Blog Archive: July 2006

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Suspension of Disbelief

 

I saw Monster House this weekend. It was delicious. Jason Lee AND Steve Buscemi. How could it miss?

 

It would appear that I am willing to suspend my disbelief to allow for a sentient, angry house. But that I cannot do the same for Man Yelling At Kid And No Neighbors Noticing, or No Kids Out On Halloween.

 

I am reminded of watching Disney’s Beauty and the Beast with a friend, and pointing out that Lumiere should have been burning/melting himself when he put his lit hands on his candle hips. My friend questioned why that was bothering me, but not the fact that a candelabra had “hands” and “hips” or was in the middle of a speech.

 

I still can’t answer that.

 

10:07 PM

 

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

This is driving me CRAZY

 

I’ve lost the downloading/charging dock for my new camera. I realized this the night before my trip, and got out of bed to rummage around the house looking for it. Not finding it, I packed an extra battery and assumed I’d left it at the office.

 

I can’t find it at the office, either.

 

After looking through the house again tonight, I figured I must have accidentally, however unlikely, mixed it in with the TechnoTrash recycling box; again, at the office. Which I can go through tomorrow. Except that I can’t sleep, wondering where it is, and I’d really like to download my vacation photos, and maybe I can tell when I last downloaded images on my home computer, vs. when I last downloaded at the office…

 

It looks like home wins. I last downloaded here late on the 22nd of June. Was I still carrying the cradle in my purse after that? Wouldn’t I have noticed if it fell out somewhere? Shouldn’t it, logically, be in the house? Perhaps, I don’t know, near the computer? Or, failing that, in the box with the power cable? WHERE THE HELL IS IT? My knickers are in a serious twist.

 

If anyone has seen it, please let me know. It will cost $50 to replace, and I don’t think that includes the cable that I had left attached to it.

 

Argh.

 

12:01 AM

 

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Where the hell have you been?

 

It was abfab to see Mandy, but it’s nice to be back home.

 

Lemme grab my notes:

 

SAT: First things first. Immediately after picking me up at the airport, M. takes me to the Edina Grill for dinner so I can get my pierogi fix on. We split an app of tempura green beans with plum sauce. At $12.95, I order the most expensive entree on the menu: Steak & Pierogis. The steak is tender, flavorful, cooked exactly to my liking, and draped in a delicious horseradish sauce. The pierogis are kraut-less, but pretty tasty nonetheless. It is M’s last night of dogsitting, so we take Harry for a well-proportioned Hot Hazy Humid walk before crashing in front of a couple episodes of MythBusters in the air-conditioned yumminess of Cindy’s house.

 

SUN: The leftover steak-and-pierogis made an excellent cold breakfast in the morning. Grabbing sister Beth and their mom, we truck on out to Hutchinson to have The Best Patty Melt and Cokes with crushed ice at the Cafe before hitting a well-stocked and well-priced antique shop. Alas, the patty melt isn’t quite as good as last year; and they’ve standardized to “regular” ice cubes. The antique store is just as good as ever, though, and I’ve officially started my collection of vintage/antique Tiddlywink games. I went from 0 to 4 in one day! We cap off the day with a birthday dinner for M with the family in Waconia. I might try to reproduce Bill’s black bean salsa this afternoon, in fact. Mmm, cil-aaaahhhn-tro.

 

MON: New day, new brunch; this time at The Bad Waitress. Read an complete video blog/review (not my own) here. We then visit the local Honda dealer so M. can test drive a Fit, but they’ve been selling out so fast that there aren’t any on the lot. In fact, the preorders are so backed up that they won’t have one to test before October. We drive a new Civic instead, which is nice enough. The console screen is completely black through polarized sunglasses, though, which would be an issue. Meet up with some folks for M’s birthday dinner/drinks at Brit’s Pub (a much larger cousin of Pint’s Pub). On the way home, we stop at Sebastian Joe’s for birthday sundaes and more people watching out on the patio.

 

TUES: I’m lazy in the mornings, when I’m on vacation. M goes for a walk every morning, and I laze around and shower and check the office email. Byt the time we’re both ready to head out for the day, it’s time for lunch. This time, we share plates of tuna sashimi and crispy tofu coconut curry at 20.21 in the Walker Art Center. M is generous with our time at the Walker, and we see pretty much the entire collection, in addition to the multi-floor Diane Arbus exhibit that’s showing right now. I’m in heaven, but I’m afraid that M’s head is swimming. A coffee from Sebastian Joe’s (yes, again, right after a quick look-see in Patina next door) revives us in time for $1 Movie Night at a theatre in Hopkins. ‘Failure To Launch’ is accompanied by $13 (!) worth of popcorn, sodas, and mini donuts. Alas, this is also our dinner.

 

WED: We attempt to repent for last night’s dinner, with Beth and the kids joining us for lunch of home-made cream of asparagus soup and salad. Afterwards, we both do well scoping out the Savers and Goodwill (both much better there than here) where I manage to score a couple of cute blazers for fall, and a swingy skirt that I can wear year-round. Dinner is al fresco at the Black Forest Inn where the food is good, our waiter is charming, and the mouse (!) that fell from the portico seemed unhurt and scampered off.

 

THUR: Our so-so lunch at D’Amico’s starts our day out, as we run a couple of errands before heading to the Mill City Museum for some historical background on the pivotal role that Minneapolis has played in the flour milling industry. At Brian’s suggestion, we include the Flour Tower show on our tour. The stadium-seating elevator brings passengers through an audio/visual summary of life in the mills. As if the two-story Bisquick box wasn’t enough to entertain me! In addition, the Musuem hosts a free outdoor concert in the Ruin Courtyard every Thursday night in the summertime. We are joined by more of M’s friends for a performance by Chris Koza. M and I head out before the show ends, and walk across the Stone Arch Bridge to St. Anthony Main for dinner at Pracna. Next time I’m out, maybe we’ll take the Segway tour from Human On A Stick.

 

FRI: Happy birthday to me! M presents me with some lovely gifties, including a red, vintage ice crusher so that I can have my very own Cokes-over-crushed-ice any time I want. M also treats us to breakfast benedicts at The Uptown Diner before we head to a matinee of Clerks II (opening day, yay!) and then to MIA specifically for the Surreal Calder exhibit, though we do poke around the Period Rooms while we’re there.

 

Final day: a “kamikaze style” waffle at the Grand View Grill is served with blueberries, bananas, and walnuts. Breakfast is early enough to allow for a quick detour to a garage sale, the Minneapolis Farmers Market (172 stalls!), and our final trip to Sebastian Joe’s for cremosas (egg creams) before heading to the airport.

 

A fun time, but it’s good to be home.

 

6:09 PM

 

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

technical difficulties

 

Okay, okay, we all know that MySpace has issues. Technical Difficulties, shall we say. Particularly the last few days, during which time waiting for a page to load is akin to watching paint dry. But I’m here, I mean, I’m sittin’ here on the bench, the Group W bench, and I glance over at my Blog Views which is at 11 for the day (not bad, considering I didn’t actually have a new entry posted) and then I click off for a minute to read an incoming message and then I go back to pick up where I left off and all of a suddenly I’m at 18 views for the day? I picked up 7 views in a minute and a half?

 

WhatEVer.

 

10:07 PM

 

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

How To Waste A Beautiful Night

 

It’s just about perfect outside for, say, a neighborhood game of kick-the-can. If it were 1983. But adults don’t do that. And instead, I’m sitting at my computer in the basement. Reading about the bombings in Mumbai (179 dead at last count) and the death of Syd Barrett.

 

I rec’d my first sampler today. Two soaps, a vial of perfume, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, a necklace, two patches, four greeting cards, three magnets, four pins… and a partridge in a pear tree.

 

The haircut I stopped for after work tonight was long in coming. I haven’t actually cut my hair since July of last year, after deciding to grow it out for Beautiful Lengths. They need it to be all one length, so “Louis” cut off about three inches, to even it up with my shortest remaining layer. Alas, hair as thick as mine does not look its best when it’s all one length. Once Louis was done styling it, it bore a distinct resemblance to whipped cream. I said “Chrissie Hynde” and he heard “Texas Republican housewife”. I washed it out as soon as I got home (and after calling M. to laugh about it). But now the ends are even and healthy, and I hope it tames itself a bit as it gets longer.

 

Lunch today (cooked the other night): kale sauteed with onions and apples and a touch of curry powder. Verdict: not enough curry, too much kale. It turns out I’m not a big kale fan. I’ll try again with spinach. And maybe some raisins.

 

Dinner tonight: spinach/portobello quesadillas. Yummers, and made enough to last for days. I managed to cut my hand with the cheese slicer, so there’s a little keratin in there for good measure. I should have just grated the cheese in the Cuisinart, but nooOOOOoo, I wanted to keep things simple. 😐

 

I hate that I can never seem to come to terms with my perishables when I’m getting ready to leave for vacation. I think all of my cheese will be okay (though I’d better eat the St. Andre as soon as I return) but I still have two pounds of baby spinach leaves in the fridge. And with three-to-five servings of spinach quesadillas left over from tonight, I don’t think I’ll be whipping up a 2-lb spinach salad in the next 80 or so hours. I know someone at work will take it, but I’ll be sad to see it go. At times like this, I remember that joining a CSA might not be such a good idea for a singleton.

 

I hate the scar on my leg. That’s not an update of anything new, it’s simply a more prominent concern for me during the warmer months when shorts or cute little skirts would be a nice option if I weren’t so self-conscious about it. Grumble. I had to measure it recently for the settlement claim. Still 8cm x 6cm, and all of the travel and pain and laser burns and blisters from trying to get it GONE was for naught. Grumble, grumble. On the other hand, I also had to locate the original photos from the accident. Man oh man, I am one lucky girl. It was so sad to see my old car worked over like that. I really loved that car. I bought it NEW! It was RED! A peculiar thing though: I had taken a photo of the interior after the fact, and when I saw it I realized that I am still so accustomed to THAT car that if someone had randomly shown me the photo and asked me if it was my current car, I would have said “yes” even though I’ve been driving the Acura for more than two years now. It’s just so FAMILIAR. Does that make any sense?

 

Anyway. Owen Wilson on Leno tonight. rrrRRRRrrr.

 

Bonsoir!

 

10:13 PM

 

Friday, July 07, 2006

not that interesting

 

I haven’t posted in a few days, so I thought I’d put some marks up on the screen.

 

Leaving the house momentarily to pick up a merchandiser pal and head down to a hastily-put-together photo shoot. I think we’re up to 19 shots now. I’m usually shooting silos, where 19 shots in a day is no problem. This time, however, most of those 19 shots are clothing laydowns (avg. 5 pcs per shot), and I’m concerned about the amount of prep work. We have a terrific stylist on board for the day though, so all should go smoothly.

 

Right? Right?

 

7:54 AM

 

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Danger: Sharp Objects

 

I am, for the second year in a row, patently NOT at a friend’s birthday celebration tonight. I would very much like to kiss and make up, but the more time goes on, the more I am led to believe that his transgression was less accidental than I had once thought.

 

And that brings in a whole different level of suckiness.

 

10:08 PM