A very social weekend, all in all. Karen came down from her co-op to visit before we all move out, and Friday night after she got here we went to the campus acapella groups' concert in the architecture building. We had accidentally gone on the night where the women's group was headlining but luckily they've gotten better. I was amused by the men's group because going from right to left it was clean cut/short hair all the way until POOF! one guy looked like he'd exploded with giant curly hair and beard. It was funny.

Saturday after sleeping in, Catherine, Karen, Kim, and I went shopping. First was Home Depot where I got a hand truck which will greatly aid in moving (especially since the housing department which owns a bazillion turned into nazis and won't loan them out). Then we went to Target because Catherine desperately needed pants. I found two very cute shirts, finally accomplishing what my dad wanted to two years ago when I got a gift certificate to the fancy mall from the marketing company I worked for and my dad told me I should get a nice shirt to wear on dates and such. My incompetence at shopping showed myself, and I ended up with lotion and kitchen bowls. But I found two very cute shirts, I was amazed.

Then we went to the grocery store, where I just got milk and stuff, and Kim got something I didn't know about that ended up occupying a good deal of our evening.

In her frugality, Kim decided to buy three pounds each of black beans and rice.

That's it. Raw beans and rice. No seasonings, no mix, no recipe. Karen saw her put it in the cart, and claims she asked "Do you know how to cook that?" and Kim said "There's gotta be a recipe on the back," and then a random lady in the aisle snorted.

Flash forward several hours to me making dinner. Kim's in the living room but says she'll start her dinner in a bit. Around seven she comes out with the bag of black beans, looking at the back. "Now how long does this take?" she muttered.

Catherine and I looked at each other, and both said, "You have to soak them." Kim asked how long, and we said overnight. At her aghast look we told her you can soak them in boiling water for an hour as an alternate. "An hour?!" she said, astonished. But she did it.

The kicker of the evening was that after they had soaked Kim thought they were done. When we told her after that they probably had to cook two hours, she almost threw them all out. It was all quite hysterical. I think Kim's learned her lesson and'll stick to the Zatarran's box mixes from now on. She was quite enamored with the price, but the time commitment was a bit much for her.

About the time the beans were done Karen came back from seeing Sin City with her friend from tai chi, Ben (not the priest-y Ben, this one is a ChemE I've met before who's totally cool), and they brought makings for Ben's idea of butterbeer from Harry Potter. It was pretty close to what I always imagined, and very good. It was cream soda, club soda, and butterscotch liquer. Then we (Catherine, Karen, Kim, me, Ben, and later on our other roommate Summar came in) stayed up pretty much all night talking. Ben's really funny and totally entertaining but we don't know how much to believe of stories like the paintball fight in a parking lot only wearing goggles and cups.

I think I've given up on studying for the test tomorrow. We'll see.