Topic Drought

When all else fails, there is always music left to talk about. My well of topics seems to be suffering a drought these days. I have some things going on, but it either isn’t appropriate to bring it up yet, or else I don’t think it’s interesting enough to share.

So, that leaves the good old standby of music. I know I already mentioned Brandi Carlile once before, and her record is still in heavy rotation over here. I wandered out to iTunes the other day to see if there was anything I couldn’t live without. I did end up downloading a few new songs. Some of them are kind of cheesy and ended up on the “Guilty Pleasures” song list. I did however come across a new band, sort of by accident.

I have so much music that I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t even listened to all of it. I have a few CD compilations that I acquired only because they came attached to magazines I was buying. I typically download them to my library and then forget about them. Anyway, I had the ipod set on shuffle one day and I heard a song that I fell in love with immediately. It’s by a group called “I am Kloot” and it’s called “From Your Favorite Sky.” So when I was out on iTunes I went ahead and looked them up and found their album. It’s pretty good.

So here is a list of some of the random music I have been listening to endlessly the last few weeks.

1. Gift- Rocco DeLuca and the Burden
2. Nature Boy- Kurt Elling
3. From Your Favorite Sky- I am Kloot
4. Beautiful Liar- Beyonce and Shakira
5. Cupid’s Chokehold/ Breakfast in America- Gym Class Heroes
6. Sunday Morning- K-OS
7. First Time- Lifehouse
8. Young Folks- Peter Bjorn and John
9. History Repeating- Propellerheads featuring Shirley Bassey
10. Die Another Day- Madonna

I am really loving the Gym Class Heroes song. How can you not love a song that samples Supertramp? It look me a while to figure out why I already knew portions of the song. Once I bothered to look up the song title it was obvious.

The summer song that is stuck in my head right now is “Umbrella.” I know I will eventually get tired of it, but it’s so darn catchy.

Potential Realized

In the 7th and 8th grade I took the required Home Economics courses of cooking and sewing. Each year there was an award for the best student in each category. In the 8th grade I took the award for Best Cook. (Really, it’s true.) I was trying to sweep both categories, but it didn’t work out. I even went so far as to be involved in the FHA (Future Homemakers of America) club. I was a freakin officer. The picture in the yearbook is hilarious. Picture this: girl mullet with a perm, a bright pink and blue striped shirt with matching pink and blue eye shadow and blue eyeliner that circled my entire eye. Scary! Anyone remember the earrings that looked like telephones with the phone cord that wrapped around to the back? Yeah, I think I am wearing those.

I bring this up because I have started watching Food Network in the afternoons. This in itself is nothing remarkable, but the result has been a little unexpected. For many years now, I have avoided doing any kind of elaborate cooking since it’s just me and I have a hate/hate relationship with leftovers. Plus, my previous lifestyle of travel, travel and more travel made the purchasing and storing of fresh food a little ridiculous. My freezer was always well stocked but the refrigerator consisted of condiments and sometimes science experiments that I forgot to throw out before leaving town again. Well no more!!

It started off slowly. I started watching Food Network out of boredom at first. Daytime TV leaves a lot to be desired. I started seeing some recipes that I thought I could handle and decided to try them. Next came some new purchases. Now understand, that just because I don’t cook doesn’t mean that I don’t have the tools to do it if I wanted to. I have a lot of Pampered Chef stuff that has suffered from neglect for years. (Honestly, what was I thinking when I bought bread tubes?) Even though I have some basic stuff, I decided I could do with more. So, I bought a grill pan and a zester. Sounds like a weird combo, I know, but I seem to be getting a lot of use out of both. (And my aversion to cooking fish seems to be lessening too. Lemon zest is the answer.)

Of course, now that I’ve started I have decided that it’s time to finally get new pots and pans. I’ve had the same ones since my first apartment back in 1995. I think I’m due for an update. Maybe Santa will bring me some for Christmas. It would be really easy to get caught up in all the “gear” for the kitchen. For some reason, I am convinced I need a set of ramekins. It’s crazy. Now when I go to Target I find myself wandering down the previously unexplored kitchenware isles. Have those always been there?

The other weird change is that I am actually planning out menus for the week and making weekly trips to the grocery. I have never made a secret of the fact that I hate the whole grocery shopping experience. I have to have my ipod on when I go so I can distract myself from the cart with the bad wheel, the isles that are too small, way too many varieties of everything, and the checkout line. It was always such a chore. At least now I can amuse myself with listening to Prince sing “Sexy MF” while deciding on flavors of yogurt or They Might Be Giants singing “Birdhouse in Your Soul” as I am picking through this weeks assortment of fresh fruit. It’s made a huge difference.

So in recent weeks I have been cooking away. I have also started downloading recipes from the Internet. As for the Food Network personalities, I like Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) the best. I like most of her recipes and I really enjoy her personality. Giada is fine, but I get distracted by all of her teeth. Have you ever tried to speak while showing all of your teeth at the same time? I don’t know how she does it. And Paula Dean causes my arteries to harden just by watching the show. I have never seen someone so in love with butter and mayonnaise. Rachel Ray I just find to be too abrasive. I know I have just singled out the ladies here. I could go on about the guys too, but I won’t. The bottom line is that even though I may not care for some of the personalities, I think I have seen at least one recipe from each of them that I would like to try: even Paula.

At this point, most of the cooking has been for me alone. I did bake a cake when I went over to Heidi’s a few weeks back. Last night I made turkey tetrazzini. It turned out pretty good. Slowly but surely, I am starting to use up the contents of my freezer and cupboards. My spice collection seems to be expanding as well. I have just started doing this weekly menu thing, so I’ll be putting it into practice this weekend when I hit the grocery again. I have high hopes. Granted, for those of you that come to visit, we may still decide to go out to eat, but at least now we can feel better knowing it wasn’t a choice born of necessity.

Baseball and Birthdays

This weekend was another action packed installment of life in Las Vegas. Friday night I went out to the ballpark to see the Las Vegas 51’s (as in Area 51) play the Sacramento River Cats. A real barn burner. Heidi and her daughter came with me and we had a pretty good time. I’m not a baseball enthusiast by any means, but a trip to the ballpark is doable because there are other things to occupy my attention when the game threatens to put me to sleep.

I wanted to find a baseball jersey because the mascot is an alien. The jerseys I have seen have a really cool alien head on them and I think it’s a fun, kitschy, Las Vegas thing to own. No luck in the gift shop at the ballpark, so I may just have to look online. The mascot’s name is Cosmo and looks like a cross between Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars and the aliens from the movie “Explorers.” (Great movie, by the way.) Luckily, the alien head on the jersey looks nothing like that and instead resembles the more traditional triangular face with the big bug eyes.

Saturday yielded yet another birthday party. This time it was for a 1 yr old. I ended up making a CD with lullaby-type songs on it. It was easy enough to throw together before heading out to the party. The really exciting thing about this party was that it was also an opportunity to see a brand new house in a growing area of town. After hearing about how the place was designed, I was excited to see one particular feature: the courtyard in the center of the plan.

I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point years ago, I was thinking about what my dream house might look like and drew up some “napkin” plans. One of the things I wanted was a courtyard in the center of the plan. Something that would be accessible from multiple locations in the house, and a space large enough to hold something like a fountain. Anyway, when I heard the house had a courtyard, I couldn’t wait to see it.

The house was amazing. There were 2 staircases, one on each side of the house and tons of space. The courtyard was small, but cozy. Once it was dark, it became a lot more comfortable to sit outside. The neighborhood was nice and quiet, which was a good thing since there is almost zero space between houses. In fact, when I first got there I was actually a little unsure which door to use.

The party was nice, especially since there was a playroom for all the kids. I met a lot of great people and although I never planned on staying so late, I was the last to leave. The only glitch in this weekend was the fact that I seem to be running a bit behind schedule with other birthdays. (Mimi- I left a message for you at home. Sorry I didn’t get to chat with you.) Plus, I was a bad auntie and didn’t speak to my nephew yesterday for his birthday either.

Honestly, August in general kicks my butt in terms of birthdays. And as I have chronicled here for you for the last several months, I seem to only be adding more to the list. I realize I only pressure myself in terms of having to acknowledge each one with something other than a call or a card, but I think I am reaching some serious birthday burnout.

The Foundation Room

Another weekend, another birthday party. Is it crazy that I get invited to so many of these things? I don’t mind really. I’ve been fortunate to meet a lot of great people. This past weekend I went to a party that was held at Mandalay Bay. I really like this hotel. I like looking at the firewall at Rum Jungle and of course right next door is my favorite vodka bar, Red Square.

The party was being held in a club called the Foundation Room. It is a member’s only club, so it sounded nice and secluded to me. It was located at the top of the hotel, so it had a really great view of the Strip. We had a private room set aside for us, which was even better. I don’t care much for the club scene, so anything to make it a bit more manageable for me is always better. Most of the clubs in Vegas (especially on a Saturday night) are so packed that you can barely move, which drives me crazy. We probably had about 20-25 people show up, so it was a good size group.

The birthday girl was turning 30 and her husband really went all out for her with getting the room and catering the whole thing. Once again, I was playing designated driver and Heidi’s date, which was fine. There were already people there that I knew so that was nice too. We brought our own music which worked out well until the club outside had a DJ start up around 11. Then we just went with whatever he was playing.

The crowd outside our room started to get bigger as the night wore on. We eventually headed out sometime around 1am. There were a number of people that had rooms in the hotel and I think they ended up keeping the party going for a bit longer. Me? I was done. I dragged Heidi out and we ended up going out for breakfast at an IHOP. I can’t tell you how long it has been since I have been to one of those.

So this week Heidi and I are going to a baseball game. We are taking her daughter, so it should be a fun time. I’m not a baseball fan, but I don’t mind going to the ballpark once in a while to see a game. Besides, our little team is called the Area 51’s. How fun is that? The mascot is an alien. I want to get a baseball jersey with the alien head on it. I just think its fun. I have also warned Heidi that sometime this winter, I want to go to a hockey game too. Yes, there is a hockey team in Las Vegas. I think they are called the Wranglers. Anyway, there is an ice arena at the Orleans hotel, so that should be fun.