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We checked out Radio Maria's tapas 'lounge' last night while celebrating our launch of Moodle. The tapas was good - not quite as amazing as the tapas we had in Iowa City, but delicious and relatively affordable. We had the sampler plate, two pieces of tapas each, a dessert, two glasses of champagne (me), and a beer (SB), for $40-something. I love Radio for dinner and brunch, and the tapas lounge was a nice and welcome addition to the downtown area.
Plenty of time for a Venti
Sep. 29th, 2006 02:32 pmSo I've been gone for a while. Sorry, Vox. Here's a bit of hilarity about Starbucks, written in the spirit of my anti-Starbucks crusade. From The Beechwood Reporter, Starbucks City.
QotD: Can you hear me now?
Aug. 2nd, 2006 02:55 pmWhat's your cell phone's ringtone? What made you pick it?
My default ringtone is New Order's "Blue Monday", because I have this sick addiction to New Order and they didn't have "True Faith". For SB, I have "Doncha", which was on every weekend when we would go dancing before we started dating. For my BFF Paul, I have Bloc Party's "This Modern Love", which is "our" song if there ever was one. For my dear friend Karin who celebrated her birthday yesterday, I have Boston's "More Than a Feeling", which we played at the diner last winter the night before everyone left for Christmas.
Mainly, though, my phone is on silent and/or vibrate because I'm in the office and then forget to turn my phone off when I get home. There is an unofficial office policy requiring 80s ringtones - my boss has Duran Duran's "Rio", so sometimes we have an impromptu 80s dance party. Well, we would, if my boss weren't 8 months pregnant.Online Learning is the Best
Aug. 1st, 2006 02:56 pmI might have mentioned that I work for a highly acclaimed, number one ranked distance education program that has an almost 100% retention rate. When students come into the program, they come to campus for ten days of orientation, tech training, and one intensive course. We give them an overview of "live sessions", the synchronous class time that involves listening to the instructor on a real audio broadcast stream, interacting with the instructor and other students in IRC-based chat, and viewing "slides" sent out by the instructor. Many of the students freak out at this point, asking "how am I going to manage all of this and still take notes?! how am i going to pay attention and still learn?" We assure the students that by the end of their first semester, they'll be folding laundry, eating dinner, petting the cat, watching TV, AND doing all their class stuff.
QotD: Midway Through
Jul. 20th, 2006 02:57 pmThey say that you should always have three months' worth of living expenses in a savings account, y'know, just in case. I don't know who "they" are, but "they" sound suspiciously like my father. Regardless of the advice's unknown provenance, this is something I really want to do. I've never been very financially responsible - I live within my means, but just - and I don't have any savings other than "the fund" which paid for my college education and a sad little savings account that is depleted just as quickly as it is stocked. I would really like to have three months' worth of living expenses - hell, even just three months' rent - in savings by the end of the year. This would mean a sizable shift in my spending habits, but it's something I know I need to do. Fingers crossed on this one - it sure as hell won't be easy.
QoTD: Celebrational Muppetational!
Jul. 19th, 2006 03:00 pm
make your own QoTD
Jul. 10th, 2006 02:59 pmI have a weakness for men who look like Morrissey. I've figured that out in the last year. It's not something I'm proud of, but there it is. I like skinny white men with bad habits who are ultimately bad news for me, though they seem awfully dreamy at the time. That is all.
For dinner tonight I had a vegetarian paella instant meal thing from Fantastic Foods. It was, well, fantastic, and I'm considering buying their stuff in bulk. I had the Tuscan Mushroom Risotto last week and loved it. I have a hard time with pre-fab meals - most of them just don't fill me up, and then I eat something else, and then I've defeated the purpose of eating something good for me and not going-out spendy. These seem to the be exception to the rule. I have the Ginger Shiitake with Rice Noodles and am looking forward to eating it soon.
Snacktastic
Jun. 27th, 2006 02:53 pmMy field (library and information science) is rife with made-up terminology to describe areas of research that are essentially mashups of other areas: bibliometrics, folksonomy, etc. I tend to be really annoyed by such things, but I think I've found an exception to this rule: snacksonomy.
To be more precise, the site that provides the exception to the rule: Snacksby. Snacksby lets you tag your own recipes by ingredient - or search by ingredient for recipes containing the four weird things you have left in your fridge.
I tried to do this a couple of months ago using delicious to tag recipes I wanted to try - I have a loooong list of bookmarked recipes - but didn't get enough entries in to make it worthwhile. Now I'm wondering if I can port that information over into Snacksby....
Either way, yum. I'm happy this has come along.People say I look like...
Jun. 26th, 2006 02:50 pmI'm not sure how to answer these silly QoTD things. Just answering the question means my voxy will read funny. Answering it in the form of a thought-out post feels pretentious. Hmm.
I don't particularly feel like I look like any famous people - the possible exception being that when my hair is just right, I sometimes look like Olivia Hussey in Romeo & Juliet. When I was in high school, people told me that I looked like Claire Danes. Now that I'm grown, people say Geena Davis. I think it's the cheekbones.
I love this recipe...
Jun. 23rd, 2006 02:50 pmIf it's summer, it's guacamole - a recipe I figured out from restaurant eating and just trying things I had lying around the house.
If it's winter, it's spinach dip. Not really my recipe at all - Eva found it in Fine Cooking, and we both fell in love with it - but it's one I can make in my sleep, and it's always delicious.
If it's the holidays, it's my grandma's mashed potatoes. Fattening as hell, but they say "home" and "holidays" to me like nothing else. The potatoes are boiled, then mashed, then baked with all sorts of yummy extras.
This QotD is making me hungry.
I've got $10,000 and an hour
Jun. 21st, 2006 02:49 pmSpend it, eh? I'm going to pretend for a moment that I don't have a mortgage that needs to be paid off (as that's an unrelated matter), and operate on the basis of needs, followed by wants. I'm also going to pretend that I don't owe my parents money.
Tuition bill for grad school: $824
Plane tickets for me and SB to see Karin: $340
Polarizing filter for SB: $50
Pimped out MacBook Pro: $3048
Money to my brother to pimp out my house pre-listing: approx $2,000
Comfortable couch (origin TBD): up to $1,000
Dining room table and chairs: up to $1000
A really sweet wedding present for Sarah and Greg: up to $750
A kittem: $100 for adoption fees and accessories
Health insurance for the summer: $98
New swimsuit: $50
A pile of swank presents and clothes for me and SB: up to $500
Dinner at KoFusion or Bacaro with a full compliment of wine and dessert for me and SB (or Carl, if SB wouldn't ditch class); $240
Total: $10,000
The oldest thing I own
Jun. 21st, 2006 02:48 pmThe oldest thing of my own that I own is a tshirt I got on vacation in the 6th grade. My mom and I went to Florida to visit my uncle who was living in Jacksonville - I don't remember much about the trip except that his apartment was sooo cool, and that we went to a movie theater that had little round tables where you could get real food, not just popcorn. One afternoon we went out to Neptune Beach to visit some old friends of my Mom's, and we went to the Sun Dog Diner - I have no recollection of actually eating there, but I did get a cool tshirt that I still wear somewhat regularly.
I have clothes that belonged to my mom in college, and my grandma when she was younger and didn't have four children and wore stylish dresses. Two Christmases ago I brought home a chocolate brown dress that fit me like a glove - little buttons from the waist to the plunging neckline, with cream-colored cuffs and a wide collar with pearl-like beads and chocolate brown embroidery. I think of my grandmother - the one I know and the one I didn't - whenever I wear it.
