Star Trek Insignia Perler Craft

I've been dabbling in crafts, especially now that I have a daughter at home who is also into crafts. One of the crafts we love to do, because it teaches my daughter shapes and dexterity++, are perler beads. I used to do these as a kid all the time!

My first perler creation was a turtle using a turtle shaped perler board, but I wanted to branch out and do some others. As I prepared to send my first International Geek Girl Pen Pal a letter, I wanted to send along something special. So I looked up a pattern for a Star Trek Insignia and created one on my perler board. Here are the pictures and the directions.

Materials

• Black Beans = 100
• Gray Beads = 60
• Clear Beads = 118
• Yellow Beads = 43
• Cheddar = 29
• 5-3/4 x 5-3/4 inch Perler Board

Template

In-Process

Final

Happy Father's Day

 

It's Father's Day and my daughter and I had some special stuff planned for dad. Sure my husband would have preferred for us to vacate and he have a day alone, relaxing. But our plans were WAY more fun.

First, there was breakfast. Scrambled eggs with shredded havarti over naan. Then, we gave him his awesome gifts. He had already gotten one of them two weeks ago. . . a cotton candy maker. My daughter thought it was a great idea and because the two of them love cotton candy, I thought they could have fun with it. Did I mention you can put any hard candy in it and it'll make cotton candy out of it? Oh yeah. Plus, we can make cotton candy whenever we want! Which, quite honestly, saves on the running out to purchase some and turns into a family activity of fun and laughs. 

Next, we got him a Sherlock Holmes book pillow from Think Geek. Ray and I have been talking a lot about Sherlock Holmes lately, because I'm taking a renewed visit through the compendium of Sherlock texts that I own. All in preparation for watching the BBC Sherlock. Plus, well. . . we've got some Scottish connections. Trust me, it's a super thoughtful gift idea.

And finally, from me to him, I got him the most recent Pathfinder (ACG) adventure pack: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Deck 5 - Sins of the Saviors Adventure Deck. After we finish binge watching Eureka, we're going to continue on our campaign. Probably around Wednesday, it looks like. We get to spend time together, just the two of us, which is always hard to do with all our other obligations. So it was supposed to be special to remind him that we still have time for each other through everything.

Since we had two hours before we had to go, Ray wanted to watch an episode of Eureka. We're making our way through and he is just OBSESSED with it! I really like the show, but he just can't not have it playing at every opportunity. So he put on an episode while we ate breakfast and I baked him a Heart-centered cake. 

As fate would have it, the episode was the perfect Father's Day episode. The episode was "Reprise," also known as the episode where Felicia Day makes her first appearance. So that was bonus #1. Ray's been watching and watching for her first episode. We'd already seen Wil Wheaton, so he was super excited to see her. Next, the episode has Allison Blake leaving Carter with her two kids, so he got to be all fatherly to them. Again, another big point of awesome and perfect for Father's Day.  Finally, it dealt with the suggestive nature of music. Playlists are something my husband was totally into. He even made seventh playlists for our daughter before she was born. We'd play them for her while I was pregnant and play them for her constantly now (in the car, in the house, etc.). So that was a super awesome moment, as well. It was just the perfect Father's Day episode for my husband and it was totally by chance that it happened.

Then, we all loaded up and went to Green Bay to spend a Day Out with Thomas at the National Railroad Museum! We shared in our daughter's first major geek love and her and daddy had so much fun geeking together. He knows ALL the trains and together they share in that love! I got to do all the craft stuff with her and then we all rode on the train. This was fun for Ray and I, because we used to always travel by train when we lived in Scotland and we miss train travel a good deal now. Isabelle hadn't been on a big train before, so this was super fun for her, too.

My daughter and I had our own little geek moment. As we left the museum, we went over to the crosswalk and I said "hey, Thomas hasn't left the station yet. Let's run down and say goodbye!" So my daughter and I ran to the end where Thomas was. We wanted to see his face, which was hard to do at the place, because you have to do the whole pay-for-pictures thing and we didn't have the money or the patient toddler for that. So as my daughter yelled GOODBYE! The eyes on Thomas moved to my daughter and Thomas smiled! We squealed with girly delight and cheered. Then I noticed the conductor of Thomas. He had seen us and made Thomas look at us. That really made the day and we ran off back to Ray.

On our way home from Green Bay, we went for dinner at Outback. This restaraunt dates back to our early dating years and is always a fun little stop. We even ordered the Thunder from Down Under and I shared the memory of when he first took me to Outback and I first had one of these. It was super cute.

We went home. Watched a little more Eureka and called it a night. We had to resolve the Bev mini-arch that started in "Reprise." It was a really nice day for daddy. My husband is such an awesome dad. I put the Gru picture up top, because he reminds me of my husband and how he really is a wonderful house-dad. He is so great with our daughter and really takes care of the whole family.

So Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there of all sorts.

Hobbiton to Rivendell

Oh Thursday, June 12, 2014. . . I made it from Hobbiton to Rivendell.

I would have made it sooner if I hadn't spent the first two months of the year having all sorts of pedometer glitches on my cell phone. Really it was the phones fault and I had a not-stellar phone.

I was totaling up past points in the wee early hours this morning and realized. . . I had made it last night!

WOOOOO!!!!

Now. . . 462 miles from Rivendell, through Moria, to Lothlorien. I've got my troll battling gear ready!!!!

Richard Parker Poop Balls

In a previous post, I shared how I made Life Saver Doughnuts for my students who were reading Life of Pi. Well, I also made another treat for the kids who did their homework over the last weekend we had to finish the book. See, I had to have the kids read the last five chapters bringing us up to Part III in the book, but it was also over the last weekend in the school year. So to reward the kids who really put in the effort to finish it, I made them this really simple and awesome treat. I, of course, had to tie it into the book and make it gross, because that's how I roll!

I got the recipe from a co-worker a few months back on how to make Oreo Truffles. Since we had read the wonderful chapter that week on Pi trying to eat Richard Parker's poop, I had a EUREKA moment and decided to make Oreo Truffles, also known as Richard Parker Poop Balls. I then served them in a plastic cup, that the students could then fill with water from the bubbler to wash the rich chocolatey taste out of their mouth. It was quite a success and great fun. I heard, through the halls, about the Richard Parker Poop Balls and it was a memorable connection for my seventh graders.

Oreo Truffles
(AKA Richard Parker Poop Balls)

Ingredients
36 OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided
1 pkg.  (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
4 pkg.  (4 oz. each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces, melted
OR
Any kind of chocolate you want. (I used mini chips, melted in the microwave for 1 minute, then 15 second intervals until melted.)

Directions

1. Use food processor to break up Oreo’s until fine pieces.

2. Mix soft cream cheese and cookie crumbs in a bowl until fully mixed. (Clean hands work best.)

3. Shape into 48 (1-inch) balls. Place on wax paper-covered cookie sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

4. While the balls are being refrigerated, melt the chocolate until smooth.

5. Take out the Oreo cookie balls and dip them in melted chocolate; place them back on waxed paper.

6. REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Overnight for best results.

Geek Love for My Students

I couldn't end the school year without doing something geeky for my seventh graders. We're whole-class reading The Life of Pi. So we're listening to the audiobook and working on worksheets while we read (and look at the ebook on the screen so we can highlight words and google things we don't understand). After we finish reading the book, we're going to watch the movie and do a compare and contrast. That will end our year.

I wanted to bring in a treat for them, because they have been doing so well with the book, reading it, paying attention, asking questions, and all that jazz. So I found a way to make easy homemade doughnuts that look like LIFE SAVERS!!! Err... life buoys? Errrmm... life preservers? OH! Life Tubes? Anyways. . . those rings that save people that they have on boats and around docks and stuff.

Since it's Friday. . . it's treat day. I woke up at 4:30AM to make my students Life Saver Doughnuts to enjoy while they listen to the book today. Here is my journey. The recipe is at the bottom.

Life Saver Doughnuts

Ingredients

• 3 packages of Grands Jr. Biscuits
• 1 whole bottle of vegetable oil
• 1 container of preferred non-whipped frosting (I used white)
• 2 cups sugar (for the doughnut holes)
• 1 squeezable package of Red Cake Decorating Frosting

Equipment

• 1 small round or hexagon cookie cutter
• 1 large pot (not too high on the sides)
• 1 plate
• 1 large flat plate or a cutting board
• 1 medium to large bowl (for the dough middles)
• 1 paper towel lined cookie sheet or plate
• 1 small-medium bowl (for the sugar)
• Metal or Silicon tongs.
• Butter Knife or Frosting Knife

Directions:
1. Put the oil into the pot and put it on the stove on medium heat. Let heat up.

2. On a large plate or cutting board, open the Grands Jr. containers and lay out the biscuits.

3. Press the biscuits to be a little flat, then place the cookie cutter as close to the middle as possible and cut out the middle. Put the middles aside in a bowl.

4. Finish 1 whole package (or all three) and arrange the cut out doughnuts on a plate.

5. Using a doughnut hole, test the oil. The oil should start to bubble when the dough is placed in. Drop and let cook on each side (these will need to cook longer than the doughnuts, because they are thicker).

6. Once the oil is ready, you can drop 4-5 doughnut rings in at a time. Just note in the order you dropped them. Flip them with a tongs as soon as they are light golden brown (not dark golden brown) on one side.

7. Once both sides look similar, take them out and place them on the paper towel to soak up excess oil.

8. Do this for all the doughnuts and doughnut holes.

9. In a bowl, put half of the frosting from the container and put it in the microwave for about 25-30 seconds.

10. Take a doughnut and dip it in the melted frosting and let the excess drip off. You'll have to do this 3-4 times to get a thick white coat. OR you can spread a little of the unmelted frosting on first and then dip it in the melted frosting. Put aside so the white frosting firms up just a bit.

11. Take the red bag of frosting and, on four parallel sides, put little red dollops.  Let firm, then use a knife or frosting knife to tape it down into neat little red markers (see above pictures).

12. While you are waiting for the frosting to firm, you can toss the holes in the sugar you've placed in a bowl.

13. Serve with a napkin. Does not do well overnight, because the frosting is so moist.

The D20 Cookie

For an incredibly long time I've wanted to make D20 cookies. I thought they would be perfect for my students in my gaming club as a treat or to make when I'm hanging out with my gamer friends. I put it off and put it off and finally I watched Rosanna Pasino's Nerdy Nummy video for D20 cookies. I was surprised to see Felicia Day was in the video, not because I think she can't bake or something, but because I didn't know she was on that episode.

Also, I've been more of a cupcake girl, but even then. . . not at any pro-level. So desserts aren't my strong point. I'm learning and it's something that I'm trying out on the side. So far, having lots of fun doing it.

After watching it, I was super psyched to make the cookies. I had my hexagon cookie cutters and, well. . . I sadly did not make my own cookie dough.  Not because I can't, but because I wanted to just test out using pre-made dough with the process. The other problem I ran into was that I didn't have the colors of frosting I wanted to use for icing the cookies. Regardless, I was going to make this work.

So my daughter and I rolled out the pre-made cookie dough. Cut the cookies and put them on the cookie sheet. Baked them. We made big and mini-cookies.

Error #1: The pre-made dough did not  hold the edges of the hexagon, so they looked more like strangely formed round cookies. Some of them had some defined shape, but most started to blob out.

Error #2: The frosting tips were too wide, so I wasn't getting the fine lines to draw that I needed.

With these lessons learned, I know what I need to do for the future! I am definitely going to follow Rosanna's recipe for the future attempt, but these are my attempts at a D20 cookie. I feel more confident now that I've tried it at least once.

Large Cookie

Mini-Cookie

 

Success #1: They tasted DELISH!

Success #2: I have a plan for the future.

Blast from the Past - HeroQuest

I was cleaning out some old e-mails today and I found my very first e-mail that I sent to my yahoo e-mail address. It was an apology story I wrote for my HeroQuest character Niran. It was called "Niran's Last Stand." It brought to life so many memories and also felt linked into what I'm playing right now with my husband.

I talk about HeroQuest all the time in my gaming circles. It was really one of the first games that made me fall in love with adventure-based-campaign-style "RPG" games. We started this every-Sunday campaign back in 2004. Our Friend Jim (Rook - Barbarian), his brother (Stoli - Dwarf), my husband (Zephyr - Elf), and myself (Niran - Wizard) would be the merry band of adventurers who would travel on a custom mod created by my husband. I had never played something like this before and I was excited for several reasons: 1) I was learning about creating your own dice off of blank dice. 2) I was learning about developing characters through a game. 3) I would get to play something my husband was excited about and created. Clearly this was a win for everyone!

We planned this all in advance. We picked a neutral and consistent location to play at. In-between all of our places of residence was Jim and his brother's parents house. They also had a HUGE dining room table. We could also then have a family dinner night with Jim's parent's each Sunday. We even cooked one of the nights. We'd get snacks and spend all afternoon on a campaign. This was so exciting for me and it was time being spent with people we loved being with and we had so much fun!

Playing HeroQuest was also a huge learning curve for me. I think I was still fostering some rather naive attitudes towards gaming. Granted, I was surrounded by three very strong personalities who had grown up with gaming and were rather arrogant about how things like this should be. I was a non-traditional-girl-non-traditional-geek-non-traditional-gamer. I didn't fit into anything other than wanting to be open-minded about the interests of the people I enjoyed being around more than anything. So I had some problems gaming that bothered the boys I was playing with. To not spend forever explaining, I had some spoiled-brat tendencies. When the random non-success would happen, I'd get kind of whinny.

So halfway through our questing, we hit a quest where, by the walking through a door, I was stripped of all my powers. I was a fire wizard and didn't really have weapons or healing or would function in any way as a benefit to my comrades. I thought this was so unfair and I was so upset. So when it came my turn to battle the creatures, I was out of things to do it and the "dungeon master" (AKA my HUSBAND) rolled for rocks to fall and bury me.  I was out.

The dangers of playing with, well,. . . your husband. . . is that if things go wrong you don't get to walk away from the issue. The whole car ride home and that evening and the next day. . .the issue was huge. My character was dead. I wasn't going to be involved anymore. The questing could not go on without me. I was so upset and so frustrated. In that one instance there were so many accusations flying between the two of us and, by day 2 of not talking, I spent the evening writing an apology of sorts. It was called. . . "Niran's Last Stand."

Niran's Last Stand

In the dark labyrinth of the dungeon, Niran lay lifeless under a pile of rubble, thrown onto him during his battle with an armored centipede. Slowly, something stirred beneath the rocks. A hand emerged from the pile and Niran pushed himself from his grave. Upon him are several bandages, acquired during a previous quest. As he stands up, he summons a small ball of light to help him see and he notices his equipment is missing. He wonders if his comrades had thought he was dead and salvaged his equipment as they left. Somewhat taken aback by his companion's actions, he is not upset, as he understands why.

His tiny light shows him all that has happened. Dead bodies of centipedes and orcs, and those pesky femirs are scattered everywhere. Niran notices falling rubble blocks off his path to the stairs. Everything starts coming back to him; His anger at being stripped of his spells and his self-consciousness about his abilities as a fighter that forced him to abandon his own comrades. His heart swells with anger at the realization of his actions and he makes an oath to find his friends and make things right again.

Niran started to fumble through the dark corridors and over the bodies of dead monsters. He arrived at the secret door that stripped him of his power and slowly enters the room. He passes through the small empty hole and through another door. He senses a great battle has occurred somewhere nearby and decides to carefully explore the dungeon to possibly find answers and to see if maybe his friends are still somewhere nearby.

Several hours later, Niran emerged from the lair of the fire mage. As he did so, he felt a rush of warmth run over his body as his spells returned to him and he once again could perform his most primary actions. Niran started to make his way up to Fysmahluh in the Black Crags. As he entered the town, he tried to think of where his friends may have gone. He checks the smithies and the pubs, but no sign of his friends. Then he sees a Dwarf with a familiar insignia and begs his assistance in locating his friends. This Dwarf's name is Cogha and says that he is a member of Stoli's tribe, having just helped him to improve upon one of his special skills. Cogha mentions that he saw the group making their way towards a pub at the back of the town where gambling typically takes place. Niran, understanding his comrades' obsession with odds and financial gain, tracks them down.

As he enters the establishment, he sees Stoli and Rook at a table playing Black Jack, not wanting to disrupt any luck they may have been having, Niran looks around for Zephyr. He sees Zephyr sitting by the fire in the back corner of the pub sipping something warm. Niran remembers how Zephyr was injured by the earwig and guesses he has been cured and has decided to rest before their long journey back to the Imperial City.

Niran approached Zephyr and sat down across from him. A flash of anger passed through Zephyr's eyes and he readjusted himself.

"So you lived. Rook said he found you dead," Zephyr said coldly. "Maybe it would have been better for you to stay there."

"Maybe. But that is not what was intended."

"Why are you here? You probably want your weapons."

"The weapons are not what has brought me here. I came to find the three of you and to make amends."

"And what amends would that be? For breaking the very essence of that which binds us?" Zephyr started to become agitated.

"I understand the full implications of what I have done, punishable by the fate which was robbed from me, but I wanted the three of you to tell me what it is that you want. I am full of contempt for my actions and am far from ever entertaining thoughts of that type again. If I do, let me be struck down by your own hand, if not by the hand of our enemies."

Zephyr thought over the wizard's sincere words before responding, "I know you are young, Niran, and full of angst, quick to action, and quite irrational at times, but you have served us well until this point. Let us wait for Stoli and Rook before we agree to anything."

We did talk and I submitted my story at the next meeting and they allowed for me to be part of the quest again. With, of course, the understanding that I will NEVER question the dungeon master again. I was not allowed ALL my equipment back and had to buy some new stuff. This was a story I always kept close to my heart, because it was my first RPG experience where I could understand what this part of the geek world was all about.

I also just have to say, this feels so very geeky thinking back on it all. This reflection conjured up all those images of D&D gamers on TV shows and in cartoons and it kind of makes me giggle. I've always been a geek. . . or a nerd. . . and I just never connected it to anything. I never had a term for it or I was in denial or that being what I was, because of certain mindsets I was raised with. Kind of a nice moment.

How did the whole adventure end? That is for another day. . . and was a huge lesson in getting involved in games that demand a commitment from other people.

Slow-Motion Neil DeGrasse Tyson Looks & Sounds Stoned

This was shared with me by a friend and was originally posted to Geekologie.com. Enjoy!

Neil DeGrasse Tyson slowed down to sound like he's stoned. 

The original clip of him talking. 

To .14159263 & Beyond! (Happy Pi Day!)

π

For a long time I've celebrated Pi Day. Here's what's sad, though. . . until I found joy in teaching it to my class of third graders a few years ago, I never really thought much of it. Now I'm a teacher who gets to live every day sharing the awesomeness of the world with them! For example, every Friday, I write a Friday Freewrite prompt tying in some sort of "On this day" or "International {Insert} Day."

This year, I got to flex my Geek Girl style on this particular Pi Day. Sure enough, when I went to work and shared everything with my co-workers, they reminded me how the Math teacher who is on leave always does Pi Day in a big way. My husband also mildly mocked that I'm a Literacy teacher, not a Math teacher. What the heck. . . I can't have fun with Pi because I don't teach Math? Are you INSANE?!?! Watch me!

Writing Prompt: 1. Today is International Pi Day! No, not the pie you eat, the pi you do Math stuff with. On the back is only the first 3,640 numbers after the 3 point, but traditionally they refer to pi at 3.14 or π , but use the number Pi to guide you. Using the layout on the back of the worksheet, use words with the amount of letters equal to the numbers as you follow the number past the decimal point. For example, “I love a large thinkfest of clever wit” is 14159263.

On the back, I put:
3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952 0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151 5574857242 4541506959 5082953311 6861727855 8890750983 8175463746 4939319255 0604009277 0167113900 9848824012 8583616035 6370766010 4710181942 9555961989 4676783744 9448255379 7747268471 0404753464 6208046684 2590694912 9331367702 8989152104 7521620569 6602405803 8150193511 2533824300 3558764024 7496473263 9141992726 0426992279 6782354781 6360093417 2164121992 4586315030 2861829745 5570674983 8505494588 5869269956 9092721079 7509302955 3211653449 8720275596 0236480665 4991198818 3479775356 6369807426 5425278625 5181841757 4672890977 7727938000 8164706001 6145249192 1732172147 7235014144 1973568548 1613611573 5255213347 5741849468 4385233239 0739414333 4547762416 8625189835 6948556209 9219222184 2725502542 5688767179 0494601653 4668049886 2723279178 6085784383 8279679766 8145410095 3883786360 9506800642 2512520511 7392984896 0841284886 2694560424 1965285022 2106611863 0674427862 2039194945 0471237137 8696095636 4371917287 4677646575 7396241389 0865832645 9958133904 7802759009 9465764078 9512694683 9835259570 9825822620 5224894077 2671947826 8482601476 9909026401 3639443745 5305068203 4962524517 4939965143 1429809190 6592509372 2169646151 5709858387 4105978859 5977297549 8930161753 9284681382 6868386894 2774155991 8559252459 5395943104 9972524680 8459872736 4469584865 3836736222 6260991246 0805124388 4390451244 1365497627 8079771569 1435997700 1296160894 4169486855 5848406353 4220722258 2848864815 8456028506 0168427394 5226746767 8895252138 5225499546 6672782398 6456596116 3548862305 7745649803 5593634568 1743241125 1507606947 9451096596 0940252288 7971089314 5669136867 2287489405 6010150330 8617928680 9208747609 1782493858 9009714909 6759852613 6554978189 3129784821 6829989487 2265880485 7564014270 4775551323 7964145152 3746234364 5428584447 9526586782 1051141354 7357395231 1342716610 2135969536 2314429524 8493718711 0145765403 5902799344 0374200731 0578539062 1983874478 0847848968 3321445713 8687519435 0643021845 3191048481 0053706146 8067491927 8191197939 9520614196 6342875444 0643745123 7181921799 9839101591 9561814675 1426912397 4894090718 6494231961
5679452080 9514655022 5231603881 9301420937 6213785595 6638937787 0830390697 9207734672 2182562599 6615014215 0306803844 7734549202 6054146659 2520149744 2850732518 6660021324 3408819071 0486331734 6496514539 0579626856 1005508106 6587969981 6357473638 4052571459 1028970641 4011097120 6280439039 7595156771 5770042033 7869936007 2305587631 7635942187 3125147120 5329281918 2618612586 7321579198 4148488291 6447060957 5270695722 0917567116 7229109816 9091528017 3506712748 5832228718 3520935396 5725121083 5791513698 8209144421 0067510334 6711031412 6711136990 8658516398 3150197016 5151168517 1437657618 3515565088 4909989859 9823873455 2833163550 7647918535 8932261854 8963213293 3089857064 2046752590

In addition, the class participated in a π Contest. They had to come up with a fun Pi-Graphic-Pun. It was hilarious! Here are the outcomes and the five best. See if you can figure them out.

I also loved being able to turn numbers into letters, so sure enough . . . my shirt for this year was 3.14 and PIE. W00T!

Additionally, we played 3.14 from t he Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack, just for a neat cultural experience.

Finally, we looked up why they use the symbol and how they found it. Well, it comes from the first letter in the Greek word for "periphery," which essentially equates to circumference. Together, we all said "The more you know!" And the following is for my daughter and her love of Pinkie Pie!

 

HAPPY PI DAY!

His Valentine to Me

In the previous entry, I talk about the long and tedious gift I created and assembled for my husband. Now it's time to share what he did for me.

I got home from work to this awesome display on my counter:

Over the last several months I have taken to popping homemade popcorn. It's healthier, tastier, and. . . well. . . cheaper in the long run. Just like I bought him a tea sampler. . . he bought me a popcorn sampler pack!  Nine different kinds of popcorn, all with different taste profiles. Very awesome. Shockingly, I see us going through this very quickly, because we always have popcorn on hand. It's a great snack.

He also got me tea-based jams. We're going to do some taste-testing, but he saw them and thought it would be interesting to taste a tea-based jam. Long ago, when we first bought a house together, we started drinking tea. I'm not big into coffee, but I wanted a warm drink to enjoy that wasn't hot chocolate. Thus was born an obsession with tea. When we moved to Edinburgh, we were completely consumed by the tea culture. We'd buy loose-leaf teas and make our own combinations and blends. I went to the The Elephant House Cafe (of Harry Potter Fame) and did a tea-tasting. My hubby and I tried different teas with different accoutrements, like the adorable shortbread elephant cookie.  A record was kept about the amount of sugar that was required. . . whether it tasted better with or without creamer and whether it was a good shortbread cookie dipper. I remember looking out the window in the back at the graveyard that supposed holds the grave that inspired the name of Tom Riddle.

As you can see, tea is just part of something that makes the two of us happy. We love trying different flavor combinations and things like that. So instead of beer or wine, we love tasting tea. And I love how, without any hints of anything, our gifts sort of crossed over to reflect our common interests.

It was so super sweet and I was so glad we were able to enjoy a wonderful Valentine's Day together. We didn't go on a trip to Chicago or anything, but we did have a nice weekend at home tasting teas and popcorn with our daughter. We went out to Olive Garden together for "noodles and meatballs" and my daughter and I stopped in a craft store to by some geeky crafts to do together later in the day.

Yeah. . . it was a wonderful surprise.