i <3 chicken.

so, i try to keep my posts interesting, even if (in my mind) that means having to give some text to some otherwise only mildly interesting pictures. such is the case today. i'll be sharing an introduction to the photos, and then a story that many of you have probably heard before already, and then stop writing so i can begin thinking about all the things i need to put in the second part of my washington dc report, which i never actually did like i promised.

last night autumn, brad and i found ourselves in my apartment. and none of us had eaten yet, none of us wanted to go to get something to eat, and so brad had the idea to make a broccoli and chicken casserole. we agreed this would be the best course of action and began assembling ingredients.

being a chicken casserole, it of course was a good time to put some of the chicken breasts that autumn had purchased while ago to use. long story short, i wound up being the one to cut up the chicken, and during my chopping, the still-frozen core of her chicken made what was going to be delicious adorable!

in case you can't tell due to the quality of my camera-phone photo, that's a chicken breast that's formed a darling little heart. sorry if the color of the chicken blends with the color of my fleshy palms. i should have taken one with it on the carpet maybe.

it was very cute. i was a bit saddened as i had to go on to cut up this charming heart rather than being able to put it in a scrapbook, but as i hadn't paid for it, it wasn't really my choice. i chopped it into 2"ish sized pieces and threw it to the frying pan in preparation for its being in the casserole. still, it taught me something. love is everywhere. you just need to pull apart the right layers to see it. and possibly have part of it still frozen to hold the pieces together.

brad also studied a bit.

and now on to the story. it may come off as a bit crass, so my apologies if you've rather sensitive. i hesitate to share it just a bit, but you can guess by the subject matter what the punchline has to do with this post.

so. it was valentines day on my mission in england. i had the two elders i was working with, and as i was going to go home soon (and as no one wanted to talk to us on this oh so romantic evening) i offered to buy the fellows dinner. we went to the local kebab shop. the owner was a friendly turkish man who was clearly a bit surprised to have three guys in dress suits coming into his shop on valentines night. we spoke a bit, and then ordered. i'll just give you the straight dialogue between him and the three of us.

"what would you like, boys?"

"um, i'd like a doner kebab, please."

"alright. and you?"

"same for me with a coke."

"and you?"

"um... can i get a chicken kebab?"

"of course! good choice. chicken is a good valentine. very big breasts."

and we all laughed. like i said, a bit crass, but it was so hilarious and vaguely related to this post as a whole that i thought i'd share it. hopefully you're not offended.