"O Oysters come and walk with us!"

So one of my goals for the new year (as I don't make "resolutions" per se) is to spend more time with friends. Another goal is to try new things. Last night, I was able to do both when I went out to The Independent in Union Square with PunkRockMom and the Niblet, and we all tried oysters on the half shell.

Even though I grew up in a family of oyster eaters, I cannot recall previously eating them. So when I saw that they had Connecticut bluepoint oysters as a special on the menu, I boldly ordered up some to try and persuaded PRM and N to join me. Shortly after I placed the order, I had a moment of doubt and considered canceling it.

When they were served, on ice with cocktail sauce and lemon, I put aside that squeamish feeling as I realized that it was too late to back out on this now. So I sucked up my courage and sucked down those oysters. And they were surprisingly good. They definitely weren't "fishy", which is what I was expecting. My mom says that they taste like the sea; I can see that, even though I added both lemon and cocktail sauce before my tasting. One thing that I didn't care for is the sand. There definitely was some grit in there.

N took his time before trying his, and I don't think that he will have another oyster anytime soon. I told him that I was impressed because I was having my first oyster at the same time he was and I am 25 years older than he is. He's a brave little trooper, even if he was making faces the whole time. :)

Clean plates all around!


Next up: steamers!

"Traveling to new and exotic locations... like Milwaukee"*

My passport was going to expire in March so, just before Christmas, I had new photos taken and sent off my renewal application to the U.S. State Department. It was kind of hard for me to do because I had to send my current passport off with the application.

Even though it was gone for a only couple of weeks (despite the holidays - well done, Passport Office!), not having my passport was an uncomfortable experience. It actually made me anxious to give up my passport, even though I knew that I would be getting a new one in its place. What if I wanted to jet off to the Caribbean on a whim? Or the Riviera? Or even just drive up to Montreal for a weekend? I wouldn't be able to! It isn't like I actually do go gallivanting off to another country on a whim, but having one's passport allows for the opportunity of doing so. Freedom to travel is one of those amazing things that you can take for granted until your ability to do so is effected.

Fortunately, I received my updated passport in the mail last week, and my old passport was returned the following day. That old passport (my first) is something I plan to hold on to; I put it in with the photo albums of the wonderful trips I took using it. And I plan to start filling up the new one with stamps from visits to new places this fall!

*[Can you name the film from which the quote used as the title of this entry comes? Comments are love.] ETA: Give up? While You Were Sleeping

Six things that are making me smile

I haven't done this in a while. These are little things that are making life fun right about now.

New little blue iPod nano that I won in a raffle at work. I had been thinking about upgrading to one of the new nanos and couldn't believe my good fortune when I won it!! One of my favorite phrases in the English language is "for free".

Cocktails made with St. Germain: "made from the elderflower, picked in the Alps". This stuff is just SO amazingly good; shout out to JR for introducing me.

Avocados from Mexico. Don't be fooled by the ones from Chile; they aren't as good as the ones from our North American neighbors to the south. This fact was pointed out to me by MEM, and she is right. Mexico, 1; Chile, 0 in the World Cup of Vegetables.

"Arrested Development" reruns on the Independent Film Channel. Yes, I am wicked late to jump on this bandwagon, but this show is seriously hysterical, and better late than never, right? I suppose this means that I need to start watching "30 Rock" now, too?

"Today in the Past" podcast with John Hodgman. If you aren't getting this, you should be. It is just a short silly, little thing every day, but it usually prompts a giggle. I love John as the PC in those Mac computer commercials and as the dad in Coraline.

The mantle over my fireplace, decorated for the winter. Part of this is that it looks pretty, and part of it is that I spent so little to get it to look like this. Bless after Christmas sales.

Happy Twelfth Night

May you find the baby in your King cake!

"Health, love and peace be all here in this place
By your leave we shall sing, concerning our King

Our King is well dressed in silks of the best
In ribbons so rare no king can compare

We have travelled many miles over hedges and stiles
In search of our King unto you we bring.

We have powder and shot to conquer the lot
We have cannon and ball to conquer them all.

Old Christmas is past, twelve tide is the last
And we bid you adieu, great joy to the new."

The King, traditional English song
Twelfth Night,The King Drinks by David Teniers the Younger

Science Fiction, Double Feature

Here is some major television fandom babbling. You have been warned.

So this week, two science fiction television shows that I have been watching faithfully finished for me: one because the lead actor has left the show and his part has been recast and the other because the show came to a conclusion. These two shows are "Doctor Who" and "Battlestar Gallactica". It feels funny knowing that I won't have either of these to look forward to any more. (Although that is not completely true with "Doctor Who", the show will continue, just with a new cast and production team.)

I wasn't initially interested in watching "Doctor Who". Being an Anglophile, I was familiar with the premise of the show, but I never saw it growing up. I had been talking to Henry Jenkins at a work event, and "Doctor Who" came up in the course of conversation. I asked him at that time about the recasting of the Doctor because I was disappointed that Christopher Eccleston wasn't staying on and that actually made me concerned that the show was crap. (The 1st series had just completed in the UK, and HJ had seen it.) He told me the show was really good, but he didn't know much about the new person playing the Doctor. And after I went home, I forgot about it. (I was tired.)

A year or so later, I was home, killing time waiting to go to an appointment, when I happened to catch a SciFi Channel "Doctor Who" marathon. I turned it on in the middle of "Bad Wolf" and, by the time I had to leave after the start of "School Reunion", I knew that I needed to rent this show from Netflix. (When I got back home it was in time to see the second half of "Doomsday" and, even though I had barely met these characters, I cried.) They had just started to run series 3 on Sci Fi, and I was starting over at the beginning, but I caught up enough in time to be current in time for series 4, which was awesome/heartbreaking/wonderful/frustrating.

Even though I started watching Doctor Who during the Ninth Doctor's tenure, Ten was the one who really got me hooked. David Tennant's final episode as the Tenth Doctor aired in Britain on Friday and in the US on Saturday. While I will continue to watch the show with the Eleventh and subsequent Doctors, I think that it will be really hard to recapture the same affection that I have for the character as played by David Tennant. (But I am open to trying.)

It is really because of "Doctor Who" that I started watching "Battlestar Gallactica", which was in a time slot shortly after DW Fridays on SciFi. I had watched the original show as a kid and loved it and was not happy when I heard about the show's reboot. Because of the scheduling, I ended up catching some of the episodes of the final season of the new show and got hooked in two episodes. So, yet again, I filled my Netflix queue with BSG from the beginning and have gone from a naysayer to a huge fan.

BSG is the show I tell my friends who are not interested in science fiction to watch because it really is about people dealing with a world at war that just so happens to be set in space. (Aliens need not apply.) Ethics, love, religion, and politics are all issues the show touches upon in a thoughtful manner. Plus, it has some really strong women characters, which is a welcome change from the original show. (I love Starbuck; I can't believe I ever was against the character being played by a woman.) On Saturday night, I saw the final episode of the show, "The Plan", which was released first on dvd and is going to air sometime in the near future. A prequel caled "Caprica" is going to air too, but, like with Doctor Who, without the actors and characters that I love, it isn't going to be the same sort of experience.

In the end, I guess that I am just glad that I found these shows; with so much crap on television, I could have easily overlooked them. It gives me hope that there will continue to be great shows on television, even if you do have to do a little bit of hunting, or have really good luck, to find them.

City scene

Newbury Street just before 9am on Saturday, January 2, 2010. I was downtown to get my hair cut, and it was so beautiful and quiet that I had to take some pictures. I am glad that I had my little camera in my purse! One of my goals for 2010 (I don't do resolutions) is to take more pictures.

Melty goodness?

First of life's little learning lessons of the year:

When bringing a Carvel cake to a holiday gathering, it is a good idea to put it in the trunk of the car rather than on the floor in the back seat. Especially when you have the heat on in the car. Whoops!



Fortunately, it was still pretty tasty.