Filed under: food, miscellany | Tags: elaine, patbingsu, korea, puzzle, loris
once upon a time, we were all going about our lives as usual when a strange little envelope arrived in the mail. or, in my case, arrived in my brother’s mail and had to be forwarded on to me. anyway, the envelope came, and in it were cryptic instructions and puzzle pieces. they were from this girl. or was it this girl? each set of instructions was slightly different, but mostly the same.
so we gathered, on a rainy night in west philly, to assemble puzzles and crush ice.
the puzzle was a wee bit challenging…
but we prevailed in the end.
after a bit of a flipping-over-fiasco, we were able to decode the message on the back:
(we thought that e had kept three of the pieces for herself, to remind us all of her absence, but it turned out that we had left them in kara’s envelope the whole time. oops.)
kara tackled the lock…
and liberated the prize:
which was dried squid.
even the cat was sketched out…
in addition to the dried squid, there were cute little gifts, like keychains and tassles and funny shirts, as well as instructions to navigate ourselves to a website, where we were given instructions as to how to concoct a most delicious korean dessert known as patbingsu.
never ones to turn down a challenge, we headed to the kitchen, unpacked our previously-purchased grocery items, and got to work.
i’m not sure our patbingsu turned out exactly as it should have, but it sure was delicious.
then we watched this:
all in all, a most excellent night.
now that i’ve been in my new place for six weeks, maybe it’s time i posted a few pictures. the roommate moves in on wednesday. i haven’t done all my decorating yet, because i didn’t want her to feel like she was moving into somebody else’s house, but now that i’ve been here on my own for six weeks, that’s exactly what it feels like to me. adjustments, adjustments.
as of this friday i’m on vacation until september 1st, and i already have a list of things i want to get done, including curtains for the living room, some new blocks for my string quilt (which i don’t think i’ve posted about, but i haven’t done much on it anyway), books books books, and the rest of season 1 of the wire.
busy busy busy.
i’m also headed to boston for a few days to visit the recently-arrived recipient of the baby quilt. she’ll be receiving a totally adorable onesie with little eco-felt fishies on it. not handmade by me, but handmade by someone who lives close to me and sells her wares on baltimore ave, so it almost counts. plus, it matches the quilt, so you can’t beat that.
okay, here are pics!
adorable.
my spacious, well-lit kitchen
critters.
my ridiculously tiny tv, and some artwork that has yet to be hung
so, picture this covered with cat hair (which looks black against absolutely everything, and light gray against this futon- blerg)
comfy comfy comfy cute. this was made out of ikea fabric – 9 whole yards of it.
where all the magic happens
this is where i pile all of my crap.
haven’t touched the guitar since i moved in.
also made from ikea fabric.
nino and me…
…and birda makes three.
as july 1st marked my return to grownuphood through independent living, i decided to host a housewarming barbecue, july 4th style.
honored guests included high school friends, college friends, nicaragua friends, cherished family members, their friends, and this guy:
when this picture was taken, he had just received a firm yet gentle massage with a tandoori rub. he was feeling good: relaxed yet alert, eager to see where the night’s festivities would lead.
little did he know he was about to get thrown on the grill with a beer can shoved up his boy-badonkadonk. ouch.
here’s what he looked like when he came out:
here’s what the beer looked like:
that’s grease floating on top. chicken butt grease. for a minute it looked as if colin might actually drink the chicken beer, because that’s just how much he likes beer, and just how much more of a man he is than you. certainly more of a man than greg, anyway. but, in the end, he sniffed the beer and made a wise choice not to drink it. a shame, perhaps, but probably better for everyone in the end.
so, to lighten the mood, we ate firecracker cake!
trevor was the genius behind this one, with a little help from mom, and the sheer brilliance of the cake made us highly impatient to get some real firecrackers going. atraeu, however, was of the opinion that firecrackers were a bad idea. to let us know just how opposed he was, he spent the entire afternoon and evening hiding in my shower, to the surprise (and chagrin) of my guests when they tried to use the bathroom.
when it finally got dark enough, we initiated fun with sparklers, which of course led to many boyish spark-related feats of whimsy and immaturity. i’ll allow the video to speak for itself.
on that note, a few more pretty pictures of sparklers in the night:
yeah, that one’s my favorite too.
when the sparklers ran out, there was fun with candles to be had.
leave it to jon to spend long periods of time dipping things into flames and measuring the rate at which they melt. but don’t think he’s the only one:
with liberty, and justice for all.
the candle never saw it coming.
i am a very bad blogger. very bad indeed. weeks and even months go by. i move into new apartments, make curtains, hang pictures, sew napkins and dishcloths, host barbecues, eat amish fudge, cook porkchops and corn chowder, and fail to write in my blog.
i blame school. because it’s school’s fault, but also because it’s easy to do. it’s true that i have lots of work to complete on any given day, and that i haven’t had time to practice the guitar, let along fix the e string that popped out god only knows how long ago. and when i get home, and have made myself dinner and whistled at the bird for a few minutes, all i really want to do is open one of the beers that people keep leaving at my house post-barbecue, stretch out on the couch, and watch a little daily show. or the wire. or the office. or whatever.
but let’s be honest, here. i find time to check facebook and google reader oodles of times a day. i recently read this amazing book in nightly installments. sure, i needed to read it in order to prepare for my student teaching placement. but i didn’t need to read it immediately.
immediacy is a word much better reserved for blogging.
so here i am, attempting to make amends. mostly by posting tons of pictures, like i did so shame-facedly in my last entry. apparently i haven’t learned from my past mistakes. some history teacher i’ll make.
on second thought, perhaps i’ll split my many musings into separate entries, thereby reducing the number of pictures in each post and providing myself with a little extra blog padding, so that if another month goes by without any posts it’s not quite such a grievous offense.
boo.
yah.
enjoy, with my apologies for being a slacker.
angry chicken’s most recent post has alerted me to the fact that my birthday flower, i.e. the flower associated with my specific date of birth, is amaranth. so of course i checked it out, because i had only heard of amaranth as a crazy healthy grain, and i had not encountered it since my days in the co-op. the first thing i learned, unfortunately, is that amaranth is commonly known as pigweed. blerg. however, further reading left me enlightened and quite pleased with my little flower:
-in greek, “amaranth” means the “one that does not wither,” or the never-fading (flower).
- a traditional food plant in africa, this vegetable has potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable landcare. it is often referred to as “the crop of the future.” (as it turns out, i also have that potential. boo yah.)
-amaranth seeds, like buckwheat and quinoa, contain protein that is unusually complete for plant sources; regular consumption reduces blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while improving antioxidant status and some immune parameters. (also true of me)
-enya refers to the everlasting amaranth in her song “amarantine“.
yeah, that last one is my favorite, too.
