| http://www.mamohanraj.com/journal/show-entry.php?Entry_ID=7431 Now that I've tried it, I might be a little bit addicted to molding chocolate. Tiny little adorable mushrooms, made with ease! I had no idea it was so simple. But I was supposed to go to bed an hour ago, and I am still making little mushrooms (for Kavi's birthday cake tomorrow). Go to bed, Mary Anne! | comments: Leave a comment   |
| Congratulations! You're almost halfway through your pregnancy - only 91,422 weeks to go!
At 24 inches and 73 pounds, your baby is about the size of a widescreen TV. He's got a long way to go - remember, a healthy full-term baby will be about the size of the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale major metropolitan area. However, all his major systems and organs are already formed! Your baby has the ability to kick, roll over, wallow in his own urine, suck his thumb, and whine for crackers. Now his organs just need to grow larger and mature. And you may ask yourself, if everything is basically formed, why does he have to mature on the INSIDE of my abdominal muscles? I can totally create a warm and welcoming environment on the outside of my body, I will order some cute goddamn wall decals from Etsy or something. And the answer is, ahahahahaha sucks to be you, that's why.
Incidentally, if you ever plan to be pregnant and you want to keep that shit under wraps as long as possible - which you shouldn't have to, that's totally up to you, but especially if you plan to keep working people do treat you differently once they know you're pregnant and there can definitely be some advantages to keeping it to yourself, like for example not getting demoted from something like project manager to something more like head of stationery organization - do not even mess with empire waist blouses and crap like that until you are in your third trimester, when you won't have much choice anyway. The reason being that they make you look like you're in your third trimester when you're not even pregnant. What you want are some long loose cardigans of the kind that don't fasten at all but just have drapes in front. Basically you want to look like you have enormous labia down the front of your entire torso. You can totally hide a three months' belly behind that.
I went to the Junebug's daycare on Friday and like half the mothers of kids in his cohort are pregnant. The other half already have more than one kid. I guess it's that time - about two years apart. Nice to be painfully predictable, but at least we can greet each other with a grim fist in the air and a "Be strong, sister."
(Crossposted to http://metaphortunate.dreamwidth.org/47247.html with  comments.) | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Today  mollpeartree and princeofcairo used a grocery trip to Patel Brothers as a pretext for coaxing us out to Khan Barbecue for a hefty late lunch with their friends from Columbus. Every time I visit Devon lately--and I think I'm averaging once every 2-3 months--I see new businesses opening. This time I took note of a "vegetarian and non-vegetarian" South Indian place (Abhiruchi), a new grocery (Mehrab), an Islamic bookstore, and a sweet shop. Also, Urban India and Pita Xpress Grill, two eateries which were under construction on my last trip, are open for business now. Clearly we have a lot of catching up to do.
For lunch, we ordered frontier beef, chicken chapli kabob, goat qorma, palak dal, and aloo gobi which was just gobi. (The server came to our table to say they were out of aloo, and I was like, "You know, there's a grocery just next door where they have them in twenty-pound sacks.") Every one of them was fantastic. I went easy with the beef because of the huge honking chunks of jalapeño; like POC, I appreciated how it incorporated tomatoes without letting them take over. Chapli kabob, a minced meat patty, was new to all of us and a hit all around. The server seemed to raise his eyebrow at our restraint in ordering, but we ended up with enough food to leave everyone stuffed with only a few scraps to spare.
Even though I'd treated myself to a Kashmiri tea (the closest thing they had to masala chai on the menu), I was eager to get to Patel Café for dessert. On the way, we detoured to the bookstore and then took care of the shopping, since the out-of-towners were a bit anxious to get going. (I had to buy some baby bananas because they were just SO CUTE. Eating them makes me feel like a giant in a children's storybook.) Sadly the cashew raisin ice cream tasted more of raisins than of cashews, but the Old Man let me steal some of his scoop of pistachio, so it was all good.
After that, it was a visit to Mughal Bakery to stock up on cookies. The only interesting new offering were "sesame cookies", a variation on the royal almond cookies we always buy. Disappointingly, they don't taste very strongly of sesame. Then a ride home on a crowded bus. After all that food, monshu was ready for another nap and I putzed in the garden, transplanting lemon balm and marjoram from the starter pots on the windowsill. I concocted a little soda with the oddly dark woodruff syrup I'd made Thursday night and found that it tasted acceptable after all. (I'd been worried I'd burnt it.)
Naturally we were still feeling pretty full when dinnertime rolled around, so supper was a salad of the chicken cooked in mojo last weekend with pickle relish (sweet and dill) and fresh herbs. My plan was to use the lovage to substitute for the celery, but we decided the stems were too fibrous and only put in the leaves. Looking to add some crunch, I tossed in some of the slivered almonds from Patel and we finished off the chips from last night. Quite a nice start to the GWO's first full day of vacation! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| http://www.mamohanraj.com/journal/show-entry.php?Entry_ID=7430 I wish to note for the record, btw, that tonight Kevin and I HIRED A BABYSITTER and actually WENT OUT TO A MOVIE. I think this may be the first time we've done this since Kavya was born. It's her sixth birthday today, people. Six years. Those of you with little ones -- don't wait so long. They'll be just fine with the sitter. Just get out. Go. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| http://www.mamohanraj.com/journal/show-entry.php?Entry_ID=7429 Star Trek: Into Darkness just-watched thoughts, and yes, definitely SPOILERS:
- I found myself bored by the long action sequences, which was actually true of the new Hobbit too. Had to fight not to fall asleep during them, which I'm guessing wasn't Abrams's intent. Perhaps I'm not his target audience, but still. I like a good explosion as much as the next girl, but if there's no actual tension in your long action sequence, what good is it?
- speaking of lack of tension, when they're shooting from one ship to the other, there's NO doubt that the two of them will make it. Oh, maybe Khan will wander off somewhere for a bit, but basically, they're guaranteed to survive that. So don't make it so damn long, okay?
- as for long, ridiculous things, when Spock was chasing Khan through the city, my FIRST thought was, well, if they can beam Spock down, why can't they beam down thirty security guards too? Heck, beam a few down every second or two, just ahead of Khan, and you could have an AWESOME fight scene, if that's what you're looking for, as he kicks ass until finally brought down. And yes, I say this despite really enjoying Uhura standing there, squeezing off stunner shots, one after another. She could be the last one to come down and finish him off, or better, figure out something clever that makes her need to come down, as opposed to now, when there's NO GOOD REASON for the communications officer to beam down. I mean, why her?
- oh, and speaking of tedium -- I really wanted to love the radiation chamber scene. I did. I mean, here I AM your target audience; I sobbed like a baby at the end of ST II. I memorized those lines, as I watched them over and over, incredulous, not believing they'd actually killed off Spock. And so yes, it was awesome the character flip, from Spock doing what he thought Kirk would have done re: getting Khan to Kirk doing what he thought Spock would have done -- that was note perfect. But the scene itself, bizarrely, dragged. A few lines less, a few minutes shorter, and I would have loved it. Even including Spock's surprisingly well-delivered Khaaaaaan!!! I mean, that was hilarious, but I appreciated it. I just never cared about Kirk's death. And I wasn't surprised that it lasted oh, thirty seconds before it was completely undone. Not that you didn't also see it coming with that whole tribble thing. There's foreshadowing, and then there's hitting you over the head with a dilithium-plated hammer.
- finally (although you know I'll have more thoughts on all this tomorrow), Montalban beats Cumberbatch hands down. Montalban didn't have to weep (and wow, there was a lot of crying in this film) in order to convince you of his barely-checked self-righteous rage, his regal hauteur, his grief. Cumberbatch -- bah. You tell me there was no South Asian actor who could do better than Cumberbatch in that role, and I might just spit in your face.
I might talk more about the stuff I liked tomorrow. Mostly the classic Trek characters, whom they're still doing a decent job with. I enjoyed Scotty running. And the ship; I love the Enterprise all sleek and gorgeous, and I feel like they're punching me (in an effective way) when they blow holes in my baby. There were some funny lines here and there, and the Spock / Uhura relationship fight was both funny and sweet. I'm not sorry I saw it; after all, I'm a Trekkie from way back; I couldn't bear NOT to see it.
But I do wish it hadn't been so boring at points.
Update: Oh, one more thing. I actually like the background story with the villain Admiral -- there's some good stuff there about post-9/11 militarization, etc. A cautionary tale for our time, and Spock arguing for the right to due process, and especially Scotty willing to QUIT over it, was awesome.
But the rest of the execution had no heart to it. We didn't meet Klingons, so we didn't care about whether we were going to start a war with them. Starfleet Academy had a Dreadnought plow into it, but we don't care, because it's not specific at all -- we don't see anyone we know hurt or dying. It's just an explosion and some buildings falling down.
The only bit of heart that touched me a bit was in the first explosion, when the captains and first officers are attacked, and they're standing there with the black dust floating around them; that was beautifully done, very 9/11-reminiscent. But yeah, that was it. It could have been so much more. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I made a up nice recipe! It is green apple rhubarb crumble and is gluten free.
- crumble stuff is brown sugar, butter, oats, tapioca flour, coconut flour
- 4 green apples, maybe 8 stalks rhubarb, brown sugar, tapioca flour, cinnamon, ginger, honey
I sauteed the rhubarb for a few minutes to see if it was very juicy, but it wasn't. Threw a spoonful of honey in there and about as much ginger as my thumb. Then mixed it with the apples and sprinkled some sugar, cinnamon, and tapioca flour on it all figuring that would thicken the juicy inside.
Mash the brown sugar into the butter, then mix in the oats and various kinds of flour.
I cooked it maybe 40 minutes at 375. It is perfect! The ginger really makes it. If I could have found the cardamom I would have put a pinch into the apple/rhubarb filling. This much stuff filled a 9 inch square glass pan.
Gluten free stuff is for Zond7 who is trying this out and seems to be doing better on it. Hard to stick to. Next I will try making gf cornbread again and then gf mac and cheese with brown rice pasta.
Day of domesticity and naps - I put up a lot of hooks and brackets and did a lot of laundry. A. continues excitedly doing things to create a Paradise for Birds. At 7am she was up asking me for "chores -- chores that might be like watering the garden or filling the bird feeders." OK! Chores! 7am! hop to it, kid! Over the course of the day she helped me drill holes, screw screws, and oil the patio benches with teak oil.
She duct taped a yogurt container up on top of the highest fence for crows. Her rambly singing has switched between lullabies and fake crow calls all day. Moomin did some homework (but has WAY MORE) everyone but me played a board game called zooloretto and A.'s friend from school came over.
Zond7 slept off his jet lag. I also did some worky things over the day when I was resting my ankles and not asleep. We're hoping to see the star trek movie tomorrow!
So lovely to have more energy, be able to walk around today, etc. and use my hands so much for things like drilling, screwdrivers, laundry, and carrying things. It may not feel very good tomorrow. And yet Enbrel <3 <3 <3 <3 | | comments: Leave a comment |
| "Europe's Sensational Wild Animal Trainer, Fearless Daughter of Russia's Mad Monk." I learned about this existence of this wonderful artifact and wonderful kook from Bess Lovejoy's Atlas Obscura talk at DNA Lounge last week, which you should surely attend in the future. She also later co-authored a cookbook, which includes recipes for jellied fish heads and her father's favorite, cod soup. She also worked as a cabaret dancer in Bucharest, Romania, and then found work as a circus performer for Ringling Brothers Circus. During the 1930s she toured Europe and America as a lion tamer, billing herself as "the daughter of the famous mad monk whose feats in Russia astonished the world." She was mauled by a bear in Peru, Indiana, but stayed with the circus until it reached Miami, Florida, where she quit and began work as a riveter in a defense shipyard during World War II. Mirrored from jwz.org. | | |
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