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January 2012 in Review

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Read:

  • An Everlasting Meal: A lovely collection of sharply written essays on making a meal out of nothing.  Five stars on Good Reads.
  • Salvage the Bones: A family in the simmering days before Hurricane Katrina. Three point five stars.
  • Wool: Delightful post-apocalyptic short story recommended by my friend bukuwawa. Five stars because I usually hate post-apocalyptic.
  • The Table Comes First: Ruminations on the origin and nature of restaurants, recipes and more from the wordy Adam Gopnik. Three stars because it needs an editor but bumping it to four stars because it’s way better than I was expecting.

Watched:

  • The Artist: Oh look a movie without gratuitous violence and sex, overwrought dialogue or  complicated plot. How refreshing. Four stars on Netflix.
  • The Descendents: Didn’t think George had it in him but this is pretty good and definitely my favorite out of the Academy Award Best Picture nominees (of the ones I’m willing to see). Not that that’s saying much given its company. Four stars.
  • Life in a Day: Interesting enough. Three stars.
  • Bad Teacher: Is it bad that I didn’t think this was awful? It was certainly as entertaining as Life in a Day. Three stars.
  • Jane Eyre: Never been a Bronte fan however this recent version directed by Cary Fukunaga was a pretty good adaptation. Three stars.
  • Game of Thrones: I got bored a little towards the end with all the politicking about rightful heirs to the throne and all that but the end saved it. Holy cow! Five stars.

Listened to:

Ate:

  • Little Serow – that duck egg duck dish and the chicken liver paste stuff and the short ribs.
  • Venison tartar and the St. Innocent pinot noir at Table 21 at VOLT
  • Pate and country ham banh mi at Pho 14
  • Bao at Mark’s Duck House
  • Make these fish tacos or this roast chicken.

Other Notables:

  • Did not die.
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TWENTY TWELVE [jazz hands]

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I meant to do this last week or, you know, before January 20 26 31, but when we got back from vacation I was so tired and sick that the only resolution I could muster for 2012 was Survive. 2011 was a great year for me, by most peoples’ measure, but 2011 awful. What was with 2011? Let’s just burn it to the ground.

But now I’m sleeping normal hours so I’m finally ready to sparkle in 2012! Or, at the very least, survive + lil bit of sparkle.

On one of my favorite websites, the DayZero Project, they came up with 7 Things x 2012. I thought it was a great prompt for identifying the things you want to accomplish. Here’s what I filled in after I changed them about twenty times.

  1. Learn how to take really awesome food photos

    2. My half-baked efforts to document cooking projects make Cartier-Bresson vomit in his grave. I really want to take better pictures all around but I don’t get out much so the only things I can photograph are at home and the hamster already filed a restraining order against me.

  2. Start a garden on my roof.

    3. If I’m going to be paying for a roof deck I’m making it green and lush and grow plants and food and shit. Also I want all of you to come over for dinner when the weather gets nice. All of you!

  3. Stop buying books for my Kindle when the library has a great selection of them for free.

    4. There are a lot of things I probably shouldn’t do – listen to music on a high volume on my iPod, drink more than a (couple) glass(es) of wine on random Tuesday nights, etc. – but I don’t really want to stop doing these things because they also make me happy. And a happy short (and deaf) life is still a happy life. So I dunno. Stop being lazy? Anyway I thought this was a good one. Go libraries! [ed. note: I am already failing horribly at this.]

  4. Take a vacation to Japan

    5. Barring some catastrophic event in my life or, Allah forbid, the entire country sinking under the Pacific ocean, this is all but a certainty for my 2012 as far as I’m concerned. Famous last words, eh?

  5. Find a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle.

    6. Find a new favorite book? Clothes that fit? A cause to support? Ways to make my life’s dreams come true? Hell no. I’m getting me an expensive bottle of bourbon.

  6. Try making 101 different kinds of pizza.

    7. I’m using this Big Yearlong Project to tackle a few things on my list: successfully keep a sourdough starter alive, make pizza dough with the starter, preserve my own tomatoes and make homemade cheese. And since I already know that there is no way I can make 101 different kinds of pizza in 365(!) days this falls under “try.”

  7. Be more active.

    8. I want to hike more! And take up boxing. And ballet! And get a bike and bike to brunch on the weekends and maybe even to work some days. All of those things.

And some more stupid things thrown in:

  • Use that bloody pasta maker that I asked for and received on my birthday last year
  • Update my blog theme
  • Go diving – I’m not sure how I’ll swing this (do people SCUBA in Japan?) but this is on here to try to make it happen.
  • Throw more dinner parties. I love to cook and we’re getting really fat from eating all of it ourselves. Will you come over for dinner?
  • Go camping/cabining for the first time in my life. Sit by a campfire and drink bourbon and make s’mores.
  • Eat more sushi. I just really like sushi.

So here’s to another year dedicated to the selfish hedonistic pursuit.  Kanpai!

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Holy crap.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

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This is a letter I wrote to myself over ten years ago on the last day of high school. The teacher who made us write it tracked us down and sent them to us after the 10 year reunion. I just got it and I’m a little afraid to open it.

I wrote “For Arlene’s Eyes Only” on the back because it was addressed to my parents’ home and suspicious teenager that I was believed my mom would open it without permission.

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2011 tl;dr

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I know I usually write up a cutesy holiday newsletter at the end of the year but this year I was out of the country. Now I’m back and jet lagged and fighting a cold and not much happened the second half of the year so let’s just get this 2011 Holiday Newsletter over with quickly: got a new job, moved in with my boyfriend to Logan Circle, got scuba certified, ran a half marathon, made the Alton Brown Flower Pot Smoker, and went to India. Also read some books and made some food and watched some tv and stuff. I’m exhausted.

Superlatives:

Best Book: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (nonfiction) and The Art of Fielding (fiction)

Best TV Show: Breaking Bad

Best Movie: Bill Cunningham New York

Best Music:  Youth Lagoon

Best Food Item: The Tipsy Texan at Franklin BBQ

2011 Monthly Reviews:

January

February

March

April/May

June

July

August/September/October

November/December

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November & December 2011 in Review

Monday, January 9, 2012

Finishing out the year of tracking what I did! I’m really glad I kept up with all this stuff even if no one was interested in reading it. Also I’m dying from jet lag right now and need something to keep me awake until a respectable hour (10pm).

Read:

Watched + Star Ratings (Out of Five)

  • Movies on the plane: Crazy Stupid Love (****), Footloose (zero), The Help (*), One Day (slept through)
  • Movies in theater: Shame (****), Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (***)
  • Movies at home: Beginners (*****), Attack the Block (****), Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (***), The Trip (***)

Listened

  • I figured out that my favorite music genre is anything I can do a two-step shuffle to while holding a glass of wine and making dinner. So the past two months were mostly M83 and Youth Lagoon.

Ate

  • Highlights include Caesar salad at The Majestic, pork belly nachos at Black Jack, the half smoke at Komi, and my christmas gift from Adam, a bottle of Laphroaig.

Did

  • Variety of social events, Adam’s 30th birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, going to India, jet lag.

Also while I was in India I decided this camera is going right in the trash. Know anyone who wants a DSLR with a pop-up flash that needs to be held down with electric tape?

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danke.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

(American) Thanksgiving is seriously the best holiday. A celebration of family, food, and gratefulness! This year I was grateful for living past the age of twenty-five, and that no one cared an iota when I gave up on NoBloPaMo. Oh yous guys! I’m verklempt.

My parents ditched me for a more expensive locale so for the first time in my life I spent Thanksgiving with my boyfriend’s family which was mostly uneventful except at twenty-eight I learned that other people have different Thanksgiving traditions. Apparently my family and I are total freaks because we eat dinner before 4pm but I’m amazed that any of you last that long. What do you eat for breakfast and lunch? NON THANKSGIVING FOOD?! Totally un-American.

I became further convinced that an evening start time was a terrible idea when we arrived home after dinner around 9pm. We’d been plied with turkey and eight kinds of stuffing and dessert, not to mention a fine selection of Adam’s uncle’s uh-mazing whiskey collection (Pappy Van Winkle woot woot!), and I fell asleep at 9:30 and didn’t wake up until twelve hours later. If we’d eaten at 2 I could’ve had a nap at 4 then rallied for more food/whiskey! It’s like you people have no idea how to consume the maximum amount of calories in a single day.

Anyway there isn’t much else to report about the long weekend. The weather was glorious so we did the only thing we know how to do when it’s nice and we want to be outside don’t want to drive anywhere: go to the zoo. It’s crazy how often we go to the zoo considering we hate crowds, children and watching animals suffer, but there it is. Lack of imagination I guess. The zoo is especially depressing if you go a lot because then you have a pretty good idea of how many animals *used* to be in that cage.

Anyway here’s a video of the sloth bear. They gave him some sort of sock with treats in it and here’s his sad little attempt to get them out, accented by the coo of the crowd and some of my obnoxious commentary.

Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was what you wanted it to be.

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Charming.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Adam: Maybe we should book some hotels for this two week trip we’re leaving for in four weeks.
Me [whiny voice]: Unnnnggghh why doesn’t Target.com have the Christmas string lights I waaaannnnnnnt.

#GAHnablopomofailbutifullyintendtosoldieronandblog

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I Miss Old Google Reader

Monday, November 21, 2011

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Bethesda Bagels in Dupont

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Bagels! But nowhere to sit :( laptop lurkers are ruining casual breakfast joints all over America.

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A Selection of Earworms I Had at Work In The Last Six Weeks (When I Remembered to Write Them Down)

Thursday, November 17, 2011
Song Date Time
     
I’ve Got the World on a String 8/24/2011 1:39 PM
Rock me Sexy Jesus 8/25/2011 2:39 PM
Ducktails Theme Song 8/25/2011 3:19 PM
Rock you Like a Hurricane – Scorpians 8/31/2011 2:54 PM
Foux de Fa Fa – Flight of the Conchords 9/1/2011 5:30 PM
Teach Me How to Dougie 9/2/2011 9:31 AM
The Greatest Love of All – Whitney Houston 10/13/2011 2:54 PM
You Are Everything – The Stylistics 10/13/2011 3:38 PM
Muppet Babies Theme Song 10/14/2011 1:35 PM
Let’s Hear It For The Boys – Deniece Williams 10/14/2011 2:14 PM
Straight Up – Paul Abdul 10/18/2011 10:19 AM
99 LuftBalloons – Nena 10/21/2011 3:04 PM
Dust in the Wind – Kansas 10/31/2011 10:39 AM
Let’s All Go To the Lobby Theme 11/2/2011 2:42 PM

Not listed: immeasurable number of times I’ve had “Part of Your World” stuck in my head.

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