Redemtion

lj-tags: iron nani, brussels sprouts, green beans, bacon, squash

Saturday, when we stopped at Sultan's Produce Stand and Diana grabbed me
green beans & brussels sprouts, I bagged it up & figured that despite my
previous horrifying experiences with brussels sprouts I should at least give
it a second chance.

My first encounter with brussels sprouts was one winter when my grandmother
came to stay. I'd seen them mentioned on Sesame Street, and had seen kids
complaining about how yucky they were because they were <i>vegetables</i>
(ew!) so I wanted to at least give them a try. Because even at that age I
believed that there was no such thing as bad food, just good food badly
prepared. Grandma Jeanie picked some up at the grocery store and cooked
them, and they were awful. Bitter, very bitter. I think she simply boiled
them or something, & served them with butter, which is a great way to
present chard & spinach & peas & broccoli & a million other green things,
but not brussels sprouts! I was sorely disappointed. So from that point on
they weren't included in my vegetable repertoire.

But! I approached them from the standpoint that everything is good when
drowning in butter and/or bacon. Washed out the Wok, put in a couple slices
off my brick of bacon endsn'pieces along with a good blop of butter, sliced
the green beans, quartered the measly handful of brussels sprouts, & threw
them all into the hot fat. Added some water throughout to keep it from
burning & to encourage them to cook through. At the end? Fantastic. Nutty,
green, and not bitter at all. Presented it to Freak & he told me it tasted
asparagus-y, and good, and he ate the entirety of what i'd given him. (I
didn't tell him what it was - which is his standing request when it comes to
food. There's a lot of stuff he "doesn't like" if he knows what it is, & if
I refrain from telling him he'll eat it & love it.) Brussels sprouts were
completely redeemed in my eyes - which is great, because I get tired of
nothing but the eternal carrots/broccoli/greenbeans vegetable parade. So
when I do the garden thing at Aimee's house next spring, I think i'll plant
a couple for fun & see if the glory continues.

The other thing I cooked up was this Confetti Squash Diana had given me 2
of - and it was also very nice. I saved all the seeds, which are currently
drying on a plate in the kitchen - and will save the seeds from the 2nd one
as well. I'm going to try & plant them up north also & see what happens.
(It was a rather tasty squash.)

karmic kick in the pants

Lj-tags: work

On the one hand I suppose its my fault because i'm the dummy who APPLIED for
this job.

But every now & then I get one that slams right past my cultivated serenity,
and gets under my skin to the point when I'm actually willing to wish harm.

So, seeing as actual harmful curses are a bad idea, karmically, since they
tend to resonate back to the caster, I say:

Mister "didn't pay my bill so I got disco'd and its all the evil empire's
fault, not mine" - may you have an absolutely miserable day at work
tomorrow. A day that shatters your sense of self worth, & leaves you crying
on your couch at the end of the day, wishing there was more praline ice
cream in the freezer.

But there is none.

Big Manga List

Lj-tags: manga, notepad

Mostly to help me keep track.....

<u>Manga I Have Already Read</u>

Samurai Deeper Kyo - through vol. 21
Getbackers - through v. 20
Blade of Heaven - through v. 10
Tokyo Babylon - completed series
X/1999 - not sure. need to go back & read it again.
Tsubasa - through v. 12
Xxxholic - through v. 10
Bleach - through v.19
Lone Wolf & Cub - completed series
Neon Genesis Evangelion - completed series
Mouryou Kiden: Legend of the Nymph - completed series
Berserk - through v. 8
Silent Mobius - not sure. need to go back & read it again.
Yuyu Hakusho - through v. 11

<u>Manga I Want To Read</u>

Hana-Kimi - enroute
Tenjho Tenge - enroute
Airgear - enroute
Blame! - enroute
Rig Veda
Legal Drug
Rurouni Kenshin
Rebound!
Inuyasha
Fullmetal Alchemist
Vagabond
Trigun
Cowboy Bebop
Tenchi Muyo
Fruits Basket
Oh My Goddess!
GTO
Initial D
Ghost in the Shell
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Fushigi Yugi
Yu-Gi-Oh!
DNAngel
Naruto

that which did not kill you left you alive

Lj-tags: in today's news, work

Its really odd, it is. Day 4 of this and i'm a bit out of it - not sure if
its a blood sugar thing, seeing as I didn't eat my yogurt/fruit/granola for
breakfast today, or if its just sheer exhaustion after working 12 hour days,
4 days in a row. If it is exhaustion, its a soft sort of exhaustion - not
really fatalistic, just sort of <u>there</u>. Of course after I drink the
breakfast-in-a-can that I have stashed here at work, if my state of mind
clears like the fog on a sunny day, then i'll know it was a food-thing.
Until then i'm just going to enjoy it.

So now the real question is: do I book myself to work 5 hours tomorrow, my
day off, then come in at noon on sunday & monday? It will mean the check I
get in the beginning of November will be rediculously inflated with over 21
hours of overtime, which I can't say I wouldn't be able to use. And the
prospect of it isn't really terrifying at this point - I've begun to coast,
to settle into the rhythm of this, although Freak has begun to notice that I
was serious when I told him that if I was going to hit the OT this hard he
would want to go up to work/stay at the ranch in the meantime. Its a good
question. I may actually do it although I suppose it depends on how i'm
feeling when I leave tonight.

A little Quicheish

Day 2 of the 4-day OT marathon, and i'm seriously considering not only
sacrificing 5 hours on my day off, but signing up to come in early on sunday
and monday.

But! I have to talk about food.

Last nights iron nani assembly: I took bacon, a teeny onion, & some ham and
fried it up in my cast iron until nice & carmelized. Then threw in a small
can of mushrooms, the last of the celery, all chopped up, & stirred it
around until it looked cooked. Then I tossed in 1 box of frozen spinach,
thawed, & stirred it around some more.

In the bottom of a big baking pan I dumped the remains of a bag of hash
browns, then dumped the stuff from the frying pan over the top & fluffed it
together with a fork. Dumped some grated cheese over the top, then about 8
or 9 medium eggs & some milk. Baked it in the oven for about 30 min.

Ended up serving it on a slice of bread - when I cut into it, I realized I
hadn't squeezed the extra liquid out of the spinach & so it kinda bled green
on me. The bread was an attempt to keep the dripping under control, but it
worked out really nice what with the sweetness of it & the complex carb-ness
of it as compared to the shredded potatoes.

Yup, its moving into winter all right

One of the things I really don't like about the onset of cold & wind & rain
is that the air gets really dry. Which always trashes my hands, & the eczema
comes back, & I break out my 18 tubes & bottles of moisturizer to try & keep
the skin on my hands from getting to the dry/cracked/bleeding stage....

Fortunately I have some really awesome stuff from my mom in my lotion stash.
Have to break it out when I get home tonight & put a bottle in my bag to
bring to work.

Padding the Tax Return

Lj-userpic: work Lj-tags: in today's news lj-mood: contemplative

So i'm contemplating it. Actually signing up for some OT. Like, seriously
pulling as much as I can through this final quarter. Kinda insane of me to
do so, considering how tired & brain-mangled it'll leave me, but the money
is a real lure. Besides, its been awhile since I attempted suicide by OT.

The other thing that i've been noticing is that since I started getting off
just after midnight, i'm getting tired earlier, & its easier to get up
earlier as well. My body is adjusting to actually going to sleep while its
still dark. Its odd - my "days" have been opposite from the entire world for
so long that every now & then I have to stop & think, no, such&such is still
open, its not as late as it feels. So the whole coming in 3 hours early to
suck up the OT thing shouldn't hurt quite as badly as it should.

The hard part, of course, is making myself go to bed as soon as I get home.
Sometimes cooking dinner involves a bit of standing around trying to figure
out what i'm making for myself...

Windsday!

This is fantastic. The wind has me in a good mood - its been way WAY too
long since I got to play in a good wind - for all that its making the power
flicker on & off here and a tree has fallen across one of the office park's
driveways. (Sadly, there are backup batteries & generators & voltorbs to
keep the phones & computers running.)

I really want to be outside right now, downwind from a juniper or spruce of
some kind, flying my hoodie in the wind. Or a towel or something. Maybe
borrow a skateboard or some quads & take my towel & go parking lot surfing.

Of course, i'm taking the neverending calls saying, "Oh, everything's out?
And your power just flickered? Well, i'll key it in. Its probably an
outage." Which are admittedly not that bad. Key in ticket, apply credit.
Rinse, repeat. Hopefully my good mood will continue through the day...

mergh

There really is a time & a place for this, and I suppose now is not the
time.

I'm trying to figure out who I need to send money to - paying bills &
whatnot - and i'm having problems remembering who needs to be paid from this
check. Admittedly the $30 gift card I got from the Evil Empire for winning
some competition I didn't realize I was competing in went directly to paying
my Evil Empire bill - that was a no-brainer - but the rest of my paycheck?

I'll have to come back to this when i'm a little less mentally out to lunch.

$8 bras from walmart, part 2

Of which the thing about $8 bras is that they may work just fine... for the
first 3 months. After that its time to get more or throw up your hands in
disgust & hit Lane Bryant.

In other news, I'm on the verge of making a list of manga I have read and
what volume I got up to, to make it easier when I go back later & see if the
library has picked up any more volumes of a particular series... Which, I
have something like 12 copies of assorted stuff enroute right now. It'll all
probably hit tomorrow or the next day, so i'll have to leave home early to
have time to run there before work.

Went up to Aimee's last night after work to give her mailbox keys back & got
to see the stuff she brought back from New Orleans. She disturbs me, she
really does - she brought back a couple of drums & rattler/noismaker things.
She's a mom. Why is she buying noisemakers for her children? Its just wrong.

On a more work-related note, I'm severely annoyed with the vending machine
company. They keep "forgetting" to stock it with dew in cans. Which, I
prefer buying cans at 35-cents each as opposed to 20oz containers for $1.25.
Its cheaper, & it stretches through my day better. I'm miffed to the point
that i'm tempted to write them a letter informing them i'm boycotting their
machines, & will simply keep a 2-liter or a half rack of dew in my drawer to
allow me to avoid them. Or I could go whole hog on my HFCS avoidance & swear
off soda completely.

Hair

I swear I am so everloving <u>DONE</u> with my hair.

As soon as I find someone who can cut curly hair & make it look good I'm
fucking <u>HACKING IT ALL OFF</u>.

'nuff said.

manga

I don't think i'm going to finish reading Berzerk.

Of course I may change my mind when I get home - I am only 3 volumes from
finishing what's in print.

And whoever has those first 2 volumes of <u>Dragon Voice</u> needs to hurry
up & turn them back in.

And another totally unrelated thing

Lj-userpic: angst! Lj-tags: in today's news lj-mood: contemplative

This weather. Isn't it lovely? I really adore crap weather. Its part of
why I chose the Puget Sound when I moved out here.

Of course the thing about weather like this is it makes me want
Fall/Winter food - like turkey, and gravy, and stuffing... broccoli
casserole... although that's a recipe I need to restructure so its less
like broccoli in glue, & more like broccoli in savory custard. Or
something.

Fandom! Fandom! Fandom!

Finally finished CSI:LV season 6. Have one of the special features left
to watch, then I'm returning it. <u>Then</u> I'm to watch all the season
7 episodes on the DVR - which I'm sure Freak will be very happy about -
and the first episodes of season 8, that just started. By which point
Project Runway will be on. (They're starting in November according to
the bump I saw the other day.) Oh, and I'm DVR-ing Tenjo Tenge, which
I'm watching as I go. Its good, although I think Freak keeps deleting
episodes before I watch them. Then there's the R Starblazers <lj
user="captain_slinky"> so kindly supplied on dvd. I'm really debating
what to start watching after that - Aimee does have all of Highlander on
DVD, as well as most of Buffy/Angel, & Stargate SG-1. Decisions
Decisions.

Also finished <u>Blade of Heaven</u>, and have started in on
<u>Berzerk</u>. Which, can I just say that when a guy tells you a
particular manga is "good"? That probably means there's going to be a
lot of gore, viscera, & vaguely ecchi (sp?) stuff mixed in. But I've
got all 8 of the volumes Sno-Isle has in their collection, & I'm going
to read them before moving on to <u>Buso Renkin</u>. Which should be a
bit softer - its by the guy who brought us <u>Rurouni Kenshin</u>.
Then! As soon as the missing volumes arrive: <u>Chobits</u>, <u>Yuyu
Hakusho</u>, & <u>Dragon Voice</u>. I'm actually looking forward to
<u>Dragon Voice</u> the most - I'm really in the mood for some silly
shoujo.

At which point I'll have to go back to the library & look for what's
next. I don't really have anything particular in mind at this point...