me:  “This plot isn’t making any sense at all!!”

Andy:  “That’s Chandler for ya.”

Conclusion?  Don’t watch a Chandler story with a Hammett fan.

Other notes:  Andy ultimately concluded that the film made more sense than the novel (which amused me, because Faulkner was a co-script-writer, and when has Faulkner been known for being less complex??).  It’s hilarious how often Marlowe gets an assist from a pretty, flirty lady (me to Andy: “It’s a story about a man with a super power.  His super power is that he’s Humphrey Bogart.”¹).  Lauren Bacall is an incredibly sexy woman.

1. raanve knows what i’m talking about here. [↩]

I’ve been wanting to go to Paris for the past 30 years — ever since falling in love with the idea of Paris when i was in 5th grade and we were introduced to the 3 languages my school district taught in middle school so that we could choose which one to study.

I chose French, of course, because it’s what they speak in Paris.  Three years in middle school, 4 years in high school, 1 year at my 1st college.  I almost had enough credits to get a minor in French at my 2nd college, but not quite enough and so i had to drop it in order to graduate¹.

And yet, i still haven’t been to France.  But then, kids who are on reduced-price lunch don’t exactly get to go on school trips abroad.  In college i was poor enough for Pell Grants and state need grants, so, y’know, still no traveling abroad.

My father-in-law offered to send Andy and me anywhere in the world for our honeymoon.  I requested Paris.  Andy wanted Japan.  We wound up in Dublin².

I joked that i wanted to go to Paris for my 40th birthday, because i figured if i were going to have a mid-life crisis i might as well be in Paris for it.  But i have a long history with mediocre-to-awful birthdays and didn’t expect it would really happen.  We managed to pull off a decent birthday celebration last year for me³, however, so Andy surprised me by declaring he was taking me to Paris in 2012 whether i liked it or not.

Blah blah blah, today my boss approved my vacation request for 9 days in Paris this summer.

The basic plan is to fly out of Seattle somewhere around june 21st and return somewhere around the 4th of July.  Since we’ll be in Paris for so long, we’re looking into renting an apartment.

Everything else in between is totally up in the air!  Andy’s submitted a few suggestions/requests⁴, but everything else is completely up to me.

Please feel free to make suggestions!  Things to do, arondissements to consider when we look for accommodations, restaurants/foods we need to try.  I’ll be making a few posts with specific requests for advice/information, too.

First up:  Anyone know a good sake house in Paris??

1. Yeah.  That worked well. [↩]
2. Dublin was absolutely great, tho’!  I could totally see myself living in Dublin, if anyone’s listening who has a job to offer me in Dublin. [↩]
3. The secret is a weekend of floating from one sake house to another. [↩]
4. Mostly to do with Dumas in some way, because he’s Andy. [↩]

Buy it for the adorable cup, then pull the tab and drink it like a badass.

Akishika 'Bambi cup' sake

brewery: Akishika
sake: Bambi cup
type: junmai
price: $8 for a 180ml bottle (@ Woori)
serve: chilled

This is a nice, basic easy-drinking sake — like a more refined version of the Gekkeikan, &c., that you’ll find in the “sake section” of U.S. grocery stores.  Not a lot of exciting flavors (to my palate), but i enjoyed drinking i and i wouldn’t mind drinking it again.

Gotta be honest, tho’, i mostly got it for the ZOMG, it’s a pull-tab sake that comes in its own adorable little cup with a plastic lid on it!!! factor.  I suspect that’s why most people get it.  ;)

I have, much to Andy’s discomfiture, itchy feet.  I was not, at all, ever expecting we’d still be living in Seattle 10+ years after signing that 1st lease.  I thought maybe 5 years tops.  Occasionally we talk about possibly moving somewhere else — talk about where we’d be able to find jobs, where we might be happy, where we could find a decent saké bar.

But then we have a saturday of running errands, and i come home and think to myself, “Why the fuck would i ever want to move from this neighborhood??”  Because while i may not love Seattle, i adore the University District.

Today’s errands!   (My veg*n friends will want to scroll past University Seafood & Poultry wherein i talk about non-food.)

U-District Farmers’s Market

All i got here today was raw milk for making yogurt.  I’d been hoping the mushroom vendor would be there, because i want Andy to make that oyster mushroom foil pack thing again.  I also should have picked up a jar of honey, but i’d forgotten my jar to return.  Next week.

Scarecrow Video

Picked up “Princess Nine” so i could make an icon for littlebutfierce.

Seattle Public Library (University branch)

Andy had a hold to pick up.

Hardwick’s Hardware

This place is amazing, and is a rare, rare thing — a truly independent hardware store.  Still owned by the family that opened it.  Sells both new and used stuff.  Has a great side room full of furniture (all our bookcases came from here).  Today we picked up a new shovel and poker for our fireplace and a wee tiny funnel for my flasks.

University Seafood & Poultry

Again, a truly independent store run by the same family that opened it years ago.  Andy wanted to pick up some seafood for his cook-stravaganza this weekend: ahi tuna, crabmeat, and prawns.  He also got a bottle of red wine and 1 lemon.

This place has great seafood, but they also kind of specialize in rare meats.  Things i noticed on the list while Andy was placing his order: wild boar, venison, python.  Also, place your order now for your holiday turducken!

Woori Market

As we were leaving University Seafood & Poultry, i started going over the order of operations for the afternoon’s cooking.  When i got to, “And i’ll start some rice….”, Andy interrupted with, “Shit!  We’re out of sushi rice.”  “Oh,” i said casually, “Then i guess we’ll just go to Woori next.”

God/dess bless the person who put this Korean market just around the corner from us.  Today we picked up sushi rice, gyoza wrappers, tofu, scallions, and 2 kinds of saké.

Here’s a map!

All these errands took a little less than 2 hours total and most of them involved visiting independent businesses — Woori’s the only place we visited that’s part of a franchise.

If you scroll out a bit on this Google map, you can see how close together everything is.

View U-District errands, 2012/1/14 in a larger map.

And then we came home and i said to Andy, “Remind me of this the next time i talk about wanting to move.”

There is someone in my life whom i can really only describe as the most classist liberal i’ve ever met.  Of course social mobility upward is the only right and proper thing for someone born poor, right??

Yet i was somehow still legitimately shocked when, during a discussion of language change¹, this person quipped that the problem was probably “too many people who live in trailers”.

Oh, you didn’t….

Trailer trash manifesto, part 1:  You do not have the right to determine that another human being is trash.

Trailer trash manifesto, part 2:  You don’t get to assign a sense of stupidity to anyone based solely upon the fact that they — either by choice or necessity — live in inexpensive housing.

I’m betting that the person who said this to my face had never actually met anyone who’d ever lived in a trailer.  How can someone possibly know anything about someone else without ever meeting them??

Correction: This person didn’t realize they knew someone who’d lived in a trailer — didn’t realize they were actually making this assertion to someone who had, in fact, grown up in a double-wide modular home².

To a certain extent this person has a point about trailer trash and language change.  Because i grew up in a modular home, and i am all for language evolution/change.  I even start my sentences with “because”!  And also “and”!!  Anyway, i’m not sure how a person can be against language evolution — being against it has never stopped it in the past.

I don’t even know how to end this rant, because it still just makes me so mad.  In conclusion, i’ll just leave you with “Jersey Shore” done in the style of Oscar Wilde start with part 1³.

1. It’s a natural evolutionary process — GET USED TO IT. [↩]
2. Which, for those of you who aren’t aware of the fine gradations of pre-fabricated homes, is basically a trailer that’s just a little larger and has no wheels. [↩]
3. Tho’ i do suspect these clips amuse me for reasons that are the opposite of why Playbill thought the concept would be amusing. [↩]

Needing something to watch that wouldn’t over-tax our brains with new stimulus, we opted for a re-watch.  Since apparently i make Andy re-watch Miyazaki movies a bit, ummm, often¹, we pulled out “Snatch”.

I think this is the last time i’ll be watching “Snatch”.  Sure, it’s witty, fast-paced, nicely-plotted.  But, (a) i am always uncomfortable with the ending, where the 3 black men are left holding the bag body while 2 white men cruise right on by with both the dog and the diamond.  And (b) i really rather suspect that Ritchie’s depiction of pikeys is horrible.  If anyone has suggestions for interesting, respectful reading/viewing i should check out about Travellers/non-Roma gypsies/&c., please mention it in comments.

1. Whatever. [↩]