add? ocd? add with a hint of ocd?

today i made a chicken stock. to prepare for the chicken stock, i cut up (and cooked and ate) the chicken and saved the bones and guts for the stock, bought a stock pot, and then went to sleep. i guess i should also say that this was done over the course of about three days.
this morning (well fine. it was around noon) i got up and decided that today was the day i'd make stock. i read a few food blogs about stock, looked at a few recipes, then looked in my kitchen. then i proceeded to disregard most of the ingredients. most recipes call for celery but my fridge doesn't have any so neither does my stock. it also called for a bunch of herbs i don't have so i sprinkled in italian seasoning. i did have the carrots, onion, and the chicken though. and really, i think chicken stock doesn't need to be all fancy. just water and chicken would probably do. but i wanted to make mine sorta fancy.

speaking of fancy. i read a couple of shira's books and they're so cute! fancy nancy, i love you blue kangaroo, and paperbag princess. sometimes i wish i could just read kids books all day long.

back to the stock!
eventually the water with stuff in it was turning into stock. but since i had the stove on, i couldn't go outside and have human interaction. instead, i decided to watch episodes of days of our lives (i was almost a month behind) online. on a website that sounds like newcube. i'll be very sad when it gets taken down and hope that never happens. anyways, while i watched days, i decided i needed another activity. so i got out all of the plastic bags and started to fold them. i now have a bag full of cutely folded plastic bags in a neat row arranged first by where the bag is from then its size. i am also all caught up in the lives of my salemites. and most importantly, i have stock! woo!

hermm.. what do you do with chicken stock?

i took you for granted wall socket, mr. outlet

i'm sorry wall socket. mr. outlet.
i took you for granted.
there were times when i took advantage of you
connecting you to a power strip
making you power up seven different things at once

hi wall socket. hi mr. outlet.
please come back. i promise i be more grateful for all the work you do
my laptop misses you
my cell phone misses you too
but most of all, I miss you.

when you come back, i won't make you power up so many things at once
when you come back, i'll only plug things in when i really need you
when you come back, i won't take you for granted

wall socket. mr. outlet.
please talk to that faulty wire and become friends again
wall socket. mr. outlet.
please come back!

i'm a squib

just like mrs. fig and hagrid are squibs in the magical world, I am a squib in the orthodox jewish world. i know alot of random words in hebrew/yiddish, i notice when people wear yamulkes or head covering, i understand the kosher food laws (and have cooked according to them), and i grow defensive of orthodoxy when people criticize them. I think i like being a squib.

sara asked me if i ever wonder how i got so immersed with orthodox judaism. i guess i couldn't help it since i stayed friends with the filler family and then got introduced to their friends and all. seems like a natural progression. it doesn't bother me. except when i'm searching for ppl to hang out with but it's either a holiday or friday/saturday.

i lost my wallet on thursday. i used it to pay for some groceries (it's pumpkin season, y'all!) and walked back to my apt. then friday was a bit gloomy and rainy so i didn't leave the apt (free wireless is the best!). then saturday rolls around and i need to find my wallet so i can take the bus over to sara's house for lunch. omg, i can't find it. i search everywhere, roommate starts searching, i re-search the same spots thinking that maybe it'll magically appear. we can't find it so we head over to sara's for lunch. it's nice so we went to central park for a picnic. then i go on a scavenger hunt along window sills and above the refrigerator for coins so i have bus fare to go back. i search again to no avail. i go online to see if my cards have been used (nope, thank god), call to cancel all my cards, get sad over losing the wallet, get annoyed that i don't have a license, student id, money, or metrocard anymore, worry about identity theft, then go to the police station to ask if anyone had turned in a wallet (right. in east harlem.) and then file a lost property claim. i think i'm saddest over losing my student id. it was still valid for another two years! my master plan was to use it until i have residency for two years then go to a jc here and get a new student id for who knows how long. yes. i'm cheap like that. but broadway shows are expensive!

p.s. this is not a big enough reason for me to pack up and move back to palo alto. it's a minor, insanely annoying, and worrisome hiccup.

we have internet!

we have internet! er.. we're helping someone use their internet. it's good enough for me to watch the tv shows online so i'm happy with it. the bad thing is that since i have internet in the apt, i don't leave the house as much. so not too much exploring. god forbid this person moves or password protects their internet. i'd be sad.

so.. everyone i know in new york ( and will most likely hang out with) are jewish. my roommate might convert and become orthodox and the rest are orthodox. which means that my friday nights and saturday days might be a bit boring until i find a non-jew to hang out with on those days. or i can watch more episodes of tv online/play sudoku/write in my blog.

today i inventoried the food we have in our kitchen. we have spices, seasonings, and sauces. and then rice, beans, and pasta. what can i say? we live like kings here.

i live in New York, people!!

Things that have happened to me since moving to New York City

• A rat ran into my foot as I was walking around Tribeca. I'm pretty proud of myself for not yelping. And very happy that I didn't bring any flip flops.
  

• I've gotten lost about once every few days. Which probably says something about me since I now live in a city based on a grid system with numbered streets

• I never know which way to leave the subway leading me to becoming confused
  

• I got my nails done. I figured it's a nice New York thing to do. Except that they're the longest they've ever been and it's taking me a while to get used to them. Typing, cleaning and putting in my contacts, actually being able to scratch an itch.

• I watched Rent. I kinda wanted to watch Legally Blonde or something but I went with a guy friend and figured he wouldn't want to watch it.
  

• Since the apt has no internet or tv, I've been playing a lot of sudoku. It still takes me forever to finish a game though.

• I've been to three bar type places. All three had people playing either flip cup or beer pong. Or there was a table with the dots showing where the beer pong cups should go and a sign up on the wall giving the rules of beer pong. It's like all of a sudden I was in a frat house or something.
  

Thing that I still need after living in New York for a week:

• Furniture. I am currently borrowing Dayne's air mattress.

• A comforter especially since winter is coming soon.

• hmm.. what else? OH YEAH! A job.

• I also need to get used to the sounds of New York. As I type this, there's a girl outside screaming “DADDY!!!” over and over again. It's 11:44pm. Not to mention the bus that stops right in front of my apt. And runs all night.

Overall, I really like living here. It's super convenient to get places, I have people to hang out with, and I've been able to explore the city a bit. I'm not scared of living in East Harlem. I think it's nice seeing all the diversity and all. And I haven't been mugged (yet?) nor have I seen a cockroach (yet). You guys should come visit. :) We can be tourists together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALNUT!

so, rina had her baby boy! i don't think there's a name yet so jane and i decided to call him walnut. i told kristin and, thinking the baby is really named walnut, began to rant about how people name their kids such weird names and that just because someone is a celebrity or thinks they're a celebrity doesn't mean that they can name their kid after a fruit. heh..

on a different note, the entire state of south dakota only has one area code??!!!!?????

oh, and i'm moving to new york on the 7th. there's a chance i'm planning something. or packing like mad. i haven't really decided yet.

I'm feeling itchy

i'm feeling itchy. i want to go off and do something fun and exciting. or do something really drastic. like drive across the country and accidentally live there. or live in europe for a year. or go to baking school. NOT culinary school. baking. bread. or maybe i can learn how to be a sushi chef. or ship myself to argentina and learn to tango from a nice argentinian. anyways, i just want to do something fun and exciting. anyone want to do something fun and exciting with me?

Adventures in the kitchen

Since baking the lovely ricotta loaf, I have made a few other things in the kitchen. Two not sour sourdough loaves, a chocolate cake, jam, and stuffed zucchini.
I've decided that the two not sour sourdough breads are not sour because I didn't follow the recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum. The sourdough starter was sort of like hers except that I used whole wheat flour instead of white flour, the starter never really started, and I baked the loaf according to a recipe I found in the No Salt, Low-Sodium cookbook. The loaves of bread were bread but they weren't sour. I guess I'll have to try again. Except this time, I'll make it the way Rose would make it. The first loaf was made early in the sourdough starter making process so I attributed it to the starter not being ready yet. Then I made the second one after it had enough time to start and at one point, Kristin said that the starter smelled sour. That comment made me very happy. But the bread just is not sour. Which means I have to throw out my starter and make a new one. Ah well...
The chocolate cake tasted really good but looked ugly. I filled the pan almost to the top instead of the normal 2/3 full. so the sides of the cake overflowed and it took a bit longer for the middle to set. It probably should have stayed in the oven longer but the overflowed edges were burning and I was running late (I was getting Jane for the pub trivia night). When I got home, I tasted the cake and it wasn't bad. A lot like fudge and not a lot like cake. But that could be because the recipe called for 700 g of dark chocolate and 700 g of butter. Being American and not having every cooking gadget imaginable, I couldn't weigh them. Instead, I bought as close to 700 grams of chocolate and butter as I could and worked with it. I probably should have compensated for the added chocolate and butter by adding more flour but I didn't. Oh well. It still tasted fine to me.
But really, I'm the most proud of my jam. I'd never made jam before. I'd thought about it when we lived in our old house and had the apricot tree. But really, apricots are good by themselves. There were five old and wrinkly peaches that had managed not to get eaten so I looked up jam recipes and made peach-banana jam. Mostly because we have way too many bananas that turning it into jam wouldn't have been too horrible. Last night I tasted the jam. I'm a bit disappointed that the jam wasn't more solid. It was more runny than what I'm used to. But it's still nice and jam-y. I'm also a little sad that the bananas overpowered the peach taste. And that the jam is very sweet. But I guess that's to be expected when the recipe calls for six cups of sugar. I left out a cup and it was still too sugary. Ah well. Next time. I even have a fruit picked out for my next jam adventure: Grapes. My family isn't too into grapes but we always end up with grapes in our fridge. Go figure...
Ever since Alice brought home a zucchini that is longer and thicker than my forearm, it had been sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for its purpose in life. And it looked at me with sadness as I tried to think of different things I could make out of the gigantic thing. At first I thought of fried zucchini knowing that Asher would probably let me fry them at his place and "accidentally" forget to take any home. Then I looked up recipes online and found one for a zucchini frittata which led me to zucchini quiche to stuffed zucchinis. When I found the stuffed zucchini recipe, I was excited because it uses the entire zucchini, seemed simple enough, and USED THE ENTIRE ZUCCHINI! The zucchini had a purpose. All I had to do was make it. I modified the recipe a bit because I didn't have ground turkey that it called for. Instead I cut up frozen shrimp and cubes of beef and it satisfied the carnivore in me. Of course, once the meal was fully prepared, it turned out that just my mom and I were going to eat at home. We both decided that the stuffing was good but the outside of the zucchini was tough. We solved this problem by carving the skin off the zucchini and eating the rest. Now we have an entire half plus a little bit of stuffed zucchini left. Anyone want to try it? You can try it with toasted not sour sourdough bread with some peach-banana jam on top. Sorry, no cake for dessert. But we do have bananas. My next project will probably include bananas and grapes. Probably separately.

i love bread

i love bread. it doesn't get the respect it deserves b/c so many ppl are anti-carb/starch/sugar/fat/yogurt/unicorns/blah. but whatever. i love bread. so much that i like to bake it too. and since i've been home alone, i've been bored at home alone. which really results in me baking or cooking. it's ridiculous since i'm home alone but making a meal for 4-6 ppl. it's a bit much.

i baked a beer bread that i didn't like. maybe i did it wrong but it was too dense and a bit salty. the recipe is easy enough though. next, i decided to bake a ricotta loaf (b/c i had ricotta). i like it. you can taste the ricotta, it's light, and yummy. i was a little worried since the recipe said to do it in either a food processor (don't own one) or a kitchen-aid stand mixer (too lazy to get it out of the box and set it up). i went with the next best thing: big bowl and a rice scooper paddle thing. but i really can't say anything bad about the bread. it's from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum, whom i love. i don't think i've ever baked a loaf from her book that turned out bad. the only problem is that i'm not sure what to do with the bread. will it be good as sandwich bread? what about putting garlic cheese on top? i don't know. which really means that i've just been eatting it in slices and not putting anything on top or in between them.

on a side note, as i walked to safeway to buy some butter, i found a bike leaning against a tree with its back tire missing. so now it's mine. i think in those circumstances, the bike is considered "up for grabs". so i grabbed.

back from tucson

so, i'm back from tucson (i actually came back mid-late june). it was ok. really hot and dry. we were working on a prehistoric native american site. it was pretty cool. i'd never even thought about doing archaeology in the southwest and now i have a bit of experience in it. the rocks and soils are pretty different.
i did end up going to that giants vs. diamondbacks game. giants won so that made us happy. i went with three other californians and one tucson boy. he was an honorary giants fan that day. :) my roommate, jen, lives near the scout for the nationals and roomed with barry bonds when they went to asu so he got us tickets behind third plate 30 rows up. i'm glad we weren't one or two sections away b/c two foul balls came through and i cannot catch/close my eyes when balls come near me.
on the last night that pamela was in tucson, we threw her a birthday party. we had pizza, a pinata, and cake. except the pinata was full of jolly ranchers, lemon ricola (b/c jen somehow contracted valley fever and she doesn't like the lemon flavored ones), and ginger cat cookies from trader joes. and the cake was "baked" by me in the microwave. without the aid of measuring equipment. which basically ment that the "cake" was more like a rubber ball. so of course i covered it with buttercream frosting. in tucson. where the temperature is hot enough to melt butter. yeah. well whatever. it was a fun little bday/going away party. :D
my cell phone is a sony ericsson walkman phone so i put a couple cds worth of korean music on it. but since att doesn't have the korean firmware, all i see in the playlist are the ever so helpful square boxes.
i met family who live in new jersey for the first time. for about four days my house turned into a hotel with both myself and kristin getting kicked out of our rooms. i think they're my second cousins. or third cousins once removed. not sure. there are two kids, one 13 and the other 6. kristin, alice, and i took them to great america. we all had a good time. minus the little bit when the 6 yr old cried b/c she got a little scared. to cheer her up, we took her onto another ride that also scared her. yeah, we're evil.

i'm in tucson.

i think this post will be in bullet form minus the bullets.

so i'm in tucson now. i'm here for an archaeology job. we're excavating a bunch of features that were found when a gas pipeline was trying to get installed. i left palo alto yesterday and got to the hotel by 4pm. everyone should come visit!
my hotel room is called a studio. 2 beds, a kitchenete, and a bathroom. i have the bed closest to the ac. b/c i'm a weather wimp. the roommate, jen, is pretty easy going. i had to explain to her that i am not a morning person and that i don't like unnecessary noise. she seemed ok with that.
today i dehydrated myself. i need to do something about that. i think i'm going to add gatorade powder to my waters tomorrow. apparently the whole electrolyte thing actually helps.
today i tried to make brown rice on the stovetop for my lunch tomorrow. except that i somehow botched it so now i have semi cooked and burned rice. i added chipotle peppers and tomatoes. hopefully it tastes ok. (side note: spellcheck doesn't recognize "chipotle" and suggests that i replace it with "spotless")
this morning at 330am, the alarm clock went off. it woke me up b/c 1) it's an alarm clock and that's it purpose in life 2) it was spanish music 3) i couldn't figure out how to turn it off for a good minute or so. that whole episode annoyed me though. b/c my real alarm clock went off at 445am. it was not a good start to the morning.
tucson should be interesting. apparently ppl go to the mountains on the weekends. i'd like to do that sometime. and the diamondbacks are going to play the giants in a week or two from now. if i get tickets, i'll suffer through the 1.5 hr drive to phoenix. it'd be interesting to be one of the few giants fans in the stadium.

spam.

i really like watching my spam folder fluctuate. for a while it was in the low hundreds and i was very happy with google's spam blocking abilities. then i made a mistake. i thought that if i clicked on the messages and told them that i want to unsubscribe, i'd have less. instead, the next day, my spam count rose a couple hundred! i was in such shock that i decided that i would never open another piece of spam if i could help it. and i haven't. the highest it's ever been was somewhere around 1000 - 1300 pieces of spam. (EW!) some days, when i'm bored, i'll check to see how many pieces of spam i got on that day, how many more i have left from 30 days ago, and compare which days got more spam that others. i also have a theory that spammers know when i'm logged in so they send me more when my account is open than not. so i've started gchating using meebo instead of leaving my gmail box up all day long. and i am now proud to say that my current spam count is 612 pieces. :)

the adventure that was kansas

here's a basic timeline:

sunday the 11th:
after the bar, i come home, did some last minute packing, watched an episode of days, and went to the airport in time for me to check my luggage and wait for my flight.
2pm - i arrive in wichita, unpack, introduce myself to the principal archaeologist (amy), and write in my blog
7pm - i get called into a meeting in amy's office with all the other archaeologists. she tells us that we are suspended from doing any work. then i go back to my room and eventually sleep.

monday the 12th:
10 am - another meeting is called in amy's office and we are told that we are now officially demobilized. amy tells me that the company will pay for my ticket home and that they will reimburse me for the flight to wichita.
2 pm - i'm packed, i watch an episode of days, and book a flight home. wichita - denver - vegas - san jose. then i do some sudoku and hang out with the remaining ppl from the project.
6:30 pm - i'm at the wichita airport waiting for my flight to denver.
8-ish pm - i'm at the denver airport where i find out that the flight is delayed by an hour.
11:29pm - i arrive in vegas bording pass-less and have to go to the ticketing counter a tram stop away, and get on the flight before it takes off at 11:59pm. it doesn't happen. i take a taxi to the strip and wander around all the different casinos and whatever. i try out a couple of the penny and nickel slots and move along to other casinos.
5-ish am - get kicked out of the bellagio lobby for napping on a chair
7-ish am - get kicked out of a restaurant at mgm for falling asleep at the table.
9 am - get to the airport and end up in line behind a billion perky happy and talkative portland, or all star cheerleading squad. they got second place apparently. i didn't care b/c i was sleepy and grumpy.
1:30pm - FINALLY arrive in san jose. come home, sleeeeeeeeep. yay for sleep. i probably got somewhere between 12 - 14 hours of sleep the entire time i had this adventure.


so basically the only parts of wichita i saw are the airport and the hotel. i really wanted an adventure. i guess this counts. :)

on a side note, was i/am i a mean person back in elementary school and now? i hope not. i want to think of myself as a very awkward person who is shy to the point of being rude.

i'm in kansas!

if anyone who reads this ever feels like going to the YMCA in east palo alto, you should ride the elevator. it's dedicated to my aunt. kinda cool. :)

yesterday was michael, travis, and my joint birthday party. it was pretty fun except that it rained off and on. ppl from all over came and it was fun. travis brought food from a catering guy he knows, michael brought a TON of drinks, and kristin and i made dinner. more like kristin made dinner. at first we just played net-less volleyball. which pretty much ment we were tossing the ball around and used a stick to act as our net just for the sake of boundaries. but there were also no set boundries for the sides or back. then we played sloshball. it was very muddy and wet. good times were had by all. then we had dinner and decided to go to rudy's for some dancing. which is where i ran into jibari, khari, nik ajagu, and aaron wilson. crazy reunion-ness! afterwards, we went home and i finished packing (weather inappropriate clothing) and watch an episode of days before kristin took me to the airport in order for me to catch my flight by 6:15. luckily, my flight to phoenix was fairly empty so i got an entire row to myself. so i stretched out and slept on all three seats. my flight to wichita was pretty full but i was able to get two seats so i sorta stretched out a bit and slept.

after checking into the hotel, i went to explore a bit. the room itself has dsl internet, a kitchenette with all the normal kitchen stuff, a recliner!!, and of course the cable tv with a dvd/vcr. the hotel comes with free washer and dryers, a small gym, and a mini convienience store. it's a pretty nice hotel!

one bad thing is that i didn't pack weather appropriate clothing. which i knew i would do. i'm a retard and forgot a thick jackt. and i'm kicking myself over that. but i honestly didn't think about long johns, something to cover my face, or a hat/beanie. if they ever have a suggestion box, i would ask them to provide an "essential clothing list" list. so i have that going for me.

i'm not sure how much i'll be able to update this thing b/c i was talking to the principle archaeologist and she said that the gis guy usually works until midnight and has to get up early to do field stuff. this job sounds like it's going to be interesting.

kansas!

for years, i've told people that when i got older (25 and up) and didn't have any marriage prospects, my mom would start to set me up on dates. and i've also said that when she did that, i'd run away. people would usually laugh or ask questions about it. well, now that i'm 25 and have no marriage prospects, my mom set me up on a date. it wasn't horrible but it wasn't enjoyable either. i think the main reason was because his english isn't all that great and my korean isn't too good either. also, my mom was there. she had a great time. a little afterwards, i found a job posting for a gps person on an archaeology job list site. i applied for it and the next day was offered the job. i had to talk it over with my parents and a couple people online about whether or not i should go and then called back and said yes. so now i'm going to kansas in a week. the job is temporary and is only until april but it might be extended to september. who knows. the nice part is that they pay for my hotel and food!

i don't know too much about kansas though. i know it's a red state, it's going to be cold, there are tornadoes, and there's probably a small chance of me eatting good korean food while i'm there. oh, and i've heard that the lawmakers passed a bill to outlaw the second law of thermodynamics. .......... yeah. i'll update everyone one kansas once i actually get there. in the mean time, anyone want to help pack? ;)

yay for cooking!

sarita, asher, and i have started cooking ethnic foods. it's more like sarita and i feel like cooking something and instead of going to her house, the two of us go off to asher's apt. and cook there. usually giving him about 30 minutes of notice. one night was indian, another was gingerbread houses, and the most recent was wontons. it's always an adventure b/c he has a bachelor-i-live-alone kitchen. which means that sarita and i usually go there with a camping mentality. does a campground come with a spatula? does it have salt? egg? milk? what about a cutting board? the food always turns out good though so it's ok. we just give asher alot of crap about his empty kitchen. but to his credit, his freezer usually has food in it even if his fridge does not. next on our list is italian, korean, mexican, and sushi. on indian night, we all ate our food listening to indian music and sat around an indonesian tablecloth. asher even dressed up in a traditional indian outfit. hee! too bad i never take a camera. neither does anyone else, for that matter.


on to more serious stuff that i've been thinking about:

what's wrong with people? why are ppl so mean and discriminatory?? on new year's eve, Yale University's "Bakers Dozen" was performing when a guy started yelling at them for being gay. even though there's no correlation between being in an acapella group and being gay. and later, that guy calls up a bunch of his friends and they all beat up the "bakers dozen". one to the point of needing his jaw wired shut and getting reconstructive surgery!! and the sfpd released the boys! ugh.. and T.R. Knight of grey's anatomy needing to come out after a cast mate called him a faggot. and that castmate is denying it all. there are so many things wrong with those last two sentences. 1) nobody should be forced to come out. it's something that you chose to do on your terms at your pace. 2) for anyone to say racial or in this case, sexual slurs means that they say them on a regular basis. otherwise, it doesn't fly out of your mouth at any given time. (yes, i'm talking to you cosmo kramer!) 3) own up to what you did. it was wrong. fix the problem somehow and don't bring more publicity to it. and most recently, northwest airlines denied muslims from boarding a plane from frankfurt, germany to detroit. they were on their way back from a pilgrimage to mecca. i wonder how northwest is going to spin this so that denying 40 muslims from boarding a flight is not racial profiling. and it'd be interesting to see how muslims react to northwest from now on. will they boycott the airline entirely? those are the three mean and discriminatory things came to my attention enough for me to blog about.

a couple things i've been thinking about

why are subject lines so hard? they're like writing a one sentance abstract for your entire email. i hated writing paragraph-long abstracts for my papers b/c i didn't have enough space to write about everything. a one sentance abstract makes it all the more difficult.

i think san francisco doesn't want me to watch a concert in its city. why else would i not be able to watch two different concerts? ozomatli over the summer at some point and the devil makes three last saturday. but i guess if i had seen the concerts, i wouldn't have gone off to go to plans b - d.

i think i'm going through my quarter-life crisis. i don't know what i'll do. probably cut my hair really weird and move? i have no idea. but i guess this brings me to my next point.

i want to go on an adventure. does anyone else want to go on an adventure? i've been pretty passive about it but now i just want to go. only thing is, i don't know where to go or when. just somewhere. and soon. there are a ton of places i'd love to go to. i've never been to DC, i want to see the arctic before it melts away (but i can deal with alaska instead), europe.. or places that are more likely to happen like a camping trip to yosemite or just camping in general. or a kayaking trip in santa cruz. or a snow weekend. i just want to go on an adventure.

i just got my new phone! which means i'm switching to a new phone number and a new service. i'm switching from verizon to cingular. which i'm ok with.