Movie Double Header Saturday

It's a rainy Sunday today. Alicia and I slept in to compensate for waking up early yesterday. But Saturday went well. Alicia got to cross two items off her "I Want To Do" list. We saw two movies, and ate at a restaurant named the Spotted Pig.

First movie we saw was Wall-E, the 11am showing. It was great. Pixar has had a great streak with me. I was really excited for Ratatouille last year, and it lived up to my expectations. I wasn't terribly excited for Wall-E, but it was fantastic. It was different style of movie, as Wall-E didn't speak much at all. Plus, there were real live human footage in the movie. But it was the most beautiful one yet. The shots of outer space, the shots of the pretty robots, it was very well done. Highly recommend. A. O. Scott of the New York Times put it very well, "The first 40 minutes or so ... is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in."

After the movie let out, we wandered from 2nd ave to 8th ave to a restaurant named The Spotted Pig. Alicia had wanted to go for awhile, as they are a fancy restaurant with a casual atmosphere. What finally made me excited for the place was seeing its chef on Iron Chef. She fought against Bobby Flay about two weeks back. She lost, but it was really cool realizing we could go to a restaurant whose chef was on Iron Chef.

The food was great. It was Saturday around noon, so of course brunch was served. Alicia ordered Bacon Hash with Poached Eggs, I had a Prosciutto tart with two words I can't remember. Alicia's was the fanciest, greasiest breakfast food I'd ever tasted. I wanted it too, but we couldn't order the same thing at a new restaurant: variety was needed! Mine was surprisingly great. The tart had prosciutto on top (a dried ham), with green leafy on top of that and some sort of cheese or cream in the center. It was very different (I'm not much of a tart man normally), but a great adventure. I'd order it again if I didn't want that bacon hash Alicia had so much.

After brunch, we decided it was still early enough to see another movie. Alicia had been wanting to see Wanted, and I'd worked myself up to wanting to see it too. I had prepared myself for a ridiculous story with cool shooting action.

It was ridiculous, but I was disappointed with the action. I thought it had more whining than action. Alicia liked it, I thought it fell somewhere in the 40% to 50% percentile of movies I've seen, 0% being the worst, 100% being the best. It wasn't awful, but both of us agreed we didn't like being called sheep because we aren't assassins. And I'm convinced there are several plot holes. Granted, when you have bullets that are curving like bowling balls, not everything should add up. But I'm was just confused about some of the characters. Oh well!

Today, I'm planning for my summer class, which starts next Monday, 7/7. Because it has a different class schedule than a normal Fall/Spring class, I've got more leeway in how I want to teach it. So I've been brainstorming, and I'm writing my notes today.

Hope the weather is going well there. When I started this post, it was thunderstorming, but now it is just a light rain. Sun tomorrow!

Shakespeare in the Park

A week ago today, Alicia and I went to Central Park at 9am. The goal: Shakespeare in the Park. Every year, a production crew puts on free shows in a theater in the middle of Central Park. Free means the tickets cost nothing money wise, however, tickets are distributed at 1pm for the show that night around 8pm. By 1pm, the line is huge. To guarantee tickets, the internet recommended arriving between 8-10am. When we arrived at 9am, the line was already at least 1-2 hundred people long. Luckily, the theater holds at least a thousand people (1700 is my vague recollection). Alicia had the day off, and I had studying to do, so we brought fold up chairs and books.

The line was friendly, but formal. There was staff there to supervise it to prevent line cutting, etc. You were allowed to leave for 5-1o minutes for the bathroom, but nothing more. Here's a few shots:

Needless to say, we got tickets. The show was Hamlet, and it was great. Sam Waterston (Jack McCoy in Law & Order) played Polonius, which was exciting. I didn't recognize any other actors, but Alicia did. She's already posted about it on her blog, so feel free to read her thoughts there. I had read Hamlet in High School, but didn't enjoy it. This play made me finally understand what was great about it. What I was always missing was Hamlet's motives. I couldn't quite grasp them, but the actor playing Hamlet did a great job getting them across. Otherwise, the show was a bit long (3 1/2 hours), but I didn't mind after about 20 minutes in, when I had gotten used to the Shakespearean dialogue. Plus, it was very bloody at the end, which was cool to see on stage.

The biggest bonus came that weekend. Little did Alicia and I know, we saw the show on the second night. We saw it on Thursday, June 19th, and all that weekend we read reviews. I felt so hip and in the know.

Fixed pictures in Renegade...

Whoops! There was a problem with the pictures in my previous post about my new bag and the craft fair. Sorry about that! I've fixed it, so feel free to scroll down (if you're on my homepage) or click here to see the post.

Sifting through the Summer

Well, it hasn't been a month yet, but might as well have. I teach in about a week and a half, so I've begun preparing. The course I'm teaching is officially called "Elementary Algebra with Basic Mathematics Review." It begins Monday, July 7th, and runs through August 14th. It will be intense. It meets Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8:30am until 12:15, 12:30pm on Thursdays. That makes 15 1/2 hours a week. I'm excited, as I should be able to expect the best from these students, having them for so long. There is definitely the potential for boredom, but that should be avoidable as long as I don't lecture the full 3:45 of the lecture. And after teaching a Friday class for 3:20, I certainly don't intend to.

I'm happy that there is this deadline for work that needs doing, as I'm not nearly as good at this self-discipline as I thought I would be. I haven't completely dropped the ball, and I'm rather proud of my work in Graph Theory, but it has been hard to keep up a pattern.

Take, for instance, the last two days. I've been on a Food Network kick. Thus, cooking has been in the forefront of my mind. Alton Brown's Good Eats had an entire episode devoted to the popover recipe, so I had to try it. I bought popover tins, and I've made them twice since Tuesday. They are extremely easy. I've got the recipe memorized myself. 1 Cup Whole Milk, 1 Tbsp Butter, 1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt, 1 Cup All Purpose Flour, 2 Eggs: all in a blender for 30 seconds, then in the tins for 40 minutes under 400 degree heat. What is so appealing is I understand all of it. Apparently, the blending makes lots of bubbles of tiny bubbles. The eggs under heat hold the outer layer intact, so the tiny bubbles turn to steam, which mix in the batter to turn into a giant bubble by the time 40 minutes has elapsed. So when the popovers are done, you just poke a hole in the top to let the steam out, and you've got dinner roll style cups to fill with anything, or just eat plain. Tuesday night, I filled them with teriyaki chicken and onions, yesterday I filled them with the fruit that we had leftover in the fridge. They are so easy. The only real challenge is having whole milk in the house.

Speaking of Alton Brown, Alicia and I bought his book, I'm Just Here For The Food. Great book. It's a cookbook, but the recipes are built up to with an explanation of the cooking methods or the ingredients involved. He explains that a recipe is like a friend drawing you a map for directions. If you follow the directions (recipe), you'll get where you want to go. But if something goes wrong, such as a tree is blocking a road (or cheap frying pans effect cooking time), you're in the dark. That is exactly how I've always felt about recipes: in the dark. The only ingredients I actually feel familiar with are chicken, onions, and green peppers (thanks to salsa and stir fry). Sure, I've used mushrooms or paprika before in a recipe, but I know very little about the ins and outs of the ingredients.

Basically, I've been on a cooking binge as of late. Last night, I seared scallops (very easy!) and tried my hand at ratatouille (big failure, I think I over cooked it). Previously, I made Chipotle Cashew Chicken (below) and grilled Pineapple Kabobs (above) along with regular kabobs.

But with too much cooking comes too many dishes. I need a break. So tonight we're ordering out. Pizza I think. Yay!

Renegade Craft Fair

Going back just over a week, Alicia and I hit up a festival in our neighborhood called the Renegade Craft Fair. Taking place in McCarren Pool, an old empty pool, the fair features craft sellers from around the area. We're talking a lot of knit items, a lot of art, a lot of printing press stuff, and tons of non-fancy jewelery.

Alicia and I attended last year, and I wasn't very impressed. It was a lot of over priced knit items, almost entirely geared for women. Plus, it was very sunny last year, so sun burns commenced.

This year was different! It was packed, a lot of variety, and while there was a lot of female-centric items, there was also hipster paraphernalia. Alicia got to see several printing shops that she had looked at online previously when checking out wedding invitations, and I got to be tempted into purchasing two items.

The first is kinda ugly. But fantastic. I can't help how much I like it. Pictured here, it's a mug with some strange brown glaze and about twenty steel studs sticking out to act like a handle. I still don't know why it appeals to me so much, but it does. I drank coffee out of it the next day, but it is currently serving as a pencil cup. The steel studs aren't very comfortable to hold, but it's necessary to avoid burning your hand.

My second purchase is a new bag. I've been shopping for a new bag for quite some time now. I've got my giant Laptop bag, a big and shapeless Brooklyn Industries bag for when I'm schlepping a lot of things. There's my bag from Office Depot back in Duluth that I even took to Italy. All these bags have a good reason for them, but I was missing a small bag to just hold a few items if I'm not going out to carry much (no groceries, just maybe taking a two books to study at a coffee shop).

One problem I've encountered is that it seems the size of bag I was looking for has bordered on being a purse. Alicia frequently turned down several other bags I liked because they were too much like a purse.

Enter this bag. It's bigger than a purse, designed specifically to go over and around your left shoulder, and it is made using old tire rubber on the outside (in stripes) so it must be manly. The inside is simple, but big enough to carry my math books. It's great! Outside my trip to Ikea (where I wanted a big bag to carry Ikea swag), I've used it every chance I get. It has a great adjustable strap for keeping it squarely on my back, and it seems pretty high quality. Plus, it's basically one of a kind. The woman who made it doesn't really have a store, only a website (which I can't seem to remember). So I won't be passing people on the street with my identical bag. That isn't a huge selling point, but it makes my bag feel special. I guess I'm a sucker some times.

Alicia's Blog

Just a quick note to mention that Alicia (my fiance) has switched to Blogger, too. Her old website, aliciaglaser.googlepages.com, will also stay up, but you can catch her at her new blog, aliciaglaser.blogspot.com, where she has been blogging up a storm.

She's got pictures of me and more pictures of Ikea. Give her a chance!

Ikea Brooklyn

On Wednesday, June 18th, Alicia and I braved the early morning to get to the grand opening of Ikea in Brooklyn.

We got on the subway at around 6:30, taking the G train to its last stop. The Ikea is on the shore, about ten blocks south of the subway station. When the store is open, it has a shuttle bus running every 15 minutes, but because it was 7:10 in the morning (Ikea opened at 9am), we had to hike it. We got a little lost, but that gave us a tour of the neighborhood.

We finally arrived at Ikea around 7:45am. It was a circus. Literally. There were clowns, a band playing, even a carnival game where you hit the sledge hammer against the lever and try to make a little ball hit the bell at the top. I won a little finger puppet dragon. Here's the band playing next to some Ikea Flags on the Jumbotron set up.

At about 8:30, they set up a podium and some grand opening speeches were made. There was one by the Brooklyn Borough president, one by a New York City Councilwoman, and two or three Ikea executives. In Swedish tradition, instead of cutting a ribbon, they sawed a Log:

Here's a picture of a cool truck that was driving around that was basically a living room on wheels (the text on the top says, "See what $1,365 can do for a l:

Finally, at about 9am, the line started moving. I would estimate there were a few hundred people in front of us, but it was moving fast. As we entered, we were given golden envelopes with prizes inside. Alicia and I both received a coupon for a free frozen yogurt, but we could have gotten as much as $250.

The strangest (and coolest) part of the whole day was actually going up the escalators into the Ikea Showrooms. There was a large crowd of Ikea workers cheering:

It really made me feel like I had done something cool, even if I was just going into Ikea. It was crazy.

But the store was great. Ikea had put a lot of attention into making it look great. Here's one example:

They actually went through and made all the clocks have the correct time. Here's two other bizarre photos, one of very neatly folded yellow Ikea bags, one of the never been used carts all neatly waiting customers:

Surprisingly, it didn't feel very crowded. The store is just that big. The only other Ikea I've been to is the Twin Cities Ikea and I'd estimate that Brooklyn Ikea is about half as large. This is based on the size of every department. The showrooms just held more. The layout was almost the same. The warehouse section at the end was nearly identical. My only complaint about the other shoppers is that no one was actually following the arrows around the showrooms. They were zig zagging through the shortcuts, and it made it a bit confusing for Alicia and I to gawk at the pretty setups.

Shopping wise, I wanted a new desk chair to replace my previous $35 dollar Ikea chair. It had lasted about 2 years, but when I leaned back, the top would fall off the chair legs. The replacement I picked has a back, and only cost me $30. So it's been great thus far.

My favorite purchase has been a mortar & pestle. Its heavy, made of nice stone (marble I think?), and I've played with it almost every day. I keep crushing Altoids, but today I crushed some sugar that had gotten rock-like because it got wet and dried:

The worst and creepiest thing we bought was this Cheese and Roe spread from the grocery section. Check out the package:

It is just gross. At first, it has a pleasant cheese flavor. But then the roe hits. It tastes like gross fish, and doesn't go away. I had to quickly find something else to eat to make it go away.

But it was a great experience. There was a lot of new Ikea stuff to see, and I will probably never see such a clean Ikea in my life. Plus, we got free stuff while waiting in line:

We also got a pen and a tape measure, not pictured. The yellow thing at the bottom with the Ikea logo is a beach ball that I gave to the little girl next door. She's always bugging me as I come and go, but I still thought I'd be nice. Plus, what was Alicia and I going to do with a beach ball?

What's sad is that I'm already planning what I want the next time I go. I'm addicted to Ikea. Now that it is just a subway ride away, I might just have a problem.

Garden Status

So, you may have read about my garden previously. Here's the first sprouts:

The last one is a nice shot straight up at the tree. I was seeing some birds eat some insects. It was very serene.

One small inconvenience has been the bugs. They were nonexistant at first, but with some of the summer rain we've had lately, they have started becoming stronger. To the point that Alicia and I are considering some candles for outside. Any advice?

Sorry, pictures coming later

Alicia and I woke up at 6am this morning (compared to 9-10am), so we ended up taking a nap later this afternoon. As a result, I didn't get a chance to get my post up yet. It's coming, but I've got some homework to do first. Sorry!

Welcome!

Hey, you made it! This is "Brian Blogs in Brooklyn," my new blog at briancopeland.blogspot.com. This will be updated regularly in lieu of jhinra.googlepages.com, so update your bookmarks. You can do this by clicking on the menu "Bookmarks" up at the top of your browser, then clicking "Bookmark this page."

I sat down today and decided that Blogger was worth a shot. I've been using a service called GooglePages, which hosted my website jhinra.googlepages.com. GooglePages is a beta project offered by Google that is designed to be an easy website hosting service free of charge. It has been nice, and did a pretty decent job of holding my website for the last two years. The problem is that what I need is blogging services. I want to type a post, attach a photo, and have it published. With GooglePages, I'd have to manually upload the photo to Google's server, add it to my website, then manually enter my new post to my site. Every month or so, I'd have to archive my old pages so that my homepage wasn't too crowded.

Now, with Blogger, I've got it all in one package. Pictures and text are posted in one easy step and automatically archived. Plus, I can have people comment on my posts now. So if you've got anything to say to me, feel free to let me have it through the comments at the end of each post.

For instance, do you think the green area at the top of my website is too big? If you think so, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this post by clicking on the "# comments" link. It will let you type a message and sign with your name, or even leave it anonymously.

I've got a ton of pictures from the food this weekend, pictures of a craft fair Alicia and I attended, and pictures of the sprouts from my garden. Check back Wednesday to see them!