Thus Failed Zarathustra

Chinatown.

We went to Chinatown Friday evening, to celebrate our 14 month anniversary (no, we do not expect you to keep track of that, and yes, it’s just another excuse to go out and party) in search of good food and fun trinkets.

This little smelly market was nevertheless a good source of  rice noodles, coconut milk, peanuts, and yummy panda snacks:

Good old Chinatown!

I was ecstatic to find a large Hello Kitty vendor, but didn’t find anything that particularly caught my fancy.

We later went to have an amazing chinese food experience at one of the many MANY restaurants. I was too busy eating to take pictures. Sorry…

YEAH!

Cereal Inventory

I woke up this morning and went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. It’s very easy to get so used to your surroundings that you don’t look around much. Well, I looked around our kitchen and noticed that we have 17 boxes of cereal. SEVENTEEN. Included types of cereal:

Cheerios

Corn Pops

Honey Bunches of Oats

Vanilla Bunches from Trader Joes

Corn Chex

Rice Crispies

Strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats

Reese's Puffs

Frosted Flakes

Corn Flakes

Honeycombs

Life (regular)

Cinnamon Life

(Many of these are store brand)

Oh, and not to mention that we have instant oatmeal, and 7 extra boxes of Golden Grahams in the closet.

Okay so I guess it struck me because there are only two of us living here. Two. You’d think we had a truckload of children to feed or something. I suppose having such a busy life means fast breakfast preparation. Goodness, though. So much cereal.

Caught a bunny.

 

EEEE!!!!

Yes we’re still alive

It’s been a hectic past few weeks, but the joyful kind of hectic. Micah had three weeks off of school, so we went to California, and all around our lovely Chicago.

We went to Six Flags:

And also the beach.

Went to the ward 4th of July breakfast:

Emma graduated!

And lots of other things we did. I did not take enough pictures of our trip home, sadly.

When we came back to Chicago we hit up a free outdoor African Funk concert. We had an awesome picnic.

Also had a visit from my Dad, brother and sister-in-law! And the baby Caleb :-)

Again, not enough pictures. I apologize.  To make up for it, I am going to post a recipe for one of my favorite summer salads. The only thing you have to cook is the noodles. This is a variation on one of my old roomies favorites, Pâte Truc (or Pasta Truc).

(Not my own picture, but I provided it for the sake of tantalizing)

Pâte Truc

4 cups cooked pasta (rotini is my favorite)

1 can tuna, drained

2 tomatoes, cubed

1/2 cucumber, cubed

1 granny smith apple, cubed

1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese, cubed

olive oil

vinegar

Herbs de Provence*

Salt and pepper

Drain the pasta and dump all the ingredients onto a large bowl (For large parties I double the recipe). Add enough olive oil and vinegar to cover the ingredients, but not so much that they drown. I like a little extra vinegar, because I love it. Add herbs de provence, salt and pepper to taste.

*What are Herbs de Provence?

Fans of Gretchen may already know, but here is a quick run down. Herbs de Provence are essentially a mixture of herbs from Provence, a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. The mixture usually contains the following:

rosemary

thyme

sage

marjoram

oregano

basil

In various amounts. Haha. This kind of thing is annoying to me most of the time. But trust me, it works out. You basically put more of what you like and less of what you don’t like (or equal amounts of everything). I’ve been really into dill lately, so I add that too. It’s a very versatile salad, as most are. Try it. Enjoy it. You deserve it.

Amazon Prime: Student Edition

So Amazon is offering FREE amazon prime for a year for all university students. You must simply provide your university email address and major. There is a option for grad students (like me) too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info

I love free two day shipping because I never have to learn to plan ahead or be patient!!!

Long Live Amazon!

Bonsai!

For a while now, I have been interested in the art of bonsai. I love to watch things grow and I also feel the need to be more creative. I also just think that bonsai trees are beautiful and captivating. So several years ago, I decided to learn more about bonsai and try my hand at it. My first attempt, I purchased two shrub juniper trees from home depot and then hacked away at them. I am not sure what I did wrong (probably a few things!) but one plant died within a year. the other plant lived for a while but never flourished, and eventually died before I started medical school. Anyway, for my birthday this year, by mom rekindled my interest in bonsai by purchasing a very nice tree for me for my birthday.

Anyway, I totally killed that tree:

It was actually very sad… we tried everything we could to keep this tree alive.

However, even though the tree died, it really reminded me of how much I do enjoy bonsai. So, 2 weeks ago we when we were at home depot and all shrubs were 50% off, I decided to start anew!

The first plant I bought (for like $3.50) was a blue star juniper. I pretty much just cleaned it up and removed a few branches.

I am not exactly sure what direction I will be going with this plant, but for now I am just going to let it be , grow a little more, and then maybe next year really decide what I will do with it.

Being that the shrubs were still %50 off I went back to home depot and got two more trees.

The first is another juniper, although not a blue star (the tag said juniper chinensis, but I am not sure if that is right.) Again, I mainly just cleaned it up a bit and removed some of the more unruly branches, but feel like a informal upright will be the eventual style I will shoot for.

The last tree I got was a Korean boxwood. I am interested to see how it turns out.

Here it is:

I am really excited about these three trees, and hoping that I can keep them all alive (or at least one of them)! I will update the blog with any new updates!