Winter Adventure:

So I went to mail my municipality tax form in (I don't get a refund since I only had an extra cent come out of my pay ;_; ), and oh hey it's snowing. Cool. In fact, I can feel the snow landing on me even though there's no wind, because it's clumping. On the way back to my building (There's no way to indicate that mail in my mailbox is outgoing, not old, so I walked out to the mailbox out by the bus stop to drop it in), the snow is clumping even MORE. It was glorious. My footprints on the way out were already snowed over.

Kitchen Adventure:

I decided to make some butter chicken from the paste my parents got me as part of their FOOD FOR CHRISTMAS :DDDD gift. I didn't realize until I was cutting it up that I'd gotten thin-sliced chicken breasts, so I've got slices of chicken more than pieces. Oh, and this particular brand has the vaguest directions I've ever seen on a product that didn't involve translation issues. It's simmering right now, and the apartment smells awesome, so it'll probably turn out fine, but IT MIGHT NOT OH GOD.

At least I know the rice will come out of the rice cooker fine.

ETA: SUCCESS! OM NOM NOM. Plus, I am so awesome that about half a second after the timer for the chicken went off, my rice cooker clicked over to keep-it-warm mode.

So, last time in Kroger, I discovered they sold premade hamburger patties with onion in. I checked pricing, and with my card they were close enough to buying just plain 'ol, make the patties yourself ground beef, so I bought some. I just sent one throught the tiny George Foreman my mom garage sale'd for me when I moved in.

AMAZING. NOM NOM NOM.

So, as I was making the last pushpop my supplies would allow, I noticed something.

When did SunnyD become the official name of the drink? (Just like that, no space.) I mean, imagine coming across the drink for the first time (hard, I know), and seeing it written like that. How is it pronounced? The hell is the D for?

I mean, seriously. Knowing everyone just calls you Sunny D anyway is one thing, but renaming yourself SunnyD? For shame.

Has any trip to Jungle Jims ever ended in a state other than everyone going "I didn't mean to speeeeeend this much!"

Yesterday was amaaaaaaazing.

So, work ends with a half-hour office meeting that, while fairly standard, was still a half hour of pay off the phones.

Anime was full of win, except for technical difficulties preventing Kino. Instead, Ashley was planning for a double bill of Gurren, but when we saw that Ghost Hunter was actually getting interesting, we decided to watch two episodes of that instead, to finish the arc.

Then the group all travel up to Phan Shin for our usual dinner, and something prompts me to tell someone about the time I played Apples to Apples as a drinking game. So it gets sort-of-decided that we're (all 11 of us at the table) heading to the Orphanage to play, and so we go. By way of Iggie's.

And we get there, and play (we lost some of the group on the way, but it's okay) and have fun, but aren't playing as a drinking game since shots of rum really don't work for most people without chaser, and there's none in the apartment.

Now, when we arrived at the apartment, Erick immediately yelled for me to come to his room, and I'm all "I have people with me" and he yells that I have to come there anyway. So I do, and he,Marie, and Jen are sitting on his bed, with a microphone attached to his laptop, recording something or other. Erick makes me say something. I have no idea what to say, say something stupid. Then they want to see who I have over. So I call the group in and all three go HOSHII- SO MANY PEOPLE.

At some point Ari shows back up and I miss it behind me, so I spazz a bit when she comes out from Erick's bedroom. All my guests are LOLing at drunk Erick because he is HYPER.

When the lost people arrive later, there's that mass confusion moment when people are having ideas of where to go and telling them to whoever's nearest, so nobody knows exactly what all the choices we're trying to decide between are.

Eventually, the tired/working-in-the-morning people head out to catch the last bus (meaning we're nearing 2:30 AM here), and the rest of us head to Kroger so I can buy stuff for other people and pick up some cola for my rum. This one guy whose name I cannot remember because I heard it not very much at all gets Sunny D just to have Sunny D. We don't know why.

As I unload my bag-'o-alcohol at the self-checkout, the night-shift guy (whose name I really need to learn - I see him all the time) just kinda nods and asks "Stocking up?" I just kinda laugh back, and when I scan the first bit, it of course asks me to show my ID, so I turn to walk over to him. "Nah, gotcha already."

Which is kind of weird, because I haven't really bought many drinks at Kroger over the summer, and usually, I do while the curly-haired girl is manning the self-checkouts. And I definitely do not look old enough to not be carded. I still get carded for cigs sometimes, and I only have to look eighteen for those.

Anyway, we get back, but a couple of the group lagged because one had a hurt leg, and there's some drama as she thinks we ditched her when it was more that we'd forgotten she wasn't right behind us. The Sunny D is with us, even though Sunny D guy was with the lagger.

So, we start drinking, decide to play Brawl. It's working out. I make raspberry rum and cola for a couple people who want to try it. They like. This reminds this one guy that he wanted to try the Sunny D with the raspberry rum because it would either be amazing or total shit.

IT IS AMAZING. I'M SORRY ASHLEY, THERE IS A NEW NECTAR OF THE GODS.

So we pass it around, so that everyone can try. It tastes familiar on top of the DELICIOUS and nobody can figure it out until Warren goes last and goes for "popsicles? No... PUSH POPS"

Everyone cheers massively, for he is right, and I barely hear the knock on the door.

It's a cop.

I shush everyone (quickly, since they see I'm about to open the door), and open the door.

"So, what are you guys doing?"

"Playing smash brawl."

The cop looks in, can see gamer-looking-types and controllers with cords stretching from couch to tv. "Good way to pass the time. Just keep it down, okay?"

"Alright."

Cop notices an empty bottle of club soda on the floor (It's been waiting to be recycled for bout two weeks at this point, but he doesn't know that.) "Just take it easy on the caffeine."

"Will do."

"You have a good night."

"You too." I close the door.

We brawl a bit more, drinks run out, it's getting late and most people want to go home, though the Orphanage is always open for guests to crash, so everyone heads out. Jen has been passed out in Erick's room since not long after we got back from Kroger (She didn't go with: Erick-Marie-Jen-Ari was a separate set from the rest of us until Ari joined later on), and Ari stays 'cause we've been chatting.

I turn on the oven for some fries, share some drama with Ari that I might not have shared totally sober (it's nothing I was told in confidence or that was based on supposition or anything, mind, just I usually suppress my more gossipy urges, I guess), and we have a nice discussion before she goes to bed on the couch and I head back to my room and, as I finish the fries, figure out what has been making my computer suck lately and fix it.

Oh, and over lunch I stopped at Kofenya and discovered what may be the most amazing fall drink ever. They call it A Walk in the Woods; it's a chai latte with a shot of espresso and Kahlua syrup and it is DELICIOUS.

To summarize: Discover awesome coffee/tea drink, get a half hour's pay for nothing, normal-but-still-epic anime club funtiems, SPONTANEOUS PARTY COMPLETE WITH COPS, fixed computer. Nice.

And these past couple weeks, The Orphanage has finally started becoming the place to hang out I'd hoped it would be from the start of the year. I've had people over as many nighs as not, so that's cool.

So, I finally got around to making butter chicken from the premade sauce and rice box I got from Jungle Jim's, near a month ago. The only prep I needed to do was cut and cook the chicken, so that was nice. I made my own rice, though. It's about done, and if the chicken is as good as it smells, it will be very NOM NOM NOM very soon.

Raspberry rum + cola = very yes.

Also, I recently watched the "There's No Business Like Snow Business" three-parter early on in Power Rangers Zeo's run. At this point Kimberly has been gone about half a season total, Kat around just barely longer.

Kim sends Tommy a breakup letter (which, since nobody knows it will be, Adam starts reading ALOUD, because it was delivered TO THE JUICE BAR BECAUSE APPARENTLY NONE OF THESE KIDS HAS A HOME LOL) at the start of the first episode. By the end of the third, he's with Kat. Wow.

First, I get moved off the campaign of suck at work and back to one here I make sales, FUCK YEAH.

Then, Walking Theatre, where we split up to continue last weeks' work, and I go off with a few others to film some Miami landmarks we planned to, with the addition of catching the ZOO that was Greek Megafair. Well, the sororities were mobbed, anyway, because the tables were in a tight, inward-facing oval. The frats were near-dead.

We get Heather playing in the wadingreflecting pool, and head to the first-year's car to go over to Western. It's a full-on VW BUS. Original curtains, half-broken doors, and everything. We all kind of fell in love with it. It's a deliciously hideous shade of something where yellow,orange, and even bit of green meet and it is amazing.

We pick up some shots on Western, and then we go to get Upham Arch, driving up that little loop 'round Bishop Woods, parking right at the top of it. Right before parking, we pass this older couple on the sidewalk who are maybe a little older than our parents.

Naturally, we ask if we couldn't film them kissing under Upham Arch for a project?

Naturally, they've never heard of that particular Miami tradition, so we explain how kissing under the lamp means you're supposed to get married, and the wife just goes "Well, we've been married 35 years! It had better keep going strong!" And so we film as we walk up to the arch (and man, I haven't seen the area around the stairs up to the arch so green), and the sun is setting behind them and where I expected us to humor us and go for a quick little peck, I think we wound up inspiring a real romantic moment for them. Even if no other good ever came of WTP's current project, that would have made it all worth it.

So we head back to the van, pick up some shots in Goggin, and then I hold the camera out the window for the whole drive from Goggin to the top of High street, then back down to Pulley Tower (with a diversion past the frats on Talawanda) and we have maybe twenty minutes of some of the most gorgeous parts of Miami, and we've got some bits already of the less-than gorgeous parts that'll be contrasted. I'm looking forward to see how it all gets edited together.

Now, though, I'm enjoying a melon-syrup'd milk. It's a dagerously sickly shade fo green, but it's delicious.

A friendly note: It may seem like a good idea to throw some soy sauce in with the rice water when it cooks. It's not.

Also: I now have vanilla and hazelnut syrups for using with my new espresso machine. :DDD

Okay, so.

First: Awesome things are shaping up in the apartment for base camp tiem during Kings Island. Tiny preview: Toku OPs.

Second: OUR TOASTER OVEN MAKES EXCELLENTLY NOMMABLE QUESADILLAS (CULTURAL AUTHENTICITY=VAGUE BUT STILL).

Third: I, completely randomly, decided that what I really need to do is watch every episode of the plot-continuity-present seasons of Power Rangers, so I've got a torrent of the first six seasons (through In Space) including the two movies (even though the first is totes AU and only the Turbo one, which I haven't seen, is in continuity) plus another of Lost Galaxy (which was a weird transition season between polot-continuity and sentai-type resets each year). I told the torrent to only download the rist season and the movies to start. Naturally, the movies, the LARGEST FILES BY FAR HOSHII- were the first to finish.

Also, Power Rangers seasons are ungodly long. Sixty episodes in the first season you guys. Sixty. And the Green Ranger shows up in ep 17. I recall it having taken longer, but apparently I'm mistaken.

...Once I'm done with this I'm probably going to wind up grabbing Lightspeed Rescue (First America-only ranger. I have to look at that now that I know) and Time Force (Last season I saw any of, and there were totally some serious subexts going on, and having the whole season as well as more advanced ability to examine texts will make for an interesting intellectual exersize).

And then once I get there, I'm probably gonna be like "eh, might as well check out the New Zealand seasons."

It's hopeless, innit?

So, yeah. We have a little water-boiler that originally seemed like it'd be our means for tea. Got water hotter faster than a microwave, and all.

Then, for whatever reason, I think 'cause she was making iced tea and so the en-masse nature of it helped, Marie put some teabags in the top of the coffemaker, where the grounds usually go.

I hadn't had any of that tea, 'cause I've got mine, she hers, and they're not terribly similar, as far as I can tell.

So, a couple days ago, I finally put a bag up there (with the string hanging over the side so that, caught between the "grounds"-holder and the top of the machine, it stops the bag moving away from the drip too much).

DELICIOUS TEA. YOU MUST DRINK IT.