He burbles, doesn't he?

Brief Musing

jon@lasser.org — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:42:37 GMT

This is the time of the year when many of my friends write "Year in Review" posts. (Sometime next month, my politically-aware friends may start writing "State of the Union" posts, especially those who missed the "year in review" deadline.) Some people may even be writing "Decade in Review" posts.

I don't really want to write a "year in review" post, myself. Suffice it to say that this year has been marked by an extraordinary polarity between professional success and personal tragedy (little Ezra and his long, long shadow). I haven't accomplished many of the things I've wanted to, personally—I haven't been able to write every day, as I did for about four months from last November, and I've been less than rigorous about submitting material for publication than I had hoped. But I hold myself to very high standards, so it's not a surprise when I fail to meet them in some respects.

As for the decade, I can't really say. I'm older, but probably no wiser. I'm certainly quieter, even withdrawn, which some might mistake for wisdom. I'm probably both more tender and more calloused. I've driven the same car for eight of the last ten years, and have no more debts now than I did a decade ago. I'm not sure that my assets have appreciated substantially.

In other words, I feel as though I've been thrown into a new orbit, but around the same star. I'm different, but I doubt the changes could be called progress. Not regress, either.

None of this is negative, really. There's a certain sense of frustration I feel, but much of that is just that I haven't accomplished what I'd hoped to in my time off of work: I'd hoped to write, but I've got injuries on both my thumbs that make handwriting for any length of time extremely uncomfortable. And so I've done little besides cook and play Nethack. Which has been incredibly relaxing, but again less than the high standard I'd set for myself.

What bothers me most right now is my sheer practicality, a lack of whimsy or inventive imagination. When I see points A and B, I can't help but that the line I draw between them is perfectly straight. This impoverishes my intellectual and emotional worlds, effective as it may be for day-to-day living.

Scuba. Also, dinner win

jon@lasser.org — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:15:43 GMT

Went scuba diving today. First drysuit dive. Skills went well. We tooled around a bit and I tried to get used to the suit. It's probably going to be five or ten dives before I begin to feel comfortable and can pay attention to the dive and not the drysuit — but it sure was nice being warm and dry when I got out of the water.

Unfortunately, the dive ended with me ascending rapidly due to air in the drysuit. Not atypical for a first drysuit dive, but still frustrating. I had started an accidental feet-first ascent, swam out of it nicely, and bled air — but I bled air from the BCD, not the drysuit. Whoops.

But it was a decent first dive. Hopefully I'll be able to get the hang of it soon. Plus it confirms that the drysuit can actually keep me dry, which saves me worry and/or money, and means I can keep diving all winter long.

After coming home and washing my gear, my thoughts turned to dinner. Laura was headed out to a girls-only party with friends down in Tacoma, and so I figured I'd cook the spare ribs that were in the freezer. I thawed them in the sink, seared them with garlic, ginger, and hot pepper, sauteed some onion, and braised it all in a mixture of mushroom stock, soy sauce, and lime juice.

When the ribs were done, I took them out and cooked up some rice noodles we had in the cabinet. I reduced the sauce, adding a little mirin and a little extra sugar as it was quite tart, then re-warmed the ribs in the thickened sauce. I cut the meat off of half the rack of ribs, chopped it into bite-sized pieces, and served it on top of the rice noodles with a healthy dollop of sauce. Tasty!

This week, we'll take the other half of the ribs, cut the meat off, and put with cabbage into the wonton wrappers we have in the fridge. The leftover sauce could be a dipping sauce for that, though maybe we'll just want hoisin.

Brief personal update

jon@lasser.org — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:12:45 GMT

Just to note that, after the recent whirlwind of (scheduled) travel, work sent me off to New Jersey and Manhattan the day after ironheadjane and I returned from seeing friends and family in the Bay Area. Sixty hours later, I was home.

I've finally posted a few photos of last year's trip to Hawaii and this spring's trip to Bermuda. I'm working on my photos from Sydney from February, but to a certain extent I'm not sure I've got the stomach to finish that work now.

You've probably noted a lot more of my Two Ideas blogging. In part, I've realized that I can do a pretty good job if I batch the work into one or two big weekly sessions, and pop in with brief additional ideas when they come to me. In part, I've been stalled on the fiction project I've been working on, and am trying to see my way clear to getting it going again. In the meantime, my mind wants me to keep writing, so I'm doing my best...

My sister and her husband are in town at the end of this week, as is another friend. I'm looking forward to that a lot, but I've got my first complete in-office workweek in almost a month ahead of me largely between here and there. We'll see how it goes.

So sleepy!

jon@lasser.org — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:49:35 GMT

Good day yesterday, with a whole lotta nothing, a little bit of food prep (marinated cauliflower salad and a black bean dip), and barbecue at Jer's. Too much food! And now, a little bit of writing then get ready for work. Not enough sleep - about seven hours.

Tomorrow and Thursday I'm on the road, at a customer in Mountain View. Unfortunately I doubt I'll have any time to see people: the kind of business travel I do tends to mean 16-hour workdays. Tomorrow I'll be up at, oh, quarter to four, so I'm unlikely to want to be up very late... by the time I get back to my hotel room and have dinner, it'll be eight or nine and I'll be done.

Went diving with my friend/co-worker Blake last weekend -- it was spectacularly good. We'd hoped to get out this weekend, but tides were unfavorable and Blake was on-call. Plus, I hear the viz was lousy. Still, the two dives we did at Redondo were among the easiest, and most pleasant, in recent memory.

Also, Laura's convinced me to give running a try. Ran three times last week, the third on my own. I'm truly lousy at pacing myself: I tend to slowly work myself faster until I'm going too fast, and it takes me a while to cool off when I slow down. But at least the heart-rate monitor tells me I'm doing it! Without it, I'd be pushing myself a lot harder than I should. Still, on that run I managed to do three and a half miles in about forty-five minutes, which is beyond what I would have guessed I could reasonably do. Maybe I'll get to run again this evening, though what with the trip and the packing my schedule is probably a bit tight...

Twice-Baked Samosa-Stuffed Potatoes

jon@lasser.org — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:37:01 GMT

Last night, dinner was Twice-Baked Samosa-Stuffed Potatoes. This was a mixture of our normal baked potato recipe and the samosa recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook.

First, we took two large potatoes and baked them. We used Idaho Russets (not what we normally use, but perfect for this) and baked them for about an hour at 450 degrees. I run a metal skewer through each potato, so that it cooks faster, and rub the skin with a bunch of salt after washing them.

When the potatoes were nearly done, We took one small yellow onion, and chopped it finely. We also minced about one tablespoon fresh ginger and two cloves garlic. Then we sauteed these about ten minutes in one and a half tablespoons butter with one teaspoon mustard seeds, one teaspoon ground coriander, one-half teaspoon turmeric, and one and a half teaspoons salt. Get the butter nice and hot before adding the other ingredients.

When the potatoes came out, we split them in half and scooped them out, leaving enough on the outside to maintain structural integrity of the potato skins. We took the insides of the potatoes, and mixed them with the sauteed onion-spice mixture, one-half teaspoon cayenne pepper, and two tablespoons lemon juice. In fact, we used the immersion blender to puree them together until smooth.

Then we took one and a half cups frozen peas, and stirred these into the mixture gently. We took the potato-onion-pea mixture and refilled the potatoes, putting them on a baking sheet using aluminum foil to hold them upright. We sprinkled these with paprika, and baked for ten more minutes at 350 degrees before turning on the broiler for a couple of minutes. If you do this, make sure that you stop as soon as the potatoes start browning on top!

If I was doing it again, I'd probably sprinkle on a little extra paprika after taking them out of the oven: the turmeric stains the potatoes a beautiful yellow, the peas are a brilliant green, and the deep red of the fresh paprika would be very appealing, visually.

Very tasty, filling, and healthy!

Travel Plans Update

jon@lasser.org — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:38:37 GMT

The next few months will be a marathon of travel.

This week, Wednesday through next Sunday, Laura and I will be in Bermuda. Work is sending me to the annual Sales Club to thank me for the deals we've closed due to my onsite intervention, including a major last-minute deal last quarter in Australia. We may opt to stay a couple of extra days at the tail-end of it and enjoy ourselves a bit more.

Next month, we'll be spending a week at Disney World with my siblings and some extended family. We're very much looking forward to seeing my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin, who will be visiting from Israel, as well as my siblings and their spouses and my niece, and also my sister-in-law's extended family. It should be exhausting, but in a good fun way.

July, we'll be headed to the Bay Area for a long weekend -- the 16th through the 20th. We're very much looking forward to getting together with friends and family while we're there, and we're not yet heavily planned... so if you'd like to see us in SF, let us know soon.

Brief update: non-party, Ezra, family, work, dreams

jon@lasser.org — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:40:20 GMT

Several weeks ago I'd planned to have a small movie night this past weekend, to celebrate my 33 1/3rd birthday. Given the craziness of the last couple weeks, not surprisingly, I failed to plan it or to invite anyone.

Fortunately, 2049live and ironlemur were visiting from Chicago, and we watched The Third Man, so I can at least claim to have fulfilled my plans. Though I didn't have a cake that looked like an LP. (No, I was never actually planning that -- it just occurred to me now.)

It's all right, though, as I spent a nontrivial portion of the weekend helping out with emergency work stuff. My role was limited, from a technical perspective, but time-consuming nonetheless.

Hopefully I'll plan a substitute movie night soon -- it would be good to make sure we still see people.

We have an answer on what happened to Ezra: a blood clot in the umbilical cord. While this doesn't make us any less sad, it's at least an answer. When Laura's off of blood thinners for the clot in her leg, we'll be doing the full panel of clotting disorder tests, and likely she'll be on blood thinners when we're ready to try again.

Not sure if we'll be joining much of the family at Disney in June -- it's expensive, and if Laura can't enjoy the rides due to the blood thinners maybe it makes more sense to pay down the credit cards, or at least not spend down the market-battered nest egg. On the other hand, even if Laura can't enjoy the rides we'd enjoy spending time with my siblings quite a bit. I still have to see if I can get the time off of work anyway, so I guess it's a bit premature to worry about that.

Speaking of worry, I'm dreading work this week. Not because I don't love my job (because I do!) but because of the volume of end-of-quarter work that needs doing. I'm involved in four separate situations involving last-minute problems and potential big money... it would be exhausting to think about, even if I wasn't already exhausted from day-to-day living right now.

I did have some interesting dreams last night -- in one, I was onstage. I'm not sure exactly what my act was, but I was fairly content and comfortable up there, whatever I was doing. There was a guy in the audience in a wheelchair, near the front, and I asked him his name, which was Joe. Someone in his group made a "Hey Joe" joke, and I replied that if I was closer to the drum kit I'd have given the rimshot myself. Everyone in the audience laughed, which surprised me and made me smile.

In another dream, I was trying to explain to someone why they were having more trouble writing their second novel than they did writing their first. I had two foam rings of exactly the same size, with the hole in the middle of each ring also the exact same size. I had a ball that exactly fit the hole, and I asked the novelist to pass the ball through the first ring. No problem.

I asked him to pass it through the second ring, but he couldn't fit it through. He measured and confirmed that the holes were exactly the same size, then tried again. Still no luck. I asked him what accompanied the ball on the second time through that ring that wasn't there the first time around. He didn't know. I answered: ego.

Memorial service for Ezra Daniel Lasser

jon@lasser.org — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:10:12 GMT

We welcome you to come support Jon and Laura as they say goodbye to Ezra Daniel

Sunday March, 8th 2008
10 am

Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home
11111 Aurora Ave N
Seattle, WA 98133

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to 826 Seattle
http://www.826seattle.org/

Please RSVP for details about luncheon to follow

Still Overwhelmed...

jon@lasser.org — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:26:52 GMT

We finally got back from the hospital yesterday evening, and had dinner with some family before they left. (Laura's mother is still in town a few more days.)

When my stepmother died, Laura had a taste of what sitting shiva is like, and I think she found it comforting. We're adapting the tradition, in our own way. So we would very much appreciate folks local to Seattle stopping by in the afternoons and evenings this week, to keep us company. Some folks have offered to bring food, but feel free to bring nothing besides your company.

If you're planning to stop by, please feel free to check in via e-mail or calling us, so that we can make sure things aren't too crowded. (I don't imagine it would be a problem, but it's true also that we'll be going out at least some of the time and I'd hate for people to stop by when we're not here...)

We haven't yet had the opportunity or energy to respond individually to everyone who has offered their love and support, but please understand it's deeply appreciated at this time.

sad news

jon@lasser.org — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:28:23 GMT

This is just a short note to let our friends know what's happening. I don't feel much like writing about it now but can't bring myself to tell everyone individually:

The baby is dead.

I've (obviously) cut my trip short, and managed to get home yesterday about 24 hours from when we first had the news.

I'm currently at the hospital with Laura, who is (thank goodness) physically fine so far. Labor has been induced and we're waiting. Laura has been properly medicated and is resting.

I'm upset beyond words. I'm crying terribly as I write this.

Thanks to everyone who has already come forth with support. The well of love shared with us by our family and friends has been deeper than I would have ever imagined. (More the fool me, I guess)

We will be receiving visitors on and off next week. Please call or e-mail before showing up, but we welcome everyone's continued support.

I believe a memorial service will be a week from Sunday. I don't know any details yet, but if you want them please mail me and I'll be sure to let you know when they're available.

People who are uncomfortable around death and grief should feel no pressure to attend, or to visit us this week. We understand that not everyone has the time or resources, physically financially or emotionally, and we really don't want anyone to be uncomfortable. We promise that we won't cross any names off our Christmas card list. (Metaphorically speaking, as we have never managed to mail Christmas cards, even if we talk about it every year.)

We thank everyone for their love and support in this awful, terrible time.

World Travel!

jon@lasser.org — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:26:48 GMT

If you didn't see my twitter this evening, I wrote "Stuck my hand in a hat hoping to pull out a rabbit. Afraid now it might be an angry kangaroo."

I realize that was cryptic and might require some exegesis, as we used to say in philosophy class.

This afternoon, work decided that I'd be a great guy to send to fix some problems we're having in Sydney, Australia.

I'll admit to having done a pinch of lobbying, with the acquiescence of my lovely and tolerant wife, but truth be told I didn't expect it to be successful lobbying, since other more relevant people were perhaps better choices.

Only it turns out they didn't want to do it. So it's me.

And I leave on Sunday -- something else I didn't plan for.

And, "as long as you're in the area," my boss told me, he wanted to send me to some customers in Malaysia on a fact-finding mission and to work on one customer's longstanding performance problem. ("In the area" means, apparently, an eight hour flight away...)

So I'm a little bit freaked out now -- it's a lot of planning and thinking and learning to do on short notice. The Malaysia piece of the trip is still a bit up in the air, as are return dates -- I'm trying to figure out if I should bring my dive gear (and if so, how much of it), and even what else I need to figure out before Sunday.

What a day!

jon@lasser.org — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:23:10 GMT

So, awesomely, my team successfully completed our rescue diver course dives today. Definitely worth taking a day off of work to go diving.

I celebrated by buying spring-straps for my fins. The normal straps have a terrible habit of getting tiny pebbles stuck in them, which makes them difficult or impossible to adjust, and they're tricky to put on. The new straps seem much easier to get on and off, but should hold the fins tightly enough. Laura says that my fin straps have been a thorn in her side, because not only does she need to help me every time, but she then struggles with the straps herself.

On the downside, one of my friends was just laid off from where I work. He's a smart guy, and I'm sure that the cost-savings makes sense for his department, but at the same time I wish they'd found another role for him where he fit. He's an awesome talent that I hate to lose for the company.

I've put off dinner and cooking in order to buy Jerry drinks and console him. (Need to ensure it's a bar with decent food.) I'm a bit surprised by how bummed I am by his misfortune.

But, still, rescue diving completed successfully. Despite having the dream last night where I show up to take the final exam ("French 4") and realize that, as it was the last class of the day, I'd forgotten to go all semester long. And spent two hours trying to match the terms on one side of the page with the descriptions on the other. And then, after the teacher suggests just giving up, having the conversation with her where I explain that, somehow, I failed to go to class all semester, and "it's just like that dream you have where..." I'm a touch surprised that said realization didn't actually bring me any lucidity, but oh well.

I'm not fully rescue-certified yet. Have to finish / re-finish my chapter conclusion test answers, and take the CPR class later this month. But I've done the open-water dives, which was the part I was concerned with. Yay!

Weekend Scorecard

jon@lasser.org — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:58:48 GMT

In the negative column, Friday night, Laura and I splurged on burgers and a milkshake at Lunchbox Laboratories.

In the positive column, the burgers were the most entertaining, and probably the best, I've had in Seattle. (Other candidate for best burger is Cafe Septieme, but I'm not sure if those are still available like they used to be, and they're delicious and with housemade condiments, but very plain.)

In the negative column, this weekend's entertainment cost more than I'd budgeted.

In the positive column, we'll watch the Blu-Ray version of Zodiac enough times that it will pay for itself. Also, we discovered that Scarecrow Video has an awesome selection of Blu-ray films. Especially as we use up our remaining credits at Broadway Video we'll be moving our allegiance to Scarecrow.

In the negative column, Laura had herself a difficult and frustrating weekend through no fault of her own. Silly pregnancy hormones!

In the positive column, she recognized it quickly, and mostly on her own, and was a real trooper dealing with it, and we had an almost uniformly good time with each other anyway.

In the negative column, a work phone call woke me up an hour earlier than I was planning to wake up Sunday.

In the positive column, I didn't have to do anything more than give some advice and wait an hour to discover it was effectively a false alarm.

In the negative column, I didn't write on Sunday, and while I did write on Saturday, I didn't "catch up" my word count from my interrupted writing earlier in the week.

In the positive column, I did submit a piece to a magazine on Sunday. Which is almost as important as actually writing.

In the negative column, didn't see Lino Tagliapietra blowing glass at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, after driving all the way there.

In the positive column, the museum comped us for a future visit, and let us know when he'd be blowing. Also, we did see all of the current exhibits, so we can focus on Lino when he's there.

Also in the positive column, the pizza we made on Saturday night was spectacularly good again. They're almost always very good these days.

However, in the negative column, the cheese we used (real buffalo mozzarella) is extravagantly priced and not even local.

In the positive column, the wild mushroom risotto I made on Sunday night was pretty good.

In that other column, the kale I made to go alongside it was way too bitter and neither of us could eat it.

In the positive column, saw the documentary Helvetica (yes, about the font) on Blu-Ray.

In the negative column, I learned less than I'd hoped from it.

In the positive column, I still enjoyed the movie, and was pleased to see that I had the ability to predict the 'storyline' of the film.

Things in the positive column with nothing corresponding in the negative column:

Watched Zodiac. Decided that it's even better than I remembered.
Cleaned up at the farmer's market, where Skagit River Ranch (one of our favorite people to buy from) had sales on top sirloin steaks and on pork ribs
Made little matchstick pickled carrots in rice vinegar. They're already tasty, but they'll be better by dinner next weekend.
Sunday afternoon BLT sandwiches
Made the Big List of Things to Do by May
Felt R-P (That's Roly-Poly) kicking when I put my hand on Laura's belly

(That last item was best of all.)

Things in the negative column with nothing corresponding in the positive column: None!

Overall, it was a good weekend. If I'd had a little more sleep, I'd feel refreshed and ready to tackle the week; we'll see what this coffee can do.

Week(end) in Review

jon@lasser.org — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:49:59 GMT

The bad news is that my team in the rescue diver class completely botched the rescue on Saturday. I'll be taking time off of work next week to try to do better. Sunday we didn't dive, as it was snowing and all three of us were in wetsuits. Hypothermia is not in my dive plan. (If I had infinite wealth I'd really, really want a drysuit, but even if I felt like I could reasonably spend $1400 on one right now I would rather use that money to pay down the last bit of debt we have or to save it for baby expenses.)

The good news is that issue 1 of The Ne'er-Do-Well arrived. Yes, my fiction is really and truly in print. I received two copies (plus one I need to autograph and send to my dad), and know where the copy I'm not keeping is going. Still, need to get going on that.

The other good news is that the pizza Laura and I made for dinner Saturday after my rescue diver class was probably the best we've ever made. Nothing fancy, just good mozzarella, tasty tomatoes, and fresh basil on top of a regular tomato sauce -- but exceptionally good nonetheless. Sunday we made a mushroom casserole out of The Enchanted Broccoli Forest (one of the Moosewood follow-ons), which was also completely delicious but a whole lot of work. (Washing and chopping two pounds of crimini mushroom caps is something that I'm not very fast at. The rest of the process put together took less work.)

As far as movie-watching goes, we've been on a Criterion Collection kick since they started releasing on Blu-Ray a few weeks ago. I think we plan to buy The Third Man at some point, and we also enjoyed Bottle Rocket and Chungking Express. I wouldn't say I enjoyed The Man Who Fell to Earth, but I was definitely fascinated by it.

This weekend we watched The Last Emperor, which was beautiful and entertaining but I'm not sure that it was especially deep. That said, even the first fifteen minutes of the commentary track were enlightening: the title sequence was created by Maurice Binder, who did the James Bond titles -- after which the sequence looked more like a James Bond opener than it did one for a fancy foreign film! The opening fifteen minutes of commentary on Chungking Express gave some details that explained the film to me in a way that it made sense: I now understand that Wong Kar Wai's relationship with the old, disappearing Hong Kong parallels the cops' relationships with women in the film. That's something I wouldn't have picked up on otherwise. (If I had the same infinite pile of money that let me feel like I could buy a drysuit, I'd probably 'subscribe' to Criterion's Blu-Ray releases.)

Last night we watched Roger Ebert's commentary track on Dark City. Turns out he recorded a new commentary track for the Director's Cut, which is on the same Blu-Ray disc but which I've never watched. I'll have to plan to watch the new version, then the other three commentary tracks at some point soonish.

Pudd'nhead Wilson asks...

jon@lasser.org — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:39:50 GMT

One hundred and more years ago, racists thought that someone was "black" if they had a single drop of black blood in them -- if one of your great-great-great-great grandparents was black and the other 63 of them were white, you were still black. Just one sixty-fourth black blood was definitive.

Today, some racists claim that Barak Obama isn't black because he's half-white.

View Poll: Pudd'nhead Wilson Asks...

Back in the water again...

jon@lasser.org — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:01:39 GMT

Today's going to be my first day back in the water since, oh, August, when viz was miserable. Tomorrow I may dive more.

Next week I take the rescue diver course, with checkout next weekend.

Spent most of this morning prepping and checking my gear. Everything looks good to go -- I did have to change the dive computer battery, hopefully I did the excellent job I tried to do and it doesn't leak and get ruined. (I definitely want a new computer, but I was thinking maybe next year if somehow I fall into a giant puddle of money or something. Even if I did have the cash around collecting dust I think I'd rather just hold onto it right now. Of course, if I don't have any dive computer, that's a little bit different.)

Since August, life's been too busy to dive: Laura's rescue diver course (which meant me not diving then), the initial pregnancy news, moving, a million work trips (you don't believe a million? Okay, only 52 days on the road last year for business), and the holidays. Really last weekend was probably the only time since August that I'd have been able to schedule a dive.

Still, I think that I need to establish a regular monthly dive with some group of people -- it would mean I'd do it, if I had a regular schedule and group. Honestly I'd love to dive twice a month, and the roadblock has been (other than the horrendously busy fall) the organizational effort. I need to work on that this year.

2008 Year-end assessment

jon@lasser.org — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:49:48 GMT

As I noted in my other blog, I'm finally getting a short story published. That's five and a half years from first draft to print -- at that rate, I'll have a book of short stories maybe in time for my eighty-fifth birthday.

Also, in the "long time coming" category, I've finally made back every penny of my advance on Think Unix. That was published eight and a half years ago.

Sadly, I failed to accomplish my one new year's resolution for 2008, which was to find D.B. Cooper. Although early evidence this year suggested that someone else might get ahead of me on this, all those leads proved false, so while I failed to accomplish my objective here, nobody else really did any better.

My objectives for 2009 are pretty simple: stay employed, completely eliminate the last of our household debt including Laura's student loans, stay out of debt, and raise a happy, healthy baby. I don't expect to finish that last one this next year, or to do it without a whole lot of help, but it's what I'm most looking forward to doing.

Christmas Dinner

jon@lasser.org — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 07:22:05 GMT

Wow, everything went more or less as planned. I had a schedule indicating what needed to be done at roughly fifteen minute intervals from 1:30 this afternoon until 6 pm. With a few minor modifications I stuck to the plan, and dinner was served at about 6:05 pm.

Last night we made the butternut squash puree, and hardboiled the eggs for deviled eggs. Originally I was going to make the whole plate of Eggs last night (Mark Bittman says they're fine to serve the next day) but I realized that there was no place in the fridge where I could put a plate full of eggs.

This morning, Laura made the pie crust, and the mince pie. Then I took out the pork loin roast (which had been marinating in the fridge since Sunday or Monday, in honey ginger orange brine) to bring it up to room temperature, prepped the potatoes and the celery root for later boiling and mashing, then made the stuffing for the turkey. (I realized later that I could have prepped the stuffing last night as well.) Next, I put the pork roast in the oven.

At this point, I actually made the deviled eggs, and took out the turkey breast to bring it up to room temperature. I boned it, saved the bone in the freezer for a future soup, and put half the breast back in the freezer as it was clear that weather was keeping away some potential attendees. I butterflied and flattened the other half, then made a roll with the butterflied breast and some of the stuffing, putting the rest of the stuffing in a pan with some chicken broth. (I didn't exactly like any of the turkey breast roll with stuffing recipies, so I made up my own, using my favorite James Beard via Mark Bittman stuffing and instructions from at least three separate turkey breast roll recipes.)

Laura prepared the punch (Captain Radcliffe's punch, from the latest issue of Saveur, which I'd highly recommend and definitely plan on serving again) while I started boiling the celery root and potato cubes. I turned the pork roast over, and put both the turkey and the extra stuffing in the oven.

At this point, guests showed up, so the punch and deviled eggs were served, along with cheese and crackers, some homemade salsa from a guest, and several types of flavored hazelnut.

The pork cooked more quickly than I'd guessed -- I forget that because a pork loin roast is relatively small it cooks quickly, and that heavier pork loin roasts are basically just longer. It wasn't browned the way I like, but I took it out and covered it with foil while the turkey finished.

Next, I drained and mashed the celeriac and potatoes (separately) with milk and butter, and heated up the butternut squash on the stove.

I pulled the stuffing from the oven, turned it up to broil, and browned both the turkey and the pork loin roast. When they were browned, I transferred each meat to a cutting board to rest, making gravy in the low and wide dutch oven I'd roasted the turkey in.

Now, a confession: the gravy wasn't a true pure American reduction gravy. It was basically a French brown sauce: I put some butter in with the turkey drippings, browned a bit of flour in it, and threw in a lot of chicken stock. At the end I put it through a sieve straight into a serving bowl. Easy, pretty, flavorful -- true! But not a gravy, technically.

While I made the gravy, we reheated green bean casserole that another guest brought in the oven, maybe along with something else that needed reheating -- my notes on that point aren't particularly good.

Finally, we carved the pork loin roast and the stuffed turkey, and served everything. We managed to lack paper plates, or other adequate dishes, but somehow made do. Our friend Jer brought over some delicious homemade eggnog, and we added that to the party too.

At the end, Laura warmed the pie in the oven and served everyone that. Later I remembered that I had made coconut macaroons to serve, so I brought those out too.

To summarize:

Hors D'oeuvres
Deviled Eggs
Cheese and Crackers
Chips and Salsa
Captain Radcliffe's Punch

Dinner
Pork loin roast
Turkey breast roll, with stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Stuffing
Mashed celeriac
Green bean casserole
Butternut squash puree

Dessert
Mince Pie
Coconut Macaroons

Last minute...

jon@lasser.org — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 18:06:31 GMT

So I've been remiss in announcing the holiday have-people-over gathering. Laura was mostly handling it.

Anyway, if you're in Seattle, and you're mobile in the weather (or in Ballard), and you'd like to come over, cocktails start at 3 and dinner sometime between 5 and 6.

If you don't know where our new place is, e-mail me or call. And if you don't know how to do either of those things, comment here.

Brain No Worky...

jon@lasser.org — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:15:56 GMT

Well, the good news is that it didn't snow today, and ironheadjane and I had our thrice-scheduled (and long-before-that-talked-about-vaguely) dinner with batboymaxx and blowtorch_betty at Tavolata. The food was lovely, and the company was charming. A good time was had by all, it seems. (Though I'm always nervous that people are just being polite and pretending to have a good time...)

The bad news is that, other than dinner, today was a total loss. I had lots of trouble sleeping last night I blame 3pm Americano for that, plus ironheadjane's recent not-unexpected sleep troubles, plus just random luck, so I had fewer than four hours sleep overall, and not two hours consecutive sleep. (Earlier today I actually thought I had less than two hours sleep total, which is obviously not quite right and more evidence of how tired I am.)

The other good news is that I'm managing to write fairly regularly -- about two hundred fifty words a morning. Actually, my minimum per morning is 250 words, but it hasn't worked out since the middle of last week but one day, yet I'm still averaging more than my minimum. There's a lot of work between writing a lot and having finished or publishable pieces, but I'm trying to close that gap in other ways -- and writing regularly is a necessary-but-not-sufficient first step. (And more news on that soon, too, but I'm super-superstitious and don't want to say anything until it's too late not to say anything.) It's a bit unfortunate that the only time I can find is between six and seven in the morning, but it's far better than nothing.

I was going to post additional bad news, to even stuff out, but I can't think of any. That's a good thing too, which throws off the good news / bad news balance further still. If those were matter and antimatter, this starship wouldn't be flying anywhere.

Right, probably time to pass out now.

Announcement: I've been busy lately...

jon@lasser.org — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:10:24 GMT

... and had a lot on my mind. Please see below:

Due date is presently estimated at mid-late May.

Just a quick post...

jon@lasser.org — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:02:15 GMT

... to say that I'm finally back in town -- I got told on Friday, October 24th that come Monday, October 27th I would be in Baltimore for two weeks, until yesterday, November 9th. But I'm back now.

And boxes are starting to unpack, and there's some room to walk in now, in some places.

And it's my birthday, and I made pasta sauce from scratch for dinner. Not the most elaborate thing I cook, but it's nice to have home cooking for a change, after spending something like three of the last four weeks on the road.

Tomorrow I go back to work -- a new bus line, to the same building, but a new cube. Kind of strange.

All this week, more unpacking, and stuff. Next weekend, cleaning the old place, unpacking the new place some more.

Glad to be home, and to have this opportunity to begin to settle in, but boy am I exhausted!

Baltimore Peeps / Seattle Peeps

jon@lasser.org — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:23:43 GMT

Baltimore peeps:

I'm going to be in Westminster, MD for about two weeks -- from this Monday, the 27th, through November 9th.

I'll actually be staying in Owings Mills... and I'd like to make it down to Baltimore to see folks, but I can't really be far from Westminster for too long too often.

Anyone from Baltimore wanna hang out? Comment here or e-mail me. Bonus points if you want to come up and hang out in the vast nothing that is Owings Mills.

Seattle peeps:

Getting down to the wire on the move thing, and still no offers of assistance with the last dregs of packing. It's 90% kitchen and clothing, which is easy but time-consuming, and a little bit of help would be very appreciated. Between being out of town for work this past week, and being out of town for work for the next two weeks, I've left Laura in the position of being entirely overwhelmed... and a little help on Saturday would go a long way toward making things work.

Any takers? Food and/or alcohol is available for folks who can help... really, there's not a lot to do, as these things go, and I'll spring for a nice dinner if a couple of people show up. (If a lot of people show up, it's beer and pizza, but that doesn't seem likely at this point...)

Help Us Pack / Moral Support

jon@lasser.org — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:48:18 GMT

If you're around Saturday, and want to help Laura and me finish the dregs of our packing, we could certainly use the help and/or moral support. I was out of town three days this past week, somewhat last-minute, and so didn't get to help as much as we had planned.

Food will be provided, if people show. We'll be at it pretty much all day... comment or send mail if you're available to help out.

Too Long Since an Update

jon@lasser.org — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:30:18 GMT

It's not that I haven't been posting because nothing's happening; I haven't been posting because too much has been happening.

At work, they haven't backfilled my old position yet, so I'm still doing a not-insubstantial portion of that job while also working on my new job. Which alone might be more than one person can reasonably handle, but it's hard to tell.

Last weekend ironheadjane and I went to New York for my sister's wedding, which was lovely. Next weekend, we move. To Ballard. Please comment or e-mail if you need our new address. This weekend we're packing, mostly.

Next week I spend three days in New York for work, for a three hour meeting. (It's too late in the day to fly back that night, and too early in the day to fly out that morning -- scheduled by a real expert!) The customer's probably going to yell a lot about an outage that occurred while I was out of town. It's kind of interesting when your boss's boss stops by your desk and says you're never allowed to take vacation again, and there's a kernel of truth in that.

Monday, Laura and I will go see The Polymath, which bears the long but helpful subtitle, "Or The Life And Opinions of Samuel R Delany, Gentleman" which still doesn't cover the fact that he's an incredible science fiction author and one of my personal heroes. Though I would be sort of disturbed if some documentary film mentioned that the subject was a personal hero of mine.

There's more to say -- but all in good time. If I get any time.