Category — ODDS + ENDS

After months of work, procrastination, more work, more procrastination, and so on and so forth, I’m excited to share a shiny new design for this site! The site was designed by the magnificent Arin Fishkin, and the custom suitcase-filled-with-meat illustration is the handiwork of the incredible Xenos Mesa. Hopefully it’s easier to read and navigate, and prettier to look at. If you notice any bugs or glaring flaws, please let me know – just like having green things in your teeth or toilet paper on your shoe, these are the things you really really do want someone to tell you about.

[Read more →]

It’s not 100% done. But it’s close enough! Last night it was christened with a Thomas Keller short ribs recipe. Mmmmm. I’ve already boiled something over and splashed red wine on everything–it can’t be perfect and pristine forever, or apparently in my case, even for a day. In other words, we are loving it!

[Read more →]

The past two weeks, renovations have seemed slow, due to the fact of the insanely irritating process of sanding and varnishing of the hardwood floors throughout the entire house, completed in a total of three phases. Sure, they look great, NOW (except the GIANT scratches incurred when they moved the Galaga arcade game) but we had to move furniture around what seemed like every day, and move out for about a week.

The SHOCK! The HORROR! …of staying with my parents and their insanely comfortable and well-stocked in-law apartment, their freshly brewed coffee, their breakfasts of Swedish pancakes and crispy bacon each morning! It was, as you can probably tell, absolutely terrible. Oh wait. I meant, WONDERFUL. But all great things must come to an end so we are back at home inhaling toxic fumes from all the paint and varnish, waiting for something new to happen.

OK So there are appliances hanging out everywhere, but very few of them are actually installed. Small victory: a new fridge.(FINALLY a deli drawer large enough for all my salamis!)

[Read more →]

Exciting things are afoot in the world of kitchen remodeling. Cabinets are in… it’s kind of almost maybe a kitchen!

[Read more →]

Last time we checked in the kitchen looked like this. Now here we are, just two weeks later, and I am pretty impressed with how much has happened since then.

First there was the electrical work, plumbing, insulation, and inspections…

[Read more →]

What the hell is going on in this Japanese commercial and why should it make me want to eat chips?!?!

This is what the kitchen formerly known as my kitchen currently looks like.

[Read more →]

Apparently, marshmallow peeps have become their very own art medium. Here is an exhaustive list of peeps-related weblinks, which includes things like porno peeps, how to make your own peeps (why?!), the best way to use peeps as fishing bait, peeps performing scenes from Shakespeare, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings (er, Lord of the Peeps), and much, much more.

[Read more →]

So! I have been a rather neglectful blogger of late, and I wish to atone and be re-born, like a phoenix. You know, that bird  who hangs  out with Dumbledore. It’s true, a mythical dead bird on fire is what I aspire to. The funny thing is I have BRILLIANT (I tell you frickin’ crazy brilliant!) ideas for this blog all the time. The pictures, the stories, the witticisms, the recipes, they dance in my head and pause on my lips. But then, I sit at the laptop and I’m like, oh shoot, did they just put Season 1 of “The O.C.” on Hulu yesterday? And the rest is just… dead bird. No fire. No ashes. No rising. Just, you know, reliving the good years with Ryan and Summer, and, god, after all this time I still hate Marissa! The show was SO much better when Tate Donovan was on. But I digress.

[Read more →]

My friend Michelle from the salty site Thursday Night Smackdown (she curses like a stevedore!) is having an ugly potholder contest. When I first read about the contest, I thought immediately of my cheetah mitt, but someone else said they submitted a mitt from a prison and I didn’t think it can compete with a prison mitt. But then I really looked at it closely. It’s extremely ugly. I always think of it as cheetah print, but in fact there are multiple cheetah heads on it. The part where you put your thumb is a disembodied cheetah head. Right under that, there are just some perpendicular whiskers and a nose that’s not on a face. It’s pretty creepy.

[Read more →]