Tina Fey Rocks

After not watching Saturday Night Live for, oh I don't know, a couple of years, Jason and I tuned in Saturday night and got this little gem for the opener:



My favorite is when she says it like she's in an old-fashioned movie.

Church

Our first Sunday sitting in with the Primary was pretty okay. We will have to wrangle the kids to get them to sit down, sit still and listen for more than 20 seconds. However, we were told afterwards that last week was pretty bad and there usually aren't quite so many kids there. Having experienced an inner city ward with a Primary of about 70 kids, I think we should be able to handle the 30 or so who are the max in Providence. Also, I found out afterwards that one of the kids I was chatting with and who I think respects me because I told him, "Don't be a punk" is actually one of the more difficult ones. Hopefully he'll remember that I'm awesome.

Jason says I'm going to have to be the disciplinarian because he can't help himself and winds up laughing at the kids' fart jokes. Very helpful.

Midway through Primary, I got pulled out by the bishop who wanted some legal help for another member. I'm pretty comfy being one of those office type, behind-the-scenes lawyers. Although I'm a lot more extroverted than I used to be, I officially test 89% introvert, or something crazy like that.

However, hearing her story made me mad and I may wind up getting myself involved. I've already asked the partner at my firm for some advice and he had a couple of ideas. I've offered what services I have at my disposal, it's now just an issue of seeing if I'm needed. Let me just say, injustice sucks. Especially when the instigator is an authority figure with a badge who is abusing his power and the target is an older, sick, immigrant (legal) woman who is now terrified because she has never had to deal with anything like this in her life. Grrr.

Sunday Dinner

I try to make an effort to cook an actual meal at least once a week - usually Sunday night. I love to cook, but the weekdays are sometimes too crazy to pull together anything fancy. I might be able to get some salmon cooked with some steamed veggies, but that's the extent. Plus, I have all these great cookbooks and subscriptions to Cooking Light, which has the tastiest healthy recipes with full nutritional information, and Cook's Illustrated, which shows me how to do fancy cooking techniques, how not to go broke by buying Le Creuset when the Tramontina dutch oven will serve just fine and how to feel superior with my very slim and minimalist cooking magazine that ALL the cool kids read.

Jason is happy to partake in whatever I happen to make and I like having a ready and willing guinea pig. The hard part is convincing him that a fair distribution of labor translates into him doing the dishes afterwards. I'm working on that.

I'm going to make an attempt at a regular blog post about what I made on the weekend and how it turned out. I can also post recipes if anyone is interested.

Last night we had:

• Garlic and onion pork tenderloin - I take no credit for this. I bought it on sale at Costco. Not only was it very tasty, but it was huge and we have lots of leftovers. It was also criminally easy. Just toss it in a pan and toss it in the oven. Ta-dah!
  
  
• Homemade "whole wheat" bread - This was slightly modified from a Joy of Cooking recipe. The modification consisted of not having bread flour, only regular, and using more whole wheat than white flour, which they said not to do, but it turned out fine. Very fine actually. The bread is rapidly disappearing and I may have to make more soon.
  
  I have a question for other bread bakers. Every time I make plain bread, it bakes up all nice and domed, but as it cools, the dome collapses and the bread winds up with a concave dip in the top. Why is this? How do I make it stay all pretty and round?
  
  
• Glazed carrots - Also courtesy of the Joy of Cooking, also simple and good. As Jason was hovering around waiting for the pork to finish cooking, he dipped a piece of bread in the reducing carrot glaze and pronounced it "delicious." Wait, butter and brown sugar make a good icing? Amazing!
  
  
• Dessert were Skinny Cows ice cream sandwiches, also courtesy of Costco. Also easy.

Hee

I would like to draw your attention to a new blog over on the right side of the screen, which is the new favorite site in our home: Stuff White People Like.

We now have fights like Jason saying, "Kellito*, you are so white because you like kitchen gadgets and public radio and you want to live by the water.

And then I say, "Yes, but you haven't liked pop music since the 80's because of the infusion of R&B rhythms."

To which he responds, "Touche."**


* His name for me.

** I think pretentiously using French could be a what white people like post.

I'm A Dork and Don't I Know It

I am totally excited to learn that there are a couple of Stitch and Bi**h groups in Providence and surrounding areas that I might actually be able to go to on days when I'm working down there. There's this whole site called Ravelry and you can hook up* with fellow crafters in your area. I crochet and want to learn how to knit. I also want to meet people in Rhode Island because, frankly, I'm a little lonely.

Another thing I'm excited about is going to Costco tonight. Yay! Costco! With about 20 coupons in tow. Yay! Coupons! A friend at work came over to my desk as I was clipping coupons today and said, "Oh, Kelly, so cute. Clipping coupons like a good little wife." Whatever. $5 off a marinated pork loin. That's value shopping.


*Hardy har har.

The Calling

We got called into the bishop's office Sunday to get a calling, which we knew was coming. We're teaching the 10 and 11 year-olds, which I find really, REALLY intimidating. I didn't want to admit to the first counselor (or Jason) how freaked out that makes me, but seriously, 10 and 11 year-olds? Just throw us to the wolves.

See, I'm totally comfortable around babies. My mom watched 3 babies at a time when I was younger and I often got them up from their naps, changed them, fixed their bottles and fed them when I got home from school. Before you think my mom was violating child labor laws, I actually really liked doing all of this and even had a couple of babies who I could soothe when no one else could. So yeah, babies, awesome. Not that I wanted to be in the nursery, but at least I have a comfort level there.

Kids. I never know what to do with kids. I see friends of mine who have these amazing kid personalities and kids just adore them and are drawn to them and think they're the most awesome people ever. I used to babysit my cousin periodically, but besides exhausting myself by running around with him on my back because I was a race car, feeding him chicken nuggets, watching 101 Dalmatians a million times and letting him win at Memory, I don't really have any mad kid skillz. And these are older kids. I remember what it was like to be in Primary as an 11 year-old. I was on the verge of going into Beehives and was WAY too old and cool for this baby stuff. Frankly, I was a punk. Well, as much of a punk as I ever was, which wasn't much, but I definitely had attitude. I'm just glad Jason will be in there with me so neither of us is in this on our own.

I did make sure to tell them that we would not be there one Sunday a month because after seeing how forlorn Jason has been about not singing at Christ Church, I knew he needed to be there at least a little bit. So he's going to sing during one Sunday service a month and at Evensong. Frankly, I've missed Christ Church too. Plus, it's fun to go and think about how surreal it is that I walked down that aisle on my dad's arm in a wedding dress and then I think about how surreal it is that I'm married. Does that ever go away or will I always feel like it's surreal to be married? Is it because I didn't get married very young? Is it because it's still very new? All I know is, it's weird.

Gushy Mushy

So you all can just ignore this post and go about your business because it's one of those "I Love My Husband" posts and I know how annoying those are.

I have never been a big Valentine's Day person. I chalk it up to not actually having a significant other for the vast majority of Valentine's Days and also to my Papaw passing away on Valentine's Day. For the first couple of years after Papaw died, V Day was a day to get through. Now, 12 years later, I still really wish he was around, but the sting has worn off and I can see it as just a day again.

I kind of figured Jason and I would just let the day slide by since I'm not a big fan and since he's not known for his forays into romance. Imagine my surprise when last week he came home and announced, "I'm going to take you out for Valentine's Day on Tuesday night since I have choir rehearsal on Thursday night up in Boston, k?"

Me:"... ... You are?"

Jason: "Yeah, of course. Where do you want to go?"

So Tuesday night we went to the same fancy French restaurant he took me to the night he gave me my engagement ring. It was fabulous, like we knew it would be. We got there just as the snow started falling, and by the time we finished, there were a couple of inches of snow coating my car. To which Jason says, "Get in, I'll clear off the car."

OK, so Jason really has his moments and he totally comes through in big ways when I need him*, but chivalry and romance is just not his style. I was sort of floored.

When we got home we built a fire in the fireplace and pulled the air mattress out of the closet and into the living room so we could sleep by the fire (something we've been talking about doing since it got cold). A fire inside, the snow falling outside, it was lovely.

And shhhh, don't tell him. I have a surprise planned for when he gets home from practice tonight.


* Like talking me through the 8-hour commute and shoveling me out a place to park at the end of it all.

India Pictures

Click on the photo below to see our pictures. Warning: there are a lot.

India Favorites

Visit to A Village Temple

On our way back from Mudumalai we decided to drive out to a temple ruin that was open until 8 PM (since it was getting late) and was just 25 kilometers off the road. In the U.S. 25 kilometers is no big deal, but we weren't factoring in India and it's lack of infrastructure. We drove and drove and drove on a small two-lane road, dodging ox carts, people walking and on bicycles, cows, people baling hay on the only large, flat surface in the area (the road). Every so often Ramesh, our driver, would pull over and call out to people on the side of the road to make sure we were going the right way.

Finally, we reached a small dark town and found the temple on a small back road. It was closed, even though it was only 7:15. However, a teenage boy came by and it turned out he had the key and he let us in. Then the man who took care of the temple came over and showed us around. We took pictures and then started back to the main road, where we drove through more hay and almost got stuck behind a sugar cane truck with two flat tires. Ramesh drove the Ambassador over some trees and got us by the truck.

As we drove through one town, we heard music being piped through speakers and off to the side of the road behind some buildings we saw a large temple with lights hanging from it. Ramesh slammed on the brakes and backed up so we could see it. He asked if we wanted to go over and we said yes.

So we drove up to the temple and immediately caused a hubbub throughout the group of villagers outside the temple. We walked over the the door and took our shoes off to go inside. As soon as we got inside, the men in charge of he ceremonies that were going on came over to us and invited us to come look at the shrines. It turned out that the temple had just been renovated and that's why it was decorated with lights and why they were playing music. It was the first of several inaugural celebrations.

We participated in the pujas (prayers) at each shrine, and received flowers around our necks and red dots on our foreheads. Brandon and Jason were each given ceremonial scarves as well. As we walked around the temple to each altar, more and more people (especially little kids) followed us from point to point.

Then the mayor showed up and welcomed us and had us pose for pictures. He called his son and who knows who else on his cell phone (because everyone has a cell phone, even in the most remote villages). Apparently, he was spreading the word that there were foreigners in the temple. More and more people came into the temple and we took lots of pictures of the villagers and especially the little kids who were so excited.

We walked out of the temple and the villagers cleared a path for us. We worked our way back to the car, all the while shaking hands and answering the little kids' questions: What's your name? What country are you from?

The mayor's son, who spoke English, showed up and the mayor introduced him to us. We were invited to the dedicatory celebration the next day, but unfortunately we had to tell them we couldn't make it.* Eventually we made our way back into the car and were able to drive us, everyone waving good-bye and calling out to us.

The amazing thing was, the people in the village were genuinely thrilled to have us there. They welcomed us and treated us like royalty, allowing us to participate in their rituals and honoring us with flowers and symbolic scarves. They were happy and generous and kind. It was pretty amazing. As Brandon commented, "How different is that from the reception that four Indians would get if they just showed up in a small town in America?" Something to mull over.

The next morning, I woke up and turned to Jason and asked, "Did that whole thing with the temple and all the people and everything really happen?"


* We were still a couple of hours from Bangalore and honestly, I don't think ANY of us knew where we were exactly.

Jungle Retreat

I'm putting the finishing touches on our online India photo album and videos. In the meantime, here's an account of our first couple of days into the South and at the Jungle Retreat that I wrote right after we got back to Bangalore.

Sunday, January 20, 2007
Went to Brandon and Sarah's ward for church in the morning. Once again, I found myself gawking at the beautiful saris. I really want one now. I've gone native after less than a week.

Everyone at church was incredibly nice to us and excited to meet us. Sarah and I went to the deaf Sunday School class because she had been invited the weak before. A deaf man joined the church awhile ago and was so excited about it that he started inviting all of his friends to church and several of them joined so now they have their own Sunday School class. Sarah knows a bit of ASL and is starting to pick up some Indian Sign Language.

We walked around the church building a little bit and bumped into a woman from another ward who invied us all to her son's wedding. Ironically, Sarah had just been saying the day before how neat it would be to get to go to an Indian wedding before they left. She's hoping that it will be more traditional Indian than just a simple Mormon service.

After church we went to Tai Tai for lunch (yes, yes, I know, keeping the Sabbath Day holy and all that. But if you really want to get nitpicky, it's not the workers' Sabbath here. I also generally kind of let that slide when I'm on vacation. Plus, Brandon and Sarah don't have an oven and are severely limited as to what they can eat if they don't go out.)

Anyway, Tai Tai. With 38 rupees to the dollar, you can eat amazingly well on very little. This particular restaurant is one that rich Indians and foreigners frequent and the meals aren't generally cheap. However, on Sundays they have an amazing lunch buffet for around 400 rupees a person, which includes alcohol, if we drank. The cuisine is more Eastern Asian, particularly Thai. The buffet consists of a bunch of different salads, rice, beef tenderloin with a soy ginger sauce and chicken. Then the waiters bring to your table a platter of banana leaf-wrapped fish, lamb and another kind of chicken.

After lunch, we hurried home to finish packing up for our drive to Jungle Retreat, a resort right outside of Mudumalai National Park. In order to get there, we hired a car. Meaning, Sarah and Brandon called up their local taxi service and hired a car and driver for a day. Before you start thinking we're living too posh for our own good, this is the car we rode in:
An Ambassador taxi with 3 people packed in the back, two up front (including the driver) and the windows rolled down. Still, it was very nice to have a driver to take care of the insane driving required to get from Bangalore to Mudumalai. Our driver's name was Ramesh and Brandon was the appointed interpreter, since he's been learning Kannada, the local language, although Ramesh spoke enough English that we could generally get our point across.

One of the fun things about driving through India (and I say India, but I'm generalizing and mean Southern India, though it may be like that in the north too) is that you don't really use maps, per se, but instead get pointed in a general direction, with a vague idea of the roads you need to take from whatever very basic map you do happen to have, and then proceed to find your way by asking people along the way. Once we got a couple of hours past Mysore, we weren't really positive of the route, so Ramesh would just slow down and call out to some people on the street (because there are always people hanging out on the street), "Mudumalai?" and they would respond with some chatter and point in the direction of the road we should take.

We made it to the Jungle Retreat just before they stopped serving dinner. We were kind of concerned that Ramesh wouldn't be able to find a place to eat, but apparently he made friends with the kitchen staff and got some dhal and rice. Another great thing about India is the ability to make instant friends. Ramesh could just ask directions and chat and find other people to socialize with every step along our trip. Brandon tends to do that as well since the locals appreciate that he's trying to learn the language. So he makes friends everywhere, and generally everyone has been very helpful and generous to us all.

The first night we stayed in a dormitory, which was a nice little set up with an open air bathroom (because it never rains during the non-rainy season). We sat by the campfire that night with some of the staff (since most of the other guests had already gone to bed), one of whom played the guitar and sang a little and made Smores. Jason and I brought marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers from the U.S. by special request of Brandon and Sarah.

Monday, January 21, 2007

Woke up, ate breakfast. Moved to our rooms for the second night. Jason and I stayed in the treehouse, which was a wedding present from Brandon and Sarah. Actually, the whole trip to the resort was our wedding present, and the reason we stayed there in particular was because they had an awesome treehouse.

Then we went swimming in the pool made to look like a watering hole. I loved sitting in the water and soaking up the sun. Actually, I've spent every opportunity I've had soaking up the sun as much as possible. I love New England, but my Arizona-raised self misses the warm sun like crazy. And since it's been sunny and gorgeous every day (not to brag), I have had no lack of sun.

After swimming, we had lunch and then met with the activities director to decide what to do. We decided to go see elephants that afternoon, and to go on an early morning hike the next day.

At 4 PM, we met with our elephant guide, who had an awesome handlebar mustache.

First, he took us to an elephant camp to see some tame elephants. Then, I guess he decided we were cool because he gave us the option of staying to see them feed the tame elephants in the elephant camp, or to go out into the wilderness and search for the wild ones. Tough choice. We headed out. We drove to a private property where we climbed up a rickety bamboo ladder to the roof of a house. The whole time we were going up and down the ladder, the guide and the caretaker were saying, "Go slow!" "Very old bamboo!"

Generally several elephants make their way past the house every night on their way to a nearby watering hole. Although we saw a lot of elephant droppings (huge!), we didn't see the elephants there. So we climbed down off the roof and started driving into the wilderness to find them. And when I say into the wilderness, I mean the driver plowed the Jeep over small trees and prickly pears as if they weren't there.

We did find a mama and baby elephant and watched them lumber through the brush. Then we looked for more. The driver and the guide rolled back the canvas top on the Jeep and told us to stand up to see better. Then he started driving and when we sat down, he said, "Stand up, stand up!" He was right. Speeding down an empty road, standing up in a Jeep, looking for elephants, is pretty great.

We stopped at a little local food stand for a snack and then headed back to look some more. We went back to the house and could hear an elephant lumbering through the brush, but couldn't see it through the trees. Eventually we ot back in the Jeep and went and found the elephant, where we watched it rip off tree branches with its trunk and eat them.

We also saw wild bison and spotted deer (which were everywhere) while we were out. It was a fun trip. That night we ate dinner and crashed into bed pretty early. It's amazing how tired you can get from not doing much of anything except sitting in the sun and looking for elephants.

Job

Just FYI, I really, REALLY like my new job. And from what I've heard, it sounds like my boss is pretty pleased with me. I actually feel like I kind of know what I'm doing as a health care lawyer and that he can give me assignments and I can run with them. He even asked me an elder law question the other day that I knew part of the answer to just off the top of my head. As a bonus, he's very laid back and extremely sarcastic (in a good and funny way).

Now I just need to pass the Rhode Island Bar in July so we can make this thing full time.

In Search of Palmiers

So I know this is a cliche, but French pastries really are amazing. They're light and unprocessed in a way that doesn't make you feel weighed down even though you just ate a croissant and a hunk of baguette with cheese, topped off with pain au chocolat. One night while we were in Paris, my stomach felt kind of squidgy, but I was hungry and wanted something light. We stopped at a bakery and I saw these:

They are called palmiers and they're a little slice of light and flaky almond-flavored heaven.

Imagine my joy when I went to Au Bon Pain for some soup at lunchtime today and discovered that they had palmiers. *Happy dance*

However, I was sorely disappointed. Instead of being light and flaky and wonderful, the ABP palmiers were sticky and greasy and WAY too sugary. I suppose that's supposed to be appealing to our over-sugared American palettes.

Anyway, I'm in search of a real French palmier. I'm going to try this great bakery down the street from my apartment, but I seriously don't hold out much hope. How DO the French do it?

Busy Busy

We got in from Paris on Sunday at about 3:30 PM, drove home to Providence, and proceeded to fall asleep by about 9 because that was 2 AM Paris time. Then we woke up at 4 AM and caught up on some TV watching. I was laying there wide awake thinking I was the only one and Jason turns his head and says, "I'm not tired." It's much more fun to be wide awake at 4 AM with someone else to entertain you.

Yesterday I started my new job, which started at 9 AM and ended at 9 PM following a medical society meeting. It's going well so far and I am really, really busy. If this pace keeps up I can see me going full-time eventually.

We have about 3000 pictures from our trip to go through. You think I'm exaggerating, don't you? Sadly, no.

And our place is a mess! I forgot how messy we left it. We'll get it all sorted out eventually and I want to create a big online India photo album, but none of that is happening until at least this weekend.

In other, amazing, fabulous news, I took the bus to work today and it took about 7 minutes.