mourningdove

Can’t Argue with Geometry!

That’s actually a quote from a delightful radio improv show I used to listen to called Off-Ramp: oh look, they’re still around on Spotify. But anyway, this isn’t about them, this is about this cat short on YouTube. I’m a dog person, but even I have to admit that cats own the Internet:

Van Life in Japan

This is worth watching for the cinematography and the focus on off-the-beaten-path destinations! youtube.com/watch

Spencer the Bernese Mountain Dog Gets a Bath

Watch this if your Tuesday is being a little too Tuesday….

Recent Audiobooks: The Summer War by Naomi Novik

I have a mostly-love, slightly-hate relationship with Novik’s retelling of European fairytales (or her brand-new fairytales, which this novella is). On the one hand, man, can she tell a story. Even if I’m annoyed by the main character, or meh about the generic Northern European worldbuilding. I still totally get hooked into the main character’sContinue reading “Recent Audiobooks: The Summer War by Naomi Novik”

Bonus ESC: Korean Night (Ramen/Ramyeon Edition)

I think Polly and I came up with this idea back when I visited her family in Edinburgh last fall—to do a ramen tasting. Polly loves her some ramyeon (the Korean pronunciation of ramen, which is the Japanese pronunciation of la mien, Chinese soup noodles). Since it’s ESC, though, we had to try to makeContinue reading “Bonus ESC: Korean Night (Ramen/Ramyeon Edition)”

ESC #50: Golden Jubilee

I can’t believe we’ve done 50 of these dinners! We started ESC in early fall 2023, so that means it’s been 2.5 years with an average of a dinner every 3 weeks. Pretty cool. To celebrate we decided to rent a house in the Russian River valley for the weekend, near Guerneville, and enjoy hangingContinue reading “ESC #50: Golden Jubilee”

“Walter, NO….”

Ceramics Saturdays: Nasco Sayonara and Real (Well, Almost Real) Kintsugi Project

Discerning viewers may have noticed that the china featured in the ESC #49 post was different from my usual options of Churchill Blue Willow (or its saucy cousin, Calamityware) or Iittala Taika. That’s because I finally decided to be an adult and get 12 place-settings of the same pattern—instead of always having to mix andContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Nasco Sayonara and Real (Well, Almost Real) Kintsugi Project”

ESC #49 and Truffle Hunting!

So one of the very first recipes in my To Try file (the OG version, in an actual filing cabinet on actual paper), was a French fish dish. Not terribly chef-y EXCEPT for the fact it called for fresh white summer truffles. Yeah…. So, it sat in the old To Try file, and then migratedContinue reading “ESC #49 and Truffle Hunting!”

Strawberry Matcha Latte

I’m not a matcha latte kinda girl. I don’t like bitter matcha at all (I’m a super-taster, so bitter tastes are really cranked up to 11 for me), so I tend to buy really expensive matcha when I do buy it—which means I’m not going to turn around and dump it into a latte…. ButContinue reading “Strawberry Matcha Latte”