After a long day of getting A LOT of work done, I played some Spider Solitaire and Ben played some regular Solitaire on the baby computer (while we watched more West Wing).  Sad new for the day:  I had been using my old ibook when I didn't need a very portable computer (its hinges had broken, but they worked on and off, and everything else seemed ok) and today, the hinges got jostled a little, and suddenly the computer was dead (probably forever).  I had been saving on my geek stick all day (as well as emailing files to myself every time I made significant progress), so I didn't lose anything, THANK GOODNESS.

We are both determined to get A LOT of work done today.  No time for talking.

p.s.  Happy 2nd engageiversary, Ben :-P

Thursday night dinner.  Men on the couch. Women in the kitchen.  Make your own judgments.  

We ate leftover mac and cheese and orzo carbonara (made with turkey bacon, thyme and accidently too many peas) from the dinner we had hosted for my cohort the night before and leftover massaman chicken (which had been frozen since last week's dinner for my cohort.)  And Ben's cohort managed to prove, once again, that they are much better eaters than my cohort, since the leftovers are nearing completion:)  Thanks guys!!!

We keep being terribly surprised that we've finished rewatching another season of The West Wing so quickly.  We moved on to Season 4 tonight.  

Hoping (and confirming) that I looked as fabulously ridiculous as I felt with my oversized tridelt hoodie and huge white sunglasses (which were in my christmas stocking this year - thanks ben.)  Minutes after this picture was taken, I decided my hair was terrible, but it had been so hairsprayed (which I NEVER do) that my only option was to take the hairthings out, push it back, and stick the sunglasses on top of it.  It was a good look, all day.... 

Ben gets three posts in a row.  This is a picture of my tea mug from today, which is massive, but not quite as massive as it looks in this picture.  (Ben's hand is actually pretty far in the background, though I think the picture makes it look like his tiny hand is tapping on the edge of the mug.)  Anyway, I will tell you, gentle readers, a tale of woe.  I discovered a tea that I really really love.  You should try it some time, unless you hang out around Ben.  It turns out the smell of this tea (which I really really love) makes Ben feel really really sick.  This picture was taken after I poured out my sweet and spicy tea and replaced it with some morning thunder, an old favorite.

My husband is very sweet, but have I mentioned that he's crazy?  This is him being considerate enough to plug in my power cord despite the fact that he has restricted the use of his arms and his face by tying himself up in his sweatshirt.

I made Ben stop and get a butternut squash when he went out to buy paper so that we could print millions of pages of articles for our theses. (The paper was for the thesis articles, not the squash.) When he was at the supermarket, he bought a bottle of our favorite wine.  So, after a day of work at the cafe.... wine, broccoli soup, pasta with a tomato/ground turkey/turkey kielbasa sauce, and West Wing made for an evening of romance.

So, New Hampshire Public Television, our only consistently working television station (as well as the other station that we got in occasionally) changed over to digital and we had no more tv. So we went out and bought a digital converter and an antenna.  We were kind of frightened we'd get too many tv stations and would get addicted.  The verdict?  We only get NHPTV... But it looks superclear when it doesn't get all jumbly.  We actually don't really get any channels when we use the antenna (so we'll return that), and whether or not we get reception is entirely dependent on whether the cordless phone is on the charger, which lives above the tv.  

I think I already mentioned it, but this happens in the same door in our hallway ALL THE TIME.  

Meet my new baby computer. The battery weighs at least as much as the rest of the computer.  Also, we saw Banff tonight (for free!) and it was pretty good, but I didn't feel like the films chosen for our show were spectacular.

BEST DAY EVER!!!

The phrase I'm most known for was coined specifically for days when I wake up feeling like this.  For those of you who haven't been through many of those days with me, when I ask the question, "Do you know what today is?" or "Guess what today is!"  The answer is ALWAYS: the best day ever.  So, dear readers, I want to remind you that today is the best day ever.  You may be wondering why I plague the people I live and work with with this annoyingly optimistic catch phrase.   Well... because when I was leading my first backpacking trip and everything felt unbearable (to me, and probably everyone around me as well) - I decided that that day could be the best day ever if I believed it was....  and since that day, every day is the best day ever.... 

Poor Ben's computer will stay in this position to dry for the next week or so before we try to turn it on.  Tomorrow night, my computer will become his and Wednesday, my new baby will arrive.  Not the worst solution ever.  If the computer doesn't work, we'll see if our renter's insurance will cover the accidental damage at all.... We can hope... 

For one of my "cultural events" for class, I went to a church this morning and saw three baptisms.  We talked about the book of Esther and I was hugged and blessed by dozens of people I'd never met before.  It was an quite an experience.

Later in the day, I was totally clumsy and hit a glass of lemonade, causing it to fly directly into Ben's computer.  So much water went into the computer that when tilted, liquid literally POURED out of it.  Hours later, it was still dripping.  So yea.  I completely killed a very new computer.  Not the best day ever.  

At the end of the day, we went to the grocery store:

I was so excited to buy this onion because it was HUGE and I thought I should share that joy with you.  

Today was Fill's fifth birthday.  Fill was purchased at a CVS (I believe) on a drive from Massachusetts to Princeton on our first Valentine's day.  We knew that Fill was his name because his tag said "filled with all new materials."  He's very gentle and kind, especially for a polar bear.

We finished these.  Yum.  Thanks again Joelle!  We were happy to be your valentines! 

edited to add a more proper shout-out to the chocolatier herself:

(and thanks for sending them LP, whose name I won't use, despite the fact that I used your website, 'cause I don't generally use names except for Joelle's and Ben's... not really sure why... anyway, I'm adding on this shout out to you, because without you these yummies wouldn't exist, and also, because the offer still stands: we will be your valentines too if you just keep a steady supply coming to us....)  But seriously, people, if you're in Chicago (or actually anywhere), get yourself (or someone you like a lot) these chocolates and eat them (even if you got them for someone else) ESPECIALLY the creamsicle ones - they bring more joy to the world (i seem to like parentheses a lot today.)

This lovely box of chocolates arrived this morning, sent by my sister, and made by her friend from high school, who now makes extremely yummy artisan chocolates.

This is me putting on my coat before Ben and I left for our pre-Valentine's day date at Mission Oak Grill, where I ate poutine for the first time.    

Sorry all of the posts have been about food lately.  But here's the red velvet cake that I ordered for our Thursday night dinner.  (There was some talk of making it a red themed dinner for Valentine's Day and I took it very seriously.)  Incidentally, it's both Lincoln and Darwin's 200th birthdays today.  So I wanted to celebrate.

I saw a friend's away message today which said: According to the Jewish calendar, the year is 5769.  According to the Chinese calendar, it's 4707.  That means for 1,062 years, Jews went without Chinese food.  These were called the dark ages.

Then we picked this stuff up on our way home and I fell asleep immediately afterwards. (by like 8:30)

we had tuesday night dinner, which was lovely, as usual.  i just wanted to post this so that i remember what our kitchen looks like after a tuesday night dinner when i only make the salad and the garlic bread (and a friend brings the lasagna - thanks S!!!)  

we like to eat healthy choice fudge bars, but hadn't gotten them for ages.  a couple weeks ago we got a box, and while i froze all the soups, they lived in the freezer door.  we discovered that they were well along their way to becoming liquid and i decided to stow them in the back of the freezer instead.  luckily, they didn't become gross and grainy, and most kept their shape, but here is one that got kind of misshapen.  it was all twisty, but still intact and yummy.

This is Ben on the phone with his mom explaining to her how to get pictures from her camera to her computer and know how to access them.  He used a pretty effective filing cabinet metaphor.

Today, I woke up early and got ready to go to an event at the Buddhist Center in town.  It was Parinirvana Day and I was lucky enough to spend six hours doing guided meditation, drinking tea, study, eating vegetarian potluck lunch, taking part in a ceremony to remember loved ones who have died, more tea, study, and a closing ceremony with lots of chanting.  These pictures were taken while I was getting ready for this day.  I was supernervous about going all alone and so I spent some time getting ready.  This first picture was taken halfway through blowdrying my hair.  

(if only I had known how to do this when I played Sally Brown!) 

This picture was taken after I finished the blowdrying process.  

Anyway, the day was educational, the community was warm and friendly, the bread I had made at 11 the night before went over well, and I was taken outside of my comfort zone (which was the main goal of the excursion).  I came home, wrote about it for class, had some butternut squash soup, and then went to C's house to play Settlers of Catan with her and K and eat all of her popcorn.  I came close to winning the first round, was at a standstill for the entire second round, and we spent the entire (epic) third round trying to not let Katie won.  Just as I finally succeeded in getting her out of the lead, she finally won.  We were shocked to discover that it was 12:30 am, which is hours past what our bedtime should have been.  What a day.

LEFTOVERS!!!

The french onion soup turned out surprisingly excellent.  It also sparked an idea for a future "French Food" party with french toast, french fries... what else?

I REALLY meant to get a picture of this before it was mostly eaten.  Broccoli soup in a bread bowl.  It took me several tries before I made fairly successful sourdoughish bread bowls, and I ended up only making 3 that were perfect, so we didn't serve them to guests, except for one with dip in it.  The three that did come out perfect were really pretty perfect.  Supercrusty and all!  My favorite part of the process was probably the day I came home to the starter I was working on that I had added a bunch of vinegar to that morning.  I opened the ziplock bag to empty the gases that had built up, but I opened it directly in my face and was INTENSE.  It actually burned!!!  But it was funny even at the time.  

so - this week, we combined our tuesday night and thursday night engagements, minus most of the men.  i had rescheduled from tuesday with my cohort because it was supposed to snow and combined it with the outdoor ed crowd.  however, part of the outdoor ed crowd (N and F) were at a conference and Ben ended up running an event for work, but most of the women and one of the men of the crowd came and mingling between the two communities almost happened.  i wish i had gotten some pictures of the soup and bread filled kitchen, but i was too busy getting stuff ready to remember to snap a shot.  (actually, my ideal picture would have been one of the refrigerator before the event, where i had three large pyrex containers stacked, one with bright green broccoli soup, one with bright orange butternut squash soup, and one with bright red tomato soup.)  

this picture was taken as people started to leave.  A is near the door with F.  A's dog and boy had just come to pick her up.  Looking on is W, a new friend and R's back is prominently featured all the way on the right.  M is on the left, saying hi and bye to C and AM, who she hadn't really met, and telling AM that she's somebody's doppelganger (which, apparently, she is told often).  I think that's K's head sticking out leaning on the couch next to AM's... 

also, using people's initials is getting annoying, as is this entire caption.... 

school stuff.  yoga stuff. climbing stuff.  

Another "sit at my computer for most of the day" day.  Class in the morning, class in another hour, and in between... just trying to get things done...  Oh, and I'm hungry.

i did work in the counseling room with my fleece and hat on all day.  speaking of which, now that the wedding is over, i wear my wedding fleece almost every day.  yes. i did say wedding fleece.  i bought it on steep and cheap because it was a white fleece and i figured i'd wear it the wedding weekend.  then it sat in the closet until the wedding so it didn't get dirty, and it served me well for the wedding (i ended up without any kind of pretty wrap/shrug type things).  afterwards, for a bit, i attempted to continue to keep it clean by not wearing it often.  then i realized that it's basically the best fleece ever (superwindproof and all that) and that even when i spill things on it, they don't really stick and that now that the wedding has happened, i can wear it all the time!

This is the check book for our joint bank account.  We spent a good portion of our morning searching desperately for this, because rent is due and when rent is due, we pay it.  Of course, I checked the place where it's supposed to be first, and second, and third and Ben checked it a couple of times as well.  Our search covered every inch of the house and my car and ended where it started, in the drawer were it is supposed to be.  It has burrowed into the back of the drawer somewhere.  Now that I've taken this picture, I'm putting it back in the drawer.  Grrrrr....