I have entered my later-late twenties!

I am now 28.  Revel in my adulthood!

Ok so, because you will all want to know, yesterday morning I lolled around in my sweats and read a book about vampires and it was skeeery and then Joel was going to take me for a picnic:

but it rained, so we had a picnic in one of the study rooms at school.

It rained just long enough to ruin our picnic, but not long enough to ruin our bike ride, so we borrowed some bikes from friends and spend an hour dithering around in a cul-de-sac before venturing down a teensy trail and then I crashed into a fence.  Bike ride over.

Joel had to study in the evening because it's been a busy week, so Chelsea and Shannon took over birthday-sitting me.  We had 'book club' which largely centers around gossip and snacks and a movie that VERY LOOSELY ties into the book, and I drank only wine spritzers because those hydrate you while they dehydrate you and I had to run 10k today.

I'm an adult now (again? still?).

Oh and also, Joel and I as a Marital Unit turned 3 on Wednesday, which we celebrated by going to a musical and having dinner at the Cactus Club.  Joel had a duck club on fruit toast, strongly evocative of Mitch Hedberg's banana bread, pastrami and cottage cheese sandwich.  I had a brazillion, which never sounded any less dirty the more we said it but which was actually a mojito with kiwi.

 The end.

Three and onwards

Three years ago today Joel and I served ice cream and pie to all of our nearest and dearest, in nuptial celebration.

Two years ago today we were living in Dave and Sheri's basement in Abbotsford and being secret well-dressed ninjas.

One year ago today we were...here.  In Victoria.  Joel was pegging away at his first year of med school and I was both finishing and starting a semester, because I am never not in school.

And then it was summer and we went camping a zillion times and surfing once or twice and it was not sunny ever.  Not once.

But we made it on the cover of the Seaside Times anyways.

And then we thought we were going to Sooke for a weekend but the hotel ended up being in downtown Victoria.  Twenty minutes from our house.  So we got our revenge by making fun of all of the statues.

And then Robyn came and we fed the bunns...

And then boo and Darren came and we fed the bunns...

And then Leah and Mike and Tina and Damir came and we did not feed the bunns, but we played in the potholes.

And then school started and then I had cancer and then they cut me open at the neck (twice) and then I couldn't have salt and then I was radioactive and then I didn't have cancer anymore but now I have a second mouth.

And then our basement flooded and then we had a moat, and that was awesome for maybe twenty minutes but then the construction idiots broke our pipes and started a fire and tore down our steps and our deck and we stopped getting our mail and our doors led to bleak, soggy nowhere.

And then we got rid of the Little White Car That Would Never Break Down, and traded it in for the Purpley-Brown Car That Broke Down Immediately and Has Cost Us Serious Moneys and Grief.  You are missed, LWC.

And then I wore a pair of, like, $4000 boots.

And then we finally used our raclette set...

and then I cooked a turkey and no one died...

And we went to Galiano Island and there was a puppy.

And we went to Uclulet and there was a puppy.

And then we got a puppy (note: there is no picture of this happening because it took place IN MY DREAMS).

And THEN we went to the OLYMPICS and everyone who was bitching about it can shut up because it was AWESOME.

And now Joel is finishing up his second year of med school and I am done my penultimate year of school and trying to figure out what it is one does during the summer when one is not in school.  This year has been long and very spiky, but also very excellent.  Here's to longer, more excellent ones to come.

For boo and Gillian

Remember that time we were having a sister day and I bought that red dress for $10 even though I had nowhere to wear it to and I said I'd wear it within the year?

I threw a tea party so I could wear that dress.  I wish you both could have been there.

Raych roasts a turkey: an exercise in anxiety (in real time)

Several weeks prior:  Get free turkey for spending normal amount of money at Superstore.  Gloat to anyone who will listen.

Two days prior:  Realize that turkey is not, as I thought, ten-ish pounds, but closer to seventeen-ish pounds.  Enough pounds to break the scale, anyways, as it is clearly not 0.2 pounds.  Probably should have moved it to the fridge three days ago.

One day prior:  Defrost, damn you.

7:00 am:  Frantically water-bathe turkey in effort to defrost fully, despite internet's warning that this will spawn bacteria and kill all my nearest and dearest.

8:00 am:  Turkey still very frozen.

9:00 am:  Turkey less frozen in outer inch or so.  Probably bruised from all the froze-testing poking.

10:00 am:  Internet search for 'Can I just cook a partially-frozen turkey for, like, longer' returns unanimous internet-shrieks of 'No!  You have ruined Thanskgiving.'  Internet = Eyore.  Fortunately, this is not technically Thanksgiving and cannot therefore technically be ruined.

11:00 am:  Turkey still pretty frozenish; make pie to assuage anxiety re: frozenish turkey.  Also, for dessert.

12:00 pm:  Pie is, at least, successful.

12:15 pm:  Figure turkey as as thawed as is going to get.  Turkeys are way grosser than anticipated.  They are very...bird-like.  I am not used to meat that's still on its body.  Internet is contradictory re: turkey prep.  Butter the skin?  Butter under the skin?  Cover roasting pan?  Don't cover?  Baste?  Am going with simplest method: give butter massage, ram onion into surprisingly small cavity, feel bad about the ramming because the turkey is very bird-like, cover with tinfoil.  Cook at high heat to seal in juices (and kill off any bacteria resulting from water bath) and then slow roast for HOURS because the inside?  Still frozen.

1:00 pm:  Turn down heat, resist temptation to peek at turkey.

2:00 pm:  Feel bizarre just leaving this thing in the oven for so long and not having to, you know, do anything to it.  Peek.  Turkey appears to be sweating butter.

3:00 pm:  Can't stop peeking.

4:00 pm:  Really, guys.  My oven is on, but I'm ignoring it and feeling uncomfortable.

5:00 pm:  Uncover turkey just for something to do.  Also, to encrispen skin.  Ponder how people make turkey and other things in oven, as turkey IS oven.

6:00 pm:  Stab turkey with thermometer.  Survey says: none of my friends will die if they eat this meat.

6:15 pm:  Potatoes and veggies arrive, with guests.

6:20 pm:  Carve off turkey bits until you get to the bits where it starts to look underdone.  Leave those parts to be dealt with later.

6:25 pm:  Gravy and stuffing arrive, with guests.

6:30 pm:  Have Thanksgiving in Spring.  Hope that no one dies tomorrow.

The Day After: Unexpected Delights

Strip carcass of remaining meat.  With hands.  Feel savage.

Make stock in comically large stock pot, which doesn't seem so comically large any more.

Make many turkey pot pies, of varying sizes.  Put in freezer.

Make turkey noodle soup that is mostly turkey.  For eating and for freezer.

Throw remainder of turkey (!!!) in freezer for, I don't know, turkey chili or something.  Later.

Eat last piece of pie for lunch because all this Little House on the Prairie shit is hard work.

Be-decked

There are guys outside a-building me a deck and...I don't know how to say this.  They aren't sucking at their jobs.  No one has been hit with an errant saw blade, no accidental fires have been started.  They've been here for maybe two days but half the framework is already up.  I'm having me a picnic soon.