Comfort food

Comfort food is needed. (Partly because we will only have a handful of 'Lost' episodes after tonight, but mostly because I'm tired, cold, and was rained-on all day.)

Tasty falafel sounds like the thing to do the trick tonight, but you know, it's dang hard to make falafel without chickpeas....

There is ham crackling in the skillet for the omnivore in the household. Quite honestly, when I've hit a low, all I want to do is forgo my veggie ways and eat bacon until I pass out.

I am fairly easy to please as far as fatty, unhealthy foods go, but my favorites always involve potatoes and ridiculous amounts of salt (hence the french fries hovering above).

So: your favorite comfort foods? (Or drinks. Whatever you like.)

Dude of the Month: Damon Albarn

Why:
Because everything he does seems to work out.
So far: revolutionizing pop music; destroying people's ideas of fame by creating a new type of art form; and joining operatic strings with sharp bass-lines to create a sort of post-apocalyptic, Victorian punk album.
Plus, he's said and done ridiculous stuff in his youth and has since had the nerve to apologize.
That's a commendable honesty in our celebrity suffocated, self-important world.

Where to find him: blur; The Good, The Bad, & The Queen; Gorillaz.

Some things I love

Some things I love this week

1. The Dream of Perpetual Motion--An amazing first novel.

2. Picnic at Hanging Rock--A film that ends up as something very different from where it began, and what you expected.

3. The brand new season of 'Doctor Who'--Matt Smith is the definite lonely, frenetic, dazzling, sad, eager, old, bow-tie-wearing Doctor.

4. Food, Inc.--It's just as scary as you thought it was, and then some. Plus a good reminder to consider what we put into our bodies. Which brings us to....

5. Homecooked meals--Making time to cook will never be a bad choice.

6. Everything from the Rodarte clothing line for Target.--Finally, well-made clothes that will last for years!

7. Thrift stores and consignment shops--Respect your wallet. Reinvent old clothes.

8. Field service in the springtime-- Nothing better.


*Photo of Audrey Hepburn by Mark Shaw.

Overdue End-of-the-Year meme

Borrowed from All & Sundry. ;)

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Auxiliary pioneered, took a community college course, got my driver's license, got a car, made numerous trips to the library and wasted no one's time but my own, and flirted shamelessly with the pharmacist holding my flu vaccine. ;)

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Stupid question. NEXT!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes.

5. What countries did you visit?

Um… Scotland, PA. Does that count?

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

More time.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Last March, that dental surgery was pretty gnarly. I can go without that. Oh, and the root canal in November. Ick.


8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting my driver’s license. w00t!!

9. What was your biggest failure?

I don’t like where this is heading, okay?!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

The flu, in the summertime.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My new iPod.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My dog was very well-behaved.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

My birds have just been insane.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Clothes from Target.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The last Doctor Who! The death of Doctor Ten!!Peroxide-blonde Master!!! Twas awesome.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

‘Laughing With,’ by Regina Spektor.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
 a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or
fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?

A) Happier. B) Fatter, indeed! c) Richer, to a point.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Drawing and such. I think my creative life has taken a major nosedive.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Web-surfing and shopping.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Skipping, due to complete apathy and a bit of disgust.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

Does the aforementioned pharmacist count?

22. What was your favorite TV program?

‘Lost’ and ‘Doctor Who’

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don’t really plan on that sort of thing happening, you know?

24. What was the best book you read?

‘The Cry of the Sloth,’ by Sam Savage. Although I thoroughly enjoyed YA book ‘Larklight,’ by Philip Reeve.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Department of Eagles, or maybe Elvis Perkins. I also discovered blur and Gorillaz, which both = awesome.

26. What did you want and get?

Several things, actually, which have already been mentioned.

27. What did you want and not get?

A better diet.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

I’ve seen so many, and very few opened in 2009. I really enjoyed ‘Up,’ ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Star Trek.’ Of old movies that I saw, I loved the BBC 'Crime and Punishment' from 2003, and the RSC production of 'Hamlet' was also good. And I learned to love 'The Third Man.'

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I lay around the house, and I was one-and-twenty, thank you very much.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

More dairy products. Yup.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

I’ve begun to ask myself, ‘Would Audrey Hepburn wear that?’ If the answer is no, then I don’t wear it, either.

32. What kept you sane?

A routine.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Ahem. Thom Yorke, for his brains, vegan ways, and awesome hair. John Simm, for everything else. (Though his brains and awesome hair count, too.)

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

You know, all I hear is blah-blah-blah…

35. Who did you miss?

Um… no one, I guess. My grandmother. My sister, a little.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

I’ve made a couple of good friends. :)

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Incidental-music on a TV show should never obscure the dialogue.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Crashing head-on into the future/It won't even leave a dent
Just walk in like you own it/Remember, it ain't set in cement
~Joe Strummer, ‘Diggin’ the New’

Oh, my Gord, can I go now?!

"Trying to tell me to go away/never did any good"

Hallo, folks. I have taken an unexpected, year-long vacation from the blogosphere, but I am back now, feeling slightly refreshed and very forgetful.

I was going to write a long list of what I've accomplished or what I plan to accomplish over the next few months, but Blogger was being a pain in the kaboose by failing to give me the correct username and password. (Actually, this was mostly just me, but I choose to blame Blogger.) It's sad when you haven't logged into your blog for so long that you forget what account you're using.

So stay tuned to this area, where I'll provide ramblings, book reviews, nonsense, food talk, music, and massive amounts of virtual coffee, streaming caffeine into your eyeballs every time you look at this text.

Trust me, this is gonna be awesome...

(By the way, what do you folks think of the new color scheme?)