Anogete's Journal

Because I am the biggest hippie nerd ever, I have started buying my milk from Morning Fresh Dairy just a few hours north in Colorado. The local Whole Foods sells it. The Dairy grows their own food for the cows to ensure they are not given any hormones. They also bottle their milk in nifty glass bottles for freshness. The glass bottles can be returned to Whole Foods to get the deposit back and so they can be sanitized and reused. See my two bottles...



Is it pathetic that I'm so thrilled about milk in actual glass bottles?

I think I have identified almost all the birds hanging out at my feeder. My favorites are the Scaled Quail that enjoy eating the food that has dropped on the ground. They don't normally fly, but they do run away quite quickly if they see Ferguson come 'round the corner. The House Finches are the ones that monopolize the feeder most of the time. However, a Mourning Dove or two tries to squeeze in every now and then. Mostly, they just hang out on the ground with the Quail. The tiny Song Sparrows are another favorite of mine. They seem to enjoy rummaging through my bushes and finding all the dropped food. They'll also fight the House Finches for feeder space. There is one odd bird that I can't seem to identify yet. It's gray-ish in color with a bill length as long or longer than its head. It just looks so unusual to my untrained eye, though I'm sure it is somewhat common in these parts. I only see one of them, though. I get the feeling it is the same bird visiting my feeder, but I can't prove that. (Huge thank you to shehops for mentioning the bird identification website I used.)

Jason and I did his taxes. He thinks the government sucks. Mostly, this is because he sold some of his mutual funds and reinvested the money in gold--like gold coins that are stashed away in our apartment. Of course, this money shows as income on his tax return. Yikes. For the record, government? There is absolutely no incentive to invest and save. Might want to work on that if you want to solve the economic crisis. Just sayin'.

Also, either I'm terrible at cooking artichoke hearts or they taste way different after they've been frozen. Because the fresh ones I had in the fridge were absolutely tasteless after I sauteed them with some penne and homemade pesto.

I have this humongous crush on Lloyd. Guh. Let him introduce himself...



( also, he's the freestyle king )

I haz birds! I put the feeder out yesterday evening, and when I came home for lunch today there were five very pretty little House Finches on it. They all were sporting a bit of red, so I can only assume they were all fellows.

So, I've noticed this odd pattern and I'm not sure what is causing it. I eat the same things each week. Monday night I have brown rice with veggies. Tuesday night I have veggie soup and salad. Wednesday night I have a couple slices of pizza and salad. I work out after I eat by either taking Ferguson out for a walk/jog or jogging on the treadmill. I've noticed that on the nights I eat pizza, I feel weak and wobbly after traveling about a mile and a half. I feel great starting out, and the first half of my walk/jog is the hardest because it is all uphill. However, at the halfway point, I start feeling exhausted and weak. This never happens on any other day. But it almost always happens on pizza night. So, is my body telling me that soup, salad, veggies, brown rice, and even tofu hot dogs are yummy and nutritious, but pizza sucks? I think I might have to modify my menu on Wednesday to something a bit better for me to prevent my body from crashing while I'm a mile and a half away from home. And the wind didn't improve my mood today. It's blowing steady at 30 MPH, but the gusts are up to 45 MPH. And in an arid climate like this, you just end up with a bunch of dust in your mouth when you go outside during evil!wind time. Sucks.

When I'm bored, I love to browse YouTube and find people who cover popular songs or write their own music. Olivia Thai is a favorite of mine. I love the tone of her voice, and she's so adorable. You can hear her singing her cover of Soulja Boy Tell'em's "Kiss Me Through the Phone" right here. Jason Chen appears in a couple of Olivia's videos and you can see him solo singing Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" over here. C-Note has been a busy boy, and I think he's making strides toward getting a record deal. Here is where he covers Lyfe Jennings's "Never Never Land". Ernie Halter is wonderful, too. You can hear him sing Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" right here. And my most favorite of favorites: David Choi. He's notorious for covering hip-hop and R&B songs and turning into acoustic guitar songs. Like his cover of The Dream's "Shawty is a Ten" .

I finally broke down and bought matinée tickets to Watchmen last night. I love movies, but I don't enjoy going to the movies. It's a cold day in hell (which happens approximately two times a year) when I actually enter a movie theater. The film was fantastic; I really enjoyed it. They followed the graphic novel closer than I thought they would, and some of the scenes were beautifully filmed with perfect casting choices. I'm extremely critical about action films, specifically super hero ones, so I was worried they were going to give Watchmen a treatment like The Dark Knight. That would have just killed me because I hated that last Batman movie. But no, they did a very good job of fleshing out the characters and plot with surprisingly little unneeded action. Yay for a wonderful job of pacing, you lovely movie makers. Jason's not familiar with the book, but he loved the movie. I've spent the afternoon waving my copy of the graphic novel around, telling him that I know he wants to read it.

I still fangirl Rorschach like woah. He's one of the most solid, complicated, interesting, flawed, tortured characters I've come across in fiction. I love it, and if I was a stupid girl, I'd totally write some Mary-Sue/Rorschach. But I won't because that would bastardize his character and strip away everything that makes him what he is.

In slightly related news, holy crap, I'm still writing. Yay for that, too. And it's chaptered. It's been over a year since I've written anything with chapters. I was beginning to forget what 'Chapter 2' looked like.

And now for the domestic bliss portion of this blog entry in which I convince all of you that I can cook, even if my skills in the kitchen are slightly dodgy.

( crushed heirloom potatoes )

Also, at the risk of the man himself (Prince) tracking me down and suing me for the measly contents of my savings account, I still uploaded this killer track for anyone who's never had the pleasure of hearing it before. Why? Because he says things like, "First I need a picture of your mother to verify the fact that there's not another one in the universe so supreme." Come on! So smooth! Oh, explicit lyrics and sexual content. Not work safe. It's Prince; you can't expect it to be clean.

First, I'm totally write fic again. Totally. It's Nine/Rose. It's a bit rough going, but I'm getting there and even enjoying it. Now I just need to find a beta, which is rather daunting since I don't know anyone in the Nine/Rose sector of the Doctor Who fandom.

Los Poblanos Organics that I mentioned in this entry? Totally joined it. Yay! It's a farm that participates in community supported agriculture. This just means that you pay a weekly fee for a box of whatever organic fruits and veggies they have available. You don't get to choose what you receive each week, but they promise enough fruits and veggies to feed a family of four. They post the contents of the upcoming week's box on their website so people can plan meals several days in advance. The boxes are delivered to your home or specific drop-off locations in the city on Monday morning. I had mine delivered to a bookstore a couple miles from my apartment. I dropped by after work today and picked it up.

( yay for yummy organic foods )

I took the day off just because I could. None of my co-workers called me, so I suppose the office didn't blow up without me. Jason also took the day off. We went shopping for used books, ate lunch on the patio of my favorite sandwich place, and took Ferguson to the park on our way home. My condolences go out to everyone who is covered in snow. It's sunny and 75 degrees here. I love it.

Because I had extra time to play around in the kitchen today, I made dessert. Jason's inordinately excited about the prospect of eating pudding.

( grasshopper parfaits - pictures and recipe behind the cut )

I don't have twelve dessert glasses, so I just made the two and left the other ingredients in the separate bowls in the fridge for later use. I had to buy an entire pack of Oreos to make the damn things, so now I'm going to have to find a non-wasteful way of getting rid of the rest of the package without eating them myself. I do not need Oreo cookies. I do not need Oreo cookies.

First, OMG - Sandor Clegane icon. ::drools::

Never let it be said that I'm above superficial behavior in relation to novels. I went to the bookstore for something completely unrelated (a historical romance set in England), but ended up walking out the door with that and another novel--a fantasy one--I had never heard of before called The Way of Shadows. I never buy a novel without prior knowledge. It's the first in a trilogy by Brent Weeks, who I've also never heard of before. At any rate, I bought the damn thing because the third book in the trilogy was sitting so prettily on the shelf looking like this. I'm only human, and I'm a total girl about assassins. I love assassins. This is probably completely unhealthy and indicative of a slight mental disorder on my part, but I can't seem to help myself. The hood, the daggers, the black clothing, the mystery, the oh-my-god-he-could-kill-me-with-a-flick-of-his-wrist. Okay, I'm going too far with that last one because I really do want to live, but you know what I mean. Assassins float my boat. So, I bought the first one just because I must read it, and I was afraid I would forget the title of the trilogy should I venture outside the bookstore without something in my hand to remind me of it. Has anyone heard of these novels? I looked them up on Amazon, and they appear to be quite well-rated with mostly-positive reviews. ::cue fangirl squealing over assassins::

I'm a pig. I had Olive Garden today, and even though I was full to busting, I still ate that huge piece of tiramisu I ordered. Oh god, it was good. I had a food orgasm.

If I had any shame, I'd be reticent about saying this, but I really like Britney Spears' Blackout album. It's terribly fun to work out to, but my enjoyment of it extends beyond that. I refuse, however, to admit that I dance around the apartment to it because that would just be undignified. My favorites? Here, here, and here. And who can forget the lamentable video filmed for Gimme More? The stripper pole wouldn't be so bad if she knew how it use it instead of prancing around like she's on the verge of passing out and holding onto it for balance.

- Why do I love this Jesse McCartney song so much. It's been stuck in my head all day.

- My next knitting project has been lined up. I even went to the craft store on Sunday to pick up some suitable yarn. I'm going to make the belle epoque knitted shirt from Knitty. How gorgeous is that? I might even feel like I'm in a Jane Austen novel when I wear it.

- I made cupcakes for the accountant this evening. He's retiring, and his last day of work is Friday. I won't be at work Thursday or Friday (moving!), so I'm going to miss his retirement lunch. He's completely bummed because I've somehow become his favorite person in the world. I figured I should do something extra special for him since I'll be gone on his last day. I made a gazillion cupcakes for the office, and I took a few of them and wrapped them individually in a little gift bag. I also picked up some decorations for his office which I hope I'll have time to hang tomorrow morning before he gets into the office.

- I'm so glad I've only got a few more nights left in this place. The new fellow that moved in downstairs left his alarm clock radio outside on his fenced-in backyard last night. The alarm on the radio went off at midnight and continued sounding for an hour. It was loud. Jason had no idea what it was, and he called security to tell them that an alarm was sounding somewhere on the premises. Security were assholes and didn't even bother to come out, so he called the police. Someone else must have called the police earlier because in five minutes, they rolled up to the building. They investigated the ridiculously loud alarm and then beat on this fellow's door for a good ten minutes before he crawled out of bed to turn it off.

EDIT: I just had a revelation. I *love* the BeeGees' music, but only when sung by other singers. Example.