moules a la mariniere

this week in megan's cooking class, we're discovering the humble rutabaga. ina garten says she loves it, so we're trying her mashed yellow turnips with crispy shallots recipe. fun fact: rutabagas are just giant turnips. a turnip is the size of a tennis ball while a rutabaga is anywhere from the size of a cantaloupe to a soccer ball. 

..just ignore that sushi in the corner. 

i also made my go-to smitten kitchen moules a la mariniere because it is so easy and tasty. ina tip: soak the mussels in cold water with a handful of flour so they take in the flour and push out any sand they have in their tummies. 

anyway back to the rutabaga. it comes dipped in wax.. presumably to make it last longer in the grocery store since i imagine they don't fly off the shelves. that being said though, they should fly off the shelves. the recipe was very yummy. i made it with 2% instead of whole milk, and it was still really good. 

in the great clean out of 2010, i convinced minky to get rid of our broken food processor. little did i know, ina uses it religiously. but we have an immersion blender, a regular blender and a mini chopper, and between the three, there's not a lot i can't do. and a mandolin. anyway tonight i mashed it with a fork and then used an immersion blender, and it was so easy and quick. 

i can't really think of anything else that tastes quite like it. it's earthy the same way that swiss chard tastes earthier than spinach. it's like it has more of an obvious dirt taste. and it's a little bit sweet.

the only thing that was a little laughable was how long the silly shallots took to get brown. she says to cook them in oil and butter for 30 to 40 minutes. i cooked them at least that long, and they only began to turn golden. in the picture in the cook book, they're really dark brown.. but i was not willing to wait any longer. 

all in all, a really good meal that met my desire for something a little bit complicated but mostly just easy and tasty on a winter night. 

i'm watching oklahoma and i haven't been able to stop singing. OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MOOOORNING. :)

polka dots, checks and stripes

note to self: wait until you're finished chewing whatever's in your mouth before hitting the 'take picture' button.. but! i'm not wearing stripes today! like everyone else in the world, i got swept up in the stripes phenomenon for the last 6 months. 

but polka dots are a fun change. i can't wait for spring colors to come out. i could really go for some spring florals.

while we're talking about shopping.. have you heard of modcloth? it's all supposed to be kind of retro/vintage looking.. and i guess it is.. but it's also just very affordable. i've been keeping an eye on the shoe section. even regularly priced shoes are really reasonable between $25ish and $60 or so for the most part.

and do you own/know someone who owns tieks? i'm waiting to hear about a job.. but when i get it, i think i need a pair.

the only thing i wonder about is whether or not you can see the outline of your toes through them since theyre just leather.. but i searched high and low on the internet and no one mentions that at all.

everyone does mention how ridiculously comfortable they are. and they fold in half should you need to store them in your purse. the idea is that you change into them after a day/night in heels.. but since i'm a 100% flats girl, i just like the idea of comfy shoes. and a reminder of how long i've been extremely frugal while working non-salaried jobs.

christmas '11

christmas at our house was nice and low key. jeff woke up before me for the first time since we were 6 and 9 or something. usually i'm the one running around the house like a crazy person. i think we waited until 11 to open presents. 

ina's roast beef recipe.

matt slept the entire day away, just like christmas '09.

gram made me a new quilt to match my chair!

meeeerrrry christmas everyone.

stephanopopolus

so i'm usually on top of things like this. but i didn't get nirav and becca a wedding present. i told myself i had a whole year after their wedding. and did i buy anything? no. when i went to china in october, i thought i'd find something. but did i want to lug around some tacky trinket? no. 

so then when i was in dc for abha's wedding in august, becca handed me these two shopping bags full of stuff from her wedding and asked me to make a scrapbook for a wedding present. so that's what i spent this beginning of the week doing. 

i loooove to scrapbook. and the coolest part was that the first day i was thinking oh man i really need some prints to fill it out because there isn't that much stuff in here to make a whole book out of.. but then something in the back of my mind remembered that i had already done that in october when shutterfly had a 50 free prints sale and all you pay is shipping.

so sure enough, i look in the bag and there's a package of pictures just waiting.

it turned out pretty cute. i didn't take any pictures of the finished product, but it's a good representation of the week.

matt and jeff are here and we were suppooosed to be trimming the tree.. but since we haven't seen each other since thanksgiving, we've just been chatting. lots of funny stories. jeff wears skinny jeans. matt has no blankets in his house. we decided the tree looks pretty enough without ornaments with just white lights. 

time for bed. 

thursday

today was kind of interesting in yoga. before class, we go around and say our name and how the body is feeling, and this man in the middle of the room said it was his first hatha flow class, and that he had been looking forward to it for a whole year after taking lots of regular hatha and beginners classes. so we all laughed and were happy for him.

so then at about the 1/4 way point through class, he really started huffing and puffing hard.. and since he was in the center of the room, we were all really aware of it. sweat was dripping off the end of his nose, his chest was heaving, you could hear the shake in his voice as he chanted OMMMMMM during poses.

so at the half way point we took a couple seconds to chill out before moving to another set of poses, and the instructor said 'how's everyone doing?' and then 'welcome, welcome' to the new guy with a big grin on his face.

at the end as we were rolling up our mats and getting cups of chai, the new man said he didn't think he was actually ready for that class. but the instructor told him he was. you just need to push through that beginning part. i felt bad for him. but a month ago, those million lunges were almost the end of me, and now i can lunge forever. so he'll be fine. i told him it gets easier.

baby write this down

jeff came home and told a funny story about people stealing his beer, but i wouldn't be able to tell it like he did. (turns out i did try anyway..) he was trying to explain to maj how there are unwritten beer rules when you're at a party. in short, he went to a party with a 12 pack of fat tire for he and his girlfriend, and he put it in the otherwise empty fridge. then as he was walking around, he noticed that everyone was carrying around the beer they had brought. so when jeff went back to the fridge to get his, 6 beers were missing when he and his girlfriend had only taken 2.

so then he went on a mission to find who the 4 people who stole his beer were. two were easy to spot.. but then one guy was holding his hand over the label trying to be sneaky. but it has a pretty distinctive top, so jeff knew who it was. but then he couldn't find the fourth..

so much later on, he was chatting with people and saw this guy take a fat tire out of his 6 pack of fireman's 4. so when the guy wasn't looking, jeff took one of the guy's fireman's 4. and then he waited outside, watching through the window, as the guy reached in his 6 pack and realized his last beer was gone. retribution.

but he was trying to explain to my mom how if you're at a party and there's a bunch of cheap beer, it's ok to take one because it's clearly for the party in general. but if people bring nice beer, you shouldn't take it, or you should at least ask around to find out whose it is and then ask them if you can have one.

and that is jinky's story.

he got a new car because his died. it's a red and khaki subaru wagon with not one, but twoo sun/moon roofs. pretty fancy.

deck the halls

well today we turned the normal living room:

into the christmas! living room:

 you can't really appreciate it in the small photos. i'll take some more detailed ones later.

and we found the christmouse. he's my favorite holiday decoration.

all the lonely people

well, kim jong ill died if you haven't been on facebook or any news sites in the last hour. majjy and i agreed we hope his son will be less of a crazyman.

went to the lake this weekend and all of the highlights are food related, are you surprised? coconut macaroons in marble falls on the way there, fondue from world market for a pre-dinner snack, stuffed peppers for dinner.

then tonight i made scalloped potatoes with some of the leftover spiral sliced ham. stuffed peppers and scalloped potatoes are two of the easiest, tastiest things we make at my house.

stuffed peppers: 4 green bell peppers, tops cut off and seeds and ribs taken out. then you make 4 meatballs out of 1 lb of ground beef, 1/4 cup or so of campbells tomato soup, and 1/2 c or more of minute rice. and salt and pepper. put a meatball inside each pepper and pour in some extra soup. then you just put them in a pressure cooker and dump the rest of the soup mix and a can or two of water in the bottom of the pot and voila. 15 minutes later, you have delicious dinner.

scalloped potatoes: 3 or 4 russet potatoes, sliced very thin, 2 medium white onions also sliced thinly, a bunch of ham in pieces. layer all of that in a 13 x 9 shallow glass dish and pour in milk until it comes up about 1/2 way (to the top of the potatoes, not the dish). sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake at 375 for an hour or until top is browned and bubbly.

you and me together

it's felt like winter around here lately with dreary rain and cold. we needed the rain, but i'm ready for just plain cold. 

two of my favorite girls will be in austin next week and i'm so exciteddd!! the fam.. or at least me, faj & maj are headed to the lake this weekend. ripley hasn't been in two weeks and she was so sad, so i'm glad she gets to go this time.

at my own game

laaaazy day today. i didn't get out of jammies until after 2.

but then this evening C and i went to phoenicia bakery and it was very cheap and delicious. not as good as milto's, but at $4 a sandwich, how much can you really complain. we had a roasted chicken wrap, a gyro, stuffed grape leaves, tabouli and hummus.

then he beat me at scrabble. he didn't know you get 50 points if you play all of your tiles at 1 time. but he did that on a triple word score. that one hurt.

sand made everything round

there is nothing quite like walking in to a room of people over 50 who you know are wondering whose lost child you are, and then to have the chair of the organization say 'and now i'd like to introduce you megan..', and lift his hand to point toward you, standing quietly in the back of the room in heels, sparkley earrings, magic pants and a j crew sweater.. while everyone turns and looks to either side of you, wondering who he's pointing to.

and then, using your practiced teacher voice, you confidently report what you're up to and how well your team is doing in a difficult area. and the faces that a moment ago were saying 'who the hell is this girl?' are now saying 'hell yes, this girl!'

that was my monday night. :)

folks dressed up like eskimos

last night the boy, we will call him C from now on, and his housemates threw a party. it was adorable considering 4 boys hosted it. they range in age from 26 i think to 35 and they throw the kind of parties i suspected people over 30 threw. there were little candle lights up the walkway to their house and they had a christmas tree and stockings hung on their tv unit. the tv itself was playing a fireplace video that C spent hours searching for online. apparently there aren't a whole lot of high quality fire videos on youtube.

anyway then they had hung these big plastic snowflakes from the ceiling and ornaments and lights. there were vegetable trays and homemade salsa and a counter full of wine of all kinds. all of their rooms were as clean as they've ever been. they cleaned the bathroom.

then the people at the party were as eclectic as you'd imagine they'd be. a bunch of astronomers. lots of people who rode their bike there. a yoga teacher. lots of teachers in general. some nonprofiters. it was a lot of fun.

today was kind of a whirlwind. breakfast tacos in the morning. then i went to visit majjy and see how her show was going. did i tell you she's taping a show? it's not going to be on tv until may. there are 2 episodes being filmed in austin and then 4 episodes in other cities. this morning, one front yard was almost finished and one is in progress. i told 'her guys' they should ask for more money to work so hard on a sunday.

this evening i had a cookie exchange hosted by a girl i used to work with. i brought russian tea cakes and the other girls brought and bought coconut orange sugar cookies, macadamia nut white chocolate cookies, cake balls, sugar cookies, blueberry and cranberry cookies. they were all really yum.

and then! one of the guys i work with had a birthday so i went and met a couple of people downtown for pizza.

time for bed. so tired. fun weekend.

ni cong na li lai de

tonight the boy and i went to my favorite sushi place (where i never order sushi), and then afterward we went next door so i could get rose milk tea. the old woman behind the counter confirmed my order 3 times. don't think they sell a lot of that there. 'hot? milk tea? rose milk tea? you want hot? rose milk tea?'

so when i was paying, i asked if she was from japan. there's a lot of japanese stuff in there. but they also have hichew, which is taiwanese candy. and koala yummies. she said she was taiwanese, so i said i lived in taoyuan for a year. she wanted me to take a sip of the tea and tell her if it was like taiwanese rose milk tea.

i wanted to speak to her in chinese, but i just lost my nerve. in my mind, it was so much easier in taiwan because no one expected that i was able to say anything to them at all so mistakes were easily forgiven because they were so happy i had made the effort.

but i guess i got a little embarrassed about speaking chinese imperfectly when i was teaching at that mandarin immersion afterschool program because the main teacher would constantly correct everything i said. so i kind of stopped speaking it around her.

anyway. i want to go back and just sit some time when the store is empty and talk to her about tsong dra bing and rose milk tea and scooters and beef noodles.

pat on the back though: when we were in the car on the way home, the boy said 'you think that other girl in there was chinese or japanese? her skin was so pale.' and i said 'no she's taiwanese because she used the taiwanese way of saying "there" instead of the chinese.' and he made a comment about how it's interesting that my background allows me to know things like that. and it is. i think about taiwan every day.

a merry little christmas

felt a little fancy when i checked the mail today.

my my my

tonight i discovered a little 5 piece gift pack of face wash/lotion that one of my mom's friends had given her. it's all Q10 stuff from japan apparently. what is it about women and skincare regimens? 

my friend marisa wrote a blog post once (two, it turns out) about how she tries every kind of lotion under the sun. i do the same thing, but i'd really like to get to the point where i just use one lotion/cleanser/etc that i love and stick with it. my mom has used noxema forever because her mom used it. the smell of it reminds me of sunburns as a little kid when we would put it on our shoulders. 

a year or so ago, my friend stacy recommended two things that i now swear by. one is cetaphil face wash. the reviews on the website call it 'a great inexpensive cleanser,' but at more than $10 a bottle, it seems pretty pricey to me. anyway a bottle lasts forever, and the pump is so easy in the shower or to use at the sink when you can't open your eyes because your face is all wet. it doesn't foam or bubble, but it works really well to take off mascara and makeup. 

(image from cetaphil.com)

for the record, i've been on the hunt for a non-greasy-non-shiny facial moisturizer foreeever and ever, and after trying and failing with kiehl's and clinique and whatever else, cetaphil's daily moisturizer with 15sph is the only thing i've found that isn't shiny or greasy. 

the other thing stacy recommended is neutrogena's rapid clear 2 in 1 fight & fade gel, which i love. my skin doesn't often go crazy anymore, but this stuff really helps clear up whatever does pop up. it's also kind of expensive at $10+ a tube, but i've had the same tube for easily a year, and there's still 1/3 or so left. 

(image from neutrogena.com)

and finally, i know it puts me in the grandma category, but i love amazing grace by philosophy. it's a little bit flowery and a little bit citrusy. but not overly sweet or overly grandma. it just smells clean and fresh. love it. 

(image from philosophy.com)

last thing: this weekend i had to run out the door to a party but i noticed my nails had begun to chip, so i just painted over the chipped parts and then painted over my whole nail with a clear top coat, and they've been lovely ever since then. you can't see where the line is between old and new at all. 

and those are megan's random beauty tips.

all the colors are changing

the last couple of days in central texas have been uncharacteristically rainy and cold, which has been really nice actually. we haven't really had any good scarf days yet this fall. i think it's still supposed to rain tomorrow, and then it's just clear and cold for the rest of the week. makes me thankful for heated seats in my car and the down comforter on my bed. so toasty.

not much to report. lots of holiday parties. at one party last night i made mulled wine and mini quiche, and based on people's reactions you would have thought i invented mini quiche. i thought they were pretty standard?

aubergine

jeff and i used to watch ina garten's barefoot contessa show together almost every day, and we would imitate her husband jeffrey's voice when he said 'hey ina' and we know all of her catch phrases; how easy is that? how bad could that be? a dog's breakfast. 

but then the day came when jeff no longer loved watching ina. probably because we have seen every episode at least once at this point. 

(image from housebeautiful.com)

but in the afternoon while i'm working online, i still like to turn on her shows and just listen to her in the background as i work. majjy hates her voice, she thinks it's condescending, but i think she's friendly and open and fun. who cares if she tops everything with parsley or tells us the same tips over and over. (add a little bit of instant coffee powder to chocolate baked goods for extra richness, crack an egg into a separate bowl in case you get a bad one, use really good vanilla).

so this week when i had to choose between one million possible colors of speck laptop shells, (and i think it goes without saying, but i definitely found it on overstock.com for $15 less, don't worry), i haddd to choose aubergine just like ina's. i searched high and low on the internet to find a picture of her with it, but came up empty handed.

it's such a deep, pretty shade of blue-y purple. love it. and now i feel that much closer to ina. 

as a side note, i brought a tupperware container of truffles to the office today, and a bunch of people were standing in a big clump so i just held my arm out in the middle with the open tupperware, and 2 seconds later, they had all vanished. 

only love

my bestie from high school, becca, got me a gift certificate to this bake shop that has various classes, so tonight i went to a truffle making class. i'm not super into cake balls or cupcakes, but truffles sounded good. and my friend rachel went to the class a couple of months ago, and her pictures looked yummy.

as a "blogger," and i use that term very loosely when talking about myself, you're always thinking about situations like a sociologist. who are these women who go to a truffle making class? it seemed that most of them were newly married late-20-somethings and early 30-somethings who think that they should be going to truffle making classes. over half the class was made up of repeat-attendees. they ask about things like cacao percentages and they know what 'summer chocolate' is. they aren't my tribe.

i know it sounds bitter, but you know those girls on facebook who have gotten married, taken the cooking classes, focused on outfitting their pottery-barn households and doing otherwise really stereotypical housewife things. there's no reason why you have to go down that path, especially when we have so many unique opportunities as young people. anyway a lot of it is probably me rationalizing not being married right now, but i wouldn't want to be a serial baking class attendee.

i also noticed that in truffle class, much like in yoga, there's always one man who's polluting the environment. it's great when men join things that are usually dominated by women, but not when they ruin it for the rest of us. in yoga, they sigh, they grunt, they toot loudly. in truffle class, our sole man, who was sitting across from me, kept interrupting to ask questions in what i felt like was an attempt to catch the woman instructing the class off guard. maybe i took too many women and gender classes in college, but all i could think about was how he kept correcting things she said, or trying to find an alternate way to do something. i don't think that's me being biased though.

anyway all of that being said, the class was really interesting. the girl beside me was really fun. we learned how to make ganache, temper chocolate for dipping (which is much harder than it seems like it would be), and i'm happy to have gone home with 16 really pretty and really yummy (i'm guessing, majjy and i have split one so far) truffles.

green apple tree

slow sunday. it's weird when everyone in america is also not working during the day. i'm used to relatively empty roads and grocery stores in the middle of the day.

(this is the only picture of me we ended up with from the road trip. i was reading the historical marker sign).

yoga tomorrow. getting deputized as a volunteer deputy registrar on tuesday. truffle class wednesday. should be a good week.

also, don't you wish you had friends who greeted you on gchat like my miriam?:

4:14 PM me: mmmmmmiriam!

4:15 PM Miriam: megan! megan! megan!

  hi!

  i havn't talked to you in forevvvvvvvvvver and missed you!

 me: did you have such a happy thanksgiving?

 Miriam: how was turkey day?

 me: jinxx

 Miriam: HAHAHA

  i DID have very happy thanksgiving
but my very favorite thing is miriam's !!!'s:

Miriam: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  oh

  em

  geeeeeee

  MEGAN!!!!!!!!!!!

  that is AMAZING!!!!!!

  ahhh
and her enthusiasm in general. 

10:52 AM me: pop quiz

  what is someone from bangkok called

10:54 AM Miriam: thai

  heheheh

  i dont know!

  what?

  bangkokian

  bangkokese

  bangkoker

 me: bangkokonian!

 Miriam: hahahahahahahaa

  is that true?!

 me: yep

10:55 AM Miriam: hahaha

  love it

  yay random trivia

tiny road trip

so i haven't said anything on the blog, but this boy and i kind of ironed things out. after the friends first conversation, we had another conversation, and now we're back to going on dates. today we went on a road trip to the town he was born in, about 3 hours northwest of us.

we stopped in glen rose to see the dinosaur track. 

there are lots of really pretty restored courthouses in the small towns.

stopped at what once was his great grandma's house. no one lives there now.

granbury court house. 

we had lunch at a soda shop, and a couple scoops of ice cream. walked around the town square sampling fudge, jalapeno jam and checked out things in antique shops. lots of quilts, old razors, and one antique store devoted almost entirely to salt and pepper shakers of every shape and size.

it was a gray day, but thankfully no rain, and pretty nice temperature in the low 70s.

stopped in this tiny truckstop town on the way home called west where they have a few czech bakeries with kolaches and cookies. yum. good way to end the day. my legs are sore from walking around so much in jelly shoes. guess i need to hit the yoga a little harder.

hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving and black friday!

27-24

did you seeee that longhorns/A&M game?! insane.
it was our last game of the rivalry for the foreseeable future, and we were behind for a long time, finally got ahead for a bit, they scored and we were behind by 1 and then we kicked a field goal in the last 20 seconds. crazy. so happy.

happy thanksgiving! turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, creamed spinach, creamed onions, green bean casserole, stuffing and pumpkin pie at my house. and bloody marys, boozy eggnog & apple cider.

like no one's watching you

hosanna in the highest

tonight my boss from the nonprofit i worked for over the last 2 summers got married. it was very pretty. i wish i had taken a picture of her dress. i'll post some once they start to pop up on facebook. 

i got there about 15 minutes early, and two of the ladies i worked with were setting up all of the tables. they had a million vases and buckets full of flowers and candles, so we set them all up. white hydrangeas and roses. some tables had candelabras with candles that melted all the way down to the bottom by the end of the night.

hard to see, but that's everyone dancing. i don't dance. both of the families are hispanic though, so the dancing and music was amaaazing. i don't know if it was more to fun to watch the mother of the bride, who i only knew as a short, shy, spanish speaking woman, as she danced all over the place tonight.. or the little kids. there was a little girl who had the biggest smile as she shook her little shoulders, and a boy who can move his hips in a way i know my body will never be able to.

i sampled each of the 4 kinds of cake while everyone else danced. long night. 

when will i see you again

weirdly busy week this week considering it's thanksgiving week. a wedding, drinks with a friend, thanksgiving, a day trip, a house party. should be a lot of fun.

doesn't feel a whole lot like thanksgiving week around here though. it was 85 today. too hot. definitely too hot for the magic pants. they're velvety corduroy.

diamonds, they fade

today i discovered this blog/hairstyle. it is so easy, and it looks so fancy. i did about one million versions of it before leaving it, but all of them.. almost all of them.. were pretty.

(taco deli fish tacos are the besttt thing.)
really, i have nothing to say today. went to yoga. had a delicious fish taco for lunch. thought i was going to make tiramisu for an event tomorrow night, but bought the best cookies from world market instead. did a little work. laundry. shower. that was my day.

hands to floor

today was one of those rainy, cozy up on the couch with a book and a quilt and take a nap days. so this evening, i thought i would go to back to back yoga classes to make up for a day of inactivity. my favorite instructor was teaching both classes.

the first was hatha flow, which isn't the hardest of the hard, but the 'flow' part means that you're continuously moving, so it's harder than regular hatha. we ended up doing lunges in various forms for 45 minutes. lunge, sit in chair position, bend forward, lunge, chair, forward x 6. then lunges with your hands on your hips x 6, then with your arms over your head. my legs were soo shaky by the end of it, i could barely stand. and there was a slow but constant stream of sweat dripping down my face.

(images from yogatic.com, lunge/warrior 1 pose)

the whole idea is that you focus on your breath and your body to clear a space in your mind that isn't thinking about any outside thoughts.. only on how your body is feeling, and eventually, your body gets to a place where everything doesn't burn and hurt, so you can have a totally clear mind. as someone who can never shut her brain off, that's the main reason i love yoga. at least if all i'm thinking about is how much my legs are burning, there's no room to think anything else. if we're being totally honest, the thought that most often runs through my mind during yoga is 'you're not going to die from this, it just burns, just keep breathing and wait 10 more seconds and it'll be over. no one dies in yoga.'

so after class, i asked the instructor how many lunges would be in class 2. he said maybe 1. i said ok, i'll go.

(chair pose. she isn't sitting back very far though.)

so we're in class 2, regular hatha, and we do our one set of lunges and thennn we sit in chair pose over and over. at one point, i looked up and our eyes met and he just started laughing at the front of the room. i was tricked! only one lunge, but i didn't ask about chair. lesson learned.

and be glad in it

fun weekend. went to another farm fundraiser last night, and two of my favorite girls came. i'm kind of hunting their friendship. as we've discussed in the past, it's hard business becoming friends with new people sometimes. so i was glad they came and hung out.

this afternoon i jailbroke one of my volunteers out of his retirement home and we went to the symphony in the tiny town where we live. he's the youngest one there, and he just wants to get out and about and do normal things. my journalism adviser from high school is on the board of the symphony, so when they need volunteers last minute she calls me, and i've helped out a few times, so she donated her tickets to us so we could go. he really enjoyed it. we had a nice time talking. he couldn't believe all of the different things i've done since graduating.

the symphony itself was chamber music from the 1700 and 1800s. this man beside me was really into it. i mean, i enjoyed it, but this man would start giggling during certain parts, or rocking from side to side. at one point, my volunteer whispered 'he would make a good boyfriend' in my ear. but the man was clearly in his late 40s, and had a wedding ring. what is it about elderly people playing matchmaker?

so that was my day. waiting on udon noodle soup at sushi niichi right now. it is so busy in here. the soup is worth waiting for.

friday

do you want to know a fun fact? when i send emails, i almost always use the day of the week for the subject line. i was an english major in college, and the most agonizing part of every paper was the title. i just hate summing things up in a few words for some reason. so with the day of the week, it's just done.

this is my favorite find of the day:

happy 11/11/11! (it happens to be 11:11pm at the moment, too). the day which most closely resembles corduroy.

one is silver and the other's gold

are you on pinterest? since my main blog audience is extended fam, i'm going to guess you haven't. its kind of like an internet bulletin board. you 'pin' things you find all over the internet. i have 6 categories (food, flowers, home, recipes, etc.). and i was all into it when i first joined, cleaning out my folders of links and just pinning things instead. when people click on a pin, it takes them to the original link you found.

it's gotten really popular in the last 6 months. i get an email every time someone follows my boards (they see what you post), and every time, i feel like writing back and saying 'don't follow me. i never post anything new.'

anyway, it's worth checking out. seems like most people get really excited in the beginning and pin in flurries and then taper off. or maybe i just think everyone has tapered off since i have.

twirl you all around the floor

i think rose water is the secret to rose milk tea. tonight i made a normal cup of tea with gram's black tea of choice, salada, a lot of milk, a tsp of sugar and maybe 1/2 tsp of rose water, and it was pretty close. they make it with a lot more sugar in tea shops, and they steam the milk which makes it all seem a little thicker.

in the summer, i like a teaspoon or so mixed into lemonade. it sounds kind of iffy, but it's good. a lot of people on the blogs say they like it in apple pie or in muffins. it isn't strong, but it adds another layer of flavor.

one last update on the guy: we went to a coffee shop and played scrabble this weekend (i whipped him by 100 points).. and i think the sparkle is officially dead. it's interesting how it's so different to be around someone when you're romantically interested in them vs just being friends. i didn't rush to fill the gaps in conversation, or think about which way i crossed my legs. my friend steve in taiwan used to always comment on how if you cross your legs away from someone, it shows that you're not interested in them. i can never get that out of my head now when i'm sitting beside someone.

speaking of taiwan, the o'sullivans had their baby. tegan clare.
jeremiah wrote me a really sweet email in march of '09 when they had just signed up to teach in taiwan and had read my whole blog. he said 'we did get a little addicted to your blog and i think i ended up reading almost every post in four days (shhhhh, don't tell anyone) and my wife is dying to be caught up.  i would have to say the addiction was up there with our six feet under addiction we had over the summer.' 
it's still one of my favorite emails from the blog. now we're all fb friends.

tiny calendar

maybe you've noticed, but one of my strategies for success in life has been to tell everyone i know every detail about everything that's happening to me, or that i want to happen. sometimes this works out very well.. like the white house internship. sometimes not so well, like failed non-relationships. 

it's good for following through though. if i tell a million people about something, there's a lot more pressure on me to complete it than if i just make a decision by myself and no one knows. 

anyway with that idea in mind, i invited a bunch of my friends to participate in 'lipstick november,' in which we wear lipstick four days a week each week in november. 

lipstick can make you look so much more put-together, but i find it hard to put it on and keep it on for some reason. usually i put it on (and by usually, i mean once every 6 months), feel overly made up, and tissue it off. 

so i made and printed this teeny calendar so we can easily keep track. me and 10-ish friends are doing it. but! i made a little one for you to print out if you want to share or join. it prints at like 2.5 by 3.5 inches. 

costumes

so tonight i went to dinner with the guy i've been hanging out with.. and me being me, i just couldn't keep it in any longer. so after dinner and a game of scrabble, i asked why we hadn't kissed since the second date because i'd like to, and it seems like he would too.. until the 3 minutes while we're saying goodnight. he said he thinks you shouldn't rush into relationships before you know the person, and it's important to be friends first and then see what it turns into. but he does feel sparkle for me.

and while we were sitting there, that all made sense to me and sounded alright.

but on the drive home, i decided that doesn't sound fine at all. becca and abha are married to men who look at them like the world revolves around them. and they looked at them like that from the first day they met. and they knew they wanted to be around that person forever.

so i don't know. i'm going to hang out with this guy as friends and maybe he'll be right, but i want to be in a relationship where you think about me throughout the day and you look forward to the next time you see me, and you can't imagine me not being in your life. and you're not afraid to start something and see where it ends up. ..and to be honest, i'm lovely. and if that isn't obvious to you after 5 non-dates, then we probably shouldn't be together anyway.

so, that's that. i'm bummed because it felt so right, but it's better to know a month in instead of getting more and more invested only to be disappointed. on to the next!

zaijian

cate and i went to sushi for lunch today. we needed to get out of the house. i had only planned to get it to go because she has very limited patience for sitting still, since an 8 month old has not fully mastered that skill quite yet.. but the woman who owns the restaurant with her husband was very insistent that i stay. 'it's best fresh. it will only take a minute. she has kids of her own and she knows that mama's never get to eat their own lunch with a baby running around.'

so first i explained that this is not my baby. i don't know why i feel the need to do that, but i do. anyway we decided to stay. luckily, no one else was in the restaurant, so we had the run of the place. she threw snacks all over the floor, we walked around, she stood at the fish tank and watched the fish.

i took a piece of tofu out of my miso soup for her, and she loooved it. it was also the messiest thing i've ever seen her eat. and i didn't bring a bib because i figured she would be fine with these little crackers i brought. 

the owner came to chat with me while i walked cate around. turns out she's from taiwan (could you see that coming?). she lived in taipei until she was 5, so she knows of taoyuan, which is about an hour south. we spoke chinese, we talked about bushibans, we bonded. she taught cate how to say ni hao and zaijian (hello and goodbye). or tried to, since cate can't say anything yet. 

so it was a very pleasant afternoon. glad we went. the sushi wasn't that great though, so jill and her mom took me to a fancy sushi place for dinner. it was delicious. and we had a cosmo and hot green tea. i was in sushi heaven. 

last day with the baby tomorrow! 

secret society

so while i've been in houston, i've been meeting up with several long lost friends. last night i met up with a guy who i met one time at a birthday party in 2006. we hit it off then, and we've chatted once or twice a year since then. so when he heard i was in houston, he said he had the perfect place we could go to.

his text was kind of like a treasure map. 'go to this location, take a right, park in the first garage. it's on the first foor, i'll meet you there.' so i got there a bit early and sat outside while i waited. there was a bouncer checking ID's and greeting everyone by name. and when i say 'everyone' i mean, men in suits, women with high high heels, people with fancy bags, people my age in button downs and slack. my favorite was an asian businessman with a gray suit and bright blue (like M&M blue) patent leather shoes. he waltzed in like he owned the place.

so my friend got there and we went in.. at the desk there were 7 or so iPads for you to check in on, and then they gave you 3 gold coins as drink tokens. turns out the place was a popup bar for Chivas called 1801 club. there are several throughout the US, apparently. you 'become a member' by filling out a form online, and then they have lots of promo events like last night with free drinks and whiskey tastings and things.

it was all marble and dark wood inside. my friend said the man who used to own the building worked for bernie madoff, and he was liquidating his assets now, the club being one of them. i forget the guy's name.

anyway the most amusing part was making friends with one of the waiters who was walking around with the passed hors d'oeuvres. they had seared ahi tuna on a cracker and a little chicken thing with spicy guacamole, and chocolate, but our favorrrite was a teeny pancake, the size of a quarter, with fresh mozzarella and sun dried tomatoes on top. the guy got a kick out of the fact that we loved them more than anyone else in the club, so he kept swinging by with more. it was fun.

and that was my tuesday. jill left for work an hour later than usual today and she gets back almost 2 hours early, so today is easy.

fish face

went to dinner with mark tonight. we used to work at the paper together in college. his family is from taiwan, so we always discuss taiwanese things. today we met in chinatown and went to get rose milk tea (my faaavorite. i bought some loose oriental beauty rose tea to make at home too. soo excited.) and hot pot. it was so yummy. his family always has it with noodles and without rice. i've always had it the opposite way. yum though.

in china, they do this double hot pot with the divider in the middle. usually one side is plain and one is spicy.. whereas everywhere i've gone in taiwan, there's either one big hot pot in the middle with plain broth, or everyone at the table has their own individual one. i like having my own. i also like the taiwanese style broth and dipping sauce better. they have all sorts of interesting stuff you can mix into your sauce.. peanuts, peanut butter, soy sauce, fish flake stuff, scallions, spicy peppers. i guess everyone likes what they're used to. 

and this is how the rest of my day looked. cate is such a good girl. she took two long naps today. we're working on her walking and holding onto only one of my hands. she's strong enough to do it, but she doesn't know she is.