this weekend is shaping up to be much better than the last

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to the Wien museum which is having a special exhibit on the architectural, and related, plans for the Stephensdom (I'm going tomorrow because it's the first Sunday of the month -- free entry!). Because I'm expecting that there will be plenty of things I'll want to take pictures of in the exhibit, I headed out this morning to buy a new memory card for my camera; I found a camera shop that wasn't far from the Siebensterne brewery Joel and I ate at while he was here, so that was much more convenient than the MediaMarkt way out of town.

While heading back to the metro I passed an H&M and saw they were having a pretty big sale so I figured I'd stop in. Now, I know my tastes in fashion are different from the average trendy girl, but, wow. A good 75% of the stuff in that store is just plain hideous. But that still left some things -- I tried on a shirt and a dress that I opted out of, but the pants I had grabbed were so comfy that I went back and got another pair in a different color. Add to that a three-pack of socks (one of which has owls on it! how cute!) and a pair of shoes that I totally didn't need but were cheap and cute and thus irresistible, and I still spent < 40EUR:





So, a little over 5 months along, I've gained 10 lbs (and all of that in the first 4 months), and still have no need for maternity clothes other than the belly band. It was a little weird clothes shopping, but even if I guessed wrong and the pants will be too big post-baby, I figure I'm only out 20EUR, and I'm sure I'll get that much's worth of wear out of them in the next few months. (Like I said SO comfy!).

Chatting with Joel on IM and it sounds like his morning was even more eventful than mine; an old girlfriend of his had a long layover at Schiphol, so he met up with her at CS with our bikes and they biked out to Muiden and back. Sounds like a great way to spend a layover if you ask me.

cooking

At home, we make our own spaghetti sauce from scratch, using this recipe. Pasta with red sauce is one of our stock meals, as it's quick, easy, and we almost always have all the ingredients on hand. Sometime we'll spice it up with some capers, dried chili flakes, red bell pepper, and olives, or make meatballs, but usually it's just the basic.

And yet, whenever I'm traveling, it always seems like way too much work, and so I end up buying pasta sauce in a jar from the grocery store (I think the first time I'd ever bought premade sauce was in Copenhagen last November). Twice (three times?) here I've gotten a slightly piquante sauce, which I've enjoyed quite a bit, but decided to go with a change today, so I got the one with olives in it. The other thing I like about pasta (with or without sauce) is that it is such a good way of using up leftovers. I had 1/4 kg ground beef/pork mix, half a package of mushrooms, and we still have more onions than we'll be able to get through in the next week (I leave Wed., Jesse leaves Sat.), so a diced onion, the meat, and the mushrooms went into today's sauce. Yum! And it made enough that I've got two portions of leftovers as opposed to the one I'd expected. That leaves only one dinner left to plan/cook for before I leave. Whoo! (It's hard to get motivated to (a) cook and (b) cook for myself, but since I generally need to be eating around 6:00/6:30, and I never have any idea when Jesse will be coming home, it's up to me to feed myself. I'm doing my best to try to eat well, but I will admit one night I slipped into old college- (and even high school-)student habits, and just bought a can of soup to dump over my pasta. I'll be glad to be home.)