my new home

so, adam needed his cyberspace and i've been booted off cliffdwellerpottery. notice i'm not linking to his page, it's my little form of protest. i bet it lasts at least a week

viva la resistance!!

he was all bunched up by the pictures of me and my friends (like we dont make any page we're on better!!) on his "serious pottery" sight so i'm taking my show on the road, and PEACE to cliffdweller, eat my dust n shit. he's anti-sparkle, i don't even know how this is going to work out between us. anyway, just as a lark, let's start the countdown until "serious pottery" site contains any pottery shall we? in the name of "i'm going to bring this up to him every day until he does something with it" ness. and the holiday spirit.

although it might actually be soon that he gets going, since his ass was locked in the basement like a hobbitt all weekend making giant jars and stuff. he also made the transition to porcelain, which is exciting. last night he made 10 little plates and 10 big ones, in preparation for a dish set he's making for his cousin.

next on my list of things i need him to make me is a bean pot. i love beans and i want a special bean pot, with nice big handles i can pick up even with oven mitts on.

so i started a new knitting project last night, with the last of my stash of green Rowan Polar yarn. it's pretty and i'm making one scarf for me, and one for courtney (hi honey!). i'm going to post the picture of mine, which is ribbed but not of court's which is a little fancier. i'd post pics this morning, but for some reason i left my digital camera at home like a dumbass. now i have nothing to do here but work. and blog :o)

i'll post pics from the weekend later. i haven't yet gotten into the crazy animal lady bit online, so i'm going to do that too. i took some pics of the petters this weekend doing funny stuff so look for those later, probably tomorrow since management will still be out of the office, affording me the luxury of uninterrupted cubicle olympics. i've decided to fully embrace my inner crazy old lady. i'm just not going to give this address to anyone who doesn't already know about her

cheese a palooza

listening to: Six Feet Under volume 2.

I'm on a bit of a kick with this CD. It's my new cooking music. It's very interesting and diverse.

So for no particular reason other than I haven't in a while, I'm cooking up a storm today. Of messy stuff too, not just soup in a pan.

spinach artichoke dip deluxe and mexican dip deluxe. there is a LOT of cheese involved in this day. then when those come out of the oven, im heading up the street to get some guinness and making guinness beef stew. it's a little warm out today, but i've been thinking about it for weeks so i'm just going for it.

this is the recipe i'm using for beef stew. it's awesome. i use more beer and more vegetables than they do.
http://www.recipe-source.com/soups/stews/03/rec0322.html

cheers!
-k

insomniac theater

currently listening to: damien rice, o

i guess its not that insomniac-y anymore, since this (5am) is a normal time for people to get up. not me, but people like the people who take the bus and truck drivers and stuff. but i've been up since 3. i broke a stupid glass (yes it was stupid. why else was it on the sink ledge? i am crabby and refuse all blame) when i went to pee and then i had to clean it up and by the time i was done, i was wide awake. so im kicking it and thought i would post the soup recipe, as promised. times like now i wish i had nintendo.

meow, i did try to measure for this because i said i would but it's annoying and i'm impatient, so i only measured the stuff that i thought really mattered. i would just say to all the people who think they need exact amounts that they should relax, or google a recipe. err on the side of caution when adding more stuff but the awesome thing about soup is that if you overdo something you can just add water and make more soup. so just try stuff.


This takes about an hour start to finish, but can be sped up if you're starved.

Here's what you need to get at the store:

Lentils, 1 bag.
Onions
Garlic
Jalapeno, 1 fresh
Better than boullion paste. Don't get the cubes, it is *not* the same. It comes in a little jar, and is in the soup aisle or the spice aisle, depending on your store.
Frozen veggies- get what you like. Adam and I buy bags by the dozen so we always have a selection, but if you're not ready to commit like that i'd say at least get 1 mix bag (carrots, peas, corn and lima beans), one bag of CHOPPED spinach, and chopped broccoli (the little little pieces)

Optional extras:
Barley
instant mashed potatoes
rice or something

Stuff I'm assuming you have in your spice rack:
spices (at least a few of these: parsley, cumin, oregano, salt, black pepper, thyme, bay leaf)

Get a pan out.

Chop the onion
chop the garlic
chop the jalapeno.

Put it all in the pan. wash your hands. WASH YOUR HANDS. jalapeno in the eye hurts like a motherfuc*er. wash the cutting board and the knife too, and wash your hands again. seriously. when you get it in the eye, think of me, i understand your pain.

Put 8 cups of water, less bouillion stuff than they say to, 1 bay leaf, 1 chopped onion, the jalapeno, chopped up (i use the seeds and all, it's totally your call) a bunch of garlic (whole cloves, chopped, minced, all of the above- use a lot, it gets very sweet when you cook it in soup, and it's good for you), 1 cup of lentils, and some spices in a pan. don't use more than 1tsp of cumin, or thyme. those 2 are things that it's bad when you use too much of. pepper, parsley, garlic etc are things i think you would be hard pressed to ruin something with. put this conglomerate on high until it boils, then lower it to simmer or you'll blow out your lentils. now go away for 30 min or so. why don't you do some dishes or something?

when you come back, taste your stuff. it should be delicious. if it's not, add some more stuff. if it's delicious, add the veggies and turn it up to medium. 20 minutes and soup's on.

If it's cold out or this is your lunch and you're hungry, throw some instant mashed potatoes in your bowl, it thickens the soup up enough to make it feel like a meal. Barley's good in it too, but never use more than 1/4 cup- seriously use WAY less than you think you should. That should be added when you first start everything, it takes like 45 min to cook.

mmm, more pottery. giant pottery

So Adam got another load from the wood kiln this week, and in it was his giant vase which will hopefully be accepted for the student art show coming up.

Here's a picture of him gazing wistfully at his pot. He's in love with it. I think they're probably doing it right now
The sweet, sweet caress...





Do you two want to be alone ?







Seriously though, it's very nice and HUGE. It's currently livening up the stairway landing for those of you familiar with the place. I'm going to get som stick-y things to stick in it. It's gonna be awesome.

Here are some solo shots from the front and back:


The imprints and flashes of color are from the shells he laid it on in the kiln.

This load also contained a bunch of mugs, which I will take pictures of probably this weekend, and some bowls which I am looking forward to filling with noodles and peanut butter sauce. mmmmmmm

the soup

I'm off to create a new batch right now, and this time I'm going to measure for the people. The soup rules. It's cheap, delicious, good for you, versatile AND it keeps you regular. Yep, it's official, I'm getting old. I care about things like being kept regular. Don't wrinkle your nose just because the subject is poop. We all know how much it sucks when that highway is sluggish.

And another solid point in the pro column of the soup is that it's fast cheap and easy as a meal. You just make a bunch and stick it in the fridge and if you're too lazy to cook just eat the soup. Don't have time to cook, heat up some soup. Got the snakkity snaks? have some soup, maybe just a little. It's pretty much nutritionally complete as a meal as far as I can tell so when you're in a slump or a lazy phase, or having a crazy week (we all have them) you can pretty much live off it without worrying you're doing something bad to your body or depriving it of anything. Maybe grab a multivitamin just in case.

The soup and a multivitamin. mmmm. and some diet coke. now this is living.

Anyway, I'll be back later with more tales of soupy goodness.

Bachelorette Party Goodness

The bachelorette party went off without a hitch, all the stressing, fretting, freaking out and planning paid off. We started the day at a salon on Newbury St that I refuse to name because I didn't like them that much ;o) From there it was onto lunch and the start of festivities at the Ritz. Jenn and Court went early to set things up in the room (ice for the champagne and other important stuff) and then Holly, Christy, Kristina and I followed. For some reason I got put in charge of driving and directions. We made it to the Ritz, grabbed our giant box of penis cookies and headed up to the 10th floor, walking in like we owned the place. Sadly we were at the *wrong* Ritz, so when we were unable to find the right room number, we shuffled the party downstairs to try to get the car back from the valet and get directions to the right hotel, about 5 blocks away. The new Ritz was WAY better and our room totally kicked ass. The bathroom was big enough for all of us to be in there at once, which we did (because we could). As in all classy institutions, the toilet is segregated for the sanity of all.

I had a little brush with fame too. while waiting for the elevator I noticed the other guy waiting looked familiar. After racking my brain I figured out it was Artie from the Howard Stern show. I asked him to be sure and he confirmed. After that I completely ran out of things to say, I have no idea why. I don't think I was starstruck, but when else has anyone heard of me being quiet?? Anyway, it was enough for me. I didnt take his picture because he was tired and said he had just been on the road. I know that feeling and I didn't want to be obnoxious. It would have been nice to have proof though!

So after opening ceremonies and pregame, we headed out to the Cactus Club to meet with Holly's family for dinner and some drinks. Shenanigans began almost immediately, when someone in the crowd was peer pressured into tossing a pink feather boa onto a stuffed moose:

Luckily, only one staff member saw this and like all good apathetic employees, he just smiled and kept his mouth shut.

Well you can dress us up, and take us out, but looks can be deceiving...

Like Holly here: See how pretty and classy she looks? We all looked that nice...for about 20 minutes.





















As the night wore on, the class started rubbing off a bit. me ? Belligerent? noooooooo

I'm just being really enthusiastic!

Towards the end of the night, relations went downhill. I think Whitney Plousston sums it up nicely:
I think she's saying "why do we have to leave? only 6 of us have fallen, hardly any of us are hurt, and noones going to remember any of it in the morning!"













So it was back to the Ritz with us, where we talked more about the bigger issues in life,

Come morning, it was ugly: Not us, the room. Apparently during the late night shenanigans and multiple fallings down, wrestling matches, pig piles and other festivities, we trashed that place like rock stars. go us!!

The Tiara

Dun dun da dunnnnnnnnn, dun dun da dunnnnnn....

That's the wedding march or whatever it's called for those of you who can't hear the tunes in my head. Holly's bachelorette party is this weekend and preparations are underway. I've started work on the tiara, it's coming along nicely.

Who needs a stinking $30 monstrosity??? Not Holly. Nope, she needs a monstrosity of a whole different sort, one that was made with love (nothing against sweatshops)

So here are a couple of photos I snagged with my cameraphone, because my real camera was here at work:


This is the beginning . I tried *everything* to twist those f*cking letters. In the end, none of my trickery worked and I had to do it by hand, with just some elbow grease. and some beer.




Here's a pic from halfway through,
just after I got the letters attached to the tiara part. It's way more obnoxious now, I've added some sparkles and flowers and pearls (oh my), but I got all mad scientist about it and completely forgot to keep taking pics. I'm going to have to work on this.

More pics soon, stay tuned to see the final product!!!




Ok, here is a later series picture. It's not quite done yet, I think it needs more cowbell!!!