Food on the street is...

So, my trip to Mexico was ages ago, but I never properly illustrated how colorful and interesting it was! Some of the most fun was had on the street. I'm not exactly sure of a lot of the things we ate, but most every thing was very, very good. And cheap. And made by happy, friendly people! The sights and sounds of the marketplace were among the best parts of the trip.

One of many stalls with buckets of loose and paste spices! I have no idea what they were, but the cacophony of smells was amazing. And sneeze-making.

Part of breakfast on market day. We wandered around until we found a stand that was well-populated, plunked down, and ordered a bunch of stuff. This sandwich has egg, some sort of chorizo, salsa-ish veg, and white cheese. Yes, the sandwich is as big as the plate, which is a normal-sized paper plate. The cup of coconut pieces was, if I remember correctly, 50 cents!

We didn't eat these, but they making them at our booth. Beautiful!!! Some of them were drizzled with honey, as well as smothered in cream. We would have eaten them if we had any room, but in addition to the sandwich pictured above, we had a pile of breakfast tacos and a big-gulp-sized cup of watermelon juice.

Dried things. The shrimp were very large, almost as big as my hand.

Marketplace maestro!

I forget what these are called, but they seemed to be very popular. Our cab driver for the day brought us here and said it was the best in the City! I hope so, considering we drove an hour out of way to get them...This one is sauteed cactus with onions, over white cheese on a griddle-fried flatbread with black bean paste inside.

Assembly line!

This one had chopped chorizo. Another one was pretty much a philly, with chopped beef pieces. All were DELICIOUS!!! The lemon fizz I had, however, was NOT - weird, weakly lemon, almost soapy flavor = ick!

There was a LOT of other eating, but no more food pics. I was already ragged about being a big food nerd for taking these!

I thought it was far from over??!!

There is a lot of Dune in the world, but, as it turns out, not quite enough. The Dune miniseries was interesting, but I really liked the story arc (and maybe, the people ) better for Children of Dune, which I understand to be the movie version of the books Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.

(Dune is a strange-looking word in print. I keep wanting to write DOON!!!)

New Jessica was jarring, but I eventually liked her poise and calmness better than the original. I also appreciated the opportunity to view the yumminess of the noble Duncan Idaho without the smarmy ickiness of Atherton Wing. (Must find out what else that actor has been in!) The host of accents used by all the actors was a little strange on the ear, but an interesting directing choice to portray the diversity of an intergalactic culture (or maybe it was low-budget, but it worked for me after I got used to it and liked it.)

It was so much fun listening to the soundtrack in its original and intended usage. The music is wonderfully illustrative of the action in the movie, and so, so good (grand! epic! shamelessly, heart-stringingly new agey!), even on its own. While it played, though, I couldn't stop thinking about Risk, more Risk, and maybe some Puerto Rico...

fixation

Ugh, I think I raised my blood pressure this past week in Cheez-it consumption alone :(

The cakening

There was a birthday in the house, which necessitated the making of a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and frosting.

It only became Pac Man-ed after we started enjoying dessert and I couldn't resist adding one more dollop of frosting. For contrast!

BFF4EVA

Isn't friendship, once it passes some arbitrary timekeeping mark (say, a baker's dozen worth of years), supposed to last forever? Once you've given a flying f*ck for that long, doesn't it become 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th, I'm not picky about priorities) nature to keep caring?

Absolutely typical

I had this, my first manicure in over 2 years, for all of 30 minutes before I chipped it.

(index finger)

Hopefully, my toes last a few days longer...

(Not usually having painted nails, I find my fingers to be wondrously distracting. I move my hand thus, and look, pretty! Mesmerizing! I remember that my first piano teacher refused to let me wear nail polish and lo! She. Was. Right.)

Warm is fine

Just call me Goldilocks, trying to pick out a rental. First I jumped in a big, bad, Lincoln?Jimmy?Buick? SUV. Whatever, I didn't know the make, but it was tall and shiny black and would protect me in the wilds of LA. I threw my luggage in the generous boot and hopped into the driver's seat. But, the mantra, "Asian cars for Asian people" is not oft-repeated in my household for nothing. I did not fit! I was too short! Limbed, that is. I could neither comfortably reach the pedals, nor the steering wheel, no matter how I adjusted the seat (though at least I could see over the dash). It was very strange. I don't think that I am of such abnormal proportions!

Next, heading in the opposite direction, I tried the oh-so-trendy Prius. It was silvery and sleek (shiny!) Toyota, like a trusty dolphin to help me glide through the sea of traffic. I loaded up my bags in the backseat and slid home into the very comfortably-apportioned front seat. I put the key in the receiver slot, pressed the button, and turned on the (what turned out to be auxiliary) power.

Lights! Action! Excellent.

I pressed it again, holding it down like a computer power switch, expecting it to react similarly to the extended key twist and turn the engine over.

No change. Huh.

I pressed it again and everything turned off.

Wuh? Didn't it skip a step?

I ran through the sequence again, thinking I'd gone too fast/far and passed the crucial, Car:ON moment.

Nada.

???!!!

I looked around for other buttons to push that looked obviously related to turning the car on, but nothing jumped out. While I was looking around for a driver's manual, I noticed that the shifting mechanism was also more-than-slightly different than a typical car. Disappointed and chagrined (what, I can't beat a car?), but acknowledging the general bad-idea-bearedness of driving an vehicle with unfamiliar controls through only slightly familiar territory, I regretfully climbed out the car to pick one last time.

Cherry/cheery red Impala. Huge trunk. Quintessentially "normal" controls. Just right for now!

(And how, because I was so sick of moving my heavy and voluminous luggage around...)

(Anybody know how to turn on a Prius?)

LA part the second

2nd time in a month's the charm!

Sunny, balmy, lightly breezy weather (the exact kind I was looking for the first time around!)

Shimmering, pleasant-shiver-inducing ocean and glittering white, gently-warmed sands experienced in the flesh (x3)

Decent to great food from many nations

Repeat work and few surprises

Autonomy

Stunning vistas when, say, walking the Malibu coastline or lunching on the Ventura harbor

No air travel hassles and less-traffic-than expected

************************
Was it perfect? No. Some of the hotels rooms were just shy of icky (though one had a fireplace! On a timer!), but I spent a lot of time out and about. I took a bunch of photos on my phone, (pretty much the first time I've done that. What's up with the extreme lack of zoom?) and was minded to not send them along, so as to not incite envy or depress. Most nights I was within walking distance of way better than average trip food. I broke out my flip flops, each night releasing feet grateful to be sprung from their day-long imprisonment in steel-toed boots. Other than being a bit lonely, it was good to be at work this week!

That day...begins with V...

These came to my office at 4:45 PM on 2-14-08:

Conversation from earlier in the day:

Boy: (ring ring) Hello? Hi! How's your day going?

me: Fine, well, whatever. You?

Boy: Oh, OK. Say, did you get a package at the office today?

me: Hey, how did you know? That was an exciting spot in my morning! My first set of library books from school arrived today. They FedExed over my library books. For free! How awesome is that?
Boy: Uh, sure, that's nice. Anything else?

me: (Slightly hurt at his lack of excitement on behalf of what is obviously the Coolest Library Service Ever.) Huh? Um, no, why? Oh, wait, did you send me something??!!

Boy: Well, guess the surprise is out, so yes, did you receive anything else?

me: Sorry, not playing coy, nothing else arrived. Maybe soon?

Boy: (Growl) They were supposed to show up in the morning!!!

...and so on and so forth. This conversation repeated twice more before my lovely daisies were actually delivered. So BAH on U--------- Florist and YAY, Boy!

Bundt

I finally used the pan I got for Christmas and made my first bundt cake! I think bundt cakes are good presentations for boxed mixes and this one turned out beautifully.

There is now a cake plate in the house, to aid in cake presentation:

I wanted to dust it in confectioner's sugar, perhaps in a pattern, too offset the dark chocolate color simply and elegantly. (Well, as elegantly as something called a bundt can be.)

However, someone decided that the chocolate cake should be covered, not in chocolate or vanilla frosting, but "drizzled" with melted chocolate. And by drizzled, I mean, "dumped on." I don't have a picture of the result, but I will admit that there were a few angry tears shed over having to bring my Wet Dog Turd over to a friend's house.

Luckily, yelling "Boooooondt" a few dozen times, a la My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding, cheered me up a bit. Oh, and yes, it tasted just fine.

LA part the first

It was a disappointing trip. Not a bad trip, per se, because Lord knows I've seen enough of those, but simply...a let down. Going to the beach part of California during the east coast winter should mean sunshine, warm ocean breezes, and general spring-y balminess, right? If you greet, instead, nonstop rain, shiver-worthy cold, and both weather and populace gloom, however, not even hassle-free air travel (there is always traffic when driving in LA - it doesn't even register as an annoyance anymore, it just IS) can make up for it. (Thank goodness someone checked the weather before I left. I never do, and was all set packing short sleeves and capri pants. I needed my raincoat every single day. Wah.)

At least I didn't get sick? Eh, that's pretty much the best I can say. Oh wait! At least I got a few more tote bags for groceries.

Scented

I had never even heard about "asparagus pee" under I started reading him. Then we started eating a lot of the vegetable (it's wonderful roasted) at home and for the first time, I was tempted to smell my pee. Anyhow, I was hoping that I'd be part of the lucky portion of the population that doesn't make asparagus pee, and barring that circumstance, at least be part of the population that can't smell it.

No such luck.

And, of course, it wasn't something I would have noticed beforehand when I didn't know about it, because I am the World's Most Oblivious Person. Unfortunately, I learned about its peculiar scenting properties just as asparagus became a regularly featured staple on our table. Thanks, WaPo. So much.

Sigh.

Catch up

Current mood: contrite and repentant

So...I've been lazy. No other excuse. Well, I have been to Mexico and California twice and turned in oodles of homework since I last updated, but actually, that's just par for the course. So, while I can drum up plenty of reasons for your shameful neglect, the truth is that I got (no more than ordinarily) busy and (way more than usually) correspondingly lazy.

I thought of you often. I formulated post after post to tell you about many experiences, both large (travel to deepest Mexico! Where they speak Spanish! And I DON'T) and small (ummmm, bacon and coffee. Together!), but couldn't summon the will to write them down. Random thoughts like, "...nothing makes unbearable traffic on the Ventura freeway slightly more palatable than blasting and singing along to Disney radio. Did you know there was a Disney radio station? Very important news, in my book...", which ought to have been stand-alone, short posts, were (well, almost) lost to the ether.

Still, none of that makes a difference, since I didn't actually take pen to paper (figuratively speaking). So now, with springtime peeking around the corner and the promise of many new adventures, I'll try to do better. In fact, maybe I'll even backpost some of the time I've missed. At least the pictures...

:)