The Failed Perfectionist

Frittata!

drea228a — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:38:58 +0000

I’ve decided to take a break from the yardwork to attempt to further my culinary skills. Being rather lazy in that area generally, I turned to the egg section of the cookbook. Several days of procrastination later, I give you Frittata! My perfect weekend breakfast (with plenty of leftovers for lunch and dinner).

Step 1-Cut a bunch of stuff up

Mise en Place

(bamboo cutting board courtesy of Mom for my Birthday)

Step 2-Cook the stuff.

sizzling hot

Step 3-Add the Eggs and stick in the oven.-Voila- Frittata!

Sliced Frittata.

Now I just have to make some coffee and get on with the yardwork. Cheers!

screw you guys, I’m going home

drea228a — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:07:55 +0000

yeah, not a song lyric. So what? I’m effing pissed off. Death to twitter and all things impersonal and useless on this internet. The fact that I’m posting this on a blog kinda sucks some of the venom out of that statement, but that don’t make it any less valid. Also, I’m out of cat food, so sasha keeps trying to break stuff. Best go purchase kibble before she burns the house down.

You Better Work

drea228a — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:25:43 +0000

Work it girl! On the runway. Here’s another reason I heart HP. www.tech-chic.com We’re now trying to sell computers to an entirely new demographic: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/feature_stories/2008/08fashionista.html

Hilarious!

Happy Friday Everyone…

If you haven’t heard, I’m doing an entirely new job at work, so if you haven’t heard from me it’s because I’m up to my ears in trying to run a print test lab. “Lead’ role. Muy Scary.

can you picture that?

drea228a — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:03:38 +0000

This is a retaliatory blog in response to being called out as part of dina’s bridal party on the dia-ray blog (take that brangelina!) Also, certain bassoon players refuse to take down certain incriminating prom photos on facebook, so here’s some digital photos I found in the way back machine (more will be forthcoming if I ever actually remember to scan some). New york city in 2000

(I think it was 2000…)->>>

And circa 2001 (?), sometime on winter vacation from college with some other characters:

who let the dogs out?

drea228a — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:50:11 +0000

Technically, it was just one dog. And it’s moments like these that make me question why I must constantly test my limits in the most painful ways possible. If you haven’t heard, I went out and adopted a dog yesterday. The past 28 hours have been both good and bad, but what I’ve learned is that I am empathetically NOT a dog person. Perhaps this would not be the case if I had a partner with whom to share the doggy attention. And in defense of the dog, I could not ask for a smarter better behaved puppy. Emphasis on the word puppy. At 4 months old, the sign on the shelter door saying “I am a mouthy puppy and should only go to an experienced owner” should have been a sign. But no, I say, I want a puppy. One without as many bad habits who is eager to train. So after a flurry of pet-related purchases, I pick up the dog. Everything is going fine, even a fairly calm ride home in the car. I do have second thoughts about the drool on the leather interior, but think to myself that I should get used to it as a newly minted dog owner. Ditto to the muddy paw prints instantly decorating the kitchen and living room floor. First things first, we get fido, (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) introduced to the crate and food area. All things good. Then the puppy remembers that it’s a puppy, and loses all interest in the carefully purchased toys in favor of destroying everything else in reach. (In my defense, I thought I had puppy-proofed everything of value and cleared everything that was lying around.) Puppy immediately latches onto my new universal remote. Very adorable, but not enough to give over the remote. I manage to wrestle the remote away from the puppy, and get puppy out the door. Walkies! This part isn’t actually so bad, except for some minor pulling. Puppy is very happy to be bribed with treats every time we stop. Puppy is in fact now expecting me to pull out treats every time he sits down and looks up expectantly. Very cute, but ultimately unsupportable as I run out of treats on our way home. So the new fun game is chew the leash and try to jump up on andrea. I even manage to outsmart him here by shortening up the lead and picking up speed. Back home, the fenced backyard seems like a treat, except for the fact that a neighbors tree has been dropping apples and puppy prefers rotten fruit, sticks, and sycamore balls to the actual toys. I’m unsure whether actually eating sticks is good, but can’t seem to get them all away in time. So it’s back into the house (after some dramatics getting up the half-flight of stairs), where all puppy wants to do is jump all over me. crate time. And then I’m out like a light only to wake up to squeaky toy noises at midnight. Day two proceeds much the same, although we master stairs and manage to meet a couple of neighbors on the three walks. Currently puppy is snoring loudly in his crate. I’m off this emotional roller coaster tomorrow when I will sadly take fido back to the humane society. There’s no way I can support this level of energy for another two years (assuming puppy isn’t just naturally rambunctious). That’s a cop-out way of saying this is making me miserable, and even with extensive training, I’m not willing to give up my entire house to dog-life. I’m a cat person. I like that the cat ignores me most of the time and is needy only about 5% of the day (mostly when the food is out). Did I mention that the dog seems to think the cat is a life-size chaseable toy? Cat has been hiding in the basement because the cat-food in the kitchen got eaten by the puppy. I’m on a major guilt trip for this one. I’ve been saying for a year how great it would be to get a house and a dog, but when it comes right down to it, my life is pretty great as it is. Any comments from the universe? I’m still not sure I’m doing the right thing, but anything has to be better than having a latchkey dog that spends 8 hours in a crate or at daycare…..

Burning down the house

drea228a — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:15:34 +0000

No, no, not actually burning down the house. That’s just another song I’ve got stuck in my head. This is what my driveway has looked like for the past two weeks. The plumbing has been fixed since then, so that crisis has passed. The giant pipe you see sticking up will be a ground level cleanout for the drain-pipes. There will be a lovely metal box instead of a giant pipe. I’m hoping sooner rather than later. All the remaining concrete will also soon by gone. In it’s place will be a classy compacted gravel driveway. I’m hoping to save up my pennies and put an actual driveway back on by next summer, but anything will be better than parking on half dirt next to the giant dumpster blocking my view. So much drama for the summer. I’m spent. I’d hope for a restful weekend, but odds are there will be concrete tear-out and compacting going on, so the cat will probably hide under the bed and I’ll have to go elsewhere for peace and quiet. On the bright side, maybe I’ll be able to park in my garage by monday.

Can’t say much about work, still lots of confidential stuff, but the hours and intensity seem exhausting some weeks. SWE and YEN are ramping up and down, I’m just trying to decide whether adding an orchestra into the mix would help my sanity or erode it further. To quote a wise television character: Sleep! That’s where I’m a viking. Gotta rest sometime.

Fixing a hole where the rain gets in

drea228a — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:58:11 +0000

Or more accurately, digging a giant hole under the driveway to figure out why the rain and other fluids aren’t draining from my house properly. It’s an ongoing saga. I’m working from home once again and wishing I had shower and toilets properly functioning. This is week two of the excitement. Still no fix in sight. We did establish that the home warranty will not cover this particularly spendy portion of the repair, so I’m pretty annoyed with them now.

If I had a hammer…

drea228a — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:51:31 +0000

Here’s what the chairs looked like before.

Partly stained, partly worn off. Some stained really dark, and some painted red in the middle.

Antiques road show be damned, I wanted something I could live with and somehow I doubt that this set was ever gonna get sold on e-bay for thousands. Here’s a close-up of one of the tops.->

The finish color wasn’t actually that bad, but where it was rubbed off, the wood was very dry and lighter colored.

So after a week worth of stripping and sanding and staining and refinishing, I finally wrapped up the hard stuff yesterday. The seats got recovered with some bargain brocade fabric that I found on sale at Jo-ann fabrics. I’ll put up pictures of the matching table when I find someone to help me drag it into the house. Here’s the finished products:

Here’s the captains chair like from the before photo.

Close-up of the top after refinishing.

And the fabric is below, although my camera kept trying to use the flash which kept making the silk reflect like crazy. It’s a pretty dark brown.

The end of an era

drea228a — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:43:41 +0000

Y’all are probably sick of the house related posts, but I figured all the knights would remember this old classic. That’s right, it’s the final piece of furniture from mom’s parents bedroom set that I’ve been using since circa 1988 when the addition went on the parkhill house. I think scott had the matching bed and other dresser at one point, but managed to dump them a lot sooner. The newsflash is that this dresser is now departed from my house. Gone, finit. To the great furniture farm in the sky. Or more accurately to the kind lady who actually gave me $50 for it. So take one last look because it’s outta here.

More foliage

drea228a — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:55:49 +0000

I’ve got calla lillies and daisies in the side yard! Maybe I should get out there more. Also, this tiny weed plant: is actually lavender that smells really good. I also have day-lilies in the backyard, but they were closed up for the night. The grapes and raspberries are working on getting me some more produce, and I’m caught up on the mowing for the week. Now it’s back to engineery goodness for the evening. It’s a crime that I’ve been trapped inside in the recent great weather.