Purchase and Purge

This post is being made on a New Samsung NC10 netbook. With this little acquisition there are now 3.5 computers per person in my household. Along with a random portable DVD player. It does seem excessive. So what has been pushing at the edges of my mind is the temptation to purchase is so strong and is nearly always followed by a strong cleaning/purge rush. It is that equalibrium that has been hit where every new aquisition requires the removal of another item. However, there are so many emotional attachments to the old things and the infamous "..but what if I need it later?" argument that seems into your brain evertime you think about getting rid of that pair of red platform shoes you bought in Jr. High. Then the "well maybe I can sell this stuff" argument hits. With no yard, the neighborhood sale is nearly impossible and it sems that ebay is not getting the traffic it once was.

Tricky. Am loving the netbook though ;)

A bird, a pig, and a paranoid schizophrenic walk into a doctor's office...

Sounds like the start to either a very bad or a very dirty joke but it seems to be what has been happening in the news as of late. Avian Flu, Swine Flu, everyday folks developing OCD level hand washing tendencies, avoiding being breathed on, etc. It may sound like I am mocking. I'm not. I am as scared as everyone else. I am right there with them at the sink looking for more soap and trying not to touch my neighbor, and all of these precautions may save us, may save lives, so for the sake of well, everyone, do not throw these cautions to the wind. But also try not to let it keep you up at night. Losing sleep can only make you more vulnerable.

Dinner Review: Jaleo Tapas Bar in Richardson

So I think that we all know that it is a challenging time to be diving into new business ventures, and opening a restaurant is about as high risk as it gets other then say moving dynamite or investing in a Brittany Spears driven summer day camp.  

I arrived at Jaleo around 5 pm on a Tuesday to take advantage of the 4-7 pm happy hour drink specials and went with a signature Mojito ($4.00).  It was well mixed and not too sweet with ample mint.  We ordered a Charcuturie for the table ($14.00) and Calamari ($7.00).  The calamari came out piping hot with an aioli type dipping sauce, it was not in anyway disappointing other then the fact that it went too quickly.  The Charcuturie featured 5 paper thin slices of 5 kinds of traditional cured meats accompanied by stone ground mustard, 3 cornichons, and 3 almonds.  Bread was brought out as something of an after thought.  Good all around, but I was hoping for something slightly more substantial, which is admittedly a bit foreign in the land of tapas.

Sadly the one item I would have really liked to see on the menu, a full tapas sampler either for the table or the individual seems to be available only at lunch.   Lunch also offers a Prix Fix option ($16.00) which includes Tapas, Entree, and Dessert.  

Chef's specials included a 6 oz filet of sliced duck breast on spiced lentils ($16.95), and a 4oz halibut filet in a tomato, chili pepper, almond and hazelnut sauce topped with 2 manilla clams ($9.95).  Featured entrees on the menu also include a very sweet meated half quail and lamb chops. Everything we tried was delicious.  It arrived well seasoned and at the proper temperatures and only the paella ($15.00) had any thing at all left behind.  

Dessert featured a fairly standard Cream Brulee($5.00), and Rice Pudding ($5.00), but the standout dish was the Churros and Chocholate ($7.00) with featured 6-7 very freshly made gourmet Churros with a dark chocolate dipping sauce that was not too sweet but very cleanly finished the meal. 

Verdict: I will attend again, but will likely gravitate towards the lunch and brunch specials which seem to offer a more substantial, but no less artful, dining experience for a more reasonable price.  The dinner and tapas menu, while delicious, may be better served by having fewer selections and more chef's combined samplers.  Now if they begin offering a fixed menu with wine accompaniment...that is a sure-fire winner!

Morning with Rainstorm

Time has stopped.  It is dead still, inside and out, but there is an energy about the stillness that feels something like a well deserved exhale.  That sounds a bit Jr. High poetic to me, but it fits. I absolutely love mornings where the sky opens and crashes in.  The sun is slower to come out and the world goes still.  Even when I used to be a TV addict, on these mornings I would let the sounds of the storm win out over the buzz and chatter of the television.  Right now I can't even abide the overhead lights.  Feels like disregarding the gift of the storm.  This is the perfect morning for a book, a cat (or two), and some tea.  I will give myself ten more minutes of this bliss  before I go tame the hair and put on my responsible adult shoes. 

Bread and Water can so easily be Toast and Tea.

13 May 1903, Oakland (CA) Tribune, pg. 6, col. 4: LOVE ON TOAST.

“While I’ve no gold,” he whispered,
“Love’s riches shall be thine.
Though we, in a modest cottage,
On bread and water dine.”

“With love’s warm flame to serve us,
At slight expense,” said she,
“We can make of bread and water
Sweet feasts of toast and tea.”

-- The Tattler in Town Topics.

Barriers to Productivity

My mind cannot seem to sit still and focus. I have begun to wonder if the work day isn't set out all wrong. There are so many points during the day where I find myself motivated to work on things that are not necessarily the things that I am "supposed" to be doing right then. While I am at work in my office working on a project I am able to stay very motivated and on-task, sometimes to the point of staying past business hours because I am on a roll and it is just easier not to stop. What is difficult however is jumping into the next project. When I have several things to do, but when I prioritize them they frequently either come out even, or I have things that need input from others at a time they are unavailable to work on it. What is truly odd is that the projects in my private life, the book I am reading, updating my blog, these things, seem to pop in my head and come to the forefront of my mind when I am not really technically in a position to indulge them. On the same note I find myself being in the perfect mind-set to work on tedious office projects in the evening at home where I should be on home and family matters. It seems to have gotten switched around in my head somehow. Odd.

The cat has landed

Are you ever moving about your house, minding your own business, settle down into the couch, chair, floor, or other stationary surface.  You read a book, look at something on the computer, stair aimlessly into space, etc.  and suddenly, there is a cat on your arm....a sleeping one.  Not just drowsy, but out cold.  The kicker of the whole event is that you haven't any idea of when she got there.  It is as if she materialized on top of you out of nothingness and you realize that if you hadn't had to hit the "Shift" key that you may have gone on not noticing your little visitor for a while longer.  And it feels like luck, and it feels like love to suddenly have been made into a pillow.  Don't even mind the kitty drool.

How does YOUR garden grow?

Most of my time in the past week or so has been eaten up by all things gardening. I got it in my head that I wanted to start tomatoes, habaneros, radishes, basil, nasturtiums, spicy micro greens, sweet bell peppers, and cat grass all from seed and have been running around cleaning out fish tanks to use as mini-greenhouse/grow light set-ups when I realized that nothing was getting enough light. Why do I always do this in the springtime? I also cheated a little with some pre-established plants and filled my strawberry pot with English Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Coconut Thyme, Grapefruit Mint, and Chocolate mint and threw some watercress into a pot as well. They seem to be doing well, but I am a bit impatient with everything.

All the cliches about spring renewal seem to be hitting me all at once. The days get a little bit longer and flip-flops start being viable footwear - not just wishful thinking, and suddenly projects start popping into my head. I have to start my garden and go through the book shelves, get back into the habit of the gym, etc, etc. So my question, the point of all this, is how do I make all this renewed energy and drive last? How does one take spring and bottle it for later when it is too hot, too cold, or just glum and gloomy? Anyone who figures it please out send me a diagram and I will get started strait away, or at least as soon as I get my seeds in the ground.

Burnt Offerings, A Stir of Echos, and Heroes

This weekend was spent reading and gardening. Finished Robert Marasco's 1973 novel "Burnt Offerings" on Saturday. Gothic little work about a house/family that absorbes life energy from fresh victims every few years as a way to ...remodel lets say. Some people just paint. Worth the read though. Almost a ghost story, at least emotionally, and deserves to be better known then it is. Sunday I decided to stick with the theme and read Richard Matheson's "A Stir of Echos". Not my favorite of Matheson's works, and absoultly nothing like the movie with Kevin Bacon, but still worth a quick read. At this point I feel like I want to keep devouring novels, but I am not sure what to read next. On the hot list I have Stephen King's " Black House", James Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia", Max Allan Collins and Righard Piers Rayner's "Road to Perdition", and Susan Minot's "Evening". Not sure which one will take the hot seat, but I will let you know.

For now I am going to drink my coffee and watch "Heroes: Season One" While I get ready for work.