Thursdays make me happy these days. I guess mostly its because I leave in the mornings and when I come home, my house is clean. I will admit to the outsourcing of my life. I am not proud, I am just pratical. There is no way in heck I have time to clean, mow, iron and wash my windows and do them all well.

Can I also say that I watch not one smidgen of TV or DVDs or anything entertaining and spend absolutely the minimum amount of time that I can get away with online?

Really.

Where the hell does all the time go? I get up at 6:30, am at work by 9, work until 6 and don't go to bed until 10:30. I do not stop.

How can people spend the time that I don't have watching tv and feel like they can get their house cleaned, their lawns mowed and their shirts ironed? I know you can clean while watching tv and iron shirts, but lawn mowing, that I have to see.

I'm not saying what I do is right, but right now, it is thing that is keeping me or us, sane. It means that NM does not buy shoes for the next three months (really, Ms. C) and that we cut back on eating out, but I am not sitting in my living room looking at piles of tiny dog fur building up on my floors and having it drive me crazy.

Okay, back to watering my droopy plants and molesting my dog.

nm

beset by wednesday

Almost ripe. Peaches chez nm, July 2006.

I have had a not very good day. Work was okay, it was work. I had a good one hour acupuncture appointment which was followed by more work and the realization that I had 1. misplaced or lost my moleskine calendar 2. my driver's license 3. forgotten to ticket my parent's tickets to antayla 4. book a car reservation for San Jose 5. call about transitional housing for my friend.

I hate that, I hate losing control of these things by taking shortcuts to getting things done. If I had put my liscense back into my wallet, put my calendar back in my bookbag, made a to do list and crossed off these things, they would be done.

I did find my calendar, my liscense and manged to make my car reservation. My parent's reservation requires more dedication and I must call about transitional housing tomorrow. Options are running out for our friend and our first line of defense fell through this afternoon. We're not giving up, he'll find shelter soon.

It's just frustrating.

Oh, my acupuncturist worked on my hips and tonight, while walking/running ernest, I managed to trip over him and pull something and now I'm in pain again.

Sigh.

Thorny, yet attractive

Rosa sericea pteracantha, The Edgewood Garden, July 2006.

Happy August Peeps. I'm happy the month of July is over, it sort of sucked in my opinion and many others around me. So bring on August with meetings, puppies, weddings, tomatoes, blackberries, peaches, drunken croquet and the Campari Open if I can ever get my act together.

Question of the day: A new month begins, do you ever think of it as a fresh start?

Discuss and post.

That means all of you.

Come out and even be anonymous.

smooches,

nm

licking the beater

Last night, the weather was perfect for a long putter with one's basset to pick blackberries and to make brownies for the Chocolate in the garden event at The Edgewood Garden to benefit Northwest Harvest. TH requested my chocolate polenta brownies and I made a batch of brownies with small dillentante semisweet chips and cocao nibs. They were both delicious and honestly, had I realized how great they were, I wouldn't have saved any.

If you know what I mean.

I used the back of the box one bowl brownie recipe that lends itself to quick execution and quick clean up, but other than a whisk, no beaters. TH and I discussed the lack of beaters and who would get to lick the bowl. Growing up, I had to share the beaters with my brother as my mother had a Sunbeam mixer with two beaters- one curved and one sort of rectangular. TH said she shared with her father or mother depending on who was doing the baking. For this recipe we use a whisk, which has its own issues.

My mother has graduated to a Kitchenaid and TH and I have a Kitchenaid pro, butcher than my mom's but with a beater alignment issue that nags me to this day. The Kitchenaid has only on beater, so we have to toss a coin to see who is going to lick that beater.

When you have a moment, some unsweetened chocolate, and a hankering for rich and chewy brownies, give these a whirl.

Baker's One bowl Brownies.

Be creative, don't use your microwave -ugh, I use a double boiler. Add cocao nibs, dried cherries, polenta, orange extract, dried cranberries, dark chocolate pieces, almond extract, more vanilla, let your imagination run wild.

Oh, the brownies were a success, but honestly, the number of chocolate desserts was astounding and the garden is looking amazing.

nm

u pick

How I spent my Saturday afternoon.

nm

TH and I both have Alaska Airline companion fares vouchers that we forgot about this year. We got an extension, so by the end of the weekend, we need to find two free weekends before December and find somewhere we want to go, buy and ticket these vouchers.

I am aiming for the most mileage bang for my buck and combined with good food. Looks like it may be Lobster pizza north of Boston and DC to see JK and family K and maybe a nice sushi dinner in Bethesda.

The bummer is that neither TH or I can use the hundreds of dollars in cancelled tickets we have right now on Alaska to ticket these vouchers. We have to use new money. I guess at least we should be lucky that Alaska lets us apply the ticket value to another ticket and you can also use that same money towards a ticket for another person. There aren't many other carriers that let you do this.

It seems that I have a second career as a travel consultant. Last night, I gave some ideas to our friends who are travelling to Rome for a few months and wish to upgrade on their Star Alliance partner (can't do it, bummer, must be on UA metal); my cousin who wanted to know whether his upgrade from World Traveller plus to Club on BA would give him a class of service (COS) bonus (not) ; and my office mate who wanted to know if all the Hawaiian flights he flew this year could help him up his status on Alaska (not, just add to your total mileage acrrual).

So, if you have an airline related question, drop me a line, but honestly, check out flyertalk and search for your answers. I think you have to register to search, but it is worth it.

Hey, that is how I met JK. I'll have to tell that story sometime, eh cupcake?

I have a trip to London planned in November. We traditionally go around Remembrance Day, but this time, TH is staying home and I'm hanging out with about 150 Flyertalkers. Well, maybe not all of them, but I'm sure I'll see a bunch, maybe even at St. John for lunch on Saturday. ;)

I usually stay with my Aunt or at the Churchill. However, dear readers, I'm not forking out 400 clams for a hotel room per night for this trip. I'm going to priceline the room and hope for the best. I have had decent luck in London and if it sucks, I'll add someone from Flyertalk who needs a room and then I'll just spend the weekend schleping on the Northern Line back and forth to N. Finchley. I could also use a free hilton night I earned last week or start using points from SPG, but I want to do that when I can splurge somewhere interesting and exotic and cheaper points wise.

I am also considering what we have gone through this past week with our friend and his currently transitional state of housing. I feel guilty about spending all that money for six luxurious pillows, a fine club room and some of the best damn hotel hospitality outside of a Ritz Carlton when someone you know is looking for housing on a night to night basis.

So, I will read the bidding boards for awhile tonight and see if I can find something that appeals to me. Good thing I know my London neighborhoods and am picky, but not too picky.

Other than that, I'm currently trying to clean up my office and finish up three things to get my plate scraped before I leave for the last fricking free weekend until September!

Yikes.

nm

You know its been a week when all four of your cars have been to the garage.

Mostly for oil, lube andfilters, but still.

nm

Essentially blackberry

Globe Thistle, July 2006.

Ack, today was busy, good busy, but busy nonetheless. I did get a chance to go out around 4 pm in the heat of the day to do my first blackberry pick of the year. We collect Nancy's half gallon yoghurt containers just for this purpose (usually from B, since she eats more yoghurt than us) and these get filled with some of the plumpest, sweetest and tastiest berries of the year. The smell of ripe berries, the bees, the lapping of the waves, oy what a way to end the work day.

Blackberries are my favorite berry. I have many fond associations with blackberries. The first recipe I ever published was for blackberry delight. I was in the 3rd grade at Three Points Elementary School on Evergreen Point and we each contributed a recipe for our class cookbook. I can't remember all the details, but I believe the recipe went something like" collect berries, add sugar, mush them together and add whipping cream and eat".

My recipes have a bit more structure to them now. I tend to still write them down on little pieces of paper and throw them into a notebook I take when we go to the Charlottes or when I lived in Rome. My crisp recipe adapted for Rome makes me smile when I see it. There were so many apples that fall and alpen meusli was cheap. We were desperate for a dessert to make and it was the easiest for all of us to make.

Blackberry crisp is much the same, simple and easy and a real crowd pleaser.

Adapated from Cooks Illustrated, sometime last century.

Blackberry crisp with a butter cookie topping

Pick some ripe berries (1 quart), rinse them and let the drain. Toss with sugar (1/3 cup) and 1 T of cornstarch. If you are inclined, add a bit of vanilla.

The topping I used tonight was one I hadn't tried in a while, but it was a keeper.

For a 8 * 8 pan, I combined 8 T butter softened, 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until soft. Then I added 1/2 t vanilla and 1/2 egg beaten. In a separate bowl, I combined 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 t baking powder and a pinch of salt. I mixed the dry ingredients with the wet and it made a soft dough.

Take the dough and sort of drop it on top of the crisp. It won't be even or pretty, but it should spread out.

Bake at around 25-35 minutes at 375 until golden brown and the blackberries burble.

This recipe is a keeper and I had any leftovers, I would happily have taken a picture.

nm

Fashionista - not

Bling. Don't you love the little details?

I'm okay with these if you are.

smooches,

nm

ding ding ding

My car is still dinging, my electric locks don't work and I'm still missing the crucial hour before 7 pm that one needs to visit the folks at Speakerlab to pick out a new car stereo.

I even called JK today while driving so I could share this joy with her.

Other than that, I'm exhausted and happy its cooler. We're all perkier.

Things are marginally chaotic here, we're dealing with a friend who is now "homeless" and needs social services and I'm realizing how hard it is to get such things if you are a white male who looks healthy. I can't imagine going through this without an advocate, they deserve superstar status.

I have lots of interesting things to say about all sorts things, but honestly dear ones, I'm too tired to deal.

Talk amongst yourselves, I have a very bouncy dog who needs a walk.

nm

dear asshole redux

Dear asshole,

I have had to drive a lot this weekend and the fact that I don't have a stereo is not such a problem, but the bigger issue is that my seatbelt indicator ding is continually on based on your fine ripping out of my stereo. I mean all the time, to mill creek and back all 30 miles.

Thanks for adding another 50 bucks to my installation bill.

nm

looooongmont or bust!

Had a great day in Longmont. Presentation went great. I got to see J from Miami (last time I saw her was 30 seconds in DC on her way back to Miami). The rest of the presentations were interesting and tonight was tons of fun. Katja whisked me away from my palatial digs and took me on a scenic tour of Longmont and off to Boulder where we had a yummy dinner at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse where even my mom would be impressed with their take on Persian cuisine. It was the best meal I had eaten in weeks. Mmm.

Oh, what I ate? A persian type of cod and shrimp over a bed of saffron rice with herbs much like what you see in a sabzi polo with a nice gastrique of pomegranate juice. It was seriously yummy and I wish I could get a take out. Katja had a lamb kabob that looked good as well. She said it was delicious.

Anyhoo, then we meandered over to Pearl Street where I decided right then that I must now own a pair of crocs from the Pedestrian Shop. Are you hearing me JK? We had a very fun time picking out my new gold bling crocs with the new jeweled tibbits or it ribbits? That really jazz them up. I am looking forward to wearing them to the big Neema's wedding in August. I hope to find an lbd to match.

A nice cappucino later, my hostess whisked me back to my hotel where I checked in for my flight and decided that 15 emails from the last time I checked was too many. Tomorrow I will read a GAO audit on the plane and try to catch up on everything that has happened in my 36 hour absence.

Thank you Katja and the doode at the Croc store for making my trip to Boulder/Longmont so much more enjoyable!

nm

Running naked through security at the airport

Yesterday started out with a bang and just got better and better.

Not.

I left my folder with all my travel stuff on my desk. No big deal, really. I have all of it on email. Silly me, I needed another boarding pass, which required seeing an agent. The line for First Class and elites was relatively short, but not really since everyone was going to Australia on Qantas and had a 10 minutes minimum check in. So, I spent 25 minutes trying to get a boarding pass. The elite line at security was very short but slow, very very slow. I can't even imagine what the hold up was, but it took 10 minutes for the five people in front of me to get screened.

Note to all you out there, empty those pockets before you go through the metal detector and even I take my shoes off before get to the magnotometer. Also consider that a tank top and a micro mini and cork wedgies are not the best thing to wear on the plane in case of an emergency?

This, along with the doode in the airport club who insisted on putting his jacket on the seat next to his shit and looked hostile when I asked him to move it just added to my experience.

At least I made it to Longmont without too much trouble. I just sort of headed west and north.

nm

Miss B, this one is for you.

Jordan's life story on the big screen

dear asshole

Thanks for being so kind as not to not destroy my dashboard when you retrieved my moderately new
stereo from my old blue last night. I know it was kind of me to leave my windows down to make your job
easier. My guess is that you'll get 25 bucks for it and it may buy you a bit of meth or crank. I appreciate
that you didn't look hard enough in the car to realize my housekeys were all the way in the back.

I am no so much pissed at you, but at myself for not doing my normal routine last night because
I was so fucking tired, behind and not just caring. My guess is that if I had just spent the one minute longer to do my final round up, this wouldn't have happened. My bad, as they say.

So, I guess I get to go out this weekend and replace the stereo. Next time, I think I'll go
with something a bit less bling and with an ipod adapter.

Thanks dickhead for making my morning.

nm

beat down

Sorry for the radio silence, I'm beat.

Really. I have a one hour thingie in Longmont on Thursday and honestly, if I could do it via the web, I would. I, nm, cannot stand the thought of flying, driving and hoteling and then powerpointing.

What is up with that?

Anyways.

Check this out.

If you are in the Cascadia region, that is.

I'll give the espresso with cinnamon chip cookie a thumbs up, though at 430 calories, I'm eating them in fourths.

Had another self deprecating day around here. Must work on that attitude.

nm

Canadian musings

I really can't say much right now because I'm tired, but we had a great weekend sitting and reading books in dappled shade while listening to some amazing music in Vancouver.

The Canadians show great love towards music and Vancouverites towards their city.

I'll write about it tomorrow.

There were some really amazing highlights and then some things that really vexed me that I need to think about.

Anyways, we're all home now. E.dd is napping in the kitchen after a weekend learning that it is okay to sit and wait before you go barreling through the door and we learned that are things he needs to learn.

Laundry is churning, thermarests are back in their alloted homes until we do this again and once again, this week is about running around like bassets who know that their is a bisquit hiding behind their masters back.

sigh.

nm

Ernest says it all

Check it out.

Wish us all luck.

nm

oh so true

In the hopes of finding something on the old NIOC hospital today, I found this and man can I relate.

As my mom used to seay, we named you after a flower, trust me.

I hated my name growing up. I really did, it was hard to pronounce, I had a million nicknames and none of them I liked. I shortened it, which to led to other problems, I even changed the spelling so it wouldn't be so obviously anti-semetic. It isn't, its just the root is such a common one in Farsi.

My dad, my aunt and some other family members call me one pet name that I like and one dear family friend calls me one nickname that no one else calls me, but it was the name that was the easiest for Americans to pronounce when I was in nursery school. I will still answer to it.

Many of my friends have changed or anglified their names. I guess for what they do professionally- law, commerce, medicine it makes sense. But I have grown to love my name and if you mispronounce it, I'll gently correct you.

Unlike Houman or Who-man as it is pronounced, my last name is simple and awfully Italian.

Lucky me.

nm