Dick's

Well, I tried the famous Dick's today. It was ok, but not that spectacular. The Deluxe reminded me of a McD's cheeseburger with two patties. The fries were soft and limp (icky word), and I had to buy the ketchup. To be fair, it's pretty cheap regardless. However, I definitely prefer McD's fries. I haven't been to McD's in ages, but it doesn't mean I forget how much I like their fries! I guess next on my list is Jack 'n' Box's fries. Hmm... I really miss the Thirsty Scholar's spicy fries.

Honey Bucket

"Honey Bucket" instead of port-a-potties is definitely the grossest term I've come across here. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. Some claim that it's "just a brand name." I could maybe accept that (would still be gross), but it's more than just a brand name. It is this region's typical phrase used for the structure in which you go to defecate. I don't expect gross, more fitting names like "shit hole," but really.... Honey Bucket?!

Houston

It's so strange... I'm flying to Houston tomorrow night. My nine months there seem like a blur. My time at Enron stirs a mixed bag of feelings... I loved my work, but hated the dramatic ending. I love the friends I made and kept while there, but remember being so lonely in the city. Poor Houston, it didn't really have a chance. Nine months is not a large amount of time to build a friend community, especially as I generally worked pretty late. Seattle also had the advantage of us having good friends who already lived here and who were pretty well established in the city already. I suppose it's not fair to compare my first 7 months there to my first 7 months here. Of course, my last two months (laid off, frustrated, and most people I knew already gone) will almost certainly compare very poorly to the next two months here.... I'll definitely have to swing by the Enron building, maybe see if that felafel place I liked so much in that area is still there. Hmm... perhaps this means that we should rent a car. :p

As for the wedding... should be a lot of fun. I'm very interested to see how they will combine Houston high society and an Indian wedding. I'm guessing it'll be a pretty spectacular event!

Potlucks: To Host or Not To Host?

We used to do potlucks with my high school friends (and others at times) on a roughly monthly basis back in Boston. Presumably, potlucks are a great way to take pressure off the hostess. However, over time, I came to find potlucks extremely annoying. Organizing everything got stressful and that was SO not the point... and you had to organize for reasons discussed in the next paragraph. However, no matter how much you organized, you could not avoid the oft incongruous dishes. For example, a complex main dish (i.e., Beef Bourguignon) with a salad consisting of iceberg lettuce, velveeta cheese and deli ham strips. Honestly, we had some great meals, but fortunately, with the high school friends at least, we grew into hosting for each other. The consistency across a meal was nice, and you only stressed once every 6 months instead of once every month. I was happy to no longer feel the obligation to be one of the people that contributed a main or side dish.

And that touches upon the other issue with potlucks. EVERYBODY wants to bring appetizers and desserts. It's ridiculous; it's not like the host is stupid. Those options are clearly the easiest things to make and usually the cheapest! What a host/ess (I keep switching, I know) wants is main dishes and side dishes. Unfortunately, when we did our potluck, the same people always wanted to bring dessert (their favorite thing to make!) or appetizers (also fun to make, easy, and cheap!) or salad. But is that fair? NO, not at all.

So... I'm not sure that I'll ever do a potluck again. If I do, I will go back to my strictly organized ways. Then I'd deal with the complaints of people feeling like it lost the spirit of the potluck, but at least that way I could stress only before (and not the evening of the potluck). I'd enjoy the variety of foods and hopefully it would all come together as a somewhat cohesive theme. If I did it often, I'd certainly try to spread the appetizer/dessert/salad making love. Everybody's got to make a main/side dish sometime. If you can't make it, BUY IT.

Perhaps this frustration comes from a bit of guilt... last night, I was at a potluck. I WANTED to make Irish Soda Bread, but realized there just wouldn't be enough time. Dinner started at 6:30, as the hostess wanted to leave time for going out to bars afterwards. To make up for this last minute change in my plans, I offered to buy some, but the hostess told me not to worry. She found one at a good bakery (the bakery by me at work didn't have any, and I wouldn't be able to make it to another). So, instead, I came with some wine. But I felt SO guilty! Of course, she told me not to feel guilty, as I've "hosted dinner so many times," but I still do... I _really_ wanted to make the Irish Soda Bread.

OH! And this touches on another point of annoyance. If I had known that people would be late to a dinner party, I would have had the time to make it at the friend's house... which had been a plan we discussed. I could have made a delicious Irish Soda Bread and not felt any guilt. I could have shared my bread and eaten in pride, instead of asking people sheepishly (at least in my head), if they liked the wine.

And there's my ranting and raving... hmm, I guess this means I really should not host a potluck again. But they can be SO convenient! AH!

Cook's Illustrated Stir Fry

I love their stir-fry. Each time I forget how easy it is to make, and how quickly it is ready! Chicken or beef. We just throw in whatever veggies we're in the mood for, follow their great recipes for sauces, and yum! Great dinner! I can't believe how great the beef or chicken comes out each time. Tonight we had beef, red bell pepper, onion, mushroom, and snow peas in an garlic, ginger, and oyster sauce.

Khaneh Takani

I am so not looking forward to cleaning the whole house, but I will be happy when it is done. We may go to IKEA tomorrow to furnish the spare bedroom (finally). I wish I liked shopping more...

I am sad

I wish I could be with my mom and sisters for Eid... then again, my dad is away from all of us as well. And what is wrong with Seattle that the Norooz celebration is tomorrow? I can't go due to plans, but I'm not sure I would have wanted to go. Who puts the concert a week before Norooz actually begins?

I love Eid... I think next year we will go to either Toronto or London for the celebration. Or even be with my sisters so we could go to San Fran. All three cities would have lots of stuff going on... I wish San Fran weren't so expensive! Moving there would be very tempting if for no other reason than the large Persian population. I don't really want to live in LA; even if it is called Tehrangelos.

My dream... to go to Iran for Eid someday. We really need to get working on R's paperwork.

Vocab

If you click on a word in a NY Times article, you'll get it's definition! I just randomly clicked on a word by accident while reading, and all of a sudden a dictionary page popped up! Happily, I knew the meaning of all the words in this article, but this little trick is bound to come in handy some day. Now the real surprise here may be that I didn't know about this earlier. Does everybody know about this?? How far behind the times, no pun intended, am I?

Just watched Lost and am very pleased to learn that there will be a new episode next week! I've heard that they were affected by the writer's strike, but I have yet to see an impact yet - yay!

Self Castigation

(Had to edit this post... sheer exhaustion resulted in it not making sense. Then again, should I be editing now too when I'm functioning on even less sleep? Anyway.)

I hate when you do something wrong (and know you did) that you have to deal with also being mad at yourself for it having gone wrong. An example: you burn food and end up with a crappy dinner. However, not only do you have to eat the crappy dinner, you are also mad at yourself about the whole situation in the first place... and probably will be for the whole night. Sucks. Of course, this situation is much worse when it applied in a social setting or something along those lines. Then again, perhaps it's worse when something goes wrong and you don't give a f#!*, because then you'd just be amoral. All of this sounds like I am thinking of some grandiose subject here, but I am just wondering... why am I not sleeping yet?!?! I have to be at the gym at 6 for a "kick my butt" session!

Also, I don't like when the pot calls the kettle black. I have experienced this a couple of times today (both related to me and not really), and it really frustrates me. Enough said here.

Today is apparently "National Grammar Day." I've given up on grammar in a sense... sad, I know. I still really value you it, but I think I can't stress about commas, etc. any more. I don't remember high school grammar perfectly enough for that... and there's far too much negative reinforcement. Still, all of this goes back to the being annoyed with yourself thing and thinking about things too much anyhow - gotta let it go! ;p

Delicious

First, an amendment. It was 50,000 IU of Vitamin D; not 10,000. I thought I remembered it as 50,000, but I thought that was crazy. Nope. The ludicrously high value it is... and then I get a blood test as a prize. Will it work? will it be toxic? or will it be a failure? Tune in to find out.

Tonight we had dinner at Tilth. It was SO delicious... just plain old good food. But at the same time... it was different. I'd never had a slowly braised chicken quite like that... or a vegetarian bean cassoulet. And I highly recommend ending with the hot chocolate! However, the best part was that you could order small or large plates. Hubby and I split 5 small plates and had had a hot chocolate each - perfect! From salmon to duck to beef (and veggie cassoulet and chicken), it was all delicious. We will definitely go back... ideally when the patio is open in the summers!

............. but after a delicious dinner and a lazy day (although I did create a fabulous - and colorful! - budget Excel sheet), it's still hard to accept that it's Sunday. It's hard to have hubby (awful term, but it works when you want to pretend that you have SOME anonymity) leave tomorrow morning. Every week somebody asks... oh, is he gone away this week? YES, EVERY WEEK FROM OCTOBER TO MAY/JUNE. Please, help me forget.

So Sunday it is... and a great weekend was had - with an awesome party hosted by us on Friday, if I may say so myself. Should be a nice week (Project Runway finale!) and then a weekend at Whistler - woo-hoo!