Is This Thing On
If there's one thing that's constant in my life it would have to be music. I love music. Granted I'm not one for making music, but I love listening to it. The majority of events in my life I can remember what I was listening to. Like when Shawn and I got married we were listening to Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (with the Japanese Bonus track) a lot. I recall being a teenager driving around with a car full of people listening to Operation Ivy and Ska The Third Wave comp. Smash by Offspring always reminds me of driving around with my mother. We had this little hand gesture/dance thing all worked out to 'What Happened To You'. While at work I've constantly got music playing. I find that I can focus so much better when I've got songs that I can listen and bounce around in my seat to. My boss thinks I'm crazy and she said that she wouldn't be able to concentrate with all the noise. Personally I think I'm more productive.
Some of the things I've been listening to recently:
The Soviettes - For those of you who know me, you probably know that I am not the biggest fan of female singers. Don't get me wrong, there are a number that I really enjoy but for the most part I'm not a big fan. I really can't stand the whiney/screetchy high pitched girl voices. Like nails on a chalkboard. So because of that some might be surprised that I enjoy the Soviettes. Shawn and I were discussing this today on the way to work and we've decided that it's because their sound is a lot more raw and they're not all screetchy. I figure if I were a girl singer I think I'd like to sound like them. They're pretty rock. Unfortunately every time they've come to town we've missed them for one reason or another. Next time dammit!
Panic! At The Disco - I'm quite enjoying the whole pop/punk thing with a bit of synth that has been coming out lately. They have some pretty damn good song titles as well. I can't decide which title is my favorite, but 'Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have With Her clothes On' is a pretty good one.
Billy Talent - There was a month recently where their newest cd did not leave our car CD player. Good Canadian punk rock band. The singer sounds very Sex Pistols/Buzzcocks like. He's got a very sarcastic sounding voice. Very good for when you're in a bad mood. Not to mention, the band was named after a character from the book/movie Hard Core Logo. Props for that.
Social Distortion - I think the majority of my play list at work is SxDx. They're one of my favorite bands of all time. I've seen them live a bunch of times and they're always great. There's just something about the way Mike Ness says "motherfucker", I love it.
Econoline Crush - For the nostalgia factor really. I spent a lot of time with them when I was a teenager. They were a lot of fun and bunch of really nice guys. Sadly, they're no longer together, but it appears that Trevor has a new thing going on called
Hurst. I haven't really had a chance to listen to them, but from what I gather they're not much like Econoline, though I think I read somewhere that Hurst performs some Econoline songs. Dan is now playing bass for DOA, which he has been for awhile. That's pretty awesome for him as they're a punk rock icon really.
The Decemberists - Great lyrics, great songs. I don't think much more needs to be said.
Sense Field - Perhaps one of the most underrated alternative bands ever. We had the chance to see them a number of years ago, but didn't end up going. They broke up shortly after. It's a shame because they were quite good.
The Postal Service - Electronica/indie goodness. I'm totally loving the mix of electronic/synth-y type stuff with guitars and stuff (though Postal Service doesn't really have all that much in the way of guitar and all, I kind of lump them together with the others, I'm a bad person). That's why I've always liked remixed punk/rock/indie type songs. Not to mention Ben from Death Cab, come on.
The Independents - A mix of punk, rock, ska, horrorpunk. They're all over the place. Kind of like a more fun Misfits. They're going to be coming here next month and we'd like to go, but we're not sure if it's sold out or not. It probably will be if it's not already seeing as it's going on at Studio Seven which is a pretty small venue and they seem to have quite the following. We'll have to see.
So, what are you listening to?
Malt Liquor Tastes Better When You've Got Problems
I had a dream last night that I bought a 40 of Old English. That's something I haven't done since high school. There were these other ones that we'd buy as well. Bulls or something. My god were they ever terrible. I remember when I lived in Montreal they had this Orange flavored beer that we'd get at the dep across the street in these
huge bottles. They tasted like a combination of crappy beer and Tang. I can't for the life of me remember what they're called though. I believe there is a picture of me somewhere with two bottles of the stuff. I'll have to search for it and see if I can real the label. I can't believe I actually drank it. I don't think I was actually able to drink a lot of it actually, it was more a novelty really. "Orange beer? Sounds tasty! I'm in!" For the record though I was going to school and not working at the time. No fancy, schmancy beers for me, couldn't afford it. Ahhh, the good old days.
I'm really looking forward to the weather getting a wee bit warmer. Like 70 or something. I want to open all the blinds/windows (even though that will make all the spots that I need to dust painfully obvious) and just sit around drinking coffee and perhaps reading or something. I honestly doubt that will happen because I'm always busy. Even if I'm not actively doing something, I'm thinking about the things that I need to do. My head is always super busy. I wish I could fully and completely relax, but I always have so much to think about. Maybe I have adult ADD. Or ADHD, it's hyperactive cousin? Actually I'm fairly sure I don't have any ADD type problems because I can focus on things, too much in fact. What's the opposite of ADD? Maybe I have that. A former co-worker and friend actually thought she had Adult ADD to the point of going and getting tested. Turns out, according to the test, not so much. But I still think she'd like to believe she does.
Anyway, back to me. I think that it would be nice to take a little vacation from my day to day life. Just turn my brain off and not have to think about anything for awhile. Ahhh, if only. A real vacation would be nice too, but I have issues about that. I blame it on laziness, but I think it's more anxiety. I often worry that Shawn's family think we don't visit them often because of me. Though honestly I don't think that's the case. Shawn isn't so keen on traveling lately either. So put us both together and we seem to go nowhere. Actually I can't remember the last time we went anywhere. I think it must have been Denver, umm, 2 years ago? Wow. That is quite awhile. Granted we did go to Salt Spring Island BC a little more recently than that, but really it was just overnight so it doesn't really count. We need to get a few things taken care of and then I think day/overnight trips to Vancouver/BC every now and then would be just what we need. Not to mention a good way to stock up on all our favorite Canadian treats that we can't get around these parts.
A Rather Tasty Veggie Burger
Shawn and I tend to have veggie burgers at least once a week. For the most part we have some variety of the Morningstar Farms brand as they're super tasty and quite convenient. The only one that I didn't particularly like was the Prime Grillers, but it's been awhile since I've tried those and might have to try them again.
Awhile back I purchased some
LightLife Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style with the intention of making either veggie burgers or veggie meatballs or something along those lines. I've had it sitting in my fridge for awhile and have been wanting to use it, but didn't really have the opportunity. Well, I decided that for dinner this evening I would make veggie burgers out of it. I looked around the interweb for a veggie burger recipe using the stuff, but couldn't seem to find one. So I decided to come up with something on my own.
I asked Shawn if there was anything he'd like me to put in them, and he suggested some fresh cilantro that we had in the fridge left over from making Pad Thai last week. I agreed that it sounded like a good idea and came up with the following recipe:
1 package Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp garlic powder
a few shakes Montreal steak seasoning
some crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
Mix it all together and form into 4 patties. Cook in an non stick skillet with a touch of oil for about 4-5 minutes n each side.
They turned out to be very yummy. We had them on buns with lettuce, tomato, sweet onion and spicy mayo (some fat free mayo with ground black pepper, cholula hot sauce and a touch of chipotle tabasco).
I think maybe next time we'll try them with Thai type flavors/toppings seeing as we have two more patties in the freezer.
Me!
Erin!
Originally uploaded by Slightlynorth.Shawn has been playing with Flickr ever since I signed up. This evening we were sitting on the couch with our respective laptops and he was going through folders of pictures trying to find ones that would be good to upload. I just happened to look over at his screen and see a picture of myself I hadn't seen before, and a cute one at that! I love pictures of myself when I don't realize I'm being photographed, I seem more normal and relaxed and not posing or anything. Granted the picture sucks because it was taken with his Treo 650 and not one of our cameras, but still, it made me smile. I always say he never takes any pictures of me, and of course when I noticed the picture he said "Now you can't say I don't ever take pictures of you!". He would.
Local Celebrity Sighting
When Shawn and I were at the airport waiting to pick up my father we saw
Robert Mak from King 5 News. It was kind of funny, Shawn turned to me and said "Hey, that looks like Robert Mak" and then we got all teenager and started whispering about him and how we enjoy his "up front" reporting. And then he walked by us and totally gave us a look. He probably knew we were whispering about him, so we just smiled and then continued giggling and going on like a couple of school girls.
Okay, so obviously it wasn't as exciting as say seeing Eddie Vedder or even one of the guys from Harvey Danger, but it was amusing nonetheless and gave us something to talk about until the father arrived. I said had it been Rich Marriott, Eric Kirshner or even Alan Schaufler I would have totally gone up to them and got my picture taken with them. They're like my favorite people on King 5 news.
Wow, you know you're getting old when you have favorite anchors/weather people from local news shows.
Cuppycakes.. MmMMMm
New Starbucks Cupcakes!
Originally uploaded by lunge_org.Yes, I admit it. I bought the cupcakes. They are currently sitting on my counter waiting for Shawn and I to devour, err enjoy them. I believe we will give them a try later this evening. Aren't they lovely though? Hopefully they taste half as good as they look.
UPDATE: The cupcakes were lovely. Surprisingly, even though I'm a whore for chocolate I much enjoyed the vanilla sunshine one more. It just had a better flavor and the icing reminded me of good cake icing. And the pressed sugar daisy on top was tasty. They have an orange one that I must try next!
Randomness.
I am in a damn good mood today. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's sunny out, or that it's Friday (finally!), or that I'm looking totally rock n roll cute in my Ramones hoodie and jeans or that I got an e-mail from an old friend referenced in a past entry (Gene from Junior Achiever). It's probably actually a combination of all that, and perhaps the banana I had with breakfast (which by the way, did you know that bananas contain trypotophan which is a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin which can help you relax, and generally make you feel happier? Well apparently they do.). Regardless I'll take what I can get in the good mood department, because for the last little while I've been feeling kind of 'meh', and although some of the things I've been feeling 'meh' about are not resolved, they're not something I am focusing my time and/or energy on at the moment, thankyouverymuch.
And now for the completely random..
- A co-worker brought
The Decemberists to my attention recently. I'd heard
of them and possibly heard them once or twice on KEXP, but I'd never really listened to them. So we took the time to download one of their albums, and after a little getting used to (the singer's voice is, in a word, interesting) they have become one of our new favorites. The lyrics are really smart, not to mention the video for
16 Military Wives is great. Watch it!
- I am totally craving a cupcake from Starbucks. They have these fancy schmancy new cupcakes that look completely heavenly that I've been eyeing for awhile. Thanks to hubbabub (locked) and her most recent entry, I can't get them out of my head. I think I am going to have to break down this weekend when we go pick up Shawn's markout and get one. I'm thinking chocolate.
- Word has it that they're opening a
Whole Foods in West Seattle. I'm so excited. This now means that I won't have to go all the way to the U District, or the Eastside for bread, french fries and lip stuff. I am slightly worried how having a Whole Foods in the area will affect smaller, local grocery stores such as
The Metropolitan Market,
West Seattle Thriftway and
PCC. I do hope that Whole Foods doesn't turn into the WalMart of organic type grocery stores. I'm thinking that I will continue to do the bulk of my shopping at the Metro and just go to Whole Foods for specific things. Is it wrong that I love grocery stores so much?
- My glutes and legs are sore from doing many squats, lunges, plies and other leg exercises yesterday. Is it just me or does the word 'squat' seem slightly wrong? Squat, squat, squat. Ick. I think that needs to be added to my list of words that I don't like along with 'panties' and 'moist'.
- I've been listening to the
Manic Street Preachers a lot lately. I kind of forgot about them for awhile. I used to listen to them when I was a young teenager and was rather into British bands such as Suede, The Smiths/Morrissey, etc. I completely forgot about Richey James and his
whole bizarre story and disappearance. The other day I spent a little too much of my time reading up on it. Pretty interesting, however he probably did end up killing himself, despite all the sightings over the years.
-
Wikipedia and
Google are two of my best friends. With them, I can do almost anything!
- I hate, hate, hate when people call me and have me on speaker phone and can't seem to hear me too well. Pick. Up. The. Phone. You'll be able to hear me better, seriously.
- I can't believe we're already 3 days into March. Where has the time gone?
Speaking of time, the weekend fast approaches. I am looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing. Although I might have to do a bit of cleaning as my father arrives next week. Yay, time off work! And shopping!
