a busy Saturday

My brother Sean and his hubby Jeff are at the Shanghai airport and ready to return to the States after a two-week jaunt in Asia—mostly Southeast Asia—whose dates coincided with my travel dates in the US. I was unable to see Sean and Jeff as a result, but Sean very kindly texted me a slew of photos from Vietnam, Bali, and Shanghai. I've asked why he and Jeff seem to be avoiding Korea (they visit SE Asia fairly often), and Sean's reply is that places like Japan and Korea are pretty expensive relative to other Asian countries. Sadness.

Sean's most recent barrage of texted photos arrived this morning, as I was waking up from my first really good night's sleep in two weeks (that Best Western bed was way too soft; it provided no back support and left me an aching mess every morning). I flipped through the images, texted some quippy remarks, wished my bro and his beau a good flight back, then got out of bed, ready to face life in Korea yet again.

Which brings us to cooking. I have a large luncheon to prep for Friday, August 31: that date is fairly loaded, at my office, because it's my birthday, the birthday for a female coworker, the final day of work for our departing Canadian staffer, and a day to celebrate the recent (August 26) birthday of another coworker. So, to celebrate three birthdays and one departure, I'm cooking up poutine (for our resident Canuck) as well as the already-on-the-calendar Italian meal of spaghetti bolognese, garlic bread, insalata caprese (with pesto and balsamic vinegar), and chocolate panna cotta (which I've done before, but which I'll be jazzing up with shaved-chocolate sprinkles this time).

That means I've got this weekend to do most of my shopping, and I'd like to have the spaghetti sauce, at least, cooked and ready by Sunday night: the sauce's flavors can marry for the rest of the week. Some elements can't be bought until right before the luncheon. For example, the basil for the caprese needs to be fresh, and the baguettes that I'll be using for the garlic bread also need to be fresh. To make the pesto, however, I can buy some basil hic et nunc so as to be done pesto-ing by the end of the weekend.

Since major stores are closed tomorrow (thanks to the stupid, anti-capitalist law that says major stores must close every second and fourth Sunday of the month to allow smaller stores room to compete), I need to get most of my shopping done today. I have to hit Costco, stores in Itaewon, a John Cook Deli Meats branch, and two local groceries (not to mention, later in the week, a decent bakery). I'm already wishing we had a true-blue, US-style Wegmans in Korea for one-stop shopping.

Much to write about later. Stay tuned.