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized that I had inadvertently turned into my dad. No shit. We were mid-argument, yelling at each other, saying terrible things, and out he bursts with, "Well, if you could just learn to separate your job from your home, then I could be nicer to you. Take thirty minutes, take an hour as soon as you get home. Do whatever the fuck you want to do, and when I get home, be in a better goddamned mood!!"
And that stopped me dead in my tracks. Shit. I've turned into my father. And given the choice between the two parental figures, I would most certainly choose to turn into my mother.

What woman ever thinks that she will utter that phrase?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I loved this book. LOVED it. This is a piece of young adult fiction that is pure joy to read. Of course, I think I fell in love with this book more for the main character's thought processes than for anything else. He reminded me of SO, of the way he acted and reacted to life when I first met him.
The book is written in a series of letters addressed to a man with no name, just "dear friend" and then a description of the day or the past couple of days--think of it as Dear God, It's Me Margret without all the Christian overtones; or girly problems; or young adult drama; and add in some drug use; also some underage sex/sexual encounters...okay, try not to think of it like that at all.
But I swear it's amazing! It's just a window of a year in one teen's life, of everything he's going through and what he's thinking about. Unfortunately, I was unable to relate to the main character, but what he said (wrote?) reminded me so much of some of my friends during that time.
It's an easy read that is well worth the time and money spent.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Throughout the course of my school career, I thought I had read the majority of The Jungle; so when I picked it up at the library I just thought I'd be piecing together what I already knew (you know, disguesting meat-packing stories). But the back of the book tells how Sinclair wrote the book, not for the sociological effect it had on the meat packing industry, but as a good way to introduce people to and to promote his new obsession: socialism; obviously I'd not read most of this book.
Have you read The Colour Purple or Angela's Ashes? The Jungle is up to par with those books in terms of absolute depressedness. The story follows a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, and his family as they come to America and find jobs and try to live in their new country. The book was written in 1906 and focus on the poor treatment of America's working class--the low labor force that moves the country.
I'm sure people of much softer heart than I probably fell to pieces over the plight of this family--yeah, it's sad, but c'mon they also made some pretty bad choices. The book was very well written, but it started to drag towards the end. And really, you don't see much of the pro-socialism part of it; it's just this super depressing book about how hard life is for them. It wasn't until (literally) the very end that Rudkus discovers socialism and becomes excited with how he's going to try and change the world with it.
It was a pretty good book, I can see why it is recommended reading for schools; if only because you are able to see how one man can change the way an entire nation thinks (read: views its meat). I don't see how it makes a point for socialism, just that it really sucks if you're poor. But it may be that I missed the point since I cannot bring myself to agree with socialist values.

pregnant turtle-man

Normally when I dream, it's completely normal everyday stuff; the majority of the time I cannot even remember SO coming to bed, much less remember what my subconscious was doing while I was passed out. But last night I had a totally fucked up dream. Just so completely fucked up that I have to write it down so I'll be able to remember the bizarreness of it.


At no point was it scary for me, as strange as it's going to get, the feeling of the dream was never close to nightmarish, just "this is really really bizarre." Also of interest, I was never a participant of the dream; it was like a movie being played out in front of me and I just followed whatever character interested me the most.


It started as just a normal city scene, then there was an ambulance and sirens and someone was giving birth (this was probably the scariest part for me) and the view was dead-on full perspective, if you catch my drift. And after the birth was finished, the birth-er looked over the belly and it was A MAN. And a man that looked and sounded a whole lot like Dustin Hoffman. And he looked so pleased with himself and he asked where the child was and the nurses/doctors brought the child to him and pseudo-Dustin named the little boy Jamie.


Then it skips in the ways that dreams are wont to do, to several months down the line and also in that strange dream-timescape, Jamie is now around four or five years old and pseudo-Dustin is walking along and talking with a friend and the child is tagging along. The conversation is about the little boy and how people make fun of him because of how small he is for his age, and also because he is so small, he is in much greater danger due to the nuclear war that the world is currently involved (apparently). At this point pseudo-Dustin still looking relatively normal.

Then he says, "Oh, there's no need to worry about that; see, I've had the doctors continue to scrape my womb for safety. See?" And with that said, he reaches down and grabs each side of his not-so-much-a-vagina-as-it-is-a-large-oblong-slash-similar-too-those-old-plastic-change-holders-around-his-genital-region and pulls it open. As he is opening this hole, he seems to grow a bit, a little taller and quite a bit larger. And then he lays down on this super-convenient table that happens to be in the middle of the sidewalk and says, "See? Jamie? Come here for a moment and show David your safeplace." And the little boy walks over and climbs into this hold inside of pseudo-Dustin and sits down--just as if he had a treehouse or cave in the ground. And the pseudo-Dustin just stands up and the hole closes and he shrinks down a bit, but now he just looks slightly chubby, as if he's gained 50 pounds or, you know, had a four or five year old climb inside him to sit down.
And then the friend says, "Oh. Well, that was really smart of you to have them do that. Is it very painful?"
And pseudo-Dustin says, "No. Not at all. And, it doesn't even take very long. And any day that Jamie goes in for several hours I don't have to have the doctors scrape."

The dream continues for awhile and at some point there is a giant neon-blue bomb-explosion thingy and everyone is all panicy and fake-Dustin opens up his hole again and Jamie climbs inside and pseudo-Dustin goes running around trying to help everyone around him and at some point he gets hurt and has to go to the hospital tent (which really just looks like a giant piece of blue tarp stretched over some metal poles in a valley of mud) and the doctors have Jamie climb back out (also another full-on-view shot of that) so they can fix pseudo-Dustin and when they've finished Jamie climbs right back inside.

But that's pretty much it. Like I said, never was it ominous or scary or even creepy. I've always heard that emotion was a major tell in what a dream is supposed to signify but there was no real emotion to it; I just watched this whole thing, when I woke up I just kept thinking how strange that it was.

***So, how many kinds of fucked-up am I?

a home for Sassafrass???

Rock Star and I have been tossing around several ideas of places we'd like to live (we're thinking about moving within the next 7-12 months) and Savannah, GA is near the top of the list...it may have just been bumped to absolute number one.
There has been a lot of debate in my home lately about how bad the economy is currently and how we may not have the means for a major move; or even if we had the means, would we be able to find jobs after we moved?
Last night while watching an old favourite (Drowning Mona) I slipped into the Savannah craigslisting for rentals--and they are fucking cheap!! Seriously, WAY WAY cheaper than I expected to find in that lovely city. SO and I found so many gorgeous places that were several hundred dollars cheaper than we were expecting to pay. Then, just on a whim I skimmed through the job listings too--found one for a guitar instructer and several office jobs that I would be able to do with ease.
...could it be a sign?
A friend of ours has gone down for the weekend and he's going to be bringing up some papers and apartment listings and other such things that may be helpful to us.

delish Indian dinner with cookie desert

*************PLEASE FORGIVE THE FONT-SIZE ERRORS AS THE END OF THIS POST APPROACHES; IT TOOK SO LONG TO TYPE OUT THE RECIPIES THAT I CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO WORRY ABOUT THE MUDDLED FONT.*************

Oooh! Babe and I had some delicious foods the other night. For reasons unknown to man (or rather, known to me as it was because of my work schedule and family stuffs) we ended up eating Italian and Chinese all week last week; not that either of those are bad, but just not our first choice of favourite foods. So on our first night alone together in ten-ish days we decided to try a new recipe from our favourite genre of food: Indian. And man, was it good!!! It sounds a bit weird at first, but trust me, it's completely amazing. Also, although curry is in the title, there is no curry in the recipe...but still, here it is:

Chicken Curry with Sliced Apples

Ingredients:

*2 tsp oil (I used canola)
*2 medium onions, diced (I used only one white onion as SO hates them)
*1 bay leaf
*2 cloves (probably 3 or 4 in my version)
*1in cinnamon stick (make sure you note, the inch part; I've made that mistake before)
*4 black peppercorns (b/c I'm cheap, I used a TON of rough-ground pepper)
*1 baby chicken cut into bits (nope, I only used about 5 tenders; we're not big on meat
around here plus we be broke-ass bitches)
*1 tsp garam masala (all my measurements are in my head, I'm sure I used WAY more than
called for in recipes)
*1tsp grated fresh root ginger (I'm quite sure mine was closer to a Tblspn)
*1tsp crushed garlic (being fiends of garlic, we usually double the amount)
*1tsp salt (kosher in my kitchen)
*1tsp chili powder
*1 Tbsp ground almonds (we only had in-shell, so we magic-bulleted those)
*2/3 cup natural yogurt (probably closer to a cup, mayhap even 1 1/2 cups)
*2 green apples, peeled, cored and roughly sliced (granny smith for me!)
*1 Tbsp chopped coriander (we LOVE this stuff, so we tear it up by hand and use lots)
*sliced almonds (toasted is best) and more coriander for garnish (as stated before, we only
had in-shell, and it's VERY difficult to slice an almond without proper equipment; we used more of our freshly ground--DO NOT DO THIS!! it only made certain bites grainy....trust me, spring the $1 or $2 for a bag of sliced almonds!!)

STEP ONE:
Heat the oil in a wok on medium or medium-high (I'm sure a similarly heavy pan would also suffice) and fry the onions with the bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon stick and the peppercorns for about 4 minutes or until onions are softened but not quite brown yet.

STEP TWO:
Add the chicken pieces to the onions and continue to stir-fry for at least another 3-5 minutes.

STEP THREE:
Turn the heat down to Low-Medium and add the garam masala, ginger, garlic, salt, chili powder, and ground almonds and cook; making sure to stir constantly for about 3-4 minutes.

STEP FOUR:
Pour in the yogurt and stir for a few more minutes (and if you're me, look at it and say, "Rock Star, I don't think this has enough liquid in it; what do you think?" To which he'll reply, "Looks fine to me, I don't think it's supposed to be super liquidy." And then you can say, "No. I don't like it. Let's add more yogurt.")

STEP FIVE:
Add the apples and coriander, cook for another 10-15 minutes (probably would be a good idea to cover it here, but we have no lid for either of our woks...donations are welcome to fix this dire problem).

STEP SIX:
Sprinkle garnishes (sliced almonds and more coriander; and if you're super paranoid like Rock Star is, triple-check the chicken to make sure it is thoroughly cooked) and serve (we used basmati rice, but I'm sure plain white rice would taste fine too...you know, if you don't know anything about flavour).

Enjoy your surprisingly delicious Indian chicken with apples dish!!

*******

And, if all that cooking and eating wasn't quite enough cooking and kitchen-time for you, after our two-ish mile walk (poor old Chubbies was just dying at the end!!) we decided to try a new chocolate-chip cookie recipe that I found on the SmittenKitchen blog--which, if you have a major desire to feel completely inadequate about your kitchen and/or time you spend cooking you can locate here (she calls them "crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies").
Now, I have a chocolate chip recipe all of my own; one I'm VERY proud of; one I did not think I would be able to surpass. Boy! Was I ever wrong!! And, man! It has never tasted so good being wrong!! These cookies are crisp around the edges and only slightly chewy in the middle (seeing as how I'm not much a fan of chewy cookies, that's perfect for me); they're similar to the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, but with less white sugar and almost twice as much brown sugar. I will add, I used mostly milk-chocolate chips and I would recommend using all semi-sweet or dark-chocolate chips as the dough itself is fairly sweet.

Best God-damned Chocolate chip cookies EVAH!!

Ingredients (as usual, I measure by hand, so I'm sure I usually go over on the measurements):

*2 cups all-purpose flour
*1/2 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
*1 cup packed brown sugar
*1/2 cup white sugar
*1 tablespoon vanilla extract
*1 egg
*1 egg yolk
*2 cups chocolate chips

STEP ONE:
Grease your cookie sheet and preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (but let's be honest, I never really do either of these until I'm ready to put them into the oven--well, I'll preheat about half-way through)

STEP TWO:
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

STEP THREE:
Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. (If you are either myself or Rock Star, at this point you dip your finger in the batter and insert said finger into mouth; only to make sure it tastes okay, mind; there's no need to continue with this laborious baking if it's not going to tast good. ...oh, and PS, we're totally sanitary in my kitchen!)

STEP FOUR:
Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Drop cookie dough a tablespoon at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 2-3 inches apart. (Of course, you can make larger cookies if that is your preference; just remember to add 2-5 minutes to your cooking time.)

STEP FIVE:
Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

ENJOY THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER CREATED!!!

(no joke, I cannot make these cookies often due to making all the other cookies I make feel very very bad about themselves)

The Watchmen

(movie poster from movie)

The Rock Star and I went out with some of the old crowd last night to watch some friends of ours play a promotional show at Hot Topic for their new CD; (yes, it's cheesy as hell, they know it too, but its good money and they've gotten a 700-stores-wide distribution deal and need to promote; plus it shows off their natural ability rather than a lot of bands that really only sound good in shitty bars with a lot of electronics [HT shows are acoustic]).
And then we moved on to dinner at the mall food court--surprisingly DELICIOUS thanks to a brand new Greek restaurant that just opened (I met the owner: a Greek man who's been in America less than a year) and SO received a free piece of baklava as he "lost" with a slice of stale pizza; the owner felt pity on him for choosing the bad food. WAY better eating than I expected at a mall.
And then it was on to watch our movie. We had bought our tickets two days prior, we even planned eating at the mall so we would not have to rush eating and then get bad seats because we would end up behind the crowd--it was all totally useless. The theatre was near empty, it was opening weekend and there were MAYBE twenty people in the whole theatre--I need to check the stats tomorrow to see if the movie bombed or if its just my po-dunk little area of the world.
But the movie. God. I loved it. I thought it was two hours and forty minutes of comic-book-movie magic. When I heard they were making the movie, I had some major doubts. The book is so graphic; there's a lot of cussing and a lot of nudity and a whole lot of some very graphic violence (see a dog with it's head split open; see a woman being raped in the alleyway; see someone's skin melting because hot oil has been poured over it). And dense; the book is extremely dense. But I thought they pulled it off well.
It doesn't seem to really fit into the comic-movie genre however. Yes, there are costumes and superheros and such, but its so very dark and serious (things I associate with the reading of actual graphic novels, not so much their movie counterparts). The actors/actresses in it are relatively unknowns (especially for such a huge production) and they did very well. Whoever was in charge of casting did a WONDERFUL job. Everyone looked nearly exactly as I pictured them. Although I thought the major curve on Jacobi's ears was extremely distracting. Jon looked great, I was terribly afraid he'd come across as false. And I was glad to see that they mostly kept to his nakedness, it didn't pose as a distraction for me, but some of my friends complained about the abundance of blue penis in the movie, of course, they were both heterosexual males that have a gay phobia. The reason Jon (Dr. Manhattan) isn't wearing any clothes helps to show his separation from humanity, from humanity's bindings. The only major difference between the book and the movie is the way we got to the ending. The change they put at the end makes sense for the movie, without any of the revolving secondary characters that are in the book (the newspaper stand owner, the lesbian, the young man reading the comic, the pirate comic storyline--which they've turned the pirate comic into a small cartoon that's being released as promotion for the movie!!) you miss most of the storyline that encompasses the ending; and although the end result is still the same, I don't like laying the blame upon Jon.
Also the director, Zack Snyder of 300 fame, did the same sort of stop-slow-motion action sequences that made 300 so mind-blowing, but I didn't think they fit in very well here; also, made me wonder if that's the only way he knows how to shoot a fight scene.
Really, I'm sorry they had to make the edits they did, but they are totally understandable and you really aren't missing a lot of the main storyline--the only edit they should have worked out was with Bubastis, Adrien Veidt's genetically engineered cat. In the movie, one sees him killed after only having about three seconds contact with the large cat; and so missed out on the cruelness of Adrien because of it. My friends (none of which had read the book) were completely thrown off by the cat, and thought it was ridiculous; and without book-knowlege who could blame them? Bubastis should have been cut out entirely (or alternately added another 20+ minutes to the movie just so he can be explained).
But overall, I'm very pleased with the way the film turned out; I'm curious to see what others think, especially those that aren't familar with the graphic novel.

home alone...

Whenever SO goes away for a tour, I’m prepared. I’m aware I’m going to be alone for awhile.
But this past weekend, he went away to SEE a show, not play one…and, I don’t know. Somehow its different.
Last night, I was all about being alone, planned my special ME time and such and a friend of mine called and wanted some company so he came by and hung around for several hours. It was nice, we haven’t been able to spend alone time in awhile, usually just a 5-9 people gatherings, but there remained a part of me that kept saying, “fucking go home…this wasn’t in my plan.”
So I planned on being alone tonight, but my friend’s show got cancelled so they came back from tour early and wanted something to do for their Saturday night…well, just call ole Sassy. So my house filled up with some more tired rock stars and we hung around and chatted all night—and it really was great fun. But because they drove nine hours last night after their last show for their short play-excursion, everyone just left at once.
And, suddenly, after acclimating myself to being around a group of friends, I’ve been left alone.
And part of me wants to tell them, “No, wait. Come back. Stay a bit longer.”
And a much larger part of me says, “Finally. Time to catch back up on me.”
And the very core of me, the part I don’t want to admit silently cries out, “Where is my Other?”

Oooh, getting a wee bit too sad around here for me.
I do believe I’ll pick up some Tucker Max, a glass of Chianti, and take myself a nice hot bath...

warm nights to you.

black history month ???

What happened to black history month (BHM)?? Everyday in February used to be a reminder to us all. Have we moved past it? Are we now just ignoring it because of our president?
...is it now called African-American history month? (I lose track of what is and is not politically correct at any given time.)
Sister has started a debate amongst our friends, and some of our family. She is still in full support of the month, and of women's history month starting next week, and of hispanic history month (October?). And yet a lot of people are disagreeing with her, saying that the only way we can "cure" racism is by stopping all of the segregation that was begun to so long ago to stop the hatred; that all these things, a month dedicated to the history of a group of people/black entertainment television/miss african-america/etc, only contribute to keeping racism alive.
I'm not sure where I stand on this point. I consider myself to be a very socially liberal person, and most of my friends are in the same boat--Sis on the otherhand is liberal to the point of socialism.
I honestly don't know. I hate that we have a Miss African-America (or whatever that pageant is properly called). I hate that we have a black entertainment television. I hate (get ready, this is a big one) the NAACP. I don't think we need these things in our society anymore. But BHM? I think maybe we still need this...not because we have to be reminded to study it, but because our history books are old, and as far as I can gather, not really being re-written, just added onto. My little cousins in middleschool are now carrying around the same type of american history book I had--but now the Iraq war, 9-11, Y2K, global warming and such have been added to the end of it.
So rather than have a month to study only a certain type of people, what we need is to rewrite our history books--include everyone that contributed to our nation, to our world, no matter the race or gender. Benjamin Banneker deserves the same space in our history books as Victoria Claflin Woodhull as does Jean-Michel Basquiat or Neil Armstrong.
If you affected our history, you deserve your space.

YYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!

I am online.
Online at my house.
: )

(albeit, not my computer--SO's)
: (


But still...

YAY!!!

huh...

so, it turns out that I'm terrible at blogs. . . . . just awful.

Snow today=superfun times with driving 30 minutes on semi-icy roads to stand in an empty store--on the other hand, I suppose I could say I'm being paid a ridiculously small amount of money to surf the web. so that's fun.

Also, SO and I are trying to find a new town to live in; time for a change...just don't know where we're wanting to move; sister's moving to Boston soon and she's getting stressed, and friend is back on tour.

Oh, and taxes are due. You know, they never bothered me until I had to start filling out the 10-99 forms, now I hate tax season.

happiness and warmth.