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toastykitten

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Jan. 22nd, 2006 05:48 pm

stuff

toastykitten: (Default)
Anyone for a Firefly Season 2?

Is it worth paying $117 for one of these hobo bags? For some reason, I just really want one right now, and everything I've seen in regular department stores is too big, too small, gaudy, ugly, and expensive. (And my $6 cute flower purse is deteriorating.) So far, these fit my criteria - simple, but not plain, and will carry my wallet, phone, and maybe my journal. Except for the price part - I was hoping I could spend less than $50.

I got a longish email from Mark today because I sent him a link to some Battlestar Galactica commentary. You have no idea how much this surprised me, because normally, when I send him links or random emails, he doesn't respond; we just talk about it in person later. Anyway, he tells me that Battlestar Galactica is among one of the best science fiction shows today so go WATCH IT NOW! I added that last bit.

This weekend, people are coming to me with relationship problems. I think it's a sign that people are getting anxious about Valentine's Day. As Shakespeare wrote, "The course of true love never did run smooth."

2005 seemed to be the year of angry, violent sex in Hollywood. The first sex scene in Brokeback Mountain was really disorienting. I almost didn't buy it. Other places with Angry Sex - Mr. and Mrs. Smith, A History of Violence, and last week's Scrubs in which Turk declares, "Angry sex is awesome!" What's up with that? And yes, I know it's only 3 movies I mention out of like, 100, but I still think it's weird.
toastykitten: (Default)
So we didn't actually end up at H&M. Jess got there first and it turns out there was a two-hour wait to just get into the store. We ended up shopping in Macy's and Urban Outfitters instead. And my shopping urge is still not quenched. Grr. Later we found out from a more fashion-informed friend that there will be a third H&M opening right next to the H&M on Powell, and one in Sun Valley Mall, so Jess, you won't have to BART over to SF for that!

This is my stash: A pair of pants and and a shirt from Macy's. I think I should just get a Macy's card, so I can get the coupons and additional discounts. If anyone needs cookware, their pots and pans are 40% off the lowest price right now. Tim Biskup and Pete Fowler coasters for 2 bucks each for a set of four, and the Lewis Black book, hardcover, for $5 from Urban Outfitters. The set of coasters I really want, though, is the Junko Mizuno ones, which I haven't been able to find anywhere. I love the Urban Outfitters sale section. There's always some good stuff there amidst all the junk.

Later Mark and I watched a movie with some friends. It was called Exit to Eden, and is based on an Anne Rice novel, stars Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd. That is all you need to know. Anyway, it's funny, and weirdly dated. Mark mentioned that all the women had "eighties' asses". Ok, I'd never heard of that, so I asked him what that was. He said, "Long, flat asses." Apparently asses come and go in style - the trend right now is "bubble butts". What I don't understand is how one would be able to shape an ass into a particular style. Maybe women did different workouts back then?

Spelling errors are my pet peeve, especially glaring ones that any educated adult should be able to catch. I caught a few this weekend:

TiVo's new download service (for series2 owners) includes CNet's reviews of current gadgets. (Let's just say CNet editors are not necessarily TV people.) In this segment, someone held up a sign that misspelled "capacity". Seriously, shouldn't someone have caught that?

In Firefly, on the last disc, there are a few really sweet special features. On one of them, they talk about Serenity, the ship, and its role as its own character. Someone holds up a blueprint of the ship, and on it, the dining room was misspelled as the "dinning room". Apparently in the future, we no longer dine, we din.
toastykitten: (Default)
On Wednesday we went to Bistro Elan to celebrate our anniversary. I requested French food because we rarely have it, and the few times that we do it's been excellent. It's a small bistro on California Street (near Stanford University); the entrance is almost obscured by all the foliage around it. Once we entered, it was really warm and had a sweet atmosphere.

Our waitress was French and awesome. I loved her accent; it was so adorable. She recommended a really good wine, and we ended up ordering two appetizers - foie gras and smoked salmon. It was the first time both of us tried foie gras. She assured us that many people came to their restaurant "just for the foie gras, and many think it is better than France". The foie gras came seared and soaked in a buttery pan sauce with some accompanying vegetables. Now, I generally do not like organs; for all my Chinese pride in chicken feet, it ends with pig intestines. But this fatty duck liver was exquisite. The texture was a little gelatinous and it was pleasantly warm inside, and tasted sweet and buttery.

The smoked salmon was also delicious, and was brought on a bed of some puff pastry, also very yummy, and covered with caviar, which was surprisingly flavorless. I guessed that the smokiness of the salmon probably overwhelmed whatever flavor the caviar had. It didn't feel decadent or anything.

Mark ordered the John Dory fish, which tastes definitely better than it looks. Our waitress described it as "sort of like swordfish", and it was very similar.

I ordered "Massachusetts scallops". Now, scallops are my favorite seafood, so I had high hopes for this one. They were perfectly cooked (which is a very rare occurence), not too tough or spongy, and was flavored with a pan sauce and accompanied by some Yukon gold potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms, all of which were very delicious.

I want to go again.

Other things that amused me:

The pop star Robbie Williams yesterday accused the British media of hypocritical attitudes towards drugs, claiming that he had taken cocaine with the same journalists who were now "devouring" Kate Moss for her well-publicised habit.

I heart Joss Whedon more. The key to the story is that Whedon has made a big budget sci-fi film for the comparatively low price of $50 million -- a requirement for him to revive his baby. How'd he do it? Not by running overseas to some low-wage location but by sticking at home in high-wage unionized Hollywood.

The British Library has original sketches by Leonardo, Jane Austen's early work, and Lewis Carroll's Alice drawings.

Penguin Poo Paper Wins Ig Nobel Prize - download the PDF - it's got a really amusing diagram.

A piece on the actor who plays young Chris Rock - Everybody Hates Chris is one of my favorite new shows of the season. It's so damn funny and sweet.
toastykitten: (Default)
The movie was awesome. Do NOT read any reviews if you don't want to be spoiled. It'll be less fun.

Damn Mark. He just keeps sucking me back into the scifi stuff. First it was Firefly, now Battlestar Galactica. He may suck me into Lost, too.

(Just wondering - what is up with the whole "spoiler" thing anyway? Did this exist before the Internet? I now avoid reading any reviews before I see a movie.)

Bill Bennett - wow, what an ass.

At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education.

I am waiting for my futon to get delivered, and hoping they're going to come soon instead of at 5. I've got a lot of cleaning to do.

While waiting, I got lunch at the Chinese restaurant down the street. I don't know if we eat too fast or what, but lately, Mark and I have been cursed with really slow service. Maybe everyone here is super chill or something, but dude, one time at the Italian restaurant, both the busgirl and our waiter decided to take a smoke and beer break as soon as we asked for our checks. (They were the only two waitstaff in the restaurant. We live in a very, very slow area.) We waited for nearly half an hour and they still didn't come back with our check, so Mark went to the back and flagged one of them down. I also waited half an hour for my lunch, which was beef chow fun. Bleh on that. They weren't even busy at all.

I think this Chinese restaurant may be decent, judging by the chow fun. The menu is standard Chinese-restaurant-in-white-area fare, but I think I'll have to try the other things on the menu to see. The staff speaks Mandarin, so I can't cozy up to them in Cantonese. I really liked the fact that my food had FLAVOR. I have been missing flavor so much - every other place I've tried here, no matter what cuisine, is bland, bland, bland. It's as if they think the aging population here have lost all their tastebuds anyway, so why bother?

Other than the diner, which is standard greasy. Most of the time, I don't feel like greasy, though. I wish someone would open a Vietnamese restaurant here so I can buy $2 sandwiches from them. *sigh*

I am trying to decide whether or not to subscribe to GiantRobot or not. Somehow it doesn't feel the same. They're a little empire now, with another store opening in New York and they opened a restaurant on Sawtelle a few months ago, right near their LA store and their gallery. I think they are about to take over the world.
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