| Scuba. Also, dinner win |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|09:15 pm] |
Went scuba diving today. First drysuit dive. Skills went well. We tooled around a bit and I tried to get used to the suit. It's probably going to be five or ten dives before I begin to feel comfortable and can pay attention to the dive and not the drysuit — but it sure was nice being warm and dry when I got out of the water.
Unfortunately, the dive ended with me ascending rapidly due to air in the drysuit. Not atypical for a first drysuit dive, but still frustrating. I had started an accidental feet-first ascent, swam out of it nicely, and bled air — but I bled air from the BCD, not the drysuit. Whoops.
But it was a decent first dive. Hopefully I'll be able to get the hang of it soon. Plus it confirms that the drysuit can actually keep me dry, which saves me worry and/or money, and means I can keep diving all winter long.
After coming home and washing my gear, my thoughts turned to dinner. Laura was headed out to a girls-only party with friends down in Tacoma, and so I figured I'd cook the spare ribs that were in the freezer. I thawed them in the sink, seared them with garlic, ginger, and hot pepper, sauteed some onion, and braised it all in a mixture of mushroom stock, soy sauce, and lime juice.
When the ribs were done, I took them out and cooked up some rice noodles we had in the cabinet. I reduced the sauce, adding a little mirin and a little extra sugar as it was quite tart, then re-warmed the ribs in the thickened sauce. I cut the meat off of half the rack of ribs, chopped it into bite-sized pieces, and served it on top of the rice noodles with a healthy dollop of sauce. Tasty!
This week, we'll take the other half of the ribs, cut the meat off, and put with cabbage into the wonton wrappers we have in the fridge. The leftover sauce could be a dipping sauce for that, though maybe we'll just want hoisin. |
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| Officially Winter |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|05:55 pm] |
It's been a pretty good week. Not only did I see a unicycling bagpipe-playing santa, but I got to go to Zoolights (where we found all 6 peacocks and won a [lame] prize and we got to ride the train), my sweetie gave me an advent calendar he made for me (with all kinds of cryptic messages on it), got my jury duty moved so I don't have to reschedule big hairy meetings at work, gone on several long walks this week, I think I saw Grace Jones at the mall (at least based on the woman's hair and clothing choices) and I've just about got the house cleaned up for working on making stuff for Christmas. I've also got more books to release for BookCrossing over the next week. I've got beef stew and bread cooking in the kitchen, a skirt to make for a 3 year-old friend's birthday party tomorrow, a hat and dress to finish up for a 2 year-old friend, and a cross-stitch picture to mount and frame for a 40-something year-old friend next weekend.
It's officially winter now. Last night was our first serious freeze. I had a cherry tomato bush that still had some reddening tomatoes on it till this morning. Now it's just deaddeaddead. There's a small tree in my driveway strip that's falling over onto the driveway - anyone want to help cut it down for me? And there's rumors that it might snow a few flakes tomorrow. That'll just add to the adventure of going across town to the 3 y/o's birthday party. |
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| Really? |
[Dec. 2nd, 2009|10:19 pm] |
Everytime I think I've seen it all, the world smacks me upside the head to remind me how sheltered my life really is.
To wit: while checking out a restaurant and deciding whether to go in, we were passed by a guy in a Santa suit, playing the bagpipes, and riding by on a unicycle. |
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| Nazih |
[Dec. 2nd, 2009|01:04 pm] |
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| A Brief Period of Rejoicing |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|11:03 pm] |
IANAL^H^H^H AL - I am officially a lawyer. My boss administered my oath of attorney to me this afternoon. In a moment of unusual grace, the California Bar Association has liberal requirements for who may administer the oath, and my boss fits the bill. I sent off my signed and sealed registration card; now I just wait for the Bar to label me with a number and make my personal information public on the Internet. (There's a searchable attorney database online, see. 222,595 members as of November 2009, soon to increase by several thousand more!) Anyway, the Bar waives annual dues if you take the oath in December, so I'll only have to pay for 2010. Worth it given the rather nice raise I'll get for being a barred attorney, after a year on the job (though it's annoying to have to wait for that anniversary to roll around). Plus, I fall into the narrow category of exemptions from continuing legal education (CLE) requirements, meaning no paying lots of money to fly back to California and sit through stultifying classes for now.
NaNoWriMo - I won NaNoWriMo this year! My novel is just barely past the 50,000-word minimum, and it needs some editing. (Hellooo, NaNoEditMo, as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) searchingbuddha, another winner, said.) But I wrote a damn book, in 29 days.
( Boris )
In sum: I'm a lawyer. I'm a writer. Get vet insurance.
And remember that today is World AIDS Day. My own little problems and victories -- this world is not conclusion; another stands beyond. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 29th, 2009|10:50 pm] |
Not sure if this is real, many of you have probably already seen it, but it's still awesome. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 29th, 2009|10:49 pm] |
A project by Matthias Gommel, Martina Haitz and Jan Zappe of Robotlab |
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| Tuba Christmas 2009 |
[Nov. 29th, 2009|08:17 pm] |
The first time I went, I really enjoyed it. I wasn't quite as thrilled last year - too much talking by the conductor and the music itself was too slow. But I'm going to give Tuba Christmas one more try. It's far more fun with more people. Maybe the couple-hundred crazy Santas will walk through again.
It's Saturday, December 12, 1:30-3:30 at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Serious heavy metal! |
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