![](\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=915\")
<\/a>juthwara<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>longstrider<\/b><\/a><\/span>? Thanks again for giving me the best Christmas present ever.<\/i> :D","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199784.html?view=comments#comments","category":"kitty!"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199621.html","pubDate":"Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:15:48 GMT","title":"Today's randomosity: Biggest dog evar","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199621.html","description":"<\/a>strephon<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>juthwara<\/b><\/a><\/span>? I'm afraid Carbon's been beat in the Enormous-est Dog category.There was a guy jogging down the road. Reasonably tallish guy. Probably around 6 feet or 6'2\".
The dog he had on a leash didn't come up to his hip. The dog came up past his elbow.<\/i>
It was built like a greyhound, all sleek and white, except it was the size of a pony. That dog had to be eight feet long from nose to tail, and at least four feet high at the shoulder. Times I wish my cell phone had a camera.
I can't even imagine what you'd have to mix to come up with that dog. Greyhound, Great Dane, and Thoroughbred?
Man I wish I had a picture; kind of gave the same impression of \"who screwed up the scale here?\" that ligers<\/a> do. (Actually, looking at that picture -- dog was about that height! Not as long obviously, and much more slinky-lean, but still. Dang.)","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199621.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199217.html","pubDate":"Sun, 27 Mar 2011 03:21:40 GMT","title":"Bean & barley Italian wedding stew","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199217.html","description":"This turned out an entire crock pot brimming full of stew so thick and stick-to-your-ribs-itive that one bowl was an entire meal, which is pretty rare in the soup realm. My estimate is that it's going to make about 8-10 meals out of one crockpot full, since 5 of us ate about half tonight and plan on eating the other half with some grilled cheese sandwiches on Wednesday.
This batch's proportions:<\/i>
2 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight
2 cups hulled (not pearled) barley, soaked overnight
1 package frozen spinach
1 cup frozen corn
Lots of Italian spices (parsley, thyme, oregano, marjoram)
1\/2 (?) package frozen meatballs
Doug's Homemade Chicken Broth of Awesome to simmer in
What I'd do next time to make a smaller, one-collective-meal-sized, and less-thick version:<\/i>
1 1\/4-ish cups dried white beans, soaked overnight
1 1\/4-ish cups hulled (not pearled) barley, soaked overnight
1 package frozen spinach
1-2 cups frozen corn\/peas\/carrots mixed
Lots of Italian spices (parsley, thyme, oregano, marjoram)
1\/2 (?) package frozen meatballs
Doug's Homemade Chicken Broth of Awesome to simmer in
The cooking process:<\/i>
Soak the beans and barley overnight. (I soaked them separately but I suppose there's no reason you couldn't soak them together.)
Put the beans, barley, and frozen corn\/peas\/etc in the crock pot with the spices and the chicken broth. Turn the crockpot on high.
Don't add the spinach and meatballs yet.
Mid afternoon, test to see how well the beans are cooked. Add the meatballs.
At some point mid afternoon when the beans seem nicely done, turn the heat down to low.
A bit before dinner, put the (thawed) spinach in. Keep on low until ready to serve.
<\/a>
The verdict? Yummmmmm. Hearty and tasty and really REALLY easy to throw together with stuff we usually have on hand in either dried or frozen form.","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199217.html?view=comments#comments","category":"recipes"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199081.html","pubDate":"Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:51:37 GMT","title":"empirical evidence suggests: yes, cats do have a sense of dramatic irony","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199081.html","description":"So for a couple weeks Bunter was going through this Phase where he'd get on top of his cat throne, spot the dangly toy, try some increasingly astonishing acrobatics to dangle himself upside down to get it, spot the end of his tail<\/i>, and then the high-speed cat cirque du soleil stunts would start coming out of the woodwork.
Self, says I, I need video evidence of this. This is variously hilarious and awesome by turns.
So I asked
<\/a>cressida0201<\/b><\/a><\/span> if I could borrow her bitty flipcam, which she very kindly lent me.Ever since I borrowed the flipcam?
Cat could not be less interested in his cat throne, let alone any spectacular tail-chasing acrobatics.
Sigh...
(I figure I'll hang onto the camera for a while Just In Case. Because you never know, he might get crazy ambitious again one of these days. Right now, though, his latest Phase involves high-speed straight-line diagonals from the corner behind my bed to the opposite end of the house, straight over and\/or through anything in his way. He does the sprint in circa 2 seconds, which would be much more impressive if he wasn't usually doing it over my sleeping body at 3 am. :D)","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/199081.html?view=comments#comments","category":"kitty!"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198686.html","pubDate":"Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:05:56 GMT","title":"It's like what happens when you crossbreed Frank Sinatra and Jaws","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198686.html","description":"...I was amused by the thought, anyway. :D
Cooked dinner, finished cleaning for
<\/a>juthwara<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>longstrider<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s planned but unfortunately-snow-overridden visit, did the exercise routine, cleaned up, sacked out on the couch with the laptop, typetypetype.This perfectly tidy little furry black candy-cane arch of a cat tail goes sauntering past the coffee table. (I was almost expecting a Muppet to come popping up next.) The cat turns around and goes sauntering back, just this exquisitely king-of-the-roost amble, with only that prim and cocky tail visible above the 'horizon line'.
The thought pops into my head: It's like what happens when you crossbreed Frank Sinatra and Jaws.
...I had to come write it down. HAD to. XD
B & B, I'm bummed that we're not going to get to meet up, but being the weather-driving coward I am, I completely and totally<\/i> understand the want to not drive across 4-5 states with a snowstorm producing six inches of snow at a time on your heads the entire way!
I suspect I may be working from home Thursday if we really do get six inches overnight tomorrow, and I just have to drive a mile and a half (but that's after digging my way through 200 square feet of six-inch-deep snow on the driveway, which I have a bad habit of damaging myself during if I try to do it all at once...)","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198686.html?view=comments#comments","category":"kitty!"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198453.html","pubDate":"Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:37:17 GMT","title":"Long distance tech support in reverse","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198453.html","description":"So Dad always calls to ask me things about malfunctioning video-specific and music-specific software that he's got on his computer that I've never seen or heard of anywhere else? And I try to guess-blind talk him through stuff, which often doesn't work because most of the time these media software things have Kewl Uneeek Interfaces of Kewlness (aka \"standards? what standards?\") But sometimes it works anyway? XD
Just did the reverse to Dad this morning. Started up the laundry. Came back downstairs to gallons of hot water all over the floor and the hot water heater check valve dumping gallons more as I gawked. Bucket, mop, scrubscrubscrub, dumpbucket, scrubscrubscrub, panic, get bigger bucket, buy self time somehow, run upstairs, call and leave message, run back downstairs, okay no overflow yet, repeat.
Dad comes home, finds out the problem is my check valve, opens up HIS check valve to \"see what it should do,\" and then we BOTH have hot water heaters dumping gallons of water all over everything.
...on a day when the ambient temperature is equivalent to Moscow and we've got pipes bursting all over both our towns on top of a four day weekend that means the plumbers are going to be booked for weeks. *headdesk*
Dad found more useful information in his handyman books than I did on the Internet, though - the Internet's solutions are (a) call a plumber or (b) get out a pipe wrench, disconnect everything, and here's how you replace and test a check valve, neither of which was really viable for me at the moment.
Dad found option (c) \"flip the check valve up and down a few times to try to get it to re-seal itself properly.\" So there's no longer bucketfuls of water coming out! It's actually not leaking at the moment! I'm holding my breath for the next time the gas comes on and the pressure goes up, buuuuut it looks like maaaaybe I might be in the clear...? *knocks on wood*
*off to take headache meds and fall over for a while*","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198453.html?view=comments#comments","category":"house"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198346.html","pubDate":"Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:26:58 GMT","title":"Easy steel-cut oatmeal breakfasts for a week","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198346.html","description":"'Cause I keep forgetting to write it down for Kath... AB's version is nice, but I hate that the oatmeal always scorches in the bottom of the crockpot and then takes forever to get out. This version is scorch-free and scour-free! And the great thing about this version for a single person is that from one night's prep you get most of a week's instant-microwavable oatmeal that still has the taste and creaminess of real steel-cut oatmeal.
4 cups water
1 cup steel-cut oatmeal
1\/2 tsp salt
A flavored tea bag or two (optional, your choice of flavors)
Your favorite spices (I usually go with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, some crystallized ginger, and some dried orange peel, being a sucker for things that taste like spiced cider)
Your favorite dried fruit (I usually go for a blend of cranberries and blackcurrants)
Tea kettle
Large-ish pan with a lid
Night before:
Get the water boiling in your kettle (it's just faster).
Pour the boiling water into the pan. Stir in the oatmeal, salt, and spices, put in the tea bag(s), and simmer while stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes.
Take out the tea bag, put the lid back on, and leave on the stovetop overnight. (Don't keep this directly on the hot burner you just used for the kettle, or it'll probably boil over.)
Next morning: 15 minutes-ish<\/i>
Stir in the dried fruit.
Bring the mixture back to a boil and cook while stirring occasionally for 6-10 minutes (taste test to make sure the oatmeal's nice and cooked through).
Divide into 4 bowls. Put 3 away for later use; top the 4th with whatever you like and eat.
Next 3 days: 2 minutes-ish<\/i>
Stir a splash of water into the day's bowl. Microwave for 1:20 to 1:40 depending on your microwave strength and the amount of oatmeal. Once it's hot, top and eat.
Presumably this would also work with 6 cups liquid and 1 1\/2 cups oatmeal to make a week's worth of breakfasts, but I don't have a pan the right size for that...","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/198346.html?view=comments#comments","category":["recipes","british-food","mad food science?"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/197895.html","pubDate":"Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:57:56 GMT","title":"Wii balance board = new cat bed","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/197895.html","description":"So I have a Wii (wooooot!). My first ever gaming console -- purchased 75% for the purpose of getting exercise in a method that changes from session to session and is therefore less prone to \"omg I have DONE THIS SAME THING SOOOO MANY TIMES NOW\" than your standard static DVD.
Still in the process of setting it up.
Have already had to remove the batteries from the balance board on account of how Bunter has decided it is his new cat bed.
Will try (presumably temporarily) evicting cat and re-adding batteries at some point when I am NOT trying to do fiddly typing-things-in-to-on-screen-keyboard configuration stuff.
Cats... XD","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/197895.html?view=comments#comments","category":"kitty!"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/197153.html","pubDate":"Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:54:52 GMT","title":"Dangerously awesome foodie website","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/197153.html","description":"http:\/\/www.naturesflavors.com\/<\/a>
I found them while looking for flower flavorings (violet, jasmine, etc) in a form that didn't come preloaded with sugar like Monin's flower syrups.
MAN, have I found the motherlode! *___*
Not just flower flavors -- all KINDS of flavors. Everything from boysenberry flavor to horseradish flavor to green tea flavor (yeah that one caught my attention) to things like apricot cheesecake.
Now the problem is figuring out how to restrain myself to a budget. (I might tell my brother who hates shopping 'hey, a gift certificate to here would be completely awesome!')","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/197153.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/194023.html","pubDate":"Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:22:28 GMT","title":"This has really not been my month","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/194023.html","description":"Plus side: House got refinanced - yay!
Minus side: Work has gone August-levels of insane in June and shows no signs of abating for the next several months, broke a filling over the weekend, white dress got shut in car door and permanently oil-stained, lost several pieces of my costume, computer got a virus, and to top it all off someone cloned my credit card while I was at a convention in Michigan and now I get to run around doing all the fun \"stop payment\" and \"use a different card\" phone calls.
I need some more stuff to go on the plus side...
ETA: Even more fun on the minus side. Turns out the cracked filling was a cracked tooth, so now I've got a temporary crown in place and need to go back in a couple weeks and it'll cost about $1000, AND to top it all off, I got home and discovered the cat had thrown up all over the living room carpet. He never does that! He's only gotten sick on me once in the going-on three years I've had him! I'm torn between 'yeah, that's my luck today' and 'should I take him to the vet?'
Wheeeeee. (Plus side, I'm waiting for you to catch up already...)","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/194023.html?view=comments#comments","category":"rants"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193708.html","pubDate":"Mon, 25 May 2009 04:20:29 GMT","title":"I'm completely exhausted","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193708.html","description":"14 hours combined work-work and housework Friday, 12 hours yesterday, going on 16 hours today including 4-5 hours pushing around a 50-lb rug doctor. I can't wait for the trim paint in the bathroom to dry enough that I can waaaaaaaash.<\/i>
This house darn well better assess high enough to refinance, dagnabbit...
and this was supposed to be my post-ACen vacation weekend of doing nothing at all, too... until the refinance person called and made an appointment for bright and early Tuesday morning. @_@ Well, at least I had the three day weekend to work my tail off in?<\/small>","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193708.html?view=comments#comments","category":"house"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193450.html","pubDate":"Mon, 18 May 2009 01:21:36 GMT","title":"Why you should never leave a theater tech major in charge of house repairs","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193450.html","description":"1. They don't know how to actually<\/i> repair anything, and have all too many ideas<\/i> for how to do something that looks like<\/i> it's repairing something.
2. ...actually, 1 pretty much covers it.
Trying to get a $130K appraisal out of what was once a $134K house... 3 years after the market peaked and 1 year after the flood turned a \"partially finished basement with full bath\" into a \"completely unfinished basement with a closet occupied by not-removed-but-not-functioning plumbing.\"
So among other last minute scramblefixes, I needed to clamp a broken-off slab of plaster back onto the ceiling. Clamps generally involve pinching around both sides of something to press them together. However, this was the ceiling.<\/i> No getting-around that. Not a lot of options close by, either.
So what did I come up with?
Why yes, that IS a stack of 2 phone books, a piece of Corningware, and a packet of note cards being used to brace the bottom of a random slab of wood and a broken broom handle.<\/a>
Frankly, my biggest surprise was that it actually stayed in place for the full hour needed for the glue to dry, and that the cat thundering through the kitchen hadn't set up enough shockwaves to knock the whole thing down.
Also, note to self for next time: get lunch out of the refrigerator BEFORE setting up an incredibly precarious bunch of bracing that needs to stay put for an hour and putting it 2 inches from the refrigerator door. ^^;;;
(FYI, the insurance company estimated 2 years ago that it would cost me $900 to have this actually repaired, by moving all the furniture out, taking down the damaged plaster, refinishing the ceiling, and moving all the furniture back. My cost so far for this project? A few cents for the smears of wood glue I used to reattach the plaster chunk that was coming off, $3.67 for a squeeze tube of popcorn-texture-patcher, and $2 for a sample-size bit of white eggshell paint that I'll slap over the popcorn texture once I've let it cure overnight. Sometimes you don't really want a theater tech major taking a go at it... but decide the savings might well be worth it anyway. :3)","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193450.html?view=comments#comments","category":["house","rants"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193093.html","pubDate":"Thu, 07 May 2009 02:58:20 GMT","title":"I'm either brilliant or extremely, extremely slow...","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193093.html","description":"When I bought this house, none of the living room blinds had functioning twist rods. So I bought replacement rods (they only had the kind with loops on the end) and fastened them to the little plastic bar (expecting the kind with the hook on the end) with twist ties. And it worked for a while, and then the twist ties did what overtwisted twist ties do and started fraying to bits, since twist ties are only meant to survive a week's worth of breadwrapping, not multiple years of blind adjustment.
So I was going \"hmm... I need chain links that are oblong-shaped but fine enough to fit through both sets of holes but not flexible so they won't succumb to the twist tie death...\" I was going to try to find oblong chain bits in the dog chain section at the hardware store, until I looked at my box of safety pins.
Due to the bumps on both ends, the safety pins don't work perfectly,<\/i> but they work more than well enough for my purposes -- i.e. to replace the twist ties with.
Now I wonder why it took me three years to think of it...
see y'all after the con! :3","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/193093.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192856.html","pubDate":"Wed, 06 May 2009 15:09:11 GMT","title":"GRAAAAARGH","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192856.html","description":"So I just spent an hour and a half I didn't have to spare on the phone with Wells Fargo trying to just get some mortgage information straight (because they'd actually called me yesterday after a month and a half of blowing me off) and at this point I've lost 90 minutes on the phone through 9 transfers and I STILL HAVEN'T TALKED TO A HUMAN WHO CAN ACTUALLY FIX THINGS. The poor lady at stop #8 had all gotten my hopes up and everything -- promised me she wouldn't have to transfer me to someone else -- but then it turns out I'm some bizarre code called DU that nobody knows what it actually means aside from the fact that she couldn't help me after all, and she transferred me to someone else who was (again) supposed to be able to, and when I got stuck in voice mail after the 9th round of going through the same 10 dial-and-talk-prompts to try to get to a human, I said screw it.
This being the day before we leave for ACen when I have intentions of wearing a costume I haven't actually finished yet, I would like to strangle someone. Anyone got a nice Wells Fargo stabbity-doll I can punch the stuffing out of?
growr snarl mutter growr","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192856.html?view=comments#comments","category":["house","rants"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192588.html","pubDate":"Sat, 02 May 2009 15:28:56 GMT","title":"Rude (?) awakenings","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192588.html","description":"...I just don't get my cat.
You know that movie thing where you come awake screaming, that nobody ever actually does in real life? Well... I found out that I actually do it in real life under certain circumstances.
'Certain circumstances' involving being happily sound asleep circa 3:30 a.m., and then within the space of about 0.05 seconds experiencing:
1) SCRAMBLESCRAMBLESCRAMBLETHUDDDD<\/i> as the cat tears<\/i> in from the living room at a dead sprint and leaps onto me...
2) sticks a very cold and wet nose directly into my ear, and
3) purrs at the top of his kittycat lungs<\/i> about 800x the usual volume (probably enhanced by the fact that he is not usually purring with his wet nose directly in my ear<\/i> under ordinary circumstances).
...maybe he had a nightmare and wanted mommy to fix it? And it was really gratifying to have heard him purr that loudly once I'd managed to get my heart rate somewhere under three thousand beats a second? I dunno.
I hadn't personally been having a nightmare, but by the time I was awake enough to process what had happened I realized I was screaming in panic, at which point the cat galloped out into the living room again with his bizarre catly mission well accomplished.
*headdesk*","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192588.html?view=comments#comments","category":"kitty!"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192432.html","pubDate":"Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:49:05 GMT","title":"Whyyyyyy is Bunter 18x more fascinated by my new shoes's shoelaces?!","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192432.html","description":"So I have a new pair of walking shoes for getting back and forth to work on foot without hobbling the last bit of the way.
My old shoes - the same style I'd worn ever since high school - were also tie shoes. So it's not like he's never seen shoelaces before! But he never showed the slightest bit of interest in the old shoelaces! Never in 2 years!
But somehow, these new shoelaces? They hook into some subliminal part of his fuzzy little brain and scream CAT TOY. He's untied them on me 4 times already this morning AND he won't stop gnawing and clawing long enough for me to RETIE them unless I turn myself into the human pretzel (at which point he starts untying -- you guessed it -- the other shoe).
*headdesk headdesk headdesk*
whyyyyyyyy....","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/192432.html?view=comments#comments","category":"kitty!"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/191928.html","pubDate":"Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:26:41 GMT","title":"Italian-Chinese-British roast pork crossover recipe thing","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/191928.html","description":"So Dave had lots of Scarborough Fair herbs left over from the Guinness Stew on St. Patrick's Day, and wanted a home for 'em. I am all over fresh herbs like white on rice. So here's what I came up with to do with 'em...
Charsiuborough Fair Roast Pork
(because the first thing I thought was rosemary and honey and pork chops, and the second thing I thought was char siu pork, and then I took the ideas and mushed 'em together, only with molasses instead of honey because of a co-worker's enthusings about rosemary-molasses venison roasts...)
Pork center loin (this one was about 3 lbs)
1\/2 cup-ish molasses
1\/4 cup-ish shaoxing rice wine (or sake if it's open)
1\/4 cup-ish soy sauce
Somewhere up to 1\/4 cup lemon juice
Lots of fresh parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (though mostly rosemary in this particular batch - about 4 big sprigs, leaves stripped off the stems and minced)
Lots of fresh cracked lemon pepper
2 Tbsp minced garlic
Some five-spice powder
Put all the marinade ingredients in the bottom of a big enough Ziploc bag to hold them and the meat. Cut the loin in half lengthwise (to expose more surface area to the marinade and speed the roasting process) and put the loin into the marinade, squeezing the extra air out of the ziploc before sealing it and then squidging the meat around to get the marinade covering all the surfaces.
Going to oven-roast for about an hour fifteen tomorrow, following the Joy of Cooking high-heat-then-lowered-heat pork roasting recipe.
Planning to make either rotini or cavatappi with remaining herbs, grape tomatoes, broccolini, and parmesan to go with.
I hope it ends up tasting as good as it smells... :3
(time to fall over now, zzz!)
ETA: Yep, definitely worked. The \"500 for 10 minutes, then 250 until it hits 155-160 inside\" made it turn out really awesome and juicy...","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/191928.html?view=comments#comments","category":["recipes","chinese-food","british-food"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/191462.html","pubDate":"Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:06:26 GMT","title":"all the good restaurants are going under...","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/191462.html","description":"First it was Papa George, then it was the Green St. Coffeehouse, then it was Basil Thai (which has been in that building so long their name is built into the awning), then it was Crazy Buffet, and now Moonstruck.
I went on my annual 'it's chocolate and romance season and I may not have had a date since high school prom but dagnabbit I can still have a Valentine's day truffle' expedition down Green Street, and discovered that no I can't still have a Valentine's day truffle. ;_;
Since Ruben's went under several years ago and IIRC is only available through mail order anymore, I'm kind of screwed on the 'small portion size and really really good chocolate' front. I mean, there's Fannie May, but it always has this kind of plastic undertone to me...
I think I have some Ghirardelli chocolate chips in the bookshelf-pantry. I wonder what I can throw together with those and a heatproof silicone ice cube mold? ...no, I don't think I've got that much ambition. A nice mug of hot chocolate, on the other hand... :3 but dagnabbit I had my mouth all set for a truffle.<\/small>","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/191462.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/190857.html","pubDate":"Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:47:34 GMT","title":"Cats...","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/190857.html","description":"So I get home from work, dinner\/housework\/weights\/blah blah blah, put on the kettle, brew a pot of good black tea, pour a little bit of milk into a creamer jug, and set up to keep working on the laptop. Fine, dandy, cat curled up on other end of sofa, life is good.
Sip at the tea, add some more milk, stir stir, sip, type type type, sip, cat still curled up on other end of sofa, completely disinterested in everything.
Finish the tea 20 minutes or so later with no sign the cat has any interest in what's going on.
Get up and go to the kitchen to refill my tea mug with hot tea. This takes about 30 seconds.<\/i>
Before I even make it back out of the kitchen I hear licklicklicklicklick<\/i><\/small>.
I come around the corner to find the cat with his nose completely buried in the milk.
He looks up at my incoherent spluttering and gaping, blinks a little, licks his nose, and goes right back to drinking out of my creamer jug right in front of me.
Now, clearly the little brat knew it was against the rules on account of how studiously he avoided even twitching in that direction while I was sitting there supervising it, but he did a pretty damn impressive job of trying the complete-nonchalance-might-buy-you-anything 'nothing to see here, move right along' Jedi mind trick on me anyway.
Unfortunately, I was laughing too hard to scold him properly enough to actually discourage him...","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/190857.html?view=comments#comments","category":["rants","kitty!"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/190552.html","pubDate":"Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:43:58 GMT","title":"Now to avoid the Hitchcock soundtracks","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/190552.html","description":"So I looked at the budget and looked at my free time and decided the easiest legal way to earn more money was to get another renter. But I haven't had time to go to the anime club and meet new people for, oh, years now.
So... I bit the bullet and hit up Craigslist.
Let's hope I don't end up with a psycho. :)
I really, really wish I could've found someone I already knew who was looking for a room in this town...<\/small>","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/190552.html?view=comments#comments","category":"house"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/189867.html","pubDate":"Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:19:20 GMT","title":"Exercise notes: Anime + metronome = good","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/189867.html","description":"The 5-miles-an-hour walk-in-your-living-room DVD sets paces from 130-160 beats per minute in different segments, so I set my metronome for 150 beats per minute and just kept moving fast enough to keep my heart rate in the target zone, along with the assistance of weights and a resistance band thingy, for 4 episodes worth.
I haven't beaten my heart monitor into submission and can't find the instruction book to figure out what combination of buttons you have to push to get it to decide that yes, you really do want it to track THIS exercise routine, not just store the data from the first one after I replaced the battery. But the math says I used somewhere around 1000 to 1200 calories for 100 minutes of aerobics. AND I didn't want to stab my ears out with a spork by the end, either. :)
True facts: I learned how to turn off the annoying bobblehead's voice on the 5-mile DVD... only to discover that the underlying music was actually just as bad.
Tip for any aspiring remixers in the crowd: One does not accomplish good pseudo-techno by sampling the recoil of a broken Xerox machine and intercutting it with Chipmunk rap.
One does not, in fact, accomplish a good anything<\/i> with the recoil of a broken Xerox machine and Chipmunk rap.
...Just in case anyone out there was wondering. :)","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/189867.html?view=comments#comments","category":"calories-burned"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/189547.html","pubDate":"Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:14:24 GMT","title":"I am the Leafmuncher","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/189547.html","description":"I think I finally have this yard thing licked...
Equipment:
1. Respirator mask to keep the leaf mold out of the lungs
2. Goggles to keep the leaf mold out of the eyes
3. Long sleeves
4. Gardening gloves (preferably heavy weave; the light weave ones let spiky bits from the junipers get through)
5. Lawn mower with bag attachment, wheels set at the highest setting, is THE way to go - much easier on your back than either Dad's leaf vacuum or doing it all by hand
6. At least 10 yard bags for the season
To remember:
A) Don't wait for them all to come down. Do a couple hours a weekend a few weekends in a row.
B) Two rows of mowing will fill up the bag -- one if it's under the sycamore tree. (If I see leaf bits behind the mowed path, as opposed to vacuumed-over grass, it's time to empty the bag.)
C) Two lawnmower bags will go into one yard bag with some shaking and squishing.
D) The lawnmower bag fits inside the yard bag even though it looks like it won't -- get the lawnmower bag about halfway into the yard bag before shaking stuff loose
E) I seem to get about 4-6 unmowed-leaf bags into one mowed leaf bag. Let's hear it for compression, since they charge by the bag for pickup.","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/189547.html?view=comments#comments","category":"house"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/186473.html","pubDate":"Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:46:30 GMT","title":"Restaurant squee","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/186473.html","description":"B-Won is pretty darn awesome. New section of the menu is table d'hote - so you get miso soup, salad, seven different banchan dishes, rice, and your main dish, which in my case was a really<\/i> tasty crispy piece of mackerel -- not battered, just perfectly crispy and full of yum (though I have to admit I'm still not sure whether I was supposed to eat the spine or not; I figured probably not on the theory that I couldn't get it to come apart with the chopsticks, and if I couldn't turn it bite-size with the provided utensils it probably wasn't meant to go in my mouth?) And you get all that for $10 and change. Still under $15 when you add the tax and tip. Yummm.
I figured 10 hours of box sorting and hauling meant I'd earned a dinner I didn't have to cook, not to mention that my stomach might've gnawed a hole in my spine by the time I got something cooked... and now from the sublime to the, er, anti-sublime: the cat box awaits its cleaning.<\/small>","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/186473.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/186241.html","pubDate":"Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:26:44 GMT","title":"Small fandom meme","author":"chibirisu","link":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/186241.html","description":"For people who are tired of their fandoms not getting enough fandom love -- over here.<\/a>
I saw R. O. D., Kekkaishi, and W Juliet on the first page, Disgaea on the second, and thought \"hey I know some people who could use a pointer in this thing's direction,\" soooooo... (points!)","comments":"https:\/\/chibirisu.livejournal.com\/186241.html?view=comments#comments"}]}}