Monday, August 23, 2010

My Spouse comes to Town

If you look at my facebook page, you will see that I’m married. I’ve been fakely married to Lauren since approximately the last time she visited Cleveland (in July 2008). We suffered through a brief hiatus in our marriage prior to that where I thought it would be ok to be engaged to someone else (also we may or may not have been “seeing other people for realz” at the time).

We went to 5x7 at Whole Foods (every friday, Whole Foods has a wine/food tasting for $5 between 5-7pm and now I have a jankedy collection of wine glasses from there) and went to Jo-Ann afterward to hang out. If there were ever a masquerade in town, Lauren would be prepped with this mask. If there were ever a fairy-princess masquerade in town, Lauren would be super prepped with her magic wand.

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We went on a walk and saw a dragonfly shell. So pretty! Thanks for being all rocky, ground, because now I can barely see the dragonfly’s wings.

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After going to a yoga class, Lauren and I downward dogged all the way back to my apartment (just kidding). We decided to make full Indian dinner. (That’s a lie. It was lunchtime, and we made 2 things – roti and bhindi.) This is Lauren rolling out the dough for our ghetto roti – it’s supposed to be wheat flour, except we used all-purpose.

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See? Even though it is ghetto roti, it still turned out prettily. And very easy to make. Lauren’s a pro at using a rolling pin. Thanks, mom, for giving me your itty-bittiest rolling pin :)

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Here is the pre-seasoned (hehe) Bhindi, aka okra. Lauren thought she wouldn’t like it due to the sliminess, but she loved it. Nobody doesn’t love Bhindi.

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Post-season (hehe) bhindi. Slimy goodness.215_1418

Lauren’s basically a pro at turning the roti.

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After eating our full Indian lunch, we went to the Westside Market, where I bought a bunch of fruits and vegetables, and some random lady took a blurry picture of us. Blurry picture is blurry.

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Thanks for coming, Lauren! I Mrs. the Mrs. :)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

My new-old sewing machine!

Sigh. After a long year of not having my sewing machine (I had no place for it in my old apartment), my parents brought it to my new apartment where I have a plethora of space to put it! It’s on my tiny little Ikea desk and it vibrates each time I try to sew too fast. I guess it’s a tiny message telling me to slow down :)

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My first sewing project…If you take a close look at my shower, you’ll notice a window. I agree with your thoughts, “What. The. Frak. Interrobang.”

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In the interest of not being a voyeur, I sewed a curtain! Initially, there was a shower curtain on the other side of my shower as well…which just makes me feel claustrophobic about taking a shower. 

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My 2-year-old paintbrushes were still in the original plastic bag that I bought them in. I need new paintbrushes. But that point is moot. I more desperately needed a new paintbrush holder.

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I sewed a bag almost exactly the same size and shape as the original, but much prettier.

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This bag also closes and ties shut!

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Also today, I did fitness boot camp at work and was very sore. I decided to attend my first yoga class ever after work to stretch out and wind down. I wound down so much that I fell asleep during the meditation part D:

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I can’t ConSTAIN myself

I’m currently in the process of perfecting the decor in my apartment. The glaring lack of a location to put my spices near my stove led me to think of this idea.

Before:

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I bought a 50¢ piece of wood from the Home Depot…

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Added a splash of black paint, and nailed it to the wall! Ta-Dah! A place to put my spices that is NOT across the kitchen and around the corner.

After:

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Also, I’ve discovered something amazing. (By discovered, I mean I was watching HGTV and they told me it.) If you soak a bit of steel wool in plain old vinegar overnight, you get a fabulous wood stain. I stained this little box (which holds all my embroidery thread). This box gets used often because I embroider daily.

Before:

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After:

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I also stained the jewelry holder that I made a few months ago and came out with this. It looks SO much better and matches my bedroom furniture muchly.

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In progress…Yes, I did stain a random piece of wood. Thank you for noticing :)

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My poor palm…a casualty of staining. My hand is not made of wood, why is it stained?

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And my excited instant message conversation with Nick…

Nídhi: do you need any wood that needs stainign??? i just discovered homemade wood stain and i want to stain EVERYTHING D:
Nick: ...
Nídhi: it is SO COOL omg.
Nick: the only wood i have needs no stain
Nídhi: fml
Nick: you asked for that so hard

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Pictures that belong in this post

You know life’s good when you’re at a bar that has skee-ball and you accidentally start singing along to Justin Bieber’s “Somebody to Love”

Victoria was back in Cleveland for a weekend, and I was excited that I got to see her. I haven’t been out downtown since approximately January (even though I lived there) and now I know why.

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The sky turned very strangely at PROGRESSIVE Field when I went there. I think the Indians lost to the Rays.

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A joy-ful mural on Lee Road brightened my already bright Sunday. 

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And black paint mixed with Mod Podge swirled together to create a face before I accidentally left it to dry to run to Little Italy to watch the fireworks at the end of the Feast.

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:)

I still need to recover from this weekend.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

SoLmates! Part 2

After leaving the beach completely soaked, we came back to my apartment to shower and chill for a while.

At the garage sale that we perused earlier, there was an Iron Chef board game that we neglected to purchase. Luckily, we found the girl after the beach and we got it! No one could figure out how to play it but that’s ok. It’s a conversational piece.

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The garage sale girl also gave us a Kermit the Frog beanie and a disgusting small leprechaun that plays a really gross fight song when you slam it. I’m not sure how they got into this position, but I’m willing to be that one thing led to another and…

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Salome did a magical hair flip after straightening and glossing her hair. It’s so voluminous! She kinda looks like a rock star with her hairbrush microphone and her mad head banging skillz, yo.

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We toasted to the Summer of Light with my delicious homemade sangria. (Beringer’s White Zinfandel, lemons, limes, oranges and ginger ale.) We drank them out of my ghetto wine glass collection – 4 Whole Foods 5x7 glasses, 2 Olive Garden wine tasting glasses, and a champagne glass that was a wedding party favor.

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We are so ~PRESH~ and blurry. Blurry picture is blurry.

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I’m not sure why Jeff thought it was a good idea to put a peacock feather behind his ear, but it’s definitely a good look for him :)

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Jane and Maria, all nice and buzzed.

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Nidhi and Sarah, all nice and buzzed. Salome in the background, way past buzzed.

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Why so serious?? Y SO SRS?

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Fist bumping at the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy. Maria looks extra-proud.

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The girls at the Feast :) I miss these people so much. It sucks that we live so far apart. I’m so thankful that Sarah and Salome drove all the way from far, far away to be here for this.

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This weekend was so much fun! I love our reunions.

SoLmates! Part 1

In the summer of 2008, I interned at General Electric (The Summer of Light – hence the SoLmates). The group of people I found there became my family. Now we all live way too far apart. This weekend, I hosted the 2nd annual reunion and people came from far, far away (yes, that is a real place).

Our first task was to go to the beach and grill. Totally a tradition – this is our third time. This is me eating a banana, Matt being my armrest, and Salome crashing our picture.

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Matt is a grillmaster! He always does the grilling. Separate grills for veggie burgers and real meat.

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After grilling, We were going to drive the 10 feet to the beach area but then Matt realized his car wouldn’t start. Luckily, he had jumper cables. How many engineers does it take to figure out how to open the hood of my car?

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Guys, we made a circuit!

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As soon as Matt’s car was in working order, it started to drizzle. (Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella? Fo’ Drizzle!) Then it started to pour. The bikini girls, Jane and Sarah, used the makeshift tablecloth that we purchased at the garage sale next door earlier to shield themselves from the rain.

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Then we decided to screw it and ran around in the rain.

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It was basically a Bollywood movie. Or, apparently, The Shawshank Redemption.  I don’t really know what went on here or why we were doing this.

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And then the jumping in the rain picture :)

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Then we started walking toward the water. I really like this picture for some reason, probably because of the randos on the right side of the pic.

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Jane’s abs look SO ripple-y and six-packish. Damn girl!

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Getting diseases and stuff from Lake Erie is always fun!

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Apparently this guy in his cute little ATV decided that NO ONE could be in the water, so he told us to get out. Maybe if you go in a lake when it’s raining, you can get TOO wet?

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The sun came out, so I pointed at it.

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Ahh, the beach :)

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Salome often passes out when she’s in a car. Sometimes even when she’s driving. D:

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Everyone crammed into the back of my car. Sort of illegal, but that’s ok, this isn’t a public blog or anything.

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