Writing Prompts & Food

Like most blogs, this one has fallen into a mighty lapse. So for the next month (mostly to help keep me on a regular writing schedule), I'm going to post a few writing prompts that I've assigned my delightful students. I'd love to see what you guys make of it--plus, if you have any suggestions that a flock of fledgling essayists might enjoy, send them my way!

In other news, Warren and I have been attempting to become adults, which includes learning how to cook. One of my goals for the next few months is to actually build up some food storage (yes, kind of boring) but also to cook with it using the 80/10 rule: cook meals with 80% pantry items, 10% produce, meat, etc. We'll see how I do, but hopefully this blog will help me to become a more disciplined writer and a more enterprising cook! Any tips would be much appreciated :)

Prompt 1: List Makers
Watch the following video (via Nic Nacks, a lovely blog by a lovely lady)

Think about the following line: "Maybe the world breaks on purpose so we can have work to do." Then compose a one page list of the broken things in your world (anything from broken faucets to relationships). Compose another list of things that are on the mend or mended. See if any patterns emerge and write a short paragraph with the backstory for one of your listed items. Try to use vivid language to flesh out the scene or character.

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A Little DC in Detroit

Last week, two of my dear DC roommates, Chelsea and Melissa, made a pitstop in Dearborn. Chels is moving back home (before moving to London!) and the girls decided to turn it into a mega roadtrip, which we fully endorse. Anyway, we had a delightful brunch and talked about how strange and cool it was that we were all "growing up."

I only lived in DC for the briefest of years, but it was spectacular, thanks mostly to my roommates. I didn't realize that when you graduated college life seriously would get super fun (minus the GRE and applying to grad school). Case in point: who knew that fully grown women could ride around town with the windows down belting out every patriotic song with such abandon? Or that you are allowed to stay up all night and have marathon viewings of TV on DVD? Or that everything was cause for a celebration/dinner party/dance party, with a mandatory theme? I remember my sister asking me if we ever planned a party without a theme. What would life be without the annual Valentine's "Broken-Hearted Pirates" dance party? Nothing, I say. In short, these girls are AMAZING! And they thought we were getting "very domesticated" in our new digs.

With all the pies Warren has been making, they might have a point. Here's a better look at our living room/eating area.

As you can tell, it looks a dwelling any tween would be proud to call her own. All it needs is a little bit of glitter and a few unicorns, and even Lisa Frank will be proud!

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A Flying Saucer of Delight

So we haven't explored Detroit too much yet, but we have managed to grab tacos in Mexicantown twice.

Turns out, I could eat tacos al pastor every meal of the day!

I'm down with any street that has a tortilla factory and an opportunity to make Warren do this:


Plus, we scored a churro at La Gloria bakery.

My love for churros is deep and abiding. I could literally go to Disneyland just to eat a churro and leave. This churro was not as delicious as Disney's (or even Costco's) delightful deep fried-ness, but it did have one thing going for it:

Gotta love churros wearing sombreros!

Then we took the obligatory stroll across this bridge:



Though we adore Mexicantown, this is probably the ultimate reason why we will fall in love with Detroit:
"Pizza power, it's a flying saucer of delight" - TNMT

And finally, here's another piece of furniture that got an update. When we got back from Toronto, this was all that we owned: two vinyl chairs (rescued from a Toronto flea market), a wicker stool from Warren's grandma, and this little table we got at an antique store. It has a chipped rim but we kind of like it. It reminds us of my chipped tooth.

We wanted to paint all our "new" furniture bright colors, in hopes that it would help us survive the long, cold winter. So we went all sunshine on this one.

But enough chit chat. It's time to practice your dance moves...don't be shy!
Go ninja, go ninja, go!

Awesome.

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The Tale of Two Strawberries

Or, rather, seven pounds of strawberries. Our friends took us berry picking a few weeks ago and we had a blast! The kids were total experts and put us to shame.


We did manage to turn our truckload of berries into two delicious treats: freezer jam and strawberry rhubarb pie, our favorite! Warren has become a master pie maker and I can't complain--especially when he uses this fabulous all butter crust. Delish! We are super pumped that we finally invested in a dough cutter.



The masterpiece:


In other news, we are officially moved into our house. Of course that means that it looked like this for a few weeks...

But we've managed to do some organizing. Since we didn't move with any furniture, we scoured a bunch of garage sales, which is where we found this behemoth.

With some work...

we turned it into this (excuse the bluriness):

Thank you, Bosch orbital sander, without which we would have been lost!

I'll post a few more photos of projects we've tackled but for now, happy summer! Go eat some pie!

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oh hello there

so here's the scoop: we finally made it to dearborn! like most places i move to, it was flooding when we arrived so i took that as a good sign. we huddled up in a motel for a few days and made craigslist our super best friend. which is how we found the dearest, teensiest, central-air-conditioned 2 bedroom house in town. we triumphed after much heartache, such as the nasty house where a family of birds dive bombed me and covered me in poop. awesome. so we're pretty pumped for our new place, one that is not home to territorial nesting birds. and for all of you who were crossing your fingers for me--drumroll please--target is just a five minute drive away. [enter angelic heralding now]

here's the rub: we can't move in until june first, which means that we remain homeless nomads for a few days longer. so instead of staying in flooding dearborn we decided to leave the country. what better way to celebrate memorial day, right?

which is how we found ourselves here:

and here:


with these lovely people (warren's sister catherine, her husband jared, and their awesome kids, emma and jonas):

wearing super sweet elf gear for our maid of the mist voyage:


so here's to impromptu trips to toronto/niagara falls! on a side note, toronto is filled with treasures. like... creepy black-and-ginger-tailed squirrels
statues where you can become a 'pillar of justice'
whales!

and street performers like this dude...
life is good. happy memorial day!

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Last Day :(

We had a rip roarin' last day in Seoul and I can't wait to show you the rest of our adventures. But since we have a plane to catch, I'll just leave you with a little teaser. More to come!

1) Yes, those are little fish lurking in the background of this swanky cafe...
2) No, these are not weird looking stilts...
3) Proof that Suwon is AMAZING--Kyeong Dong Children's Home:

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DC Reunion...Seoul-Style!

Even though this is our first time in Korea, we've seen a lot of familiar faces. For instance, we walked into church last week and saw three folks from an old DC ward. Today we had lunch with one of them, Corinna, and she treated us to a fabulous pork BBQ (see how happy this pig is carrying a pumpkin??)

We then went on a self-guided walking tour of Seoul--we wandered through Gyeongbuk Palace. Seoul's mascot is a haechi (a guardian of sorts) and you can see very adorable cartoon-y ones all over construction signs. But here's a more noble looking haechi right outside the palace.
We made some policemen nervous around the Blue House (Korea's White House) with our illegal picture-taking ways (apparently you can only take pictures directly in front of the Blue House).
Down the road, we found ourselves in the uber ritzy but lovely Samcheong-dong. Home of the illustrious owl museum and, apparently, Little Paris, complete with its own Le Petit Prince Cafe and delicious macaroons.


Finally, we hiked past embassy row to the top of Gahoe-dong, a neighborhood filled with hanok (traditional Korean houses).

It was gorgeous and peaceful with stellar views of Seoul.

And super cool wall art made from terra cotta roof tiles:

And a dragon!

Last but not least, we saw some creepy/cool subway station art. Like this faceless profile that looks like its shooting laser mosaics from its eyes...

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