Holidays

 J had a conference paper deadline on Thursday, so he’s been pushing hard this week trying to get things finished. The hope is that this paper will be part of his dissertation….I still haven’t completely figured out how things work in his department (computer science & engineering), but he seems to be making progress. 

We got a quiet evening together last night, curling up to watch Sabrina (the original, with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn), and going to bed early. Then, this morning we carried on with our Saturday morning breakfast tradition. We’ve been doing this at least since we got engaged, possibly longer. Breakfast is a fairly cheap meal to eat out, and on Saturday mornings we’re less tired and busy than during the evenings, so as graduate students,  we have Saturday morning breakfasts instead of date nights. We went to Cafe Streudel today, which has recently moved into a  new building. Previously, it had been in a narrow, two-story building, probably a former house or store. It was crowded and dark, and tricky to maneuver around the tables. The new place is just a few blocks down the road, but it has so much more open space, and huge windows. It also has a gorgeous art deco tiled ceiling, that is probably the building’s original ceiling, and reminds me of my favorite coffeeshop/antique dealership from college. It’s one of my favorite places here, because they have a tri-fold tea list, that includes black teas, green teas, herbal tisanes, and mate’ s, and you can order tea either in mugs or in (small or large) teapots. And I have a love for tea that borders on obsession.  Today we had a small pot of "Parisian Soiree" – which was essentially an Earl Grey tea, with added lemon and grapefruit. Lovely.

He’s off doing a workshop on building smartphone apps, and I’m home, supposed to be working on a project for my qualitative research class. This weekend we’re planning to make it to the grocery store to get stuff for Thanksgiving. I’m planning on trying out this cranberry sauce recipe  , and making a chocolate peanut butter pie (recently discovered a surprisingly simple and delicious recipe which involved combining silken tofu, chocolate chips, peanut butter and agave nectar).  

And then we’re planning a couple batches of jellymaking to finish up Christmas presents. I’m rather fed up with materialism, and am doing my best to give homemade gifts from now on. Last year, gifts were mainly wedding albums (made with Blurb , which is sort-of homemade, right?).  So we’ve been canning since July (jam, salsa, jelly…) and I just put together a couple batches of my grandmother’s hot cocoa mix (2 cups powdered creamer, 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder). 

I’m feeling a bit better these days. The curse and the blessing of Crohn’s is that it’s a disease that flares up and dissipates at its own whims, leaving you with a strange amalgamation of unpredictable good and bad days. I think for now I’m putting off the GI visit. Yes, I know how that sounds, and it is irresponsible. But…if the mesalamine isn’t enough to keep the disease under control on its own anymore, then the next step is immunomodulating  drugs, which have significantly more side effects. I’m not quite ready for that yet.