Last night I got scared from listening to David Bowie’s music.

And then I tried to cut my own hair.

The following exchange happened earlier this afternoon as I was walking to my office, and on the phone with my mom:

Mom: So bla bla bla..

(A car approaches me, slows down)

Me: Oh, wait, someone’s yelling at me.

Mom: What are they saying?

Me: Heh, he said “I just want you to know, you’re beautiful”

Mom: HA!  Drunks!

Me: Thanks Mom.

From the K State Rodeo last night:

Yesterday my friend Ally called me to say she was stuck in traffic on the connector.  “You have to guess why, though,” she said.
“Impromptu dance party?” I asked.
“Good guess, but no,” she said.  “There’s a zebra on the highway!”
For real, there was a zebra on the loose in my old hood!

Atlanta, you constantly one up yourself with awesomeness!

Somehow - SOMMMMMEHOW - NCARB accepted my hours from when I was working in Atlanta.  Even though I thought I was going to get screwed by their new 6 month deadline rule.  Anyway, I’m feeling significantly closer to getting that architecture license, and despite all the hiccups, I’m actually thinking that this thing is really gonna happen.  So now I have to focus on studying, and actually taking those (7) parts of the ARE.  I actually feel sparks of interest in my work again.  Phew!

On a side note, this means I’m that much closer to taking a summer sabbatical (unpaid leave, really…) after I get everything worked out, and doing the Appalachian Trail, woot woot!!

I saw this at the store yesterday and I laughed out loud.

HA!

(my future book cover)

My aunt asked me to make a dish of Beef Wellington for my Grandmother’s birthday.  So because I’ve never even seen it before, I said “hell yes” plus I’ll even take some pictures as I go (for the insurance company, when I set the oven on fire again).  So here’s how it went:

Start off with a 3 pound beef tenderloin, lots of mushrooms (I had baby portabellas and a dried northwoods blend) some red wine, about 12 slices of prosciutto,  and two sheets of puff pastry.  Spices to follow along later.  SO PAY ATTENTION!

Grab your loin and rub it down with some oil.  Yep.  Ok, enough!  Just a little bit!  Now salt and pepper it, put it in the pan, (you should have preheated your oven to 400 by now) and stick it in the oven for approximately 35 minutes.  When it’s done cooking, stick it in the fridge.  Chop up the mushrooms into tiny bits.  You can use the food processor, but just make sure to pulse them so that you don’t end up with a mess.  Side note here, those dried mushrooms, you can put them in a warm pot with about half cup of  wine and half cup of water till they soak up everything, only then chop them up.  Now put all the mushrooms in a hot pan with some butter, a generous amount of thyme and a little garlic, cook for about 10 minutes.  Pour some wine in there and cook it down for another 10 minutes.  When you’re done they look like braaaaaaains…

Now you need to lay out a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter, then lay the prosciutto down on it, then the mushrooms, then the beef, then cover the loin with the rest of the mushrooms, and roll the whole log of it up in the plastic wrap again.  Kinda like this, but with more mushrooms on top of it.

After that chilled for a while, you can flatten out the puff pastry sheets, and roll out the log onto them.  Wrap it all up so that it’s like a burrito, and then put it in the pan and back in the oven for another 30-35 minutes.  Whenever that pastry looks good.  OK PARTY PEOPLE, LET’S EAT THIS MEAT CAKE!

I woke up yesterday morning to see this across the street from me.  This morning, I went over to snap a picture, and I noticed something crumpled at the bottom of it, looking vaguely human.  What was it?  I cautiously approached.  It could have been a college kid, passed out.  Oh!  It’s a blow up doll, of course!
I really feel like it dresses up the neighborhood.  Either way it put me in a good mood for the last two days.  I showed it to my mom, and her response was “Oh, everybody thinks they’re bigger than 6 inches.”