1. Last night was book club! I am a huge nerd when it comes to organize seemingly random events, and so I planned the heck out of my meeting for Alan Bradley's The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie. First of all, I loved this book a whole lot. The character of Flavia de Luce kind of grabbed at my heart, and now all I can think of when Jamie says, "Let's go somewhere for vacation!" is, "Can we go to Bishop's Lacey? AND CAN I RIDE A BICYCLE I'VE NICKNAMED GLADYS?" So, for my meeting, I staged the murder of one Horace Bonepenny (Jamie, who sprawled himself across the threshold of our apartment, vanilla cupcake spittle foaming around his lips, ominously pointing towards the first clue lovingly placed just beyond the door of the stairwell.) and gave all the book club guests (Michelle, Jenn and Crystal) characters. (Countess Ursula Von Dashworthy, Dame Felicity Ashwell and Detective Finn Montgomery respectively.) The clues lead the guests on a merry chase, twice to the underground parking garage, once to the balcony, once to the storage shed, our mailbox, and the freezer. I wrote out letters from Horace Bonepenny, who expressed his dissatisfaction with being murdered. He wrote out the name of the murderer, but it was scribbled out and over top, the words "Nine of Gym, Mr. Tony" were placed. As the game progressed, it became apparent that Dame Felicity Ashwell had had a torrid love affair with Horace, who had not reciprocated her love, and that the Countess was fronting a diamond mine operation underneath her charity for orphans. In the end, however, there was only one killer... and that killer was ... Detective Finn Montgomery, Horace's long lost crazed love child. We ended our meeting with heaps of airport pie (high five, Black Forest Pie! I love you!) and somewhat unexpectedly, a pre-rental copy of Hot Tub Time Machine. So much fun! The next book club pick starts up a theme round, "Books That Were Originally Published in 1939", starting off with Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None".
2. Speaking of Sweetness At the Bottom Pie, how much do you love this quote? ""If there is a thing I truly despise, it is being addressed as "dearie." When I write my magnum opus, A Treatise Upon All Poison, and come to "Cyanide," I am going to put under "Uses" the phrase "Particularly efficacious in the cure of those who call one 'Dearie."" Oh, Flavia de Luce. I just finished the second book in the series, which I don't love quite as much as the first, but still... so lovely.
3. I'm still working away on the pictures from the June 20th photo shoot and reminiscing about how much fun it was to break in my new camera, fiddle around with the wireless flash, and say obnoxious exclamations over the walkie talkies Emily brought for the occasion. I'm in the process now of planning the next two photo shoots of the summer. The big one is in August, and I'm currently in the process of scouring shops and closets and the vast, expensive internets for pieces that will compliment the theme. Side note, the Farewell Photo Shoot pictures will be posted here as soon as I'm able to release them, but likely not for a couple of weeks at the least yet.
4. Jamie and I are finally almost finished putting the apartment together. I must admit for about two weeks too long a small pile of boxes and books and the general randomness that sums up my collection of buttons / vintage matchbooks / patterned papers / owls / insert title here crowded our "reading lounge" and made that section virtually impassable, but last night we organized it (in a sense) and started hanging up posters and prints and found a home for our brand new Ikea Ficus, Robert. This week we will put together our brand new barbecue, hang the rest of our pictures, and possibly find the time to meander back to Ikea and invest in some of their lovely bookshelves for our office space.
5. The best meal we've made in the apartment thus far : Lemon Garlic Chicken with Diced Roasted Potatoes and Greek Salad. Here's the lowdown :
Greek Salad : Mix the following together in a big bowl, kind of salivate for a bit, and then devour it quickly to make way for the next portion : Chopped tomatoes, chopped green peppers, diced cucumbers, black olives (optional), dried oregano, crumbled feta cheese, black pepper and greek salad dressing.
Lemon Garlic Chicken : A tbsp of olive oil, shredded rind of half a lemon, a generous amount of lemon juice (let's say, one cup), freshly ground black pepper, lots of garlic, 2 tsp dried oregano. Slightly modified from this recipe, but the cooking instructions are the same.
Diced Roasted Potatoes : Dice up little cubes of potatoes, we used very tiny ones. Coat evenly in a splash of olive oil with salt, pepper, lemon juice. Add in a couple cloves of garlic, and some freshly chopped cilantro. Roast in the oven at about 400 degrees for roughly 40 minutes.
All of this is best served with the first half of Titanic, which you may watch until it gets to the point where they hit the iceberg and you discover you are not emotionally stable enough to watch the remainder.
Tonight's dinner is a specially requested tuna melt and chicken noodle soup combo... although I am thinking about switching it up for perogies, sausages with pasta sauce and a little salad....
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