Still Coasting

Feeling pretty directionless with so little structure in my day. You can't look for jobs for 8 hours, or even 1. I would like to start working again, if only to keep myself busy. Can't seem to make it funemployment at all. Today I tried this gorgeous looking recipe, and failed horribly. Basically, I killed the yeast because I didn't follow the instructions in the right order. I hate wasting good ingredients.. darn you, temperamental yeast. You and sticky messy dough are the reason I stay away from making breads. I'm not into accumulating flashy kitchen equipment, but this makes me put the ubiquitous Kitchenaid stand mixer on my wish list.

B and I drove to Dallas last weekend with Sam for Chinese New Year. We got to lunch with Mema at Jeng Chi, a Lee family favorite. She was a good sport and tried all the various dumplings, and seemed like she enjoyed the meal. It's always kind of a challenge taking her places, because she is not very mobile and uses a folding walker to get around. And she usually has trouble getting into our low, sporty car. I can't even imagine being so physically restricted, but she has a great attitude. B and I visit her each time we go back to Dallas, as she is so dear to us. Even though I've still got my priorities to sort out, I can't help but admire a woman who has such a big heart. She is 80, but she is super open-minded; B is trying to convince her to get an iPad when it comes out.

For holidays and birthdays, our family in Dallas always gets together for a potluck dinner. The 3 sisters, my cousins, recently bought a house near ours in Plano, and we gathered there. B gets along well with my extended family, although sometimes I feel that he wishes they were a bit more rambunctious. Or drank more. A Chinese New Year tradition is to give or get red bags (red envelopes with cash). Kids get them, parents and grandparents and their older friends give them. I was not expecting anything, since when you get married, you're no longer in the kid category, but we were pleasantly surprised. We all said the standard phrase "gong xi fa cai" to our grandmas and they gave us red bags, B included. He only knew the Cantonese version, but he did better than the other white guy (cousin's boyfriend). My cousin J broke out the board games, and we spent the rest of the night sipping wine and playing Sequence, Rummikub, and poker. Even though we both had off on Monday, we left Sunday night so Sam could get some work done for class the next day. We spent the car ride listening to various Radio Lab podcasts, including a mind-boggling speech talk about the multiverse. It's like swiss cheese, where both the holes (universes) and the cheese meat (space) are ever-expanding...

B and I are visiting some friends in San Francisco next weekend. It always helps to have something to look forward to for getting through the day/week/month/etc. B applied for a job at Twitter (so did I, rejected), which is located there. We shall see. I never keep my hopes up, because they inevitably get dashed.

I changed my website banner. I didn't realize I could use a photo. I guess banners are not supposed to be that large or long, but I sorta like it like that. The photo came from my first roll of 35mm film developed on my Canon SLR. Not only that, I scanned it with a crappy 3-in-1 printer. Gave it a real aged, yellowed look. I no longer have that scanner, since the scan quality was so unacceptable, and personal printers are somewhat hellish to maintain. And well, I just have not been taking any photos lately. Everything seems old in this town. Old and seen. The only real new factor in this town is probably the crazy number of food trailers that keep springing up each week, it seems like. Not just in Airstreams anymore, but even in industrial shipping containers. I've realized that the besides dishes with tons of butter in them, I don't actually have any favorite foods or restaurants. What makes eating fun for me is novelty and good companions. Although I like to bake, I usually don't crave foods I can make myself. It's all about the mystery.

New: Balmorhea - Bowspirit
Surfer Blood - Swim

(mp3 sources: knox road, daily rind)