1August
2008
maura @ 10:15 am
Yesterday the Annefesto challenge was issued, and I’m going for it!
“Here’s the Annefesto! challenge: go to the free section of craigslist. It should be your town or the closest one available. Now, take the first 5 items listed and create something!”
Let’s head over to the Brooklyn Craigslist and see what we can find:
1. Tortoishell Kitten
2. Free Full Size Bed (Mattress, Box Spring & Frame)
3. hamster for free only to a good home (clicking in to the listing reveals that there are actually SEVEN hamsters, and if you take them all you get their gear, too.)
4. ENTERTAINMENT UNIT SOLID OAK
5. [ 2 ] 17″ tv’s for moniter to play video games
Okay, I know that this isn’t part of the challenge, but here’s the last listing verbatim:
“good condition i have agood antena also
i dont need them and on jan 1st we all go digital”
It’s Craigslist poetry!
Anyway, I read these all out loud and Jonathan immediately yelled, “luxury info spa for predator + prey!” Which is kind of what I was thinking, too:
Furnish your cat’s rec room in style! ALL the kittehs will want to be friends with yr cat, aww yeah. Your kitteh can lounge on the plush, full-sized bed while watching not one but two (!) TVs stylishly housed on this solid oak entertainment center. Throw in a cage full of seven sweet, tasty hamsters (plus toys — play with your food!) and your cat will love you 4evah!!!
23July
2008
maura @ 9:10 pm
What is it about this summer? I’m feeling very blag-challenged lately. Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending too much time with those hip new kids, facebook + twitter. But I’m taking a break from them this week and it’s all about YOU, blag. I still love you best.
Last night, for a variety of reasons, there wasn’t much food in the house to pack for my lunch. So I cooked something! Well, it’s a cold salad, so nothing was actually cooked. But I chopped things up and mixed them together in the proportions Jonathan dictated to me. And there’s enough for at least 3 days of lunch, so I feel victorious.
We’ll call this one: Johnny’s Take on Prune‘s Black-Eyed Pea Salad (thank you Gabrielle Hamilton!)
1. Open a can of black-eyed peas, rinse them just a little bit, and dump into a big metal bowl.
2. Grab a bag of frozen corn, dump it into a colander and rinse with hot water to defrost them. Dump into big metal bowl.
3. Wash and halve a container of cherry or grape tomatoes and, you guessed it, into the bowl they go.
4. Really you should dice a nice-sized shallot at this point, but we didn’t have any so we subbed in a few scallions. Wash, chop, put in bowl.
5. Fresh parsley: wash and ask your sous-chef to chop them (I hate chopping! It is at least 80% of the reason I don’t like to cook). You can put them in the bowl, though.
6. Secret ingredient: gherkins! Any size gherkin pickle will do. Sometimes we use cornichons, but last night we only had the big guys. Roughly chop at least 3 big pickles — it will look like a lot but trust me, you need them!
7. Secret ingredient #2: gherkin juice! Put the lid on the jar and shake it up, then splash a few good pours into the bowl. How much? Well, you don’t want it to be soupy (and the tomatoes will shed water too), but there should be some liquid in the bottom of the bowl.
8. Pour some olive oil over the whole mess. Jonathan had me count to 20, but I counted fast. Remember that olive oil is good for you!
9. Salt + pepper to taste. Mix it all up and taste it. If you need to add more salt the next night, that’s okay.
10. Use the spoon to push everything down to the bottom of the bowl so it call all marinate together overnight. Mmmm, mingly flavors!
Voila! The perfect summer lunch, no hot stove required. Have a thick slice of sourdough bread with roquefort alongside, or even mix in couscous to make a complete meal.
18July
2008
maura @ 9:50 am
Ah, Summer Fridays. The days I’ve scheduled for publication-related activities. Last week I had a good workday, but today I am far less motivated. I’m still not 100% recovered from my surprisingly evil head cold. And I feel like I didn’t get enough done this week, what with the 2 sick days. I guess I did finish two books while convalescing (one of which had been moldering on a shelf, half-read, since the spring!). But I’d like to have gotten more done at work, run some errands, cleared out some Coop work, etc.
(Yes, I know it’s not healthy to regret time lost to illness. I’m working on it.)
So, today I would much rather be doing non-publication-related things. But there’s not an infinite number of Summer Fridays, so instead I’ve planned procrastination until 10am (hence this post!) and work after that.
(So here’s the real post now, that was all just explanatory blathering that you’re free to ignore. Oops, too late.)
Two shiny new gadgets arrived in our house this week.
I know, I know, I’ve claimed at least twice that I would not be getting one. BUT, someone in the house joined the iphone developer’s program and needed a testing platform. Also, our old cellphones were really bad, practically unusable, and since our contract was up we would have needed to pay for new phones AND get a more expensive contract anyway since they no longer offer our old plan. And it’s not fair for just ONE person in the house to have an iphone, now, is it?
Admittedly, it still makes me a bit nervous to carry it around. I did bring my old ipod shuffle to work the other day because it seemed conspicuous to be listening to music on the iphone in the subway. But I have to admit that it’s pretty sweet. I stitched up a quickie cozy for it out of some felt I had lying around, but I’ve plans to sew a real case sometime soon. And the headphones fit perfectly into the little knitted cozy that Anne made for me ages ago (thanks Anne!).
I haven’t paid for any software for it yet, but I downloaded a free Othello, because I am a nerd. Now if someone could just make a (GOOD!) listmaking app and Tesserae, I’ll be all set!
15July
2008
maura @ 9:42 pm
I’m sick, bah. Standard head cold, nose is a faucet, you know the drill. Not sure how it happened — no one else I know is sick. Of course, Gus started camp last week so maybe he brought something home with him. Germy germy kids.
I have to go to bed, so what to do with the blag? Why, paste in twitter updates, of course! Recently twitter is the only interwebs thing I can manage. Call it summer brain, or snot brain, or something. Anyway, enjoy my past 2 weeks:
mauraweb still snotty, bah about 3 hours ago from web
mauraweb feeling a bit better, hoping to feel better enough to walk to work tomorrow morning 09:28 PM July 14, 2008 from web
mauraweb still sick, still crabby, sipping ol’ doc johnny’s medical lemony bourbon 09:16 PM July 13, 2008 from web
mauraweb constantly blowing my nose, hating summer colds 08:25 PM July 12, 2008 from web
mauraweb considering whether to feed twitter onto my blog 09:59 PM July 11, 2008 from web
mauraweb finished my outline, yippee!!! 12:34 PM July 11, 2008 from web
mauraweb 3 5 0 1 2 5 go! 09:21 PM July 10, 2008 from web
mauraweb gearing up for tonight’s work: reading (not writing, sadly) 08:21 PM July 09, 2008 from web
mauraweb looking at all the things to be done, wondering where the day went 09:14 PM July 08, 2008 from web
mauraweb watching a kitten spinning on the chair while one of its owners hums pee-wee music 07:30 PM July 07, 2008 from web
mauraweb sliding down the slippery slope to coffee time 02:02 PM July 07, 2008 from web
mauraweb family yay! traffic boo! home yay! 10:08 PM July 06, 2008 from web
mauraweb recovering from a strenuous day of sitting at a couple of playgrounds and hauling a pile of kids’ books home from the library 05:55 PM July 02, 2008 from web
mauraweb wondering if i will ever have time to read everything i want to read 09:33 PM July 01, 2008 from web
11July
2008
maura @ 8:48 pm
For our nation’s birthday this year we at mauraweb! decamped to parts north. Unlike other years, when we’ve headed to the Midwest, this year the Midwest met us in New England. Rollicking family fun ensued: lounging around, swimming, feasting on lobster + corn, and indulging in slightly terrifying backyard fireworks. Gus was surprised to learn that he has an 11 yr old first cousin once removed, who has 4 toy lightsabers (including the color Gus covets: purple), a pool, and Super Smash Bros Brawl. I was surprised to learn that teenagers still make friendship bracelets. Who knew?
The kittens were both good and bad in our absence. The house was in decent shape when we returned, but one of them had chewed through the thin Wii sensor bar cable. Luckily Jonathan was able to fix it, saving us from buying a new one (which isn’t as easy as it should be). They also chewed through the ground wire for my turntable, but it needs a new belt so I haven’t been able to use it recently. I’m thinking about upgrading to a USB turntable anyway — this one is nearly 20 yrs old and wasn’t that great to begin with. And it’d be nice to convert some of my records to mp3 so I can actually listen to them in the places I’m listening to music these days.
Sigh, another long + boring post. Sorry, Interwebs! I used up all of my writing mojo today on the first of my five Summer Friday Scholarly Activities Bonanzas: drafting outline of an article and researching the literature review of said article. Go me! I’ll make it up to you in the next post, promise.
1July
2008
maura @ 10:17 pm
It’s time to blag, time for the blagging. That’s what the calendar tells me, at least. That it’s been nearly another week. And how can the time go by so quickly, anyway? What have I been doing?
Not much interesting, really. Working at work. Last week was a bad sleep week, so lots of coffee was consumed (and not much scooting done). Enduring high heat + humidity. Moving to temp office space during renovations. The members’ picnic night at BBG. Sesame Place. Family visiting + nephew baptizing. Driving on the NJT, 2nd most hated of all roads (right behind the SIE, which was also driven on). Kitten love (they missed us when we were away). And laundry, there is always laundry.
I am buried under reading at the moment. 1/2 a fiction book from the public library (renewed at least 13 times!). Another fiction book from work (plucked from the shelves mere hours before the PSs were sealed off for the rest of the summer!). 2 kids books. 1 new arty-n-writy book by Lynda Barry that I did not even know existed until my rad spouse got it for me for my birthday. 1 exciting (if you are me!) work book. Rounding out the pack are a few work-related articles, a few articles for the literature review of an article I hope to write, and a few articles for a research project I hope to start in the fall.
I need to stop sleeping. That’s clearly the only strategy.
25June
2008
maura @ 10:45 pm
Years since we last subscribed to Harper’s Magazine: 11
Days since a colleague gave me this month’s issue:* 6
Issues of The New Yorker ahead of Harper’s in the ToT** magazine queue: 3
Times I have laughed out loud at this week’s New Yorker cover, by the amazing Roz Chast: at least 4
Boxes of stuff I brought from my cube to my temp office space: 1
Pairs of shoes: 2
Coat trees: 1
Hours of sleep I got last Sunday night: 5.5-ish***
Cups of coffee consumed per day on Monday and yesterday: 3 (plus 1 cup of tea on Monday)
Hours of sleep last night: 7.5-ish
Cups of coffee today: 2
Episodes of Battlestar Galactica watched in the past week: 3
Episodes remaining until we’re done with the season: 1
Days this month I’ve kept my writing pact with myself: 13****
This past week: 3
Summer Fridays I’ll be trying to devote to writing an article: 5
Summer Fridays I’ll be waiting in a long hot line for water slides and trying to avoid being hugged by Elmo at Sesame Place: 1
* She was finished with it, and we were prepping for moving day, which was today. The second floor of the library is being renovated over the summer so about half of us are temporarily displaced, split between 2 big rooms. It’s got kind of a college dorm feel. I’ll be hanging up my Joy Division and Cure posters tomorrow.
** Top of Toilet
*** Gus came in at 5:16am Monday, which is neither unusual nor typically a problem, except that he woke up the kittehs who then decided it was purr -n- playtime, bah.
**** I’m trying to write something most days recently (unless I’m crushingly tired), to prime the pump. Blag, journal, incoherent scholarly-ish ramblings: they all count. Keeping track on a calendar, because I’m a nerd like that.
18June
2008
maura @ 10:38 pm
Wait, I was going to tell you about bicycles, wasn’t I?
I’ve wanted a bike for a while.* For green reasons, health reasons, fun reasons. But I haven’t been able to get myself to buy one. Partly it was a money thing: when we were on our eXtreme library school budget it didn’t seem properly thrifty to buy a bike. But there are other reasons too.
* I had a bike in college, but I didn’t use it for transportation as much as for health/fun rides along the lake between Hyde Park and the Loop. It’s a beautiful ride (and easy, too). But then the bike didn’t fit into the Uhaul when we moved east after college, so it lingered in the Midwest until Jonathan’s stepfather finally gave it to Goodwill (with my blessing!).
Reason #1: Can’t seem to find the time to go to a bike store. This is kind of lame, but bicycles are complicated and expensive, and it seems like it would take several time-intensive trips to a bike store to get one. I guess if I really wanted one I would make the time, right? Which leads me to…
Reason #2: See above re: complicated. I have a hard enough time doing maintenance work on the house and the car — it’s just not something that interests me. And I would feel bad about spending money on bike tune-ups when I could (theoretically) DIY.
Reason #3: What if the bike gets stolen? Would I have to get 3 million locks? What about the seat? I see some bikes with no seat — are they stolen or taken away by their owners for security reasons?
Reason #4 (possibly the most neurotic reason, certainly the most important): Brooklyn streets are full of cars driving recklessly. And, for that matter, they are also full of hardcore cyclists biking in a hardcore manner. I am not the world’s most graceful person. Reckless cars + hardcore cyclists + 1 klutzy cyclist who hasn’t really ridden a bike in nearly two decades cannot possibly = a good, safe commute.
But it’s getting too hot to walk every day. And it would be nice to have the commute be a little shorter, thus freeing me up to not take the subway home.
Enter: my new xootr! 0 learning curve. Can be ridden on the sidewalk. 100% fun. Also 100% dorky, esp. when I wear my orange helmet (yes, I know this is blue, but they don’t seem to have orange anymore). Jonathan said: “you look as cool as if you were riding a Segway.” And he’s right!
Just to really drive the dorkiness home, yesterday on my way to work I passed a little boy who exclaimed to his mom, “wow, cool!” Yes, even the first graders think I’m cool. AWESOME.
13June
2008
maura @ 10:45 pm
Way back in April I was inspired to take the camera and document my walk to work one day. I downloaded the photos and there they’ve sat, in a folder named blag, on my desktop, for weeks now.
Until today! The day when you too can enjoy My Walk To Work in all it’s late April glory.
This is the block around the corner from ours, a particularly pretty one. Lots of lovely planting going on here — I always enjoy a good clawfoot bathtub planter.
A coffee shop on my walk has this cool bench. Never had their coffee though — I’m always too hyped up from J’s coffee (and walking too fast to stop at this early point).
This is one of two somewhat crazy clothing + other stuff stores I walk by. I’ve never been in though — maybe I am too afraid that I will buy something.
The Williamsburg Bank Building is the tallest building in Brooklyn. Of course they are turning it into condos (note scaffolding). The red and greenish building on the right is just one example of the hideousness wrought by the developer who wants to build a huge stadium in this part of Brooklyn. Bah.
I’ve never understood why there’s a cow in front of the hardware store. But it is a well-maintained cow, and the kids do like it.
Did you lose your glasses? I hope not, because these are in bad shape.
I am perfectly happy living in an apartment. But if I ever do live in a house, I would like it to be purple! After walking by it somewhat unintentionally, I actually changed my route because seeing this house every morning makes me happy.
Gus’s old preschool was across the street from this bar, which prompted many a joke amongst the parents, esp. during the always-excruciating “phase-in.” Note the “for sale” sign. Sigh.
I walk by lots of beautiful examples of urban gardens. I like this one for the pansies, which look so perky and happy, and the variety, which is quite eye-catching.
I also walk by lots of bikes. I’ve been having serious bike lust lately. This old school yellow number’s pretty rad. (More on bikes another day.)
How many new buildings can you count? The correct answer is 3 (4 if you count the one just to the left that didn’t fit in the frame). There’s a lot of construction these days in northern Brooklyn. Because, did you hear? There’s a terrible shortage of million-dollar 2 BR condos! TERRIBLE! Wherever will those people wanting to pay $1m for an apartment GO?! Quick, throw up more condos, before they all move to the suburbs!!!
</snark>
This is a sculpture in the plaza I walk through when I’m almost at work. Even though I’ve been at my job for almost 3 mos, I still wonder “where’s that dog’s owner?” at least once a week.
Another view of the plaza, while the cherry trees were in bloom. Public art is cool. The mostly blue + green mostly metal + stained glass sculpture on the left has an old-fashioned subway station feel to it. On the right is part of an installation of small plastic water bottles filled with red liquid hung in the trees, which look like alien fruits or eggs or something.
I like walking through this plaza — it’s right at the end of the walk and it’s nice to see trees, grass and art before starting the workday.
Work! The library’s in a funky building that was built in the 80s to connect 3 other buildings. Sometimes the floors don’t meet up (e.g. the library building has no 3rd floor) which is surprising! I’m lucky to have a window — the green dot approximates my location.
…and, I don’t know quite how to end this post. Except to say that it’s Friday night, and even though I can’t quite manage the popfest this weekend, I still probably shouldn’t be thinking about work. Bye!
8June
2008
maura @ 3:24 pm
It should not be 90+ degrees and 90+% humidity in June.
—
What’s worse than spending 2 nights (because we started too late for one night) watching a movie that had all of the ingredients to be hilarious but ended up being a total dud? The same PLUS awful-yet-catchy songs that get stuck in your head for days afterwards! That pretty much sums up Music & Lyrics, which we watched last week. It looked so good on the outside: funny cast (Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore) + promising set up (what could be more fun than mocking Wham!?). But something went horribly, horribly wrong with the writing or direction or something because it was just BORING. And the songs are driving me crazy.
—
The kittehs are great, thanks for asking. But it appears that Mr. & Mrs. Fastidious are having a somewhat rocky transition to kitten ownership.
It’s funny, if you’d asked me a few months ago what housekeeping task worried me re: cats, I’d have said sweeping, of course, because of the fur. But you know, these little guys do not shed so much, and the fur is not bothering me at all.
However, both Jonathan and I are having a hard time with the litterbox. I hadn’t realized that a bit of litter tends to come out of the box when a cat exits (even despite the little footmat thing in front of the box), and am finding myself sweeping the bathroom about 10 times a day. Jonathan’s bugbear is the stinky poop, which he rushes in to scoop the very instant that a kitten has exited the bathroom. We are both freaking ourselves out with the thought of poopecules: the (probably imaginary, but what if not?) microscopic fragments of poop that give us pause whenever a kitten jumps up on the bed or sofa. Quel surprise!
—
Yesterday was stoop sale day, yippee! We took in a decent amount of cash, and got rid of a ton of stuff between the sale and our now-traditional hauling everything that didn’t sell directly to the thrift store afterwards (nothing comes back upstairs – nothing!). I’m proud of our steely resolve this year: we didn’t even buy much from our neighbors.
This year’s bang-up stoop sale innovation: the quarter bin (i.e. everything in the big plastic bin costs 25 cents) and the free bin (ditto but free). These ended up being a great way to get rid of all of those little toys and doodads (ay dios mia, plastic party favors!), while drawing in potential stoop sale victims. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
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