By wink of water

I have a lot going on these days – people in town, good news regarding Yaka, preparing for my trip west for graduation – so this will be short and sweet and contain only pics. I promise to write more soon on the weekend, which was a lot of fun and included a delicious meal at The Hidden Kitchen. I also want to post a mix, but might do that only to facebook. OK, without further ado, my pics:

May is full of holidays here. A week ago was Labor Day, traditionally a day of protests, and nothing was open; today is another holiday (checks wikipedia) – Victory in Europe day. Nothing was open a week ago, but some stores are open today, and later I might do a bit of shopping. For now I am all alone at work, which is actually kind of nice.

Last week, the beautiful day and lack of ability to run errands convinced me to go to Bois de Vincennes with Guillaume, another post doc. The park is large and green and basically everything someone missing Seattle would want – boaters, kids playing, lovely blooming trees, winding paths through woods. We then met Bryan for drinks and dinner and chanced to see a great band in the bar (Pica Pica). We were lucky to be sitting on stools, as it got very packed, with people sitting on the floor (including really cute kids). The band was advertised as “street music” or “gypsy jazz” – an accordion, a violin, and a guitar. I was half in love with the violinist by the end of the set.

Below some more pics of Bois de Vincennes and the band, taken on Guillaume’s iPhone. Later, some pics of my new apartment.

A+!

I was going to title this post “ubuntu, vncserver, and exploding vacuum cleaners”, and fill it with lots of useful information about how to install vncserver on an AMD64 ubuntu box, but 1. it’s a gorgeous, and a holiday, I shouldn’t even be at work, and 2. Jenny asked me about my pie secrets. So instead I will briefly talk about pie, after I explain about the exploding vacuum cleaner. And then I’ll go boating in the Bois de Vincennes. (If anyone really wants to know about vncserver and ubuntu, just comment or something and I’ll explain.)

I was convinced by really persuasive reviews on Amazon to buy a Bissell Pet Eraser and I was so excited when it arrived in the mail, even though it had cost more for my mom to mail than it cost me to purchase originally. My couch (and indeed, nearly every surface) is perpetually covered in cat hair, and I spend every morning sweeping and dusting, and still it’s a constant battle. The small-but-powerful vacuum cleaner was my latest sally in this war, and I had threatened to vacuum the cats themselves. (This was a completely idle threat, as that would be unimaginably cruel. There are only two things in this world that frighten Bird: vacuum cleaners and roller bladers. Back in the day, Arnie and I invented our own version of rosham called pen-vacuum cleaner-Bird.)

So, I plugged in the vacuum cleaner, turned it on, and there was a very loud popping sound and strong burnt smell. So I turned it off. Then, good engineer that I am, I turned it back on and let it run for a while longer. There was presently a small electrical fire in the vacuum cleaner, which frightened me into fumbling for the off switch, which I managed to find but not until after an even stronger burnt smell had filled the apartment.

Lesson: voltages are different in Europe. This doesn’t affect laptops, because they have their own transformers in the plug, but apparently it affects all other small appliances. Therefore, I continue to lose the battle against the cat hair. I am of course going to return the vacuum in June and demand a full refund.

Now, for my pie secrets. First of all, I recommend that everyone get The Pie Book, which is amazing – it has fantastic recipes and extremely detailed instructions on how to make all different types of pie dough. Graham-cracker crusts and Oreo crusts are super easy and super tasty, and his chocolate cream pie recipe is to die for.

There are basically three things I do to make good pie dough. The rest of the steps are standard and so not included.

1. Freeze the fat. I keep butter and shortening in the freezer specifically for this purpose.
2. Grate the fat. When it comes time to put the fat into the flour (recipes usually suggest cutting it into the flour in small pieces until it’s pea-sized), I use a cheese grater, or better, a food processor with the cheese grater attachment. Take your frozen butter and grate it in, mixing as you go. Then do the shortening (I do it second because it’s messier, it doesn’t freeze as well). Now you have lovely cold dough, with smaller-than-pea-sized bits, to add water to.
3. Roll on wax paper. This tip is directly from the pie book. When I roll out the dough, I do so on a piece of wax paper. This has the added advantage of being exactly the right size for a 9″ pie. And to put it in the pie plate, you simply flip it over and peel off the paper. No more battling with sticky dough attaching itself to counter tops!

OK, hopefully that’s enough information, but let me know if not. Time to explore Paris – I can’t do errands (everything is closed), and no one is at the office, so I must celebrate France’s Labor Day in a very French fashion (i.e., by not working).