Trivial Kate

Shall we try this again?

2008-02-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

Not sure how long this will last, but here you go. (If anyone is still reading/RSS-feeding this...)

On the bus.

2007-06-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Crazy old woman (loudly, to no one, really, but directed at me): I'm gonna tell God, if you didn't want to make me happy, why'd you put me here, you cocktease?!

[This diatribe continues for a few stops, until she gets off the bus in front of the Safeway.]

Bus driver (on the microphone): Welcome to Seattle public transportation, everyone! I don't normally let you on the bus, ma'am, because I think you're mean. But I was in a good mood today. I raised 3 children, driving this bus is easy!

Food, swollen feet, and statues of genitalia.

2007-04-09T20:55:00.001-07:00

And monkeys!

Thailand pictures.

Happy hour(s).

2007-03-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday is my new Friday: I don't have any classes on Friday this quarter, so every weekend is 3 days long.
It feels like Spring in Seattle today.
I had 2 glasses of wine at the District Lounge with a friend.
The bus home smelled like french fries. It also provided excellent eavesdropping opportunities - this dude next to me was complaining to his girlfriend how he wasn't as good as Thom Hartmann (I guess he has a radio show? She said, "Honey, he's like 60!") and kept reading her choice excerpts from The 48 Laws of Power (something about if you don't have enemies, you should create them).
The cashier at Trader Joe's couldn't scan my box of organic cherry tomatoes for some reason, so he charged me only $0.99.
Puppies. Lots of puppies out on the walk home.

It's almost yesterday.

2007-03-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Crossing the International Date Line is pretty cool!

Thailand was great. Pictures soon, I promise.

Bon voyage!

2007-03-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been ignoring this thing, and this post is just to say I'll be ignoring it for another week, because... I'll be in Thailand!

We're spending 3 days in Bangkok, where I will try to not get too miserable in the heat, and where I will try to eat at least 3 meals of street food per day. Then we're going to Ko Samui, where I'll drink tropical drinks and try not to get sunburned.

But first, 24 hours of plane rides!

I promise there'll be pictures, although most of them will probably be of the food.

Hell's looking mighty chilly right about now.

2007-02-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

Nate has a blog.

Domestic.

2007-01-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

Nate's on another one of his exotic trips, this time to Niger, but it's totally cool (ie, I'm not insanely jealous) because it's non-work related - his sister's getting married. It's a long story, but she was in the Peace Corps and is now doing her doctoral research there, and apparently seeing her get married (to her German fiance, Guenther [again, no umlaut, sorry!]) is a big deal and very important to the people with whom she's working there. Nate says the wedding will take several days and he's probably going to buy a goat for the reception! Cool.

Anyway, so instead of going out or something, tonight I: swept the house, did laundry, and cooked/baked. I made the no-knead bread (my second time, and it came out much better this time - I think because I let the first rise go for almost 20 hours, and last time it was about 10 or so), eggplant parmesan, and chocolate chip cookies.

The best part? Listening to old This American Life episodes as I cooked!

Oh boy, I'm an old lady.

The good.

2007-01-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

Today I took a Flexcar out for the first time to buy a bunch of heavy things at Trader Joe's (canned tomatoes, beer, dish soap, soup, wine). (I sold my car, in case I didn't mention that before, in what had to have been one of the easiest car sale transactions in the history of automobiles: the woman barely wanted to test-drive it [we had to convince her], she didn't seem to notice the dings or scratches, and her husband only asked to look under the hood after she had already given me the cashier's check [a check made out in an amount very close to the asking price, I might add].) Anyway, the Flexcar experience was pretty awesome - I got a Scion xA, it was incredibly easy to reserve, and I set KEXP as the #1 radio preset. The awesomeness was a bit reduced on the way back from my house to the Flexcar's parking spot, however, because I got stuck on some ice (yup, snow in Seattle, again!) while trying to drive up a big hill. Thankfully, a very nice couple was walking by, and they helped me safely back up down the street so I could take a different, non-hilly route (the first thing they said when I asked for help was, "That's our Flexcar!").

All 3 of my teams are in the playoffs! This is exciting for me, since I am pretty much the definition of a fair-weather fan, so I get rewarded with a full weekend of football without any of the season of angst real fans have to face.

The Amateur Gourmet took my advice and went to Black Bottle! And he liked it! I have good taste.

This weekend we're having a ketchup tasting (and scotch too, but I'm not really interested in that).

School's started again, and while this quarter is going to be MUCH harder than last, we're actually doing important stuff - evaluating a walk-to-school and breakfast program, creating healthier menus for UW food service (and cooking our own recipes for students!), and learning about all sorts of food/nutrition-related issues (food safety, fish farming, biodiversity, etc).

I read 47 books this year! (I am positive this will decrease now that I'm back in school. And it's not like I remember salient points about most of them, but still.)

There's probably more I'm forgetting - and of course, there's bad stuff too. But no one likes to read about that, right?

Babies in a jar.

2006-12-26T15:35:00.000-08:00

Today my parents and I went to the Mutter (sorry, no umlaut) Museum. I don't know what possessed me to think I'd want to go there, but I only lasted about 5 minutes before I started feeling queasy. If you've never heard of the Mutter Museum, it was originally designed as a training museum for medical students, but now it's open to the public, so anyone can see the brain slices, (very realistic-looking!) wax models of syphilis sores and ophthalmalogic diseases, and jars full of actual stillborn conjoined fetuses. Hmm. I know I told some people I wanted to go to the Bodies exhibit in Seattle, but I clearly must have been insane when I said that, so please ignore me.

After the morning of medical oddities, my mom and I braved the after-Christmas shopping crowds, where I got a fantastic jacket from EMS for only $25 (through a combination of sales and returns and a not-entirely-ethically-obtained discount card) and a book to fuel my new crossword puzzle obsession.

You're probably not interested after the talk of jarred conjoined fetus (or maybe you have a stronger stomach than I?), but I made some good food for Christmas. We started with the now-infamous onion tart (I've started cutting the puff pastry into individually-sized tartlets before baking, which leads to more of the all-important crispy edges). I also made cornbread stuffing (my longtime readers should remember this as the turkey/stuffing recipe I made last Christmas) and the amazing chocolate-pecan-caramel tart I made this Thanksgiving. The best part about the food? Lots of leftovers. (Only-childness does have its benefits!)

4-letter word for "something Kate doesn't update anymore."

2006-12-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching Wordplay, and all I can say is that you HAVE to see this movie. It just made me so happy! (Also, it reinforced that whole "I'm a huge dork" thing, but whatever.) Everyone does crosswords! Jon Stewart! Bill Clinton! The former public editor of the New York Times! Mike Mussina! And a 20-year-old due from RPI who competed in the national championship wearing a Trogdor t-shirt!

(I loved the part about how the 1996 election day Times crossword had a clue about the "lead story tomorrow" that could either be solved with "CLINTON" and "elected" or "BOBDOLE" and "elected.")

Anyway, it was great. I clapped several times during the movie (please note, I'm watching this by myself at home). And now, I think I need to start doing crosswords. Perhaps for my bus rides?

If only.

2006-12-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

What I'd be doing this weekend if I didn't have a ton of work to do: the Urban Craft Uprising, 826 Seattle's birthday party, seeing Little Miss Sunshine before it leaves the theater, perhaps going to the Winter Beer Fest, and volunteering at Margaret's Diva Dash.

But! I will be baking the now-famous no-knead bread (in my brand new dutch oven! [a gift from Nate! for putting up with his crazy schedule! and because I kept saying, "if you want to get me a present, I want a dutch oven!"]), going to a appetizer-and-dessert-themed dinner party (I'm making the onion tart, except I think I'll cut the puff pastry into small pieces before baking, so everyone gets a tartlet), and staying out late (too late!) to see Iceage Cobra.

Happy weekend.

Most awesomest ever.

2006-11-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

We all know that I tend to overuse the superlatives around here, but this is one of the best things I've seen, EVER, really, I'm being serious this time: honesty stamps. (These are via, um, the Scottish Cowgirl, who bought her sister the stamp shown.)

Every single one is fantastically amazing, but I think my favorites are number 4 and number 6 (that one if only because it'd be perfect for Nate, but I'd need an e-stamp version).

These would be great for holiday gifts (for those people in your life with the best sense of humor ever, because it coincides with mine) - TK to the shopping rescue! (And... I also have another thing that I'm totally enamored with, so now's as good a time as any to tell you about it: the Oxo travel mug. This is the best travel mug I have ever had the pleasure of using. Sure, it's expensive, but you can turn it upside down and the liquid stays inside. And stays hot inside, more importantly. A+++!)

Gourmet food, bluegrass, and casinos.

2006-11-26T22:17:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving! My favorite holiday (Halloween was my favorite when I was little because of FREE CANDY and its proximity to my birthday, but the completely food-centric Thanksgiving is now my favorite). Because school prevented me from going home to NJ this year, Nate and I went to some friends'. Everyone was responsible for a different part of the menu - I made my onion-cheese tart, a fennel/gorgonzola/Asian pear/toasted walnut salad, and a chocolate, pecan, and caramel tart. We also had an amazing (brined, of course) turkey, the best mashed potatoes I've ever had (apparently, Stephanie told Matt, "We're making these for other people! You have to use tons of butter. And cream, not milk!"), delicious pork sausage stuffing (Sarah was worried about the pork clashing with the turkey meat, to which I said: added pork is NEVER a bad thing), apple pie AND pumpkin pie (made from a whole pumpkin!) AND my pecan tart, and many many many glasses of sparkling, red, and white wine. The best part was taking a walk to preempt the turkey coma, and standing on the top of the Gasworks Park hill, glass of sparkling wine in hand, looking at the Seattle skyline across Lake Union. Nice.

Then on Friday Nate and I went to the Olympic Peninsula for a short get-away-from-Seattle trip. Unfortunately, the road to Hurricane Ridge was closed because of snow, and the road to the Hoh Rainforest was closed due to flooding, but we still managed a hike, on which we got within 15 feet of a mama and baby deer. Dinner was at the only place in Sequim that appeared semi-appetizing (the food actually turned out to be quite good). When we walked in, there was 1 other table of 3 in the entire restaurant, and a lone man with a banjo was tuning up. Goody. But it was either that or Applebee's, so we ate. And then the other 3-top got up and sat down with the banjo man. And then they started playing! Bluegrass! (Free food in exchange for music?) It was actually excellent music, and we found out that they were Chairs - and all of the proceeds from their CDs go to animal shelters. (Of course, I told them about KEXP and that they'd be perfect for the Roadhouse or Swingin' Doors.)

So where do you go after a private bluegrass serenade? Why, the local Native American casino, of course! I lost $5 playing the slots, but I saw a man wearing a t-shirt that said "Happiness is a belt-fed weapon" (along with that yellow smiley face draped with an ammo belt thingy), so it was a good night for me. It was a also good night for Nate, because he won $25 at the $2 blackjack table. High rollers! (Did I mention I was playing $0.05 slot machines?)

On Saturday, we went to Port Townsend, did some work in a coffeeshop, and then saw Casino Royale. And then, since pretty much everything else was closed at 10 PM, we went to the Public House, where I had the worst French onion soup of my life. ("It's hot! Be careful!" the waiter said, but honestly, it wasn't. Did he even feel the bowl? Bad food makes me UPSET.) And then I had an interesting (depressing) music moment. They played Coldplay's "Don't Panic" (I love that song) and then the Shins' "Caring is Creepy." So I thought: first songs on first albums! (Music dork! [But I imagined it was a CD changer just rotating through the songs.]) Next was Zero 7's "In the Waiting Line" (I didn't know this album well enough to say if it was the first song or not), but then when "New Slang" came on, I realized we were listening to the Garden State soundtrack. Ugh. Embarrassing that I knew that, depressing that the disappointing bar I gave props to for at least playing good music was going for the indie rock lowest common denominator. Oh well.

After a rather snowy drive home, I did some homework, and then made Cook's Illustrated's coq au vin recipe (mmm) with homemade mashed potatoes (which were nowhere near as good as the ones at Thanksgiving). And now, there's some of that caramel chocolate pecan tart left, so goodbye.

Where have I been?

2006-11-16T22:41:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I've been MIA. Here's why:

1. Studying for/completing a biostatistics exam and a take-home nutrition and metabolism (essentially, advanced biochem) exam. I spent 20+ hours on the nutrition exam. I have absolutely NO IDEA if I did okay, well, or terribly. (Should I mention that this is 40% of my grade?)

2. Being sad. Something really sad happened last week. I was going to say something to you all, but I didn't know how to write about it and sound sincere at the same time (because sincere isn't exactly my strong suit). My parents had to put our dog, Prancer, to sleep. She was 16 and it wasn't a surprise, but it was still very very sad. (Sorry for all of those people who were over at my house when I got the call and then disappeared into the bedroom...)

3. Volunteering for and attending Seattle Works' Swank. A great organization, a fantastic party.

4. Looking things up on Wikipedia. (Seriously, in 24 hours I looked up both NPY and hipster. The former for the aforementioned take-home exam, the latter for a hipster-themed party I was invited to and was able to attend only at the very end [because of the aforementioned Swank] when most of the hipster-attired people had left, so I didn't get to wear my Wikipedia-researched costume.)

5. Getting drunk and singing karaoke. (Moving on...)

6. Walking around in the apartment in these new jeans I bought that I think are way too tight, but I've been reassured by a fashion expert that they're supposed to be like that.

7. Dogsitting Seamus. (Okay, that was a LONG time ago, but it was still awesome.)

Anyway, you're up-to-date. I'll try to keep in touch.

Go shorty.

2006-11-01T22:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, today was MUCH better than yesterday. I got a ton of email and phone birthday wishes (including "if I had time, I'd cook up a pound of bacon and put it in a Tupperware and leave it at your front door" [what could be a better happy birthday wish than bacon?!]). But better than THAT, I got birthday trivia (the company was fantastic, even though the trivia questions totally sucked) and a delicious birthday dinner (pork belly, broccoli, shrimp, and chocolate cake).

Go shorty! Here's to 27.

Kate and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

2006-10-31T23:21:00.000-08:00

Today was Not a Good Day.

(Except the 3.5 hours of dinner party with delicious food where I randomly met a girl who went to my high school [!!!] and also except right now, because I am self-medicating with Halloween candy [but I'm on the last piece].)

Bacon brittle!

2006-10-30T22:28:00.000-08:00

I just got an early birthday present.

(It's...good. Weird, but very good.)

Prejudiced no more!

2006-10-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

I admit it: when I found out Ken Jennings is Mormon, I liked him (a lot) less. But every time I read his blog, I realize all over again how funny, well-read, and (if you can believe this!) indie rock he is.

Check out this post - it's a mash-up list of his favorite album titles. Slanted and Enchanted! The Moon and Antarctica! Vauxhall and I!

So: no more prejudice towards Mormons. Theoretically, I knew it was wrong before, but now I have hilarity and indie rock to back it up.

I wonder if he listens to KEXP?

A list: watch your food.

2006-10-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Items of which you have to be careful (or else I will eat the entire container/box/package/plateful):

French fries, sesame crackers, vanilla-almond cereal (I forget the brand, but I used to buy it at Whole Foods in Providence and I could literally eat the whole box in 2 days), actually ANY type of sugary cereal (an ex-boyfriend used to buy Reese's Puffs and it pretty much sealed the deal with us becoming a couple [also, he owned his very own deep fryer and listened to indie rock]), pizza crust, Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels, the roasted broccoli at Black Bottle.

This is all a cry for help, because I just opened a package of sesame crackers and I'm home alone. Nelly and Rob are visiting this weekend and I am really trying to save some crackers for when they get back to the apartment.

(And the Black Bottle reference is for the FG [but I seriously will eat an entire plate of broccoli], who requested that I blog about this [and I cannot refuse her now that she's leaving me!] - I know a guy who met his current girlfriend at Black Bottle when they both found themselves alone at the bar, each with a drink and a plate of the broccoli. The broccoli brought them together! GHWB would not be happy [which is awesome].)

Closure.

2006-10-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

You know how my meeting-the-Mugs experience on Thursday night was underwhelming? Well, Friday night was a complete 180. Friday afternoon, I was volunteering at the KEXP membership booth for Ballard day and Nick and Jeremy walked up for some restaurant advice. They seemed to remember me, and didn't run away screaming, so I told them they should check out the Thee Emergency/Iceage Cobra concert after the Mugs' KEXP benefit show.

Fast forward many hours (the Mugs were absolutely amazing - and I know I'm a biased source, but a ton of uninterested parties told me the same thing), after Thee Emergency and Iceage Cobra's awesome sets (seriously, Thee Emergency deserve to be superstars), and I walked up to the bar to close my tab. I feel a tap on my shoulder, and it's Nick (here I am going with the notion that he actually wanted to talk to me, and not that the band gave him 20 bucks to speak with the crazy stalker lady, but I guess that's always a possibility). We had a totally mundane 20-minute conversation about touring with the band, the Seattle Public Library, working from home, and KEXP, and then I walked away. Closure! Dude is not some mythical figure deserving of years of tuna fish sandwich-eating, code name-making, Googling, and somewhat creepy stalking.

Of course, I'm not THAT cool, because I totally ran back to my friends and screeched, "I just talked to my Mug for 20 minutes!" and they all high-fived me.

On not living up to the hype.

2006-10-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

So, I met the Mugs last night - thanks to my friend who literally dragged me over to Jeremy, told him, "we went to Brown!" (ie, she did too, which is a total lie), and proceeded to talk to him while I sort of just stood there stupidly. At one point Nick (!!!) walked up and Jeremy kind of pulled him over, but I think it was a semi-desperate defense tactic. Oh well. Living up to my "crazy stalking girl" rep from college, I guess.

(Note: I have no idea what they actually thought - but you'd think they'd be happy that a cute girl [Betsy! But I guess I'm not ugly] wanted to talk to them. They seemed totally underwhelmed.)

And how was the CYHSY show? The show was awesome. The interaction-with-the-band part was less great, which is fine because I was very nervous about talking to them. Although one member of Takka Takka did ask me if I knew where he could get a joint, which is pretty hilarious, seeing as how I am quite possibly the LAST person in Seattle who could help him with that.

Week of Rock.

2006-10-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

This is Kate's Week of Rock (much better than the Summer of Suckiness), did you know that? Here's a quick rundown.

Last Saturday night: party at Thee Emergency and Iceage Cobra's house.

Tomorrow: the Mugs at the High Dive.

Friday: in Ballard volunteering for KEXP all day, another Mugs show, and then (most likely, unless I'm about to pass out in a tired, hungover puddle) the Iceage Cobra cd release concert.

And tonight? Oh, you may have heard of this little band called Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Well, generally when bands play a venue, there's food and beer for them backstage. Guess who is going to make sure the CYHSY guys are fed and liquored up for their KEXP benefit show at the Showbox tonight? Why, that's right - ME. And the best part? My shift ends right when they go onstage.

(I am trying very hard not to be totally nervous.)

7 courses of beef and 3 gears.

2006-10-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to Green Leaf. Awesome. We had the banh xeo (huge thin omelette-type things stuffed with bean sprouts and various meats/seafood that you wrap in lettuce leaves with cilantro and mint and dip in a fish-saucy mixture) and the SEVEN courses of beef (honestly, too much food to list - but all of it was absolutely fantastic). This was way too much food and it was only $23. But beware, the people who work there are almost frighteningly nice. (If you're scared of strangers like I am, it's stressful whenever a new employee comes to your table - they'll want to talk.)

And then I drove home! (Noteworthy because this was Nate's car.) I stalled right as I pulled into the driveway, but other than that, I was good. (Okay, so I tend to push the gas way too hard, so there's a nice revving effect whenever I try to move. Hopefully no one will think I want to drag race.)

Hershey's peanut butter kisses.

2006-10-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

Delicious.

I hear they make coconut ones too!

On the road!

2006-10-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

My first weekend after becoming a full-time grad student, and I didn't do a single minute of work. Whoops. But here are some things that DID happen.

I went on a 36-mile bike ride - beautiful weather and scenery, a ferry ride to the peninsula, and delicious snacks (sometimes after months of eating natural peanut butter, Jif tastes absolutely fantastic).

On Friday night, I went to two different concerts. These next few weeks I'll be seeing more live music than I have in the past 6 months (more about this later), and I am totally excited.

Saturday night - 70s party! (Although the party was at Ryan's, site of last year's infamous Halloween party, I managed to control myself this time.)

Who wants to buy my car?

And, the big news: on Saturday I drove Nate's (manually-transmissioned) car on the road! With stoplights! And other cars! And I was totally freaking out and almost hyperventilating but I didn't stall once and I didn't get in an accident. (And I'd be happy if I never had to drive it ever again.)

Grad student.

2006-09-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

So, I guess I'm officially some kind of grad student now. Crazy! So here's what I've learned so far:

The gym is amazing. And everyone who wants one gets his/her OWN locker - I can leave my shoes, flip-flops, and shower stuff in the locker ALL OF THE TIME. And there's a pool (!), and some of the cardio machines have their own mini cable TVs. I can watch the Food Network while working out - heaven!

Not so heavenly: book prices. I spent $120 on one book that I probably won't even use that much. Grr.

Epidemiology seems cool! And the professor made a number of anti-Bush jokes today, including one about epidemiologists in Louisiana doing "a heck of a job."

The library is pretty impressive. Look at all of the journals I can get for free!

And the UPASS is the most awesome thing ever. Free bus rides, whenever I want!

But, um, there's going to be a lot of work. If this infringes on my Laguna Beach watching, I'm going to be pissed.

Compliment?

2006-09-22T02:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight, some dude in a bar said to me, "You have a natural beauty. ... Like Europe."

I look like a continent? WTF?!?!

Pork chops and...fennel sauce.

2006-09-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

I say that I love all vegetables, but there are some I love more than others. Fennel has always been on the not-love-so-much side of the continuum. We got some fennel in last week's CSA box and I figured I'd let it go slowly soft in the fridge (of course, I'd mean to cook it, but never get around to it) until I saw an episode of Everyday Italian last week.

Yup, Everyday Italian, with that perpendicular girl Giada De Laurentiis. She may be skinny, but she cooks some good food. Like her pork chops with fennel sauce. (I omitted the capers, because I'm not a huge fan, and I only cooked 2 pork chops so it was extra saucy - delicious with polenta.)

Really, really good.

Attention!

2006-09-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

To whomever got to my blog by googling "Lloyd Dobler" and "halloween costume," DO IT. What a fantastic idea.

Rhymes with...tune?

2006-09-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

So apparently someone flipped some switch over at the old Microsoft today, and I am finally able to tell people what Nate works on: Zune! (Seriously, watch the video - with sound. I am completely obsessed with the Apple switch ads [Warren P. Cheswick!], not to mention the whole iPod aesthetic, but even I love this. And keep watching after the song ends. There's more! [The guy with the rabbit...!])

And I guess he can show it to people. So come on over and see the Zune!

No, I am NOT giving up my Nano.

Looong weekend.

2006-09-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

This was definitely a long (and good!) weekend. On Friday, I went to see the "People Talking and Singing" event - a benefit for 826 Seattle. On the not-so-benefit side, I got my tickets for free. But still, it would have been worth spending $30 for children's literacy programs while watching John Hodgman and Daniel Handler and Sarah Vowell and Colin Meloy and Ben Gibbard. And Smoosh! Plus, afterwards, I had "cajunized" tater tots. Mmm.

Saturday, we went on a run, on which I stopped halfway through because of leg pain. I half-hobbled back home, while worrying that my leg was semi-permanently damaged from my recent running event (I hope not). Then we went to Eastside dim sum (tasty, but the carts weren't varied or frequent enough) and on the search for a pumpkin. Who knew that it would be so hard to find a pumpkin before Labor Day? (The pumpkin was for pumpkin beer. Margaret is having an October Pumpkin Party and I coerced Nate into contributing a pumpkin beer.) Saturday night, we went to dinner with Phil (I haven't linked to you yet! I apologize!) and Laura. I wanted to go to Dinette, but apparently I am an idiot and couldn't read the website. (That's "reservations accepted for parties up to eight," not "reservations for parties of eight or more." Doh.) So we went to Cafe Lago, and I had a delicious goat cheese/caramelized onion pizza, followed by a slice of a super-rich chocolate birthday cake (generously donated from Margaret's family, who happened to be celebrating Margaret's mom's birthday at Cafe Lago that very night).

Sunday, I went on a bike ride with my favorite bike ride companions, Mark and Kelly (okay, fine, Nate and Margaret aren't half bad, either). We rode out to the Maltby Cafe and shared a HUGE cinnamon bun. I also ate one of the best BLTs I have ever had. (To tell the truth, the whole ride out there, I was thinking about the BLT I was planning on ordering. And the whole ride back, I was thinking about the BLT I had just eaten.) Sunday night Margaret hosted a party to celebrate our Hood to Coast completion. Linsey made one of the best things I've had the pleasure of drinking - blended lemon sorbet, champagne, and vodka, with a mint garnish. This paired very well with the peanut butter pretzels.

Monday was Bumbershoot! But honestly, it wasn't that great. The crowds overwhelmed me, and you couldn't get into any of the comedy shows I wanted to see (Upright Citizens Brigade, David Cross' Tinkle, a Trapped in the Closet comedy "roundtable") without waiting at least 2 hours in a line. Plus, there weren't any bands I was dying to see. (Tribe was great, but I haven't loved them for years like most people. And, while I love Feist, she alone was not enough to justify the price of admission.)

Tonight, I went to Brasa's happy hour. Two words: fried avocado.

197 miles/29:06:42.

2006-08-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

What did you do this past weekend? That's nice. Oh, me? What did I do? Not much - I just ran in a 197-mile relay.

Crazy! you say, and I was inclined to agree with you. Until this weekend. Because it was SO much fun that I kind of forgot about the whole psycho-ness of the event. Even before I had finished running my first leg, I was planning for next year.

So, Hood to Coast. It's the aforementioned 197 miles, from Oregon's Mt. Hood to Seaside (the coast). Each team has 12 members (split into 2 vans), and every member runs 3 legs of the relay. Some legs are harder than others. I had the easiest leg overall (I promise that I did not ask for the easiest leg! I waited until everyone had selected their legs and mine was the only one left!) - leg 4 (6.95 miles at 4 PM, in 85 degree weather), leg 16 (3.3 glorious miles at 2 AM [yes, 2 AM!], in 60 degree weather), and leg 28 (4.2 miles at 11:30 AM, in freaking ridiculously hot weather).

This was on about 2 hours of sleep, total.

Clearly I'm not explaining myself well enough, because even I don't think this sounds like fun. But it was. (Don't I look happy?) Everyone decorated their van with their team names (we were Nice Guys Finish Last), and there were some fantastic names/decorations/costumes. Our arch nemesis was My Dixie Wrecked (say it to yourself...but not out loud, if you're at work...) because they started at the exact same time we did, and we managed to keep up with them for most of the race. (They were a group of guys who grew matching sideburns/moustaches for the race, and their second van advertised "moustache rides" for 5 cents.) Lest you think it was all smutty, there was also the heroic Snakes In A Van, who gave me an ice-cold bottle of water during my last (uphill) leg.

And AFTER the race! Well, that was filled with bacon (seriously, we went to a breakfast place called Pig 'n Pancake) and Swedish fish and Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels (the best post-run food EVER) and beer (obviously) and a cabin complete with a proprietor sleeping on the couch (even as we discussed loudly how it was incredibly weird to have some strange guy sleeping on the couch) with no less than 6 taxidermied animal heads (the buffalo/bison/whatever looked so surprised - like, "OMG! You have a gun!").

Anyway, it was awesome. We are getting a team next year. You should come too.

On notice.

2006-08-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

Trader Joe's, I'm looking at you. You are now on notice! I went to your Capitol Hill location tonight, and not only were you out of lavash bread, you were out of my new lavash bread replacement, whole wheat pitas! AND you were out of my favorite frozen wild salmon! (And screw Michael Pollan, I was ready to buy some non-sustainable pink-dyed farmed salmon. But you didn't have that either!)

In other news, tonight was my last night of class. End Kate's Summer of Suckiness (TM)!

This weekend will include a wedding shower, a delicious brunch, hopefully some good food and drink, and perhaps a going-away party.

Since [you've] been gone.

2006-08-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

What? I've been the one that's been gone? Semantics. I love that song. (And I'm not ashamed to admit it, because Ted Leo loves it too.)

So I thought I'd make a list of stuff that I've found noteworthy in the past few weeks. Most are awesome things, but the first is super-sad, so that averaged the list out to "noteworthy."

No more Kozak's trivia! This is incredibly sad. First the EMP, and now this. I don't have a trivia home anymore.

It's a bird, it's a plane... No, it's Kate the Supertaster! That's right, I'm a supertaster. Last week my cooking lab class had a guest speaker who told us all about taste and sensory perception. Part of her presentation included testing for supertasters. We put a chemical-saturated scrap of paper in our mouths, and 3 people in the class (myself included) all made a terrible what is this crap? face. (It tasted absolutely disgusting.) The majority of the class was like, eh, not so pleasant, and then a few people didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. As you've probably guessed, the people with the overblown reactions are supertasters. I think this is awesome, and I've been bragging about it for a week. The weird thing is, supertasters aren't supposed to like bitter things (coffee, dark chocolate, broccoli, grapefruit), and I love all of these (however, I do use cream in my coffee - and, if I'm going to be totally honest here, my absolute favorite coffee is Dunkin Donuts with cream and 2 Equals, and not some fair trade organic stuff from Victrola). I asked about this, and the presenter said we could train ourselves out of our natural preferences (hence I think the Victrola stuff is "better," so I drink it, plus there are no Dunkin Donuts in this stupid state).

Ken Jennings' blog! It's great! You should read it.

The Mugs are coming to Seattle. Holy shit am I excited. THREE performances! Do you think they need a place to stay while they're here? (I am kind of serious about this.) And Boston people (I'm [virtually] looking at you) - they'll be at Bill's Bar on Monday. (For those of you who don't know, the Mugs are an extremely talented band from Brooklyn. Coincidentally, their members also happen to include 2 alumni of my favorite a cappella group.)

We now have a Tivo-like thing. OMG it's amazing. I have already set it to record the next season of Laguna Beach.

And with that, good night!

Meat cake!

2006-08-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

I know it's terrible to resume blogging after a 3-week hiatus with just a few links, but I (semi-) promise that I'll write more soon.

For now, meat cake! And another meat cake!

Seriously, how awesome is that?

(via megnut)

Making a list, checking it twice.

2006-07-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

So I don't know if you guys in Boston are nicer, or what, but here in Seattle I have quite the reputation of Kate the Niceguy, something that's sort of new to me. (I don't mean this as an insult! I love all of you Seattle people, and I think it's awesome that I'm the group pushover... But of course, I would love all of you, and I would love my role, wouldn't I?)

Anyway, one day I was mentioning how I thought I didn't like someone, but it turns out she's a great person!, and the group was underwhelmed. A list of "People Kate Doesn't Like" was proposed, and Pol Pot and Hitler made it, but not too many others. (I'd like to add the people who stuffed the puppies with heroin.)

So, I am documenting my list here (ignoring the genocide-causers and puppy-torturers for now). I do not like this woman who substitutes for spinning classes at my gym. Her music sucks, it's not loud enough, she doesn't know how to work the microphone, she can never adjust her bike properly, and I don't even get that great of a workout. I also used to REALLY dislike this woman who worked at my office, but since I work remotely now and she was fired (I'm assuming for incompetence, which is why I didn't like her), I'm giving her a bye.

But, after tonight, I can definitively say that I DO NOT LIKE my microbiology professor. Since she looks like (and probably is!) a grandma, I had difficulty putting her on the list, but after tonight's hour "lecture" (in which she read directly from another professor's slides) on the wrong chapter (to rectify her error she read 3 tables from the correct chapter, ignored the rest of the chapter, and never told us what was important to know, which doesn't exactly matter because all of the exams are taken in groups and open book), she is ON THE LIST.

To summarize, do not get on my bad side, because it probably means you're either totally incompetent or you killed a bunch of people. You won't be in good company.

Leave me paralyzed, love.

2006-07-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

Today on my run, I decided I was sick of CYHSY and thought I'd mix it up with a little shuffle. (Ooh!) Weirdly, the nano brain decided to play 4 of my All-Time Top 10 Breakup Songs: the Wallflowers' "I've Been Delivered," Lucinda Williams' "Can't Let Go," the Shins' "The Past and Pending," and just as I was turning onto my street, the Notwist's "Consequence."

Hmm. Thanks, nano.

(Yes, I know it's annoying to anthropomorphize the nano and that it's all a random selection blah blah.)

Happy.

2006-07-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

I got out of class (microbiology) a whopping 2+ hours early tonight. We took the exam (it was open book AND we took it in groups AND the questions were divided by chapter, so you knew exactly where to look for the answers). My group finished in about half the time the other groups took, and then we completed the lab before some groups even finished gathering their materials. I had serious Group Karma when I sat down at that lab table my first day of class.

Since I got out of class early, I was able to stop at Whole Foods on my way home (I drive home right past it!) and buy the ingredients for Nelly and Rob's anchovy broccoli orecchiette. It sounds weird, but it is SO good. I also got some pork tenderloin, which we broiled with dijon mustard.

I'm thinking of selling my car once I start grad school this fall, because I'll never need it, and I get a Flexcar discount. This is very thrilling. (Although this might speed up the necessity for me to learn to drive stick, which I am avoiding at all costs. [If only for the picking up girls reason: if I can drive stick myself, it won't really impress me when other people can do it...])

Finally, tomorrow's cooking lab class covers muffins and pies.

Two out of three ain't bad.

2006-06-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

So in case you're wondering what's going on, I have now entered Kate's Summer of Suckiness(TM). What that means is: I have 19 hours of class a week (16 hours of which is at night Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday), I am still trying to work, because you know, I need to eat (um, and drink), I'll probably miss trivia most Mondays (because, you know, the class thing), and I have to DRIVE to class every Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. (This is a big deal. I don't like driving all that much. Especially because I have to pay for gas. And double-especially I don't like driving in Seattle rush hour at 5 pm. [I have to drive because it's kind of far away, and bussing would be pretty inconvenient. I may try it though. We'll see.])

BUT. Two of my classes are some of the best classes I've ever taken. For one of them, the reasons are pretty obvious: it's a cooking lab. Every Wednesday, we meet in a UW cafeteria and cook...and then EAT. Today we were cooking legumes and grains - my "lab partner" and I made chocolate pudding (we made it from a mix, and we were comparing it with another group's homemade pudding), wild rice pilaf, and wheatberry tabbouleh. Highlights from the eating period included baked 3-cheese polenta with tomato-basil sauce and a lentil-veggie tostada that other groups made. There are no tests in this class - we fill out lab reports (which involve evaluating taste and texture of various foods) and we're graded on participation. Awesome.

The other class is the second half of anatomy and physiology. It's about as different from the cooking lab as you can get - it's a whole quarter condensed into 8 weeks, 2 classes and labs a week, and approximately an exam a week, too. Lots of stuff to learn. But the professor is awesome. She's young, and she has tattoos (not like this is on my good-professor-requirement list or anything), but more importantly she knows her stuff. Case in point, I hung around for an extra 20 minutes tonight because she was telling us interesting things about sickle-cell anemia and Pelger-Huet. Twenty extra minutes! I must really like her.

And my third class...well, it's only met once, but let's just say that I wasn't impressed. And it's microbiology! You'd think I'd like that. I'll withhold judgment until after tomorrow night, but I don't think I'll be staying any extra minutes for THIS professor to explain anything.

Of course, by that I mean she doesn't have any tattoos.

I won!

2006-06-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

So, remember how I was super-excited about the trivia trophy? Because I didn't have a childhood of sports accomplishments?

Well, imagine my joy when I beat my entire (7 person) mini-golf team tonight. (Yeah, I'm on a mini-golf team, aren't you?) AND I got a hole-in-one, for which I won a free beer. Free beer! Are there two better words in the English language?

Sad, but true.

2006-06-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

1. I didn't have internet for a whopping 34 hours (the cable guy tells me it was due to an overextended signal) and I was going through withdrawal. Granted, some of this was due to work-related stress. But I also didn't know what to do with myself. How would I know what the weather is going to be like? And what bus do I take? And what happened in the world today?

2. I got an A in my anatomy class. (This is not the sad part.) But I was upset about my A - a 94. As I told some of my friends, "I got an A, but not the highest A." Yes, I got the second-highest grade in the class (the highest was a 98). And yes, I was upset about it. (In my defense, the reason I didn't get the highest grade was my performance on the last 2 exams, both of which I didn't study for AT ALL [one was the day after my reunion weekend and one was the day after I got back from Arizona].)

3. I absolutely LOVE the new Laguna Beach show. And, even worse, I got a little teary-eyed at the end of tonight's show.

So...now you have to tell me something embarrassing, so I don't feel bad.

Quick update.

2006-06-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome back! Not you, me. I was in Arizona for my cousin's bar mitzvah and also the Grand Canyon, and I'll post about that soon. (With pictures!)

This past week, I've: hiked 6 miles into/out of the Grand Canyon, seen a sunrise AND a sunset, intentionally woken up before 5 am on THREE separate occasions, spent 16 hours at KEXP (over a period of 28 hours), and taken a final exam.

Unrelated, but: THIS SHIRT IS SO AWESOME.

Finally, I have to admit that I am also developing quite the (girl-) crush on DJ Michelle Myers. I'm listening to her show on KEXP right now, and it's great. (I had no idea how much I loved Prince's "Gett Off" until hearing it just now. I am bopping around in my chair.) And apparently, around 9:30 during her Friday night show every week, she'll play a Ladies' Slow Dance Request. Tonight it's Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," and really, can it get any better than that?

AHHHH! Following "Let's Get It On" is Massive Attack's "Protection," which is one of the best songs ever in the history of the world and pretty much makes me cry every time I hear it (both for aesthetic reasons and because it takes me back to this time in my life that was both amazing and really, really frustrating/sad/uncertain).

Make this dessert for the name alone.

2006-06-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

We had some people over for dinner tonight, and we ate some fantastic food, if I do say so myself.

So first, there was some Essential Bakery rosemary ciabatta with homemade tomato-garlic-basil topping. And then there was this delicious orzo salad (seriously, it doesn't look like much from the recipe, but it is SO good) and asparagus and 3 different types of grilled steak (rib eye [the winner], top sirloin, and prime rib - Nate went a little nuts at the farmer's market last weekend, which is why we had the steak taste-test format).

And for dessert! I made beeramisu. Yes, beeramisu. It was worth making just for the name, even if it was gross, but it turned out to be delicious. I think the porter cuts the sweetness and richness of the cream/mascarpone mixture much better than the traditional brandy. Plus, you get to say, "For dessert, I made beeramisu!"

(I won't) Walk like an Egyptian.

2006-06-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

So Japan was one thing - there are lots of people from his company there.

But I just found out that Nate gets to go to EGYPT for a week in June. Egypt!

I hate him and his stupid computer job.

Reunited, and it feels so good.

2006-05-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend was so, SO much fun.

Highlights included: The best falafel sandwich in the whole entire world, and managing to fit in 2 visits in 3 days. French fries from a vending machine (not especially tasty, but ingenious!) at 3 am. Seeing people I'd lost touch with and being incredibly happy (and sometimes a bit jealous) with what they'd done since college. Once again sharing a dorm room with Joanna. Holding an impromptu hall party that became the pre-party of the night. Boxed pink wine and Malibu and Diet Coke. Waking up to the sound of Eric and Allen duct-taping the words "Voorhees 2" to my door (an inside joke that somehow I find hilarious, even though it's about my boobs). Seeing my ex-boyfriend for the first time in 3 years, and hearing him say, "I heard you on KEXP!" Sneaking into our class dance party in the cafeteria (yes, totally weird) through the back loading dock and kitchens (even though I'd already paid for my ticket). Having someone tell me, "I remember you - I used to think you were really cute" (ego boost! [but yes, I realize that he said, "used to"]). Finally being able to tell people I was doing something cool ("This fall I'm starting an MPH program in nutrition at UW!"). Having friends who want to take a cab to the supermarket at 5 am, only to turn around and go right back to campus when you discover the supermarket is closed (nothing in Rhode Island is open 24 hours). Walking in the commencement processional and tearing up to see a man back for his 75th reunion.

Lowlights: Realizing, sadly, that the next reunion couldn't possibly be this great, that I'm too old to stay out until 5:30 in the morning, and that I really really miss these people.

Nosy.

2006-05-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

[Warning, this could possibly be TMI? But going with the title of the post, maybe you've seen the weird red mark on my nose recently, and were wondering...?]

Last week, this weird red patch appeared on my nose - of course I thought it was some sort of normal skin problem, but it didn't go away, and it didn't show any pimple-like characteristics. So I kind of thought it was funny at first - around Saturday, Nate said, "What's that thing on your nose?" and we laughed about it. (Herpes or a wart were the leading solutions.)

But then yesterday, suddenly, for no real reason, I thought of skin cancer. (...and my blog goes from totally superficial to super-serious, just like that...) I went right on the internet and promptly scared myself to death. (I have all of the risk factors: family history, fair skin, blue eyes, etc. And there were some pictures that looked like the thing on my nose.)

So, I found a dermatologist that had an appointment opening today. I stepped off the elevator and I saw "Skin Cancer Center" in huge letters next to the office and I almost had a heart attack. (Thanks to Nate who worked from home today, even after I insisted he go to work, and came to the doctor's office with me, after I insisted he stay home, and came into the examination room with me, etc...) The doctor gave me the contradictory message of "I don't think it's anything" and something along the lines of, "Let's take a biopsy because it has the characteristics of basal cell cancer." So he did a slice biopsy.

I'm really not worried. It's really really curable, if it is cancer. And if it's not cancer, then I have nose herpes, or a nose wart. But I'm just so self-conscious now! I have a freaking red hole in my nose where the doctor sliced it! I told him I was going to my college reunion this weekend, and that he had to take a very small amount of skin, so it could heal before Friday. I hope he listened.

Cheese of my people.

2006-05-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

Everyone has to have their own semi-personalized cheese, right?

(Via Roots and Grubs.)

Best dinner ever.

2006-05-14T22:56:00.000-07:00

So tonight we were invited to dinner at Joseph's. Joseph is the Lark sous chef, and he cooks these multi-course dinners once a month with local sustainable produce and meat, all from scratch, because it's fun for him. (Also, he lives with a guy who's idea of "relaxation" is building a whole beautiful table out of poplar wood--just to give you an idea of the caliber of people we're dealing with, here. [Let it be known that for relaxation I watch MTV shows like Tiara Girls and My Super Sweet Sixteen.])

First, let me say that this evening has taught me that I am completely unfashionable and I need to go shopping NOW. OMG the women and their clothing! Help me.

And now, onto the food!

The passed appetizers were fennel seed palmiers with Kir Royales. Then we sat down (at the tables that Joseph's roommate constructed), and ate: Baguette with raw milk butter (The butter was SO amazing. It seriously tasted like cheese. I wanted to eat it with a spoon). Fresh ricotta nettle gnudi. Milk-braised pork, made with milk that was taken from the cow 24 hours previously. Farro/wheatberry salad with green garlic vinaigrette (the green garlic was picked from Joseph's garden). Chard and fresh goat cheese tart (ditto for the chard). Goose egg scramble with freshly foraged morels (OMG this was like the ultimate omelet - goose eggs are so rich and creamy. We all thought that he added cream to the scramble, but it was just eggs and the morels). Homemade anise almond biscotti and a cheese plate that I'd go on and on about, if only I knew the first thing about cheese.

Did I mention the different wines with each course?

Best dinner ever.

13.1.

2006-05-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't wimp out. The race was actually pretty awesome, and I did WAY better than I thought I would, even if I did fulfill my prediction of taking longer than half of the full marathon. (I guess a "long" run of 6 miles really is enough to complete a half marathon!) It rained the entire time we were running, but it wasn't cold. (WTF Weather Underground? You said a high of 38 degrees! It got to about 60 yesterday!) The rain wasn't bad at all, thanks to my fleece hat that kept the rain from dripping into my eyes and still let my head breathe. (This should serve as a lesson for whenever I see that it's the slightest bit drizzly outside and cancel my run. I won't melt!)

After crossing the finish line, we had to hobble down a ton of stairs (note to race organizers: descending stairs hurts!), but it was worth it, because I then ate a small cup of the best tapioca pudding I have ever had, as well as a delicious doughnut.

Other highlights of the weekend included (duh, all food-related): the best Indian food in North America at Vij's (I ate braised wild boar in black mustard seed and cream curry, sauteed rapini and spinach with paneer and roasted cashews, and marinated, seared pork tenderloin with garam masala sauteed cauliflower, spinach, and new potato curry), ketchup potato chips, cinnamon buns, and Canadian candy (Aero bars and peanut butter KitKats).

I won't lie, though. Up until Saturday night I was still hoping people would want to chicken out. In fact, in the car to Vancouver, this exchange occurred:
Anny: "We actually won't be running the whole half marathon tomorrow. We're only doing 4 miles of it..."
Kate [thinks]: Yes! Now I can wimp out too! Yay!
Anny: "...because I'm pregnant!"
Kate [thinks]: Shoot. Any way I can become "pregnant" by tomorrow morning?

[Note to god-type deity: I was just kidding there! Joking! Really! I did the run!]

Wimpo.

2006-05-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

This Sunday is the half marathon. I am absolutely, completely, 100% NOT ready. (Not ready as in my longest run has been 6 miles.) My only consolation is that most of the people I'm running with aren't ready either.

I was thinking that the only way I could get through it is to take it entirely unseriously, no small feat for me. Despite my lack of experience in organized sports, some competitive gene switches on when I see people whiz by in a race. (Not that this makes me go faster. It just makes me feel sad, and then that makes running much harder.) I've already mostly resigned myself to the fact that this half marathon time is going to be longer than half of my marathon time. That's what happens when you don't train, I guess.

But I hadn't entertained thoughts of wimping out until I saw the weather forecast for Sunday. And now that the wimp-out idea is in my head, it's all I can think about. (Wouldn't it be nice to just take a trip to Vancouver and have all-you-can-eat sushi and go cookbook shopping and buy dill pickle potato chips and Aero bars?)

Ugh.

Happy half birthday to me!

2006-05-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

Of course you all know this already, but today's my half birthday. For a few years, when I was pretty little, my mom bought me a celebratory cupcake on my half birthday. Whenever I tell people this story, they say, "Wow, you really were an only child, weren't you?"

Why yes, yes I was.

Fellow only children: did you get half birthday cupcakes too?

Kate-EXP.

2006-04-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

So I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this listened, but I HAVE to document this for posterity. My KEXP Pick 3 appearance was this morning.

Leading up to this morning, I had about 5 separate nightmares. A few involved not being able to get there in time (I couldn't find my shoes in one dream) and several others involved John asking me a question and me just completely blanking.

Thankfully, it went so much better than expected. Like, a million times better. John said it was the best Pick 3 yet. And Cheryl Waters walked in at the end and she said she liked my picks. (Also, amazingly, I had very little OMG-I'm-talking-to-John-Richards starstruck-ness. I mean, during the last pledge drive, I found myself completely frozen when he walked into the kitchen as I was filling my Nalgene. But today--no fear!)

The archived audio is up here. Just choose April 24th at 8 AM. You'll get the tail end of a song before my part starts.

Special thanks to Vijay and Joe who emailed John during the segment. (John: "Some guy tells me that I should ask you for a small glass of water?") And many of you asked about my "fan mail" that John mentioned. Let's just say that my picks may have convinced someone named Dan in Kansas to move to Seattle! (Note to Dan: Please don't move here on my account. But I am pretty positive Seattle would be a step up from where you live now!)

Wow. What an awesome experience.

Quickly!

2006-04-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

Very very very quickly, because I'm due at trivia night in 5 minutes, and because I promised Colin that I'd blog about this before tonight's trivia night, I present: the Kozak's Trivia Blog.

That's right, my friend Colin has started his own trivia night on Mondays at 8 PM at Kozak's in Capitol Hill. Trivia 4 blocks from my house! What more could I ask for?

(And we're still going to The Jones on Sundays, but I haven't been blogging about it. I haven't been blogging about anything, so it's not personal. And now with Colin's trivia blog, do I really need Trivia Night Reports anymore?)

Best Threadless shirt ever.

2006-04-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

Blog.

Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god.

2006-04-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am going to be on KEXP.

On Monday April 24th at 8 am.

With John Richards.

To discuss my Pick 3.

!

Drink up!

2006-04-02T22:54:00.000-07:00

Right now, we have about three times more beverages in our fridge than normal (it's usually beer, milk, and ground coffee beans [if they even count]). So I thought I'd document these for posterity:

Skim milk, beer (homebrew, amber, IPA, 2 kinds of holiday ale, AND a summer ale), champagne (well, "California sparkling wine"), Sauvignon Blanc, orange juice, tonic, 2 kinds of Gatorade, and shochu. Oh, and the coffee beans.

Maybe I'll go drink some champagne. The bottle's already open, after all.

Trivia Nights report, 3/26 and 3/30.

2006-04-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

3/26 at the Jones: We came in third. (I think.) Notable was my THREE UAF category ("pop star goes Hollywood: box office busts"), in which I knew Spice World was out in 1998, the 2003 musical movie with former American Idol contestants was called From Justin to Kelly, and that Britney Spears was the star of Crossroads. (Might I point out: I have never seen any of these movies, and I do not watch American Idol.)

3/30: This was a special benefit trivia night for one of my favorite Seattle organizations, Seattle Works. Our superstar trivia team won first place! And again, my only real contribution was an embarrassing one. I knew that the famous model who appeared topless on a 1993 novel cover (the model also wrote the novel) was none other than the fabulous Fabio.

I dare you.

2006-03-29T22:52:00.000-08:00

Look at the pictures and recipes on this website.

And now tell me you don't REALLY want a cupcake.

Lost: high-end winter wear.

2006-03-28T22:01:00.000-08:00

Today, somewhere in between the bus and post office and the Ben Harper concert at the Triple Door (I was volunteering at this exclusive KEXP event for 500 Club members) and Nordstrom, I lost my beloved black cashmere knit hat. (Sob.)

And a few weeks ago, I lost my Nine West black leather gloves somewhere in between the Baltic Room and the Cha Cha and Jack in the Box. (Yes, I was drinking.)

So someone out there is styling and warm. I guess I should be happy. There are lots of people in Seattle who might need warm things.

Porkalicious.

2006-03-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

I cooked something fantastic last night. Carnitas. Holy cow these are awesome. And cheap! Pork shoulder (at Whole Foods, mind you!) was only $3.79/lb. Both the butcher and the checkout woman asked me what I was making and seemed impressed by my answer. (The butcher asked me to bring him some!)

My recipe inspiration came from Matthew from Roots and Grubs, and his post directed me to this amazing eGullet thread about cooking carnitas. With that excess of information, here's the general path I followed (it's very similar to Matthew's recipe and post #65 from the eGullet thread):

Cut the pork shoulder (mine was 2.3 lbs) into approximately 1-inch cubes and toss with 1 (really big) chopped onion, 2 minced jalapenos, 5 cloves of minced garlic, 2 T cumin, 1 T oregano, a bunch of cilantro, and some chili powder. Let all that sit in the fridge for a few hours.
Then put the pork into a big pot with 1/4 c lime juice, 1/4 c lemon juice, 1/2 c orange juice, 1/2 c tequila, 1/2 c beer (I used an IPA), and 1 c chicken stock. Simmer until almost all of the liquid is gone (almost exactly 2 hours for me). Then turn up the heat slightly and fry. You're ready when everything gets a little crispy.

Mmm. Soooo good. Too bad that new omega-3-enriched pork isn't available yet...

(On another note, eGullet is awesome. Check out this 15-page thread about roasted cauliflower!)

I'll take hers!

2006-03-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

Many of you out there know that I LOVE peas (despite getting one stuck in my nose when I was little). So this article (via my new favorite site, Slashfood), astonished me.

"Louise Arnold, 35, is so terrified of the small green vegetables that seeing them on a plate has made her run out of restaurants, and she cannot go near the frozen food aisle when out shopping."

She's getting acupuncture and hypnotherapy (part of an appearance on a reality show, unsurprisingly) to get over her fear. Pea phobia!

Maybe I should rethink this?

2006-03-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

It's kind of funny when you find yourself telling someone about your possible plans for nutrition graduate school over a dinner of 2 Sierra Nevada Pale Ales and half a plate of potato chip nachos (ie, potato chips with melted cheese, jalapenos, salsa, and sour cream).

So.

2006-03-18T15:33:00.000-08:00

I got in!

Of course, I don't really know if I definitely want to go.

But still, options!

Stuff.

2006-03-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

On my mind, lately:

What to eat at Fork on Saturday night.

How (absolutely unsurprisingly) I was dead wrong when I thought I could resist Bravo's new show, Top Chef.

What to do on our superfast trip to the Yakima valley this weekend (lots of wineries and a brewery too!)--specifically where to eat and if we can go to the American Hop Museum.

My incredibly varied assortment of recent DVDs borrowed from the library: Before Sunset, Stop Making Sense, Murder on a Sunday Morning, and Like Water for Chocolate.

How in the world I am going to volunteer at PAWS on Saturday and not come home with a dog.

Monday night's bookclub discussion of Atonement, as well as Never Let Me Go (completed at 5 AM this morning).

What to cook next.

Trivia Night report, 3/15: end of an era.

2006-03-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned, we won second place at the last EMP Trivia Night ever. Words (still) can't express my glee. I will say that the questions seemed a bit easier than usual, but I'm not complaining. The trophy!

And now, for a bit of interactivity, here are the 5 questions we missed last night. Post your answers in the comments if you want to play along.
1. What teammate of Larry Bird won more games than any other player in NBA history?
2. In what year did the Friends finale air?
3. In 1997, what name was given to the nation formerly known as Zaire?
4. What do you call the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion?
5. Who left West Point after a 5-day tenure for the Confederate army? (I think he left to command the army, but I'm not entirely positive.)

Thanks to Fred and my fantastic teammates for 11 months of awesome Wednesday nights.

Trivia Night reports, 3/8 and 3/12.

2006-03-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

Wow! My first ever double Trivia Night post! Try to contain your excitement.

3/8: Ah, the penultimate Wednesday Trivia Night. We actually won the JV trivia prize, or the prize for being the smartest team among the dumb people. (Fred implemented this new plan where we score the answers after the first half. Whoever gets below a certain point level on the first half competes for the JV prize of $10.) Our second half was much better--in the first half, we got every single question wrong in the category, "Who said this quote, Ben Franklin or Confucius?"

3/12: We won! Very impressive. And seriously--the Jones' fries are so, SO good. (Sunday was also a great day for other reasons besides the trivia win. It was a Day of Double Fries, in which I ate poutine at brunch on Sunday morning and fries at the Jones at night.)

End of an era.

2006-03-15T23:51:00.000-08:00

The final EMP Trivia Night was tonight.

I am officially a member of the "world's second smartest team," and I have the trophy to prove it.

Pictures to come, soon.

(Since I have essentially no experience with organized team sports [I don't think horseback riding counts], I am seriously so, SO excited about winning this trophy. I was hoisting it up in the air like I won the Stanley Cup or something.)

I think I'd spontaneously combust with jealousy.

2006-03-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I am really envious of the benefits that come with Nate's job--the amazing health insurance package, access to a gym with 4 pools and something called a "cardio theater," and an awesome free beverage selection (they have those refrigerated cabinets you see in convenience stores with every single soda you could imagine--regular and diet varieties--and tons of different juices and varieties of sparkling and still water).

But. My feelings about those things don't even come close to the jealousy I'd feel if he worked at Google. Oh my god the free food. And check out this guy's flickr set.

Also, that article talks about the coordinator of Google's campus-wide nutrition program. Right there: my dream job.

Life, etc.

2006-03-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

So I've got lots of stuff that's happened in the past few weeks. Want to hear about it?

In the reading arena, I've finished a bunch of books. Snow, while critically acclaimed, did not impress me at all. Actually, it was one of those books that made me feel stupid. Like, everyone thinks this is great, so what does it mean that I'm bored? I had to power through at the end so I could start something else. And that something else was The Historian. WOW. Read it. It's a well-written DaVinci Code (which, in my opinion, was a rather badly written, but really interesting, page-turner). Mystery and history and vampires and love...it's just good. Read it. (I was so enthralled that I read all 650 pages in 2 days. And it was scary! After reading before bed I'd have to watch a few minutes of the Food Network so I didn't have dreams about vampires.)

Cooking-wise, I made a HUGE amount of healthy and tasty spicy bean soup (that really does say a half cup of chili powder) and delicious spinach lasagna (I double the spinach). At my Oscar party tonight, we had my new favorite cocktail, the French 75. It doesn't taste alcoholic at all! And any drink with a maraschino cherry is good in my book.

Last weekend we saw Rob Corddry at the UW. He was great. Funny, obviously, and self-deprecating, and fantastic with hecklers. At one point, these 2 guys left the room and then returned with a Nepalese flag. Then they handed it to Rob and he proceeded to make fun of the "flag guys" for the rest of the night--but in a nice way. (I immediately texted Vijay after the show. A Nepalese flag!!!) He also answered questions from the audience, 2 of which involved bears (1 question was about the animal, and 1 was about the gay fetish [yup, really]).

(If you haven't seen Rob Corddry's Boston video, please please watch. "C'mon Corddry!")

Finally, let me give props to my man Jon Stewart and his fantastic job at the Oscars. I'm so proud, like he's a friend of mine or something.

Trivia Night report, 3/1.

2006-03-03T19:02:00.000-08:00

And, we've arrived at our third-to-last trivia night. We came in third this week--but we all know that we're saving our brainpower for the last night, when the first place team gets a $60 prize (double the normal $30 prize).

There were some Oscar questions, some Dick Cheney questions, and a fun category about celebrity children's book authors. I also employed my unnecessary parenthetical explanation technique again, when, in answer to the question, "What is hidden in a king cake?", I wrote, "baby (not real--plastic)".

Because, you know, to differentiate it from the cake with the live babies baked inside.

Analysis.

2006-03-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

So I took this awesome personality test the other day. (Take it and you'll see what I mean--the design is really cool, with the sliding scale and grid concept.) It didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know (hello, logical and detail-oriented, and likes a routine!), but it was still interesting.

My results: check out my confidence, openness, and extroversion levels. Kind of depressing, but you know, whatever. I've never claimed to be good at any of those things.

As I was leaving my Thursday night gym class, I saw my personality traits in action. These 2 people said something to me about the class--I don't even remember exactly what it was, it was just small talk as we were walking out. And I froze. Like, who are these strangers and why are they talking to me?! I think I managed to say something (without eye contact of course) before I scurried away down the stairs.

I don't think this working-from-home thing is helping me any in this area. Thank goodness next week is the KEXP pledge drive--I think I could use some human interaction with strangers. (My introversion is not with my friends or acquaintances, it's with people I don't know.)

Anyway, if I avoided eye contact and scurried away from you, before I knew you, now you know why. I am scared of strangers!

Extra Trivia Night at the Jones, 2/26.

2006-03-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

We didn't even come close to winning. We really tanked on 2 categories: geology and "home sweet home," which featured questions about Washington state. No one on our team was from Washington, but hey, we definitely would have rocked a Canada/Scotland/Colorado/New Jersey category!

Did you know that Steven Spielberg wanted Haley Joel Osment to play Harry in the Harry Potter movies?

The french fries were, once again, fabulous. Best fries in Seattle. (But a note for next time: we might not need 3 orders for 5 people.)

Bacon Fest 2K6: results and reflections.

2006-02-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

I know some of you have been anxiously awaiting the results of Bacon Fest 2K6. First, let me say that Colin has already written a fantastic recap.

Here are the pictures on Flickr: start here. I wrote a lot of notes with the pictures, but I have some things to add. In addition to the 8 different bacons, we also tested cooking methods: microwaving, pan-frying, and broiling. Surprisingly (at least to me, since I always cook bacon in the microwave), pan-frying was the clear winner.

After we tested the types of bacon and cooking methods, the gluttony began. We had BLTs and other sandwiches (which Colin calls "bacon butties") and then resorted to eating the bacon straight. Nine people consumed about 6 to 8 pounds of bacon. (Also, 2 people left after the first tasting round, so it was more like 7 people.) The apartment smelled like bacon for days. Mmm...

My favorite bacon was Wellshire Farms (my comment: "very salty, but delicious"), and my least favorite was Hempler's ("too fatty, not enough flavor"). I also correctly identified which bacon was the "supermarket control" (ie, Oscar Mayer). My comment about first place winner Niman Ranch (and my second choice overall): "Seems really fattening, but that's good for bacon." (I can't come close other participants' comments, however: "rich, complex, superb mouth-feel", "notes of duck", and the somewhat frightening "nice sensation.")

A nice surprise was that Nate and I have successfully passed the all-important BCT (Bacon Compatibility Test): we both chose the same bacon as our favorite, least favorite, and we both correctly identified the supermarket bacon!

This was seriously one of the coolest things I've done. From the scientific method to eating almost a pound of bacon, it was a great day. Onward to Bacon Fest 2K7!

Trivia Night report, 2/22.

2006-02-26T14:59:00.000-08:00

First place! Fred really outdid himself this week--there were some great categories. "What do these things have in common?", "who said this quote: Woody Allen or George W. Bush?", and "music: songs about other people".

Did you know that Simon and Garfunkel sang a song about Frank Lloyd Wright?

And the last trivia night at the EMP has been announced: it's March 15. The Ides of March!

Bacon Fest 2K6.

2006-02-16T23:12:00.000-08:00

Everyone in Seattle who reads my blog should have an invitation already. But I had to post this to show my (like, 4) other readers what they're missing when they didn't take me up on the super-cheap flights to Seattle: Bacon Fest 2K6.

(I am just going to paste Colin's email in its entirety. I couldn't have expressed it better myself.)

Ladies and gentlemen, the much anticipated Bacon Fest 2K6 has been scheduled for this coming Sunday at 2PM! What is Bacon Fest 2K6? Well, the details of the format are still being hammered out by a team of expert officials working around the clock, but we can tell you that the marquee event will consist of a blind taste testing of several different types of bacon. Types of bacon may include different artisan brands or different methods of curing & smoking the meat. After the taste testing, there will probably be additional bacon available for further consumption - perhaps in the form of BLTs. Palate cleansers will also be available.
WHAT: Bacon Fest 2K6
WHERE: Kate & Nate's House of Bacon
WHEN: Sunday, February 19th, 2:00 PM
BRING: Yourself. If you want, you can also bring snacks and beverages. If there's a particular bacon that you love and adore and you would like to have it included in the taste-testing, feel free to bring some (and make sure that you're on time!).
RSVP: Yes! Please let me know if you're planning to attend so that we can best judge how much bacon we need. We'd hate to run out. You're welcome to bring a friend but please let us know in advance.
This is the bacon-themed event of the season that you *won't* want to miss!

Would it be too dorky to say that Colin and I just had dinner and we discussed how to perform the double-blinding of the bacons so that we can fully participate in the analysis?

Trivia Night report, 2/15.

2006-02-16T23:06:00.000-08:00

Happy day after Valentine's Day! What better way to celebrate than with categories like famous couples, generic love, love gone wrong in literature, love gone wrong in movies, Valentine's Day in history, movie star breakups, and love songs?

So this week was weird. I don't think we've ever felt more confident about our answers than we did this week, but we got a so-so score (32) and we didn't even place in the top 3.

All this was overshadowed, however, by the sad sad rumor circulating. Word on the street is that the EMP's restaurants were bought by an outside party and trivia night is ending. Perhaps as early as next week.

This could have been your penultimate (regular Wednesday version) Trivia Night report! Whatever will you do? (Seriously, whatever will I do? I am SO upset by this news!)

Extra Trivia Night at the Jones, 2/12.

2006-02-16T22:56:00.000-08:00

So we went to a new trivia night on Sunday at the Jones. Questions were harder than at the EMP, but the food was WAY better. DELICIOUS fries. Maybe some of the best fries I've had in Seattle.

We didn't win--we were in a runoff for second place, but lost that--and we had a minor (okay, not so minor) argument with Fred over an answer. His question: What is the shortest complete sentence in the English language? Our answer: Be. His answer: I am. And he wasn't really willing to hear our arguments, namely, that the subject "you" is implied.

Oh well. We'll be back. The french fries were amazing.

Happy anniversary to me.

2006-02-15T08:35:00.000-08:00

One year ago today, I arrived in Seattle!

Thanks, Seattle, for the great year. I baked you a molten chocolate cake to celebrate.

Attempting disinterest (but it's just a front).

2006-02-14T15:08:00.000-08:00

So Kristen from Give Me Some Food actually asked me to do one of those internet-y meme things. Really?! I sort of told myself I'd never do one (I viewed them as kind of like those Valentine's Day candygrams [BTW, happy V-day everyone!] you send in high school--you send them to your friends and then spend the day worrying if you're going to get one back, and they're not really all that exciting, anyway), but maybe that was just because no one invited me! Once I started, it was pretty fun.

And hey, if super blogger celebrity Kottke can do it, so can I! (I still kind of cheated a little, though.)

Anyway, here it is, my four things.

Four jobs I've had: ice cream scooper, chemistry lab teaching assistant, Kaplan SAT prep class teacher, medical writer.

Four movies I could watch over and over: Um. I don't really watch movies over and over. Maybe Legally Blonde and Bring It On, because I used to watch those a lot with my old roommate? In elementary school I used to watch Lady and the Tramp a lot, but that was because the after-school program teachers would always show it whenever we had days off of school. (Instead, should I do "four books I could read over and over"? These books are the equivalent of a security blanket for me: Circle of Friends, High Fidelity, The Shipping News, This Boy's Life.)

Four places I've lived (I am doing five--I have only lived in five places, ever): Westmont NJ, Voorhees NJ, Providence RI, Somerville MA, Seattle WA. (Oh wait--I lived in Medford MA too. But that was close enough to Somerville to count it as one.)

Four TV shows I love (I am choosing shows that are on tv now): Project Runway, The Office, Gilmore Girls, Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

Four highly regarded TV shows that I have never watched a minute of: Lost, 24, Deadwood, The Shield.

Four places I've vacationed: I don't get the point of this one. I've been to a ton of different places. Instead I'm doing the last four places I've visited that have required a plane or longish car ride: Boston, Las Vegas, Portland OR, Voorhees NJ.

Four of my favorite dishes: lavash bread pizza and cheap wine, bhangan bharta and/or mattar paneer and garlic naan, sushi (eel and avocado, spicy tuna, anything salmon), grilled cheese and tomato soup. (Seriously, there are WAY more than four: falafel from East Side Pockets in Providence, french fries with lots of ketchup, the bacon that I made as part of Christmas dinner, Granny Smith apples and peanut butter, pickles, chocolate cake doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts...okay, I should stop now.)

Four sites I visit daily: Gmail, eGullet...and it's way more than four, because daily I visit everyone I've linked to on my blog.

Four places I'd rather be right now: in Boston before a huge snowstorm with lots of books and movies and food and baking supplies and alcohol (and in my dream I don't have to leave the house for a week and every single person I like in Boston lives a block away and can trudge through the snow to reach me), right in the front at a small-venue concert of one of my favorite bands (we can start with something like CYHSY, but if this is my dream: Wilco or the Shins), at Trivia Night, driving across country from Boston to Seattle.

And I'm not going to tag anyone, because it's like the candygram thing: what if no one does it? Then I'll feel bad. But if you want to, you should do it! It's totally fun.

Trivia Night report, 2/8.

2006-02-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

Second place! But we had 37 points--definitely an impressive score.

So there was a Friends category. Did you know that John Stamos (a guest star on some Friends episodes) is an occasional drummer for the Beach Boys?! Uncle Jesse and Brian Wilson, together? That's the strangest thing I've heard about a Full House alum since I learned that Dave Coulier was the subject of Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." (Seriously: the image of Alanis in the um...theater...with Joey from Full House is just too weird. [Did he bring that chipmunk puppet?])

Tomorrow night: a new trivia night (still with Fred) at The Jones. We're going mostly because it's the first night and Fred said we'd win. Also, they have french fries, apparently! (Normal Wednesday night EMP trivia does not offer french fries, sadly.)

Proclamation.

2006-02-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

I think The Office might just be the best sitcom I have ever watched regularly. Ever.

And I am not just saying that because I did some Google-stalking and found out that one of the stars graduated in 2002 from my college.

(Also, Fred once analyzed my sitcom preferences, and I've discovered that I like one-camera sitcoms with no laugh track. Anyone have suggestions for me?)

Let the cool goddess rust away.

2006-02-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

Question: If every single time I go running I listen to the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album, will I eventually get sick of it and associate it with sweating/soreness/tired lungs/etc, or will I continue to be a tiny (and I mean tiny) bit excited about going for a run, because then I get to listen to CYHSY's album in its entirety? (The only time I ever unshuffle my iPod is for running and plane rides when I'm trying to relax/sleep. Running music is CYHSY; before I got that cd it was the New Radicals. Plane music is the Notwist or Beth Orton. Please add "predictable" to your adjectives-that-describe-Kate list.)

Anyway, you may hear more about this "running" thing in coming weeks, because I am now officially signed up for the half marathon. At this point, I have no idea how training for that distance is going to happen. The CYHSY album is about 40 minutes long. That gives you an indication of where I am in my training (ie, a long way from 13.1 miles)...

At least I get a trip to Vancouver out of the deal.

Recap, of sorts.

2006-02-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

I tend to like to group my blog posts into semi-thematic categories. You get the trivia night ones, you get the food ones, you get the I-got-drunk-and-sang-karaoke ones. And now, we will inaugurate a recap/grab-bag type of post here at Trivial Kate. Enjoy!

Last week Nate was in Japan for work. (Insert jealous whining here.) So there were nights of bad reality tv and my typical bachelorette dinner of lavash bread pizza and cheap wine (it's a coincidence I'm linking to that post because there was some standard ennui, as well), nights of beer celebrating Teman's brief return to Seattle, and, of course, Trivia Night.

On Thursday I took a math placement test for a class I'm planning on taking (more on this later). I needed to pass the equivalent of high school pre-algebra, so I wasn't too worried. I knew I was doing well when I speeded through the algebra problems and went straight to the trig and pre-calculus. I somehow remembered that the sin of pi/2 is zero, and then the questions got much harder after that.

Here's something cool: Tamara Murphy (the chef from Brasa, home of the most fantastic happy hour in Seattle) is writing a blog called The Life of a Pig. It's going to follow 5 piglets from their life on the farm to a feast at Brasa. As long as I don't see the slaughtering, I am all for this. I think it's important to know what your meat looks like as an animal, and it definitely sounds like these pigs are treated extremely well during their lives. (I know that I should probably be fine with the slaughtering, too. Sorry, I'm not there yet.)

Finally, the Superbowl. That was mostly a let-down, especially after last year. And the commercials weren't even that great. Oh well. We made a delicious bean dip with an ingenious bean dip matrix: one quadrant had 10 layers (including both sour cream and olives), 2 quadrants had 9 (each omitting either sour cream or olives), and the last quadrant had 8 (no sour cream or olives). I'm not sure if people noticed/cared, but it was completely eaten by the first quarter.

And did anyone else notice Seattle's choice of entrance music? Here's a quote from a Slate article: "But perhaps Seattle brought this on themselves by coming out of the tunnel to The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." Note to the Seahawks: That's probably not the best choice of pump-up tunes. Next time, why not just play Beck's "Loser"?"

Seriously! "Bittersweet Symphony"?! What happened to "We Are the Champions"? "Who Let the Dogs Out", even? Or why not a Seattle band? I am positive that you could find something more inspiring and fist-pumping than The Verve among Nirvana/Soundgarden/Alice in Chains/Pearl Jam. Hell, what about Modest Mouse?

Trivia Night report, 2/1.

2006-02-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

After a many many many week drought (I am too lazy to look back and count), we won! Yay!

I was extremely thankful for the rest of my team when faced with categories like politics, hamburgers, the Superbowl, planets, and Quentin Tarantino movies. I do feel that I was able to contribute a little to current events, the boy bands musical category, and one of the all-time best trivia categories in the history of trivia night: "Answers That Sound Dirty." (For example: Lake Titicaca, Arsenal, Balzac.)

I attained the dubious honor of being the only one on my team to recognize "All 4 Love" (please note the "4" instead of "for") as a Color Me Badd song.

Only $1 for the champagne...of beers.

2006-01-30T21:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday night found a bunch of us at a new karaoke venue, Kozak's. This may officially become my new favorite karaoke place--it's 3 blocks from my house, they have insanely cheap drink specials ($4 fancy drinks, $3 regular mixed drinks, $1 Miller High Lifes [guess which option I chose--a DOLLAR for a beer?!]), it's really uncrowded, and...apparently they have french fries. (I was telling Tom how excited I was about the fries, and he said, "what are you, twelve?" The answer to that is, yes, yes I am, and I am going to get excited about a karaoke place where I can order french fries.)

There are many pictures of the evening, but here are my two favorites: Colin and Raam and their tongues and me and my gang sign. (I am not quite sure what I was going for here. Apparently a puppies-and-kittens happy gang sign, as opposed to the traditional mean, scary gang signs. Or maybe I was just expressing my love of french fries.)

Also, I think I need a new song. "Faith" is great and all, but it might be getting old. Any suggestions? (I can't sing at all. "Faith" seems to be within my..."range," or whatever that's called. So don't suggest Whitney Houston or anything. [I really hope you wouldn't suggest Whitney Houston, anyway, though.])

[I'm reluctant to post anything new, because the comments for my last post are so awesome! And now I know the secret to getting people to comment: boobs!]

Trivia Night report, 1/25.

2006-01-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

Third place! I should clarify for everyone that you don't actually win anything for a third-place finish. First place gets $30, second place gets $20, but third place gets nothing. Coming in third still seems good, though. Maybe because we'd still be up on the podium for the Trivia Olympics medal ceremony. (There isn't such a thing, but how awesome would that be? Trivia Olympics!)

Anyway, we had to split up into 2 teams, due in part to Teman's brief return from Japan (unfortunately, not solely for trivia night) and Cam's cameo appearance the night before he left on his Central America adventure.

Categories: Disney, breakfast cereal, "Things I Read in the News," British invasions, aviation, '90s sitcoms, horse racing, and Madonna. My favorite answer was to the question "What did Isaac Mizrahi do to Scarlett Johansson on the red carpet at the Golden Globes?" The correct answer: grabbed her breasts. But then I was compelled to put in parentheses: "felt her up"! As if our first answer wasn't clear enough!

No way, really?

2006-01-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

In the same vein as Chris' post, check out this article I read while I was on the elliptical machine at the gym at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Only 14% of people working from home put in a full 8 hours of work. (I read the article in a Self magazine, but for blog-purposes I'm linking to the online article.)

(In retrospect, maybe the joke's on me, since I'm paid hourly.)

Maybe watching Lost comes next.

2006-01-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, when Chris and I were drinking beer at the Middle East, we somehow started playing a game of this-is-just-how-unconnected-I-am-from-popular-culture (the geeky version). I forget who won, but here's my tally: I've seen only one of the newer Star Wars movies, I've seen only the first Matrix and Lord of the Rings, and I haven't read a single Harry Potter book or seen a single Harry Potter movie.

But! On the plane back from Boston, I got tired of the in-flight magazine's crossword puzzle (half of the clues were about old-school movies I haven't seen), my book was a little too attention-requiring for plane reading, and the movie was over (incidentally, I really liked the movie--for plane watching, anyway--and I had to surreptitiously brush away some [okay, a lot, I am a freaking softie] tears at the end). So I turned to the magazine's sudoku puzzle. I've managed to avoid this trend so far, just like the Harry Potterish stuff, but what was I thinking? Sudoku is great. It totally appeals to my organized, kind-of-mathematical-but-not-too-much, obsessive nature. Yay!

(Overall, obviously, Chris totally wins the disconnected from popular culture game, because he doesn't even have cable. Not to mention the fact that I was able to work an anecdote from the new season of The Bachelor into conversation. [I'm still rather embarrassed about that one.])

Hey, the ice of Boston is muddy.

2006-01-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

I am back from the whirlwind Boston reunion weekend. Oh, it was great. Seriously, people. I love it here in Seattle, but it's hard to return to a place with friends I miss (and isn't it great [I meant "great" sarcastically, but it IS a good thing, I guess] when you only realize just how much you miss people when you see them again?), things I won't get to see (a SPIKE'S is coming to DAVIS SQUARE), and the East Coast atmosphere that's ingrained in my being (jaywalking, unfriendliness, etc).

I'd love for this to have been a trip of nostalgia, to feel like I'm finished with Boston, but I can't say that.

So it was great. But I am exhausted.

(The weather was actually fantastic this weekend--the post's title refers to this song I love.)

MUCH better than Alex from West Coast Customs.

2006-01-20T20:29:00.000-08:00

I saw Rob Corddry in the Newark airport this morning.

(!!!)

More pictures.

2006-01-19T16:14:00.000-08:00

I feel that this deserves a new post. Fred has sent me his pictures from the Penthouse pet lingerie party we went to in Vegas. Definitely definitely definitely not safe for work.

(I fear I am opening myself up to a LOT of weird Google searches from this entry...)

Trivia Night report, 1/18.

2006-01-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Second place! Of course, we had to win a tiebreaker to get it, but still. The categories (the Seahawks, the 1930s, old school video games, Monty Python) seemed a bit less fun this week--and by "less fun", of course I mean, "I didn't know many answers."

Our team name: Tainted Love. If you didn't see Tuesday's Daily Show, watch the "Level of Taint" video. So funny and yet soooo wrong.

The music category was really great, though. Fred played about 2 seconds of the beginning of a song. Some were immediately recognizable (Prince's "Kiss" and the B52's "Love Shack"), one baffled me but other people in our group got it (Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart"), one I think only I knew (50 Cent's "P.I.M.P"), and one we missed entirely (Modest Mouse's "Float On").

I don't know what you heard about me, but a bitch can't get a dollar out of me...

Who's got a list?

2006-01-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

Marooned (who I met through the FG--and I don't mean "met" in the blog sense, I actually met the guy in person) asks for our top 10 love songs. If you know me, you know that putting items in list form is one of my favorite activities, especially when music-related.

You should play along!

Penthouse and burlesque and buffets, oh my!

2006-01-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

OKAY. Finally finally finally I am going to tell you Vegas stories. (You might have already seen the pictures.) Of course, now that I've waited 3 years to tell you, it's not going to be as interesting. Oh well.

Any self-respecting Vegas tale should start with gambling, right? Well, I bet a grand total of $3 on the slot machines, and I lost everything. [Sob.] I wanted to play craps or blackjack or at least roulette, but the Bellagio's table minimums are too high for me, and I wasn't around the night Nate went to the cheap casino with his coworkers (some may say I had a better evening, though--you can decide in a few paragraphs).

(I've had one real gambling experience in my life. I once won $80 playing craps on what had to be the weirdest first date experience ever. If you haven't heard this story before, ask me, because it is awesome.)

Onto the food! I wholeheartedly recommend the all-you-can-drink wine restaurant--I was expecting the food to be terrible, but it was actually not bad. I also had a great experience at the Aladdin brunch buffet (recommended in a NYT article), despite photographic evidence to the contrary. And THEN on the way to the airport, I had my first In-N-Out experience. Oh MAN was that good. (Next time, I'm ordering from the [corporate-endorsed, not-so] secret menu and getting well done fries and my cheeseburger animal style!)

So, what with staying at such a swanky hotel, you'd think that I'd see Nicky Hilton or something. Well, alas, I didn't. We DID see Charles Oakley playing craps (he was at a $100 minimum table, and he was playing for at least 2 hours), although another observer had to tell us who he was (the signing autographs thing kind of gave it away that he was at least someone famous). More exciting was Alex from West Coast Customs (and Pimp My Ride)--I recognized HIM. (I actually first noticed him because he was with this beautiful blonde woman and she didn't seem to really "match" him that well. And also...he was wearing a West Coast Customs t-shirt.)

And now for the best part. Women and alcohol! On the night Nate went to a fancy dinner and gambling with his coworkers, I hung out with Fred and Ashley (Fred was producing some kind of Windows dance team performance). We got free passes to the Light club at the Bellagio, and we decided to check it out. Now, I am not one to use my, um...female assets to get stuff. But I have to say, it was pretty awesome to be behind 25 men and have the bouncer push aside the velvet rope to let us inside. What made it even better: it turned out that the Penthouse pet lingerie party was that night. Oh man. We saw middle-aged men with beautiful 20-year old women, lingerie, and pole dancing.

The next night, we went to Red Square at the Mandalay Bay (complete with ice bar!) and then to Forty Deuce, a burlesque show. (Again, I got in free and the guys had to pay $20! Score!) The actual burlesque dancers were very talented (and it was fairly tame--no nakedness), but the "amateur" dancers who took the stage between the paid dancers were...interesting. See for yourself. There was nothing "amateur" about these women.

In summary: Vegas was fun, particularly when a large corporation is footing the hotel bill, but a little over-stimulating for my tastes. (Not that I'd turn down another trip for next year's conference...)

Trivia Night report, 1/11.

2006-01-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

Third place. We were tied for second, and Doug and I were elected to compete in the tiebreaker (my strategy is to avoid the tiebreakers as often as possible). We got the first question right about Queen Victoria, but then missed the next question about the minor league baseball team from Albuquerque that shares their name with the team from The Simpsons. Um, yeah. The girl who got the question right was FROM Albuquerque.

Our best categories were Vegas (Fred mentioned our attendance at the Penthouse lingerie party when he introduced the category!) and NFL stars, if you can believe that.

And, I had a personal best of 3 UAFs. I knew one about the Stratosphere, I knew that "LL Cool J" stands for "Ladies Love Cool James," and I correctly identified a song as one by Harvey Danger.

The funniest/saddest question of the night: "Who is Randall McCloy Jr. known as?" The correct answer: The only surviving miner. Our answer: The Game.

Give me a book of football trivia and a fake fire, and I'm yours.

2006-01-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

Nate sent me this article today. Now, I am not the target audience--I actually enjoy watching football (I'm normally reading at the same time, though), and I am a huge proponent of the accompanying drinking/eating (for some reason, I always want Miller Light--I know, bad beer!--and nachos during the game).

Just this past weekend in Vegas, I had a great time watching the Pats game (during which I drank Miller Light and ate chips and salsa).

But even as someone who likes football, I cannot imagine how anyone could possibly take this article's advice seriously. This is my absolute favorite part:

Have a special "date night." Start off with a romantic candlelight dinner, followed by sitting by the fire and sharing a football book. If you don't have a fireplace, you can download a fireplace onto your computer monitor and have it crackling away while you read the book to each other. After you have gone over a chapter, have a Q&A. For every answer one of you gets correct, you two kiss... you get the picture, don't you?

I REALLY want to see what happens when someone suggests this "date night." (Quotation marks indicate heavy irony.) Who needs a restaurant or a movie when you've got a crackling e-fire and a romantic book of football minutiae?

Trivia Night report, 1/4.

2006-01-10T22:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know I owe you a Vegas recap, but I'm being lazy. I DO have to give you last week's Trivia Night report before tomorrow's Trivia Night, though. (Because I know you all REALLY care.)

So, here goes. We got 34 points, but I honestly forget what happened. Did we come in second? Third? Maybe someone can fill me in. I know that our nemeses won, and there was some suspicion of cheating...

Anyway, I did have one UAF, but I can't remember which one it was. Was I the only one to know the name of the Tower of Terror free-fall ride? Or did I know that the cerebellum was the sensory center of the brain?

I do remember that the music category was awesome--we heard clips from Richard Cheese cover songs and we had to identify the original artist. Alanis Morrisette lyrics sung in a lounge singer-style voice are excellent.

She's just like this little bunny.

2006-01-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say goodbye. I'll be in Vegas for the weekend, lounging around the hotel while Nate's at his geeky computery thing.

BUT I should have internet access, so hopefully I'll tell you all about O and tomorrow night's dinner venue featuring all you can drink wine.

[Edited to add: give me your Vegas recommendations if you've got them!]

Holy cow!

2006-01-04T11:47:00.000-08:00

Boston to Seattle for $59 each way!

Visit!