Thursday May 22, 2008

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I have been making gumbo for the past three hours, and ohmygod does my house smell amazing.

A friend told me over the weekend that she wants to hire me as a chef someday...quite the compliment for someone who, even a few years ago, was convinced that she could only bake.

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tournee:
Baking is probably more difficult than cooking, because it depends so much on local temperature ,humidity, and bacteria fluctuation. For example, there is no true way to get fresh San Francisco sourdough bread out side of the area, because San Francisco is an isolated micro-climate; I started off as a baker. Glad to hear that the house smelled "amazing" from cooking, that is always a good sign.

I just thought you'ld like to know that I finally got around to putting up more China pictures; I apologize for the delay.
tournee:
I knew gumbo could take a significant period of time, but I have yet to come across a recipe that can take up to 2 months; I would definitely be curious to read it.

Sunday May 18, 2008

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Oh hell. I wrote a whole entry and when I tried to post it, it disappeared.

tournee:
One of them many reasons I do not blog that often.

Wednesday Apr 16, 2008

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I sort of feel like the breath I've been unconsciously holding all winter has been released...god, warm weather is a tonic! Even if it's shut-your-eyes-while-walking-outdoors windy.

Things are settling down a bit (in some ways; in others, they're just getting stirred to hell and back.) But I walked home from work tonight, had delicious samosas for dinner, and am drinking a glass of old vine...
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tallboy66:
Oh yes. Thanks for listening to me and my Detroit stories.
trocc:
hey you! sorry i've been such rubbish with my online replies and such... it was great seeing you guys the other night, and yes - it would be fun to hook up another time, especially as the weather gets warmer.

you got the spelling right on wifey's name. she's here, although she barely ever visits the site. tongue

Thursday Apr 03, 2008

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It's been a long, hard week, but also a good one. Lots of changes going on everywhere, but I'm coping (and quite well, if I do say so myself.)

The onset of spring is such a relief...I know that some people are actually diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder, but really, how can a winter like this not take a toll on anyone and everyone's mood?...
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tournee:
Typing about "50-degree" weather; where is it at? I never thought that I would be tired of the cold, but this year did it to me. I was quite surprised to come back to Chicago with it still being near freezing temperatures; it also sucked because I had to wait for about 35 minutes out in it for the O'hare cheap lot bus arrive. I also had the added bonus of my luggage arriving last, so with the 1.5 hour + delay I got to sit in traffic for an extra hour after being on a flight that lasted over 14 hours. WWWWWHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, was not the statement I was making at that point.
sioux:
Great meeting you too! Hope to see you around again!!!


xoxoxox

Wednesday Mar 26, 2008

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So at the end of the workday, we had a multi-department meeting to discuss some much-worried-about reorganization within the company. (It's a very large company, and these things seem to happen frequently, but this was a fairly significant one.) Our acting VP was talking to us; the room was pretty full, but a few people who weren't in the office had called in so that...
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ojaeflo:
I'm witness to many a mute button flub via conference call at my office. tongue
Fortunately I don't think anyone's really pulled a quality "Wanna get away?" moment, though.
biggrin
kinto:
I believe the CD exchange thingy is coming soon so I'll probably see you there smile

Monday Mar 17, 2008

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From this op-ed piece:


If nominated, Obama's family baggage will get pored over. Four years ago, Bush's people cast Kerry as un-American for speaking French. A Republican camp campaigning at the sorry nadir of Bush's handiwork will try to portray the war hero John McCain as more American and patriotic than his opponent.

But things are different. Less fearful, Americans are less willing to be...
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tntkatie:
agreed. smile
apexxx:
never been to the Darkroom before. looking forward to checkin out the place! you know if they have any anti-camera policies?

Obama or bust!

Sunday Mar 09, 2008

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Ah, the weekend was lovely (despite missing all of Lebowski Fest.)

Friday: impromptu dinner party, with lots of wine and roast chicken. Met some new friends (one of them an ichthyologist, who may be able to arrange a behind-the-scenes-at-the-Field-Museum tour, which I am incredibly excited about.) Liz Phair was invited but didn't show (thank god for small miracles - the house was/is something of a...
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trocc:
it is a shame - you missed a great time. but it sounds like you had one of your own, so cheers to that. smile

this warmer weather is making me already anticipate good times this weekend.
tntkatie:
yeah, i like him too. i've read families are psychotic, i believe. hilarious.

and thanks. smile

Tuesday Mar 04, 2008

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Where I live:

At the end of an industrial corridor/down the street from both an industrial bakery and a chocolate factory, which in the summer occasionally makes the air smell like Nutella on toast/walking distance from downtown/by the most amazing wine shop ever/a few hundred yards from the river/by a fallingdown, abandoned bar and an installation on the fence just down the street from it/in...
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tournee:
Cool Digs! What's the wine shop?

The passage I read was volume 3, part 1 from War & Peace by Tolstoy. The extra beauty of the passage is that it can be read out of context since it deals solely with speculation of Napoleon's Russian Campaign.

Thursday Feb 28, 2008

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I feel like I'm just...out of words, at the moment. The good ones, anyway.

I saw the sun for a few minutes yesterday, while listening to a hilarious, lilting vintage-bubblegum-pop-sounding song ("Oxford Comma" by Vampire Weekend, if you care) and it was delightful. It was like a miniscule vacation. It didn't last, of course, and a ten-hour workday sort of sucked the life out of...
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ojaeflo:
Like I said to trocc Friday night (via text), I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.
puke

Almost better, though. Just about there. smile
tournee:
Bierut is another band that needs to be mentioned, if you do not already listen to them. They can be described as american gypsy music.

Monday Feb 25, 2008

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Tonight was a business dinner, and it was only mildly excruciating. Better now; got a ride home from a work-friend and have spent the last two hours on the couch, drinking champagne and tearing through Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Words fail me - it was like dropping down a rabbit hole. I don't remember the last time I read a book and was...
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Friday Feb 15, 2008

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So, I've never been big on Valentine's Day. Seems kind of silly to go out for dinner on one of the busiest nights of the year, especially when we both love to cook. And I've never been the materialistic type, so I don't require flowers or other such tokens of affection. People at the office kept asking me what I was doing for VDay, and...
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trocc:
yeah, we did a whole lot of nothing yesterday as well. and it was good.

the post-it note explosion sounds so awesome... very cool. smile
jtemperance:
Wow. That is fantastic, especially not expecting it like that. You're completely right about words, and they have such power to open up memories as well.

You're not making up the librarian thing, although I'm a rather strange variant of one. I work for a non-profit called the American Theological Library Association. We're not a library in the traditional sense (we're not open to the public, don't have a collection). We do two main things, one is to be a membership association for theological librarians, which is primarily librarians at divinity schools, seminaries, etc. We have a conference and a newsletter and all that. I work on the other part, which is the product part. We create an index to essay and periodical literature in religious studies and theology. I do most of the collection development, title evaluation, and more often now, licensing for digitization. It's a very cool group of people to work with.

I won't be at the Brain--I have my kids--but I do think I'll be hitting Thanise's wine tasting on Tuesday, and I saw you might be too. It would a pleasure actually to meet!

Wednesday Feb 13, 2008

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So today, I received the results of my work review - and they were spectacular, much better than I had imagined. I'm quite proud of myself, because my beginning this job six months ago coincided with what I consider to be nearly the most emotionally difficult six months of my life. (Holy run-on sentence, Batman.) I'd been fairly worried about my review, because I had...
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jtemperance:
That's wonderful! Good for you. What are you working as now?

(I'll keep my fingers crossed for that increase!)
apexxx:
rock on! biggrin congratulations thats awesome smile
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