Mortal Kombat Cosplay: A Photo-Dump Post

Hey! I know I've been mysteriously absent lately (or maybe just absent, but I like to assume mystery). One of the big reasons is that I was hard at work on a new cosplay! And procrastinator that I am, a lot of it still needed done at the last minute. In fact, I only have progress shots of my stuff because Justin's costume was done almost entirely the night before the convention. o_O

If you were at Origins Game Fair on Saturday in Columbus and saw some Mortal Kombat types roaming around, that was us. I was Mileena, Justin was Reptile, and his friend Mackenzie was Frost. We got asked for pictures about every 15 minutes once we were inside the convention, and even afterwards when we went down to Dirty Franks and 16-Bit. So, without further ado, a photo dump!

First time buying real fabric! Satin is kind of a jerk, FYI.

Made my top with help from my mom and her sewing machine.

Mask turned out pretty well after re-pinning a hundred times.

Modded a pair of Ninja Turtle sai with a hacksaw and duct tape.

Add a wig and makeup and BAM! Ninja.

Ninjas that are ninja friends!

Playing a game of giant Settlers of Catan at Origins.

We had a blast! It was Mackenzie's first time cosplaying, so it was extra great that people kept stopping us for pictures and whatnot. And I also decided that I only want to cosplay masked and/or angry characters now because it was SO awesome to not feel obligated to smile for pictures. I hope you enjoyed the photo dump and thanks for stopping by!

Doodle410

This week's weekly (perhaps biweekly?) doodle is a group of sketches for a cosplay I have coming up. Justin voted for Mortal Kombat, so these are some ideas I have for Kitana's bracers and fans. 

Doodle410: MK Ideas

I'm facing the challenges of A. knowing next-to-nothing about Mortal Kombat and B. changing an iconic look to accommodate being built like a normal person instead of a made-up, adolescent-fantasy warrior-princess. But the exciting news is that one of Justin's friends wants to cosplay with us! If all goes according to plan, we should have Kitana, Sub-Zero, and Sonya Blade. And this time around I'm determined to ACTUALLY TAKE GOOD PICTURES. (Mostly so I can blog about it. ;))

Things I Like to Smell - Vol. I

Do you have certain scents that trigger memories for you? Or, conversely, when you reflect on some time, place, or person that was special to you, does a smell come with that memory? It does for me. For example, freshly baked bread smells like being home because my mom is the best at making bread. Even though my first boyfriend was over a decade ago, I can still tell when I walk by someone wearing the same cologne. And after my grandma passed away, I considered buying some vintage Avon talc powder at a flea market  because she had it in her bathroom for as long as I can remember.

photo credit

Anyone who spends a significant amount of time around me will quickly learn how much I like to smell things. Justin and I almost always spend some time smelling seasonal candles wherever we find them. Teavana and Penzeys both endeared themselves to me from my first visits, simply because you're allowed to smell all the things. And sometimes when I am sad or bored, I will go to a grocery store and stand around smelling the different body washes or fabric softeners. I'm well aware that it's things like this that make me obviously normal and not weird at all.

Without further ado, here are some things I am currently fond of smelling. This volume of Things I Like to Smell was inspired by my friend Kerry's post on beating the winter blues. Even though we had a freakishly nice weekend (high five, global warming!) it is back to feeling wintery here in Ohio and these are the smells that cheer me up despite the weather.

photo credit

1. Sea Spray from Lush Cosmetics
My friend Vicky gave me some of this and it has gradually become my new BFF. I like it for all its intended reasons (like making me not look as if I'm trying to cosplay Hermione Granger in my daily life) but the most surprising thing for me was the scent. This product is the perfect reminder of sunny, windy, sea-salty days. I don't know how they do it, but I've found it a pleasant surprise to catch a whiff of summer when it's all of 12 degrees outside.

2. Orange & Cranberry Scones
Whether it's because this is the first flavor I ever made, or just the fact that citrus is such a happy smell, baking off a batch of these scones always smells the best to me. Find a recipe, make yourself some tea, and and eat one while they're still warm from the oven. Trust me on this.

3. Stauf's Market Spice Tea
Speaking of tea, this one is amazing. It tends to get cold before I can finish it because I'm always torn between wanting to keep smelling it and wanting to drink it. If you like orange-y cinnamon teas, this is the best one I've had yet.

4. Woodsmoke
My parents have a wood-burning stove in their house, so this is another smell that always reminds me of home. The combination of clean, cold air and the drifting smoke never fails to take me back to the days of bundling up and going out to play in the snow with my brothers.

5. Homemade Yujacha
I found this post on Pinterest about a Korean concoction of honey and lemons that you add to hot water to make a drink that's good for fighting colds. Since I love honey and lemons, I had to try it. I also added slices of fresh ginger to mine, and sweet merciful heavens it could not possibly smell any better than it does. It also tastes good, which I was concerned about with leaving the pith of the lemon in there. I am almost through my first jar of it, and I haven't even been sick.

So am I the only one who just wanders though life smelling things? Or could I run into you in the laundry aisle the next time I'm lurking in a grocery store? Either way, I hope you get to smell some of your favorite things today too! As for me, I think I'll be making some tea shortly!

A Conversation & An Alot

Me: Of the two Theory of a Deadman songs I've heard before, I thought 'Bad Girlfriend' was by Seether and 'Not Meant To Be' was by Nickelback, haha.

Justin: Alot of modern rock sounds similar.

Me:

If you're not familiar with it (i.e. don't understand why this is funny), you can find the original Alot at Hyperbole And A Half. And shame on you for not knowing about it already!

Review: Sophie's & Ajumama

Part II of  The Happy Day I Got to Try Lots of New Food

On the same day Karla and I had brunch at Skillet, there was a food truck party at a new-ish little brewery in Columbus. The place is called Zauber Brewing, and they occasionally have these events where you can try their beers by the pint and they bring in a rotating cast of food trucks while they're at it. I, like many other self-proclaimed foodie-types, am a big fan of the food truck scene, added to which, not one but two of the trucks I've been wanting to hunt down were both scheduled to be there! So of course, I had to go.

Justin and I headed down around dinner time, and probably would've missed the brewery if it weren't for the food trucks out front because it's so small. We then walked all the way around the trucks because there was a cord around them, not realizing until we got to the other side that we had to duck under it to get in. Ha. It didn't occur to me they were making an enclosed space until I saw people with pints of beer in hand.

Once we finally managed to get inside, we started at one end of the line and perused the menus of all the food trucks they had circled up like a caravan of conestoga wagons. According to the Zauber Brewing website, the line up that night was: Hungry Monkey, Mojo TaGO, Tatoheads, Ajumama, Blu Olive, Sophie's Gourmet Pierogi, Short North Bagel, and Street Thyme. Every truck had something (or several somethings) that sounded good, so it would've been hard to decide where to go if I hadn't already been following a couple of them on Twitter and getting hungry from their updates. Plus, Justin wanted pierogi too. So now, on to the food:

What We Ordered:

From Sophie's: Justin - The Vintage, Me - The Soph

From Ajumama: Traditional Hodduk 

Definitions (just in case): 

Pierogi - Similar to a big fat ravioli, but usually filled with mashed potatoes and cheese or onion. Origin: Poland.

Hodduk - Kind of like a chewy pancake, but filled with cinnamon, brown sugar, and walnuts. Origin: Korea.

Why I ate two filled-dough-type things for dinner - They were delicious.

Photographic Evidence:

Me and my delightfully-international, truck-made dinner.

Verdict of the Noms:

All very good! I don't know how Justin's pierogi tasted because he ate them so fast, but he said he liked them. I liked my pierogi a lot too and the pork belly that came with it was super tasty. The flavor of the vegetables reminded me of when my grandma would make stuffed cabbage when I was younger.

As for the hodduk? Just typing that word makes me want another one, if that tells you anything. I've had the make-at-home kind from a box and didn't like them at all. The real thing is so much better. You have to wait a while for the sweet, molten insides to not burn your mouth off, but believe me, it's definitely worth it.

Final Words:

I would get food from both these places again in a heartbeat. I think I would pick something new at Sophie's and definitely get some of their Italian ice next time because that looked really good too. From Ajumama, I would obviously order hodduk again, but it might take me a while to get brave enough to try some of their other menu items. I've never had much Korean food, so I really don't know what I would or wouldn't like. That's the nice thing about these food truck events though; you can sample a couple different things when they're all together like this.

For me, the other good thing about this event was that Karla told me she was jealous we were going and she had to work, so I was able to repay my brunch debt to her by taking her some dinner from the trucks. We got her an orzo pasta salad from Blu Olive (since I figured it would travel well) and took her a hodduk also. And the next time Andrea and I are both in Cbus, we'll have to go find Ajumama, since she's the one who introduced me to hodduk; otherwise, I might never have tried it! 

Draggin' My Shoes, Please

Conversation with my boyfriend from today, via text message.


Me: Are you sad that I might go get Vibrams without you?

Justin: Nope cuz I have some.

Me: But mine will be prettier.

Justin: I don't do pretty. I do black.

Me: But mine will be prettier AND made of dragonhide.

Justin: Now I'm sad. Link me a picture.

Me:

Justin: It's nice.

Me: Can you read it or is the text too small?

Justin: Yep I can see. 

Me: And you laughed uproariously because I'm so hilarious?

Justin: Oh you did that?

Me: No, it's real. I'm just generally hilarious and you should be laughing about that.

Justin: Well I am.

Me: Good.


Disclaimer: No dragons were harmed in the making of this post. Or those shoes. Probably. I don't work for Vibram.


--- Later the same day, while in the throes of procrastination ---


Me: I just sent one of my college friends a message reminding him that I hate him. It's like I'm drunk, but really I've just leveled up to super-procrastinator.

Justin: Why that's pretty uncharacteristic of you.

Me: Not with Kyle. He's my arch-nemesis.

Justin: Why?

Me: Because I hate him. That's how archnemesisness works. Ask Batman.

Justin: Why do you hate him?

Me: Today, because of his mustache. Why are you pretending this makes any sense and not telling me to go do my other job?

Me: I'm blogging about how I don't know why you talk to me.

Justin: Do your work!

Me: Smooches?


Fun Fact: Some days I don't know why Justin talks to me. Or why anyone does for that matter. Probably because I'm made of awesome.

Other Fun Facts: I think I've been reading too many The Bloggess archives lately; I've been really sarcastic all day and now I'm writing a post about weird conversations I had with my boyfriend. Or maybe because this was one of the longest weeks ever at work and I have more stuff to do before I go to bed and I have to wait until tomorrow to have some Guinness. I saw a mosquito today. Eff that crap. Also, the toilet-scented bar across from my house has started their game of 'guess which song our band is butchering' early thanks to the nice weather. (It's "Sweet Child of Mine" right now, unfortunately.) Also, I don't want to do any of the several things I'm supposed to be doing. Also, I bought blue FiveFingers, not the pink ones in the picture. Still made of dragonhide though. Just the blue kind of dragons. Also, I overuse the word "also" pretty much all the time.

That's about enough of this. Thanks for stopping by!

(I have no idea about this song. I'm going to go with "Only Drunk People Will Cheer For This" by Nickelback.)

Best Ever Texas-Style Chili

Boyfriend brought a pound of ground venison to my house last weekend. Now, my family is not the hunting-type, so I've only had venison once and thought it tasted like cafeteria mystery meat. So, like any modern woman, I polled my facebook friends for what to make for dinner. Chili came in first with two votes, followed by tacos, then empanadas. Other suggestions included, "garbage" and "something you don't want to eat" which just made me laugh.

I used this recipe for inspiration and we went on our own from there. I love Fritos in my chili anyway, and any excuse to eat Fritos, and also, eating Fritos, so the Fritos and cheese were obviously the way to go. Justin said he added avocado and onions to his leftovers and it was even better. I'm eating my leftovers as I type this. Om nom nom.

As always, I'm guessing on the seasoning, because I rarely measure, or add more after I measured it, so, sorry about that. Can I just say that I really, really like this chili? Really.

Mmm, chili.

Best-Ever Texas-Style Chili
here, "Texas-style" meaning, without beans

2 lbs ground venison, beef, or both (we used one pound each)
1 14-oz can tomato sauce
1 10-oz can Rotel
1 4-oz can diced green chilies
1 t. dried oregano (Mexican would be best, but I ran out)
1 t. onion powder
1 t. garlic powder
2 t. ground cumin
2 T. chili powder
1/2 bottle beer (we used Bud Light)

Friends for your chili
Fritos (we like the Scoops)
Shredded cheese (we used cheddar)
Chopped avocado
Cilantro
Scallions or raw onion if you like that sort of thing

Cook the meat. Drain the grease if you want to or need to. Or don't, and live on the edge like us. Add the canned things, spices and beer. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for at least half an hour. Top with whatever you like on chili, eat with Fritos.


Here are the things I might change next time, just for the record:
1. Add real garlic and onions. It will add to the prep time, but real is usually better.
2. Add some heat: more green chiles -or- cayenne -or- a chipotle in adobo.
3. Try the masa-thickening method, not that it really needs it, just because it's interesting.

If you'd like, you can complete your Jordan & Justin Experience™ by drinking the other Bud Lights and watching Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World while you're eating, then serve crustless-pumpkin-pie-that-needed-more-sugar for dessert.