Spring Break

I took leave from work for the first time in nearly a year in order to visit with wednesday_10_00, who came over to stay with me for spring break. She arrived on the 21st, and then amid bouts of discussion and TV watching we got started on the huge job of organizing my manga collection. We spent a large part of the day on the 22nd doing the same, though we did take a break to walk to town for some shopping.

On Saturday morning we were joined by two other friends, and we all set out to attend the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show (which, despite the name, is held here in my town). We had a good time viewing the model gardens and browsing at the vendor stalls. We were all talked into buying stove-top grills, though the vendor giving the demonstration could have been more flexible with his patter. (Even after I said we would only use it for fruits and vegetables, he tried to get us to try the grilled chicken. Hint: Chicken is neither a fruit nor a vegetable.) I also bought a couple of herbs, and I was unable to resist a new tomato plant (an intensely dark variety called Indira Gandhi from Love Apple Farm), despite my resolution only to grow yellow and orange tomatoes this year.

On our way back, we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some fresh vegetables to try out on the grill. Then we came back and had a lovely meal with the grilled vegetables and some potato salad, accompanied by a jar of my homemade pickles. We also had a platter of cheese and crackers. One cheese that went over well was gjetost, which I picked up as an experiment after having read about it in one of my cheese-making books.

On Sunday, mangaroo came over to hang out and play games. We cooked up a potato feast consisting of potato/parsnip/artichoke soup (using artichokes picked fresh from my garden), cheesy potato casserole, potato/mayonnaise pizza, and curried potato pizza. Every single menu item was terribly delicious.

Monday, wednesday_10_00 and I took the bus to San Francisco and headed to Japantown, where we browsed in several shops. We spent quite a while in Kinokuniya studying Japanese tourism books in preparation for our winter trip. On our way back, we barely made it to the bus stop in time--which is a big deal, since the bus only comes once per hour, and it was unexpectedly chilly that day. If the bus hadn't stopped at a traffic light, we wouldn't have caught it.

mangaroo came back on Tuesday for another day of board games and TV watching, not to mention eating the remnants of the potato feast. (We made a SERIOUS amount of food.) We played a game called Shadows over Camelot, which is a cooperative game that is much more difficult to win than we had anticipated. Though we played three times, we only won the third time--and that only by a hair.

I had to say goodbye to wednesday_10_00 on Wednesday. ;_; It was a great week, and I'm looking forward to the next time we get together.

I did keep a quote list, though I wasn't as prompt about writing things down as I had intended. In any case, here is the list, with quotes from the participants mentioned above plus input from sara_tanaquil via TeamSpeak.

( Spring Break 2013 Quote List )