Hello all, I've been out of blogging commission because I lost my camera charger - EEEEEK! However, I think that it has been found. YAYYYY! Until m'dear charger and I are reunited though, I thought I would offer up these two funny conversations that I experienced as a commuter in Boston this week.
9/29/11
Driving home on Rte 1 North, stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. My window was rolled down, and a 16 year old boy hanging outside of the back seat passenger window of the car to my left shouts across to me...
16 year old boy: Hey, (referring to my Jeep Cherokee's decal), is that decal original?
Me: Yes.
16 year old boy: WHOA, that's FRESH!
Apparently I am still hip to the trip in my '96 Cherokee.
9/30/11
Rush hour, 9:15AM, a slew of middle schoolers got on a packed car on the Orange Line.
Girl: Ehhhh! You're touching my boobs!
Boy: Ehhhh! Your boobs are touching ME! That's not my fault.
The boy's response? Comeback win of the century in my book!
September 30, 2011
September 21, 2011
Comfort Food
This morning when my alarm sounded off at 5:00am, I promptly hit snooze...about five times.
Around 6:00am, when I tried to sit up out of bed, I was met with a wave of pain.
"Lo, what is this?" I thought.
(Yes, for the purposes of this blog post, let's assume that I really speak to myself using words such as "Lo").
Sore throat, puffy glands, stiff neck and shoulders, hot and clammy. I realized then that I was sick.
At this point I shot an e-mail off to my supervisor requesting a sick day, sunk back into bed and woke up no earlier than 1:30pm.
Apparently, I was tired.
It is on days like these, that one needs comfort food. So I dragged my bum out of bed and cracked open my Elinor Klivans Pot Pies cookbook and whipped myself up some cottage pie.
Did you know that cottage pie is made with ground beef and shepherds pie is made with ground lamb (which makes total sense)? I have been calling the former shepherds pie my whole life, but Pot Pies tells me differently. Who knew?
If this isn't the kind of meal that makes sick people well, I don't know what is.
I think I'll collapse into those covers soon, and hopefully the rest combined with the good food will render me a new woman come tomorrow morning!
Around 6:00am, when I tried to sit up out of bed, I was met with a wave of pain.
"Lo, what is this?" I thought.
(Yes, for the purposes of this blog post, let's assume that I really speak to myself using words such as "Lo").
Sore throat, puffy glands, stiff neck and shoulders, hot and clammy. I realized then that I was sick.
At this point I shot an e-mail off to my supervisor requesting a sick day, sunk back into bed and woke up no earlier than 1:30pm.
Apparently, I was tired.
It is on days like these, that one needs comfort food. So I dragged my bum out of bed and cracked open my Elinor Klivans Pot Pies cookbook and whipped myself up some cottage pie.
Did you know that cottage pie is made with ground beef and shepherds pie is made with ground lamb (which makes total sense)? I have been calling the former shepherds pie my whole life, but Pot Pies tells me differently. Who knew?
If this isn't the kind of meal that makes sick people well, I don't know what is.
I think I'll collapse into those covers soon, and hopefully the rest combined with the good food will render me a new woman come tomorrow morning!
September 19, 2011
What I did on my internet free day: 9/18/11
One of the items on my 29 before 30 list is to "strive to have one internet free day per week." To keep myself in check, I thought it would be fun to blog photos from my internet free day once per week. These posts will be more photos, less words.
Here's what I did on my internet free day.
Here's what I did on my internet free day.
I perused some new cook books and magazines.
I made chai tea from scratch.
I cleaned my living room while listening to tango music.
I tried a new recipe. (Yes! One of my monthly goals). I cooked and canned Candied-Pickled Apples with Star Anise. They are totally delicious. NOM.
I made a tart with strawberry balsamic jam. I went a little crazy on the jam it leaked all over burning to both my new pan and silpat. I am so excited clean that. (Sarcasm).
After a day of cleaning and cooking I dressed myself up to go out to trivia with my friends.
THE END.
I made chai tea from scratch.
I cleaned my living room while listening to tango music.
I tried a new recipe. (Yes! One of my monthly goals). I cooked and canned Candied-Pickled Apples with Star Anise. They are totally delicious. NOM.
I made a tart with strawberry balsamic jam. I went a little crazy on the jam it leaked all over burning to both my new pan and silpat. I am so excited clean that. (Sarcasm).
After a day of cleaning and cooking I dressed myself up to go out to trivia with my friends.
THE END.
September 12, 2011
What I did on my internet free day
One of the items on my 29 before 30 list is to "strive to have one internet free day per week." To keep myself in check, I thought it would be fun to blog photos from my internet free day once per week. These posts will be more photos, less words.
Here's what I did on my internet free day.
I went for a run.
Had breakfast.
Had a ridiculously amazing day at an apple orchard with a few friends.
Of course there was a little dancing...
And some Reservoir Dog style strutting.
Obey the rules.
Then we made pies.
That made some of us sleepy.
Then I went to trivia.
And ordered this (a Black Velvet)
and this (fish n' chips).
It ended with Beatles Rock Band. All in all, not too shabby!
Here's what I did on my internet free day.
I went for a run.
Had breakfast.
Had a ridiculously amazing day at an apple orchard with a few friends.
Of course there was a little dancing...
And some Reservoir Dog style strutting.
Obey the rules.
Then we made pies.
That made some of us sleepy.
Then I went to trivia.
And ordered this (a Black Velvet)
and this (fish n' chips).
It ended with Beatles Rock Band. All in all, not too shabby!
September 08, 2011
September Mixtape I A Day at the Fair
One of the to-do items on my 29 before 30 list is to make a monthly mixtape...or digital music mix, but mixtape is retro and sounds more fun, so MIXTAPE.
There is a fine art to making a mix. John Cusack's character, Rob, in one of my favorite music-centric movies of all time, High Fidelity, sums it up like this:
"The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules."
When I started this mix for September, it was about three days, and a rotating list of four or five songs before I figured out what the hell I wanted to do. (For the record, none of the songs on the original list made it on to the mix! I'm serious about the editing process). One of the songs had lyrics about apples. I was thinking hmm, "Fall=Apples"...original, right?! This puttering went on for awhile.
To give my brain a jolt of inspiration, I thought of things that I want to do this fall:
Go apple picking
Make a pie
Go to a fair
BOOM. There it was. Inspiration. My next thought was, "I wonder if there are any songs about ferris wheels?
Me: Google?
Google: Yes, Sarah?
Me: Are there any songs out there with lyrics about ferris wheels?
Google: Yes. Yes there are.
Subsequent searches included phrases like songs about quilts, songs about fried dough, songs about barbeque, songs about doughnuts, songs about fireworks, songs about barn dances. There are songs about them all.
Then I went to Spotify, (which is a revolutionary music service that deserves it's own blog post, more later), to find all of these new or new-ish to me songs. Since many of these songs were new to me, the flow composition (yeah, I just said that), was very tricky. Usually, I work with songs that I know very well, and toss in a couple of new tracks here and there. This mix is the exact opposite from that. I had to listen many a time through, tweaking the song order here and there, or nixing a song, even though I loved it, because it just did not fit.
Mixology aside - here is A Day at the Fair I September 2011. That link will open up in Spotify if you have it, if not, here is a detailed track list (I am still figuring out the best way to share these mixes).
A Day at the Fair I September 2011
1. Dunkin' a Doughnut - Andy Kirk and Mary Lou Williams
2. County Fair - The Beach Boys
3. Hot Barbeque - Jack McDuff
4. Cornbread and Butterbeans - Carolina Chocolate Drops
5. Fainting Goats - Wheelie Johnson, be Happy
6. Beauty Queen - Little Nell
7. Call to the Post 3 - Bugle - Dr. Sound Effects
8. Wild Horses - The Sundays
9. Brass Ring - The Broken West
10. Merry-Go-Round - Buffalo Springfield
11. Ferris Wheel Song - The Plain Janes
12. Cotton Candy Land - Elvis Presley
13. Good Country Girls - Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three
14. Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider - Al Jolson
15. Boogie Barn Dance - Jimmy Brynt
16. Fireworks - Plain White T's
17. The Pretty One - Laura Stevenson and the Cans
18. County Fair - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
19. When the Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams
20. Candy Apple Red - Tom Waits
SWAP CHALLENGE: If you would like a hard copy of this mix, make your own fair inspired mix cd, e-mail me at sarah at geekxnerd dot com, and we can arrange to swap! I had to nix a lot of great songs while making this mix, so I'd be thrilled to see what other people can come up with.
There is a fine art to making a mix. John Cusack's character, Rob, in one of my favorite music-centric movies of all time, High Fidelity, sums it up like this:
"The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules."
When I started this mix for September, it was about three days, and a rotating list of four or five songs before I figured out what the hell I wanted to do. (For the record, none of the songs on the original list made it on to the mix! I'm serious about the editing process). One of the songs had lyrics about apples. I was thinking hmm, "Fall=Apples"...original, right?! This puttering went on for awhile.
To give my brain a jolt of inspiration, I thought of things that I want to do this fall:
Go apple picking
Make a pie
Go to a fair
BOOM. There it was. Inspiration. My next thought was, "I wonder if there are any songs about ferris wheels?
Me: Google?
Google: Yes, Sarah?
Me: Are there any songs out there with lyrics about ferris wheels?
Google: Yes. Yes there are.
Subsequent searches included phrases like songs about quilts, songs about fried dough, songs about barbeque, songs about doughnuts, songs about fireworks, songs about barn dances. There are songs about them all.
Then I went to Spotify, (which is a revolutionary music service that deserves it's own blog post, more later), to find all of these new or new-ish to me songs. Since many of these songs were new to me, the flow composition (yeah, I just said that), was very tricky. Usually, I work with songs that I know very well, and toss in a couple of new tracks here and there. This mix is the exact opposite from that. I had to listen many a time through, tweaking the song order here and there, or nixing a song, even though I loved it, because it just did not fit.
Mixology aside - here is A Day at the Fair I September 2011. That link will open up in Spotify if you have it, if not, here is a detailed track list (I am still figuring out the best way to share these mixes).
A Day at the Fair I September 2011
1. Dunkin' a Doughnut - Andy Kirk and Mary Lou Williams
2. County Fair - The Beach Boys
3. Hot Barbeque - Jack McDuff
4. Cornbread and Butterbeans - Carolina Chocolate Drops
5. Fainting Goats - Wheelie Johnson, be Happy
6. Beauty Queen - Little Nell
7. Call to the Post 3 - Bugle - Dr. Sound Effects
8. Wild Horses - The Sundays
9. Brass Ring - The Broken West
10. Merry-Go-Round - Buffalo Springfield
11. Ferris Wheel Song - The Plain Janes
12. Cotton Candy Land - Elvis Presley
13. Good Country Girls - Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three
14. Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider - Al Jolson
15. Boogie Barn Dance - Jimmy Brynt
16. Fireworks - Plain White T's
17. The Pretty One - Laura Stevenson and the Cans
18. County Fair - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
19. When the Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams
20. Candy Apple Red - Tom Waits
SWAP CHALLENGE: If you would like a hard copy of this mix, make your own fair inspired mix cd, e-mail me at sarah at geekxnerd dot com, and we can arrange to swap! I had to nix a lot of great songs while making this mix, so I'd be thrilled to see what other people can come up with.
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