knock on that

I went shopping yesterday. I thought I was going to look for shoes and pants, and I did get shoes, but I just didn't have any interest in trying on pants once I got to the mall. I did, however, try on some skirts and dresses. I ended up taking home a pair of little brown flats with a black flower outlined on the toe; a brown linen below-the-knee librarian skirt; a floaty orange-pink-cream-brown skirt; and a blue-green print knit sleeveless dress. The dress also came in a different print that I also really liked, and I'm debating whether to go back tonight and get that one too.

Now I just need some new sandals, and I'll be all set for summer. Pants can wait.

Last Tuesday, D. found out that he was getting a (super cool) summer job in Seattle, to start the following Monday. So, uh, that was fast. We got him all packed up, and he flew out on Saturday. And now I miss him. But he's going to have a fantastic time, working on interesting and intellectually challenging stuff; and as a bonus he'll be making much better money than he would working as a part-time sailing instructor here, which was the alternate plan.

Tonight I stayed late at work to upgrade some software that's been in need of upgrading since the beginning of the year. Since my honey is in Seattle, I didn't have anything better to do with my evening anyway. I got home, fried up some fish that my dad gave me last weekend (mmm, walleye), and goofed around on the internet for the rest of the evening, looking up various pop-culture-y games like Mafia and 1KBWC.

I had PBS going in the background and watched the most of a program on Percy Julian (who was a scientist and a hero and an amazing man) then most of a program on the development of in vitro fertilization (amazing to realize how quickly that went from being unthinkable and impossible to being mainstream and routine).

Oh, goodness, it's been a while. Here's some news:

• New job is going great. I'm doing mostly family law, with a sampling of other stuff thrown in. (Lately, I'm about sick to death of discovery -- both sending it out and answering it -- but according to my boss this is just a phase, and I'll get some other stuff to work on soon enough.)
  
• I just today bought a new car. It's an '05 Corolla, red, manual transmission. I haven't actually taken possession of it or even signed papers yet -- that's set for Monday -- but I agreed to buy a car.
• I got a new computer. It's a Samsung N120 netbook. It's teeny and very lightweight, but it's built around a full-size keyboard so typing isn't all scrunched. I like it a lot so far.
• D. just finished the last week of the semester. He was very consumed with homework and exams and all that, so it's nice to finally get him back.

(P.S. If you're wondering about the title of this post, it's from the game Portal, which is one of the three video games I've played to completion, along with Braid and, years ago when I was unemployed in Colorado, Donkey Kong Country.)

I woke up this morning with an overwhelming urge to make granola bars. I make a batch last week, using this recipe as a starting point, and ended up with many, many excellent granola bars -- I think it made 24 bars (as opposed to the six in an average box of granola bars from the store). They're less chewy, more dry, but that suits me just fine. And they're not too sweet. If you want to give it a try using the linked recipe, I recommend (1) not baking them, because I suspect they'd get too crispy/crumbly and nobody else seems to bake their granola bars, (2) mixing thoroughly, because you don't want dry spots in your granola when you go to press it in the pan, and (3) fooling around with the ingredients to suit your tastes and what you have on hand. As long as you keep the wet-to-dry ratio about the same, it'd be pretty hard to screw these up.

In other news:

• I got a real job. Yay! I'm two weeks in, and so far it has been a blast.
  
• I got into a car accident on Friday. Pretty minor, nobody hurt, and my car is still driveable even if it isn't as pretty as it used to be. Stupid slippery roads.
• Last year I wrote a parody of Alanis Morisette's "You Oughtta Know" based on contract law. I finally got around to making an mp3 of it, and it is now available here.
  

I started working out again. I knew I was out of shape, but man, my butt is really getting kicked. In a good way. Well, mostly good. Tonight I'm having trouble getting in and out of my chair because my quad muscles are howling in pain. But other than that, good.

Tonight when I got home from the Monkey Bar, I made yam fries for the first time in about a year. They turned out perfectly -- ridiculously perfectly. I also made a batch of brown rice / kidney bean / green pea pilaf. I had a little bowlful to go with the yam fries, and with plenty left over for a couple of lunches this week.

I have gotten into the technique of cooking rice (or other grains) like pasta, by boiling them in a full pot of water and then draining them when they're nicely al dente. The brown rice I made took just under 20 minutes to cook, instead of 30-40 using the usual method. It also makes me feel somewhat better about not rinsing my rice, which I have never liked doing. (It might not work for making short-grain sushi rice, though, because all that water would wash away the stickiness that keeps it together.)

On an unrelated note, did I mention that I lost my pink-and-brown hat? The one that I made, that matches my scarf? If you see it, let me know. I really miss that hat.

Other things I haven't mentioned: My car has been in the shop since Friday, having been totally disabled by an electrical fire that killed the alternator and blew a fuse. It's not clear yet how much the repairs will cost, but it won't be pretty. Meanwhile, I keep having ridiculous tech problems at work and have been unable to do about half of what I wanted to get done for want of a computer or functioning network connection. And I have this lingering cough. A fortune cookie told me a few weeks ago that my luck has been completely changed; and I always thought I had really good luck so this makes me nervous.

But in spite of the worrisome fortune cookie, I'm still looking on the bright side. The car thing could have been much worse, because at least all it did was quit running, instead of, say, bursting into flame and blowing up in a fiery ball. And at work, this isn't a bad week to be hobbled by tech issues, and at least I had some things to do that didn't involve computers at all. And the cough is annoying, but it's just a cough.

And tomorrow it's supposed to get above 50 degrees! (That's 10 degrees Celsius, for those of you on the metric scale.) It's always easier to stay upbeat when the weather is in your favor.

Amazing stop-motion animation, great tune -- you must watch this:





(via Bake & Shake)

People like to complain about the IRS, but you know what? The IRS rocks. Sure, nobody wants to get audited, and lots of people like to complain about paying taxes (and they can all stick a sock in it as far as I'm concerned). But I never hear anyone bother to express any admiration for the insane amount of work that the IRS gets done and does pretty darn well given the circumstances. And you know one thing that the IRS has gotten really good at in the past few years? Crazy fast tax refunds. God bless 'em.

I still have to do my state tax return. I've been having some technical difficulties getting their online filing thing up and running. I'm going to give it one more shot, and if I'm still having problems, I think I'll just file a paper return. The more I use the internet for everything, though, the more aware I am of how much paper we have used and still use for stuff like that, and it makes me a little ill inside. (For similar reasons, I don't like to buy CDs anymore, because why bother? All I'm going to do is rip it to my computer and load it into my iPod -- I don't even have a stereo that can play CDs.)