of fish, tutoring and Tudors

The child in a "UW" shirt manning the fish booth at the Marquam Hill farmers market today told me that his salmon was filleted.  My nausea had subsided for the moment and I was feeling indulgent.  Since skins were all that showed on both sides of the packaging, I assumed this equated to two smooching cuts.  I was confused, therefore, to find that the meat, upon unwrapping, was actually not but decapitated and de-bellied.  Having fished only once in my life -- to the disappointment of both myself and the fish as it was tossed half dead back into the stream because my mother didn't understand why we had to kill it -- I had no clue how to fillet a fish.

I took a four min tutorial, found my sushi knife and went at it.  Being both a noob and too lazy to find my knife sharpener, I mangled the poor thing to within an inch of... well, between my dulled-by-fish-spine knife and pulling the needle bones out with my fingers instead of kitchen tweezers, it was an anhydrous maceration and we'll leave it at that.

Fortunately, I cooked it supremely well and hid my mutilations beneath fish fats and seasonings.  The caramelized onion and rye loaf -- my other market indulgence of the week -- helped.  *please note that this time, the broccoli was cooked to perfection.  

For the day in general, it must be said that no matter how near-comatose or drained of motivation I am, I love teaching.  I miss coaching gymnastics, I frequently reminisce about assistant teaching biochemistry, and my enthusiasm soars when summer students come through our lab to do a project.  N&O arrived on Monday -- to-be high school seniors -- and I must admit that I found myself ill-prepared.  However, a morning's realization that despite coming from a math & sciences magnet school these kids had had no more neuroscience education than a brief chapter in anatomy class snapped me to my senses.  This would not begin at dopamine circuits; this would begin at defining a neuron.  And I loved it.  *I also loved that my coworker was there to provide entertainment and explanations when I needed to step aside to deal with my own data back-up


A most fulfilling day and delicious dinner were followed by the season finale of the Tudors (shout out to Kara).  Yes, I watched all 4 seasons religiously once I found out they existed.  Yes, it took me a while to adjust to the incredible amount of sex and exposed boobies but I got over it for the sake of historical film.  Yes, I love every historical film/series -- with the exception of Spaghetti Westerns -- for the sheer intrigue of the particular inaccuracies that are sacrificed by each director/ writer for the sake of modern appeal (which was brilliantly done by Ciarán Donnelly/ Michael Hirst in the Tudors).  Yes, I sucked H.K. into liking it, too.  Yes, I want all four seasons on blu-ray (come on, videogame riches...!).  And yes, I am pissed off that they ended the show without developing Edward, Mary or Elizabeth's reigns.  *of all the things that bothered me about this series -- and they are a huge discussion in themselves -- this was the greatest tragedy

Elsewise, I am a very happy lady with very bright upcoming weeks, and I am completely elated... if fatigued as hell.