sequinK

Stupid stupid

I ordered a gorgeous new rotary cutting mat (24x36, baby!) and left it hanging on the deck railing to air out. It was beyond stinky! And the freaking thing warped ever so slightly, just where the sun peeked through the deck railing. So here I go - hoping a little more sun and boiling water will whip it back into shape. Otherwise, what the heck do I do with a warped cutting mat???

edited to add: It kinda worked. The sun was not being totally cooperative, so I poured the boiling water and rolled it as well as I could with a rolling pin. The smaller ripples seemed to come out, no problem, though one of the bigger ones was being beyond stubborn.  Now it's inside, on the floor, being squished under a bunch of big, coffee table-esque car books.  Fingers crossed for usability.

getting back to my roots,...

This week has been all Korean, all the time.

I've been watching Korean Dramas (K-dramas) online.  If you have never watched asian dramas, all I can say is check it out -- pretty easy to digest, entertaining, and great to knit to (there's even a K-drama group on Ravelry!). And if you're like me, with marginal Korean language skills, it's great way to exercise your ear.

Basically, K-dramas are long miniseries, anywhere from 15 to 100+ episodes.  Typical story line (this would be an oldie but a goodie called Stairway to Heaven . I know, the titles are usually pretty unfortunate!): boy and girl are childhood friends, boy loves girl, girl's evil stepsister wants boy so runs girl over with a car, girl loses memory from the accident, evil stepsister starts dating boy, girl regains memory and hooks up with boy again (who never stopped loving her, of course), boy about to break engagement off with evil stepsister when girl learns she has terminal cancer and is going to go blind, girl breaks it off with boy without telling him she's sick, girl's stepbrother loves girl so much that he kills himself so that she can have his eyes and see again, on and on, you get the picture. Totally over the top, but completely sucks you in.

There are tons of bootlegs out there (mysoju.com aggregates the links to many of them -- I just watched "Bad Couple" there this week), but dramafever.com has actual licensed content, which means clearer video and professional subtitles.  It's in beta, but I got an invite in less than 48 hours.

I've also been cooking Korean this week as well. I made some kimchee chigae (kimchee stew) and kamja jorim (soy braised potatoes) based partly on what I remember from watching my mom, and partly on the video instructions on Maangchi's site.  My mom is a pretty good cook, but really didn't have much patience to teach me how to make Korean food.  So I've been making an effort the last few weeks to learn a few dishes, at least. I even dragged Miss H. over the hill to San Jose this afternoon to hit the Korean market for a few staples.  She was good with it as we stopped at the bubble tea place on the way home and got her plain milk with small pearls.  Big heart.  Like mother like daughter, apparently.

Getting with the program

So why did it take me almost a year to figure out that I can update my blog via a Typepad iPhone application? I'm going to be moblogging like a mofo,... Heehee.