Attempts

Its been blizzarding pretty harshly around Maryland and in Baltimore since last Friday. I've been off school Friday afternoon, Monday, Tuesday, today, and tomorrow is in question. I've been trying my hand at macarons for the past few days and last night's batch turned out way better than the first attempt.


Above is last nights attempt. The lumpy shape of the macarons is the result of over beaten the Italian meringue and bad piping skills.


Above is my very first attempt ever at macarons. The ingredients were over mixed together at the end and the almond meat and sugar was probably over mixed. I also didn't sift either of the dry ingredient.

Nicole's birthday is this Sunday and we are celebrating with a family party the Sunday after that. I have a little more than a week to get my macarons prefect for the party.

Tis the Season for Giving & Hopes for the Future

Its been a while since Ive updated. Basically all of winter break has gone by. I've purged a lot of [our] things that we haven't used or don't want. I've taken several bags to goodwill (at least 6 full trash bags), three bags of books to the free book thing, and a few stacks of unsellable DVDs to Video Americain. We didn't know that they took used DVDs but took DVDs there on a whim since Video Americain is the closest video rental to us.

I started selling my sellable used books on Amazon marketplace. I've sold so many that I've started to make my own boxes after using up all the spare boxes we had. I like making the boxes because I don't have to cover up logos and symbols. Andrew made a bunch of calendars through kodak (he didn't have a good experience; I wouldn't recommend them) and had the calendars shipped to our apartment. I am using the Kodak shipping boxes as a template since they are simple, small and made from one piece of cardboard.

We've also moved all of Andrew's clothing into my wardrobe so space in the wardrobe is super limited. We bought three more pull out drawers to accommodate his things. We are going to use the living room closet for storing all the things from downstairs we haven't had room for: power tools, paints, etc.

I still have a few big things to sell on craigslist including two desks from ikea we have been storing downstairs. We have a bar that my grandfather left me downstairs as well. Hopefully I can get Andrew to bring that up tonight as well as his old desk that I need to clean up before we sell it.

Andrew helped me figure out what my post-graduation finances will look like and I figured out some student loan post-graduation options. Now I know how much I need to ask for in annual salary from my future employer. I feel informed, scared but informed.

I guess the end goal for us is to purge all the unnecessary things we own and stop spending unnecessarily, pay off Andrew's credit card debt then tackle my student loans when I graduate in May.

Sorry this is a photo-less blog entry. Just a reminder that I should take my camera more places. I'll update photos when we get the apartment to a better spot.

Its Winter (Break)

Its winter in Charles Village and winter break at MICA. I have a full three weeks off and I plan on taking the time to get my life in order before my last semester of college.

Over the break I want to:
- clean all our stuff out of the basement
- sell the furniture downstairs on craigslist
- sell all my used books on amazon's marketplace
- turn the living room closet into a more functional space for Andrew's clothing and all our tools, wires, etc.
- clean my desk and file away papers
- clean out all the unnecessary junk in the kitchen and fridge
- take anything that is not sellable to goodwill
- build my website and get it online with great documentation of past projects
- make a tilt shift lens for my dslr
- clean out my closet and put away summer clothing
- make peppermint bark and packaging for the bark for my family and friends for christmas
- finish christmas shopping and making presents (hopefully this weekend)





I took all these just a few minutes ago in Charles Village from our apartment windows.