stewing
What can I tell you today, then? I guess I could mention last night was the one evening this week -- of all the weekdays, anyway -- that Shobhit did not work; he only had a few-hour shift at his other job between 9 am and 1 pm. So, he was home in the evening, and once I arrived at home on my bike, I helped him with vegetable chopping for a massive pot of "sambar" (pronounced SOM-bur), which is basically an Indian style stew that is highly adaptable. Granted, virtually anything Indian-style that Shobhit makes is highly adaptable, but sambar is especially so. It can take a shit ton of sautéed vegetables and then turned soupy with added water and spices.
He also made rice, though, and then even used up the last of the dosa mix sample I brought home from work a couple of weeks ago. This is an unusual mix-and-match of types of Indian foods, actually, and Shobhit said "That's not how it's eaten" when I said I would just put my dosas on my plate and spread sambar and rice over the top of it. Besides, like he should talk -- he constantly eats American foods in ways different from the way most Americans eat them. (Insisting on putting salt on any and all kinds of sandwiches, or pepper in fucking French bread egg mix, is just the tip of the iceberg.)
Whatever the case, my dinner was actually quite tasty -- at least with the addition of the dosas. Shobhit realized he had made the sambar too spicy for me and he added yogurt to the mix to calm it down. Even after that, it was way spicier than I would ever choose, but it was still tolerable and I was able to eat it. I shudder to think he it might have been had he just left it as spicy as it apparently was initially.
And then we watched several episodes of season six of Cheers. Oh, and we did a bunch of laundry. Or rather, Shobhit started a load of sheets from our bed, and I did all the rest of the laundry, including the regular loads of dark and light clothes, which included a run of all the work pants Shobhit got at the closing sale at JC Penney last weekend.
So really, in spite of still spending a couple hours watching TV, it was arguably a very productive evening. When I went to bed Shobhit started watching a dumbass movie on the SyFy Channel, which seems to be a new pastime of his -- specifically, watching movies on SyFy that in their time had terrible reviews. Such as, for instance, last night's viewing of 10,000 B.C.. I had clothes to put away so that was my cue to go.
-- चार हजार पांच सौ बाईस --
I can't think of much of anything else to tell you. No, wait! Today is Sherri's birthday. She's 67! I posted a picture of her to Facebook that I took sometime in 1990. That was the year she turned 38, which is five years younger than I am about to be. There hasn't been any indication yet that Sherri has seen the post. I wonder if she and Dad went on a trip somewhere? They often do for anniversaries, birthdays, and some holidays (particularly Thanksgiving).
I know a ton of people with birthdays in April, as it happens: Scott here at work (April 6); Elin who used to be here at work (April 11; I'll be having lunch with her and Scott Wednesday next week); Sherri is 67 today; Laney's daughter Jessica will be 38 (I think) tomorrow; Gabriel will be 42 the day after tomorrow; Ivan will be 34 on the same day I turn 43 (April 30). I think that covers everyone worth noting. I guess seven people isn't that many, but it kind of seems like it. We all know hundreds of people in one way or another, after all, and there are only 365 days in a year.
I guess the real difference is that April has an unusually high number of birthdays that I would feel compelled to pay any attention to.
Anyway! Beyond all that nonsense, I've got busy days ahead. A very full weekend this weekend: day trip to San Juan Island on Saturday and then Easter Sunday in Olympia. The following Friday kicks off my Birth Week, set to last 10 days (and this coming Saturday is itself essentially a prologue). I'm set to spend perhaps a record amount of money on Birth Week activities this year, after managing quite the budgeted Birth Week last year. I should come up with another low-cost Birth Week theme for next year, especially with the hope of making it to Australia in March. I had been thinking trains, but maybe that's too expensive. Picnics, perhaps? That could work! But I still have a year to brainstorm.
[posted 12:36 pm]