At the Farmer's Market in Hanalei

Birds of Paradise

This week, bemelodious is being melodious in...Hawaii! I'm on the beautiful, chill island of Kauai with some cronies from work.

I've been here since Sunday night, and I've met 3 birds already! (Too bad my friend Melissa isn't here; she's got bird-phobia, and it would be so much fun to freak her out with these birds right now!!)

No mullets

K, got my hair cut today. Doesn't look like a mullet. Whew.

An Alternative Method to Flushing the Toilet

This past weekend, Nadine, Melissa, and I visted Joyce in San Diego to celebrate her 31st birthday. This past weekend, we shared some good stories and laughs. This past weekend, we also learned how a toilet works.

After Melissa used Joyce's bathroom, the toilet went out of WHACK (too much kim chee from the Korean girl clogs up toilets, lol). The tank wouldn't fill. After futile calls to Joyce's landlord and maintenance, each of us resorted to calling other people for assistance. At one point, there were 3 of us hovering over the toilet talking to various family members, boyfriends, and fiances on our cell phones. Quite a funny sight-- wish I got a video of that. I didn't, but I did get an instructional video on an alternative method to flushing when the flushing mechanism on the actual toilet doesn't work. Joyce learned this from howstuffworks.com.

Check it out:


P.S. All the ladies shown in this video are taken. Sorry fellas.

Target for your 30s

Today's post is dedicated to Juan, aka Wafoofi, because it's his birthday today! Happy 30th!

After reading my post regarding hot dates at Target, Juan emailed me:

"You know what else is funny... Every time I go to Target I always see a lot of pretty girls. Maybe I should hang out there more often and make new friends."

As the jiggaman Jay-Z would say, "30's the new 20, jigga you're so fly...you meet honeys at Target!"

Unboxing Gourmet Marshmallows

Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Swirl Marshmallows
Originally uploaded by mchalaban.

Wallow in Marshmallows

Back in December, I posted about gourmet marshmallows in my myspace blog. My sister, Annie Chalabannie, had shared the marshmallow gospel with me during Thanksgiving, and I was intrigued. So, as a nice little treat for the Chalaban girls, I bought a box of peppermint marshmallows from Williams-Sonoma.

OK, beware, major geekiness ahead...There's a website, www.unboxing.com, that my editor buddy Andru Edwards does a stellar job running, where they videotape the entire unboxing experience of a new product. It's like geek pr0n.

Mesmerized by Williams-Sonoma's neatly packaged marshmallows, I conducted my own "unboxing," if you will. See above for my still-photo unboxing series.

So, guess what I find in the March 30 issue of the WSJ? A roundup review of gourmet marshmallows, Artisan Marshmallows! I'd like to note that now that the WSJ has reported on this trend, gourmet marshmallows are going to be HOT!! I intend to try them all.

Marshmallow Makers:
Plush Puffs
DeBrand Fine Chocolates
Pete's Gourmet

So, how do they taste? Well, I've only had the Williams-Sonoma one, but the texture, taste, and size are different from the grocery store ones. They're a little denser, chewier, and not quite as sweet. I ate them plain, but I'm sure they would be delicious in hot chocolate, smores, etc. I can't really remember much else about them, except that they're hella expensive for chunks of sugar, so consider them a treat.

See You Later Decorator

Every reality show has their signature "you suck so your ass is getting voted off" goodbye. For The Apprentice, Trump declares that "You're fired." Tyra tells her model-wannabes that they're either "still in the running to being America's Next Top Model" or they're not. Jonathan Adler of Top Design, however, has the worst goodbye: "See you later, Decorator."

Oh my, everytime he says that with his gentle, crooked smile and his cocked head, I laugh. Don't you think he himself is embarrassed each time he utters those words? Does he throw up a little in his mouth? At the start of the tapings, how do you think Mr. Adler reacted when his producers instructed him to say those words? Was he absolutely appalled and did he, in the name of good taste, try to refuse? Or did he cock his head, smile softly, and say, "Wow, that is truly beautiful...it's like a verbal aesthetic." I don't know what I'm saying, but it's funny. hahaha.

So, in the spirit of Top Design, The Frog wrote me about a month ago, ending her email with a very unexpected "Hasta la vista, fashionista." LOL. (I couldn't think of one, unless you count, "Au revoir, nurse practitionoir.")

Wait...I just looked at Mr. Adler's blog on Top Design. He titled his last post, "See ya later, 'Top Design' Appreciators." LOL. Oh my, he is having too much fun with poetry.

Danke!

My roommate, The Frog, has a collection of Putomayo World Music CDs. Since she's on vacation galavanting through Eth-pana right now, I've been going through all her sh*t. Ha ha, JK. But, seriously, her "Music from the Wine Lands" CD has been in the kitchen, and since I enjoy world music myself, I've been listening to it. And-- dare I say that I'm quite impressed by the Germans! I'm a big fan of Brazilian, Cuban/Afro-Cuban, and Portuguese music, but never did I think I would like German music! This particular song is so smooth and sultry-- despite the harshness of the language. If I tell you the song title, it might mess you up and you'll never believe that a German song could sound so sexy, but here goes: "Zraumwohnung."

Ooooo, say it again...

Asparagus and Egg Dish, compromised

Today, I tried a recipe from the LA Times. It's an asparagus with egg and anchovy dish. It wasn't bad but I actually ended up compromising the integrity of the dish. Here's how:

- Anchovies: I thought, "Eh, I don't care that much for anchovies, so I'm gonna leave it out."

- Parsely: I thought, "I don't like parsley at all because the flavor is too strong, so I'm not including that."

- Fleur de sel: I forgot to buy this at the store so I used regular table salt.

- Fresh ground white pepper: I only had non-fresh ground white pepper, so that's what it got.

- Two eggs: I don't like yolk that much, so I used 2 egg whites and 1 egg yolk.

- The recipe required finely chopped shallots; I thought, "Eh who cares! It's only me I'm cooking for!!"

- The recipe required you to dice the egg in 1/4 inch squares; again, since I was cooking only for myself, I got lazy and didn't diced them much larger than that.

Yeah...quite a different dish, eh? Anyway, it was still pretty good. Next time, I will substitute ham or bacon (bacon makes any dish deeeeeeeelicious!) for anchovies (this time, I added more salt to the dish since it was lacking the saltiness of the anchovies).

Click here for the original LA Times recipe: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-sidesrec1apr04,1,1656998.story?coll=la-util-features-food&ctrack=2&cset=true

Bringing Melodious Back

I've decided to take my blog down another route (oops, I had accidentally typed "router" instead of "route"-- can you tell I work in tech!). As some of my readers (yes, all 5 of you) know, I have another blog on myspace. I've posted there much more regularly because more of my friends read that one.

Recently, however, I've been grappling with the notion of returning to blogger for a couple reasons:

- The myspace blog interface and design are elementary, and I am a design snob (ha ha)
- Since my myspace page is private (had to privatize because of all the freaks who were messaging me), hosting the blog there defeats the spirit of social media, which is to share with the community (as I'm sure my 5-person community are peeing their pants, waiting to hear my next opinion/experience/rant/rave).

But, I had always tabled it due to laziness or my recent "f*ck-it-who-cares" attitude.

So, now it's time to bring the melodious back to blogger. For awhile, I was using blogger as a forum to b*tch, but that ain't cool. So, I'm revamping the spirit of the blog-- making it more "melodious," if you will.

I thought about copying and pasting some of my more interesting myspace posts here, but f*ck it (I'm now repurposing my original "f*ck-it-who-cares" attitude)-- moving forward, I'm starting anew:

Welcome to Be Melodious, a reflection on pop culture, food, and other frivolous things that amuse me.

P.S. If you don't already know me, imagine my musings to be a little tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic, and goofy (see goofy photo above).