So, like I said last night, I am deeming my dinner party to be a success. I chose to go the tougher route and cook/acquire most of the food on my own instead of relying on my guests. I am so happy that I took that route. Sure, some items could have used some improvement, but I don’t think I embarrassed myself at all.
For snacks prior to dinner, I set out three things. The first was just chips and salsa. I put out two types of chips with salsa to give a bit of interest. I liked the square angle dishes I used for it with the contrasting colours. The second was toasted pita chip triangles with hummus. I toasted them myself with olive oil and salt and pepper. To be honest, I don’t think this one was all that great. The pitas I used were sort of thick and didn’t lend themselves well to this application. I was hoping to serve this one freshly toasted, but I prepared it a bit too early. I ended up putting it in the warming drawer while waiting. I think that made them a bit tougher instead of crispy. Next time I can improve that one for sure. The third thing is the fruit platter. I figured that I needed something fresher to go with the starchy things.
In terms of main courses, there were two items. The first was a vegetable lasagna. I don’t think it was that bad, but it could have been a lot greater if I timed it better such that it came out of the oven closer to meal time. Plus, I think I could have put more cheese on top. The second item was prime rib pot roast. Now, this turned out better than I thought. I braised the meat in broth, onion soup mix, red wine, and some frozen Mediterranean veggie mix. I let it stew for about 3 hours. The resulting roast was really soft. I was totally pleased with the result. I really need to do this again on Saturday. It’s too bad that the only picture I got of it was blurry.
For dessert, I used a caramel crème brûlée recipe. Really, this is the type of thing that should be prepared the night before. Unfortunately, I only got it started at noon. It didn’t provide enough time for the custard to really cool down significantly. Also, without a blowtorch I had to use my oven’s broiler to get the caramelized top. That probably contributed to the custard being warmer than I wanted. Next time, I need to get this dessert started early, and I need to acquire a torch. In terms of taste, I thought it was great. Just needs some tweaks to kick this thing up to the next level.
All in all, I did a passable job. Combining all of this with salad, garlic bread, cookies, and 1.5 bottles of red wine (for me) and I ended up really stuffed. And that’s why I didn’t run this morning. Yes, I’m comfortable with that decision. Anyway, next time I’ll work even harder. Got to hone the skills!
Yeah, so the dinner party seems to have been a success! Everyone enjoyed themselves. I succumbed to gluttony though. Condition is currently such that I won’t be able to run tomorrow morning; there’s simply too much food in my system to run efficiently at all. I’ll tell y’all about the food tomorrow.
Long ago, the first video game system that was ever given to me was the Nintendo Game Boy. It was a Christmas gift and was totally unexpected. I actually cried for joy when I got it. Now, the game that shipped with the Game Boy was Tetris. I spent many hours on that game and became pretty good at it. It served me well whenever I played head to head battles with other people at school--including my computer science teacher. During lulls, sometimes I’d challenge him to a versus game on the school computers. I always ended up on top; I had a knack for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. I remember some friends being amazed at how I often managed to survive even with my blocks stacked high. At night, I remember finding an Internet Tetris client: TetriNET. Among my friends and I someone would set up a server and we’d all connect to play a multi-player battle Tetris game. Sometimes these sessions would last until the wee hours of the morning. Crazy stuff. I had a decent track record with that.
I stopped playing Tetris actively after high school. I had a version of the game on my computer, but I didn’t really touch it that often. Over time my skills rusted. I never thought I’d get back into it. The other day though, while I was poking around the Wii stuff at BestBuy, I spotted Tetris Party Deluxe. It wasn’t crazy expensive or anything so I just picked up a copy. I figured that it might come in handy as a party game at some point in the future. I broke it out this evening just to see if I was as good as I was maybe a decade ago. Umm…nope, can’t say I am. I can hold my own, I guess, but…yeah, my old-self would have cleaned the floor with me. No matter. The game is still fun after all these years. It’s so simple, and that’s perhaps one of the key factors as to why this game can withstand the test of time, right?
To close this off, here’s a guy playing Korobeiniki on an electric guitar.
You know, ever since the race on Saturday I’ve been laying off the running Granted: that was less than a week ago. Still, I’ve been attempting to take it easy and recover. Prior to that, my running schedule has been a little bit off as well. I haven’t been getting in all of my runs as required. I mean, the Sunday runs have been manageable, but lately the weekday runs have been killing me. Actually, it’s not so much the runs that have been killing me, but really it’s the act of scrambling up north after work on time to catch up with the rest of the group. There is a lot in terms of planning ahead that needs to be done just to get there on time. Sometimes I have to ask myself whether it’s all worth it. Is it worth it to expend so much energy? Is it worth it to bring myself to points where exhaustion is just steps away? Those are some serious questions I’ve had to ask myself, for sure. Thing is, all it takes is a good run to answer all of those questions. Yes, it’s worth the effort. If I train properly, I won’t hit exhaustion. There’s something about running that boosts endorphins. My God, yes, yes, yes, running is an awesome activity. I really just need to be more fair to myself. If I’m ridiculously tired, I should not put so much pressure on myself for not performing. It’s the body’s way of warning me that I need to take my foot off the gas pedal. There’s no point in driving myself into the ground, right? Anyway, I guess that’s all I needed: I just needed to refocus.
Life is all about journeys, isn’t it? At any one moment we’ve all got several going all at once. I personally undertook a new journey back in January, not knowing where it would lead me. Now, eight months later this chapter is ending, and I’m waiting for the next one to begin. Yep, I’m talking about my improv exploits. Yesterday was my last class in the four foundation level courses at Bad Dog Theatre. From here, the likely thing to do would be to sign up for one of the intermediate classes. That’s pretty much where my mind is headed.
God, I would not have imagined that I would have taken to this activity in the way that I have. Ultimately, I found it to be so very liberating and almost magical. When everything just clicks, there’s this gut feeling of mild euphoria. It’s really hard to describe. When I started out, I approached it as just a fun side activity. That still remains true to this day. I think then that the big difference between then and now is that somehow I’ve made improv to be more rewarding on a deeper level than just playing pretend. Does that make sense?
Over the four beginner levels, I had two different teachers. My first teacher only had me for the first level. She was keen on getting us to be positive with ourselves and with one another, and to trust our gut instincts. She planted the seed that would eventually grow to what it is today. For the three remaining levels, my second teacher has watched me develop. He has told me that I’ve grown such that I’ve now got a sense of fearlessness that envelops what I do. Maybe it wasn’t my intention, but I’ve somehow developed a very large presence and a commanding personality. It’s a contrast to how I perceive myself in my every day interactions with friends and colleagues, and yet, all of this is true. These are all extensions of my true self. Now, I’m not claiming to be all that great at improv. Oh hell no. There are a lot of people that are miles ahead of where I am. All the same, I am humbly convinced that I possess some great skills. All I need is more training and more experience. This second teacher has helped me to believe in myself. Yes! I can do this!
So now where does this leave me? This activity will never be my bread and butter; that’s easy to accept. This is something though that I’d like to keep in my life. I’d like to hone the craft and perhaps occasionally do something on stage. On a selfish level, this would be more for the cathartic effect this thing has. The sheer joy of it is also addictive. In any case, just like how at the beginning of this undertaking I would never have imagined my state of being at the end of the foundation courses, I don’t know how I’m going to be after these next courses. Just like in improv, I’m going to do my best to keep an open mind in terms of the possibilities.
I’m sitting on the couch, watching TV with my laptop beside me. There’s a bottle of Mill St. Organic beer sitting on the coffee table in front of me. I can’t help but focus on how my quads are still a bit sore. And why wouldn’t they be sore? I really put in a crazy amount of effort into last night’s race. Overall, I’m quite proud. I was expecting to just go slowly and treat it like another Sunday training run, but somewhere along the way I decided to take things a bit seriously and go for it. This is my race report. More after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
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