Sassy Black Friend

Fancy cocktails

In lieu of some expensive party that would have sucked, I spent the night of the inauguration at a friend’s house. It was fun to watch all the people still freezing from standing outside all day stumble around in their formal wear. Suckers.

The boyfriend has been partying for about 5 days straight, so he fell asleep on a couch around 9 pm. Adorable until I had to get him up four hours later to leave. In the meantime I decided to experiment with some of the fancy cocktails our hostess was making. As always, that was a mistake. So along with being cold and tired I was drunk and feeling sick yesterday. Go me.

At the time it seemed like a good idea. New president, new cocktails. Blue things, clear things, red things, I don’t even know things. A drink can completely change your mood. A dry martini makes you feel like you should be wearing a smart suit and carrying a Zero Halliburton briefcase. a Long Island Iced Tea drops you right back to a dirty smelly college student on Spring Break. Sadly the hang over brings you back to reality.

Winter blah blah blah

There are wonderful things about cold weather. Its an easy excuse to stay inside and be lazy. Excellent opportunity to wear big fluffy sweaters, socks etc. Hot chocolate with or without booze added. Snow is pretty. Cats shed less in the winter. Big bowls of spicy chili. Lack of soul killing humidity. Less tourists around. Brisk weather and wind makes me walk faster. Read more »

Inauguration Photo Fail

As I was saying, I’m stupid. I got J to sneak me into an area at the Inaugural parade just to take a really bad photo. Like, epically bad, of President and Mrs. Obama as they walked by. He’s the blurry bit 1/2 out of the picture. She’s the blurry bit waving.

See? Huge fail.

Anyway, in case you live under a rock and missed it, here is Obama’s Inauguration speech.

Part 1

Part 2

I’m stupid, sorry!

So things have been nuts because of the Inaugural invasion. I wrote a couple that were (in theory) going to be published while I was away. It didn’t work.

Oops. My brain still isn’t working. Anyway, I’m going try again and post them over the next week or so because I’m swamped with work stuff. As always I’ll stipp be dropping some random stuff here and there too. It seems I blog the most when I say I can’t, so we’ll see.

No more room at the inn!

Sheesh. How in the world did I survive three years in a dorm? These people are driving me nuts and it’s only been a few hours. I’ve got houseguests for three more days!How do people with big families cope?

Here’s what I’m feeding the masses:

Giant vat of roasted garlic soup
(I’m amazed to say I actually followed this recipe to the letter, but quintupled it).

The ingredients are olive oil, garlic cloves, cumin, chili powder, baguette (for croutons), chicken stock, salt, pepper, parsley for garnish.

All you do is sautee the garlic and spices, brown the bread, chop the garlic and add it to the stock, simmer and leave it for a few minutes. So simple, very tasty. Recipe is from How to Cook Everything.

Turkey meatloaf: very yummy especially in sandwiches. No recipe for this, I just kind of threw random things I thought would taste good in.

Mashed potato casserole: I think I got this from Gourmet magazine but I can’t remember for sure. It’s just thinly sliced potatoes roasted with some stock until browned. Like scalloped potatoes without the cream and cheese.

Oh, and I also made a big pan of roasted veggies too.

Note to self: Install toll booth and cash drawer. Make some money, buy more booze. Don’t share it.

The invasion begins…

The weather here is about as cold as it ever gets, so of course I spent all morning running around, freezing my ass off. The plan was to get things done while I can still move freely. Too late. It’s like late June in terms of crowds I’d say. Too many people but not yet offensive.Also based on my limited experience from to day I’d say Inaugural tourists are better than summer tourists. Maybe it’s just the cold – they move faster. Summer humidity makes them sluggish?

My personal invasion starts bright and early tomorrow morning. Between then and next Wednesday I’ll have a total of 5 extra people in my tiny apartment. Only 3 are staying here that whole time.

Right now I’m cooking piles and piles of food for them and the locals I expect to be stopping by. J lives even closer to the Mall than I do but she’s been busy, and thus trying to pawn her folks off on me. Thanks, bitch. Oh, and my parents called this morning to see if I thought they should try to come down. My “no” couldn’t have been more emphatic. Read more »