Movie

We walked into town today to see the new Fast and Furious movie. John, because he wanted to see that movie. Me, because there was popcorn involved.

The popcorn at British movie theaters isn't as good as in American theaters (it isn't fresh). But it's better than no popcorn at all.

Meanwhile Back at the Flat

I tried out a new running route today. I really like the park but I find that if I run too many laps in one place it is harder for me to be motivated to continue. Whereas if I run away from home and then have to run back that is great motivation to keep going. Especially when I will get cold pretty quickly if I stop moving!

So today I ran through the park, up to UEA, and around the lake. It went pretty well and I think it is about the same distance I've been running, but it was hard to tell because I got caught behind a group of elementary school children and that cost me a lot of time. There are also some hills which aren't fun to run on but provide an added challenge. And I am hoping that the fact that most of this run is on soft ground might help my shins.

After I got back home and spent a few hours thinking about it I finally cleaned the kitchen. It was a total disaster after last night's cooking adventures. Everything was covered in grease and there was Buffalo sauce spilled all over one counter and down the front of the washing machine (a great argument for not having laundry appliances in the kitchen). This is all not to mention the tremendous pile of dirty pots and pans. It took me over two hours but the kitchen is now as clean as it ever is. John went to school to work on some papers today and got home just as I was finishing up. Lucky boy.

American Food

There was an event at John's school tonight for the international students. Everyone was supposed to bring a dish from their country. We decided to try to make jalapeno poppers and Buffalo wings.

Fortunately, our car rental started today, so we were able to drive to one of the larger grocery stores. We found all the ingredients for making Buffalo wings, but no jalapenos. There were some fresh red chili peppers so we decided to try using them instead.

I made some vegan chili poppers just in case anyone who was coming was a vegan. Those I stuffed with a mixture of tofu, garlic, and a little oil and vinegar. I coated them with oil and gave them a light flour batter. This batter came off as soon as John put them in the oil.

The regular chili poppers were stuffed with cream cheese and had egg holding the batter on instead of oil. That batter stayed on a little better in the fry pan. My finger tips still burn from pitting the chilies.

John made the Buffalo wing sauce from the Anchor Bar recipe. It's mostly butter, cayenne pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Then he fried the wings and coated them in the sauce.

At the dinner we had lots of good international foods and our contributions were well received. Pretty much everyone liked the Buffalo wings. The chilies were a little hotter than we imagined. People from European countries had the hardest time with them, but the Nigerians said that they were just right.

As always it was great to share dinner with the other students. I hope we will all be able to get together again before everyone leaves for the summer.

John Crumbs

Today I went to sit on the couch after John had been there and saw that there were crumbs on the cushion. I asked John what he had been eating because I wanted to know how grossed out I should be by what I almost sat on.

He said they were John crumbs.

Is that better or worse than cookie crumbs?

Mexican?

John called me yesterday when I was in town to say that he had found a Mexican restaurant. We both love Mexican food and have missed it since we have been here. John was so excited he called Ashby to see if he and Christine would want to eat there with us tonight. Ashby told him that they had eaten there before and weren't impressed.

Nevertheless, John and I decided to form our own opinion. Besides, even if the food wasn't that great, we could still have margaritas.

We did go there for dinner tonight. Not even the margaritas were good.

I'm beginning to think that only Mexicans make good Mexican food. And there are significantly more Mexicans in Georgia than there are in Norwich.

Down Town

I went into town today to meet with Libby the librarian. I will be telling stories for America week in April, which is pretty awesome. We set up some more meetings to work on the Americans during WWII presentation that I will hopefully be taking to schools.

Then I went to Pilch, which is the sports store owned by Jarrold. It has finally gotten too cold for me to run in the cold weather running clothes I so cleverly bought on sale last summer. I have been making due by wearing a sweat shirt, but that hasn't been optimal. So, I got a jacket that the young man in the store assured me will keep me warm even though it's not very thick. Apparently just keeping the wind off is sufficient when you are moving around. I also got some running gloves because my hands were sweating in regular gloves and it is too cold to go without. And I got a skullcap for similar reasons, except having to do with my head instead of my hands. Coolest thing ever: the skullcap has a hole for my ponytail!

After I got home I practiced guitar for a long time. I did some work on my Wikipedia Song, because someday I'd like to make it more presentable. I wrote out the chord progressions and even looked up some chords in the book I got for Christmas. But then I realized that I haven't quite learned all the stuff I need to so I can make the song truly awesome, so it is still a work in progress.

I'm attempting falafel and couscous again tonight, but this time I bought the falafal pre-assembled. The menu:
couscous with bell pepper, onion, raisins, and seasonings
falafal balls
cucumber with houmous
olives with feta (just for me, John doesn't like olives)

Oh, and here is yesterday's fog. This is a view from the bedroom window which looks out the back of the flat.

Don't Eat That!

On the day that John graduated from law school we grabbed some food at a sandwich shop with Heath and Kelly. We were sitting outside. John had ordered some kind of pie and eaten most of it. The last bite of pie was just sitting there on his plate while we kept talking. I thought he was full and wasn't going to eat it. So when a fluffy fuzz ball floated by on the breeze and landed on his pie, I didn't say anything at first. But then, without warning, John scooped up the pie on his fork. I said, "There's a fuzzy thing..." Too late, he ate it. He ate it and was wondering what kind of fuzzy thing he had also eaten. He told me that in the future I needed to start my warning with "Don't eat that!"

Tonight while John and I were eating cookies, I thought a crumb from the cookie I was eating fell on the floor. I reached to the floor and picked up a large crumb but it wasn't from the cookie I was eating so I determined that it had been on the floor for more than a day. I set it on the table. Not a minute later, John picked up the crumb off the table and said, "You missed this." It was moving towards his mouth. I quickly shouted, "Don't eat that! It was on the floor." This time it worked.

But let's talk about food that is edible. This week I have cooked chicken masala (my favorite so far), Mexican pizza for which I had to make my own refried beans, and spaghetti with chicken (I didn't have to look that one up).