what may or may not be hard reality

Today I purchased a coconut at the grocery store. There was a bunch of them, and I chose a pretty one, and brought it home. I then proceeded to do violence to it in a multitude of ways, starting with hammer and nail, proceeding through wrench, and finally ending up with an axe outside on the flagstones. I got it open, though, poured the water into a tiny glass where I mixed it with rum and some pineapple juice, which was yummy! The meat was very white and had a perfect chewy consistency and a nice sweet taste, and I think I'm gonna use some of it and try to dry it. These activities took up most of my evening, and during that time I asked myself some Very Important questions to which I found no answers...

Who buys coconuts? What do they do with them? How do they do it to them?

I really really love soup.

Mmmm, pizza for breakfast. Ham, pineapple, onion, and peanuts, with Bearnaise-sauce on top. Yum.

So, I ran a google search for 'sore throat' + 'wisdom teeth', and got a couple hits for dentistry sites saying that sure, if your wisdom teeth are acting up you can get a sore throat and fever and all kinds of things. And then all the rest were hits for random blogs where people were whining about 'OMG my wisdom teeth are killing me and on top of it they've give me a sore throat and fever, is that even possible??' So in light of recent discoveries; Ow ow ow ow. My wisdom teeth decided that this was the perfect week to grow, and OW. And on top of it they've given me a sore throat, and I feel slightly feverish. And I'm pretty sure it's related, because every time my wisdom teeth have as much as twitched in the last couple months, instant sore throat. However, this time they seem to mean business, which means I should probably call my dentist. But it's my week off, dammit. I don't wanna call my dentist. Why, wisdom teeth, why? I mean, my first two ones (upper jaw) just showed up one day and were like 'yo, dude, whazzup?' and didn't hurt one bit. Watch and learn, lower jaw wisdom teeth!

So instead I watched the Season Premiere of Nip/Tuck. Which, admittedly, is not a show I'm particularly into. I tried a few years ago when I learned that Jessalyn Gilsig was on it, and she's so very pretty, and yet I could not bring myself to watch it - too much with the guys that I don't care about. Mostly because I was utterly bored by it. However, Portia's gonna be on it this season, so really, I have to watch it. (I mean, the crappy movies I've sat through for her sake in the last month - I'll be blogging about those too, at some point.)

And I was kinda surprised that I didn't hate it. It was shiny, and occasionally amusing, and lots of silly. Daphne Zuniga was *gorgeous* (when I was 12 years old and not crushing on Heather Locklear or Marcia Cross she was my absolute favourite Melrose Place character ever). Pre-operation, that is. Stupid them. What people told me, but I didn't fully understand until I saw for myself, was how very very *gay* the show was. Wow. I spent a lot of time going 'omg they're totally gonna fuck like whoa right here on my teevee!' and then I was so disappointed when they didn't. But the touching, and the glances, and the talking, and the raising a kid together, so very gay. I have no idea which one is which of the two main dudes, but they should totally be sleeping together. Roma Maffia was adorable, but I knew that back from her Profiler days (I miss that show), and it's very cool that she's a lesbian. Looking forward to next week when Portia will be showing up!

eta: does anyone know where I might find Nip/Tuck manslash? Ehem.

It's here, and it's mine, and ooooooh, it's so pretty. It comes in what is supposed to look like an evidence box, complete with shiny pictures and quotes on, and inside, neatly lined up are all 9 seasons of the second best TV show there ever was, The X-Files. However, can someone tell me what makes Season 2 so scary it's only recommended from 18 and up, whereas all the other seasons are 15? Sure, Season 2 is scary, but not more so than the others...

I first heard about Army Wives on Sarah Warn & Lori's "She made me watch this!" vlog, which, btw, is one of my oh-so-guilty pleasures this summer. I've never seen more than half the shows they're talking about, but they're adorable, and funny, and it keeps me up-to-date. Well, that isn't true at all, I've know the show existed back since forever when AXIP started covering that Katherine Fugate (of Xena-fame) had a new tv-show in the works, but knowing there is a show by the name of "Army Wives", and hearing what it's like and that people like Kim Delaney (*swoon*), and Catherine Bell (*more swooning*) are on it are slightly different. And then when mylittleredgirl started writing femslash (of all things!) for it, I realized I should probably be watching it. Which I've proceeded to do, and am almost caught up. And of course it's lovely. Like lots of people have been saying, there is hugging, and hand-holding, and *gazing lovingly into each other's eyes*, for frick's sake, and then *longing gazes* following the loving gazes... my gawd. Claudia Joy is so totally in love with Denise. (and I'm making a very very concious effort here not to refer to them as Kim and Cathering, but dang, it's hard. I've seen too much of them elsewhere, and too little of them here) And they're so pretty. So damn pretty. So very very pretty.

I really have no point with the Army Wives stuff, other than 'damn, I'm not sure I'm ready for this yet, after the whole Desperate Housewives fiasco'. And I used to love Weeds but then I just accumulating episodes somewhere mid-third-season and never watching them. Which makes me sad. My problem is that I adore the ladies of these shows, but in the end my dislike for drama wins out, and I get to the disturbing point where I love the actresses and the characters but I hate the show. Katherine Fugate, you did a great job on Xena, please don't let me down with this show.

I can't stand the drama! I already have to watch the bloody L Word, but at least I've got recaps to warn me of what's gonna happen.

( Colonel Holden sucks. - 1x03 spoiler )

But the hugging! The crying! The experimenting (good grief, did Claudia Joy just say that she had sex with lots of women in college??? Mmmmmm....)! The crying! The hugging! The *subtext*! Damn. I hate it when everyone else calls the pairing before I've had a chance to make up my mind (I totally wasn't into Bree/Lynette, but everyone else decided that was the femslash pairing of choice), but Claudia Joy/Denise is just sending all my little femslashpotential gauges off the charts. Eeeeeee!!!!!! More fic, mylittleredgirl, more!!!

Anyway. I have a new tea. It's Twinings Voyage - Brazilian Baía and it's so so good. It's flavoured with cocoa beans, vanilla, and coconut, and I drink it with cream and sugar and it tastes like a dessert. I'm just waiting for a hot day so I'll have a reason to drink it iced with rum. Mmmmmm......

So, saffron is the most expensive spice on earth, because it's so difficult to gather. Or cultivate. Or whatever you call plucking the tiny crocus pistils, drying them, and then pulverizing them (or whatever it is you do with them). As a result, while saffron is yummy, it is not used all that often. A few types of bread, the occasional French fish soup, and a few nice spicy stews. (If anyone has delicious saffron recipes, let me know!)

Which brings us to another spice that used *everywhere* (at least when it comes to ice cream). According to an unverified source, true vanilla is the second most expensive spice on earth, after saffron. And yet things that are vanilla flavoured are considered plain, and vanilla is even used as an expression for all kinds of things that are plain or regular and bordering on boring. When did this happen? You'd think the second most expensive spice in the world would be somewhat exclusive and at least have a taste that when eating it is considered special. It's not. Vanilla may be a spice, but adding vanilla ice cream to any other ice cream is like adding water to a drink.

There's no such thing as plain ice cream. Plain ice cream is white and vanilla flavoured. Sure, it's synthetic and not true vanilla in most of the cases, but how come the world's second most expensive spice is referred to as 'plain' anything? Any kind of ice cream you have, and you can combine it with vanilla. You wouldn't use cinnamon, or saffron, for that matter, but sure, vanilla goes with everything, even as it has a rather distinctive taste. How comes? Sure, synthetic vanilla has been commercially available for about 100 years, (did you know that Coca Cola is the largest purchaser of true vanilla in the world, and that Madagascar's economic infrastructure collapsed when Coca Cola started using synthetic vanilla in their coke?) but it probably wasn't that cheap in the beginning.

My point, and I probably don't have one in the end, is that More Vanilla to the People! Really. Don't knock it just 'cause it's everywhere. Try tastin' the vanilla next time. It's a very nice spice all by its lonesome.

Spent most (read: 3 hours) of today making baklava! Mmmmyum. I've made it once before, or rather, watched M make it once, but decided that I wanted to give it a chance and make it all by myself. I had remembered mostly of what M and I did, but I'd forgotten just enough to be able to put my own spin on it. This is entirely based on M's father's recipe, tho.

( play-by-play recipe, of a kind )

( the finished product )