the results

the dish was in fact delicious -- my adjustments were spot on. the only difficulty was that the squid were so big i couldn't finish a whole one. i gave the rest to Daddy-O as a treat. he also gave it his stamp of approval.

i've got a new routine in the mornings. when i get up, the first thing i do is make a pot of decaf and take a cup out to the balcony, where i spend an hour or so fussing over my garden, encouraging the morning glories and ivy to climb, cutting dead blooms from the flowers, looking for ripe peppers. it's very soothing.

i live in the most beautiful place in the world.

goofing off

this morning i ran out to the store to pick up a three-ring binder of a reasonable size for the specs on this new project i'm working on. i ended up spending the entire day browsing through stores, fondling expensive crystal and china (one Noritake pattern made me come over all swoony, even though i'd never actually buy such fancy dishes), snickering at ridiculously specialized kitchen tools (asparagus pot, anyone?), and not finding the two kitchen items i actually would have bought -- an old-fashioned stovetop espresso maker (which one used to be able to get for $10 at Cost Plus) and a madeleine pan.

what i did find that's got me feeling all happy -- an open-box, incomplete set of my beloved but discontinued flatware pattern for a mere $30. which is money i shouldn't be spending right now, but what are the chances i'll come across a deal like that again? alas, all the spoons were missing, and i am missing a couple of teaspoons. but there were all four dinner forks, three knives, and two salad forks. the complete set went for $90. now i can reserve the forks that were chewed by the disposal for use when i don't have guests (because, you know, i have so many dinner guests and they're so particular, *cough*).

but anyway. i also got a three-ring binder, a holder with a belt clip for my cellphone (which i've been needing desperately for ages), a melon baller, and a set of four individual tart pans (only $2! how could i resist?). i also went for a couple of bottles of Portuguese red wine that came highly recommended for a mere $5/bottle. and then i started thinking about what to have for dinner.

i figured i'd stop by the farmer's market (which is actually just a small independent grocery that carries a lot of local and organic produce) and see what looked good and was cheap. the yellow squash was only 59 cents/lb., which pretty much closed that issue. steamed yellow squash is one of my favorite things in the world. (and before you tell me how much better it is grilled, yes, i've done that, yes, it was good, but steamed it's just so soft and buttery and sweet!) i usually like it with fish, and the farmer's market has fresh locally-caught wild salmon delivered daily. it's not cheap -- today it was $8.99/lb. -- but i asked the cute guy behind the counter to give me the smallest fillet he had, just under a half-pound. the difficult part here will be preventing myself from just eating the whole fillet raw. god, i love fresh wild salmon. when it's this nice, it almost seems a crime to cook it -- but i prefer my raw fish with sushi rice, and i don't know how to do that yet. still, minimal interference is called for. i'll grill it and have it with just a little lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

while i was handing over my cash at the checkout, a woman came up behind me with nothing but a pint of Haagen-Dazs and literally flung a $5 bill at the checker. "you don't have any coffee!" she complained, in what was evidently meant to be a cute, pouty way. "it's my favorite! you have this, but no coffee!" she waved the pint of chocolate ice cream at him.

"uh," he said, completely thrown. "we usually have it."

"do you think you might have some in the back?" she wheedled. it was only at this point that she seemed to notice me, and that i was still in the process of paying for my groceries. she reached out and snatched her money back from where it had landed, as though i might swipe it right before her eyes.

"i can't really leave my register," he said, and made change for me. i didn't even have a chance to answer his "have a nice day" before the woman started haranguing him again about the ice cream.

god, i hate rude people.

in other news

i haven't really felt much like chatting online lately, so if you've been looking for me on any of the IM services, i'm sorry. if you really desperately want to talk to me, you could either call or just email and tell me to log in already -- i do check my email compulsively when i'm home.

also, i've finally gotten round to uploading the pictures jenine sent me.

william gets a ride on Spider-Man's shoulders:


i get my picture taken with Spider-Man (and check out that package!):


and this one requires a little explanation:

this was the cake for the grownup party in the evening -- the cake for the kid party had a spiderweb motif and white icing. anyway, jenine had a ton of red and blue decorator frosting leftover from the other cake, so she decided to decorate this one too. she made a bunch of little blue... er, i don't know what to call them. rosettes? anyway, she made these designs on the cake. and when we all gathered around the cake to sing, william asked what the blue things were.

"they're grogans," said grandpa torkington helpfully. "Spider-Man grogans."

"they are not!" protested william, who knows very well what a grogan is. (and one would expect no less of a child whose little sister has a doll named "gobshite baby", after all.)

the argument didn't last long, since as it turns out, Spider-Man grogans are quite tasty on chocolate cake.

oh, and:

i've yet again anticipated a trend. when i bought four different colored wineglasses (and matching napkins), i was just trying to do something fun, and to play up the different colored serving bowls i got at Ikea. today in the stores, i was seeing four-color wineglass sets of all sorts, from goblets to cordial glasses. they're everywhere.

i finally get a Victrola -- then i go to Target, and find that they're selling reproduction Gramophones from India, complete with original Indian 78s from the appropriate time period. (and while the repros are lovely, with big shiny horns, the reproducers appear to be of very poor quality, and not properly angled (60 degrees is ideal). hmph!

i went through a reading-about-pirates phase, and bought my very own Jolly Roger, a couple of years ago. and changed my phone message to a piratey theme, no less. next thing you know, Dave Eggers is opening a pirate store and Disney makes a pirate movie.

and so it goes. i can't wait to see what happens next. will it have to do with gardening? melon ballers? antique movie posters? only time will tell.