Weekend Recap & Week Ahead

Wow, I feel like I haven't had a moment of peace in a while...and I feel like it's only going to get more busy in the days ahead! My friend Vickie came in for the weekend. She's actually still here, but rotating between my house and those of some family friends that live in the area. Vickie and I went to college together at Fort Collins and we both commissioned into the Army, only she's two years younger than I am. So much has changed throughout the years...we're now both married and have made our way around the globe thanks to our jobs. She brought her mom with her and we've been able to spend some quality time together. On Saturday, she and her mom were able to show us how to make some of my favorite, authentic Korean dishes. We made kalbi (barbecued short ribs) and jap chae (this is a noodle dish--spelling???) and they were delicious. As you can see in these pictures, we definitely got our hands dirty!

Here are a few pictures of us marinating some beef and pork. And just so you know, I'd post all of these pictures on my cooking blog if I was able to get a definitive recipe. As with my mom and my grandma, their recipes are all stored in their brains....and I cannot work with measurements such as "a little bit of this", "a little bit of that", "a couple drops of...", or "just a swig of this". I mean, HELLO! If you ask me, it's a conspiracy and they're hiding little tidbits of recipe information so that people can't say you made the dish better than mom, or grandma, or whomever!

What was also cool about that day was that our mutual friend (more Vickie's friend--they were roommates in college--but we all used to hang out together), Nicole, drove down from Fort Collins (about two hours away) to spend some time with us. She now has a son, Logan, who is 2 (I believe) and is still as beautiful as I remember her. Here's a picture of the three of us. Vickie and I--well, let's face it...we look rough. But hey, we were cooking all afternoon and Nicole took off right after that picture was taken. We had to get at least one group picture!

So all in all, it was a pretty eventful weekend. Vickie doesn't leave until the 9th, but since Malu is coming in on Wednesday, she'll be staying with her other family friends until she departs. We'll be closer in a few months since I'll be moving to Texas. Actually, we'll be the same distance apart then that we are now since Texas is so stinkin' huge and El Paso is like eons away from San Antonio which, according to Vickie, is paradise on earth.

Did I mention that Malu is coming in this week? Yeah, I did! He'll be spending the four-day weekend here and I am so thrilled. But it'll sure making studying for finals really difficult. I have two--one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I'll probably fail since the guy can be such a distraction! We're all so excited to have him back, even for a short time. My mom says that she doesn't want to see us at all while he's here. She (and my grandma) are expecting us to be "making babies", as they put it. They're so funny. But it would be super nice if it really happened!

Well, it's well past midnight. Almost 1:00 in fact and I'm so tired. I've got to hit the ground running tomorrow. I have an early morning appointment, studying to do, as well as a presentation in my finance class in the evening. Wish me luck!