New Hard Drive Number 2

So for the second time since mid August (which happens to be when I came back to Vancouver for the current school year) my little white Apple Macbook has needed a new hard drive... The first time was traumatizing because I lost everything that was on  my computer. To top it of I was relying on my laptop to search craigslist for a basement suite while I stayed in a hotel. Although I have to say that that time was more sudden and definite and the signs were obvious like how it randomly stopped doing what it was doing and went blank and when I turned it back on it showed a screen with a sad broken file or something. This time wasn't so painful because I didn't have much on my computer. The signs were not so obvious it was being extremely slow for a couple of days. I have experienced this before but usually some update pops up and I install it and everything is fixed and back to normal. But when it took 3 hours for my laptop to turn on on Wednesday night I knew I had done the right thing by making an appointment at the Apple store "Genius Bar". So I had hoped this latest problem was going to be a simple fix for the Apple guys but it turned in to another new hard drive. I will tell you something... If it wasn't for the Apple Genius' I would have given up on Apple right about now. If I was dealing with any other computer company I would be tearing my hair out. Despite the problems that you can encounter (which is less often then with other computer brands) the Genius Bar people are what help keep "Mac People" loving Apple. The tech people currently ware blue shirts that say "Not all heros wear capes." and that is so true.

COMMENTS!

I finally got some comments! Just wanted to let you know that if you don't have a blogger account please leave your name in the comment.

Boring Weekend.

It has been a boring rainy weekend. Did my normal grocery shopping and cleaned a little. I did attempt to make Hummus which came out ok but a little too liquidy. I also made a large batch of Pho which I will be eating for the next week (that's not a bad thing). And thats about it...

Tickets Home!

I just bought my tickets home for the Christmas Holiday. Thats exciting. I miss my parents and it will be good to see them. I will also be getting my temporary fill of my cat Tigger. Why is it so difficult to buy plane tickets? Why are they so damned expensive? I mean all the "reasonably priced" tickets are for flights that leave at like 5AM... booking tickets seems to get more painful and tedious every year. but at least I get to go home for about 12 days depending if you are the kind of person who counts the day they leave or not.

(No I am not flying Air Canada but I wanted a picture of a plane ticket and I liked this one.)

Boyfriend Cookies!

So today my boyfriend (whom is named Colin but shall be referred to as "Boyfriend" for the sake of limiting confusion) baked me cookies and gave them to me while I was on campus. They are the best Chocolate Chip Cookies I have ever had (no offense Mom). They have a really good flavor and are chewy, which I like, but they aren't that "under cooked" kind of chewy. Boyfriend was kind enough to supply the recipe for these cookies. Boyfriend says he made two small batches and the key to nice chewy cookies from this recipe is to keep the mixing at a minimum and not over mix the batter. I like how that recipe site has the option of changing the number of servings and automatically adjusts the ingredient amounts. I suggest you try this recipe out and don't forget to let me know how you liked them.

UBC Apple Festival

So today I ventured to the UBC Apple Festival at the Botanical Gardens. I left the my basement suite at about 1:30PM and it was cold and raining and by the time I got off the bus 30 minutes later at UBC it was sunny and warm and sort of humid. Oh the randomness of Vancouver weather you have to both love and hate it. This is my third straight year of going. It is fun going and reminds me of how my parents and I would go to this one apple festival in  Pennsylvania almost annually when I was a kid. So for a toonie entrance fee I can in some way indulge in childhood memories.

So the first thing I did when I arrived was buy a caramel apple to take home and enjoy later this weekend. It cost $4 for one small-ish caramel apple... HIGHWAY ROBBERY! But I only have it once a year so I shelled out for it. I also purchased a small cup of hot apple cider for $1.50 which I think is a bit steep for the size but it was really good. I had a look around and the festival never gets any bigger its been that same size and same stalls every year. Its nice that there is no drastic change to the quality of the festival but when it doesn't grow you wonder whether the festival is truly successful. Over all it was a fun trip.

As per usual to the past two years all the apple tasting sessions for the day were full. Next year I will go super early and finally get to do the apple tasting I swear! On my way out of the festival I saw a sign hanging from a tree with the name of my favorite apple; Pink Lady! So Yummy and delicious!

By the time I got home at 4:30PM it was raining again...

Laundry

My laundry desperately needs to be done. But it is rainy today so I don't feel like doing. Although, I realized it is going to be rainy most days and if I don't do it on rainy days it will never get done. That is some good reasoning skills right there!

Bunny Cupcakes

I was looking around at blogs today and came across a blog/website of a woman who bakes and saw these. Cupcakes decorated as bunnies. I love bunnies and I am hoping I can come up with an excuse to make these.

Thanksgiving Day

So today I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner. It went pretty well. I started prep earlier in the day by doing things like cooking the onions for the stuffing and the green bean casserole as well as the sausage for the stuffing. The picture to the left shows the onions for the stuffing in the bowl, the onions for the green bean casserole next to the sausage.

I also made the dessert early in the day. I made what my family calls "Whipped Cream Log" its basically whipped cream and Nabisco/Mr. Christie's (depending whether you are in the US or Canada) chocolate wafers. It is simple and sort of bad for you but I love it!

My final menu was baked turkey breast, Green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, HOMEMADE gravy (I didn't end up having to use my "back up plan" canned gravy... yuck), canned jellied cranberry sauce (for my guest), bread and butter pickles, pickled onion, black olives, dinner rolls and whipped cream log. That was a list of everything that was served on the table and probably far too much detail then anyone would ever want. Also the plates on the table are a brand new set I bought at Ikea yesterday. I need a complete set of dishes not just two bowls and two plates like I've had for the last 2 years.

I told you I'd post food porn of my Thanksgiving.

Fridge Is Gone!

So after being contacted by several people who, I responded to but never heard from again, the fridge is gone. Sold it to a nice young woman and I am glad it is out of here. Other then that all that has been going on is me gearing up to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the first time.

Marjoram

All I did today was get marjoram (the spice) for the stuffing I will make on Monday. I went to a grocery store where some spices are in bulk bins so you can buy the amount you want. It cost me 8 cents and it filed the 2oz container I am storing it in. Not bad.

My Fridge Won't Be Sold

The guy came and looked at my little fridge and said it was in great condition and was exactly what he wanted then gave me a ridiculously low offer... What a waste of time and he got kind of mad at me. Oh well screw him.

A Boring Day

Nothing much has happened today or will happen today. The only thing is that I am finally selling my small fridge that I used in my dorm. I had it listed on craigslist for nearly a month. So by this evening it won't be sitting useless in my living room/dining room/kitchen anymore. So at least I am happy about that.

Turkey Breast... CHECK

Looks like I will be having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner after all. I secured some turkey breast and even bought some sausage at a local butcher for the stuffing. So the Thanks giving menu will be: Turkey breast, mashed potatoes, moms stuffing, peas, corn and gravy. I will have a *gulp* package of gravy mix if I can't manage to scrounge up so real stuff from the juices from the chicken breast. I'll post about my lonely Thanksgiving on Monday and attach some food porn (a.k.a. Pretty pictures of food).

Canadian Thanksgiving= Long Weekend

As an American in Canada I still haven't gotten used to having Thanksgiving before Halloween. Although the one good thing about this is that I get two Thanksgivings and two opportunities to eat stuffing. Oh how I love my Mom's stuffing recipe. Normally I like long weekends but this time Im not excited at all. All I foresee for this long weekend is doing the laundry, cleaning my bathroom, studying and boredom. If I can find a turkey breast at the grocery store I'll bother to make myself a Thanksgiving dinner for one and I may even bother to do it again in November.

Another Long Wednesday

Wednesdays are my longest day of the week. I get up at 9 or 10am and then have class. I have a break form 4 to 7pm then a class till 10pm but I usually don't get home till 11pm. In short Wednesdays suck. When I have that ridiculous break between 4 and 7pm I go and sit in the same place which is a lounge in the building where my night class is. and every week there is alway some couple that is making out on one of the couches being all lovie-dovie. Its a different couple every week... I guess there must be something about this lounge. I looking at the most recent couple right now. I find witnessing this both sickening and depressing. I wish they would stop but at they same time I wish I had that sort of relationship too. Sometimes life is just works hard to make you feel bad about yourself. What makes Wednesdays worse is that all I have to look forward to for dinner is instant noodles because who wants to cook at 11pm?

What's for Dinner?

I am hoping this is going to end up a Foodie/Crafter/About My Life blog. So for the first food centered post. Tonight I made Tuna Noodle Casserole. Yes I know there are lots of bad memories connected to it but if you have a good recipe it can be great. The recipe I use can be found at this link. It makes a good product although I add sliced black olives... strange yes but it adds a certain something to it. Also I don't do the breadcrumb topping because I find that it is really dry after being baked but thats just personal preference. I'd like to know what you think about Tuna Noodle Casserole.

Dirty Dishes Have Been Washed!

I couldn't stop thinking about the dishes after I wrote my last post so I managed to wash them all before I had to go to school. Yay me! And yay for guilting myself!

Dirty Dishes

Why is it that even when most of your dishes are in the sink dirty you don't have any motivation to wash them? And you end up washing things as you need then so they end up back in the sink after your done with it. This is the first time I have lived completely on my own. I had lived in a dorm and other types of campus housing aragements before one of which where we had a kitchen. So I have washed dishes before and this is not new. It is sort of overwhelming that I am the only person who can and will take care of the place I live. I "own" more rooms then I ever have because I have a kitchen/living room a bathroom and a bedroom. All I have ever had all to myself at home or away was a bedroom and not suddenly I am in control of a space that is about 3 times the size of my room back home and easily 5 or 6 times the size of the dorm rooms I had when I lived on campus. I live living here on my own. I like that I don't have to share the kitchen with 5 other girls and there for don't get nearly no space in the cabinets or am trying to cook while some one else is. I like that the furniture here is mine. As a student most all of my furniture is Ikea but I didn't buy it there. I bought all my Ikea furniture for half the original price or less used and in great condition from various people off of craigslist. Although I did go to Ikea to make my furniture wish list. I feel pretty good about that because I got all the furniture I wanted without compromising at a great price and almost all of it is in fabulous condition. I also like that if I ever have to move everything except my "Klippan" couch will come apart and be flat to move or store. I like my little basement suite... it's mine but it gets lonely.

Wow it really shows....

I was just rereading my first post and realized just how much my ADHD showed. I mean that post was all over the place and I randomly switched topics several times... Oh well, I am what I am.

First Blog Post

I've never had a blog before and am a little unsure what exactly I will do with this blog. I assume I will talk about my crochet projects and what I cook as well as tell other random tidbits about my life. For example if someone pisses me off on the bus or something good happens. First off there are a few things you should know about me. I live in Vancouver British Columbia as a student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) But I am an American from the state of Maryland. So I AM an international student but a lot of Canadian students call American international students "diet international" because the US isn't far and it not really that different. I think that is funny. Also I really like to cook and I think about food a lot. I especially love Asian food. This past March I taught myself how to crochet my watching YouYube Videos. I originally learned because I thought Amigurumi were so cute and I wanted to be able to make them. But I soon realized there are only so many stuffed animals you can make so I have  moved on to more useful things. I also taught myself tunisian crochet and have been working of the same "lap robe" since June. I will make a separate post on the project later. Another thing about me is that my favorite colors are Teal and Turquoise. Most of the things I own are some shade of those two colors. I have a theory on why I like these colors so much but that will also be its own post later on. I think thats enough for now.