weekend blotter

dirt jumping with mountain bikes in cunningham park.
late night korean food in sunnyside.
belmar seafood festival on the jersey shore.

NY Auto Show

Imagine my horror when I came upon this cheap imitation at Scion's booth at the Auto Show. I mean really! Not even real wheels!

Butch & Buck, meet Blayne & Blaire

They live! I put a bunch of snails that I found in the watercress into the avocado plant a couple months or so ago, and have just found out that they are still alive. And engaging in an age-old gastropodean past time—racing over eggshells!

And Blayne is overtaken in Mad-Maxean style!

Quinoa with cranberry, raisins, and almonds

I experimented a little bit tonight while vegetarian Jake played softball, and the results were good. Toot!

2 cups of quinoa
1 13oz can vegetable broth
handful of dried cranberries (I used Craisins)
handful of golden raisins
handful of sliced almonds
1 cup peas (mine were frozen)
2 reconstituted dried mushrooms
2 bay leaves
1 stick cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp masala powder
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter vegan?
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
4 whole cardomom pods

On low-medium heat, toast quinoa for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a separate pan, fry onions in oil. Wait a few minutes and then throw in the rest of the spices, dried fruits, mushrooms, and butter. Stir-fry for after another 5 minutes to get the flavor out, then stir in the peas and quinoa until the mixture coats the quinoa. Stir for another few minutes. Then add the broth, and simmer covered for 15-20-25 minutes, depending on how tender you like the quinoa. Add a little water as it's cooking if the mixture gets too dry.

And that's it!

Jake says, "It's got a spicy sweetness. Delicious!"

iPhone mod

i cannot describe to you the excitement that i felt upon receiving the new body kit for my iphone, but suffice it to say that i was excited. unemployment has done several things to me: 1. i get excited over the smallest "projects" because real projects i used to work on always involved some irish dude hounding me to no end for status reports; the only irish dude hounding me these days just wants seitan in his rice 2. i have no money to spend on things like i used to, so repair and salvage are two words that have replaced my daily vernacular whose words used to include "buy" and "new."

last week i spent an hour sewing up an umbrella that the nor'easter destroyed — that project went undocumented for various reasons, not the least of which included humility. this week i am restoring my iphone 3g to its 2007 splendor. i ordered this kit on ebay for $8.88 from guess where... Hong Kong. if you didn't guess that, it's probably because you're not chinese. the number 8 portends good luck in chinese culture.... so does praying to your ancestors, wearing mounds of jade, and stepping in dog shit. so, one may deduce that this fortuitous trifecta of 8's i was charged was like stepping in a pile of dog shit while wearing my mom's jade bangles, while talking aloud to my dead grandmother. i digress. here, let me show you what i mean:

it really was a mess. and i'm embarrassed to admit how long all this actually took me. but despite the mess on the table (i don't know what the vaseline is doing on the counter), i really did have a system of sorts for keeping track of which screws went where.

but all worth it! for here is what butch has to say

"i will henceforth be known as Garfield."
i say, "what frivolity!"