Monthly Archive for November, 2006

Department stores

Published on November 29, 2006 in DailyGrind, Den Haag, ResidentHipster and SF. 0 Comments

I went shopping today looking for a pair of leggings. I have the theory that they will solve my I-need-to-wear-tights-under-my-pants-but-that-means-I-can’t-wear-my-toe-socks problem which I was hung up by last winter.

I ended up going to one of the big department stores here in Den Haag. Department stores are weird. I can’t actually justify spending the kind of money you need to spend to buy most of the clothes in any department store. And while most of them carry the exact same sets of ready to wear designer brands, some department stores are really scary and some are not. You know, Ralph Lauren is going to cost the same amount of money no matter which store I happen to be in, so why is it that when I walk into certain stores in SF, I feel the need to walk right out? Like I’m clearly too poor to be there and the sales ladies are going to smell the poor on me and kick my ass out on the street.

Now in some stores that’s actually true. I’ve actually been icy stared out of stores. But there are some stores that I simply feel uncomfortable in and it has nothing at all to do with who’s working there. I can never really stand walking around Nordstrom, for instance, even though it’s on top of a mall and the sales people are perfectly helpful if a little chilly. And I’m fine in Macy’s except on certain floors that I for some reason feel a deep need to avoid.

I couldn’t ever figure out what it is about some stores that makes me feel like that. And then I realized today that it’s the kind of music that gets played in places that throws me off. Seriously, walking into some stores is like walking into a library. Everything’s really quiet. Maybe there’s piped in piano music, or worse yet an actual piano playing. If I go into some place that is playing horrible pop music everything’s fine. But get the luxury car commercial music going and I turn right around and walk off.

This is, of course, by design. Some stores are for rich people only and they do their best to make sure that people like me know they aren’t wanted there. I just hadn’t figured out why some wood paneled out of my price range stores creeped me out and some feel almost ok (except for the sticker shock). Good to know.

Baking in a glorified toaster oven

Published on November 27, 2006 in DailyGrind, Den Haag and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

I just baked focaccia.

I cannot tell you how pleased I am to have an oven again. It is wee, so I’m having to modify my ideas about what all I can bake, but it’s very nice to be able to bake *anything* at all.

I tried baking two loaves of bread on Thanksgiving, but both of them turned out disastrously in their own special ways. The first loaf I ended up burning because it was so near the top heat source of the oven. The bread was perfectly baked on the inside, but the top was an unappealing shade of black. Worried that the same would happen to the second loaf that I put into the oven, I took it out when the top was a nice shade of brown. Unfortunately when I cut into it, there was a disturbing doughy hole in the middle of it. It was, in a word, gross.

I took from these loaves a few lessons. One was to make sure to watch whatever is in the oven like a hawk. And the other is to make sure that whatever I make is pretty flat. So I think it’s going to be mostly biscuits, scones, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, flat breads and rolls for a while. Which is fine. I like all those things and while I haven’t spent much time making anything on that list but scones, it’ll be a whole new adventure for me.

So I’m trying out focaccia. I’ve made a version of this bread many times before. I used to make a loaf on the weekends and then eat sandwiches made of it for lunch during the week. Focaccia is an unusual yeast bread. The dough is very, very wet. To the point that you can’t really roll it out onto a counter to knead it because it just sticks to everything it touches. It’s almost more of a batter than a dough. Some recipes specifically call for an stand mixer to be used when kneading the dough because it’s too wet to knead by hand. The first time I tried making it, the recipe I used called for rolling the dough out onto the counter and it made such a huge mess that I threw the whole thing away. I spent like 15 minutes cleaning it all up. I eventually used a recipe out of the Joy of Cooking, which called for about twice as much flour and is much closer to a normal yeast bread. The recipe I used this time (which I linked to up top) is one of those super wet dough ones. I ended up just pulling the dough like taffy instead of trying to knead it. I also had to get ‘les to oil down a bowl for me because my hands were busy being stuck with dough.

The whole thing has turned out really, well. The bread came out a little unevenly browned on top so I stuck turned the pan and stuck it back in the oven for ten minutes, which fixed it right up. The finished product is chewy and crispy and a little oily, as a nice focaccia should be. Tasty!

Now if anyone can point me to a chocolate muffin recipe that they like…

They have the internets on computers now?

Published on November 24, 2006 in DailyGrind, Den Haag and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

We have interweb tubes coming into our very own apartment now. No more quick-cafe-email-reading for me.

*does little dance*

Casema’s cable/interweb/phone package is hell to set up, by the way. If you’re ever trying to do this, turn the TV on while you work. I don’t understand the science behind it, but apparently it makes the internet tubes start delivering email to you.

Jesus, I’m tired

Published on November 22, 2006 in DailyGrind, Den Haag and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

I just went to SIX stores looking for chestnuts. Fucking A. I couldn’t throw a tiny dog in Paris without hitting someplace selling chestnuts but here in The Hague it’s a bike-to-several-neighborhoods sort of adventure.

On the bright side, fresh cranberries seem to be the new in thing to have everywhere.

Now I’m in the market for a new baking book that has ingredients listed in metric since I finally managed to get an oven today. I miss my Bread Bible, it listed everything in American and metric. Maybe I’ll get it when I come back to the States for the generic winter holiday? I dunno, it’s really huge.

Life flotsam

Published on November 21, 2006 in DailyGrind, Den Haag, Netherlands and ResidentHipster. 2 Comments

‘les really loves the school she’s going to and is thinking about applying to the Master’s program once her year is up. She’s encouraging me to apply to The Royal Academy of Art’s photography program. I don’t know if I’m into this idea. It would be nice to be doing photo stuff more seriously, but I really don’t think I want to, you know, make it my job or anything. So it seems like sort of silly to be doing a program, you know? Also, I’m not all that keen on staying here longer. I like The Netherlands fine, but I really want to go home in the near future, damn it.

Yesterday I learned to play the Jew’s Harp yesterday and then preformed it in front of half the conservatory as part of a student piece. Those things are both surprisingly easy and difficult to play at the same time. They’re weird but kinda fun. I was a little sad to have to give mine up after the show was over.

I’m going to be buying tickets for a Generic Winter Holiday trip home soon. I really should have done this a long time ago but ‘les was going back and forth about her plans and whether or not she wanted to bring Xena to Europe. ‘les seems to be leaning towards getting the dog, though.

‘les ordered internets last week. I’m still having to go to cafes to get online, but the internets should arrive in the next few days. And then I can go to cafes to read book and knit like normal people. Woot.

Ovens

Published on November 20, 2006 in DailyGrind, Den Haag and ResidentHipster. 2 Comments

Why is it easier to find a bread machine or a deep frier than a convection oven in Den Haag? Apartments don’t come with ovens, you’d think they’d be at least as common as deep friers, non?

Bah.

knitting stuff

Published on November 17, 2006 in Crafty, Den Haag, Netherlands and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

Oy. I have things to talk about, but I feel a bit too scattered to write anything worth reading. We’re supposed to be getting Internet, phone, and cable next week. This is good because not having internets at home is driving me really batty. I have to choose between checking my email and doing things during the day, which ain’t right, y’all. Plus I’d really rather be online while West Coasters are awake, you know?

Let’s see…things…

I went to Amsterdam yesterday to check out De Afstap, which is a little yarn store in Amsterdam. I was a little disappointed to see that they mostly just stocked Rowan yarns, but the woman working the register was really friendly and helpful. I ended up buying a bunch of Rowan’s Felted Tweed in ginger. I’m planning on making a sweater out of it.

I kinda of love planning knitted projects. Maybe more than the knitting itself. I get to pour over patterns, figuring out what I want to do. I go around measuring the same body parts several times. I draw out little poorly rendered sweaters. Good times.

I went to Amsterdam to look for yarn because I have yet to find a decent store here in Den Haag. There is one that I know of, but when I went in to look for needles I didn’t find any. Annoying. I did find a listing for a store called Ribbels in Leiden, which is something like 10 or 15 minutes by train instead of the hour it takes to get to Amsterdam. I’ll have to check it out sometime soon.

Ok. So that’s the main thing occupying my attention at the moment. Soon I’m sure I’ll be fixated on something else. Hopefully, anyway.

Germany

Published on November 15, 2006 in Germany, Photo, PostsWithPictures, ResidentHipster and Travel. 0 Comments



TreeArt

Originally uploaded by un_cola.

I think that photos of Germany are somehow cursed. I mentioned that my photos of Cologne came back strange and contrasty and blue. That’s annoying but not enough to call them cursed. No, no, cursed is when you get back (overpriced) prints from Berlin and they too were developed in a wonky manner and are all high contrast. *Shakes fist*

Ah well. They’re sort of interesting at least. See?

Siiiiick

Published on November 10, 2006 in DailyGrind and ResidentHipster. 2 Comments

Bah. I got sick on Wednesday night. Getting sick is weird. I’ve been feeling a little wrong in that “throat closed, hurts to swallow until I get something hot to drink” way since Berlin. And then on Wednesday night ‘les and I went to see a show at Steim in Amsterdam and during the second half of the show I finally succumbed to illness. My nose got stuffy, my throat got hurty, my body started being ridiculously sensitive to slight temperature changes. Doom.

Yesterday morning I woke up to a raging sinus headache and a determination to Stay In Bed All Day. It turns out that this may have been for the best since ‘les locked me inside the apartment again on her way to school so I couldn’t actually do anything until she got home at 8pm. Ug.

today I feel a bit better. Not so sick, although still not really up to doing much of anything. I would have stayed inside again all day today, but the lack of internets plus the cable deciding that today is a fine day to cut out on me drove me to the comfort of the local bookstore internet cafe. Fresh mint tea + honey = slightly happier Cola.

Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow. We’re supposed to go to a party in Amsterdam tomorrow night and I want to spend some time in Amsterdam before hand trying to get more hair goo and also find a yarn store. I don’t know why hair goo and yarn stores have to require trips to Amsterdam, but as my interweb searching skills are less than stellar I’ve only found places that sell Bumble&Bumble and also mentions of yarn stores there. Boo. I miss the Bay Area.

Oh Thank God

Published on November 8, 2006 in Politics, ResidentHipster and USA. 0 Comments

I went to check the news today, bracing for the worst. But at least Democrats have The House.

I weep with joy while at the same time wonder if anything will get better.

(I got my ballot last week and sent it off with a week to spare. I wonder if it got there. Or got counted.)

*Edited to add that I’d like to hug the state of Vermont. Y’all elected a goddamn socialist to the Senate. Good job!*