2011-10-23 - 1:49 a.m.
I originally posted this as a comment over at Blog con Queso in response to the list of restaurants she wants to experience on her Life List. My comment brought back so many memories for me, that I thought I should re-post it here. So here you go:
Wow�when I was reading through your list, I froze when I saw Canlis on your list of restaurants. Oh�the memories. I grew up in Seattle, and yes, it was the epitome of fine dining. There are legends about it. Way back in the day, I even got an account there (how this was possible, I don�t even know�I was living at poverty level at the time.) They have one of the best Lady�s Rooms I�ve ever been in (I actually snuck several men friends in there to take pictures.) I once parked at the far end of the Aurora bridge and walked across it to meet someone for drinks there. I once went there wearing nearly nothing just an hour after returning from Vegas (it was snowing and we drove there in my Jeep!) I had escargot there. Good times.comments??? (0 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I could go on and on. It was the height of glamour and decadence back in the day.
Sadly, now�not so much. The Geisha girl/Kimono waitresses are long gone. When they remodeled and changed up the menu�it was just different. The formality and dress code left. Even their new sign seemed crooked.
Granted, I haven�t been there in 10 years, so they may have turned things back around. But my feel was that their era of greatness has come and gone. I was surprised to see it listed among the mind blowing other restaurants you want to try.
But nostalgia is a fickle thing. I hope that if you do make it there, it will be as fabulous as it once was back in the day.
2011-10-22 - 6:08 p.m.
There's a liquor store/market just down the street from my house. I go there all the time because it's convenient. Sometimes I'll go in there twice in one day if I want to buy an extra bottle of wine or more cocktail fixings. So they know me and know my habits.
Well this one guy who works there all the time is oddly disapproving of people who drink. He often gossips to me about how much alcohol certain regular customers buy. Now he has even started to chide me if I show up more than once in a day.
I was over there just now, and he asked me very disapprovingly how many times I'd been there today. I told him this was my first time today, but he shook his head like he didn't believe me.
Then, as I was leaving, I heard him chewing out the next customer for smoking cigarettes....but he, himself, smokes!
So, WTF? If people didn't shop there for alcohol and cigarettes...he would be out of a job!
Weird.
2011-10-22 - 1:53 a.m.
You know how when you're eating in bed (which you should never do because there are crumbs), and then there ARE CRUMBS...so you dab them up with your finger and put them in your mouth? DON'T DO THAT.
Don't ask me why I know this.
comments??? (0 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2011-10-19 - 8:01 p.m.
Long before all the talk of "global warming" or "climate change" became main stream, I had a theory of my own. This was not necessarily a serious one, more of just a thought: that the seemingly increase and intensity of storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. was related to the increase in construction of skyscrapers and the like.
The air currents have to swirl around bigger and taller obstructions. The weight of all this new stuff in new places surely must upset things somehow. Never mind the drilling and poking into the earth.
Ok...I guess I wasn't the first to think of this. I was probably influenced by
The Butterfly Theory.
But then recently, I was reading the book that the movie The Help was based on, and I ran across this paragraph which echoed my thoughts beautifully:
"The thermometer by Miss Celia's kitchen window sinks down from seventy-nine to sixty-five in less than an hour. At last, a cold front's moving in, bringing cool air from Canada or Chicago or somewhere. I'm picking the lady peas for stones, thinking about how we're breathing the same air those Chicago people breathed two days ago. Wondering if, for no good reason I started thinking about Sears and Roebuck or Shake 'n Bake, would it be because some Illinoian had thought it two days ago. It gets my mind off my troubles for about five seconds."
I love that paragraph, especially the last two lines.
I read a lot, and though I haven't seen the movie yet, this is now one of my all time favorite books. comments??? (0 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2011-10-17 - 8:00 p.m.
A few weeks ago, we were having these freaky high tides in Playa del Rey. We don't usually get these kind of tides until the winter...and even then, they're not often this severe. The picture in my last post (scroll down down) is from about the second day into the flooding. The "mountains" you see in that last picture are actually just mounds of sand that the lifeguards put up to stop further flooding from getting to the beach front homes.
The next day I went back and all that sand had been washed away by a new super high tide. It was incredible.
The picture below, I took yesterday at the same spot. This is what it usually looks like. The ocean is a fickle beast.
(You can also check out the Playa beach cam, which is fairly close to where I took the photos, here, for daily updates on what the beach looks like.)
2011-10-11 - 5:31 p.m.
I'll post more about this photo later, so stay tuned. Just wanted to get a picture up in here!
2011-10-07 - 1:01 a.m.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, I get the urge to snack in weird ways....and it's always after midnight...usually between 2:00-4:00am.
Because of this, I don't keep snack food in the house unless it's super healthy: Cliff Bars, nuts, fat free sorbet, etc.
But every now and then, I go crazy and make some over the top snack using every leftover I have in the house with cereal and chocolate syrup on top. (Kidding...uh, sort of!) So, tonight when I was raiding the refrigerator (pantry, couch cushions, uhh...), I realized that I had a frozen WonTon soup.
Now this was not your ordinary "top ramen" 10~bags~for~a~dollar soup, this was a decadent, shrimp WonTon soup to die for. I've been saving it. It's full of salt....which makes it delicious. But that also makes me swell. I do not do well with salt. So I told myself I would only eat the shrimp, and not drink the most wonderful ever broth....in an effort to save myself.
There were 5 beautiful shrimp wantons. I used a fork and a spoon to carefully eat each one. As I was savoring the 4th and next to last, I noted that the last one looked the most perfect, bigger then the rest, the wonton was beautiful, the shrimp looked succulent. I scooped it up with my soup spoon and attempted to skewer it with my fork....only to have it slip away....and land on my seriously un~swept floor.
There are no words.
I drank ALL the broth.
I poured ANOTHER glass of wine.
I will be puffy tomorrow.
And now I am going to bed.
comments??? (4 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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