Hello, friends! I apologize for the silence this weekend – my parents, sister, and I drove to upstate New York to help my sister move into college, so we were extremely busy! I can’t quite articulate how strange it felt to see my little baby sister getting ready to start college. She was a big bundle of nerves, but I felt so proud and excited for her! And I’m a little envious that she’s just beginning her four years at college. I’ll admit it – I am a little disappointed not to be returning to school this year! It feels so strange to know that, until grad school at least, I have no academic obligations. I’ve always loved school, so I feel a little lost now that it’s September and I’ve nothing to do but apply for jobs and study for the GRE. I guess I’ll have to live vicariously through my little sister! :)

Anyway, I had very few chances to get online this weekend, and honestly, I didn’t miss it. Sometimes I like to take little technology breaks; knowing that I’m constantly connected in one way or another sometimes makes me feel obligated to keep up on Facebook/email/blogs/Twitter/everything, which stresses me out a bit. So I enjoyed the mini break.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to eat at my first vegan restaurant this weekend! My sister’s college is in Syracuse (it’s not SU, though!), so my family and I journeyed to Strong Hearts Cafe for lunch on Sunday. I’m so thankful to have a very veg-friendly family; my mom is mostly vegetarian (she eats fish occasionally), my sister used to be vegetarian (grr), and my dad (who is an awesome cook) is more than happy to cook vegan meals for the whole family, since he knows it helps his tendency toward high cholesterol. My brother is the most omnivorous of all of us, but he was home tending to the dogs this weekend and thus couldn’t complain about going to a vegan restaurant. ;) We did take my sister’s boyfriend, though, and although he loves his meat and spent a good portion of our meal making jokes about “vegan water” and such, he pronounced his french toast “delicious.” Victory!

My dad also enjoyed his spicy tofu scramble, mostly because anything spicy is automatically good in his book. Mom loved her chickpea sandwich and “Dreamsicle” milkshake; I had a few sips of that and it was indeed a dreamy, creamy delight! My sister and I both got the BLT, and although I was really excited about it because I used to love BLTs but haven’t had anything remotely like one in ages, I was a little disappointed. I didn’t realize they’d use quite so much Teese and vegan mayo, and I really wasn’t keen on that addition. It would have been much tastier without all that extra crap. Once I scraped it off the bread, though, the taste improved considerably. VeggaSis, however, didn’t really care for the sandwich at all and only ate half. We wrapped up the rest so my dad could have a snack later for the 5 1/2 hour drive home, but it ended up getting a little soggy in the cooler and thus went to waste. :( Ah well. Overall, I really enjoyed the restaurant and can’t wait to return next time we’re in Syracuse visiting my sister! Oh, and I apologize for the lack of photos – I’m still a little shy about taking food photographs in public. ;)

I do have a couple of photos for you, though. On the night before she left, my lovely little sister and I made vegan sugar cookies. I doubt many of you are familiar with the Mighty Boosh, but we made Boosh themed cookies!

I won’t explain all of the cookies; just ask if you’re curious! And you should definitely check out the show if you like surrealistic, dark, British comedy. They’ve just released their DVDs in the US, so I know what I want for Christmas!

I also have to admit that my posts will be few and far between in the next week or so. My boyfriend is flying in for a visit, another friend from Carleton will be starting grad school nearby, and my BFF is also visiting! It’s going to be a mini Carleton reunion and I think I’m going to be quite busy. :) Apologies!

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. I’ll leave you with a close-up of a few cookies – this is a bottle of Baileys (“Have you ever drunk Baileys from a shoe?”) and Vince Noir’s glam red boot.