Bibliophagy

I only blog when I'm in Europe, apparently

2010-01-25T20:26:00.000-08:00

On my way to Leiden and the land of tulips and good beer. Will update with adventures soon.

Be cool, my babies.

How I Spent My Spring Break: Culinary Tour of the San Francisco Bay Area

2009-03-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty ambitious food itinerary before the start of the trip, but alas, found that my stomach couldn't really do four meals a day. Here is the food I did manage to fit in, so to speak.

Sunday, March 8th
Late lunch with April at Vik's in Berkeley. I had the bhatura cholle with idli sambar. April had the dahi batata puri, little puffed up dumplings served cold. Dessert was gulab jamun, mango kurfi, and some nutty thing. The idli and gulab jamun were only okay (Karthik's mom's idli is much better), but I loved the fluffiness of my bhatura cholle. Menu here.

Dinner was a Berkeley classic, one of Intermezzo's giant salads (still only $6.25!). Giant bowl of greens, hard boiled egg, avocado, garbanzo beans, red kidney beans, sprouts, and carrots, with a giant hunk of homemade wheat bread. Still delicious and filling.

Monday, March 9th
I was going to the California Academy of Sciences, so I just grabbed some coffee and a chocolate croissant at Tully's before making my way to Golden Gate Park.

After 3 hours at the Academy and getting lost for another half hour in Golden Gate Park, I finally made it to the Mission for a very late lunch at El Toro, where I had a burrito especial with carne asada, FREE chips, and many different kinds of salsa. And because it was happy hour time, a Negra Modelo for $2! Unfortunately, this was my only taqueria visit this trip (I wanted to go Cancun and about a half dozen other ones, including Papalote on 24th with the great mole sauce).

Burrito and beer in the sun.

After napping briefly at Dolores Park, I met Angelin and Kevan at Tartine for an afternoon pastry snack. I had a frangipane tart (they were out of the banana cream tarts, alas) with a coconut macaroon. The tart was not as good as I remembered it, but the macaroon was 3 bites of deliciousness. Unfortunately, I forgot that Tartine doesn't bake their bread on Mondays, so I couldn't get a loaf of my favorite, the olive oil with herbs de provence.

For dinner, I met up with Adam at Delfina Pizzeria where we had the roasted spicy cauliflower (OMG SO GOOD), the Margherita pizza, the Broccoli Raab pizza, and a bottle of wine. I'm glad to report that Delfina's quality is still fantastic and the wait just as long, but they've added more tables outside.

Tuesday, March 10th
I went to the Ferry Building Farmers' Market in the morning where I bought a lot of fresh and dried fruit (I was on a "P" kick, so I got pluots, persimmons, and pears). For lunch, I had a freshly grilled burger from the Prather Ranch Co. stand and then a yummy rissoto tartlet from Frog Hollow Harms.

In front of the Ferry Building.

Dinner was at Suppenkueche with Shinyung and Jeff and Ashton. For appetizers, we got the potato pancakes and the German salad (mit lots of delicious beets). I had the Jaegerschnitzel with spaetzle (which isn't as cheesy as Elliott's) with Koelsch and Koestritzer. For dessert, Ashton and I wandered back to the Mission to Bi-Rite Creamery (where Obama has visited apparently). We split a cup of ginger and butter pecan. Mmmmm.

Wednesday, March 11th
Lunch wasn't anywhere special, just Cafe Roma in Elmwood, but even their basic sandwich of grilled eggplant and red bell peppers on focaccia was probably better than most food in Boston.

Dinner, for which I'd been saving myself, was at the Chez Panisse Cafe with April. It was actually my first time eating upstairs; Elliott and I spent two anniversary dinners at the downstairs restaurant. April and I split a bottle of Beaujolais Blanc Chardonnay, which was recommended by the bartender. She got the steelhead salmon, and I got the prix fixe, which was a great deal for only $26. I had a green salad, an absolutely delicious pasta dish of bucatini con sarde (with anchovies, sardines, and bread crumbs), and a dessert of tangerine sherbet with candied kumquats and an almond tuile. Cafe menu here, though it changes weekly.

Blurry picture of our wine.

Thursday, March 12th
My last day (sniff) in the East Bay started with brunch with Angeline at the Rockridge Cafe, which serves great diner food. My scrambled eggs had bell peppers and potatoes cooked right in, and the fresh baked currant scone was quite good.

I then walked down to the Berkeley Bowl, where I nearly started crying in the midst of all the wonderful fruit and vegetables on display.

Mangoes and pineapples, oh my!

Don't the mandarin kumquats (larger cousins of the normal kumquat) look delicious? Though the cherimoyas are a bit bruised.

For more quintessential Berkeley food, I had some frozen yogurt at Yogurt Park (chocolate and strawberry with chocolate sprinkles) and then a brat at Top Dog.

For my very last meal in the Bay Area, I chose Gregoire's, which my dinner companions, Jesse, Angelin, and Kevan had never been to. We all shared some potato puffs before the entrees, which were fantastic, every single one of them. I loved my choice of pork shoulder (which also made me feel better about not ordering the pork at Chez Panisse) with honey and Fuji apples.

Angelin's buttermilk fried chicken, in Gregoire's classic corrugated cardboard take-out container.

I wish I could have fit in more restaurants (like Cheeseboard and the Slanted Door and Millennium and Zuni, etc.) and maybe a trip to Napa (and a return visit to Ad Hoc), but I think that I did a pretty good job of eating my way through the Bay Area.

Can Christmas Be Postponed?

2008-12-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

I've really let Christmas get away from me this year. Part of it is the shortened time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the fact that I'm still not done with finals even though it's only a week until the 25th. But still, I can't remember being this ill-prepared for the season. I don't have the time or the money to shop for the perfect presents for my parents or friends. And I can't even get it together to give the presents that I've *already* made to people. EPIC FAIL. So, of course, I'm shopping for myself (like you do). Here's the modern edition of What I Want for a (Consumerist) Christmas:

1. Who doesn't need a beautiful teapot? Not I.

2. I love this watch.

3. And after four years of political theory at Berkeley, all I got is this necklace.

How Zeitgeisty are you?

2008-12-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

I'm ambivalent about "year in review" features, as they serve primarily to remind me 1) how little I've gotten done this year and 2) how much I've already forgotten. On the love side of the love-hate coin, however, is their attraction to me as annual pop culture pop quizzes (and I do love me some of those). So let's start with New York magazine (that hipster* bible) and their culture awards:

First, their movie wrap-up: I'm afraid that I score a bit fat zero here, as the number of movies I've seen in theaters this year can be counted on one hand. But I plan to go on an Oscar binge this Christmas when I'm at home. Bring on the Nazi movies!

Ah, television, a medium I'm (unfortunately) more familiar with: I'm up to date on my Mad Men, 30 Rock, Dr. Horrible, The Office (Jim + Pam 4EVER), and Ugly Betty (though its sophomore slump is extending into its junior year). I'm surprised that Pushing Daisies isn't on the list, but it's probably for the best; I'd just start crying about its cancellation all over again. As for the rest, I plead the Netflix defense. Plus, I totally devoured all of Skins via the interwebs.

As for architecture, I object to this list on the basis of its omission of Renzo Piano's work for the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Penultimately, I've been living in a hole on Mars with regards to music this year, although Gossip Girl has actually been responsible for introducing me to Santogold and The Fratellis, so I'm not completely musically illiterate. I also have Vampire Weekend, but I'm not crazy about them. Elliott scores huge points in this category, as he actually saw both Radiohead at the All Points West festival (with Lady Liberty in the background) AND The Walkmen this year.

And finally, on the subject of books, purportedly the subject of this blog: I have read none of the ones on New York magazine's list or on the New York Times's 100 Notable Books list, but I definitely plan to. Especially the new translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Unaccustomed Earth, and Fanon. Oh, and I should probably finish Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman before it disintegrates in my purse.

And how "2008" are you?

* I promise to retire this word in 2009. It's way past its sell-by date, no?

What I Want for Christmas*

2008-12-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

1. Every single necklace on this page. I can picture this in yellow with a lovely sundress.

2. All the lovely yarn here.

3. A t-shirt proclaiming my crafty bent.

4. One of these.

* The ultra-materialistic version.

I need a new craft like I need a hole in my head

2008-12-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

And yet I want to make a draft stopper for my bedroom door (like this). Now I can't stop browsing IKEA fabrics online. Wouldn't this, this, this, this, this and this make a lovely quilt? I particularly like this pattern , which reminds of looking at spores under a microscope.

Of course, I also have a sweater on the needles and several more Christmas gifts to knit, plus that whole law school finals thing, so I should probably stop here now.

Restaurant Nostalgia

2008-12-01T23:16:00.000-08:00

So one of the contestants on Top Chef this season is the current executive chef from Absinthe in San Francisco, Jaime Lauren. Since I'd eaten there before, I wondered if she was the executive chef then (she wasn't; Ross Brown was), which sent me on a trip down nostalgia lane.

Elliott and I went there on our second date. I ordered the cassoulet (which doesn't seem to be on the menu anymore). I wore a black, silk BCBG dress with side cut-outs and a tiny pearl necklace from a boutique on College Avenue. It was the most expensive dress I'd ever bought at the time; I had to call my friend Emily from the dressing room to justify the purchase. I remember being flushed from all the wine and going to the bathroom to powder my nose, something that Elliott commented on when I got back to the table. We went to the symphony afterward, but I don't remember what we heard though I still have the program somewhere. What I do remember is getting the heel of one of my shoes stuck in a sidewalk grate and having to hop back to get it. I remember walking hand-in-hand with Elliott over the wet pavement of the U.N. Plaza. And I remember the salty richness of the cassoulet.

Contrarian

2008-08-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'm built to handle round-the-clock sunshine. And it's not just the shock of successive 80-degree days after a month of rain talking, either. Long stretches of idyllic weather in Berkeley used to make me lethargic and melancholy, too. I think that inclement weather stimulates the senses more: the threatening horizon, the smell of rain, the crack of thunder. Or maybe I just resent feeling like I'm supposed to be more productive when it's nice out, and I can't just sit on the couch reading and knitting. Either way, I'm left staring up at blue skies and hoping for a raincloud or two.

Rain, rain, go away

2008-08-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Except not really. With a combination of the rainclouds prematurely darkening the sky and me typing away in a cafe, I feel almost transported to my undergrad days in Berkeley. I remember staying out late with Anna in freshman year and walking home on rain slick streets with a stop at the Asian Ghetto. And of course, later, spending untold hours at the Free Speech Movement Cafe with Karthik. If only CafeNation in Brighton were open until 2:00 in the morning. That's when my genius really happens.

Okay, that's enough nostalgia for an August day. How about a reading update?

Here's a book I forgot to include last time: Austenland. My roommate got it for me because she thinks that I'm some sort of Austen uberfreak (I disagree; I think I'm just a regular Austen freak). The story -- such as it is -- is about a single, New York woman (redundant?) who flies to England to attend an Austen camp for adults. She is simultaneously attracted to and repelled by the artifice of Edwardian era dress and beautiful men who are paid to flirt with her, blah blah blah. But (SPOILER ALERT) she finds true love in the end. But all in all, it was a delightful trifle and reminded me of the BBC reality show/contest that aired a couple of years ago wherein the participants/contestants live as Miss Austen would have lived. They had to follow the social rules of the time (e.g., no touching between men and women unless they were dancing) and were allowed no modern amenities. In fact, I distinctly recall one girl who had to bathe in old bathwater that had already been used by every other girl in the house. Does anyone remember the name of the show? Karthik?

And I finally read something that all high school students in America are probably required to read: The Great Gatsby. I'm glad that I read this for the first time as a mid-twentysomething. I don't know if I would have understand some of the themes of money and status as a 15-year-old. Beyond that, I don't have much to say about Fitzgerald that hasn't already been said a dozen times over except that the man sure knows how to turn a phrase.

I'm currently reading Kundera's The Joke. And despite the title, the book's not exactly laugh out loud funny. At best, it's cynically humorous, which suits me just fine. But I am getting a little tired of Kundera's misogynistic man-children (the Socialist precursors to Judd Apatow's?) who only want women for the services that they provide. I'll take the book with me down to the beach tomorrow, though. Maybe the sun will bleach away some of the darkness.

OMG

2008-07-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

I need to go to Seoul.

Addendum to An Ode

2008-07-19T21:06:00.003-07:00

Apparently, fruit flies feel the same way I do about Riesling.

Further adventures in procrastination

2008-07-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, OCI bids are due soon. Why do you ask?

Let's catch up on all the reading that I've been able to indulge in this summer.

Reading Lolita in Tehran was surprisingly poignant toward the end. I'd gotten a little tired of Nafisi's comparative literature essay style of writing earlier in the book, but once she got more into her own struggles with the Revolution and her students' lives, I liked the book a lot more. Also, she revived my interest in classic American literature. At this moment, there's a copy of The Great Gatsby on my nightstand.

I picked up this copy of Amsterdam on a book buying spree, and I read it in a day. Despite the fact that you can see the ending coming from a mile away, it was an enjoyable read. Though I think I expected something with more gravitas; instead, it was a little bit... pulpy.

I also finished reading The United States of Arugula, which was really fun and informational. Though I've already been guilty of bringing it up at parties three times. I'm going to stop that now. Still, read it for everything you wanted to but didn't know about how gourmet cuisine began in America and who the hell James Beard is.

And finally, there is Phyllida and the Brotherhood of the Philander. It's a bisexual Regency romance, and really, do I need to say more than that? There were more explicit sex scenes than I expected, but when is that ever a bad thing?

I'm now almost done with Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans, which is beautiful so far. The protagonist shares a quality with other Ishiguro narrators in that he tends to re-write his own history, to overlook (or willfully disregard) what's right in front of him, and to fail in love. But I haven't gotten to the end yet, so maybe it won't be as heartbreaking as his other books. I'll let you know.

In addition to reading, I've also been catching up on Almodovar's back catalog. Between that and a recent trip to the El Greco to Velazquez exhibit at the MFA, I really really want to go to Spain this winter. Oh, those lovely lispy esses.

An Ode to Riesling

2008-07-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

On this hot summer night
I press my lips to your cool glass of
Heady sweetness.

Yum.

2008-03-01T19:33:00.001-08:00

Culinary revelation of the day (to me at least): Roasted brussel sprouts + balsamic vinegar = gustatory heaven.

Picture Dump Part 2 (the Obama edit)

2008-02-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

On Super Tuesday eve, Barack Obama held a rally at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. This is our journey to hear him speak.

The doors were supposed to open at 8:00, so I got there around 6:30. The line was four blocks long, and there were already over 3,000 in line. Thankfully, Khadijah and her posse and Jeremy and Sarah showed up soon thereafter, so I wouldn't have to keep the hope alive all by myself.

Me and Ms. B.

The whole gang. We look happy here because we didn't yet know how long it would actually take us to get inside.

We danced to keep ourselves warm. Jeremy, uh, walked funny.

When we finally got inside, nearly four hours later, we were near the back of the enormous conference hall.

Way back.

But it was great to be there, to be part of a new political process.

Picture Dump Part 1

2008-02-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

Way back in January, when my moot court brief was but a spot on the horizon, I visited Elliott in New York to spend the last part of my winter break.

We visited the Imagine circle in Strawberry Fields in Central Park.

Central Park maintenance's own version of Christo and Jean-Claude's The Gates.

Some simple stir-fry on the new CB2 plates we got. (We also visited my personal mecca, the MUJI store in Soho, but those pictures are on Elliott's camera.)

Elliott opened his belated birthday presents on a damp bench in the Columbus quad.

Elliott's happy about his new Alice Waters book. Yay!

And then Elliott came up to Boston, whereupon we made a lot of food.

First, we made chicken enchiladas. Recipe from Chow.

Then we made lots of gingerbread cookies.

And we finished with a winter vegetable kale soup. Mmmmmm.

Happy Iowa Caucus Eve!

2008-01-02T21:34:00.000-08:00

If we're good boys and girls, mayhaps we'll get a nice Democratic presidential candidate tomorrow.

(Yep, still gafiating [getting away from it all]).

Snow Day, For Reals

2007-12-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

The view from the bus stop this morning. Seriously, how beautiful is that?

You know what was not so beautiful? My property midterm, which was probably the hardest test I've ever taken. They weren't kidding when they said that law school is hard. Go to graduate school, kids.

Snow day!

2007-12-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

Almost December

2007-11-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day and its attendant delights (the food, the company, the drunken charades) and downs (the hives, the trip to the ER) has passed, and it's now time to buckle down for finals. Ergo, my thoughts turn to Christmas gifts, especially of the knitted kind.

Some inspiration from Urban:

Beret
Slouchy beanie (one can never have too many)
Cowl-like scarf thing
Eternity scarf which would look great in a Habu yarn (maybe I'll get some for Christmas)
and
Reversible cabled scarf (so tempted to knit this for myself but there are already two projects in progress intended for that purpose, *cough*)

I just need an another extra pair of hands. One to knit and the other to brief cases.

Snapshots of food

2007-10-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the dishes that Elliott has made over the past couple of weeks. My culinary output has been null (unless you count microwaving or making cookies, which I don't). And let's not even talk about my literary diet. I did get Naomi Novik's Empire of Ivory and Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise, but I'm not optimistic about starting either of them soon.

Anyway, food!

Elliott proudly stirring the absolutely fantastic chicken tikka masala, almost an exact replica of the one we loved at Pakwan in San Francisco.

Yummmmmmmmm. Maybe we'll (and by we, I mean Elliott) attempt homemade naan next time.

Absolutely amazing stuffed pork chops.

With gravy on top and bacon braised cabbage on the side. Elliott really likes to stress his German heritage sometimes.

And because that wasn't enough food, we also made an onion and leek tart, which was very simple and very tasty.

Ooof. I'm full just from looking at those pictures again. The stuffed pork chops, cabbage, and onion and leek tart recipes are all from Chow.com. The chicken tikka masala recipe was just something I googled.

Okay, back to my civil procedure casebook now. Whoo.

I'm back. Again.

2007-10-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the radio silence. Law school is taking up all my time and sorta getting me down. I'm hoping that I get over it soon and refocus on the reason why I'm subjecting myself to this in the first place.

Anyway, look for food pictures soon! Elliott and I have been cooking up a storm on the weekends that we see each other.

Speaking of spam

2007-10-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

Here's some more, specifically, on what this blog is purportedly about: books.

I read most of David Sedaris's Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim over the weekend, which is very good but definitely not my favorite book of his. As a whole, I'm not very interested in stories from or about his childhood. I feel a little squeamish reading dysfunctional accounts of someone else's childhood (the same reason that I've never read any Augusten Burroughs).

And now, a book meme.

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn’t finish, and strike through what you couldn’t stand. The numbers after each one are the number of LT users who used the tag of that book.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (149)
Anna Karenina (132)
Crime and Punishment (121)
Catch-22 (117)
One hundred years of solitude (115)
Wuthering Heights (110)
The Silmarillion (104)
Life of Pi : A Novel (94)
The Name of the Rose (91)
Don Quixote (91)
Moby Dick (86)
Ulysses (84)
Madame Bovary (83)
The Odyssey (83)
Pride and Prejudice (83)
Jane Eyre (80)
A tale of two cities (80)
The Brothers Karamazov (80)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (79)
War and Peace (78)
Vanity Fair (74)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (73)
The Iliad (73)
Emma (73)
The Blind Assassin (73)
The Kite Runner (71)
Mrs. Dalloway (70)
Great Expectations (70)
American Gods (68)
~~A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius~~ (67)
~~Atlas Shrugged~~ (67)
Reading Lolita in Tehran : A Memoir in Books (66)
Memoirs of a Geisha (66)
Middlesex (66)
Quicksilver (66)
Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (65)
The Canterbury Tales (64)
The Historian : A Novel (63)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (63)
Love in the Time of Cholera (62)
Brave New World (61)
The Fountainhead (61)
Foucault’s Pendulum (61)
Middlemarch (61)
Frankenstein (59)
The Count of Monte Cristo (59)
Dracula (59)
A Clockwork Orange (59)
Anansi Boys (58)
The Once and Future King (57)
The Grapes of Wrath (57)
The Poisonwood Bible : A Novel (57)
1984 (57)
Angels & Demons (56)
The Inferno (56)
The Satanic Verses (55)
Sense and Sensibility (55)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (55)
Mansfield Park (55)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (54)
To the Lighthouse (54)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (54)
Oliver Twist (54)
Gulliver’s travels (53)
Les Misérables (53)
The Corrections (53)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (52)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (52)
Dune (51)
The Prince (51) [I think that reading parts of it very closely in a political theory class counts, don't you?]
The Sound and the Fury (51)
Angela’s Ashes : A Memoir (51)
The God of Small Things (51)
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-Present (51)
Cryptonomicon (50)
Neverwhere (50)
A Confederacy of Dunces (50)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (50)
Dubliners (50)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (49)
Beloved (49)
Slaughterhouse-Five (49) [Not sure if this deserved to be italicized. I mean to finish it one day!]
The Scarlet Letter (48)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (48)
The Mists of Avalon (47)
Oryx and Crake : A Novel (47)
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (47)
Cloud Atlas (47)
The Confusion (46)
Lolita (46)
Persuasion (46)
Northanger Abbey (46) [Optimistically bolded. I think I'll finish it this semester.]
The Catcher in the Rye (46)
On the Road (46)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (45)
Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (45)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (45)
The Aeneid (45)
Watership Down (44)
Gravity’s Rainbow (44) [There should be a style for books that intimidate the hell out of you. I think that The Satanic Verses would qualify, too.]
The Hobbit (44)
In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (44)
White Teeth (44)
Treasure Island (44)
David Copperfield (44)
The Three Musketeers (44)

Man, that was so embarrassing. Not the number of books of I haven't read but the number of them that I've picked up and couldn't bring myself to finish. I'm not so much a devourer of books as a page-nibbler.

A new week, a new season

2007-10-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

It's Monday again, which means that it's time for torts torts torts torts and SPAM. Fortunately, there is a lovely crispness in the air and the promise of a new Radiohead album in 9 days! And only four and a half days from a three-day weekend.

Life is all about the anticipation of the next pleasurable moment.

PS:

2007-09-28T15:32:00.001-07:00

Some pictures from the weekend I spent in New York visiting Elliott (and Karthik and Suzannah).

The Hungarian Pastry Shop by Elliott's apartment.

Elliott in front of the Psych Department building.

Purl Soho in Soho where I bought some nummy yarn.

Lunch at Peep in Soho, where the bathrooms are definitely... surprising. :)

The boys at dinner.

Happiness

2007-09-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

May be a warm gun, but it is definitely the end of the week. I can't believe it's already been four weeks of law school, but this week felt like it could have been an entire month in itself. I spent every spare waking moment either writing my legal memo or reading for class. Enough. I am done. I am taking a step back and taking a deep breath (even if I can't smell anything due to my cold).

The plan for this weekend:

Clean the apartment. Actually cook something by myself. Hang up some pictures on the walls. Go out drinking with some friends. Read a book outside.

These are my goals for this weekend, and hopefully, they'll make me feel better about this whole law school thing. Bah.

The end of the end

2007-09-03T13:51:00.001-07:00

This is it. The last day of freedom before the first day of law school. Or rather, the last day of peace and ignorance before law school consumes my life. I am, however, getting more used to living here. The weather has been absolutely lovely this weekend, with the sweet anticipation of fall. Elliott came up to visit me on Saturday and was pressed into being a moving mule for me again. He's currently on the Chinatown bus heading back to New York, and I'm enjoying some peace and quiet in the law library (and checking my e-mail, the US Open scores, and updating my blog :).

Tomorrow it begins. Wish me luck.

Obernau and Now

2007-08-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, to wrap this baby up, put Europe behind me, and look ahead to 1L (somebody hold me).

The lovely German countryside.

Elliott with the pet pot-bellied pig, Big Bertha.

The absurdly beautiful Rhine.

Me and a "round" of Koelsch.

And now I'm home (for a certain value of "home") in Las Vegas, driving on wide boulevards and shivering in the ubiquitous air conditioning. Emily Dickinson once wrote that "Pain has an element of blank." I think that travel is much the same. Without the thousand or so pictures that I took on this trip, I doubt that I could have remembered half of the places we'd seen and things we'd done. I wish that I could say that our trip was a life-changing experience, but for the most part, it was just spending some good times (and not-so-good times) with Elliott in some of the most beautiful places in the world. And that? Is really all that I wanted.

The End of the Road

2007-07-26T16:31:00.001-07:00

Berlin was lovely, barring burning myself. It was a chance to catch up with Nicole and to see a foreign city through a (near) native's eyes. But we also took in the usual tourist attractions: Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag. After Berlin, we spent a little over a week with Elliott's relatives in Obernau, in the Windeck region of Germany. It is absolutely gorgeous countryside, the German equivalent of the Lake District in England. And Elliott's family was really fantastic, as well as their pets, from the shaggy-haired black dog to the Maine Coon cat (the most awesome cat ever, omg) to the half-bald, pot-bellied pig. Our time in Obernau was very relaxing and uh, filling, as we were fed absurd amounts of food and with alarming frequency. And then it was Obernau to Frankfurt to Chicago to San Francisco to Mountain View.

Hearing American English regularly took some getting used to at first; it's almost like deciphering a foreign language. It's hard to believe that we spent the last six weeks in Europe, in four different countries, moving from hotel to hostel to sobe, always on a plane or a fast train. I wish that I could stop for a long, long while, but tomorrow morning, we're driving down to Las Vegas to see my parents. Maybe I'll take a breather when I start law school, eh? :)

Here are some pictures from Turkey and Berlin.

Whirling dervish by the Blue Mosque.

Pride Parade down Istiklal Caddesi.

Our Bosphorous cruise, on which we saw dolphins/porpoises!

Elliott and Sun at Ethnicon in the Grand Bazaar, where Elliott bought a lovely teppich.

Nicole und ich at a cafe in Berlin.

Wet and rainy in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Mmmmmm... wine warms me up.

Inside the glass dome of the Reichstag.

Walking on the Shalechet exhibit at the Jewish Museum.

Turkey Hates Me - Misadventures in Turkey and Germany

2007-07-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

I think that I must have done something to offend Kemal Mustafa in a past life. You know how some people get the Revenge of Montezuma when they travel? Well, I got the Revenge of Atatürk when I was in Turkey, for like, two weeks, reducing me to pre-packaged food and Starbucks. Yum. As my friend Nicole put it, 'You like Turkish food, but Turkish food doesn't like you.' Not only did I have, um, tummy problems, but I was also shat on by a bird in Tophane. And two days ago, on Friday the 13th, I was dealt the coup de grace. While enjoying a nice smoke at shisa bar in Kreuzberg, I managed to knock over the pipe and dump a good portion of the coal onto my chest, which resulted in burns from my breasts down to my stomach. After spending pretty much the entire day at the hospital yesterday, it was determined that I have second and third degree burns on my left breast. A third degree burn (don't Google, the pictures are pretty disgusting) is a burn that goes through all layers of skin, down to the muscle or bone, and it doesn't hurt because you lose all the nerve cells there. In German, die Sensitivität ist nicht intakt. Luckily, mine is only half an inch wide, but it will probably take 2 to 3 weeks to heal. So no more nude beaches for me, at least for a while.

You win, Mustafa. You win.

Book Update

2007-07-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

Stolen from Elliott, started and finished in Istanbul: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

A quick pop science read. Nothing groundbreaking. Although it's fun that Elliott knows some of the researchers mentioned in the book.

Started in Istanbul, finished in Istanbul: Queen of Babble, Size 12 Is Not Fat, Size 14 Is Not Fat Either, all by Meg Cabot

These were really fun, fast reads, and the last two books are actually about more than retail therapy and finding a boyfriend/husband.

Currently reading: A collection of short stories called Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules, compiled by David Sedaris

The David Sedaris totally sold me on the book, and it's given me an opportunity to read some authors that I've been meaning to get around for a while, like Alice Munro and Joyce Carol Oates, a.k.a., depressing Canadians.

Completely abandoned and finally sold to a used bookstore in Berlin: Pamuk's The Black Book.

Photo Catchup - Croatia and Istanbul

2007-07-13T05:54:00.000-07:00

Zagreb really showed off during the day and a half that we were there.

Sunlight church after the clouds parted.

And a rainbow.

Some pictures of Istanbul from our first couple of days in Sultanahmet.

One of the Medusa heads in the Basilica Cistern.

Your standard picture of the Blue Mosque.

Beautiful inside, but a distinct odor of feet.

The view of the Sea of Marmara from Topkapi Palace.

Ich bin ein Berliner. Nicht.

2007-07-12T11:22:00.001-07:00

It's nearing the end of our third day in Berlin, and we've already done so much. Nicole has been wonderful in taking us around both the touristy sites (walking along Unter den Linden, the Brandenburg Gate, etc.) and watering and feeding us at really cool bars in Prenzlauer Berg. Last night, we went to a place called the Weinarie (I think), where you can get unlimited glasses of wine and food (we had chili) and then just pay however much you want as you leave. It's the most brilliant thing ever.

Today was more of a touristy day, as we went to Museum Island, and hit three museums in a row. Other than the National Gallery (where the paternalist, fascist security personnel made us so unwelcome that we left after only 15 minutes), they were all pretty good. Nothing so overwhelming as the Archaelogical Museum in Istanbul had been, and Nefertiti is really quite lovely. The only thing is that I kept thinking as I was looking the statues that the Germans 'rescued' from Egypt and Greece and the Middle East, that it's all just so much glorified grave-robbing. And the thing is, unlike say the Met in New York or even the British Museum in London, the Germans seem to have no shame at all about this fact. The Gate of Ishtar that they're so proud of? I had seen those same glazed lions in Turkey, without knowing that the Germans had apparently taken the more spectacular pieces.

Anyway, we're going to end our supremely touristy day by watching the new Harry Potter at the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz.

Will try to upload pictures later. Tschüss.

Another day, another Turkish breakfast

2007-07-02T00:36:00.000-07:00

I feel much better today, much less belligerent. After being woken up from my nap yesterday afternoon, I was ready to start picking fights on Istiklal Caddesi, which would probably wind up with Elliott getting beat up.

Anyhow, today's plan was to visit the Istanbul Modern, but since that's closed, we've decided to lounge around in cafes all day and write you all postcards.

While you wait with bated breath (I'm sure) for my missives from Turkey, here are some of our pictures from Croatia:

Dubrovnik, Croatia

View from the city walls, taken by Elliott, after I quit the exhaustive climb halfway through.

Renaissance faire in Croatia!

The clear waters off of Hvar.

İstanbul

2007-07-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

In İstanbul at the moment. A little tired and sweaty, but otherwise okay. We moved from our hotel in Sultanahmet to a hostel in Beyoğlu today, I´m still recovering from the lack of towels and a working faucet thing. So pictures later, when I feel better.

Highlight of the day - A small gay pride gathering that marched up İstikal Caddesi. That was pretty cool.

Hvar, Hvar, Hvar

2007-06-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Lovely Hvar, with your lovely pebbly beaches and your wonderfully clear water and your lack of roving elderly tourist groups. Hvala!

But it's also time for us to leave Croatia and move onto Istanbul. I can't wait.

An update on books read:

Finished in Dubrovnik: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

I liked it, and I should probably read it again once I've read his other books. That's the trouble with starting with the last novel that he wrote.

Started in Dubrovnik and finished in Dubrovnik: Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

I probably shouldn't have chased Vonnegut with Vonnegut, but Elliott wasn't done with Blade Runner yet, and I didn't feel like reading Pamuk. I didn't like this one very much. There was just no point, which was perhaps the point. But I had no connection with any of the characters, and active loathing for Rumfoord, and the ending just left me with a sense of "That was it?"

Started in Dubrovnik and finished on the sweltering bus to Split: Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick

Fun book. Now I really want to see the movie.

Dinnertime. Muesli and vodka. Yum.

PS: A Tally of Books Read

2007-06-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

Bought, started, and finished in Rome: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Utterly delightful and addictive. I read it in about two days over 5 or 6 hours. Will probably get the next book(s) in the series as soon as I see them in an English bookstore.

Re-started on the train to Lecce, finished in Lecce: The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis

I always forget how much of an utter bastard Amis can be, or rather, his characters. In this case, though, the hyper-intellectual, self-loathing, pater-hating Charles Highway is a fairly transparent alter ego. No wonder Kingsley was pissed at him for writing this. Still, exquisitely odious prose (like a posher version of Irvine Welsh). Adolescence really is a disgusting period of life.

Bought today, started, but will probably put down for the time being: The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk

Currently reading: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

My first Vonnegut, and he's much more accessible than I thought he'd be. Also, more sincere and much funnier.

End of Italy, Beginning of Croatia

2007-06-20T11:50:00.001-07:00

We finally escaped from Italy. I say "escaped" because we departed from Porto di Bari (not, I'd like to note, Porta di Bari, which is a door, ahem), and Bari, while situated on the coast, is a pretty soulless place. The concrete, 90 degree angled streets were especially jarring after all the charm of Lecce. A comparison: In a little over a day, we had three great meals in Lecce, including yummy cocktails at perhaps the only modern Brazilian bar in Lecce. In our seven hour layover in Bari, we had some greasy pizza and saw some teenage boys fondle themselves in their bathing suits.

Anyway, now we are in Croatia. In the walled town of Dubrovnik, which is every bit as beautiful as advertised. Though infinitely hotter than I ever thought possible. To stave off heatstroke, we went to a hole in the wall bar/concrete beach this afternoon, where we took a couple of dips in the Adriatic, drank some beer, and read a little. Pure heaven. Just wait 'til you see the pictures.

We just finished having a delicious seafood meal, and will go later to the Troubadour, a jazz club apparently founded by a member of an ex-Eurovision band. How awesome is that?

Ciao for now.

Lecce - where the entire town goes on siesta

2007-06-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

We're in the small town of Lecce right now, where it was deserted only a few hours ago. All the shops were abandoned for naps in some underground sanctuary. Or something. It's a nice counterpoint to Rome, or culinarily, a digestiv after Rome's five-course meal. Here are some highlights from the past five (!) days:

At the Palatine.

Dinner the first night at Cul-de-Sac, an extraordinary wine bar with around 1,400 bottles of wine.

EUR is for lovers.

Asian nuns at the Vatican.

Renzo Piano's Parco della Mùsica outside the city center.

The plan now is to find a place that serves alcohol and maybe some food. All the bars (including an Irish pub called James Joyce) are closed at the moment. My suspicion is that all the people who work in the shops then work in the bars, so the hours can't overlap. Anyhow, wish us luck. We only have until tomorrow noon here, then it's back on the train to Bari, and then an overnight ferry to Dubrovnik and the Dalmatian coast.

In Roma

2007-06-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

I'm already worn out, and we've only been here for a day and a half. However, in that time, we've managed to cover a good 1/3 of the city. No wonder my feet hurt so much. I love it here so far, except for 2 things: the humidity and the tourist hawkers. Pictures to follow once I've found an Internet place where I can upload them.

For now, ciao, darlings.

Las Vegas = Sahara

2007-06-05T23:18:00.000-07:00

At least it does tonight. The wolf is at the door, and it's bringing all the accumulated sand and dirt in the world with it.

I've been somewhat productive while I've been at home these last couple of days. Granted, nothing related to say, trip-planning, but there has been knitting. Lots of knitting. Here is a small glimpse of what I accomplished in four days.

It's the Ene Scarf from Scarf Style, and hopefully, it will keep my head warm in Boston.

Well, that didn't last very long, did it?

2007-05-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

I've been packing and panicking for the last couple of days. We've also been trying to fit more quintessential San Francisco experiences in.

On Sunday afternoon, we had tea at Samovar. I had a really strong black tea with a matcha brownie.

Mmmmmm....

Elliott had the full on English tea service with a lemon tart, a scone, and a salmon crumpet. And contrary to the picture, he enjoyed it very much.

Except for when I snuck a bite of the lemon tart.

Day Eight - Penultimate* Day at Work

2007-05-17T23:27:00.001-07:00

I cleared out most of my desk, had yummy Thai food with a co-worker, then yummy cake at a birthday celebration, re-read Neil Gaiman's Stardust (which, by the way, they've made into a movie!) and finished the second sock for my dad. It almost makes me sad to leave work tomorrow.

*Penultimate meaning second to last, not last, as we all learned from Danny and Casey on Sports Night.

Tag Sieben - Book recommendations?

2007-05-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

Getting back to the other half of what this blog is purportedly about: books. I never travel without a book (or several) to read. I took Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting to Mexico, Persuasion to England, and The Remains of the Day to Wales and Paris. But I'm at a loss as to what to pack for this trip. For one thing, it's my first long vacation. Seven weeks without internet access and a steady supply of socks to knit (though I will take a small project with me) makes for a very restless Yao. I don't want to take anything from my current fiction stack, so it'll have to be a new book or something that I haven't read before. So, any recommendations? I'd like something in paperback and preferably modern but not necessarily.

PS: Elliott would like me to report that he's taking one Vonnegut book, Nabokov's The Gift, possibly one non-fiction book, one of the few Murakami books that he hasn't read, and possibly a book by Orhan Pamuk (though it'd be a little cliche to read it in Istanbul, especially if we try to stalk him in Nisantasi).

PPS: I think that Elliott really should update his own blog.

Day (Late) Six - Links Galore

2007-05-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Er, can we all pretend that it's still May 15th?

Here's what I meant to post had I not conked out early on Tylenol Cold.

New York Times review of Hitchens's new book that makes me actually want to pick it up

Murakami has a new book out

Ooooh, shiny collider

Gacked from a knitting blog that I read: Arcade Fire in concert, from NPR

Stupid YouTube video

Day Five - Last Monday at Work!

2007-05-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

Because I was so excited about this week being my last at work, the universe decided to punish me by having me work for 5 hours straight this morning. Ooof.

Now I'm relaxing with a nice cuppa tea and the socks that I'm knitting for my dad for Father's Day. So, as promised, sock pictures.

These are the ones that I knit for Elliott's grandma, Betty.

(Ignore how weird my calves look.)

And what I'm knitting now:

Makes you want a pair of hand-knit socks, eh?

Day Four - Sundays are for Miscellany

2007-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Our dinner party went pretty well last night, especially the fireworks interlude (provided by the local radio station KFOG) between the main course and dessert. Good timing, guys.

I know that I promised pictures of the food we made, but as always happens, I forgot. However, here is a picture of the resident dessert chef making an apple puff pastry tart.

And the table.

The official menu was:

Spring mix salad with mango and avocado with guava vinaigrette
Stuffed bell peppers (with turkey sausage and just plain veggie) with cous cous
Apple puff pastry tarts with honey
Blackberry pie (that Thomas brought)
A selection of ice creams from Bombay Ice Creamery

And now we're off to take over the city, as we do every Sunday. Ciao.

Day Three - Catching Up

2007-05-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last month, Elliott and I went on a mini-holiday to California's Central Valley for some wine-tasting and buying. We stayed at a small town in Paso Robles, and drove out to the nearby wineries.

They looked like this.

We toured a cave filled with barrels of wine.

We drank a lot of wine, and "stomped some grapes."

And smelled some flowers.

All in all, it was a fantastically relaxing trip. We drove back up on the 1 and saw Big Sur.

Or rather, Elliott did. I was too busy trying not to puke into a plastic bag.

The end.

Tag Zwei - Anticipation Is the Better Part of Pleasure

2007-05-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today was going to be sock picture day, in which I post pictures of all the socks I've made during my recent sock-knitting phase (which started shortly before Christmas and is on the downswing at the moment and which has resulted in a total of 8 pairs of handknit socks). But I was so tired from trip-planning last night that I never got around to taking pictures of the socks. So no sock porn today, but I'll try to put it up this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, Elliott and I are having a dinner party tomorrow night, and so far it looks like most people can make it, but our friends tend to be a bit, um, flaky, so my fingers are crossed. And I'll take pictures of the as yet to be determined but sure to be yummy food we're making.

Stay tuned!

30 Posts in 30 Days

2007-05-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

I'm shamelessly stealing the idea of 30 blog posts in 30 days from a blog that I regularly read. This is day one.

I'm ridiculously excited about our upcoming trip, despite all the headaches involved in planning how to get from one place to another. I swear, Croatia is like the steel trap of Europe. Once you're there, it's really hard to get out, unless you're prepared to pay a ton of money to fly. Hence, Elliott and I are reduced to taking a 31-hour bus (NB: it may actually be longer) from Zagreb to Istanbul. Luckily, Istanbul looks like it's worth it.

A Good (Not Quite) Year

2007-05-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I just used that hideous Russell Crowe movie as the title. Oh well, moving on.

So, my profile needs a little updating since Elliott and I are moving out of the Bay Area and out of our beautiful, centrally located (half a block from the best bakery in America) apartment. We'll finally going back to school (graduate school at Columbia for him, the smartypants, and law school for me). Goodbye, 9-5! Hello, crushing student loans!

To celebrate at our newfound freedom (before school begins, anyway), we're taking a 7-week trip through Europe. So far, the plan is to go from Rome to the Puglia region in southern Italy (maybe) to Croatia to Istanbul to the Turkish Aegean coast to the Greek Cyclades islands to Athens and finally to Cologne to visit some of Elliott's relatives. Y'know, I've typed out this itinerary probably dozens of times by now, and it still doesn't sound real to me. Rome! Dubrovnik! Istanbul! Wheee! And we'll probably get to meet up with some of our friends in Europe, too. Double wheeee!

For those whom I won't be seeing this summer or for a long while, I'd like to post travel updates to this blog, so you can see some of the amazing places that we'll be visiting. Sound good? Gut. Bis dann.

Mmmmm.... food

2006-07-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

Proof that the best food is made at home:

That is chicken tagine with apricots and topped with glazed almonds by Herr Wimmer. I made the salad, which was spinach, romaine hearts, tomatoes, cucumbers, and hard-boiled eggs tossed with a blackberry vinaigrette.

And now? We get to have blackberries, peaches, blueberries, and raspberries covered in honey and cardamom. Yay for summer.

Update

2006-07-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm alive. And emerging from the cocoon of work and the apartment to start the law school application process. Which is also when, paradoxically, I decide that I need to hang out more with the friends I haven't seen in a while. Maybe to counterbalance all the dreariness that writing a personal statement (ew) will generate.

Unfortunately, actually following through on all the plans I'm making depends on how well I'm feeling on any given day, and lately, I haven't had very many good days. Rare is the day that I don't have one of the following: a migraine, a stomache, or nausea. But I'm going to see a doctor about all these symptoms, so hopefully I'll feel better soon (or get an artificial stomach or something).

In other news, do not watch a movie about pedophilia and childhood trauma before bed because oh my god, bad dreams.

In current news, I'm working on my personal statement under the influence of energy drinks. Uh, any insight you may have into why I should go to law school and/or why I rox0rs would be very helpful. Danke.

2006-04-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since the last entry. Sorry about that. Moving and cleaning and craigslisting for furniture has kinda eaten up the last three weeks of my time.

But now it is spring, our new home is mostly furnished (see below), and a long lost (to the vagaries of Washington, D.C.) friend is in town. All of which is to say that the drudgeries of moving and of the relentless rain have finally let up, and it's time for eating and drinking with friends, farmers' markets, frolicking in the sun, and reading books again. I'm ashamed to admit this, but since Nick Hornby's Polyphonic Spree, I have only finished three books, Howard's End and two light fantasy books. I am still in the "middle" (more like the beginning) of Anna Karenina and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but neither feel like springtime reading. Any recommendations, fellow bookworms?

I have to go to the symphony, but I leave you with the promise of a post dedicated solely to all the wonderful food we've made recently.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

2006-04-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

We're moved into our new place. Well, mostly moved in, and mostly unpacked still. Next time we're doing this, I'm getting movers. And selling my unwanted books beforehand.

Pictures later.

The End of Sport

2006-02-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

As in, both the Olympics and my arduous, plodding journey through Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. Now begins my foray into The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Having seen the movie already (which you all should toally go see, too, if only for the moment that made Elliott hide his head behind my shoulder), it makes reading the book easier, already having a picture of the characters in my head. (Note: I am not always this lazy of a reader, but Tristram Shandy doesn't matter all that much to me.) What I really, really want (cue the unfortunately appropriate song by the Spice Girls) to read right now is Howard's End, but alas, I have yet to find a good used copy (Forster deserves better than an old library copy.) Meanwhile, I feel like I'm trying to satisfy a hunger for pad thai with spaghetti and hot chili sauce.

Speaking of food, here's what we--okay, fine, Elliott's been up to in the kitchen.

In my defense, phagia also means just "eating"

2006-02-19T21:04:00.000-08:00

Since I finished On Beauty, I have completed a total of... one book, Nick Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree. I have attempted more books than that, of course, but I just couldn't bring myself to finish the horribly written one about the time traveling man, and I'm still working slowly through Horby's Fever Pitch, which is really, really about football. English football, about which I know nearly nothing. But now that I've read more than half of his oeuvre, there's a compulsion to finish it.

So in lieu of reading more books and writing about the ones I've read (the joint goals of my blog), I've been cooking. Granted, only on the weekends when Elliott is here, but it's such a time suck. For example, it took me three hours to make beef stew yesterday. It turned out really well, though. See?

And tonight I made creme brulee again because it's a really simple dessert. (Of course, I've been feeling under the weather this entire weekend and dunno if I really want dessert anymore.) Elliott, um, attempted meringue puffs. Let's just say that he broke a pastry bag. We'll see how that turns out.

But the point is, I've been busy while not reading. Really.

Oh, gastronomic bliss!

2006-02-16T13:14:00.001-08:00

Elliott and I had our first grown-up, prixe fixe dinner at Chez Panisse last night. The menu included:

Green garlic soufflé with leeks and Parmesan
Monterey Bay squid stuffed with greens and herbs; with paella rice
Grilled Sonoma County Liberty duck breast with dried cherry sauce, warm escarole salad,
pancetta, and duck livers
Candied kumquat and Page mandarin ice cream Pavlova

It was the best meal I've ever had in a restaurant. The food was excellent, of course. The souffle melted on the tongue; the squid trumps Delfina's calamari; and the duck was a perfect blend of crispy skin and savory pink meat. None of this was surprising to me, of course. The birthplace of Californian cuisine can do no worse. What was surprising and delightful was the restaurant itself. The downstairs part of Chez Panisse only spans the length of two large rooms, but it seems bigger because the walls are covered in semi-reflective bronze-colored sheets of metal, which also warmed up the space (something much appreciated last night).

The meal was probably also the most leisurely one I've had in a while. It was almost 11 by the time we had dessert (we had an 8:30 seating). There's something of a relief in letting someone else dictate what you should eat and when you should eat it, especially if that someone's a chef at a world-renowned restaurant.

All in all, not a bad showing for our second anniversary.

Keeping Track

2006-01-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

My goal this year, in terms of reading, is a simple one. Remember what I read. Write down my thoughts on the books and short stories I read.

Sounds simple, but as I've already found out to my chagrin, I can't even manage to accomplish the first part of my goal. Elliott (boyfriend extraordinaire) has already had to remind me that I just finished The Year of Magical Thinking.

A list of books I've read so far this year:
1. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov.
2. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.
3. Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede.
4. Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede.

These will have to serve as placeholders while I cobble the paragraphs that are bouncing around in my head on numbers 1 and 2 into something coherent. Meanwhile, I'm composing yet another essay on academics and marriage in Zadie Smith's On Beauty, but first, I should probably finish the book.

Lastly, Happy New Year, everyone who celebrates it!

2006-01-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

test. test. test.

she tastes like the real thing.