Ph.DJ

If the epic event from last year's department holiday party was the "P.R. long pour," the epic event from this year's was one of our professors playing us music that he produced. I was pretty impressed. It was loud in there, but I believe he said he has produced three albums? And one of the songs he played for us tonight should be coming out on iTunes in the spring? Sweet.

Of course, others at the party might have different opinions about what the epic moment of the night was...like maybe playing Flip Cup with your professors or hearing the chair of your department chant "P-Ram! P-Ram! P-Ram!" over the microphone or watching your professors limbo.

Oh, SLHS, I do love you...when I'm not having to do work for you. Haha!

Sure, Wednesday evening may not have been the ideal time for a party, but honestly, it was really, really nice to have a break from all of the studying right in the midst of everything.

not good.

I believe our latest mouse has somehow managed to trap himself under the cabinets in our kitchen. How he got in and is not able to get out is a mystery. But we keep hearing him scratch about. Ug. That is a much worse problem than having to avoid a mouse dead in a trap. 1. I feel sorry for the guy if he is trapped and is going to starve to death. 2. It's going to smell awesome.

a good day.

It was hard to wake up this morning. Really hard. I'm not quite sure why since, prior to last night, I was getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Probably the short night and some general grumpiness about a certain assignment I stayed up late working on plus my long, packed day ahead made it difficult. Then, not 20 minutes after our first break in class, I was dragging. DRAGGING. The eyelids were getting heavy. Class ended early, which was a nice treat. I had a training session during my 30-minute lunch break that lasted into my first 30 minutes of work, so I missed out on that $5. 2.5 hours and it was quitting time! Off to another meeting. But. BUT. This is where the day got good. I had my first formal clinical evaluation with one of my supervisors, and it went so well! I was super pleased. It seriously put me in such a good mood. Then the second version of our clinic schedule (what clinic assignments / clients we'll have) for the spring went up and...luckily, none of the assignments I was really excited about changed! (and neither did any of the others) I actually left the building for the day feeling really good.

When I got home I saw a sweet, thoughtful note from Brian about how we have another mouse (boo) and he had reset the traps and wanted to warn me not to get tangled up in them (I am super notorious for kicking any random thing on the floor and I definitely tripped the traps last time they were out).

rocky mountain mcc relief sale

As mentioned previously, in October, we went to the Rocky Mountain MCC Relief Sale with our friends Emily and Adam. Emily grew up going to the sale, and we were stoked that they invited us to go. We were able to get a head start on the drive to Rocky Ford on Friday night by traveling to Colorado Springs and staying overnight at Emily's family's beautiful house there. We also got the privilege of seeing their newly-delivered wedding photos that night. Gorgeous!

Saturday morning after breakfast at Panera, we drove the rest of the way to Rocky Ford -- a town that reminded me a lot of towns in western KS. Once there, I immediately started honing in on KS-plated cars and wondering how many people we would see that we knew. We saw maybe 10 people we knew? Cool. The CO sale had many similar elements to the KS sale but on a smaller scale. I enjoyed looking at the silent auction items, the quilts, and the regular auction items. I believe this sale's signature item is its apple butter, made fresh there in the morning and canned right before your eyes before you buy it. I'm telling you, folks, this apple butter is crazy delicious.

Their big meal is a barbecued chicken meal with cole slaw, a dinner roll, and a brownie. Very yummy. The meal is in a building about six blocks away, and they offer a tractor-pulled wagon ride to it. Here we are on the wagon.


After we walked back from lunch, we browsed the Ten Thousand Villages shop and over by it I spotted for the first time a sign advertising New Year's Cookies! Unfortunately, there were no New Year's Cookies to be found. :( If we go back, I will know to check for these earlier in the day. Since we all know the food is the most important part of the MCC Sale, the other foods to be found at the CO one were: bierrocks, sausage sandwiches, pie, and ice cream.

Before we left, we joined everyone in attendance in singing 606 and watched part of the quilt auction. Then it was time to return home and after the 3-hour drive, Brian and I enjoyed some still-warm apple butter on whole wheat rolls. Mmm.

limbo-ing is scary. apparently.

at my friend's ABBA-themed birthday party

cool life moment

As terrible as I may find my hometown newspaper sometimes, it did give me one of the greatest gifts of my life: my chosen profession. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English (not intending to do anything degree-specific). I wished to find a helping profession that appealed to me. Many, many do not. Every now and then I would wonder about teaching (at some level in the public school system), but the fit did not feel right. And that is one profession I firmly believe that if the fit doesn't feel right, you probably shouldn't be doing it. It is one of my most admired professions, one of the most important professions, and I sure didn't want to screw up at it. Social work crossed my mind a few times too. I knew I wanted to go to graduate school...but certainly not in English. Anthropology or American Studies sounded fun, but again, I was uncertain about putting in the time and money for a degree I wasn't sure how I would use. I worked at a job I liked with co-workers I loved, but I knew it wasn't my career.

In May 2006, I read an article in my hometown newspaper about a speech-language pathologist in one of our local schools. She spoke about the connections she made with her students over the years. That plus my love of language plus a strong personal tenet that everyone should be able to tell his or her story led me to research this profession I was mostly unfamiliar with. It took a while to make the life change and some major things miraculously fell into place, but here I am nearly halfway through my speech-language pathology education. Kind of amazing, really.

Oh, yes, the cool life moment. So the slp interviewed in the article was not someone I knew. I knew who she was because her daughter and I were in the same graduating class in high school. I didn't know if I would ever have a chance to talk with this woman and let her know the huge impact she had on my life. This semester we were assigned to interview an slp for a project. I immediately thought that this was my chance. I was nervous because I generally prefer to stay in my comfort zone. I know several other slps, any of whom I could have had a comfortable conversation with, but I made myself not pass on this opportunity. I contacted her, she quickly and enthusiastically agreed, and we talked on the phone last night. So cool. I hope to be the kind of slp she is.

october? what october?

I just looked up the date of what I am planning to post about, and it was at the end of September. Exactly one month ago. How is it possibly the end of October?! I mostly don't even remember October. October has been horrible. Those probably sound like contradicting statements. October has been mostly horrible due to all of the work required in this month. Because of all of this work, I barely even remember the month passing me by. Sadly, the work is not yet finished, but at least 3 of 4 tests are. Phew.

On to what I had planned to post about.

At the end of September we had some visitors from Germany stay with us. Brian's mom was an exchange student in Germany in college, and the following year one of her German friends did the exchange to the US. Her son and daughter-in-law are the ones who stayed with us. They got married in July (I think) and are biking across the US for their honeymoon. We had a very nice visit with them -- cooking a meal for them, walking around on campus, and staying up way too late chatting. Then they decided to stay another day! I had class all day until 8pm, but Brian was able to go to Celestial Seasonings with them and then we went out to the Dark Horse for supper when I was finally done with my long day. It was so nice to meet them. Brian had met the son, but it had been 14 years since they had seen each other.

the day i was trapped upstairs

One week ago today, I was trapped upstairs for two hours. Trapped by my own squeamishness. I happened to wake up quite a while before Brian did. I was on my way downstairs to make coffee and sit down with my laptop for a bit. I turned on the light above the stairs, and I saw it -- the mousetraps in disarray. Mousetraps, yes, plural. This little guy was crafty. The first night we had one trap at each of the places we'd seen him going in and out of our living room area. He just ate the peanut butter right off of those. Then we put two traps together at one location -- the one he was likely using to go between adjacent apartments and ours. Still with the peanut butter eating and no trapping. Then we were going to be gone overnight. This was the perfect opportunity to get him comfortable with our three trap set-up since we would leave them not set (who wants to trap a mouse and leave him sitting for a full day? yuck.). So Friday night was the first night of the three traps, the middle one had peanut butter, and the two on the sides had none, so he would have to walk over them to get to his PB. But no danger for him on Friday night. We were finally able to outsmart him on Saturday night when we were back. But it left me trapped upstairs for the morning. I caught a glimpse, and that was enough. Glad we got him and super glad I have someone willing to deal with the gory aspects of it.

on your porch

.
Just lyrics...

I was on your porch,
The smoke sank into my skin,
So I came inside to be with you,
We talked all night,
About everything you could imagine,
'Cause come the morning, I'll be gone,
And as our eyes start to close,
I turn to you and I let you know,
That I love you.

Well, my dad was sick,
My mom she cared for him,
Her loving nursed him back to life,
And me, I ran, I couldn't even look at him,
For fear I'd have to say goodbye,
And as I start to leave,
He grabs me by the shoulder and he tells me,
"Whats left to lose? You've done enough,
And if you fail then you fail but not to us,
'Cause these last three years,
I know they have been hard,
But now it's time to get out of the desert and into the sun,
Even if its alone."

So now here I sit,
In a hotel off of Sunset
My thoughts bounce off Sam's guitar,
And thats the way its been,
Ever since we were kids, but now,
Now, we've got something to prove,
And I, I can see their eyes,
Then tell me something, can they see mine?
'Cause whats left to lose?
I've done enough,
And if I fail then I fail but I gave it a shot,
'Cause these last three years I know they have been hard,
But now it's time to get out of the desert and into the sun,
Even if it's alone,
(Even if it's alone)
Even if it's alone.

I was on your porch last night,
The smoke, it sank into my skin.

i always wondered why...

The other day I was doing my time in the Dx room (MA students have to man the standardized test/protocol room for 2 hours per week) when a 2nd-year walked in and asked me, "What does that symbol mean?" I was wearing my MCC shirt. I showed her how it was half of a cross and half of a dove put together. She said she was so glad to finally know that because, "My mom had a Mennonite cookbook and I always wondered why it had the state of Texas on it!"

Too funny! The other reason I am posting this at this time is as a precursor to telling you all that I am super excited to experience the Rocky Mountain MCC Relief Sale this weekend! I am SO curious about how it will compare to the Kansas Sale, what foods we will discover there (crossing my fingers for verenike but don't actually think there will be any...I wonder if there will be New Year's cookies...?), etc. It's kind of a terrible time of the semester to go, but I really want to experience it, and some wonderful friends of ours invited us to go with them, so how could we pass it up?

ohhhhhhh, mouse

You are NOT welcome in this house!! If you get close to me, I will demonstrate the stereotype of a girl with a mouse around: a scream (though probably only one short one) and getting up on furniture. You give me the heebie-jeebies. I can barely stand to walk near the path that I saw you scurry hours ago. Two things I cannot stand in my house (at least not contained): rodents and reptiles. Spiders, other insects, eh. Usually I just leave them alone or I will transport them outside. Confession: we currently have probably five insect pets. They're kind of cute. But, mouse, ew, ug, squirm, stay OUT of my house! And please, please, please don't let me be the one to find you in your trap.

Writing this post has made me thoroughly heebie-jeebied, squirmed out.

the picture says it all

.
Benefit to society -- ow, ow! [Link to the article]



*** BUT APPARENTLY MICHAEL SCOTT'S JOB IS BETTER! ***
.

the night we didn't win $5 at trivia

A team of eight from my department (and some +1s) got together for trivia Friday night. It was put on at a local brewery by the grad student government, so most teams represented a department on campus. The trivia guy was one who does a lot of trivia nights around the area and who we've had before; he puts together pretty good questions. Threadless sponsored the prizes, so we all thought the prizes would be some sweet t-shirts. Partway through the night, it was announced that 1st place would be $10 for each team member, 2nd would be $7 for each, and 3rd would be $5 for each. At that point, our team was in 2nd place, and the thought of cold hard cash sounded pretty good. We continued to do well, save for an awful "complete the movie line" round, where we may or may not have picked up a few points, depending on how strict his scoring was. We ended up 3rd, which we felt good about, given that our competition was pretty much all grad students in a town named one of the brainiest in the country (there was some discussion about what towns within driving distance would be lower on the braininess ranking that we could go clean up in). So we got our prize envelopes and opened them, eager for our $5. Oh, but what was really inside was a $5-off coupon to Threadless. Funny, because everyone in attendance received a $7-off coupon to Threadless -- more than one of the prizes. I hope we can combine those two on one order...

P.S. Sorry I am not much of a picture taker!

i beg to differ

The theme of the National Fire Protection Association's fire prevention week this year is apropos to our living situation: “Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With!” Our upstairs smoke alarms appear to be highly sensitive to changes in air quality. So. Many. Times. while one person is showering, the smoke alarm will sound, sending the other person running to quickly silence it (for a few moments before it goes off again). This system is annoying but works. It's worse when it happens when either: (A) It is early enough that one person is still in bed, definitely disturbing him/her; (B) it's late enough that one person is already in bed, definitely disturbing him/her (or, as has happened, you have an apartment full of sleeping visitors, and they are all disturbed); or (C) you are home alone showering, and you have to wait until you are finished and dry.

I don't think we'll begin taking the advice sent out campus-wide: "it is imperative that you evacuate the building upon hearing any fire alarm."

from today (er, yesterday -- monday)

As I was waiting for the bus this morning, two other girls were waiting as well. The bus was approaching and one of them looked at her watch and said, "It won't be leaving for another four minutes" and proceeded to light a cigarette. I got on the bus, as did her friend. The smoker got on the bus after finishing, sat down next to her friend, and in a very annoyed voice said, "It sucks so much that we don't get filtered water at college! We have to drink tap water!" Etc., etc. I was thinking I'm pretty sure you are putting worse things in your body than tap water. Especially glacier-fed tap water that tastes super yummy.

*********

There are currently two Germans sleeping on our main floor! We had such a nice, really fun evening with them.

*********

You wouldn't think they would do it, but they did. This is how an email from our student government ended: Hope to CU there!

*********

The professor in my Monday class has her email client set up so that it pops up a notice when she gets a new email. The notifications pop up on top of her PowerPoint slides that are projected for the class. These pop-ups have made me smile before, especially when someone in our class emails her during class. Today, when a certain notification popped up, it sure struck me as funny. I actually worked to control my laughter so she wouldn't notice. The notification:

"XXX has 1 new message from Joe Biden"

BFFs for sure.

oh, awkward.

I observed someone else doing this today, which is what confirmed for me what I have several times recently suspected is me looking incredibly awkward. (Kind of like that sentence. Sorry. I don't feel like trying to fix it. If you can't make any sense of it, it's not that critical.) Activity in which I believe I look way awkward: running with a backpack. How in the world is one supposed to do this? I do it, and I feel awkward, and I picture myself, and it is terrible. Add to it that the most likely reason I am ever running with a backpack is because I am about to (and usually do) miss a bus, so I'm sure the running with a backpack is compounded by my look of desperation. Oh, me. Oh, my. And as if that's not enough, I usually have two liquid containers in my mesh side bottle holders, so I am undoubtedly running with a backpack with a hopeless look of desperation AND with both hands awkwardly behind on each side trying to hold in these bouncing-around containers that otherwise would fall out.

I hope no one ever videos me.

.

wildfire

Perhaps you have heard of the fire burning in the hills west of Boulder. Last I heard, 7100 acres have burned, 3000 people live in the evacuation area, 92 structures are destroyed. Crazy. It started on Monday around 10am. Monday we just watched the plume of smoke grow and grow and it was soon no longer a plume but just a covering over the city and extending as far west and east and north as we could see. After dark, we could see the glow from the flames over the hills. There were high-speed winds on Monday which, naturally, caused the fire to spread incredibly quickly. Winds have died down, but yesterday the acreage burned doubled in size. Thunderstorms are forecast for today, which could be a blessing since the fire is at 0% containment still. Smoke in the city (at least by our apartment) is almost worse today than the previous days -- not as dark and thick but more spread. I couldn't see any of the foothills, except for kind of the ones further south, on my walk to campus today. I know at least one of the professors in my department is evacuated.

A few photos from throughout the day Monday:

no title

1. I saw this guy on campus today in a slogan t-shirt. It was a slogan that made me wonder, "Does he just not get it?" or maybe, "Do t-shirt companies come up with stuff like this to point out the people that don't get it?" The shirt said:

People who think they know everything are annoying to those of us who actually do

Obviously, I get why he was wearing it (which is also annoying). But it's like, no one knows everything, which means he is just one of the people who thinks he knows everything...and is annoying.

2. Something I do not get: People biking on the sidewalk when it is RIGHT NEXT to a bike lane on the road. Seriously, one foot to the left and you would be in the bike lane! It probably shouldn't make me seethe as much as it does, but it really, really does. I'm not one for violence and I would never push a biker, but it kind of makes me want to push them and yell, "BIKE LANE!!" Now, bikers on sidewalks when there is no bike lane, I get, and I am fine with it. It's just when they are mere inches from a bike lane and instead are in the walkers' space.

exactly how are you calculating "safe"?

This series of emails from the manager of our apartment complex last night really made us laugh.

Subject: Police activity
Time: 8:38 PM
There is a police presence in the [apartment general] area. There was a report of an individual with a weapon. Please stay inside your apartment until further notice.

Subject: Re: Police activity
Time: 9:16 PM
Police were unable to locate the suspect. It is ok to leave your apartment at this time.

To be fair, it did go on to say that it was because the police thought there was no real reason for concern. But still. Funny.

oh, women.

This evening, I offer to you a smattering of excerpts from my reading for Neuroscience. They are from a review of Principles of Mental Physiology, with their Applications to the Training and Discipline of the Mind and the Study of its Morbid Conditions by William B. Carpenter, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. From 1874. That's kind of important.

"It is always wise to try the simplest explanation first, and in women the capricious is certainly more common than the biological temperament, even if the author's statistics of the latter be correct."

"The writer well remembers when going with Dr. Conolly through one of the wards on the female side of the lunatic asylum at Hanwell, Dr. C. remarked to him, 'It is my belief that two-thirds of the women here have come to require restraint through the habitual indulgence of an originally bad temper.'"

overheard

...while I was on the bus and my driver was taking a break outside. (Side note: Even though I was pretty frustrated that the first bus just blew past me while I was waiting at my stop, maybe it was worth it to hear this.)

He was on his cell phone with, I'm guessing, his wife, so the conversation below is only one half. His half was all said with an amused, with touches of incredulity, intonation. You can also imagine his great, thick southern accent.

"Wuh'd you baby?!?!"

"You got to stop!"

"Naaoooh! You just got to stop!"

"When he puts on his lights, you just got to stop! Stop in the middle of the road -- it don't matter!"

"You can pull over if you want to, but you got to do it fast! You can't just keep on driving!"

"Did you tell him you're from Russia?"

intensives

I am now five days down in the 13 days during which I will complete two classes (2 credit hours each). It feels good to have one week done, although it was pointed out that we have only had one project due during that time, so I think the second half(-ish) will feel quite busy. Overall, it has not been as bad as I was anticipating. But enough about the work side of things.

The other -- and more important -- thing that comes along with these intensives is that we get to meet and get to know the rest of our cohort! We are now a class of 32, I believe, which nearly triples our class from last year. I can't definitively say I have talked to each person, but I think nearly. We have already taken two opportunities for socializing out of class, which I have greatly enjoyed. Good times, good people, good pizza, good limoncello margaritas (really good -- they lived up to their legend!).

this weekend sent summer off in style

I know. I've been not good at posting this summer. I have had no responsibilities but have found myself to be quite busy. A very good kind of busy.

This weekend we had a mod reunion. For those of you who are not familiar with my undergrad school, a mod is a housing option with five bedrooms, a living room, and a communal bathroom. I was fortunate to live with my best friends for two years (and some of them for a third). Great times. I would say we have done amazingly well at getting together in the seven years since graduation. I'm impressed. I have not always made it, which is regrettable, but I am already looking forward to the next time I can.

However. I did not even get out my camera once this weekend. For a wonderful and entertaining overview of our weekend, please see my friend's blog. People: This post includes a baby in a mullet wig. You do not want to miss this.

On either side of the mod weekend, I (and sometimes Brian) hung out with my brother (and most times his gf). This was also a great part of my weekend. Love them. We spent some time searching for the 90s nostalgic drink Orbitz, watching some MST3K riffs, and eating some excellent food. Yum to Mi Ranchito (Ranchita?) and Orange Leaf.

Thanks again to all of our wonderful hosts! It was a blessing to spend time with so many important and loved people in my life.

what's the most trying part of mennonite cooking?

.
Dealing with all the bierock-racy.*


This photo isn't really my favorite example of my bierock adventures because this batch got more brown than I like my bierocks (first time making them with this oven and at this altitude), they've been smashed in a Ziplock in the fridge for almost a week, and, shame, the three that are left are embarrassingly mismatched in size. I'm just willing to sacrifice my pride for a good (that's debatable) joke.

Here's a snapshot of the first bohne beroggi I've ever made.


The resident Swiss Menno in our household did give his stamp of approval on the taste but suggested that they don't look quite right. I've never been taught how to make bohne beroggi. I've never even witnessed them being made. I was just going off of what the end product looks like. We hope to get some instruction in shaping them this summer. Hey, at least I didn't just make them in the shape of a bierock, which I was somewhat tempted to do.

Speaking of the shape of a bierock, what shape do my readers know them to be? One of my grandmothers made square bierocks, which I have never seen any place else, nor do I know exactly how she did that. Did she roll out the dough and cut squares rather than pinch off buns? It seems more difficult and more labor intensive to make square ones. Who knows. I should ask her.

*It's very possible I thought up that pun and then spent a few days trying to come up with a good joke to use it in...and I still may not be entirely pleased with the results, but it's as good as I got.

cherries 'r' luv

The post title says it all, albeit in a horribly annoying way. Cherries 'r' luv even more when they come at $1.27 per pound. Have I mentioned how much I love the price of produce here?

visitors: part 1

At the end of May and beginning of June we were blessed with an abundance of visitors. We were really excited with anticipation and very thankful that we now occupy a space that allows us to host visitors.

Our first set was my parents and brother. Mom and dad arrived on a Friday. We spent Saturday at Rocky Mountain National Park. Trail Ridge Road had opened the day before, so we took that drive. However, between the time it opened and then, there had been quite a bit of snow melt that had eroded away the road in some parts, so the road was closed at about 11,000 feet. We drove as far up as we could and got out to take in the view.


The rangers at this point on the road thought reconstruction would be finished and the rest of the road would open in about 20 minutes but that it would be one-way traffic and you would have to take the entire road. This is not something we were interested in anyway, so we retraced our path and headed on to Bear Lake. There is a nice trail around the lake that I enjoy walking. We had done this trail in October when Brian's parents visited: the lake was frozen and the trail was snow packed. Not much had changed by the end of May.

Bear Lake with Long's Peak in the background

There was evidence of some melting of the lake and some muddy areas of the trail, but a lot of it was still snow packed. In places we could tell that the trail still had five feet of snow on it. We were able to get right down to the lake at one area an could see that the ice was really thick -- couldn't see the end of the ice.

On our drive back, we encountered heavy rain and some hail, at one point taking refuge in a parking garage. Supper was made and eaten, the rain cleared and we took a walk up on campus, and later that evening Mark arrived!


On Sunday we did the classic visit to Celestial Seasonings and got our fill of the Mint Room (my favorite part of the tour). Many teas were tasted, and we cashed in our coupons for a free box of tea. Mom & dad took us out to celebrate May birthdays, and we all ate way too much at Islands.

We again took a nice walk up on campus, this time with a stop at the entomology part of the museum collections (the collections that are not on public display). Surprisingly, I had not even been there yet, so I was really glad to get to go. They have some amazing stuff.

We took everyone out to Beau Jo's for some tasty pizza, and then mom made us brownies and homemade fudge sauce for ice cream for dessert. Yes, we ate quite well over the weekend.

We are really grateful that everyone took the time and resources to come visit us!

more joys of cooking club

Really, one main joy can be summed up as: For supper tonight I ate Pad Thai cooked with/by a person from Thailand, and I was in the kitchen with her. So cool! Such a neat learning experience. I was quite interested in going to this meeting of the cooking club because I do love a good Pad Thai and was curious to see firsthand how it is traditionally made. We actually have a recipe for Pad Thai that we like quite a bit and tastes very much like the Pad Thai we have ordered in various restaurants. However, I've always been a little suspect about its authenticity. The main reason for that? Let's just say one of the ingredients might be ketchup. Seriously, ketchup. The first time we made that recipe I was very doubtful it would end up tasting like Pad Thai, but taste like Pad Thai it did. Needless to say, tonight's did not involve any Heinz products. This Pad Thai was tasty and did taste different from restaurant ones, mostly in that it is not nearly as sweet as what you would be served in a restaurant here. However, the person leading did say you can adjust sweetness, spiciness, etc. to your own tastes. Pad Thai in the US is often adjusted from the traditional to include chicken, whereas in Thailand it would traditionally be only shrimp and tofu. Other interesting differences between ketchup recipe and authentic recipe is that ketchup recipe has 14 -- count 'em 14!! -- cloves of garlic (and yet the dish does not come up tasting of garlic...odd) and 7 tablespoons of fish sauce (though we generally decrease it to 4-ish), while authentic recipe only used 2 tablespoons of garlic and less than one tablespoon of fish sauce, though the total amount of Pad Thai was probably slightly less than what we make. And aside from those two ingredients and sugar, what is the other sauce ingredient? Well, it is not ketchup. It's tamarind, which can be purchased as a paste.

Also joyous was again interacting with some incredibly pleasant people, including a couple who I met new tonight. It was only six of us women tonight, which I find to be a very nice group size (not to mean I want to exclude anyone else who would want to come).

chick-FAIL-a

Towne West Mall (I think?) in Wichita used to have a Chick-fil-A. I remember liking it, but I had not eaten at one for quite some time because it closed. I believe the WSU student center has one, but I never went there. Last summer I noticed there is one in a town close to us and made a mental note. A few weeks ago we were in that town and I suggested it for supper. But it turns out that Chick-fil-A is not open on Sundays -- a practice that I actually am impressed by and support. It's nice that their employees always have that day off. However, that made our Chick-fil-A fail #1. Tonight we were in that town again and thought we'd give it another try. When we got close, we started asking, "What the heck is going on?" Cars filled the parking lot and lined the streets for blocks and blocks. There was a bounce house, a helicopter, lots of tables set up outside, and the "Eat Mor Chikin" cow mascot wandering around. We stopped. We waited in line. We saw a sign for "Try the new spicy chicken sandwich for free if you are wearing a red shirt." Inspect our shirts...one blue and one heather gray. And that guy behind the counter was a real stickler about the red shirts. No free spicy chicken sandwiches for us. Chick-fil-A fail #2. But we did get to see the helicopter take off and eat free ice cream. The regular old chicken sandwich was tasty as well.

on why i will never be a food blogger.

This morning early afternoon I was making muffins. Delicious orange juice/oatmeal/blueberry muffins. Because some nights I think to myself, "It sounds really nice to get up tomorrow, go to a coffee shop, relax, and enjoy a baked good and an Americano." But then I think, "I should just make baked goods myself and enjoy them hot and fresh with a good cup of coffee."

Funny thing about coffee shops here (not so funny): There are a TON of coffee shops. Most with really delicious coffee! Which is great because I moved from a town where I could buy coffee at like three places, one of which was a dedicated coffee shop and, I thought, had terrible coffee. Espresso drinks? Pretty good. But awful, burnt-tasting brewed coffee. Which is ok because I rarely ever get brewed coffee if I am buying a cup; I can usually be found buying an Americano. This, however, is the result of my experiences with the aforementioned (and now out of business) coffee shop's coffee. Anyway. A TON of coffee shops here, most with good coffee, but they ALL seem to have ALL the same baked goods. Which is disappointing because there is no variety and it tells me none of them are baking their own and the choices aren't all that fresh. There really aren't any that I get excited about, which I guess is probably a good thing.

So I was making muffins. I thought, "I could blog these muffins." But to me that meant I would have to get out my camera and photograph the process. Quickly, I felt the calm feeling I had from knowing I was about to make muffins slipping away. Cooking/baking is my hobby. It is almost nearly my only hobby. I didn't check the official hobby guidelines, but I'm guessing watching 16 and Pregnant isn't a real hobby. Cooking/baking is my release and relaxation. (Except for sometimes like last week when it was Brian's birthday and I was making Knepp and pretty much had two meltdowns: 1. when I couldn't find the Crisco; and 2. when I was positive I was screwing up the dough part of the Knepp and would never be able to do it.) I find that photographing the process breaks my rhythm and my relaxation. Sometimes I want to do it and like it, but most often I don't. And it seems that visually documenting the process is an important part of being a food blogger. Without it, you're pretty much just posting recipes. Come to think of it, my lack of taking pictures in general could very well be my blogging downfall.

boller.

After missing the last two months because of conflicts, we made it back to Cooking Club last week. On the menu: Boller (Norwegian cardamom rolls). We learned that these rolls are a common Norway staple: plain, which can be used to make sandwiches; with a custard baked into it; as cinnamon rolls (no frosting). They are very similar to other rolls except that they have cardamom in them. The cardamom provides a unique and interesting taste that I liked, but I don't know that I would make them very often or even again, especially an entire batch. I did really like the custard baked into them and would be interested in trying that with one of my roll recipes.

Boller with custard, in the flesh (in the dough?). Not the best picture ever: These are probably not even ones that we made...all the rolls everyone made were baked together, and these are day-old because I was lazy about photographing them that night, and they had been squished up in tin foil all night. But I hear people like photos on blogs, so here you go.

I really like going to Cooking Club because most of the people there are super nice, and it's a neat way to get to know people a little bit. We basically know no one who lives near us (although, the Cooking Club folks actually do not live near us). There were some very humorous happenings at this meeting, but this public space is not the space for retelling.

a birthday first

Having a May birthday and growing up in Kansas, you don't expect snow for your birthday, but that is what Brian got this year for his 30th. Crazy times. I expected it to be gone by the time I woke up in the morning, but it was still there and snowed a bit more during the day too. This cold weather is making me wimp out on picking up my bike from the shop. Even today at 40*, it doesn't sound like much fun. I am afraid we will miss out on spring all together this year because it is still pretty consistently cold and then we will go to KS, where I am sure June will not feel like spring.
Photo credit goes to Brian

research, end of the semester, guilty pleasures

The Friday before last, my wonderful research partner and I presented our research at a poster presentation (not one we had to submit a proposal for, simply one put on by our class that the public was invited to). Here we are.

I was nervous about the poster presentation mostly because our department faculty were all invited, and they know way more about (A) the topic; and (B) researching. Also, our professor informed us that they would ask us really hard questions, especially about the validity of our study. Even though a lot of people came (and it was really hot and loud in that room!), I don't remember getting any really tough questions. Whew. I was pretty glad when it was finished.

That poster (plus an accompanying proposal) was one of two big semester projects. Those wrapped up last week. They are already graded and both were successes. I had my first final exam last Saturday afternoon, one this afternoon, and I have my last one Thursday morning. I already have my grade from my first final -- crazy! That was the class I cared the most about, so I am pleased to know that I did well.

But certainly a procrastinator such as myself hasn't been all work and no play?! Why, of course not! My most recent legitimate source of entertainment has been Dexter. My friends lent the first three seasons to me. I wasn't sure it was for me at first, but I got hooked after watching the second episode. BUT. That kicked off some really bad habits. Habits of watching episode after episode and staying up until 2am. Yikes. So a couple of weeks ago, I promised myself not to start the third season until AT LEAST my projects were finished and possibly finals were done. Now, I did watch one episode last week -- after projects -- but that was only because the internet was down and I couldn't watch ***guilty pleasure alert! admitting it is the first step!*** 16 and Pregnant. Oh man. What am I doing? For some reason one evening I flipped through channels and stopped on the season finale that recaps the stories and gives updates on all the girls and babies. Then, just out of curiosity, I checked mtv.com to see if the episodes were available. They are. I watched one and got hooked. So it has been my guilty pleasure. And since the episodes are not connected to each other and don't leave cliffhangers, I can stop at just one.

Speaking of...

rain

Yesterday we got completely soaked. Here is some of the aftermath. Other clothes were sent upstairs to dry. It started raining mid-afternoon. There was some hail. A bit of lightning and thunder, but nothing like an awesome Kansas thunderstorm. In the evening Brian asked if I would pick him up from campus. Between our front door and the car WITH an umbrella, I got soaked. It was difficult to see or hear anything while driving yesterday. "Downpour" definitely characterizes our rain yesterday. Unfortunately, my picking him up did not prevent him from getting soaked or hailed on, but at least he didn't have to be out in it as long. Today oscillates between gray/cloudy/rainy and clear/sunny/bright just-after-a-rain lighting. I guess the earth is getting all varieties of presents for her day.

spring break: up'n down and seven-toe

One great thing happened over spring break: Mark and Brian got the Commodore 64 going. Oh, it was sweet. It had been many years since I had played these games. I loved hearing the old music. So fun! Barbie Goes on a Date, World Games, Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics, Harrier Attack, Up'n Down (the best of all!). I don't remember which other ones we got working. The only disappointment was that Donald Duck's Playground didn't work. But the important thing is that Up'n Down did. Enjoy a picture.

Mark playing Up'n Down

Enjoy it well because you may never see it again. Because I might have ruined the whole system when I dropped it on the concrete floor of the storage room when we were putting it away. :(

A second great thing. We had been encouraging Seven-Toe (actual name Cleo), seen below, all week to have her kittens while we were home.

Seven-Toe from when she was a little tyke back in November. She has seven toes on each front paw and six toes on each back paw (if you don't know, most cats have five on each front and four on each back).

Seven-Toe is a sweetface.

Finally, the day before we left, this little cat (who was huge with pregnancy) had eight tiny kittens! They were so, so sweet. Seven-Toe is a small cat, but has been able to keep eight kittens fed! What a good mother. We were curious to see if the extra toes was a dominant or recessive trait (assuming that it was quite unlikely she bred with a male cat who has extra toes). We guessed recessive, but three of the kittens are also seven-toes! Cute!

spring break: the pre-home portion

Spring Break was a few weeks ago. At the beginning of our spring break, Brian's family came to visit. They also did us the wonderful favor of driving our belongings here in a moving truck (and this nice gesture was after the nice gesture of, together with my parents, packing it up for us!). We got to move into a larger place and finally have our own furniture again. We are loving our new space. I had forgotten just how comfortable our bed is. I think still, weeks later, in a half sleep state every now and then I will say to Brian, "This mattress is just so comfortable!"

After the weekend was over and our visitors had returned home, we finally had a chance to make it back up into the mountains for some skiing, which is always a fun time. The second day we were going to go, it started sprinkling while we were still in town. Partway up the mountain, it turned to snow and the roads were already getting snow-packed. We made the disappointing but oh-so-wise decision not to continue in our little car. However, I called the bus route and found out there would be a bus leaving in 30 minutes; we decided to go anyway, even though by this time it was mid-afternoon. On the mountain, it was snowing, snowing, snowing. Riding the lift we would get covered in snow. They had gotten 8-10" of fresh powder just that day, so skiing was fun and difficult, and the snow was really stinging on the exposed skin of my face. Fun times, though. We got in 3 or 4 runs before the lifts closed. We boarded our return bus. We headed out. The bus driver stopped in the parking lot to wipe off his windshield. And then we were stuck. After 30 minutes and the application of tire chains and even then still being stuck for a while, our driver was able to get us going and down the mountain we went. What is normally a 20-30 minute drive took us 2 hours total (including the time we were stuck). The roads were quite awful. I slept most of the way home, but I did see at least one small car stuck on the side of the road. We were so, so thankful we had not driven. It's likely we would have gotten stuck or at least had a really tough drive home, and our phone does not get service up there. Good thing we are not very good at getting going early in the day because had we left for skiing in the morning, we certainly would have driven and had no idea how terrible things were going to get.

Brian's brother was actually still in town for a conference, so we got to meet up with him in the evenings. One evening we went to his hotel to swim and hot tub. The hotel has a sweet, monstrous hot tub outside, which was torture getting to and getting back to the building (because of the freezing outside temperature), but was so sweet while we were in it. I love outdoor hot tubbing in the winter. It was fun to grab snow from the ground nearby and see how quickly it would melt in the hot water. :) I can't imagine their electric bill, though.

general update

I slept 12 hours last night.

In some ways it feels the semester is going quickly, however, my main comment on this semester is that it's overall uninspiring, which makes it also feel slow. I don't have even one class that I love. I have memorized many, many muscles and their origins and insertions and actions. Oh, boy. I feel like the batch for the next test is even larger. Yikes. I am, though, feeling grateful I am not in one of the classes that some of my classmates are in because it sounds so hard. What a thing to look forward to for next spring!

I have two semester projects going on. One is for a research methods class, and my partner and I are collecting data to add to a 20-year study. That is the cool part. The not so cool part is that this means we have often been dependent on someone else to complete her responsibility before we can do anything. It can be frustrating at times. I think we will finally get to begin our data collection next week. Another not so cool part is that we are supposed to find 30 participants. They have to be undergrads. This is quite difficult, especially since it is completely volunteer-based. Wish us luck! (Oh, "hi," partner! I just realized you might be reading this!)

A highlight of this semester was all of the basketball we got to watch. We ended up getting season tickets and really, really enjoyed getting to go to games. I grew up loving to watch KU basketball and love the (Big 8)/Big 12 conference, so it was great to see those teams. We were picked to be last in the conference and ended 8th, so that was quite good. I anticipate good things for the next couple of years! Tonight, Kansas represents -- the state's two teams will battle it out to be champion of the conference tournament. Hopefully KU can pull off their 3rd win over KSU of the season. Then it is March Madness time! I have high hopes for KU.

Next week is our last week of class before spring break. I feel fortunate that I don't very often feel overwhelmed this semester, but even so, a break will be nice, especially since we are planning to go home. This is the only time we will go home this semester, which is kind of a sad realization. I am glad we will get to spend our summer there.

But perhaps the most exciting event in our near future is our move! We get the keys to our new place on Thursday! We will not quite double our square footage, but it will feel so much bigger! And we will have another room. I am so excited. I feel like we will finally be settling into the place we will stay for the next couple of years. I can't wait to have our own furniture. I think it will finally feel like we are home. It could be interesting at first though because we are as of now unsure exactly when our stuff will be driven out (whether someone will bring it to us next week or whether we will bring it at the end of break). So it could be Thermarests and sleeping bags for several days for us! And no place to sit.

We are beginning to have some really beautiful days. I want to have hope that winter is over and spring is here. We will see. I love spring.

an outrage, i tell you.

I've never been much of a chicken nugget person. I can't even tell you how long it had been since I had had Chicken McNuggets. I think the last time I had them they looked more breaded and were all a uniform S/parallelogram shape, but I may have just made all of that up. The Olympics advertising for Chicken McNuggets (as much as I pretty much hated the McDonald's ads) got to me, and I wanted to try the sweet chili sauce (limited time offer...you know, to eat like the Canadians and Olympians at Olympic Village...).

Earlier this week, Brian went out to get McDonald's for us, and I requested Chicken McNuggets. I could NOT believe when he reported to me that a six-pack cost $3! $3, I tell you! That. Is an outrage. 50 cents per nugget?! Ridiculous. Had I been there for the purchase, I probably would have passed on them, but they were tasty.

Second. This was mere days after the closing ceremonies. Not weeks. Not even one week. Brian was informed that they no longer carried sweet chili sauce. It was still on McDonalds.com right before he left. Disappointment.

The real kick in the shins about this? My bag had an Olympian snowboarder on it and it ADVERTISED SWEET CHILI SAUCE! I told Brian I refused the bag, but I don't think I taught McDonald's any lessons.

you're kiding, right?

I had a test in my first class of the day today. It was kind of crappy, and the 10-page study guide I typed out (from the professor's given study questions) was not much help. Glad I spent the time on that. After the test, a girl from the class who I do not know sat down in the empty seat next to me for our following class. She asks,
"We have a test in here [as in, the 2nd class] on Friday?"
"Yep."
"Over, like, everything?"
"Um, yep."
"And what are we doing today? More information for the test on Friday?"
"Yep, and some review for the test, I think."
"Oh. I think I'll go."
And she does.

Are you kidding me? You are the last person who should be skipping class! Plus, these tests are hard. Definitely doable if you put the time, but hard.

Speaking of, I better start my studying for it. Ugh.

food. food. oh, food.

Yesterday I snapped pictures of two food items I wanted to blog about. This morning when I was uploading pictures, I found a third food I had photographed to blog, so this will be a food-rich post.

First up: Monster Cookies.

Sometime before Christmas 2008 I had asked Emily for the monster cookie recipe we made at her house in Ohio during spring break of junior year (these things apparently stick with me). This recipe truly is monster. I took the time last year to quarter it, but never got around to actually making them until a few weeks ago. Quartered, this recipe made well over 50 good-sized cookies. Good thing I did not make a full recipe because I fit whatever I could into a gallon freezer bag. This took up the remaining room in our freezer at that time. And we still had more than 20 cookies sitting out for consumption. Oh...yum.

I couldn't resist making one true MONSTER cookie.

No more room! These are pretty delicious out of the freezer, FYI.

******************************************

Second: Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes.

Cheesecake = love. Chocolate Cheesecake = true, forever love. I love, love, love chocolate cheesecake. Luckily, Brian likes it too because I made this as dessert for Valentine's, and it would be kind of selfish if it were purely for me. Despite my love-love relationship with cheesecake, I have a love-hate relationship with making cheesecake. Several times it has turned out just fine. A few times have been iffy. Once was doomed from the beginning when I straight up substituted Oreos for graham crackers for the crust and didn't take into account that the Oreo cream would do some of the binding action and not as much butter would be needed. We tried to salvage what we'd already done, but that crust was very stuck to the pan. And then the middle of that one was kind of soupy. And of course it was for an actual event. This seems like the appropriate place to mention that I do not like graham crusts very much, at least not for true, actual cheesecake. They are ok for the Jello-type cheesecakes and probably other things I can't recall right now. To me, a perfect cheesecake has an Oreo crust. Also, making the crust for the cheesecake is probably my least favorite part.

So there is all of that, and on top of it the fact that I don't have a spring form pan. Kind of necessary for making cheesecake. Then I was thinking about Oreos and how, really, they are already their own perfect crust...just for smaller cheesecakes. Seriously -- twist apart and scrape off the cream and what do you have? A mini crust. No sides, but who cares? Crust is not the best part of cheesecake. The less of it, the better.

I set off reading chocolate cheesecake recipes to find the one I wanted to make. I had decided that a recipe with two packages of cream cheese would be a good amount for the number of mini cheesecakes I wanted to end up with. No recipes fit this criterion, so I knew I would have to adapt. The egg to cream cheese ratios I was finding in recipes made this tricky. But then after realizing how each recipe had its own ratio, I decided I could do what I want and it would probably be fine. Here's the recipe I ended up with (oh, as I started typing it, I remembered how goofy it is given the adaptations...you may just want to skip it):

2 pkg. cream cheese
2/3 c + 1/4 c sugar
2/3 of 2 T flour ...see what I mean about goofy?
1/4 c + 2 T cocoa
2/3 t vanilla
2/3 of 1/4 c milk
2 eggs

Even though it's goofy, I certainly didn't measure those "2/3 of..." exactly, so it doesn't make it much more difficult than a regular recipe. If you don't want it to be chocolate, you can leave out the cocoa and the extra 1/4 c of sugar. And if you want sour cream in it, you can substitute it for the milk and maybe leave out some of the cream cheese. Whatever. I ended up deciding that the recipe couldn't really be screwed up, but I haven't exhaustively tested that theory.

Let's see. I got the cream cheese and sugar good and mixed. Carefully mixed in the flour and cocoa (if you don't know about cocoa, it takes it a bit to mix with liquid, so it stays powdery -- READ: messy -- for a while). Mixed in the vanilla and milk. Added the eggs one at a time, mixing gently/only just mixing until combined.

I lined muffin tins with foil cups. I want opinions: would paper cups work for this? I couldn't decide. But now I have tons of paper cups because I save all of the ones from between foil cups, which I've used for a number of recipes, plus I have paper cups I bought as paper cups, and I want to make this recipe again. Anyone? Anyone? I dropped in one half of an Oreo (cream scraped off). Then I used a 1/4 c scoop to put in the cheesecake mixture. I made about 18 total, but I think I would make only 12 with this recipe because it didn't expand all that much and you know I like a greater cheesecake to crust ratio. I might also next time try crushing the Oreos (cream and all) and dropping a little in the bottom of the cup instead of putting in a whole cookie. Just for variety and to see how it works. And to have a less thick crust.

I read several mini cheesecake recipes (none of them what I wanted for the recipe) to try to guess at baking temperature and time. One said 350* for 35 minutes and one said 375* for 16 minutes. I tried 350* for 30 minutes, but I think it should be less. I would check it at at least 20 minutes.

I have never cared if the top of my cheesecake cracks, so I've never tried to correct for that. All I care about is the flavor, and chocolate cheesecake is delicious.

******************************************

And, finally, if you are still here: Sushi.

Family Housing has all kinds of clubs/activities. Most of them haven't interested me (scrapbooking club) or I don't have time for (book club), but I was so excited to see a poster for a new club go up: cooking club! Awesome + all of the ingredients provided for you? Perfect. The first meeting was this week, and we made sushi. This wasn't our first time making sushi, but it was our first time to be taught by a Japanese person. Fun! It was great and tasty. She showed us how to make rolls with the outsides being: nori (seaweed), avacado (shaped how a Dragon roll comes -- it looks so cool), and rice (and then rolled in sesame seeds). Of course, it was all very tasty too. I made mine at the beginning of the evening, and we split it there, so I have no pictures, but Brian brought his home, so I photographed it yesterday. Which also means it's not as fresh as right after it was made, but I still think it looks really good. So I'm very excited about cooking club. People can sign up to teach each month. I don't know for sure if I would want to, but what ideas would you guys have? We thought about cinnamon rolls or bohne berrogi (except neither of us has made it before/knows how to make it!) or flat pancakes or knepp...

chip, aw.

I think our mascot is ridiculously cute.

See? Chip.

He is also nationally recognized as an awesome mascot. He just brought home his second consecutive national championship from the 2010 Universal Cheerleading Association's mascot competition.

Chip with his two national championship trophies (2009 and 2010).

Saturday at half time of the [incredibly sad, sad] basketball game against Mizzou, they had some sort of basketball-ish, hula hoop competition (seriously, I have no idea what was going on in this playful competition) between area mascots. In addition to the cuteness of Chip, there were two more Buffaloes there (I guess with retired mascot heads) dressed up as Chip's parents. The dad buffalo was wearing spectacles and a sweater vest, and the mom buffalo was wearing a skirt and a blonde wig. I thought this was an adorable idea. They followed Chip around during the competition and gave him pats on the back and such when he did well. Cute! Chip won.

Chip is probably the only mascot in the country (world?) named after his own poop. At least, I assume that is where the name "Chip" comes from. Sad! Poor Chip!

basketball

(Goodbye, Sarah, see you next post.)

A most anticipated evening arrived last Wednesday: The KU Jayhawks came to Coors Events Center to play the CU Buffs. This was something I've been looking forward to since last spring. I had only seen the Hawks live once before in my life. Tickets are ridiculously expensive to go to a game in Lawrence. So prior to the game, I was pretty pumped. I wore my KU hoodie to classes on Wednesday, but I did add a Buffs t-shirt to my wardrobe before leaving for the game. Before the game Brian asked me who I hoped would win. I said KU because at this point in this season, a KU win would mean more than a CU win (CU's record is so terrible that one more win isn't going to make any difference for the conference championship or getting to the NCAA tournament, you know, but KU has a shot at doing well in the tournament, so I'd like them to keep as good of a record as possible). Plus, I've just always loved KU. We got lucky that they entered the #1 spot in the polls just a few days before coming to Boulder, so we got to see the #1 team in the country play.

Sherron Collins warming up before the game.

I was cheering for both teams. CU looked ok at the beginning with a few 3s to kick things off. But then it got bad. Quite bad. KU's big guy had a number of humiliating blocks against us. CU's defense was failing big time. KU was up 24-8. I had been afraid this game was just going to be a blowout. I mean, the #1 team in the country against the team that is 2nd to last in the conference? I hoped it wouldn't be a blowout, but it was sure looking like it would be. At this point, I figured KU didn't need my help anymore to win. I stripped off the hoodie and started cheering exclusively for the Buffs. School spirit kicked in. Higgins, Tomlinson, Relphorde, Thorne, etc. (unfortunately, Burks, one of our best guys, was out due to a knee injury) -- these were the guys I had been cheering on all season. These were the guys I have been hoping would get some much-deserved wins because they've worked hard at some tough, barely lost games. It was kind of crazy, but this Jayhawk went all out for Colorado partway through the first half.

Somehow, somehow, the Buffs turned things around. It was unbelievable. They started coming back and had closed much of the gap by halftime. They stayed with KU on offense and somehow switched up their defense to be more effective against them. CU was hitting 3s and free throws like crazy. KU and free throws were not friends that night. I think they ended up like 48% or something. Terrible. The last minutes of the game were so exciting. At like 10 seconds to go, the score was tied and we had the ball. I was just hoping they weren't going to try to fire off a misguided 3. The clock ran down too far, and we had to send the ball to the hoop. Unfortunately it didn't fall, but fortunately, there was less than one second on the game clock. We went into OT. Overtime didn't go as well for the Buffs, and KU looked more like a #1 team. KU won, but I was so, so proud of Colorado. It -- how well CU did against KU and my shift in who I wanted to win -- was so unexpected. What a fun night. And regardless of who I cheered for, it was so, so fun to see KU basketball live again. I hope to get the chance again at least the next two years.

Later I was thinking about my decision to wear KU to class that day and thinking about how, if I were a player on CU's team and saw a student at my own school wearing the opponent of the night's shirt, it would make me sad. I figured at the very least I probably never cross paths with any of these guys. But then Friday I totally ran into one of them. Funny.

One other highlight of the night:

Here's when Danny Manning was smiling at the camera for me. Because he knew I was his number one fan in the late 80s. :)

now that's what i call a weekend

This past weekend was wonderful -- exactly what my hopes for a weekend might be. I don't recall having very many "weekend" weekends last semester, and I may not have too many more as I get deeper into this semester. It remains to be seen.

When Brian got home Friday, he informed me that people from his lab were going out for sushi and did I want to go too? Um, yes. It turned out that his advisor was hosting a guest colloquium speaker, so he was taking out that guy, as well as...duh duh duh...subsidizing everyone else's meals as well! Super news for grad students. So we went out to someplace we probably would never and will never go back on our own (due to prices). It was fun. The sushi came out on a huge hilarious boat, and it was fun to try various sushis and sakes. His advisor was on sabbatical last semester, and so this was one of the first social outings his lab had, meaning it was my first time to meet some of his friends, which was great. I got the chance to meet more of his friends later that night because we went to see Avatar in 3-D with some. It was quite the entertaining movie, and I was pretty pleased with myself for not falling asleep during the three hours in the theater that began at 10:45 pm!

Saturday, I definitely slept in. Not long after getting up, we headed to campus for the CU vs K-State basketball game, which was great fun. We stayed for part of the women's game and then went home for supper and a movie (P.S. I remember watching like one movie last semester. This semester I've watched at least four!). A bit later we met the friends we went to the movie with the night before at Cheesecake Factory for dessert. Yeah. I suppose we won't be going back there either. Who charges $2.75 for a mug of brewed coffee?!

Sunday we slept in again and this day actually got some work done. Hm, I don't actually even remember what all went on. One of the best things about this weekend is that there was an extra day! Yay for Monday off! And I don't have Tuesday classes, so it was a four-day weekend. Probably why I am drawing a total blank on what we did Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. As it should be.

ol' sap

This is not much of a blog post, but I just wanted to note that I think I cry at more parts of Love Actually every time I watch it. I love that movie.

decade

So maybe this is after the fact, but I just now read similar posts on other blogs and thought it would be fun.

On Jan. 1, 2000, I:
-was smack in the middle of one of the best years of my life (freshman year at Bethel)
-had recently met a lot of new people, including some of my greatest lifelong friends
-was a Chemistry major
-had never lived anywhere but Kansas (and, basically, Newton, Kansas)
-was about to leave for one month in the Middle East (one of the best, most life-changing months of my life)
-thought there were lots of desirable eligible bachelors at Bethel
-was beginning to become good friends with my brother
-thought I was a dog person
-wore a flannel shirts and cords a lot...I think a lot of my clothes might have even come from the men's section of stores
-had recently learned how to use the internet
-telephone-wise, I used only the shared, corded, industrial, orange-light-blinking-when-you-have-a-message phone in our dorm room
-watched...?? 7th Heaven?? on tv (I don't really remember if I watched tv that year.)
-had a super great roommate
-had spent the super scary (haha) Y2K New Year's Eve in Wichita with Kristine and her relatives. I think we went ice skating.
-had settled on Brad Born as my favorite professor

On Jan. 1, 2010, I:
-was smack in the middle of my first year in fulltime school in six years
-had recently again met a lot of new people, who I find to be incredibly wonderful and hope to also have as lifelong friends
-had graduated an English major (with a Chemistry minor) and am a speech-language pathologist master's student
-was living in a new state for the first time
-was elated to be back in Kansas
-had been married to one of those desirable eligible bachelors for just more than two years
-consider my brother one of my best friends
-am a definite cat person and sad I had to leave my baby in Kansas
-try to be a little more fashionable (at times) and a little more feminine :)
-daily spend way too much time using the internet
-usually use a cell phone, though I have only ever had one (going on 5 years with the same one) and we still have a landline
-am still watching fluffy tv: Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, and One Tree Hill, as well as one show I can admit to all: The Office
-had recently visited my freshman year super great roommate, who is now married to one of my childhood friends and had a tiny new cutie-patootie baby girl
-had spent New Year's Eve in what at first glance looked like a sketchy-ish motel but what turned out to be pretty nice and have surprisingly good amenities in Topeka with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew
-maintain that Brad Born is my favorite professor