Just say YES!

In case you missed the good news, we are ENGAGED!  Woooooooot.  Justin proposed when we were visiting my parents in NY.  I said, "Are you serious?!" then I said yes.

My ring is a black diamond - SO cool.  They're from outer space.  For sci-fi fans and Discovery Channel nerds like us.  Read about black diamonds here.

We're very happy and excited.  No plans are made yet, but we're thinking somewhere back east in the spring/summer when we can count on the weather.  For now, we're just both looking at my left hand a lot and wondering if I'm supposed to wear it at the gym and in the shower and stuff.  Apparently I am, but it feels weird to sweat on something so pretty!

Smarter than You - FOOL

Fool: A Novel by Christopher Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bawdy and brilliant, Christopher Moore is just plain funny.  This whole book is tongue-and-cheek almost to the point of The Princess Bride.  And I love The Princess Bride.  Moore never disappoints and I hope he'll try more random genre stuff in the future.

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As the Moulin Rouge says - FLAWLESS

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Scott Andrew Selby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fascinating story, albeit based on multiple sources with a lot of the most interesting details still missing (because the police don't even know).  I'd be interested in a follow-up in ten years tracking how the guys who made the heist are living the life, but still keeping their stolen riches in hiding.

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Climb In - TAKE ME WITH YOU

Take Me with You by Brad Newsham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyable travelogue, and the person Newsham selects to bring back to the US is the one I was rooting for.  But he chooses at the very end, and there's no follow-up.  In fact, Newsham spoke to my book club last week and admitted that he couldn't find a publisher to back the writing of the rest of the story.

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End of an Era: ARE THESE MY...

Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? by Louise Rennison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Georgia, don't leave us! I will miss Angus, Pantalizer Doll, Mr. Fish and even ADM. These books are ridiculously funny and completely mad. I will read the entire series over again someday, on vacation, and laugh like crazy all over again. If you're an anglophile or a 14-year old girl at heart, please check out Louise Rennison. Dave the Laugh never disappoints.

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Books: UNDRESS ME IN THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Crazy and honest, but mostly crazy. If this happened to me I might never leave home again! Gilman highlights the wonders of the 80s without beating the theme to death, and she does not sugar-coat the hardships of traveling in Asia, under communism or in the days before cell phones and computers. I wonder if her remarkable self-deprication comes because hindsight is 20-20, and she's had 20 years to think about her adventures. I'd like to read about the rest of her travels, but I bet they don't hold the crazy candle next to these.

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Attention: We Have a Tomato!

Breaking news: The first tomato of the season has hatched!  Our balcony is now officially a "garden".  Justin also has some basil and thyme going, which he used last night to make sauce for couscous.  It doesn't get much fresher than that! 

We need some trellising or something now, as my plant is about 1.5 feet tall!  Visit Justin's blog for more photos and to see how we rig this thing up with zero supplies and less money: Tomato Season Race

The Cakeshop of Luuurve - STOP IN THE NAME OF PANTS

Stop in the Name of Pants! by Louise Rennison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My inner monologue often sounds like Georgia Nicholson.  I think in phrases like "ditherspazz" and "erlack a pongoes".  I think Georgia lives in my head, barely suppressed and occasionally allowed out to run rampant and leave a path of hyperactive destruction in her wake.  These are some of the funniest books I have ever read.  They shatter the "laugh out loud on the bus scale" - mostly because they have ridiculous titles and covers, so everyone is already looking at me.  And I just cackle.  Georgia is nuts, her family is bananas and her adventures are delicious.  A British, teenage Stephanie Plum, speaking in pure slang and barely holding it together.  My pubescent hero.

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said it better myself

I did a Google search for this "game face" icon and came up with my old LiveJournal!  I got a kick out of this post, which sums up exactly how I am feeling again, right now, thanks to Stanley Cup Fever.

The text reads:

"WeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSIDweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSIDihatetheRedWingsandwe'regoingtogamesevenholdontoyourhats!!!"

Desert Dust - SOMEBODY'S HEART IS BURNING

Somebody's Heart Is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa by Tanya Shaffer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A lovely, lyrical little book that accurately spills the gut-wrenching moments travel can create.  Shaffer describes the lives of African travelers and African natives without complaint, without dramatizing the conditions and with an almost loving reverie for the involuntary reverie of their lifestyles.  Sadly, the author's note at the end points out that her trip, taken in the early 90s, was pre-AIDS epidemic.  She hints that now she would find a very different scene before her.

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Love in the Library: COMMITTED

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book very fulfilling.  Gilbert is an engaging writer, and her perfect self-deprecation takes the edge of her neuroses.  And neurotic she is - far more than I could ever be. I really enjoyed learning the history of various marriage customs, the thoughts (or simple acceptation) of different peoples worldwide. The American story of Gilbert's own ancestors was especially touching, as it mirrors some of the hard-working immigrant panache that my grandparents exhibited.  Ultimately finding peace, Gilbert brings her readers full circle into know that everyone can accept love and even marriage.  You just have to find something in it that works for you, even if it's something no one else has ever found.

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We are Timeshare People Who Play Bingo

23 years ago, my parents bought a timeshare at Orange Lake Country Club in Kissimmee, Fl.  We used to pile into the huge blue station wagon and make the 24-hour drive from Upstate NY every April.  As we got older, it became every 2 years.  But it's still the best vacation ever.  $1 t-shirts, every chain restaurant known to man, old folks driving golf carts... what else is there?

We used to hit all the theme parks every trip.  Now we average about 1 park per trip, and spend most of the time lying by the pool (me) or golfing (Dad).  Good thing too, since Disney World is about $100/day now, and Universal is even more.  I'm saving my pennies for the next trip, when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be open!  (We could see the spires of Hogwarts from the parking garage, but that was it.  Boo.)

Deals on frosty drinks and poolside bingo (complete with hilariously un-understandable Asian bingo caller) are amusement enough to get me through a week.  I even won $70!  And I am really, really tan right now.  Mostly it's just fun to hang out with my parents.  I haven't lived at home in so long that I forget what it's like to come and go from their "house", find the fridge stocked with the same lunch I ate in 10th grade, and to discuss The Amazing Race in real time.  And there are vacation highlights too, like the bi-annual Valcich family pilgrimage to Margaritaville.

My mom and I got massages, and my dad and I spent a day riding the roller coasters and seeing the animals at Busch Gardens.  I got up and went to sleep early every night, finished 3 books, ate popsicles and watched a few hockey games with my dad.  I even got to spend a great day with Jamie Pschorr and an evening with Lilla Ferenci.  All in all, it was a great, warm, fun and completely relaxing week.  I wish every week could be vacation week!

Shiver (literally) - GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would have given this 4 stars if someone had told me how gruesome it was going to be.  Like an episode of SVU or a Dennis Lehane novel... I am not sure I needed some of these mental images.  My edition also contained the first few pages of "The Girl who Played with Fire", which starts out even more explicitly horrible.  So there's that.  Otherwise, I thought the mystery was great and I really enjoyed the characters.  The writing is just austere enough to constantly remind you you're reading something Scandinavian, which I'm glad was not lost in translation.

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Inspiration - STONES INTO SCHOOLS

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What an inspiration, and told with a real nod toward the endless hard work done by these incredible people.  Some success, some failure, and a lot of honesty.  The whole thing makes you wish you could do more than write a check in support of their efforts, but details exactly why that's not possible.  I really enjoyed his detailing of what works and what doesn't for the typical NGOs, and seeing how the CAI is able to get around/beyond so much of what a big aid organization faces.  Their intentions are good, but I enjoy hearing from a 'bootstraps' type of guy what can be done by few that cannot be accomplished by many.  A wonderful read.

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April showers bring...

... another installment of Justin's Blog - Tomato Race!  Mostly, I report that my plant is growing like crazy cakes.  It's time to research when the plants need lattice to continue growing upward.  We may need to think about moving the pots off the basket, but I'm worried they won't get enough sun on the ground.

I cannot wait to eat my homegrown tomatoes!

Get the Popcorn - ALTAR OF EDEN

Altar of Eden by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All-out action and lots of fun.  I really enjoyed this one!  I give it the "Paul Walker movie" stamp of approval.  It would be completed ridiculous, of course, as it features giant man-eating alligators and Neanderthal-esque human children.  Riiiight.  But still...

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Waste of Time - MY NAME IS WILL

My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs and Shakespeare by Jess Winfield
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Apparently I can't give something zero stars.  This book is drivel.  It starts out promisingly enough, but never rises about mediocre before crash landing in a Port-O-Potty.  The modern day main character is a lying, cheating, drug-addled wannabe academic unashamedly wasting his parents money while putting forth zero effort in his life.  Yet he manages to find no less than sex with his stepmom, sex on a bus, a threesome AND an orgy - none of which involve his girlfriend.  In one book!  At the end, apparently some kind of metaphysical, time-traveling, wormhole-crashing collision mixes Shakespeare's English world with 1980-whatever Novato, CA.  Who cares.  (Also, this is the worst story that ever featured a renaissance faire.)

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Justin's Blog: Tomato Race!

Justin started a blog about our two new tomato plants!  They're both heirloom varieties.  Considering how many tomatoes we ate last summer, we could save a lot of money if these plants can keep up with us.

We have a balcony, so we bought over-the-railing planters and used plastic pots.  The tomato plants are growing like mad already... I hope we have enough space!  I know they need to grow upward, so we'll have to get some trellising soon.

Check out our progress (mine is winning!): http://tomatorace.blogspot.com/

Love in the Library: SHADES OF GREY

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fantastic and mesmerizing bizarro-world filled with detail and minutia that bring it zinging to life.  Fforde is a genius, without question.  I get perhaps half of his literary references, and consider myself extremely lucky when I catch one.  I'm sure a scholar (or maybe my mom) would get even more from his work.  Can't wait for the rest of this series.

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Thoughts on Books : The White Tiger

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The grittiest, most revealing book I've read yet about India.  I'm fascinated by the place.  And especially this book, which I think has a striking foundation of truth wrapped in the fiction.  The idea of servitude, of a whole nation built on it, is the central tenet.  Crushing poverty, diabolical corruption, excess wealth... all just daily players in the game.  The book is very dark, but casually so.  As it's written in the form of a letter to the Chinese premiere, a treatise on entrepreneurship that the main character thinks a Communist leader needs, it has great satirical value as well.

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i really, really love the BBC. part one.

It's hard to admit that you love a TV show whose dastardly villain is an alien-robot-rolling-silver-trash-bin.  Ah, the Daleks.  And don't forget the cat people, who were also nurses in a fancy hospital and drove flying cars.  Or the giant spider lady.

After reading Matt's blog entry "Televisius Maximus", I plopped down on the couch to enjoy a few hours of Doctor Who.  The lead actor is changing, though he'll still be The Doctor, and I am not ready for it.  I have till Easter to cling to the past, and whatever episodes are left on In Demand.

Doctor Who is at once the best and worst TV show in the world.  It's full of nerdy sci-fi fun and snarky, witty one-liners.  The hero is zippy and tortured and unreachable.  It also has the production values of a Korean TV costume drama, and a magic screwdriver.  Well, a sonic screwdriver, technically.  And a spaceship time machine that looks like this:

People who love sci-fi are always looking for something crossover they can use to convince their friends that "these shows really are good, I promise!"  They found this in Firefly.  They will not find it in Doctor Who.  A non-believer, if you will, would not make it through an episode of this show (Exhibit A: my brother Shane).  

Instead of dying, the Doctor "regenerates" when the producers decide they need a change (or David Tennant abandons us, thanks a lot!).  The 11th version of the Doctor premieres in April.  It's a brilliant scheme, much like Bart Simpson being 8-years old forever.  The Doctor gets a new "companion" at a faster clip - a gal pal to bail out of trouble, though the relationships have always been exquisitely-strained platonic. (Almost, Rose. Almost.)  It's also given us spin-offs including Torchwood; an insanely soap-operatic, ass-kicking sci-fi romp featuring the best, most surprising gay characters ever on TV.

I love this show.  I even catch myself dressing like Doctor Who - trousers with Converse sneakers, plus my glasses.  (Real nerds should watch "The Vicar of Dibley" wedding special, in which the sidekick pal wears an exact replica of the 10th Doctor's outfit in her maid of honor duties.  Bonus: Richard Armitage as the anti-Gisbourne.)  The 10th Doctor was epic.  So was his hair.  But I have a feeling that 15 minutes into the Easter episode, I will be a spinning twist of fangirl frenzy, losing it every time the TARDIS is bigger inside than it looks.

PS: The new Doctor has kissing!  This is going to change everything!

Thoughts on Books: Queen of the Road

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I started out hating this woman.  But I think she kind of hated herself.  She was like a bad 'Sex and the City' paraody - she couldn't shut up about shoes and track suits and martinis.  I think people tend to tone themselves down in print, the make themselves look better than reality, which turned me off even more toward Ms. Orian.  But as the book progressed and she eased up, I liked her more and more.  By the end, she arcs into a character you can understand, and she's come to understand herself.

The idea of the trip she and her husband take - one year cross-country in a converted bus - is unique and fun.  The luxury outfitting they do to their rig is amazing.  I enjoyed this tale, as soon as Ms. Orian and I both got over her desperate materialism and hysterics.

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Snuggle Up - 11 Hours to Stay Home!

I'm a Discovery Channel junkie. Dirty jobs, Mythbusters, Deadliest Catch... and of course, Planet Earth. I've spent hours (days!) with them. And now, another reason to never leave the house: LIFE. This 11-part series premieres March 21. Watch the trailer, and you'll see what I'm talking about: LIFE on Discovery.

The videos are amazing.  The trailer made my a little teary-eyed, and the behind-the-scenes stuff is fascinating.  So many cute animals.  I especially love the little lizards, filmed so close-up they look like dinosaurs!

I took the SkiBus to Lake Tahoe on Saturday, and let me tell you - we needed this for the drive-home video.  I would have been mesmerized, happily snuggled into my seat.  Guess I'll have to wait till March 21!

 

Not So Much - THE ROAD TO OXIANA

The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The things we are forced to do for book club. This classic travel book is the diary-style memoir of an Englishman crossing Persia and Afghanistan in 1933. He is witty and likable, also random, pompous and casually racist in that impossibly pre-WWII way. His observations are keen and his writing witty - I even laughed out loud twice. But the world he captures is ancient history, and thus seems irrelevant. The buildings no longer stand, the countries have disappeared, the cities and ethnicities have changed names a hundred times. The writing is wonderfully descriptive, yet I never had the slightest idea what he was on about. The book reads as a diary - meant for himself - with casual half-references to characters and places never elaborated. I kept picking it up, but always felt a temper tantrum simmering just below the surface. Bored, anxious and with that bratty 'this had better be over soon' feeling, I would not recommend this book. Mark Twain is all the classic I could ever want.

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Financial Friday

I love surfing personal finance blogs, hearing tips & tricks and pretending that I can speed the whole process of mastering my money. In my cybertravels, I've turned up a few favorite ideas:

1) Create an ING Firewall Account - Do you worry about getting hacked? If you have something like Paypal, which connects to your bank account, a single hack could open your entire financial resource to an intruder. Create a free ING Direct online savings account and link your payment accounts to this. When you need to pay something, put the money in the firewall account. If you're mugged a crafty crook will only get $50. ING Direct accounts are a breeze and you can have more than one (each with a different account number). If you don't have an ING Account, comment here and I'll refer you. I'll get $20 and you'll get $25. That's dinner on me. ;) (From Bargaineering.com)

2) Opt Out of Pre-Approved Credit Card Offers - Every time you get pre-approved credit card junk mail, they are accessing your credit report. Someone clever could open this account in your name, and max it out before you know what hit you. Use this site to get off those mailing lists. It only takes a minute. There is a place where you can enter your SSN, and the site is secure (backed by the three major credit bureaus). But you don't have to enter your SSN, it just might mean that some pre-approved applications slip through the net.
(From Bargaineering.com)

3) Ladies: Be Realistic, and Start Now - I had no idea about some of these statistics. Women account for over 80% of consumer spending, and at the same time elderly women make up over 80% of this country's impoverished. This article is a real eye-opener.
(From Wisebread.com)

4) The Weekly Cash Diet - Funny, honest updates from the trenches as a man commits to a budget by taking out $100/week for disposable income. What's worth it, what's not and what's surprising make it fun to follow his progress.
(From ConsumerismCommentary.com)

5) How to Raise Frugal Kids - Noreen Valcich invented this. When we were little, if we spotted a yard sale I'd announce that I'd decided to join the traveling circus in a desperate act of distraction. Shane would start throwing punches, I'd dry-heave. Not once, not ever, did it work. Someday, I'll write an entry about the effectiveness of making your kids sort through other people's junk on a sheet thrown over their lawn. Suffice to say, it makes for frugal adults. I plan to do the same someday with my kids.
(From ManvsDebt.com)

Love in the Library: CONFESSOR

I had to read these back-to-back. I couldn't stop one book from the end!

Confessor by Terry Goodkind

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Whew! Nearly 10,000 pages invested in this epic series, and I absolutely loved them. I'm a bit spent after 11 books (which I took year to read through). I'm very satisfied with the ending - it was a nail-biter that still managed to tie this all up. The material is very graphic, and I feel pounded by the warfare and horrors that Goodkind takes time and (sometimes endless) pages to detail. A bit less of that might have been nice. Still, it served the purpose of the story. His characters are complex, flawed, wonderful and horrible by turns. I won't rush into another series of such breadth and depth, but my time with the Seeker of Truth was very well spent.

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Love in the Library: PHANTOM

Phantom by Terry Goodkind

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ten books down! I really enjoyed this, but it's the first book in 10 that's felt like not a lot happened. It's gearing up for a big ending, and a few well-loved characters make a splash, but I felt it lost a little steam. Hopefully that steam was just donated to a whopper of a finale. No one wants to hear me go on about Richard and Kahlan being apart for another whole book, or gush about Rachel being a kick-ass guest star, or pick at Nicci's overwrought longing for Richard. Speaking of endless, Terry Goodkind, we get it. We get what the Order is like, and why. You've explained thoroughly, now you're bordering on ad nauseum. We've been here for 10,000 pages, have some faith in our collective memory. And now, let's kick Jagang's ass and restore peace to the New World!

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Feb 22 - National Margarita Day

Because Jimmy Buffett says so.  And around here, we listen do what Jimmy says.

Parlez-vous Olympics?!

I LOVE CANADA.  So I'm extra excited for the Winter Olympics!  Hockey and skiing and pretending that I'm not hoping the figure skaters wipe out.  Also wondering who will light the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony tonight (it's not Gretzky) and if we might see Bryan Adams among the surprise performers. 

Best way to get ready for the Games?  Obviously...

Love in the Library: THE BOOK THIEF

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful and devastating, The Book Thief is also wonderfully different.  It's so creative that it's a bit tough at first, the narrator talking to himself, to you, telling the story.  Zusack writes like he thinks - not stream of consciousness (mercifully) but with phrases so exact, that capture so precisely, they are better than their grammatically perfect counterparts.  To write them correctly would be to take away their power.  Zusack doesn't do that, and I think that's the mark of a great writer.  That language can be art, can have power of its own, is the truth of The Book Thief.  It's true in the story the book is telling, and it's true in the words the book uses to tell it.

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What I Could Do With $2.8 Million

Yesterday's Super Bowl was the single most-watched TV broadcast of all time with 106.5 million viewers.  And the commercials were mostly forgettable.  The only one I've heard talked about today is the Google "Parisian Love" ad.  True, I work in an office full of women.  But if 100+ million people are watching, aren't some of them female?



I also liked a few of the Doritos commercials, and the Volkswagen one where Stevie Wonder calls out a punch buggy.  I hardly remember any others, except how stupid the Go Daddy commercials are and how "Milka-what?!" save the E-Trade babies for one more year.

What did you think?

UPDATE: All the women not watching the Super Bowl were at the theaters for "Dear John"  Second highest Super Bowl weeekdn box office gross ever, after the Hannah Montana movie.

Emptying the Poor Box - Tax Time

I feel like the Sheriff of Nottingham - all fat and weasely with a droopy belt, taking money from little rabbits.  I just did my taxes.  I used 3 different services - TurboTax, H&R Block and TaxAct.  And I got 3 totally different results.  Guess I'll just pick the one that gives me the most?

I carefully entered the same information on each.  Since I'm scared of the IRS, I was conservative too.  TaxAct gave me the best result, though I do lots of 1099-MISC work every year so I still owe a little money.  But the difference was staggering - hundreds of dollars on both federal and state returns!  That makes me really want to see a CPA, but if I already owe a little, I don't want to pay someone $250 to tell me about it.

How do you do your taxes?  Are you confident doing them online, by yourself? 

Love in the Library: HOLY COW

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great book if you're thinking about traveling to India. Sarah Macdonald doesn't pull any punches in describing the country - it's down and dirty and it takes her a long time to fall in love with it. Late in the story, when she welcomes some friends from home into her now-Indian life on their first trip through the subcontinent, she sees in them the horror that she first experienced herself. And thus realizes how far she has come. I couldn't promise that I'd love (or even like) India, but Sarah's journey is more than geographical - it turns her into the kind of person you'd have to be to survive, and take anything from, the Indian experience.

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Passport Control: Mexico

Ooooh, Mexico.  You're so warm and beachy.  And your resort towns are so depressingly mediocre.  Eight days is not enough time to get off the beaten path, and in my experience those trips are more fulfilling than relaxing.  We needed relaxing.  And we got it, mostly.  As long as you don't mind paying $17 for sunblock.

Honestly, I didn't love Mexico.  It makes me sad to even say that but it's true.  Our mistake was choosing resort towns - and Mexico does a resort town like nowhere else.  Every ten steps it's, "Hey lady, buy my stuff, hey lady, take a picture with the monkey, hey lady, Cuban cigars?"  I understand the social implications of this but frankly it's exhausting.  And ignoring them makes me feel mean.

We did lots of great things, of course.  We snorkeled the reefs and in two cenotes (underground caves), enjoyed the sun and waves and danced under the stars.  We had our most fun time... at Margaritaville.  You know I'm not kidding!  (Since we don't have chains in SF, it's actually kinda fun for us.  How lame!)

Playa del Carmen and Cancun are more expensive than America.  The beaches are gorgeous and the water is crystal blue, so maybe it's worth more money.  But the Mexican food is terribly average - how is that possible?!  I dreamed of Taqueria Cancun at 19th & Mission the whole time.  Sad panda.  The list goes on, but who cares.  We made the vacation fun, got tan and enjoyed ourselves.  But next time it's Hawaii.

Feed Me: Adventures in Curry

Everyone should date a chef.  Simple dinners turn into fantastic treats that don't require leaving the house!  Last night I made yellow curry (with bottled sauce!), which I thought was pretty good.  Justin was less impressed, and made a different, more creative and infinitely better version tonight.  I would pout, but I'm too full.

Justin's Yellow Curry (no rice necessary)

• yellow curry powder (preferably bulk, not jar)
• water
• tofu
• onion
• potato
• peas
• garlic
  

There's no measuring!  He just estimates the amounts as he goes along.  It's like science without the math.

• Cut up all your ingredients
• Make fairly small (1 inch square) pieces of potato, as they take the longest to cook
• Heat a frying pan, then heat a little olive oil in the pan
• Saute the ingredients for about 10 minutes, till hot
• In second, larger/deeper pan, heat approx 1 cup of water
• (You can use milk or cream, but this gets pretty thick with just the potatoes)
  
• Add yellow curry paste to water, to taste
• Add sauted ingredients to curry mixture
• Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer
• Simmer approximately 25 minutes
• Stir occassionally, and don't get your ingredients stick to the pan
• As liquid in pan absorbs, add some water to keep simmer going
• Test potatoes - fork should go through very easily
• Plate & serve, delicious with naan!

I ate it all before I thought to take a picture.  It's too much pressure anyway!  Just taste it all along.  I suggest watching Food Network's 'Worst Cooks in America' while you cook - you could never be this bad.  You'll be inspired by your own greatness, as you sit down to some really impressive curry.

brand new same old you

Happy New Year! We had a fun, low key night and were home at 11:50 PM.  That's what the old folks do!  Haha, we had a really good time and I'm starting the year feeling great.  Plus the Winter Classic is on, so I'm watching them play outdoor hockey at Fenway Park.

I had a really good 2009, so I'm a little sad to see it go!  I also accomplished many of my resolutions - getting my finances in order, starting Spanish class, hitting the gym, wearing my hair curly - that I'm having trouble coming up with any for this year! A few have come to mind:

1) Visit Hawaii - Only people from the West Coast go to Hawaii.  If I ever leave, I will have missed my chance.  So I'm putting it on the list.

2) Practice Spanish - Turns out I've forgotten how to do homework.  Maybe I can get an internship ordering in every Mexican restaurant in the Mission.

3) Wear all my clothes - If I don't wear something, give it away.  What is some of this stuff?!

4) Visit home more often - Too bad my parents don't live in Hawaii!  But we are meeting in Florida, that counds.

5) Plan a big trip - I don't have to take the trip this year, but I want to decide on my next destination and get the plan in action.