elkit in wonderland

I'm Not Looking For A New England

My friend Mary brought me a fine hostess gift when she visited from England recently: the Gordon Ramsay's Great British Pub Food cook book. She knows I love to cook, and I love linguistics.

This is fantastic on both counts. It's a fine cook book, but it still reads like a foreign language. Even though it's plain English.

The names of some of the dishes are fabulously mysterious, like enchantments and spells: "angels and devils on horseback", "pan haggerty", "Scotch woodcock" (huh?), "creamed haddock" (that's fish, right? right), "Welsh rabbit", which is not rabbit at all, but toasted bread with a flour-butter-cheese-beer mixture on top, and "cock-a-leekie soup".

The most mysterious name to me is "pig's liver faggots". The recipe starts with, "Faggots may not sound too appetizing, but as long as they're properly made, they are delicious and easy to prepare." The ingredients include liver and pork belly and breadcrumbs, as well as several spices and herbs. Reading through the instructions, it sounds like this will turn out like some kind of meatballs. Liver and pork belly meatballs. (Wikipedia concurs.) Faggots? I have never heard this word in a culinary context.

But my favorite mystery of all of them is this ingredient listed in the recipe for Cornish pasties:

"1/2 swede, about 400g"

A half Swede at less than a pound? That seems pretty small for a Scandinavian person. (My friend Mary said a swede is a kind of turnip. My friend the Wikipedia concurs: it's a rutabaga, or Steckrübe to my German brain.)

I Can See Clearly Now

Sarah and I baked bacon cookies and apple pies. A grand time was had by all, even the cookies.

Horses In My Dreams

Lying between the Ridgeway and the River Thames, the Vale of White Horse stretches from the edge of Oxford to the threshold of the Cotswolds. Its enchanting landscape is marked by a mysterious pagan past - the very name comes from the oldest chalk figure in Britain dating back to around 1000 BC.

I'm off to do some horsing around.

Hot Girls in Love

Hot girl-on-girl action over at BottleofBlog: Ricky is back!!!!! See all you BottleBlogger groupies over there.

And the badgerbag has Joe Bob Briggs video! Today is a good day for a fangirl.

Tweet

Oh yeah, I've been twittering more than blogging at BlogHer. My tweets are here.   

And if you want to see what other people are twittering about BlogHer, just use the search function.

Oh yeah, and of course lots of people are tagging their BlogHer photos on flickr.

Into The Great Wide Open

At BlogHer - I walk towards three women talking in a hallway. Elisa reaches out her hand to squeeze mine hello and asks, "Were you here this morning?" I tell her I didn't get here until about 11, and she goes, "Oh, you missed it!" and explains that my quote from the registration survey was one of about fifteen that looped during the intro session. (Apparently, when asked for my blogging goals in the BlogHer registration survey, I wrote that I don't really have any, and that it is really liberating to realize that.)

So I missed my fifteen minutes of fame. But it was nice to hear about it. And can I just say that it never ceases to amaze me how all the BlogHer founders address me by name? They see me once a year, or once every other year, and they know thousands and thousands of bloggers, and still they remember who I am. These people are just incredible.

BlogHer is a thrill. Can you think of another semi-technical conference where you see women with sleeping babies slung over their shoulders? And where everybody is just friendly and supportive and complimenting each other and giving out hugs as freely as business cards?

There's just no vibe like this. Good times. Good times.

Do You Want To Go To The Seaside?

Chairs on the Beach
Originally uploaded by elkit

Yes, I know I said I'd tell you all about my trip to Puerto Vallarta. Start here with my photos.
We had a great time! Mahesh had found a great place for us to stay - two units in a condo building right on the beach (the photo to the right was taken from the balcony), one of them the penthouse.
The weather was warm to hot, and even though it was very very humid, that was not too bad, because we had the ocean right in front, and a plunging pool on the rooftop as part of the penthouse. And there was always cold beer and water to be drunk.
People were nice, food and drink were good, and the company was great - we all travel well together.

We made a leisurely time of it. I read three books, sweated like a pig on a spit, drank lots of beer to rehydrate, and stayed close to home and the water most of the time. On our last day, we took a canopy tour, zipping through the forest in the air, harnessed to pulleys and wirelines. I still get giddy just thinking about it; it was so much fun!

The only hiccup was caused by me - can you believe that I forgot to bring my greencard? Luckily, my friend Christine who was cat-watching for me, emailed me a copy, and the gentlemen from the Homeland Security were nice enough to let me back in with just a warning never to do that again, which I promised. I am quite certain I will never ever forget my greencard again.

I'll Keep Coming Back

In the Ocean
Originally uploaded by elkit

No, no, I haven't forgotten about this here blog. But I've been on vacation, and I'm still catching up on all the stuffs on the interwebs. I was having a fine time in Puerto Vallarta with six friends. It was tropically hot and humid, but we were right on the beach, and even had our own rooftop dipping pool. And beer. And tequila. So it was all good. I'll tell you more about it over the next few days.

Couldn't Stand The Weather

Sarah and I were going to make bacon cookies today, but then that didn't seem like such a good idea. Hmmm, let me consider this brilliant plan ... it's 100 degrees out. My house has no air conditioning. Turning on the oven ... smart move? Not so much.

So we rescheduled, and I checked the weather report and ran off to Santa Cruz, where I found a balmy breezy 84 degrees and a thunderstorm. Thunder and lightning! That is so rare in these parts. I don't think I've seen more than half a dozen thunderstorms in all the years I've lived here.

The other thing I found were three women with a table full of baked goods - they were holding a "Hungry for Change" bake sale. I had my own food and drink in my bag (cookies from Whole Foods, and water in a glass bottle from home, in my bleeding-heart liberal canvas tote), but I gladly bought something. I am not an American citizen, so I don't get to vote - at least not with a ballot, so I'm voting with my money, good taxpayer that I am.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven Day Weekend

The weekend is here! I've been out almost every evening this week, which is unusual for me - usually when I'm done at the office, I go home to my second job of being comfortable cat furniture.

This week, however, turned into a confluence of outside entertainment. Monday evening I was out to dinner with my friend Bryant, who was in town from Austin. Tuesday was the monthly blogger meeting - and it was the only evening I spent at home; I skipped this meeting in favor of nursing a headache (that still hasn't gone away entirely, actually). Wednesday was girls night, when five or six of us congregated in Cari's backyard for pizza and wine and stuffing envelopes for a mailing that Kristi needed to complete. Thursday saw me drive to Redwood City for good Moroccan food and even better Dopp Juice. And Friday evening I met two German friends for dinner - translaters from Team Übersetzungen who are in town for a localization project.

Now I'm at home, where I am going to spend most of the weekend, rearranging stuff in the garage, futzing around in the garden, enjoying the warm and sunny weather, and recharging my internal batteries. (One of many things that Sarah and I talked about over kefta tagine was the fact that even though we're outgoing and gregarious, we're still both introverts. In order to keep our sanity, relax, and restore, we need alone time. That's what I'm doing right now - it's just me and the kittens and the interwebs. Good times. Good times.)