365, cooking, computer room, and me

first of all i must say i quit the 365 project. i reached number 144. there were several reasons to stop... it stopped being fun and became a burdain; it was taking the time i wanted to spend on learning new stuff on photography or practicing it; and i ran out of ideas. so i realized that day after day i was stressed because it was so difficult to come up with a new and fun idea and then implement it. and i didn't want to add crappy pictures to the project (i already added some that were bad so didn't want to add more). 144 isn't a small amount on the other hand it's not even half.
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so today i decided to make dinner... first of all there was a frozen premade cherry pie in the freezer. so i decided to deal with that and bake it. there was a tiny and easy instruction - with steps.
1. preheat the oven to 400F
2. make 4 1-inch cuts on the pie
3. put the FROZEN pie on a baking sheet and place that in the center of the oven.
4. bake the pie for 60-65 mins
5. take the pie out of the oven. do NOT touch the pie pan with hands! the contents is HOT!

at this point i thought "what kind of idiot would touch it anyway?"

so i followed the instruction and put the pie into the oven. then started making mashed potatoes for the first time in my life. i also wanted to bake chicken breasts but decided that Michael can do that part when he arrives. i had already 2 things to keep an eye on!

so it was time to take the pie out. i got the special thing to hold the pan with - the one that looks like a glove and is made of tissue... i pulled out the pan with left hand and started carrying it... but the pan felt heavy-ish so automatically i helped myself with my right hand. yes i grabbed the hot pan out of oven. i don't know what i did first - put my hand under the cold water or imagined my head turning into that of a donkey like in many cartoons. one thing is sure - i had that image in my head and also i remembered the instruction's step 5 and replied to myself "that instruction was for idiots like me." now it's not that bad - the burn - i just burnt one finger in several places and there isn't even a blister. but i keep walking with a coca-cola can out of fridge. holding it in the right hand. or jumping up and running to the bathroom to put the hand under icy cold water. much fun...


the pie was good too! anything cherry is good ;)

anyway. other than that mashed potatoes came out really good. i was surprised - i liked them! and Michael was surprised - he liked them too! i guess he just didn't expect anything good from my kitchen skills :D and he was right - this was an accident :D
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the other day i decided to do around in the far room which was used as storage of electronics; books; and just anything. it was a waste. so i cleaned it up, moved not working/unnecessary electronics onto small table, and left only 5 dynamics and a printer on the desk. put some pillows on the ground. this will be my night retreat. i stay up late usually but can't sit in the living room since there are 2 disgusting birds who start squarking if i turn the lights on.

Michael was very happy about me cleaning this room. he said he'd bring a workstation home with a nice 19'' monitor, G15 keyboard and razer mouse. and so he did! so now we just connect our notebooks to this stuff and enjoy ourselves - Michael in the morning while i'm asleep and before he goes to work, and me at night when Michael is asleep :D




G15 keyboard with a screen


razer mouse

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and also i created a wishlist! so now you know what to get me for any occasion :D i will make it much bigger in no time ;) :D

new pet

meet George. what a sweet bird will you think? definitely no. in no way. he is bad. extremely bad. he hisses if you come close to your cage or put your hand into it. he will try running after your hand to bite it. he will scream on top of his voice in the mornings...

as an experiment i tried putting Anoki into his cae. Anoki felt himself like at home, but George got scared and aggressive :)) he almost fell from the perch flapping his wings and just kept on hissing.

i hope people won't complain and George won't get himself and us into trouble. he is actually extremely fun to watch since he has quite outsanding nasty personality :))



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i found this tiny camera today. it's a key-chain camera which is something between a camera on a mobile phone and those old shitty film cameras everybody used before digital ones. the little rectangle above the "lens" is the viewfinder through which you have to look. there is no display on the back.
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me and Michael are reading "Master and Margarita" now (in english... but it's a very good translation), so i decided to include that into my 365 project :)



still one of my and my mom's favorite books..

what's happening

the other day Michael took me out and basically drove me to the practice place - which is Jason's grandpa's property. since it's private property... people without license can drive there provided there is somebody else in the car who has the driving license.

so yes! it was my first driving lesson - on parking and turning, and backing up.it was fun and a lot easier - no manual shifts. and it was fun! no i didn't hit the car. Michael said i was doing pretty pretty good. but i never expected my first driving lesson to take place at night :)) and i had to adjust the seat quite a bit in order to actually see the road and not to ride the car like Bichakhchyan was doing (for American readers: Bichakhchyan was the rector of my university, and he was quite short, and one could not quite see him from behind the wheel - only his hands).
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also Tasha had her baby and we went over today. i think it was the first time in my life i was actually holding a baby... it was a strange feeling and the baby was a lot stronger than i thought. they named her Harper.
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and the biggest news is that my auntie is getting married! with the chief of medicine of a hospital whose name is Sergey. it's really awesome news and i am really excited for her! on this valentine's day he will propose to her, and on april 12th which is her birthday the ceremony will take place. i couldn't be happier for her.
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big things are happening in a big world :))

saturday - part 3

after the theatre we went to a restaurant "Europa" which later on will be referred to as Russian restaurant.

seriously - waiters spoke english, pole, and russian - well were supposed to speak :) our waiter looked very american so i decided not to give him a hard time. as we entered the atmosphere was anything but american. the music, the design, the attitude of the staff. at first we had to wait for a table so we sat at a bar. the barman was funny - older man. i decided to have some wine. he said "cherni?" (which means 'black' in bad russian) i said "no. krasnoe" (means red). he said he doesn't speak russian but speaks poll. i said my grandpa was poll but i speak russian. he said he was actually italian :))

then we got our table... and ... mmmm i wanted this so badly - especially after i read Mary's post about.. pelmeni. oh god especially since she posted photos she got me soooo envious.. and they had it on the menu! then i looked for "olivie". couldn't find it but found "russian salad" on the menu list and gave it a shot. good girl - it turned out to be olivie itself :D :D which Michael liked too.

now pelmeni part wasn't so good - the meatball inside was really tiny, and the sauce was not just sour-cream but some sauce with tiny pieces of meat. but still better than nothing. however i told mom to make real russian homely pelmeni when me and Michael will go to visit Armenia :))

also there was a big russian company celebrating some girls birthday and they definitely felt at home. and i definitely felt like in a movie or a book. the ladies were all dressed up, had the "fur coats", and in general felt at home. they had perfect russian without the tinest bit of accent. i can assume that the whole company was from russian mafia. honestly. later on Michael talked to his boss about it and Bob said there was a huge Russian community on that street.. and that some were in mafia :)). anyways. i can say i saw that too :D

then there was a guy singing old russian songs and a girl. the girl tried singing Pugacheva's song. which was ridiculous, and she simply remained silent for great lengths of time when she couldn't pull the sound. i later showed some recordings by Pugacheva to Michael (i mean her old recording mind you, not the crap) and he was impressed with her voice (me too by the way).

then! we went to "vodka room". basically you feel like you go into a fridge, and a small window opens through which barman gives you a glass of ice (i guess they put glass into water and freeze it) filled with vodka - normal vodka - icy cold. that part i loved. the only "wrong" thing was they didn't give any pickles to have after vodka :(

we both loved that place and are looking forward to going there again. Michael wants to take Steve and Nicole with us the next time :) which will be great :D i'm looking forward to it.

it was a really great day full of everything - all three parts were exciting and i needed time to take it all in.

saturday - part 2

sorry about the delay. i'm a bad blogger and neglect posting... i'll try to change that.

part 2 is about theatre.

so right after Michael picked me up from the hike we had to go to a theatre to see a performance - "i love you because". we didn't have time to stop at home but i thought since it's a local theatre and local performance it should be okay to go in jeanse. in america at least. not a big deal.









the theatre was beautiful inside out. the first thing i noticed however was that people were dressed up. even more - i think we were the only people in jeanse! i felt uncomfortable. also the people were... old. we probably were the youngest couple there. also a thing to note there were many old guys with rather young model-like girls in cocktail dresses and on 11 cm heels minimum. americans are funny.. they can dress up.. and wear sneakers (crossovki). it all just gave me mixed feelings. then we went to buy tickets - that was the second astonishment - it cost 100$ for 2 tickets. at a local theatre! and Michael explained that "theatre" was an entertainment for "the rich" and that not many people have ever been to one in their lives.

that kind of stroke me. i remember going to theatres in Armenia - they were full of teens, older people, even children from middle school. some people would be dressed up. some would be in jeanse. if it was a local show a ticket would cost somewhere from 2$ to 16$.

so it was kind of sad - i think theatre is fun and people should attend a real play at least once in their lives! but yeah here also by saying "theatre" people usually refer to "cinema theatre".

anyway. i was not allowed to take any pictures and promised to a security officer to keep the camera in the bag - he was being nice and let me actually have the camera with me instead of leaving it in some room. he completely understood that if i left the camera somewhere else i would be nervous during whole performance and that cameras are expensive to lose :))

now the show itself was very nice and i liked it. BUT. it was more of a musicle kind than what i expected it to be.

one thing is certain - we had fun and it was unforgettable experience. but it's not all. soon part 3 will come out :D

Saturday - part 1

it was a busy day, so i will break it up into 3 parts.

we got up late. Michael had to update his plates in the car as it was the last day to do that. he thought the place was closing at 1. as we found out on the shot door it had closed at 12. hehe. Michael will drive illegally today and will update his plates tomorrow (by plates i mean that piece of paper they stick to the windshield card with a year on it).

so we went to have a breakfast/lunch at RollyPolly. as we entered the lady said:
- ah the newlyweds! you must be Irina? i've heard much about you.

i could only smile and say "mmm" but i liked the place a lot - the food was good, and they had some nice salads which were of a normal size. usually if i order any kind of salad anywhere here, the portion will be so huge that i will actually not finish it and will be too full to have a main course.

and then! then it was photogrpahy time! Kirk and his friend Lou wanted to go on a hike and decided to take me with them. i was very happy because i would try out my new camera. the meeting point was at some state park. Michael said it's not really a hike and that the park is tiny and that we will probably just go to the beach of the lake and take some photos and be back.

so we met up with Kirk, then Michael left. and in a moment Lou arrived. he was wearing light clothes which was a surprise for me. but then he just got a pair of socks, put them on ones he was wearing, then changed his coat to a warm one, and got fully equipped. we started off. the snow was a bit higher than my knees, sometimes reaching to my hips. but once we got out to the beach it changed.

we were out in the dunes. it was a white desert with some dead plants. the sky was gray... it was a very lonely and sad picture all in all. we started walking towards the lighthouse. the wind was terrible but it was blowing from behind so i didn't even feel it at first. i was so warmed up by the walk that didn't feel cold at all!

Lou found a dead seagull in the snow. at first i didn't realize what it was. then he started scrapping the snow off of something and said "see? this is a beak." i quickly turned away and practically ran away. it only added something desparate to the landscape - how severe the winter is, how helpless living beings are...

once we were done with the photography we started walking back. which means we had to face the wind! i did my best not to leave out even an inch of skin - but i had to see where i was walking. the next time i will follow Kirk's example and put sunglasses on - that was a bright idea! and i'm so happy to have long hair! i won't have it cut until warmer times!

anyway. here are my favorite photos from the hike and link to the rest of them:











My other photos from the hike

Kirk's photos

when Michael arrived he started walking towards us. only then he realized we actually didn't go just to the park, but we went out to the dunes. he said it was a really crazy thing to do and that we walked a hell of a distance :D