I'm Dreaming of a White Dinner

8:22pm, Friday.

Anothah suppah!

This time, haha, it's all white. White swordfish, white corn, white aioli, white wine. I mixed it up a little and put out a brown cloth napkin, though. 

To indulge in a winter wondermeal, complete the following ridiculously complicated steps:

1. Buy a frozen swordfish steak from Trader Joe's. (That's right, I live in Seattle and I buy frozen fish at a chain called Joe's. Don't worry, I'm working on a fishmonger-FOR-REALZ-CALLED-LEIF hookup at the market. More on this later.)

2. Drizzle on some olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap in aluminum foil, bake in pre-heated oven at 350 for about 15 mins, or until opaque.

3. While you're waiting, heat up some white corn. (It could also maybe, possibly have been frozen.) If you're feeling frisky, spruce it up with a pat of fatty butter. (Tonight I was not feeling frisky, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a huge serving of chocolate for dessert to make up for it.)

4. Also while you're waiting, mix up about 2 tablespoons mayo, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, and some salt'n'peppah to make an easy aioli.

5. Pour some wine, stuff yo' face. Save the dishes for another day.

[AHA! The candle, the candle is GREEN.] 

Now it is necessary for me to make my nightly tea. And eat some more chocolate.

-kK le Nacht Owl

Long Live the Empire!

12:42am, Friday.


There's never a bad time to let your inner geek-itude come shining through. Tonight I made a special trip all the way to a gallery far, far away from my douillet apartment to mingle here:

Yes, a Stars Wars expo. The Ltd. Art gallery hosted an event affectionately known as "These Are the Droids You Are Looking For," a sort of steampunk-y edition of our favorite (anti-) heroes. They really need to make these things open bar (who charges for a glass of two-buck-Chuck!?). Get these shy sci-fi dudes loosened up to give them the nerve to talk to ze ladies. Well, not that there was a huge female:male ratio, but still, free alcohol never hurt an art gallery opening.


I WISH I'd gotten a shot of Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers, those outfits looked like they had seen some serious action, I am not even joking. I can only hope I'm that dedicated to foraging a decent cup of coffee every morning.

If Willis had been there, she'd have used The Force to make me take a photo with these dudes:

...and you know? I totally would have dived right into the fray, cuz, that's right, YOU GO GRRRL.


-kK le Nacht Robo-Owl

Tarot for Tea

11:21pm, Wednesday.


I'm having a nice cuppa as I snuggle in bed with my little iPad library book ("Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," by Stieg Larsson) and noticed my tea was trying to tell me something:

[Zoomed in: "All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: Chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire." -Aristotle, 384 BC-322 BC]


I can't decide if this is annoying or profound. 


I also wonder if nuggets like this hit one's philosophical gray matter differently in the light of day than they do late night. If I had read this in the morning instead of at midnight, would it have affected me differently? Would I be wasting blog space on it, or just gone "huh" and tossed the used bag in the trash without even bothering to take a picture? I think I do a different kind of thinking at night. Or maybe I just notice my same thoughts differently, depending on the amount of daylight.


Or maybe I need to stop drinking wise-ass mugs of tea.


-kK le Slowly De-caffeinating Nacht Owl

Xmas playlist: Otis

1:42am, Wednesday.


Nothing to combat some Tuesday bluesday vibes like a little meatloaf sammy from the deli and some Otis Redding on the computer radio.


He can sing to me about anything any-friggin-time, but his White Christmas is pretty fantastic. (If the player isn't working, click here for a direct Grooveshark playblast, or click here and download the song from my Google page. I really gotta get better at this computer code thing. gah.)


And little by little, I'm getting organized and even-more-douillet-y, come with me and take a look:

I'm experimenting with windowsills-(and chairs!)-for-bookshelves, but let's face it, knowing me I'm just going to treat any apartment I live in like it's a ready-made library and have books piled everywhere, even if I have 10,001 bookcases crammed in each room. 



Now if you'll excuse me, I have some dancing-in-my-pjs to do. Hit it, Otis!


Hyphenetically,
-kK le Nacht-Dancing-Owl

Oddballities and LOLs: The Walken

10:16pm, Monday.


In case you didn't know, I have a (healthy) obsession with Monsieur Walken. He plays quirky, crazy roles in movies, he can dance, and most importantly, he can yell "More Cowbell" with a perfect poker face. He is Awesome Oddballity personified, I bow to the master. In fact, there should be sites devoted to Walken "facts," just like there are for Chuck Norris. (Go ahead, click on it. Just be prepared with a clean pair of underwear.)


Anyway, in the spirit of winter and Christmas and the fabulousness of LOLing, Willis (will my sister ever be known by her real name ever again??) found me the perfect image:

Rahaha. RAHAHAHAHAHA!


Thus we have The Walken, just about to ask me to tango through the trees.


-kK le Nacht Oddballity

Book It!: "Blood Work"

9:12pm, Saturday.


Thus begins a new series at Douillet Corner, in honor of night owl habits.


 A while back I had an apocalyptic moment wherein I was convinced I would run out out of good books to read and not be able to find anything of quality amongst all the latest crap on the bookshelves. 


But then an old professor of mine wrote that her new book had just been published, so I went out for a copy right away. Then, on this same professor's blog, I read a guest post by another author whose book sounded AWESOME, so I trounced out to get that. And so it went, a newspaper article here, a random recommendation there...I mentally slapped myself and hauled my whiny butt to the library to get everything that sounded good.


I decided to make a list of everything I've been reading for the past few months in case any one else has been apoplectic about reading material. Obviously there's not a lot of chick lit on these pages, but even if you're not a typical SF/F fan, there will be plenty to choose from if you're looking for a good bedtime story.


In honor of my long ago mental slap, let's start with "Blood Work" by Holly Tucker. Holly was one of my French professors at Vanderbilt, and she is the coolest geek I know. Seriously, check out her blog Wonders and Marvels: A Community for Curious Minds Who Love History, Odd Stories and Good Reads sometime. 


With topics like "What Was Cleopatra Like As A Mother," "The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football," and "What Romans Used for Toilet Paper," it's a fabulous, entertaining combo of history, medicine, science and science fiction, all wrapped up in a package of amazing writing.

Anyway, "Blood Work" is about the history of blood transfusions in 17th century France, with a little historical murder mystery thrown in. She's such a good writer that a topic normally relegated to a medical journal article is instead an enthralling, and of course BLOODY, novel that will keep you tearing through the pages late into the night.


Bloodtastically,
-kK le Nacht Owl

Punday Night

10:04pm, Friday.


I wasn't going to post tonight, nothing really caught my fancy for a photopportunity. But as I was reading myself supposedly to sleep, I came across something that literally made me do my best Robert Redford double take.


"Lord of Light," by Robert Zelazny--yes, another sci fi tale, this time one of humans playing gods and battling for the right to control scientific achievement. Not a particularly awesome book, which I didn't exactly realize until I'd almost finished, but oh well, it was worth it for the one second it took to lighten my mood.


There's a bit scene featuring an epileptic man called The Shan. One million brownie points (and maybe a few actual brownies) to whoever can guess the very serious, literary plot line punchline.

"Then the fit hit the Shan."


I'm just going to check myself into the nearest Punday Night happy hour and scour my brain cells.


-kK le Nacht Owl, sighing out.
(That's right, you didn't think I'd let the Shan get the last pun, eh!)