Musings and Mirth

Julia Child Was a Genius

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWmvfUKwBrg[/youtube]

While watching PBS’ pledge drive yesterday, I was given the opportunity to see some of Julia Child’s old cooking shows, The French Chef. Child was such an original. And weirdly enough, she looked a little like Meryl Streep when she was younger. They both had those high cheekbones and thin lips. I watched her make omelets and lobsters and stews.¬† At the end of the show, they had an interview with the older Julia who gave the following advice about being able to eat well and stay healthy: no snacking and no seconds.

I was also thinking that Julie & Julia would have been a much better story if there had been something wrong with Julie other than “I’ve done nothing with my life and I’m turning 30.” If she was dying of cancer and had one year to cook those recipes, or was trying to woo a man by cooking the recipes — something. I know, how horrible. But fiction is preferable to the truth most of the time.¬† Except when it comes to Julia Child.

A Trip to the Zoo

Somewhere in the middle of it I went to the zoo with a classroom for kindergartners. That was fun. Fun in the way that having your big toe ache all day while you plod around on asphalt all day fun. No, really, it was fun in that feel sorry for all of the imprisoned animals way. No seriously. I have learned that the best time to visit the zoo at all is in the morning. If you go in the afternoon the animals are done with it. They just want some peace inside their dark little caves. It was, however, a good chance to try out the new camera. The one shot I really wanted was of a baby orangutan. It had climbed into the perfect position, in between cuddling with its mommy and climbing up a rope – it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. But for some reason my camera wouldn’t click — I think it had to do with the autofocus, which I’ve started really digging. I’m tired of missing shots because I didn’t focus it right. Anyway, I missed the shot.

I got one of the baby orang but it wasn’t a very good one. I doctored it up in Photoshop for the hell of it.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

A few mornings ago I found myself fumbling in the kitchen at around 5 am trying to make a (I’ll wait until I tell you the story to figure out what to call it) work. I tend to be one of those people who would rather do things myself at either a much lower cost or simply because I want to try it out. I did once install a toilet, carried the sucker in and slammed it down. I am still very proud of this. I have snaked a drain too. But let’s face it, these days with my bad eyes and my old age I am less inclined to succeed and more inclined to just toss it all out in frustration. What I needed to do: print out the yearbook I was working on for Emma’s class. What I couldn’t do: print it out because the toner on the mother fucking printer kept running out of ink. I have no common sense or I would have figured it out long before this disasterous morning but nonetheless, there I was up really early and trying to do the impossible.

What I did: try to make one of those ink refiller things work. Have you ever seen them? You would only know what they were if you were tired of spending more money on ink toner than you’d spent on your printer. No kidding and swear to god, you buy these little bottles of ink with syringes and teeny tiny screwdrivers, like the kind mice would use, and then there’s this messy ink that you’re supposed to fill into these little dots outside the cartridge. Theoretically this is a good thing: no disposable cartridges, refillable, recylced, etc. But in reality? An inky improbable mess. I had to drive out to the Long’s Drugs to just buy a plain old cartridge anyway.

I’m glad it’s over. I delivered the thing to FedEx and now I can breathe again. In case you’re curious, it’s something along these lines. I do NOT recommend it. I also don’t recommend those “rub off the hair” shaving things. They don’t work; complete waste of money.

No One Cares About the Asteroid

A gigantic asteroid silently flew past our planet, avoiding us by a mere 45,000 miles. The thing is, it was undetected. Why is it that no one seems to care about this. Most people just shrug and say, oh well. Nothing much we can do about it anyway. I even told my friend Clara that maybe we could prepare to hit it with one of our powerful nuclear warheads? “That’s only in the movies,” she responded. This is what happens when you ask a dumb question. Here I was, obsessing on Bernie Madoff (how could he have…how could anyone have…how could the SEC have…), and mildly meditating on a PBS documentary I saw last night on the guy who invented the labotomy. And all this time I could have been nurturing free-floating anxiety about the asteroid. It’s not like it’s never happened before.

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About Me

I spend way too much thinking about me. This is the blank space where that paragraph should be.