Archive for January, 2007

Bomb Scares for Breakfast (a little too early for my taste)

Published by kindli on January 31, 2007 in Public Transportation and adventures. 0 Comments

This morning on my commute to work I had to change from the 86 Bus to the Orange Line at Sullivan Station.

The bus ride was how it always is, lurching enough to keep you awake and rather dull. Then we got to Sullivan Station.

There were several fire trucks and countless police and security personnel. We were told to stay on our bus as shuttle busses were being lined up. Of all the days to forget my cell phone.

Any fear people on the bus might have had soon turned to annoyance. No one wanted to wait for shuttle busses in the cold, and no one wanted to be late for work.

I was fortunate in that I was heading away from Boston, the Malden-Oak Grove bus was nearly empty. The busses heading into town were standing-room only.

There was another bus driver on the shuttle bus who chatted happily with the driver. “Any ideas?” the driver asked. “No,” the other driver paused. “Well, yes, but I’m not supposed to say.” She walked over to the driver and lowered her voice.

I got to my temp job with out too many more adventures.

Then I got the office-wide e-mail from the receptionist: Bomb squad removes suspicious object that closed I-93 north. Well, that would certainly explain traffic around Sullivan.

Several of the office staff felt that the people responsible should be sent to Guantanamo (I disagree, it’s nice and warm down there). And several women expressed great concern that –even though the bombs turned out to be a hoax– that people still managed to get packages in those locations. Well, they manage to get graffiti up there, why not some suspicious package?

Some people are really stupid.

Cover "Girl" Mercedes

Published by kindli on January 31, 2007 in family. 0 Comments


Dad has an article in The Houston Star. It’s fun, so I thought I’d share it!

Above, the car in question… I’m not sure when the picture was taken, I wasn’t there.

commuting with mischievous balls

Published by kindli on January 30, 2007 in Public Transportation. 0 Comments

This evening on the commute home, the little boy with the cool gloves on a string got on the bus, with his still frazzled looking mother staggering behind him. Today, instead of paper airplanes, he held a soccer ball.

He sat swinging his legs, securely holding the ball in arms. His gloved fingers strained to reach one another on the far side of the ball. The bus bumped and lurched along in the heavy 5:30 traffic.

Suddenly, the ball sprang free and rolled mischievously around the bus. The little boy stood up, and was promptly put back in his seat by the bus’ sporadic movements.

His mother retrieved the ball and admonished him to “Keep a better grip on it.”

I changed buses at Harvard Square, someone really needs to rethink the bus numbering for that area. I catch the 86, however, the 66, 68, 69 and 96 also stop there. From a distance the numbers look the same. They also all have stops with in about 100 yards of each other.

I also had four minutes between my bus connections. Goth couples who feel the escalator is an appropriate place for intense PDA sessions should be relocated out of my way.

Fortunately, my connecting bus was a little late (so I caught it). Unfortunately, the fourth-to-last man getting on paid with a defective dollar bill and change… while talking loudly on the cell phone. It took him 3 minutes to get on (the man next to me timed him).

Harvard Square is a special place, filled with very special people. It has fun window shopping, but is not the best place to commute in and out of.

Savory Dutch Babies for Lunch

Published by kindli on January 28, 2007 in cooking. 0 Comments

What a Swiftian proposition.

“What’s the timer for?” Gavin asked as I set it down next to him.
“Lunch.”
“What’s for lunch.”
“I’m trying something from our new Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook.”
“Oh, what?”
“The Savory Dutch Baby, only we didn’t have any ham, so I’m using pepperoni, and we didn’t have swiss cheese, or gruyere, so I used the Mexican four cheese blend we’ve been using on our chili… and I’m not sure our skillet is really 12 inches.”
Gavin laughed. “It will be interesting.”

Yes, it will be.

A few weeks ago The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, we have a cast iron skillet and we were looking to expand it’s uses beyond taco making. So I went to Amazon and added it our shopping cart.

It sat on the shelf in the kitchen with the other cookbooks for a few weeks. Today, I was feeling bored (and slightly adventurous), I remembered seeing the Dutch Baby recipe as a breakfast option, and the Savory Dutch Baby as a “heartier version” great for lunch or dinner.

Lunch was the meal in mind. So I set out to make the Savory Dutch Baby.

Savory Dutch Baby

3 tablespoons butter
4 XL eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Swiss or Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup (about 3 1/4-inch-thick-slices) chopped ham (French, Black Forest, or honey)

- Preheat the oven to 425*F. To make the Dutch baby, melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over low heat. Mix the eggs, flour and milk in a blender on medium speed until just blended, 5-10 seconds. Pour the batter into a medium bowl and add the cheese and ham, fold them into the mixture. Pour the mixture into the skillet with the melted butter.

- Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the top puffs up and is lightly golden 20-25 minutes.

- When the Dutch baby is done, cut into 6 wedges and serve immediately.

I am not one to be deterred by simple directions (or apparent lack of necessary ingredients). I used the last of the stick of butter in the fridge (4 table spoons?), and liberally substituted pepperoni and Mexican 4 cheese blend for ham and swiss.

During the baking process I checked occasionally to see how it was doing –and to make sure the oven was the right temperature (it can be fickle). The Dutch Baby looked quite demented during the baking process, rising quite unevenly (but it did smell quite good, and rather strongly of pepperoni).

When it was done, I carefully took it from the oven and placed it on the stove top. It looked, well, here’s the picture, I’ll let you see for yourself.


It popped rigtht out of the skillet, no problems, got promptly cut up and brought into the office.

“Can I have a piece.”
“Yes.”
“Oooh, yummy.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It’s like a pizza!” Gavin paused a moment. “Althought it would probably be better with Swiss, I like the pepperoni thought.” He chewed thoughtfully. “It’s a little eggy.” More thoughtful chewing “It’s like the bottom’s eggy, the side is mmmh! It’s good to try something new.” He continued to munch happily.

“So you won’t mind if I try to make it again?”
“Not at all!

lets not try on the bus

Published by kindli on January 27, 2007 in Public Transportation and adventures. 0 Comments

As I commuted home the other night to Harvard Station, a young boy clutching two paper airplanes eagerly boarded the bus with a young woman laden down with lunch box, purse, and backpack struggling to keep up.

They sat on the seats in front of me. The young woman attempted to keep everything under her control, while the boy took his gloves off. The gloves were quite brilliant, instead of stuffing them into his pockets, he simply let them hang where they fell -limply on the edge of his coat sleeves. Upon closer inspection, they were on a string that (I suppose) ran the length of the sleeves and connected them to one another. They should make those for adults.

Once the gloves were off, the boy carefully, meticulously folded and refolded the wings of his paper airplanes.

“Look at my airplane mummy,” the little boy said.
“It is quite a sharp looking plane,” she replied as the lunch box slid dangerously close to the rather damp floor.
The little boy went on to explain the reasoning behind the additional folding, how it would improve distance, speed and accuracy. “It’ll be a lot more likely to hit the target now,” he exclaimed.
“Lets not try on the bus,” his mother replied.

He grinned, looked at me, and then back to his mother. “Can we go out for pizza in Harvard Square?”

His mother reminded him it was “cold out” (in the teens) and that there was “dinner at home.” With a reluctant sigh he followed her off the bus and into the bustling station.

things we accidentally learned about our apartment

Published by kindli on January 22, 2007 in apartment. 0 Comments

The kitchen floor is not really gray.

The shelving in the refrigerator is not really frosted glass.

The thermostat makes blue sparks when you adjust it.

It is really best not to think about any of those things too hard.

We have learned quite a lot.

All Done (for now)

Published by kindli on January 21, 2007 in apartment and books. 0 Comments

As promised, pictures of our cleaned up living room/spare oom with all the books shelved (except the one Gavin’s taken out to read).

The Living Room, with non-fiction and Harry Potter

The Spare Oom, with fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, and young-adult fiction

Please note, we are continuing to use the Crate & Barrell bows as an intricate part of our decor, they add such a lovely splash of color.

A Post About the Weather

Published by kindli on January 21, 2007 in weather. 0 Comments

Every time my father calls he asks me “Is it really as cold as it looks up there?” The answer is yes, and it’s probably colder.

I have learned to appreciate the subtle differences between 7, 17, 27 and 37 degrees fahrenheit. Seven (7) is miserable, no matter how many layers of clothing you have on, seventeen (17) is pretty miserable too, as is twenty-seven, especially if the wind is blowing. Thirty-seven (37) isn’t half bad, when compared with the other 7-options, again, as long as the wind isn’t blowing. Forty-seven (47) and Fifty-seven (57) are wonderful.

According to Gavin, I overdress. “It’s not that cold out.” No, the high is just 20-something with a wind-chill dropping it into the teens. Clearly it’s not cold enough for me to pile on a few layers before I venture out.

The wind is the bane of my early morning commutes. Even with my long down coat (mid calf-length), my nearly knee-high boots, thick woolen knee socks, gloves, hat, scarf and hood, it finds a way to swirl around me, up my coat chilling me to the bone.

On days it is quite bright, I would wear sunglasses, but when I do, my breath condenses between the attachment and my glasses and fogs them up so badly I can hardly see. With my coat snapped and zipped, the hood/hat blocking my peripheral vision, and glasses fogged up, I stagger around a good deal (some days I can’t feel my feet, or hit an icy patch, I really must be quite a sight).

As for our apartment, the thermal curtains have made quite a difference, the kitchen is about 20 degrees lower than the rest of the place, and drafts that blow out the gas on the stove (I have become a far more cautious cook). You can also see the wind sneaking around our window-AC units blowing the curtains around (I am going to hang towels or something over them to help with this).

The thermostat makes a blue spark. It also does not matter what one’s husband says, when the high is 27 the down coat is a necessity, not “a bit much.”

Unboxed

Published by kindli on January 21, 2007 in apartment and books. 0 Comments

After several hours of building bookshelves, emptying boxes, and arranging books, the two “extra” shelves, are now full, as is our Spare “Oom”

Before

3/4 through

The shelf on the left is Fiction and the shelf on the right is Science Fiction/Fantasy. Non-fiction still resides in the main portion of the living room.

Tomorrow, or once I finish cleaning up the livingroom, I will post after pictures including the non-fiction section (although Harry Potter still resides there).

Invasion of GAVCA

Published by kindli on January 19, 2007 in apartment and books. 0 Comments

This weekend we will sort through the 261 books that have been tagged in our LibraryThing as GAVCA. Yes, Gavin’s collection of books from California has finally arrived.

When I got home from work today there were 6 boxes of books on the stairs outside our apartment. After cursing USPS and being greatful that it wasn’t raining, I hauled them inside and rested them on the stairs, smashing my hand in the process.


Gavin later brought them up.

I printed off a check list of books we’ve tagged GAVCA to double check that all the books we think we packed actually arrived, and at some point really really soon we’re going to need to build the two extra bookcases that we bought at IKEA back in May.