Steph & Eva: Challenge: Bento with Adult Theme – Eva made sexy bento! *applauds*

The Snook and I were invited to spend New Year’s Eve at Josh and Jamie’s house at Blue’s Point. They’ve got a great view of the Bridge from their balcony. I even got a new frock for the occasion! We had to get there quite early as they close off the whole Point once it gets crowded. (And it gets very crowded.) We killed some time messing about by the pool. There was a lot of drinking. At some point, the Americans (me, Jamie, and Josh) taught everybody else to play Flip Cup. (Incidentally, the animated gif on that page is probably the Best One on Wikipedia.) By 9pm Blues Point was totally packed. We headed upstairs to Thierry’s apartment to have the best view of the family fireworks. We could see both the Bridge and the Darling Harbour fireworks. I jumped on a giant bean bag. We danced. At some point, the champagne came out and it was time for the big show. Happy New Year!

Josh posted these photos of us on Facebook today and they CRACK ME UP. Such a fun night (notwithstanding the hangover the next day). Thanks, Jamie and Josh!

Dinner Tonight: Pork Chops, Maple Baked Beans, and Coleslaw
For those that don’t know, the Snook and I take turns cooking dinner just about every night of the week. We use a lot of recipes off the Internet, and I thought it would be fun to document some of them here for you. (And I know you guys like the food posts!) Tonight’s meal was designed around these Maple Baked Beans from Serious Eats. I started them early today. You use dry beans but you don’t pre-soak them; instead you simmer them for 20 minutes first. I found I actually had to cook them for 25 minutes as they were just too hard before that. Then I assembled the dish as directed in our crock pot and cooked it on high all day. After about 5 hours, the ham hock was falling apart. So I pulled out the bones and transferred the meat and beans to an oven-safe dish. I added the butter and brown sugar and finished them off in the oven. YUM! Very nice baked beans, not too sticky sweet. The Coleslaw is actually from another Serious Eats recipe. It’s pretty good, but I recommend you only make half (unless you want to be eating coleslaw for the next two weeks). The Snook just cooked the pork chops in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Nice meal, and we have plenty of leftovers!

Spudds Christmas Party 2011
A couple weeks ago was the annual Spudds Christmas Party. I went along to collect the award for our company. There were plenty of people there, but I knew NO ONE. So I got some practice at mingling and small talk with total strangers. (Protip: Find a hot Italian chick and hang out with her. Old dudes will buy you drinks all night.) When I collected the award, Spudd made me give a little speech. I said, “I ran a marathon this year–” and everyone applauded. I continued, “–but I think I was actually prouder the day I got three 100s on the rower.” They roared. Spudd told them that I was one of only two girls to reach that milestone this year. Yay! When I was leaving, I noticed that Spudd’s son Josh had a “photo booth” set up in the corner where he wanted people to take a silly photo. I obliged. Fun night!

Cheers to my cousin Jenny for alerting us to the availability of Best of Bootie 2011. These free mashup “CDs” are available in January every year, and they are AWESOME. I love very catchy music, and frankly, these mixes are pretty much my only connection to what’s happening in modern pop and R&B. They make GREAT running music too! Highly, highly recommended.

Edited to add: Aaaaand I just came to a mashup called “Eine Kleine Big Booty Bonkers” which samples Mozart. LOVE IT.

The Wedding Blog – Amanda Palmer has finally posted the story of her wedding to Neil Gaiman, and it actually made me tear up a little. I identify with a lot of her reasons for initially not wanting to get married, and then for changing her mind. And I really identify with the idea of having a small, unplanned, FUN wedding. Theirs sounded lovely.