soggy tomatoes

Ahoy,

Christmas is upon us! Come one, come all! To celebrate the arrival of the holiday season! Amidst the wind, rain, and snow - Halloween happened. As planned, I threw together a tomato costume. I was happy with it despite the strawberry confusion none of us anticipated. Blood sugar likely will spike the day after, so I'm on lookout for cavities and diabetes.

The highlight of the Halloween weekend in DC was playing Christmas carols and cutting out paper snowflakes. Founding Fathers Farmers was delicious and I loved the style and design in the restaurant. Some people say they only care about the food at a restaurant, and I'm sure that's a major focus. But I think that service and decor also play large roles in your experience at a restaurant as a whole. I'm a sucker for big exposed wooden beams and heterogeneous rock walls.

forestedly motivated,
JT

Peter's Kill

Ahoy,

Haha! I got on the list for the van to go climbing this weekend! Many kudos to the rock climbing dieties for circumstances that caused other people to drop their names!

I'm usually one of the early or on-time people. I woke up at the unGodly hour before the sun came up to go to school and wonder if I was in the right place because no one else was there. Seeing as how it was the unGodly hour of daybreak, it would be reasonable to believe that was why campus was desolate. If I keep up my punctual habits, it is easy to see myself eternally wondering if I'm in the right place.

I had lots of fun. The landscape in the Northeast was breathtaking in the most literal sense of the word. It is unlike anywhere else I've been. In California, it was always a lot of Redwoods or desert and rocks. There's a sea of deciduous trees in New York. The leaves had started to change colors, so there were reds and golds and greens of every shade that were just starting to change. The woods were on fire. It's amazing to me how many different landscapes and types of environments that exist in the States. The incredible variety and diversity makes everywhere seem so unique and worthy of travel. How am I ever going to see it all? And that's only in the States. My experiences seem like so few and insignificant. How will I ever do it all?

clingily pinched,
JT

flying bologna

Ahoy,

So I thought I'd start keeping a record:

- Red Skirt Fiasco of 2011: I put my red skirt in with our lights. The dye is still running apparently. It dyed our clothes pink. And then the bleach took out pink, but left it yellow still. I will remain forever regretful for ruining his graph paper button-up.

- Endless Lettuce Incident of 2011: A decides he wants to ask for the whole box of lettuce, just to see if they'd give it to him. We were eating lettuce for more than a month. I knew when he grabbed that box, he'd eat it for one day, maybe two tops, and then get tired of it. Situations like those do force your culinary creativity to start churning.

- Banana Bread Fiasco of 2011: I forgot to add the eggs to the banana bread wet ingredients. I was wondering why it was so dry as I was spooning it into the baking pan. Half an hour in the oven and I realize I had forgotten the eggs. I pulled the pan out and added the eggs directly into the mix. Lo and behold, A was so gracious to proclaim them deliciously edible.

- Brownies 2 ways Fiasco of 2011: I used the normal recipe from the box of Nestle Tollhouse cocoa powder. It came out dry and not fudgey. It normally does. It looked dry going into the pan. This was odd because I always use this recipe and it always comes out excellent. For comparison, we made microwaved brownies in a mug. K liked it, but A and I thought it tasted too much like vegetable oil. Unsuccessful brownie expeditions. 2 ways.

That's it for now. I'm sure more will turn up.

mischieviously malfeasant,
JT