2006-02-22 - 8:55 a.m.

Good Things

I could get used to a life of leisure. Or a life of home projects.

Call me Martha.

How I spent my four-day weekend (this is not a spoof):

Saturday:

• Buttermilk pancakes with bacon. Yes, from scratch.
  
• Started priming the bathroom walls with a shellac the odor of which was not wholly unappealing.
  
• Whipped up a batch of Mohinga (the Burmese national fish soup dish -- I'm surprised you need to ask...) for the second time in ten years (the first time, Huntington and I egged each other on). I didn't have lemongrass, so had to substitute kaffir lime leaves, and also did without the wide rice noodles; one just must make do with what one has in the larder sometimes, l'authenticit� de la cuisine be damned.
  
• Finished reading Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex. I found it pretty satisfying; I may expound further at a later date.
  
• Watched the harrowing, scenery-chewing-fest that is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. It's finally off my "to do" list after all these years. We loves us some La Liz at her peak. This and Butterfield 8 are definite must sees.

Sunday

• Buttermilk pancakes with bacon (Saturday's were so good, I just had to have another batch) and the Los Angeles Times.
  
• Trip to the Ace Home Improvement Center with Jodi.
  
• Potted some marigolds.
  
• Supped on leftover Mohinga

Monday

• Picked up custom-tinted paint at the hardware store: "Bluffdale" and "Starfish"; in reality, they look much more yellow than they do on the computer screen.
  
• Tooled up to Los Olivos with Bob and had lunch (a nice turkey and brie with cranberry relish on focaccia) at the Los Olivos Grocery, which was innur-resting in terms of the juxtaposition of good ol' Valley Folk with very put together daytrippers from points south.
  
• Continued the afternoon driving up a very bumpy, on the verge of motion-sickness-inducing Figueroa Mountain Road, at the summit of which we actually got to see snow, which may be my first and only of the season.
  
• Stopped at Trader Joe's for just a few items, just the barest of essentials really, including butternut squash ravioli and fresh sage.
  
• Picked up a bottle of Pit� Cacha�a in order that I might fiiiiii-nally satisfy the nagging Caipirinha jones I've had for a couple of weeks now.
  
• Japanese dinner at "Edomasa" with Bob
  
• More priming of the sodding ancient, uneven plaster walls.

Tuesday

• Slept in until 10:15.
  
• Breakfast of steel-cut oats, currants, and maple syrup.
  
• Started the painting, and made fairly quick work of it (well, not sure if 5+ hours is quick work for a bathroom). Got everything back on the walls, including the framed Curious George Takes a Bath prints.
  
• Simultaneously worked on preparing a homemade chicken pot pie (the crust, alas, was bought, readymade). Poached breasts, simmered broth from the bones, fresh carrots and potatoes -- The Works. Had Jodi over for dinner.
  
• Basked in the warm yellowish glow of my new bathroom.

It's hard being a domestic goddess. As my grandmother once said (little did she know...?): I'll make someone a good husband someday.