« January 2009 | Main | March 2009 »
February 25, 2009
It's Wednesday, There Must Be Bread
So apparently the bread-making lesson that I had from Scott wasn't just a fluke. I made bread ALL BY MYSELF last week, and it was totally delicious, and I ate the last bit of the second loaf this morning, so I figured I should make some more.
It's not baked yet, but if I have to wait impatiently, so do you.
If you don't have it, you should run out immediately and buy The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It is teh awesome, as the kids say. This is my third batch of the Pullman loaf, and this weekend I made the cinnamon rolls. They should have been taken out of the oven about five minutes earlier, and my cinnamon's not the freshest, but otherwise they were GREAT.
I'm still pretty sure aliens have taken over my brain, because historically I can NOT bake. Ask Margaret, she'll tell you.
Posted by Kate at 4:59 PM | Comments (4)February 16, 2009
Oscar Challenge: Hamlet
Roll credits.
Me: Meh.
Nathan: It was kind of self-indulgent.
Me: Have you ever seen a Hamlet that wasn't?
Nathan: Good point.
Okay, so don't tell my grandmother, but I've never seen a production of Hamlet that I liked. It's so angsty and talky and all about ME ME ME and, Sweet Baby Jeebus, Hamlet can't relate to women. It just doesn't do anything for me generally, and Laurence Olivier didn't do anything to turn me into a Hamlet-lover.
Sure, sometimes in Hamlet there are cool and interesting supporting actors. This had a couple of really fun ones, notably the late great Eileen Herlie as Gertrude, who, was 28 years old when this movie was filmed. (Olivier was 41, you do the math.) Also fabulous was GRAND MOFF TARKIN as the flaming popinjay Osric.
Olivier was awesome, I guess. That "To be or not to be" business was pretty great, and DAMN, that man could fill out a pair of tights, but zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Seriously, don't tell my grandmother.
Grease Is the Word
Gettin' stuff done here!
#93 - Try 5 new restaurants (2/5) (I didn't say they had to be fancy.)
Earlier this weekend we went down to the Vallejo waterfront and had breakfast at the Sardine Can. Ooooh, it was divey, but it had pretty great divey diner food, and a really decent Bloody Mary. It might be the new go-to hangover place.
And tonight, we went to Bud's Giant Burgers down on Sonoma Ave. The burgers were delicious, nice and juicy, but the fries were out of this world. They were perfectly cooked, fluffy inside and crunchy on the outside, and I think I may become an addict.
#4 - Organize garage
#25 - Finish kitchen cabinets
We were going to put up the new fence this weekend, but it has been raining nonstop since Wednesday, so we decided to work in the garage. Nathan got a huge portion of it cleaned and organize while I made a gigantic mess with Citristrip. I may be done with a couple more of the upper cabinets by the end of the week if I set my mind to it.
#66 - Bake bread 5 times (1/5)
#73 - Make puff pastry
I'm not crossing the puff pastry off yet or adding the second bread-baking to the list because I mostly just watched while my friend Scott demonstrated, but there was beautiful, perfect bread in the house this week, and I've got some puff pastry waiting to be baked up. When I do these again by myself (I bought a scale and everything), I'll cross 'em off.
aaaaaand....
#94 Meet in person someone I've known online for more than a year
WOOHOO! A year, try a DECADE! Ha! I have been Web-stalking Rob Rummel-Hudson for at least 12 years. At long last, he came to our neck of the woods for to talk about and sign the wonderful book he wrote about his daughter Schuyler (who is the recipient of the crazy pink fish hat.) Geez, it was great. Thanks to the magic of the Internets, the adoring audience got to talk to Schuyler and her mom, Julie, all the way from Texas. I was so excited that I thought I was going to start drooling. I hope it wasn't too obvious.
Posted by Kate at 6:51 PM | Comments (1)February 13, 2009
Poor Boris
He thought the new Dead Fish Hat looked really delicious. I decided to frog the whole thing and start from scratch with some wonderful Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. Boris saw it on the table and licked his lips.
Boy, was my little buddy surprised when the Allegedly Dead Fish Hat jumped up and ate his head. Poor Boris. I guess he didn't really need his head anyway.
The good news is that I get to cross it off of my UFO list, along with the three, count 'em, THREE pairs of socks I darned.
Posted by Kate at 3:08 PM | Comments (1)February 7, 2009
Oscar Challenge: 1947 (and a re-cap)
Hey, you know what sucks ass? Anti-Semitism! If you aren't sure that it's wrong to discriminate against people just because they're Jewish, you should TOTALLY watch "Gentleman's Agreement".
Not even the delicious Gregory Peck, not even a screenplay by Moss Hart, not even the scene-stealing, fast-talking Celeste Holm can redeem this preachy, preachy story. That's really all I have to say. There was nothing terribly *wrong* with "Gentleman's Agreement", but it just wasn't great. It was up against "Miracle on 34th Street" and "The Bishop's Wife", both of which are immortal holiday classics and films you never have to ask me twice to watch, but they're not exactly Best Picture either.
...
So I ranked the first 20 movies we've seen from best to worst, and I asked Nathan to do the same. We handed each other our lists, and, not surprisingly, they were very similar. The top seven and the bottom three are nearly identical. "Gone With the Wind" and "Rebecca" were higher on mine mostly because I've seen them both eight hundred thousand times and they're sort of embedded in my psyche. I think that Nathan's list is a little more objective than mine. It's pretty cool, though, that we're on very similar wavelengths.
Here are mine:
1. * 1943 Casablanca
2. * 1939 Gone with the Wind
3. * 1934 It Happened One Night
4. * 1942 Mrs. Miniver
5. * 1940 Rebecca
6. * 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives
7. * 1929-1930 All Quiet on the Western Front
8. * 1932-1933 Cavalcade
9. * 1936 The Great Ziegfeld
10. * 1937 The Life of Emile Zola
11. * 1931-1932 Grand Hotel
12. * 1941 How Green Was My Valley
13. * 1944 Going My Way
14. * 1938 You Can't Take It with You
15. *1947 Gentleman's Agreement
16. *1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
17. * 1945 The Lost Weekend
18. * 1927-1928 Wings
19. * 1930-1931 Cimarron
20. * 1928-1929 The Broadway Melody
Here are Nathan's:
1. * 1943 Casablanca
2. * 1934 It Happened One Night
3. * 1939 Gone with the Wind
4. * 1942 Mrs. Miniver
5. * 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives
6. * 1940 Rebecca
7. * 1929-1930 All Quiet on the Western Front
8. * 1941 How Green Was My Valley
9. * 1931-1932 Grand Hotel
10. * 1937 The Life of Emile Zola
11. * 1936 The Great Ziegfeld
12. * 1938 You Can't Take It with You
13. * 1932-1933 Cavalcade
14. *1947 Gentleman's Agreement
15. * 1945 The Lost Weekend
16. * 1944 Going My Way
17. *1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
18. * 1927-1928 Wings
19. * 1930-1931 Cimarron
20. * 1928-1929 The Broadway Melody
February 5, 2009
Annual Report on UFO Activity
It's that time again.
It seems like a lot of the stuff on the last year's is still there, and it IS, but to my credit I finished the Flower Basket Shawl, the Central Park Hoodie, and the incredibly difficult and rewarding Paisley Shaw of Doom.
Leftover from last year:
[EDITED: I am striking these out as I finish them]
1. All Seasons Cotton socks - One's done, the other needs the toe and afterthought heel in. JUST DO IT, YOU MORON. It'll take you an hour.
2. Fingerless gloves - I'm tired of these popping up. JUST FINISH THEM.
3. Forbes Forest - Winter is rapidly passing us. Poor, poor Nathan, he only has one scarf. This thing is GORGEOUS, but the pattern is *so* tiresome.
4. Gen's blanket - It's actually come a long way. Knitting on the big needles hurts like a you-know-what, but I love the alpaca. I'm still stunned that I was able to fix the nasty mistake last month. As soon as the tax refund comes in, I'll buy the rest of the yarn and finish this bad boy.
5. Mom's Ultramerino Socks need darning. I can figure it out. I'm sure of it.
6. Zoe's fuzzy angora hat - Mom gave it to me to fix, but there are three large mysterious holes in it. Not sure what to do. I think it might be toast.
7. That pink scarf - I have this great cabled scarf that I was making out of Calmer, but I can't find the photocopy of the pattern out of the book I don't own. Must track that down.
Leftover from a million years ago:
8. Curliecue Blanket - I'm not going to finish it. The question is, should I try to re-use the yarn or should I just take it outside and burn it? It's quite a lot of Rowan Cashsoft, and it was expensive, but is the yarn that was cursed, or the project as a whole?
9. Stupid Shapely Tank - I bought this Lavold Silky Wool for what was supposed to be my first sweater way back when, and I couldn't make it work, so I frogged it and tried the White Lies Shapely Tank. This was in June 2005. I abandoned it because thought (I knew) it'd be too short in the torso. Should I try to re-use this yarn or should I take it out and burn it? I actually am afraid that this yarn is cursed.
10. Way back when, I made Kate Gilbert's Shining Star Hat out of some pretty tweedy Cascade 220. It was an early project, and I didn't realize too late that my gauge was way off, but I finished it anyway and now I have a gigantic purple hat. Should I frog it? Should I keep it as a testament to my stupidity?
11. College "scarf" - I have several feet of what was supposed to be a scarf on the bias made of Filatura di Crosa College. I think I was doing this while I was running the lights for a play. It's all wonky and I hate the pattern. The yarn's not bad, though. I guess I should frog it.
12. Gigantic Blue Sock - It's the very first sock I ever made, it's made of Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000, and it's way, way, way too big, the gussets are ridiculous, the kitchener toes a joke, and the ribbing looks like an idiot did it. But it's the first sock I ever made, and I was so proud that I'd figured out how to turn a heel all by myself. I'm tempted to keep it and use it as a Christmas stocking for the cats or something.
Newish:
13. Laminaria - I got to the second chart and made some sort of horrible mistake, and stuffed the whole thing into a ziploc bag. Fix or frog? (FROGGED 2/20/09)
14. Blue Acero sock - I just need to finish these.
15. My yellow Ultramerino socks need darning.
16. Saartje's booties - I made the first one the other day just to test the pattern. It took me about two hours. I suppose I should make its mate and tuck them away for a random last-minute emergency baby shower gift.
17. Luna Moth shawl - I started this last year using that evil Baruffa Cashwool from Hell. I got about 40 rows in and then made a mistake and promptly stuffed it into another Ziploc. Fix or frog?
18. Kitty Pi - The idea of this cat bed really appeals to me, and I believe that the cats will actually use it. The giant needles really, really hurt my hands, though, and Lamb's Pride Bulky isn't exactly luxurious to knit with. Also, the circular needle I'm using has come apart and I need to glue it back together.
19. Nathan's green Acero socks need darning.
20. Fish hat- okay, this one's tough. I'm making a THIRD fish hat for a gift. Two precious skeins of Artyarns Supermerino came out of my stash for this, but I'm not loving the fabric that the #7 needles are creating. The decreases are *so* visible. I think I might frog this and start again on #6s. Or I might have to admit this is the wrong yarn for the job.
21. And the worst - my fucking Backyard Leaves scarf has a hole in it. I can't deal with it right now.
Boy, I'd better get busy.
Oscar Challenge: The Best Years of Our Lives
When we last left our intrepid hero and heroine, they had just suffered through the mostly loathsome The Lost Weekend. It *tried* to be the first actually modern film in Oscar history, but it's so cliched and melodramatic that it totally failed and is really just, well, cliched and melodramatic.
So we've seen a couple of war movies in the last 20 or so years. We've seen Wings, which is more an OMG LOOK, MAW, WE CAN MAKE A MOVING PICTURE than a statement about The Horrors of War. We've seen All Quiet on the Western Front, which is really and truly a testament to the stupidity and futility about a criminally unnecessary war. We've seen Cavalcade, which is set against a backdrop of wartime horrors, but it's Noel Coward and the witty dialogue inspired us to throw some creme de violette into some Champagne and christen a new cocktail. Mmmm, zeppelin-tastic.
We get Gone With the Wind, which is not so much about The Horrors of War than about how totally hot Vivien Leigh is, then eventually we get to the two brilliant pieces of "Wars Suck, But This One Is Totally Justified - ACK! HITLER! INORITE?" propaganda that are Mrs. Miniver and Casablanca.
AAAAAnyway. The Best Years of Our Lives. All I knew about it was that it's about WWII vets coming home from the war and having not so great a time, and that the guy who plays the Navy guy with two prosthetic hands is a real guy, not an actor, and he really lost his hands in the war (and he won an honorary Oscar because the Academy thought he was awesome and deserved an award but didn't think he would get the Best Supporting Actor award that he was nominated for because he wasn't a professional actor (whatever that means) and then he WON Best Supporting Actor anyway and he totally deserved it, and I also have seen (a hundred times) the scene where Myrna Loy greets her returning soldier husband, which is a masterpiece of physical characterization. She hears the doorbell ring, and suddenly she realizes that her husband has come home, and she comes into the hall and all the tension she's been carrying since 1942 comes flooding out of her eyes, her legs, her hands, and her slightly uncoiffed hair. I could see this scene a thousand times and learn something new about acting every time.
I had few preconceptions of this movie, and I've been watching a lot of movies made about the war during the war, whose message is undeniably "We must fight and win this war, and all our sacrifice will be worth it and if you don't agree, you're an unpatriotic wanker."
But then all of a sudden there's a scene in this film where an infantry soldier's son gives him a lecture on the evils of nuclear war, and then another in which a sailor with no hands and an Air Force officer are mocked for having been suckers who fought on the wrong side of the war. It's shocking and weird and unsettlingly modern.
But it's not modern. Aside from the stark clarity of the deep focus cinematography, what makes this picture resonate is the eternal notion that veterans have always come home from war feeling like outsiders and always will. This is exactly what All Quiet on the Western Front is about. The boy who has been forced to endure the trenches visits his home and realizes that he doesn't fit in, will never fit in, that war has ruined him for civilian life. But unlike Paul, who is pointlessly slaughtered and therefore spared, the three men in "The Best Years of Our Lives" have to live and survive and cope with a world in which they don't entirely belong.
Posted by Kate at 12:29 AM | Comments (1)February 4, 2009
Pockets and Everything
I like making lists, and I like crossing things off lists even more. In an effort to get some more items on my 1001 Things list crossed out, (oooh, pretty) I got out the sewing machine.
13. Make curtain for under sink I know, there's not a photo of it yet, so it doesn't exist, but I can't find the curtain rod we bought for to hang the sucker up. Trust me, it looks nice and I made a tidy rolled hem and everything, and there's lots of the fabric left over.
32. Finish Nathan's pajamas The hems are a bit long, so I'll need to re-hem them. Meanwhile, Mr. Manly is wearing them tucked into his Prairie Boots. He looks like some sort of deranged sock monkey jammie-wearing paratrooper, but as long as he's happy...
And there's some other progress, too.
12. Turn juniper patch into edible garden - working on it. I cleared away most of the debris yesterday, and now all that's left are the stumps.
31. Watch at least one Oscar movie/month (1/35) - watched first half of The Best Years of Our Lives last night. It is wildly exceeding my expectations. I'll have a write-up and (with luck) a recap of the project so far by the end of the week.
47. Re-seed lawn - I bought a bag of seed, I should go out and do at least the half of the lawn that's not going to get trampled on this weekend.
69. Send 15 postcards - hey, send me your snail mail address and I'll see what I can do.
February 2, 2009
Progress and stuff
#43. get rid of xylosma There's one stump and a few bits of roots that need a little attention, but I'm going to call this done. Nathan was out there until after dark with his new, manly mattock.
#44 Replant front of house - We bought a nice big lilac plant and a Fair Bianca David Austen rose. I'll probably plant the rose today. I'm still not sure what else is going to go up front.
#95 - My very handy husband re-wired and hung the sconces in the living room. I have to say, they are pretty freaking spectacular. I wasn't sure that Art Deco fixtures were going to work in this 1918 house, but they do.
Posted by Kate at 9:31 AM
| Comments (2)