Snake Surly

Bring Us a Barrel

Way back on March 21st, I decided I couldn't wait any longer and I planted my tomatoes and stuff in Burgundy barrels. Everybody and their brother said it was way too soon, we hadn't had our last freeze yet, they were all sure to wilt, blah, blah, blah. The lady at the nursery looked like I was deluded last week when I told her my Sweet 100's had set fruit. Well, all those naysayers can SUCK IT.

March 21st

Today

Worst Blogger Ever

I could make some excuse that I've been busy around the house, stripping cabinets, working on the yard, cleaning, baking bread, churning butter, milking cows, you know. crap like that, but really I'm just a lazy, lazy blogger. (I haven't even been knitting.)

Also, we've been sort of social. We went to a wedding and everything this weekend. The amount of booze consumed from Saturday evening to Sunday evening was truly epic.

This picture of me at an excellent seedy bar in the tiny village of Port Costa sums it all up.

Oscar Challenge: All About Eve

I was *sure* I'd seen this before, but it only took about fifteen seconds to realize I hadn't. This is, of course, sure to be used against me in my insanity trial. HOW could I have never seen it?

I've heard all the quotable quotes, and I've seen all the scenes with Marilyn, and I know all about Edith Head's dress that wouldn't stay on Bette Davis' shoulders, but somehow I managed to get through the last 38 years without seeing it.

Holy crap, this was good. There was not a moment that wasn't riveting, there wasn't a performance that wasn't wonderful, it was beautiful to look at, it's about the theatre, the story was simple and clever, and did I mention Marilyn? (Nathan had to get himself a cold compress after her scenes.) It's sort of got everything I like in it.

This is going in my top ten Oscars list. It might even make the top five.

Hoes Around House

Since we moved in, the variegated Eunonymous fortunei has been lurking on the dear-god-can-we-rip-this-out list. It wasn't as bad as the Xylosma Giganticus and not as bad as the Privet from Hell, but I hated its lurid yellow foliage. This last month when it was cold and wet out, the golden hedge added some warmth to the barren yard.

Sort of pretty, but the memory of those mustardy yellow leaves reflecting the summer sun was too strong, so they had to come out. And come out, they did. Of course, as soon as the first plant got ripped out, we saw how ugly the fence was, so that had to come out, too.

This photo is a bit of a cheater. Tom came over and was shocked that we hadn't properly documented our progress, so he made us re-enact the removal of the fence. Astute viewers will notice the newly planted rose bush taking a swipe at my knees. (Also one might notice the attractive mattress in our neighbors' yard leaning against the rest of the decrepit fence.)

Anyway, we got a shitload done this week. We planted five bare-root David Austen roses (a little late, I know, but what can you do?), and one more David Austen plant that we found unexpectedly at the nursery today. (Pat Austin! W00T!)

Now I must go make us a Meyer Lemondrop with the bucket of lemons Tom gave me.

Victory!

Isn't it cool how you can stick things into the dirt and then they grow and turn out to be really awesome and edible?

So we bought this house without realizing that there was a window box under the front window. Stupid Xylosma.

And then we sanded and painted and got rid of the Xylosma. It was the middle of January, and all they had at the nursery were the typical colorful annuals, some mint and a small lemon thyme plant.

And then, even before I could blink, it stopped freezing outside and the nurseries started carrying more stuff and, holy moly, I had a container garden.

There's the old primrose, some Fino Verde basil, some of the sweet peas I stuck in randomly, the lemon thyme and some English thyme, mint, French tarragon, a random garlic clove that I stuck in, which is sprouting madly, catnip, more mint and some Greek oregano. On the other side of the primrose (not shown) is a nice patch of cilantro and crazy-ass salad greens, all from seed.

Out on the side of the house where the junipers were are some lavender and rosemary plants, some poppies and hollyhocks, a pomegranate tree, some beans (the slugs like to nom them, so I'm dubious), a couple of tomatoes and a zucchini, and a patch of arugula. There's also some bergamot mint and epazote in the concrete pipe fittings we found in the back yard.

AND there are two half wine barrels in the back yard with tomatoes, basil, a jalapeno pepper and a tomatillo plant. We'll see.

Miracle on Monterey Street

You'd better sit down. Maybe get yourself a cocktail and some smelling salts. I have momentous news.

Yes, faithful reader(s), it's true, just as I memorized the pattern and taught myself to cable without a needle, I finished that blasted Forbes Forest. It's bound off, the ends are woven in, and should the weather take a turn for the worse, Nathan will be able to wear it.

I know, I know, that' an old detail picture of it, but honestly, it still looks exactly like that. It's a very handsome scarf, and once I memorized the pattern, it was super easy. The RYC Silk Wool DK yarn was lovely to knit with and made a beautiful fabric. It's pilly as all get-out, though. I am going to go have a beer to celebrate.

And now, a gratuitous photo of a kitty with yarn.

Domestic Goddesshood

With these crusty, sweet loaves filled with cinnamony raisiny nutty goodness, I can cross "Bake bread five times" off the list. I think I might be getting the hand of this baking bread business.

Now what to make this week? I think maybe brioche, and also banana bread. I was going to make banana bread on Thursday, but Nathan talked me into making apple cake instead.

Also this week, I finally taught myself to cable without a needle. What a fucking revelation. I made this awesome hat for Nathan in two days, and the Forbes Forest scarf is flying along.

There was also beef stock, meatloaf, a fully utilized CSA box, and Chile Colorado this week. And I gardened. Just watch, I'm going to start sewing, churning butter and spinning yarn if I'm not careful. (Just kidding about the spinning yarn. We all know I'm incapable.)

Oscar Challenge: All the King's Men

Meh. Not great, not awful, all politicians are corrupt, dictators suck, yadda yadda yadda. I wanted to like it, but I wound up looking at the clock a lot. It just never managed to capture my full attention.

I'm glad we got it out of the way, though, because there's some awesome stuff coming up next.

No, BEHIND the rabbit.

Yes, Boris is super cute, but this is not just a random picture of my adorable kitty cat. If you look beyond his whiskered adorableness, you will see that he is sitting on the finished Ombre Alpaca Blanket. Yes, faithful readers, this sucker is done. DONE. Finished. Stick a fork in it. It's gorgeous and warm and wonderful, but I still can't believe how freaking long it took me to knit it. I put away the gigantic Lantern Moon ebony needles with gusto, and I hope I never have to use them again.

And here, if you look closely, you may notice that my sweet fluffy white kitty is sitting on the completed Kitty Pi. Neither of my fuzzballs will sit IN it, but they both love sitting on it. Boris especially likes it, and moments after I took this picture, Boris politely asked his sister if she would kindly vacate it so he could have a turn. Actually, he bit her head, but who's counting?

Nathan's Oscar Challenge Recap

Hey, look! It's my very first guest blogger! I asked Nathan to recap our Oscar Challenge project, and here he is:

In the week since the 81st Academy Awards ceremony last Sunday evening, I’ve been reflecting on the first year of Kate and my project to watch all of the Best Motion Picture winners, and Kate has invited me to write a guest blog about it. In the twelve months after last year’s Academy Awards, Kate and I watched the first 21 “Best Motion Pictures,” and a number of also rans. In some cases, Gaslight, for example, we felt that pictures that didn’t win were significantly better films than those that won the award. The rather obvious lessons that I take from this observation are two fold: first, tastes have changed as the movie industry matured and filmmaking styles became more sophisticated; and second, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has always had an agenda.

With the first 21 films down, there are 60 more to go. At last year’s rate, we should be caught up about the time of the 2011 Academy Awards in early 2012. Having seen a larger percentage of the next 60 films than I had seen of the first 21, of which I had only seen five previously, I am confident that several of my top 10 from last year’s films will still be in my top 10 in 2012. Casablanca, for example, remains as great a film, in my opinion, as most films that have been made in the ensuing 66 years.

The highlight of the past year, has been the overview that these films provide of the evolution of filmmaking from Wings, at the end of the silent movie era, to an almost completely modern film like The Best Years of Our Lives. Along the way, we saw the archetype of the romantic comedy, It Happened One Night, which contains all of the key plot elements that still define that genre of films. Grand Hotel, likewise, has spawned an entire genre of films and television series, like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, composed of multiple unrelated sub-plots linked by a common location.

Some of the films seem dated to the modern viewer, yet remain enjoyable to watch, while others are best left in their current obscurity. A prime example of the latter category is Broadway Melody, one of the worst films that I’ve ever seen. Some of the films addressing societal issues, such as The Lost Weekend and Gentleman’s Agreement, are plagued by the heavy handedness that can still afflict modern films with a social message. Contrast those films, however, with The Best Years of Our Lives, which deals with the issues facing veterans returning from World War II with remarkable subtlety and ended up being my favorite among the films that I saw for the first time this year.

While the number of movies left to go can make the project feel daunting, our next movie, All The King’s Men, takes us to the end of the 1940s. Soon, we’ll be moving into the 1950s and 1960s. While the “Best Motion Picture” chosen by the Academy in a given year may not ultimately be what I consider to be the “best” movie made that year, watching the first 21 has been a challenging and enjoyable experience. I’m looking forward to the next 60.

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.

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.

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.

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