Infectious Hiccoughs

TA37 has emerged unscathed once again from the second major weather disaster to hit the Northeast this semester. We were snowed in for the campus Halloween party, which wasn't so bad (though it means I'll have to actually eat those radishes I bought for my Luna Lovegood costume). Instead, we had a toasty warm dinner of 김치찌개 (kimchi soup) while Grace battled her way through the storm to return to us from her long sojourn in the city. Chocolate chip cookies, hard cider, and Boys Over Flowers rounded off a great night! I put a pinch of cinnamon in the cookies--they were fabulous. Cinnamon makes everything better.

Speaking of BOF, lately there's been this great romantic tension between 'good girl' Ga Eul and 'playboy' Yi Jung. In the last episode, Ga Eul finally worked up the courage to "confess" her feelings for Yi Jung and ask him out on a real date (not a pretend date to make your friend and your friend's ex-girlfriend upset so they'd work together to spy on you and hopefully rekindle their romance but for the interruption of your friend's domineering mother--but I digress). Anyway, this was Yi Jung's response to Ga Eul:

I have three rules when it comes to women. One, I don't mess with good girls. Two, I don't mess with stupid girls. And three, I don't mess with girls who are friends of my friends. And you, Ga Eul, fulfill all three categories.

Man, who writes this stuff?? At least we only have 5 episodes left.

Today we made spaghetti spaghetti squash! Here's the recipe:

1. cut a spaghetti squash (yes, it's a thing) in half lengthwise, put it on a greased baking pan, and bake it for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until it's soft and baked-looking.
2. While that's going, sautee some garlic and onions in olive oil. Make sure the onions are well-cooked so He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named doesn't put a curse on you or anything.
3. Make Grace boil some spaghetti.
4. Once the spaghetti squash is roasted, scoop out the insides (which look like spaghetti) and add them to the pan. Toss with salt, pepper, and fresh parsley.
   
5. Pour the pan's contents into a serving bowl and mix in Parmesan cheese. Serve the meal with that spaghetti Grace made and some more Parmesan cheese to taste.
6. Bonus Step: heat up some Ragu Alfredo sauce for the certain someone who rejects spaghetti squash outright on the basis of its perceived visual similarity to sauerkraut.
   

We had a lot of guests from around campus this weekend, which was great, but we're closing the doors now and going into decontamination lockdown, because it appears that an extremely infectious case of hiccoughs is running rampant throughout our TA. I was the first to fall--not even drinking water upside down, holding my breath, or looking at Jo's face could make them go away. Now Grace, too, has fallen. The other two are surely not long for involuntary diaphragm spasms.

ADDENDUM: I just want to note that certain parties have chastised me for my relatively high consumption rate of milk and soymilk. Therefore, I am now on milk half-rations. It's been a struggle. Thank goodness the cashiers at the Retreat and the Kiosk let you add milk to your tea and coffee for free...