Not Soon Enough

M went out for dinner with some friends, and dropped me off on the way for a much-needed haircut.

On the way back, I picked up a burrito from the local taco place, which is really no Uncle Moe's. Sigh.

PeterN stopped by later to chill and hang for a bit. He was headed to see a band at a bar somewhere but neither of us was really feeling it, so we called it a night.

I watched a few minutes of "House of Flying Daggers" and decided that I just did not have it in me to watch another martial arts epic. I had seen "Hero" recently and I think my interest in artsy period/fighting/weird movies is done for a while.

I cannot say that this movie was especially interesting. I wonder what a more western-oriented (not cowboys) "sword and sandals"-type movie would be like if it were this artsy. I think it might do what "Thin Red Line" did for artsy war movies, that is to say, suck.

Hoodies

I stepped out briefly this afternoon to go pick up some soup for M since she's still not feeling too hot. While I was wandering the aisles of Ken's, a small oblivious child was walking around with his mother. He would ask his mother what a lot of things were, which I ignored as much as possible.

While I perused soup choices, I heard him ask what the beer aisle was, and the response was "That's the grown-up aisle".

This was followed up by an inquiry on the frozen foods section, to which the reply was "Those are the frozen foods. We don't eat that stuff. It's disgusting." Then there were various child noises of "ewww..." and "yuck" with similar sounds from the mom.

After work, we figured we could hit the Bourne movie, since that wouldn't require moving around so much for M. It was one of the worst filmed movies ever. The entire thing was done with a shaky, hand-held approach. Every shot was like this. No tripods, no steadicams, just lots and lots of gratuitious shaking. When there was actually action, it shook so much my eyes hurt and I couldn't tell what was happening. The movie was ok on it's own, but man, that was ridiculous. Not recommended.

We hit the local pizza delivery spot to pick up a pie. As we pulled in, M saw this bunch of people sitting outside and was like "Great, hooligans". On closer inspection, it turned out to be a typical girls soccer team who looked like they were getting some post-game grub and icing various wounds. Ah, The Northwest.

Foul Ball

It wasn't a strike, but it wasn't REALLY a hit either. I had saved half the dough from the baguette recipe and this afternoon I got it prepped and baked. I let it knead for like 20 minutes in the hope it would build some decent structure, and it DID turn out better, but it's not there yet.

Hmmm, I'm out of yeast.

The past few days have not been all that exciting I suppose. I'll try to do something interesting soon, other than showing slices of bread and other things I have consumed.

Great, now I'm hungry.

Research Day

Yesterday I had trouble keeping my eyes open. I spent most of the morning just trying not to doze off at my desk in the middle of writing.

Today is a bit better. M is not though. I hope she's better soon.

I tried the whisky my brother sent tonight. It was odd for a Speyside, not nearly as sweet as I'd expect. I'll fill up the flask with a well-aged Ardbeg (a gift from my team when I moved out here) and send it back to him. This will be a nice tradition I think.

Not Pretty

M is still not feeling very good. Ok, she's feeling bad and has been pretty listless all day.

After our walk, I sliced up some old beef and made a spicy and not very delicious set of sliced-steak-on-toasts using the failed baguette from yesterday.

M crashed early. I wasn't very tired and watched some CSI before bed.

Exchange

M and I headed out to the store after work to pick up some groceries. On the way, we remembered to check our mail (real mail) and saw there was a package from my brother.

He does a scotch tasting with his friends and had picked up a bottle of Glen Keith that he wanted me to try. So today I got a 2.5oz flask, I mean, a "lithium battery".

My nose is still a little stuffed up, so I'll wait until tomorrow to try it.

Fired Up

At Ichiro's first at-bat, he was called out on a dubious "foul-tip" that the ump said was caught by the catcher.

McLaren, the Mariners' Manager (say that 5 times fast) stormed out and completely got in the face of the umps and got tossed, only 1 batter into the game.

See that clump of three guys at third base? He's doing the whole "scream-in-your-face" thing that managers do, which I haven't seen live before. I mean, you gotta get your guys all riled up for the big game, but in this case it didnt work.

After eating my final donut, because I couldn't NOT eat it (it was a special baseball donut with strawberry kreme) the Mariners lost 6-0. Not a great start to the series.

We made it home pretty quickly, and that was the night.

I-Chi-Ro

I'm not going into game details, but this graphic of Ichiro showed that he had a 7-game hitting streak with 16 hits in that time period.

Also, he made some blazing fast plays in the outfield. When he throws, he winds up his entire body like a catapult and launches the ball. He made 2 throws from center to the catcher that were like bullets. Johjima actually had to jump in the air to catch one of them.

You Don't Have To Go Far

Sometimes, you just see a Tricerapig on the sidewalk.

While exploring a weird little wine shop, M arrived and I met up with her at Krispy Kreme. I may or may not have eaten a free sample (dude, free sample donuts? awesome!) and a custard donut. Several people got free samples and then left, because they were only going to buy one donut anyway. I wonder how much revenue individual donut sales comprise of their total.

M is sick, having caught my cold from last week, and is not very happy about it, but looking forward to cheering for the Mariners.

Upon having my bag searched at the gate, the checker sees my Krispy Kreme box (I had one "special" baseball donut left) and I offered it to him and he said he wasn't allowed to accept it, which made sense.

Armed with a lemonade, we made it to our seats.

No, It Isn't

I grabbed a polish dog from a street vendor and kept wandering. Pyramid Brewery has an ale house across the street from the ball park, with this "Beer Garden" that was positively mobbed.

I wanted to tell them that putting up a few tables and umbrellas in their parking lot does not constitute a beer garden.

Wandering Time

M was still on the highway, and I walked by this old flatiron-type building that is just nice to look at. This area of the city is very industrial, and this kind of building stands out very strongly. It has a bar in the bottom floor, and what look like apartments higher up. It would be great to live in a place like that, but since that shadow on the building is actually a highway, maybe not so great.

Honk

The walk to the stadium from the bus stop was about a half mile, and the weather was very nice for being outside.

On the left of this shot, you see a train, on the right, the stadium.

First Ride

The L.A. Angels are in town to challenge the Mariners. Since these teams are in close contention for division lead, special-price tickets were available to encourage fans to come out on a Monday night and give some home-team advantage.
With M returning from Oregon to meet me at the game, I hopped a bus for the first time since moving here to get to the stadium.

M hit a TON of traffic getting out of Portland, and it may be close to game time when she arrives.

I, on the other hand, knowing the horrors of Seattle traffic, leave at 16:30 to get there in time for a 19:00 game.
The buses have "rest areas" at the top of their routes, and the driver usually just hangs out and relaxes for a few minutes before starting the route again.

I hopped on, enjoyed the sun through the window, and drifted in and out of sleep.

Starchy Distraction

I found this guy's recipe for baguettes online, and I've been meaning to give it a try.

With a project deadline looming this morning, I figured I could use something to focus any nervous energy, and decided to try the 2nd of the 3 recipes on the page. The third one looked a bit too complex for someone in their first week of baking.

Many things went wrong in the recipe. There was too much dough for my poor little kitchenaid to handle. The dough didn't really come together, and thus, the bread didn't rise properly. Baguettes are typically long, and I didn't have a big enough sheet to cook it on, nor a big enough oven. Also, Since I didn't think it had browned enough, I overcooked it such that rather than having a nice crust, it had an exeoskeleton.

All told, it was indeed a bread-product, and edible, and I'm sure it'll make for some lovely toast, but it's nothing close to a baguette.

I saved half the dough for another run through the knead, and we'll see if that can get it any better. I'm going to try a different dough-stretching technique as well, so let's hope that's successful.

Oh, right, I got my document finished. That's part one of like, 12 - done.

B2TW

If any of you are thinking of eating meatloaf from Ken's, I wouldn't suggest it. That was my lunch, and it wasn't cool.

I dropped by D.Cyclone's place to help her get her computer set up and then it was back to work. As late night approached, Return of The King was on, which was a great gift. It's nice to have sound and light in the background, but you don't want anything too interesting or it's distracting. Since I probably have this movie almost memorized, that wasn't really a problem. Every now and then someone would yell out, "Frodo!" and I would look up, and a character would look sullen, and then there would be slow-motion, and fighting, and sometimes both.

Also, it was NOT the extended edition, which is kinda lame. You're already taking up 4:15 of programming time to show this thing, just make it an even 5 and be done with it. Plus then you get the scene with the Mouth of Sauron, who, while not particularly integral to the plot, is seriously badass.

I mean, the guy even gets screentime in the animated version (so, so, so not badass-looking (honestly, the dude looks like a serious tool there) ) so do us all a favor and don't skimp next time. Yeah, I know he can't see, and that makes him even more badass. Which part of this do you not get?

When You Don't Have Time To Care

Around 2100 I decided that I needed to get out of the house, so I picked up some grub from Ken's. A veggie plate and some roast pork did the trick.

I finished up my work for the night and am now chilling with some late night BET and will head to bed shortly. More work tomorrow, but I'll worry about it then.

Oh, last night I had a dream where I was in 28 Days Later and everyone was gone and on the radio someone was telling us how to kill the not-zombies but I kinda zoned out and didn't pay attention and felt really stupid about not hearing what they said and had no idea what to do.

Off to bed.

SciFi

I actually got some sleep, which was great. I've got a long day of work ahead. Sigh.

Over some coffee, I flip on SciFi and am pleased to see a typical weekend lineup, including: Carnosaur 3, Caved In: Prehistoric Terrors, Marabunta (no idea), Sasquatch, Basilisk, and Cerebus. Ridiculous.

The Boys Have Dinner

I'm done for the night. It's late and I realize I haven't eaten so I grab a delicious dinner of fake chicken nuggets and a "sweet and salty" balance bar. Also, Predator was on.

Mush and I ate, and then it was sleeptime.

Current Life

I took a break from writing tonight to take a picture of my camera taking a picture of my desk, but my laptop bluescreened when I tried. I should have got a picture of that, I guess.

This is it for me this weekend. My desk, with a rebooting machine on one side, and coffee, paper, camera, and a small glass of porter on the other.

My buddy Chris who was out here this past weekend got the job he was interviewing for, so he'll be out here for a few months soon. That will be cool. I don't have anything else particularly interesting to talk about.

Other stuff is not so great, but hopefully in a few weeks (boy, do I hope so) I'll be able to tell you all about it.

Oh, I took a break to watch some CSI earlier. I wouldn't want to leave that out.

Back to work.

That's About It

D.Cyclone got back from CA after seeing J.Clyclone off to law school and crashed with us.

Unrelated, I woke up this morning with a nice cold, which has been less than fun, given everything I need to get done. M and I were going to go visit the DragonFires on the Oregon beach this weekend, but I won't be able to join. It will be a working weekend, which is just the way it is, I suppose.

Anyway...that's what's up. Whee.

That Would Be Awesome

A little fresh bread goes a long way to making a crappy day better. I'm feeling a bit sick with a sore throat, and it's been slow going at work.

CNN had a particularly great grouping of headlines today, but one stood out in particular. Maybe we wouldn't have to hear about Posh Spice any more. Go T-Rex. 6-inch teeth, people.

I forgot to mention a few nights ago when I dreamt that I was back in Brooklyn, trying to get to my apartment without being attacked by all these vampires. I was a werewolf but as long as the vampires didn't KNOW that I was, then I was ok. I got to the apartment and the gate was locked and there were wolves inside and I didn't know what to do so I growled at the wolves and hoped that since I was a werewolf they would respect that and back off. I don't remember if they did.

Also, I think I was a fashion designer. I'm not sure how that figured in.

Ok, that wasn't very exciting. I'm going to get back to work now.

Hearty

It looked and smelled good, and after a very very brief cooling (because we wanted to eat it) we dug in. The stout and coffee provided a good, deep bitterness to the flavor, although M preferred the regular bread from a few days ago. I think this one is more interesting. Salt is still an issue. I used 3 times as much salt in this than the last one, but it still could have used a bit more. If you're trying this yourself, I would probably go with a bit more than the recipe says. I'm cautious because I don't want to hurt my yeast and don't have enough experience yet to know how far I can push it.

M got a great shot of the crumb, so if she posts it on her blog you should check it out.

Update: Here's her shot.

Sleepbaking

Another early morning, this one a bit frantic with work, but also soothed by the promise of fresh bread.

Today's recipe is Alton's "Morning After" bread, made with wheat flour, bread flour, beer, and coffee. The recipe (ingredients, technique) is in "I'm Just Here for More Food", which is his baking book. I've posted the recipe so that you can try it, and I'll hope Alton's lawyers don't get upset with me. Seriously, buy Alton stuff.

I got prepped while the coffee brewed and then got everything in motion. I like that once the initial 15 minutes are spent mixing and kneading (dough hook, I love you), you can really just pop in for a few minutes over the next hour or two to occasionally fold and prod the dough as needed. I was able to work and then just take quick breaks to check on the dough and move through the process.

To "fold down" dough, Alton recommends flattening it and folding it up like a tri-fold wallet three times. Although this has distributed the yeast quite nicely, I'm concerned that it has compromised dough elasticity, and given it that kind of lumpy appearance on the skin. It was also a bit difficult to seal up along the bottom, so it didn't form a smooth, oblong shape. Next time, I'll try just doing one fold and see if that produces better results.

One Shot

The wheat bread and banana bread have been eaten. Tomorrow I will make a coffee-beer bread which will be fun, and hopefully a bit smoother that my last effort.

Yesterday wrapped up before I really had much chance to do anything with it. I don't even remember if I had anything in particular for dinner.

Tonight for dinner we'll have chicken stir-fry, courtesy of Safeway's meat department. Nearby that department were these paper towels, featuring "HYDRASORB Technology". Google had this to say:

"HYDRASORB* is a semi-occlusive highly absorbent hydrophilic, polyurethane foam dressing that will hold up to 20 times its weight."

Ok, I don't think this is the same thing as is being used in these 8 rolls for 5 bucks paper towels. I could be wrong though.

Continuing to google this term I found someone else had googled the same thing and blogged about it as well. Surreal! He's also in Seattle. Uber-Surreal! I think this dude may have some anger issues to work out, though.

Further research (thanks, other dude's blog) found this press release, with this lovely bit of tid:

"Several U.S. retailers will market Potlatch's new ultra towel with the Potlatch Hydrasorb(TM) trademark on their packaging, confirming that their towels are manufactured with advanced technology that produces superior towel attributes."

I don't even know where to go with that.

Today has flown by rapidly. Posts will be a bit less prolific this week for reasons that I can't go into right now but will be happy to explain offline. Holla if you want.

I should be back to my usual self next Tuesday or so. Check that, I really hope things are "normal" come Tuesday.

Cryptic much? Yes, thank you.

If I May Muse

Earlier this weekend I was flipping channels and ran across this "movie", starring Bright from Everwood and Winnie from Wonder Years, who was honestly a bit disturbing in a cleavage-baring midriff shirt and tights.

Basically, nanobots have been released from their frozen arctic prison and have formed a cloud of terror that destroys Seattle and moves towards LA, only to be stopped by a nuclear weapon. Oh wait, the nuclear option is prevented at the last minute by the two stars who realize that an EMP pulse will suffice and carry it up to neutralize the cloud in a cellulose (paper) airplane.

I thought about this movie again today because of this article on CNN (yes, I know nanobots aren't exactly the same thing as artificial life, but it's related). Wow, I really hope we get to see some of this soon, partially because I'm really looking forward to seeing the inevitable creator-bolstering arguments this will foster by Jack Chick and his ilk. Science ROCKS!!!

Also, movie poster with a dude on fire? Check.

Less Bad Idiot

After about 35 minutes the crust seemed very crisp and brown so I took it out of the oven. I had neglected to grease or otherwise take stick-preventative measures, so the loaves were welded to the pan. After about 5 minutes of scraping, they detached from the welded parts, which is not going to make for very long-lasting bread.

I cut and tasted. It actually was pretty decent. I would have preferred a coarser crumb, but I think maybe my over-kneading or choice of flour prevented that. You can also see that there is no bottom crust. That component is currently soaking on the pan in my sink. Flavor-wise, it had some depth, thanks to the different kinds of flour (AP, Bread, Whole Wheat) and the use of the starter, AND the overnight rise. It's a little tart, hearty and spicy. M likes it too. She commented last night that the dough made the apartment smell like a brewery, which isn't great, but maybe the results are worth it.

I'll do my best to eat a bunch of it (it made 2 big loaves) and I'll think about the next one. I think I'll just go with AP flour next time and try for a lighter bread. I've got a lot of starter left over, so I'd better use it for something.

Dude, my first bread. Awesome.

It Should Not Be Lumpy

I put the uneven oblong pieces that I had "shaped" as best as possible into the oven. They were supposed to be well-rounded and smooth, and as you can see here, even through a hazy oven door, this is not the case.

It was a lumpy mess.

What Do I Do Now?

This morning, I took the dough out of the fridge to let it warm up and prep for the last rise. It had developed a dried skin on it. It also began to collapse, probably from over-rising the night before.

I let it warm and kneaded it a bit. It didn't especially cooperate, so I moistened my hands a bit and kept working the dough, which I eventually broke into 2 pieces to make working with it easier. No, the pieces were not even.

This is not going well.

I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

After the tour, we went back to hotel and wandered the area. We grabbed some coffee and hung out and talked.

We passed a Vietnamese place called "What the Pho?"

Chris and I discussed comic-book movies for quite some time as well, which thrilled M to no end. Apparently in "Van Helsing", the titular character may have actually been the archangel Gabriel. Wow. Sigh. M shopped while we did this after managing to make it through an impressive 30 minutes of such discussion. The 30 minutes wasn't impressive, but M making it through that was.

We left Chris to prepare for his interview, and went home to wrap up the weekend. M crashed on the couch while I prepped my bread. This isn't a slight on Alton, since I'm sure there's just something I'm not getting, but I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do to prepare this dough. Really, I read over the technique and instructions like 10 times and was totally lost. Eventually I wound up winging it (and may have put in the wrong kind of flour) and left it in the fridge to rise overnight.

In this photo, I am in the autolyse (resting) step after having overmixed this thing for a long time. This is not going to turn out delicious.

Tasting and Touring

The "tour guide" was not so great a public speaker, but we got walked through the basic brewing process and tried all 4 varieties (Weizen, IPA, Amber, Porter) that they make. The porter was especially good and I bought a growler of it to take home.

The really interesting part is that they use old-style kegs for their amber (the really popular, amazing beer) with bung-holes. The bungs have a permeable sack filled with hops attached to it, that goes into each keg. The kegs sit for a while and dry-hop while they age. It's a really cool idea.

The whole thing took maybe an hour and was fun. We bought a poster for the kitchen as well. A nice, canvas one.

Little Mac

The place is very small, and is basically in an office park. We walked around it to find the entrance. The whole brewery is this room and one more of the same size to the left.

A bunch of people 20-30 were there for the tour but we didn't see them so we stood around like idiots for a few minutes until they came out of the gift shop and the tour got started, led by that guy in the black shirt.

Travel in Style

We were in the burbs, so we grabbed lunch at Red Robin, one of M's favorites and one of the few chains I'm ok with. After a very heavy lunch, we headed off to the brewery.

Chris was given a choice of rental car, Kia or Mustang. I think he picked the wrong one. M knew where we were going, so she drove.

Decorative Like Cauliflower

We drop by Chris's hotel to grab some lunch. These "decorations" are in the lobby. I've seen them before at the place that we cought our couch and I like them for some reason. They're just texturally appealing.

Wake and Bake

Today my friend Chris flies in for an interview with a company out here and we're going to meet up with him for some lunch and a tour of the Mac and Jack brewery. But before that...

It's time for baking.

Today's experiment is pound cake, made via the "Creaming Method", whereby sugar crystals whip air into fat (butter), leading to a light an fluffy cake. My loaf pan was too small, so I made cupcakes instead. This left many dirty dishes.

Also, since I forgot to grease the tin, the cakes didn't really want to come out. In the end though, they were good, but waaaaaay too light and fluffy. I want a pound cake to be dense and rich. If I'm going to go light and fluffy, I'll just go angel food and spare myself the inordinate amount of fat in this cake. It was "successful" in that I did it correctly, but I would not make this recipe again. Next time, I'll go with M's mom's recipe, which is the best pound cake (lemon) I've had.

In the last shot, you can see my starter sitting in the sink. In an attempt to keep it warm and bubbly, I've been putting hot water in that dish every so often. I'm nervous.

Clos'er Up

For the last few songs, security lessened and we "rushed" the stage to rock out with the band. There was some jumping up and down for the finale and encore, but no pitting, which was a first for me (to be fair, I was one of the only guys up there). Again, how civilized.

The singer called for the 3-year-old with the curious george to come up front and he picked him up on his shoulders (kid was wearing earplugs and called for his mom the whole time)and posed for a picture. He also put one of his headbands on curious george. If this kid keeps it up he'll be ready for an AWK show in no time. No more calling for mom though.

The last song of the encore was a pumping-fast Irishy tune called "Mary Mac" that got faster and faster and was a great ending song. In all, it was a fun time. I'm glad we went.