Nutella pecan pie. This pie was really really really good. I used store-bought crust.

I mean look at that. YUM.

This is the paper that ripped off inside my printer. I called Epson support to get them to tell me how to get it out. I got it out no problem but then the printer decided to say that all of my ink is empty even though I can hear the ink sloshing around the cartridge when I shake it. What a scam.

I complained to Epson on Twitter and the rep said that customer service would be contacting me, but they haven’t yet. I’m not going to let this go though.

Water marbled my nails last week. I like the swirl patterns but I don’t like the colours together.

I’ve been doing school work all day. Ugh. I’ve accomplished a lot though, which is good news. I have three midterms this week, plus a case study, and two labs to do, then four labs total to write up. BLECH.

The UBC Apple Festival is on this weekend and it just happens to be the rainiest weekend we have had in a LOOONG time. 150+ mm of rain today and tomorrow, supposedly.

Being serious apple enthusiasts, the rain didn’t stop us from going this morning. Luckily a lot of the stuff is under tents. We still did everything we did last year, but just spent less time dawdling in between. We did the whole tasting session (you can try pieces of like 60 different apples for 20 minutes), got the big samples of the new apples, ate lots of samples of apple chips, flavoured almonds, popcorn, and drank warm apple cider.

I didn’t take many pictures this year because it was so wet.

My favourite grocery store apple is the Macintosh. I actually really enjoy that kind of mushy texture. I know I am a minority. Anyway the apple festival is awesome because they cross all sorts of types of apples and you can try all these different variations of the type of apple you usually like (crisp, crunchy, tart, juicy, sweet etc.) and find something that YOU really really love.

yoko, sinta, jonamac

I don’t think they had as many Macintosh-like apples this year, which was a little disappointing for me. I wanted to buy something different, but ended up getting the same type as I did last year, the Jonamac (cross between a Jonathan and a Macintosh). Scott got Sinta and we are going to share the bag of Yoko (which is a good thing because they are ginormo).

I forced everyone to get into a picture. You can see how hard the rain is coming down if you look in front of the umbrella. And how soggy Lesley and Scott look, haha. Yup it was a damp morning.

So this last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving, and because almost all of our friends here are not from Vancouver (and can’t easily fly home), we hosted a potluck dinner at our house. This year we had 12 Ontarioians (Ontarians?) and Australians!

I cooked a 11.5 lbs turkey upside down, and while it took an hour longer than I expected it to take, it turned out juicy and delicious. Much better than last year.

Scott is clearly not a vegetarian anymore

Scott made super rich mashed potatoes and homemade whole wheat bread, and I made stuffing and gravy. Everyone else brought caesar salad with homemade dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts that were 50% bacon, and 20 million kinds of dessert (mostly pie). It was delicious and amazing.

Everyone chowing down

I miss being around my family on holidays like this, but it was really nice to at least be surrounded by friends.

Our house still smells strongly of turkey because I am trying out making homemade stock in the slow cooker. I put the turkey bones and leftover celery, carrots, and onions into the slow cooker, filled it 3/4 with water, and set it on low for 18 hours. Then I strained it as best as I could and right now it’s cooling in the fridge so I can get rid of some of the fat before freezing it. It looks pretty lean though so I might not need to do anything to it.

I am so glad it is the weekend because I had a super busy last two days.

Thursday

  • Worked 7 to 3 in the stress lab. Stress lab is my least favourite rotation because it is really busy all day long and can get really chaotic and hectic at certain points. The tech I was working with got me to run the whole thing with no help. IT WAS HARD!! I did manage to do it though, which I think is a pretty good accomplishment. I got a pretty good evaluation for the week.
  • Then I walked around downtown for an hour.
  • Met up with Scott near his work, then walked over to Meat & Bread for dinner. Unfortunately they were out of porchetta so we decided to walk all the way back to Davie Street to try out the American Cheesesteak Co instead.
  • Ate a delicious classic cheesesteak with beef, American cheese, and sautéed mushrooms.
  • Killed time in a coffee shop for an hour or so.
  • Went to Zsofi and Dylan’s apartment for Dylan’s birthday party! Drank some wine and got to try Dylan’s homemade ice cream sandwiches. Really good.
  • Finally went home and went immediately to bed.

Friday

  • Scott went to Edmonton for 4 hours. Seriously. He had to wake up at 4:30 AM to do that.
  • I went to school. Human Behaviour class was extra uncomfortable and awkward. So much second hand embarrassment. Wasted two hours of my life in Research Methods learning about maybe using highlighters as a research aid, and some other stuff that we already went over in another class last year. Then a couple hours of Communications, which was actually fine. I don’t mind that class.
  • Went out for bubble tea with most of the people from the other set. I miss them. I had milky strawberry slush with pearls and it was yummo.
  • Went home for a couple hours. Scott arrived with sushi in hand. The best.
  • Took public transit for 1.25 hours to get to SFU to help out at the skeleton club Gangnam Style pub night. I helped sell tickets and do coat check for three hours. It wasn’t the best night for a fundraiser (Thanksgiving weekend!) but I think we still made a bit of money for the club, which is really good news.
  • Bussed home and collapsed into bed for the night.

Today is homework and chores day. We have to get the apartment ready to host the 2nd Annual Orphan Thanksgiving Potluck on Monday night. I think we have 12 people coming, and I’m making turkey again. :D

For some reason I decided that for the month of September I would take a picture of my dinner every day. I guess because I am often curious about what other people eat for “normal” dinners. I definitely didn’t remember to do it every day, but here are the 17 pictures I DID remember to take. Let me know if you want recipes of anything, almost all of it is homemade.

September 5th, 2012

September 6th, 2012

September 7th, 2012

September 9th, 2012

More after the jump…

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