We Are Homeowners!

We are Homeowners! Pretend you are reading this last week. It has been a crazy week and I didn't have time to post this, even though I wrote it in Word a week ago.

I haven’t blogged in awhile. That is because for the last month and half we have been busy buying and moving into our first house. What a harrowing experience! It rained the entire moving day, we didn’t get any food in us until 4 in the afternoon (our nice new neighbs brought a lasagne), and Scott fucked up his knee! And I ended up with so many sweet bruises I look like someone gave me a boot party.

Project Plans for House:

1) Get hot tub serviced and such. I cleaned it real good (triple-scrubbed and mopped) to get the decomposing bugs and strangers’ pubes/dead skin cells out, but then the jets won’t work and I can’t brominate the water. Build trough to grow bamboo as privacy screen next to hot tub.

2) Build raised beds for veggie garden. Heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and various alliums will be good, and maybe some squash and eggplant. I really want to grow fava beans, but it’s a bit late for those now. Maybe some other pole bean would be good?

3) Build shelves/cabinets into weird attic crawlspace in spare bedroom for blankets and linens, etc.

4) Have housewarming party, Scandinavian-style. I tried my hand at making my own aquavit but it tastes nasty so I’m going to make an aquavit-style syrup and make vodka martinis with it instead. We will have Swedish meatballs and I will also prepare gravlax and maybe some blini or sommat.

UPDATES AND RANDOM GOINGS-ON: Okay, I’ve made three attempts to write and publish this “We Are Homeowners” blog post, but every time I revisit it, I see that more items have been checked off my list. Now we have the bamboo trough planted, way too many veggie seeds started and I have constructed a bioswale in the backyard to catch rainfall and grow carnivorous plants and exotic wetland species that I will never be allowed to spec in a mitigation site.

Our bathroom is currently being remodeled and won’t be finished until Thursday so I have to shower at work (which seems like an HR issue) or else Scott and I sneak into the gym like hobos to get a shower without actually working out and earning it. I mean, we do pay membership to have access to their facilities, but I feel a little guilty about it for some reason.

I have had a sinus infection for the past week and a half and finally got antibiotics for it today. Yesterday I blew a tumor out my right nostril that weighed at least 2 oz. It was like the frightening loogy I had last year, with the bits of sinus tissue and blood embedded in it. I almost saved it in a specimen jar it was so mind-blowing.

I leave for Yakima at 5:45 am tomorrow morning (Jesus fucking Christ that is early) and will be gone for three days which gives me about ten hours plus Saturday to prepare for ill-planned housewarming party. This time I will avoid the bullshit “Tuscan” restaurant. In fact, if I see the guy that runs that joint I will kick him in the dick and tell him it’s pappa al pomodoro.

Friday is the TV On The Radio show, which will kick ass. It pleases me that some random black dudes from Brooklyn can fully bring it on the indie-emo tip, thus proving that black people really are just better than white people at pretty much everything.

I have decided that my blog should just stick to food, especially now that the desktop is un-broken and I can continue working on my cookbook. That is, if I actually had time to wipe my ass.

UPDATE AGAIN, SINCE THIS POST IS OLD NOW:

TVotR was awesome, we were deaf for two days after. We saw the guys in the bar and they didn't have a crowd so I nodded at them and raised my drink. They reciprocated and it felt nice to be acknowledged.

The bathroom looks great. It's good to shower at home again. My sinus infection is gone. Yakima was not terrible.

The party went well - I ditched the Scandinavian thing and did what I know best (and what less than an hour allowed): cheese/fruit plate, crudites, and tapas. After the crowd thinned out a bit, like after 11 or so, I busted out the bag o' prawns and did a quick satay with lemongrass, chili, lime, cilantro and garlic and a quickblender peanut sauce. The prawns disappeared in two minutes (a whole bag's worth!) so I busted out the boneless leg of lamb and quickly cubed it while toasting cumin, coriander, peppercorns and allspice. Ground the spices, rubbed the meat and quick fire in the grill pan. Greta had given me some lavender jelly awhile back, so I nuked it to melty nectar and it was a good dip. The lamb was gone in under five minutes. This is all worth mentioning because as I worked I had a small audience of people gathered around the stove and I felt like Molto Mario or something and it really made me feel like a rock star.

I'm playing Cooking Mama for the Wii and that kicks ass. Also, I've picked my cookbook back up and will be working on it whenever I get time until it's finished. It's fun to see how many new things I've learned since starting it in Fall '05.