Meat CSA?

So, I absolutely LOVE my CSA (http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com). It encourages me to eat vegetables which I would never do on my own, the produce is yummy, and I like to support local farmers.

Does anyone know if there is something similar in southern California for meat and dairy? Like a meat CSA? I'm going to google it up, of course, but if anyone knows something firsthand, do let me know!

Crawfish and Fun

It'd been a rough time for me in terms of sudden and terrible vertigo that plagued me for most of the work week. This happened to me once before about 2 years ago, and it's probably just a viral inner ear infection or something, but I was out flat for most of the week.

Today it was mild enough that it didn't interfere much with our adventure to the Long Beach Crawfish Festival! This was my second year for the festival, and it was tasty as ever with good music and an amiable crowd. I didn't actually partake in the crawfish feast this year (those little crustaceans are too much work for the sustenance they provide), but I did hit up the booths for some jambalaya and bratwurst.

We also waited in the longest line ever for beignets, but to their credit, they were pretty tasty.

Hoping for a reprise of last year's festivities, we walked over to the nearby arcade only to find it had been shut down. How depressing! No worries, though, for we all ventured over to Josue's place to partake in some good old fashioned 4 player split screen Halo 1.

It was a blast! For a bit there I was back in my junior year of undergrad, in Rodes 2, pistol sniping (and regular sniping) an jaunting about Hang 'em High and Blood Gulch and running my Halo mouth just like old times. That game holds up incredibly well :)

It would seem that most shooters these days don't support 4 player split screen, often because of the decrease in visual quality (we can't have poor visual quality on our beautiful next gen games! It would be SCANDALOUS. I was not a fan of the original Goldeneye, but kudos to them for supporting it) or because it's just not possible given how much the game squeezes the console. What was so common in the past has become rare in the hopes that "everyone plays online now."

This, in my opinion, is a damned shame.

In addition to my platformer that uses Rock Band peripherals, the next game on the list of "Lisa's To-Do Indie Game" list will be the ugliest freakin shooter known to man, made explicitly for the 4 player split screen experience.

But! Enough sighing for the lost past. There is WoWing to do and StarCraft to squeeze in at lunchtime and board games to play and D&D sessions to be run and Indie Picks of the Week to play through. Adventure!

Out and About

I feel like my life as of late has been rich and full, like a giant chocolate cake. The days and nights outside of work have been filling up with new experiences and adventures and time spent with various friends in varied circles.

Today, Josh, Nick, Nathan, Ben and I set out to the Renegade Craft Fair, which was fantastic. There was a huge variety of local and touring craftsfolk selling their wares.

One interesting thing about it was that every booth was incredibly unique in its ware, be it the style or the craft itself or some clever idea or twist. However, when you have a huge collection of things and every one is unique, it creates a weird, noisy effect that's hard to digest. You can't really easy group or categorize things, and my overall impression of the festival was "loud," but not in terms of audio.

There was great stuff, though! I helped myself to a crafted pocketwatch, a wallet made from photography, and a few homemade scented candles.

Pho was had for lunch and we set out for home and a brief nap. Afterwards, Rob, Carlos, and Carren came over to my place for a last minute pool party, grillin, and games. It's crazy that Carlos has been here for as long as he has and I've only gotten together with him but one other time!

We played The Great Dalmuti, Monty Python Fluxx*, and Give Me the Brain, and generally caught up and played about. When everyone departed, Nick and I closed off the evening by taking Mr. Davis on a late-night walk.

For the moment I'm content to chillax here and blog on the couch with a Nick at my feet and a DJ Hero-ing Nathan at my side. Socializing and adventures are all fun and healthy, but I feel like tomorrow is going to be the laziest of days.

*Note, the Monty Python theming still didn't help Fluxx win my heart. It's just that the game has no pacing whatsoever by its very nature. I know some people love it, but I don't think I ever will.

Lavender leaves?

Hey Internet. So, I've started taking clippings from my herb garden to dry, and I'm wondering what I can do with my lavender. It's a young plant, so it probably won't bloom until next year, but the leaves smell wonderful!

When I look up uses for lavender (culinary or otherwise), almost all of them involve using the buds or dried blossoms. What about uses for the leaves? Anyone know any good ones?

Crawfish and other fun

Today was a fantastically social day, by my standards, seeing as I normally spend my weekends napping. Rob and I and some others were commenting about how the older ETC alums know very little of the current first-years (or rising second-years at this point), so we decided to organize a brunch for the LA alums and students who were interning in the city this summer.

A healthy crowd turned up, and a fun time was had by all mingling and chatting and such. I got a really tasty drink, which was essentially water infused with lemons, oranges, and cucumbers, with a large amount of each floating about in it. It was cheap and refreshing, and I'd like to attempt making some myself at some point.

After the ETC Brunch, Ben and I headed south for the Long Beach Crawfish Festival, which is supposedly the largest festival of its kind out of New Orleans. The buzz had been spread around Insomniac about the event, and we were all for it. I'm certainly glad I went, for the crawfish were DELICIOUS. They scooped up a giant pile of steamed crawfish onto my platter, along with some red potatoes and corn, and it was all seasoned very well. I also picked up a plate of jambalaya from another booth, and it too was fantastically made.

We sat down in the shade with a multitude of other people and listened to some great live Cajun music, including one band featuring a washboard played with spoons. Fantastic! The atmosphere was great all around, as there were tons of people decked out in fancy hats, dresses, and parasols (much to my delight, as I was carrying my own). Everyone was having a great time, and I couldn't help but snap up some photos of people dancing and enjoying themselves.

After our crawfish feast, we met up with Josue, who lives in the area, along with his wife and friend, and went to an arcade. Normally I am not one to pass up on playing arcade games, but today I was content to watch Josue and his amazing skills at the old school Star Wars game, as well as some crazy sword game on which he got the high score for the day (some other girl was doing quite well playing after us, and Josue eyed her intently, thinking he may have to defend his sword game title, but she only got 2nd place. Fortunate enough, as we may have been there all day, otherwise).

We parted ways at last and Ben and I returned to Burbank, where I was quick to catch a nap upon arriving home. Today was a delicious adventure, for sure. I think I'm going to have to make a pot of shrimp creole before too long.

San Francisco wrap-up

Ugh, I have been sick like a dog all week with post-convention funk. I think I'm finally killing it, though.

So, GDC was fun times for sure, but several of us stayed an extra day over the weekend to hang out around San Francisco. Andy, Edmundo and I stayed with M.E. We got up the next morning and headed for Chinatown to meet Carlos, Carren, and Carren's sister. The goal was dim sum, but no no, not just ANY dim sum.

You see, when the crew went on their ETC West Coast trip two years ago, they went to a specific dim sum place while in San Francisco. They were all determined to find the same place again, but had no idea what the name of the restaurant was, and nothing but fragmented memories about where exactly it was located.

Between looking up dim sum places and seeing if they looked familiar on Google Street View, looking at photos from their West Coast Trip to see if any pictures contained street signs in the background, and trying to combine their memories ("I remember it was at the crest of a hill!" "I think we were parallel to the Transamerica Tower!" and no less than a dozen "THIS LOOKS FAMILIAR!"), we walked up and down nearly every block in all of Chinatown and STILL didn't find the place.

I suggested that perhaps it were a magical place, and you could only find it if you'd never been there before. All the same, I wasn't about to go wandering around by myself to test the theory.

Nevertheless, there is no shortage of good dim sum in Chinatown in San Francisco, so we still had a DELICIOUS lunch!

The other big highlight of the day was going to see the Exploratorium. I had heard many sing the praises of this science museum, and was anxious to check it out for myself. The songs of praise are true! It is, by far, the best science museum I have ever been to. All of the exhibits are 95% interaction and only 5% text (The Louisville Science Center's newest installations could learn from this place for sure) and the interactions were significant and engaging (not just "press this button").

Of course we didn't see it all, and I really wanted to check out the Touchdome, but it was sold out for the day. This is fine, for it will give me an excuse to go back to San Francisco at some point so I can finishing exploring the museum. HEY COLIN!! Can I come visit you sometime so we can go to the Exploratorium? :D

Anyway, it was lovely time spent in San Francisco. (it was actually sunny for the whole week! Not a cloud in the sky! MADNESS!!)

Renewed

So, as a follow-up to my WoW respec worry post, I am feeling much better about being a prot warrior. Will, Scott and I have run Botanica and Arcatraz with some pick-ups, and both went REALLY well.

I also took charge of the marking, and felt I did a rather good job of that. The trick to all this, I think, is for me to research ahead of time, and then give the group as much of a feeling that I know what I'm doing as possible. Though Scott will tell you that I was double-checking everything with him almost constantly :)

Either way, I feel much less stressed about holding aggro. According to Will, we were in Botanica with two top-tier DPSers and I held aggro just fine. Hooray!

Of course, it also helps to have very clever groupmates. We've been lucky that our pick-ups have been really on top of things. Perhaps Heroics are not so far out of sight afterall!

In other news: Pink Door, Jersey Mike's, and Gumbo-a-go-go have been checked off the Food Tour list.

NYC part 2

Yesterday was rainy and cold, so potential zoo plans were cancelled. We did make it to the Met, which is good since it's one of those places I felt I should go visit eventually. First, though, we had hot dogs at Gray's Papaya, and I must say they were the most delicious hot dogs I'd ever had. I am not a big hot dog person, either, and maybe only eat them once in a blue moon. I am ruined on hot dogs!

Anyway, the Met: we focused on European Painting, Ancient Near Eastern art, and the arms and armory section. They had this unfinished Durer painting that was AMAZING. I love it when I get to see process stuff, especially from people who are badasses. Anyway, I found it very interesting that he completely finished the drapery and hair on the portrait (like, down to the crazy little individual strands of hair highlight) before touching the hands and face. The hands and face had a few places of glaze over them, but for the most part you could totally see his ridiculously detailed Albrecht Durer style preparatory sketch. I found it interesting that he appeared to be starting to paint the lips on the face before anything else. It was super cool, and it made the whole trip to the Met worthwhile.

After our museum trip and an obligatory "Lisa is on vacation" nap, we went down to Little Korea for dinner. I met back up with Carleton, and I got to meet up with Yale too! Yay Yale! We ate at this dumpling place that was DELICIOUS, and wandered about a Korean market store afterwards. We were waiting for Ian to get done with work so he could come join us too. We tried a Korean icecream place, but it was not my style. It was more of slightly tart yogurt with fruit toppings mixed on. Fine in its own right, but not satisfying to my desire for icecream.

When Ian showed up (yay Ian!) we went to Lindy's for cheesecake, and spent a good part of the evening sitting and chatting. I am glad my two sets of friends got along, that's something I always worry about a little when friends collide.

Anyway, it was fantastic to see Ian and Yale, and it was a lovely evening of New York galavanting. Coming home tomorrow!

Birthday Times!

Today is my birthday, and for some reason I am super excited about it! Or it might be that I am just super excited about life in general, and the fact that it's my birthday is incidental.

Woo 25!! This year is the big move out of the 18-24 age demographic, so farewell college kiddery, hello twenty-somethings!

Tonight I am having dinner with my family at my brothers' and tomorrow is the Celebratory Early February Birthday Chili Party.

So, if you are in Louisville and free tomorrow, please stop by my place for chili! Food around 3, but accepting callers as early as noon. Yay!

Yaay!

Yaaaay!

Pie!

Tonight I went to Long Wharf's "Season Kick-off" cookout. It was pretty fun, I got to mingle and get to know my co-workers a little better. There was a pie contest (not pie-eating, just who makes the awesomest pie).

I also met Dr. McAllister's long lost twin, by my theories. Not only does he LOOK just like M.C. Allister, but he also has that constant smile that never ever ever goes away. His voice is different, and he's an English/Classics sort of person instead of a Mathy sort, but otherwise, it's definatley his long lost twin. Very bizarre.

Anyway, been making some new artstuffs. Playing with pastels. All fun and good.

Next week is the last week before the late-night pre-tech days at work begin, so we'll see how well I like my job after that ;)

EDIT: Brendan is my hero

Mizunch

Why are packaged foods so much less appetizing when they're smashed? I mean, there's really nothing wrong with them, they're still in their sanitary little plastic wrapping, and at most suffer from some mild pre-mastication. But when I pulled the squished oatmeal pie out of the bottom of my backpack I instinctively grimaced with an "Ewww, yuck."

Of course, after some reflection, I went ahead and ate it, and it was still as tasty as it would have been without my calculus book sitting on top of it for most of the day. And yet, I've also been known to eat potato chips that had fallen on the floor of the glass studio, or chase a kiwi down a flight or two of stairs before I caught up with it to eat it.

It could just be me.

Meanwhile, plasma grenades suck.
http://storage.wertle.com/albums/lj/halo3-02.gif

Special thanks to Brendan for being a walking, talking onomatopoeia thesaurus