Getting Caught Up

Well, it certainly has been a while. Our camera was broken, or rather, my computer was broken, so we couldn't upload the photos from the camera. In either case, I simply cannot blog without photos. And so, a hiatus happened.

But much has happened since the last time we spoke! Are you ready for a photo-dump? Because it's going to be epic. Here we go.

Firstly, we got a pet cat!!

Her name is Qorra. She's 7 months old, she used to be a stray, and she is VERY playful.

She's also extremely intelligent, which is good, but also difficult. We have to keep her occupied and challenged all the time, otherwise she starts to get bored and antsy. But it's also fun to watch her figure out the many puzzles we give her to play with.

We went rock climbing with Rasika in Austin!

I also got an Xbox360!

And then, of course, there's the food. Last month's cover story in Bon Appetit magazine was about fried chicken. We followed the instructions to the letter, and it was probably the best fried chicken I've ever eaten.

I made Brandon a Valentine's themed bento.

My dad gave Brandon and I bottle of champagne as a gift, so we got some brie to go with it and had a fancy snack for dinner.

We got some ahi tuna and made shish kebobs!

I learned how to poach an egg!

Veggie burgers from scratch!

Miniature frittatas for breakfast!

Snacks for our Game of Thrones parties with friends!

And that's it for food! Here, have one more picture of Qorra, for good measure. She's relaxing in Brandon's lap. ^_^

Now that we've solved the problem with the camera, I should be able to blog more regularly from now on. Now I just gotta remember to take pictures...

Lots of love!

Holiday Fun in Texas

I spent the final week before Christmas finishing up my labwork, cleaning my apartment, and packing. But there was also some holiday cheer, as well!

Rasika and I decorated the lab door for the annual door-decorating competition, and we won! The prize was a box of chocolate truffles. We shared them with the whole lab. Our door was called "Merry Mito-Christmas" because our lab studies mitochondria. We made a wreath out of green mitochondria, and put up ribbons made from the electron transport chain.

We had two days of Channukah in Texas before I left to spend Christmas in Toronto with my family. We almost forgot to do latkes! But one evening Brandon came home from work with some potatoes and applesauce. I was THRILLED. I went around telling everyone my boyfriend had bought me "a lovely bouquet of potatoes." No one got the joke but me, but that's okay, I still liked it. ^_^

So, we had Rasika over, and we lit the menorah and ate latkes. I explained how to play dreidel, but Rasika said if we played I would cheat by reading the letters wrong! She's a goof.

Showing off my mad Dreidel skillz.

It was really nice to have a proper Channukah before I took off for the chaos of Christmas/New Years madness. I'll do another holiday update after the New Year, when I'm back in Texas. Have a lovely holiday, everyone!

Val Came to Visit!

Sometimes you just need some girl time. Val needed to get some fresh air, and apparently there's none better than the air your best friend is breathing. So she came to San Antonio, and we did the rounds:

The Cove.

The Alamo.

Cacti behind the Alamo.

The Riverwalk.

An interesting photo opportunity on the Riverwalk.

 

Girl's night in, with snacks and an episode of Star Trek: TNG!

Lounging around on the couch!

Chocolate chip & banana pancakes, and pepper-bacon!

Pizza at Home Slice in Austin!

Meandering around downtown Austin!

Looking pensive!

Much-needed girl time: success. ^_^

Diwali

Rasika invited Brandon and I to a Diwali celebration downtown. I got to meet a bunch of her friends (many I recognized from school already) and hang out on the Riverwalk.

I asked Rasika repeatedly what the significance of Diwali is, and I never got a straight answer. Mostly she said "Oh, there's a big festival and... also food." (I can tell she really has her priorities in the right place.) But she did say eventually that, at the end of the evening, we would be putting floating candles in the river. This is supposed to happen on the day of the month when the moon doesn't show (I don't remember what the word for that is), and the candles are supposed to replace the moonlight. That's the most religious thing I got from her the whole evening. Otherwise it was "Oh, you have to try this food, and this one and this..." Which is right about my speed. Photo time!

I asked Rasika if people would be wearing traditional clothes, and she said yes, so I tried to wear my most Indian looking outfit, which admittedly was not that Indian, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Those of you who know me well will notice I'm wearing pink and sequins, both of which NEVER HAPPEN. I don't even remember where I got this top. I never have an occasion to wear it. Finally, an occasion.

We spent a great deal of our time discussing the food, trying different things and admiring the outfits other people were wearing. I discovered that Indian fashion is pretty much tailor-made for me. Explanation: I like bright colors, bold patterns, long shirts and 3/4-length sleeves, loose/flowy fabrics, shawls and scarves, light/comfortable/soft fabrics, bangles and other adornments. It's PERFECT. Indian fashion is effortlessly feminine, and conservative in its proportions (i.e. no cleavage.) I think I need to get in on this... Rasika? Take me shopping? Please? ^_^

So, after the food there was a dance show. They had a style of dance for each province in India. We sat on a hill under the San Antonio version of the CN tower (I can't remember what it's called) and watched the show. The crowd was pretty big.

I took a video of one of the dances from the province that Rasika is from, but my computer is acting funny. I might be able to load it later.

After the dances, we moved down toward the river to watch people light their candles. I took a billion pictures, it was so pretty. Unfortunately there was just enough of a breeze that the candles kept going out. All the same, it was very impressive.

After a while I sat down and started re-lighting the candles that went out. Rasika sat down next to me and said "You're really popular! Everyone's taking pictures of you!" So, I guess keep an eye out for me on flickr or other San Antonio blogs.

We had a lovely time. Rasika and I keep making plans, then breaking them. So I'm glad something finally worked out. And the candle ceremony was really pretty to watch. I told her that Channukah is also called "The Festival of Lights," but we just light the menorah, not an entire river. She laughed. <3