Lasagne, with a side order of vitriol.

[changeling]

I made a delicious Mexican lasagne last night. It wasn't my usual own-recipe Mexican lasagne, which uses layers of corn chips instead of pasta, and uses salsa and guacamole (made from scratch, of course!) instead of bechamel.

Instead it was a thick tex-mex style chilli for the base, with my new black turtle beans. I even used some of the TVP that my mother-in-not-law kindly bought for us, though you could barely notice it was there around the zucchini, tomato and sweetcorn. I bought some wholegrain lasagne sheets (this is the first time I've used wholegrain lasagne. It's nice), and made a Vegan-Planet standard white sauce with tofu and a bit of oat milk. I layered all those together (I made a special one for M-I-NL, who doesn't deal well with spice, and then added in globs of chili and cayenne pepper into ours), then topped it with a salsa cruda (instead of cheese) and popped it in the oven for a quarter of an hour, while I made up some guacamole, to be dobbed on top just before serving. It was delicious, and very, very filling.

Steph came home from work early yesterday (her new "workplace agreement" while lasting out the last couple of weeks in this temp job), so she and I went shopping together yesterday for the tofu and lasagne and lettuce and so forth, then she plumped down on the couch with my laptop and chilled out. She deserves it; she works pretty hard. She won't get away with that tonight, though! I'm going to need some help today so that we can get everything done nice and early as we're going to go out tonight (quite late!) to an event called "Spiral Moves". Tomorrow S & I are going with hollyhearth and shinyandnat to a beginning kinesiology workshop. I'm looking forward to it, since I've found so far that kinesiology is pretty much the only thing that has any lasting effect on my painfully-solid muscles.

I called up bare_feeted, an old friend who I'm crap at catching up with (the fact that she's now based in Ballarat helps my case here slightly) to invite her to Spiral Dance, but she won't be in Melbourne. We chatted for a bit, and she said that she'd been really enjoying my food posts recently, which was cool. Instead, I'm going to go to Bikram Yoga with her Monday morning. I like this. I'd much rather catch up with friends by doing something, even if it's just having a meal together, than going to a bar or pub. I can never talk – or breathe – in pubs.

That remark may seem to come from the left field, but S and I couldn't make it to Liam's new-work bash on Saturday night (good thing we didn't go, anyway; it sounds like it would have broken the bank unnecessarily) due to the fact that we went back to my parents' place (80k round trip from where we live), picked up my bike and bought me a new work suit. The acquaintance of ours who was formerly mjsax made a rude comment about how Steph and I never go out (I don't know where he gets his information from, as he's never asked me out anywhere besides his birthday celebrations – and Steph and I went to those), and apparently spirail thought it was a fine joke and joined in.

This seriously pissed me off. For a number of reasons, which I shall actually number for ease of wossname.

1. It seems that it's one of those little jokes that single people have at the expense of couples – yes, our social options need to be hampered because I need to cook lunches or Steph needs to do the washing, or whatever. Maybe we'd like some "couple time", or bang boots. It's none of their damn business what we do with our time, and once they are in a long-term relationship, they'll understand how their approach to time management can change. Must change.

2. I'm actually far more social than I was when I was single. I've been far better at catching up with those "sometimes" friends like barrington or bare_feeted than I was. *thinks to self* Now I just need to catch up with gadge and muzaken. Haven't seen them for yonks. I also now have to add "catching up with parents" into my social calendar, as well as my less-younger sister and her boyfriend. Just because I'm not spending time with you, it doesn't mean I'm not spending time with people.

3. There seems to be some sort of judgement on what "going out" entails, and it seems to largely do with mjsax's obsession with a mediocre cocktail bar on Brunswick St and a nearby pool hall. If I'm not consuming alcohol in some way, it's not going out. I go to morris dancing practice in a pub once a week, catch up with all my bell-wearing friends, work up a fun sweat, and fail to drink any beer. Once every two weeks I have choir, where I go along and (in the case of last week) eat some tasty chocolate loaf cake. Once every other week I go into the city, meet up with Jess and cupiscent in a cafe or somewhere, socialise and write a bit of novel. The last couple of months we've been going to daharja's for a weigh-in and a natter. In between there I might be, say, meeting up with my dad, going op shopping with daharja and burningskyfire, or going over to Hedda and Liam's to hang out. How do these activities make me a homebody?

In conclusion, FUCK YOU, mjsax and your capitalist lifestyle.

Phew, glad I expressed that. Maybe now my brain can go back to pondering things to cook for dinner instead.