Monday, April 27, 2009

Ms. Blount



I just found out.....

I passed both education exit exams. 

I am now a certified art teacher. Alls I gots to dos is graduate. 

May 22nd here I come. 



Special.

Let's get the bad news over with....

I was deferred by the Peace Corps for one year. This means they still want me, but not until July of 2010. 
So I will wait around in Austin until then. What will I do? Hopefully something will throw itself at me. Smack in the face. Please. 


Although I am completely heartbroken that my short term plans were shot down, I am keeping on the sunny side. 


Making dinner for special people. 

Cedar Baked salmon with reduced blackberry sauce

Randy

Hoola-hooping at Eeyore's Birthday. (While hanging out with special pals)


Marny and Evelyn
Making watermelon homes for watermelon people.

Going to a special friend's senior art opening. 

Jess


Helping a special person make more dinner for more special people. 

Tara and special boy whose name I temporarily forgot. :(
And playing games with all of the above people. 


Soakin' up the sun rays despite the rain. 


Sunday, April 12, 2009

Life in Costume

In my humble opinion, there are few things in life better than a dog in a good costume. 

Eating pickled okra. Hoola-hooping barefooted in the grass. Making rice crispy treats and italian palmiers while listening to Sam Cooke, and sock wrestling are a few things that would make my list. 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of accompanying Randy to a children's dog parade on South Congress where I encountered something new to add to my list of life's little blisses. 
 
Randy's roommate Tara is a member of an Austin quirkified marching band, Minor Mishap Marching Band.
Their MySpace page describes their music as such- 

 Trying to ride a bike and play the trombone simultaneously the morning after the Russian circus blows through town. Music inspired by the folks songs of Eastern Europe, the magic of New Orleans, and the pandemonium of the circus.

Did I mention they dress up like bumblebees?? It's not any ole marching band- they include a 7 foot drummer (Also in White Ghost Shivers, an Austin band of the swingin' variety), a bassist with a homemade bucket amp on her back, a warshboard, and a violinist with a lil' amplifier. And that was just the day I saw them... Apparently there is an even wider variety of instruments, from accordions to kazoos. 

Tara is one terribly adorable clarinet player. 

The only thing that improved upon the spectacle was the line of costumed dogs following the band. 


I think if I could pick a superhero power, I would want the ability to make this band appear out of thin air (complete with the dogs of course) any time I felt or I saw somebody feeling blue. 



Happy Easter, y'all. 


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Happiness in a Box

Flowers make me happy. I've been giving myself a lot lately.

Not too long ago, I raved about one of Target's brand's, Archer Farms, risotto from a box. 

Well last weekend my loving Marmy brought me an Easter basket full of goodies, and one of those goods was an  Archer Farms boxed Indian meal. I was somewhat weary of it, but I decided if it was anything like the risotto then hopefully I would be pleasantly surprised. 

I shared this meal with a boy, Randy... And I got the bright idear (sometimes I get those) to make an entire Indian feast out of it. 
I made a cucumber yogurt salad with the 'cumbers, carrots, lime, yogurt, cumin, and mint. 
Then I mixed some mango, strawberries, and mint for deeeesert. 
Fiiiiinally I had the brilliant idear to make Mango/Strawberry Lassi- which turned out to be the star of the meal. 

For the Lassi, I simply mixed milk and yogurt (about a cup of Bulgarian yogurt to 1/3 cup whole milk) and then I mashed up about a cup of mango with one strawberry... I added a bit of cane sugar and then poured that mixture into the milk/yogurt mixture. It was amazingly yummy and complemented the spicy curry perfectly. I would drink it with every meal if I didn't mind growing a few pant sizes. 

The boxed meal also turned out amazingly good. You only have to cook the rice, everything else is in pouches that you microwave (not so aesthetically pleasing). We were a bit skeptical about the amount of rice they included in the box, but with our salad and Lassi, the meal turned out to be the perfect size for two hungry people, hoorah!
The curry was really pretty spicy but toned down nicely with the addition of the chutney. the box also included green lentil stew which was yum-me. 
the whole meal gets 4 stars from me.... pretty damn good considering it takes around 15 minutes to make. 

The Lassi gets 9.4 stars. Because I made it. And it was awesome. 


Now I'm really hankerin' to go to Target and see what other interesting boxed meals of the Archer Farms variety I can find. 
 

Monday, April 6, 2009

I


I.....

am alive. 

took two certification tests and hopefully passed. 

have less pain in my ribs-but still pain. 

have been cleared on the dental part of my Peace Corps application. 

learned how to use acid goo and etch in to glass- I made a vase with a moose and my initials etched in to it. 

made an amazing pot of Pancit yesterday and some rockin' banana bread. 

gave some of the above to Marny, who now wants to be my wife. 

made an awesome pop-up card to give to an awesome new person in my life. 

ordered my graduation goods and felt really weird about it. 

am really liking teaching middle school art. 

have been keeping on the sunny side. 


have no proof in photographic form of any of the above.