Off topic post, but I just have to share with everyone how fun my birthday was, and how great my boyfriend, family and friends are… awwww….

The fun started first thing in the morning - I arrived at work to find a treat from my Smaussie (small Australian), a cup of Intellegentsia Coffee, and a pound of beans. Drinking this made me realize what a chump I’ve been drinking Starbucks every day. Intellegentsia is perfect, it’s absolutely perfect.

What’s that coffee? Oh, I love you too.

Later, I was paged by the front desk, “Jessi, report to the front desk“. “Ok” I said, and to the desk I went. I was hand delivered flowers and a balloon from my friends Julio, Jess and Michelle. Look here:

This gives me a good sense of what I would look like if I won Miss America. Yeah, I like it.

Then later…  My friend Elizabeth made me delicious vegan cookies, and my co-workers humored me by trying them.

Thank you E. Millz!

After work, Riki picked me up in a car, which is a huge treat, because we don’t even own a car. I normally walk to the train or ride my bike, and most days in Chicago it’s snowing and -30 out. I fricking love riding in a car.

We made a quick stop at home, where he gave me my birthday presents: lots of goodies for my bike, and the boy bought me two pair of fancy jeans! The thing is, these jeans are perfect, and fit me like they were made for me. They even make me feel thin, which is basically the gift that keeps on giving. I’m so impressed, I hate jean shopping so much, which is why I own 1 pair. (now 3. yes!) I feel like a huge burden has been lifted, my life is changed, I am the owner of multiple pairs of jeans…

We went to dinner at the Chicago Diner, which was so delicious, then met up with friends for bowling.

Riki also got me this!

and these!

I thought I would explode, I was so full…

Amy and Michelle got me a knife…

 The knife makes its debut…

And look what Anne made me!

So much fun. And the fun continues.. tonight Riki is taking me to Caribou, then a surprise on Wednesday… yes!

Good lord, that 4 up there in the masthead is hideous. Out of all the characters so far, definitely my least favorite. Did you see when the 7 was up? It took my breath away.

I’d better go solve a problem so I can replace it with a 3. Do you know how good the 9 and 3 will look together? Harmony. Balance.

Prepare yourself.

Only two days away.

I don’t know about any of you, but I’d happily erase February from memory forever. For-ev-errr.

It has been a month full of terrible news, god-awful weather, little exercise, bad hair days, foul moods, and just negative energy in general. I think I’ve worn the same thing every single day because I don’t care right now.
Come on March… come on spring…

Oh man you guys, you don’t even know how domestic I was this weekend. Let’s take a look:

- I made vegan cupcakes, soooooo good.

- I made a delicious salad, to which Riki declared “This is delicious, even though you didn’t do anything.” So romantic. And yes, I made a red-wine marinade from scratch, fool! That’s doing something.

- I freaking MADE SALAD DRESSING. I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but 6 months ago I could hardly be bothered to heat up a boca burger, and now I’m making salad dressing. Hot damn.

- I hemmed a pair of Riki’s jeans, which are still too long. dammit dammit. But a good try indeed.

- I made a delicious eggplant stew, recipe from the fat-free vegan kitchen blog, here.

- I watched Oprah on Friday (I called in to work, which ruled, but I really was sick, which didn’t rule). Well, I watched as much of it as I could stand. Can I just say something, to the whiney ADULT children of divorce that were on Friday’s show? Seriously you guys, get over it. Or get in therapy and get over it whilst not in public. My god. Not to minimize someone elses pain, but yes, lets.

Blah blah, Anyway, you know how I was saying before that I didn’t ride my bike at all last week? Well, I also didn’t go to yoga. AH! I know, I know, I promise: next week, I’ll go three times, the week after three times to make up for being such a loser this week. And I’ll only slack off 5-10 more times this year, I swear.

Shall we go ahead and look at some photos of my domestic-ness in action? Alright, yes. (Oh, and this covers problem#43 for the week, make one new recipe. But you knew that.)

The salad is a recipe from Veganomicon, (and the dressing, which I made myself, no big deal, shrug shrug). And the stew from Fat-free vegan kitchen blog, as mentioned above.

Let’s take a look at the superstars, though - S’mores cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World… Oh man, heaven. Pure heaven. And, a day later… they’re all gone. A true success.

Tomorrow: I will ride my bike, I will, I will!

Remember how two entries ago I was all smug and said to my brother “ha-ha, I could drive when I was 16, you can’t drive for two more years you filthy Canadian” ?

Well, he sent me a facebook message and reminded me how at Christmas, Riki and I took him to Montreal, and we went into this divey sports-bar, and how we were the only people in the place, and oh - didn’t I remember that they served him alcohol? And it wasn’t just alcohol, it was tequila shots followed by 3 pitchers of beer, followed by drinking games. And then remember how at that other bar? In all his baby-faced glory, when the waiter said, “And howee a-booot yew?”  he casually, confidently, as if he’d had a drinking problem for 40-years, said “Yeah, I’ll have a Corona, bro.” (ok, he didn’t say bro, I just wish he did), and the next thing you know the socialist-jerk with bad facial hair brought him a Corona?

Yes. I remember.

Fine, Jacob. You win. Yes, drinking at 15 is cooler than driving at 16. Just don’t ever do them at the same time, promise me, your humbled big-sister that much.

Oh! and Amy and Simon - After talking it over with Riki a bit more, and since we’ll be in your neck-of-the-woods in August anyway, we decided, why not? Let’s make it an official problem:

#83) Visit Amy and Simon in Venezuela !

Hopefully it’s not too expensive to fly from Ecuador to Venezuela? At the very least, I’m sure we could find someone to pay us to take the trip if we just, you know, smuggle some drugs over or something.

Before I get to the action-packed, heart-pounding, rock em’ sock em’ ride that is this weeks recipe problem, I’d like to say a couple of quick things that will warm your cold Chicago heart. (And mother-effer it’s cold here.)

See, told you. Cold.

Sixteen years ago today, January 22, 1992, my littlest brother Jacob was born, and I have such a clear memory of it. My grandfather picked me up from the 6th grade early, which I thought was pretty sweet. Little brother or not, I was getting out of school before all the other suckers.

I was wearing my favorite pink V-neck sweater with an evergreen turtleneck underneath, the sweater that got me invited to all the sleepovers where there were no boys. We drove to the hospital and met baby Jake, and here’s where it gets fuzzy - I mostly remember looking at my mom and thinking she was about to die, since she was white as a sheet and talked in a whisper. I guess at this time I had no real idea what child birth was like, and you know, with zero kids and all now it’s much more clear.

So with the fear of God in my 11-year-old self that my mother was dying, onward we went, my grandparents and my otha’ brotha’ Zak, to Brown’s Chicken, where we consumed our weight in fried yard-bird and other delicacies.

He is so cute I can hardly take it. Also, nice costume mom.

To my baby brother: Happy Birthday Jacob! And, ha-ha, you still can’t drive for two more years because you live in Canada! (Did I mention to you that I could drive with an adult when I was 15? I could.)

Also off topic, I want to wish the best of luck to Amy and Simon as the head to Venezuela today for Adventures in PHd Research! Amy is 1/6th of the girl bike gang I belong to, which is now without direction and entering a deep depression.

Enough with the mushy stuff, on to the problems. For this weeks vegan recipe, I chose another one from Veganomicon, Red Lentil Cauliflower Curry. It turned out pretty well, but I admit it was a bit of a cop-out, as I’ve made a few other curries before and there’s not much to it. I was feeling a bit lazy a the time, and since it was 1 degree F out, I wanted something warm and toasty… overall, it gets an “Eh”.

On a positive note, I did get to buy Parsnip for the first time, which I had to Wikipedia first to even see what it was. I was really proud, I bought Parsnip.

I know, I’m bored too.

As always, til next time…