Julia London's Blog, page 56
October 20, 2011
Moose's Fabulous Vacation
Moose loves doggie day care. All I have to do is say, "wanna go to day care?" and he goes NUTS. He starts jumping around in circles and throwing himself at me and at doors. So this week, while I am in New York with my mother, my sister, and two nieces, Moose will be having a most excellent adventure. It's great having a place where I know Moose is happy so I can take off and do fun things.
I love to go off and do fun things. I love seeing new places and doing new things. I love going with family because we always have a great time together. I love getting out and feeling like a person instead of a slug who should have stayed at home to finish her book. I love having the freedom to do what I want. I like shopping in new places.
I do not like flying for a lot of reasons: security, the nickle and diming of the passengers, the tight little seats. I do not like getting out of Austin, because you generally have to make a connection. I do not like packing. I do not like wardrobe planning. I do not like having to stop the paper delivery because they never get it right! Why can't they get it right?
What do you like about traveling? Dislike? Do you travel with your extended family or would you rather not? If you could go anywhere for a week, where would you go?
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Moose’s Fabulous Vacation
Moose loves doggie day care. All I have to do is say, “wanna go to day care?” and he goes NUTS. He starts jumping around in circles and throwing himself at me and at doors. So this week, while I am in New York with my mother, my sister, and two nieces, Moose will be having a most excellent adventure. It’s great having a place where I know Moose is happy so I can take off and do fun things.
I love to go off and do fun things. I love seeing new places and doing new things. I love going with family because we always have a great time together. I love getting out and feeling like a person instead of a slug who should have stayed at home to finish her book. I love having the freedom to do what I want. I like shopping in new places.
I do not like flying for a lot of reasons: security, the nickle and diming of the passengers, the tight little seats. I do not like getting out of Austin, because you generally have to make a connection. I do not like packing. I do not like wardrobe planning. I do not like having to stop the paper delivery because they never get it right! Why can’t they get it right?
What do you like about traveling? Dislike? Do you travel with your extended family or would you rather not? If you could go anywhere for a week, where would you go?
October 19, 2011
WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING?
I need to add another tv show to my already too long "must watch" list like I need a hole in my head. But here I am, adding more and more shows to TiVo. My latest addictions are the new season of Dancing With the Stars, Chopped, Rachel Zoe Project, Project Runway, and Revenge.
First–Dancing With the Stars. I can sum it up in two words: Derek Hough. I know he's the dance pro, but for me, he's the star. Best. Dancer. Ever. I love watching him. He wasn't on last season and he was missed. My fave celeb is JR Martinez.
Chopped–I'm not sure why I love this Food Network show. It's intense and stressful and crazy, yet I can't look away.
Rachel Zoe Project–she just makes me laugh. Her life is so crazy, but I love the clothes and the glamour.
Project Runway–I LOVE this show. Must be the frustrated fashion designer in me. My fave this season is Victor. I hope he wins.
Revenge–my latest obsession, all about a girl who's getting revenge (hence the title, duh!) on the folks who her did her and her father wrong years ago. Takes place in the Hamptons and ya gotta love that.
I'm still watching old favorites Castle, The Vampire Diaries and Big Bang Theory. I've caught the new episodes of Two and Half Men, but I'm not really crazy about it. Ashton with long hair and a beard sort of creeps me out. Plus, did the producers think long time watchers of the show wouldn't notice that the actress playing Ashton's wife is the same gal who played Herb's sister who had the affair with Charlie? I mean, c'mon! I think I'll be abandoning ship before too long.
What shows are you watching? Which ones have you given up on? Which ones would you like to try?
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October 18, 2011
do you know where your water comes from?
Lake Georgetown
I don't normally think a whole lot about water. I need a shower, I take a shower. I have dirty dishes, I wash them. The veggies look droopy, I water them. The grass looks brown, I turn on the sprinkler.
And then a pipe bursts.
Not just any pipe. No, some sort of pipey-pumpy gizmo thingie broke last week, and because the lake was already low (hello, nasty drought), suddenly everyone serviced by the lake had to stop all outdoor watering for a few weeks while they fix it. (Without the drought, my understanding is water use could have continued as normal).
The reason for the emergency watering ban is a problem with the raw water pipeline that transfers water from Stillhouse Hollow Lake in Bell County into Lake Georgetown in Williamson County. The pipeline is owned by the cities of Georgetown and Round Rock and the Brushy Creek and Chisholm Trail utility districts. It is operated by the Brazos River Authority. The water pipeline was shut down on Wednesday in order to assess a problem with a coupling joining two sections of pipe. The problem near the intake structure at Stillhouse Hollow Lake arose after testing of two new water pumps.
With the raw water pipeline out of service, the level of Lake Georgetown will continue to drop at an accelerated rate unless water usage rates are significantly reduced. {From the City of Georgetown website}
I found out about this from a neighborhood email loop and Facebook page. Julia London (who lives in an area serviced by the lake, got an automated emergency call at midnight –uh, just WHO is out there watering at midnight?????)
Inconvenient, especially in a year where it's hard enough to keep plants alive. But I can live with inconvenience. What this whole thing has really done, though, is make me think more about where our water (and electricity and gasoline and all these other things we take for granted) comes from. I don't have a well, I no longer have septic, I don't have a generator, and I wouldn't know how to start a fire with two sticks if I was in dire straits. Granted, this is nothing compared to what folks had to go through after Katrina or any other similar emergencies. But it makes you think.
Basically, I've realized that I'm completely useless if the zombie apocalypse comes. (Okay, that's snarky but true, but what's also true is that, once again, I'm thinking that an emergency kit would be a good thing.)
How about y'all? Weathered any water/weather/utility emergencies? Do you have an emergency kit? Where do you keep it? What's in it?
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October 17, 2011
Gingerbread Pancakes
[image error]And since we were talking about breakfast, and favorite breakfast haunts, on Friday–thought I'd share a favorite recipe from the Magnolia in Austin!
Gingerbread Pancakes
Ingredients
3 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar (might want to kick up the sugar a little if you don't use syrup)
1 ¼ cup buttermilk (can substitute ¼ molasses for ¼ buttermilk)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup brewed coffee
2 1/2 cups white unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
Directions
In a large bowl, mix eggs and brown sugar until well combined. Add buttermilk, water and brewed coffee, and stir to combine. In another large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and
nutmeg. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Stir in the melted butter.
Grease a griddle or heavy skillet. Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat and then add the batter, by ladle-fulls. Cook until little bubbles appear around the edges of the pancake, and then flip. Cook on the second side until golden brown and cooked through in the middle. Serve immediately.
Heaven on a plate. How do you like your pancakes? With syrup? Naked with butter? (the pancakes, people) With fruit? Spill…
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October 16, 2011
Deep Disclosure
After spending years in prison under deep cover, black ops agent Tucker Flynn joins A-Tac, an elite CIA unit masquerading as faculty at an Ivy League college. Nothing can shake him—except a vulnerable young woman marked for death.
DUAL DECEPTION
When Tucker is assigned to protect—and secretly investigate—Alexis Markham, he expects a routine mission. But this mysterious beauty has a past even darker than his: her father created a horrifying new biochemical weapon—and was murdered to keep it secret.
Alexis has spent the last decade racing to stay one step ahead of the shadowy operatives who will stop at nothing to possess her father's formula. She can trust no one, not even her handsome new bodyguard. But the heat that flares between them is impossible to resist. Will giving in to passion bring her the safety she's always craved, or will her love for Tucker draw him into a killer's sights?
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October 15, 2011
Saturday Books: Readapalooza!
Too many good books to read! I'm currently reading three at once. I try not to read more than one at a time, but I started on Elin Hildebrand's Barefoot as a break from the very long and involved part two of the Game of Thrones series– and then my Kindle Daily Deal was for Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, and I didn't mean to read it now but I got caught up in the first chapter. And there's so many more on my TBR pile.[image error]
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Bradley Cooper starred in a TV Series adaptation of Kitchen Confidential-- I had no idea!
And what do you know, I've been cleaning up after my sick dog all day. She suddenly came down with some kind of stomach ailment. I was thinking maybe something she ate? But now I am starting to feel flu-like symptoms, too. Chills. Fever. Body aches and pains. In the words of the immortal dog icon Scooby Doo, "ruh-roh." Maybe more reading time in my future.
What are you reading? Do you ever read two or three or more at once?
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October 14, 2011
Twenty-four Hours a Day!
So my favorite meal of the day is breakfast! And given a choice I'll choose it for any meal. One of my favorite things about living in Manhattan is the prevalence of diners which serve breakfast
twenty-four hours a day. The Madison (on 1st Ave at 53rd) is my favorite and even having moved slightly uptown, I still head that way when I'm in the mood for great pancakes or fabulous hash browns. There's also Sarabeths for upscale breakfast. And recently I went to Balthazar's in SoHo for a Parisian style brunch that also delicious. And of course the mainstay of New York breakfast
—the bagel—which is worthy of a blog all on its own (see www.themanhattanchronicles.wordpress.com ).
But Manhattan doesn't hold the key on good breakfast places. Some of the best in the world can be found in the South and Southwest. A trip to the Williamsburg area will turn up more pancake houses than you can possibly imagine. Local eateries that feature—of course—pancakes as well as other great breakfast fare. In Boulder recently, I was taken to a lovely coffee shop/diner that had great French toast. And somewhere between Sante Fe and Taos JK and I stopped for an amazing southwestern breakfast complete with sopapillas at Rancho de Chimayo. YUM! And then there's my all-time favorite breakfast haunt–the Waffle House. A divey place where everyone says hello when you walk in the door, you can enjoy some of the best (and cheapest) waffles around.
In Austin, my favorite breakfast places are the Magnolia Café and it's dysfunctional family twin The Omelettry and old stalwart, Kirby Lane. There are also some fabulous pastry and coffee places that put Starbucks to shame. And speaking of pastries…the coffee houses in Vienna, although not geared for breakfast, could make my heart sing. Along with hot kipferls (the Austrian equivalent of croissants. Speaking of which…Paris in the
morning…yum. And Japanese pastries (inspired by the French) are a morning delight along with hot tea. Oh and then there's Irish breakfast. Eggs, sausages, blood pudding (yes… I'll admit, I love the stuff). And thankfully, New York is full of Irish pubs that sell—you guessed it—Irish breakfast. So we've come full-circle and I'm back to heaven on a plate for breakfast in NYC.
Anyway, you get the idea. Wherever I am, I love breakfast. What about you? What are your favorite breakfast haunts? Favorite foods? Do you like it any time of day (breakfast that is)?
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October 13, 2011
The Jobs Debate
Graphic designed by Jonathan Mak Long of Hong Kong, a 19 year old graphic design student
Last Wednesday, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple computer passed away after a long battle with cancer. In the days following his death, there was a huge outpouring of media coverage and public memorials. Now, the media coverage I was expecting, but the public memorials surprised me, only because you don't hear people say, "I LUV Steve Jobs" but "I LUV my (insert Apple product you love here)."
Steve Jobs was the hard-driving force behind a lot of great products, but he wasn't a heroic man. He had a tendency to yell at people, to call them names, and was very arrogant. A friend of mine interned at Apple and in her words: "he's an a*&hole." He wasn't a guy who made the gossip pages, and he didn't give gee-gobs to charity. Everything he had, he poured into his vision for consumer products. I didn't even know he had a family and kids until after his death (and I keep up the tech industry).
One of the things that is hard for me to reconcile is that a person can have great qualities and some really stinky qualities, but where do you draw the line on the stinky qualities? I don't know, which is why all the accolades for Jobs made me uncomfortable. A great company, yes. A great visionary, yes. A great man? Um, holding out on that one. My standard for greatness is pretty durn high.
We have a household full of Apple products (and yet I have found that I need a PC as well, because not everything in the world runs best on Mac — Quicken, I'm looking at you). I made my mother buy a Mac a long time ago, but eventually she converted back to a PC because Microsoft wised up and made the interface a lot easier. But without a doubt, Apple is my number one brand and I do think that credit belongs to Steve Jobs and the Apple-centric world that he created.
There's been a lot of discussion on whether Apple can maintain the same level of success without Steve. Rumor has it that the product pipe-line is set for the next four years. I suspect that Apple will be fine. Steve Jobs was a man who knew how to create cachet, and he was a demanding perfectionist, so I'm not selling my Apple stock.
Not yet.
So what's your take? Can you separate the great and the stinky? Any people that you feel guilty for liking?
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October 12, 2011
Shoe Evolution!
Someone recently told me about the Stiletto Stampede, at which you do a 100 yard dash in stilettos. I told this person that I could have done it many years ago. I wore heels every day, and I would run to catch the yellow line into DC. No one believes me now.
But those days are long gone, along with some others. I was thinking back to favorite shoes over the years. When I was a little kid, go-go boots were the thing. We all had to have them, along with fishnet hose.
When I got a little older, it was saddle oxfords. I think it was junior high. VB will have to confirm it. Don't act like you didn't wear them too, VB!
Clogs were popular when I was in high school. You had to something to wear with those elephant ear bell bottoms.
Then came heels. I had lots and lots of pairs of shoes like these.
And then I quit the day job. When I quit the day job, I permanently moved into these:
About once or twice a year, I put on heels, and God, do my feet hurt. I lost all the muscles necessary to walk around in them, much less run in them. I finally realized it a couple of years ago and took a trunkload of heels (expensive heels, I might add) to Goodwill.
Now, my shoe of choice is this:
If I am not wearing flip-flops, I am probably in running shoes. I am thinking of adding Wellies to the collection in case it ever rains again and I have to walk Moose. You always want to be prepared.
What's your shoe evolution? What is your shoe of choice? Could you run in heels now, or ever?
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