Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

I have been using a Logitech Trackman Mouse for over four years, and I L-O-V-E. it. It’s ergonomically perfect for my small hand, especially when used in conjunction with an Imak Ergobeads Wrist Cushion, and I love that I don’t ever have to pick it up and move it around like a regular mouse. Though a thumb-controlled trackball may not seem intuitive to standard mouse users, you should give this model a try. (Unless you need a left-handed model, which they sadly don’t offer.)

Anyway, the reason I am once again gushing about my personal love for this Trackman mouse (and don’t forget my 5-star review of the Imak Ergobeads) is because… hold on, I’m getting verklempt… it developed a problem. It wasn’t anything personal, I know. But one day, a couple weeks ago, the scroll wheel stopped working.

You don’t know how much you depend something until it’s gone, of course.

I followed the natural problem-solving course for this type of thing: curse, restart the computer; test a different USB port, curse when that doesn’t make a difference, but ultimately be thankful for not having a USB port problem; uninstall/reinstall the Logitech software driver thingy, curse some more. Then, moving on: deny that there is a actually a problem; wake up angry the next morning, curse; bargain with the devil (which only leads to developing a terrible cold, btw); get depressed and actually think to onseself there’s nothing on the internet today; and, eventually… accept the loss of a functioning scroll wheel. And mutter one final curse before looking up the warranty information—you know, just in case.

Five year warranty, the internet said. I did the math and decided that I was cutting it pretty close—but I filled out the form on Logitech’s website anyway. Logitech’s return email, received within one day, was this: Read more…

It must be love if a wife is delighted by her husband working the phrase “wretched hive of [scum and] villainy” into an anniversary card.

Ben and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary today with dinner at the Chef’s Table in Orem, Utah. It’s a pretty fancy place, though weirdly located on dreary, high-traffic State Street and nestled on a hill between a car dealership and some not-fancy housing. Still, the service was great and the food was amazing. We’d never been there before… but we’d like to go there again.

Ben called ahead for a reservation yesterday and had apparently mentioned that it was our anniversary… so when we arrived we were greeted with “Happy Anniversary” and some pleasant small talk by a chipper, dark-haired woman wearing a bright pink shirt. We were taken to the “reservation room” where we had a nice view of the mountains despite the cloudy, rain-threatening weather. The trees were not yet full enough to block our view of telephone poles and houses below, but it was fun to watch a pair of starlings flitting about the springtime trees all evening.

Ben and I don’t eat out a ton, but when we do it’s usually nothing fancy. You know, the type of place where menus are either already at the table, slapped in a pile in the middle of the table, or handed to you but with sticky stuff all over them. So the Chef’s Table was a lovely change of pace. The menus were opened and handed to us one at a time, and the pink-shirted hostess somehow also managed to lay my napkin over my lap simultaneously.

As soon as she walked away, a waiter’s assistant walked over and placed a stemmed glass dish with a dollop of something in front of each of us. “Lemon sorbet,” he said, and walked away.

“GOURMET!” I believe I whispered to Ben. And then, because I was feeling like I knew what it was for, I said, “To cleanse the palate.” I still think that’s a pretty good guess, and didn’t have a reason to think otherwise.

After some major deliberation, I ordered the “sautéed duck in port reduction sauce” with roasted red pepper potato soup. Ben ordered the “bacon wrapped beef tenderloin with sauce madeira” with French onion soup.

Normally when we try new places or new foods we’ll reach across each other’s plates for samples or trade partial portions. We didn’t feel comfortable doing that there, so I can’t vouch for the taste of Ben’s food, but he reported that is was very, very delicious.

Regarding my soup, I said to “imagine the most amazing potato soup you’ve ever had, then add freshly roasted red pepper to it.” It wasn’t too creamy and the spice levels were perfect. The texture was not entirely smooth, but that didn’t prevent me from finishing the whole mini-tureen that was placed before me. In response to my soup review, Ben said this regarding his: “Imagine the most amazing French onion soup you’ve ever had. (…) Yep.”

(I’m writing this review of food without being a practiced food critic. Suffice it to say that while our meal was more expensive than the norm for us, it was delicious enough to warrant an attempt at food critique.)

I ordered a glass of 2005 Raymond Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon to go with dinner (for my Utah friends: that’s a type of wine). It was advertised as having, among other flavors, overtones of caramel, vanilla, and coffee. I tasted the caramel and vanilla but couldn’t detect the coffee. Guess I still have some work to do before I can become a sommelier! Whether or not it was supposed to go with duck, I can tell you that it was really good wine.

It was also nice to see that I was not the only one enjoying a glass of wine with dinner—a table behind us ordered a couple bottles. It’s still funny to see a table full of grown-ups at a fancy restaurant drinking only water, coke, and lemonade.

Our main courses were beautifully presented on large white plates with sprigs of fresh rosemary and the sauces artfully poured over the meat. My duck was cooked medium rare, as suggested by the waiter, and it was tender, juicy, and not like chicken. I’ve only had duck once before, but this one was better. The large slices of zucchini (which I normally don’t like) and carrots were made gourmet by dipping them lightly in the port reduction sauce. The “crispy house potato gratin” that also came with the duck was one of the best potato dishes I’ve ever tasted, and I’m not a big fan of potatoes so don’t take that statement lightly. The melted cheese on top is what made them “crispy.” I am considering calling the restaurant tomorrow to ask if I can just get a tray of that crispy cheese to go. It was really good cheese.

The dessert menu looked fantastic, but we’d cleared our plates and absolutely could not eat more. I vow to go back for just dessert one day soon.

We took our time eating dinner and really enjoyed ourselves this evening. Perhaps my review would be different had it not been our anniversary—I guess I’ll just have to go again soon to test out that theory.

Lastly, I leave you with a personal accomplishment. At the start of the meal, Ben looked at the wine, then my shirt, and said, “This is going to end badly.” But I wore a new white shirt and didn’t dribble ANY food or wine onto it! New world record!

Isis is doing wonderfully.

It’s been 5 weeks now since I took her to another vet for a second opinion of her inexplicably failing health. He put the “food allergy” idea into my head, and that’s exactly what it was—though the “hypoallergenic” Hill’s Prescription Diet z/d cat food he recommended didn’t help. (You can find the full and lengthy story on my previous Obligate Carnivore post.)

I started researching feline food allergies on January 29 after coming home from the vet. She refused to eat the z/d food at first, but the vet sent me home with four of those $2.29 cans and I was not going to give in that easily.  I mixed them into the only food she would eat, and though she made it clear that she wasn’t thrilled with the new food, she transitioned in a couple of days. There was a slight improvement in her, um, deposits, but definitely not enough to convince us that it was the best treatment for her (especially considering the food’s price tag).

Meanwhile, I purchased a whole chicken from the grocery store and dusted off the meat grinder attachment for my (favorite!) KitchenAid stand mixer.

The idea of putting raw chicken into the pitifully unhealthy digestive tract of my little kitty made me tremble Read more…

I skipped the Sundance Film Festival volunteer pre-party on Wednesday night because I was exhausted and not up for the long trip to Park City, let alone hanging out with a crowd of a thousand people. I was going to meet up and carpool with my friend Jenny, who I met at last year’s festival, but I bailed on her. We’d been emailing a little and I told her I wasn’t sure about going—and then I declared my final decision via text message. To prove how cool she is, Jenny responded: “Boooooo.   that’s okay, I forgive you.”  I appreciated her unsolicited forgiveness and went to bed early.

Friday morning, after attending classes from 8-10am, I started driving up Provo Canyon into the mountains. I forgot to bring my camera, which is a shame because it was a beautiful day.

As much fun as I had volunteering at the awesome Sundance venue of Egyptian Theatre in Park City last year, I requested shifts at the Sundance Resort this year because it’s a much closer drive. It’s turning out to be a dramatically different festival experience than last year.

The environment itself is extraordinarily low-key. Unlike the Egyptian, which is smack dab in the middle of the busy festival on Main Street in Park City, the Sundance Resort is 45 minutes away from Park City and offers only one theater. A path starts at the base of the mountain, where skiiers and snowboarders line up for the chairlift, and winds past rustic and unadorned resort buildings, outdoor art globes that encourage environmental responsibility, and an in-ground fire pit with benches all around. The wood smoke drifting through the cold, mountain air adds a distinct aroma to the mountain resort ambiance. Bridges cross over a cold, rushing creek, and wooden signposts direct pedestrians at forks in the path. The Screening Room, as it’s aptly called, is a golden-hued wood building nestled among, and mostly obscured by, tall trees.

I walked up the well-worn wooden steps and into the lobby at 10:45am, where I was greeted by a flurry of staff members and volunteers preparing for the kick-off of the first film. Though Park City venues screen five or six films a day during the festival, from 8:30am until after midnight, Sundance screens only four films a day at set times: noon, 3:00pm, 6:00pm, and 9:00pm. I introduced myself to new faces and re-introduced myself to the people I met at the prior week’s training session, picked up my volunteer uniform, then dove right in to on-the-job box office training. Having worked at the front desk of a hotel for four years, the job itself was not a big deal.

People relaxed a little after the first film (Carmo, Hit the Road) started, and that’s when I was able to get to know some of them a little more. It’s exciting to discover new people who live in Utah County, appreciate independent film, and who are not only nice but also swear, watch R-rated movies, and drink wine. As most imports to the heavily Mormon-influenced world of Utah County will tell you, it can be a very difficult and isolating place to live if you are not Part Of The Culture. Hell, I have Mormon friends who grew up elsewhere who agree that it’s a wacked-up place to live. Anyway, it’s just nice to meet new people and not have to dance around Who I Really Am.

The director of the first film, Murilo Pasta, walked into the lobby about halfway through its screening. He gave a big hug and Brazilian besos (kisses on each cheek) to Bonnie, the theater manager, and then came over to the volunteer table and greeted the few of us with warm handshakes and “It’s nice to meet you, [each name here].” Most of the directors I saw last year barely even gave the theater manager the time of day, but Mr. Pasta (tee hee) was obviously a different brand of director. Of course he’s Brazilian, so that may have had something to do with it.

He held a Q&A session with audience after the film, and schmoozed with filmgoers in the lobby afterwards. The “box office” where I was stationed was basically a table by the entrance to the theater, so I had a front row seat to it all. The job is pretty easy—besides taking money and doing some paperwork, I just stood there looking official and answered questions as people asked them.

I had a short shift and was able to stay to watch the 3:00 film, Corazón del Tiempo (“Heart of Time”). Some parts were difficult for me to follow because I’m not familiar at all with the political situation or the Zapatista revolution of rural Chiapas, Mexico, but otherwise I enjoyed it. The rural setting was beautiful and the depiction of the tight-knit community very compelling, but I really loved the relationship between the sun-wrinkled, toothless grandmother and her preteen granddaughter.

I went home after the film and the rest of my night was kind of boring and filled with falling asleep on the couch. I had planned to go up to Park City today, but I’m not sure if that’s going to happen since I have a lot to do otherwise. I’ll share more exciting Sundance events as they occur—my next shift is tomorrow morning.

I should figure out how to make an automated “Gone Fishing” message appear when I haven’t blogged in a while. Then you would know that an update-vomit* is on its way!

What I did over my Christmas vacation

• Hosted a kickass adults-only Christmas party with kickass white elephant gift exchange and kickass imbibing of beer, cheese balls, and sugary snacks. The being-feverishly-knitted-at-the-time hat was stolen from me at the gift exchange, so I ended up with a Miracle Bread Stamper, Utah-shaped cookie cutters, and three packets of official Mormon orange jello.*
• Had a somewhat crappy pre-Christmas that I was in no mood to blog about.
• Had a good and snowy Christmas Morning at home, failed to go caroling at Senior Centers with friends in the early afternoon, and then Ben and I spent the early evening with a former coworker who is undergoing cancer treatment.
• Played our newly acquired Rock Band 2 (for Xbox 360). A lot.
• Played Killer Bunnies with friends and cursed the impracticality of the rules. It gets a FAIL for intuitive gameplay. Though the ways that bunnies died were amusing (for most of us, anyway).
• Played Rock Band 2 with friends, for which gameplay was more than intuitive; It was AWESOME.
• Met with my government-issued Employment Counselor to discuss taking classes at Utah Valley University—the cost of which would be covered because I was laid off from a company that sent jobs overseas. Signed some papers that were immediately wrapped in 4 rolls of red tape.
• Celebrated New Year’s Eve at home with Ben, with Fuzzy Navels and another new game, this time for the Wii: MySims Kingdom. It started off slow (survivable with a light buzz and sarcastic/inappropriate comments) but actually turned into an enjoyable game for me. Lots of collecting things and some puzzle-solving—a perfect blend for my OCD tendencies. Ben zonked out on the couch for a little while, and for some reason we watched the ball drop on TV. Every year we turn off the TV at 12:01 and wonder why it’s a tradition to watch it, and then make our first official resolution: Not to bother watching NBC’s “Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” next year.
• Saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Ben on New Year’s Day and most definitely cried in the theater. There were a few small incongruencies that didn’t make sense to me, but other than that it was a great movie. Also, see: Brad Pitt Is Hot.
• Flew to Denver on Jan. 2 where I met up with my mom and we spent a few days visiting my sister and her Norwegian holiday house guest (who happens to be my “little brother” from my year in Norway, whom Monique invited out after they became friends through that magical place called Facebook, and whom she is not dating because that would be some sort of weird incest even though they’re not related).
• Bought an ugly sweater at Monique’s favorite Arc thrift store in Denver.
• Attended an Ugly Sweater Party at Monique’s house and finally met a bunch of her grad school and French Club friends.
• Tried a weirdly delicious spiked blueberry lemonade at Bar Louie in Denver, which accompanied a $1 Tuesday Night Special burger ($3.50 with my desired toppings).
• Saw Marley and Me with Monique and her roommate. It’s a good thing we had some extra restaurant napkins on hand to catch all the chick flick crying that was going on. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to movies regularly, but I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I’ve seen two tear-jerkers within one week. It’s like if there were a Lifetime Channel movie theater or something. But seriously, Marley and Me was better than I expected.
• Flew home on Wednesday, dropped off my bags at home, and drove up to the Sundance Resort for my training/orientation for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. I have more to share about that, and won’t diminish its coolness by including it in this update-vomit.
• Met with a UVU adviser and registered for a full courseload of classes that, if completed, would award me with an associates degree in business management. Because I already have my BA, all the general education requirements were waived so I’m free to start taking electives in Digital Media. I’ve already attended a couple classes, but that is also worthy of a separate blog entry.

Next time there might even be some photos of some of the aforementioned events. Hey, it doesn’t take a BA in English/Creative Writing to know that you have to give your readers a reason to come back!

* There actually was a little vomit involved in Denver after eating some presumably shellfish-tainted restaurant chicken. Monique was sick, too, and is also allergic, and the non-allergic person who also ate chicken was not affected. I’m sorry to bring vomit to my blog. It’s a new high for me, to be sure.

** Distributed by the church. Seriously. “You can’t BUY that, you know,” said the giver. (I don’t like jello [brand name Jell-O or generic gelatin] much in the first place, but I certainly won’t touch it if it has shredded carrots mixed in. Is that a vegetable? Dessert? Trans-fat? I haven’t seen it in person, but many Utahns have reported that rumor to be true. I think I’d rather have a stapler in my jello.)

I wasn’t able to watch the new Muppets Christmas special, Letters to Santa, when it aired last week. Thank the Muppety Gods for hulu.com, which has the streaming video available with limited commericals until the end of the year.

Unfortunately, the special wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. It was more painfully contrived than any other Muppet special I’ve seen and in that way it felt a lot more Disney than Muppet. Still, there were a few cool things in the 44-minute special.

[SPOILERS AHEAD] Read more…

Spoiler Alert: I definitely cover what happened at the end of the Kids in the Hall tour performance in this post.

One thing I forgot to mention in Part 1 of my recap of the KITH Salt Lake City show: though some of characters in their sketches were originally from the TV show, the tour’s material and a lot of the characters were all new.  And after watching a few clips from other live shows on YouTube, it seems that the premise of a lot of the sketches was consistent but, like any good improv, the majority of it was deliciously unique.

The last sketch of the show had all five of the Kids in it, and I guessed it was the end of the show when they came together for a company bow and the theme song started blaring again over the clapping and cheering of the audience, who stood up for an exuberant (though not rowdy) standing ovation.

They thanked the audience and said something about how excited they were for the 13 hour bus ride to Seattle that lay ahead of them. And that they loved their SLC fans so much, they were going to keep the show going for just a little longer. Encore! Hooray! Everyone sat back down.

And then Mark McKinney came out with a handheld video camera pointed toward the audience, dressed as his head-crushing character. The footage was shown on the big screen behind him, and the crowd was very, very happy with this little surprise.

He ripped on a few people in the audience, and used that criticism as justification for crushing their heads. I was too far back for him to focus on me, but I was sitting in the center and think I saw my hands waving on the big screen a couple times. Thrilling!

Mark also panned around the entire theater (which is not a really huge venue, btw). There were a smattering of people in the balcony, which was otherwise very empty. That raised a big (and hilarious) WTF reaction from Mark, as you might imagine. It made me a little embarrassed for the lame Salt Lake City crowd… why wasn’t the theater packed? Then again, I’m not actually from here, so I didn’t stay embarrassed for too long.

The final, final feature of the performance was when Mark (still as the Head Crusher) lined up the other 4 guys and individually called them out on their “crimes” before crushing their heads. Kevin got really close to the camera, a la Blair Witch Project, and Mark started patting his face. That led to Kevin sucking on Mark’s fingers… which led to Mark sticking a wet finger up Kevin’s nostril… which led to the total gross-out of Kevin sucking on that same finger again. Blarghblecch!!!!

I leave you with a YouTube clip of the 5 Kids in the Hall taking a final bow as the theme song plays. It is not from the show I saw, even though I filmed something similar, because my memory card went kaput after I opened up a couple of the photos. Sad. It would have been a tragedy if I had been able to take my picture with any of the Kids, but we didn’t stick around long enough after the show to see them come out (if they did at all).

The Kids in the Hall performance last night was a refreshing change of scenery after living in Utah for almost three years. It was our first time on the University of Utah campus (which is not religiously affiliated) and I giggled with glee when I stepped inside of the Kinsbury Hall Theater…  there was a large screen hanging down with a static collage of images projected upon it, including a box with the phrase "What the fuck were you thinking?"

I giggled because unless I watch a movie or have some very specific friends over to my house, I rarely hear the "F word" anymore. I was definitely treated to some fantastic use of cursing during the course of the 1.5 hour KITH performance. And the crowd in the theater could take it… I don’t think that there were too many conservative, non-swearing audience members. (Interesting note: Ben and I were solidly on the younger end of the audience age spectrum. I wonder what the average demographics are of show attendees?)

Liz doesn’t want spoilers. Stop reading right now, Liz, if you really want to be surprised when you see it in Seattle tomorrow.

The show started out with the KITH theme song as the lights went down, and that was awwwwsome! Then there was a pre-filmed skit shown on the big screen to introduce the tour, including a gag where they blatantly dubbed "Salt Lake City" over some other word that Bruce McCullough mouthed in a generic Your Town reference. They pulled that gag a couple other times during the performance.

The show felt very much like a Kids in the Hall TV episode, but on stage with no censorship and several moments when the guys broke character… which was okay because some of their shit was really funny and seeing them break character made it better (which usually isn’t the case, but I have a feeling that they had to do several takes to get the footage they needed back when they taped their shows).

The set-up was low-key, with bare bones scenery consisting mostly of folding chairs and images projected onto the screen behind the actors. Costumes and familiarity with a lot of the characters (Buddy Cole, Cathy and Kathie, the Chicken Lady, etc.) set the stage for an all-around good show.

Scott Thompson had some blasphemous fun as Buddy Cole, monologuing about how Jesus was clearly gay. He prefaced that with pokes at Mormons, like… "Many of you are probably risking excommunication by coming here tonight, so the least we could do is make it worth your while!" 

Hallelujah! 

Then, in a skit that (I think) followed Buddy Cole’s monologue, Kevin McDonald and Mark McKinney walked onto stage together dressed like this: 

When these guys walked on, the Salt Lake City audience roared because it was probably assumed that Kevin McDonald and Mark McKinney were playing Mormon missionaries. They turned out to be Jehovah’s Witnesses who made the mistake of requesting entrance to the house of Bruce McCullough’s annoying, nerdy kid character (Gavin, I think?).  Still funny.

And then Mark McKinney came out wearing a mini skirt for a scene, except the mini skirt was pulled up around his underwear. Yup, tighty whities in full view! He pulled the skirt down as soon as he realized it was up… but the damage was done and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a planned gag.

Then, after much hilarity, including a second and not-really-hilarious pre-filmed sketch on the big screen, the show ended with some head crushing. As it should have.

And that’s all I’m saying for now  because I know that Liz is still reading and I don’t want to ruin it completely for her.

Yesterday, after finally posting the list of 2008 Summer Movies for the Geek, Ben and I went to see Iron Man at the theater.

Wow. If more movies were like this one, I would go to the movies more often. Robert Downey, Jr. embodied the pretentious, self-righteous Tony Stark and made a very believable transition from an egotistical billionaire playboy to the accountability-driven billionaire superhero (with a much more loveable egotistical streak).

The Story: Strong overall, though there were some parts that took me out of "the dream" for a minute, like when Gwyneth Paltrow ran for her life in a tight skirt and 4-inch stilettos (over a grated walkway, even).

The Acting: Really good overall.

The Style: Perfect. 

The Effects: *DROOL*

The Ending: Without giving any spoilers, the end of the movie leaves itself open for a sequel. Black Sabbath was the perfect segue music into the credits, which Ben and I sat through and then were very satisfied with the short clip played after the credits… as in, I probably geeked out for the next twenty minutes talking about Teh Awesome of the newly introduced character (played by a well-known badass actor) who will undoubtedly play a large role in the clearly inevitable sequel even if they only loosely follow the comic books.

And to the sequel, I say bring it on. You have me right where you want me because I’m ready for it now. 

It’s been another hard-working weekend for me as Ben and I continue to prepare for the arrival of our Norwegian visitors in (yikes) less than two weeks.

Ben took a break from sawing, sanding, painting, banging, swearing, etc to bottle his four batches of nearly-complete liquid bread: a blacker-than-black stout, an India Pale Ale, a Honey Wheat and a Blueberry Wheat. I helped by using my labeling the bottlecaps with my otherwise underused stamps and inks (I know I’ll use these! They’re awesome! I said when I thought I was going to be crafty on a regular basis).

I’ve been digging through old papers and boxes of CRAP that have moved with me for many years and also some relatively new stuff. It sucks to be a pack rat, and I’ve been better about throwing and giving things away lately. But sorting through everything I already have is a pain in the ass, as well as in my back from too much hunching over while sitting on the floor… I can hear my mother telling me that I’ll get scoliosis.  But our junk storage room with a futon is slowly turning into a more usable guest room with a crafting area. It turns out that a 5 foot brown folding table can actually look nice when it’s covered with a tablecloth that hangs close to the floor.

Will our house be ready to impress the people who took me in as an exchange student eleven years ago? Probably Definitely not as much as we would like. The skylights will not be replaced in time due to our contractor not understanding that we WANTED THEM REPLACED LAST YEAR and we do not want to wait until he has a bid for the specific back door we also want him to install. At this point, I’m hoping that they will finish with all the work we need them to do by the middle of April (because we don’t want them here while we have visitors). We had to add one more delightful project to the contractor’s list: installing a pipe that will actually lead smelly air and humidity away from the house once bathroom fans suck it up. The original builders didn’t think of that, apparently?

Yep. Our house was built by retarded buffoons, previously "maintained" by drunken monkeys and then flipped by corner-cutting assholes.

For all the work he’s done around the house, at least Ben has been able to derive some pleasure out of the whole thing by acquiring more power tools.