Done

So far this month has been what one calls busy. Not just busy, very busy, but at least some progress has been made. So far the apartment is ready for the move, we still have plenty of things we need to figure out, such as where to put stuff, how to make better use of the closet space, and what to do with a box full of binders and a box full of notebooks, folders and random office supplies. The kitchen thanks to the Argentinean is looking ship shape, with everything almost ready, and we still need to send some of the pieces that were on loan from other collections back to their museums of origin. Once that is all done, we can bring in the furniture and figure out the new layout for the dungeon.

More importantly than all these, yesterday I finished my Christmas cards, yes, finally, there are only 2 that need mailing, but other than that I am set to go. Now the one last important thing is I need some suplise for the Argentinean, I have a short list but not sure what to pick. Maybe I will just buy everything.

And also today is M day, or the move day. We have worked like crazy so there should not be many surprises. But one never knows.

The family that stirs together…

I was reading the Spanish press this morning, and stumbled upon an articled title The families that stir together. It immediately caught my attention and so I read it, here is the original one in Spanish, but basically it reports about this two kids one 10 and the other 8 years old who make their own cocktails. Do not panic, they are non alcoholic cocktails and they are very complex, made with ingredients that very few bars in DC have. Their father is the head of food and drinks (catering) for two luxury hotels, and he was given the National Price for Gastronomy in 2003, and he has chosen to involve his kids with his “line of work” by sparking their interest in cocktails and teaching them how to do it. It is a creative game and one that in my mind is very interesting, on the one hand he is teaching them about drinks and the adult world, but in a very controlled environment, in the other hand it is such a creative exercise I would compare it to music or drawing.

For instance they came up with a version of the Cosmopolitan for kids that follows this recipe:
- Three parts infusing of red fruits or berries
- Two parts cranberry juice
- Two parts orange syrup
- One drop of lemon juice
Shake and present “up” with orange rind

Another more complex cocktail the children developed is called Cocktel de Turron, Turron is a traditional Christmas candy made in Spain, usually made with Almond Paste and honey. For adults here is the recipe:
- Praline
- White Vodka
- Chocolate Vodka
- Chocolate Syrup
- Cream
Stir the ingredients well in a shaker and serve in a tall glass with two ice cubes, top with slivered almonds.

For kids
- Praline
- Almond Tea
- Syrup
- Chocolate Syrup
- Cream
Serve “up” with some shaved ice and slivered almonds

Of course the American in me is thinking that the whole kids and bars do not mix at all, but then the Mexican in me, says why not, they will grow up to drink anyway, so they might as well learn early on. I guess that these two children will at least be fully prepared to face a bar when that time comes. Besides if you are not interested in cooking, this is a great way to play cook with alcohol.

My last thought is that the cooking revolution that has brought us all these exotic ingredients and techniques has pretty much reached everyone. When people are attempting these cocktails at home, what else is there to try? I guess it is a sigh that at least in the western world we are reaching a time period where the pleasure of food and drink re being taken to places that only an overtly wealthy society can.

The Kite Runner

After a weekend of cookies (more on those later) and movies and more moving, comes a book review. Today the Book Club is meeting to read "The Kite Runner" . I read this book in less than a week more than a month ago, but since the meeting was today, the review was posted today at the Argetine's, go here for more.

Friday's cuteness

Cuz it is Friday and we need something cute, thanks to Lolcats 'n' Funny Picture:

Cookies !!

As you all know, the Argentine is a terrific baker. He is not just good at it, but he enjoys it, you can always go here, or here or here for some examples of his prowess. This year since I am here for the holidays, I thought that what better than cookies to give as presents to all my homo and non-homo friends. The first will eat some and try to take the rest to the office, or lock themselves in a closet and eat them when no one is watching, and the second will just sit at home and eat up the goodies we make. Not just does the cookie making help us with the Christmas ooops politically incorrect term, holiday gifts, but they give me a chance to help and watch. I love to watch people cook, I personally have a very well established but limited number of dishes I can prepare, but it is always a joy to explore and to try different things. So here is the list of the cookies I think we should try:

1. Gingerbread cookies (I wish I had enough time to order these cookie molds for them)
2. Chocolate chip
3. … {enter your favorite or more desired cookie here}

I am missing a third type of cookie to bake. I thought about meringues, but they have been vetoed apparently he grew up with them and hence has no need to recreate them. So here are your tasks dear readers, first send your suggestions as per the type of cookies to bake and second help me in my lobbying campaign and we will all have cookies soon!

PS. It is a win/win for all

Rushing

Busy, busy, busy, that is how I have been. Work had to be done this week both at the office and the home front. Lets just say that I can not wait to get home tonite, have some dinner and watch me some Ugly Betty. At least 2/3 of the Christmas Cards have been written and sent, now need to tackle the last ones and mail them, I have put myself a deadline of next Monday. Because I have nothing much to say here is the NYT's list of 10 notable books:

Nonfiction

IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY: Inside Iraq's Green Zone.
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Alfred A. Knopf, $25.95; Vintage, paper, $14.95. The author, a Washington Post journalist, catalogs the arrogance and ineptitude that marked America’s governance of Iraq.

LITTLE HEATHENS: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression.
By Mildred Armstrong Kalish. Bantam Books, $22. Kalish’s soaring love for her childhood memories saturates this memoir, which coaxes the reader into joy, wonder and even envy.

THE NINE: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court.
By Jeffrey Toobin. Doubleday, $27.95. An erudite outsider’s account of the cloistered court’s inner workings.

THE ORDEAL OF ELIZABETH MARSH: A Woman in World History.
By Linda Colley. Pantheon Books, $27.50. Colley tracks the “compulsively itinerant” Marsh across the 18th century and several continents.

THE REST IS NOISE: Listening to the Twentieth Century.
By Alex Ross. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30. In his own feat of orchestration, The New Yorker’s music critic presents a history of the last century as refracted through its classical music.

Fiction

MAN GONE DOWN
By Michael Thomas. Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic, paper, $14. This first novel explores the fragmented personal histories behind four desperate days in a black writer’s life.

OUT STEALING HORSES
By Per Petterson. Translated by Anne Born. Graywolf Press, $22. In this short yet spacious Norwegian novel, an Oslo professional hopes to cure his loneliness with a plunge into solitude.

THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES
By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27. A craftily autobiographical novel about a band of literary guerrillas.

THEN WE CAME TO THE END
By Joshua Ferris. Little, Brown & Company, $23.99. Layoff notices fly in Ferris’s acidly funny first novel, set in a white-collar office in the wake of the dot-com debacle.

TREE OF SMOKE
By Denis Johnson. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27. The author of “Jesus’ Son” offers a soulful novel about the travails of a large cast of characters during the Vietnam War.


Have you read any of them ?

I have not. I have read this month's book for book club, so I am going to post a review tomorrow.

The one I might pick up is THEN WE CAME TO AN END.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was crazy, between the carpet, IKEA, home depot and the holiday parties, I had barely any time to recharge my battery. I know that the urban legend says that I never ever stop and that I can go for hours at a time, but sometimes when all the activity starts to concentrate, I become tired. Well this weekend there was barely any time for that. I did manage to see 2 movies, both were a little disappointing, although one was much better than the other one.

On Friday I saw “Atonement” a story about a girl that commits a wrong and how that wrong affects her sister and her lover, and changes everyone’s life. The premise of the story is that a girl misunderstands an exchange between her sister and the ground keepers’ son, and accuses the boy of raping a girl This accusations sends the boy to jail and then to war (II W W) and to an estrangement from her sister and her family – this last was not very clear from the movie. The book got the Booker price I think, and it is a very good story. Very sad, but at the same time good, with compelling characters that are realistic and that at least impressed me very, very much. The ending of both the movie and the book is very dramatic, it takes the viewer/reader completely by surprise and it makes one ponder what was best.

The second movie, which I expected to love, was “The Golden Compass”. I read the book many, many years along and fell in love with the daemon concept and the complex story line that sets up this war between a little girl and the Magisterium (a stand in for the Catholic Church, or any form of organized and dogmatic religion). The book also explores truth and science and the triumph of the rational over the irrational, and in further books it explores more complex subjects such as the nature of God and the role we play in this universe as humans. One of the things that attracted me to the book was its use of fantasy and science in something that is more real than a Fantasy Novel, but not a crazy science fiction story. I had high hopes for the movie, well it was disappointing. Not only do they chop of the last two chapters, but in order to keep the story under 2 hours, it keeps bouncing here and there and never really explaining any of the details. I have to say that I enjoyed the creation of the world in which Lira lives and that at least when I try my hand at rereading the books it will make for a faster re read since I can put faces to the characters and buildings to the locations.

Regardless, I am still exhausted, and it is only Tuesday

The Undomestic Godess

I just posted a book review at the Argentine, you can go here to read my opinion on the latest trashy book I read, called the Undomestic Goddess. Lets just say that the book is an easy read and my mind is in search for some more seriousness in the next selection.

The First Snow

Today Washington woke up to its first snow “storm” – that is the name the weather people on the radio called it - for this winter season. By our standards it comes early, and as usual it threatened with chaos and school closings. As usual in DC, whenever there is the slimmest hope of having some form of snow, everyone goes into panic mode, and people went to the grocery store yesterday, got de-icing salt and milk, water and lets not forgot toilet paper. You think I am exaggerating, well last night as I was prepping up for a swim team board meeting, I was watching the local news and they had 3 stories on the snow that was coming, and had of course nice old people buying salt at Home Depot and stuff. Obviously when the snow comes, nothing happens, except empty toilet paper ails in Supermarkets.

I was lucky enough to witness the now today, and lucky in an interesting word, because I experienced it, because I had to take Manolito – for all those novices, Manolito is my car – to the dealership for the very expensive 20,000 miles tune up. I chose to do it on Wednesday because I can take the Metro to work and then take the Metro uptown to pick up the car in the afternoon. As planned the alarm clock went off at 6 am, and I woke up, hopped on the shower, cleansed, shaved and scrubbed and by 6:40 I was ready to go. As I opened the door, I see that it has started to snow, and it was breath taking. Yes it was cold, but it was so quiet and calm. The snow fell upon the cars, the streets, the trees and yards very much like confectioners sugar when it is being sifted, slowly covering all the non moving surfaces, not in clumps, but in small tiny flakes. It was quite the spectacle. I walked to my car, brushed some of the snow off, and drove to the dealership in Bethesda, in awe of it. The fact that it was 6:40 and the light was just starting to change, from dark to light, made a great difference. It took me 15 minutes to reach my destination. At 6:56 I was by the dealership’s door, waiting for it to open.

That was my morning. Obviously the ride in the metro was fine and then the walk in the city was ok, but very routine. Oh well, at least I had an amazing morning.

Comfort (er)

This weekend I got my Christmas present, and it sounds boring but I love it, a real comforter. By real, I mean real, with goose feathers and all that. It was a gift from the Argentine, who had a vested interesting in the comforter situation, and who has a nack for comfort.

For years I had had this IKEA comforter, I got it when I first moved here and having never lived in a land where comforters were needed, well I thought that it was ok. I do not remember what it’s price was at the time, and I do not remember what it was made of. I am sure it was synthetic, and hypo allergenic, but that was it. It was a functional piece, and it worked for 7 years.

Then I started dating the Argentine, and he has a very nice comforter (Polo me thinks) and from the first time I slept under it, I realized how much lighter it was. As time went by, I started noticing the weight of my comforter and how it was not soft, it was not rough, not at all, but it had no volume, and you could see the quilting, even when it was covered. As the move details were discussed I mentioned my intention to get a new comforter, but that was the end of the discussion. Last week as we were looking around, we found one that we liked (for more details go here) and the Argentine made the purchase. We tried it this Sunday, and it is heavenly. Light and warm, it floats above one, and it manages to be cloud like even as it keeps one warm . I am not sure how I spent all these years with a fake one, it almost makes me mad.

Of course there is a problem now, I need to figure out what to get him for Christmas. Like him I believe in useful gifts. There is nothing I dislike more than a gift I do not like, or that I can not make use of. The obvious choice for him is something from the kitchen, but trusts me, he has it all. There is not a lot I can buy he doesn’t already have. A Viking range is out of the question, since we are renting, but trust me I have thought about that. Any one has any ideas?

Schdenfreude

Last night we went to see Avenue Q, with a bunch of swimmers and assorted people, and it was so much better than I expected it to be. It was one of those musicals where the every song is terrific, every character is likeable and every situation is somewhat real. I am sitting here in my desk on Monday morning and I am still some what amazed at the creativity of the people who wrote the book, the music and who came up with the concept.

The show is both a parody of Sesame Street and real life, and what real life is supposed to mean. It starts with a young freshly minted college graduate moving to Avenue Q, and what happens in his first year out there. The show is always ironic and raunchy, but it might be because of the use of puppets that you can just take it all in and enjoy the ride. I had listened to the entire sound track 3 years ago, when the show opened and everyone I knew had either seen it in NY or had heard about it, I remembering listening to it at the Architect’s house and going to next day to purchase it. As I played the entire cd, I fell in love with most of the songs, I specially enjoyed the “Internet is for Porn”, “What do you with a BA in English” and “Everyone is a little bit racist”. They were so different from any other songs I had heard in musicals before, and the seemed so fresh, and witty. When I went and saw it staged, the musical was even better because you get to see what happens in between the songs, and you understand the situations a little bit better and you get to meet The Bad Idea Bears, which are two adorable characters.

I loved the show, and yes I do recommend it completely. A big part of the experience was seeing the Argentine laugh uncontrollably at times, and few things make me smile more.

I do have to say that the show stands well against the test of time, in the early 00’s it was extremely relevant, with all the references to lay offs and young struggling college grads, I am by no means a young struggling college grad and half the show applies directly to my life. Of course the one line that will need to be changed next year is the one about how George Bush is only for now, which almost brought the audience to its feet. It was after all a Washington crowd. But I am sure they can find some other name to use when the times come to show how things are truly mostly for now.

December

It is December people! I have like so many things to get done it is not even funny. No not even. It is scary how much I need to get done and how the year is at and end. Here is a list:

Cards
Presents
Work
IGLA Registration Site
More cleaning, and more moving
Parties (lots of them, thankfully)