lunch

Yum. Asparagus soup and banana/oat muffin for lunch. I feel so healthy. Doubly healthy because I went out for a cycle this morning too - 10km. Go me!

Asparagus soup is funny, because it looks like it shouldn't taste nice - all pea green and creamy. It's only really because it looks like pea soup, and as we all know peas are the bane of existence. But it tastes yummy, all zesty and spicy (because I wasn't watching the amount of pepper - I was too concentrated on turning the pepper grinder) and asparagusy.

I got the recipe on all recipes. And for posterity I'm going to post it here too.



4 servings
Ingredients

1 pound fresh asparagus
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions

Place asparagus and onion in a saucepan with 1/2 cup vegetable broth. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until the vegetables are tender.
Reserve a few asparagus tips for garnish. Place remaining vegetable mixture in an electric blender and puree until smooth.
Melt butter in the pan that was used for simmering the asparagus and onions. Stir while sprinkling flour, salt, and pepper into the butter. Do not let the flour brown. Allow the mixture to cook only 2 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth and increase the heat. Continue stirring until the mixture comes to a boil.
Stir the vegetable puree and milk into the saucepan. Whisk yogurt into the mixture, followed by lemon juice. Stir until heated through, then ladle into bowls. Garnish with reserved asparagus tips. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Om Nom Nom

I just made the most delicious muffins ever (well maybe not ever, but they are certainly one of the nicest (that doesn't involve chocolate) I've ever eaten. I found two recipes and smooshed them together, taking the best bits out of both. They were similar enough that I could do this and be pretty confident things would work out okay. I think the nicest thing about them is how light and moist they are. And they are healthy too :)

Here's the recipe, for anyone interested.

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used brown sugar)
1 egg
1/2 cup mashed bananas, very ripe
1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup whole wheat flour (my cup was semi-heaped)
1/2 cup oatmeal (mine was heaped; one of the original recipes was 2 cups of flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice


Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg gradually and mix well, beating all the time. Mix in the mashed banana and buttermilk.
Combine the flour, oatmeal, baking powder and spices. Add this to the creamed mixture and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Divide the batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes at 200C, or until golden brown (mine turned out a dark golden) and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Immediately remove muffins from the pan. Serve warm (optional).

Makes 12

(I think I need a cooking icon that doesn't involve chocolate cake)

Further to Yesterday

More news. Which conveniently escaped my brain as soon as I started typing. Typical.

So, I got a sunhat. Actually, it's not so much a sun hat as an autumn hat. It's made of black felt and I have an idea that if I wear it out in the sun my head will bake. But it's lovely - 1920s style cloche (there are loads of pictures on google if you want to know what style that is). I'm wearing it now :)

I also got a cake decorating funnel with shaped metal tips - for putting icing on things. Ooh - that was my main news. I made muffins yesterday. I used a kind of modified banana bread recipe and they are gorgeous. This recipe called for egg and butter and they made the muffins come out light and fluffy (well, lighter and fluffier than any other bread I've tried). I got the cake decorating thing, because I think some chocolate frosting on top will make the muffins simply decadent :) nom nom nom. And because I've always wanted to have a go with cake decorating / making cupcakes. And yes, muffins magically turn into cupcakes when you add frosting on top.

I don't have much other news.

I don't know if I've mentioned World of Warcraft on here before, but I've gotten up to level 73 and Wrath of the Lich King stuff, and boy are the quests and storylines amazing. I'm playing alliance (because they feel like a big supportive family, where horde feels like a bunch of selfish individuals) and the storyline involving the 7th legion was fantastic. Totally epic. It's funny, because when it ended, I went on to a new area, and it was back to killing animals and providing food for the local community. It felt so small-time.

However, at the same time I reached the alpine area (can't remember what it's called) lordkilljoy was watching Bear Grylls (Man vs Wild, which is a amazing show - I wish I could be like Bear - he can survive in the wild on nothing but insects and plants he finds along the way) in Alaska, and the terrain was so similar to that in WoW that it almost felt like I'd find Bear just over the next hill. So that helped add some of the missing vitality back into the game.

Yea, I think that's about it.

Phonecalls and Daily Life

Phone calls in this country are the weirdest things ever. I just got a call, saw on the display that it was the Democratic Party and wondered did I have to talk to someone who was canvassing. I didn't. I picked up the phone, said 'hello' and in return got a recorded message telling me to press 1 to call and complain to some guy about cutting movie rights in New Mexico (and therefore jobs). Needless to say, I hung up at that stage, but jeepers, people - I can't imagine how successful your recorded message phone campaign is.

And they love doing that over here. I think I've had about 10 calls in the last 3 months and 2 of them were from real people. The rest were all pre-recorded or a voice telling you to push buttons in order so that they can get their records straight, or something.

*

I had another lovely day yesterday. It was wierd, though, becuase I got woken at 5, and didn't really get back to sleep. At 7, I got up, marvelled at the sun on the balcony, and went painting miniatures. I went to the park again, for about an hour - bliss, though it was slightly colder than Wednesday (there were more clouds). I might go again today, but it's really windy at the moment.

Wise Man's Fear arrived yesterday. Anyone who doesn't know of Patrick Rothfuss should go out and buy both of his books right now. They are amazing. Well, okay, I havn't read Wise Man's Fear yet, but I'm sure it will be good.

For having gotten up so early yesterday, I wasn't that tired. I didn't fall asleep that fast. Last night lordkilljoy was on call and he got called loads of times. So, I guess I'm a bit tired today. I imagine I'll feel it later.

I think I'll make muffins today. I have an interesting recipe involving bananas and spices. Ooh - google recipes is amazing. I put in chicken last night (because that's what I had taken out of the freezer), told it what other ingredients I had, and it came up with ramen (a kind of japanese chicken noodle soup). And the ramen was lovely. Slightly too salty (even though I added no salt - stock cubes and miso must have had loads) but really good. I'd definitely make it again.

I think that's about it. I'm going to go to the shop today (we need butter) and I'm going to buy a sun hat. While letting my parting get burned in Ireland is fine (because it only happens 4 or 5 times in the whole summer), it's already been burned twice, and I don't think constant burn on my head is the best thing ever.

Oh, I reinstalled Oblivion yesterday. I am totally excited about Skyrim and needed something from Bethesda to take the edge off.

Lizard in the Park

I should remind myself that when the thermometer reads 12C in the shade, it's about 24 in the sun.

I discovered a park close to us. I am so happy because of this. I can walk 10 minutes to the park and sit out in the sun and not feel like all my neighbours can spy on me. Yeay. So I went today, brought my book along and read for about an hour. It is seriously hot out there. Okay, I was wearing two layers on top, one of which was a dark long-sleeve, and jeans. Every part of me was boiling.

And I saw a lizard. It was dark greenish-brown with a slightly lighter stripe, and really small. It looked like a newt - about 1cm in diameter and 10cm long (half of which was tail). It was so cute. I only saw it for a moment as it popped its head out of a bush. I wanted it to come out and lie in the sun so I could get a photo of it, but it stayed safely in the bush.

I kind of want to grab a blanket, put on lighter pants and go back to the park. But I'm a little scared I'll get sunburned.

Today's question caught my eye

Is there any song you could listen to 20 times in a day without ever losing interest?

When I find a song I like, I'd easily listen to it 10 times that day. I think 13 is my record. I have to stop myself listening to it more than that, because I'm scared I will lose interest. I never do with the really good songs though. With the truly amazing ones, I can listen to them 30+ times in the first week and still love them. These are the songs that end up with 100+ playcounts on itunes (after a year or so).

There is one song, though, that I listened to about 80 times in 2 months - Another Take, by Cork band, Waiting Room. I've listened to it 132 times in total. And still, every time it comes on I get shivers. I love it.

And since I've not done it in a while - here's a run down of my top 10 most listened to songs. Number of listens in brackets.

Sail to the Moon (Brush the Cobwebs Out of the Sky) - Radiohead (155)
Rose - A Perfect Circle (145)
Son et Lumiere - The Mars Volta (135)
Another Take - Waiting Room (132)
Fingerbib - Aphex Twin (126)
Modern Romance - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (116)
Teenager - Deftones (115)
California Waiting - Kings of Leon (111)
Televators - The Mars Volta (106)
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie - A Perfect Circle (104) (I honestly don't know how this song is in number 10)

cycle to the park

what is it with me not posting for a while and then making two or three posts in a day? oh well.

yesterday, i wanted to cycle to the park, but it was too windy. i kinda regretted not going, because it was a beautiful day and the warm weather isn't meant to last after the weekend. today was equally beautiful, and slightly less windy (still a bit windy) so i went to the park today. it's 5km away (5.1 according to google, 5.3 according to my bike). it was a wonderful cycle. google chose a route for me that didn't involve too many hills (there was just one steep one). the park was nice, but the moment i got there the sun went in. and it stayed in until i decided to leave.
i was on my bike, just accelerating to go home, when the sun came out. so i plonked myself on some (very prickly, dry) grass and sat in the sun for a bit. i watched small clouds and smaller aeroplanes (airplanes?) cross the sky. eventually the wind got a bit cold, though, so then i went home properly. i have no idea how long i stayed. not that long. i left at quarter past 1, and was home at quarter past 3. i was cycling for 45 minutes. so that makes... an hour and a bit. mad.
it was lovely to sit outside in the warm sunshine, though.

right so. i'm going to go now.

chipmunks

There's chipmunks or something in the ditch across from our balcony. they are so cute - like little squirrels with stripes. I just looked them up on wikipedia - they are chipmunks. how cute. Wikipedia describes them as squirrels with stripes - that's so funny.

here are some photos

Spring is giving us a taste of its wonderfulness

I've been watching the weather for the last 2 weeks - watching today's forecast go from 17 to 11 to 14 to 19 to 13. Seems the weather people have a hard time forecasting temperatures. But since that first 17, I've been looking forward to today, because from that first 17, I believed today would be wonderful.

Today dawned (well, I have no idea how it dawned, but when I got up at 9 it was...) cloudy. And I felt cheated. The forecast had settled on 18, but what good was it if it was cloudy?

Roll on a few hours and the clouds had all been burned away. So I went outside, and I stayed outside for 2 hours. I didn't want to come in. I went for a walk, and then came home and took my bike out for a stroll-cycle*. It was wonderful. Warm, sunny, the most refreshing breeze. The sound of dogs barking, a plane flying around somewhere. It felt and smelled and sounded like summer. I had to keep reminding myself that this was spring and summer would be unbearable, so enjoy it now. And that's what I think I'll do.

I got slightly sunburned yesterday. The kind of burn that heals overnight. But still - we were out for about and hour and a half yesterday (about 40 minutes spend stilling outside having lunch - it was amazing).

I have the balcony door open and the kitchen window open and there's a very light breeze going through the place. I have griddle bread on the pan, and everything is good. The funny thing is, our little thermometer is only reading 14.

Actually, I meant to add - my walk was to the shop to buy sun cream and aftersun. Hee.


*a stroll-cycle is one where you pedal the bear minimum to keep yourself going. you let gravity do most of your work.

My Writing Area

My computer desk faces a wall, a depressing, grey wall. Today I fixed that by putting these photos up, and brightening up the whole space a bit.
The sculptures are by Rik Allen. They are pretty cool, and interesting to have in front of me whenever I look away from my computer.

I don't have much other news.

another another cold update

okay - last update. it turns out our heating was broken (i had no idea). a man just came to look at the water tank and he said he fixed it and that in 2 hours i can turn on the heating. amazing. and there was me just having the heating off because i thought it was inefficient.
but at least we should be able to get the place a bit warm tonight. and maybe i can have a shower. i skipped a shower this morning because it was way too cold.

I'm finally warm

So, now I'm wearing a scarf and a sleeping bag from my waist down and i am finally warm. my fingers and nose are still cold, but at least i'm not shivering anymore. i'm thinking i'll try the heating again this evening, because the place will be doubly cold if i leave it off all day today and tomorrow.

it seems it's going to be freezing until next week, and remaining very cold for the next few weeks. roll on spring and warm temps.

another cold update

The heating has stopped heating up the place now. The temperature is not going higher than 14, so i turned the heating off, because it was doing nothing but creating a draft. i actually think i'll start to feel warmer now. i can heat the little bit of air around me and that can work as insulation. if it's going to be this cold tomorrow, i might consider relocating to a café or something.

i might make something with bucket-loads of chilli for lunch. and something really warm.

i'm cold

okay, now i am very cold. i've had the heating on for three hours and it's only 14 degrees in here. i have on the amazing fuzzy jumper of central heating and it's barely working to keep me warm. my legs are freezing, my fingers are freezing. my nose is cold - every breath in is cold. i wonder would i be better off standing outside in the sun. i wish the apartment didn't face north.

It is cold

Sure enough, it got to -20 last night. I'm just back from a wander around in -18 temperature. It wasn't that bad. I had 6 layers on my top, knee-high socks, jeans, 2 pairs of gloves, a scarf around my face and a hat. The only place that wasn't layered up was a small strip around my thighs, which is very cold.

So, -18 with sunshine is very comfortable (far too hot for 6 layers, actually). -18 in the shade is okay - i wouldn't want to stay out in it all day - at least not wearing jeans. -2 on a damp, windy night in ireland is far worse. the cold here is a weak sort of cold - timid. cold in ireland cuts with the sharpest of blades, then twists that blade inside you. here the cold just sort of hangs around and waves at you like someone who's waving because they feel they should, not out of any real conviction.

it's 10 degrees in the apartment. i have 3 layers on, including fingerless gloves. my arms above the gloves are cold, though. i might put on some arm warmers. arm warmers are go. my arms are warm now. now i feel like putting my hat back on.
hmmm. maybe the cold here has a lingering effect. no - i think it's just 'cause the apartment is so cold.

anyway, i'm going to go now.

Writing Troubles

This week has been slower than most. Usually by Wednesday I've picked up my pace after the weekend, and things start to get written. Not this week. I'm only a thousand and a bit words into this chapter (and my 5,000 per week). I have a lot to get done tomorrow and Friday, and I'm just not inspired by this scene at all. It's fine, but it seems so forced. It's a way to get from A to B. I've changed things around a bit and it's better than my original idea, but still.

I like Lj's spring banner. It's bright and cute. And it suits the rest of the site.

It got down to -11 last night. There is ice on the inside of the window again. I went out for a bit today (about 5 minutes) and my nose and fingers were freezing. It was -9 at that stage. It's -10 now. Brrrr. But it's sunny and the snow is melting. Wait... the snow is melting at -10? How does that work? The forecast is giving -20 for tonight. -20. Seriously.
I put an extra blanket on the bed last night - it was doubled over so that was two extra layers, and I was toasty, but not roasting. So if it's going to be double what it was from 0 last night tonight (writing how you speak doesn't really work at all - just focus on the next few words), I'm going to have to put on 4 blankets or something.
Earlier this week the forecast was giving 17 for later in the month. That's gone now. 11 is the highest. No, wait. It's 14.

Can you tell I'm just wasting time now?

What other news? We went walking on volcanoes on Saturday. It was good. The climate here is amazing. It's like being on another planet. The grass is yellow and the sky is the deepest shade of blue.

Right, so. I'll go now.

Thoughts and Desires

Memories are such flawed things. And so easy to manipulate. I just put on Feel Good Lost (by Broken Social Scene) and immediately I was back in the room in Maynooth and it was summer and it was amazing. Then the memory jumped to Heuston train station, it was still summer and it was still amazing - blazing sunshine, warm, blue sky the deepest shade of azure. Now, I know for a fact that the train station memory is from autumn, not summer and it was chilly. My brain just wants it to be summer (aka warm and sunny) all the time.

Actually, that's kind of the awful thing about here. It's delightfully sunny most of the time and I just want to go out and lie in the sand. But when I poke my nose out it's freezing. I can't wait for it to warm up. It's like when I was 14 or whatever waiting for Lord of the Rings to come out. I haven't been this desirous of anything in ages. Every day I wish it was warm out - all because of the sunshine.

Anyway, I really have to go. I have 2,000 words to write today and I haven't started yet.

web things

I have a bunch of feeds in google reader that I look at every morning. The top of the list contains writers, then agents, then writing help, then inspirational things, then large sites that post more than 20 articles a day, and then random people I find interesting. I read them one after the other and sometimes, I get confused about what section I'm in. So I'm reading about the latest movie news, wondering why an environmental blog is posting about movies. And then I remember to look at what blog I'm reading. It's kinda funny, but it is really confusing. And it happens often enough that you'd think I'd not keep doing it.

I updated three corner square yesterday. First post since the new year. I think I have to change the idea of my site. It's really hard to come up with writing advice every week, so I think I'll make it more of a thoughts on writing / progress log and the weeks I have writing tips, I'll post them.

I don't have much other news. I think I was a cross between Siluna (my world of warcraft druid) and an army commando in my dream last night. Or I was in some kind of battle royale type thing, where there were a bunch of deadly people all out to kill each other for the entertainment of spectators. I remember being let loose (by some woman, who was in charge of everything) in a forest and instantly looking for cover. But I'd been tracked and we fought. I don't think I did very well. I seem to recall being thrown onto a tile floor - like you see in old hospitals in movies. And I couldn't get up because of the pain.
And there was something about driving to a field - it was lashing rain - to find an old tent and a barrel or something. I have no idea what I wanted them for, but everything was old and battered and I was just settling for these items because they seemed the best of what was there.

Overdue Catchup

I just went for a walk up to the post office. This place is so weird. It's 2degrees out and I walked up with just a vest and tshirt on. And I wasn't cold (okay, I had a hat and fingerless gloves on too, but still). It felt like a day near the end of April, when you are just feeling comfortable going out without five layers on - like 16degrees or something. I'm actually a bit worried that if 2 feels like 16, what will 20 feel like.

Pedestrian lights here are funny. The go man is a man, but the stop man is a hand. And it's kind of funny when some of the lights are missing. There's this set down by us and it looks like the vulcan greeting hand, then there's one by the post office that looks like a stag with antlers.

We went to The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History on Sunday. It was pretty cool - there was loads of old stuff, and lordkilljoy and I both marvelled at how much like Fallout it was. There were missiles and bombs and planes and loads of cool things.

I went to see Tangled last week. It was brilliant - I love Disney. We finally got to see Tron as well. I really enjoyed it. And we saw Green Hornet too. It was funny.

We got a car with cruise control, so hopefully we'll make it to SantaFe for snowboarding next weekend. lordkilljoy didn't feel like it last weekend.

I'm 10,000 words into book2. Yeay.

Snowboarding again

So, all last night and this morning, I couldn't stop thinking about snowboarding. I got really annoyed, actually. I've been snowboarding before, in New Zealand, and there I could get the board to go, could stand up and do leafs down the learner slope. It was good and fun and amazing. Now, 5 years has passed, but it's not like I'm an old dame now. I should still be able to do this.

I kind of came to the conclusion that Sandia Peak's learner slope is too steep for learners. It's more like an intermediate beginner slope. And your brain might lump learners with beginners, but there is a difference. The learners slope should be flat enough that when you are trying to stand up your board doesn't try to slide down the hill with you. I seem to recall Mt Hutt's learner area being a very gentle gradient. Sandia Peak learner area was just as steep as the main areas. That's not fair to learners. I'm annoyed now. I feel like yesterday was wasted, but the competitive person in me wants to learn to get good and I feel that our local slope is against me. (Just found an article saying Sandia is the 3rd steepest learner slope in the US, not sure how accurate that is, but at least I'm not just fooling myself that it was the terrain's fault and not mine.)

Anyway. I'll go now.