Jul 26

Girls’ weekend was so good for my soul. Alex and Hillary left their towns to come spend the weekend with me in Austin. I will bullet point my highlights and then share snapshots of our weekend (save the food, I’ll save that for the food blog. Have you checked that out yet?)


Girls Weekend Highlights

  • I saw my very first firefly, thanks to Hillary pointing it out. It was fluttering and lighting itself around my apartment entrance. Sadly, by the time I ran into my apartment to grab my camera to video, it had flitted away. I will say its short presence has made my apartment entrance a little more magical.
  • Our conversations, stimulating, nostalgic, hilarious, superficial, and deep never ceased til we literally talked ourselves to sleep Friday and Saturday night.
  • We miss high school.
  • At the urging of Hillary’s boyfriend (awww!), we went engagement ring shopping for Hillary.
  • 3 girls, 3 bottles of wine Saturday night as prelude to a night out.
  • Constant eating. Weekend menu: gelato, escargot, duck confit, ratatouille, scallops, Gourdough’s, tacos, chorizo nachos, wines, cheeses, fruits, chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, pho, egg rolls, spring rolls, pear chocolate tart, pumpkin tea cakes!
  • Camping out on my living room floor and couch.

In short, a wonder-full weekend and I miss them already. We made plans to do this one more time before the year closes. Next time, we’ll go to Hillary’s city.


Question: If your best friend turned into a zombie, would you kill him/her?

Jul 23


1.

Two of my dear high school friends, Alex & Hillary are coming for the weekend. We’re going to camp out on my living room floor. On our agenda for sure: booty shaking. All else will be decided on whim. :) Cannotwait.

Here’s a pic of the three of us from November. I think this is the last time I saw either of them.


2.

I liked this voice mail I got from my friend Davey. Mainly for the mumbled, “I like you.” Shared with permission.

I like him too. It’s not yet my birthday.


3.

On the walk to my car one day this week, I saw a statue hold a balloon and it made me smile.


4.

I’m on a SARK kick. Here’s my loot from the Austin Public Library.


5.


Click for bigger picture

I don’t know if I buy that a squirrel waved at her. I also don’t know if I buy that another squirrel waved at her previously disbelieving brother. I will admit, I might start discreetly waving at the squirrels on campus just to test it out.


6.

My little from Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America has a boyfriend. She tells me they have a lot in common. For instance, when people fall down, they both laugh. They also both like to “do pranks.”


7.


Beef Stroganoff Fail

I made my first marinara sauce from scratch on Wednesday. It was decent. I wasn’t feeling confident with cooking because I royally screwed up my first attempt of beef stroganoff on Sunday. The recipe said to cover and simmer for an hour. I had no idea I was supposed to stir occasionally! The sweet thing is, Alan scraped off some off the top (the edible portion) and actually complimented it! Aww.

Jun 4


1.

Last night had date night with zee dude. Alan was pretty sweet and accommodating to go watch a documentary on babies (aptly entitled Babies) with me. The documentary followed 4 babies from different corners of the world, San Francisco, Namibia, Mongolia, and Tokyo. It’s ALL babies, the documentary. No narration, hardly any other dialogue save the gurgles, baby coos, and baby teary outrages for an hour and 20 minutes. We laughed out loud a few times and I enjoyed it but it was a little slower than I was hoping. My rating is 3/5 stars. See trailer below.

When we got home, Alan reattached his manly bits by watching first game of NBA championship series. ;)


2.

Our fridge at work has pictures of current lab members. The photos have to be humorous and non-serious. I thought I could go unnoticed without a picture up but it has recently been threatened that if I don’t put a picture up, someone else will take one of me and post it. I value my autonomy so I cropped myself out of this photo taken from the weekend.

photo bomb
Photo courtesy of Jason’s facebook


3.

I finished listening to Julia Child’s My Life in France (Ten fricking CDs). It inspired me to buy her first Mastering French Cooking book. I think I’m going to make my 2nd quiche from that book this coming week. If you don’t know how to read or speak French or even sound out French words, I recommend getting the audio book to listen to instead of the actual book to read. It’s fun to repeat after the reader and laugh at yourself as you drive to and from work.


4.

I finished this book at the end of February and much to Martin‘s chagrin, I still haven’t done the book review. As much as I wanted to. I just didn’t quite understand the ending. But up to the ending it was a very humorous story about a Fup, duck (named for “Fucked up”), a grumpy but hilarious Grandfather, and his grandson, Tiny. Written in the early eighties, the story was outrageous and makes you want to own a pet duck with as much character as Fup. (She enjoys chick flicks and bullies the dogs and if memory serves, she also drinks alcohol religiously.) I’m afraid I can’t offer that much of a review, but lucky for you Martin wrote a thorough review on his blog.


5.


So last week’s 7 Quick Takes, I shared that I made my first lasagna and how excited I was. Lasagnas aren’t too terribly exciting but I’m not a skilled cook and the most mundane cooking skills (making lasagnas) are new and wondrous to me. Intimidating at first sight but fulfilling when accomplished. And I’m always surprised when things turn out well. I was surprised that the lasagna was edible and Alan’s even told me he could eat it again and wish he had more. This week’s mundane to others but intimidating kitchen skill I tackled was ZEE PINEAPPLE! I’ve always steered clear of buying a whole pineapple and cutting it myself. I’m a give it to mom to cut or buy it already precut kind of girl when it comes to this tropical fruit.

Emboldened by my conquering the lasagna (and recently the quiche), I finally conquered my silly fear of cutting a pineapple. It’s not very hard. You cut off the top and bottom, and shave off the skin. Then cut in desired pieces. All that fear for nothing. The pineapple recipe I chose was from my Steamy Kitchen cook book. Involved grilling the pineapple, drizzling coconut rum chocolate sauce on the top and sprinkling coconut flakes on the chocolate. The combination was a hit or miss with our Memorial Day pot luck crowd. Brother hated it, Brittany loved it.

cutting a pineapple isn't that hard!


6.


Recently, I’ve noticed I’ve taken an interest in nature and green surroundings. I credit this to working at a job that requires me to walk about 20-40 minutes from and to my car. The University has great landscaping. Also, I’ve never been the kind to take leisurely walks outside unless it’s an outlet mall but Brandi and I have been walking more in our neighborhood. 6 months ago, I wouldn’t ever think to myself, look at those leaves! Those leaves are different shape from the other leaves on the tree. Or lookit that flower! It’s practically the only flower on that tree!

But it’s happening. I like flowers and leaves that are not delivered to me in a vase (those won’t ever get old, just to be clear :p).

flowers!
cell phone picture from one of our walks


7.

I always run out of things to share by 7. 2 of my closest friends turned 27 and 26 yesterday and today. So happy birthday Will and Jen T. My brother got accepted into a PhD program in San Antonio. Congrats to him.

Happy Friday to everyone who reads my dribble. Thanks for that by the way. Reading. Say hi or something :).
Jun 3

Because I’m juggling 3 books at the moment and haven’t started my book club’s book for June yet, opening my copy of Eat, Pray, Love is not top priority right now. I was catching up on my DVRed Oprahs last week and saw Julia Roberts promoting Eat, Pray, Love the movie. The show has made me inch my copy of the book up a little on my list. During the show, Oprah interviewed the cast members asking them what their eat, pray, and love look like to them. It inspired some reflection and I thought I’d share with you my eat, pray, love.


Eat


Anything my mom makes. I could happily live forever on my mom’s cooking. If I had to narrow it down to just one dish for the rest of my life, I’m going to have to say momma’s bun rieu.

bun rieu
(Link to my food blog about bun rieu).


Pray

My pray is gratitude and being present. It’s when things are calm and happy and I’m present enough to know I’m experiencing a beautiful moment, be it a field of bluebonnets, a shared cackle with friends, or a quiet squeeze of a hand. To appreciate and savour is my pray.


(blog post)


Love

It’s hard to choose from my myriad of personal photos a handful of images that illustrates what love looks like to me. Simply put, it’s time well spent with my family and friends. It’s sharing life.

love looks like..
love looks like..
love looks like..


What are your Eat, Pray, Love?

May 21


1.


I’m moving in less than a month and have not started to tackle the mountain of a challenge of packing and uncluttering. Every year, I move. Every year, I tell myself, “Linda, you must not buy so much stuff. Do you need all these miniskirts? You are a working woman and you can only wear these skirts two days a week!” Etc! The only good thing about moving is that it’s a good time to reminisce and take stock of your physical life and your emotional life. Letters from old friends surface. Sentimental keepsakes surface. Journals are opened and perused before stacked neatly in boxes. I’m looking forward to going down memory lane. It’s a moving tradition.


2.


One of my 2010 resolutions is to write 15 letters. I wrote a few for Valentine’s Day but I cannot for the life of me remember how many. I think 4 is lowballing. I forgot this was a resolution so I haven’t been keeping out. I think it’s safe I’ve sent at least 7 this year. I’ll start the count there. I’ve been meaning to write Suki of SuperDuperFantastic for what, a month now and that first letter to someone is always kind of intimidating.

I’m almost out of my Lisa Frank stickers circa SECOND GRADE. That’s 1990! I like to sticker bomb my correspondents with stickers from my massive childhood collection. See below, Kim’s facebook photo of a letter I sent her a few weeks ago.

letter

The sweet blurb she posted with picture:


one of the best qualities to find in people is their ability to remain young at heart. playing in the snow, getting excited about fireworks or making smores, water balloon fights, lisa frank sticker-bombing notes to your friends. i hope we never grow up.


3.

Curious, I did a search on zee blog and found a picture from this year of a batch of cards I sent out for Valentine’s day. I counted 5 in this picture. Booyah! I have adjusted my letter/correspondent count to 8.


Original Blog Post


4.

my first lasagna!

Alan just gave me a morning call to thank me for the serving of lasagna I dropped off last night. (I like early morning calls from him.) I made my first lasagna!! The excitement still hasn’t completely worn off. Made it for a mini potluck. Mini includes myself, Bing, Deesh, and Jesse in attendance. Here’s a picture of my plate pre baked beans. Kind of funny. Do you see any vegetables? Not pictured is Jesse’s cake.

Potluck

In our defense, we winged it. This potluck’s only stipulation was “bring what you want.”


5.

I had my first and hopefully my last Double Down this week. I give you permission to be disgusted at me. If I’m going down though, I’m taking my partners in crime with me. See photo of guilty partners in crime below.

partners in crime.


6.

Remember how I told you Brittany and I were making eyes at a real live camel? I have proof! This was taken at the Bob Bullock Museum after a free screening of Arabia (IMAX & 3D).

Camel? Camel!
Don’t be coy with me, Camel.


7.


I’ve sat and contemplated no. 7 for a while now. I give up and share with you another picture. A wipe board message from an undergraduate who left our lab. I never get used to that part of growing up, the goodbyes :(.

Goodbyes :(
Apr 2


1.

I thought it was a full week since I’ve updated this blog and it was giving me withdrawal. My happy posting schedule is 5-7 times at the very minimum. (I’ve been slammed in terms of schedule and my food blog’s new layout was giving me an obsession that was sucking my blog posting time.) This got me thinking. I LOVE it when my real life friends start blogs. I love reading about their lives and seeing what they deemed appropiate to share with the world. I noticed though, save for a few select people, the dedication towards posting frequency is usually lacking. This may also fuel my dedication to commenting on a lot of of their blogs as kind of a motivation, that HI, I read your blog. I’m your friend. You OWE ME AN UPDATE. :) Damnit.


2.

Anthony Bourdain is the shit.

I saw Anthony Bourdain with Jamie last night. I knew I always really really really liked him maybe even love. But after last night, I’m more deeply so!! He’s the shit. Curses more in person. Hilarious. Really mean. With a good center. I will post a recap next week on the food blog. This got me thinking though. If I have a type in men, it’s funny mean men with a good center. It really explains a lot.


3.

Speaking of my attraction to funny mean men. I got April Fooled by the boyfriend a couple of nights ago (past midnight so it was totally legit.) Dude woke me up and told me that the last guy’s night he had, he got drunk and made out with a girl and couldn’t tell me til now. I sat right up, shot him dagger eyes, and was about to let him have it when he very just-in-timely shouted out, “APRIL FOOLS” and then laughed his butt off.

Clearly. I have a type.


4.

I had sweetbread for the first time ever. I’ve had haggis, and pig’s intestines, and silkworms, and other odd conceptually unappetizing foods in my life and have enjoyed them. I was still surprised in hindsight that I did not get queasy eating sweetbread. I think perhaps I wasn’t quite sure if I remembered correctly what it was and did not want to scare my eating partner from not trying it. In case you don’t know what sweetbread is, check it on my Friday Food Definition for today.


5.

I love good funny dialogue. Yesterday, an organization on campus chose to remember the Holocaust by handing out 1,000 white roses. I did not know this. I walked down the hallway and saw 3 white roses in a vase at work. That’s the scene for the following dialogue.

Me: OOooh!!! Flowers!!!
My Boss: Don’t get excited, Linda. They’re for the Holocaust.

Cracked me up that, “Don’t get excited.”

Later:

Someone else at work: So they thought today (4/1/2010) is the best day to celebrate the Holocaust?
Yet another person: Celebrate?
Me: Muhahahahahahhahahahahahah

My Boss walks by at this point in the conversation.

Boss: Don’t get excited, Linda

Tickled. I was absolutely tickled. (I don’t think I need to clarify, I’m not making light of the Holocaust. My readers (a few IRL friends mostly) are smart enough to know that.)


6.

The last 6 months or so, I’ve been working on speaking my mind in relationships. It’s a skill everyone should have and I do think at 26, I’m a late bloomer to only start practicing and developing the habit now. Growing up, my parents programmed me (program seems more apt a word than “raise”) that whenever people hurt you, don’t let them know as it’s a sign of weakness. That MAY be true. I’m not sure if it is a sign of weakness, admitting pain, but what I am sure of, and it took me til recently to put together the pieces, is bottling resentment is not conducive to keeping people in your life. Communicating feelings, even when they’re bad, gives people the opportunity to understand where you’re coming from. Gives you the opportunity to maybe hear their perspective and therefore understand them better. Finally, it gives your relationship room to not only grow, but survive.


7.

Jumping from number 6, another lesson that I’m learning is that just because you communicate your feelings, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get the results you want and expect. For instance, I was hurt last year by several people. In efforts to speak my mind more, I tried telling them as clearly as I could what it was that bothered me. I was taken aback when not once did they acknowledge the validity of my feelings and was a little disillusioned by the ‘speaking your mind’ thing. It doesn’t ensure anything! Since then, I’ve learned that though it doesn’t mean you’ll get what you want (seriously ya”ll, apologies and conveying understanding = magic), the ability to communicate your feelings is a reward in itself.
Mar 29

Ah, back to the grind :( It’s Monday.

Here are a few of my favorite snapshots from the weekend.

crawfish boil
Mmm. Shrimp and crawfish boil at Jamie’s!

crawfish jumper
Don’t jump!!!!!

me
Usually candid shots don’t work out for me. This one is kind of cute if I weren’t doing anything weird with my posture. Taken by Jamie.

Last Rights
Albert & I share a prayer for the poor crawfish…

Baby Pose
She actually started doing this pose as soon as I put my camera on her.

Ratchet Magazines
Ratchet ponders over the impossible beauty standards set by magazines.

Chedds Memory
Bunch of foodies trying out gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches at Chedd’s

Feb 23

1. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Pistachio gelato. Or coconut.

2. What is your earliest memory?

Living in a 2 bedroom apartment with my half siblings, younger brother, and parents. My brother and I slept on a queen bed and my parents slept on the floor. We moved to an actual house also when I was pretty young, but I think this is my earliest memory.

3. What is your earliest memory of a dessert?

As a kid, every time we went to an Asian market, my parents would let my brother and I pick one dessert to bring home. I always picked out this yellow and green dessert made out of mung bean and tapioca. I used to LOVE as a kid. It’s kind of gummy and really sticky. I haven’t had it since I was a kid. Revisiting it in 2009, I don’t really like it. It’s almost too plain for me. I think I must have liked just peeling it in strips and playing with it. Below is a picture of Dave scrutinizing it.

4. Do you have any recurring dreams?

Nope. I used to. I used to dream about my childhood best friend and him coming back to my life every 6 months or so but it’s about almost 2 years I’m guessing since I’ve had that dream.

5. Have you ever dreamed about dessert?

Yes. I forget who was feeding me, but someone in my life was spoon feeding me melted chocolate over and over again. And over and over again. Dream lasted about 10 minutes of this sequence. Best dream ever!

6. What is one thing (aside from a cell phone or computer) that you cannot go the entire day without?

Chapstick.

7. What is one dessert you could go your entire life without ever having again?

Anything lemony.

8. If you could go on vacation tomorrow, where would you go? (Assume someone else is footing the bill, but within reason…so “the moon” won’t work)

Paris!

9. If you could have any dessert tomorrow, what would you have (assume someone else is buying it for you. Within reason though, no “gold sprinkled ice cream cones.”)

Any kind of egg custards. Creme brulees. Flan. Egg custards from dim sum.

10. What was your first impression of your significant other? If you’re single, what was your first impression of your best friend?

The dude: First impression the very very first time: super quiet. He thought I talked too much, which I do.

My best friend: “This girl has a booger….” (This was back in first grade though, she’s better about the boogers now. (As am I.))

Feb 22

Lots of happy moments this weekend. Listed in chronological order:

  • I saw Brit, Deesh, and Bing whom I haven’t seen in a while. We sat through a pretty atrocious movie (Obsessed).
  • A group of nine of us tackled the biggest pizza we’ve ever laid eyes on.
  • Jess, Brandi, and I had an in home spa night. Never held my face over a boiling pot of green tea before.
  • I had brunch with the lovely Selina and our conversation was very thereauptic.
  • Took a leisurely walk around our neighborhood wearing a skirt. It was warm enough to wear a skirt and flip flops! The weather climbed to 76 degrees. Of course we’re due for below freezing weather again. They say if you don’t like Texas weather, wait 5 minutes.
  • Had lunch with and hugged someone I hadn’t seen in a while and missed.


Tell me about YOUR weekend. What brought you joy?
Feb 15
New Food Blog :) Finally
icon1 Linda | icon2 savory | icon4 02 15th, 2010| icon32 Comments »

Last week, I went to lunch with Tracey where she encouraged me to start an exclusive food blog. Right now all my food blogs are housed alongside my other miscellaneous entries in this blog and categorized under “savory.” The current count in my savory category is 200. I think it’s about time to create a food blog. So that’s what I did! There will no longer be new food blog entries posted on this blog and will instead be posted here: http://girleatsworld.curious-notions.net. I’m also copying over all 200 entries over from here to Girl Eats World. I’m working backwards and I’ve thus far transferred over February 2010 to September 2009. Oi!

I’ll still keeping this blog as a personal blog and I hope to have you keep me company at both Curious Notions and Girl Eats World.

Thanks :).

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