Visits, ceremonies and what's cookin'

Sunday night we went over to Matt's folks house for Beth's birthday. She was in town from Chicago and just wanted a mellow dinner with the family. Carl (Matt's Dad) cooked all sorts of goodies (sesame mushroom pasta, oxtail soup, cheesy cauliflower, flank steak burritos) and we hung out with the entire clan. Mr. Sprout was happy as could be with all his uncles and his Auntie Beth there to spoil him. I cut out early to go the the ARRG 2007 awards ceremony at theWay Out Club which was a blast. Dee Rinkin', Mike Madison and Dr. Killvorkian did a great job of organizing the shindig and everything went super smoothly. Seeing Grave Danger perform interpretive dance to poetry about the Jeerleaders was the highlight of my evening. The league gave me a great sendoff, complete with a powerpoint slideshow and a trophy engraved with the words "Mary Manglin' We love you and will miss you! Arch Rival Rollergirls." I got a little teary, but managed not to cry until I got home. I am very happy to be moving ahead on my other endeavors, to be focusing on Sprout and the future of my own business, but it hurts a little to let go of ARRG. I am really looking forward to watching the games and I really don't have long to wait. The new season starts March 22nd!
Monday night we went to the Schlafly Tap Room employee reunion party. (Julie stayed with the Sprout, they were passed out on the couch when we got home. Very cute!) Both Matt and I worked for Schlafly back in the day and we got a chance to schmooze with a bunch of folks we hadn't seen in ages. I spent a lot of time talking to my friend Amy, who I never see any more. Matt and I also talked to an old friend, Mr. Joe Jackson, about his booming piano repair business down on Cherokee Street. He invited me to some sort of hootenanny on Friday and the Sprout and I are looking forward to going. I met Joe's lovely lady Morgan and I can't wait to meet their daughter. We let Dan Kopman know that we really enjoyed ourselves and he said he is planning on doing this again every year. I'm glad we went.
I made the Amish Friendship Bread that Toni gave me. This is my second attempt at AFB. The first starter that Carl gave me exploded before I could make it, due to my lack of attention to the bag. The bread is tasty, in a cake-ish sort of way, but I really doubt that any recipe that calls for a large box of vanilla Jello pudding was truly created by the Amish. I passed a starter back to Carl, who lost his at some point; one to Julie and one to Beth. I'm glad Beth took one. It's good to send these things out of town form time to time. I'll have four more starters on the 31st, so if you want one let me know.
I haven't been knitting, but I am weaving in the ends of Kate's fingerless gloves. I plan to felt them tomorrow night. I really need to finish them soon, I've got to get that package off to her this week.
So in my resolution post I mentioned that I might go vegan for February. Matt's totally down with the idea, so we're going full speed ahead with it. I've been working on meal plans, leafing through my vegan cookbook collection and researching Indian recipes online. I'm getting excited. If you've got any great vegan recipes I absolutely must try, email them to me and I'll give them a shot.