tomorrow night, ethiopian. 6

Last weekend was awesomely productive! It must be the extra sunlight, I think.

Friday, we watched our beloved college hockey team get trounced by the evil, flatheaded, pantsless Badgers. It was to be expected, but it sucked. After the game ended, we went to Memory Lanes to watch the Dropsteppers. Their set barely lasted an hour, so we went to Town Talk afterward.

I kind of felt like we were cheating on the old Town Talk, but the bartender poured two Jameson shots for us within a minute of us sitting down. So yeah, at least that part’s unchanged.

Saturday, we went to sign the contract and make a down payment on our reception venue. Both my parents accompanied us, so we got the whole tour again (it was good to see it undecorated this time), and we also discussed ceremony locales. So far so good, as far as the wedding planning goes! I’m glad my parents are so excited about it, even if my mother does want me to invite the entire universe.

In the evening, we met Missy for dinner at the Industrial, then my sister picked us all up and we went to see the Gophers in person.

It ended in a 3-3 tie, but we were really happy about that. The Badgers are much better, so any non-loss is something to get excited about. Also, Mariucci was the loudest it’s been this year. I love that.

(I sent off our usual Final Five order today. I can’t handle the idea of selling them again, so third time’s gonna be the charm, right?)

Sunday was a good day for doin’ stuff. I finished up a pair of socks and blocked both those and a cowl. Making progress on my Christmas knitting! (Ignore my gross hair-dying-and-also-blocking towel.)

We went out shopping, and stopped at Coinstar to turn our change jar into an Amazon gift certificate. With that $120 in change, some gift certificates I already had saved up, and the $50 gift card I earned being a geography nerd at work the other day, we’re now just $7 short of a new iPod. I’ll have another gift certificate arriving within a month, and then it shall be ours for FREE.

In the evening, I dyed yarn! It was so easy, I can’t believe I’ve never done it before. All you need is some wool (or other animal fiber) yarn, some Kool-Aid packets, and a big pot.

It may come as no surprise that my first batch is orange. I was also able to mark the twelfth item off my 101 Things list. Yay!

While Matt prepped for our Trini feast, I made up a batch of pomegranate bitters. I had to clean everything afterwards, as half the kitchen was covered in what looked like blood.

Then I made doubles, the Trinidad street food consisting of puffy fried bara and curried chickpeas. With Matt’s browndown recipe, it was amazing. I couldn’t believe how perfectly the bara came out; they were exactly like Harry Singh’s.

Tonight I’m doing my best to get some work done on my Hawaii travel journal while Matt’s out for a few hours. The pictures are almost all in place, so now I either have to do some typing or hire a savant to decode my scribbles in the paper journal. I’m kind of leaning the latter direction, because it’s a lot of work. Anyone have recommendations?