Pancakes and Socks

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet a bunch of other knitters for brunch. I recently joined a social networking site for knitters called Ravelry. It gives people the opportunity to join subgroups with different interested, catalogue their projects and yarns, browse through other projects, etc. It's really quite something. For example, I have joined groups for knitters who enjoy watching the TV show House MD, knitters who like cheese, knitters who like Starbucks, knitters who are planning weddings, etc.

Another group I joined was for knitters in the Boston area. Someone posted that there would be a knitting brunch on Saturdays, so I decided to check it out. I met an amazing group of women who come from various and interesting fields and backgrounds. We ate pancakes and french toast, drank coffee, talked about knitting and life and generally had a great time.

I'm always completely astounded by the opportunities afforded to us through the internet for experiences like this. Even 10 years ago, people in large cities would have had to go to a lot more trouble to try to find groups of people with similar interests. As it is, we now have the ability to walk into a coffee shop, sit down with a group of complete strangers and laugh, exchange wedding suggestions and knitting tips, and generally act like old friends and acquaintances. Times might have changed, but there's still nothing like getting together and sharing commonalities for a few hours before spinning back into daily life.

While eating brunch, I also finished my Jaywalker socks (several of the women at brunch suggested that they might be able to take them off my hands, or thoughtfully considered sneaking them into their purses. I consider these socks a job well done!)

Pattern: Jaywalker Socks by Grumperina
Alterations: Shortened the leg and added a small picot border instead of ribbing, a la January One
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in colorway Vera

Good Food in Colorado

Between my grandparents and Aunt and Uncle, trips to Colorado are never a gustatory disappointment. I was in Colorado this past weekend, and this trip was no exception.

After flying in Thursday evening, Grandma and Grandpa and I tried our hands at making gourmet pizzas (I was especially fond of the pesto, artichoke heart and roasted pepper variety), and I got the grand tour of their elegant new house.

Friday morning, we first stopped at the Molly Brown House.
We couldn't take photos inside, but we did get an exclusive tour of the third floor after inquiring about what was up there. (Turns out it's the staff kitchen, former servant's quarters and a used-to-be-ballroom that they're not sure what to do with.)

We then stopped for lunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery on the 16th street mall. I had some tasty chicken enchiladas and some sort of local beer. Following this, we traipsed around downtown for a bit and went past the Denver Convention Center so that I could meet someone I'd been eager to meet:


We narrowly missed a drenching rainstorm, and proceeded to the Aquarium that's under relatively new ownership. A good time was had by all, though everyone declined to try the palm tree climbing challenge.

After the Aquarium, Andrew and Terri joined us for dinner (green minestrone, garlic toast, fresh veggies, and raspberries with ice cream: see what I mean about the food?) . This was nice, since the last time I'd seen them, we'd been in town for their wedding, so they were somewhat occupied. We made plans for our Saturday travels...

Saturday started with a tour of the Celestial Seasoning's facilities. This was awesome, even though the plant isn't producing anything on weekends during the summer. We got to sample several teas, see the original oil paintings of some of the tea boxes, tour the storage and production floors (including the sinus-healing mint room), and visit the giftshop.


We made a quick detour to the Leanin' Tree Southwestern Art Gallery, where we saw some incredible statues:


Then it was off to a goat farm to pet the goats and taste various cheeses.


We headed on into Boulder for lunch, where I had the largest vegetarian quesadilla known to man at the Pearl Street Mall. Then we toured an art gallery with many tempting wares that I resisted, and a gourmet cooking shop (Peppercorn's) that I was not able to resist as easily. Eventually we headed home for the evening, where we had leftover delicious pizza and went out for ice cream.

Sunday morning, I went to church with Grandma and Grandpa. I got to meet a lot of people who knew Mom when she was growing up (they threatened to tell embarrassing stories!), including the lady who taught mom to make the cinnamon rolls she still makes every Easter. Then we headed out to see bits of Red Rocks, and hiked halfway up to the visitor's center. The view from there was plenty for me, not being used to the altitude and that many stairs!


A highlight of every trip is always a meal cooked by Terri. Below is the photo I took of Sunday's brunch to make Matt jealous. You'll see a zucchini muffin with walnuts, raisins and lemon glaze; a roasted tomato with fresh goat cheese; a pork sausage glazed in apricot-habanero jelly; an egg souffle-puff thing(?) with peppers; and melon salad with mint and lemon. Delicious!

After lunch, we made a quick stop at a local farmer's market where I was able to pick up a couple jars of the habanero jelly to give Matt to make up for sending him gloating food photos all weekend, and I was off to the airport for my trip back to Boston. (The delicious food did not stop there, as Midwest Airlines bakes and serves fresh cookies mid-flight!)

This has been a sampling, but you can see all the photos I took at my Colorado 2007 Photo Album.

All in all, it was a busy weekend but loads of fun. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, Terri and Andrew for the great weekend!

In Support of Coffee

We were in New York again this past weekend, and packed it full of activities as usual.

Saturday we attended a Bar Mitzvah for a family friend of Matt's. It was interesting to attend temple and look at a service from a new perspective. I found overall that it really wasn't all that different from church services I've been to in the past. A little more difficult to follow along, since many parts weren't in English, but not really any more so than Catholic Mass.

In the evening, we were at the Weird Al concert at the Westbury Music Fair (which apparently goes by more different names now than I can keep track of). I really have no idea why it had never occurred to me to go to a Weird Al concert before, because really, it was even better than I had hoped. The music was great, Matt's mom got a chance to kiss Weird Al, he swooned in her lap, Al performed Albuquerque (much to everyone's surprise!), and a great time was had by all.

On Sunday we trekked into Brooklyn (Park Slope) to see Darnisa's brand new apartment, have brunch with friends, and generally take in the sites. We (and by "we", I mean "I") were impressed to find a 2-story Target with a special escalator built for carts (I swear, Matt's going to stop taking me out in public if I keep acting as if I've never been out of the countryside when we find things like that). Darnisa's apartment is really great for a first apartment...and I can't wait to see it with furniture.

We met for brunch at Beast in hopes of having a meal full of mythical creature, but found that the wait was over an hour. We decided to backtrack a bit and go to the place that had been advertising granola crusted french toast with nutella creme instead. Good choice. At Melt I had a pomegranate mimosa, the aforementioned french toast (that came with a huge fruit salad as well), and a side of home fries because, really, who can resist a good fried potato? All of the food was delicious, and we were astounded by the prices.

As we were finishing brunch, it became apparent that the restaurant was being cleared for a surprise party, so we enjoyed watching friends and family congregate and bustle around excitedly. We happened to be standing outside chatting when the guest of honor arrived, but I think his toddler son was more surprised than he was...as the child burst into tears and had to be consoled down the block before he would look at anyone in the party again.

After brunch, we strolled around Park Slope and visited some of the shops along the way. We stopped in at a ritzy pet shop and considered getting Tabi rhinestone leash harnesses, giant catnip mice, and gourmet fresh baked cat treats. We passed on all of these. We did not, however, pass on the human treats we found across the street at The Chocolate Room. We didn't get one of EVERY chocolate (quite), but we made a fair attempt. So far, my favorite has been the Hannah - Soft caramel in dark chocolate drizzled with milk chocolate & sea salt. Salt and caramel in chocolate is genius.

After that, we reasoned that Darnisa didn't actually have anything to sit on in her apartment, so we opted to stop and sip coffees at Gorilla Coffee for awhile rather than prop ourselves awkwardly around her apartment. I always feel pressured when I meet up with friends that I don't see frequently, to try to have MEANINGFUL conversation and make every second COUNT. Sitting in Gorilla Coffee, it occurred to me that the meaning isn't all that important. Sharing a cup of coffee, lingering over conversations about nothing, enjoying company...these are all important parts of friendship.

Those moments do count, for a lot. They don't have to be earth shattering, you don't have to solve world peace or even figure out once and for all what that guy is really thinking. It's enough to sit, and share, and be. And so we did. We talked, and laughed, and relaxed knowing that despite the distance, despite the time between visits, we were among friends...and as much as I miss my scattered friends, I know that we're all where we're supposed to be, doing what we're supposed to be doing, and we'll still support each other along the way through a phone call here, a quick cup of coffee there.

Nor'easter With Chocolate

February 13th, plows began ominously circling the city. I noticed them in the morning when I left for work. I noticed them in the evening when I came home. Circling...hopefully. We hadn't really had much snow this year, and there was finally some in the forecast, so the plow people were eagerly anticipating the first job of the year. It was supposed to start snowing late at night on the 13th, and then snow progressively more for the next day or so. Why do I remember the date? Because February 14th was Valentine's day, and we had plans.

Back in January, Matt and I had made reservations for the special Valentine dessert dinner at Finale to make sure we'd actually be able to get reservations. It would be really convenient; Harvard Square is practically right in the middle between our two offices, so it would be a cakewalk to get into Harvard Square for dinner, and we wouldn't have to wait forever because we had reservations.

So February 13th rolled around, and I looked at the weather report. Snow and mixed precipitation, all day on the 14th, particularly in the evening. Since it hadn't snowed at all yet this year, I really had no idea how to drive in such weather, so I decided to just take the train to work that day and save myself the headache of worrying about driving home after dinner in the storm.

Tuesday morning rolled around, and things were looking quite a bit nastier than I'd imagined. However, I had dinner reservations I certainly didn't want to miss, so I hiked out to the train wearing reasonably nice clothes for dinner with big clunky snow boots, and was off to work. Sometimes fashion sacrifices must be made in the face of inclement weather. At least my snow boots are a festive pink.

I should have suspected something when over 2/3 of my office had decided to stay home rather than risk the drive home that evening. I sat in my office and watched the snow get heavier as the day wore on. I heard crazy stories of flower delivery companies going to lengths to get deliveries where they were supposed to be on time for Valentine's day.

These showed up in my office about an hour before I needed to leave to make it to Harvard Square for dinner, and only mildly the worse for wear. I felt pretty bad for the delivery person who had to venture out in that weather to make sure the flower company met their guaranteed delivery date...I sort of wished I'd known or had a way to tell them I wouldn't mind if they were a day late!


They're very pretty in person; my photos don't really do them justice.

Unfortunately, I didn't have anything even vaguely vase-like at work, so I determined that they were just going to have to go to dinner with me. After their already-hard day, I didn't want to make them sit overnight in a box in my office.

I set off early from work (since nobody had come into the office anyway) because I figured that the buses to Harvard would be slow due to the weather. I walked out the door, and stopped dead in my tracks when I encountered every single bus that runs the line I needed....stopped dead in front of my office. Apparently the ice on the power lines was making it impossible for these trackless trollies to run.

Having no choice, I joined the crowd of people on the bus stop, called Matt to let him know there was a delay, and prayed. After about half an hour, a single bus crept up to the stop, and we piled as many people as possible onto it. While standing, packed in like a sardine, I looked down and noticed that the box of flowers was carefully cradled in the crook of my arm...upside down. Oops. No helping it, I shrugged and hoped they didn't mind too much.

Once I finally made it to Harvard Square, meeting up with Matt was trivial and we made our way to Finale for a lovely multi-course meal of:

Sorbet Trio
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
Chocolate Paradise
Cookies and Milk
A box of Valentine chocolates to take home (thank goodness; we were stuffed!)



Unfortunately, since we'd decided to take the train into town, that meant that we had an hour to kill after we'd eaten dinner before we could go home. Normally, this would be fine and we'd walk around Harvard Square and poke into a few shops. Normally, when there wasn't a giant Nor'easter howling its way down the streets.

Somewhere along the way, Matt had found some colossal puddles, and his shoes really appeared to be in a bad state. He muttered something along the lines of, "What I would pay for a dry pair of shoes about now..." when suddenly through the snow we saw a sign: Huge Winter Boot Clearance!

Well. Since we had to kill time ANYWAY, it made sense to go in and poke around. If we could find a decent pair of dry shoes at the right price, it might just be worth it to buy shoes to wear home...Matt's were that wet. We looked around the shop a little, but most of the stuff was pretty expensive even on sale. Matt started eying a pair of rain boots with pink pugs printed all over them, and I momentarily considered that if his feet had been a few sizes smaller, I probably could have gained a new pair of rain boots out of the adventure. Sadly, his feet are much bigger than mine, so we walked off an went in search of another store.

Eventually, we found ourselves in the basement of Urban Outfitters where I was contemplating whether they had any gloves (I had forgotten mine; we were quite the pair that evening) and Matt announced that he had found dry water repellent shoes for $10, which seemed a bargain to someone with soaking wet feet in a snow storm. I glanced over to see Matt holding a pair of hideously ugly, vinyl women's ankle boots in a rather large size. Oh my. I might have stifled a giggle, and forbade him from ever wearing them again once we had gotten home to dry shoes.

Turns out to be a rather good thing that Matt found dry shoes, because there was still a lot of walking to do before we made our way home. We caught the train on schedule, but it turns out that in Waltham the snow had been heavier, and there was a good 10" of snow and ice on the sidewalks that we needed to wade through to get home.

Eventually we, the chocolates, the flowers, and several pairs of shoes made it home safely. However, much of the Boston area stayed under a thick sheet of ice for over a week, making transportation difficult. We congratulated ourselves on our great fortitude, and declared that we had fully earned our feast earlier in the evening, as well as the box of chocolates that we brought home.

January, in quick review

Perhaps this quick rundown will help you to forgive me for the lack of recent posts. You'll notice that the last week of this calendar is still blank. I'll update it as we go through those days. :)

1: Matt flies in from Prague at a late hour, New Year's Party hosted by friends
2: work
3: work
4: work, Indian food for dinner with friends
5: drop Matt at airport for trip to CA, work, game night with friends
6: sleep
7: run errands

8: work, Sheila returns from Holiday Break, bringing her large marshmallowy cat, Lucky, with her. A minor War of the Cats is waged in the apartment as Lucky and Tabi debate who is Top Cat.

9: work
10: work
11: work

12: work, pick Matt up from airport (get majorly lost in Winthrop, MA after a wrong turn at the airport. GPS wants me to drive through the harbor to get back from airport, evening is saved by my brilliant navigational skills and cursing at the GPS like a sailor)

13: My office holiday party, at F1 Boston, in which we learn that I am quite terrible at driving race cars, Matt takes second place in our heat, one of my office friends places 3rd overall in the company, and we have an enjoyable dinner with coworkers.

14: sleep
15: MLK Day - everyone I know has this off except for me, so I go to work.

16: First day of classes for Sheila and I, Matt starts his new job in Boston. We all go out to Margarita's to celebrate making it through the day. Classes to be elaborated on shortly. After class on Tuesdays, I go to work. My new computer is delivered!

17: work, met Matt and Jon for ice cream to celebrate that Lizzy's is now open again.

18: work, Matt and I go with some friends to hear Howard Zinn talk about his new book and the state of the country. This is both depressing and empowering at the same time. I resolve to donate a sum of money to the Democracy for America campaign founded by Howard Dean in order to put some support behind my talk.

19: Classes - four of them. Sheila has her first round of qualifying exams, and aces them. Followed by picking mom up from the airport. She and I have a nice drive back to my apartment, where we talked to the cats, had a cheese and crackers dinner, knit on some socks, and were eventually joined by a handful of friends for desserts and chatting. Mom and Matt and I sit up long into the night making plans for Saturday. A lot of things in New England inconveniently close for the winter.

20: Mom, Matt and I tour local museums. First, Larz Anderson Auto Museum. Next, Museum of Bad Art and greek food for lunch in Dedham. Finally, the DeCordova Museum (modern art and sculpture garden, but it was too cold for the sculpture garden this time). All museums were fantastic, but I've decided that the DeCordova Museum is one of my favorites, particularly among art museums. Can't wait for it to get a little warmer so we can go back and see the sculptures. After this, Matt and I made dinner at his house (spicy black bean cakes; Matt was in charge, I was just there to chop things), we ate leisurely and chatted, I was introduced to port (which I liked once the raisiny flavor was pointed out so I could place the strange taste), we introduced mom to mochi ice cream, and we watched several episodes of Scrubs.

21: Mom and I went to Trader Joe's in the morning, for the experience. Bought way too much good food. After that, we drove to Alewife, parked next to Matt's car in the parking garage because it's so easily recognisable, headed into Harvard Square where we did some shopping, mild sight seeing, had coffee at Peet's, did some more shopping, had a light dinner, met Matt for dessert at Finale (Matt and I selected the Hot Chocolate Flight, mom had an Armadillo, and we split a creme brulee, a "seasonal sampler" and another dessert I don't remember), and then stopped off at his place to watch the end of the Patriot's game (they lost).

22: Dropped mom off at the airport, got slightly lost (the GPS redeemed itself by getting me to work in one piece), work. Lucky and Tabi seem to have resolved their differences (and you don't get much different than Tabi and Lucky without being different species!). I resolve to restructure my life so that I have more time for people and things that I like, rather than wasting time as much as I usually do. Begin slow transition to the "Getting Things Done" lifestyle, and commit myself to working with more focus when I work so that when I'm not working, I can completely take my mind off work.

23: Third day of class. This semester I'm taking Computer Mediated Group Work, a small self-guided class I'm putting together with a professor based on classical readings in computer science (we started with Alan Turing's Computing Machinery and Intelligence), and independent study based loosely on continuing my thesis research, and a Machine Learning class. Followed by work.

24: work; in the evening, Sheila and I get the brilliant idea to make cookie dough just to eat. Make a large batch, leave out the eggs since we're not baking it anyway, and have a lovely evening of watching Law and Order and eating cookie dough.

25: Leftover cookie dough for breakfast because, hey, I can. Wouldn't want it every morning, but once in awhile it's good to live on the edge.

26: classes, catching an evening train to New York. Train was running a little late, so we got into Long Island at a pretty late hour. The train was fun, though. I managed to read a paper for class and knit a bunch on my sock.

27: Went to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island with Matt and parents. The aquarium was pretty fun; lots of cute fish and several enormous walruses (walrai?), plus an intelligent octopus and a game in which you try to guide your jellyfish colony to greatness (it turns out that I'm really bad at being a jellyfish). After the aquarium, we stopped off for pizza at Totonnos, since it had ranked in the New York Time's Time Out New York's top 10 pizza places in NY (according to their website, "Only God Makes Better Pizza"). I highly recommend the garlic pizza. Tried beer from the Brooklyn Brewery because it seemed the thing to do. Turns out that it's pretty good as well. In the evening, we went to see Matt's brother as Geronte in Scapino, (formerly known as "Les Fourberies de Scapin"). The show was great, and we all enjoyed watching Matt's brother being stuffed in a sack and beaten with a sausage. Later in the evening, Matt and I had a brief video conference with Dad, in which we mainly made faces at each other and tried to figure out how to make the TX based wireless connection not die.

28: Be forewarned: I am probably going to murder the following account of our foray into The City with touristy observations and language. I'm not apologetic. Met several friends for brunch in what I was told was the Hell's Kitchen area of NY (I'm really at a loss when it comes to this socio-geographic stuff). Ate at HK (they don't seem to have a website, so the best I can do is this review that happens to have a photo). I had french toast made with french bread and what we believe to be cardamom and cloves, which turned out to be pretty tasty if a little strange, alongside a vanilla honey latte. If I did it again, I would stir said latte well...I wondered the whole time why it wasn't tasting like honey and then found all the honey in the bottom of the glass. After we finished, we stopped by Burgers & Cupcakes, mostly because we couldn't resist walking into a place with that name. Ended up taking a box of 1/2 dozen cupcakes home with us because we really couldn't decide (2 marble cake w/chocolate frosting, 1 chocolate w/buttercream frosting, 1 vanilla w/buttercream frosting, 1 chocolate w/peanut butter frosting, 1 vanilla with pink/white swirled frosting and a heart candy on the top). Caught the train home, where I finished my sock, showed Matt how to wind a ball of yarn from a skein (I'm not sure why this was so interesting), started sock #2, read Real Simple's February issue cover-to-cover, and sampled the (very tasty) cupcakes.

29: work, made pesto with a side of cubed drunken goat cheese and cherry tomatoes for dinner. (Pesto with peppermint and cayenne pepper added is actually pretty good). Read a paper for class, cleaned the kitchen, and talked to several friends I've been too busy to speak with all month.

30: Six months ago today, I met "that guy Matt, from my cosi class" in Cambridge to check out the MIT museum 'cause it was summer, and we were bored. :) The museum turned into walking around Cambridge, turned into looking for somewhere to have dinner, turned into grabbing ice cream, turned into watching a movie, turned into "What are you doing this weekend?"...and there you have it.

31:

Happy Post-Thanksgiving

Bars of Boston

A couple weekends ago, Matthew and Helen and I went out to taste test the drinks at a few bars in Boston. A reasonably good time was had by all, and we've got the photographic evidence to prove it. Helen had control over the camera that night, so there are more photo-sightings of me than usual...next time I'M taking the camera. (captions attributed where necessary)

First, we had to prove that we were 21. The secret sign is a black X...shhhhh...


Yeah, so we look like deer caught in the headlights. Additionally, I appear to be....really excited about something.


Fortunately, I managed to contain myself for a photo with Helen.

We tried to take a group photo, but it turns out that none of us have long enough arms to really fit everyone in without a fisheye effect. We also learned that Matthew makes the "Oh, someone's taking my photo!" goofy face even when he's the one taking the picture. What's up with that, you might ask? Don't worry, we remedied that situation a little later...

"I am quite disappointed that Popeye is drinking a pomegranate margarita. I feel like he should have something slightly more manly when he isn't maiming Bluto like... a mint julep perhaps. Those are all the rage for sailors." ~ Darnisa


Matthew became confused about how his phone worked...but my verbal instructions didn't seem to help much.


So like any good teacher, I decided to try a more "hands-on" approach.
Note, also, the great show of Brandeis Pride in watches and class rings. We love Brandeis.

"Why yes, dear, we should have the Sappersteins for supper! Chuck can't stop raving about your meatloaf." ~ Matthew

Helen joins us in our idyllic sitcom world as the cocktail-drinking housewife.


I am overcome by drink (or, at least, a serious case of the giggles). Matthew loses his head.


Voiceover: "So as you can see, the Nova Development Micro-Resort is far more revolutionary than your grandfather's time-share; this amazing investment opportunity gives you not only the freedom to enjoy life, but the ability to seize that freedom!" ~Matthew

Cinco de Mayo

My roommates and I decided to have a Cinco de Mayo party. Well, rather, a Cinco de Mayo party had us. We had decided to have a party last Friday because it would be the last weekend before graduation during which we'd all be around at the same time, so we wanted to celebrate. Instantly and accidentally, as usually happens, brilliance struck when I just happened to remember by chance that Friday would also be Cinco de Mayo. Suddenly, a party theme was born.

An invitation was sent. Drinks and snacks were bought as we deliberated over the details. One roommate wanted to try a mixed drink, but doesn't like carbonation or the taste of alcohol. What to make? Anywhere between 10 and 40 people could show up. What snacks? Slowly, plans began to come together.

In the end, roughly 20 people crammed themselves into our living room (and if you've seen it, you know that's a feat unto itself). After a few delightful moments talking to one of my closest friends who beat the crowd by a bit, crowds of smiling people began knocking at the door. The room filled with the sounds of virtual mariachi from my iPod and the chatter of a roomful of people who are enjoying themselves to the fullest. Occasionally the blender roared to life, grinding out a round of margaritas.

Velveeta queso continued to be a crowd pleaser, even with the New England crowd I was serving, most of whom had never even heard of queso. The drink of the night turned out to be Tequila Sunrise (tequila and orange juice are poured over ice, then a shot of grenedine is poured down the inside edge of the glass so that it sinks to the bottom. The drink is served with this layered look, and the grenedine slowly filters up through the glass, making a sunrise effect. I was astounded that it worked just as the directions claimed, and the friend who doesn't like the taste of alcohol was suitably impressed by the drink. Victory on two fronts.).

Somehow, throughout the course of the semester, I've earned the reputation as a great bartender. I'm not sure how this came about, it's not like it's something I do often. I know how to make maybe 3 drinks. And yet people come to me continuously asking for drink suggestions. I consider telling them that anyone can splash a few things in a glass or pull a malt beverage out of the fridge, but I enjoy the process even if I don't know what I'm doing. Bartending gives me a few private moments with the guest at hand.

Usually I have no idea what "real" drinks might entail, so I get a rough idea of what my subject wants and make it up as I go along. "What do you like to drink? Do you like sweet drinks, or drinks with some zing to them? Hmmmm, I see. Do you like cranberries? No? Ok, chocolate? Right, I have an idea." I look the bar over and consider my options. Once I have my inspiration, I return my attention to the guest while I mix. "How has life been treating you? I haven't seen you for months! How did your bio class turn out?" It's an age old ritual, but one I'm happy to take part in. The drink is finished. I hand it to the guest, sneak another handful of chex mix from the table and head back into the fray until the next person comes looking for a suggestion...

Everyone appeared to have a marvelous time, and the hosts went to bed tired and pleased by the accomplishments of the evening. Yes, it turns out that even Physics and Computer Science majors know how to throw a good party.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, I'll see you later in the week!

(I moonlight as a vampire)

Communiversity

Brandeis has an activity every spring called Communiversity. Or, rather, not every spring. It was started in the early 1980's, and lapsed for awhile and was brought back last year or the year before.

In communiversity, anyone who is interested can sign up to teach a class on the topic of their choice. The classes are usually short, meeting between 1 and 3 times for an hour or two in the evenings. They run all kinds of different subjects, and are taught by everyone from students to Brandeis staff members to professors.

This year I signed up for three classes. The first on was Turkish Coffee and Fortune Telling. We learned all of the secrets for making and drinking Turkish coffee, including a lot of the folklore and old wives tales. Then we learned how to drink it in an acceptable manner, and finally we learned the basics of reading our fortunes in our coffee grounds. The class was a lot of fun, and I am always looking for more excuses to go out and drink coffee!

The next class I took was Vegan Cooking, and it met twice. During the classes we talked a lot about what it means to be vegan, what kinds of substitutions are necessary to make vegan food turn out right in the absence of eggs and butter, and the types of dietary necessities that must be met when meats and dairy are cut out of your diet. Meanwhile we learned how to make several delicious vegan dishes mostly by watching because the university doesn't have a very hands-on friendly cooking environment. The first week we made an amazing lentil and potato curry dish and chocolate chip cookies, and the second week we made a sweet potato and lentil soup and chocolate cake. All of the items were extremely good, but I must say that I think I'll stick with non-vegan baked goods and take my vegan food in the form of wonderful soups and stews.

Finally, I took a class on basic chain mail. I taught myself mailing several years ago, so I wasn't expecting to really learn much from the class, but it seemed like a good opportunity to meet some people with similar interests. The class was fun, and the instructor was a nice woman who works in our dining services department in some form or fashion.

Overall, I was thrilled with the opportunity to get out and meet some new people and try some new things (and avoid doing homework!). We got a good laugh at most of the classes because almost all of the people in attendance were seniors. Everyone commented that they figured that they should get out and do some fun things on campus before they graduated and began to regret doing nothing but sitting at home studying!

Everyone's Favorite Vegan

I tell people I've known Chetan for, like, 8 years. It's not true, of course. it didn't occur to either of us that we hadn't known each other forever until recently. But it seems like it's been that long! The truth of the matter is, I've known Chetan for something like 5 1/2 years. And for the 4th year running, tomorrow I'll be having a most excellent Thanksgiving dinner with Chetan's family, including their giant dog Simba.

I met Chetan at debate camp. He was teaching at the UT debate camp my sophomore year in high school. The cool thing about debate camps is that most of the "teachers" are really college students, and you end up with a bunch of them as friends. Chetan, and his classmate Kate, were the ones who talked me into applying to Brandeis because they were both students here at the time. By the time I got here, Chetan had graduated, but was going to BC Law, so we went out for coffee regularly. He indirectly introduced me to Mark, because he introduced me to the Brandeis debaters who were Mark's housemates at the time, and went with me to their Halloween party where I met Mark. Obviously, we go way back (even if it wasn't 8 years back!).

People are always confused by my Thanksgiving traditions. At first, they want to know if I'm going home for Thanksgiving. When I explain that going home would mean spending more of the weekend on a plane than off, they always look slightly concerned and say, "Oh...do you have somewhere to go?" Well...it's not exactly like I'd be spending Thanksgiving on a grate in the subway, but I appreciate that most of the people I know seem ready to set a place for me at their table if I don't have somewhere to eat turkey and cranberry dressing. The next conclusion people invariably draw is, "Oh! Are you going to have Thanksgiving with Mark's family instead?" Well, no, not that either. People are mystefied when they find out that not only am I not going to the boyfriend's family's for Thanksgiving, it is because I am going to Thanksgiving with...another man.

Chetan's family was kind enough to invite me to Thanksgiving dinner freshman year when I really DIDN'T have a place to go. The infamous Jenn Orlin and I made pumpkin pies that had....issues. They were suspiciously flat. And burned. Not my best culinary achievement to date. Luckily, Chetan's family took it in stride and everyone enjoyed "Pumpkin Pie With Issues." I must have behaved well, because they still invite me back. I kind of see them as adopted aunts, uncles, cousins by this point. Chetan and I are busy, so we don't have coffee nearly as often as we used to, but I wouldn't miss Thanksgiving dinner (with and without issues) for the world! So every year, Mark and I make pies. He takes one home to Thanksgiving, and I take one to Chetan's. It seems like a reasonable compromise. This year I'm making pecan. Hopefully without issues!

Guests

Well, I had all these great plans of taking lots of photos while I had company this weekend, and unveiling the secret identities of my lovely and inspiring visitors by posting photos. Except, we had too much fun and forgot to take ANY pictures of ourselves. Oops.

This past weekend my mom flew in from Austin, TX and HER mom flew in from Denver, CO so that we could have a girls weekend in Boston. It was a lot of fun to be the person doing the hosting rather than the visiting!

Friday night my suite hosted a potluck dinner in honor of fall and matriarchal relatives. There was SO MUCH FOOD. I think everyone had a great time (that's what they tell me anyway!). I made crock pot apple cider and roasted rosemary potatoes. There was enough other food that we had to pull out an extra table! Eventually mom and grandma left to find their hotel, and we pulled out my new favorite game: Robo Ralley.

Saturday we had planned on doing some leaf peeping and sight seeing in the suburbs (isn't it cool to live in a place where the suburbs are cool places like Salem?). Unfortunately, it POURED all day. If you've been watching the news, you might have seen that substantial parts of Massachusetts are under water. Instead, we ended up running a lot of errands. In the evening, we went to dinner with Mark and had drinks at his place afterwards, during which we were all charmed by his furry companion:


On Sunday, we had a divine brunch at the Boston Museum of Science, of all places. They have a dining room tucked away on the 6th floor of the museum, and the view is gorgeous. The food is pretty darn good, too. (You can always click an image for a larger view.)
Please ignore the bacon on my dessert plate. I have a weakness for charred and crunchy bacon strips...

After that we took a walking and subway tour of some of Boston, and had a snack at Finale. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it!

Since grandma's flight left much earlier than mom's on Monday, I rode along to the airport with them to drop grandma off and we had a long lunch at one of the airport cafes.

It was great to see them both and catch up. I think they should come visit more often! For now, I am back to the busy life of a college student. I have an operating systems exam on Friday!