After stealing two pumpkins from the Halloween at the Farm (which was a bust due to inclement weather), Meredith, Axel, and I sliced and diced until we had created two masterpieces and a heaping pile of pumpkin guts. Axel carved a sailboat into his pumpkin and Meredith and I created a smiley emoticon pumpkin. There are pictures of the final products in my gallery. Only at Case…
There are three options presented with pumpkin guts. You could throw them away and you would be very lame. If you are seeking mischief on a neighbor’s garden or simply enjoy growing yearly copious quantities of pumpkins for the rest of eternity, you could plant the seeds. However, the best option is the tastiest. Eat them.
I followed the Joy of Cooking’s directions and baked the seeds (which Meredith and I separated from the guts by washing them in a strainer) for an hour and a half at 250 degrees. Before baking, I coated them with a little kosher salt. I just found some more exotic pumpkin seed recipes that I would be interested in trying next year.
Two nights and two great dinners with friends I don’t see nearly enough. The writer formerly known as Karen Graber, who is now happily married, took me out to the Cheesecake Factory. Of the many people that I have met at Case, few have altered my outlook on life, dating, social responsibility, and the importance of good bread as much as she has. I told her this, but I am not sure she believed me.
It has been a long time since I have seen her last - a year or more - but it is surprising how little we have changed. It is rare, but with some people or enough time, I open up and there is no end to the conversation. We talked about her new life in the suburbs and my escapades as a nerd rebel with twists of sin. I’ll say anything over a piece of cheesecake. By the end of the evening, I was very nostalgic of that summer… What a summer.
This evening, I went out with Nate Jacobsen, Steve DeBrosse, and Eric Pinzur. We met at Eric’s new pad. Eric, who goes by “Spoo“, has quite an awesome setup; a mixture of pro audio video equipment and Spoo engineering. He lives in the heart of Cleveland’s downtown district on West 6th street. We went next door to eat at Fusion for tapas and drinks. The food was filling and each a well presented tasty dish. Afterwords, we went back to his apartment and a slew of girls in company with Adam Dutton arrived. I met a few new people, but I couldn’t stay too long because I am waking up early tomorrow morning to build a homecoming float.
I am looking forward to another friend who is coming into town this week: none other than Eric Friesen. E-Friesen, my awesome roommate, wing man and partner bartender, has been off the charts for awhile but not out of mind. He’s flying in from Cali and taking me out Thursday night to see the legendary DJ Ferry Corsten at Sinergy. Corsten is going to blow the roof off. I’m looking forward to seeing Eric.
My two favorite Indian chicken recipes:
Chicken 65
Chicken Makhani
I made the Chicken 65 last Friday when Sara came up from North Carolina to visit me. It was excellent, but I have to admit I enjoyed the Chicken Makhani I made today even more. No worries - the company was more enjoyable on Friday. Then again, I did enjoy eating with my roomates who shared some potato latkes, beer, and wine. OK - the company was more attractive on Friday. Fair enough?
Sara came up on Friday and left Sunday morning. She had her baggage for approximately 12 hours during the entire trip since it was misplaced by the airline. We still had a great time. I got some great shots of the Botanical Gardens. I’m regretting that she wouldn’t let me take any photos of herself. Next time….
There are still 15 minutes left in this day, but I’m confident in saying that this day is going to be the start of something amazing. Our first day in the Extreme Blue program at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina was filled with activity. Most of the day was spent in orientation and getting ourselves set up with IBM. The Extreme Blue staffing team gave us overviews of how the program would work and information essential for our success. In addition, Samuel Adams, a Vice President and Distinguished Engineer at IBM, gave us advice for how to take advantage of the incredible opportunity we have this summer at IBM.
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I drove up to New York City on Thursday while popping back some sunflower seeds and listening to the Beatles. God damn, I’m a hippy. En route, I had a conference call with my team at IBM on licensing issues with open source software. There is only one more week before I’m working down at IBM in North Carolina. I cannot wait.
Becca and I sat down for dinner at a local restuarant in Jersey City near her new apartment. Becca is looking amazing, as always. She took me down to Typhoon in downtown Manhattan. We had some sushi and drinks courtesy of the bartender Joe, Becca’s new roommate. I DD’d but made sure Becca was properly gone before the night was through.
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