New Hope and NYC - huzzah!

I visit my friends in North Jersey quite a bit, but one weekend recently was extra special because a mutual friend was visiting from out of town. I headed up Saturday night, and Sunday we all went to New Hope, a small town on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. I had never been there, but my friends all said great things about it. It did not disappoint. It’s a pretty town filled with fun little shops. Kenobi benefited from there being a pet store - I got him a giant dog treat that looked good enough for me to eat. One friend bought some spicy chocolate that was so hot my mouth would not stop burning. Thankfully, another friend had some gum to soothe the fire. Another friend let me have one of his chocolate covered caramels. YUM.

On the way back, we took the scenic route along the Delaware. I regaled them with the tale of my grandfather and John Glenn. Two friends confirmed a third’s opinion that I look like Claire Danes. They are wrong. That night my friends made Indian food for dinner. Delicious!

The next morning, my friend from out of town and I went to New York for the day. He suggested going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I was excited to see the museum. It was huge and amazing and wonderful. We only ended up going through the medieval and Egyptian sections because there was so much to see. They were fantastic. My friend happens to be a medieval scholar, and he was translating the Latin for me. Pretty cool. He may protest being called a medieval scholar, but too bad! My blog, my rules. Should medieval be capitalized? Who knows? Not me. (This is not the time for anyone to point out that I make my living as a writer or that I could probably google that.) He and I both speak French, so we enjoyed eavesdropping on native French speakers who were walking through the museum. Too bad we didn’t hear anything interesting, comme, “J’ai tué ma femme, and sa corps est enterrée dans le jardin.” Heh. The horse armor was great. I think the Book of the Dead was the highlight of the Egyptian section for both of us. It was cool. Why is there a spell for not stepping in excrement? They expected excrement in the Egyptian afterlife? How is the afterlife so great if you have to worry about stepping in poo?

My friends showed me the movie Frozen. It was awesome. My friends’ daughter knows the words to the songs and sang along, which was really very cute. They also had me watch Clone Wars, the Star Wars cartoon. I have been hesitant to watch Clone Wars because the prequels are utter crap and I thought it would be similar. I was happy to be wrong. The cartoon is entertaining.

I played chess for the first time in years. That was a lot of fun, if slightly challenging as a couple of the pieces were painted blue. My friend from out of town had his Cairn terrier along with him. She is adorable. There was some discussion as to whose dog is the cutest dog in the world, mine or his. Kenobi is the cutest dog in the world. Of course. (Again- my blog, my rules!)

No, this post doesn’t have any photos. I should have taken some with my phone, but I wasn’t thinking. I wish I had remembered. I never end up bringing my DSLR camera or taking photos with my phone when I’m with my friends. I’d like to have some photos of the people who are important to me. I need to remember next time.

What happened to March?!

March has been a crazy month. Lots of fun. Lots of work. No time for blogging. The Whoathon is not over! The baking is not over! April will be a better month for the blog.

Flour's famous banana bread

This post will be short and sweet due to the fact that I am both tired and feeling lazy. I will also be using bad phone photos instead of nice DSLR photos. Huzzah! Way to discourage people from reading…

I made banana bread from Joanne Chang’s book Flour. Quick breads like this are always fairly easy. The smell was incredible. It made the entire house smell of bananas. The banana bread was moist and tasty. It was also very dense. That about sums it up! I can’t really get enthusiastic about banana bread the way I do about pumpkin bread, but this was good.