Oh my god so much to post!

And I keep waiting until I have time to post everything, which of course will never happen, so the longer I wait, the more there is to post and so I am going to start now and see how far I get.

Sooooo! Long weekend! The weather could not have been more incredibly awesome. I decided to kick off the beautifully weathered weekend with a backyard pizza and wine party. And by party I mean Joey. And then Tara and Norah and Patrick stopped by. After work I went to Trader Joe's and Thriftway and picked up pizza making supplies. Then Matty and I made a ham and pineapple pizza, a vegan mixed veggie pizza (eggplant, squash, onion, pepper, asparagus) and a vegan thai pizza which sorta played off of the Thai Chicken Pizza I made a little while ago which was so awesome. We also "decided" to clean out our wine racks. So 3 pizzas, 6 bottles of wine, and much drunken regretfulness later . . . it was Saturday morning. I will just leave it at that.

Saturday was a simply glorious day weatherwise. Matty and I decided to get breakfast/brunch at Sidecar. We had the black bean and egg burrito and the tasso and egg toastie. Mmmmmm! Then we walked around the city some. I decided I wanted to buy a summer dress . . . which did not work out at all. And then I finally got some potting mix for my strawberries and cherry tomatoes. Yes, I know I need to post pictures. I promise I will. Really. Garden, ceiling hole, sausage. I know! Then we headed to Dan's college-themed, leaving-his-last-school-apartment, Memorial Day bbq. Which involved wearing our school colors and a quarter barrel. First there was a sporting outing. Which means touch football in Clark Park. WE ARE TOO OLD FOR THIS! Honestly. Now I didnt play. 1) I am way too out of shape. 2) I am at all good at football. 3) I am way too terrified of being hit in the stomach with a football. Or another too-old out of shape player. There were no major injuries this time which was good. Though Matty managed to somehow injure his chest by running full speed into a brick wall, oh wait no, another player. (He is still in pain) When everyone decided they had finally had enough we went back to dan's and started up the grill and continued trying to kick the keg. A thing about kegs. WE ARE TOO OLD FOR THIS too. There were not nearly enough drinkers, who were not nearly young enough to finish it. But we gave it the old college try. We also debuted the sausage. Yay! Matty and I had sauteed up some of the chorizo bulk, but this was the first true sausage test. And I have to say it was a complete success. There were definitely some who were a bit freaked out by the sausage. But as far as taste was concerned, I was very happy. The chorizo was definitely still too cinnamon-y but the heat was increased which helped counteract. Next time - same heat, less cinnamon and a little salt. The Italian was awesome. It really was. I thought it was a bit on the salty side, and even less salt-sensitive people agreed. But it was so tasty and juicy. So next time - a little less salt. Otherwise. Perfect. Next sausage forays - breakfast and vegan.

Sunday Matty decided he wanted to have a picnic. So we packed up our picnic backpack - yess we have a picnic backpack. Complete with plates and wine glasses and cheese board and salt and pepper shakers. We stopped at Thriftway and picked up some cheese, turkey, pepperoni, pickle, black bean salad, chips and a baguette and then hiked up the Schuylkill River Trail up past the boathouses to a nice shady spot along the river. We had a lovely picnic and then wandered over to the sun and read for a bit. And then back to the shade because it was really hot. We had a lovely time. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected it to be. We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home and picked up some pickies for dinner (veggie samosas, lemongrass chicken sticks and chicken empanaditas) and sundae supplies (Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough [which is actually better for you than Trader Joe's french vanilla or coffee!], whipped cream). When we got home we watched I'm Not There, which confused the hell out of both of us. And had dinner and sundaes along with raspberry hot fudge.

Monday we got up and decided we wanted mexican. (We watched a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives which included a mexican place in Austin Sunday night) So we walked down (in more splendid weather) to Taqueria Veracruzana in the Italian Market. There a couple of mexican places down there we keep meaning to try and this time we decided to actually do it instead of talking about it. And I must say mmmmmmmm!!!! So glad we did. We had a chicken burrito (very tasty, a bit dry, but in a good way, fantastic cheese and tortilla) and chorizo tacos (oh my god delicious! spicy and yummy and perfect. Awesome tortillas and a splash of lime right before you eat them. Oh my god great) and the chips and salsas they bring out are also fantastic. The chips arent salted and dotn need to be, the salsas are so yummy, the green one is HOT though, be careful! On our way down there we ran into Casey who invited us over and since it has been way too long without seeing Lindsay and Casey's place we decided to take them up on it. So we wandered further south and stopped by and ended up staying most of the afternoon. We were stuffed from lunch but tried some of Lindsay's marinated tofu and mushrooms (fabulous!) and watermelon (so summery and yummy). When we finally left we walked up to Super Fresh and picked up stuff for dinner and I made a ravioli salad with grape tomoatoes, fresh raw spinach, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, onion, red pepper. And made a quick white balsamic vinagrette. Nice and light and summery. Then we watched the Phillies-Rockies game (20-5 go Phils!) and the Stanley Cup game (2?-0). The Pens just looked like they were getting their asses handed to them. They were simply not playing the puck and not following through.

Tuesday our landlord was supposed to come and fix the shower (and didn't, just like he didn't come on Monday). Sigh. We had nan-pizzas with pepperoni and kalamata olives and roasted red peppers and spinach (2 different pizzas).

Yesterday I finally got my sequences back and the thing I have been trying to clone for 17 months, looks like I finally did it. Or enough to be happy with it. NOw we just need to see if it works. But I am pretty excited about it. Then I got home and our landlord was still there, "working" on the bathroom. Now I really like our landlords. They are really nice and did a lot of work on the apartment and always seem to get stuff done when we ask and are really talented. (The reason he didn't come earlier was because he was working on The Totally Terrific Treehouses at Tyler Arboretum, if you go to page 4 here he is Ric Allison) But they are kinda hippies and hard to understand. So when I asked if everything was all set, I thought he said yes, he would just need to come back today to fix the giant hole in the ceiling. But then he made it sound like he knew what was wrong and showed me (making me think it was still wrong) and told me to put towels around the base of the shower when we showered (which makes me feel it isnt all better) and the bucket was still there (again with the not making me feel like everything was fixed). But I didnt know how to ask if it was all fixed . . . again. And Matty wasnt there . . . . and I panicked. The shower is VERY clean though. And the apartment reeks of bleach for the effort. And this morning the drip was still there. And there is a whole lot of ladders and stuff in our living room. And . . . . yeah. I just really hope it is better before the Gallaghers arrive on Friday. Oh I didnt mention? Yeah. Tomorrow. All 4 of them. For dinner we grilled some brats (leftover from Sausage Fest), zucchini, red peppers, onions and mushrooms. And we watched the Pens game. Where they played like the team we know they are. Fleury and Crosby were on. They played the puck, they followed through, they utilized the whole ice and handled the puck so much better than they did on Monday. I am sure part of it was being home and scoring the early goal. But they really played like a Stanley Cup team last night. Hockey makes me so nervous though! Oh my god. It is so fast and so much rides on every score and they can get so hurt so bad so quick. And I get so nervous when the goalie leaves the crease. I know that people call it Figure Skating with Sticks but I dont get it. It is so much more exciting than baseball or even a lot of football and certainly basketball.

Ok, so how did I do? Are you still reading? Really? Wow, you must have more time on your hands than I do! Oh right, puzzles. Well I have to set up a PCR. I will put them up in a bit.