New wallpaper! No particular reason. I was bored with my current one, and wanted to have something new I'd made myself - it's been awhile. So I flipped through my photo stash, and found a starfish shot I took at the aquarium on Long Island earlier this year. It had a nice composition.. and really a nice color.



See? pretty. But, not enough detail stayed put, the light in the place was so weird to try to work with, there was only so much I could do. Couldn't get the camera to focus properly to save my life.



The end result is not what I had in mind initially... but I didn't have much of a plan initially anyway. I wanted to add texture, something old-paper-ish.. but then a bit of tweaking revealed some tiny scratches on the aquarium glass, and I decided I liked those. They were too faint to really do much with, so I added more in toward the end. Photo is mine. Brushes (scratchies, swirly bits, etc) and textures (a pattern fill that's slightly in there, and a watercolor wash that's layered in) are from various sources. Handwriting is mine. ;)

The (purposely) faint writing is lyrics from The Church's "A New Season". (The album it's on is Starfish. Very creative, I know. ;p )

Shaded crystal water, bathed in by God's daughter
Sighing, whispers near, a new season passes here

Sensory gifts to all who come
Soak up the stars and setting sun

Labels: art, photos, wallpaper

 

Labels: nanowrimo

 
The (belated) Thanksgiving menu:

- Duck, with an orange sauce from the Good Housekeeping
- Sweet potatoes with marshmallows, from the Better Homes book
- Japanese-style Sesame Green Beans
- Pillsbury dinner rolls
- cranberry sauce (the whole-berry kind, which I added orange peel and some spices to)
- a very fruity semi-sweet white wine
- pumpkin pie (pre-made crust) for dessert


The duck? Was DELICIOUS, though inevitably messy. Tom's raving over it juuust about made up for the giblet issues.

I was planning to make Heidi's vibrant tasty green beans, buuut... Tom and I bought anise instead of leeks. Thank you Tops for not labeling your produce. (Fortunately, I have a favorite Heidi recipe involving anise, that I'd previously had to sub aniseed in. And it shouldn't be difficult to find a use for the fresh dill I picked up.)

It's VERY, very rare that I use something partially pre-made like Pillsbury, but, I had enough things to worry about (i.e., duck), that I didn't feel like messing with yeast dough, and I wanted something puffy rather than biscuity. And pie crust... is a lot of work. For something that you try to eat as little of as possible, especially with pumpkin pie. Tom and I agree pre-made was the way to go on that one.

Note to self: completely mash (possibly even puree) the sweet potatoes next time 'round. Also note that Tom haaates cloves, and can taste even 1/4 tsp. of them in cranberry sauce. xp

Also: need to find a different pumpkin pie recipe. Like fifteen minutes after it was supposed to be finished baking, the center was still a little wobbly. When we went to eat it...it was pretty soppy. Tasted yummy, but.. BHG's "Best Pumpkin Pie" recipe called for milk, while Good Housekeeping used evaporated - think the latter may be the way to go. (That, and I'm beginning to suspect my oven doesn't heat like it should.)

Despite the minor issues, everything was deliiiiiicious. Tom didn't eat the beans, but I didn't expect he would. He would have enjoyed the cranberries, if I'd remembered about cloves.

After serving the duck, and we'd both had some, he did kind of casually make the pan his plate, and pick everything he possibly could off the thing. A little caveman, yes, but also very cute and gratifying.

Labels: apartment, cooking, life in general

 
Cooking. whole birds.

FREAKING SUCKS.

Tom talked me in to trying to cook a duck for our belated Thanksgiving. I was skeptical. Tom has told me that even restaurants don't always cook them right. Y'know, places where people are PAID TO COOK THINGS RIGHT.

So not a good sign.

I was feeling a little better - just about everything else is ready, the other two things will take about ten minutes, just before eating.

But the duck was still pretty solidly frozen in the fridge. So I plunked it into a cold water bath. After an hour or two, it felt pretty thawed, and it was getting close to 3, when I wanted it in the oven.

So I take it out of the water, and out of the plastic, and try to wrestle the sauce packet out of "the cavity".

It was still a little frozen inside. At which point, I remembered there were "giblets" I was going to have to deal with.

I looked inside the cavity.

There was no happy little plastic package of giblets. Just a lot of icey red stuff clinging to the inside.

OH GOD.

Therein followed a lot of angry prying at things with a knife, and trying desperately to mentally use nice, unemotional terms like "giblets" and "cavity", instead of letting my brain try to help by imagining a duck, and where its various bits might be located.

There was a bit of feather quill stuck in what I soon realized was the thing's tail.

OH. GOD.

After a little while in the oven, I hauled it out again, and managed to remove what I hope is all the rest of the giblets. There were a lot of them. I have no idea if they're all out or not. The lovely little (non-photo) illustration in my Good Housekeeping book showed everything coming out in oooone niiiice eeeeasy little bundle.

Yeah, not so much.

At this point, I do not care how the duck tastes. I will slather it in orange sauce, and if that is insufficient, I will slather it in the packet of pre-made orange sauce too. All I care, is that MY HANDS WILL NEVER FEEL CLEAN AGAIN.

And that Tom take out the now-giblet-filled garbage today. ick ick ick.

Labels: cooking

 
HOLY SHIT I GOT TOM A 1ST EDITION STAR WARS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was on etsy a few nights ago, poking around for Christmas ideas. I found some interesting things, including a book. One of the pre-movie releases of the novelization.

Tom had seen one of these once in a bookstore upstate somewhere years ago, and realized only later how INSANELY rare a find it had been. I'm not sure if the one I have in my lap right now is the same one or not, but...

It is from December 1976. First edition. George Lucas' name is given as the author (though it was actually ghostwritten.) Same cover as on the Star Wars wiki's entry. It's Ballantine Books, instead of Del Ray, and it's fairly beat up around the edges, but... Okay some googling tells me that the Del Ray book was out in November, so this isn't THE first, but, holy shit is it close.

And dude, I only paid $25.

I'm kind of spazzing. HOW IN HELL CAN I WAIT UNTIL CHRISTMAS!?!?


Having discussed some shipping cost questions with the seller, this morning I snagged a set of FOUR of the original Star Wars Burger King glasses. (One is a duplicate to one I've already gotten him, but, three more? all in one go? awesome.) My other awesome find was this.


I was looking for some interesting art, something more than just random Jedi fanart... and this totally nails it. Tom loves abstract simple geometric lines. And I think the design on this is pretty damn brilliant - such a few simple shapes, but it captures that opening shot SO well.


p.s. I LOVE ETSY. I reallyreally do. Not only are there amazing amounts of original artwork, some of it incredibly well-made, but the site works beautifully, their organizational system makes it actually plausible to shop for things, and the people on there... they really bring up my level of faith in humanity. For the book? I missed seeing a notice from the seller that I should have waited to pay until she sorted out sales tax, since we were both in NY. I usually pop over to paypal to send payment as soon as I click "buy"... but the girl was SO nice about it, and said it was no problem, she just sent a little like $2 bill to my paypal, I clicked okay, and we were good to go. I bought: 11/27. Book in my mailbox: 11/30. Carefully packaged and wrapped, pretty tissue paper, and a hand-written note from the seller. <333

Labels: art, books, life in general, product whoring, spazz, star wars geeking