the thin line

Cooking Attempts

2012-02-27T19:42:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend, I tried two new recipes. One turned out really well and the other one did not. The good one was chicken and green bean stir fry. I used the recipe from Chinese Grandmother and it was faaaaaantastic. It was really pretty, too. I should have taken pictures, but I was in too much of a hurry to cook it and eat it. Ah well, I'm sure I'll be making it again - I'll try to remember to take photos.

The bad one was homemade granola from Alton Brown. It looked really good, and it smelled really good at first, but I am not sure what happened with the cooking time. I preset my oven, just like the directions said. I stirred it up after the first fifteen minutes, like I was instructed. But when the second fifteen minutes were up, it was already burnt. So I took it out, in hopes of salvaging it, but I really think it is too far gone to eat. I'm going to have to throw the whole tray out as it is too gross to consume. I'm super bummed about it, as I used up all of my oats and most of my nuts to make it. I was really looking forward to eating it mixed up in some yogurt like I did when my dad made homemade granola a few months ago. He used Ina's recipe - I guess I'll stick with that one next time. Ah well, I guess I'll have to think of something else to flavor my yogurt.

Sketch 09

2012-02-26T16:46:00.000-05:00


Astrid

Astrid from The Namesake. It's okay if you don't remember her, she doesn't really have a significant roll in anything.

Refrigerator Woes

2012-02-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned before, Chris and I have fallen in love with Samsung's refrigerators. They're ungodly expensive (from what I have been told, anyway - I personally have no idea what is a "reasonable" price for a fridge), but thanks to some... generous wedding donations we are going to go ahead and buy one anyway. During our week off, we looked at a lot of fridges and the Samsungs still had all the features we liked best. We are
still at odds over which one we want (Chris wants this one, but I think it is a bit... much and would prefer this one - I just don't know how often are we really going to use a deli drawer), but that wasn't the biggest problem.

You see, our house is weird. You may remember from a million years ago that we ordered a sofa and had to return it because it wouldn't fit through any of our tiny, Victorian-sized doors. Surprisingly enough, giant modern refrigerators won't fit either. Our kitchen door is 29", the fridges are 31". Oops. So we went home very discouraged, knowing that we'd have to start looking at fridges all over again and would have to buy one that was not quite up to our exacting fridge standards.

I mentioned this to my mum who mentioned it to my Aunt Candy who mentioned it to my Uncle Don, and now we will be getting a new (larger) back door and a new refrigerator to fit through it. Have I mentioned lately how awesome my family is? Because they are very awesome.

Being Married

2012-02-23T19:03:00.000-05:00

The number one question I've been asked since the wedding is "how does it feel to be married?" - it's a silly question, since nothing has really changed, but I can't fault people for asking. It's just one of those things that you do, like asking someone who's just had a birthday "how does it feel to be 28?" or something like that. But here's the real answer:

Being married feels just like being not married, with two wonderful exceptions. One, no more wedding stress. The wedding was amazing, and it was all worth it in the end. That being said, it was one of the longest, most stressful event in my life and I am ever so glad it is over. It's getting better now, but for the first few days after the wedding, I kept getting these sudden bouts of panic that I must be forgetting something.
Because that's how life has been for the last few months - a long stretch of constantly having to remember to do important wedding things. My brain is so used to this that it doesn't quite know how to react to all of this
downtime. Just thinking about the fact that I no longer have all these obligations on my time is just more wonderful than I can put into words. Compared to this, preparations for any event or holiday will seem like
child's play.

Two, we have a whole lot of new, cool things. We can make dinner in fresh, new pots and pans and cooking utensils, eat off of awesome new plates with matching bowls and mugs, sleep in a bed with new sheets and a new quilt, easily produce popcorn and waffles at a moment's notice... The nifty new things know no bounds. And on top of all that, we'll soon be getting a new fridge (and maybe a new stove and dishwasher). It's like we're living a new, slightly better life. I guess, in a way, we are.

So that's what it is like to be married. It hasn't really changed anything between us, except that now we can refer to each other as "husband" and "wife" and then giggle like idiots about it. Which, I must say, is still
pretty exciting.

Tuesday Tunes

2012-02-21T20:35:00.000-05:00

I was playing The Sims on Facebook (don't judge me) and the song my sim self was composing reminded me of this song. So I figured I'd make it my tune for the day because it is a great (though exceptionally sad) song.

Darcy Farrow - John Denver

So married.

2012-02-20T19:43:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, I'm back. Sorry about the sudden lack of posts, but wedding stuff kind of overwhelmed everything else in my life for a while there. But it is over now, I am married, and life can get back to normal.
I'll have a giant wedding post soon, I'm currently compiling pictures from all my available sources (photographer, family, friends) so as to provide you with the best overview possible. Look for that later this week probably, but next week at the latest. Other than that, it should be back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Sketch 08

2012-02-19T16:39:00.000-05:00


Hilly Holbrook

Hilly Holbrook from The Help.

Sketch 07

2012-02-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Sketch 06

2012-02-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

Some speed sketches of random pictures found while perusing the internet.

Tuesday Tunes

2012-01-31T21:30:00.000-05:00

This is one of the best songs ever. I can't remember if I've shared it before or not. I don't think I did, but just in case - deal with it. It's great and you can listen to it again.

If I know only one thing, it's that everything that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable often I barely can speak
Yeah I'm tongue-tied and dizzy and I can't keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues, why should I wait for anyone else?

Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes

Weekend Round-Up

2012-01-30T20:06:00.000-05:00

My dress "situation" is fixed - when I went back there on Sunday, they'd taken out all the hemming they'd done and it fit just fine. Not sure how that works, since it was too long in the beginning, but I'm not going to ask
questions. I don't care what sort of witchcraft they've worked just so long as it fits. When we'd finished my fitting we went to Taste of Crepes to try and reclaim my Foursquare mayorship (I didn't, I need to go back again), and then to VF to try and find a guestbook. After that I was told that we were going to my aunt's house to work on the wedding bouquets. I was suspicious that it was a ruse for my bridal shower, but there weren't any cars in their driveway when we arrived so I assumed we actually would be working on them. But they had tricked me, the cars were across the street and the house was full of people! Gosh, I didn't know I knew so many ladies. It was a lot of fun and I got tons of great gifts. As soon as someone sends me photos I will post a few.

On Sunday I went to the eye doctor for the first time in years. I wanted new contacts so that I could actually see Chris when I was walking down the aisle. So I've got some new contacts and some new glasses on the way, which is exciting. Later in the afternoon, my aunt and uncle delivered all the gifts from the shower. My living room is now clogged up with kitchen gear. I am far too busy to deal with it now - I figure I'll take care of it during our week off after the wedding. Until then, we'll just have to walk around it (or, alternately, unpack it as we need it).

It was a pretty busy weekend, but lots of fun!

Sketch 05

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

Midge

Midge, from Agatha Christie's The Hollow.

Two Things

2012-01-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

This morning, Chris and I went to get our marriage license. This is one of the things I have been dreading the most. You have to drive into the city (which I can't believe I used to do every day - how awful), park in a parking garage, find a building that isn't very clearly marked, be hassled by security guards about every single thing in your purse, go through a metal detector, figure out which floor you're supposed to be on, ride in an elevator, figure out which room you're supposed to be in, and then talk to someone at length about the occupation of your parents and other such nonsense. It's as though they specifically designed this activity to combine all of my least favorite things. The only way it could have been worse is if the courthouse was painted orange and was run by spiders with horse skulls. In space. Uggh. But we did it, and that's the important thing. We have to go back on Monday and pick it up, though, which sucks. They could have mailed it, but I didn't want to take any chances with it getting lost or anything. I have been very suspicious of the reliability of the post office ever since so many of our wedding invitations never reached their destinations. But at least we know what to expect now.

You know what is amazing? Cottage cheese. It's one of those foods I've always been curious about, but it looked too weird for me to ever actually eat. But last weekend we were at Kim and Dustin's house and Dustin was eating it out of the container like ice cream and I figured maybe I should give it a try after all. So I picked some up at the grocery store and tried it for breakfast, topped with honey. The first morning it was fine, but nothing exciting. The second morning, I was hooked. It was the best thing I'd ever eaten and I couldn't wait to have more. Now all I can think about is cottage cheese with honey. It's a relatively low calorie breakfast with lots of protein (well, lots for me - I am almost always under my recommended serving of protein for the day). Wonderful!

Wedding Bands

2012-01-26T22:45:00.000-05:00

Tonight Chris and I finally went to match the tux vests to the straps I stole from my bridesmaids' dresses (sorry Hannah and Kylie). I was pleasantly surprised to see that all our mens have gotten fitted - good for you guys, doing things on time! But yeah, so that was quick and easy and no
big deal. On the way home, Chris suggested we go to Boscov's and check out wedding bands, since those are on my big list of things that have to get taken care of in the next two weeks. I thought this would also be quick and easy and no big deal. They are just plain bands, won't we just have to walk
in, pick something out, and carry them home? No, it turns out this is not the case at all. For you see, Boscov's only had wedding bands sized 5 - 11 in stock. Do you know what sizes we need? 4 and 13. Yeah. So we went across town to the Boscov's at the Berkshire Mall instead, but found the same disappointing size situation. And it would take four to six weeks for them to arrive, which won't work at all.

We ventured out of Boscov's and into the actual mall to try some jewelry stores. The lady at the first store (Zales, I think) actually had a full on jaw-drop when we told her the date of our wedding. She told us our best bet would be to just pick something, anything, that they had in stock in our sizes just so we had something to use at the wedding. We could then come back and exchange them for something we liked after the fact. Chris was immediately drawn to the tungsten carbide rings, of course. Nothing simple and cheap and easy for him. But since he's going to be stuck with this
thing for the rest of his life, I figure he might as well like it. Plus, they are the strongest, most durable rings around and we are notoriously hard on jewelry. Unfortunately, the largest they had of the style he liked (the one with carbon fiber inlay) was a 12, and they wouldn't be able to get us the correct size before the wedding. So we'd have to do the exchange thing whether we liked it or not. We decided to see if any of the other jewelry stores had anything in stock.

Long story short, they didn't. We tried four other jewelry stores and they all had the exact same selections with the exact same prices. Three of them, however, said that they could have the correct size rushed here by February 7th. Close enough. We could have just bought one there and then,
but I really hate spending money, so we decided to go home and meditate on it and buy one over the weekend. While we were discussing it at home, Chris mentioned in passing my getting a smaller one to match, rather than the plain band I had been intending to purchase. I said it wasn't a big deal, that it didn't matter if they matched or not, that I didn't really care. He was silent. "Unless you really care that they do not match..." I said, in disbelief. "Yeah," he said. "I kinda do." Shock of shocks, he has a tiny bit of traditionalist in him after all! So I guess I will also be getting a tungsten carbide ring with carbon fiber inlay too. Which is just as well, considering how quickly I broke my engagement ring...

It was really weird, though, trying on all those rings. Like, I looked at my hand with a traditional wedding band on it and it didn't feel like my hand anymore. It was like I was looking at someone else's hand. So I guess it is good that I am not getting a traditional band - maybe my hands will
still be my own wearing a tungsten carbide ring. Also, the stark contrast between my antique engagement ring and my super modern wedding band will be pretty cool, I think.

Wedding Woes

2012-01-25T22:09:00.000-05:00

Last night I went for my second wedding dress fitting. I think they were just supposed to be checking the bustle, but it became very apparent (when I had put the dress on) that we had bigger problems to worry about. The hem, which had been pinned up the last time I went in, was 3 - 4 inches off the ground in the front where it was supposed to be brushing the ground. The back is fine, the sides are fine, but the front is not fine. Weird, right? The lady with whom we had the appointment was not the actual seamstress, so
she couldn't really offer up any answers. Instead, I was told to return on Saturday morning when the seamstress would be present to figure out the problem. Okay, fine. No big deal.

This afternoon, I got a phone call from a number that I did not recognize. As is my custom with unknown numbers, I sent it directly to voicemail. Turns out it was the seamstress. In a rather snippy message, she told me that she had only taken the dress up two inches, so there was no way this was her fault. She went on to tell me that I would have to "switch back to the original shoes" I had worn to be fitted since these "new shoes" were obviously too tall. Umm, excuse me? I've been wearing the same shoes the whole time. I ordered the dress wearing three inch heels in their showroom. I had gone out, bought three inch heels, and worn them to my first fitting. I wore them again, the exact same shoes, to my fitting last night. This little hem situation in which we've found ourselves is completely of your doing, Ms. Seamstress, not mine. I was having a bad day already, and this message enraged me to the point that I actually called her back. Yes,
that's right - I voluntarily picked up the phone and called someone.

She had an attitude with me from the get-go, saying that she was so glad I'd called her back quickly so we could deal with this "shoe situation". I couldn't, she said, just switch shoes in the middle of this process and
expect everything to fit properly. I told her in no uncertain terms exactly the same thing I just told to all of you - that I had not switched shoes. She argued with me, saying that the woman who had pinned my dress at the first appointment said I'd been wearing low heels, while the woman last night said my heels had been "quite high". I informed her that they were both mistaken, my heels had been the same middling height for both fittings. Not too high, not too low. Just heels. Regular heels. Still sounding unconvinced, she asked the time of my new appointment so that she would be present to "sort this out". "11:00," I growled. "I look forward to it."

It is so on.

Tuesday Tunes

2012-01-24T21:30:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have moments where you are doing something entirely normal, when your mind wanders away from what you are doing and you get totally lost in the moment of what is happening beyond you? Take this morning, for instance. I was just driving to work like I always do, but the beauty of the world outside of my car just totally overwhelmed me. The road was strangely empty of other cars. The sky was grey, making the bright orange sunrise all the more vivid. There was a slight mist enveloping the stark, cold winter trees. everything just felt so... perfect, and I was overcome with such intense thankfulness that I could enjoy such peace and beauty in so mundane an activity as driving to work on a Tuesday morning. Do you ever feel that way? No? Maybe it's just me.

In any case, I thought that Bon Iver was the perfect soundtrack to the desolate beauty I experienced this morning.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

2012-01-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Tonight I made broccoli cheddar soup for dinner. I used the recipe that was in this month's issue of Food Network Magazine. You can find it here. We eat it with a delicious loaf of olive oil garlic bread.

Some interesting things I learned while making this soup:

1) You can steam broccoli in the microwave. This is especially exciting because it takes our stove roughly 800 years to boil water. But a nice serving of broccoli can easily be steamed in the microwave in just five minutes! The recipe linked above explains how, but let me also tell you here how to steam broccoli in the microwave - put two cups of fresh broccoli in a microwave safe container, add three tablespoons of water, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for four minutes. Our microwave is a little faulty and will blow a fuse if we use it for more than 45 seconds straight, so I microwaved my broccoli for 30 seconds eight times, but it's the same thing. When finished, the broccoli had the perfect blend of soft and crisp. It was almost a shame I had to put it in the soup.

2) Broccoli cheddar soup (or at least this recipe, anyway) is mostly comprised of potatoes. Who knew? Two pounds of potatoes and only two cups of broccoli. Seems like it should be called "Potato Cheddar Soup With A Few Broccoli Florets Thrown In For Good Measure" - but hey, what do I know?

3) I might be allergic to raw potatoes? Seems weird, but my finger (yes, only one finger - the pointer finger on my left had) got all itchy and swollen while I was cutting the potatoes. I had to ice it for half an hour before the swelling started to go down. I don't know what the deal was, I've but raw potatoes plenty of times before and nothing like this has ever happened. Perhaps I should wear gloves the next time potatoes are on the menu.

But yeah, that was my adventure in broccoli cheddar soup making. I am very excited about soups right now - especially pureed soups. There are a lot of foods that I won't eat based solely on their texture, so pureeing is the perfect solution. I am thinking about a pureed black bean soup next...

Sketch 04

2012-01-22T12:00:00.000-05:00

Brittany

Downton Abbey

2012-01-20T23:30:00.000-05:00

Guys, I know I'm a little behind on this trend, but I just started watching Downton Abbey on Netflix and I am totally in love with it. The house is beautiful, the clothes are beautiful, and they've got such delightfully snoody problems - it's just perfect!

I'm only on episode five, but man. I can't wait to see how everything turns out.

PS3 AV/HDMI Fix

2012-01-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know, our PS3 has been out of commission since right after Christmas. Poor Chris attempted to turn it on to play Skyrim, but it didn't work. When I say that, I mean that he turned on the ps3 and all the lights lit up normally, but there was no video. Quite distressing. He restarted it a few times and stuff, but to no avail. So we took it to Complete In Box in Ephrata, PA - a nearby game shop that also does repairs. They told us it would be a while, since they were busy with holiday stuff, but they'd let us know when they'd fixed it.

Yesterday Chris got an email back from them. They'd finally gotten around to our PS3 and we could come and pick it up. There was nothing wrong with it, really, it had just gotten switched from HDMI to AV output. Haaaakward. Now we look like idiots and we could have been using our console this whole time. Lame. On the plus side, though, they didn't charge us for it at all. What a nice bunch of guys, am I right? If you are in the area and are looking for games and enjoy supporting small businesses as much as I do, be sure to check them out.

But yeah, so, if you found your way here because your PS3 just stopped showing video one day and you're looking for answers, make sure you haven't just accidentally reset the video output mode. Here's a quick and simple video explaining how to switch a PS3 from AV to HDMI (or the other way around, of course):

2012-01-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

Tuesday Tunes

2012-01-17T18:00:00.000-05:00

Have been loving this song for quite a while.

By Your Hand - Los Campesinos!

Bachelorette

2012-01-16T22:09:00.003-05:00

Saturday night was my surprise bachelorette party. I say surprise because it is very difficult to be sneaky around someone with OCD. I knew something was up because my heels were missing from my shoe pile. Someone, probably Kylie, had stolen my dressy shoes. Hmmmmmm... But the specifics of the evening remained unknown to me until I arrived at Kim's house, so that much was a surprise at the very least.

First we had a potluck "fake Smokey Bones" dinner at Kim's house which was, of course, delicious. I apparently cannot be friends with anyone who is not an amazing cook. I was also given some lingerie for my wedding night. I am far too... proper to show it to you here, but I will show you the tiny box in which it is contained. A long time ago, I told my sister that if I ever got married, she'd better buy me the skimpiest lingerie imaginable - that it had better be nothing more than lace and strings. She took these words very literally. You can use your imagination from there.

When we were finished eating, Kylie whisked me away upstairs to do my makeup, hair, and dress me like a streetwalker (hence the heels). Then we went to the WineDown Cafe, a place I have always wanted to visit but was far too intimidated to ever enter without the added bravery of a few drinks. It was surprisingly non-threatening but again keep in mind that I was already several drinks into the evening by the time we got there. I had a sangria and some champagne, compliments of the house, and we all shared cheese and cracker platter. I have a feeling that many future girls' nights will have their starts at that place.

After that, we went to Building 24 for more beverages and dancing. I know that some of my more adventurous readers might be thinking this sounds like a pretty tame night, and it may be considered that for most people. But for me, who gets uncomfortable even thinking about the seething mast of humanity that can be found "in da club", this was somewhat akin to skydiving in terms of terror. I doubt I would have been able to step foot in the door had I not been well into my cups, but I was and I did and it was a lot of fun. I'm not sure I'll ever regain feeling in my toes (dancing in platform heels for several hours will apparently do that to a person), but it was worth it.

When we had tired ourselves out, we went back to Kim's house for cake (shaped like a certain part of the male anatomy - lovingly handcrafted by Kim) and then crashed on floors, beds, air mattresses, and couches. In the morning, we feasted on baked french toast, eggs, and sausage. It was a wonderful time. Thanks to all of you who planned it, attended it, chaperoned it, and just overall made it possible.

The strangest part, to me, is that I really do feel as though I've said farewell to some part of myself. While I know, logically, that being married to Chris will be exactly the same as living with Chris "in sin" (other than the fact that we'll get to file joint tax returns - hooray!) as I have been, I can't help but feel some sort of... shifting? It's hard to explain the intricacies of being "legitimate" and that sort of thing. It's all so personal and individual, you know? I mean, we've been dating for five years now, and that is fine. That is great. But after pining for so long and imagining that this day would never come, it's very bizarre to have it actually happening. Good, but weird. And will being a "married woman" magically turn me into someone else? I really doubt it, but that doesn't make it any less bewildering to imagine. It's really difficult to put these feelings into words.

Sketch 03

2012-01-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

Katie

This was inspired by a podcast I was listening to about an amusement park ride attendant in New Jersey named Katie.

Wedding Flowers

2012-01-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

Tonight I went shopping with my parents, sister, aunt, and uncle to find wedding flowers. Since it is the middle of winter and valentines weekend, we figured it would be cheaper and easier to just use silk flowers. We went to the Flower & Craft Warehouse in Blue Ball and found everything we needed. I'm not going to post any pictures until after the wedding, so as not to ruin the surprise for those of you attending, but rest assured that they look awesome.