This weekend was like a weekend a normal person has. I slept ridiculously but deservedly late on Friday, then Josh and I took each other out on a movie and sushi date. We felt quite virtuous about going for nourishing seafood (Josh) and vegetables (me) after viewing Super Size Me, but then of course we sort of scuttled our own sense of righteousness by eating far too much.
Saturday involved sleeping slightly less late, and then puttering, and then making not-Key lime tartlets, and then watching Gothika after Josh got home from work. I know it was roundly sneered at, and, to be sure, it is nothing special: entirely derivative, a bit sleazy, and wholly improbable even for a ghost story, yes. But I don’t understand how it gets critically trumped by What Lies Beneath, which is pretty much exactly like Gothika only much, much worse.
Sunday, the delightful Agent Courtney and DQ invited us for a picnic on the Charles to watch the dragon boat races. No pictures, because we were living in the moment (and forgot the camera), but it was all very genteel (except for the gin and tonics) and fun (except for the horrific but predictable state of the Porta-Potties). We dined on Asiatic Slaw, inari, and the aforementioned tartlets, and cheered, and speculated about how much more exciting things would be if weapons were allowed, and got hotter and hotter and hotter. I expected to be home by dinnertime, but instead we trailed our friends back to their place for barbeque, and stayed out quite late, and came home to confront the day’s injuries: Josh is a painful brick-red on the face and the forearms, with really funny (well don’t ask him, but I think they’re funny) white rings around his eyes where the sunglasses were. I very responsibly applied sunscreen but managed to burn nonetheless, a very weird splotchy sunburn on parts of my arms and both legs, but mostly the right leg, and random spots on my neck. I look like someone threw a bucket of sun on me.
Late at night we flopped on the couch, simmering gently, steam rising from our clothes and hair, discussing the particular, movement-inhibiting kind of tiredness that comes from being outside in the sun all day, and Josh came up with a very Josh-like phrase, something along the lines of “The Beaming Violent Rays of Pain from the Sun.” Whatever it was exactly seemed hilarious, and Josh declared that it would be the name of his band, and I said yes, but only if he promised to get really pissy every time someone tried to abbreviate the absurdly long name to TBVRPS or “The Beaming Violent Rays,” and insist that it would damage his artistic integrity, were such a demeaning truncation to issue from the lips of any deejay. This idea in turn was so damn funny that we have now forgotten what exactly the phrase was, so that placeholder above will just have to do. It’s hard to be so clever and witty sometimes, you know?
Now I am sitting here chanting "shut up, shut up, shut up" under my breath as a charm against my whistling coworker, and waiting for it to be 5:00 because I have a lot of puttering and sleeping to do.
Posted by hilatron at June 14, 2004 02:35 PM | TrackBackThose not-Key Lime tartlets were damn, damn good (I found one while pillaging in DQ's fridge).
Posted by: EV at June 14, 2004 03:31 PM1. Gin and tonic, having been imbibed by pucka, albeit probably racist, sahibs in Victorian-era Inja, can properly be classified as genteel. At least, in mixed company. Besides, the quinine may protect you from West Nile virus. Doombot says so.
2. Sunburns, no matter how spotty or oddly placed, and regardless of how many I Love Lucy re-runs might have been involved, are never funny.
3. Co-workers who whistle get their assassins a guaranteed waiver through the justifiable homicide listings in the local rag's classifed section.
4. What is Asian slaw? What is inari? How do I make these? And so forth.
5. I forget. Must have been out in the sun too long.
Posted by: Doombot at June 14, 2004 03:44 PMAsiatic Slaw:
-One enormous bok choy
-Several tiny radishes
-Bottle of Ginger People Ginger Wasabi Dressing
-Lemon
-Pepper
Slice bok choy and radishes into little skinny slices. Toss with dressing, lemon juice and pepper. Put in Tupperware. Chill.
Inari:
- 1 1/4 cups sushi rice
- 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinagar
- 1 can inari (buy at your local asian grocery, either in cans or packages)
Cook the rice in a pan or rice cooker. While it's still hot, stir in the rice vinagar and let cool, stirring occasionally. The rice/vinegar mixture should be sticky. As the rice cools, you might want to stir in one or more of the following: some black sesame seeds, handful of minced scallion, handful of shredded carrot or radish or a couple teaspoons of bonito flakes (fishy!).
Open your can of inari and drain. To fill, carefully remove from can and with a knife edge or your dainty fingers open the sliced side of the inari. Take a small handful of rice and gently stuff in! Cool in the fridge and serve cold or room temp.
These are the best for picnics and road trips. I even brought them on an airplane once.
Posted by: Agent Court at June 15, 2004 07:00 AMAgent Court, you are the supreme jazz for doing all that in response to a stranger's question. Blessings and peace unto you! I will make some Asian slaw as soon as I can put my paws on the dressing. Would it be good with bits of fresh pineapple tossed in, do you think?
Alas, I still do not know what inari is. The question proceeds from a desire to avoid eating animals. None of my recipe searches uncovered "inari," and a 'Net search led me to a village in Lapland which has been continuously inhabited for 8,000 years, a Japanese rice deity of indeterminate gender, and several entries in languages unknown to me.
Is inari something which had a pulse during its life-cycle? If so, I will cease searching. If not, it goes on a trial menu immediately. Thanks!
Posted by: Doombot at June 15, 2004 09:20 AMOn the slim chance that Agent C is not hovering eagerly around the comments section, I'll pop in and say that inari are (is?) adorable little deep-fried tofu pouches, perfect for filling with various things. The ones I've seen (thanks again to our dear Agent) come in cans. I would pretty much eat them every day if I had time to make them or enough money to buy them from the temptingly located sushi place near work. Yum yum.
Posted by: Hilatron at June 15, 2004 09:33 AMhttp://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=818
These are some!
Posted by: Agent Court at June 15, 2004 12:45 PM