So happy together

As I mentioned recently, I've had the same best friend since Kindergarten. There are others I'd consider best friends now in addition, and of course several other best friends have come and gone through the years, but the bibliophile and I have pretty much been hanging tight since 1986. Now that I have a kid, I ponder the origins of our friendship a little more than I did in the past. I don't remember our meeting, but the bibliophile and her slightly freakishly good memory tell me that we were assigned as buddies by our teacher for playtime during the first week of school. We must've hit it off or expressed to our mothers in some way that we liked each other, and our mothers -- perhaps recognizing even then that their offspring were somewhat socially awkward and not destined to be the kind of kids who racked up dozens of friends easily -- clearly made an effort to get us together frequently enough that we became real friends and stayed that way, even after the bibliophile had to change schools after 2nd grade. It's probably more remarkable in that I don't think our moms really have all that much in common. They were always friendly to each other, but they were never friends. Perhaps it was growing up knowing each other from such an early age or perhaps we were just destined to become friends, but for whatever reason I do think the bibliophile and I have a lot in common.

My sister, she met her oldest friend when they were two years old. The friend in question lived less than a block away and somehow we met her at some point. Because they were two girls of the same age -- and probably in part because her only-child friend had some kickass toys -- they kept hanging out and kept hanging out and are friends to this day despite only going to the same school for one year in high school and having almost nothing in common. I don't think they see each other as often as the bibliophile and I see each other, but my sister accompanied her friend and her family to Florida on vacation just this past winter, so clearly they're still tight. Perhaps one day Nico will have an even more impressive early-age friend acquisition tale, since he has been acquainted with two of his buddies almost literally his entire life. Right now the lines between "Nico's friend" and "child of my friend" and "other only child of appropriate age whose mother I get along with" are pretty fuzzy. We're getting to a point where Nico seems excited to see his playmates, but they're not even to the point where they really play with each other rather than beside each other, so it's probably premature to really count them as his friends. Who knows, though…perhaps one of them will be like my sister's friend and invite Nico on vacation when they're in their twenties.

Friendship has been on my mind this week because the bibliophile got married this past Sunday and our whole extended gang of high school and college (and in one case middle-school) friends gathered for the occasion. Since several had made the trip from faraway lands, we milked it for all it was worth and it was awesome. MB and I hosted a game night on Friday, J Dog's dad and stepmom invited us all over for a cookout on Saturday, and then we had the reception on Sunday. I was shamefully lax at documenting my cute kid, but I think he had fun, too. I feel really good about him growing up surrounded by this incredible, random, funny, loving crew of friends who might as well be family. I have the best friends in the world, seriously. I feel so lucky to have all of them and as tiring as it was, this weekend was so fabulous.

Digging in the flowerbeds at the cookout, with the hostess's blessing.


Reading:  Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

Playing:  Songs of Anarchy

How to throw a game shower

I have been best friends with bibliophile81 since we were in Kindergarten and so, as soon as she announced her engagement to Mr. Bitter, I knew I had to come up with a really cool idea for a shower / end-of-singledom party. Since Mr. Bitter and the bibliophile are both huge games fans, rabidmonkey and I each independently came up with the idea to throw them a game-themed party. We formed a planning committee with evilducky, Teacher Incognito, and Danger and started scheming. I decided my birthday would make an excellent decoy date and set up a fake facebook event inviting all our close friends over for our typical hang out / eat cake kind of thing. Then I sent an email around to everyone but the bibliophile and Mr Bitter, inviting everyone to bring a game as a gift for the marrieds-to-be and come over early enough to shout "Surprise!" when they walked in the door. Then the committee got to work.

Evilducky made a congrats banner with cards from the game Aquarius as backgrounds:

We decided we wanted to have game-themed snacks and spent several weeks kicking ideas around that we found online. We didn't want to blow the bank or get in over our heads, so we narrowed it down to a few simple things. Back in November of last year, the bibliophile herself sent me a link to a tutorial on creating a mold to make chocolate D&D dice. Making the mold was way beyond my capabilities, but I got in touch with the chocolatier who wrote the article, Ariel Segall, and it turned out she now makes the dice as one of the products offered by her Dark Matter Chocolate Laboratory. We ordered a batch of 49 dark chocolate dice to give as an edible gift at the party and I need to tell you that Ariel and her business manager Kat were great to work with from start to finish. They were patient as we spent several weeks debating the different flavor options, were able to accommodate our chosen date, and then rushed the chocolates to us after an unexpected delay so that they arrived right on time. If you want a fun and delicious gift or treat for a special occasion, check out her stuff. She can even make a chocolate TARDIS!

one full set of d20 dice

We also wanted to do something inspired by the game Carcassonne, and evilducky suggested that we make square cookies and decorate them to look like the game tiles, then put the cookies on top of cupcakes. Danger volunteered to bake ridiculously delicious chocolate cupcakes. Evilducky found a painted sugar cookie recipe from A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies. She and I got together the Sunday before the party to make the cookies. We measured out 3" x 3" squares using a ruler and a pizza cutter, then painted them with egg yolks + food coloring, per the Baker's Field Guide instructions. We couldn't do a lot of detail and we had to be careful not to let the colors bleed together, but I think overall they turned out pretty awesome.

We made some meeple:

Then they were united with the cupcakes half an hour before the party started on Tuesday (wooden meeple added for fun):

Haul of games:

I think we succeeded at throwing a good, memorable party for our friends. We wanted to send them off to the wedding feeling loved and celebrated, and I'm hoping we accomplished that. It was a lot of fun, too.

Weekend of win

We had a weekend of actually being social, which we don't do often enough. Nico and I were invited to the children's museum by one of our playdate mom / kid pairs. It was a good trip, though I had a really hard time tearing Nico away from the rice bin and its assorted toy front loaders. Next time I might make him go through the rest of the exhibits first, but it's going to be difficult since he remembers the rice bin is there. I did, after two aborted attempts, get him to play in the water room with the other toddler for about half an hour. I felt kind of like a jerk before that because they'd invited us and given us guest passes, and then Nico didn't want to run around with his buddy, he just wanted to scoop rice, all day long. I try to let him direct his own experiences as much as possible in these kind of situations but come on, kid…don't be rude!

I recently reconnected with a once-close college friend via facebook. He and I had coffee a couple of weeks later, then MB and Nico and I met him for dinner one night, and then two Wednesdays in a row he went to a wine tasting with MB and hung out at our house afterward for games of Settlers of Catan. This past Saturday his fiancé was in town, so they both came over for dinner and assorted…social games? Blokus, Boxers or Briefs, and Mexican Train dominoes. What do you call those? They're not board games, but just "games" sounds kind of suggestive. Party games is kind of shady, too, plus it implies more people than four. Table games, maybe? It was a lot of fun and we're already looking forward to the next time we can get together.

Sunday was low key - some errands by myself and then lots of football. On Monday, Nico's library story time started back up after the winter break, so we went to that and then had a playdate with a different mom / kid pair. The last time we went to their house, Nico cried on my lap for twenty minutes before he'd even look at the other kids, but this time he was cheery and friendly from the minute we arrived. He played nicely with the other kid's toys, ate his lunch with gusto, and even helped me pick up before we left. Socialization success! And then this happened about three minutes after we departed:

Hee!

Overall, it was a pretty kickass weekend.


Reading:  (just finished) How to Get Divorced by 30:  My Misguided Attempt at a Starter Marriage by Sascha Rothchild

Playing:  this NPR tiny desk concert, over and over:



(the second track is my favorite)

Things I learned this weekend

by velocibadgergirl, age 30

Wearing cute shoes is a good way to feel sassy.

Riding in a limo is fun even when you aren't drinking.

Drag shows are hella awesome.

Drag queens are so fabulous I can't stand it. Most can dance circles around me, and will be wearing amazing fuck-me boots while doing it.

When I dance to rap music, the resulting photos include slight but still-shameful Inadvertent Duck Face.

My friends are the raddest, most fun chicks a girl could hope to know. Love you guys!

Hide & seek

So, I'm still trying to figure out how Memorial Day has already come and gone. This year needs to slow the hell down, man, is all I'm saying. We had a pretty fantastic holiday weekend. On Saturday my former officemate got married. The ceremony was lovely and the reception turned out to be way more fun than either of us expected. We loved the people we were seated with for dinner and there was an open bar. We were totally that table but when I made a joke about our table being the loud drunk table, the groom said, "You mean the fun table," so I think we're cool. This is going to sound impossibly cheesy, but the whole thing reminded me of all the things I love about being married. Oh! And the dress was serviceable if not the most fashionable thing ever worn, and the gorilla glue on my shoe held up perfectly. Unfortunately the part of the sole I hadn't glued down detached itself right as we walked into the dining room for dinner. Fortunately I had anticipated this very thing and had a pair of flipflops in the car. Sunday was my last day ever at my first real grownup job. I wasn't as sad about it as I expected, though maybe that'll come in time. Or maybe not.



On Monday we had our very first serious cookout in our backyard. There was potluck, including awesome desserts! There was cornhole! There were many friends in attendance! There were many cleaned and assembled yard toys, which Nico ignored in favor of trying to approach the grill and touching the trash can, the sharp-edged fence, and the plants that the dog pees on every day. And in place of my once-wee baby, there was this speedy toddler.


So far, summer, you're all right.

How about you guys...any fun weekend activities to report?


P.S. I have NO IDEA what the title of this post means. I fell asleep before I could think of one, then woke up an hour later, thought "Aha, perfect!" and published it. Apparently it made sense at the time.



Reading:  The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

Playing:  Showroom of Compassion by Cake

Retreat

We spent the weekend at a cabin on the river with nine of our closest friends. We usually camp in the Fall, but this was the earliest weekend we could go and so it was (wisely) suggested that we skip the tents this year. For about the same price as a mediocre motel, we stayed in a renovated and expanded 1800s log cabin with a huge deck, a hot tub, and a killer view. I hope everyone is lucky enough to have friends who are more like family, because it's awesome. Most of us have been friends since high school, though we met J-Dog in college and I've known the bibliophile since Kindergarten. We played games, ate way too much food, talked, hung out in the hot tub, and went on a very nice hike. Everyone doted on Nico, who was on his best and most charming behavior all weekend. The weather was pretty much perfect, too. The only downside is that after looking forward to the trip for months, it went by in a flash. If I ever win the lottery, I'm booking a swanky house for an entire week and paying everyone to take a week off and hang out.

Cabin! (photo by Norahs1213)
our room, Nico & playpen for scale
hanging out on the deck

sunrise over the river
fog on the water
a perfect day

going for a hike

Nico in the baby backpack (He loved it!)

I swear, it was THIS BIG

I called Evil Ducky after work today to tell her I was running a little late to meet up with her for yoga. "The weirdest thing just happened," she told me. "As I was pulling into my driveway, I noticed something moving around in my backyard. When I went to check it out, it was a HUGE SNAPPING TURTLE! What the hell should I do?"

She wasn't kidding. This was a huge fucking turtle. She wasn't really sure how it got into the fully fenced backyard, or why. There was one low spot under the fence that could've provided an access point, and I suppose the turtle's friends could've played a trick on it. Like, I don't know, told it there were some really tasty tomatoes on the yard, or some really gorgeous lady turtles, and then our poor turtle broke in only to find out he'd been lied to. I didn't have my camera, but Evil Ducky documented the interloper. He looks pretty forlorn, I think, and also sort of annoyed, as if he's saying, "Clyde, you son of a bitch, there are no goddamn tomatoes in this yard."


We decided to wait and attempt to capture the turtle after yoga class, figuring there was a slim chance it would find its way out of its predicament by then. Of course, it didn't. Now, in a strange and interesting twist of fate, just last week I help transport three turtles from my workplace to a pond out in the country, one of which was a snapping turtle. Granted, I did not actually capture that turtle myself, but watched as the reptile intern I'd called in from the local nature center took care of the dirty work. Also, our turtle at work was quite a bit smaller than Evil Ducky's new pal. Anyway, technicalities! At this point, I was the closest thing we had to a turtle wrangling expert.

For scale, here's the turtle with my size 7 / 8 flipflop:


Luckily, this turtle was relatively chill. I lifted him up a little bit by the shell (he didn't even try to take my hand off), and we managed to get him onto Evil Ducky's snow shovel. After rapidly discovering he was NOT going to fit into the large bucket we grabbed from the garage, we wedged him into the Sterilite tub I had in my car, the same tub I'd used to transport the snapping turtle from work, just a week ago. (Fate!) I still can't believe this turtle fit into the tub. It was a very close thing.

(See? HUGE!)

With the turtle thus captured and a bit of OMG HOLY SHIT DID WE JUST DO THAT screaming out of way, Evil Ducky drove us all to a nearby park so we could set the turtle free near the lake. She has a photo on her blog of me letting the turtle go. Unfortunately, giant snapping turtles are not very fleet of foot. The turtle sort of tipped over, fell out of the box, landed on his back, flailed, then rolled down the short slope and landed in the water, upside-down. It was pretty much the least elegant, least photogenic, least Animal-Planet-worthy release ever unfortunately not caught on film. No worries, though, he quickly righted himself, blew a few bubbles from his surprisingly adorable nostrils, gave us the finger, and swam away. A bit anticlimactic, but dude. We totally kicked ass.



Reading:  An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Playing:  the Garden State soundtrack

Also, new post up at the book blog if you're into that sort of thing.

Happy Pi Day!

To celebrate Pi Day, the bibliophile invited everyone over for a Pi(e) potluck. I had planned to go hiking with MB and Indy today to celebrate my birthday (which was yesterday), but the weather did not cooperate. I've never made a pie before and didn't want to drop a fortune on out-of-season fresh fruit, so I needed to come up with something to make for the party, and quick. And then it occurred to me:  Pi-shaped cookies!

I was going to attempt to make cookie cutters using this ridiculously cool example as a guide, but in the end I came up with a slightly simpler solution.

STEP 1: Set up stand mixer, passed down to me by my mother during the Christmas baking season. Also known as the savior of my arm, since I didn't have to give myself tennis elbow trying to make sugar cookie dough with my woefully inadequate hand mixer.


STEP 2: Dough is done, hooray!


STEP 3: Trace Pi template onto plastic lid and cut out.


STEP 4: Roll out dough and cut Pi shapes.


STEP 5: Forget that a quiet dog is usually a dog up to no good.


STEP 6: Impress everyone


STEP 7: Use up the rest of the dough and decorate appropriately


STEP 8: Eat cookies


Reading:  Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth R. Miller

Playing:  the Coraline soundtrack

I'm in ur chats, talkin dirty

vbg:  May Day is a good holiday, too
in a semi-related note, good Lord ancient myths are ALL ABOUT TEH SEX

Tam:  or death
sexxing and dying

vbg:  I'm trying to find egyptian myths about the stars, and everyone's a pervert

Tam:  BWAAAAAAAAAAH

vbg:  something about Seth wanted to have sex with Horus
so Isis said, go ahead, but steal his sperm
and so Horus "pretended" to have sex with Seth and caught the semen in his hand

Tam:  yup

vbg:  and then Isis cut off Horus's hand
threw it in the river
made a new hand
jerked off HER SON

Tam:  always puts me off the name Seth

vbg:  took HIS semen

Tam:  as you do

vbg:  and put it on Seth's lettuce
and then he ate the lettuce
(not a euphemism)
and got pregnant
and then birthed the sun disk out of his head
to which I say, "Please pass whatever you were smoking, ancient Egyptians"

there is something sort of hilarious about the fact that she put the illicit sperm on the dude's LETTUCE PATCH, though

Im in ur lettis patch, plantin stolen seed

Tam:  I feel I should warn you that I have just called my husband in here so he could read your entire conversation

vbg:  ROFL
he'll be traumatized
stay away from the lettuce, Mr. Tam!

Tam:  everything from 'I'm trying to find Egyptian myths about the stars' down to 'stolen seed' needs to be a blog entry

just copy and paste

vbg:  Just so.

I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using

I have blogged before about my dear friend the Untamed Shrew and her tendency to send mindblowing and strangely practical gifts. (MB has been using the measuring cup to make pancakes, complete with announcements such as "I'm putting in the volume of two T-Rex brains.")

Tonight when I got home from work, there was a very early Christmas present waiting for me, from the Untamed Shrew.

(Before we start, let me admit up front that these photos are awful. I just gave back the semi-swanky camera I borrowed from BoMB back in September, and I am still working to get my mojo back with my little Olympus point-and-shoot.)

GIFT #1:  little homemade notebook illustrated with antique Marcus Bloch fish engravings.

LEFT:  cover, with birds, flower, and sparkly thing

CENTER:  the blowfish at the top says "d00d i 8 2 mucth"
and the Mola mola at the bottom says "nom lol"

RIGHT:  "DO NOT CLONE THESE. You can just pull
an arm off and it will grow into a whole new one."

LEFT:  "hey floating text"

CENTER:  "Fish dentistry: Get in on the ground floor of this
fast-growing healthcare career. info@fishdentist.com"

RIGHT:  "I AM A CHAETODON GLAUCUS DO NOT MESS WITH ME"

GIFT #2:

GIFT #3:

The wrappings in Untamed Shrew gifts are nearly always exquisite.




There was actually a fourth gift in the box, but it's so pretty that I think I'm going to save it for a few days:


Many, many, many thanks to the Untamed Shrew! Kisses!



And to prove that I don't always suck at photography, I'm entering this picture in Greeblemonkey's November photo contest: