i haven't updated in way WAY too long, and probably shouldn't be updating now (what with being at work and all). but sometimes, i admit, i miss being a little more long winded than twitter allows.

slightly seething about getting (what i consider to be a horribly unjust) B- on a medieval poetry paper i wrote recently, and feeling a bit wobbly, which i think has to do with last night's desperation pasta salad from the only coffee shop that was open at 11pm that didn't require me to go wandering out too far into the cold. last night was fun. at quarter to ten i found out that i wouldn't be going home because the weather was lousy, and had to check into the comfort inn. where i got a grand total of no sleep, at least not until after my 7:30 alarm clock went off. the bed's are always too squishy and the temperature is never quite right, and i didn't have my usual snuggly pillows and i was terribly worried about peob, all by himself at home. he was especially glad to see me safe and sound when i got in - albeit briefly - this afternoon.

every muscle and joint in my body hurts. i dislike exams. i only like being this sore as a result of, you know, fun activities, like hiking, or sex.

back by popular demand

HAM

embrace the ham. it loves you. buy prints! HAM!

hey, interwebs.

coupla thoughts today, namely:

1. updating sami kelsh the epic website you should all visit, for one thing. some pretentious writing about art there, among other things.

2. indeed, i'm conflicted again about the art thing. it seems like a lot of people don't see, or don't see much, or choose not to see, when art about and featuring females is concerned. there's a lot out there to make me uncomfortable. there's a photograph that a colleague of mine took recently that was incredibly disturbing, but what was more disturbing was that the majority of people who commented on it publicly couldn't apparently see past the fact that it was a photo of a naked chick to see that it was a photo of a naked chick laying face down and apparently or possibly dead or unconscious on a carpet next to a piece of furniture. yeah, real sexy guys. creeped me the fuck out, that. i get that a lot and all. "oh, you look so hot!" in response to a picture where i'm naked and crying. really? are you sick, or just stupid?

3. i sure love falafel.

4. oh and buy some of this kickass new knitted stuff i've been knitting

so tonight, in spite of being stricken with a hideously awful cold, i decided to make lasagne. and it's gosh darn delicious. motherflippin' EPIC.



serves, i dunno, lots. be advised that you will likely have leftover sauce, but never fear as it works beautifully as a regular pasta sauce or served over nice white fish.

6 lasagne noodles
a couple glugs of oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 red bell pepper or 2 red shepherd peppers, roughly chopped
2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
a generous slosh of tinned crushed tomato
a small handful of fresh basil, chiffonade
a generous sprinkle of oregano
1 medium carrot, grated
1 small chile, seeded and chopped
1 egg
1 cup ricotta
a good handful of chopped spinach from one of those frozen blocks, thawed
1/2 pound of mozzarella, shredded
salt and pepper to taste

heat oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. add onion and garlic and fry for a minute, then add peppers, tomato, and chile. simmer until peppers have softened and tomatoes have begun to disintegrate. add crushed tomato, basil, oregano, carrot, salt, and pepper, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until a nice thick and chunky sauce forms.

meanwhile, cook lasagne noodles until al dente in boiling salted water. drain and set aside.

beat egg until frothy, then beat in ricotta, then spinach, salt, and pepper. set aside.

preheat oven to 350°. in a 9"x9" (give or take) ovenproof dish, spread a thin layer of sauce. cover with a layer of noodles, trimming excess if necessary. spread noodles with a layer of spinach and ricotta mixture, followed by a layer of tomato sauce, and a sprinkling of mozzarella. cover with another layer of noodles, then ricotta, then tomato sauce, then mozzarella. bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes. (it is wise to place a piece of tinfoil under your pan, as some sauce may bubble over, and that's a real pain to clean out of the oven later if it drips onto the oven floor.) cover with foil and bake for a further 10 minutes. remove from oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving, if you can restrain yourself from voraciously tucking in.

nightmares were gone for a time, now returned. it's hard to quiet the mind. the yogis, you know them, the ones who make it seem so effortless, i think they're having a laugh.

hands are busy, knitting new things for the shoppe (i haven't forgotten, but my studio is awfully full and i was away for a while). turns out england kind of seeps into your bones and stays there, like a memory in the body as well as the mind. i am drawn by forces more powerful than myself to return, not that i'd choose to resist. but can i return? i will, at least to visit.

in the meantime, pictures beginning to appear here. feel free to investigate. more pictures forthcoming. prints available.

i'm thinking of doing a bakewell tart, or possibly a peach pudding, with the fresh peaches we've got at the moment. perhaps even apricot pudding. trouble is of course that i'm trying to cut down on my grain consumption again, as these things don't sit well with me. this clashes just a little with the idea of sponge pudding and shortcrust pastry, admittedly. recipes forthcoming if my willpower breaks down and i start baking.

listen.

LISTEN.

now read.

the humidity was at a near-record high today, and hung heavily over the neighbourhood with unfathomable thickness, like the heavy, hot scent of someone whose blood seems to be sublimating out of their skin, lending them a thick, foggy aura with an inescapably sticky, sweet fragrance that is so cloying as to be gag-inducing.

you know the people i'm talking about.

that was today.

welp, canada day was rainy as fuck, and we don't care for fireworks anyway. went round to dave's. he wasn't very well, so i brought him healing snacks (diet coke and potato chips, for he is a special kind of human subspecies that thrives EXCLUSIVELY ON SNACKS) and we took a nap. then we watched boondock saints and a wonderful attenborough programme on reptiles and amphibians. FASCINATING stuff. it's really cute when they cuddle. so that was nice.

earlier today i spent several minutes watching a bee fly from flower to flower in my garden, wiggling itself about in their little polleny bits, giving them each a little love before moving on. it was sweet, and quite beautiful.

also, is it weird that every time i have to tweeze a stray hair (and YES, being of central european extraction, i DO have to tweeze stray hairs from time to time) my right eye - and only my right eye - twitches. is this normal? i have no idea.

the point of this blog is this: in three short hours, i will be leaving for the englands. i will be gone for two and a half weeks. somehow i think you will all get on without me for a while, as i post almost never anyway.

so are my two faithful readers still faithfully reading?

i don't particularly suppose you are, but then again, i don't often have much interesting or insightful to say here these days.

today is no different.

i DID, however, make a completely useless film today.

i am in awe of the fact that this exists:

the SPOCK SPANKER



hands up who wants to buy one for me?

here's why i refuse to use cameras with lenses that are bigger than i am.

the road.

happy thursday to me. not much eventful has happened of late. my dreams are strange as usual, and my little travelling bear is having the time of his life in finland, i am sure. world tour is set to hit the englands for the first few weeks of july. london, then henley for boats and champagne, then up north for assorted shenanigans with my northern mates. too bad i couldn't schedule in something professional and have the university pay for it.

go me, it's my birthday!

it's the 25th, and i'm 25. go me.

here's my birthday portrait.

and because it's my birthday i'm doing 25% off everything at everything ok! for the rest of the week if you mention my birthday at checkout and i'll send an updated invoice. (also i'm flying to the englands in july and therefore i need the money)

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE not much else to report in kelshville at the moment, really. experimental photoey goodness and lots of star trek. i'm thinking of watching the newsroom again. that show was funny. how's everybody else?

it was like, i was flying into a big airport then suddenly driving into a small town, with my parents, where we stopped to get coffee or something but i saw that there was a renaissance festival on, and since i just HAPPENED to be in costume, asked to stay on for the day and go to the faire. then this guy who was apparently my boyfriend turned up with this really old guy who was his dad.

and we drove into hamilton and got lost in the industrial section of the city which was for some reason on the mountain. then we somehow drove back down the mountain into this bird sanctuary which turned into a retirement home and we decided to stay on for a free dinner, pretending we were thinking of moving my dream-bf's dad there. dinner for us was this gorgeous-looking fresh ravioli in what looked to be a really light tomato sauce, with fresh basil leaves.

but then i wanted to get a glass of iced tea, and this crazy woman told me i needed to go down to the basement and to put my coat on because it was cold down there.

but i told her i had an abnormal body temperature and would be fine.

i tried like five doors before finding the right basement, and wished i hadn't broken the back of my camera because i really wanted to take pictures.

oh yeah, i broke the back of my camera back in the small town with my parents.

(forgot that bit)

anyway, in the basement looking for iced tea, i ran into a guy dressed as spock who said he saw me as seven of nine, and it was cool. we hugged, exchanged vulcan gang signs, and moved on.

then beyond him was a rowdy party in what looked like a basement rec room that was probably built in the early 90s.

boyfriend came and found me and we decided to hang out there and let his dad chillax at dinner with the other seniors.

then these two obnoxiously stupid blonde chicks were TOTALLY getting their flirt on with boyfriend and asked him to help them with something and so he went off with them to help.

while he was still within earshot i somewhat loudly complained that i hated those girls, and spent the rest of the night worrying to two other girls i'd just met that a) we were still at the stage in the relationship where he might well leave me for somebody better looking without much thought about it; and b) that in any case he might break up with me for being either so mean-spirited or insecure.

and THEN i woke up.

real update, post-sandwich.

tired.

that's all.

it's been such an eventful week of sandwich, and i can't believe it's already day seven. sigh. prepare to FOODGASM.

day six of week of sandwich is a beautiful day for sandwich.

week of sandwich, day five - sandwiches are love.

i win at sandwich. week of sandwich, day four

the sexiest day three of any week of sandwich to ever exist

week of sandwich, day two

you know, i've never been to a rave myself. almost went to one, then my friend and i decided to go to the cafe down the road for a cup of tea instead.

so i just made the nicest fishcake things ever in the history of the world, based vaguely on these salt-cod fritters they do in brazil, but vastly different because i didn't have half the ingredients for the recipe and therefore substituted a bunch of stuff. here's what i did, more or less:

serves FLIPPING GREAT WODGES OF PEOPLE

400g cod
2/3 cup milk
4 medium-sized potatoes, cut into chunks
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 small chiles, finely chopped
2 eggs
small handful cilantro
zest of one lemon
generous pinch of salt
generous cracking of pepper
oil for frying

preheat oven to 375 degrees celsius. place fish in a baking pan, pour milk over, cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. meanwhile, boil potatoes in salted water until soft. drain potatoes and mash. remove fish from oven and flake fish into a large bowl. add mashed potatoes, onion, cilantro, chiles, eggs, lemon zest, salt, and pepper, and stir until combined. heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, dropping mixture by the generous tablespoonful into the pan, flattening slightly with a fork, and turning once. fry until both sides are golden brown and totally luscious. serve with a squeeze of lemon.

sometimes i feel as though i trust people way too easily. indeed, i probably do. more than is safe. it's a tough habit to break, in spite of all i've lived through.

did i mention i got a fuji instax? you can see pictures here. oh HECK YES. it's quite possibly the most epic camera i own.

park that car
drop that phone
sleep on the floor
dream about me

i'd also just like to say that doing this felt really, really good.

:(

sometimes i hate that my arms just aren't big enough to reach out across the universe and hug the people i love dearly.

i love akron/family to pieces, but "love is simple"?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL yeah, no.

well folks, i've been utter crap at keeping up with this blog, neh?

i suppose it's because i don't have anything particularly interesting or insightful to share at the moment, not to mention the amount of time academic pursuits have been taking up, and the headaches i have been plagued with pretty much nonstop since last sunday.

i will say, however, that i've added some more nifty things to my website that you ought to check out such as some tests done with my sexy new seagull TLR, and i'm hoping perhaps this summer to take off to someplace i've never been before, so long as someone has a couch for me to sleep on.

wouldn't you know it, i finally got round to making myself a proper website for art.

sami kelsh

see?

i love the spinny, jaunty opening theme tune sequence from bbc's nationwide circa the early seventies.



they just don't make current affairs programs like they used to.

1995

this has been on my mind a lot lately.



i would have written something insightful and choc full of sparkling prose, but really, hayden nails it.

we're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl

or maybe it's just me.

i'm so tired.

new stuff!

how did i forget about this until now?

for those of you who probably aren't going to read the entire article, here's a picture of me in full academic action, superhero glasses and all:

can't have grains? neither can i. it sure forces you to become inventive. so for brunch today, here's what i came up with. it's delicious and filling and very healthy.

spinach and pepper quiche with almond crust

crust
3/4 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
generous pinch of salt
generous crackling of pepper
1 tsp olive oil

filling
1/4 green pepper, chopped
2 good handfuls spinach, chiffonade
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp dried oregano
generous pinch of salt
generous crackling of pepper

first, prepare the crust: preheat oven to 350°. in a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flax, almond, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. add olive oil and stir until mixture resembles coarse meal. add water, little by little, until the mixture comes together and has the consistency of a slightly wet dough. carefully press this mixture into a small, lightly oiled pie pan or casserole dish. place in preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust firms up a bit and the edges just begin to, but not quite, brown.

meanwhile, beat eggs in another medium-sized bowl. when they are well beaten, add yogurt and beat to combine. add oregano, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.

sprinkle the green pepper, spinach, garlic, and onions over the crust after it has been removed from the oven and allowed to stand for a few minutes. pour over egg mixture, covering the surface relatively evenly. place back in the oven at the same temperature and bake for a further 30 or so minutes, or until the egg is set and the top of the quiche is golden brown in places.

serve warm and enjoy.

patrick mcgoohan
1928-2009

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:( be seeing you, number six.