It seems that our brave new world has hit nightmare proportions.

personal shopper

Okay, here's one you are not going to believe. I loathe shopping for myself if it involves dresses, floofy things and anything that will bring out some of my worst features - my arms, my thickened waste, my porn star boobages and my uneven tan line.

Yes, it is wedding time and I have dutifully avoided looking for a dress to wear to my cousin's wedding on Saturday.

Good thing my mom was free today. She was on a mission and she did well.

I have a dress that just needs me to haul my keester over to the Nordstrom lingerie department at lunch and get a new bra.

Thanks mom.

nm

I miss my boy

DSC_1673, originally uploaded by flora and flying.

Kisses on your big nose tiny puppy.

you know, it just never stops

Who is to think that just because you are going to a meeting, your work doesn't stop? No, in fact, in my case, things just start piling up.

Case in point, its nearly 1 am and I just finished submitting an abstract for a meeting in January.

I totally envy people that can go to conferences and not have to do anything when they get back to their rooms.

Bastards.

Just kidding.

nm

invisible girlfriend

What is with men and their need to drive with one hand up on the passenger's headrest like they are caressing their invisible girlfriend?

Trust me buddy, you could merge in traffic much better if you used both hands.

Sigh.

I could bore you with the details of my life, but today has been quite fun one, stupid dongle issues (no, it is not a dirty word), a heap of unspecified work to be heaped upon me and other things that some of you had to hear via email. Thank you for listening to me rant.

When I went downtown today to see Katrina at Red, I was lucky enough to score a great parking place and unlucky enough to see touristas in minimal dress. Try harder will ya? Its Seattle, not Orlando.

Oh, E.dd is doing just fine.

smooches from the Board Room near Gate D1 at Seatac,

nm

fish tacos galore

Off to SD tomorrow for a few days of overwhelming maphead love.

I can not even begin to tell you what is like. Glitzy, provoking, frustrating and very exhausting.

For some really good analysis, you can visit James Fee and see what I'll be doing on Wednesday morning at 8:30 am.

Now, I must swap the dongle from Thor to Magpie.

Does that sound strange or what?

nm

all is quiet on the western front

E. dd has been delivered to Goldendale and it is quiet here. It feels funny to have the house to ourselves. We have removed chairs from the couch and we can go in and out as we please without shutting the doors tight.

I think I would rather have him here, but my guess is he's having a blast with Phracey.

Sleep tight tiny dog.

nm

Um, how can I say this?

Or, can I ask for y'alls advice?

Does anyone know how to clean the carcasses of mosquitos off of their semi-flat high hide white walls? Our bedroom looks like a murder scene occured there and yes, we have screens.

It is just that TH is tasty to those nasty critters and we both spend time each night before bed performing the mosquito reconnaissance and on my low bedroom ceiling are the remnants of kamakaze mosquitos who did not return from their missions. It is sort of gross and short of painting, I can't imagine what to do to make it look better. When she gets bitten during the night, we get up to find the bastard that did her wrong, because he's going to come back for more. So my short nights are broken down into even shorter segments.

Me? I don't seem to be tasty fodder.

I'm not complaining, I'm just thinking painting the ceilings chinese red and the walls sort of moth brown all in satin would hide a myriad of sins.

Other than that, TGIF. It has a been a bitch of a week.

nm

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