The Cats Like It Here

Categories:

Cats

February 17, 2012

by jessica

We people like it here just fine, but I think the cats might be the biggest fans of our move. Here’s why:

Heating vents at floor-level

Eloise's favorite heating vent in our fabulous pink bathroom

This house is brick, with a crawlspace, as is very common in this and many other Atlanta-area neighborhoods. What this means is that all the ductwork for the central heating is run under the house, and the vents are near the floors, rather than near the ceiling. The kitties particularly appreciate this because they can sit in front of the vents and heat themselves. Cats love to heat themselves, whether in a sunbeam or on a person, so they think this is pretty swell.

Eloise really likes the vent in the bathroom; it’s a newer one, with the wide, straight louvers that are common now, and there’s a rug right under it for kitty comfort. She’s especially happy now that I’ve replaced my old green bathroom rugs with new, super-plush white ones (they go a little better with the pink 50s/60s bathroom). Abelard likes the vent in the kitchen, near the front door. One new vent is actually installed in the floor, though I haven’t seen the cats sitting on it to hear their undersides directly.

Squirrels

Cats staring at squirrels

All three kitties staring out the window as hard as they can at squirrels in the yard

We didn’t have squirrels in Riverside. Well ok, some parts of it (the UC Riverside campus where I worked, for example) had a squirrels, but they were little non-puffy-tailed ground squirrels, and we didn’t have any at our house. Our new neighborhood, on the other hand, abounds in squirrels, and the squirrels appreciate the half-dozen or so oak trees in our front yard, which provide them a steady stream of acorns (incidentally, an acorn falling onto the roof is louder than you might suppose). I also stock a bird feeder, at least in part for the sake of the squirrels. However, they are either remarkably stupid, or they don’t like the kind of seed I’ve been buying so far, because I haven’t seen any attacking the bird feeder — and I deliberately got one that didn’t say it was squirrel-proof! Then again the birds spill so many the squirrels probably have no particular incentive to attack the feeder directly.

One time when it was raining, all of a sudden Dale flipped out. It turns out that a little squirrel had perched itself on the brick ledge immediately below one of the front windows, presumably to get out of the rain. Dale was going crazy trying to get at him (too bad about that glass, kitty). It was super cute, but I wish he hadn’t scared the poor little squirrely away; I don’t mind if squirrels take shelter on my front porch.

I work from home

Dale "helps" me work

I end up working like this sometimes.

The cats think it’s pretty neat that I’m around all the time, particularly Dale. The other cats are fat and lazy cats, who pretty much sleep all day. Dale, though, gets bored and wants to do things, and wants me to do things with him. And because I’m a big sucker, I can usually be persuaded to pay attention to him. He’s so cute! I can almost always be persuaded to holler at him for doing something he knows he’s not supposed to do (e.g. hop up onto my printer or walk around behind my computer on my desk), which is attention; Daley doesn’t really distinguish between good and bad attention.

I tried to teach him to play fetch, so I could throw one of his little balls for him and he could chase it, then bring it back to me to throw again, but he had no idea what I was on about. How do dogs know how to bring stuff back to you so you can throw it again? Is it some kind of doggy bring-stuff-to-people instinct? It would be super convenient if I could teach that to Dale.

Right, then

So yeah, although the kitties did not like the process of getting here (well, except Dale; he’s very adaptable and didn’t mind riding in the car or staying in hotel rooms), they’re pretty happy with their new home.

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Awesome Stuff

Categories:

City Living, Music

December 12, 2011

by jessica

So on Saturday we saw Rachael Yamagata at Center Stage, and it was awesome, and I am going to tell you all about it.

Several weeks ago I was perusing the “nearby” posts on Google+ and noticed some dude talking about going to see Iron & Wine at the Buckhead Theater, and dang, had we known in advance about that, we would have been all over it. But we didn’t, lesson learned, so I started checked out the calendars of local music venues to see who else is coming to town, so we could avoid missing things in the future. And lo and behold, Rachael Yamagata was going to be playing in Atlanta on December 10th. It didn’t take much consultation with the spouse to decide to buy those tickets.

Backstory

Rachael Yamagata is one of my all-time favorite recording artists; I started listening to her music (sometimes obsessively; at one point I played Happenstance on a loop every time I drove my car) after seeing her perform on The O.C. (shut up it was a good show) and falling helplessly in love with her voice and lyrics. Because that’s the thing; Rachael Yamagata has the coolest voice ever (how does she sing like that?!) but also writes really interesting and, for want of a better word (I know there is one but I’m not coming up with it just now), deep lyrics and layered, interesting music. And no autotune, obviously.

A couple years later my husband started listening to her music, and totally loved it too (I have no idea why it took so long, and I know he must have heard a track or two at some point while being a passenger in my car. Must not have been paying attention. He actually recorded some videosongs (a la Pomplamoose) of her songs. So right. Two huge fans here.

Standing in Line and the Opening Act

A shot of the stage. We were really really close.

A shot of the stage. We were really really close.

We were super nervous about getting good, er, standing places (Vinyl, the particular venue at Center Stage she was playing is standing-room only). So we got there two hours early. We didn’t mean to necessarily, but having been scarred from years of Southern California traffic, we left nothing to chance. But since Atlanta traffic can’t hold a candle to SoCal traffic, particularly at night on the weekends between our house and downtown, we were even earlier than we thought we’d be. And it was cold. Cold cold cold. Probably in the forties? Maybe a bit below? So we huddled in the doorway like bums for that entire time. But we were first in line! Although a couple of girls who knew somebody who knew somebody (apparently) were let in before us. Whatever. They let us in eventually and I got a shot of Jack to restore circulation to my fingers and toes, and it was all good. We chose a spot directly in front of the stage.

The opening act was Mike Viola, who I regret to confess I’d never heard of. But I have now, and I quite like his music! And his pink socks! I mean, I can’t imagine Rachael would take anyone on tour with her who sucked, of course, but still, total bonus. Actually let me go buy that album right now (and why don’t you go buy it too, or at least have a listen, on Amazon or iTunes). He makes really interesting poppy rocky music (and more of those interesting lyrics). But I think his wife is right about the songs he’s written for/about her; it’s not his best material (listen to your wife, Mike!).

The Show

So Mike and co. tore down a few things and put up a few others and moved some stuff around: they shared quite a bit of equipment (which led to Mike gushing adorably about Rachael’s new keyboard). And we waited. And they finished. And we waited a bit more. And then Rachael came out and told us she was sick, but she’d do her best! During the period after sound check, during which she sounded fab as usual (to the extent we could hear her through the door), suddenly she found that she was losing her voice. She confessed to spending that entire time drinking tea and hoping for the best, but she wasn’t at 100%. Nonetheless she opened strong, playing “Even If I Don’t” and sounding really great. But I think it took a lot out of her, because after a few songs she decided to radically modify the set list to try to give us the best she could manage with her voice misbehaving. I wish I had thought to write down the set list so I could tell you what she sang and in what order, but I didn’t. Also it would have been rude to be fussing with my phone.

You know one thing you can’t really appreciate until you see her in person? Rachael Yamagata is really  pretty, in a way that, seemingly, it’s difficult for photos to capture. I don’t think you can tell in photos (at least none that I’ve seen) the precise extent to which her face is beautiful. And she looks that good when she must have felt pretty crappy — not fair!

To preserve her voice as much as possible, Rachael avoided speaking as much as she could, calling on her bandmates to explain her songs to us. This led to some funny moments (one song evidently about looking sexy in front of one’s cats? probably not), but then, who can unpack a Rachael Yamagata song on the spot? I couldn’t, even after listening to one a million times. She also tried to do some softer songs, after struggling through a funky version of “Letter Read” (but it was still great, and that’s one of my favorite songs). Memorably, she performed a solo version of “Duet” (tsk, Mike, why couldn’t you do the male part on that one?); that was one of my favorites from Elephants.

At one point she thought perhaps some booze would help, and called for a shot of Jack; Jagermeister, though more mediciney, evidently brought back too many drunken barfy college memories. She pounded back the shot like a pro (I had spent probably ten minutes consuming the same quantity of the same substance earlier in the evening) and mouthed “holy shit” (one advantage of being at the front is that we were able to see that part). Someone handed her the rest of the bottle, too, but she resisted any urge she might have felt to drink straight out of it. I’m not sure how much it actually helped, but it was certainly an amusing interlude.

Alex Wylie and Rachael Yamagata

Alex Wylie and Rachael Yamagata after their impromptu duet. Photo shamelessly stolen from Alex's Twitter feed.

Toward the end of the night she felt like she really couldn’t do it anymore, and invited some audience participation. So we, the three hundred or so fans in the room and she, did “Be Be Your Love” together, and it was amazing. I apologize to anyone who was able to hear me distinctly; I hope no one was, and that I was absorbed entirely in the collective sound, because I am quite possibly the world’s worst vocalist. We also (really we, how cute is that?) did “Wore Me Down” together, another favorite from Happenstance. So in some sense we all performed with Rachael Yamagata that night in Atlanta.

But none of us did so in as real a sense as Alex Wylie, a gorgeous blonde, who was a good enough singer and knew enough of the words to actually get up on stage and do a duet with Rachael on “Reason Why.” You could tell she was super nervous, using her iPhone to ensure that she didn’t mess up the words, but she sounded pretty great! A bit of country flavor, I think, which went surprisingly well. So good for you, Alex! I am filled with envy!

Being the fabulous person she is, Rachael still felt bad about her voice trouble, and decided she would give us all signed copies of her latest CD (and for some folks, signed vinyl copies). How amazing is that? I was happy that she performed for us at all, given that she was sick, and given everything still did a fantastic job. It would have been a wonderful and memorable show anyway, and it isn’t even as if the tickets were so expensive as to have given us a sense of entitlement; I would have gladly paid twice the price and not complained about that show. Lots of artists say they appreciate their fans, and they probably do, but I feel like Rachael went above and beyond what anyone could ever expect putting on that show for us and signing records. We didn’t stick around to fight our way through the mob to get one, because I really didn’t feel like she owed us anything else that night, but what a sweet thing to do.

In fact the only thing I didn’t like about the whole experience was the tiny loud Asian girl who pushed her way next to where I was standing, and continued to holler things at the stage throughout the night. T.L.A.G. had evidently followed Rachael form Birmingham the previous night, and for all I know other venues on other nights; Rachael remembered her (who could not? For such a tiny thing, chick was loud). Blah. But even T.L.A.G. couldn’t ruin anything for me; first of all I’m literally a head taller than she is, so even if she had tried to push her way in front of me (which she did not, fortunately), I could have easily seen over the top of her. I was just a bit embarrassed in case anyone thought I knew her, you know?

So on the whole, it was totally awesome, and if any of you ever get the chance to see Rachael Yamagata live, do it. And if you don’t already own all her albums, jeez, go buy them!

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Oh Right! Big City!

Categories:

City Living

November 14, 2011

by jessica

So the other day I was browsing Google+’s Nearby posts, and noticed one poster bragging about seeing Iron & Wine. Man! I didn’t know that he (yes, it’s just one guy) was going to be playing here. But then again, Atlanta is a real city; of course people play here! Determined not to miss another favorite artist, I started browsing the calendars of some local venues. And I bought some tickets! Rachael Yamagata is playing at Center Stage (in their smallest venue, called “Vinyl” — at a capacity of 300, this should be an awesome space for a Rachael Yamagata show) on December 10th, and we’ll be seeing Fountains of Wayne on February 10th in their slightly larger “Loft” room.

Now granted, previously we were nominally in the L.A. area… but Los Angeles was at least an hour away, depending on traffic (and sometimes that traffic can double or triple that time). People who live in the Riverside metro area do drive to L.A. to see live music, but personally I really hated the drive, and the anxiety about getting there on time (so we always arrived way early to shows out there, because we really didn’t want to be late). Overall it wasn’t really worth it to me.

Contrast this with living in the Atlanta area: I’m about fifteen minutes from downtown (it would be less if any roads around here ran straight from one place to another but they don’t). So yay, concerts!

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The Grocery Store

Categories:

Food, Observations

November 1, 2011

by jessica

Exciting, right? Today I went to the grocery store for the first time out here. I originally intended to go to Panera, but then I saw a sign outside the Publix in the same center advertising brown rice sushi. That seemed pretty cool, so I decided to go in and pick up some things so we have some food in this house. And maybe get some sushi (I did, and it was about what you’d expect from grocery store sushi  — not terrible, but not great). I figure this will be my usual grocery store; it’s big and brightly-lit, and no one in there scared me (of course it was around 1pm, so it was all old people and housewives).

One cool thing I noticed is that Publix has its own line of organic goods, and the price is still really good. So what the hell; I bought organic generic half and half instead of regular generic half and half. I couldn’t get ortega chilis, which I did want, but I can easily get those online, I’m sure. They did have some other brand, so I got those; maybe they’ll be equivalent.

Oh! And they had Fage on sale for 10 for $10, on the little single-serving cups with fruit and honey and what-have-you. I love Fage, and it’s never that cheap in California, so I snapped up a bunch of those. They even had the 0% with honey, which is my favorite kind (in fact I’ve never been able to even find those in the Riverside metro area, so score one more, Publix). Their selection of almost everything was quite good, actually; much much better than anything I had near me previously.

Overall, I’m rather delighted by grocery shopping in the Atlanta metro area, and this wasn’t even a fancy store; this was just an ordinary suburban Publix in Tucker.

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Atlanta Halloween Party

Categories:

Observations

October 30, 2011

by jessica

People here take Halloween very seriously; at the party  we attended last night, there was speculation as to why that might be, but no ultimate consensus. Of course, there were few Georgia natives there, as the attendees were primarily academics and former academics from Georgia Tech and Emory, who come from all over the US (and the world, for that matter). I went as Steve Jobs, which wasn’t considered a good enough costume (even augmented with my Newton OMP, and yes I know Steve Jobs had nothing to do with the Newton except to kill it; I was the ghost of Steve Jobs with the ghost of a Newton, then). I stuck by my costume, though. Reuben wore a cape, which made his costume Guy in Sweatshirt and Cape. Which evidently was a good enough costume, because it had a cape. Almost everyone else went all-out, though, with fairies and devils and goddesses and a scotsman with broken bagpipes (thank goodness). There was a particularly well-done Beetlejuice, for a few minutes at least as some folks stopped in on their way to a different party down the road.

There was a piñata, though everyone forgot to beat it with sticks until the candy fell out, so it just hung there, a big creepy eye filled with other candy eyes (some of which weren’t wrapped, so maybe that was just as well). There was a haunted trail, i.e. a steep and fairly perilous path forged through the woods in the hosts’ backyard (because practically everyone’s backyard is a forest around here). I opted not to explore the haunted trail, since I’m prone to tripping and falling at the best of times, let alone on a steep, dark trail on a hillside. I’d probably break an arm or something. Reuben enjoyed it, though, except for the almost-falling part (which is what really made it scary for most people: the shot at death, particularly since there was a fire directly adjacent to the end of it).

Speaking of fire, it was freezing last night in Atlanta. Not literally freezing, but into the low 40s and upper 30s. This really demonstrated people’s dedication to staying in costume, since several of them were fairly skimpy. I don’t know how they did it; I ruined my costume by keeping my jacket on and zipped most of the night. My hair still smells like smoke from the fire — it was pretty smokey, since almost all the wood was damp; it rained like crazy on Friday. There was some debate as to whether a square log-cabin fire or a conical teepee fire was the preferred method; one guest pointed out that the teepee fire was better suited for our purposes, as the log-cabin type was more of a cooking fire (cookin’ fire, to some). The teepee contingent, of which I was a member, won the day, probably not least because a teepee fire is easier to construct and maintain.

Cannibal pumpkin, the winner of the carving contest

The night ended up (for us, at least) with a pumpkin-carving content. Reuben and I watched the carving of one of the pumpkins, and I was ultimately a judge. The winning pumpkin was the one that Reuben and I had watched the construction of; it was carved to look as if it were eating the three little pumpkins that were in its mouth. The other pumpkin looked like a scary Southern redneck, complete with straw hat and few teeth, and it’s the one that got my vote (I was out-voted, however). Cannibal pumpkin was particularly impressive as the face was cut free-hand, without even drawing it on first. That’s something I’d never be able to do myself (that, and carve a pumpkin without cutting myself even once). It was an impressive display of pumpkin artisanship. The pumpkin was actually a bit moldy, but that sort of added to the effect, in a way; cannibal pumpkin was suffering from tooth decay.

It still remains to be seen whether people trick-or-treat on actual Halloween day; I bought some candy to be prepared for the possibility, but it’s not at all certain that people will, even out here in the suburbs. If not, I guess I’ll have to send the candy with Reuben to work, as I no longer work in an office full of people willing to consume any leftover candy I might happen to have on hand (one of the minuses to telecommuting; not a very big one!).

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Bambinelli’s Italian Restaurant

Categories:

Food

October 27, 2011

by jessica

Bambinelli's

Bambinelli's

Last night we went to Bambinelli’s, which is located in the same little strip mall as El Toro. If you’re thinking about going to El Toro, in fact, just forget about it and walk ten feet to get to Bambinelli’s. Their food is very good, and their prices are very reasonable. Looking at their website, they even do takeout and delivery (delivery! awesome!).

I had the baked ziti (I’m a huge fan of baked ziti) with sausage. The portion was ridiculously huge; I have half of it in my refrigerator right now, and I’ll probably eat it for lunch today or tomorrow. The sausage, which was a whole sausage rather than crumbled bits, was excellent. It was mild and Italian-tasting.  And the cheese, both the ricotta and the mozzarella, were really excellent. Better than usual, for Italian places, even.

Reuben had the calzone, which was huge. He reported it was also exceptionally good (probably because it was made with the same yummy cheese and had the same excellent red sauce on the side for dipping). I suppose that also means their pepperoni is above average.

Overall it was very very good, and I look forward to taking my parents here when they visit us; they’ll love the manicotti, or the stuffed shells, I’m sure of it. Anyone local should totally come here as well, if you haven’t already. I bet the pizza is awesome too, because the place seems to have several authentic New Yorkers around.

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El Toro Mexican Restaurant

Categories:

Food, MexiQuest

October 23, 2011

by jessica

I’ve heard that there’s no real Mexican food here in the Atlanta area, so I’ve decided to embark on a quest to determine if that’s actually true. I call it MexiQuest.

We went to a local Mexican restaurant called El Toro, which turned out to be in a weird little strip mall, adjacent to a Sports Authority. It was kinda small, but the decor and font face were certainly authentic. From outside it looked tiny, but it went back pretty far once you got inside the little vestibule. The place was practically empty aside from one couple of old white people. Hmmm. The friendly waitress instructed us to sit wherever we liked, then came with some menus and took our drink order. Like most places around here, they serve Coke products (Coca Cola is headquartered in Atlanta). I found the combo that I like to get at my dearly beloved Zacatecas (a taco, enchilada, rice, and beans), so I ordered that, as did Reuben.

The waitress brought some chips, which were legit. Obviously home-made and pretty fresh. The salsa, though, obviously came out of a jar. In fact it may have been El Torito’s jarred salsa. It came in a little carafe, but we weren’t fooled. No way that was fresh. It was ok, though, as jarred salsa goes.

Then the food came out. There was a lot of cheese on everything. I don’t even know what kind of cheese. Some kind of white stuff, shredded really thickly. I am a huge fan of cheese, but it was a little much even for me. The chicken in the taco was alright, but rather overpowered by the cheese (which is particularly impressive given how generally bland the cheese was). Oddly there were no tomatoes in the taco, which is ok by me because I don’t really like tomatoes in my taco, but they’re a pretty standard part of taco toppings. The taco shell was also obviously mass-produced. It looked and tasted just like the Ortega taco shells you can buy in a grocery store, and probably was one.

Then I tried the enchilada. Ugh. It was really stuffed full of more of that bland cheese, and had very little sauce. What little enchilada sauce there was wasn’t particularly flavorful, either. It was probably canned, and did nothing to compensate for the excess of gross cheese. I was having trouble with the enchilada, so when the waitress came back I asked if they had any Tapatio, which is a very standard thing. She had no idea what I was talking about. So I asked if maybe they had some tabasco; they didn’t, but she at least knew what that was and offered me some home-made hot sauce instead. So I got that, and dumped it on the enchilada. It was most sincerely hot, although it wasn’t as tasty as I was hoping. Still, it enabled me to get down most of the enchilada. I also put some of it on the refried beans, which had a very strange flavor and more of that yucky cheese.

The rice was ok. It reminded me of the time I made Mexican rice and it came out tasting primarily of the chicken broth I had made it with; this rice was also distinctly chickeny. There are worse qualities possible in rice, though, so this was alright. Edible.

Overall, it was not good. We probably won’t come back.

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The House in Which I’m Living

Categories:

Observations

October 22, 2011

by jessica

The quite-nice renovated kitchen

We are renting a house in Tucker, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. There weren’t any good options in our price range in the actual city (we would have to either pay a lot more or else live in constant fear… no thank you), so here we are in the ‘burbs. The house we’re in was built in 1959, and is quite different from our old 1980s vintage house in Moreno Valley. It appears to be made of brick, and the walls and ceilings are lath and plaster. The landlord, who was actually a huge factor in our selecting this house (he seemed like a good sort of guy to rent from, and made some improvements to the house for us prior to our moving in), completely gutted and remodeled the kitchen, which is quite nice, with brand new appliances. The oven, in particular, is vastly superior to the one we had in the old house — it has an oven light! Fancy that! And no pilot lights! All the appliances match, too; we had been replacing appliances in the old house with stainless steel ones, but we weren’t sticking with a particular brand or line, so it was a mishmash, and of course the original oven is still there in all its crappy white glory. The tile, cabinets, and countertops are quite decent as well; not upscale, but solid and nice-looking. The kitchen was a huge plus.

The hall bathroom. Sure is pink.

Our closet-sized master bathroom.

The bathrooms, though… they are tiny. My knees don’t quite touch the wall when I use the master bathroom (which contains only a toilet and sink), but they come pretty close. And the bluish greenish tile in there is not my cup of tea, either. That said, it’s a basically functional bathroom, though very 50s/60s in flavor, and I shouldn’t complain because even having two bathrooms wasn’t a guarantee in older homes. The hall bathroom, which was a bathtub, is pink. Oh boy is it ever pink. Mamie pink, with octagonal tile on the floor. I actually kinda like it, though it doesn’t go all that well with my sage green rugs and towels. The fixtures are new, though, and nice enough (though I wish instead of just a mirror there were a medicine cabinet). The thing is, there’s way less storage than I was used to in my SoCal house (and I thought my bathrooms there were small!). So I’m ruthlessly culling the amount of crap I have in the bathroom, particularly since there is no cabinet under the sink at all in the master, and stashing the rest in the fortunately quite capacious linen closet adjacent to the hall bathroom. It should work out ok in the end.

The other rooms are smallish, but adequate I suppose. I wish we could fit our bed and our nightstands along any given wall in the master bedroom, but we can’t, so we’ll adapt. The floors are all hardwood. They look nice, but we need to get some rugs; it actually gets colder here than you would expect, given that it’s the South, and even this early in the year the floors can be unpleasantly cold. Plus the cats can really scatter their litter far and wide, as there’s no carpet to contain it (we intend to remedy that, however). We’re still figuring out how to lay out the living room. It was clearly built at a time when living rooms weren’t shrines to the television, so it’s a fairly long, narrow room; it’s not totally obvious where to put our 52″ flatscreen and couches. We’ll figure it out, though.

Overall, our house is a very very very fine house, though there are three cats and they’re not allowed in the yard. There are squirrels in the yard, though, which fascinates said cats to no end. I bought a bird feeder and deliberately avoided the squirrel-proof ones (as if there’s any such thing) for the amusement of the kitties. The landlord is building a deck on the back, having installed a sliding glass door where once there was only a window (you see why we like this guy?), and I mean to put it there. I suppose birds might come eat the birdseed too, whatever the squirrels leave for them. It should be entertaining.

So yeah, this house is rather different from what we’re used to (particularly my husband, who had been living in Orange County McMansions for some time before we lived in the MoVal house), but it’s fine. This is where I live now.

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