Tinypliny's Journal
My Podcast Link
01/01/2009 14:16 #47240
The New Year Brunch 2009Category: eating in
Resolution No. 1: Cook more interesting stuff. Check.
01/01/2009 12:06 #47239
The party and some thoughts...Category: e:strip
I had a wonderful time at the party yesterday. Thanks (e:Paul), (e:Matthew) and (e:Terry) for hosting it! It was a very fun way to start a new year. Yes, I missed the ball drop and on hindsight, it was for a very fashionably late reason - I was "building" a proper and fitting thanks to (e:mike) for his really thoughful handmade card. I think it was completely worth missing the ball drop for. :)
I got to meet and talk to a number of familiar (e:peeps) I have only known virtually. (e:leetee), (e:theli), (e:Maureen), (e:iriesara), (e:ladycroft), Rory (not an official (e:) yet!) and (e:lilho), I was delighted to meet you all! Hope to see you all sometime soon - hopefully before this year flies by. I also loved meeting and "gracing-the-staircase" with Malibu! You are awesomely gorgeous and the best part is, I think you know it. :^D
I was thinking back to something (e:iriesara) said to me yesterday night. I think you were right in saying that there is always time for a nookie, but what if there is no inclination at all? What if, its not just a (really quite non-existent) excuse for lack of time but a total lack of interest in virtually all "available" people I meet? After all, we do know pretty well my rather unhealthy obsession with 70s moustaches and how rare they usually are. ;-) Somehow, I think "nookies" stopped being a priority for me after I turned 22. Associated and complete disinterest in boyfriends followed soon after. It might be hard to comprehend but I really love my uncomplicated, lazy, easy and unfettered single life. I have no one to be guilty for, no one to please, no one to be worried about, no one to fret about, no wasted mindspace of annoyance and no drama. Things are incredibily straightforward and I have no regrets. So don't feel sad for me because I really love it -- nookie-absence and all.
(e:terry), I just emailed (e:paul). I am including (e:paul) as an immediate poking associate. Please follow-up if you are interested. Time is fast running out and deadlines are closing as I write this. It's time to make a decision and very soon.
(e:theli), I had fun thinking about the way we communicate and I think you had some excellent points about the evolution of communication. It is surely possible that at some point in the future, the most efficient forms of communication may not necessarily be the ones that immediately stand out as tomes of erudition and deliberation. I was just being reactionary and defending emails against cellphones - mainly because I hate toting a cellphone around.
(e:james), we need some more ghoul talk around here! This is all getting a bit too animated and alive for comfort. Dissenters need to be punished. :)
I got to meet and talk to a number of familiar (e:peeps) I have only known virtually. (e:leetee), (e:theli), (e:Maureen), (e:iriesara), (e:ladycroft), Rory (not an official (e:) yet!) and (e:lilho), I was delighted to meet you all! Hope to see you all sometime soon - hopefully before this year flies by. I also loved meeting and "gracing-the-staircase" with Malibu! You are awesomely gorgeous and the best part is, I think you know it. :^D
I was thinking back to something (e:iriesara) said to me yesterday night. I think you were right in saying that there is always time for a nookie, but what if there is no inclination at all? What if, its not just a (really quite non-existent) excuse for lack of time but a total lack of interest in virtually all "available" people I meet? After all, we do know pretty well my rather unhealthy obsession with 70s moustaches and how rare they usually are. ;-) Somehow, I think "nookies" stopped being a priority for me after I turned 22. Associated and complete disinterest in boyfriends followed soon after. It might be hard to comprehend but I really love my uncomplicated, lazy, easy and unfettered single life. I have no one to be guilty for, no one to please, no one to be worried about, no one to fret about, no wasted mindspace of annoyance and no drama. Things are incredibily straightforward and I have no regrets. So don't feel sad for me because I really love it -- nookie-absence and all.
(e:terry), I just emailed (e:paul). I am including (e:paul) as an immediate poking associate. Please follow-up if you are interested. Time is fast running out and deadlines are closing as I write this. It's time to make a decision and very soon.
(e:theli), I had fun thinking about the way we communicate and I think you had some excellent points about the evolution of communication. It is surely possible that at some point in the future, the most efficient forms of communication may not necessarily be the ones that immediately stand out as tomes of erudition and deliberation. I was just being reactionary and defending emails against cellphones - mainly because I hate toting a cellphone around.
(e:james), we need some more ghoul talk around here! This is all getting a bit too animated and alive for comfort. Dissenters need to be punished. :)
metalpeter - 01/01/09 17:23
Glad you had a good time. I was wondering if you got to see (e:leetee) and (e:lilho) try to depants (e:mike) that was pretty interesting.
Glad you had a good time. I was wondering if you got to see (e:leetee) and (e:lilho) try to depants (e:mike) that was pretty interesting.
12/31/2008 16:27 #47234
Waste your time no more...Category: art
Life is short. Who wants to waste so much time, energy and money watching two-parter humongous movies? No one. How else do you get yourself up to snuff on hollywood effluents? The answer is here! The bunnies are here to save those precious 30 seconds!!
Get with the program. Start saving time this new year.
More time saving strategies here:
Get with the program. Start saving time this new year.
More time saving strategies here:
12/31/2008 14:03 #47232
Mayflower Snow PostcardCategory: buffalo
I woke up to this picture perfect postcard view today morning -- all that pretty snow framed by some more snow lining my flat window!
Wish you all an awesome new year ahead and hope all your cherished dreams come true in 2009.
Cheers!
TP
Wish you all an awesome new year ahead and hope all your cherished dreams come true in 2009.
Cheers!
TP
metalpeter - 12/31/08 18:59
Wow that is a great looking picture
Wow that is a great looking picture
theecarey - 12/31/08 15:38
oh my goodness that is a great picture. Glad you captured it this morning. The soft glow of the street lights combined with the snow lined window indeed makes it post card picture perfect.
This year is the first time I have seen snow on window ledges like that. I guess wherever I have lived, the wind and window placement never made it possible. I think it is so pretty!
oh my goodness that is a great picture. Glad you captured it this morning. The soft glow of the street lights combined with the snow lined window indeed makes it post card picture perfect.
This year is the first time I have seen snow on window ledges like that. I guess wherever I have lived, the wind and window placement never made it possible. I think it is so pretty!
12/27/2008 00:06 #47194
Year-end groceries - December 2008Category: grocery
All this piled-up snow is cramping my grocery style!
That's right. I didn't particularly feel like shovelling my way to Guercio's. I went to Biglots and Wegman's instead. To spite them both and generally pout about my forced Guercio's deprivation, I am going to refer to them collectively as Weglots.
Oh yeah. AND I CAN'T BELIEVE WEGLOTS WAS OUT OF PEANUT OIL!
Way to kick me in the guts, Weglots!
Ahem. The groceries.
1. Weglots fat free milk. 1 Gallon - $2.39
This seems like a cool mug to have, huh? I thought so too, but I think the lower end might be kind of hard to clean. Hmmmm...
2. Weglots low-fat vanilla yoghurt - $1.99
3. Dole Mixed Frozen Fruit - $8.59 (Still the best deal around - considering the sky-high fruit prices and the dearth of variety.)
4. Weglots Iodized Salt - (2) $1.00 (Believe it not I stock up on salt. I might be headed for the no-good land of hypertension later this century, but I just can't lay off the salt. Mmmmm.... Salty!)
5. Weglots organic firm tofu - $1.99 (Damn. This used to $1.29 in 2006 and $1.79 earlier this year) Tofu, the vegan zombie. DIE DIE!
6. Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets - $3.49 (I *had* to get thiis. I think I am slowly dying inside because I can't get crazy spicy super-hot street samosas with chutney anymore.
I can't deep fry without tripping the fire-alarm, so this seemed like a good alternative. I will let you all know how this turns out. :))
7. 4. Fleischmann's Rapid-Rise Yeast - $1.59 ($1.59 for a bunch of one-celled fungi?! Meh. Even lab supplies are cheaper. Maybe I should just steal some from the lab.)
8. Weglots baking powder - $1.29 (After months of living in denial about the utility of Sodium Aluminium Suphate, Calcium Sulphate and Monocalcium Phosphate, I think (e:Heidi)'s cookies have finally made me see the light and inch out of baking umbra.
Maybe not into the baking light yet (because I refuse to heap the tablespoons of butter for the baking) but possibly into a kind of baking-powder-yeast-illuminated penumbra. I am still not convinced about the corn starch though. I mean, isn't there enough starch in the flour anyway??! Why do you need more starch and that too, made of corn??!)
9. Pane Italian Bread - $2.00 (This used to be $1.50 not so long ago. Not to be confused with Pano's. I doubt whether they use this fine fibre-less bread in that eatery even though this is like the cheapest bread in the "live" bakery. For the uninformed, as opposed to the "dead" bakery where you can see only shelved baked products in plastic bags, in the live bakery you can actually see a stone hearth oven and live bakers flitting around. )
10. 5 pounds of Grapefruit - $3.99
Contrary to what this demented person -> would have you believe, my opinion is set in stone.
11. 3.18 pounds Broccoli - $4.10
12. TOMATOES. AT LAST. 1.87lb @ $2.49/lb: $4.66
13. 5 pounds Clementines - $4.99 Such a great deal - if only they stopped selling them in those ridiculous wood boxes!
14. Pears Colombian Supremo Coffee Sampler - $0.50
Pears? Hmmm... Whatever. Can't be too bad when its just fitty cent.
15. TWWWWWIIIIIZZZZLLLLEEERRRSSS!!!! - $1.50
16. Black Peppercorns (Some random brand unlike the super-elite Thalassery ones that (e:zzzzoobaaaarrr) got some posts earlier) - $1.00
17. Baking Sheet - $4.50 (In continuation of the penumbric baking migration I mentioned earlier).
18. Andy Capp Hot Fries - $0.49 I am trying REALLY hard not to get these on a regular basis. I swear this is the first pack since... well a number of months.
19. Bar of Dove Origins dark chocolate - $1.80
20. "LiveActive" Post mixed berry Crunch cereal with inulin - $2.00
I admit it. I bought this cereal more as a matter of curiosity than any kind of I-must-try-this-cereal driven mania. Apparently it has inulin.
This substance is supposed to promote the growth of some of my "friendly" unnamed gut bacteria.
I am vaguely bothered by these catch-phrases and claims. How do we know for sure, seeing as each of us have 500-600 species of different bacteria as compared to any of our fellow-humans, that what is "friendly" for one person is equally friendly for others? What if this is what we are actually promoting?
These probiotic foods have steadily been populating the shelves of the "nature's marketplace" at Weglots. And we are still quite a long way off from learning what the human gut microbiome really does. Just sayin'...
21. "Works" Toilet Bowl Cleaner (2) - $3.00
Yeah. It BETTER work.
Total: $57.81
The grocery trippiness is over. Hopefully, no more grocery trips through this godawful slushy snow till next year, and yes, more Guercio's in 2009, please. :)
That's right. I didn't particularly feel like shovelling my way to Guercio's. I went to Biglots and Wegman's instead. To spite them both and generally pout about my forced Guercio's deprivation, I am going to refer to them collectively as Weglots.
Oh yeah. AND I CAN'T BELIEVE WEGLOTS WAS OUT OF PEANUT OIL!
Way to kick me in the guts, Weglots!
Ahem. The groceries.
1. Weglots fat free milk. 1 Gallon - $2.39
This seems like a cool mug to have, huh? I thought so too, but I think the lower end might be kind of hard to clean. Hmmmm...
2. Weglots low-fat vanilla yoghurt - $1.99
3. Dole Mixed Frozen Fruit - $8.59 (Still the best deal around - considering the sky-high fruit prices and the dearth of variety.)
4. Weglots Iodized Salt - (2) $1.00 (Believe it not I stock up on salt. I might be headed for the no-good land of hypertension later this century, but I just can't lay off the salt. Mmmmm.... Salty!)
5. Weglots organic firm tofu - $1.99 (Damn. This used to $1.29 in 2006 and $1.79 earlier this year) Tofu, the vegan zombie. DIE DIE!
6. Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets - $3.49 (I *had* to get thiis. I think I am slowly dying inside because I can't get crazy spicy super-hot street samosas with chutney anymore.
I can't deep fry without tripping the fire-alarm, so this seemed like a good alternative. I will let you all know how this turns out. :))
7. 4. Fleischmann's Rapid-Rise Yeast - $1.59 ($1.59 for a bunch of one-celled fungi?! Meh. Even lab supplies are cheaper. Maybe I should just steal some from the lab.)
8. Weglots baking powder - $1.29 (After months of living in denial about the utility of Sodium Aluminium Suphate, Calcium Sulphate and Monocalcium Phosphate, I think (e:Heidi)'s cookies have finally made me see the light and inch out of baking umbra.
Maybe not into the baking light yet (because I refuse to heap the tablespoons of butter for the baking) but possibly into a kind of baking-powder-yeast-illuminated penumbra. I am still not convinced about the corn starch though. I mean, isn't there enough starch in the flour anyway??! Why do you need more starch and that too, made of corn??!)
9. Pane Italian Bread - $2.00 (This used to be $1.50 not so long ago. Not to be confused with Pano's. I doubt whether they use this fine fibre-less bread in that eatery even though this is like the cheapest bread in the "live" bakery. For the uninformed, as opposed to the "dead" bakery where you can see only shelved baked products in plastic bags, in the live bakery you can actually see a stone hearth oven and live bakers flitting around. )
10. 5 pounds of Grapefruit - $3.99
Contrary to what this demented person ->
would have you believe, my opinion is set in stone. 
11. 3.18 pounds Broccoli - $4.10
12. TOMATOES. AT LAST. 1.87lb @ $2.49/lb: $4.66
13. 5 pounds Clementines - $4.99 Such a great deal - if only they stopped selling them in those ridiculous wood boxes!
14. Pears Colombian Supremo Coffee Sampler - $0.50
Pears? Hmmm... Whatever. Can't be too bad when its just fitty cent.
15. TWWWWWIIIIIZZZZLLLLEEERRRSSS!!!! - $1.50
16. Black Peppercorns (Some random brand unlike the super-elite Thalassery ones that (e:zzzzoobaaaarrr) got some posts earlier) - $1.00
17. Baking Sheet - $4.50 (In continuation of the penumbric baking migration I mentioned earlier).
18. Andy Capp Hot Fries - $0.49 I am trying REALLY hard not to get these on a regular basis. I swear this is the first pack since... well a number of months.
19. Bar of Dove Origins dark chocolate - $1.80
20. "LiveActive" Post mixed berry Crunch cereal with inulin - $2.00
I admit it. I bought this cereal more as a matter of curiosity than any kind of I-must-try-this-cereal driven mania. Apparently it has inulin.
This substance is supposed to promote the growth of some of my "friendly" unnamed gut bacteria.
I am vaguely bothered by these catch-phrases and claims. How do we know for sure, seeing as each of us have 500-600 species of different bacteria as compared to any of our fellow-humans, that what is "friendly" for one person is equally friendly for others? What if this is what we are actually promoting?
These probiotic foods have steadily been populating the shelves of the "nature's marketplace" at Weglots. And we are still quite a long way off from learning what the human gut microbiome really does. Just sayin'...
21. "Works" Toilet Bowl Cleaner (2) - $3.00
Yeah. It BETTER work.
Total: $57.81
The grocery trippiness is over. Hopefully, no more grocery trips through this godawful slushy snow till next year, and yes, more Guercio's in 2009, please. :)
tinypliny - 12/31/08 11:07
oops. ^not intending to pour it down the drain in bulk!
oops. ^not intending to pour it down the drain in bulk!
tinypliny - 12/31/08 11:05
@(e:zzzzoooobbbbaa)rrr: Be bothered. BE REALLY BOTHERED! ;)
@(e:drew): I am not sure which post that was... I am a sucker for skeletal accessories. (pun totally intended!)
@(e:libertad): I am glad you liked it. :) Though now seeing yours and (e:mike)'s comments, I am somewhat freaked out that I am being psychoanalysed and judged this minute by my groceries!!! And yes, it is the evil works. I got it because it has hydrochloric acid in it and I wanted to scrub the rust off of my bathtub. Its been annoying me for a while now. Bleach isn't doing much for it so I figured it was some limey hard-water deposit + rust. HCl does a good job of melting any Ca-Chloride or Ferrous Oxide complexes. I know it is toxic but I am intending to pour it down the drain in bulk. It actually melts away any rust and if pipes are old and rusted along the way, there is a chance that it might eat through them. It does not harm intact steel/copper. Maybe if the pipes are rusted, they need to be replaced?
@(e:mike): You are welcome! :) I share your guilty pleasure as well. Mostly, I don't have a grocery list and I try and look at people's carts to see if I might have missed something. Hehehe.. Sometimes I buy new things because people ahead of me have those things in their carts! It sounds crazy but a lot of times I remember stuff that I have forgotten to buy or try new things that I never would have otherwise.
@(e:metalpeter): LOL. What did you say about bones and milk in that post?? Now, I am curious! Fat-free milk has all the other components - proteins, carbohydrate sugars, minerals (Calcium etc.) and added Vitamin D. They just take out the fat and reserve it for other purposes such as cheese making, processed foods etc. Yes, I know. Real baking is such fat-ridden orgy. I guess that's why I think I can never be a good baker. I don't generally use milk in my cooking. There are one or two Indian speciality dishes that call for whole milk but I never make them because they also require copious amount of sugar - something I never have.
The furry creature is a hamster.
Yeah, you make an interesting point. We struggle with that very question of precise dietary assessment in all the measurement techniques we use in nutritional epidemiology.
@(e:zzzzoooobbbbaa)rrr: Be bothered. BE REALLY BOTHERED! ;)
@(e:drew): I am not sure which post that was... I am a sucker for skeletal accessories. (pun totally intended!)
@(e:libertad): I am glad you liked it. :) Though now seeing yours and (e:mike)'s comments, I am somewhat freaked out that I am being psychoanalysed and judged this minute by my groceries!!! And yes, it is the evil works. I got it because it has hydrochloric acid in it and I wanted to scrub the rust off of my bathtub. Its been annoying me for a while now. Bleach isn't doing much for it so I figured it was some limey hard-water deposit + rust. HCl does a good job of melting any Ca-Chloride or Ferrous Oxide complexes. I know it is toxic but I am intending to pour it down the drain in bulk. It actually melts away any rust and if pipes are old and rusted along the way, there is a chance that it might eat through them. It does not harm intact steel/copper. Maybe if the pipes are rusted, they need to be replaced?
@(e:mike): You are welcome! :) I share your guilty pleasure as well. Mostly, I don't have a grocery list and I try and look at people's carts to see if I might have missed something. Hehehe.. Sometimes I buy new things because people ahead of me have those things in their carts! It sounds crazy but a lot of times I remember stuff that I have forgotten to buy or try new things that I never would have otherwise.
@(e:metalpeter): LOL. What did you say about bones and milk in that post?? Now, I am curious! Fat-free milk has all the other components - proteins, carbohydrate sugars, minerals (Calcium etc.) and added Vitamin D. They just take out the fat and reserve it for other purposes such as cheese making, processed foods etc. Yes, I know. Real baking is such fat-ridden orgy. I guess that's why I think I can never be a good baker. I don't generally use milk in my cooking. There are one or two Indian speciality dishes that call for whole milk but I never make them because they also require copious amount of sugar - something I never have.
The furry creature is a hamster.
Yeah, you make an interesting point. We struggle with that very question of precise dietary assessment in all the measurement techniques we use in nutritional epidemiology.
metalpeter - 12/27/08 15:03
(e:drew) I don't really like re looking at that picture my self (with the paper), HA.
(e:tinypliny) I do have one question that I don't get, if you have no fat that what is in the milk?, HA. Don't forget if you use it to cook you have to somehow make up for the fact that there isn't any fat even with 2%. My other question is what was that furry creature? That video led me to see some ad for a think a gum that took me to other Booby videos.
On a side note looking at what people buy when at a store like Wegmans can kinda tell something about them or there eating habits, but you don't know if they are buying for them selves and if so for how long of a time so you kinda have to guess.
(e:drew) I don't really like re looking at that picture my self (with the paper), HA.
(e:tinypliny) I do have one question that I don't get, if you have no fat that what is in the milk?, HA. Don't forget if you use it to cook you have to somehow make up for the fact that there isn't any fat even with 2%. My other question is what was that furry creature? That video led me to see some ad for a think a gum that took me to other Booby videos.
On a side note looking at what people buy when at a store like Wegmans can kinda tell something about them or there eating habits, but you don't know if they are buying for them selves and if so for how long of a time so you kinda have to guess.
mike - 12/27/08 13:29
i love looking in people's grocery carts. It does explain so much about them! tahnks for the insight into your life!
i love looking in people's grocery carts. It does explain so much about them! tahnks for the insight into your life!
libertad - 12/27/08 12:45
I love looking at other people's groceries. You can tell so much about a person by what they are buying. Thanks for letting us be grocery voyeurs. I have to ask. Is that toilet bowl cleaner non-toxic or is it the one called "the works" which is super toxic?
I love looking at other people's groceries. You can tell so much about a person by what they are buying. Thanks for letting us be grocery voyeurs. I have to ask. Is that toilet bowl cleaner non-toxic or is it the one called "the works" which is super toxic?
drew - 12/27/08 12:13
Great post. Was that milk glass based on an infamous (e:metalpeter) post? (No, I am not going to look up the permalink. Sorry Peter, don't need to see that again)
Great post. Was that milk glass based on an infamous (e:metalpeter) post? (No, I am not going to look up the permalink. Sorry Peter, don't need to see that again)
zobar - 12/27/08 11:20
I'm vaguely bothered by the smiling gut flora.
How long does it take you to write & illustrate these?
- Z
I'm vaguely bothered by the smiling gut flora.
How long does it take you to write & illustrate these?
- Z
I think they turned out pretty well but they become soggy on reheating. Not the case with "real" samosas that become crisper and crisper. I am thinking of making the dough myself with a tonload of butter next time I make this. I realized very late that the pastry sheet have hydrogenated oil (margarine) and palm oil. Butter is WAAAAY butter. :)
Were the puff pastry sheets an adequate substitute for samosa dough?
They are samosas. :) Puff Pastry sheets stuffed with potatoes and baked to a crisp. The sauce is a tamarind-tomato chutney garnished with peas.
HIGHLY fat-ridden and completely unhealthy. I made them at home today morning because I felt like some constructive cooking. I hope to perfect my technique and bring them to the next potluck though! :)
What is that? Did you eat alone or with others?
Nice!