Star Wars

So I guess I've never really seen Star Wars.  There is a helpful Wikipedia link for all of you in the same boat, I've heard it's a small boat.

Anyway, on day 3 of our Blizzard Party this fact was discovered and since our roommate happens to own all of the movies we decided to watch!  S., G., & Z. spent some time discussing what order we should watch them in but ultimately decided to start with #4, evidently this is the order that they were made in.  I was already a bit concerned since the world I live in generally starts with #1 and there is no discussion on where to start.  I decided to continue anyway.

All 4 of us sat on one couch because our charming/coughing roommate and her boyfriend decided to watch with us.  Our other roommate would come in and stand in the corner for certain parts of the movie.  I guess it was kind of a TRUE roomie party!

Surprisingly the movie seemed pretty decent although there are definitely some plot holes that I cannot remember at this time.  We powered through some peanut M&Ms and lots of popcorn and decided to watch the next one.  After that I think I couldn't stand it anymore and we decided to stop there.

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3 weeks later!

Star Wars time again!  We ate some of Z.'s pasta and some bread, cracked a bottle and headed to the living room!  After struggling with our electronics for a while S. got the movie playing.  I had semi-forgotten what had happened but luckily they scroll a big intro message at the beginning of these movies.

This time I was feeling a bit better about my Star Wars knowledge, especially after I got Natalie Portman's character and Princess Leia all squared out.  After a lot of flying, epic teddy bear battles and swishing light sabers I had officially finished the original trilogy!

Thus we decided to go to Galway House cause I was definitely going to fall asleep if we watched another one.  3 more to go + Special Features...

G. got and enjoyed some garlic bread

Roomie Night 2/25

Mondays are Roomie Nights! This week I met Natalie at the bike shop after work and we biked to Coolidge corner. We got dinner at Paris Creperie. There were so many options to choose from! 

Mine had cheese, broccoli, asparagus, and some other vegetables. N.'s had salsa and egg. 

They were pretty good, but not spectacular. Kind of lacking in flavor. I think the sweet crepes are probably better. 

Then we went to the Clayroom for pottery painting! This was our 3rd attempt, but every other time we got snowed out. It took us at least half an hour to decide what to paint. N. went with a quiche dish and I chose a small bowl. I was pretty tempted by the cat-shaped sponge holder, but I resisted. 

The guy who runs the place was wicked nice. We decided that we want to have a job like his someday. He just sat in the back and watched a movie, and came around once in a while to see if we needed help.  

While painting, we planned our biking trip around Cape Cod, scheduled to happen in July. Hopefully we will actually do it this year! 

There was only one other couple in the place. They were very intense about the spoon rest they were painting together. We saw them making multiple sketches and spent at least an hour choosing paint color.

My bowl features a cat.

I can't wait to see what they look like after they've been fired!

Sally Love

I discovered this blog called Sally's Baking Addiction. 

Sally is a genius. Not only is her blog beautiful, everything I've made from it so far is amazing! Better than any cookbook I have ever used. 

I made these white chocolate cranberry cookies. N. said they were possibly better than the dining hall version, which is saying a lot!

And these red velvet cheesecake brownies for Valentine's day.

N. also made some absolutely delicious peanut butter chocolate cookies. Time to get fat!

Blizzard Party!

We were supposed to travel to Quebec this weekend for Winter Carnival, but then the BLIZZARD happened! So sadly no Canada, but we had a good time in the snow! 

DAY 1:

N. and I both get home from work in the afternoon. The line at the grocery store wraps all around the store, but I wait in it to buy marshmallows and ice cream. 

Instead of stocking up on bread, we buy one extra large pizza and a sled. Both would prove valuable in the days to come. 

Thank goodness N. had just bought a giant bag of peanut M&Ms at Costco. 

 C. came over before the snow got too bad. We watched a few movies with our roommate and her boyfriend, then ventured outside!

The streets were deserted except for a few brave JPers. Walking was difficult at times due to the snow drifts and the snow blowing in our eyes. We took the sled to the Sugar Bowl near the pond and did some extreme sledding. On the way back, we found this creepy snowman peering at us through the mist. 

Had to visit the two-backed bench. Also made snow angels and rolled down some hills. Oh, and N. fell into our hedge, prompting our roommate to stick his head out the door and proclaim "N. broke the bush."

We got back and made hot chocolate, s'mores on the stove, and ate ice cream. Then watched more movies. N. realized she lost her keys, but found them later in her room. 

DAY 2:

The snow finally stops and we go outside again! This time no one joins us. We only make it to the field near our house.

We watched even more TV. And began to bake. 

 And eat.

 And crochet sweaters for cats.

When we could take no more, G. arrived! He walked all the way from Somerville (~6 miles) to join the awesome party (No trains were running for almost the whole weekend). We briefly changed out of our sweatpants and went to the bar down the street. A few hours later, Z. drove over and somehow found a spot to park his car. I went home to bed early, but evidently the party continued till the bar closed!

DAY 3:

Woke up and made pancakes for the 8 people now in our house. Ate pancakes. Watched another movie. We helped C. dig his car out so that he could escape the madhouse.
Then the rest of us went to the Arboretum for sledding!

We climbed to the top of Bussey Hill and were impressed by the large number of cross-country skiers and snowshoers! Glen did crazy gymnastics down the hill. We tried to do crazy gymnastics but landed on our heads.

 We climbed a tree!

For the grand finale, we fit all four of us on the sled and went down the steepest slope we could find. No one died. We also went into a "community igloo" that someone had built. Only in JP.
N. realized she lost her phone. She did not find it later, but now she has a fancy new one.

Then we went home and watched Star Wars. A successful blizzard! 

In Other News...

N. and I went to a super classy party at the Charles Hotel. It was the winter party for one of my jobs. We ate lots of food, tore up the dance floor, and tried to imitate this old guy with awesome dance moves (with limited success on our part). It was a great party, even though the cupcakes sucked. 

And I learned to french braid (kinda)! Here is one of my first attempts using N.'s hair.

Party Party!

 We couldn't think of a theme for our last party, so we decided the theme would be Party! At first it was just going to be a normal clean-out-the-liquor cabinet party, but we got carried away with the planning.

We thought up a bunch of different party games. We also went through our closets, found random things, wrapped them, and included elaborate rules on what to do with these things. The winner of each game got a prize and had to follow all the instructions. We played each game for about half an hour, took a break, then played a different one. When it was time for a new game, N. and I locked eyes across the room, stealthily pulled out our harmonicas, and played loud discordant notes. This worked surprisingly well!

For example, Zack won a pink headband and a used copy of N.'s diving manual. He had to wear the headband all night and perform dramatic readings from the manual.

N.'s choice game, "Who's That Cat" was a surprise hit. Everyone sat in a circle with one person blindfolded in the middle. The blindfolded person spun around and pointed to someone, who then had to meow like a cat. Based on this, the person in the middle had to guess who it was. If they guessed wrong, everyone switched seats and the game continued.

There was also a limbo contest! I think I won because no one else really tried.

And Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, beautifully crafted by myself and N. (This game had a fair amount of cheaters, you know who you are.) Other games included charades and that game where you write and draw (someone really needs to come up with a catchy name for that).

Burrito the Burro!

And of course N. made a giant cookie cake! Oh, and I made an awesome playlist that everyone enjoyed. Roughly every fifth song was Thrift Shop. 

We made everyone sign the guest book. Except for that one guy. 

A number of people have said this was their favorite party yet! The bar just keeps getting higher. 

Here are some choice excerpts from the guest book:
" Woohoo so much fun, thrift shop all the time!"
" I look incredible."
" Great party, if I hear thrift shop again I'm leaving"
"I wear your granddad's clothes"
" Sorry for ruining your clothes with silly string."

Friendsgiving!

We decided to have a Friendsgiving.  Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday, and what could be better than tons of food AND a ton of friends??  That's right, it was a success.

We invited about 15 people, and since we are amazing hosts, S. and I were soon counting our plates and getting a bit nervous.  As you can see above, we also had to employ some creative furniture in order to seat everyone together.  That is 2 tables, a couch and 14 chairs you see!

The process started with a little bit of cooking.  I made some pumpkin bread (while watching some tv of course) which was decent but I severely undercooked it, so only the first few pieces were edible.  In the future I will definitely not be basing my cooking time for loaves by a few measly muffins.  Beginners mistake.

I also made some baked sweet potatoes, which went nicely with S.'s baked squash!  We might be some sort of hidden orange household.

We opened a few bottles of wine...dug deep into our extensive mug collection, and even had a few freshly made waffles show up on our doorstop!

 Our tabletop was filled to the brim!  Let's see if I can recall it all...homemade bread, pasta with vodka sauce, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, cranberry salsa, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, enchiladas, butternut squash, sweet potato bread, gluten free cupcakes, gingerbread cookies, eggnog waffles, pecan pie, chocolate chip cookies....is that it?  Best I can do.  AND, everything was DELICIOUS!

 S. really liked the pumpkin pie!

At the end of the night we were left with a sink full of dishes!

Party success #2.