Holy damn

Me and Commrad went to this fancy-as-balls restaurant for our anniversary (we got a $50 coupon through bartering) -- it was an Italian-Greek sort of thing and it stunned me from the first second with it's... well, fanciness. We went to eat outside and I kept being afraid I would drop my food on their nice tablecloths or something. It was the kind of restaurant where they have truffles and truffle oil and aioli. The waiters describe the specials and such to you -- it's like listening to food porn or a very intense commercial. Apparently the waiters themselves make the food. We got a very tall and un-fancy-looking waiter, thank god (or I would have sank into my chair from fear of... erm... something) though he still did kind of take our breath away with rapid food porn-like descriptions of salads and roasted garlic and wine reductions. I got some roasted tomato thingie with pesto, fresh mozzarella, and roasted garlic, all on bread, and even Commrad liked it despite his hate of non-smushed tomatoes, and he got some odd octopus dish. And THEN we got even more food -- some meatball thing that Commrad couldn't finish, and "beggar's purses" which really did look like little old-fashioned purses, only made of pasta, stuffed with different cheeses and with some pink sherry cream sauce. We were bursting. The waiter complimented me on my dress (which I am indeed quite proud of owning, thanks Zoe!) and when he learned it was our anniversary he said the desert (which was a piece of baklava-crusted cheesecake and another piece of a chocolate mousse cake) was on him -- we haven't tried either yet, though, since we are ridiculously full, so they are in our fridge -- and when we were paying the tax and tip part of the meal, he brought us two small glasses of champagne as a treat, which was awesome, and then we went home.
And I don't usually blabber on like this, but it was just awesome. That's the nicest waiter I've ever met (is it a fancy restaurant thing?) and the food was delicious, and I have a nice full belly so I didn't have to eat the utter failure of a soup that I made earlier today. It was an awesome anniversary.
/end excited blabbering

Sickliness, snow

I found a dead bird, the only signs of death being an unnatural twist of the head and some blood around the beak.
The next day it snowed, so I put it out under a tree. It was too cold to dig a tiny grave, anyway.






























































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Perhaps tomorrow, when the snow melts completely, I will make it one. I can't figure out what it died from.

I am kind of sick -- there are tissues scattered everywhere. I was a bit miffed yesterday because I forgot to buy chocolate, and when I decided to make cinnamon muffins for dessert (a recipe I've made multiple times without trouble), they collapsed into soggy, hollow messes when I took them out of the oven. Probably because our kitchen is so cold. When I was out of our single heated room today, I saw little tendrils of steam coming off of my skin. Now, I'm used to little clouds coming out when I breathe, but skin steam? What the hell? Must be my unbearable hotness and such. God knows people at Ingles all practically dropped at the sight of my hotness, last time I went to the store -- well, it was either that or my weird combination of skirt, cape, scarves, shawls...

I woke up very whiny and promptly took it out in my dA journal. I've since cheered myself up by turning my pine-needle syrup into an alcoholic drink -- at least, I hope that's what it will do. It kind of molded, so I had to boil and strain it, and then I boiled together some honey, water, and sugar, added that to the pine syrup, and threw in some yeast and raisins. Also, a little bit of my hard cider, so I guess it will taste a tad appley.

My hard cider has turned a bit dry (too much yeast, I guess -- it just keeps fermenting like crazy) so I guess when I make spiced cider, I'll add in a little honey. I like sweetness, so I guess I'll never be a wine connoisseur. I drank a little bit of it today, unheated, and it wasn't too bad despite it -- I like the fizziness (you can see the bubbles in the picture). It's too bad they stopped selling un-preservatived cider in the store -- I should have stocked up when they still had it, and experimented with the amount of yeast.