Iceflake's Journal

I started my day with some fun errands today (picked up a beautiful antique for somebody specials birthday). Driving home I get to my exit make my left and see a waft of vast amounts of smoke billow up to the sky. My heart sped up as it looked like it was coming right from the area my family and I live. I hadn't heard from anyone though. So I called. The closer I got the more it looked like that's where it was coming from. At home she can see the fire. As I round the corner of the road the flames are at the top of the hill.... one hillside away from the community we live in. Good day to have off... I loaded everyone's computers, hard-drives and photos in the cars. At this point the fire seems to have been well contained though... but seeing flames from my house was definitely a wake up. I still had all my photos in one place from last summer. Ashes raining down would have been the sign to leave, but they seemed to be pushing more into town.

http://www.cbs2.com/video/?id=21387@kcbs.dayport.com

The things that seem important: I called my family that was either at work or away on vacation to find out what of their stuff to put in the vehicles. Since my sister was away and I don't have a car I had to call her to get where she was hiding her spare keys. Now we had two cars. I grabbed my computer and hard-drives after my families stuff, then photos and journals and a kimono that my grandmother used to wear all the time (there's a painting of her wearing this kimono that's infamous in my family- I would also have to drive to my dad's house to get that). The animals where made ready. After all that anything else was just a bonus... course there was no way we were getting a 7' grand piano out of the house. There were so many things that would have gone up.... 100's of old great records, record player, furniture, music equipment, instruments, cd collection, art... the friggin' house!, rugs, tools, clothes, every copy of any molly zenobia cd... unless you have one... the list gets less and less, but then there are so many things that have been passed down art-wise. Particularly some beautiful Japanese pieces from my grandmother. i have too much stuff.

Although you can't have this toast with butter or jam it was on display at the Modern Art Museum of Buenos Aires.
2500 slices of bread, 16.5X15 feet... that's a whole lotta toast going on.
(link if you're interested: http://www.fa-art.pp.se/Baires.htm)

on another note, let's go get toasted! ...sorry, so sorry bout that. :)
it's coming up on that time when I drink a vast amount of free coffee. Anybody feel like chatting later? ;)

Please watch this before it's taken down!

"...course you can also jump off a bridge and blow your brains out"... or you can come join us through the gate of Scientology!

"I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUvv-BM7zg0

[editors note: this was taken down very quickly, but basically was the 10th video in a series of ten orientation videos for Scientology. And yes, it was as odd and 180 degree changes as "You can decide that Scientology doesn't work for you and leave today,... course you can also jump off a bridge and blow your brains out" I'm not kidding. The Copyright holders of the video had them taken down, but in the mean time I'll try and find them somewhere else....]

The wasabi we eat nowadays in restaurants is not actually made from wasabi, it's most typically made from horseradish and green food coloring. Wasabi is an incredibly difficult plant to grow. In fact, wasabi is so rare I don't know if I'd ever had the real thing! It's an evergreen growing mostly in Asia and a few farms in Oregon that needs a very wet and cool environment with running water.

Wasabi was first used when people realized that the people who ate it didn't get sick. After that it was also used to kill and keep certain bacteria off of fish. It has been proven to help food poisoning, and several other illness.
The part that's used to make the paste to go with your fish/sushi/sashimi is a rhizome, or an underground stem.

If you're in the bay area (I was there this past weekend) or know someone who is, there's a market at the Nijiya market in Japan-town, San Francisco, at the corner of Post and Webster) that carries it. Then you can just carry it into your favorite sushi bar with you, or order sushi/sashimi out, make your own wasabi, put a dollop on top, and taste the difference!

This is some of what I learned Friday night after having a lovely homemade dinner by a woman who grew up in Bengal:
Take two gallons of whole milk...
curdle milk by heating super slow...
You can also throw in a little lemon juice to help it curdle...
Strain the milk through a cheese cloth or muslin cloth until the liquid is gone.
What's left at the end of this process is called chhena.
Form the chhena into ball shapes.
Now add lots of sugar to a little water and dissolve the sugar into the water by boiling it.
Put the balls (chenna) into the mixture to cook briefly and then soak.
Add touch of rose water for a lovely fragrance.
The curdling done properly and the waiting to drain can take days when done properly.
This might go over very well at one of the Slow Food conventions that are getting popular in Europe.
HOWEVER... you can also purchase this classic Indian sweet by the can in America or on-line...
Rashogolla is how it's pronounced.

Some people find roshogolla too sweet. My friend though ate four in a row.
It has an effect in my mouth that is squeaky... it feels spongy and squeaky.
The rose fragrance is very pleasing and adds to the taste is a subtle and lovely way.

I read a post about Lemon Bars at slashfood.com:
"There is a hierarchy in baked goods. It's not like I didn't know this before, but observations over the course of a week have completely proven this to me. And I've also concluded that lemon bars, no matter what, will always go last.

Our office received a tray of pastries every afternoon last week as snacks for our working group. The contents of the tray varied slightly each day, but there were always cookies, brownies and lemon bars. As you may have guessed, chocolate chip cookies barely lasted longer than it took for the delivery person to set the tray down. Oatmeal raisin cookies were gone next. Peanut butter cookies shared a distant third place with brownies. This happened every day. The same pattern, and with different people in the office, too.

Lemon bars were always last. In fact, sometimes, the delivery person who came to clean up the trays left with the tray with every single lemon bar still left."

My thoughts:

I've noticed that about the Lemon Bars. They are the last to go. Something to consider though is they're not like a sugar cookies. When a sugar cookie tastes bad, everyone's like, how'd you @#&^ up a sugar cookie?!? A Lemon Bar is another story. They can be too sour, too sweet, odd consistency... there is a "just right" lemon bar then there's everything else. People might want to place a more solid bet with their office sweets.

On another note:

I am having a house concert at the Hawke residence in Boston on Friday, June 23rd at 7:30pm. Those of you who were there last time saw the release of the my Live Retrospective DVD, Wash Rinse Spin... This time I'll have a short album of new songs! I would love for you to join me to celebrate the recording by coming to this performance. There will be iced tea (or hot cider - depending on the weather), and I will play brand new songs and - per request - some older pieces that I have not performed in a long time. Please feel free to stay and hang out afterwards.

Details:

Friday June 23rd
free iced tea and the like at 6:30
and the performance at 7:30
The Hawke Residence
39 Greenwood Ln.
Waltham, MA. 02451

$10 at the door
you can RSVP to give us an idea for chair set-up by e-mailing me at mollyzen@mollyzenobia.com

hey everyone!

I'll be playing a house concert in Boston this Friday!!!

Please join me at the Hawke residence at 7:00pm for a solo show. I've been working on tons of new music this year, so in addition to many old favorites I'll be playing some kick-ass new tunes. CDs will be available as will a limited edition Molly Zenobia Retrospective DVD. I know, what is that???? 2006 marks my 8-year anniversary as a professional recording artist and so I thought I'd put together a video that shows some of the key points on that path. The DVD is 30 minutes long and includes live performances, me and my band on tour, band interviews, and two bonus clips: Anatomy Of A Song (where I teach you how to record your own song!), and a Studio Tour!!! For a sneak-peek at one of the videos on the DVD, check out my website: www.mollyzenobia.com

Thanks so much everyone, hope to see you Friday!

Warmly,
Molly Zenobia
________________________________________________________________________________________

Molly Zenobia ~ House Concert
39 Greenwood Ln. Waltham, MA

Friday, March 10, 2006
7:00pm

$10.00
+ free cider :)

please rsvp at:
mollyzen@mollyzenobia.com

For a music refresher check out:
www.mollyzenobia.com
or
www.myspace.com/mollyzenobia

"They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our
people, and neither do we."

- U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking at the signing of the
Defense Appropriations Act, on August 5, 2004.

[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040805-3.html]

SAGITTARIUS
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
A romantic encounter that has been fraught with mixed signals is finally clearing up in a manner that puts you in control. Look to gain in status and fame if you can stick to the present project.

There's a spider on my pillow.

I seem to be moving on from the ellipse to the exclamation point!

...


``We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.''
-George Orwell


...

http://www.liberaloasis.com/Bushmovie.swf


... I feel a little better now.

Come get your fortune read!

Created by ptocheia

hmmmm....

so, what's this say about generalizations?...

My journal says I'm 60% masculine.

What does your LJ writing style say about your gender?

LJ Gender Tool by hutta

head has been throbbing.

feeling groggy.

forgot to save.

program quit.

oops.

feeling reluctant to redo the music again.

summary: crappycrapcrapdunderheaddamnitbangbang.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Moderate
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

you, me, the mall, the plastic dog crap,.... the dildo.