dino tat in the hospital

Last Saturday was my first day living and actually hanging out in Charlottesville. Sporting a sweet temporary tattoo of a red stegosaurus, Josh and I went to the farmers market and walked around the downtown mall, stopped by an antiques warehouse, and walked around Barracks Road.

But then I got some news that sent me flying back to Richmond. Grandpa had a stroke Saturday afternoon. I don't know much about strokes or what to expect or what's normal, but things seem to be...okay. He can talk, and is clearly still Grandpa. (When he was still in the emergency room Saturday the nurse came in to ask him questions like "what day is it?" and "what's your full name?" He said his full name and then added, knowing full-well what was going on, "what, do you think I've had a stroke or something?") He walked around a little yesterday, but he will need to spend time in rehab. Today he moved out of the ICU.

So I spent the rest of the weekend in Richmond. I also went back yesterday after work and will plan to go back tomorrow. I'm glad I still live close by.

salsa and birthday cake

First, let me tell you that I made tomatilla salsa last night, and it was delicious.

Now that that's out of the way, let me show you some pictures.

Last Saturday was Bobby's first birthday. He's so stinkin' cute. Check out this progression of his birthday cake experience, from skeptical boredome to bathing in bliss.

"Have a seat!"

When I moved into my Raleigh apartment a few years ago I bought a three-piece furniture set with a little table and two chairs. Ever since then my mom has pestered me to get two more matching chairs. Three years and two apartments later, it's done! Now when I have people over to eat we can actually sit at the table on four chairs. And matching chairs at that.

Don't worry guys, I'm supposed to get my own internet soon and then I will post more. Hopefully.

In my food news, I got lots of veggies last week. I made mashed potatoes that were only "eh," and I made a good pasta with yellow squash and chicken and the pesto sauce I'd made the week before.

For dinner tonight I might eat cabbage. We'll see.

re-entering the kitchen

I'm hanging out with my grandparents in Richmond for the weekend (During the first full weekend I could be in my new town of C'ville! I know! But I just can't help myself.), and we just got back from seeing Julie & Julia, the new movie about Julia Childs and a woman named Julie who decided to cook all of Julia's recipes in the span of one year. When we left the movie Grandpa sang a ditty through the parking lot about how boring it was, but Grandma and I enjoyed it.

Watching this movie came at the perfect time for me. I was already getting inspired to cook more (or cook at all, after barely using the oven in my Richmond apartment), so this movie was more of a coincidence than initial inspiration. I don't have a desire to cook French recipes and use pounds of butter every week. But while pineapple in cottage cheese makes a perfectly delicious and acceptable dinner on occasion, I would like to branch out a little more.

Last week I got a fresh and free eggplant at work, so I baked eggplant parmigiana. I even made my own fresh tomato sauce to go with it. So that was exciting. I also got a bunch of fresh and free basil at work, so I made a bunch of pesto sauce and froze it like Katie. From what I tasted pre-freezer, however, I'm not so sure I like how the pesto turned out. We'll see.

Friday I got some okra from work, so I'm going to try to make friend okra this coming week. And I might be getting a co-worker's sister's CSA share for the week while they're out of town, so who knows what meals could come out of that. Stay tuned.

I moved, and then I left town.

Well the move went well. All my stuff is in the new place and I can function enough to go to work and make my lunch. But now I need to get me some internet, because sitting around after work to blog and check Facebook seems a little ridiculous.

Anyway, instead of spending the weekend unpacking and getting settled I headed south to meet up with old friends in Raleigh. Josh went with me and after arriving around 11pm Friday night we went straight to the Jackpot to hang out with the video store gang, even though none of them work at the video store anymore. Saturday Josh and Elizabeth and I went to the popsicle store and ate crazy popsicles (I had Moroccan Curry), left the store to walk a couple of blocks down the street, then went back to the popsicle store for seconds (I had blueberry orange). Saturday evening we went to a cookout with the gang from the night before, and I didn't win the rock-paper-scissors championship. Sunday Josh and I visited the Museum of Life and Science Museum in Durham, which was pretty fun because they have real bears and fake life-size dinosaurs, in addition to the science.