Dear mom..

Could you give me a current account balance on my brownie points?

I need just a few things..

A toothbrush: those suckers cost $4! It was that or a latte. Figured you'd want to buy me a toothbrush though, might make you feel better about paying health insurance.

A microwave: I like my coffee black, but not my popcorn. There's plenty of "feeding African children" funds started. Why not a "feeding college children decent food" fund?

More cookies please. As always. Could you send them in paper bags this time? There's too many guys here, and they're catching on to what comes in ziplock bags from mom.

The remote to my stereo: pretty sure I left it at your house. The beds here are like 5 feet in the air! Changing songs is a pain.

A ladder: see above if you didn't catch why.

Chick flicks!: Living in a school with this many men means that 98% of the time the auditorium is monopolized by Rambo, Stargate, and movies where most of the actors don't live to the credits.

Photos: I need some on my walls, but I'm pretty sure I don't have enough brownie points to ask for a printer yet..

A little brother: So I don't have to run across campus from class 27 times daily for everything I forget in my room.

Love always,
The kid you almost got rid of.
But not quite. Don't you love the internet?
=) Brenna

Fancy Shmancy Dinner

So every year as part of the training course, the culinary class run the "Student Cafe". They have to plan the menus, come up with and debut at least one of their own original recipes, figure out pricing, do the decorating, advertizing, cook and serve the food themselves. The whole operation runs for about 6 weeks. My class won't get to do this till the spring, but we do get the advantage of being able to see what the class ahead of us has to deal with.

Last week Ashley, Cody and I went out for dinner, ironically enough, in our classroom. The theme this year is Italian cooking. I can't pronounce all the names of what we ate...but pretty much it was fancy shmancy grease and cream. Turns out, however, that calimari is actually good. Even after you know what it is. If you don't know what it is though, don't google till you try it.

This first thing is basically mushroom mousse served on shredded, marinaded cucumber. It wasn't too thrilling.

What Cody has is shrimp ravioli something something..I got the steelhead served with gnocci. The gnocci was the best part of the meal!

When I get old..

When I get old..
I will still detest purple, and I definitely won't wear it with red.
I will not wear ridiculously large hats, but I will carry umbrellas.
I will not make my grandkids cookies, cookie dough is better.
I will not wear dentures. Even if it takes a work of orthodontic genius to keep my original teeth.
I will still run. Can't be half as painful if I don't have my original knees.
And I will definitely, have a rocking chair.