the ocean

Such was the infamous rallying cry of the bartender at the Brass Rail in Champaign, Illinois, after my sister and her friends entered the establishment, used the restroom, and left without buying anything. But it is also an appropriate sentiment for this lovely holiday weekend.

Our holiday started, as so many do, with me ruining a fuck ton of potatoes, as a number of people have now told me they never believed to even be possible. But I found a way. I think the issue was that I didn't boil the potatoes long enough, even though I went twice as long as the recipe said, because they never really became soft. So they didn't mash properly, and even the interventions of (in order of escalation) a hand mixer, a blender, and an immersion blender that we bought at Target after the potatoes killed the first blender could not save them. They had the consistency of oatmeal. Oops.

But on the bright side, I've been wanting to reduce my carb intake, anyway. And everyone else's, I guess?

The rest of the meal was great, and we of course also watched the insanity of the Macy's parade (big ups to the Holland America float celebrating Alaska with well-known Alaskan Jewel singing thirty weird-arranged seconds of "You Were Meant for Me") and the Chicago parade (mostly local folk dancing groups and marching bands). And we decorated, which is now like a 48 hour task involving various beagles charging up and down stairs and in and out of doors. It's actually quite festive, to be honest.

Then we got the massive snowstorm yesterday. I'd say ten to twelve inches? It was wet and cold and terrible, and anyone going on about how it's pretty should be pantsed and thrown into a snowbank. 

Anyway, now it's almost Monday! Funny how that keeps happening.