Everything Bianca

There are a few non-english songs from my youth that come back to me. There are 4 that I have not found. I found one today after hearing Le Vent Du Nord on Morning Edition. They sounded like this song I was calling, "Budah Yay"or "Ziggy Zah Zon."

After hearing Morning Edition, I had a genre... Canadian Folk... and this afternoon, I had my mission. 

Mission accomplished.

There are more songs out there, waiting for me to find them, but for now, this will be played to death all day today.

No pictures this time. I went by myself, and I'm no good at picture taking. However, since there were no pictures, I'm not as apathetic about talking about my trip, as I seemed to be about Oahu. I mean, if you can *see* where I was, what's there to discuss? Plus. I'm sure the internet will do me fine.

I arrived in San Diego Thursday morning. I took a cab (one of probably 15 companies, *laughs*) to the Marriott Marina.

See? Lovely photo. Lovely hotel as well. I had a nice room where I could see downtown San Diego, part of the harbor, and the stadium from my balcony.  The staff at the Marriott was also quite helpful. I was given a map of the Gaslamp Quarter and walked that area to my heart's content. Excellent pedestrian area: wide sidewalks, clear signage, and a glut of shops, eateries, and entertainment.

Thursday Lunch: My first meal was at Tabule International Cuisine. I had a delicious Salmon Ceviche. I've never eaten Ceviche, but it was delicious. A very cool lunch, and a great start to my culinary exploration.

Thursday Dinner: I had Rama Thai for dinner. First: Atmosphere. Atmosphere. Atmosphere. Very elegant space. I was immediately struck by that. The photos on the website are bright, but at dinner the restaurant was at 'candlelight' brightness. I can see the place where I sat in the first picture in the photo gallery! The brick wall at the back was a large waterfall. Oh, to eat... I had coconut soup and shrimp red curry. Both quite delicious, though I was a bit disappointed at how 'unspicy' the curry was. Amusing though, because the table next to me had asked for mild and was saying that was still too spicy. I asked for 8/10 on the spicy scale. Maybe the chef thought I was kidding. Oh well. It was still good mild.

Friday Breakfast: I took a morning stroll to the Cheese Shop and had a veggie omelet. It was a sizeable omelet with spinach, mushrooms, green peppers, and cheddar cheese. It came with hash browns and toast, but I concentrated on the omelet. It was very fresh and delicious. I ordered a fruit bowl to go so that I'd have something during my meeting.

Friday Lunch: I shared the fruit bowl (large portion, seriously) with the sandwhiches we had during the work meeting. It was enough to share with 5 people, and was filled with at least 5 different seasonal fruits.

Friday Dinner: I had dinner at Masala Spices of India. My server was exceptional. I know I enjoy eating Indian, but I couldn't speak eloquently on the cuisine. I told him I liked my food spicy; I love vegetables and meat equally, and would like to have lamb in my main dish. He gladly took the menus out of my hand and told me what he would select. According to my receipt I had Desi Chatt, Chutney Tray, Jeera Rice, Rogan Josh, and a Bombay Breeze (that was a fruit juice mix). I loved it all. Very good.

One could argue that's there isn't anything I'd eat that I wouldn't find delicious. That's okay. I like finding everything delicious, delectable, and awesome.

Okay, wait, there was one meal I had that I really wanted to regurgitate - Saturday Breakfast. I got this egg & cheese croissant in the SAN airport. It's the kind of sandwhich that makes you hate yourself while you eat it, and you know there's nothing good about it, and you probably would have gotten more nutrition eating a protein bar (which I consider fortified cardboard). So no, I don't eat everything indiscriminately.

However, there was a final pleasing meal.  In the Memphis airport, where I was laid over for a good 2 hours there was this superb sandwhich shop in the B terminal. I had smoked turkey with gouda on a rich bread I cannot identify. With some olive oil / herb red potato chips. *That* made me feel good to eat.

See? My trip reports are much richer when there are no pictures. 

Due to changes at work: traveling / more work. I cancelled my lessons, which were during my lunch on Friday. Hopefully a Saturday slot will open and I can continue them, but for now, I'm back to teaching myself.

If I can stay in Pensacola long enough. *laughs*

And with that, I tell you that I will be in San Diego at the end of this week. Fun!

Work related though, so not too much in the way of sun and fun.

But I do hope to sit in a few nice restaurants while there.

I added text, explanations, and it's all organized and such. I'd like to think the site is done now - and fully presentable.

The info I added is 6 years overdue. Oh well. Better late than never. 

http://nysidra.com

Okay, I've returned from my lovely vacation in Oahu.

I'm uploading pictures (in the images section) and video (at youtube) now.

So, tomorrow morning begins my travel to Oahu, Hawaii. Yay!

Oahu Album
Pictures will be uploaded here. They will probably be large, raw files. Should be interesting.

Twitter Updates
In addition to the ever-present most recent twitter to the left. I'll be doing the play-by-play (as I remember to) there.

I have been married 4 years today, happily so.

I'm thinking hard for something else add. Do I tell you my lackadaisical story of looking up marriage laws, going to the notary, and correcting him when he tried to tell me that he had to do anything other than sign my paper? Then we went across the street where I looked for the most simple silver bands available and bought two. May 15, 2004, 10am.

Do I think back to how the word 'husband' choked in my mouth? How I called him my "Beloved" my "spouse" my "room mate for life"?

I like my simple silver band. I'll probably upgrade to titanium one year, for kicks. I call him my husband freely, and without hesitation. 

Four years, and I remembered it was our anniversary when he said, "Happy Anniversary" a few hours ago as we stood outside cleaning up the aftermath of fixing his car.

"Oh, really? That's today?"

Yay us.  

Guitar Practice

I don't have a "measured and timed" progress report on my guitar playing, but I was playing the C major pentatonic scale to a jam along CD yesterday and having fun. My fingers could actually keep up with some of the stuff I tried.

There are also parts of Blackbird that I suddenly played much smoother.

Chords are still embarrassing, but I'm better than worse.

Nysidra Work

Nysidra, in case you missed the memo, is not also my "handle," but also a system I created.  This system has its own site, but my ideas for it exceed my desire to bring them into reality. *laughs* Either way, some of the images of the glyphs of the system are old and require much needed attention. I'd been balking against that, but this week started to work on vector images of the glyphs.

Someone gave me an idea of how to develop the site. I've had a few visions of how I could implement that, but without the better glyphs, I'm not going to like anything I do. So, that first. 

One of the "joys" of independent living is feeding yourself. Easy? Right?

Not for me. I can follow a recipe, I've proven this to myself over and over. I can 'throw something together' in a delicious and edible manner. I've done this too. 

I do not enjoy being in the kitchen. I remember fondly the days when "dinner's ready" was the only catalyst for me eating at night. I lived that way for 22 years. 

I'll go through a month of cooking delicious, wonderful meals and get fatigued. I'll stop. So what do I do? Vacillate between eating out of boxes and cans to eating food to delivered to my door to eating food cooked from fresh ingredients.

I'm ready to swing back to fresh now. It's slightly depressing I can't maintain it. When I do go through this phase I end up wasting so much food. For one, I am the only person in the house that eats vegetables. Second, I don't eat much. So, I buy broccoli, onions, tomatoes, greens... eat some, throw out the rest after it has spoiled a few days later. Eating fresh is a boon for families. You can actually eat it all. A single solitary person? You have to pretty much eat the same thing for a week to make it work, or have some elaborate leftover recycling scheme. 

Oh, that and the time it requires. Eating just isn't high up on my priority list where I get enthused about taking anything longer than an hour to nourish myself. And screw the "30 minute recipes." Those liars NEVER include prep & clean up time. Not to mention shopping for 1 chicken breast and a "side" of vegetables. Guess what happens to the rest? Garbage can.

I resort to cans of soup or a baked potato with a can of stewed tomatoes thrown on top.

I feel like, wanting to eat 'fresher' stuff only leads to a waste of money, food, and time... or forced monotony.

So...
Esozone Announces Speakers and Venue for 2008

I'm one of them! Me. aka Nysidra. Editor of biancalee.com

*giggles* I outright laughed at the original byline, something about being a popular blogger. *chuckles*

That's not why I'm being asked to do my thing at Esozone. I figure, people are going to come here thinking, "and who hell is she?"

I created Nysidra. 

Nysidra is a symbol system created from a matrix of elements - much like fire, earth, water, air, and so on, but different. Once upon a time, this domain had all the intricacies of Nysidra displayed.  I'm rebuilding that page. Nysidra even has her own domain. Since I suddenly fell pressed for a display, there may be an update this evening.

Bookmark nysidra.com  It will have content. Honest. I even did some work on it today. 

If you've read anything by Bill Whitcomb (also going to be there, *fangirl squee*) then Nysidra is the kind of thing Bill was talking about when he wrote his books. 

No, you still don't know who I am, but at least you know why I'll be there.

Fun times. 

I finally pulled the trigger and ordered something from a website I've been eyeing secretly for months.

Baron Boutique - Custom tailored clothing from Nepal

As part of my wardrobe make over, I pruned my already sparse closet of items my cousin assured me I never needed to wear again. 

 I have a list of things I want from there, but I started small and only ordered one 'must have' item.

So what did I get?!

I'll let you know when I have it. In the meantime,  go to this site, daydream, and drool a bit.

I'm nervous. Seriously.

Jury Summons

Up and  awake around 5:40am. I attended my jury summons. I sat through the picking of two juries, none of which I was selected for. I did use the time sitting and waiting to press through my reading.

Sushi

After being excused from court I went to pick up my cousin Amanda and we went to have sushi for lunch. I  introduced her to freshwater eel, salmon, and tuna. She enjoyed all of it.

Shopping

Amanda served as my "fashion adviser" and we went to the mall in search of some of my 'essentials.' I made out quite well.  She made the frustrating experience of shopping very fun and helped me make good choices on my clothes. I'll have to take pictures of my new outfits. I scored some nice pants, oxford shirts, camis, and belts. We didn't make it around to shoes because I ran out of time. 

Chevelle @ The Swamp

My husband bought tickets to see Chevelle & Finger 11 playing at The Swamp in Fort Walton Beach. We had dinner nearby. The manager of the restaurant arranged it so that we could get in without waiting in line. Then the person checking the VIP list got *his* supervisor and we were soon sitting in the VIP section. My husband later returns with a drum head signed by Chevelle. My husband is like that. Give him a few hours and he's friends with the managers, the owner, the band, and the security. Okay, it did help a great deal that he was walking with a broken toe and a cane, but still.

Helen Back

Later, at the request of Chevelle, we went to Helen Back bar and had drinks. A singer / songwriter by the name of Wes Heath was providing lovely entertainment. I was all enamored by his playing, and after his set was done I asked if I could feel his callouses. *laughs* That totally broke the ice. He gave me some advice on strumming, let me hold his guitar (very sweet) and gave me a couple of the nylon picks he uses. It made up for not being able to practice guitar today!!

Home Again

And home again, with 2 hours before I go to work.

Yes, people, that was a MONDAY.

I have officially broken the internet in regards to biancalee.com.

All the images, pages, links. All of it. Poofed.

At first, I was horrified by what I had done, switching DNS servers without regard to all those links I had floating out there in the metaverse. Then... a sort of peace washed over me. Hey! Maybe I should do that with everything!
Don't fret. I'm not that silly, I think.

Some things will come back. The Nysidra page will come back, but better.
*pauses in thought*
Actually, that's all for for the moment. Some things just need to die. If I miss something, then I'll upload it again. If I never miss it (and no one ever tells me they miss it) then I'm leaving it alone. Okay, well, most things will come back in the form of image galleries.

Fresh start and all that.

Edited to Add: If you came here looking for content that I've removed, I won't put it back unless I know it was important to someone. Things I currently plan to restore: Nysidra, Infinity & Forever

I have so many journals. I had so many more.
I have a personal journal, with friends, read by many.
I have a public journal, ambiguous, rarely read.
I have a journal for jewelry I used to make.
I have a journal for my kittens.
I have a journal to discuss my occult interests.

I need to get rid of them all, and bring it home. Everyone who knows me, knows I do a several things, not all at once, and not for long. Everyone who knows me knows I'm eccentric. Anyone who wants to know me, needs to know that the snapshot is just a side, and I come built like a dodecahedron.

I'm currently at a lost for how to build this site. Do I take all of my past works and put them here, or only focus on the future? What about archiving all that stuff I'm leaving behind?

Until I solve the archiving question. One thing is for sure:
From this moment on, this is ground zero.