paragiraffe

Christmas in a bottle

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:02:20 -0500

Tonight I had the immense pleasure of trying Anchor’s 2008 Christmas Ale. From their website:

Every year since 1975 the brewers at Anchor have brewed a distinctive and unique Christmas Ale, which is available from early November to mid-January. The Ale’s recipe is different every year—as is the tree on the label—but the intent with which we offer it remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons, appears born anew.

It tastes like Christmas in a beer. I don’t even know how that is possible. It’s quite magical. Definitely one of the most satisfying first sips of beer I’ve had. It brought joy to my heart and tears to my eyes. Shaun even amended the rules so we could have it.

Black bean brownies

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:20:28 -0500

When I first saw this Amazing Black Bean Brownie Recipe on 101 Cookbooks, I knew I had to make it. Why I waited so long, I’m not sure. A flourless brownie recipe with black beans as the base? I was intrigued.

We had a potluck at work today, and this seemed like the perfect time to try out the secret ingredient on my unsuspecting coworkers. (Hi, unsuspecting coworkers!) Once people found out about the beans they still ate the brownies.

The verdict on these? Well, they’re not the best brownies ever, and the coffee flavor was a little strong. When it was all said and done my stand mixer, food processor and another bowl were dirty. But I agree, you couldn’t taste the beans, and they were very fudgy. A fun recipe to try.

Pizza at home

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:03:13 -0500

I love pizza. And French fries. And hamburgers. Generally, these things are bad for you. But, we make these things at home quite a bit because when you control the ingredients and cooking method, you can turn something bad into something pretty good.

Trader Joe’s sells a good, whole-wheat pizza crust, which we usually load up with cheese and a ton of veggies. It’s not hard to make your own pizza crust, but sometimes on a weeknight you just don’t want to mess with yeast.

I had some leftover Monterey Jack cheese, so tonight I had the idea to make a loosely Mexican-inspired pizza. I used refried beans instead of tomato sauce and added salsa, onions and peppers and the aforementioned cheese.

It was about as good as any pizza we’ve made, and a quick (and vegetarian) weeknight meal.

Lisa and Brandon

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:49:25 -0500

Last night we attended the wedding of Lisa and my former boss Brandon. Their reception was held at the historic L&N Station in downtown Knoxville.

I took my camera, but I didn’t get many shots I was very happy with, probably because I wasn’t trying very hard! I’m still having trouble getting good night shots, or, more importantly, getting the camera to take low light shots the way I want it to. At the end of the night, they had a lovely exit with sparklers, providing some nice lighting:

My other former boss, Joseph, was Brandon’s best man, and he absolutely killed it with his toast. He had everyone laughing and crying.

In this photo you may be able to see a couple of jars of (homemade!) apple butter, which they gave as favors.

I thought this was a really cute idea, and I can’t wait to try it on toast!

Great pleasures in my life

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:08:17 -0500

Going to bed early
A nice hot shower
A lazy weekend morning with a French press of coffee
“Window shopping” on the internets
Hugs
Having my own washer and dryer
Staying home

Failure

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:59:36 -0500

So, if you look back on your archives you’ll notice I’m missing an entry from yesterday, November 12th. I went out last night for trivia, went to bed almost as soon as I got home and forgot all about NaBloPoMo. I don’t want to split hairs here, but I did update yesterday with a bookmark, although I am guessing that doesn’t count.

Anyway, when you fall down, you get back up, so I’m going to try to finish the month out. If it doesn’t happen, oh well.

Anyway, if you’re at trivia and you’re deciding between Sleepytime Bear and Bedtime Bear, go with the alliteration!

November 11th

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:37:51 -0500

Today, I started the day off right with a birthday salted caramel signature hot chocolate from Starbucks.

I thought you could really taste the salted caramel. The whole drink is actually a bit cloying, but sometimes you’re in the mood for that kind of thing.

Then I got a birthday haircut and had a birthday meatloaf sandwich for lunch with Shaun. This afternoon I had a birthday manicure and pedicure. This evening I went for a birthday run, which I was proud of because I had a halfway decent excuse to just stay in. Then Shaun made us some birthday spaghetti. Carb-tastic!

Now I’m watching some birthday MAC football and will probably enjoy an early-ish birthday bedtime.

Where the cooking happens

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:57:56 -0500

I mentioned yesterday that Deb’s post about her kitchen left an impression on me.

My last apartment was a condo I was renting from its owner. Although it was small (fine by me) it was really, really nice. The kitchen had granite countertops, new appliances and really great cabinets. Our kitchen in the new place isn’t as swank, but it does have a few nice features. We moved here for the location anyway!

It’s got a gas stove and plenty of cabinet space.

It has a huge island, which provides a lot of storage and workspace and is where we usually eat. It’s open to the rest of the living space, and I must admit sometimes Seinfeld or Friends is on during dinner.

The Old Apartment

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:33:21 -0500

The other day when Deb posted pictures of her kitchen, I said “whoa.” Then I took pictures of my kitchen (coming). Then I thought of the various kitchens I’ve had. Then I found a bunch of (low-quality) photos of my last apartment in Knoxville. I loved that apartment.

It was a studio, well-organized, I thought, and just the right size for one person. It had decent storage space, good light, a balcony, and it was very cozy. Instead of the standard industrial white you get in apartments, it was painted a nice (though neutral) yellow-beige/tan. Oh, and besides lacking a dishwasher, it had a decent kitchen.

Ah, memories.

A candle

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:27:02 -0500

Here at Casa Maura and Shaun, we have some ground rules about Christmas. There are a few Christmas-related things I can do prior to Thanksgiving, otherwise I have to wait. They are:

listen to Christmas music with headphones
go Christmas shopping
drink Christmas drinks at Starbucks
wear Christmas socks, since they are part of my year-round sock rotation anyway

This morning we cleaned the kitchen and took out the trash, and I was thinking it’d be nice to burn a candle to cover up some lingering food smells. So I did, and this is absolutely not a Christmas candle.

No way.

(And yes, I’m aware you could fly a plane between my “R” and “I”.)

Ago

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:34:44 -0500

Four years ago

Dear Super Target,

Thank you for having key lime pie-flavored Yoplait Light yogurt. Walmart stopped carrying it, and Kroger never started. You made my day.

Love, Maura

Three years ago

Shouldn’t exclamation (as in exclamation point) be spelled like exclaim, with an I?

Two years ago

Sometime this year I decided my big Christmas present would be a food processor. I have a mini-prep, which is nice for small jobs (obviously), but there’s a lot of things that would be nice to have a food processor for, such as making bread dough, crust for pies, shredding cheese and vegetables, etc.

One year ago

During my exhaustive job search (hey, I was subscribed to a lot of feeds!) I was desperately hoping, but not expecting, to find a job where I could work primarily with Django, the Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines. Well, this was just that position, and actually as a result I moved about a month earlier than planned.

Phantom Planet acoustic

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:15:42 -0500

I love Phantom Planet, and I guess that dates me as a 15-year-old girl. And that’s okay. I’ve never seen them live, but if you visit their YouTube channel, they’ve posted videos of them playing a few acoustic songs with fans after their shows. I’ve really, really enjoyed them.

I can go ahead and spoil it for you: Raise the Dead is going to be my favorite album of 2008.

Recently, thanks to these videos, I’ve discovered “By the Bed” is my favorite Phantom Planet song!

“The Guest” — one of their better songs and not as well known.

“Nobody’s Fault” — rocking out on the mandolin!

“Ship Lost at Sea” — from the new album.

How I know I'm old

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:20:27 -0500

Last night, when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, people took to the streets to dance and cheer and yell and honk their horns. More specifically, they took to MY street, in front of MY apartment.

Now, I can appreciate the significance of this election. I think the fact that anyone would want to cheer after any new President is chosen is remarkable, as we’re usually faced with choosing the lesser of two evils. But, a candidate people can get excited about…wow.

Nonetheless, I am old, and since the whole thing was pretty much done around 11:00 p.m., I wanted to go to bed, because I was sick of this election. But the people, they were cheering loudly. And that is how I know I’m old.

Election Day!

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:17:06 -0500

This election, I had a plan: vote on election day. In the past I’ve been spoiled by early voting, but with the long lines for early voting in the metro Atlanta area this year, I figured I’d be better off going on election day, when more polling places would be open. Plus, I’ve never done it.

This morning I woke up at 6:00, showered and checked the internets for the weather. I noticed that the headline on ajc.com was something like: OMG U R SCREWED GET IN LINE NOW¹. So I skipped coffee on the way to the polls, figuring I could get it later. I was in line by 6:45 a.m. for a 7:00 a.m. open time. I thought the poll workers moved the line along pretty admirably; still, there were a lot of people in line, and I wasn’t done until 8:20 a.m. That put me to work around my normal time, though, which was great. Later in the day we reported that the lines and waiting got a lot better, but I’m still glad I went first thing.

Meanwhile, I found out that election day is like a big party in the newsroom. There were cookies, pizza, leftover Halloween candy. We also went and picked up our free Starbucks coffee. How was your election day?

¹Obviously, I am exaggerating here for humorous effect.

Representation

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:21:13 -0500

So today I came across this New York Times article about the electoral college and its corresponding infographic. It’s worth a look. I’ve talked about this before (way old) — I am no fan of the electoral college.

Anyway, a more interesting fact is that we currently have way less representatives than we are supposed to have. The Constitution says we should have one representative for every 30,000 people. Right now it’s about one per 650,000 people. Wikipedia says we should have about 10,000 House members, which, to me, just sounds completely awesome.