:Kalliope Lane

Oooh! I just heard that Joss Whedon, of Buffy and Angel fame, will be writing and directing the feature film version of Wonder Woman!

While I’m not sure how I feel about a Wonder Woman film, I know it can’t get better than having Joss at the helm of the project.

I used to have my mother make me foil tiaras(with red sharpie stars) and wrist bands when I was in nursery school so I could wear them with my WW Underroos. We actually have pictures of me posing like I was deflecting bullets with the bracelets, looking like I meant some serious business.

I came across a website today that shows the petty nasty side of Superman. I thought they were spoofs until I read the FAQ — I can’t believe these are real comic book covers and pages.

Please take a moment and visit Superdickery. You won’t be sorry.

Good episode of 24 last night. Lots of tension in the lead-up to the firefight scene, and I enjoyed the interaction between Michelle and Tony. I’m so glad they’re back! And I must say, I’m sad about Paul getting shot. Even though I’m supposed to be upset that Audrey is feeling distant from Jack, I sort of want her to get back together with Paul. Sorry, Jack.

Alias was really good last week, too. I sound like a broken record about it, but I like epic plot intrigue — Sloane’s phone call at the end, the mystery surrounding Vaughn’s father, the conflict between Sydney and Nadia, Dixon’s distrust of Sloane…good stuff.

I’m much less amused by the caper-of-the-week, Sydney-centric episodes, like this week’s episode appears to be from the previews at least. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the undercover scenes and costumes, but I want them to fit into something grand in the story arc. And who’s the bad guy again this season? Oh yeah, we don’t really have one yet. I’ll just try to be patient and give them time.

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In other news, I went to get a new card at the big public library this weekend. I hadn’t used the system since 1993, when I lost a book of literary criticism on F. Scott Fitzgerald that I used for my senior paper in high school (Tender is the Night). I called beforehand to get the total of my fine , but in a happy twist of fate, they’d purged me from their system. I do feel like I’ve scammed the public library, though, and it makes me feel a little unclean.

My favorite find of the library trip so far has been The Introvert Advantage. The part about the different brain areas used by introverts and extroverts while at rest is really interesting. Enlightening, even. I highly recommend the book to anyone who is introverted or who is closely involved with an introvert.

Do I ever have interesting posts here about anything other than food these days? Probably not. I don’t mind though, because I have great fun to report:

Crazy Asian Tofu Dessert
Oh. My. God. My boyfriend and my friend Stephanie think I’m a little weird for being so head-over-heels in love with this stuff, but I really CANNOT get enough of it. It makes me school-girl giddy. I even talked to my cats about how great it is.

Every Saturday, one of our local Asian markets makes homemade soft-set tofu, which they sell warm and water-packed in quart containers. You also get a side of ginger honey syrup (honey is a non-vegan thing I do have occasionally). People apparently wait in line for it! You dish some of this watery tofu out into a dish and pour a little sweet syrup over it, mix it about, and eat. It reminds me of a soft custard, which I always used to love. And the best part is that it’s only $1.85!

What is this stuff really called? Is it a traditional Chinese dish? Or did this tea house/market just invent the best thing ever?

Side Note:
This market is better than the other I frequent by leaps and bounds! It’s cleaner and bigger, and has lots of great tofu products. PLUS, it doesn’t smell overwhelmingly of fish. Only downside: it was jam-packed and had long lines.

Just Like Honey Rice Nectar
This is a honey-flavored syrup available online at places like Pangea and VeganEssentials. And it tastes just like honey.

Ricemallow Fluff
Made by the same company as the honey-clone above (and available in the same places), it’s just like the Marshmallow Fluff stuff in the jar. I plan to have my first Fluffer Nutter sandwich soon — they apparently passed me by in childhood.

Pigeon Peas
Thanks to Ines, I sought these out at a local grocery with a great Goya section. I’ve learned that Pigeon Peas, aka gandules, are also the what the Indians call “toor dal” when skinned and split. Except that the Indian varieties seem to be yellow instead of green…and they also sometimes call them red gram dal. Yes, confusing.

Regardless, they’re very good! Fabulous made with rice. They could be my new favorite bean. Downside: I’ve only seen them in this one particular store, which is known for its great selection of latin foods.

Xocolatl
Whoa! This stuff is spicy! It’s dark chocolate infused with chilis, cacao nibs, maca, vanilla, and nutmeg. I think I remembered them all. It would be hard to eat a lot of it, but it’s interesting and is a fun change of pace. It’s made by Dagoba Chocolates, and is available at VeganEssentials if you can’t find it in your local HFS.

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I think I’ve hit everthing I wanted to mention. Tonight we’re having our favorite pesto & tomato sauce pasta dish.

Tidbits: (have I mentioned this before?)we make the pesto with cashews instead of pine nuts, because they’re cheaper and because they make it kind of creamy.

We also use this incredible product from Bionaturae. They’re strained plum tomatoes in a 24oz. bottle — you can make a great simple tomato sauce in a very few minutes. Great flavor!

We’ll also be having a bottle of Kenwood Zinfandel, which is now my second favorite zinfandel after Gundlach-Bundschu’s Morse Valley 2001 Zinfandel, which we discovered on our vacation to Sonoma.

Okay. Enough about food. I’m going to go write!

Out my office window the sky is perfectly blue, with big fluffy white clouds blowing rapidly by. But it’s also snowing. Do rainbows happen in these conditions, or only when there’s rain?

I didn’t mentioned my jury duty experience yet. Well, I loved it; it felt like vacation. For the entire first day I sat around reading a book in the quiet room. I had an hour and a half lunch. I got to leave at 3:30pm!

I was on a case for about two days, but the schedule was still pretty great. Read a little in the morning, go to court for a bit, have lunch, go back to court. Still leave pretty early. Definitely earlier than I EVER leave my office at work.

It wasn’t enjoyable only because I wasn’t at work and got to read a lot — the jury process itself was very interesting. It was neat to be part of our great court machine, even if my case in particular wasn’t dramatic or fascinating. I now have great respect for anyone who sits on a criminal trial, because I found my civil case to be difficult enough.

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Speaking of reading, the book I read that week was spectacular. It was beautiful, sad, and amusing, and it still haunts me. The Shadow of the Wind. The reviews are mixed on Amazon, but I don’t really understand because I just loved it so much.

The story has a little bit of everything: wonderful libraries, old books, tragic love stories, crumbling mansions, evil inspectors, mysterious book burners, voodoo hauntings, rich families falling from grace. My sort of book through and through.

Pathetically, I’m feeling very proud that I wrote two pages of my paper today (while at work, of course). I’ve been doing “Tolerable Tens”, an idea that I got from a website a friend suggested, for a few weeks now. It really jumpstarted work on my paper again and has been a lifesaver. (To give you an example of my previous dread, the first few days after I read the site, I couldn’t remember the name of the gimmick. All I could think of was “Tortuous Ten”. Heh.)
But today, I just banged out two pages, no timer, no hand-wringing, no whining. “Objects at rest stay at rest, objects in motion stay in motion” — a law I relate to deep in my heart.

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On the other writing front, I had to change my storyline for Forward Motion’s Two Year Novel course. I just couldn’t get into my original non-fantasy idea. So now I’m doubly behind, but I’m figuring it out, and I feel less guilty working on it now that I’m actively working on my paper.

I need to start declaring some official “writing time”, I think. Morning, evening…I’m not sure yet.