I've been using
Twitter for a couple of weeks now, at the urging of
a friend and a
fellow podcaster. They both make good cases for using it - it's easy, it's fun and it's a very easy way to keep a finger on the pulse of your personal network.
Then I come along.
I've twittered about the following items:
Drinking coffee
Blogging
Painting the hallway
Anna Nicole Smith
I'm sure you see a trend, good reader. I'm as boring on Twitter as I am on my blog and - one could argue - as I am in person.
This weekend I hope to do some twittering about
my yard, cleaning out the closet and maybe vacuuming. Definitely vacuuming. The rug is looking a little rough.
I keep it real people.
Labels: 2007, internet, weird stuff, yard
By: Alyssa | Friday, March 30, 2007 at Friday, March 30, 2007 | |
It was last spotted on Sunday.
I hope it's okay.
If you see it wandering around somewhere, please send me an email: alyssa(at)thebigredblog.com. Please let the podcast know I love it and I don't care if it got a C- on it's last math test.
Listen to
this week's episode of the
Big Red Podcast.
Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher.
Labels: 2007, podcast, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Thursday, March 29, 2007 at Thursday, March 29, 2007 | |
I'm a big fan of the
Wicked Good Podcast and this week I've been tagged by
Steve of the WGP to answer the most confounding problem facing America today: What seven songs am I into right now?
*You are totally sorry you asked.
Swingin' by John Anderson
We Built This City by Starship
Making Love Out of Nothing at All by Air Supply
I Love You Period by Dan Baird
Wheel in the Sky by Journey
She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby
The Mississippi Squirrel Revival by Ray Stevens
*In reality - I don't have any music loaded on my iPod - I've got hundreds of hours of podcasts and public radio. I'm slow to digitize my audio collection - which is also hopelessly outdated because I'm a fogey.
I keep up with lots of other pop culture - I call in music experts to pinch hit for
the podcast!
So - to follow the rules, I'm including the other cool kids tagged by
Steve -
Dan,
CJ,
Daryl N. Cognito, and
Jason Tucker. And those tagged with Steve -
Mrs. B,
Chris Penn,
Chris Brogan, and
Aidan Hatch.
They are much, much cooler than I am.
Labels: 2007, internet, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at Wednesday, March 28, 2007 | |
America is obsessed with celebrities. We don’t have to debate that, do we?
Good.
On Sunday we had the unique pleasure of seeing the advanced screening of
Hot Fuzz – from the fellas who brought you
Shaun of the Dead – at the
Brattle Theater. And the big bonus was that the stars of the movie, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were on hand along with the director Edgar Wright.
I’ll talk more about the movie later – we’ll most certainly cover it in the podcast – but I wanted to take a moment to address the issue of
Q&A sessions between celebrities and the public.
You’re excited. You’re a fan. You want to talk to someone famous. Now is your big moment. What do you do?
Do you ask about inspiration? Do you ask about influences? Do you ask about research? Do you ask a technical question about a particularly complicated stunt? Maybe.
But for the love of Santa, don’t ask if writing the script was “awesome or like really, really awesome.” The crowd dies a little inside when that happens.
I won’t dwell on it. But I’ll just throw it out there. Think twice and speak once.
Labels: 2007, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at Tuesday, March 27, 2007 | |
Deeps and I were milling about in the kitchen - as we sometimes do - preparing dinner.
The cat wandered in and let loose a sad howly-meow to alert me that she'd like food. I told her she gets fed before I got to bed. Apparently I think the cat can understand English.
She sat by her food bowl and meowed some more.
I reached to give her a few pieces of dry food.
Deeps: I thought you feed her later.
Me: I do.
Deeps: Then she can wait, right?
Me: She can, but I she's been pretty good. She hasn't been waking me up in the morning or breaking stuff.
Deeps: Ah Poopus, the
soft bigotry of lowered expectations.
Me: I'm blogging that.
Deeps: Why should today be any different?
Labels: 2007, marriage, poopus
By: Alyssa | Monday, March 26, 2007 at Monday, March 26, 2007 | |
This week Deeps subs for Derek who is out looking for a house. Meanwhile, we painted our hallways. Everyone get excited.
We tackle a lot of tough topics like
Super Cops, Norma Rae, Serpico, Shaft and later his big score, The Dresden Files, The Riches, Foreign Accent Syndrome, the importance of a sense of place, John Locke's love of blowing stuff up, Vermeer (yes the painter), Rembrandt (yes the painter),
architecture,
Vanilla Ice (yes the rapper) and
This American Life.
Can you believe we covered so much in just 40 minutes? Me either.
Listen to
this week's episode of the
Big Red Podcast.
Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher.
And if you're so inclined, leave us some feedback on iTunes! It makes Derek very happy.
Labels: 2007, podcast, television
By: Alyssa | Sunday, March 25, 2007 at Sunday, March 25, 2007 | |
If you're a fan of the
Big Red Podcast you may have heard my promise that
this week we'd have some movie reviews. We will - just not the review we expected.
Wednesday night we met in Harvard Square for dinner and a movie. The plan was to hit
The Brattle after dinner for Super Cops. I'll get to that in a second.
We ate dinner at a large restaurant, I'll leave it unnamed. When we got there around 6:15 it was bustling but not overly busy. The waitress sat us next to a family - mom, dad, infant and a couple of teens. I think it was a teacher/exchange student set up. Whatever.
About 15 minutes into our meal, an interesting smell wafted in my direction. I took a deep breath and the aroma overwhelmed me - poopy pants.
I whipped my head over to the infant, the most likely culprit. She seemed pretty innocent and her parents were holding her. They didn't seem like the type to ignore a stinky diaper. Maybe it was a fluke. The smell went away quickly.
A few minutes later it came wafted through again. Deeps smelled it and made a face. We tried to figure out where it was coming from but had no luck. Eventually we paid the bill and left.
Mysterious mystery? Oh yes!
The night improved when we got out into the fresh air and we headed over to the Brattle. Deeps walked up to the window to find buy tickets and stopped short. The movie we were supposed to see was not showing.
This happens from time-to-time at the Brattle when they order old or obscure prints. We were scheduled to see
Super Cops - I was particularly excited about the "Hey It's That Guy" pair up of both
Ron Leibman and David Selby. Deeps couldn't remember who
David Selby is. Clearly he never watched
Falcon Crest.
Deeps talked to the ticket guy and returned with a report.
Deeps: So they are going to show
The French Connection.
Me: A fine film.
Deeps: Yeah.
Me: I don't really want to watch it.
Deeps: Yeah, me either.
Me: I was ready for Super Cops.
Deeps: I don't know if it is a good movie. It's just obscure.
Me: Still. So are they going to show it when the print arrives.
Deeps: Apparently someone stole the print.
Me: Really?
Deeps: That's what the guy said.
Me: Wow.
Deeps: I know.
Me: Who do you call? The regular police or the super police.
Deeps: I knew you'd make that joke.
Me: This is serious, some dude is wandering around with giant 35 mm film cannisters - what do you even do with this?
Deeps: Wallpaper?
Me: Make a chandelier.
Deeps: We should go home.
Me: I think the restaurant funk has seriously affected our ability to deal with this situation properly.
Labels: 2007, marriage, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Friday, March 23, 2007 at Friday, March 23, 2007 | |
I can’t believe I didn’t bring my camera.
Around 12:30 yesterday a colleague and I managed to wander into Copley Square where we spotted a spectacle – a giant stage, huge plumes of colorful balloons, and loud music. Plus a couple of people dressed up as iced coffee.
Oh yes, I witnessed the Dunkin’ Donuts rapping contest – people rapped about their love of ice coffee. And the celebrity judges were Lenny Clark (of
the terrible The Winner and the critically-lauded
Rescue Me) and his iceness himself, Vanilla Ice.
People rapped to Ice Ice Baby. And they took it pretty seriously. They had lyrics, a few had clearly practiced and many were ready to bust some moves in their business casual office wear.
And me without my camera.
I thought the guy with the beard did pretty well – he had a full song’s worth of lyrics, not just the first verse like so many others. We dubbed him MC Nerdypants. But he was clearly outmatched by crowd favorite, Blonde lady with two little girls. Evidently she’s a professor somewhere.
Go Doctor Smarty! She won some stuff, we all shuffled away, and I missed my best opportunity to catch that day’s weirdness. But this is just a reminder – now that it is officially spring, more weirdness should abound.
I’ve loaded up my camera with fresh batteries. I’ll be ready next time, GF.
Labels: 2007, Boston, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at Wednesday, March 21, 2007 | |
Usually I read on the T, so I can block out a lot of the weirdness going on around me.
Yesterday I was listening to some podcasts and trying not to freak people out by laughing to myself. Ahem.
So I lifted my head and looked around a little more than usual.
All things considered, it was a pretty normal day. However, I spotted a woman leaning against the train doors. She almost fell out of the car at Boylston St. when the doors opened. She looked totally shocked. I guess it was her first time on the train.
When I came home last night I could hear something kind of loud and noisy coming from the Red Line at Park Street. The platform was pretty crowded, so at first I thought it was the hum of the crowd. But as I made my way down the stairs I could hear some dude singing.
Most days of the week somebody is singing - busking if you will. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not. On this day it was an older man dressed in spats and a large orange hat. He was singing along with some kind of music - the audio quality was such that it was a little like listening to a German Expressionist painting. All jangly and sharp edges.
People stood around him and openly gaped. You don't usually see that from the regular crowd. We're cool customers and laugh in the face of "schedule adjustments" and "medical emergencies" or any other oddities we might encounter on the train.
Maybe it was the orange. This could support my
overall orange theory. I hope it didn't make anyone feel stabby.
Labels: 2007, Boston, the T, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at Tuesday, March 20, 2007 | |
Looks like my friends have jumped on the ol' podcast bandwagon. They've busted out the House of Burdens which is really weird and very funny. Maybe it's funnier because I know them, hard to say.
I think it's the number one family podcast about poop, rescue heroes and pre-K kids doing Aussie impressions.
Check out the
House of Burdens.Labels: 2007, podcast, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Monday, March 19, 2007 at Monday, March 19, 2007 | |
This week Derek is back and we cover a few more new mid-season shows including wacky Jeff Goldblum vehicle,
Raines; the latest incarnation of
Robin Hood on BBC America; the pretentious and overblown
October Road; and I make a pitch for saving Veronica Mars – in two parts!
Plus we wax poetic about
The Fly, winter weather, and
Eddie Izzard’s eyebrows. See, I made a funny!
Listen to
this week's episode of the
Big Red Podcast.
Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher.
And if you're so inclined, leave us some feedback on iTunes! It makes Derek very happy.
Labels: 2007, podcast, television
By: Alyssa | Sunday, March 18, 2007 at Sunday, March 18, 2007 | |
We only got about eight inches of snow. But then we got a couple inches of rain. Fluffy snow - easy to clear and remove - turned hideous in a few hours.
Now I have my own person icebergs!
So to recap, on Wednesday it was almost 70. On Friday we got a classic Nor'easter that only ended a few hours ago (Saturday). And I think it will be 60 on Thursday.
March really takes that whole in like a lion business seriously.
Labels: 2007, Boston, weather
By: Alyssa | Saturday, March 17, 2007 at Saturday, March 17, 2007 | |
The gentle
scrape, scrape sound woke us up around 7:50 this morning. I had a suspicion it would be my very diligent neighbor, cleaning his sidewalk.
I tried to ignore the sound, but then the cat started howling and I couldn’t hide much longer. Deeps headed for the bathroom.
“Hey, since you are up can you go feed the cat?” I asked from under a pile of warm blankets.
“So’s your face,” he replied.
I laughed really hard.
We both got up and got dressed in warm gear and pulled out extra pants and socks to wear when we were done digging out.
Since it was barely 8 in the morning I suggested, in the name of decency, that we wait until 9 before shoveling - so that we could have some breakfast and see when the storm might end.
Deeps looked out the window and spotted the neighbors who were scraping; he motioned me over. It wasn’t the guy we suspected. It was the pair of old ladies who live down the street. They were out in matching winter gear – one all in sea foam green and the other resplendent in dusky pink. They both sported those rain bonnets I’ve never seen on a woman under 75 years old.
I sighed heavily.
“Now we have to go,” I said. “Look at them. They’re already down to bare asphalt.”
Deeps nodded and handed me my boots. I thought this was brave, considering
what happened to him after the last snow storm.
About ten minutes later I was making the gentle scraping sounds on the sidewalk while Deeps tackled the giant snow bank at the foot of the driveway. The old lady team was almost done with their clearing.
I noticed other neighbors had rolled out of bed early to start shoveling as well.
The old ladies are really doing a service for the neighborhood. They shame us all into action – with matching winter wear no less – before 9 o’clock in the morning.
I hope they don’t read blogs.
Labels: 2007, marriage, weather
By: Alyssa | at Saturday, March 17, 2007 | |
I walked home yesterday through the Boston Public Garden. It was pretty deserted, but I did spot a few fellow lunatics. We opted to bypass the green line and hike up to the red line at Park Street.
And of course, there were lots of shooters out.
The snow was coming down pretty hard, the wind was blowing and I kept my head down a bit. It only took two hours for me to travel seven miles from work to home.
I spent another two hours shoveling with Deeps this morning. It's a wonder I have any strength left to type.
Labels: 2007, weather
By: Alyssa | at Saturday, March 17, 2007 | |
I also like to make about 400 cubic tons of food during a blizzard.
On the menu today is my world famous turkey meatloaf, breakfast for dinner, and lentil soup.
No one will starve at my house. Except the cat. And she's totally faking it. If your pet waddles, she is not starving. Also, I feed her ever morning at 7:15 or all hell breaks loose.
Happy blizzard, New England!
I might share some tasty recipes later. I'm a giver.
Labels: 2007, filler
By: Alyssa | Friday, March 16, 2007 at Friday, March 16, 2007 | |
I'm sure a lot of married people play the game of who can hold out the longest before doing some chore around the house like laundry or the dishes.
We don't have that problem. We do play chicken - with grocery shopping.
I can't think of any single chore that we hate more. So we're supposed to get a snow storm or something tomorrow, that means someone had to blink.
Me: It's supposed to snow a lot tomorrow.
Deeps: Yeah, I heard it was only a few inches.
Me: Ah. Well, either way, we should be ready.
Deeps: I know well the shovels are.
Me: Yeah, I've been tripping over them for three months.
Deeps: I just like to be ready.
Me: But we don't have any food.
Deeps: Oh.
Me: Have you looked in the fridge?
Deeps: We have food.
Me: You can hear an echo in there.
Deeps: We have butter.
Me: What meal can I make with butter?
Deeps: Sandwiches?
Me: We'd need bread.
Deeps: Fine. We'll go to the grocery store.
Me: As a team.
Deeps: As a team.
Me: You never leave a man behind.
We got to the grocery store just in time, before the screaming hordes came blazing in buy up all the good stuff. I'm happy to report that we got milk, bread and eggs. Plus two kinds of sausage
for brunch!
I have my priorities.
Labels: 2007, marriage, weather
By: Alyssa | Thursday, March 15, 2007 at Thursday, March 15, 2007 | |
I might have broken the feed yesterday, well - if you read the blog in a feed reader like Google News or Bloglines you might have gotten a bunch of posts from me yesterday. I was updating my archives (labels ahoy!).
I had no idea I had enough posts about both
skunks and that damn
evil blue jay that I could give them their own categories.
So sorry. But those are some classic posts!
Look, to make it up to you I'll offer up my most awesome podcast to date!
Listen to
this week's episode of the
Big Red Podcast.
Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher.
And if you're so inclined, leave us some feedback on iTunes! It makes Derek very happy.
Labels: 2007, evil bird, podcast, skunk
By: Alyssa | at Thursday, March 15, 2007 | |
When you read beautiful poetry about spring, you get a sense of its
fecundity – but with all birth and creation… there’s some gross stuff.
Spring
kind of stinks. At least for the first few weeks. All the gross stuff that was hidden away by snow, decomposing over winter is now exposed to the light and the air. It smells.
And let’s not forget what else comes with spring – babies. To get babies, you’ve got to go through mating season, which is loud (I hear you freaking
evil blue jay!) and sometimes smelly. I’m writing specifically of skunks.
We drove along Route 2 a few days ago – it had been a warmish day – and we had the windows down. The air felt clean and good. Then suddenly, without warning the stench of
skunk love hit us. We rolled up our windows a held our breath a few moments.
I pinched my nose and looked at Deeps. I saw him muttering and shaking his head.
“Stinks like spring,” he said.
“It’s one of
Byron’s less successful poems,” I replied.
Labels: 2007, evil bird, marriage, skunk
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 | |
My Dad retires in a few more months. We're throwing
a big party for him and planning is fully underway.
Actually, we thought we had most of the the thing planned with disaster struck. Turns out making a reservation doesn't really make a difference. Let that be a warning to you, people of Indiana,
a man is not as good as his word. This reminds me of the time
we bought that condo. And then we didn't. Not that I'm bitter or anything. (Sidebar: The end of that story is this - the guy wasn't able to sell to the other buyer, it sat empty for another six months and then sold for many thousands less than we offered. Karma, people.)
Apparently everyone thought a place had been secured, money was about to exchange hands when when the proprietor revealed that something happened and the space was no longer available.
Sadly, this occurred after I bought the airline tickets.
Labels: 2007, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 | |
We were at the Guggenheim yesterday because someone wanted to see the big
Spanish Painting exhibit for his birthday.
I don’t normally get to take side trips in to the city when we visit the family in Jersey – so this was a total bonus for me. Plus, I got a chocolate croissant. Score!
We arrived fairly early and started working our way up through the galleries. A giant herd of kids ambled along in front of us. I reckon they were about eight-years-old. A docent talked to the kids – they sprawled on the floor and started drawing pictures.
Deeps and I watched the kids admire the art and their own handiwork for a few minutes. Then we heard some anxious parents talk to their children as they pushed ahead. A pair of twin girls trailed behind their parents. The kids looked kind of bored – one hung back a lot.
Mom: Violet, who painted this?
Violet: Renoir?
Mom: No. Look at the subject matter. Who paints ladies like this?
Violet: Uhm.
Mom: It’s Degas. Now tell me what influenced him.
In the span of a few feet we saw two different models for exposing children to art. And then Deeps and I dreamed up a third.
Me: Hah.
Ol’ Chuckles had some problems.
Deeps: The entire
Spanish Court did. That’s why you shouldn’t marry your sister.
Me: What do you think they tell the kids when they show them the paintings of the Spanish Court?
Deeps: It’s a good story.
Me: For giving your kids nightmares.
Labels: 2007, marriage, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Monday, March 12, 2007 at Monday, March 12, 2007 | |
This week Deeps and I wrangle with some big issues - namely the horrors of mid season replacements. One member of the team refused to watch either
The Wedding Bells or
The Winner. I thought the vows said for better or worse?
We also review a classic from 1951 called
The Man From Planet X; we talk about Peter's slick haircut on Heroes; and we wonder what happened to John Locke on LOST. Deeps says he likes shiny stuff and I say he's suffered a very serious head injury.
Plus we offer another exciting listener shout-out!
Listen to
this week's episode of the
Big Red Podcast.
Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher.
And if you're so inclined, leave us some feedback on iTunes! It makes Derek very happy.
Labels: 2007, podcast
By: Alyssa | Sunday, March 11, 2007 at Sunday, March 11, 2007 | |
About a month ago I was
complaining about the T (the local subway system – well, it’s sometimes above ground). My issues are mostly with the Green line, although the Red line has been pretty sketchy lately.
I take a train to another train when the weather is bad or extremely cold. My colleague suggested I switch from the Red line to the Orange line instead of taking the
Green line.
I never got around to switching up my schedule. Then someone was stabbed on the orange line a few weeks ago. An isolated incident, I’m sure. Then
another stabbing happened earlier this week.
My colleague regularly rides the orange line, so I asked her about it.
Me: Why is the Orange line so stabby?
Coll: It’s complicated. I think there are societal and economic factors at play.
Me: That’s a thinking person’s answer.
Coll: Yeah.
Me: I think it’s because the line is specifically orange.
Coll: What?
Me: Orange is a very stimulating color. I read about it in a color theory book before I painted the house.
Coll: I see.
Me: Orange is a good color for getting the blood flowing and the creative juices flowing, but it can sometimes over stimulate people. I guess that might make you want to stab someone.
Coll: But there isn’t really a lot of orange on the train.
Me: Your theory is probably better.
Coll: Your theory is definitely odder.
Me: You can count on me.
Labels: 2007, Boston, the T, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Friday, March 09, 2007 at Friday, March 09, 2007 | |
This morning I got the first blast of sunshine in the eye. I should note that sunshine in the eye is tough to do in my bedroom because I have black out shades. Someone left a door open.
Yes, I like to make my bedroom very cave-like. Or tomb-like. Take your pick.
A few days ago, before New England plunged into a serious deep-freeze, I heard some birds chirping.
I'll think they're cool for a couple of days. Then I'll start to hate them. I'd like it noted that the
evil blue jay family from last year never really departed for the winter. Stupid global warming.
It's hard to think that in less than three months I'll probably be sweating in the garden. It's harder to imagine what I'm going to plant.
The sun is nice, a little warmth to go with it would also be fine with me. I'm not talking a lot. Even 40 would make me happy.
Labels: 2007, evil bird, filler
By: Alyssa | Thursday, March 08, 2007 at Thursday, March 08, 2007 | |
I like reading about
personal finance. I'm at an age where I'm thinking about how children might affect our life, what my parents are facing in their retirement and then just my regular
day-to-day costs of living.
For practical purposes,
money is very tightly connected with your hopes and dreams. Can you afford to
stay home for a year? Can you do the around the world trip you always dreamed of? Can you
ever retire? So this is why I like to read about it.
We don't actually have complicated stuff - it's pretty straight forward. We just squirrel our money away into lots of different locations. Today I grabbed a little money from my checking account for a friend's birthday lunch. I looked at the receipt and sighed.
We have a little savings account attached to our checking - just for overdrafts. But our main savings is in a very high yield savings account outside our brick-n-mortar bank. I leave the bare minimum in the overdraft account so that we're not charged a fee by the bank. I probably don't need it anymore, but it may be more trouble than it is worth to get rid of.
Anyway, to my point. I saw the little interest payment for February. It was $.06. That's right. Six freaking cents. I have a savings account (aka the patio account) that has about the same amount of money as my overdraft account - except it is earning a much better rate of interest. The interest for February was a little over a dollar.
Small change, yes, but significant over time. So if you still don't have a high-interest rate savings account from one of the
reputable online banks - you might want to do a little investigating. My
ING account is currently paying nearly 17 times the interest that I get for my brick-n-mortar savings account.
See, math is fun!
Labels: 2007, filler
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, March 07, 2007 at Wednesday, March 07, 2007 | |
I know I posted about this on Sunday - but that was days ago.
Not listening to the
Big Red Podcast yet? Get with it,
Nabbalicious! (I'm continuing to call people out by name. I should have covered everyone by uhm.... I can't count that high.)
This week we talked about The Oscars, LOST, Heroes, and how totally right I was about Veronica Mars - even if it didn't make sense. And coming up on the next podcast, I'll have special guest Deeps to help me break down the Heroes "cliffhanger," LOST and some new shows. I'm watching so you don't have to. Seriously... you'll thank me when you hear about what I've subjected my family to.
Listen to this week's podcast.Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher.
Labels: 2007, podcast, television
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, March 07, 2007 | |
Darren wrote a very funny post about his love of hot and spicy food.
I'm the only one in my immediate family who really enjoys the super spicy food. And I found just the right man to marry - a man with an even higher tolerance for hot foods. I should note that each summer I grow
jalapenos and habaneros. We like the hot.
Early in our dating career we'd go out looking for Indian food. At the time, we were both college students in western Massachusetts and finding Indian food was pretty tough. We'd drive about 30 miles for it - and it wasn't especially good.
Whenever we'd order we'd tell the waiter to bring it as spicy as possible. They would - and it would be kind of spicy, but nothing to write home about. The waiters would hover to see if they'd killed us.
In New England I find that people are a little more sensitive to hot spices. In fact, I've heard people complain about salsa - that is essentially ketchup - being too hot. This might explain why we had a tough time getting anything truly spicy.
One day Deeps told me that he'd heard of a place about 50 miles away and that they had very good Indian food. We piled in the car one cold, winter night and drove to a little town. We had to kind of hunt for the place - it was small, on a dark street and near a defunct train depot.
We were the only patrons and the chef came out to chat with us briefly while we ordered. We ordered our usual selection of delicious items and the chef asked if we wanted it spicy. Absolutely!
A short while later curries came out and we started to eat. I was probably about four bites into my meal when I realized I was in trouble.
I find Indian food has a slow burn - you don't realize what's happened until it's pretty much too late to do anything about it. I started to sweat a little. Then my nose started to run. Then I just started kind of wheezing.
Deeps figured out what happened pretty quickly as well, the food was almost too hot for him. His tolerance is slightly higher than mine so we didn't have the same reaction.
The waiter brought me more water. I kept wiping my nose and my face. My tongue felt like it was swelling. I couldn't stop sweating. My nose was like a river. Best date ever.
I went to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face, to get my nose under control and to recover. I looked like I'd been running a marathon, during allergy season. I was a mess.
The chef came out with raita and lassis and apologies. He was very apologetic but we told him not to worry. We were young and could handle it.
I gave up on my Vindaloo and switched to something else. We survived unscathed and suffered to serious after-effects.
Deeps reminisces fondly about that restaurant. And every time we go out for Indian food, we wonder if this will be regular or extra spicy. So far, nobody's been able to make me sweat.
Labels: 2007, food, marriage
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at Tuesday, March 06, 2007 | |
So the question is - can I actually pass this off as either a birthday or anniversary gift for my husband?
No?
Didn't think so. Now I've joined the fancy vacuum club. I have several friends and acquanintances who've joined the ranks. They all have this picture.
So I did go to the trouble of taking a picture of what we sucked out of the rug in the dining room. Gross, huh? I swear - we're not that filthy.
I'm trying to figure out if the fancy vacuum club is more like MIni owners or Mac people. Hard to say. Either way, my rugs look fantastic.
By: Alyssa | Monday, March 05, 2007 at Monday, March 05, 2007 | |
This week Derek and I recap the Oscars and I offer Marty Scorsese some fashion tips. He's a tiny man!
Then we race through a partial review of some of the books from the Dresden Files series and how they relate as source material for the show. We speculate about what will happen next on Heroes and LOST and try to make sense of the latest mystery on Veronica Mars. Even though I was right about almost everything (see last week's
VM podcast), I still don't understand it.
And I take a look at NBC's
The Black Donnellys and complain about bad sitcom clip shows. I'm looking at you,
Scrubs.
Listen to this week's podcast.Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher.
Labels: 2007, podcast, television
By: Alyssa | Sunday, March 04, 2007 at Sunday, March 04, 2007 | |
We get a lot of junk mail and credit card solicitations. So I sort through them and shred sensitive stuff and recycle everything else.
Early this week I had collected a rather impressive pile of stuff to shred. In a matter of minutes I'd done something very wrong.
Shredder: GRRR!Me: Uh oh.
Deeps: What did you do?
Me: I'm just shredding!
Deeps: You can't put a whole piece of mail through there - you have to open stuff up!
Me: I thought it could handle it.
Shredder: Choke! Sputter!Me: Aw frick.
Deeps: We don't have an industrial shredder.
Me: I think I've done it before.
Deeps: That was the last shredder. Which you broke.
Me: Oh.
Deeps: I don't even think we can get a shredder that would work for you. I think you'd need some kind of feral cat.
Me: Feral cats shred stuff and leave a mess. I'd need a goat.
Deeps: A feral goat?
Me: I'll accept any goat. That would be an excellent anniversary present.
Deeps: No.
Me: Yeah! Five years of marriage totally equals one goat.
I bought a non-industrial shredder a few hours later. It joins another new friend that really sucks and rhymes with bison (hat tip to
Kristen).
Labels: 2007, consumerism, marriage
By: Alyssa | at Sunday, March 04, 2007 | |
Early in the week I was listening to a friend share a bit about planning her parents’ big anniversary party. There’d been a tremendous amount of arguing in the family over food, flowers, favors and the colors of the invitations.
Should they do the wedding colors from decades past or colors they like now? How many food options should they provide? Afternoon affair or evening?
I nodded – knowingly – and suggested that this is why I eloped.
That night I got a call from Cuddles.
Me: Hi.
Cuddles: We’re planning a big retirement party now. And we’ve all got to help.
Me: Oh God!
My father has been a school teacher – math, for those playing at home – for approximately 187 years.
I don’t want to belittle what he’s accomplished in his 187 years of service to students, their parents and the community at large.
He’s done a lot of good work for a lot of people. And now we’re planning a retirement party for him. And the man likes a good party.
My concern is over the guest list. Can you imagine how many people a man who’s been teaching for 187 years knows? We could have a list in the thousands.
I don’t really know a lot of details because a) people are worried I’ll blog about it and b) they don’t really care what I think. They do care if I mock the events.
Let the mocking begin.
I’ve suggested we get a chocolate fountain and that we watch several episodes of My Super Sweet Sixteen on MTV to get ideas. I’ve seen the
Divo episode – I think we can come up with something bold.
Labels: 2007, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Thursday, March 01, 2007 at Thursday, March 01, 2007 | |
