(I must acknowledge my friend Sara as the originator of this quote/curse. Please note, this utterance is most often performed while shaking one’s fist at the heavens. There’s another variation of the fist shake in which you state, “I shake my fist at you!” but that’s more of an alternative to “the finger” than a generalized cursing of life. Cuz that’s how we roll.)

Anyway - UPS attempted to deliver my new digital camera (birthday present) today. At 5:03, they were here. And since no one answered the door to sign for the camera, it’s back at a UPS facility, waiting until it can come to its new home tomorrow. Boo-hoo. So I exclaimed, “Darn you, life!” Not that today was horrible by any means - I was just looking forward to a new gadget. New gadgets are tremendous fun.

I went rock-climbing at 8:30 tonight and rolled home a bit before 11. It’s now after midnight and I’m not at all tired. This means I’ll be up late reading.

Maybe watching a movie I’ve seen a million times.

Maybe watching this video until I’m delirious and start giggling uncontrollably.

This doesn’t change my assertion that aunt-hood is the way for Miss Eva to go (there are so many things that would need to happen in order for that to change, it’s not even worth enumerating) but DAMMIT, is this child adorable!

This is me holding my friend Michelle’s daughter, Juliette; they’re visiting from England and there was redonk cuteness going on. Cuteness like Juliette dancing and clapping to the opening song/credits of “The Golden Girls.”

To quote the White Stripes, “I can tell that we are gonna be friends.”

But I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t.

Friday was my birthday.
It was very very good; it was filled with a short work day, rock-climbing, and time with my closest friends involving good food, cupcakes, music and tea. A far cry from what I was envisioning and dreading even a few weeks ago.

Yesterday was a continuation of the goodness - a visit from another close friend, and a borderline normal dinner with the family (after initial chaos and drama re: navigation systems and driving).

Even a group of racist Czechoslovakians at the next table in the restaurant didn’t bring us down - nope. They were making comments about Polish people being “strong but stupid” to their hibachi chef. After a few withering glances from us and our speaking Polish to one another at just-slightly-louder-than-necessary-levels, they pretty much shut their yaps.

Here’s a photo of me hamming it up for the camera a bit on Friday, displaying the rings my friends gave me for my birthday. I am attempting to convey a sort of, “Hey - look at the sparkly - don’t look at me!” message. Unfortunately, my nose and eyes are in sharper focus - not the sparkly. But it’s OK; FAR worse photos of me exist and in the grand scheme of things, this one is OK.

My little sister has a photo of me with cocktail umbrellas stuck behind my ears (from yesterday) and I think it came out pretty well. I’ll have to get that from her for addition to my collection.

… I’m messing around with Photoshop to see how I can get some decent photos of things I find lovely. Mostly things I’ve purchased. For example, my favorite candles in the world at present - these Henri Bendel Home candles in Fig (available at Bath & Body Works, I think).

I love the scent, the design, the font and the frosted glass. A simple pleasure.

Then, there’s this awesome notecard action from Paperchase (it’s a folder containing 10 each of two designs similar to this cover):

I think a fun experiment will be to try taking photos of these same objects when I have the new happy snappy action on Monday. That will kill a good few hours when I get home from work. Mmmm-hmmm. You can look forward to seeing photos of various objets d’art (in a generous sense) such as books, nicely packaged anything, and much much more!

Something tells me that these will look a bit sweeter once I have the Nikon D40. It’s not a top of the line dSLR, but that would be wasted on me at this point anyway - just as it would be a waste to give a 15 year-old girl a Bugatti Veyron as her first car. Yeah. That’s the analogy I want to make.

It’s a solid “beginner” dSLR and I’ve gotten a bunch of books about the camera itself as well as digital photography in general so I can study up on composition, lighting, portraiture, etc. Then I can use it to take awesome photos of whatever I deem worthy when I go to Coachella and on a little vacation later this month.

This week has been good so far. I’m glad. I usually get pretty down in the dumps when I near my birthday, but that melancholy cleared itself out a few weeks ago and now I’m OK with turning 30 tomorrow. I’ll be spending the afternoon and evening with a few of my dearest, closest friends (and hearing from others who aren’t as geographically close right now) and I think it’s going to be really fun and chill. Just how I like it.

No story here… just some shots from the window of my hotel room in Boston. There is a really nice view from the 25th floor, even if my camera was crap, glare from the windows made it hard to get a good picture and the little point-and-shoot camera doesn’t allow me to adjust the shutter speed or aperture to get a better nighttime shot. Still, it’s something:

Coolness experienced today, in order:

1. the sense of accomplishment achieved through finding free and legal parking on the streets of Manhattan (after circling blocks for 45 minutes)
2. getting a tasty lunch at a cafe in Chelsea (savory crepe! ham & cheese croissant! hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate syrup!)
3. climbing the big climbing wall at the Chelsea Piers for several hours and getting all the way up a challenging 5.9 level climb (challenging for me, anyway - only the second 5.9 I’ve ever completed)
4. walking around Manhattan for a few hours and stopping in Mxyplyzyk, Other Music, The Strand (where I bought bargain-priced books by Paul Auster and Angela Carter that I didn’t own yet) and the Virgin Megastore
5. warm drinks at one of the omnipresent Starbucks because it was getting quite cold and windy around 8pm
6. spazzing out like stupid New Jerseyans at a club down the shore (except it was during the car ride home from NYC) while listening to a Benny Benassi CD:

   Benny Benassi - Satisfaction
   
   
   (You may recognize this from a Burger King TV commercial from last year - the actual video is totally NSFW, but so over the top and sexually charged that I can’t help but laugh. In a phrase: chicks in bikinis with power tools - or just listen to the song.

7. getting home and purchasing tickets for Coachella… because I’ll be heading out to California just in time for that three-day festival of musical loveliness
8. eating some leftover tamarind lentils, putting on a fun eye candy crap movie (X-Men) and maybe getting to sleep early

A few weeks ago, I gifted a copy of Veganomicon to my friend Sara. For the not-yet-indoctrinated, it’s a vegan cookbook and it’s apparently A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It’s written by the gals who run PostPunkKitchen (theppk.com), an incredibly popular vegan cooking site (and TV show).

Anyway… Sara was kind enough to make us dinner using recipes from the book and this one recipe for tamarind lentils is the most delicious lentil dish I’ve ever had. I’ve made it twice since and it hasn’t bored me yet. A little sweet, a little spicy, a little tangy… mmmm. So here you go - recipe for Tamarind Lentils. If you like them, buy the book. It’s full of other tastiness that even meat-loving omnivores like me can enjoy.

Tamarind Lentils

3 tbsp. coconut or peanut oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 in. cube fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 large onion, diced
1 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. whole cumin seeds
generous pinch of cayenne
1 cup dried lentils (black or green preferred…brown are fine, but will be mushier.)
2 cups veggie broth or water
2 tsp. concentrated tamarind syrup or paste
1 tbsp. pure maple syrup or agave nectar
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and let sizzle for 30 seconds. Add onion and fry until translucent and soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in garam masala, cumin seeds, and cayenne, and stir for 30 seconds until spices smell fragrant.

Add lentils and liquid, increase heat to high, and bring to a boil. Stir and lower heat to medium-low. Partially cover and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. Stir occasionally until lentils have absorbed most of the cooking liquid and are very tender. The lentils will be very thick….if you want a thinner consistency, add a few tbsps of water.

In small bowl, combine tamarind, maple syrup/agave, tomato paste, and salt (note: it won’t look or smell too pretty, but stick with it - trust me). Use rubber spatula to scrape all of the mixture into the lentils.

Stir to completely dissolve all the flavorings. Simmer for another 4 to 6 minutes. Adjust salt to taste.

I will have to tell the story of Boston and such soon. But tonight, I was in the mood to play with Photoshop.

Voila. New header.

And I’m really loving my newest book purchase - Nabokov’s “Invitation to a Beheading.” I should finish it off tonight since I didn’t have my train commute today to do my reading.