Then again...

Maybe my random whim to jog around the lake wasn't such a good idea after all. Now my right glute is hella sore, and I walk all cock-eyed because every time I swing my right leg, my glute feels like it tenses up and then I feel a sharp pinch. I had to ask lil C if one butt cheek was bigger than the other last night. I have this theory: maybe my right leg is less dominant so therefore weaker, and this soreness is a result of exerting it when lefty has otherwise taken the brunt of the work. I figured, if this were true, it'd manifest itself in one cheek being bigger and more muscular than the other right? Unfortunately, he was unable to neither confirm nor deny my theory because he refused to look back there... Not that I can't blame it. I did trick him once by mooning him, so perhaps he still carries that resentment, haha.

Never under-estimate the power of procrastination!

I am so tired of studying for finals and writing papers. Hell, I sooo do not want to do this that I just jogged around Lake Union, ahha!! Yeah, I can't believe it either... but when I hit Jillians, I thought to myself, I could probably go a bit further. And then when I hit China Harbor, I thought again that I could still keep going. And before I knew it, I was jogging past the Fremont Bridge, and then past Gasworks, and I was back at the University Bridge. Unfortunately, I had to stop at this point to take a walk, and from that point on, I was alternating jogging and walking. But still, it felt good being able to push myself to do that! Even at a slow pace, I just kept thinking to myself 1) just set your own pace, and 2) it's this or studying, heh. :P

How liberating!

I've never run naked before. Oh, and by "naked", I really mean without my iPod/music (sorry guys, that's a term I adopted from Runner's World). And not only that, I've never really run outdoors at night. I recently signed up for gym membership at 24 Hour Fitness, so I've been trying to take advantage of their classes. Anywho, I went to Zumba today, which was a lot of fun!! I got so pumped that on a random whim, I decided, hellz, I'mma run home! And run home I did! In fact, I even beat the bus.

And man, running home in the dark without music? It feels pretty damn good! It was so liberating setting my own rhythm, with the cool night air brushing against my skin, and seeing the city when it's dark out. It's an entirely different world. And of course, just as I made this impulsive decision, it starts to rain. But you know what? Bring it on rain 'cuz you's just bout made me feel that more badass! Granted, I wasn't running that fast... actually, it was more of a jog. But still! Running out there just now, I was so tempted to flail my arms out like I was Andy fuckin' Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption.

Halleloo!

Today has been a barrage of good news! Despite being hella busy with upcoming projects and due dates as well as feeling slightly under the weather, P called earlier today to tell me that she & M are applying for an apartment 3 blocks down the road!! It's a nice 2 bedroom with a view of the lake. Oh, and did I mention, it's 3 blocks down the road from me? While I don't want to jinx anything for them, I can't help hiding my excitement.

Oh, and while she was apartment hunting in my hood, she also happened to discover this hidden neighborhood supermarket I had heard of, but never found: Pete's Supermarket. So naturally, I went down there to check it out for myself and this place is awesome! It's cute; it's got a lot of basics, while still having a fair amount of the exotic, unique, fancy, and charm; there's over 175 selections of wine; and better yet, it's 3 blocks down the road! Anyone who knows me will tell you that my one complaint about my place was that there wasn't any nearby supermarkets (oh how naive I was). The reason why I couldn't find it was because it's listed as Pete's Wine Shop, even though the store front clearly says "Pete's Supermarket". Even google maps has it listed as such, so of course I would have never thought to check it out. But anyway, I'm just happy to have a supermarket to add to my list of other neighborhood dives that includes a coffee shop, a pub, a bread shop, restaurants, late-night snacking, video rental, mail office, nail salon, and yoga studio, whee!

The Whole Foods Experiment

Welcome to Carmel's kitchen, where I will shower you with love!

And hopefully good food as well. That is, with the Whole Foods app on the iPhone. Btw, have I mentioned how awesome this app is? Especially when you're someone like me who's still learning how to cook (I really much prefer baking...). Don't get me wrong--I can follow a recipe. As Julie Childs puts it, "anyone who can read can cook". And amen to that sista'!

But I don't possess the skills to peak into my fridge, gather whatever leftovers I have, and magically turn them into an amazing and healthy meal. Thankfully, Big C told me about this function that searches for recipes based on the ingredients you have on hand. So for tonight's dinner, I looked up "beef" and "escarole", and through the powers of the Whole Foods elves, I came up with Rustic Farro Soup with Sausage and Mushrooms. (Oh, and while making it, I was also having a little fun with Instagram, hehe)

I figured, this recipe would be delicious because, like all things delicious, it started with a mirepoix (pictured in Lord Kelvin):


But then half way through, I realized, I didn't have any Italian sausage thawed, so I had to compensate with a 1/2 lb of bacon instead (pictured in 1977):


But another 3/4's of the way through, I realized I also didn't have any mushrooms... or mushroom broth... or farro for that matter :/. So I had to settle with a beef both mixed with water and Calrose rice (plus red wine and diced tomotoes in juice). Once the Calrose was cooked, I added what I had left of my escarole (pictured in Nashville):


3 minutes later, a little sprinkling of thyme, some grated Parmesan cheese, and... voila! It came out a little thicker and more gumbo-like than I was expecting, but that was probably due to the Calrose :p. Still, I thought it tasted pretty good!

It's official...

I can't have children...

psych!

The 2nd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week has been announced! And I never even knew there was a first one. I'm glad I stumbled upon Ravelry because I've been able to get more involved in my hobbies and meet others the world round who share this enthusiasm. And at the same time, groups like The Blog Hub keep me learning and motivated with cute, little fun activities like Blog Week. Despite my best efforts, I've been really bad about blogging. And I can't even use the excuse that school has been keeping me busy because the point of this blog was to document life down the grad school lane in the first place! It'll be nice to have a theme to help keep me blogging, even if just for that week.

Who's got 2 thumbs and is excited to blog about arts&crafts?

this girl!

Oh, the Oscars...

Really Oscars? The King's Speech? Now don't get me wrong, I loved this movie! I mean, how can I not when it's about my field? Well... sorta about my field seeing as we discover a twist in Geoffrey Rush's character. But still, I may love me some Colin Firth and some Geoffrey Rush AND most especially, speech pathology, but I certainly did not think this was the best movie I'd seen in the past year. Even when looking at it from a purely entertainment-value/popularity-contest point of view, I still don't think The King's Speech warranted such a coveted title. Then again, maybe my opinion would change if this were about someone with aphasia or a neurogenic motor-speech disorder rather than stuttering, heh. Damn Oscars and their love of biopics!

Instead of looking to movies exploring the past, why not look to those exploring the future? Ones that take full advantage of what technology has to offer and create greater possibilities of the human mind? Why not look to movies like, oh... I don't know... Inception? Haha, ok, I admit, I'm being bias. But despite my love for Joseph Gordon-Levitt (and Tom Hardy and Ken Watanabe and Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy and Marion Cotillard...), this was a great movie that was sorely overlooked :(

you mustn't be afraid to dream a little bit bigger, darling

Things I miss

I miss having a digital camera. I also miss having photoshop. And not even like a fancy schmancy version of photoshop, just any basic photo editing program. I was never really good at it, but I always had fun making ridic photos. Like when I had my "Winnie the Pooh Party" and photoshopped everyone's heads to the gang of 100 Acre Wood. Or when I photoshopped CJ's face on Han Solo. I don't remember why or how such projects started, but that I was shitting around and having a whole lot of fun doing it!

I also realized I miss having a group of dorky friends who love dressing up. Who'd totally be down to have a "Where's Waldo" pub crawl party and commit to it. I tentatively brought up the idea to a couple of my classmates, and I think some of them would be down. I mean, let's face it, we're in grad school. There are definite dorks among us (I say that with love!). But, I don't feel particularly close to my classmates, so I don't know that I'd have as much fun?

Last one: I miss having a car. There, I said it! But not even to drive around town. More like, I miss exploring far off places at leisure. One of my classmates randomly proposed going to Utah for spring break and asked if anyone wanted to carpool. This is a facebook status, so I don't know how serious it is? But I'm so tempted to raise my hand and yell, "Sign me up!" We don't know each other particularly well, but what I do know of her is that she seems cool. And I've never been to Utah, so the sense of adventure sounds amazing! But... I am still a little tipsy from yesterday, so perhaps it's the French 75's talking, hehe :P

Awkward turtle

Things are feeling a little awkward over here right now... For the past 2-3 hours, I've been attempting to go to sleep/do some reading, but my neighbours upstairs have been making a great deal of noise. Normally, the noise doesn't bother me--in fact, living by myself, it's almost somewhat of a comfort because it humanizes the place. Plus, I've been the upstairs person before and I get that just walking across a room can come off like a stampede to the people downstairs. But this wasn't just any kind of normal apartment noise. No, this was like something was out of the ordinary type of noise. I'd here a few bumps and bangs here and there, and I noticed it'd get louder. I was like, "seriously? It's 200a in the morning and you're moving shit?!" It got so bad that I was about ready to go upstairs and knock on their door. Hell, I near busted out the old lady broom to whack on my ceiling!

But then, as the noise got louder and I started listening harder, I began to realize they're having one huge massive bitch-fest of a fight right now, yikes! I just keep hearing a woman's voice yelling fuck this! or fuck that!, and I think I even heard a couple of I can't believe's... Oh, shit, I just heard a DO IT! It's getting pretty damn explosive, and there's no way I can go up there now and ask them to be quiet... With how passionate and for how long this fight has been going, my guess is that cheating was involved. Is it my place to say something or call the cops? I don't know. I just know that this is kinda awkward!

Can't... focus...

I think I may just have to write a new resolution that prevents me from partaking in social activities during the school week :/

Coincidence?

I find it kinda ironic that I'm studying to be a speech pathologist and one of my favorite breed of dogs happens to be the French Bulldog, who commonly are born with cleft palate. I did not know that til now.

Oh Tennenbaum

I just had my first final for the quarter (1 down, 2 to go), so needless to say, I was exhausted. But, I came home today in utter surprise to find a Christmas tree in the middle of my living room!

And all thanks to baby C. He's a tricky one, that one. I knew that he picked me up a tree and we were trying to coordinate a time for him to drop it off. But I was on the phone with him no more than 20 minutes ago trying to figure that out, and the punk plays along and is like, "Yeah, ok, I'll bring it by later". I get home and I find that he's already dropped it off 2 hours ago! ^_^ Not only did he set it up with water and everything for me, but he and his friend also vaccuumed the area for me as well. What a great bro. Now my apartment smells like Christmas, and it's soon to look and feel like it too, hehe!

post-edit: here's the after, with decorations! I think I'm gonna either finish that chain or make a popcorn garland though.

When are we ready to move on?

Despite what I said earlier, I went to Jak's Grill for my birthday after all. And as always, it was delicious as ever. The bread came out soft and warm, the calamari were the size of delicate french fries, and the merlot kept on pouring. Jak's never fails to satisfy my meatiest of urges. Hell, I have to prepare for a meal at Jak's, and by "prepare", I mean I willingly starve myself all day just to make sure I can engorge, yummm!

My family has been going there for damn near 8 years now. We're very loyal customers, since we have a big family we definitely bring in a good deal of business, and we've treated others there bringing in some new business. Admittedly, their portions have gotten smaller (last night's briquettes certainly weren't as big as days of yore), but it's a recession so it's pretty expected. This by no means has stopped me from dining here.

However, something occurred last night that's beginning to shake my faith in this otherwise fine establishment. I always order the briquettes with the Moroccan spices because not only is it tender and delicious, but it comes with 2 skewers, so it's really easy to eat half of it and doggy bag the other half for the next day (they box your food for you). This morning, I went to prepare my leftovers for lunch and saw that my second skewer was packed, but none of the potatoes with it. And because I was expecting my sides, I didn't bother to cook rice or some other starch to go with my meal. This may sound like a petty complaint or that I'm spoiled, but hear me out.

This was my birthday dinner in which I spent over $100, and in the spirit of "it's my party, I can cry if I want to," if I only ate half of my meal with the full intention of saving the second half, I damn well want it! Plus, I'm a broke ass graduate student--I do what I gotta do to save food whenever and wherever necessary. Secondly, this is not the first time this has happened. I took CL there for his birthday back in May, again ordering the briquettes. That time, however, I didn't even finish as much as half of it because I had eaten a little bit beforehand so I wasn't as hungry. When the server cleared our table, she asked if I wanted a box, I told her yes, she said she'd be back with my leftovers, but they never came... That time was even more annoying because I basically paid $30 for 2 bites, which I could've gotten at Dick's for a mere $2.

I didn't want to think too much of it then because I've always otherwise been highly satisfied by this place, so I thought, maybe it was just a bad night. But this has happened twice to me already: fool me once, shame on me, but fool me twice?! Shame on YOU! And for what I'm paying to eat at this place, I have to say this is simply unacceptable. I can't say that I've completely written off Jak's, but I'm certainly a lot less inclined to come back. And I know my family and friends will most likely come back here, so if it's the case that I happen to tag-along, I'm definitely packing my own food!

Christmas is coming to town!

What's cookin' good lookin'?

I came home from the dinner party today to be greeted by a mysterious Amazon box at my door step. Upon opening it, I saw a card reading:

"Happy Birthday! Here's to many recipes to be cooked in your new pot (do you notice how it also matches the color??)"
"Happy Birthday! Recipes for your farm share. =)"

It was an early birthday gift compliments of my absolutely amazing big sis!! Now with my new dutch oven, I'm super excited to get some (hopefully) tasty stuff cookin' in my kitchen. I see a lot of eating in 2011, hehe!

Looks like snowman approves

ANTM cycle 15 *spoiler alert*

I just watched the season finale to America's Next Top Model (guilty pleasure, I know), and for once, I was happy with the results of the season winner Ann Ward! Yes, she's tall and awkward and skinny as all fuck, but she fits the bill for high fashion, she makes clothes look amazing, and she's humble. Regardless if the person is "beautiful" (it's all in the eye of the beholder anyway), she seemed to have good intentions and be a generally good person, so I was definitely team Ann all the way.

Plus, after it was confirmed that Chelsea and Ann were in the top 2, I secretly suspected that Ann won because, though it hasn't been confirmed, I could've sworn I saw Chelsea less than a month ago here in Seattle. Bellevue, to be specific! This was well before the final 2 were even announced, so I originally thought she didn't even make it that far because why would the winner of a modeling contract, a spread in Italian Vogue, and a $100,000 contract with Cover Girl Cosmetics just be chillin in Seattle like it ain't no thang?

hats off to you Miss Ward. Simply stunning!

Breaking bread

Last night, I used the bread machine for the first time. I just made a basic white bread, and voila!

The REAL Mario Brothers

*via

A week early...

I am now the proud owner of a dutch oven. Happy early birthday to me! I opted out of the usual birthday dinner at Jak's Grill. I figured since mom & dad will be on a cruise for the next 2 weeks, birthday dinner wouldn't be the same without them anyway. So instead, I bused down to Sur la Table to pick up a Le Creuset oval oven, 3.5 qt for 50% off. Even better, my name was still on their register for working at Market Spice, so the lady gave me an additional market discount, even after telling her that I don't really work there anymore. I'd have to say, this was one of my rare moments that I didn't even feel a tinge of buyer's remorse. Throughout the whole bus ride home, I just kept telling myself I'm a grown ass woman. 'Bout time I own some grown ass things!, haha.

Now I feel obligated to have the girls over for a special meal and wine... perhaps if I find time in my schedule and a recipe that's both tasty and amateur-cook friendly, I will. Maybe something in the realm of Julia Childs?

e-Waste

Early this morning, baby C and dad actually went to Wal-mart and Frye's to dare the Black Friday crowds in hopes of picking up a laptop for something around $150. To no surprise, they were all gone and no one was available to help them out. Secretly, I had hoped they would come home with a story involving fistacuffs and hair pulling, but in reality, this Black Friday seemed rather low-key. In fact, every Black Friday since the dawn of internet has been low-key. Whatever happened to soccer mom's getting ugly or strangers holding each other at gunpoint for a Furby? It doesn't really feel like a Black Friday without a story. I think I was trying to live vicariously through them--you know, like experience the long lines without actually experiencing the long lines.

But anyway, since dad didn't get the laptop he wanted, baby C and I were thinking that maybe the four of us kids would combine our funds to buy him a Macbook! I mean, mom and dad are terrible when it comes to virus protection and compressing their computer, so at least by switching over to Apple, they'd never have to worry about that. Plus, there's the built-in webcam so they can Skype the Philippines, and I let dad borrow my laptop for a week and he seemed fine with the Mac interface. I haven't run this idea by N yet, but big C is definitely down. Hell, she was so down she went out to buy a MacBook Pro herself, hah! I'm glad she's converting to the likes of Apple, meh heh heh!

And speaking of electronics, since I was sick & bed-ridden all day, I was left to do some Black Friday shopping on Amazon, which btw, has awesome deals! I ended up getting a new printer. I consider it a school investment. I couldn't pass it up--it was 74% off and laser! I currently have big C's old printer, and when I say old, I mean like more than 8 years old. The trade off to getting a free printer was getting a printer that eats paper and is completely unpredictable when and how it'll print. It got to a point to where I had to print each page individually and for each one, I had to turn off and on the printer, insert a "sacrificial" page, and keep my fingers crossed that the printer wouldn't totally fuck up. At that rate, I could no longer consider it "free" when I was losing out on wasted paper, time, energy, and hair being pulled out as a result of frustration. I would end up having to get up early to print at school anyway and invest a good $40/mo just to print at the clinic.

But now, I have a new printer coming on Tuesday, yay! I also just learned that Washington and Oregon's Department of Ecology provide a free, environmentally responsible e-Cycling program for old printers and other electronics, including computers, monitors, and televisions. I may try to convince my parents to take advantage of this program for their old TVs, especially since they've been in talks of getting a new one for their room anyway. Hell, some of the TVs they have at home date back from our Houston days. I think one of them is so old, it isn't even compatible to the new digital format that took over the state, yikes!

post-edit: oops, I just learned that the e-Cycling program does not include printers, but Staples has a recycling program where you can take old electronics in and they send it out to recycling plants. You have to pay a $10 handling fee for bigger items like printers, but I figure that's not so bad considering I'd be getting rid of clutter and it's environmentally sound!