laceblade | Entries tagged with food

timorous_scribe - Reuniting a little threesome called the Unholy Trinity for some Toxic performance practice and one last sleepover before they have to return to their big kid lives (and all the issues that go with) at MIT, New York, and Yale.

i just can't shake this feeling (that i'm nothing in your eyes) by

ratherembarrassing - Santana Lopez. When asked whether they each thought the other would end up at this point, both of them answered decisively. “Of course.”
post-Frenemies fic that's everything I wanted & didn't get from the show.

Here Comes Trouble (Or: the One Where Santana Takes Over Glee Club) by

lookninjas The first thing she does is to put the picture of Finn back in the choir room where it belongs.
The second thing she does is to look right in his vacant, grinning face and say very firmly, “Just so we’re clear? I’m not doing this for you.”

The Way We Were by

crossfirehurricane - An au where Lyanna Stark marries Rhaegar Targaryen & they live as king & queen in King's Landing. I like that neither Rhaegar nor Lyanna are saints, but this was more something for me to read while also gaming. I like the premise of the au.

Kingdom by the Sea by

crossfirehurricane - An au where Lyanna Stark marries Robert Baratheon. Same as above - didn't really like the writing, but like the premise. I need Game of Thrones aus, I think. There are so many possibilities!

Buffy Season 10 #1 (New Rules part one) - Nice reminder of where we've been, plus a new mystery to figure out. Really enjoying the return of [spoiler].

Hawkeye - I'm caught up (unless another one came out today?) but don't have anything to say about these. REALLY enjoyed the trippy Christmas cartoon commentary issue.

Ms. Marvel #2, Captain Marvel #1, Lois Lane #1 one-shot - I liked all of these!

Spider-Woman, Agent of SWORD - I borrowed this from someone in comics club. I had no familiarity with Jessica Drew except that she sometimes shows up in Captain Marvel as a friend of Carol. Despite my lack of familiarity, this was fan-fucking-tastic. I really loved it.

Sarah Canary - I got about 120 pages in before going up. I gave zero fucks about the characters it what was going on :/

Boxers and Saints - These were really great, an appreciated as I'd previously had zero familiarity with the Boxer Rebellion.

Princeless: Get Over Yourself - I still like this story, although I don't feel the same glee as I did over the first volume. I'm happy to keep reading the collected volumes from the library, but I won't be adding this to my pull list.

Story of a Girl - I devoured this. I love Zarr's writing, and it's interesting to see how class plays a role in both this story (where the protagonist comes from a working class family) and the other book I've read by her (where the family is filthy rich).

Revival volume 2: Live Like You Mean It - I think I'm not feeling this series. There's a lot of gore, and this volume introduces way more problems while not solving any raised in the first. I think I'm also not into zombies unless it's an au Glee fic ^^;

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking With Economy and Grace - This is the first book about food that I've read in years that didn't make me feel anxious. As someone with a restricted diet, Adler's suggestions (& variations on suggestions) were easy to take as they applied, & ignore when they didn't. I don't know yet if this will change the way I cook or prepare food for myself, but it could, and I'd like to buy it.

ATLA: The Rift, #1 - Start of a new trilogy by GLL. I've liked all of his comics so far, and this one is no different. It's the exact tone of the show. Toph & Aang clash about their conflicting attitudes toward culture, & it's tied to how the world is trying to move forward after the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai.

I spent time sympathizing with Aang who's trying to reestablished Air nomad practices, but Toph has a good point when she notes that not everybody's past is idyllic as his, & some people can only live by pushing the past firmly behind them. Unfortunately for Toph, she won't have a choice.

Ancillary Justice - I liked this, but perhaps not as much as others in my circle. I liked what it did with gender, liked a glimpse at what long-game politics look like, liked how complicated it was. Didn't really care for the writing :/

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/694203.html

So, a while ago I had read online that guava juice can help reflux (I Google these things b/c doctors are less than useless).

I looked at many grocery/health stores for months, and never found any.

But Saturday night, while out to eat in a Thai restaurant, I spotted it on the menu & ordered it. IT TASTED GOOD BUT BEST OF ALL IT DIDN'T BURN AT ALL, NOT EVEN A LITTLE, FOR THE WHOLE GLASS OMG.

So. I am now determined to buy myself some guava juice (I can literally have no other juice besides Naked's Protein Zone, which is hella expensive). And, actual juice: I can't have citric acid, which gets added to most juices -_-

The point of this post is to ask locals: Have you ever seen guava juice for sale ANYWHERE?!
It occurs to me that I haven't checked the Asian groceries for this specific item, but I thought I'd ask.

ETA: After a brief memory-jog, I think that papaya juice is the one I'd actually quested for a year ago, and I know I've seen guava juice. Either way: SUCCESS! *stockpiles*

I finally fucking made it to campus's Studio Ghibli series. Yesterday, they screened Castle in the Sky.

I had only ever seen the English dub, with Mark Hamill & James Van Der Beek & Anna Paquin, and the dub is not great.

IT IS SUCH A BETTER MOVIE SUBBED OMG.

I'm really glad I went, and very much looking forward to next week, when they're showing Only Yesterday, which has never been released in the US and is SO FREAKING GOOD.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/621845.html

wintercreek wrote me a Pezberry fic.
Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends
Pezberry PWP, facilitated by Lauren Zizes's interest in sex tapes. Explicit. 2050 words.
IT IS AWESOME IMO.

staranise is having a spin on usual love memes. It's here, & you're supposed to comment about things that people have made, or done. I started a thread for myself here.

And because I feel really self-conscious about that one (I haven't made or done anythingggggg), I'll link again to the thread I made for myself on

dingsi's traditional love meme.

the_andy posted instructions on how to make onigiri for me ("or whoever") here in this post. I NEED TO MAKE ONIGIRI?! Umeboshi is super expensive, though, & I wish I could try a single umeboshi to see whether it causes reflux!
I have some vegan mayo & tuna to try, but it might be a while before I get the energy to try. I've felt pretty sick today, like currently the pain is AWFUL. lol!bodies

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/619855.html

I AM SO EXCITED to have received a rice cooker for Christmas! I am hopeful that this will help me a lot.

Parameters
1) I'll accept recipes of any skill level, but it might be helpful to know that my cooking skills are pretty rudimentary thus far. This means incredibly basic recipes would be very welcome!

2) I have a 3-cup pot.

3) Please DO keep in my eating restrictions! If you have a recipe that calls for any of the items below, feel free to post it in your journal or a cooking community. It won't be useful to me, though, so please keep it out of the comments.

Things I cannot have:
-Chocolate [carob chocolate is okay as a substitute]
-Mint
-Caffeine of all amounts, this includes decaf coffee
-Carbonated beverages
-Citrus, citric acid, asorbic acid
-Milk, sour cream, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, a few other "real" cheeses (vegan substitutes = fine)
-Fried food, particularly greasy food (lo mein, fried eggs)
-Tomatoes, prepared in any fashion
-Raw onions, garlic, shallots, scallions
-Raw/undercooked meats
-Red meat, even if it's well-done (i.e., hamburgers, steaks, etc.)
-Most raw vegetables, especially broccoli, cauliflower
-Spicy food
-Certain spices, regardless of "spiciness," i.e., lots of pepper, any amount of curry, cardamom/etc. Indian food, for example, is generally a "no."
-Sourdough/fermented breads (still questionable, but for sure "strong" sourdough = no. Probably won't matter for rice cooker recipes!)

4) Yes

jesse_the_k, I did put The Pot and How to Use It by Roger Ebert on hold at the library.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/612489.html

I'm not sure that I'll blog every recipe I try from this book, but I'll do this one.

Recipe as printed in the book, strikethrough indicates, "I didn't use that!"
6 cups baby arugula
2.5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tsp walnut oil
2 tsp sherry wine vinegar
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 oz hearts of palm, sliced
16 cherry tomatoes, halved
~~2 oz feta cheese, crumbled~~
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (did this Monday morning by spreading on a single pan and baking at 325 for 5 minutes)

This was designed for 4 people, so everything that I included, I quartered.

Things I added:
one raw turnip, sliced up
two big button mushrooms, sliced up
a few drops of sesame oil (to add flavor due to omitted things above)

Eating the tomatoes was like OMG because I really can't remember the last time I'd had tomatoes. MMM.
After eating there was some mild chest pain, and after that some acid pain (or what I call "pukey pain"), even after taking my walk.

I'm not sure whether this will continue if I keep trying tomatoes - maybe I'll just get used to them? Or maybe I won't. Experimentation becomes really boring and awful when the result of a failed experiment = pain, fyi.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/603339.html

[Ironic use of icon because drinking from a straw causes me unbearable pain due to inhaling air, & I don't drink milk!]

I have a busy day today, and I expect it won't be until I've actually tried some recipes that I fully form an opinion about the book.

In the meantime, I'll copy/paste the impressions I tweeted this morning.

Verdict on the acid reflux cookbook: My reflux is way worst than the majority of people's. I guess I knew that, though. #lolsurgery

In general, portion control = huge (knew that). Author thinks tomato & etc. are okay in small portions & prepared certain ways. #SKEPTICAL

Author recommends lifestyle changes I've already implemented, some unknowingly - like taking a walk after lunch, making lunch biggest meal.

Author says repeatedly: people become anorexic or develop disordered eating habits due to fear of pain. #hahahasob #wishidreadthisawhileago

IN SUM: Ready to try some recipes in the coming weeks. Glad I have other cookbooks that explain HOW to cook b/c this one really doesn't.

There are a couple of lifestyle changes I hope to implement immediately/this week: We don't have a kitchen table in our apartment, but I'd like to stop eating dinner on the couch. I can either eat on the white chair (very upright) or standing at our breakfast nook counter.

Elaborating on one of the tweets above: I started taking a walk every day at work back in February, when I had returned to work from medical leave. This is in part because after my surgery, my body literally had to learn how to eat again, with a newly twisted stomach. I knew that walking aided in digestion because every time I ate something, I would pace around the rooms of my parents' house, either reading while walking or playing my DS.
I continued this when I returned to work because of extreme pain.

I also continued it in part to encourage some meditative time on my own part during the work-day (meditation has been recommended to me to reduce stress and anxiety - things that both cause and are resulted from chronic physical pain).
Lastly, walking midday is nice because my work environment has no natural light. My cubicle is cozy because I've decorated it with anime pencil boards and various buttons, but there's no beating natural light.

Rather than make me unproductive, I usually return to my desk quite focused after a walk!

ANYWAY. This is all to say that I'd like to try taking a walk in the evenings, too. Maybe not immediately after dinner (on a typical night, I watch 1.5 hours of evening news: CBS then PBS), but after that would be fine.

The book confirms a lot of what I already knew about exercise: Moderate exercise is good. Intense exercise that gets you panting ends up triggering reflux.
I'd still really like to try biking. I joined our city's community bike-share program and then we had a summer of unbearably hot temperatures and going for a bike ride sounded like torture.
I've been busy lately, but I'd like to at least try this before the bikes get taken away for winter.

Recipe-wise, I think I'll be starting with some of the salad recommendations. A lot of things in this book look like they're beyond my current skill level; the author assumes that people know how to cook/have a lot of time to cook.
Rather than make my own ~chicken stock from rotisserie chicken leftovers~, for example, I'll just....buy some already-made organic chicken stock and dilute it with water.

The book does stress organic foods, which is something I've mostly switched to anyway, as I live close to a grocery store that emphasizes the same.
Lately, a lot of things I've read about GERD point to processed and chemical-ized food as a problem.

Obesity is a huge contributing factor - reflux is becoming much more widespread as people become bigger - and in my own case, the switch of my reflux from "minor annoyance" to "unbearable pain" was likely caused by significant weight gain that I had a few years ago.
However, due to the severity of my GERD, we already know that weight loss alone hasn't/didn't fix it.
It sucks that fixing the cause can't be the cure. That would be much more simple.

The author of this book wants people to make lifestyle changes to avoid taking medications like proton-pump inhibitors, and treats surgery as an ultimate last resort.

I've already had the surgery, and I'm not going to spend time wishing I had known about some of these rules before the surgery: I don't think using the recipes in this cookbook would have helped me.
But it helps me in feeling better about having had the surgery because I'm no longer on any medications for reflux, although I probably have more Tums than I should ^^;

The book emphasizes throughout that many people become anorexic or develop disordered eating habits due to fear of pain. Rather than make me feel sad, it just makes me think, "Oh thank God, it's not just me."

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/602955.html

I can tell this going to be a rough read for me; I'm still in the various introductions in which the author is explaining reflux and GERD and etc.

Some of my patients avoid food to such an extent that they lose way too much weight, and I worry about malnutrition and their susceptibility to infections.

Others lie awake at night, losing valuable sleep time, feafully waiting for an attack.

NOT LISTED, BUT STILL OTHERS = ME, SUFFERING FROM BOTH, although to be fair I haven't done the latter in a long time.
My pain has been relatively low lately! But then so has my eating/general nutrition :/ Hoping this book will help in that regard. It's a "cookbook and lifestyle guide for healing heartburn naturally." WE'LL SEE.

Current Music: Sherlock Holmes movie, I kind of hate it?!
Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/602846.html

I don't know about other people, but I spend more time online during the holidays. This makes me turn into a posting machine, unfortunately.
If you're bored, here are things I'm thinking about lately.

--After a day and a half of infrequent use, my Kobo Touch has stopped responding to....touch! I explain my problem in this post over at

ebooks. If you have any advice or commiseration, please offer it there!

--Dreamwidth has had thousands of accounts made in the last few days, mainly due to people moving here from LiveJournal, due to the latest round of heinousness (turning on automatic payments without people's permission - check your settings!; getting rid of subject lines in comments). Whether you're new to Dreamwidth or you've been on the site for a while,

rydra_wong has made a welcome pack post describing where to get info about Dreamwidth, how to connect with people, and how to find communities that relate to your interests.

--

commodorified is starting a blog carnival called "Cooking For People Who Don't." The topic this round is called "Food Security." The post is here.
I'm a person who doesn't cook very well. I've learned how to make some food because I live alone and would like to cook. Usually things don't go great.
As a person with dietary restrictions, I really, really love this advice for the blog posts:
That said, Describe much; Prescribe little. Readers may be complete beginners in the kitchen, food store, or garden patch, but they are, and deserve to be respected as, experts on their own lives, resources, abilities, and circumstances. Avoid the phrases, and the mindset, "anyone can", or "everyone should".
That latter sentence is great general life advice, I think.

--

littlebutfierce made a post titled, "productivity for the low-of-spoons," aka those with low energy levels for whatever reason. The post is here. I know I struggle with this.

bitesizedcleaning is great for housekeeping tasks, but I'm starting to think about "getting things done" in life more generally, outside of work (I don't have an issue there). I'd like to write, like to actively correspond with friends, etc. I just don't, at the moment. Still chewing on some ideas that other people posted there.

--I'm also still cruising around at

eastasianfandomgiftbag, a low-key gift exchange for anime/manga/video game/etc. fandoms. It's great especially for small fandoms! I WILL PRODUCE...SOMETHING?!

Reccing Things

--A recent NPR's Planet Money podcast called "Europe Turns on the Bat Signal" compared the Fed and the European Central Bank to super heroes. The podcast purports that to understand how both entities act now, one needs to know their origin stories and mottos, and then they explain. IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE TO ME NOW! Here's a direct link to the podcast.

--Fruits Basket manga: This is more of a minor note. Usually, manga-ka use the margin space to write notes about things I don't care about: groceries, thanking their assistants, conversations with their editors. Occasionally, they can be hilarious (see: Hiromu Arakawa & Kaoru Mori), but usually not.
I <3 a lot of Natsuki Takaya's notes. She talks about playing video games like FF7 and FF8, but also video games in general. My favorite recently read one was about how instead of watching in horror when a character in your party dies, all she can think is, "I hope I get all the stuff I have equipped on you right now." BWAHAHA.
As for Fruits Basket itself: I've only seen the anime and have never previously read the manga. It's pretty great.

--Yozakura Quartet anime: Humans and demons live side-by-side in a city in Tokyo. Based on the description, I wasn't expecting to like this series as much as I do. It's about kids with special powers. Which sounds awesome, but navigating society with things that make you "special" in ways that are sometimes a curse is pretty difficult. It took me a few episodes to really dig it, but from then on, it was great. As a bonus, I like the character designs a lot, too.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/545026.html

Uhh, so turning to Dreamwidth for life advice about herbal tea helped me a lot!

So now I'm going to turn you again, for discussion about two other topics you might enjoy!

Project 1: Help me find alcohol that I can drink!
SO. I have non-ulcerative dyspepsia that disallows me from consuming certain foods/beverages - generally ones known to aggravate heartburn/GERD.
I have recently discovered that this condition might never go away! Which means that I need to find some damn alcohol that I can consume. I live in Wisconsin, for fuck's sake.

I have carried out a few experiments - wine and beer do not work. Rum on ice does not work (to be fair, maybe that doesn't work for anyone!).
I had shōchū pomegranate at a Japanese restaurant, and that was fine.

Things to know about me-the-alcohol-drinker:
--I am a total lightweight. Prior to illness, my maximum for a normal night at bars was like, 3.
--Favorite drinks were amaretto sweets and peanut butter martinis.

Things I can't have due to medical condition:
--Citrus, citric acid
--Milk
--Carbonation, so beer is probably not an option; this also severely limits my mixer options, i.e., all soda.
--Caffeine
--Technically alcohol is on the list, but whatever.

Maybe rice milk could be used as a mixer?! It won't curdle!
I've also been keen to experiment on letting non-caffeinated soda go flat in the fridge, and seeing if I can drink it post-carbonation. That's about all I've got.

Project 2: Talk to me about good balcony plants for a north-facing apartment balcony in Wisconsin!

That's about all I have for descriptions. I generally SUCK at keeping plants alive.
Growing food would also be okay, but I'd like to stick to things like basil, instead of trying to grow, say, an entire summer's worth of green beans on my porch.
I want some pretty floral shit.

I can't eat tomatoes, so I won't be growing those.

As a follow-up to project 1, maybe there'll be a night out to a bar in the future, where I test drinks to see if I can handle them, and give free drinks to you fine people if/when I can't! Everyone wins!

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/490331.html

OMG CSA BOXES! It's my first one!

Here's what came in the box:
Hamburger
Frozen rhubarb chunks
Nettles
Spinach
Salad greens (WITH FLOWERS, YOU CAN EAT THEM)
Arugula
An oregano plant! I hope I don't kill it, and that it manages to somehow get light from my single window that faces another apartment building!
Mint!
Some spring turnips - Gretchen said I can eat the leaves, too!
Bok choy
Pea shoots
Chive blossoms! They are purple!

What

were_duck and I made, while we watched my first episode evar of Star Trek: The Original Series.

A beverage! It was supposed to be mint lemonade, but here's what happened:
Put a half-gallon of really hot water over a cup of salt and let the salt dissolve. Put in several slices of ginger, mint leaves, and squeeze lemon juice in. We only had half a lemon, so mostly this water tasted very sweet, and like mint with an aftertaste of ginger. I think this would help a sick stomach!

A quiche!

were_duck made the crust because she is bad-ass, but I think I could handle that some time....it was like, flower and salt and water and something else that's probably important. THEN, mix some eggs and milk. THEN, we chopped up some garlic, mushrooms, onion, arugula, nettles, and spinach, and sauteed them in butter and put them in the quiche mix.

were_duck also put in some avocado chunks. AND THEN IT BAKED AND WE ATE IT AND LIFE WAS GOOD.

Here are some blogs I've found with vegetables and suggestions on what to do with them. They both seem to use local produce, one of which uses a Madison-based CSA:
Green Your Plate
A Good Appetite

My Foodie Question of the Night
How do you clean your wooden cutting boards? It seems like mine always smells like pizza, even though I wipe it with a damp rag every time I use it. Should I scrape it with a knife or something? Do you then put oil on it and let it soak so that it stays.....not slivery?

I'm excited to make a salad to go with my lunch tomorrow. I usually hate salads, but I think it's mostly because I can't stand limp, crappy lettuce. But I will have salad greens and spinach and arugula AND I WILL TRIUMPH.
The quiche tasted so good that I don't want to brush my teeth. I'm turning into my boyfriend, :(

Current Mood: cheerful

So, I kind of suck at making food.

BUT I still signed up for a CSA farm share this year, and the first box comes on Wednesday.
I'm splitting my box with another friend, but

were_duck and I get our boxes from the same place, and we are going to cook together!!

Here's what

were_duck thinks will be in this box:
Spinach, salad greens, arugula, pea shoots, chocolate mint, baby bok choy, nettles, chive blossoms, rhubarb, oregano in a pot, red flame head lettuce and hamburger.

OMG STUFF! I want to put mint leaves in my water pitcher! I can handle that! I hope they give two pots of oregano to me, since I'm splitting my box, ;_;

BUT! I'm going through this locally-made CSA-oriented cookbook and flagging all of this week's vegetables and I'm freaking out because this food sounds delicious but I don't know what to do with it! Luckily,

were_duck does!

OMG I WANT FOOD!

Current Mood: excited

So when I was at the grocery store on Sunday, I decided to buy some buttermilk. Buttermilk sounds like a delicious drink - like eggnog! - so I wanted to try it.

But since Sunday, I keep opening up the fridge and looking at it with apprehension, and then closing the fridge. Is buttermilk something one drinks while they are just chilling, sans food, reading a Tamora Pierce novel like I will be? Or is it disgusting and meant only for cooking, like vanilla extract?

ETA: Bleechhhhhh! Good thing the carton comes with a recipe for buttermilk pancakes on the back.

Current Mood: embarrassed

I fucking love eggnog. It's the perfect combination of sweet and creamy and I love the way it coats your throat with goodness.* Whenever I happen to be standing in my kitchen (read: the area between the bar and the wall with fridge/sink/stove that is in my one-room efficiency), I pop the carton open and snag a mouthful. Amazing. Why is this beverage only available during wintertime? I think it would be equally satisfying on a hot summer day.

*First person to make a "That's what she said" joke gets stabbed.

Are the Japanese just like, ridiculous health conscious? Every time someone gets a cold or a fever in manga, it's like they've been diagnosed with about-to-die-liver-cancer. What's with all of the people passing out all the time? How come every time someone falls down in the hallway, they land in the nurse's office with cotton balls and cleaning stuff.

I feel like I should feel guilty about not working on Ghost Hunters in nearly a week. But I was suddenly desperately wanting to devour books, so I'm just going to let it happen. I'm not giving up on the story, though, and would still like to write a bunch more this month. Remind me to kick myhself in the butt and do something.

Lately, I have the strong urge to read Moby Dick. Nevermind that I have detested everything I've read by him thus far....I think Herman Melville is different than Charles Dickens, for me. I think he's redeemable. I'm sure he'll find redemption in my mind through Moby Dick. Now I just need to get me a copy of Moby Dick and hope it doesn't suck.

I had other things to write about, but alas, they are saved on a Notepad document at home. Oh no, I hope LiveJournal is still up!

Rejoice, loyal blog-readers of mine who refuse to go over to LiveJournal! LiveJournal.com is down for the next three hours for some server-transfers, so you get to see this post before any of them! Still, they have more points in my book because they leave way more comments than you guys do, :D

Holy crap, guys, I'm having loose tea for the first time. AMAZING.

Current Mood: pleased

The power must have got turned off in my apartment last night, because when I woke up, my alarm clock was flashing, and had never gone off. :/ Hopefully the rest of today will go better. Most of this entry was written last night.

Update on Domesticity
ME, AT WORK: These carrots are, like, bitter. I wonder if they're bad? I got them at the Farmer's Market.
CO-WORKER: Yeah, it doesn't really look like you peeled them....since you didn't buy them from the grocery store, you should peel them before you eat them. You can eat the outer layer, but it's bitter.
ME: ..... *gets salsa from the fridge to slather over carrots*

I haven't had a lot of time to cook lately. I'm really tired tonight, but I'm boiling some red potatoes, and intend to eat half tonight, and half tomorrow for lunch with a leftover hamburger from The Hammer's barbecue. I will butter them, and put spices on them, like basil and possibly garlic powder! We'll see what's in my cupboard.... Tonight, the rest of my meal will be made up of pizza rolls. But even these are now more gourmet! I'll cook them in the oven instead of the microwave. I actually haven't used my microwave once since moving in. That's pretty awesome.

The Things I Enjoy for Cheap or for Free
I am even more pleased with my St. Vinnie's purchases than I was on Saturday. Yes, I have lost an earring. But! I've decided that this black skirt is now my most favorite skirt (and I own many). And it only cost me $5.34! The shoes hurt my feet a lot, but I'd like to get used to walking in heels anyway, and my old black shoes were literally falling apart. I tell you, Internet, cheap things are amazing.

I'm going to try and do resale shops more often. I already use Bookmooch for books, but I should stalk websites like Freecycle and Craigslist. Hurray for recycling.

Among enjoying things for free, I got some DVDs from the library yesterday. Amelie and Seven Samurai, which I have never seen, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, which I remember seeing in Brit Lit in high school, but remember nothing of. Having now rewatched most of it, I now remember this: Tess of the d'Urbvervilles will make any reader or watcher hate men. WTF.

Hmmm, I feel like I should post, but I don't know what to say. On Friday, Creighton, Carolyn, Antoine, and I hung out and played this neat card game that Antoine has. Kristy, Chad, and Jennifer came to visit on Saturday, so that was really nice because I haven't seen Jennifer in a long time, as she was in Spain all semester. We tooled around Trader Joe's, State Street, and Ella's Deli. I obtained some body wash at Trader Joe's, and feminist sci-fi at Avol's (2 novels by James Tiptree, Jr.!). Ice cream at Ella's was delicious.

People have been mooching my books like crazy for the last week at Bookmooch.com. I have like, 10 points to burn, but nothing on my wishlist is available (the two volumes of FLCL don't count 'cause they'd be from a different country, and would cost double the points. Although, I am proud of my wishlist. 117 titles in there, and almost all of them are manga.
More suggestions for my wishlist are welcome, although I do like to get comics/manga from Bookmooch over regular novels because they're harder to find, and generally more expensive even when used. Still, whatever you've got is good.

Antoine and I went out for dinner tonight, and ate Korean food. It was delicious, and I have enough leftover that I can eat it for lunch tomorrow, too.

Current Music: Winter Sleep - OLIVIA inspi' Reira (most accurate descrip. of depression ever)

I started this post last night, but then left and never came back! Luckily, I'm in a much better mood now.

Earlier (Wednesday night - Friday), I was in a really horrible mood, but not very sure why.

My job is still awesome; everyone who works there assures me that it wears off after a while, but I don't think it will. I could walk around inside the Capitol forever, looking at the paintings and architecture. I love getting there early in the morning, and the marble floor is pristine and waiting.

My car has had a small chip in the windshield for a number of months. Maybe even a year, I don't remember. My parents told me not to worry about it, so I didn't. However, on Thursday night, a crack developed and has spread across nearly the entire span of the windshield, which is sad. Luckily, I found a place in Madison to take it to and get it replaced. Paul's going to go with me so that I can drop the car off and not sit in the shop for 2 hours. So, everyone know that Paul is an awesome housemate/friend!

Antoine and I went out for Lao-Thai at Vientiane Palace last night. Man, I'd forgotten how *delicious* that place was. We both ate until we were stuffed, and holy crap. I still have enough leftovers that was equivalent to what I ate at the restaurant. We think that next time, we'll definitely split an entree, which makes for a pretty cheap, excellent meal! So, people in Madison, you should go eat there! And make sure you get some of their Thai Ice Tea - it's delicious!

I had sort of felt like I was getting sick Thursday and yesterday, but today it seems a little bit better. We'll see. For now I'll just try to cuddle under blankets and drink lots of fluids and hope it (mostly a very sore throat) goes away.

Anyway, today is looking up. The car windshield will get taken care of, my room is slowly becoming clean, I'll do laundry, and I'll read a lot for homework. Also, Netflix came today, so I can finally watch the 4th DVD of Princess Tutu! Wow, waking up early on a Saturday and having time to do things feels wonderful. Tomorrow, my goal is to wake up and actually go to church. So, whatever that bad mood was, it's gone!