Superbowl

I went to my neighbors' house for the superbowl. It was nice and low key, tasty endive/cheese treats and a turkey chili.
I'm glad for the Saints, but I was a little sad for the dwindling genius of Peyton Manning.

Snow at Night

On Tuesday I went on over to Ak's to watch Lost, which wasn't quite as annoying as the opening episode. It had already started to snow when I arrived and by the time the show was over there was no doubt that we were going to get a lot of snow over the night.
Taking photographs of snow is like taking photographs of fireworks: you take a million when you could have only taken five. You'll see. This isn't all you will get in the snow category.
Right now I'm up relatively early for a late night, and I want to go dig my car out of the snow...except that the shovel, which usually resides in our foyer, is missing! Sigh.

Painted Whore for the Roxxy

So, if things go according to plan, I may be headed out to see La Roux this evening...at the weirdest, most un-like me of venues. I have put on make up and am showing a bit of cleavage, but I am pretty certain I will not be blending in with the scantily clad teenagers and early twentysomethings. I hope that I will, at the very least, not be confused for anyone's mother.

Inauspicious

That luge video makes me sad.

Art and High School, Together Again, Kind Of

After lunch we caught a cab to go see Mr. Ass's artwork, which was, of course, quite good and out of my price range. In addition to seeing what he's been up to artistically, the opening also caused a relatively large number of people from my high school (like, 10 people maybe?) to be in the same place at the same time. A testament to Mr. Ass's friendship, I think.
Oh yes, and there were snacks. The little girl to the left kept playing with the sharp knife and I worried that she was going to chop the tip of one of her fingers off. This fear was well founded; she was chopping little pieces of cheese right next to her hand!
I insisted on a class of '99 photo op (minus one, I think), which you can see below. The person, J., minding the camera had a little trouble operating it, and I am going to blame my double chin on my being caught unprepared for the actual photograph to be taken. Though everyone else looks just fine, so, you know, whatever. I hadn't seen C. since she left for Afghanistan back in, hmmm, August? It was good to see her safe and home. And L. I hadn't seen since our reunion last May.

Ice and Cheeseburger

Ice on the porch, from the last snow. You know, the one that happened this past Saturday, not the snow going on right now. Oh snow, you are so totally water frozen. I recently learned that if you're stuck in a blizzard/in any circumstance where snow is abundant, you shouldn't eat the snow to hydrate....you should find a way to melt the snow before you ingest it. Keep that in mind folks. Keep that in mind.
On Sunday I met up with C., M. and J. for lunch at McCrossen's. I felt very strongly about my desire for a cheeseburger, and satisfied this feeling admirably. Their garlic aioli was a little bit of a let down, as it basically was just mayonnaise (and I love me some mayo, but I was looking for a little garlic kick).
C.'s wings also looked pretty tasty. Perhaps I will return at a later time. Perhaps I just will.

Tofu and Dumplings c/o Golden Chopsticks

So, as I said in an earlier post, the roommate and I ordered Chinese food from Golden Chopsticks on Saturday and walked on over to pick it up. The snow was letting up, but still in falling mode. No photographic proof due to snow/camera fears, but it seems I'll be getting another chance to risk it. I ordered Schezuan tofu and steamed meat dumplings...and wonton soup. We met up with A.S. at the restaurant and then we all tromped home. Best part? The basically abandoned and snow laden streets.
The tofu was decent. I expected a little more spice, but Golden Chopsticks just isn't the place to go for a kick. The soup grew on me, but I need to remember that I don't like it from this establishment enough to let it grow on me again.
The leftovers became meals for other days.

Death of the Futon (sung to the tune of Death to the Party)

So at some point in the last few months, the futon done died for good. Maybe, if I were a carpenter, it could be saved, but I think it goes without saying that I am not a carpenter of any kind...though I did take shop in sixth grade and make a wooden boat that managed to float. Now it's just a matter of getting the dead thing out of the living room. We don't really use the living room; it's taken up with S.'s large dining room table up against one wall and the sofa against the other (there are four walls, of course, but the other two are besides the point in this pointless recounting of facts). Zul doesn't consider the futon broken. He logs many hours on it each day. He has made the afghan I made, lo so many years ago, rife with cat hair (can a blanket be rife with something?), but what can you do? Take better care of your belongings? What? Shhh.

Growwwwwl cat....minus the growl.

Porch Snow

So it began snowing Friday evening and kept on snowing until around noon on Saturday. I had really good intentions for going out and taking all sorts of craaaaazy pictures of the snow, but when I did venture out it was still actively snowing and I worried about getting the new camera wet, so I never took it out. The best I can do is these two shots of the epic snow drift that threatened to make getting onto the deck entirely impassable. Impossible too. Except not quite. We managed.
Still, very tall.

I Used To Live Here

So even though I haven't acutally lived in Silver Spring for years, I still keep up with this Silver Spring photo blog because (less so now, moreso in the past) I would often come across images of places/businesses that were immediately relevant to my own memory/childhood nostalgia. I am pretty sure that this picture is of the road my house was on...in fact, I think the house is just around that bend in the road, though the snow makes me wonder if I'm going crazy. Nonetheless pretty.

Snow Gear, Ish

Yesterday the roommate and I put on our winter warm clothes, ordered Chinese food and then went to pick it up. The proof of the food will be a later post, but this is a taste of my winter style. To me, this look is quite reminiscent of what all the cool girls in high school looked like most of the time. Finally, I, too, can be a cool girl. In full winter mode I had my balaclava (seen below as a head wrap type thing), a hat scarf, gloves and my trusty sunglasses to keep snow from either blinding me with its brightness, or blinding me by flying directly into my eyeballs.


This may be my new look. All the time.

Reasons I Love Friday Night Lights

So, I haven't really written about books read or movies viewed as of late. At this point it's difficult to even think about doing a roundup, as I have been logging a lot of quality time watching things (I am currently reading the Secret Garden as well). But I did want to check in and just touch on a few things I love about Friday Night Lights (FriNiLi). First, there is the character of Tim Riggins. So dreamy. So troubled.
Also, in the latest season there have been, in two separate episodes, shout outs to the Heartless Bastards (Matt and Julie go see them in one episode, and one of their latest songs is featured in the most recent episode), which is pretty great because I like their sound, man.
Also? Wallace from The Wire is on the show, and while I kind of wish his story line wasn't so typical, it's neat to see the actor all growned up.

Also? It is snowing and snowing and snowing here. Lots of snow. Our deck has accumulated quite the pile, at least a foot and a half with our own snow drifts. What to do with such a snowy day. What to do. What to do.

People Make Things and Put Them on Display

Mr. Ass is having a show in Philadelphia. You should go.

Pork Shoulder

So, with the busy season behind us, my colleagues and I have all had to make a concerted effort to remember how to feed ourselves. This begun, in earnest, for me when I brined that chicken, and continued last Sunday when I cooked a pork shoulder. Behold! The pork shoulder!
Made a sauce of tomato, garlic, chipotle, brown sugar and cider vinegar...and a few other things, then smothered the shoulder in the sauce and cooked, along with mushrooms and carrots, for a long, long time....resulting in tasty, moist porrrrrrrrrk.
Now I need to decide what is on my eating agenda for this week. Probably would make sense to figure that out and take care of it before the epic blizzard but, well, we'll see.

Happy Hour and Darts in Center City

After we wrung every last drop of strategic professionalism out of ourselves, the majority of us went to Slainte for a company-sponsored happy hour. We ordered pitchers of Miller Lite and a few appetizers (or at least the table at which I was sitting did, I don't know what the second table did, they were a worrrrrld away).
These were 'Awesome Fries,' I had a few, they were pretty good...seemed like they had been fried twice.
There was talking and laughing and smiling. I am pretty sure these two are smiling because I decided to flip my earrings up over my ears and pretend that I was a crazy person. But, hey, what can you do...I. Am. A. Hoot. Chicken tenders and a hummus platter were also ordered, I tried one of the tenders and it was perfectly acceptable. I nibbled on a few olives from the hummus plate but didn't actually try the featured hummus.
Afterwards C., J., M. and I went to Good Dog where we met up with R. and played darts while drinking beer. C. and I were on a team, and we did not win, but we competed admirably for a while.
J. and M. went on their ways home while I went along with C. and R. and R.'s friends to Mission Grill for one final drink before going home. This is me and C. in the back of a taxi cab, there are two other people in the back as well. It was a cold night. Earlier, when I walked to the Cira Center from my house, my balaclava came in handy, otherwise I think my face would have fallen off and into the gutter, where rabid pigeons and rat kings would...ugh nevermind what they might, or might not, do.
Here are three photos of C. and R. that I thought were cute.

Retreat c/o the Cira Center

Last Friday my company had its annual retreat. It was an all day affair at the Cira Center. There were a number of options for a pre-meeting breakfast. I had half a bagel with cream cheese. I also tried a strange egg/bread/bacon disk thing that, at first, I did not like but, with a secondary taste, grew on me and my palate (not literally of course, that would be odd).

I thoroughly enjoyed the grapefruit juice, and I even had coffee. I liked the sizes of their mugs.
For lunch I had a turkey club sandwich with an arugula (maybe spinach?) salad and these surprisingly great chips. The blondie was disappointing.
This was our view from the common area.

Pizza and Brutus the Dog Puppy

I should write a poem about this pizza.
Brutus has grown a bit, but C. I and I spoke about how he seems to be plateauing in overall size.

Brined and Roasted Chicken

Last weekend I finally got myself together enough to try my hand at brining a chicken. I followed the advice of Mr. Ass's mother and Cook's Illustrated. Because it was my first time, I thought it best to abstain from any experimentation in flavor/liquids, and just try the straight up salt/sugar/water formula. I would say that the resulting roasted chicken was definitely more moist and flavorful than some I have made of late, and I didn't use a helluva lot of butter, which I often do when making my cilantro butter roasted chicken. Delicious. I then made stock and a garlic/chipotle carrot chicken noodle soup, which became a few lunches and dinners throughout the rest of the week.

Doodley Doo

When I am at home, I spend a lot of time at my desk. I frequently watch television shows on my computer. I often doodle as well. Here I tried to stick to an object vampire motif.
Months ago I drew this.

Ink, Wings and Beer

Last Friday a bunch of us office gals went to Urban Saloon for happy hour. I tried a German beer. Then we went to Rembrandt's where I realized that the pen in my coat pocket exploded, leaving some of the tips of my fingers rather sticky. I have washed my hands countless times since then, but the ink on my pointer finder (index finger?) glommed onto my nail polish and has not let go.
We finished our evening at the Belgian Cafe. I tried the seitan wings. They had more texture and crispiness than I expected. Not spicy. You didn't have to deal with bones or gristle, which was nice.