The boyfriend dressed up as a hipster (his hat reads: "God, Guns and Guts Made America, Let's Keep It That Way") that has been beat up.
I dressed up as a Russian lady from a long time ago. Suggestions of my name included Anna Karenina or Anastasia. Really I was just wearing a funny hat and a dress from a high school winter formal. Ugh, the word "formal" makes me feel kind of gross on the inside. Others dressed up as their boyfriends, bees, lady bugs, a liberal arts course catalogue and shady hat wearing types.
Thanks to the lady in the car who helped us with that cheeseburger thing. And if any of you don't like your face being up and around (if you even read this which, actually, I don't think you do) tell me and I'll attempt to put a bowling ball over your visage.
This makes me happy. It will make you happy too. I sometimes talk to the puppies like they're in front of me...the boyfriend discourages me from doing this, but I pay him no mind. The cat below is bigger than the puppy. Is that not amazing? FAT CAT CATTY CAT CAT!
After a bit of a break we watched A Life Without Pain. This movie is depressing. Interesting and fascinating ... but depressing. Do not watch it at 11:30 at night, it will just make you sad. That being said, it was a movie about three families and the children within the families that have a medical condition that makes it so they don't feel pain (worst sentence ever). Ugh. What interested me the most was the way all the parents totally stood up to this extreme challenge and that they were pretty frank and open. Because the kids don't feel anything they're more likely to get severe injuries...thus all the parents had been, at one time or another, accused of child abuse. Seriously, these kids could break their skulls on the pavement and not notice anything wrong. Crazy, crazy, crazy stuff.
Earlier this week I read this book. It's by a woman who lived in the same area as I did in Maryland. In fact we belonged to the same pool and I had, at one point or another, a crush on her son (but couldn't find him for the boys project which was a disappointment). This book is actually for a young adult audience (my mother brought it to Chicago last time she was here and I finally had nothing else to read) and for that audience it wasn't bad. Girl protagonist learns life lessons from old woman photographer. Boys and horses etc. I liked the photography angle on all of it. Kudos for getting a book deal.
I tried a special roll: The Scorpion Roll.... a giant wasabi sauced, tobikko covered, soft shell crab stuffed roll of epic proportions.
And the boyfriend had a white tuna sushi mold.
Cucumbers growing in the sky? Watermelons? Notice! Notice that these strange whosits are being held up...otherwise they'd crash to the ground due to their girth. Or maybe not girth...but...erm...damn, they're heavy.
The next day I made myself a bacon egg and cheese sandwich. It wasn't perfect but it was just what I wanted.
I actually have many a thing to post. Or at least a few things. I will get that done later after the one thing and then the other.
Before these arrived I had been thinking about this night. It was someone's birthday or a bunch of people's birthdays and so the parents of these kids had pooled their resources and rented a recreation center for the night. Because it was a bunch of different kids, I didn't actually know everyone there. There were boys there, boys never before seen and cute. What I remember is two (or so) cute boys and this ring of girls around them, flirting and teasing while the boys, for the most part, just stood there looking confused. I was not in this first ring, I was a little behind them thinking to myself 'that is so not how you get boys to like you'. What I find interesting about this is that I was so, totally, wrong.
Others brought: salads with apples, chicken, butternut squash soup, pumpkin seed brittle, sweet potato pie, apple pie and pumpkin pie.
The boyfriend and I weren't sure about attending this event since we're not, actually, very familiar with the host who threw it. And, well, new people scare us. But I thought that it would be good to meet some new people and have more conversations with these Vassar types. I was right, it was a nice evening complete with a strange run-in.
Though I can say I liked the Vouvray.
Later that same day (I think) the boyfriend made a salad...thanks to the greens, beets and onions from the farm share.
Along with the salad, the boyfriend made eggplant parmagiana (also thanks to the farmshare, at least in relation to the eggplant). All was good and warm or tasty when appropriate.
A little while back I finished reading (for the second time) Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. This book was turned into a movie...don't watch it, the book is far better/more subtle (imagine that). The basic premise of this book can be guessed at through the title but how it's done is interesting and engaging. Dona Flor is a subtle character who could, at first glance, seem a little dull-but dull she is not. Oh, why do I ever try to write about why I like books when I get all flummoxed within three sentences? The book tells the story of Dona Flor's first and second marriages and investigates what makes a person whole...in Dona Flor's case it's raunchy sex and the respect of her community. You should read it. I keep on thinking about trying to make one of the recipes in the book.
Last night the boyfriend and I watched a movie called (entitled?) Whole. Whole is a documentary that focuses on and explores a very small group of people who are 'wannabe amputees'. Through interviews with about six men and, in some cases, their spouses we learned about the lengths these men were willing to do in order to feel 'whole'. One man (the one in the photograph) purposefully put dry ice all over his leg until he developed frost bite. Another man used a shot gun to shoot the offending appendage off of himself. Weird, strange and fascinating. There are comparisons (at least in my mind) between the way these men have always felt 'wrong in their bodies' and transgendered/transexualized (?) people. Though, in many ways, this is far more bizarre and hard to understand.
I ordered the special Shrimp Stick appetizer (do I need to capitalize that?) and was pleased that the menu had not lied when it described the shrimp as marinated. You know sometimes they say things like that, but it just isn't true, so you get this bland boring shrimp and that's no fun.
I had the Lad Nar with shrimp for my entree. It wasn't as good as I had hoped but it wasn't revolting either. The boyfriend had the beef salad which was very nice to look at (though none of the photographs I took could possibly convince you of that fact) and a lovely experience in one's mouth. The boyfriend commented on the salad's deceptive spiciness...it was the kind that doesn't burn your tongue's taste buds but does managed to bring a sheen of sweat to your face by the time you're done.
