And I was trying so hard to be consistent...

Sorry again guys. I left you stranded, without anything new from me for the past couple weeks. I know you all have been just dying to know what's going on my life. Sadly, I am not writing this from a Coffee Bean, but rather from my own apartment. Hooray! Well, I can honestly say that not much is new. We'll just do a short, quick fire-style recap, shall we? (That may or may not be the correct usage of "quick fire," but whatevs, it's my blog and I can make up my own grammar. Ahaha.)

Thanksgiving. Erica's cousins were in town so we had Thanksgiving at our apartment. It was tasty. We made lots of sides and had tons of food, of which I have been eating for the past couple of days. I think we had about 7 carb/starch dishes. Aahahah. It was perfect. I think in heaven, clouds will be made of different potato dishes. And it will be glorrrrrious.

Realllly should have taken "the spread" photo before we ate.

Okay, so. We had yams. Two different dishes actually. But only one of them has a dramatic background. We made the yam part of the dish and then put the marshmallows on top. And these were no ordinary marshmallows, they were giants because Erica and I decided to do our Thanksgiving grocery shopping on Thanksgiving day and there were absolutely no mini-marshmallows to be found. But hey, giant marshmallows just means more marshmallowy goodness in the end, right? And at Thanksgiving, isn't everyone wanting more marshmallows on their yams? Um, YES. So. That's beside the point. The dish was done, all that needed to happen was for them to get brown and crispy on top. We thought we could just pop the bowl in the broiler for a couple minutes and it would be done, no problem. But of course the dish was too tall for the broiler and pretty much touched the gas-y flames in our oven. Andddd, the bottom of the bowl said "No broiler." So that ended that conversation with the oven. Next idea--how about we put it in the toaster oven? Okay! So we did and were quite excited that it just barely fit. I put it on bake at about 350 degrees. I look over a couple minutes later and flames are licking out the toaster oven door. So after the initial screams, I open the little door and try to pull the bowl out while it's on fire. Almost feel like I blacked out due to adrenaline because I don't really remember how the fire went out...

So we just plucked all those marshmallows off and put new ones on and no one was the wiser. Except Erica and I, now knowing that we can't put a yam dish in the toaster oven. We ended up putting the newly-marshmallowed yams in the oven on a high heat, which got the job done. Who knew the best option would be the most basic? Hah.

Look what Erica brought back for me from San Francisco!! Such a cute piece of bread. Didn't want to eat it because it would be like eating a small friend.

Jess and I went on a hike a couple weeks ago to the M*A*S*H film site. It was a little anticlimactic, seeing as how neither of us have ever watched an episode. But they had great informational signs. And there was a guy there, wearing an aloha shirt and jeans, clipping some branches and making it look nice. And then he sat on a picnic table and drank a big gulp. Next to his car. Which made me slightly annoyed because Jess and I just hiked for an hour and a half to get there. Ridiculous.

We tried to reenact the poses on the photos. Needless to say, we got weird looks from the aloha shirt guy.

Past family pictures. Just because I missed them more than usual this past week.

Hard to believe it's been almost a whole year. Crazy.

Well, I'll end with my usual promise of posting more regularly. Ahahah.

Holla.

Pierce, Southern California needs you

So, remember the movie Dante's Peak? Well, when I woke up this morning, that's what it looked like outside. Sans the volcano, but double the smoke. Luckily, Erica and I were hermits today and stayed inside, where we kept cool by the window unit.

Alicia, this one's for you, courtesy of an LA Times article about the San Gabriel Mountains.

I was looking around our apartment today and realized that Erica and I are pretty much set in our respective rooms, but the rooms that we both share or that guests would spend the most time in--they are pretty much bare. Two pieces of furniture in the living room, stacks of my art stuff in the dining area/office/study space plus my drafting table and my bookshelf. Nothing on the walls. It looks like we are moving out, not moving in. Yikes. But, then again, settling in takes money. Money that we would both rather spend on food and rent than buying frames and paint. Oh the joys of being young and unemployed (don't worry, I'm working on the unemployment part).

Erica and I made chicken pesto pizza for dinner. Cost? Of dough, flour and cheese (we had everything else), grand total is...what? $7? I actually am not sure. But it wasn't much. And it was tastyyyyyyyy. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Turns out that to use our gas oven, we have to hold a match (or any open flame whatever) under the burner beneath the oven chamber. It sounds as dangerous as it is. Especially since you have to turn the gas on first, and then hold an open flame to it. Erica did it. Not me. She earned herself a battle wound of a blister.

I am now in the process of transferring legal things over to California. Car insurance, renter's insurance (whatttt???), driver's license, car registration, California plates, AAA membership--am I becoming an adult? Well, not quite yet. My parents would beg to differ. {Smile here}

Watching: August Rush. Robin Williams is creepy in this movie.