Friday, February 29, 2008

Why I Will Never Succeed

I don't do anything right.

This morning, I found the alarm so soothing that I did not wake up to it. Rather, I incorporated it into my dream. When it finally did occur to me that I needed to get up, I decided to roll over--I sleep with my back to the alarm--and hit SNOOZE. I did so, but rolled back with too much gusto and I smacked my face on the wall.
Now I have a bloody lip.

Once, when I was 15 years old or so, I stepped on a push-pin on my bedroom floor. Thinking myself clever, I picked it up so as not to step on it again. I placed it, with the sharp side pointed up, on my clock radio. When morning came, and my alarm went off, I blindly reached over to shut it off and found the pin in my hand--
--which awakened me.

On the day before yesterday, I fell down our icy stairs for the second time this winter. Yesterday, I neglected to salt them--ALAS!

Last night, I ventured out of the smothering embrace of Hyde Park to meet Olga and see Paul Verhaeghen & Dominique Fabre read at a clothing store. It was pleasant and good. Tonight, Jessica and I will creep out once more to celebrate Kristen's birthday at Kingston Mines.

If we see our shadows, it's six more weeks of bloody winter.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Dinner



I made this. It wasn't very good. It was precisely half bad. The gnocci tasted like soggy crap and there was too much of it.
The sauce was a terrible mistake.
It's, uh, it's orange. It tasted terrible. It was meant to be a wonderful tomato cream sauce. In the past, it was wonderful. Today, it was shit.

The half good part of the meal is the delightful crostini. Beef cooked in a red wine reduction, stilton cheese, and fig spread on Italian bread. There was no way to fuck that up.

After dinner, I flung gnocci from the back porch into the alley. From four stories up, I could hear the foul orange turds splatter against the pavement while rats fled in horror.

Fuck.

I posted a Valentine's Day dinner picture, too

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentine's Day Dinner



I made this. A cremini mushroom and buffalo meat burger with hot boursin cheese, spinach, and tomato on a bakery roll. It was pretty much perfect. Accompanying the perfect burger are green beans in a red wine reduction and butternut squash risotto.

Basically perfect.
For dessert, Jessica bought a raspberry tart. Also delicious.



I also kind of love Jessica. A lot.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

My Feelings

I need to tell you how I feel. I need to tell you how I feel about Apple Computers. In 2005, I was seduced by the sleek exterior of the Apple iBook. I thought it would be a wonderful vacation from my dying Dell desktop, a massive black machine that took epochs to complete an operation and was riddled with malware and bad memories. The fan on old Blackie, as I never called it, was broken and made ominous grinding noises whenever it was on. What I wanted was a smooth, glossy, pristine laptop that I could carry with me to classes (because for the first time, I had plans to attend classes) and enjoy the bounties of the internet without much fear of viruses.

The last two and a half years with my iBook have been happy. Aunt Lorraine, as I call her, has been a sweet and faithful friend. In the past few months, I've noticed her screen has gotten a little bit dimmer and her optical drive is broken for the second time. She's on her second battery, but she's a tough old broad--just like her namesake. The thing is, last night at about 4AM, she kind of slid off the bed. Gently, like a child drifting off to sleep or a cloud obscuring the face of the moon, she eased onto the rug. I cringed, as one must do when an expensive and precision device hits the ground. I picked her up and cringed again. As I type the monitor waves and waggles wildly. I mean, it's just not attached the way it ought to be. I mean, it's fucking broken.

So I took her to the Apple Store for some TLC from a technician of some kind.

Because I love her, I will pay the $34 dollars necessary to replace her bezels and joints. I will take her home and nurture her with loving attention and frequent trips through Wikipedia.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Book Review

I reviewed Yalo by Elias Khoury for Three Percent.