monster mash-up

(No "Lost" spoiler -- just a theory.)

Something to think about:

After discovering the episode's script among Nikki's things, Hurley is shocked to learn about Mr. LaShade's deceit and true identity as the Cobra. He describes the Cobra as "this big bad guy" whose identity "has been shrouded in mystery for four seasons."

Mr. LaShade : The Cobra :: ? : Jacob

Perhaps Jacob will be someone we already know -- and when his identity is revealed, we will feel shocked and deceived?

Oh, and check this... but be patient for 00:56.

short-term goals

Tasks to be completed by weekend's end:

1. Finish watching both "The Grapes of Wrath" as well as "Tupac: Resurrection"
2. Complete at least two collages worthy of framing
3. Attend my 11:00 AM Total Body Conditioning class
4. Shop for and bake cookie recipe to bring to co-workers on Monday
5. Attend party in Prospect Heights with KM while laying low on the vino
6. Check out the UU church in Brooklyn Heights
7. Walk the Brooklyn Promenade
8. Start a new book (an impulse buy this afternoon)
9. Take self out to lunch
10. See "Blades of Glory" with KM

(Oh, and I'll also try to fit in a couple episodes of "Intervention", a load or two of laundry, and some b'ball-watchin'.)

TGIF.

unanswered questions

If you follow "Lost" and have not seen "The Man From Tallahassee", stop reading now.

Do you have theories on these mysteries? (Coke Bref? Scarny? KM?)

1. Why hasn't the island cured Ben of his tumor?
2. What happened to Kate during the unexplained time after lunching with Ben on the beach?
3. How did Cooper get to the island?
4. How did Patchy know that Locke had been paralyzed?
5. Why was Locke soaking wet after supposedly planting the C4 in the submarine?
6. Is Cooper the "real" Sawyer?
7. Is the "magic box" metaphorical?
8. Who is on Jacob's list and why?
9. Was Danielle once an Other?
10. If the Others were considered Hostiles by DHARMA, and DHARMA has been purged from the island, why do the Others continue to acquire DHARMA food drops? And how do they acquire fresh (rather than the typical canned DHARMA-labeled) food?

Yeah, this is what I think about.

not likely

edibles

I've pretty much shelved my food blog but that doesn't mean I haven't stopped loving food. Oh no. I still love cooking it in my spacious kitchen and I still love trying out new restaurants.

My brother really stepped it up for my birthday this year: he purchased for me a private cooking lesson with a personal chef. 'Twas amazing. We made a shrimp, cod, and veggie kielbasa gumbo (which included making our own seafood stock -- and I loved making the dark roux in my new Crueset), dirty basmati rice, and cauliflower with Indian spices. A bit of Cajun-Indian fusion, yes? I still have a good portion of the gumbo (sans seafood) frozen, and I'm thinking about throwing it in an 8x8 pan and topping it with cornbread batter and baking it. A Cajun tamale pie of sorts.

On Wednesday, I made a trip to the Hong Kong Supermarket, two blocks from work. Having more items than you can shake a stick at (and most in a language I couldn't read), this place filled me with awe. I settled on purchasing some lemongrass, ginger, tofu, shitake mushrooms, Thai chilies, and coconut milk and whipped up my vegan version of tom yum soup to enjoy during an hour-long date with Jack, Sayid, and the rest of the cast of "Lost".

10 cups vegetable broth
2 stalks lemongrass, minced
2 thumb-size pieces ginger, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 small chilies, minced
4 carrots, chopped
1 package tofu, pressed and cubed
2-3 handfuls mushrooms, sliced
1/2 can coconut milk
3 tablespoons tamari, or to taste
Sliced scallions
Chili sauce
Lime

Place broth in a soup pot along with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and chilies. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to medium.

Add the carrots. Allow to simmer 2 minutes.

Add tofu and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes longer.

Turn down heat and add coconut milk and tamari.

Serve with sliced scallions, chili sauce, and a squeeze of lime.

Serves 6-8.

Next time I'll add kaffir lime leaves and garnish with cilantro.

I used Big Tangerine to whip two egg whites and a half-cup of superfine sugar to stiff peaks and then piped them onto a Silpat. I baked at 225 degrees for 60 minutes and then left the oven door ajar and let the cookies cool for another hour. Voila! Meringues.

Sunday brings another cooking class, this time at ICE, thanks to a gift certificate from Mom & Jim that I received as a Christmas present. We'll be making Hot and Sweet Sesame Nori Fins; Watercress Salad with Cucumber and Green Mango in a Lime-Peanut Vinaigrette; Galangal, Lemongrass, and Kaffir Lime Leaf-Baked Tofu Medallions; Baked Salmon with Fresh Thai Curry Paste; Spinach-Thai Basil and Yellow Pepper-Coconut Milk Sauces; Red Bhutanese Rice with Roasted Vegetables; Indonesian Sambal; Crispy Rice Noodles; and Mango-Lemongrass Ice Cream Parfait with Lemon Tuiles.

Oh, yummy yummy yummy.

you know this

9:44 left to go in the 1st and Butler is up by 6.

Posted on the boards by my sweet friend, J.Ro:

...[I] suspect a bunch of you fuckers are gonna be welchers and in the off chance Jen wins this thing (oh dear god how i pray that will happen if i can't win ...not cuz i don't love Jen, but because i love the idea of someone who knows nothing about basketball crushing a bunch of shittalking dudes who think they know everything about everything in something that they obviously all suck at alot) is gonna have some trouble collecting those dollars.

Fingers crossed I win this fucker and everyone pays up.

Update:

9:22 PM -- Florida just beat Butler, though damn if that team didn't look good for an upset. God damn. I'm out. For reals this time.

the architect and the sith

The White House won't allow Rove or Miers to voluntarily testify under oath.

So, the Judicial Committee will issue subpoenas.

So, Rove and Miers will plead the Fifth.

This is fucking ridiculous. Three scandals in the last month (Libby, Walter Reed, Gonzales) and we have not revolted yet. Clinton was nearly destroyed for much, much less.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

breaking out the big guns

My parents stepped it up this year for my big 3-0.

Dad and Rachel presented me with my pride and joy, a gorgeous kiwi-green Le Creuset dutch oven...


And Mom and Jim honestly made my dreams come true by purchasing this fantastic tangerine-orange KitchenAid stand mixer...


(My Mom said, "You were either going to get one when you married or turned 30, whichever came first.")

I made dinner for KM and Scarny on Saturday: a seitan and Guinness Irish stew with potatoes and carrots and a loaf of beer bread with raisins and walnuts to sop it all up. KM contributed a delicious salad with radicchio, apples, and poppy seed dressing and Scarny brought over some Killian's Red brew. We ended things with green tea soy ice "cream".

Having the right equipment in the kitchen makes all the difference. If you're reading this, you have a standing invitation for dinner at my place any day of the week.

we fly high

Because things won't stay this way, I had to keep this screen capture for posterity.

Unfortunately, I had Wisconsin going to the championship.

It's been fun, yo.

the big dance

Whoo hoo! I'm currently ranked 10th 8th in a pool of 17.

In honor of me not being in last place (yet) with my NCAA bracket, let's watch some muthafuckin' NBA action.

Can you feel it?



By the way, I know nothing about basketball.

legalese

Those of you who went to law school: what would you have done differently, even from the beginning?

Would you have taken an LSAT prep course, if you didn't?

Taken the LSAT more than once, if you didn't?

Would you have gone to a different school?

What do you regret, if anything?

small town secrets

Regarding the alleged D.C. Madam case, does anyone have bets on who the "reputable and respected investigative news organization" is? And who the alleged clients are?
Palfrey ran the organization from her Vallejo, California home -- Vallejo is adjacent to my hometown of Benicia, California, known to be the site of the first Zodiac killing.

A few years ago, Benicia High School suffered the loss of one of their teachers who was murdered by her son. He strangled, beat, and stabbed her -- and then stuffed her body into the trunk of her car, parked in their garage.

His name is Patrick Scarpaci, his family lived across the street from mine, and I used to baby-sit him when he was a kid.

cook 'em in a pot like gumbo

I forgot how good this song is. (If, y'know, you can get over all the misogyny.)

Totally NSFW without headphones, kid.

taking up head space

* Spinner.com's Sailing Away and XM 70s stations

* "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001"

* "The Sound and the Fury"

* Jonestown

* The slanguage of "Variety"

* Three of Cups' whole wheat pizza

* Impact evaluation instrument design

* Seattle

* A.C.

* Frosted Shredded Wheat

* The gym

* Hawaii

* Making a dark roux with the private chef who is coming to my apartment tomorrow night

* "Lost" theories

* Chuck Hagel's possible run in '08

onward, christian soldiers

"Jesus Camp" has got to be the scariest fucking movie I have ever seen.

everybody steals from everybody; that's hollywood

Seems I've been all up in L.A.'s grill lately:

* Gearing up to read the biography of Louis B. Mayer

* Having just watched "Hollywoodland", thinking about re-renting "Mulholland Dr." (a mind fuck, yes)

* Skimming Craigslist for pictures of charming bungalows

* Learning more about the town in which I was born (betcha didn't know that I am a bona fide born-in-the-Valley girl)

*Dreaming of a trip to the LOST Weekend Fan Party in Hollywood

*Pining for sunny weather during a couple of bitterly cold New York days (though it's warming up soon -- upper 50s next week!)

And on and on...

...BUT this documentary was an educational respite from all of that cushy L.A.-ness.

It's a film directed by Cle "Bone" Sloan, a member of the Bloods from the neighborhood of Athens Park and he delves into the history of gangs in L.A. with an insider's eye.

If you have HBO on Demand, I recommend you check it out before it's removed on March 11th.

(So, um, Crogers? I'm, like, gonna come visit, a'ight?)

sky rockets in flight

I bought a bottle of Shiraz in which to indulge tonight because...

a) I just spent two and a half hours at the gym (in which I took a total body conditioning class AND a cross-training cardio class AND ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes -- a bit excessive, I know, I know)

and

b) because "Lost" is on tonight (!) and I'm hoping that the episode will single-handedly make up for the last two weeks of disappointment and lack of plot progression. (Right Deeg?)

Update:

10:24 PM: This episode is f'ing awesome so far. KM argues that it's due to Sayid's presence and I don't discredit that, but I noticed that Damon and Carlton wrote it and I think their writing is the last great hope for the show. (Oh, and though I have grown tired of Sawyer's snarky comments, the whole "Who are you?" to Nikki made me chuckle.)

Update:

11:01 PM: Best episode of this mini-season yet! Did you see the preview for next week? It may be the obvious guess, but my money is on that the "surprising connection" between Losties is that Jack and Claire share a father. (At least, that's what fans have been suggesting on the boards for over a year now...)

lolz

My love for this website is like a sickness and I blame Scarny!

After bringing the site to the attention of others, I'm surprisingly not getting the "OMG I is in luv with innerweb lolcats!" response that I had hoped for. Nevertheless, I just can't stop laughing.

It brings me joy.

Nooooo they be stealin' my sockses!

to catch a predator

Call me crazy or insensitive or a nut-job civil libertarian, but will one of the number of attorneys I know (Huevos? Psmee? Il Gato?) please explain to me how it is possible for Dateline NBC to be in-cahoots with law enforcement and have these men arrested for merely chatting with decoy children?

They are disgusting pedophiles, yes, and I'm sure they're in need of serious counseling, but haven't they yet to commit a crime? Or is it a crime to chat with and bring condoms to an individual that you THINK is a minor? How is this constitutional?

Just school me. I'm not justifying their behavior at all. I just feel like I'm missing something here.

Update:

In doing some research, I have found that US Code: Title 18, §2422(b) states:

Whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 5 years and not more than 30 years.

So, key words here are interstate commerce, entices, individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, and sexual activity.

HOWEVER, the decoys were not minors, and so the behavior falls under the "attempts to do so" clause?

I don't know. I'm no lawyer. I'm just wonderin'.

in the kitchen, i found the answers to all my curiosities

What we ate at Devi on the birthday night:

APPETIZER:
Shakarkandi Ki Chaat (sweet potatoes, toasted cumin, chaat masala, lime juice)

MAIN COURSES:
Vegetarian:
Khatte Meethe Baingan (baby eggplant, sweet & sour tomato, tamarind sauce)
Mirchi Ka Salan (green bell peppers, hot peppers, coconut, peanuts and tamarind)
Green Bean Poriyal (green beans, mustard seeds, curry leaves, coconut)

Seafood:
Mirchi Walee Machi (halibut, tandoor baked, roasted pepper marinade, rice)
Goan Spicy Scallops (spiced radish rice, balchao sauce)

Meat:
Tandoor-Grilled Lamb Chops (pear chutney, spiced potatoes)

...and for dessert, a homemade vegan peanut butter, coffee, and jelly cake (sounds like an interesting pairing, yes? It WORKED.) made with love by Kate Moss and SM. The waitstaff presented it to the table, candles illuminated -- and after Scarny and I had made our wishes, plated it for us.

An amazing meal, indeed.

powered by the cute and insane

Oh, good lordy, y'all.

I'm just worn out. It's been the best birthday celebration ever.

Between the fancy Indian food, the multiple vodka sodas, the gifts, the Prosecco, the peanut butter and jelly cake, the multiple walks across bridges, the shopping-'til-dropping, the sleeping on floors, the shoulder rubs from Scarny (the most action I've had in a while), the shrimp enchiladas, the 2 Live Crew, the wasabi peas, the tulips, the Steve Keene art, and the bloodys, I need a vacation to recover from my elation.

If you want to see a ridiculous amount of pictures of me either attempting to kiss my friends and/or look sassy and/or keep from passing out (unsuccessfully) check it here.

Maybe more about the plentiful good times later, but sheesh: some people say they have the best friends in the world, but it's the damn truth for me. I'm a lucky bitch.

(A lucky 30-year-old bitch who's happy to live in Brooklyn and who will still rock a babydoll dress [despite being almost 6 feet tall in heels] and some bangs on a birthday.)

Ahem, "thaaaaaat's niiiiiice!"

30

I'm all growns up.