Aspiring Artist

With the exception of some very sketchy "powder" paints that I used in 2003, it's been about 8 years (since High School art class!) since I've picked up a paint brush. I've always liked painting. I like blending colours and creating texture. And I like seeing the scene of the painting unfold across the canvas.

After Tom bought me some acrylics paints for Christmas, I finally set aside some time to put them to use. These koi fish were my first attempt. The original (which I have attempted to replicate), was a Chinese brush painting in water colours. You definitely don't get the same result with acrylics, but I'm pleased nonetheless.

The second painting took me nearly four hours to finish! It will eventually have a sister painting on a canvas the same size to hang beside it. I'm not exactly sure where we will hang them (wall space is at a premium in our condo), but the previous owners left holes all over the walls, so I'm sure we'll find a suitable location.

Wontons and White Girls

Happy Chinese New Year! 2010 is the Year of the Tiger

Answer me this: Is there a better way to spend Chinese New Year than making traditional wontons with a bunch of white girls? The correct answer is... No. In fact, making wontons with a bunch of white girls (white super-awesome-geoscientist-girls, to be exact) is pretty much the only way to spend Chinese New Year! I highly recommend it.

Many of you know that the Litz wonton recipe (formerly of the Mah family) produces some of the most delicious wontons known to man. What you probably don't know is that this kind of perfection is attained through approximate measurements, ratios and memory. It is a recipe that is difficult to quantify as a written set of instructions. In fact, my steps of instructions (created with the help of my mom) at one point reads, "Add oyster sauce until the colour looks right." How do I know when the colour looks right? Oh... I just know. You know? And how much sesame oil do you add? "Enough until you can slightly smell it." It's that kind of recipe...

Jill, Jasmine and Paige arrived on Friday after work. All of them were wonton-newbies, having never taken part in the wonton making process before. Although they missed the meat mixing (really quite boring, since you just chuck everything into a food processor), they were all ready for the best part-- wonton wrapping!

There are two roles in wonton wrapping- the meat scooper, and the wrapper. Traditionally in our household, the wrappers heckle the meat scooper (e.g. "What were you thinking!? There is too much/not enough meat on this wrap! Fix these proportions! Are you blind? You should be downgraded to wrapping!") But since Jill, Jasmine and Paige were newbies, I got off heckle-free. Perhaps it's because their attention was half-glued to the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Essentially, wonton wrapping works like the diagram below, where the raw beaten egg acts like glue to hold the wrap together.

I give props to these girls for their wrapping skills. I have to admit, Tom and I have made wontons with several other sets of white people... And many of those occasions ended with me covertly re-wrapping wontons so that meat didn't come out while they were boiling! I'm not sure if it's the raw egg yolk, or the raw meat, but people don't seem too keen on getting their fingers in there to seal everything up-- but it's very important! Jill, Jasmine and Paige were fearless. They didn't mind getting a little floury and egg-yolky.

Jill, Jasmine and Paige wrapping away.

After the wontons are wrapped up, you bring a big pot of water to rapid boil. Then you toss in some wontons. Once they start to float, you give them a couple more minutes to cook, then scoop them out into bowls. Now they look like tiny little brain packages.

Jill says it best, "They look just like the should! Like restaurant wontons!"

And of course, while all this meat mixing and wrapping is going on, you are also heating and simmering the broth. The broth contains suey choy, shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, and chinese pork sausage. Theoretically, the broth and the wontons will be ready at the same time so you can scoop them into a bowl together.

Yum yum!

And voila! Your meal is ready! Jill, Jasmine and Paige-- thanks for an excellent evening, and a delicious meal!

Ed-- thanks for your guitar skills!

An Ode-- Two Years Later

Update: Tom has safely landed in Norway. There was some fog in Calgary that he was a bit worried would delay his takeoff, but it sounds like his flight left on time. It also sounds like he enjoyed his first class experience! Apparently he had a smoked salmon salad to start his dinner. He then had a choice of three entrees (he had Butter Chicken), which was followed by a selection of cheeses, and three kinds of ice cream! He also had some champagne, and pancakes (although, not at the same time). Stavanger, Norway is 8 hours ahead of Calgary. So I'm sure right now Tom is getting some much needed rest.

And now... The actual post.

Two years ago, Steve was writing a blog of his own (http://not-a-good-idea.blogspot.com). Much to our disappointment, he eventually ran out of steam and stopped updating-- but during his time as a blogger, he wrote a series of Odes to his good friends (including yours truly!).

Recently I was perusing some of Steve's old posts, and noticed the the Ode he wrote about me was written on February 7, 2007. Exactly two years since today. So I thought I would re-post his Ode for your entertainment.

ENJOY!

The Last Ode? Perhaps?

By: Steve

1) Amanda is Not Especially Clever

Some people are going to be all like, "Ouch for Amanda!" or "Steve is a super-jerk!" but I still find Amanda's slow wits to be more endearing than insulting. I must stress that I don't mean to imply that Amanda is unintelligent. Far from it, in fact! Amanda's at least 3 times as smart as I am. It's just that when it comes to a witty put-down, she's always left in the dust. Amanda sets herself up beautifully for my insults, and as I result I feel like a pretty cool dude everytime I burn her. Tha't partially what makes her an awesome friend.

2) Amanda May be Narcoleptic

Narcolepsy isn't really a positive attribute, but it kind of makes me feel sorry for Amanda, so it bears mentioning. Amanda has a habit of falling asleep during movies, a habit which I find bizarre and more than a little disturbing. I mean, we've all fallen asleep during boring movies at some point in our lives, but likely it isn't something we do on a weekly basis. Amanda throws convention straight out the window and falls asleep whenever she damn well pleases. As a result, Amanda can not be trusted to give accurate movie reviews. For example, if Amanda were to say that a movie was particularly bitchin', I couldn't help but think her sleepy nature has left her movie judging skills fundamentally flawed.
(Fun Fact! Narcolepsy is quite a bit different from Narcophilia, which is itself quite different from Necrophilia. I can't stress this enough.)

(Amanda Aside: I'm pretty sure my narcolepsy has gotten worse over the last two years. Case in point-- I pretty much slept through the entire third Die Hard movie during our Die Hardathon.)

3) Amanda Makes All the Plans

Everyone in my circle of friends is such a lazy bum, that we don't usually do something unless Amanda makes us. She may be most responsible for the group being friends for so long. Actually, now that I think about it, Ashley makes a goodly amount of plans as well. Am I the only one who refuses to make plans? This is serious food-for-thought.

(Amanda Aside: Steve still doesn't make any plans.)

4) Amanda is a Geophysicist, or Something Like That

In the future, if I ever need some physics done, I can just turn to Amanda! Actually, I guess shed only be really useful if the physics in question took place underground or something. I'm not too entirely sure if I will make use of her services ever. Geo-science doesn't really directly impact my life that much.

5) Amanda is the One Who Suggested I do This Series of Odes

To be honest, theseodes haven't ended up being as funny as I thought they'd be when I started them. You can direct all hatemail to Amanda.

(Amanda Aside: I never got any hatemail! Everyone loved the original series of Odes.)

6) Amanda Keeps Me Up to Date on All the Latest Gossip

Amanda knows all the good stuff, or at least possess the ability to retell it in a good way. Other people try to give me some gossip, but it usually sucks pretty bad. Amanda's anecdotes are kind of like the jokes from Seinfeld in that they all kind of are based around awkward human interaction. The sociologist in me loves this kind of humour on a geeky, pseudo-scientific level. Amanda has a good grasp on that kind of stuff. Also, when telling me this stuff, we're drawn back to my first point: Amanda leaves herself open for good natured ribbing / serious insulting. Good times.

(Amanda Aside: Two years later... And really, not that much has changed! Thanks for letting me revisit these good times, Steve-o.)

Another Birthday, and a Bon-Voyage to Norway

February, already!

Tom turned 27 on January 31! He has officially entered his "late twenties." As a result, the last weekend of January was busy with post-Christmas activities and birthday events. On Friday Tom and I had our two families over for an annual potluck. Of course, Dylan was the center of attention. Although he is only able to converse with the use of "Dada," and "Uh-oh" (and apparently "Baxter," but I have yet to hear that one!), he lets his wishes be known. Cumulatively over the course of the night, he was able to convince various people to lift him up so he could turn the bathroom light switches on and off-- for a total of about 20 minutes! He also entertained himself by passing Ashley bags of candy, and then taking them back, and pushing around a soccer ball. We didn't really have any toys for an 16-month-old available. An oversight on our part!

Tom and I celebrated his birthday on Saturday night with dinner downtown. On Sunday we had dinner with his family. The meal was followed by the proud presentation of a hand decorated birthday cake. Credit for the artistry goes to Dave and Andrew--a job well done.

Andrew and Dave's Masterpiece

The pink and blue box is not a gift wrapped present, it is the artists rendition of the Norwegian flag. You'll also notice the skier in the top right corner of the cake between some majestic pine trees. That is Tom-- and the white squiggle on his face/body is some sort of video-gaming headset/apparatus. The giant "T" is obviously for "Thomas" (Duh!), and as you can see, his whole family wishes him a "Happi Burfday"!!!

Tomorrow Tom is leaving for his week long trip to Norway. He flies out of Calgary at 6pm, FIRST CLASS on Air Canada, and won't be back until Saturday, February 13. He will be in Stavanger and Bergen for most of his trip. He'll also stay in Oslo overnight on his way home. For those of you who aren't up to date with your geography, here you go:

Really old map of Norway.

Happy Travels!