Holiday Weekend

So my holiday weekend hasn't been a super fun vacation, but I can't complain too much. I got to see some awesome friends.

I spent Saturday driving to KS. When I arrived, I had dinner with my friend Juli Anna, her mother, and her two tiny people. Juli Anna made parmesan chicken, and then I helped keep the baby happy while his momma got time to eat and talk to his daddy on Skype. Grandma managed the two year old's bath meanwhile. It was nice to see my friend, but boy she looked beat. I hope I get a job soon so that I can move closer and try to help her out until her hubby returns.

After that, I saw a whole slew of graduate school friends at a Halloween party sponsored by several of the graduate student groups. I was a bit too tired to handle so many people, but it was nice to see them all. I wore the sock monkey hat as my costume...lame I know.

Today I spent the day with Mariya for the most part. We were pretty mellow because I was tired and so was she. I also spent some time with my friend Maggie while Mariya was at a family event for a couple hours.

Now I am in a hotel several hours away. I'm pretty happy because I am showered and scrubbed clean. I have an interview in the morning. Wish me luck!

Then tomorrow after the interview, I will finally be going home. I will drive the 8 or 9 hours back to my parents' to pick up my cat and to trade my subaru for their truck (for moving purposes). Tuesday, I'll drive down to Denver to drop Dad at the airport, pick up my coat from Kerrie's, and drop my loaner laptop at the Denver office before I head back to GJ.

I'm so close to being home, and as much as the driving makes me feel tired, the idea of being home in my own bed after over a week makes me really happy.

Post-Wrock & Dinner Follow-Up

(I like hyphens and consider them the most under-used punctuation mark. I dedicate today to them.)

So Mariya and I went to the store to pick up all the tasty things necessary for dinner last night and for me to make scones for Chris today. Then Christy and Ryane arrived at the perfect time for us to race to make dinner a bit last-minute because I spent ALL day working on applying for a job.

We made a shrimp "risotto" with Bulgur (cracked wheat) instead of Arborio rice. It was meant to be a super healthy dinner, and it was, but we did not sacrifice an ounce of flavor for our tasty dinner. It was amazing, so I thought I would share my version of the instructions because the original could have been more efficient, and we took the advice of several reviewers, so I've included those modifications.

Grocery List
2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic--minced 1 cup bulgur 1 can veggie stock 1/2 teaspoon salt 12 ounces raw shrimp	2 cups corn kernels 1 red bell pepper--chopped 5-6 stalks asparagus--chopped 2 limes--1 juiced, 1 in wedges 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1/4 cup cilantro--chopped

Cooking Process

(If shrimp is frozen, put it in a sink full of water to thaw.) Fill a small pot of water and put it on the stove to boil. Put a large pot on the stove at medium heat with 2 tablespoons of oil. Mince garlic, and add to warm oil in the large pot (leave for about a minute). Begin chopping asparagus, pepper, and cilantro--continue as you can or get backup. Pour bulgar into pot with oil and garlic. Pour veggie stock over bulgur, and stir. Add boiling water from small pot as needed to keep bulgur a soupy consistency. Cook bulgur for 8-10 minutes. Keep chopping veggies. Then, add shrimp, and stir constantly until shrimp is pink. I recommend throwing asparagus into your remaining boiling water to soften it a tiny bit while the shrimp cooks. When the shrimp is pink, toss the corn, asparagus, red pepper, and cilantro into the pot. Stir regularly. While the veggies are cooking, squeeze the lime if you haven't already, and add the juice to the pot. Add the red pepper flakes. The veggies only need 1-2 minutes, so you're probably done, unless you were really fast with the lime.

This serves 4-6 people, easily. Serve it with the lime wedges. The more lime the better!

Once we ate that (and most of us had seconds), Mariya and I took off for the 4th Annual Hallows and Horcruxes Ball, a wizard rock (aka wrock) concert put on by Kansas State University's Children's and Adolescent Literature Community (ChALC). It's kind of nerdy, but it's fun. My favorite wrock band is The Whomping Willows from Rhode Island. I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but being a part of the K-State fandom has been a lot of fun. I realized last night that that was probably my last wizard rock concert since I am leaving K-State. I may have to actually keep up with some of the bands because in the last two years I have seen 5 shows in Manhattan, KS. Wow.

Of course, instead of going out for the after party with the bands, I stayed in and read the first few chapters of Gay-neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukjeri for my Indian Children's Lit class. I'm not sure what to expect from this book yet, but it really is about a boy and his pigeon. It's not a metaphor.