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.

All You Can Eat c/o Pod (With Complaints)

About two weeks ago I read about Pod's limited time 'all you can eat sushi' deal: for about a week, between the hours of 9 and 11, you could order all the sushi you would want to eat for only $25. This was the sort of deal I could get behind, especially since I had been jonesing for sushi for at least a month. I already wrote about the entirety of the experience on yelp, and I don't really feel like going into grumpy, curmudgeonly detail here, but let me just give you the highlights as succinctly as I can. We had a reservation for 9:30. We stood for 40 minutes after 9:30 before being seated. Ak is allergic to shrimp. The management could not guarantee that the sushi would be shrimp-touch free.
The sushi itself (ak's situation was resolved positively) was only okay, which is to be expected when there is a crazy deal going on, but the long wait (in spite of having reservations) and the momentary 'you can't eat what you came to eat' situation was taxing. I strongly believe we should have been comped something. Maybe our beers? Maybe one of our $25? I don't know. I won't lie, in the end I left relatively pleased with the level of sushi in my belly, but would anything about the experience really make me want to come back in the future? No, not really.

For No Reason Whatsoever

Last Free Meal c/o Tiffin

Last Tuesday marked the end of our second busy season. We were all quite pleased about this. For our last meal we ordered from Tiffin. I tried one of their specials, lamb dhankatar (or something like that), and found it to my liking. The lamb was more tender than KoT's usual lamb offerings, and the lentil/pumpkin/sour/tart thing going on with the spices was altogether pleasing.
The dragon dug on the naan.
Now that this part of the year has ended, I am going to turn back to my desire to improve my eating habits and fitness, if only by the smallest of degrees. To that end, I went grocery shopping for the first time in what feels like forever (but really is about two weeks) and bought broccoli and lettuce and other fresh green produce type things that will make me feel full without involving heavy meat or cheese. Last week I mentioned trying to cut cheese out of my diet for a month, just to see if my intake is so great that I could actually lose weight by taking the food of dairy gods out of my life...but then I ate cheese on Saturday, so we'll see how that goes. I do love cheese. And after this next round of nasty weather comes and goes (it's supposed to get all cold and snowy in the next four days) I'm going to get back to walking places a few times a week. Perhaps I'll even get up before 8:25 and walk in the morning, since I always say the reason I don't walk after work is because it is dark (which is true, I walked far more often when it was still bright outside at the end of my day). Sigh. Those are my thoughts on health and fitness; they are not, by any stretch, resolutions. Though wouldn't it be great if I could look cute, cute, cute for L.'s wedding?...not cuter than her of course:)

Free Treats c/o Percy Street Barbeque and Yelp

Last Sunday I enlisted A.S. to be my 'plus one' at a Yelp event at Percy Street Barbeque. The theme was Western, and a good majority of the attendees were properly shirted, booted or hat-ted. Numerous servers went around the space offering free beers, cocktails and portions of the restaurant's dishes. Here, for example, you can see my Victory Twilight Ale, which was only so-so, a pulled pork sandwich, and a taste of brisket. Also on offer were chicken salad sandwiches, spoonfuls of macaroni and cheese, pecan pie, rootbeer floats and some banana pudding thing that I, of course, did not try. There was also music.
A.S. dug the event wholeheartedly, which was good.
After that we went to Locust Bar and met up with A.S.'s friend K. and split a few pitchers while listening to others sing karaoke....which then led to my singing karaoke...which is silly because I can't really sing and I always choose the same song (Undone the Sweater by Weezer, dontchaknow).
One nice lady took a photograph of the three of us and complimented me on my earrings.

Hair Cut Cut

Last week I went to a new place to get my hair cut. It was successful. I like it. It is short but snazzy.
I still generally part my hair on the left, but I have experimented with the right as well (though I don't think any of these photographs, which really all show the same version of the cut, demonstrate that fact).
And here are shots I took on my computer's little built in camera thing.

Cheese, Pizza and Pajamas c/o J. & J. (and S. and N.)

Last weekend I went over to J. and J.'s for a little face time. There was a lot of cheese, and I love cheese....and hummus, who doesn't love hummus!?
Mmmmmm. Cheeeeese.

The kids were in good moods.
He-J. made pizzas. Delicious pizzas. This one, poorly flashed it's true, had corn and mushrooms and lovely, ooey, gooey cheese. The other pizza had pineapples and was quite tasty as well.
N. is seriously digging Buzz Lightyear. S. continues to dig storm troopers.
The evening waned, and S. put his sleeping gear on, complete with Eagles hat and gloves. It was quite a great ensemble, and I wanted to get a real nice picture of it...but S. was a little over the photograph taking, so these are the best I could get.

Serious stylin'.
Thanks to the whole clan for a lovely evening and dinner!

Dinner c/o Modo Mio

L. and I went to Modo Mio last week. We enjoyed ourselves so much the first time round we thought we'd just go back, instead of trying somewhere new. I appreciated the chance to go back to a restaurant, try more of their dishes, get a better feel for the food and the place. We sat pretty much in the same place, and it was low lit, but I think the new camera helped me, and my photographic exposure settings are improving.
I liked the sound of the scallop special for my first course, and they were just wonderful. Nicely seared, great taste and an orange sauce of some kind, which had a subtle sweetness.
For her pasta, L. had the special pasta of the night, a lasagna with all kinds of creamy goodness.
For my pasta course I went with something a little different: the tagliatelle with artichoke, caper, house-made pancetta and veal sweetbreads. I enjoyed it. The last time I felt like a few of the dishes were a little over salted. Saltiness was not an issue in this meal, and it could have been. Oh and the pasta itself was such a different beast than the stuff you buy in the store. I would like to learn how to make pasta. Perhaps I will.
L.'s third course was prosciutto wrapped trout fillet, broccoli rabe, marsala, plum tomato and walnuts.
I ordered the lamb meatball, fried egg, radicchio, capers and sundried cherry balsamic maionese. It was r-i-c-h, but damn good.
We each finished with a coffee.
L. had the caramel ganache dish that we loved the last time, and I tried the cheesecake with golden raisins and all sorts of crazy goodness.
Afterwards we met up with C. and F. for a beer at Wine-O.
I've been digging on this ridiculously red lipstick. I may really become a painted whore.


It was a lovely meal and evening.