Mo' pictures

Where did I leave off? I guess it was before the bachelorette party and after Lady Parts. Well, I went to the bachelorette party and had my first experience singing karaoke alone. I'd done it before in France (Total Eclipse of the Heart and Don't Stop Me Now with Rosie and Derek!) but this was my first solo experience. I sang Lola by the Kinks, and although Blair told me that she couldn't hear me at all, Jessie seemed happy that I sang her a song about a transvestite at her party. I didn't stay very long at the karaoke bar and I got home at a very reasonable hour.

My friend Maria, who I met at Second City (but she is also from AL) came to the Piercing Music show last week and she took a few pictures. I'm stealing them from facebook.

The end of Wrecking Ball

The whole band!

Saturday, Derek and I went to a cafe for breakfast. We are going to start doing that on Saturdays. Breakfast usually isn't a terribly expensive meal, and we want to check out as many independent cafes in Chicago as we can before we move. This week we found one that was very Mexican themed, so the breakfasts were bean-heavy and pretty spicy. We talked about opening the cafe/space in Nashville and got very excited. Derek went to Josh's bachelor party later that day and I cooked for my friends from work to come over.

I was cutting up veggies for vegan nachos, and Moose wanted to model the cilantro.

About to make guacamole!

The mountainous vegan nachos. I was stupid and didn't take any pictures of my guests.

A couple of nights later, I made Happy Herbivore's Soy-Free Mac & Cheese. I didn't make it soy free, though. I don't need things to be soy free. Anyway, maybe it's because I don't eat a strict vegan diet, but things that try to mock cheese just annoy me. It tasted empty. I added some Earth Balance margarine, some Liquid Smoke, more garlic, and more soy milk. It still wasn't doing it for me, so I dumped some parmesan crumbles in it. Vegan no more. But I could eat it, so that was good.

Last night I had several friends from Second City come over for a vegan French dinner. It was so much work getting all of the food prepared, but it was fine because I didn't have work yesterday. Here is my spinach tofu quiche. I was pleased with how it turned out. My friends brought bread and wine and Derek got us some brie and camembert cheese. That part wasn't vegan, but I don't even want to play around with a French dinner without brie or camembert. Puh-lease.

The thing about actors is that when you turn a camera on them, they get silly. Here is Maria looking very silly and Katie looking very mad.

Carissa, Emily, and Rachael

A few people couldn't make it, and I was sad that Derek didn't get to meet them, but it turned out to be a very reasonable number of guests at the table. I made too much food, but that'll feed me for the rest of the week. We had a great time. I think I'm going to take a break from cooking for the next few days, though. Too much going on and too much money already spent on groceries! I'll clean up what I already have here.

I am working for the rest of the week and then on Saturday morning, Derek, Jeph, Erika, Emily, (not the one pictured above) and I are going to Decatur to visit their parents and grandparents. I still have some Christmas presents for Derek's parents, so it'll be nice to finally give them to them. I want to look for a smallish vintage bookcase for all of my books, which are still in boxes in the corner. I think I may end up making a bookcase and painting it myself. When I have time, which won't be anytime soon.

My Pentax camera has been in the shop for 8 weeks now, even though they told me it would only take 3-5. I called yesterday and they said they are still looking for a part, but I want my camera back before the end of this month. We are going to Milwaukee and I want to take cool pictures.

I guess that's it.