Nachos For Dinner

We were at my parents' house over the weekend, baking off corn tortillas into tortilla chips, when I had an idea.

"I'm going to make nachos," I said.

With baked chips and the inevitably low-fat cheese that Mom keeps in the fridge, they wouldn't even be that bad for you!

But Mom took this idea ran with it.  We would not have one middling plate of chips with melted cheese as a midafternoon snack: we would have platters upon platters of nachos - for DINNER!

FYI

In case you were wondering -

Pomodoros

This is kind of a random thing to blog about, but I find it really helpful so I thought I'd share.  Ba-ba-da-BAAAAAAAAAA (those were trumpets): The Pomodoro Technique for TIME MANAGEMENT!

Oh, happy day!!!!!!!!

(Yes, I am about to write a post about time management.  Yes.  Me.  I am).

From Pomodoro's website:

Pomodoro Technique® can be split in five simple steps:

1. Choose a task to be accomplished
2. Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
4. Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break

That's it (the developer of this technique, Francesco Cirillo, originally used a red kitchen timer shaped like a tomato, hence the name).  It's so simple, but by concentrating on one task - and only one task - for 25 minutes, I find that it's much easier to resist impulses to check my email, dick around online, or abandon things halfway through to start on a different unfinished to-do item from earlier in the day.  And those five minute breaks are perfect - just enough time to chill, get a drink, check the paper, or talk to someone.  I use a free timer to track it all.  Try it!

Is this the dorkiest post I've ever written?

All this talk of pomodoro makes me want spaghetti.

My Life IS Like This, Actually (not really)

How To Make Oysters

Dan and I have recently begun to really like oysters.  But as hobbies go, oyster are 'spensive.  As fun as it is to get them on a fancy platter at a restaurant, it's less fun to know that the restaurant is like, "I can charge a 400% markup on these things and all we have to do is keep them cold?! "  So I thought I would try to put together a platter at home.

First stop, The Lobster Place, a great little seafood shop near my office.

Foster Kittens

The parentals have two foster kittens for the summer.  Mom didn't name them this time, thinking she would get less attached.  Not so much.  Name or not (my brother dubbed them "Flapjack" and "Bad Luck Chuck"), they are predictably adorable.

Marty is less enthused.

Other People's Pools

Since our crush of summer weddings ended in June this year, I thought we'd end up spending a lot of our weekends in Brooklyn, but it turns out that no weddings = lots of opportunities to do other things.  So that's what's been happening, and with the arrival of New York's signature summer scent, Garbage, those opportunities are heaven-sent.  Thank God for friends and their summer homes.

Last month, I went down to Spring Lake for a ladies' weekend at the Del G's brand-new beach house/probable future perma-home (if you'd like a complete tour, Denny posted one in May).  Katie's mom spent two years slaving over every detail, and it turned out predictably gorgeous.

DIY

More inspiration for the headboard I will probably never make!  Nail planks together and add a cool pattern!

Image from Design Sponge (obviously), which has directions for putting this together (basically... nail planks together; paint).  I like this mostly because of the stencil; I think.  The untreated wood is cool but doesn't seem that comfy for leaning back with a book.

Speaking of stencils, while Dan was away I had grand designs of doing some massive home improvement project that he would then inevitably not notice once he came home.  I wanted to take down the hideous light fixture in our living room, but there's some funky wiring there and I didn't want him to come home to a dead wife on the floor, so instead I decided to get rid of this thing:

The lettering on my "EAT" mural never had the graphic look I'd envisioned, and since we have a ton of open storage in the kitchen (that sliver of shelf you see off to the right holds all of our pots, pans, cookbooks, bowls, plates, and random appliances) it all looked very cluttered and a little faux-down-home for my taste.

Naturally, I was too lazy to re-organize the open storage, or take all the crap off our fridge, so instead I did this:

Covered that EAT sucker with primer and a thin coat of white semi-gloss, covered the whole thing with a random pattern of painter's tape, and filled the grid in with leftover "greige" that I used on our coffee table and entryway, and a blue paint sample I bought last year for the sweaty dresser, mixed with white semi-gloss so it would dry with a bit of shine).

I like it!

The Trip

I love the trailers before indie films.  They say, "we respect you, independent film-goer.  Allow us to flatter you with the assumption that you will enjoy this hoity-toity programming.  We would never sully your eyes with a preview for Morning Glory."

It was such an experience that brought The Trip to Dan's and my attention (before the just-barely-independent Midnight in Paris).  It's still in theaters, but we rented it from On Demand last weekend - cable companies are doing an admirable job convincing us to never again leave the house for fun, no?

In The Trip, British famouses (?) Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing themselves, go on a short road trip around northern England.  Coogan, recently dumped, is doing a "news" story on fancy restaurants up there (we quickly learn he only agreed to the trip as a way to impress his old flame), and has invited Brydon as a replacement for the girlfriend.  The movie goes from restaurant to restaurant, inn to inn, random female Eastern European hospitality worker to random female Eastern European hospitality worker (in Coogan's case), despondent phone conversation with his girlfriend to despondent phone conversation with his son (also Coogan), punctuated with walks in the countryside and long stretches of the men entertaining themselves in the car.  Surprisingly, these bits - with Coogan and Brydon riffing on one another, are the best parts of the movie.  The men build on one another until they've constructed a full verbal game, and it's rather delightful to watch.

What baffled me, though, is why Brydon puts up with Coogan, who clearly hates him, at all.  In retrospect, this was the crux of the film.  Coogan wants to be a success in the US, and work in Hollywood, while Brydon seems perfectly happy doing his impressions and living life as is.  We see shots of Coogan mocking Brydon's signature "Tiny Man in a Box" routine, and then attempt to replicate it, unsuccessfully, in his hotel room mirror.    It's a bit sad.  And in the end, when Brydon returns to his wife and child, and Coogan returns to a gargantuan empty apartment, there's a sense of sadness and also realism, because neither character has really changed.  And isn't that the way most things go?