A day of laziness and food

   I've been really good at keeping myself busy everyday since arriving. I think when you dream about how tired you are that your body is trying to tell you to take it easy. Well, that's exactly what happened to me this morning when I woke up at 6am to go for my long run, I remember dreaming just moments before about being utterly exhausted. So I got up, put the "do not disturb" sign on my door and went back to bed (housekeeping likes to show up at 8am on weekends, totally annoying if all you want to do is sleep in). I vowed to be lazy and do nothing today, which Donald can tell you, is pretty hard for me to do. I succeeded, though, it's 8:30pm and I haven't even left my apartment. I spent a couple of hours on the phone with friends and family, watched some documentary about China wildlife, read my Food and Wine magazine and cooked.

   First order of business was to get some beer delivery. Check out www.cheers-in-.com  to see what selection I have. Much better then you would think or have experienced when traveling in China even just a few years ago. I haven't had beer in my apartment since Donald left, so it was about time to get some more. Plus, I had plans on making some beef stew, which means I needed a beer to put in it.

Less then an hour later my beer showed up :)

 I had previously purchased a frozen chunk of beef from the Avocado Lady (my veggie merchant),

today seemed like the perfect day to make some stew. It was a good American style meal!

Then I topped the day off by making some cinnamon and lemon infused rice pudding (Chinese cinnamon sticks are really good, I think that I might bring some back to Portland).

I enjoyed a bowl this evening and still have lots of leftovers.

   Thanks Mom, for teaching me how to cook! I'm so happy I don't have to eat out for every meal :) And thanks to Donald for teaching me to use beer in beef stew, it turned out awesome!