A Smattering of Things

Hi All! It's been a couple weeks, but the update is pretty simple:

• Another interview
• Still no job
• 3 days down the shore with Mom and the dogs

I don't really want to elaborate on the first two. As for the last one, the time down the shore was okay, except that we've been working on cleaning out the house (it is my grandma's, but she doesn't live there anymore) and she is a pack rat and I have to say that it borders on a sickness. Like there is not much difference between her and the people you see on those crazy pack rat clean house shows, except that all of her mess is shoved into closets and drawers and corners because she likes the rest of the place to look perfect. You would not believe how small the apartment is, and yet how many bags of trash ended up on the curb. How did she fit it all in there?? I'm sure I don't know.

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My newest cooking project is poached eggs. This site in my blog feed reminded me of them, and at the time, my friend Alison was visiting for the weekend. We decided to make them the next day. Her method did not match SK's method, but they came out great, just the same. This morning I decided to make them on my own. I tried to do one with the whirlpool, and one without the whirlpool (which is how Al does them). I have to say, maybe my twister wasn't tight enough, but all the spinning water did was send the whites off in shreds around the pot. The whole thing eventually sort of came together, but I think one I just dropped into the almost-simmering pot turned out better. Next I will try the Julia Child method of dropping the still-shelled egg into the water for 10-20 seconds before breaking it into the water. I'll let you know.

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Another thing Alison and I did during her visit (what, you didn't think I held her hostage so she could cook for me, did you?) was see the new Batman movie at the IMAX theater. I have to say, the movie was great, I think, but I'm not entirely sure because I spent most of the time massaging the kink out of my neck and struggling to look around and figure out how what was happening on the left side of the screen related to was happening on the right. And behind me. It really was just too big. I don't know how the people in the back row fared-- it's possible that they were at an angle and distance that gave them a full enough view to be able to follow along and feel like they were in the movie, but we were somewhere in the middle. Ass-kicking scenes were especially hard to follow. The best part of the experience (and the reason I remember IMAX being cool) were the Flying-Over-Gotham scenes. A couple times it felt like I was about to fall off the edge of a building, only to glide across the street and through a skyscraper window. That part was pretty cool. I'd like to see it again in a regular theater... or even just in my own living room.

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I finally completed Week 1 of Couch-to-5k. It took me two weeks because the first week I did it left me pretty much feeling like I was either going to collapse into a cramped up ball or pass out from hyperventilation. There were only 8 one-minute running intervals during of 25 minutes of movement, but I could only do three of them the first time I went out. The second time I went I did 6, and I was finally able to do all 8 the third time I went. I decided to do a second week because I didn't feel like I was ready to move on.

Last night I made a new playlist on audacity for Week 2 with chimes at the new intervals. I definitely should have listened through it first. The first song sounded okay, but I forgot to adjust the volume of the chime, so I almost missed the first one. Then the second song came on and I don't know how it happened, but it was playing super super fast and so it sounded like I was listening to the Chipmunks. I thought I'd be able to keep going and not let it bother me, but just, No. I ended up walking the whole thing instead, and I was a little frustrated to realize that I got home at approximately the same time I would have if I ran. I suppose once I gain the endurance to actually keep running for distances, I can work on speed.

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It poured yesterday from start to finish, and Alex and I decided to celebrate the drink for our much dehydrated lawn by watching movies. All day. Four of them. In a row.

We started with Dan in Real Life. Then 27 Dresses. Then Strange Wilderness. Then Mr. Woodcock. Alex actually likes romantic comedies, especially anything with Hugh Grant really only likes movies with guns and/or fart jokes, but he watches romantic comedies for my sake, because I'm a girl. It was totally his my idea to watch the romantic comedies first, to get them out of the way, of course, and then move on to the stupid ones. For the record, Strange Wilderness was just as awful as you'd expect.