the last few days

we went to santa fe today. like a silly girl, i forgot my camera. the drive was amazing. through desert and mountains and things that looked like sand dunes. you could have imagined the sea was just over the dune. but it wasn't. there was just more desert. santa fe is at 7,000ft. we drove up 2,000 feet in under an hour. we were at twice the elevation of the highest mountain in ireland. mad.

once we got there, we went to an outlet centre. not very exciting, or touristy, but lordkilljoy wanted to look around at the sales. i got a big towel too, so i was happy. ooh, and a new wallet. it's smaller than my old one and i can sit on it without it poking into me.

yesterday was quiet. i made dinner. the stuffing was amazing. the turkey was nice too. the potatoes messed everything up though. i roasted them and after an hour they weren't ready. so everything else was done and we had to wait for the potatoes. so everything else was a bit cold by the time we got to eating.
i watched discovery channel for about 5 hours yesterday. mythbusters was on. and then i watched this crazy thing called punkin chinkin. there's this championship that happens every year to see who can chuck a pumpkin the farthest. but teams are allowed to make machines (catapults, trebuchets, air cannons, etc) to throw the pumpkin. it was kind of cool seeing the machines people had come up with.

ooh, we went out for a walk in Rio Grande Valley State Park, along the Paseo del Bosque trail yesterday. we saw a squashed snake (or possibly a very intact snake skin). that was cool. the walk was nice too. it was cold, though. but it seems like a good place for a cycle.

dry air is painful

i decided to test the altitude this evening by running across the car park. it wasn't that bad, really. what was awful was the dry air. my lungs and throat were burning from cold and dry. i was coughing for about 20 minutes afterwards.

i'm going to have to be really careful when my bike arrives and i go out for a cycle.

familiarity

today, i forgot where i was. it's cloudy, i'm doing stuff i used do at home, while reading about places in Germany, and going: that would be a cool place to visit (there's this converted coal mine somewhere near essen). then from outside i hear an american accent, and i remember that Germany is a lot more than a three hour flight away.

right so. i'm off to get dinner (salmon,yummy)

quiet day today

We found a park today. We are lunch there, I had sushi and lordkilljoy had doughnuts. it was lovely, but windy. it reminded me of being at the beach in june or something. the sun was warm, but the wind was kinda cold. the park has a grass field (with mostly green grass), a pool (closed), playgrounds, tennis courts and a bowls area. the field looked kinda cool for kite flying. it's on top of a hill and on a windy day, there's loads of wind.

We did a food shop today as well. Got the basics mostly, meat and staples. We have three spices in our press - cajun, 21 spice and salt. they will probably be the spices we use for everything. we did chicken and rice for dinner. the chicken breast was big, i only ate a little over half of mine. our rice cooker is amazing. it has a chip in it that monitors the heat in the pot and regulates the temperature accordingly. the rice came out amazing. there were no burndy bits at the bottom of the pot.

i'm kinda tired now. ten past eight and i have to stay up until 11 tonight. i only got about 7 hours sleep last night, though, so i'll be uber tired going to bed.

yea, we didn't really do much today. we checked out our local organic grocery shop (sunflower). it's really cool. they have a huge fruit and veg section, and have some nice natural / heathfood products. and it's not expensive at all.

when we came home, i watched a few random nature documentaries. i found out that our cable-box has this cool thing were you can browse what's on by theme (or channel or something else). so i was just looking at all the documentary / interesting stuff.

my brain is quickly shutting down, so i'll go now.

i'm getting used to the place

I was just looking up a shop in streetview and it's really funny that everything looks familiar now.

we went out for dinner last night and it was lovely. i'd forgotten that lordkilljoy had changed his mind about where we were going and we ended up in a new mexican restaurant. it was lovely. lordkilljoy got fajitas and i got a chicken chilli bowl. it was like a big bowl of soup with a kind of barley type thing and chicken and little nacho strip type things. it was quite spicy, but in a good way. the building itself was all decorated with old-timey stuff, all wood and bronze. and it was done up with lights for christmas.

i just had a wonderful idea for the kitchen. i should put fairy lights around it. they will give it a wonderful light ambiance.

not really sure what we'll do today. i was thinking of getting a string top. i didn't bring any with me and i think a string top and cardigan would solve my 'not used to the warm weather / need something for the cool evenings' problem.

as we were driving around yesterday, we came across some of the other places we could have been living in. we definitely picked the best place. the other areas were kind of old looking, or not quite the most desirable place to live. where we are actually seems rather upmarket. it's actually funny, because it makes you realise how high the quality of buildings / roads / neighbourhoods in ireland are.

right so, i'll go now. lordkilljoy wants to get breakfast. i already ate (i had granola).

today we went exploring north abq

it was 18 degrees today. i was out in a t-shirt all day and i was warm. the car was boiling. we bought a sat nav and went on a trip across town. we went to rei and i got a camel back hydration thingy. it's 1.5l, and is a nice little bag at the same time. penelope_stone will be happy to know that we signed up for rei membership so she can buy as much as she wants when she comes over. members get discounts on bike services and stuff, so it seemed like a good idea.
we also went to tj (tk) maxx and got a bedside radio / ipod charging / dock thing and some nice foaming hand soap (tk maxx is the only place you can get random things like that). we also stopped in a 7 eleven for water. lordkilljoy's comment was, smells like 7 11. he worked in one for a few months ages ago.

the mountains around here are amazing. they look so rugged. there's kinda rock bits sticking out of the edges. i wonder how anyone goes hiking around them, they look really steep. maybe the trails are somewhere else.

did i mention dinner last night? it was lovely. the potatoes wen't done well enough though, so today i fried them for 20 minutes and they were so yummy. i fried them in the oil i'd used to brown the meat last night and it was delicious. it's so weird the way left overs are better than the real thing.

anyway, this was just a quick update. we're heading out for dinner now. i'm all for making something here, but lordkilljoy wants to try a steak place. oh well. i'm sure it will be nice anyway.

Living Conditions

Our apartment is nice, but quite dark. There's one massive window in the back wall, which is supposed to light an 8 meter long room. Now, that might not be a problem for the sun, but we are north facing, and the sun doesn't shine in. So it's dark. And the lights are not cosy. The kitchen has a fluorescent strip and it is cold light. Compounding this problem is the dark wood stain on the presses (of which there are loads - that is good). Even the two lamps don't really do much to make the place nice at night. I may have to invest in lamps (lots of them).

Today is the first day with clouds since we arrived. Actually, I just looked out the window. The clouds are mostly gone. It's funny going out first thing in the morning here. It's absolutely freezing and I bring my coat, but by an hour later, I'm wondering why I brought my coat at all. I also need to get my layering right. I've been too hot most days. I think i have to just wear a t-shirt and a vest or something. but then i'll be cold in the morning and evening. i guess i should just wash my jumper. i packed it dirty, like a silly person.

I think I'll just go check out the hobby shop down the road, see if they have any things that will make our apartment brighter.

Right so, bye.

moving in continues

Loads happened today as well (as yesterday). We opened a bank account, got a tour of the area, looked at sat navs so that we could drive into town, but then just worked off a map.

we went to trader joe's and got dinner. we went to the apple store and i got an ipod nano. it's red, and small, and insanely cute. it plays the radio. i love it. i don't have a computer yet to sync it with, so at the moment radio is all i have. but it's cool, you can do live pause of the radio. lordkilljoy got a macbook air, but that's not nearly as exciting.

smackdown is on right now, it's a little distracting. lordkilljoy just turned on the tv to watch it (figuring it would be on at 8) to find out that it is just ending. it started at 6. that seems very early to me.
anyway.

we cooked dinner at home today. we had stuffed chops from trader joe's with sweet potatoes roasted with oil and spices. we bought canola oil in trader joe's too. and lemonade and chocolate and crisps and salsa. yummy.

we're trying to get our tivo working. after 2 calls to comcast and a trip to their shop about 15 minutes away, we still don't have it sorted. lordkilljoy might have to do it from work. we missed burn notice last night. we remembered it was on too late, so we really need to get our tivo working.

right so. i don't really know what else to say. i'm kind of tired. 8 o clock is sort of fading time. i managed to stay up until 9:30 last night. i'm going to force myself to stay up until 10 tonight. 10 is okay. 11 would be better, but i'll never stay up that late.

american ads are funny. i watch them and laugh.

right - i really have to go now.

I don't think I've done so much shopping as I did yesterday. We went to the mall first, had a look around and bought a bed set. They don't have duvets here, just comforters. I was expecting to be cold, but I actually work up hot during the night (it doesn't help that we forgot to turn off the heating). Then we joined costco and bought a bunch of appliances. We still needed bits and pieces, which we got in walmart (towels, knives, forks, dishes, etc). Then back to costco for other random things. After that if was off to best buy for a wifi router (it is an essential that needs to be bought day one). Then back to costco for some food bits (bread and cereal mostly). Then back to walmart for shower curtain rail hooks and breakfast things (i got the biggest carton of rice milk ever). Our final purchase of the day was a tivo. Yea. Lots of buying.

Our kitchen is a mess now - full of boxes and packaging. We still have more to buy. Little towels for the bathroom, we have to do a proper food shop.

We also need to get a sat nav. We tried very hard to get lost yesterday, and even though it's kind of hard to get lost around here, in the city centre, I imagine it's a lost easier. And since we want to go to the city centre today, we need something to help us not get lost.

Right, I'm kind of hungry now, I'm going to get breakfast (granola), and have difficulty pouring rice milk from the super-massive carton.

thigs i'm curious about

so, the things that keep me awake at night these days arn't worries about moving or getting through the airport or stuff. no, the things i worry about are: what will supermarkets be like? will food shopping be weird? is costco as enormous as everyone says? will i like the clothes out there? will i actually have the confidence to walk to the shop? will the central heating in our apartment we warm? will i find feminine products i like (this is kind of a big worry, because i'm very particular)? will my lungs freeze if i go cycling at minus temperatures while it is sunny? will i get dehydrated quickly in the dry weather? just what does 20% humidity feel like?
lesser worries are: what if i get bitten by something poisonous? what if i don't meet any nice people? will paying for things be difficult? what if i get fat because there is so much sugar in everything? what if i develop a sugar addiction? what if lordkilljoy has to work all the time and i never get to see him?

the one thing i'm counting on is the sunshine. sunshine will make everything good (as only it can). it's the easiest thing to worry about these things when you've seen one day of sunshine in the last three weeks or something, and when there's a gale blowing outside and it's wet and miserable.

so here's the things that keep me awake at night from excitement: sunshine, every day. blue sky. patchy clouds. daylight for 10 hours (that's 2 hours more than i get now). new things. having time to write (i kinda miss zachery). exploring. cycling around. shopping in places like trader joe's and whole foods. getting a laptop that will play modern games. playing d+d in the local games shop. snowboarding (this is kind of mixed excitement and worry. snowboarding is kinda scary).

so yea. the waiting is the worst part. at least if i was there all my questions would be answered. ah well. only 6 days to go.

edit to add - it's actually hurricane force winds outside (120kph).

moving

Hats are amazing. I should remember to wear my hat more often. The french doors are all open, letting in the bitter November air and letting out the smell / fumes of carpet cleaning chemicals. My hands are freezing, but the rest of me is actually warm, thanks to my hat.

As well as the apartment smelling of carpet cleaning, the bathroom smells of silicone sealant. I have it all over my hands, too. It's really annoying because it doesn't actually rub off a surface, it just rubs around and makes little plastic balls of stickiness.

Only a week left in Ireland. The place is coming together nicely, though. (I'm getting sealant plastic bally bits all over this keyboard.) Most of it is clean. The kitchen presses are the main thing left now. And the tv stand / cabinet thing. The press in the bathroom needs to be emptied too. Friday will be devoted to taking apart the consoles and sound system and packing them in the car (along with everything else that will be packed into the car to go to cork.)

Wow, I love auto save. I just hit some random combination of keys that closed firefox. Thankfully, I didn't loose my post. Okay, I'm beginning to lose feeling in my fingers, so I'm going to go now.

Right. Bye.

Dinner with Denise and Eamon

We went over to Denise and Eamon for dinner last night. I made a slightly melty chocolate cake. Aoife made dinner, which was yummy. It was so good to just hang out and chat. We got to see skittles (the hamster) too. I totally want to have a hamster now.

Today, I wrote a story for Louise. I've never written a story for a 7 year old before. I don't think it was exciting enough, but I have no idea how much tension a 7 year old can handle.

I don't have much news. The apartment is mostly empty. All our stuff is gone. The tv and consoles are still here, but most of the games are gone. The shelves are empty. The walls were bare until today, when we went to ikea and got some paintings (or printed canvases, really) to replace the art prints we had put into storage. We also got a stripy rug, so the place doesn't look quite so bad any more.

I did some mad cleaning today, too. I went all around the skirting boards, hoovered under furniture, pollyfilled holes in the ceiling. So I got a bit done. Still need to clean under the appliances in the kitchen, and clean the presses, and wardrobes. God, it makes me tired just thinking about it.

Anyway. It's the weekend now. I might go to the cinema tomorrow and we are off to galway on sunday.

Moving Day

The shipping people are here at the moment. I think they weren't expecting the amount of stuff we have. Not our problem, because we showed everything to the surveyor. There is a slight worry that we won't have enough room to ship everything. Ah well.
After the mad rush of getting everything sorted over the last few days, today seems dull. We are just sitting around letting the guys work.

I don't know what else I have to say. Only 2 weeks left in Ireland. Actually, this time in 2 weeks, we'll be in the air. Mad.

Winter

I declare it officially winter. The first frost appeared this morning. The house was at 12C (even after the heating had been on for 40 minutes) so I put the heating on for another 2 hours. It's 19.5 in here now and the sun is doing an excellent job of warming this room. It's such a pity this is the only room with a south-facing window. But at least we have that much. We could have no south-facing windows.
I brought a hot-water bottle to bed last night and had it at my feet the whole night. It was lovely.

We went over to Sheila's for dinner last night. It was good to see them all. Dinner was good, desert was good. They are all well. Laura is a mad little thing.

I can't think of anything else to say. I think I said everything yesterday (or whenever).

I replaced the ram battery in my PC. It wouldn't boot properly yesterday, so I didn't have a choice. that was ok.

right, bye.

Loads of news

I need a new CMOS RAM battery for my computer. I knew this day would come, I expected it to come years ago. Problem is, I'm leaving in a month (not bringing my PC with me) and I won't be using my computer for 2+ years. I'm not really sure if it's worth getting a new battery.

mulkabu was up for the weekend. We had fun, went to see Fozzy (wrestler, Chris Jerico's band) on friday night. I haven't had as much fun in a long time. Chris Jerico really knows how to get a crowd going. Everyone loved him. Our group even managed to get a shoutout from him. :)

I'm tired now, though. It doesn't seem to matter what time I go to bed, my body wants to be up and about at 9am. So I've been getting about 6 hours sleep for the last few days. The kitchen was a bit of a mess too, and I managed to tidy it, but I only got half the dishes washed. This seems to be a new strategy for me. Washing half the dishes isn't nearly as daunting as washing all of them. So I washed the plates and knives and forks and left the pots, pans and bowls for later. Or tomorrow.

The building energy rating guy comes tomorrow. I wonder should I turn on the heating for him? Would it make the place seem better insulated if it was warm? I don't bother with the heating when I'm here on my own, because my little room gets nice and warm anyway.

I ate one of our peppers today. It was nice, as peppers go. They are not my favourite ever fruit. I have four cherry tomatoes beside me, which I just picked. I want to eat them right now, but I don't feel like them. (Yes, it is an odd sort of way to be.) I made hummus on friday. There was too much lemon juice in it. I've eaten about a third, but I'm not sure if I'll eat any more; it's really sour.
Wow, I just looked up what the difference between sour and bitter was (because I wasn't sure which my hummus was) and sour is acid while bitter is base. Isn't that interesting?
I also made chocolate cake again. It is totally yummy.

I'm addicted to a new (old) RPG. It's old, but I've never played it before, so it's new to me. Arcanum (of Steamworks and Magick Obscura). I'm enjoying it. I like the setting and the character system. The main plot is a little slow and there aren't enough side quests (or they are really hard to find), but apart from that, it's fun. I'm playing just to level and make my character better. I want to be master of firearms, lockpick and prowling. I also want to have a bit of magic and be able to make some stuff. I also want a new gun, but they are expensive. So, maybe by the time I get to 40th level, I will have all these things. I'm at 13th now. And my team and I managed to take down a 30th level jellyfish looking thing. We lured it away from its friends and ambushed it in the forest. It was expertly executed (the plan, not the jelly. I think it (the jelly) died from lead poisoning after I shot it with about 20 bullets).

Right. I'm going to go now.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake (makes loads, I half all ingredients)

Ingredients for the base

200g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
40g best quality cocoa
175g soft unsalted butter (I used dairygold, it made no difference)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
150ml sour cream

Ingredients for the frosting

75g unsalted butter
175g best dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
300g icing sugar
1 teaspoon golden syrup
125ml sour cream
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
(optional: sugar flowers, for decoration)

Method to make the base

1. Take everything out of the fridge so they can come to room temperature
2. Preheat oven to 180C and line and butter two 20cm sandwich tins with removable bases
(This wouldn’t be a ria-special recipe if I didn’t write my own comments all over it. Anyway.
I used half the ingredients and it fit nicely into one 14cm diameter by 7cm high round casserole dish.
Also, I didn’t preheat the oven. I baked it in the slow cooker. More on that later.)
3a. The rushed- or lazy-man’s way.
Put all the base ingredients (flour, sugar, baking power, bicarb of soda, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream) in a food-processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter.
3b. The person who enjoys the experience’s way.
Mix flour, sugar and leavening agents in a large bowl and beat in the soft butter (I have no idea what ‘beat’ means. I mashed it with the back of a spoon) until you have a combined and creamy mixture.
Whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla and eggs and beat this into your bowl of mixture.
4a. Oven method.
Divide this batter, using a rubber spatula to help you scrape and spread, into the prepared tin(s) and bake until a cake tester or thin skewer comes out clean. This should be about 35 minutes, but it is wise to start checking after 25 minutes. Also, (if using two tins) it might be wise to switch the two tins around in the oven halfway through cooking.
4b. Slowcooker method. (You cannot use this method if you used the full amount of the ingredients. It won’t fit into your dish.)
Pour all the batter (if you used half the ingredients) into the dish. Put it in the slowcooker and cover the dish with a lid. Put the lid on the slowcooker and cook on high for about 3 hours. Check with a skewer. Each time you lift the lid, add 20 minutes to the cooking time.
5. Once cooked, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the base from the tin onto a wire rack. Don’t worry about cracks. They will be covered with icing.

Method to make the frosting

1. Melt the butter and the chocolate together in a good sized bowl, either in the microwave or suspended over a pan of simmering water. (If using the microwave, check the melting progress every 10 seconds.) Go slowly, either way, you don’t want any burning.
2a. While the chocolate butter is cooling a little, sieve the icing sugar into another bowl.
2b. Put the icing sugar into a food processor and blitz.
3a. Add golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla. When combined, whisk in the icing sugar.
3b. While the food processor is running, pour the mixture down the funnel onto the icing sugar.
4. When all is mixed you may need to add in a teaspoon or so of boiling water, or more icing sugar to get the right consistency. It should be liquid enough to coat easily and thick enough not to drop off.
5. (Skip this step if presentation doesn’t matter too much.) Choose your cake stand or plate and cut out four strips of baking parchment to form a square outline. Place the base on the parchment.
5.5a. If you made two bases, spoon about a third of the icing onto the centre of the first base and spread until it is covered evenly. Sit the other base on top and press gently to sandwich them together.
6. Spoon the icing all over the cake.
6.5a. Spoon another third of the icing on top of the cake and spread it in a swirl. Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining icing, then carefully pull away the strips of baking parchment.
8. (Optional) Top with sugar flowers, or other decoration.

random thoughts and photos

I was washing the dishes today and as i washed the inside of a pot, going around the rim in a very ordered way, i began to think about the "arrow never gets there" concept. for those of you unaware, it's this thoery, i have no idea what it's point is, but it goes something like: an arrow is shot towards a target. it gets half way there and it still has half way to go. then it gets half of the distance between the half way point and the target. it still has half that distance to go. the arrow always has half of some distance to go so how does it ever reach the target?

i was thinking about this, and a new thought came to me. it's because of the fourth dimension. the target and the arrow are both moving in time. the arrow never even gets half way to the target, because by the time it's flown the smallest fraction of a particle, everything has changed. time has moved forward. the target has changed. the arrow has changed.

and that's how i could get my pot washed and not worry about being stuck on smaller increments forever.

yeay.

anyway. does anyone remember when i mentioned my chocolate cake? well, i finally got around to putting up the photo of it. and while i'm at it, i decided to put up a few others too.



yummy!


this is a small representation of my perfectionism. yes - i did sort and chop all that dried fruit and line it up like that before i added it to my granola.



i found a microscope and took a pic of some dust on a bit of fabric.
no i didn't. i wish i did.
this is mould growing on some sour cream.

I ate a home grown tomato

I really wanted to post about something this morning, and now I don't remember what it was. Anyway, some cool stuff happened over the weekend.

My cherry tomatoes are getting properly ripe. I put the heater on in here (so it gets warm when the heating is on in the morning) and closed the door to keep the heat in (the temp was averaging about 21C, it was 24 all Saturday afternoon). I ate the first tomato that ripened. It was good, but the skin was really tough. I don't like tomato skin at the best of times, so I had to spit it out. I might try peeling the next one I eat. There are three red tomatoes and four orange ones, the rest are green.
The peppers are also almost ripe. They are a deep shade of red, which I assume will get brighter over the next few days. They are small when compared to shop-bought peppers, but that's okay. Only two peppers grew. I had a bunch of flowers, but none of them turned to fruit. Maybe my pepper knew that I'm not the biggest pepper fan and only made two small ones so I wouldn't have to eat loads of pepper.
The goji is still growing like a maniac. I have no idea how I will transport it down to cork.

We went to see Back to the Future in the cinema last night. It was brilliant. I think I've only seen it once or twice before, so I enjoyed it even more because I didn't know what was going to happen.
The mingle market was on in town yesterday too. It's a vintage, art, clothes, costume fair. It reminded me of some of the fairs that happen in the humanitarian church. We didn't get anything; all the clothes were large sizes. But it was fun to look around.

I read 250 pages yesterday. I finished Mistborn and started The Well of Ascension. I'm really liking Brandon Sanderson's writing. His magic systems are amazing. They are so different and imaginative.

Right, so. I think that's all my news.

Albuquerque

Yea, so. That other news. I got interrupted writing this post by an international shipping surveyor arriving at the house to catalogue our stuff. And that's really what this post is about. Earlier today, our US visas arrived. In 6 weeks, we will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and we will stay there for at least a year and possibly up to three years.

:)

I'm pretty excited. lordkilljoy's company is moving us, so we don't know where we'll be living or anything. So that puts a huge damper on the excitement. It's hard to get excited about a place if you can't make plans about where you will be living and what you will do there. But i'm sure things will work out fine.

Yea. So, i don't really know what else to say.

PS - it takes me about 5 minutes to write albuquerque. who would give a place a name that's that hard to type? or even just get straight. there is far too much room to get letters mixed up.

writing problems

I think i just figured out what's wrong with the start of chapter 1. The first bit of action doesn't come until 350 words in. It's all very abstract description up until then. I think that's why the people who have read it have had trouble placing themselves in the setting and sympathising with Zachery. Hmmm. I'm glad I realised this.

My query letter is going through draft after draft. It's just not engaging enough. It's been described as boring, and that's definitely not what I want.

In completely other news... Actually, this news should get it's own post.