37 pounds

Who am I kidding? I'm not really reading about mens rea right now.

I gained 37 pounds in Dallas. Six on my person, and 31 from Ikea in my suitcase - bumping it just over the 50 pound limit, but the guy who checked me in was named Angel and he had a thick Haitian accent and he was tall and hot and maybe my swooning convinced him not to charge me extra.

Great time in Dallas, and the weather even greeted me cheerfully and coolly. This trip would be be called "Cheap Eats" because that's what we did. Only one meal was over $15 for us both (and that was Pho, which is supposed to be way cheap but I got some other stuff, and I think he charged me $5 every time I said "pho" trying to sound Vietnamese cool). There were also pupusas and pecan waffles and Swedish pancakes at Ikea. Also spent MUCH time at Ikea and REI. Sigh. Civilization.

Now I'm back, still trying to decide if I will go to Senegal for winter break. I had just made the decision to, and then prices jumped up $200. Sigh.

I've been on a cooking rage since I moved here - I think the huge pantry has me all excited still. There's like no kitchen work space, but there's that pantry, so I have six types of grains (four types of rice) and four types of beans and all sorts of yummy stuff that I keep cooking up like crazy. Last night was a tragic mistake of Casamance - I think I marinated the cod too long in Mexican limes. The Roommate ate a ton of it and will finish it tonight, but I spat it out. Blech. So today I went home for lunch and made a Turkish lentil-bulgur wheat-spinach-tomato soup that was Yummalicious! More food for Tami!