blizzard (fo shizzard)

Last Saturday and Sunday the eastern seaboard was hit with a blizzard! It made for a very blustery few days. I even had to brave the storm and walk to the petsmart to take care of the cats! But the good thing about a storm is that it was about ten to fifteen degrees warmer than it had been the week before. I was not made for sub-zero (Celsius) temperatures!

Marissa was here for a brief bit earlier this week. She was interviewing at the Boston Globe for a summer job, and when she was done I took her to Tommy Doyles to warm up. She spent the night at my place and we watched Paper Heart--such an adorable chick flick!! Nerd romance at its best.

our Christmas tree

This year (really the past few months) has been full of firsts since I've moved to Cambridge. One among them is my first real Christmas tree. At the small fruit stand outside of downtown crossing, we bought a tree from a Jewish man and brought it home on the t.

All of the ornaments and garland are homemade and food related, which feels quite fitting.


Here is a montage of how we made the cinnamon-applesauce ornaments, the same technique Krystal and I made at a cooking class in Salt Lake City several years ago.

The ingredients. We followed the recipe on the McCormick website, and added a dallop of glue.

The cookie cutters. We made a special trip to target for these beauties.

Mr. P mixing the dough. It smells so good! And kept the apartment smelling that way for the next week.

Rolling the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. I don't have a rolling pin, so we improvised with a bottle of tequila.

Cutting the "cookies." Pro-tip: we used a drinking straw to make the hole for ribbon.

And they're reading for the oven. Two and a half hours at 200F.

I was so excited by these, that we segued straight into salt dough ornaments. The white snowflakes turned out beautifully, but we had a bit more trouble with the red. I forgot the step in the recipe which seals in the color (spray them with cooking spray), and we ran out of non-stick cookie sheets. They are still on the pan (several days later).

"Having fun isn't hard...

when you've got a library card!"


Isn't it pretty? And it hangs right there on my keychain. I finally signed up for my library card, and promptly checked out a small mountain of books. Here is my reading list at the moment:

It's amazing how I've almost completely switched over to nonfiction (and a few crafty books thrown in there).

on my needles

I've been knitting like crazy since the first snow flurry in October. The snow promptly melted and the weather returned to fall, but not in time to dissuade us from making mulled apple cider and purchasing a drawer-full of wool yarn. I've put my first attempt at a sweater on hold to make a few Christmas gifts. Here is a glimpse of what I'm working on now.

I'll take another photo and link to the pattern once I'm finished and this gift has been gifted.

cool for cats

For the past few weeks I have been volunteering at the local petsmart. These cats are so adorable that I don't mind waking up early on my day off to clean up their poop.

fluff fest

It was news to me that neighboring Somerville is home to fluff, or marshmallow creme. Phil and I went to the fluff fest, the annual festival celebrating Somerville's ingenuity.

The fluffmobile.

Me as fluffboy, the super hero of the day.

Sam Adams

I just uploaded the photos of my Pentax from the past few months, so here are a few activities since I've moved to Cambridge.

Mr. P's fall birthday was the perfect excuse for us to take a surprise (for him) visit to the Sam Adam's brewery. Their free tour and free sampling room fit with my unemployed budget, and I think Phil had a great time. Not being a beer drinker myself, he got my 4 ounce sample to boot.

Phil in the tasting room.

Enjoying myself in the gift shop.

My gift to Phil: the amazing sillly straw.

thankful

I spent thanksgiving with Deepak, one of my awesome friends from frosh year at Tech, and other folks in his department. It was a potluck, and I made acorn squash in Deepak's kitchen. D made yummy cranberry corn bread and we had a great time in the kitchen catching up with each other. (A big thank you to the beautiful Marissa for satiating my ridiculous desire for a frilly apron! It was christened at this meal.) At the potluck, I met (and re-met) new people, and we ate and played charades. It was a great time, and it made me miss the close-knit-ness of a department. But I'm still enjoying my year away from textbooks and problem sets, so I didn't reminisce for too long.