such a fun day

Yesterday was a lot of fun. First off, I managed to get through the Social Security office line out the door in the time between 9 and 9:30 a.m., which was when I needed to head south to Sarah's parents', and I was really glad I could get that done. Now I don't have to take off a day just for that.

First we went to the bridal shop, and Sarah tried on dresses. Her two favorite looked outstanding on her, so beautiful. I love seeing my friends in wedding dresses. How fun. Ber modeled a couple of bridesmaid dresses for us, but unfortunately the shop no longer had the one they wanted. I really want to see this dress because it looks awesome in the catalog.

Then we headed over to Passage to India for lunch. I personally thought the buffet yesterday was amazing. So many delicious options.

Next on the slate was cake tasting, for which we also picked up Luke. I thought the cakes at the place were very tasty, and there were some cool designs as well. And also some not cool designs. Who is still getting those?!

My time with them was pretty much over after the cake tasting because of a family meal at my uncle's, but I had such a good time with the girls, and I'm so glad I got to go along.

ew 2.0

This post is dedicated solely to my friend Emily.

E for effort at
Matching pajama pants and shirts.
I
Like
You.

ew

Some night this weekend (in the middle of the night) the cat was running around wild in the bedroom. This is, obviously, very disruptive. I went and found her, brought her to the bed, put her on my lap, and petted her, in hopes she would calm down. She purred and sat for a while but soon wanted to be free. She immediately returned to where I had retrieved her from. As much as I could in the darkness, I watched her and she seemed to be tracking something; soon she stood riveted at the door to the bathroom. I asked her, "Nibbert, is there a mouse or something? What are you chasing?" So I talk to my cat; sue me. Brian says she's not chasing a mouse because he would have heard that. I open the door to the bathroom and turn on the light. There, right in the doorway is the nastiest cockroach ever. Ew. So gross. I hate them. I don't usually have a thing about insects. In fact, most spiders I even rescue to the outdoors. Once I tried this with a wasp in a pool, but that's another story. Cockroaches, however, I have a thing about. So I was freaking out just a little. This thing was big – I'd say two inches long and fat. Brian came and gave it a good stomp. Juice from it sprayed out onto the bathroom floor. I get tensed up just recalling this gross insect encounter. I couldn't be too upset with old Nibbert for rooting out something that I never wanted in my bedroom in the first place.

some cool things

Last Friday friends Jesse and Ruth had me over for a practice Thanksgiving. As in turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, salad. Something I need a lot of practice at, let me tell you. Jesse made a beer can turkey, and it was So. Good. So. Good. I've made several beer can chickens, which were good, but the beer turkey was very succulent. I demonstrated this by eating. And eating. And eating. A lot of eating. After supper we shared some good chatting, and then Jesse showed me his studio, and I got to watch his amazing illustration work on some really neat equipment. It was great.

I am so excited for the next week+. My grandma turns 90 on Sunday, so there is a big celebration planned for her. The great part is that so much family will be in the area. All of my uncles and most aunts from Alaska will be here, and that is very exciting. One of them called me to have lunch today, so I've already been able to see them! Yay!

Other special occurrences include out-of-state friends coming to the area, including getting to go along on a wedding-planning-related trip that I'm very much looking forward to, and of course at least three Thanksgivings, and also a bridal shower.

might have to crawl even after you walk

A number of years ago back in college, my friend Kristine was trying to encourage me to go ask Brian about going to a concert with me (this concert did, actually, end up being our first date, though one of us didn't ask the other on a date), and – as my memory has it – she sang part of John Michael Montgomery's Life's a Dance to me. "Sink or swim, you gotta give it a whirl" I did end up going down to the next floor and knocking on his door, but he wasn't there. So that song has always been linked to that memory for me. I heard that song on the radio last night and realized I've moved from identifying with/remembering connections with the first verse to identifying very much with the second. Not that the second just recently started applying to my life, but the words of the second verse really struck me last night. How true they are.

tzatziki

Recently I was craving some sort of vegetable-y flatbread sandwich, but I didn't know what kind of sauce to use. I browsed the dressing aisle, but nothing did it for me. Well, I knew what I wanted – I wanted the tzatziki sauce I had at Pita Pit this summer, but since I had no way to get it... I looked up tzatziki recipes online. When I look for new recipes, I always look at a bunch and then decide which one sounds easiest/best mix of flavors for my taste buds, and I often end up combining a few. Such is the case with the tzatziki sauce I made. My chosen ingredients (um, quantities are going to have to be from memory because I guess I didn't bring the written-out recipe with me like I thought):














16 oz plain yogurt, strained; 1 T lemon juice; 1 T minced garlic; 1 T olive oil; 1 t red wine vinegar; 1/2 cucumber, peeled, grated and strained; 1 1/2 t fresh mint, minced; 1/4 c sour cream; pinch of black pepper; 1 t salt (I think this is too much; the sauce tastes salty, I think, but it's less noticeable once it's on a sandwich. Still, I would reduce the salt next time.)

The first step I found very interesting – straining the yogurt. Recipes I read varied on how long to strain the yogurt, anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours. For good measure, I strained it about 22 hours. Methods I read included using cheese cloth, a paper towel or a coffee filter; I selected coffee filter.
















I was surprised at just how much liquid strained out of the yogurt.


















We don't really have the refrigerator space to have a lot of things straining at once, plus our other colanders are huge, so for the cucumber, Brian helped me out and peeled and grated it and then just pressed out as much liquid as he could with paper towels right before I added it. That worked pretty well, and the sauce is not runny.

My favorite part was mincing the mint. For this, I broke out the Alaskan Ulu. This is Brian's Ulu and bowl. I've had an Ulu since my visit to Alaska 12 years ago but have never actually used one. And I don't have the bowl to go along with mine. This. Mincing the mint. Was fun.

















Then all you do is mix everything together and let it sit for a while to allow all of the flavors to blend. It was pretty good, but not how I remember the Pita Pit tzatziki. Also, it makes an f-load (a measurement that equals "I'll never be able to finish it"), so if anyone wants some...















I eat it on top of sautéed vegetables in flatbread.













Mmm, vegetables.














And just because, here are the Rice Krispies treats we made with the new Kraft Jet Puffed Strawberry Marshmallows (tried to get you a link here, but Kraft has a crappy website as far as I could tell). We'd also like to try making treats with the chocolate flavor.

dumbledore

Since I just saw a Harry Potter movie, I was again thinking about J.K. Rowling "outing" Dumbledore. I have two thoughts on this, but I want to be clear that I don't care if Dumbledore is gay, straight, whatever.

First thought: Rowling revealing this now seems like a cop out. It's like she wouldn't have wanted to add one more reason to create controversy about the series, and making this revelation after the fact didn't jeopardize book sales. One could imagine her like, "Ooo, look how progressive I am -- Dumbledore is gay! Now. After the series is over."

Second thought: I could give her the benefit of the doubt and think maybe she always intended him to be gay and always intended to reveal it after the conclusion of the series so that everyone would fall in love with him, and then the point could be made that it doesn't matter if someone is gay or not.