Fingerwave...Lazy Beauty Queens

So Molly came to visit me this weekend. We've successfully gone for a bike ride, played some video games, made tasty fish sticks, and a mediocre curry. We've both discovered that a raw squash salad is a delightful idea.

We also thought we would try our hands at fingerwaves. It's harder than it looks. We weren't entirely unsuccessful, but we definitely need practice.

Molly won't let me post her before and after pictures.


So here I am. My nerdy self in all my glory, sporting my frequently scrunched hair and lack of makeup.

Here I am with my pseudo-failed-but-on-the-right-track fingerwave hair. Also, I am sporting my new yellow dress, which needs pressed.

 

Needs some work. I think next time I will try dry hair and hairspray instead of wet hair and gel. I think I will also curl the bottoms in spirals first. I couldn't do a good job with that after the fact because it was hard to get a curl while not messing up the wave.

I'll keep practicing.

Cold Steak Tacos

I made cold steak tacos, roughly inspired by Cooking Light magazine. From their June issue, I combined the flank steak taco recipe (vageuly followed) with the coleslaw for a catfish sandish, and tada! Cold steak tacos that were amazing and good for summer and the heat.

Steak

1 hour ahead of time mix

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon dried ground peppers (I have a jar of an assortment all ground up together)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 cloves minced garlic

Rub that into a flanksteak and put the steak back in the fridge for an hour. When that hour is up, throw on the grill on high for 6-10 minutes on each side. Keep it juicy. Slice it thin to make it go farther and to make it more easily distributable in wraps.

Mushrooms and Onions

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/4 cup red onion chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped mushrooms

Warm the oil in a skillet, throw the onions on. When the onions soften a bit, throw the mushrooms on. Don't really cook it down, just warm and soften a bit and pull it off the heat so it can cool.

Coleslaw

• 4 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 cups bagged coleslaw mix (cabbage and carrots and whotnot)
• 1 cup fresh cilantro

Mix the first three ingredients, then toss in the second two.

Cheese

• grate some cheese of your choice (I used pepperjack)

Tortilla

• Whatever kind you like (I used spinach wraps)

 Wrap everything up together in one neat little bunch and eat. Yum!

Real Science Behind Sci Fi

I read a lot of fantasy...I like some sci fi. I actually prefer science fiction of the dystopic variety, especially the biological. Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion about a clone boy's exclusion from humanity is a personal favorite.

I don't usually like hard science fiction, but I like real science. That in mind, I thought I would share some recent article finds that touch on classic science fiction topics:

CERN's big steps with the study of anti-matter is really interesting, and it breaks down the basic science fiction concepts of Star Trek and offshoots like Futurama (which I prefer). I've read about this in multiple places, but I think PCMag.com, of all places covers it pretty well.

I also love New Scientist's "When the multiverse and many-worlds collide." What science fiction has been hypothesizing forever has become published scientific theory in drawing on quantum mechanics and math.

Last but not least, Jurassic Park made the idea popular, but Jack Horner talks about the reality of creating dinosaurs in a funny TEDtalk, except he's starting with a chicken instead of an amber-trapped insect.

If you want to geek out on science stuff, I highly recommend New Scientist. It's my personal favorite, and they don't skip out on much. They've got technology, physics and math, science in society, environment, health, and life, etc., etc.

Getting Girly...Bridesmaid Season

So I'm in two weddings this September. Two weekends in a row. Blergh. And of course I am in weddings for people with no particular wardrobe. My sister at least gave some direction. She said a black cocktail dress. I'm borrowing one from my mom. I still need to figure out shoes.

The other wedding though, blergh. I got a random range of "fall colors" that didn't fit into my definition of fall colors, so I got online and searched for a dress I might like.

I'm always falling in love with dresses on ModCloth.com, but I can rarely afford the ones I like. This time I got lucky. I found one I loved, and it was in my price range. It was however, a bit bright, so I was worried the bride would not be okay with it. She said she didn't care, but I sent her a link anyway, and she loved it and said I had to wear it. Woohoo for awesom bride friends.

So here is the dress I ordered to wear for my friend's wedding...in an approved wedding color.

Also...I hope they bring these shoes back. I have a blue dress with which they would be perfect, and I have been looking for the perfect yellow shoes for a long time.

I do love yellow!

I need to stop perusing ModCloth though. I have no money. Someday though, I'm going to actually give my wardrobe some retro edge. Soon, I hope.