A few quick updates:

First, pictures!
We went down to the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights a couple of weeks ago. The theme was pirates! Pictures I took from Tuna Harbor are here. (I put them and the Xmas pics in my other picasa gallery, the "family-safe" one. Ha.)
I took a few pics on Xmas with the family, they're here.
And finally, I made zucchini-chocolate biscotti for my mom and Scott for Xmas, and it turned out amazingly good, even though I was totally winging it, recipe-wise. The recipe is over at Cooking in Esco.

Links for 2007-12-26 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2007-12-26 [del.icio.us]

• Cool Stuff: Batcave Home Theater | /Film
  I am soooo jealous of whoever has this in their house.

Vandals Winter Formal

It ruled. They covered "America. Fuck Yeah!" from Team America and for the last encore, Warren did a mash-up of "The First Noel" and Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" and it was amazing. I paid 6 bucks for Bud Light in a can. Oh LA. Then we met up with Aaron and his brother and went to Mel's and had beers and food and laughed at people, because there was some seriously funny shit. Oh also, as we were walking to the House of Blues, some dudes were apparently trying to rob that Pink Dot liquor store on Sunset and so we got to stand at the light there, waiting to cross, while the cops had like 8 dudes on the ground with guns out and all that shit. Hilarity.

They're demolishing..

the Antiques Mall at 3rd and Escondido Blvd, which is right behind my apartments. They've been doing it for about a week now. This is what I get to wake up to every morning. And then I get to listen to it for 4 hours until I go to work. I think it's making me slightly batty.

Also, I'm really sick of the reoccurring dreams. And I will be happy when this Xmas thing is over. And so concludes my bitching.

Links for 2007-12-12 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2007-12-12 [del.icio.us]

• Tamales, a Mexican Feast-Day Treat - For Dummies

Links for 2007-12-10 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2007-12-10 [del.icio.us]

• Museum Store | Tree Man by Jheronymus Bosch Parastone 3D Mouseion Collection at Talaria Enterprises.com
  Hieronymus Bosch action figures! WANT

Tis the season...

for fucking weirdness. Thursday, while at work, I had these three things happen to me:
1. Ran into the uncle of a friend I had when I was 12, he recognized me even though he hadn't seen me in like 14 years, and put me back in touch with that friend.
2. Thuggish boy who looked about 18 but said he was 21 spent about 20 minutes at my window hitting on me and harassing me while I was trying to work. Eventually he began to walk away and then two seconds later he and his friends were in some sort of fight with a kid who works with me in front of my window. No idea how it started. Then they tried to fight with security. Then they ran. Cops were called, I had to give a statement, etc..
3. Was helping a woman order tickets for a show on the phone, totally normal call, then at the end she says "Oh while I have you on the phone....oregano is good for the common cold if you make a tea with it"
"Oh ok, good to know, thanks."
Then she proceeds to basically read a list of herbs and their medicinal uses for about 10 minutes, while I keep trying to get off the phone, but I can't really be rude, so I'm basically stuck listening to her. Finally, when she got to the part about about yeast infections and douching, I was like "Woah thar! OK gotta go!" and just hung up.

I'm glad I'm off for three days. Billy Ray Cyrus is playing a show there today, some benefit for Make a Wish, and it's sold out, so I'm really happy in particular that I'm not working today. Also I was fine last night and then woke up this morning with a full blown cold. Que. La. Fuck.
Today is my last day on the mountain, but now I have to drive down to my apartment to get my DayQuil. Then I have to drive down to the airport to pick up my mom and Scott at 9. Today is dumb, I'm already done with it...haha.

Links for 2007-11-30 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2007-11-30 [del.icio.us]

• Sichuan Tofu with Garlic Sauce | Fatfree Vegan Kitchen
• Rosemary Pasta in Roasted Garlic Sauce - Slashfood
• Coconut & Lime: Potato & Onion Pierogi

Links for 2007-12-01 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2007-12-01 [del.icio.us]

• TM-O-M(1.0)[fav]: Garbage In
  "artist's statement" generator

It's not even December yet...

and I'm already over this holiday shit. Time-travel would be so ideal. Haha.

I didn't get enough sleep last night, which I've figured out makes me a sad panda for no reason. Also Dayquil, even though my cold really doesn't care what time it is, is fucking my head up.

This is me at work, today has been crazy busy, things have gone wrong for no reason, it's all chaos. I think my cold secretly wishes it was nighttime though...mmmmNyquil.

Links for 2007-11-26 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2007-11-26 [del.icio.us]

• Cave People
  An entire village in China located in a cave.
• China's "last cave dwellers" refuse to leave
• Photo Slideshow | Reuters.co.uk
  More Cave Dweller pics

Links for 2007-11-25 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2007-11-25 [del.icio.us]

• The Ultimate Guide to Freezing Food | Former Fat Guy Blog
  How to freeze various types of food
• Wardrobe Refashion: Fuzzy Purple Elf Hat
  Gonna make one for my giant dome.
• Serious Eats: Recipes: Sunday Night Soups: Avgolemono
  I love love love Avgolemono but I haven't eaten it in forever because of the chicken stock...maybe I can try making it with veggie stock?
• Serious Eats: Recipes: Cook the Book: Potato Skillet Pie
  nom nom nom
• gastrokid: 40-Minute Family Meal: Pancetta, Squash and Kale Risotto
• Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit: "Best Soup Ever" Alert!!!!!
  Lentil soup recipe that sounds bomb.
• Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit: General Tao's Eggplant (Sorta)
• what the hell _does_ a vegan eat anyway?: Tofu Marsala, Green Beans, Yukon Potatoes
  mmmmmmtofumarsala

A bit of this and that...

My Thanksgiving was good, I had tofurkey for the first time and I loved it. Screw the haters, that shit was bomb. Pictures are up here at CookinginEsco, and there is a link there to the larger gallery of pictures.

Today is bread baking day...making some simple crusty bread and I'm gonna start making pitas in a bit.

The next few weeks are going to be busy and stupid as hell. Tons of xmas shows, family emergency stuff that has resulted in me having to house sit and take time off of work to do so, and other stupid shit that I've got to take care of. Ugh, stress. I really kind of hate this time of year. Especially since I just want to play in some snow.

Bas and I have the best conversations...

(20:04:07) Marie: chimay is like gods pee
(20:04:08) Bas: served to you by belgians
(20:04:10) Marie: into my mouth
(20:04:12) Bas: palm is good
(20:04:16) Bas: god's piss is rank
(20:04:28) Marie: maybe it's gods cocubine's pee
(20:04:33) Bas: jesus?
(20:04:35) Marie: like one of the greek goddesses or something
(20:04:39) Bas: ida?
(20:04:47) Marie: aphrodite
(20:04:49) Bas: ida would piss a mean cup of pee
(20:04:58) Bas: aphrodite's shit would be all herpessed up
(20:05:02) Marie: no way
(20:05:04) Marie: she's a goddess
(20:05:05) Bas: way
(20:05:07) Marie: she had magics
(20:05:11) Marie: that protect her vag

More dream fun..

So here's what I woke up from at five in the morning:
I was watching tv on a bed with some dude, I don't even know if it was someone I know in real life, or someone just made up in my mind. He gets on top of me and we're kinda making out, and he's totally a lot bigger than I am, cause really who isn't? Then in my dream-mind I think "He's going to stab you in the heart with a scalpel, he's done it before, and you died"...then he kind of pins me down with his body, and covers my mouth with his so I can't scream, and stabs me in the heart with a scalpel. I felt it go in and I lost all of my breath and I think I felt myself die. Then I woke up, with a pain in my chest and my heart trying to beat its way out. Anyone wanna try to figure that one out? Ha. (I seriously almost said "take a stab at it" which was totally unintentional and too ridiculous for words.)

I don't think I have a catchy tune to relate to this.

Tell me what ritual I should have today..

I'm not a very nightmare prone person, my dreams are strictly of the ridiculously-symbolic type. I've been having insane nightmares lately though and reoccurring dreams of car crashes and others of fire. I think it's the end of the world, because obviously I alone can forsee it via my prophetic dreams....or you know, something is just wrong up in my subconscious. It's pretty annoying though because it's sort of this self-perpetuating thing I think....of these dreams waking me up, and not getting enough sleep, so I wake up kinda sad and hurty and then it's this current of emotion running all day, which I ignore, because I'd rather not feel like shit all day, and then I go to sleep and it comes out even stronger or something. Man there is too much I would rather keep not thinking about. Ha.

Oh, and via all of that comes this: songs about fire and songs about car crashes! Or at least songs I associate with those things, or those dreams, or something.

Fire:
Sebadoh - On Fire
Portishead - It's a Fire
The Birthday Party - Sonny's Burning

Car Crashes:
Marilyn Manson - Just a Car Crash Away
The Normal - Warm Leatherette-I could seriously do a whole post about this song. That's for another day though.

Special Added Bonus Song:
The Birthday Party - Mutiny in Heaven-This is what the end of the world sounds like.

Thoughts...

The time I've felt like the biggest lush in my life was not actually when I was drunk. I don't think I was even drinking. I was making empanadas for the first time. I need to roll out the dough but I don't have a rolling pin, as I'm not much of a baker. So I use one of the myriad empty wine bottles I have lying around. Then I need to cut the dough into circles, but I have no cookie cutters. Martini glass to the rescue! It was like something out of a valium-addled 50's housewife's life. Wine bottles are seriously great rolling pins though.

I thought of this because I'm making a roasted-vegetable pot pie with biscuit dough crust right now. Something about making dough always reminds me of that time. Last weekend I learned to make sushi. It was not so reminiscent of anything, but I did get pretty drunk on sake that night. There are pics up of that adventure on Cooking in Esco.

Life

Oh man, things are so surreal right now.
I like my new job though, so I guess that's something. I saw a near old person riot at a show I had to go to for work, when an old lady began yelling at a young, female musician from the mezzanine "TURN IT DOWN! IT'S TOO LOUD!!!!" and then 20 other old people followed suit and began yelling at her. Then they all walked out, or kept complaining through the rest of the show. Hilarious and rude as fuck.

dope. guns. fucking in the streets. revolution.

This song just set me on fire. Take a listen.
Placebo - Spite & Malice (mp3 link)

Revolution, dope, guns, fucking in the streets (x2)
Aces take your time
Queens are left for dead
Jacks can stand in line
And touch themselves instead
Aces take your pity
And keep it warm in bed
Aces take your time

Cut the deck
The queens left for dead
Soft and wet, scarf tied to the bed
Jack is all tragic when he stands alone
Feeling demonic harmonic in a no go zone
You look well suited like you came to win
Lust, spite and malice, your degrees of sin
Cruising for pity and looking pretty as fuck
Ace take your chances
Queen wish you luck

Aces take your time
Draw your final breath
Jacks are feeling fine
They've clubbed themselves to death
Aces take your pity
You sleep with it instead
Aces take your time

You can play your card, I'll hold onto mine
Tied up in the reasons, Ace take your time
Looks turn to lovers, flames into fires
Jack loves his tragedy, Queen her desires
You look well suited like you came to win
Lust, spite and malice, your degrees of sin
Wrap me in your trauma and I may just give you mine
Queen take your chances
Ace take your time

Dope, guns, fucking in the streets (Revolution)
Everything will blow tonight
Either friend or foe, tonight

Cut the deck
The queens left for dead
Soft and wet, scarf tied to the bed
Jack is all tragic when he stands alone
Feeling demonic harmonic in a no go zone
You look well suited like you came to win
Lust, spite and malice, your degrees of sin
Cruising for pity and looking pretty as fuck
Ace take your chances
Queen wish you luck

Dope, guns, fucking in the streets (Revolution)
Everything will blow tonight
Either friend or foe, tonight

More Halloween!

There are now pictures from when we dressed up on the actual holiday and went out to a show to see Brian's band Sanu as well as some other bands they were playing with, and I guess to kinda see Brian himself, who I hadn't seen in like 10 years or something..haha. Too bad we bailed out early, though the show was good.
I was a cracked porcelain doll:

From Halloween 2007

From Halloween 2007

Chris was a demon and made a small child cry:

From Halloween 2007

There are a few other pics in the gallery, go check 'em out.