Dinners

Ooh god, it's miserable again today. Half one in the afternoon and I need a light on to see my keyboard. Dinner last night was a success, even though the egg went a bit weird. I made Wagamama's Chicken Tama Rice. It was so delicious - lordkilljoy ate all of his, then finished off my rice. So it was yummy out, but it looked weird. You're meant to add a beaten egg to the sauce right at the end (the sauce is clear up to this point) and when I threw in the egg it went all thick and opaque. Anyway - tonight is poached tilapia with Spanish rice. It should be yummy too. I hope lordkilljoy doesn't mind rice two nights in a row. It's my favourite staple - I could eat rice for dinner every day (though I do get a tiny bit bored of it after 2 months, as I found out in Asia).

Tomorrow is possible break from cooking night (because we are going to the cinema with a bunch of people, and not at all sure what's happening about dinner). Thursday will be healthy night and Friday is crockpot night. It's so exciting. I figure Saturday will be going out night and Sunday might be roast, depending on how much energy I have / how much of a mess I feel like cleaning up. Though the mini chicken (technically cornish hen) we had thanksgiving was yummy.

I don't have much else news, I think. I really need a new food icon.

Weather + Food = Routine

Yesterday I wore jeans, a light t-shirt and sandals. Today I'm wearing three layers and socks. The weather here is a bit mixed up. I think phoenix people (phoenicians?) don't like the rain. Usually of a morning walking river, we'd meet loads of people out walking with, or without, their dogs. Today we met one person. I think all the people who stayed at home were right. River got saturated and dirty and I had to give her a bath when we got home. I carried her across the carpet into the bath, because I'm paranoid about this mad deep-pile carpet getting dirty.

The walk was nice, in a very Irish way. The day was pretty soft - overcast and drizzly. So picture any typical rainy day in autumn or spring or summer and there you go. Not winter, because it wasn't cold enough. It was just the kind of miserable that you need a coat to keep the rain off, but it's so humid and just warm enough that you end up feeling rotten 5 minutes into the walk. Anyway - it was lovely for a change, but I hope it's sunny again tomorrow. Ooh, the weather is giving thunder for tomorrow - how exciting. River and I might have to find some indoor activity...

I don't think I have much other news. I'm going to try making weekly menus from now on - make something from a different cookbook each day. I was thinking of starting with Wagamama today. I got out some chicken, but I haven't decided what to do with it yet. I think each Sunday afternoon will be put aside for perusing the growing number of cookbooks I have and selecting dishes for the week and making out a shopping list. Sure we'll see how it goes. I'm just sick of Liam coming home and we deliberating for ages about what we'll have. Begin operation: let's get some routine going.

Right so. I'm off, then.

Today

River and I went out for a cycle this morning. It was fun, but she doesn't pull her weight, so it's like going uphill the whole way. I was somewhat tired after 15 minutes. It took me ages to get my bike ready this morning, though. The mover guys had turned the handlebars sideways and it was a little hard to get them back right again (especially because I had the wheel backwards the first time and had to do it again).

River's barking has gotten really out of control since we moved. A lot of trucks and cars go by on the road outside (it's the main way into the estate - thank god we aren't facing the main road) and she barks at every one. She barks at dogs walking outside the window and dogs barking in other apartments. She's even taken to barking for attention. It had to stop. So yesterday I resorted to negative reinforcement. And it's working really well. Every time she barks I say no and tap her on the nose. Not only does she stop barking right away, but the amount of barking has lessened in the one day I've been trying it. So I' happy for that, but sad that it had to come to this. I tried all the positive reinforcement (treats for being quiet, etc) I could think of, but that just seemed to make her worse. I also don't think she's getting enough sleep. She's not relaxing at all. She's been getting about 8 hours sleep in the night time and not napping during the day as she usually does. I was making dinner this morning (stew) and her head was nodding as she sat beside me. The poor thing is wrecked. So I think the sleep deprivation is making her anxious too.

I don't have much else news. We ordered my dress last night. There's no way we could afford one in a shop so I ordered it online from a company in China who tailor the dress to your measurements. I'm really excited about it, but I really hope the company isn't bogus and that the dress makes it here. Well, it has until the end of January to arrive, so we'll see then.

I think that's all my news. Did I mention I got a new keyboard? It's a microsoft Arc and I really like it. It's small and fits my hands perfectly. The only problem is that I keep hitting enter instead of apostrophe. That will take a little getting used to, but I will eventually.

Right. I have to finish tidying away the last of our stuff. The things left are the things I haven't a clue where to put (that sentence was badly worded, but you get the idea surely). Here goes... I might have a little biscuit before I start for motivation. Oooh - actually. I saw these dog biscuits in Costco and they look delicious. The ingredients are like oats, honey eggs, and other stuff that I'd actually use to bake biscuits. But I couldn't just bring myself to eat something that was labelled for dogs. That would be a step over the line from being eccentric to being downright weird. So we didn't buy them. Even though, clearly, I'm still thinking about them :(

Anyway. later.

Things of small note

All our stuff arrived today. The apartment is an absolute mess and it's only now, with all our stuff here, that I realise this apartment is smaller than our last one - and that one was full to the brim with stuff, so I have no idea where we are going to put things. Our little tree arrived in the shipment too, so I put the baubles on it and plugged it in. It's so cute, but it needs some more colour. I might buy some tinsel for it.

Ooh, I put up fairy lights in the kitchen. It looks wonderful now, and I don't have to deal with the awful buzz of a fluorescent light. I also cooked here for the first time last night. It went well enough. I'll have to remember never to turn the coils up higher than half way, because they seem to cook just fine at that heat. Anything higher just makes for burn and mess.

I don't really have much other news. Wedding stuff is coming along. With 5 months to go I'm so glad we managed to get anything at all.

I don't really have any other news. right so. bye.

Arizona

So we made it to Phoenix in one piece (or three pieces). The drive was quite amazing. There was a mad cold front forecast for the day of our road trip and we were a bit anxious about getting out of the mountains in time. The only sign of things to come in New Mexico was extreme winds. But just a little while after we crossed into Arizona it started snowing. It was nothing major - a little flurry that lasted about 10 minutes. For the next hour or so, though, it looked like we were driving through winter. I mean, it kind of is winter by now, but snow doesn't usually happen until January or something. Anyway. So we drove through snowy roads for about an hour after than, and then we started to come down from the high desert. Arizona low desert is hilarious. Saguaro cactus is the funniest thing ever. It's like the plant doesn't know when to stop growing. There are arms jutting from the trunk and main branches all over the place.
Yea. So, the drive was about 8 hours. It went by really fast, though. We played a game of licence spotting. And we got 28 or something. The farthest away were maine, ontario and new york. The countryside is amazing, and we went the scenic route to make the most of it. It got a bit warmer as we came down from the high country, but not by much. There's a mad cold spell hitting this part of the country this weekend and temps have really fallen - from 20-something down to 14ish. Anyway; it's still a lot warmer than Albuquerque (which was set to get to -17 this weekend).

We went to Ikea today :) That was so much fun. I tried to curtail myself, and I only got about half the stuff I wanted. We still managed to spend over $150, though. Most of that was on new bedsheets. Oooh, our new apartment is quite nice. It's way nicer than the old place, but the kitchen is even darker than the old one (or well - there's less light getting to it, but the decor is way lighter, so in the end it probably works out about the same amount of light happening). The place is much more tastefully furnished (I had furnitured written. sigh). What's really weird, though, is carpet in the bathroom. What sort of mental person puts carpet in a bathroom? Apart from being kind of disgusting, it's highly impractical.
And. oh god, we don't have a gas cooker. We don't even have a ceramic hob. We have an ancient metal coil stove thing. It's appalling. I tried to cook porridge this morning and it just boiled all over the place. I was almost in tears. I love cooking, but working with something as torturous as this cooker thing just makes it a hassle.

We went exploring a bit today. Phoenix is totally a proper American city. There is so much here. It reminds me of Texas with how many shops and restaurants there are. We went to Famous Dave's today (we first heard of him from a tv show - best in smoke) which is a barbecue place and I'm still stuffed.

I don't really know what else to say. I know there's been loads happening, but I think I got the main parts anyway.

Right so. Byeeeeee.

Dinner was so good I licked the plate clean

It really was the most delicious thing I've made in ages. The only thing I like the plate (or bowl, even) for is ice cream. So this dinner compares to ice cream and that's a pretty impressive feat.

Okay - the recipe

serves 1

1 tilapia fillet or other light white fish
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons feta cheese
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon frank's hot sauce
some 21 seasoning salute (this is the best herb seasoning in the world) or mixed herbs
some salt
some black pepper
some onion powder (feel free to use real onions and just chop them up and put them around the fish as it's cooking)

put the fillet on tin foil and cover with lemon juice
wrap tin foil and put in oven / george foreman / barbecue / grill (i used the george foreman)
cook until half way done (about 3 mins for me)
while that's cooking, add the feta, butter, sauce and spices to a cup
mash together with a fork
take your half cooked fish, open tin foil and cover fish with mix (can't really be called a sauce because it's so crumbly)
re-close foil and cook fish the rest of the way
serve with side of your preference (i had noodles - it's all we have left in the house)
enjoy and lick plate if so desired once meal is finished

(recipe cross posted)

Engagement

I kind of meant to post this earlier... lordkilljoy and I got engaged on sunday. If not for visa issues coming back into america, it probably wouldn't be happening quite yet, and as it is we are having a rush wedding. 6 months from now we will be married :) It's so exciting. And stressful at the same time. We're supposed to organise the whole thing in half the time as usual. Ah well, that'll be fun too.

First, though we need to focus on moving. We're off to Pheonix at the end of the month. SO I have to spend the next week or so cleaning. I worked on the calcium stuck to the bath and sink today, and used very fine grade sandpaper to get the worst of it off. Sandpaper is amazing. And it didn't noticeably scrape the sink or bath, either. They are made of kind of manky plastic material anyway, so it's not like you'd notice a few scrapes anyway.

Right. Got to go now - it's Skyrim time :)

Coyote

Daylight savings compounded on the tail end of jetlag. My poor body will be awake at 4am tomorrow.

That could be a haiku.

Anyway. One cool bit of news: I saw a coyote in the wash today while walking river. It was amazing - just walking along, all uncaring about the humans around walking their dogs. It looked back at me as I stood on a rise looking down at it, then just turned away and continued walking. I stood there going: "wow, I just saw a coyote." And I took it as a good sign.

In other, less interesting, news: I have a cold for the first time in over a year. Probably closer to 2 years, actually.

In other other, slightly more interesting, news: I tried fair isle out on the loom. It didn't really work out. Too much wool gets dragged behind the stitches and the whole thing turns out really floppy. So that's a bit annoying.

That's all, I think.

Today's Dinner

modified from this recipe

ingredients: quinoa, cut up chicken, chicken stock, 21 seasoning salute or other mixed herb/spice, oil, onion powder, diced tomato, diced green chilli, feta cheese, lemon juice


put 1/4 cup quinoa into a pot with 1/2 cup of cold water and a little chicken stock and seasoning. Cook on lowest setting for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile:
in a little oil (a teaspoon is all you need), fry the chicken. add onion powder when chicken is almost done. if you have real onions, cook then first and add the chicken after. set it aside for a little bit

(or if you have a second pan and don't mind the extra wash-up)
put a little less than 1/2 a can of tomatoes and a quarter of a small can of chilli into the pan. heat. add the chicken back in and sprinkle with feta. squirt on a few drops of lemon and cook for a bit - to make sure the chicken is properly done.

lastly:
add in the cooked quinoa, mix, serve, eat. nom nom nom.

i need a better food icon. this one is simply inappropriate for dinner recipes.

I'm so tired

I’ve been meaning to update all day, but Lj had signed me out and I'd changed my password sometime in the past and I couldn't remember it, so I didn't get around to signing in. Until now - because I changed my password... anyway.

I’m freezing. It’s freezing outside and I don't want to go walk river. I made this amazing 3 meter scarf while I was home and I have it wrapped about my shoulders. My keyboard is keeping my lap warm :) It's also 24 C in here (I had the heating on earlier), and yet I feel cold. Le sigh. River’s tired too. I don't think she sleeps well in the boarding place. She’s been asleep all day and I even had to wake her for dinner. That’s never happened before. So we're all tired.

The trip home was really good. I didn't do much - got to hang out with mammy and daddy and Askea and it was wonderful. We knitted lots. And I got knitting books. Highlights included the beach, tramping through the dunes of said beach, eating - I ate loads - emm, stuff and knitting :) It was a wonderful trip (I’ve said this already, but it really was). There was nothing mad of big or organised, it was just me at home - where I belong :) oh my god - now I’m making myself homesick. Right.

The trip back here was good - everything went well. We had a bit of an issue at immigration in MSP when I asked for my visa to be stamped for a year. I had to go to this special cases area where we waited for a bit for someone to look into it. Apparently, it is very uncommon to get your visa stamped for one year. I (according to the guy) was the first person to go through msp to get such a stamp. So that took about 40 minutes and he had to go up 2 (possibly 3 levels) to get the okay. He also explained that going through on my visa is just going to get harder and harder. Sigh, again. Anyway, I’m in for a year now. We’ll see what happens.

We had 19 hours of daylight yesterday. Travelling is amazing :) If you had a fast enough plane, and enough fuel, you could just have it be day all the time. Or you could just move to one of the poles in summer... but that's not the point. Abq had the most amazing sunset when we landed. The sky was the deepest shade of orange - just amazing. And we saw the apartment from the plane as we came in to land. That was exciting.

Coming back to the apartment was weird. It felt so generic, or something. Like, I woke up this morning and it felt like I was in a hotel. It was somewhat awful. And I got the feeling a few times through the day as well. I don't know what was causing that. The smell, maybe. Or maybe I’m just tired. We’re going to try to stay up until 10 - so 2 hours to go.

Right, I don't really have much else to say.

Deus Ex

I'm playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution at the moment. I'd seen it at PAX, and known about it before that... "Yeah, another stealth game. I should be interested in this, but I'm not really pushed" is what my brain kept telling me whenever I'd think of it. Then lordkilljoy bought it and played it for a bit, but didn't enjoy it. A few weeks later he convinced me to give it a go, and is this the best game ever! I absolutely love it. The setting is amazing, the characters are interesting, the story is intriguing. I keep waiting for poor Jensen to get betrayed by someone. It hasn't happened yet, but I've only gotten to China so far. Apart from the main story, the side quests are really fun too. And even just wandering the streets, finding random houses to break into is fun. I want to play now, but I want to get some knitting finished, and I should try to keep up the writing spurt I got last week.

Ah well.

PS - only a month 'til Skyrim. I am so excited for this game.

stealth bomber

I saw a stealth bomber fly over head the other day. It was the coolest thing I've seen in ages. I almost didn't believe it was a stealth bomber, but they are kind of unique to look at. The only reason I looked up (well, apart from the fact that I generally look up if I hear a plane overhead) was that it sounded a bit weird. It was louder and different pitched than a normal plane. And when I saw the black and the ziz-zag wings I was like: "wow, that is so cool." And I did an excited dance. And then in vanished behind some clouds. It's kinda cool living near an air force base.

The clouds were the remnants of the storm that hit last week. There was snow on the mountains for a whole day (it's melted now) and Santa Fe mts got 9 inches - it's still there. I got to wear my wonderful black coat and my long hat the other day. I was so happy going out in them. It's warmed up again, though - I might even be back into string tops by the end of the week - they are giving 25.

I don't have a hole lot of news. I can't wait to go home. Only a week and a half to go. I need to start packing.
Yea. I'll go now.

storm's a-comin'

The weather are giving storm warnings for the end of this week, and it's really starting to get going now. It's windy and kinda cold out (cold being 17 degrees). They are giving bad winds for tomorrow too, and snow up on the mountains. Ooohhhh. At the moment I'm sitting here and every so often the wind slams into the building, and the window rattles a bit and the door shakes a little, and it's slightly unnerving. River and I just went out for a walk in it, and all I wanted was to get back inside again - I think River was feeling rather energised by the wind, though - she was mad hyper.

We went to the balloon festival last weekend - we went in the evening for the glow event. It was amazing - wandering among all these colourful hot air balloons that lit up every so often with jets of fire. Every so often a guy on a loudspeaker would do a countdown and all the balloons would light up at the same time. It looked incredible. And when that was over, there were fireworks. And they were some of the best fireworks I've seen. There were ones up in the sky and ones closer to the ground and the whole thing was pretty spectacular.

In other news, I've knitted a hat and a half, 2 pairs of gloves, a pair of socks and am working on another thing (it's a surprise). I'm pretty proud of everything - except the half a hat... don't know why I'm not so enthusiastic about it but it's just not gelling with me.

I don't have much other news.

more knitting

I have a glove. That's right, one glove. Here it is :)




I'll have to start on its twin tomorrow. This one took me 3 days (maybe 13 / 14 hours). I'm not sure if the next one will take longer because my motivation will drop a little (I already know how it's going to turn out) or will it take less time because I know what I'm doing.

And for future reference (more for myself than anything else), the pattern*.

starting at the back (at the top of the arm)

cast on 18 stitches (for chunky wool)

seed stitch for 4 rows
k1, p1
p1, k1

switch colour (this counts as a row)
knit for 8 rows

switch colour
knit for 8 rows

do this 2 more times for 4 knitted rows of stripes (you have 5 stripes all together by now)

knit for 7 rows

on 8th row cast up 5
on 9th row cast up 5 on the other side (so it makes a kind of T)

knit for 8 rows (not sure if you count the cast on, or not)

cast off the T over 2 rows
switch colour (this may not count as a row)
knit 4 rows (casting off 2 stitches somewhere around here - i got really confused at this part. i cast off 2, but then my count looked weird and i cast off another. then i realised my mistake and was down a stitch. oh well.)

do 2x2 ribbing for 8 rows
k2, p2
k2, p2

cast off
mattress stitch the seam (this sewing technique is kinda cool - is this how people get sewn up? it totally is!)
done


Having never done any of this before, I had to look loads up online (cast on, cast off, and mattress stitch). I have a book, but trying to learn from diagrams is hard. Thank goodness for youtube.

*I did have a pattern, two actually, but I followed them quite loosely, making my own way as I went along.

A Hat

So this is the hat I made yesterday. It took 3 hours (with a break to walk River). I have no idea if that is good going or slow progress - any input from knitters (mammy?)? How long would it take you to knit a hat like this?



Anyway, I'm pretty proud of it. Now I'm going to make lordkilljoy a hat like Jayne's from Firefly :)

Loom Knitting

The thought going through my head right now is: I love having hands. I bought a loom knitting set today, and have just knit my first row (actually - I just cast up) and it was really fun and really easy. I've wanted to be able to knit my whole live. Ever since I was a girl I'd watch mammy knit with an ease that seemed rather miraculous to me, becuase whenever I tried it the wool got knotted, the needles kept slipping from my hands, the wool was too tight, or too loose, and my hands just couldn't handle it.

I've vaguely considered crochet, but that also involves holding a small implement and my hands get hot holding things and it's just really, really hard. Enter the loom. It's a circle with wide pins standing up. You wrap the wool around the pins, then use a hook to pull the loops over. Look up "loom knitting" if you want to know how it works.

So watch out, everyone. Hats, scarfs and other small knitted things will abound and will start to fill wardrobes and drawers :)

In other news (I wrote knews... sigh) River went into her bed-crate thing all by herself last night. It was about half eleven and I was off to bed. She walked into the bedroom with me, and I expected her to flop down on the carpet. But she didn't. In she walked to her little bed (the one she howled and whined to get out of when we first got her) and settled down, all by herself. We were so proud of her :)

We went to cienega forest again yesterday. After a slight wrong turn (or more precicely - not being able to follow the trail (it just seemed to vanish into about 5 different trail-looking things)) and a massive climb up the side of the mountain, we eventually found the trail and had a wonderful 2 hour walk. Ceader and pine smell amazing. I'd totally go there and just plonk myself in a glade and smell the air for a few hours.

That's all my news, I think. Now back to knitting :)

Autumn

Autumn in New Mexico is an interesting time. Me and river have been rained on twice in the last two days. Today, we came to the channel. It was raining and the splashes were making little ripples in the brown water of the channel. I stopped there and just watched it for a while. It was awful, but pretty at the same time. The water was brown and murky, with bits of mud and twigs sticking out of it, but still - there was something compelling about the water and the rain.

The other really odd thing is that mushrooms grow in the grass around here. I think it's a sign that people need to turn off their sprinklers.

I'm a little worried about future walks. The goatsheads are growing wild and free and every grassy verge has thousands of them just waiting to fall off and lay in wait for some innocent doggie to come walk on them and hurt her paws. I'm sort of considering getting River little booties, because (she's stupid like this) she picks them out of her paw and eats them. Then she gets sick a few minutes later.

I haven't updated in ages. I should catch up on news... PAX was amazing. I'd totally go back next year. penelope_stone and Liam's visit was brilliant. We did so much and it was good to see them and hang out. Highlights include walking on top of a mountain in lightening, photographing same lightning that night, cienega canyon forest trail, UNM - actually UNM is cool. There's a geology and meteorite museum, and the atmosphere around campus is cool - just like college, really.

I don't know what else I can say... I suppose I'll just go then.

New Arts, Coloured by Me

This is what I've been working on the last few days.


Cloud n Kirby YamPuff Colour by ~zarkia on deviantART

Lightning is cool.

The sky the last few evenings has been pretty spectacular. Lightning storms flashed on the horizon all around us (or at least the 180degrees we can see from our balcony), both sheet and fork. The forks are amazing to watch - split second flashes of brilliance that you miss if you aren't looking in the exact right spot. The sheets are incredible too, because the cloud formations are so beautiful, and when you get this dark navy sky and bright cauliflower clouds illuminated against it - it looks amazing.

I'd love if these storms are still going when penelope_stone comes over. They look amazing. They are too far away to hear any thunder, but also too far away for the rain to reach us. I think dislike of rain is built into the Irish psyche. I've not been rained on in 9 months, or whatever, and still at the first drops I'm like: "Ugh, it's raining. Better get inside." Even though it's warm and the rain dries off almost as soon as it lands on you.

River's been fine since her little bout of poisoning. She was a little tired the day after, but soon she was back to her old self again. We got to go to the cinema yesterday. We've been leaving her along for longer and longer stretches. Yesterday we went out for 3 hours (to see Captain America) and when we got back the place was the exact same as when we'd left it. We were so proud of her :)

Capt America was good... But not nearly as good as some of the other super hero movies. They spent too much time on montages of him winning battles and not enough time building up relationships between characters. Things happened where I would have been in tears at any other movie, but I just didn't care for any of the people because I didn't know them - I didn't have a reason to care for them.

I don't think I have much other news.

Sick River

We're just back from the vet with River. She got lordkilljoy's inhaler and bit into it - puncturing it. We have no idea how much medicine went into her, but about an hour later, she was drinking way more water than usual and a bit after that she got sick. At this stage, I was pretty worried that she'd been seriously poisoned, so we dropped everything and rushed her to the vet.

They induced more vomiting and gave her charcoal. She's really pathetic now - just lying next to her water and drinking every so often. She couldn't even jump out of the car when we got home, or walk up the stairs. She made it up 3, then just stopped. lordkilljoy carried her up. Poor thing.

The vet said she should be okay by tomorrow, but to keep an eye on her.

Okay, while writing this entry she's been sick again. She's now lying on the floor with kitchen towel under her head.