toastykitten

Mark: Honey, we're out of lemons. Oh, wait. We have a lemon tree.

Recently we ripped all our music, first as FLAC files, then converting them to mp3s. Mark is traveling for business today, so he asked me about the iPod Nano I've been neglecting because I couldn't figure out how to drop music onto it. Anyway, he figured it out, then asked me how to adjust the volume. I showed him how you could just spin the wheel on your song.

Mark: I finally GET iPods!

(Man, do you know how long it took me to convince him to upgrade to Firefox 3?)

We noticed that we had a bunch of artichokes that were ready to be picked and eaten. So Mark snipped off two artichokes to cook for dinner last night. He left them on the counter, where I discovered that ants were still on them. I yelled for him to come over (because I am a total baby about insects), and we started rinsing them, where we discovered that not only were there ants, there were also a lot of earwigs and a spider. We rinsed with vinegar and water, only to find more ants, more earwigs. It was enough that it actually started grossing Mark out, and he does not gross out easily. He kept asking me, "Honey, are you sure you still want an organic garden? Maybe we should get some insecticide."

We eventually steamed and grilled the artichokes to death. They were delicious, and Mark waited for me to finish my artichokes before he star

Yesterday, at Costco, we spotted an outdoor mat. We promptly bought it, because our front door has been empty since we moved. It's a really nice mat.

Later, he says to me, "I'm going to get a mat that says 'Welcome to Ohm'."

I give him a blank stare.

"An ohm is a unit of electrical resistance."

Ugh, I am so tired of being sick.

I am alternating between reading and sleeping. Here are a few things I've been reading:

LA Weekly - this week's issue is all about those independent bookstores that are so elusive.

Is it the Woman Thing, or is it Katie Couric - This article reminded me recently of a conversation I had with Mark:

Mark: Ugh, Katie Couric. I hate her.
Me: (Questioning look.)
Mark: Well, no I don't really hate her. I'm sure that there are as many male reporters that are just as shallow as her. Maybe it's because she's a woman that I expect her to have higher standards.
Me: So...you are proving the point that a woman has to work twice as hard as a man in order to be taken seriously.
Mark: Dammit!

I don't particularly like Katie Couric, but I do kind of feel sorry for her sometimes.

Village Voice sells East Bay Express to editor, investors.

Back to sleep.

Me: Hey, we should try renting Stand and Deliver from the Amazon Unbox thing!
Mark: Yeah, totally. EJO! That's a good movie. Did you ever watch it?
Me: Yeah, like a million times.
Mark: Why? Did they show that to you in the ghetto repeatedly or something?
Me: Yeah, totally.
Mark: ! What?! That's terrible!
Me: Dude, I watched it at least once a year since fourth grade because at least one of my teachers would decide to show it.
Mark: That's awful.

Hey, wisdom teeth recovery is coming along fine, and fairly fast, too. My left side is still kind of swollen, but I'm icing it. Been wasting a lot of time on the Internet and watching TV. I cannot seem to find the will to finish Foucault's Pendulum. Oh my god is this Umberto Eco book so boring! I'm on page 300-something and I still know nothing about the Plan except that it is stupid. I think I'm going to give it away on Freecycle or something after I'm done with it.

Some conversations with Mark:

Mark: "Hey, I have to get the new season of 24."
Me: "Why?"
Mark: "Because (random actor from Star Trek) is going to be on it. It's going to be awesome."
Me: "Cool."
Mark: "Oh, and Kumar (Kal Penn) is in it, too."
Me: "Really? Awesome."
Mark: "Yeah, but if he's going to play an Arab terrorist I'm going to be pissed. That's the second time they're having an Indian guy play an Arab."

Later:
Me: "Hey, you remember how you wanted to see the new season of 24?"
Mark: "Yeah?"
Me: "You're going to be pissed."
Mark: "Why?"
Me: "Well, Kumar plays a Muslim terrorist and then he dies."
Mark: "Great."

We finished Rome. Dude, I love HBO and I don't even get it. The production values on Rome really rock, and it's really interesting to see how they spin the historical events that happened - the relationships between Caesar and Brutus, Caesar and Mark Antony, and everybody underestimating Octavian.

Anyway, some interesting links I found:

Journeywoman - International Guide to Dim Sum - the ones I can vouch for on here - China Village in Belmont is only okay. There was something off about the siu mai and as we were walking out I noticed that some of the seafood was already dead, which is not really a good sign. The Empress Pavilion in Los Angeles is excellent, and nicely priced. Ton Kiang on Geary in San Francisco is also very good, but kind of expensive. East Ocean in Alameda is also good, but still kind of expensive for what you get. There's a nice view of the Bay.

I love Dinosaur Comics. I think I have an odd sense of humor.
Search Amazon for deals.
Metafilter post on an American doctor who genitally mutilated a bunch of women without their consent and actually wrote a book about it. I haven't actually read the posts, but I read the thread, which predictably ended up with a bunch of guys going "Circumcision is genital mutilation too!"

We visited Daiso last week. Eh. The Japanese discount stores in LA are so much better. Plus L.A. has Book Off, where you can get fairly new used books for about $2-3 each. Oh, and American CDs for really cheap, too, if you're willing to dig around a bit.

Mark: Does your mom ever scream at you guys?
Me: No. (Thinking about it.) Yeah, she does have her moods sometimes.
Mark: Yeah, I mean, she speaks Cantonese.
Me: Cantonese isn't an angry language.
Mark: I'll believe it when I hear it.
Me: Well, my family is just unusually angry.