A rainy evening

I was originally intending to meet some friends from high school in Boston this evening, which would have been great since I haven't seen them in probably over two years. However, it was raining and I wasn't feeling particularly fantastic, so I ended up canceling that plan and doing this instead:


I am a pretty terrible horn player, but perhaps compared to an average fifth-grade beginning band student, I'm doing ok. I'm well aware that my posture is utterly horrible and that I could have been sitting in a chair. Furthermore, I know that my air flow and diaphragm were undoubtedly affected, but hey, I'm on par with a fifth-grade band student, and I am conscious of the poor form. That's a step in the right direction, anyway. Today my babysitting kids came over and tried out all the instruments I have sitting in my room thanks to Instrumental Methods. These included the horn, a trumpet, trombone, drum pad, xylophone (perhaps not the best instrument to give a five and a three year old...), flute, and violin. They had a great time, and I had fun watching them try to get some notes out. It was, of course, very loud and to anyone listening it was probably extraordinarily obnoxious. Nevertheless, it was definitely a highlight of the day.

In any case, in order to continue the low-key rainy evening fun, Diana and I are going to watch a Redbox movie whilst sitting in our newly-redecorated living room. Yay quad break.

The Continuing Adventures of Diana and Jillian

Over the past three years, Diana and I have done many fantastic things including, but not limited to:

Photo shoots in the dorm room hallways:


Building forts:



Traveling to both Vermont and Maine:




And living in an apartment.


But today we had a grand adventure right here around Gordon. It started as an errand run with both of us because we were stranded together at Gordon for quad break. Diana needed to go to the tailor to get a dress altered, and I had to find a cobbler to get a pair of shoes mended. We tried a cobbler in Hamilton first, but it was closed, so to appease our disappointment we stopped by Winfrey's Fudge and Chocolate shop (right down the street). After sampling some chocolate and deciding it was good, we bought some malted milk balls. They were wonderful.


Then it was on to the tailor, which turned out to be more of an experience than expected. The shop was tiny, and the friendly elderly man sitting at the sewing machine came up and greeted us immediately with an unplaceable accent. While I waited for Diana, I found a magazine on a table titled "Istanbul Life." Eureka! Zeke must be Turkish! Soon another man came in the shop. He seemed friendly enough, informing me that he was an engineer and (after some small talk) asking what instrument I played. He told me he was an artist, and then Zeke brought out the shirt that the man had had altered. It was white with a rainbow-colored balloon print. I didn't say anything until he mentioned he was a balloon artist. I then commented on how the shirt was appropriate....thinking to myself that it was perhaps ONLY appropriate for that purpose.

After the tailor, we went on to a second cobbler. This man might have been related to Zeke the tailor, because we'd seen an advertisement for the cobbler in Zeke's shop, and the cobbler also had an accent and a wife named Olga who apparently cleaned houses, according to the handwritten poster taped to the counter. Maybe the accent was unrelated. Maybe Olga was unrelated. Unknown.


Post-cobbler, we resolved to stop at the Wenham Tea House for some tea before heading to Target and then home to boeuf bourguignon for dinner, but we stumbled across Henry's, a grocery store that had fantastic baked goods, according to Diana. We weren't disappointed:


Nevertheless, we didn't buy anything because we were trying to save as much money as possible, and there was a free wine tasting next door. This free wine tasting led to - dun dun dun - DIANA'S FIRST DRINK! Mind you, Diana turned 22 four days ago. This was clearly a monumental event.


As it turns out, Diana doesn't really like wine. We cleansed our palates with the free cheese that went with the free wine. Oddly, they didn't card us; the lady asked, "You're over 21, right?" We must have looked honest.

After the wine tasting, we continued to the Wenham Tea House. They weren't serving tea anymore, because it was 4:30 and afternoon tea only spans from 2:30 until 4:15. To make up for this tragic tragedy (yes, I know that's redundant...but it's alliterative!), we explored the shop attached to the Tea House, and then headed to the playground behind the building. Babysitting has taught me a great many things, including where to find the best playgrounds in the Hamilton/Wenham area. The dad with two little boys and the two moms each with little girls probably thought we were a little weird, but we enjoyed the swings.



Between the wine tasting and the swings, we definitely have abstract perceptions of maturity. Finally, we went to Target to pick out some things to decorate our apartment living room.



I think it was successful.

Before:


After:


Finally, we had boeuf bourguignon for dinner. It was pretty darn tasty!

All in all, it was a great day, and it will forever hold a very lovely place in our hearts. We were so entertained that we thought we should immortalize the day here. It has subsequently turned into the longest blog post of all time...but I think it's worth it.

Microwave Cake, take 2

My second attempt at microwave cake turned out far better than the first. At the suggestion of a friend (the instigator of the microwave cake mission), I tried this recipe: http://thenondairyqueen.blogspot.com/2010/02/cake-in-cup.html. It turned out much, much better than the first one!


(This time the white on top is homemade whipped cream.)

It was made in a large mug, and I think the only alteration I would make is to add more sugar. So maybe the answer is to combine the two recipes, since this was decidedly more chocolate-y than the first one. I do believe that microwaveable cake is entirely possible, albeit not quite as good as real cake. But I'm a college student, and fast, sweet, snack-like things are usually appreciated, even if the quality isn't superb.

Culinary Redemption

I seem to have been cooking more than usual the past few days. Therefore, I think it's necessary to document this here: I cut down the time it took to make boeuf bourguignon from seven hours to FOUR! AND I made mashed potatoes. And it tasted really, really good. And I modified the recipe. It was the best dinner I've had in a long, long time, and it will last me a forever because there's a lot of it. Either that, or I have to invite a lot of people over for dinner in the next few days. That could be an issue, because it's quad break and everyone is leaving! Although it might still be around by the time everyone gets back...

Church Experimentation

This Sunday, a good friend and I went to a to-remain-nameless Episcopal church in Boston, mainly because it was rumored that they performed a Bach Cantata every Sunday. This turned out to be true! But I have gotten ahead of myself. We were aware that the church's doctrine varied quite a bit from our own, but we were willing to check it out anyway. The service included glorious music during every aspect of worship. The hymns were all good, and it seemed like we had sung most of them recently in our own church. This could have been due to the fact that the music directors of both churches are very in tune with the liturgical calendar...but it could also be attributed to mere coincidence. Either way, they were familiar, they were some of the great hymns of the faith, the organ/organist was talented, and the congregation sang reasonably loudly considering the small congregation in such a large space. The choir was magnificent, singing works by Thomas Tallis among other composers, and after the sermon, the church orchestra had its own processional. This orchestra included a full string section, a bassoon, and two oboe d'amores, which was especially exciting for me. I've heard recordings of oboe d'amores before, but I'd never seen one or heard one played in person. And here there was not only one, but two!

This is a small part of the Bach Cantata they performed:



So all in all, the musical experience of the service was very meaningful and uplifting. Nevertheless, I don't think I would go to the church again, solely because of the theology. I have no right to judge what is correct or not correct, of course, but there are certain doctrinal elements that I do have opinions about. This particular church had very different viewpoints on those elements specifically, and since those are things upon which I cannot compromise, I suppose I will have to let the cons outweigh the pros in this situation. As another friend pointed out, it is not normal, but rather remarkable that this church holds such incredibly high standards for the musical worship, but I think that the teaching a church presents to its congregation should hold equivalent credibility.

After church, we went shopping on Newbury Street, ate some Chipotle-like amazing burritos and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and then headed for home. It was so much fun that we're hoping to try another Boston church in the near future...

A Potentially Redeemable Culinary Disaster

After orchestra this evening, I had nothing to do. This is shocking, because normally I would have reading to do for the following morning's English class. (The topic of said English class could be expounded upon for a good long time, but that is not for today.) In any case, I had finished the reading a full two days before it was due, so that wasn't on the to-do list for the night. Instead, I came up with the brilliant idea of trying to find a recipe for microwavable chocolate cake. Who doesn't like the idea of instacake? So I sat at my computer and googled "making a microwavable chocolate cake," and came up with this one:


Now, I knew that it had the potential for being disgusting, but the picture looked good and it seemed like an easy project to undertake at 10:30 at night. I did take into account the modifications suggested by other people who tried it (add extra sugar, put in some melted chocolate chips), but as my college kitchen supply is minimal, I made substitutions for the substitutions. Not a good idea, but hopefully understandable considering the limitations.

Mine failed.



(The white covering is frosting that I poured on top; it looked even worse without it.)

However, I think that there is a possibility that it could be significantly improved for a number of reasons: 1) the consistency was really quite nice and cake-like; 2) the sweetness was acceptable - it didn't taste like bread; and 3) the only reason it didn't taste too much like chocolate was that I had to use hot chocolate mix and M+Ms when I should have been using baking cocoa and melted chocolate chips, neither of which were attainable. All things considered, the taste wasn't too bad, even though everyone agreed the best part was the store-bought frosting.

So the morals of the cake are as follows: be forever wary of deceptively simple recipes found online; try those deceptive recipes anyway, because you might be able to tweak them enough to be great; and never substitute ingredients that you know beforehand will not be beneficial to the overall taste. I think I'll try this recipe again once I have the proper ingredients.

New Music

Lately I've been on an iTunes purchasing spree. Yesterday I finally bought the "24 Hours of Classical Music" album, which is probably the best deal ever. I mean...how often do you get 316 tracks for $9.99?!? And for the most part, they're good recordings too. Major win. Then this evening I bought an album of Bruckner's sacred choral music. The first time I listened to it, I almost cried. That doesn't happen often, so I figured that it belonged in my music library. Since I've been buying so much music, I thought I should make a list of all the things I want to buy. Music, that is, not everything....

-Mahler's Symphony No. 2
-Schubert's Symphony No. 8 (the oboe has the main theme; it's a must-have)
-Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony
-Brahms' Symphony No. 3
-Mahler's Symphony No. 7
-Rachmaninoff's Symphonies No. 2 and 3
-Haydn's Symphony No. 96 (we're playing this in orchestra; also has a nice oboe part in the third movement)
-Haydn's Creation
-Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 (played this in orchestra last year)

The list could go on and on, but this is just what I came up with tonight. In some ways, I feel like my familiarity with the major works from the entirety of the musical repertoire is like my limited experience with fruits and vegetables. I know what I like, and I listen to the things I like all the time, but there are a large number of major works that I am unfamiliar with. For example, I couldn't have sung any of the themes from any of the Brahms symphonies until very recently, and even now I would probably have a hard time coming up with them immediately. Maybe it's because I don't really remember much of music that I haven't played unless it has a very singable melody. I don't know why that is; it's probably a skill that I could cultivate if I practiced it often enough. Maybe the "24 Hours of Classical Music" album will help me with that.

In other news, I'm going to a wedding tomorrow in Rhode Island. I've never been to RI, as far as I can recall. I can't imagine it's too much different from other northern east coast states, but we'll see if there are any huge culture shocks. Highly doubtful. Also, this will probably be the fanciest wedding I have ever attended and will probably ever attend, unless I suddenly acquire a multitude of very rich and engaged friends. That seems unlikely. I hope that I know all the rules for proper etiquette and common civility. If I do, everything will be fine. If I don't...well...I guess it could be awkward.