tuck you in

Good night

could be

Two quotations that are my current mantra:

"We are here and it is now. The way I see it, after that, everything tends towards guesswork." via Small Gods

&

"Le vent se leve, il faut tender de vivre" via The Wind Rises

I came very close to ordering a customizable engraved cuff bracelet with these two quotations, but did not click the add to cart in the end. Instead I bought more perfume samples "orz The danger of being in the US is the vastly greater availability of products, especially products with shipping restrictions. The urgency to buy everything before returning to Toronto feel so real. 

They say tomorrow is another sunrise / Those rainclouds tell me otherwise

^ alt: Because there’s no correct answer

I might not be the one / Could you settle for half

If I had to pick a favourite song out the album, it'd be this, but I'll only choose with a gun to my head.



...

Sighhh. I guess acceptance mainly involves sitting with all the emotions. This song particularly hurts a lot.

nose

Went to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Museum of Fine Art Houston today. I did not take seriously the warning that it is a popular exhibit, and was unpleasantly surprised by the crowd that showed up. Roughly waited an hour to get in, which didn't bother me, but it was so crowded and consequently noisy inside the exhibit, which bothers me a ton. The experience aside, the works in the exhibit focused on Van Gogh's earlier works, which I've not seen. Out of what's shown, I was drawn to his wheat field paintings, "undergrowth", and "roses and peonies". I wanted to get prints of these, because they'd be perfect to display along with my future bottles of perfume, but alas most prints were sold out. So off I went to the internet and found good enough resolution of the images (not printing large anyways), bonus for a bit of savings. Something like this:

Back tracking to the start of the day, I had brunch at BB's Tex-Orleans, since I'm not making it to New Orleans any time soon despite being in the closest proximity to the city ever. The half-half combo is the perfect portion size for me, which is such a rarity in Texas:

Fried catfish po-boy with chicken gumbo

and back to the museum.
I was so drained by the end of the exhibit that I just wanted to head home. But alas I persevered onto one more exhibit because of sunken-cost (or rather sunken-time). Luckily, the rest of the museum is serene:

There's a giant screen playing a video of a kitten licking a water bowl in the upstairs space to the left

Will be back to explore the other parts of the museum in May or June. Gotta take advantage of free admission from BoA (y)

just want to hide under the blankets and look on

^ alt: I wish you eternal sunshine

...

sigh

room

Backlog of food I've made:

 First lunch in Houston: the always reliable potato salad

Although this version wasn't very good. I could only carry so much grocery home during the first visit so I didn't get vinegar or mustard. Instead I used the pickle juice as the sour component...and it wasn't very sour. The pickles themselves were mushy too :(

 Cauliflower & chickpea masala via Budget Bytes

I liked it better without the cream, but then it won't be saucy enough to dip the fake naan (flour tortilla).

 Hot oil scallion noodles with spinach

Still haven't dialled in the muscle memory for pouring the right amount of oil. So far I've been pouring too much. I blame my dad's influence, and I'll repeatedly tell the story of him using up the remaining half bottle of oil when he visited me for 2 weeks while the previous half lasted me like 4 months. But since going back to China at the end of last year, I've been more heavy on my use of oil and salt, perhaps why (coupled with eating out in America) that I have high cholesterol D:

Curried lentils with spinach and coconut milk via Alexandra's Kitchen

This dish reminds me of something I made often in Bath, although that had sweet potato as well. These 4 are a winning combination.