2 by 15

Last Post

2010-09-06T15:10:00.000-04:00

This blog started as a one year experiment. The first post was made on August 25, 2009. Today is September 6, 2010. It is therefore time to close this blog.

It wasn't a bad experiment. This is the blog's 60th post. I started the blog posting twice a week, and then ended it posting about once every two weeks. It may have gotten a little neglected over the course of the year, but the blog never languished or died.

It also developed a regular readership, which surprised me. I am indebted to those readers and their comments: they encouraged me to keep this blog going, even as I was losing interest. They have also encouraged me to keep blogging. And so, even though I am closing the 2 by 15 blog, I am starting up a new one: Teashell Times (http://teashell-times.blogspot.com/).

Teashell Times is a blank page at the moment, but I plan to start updating it within the next couple of weeks. I will send out an e-mail to my readers once I start posting.

I would like to thank all my readers for following me this past year, and I hope to see you again at my new blog!

Finally, a few odds and ends to close out the blog:

Thai noodles with chicken and peanut sauce:

It's one of the prettiest things I've made all year, I think.

And my ruined attempt to make steamed cornmeal buns:

They were supposed to come out round and puffy, like rolls. Instead, they were flat and lumpy. They tasted fine, though. I *will* try these again. It seems that I just have no luck with pastries--my latkes earlier this year turned out just as poorly.

The penny remains.

See you again at: http://teashell-times.blogspot.com/

Gloves

2010-09-04T18:52:00.001-04:00

I enjoy wearing gloves, and wear them in both the summer and the winter. When I was thinking about the subject of my blog, I thought at first that it should be about gloves. The need is out there for a fashion- oriented glove blog. Whenever I looked for sites on gloves, I always got sent to fetish sites. I actually like gloves as fashion accessories. One can find fashion sites devoted to shoes or purses, why not gloves?

I also strongly believe that gloves should once again become a summer accessory, not only a winter accessory. I want to be able to wear gloves in summer and appear normal, and NOT like a hypochondriac, thank you very much!

There is not much I can do to change fashion. But, I can add to the interwebs photos of my very small collection.

At the time this photo was taken (January), these were the gloves that were in my car:

From left to right: 1) Black velvet 40 gram Thinsulate insulation by Croft&Barrow, 2) Animal print with fleece lining by Isotoner, 3) Periwinkle cotton equestrian by Foxgloves (enlarge to see the gripper nubs).

Gloves that were in storage at the time (summer gloves) :

(I thought I'd include my embroidered hankies, too) Top row: Double knit nylon gloves, in white, cream, and white again, all by the same unknown manufacturer

Bottom row, L to R: 1) Unlined black leather by Preston &York, 2) Black leather, cashmere lined, by Grandoe, 3) vintage wedding gloves

Here is a closeup of the vintage wedding gloves, so you can see the lace detail on the side and the folds along the wrist:

Today (September), the three gloves in my car are the unlined black leather, one pair of the white double nylon, and the vintage gloves. I've really loved the vintage gloves this year. The nylon gloves are slippery, plus they catch and run. I bought 4 pairs of the nylon gloves last summer because you rarely see summer gloves, and they were on sale. The pair I wore last year I threw out at the end of the season, due to wear and tear (hence only three pairs of nylon gloves in the pictures). The vintage gloves are holding up well. They'll last another year, hopefully two. It is a little sad though: I'm taking someone's wedding gloves, and demoting them and wearing them as everyday wear.

These are the gloves I purchased at the end of the winter sales last year.

L to R: 1) Brown suede with silk lining by Guder Gloves, 2 & 3) Ruffled wool gloves by Talbot's

All three were purchased with the idea of wearing them in the summer. The long gloves would be worn with a tank top that has a brown paisley print on it, and the wool gloves were light colored enough to wear with summer fashions. Wool, afterall, is moisture wicking and breathable. I ended up not wearing any of these gloves this season. I was too timid to wear the long gloves out--it's something of a statement to wear long gloves with a sleeveless outfit, even if you're going to an opera or a fancy dinner. Wearing long gloves with just a t-shirt and shorts--I'm not sure I'm ready to go there yet. I think it would be a good look--long gloves look good with sleeveless/strapless dresses, so it should be fine with a sleeveless shirt, too, but I am afraid people will look at me. As for the other two gloves, I just preferred to wear the white gloves I had in the car, rather than dig out the Talbot's gloves.

Here are my winter gloves. I typically wear one of these pairs when there is snow on the ground (Nov - March)

L to R: 1) Archangel by Manzella, 2) LL Bean down gloves, 3) GORE-TEX Thinsulate (150 grams) gloves by Cabela's.

Finally, my coat gloves. Each coat or jacket that I own gets its own pair of gloves.

Top, L to R: 1) Brown velvet, 40 gram Thinsulate by Cejon, 2) Black leather, Thinsulate lined, by Wilson's Leather, 3) Lavender washable suede gloves, fleece-lined, by Isotoner

Bottom: Navy Isotoner fleece lined gloves

So there they are. And if anyone out there reads this and decides to start a glove fashion glove blog, let me know!

Cleaning a leather handbag

2010-09-04T17:00:00.005-04:00

Last April, I purchased a new leather purse. I mentioned it here. It was purchased off ebay, and it was in worse condition than I felt it was represented. I decided that I should revitalize it. It was a new project, and I was eager for a new project. As I mentioned then, the cost of the repair materials was more than what I paid for the handbag. I feel good about the whole thing, though, and still have no regrets.

BEFORE

(click to enlarge any of the photos)

The handbag photographs well. Here it is, after I received it:

What is not clear in the photo, either the one above, or the original ebay photo, was that it was covered in a yellowish haze that could be seen in real life. Here is a picture that shows the haze a little better:

As you can see from the photo above, the leather had small white scratches and little black marks, too. Below are more photos of dirt and/or wear:

The color was also wearing off on the top of the trim:

There were also pen marks on the strap:

DURING

Products:

For cleaning, I used Leather Rejuvenator and Prestine Clean by Leatherique. The Leatherique brand was well recommended on online automobile restoration forums. I figured that if it worked on old BMWs, it would work for me, too.

Step 1: Prep

The handbag had a fabric lining. To protect it, I covered it with masking tape.

I then put the bag in a dishpan to prepare for step 2

Step 2: Leather Rejuvenator Application

In most leather cleaning kits, you use the cleanser first, and then the oil, to put the moisture back in the leather. With Leatherique's system, you apply the oil first. The oil is supposed to work itself into the leather, pushing all the impurities out, so that the leather cleaner will be more effective later.

I applied the Leather Rejuvenator using a sponge brush:

The leather went a little underneath the edge of the back pocket. I put a large mason jar in the back pocket so prop it open, so I could apply the Rejuvenator.

Per the instructions, I covered the tub in plastic wrap to help prevent evaporation, and I let the oil sit overnight, to work itself into the leather. (I left the jar in the back pocket to keep the pocket open.)

Step 3: Clean with Prestine Clean

After letting the handbag sit overnight, I sprayed it with the Prestine Clean, and wiped it off with a paper towel. It really helped to remove the yellowish haze:

Step 4: Remove oil stains from lining

Since I did not put masking tape on the inside of the back pocket, the lining did get oil on it:

I removed it by dipping a Q-tip into a bottle of carpet cleaner (I had Carbona), then dabbing the wet Q-tip on the stain until it got moist. After that, I took a dry paper towel, and dabbed the stained area until it was dry. If the stain was not completely come off, I repeated the application of Carbona and dabbing it dry.

The oil stains came out perfectly.

Steps 5 thru X: Getting the tough spots

I don't have clear step by step documentation of the rest of the cleaning process, because it really was trial and error. You know the white, faded spots, I photographed earlier? I tried several methods of restoring the color. First, I ordered Angelo leather paint. That didn't work--it looked much to bright, and looked painted on. I tried to tone it down with regular acrylic ink. The color match was better, but it still looked like a painted spot.

Next, I tried colored shoe polish. I had to order it online, of course, as blue shoe polish isn't something you get at the store. I used Tarrago polish, which comes in 95 colors. I also painted it on, using another sponge brush, then buffing with a microfiber. That worked a little bit.

Finally, I purchased pigment stamp pad. I used the eraser end of pencil to stamp the pad, and then stamp the leather. I found that, the stamp pad ink, covered with a layer of shoe polish on top, worked the best.

Additionally, I had a terrible time with the ink stain on the strap. Basically, I ruined the color on the purse strap with all the stuff I used to get the ink out--the Prestine Clean, rubbing alcohol, acetone and damage from scrubbing it using a toothbrush, and with a fingernail brush.

It took a while to figure out how to repair that. I ended up using a very thin layer of leather/acrylic paint mix, + the ink pad + shoe polish. At one point, I used a metal file to roughen up the leather to get everything to adhere. The strap ended up looking pretty good:

AFTER

I'm happy with the end results:

Here is the full spectrum of products used:

Achievement unlocked! Novice Leatherworker 1

Appendix:
Products Used, Notes, and Mistakes:

1) Leatherique Rejuvenator and Prestine Clean:
Purchased at http://www.leatherique.com/, but available in other automotive detailing outlets.

I can get a little fanatical when it comes to cleaning. The people that shared this fanaticism about getting their leather *perfect* were the guys on the auto restoration blogs. That's why I focused on auto leather, rather than say, shoe leather, or saddle leather, although there are cleaning products targeted for these markets, too. I was happy with the Leatherique, and in fact, I'm bringing it out again to clean the purse before I store the purse for the fall. For other leather cleaner options, however, I encourage you look at autogeek.net, or, if you are set on using only purse cleaning products, www.lovinmybags.com sells cleaners and conditioners.

One thing I learned from my research is that saddle soaps should not be used--they were fine for the 1800's, but the technology for both tanning the leather and for cleaning leather has much improved since then.

Something I learned from experience: do NOT use a toothbrush to scrub either the oil or the cleaner into the leather. It will darken the leather. (After my application of the oil and the cleaner, the ink mark on the shoulder strap remained, even though it was lighter. I tried scrubbing the mark to try to remove it. I should not have done so.)

2) Angelus leather paints:
Purchased from turtlefeathers.net and available elsewhere

The paint is favored by those painting their leather sneakers, so I thought I'd give it a try on my handbag. Like I said earlier, it didn't work for me because I was trying to blend the faded spots on my purse, but this left a paint spot. One thing to note, the "Neutral" color is actually colorless and it makes the color thinner. I had purchased it thinking that it would make the color lighter, as in, it would make the blue a more pastel blue. This was NOT the case. Mixing the neutral with the blue resulted in the same color intensity, it was just a thinner paint. If you want to make your colors lighter (more pastel), buy the white paint.

3) Folk Art acrylic paint:
Purchased from my local Michael's

It adhered surprisingly well to the leather. I was even able to mix it with the Angelus leather paints, even though I'm not sure that it is recommended. Using a mix of the Folk Art acrylic with the Angeuls paints in light blue and the neutral to thin it all out, I was able to make a color that matched my handbag very well. Even though I was able to get the color match, it still looked like a painted spot when applied.

4) Color Box pigmented ink:
Purchased from my local Michael's

Since paint was not working out for me, I tried ink. It worked so much better. I was able to blend it into the leather. This is what I ended up using to cover the white spots.

Something to note is that this is PIGMENTED ink. Pigmented ink sits on top of the surface. The alternative is dye ink. Dye based inks sink into the surface. I was really interested in dye ink, but Michael's didn't have dye ink in the color that I needed, and I didn't want to go online to buy it.

Now that it's been some months since the leather buying frenzy, I think I might buy some dye ink. After a season of use, some of the white spots that I covered using the Color Box ink have started becoming visible again.

5) Tarrago shoe cream:
Purchased from shoeshineexpress.com and available elsewhere

The shoe cream got good reviews on the Purseblog forums. It is a shoe cream, so it does need to buffed into the leather very well, or the color WILL rub off on your clothes.

6) Rubbing alcohol:
Purchased at Wal-Mart

I used this in an attempt to remove the ink mark from the shoulder strap. It worked a little bit, but it also took the color out of the strap. I would not recommend it.

7) 100% Acetone:
Purchased at Wal-Mart

I purchased my bottle in the health and beauty department, near the nail polish removers. You can also purchase a can of it in the hardware department, next to the cans of paint thinner.

This is serious stuff. I used this to get the ink mark out of the leather strap. It removed the ink, stripped the leather dye, stripped the oil out of the leather (the leather became stiff and dry). I would NOT recommend it for removing ink marks, due to how damaging it can be.

Niagara Falls road trip! Part 3

2010-08-10T00:17:00.000-04:00

Niagara Falls State Park, NY

The next day we checked out of our hotel, got free cookies (we stayed at the Doubletree hotel in Niagara Falls, ON and one of Doubletree's signature amenities is free cookies at check in. They had run out when we checked in the day before, but we were given vouchers and told that they would be available fresh the next day. ), and had breakfast at Tim Horton's. Tim Horton's, as far as I can tell, is Canada's version of Dunkin' and is something for which Canada is known for. They call glazed donuts "honey donuts".

We crossed back over to the US, and were one of the first people in Niagara Falls State Park when it opened. Here is a bad map of the park: http://www.niagarafallsstatepark.com/destination_PropertyMap.aspx

We walked over to Goat Island, the island in the middle of the map above, and waited about an hour for the Cave of the Winds attraction to open. At one point the Cave of the Winds was once an actual cave at the base of the Bridal Veil Falls--but it has since collapsed. The attraction now just takes you to the bottom of the falls, where you get drenched with a generous amount of spray.

The entrance to Cave of the Winds is near the Nikola Tesla Memorial. I had no idea that he was Yugoslavian. (Click to enlarge all pictures)

After getting tickets, you are allowed into the building where you are given a yellow plastic poncho, and a pair of foam sandals. You are also given a plastic bag to put your shoes and socks in. You leave the ticket building and wait in line in front of the elevator building. When we were there, one of the two elevators was still broken. The elevator takes you down to the bottom of the falls, where you exit via a long hallway:

And end up on a wooden walkway at the edge of the Niagara River:

The area also happens to be a seagull rookery (and smells like it):

(All those white 'spots' on the ground and in the water are gulls)

The walkway takes you towards the falls:

See all the banana people!

Until you can stand right next to them:

This would be where the ponchos come in handy.

And then up to the Hurricane Deck:

I think the "No Smoking" sign is supposed to be ironic...

Because THIS is what it's like to stand on the Hurricane Deck:

Or this:

(This lady has a blue poncho because it is from the Maid of the Mist boat ride...see later)

The walkway then curves around and takes you back to the elevators. Here is a view of the Cave of the Winds walkway from above:

We put our ponchos in the large recycling bins at the exit, but kept our sandals, because they were surprisingly comfortable for cheap foam sandals (and mine were two sizes two big). Our next destination was Maid of the Mist.

First, however, the trolley took us past Terrapin Point, which overlooks US side of the Horseshoe Falls. We got out for a look:

It was then back to the visitor's center for the Maid of the Mist!

The Maid of the Mist is the boat that takes you to the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls. Once again, an elevator takes you down to the bottom of the falls level. Unlike Cave of the Winds, however, these elevators are fairly new, and there are 4 of them. Once you get out of the elevator, you are given a blue poncho.

We were lucky. We got to the dock right as one of the boats was pulling in. There are at least 2 Maid of the Mist boats on the river at a time. One boat leaves from the US side, and one leaves from a dock on the Canadian side.

The boat takes you up past the American Falls:

And then into the middle of the arc of Horseshoe Falls:

Before turning back to the starting dock:

Once again, ponchos were collected in a large bin at the exit.

There was an overlook in the Maid of the Mist area called the Crows Nest:

(This is the American Falls)

Here is the American Falls (foreground), and the Horseshoe Falls (background), as seen from the observation tower above the Maid of the Mist dock, before you go down the elevators:

It was a little after lunchtime at that point. We took the trolley back to Terrapin Point, where we had lunch at the Top of the Falls Restaurant.

It wasn't a bad restaurant. It offered a beer and wine list. My husband had a veggie wrap, which looked delicious, and I had fish and chips. There was a gift shop on the 1st floor of the building (the restaurant was on the second floor), and I got some souvenirs: a magnet for me, a pen for my brother, and a postcard to mail later.

It was nearing 3 o'clock at that point, and we were expected at my husband's grandmother's house that evening. It would have been nice to stay longer, but we had seen the two major attractions (Cave of the Winds and Maid of the Mist), so it was not too much of a loss.

There were lots of vineyards on the way to Grandma's house as well.

[The penny remains.]

Niagara Falls road trip! Part 2

2010-07-30T02:05:00.002-04:00

After leaving Ithaca (previous post), we headed towards Niagara Falls, travelling through New York's Finger Lakes region.

Before the trip, I hadn't even known why it was called the "Finger Lakes region." It's because the area has a bunch of narrow oval lakes, shaped kinda like fingers.

The area is now becoming a famous wine growing area, apparently. It seems like we passed a sign for a different vineyard every 10 minutes.

We drove past the town of Canandaiuga. If we go past again, I definitely want to stop by the Sonnenberg Gardens. I have a soft spot for historic homes and botanical gardens.

NIAGARA FALLS: Day 1

We reached Niagara Falls, NY, around 3:30 in the afternoon. We decided our first stop should be the visitor's center. The thing that surprised us most was that the downtown seemed largely abandoned. When I think of downtowns, I think of crowded spaces, cars parallel parked along the street, making them narrower, lots of stoplights/signs, lots of one-way streets, lots of pedestrians. Even in small towns--like here, in University Town, or in Ithaca, or my hometown--and definitely in the downtowns of larger cities, the downtown area followed this general pattern. Niagara Falls, NY was nothing like that. It didn't help that the visitor's center was right across the street from a boarded up hotel (click to enlarge):

(courtesy of Wikipedia commons)

We were able to pull up into a space just a block away from the visitor center. We were one of two cars on the street. We were wondering if the visitor's center was even open. It was brand new--the ceiling was unfinished, with missing ceiling tiles, and there was no decor, just plain white floors and walls. And besides three ladies behind the desk, my husband and I were the only ones there. There was just one, small, shelf with pamphlets. Of course, all the maps and such were only for Niagara Falls, NY. Any area maps for Niagara Falls, ON (Ontario, Canada), were non-existent.

I asked one of the ladies at the desk where the Cave of the Winds (one of the attractions on the NY side) was. She gave unclear directions and was unable to tell me travel time/distance (isn't it the point of a visitor information center to know these things?) but did tell me that one of the elevators to the Cave of the Winds was broken, and that the wait in line was about 3 hours.

I was hoping to get across by border by 6 o'clock, so we decided to go first thing in the morning, instead of that evening. Since we had some time before then, we decided to walk down to the Falls.

It was confusing, since the visitor's center was not shown on the map that I had been given, nor was the map to scale (it was a cartoony park map). It was also confusing because there was no one around. No one. It was alike we were in a ghost town. Besides the shuttered hotel, we walked past an abandoned shopping center. We found the intersection where the park should have been, according to the map, but we didn't see an entrance. We DID see a large 9 story building that had "Gateway to the Falls" in large neon letters--like you would see at a car dealership. We were skeptical: it looked like an abandoned office building. The sides were entirely glass, and did look very nice at first glance. However, through the glass on the sides, we could see on the upper floors had exposed wiring and parts of the ceiling was falling down. We didn't know what else to do, so we went in. It was shelves of cheap souvenirs and a food court. But at least this was the first place we had been that had a bit of a crowd.

The stairs to the second floor was cordoned off, and there were cardboard cutouts of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe at the top of the steps. There were signs that said "Observation Tower: Free!", so we got into the elevator for the top floor. We stepped out onto a bare linoleum space with a few wooden park benches and pay binoculars along the one side. It was humid and had a strange smell. My husband said: "It smells like pee." We went over to the window to look out, and AH! there was the entrance to the park--it was behind the building! We quickly went back downstairs and out to the park.

So this was where everyone was! Surprisingly, there was no admission to the park. We were able to walk right through the Niagara Falls Park Visitors Center (which was different from the Niagara Falls (city) Visitor's Center, where we were just at) and out the other side to see the water.

Here's a picture of the rapids (for all photos, click to enlarge):

Leading to the American Falls (the skyline in the distance is Niagara Falls, ON):

The drop-off, up close:

It was just awesome.

We were there for a little while. My husband bought me fruit flavored Dippin' Dots (strange tasting when they were solid, as it melted, the flavors mixed to a nice fruit punch), and we went back to the car, and headed across the border.

It was an easy crossing, fairly quick. But once we were across the border, it was like night and day. Niagara Falls, ON was like Disneyland. The streets were lined with all sorts of shops and restaurants, and there were plenty of people. As you can see from the skyline in the previous pictures, there was no shortage of hotels and attractions on the ON side.

Our hotel was easy to find. Check-in was efficient. Our room was wonderful. We didn't quite have a "fallsview" room--our room overlooked the rapids and the city, but it was a nice view, nonetheless. The front desk even called up as we were starting to unpack to make sure we were satisfied with our room. We stayed at the Doubletree Resort and Spa. Expedia gave it their "Insider's Select 2010" award. It definitely lived up to its reputation.

We had reserved a dinner table at a Fallsview restaurant: The Keg at the Embassy Suites. It was for 8:30pm--they illumiate the Falls starting at 9pm in the summer, and I wanted to catch that moment. We showered, put on dinner clothes, then walked the few blocks to the Embassy Suites. I wanted to be extra sure we got a window seat, so we got there early, at 8pm. To our surprise (it was the week after the 4th of the July--normally one of the busiest weeks of the tourist season), we were seated right away, and at a table next to the window.

This was my view:

That's right...I was seated directly across from the Horseshoe Falls.

There was also the view of the American Falls:

Now see that square glass building with the banners on the side, just left of middle? Let's zoom in:

And zoom again:

This was the "Gateway to the Falls" that we had gone into earlier--the one with the observation deck that smelled like pee. Notice the random blackened windows. Also notice behind it, to the right, the empty parking garage of the shuttered mall.

But...back to dinner. Since it was only 8, and we had to have our dinner last to 9, until the lights came on we took our time, ordering everything from appetizer to dessert.

Appetizer: Fried calamari. (No pic) It was very lightly breaded (a good thing), and came with two little dishes one of spicy red sauce (Sriracha/Rooster Sauce based?) and one of a ginger sauce. Yum.

Salad: Cesar salad, with a fresh lemon wedge!

Entree: Prime rib, with au jus and horseradish, baked potato, and sautéed mushrooms and broccoli.

It's supposedly Medium Well--they do say that you're supposed to tell by temperature, not by color--but I'm not so sure. It didn't taste bloody, so I didn't complain. I quite enjoyed it. My husband had sirloin steak, which he liked as well.

Desserts: Brownie sundae (me) and Creme brulee (him)

I had to take half of that brownie home.

We stayed until after 9:30, I think. I spent most of that entire meal looking out the window. I don't have pics of the Falls lit up--there was too much glare from the indoor lights on the window. It was nice, though, watching the colors change.

There was a lady, going from table to table, carrying a basket of roses. My husband bought me one. I thought it was absolutely sweet of him.

We took a short stroll around the hotel area, and saw a raccoon digging around in the grass along the sidewalk. On the way back, there was a pirate, on stilts, making balloon animals, in front of a seafood restaurant. We saw a gang of Mennonites.

It was a fine day.

Niagara Falls road trip! Part 1

2010-07-18T00:32:00.001-04:00

A week after I finished my summer class, my husband came to see me, and we went on Summer Road trip 2010!

NEW YORK: Corning and Ithaca

I felt a little bad because I planned every day in advance: I reserved the hotels ahead of time, picked the restaurants, printed out the routes. I didn't want to become a micro-manager. But it all ended all right, and I think, let us be more relaxed for the actual vacation.

It began on a Saturday afternoon. I packed a snack--I even planned the snack: baby carrots, prunes, a lunch cup of mixed fruit--and headed to pick up my husband from the Capitol Airport. Then it was to the mall in Capitol City to buy him a new pair of shoes (no sales tax on clothing and shoes in my state!). The store was really neat--specializing in comfort shoes--the saleslady looked like she was a high school student, but she was very friendly and knowledgeable. And, I got my feet digitally analyzed!

The next day, I finally got to take my husband to the church here, and introduce him to the people I knew. Sunday was July 4th--so we grabbed my throw blanket, bought some sub sandwiches, and went to the university to sit, have a picnic dinner, and watch the fireworks.

Monday began our trip to Corning, NY. I had been to the Glass Museum a couple of years before, when my brother had graduated from Cornell, in Ithaca, NY. I wanted to show the museum to my husband. They had a new collection from the last time I had visited. I enjoyed the new collection more than the previous time. I got a good refresher, and my husband, I think, got a better appreciation of how glass is made. I would *still* go back again. Oh, and the Steuben glassware talked about in the TV show Archer on FX--that's made in Corning, NY (and also owned by Corning Inc.).

That night, we stayed in Ithaca, NY, about a 45 min drive away from Corning. The evening was a little disappointing.

There aren't many places to stay in Ithaca. I had booked at a Best Western, with a chance to get a queen bed, or a double bed. When we got there, there were only rooms with double beds available. It was an older hotel, a little rough around the edges, but comfortable enough.

We had dinner at the Moosewood Cafe. It was one of the first vegetarian restaurants to open in the 1970's, and I've cooked a couple of recipes from their cookbooks in the past, which I enjoyed. I was looking forward to going to the place that started it all. We had a good meal. But it wasn't anything special, either. The service was slow. There were no free refills on anything besides water. My husband had a Caribbean rice and beans dish. I had a curry. It was a little bland for a curry. The portions were on the smaller side considering the prices. Both of us cleared our plates. My husband said he liked the meal, and that it was filling, but that best part was the bread basket (it IS local fresh baked bread). It wasn't a bad experience, but it was a so-so experience. I wouldn't recommend a special trip to go there. I'll just stick to their cookbooks.

I couldn't sleep for part of the night. I ended up spending a couple of hours surfing the web on my iPhone.

The next day was much better. We had breakfast at the hotel. We then drove/walked around the Cornell area of Ithaca a little, and took pictures of the bridges and gorges and waterfalls.

Unfortunately, all I have at the moment is this pic of one of the smaller waterfalls. This year, there were 6 suicides at Cornell with students jumping off bridges. The city/school has therefore put tall chain-link fencing around all the bridges. My camera wouldn't fit through the holes of the chain link to take photos of the larger waterfalls. My husband has a pocket-sized camera though, and so we did take some photos of the more spectacular falls. (Though, for your enjoyment, here's a link to Cascadilla Falls) I just don't have access to them at the moment, since his camera is now back with him in Metro.

We then visited the Cayuga Nature Center, just outside Ithaca, and their 6 story tree house! And yes, we took the stairs to the very top.

The nature center also had some live animals--turtles, snakes and lizards indoors. Outdoors, there some hawks, some peacocks, and a fox. There were baby peacocks the day we visited. It was fun seeing them follow their mother around the pen.

Then, it was to Taughannock Falls, just down the road from the nature center. The falls are taller by 33 feet than Niagara:

Then before leaving to get back on the road, we lunched at another Ithaca-area hotspot, the Glenwood Pines. They're known for their Pinesbuger: A cheeseburger served on french bread, dressed with Thousand Island dressing (instead of mayo or ketchup):

I would say that it was the Best Cheeseburger I Ever Ate.

Thus started the custom for the rest of the trip, of me sitting in restaurant, next to window on my right side, overlooking the water. Glenwood Pines feels like it was a converted double-wide. However, it has a nice patio in the back, and it overlooks Lake Cayuga.

On to Niagara Falls!

And now I start writing...

2010-07-17T21:46:00.000-04:00

I see this as the second phase of my school career: I will begin to write my dissertation.

Yesterday I was in my office, one of my classmates--we came into the program the same year--came to chat. One observation: Can you believe that we've been here 3 years already? I cannot. The first year here in University Town...it was probably my worst year ever (which brings to mind the last time I said that about a year, my 7th grade year, which at the end, I thought that I wouldn't wish my 7th grade year on my worst enemy....heh, funny how one keeps tracks of years). I was assured that it would would all pass quickly by my officemate at the time, a girl about to graduate. Well, they say that the years pass quickly, and it's the hours and the days that last forever. It was the beginning of my path towards depression.

The second year was alright. In fact, I can't really think of anything good or bad to say about it. One of my friends got married, in the local courthouse, and they had a simple reception at their house afterwards, with food from their favorite Indian restaurant. They had a magnum of some sort of sparking wine chilling on their porch, an Asti, I think--as I gift, I had brought a bottle of Veuve-Clicquot. Towards the end of the dinner, they toasted with my stuff. I wonder now, thinking of it again, if it was rude of me to bring it. Towards the end of that year, I began to accept that I would be here for the long term, as in really, really accept it. My depression bottomed out around that time.

And summer before my third year began. It was a very quiet summer, mostly. There were trips to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. I had family visit me in University Town for the first time. I watched the movie Julie and Julia. I can't remember if I watched it with my husband in person, or if we watched it him at his theater, and me at mine. I want to say that we watched it together. In the movie, the protagonist, Julie, takes up blogging. My husband suggested that I do the same, to give me something to do in University Town. And so, this blog started.

I think that this blog did keep me sane this year. School wasn't bad this year. In the fall, I had two classes that I very much enjoyed. The first classes the entire time I've been here that I can say that I actually enjoyed. The spring was hard. Tough classes, but it kept my mind engaged, and they were both classes that I wanted to take. Then of course, there was the summer class that I taught! It was an adventure every day. I laughed, I cried, and now, it's done, I feel like king of the hill. And in the winter, when I normally go crazy...I cooked, I photographed, and I blogged.

So here I am. Last week I returned from a trip to Niagara Falls. And now, I'm working on writing my dissertation.

I was on the phone with my husband today. We joked that in old cartoons and TV shows, the wife would wail "I'm going to go my mother's!" I pointed out that I would just get on the plane and go back to University Town. It used to hurt me that I lived here by myself. It doesn't hurt so much any more.

The penny remains.

Back again--Part 2

2010-06-27T23:26:00.002-04:00

Classes are over for the summer. All that's left are finals on Monday, and then I have to turn in the grades, but that shouldn't be too much work. I suspect I'll get a few e-mails on Monday and Tuesday, after grades are posted, with people wondering about their grades. I really hope that it is nothing major, that is, I hope I don't have to deal with many upset students.

I've been thinking, too, that this experiment--this blog--is almost over, too. I started last August, and July is coming up fast. I'm somewhat in a state of disbelief that this blog has lasted as long as it has. I have 55 posts so far, which averages a post a week over the entire year. It's half as much posting as I originally intended, which was 2 posts a week. I still feel good though. I've never kept a diary of any sort for so long--I used to always be amazed, absolutely amazed, by those who could keep diaries. I never had the discipline, or the interest. Yet, here I am.

The blog has served its purpose. I find words coming to me much easier now. I think teaching helped, too, having to get up in front of people everyday and making sure the thoughts that were in my head came out of my head in coherent sentences. It's one thing to read. It's another to craft those words together yourself, and not just take in what another has put together.

Teaching has been a good experience. I do like having the schedule. I like having a goal each day--this is the lesson plan! It wrecked my sleep schedule--I would go to bed at 1 am, wake up at 5 am to prep for my 9:30am class, then around 3 o'clock or so, come home, sleep until 7 or 8 pm, wake up and be awake until 1 am....and wake again at 5 am. It was a strange schedule, but I adapted, and towards the end, felt well rested each day. It was confusing at first, I must admit. I'd wake up, and wouldn't be sure if something happened yesterday, or the day before yesterday. I had been used to marking my days by when I went to sleep, and when I was sleeping twice in one day, it threw that system out of whack.

I think my stomach is also thankful that classes are over. Towards the end, I thought for a while that I was getting an ulcer.

People have asked me, what grade would you give yourself? I think I'd give myself a C. I was not the most prepared teacher. I think there might have been things that I explained better. I think I might have incorporated more activities into classes, made it not be as lecture oriented. But I went over all the material that I needed to go over. And my students' exams have averaged around a 76%--right where the average needs to be. I think I did expand over and above the book a little bit, so that I was not redundant. And, as far as I know, no went marching over to the dean's office to complain about my teaching. So, I give myself a C. We'll see, later, if the teacher evaluations agree with my own assessment.

Besides classes, not much has been going on. The only thing worth mentioning is that a few weeks ago, after taking my car through the automatic car wash, I was double checking the hood, and I noticed several small rust spots. They have been repaired, and as always, I had to make it into a project: 1000 grit sandpaper for the rust, primer, touch up paint, 2000 grit sandpaper, polishing compound. That's five different items I purchased for 4 rust spots, each the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. I don't know why I go overboard on everything, and yet, if I don't, I feel like I haven't done enough.

It took 2 weeks to do everything. I applied a coat of touch of paint every night for a week. But before that, of course, each day, I'd go out to my car with a bucket and a sponge, wash off the dirt from the hood, dry it, and then, after that, I'd apply a tiny dot of paint to each spot. My neighbors, I'm sure, now know me as the girl with OCD about washing the hood of her car. This is what happens when you live in an apartment complex with no A/C and it seems, a third of the residents having toddlers that like to go outside as the sun sets.

I now own way too much paint: paints for the suitcase project, paints for the purse project (6 bottles!), and now, two more paints for my car (paint and primer).

And finally: Squirrel!

It's a piebald squirrel. I usually only see one or two a year. This was taken with my new camera, handheld, at 17X zoom.

(Apparently some towns celebrate the fact that they are the home to colonies of white squirrels or black squirrels )

The penny remains.

Back again

2010-06-18T17:03:00.000-04:00

It's been a month since I last posted. I'm not sure where to start. So let's go stream of consciousness!

Part 1--Austin

I last wrote shortly before Memorial Day, when I left town to go to Austin to see an old college friend, C., get ordained as a Catholic priest. On that trip, I brought the purse that I had restored--so that's an entry I need to do, the purse restoration entry.

Back to the trip to Austin. I left first thing Friday morning. I drove about 45 minutes from here, to get to a smaller, but cheaper airport. I had never been there before, and so I updated my Garmin, and full of hope, drove to the airport. It wasn't difficult to find at all, and the traffic was almost non-existent. There was only one airline servicing this airport--Continental--and the waiting area had only enough chairs for about 12 people. But that was OK--the airplanes that flew out of there only held about 12 people.

The neat about the airport was that it served both commercial and private flights...so just walking down the hall a few feet from the commercial waiting area, there was a lounge for the private pilots and an office area with maps and a computer for planning a flight path. On the commercial side of the airport, there was an actual cafe/grill. Usually in airports of this size, the only things offered to eat are out of vending machines, or perhaps a few premade sandwiches. But not this place. The whiteboard in front was offering the "222 special"--2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, 2 slices of toast for $2.22. Besides the indoor seating, the cafe actually opened out in the back to a large covered patio area with picnic tables. There were people sitting out on the patio.

There were 8 of us on the flight out. There were 4 TSA agents that checked us in. Because the waiting area was so small, a conversation started up between one of the passengers--someone who worked for an oil exploration company and was travelling to Houston--and one of the TSA agents, and the whole group got drawn into a conversation about BP and what was going on in the Gulf.

It was the smallest plane I had ever ridden. There was no overhead storage space, and only one seat on each side of the aisle. There was no flight attendant, just the two pilots. There was no overhead light, either, but the air vent, the light, and the compartment for the oxygen mask, were all built into the side of the plane. I had been a little nervous about flying in such a small plane, but the flight was not bad at all.

I landed in Cleveland. I was scheduled to transfer to Houston after a 4 hour layover in Cleveland, but I noticed on the flight monitors that there was another flight for Houston leaving in an hour. I asked if it was possible for me to fly standby on that flight, and I did indeed get on that flight. Houston Intercontinental is a nicer place to layover than Cleveland.

On the flight to Houston, they played "When in Rome", starring Kristin Bell. I didn't want to spend $3.00 on the inflight headphones, so could only see what was going on. I wandered around the shops--got myself some nice smelling hand lotion from the sample bottles at the L'Occitane en Provence shop, and snacked with a fruit smoothie from the Nestle Tollhouse bakery. I people watched, ate a cookie, played solitaire on my phone. The corridors were tall, airy, and bright. It honestly wasn't a bad way to spend a 4 hour layover.

The flight from Houston to Austin was unremarkable. It was around 6pm when I landed in Austin. Unfortunately, my husband, who was supposed to arrive in Austin around 7pm, has his flight delayed until 9pm. We had plans to have dinner together at one of the local restaurants. But I ate at the airport instead. It turned out alright: the airport had a number of local restaurants represented, and I had Salt Lick BBQ, which had been featured on the Travel Channel. It was indeed good.

After eating, I found a quiet terminal to curl up and take a nap for a few minutes before my husband arrived. I was surprised at how cold they kept the airport. I looked for a sweatshirt, but the ones being sold at the airport were $30.

We got our rental car. I found out that my husband thought that I was going to bring my Garmin to help us get around town. I had not brought it, but we used our iPhones instead. For some reason, the first time I pulled up directions to the hotel, the map told us to make a left turn off the main highway. We followed it, realized we were going the wrong way. I re-entered the address--and this time the iPhone showed that we should have taken a RIGHT off the main highway. We were on the correct road--just on the wrong side of it. It was easy to correct--just a U-turn and a few minutes, and we were at our hotel. Besides that, all other directions provided by our iPhone in Austin turned out to be accurate. My husband would drive, I would hold the phone and read the map out loud.

Breakfast the next day was at Cafe Java, not far from our hotel. I would recommend it. It was clean, service was fast and friendly, and prices were average. Then, it was to the ordination. The church was packed--even though we arrived almost an hour early. We were able to find a seats in the last row on the side of the church. I then practiced taking photos with my new camera.

The ordination ceremony started at 10:30 and took 2.5 hours. I got lots of good pictures--well, good considering that they were taken from the very last row of a large church. I was happy though, and the camera purchase was definitely worth it.

After the ordination ceremony, I met up with my college friends. One of my friends had brought along her neighbor and co-worker, Rebecca. Rebecca knew me--my friend had told her that I was "the one with the most sense, but also the only one who almost burned down the apartment." ::sigh:: Those were the good old days!

Rebecca had gone to the University of Texas, and was therefore familiar with Austin. I suggested we go to lunch at The Magnolia, another famous Austin restaurant. Our whole group went-Rebecca knew how to get there, but my husband and I used iPhone directions--this time with full success! There was lots of eating and talking. Afterwards, the rest of the group returned to the church to attend C's first mass. My husband and I went to the movies, instead. We saw "Babies." We then stopped at Target, where I bought a hoodie for the flight back and we picked up food for dinner.

I wonder if I'm becoming a food tourist.

The next morning, I got on a flight back to University Town. The hoodie kept me comfortably warm on the plane. On the flight from Austin to Houston, they were handing out free inflight headsets. I was happy--I got two pairs. I would be able to watch in the in-flight movie from Houston to Cleveland. Except, that this time, the plane from Houston to Cleveland didn't have TV screens. Foiled! However, for any other long flights in the future, I have spare headsets. I will remember to bring a one next time.

End Part 1 (The penny remains)

One week down...

2010-05-24T00:42:00.000-04:00

I hadn't realized that it had been two weeks since I last posted!

My one "off" week went pretty well. I did prep work for class, but didn't feel quite prepared. I'm teaching a 6-week class this summer.

Last week was my first week of teaching. It was mixed. I thought I had prepared enough material for three days of class. Instead, I lectured all the way through Monday AND Tuesday's class material on Monday.  Monday night, I expanded what I had originally planned on being Wednesday's material, and taught that Tuesday. It went very well, and I was very happy. However, I was now out of class material. I threw together a slide set for Wednesday. It was a disaster. The lecture not only was short (the class periods are 75 minutes, and I only taught for 50 minutes), but I found myself reading the slides off the screen!  It was the great faux pas of presenting:  never just read the slides! Thursday, I redeemed myself slightly--the class was 60 minutes, and I was back to presenting, rather than reading.

My sleep schedule was wonky, too. I would go to bed at midnight, wake up at 4 am to prepare for my 9:30 am class.  Then, in the afternoon, around 3 o'clock or so, I would go home and nap for 4 hours, wake up, continue preparing for class until around midnight....rinse, repeat. I lost all sense of normal time. I would wake up from my mid-day nap panicked, thinking I had slept through my class. Things that happened earlier on the on the same day, I believed had happened the day before.

And yet, it was a good week. I had burned a penny-sized hole in my carpet (a story for another time). I went to Lowe's, looking for a carpet sample so I could cut a plug out of the sample and patch my carpet. Lowe's didn't have sample sections of carpet there, but they called the manufacturer, and had them sent me a carpet square directly--at no cost to me. I love Lowe's.

For carrying lunch, I bought a food storage container from the Rubbermaid "Premier" line. As someone who had been using the disposable Ziplock food containers, the Rubbermaid was a revelation. It was actually sturdy, and the plastic was glasslike in how clear it was.  I used it for carrying black bean soup (yes, the same soup I wrote about in my last post).

I finished up my leather project! Expect photos of the purse revitalization project in the near future.

For school, I bought new shoes, and for my upcoming summer trips, I bought a new camera. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35. To go with the new camera, I took out a book from the library: Photography: The art of composition by Bert Krages.

I still plan on using my current pocket-sized camera for most of my shooting, simply because it is much easier to carry. Plus, I'm never been much of a technical person when it came to photography. I guess I've always seen it as an art, and not a science. An interesting point made by the book--I've read the first two chapters--is that artists don't spend alot of time arguing about tools, their pencils and brushes, but it is not uncommon for photographers to spend countless hours arguing about which camera is best. At some point I really do need to get into the whole technical side of the art--but right now, I'd like to figure out the art side fo the art. I have to be able to see first, right? before I start trying to get a machine to copy what I see.

The exercises in the book are supposed to teach one how to see objects as points, lines, and shapes, and is based on theory from Betty Edwards book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".  The first exercise in Krages' book:  photographing still points: Rocks. This means that in the next few weeks, expect to see photos of rocks on this blog. (The section of photographing points ends with points in motion: birds in flight, and moving balls in a sports game. I then graduate to the section of photographing lines, starting with still lines: Forks! Rocks and forks, I can't wait!) But I guess that's the point (ha, ha) of having a person photograph common objects--it forces a person to see things they normally overlook.

Anyway, one week down for teaching. Five more weeks to go. This will be a short teaching week for me, since on Thursday there is an exam.

Happy Pentecost!

The penny remains.

Summer starts

2010-05-09T22:06:00.001-04:00

Last week was the last week of the semester. I turned in my last paper on Monday, and then I mostly took the rest of the week off. I got a haircut, watched "How to Train Your Dragon" (my first current generation 3D movie), and did heaps of laundry, as I put away all my winter clothes and took out the spring wardrobe.

Of course, last week, it was sunny, with temperatures in the high 70's, low 80's. Today, it's dark and rainy, and in the 40's. I had to turn the heat on, again, and I'm dressed in layers.

I had high hopes going to see "How to Train Your Dragon." I had spoken with several people, and read reviews, all with positive things to say, and who said that the 3D was well worth it. I enjoyed the movie--it was a cute, feel-good, kids movie. However, the 3D did not agree with me--I found it uncomfortable to view, and in the end, I had a mild headache. I was a bit surprised, as I had thought that this new generation of 3D had fixed the problem of nausea and headaches that the old generation red-and-blue-glasses type of 3D had been known to cause. It might have been due to the type of 3D--I believe the type used in my showing was XpandD, and not the polarized RealD glasses. I do know that when I put the glasses on before the start of the show and was looking around the theater, I noticed that it made it look like the sconces were flickering.

I hadn't cooked in a long time. On Friday I made a chicken pot pie, and a black bean soup. The soup was black beans, diced onions, and chopped tomatoes and potatoes, with a chicken broth base. I had completely forgotten how fun cooking could be.

Once again, it was based off a Dean Ornish recipe. Next time, I will add corn.

The end of semesters are always times when I feel open to possibilities. For the summer, I'm thinking of working on my photography more seriously. I think I'm going to get a book on composition from the library, and see if I can't photograph along with the chapters of the book. And maybe...start posting twice a week again.

I'll be teaching my first class the first summer session. Next week will be spent preparing. And then I start the week after that. I hope all goes well.

The penny remains.

Rainy season

2010-04-25T21:39:00.003-04:00

It's begun to rain in Universtiy Town. Summer is close. I remember when I first came to University Town, it was late summer, and every time I needed to go out, it was raining. It was for the summers that I purchased a pair of "Aqua socks" type shoes for walking to school.

I apologize for not posting last week. I was working on a report. This week is not looking much better...it's the last week of school. I've got two reports and two presentations due this week.

Around April 9th or so, I started working on the cleaning and retouching of my handbag. I've got it cleaned with the Leatherique, and now I'm working on recoloring the discolored spots--I purchased Tarrago shoe polish in "Pastel Blue." I never realized they sold shoe polish in so many colors, but am very happy that they do.

Last week, buffing the polish into my handbag was something of stress relief. If I needed a few minutes break, I took a microfiber cloth, and just buffed. The shoe polish smelled very much like a strong hand cream, not like traditional shoe polish.

I'm still trying to get the color in some of the spots just right. I purchased a stamping ink--Colorbox pigment dye--from Michael's, and now I'm trying to find Memories brand dye ink. I've been taking pictures. I plan to put up the entire process in one post when I'm done. I'm happy the way things are turning out, and I'm happy that it's something of a long process--it gives me a little something to do, something to keep me interested, something to learn. I mean, there is probably an easier and faster way to do what I'm doing, but I like the feeling of accomplishment as I muddle along.

I did find this guide helpful: Restoring Damaged Leather Handbags & Products To Use. The guide recommended a shoe polish brand and a seller--I went to the seller's store, and though I didn't find the brand of shoe polish that was recommended, it was how I found out about the Tarrago brand of polish.

I received a very sweet anniversary card from my husband yesterday. It's going into my permanent collection.

Other than that, I got a wireless keyboard: the Logitech K350. I'm using it now, with my laptop, and I'm finding it to be lightweight (the keyboard is resting on my lap, while the laptop is on a stand) and the ergonomic "wave" design to be comfortable.

Yesterday, I was making spaghetti, and accidentally knocked the box off the counter. It made a beautiful mess.

I thought it looked structural:

From underneath:

And the same, taken with flash:

The penny remains.

Photo dump: Signs of Spring

2010-04-12T23:39:00.000-04:00

By reader request: photos of springtime in University Town

2010-04-12 Spring

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T00:25:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter/Resurrection Sunday!

It's been a good holiday. Last week I sent out Easter cards, and everyone received them. I got to talk to all my card recipients, and I was thanked by all of them. The highlight of the evening was having a nice talk with my parents.

As for earlier this week, I received my anniversary handbag in the mail. I had gotten it off e-bay, and while it didn't seem so much in the picture, it seems that the bag was either well-loved, or not loved at all. It was a little disappointing, but also inspiring--I have another project! I did some research on automotive leather products, and eventually ordered two products by Leatherique--the Rejuvenator Oil and Pristine Clean. Eventually I hope to post "before/during/after" photos.

I felt a little silly, because the leather cleaning products cost as much as the handbag, more if you count the shipping. Did I really just double the price of my handbag? Eventually I came to the conclusion that it's a separate project. I wouldn't have problems with wearing the new handbag as is. I've got other handbags that could use a little cleaning. Plus, I have leather gloves that could use some TLC before I put them away for the summer.

And gloves! I've taken out my unlined leather gloves for spring. And now that it's after Easter, I can bring out the white ones and the pastels. I'll wear them over my freshly cleaned rings.

I've been eating out of boxes, bags, and cans, it seems, for a while. I started cooking again. Yesterday, I made a flourless chocolate cake. The recipe was from the Whole Foods website. I bought a springform pan specially for the occasion.

I used Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips, as well as their Special Dark cocoa powder. I only used 1 cup of sugar, instead of the 1 and 1/4 cup in the recipe. Also, I partly used liquid egg whites--I had the equivalent of 3 eggs worth of liquid whites in my refrigerator. I thought I had enough for the entire recipe, but then my carton was empty, and I had to run to the store to buy (regular) eggs to finish the mix. Luckily, the store had them in stock. (I have been to a store where the eggs sold out on the evening before Easter.) I guess that's the danger of using liquid eggs.

Here it is 1) right out of the oven, 2) with the glaze on top, and 3) with a slice removed. And yes, the cake deflated a little when it cooled.

The cake was brownie-like. It was dense and moist, and the texture was somewhat crumbly in the mouth. The inside of my refrigerator now smells like chocolate cake.

The penny remains.

Calm week

2010-03-30T23:42:00.000-04:00

It has been a calm week.

I got my first (and only?) Easter card this week. Getting cards from people makes me happy, so I kept my Christmas cards displayed on top of my TV until I got Valentine's cards, and then I threw out my two Valentine's cards when I got my Easter card. I don't know how long I should keep my Easter card displayed--until Pentecost, maybe?--because I do think it would be a little silly keeping it until Christmas, which is the next time I expect to get cards again.

It's been gray and rainy and windy. Temperatures are in the 40's, but a warm front is supposed to move in tomorrow, so that on Friday, temps will be almost 80!

I've found a blog dedicated to the subject of hosting parties: http://www.hostessblog.com/ It's part of the larger "Hostess with the Mostess" website.

It's also my anniversary this week--the third year, or leather. I was not to buy any frivolous things during Lent, but I took an exception, and got a new handbag.

On one of the lawns on campus, a wooden "flower" sculpture.

And in one of the greenhouses, tulips:

Procrastinating

2010-03-21T14:13:00.001-04:00

My first Christmas after I started my PhD program, I purchased a couple of books on procrastination. It had never been a big problem for me, but that year, it was. One of the books was The Now Habit. He gave an image of procrastination as being on a roof, and being told that you had to walk across a narrow board to an adjacent building. Most people would be reluctant to do so. Then, imagine that the building was set on fire--would you walk across the board now?

That image of procrastination helped define what I was feeling--fear of failure, fear of the unknown, and at the same time, trapped by deadlines, feeling like I was being forced to perform, like I lacked any agency for my own actions, like everything I did was an act of desperation.

It's a beautiful day out today. It's sunny, with temperatures in the high 60's, near 70. I've got homework to finish, stuff I'm going to have to bluff my through. One homework assignment, a vitae (which I've never written one before), two proposals for class projects, and then the PROPOSAL--a draft of the proposal for my thesis. I feel overwhelmed. And instead of tackling them, I'm going to go to my blog, and write, and pretend, for a little while, that they don't exist.

It's been a decent week. The weather's been the best. People are out walking in their shorts and short-sleeves. I went out cleaned my car, put rain repellent on the windows, did laundry, and repotted 2 of my 3 African violets.

I'm a little stunned that Easter is only two weeks away, but I look forward to it.

(The penny remains)

P.S. I got a call from my husband. It's snowing in Metro. And here I am, thinking of opening a window, because my apartment is too warm. Who switched our weather?

My thoughts on dinner etiquette

2010-03-16T21:09:00.004-04:00

The anniversary dinner sparked several discussions about dinner etiquette.

I tried to do some research on the topic ahead of time, and found it frustrating. Most etiquette guides focus on wedding etiquette, giving a sense that weddings were the only times etiquette mattered. But what about more daily entertaining? Why could I not find a magazine or website devoted to home entertaining, that wasn't heavily focused on food and recipes?

I did find two sources of helpful information. Chowhound's "Not About Food" section had several long discussions about dinner etiquette. GardenWeb's "Home Site" forum, the "Entertaining" section, also had some discussions, but the traffic seemed a little slow.

My own thoughts on how to behave at a dinner generally concur with a response by Karl S. on the Chowhound boards:

Unless the meal is clearly identified as potluck, the host is responsible for the hospitality. For all the food and drink and what not.

The guest brings good manners, a sociable attitude, and gratitude to the host. It is also good form, except for routine dining, to bring a token of appreciation (aka the hostess gift) that does not require any work for the host to deal with. (If you bring flowers, offer to deal with them so that the host can continue hosting, for example). In lieu of that, the guest may offer to bring something at the host's discretion and according the guest's ability.

Guests do not unbidden bring food or wine intended for the meal unbidden. That used to be considered very rude, in fact, because it implied that the host would be insufficient in offering hospitality....

I love nothing better than having a herd of guests arrive empty-handed when I am arranging for a full-service dinner party, as it were.

If the dinner party is not routine (OK, I am conceding that some dinner parties are routine, though as a host I do not try to convey that to a guest), I will appreciate Gracious Notes afterwards...and I am not a stickler if they are a greeting card/note rather than Perfectly Proper plain stationary.

And I would love to be reciprocated. If I cannot think of a hostess gift, I will offer to bring something, but very discreetly and not be pushy about it. When nothing is needed, I will do as I outline above as a guest.

I disagree with Karl S. on some points. First, I think gifts of food, in the form of sweets/snacks/fruit/condiment IS appropriate. (I'm thinking gifts of candy, fruit basket, holiday nut mix, Girl Scout cookies...things like that.) Drinks are appropriate gifts. However, one should not expect the food or drink to be served with the meal and hosts are not obligated to serve the food/drink at the meal.

For my OWN behavior, I was taught, and firmly believe, that one should never show up empty-handed to an event. Whether the invitation is a Chinese restaurant lunch buffet, a casual backyard barbeque, or an apartment "hang out and drink", I bring something. Alcohol, flowers, chocolates, unique preserves, a card--just something, not nothing. If the gift is something I can't take into the restaurant, I'll leave it in the car, and make sure to give it to the host at the end of the event. Also, in respectful disagreement with Karl, I will happily accept flowers as hostess gifts. ^_^

I think a dinner invitation is a dinner invitation, whether to a pizza parlor, or a nice restaurant, or to someone's home. I think a reciprocal invite is a reciprocal invite: it doesn't have to be dinner, it could be an invite to a movie or a round of bowling.

On Chowhound, there was a discussion on birthday celebrations at restaurants. There was agreement that there are three forms: (1) At the end of the meal, the guests takes the bill away from the birthday celebrant, and split it among themselves. (2) Each person, including the celebrant, pays for his or her own meal and (3) The birthday celebrant pays for everyone.

Since there are options, and since there is not an agreed upon way of hosting such a dinner, I believe one should make it known which type of event it will be. I don't think a person should organize their own party if they are expecting others to pay for his meal, but the organizer should make it known to the guests before they accept the invite that the party will operate under scenario (1). It seems the most fair for everyone. A person may invite others to their own party in situations (2) and (3), but they should word the invitation to denote which one it is (asking others to "join" vs. saying that you are "hosting").

In the same spirit of clarity, I think that if I were to throw a party at a restaurant where meals were included, but alcoholic beverages were not, I should put it on the invitation. That way, there would be no surprises for anyone. I think to say that you are "hosting", without any comment, means that you pay for food AND drink.

One final thought. When looking up searching the web for dinner etiquette, I came across this passage from the Bible's book of Luke.

¹²Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14: 12-14)

I've decided that as part of my anniversary dinner, I will make a donation to a local food bank.

(The penny remains)

Spring is near

2010-03-12T23:32:00.000-05:00

I returned from Spring Break a couple of days ago. I took a short trip to Metro--arriving Saturday around noon, then leaving at 6 am Wednesday. It was a good trip, very low key.

Anniversary Dinner
The highlight of the trip was our anniversary dinner, which is a group event. We've had one every year, so far, always during my Spring Break. Officially, my husband and I host, though so far, my in-laws have always paid the bill. We take a group of friends to a restaurant to celebrate. We bring cake, of the same type and made by the same people that made our wedding cake, and hot pink roses for the ladies.

It's something I look forward to every year. My husband and I don't do much for birthdays, so the anniversary dinner is our chance to party. Plus, it feels fitting to me: our zero year anniversary (wedding) was attended by a large group of friends--why shouldn't all our anniversaries be group events? Also, even though I've never attended any one else's (non "big year") anniversary party, it does seem strange to me that more people don't have yearly parties.

I also figure that it gives people something of a vested interest in our marriage, as in "If they get divorced, we won't get invited to any more parties!" At least, one day, I hope to be financially secure enough to throw parties our friends look forward to attending every year.

As part of the party preparations, I stopped by Sprinkles, a cupcake shop, to pick up a gluten-free cupcake. They're a famous bakery chain, apparently, but I had never heard of them before this year. I had found them by Googling "Metro gluten-free cake" or something like that.

I found their signage to be confusing:

It says "Sprinkles, Bevery Hills"--nothing about the place being a bakery, or selling cupcakes. Nothing in the windows, either, except the circles. So, how, exactly, is one supposed to know what this place sells? It could be a baking supply shop, but it could also sell fashion accessories or jewelry. A crimpled lined circle isn't exactly the international symbol for cupcake. Bad signage is one of my pet peeves. This one irks me. It's also inaccurate. Their cupcakes don't have sprinkles. In fact, their cupcakes are apparently famous for NOT having sprinkles (just a dot in the center).

The dinner itself was fun. I had actually never been to the restaurant we had chosen for dinner. My husband had been there once. It was a Thai place, and quite romantic. We had a section reserved in the back, with fabric rose petals hanging from strings of pearls from the ceiling, carved, painted wooden flowers on the walls, and even some beaded candle holders hanging above the table. There was a small tv on the side wall. It seemed appropriate that it was showing the wedding of the latest winner of ABC's The Bachelor.

My in-laws had purchased bags of candy and placed them at each person's seat as party favors. They also gifted us a gigantic fortune cookie, about a foot across--covered in a layer of chocolate, then drizzled in chocolate, caramel, and peanuts. (I'm a Snickers fan).

I thought our waitress was wonderful, but I felt a little sorry for her, because we were all so busy talking to one another across the table that she couldn't get in a word to ask us how things were going!

It rained, of course. I'm thinking that if there is ever a drought, my husband and I should be called to host an anniversary dinner. It poured the night of our rehearsal dinner--my husband arrived with his shirt drenched through, and the roof of the restaurant where we had the rehearsal dinner started leaking. The rain had stopped the next morning, thankfully. Every year, it's the same pattern--it's a rainy night for the anniversary dinner, but when we leave the restaurant, it's stopped raining. I guess that's just our good fortune. (Of course, now that I've mentioned it on the blog, I've probably jinxed it.)

I look forward to next year!

Spring
Spring is almost here. A month ago, I was looking for plant food for my violets, and found that the garden centers around here don't open until March. Where I'm from, the garden centers are open all year. But I returned to University Town to find balmy 50 degree weather (I didn't need to wear a coat!), and a sign on a garden center saying "Seeds are Here!"

The days are noticeably longer, and two of my three violets are in bloom. And Daylight Savings is Sunday. Yippee! I love Spring.

There were high winds before I left for Spring Break. My door mat, which I had taped down with outdoor double stick tape, blew down the walkway. But the penny remains.

February photo dump

2010-03-12T21:34:00.000-05:00

The blog's name has become a misnomer: I've been posting much less frequently than twice a week. I've been called on that. And I'd like to apologize to my readers. I have an excuse--my classes this semester have a much heavier homework load than last semester. That, and this blog has in a way accomplished what it's purpose was--to help me write. When I think, I ask, "How would I say it if I were writing it?" I used to think as writing when I was in high school. I framed my life as a story, and I tried to write it as I went along living it. At some point I stopped writing it, just lived it, I guess, in a world without words, just images and experiences. Once I started blogging, it forced me to start thinking about my life as a written story again.

But those are excuses, and I don't much care for excuses. Instead of twice a week, I'll try posting once a week until the semester ends.

So now, photos. Click to enlarge.
On campus, video game art done on a window, with Post-It notes. It was snowing when I took the photo, so sorry for the snowflakes:

A close-up of the Spelunker guy:

Anyone know if the drawings at the bottom are original or if they also reference a video game?

Then, on the edge of campus, someone decided to create a bunch of snow people.
First, a teacher followed by students holding a rope (an more snowkids in the background):

A snowman in a headdress:

Then a couple of snowpeople who met violent ends:

And a shark attack:

The penny remains.

Cooking: Chinese New Year, Lent photo dump

2010-02-20T21:55:00.001-05:00

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year went well. My husband and I both cooked for New Year's, he in Metro, me here. It's our version of spending time together.

I had to make red bean sticky cake (nian-gao). It's traditional, it's nostalgic, it's good. It's pretty much mochi, with sweetened red bean paste mixed in.

Traditionally, the cake is cooked by steaming it, but my I don't have a pot big enough to fit a pie pan. (Also, I don't have a pie pan.) It also takes 2-4 hours to steam.

My mom came up with a baked version of the sticky-cake. She makes this cake by feel, but she sent me the approximate recipe:

Red bean cake
-------------------------
one can WEI-PAC sweeetend red bean paste
one box Machiko KODA FARMS
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C oil ( either veg, corn, or canola)
2 and 1/4 C water

Mix all together. Line 13x9 pan with regular aluminum foil, oil the foil.(don't flour it) Pour in and bake at 400F for 35-40 minutes.
Do not preheat the oven.

After the cake is done, sprinkle some water on the top and put a damp kitchen paper towel on the top. Cover it with aluminum foil and let it cool. The cake top is dry after you you bake it. Putting the damp towel on top and covering it will make the top of the cake soft.
------------------------

I made the cake last year, and it didn't turn out so well. It glued itself to the pan, and the only way I could get it out was to cut out the middle of the cake, leaving the bottom and edges stuck to the pan.

This year, I changed the recipe. Instead of the oil, I put in one egg, and instead of regular aluminum foil, I used non-stick foil.

Here it is out of the oven. (I sampled a piece of the corner):

The top came out drier than I liked. It is NOT supposed to be this cracked looking. Not even the damp paper towel trick worked to smooth it out. Otherwise, the texture was fine, and luckily, the cake is supposed to be served upside down.

The cake did not stick to the foil at all, and the result was a pretty reddish cake:

I am spatially challenged, and cannot cut cakes into equal sized 10ths. Otherwise, success!

My husband make the cake per the recipe, and he said that his came out just fine. Next year, I am going to have to tweak the recipe again. Maybe bake it in a water bath?

Noodles are another traditional food for New Year's--the long noodles are supposed to represent long life. A third traditional food is fish--in Chinese, the word for fish is a homophone to the word for surpluses. (There are other foods too, but I decided that three dishes were enough for me!)

For the noodles, I made otsu--a spicy soba noodle and tofu dish, from a recipe I found from 101cookbooks. I made a simple steamed fish, the recipe found here, and I got to use the steamer on my rice cooker for the first time!

Here's the plate, with a side of steamed spinach at the top:

A couple of days later, I realized that my meal was Lent friendly, too!

Chinese New Year was Sunday, that Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. It's nice when lunar calendars match up, no?

Ash Wednesday

For Ash Wednesday, I made another Dr. Ornish dish, chickpea stew:

Besides chickpeas, it has green and red peppers, diced tomato, zucchini, onion, and the orange bits you see? That's sweet potato. It was served over a bed of basmati rice, with a side of cucumber mint yogurt, and a dessert of orange slices baked in a syrup of orange juice, honey and cinnamon.

I probably had too much fun making this than was proper for an Ash Wednesday.

A New Year Thought

I have been a very fortunate individual this past year.

I was doing laundry while cooking on Chinese New Year. I had two bags of laundry, so I was carrying one laundry bag in one hand, detergent in my other hand, and the second laundry bag I hung over my wrist. When I returned to my cooking, I noticed that my wrist was a little red. And then I noticed something else--this was the first time in a year that I was staring at my wrist with a knife in my hand.

You see, last year at this time, I was not in good spirits. Last year, what I decided to give up for Lent was thoughts of cutting myself--I was only mostly successful. It was not a good winter. Now, the same time, one year later, and I had not thought about self-harm once--not even once! the entire winter. In fact, I was doing so well that I hadn't even noticed that I had not been thinking of harming myself. How cool is that?

A concluding photo, from Chinese New Year day: a two pronged icicle.

A closer look at the point where it splits:

(The penny remains.)

Photo dump: change in weather

2010-02-15T23:27:00.001-05:00

It's been a strange winter. Normally, here in University Town, it will start snowing in November, and the snow will stay on the ground until about March. Excepting the October snow (blogged about earlier) it's been a dry winter. Up until about two weeks ago, University Town looked like this:

Photos above from February 1st. It was nice and green, although the temperatures were in the 20's.

Five days later, on the 6th, University Town got 16" of snow. Here's my walkway:

And my car:

The snow was up to my knees, and for the first time, I had to shovel the top of my car.

It took about 45 minutes to get the car out. And I also had help from a neighbor.

The surprising thing is, a few days later, in far away Metro, they got over 12.5" inches of snow--where typically, they don't get ANY snow in the winter. I heard that it was the most snow that Metro had ever gotten in a single day.

It's snowing again, in University Town, tonight, with snow in the forecast all week. At least everything is back to normal.

(The penny remains)

New Background Theme

2010-02-15T02:21:00.002-05:00

I noticed the other day that my blog titles were not displaying correctly in Internet Explorer. Since I have no experience in XML/HTML coding, and since I wasn't particularly attached to the old blog template, I got a new template, rather than try to repair the old one.

I hope you enjoy the new look!

Ready for New Year's

2010-02-14T01:44:00.001-05:00

Today (1 am, February 14) is the Lunar New Year, the year of the Tiger. I am ready.

This afternoon, I made preparations. I cleaned house, ushering out the old year, and making space for the new. I took out the trash. I shredded papers. I threw out old bedding. I took things out for recycling.

I drove to the recycling bin, to find that it was gone. I wandered confusedly around campus until I found another one. I dropped things off at the Goodwill.

I went to the store. I have everything for New Year's tomorrow--red bean paste and Mochiko for sticky cakes (nian-gao). I bought fish--Pacific cod. I have dumplings. I have cilantro, and five-spice powder.

I vacuumed, and swept, and dusted. I washed all the dishes (and I have no dishwasher). I cleaned the tub, the tile, the doors, the toilet, the sinks. I scrubbed the floor. I filed, put things away.

I showered, washed my hair, put on red pajamas. I turned the vent on in the bathroom, (instead of opening the windows and doors of the apartment), so that the old year could freely exit.

I am eating unbroken ramen noodles--long, for long life. I put on Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."

I am ready for the New Year.

Happy New Year, everyone! Wealth and Long Life!

January, a review in food

2010-02-05T22:56:00.012-05:00

Since this is partly a food blog, I thought I should take another look at January from a gastronomical angle as well.

By January, I was getting sick of food. I had gained 6 pounds in the last two weeks of December, and was starting to feel it.

The New Year Festivities
My husband and I had been invited to a New Year's party at our old college town. We left Metro in the morning, arriving in town shortly after noon. Food for the New Year started with a trip to S___'s Beefmasters, for lunch. The smallest cut of steak they offer is 14 oz, which is their lunch special. In most places, a 14 oz would be considered a large. For me, 4 oz is a meal. Since I didn't want to waste good meat, I ordered a chicken fried steak, instead (which normally uses a poorer cut of meat). It was still huge, but I didn't feel bad leaving half of it on the plate.

I, therefore, arrived at the New Year's party full. It was funny, as we arrived just as a group of party go-ers were leaving to go eat dinner. Even funnier was that they were going to Texas Roadhouse (another steak place), as it was something of a treat for them. It was ironic--in University Town, I live 0.2 miles from a Texas Roadhouse.

While our hotel was newly remodeled and comfortable, it didn't have much in the way of food--it only had a cafe that was open in the day. I was hungry by the time we came back from the party at 9, and could only get some peanuts, which they sold in the lobby.

Breakfast was also only so-so--plastic wrapped danishes and bottles of milk. It was complimentary, however, so I have no complaints. It's my understanding that the hotel will have improvements in this area with its new management. I wouldn't mind staying there again.

As we were leaving the hotel, my husband remembered that we had left a piece of steak from the day before in the in-room mini-fridge. (He had ordered a large steak, and had taken the leftover back to the hotel with us.)

On the way back into Metro, I asked for Italian for lunch. We found Marsala Italian Restaurant, in a small town outside of Metro. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's nicer inside, with dark painted walls and skylights. The food was very good. We both finished our entrees, and then ordered another set of entrees to take home.

As I mentioned before, by this time, I was getting tired of food. For our last meal together before returning to University Town, we went to Olive Garden, where I consumed an entire bowl of their salad, and only ordered some pasta as my "main dish", because I needed a little something to accompany the salad.

University Town
Upon returning to University Town, I felt out of sorts. I had to search for my key to open the door to my apartment. And when cooking again, the knife felt strange in my hand, even though I had cooked for Christmas and helped with New Year's Eve dinner.

I was relieved to finally be away from restaurant food, and holiday food. For my first meal in University Town, I pulled my copy of Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish--a low-fat vegetarian cookbook--off the shelf. I selected Hoppin' John (a black-eyed peas and rice dish), perfect for New Year's.

That followed with a vegetable pot pie (to which I did add a can of chunk chicken), and cabbage stuffed with lentils and basmati rice. I hadn't been a fan of the cookbook earlier--I had tried two recipes, and only one turned out well--but this time, the recipes have turned out really well. Since then, I've written in the book's margins, and put in sticky notes. The pages are now a little warped from when I've dripped water on them while cooking. In other words, this book is becoming beloved. Since returning to University Town, I've only had one bad recipe from the book--a recipe for collard greens, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions (in my opinion, it should have been just collard greens, and a little onion and garlic)--and all the ingredients have been common, easily found ingredients.

Here's the pot pie. I used puff pastry for the top, and a frozen pie shell for the bottom.

Latke FAIL
My two most recent recipes from Dr. Ornish were a cabbage and beet borscht, and potato pancakes (latkes). I was unprepared for the amount of chopping required for them. It took me three hours(!) to make those two dishes. I was exhausted at the end, and the latkes were a major FAIL.

I made the latke batter, blanching, then hand grating the potatoes, but I took so long, the potatoes turned a muddy brown. I started frying them in a cast iron griddle, with just enough oil to coat the surface of the pan, but the latkes weren't looking anything like they were supposed to look. I had put in liquid egg whites (remember this is low-fat cooking), but they didn't mix with the dough at all, instead forming a watery puddle under the shredded potatoes. In frustration I went to look up latke recipes online. Turns out, the Ornish cookbook left out one important step--squeezing out the potatoes. That was why I had shredded potatoes floating in "soup". I went ahead and poured out all the liquid and squeezed the pototoes--losing both the water and the liquid egg whites--then poured the egg whites back in (this time, half of what the recipe asked). I also added some additional flour and baking powder to get a less watery consistency to my batter. I then used a regular frying pan, poured in oil to a 1/4 inch depth, and dropped in the latke batter. This time, they fried nicely, but with a strange overall color, due to the muddy colored batter.

I put them in between layers of paper towels and left them overnight, to drain the oil.

Next time, I'll try baking them. (425 degrees for 10-15 minutes on one side. Brush with oil, flip, return to oven for another 10-15 min.) I'll also try beating the egg whites until they stiffen.

Weight Loss
Generally, I am oblivious to my weight, and simply eat until I am no longer hungry. But six pounds in two weeks seemed a excessive to me. Upon returning to University Town, I purchased a bathroom scale, and started a food diary at MyFitnessPal.com (I downloaded their iPhone app.).

I really liked MyFitnessPal--it was fun and easy to use. I would recommend it if anyone is looking for a calorie tracker.

I'm not sure how much it helped. I always used the tracker after I ate, so I didn't really make any changes to my diet because I was using it. Also, I found that either I have a faster metabolism than they calculated, or I am not measuring my food correctly--I have lost weight faster than they predicted.

I realized too, after two weeks of eating out, that portion distortion does happen. I was surprised, at first, at how little it looked like I was eating, compared to what I had been eating over the holidays.

I have returned to my pre-vacation weight, which is a relief. I am also feeling much better.

The penny remains.

January, in review

2010-02-02T14:50:00.003-05:00

I'm still pretending December didn't happen--though at some point I suppose it has to materialize--but January is not out of bounds! So, a list of past January events:

The End of Vacation
My husband and I attended a New Year's party, back in the town where we got our undergraduate degrees. We toured the central part of the campus, and got to see some of the renovations (actually, at that point, more like the deconstruction) being done to the student center.

At the party, I met some old friends and acquaintances, and made a new one--a 5-month old black German shepherd. I played Wasabi, and was totally confused by Little Big Planet. I was gifted a replica Assassin's Creed 1 throwing knife (I'll have to sharpen it, and then get a yard with which to practice. Or is it for display?)

The husband and I stayed at an hotel on the historical register. It had been fully remodeled, of course, it was interesting how small it felt. Cozy would be the proper term. We were able to get a suite, which had a large bathroom with a claw-footed tub. Across from the tub, on a shelf mounted above the toilet, was a TV.

I felt old for the first time. (This could be its own post. A confluence of events and realizations.) I don't mean I noticed the difference of years between some then and now. By this I mean I saw a line between who I was, or who I used to be--and who I was now. It wasn't me "growing" older, some continuum, which I normally feel myself on. It felt instead like a break. And I realized that I could no longer act the way I've always acted, because I'm no longer the person I've always (thought) I've been.

I returned to University Town. The flight in was on a puddle hopper. The flight attendant repeated, probably 7 or 8 times (no exaggeration), that all cell phones had to be turned off. "They interfere with radio communications, and the pilot hears a constant clicking in his headset. He cannot hear the instructions from the control tower, and he will turn the plane around."

Once we landed, we were reminded to take everything with us off the plane. "So far today, we have found 12 phones, 6 wallets--full of money--and one divorce decree."

A few days later, I got my eyes checked for new contact lenses. My optometrist was wonderful.

Trip to Washington DC
School started with a bang. The first day, not only did I have class, but I had a conference in DC. It would be my first time in the city.

I went to class, then hurried to the engineering print department to pick up a poster. It wasn't done, but was sitting on the work counter. The person working on the poster had gone to lunch, and was preparing to trim it. I said it didn't need to be trimmed, and took it.

About this time, I stopped in the bathroom, and in unzipping my coat, noticed that the scarf I had been wearing--something knitted by one of my mother-in-law's co-workers--had shed all over me. The fringes that hung from the end of the scarf were now little threads. I was wearing my suit pants, and it was not pretty. I tossed the scarf in the trash on the way out.

I then got in my car and drove to Washington DC for a conference--the meeting of the Transportation Research Board. I did stop for gas, and picked up a sandwich, and a lint-roller.

Since I was going against traffic (I was arriving in the evening at rush hour, while everyone else was leaving), things weren't too bad until I got into the central part of the city. I ended being in the wrong lane, driving past the hotel, but turning around wasn't too bad, and I still arrived before the poster presentation started.

When I got to the poster room, I found I was ill-prepared. I had followed the guidelines I had found online. These instructions were for poster presenters that were actually presenting at the conference--they were to be 4x8 ft, and there would be boards and tacks for us to use. When I arrived, I found that the guidelines were different for us students--the posters were supposed to be 3x4 ft, and mounted. There were only easels available. I talked with the administrator there, and was directed to the hotel's shipping/receiving department. I found some old posterboard there, and the lady (wonderful lady!) working there, helped me to tape pieces of posterboard together so that it would be big enough to mount the poster.

Very few people came to see our posters. Most just walked by. This gave me a chance to speak with some of the other students at the poster session. All the other students there were civil engineers, and I enjoyed talking to them.

Return to School
After the poster session was over, I drove back north through Frederick, MD, where I stayed the night. It was a really nice town. I'd like to go back to visit. I also need to go back to DC and actually tour it. I was back in University Town in time for my evening class.

The next day went surprisingly smoothly. I went to the bookstore for a course packet (actually, a photocopied version of a book serving as the course textbook) and didn't have to wait to check out. I then went to class, and a good meeting with my advisor. I then went to Staples to bind the course packet (which I had bought earlier), and once again, didn't have to wait--they took it bound it, and gave it back immediately. I was so surprised. Normally, I've had to come back in a day or two when asking for materials to be bound.

I felt bad about throwing the scarf away, and since I had a Kohl's gift card, I stopped there. I picked up a scarf (and a pair of gloves) for 60% off. From there I went shopping at both Wal-Mart (using coupons I had printed off online--neato, since I don't get a newspaper) and Sam's Club.

New Stuff
January seems to be the month that I like buy new things. Last year, it was a dozen 5-piece china settings which I justified because 1) I hadn't registered for fine china when I married, 2) by the modern anniversary calendar, the 2nd anniversary is the "China" anniversary, and 3) the particular pattern (Pointe D'esprit by Monique Lhuillier) was 70% off.

This year, the big purchase was a new computer. A Dell Studio, with an Intel i7 quad core processor--definitely more than I need, but definitely nice to have. And like the Dell it replaced, it was a refurb. It's a bad picture---new one is the black one on the right. It's actually quite shiny and not smudgy.

The other new things were smaller--a new pair of trail runners, a new hair dryer, new gloves (I purchased 3 pairs since the last post). And with Christmas money, a new toaster (this one I can justify as a "need" since my old one broke), and a new insulated mug.

It's a Thermos, Element 5, vacuum insulated travel mug (purchased from Amazon) and I absolutely love it. I put tea in at the start of all-nighter, and six hours later I was surprised to find that it was still warm. It definitely does what it's advertised to do. It's my new favorite mug. But that reminds me...I had to buy a new bottle brush to clean it.

A rant on gloves and Apples

2010-01-27T20:20:00.001-05:00

I've had this rant in the back of my head for a while now. In one of my first blog posts, I mentioned in passing that my iPhone and I did not "meet cute." It had to grow on me.

Now, that they've introduced the iPad--and they didn't fix what I consider to be a major flaw in the design--has put in a bad mood. Add to the fact that I've been thinking of gloves recently--they're on sale!, and I have the ingredients necessary for a blog post.

To be blunt: I love gloves. When I was first thinking of starting this blog, asking myself "What should my blog be about?", the first answer was gloves.

There are blogs about clothes, in general. There are blogs about purses, and shoes, and jewelry, about perfume. But as far as I can tell, the only glove blog is the For the Love of Opera Glove blog--which hasn't been updated since 2004. Makeup blogs will have FOTD--face of the day. There are several blogs along the lines of "What I Wore Today" (including, of course, "What I Wore Today"). But what about us glove lovers? Why I can't get a daily fix of some lovely gloves, and how to wear them?

I wear gloves all year. I love going to fairs in the summer wearing white gloves and a straw hat. It feels so respectable. I own as many spring/summer gloves as I do winter/fall ones, and I am looking to increase my spring/summer collection. Each coat I own has it's own pair of gloves. Basically, if I'm leaving the house, I'm wearing gloves.

There are more to gloves than opera gloves, but assuming that it is true, that the most popular gloves out there are opera gloves (which is NOT what I observe in looking around the people I pass by everyday)--that makes Apple's overlooking of this flaw even greater--you can't use the iPhone or iPad while wearing gloves. And stripping--because the way I see it, taking off gloves, especially if you have to peel them off the entire length of your arm, as an opera glove--is not something so casually done, say, on a crowded bus.

So, my iPhone--hated the bugger when I first got it. I picked it up from the post office--and noticed I couldn't use it. It was summer even, and even through my thin summer gloves, it wouldn't read my finger pressure. That was my first impression, and first impressions stay with you. Within half an hour, I was imaging myself "accidentally" dropping it behind the wheel of my car.

I looked up how one was supposed to use an iPhone with gloves. The solutions suggested? Use your nose, or your tongue. My nose doesn't work, for some reason. My tongue does work. But only if I lick it like I MEAN it...no little dainty ice-cream lick, but firm, hard-candy/half-my-tongue-on-the-screen lick.

My thoughts: "I'm sorry, iPhone, but we just met less than an hour ago." I'm not putting out for my phone. I'm not that kind of girl. (Though, I'm pretty sure that anyone who saw me doing that would probably think twice about stealing my phone.) The iPhone had such GREAT choices for using it. The choices are: take off a piece of clothing, or lick me hard.

Other things that bothered me--besides needing to strip in order to use the thing--a dual step to answer the phone (isn't it supposed to be more efficient to use the iPhone?), a really sucky speaker (when alone in the room, I take my calls on speakerphone), and the general elitist attitude of its accessories (everything has to have the designed for iPhone logo on it, or there's no guarantee it will work).

Anyway, I have a stylus for my iPhone now. It's not a good stylus. It doesn't read well at all--but it's the only "official" stylus (the Pogo). I've come to accept that sometimes I need to take off my gloves, but there's still a little resentment underneath. At least, I only need to take off one.

Yes, I've seen the gloves with the little capacitative patches on the fingers. But the most I've seen is on the thumb, the index, and middle fingers. Some people type on the iPhone using the index, middle, and ring fingers. Because some people have small hands. (Random trivia--the tip of my pinky is too small for the iPhone to register.) And no, I don't think gloves without fingertips are very stylish.

Really, I'm not the person that the iPhone was designed for. They had someone else in mind. Not me.

And now comes the iPad. Which has a full size keyboard, which means two hands. Which means one would have to remove both gloves. At least, from what I could tell, they didn't offer an alternate way of input (other than a separate keyboard--which defeats the purpose of the thing if you have to carry around a screen and a keyboard, no? I mean, isn't that a laptop?). So, so, so, stupid. We're not talking some minor tweak to make the operating system go 2 ms faster. I mean, it's a change so that one can actually put in input! How can a thing be interactive if it won't register any inputs? It's freaking fundamental!

Anyway.

The gloves I saw on clearance were leather, elbow length, unlined. I think they'd be so cute with a tank top in summer. My current summer gloves are all 5 button length or shorter.

And for those gardeners out there, looking for a classically styled gloves, instead of the chunky work gloves, I highly recommend Foxgloves brand gloves. They also work really well for going out. For a durable dress-casual gloves (gloves to wear when going to the store) I like the Foxglove Original. For something dressier, there's the Foxglove Elle, that's elbow length.

(The penny remains)

Stuck

2010-01-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

I'm stuck in my own blog.

I've been trying to catch up, writing about my Christmas vacation. It's been a tough process. In the most general sense, I had a wonderful time back in Metro for Christmas break. It was difficult for me to adjust back to being in University Town. I would like to add more detail to it, to make a fuller description of my Christmas break. I've been trying to write: this is what happened, this is how I felt. However, the last two weeks of last year, I lived through one version of events, and my husband lived through another. The facts, we can agree on--we went here, we did this--what those events, meant, however, is up for dispute.

I can write my own interpretation, but reconciling the two interpretations is not so easy. I suppose that since this blog is my forum, I wouldn't be blamed for presenting only my version. But I want the history to be correct!

So for now, Christmas break did not happen.

Forward!

And, although this evening I found the penny knocked from the window sill, I put it back. So, the penny remains.

Return from Holiday

2010-01-10T18:22:00.000-05:00

My last post, on December 5, was written at the beginning of the last two week stretch of the semester. I was busy writing--I turned in 5 papers over those two weeks, and writing for "fun" (this blog) seemed to be beside the point. The next two weeks, after the end of the semester, was spent on holiday with my husband in Metro. The lack of posts from those two weeks were inexcusable. However, I did have a wonderful time.

I have, however, returned to University Town. School starts tomorrow, and I will return to my twice weekly updates.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, had good time with family and friends, and returned to work rested. Thanks for bearing with me.

Since last time....

November:
It was Thanksgiving. I made a turkey Wellington--crazy recipe because I'm really frustrated with turkey. It turned out OK. Then I flew home.

Flying home was great! The first leg of the flight offered actual food! Not $7 snack boxes, but free food--a box with wheat crackers, a little wheel of herbed Rondele cheese, and a package of sliced salami. It included a small package of M&Ms, and another small bag of dried fruit. That was before the drink cart came around with pretzels, and we were handed an entire can of soda.

Then, I was in Cleveland Hopkins International for the first time. I remained only in one terminal, but it was nice and airy. I liked how they placed the restrooms in the middle of the hall, with a corrugated metal half-pipe roofs--it made the terminal seem boulevard-ish. The terminal even had an area for young children. I people watched as I waited for my next flight, and it was a pleasant people watching--not staring into a tired crowd moving hurriedly back and forth in a long tunnel, as it can sometimes feel like in an airport.

The second plane was a bit odd. Typically, on such flights, there are two seats on either side of the aisle going all the way back, where it opens to a small area for the flight attendants. This flight, instead of being open in the back, had a back row that was 5 seats across. That is, one person sat in a seat in the "aisle". (I was seated in the last row, but next to the window.)

I was in good spirits when I landed. It was about 6 o'clock, but dark my now. I thought it odd that the car did not unlock when I tried to unlock it with my key fob...and that the light did not come on when I manually unlocked the car...and then that the car didn't start.

After a few frantic phone calls (I didn't have my AAA card, and couldn't reach my husband. I called my in-laws, instead.), I got on the bus to go back to the terminal (there was a shuttle bus between long-term parking, where I was, and the airport terminals). I stopped a couple that was disembarking to ask if they could give my car a jump. They said that they didn't have a jump cable, but I said I did. Only, when I looked in my trunk, turns out I didn't....Back on the bus.

My husband called me when I had arrived back at the terminal--his parents had contacted him, and he had called AAA for a service vehicle to be sent out. My car got jumped, and I was on the way home by 8 o'clock. I drove the 2 hrs home without incident. The first thing the next morning, I was at Sears, getting a new battery put in.

The following week, I made two presentations. That week also had the first day of hunting, and the local schools were all closed. I received an early birthday present--a clock radio docking station for my iPhone! I'm very happy with it. It's display, sound quality, and ability to pick up stations, are all better than my previous clock radio. It looks pretty, too.

There were also strange weather reports. It was 50 degrees and raining here in University Town in the Northeast, but I heard that it snowed back in southern Metro.

Finally, the penny remains.

Thanksgiving break 2009

2009-12-05T01:06:00.005-05:00

It's 11pm, and I'm back in my cozy apartment in University Town. I feel like I'm just warming up.

I feel like laughing. I left the southern city of Metro a week ago, and in the past couple of days, they've gotten snow--one of the earliest snows of the season. Here, in the northeast, it's raining, and 51 degrees, at night. Since our snow in October, here in University Town, all precipitation has stayed liquid. Here, we're looking at each other and saying "Can you believe it's December, and we don't need our coats?"

My Thanksgiving holiday was great.

I didn't go to a movie, but I played way too much Assassin's Creed, both 1 and 2. I enjoyed them both, but I think the second game is superior. The first game grew a little monotonous. The second game had more humor, more variety to the missions, and did a far better job of incorporating the various tasks you had to complete into the plotline. And I liked the puzzles in AC2! A part of it, too, I think, is that my husband assisted me as I played, helping me to find hidden objects, directing me to different points on the map, solving puzzles with me, and giving approval of my cooler assassination moves. It was just really nice being able to game together.

We mostly ate in during the week. I did get a good steak at Saltgrass. It was a surprise, as I had remembered it to be a middling experience the last time I went. I would go back.

On the other hand, I had a negative experience when I went to D__'s Mediterranean Buffet. It was one of a regional chain of restaurants. One had opened recently near my apartment, and it had gotten high reviews from family members, who had eaten there several times. My trip there was a wasted effort. The food was either dry, or overspiced. I tried to sample as many dishes as I could, to give it a fair shake, filling one plate with a bunch of options, and when those did not work out, going back and getting another plate, sampling a different variety of food. Unfortunately, I was not able to get more than one bite out of most of what I tried. I liked two things: the rice, and the green beans and carrots, but even the rice had dried, and was crunchy--not in a good way. It was not worth the $11-ish dollar price. I left hungry, and I asked the husband take me took a grocery store so that I could buy something frozen to take home. If I was with a group of people considering D__'s, I would actively try to dissuade anyone from going there, and if they decided to go anyway, I would get food elsewhere, and meet up with the group again later.

Despite my concerns with Thanksgiving dinner, everything turned out well, even though it turned out to be more of a Thanksgiving supper--the food wasn't ready until about 4:30pm. Luckily, I had talked the husband into taking me to IHOP for breakfast--and for me, a full hot breakfast will last until suppertime. There was turkey, turkey Wellington, stuffing, baked beets and squash, green bean casserole, Dijon glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy. I also had pumpkin pie, homemade, fresh from the oven. Yum. The others chose to wait on dessert.

I am thankful for many things. For friends, especially for family, for the chance to just get together, to have to time to get together. I am grateful, too, that everyone in my family has employment, that their bills can be met. I was thankful that Thanksgiving day was nice--I joked that it should have been a bbq--it was warm enough to be comfortably outdoors, and our cooking was causing the A/C to run. I am thankful that school was gone very well this semester. And I'm thankful for all the support my friends, family, and my husband has given me as I slog through school.

Thanks everyone. And I hope that everyone found something to be thankful for this holiday, as well.

Notes: Making Turkey Wellington

2009-12-01T22:49:00.004-05:00

The in-laws purchased a frozen turkey breast at Tom Thumb (a local grocery store chain) and then took it to the deli counter to have it de-boned the next day. It came back deboned, and cut in two fillets and a small strip of tenderloin.

Ingredients:

2 turkey fillets
stuffing
1 box puff pastry dough, defrosted
vegetable oil
1 beaten egg
Also, cotton string/twine

1. Make a stuffing of your choice. I used an apple cranberry walnut stuffing found here. I mixed all the ingredients and cooked it on the stovetop. I thought the recipe lacked a little "oomph", so I added a splash of orange juice to the recipe. Let the stuffing cool a little.

2. Flatten the fillet to about a 1/4" thickness: Place the fillet between two sheets of plastic wrap. Pound it with either a meat mallet, or in this case, a cast iron pan.

3. Scoop up the stuffing with your hands. Spread it on top of the turkey fillet.

4. Pull the ends of the fillet together, so that it forms a circle. (Close the Pac-Man mouth)

5. Roll it all up. Yumm...raw poultry. (I think the photo looks a little obscene)

6. We're not done, yet! Tie the roll in string.

7. In a large frypan, heat some oil. Place the rolled turkey in the pan to sear. Turn it so the outside is cooked all the way around. It looks like fish!

8. After the turkey has been seared, remove from the pan and allow to cool. While waiting for the turkey to cool, roll out one sheet of the puff pastry dough.

9. Cut the string off the turkey roll, and carefully remove it. We don't want the roll falling apart.

10. Put the turkey on top of the the dough. Bring the edges of the dough up around the turkey, and cut off extra dough if there is too much overlap. Pinch the edges of the dough together. Turn the whole thing over, so that the seam of the dough is underneath. If you want, use a cookie cutter to cut decorative shapes from the extra dough. Place it on top of the roll to make it look pretty.

11. Brush the loaf with the beaten egg.

12. Place in the oven at 350 F. Bake for 20-30 min, or until internal temperature reads 170 F.

13. Slice, eat, enjoy. (Thanks to Mr. Turro for the photo)

It goes well with gravy, and I'm told it does well, and in some ways is better, re-heated. Just place slices on a pan to warm up.

We didn't eat until 4:30pm...it really was a Thanksgiving dinner. But! People were impressed with it. I had fun making it. It was a group effort. The father-in-law beat the turkey into submission, while the mother-in-law tied the turkey rolls.

I've been encouraged to make Beef Wellington for Christmas.

Good thing I know of a place in Metro to buy foie gras. And perhaps I should go to that queen of gastronomy, Julia Child, for the recipe of filet de bœuf en croûte ?

Thanksgiving Eve, altered state

2009-11-26T01:00:00.001-05:00

Normally, being up at 11pm doesn't mean much to me. In my apartment at University Town, I'm by myself, and I've got two high-lumen torchiere lamps in a small living room which makes the place as bright as daylight (I have a theory that a reason I have trouble sleeping at night is that the lights are too bright.)

Here in Metro, though, there are two average lamps in an average living room. The husband is sleeping in the next room, and and everything feels quiet and sleepy and just very NIGHT-like. I'm feeling a little sad, a little lonely, a little regretful, a little homesick.

I've had a wonderful few days here. I don't want to leave. But Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I wish it weren't. I wish Thanksgiving was another week away. Oh, I look forward to the actual getting together and all that. It's just that to me, Thanksgiving marks the end of vacation. I don't want to go back.

It's always this way, of course. While I'm in University Town, I'm happy to be in University Town, happy to have my own place, and I think that perhaps after I graduate I'll wander some more. Who needs to live together, right? The world is so big--why live in a single place, why settle down? I'm happy to travel back to Metro, as I step on the plane out of University Town...but it's a happiness that is no different from going on any vacation. It's only once I land in Metro that I enter a reality shift, an altered state: Why did I ever leave? And, no, I don't want to go away again. I no longer know what is real: Of course things are wonderful--You're on vacation, you dolt, sans souci! It's not real! It's an illusion, a slice of only some of the happy moments in life. Yet it FEELS real. The happiness and the sadness, both.

So I'm awake, typing, in strange place when 11pm feels like night.

I'm a bit intimidated by Thanksgiving tomorrow. Oh, the mother-in-law has the turkey covered. Nothing will be ruined. But we agreed that I would try a mix of a turkey kiev/turkey wellington. There is filleted turkey breast waiting for me in her refrigerator. The plan--my plan--is to take a mallet to the things until they're about 1/4" thick, layer with a cranberry walnut stuffing, and roll it and sear it, and encase it in phyllo dough and bake it. Because honestly...I've had roast turkey for Thanksgiving every year for YEARS. I'm no fan of leftovers, either. There has to be a better way! There has to be a better way! There has to be a better way!

The issue is, I'm no professional cook. This turkey rollup/wellington is something I've dreamed up (though there are recipes for turkey wellington out there, they require bacon, and they have the turkey breast whole, not flattened). Add to this the fact that I get to make it while *all* the Thanksgiving stuff is going on--the cooking of sides, and gravies, and desserts--and I've no idea how I'm going to pull it off. The way I figure it, it'll be ready by supper time. On the plus side, unreasonable cooking tasks have never put me off before.

I'll let you know how it goes.

My contributions for Thanksgiving:
White wine turkey gravy
Glazed Dijon carrots
SUPER TURKEY:
Apple cranberry walnut stuffing
For reference: Turkey kiev
For reference: Turkey wellington

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

A quiet start to vacation

2009-11-21T01:09:00.000-05:00

I went to bed a little after midnight, and was up at 3 am. I actually had breakfast--chicken tenders and gravy with Texas toast, leftovers from lunch the day before, a good Southern breakfast for a good Southern trip. I washed it down with a warm spot of tea.

The two hour drive to the airport went surprisingly quickly. The weather was fair and clear, temps in the 40's. It was my day to use fuel wastefully--I cruised at 70mph for most of the way to the airport, and then I flew across country. I flew into O'Hare, my arrival gate only a few gates away from the departure gate to Metro (I've decided to refer to my adopted hometown, which I have previously referred to as "The City", as "Metro" from now on, as the term "The City" in pop culture commonly means New York City [and yes, I know in comic books Metropolis is NYC, too, but I have to use *some* generic descriptor].) Living in University Town has let me travel through lots of Eastern airports: Detroit, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare. Next week, my return flight will be though Cleveland. It's been a neat experience.

The flight into O'Hare was also amazingly smooth. From O'Hare to Metro, however, the flight was rougher, and I was glad to land. There was also too much carry-on luggage on this flight, but I packed light--I fit all my clothes into a rolling laptop suitcase--so I was able to fit it underneath the seat in front of me: no luggage issues for me!

I had lunch with my father-in-law: Red beans and rice and pork chops at a country-style restaurant. Also, who knew that getting two watch batteries replaced would cost $151? The on-going cost of owning a designer watch?

I had a quiet evening with video games and TV. The husband is sick, so I'm looking to a quiet weekend. But perhaps I can talk him into taking me out to a movie...

End of semester crazyness

2009-11-19T21:47:00.006-05:00

This week has been exhausting. My school gets the entire week next week off for Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, there are only two more weeks left in the semester! Since I will be at my vacation residence (my husband's apartment in The City) all next week, and two presentations immediately when I come back, I've been trying to cram finishing everything into this week. No such luck. There is so much still to do. I'm about to tear my hair out, and I've already given myself a stomachache.

I'm hoping to be able to work two good full days next Monday and Tuesday, and possibly part day Sunday, while my husband is at work. It would be *great* to have everything done. I hate end of the semester!

What else? I've finished watching the Assassin's Creed walkthrough. It was entertaining to watch, and I'm looking forward to when people start uploading playthroughs of the AC II game. From a watcher's perspective, I took issue with the main character killing his informants after beating them and interrogating them, and the fight sequences seemed repetitive. There's a copy of the game at the vacation residence, so hopefully I'll get to play it a bit. There's also been mention of sending me with a copy of the game (there's a Nintendo DS prequel), or a purchase of AC II so that I can play it over the break. Nifty!

I want to give a shout out to all those taking November to expand on your creativity. I know some of you are participating in National Novel Writing Month while others are creating scrapbooks, and others taking on art projects. I read once that we are made in the image of a Creator God...likewise we too, are creators. It believe that it is not just the "arts" that count as creativity, but any movement away from entropy should be considered an act of creation.

I've been feeling inspired, but I don't know where to begin. And I don't have time to begin until after the semester. I'd like to learn photography, and I'd like to learn to draw. They are both visual media, and there were be some overlap in learning, but I'd like to take things in different directions for the two media. For photography, at this point, I'm not interested in learning about lenses and settings and such. I want to know that given I had the most basic camera--single lens, non-adjustable, disposable--how would I take beautiful pics? Once I've mastered that, lenses and settings and such would just be icing on the cake, right? Perhaps I need to start my learning on art theory?

My desire to learn to draw takes the opposite direction. I can't draw a straight line without a straight edge, and my "circles" are a joke. I've had enough drafting classes to understand perspective and the idea of converting 3D to 2D. My deficiencies with drawing ARE technical.

Photography is capturing light in a box. Drawing, in my mind, requires physical skill, and the ability to convert shapes to lines, colors to shading. For example, the photo at the top of the post. I did nothing. I simply walked past the rosebush when the sunlight was at just the right angle.

Finally, as suggested by a reader, I will include an update on my penny. I found the penny on the sidewalk a month and a half ago. I picked it up, took it up the stairs, and instead of taking it inside, I placed it on my exterior window ledge, next to the door. Since there is a common walkway along all the upstairs apartments (think motel), I did not expect the penny to stay there for long, especially since some of the upstairs residents have young children, and the window is at their height. However, the penny remains.

I travel tomorrow morning, getting up at 3 am. I still need to pack.

Women play videogames?

2009-11-14T23:44:00.003-05:00

I've been watching an Assassin's Creed (AC) playthrough, and so on Wednesday decided to watch the mini-movie, "Assassin's Creed: Lineage", which ties in to the new game coming out on the 17th. I thought it was well done for a promo. The backgrounds looked a bit too CG-y, but I liked how the fights were choreographed to look like fights in-game.

It made me wonder, though, of what the target and actual demographics are for the game. It played on SpikeTV at midnight, and yeah, that should say it all. Every commercial break included an ad for Extenze. A majority of the commercial breaks included an ad for Burger King, with Girls Gone Wild in third place.

Perhaps SpikeTV was the only channel with an available and/or affordable time slot. But the ads really made me feel left out. Surely women play such games, right?

Which leads me to another thought--do women do voice-over narration in movies? The last one I remember was in "Madeline." Don LaFontaine, of course, was the narration master. Did that influence the preference for male narrators, or a male narrators preferred because they sound more authoritative?

My last observation: Since I have not had a TV for the past two years, I have used my computer to watch videos. This means that when I do watch TV, I find myself periodically reaching for the remote--so that I can jiggle it to prevent the screen saver from coming on.

Birds

2009-11-11T00:11:00.001-05:00

I've been watching for the hawk that I mentioned in the last post. I've been doing a terrible job of it. What caught my attention instead was a shriek from aloft as I was walking away from the parking lot.

About a week ago, I was talking to a friend about the Prince of Persia trailer. This led to a discussion about Assassin's Creed (AC)--Prince of Persia and AC both games are published by Ubisoft. I was upfront in saying that I had not played AC, but had only seen some of it. After the conversation, I felt bad about my limited knowledge, and searched youTube for a complete walkthrough. I'm now about two-thirds of the way through the game.

What does this have to do with hawk shrieks? It happens that an eagle shriek is a core sound effect in the game. And since I have been watching too much game footage recently, what caught my ear in the parking lot was the shriek. See, video games are educational!

In game, I believe the sound effect is that of a red-tailed hawk. But from what I could see of the bird, it did not appear to me to have a red tail. The cry was similar, and the bird was quite insistent on it, so I'm going to identify it as a red-shouldered hawk, for now. And now, you have my first experience with birding!

I had a professor a couple of years ago, a member of the Audubon Society, who had identified over 1000 bird species. I find that remarkable.

Brought to you by the letter C

2009-11-08T00:06:00.003-05:00

My actual, complete grocery list for this week:

cream
cheddar
corn meal
collard greens
chips
chocolate chips

Today's blog challenge is to compose each sentence so that it contains at least one word beginning with the letter "C." And the content of today's post: Cooking, of course!

I discovered that one can make risotto in the rice cooker, even a simple rice cooker, with no "risotto" option. Simply heat half the broth near boiling before pouring it in the rice, and turn on the cooker. As the cooking cycle nears completion, pour in the other half of the broth--again, heated near boiling--into the cooker, and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

I made a more customary mushroom risotto. I stirred in chopped mushrooms and chopped sautéed onions to the pot at the beginning, along with the uncooked rice. After the rice was finished cooking, I added the parmesan.

Comprises about 4 servings
1 cup Arborio rice
3.5 cups broth
2 oz dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated, then chopped
1/4 onion, chopped then sautéed
1/3 cup grated Parmesan

For the broth, I used about 2 cups chicken broth, and the other 1.5 cups I used the water that I had used to soak the shiitake mushrooms. I used about 4 cups of water to soak the 2 oz of mushroom.

I was quite content with the results. There was no charring, no sticking, no watching and stirring. Clean-up was a breeze.

I also tried my hand at composing a Southern meal: Pork n' beans, cornbread, collard greens.

This was my first time cooking collard greens. I had no idea how to cook them, but assumed that, as with kale or mustard greens, a short braising with a little onion and garlic would do. I was therefore surprised that the 'correct' way of cooking collards involves having them sit in a pot for an hour with a little water and chopped ham hocks. I was also surprised to learn that when cooking collards in such a lengthy manner, they emit a potentially off-putting boiled cabbage-like smell.

I therefore ignored the cooking advice, and just braised them. There were no cloying odors. (Though the next day, my garbage, where I had chucked the stems, did smell.) The leaves were crunchy, and little tough, but not in a stringy way. The texture was more like that of a soft meat, which contrasted nicely with the mushy beans and the coarse cornbread.

It was also my first time cooking cornbread from scratch, rather than from a mix. I came across, and recommend, this recipe. The recipe includes sugar and eggs, and I was worried it might come out too cake-like. I had no cause for worry. The cornbread was still quite dense, the sweetness was only mild, and it was fine to eat alone, without butter.

The only other thing worth commenting on is that I threw out my dying violet, and took the new violet out of quarantine. I was saddened by the casualty. My shelf just looks changed...

I conclude with a photo. My previous posts captured some of the beauty of fall. In contrast, this one captures some ugliness.

Here is the story: I was walking back from class. My path crossed under a large maple. As I approach it to walk under its canopy, I hear rustling and see a hawk fly from the branches. At the same time, a small creature falls from the tree. It is the corpse of a headless pigeon, one wing plucked of feathers.

Moral of the story: Bird carcasses should not fall out of trees at my feet. Otherwise, I'm liable to document it, to the detriment of civilization.

(If this had come about a week earlier, it would have been perfect for Halloween.)

Challenge: Complete. Though I admit that many sentences sound a bit contrived.

Photos: Fall color study 2

2009-11-02T22:05:00.009-05:00

Just photos today. The theme is multiple colors in one plant. All photos were taken on campus.

Reds cooling to green underneath:

From underneath the canopy of the tree on the right:

Once again, more photos on Picasa: Fall Color 2

Winterizing

2009-10-31T23:30:00.006-04:00

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my hometown...

Garrison Keillor is one of my heroes. I've been a fan of his since I was in high school, when I wondered why my tape recorder wasn't auto-programmable like my VCR. I would pull my chair up to the boombox on my dresser and just sit and listen to his baritone. The Guy Noir segments were my favorite. One day, I hope my blog posts will be as good as his tales from Lake Wobegon, and then I can die happy.

It's been a quiet week here in University Town, out on the edge of the mountains.

This week, I got ready for winter. I took my car in to be winterized. I also "shrunk wrapped" my bedroom windows. And finally, I purchased my first named African violet.

I've been a longtime fan of African violets. I gave them up when I went to college, but started growing them again when I moved north. They do two things: help keep the air humid, and help me from going crazy in the winter. They grow and bloom beautifully when there is nothing but gray and snow outside.

I have three violets. One is dying--a victim, I believe, of the cold draft that came through the window on the early snow days. I bought another to replace it. I used some of the leftover window plastic to build a bubble around the new violet, and it is now in quarantine, on the same shelf with the others. The new violet is a scraggly thing, having been on a low shelf in the back of the store. Even so, it looks sturdy, and so far, it's doing very well. I have high hopes for it--higher hopes than when I got the violet it is replacing. All of my previous violets have been NOID grocery store acquisitions. The new one was, too, but surprisingly, the pot had a tag. It's my first named violet: Anthoflores Berti.

This week, I made a classic Chinese dish: Tomato Egg Rice, or, as the blog Rice Again calls it: Chinese Egg Tomato S**t. I used Arborio rice, since I had a large container of it left over from a failed risotto recipe. My ingredients:

1 cup Arborio rice
3 cups chicken broth
28-oz can of peeled tomatoes
4 eggs

I cooked the rice in the classic method: putting the rice and one cup of broth in the pan, stirring over heat until it was absorbed. I then added the second cup of broth, stirring until absorbed. Repeat for the third cup of broth. Finally, I added in the tomatoes, straight from the can, juice and all. Continued cooking and stirring. After about 5 minutes, I was afraid that I had put in too much liquid, but after cooling a bit, it was a nice creamy consistency.

I cracked the eggs in a bowl, scrambled them with a fork, and then put them in a hot fry pan, continuing to scramble them into small pieces until done. The dish was served by sprinkling the egg on top of the tomato risotto.

I used to think that I did not like risotto. This dish changed my mind.

Happy Halloween!

Monday Drive

2009-10-27T03:06:00.007-04:00

As Borat would say: Great Success!

I had class this morning, then I went to the car dealership to get an oil change and winterization. I arrived at 1:30pm, and was told that I had been scheduled for 1 o'clock. I used my phone to pull up the e-mail confirming my appointment--it was 1:30pm. Luckily, the (other) 1:30 appointment didn't show, and they were able to get my car in.

The dealership was at the edge of town. So when my car was finished, I went driving. I went south, but then the road curved westward. I was in a little community I had never been before, with a small downtown along the road. And the countryside was lovely.

I wanted to stop to take pictures, but I didn't want to stop at a person's farm. Luckily, I came across a state Department of Agriculture building. It was new, large, with plenty of parking. As far as I could tell, I was the only one there. But best of all, it was adjacent to a farm, complete with a red barn, and a field of dried corn.

Unfortunately, between the Dept. of Ag building and the farm, there was a lowered area for water retention. The retention area was a long oval, and because of the recent snow, there was actually a pond on one side, with wild mallards swimming in it.

I decided to cross it on the drier side of the oval. The whole area was covered in unmown hay, flattened by the snow. The adventure was testing each footstep--would the unseen earth underneath the grass support my weight? Or was it hiding a puddle of mud? It really was like crossing a pond, as I slowly zigzagged across.

On the way back, I stopped in the little town, and took a picture of a house I had seen from the highway. It had been decked out for Halloween, with mannequins by the door, a scarecrow hanging by it's neck from a window, and ghouls popping out flower pots.

And finally, I returned to school, for the sole purpose of getting a "color wheel" shot. This time, I think I got it right:

For more and larger photos, go to my Picasa album: Monday Drive

Friday out and about

2009-10-26T00:20:00.004-04:00

I didn't get a chance to drive around on Friday. It rained all day and it was dark by the time I left the pub to go home.

I was presenting a project that I had been working on since summer 2007. Every Friday the department meets and someone presents their research. It was my turn. I got to school with plenty of time before my presentation. I felt nervous, but also confident. I gave my talk, and wasn't bothered by any of the questions. I had several people congratulate me afterwards. But still...I don't want to think about it too hard. There were several times that I was asked a question my advisor(s) answered the questions for me. Were they trying to help me out in a good way? Or were they trying to help me out in the sense that I was fumbling so badly that they felt they had to step in to save me from myself? I don't know, and I don't want to think about it.

The last time I was before this group of people I was giving my oral defense for my candidacy exam. It was a terrible experience.

This presentation was different, of course. And the oral exam, well, it felt so long ago. But I wonder if that haunting feeling that I have now, this questioning of how I did, if some part of that unease didn't come from my sense of total failure that I had in the past.

In any event, I got good feedback,and spent the rest of the afternoon reading a paper that one of the professors suggested.

The happy hour was at a microbrewery/pub called Otto's. I don't drink, but I ordered their fish and chips. It was excellent--a large portion that was moist, and very flaky. The batter was well-seasoned, and not very oily. It came with a homemade tartar sauce with a strong kick of horseradish.

I don't normally use cash, but the restaurant grouped the bill, so I had to borrow money from a friend. The evening was good, but I left angry. One of the students had a bit too much and wouldn't stop talking, even after everyone had left. His ride, a female student, was waiting patiently for him to finish his glass, while he jabbered on about some class. And since I know that I wouldn't be comfortable if everyone ditched me while I waited for some guy to finish his drink--which he was taking his time to do--I hung around. Finally, the guy *I* was giving a ride to, stood up, put his arm around Mr. Slow and said "We should go." It wasn't late, and I didn't have other plans, but I was still annoyed.

It rained all night, and into Saturday afternoon. I love being inside and listening to the sound of rain.

The photo was taken on Thursday. I was attempting to do a color study, like a real-life color wheel: green, red, yellow, then behind them, blue, white. I don't think I succeeded. The composition looks unbalanced to me. Ah well, maybe my skills will improve enough that I can get a better picture next fall.

A Talking Week

2009-10-22T15:42:00.001-04:00

First, a few comments:
After snowing 8 inches over 2 days last week, the temps are back around 70, and it's a beautiful fall day. I plan to do some driving around town tomorrow and try to get a good photo of the colors. I'm a little disappointed: on Saturday one of the nearby towns is having a fall foliage tour on its historical railway, and but the tickets are sold out. Next year, I must remember to start keeping my eyes open for the ticket sales starting in September!

I've noticed my postings are now running late, a Thursday/Saturday schedule instead of Tues/Fri. I am still committed to 2 posts a week...I've just been busier now that it's later in the semester and things are getting pushed back later in the week.

And now:
I wanted to thank everyone who read my blog last week and e-mailed me comments. I promise to reply to everyone this weekend. It was really great to hear from people.

The theme this past week was social interaction. I haven't talked this much in weeks. I had two friends approach me to ask for my perspective on different issues. I gave two talks: one to a class, a practice talk to a prof (and I get to give it to the department on Friday!) And also on Friday the department is going out for happy hour. I know this might not seem like much, but my typical week has me sitting in class in the morning, then going home straight after class. It doesn't bother me. I don't have anything worthwhile to say, anyway.

Early Snow

2009-10-18T00:24:00.015-04:00

It was halfway through October, the afternoon of 10/15, when it started snowing. It was too early for snow. The leaves were still on the trees, some of the trees still green, when a the wet mush started falling. The temps weren't even freezing. But it snowed all night--6 inches.

I went to bed angry. I was certain it would all freeze overnight. I can deal with a certain amount snow. What I DON'T like dealing with is when snow melts, then freezes, leaving your car embedded in the middle of an ice cube. I needn't have worried. The temperatures remained just above freezing.

I heard snow falling off the roof and the tree outside my bedroom in soft thuds all night. In the early morning I heard a sharp crack and a louder crash, but I assumed that it was just more snow, falling off all at once in the sun. Once again, I was wrong. Large branches had fallen off the tree in front of my window.

Six inches of snowfall is normal here, but more a mid-winter phenomenon. October was early, and yes, it was a lot for a first snowfall. However, my morning was completely unremarkable, and my gas-heated apartment was warm. I started my drive to school completely oblivious to the disruptions the snow had caused.

The roads were clear of snow, but there was plenty of debris. Broken branches were everywhere--the trees couldn't bear the weight of the wet snow on the leaves. On my way to school, two stoplights were blacked out.

Parts of the campus were closed off. A mass e-mail went out to all the students advising them to stay away from certain tree-lined walkways because of falling branches. It was homecoming weekend, but no one was allowed to camp out by the stadium (as is customary) due to the continuing snow and the threat of dropping temperatures. The parade was postponed. The homecoming coronation was moved inside, and no one was allowed to park on the grass lots--and there are more grass lots around the stadium than paved areas. Instead, the University called the area shopping centers, and asking to use their parking lots for game day parking.

Once I got to school Friday morning, I heard from classmates that had lost power, and even heat. The news reported 12% of the town was without power. The Red Cross set up an emergency shelter in a nearby elementary school. Today, Saturday morning, I got an e-mail from my church pastor saying that if anyone was still without power (like his family) to feel free to call his cell, and that the church would try to get them a temporary place to stay.

Of course, the first snow also brings out people's sense of fun. As I was leaving school on Friday afternoon I saw that someone(s) had made a snow sofa and a snow TV, complete with willow whip antennas.

Photos are here: Snow Day

Addendum: The National Weather Service has reported that this was the earliest local snowfall in recorded history.

Scenes from Campus

2009-10-17T16:08:00.007-04:00

On Wednesday we had our first snow storm, but last week there was a hint of the crazy weather to come. We had extremely high winds. Two roads adjacent to the stadium were blocked off for safety reasons. Part of the stadium roof was under repair and loose materials were landing in the streets, causing damage to one vehicle. The photo isn't vandalism. It's wind damage.

Also on campus last week was a PR team from Microsoft, promoting Windows 7. I apologize for the glare in the photo. Under the "741", the text reads "You are the one".

I don't get it.

What does it even mean? Windows 7 is personalizable? It will be useful to you? It will make you feel special?

Hopefully Win7 itself will actually work better than the ad campaign.

Notes: Hemming jeans

2009-10-15T20:25:00.002-04:00

A year ago, I got two pairs of jeans during a "buy one get one" sale. One pair of jeans I hemmed soon after purchase. The second pair I just got around to hemming last week.

A Google search on "how to hem jeans" will give you much better instructions than can be found on my blog. However, those instructions show how to re-use the original hem. Instructables has one such method. And last year, when I first searched for how to hem jeans, I used the instructions on Dacia Ray as my manual.

In both these methods, you use/reuse the original hem. In the Instructables entry, you cut off, then re-attach, the original hem. With Dacia, you fold over the extra fabric and sew the hem higher on the leg. Both are good methods. However, I, personally, had some issues. First, I wasn't crazy about having the extra fabric along where you re-stitch the hem. Yes, you iron it flat, so you can't feel it or see it, but knowing it was there still bothered me. Second, I have no sewing machine, and being a fairly inexperienced seamstress, I had difficulty with sewing the perfectly straight line that I wanted. Since I was not intent on saving the original hem, I did my own variation.

1) Measure the desired length of the jeans, pin, and iron the jeans. Mark the folded edge. I will call this the Fold Line.

To measure the length on the jeans needing hemming, I laid them down over an old pair of jeans that were the same brand and style, but had a length I liked. This worked well for me. However, putting on the jeans that need hemming, wearing the shoes that you want to wear with them, and pinning in front of a mirror, is probably best.

I used washable marker for all markings.

2) Measure the Hem Height. That is, measure from the outside edge of the hem, to where the hem is folded under. The stitching should be between these points. Note the measurement. Now, from where you folded and marked the jeans, measure two Hem Heights out. Use a ruler to help mark this 2X Hem Height.

3) Cut the jeans along the 2X Hem Height line. Turn the jeans inside out. Fold the cut edge up, so that the cut edge lines up with the Fold Line . Iron.

4) Fold jeans up again, along the Fold Line. Iron and pin.

5) Turn the jeans right side out. Measure the stitch height from the original hem. Mark the Stitch Height on the outside of the jeans.

6) Sew across the jeans using the Stitch Height Line as a guide. Since even that, my stitches still come out a little crooked, I use a small metal guide (actually a bookmark) and hold it along the line. This results in very very straight stitches.

7) I then went back over the stitches using a Double Running Stitch.
(Just now, I was trying to find out the name of the stitch I was using to hem my jeans. It took me half an hour to get to "double running stitch". I have no recollection about how a year ago I found out about the double running stitch, or why I chose it--It's apparently an outdated Elizabethan stitch. Today, people with any sense use the "back stitch.")

8) At this point the hem looks flat and obvious. However, once the jeans are laundered, they develop the desired weathering and puckering.

Thumbs up for food

2009-10-10T01:35:00.002-04:00

The day after I got back, I had to turn the heat on in the apartment--it was getting into the 40's at night. This inspired another wave of cooking.

That Sunday, I had a craving for comfort food: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, pie. There are 4 grocery stores within 2 miles of where I live: Giant and Weis, which are traditional grocery stores, Wegmans, the "Central Market"-like store I've written about earlier, and Wal-Mart. Of these stores, the Weis has by far best Kosher selection, but in general, is also the least crowded. I've never had to wait in line for a cashier, and I wonder if the place turns a profit. It closes at 10pm (9pm on Sundays) while the other three stores are open 24/7. It's a good store, though, with conveniences such as a post office on the inside, and a Culligan-type water tap on the exterior (I buy bottled water by the gallon and refill). It also happens to be the closest grocery to my apartment.

Since I only wanted to pick up some fried chicken, I stopped at my neighborhood Weis. I was surprised that the deli didn't have normal fried chicken but only fried chicken wings--like hot wings, only done in fried chicken batter. I bought a bag of 10 wings, went home, stuck them in the oven while I made the sides: mashed potatoes and glazed dijon carrots. The potatoes were from a dried box, and the carrots were leftover inspired. I had a salad which called for 2 carrots, which me with the rest of the package.

The glazed dijon carrots were amazing. I am not much of a carrot person, but this could have been my entire meal. This is recipe is holiday quality. I omitted the ground ginger, since I had none, but it was still very, very good.

The last part of my Sunday lunch was baked pears--Weis had them on sale. I selected a couple of Bartletts. I put them in the oven to bake, and sat down for lunch with my chicken and side dishes.

After eating lunch, however, I grew violently ill. Lesson learned--do not eat fried chicken wings from a place that doesn't sell regular fried chicken. Especially when the wings are sitting under a dubious looking heat lamp and have been sitting there for an unknown length of time. Or, better yet, avoid this Weis's deli.

It was Campbell's soup and toast for me for the next couple of days. As I transitioned back into solids, I discovered Stonyfield Farm organic yogurt. It's yummy! It supports small farmers! It's sold at Wal-Mart! What's not to like? It does double duty, both at breakfast, and as a dessert. (And yes, I buy the large tubs instead of the individual serving sizes.)

Another discovery was Target's Archer Farms Blueberry Granola. Yummy granola, fair price, and I think the package design is very clever. The container for it is a solid-feeling paperboard canister--think of an oatmeal canister, except oval shaped. The top is scored in the middle, along the short axis of symmetry, so that you can open it by folding the lid back. I had heard about the packaging earlier but I'm here to say that it works very well in practice.

Lastly, I decided to make marshmallow rice treats, or Rice Krispie treats, if you use the brand name. You basically melt marshmallows and butter in a pot, mix in crisped rice cereal, then pour into a cake pan to cool. Only, I guess I had the heat too high when melting the marshmallows, since they caramelized a bit on the bottom. The resulting cake, however, though not as pull-apart gooey as normal, was much richer in taste the traditional stuff. Once again, repeatable for the holidays.

Travel musings

2009-10-09T00:48:00.003-04:00

To step back in time about a week:

I'm glad to report that my suitcase survived the not at all arduous journey to the City and back. All the paint remained on the suitcase. No one walked off it, but then again, in the dozens of trips that I've taken before this last time, no had walked off with my suitcase, either.

My attempts to make my suitcase stand out actually heightened my fear that someone would mistakenly walk away with it. Would someone else, also with a painted suitcase, just quickly glance, "Oh, I see paint" and walk away with mine? Would they take the time to actually look at the pattern on the paint to make sure it was the right bag? When picking out my bag from the cart, I was terrified that I would pick out the wrong bag. I would keep looking down at the suitcase, checking and rechecking, as I walked through the terminal.

It wasn't until I was about to leave the the City and I caught a commercial on TV--a Southwest commercial showing workers putting luggage on a plane--and saw that none of the suitcases were painted with a design, that it hit me that painted suitcases were rare. I was not until I was in Dulles, sitting in one of their "Travelling lounges" next to a flight attendant that had a multicolored tassel on her suitcase, that I was fully at ease. It was that moment that I remembered that a colored ribbon or tie was what almost everyone used to identify their suitcases, just this little piece of fabric. And I had painted 5 sides of my suitcase--including painting my initials, in full spray paint glory, on the back. No, I think my suitcase was distinctive and hard to mistake.

The morning before I left the City, I went to the restaurant The Egg and I. I've been trying to find good breakfast places around the City. I'm convinced that one has not really experienced a town until one has searched out the best places to have breakfast there. One normally hears discussions about where to go for lunch or dinner, but people rarely have arguments over where to go for breakfast. The choices seem so limited: either the all-American egg/batter-based carb/salted meat or coffee/pastries. Where would you go for an Asian-fusion breakfast? Greek breakfast? Indian breakfast? Maybe those things don't exist in your town, but part of the adventure is finding that out.

The Egg and I is a suburban place, not a greasy spoon--its pancakes are whole wheat, the cheese on its omelets smelled chevre-ish--and the lunch-level prices reflected that as well. The particular restaurant I visited (it's a chain restaurant) was quite new, and the decor reflected a French countryside palette. There was a banquet area, and a group of about 1st grade girls were having a party. This was about 10am on a Saturday. Service was friendly and prompt. It was a good restaurant, but not outstanding, either. There was plenty of food, and breakfast held me until dinner. This would have been a good thing, except that I met with friends for a goodbye lunch right before I went to the airport, and I could only take about 3 bites of my lunch.

I arrived back in Dulles about 8:30pm. I rode in one of their travelling lounges, which was actually quite neat--it's much like a rail car in its size, about 1.5 - 2 times the width of a normal bus, with seats lining the side and lots of open room in the middle. It was very comfortable, and, yes, felt lounge-like. When I arrived in my terminal, it was a little before 9pm and the shops were all closing, pulling down grills across their entrances. I wanted to get Auntie Anne's pretzels, located at gate B76. I was at B3 or so. I started walking down the concourse, but only got to about the B40's before I accepted the fact that I was not going to make it in time. Did I mention that the concourse is one straight long line? It was neat, though, walking though this gigantic concourse, soaring ceilings, all glass, and having it be basically closed, all the waiting areas empty and dimmed. It was peaceful and grand. I imagine that this is what the architects wanted me to feel.

Once we landed in University Town, someone in the front of the plane announced the football game score, with our team was fairly far behind, and that there was only 11 minutes left in the game. There were groans of disappointment, but then, also a slight bit of tension. You see, there is only one main road out of the airport. This road leads directly to the stadium. From the stadium, one can then turn to get into town. In other words, we had to get off the plane and onto the road in 11 minutes, or else we would be stuck with the 100,000 people leaving the stadium. (And yes, the stadium holds 100,000 people. I think 107,280 to be more exact. This is a football town.)

I was lucky. I just beat the crowd. It was good to be home.

Catching up

2009-10-06T22:40:00.001-04:00

I missed last Friday's post, for which, I'd like to apologize to my readers. It seems that it has been forever since I've blogged.

The blog is something that I now always keep in the back of my mind. I keep notes for ideas to blog about, and keep them in drafts on Blogger, or on notes in my iPhone. I parse phrases in my head in the shower, trying to think how they would 'sound' written down. I think too, it has kept me sane this semester. This has been THE best semester I've had at school. I think this is partly due to my light class load, but also, I think due to this blog. I keep thinking that I have to TRY something, I have to DO something, because I need something to blog about.

This can be seen already in my recipe reviews. I normally try to cook as little as possible, and what, ME, try new recipes? BLEH. But already, since starting this blog, I've tried new recipes every week. I'm learning about cooking, and being excited about trying new things. This whole cooking thing is like a new world. And crafting, too. I've always thought they were silly, cute, things to pass the time. And they are, I guess. But if I blog about them, if I'm given some justification for doing them, I mean...Let's start again. I think doing crafts is silly and frivolous. But with this blog in the background, I can justify myself and not feel guilty for "wasting my time" by saying to myself "I'm doing this craft because then I can have something of interest for the blog", I don't have to feel guilty.

It's freeing. I feel like I'm not stuck in the world where everything is "should, should, should", but I can now have some freedom to do what I want, to do something that seems fun, and the world is NOT going to end because I actually did something I actively enjoyed.

I know I put myself on a schedule for this blog, every Tuesday and Friday, another rule for me to follow. And although I am sorry when I don't follow the schedule, I don't feel like a failure and a fool when I don't keep up. The blog is still there, in my head. I have these notes and ideas that aren't going anywhere until I post them.

This week then, I'm going to post twice more, just to catch up, to make up for missed posts.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Accepting others

2009-09-30T00:36:00.002-04:00

In my last post, I mentioned sitting next to a chatty engineer (we never exchanged names, pity). I did not realize it then, but my conversation with him made me realize that for me to respect other people's opinions, sometimes all it takes is for someone to respect mine.

I had class first thing on Monday morning. It was cool, around 50 degrees, and gray. A fellow classmate and I caught up as we were walking from the parking lot to our class. We took a detour, a new route for me, cutting through the quadrangle of the dormitories, past tall oaks, under the covered walkways. I told him that I did not live with my husband. And he replied, "That must be hard."

For several years now, I've wanted to take a rolled up newspaper to anyone who said that statement. To beat them around the head and neck. Perhaps give them a kick in the shins for good measure. Because they are idiots! Narrow-minded fools that believe children's stories, and believe love only exists in their version, their thin slice of experience. If people can live together and not be married, why is it so "hard" to be married, but not live together? There are those (71% of Americans) who think that a wife not changing her names means that she lacks a proper familial unity, or a lack of respect for husband, religion, or tradition. And 90-95% of American women do change their name upon marriage, but I never get "it must be hard to have a different name".

But the chatty engineer, when we were making small talk about our families, didn't just assume, like others did. He had lived apart, knew others who were married and living apart as well, and said that while it had been difficult for him, the difficulty being apart had grown over time, after he and his wife had lived several years together.

"It's what you're used to," we agreed.

Back now, walking to class on a Monday morning, I replied to "It must be hard" with "It's what you're used to."

It was the fairest answer I could give, and I realized I couldn't blame the asker: living together with his wife was what HE was used to. Of course he assumed it would be hard. I could think of him being narrow minded, or I could accept that perhaps, if I had been like him, if things had been different and I had followed the script that society had laid out for me, I would have assumed that such a thing was hard.

But perhaps that I could explain to him that there are other paths, too, perhaps off the sidewalk, across the quadrangle, and under the oaks and covered walkways.

Living Apart Together
SF Chronicle: One for the price of two
Elle: Living Apart Together

South for the weekend

2009-09-26T00:43:00.000-04:00

My flight back to the City for a long weekend was a fairly pleasant one. The flight from University Town into Dulles was on a turboprop, and I got mildly motion sick. Dulles was larger than I imagined it to be, but was otherwise aptly named--it was one of the dull-est airports I've been to. It was basically just two long lines of terminals. The terminals I traveled through, terminals A&B, were in good condition, and it seemed to me that terminal B was new. The food selection was poor, and overpriced. Terminal A, where I waited for my connection flight, was crowded and warm. I sat down on the end of a row of seats, and there was a man, in orange yoga pants, barefoot, on the floor doing various stretches. I tried not to look at him.

What I was impressed with, though, was the number of languages I heard spoken just in my short walk between gates. And, I saw some very smartly dressed people, too: one that stands out in my mind was a lady dressed in an all white outfit--shirt, pants, jacket--the only touch of color being red leather flowers on the top of her white high-heeled shoes.

On the flight into the City, I sat next to a chatty engineer returning from Moscow. He had been working in Russia for the past two years, and he had just bought a house in one of the Suburbs. His wife was Russian, she had arrived in the 'burbs a couple of months ago to get things ready, and she was hopefully, going to be approved to be a US citizen this weekend. How exciting!

Being back in the City let me enjoy some of the foods I've missed--authentic Chinese, masaman beef from a Thai restaurant, bubble tea. Time won't allow me to go to the state fair, but I would have liked to have gone. This is probably a good thing--the last time I went to the fair, I made myself sick by going on a fried food eating spree. I heard that the big thing this year is fried butter. I think it was meant as a joke, but I'm not sure.

It's been a nice trip, and I've had fun hanging out with some great friends. It had been raining here in the City, but the past few days have been very pleasant, sunny but only in the low 70's. The apartment I'm staying in is at the edge of the complex, next to a wooded area. I stepped outside for some fresh air and sun, and I could hear the brook bubbling merrily in the woods. I felt like a very lucky person.

Only other bit of news: I'll be returning to the University with (daring, for me, anyway) deep burgundy polished nails.

Prepped for flying

2009-09-23T13:01:00.001-04:00

I apologize for being a day late on this post, as well. I will be on break on Friday, though, so things should continue on time.

This post will take exactly 15 minutes to write--unlike the others, which have been taking close to 30 minutes to write--because I have to leave in 15 minutes to catch my flight.

I am behind on my actual school writing, so I'll be taking that with me on the trip. Otherwise, things are going well. I've taken out the trash, washed the dishes (I don't have a dishwasher), and currently the fan is blowing to get my apartment aired out.

The flu has been a concern at school. They've put up these stands of hand sanitizer dispensers in the lobbies and at least some of the classrooms. The department office even used packing tape to tape a big bottle of the regular pump stuff to the wall just outside the door to the department office. So far, the people I've been in contact with have all seemed healthy, so I'm not particularly concerned. I'll be getting both flu shots in the near future.

I'm excited about the trip. Hopefully, I'll have a good photo or two from it, and I'll have only good things to write about the flight. I'll also be flying through Dulles for the first time.

I also need to learn how to send posts to this blog through a mobile device. I tried blogging with my iPhone through the regular web interface, and it wouldn't let me do so.

The weather at my destination is supposed to be hot and rainy. Of course, the weather here at home now is sunny and warm.

School in general is going well. We got graded on our first presentation, and I got a low 'A'. Apparently it was not universal, because I heard others in the class complaining of getting 'B'.

For entertainment on the flight, I've got papers to read. Which is actually, a very good way to spend a flight.

You can tell I'm out of things to write, because all of my paragraphs are only one or two sentences long. This means that I have nothing coherent, and am just keeping to the rules of writing whatever pops into my head.

Also, I'm happy because this is my 5th week of posting. They say that for things to become a habit, it takes 4 weeks, right? I'm not sure if I need to have 28 posts for this to be a habit (which I am still short of), or if this counts. In any case, I'm happy to have reached this milestone. I might actually let others know of this blog now.

Have a happy rest of the week.

Friday photos

2009-09-19T19:51:00.003-04:00

I had nothing to blog on Friday, so I went driving...to the local hospital. The hospital is located on one of the highest hills in the city and provides a great overlook:

(Click to view larger)

When I first moved here from my relatively flat hometown, it was these mountains, well, the sight of a town nestled so picturesquely into the mountains that gave me my "We're not in Kansas anymore" moment. Also, I never noticed before, but these mountains could be part of a AT&T "more bars, more places" commercial, the way the mountains scale into the distance. The leaves are just starting to turn colors for the fall, though you can't see it in the photo.

I was also lucky with shopping on Friday: After stopping by Wal-Mart for paint supplies, I went into Target to buy some luggage tags. I found a pair of bronze leather-look Swissgear tags for at 75% off, for $3.74. They're understated, but fit into the metallic theme for my suitcase. For comparison, at Wal-Mart, a pair of plastic looking "leather" luggage tags were $3.

Also on clearance, also 75% off: bath towels that match my bathroom tiles perfectly! They even had a beautiful embroidery pattern on the edge. There were only three of these towels left, and I picked up two, for $2.98 each. Solid color towels of the same quality were $8.50 at Wal-Mart.

It was a VERY good trip to Target.

Notes: How to paint a suitcase

2009-09-19T19:15:00.003-04:00

I'll be travelling next week, and so yesterday and today, I put finishing touches on my suitcase. The stencils were purchased from Wal-Mart, and I used Krylon spray paint in metallic silver. As noted in my previous post, I had placed a straw onto the tip of the spray can so that I could focus the paint more easily.

There were two designs I wanted to respray: the first flower pattern on the top, and the last pattern on the bottom. I put masking tape all along the edges of the stencils and used clear plastic trash bags (which I had gotten for free from the rolls offered on the stadium parking lot) to cover the rest of the suitcase. Starting with the top design, I found that the the straw on the end of the spray can was not useful. The paint still ended up pooling outside the stencil, rather than inside the cutout shape. I eventually took a blade of grass, and scooped up the liquid spray paint from the covered part of the stencil, and touching the paint to the inside of the stencil. That worked MUCH better than the actual spraying. I applied several coats of paint in this manner. When I finished and removed the stencil, I found that the spray paint had seeped under the stencil rendering the floral shapes into indeterminate blobs. When working on the bottom pattern, I used a much lighter hand.

My conclusion is that for ballistic nylon suitcase fabric, normal spray paint and stencils are not a good combination. I believe that the spray paint is too thin, and just sinks into the fabric. As mentioned before, the non-porous plastic outline of the stencil had spray paint pooling on it, but very little paint was apparent on the suitcase fabric, even when "brushing" on the paint with a blade of grass. The paint drops would disappear into the fabric. Unless I had a large stencil, at least 3 inches across, I don't think I would bother with regular spray paint again. I have heard that fabric spray paint had a thicker consistency. I would try that next time for my fine stencil designs, if I were to use spray paint. Most likely, if I had a small design, I would just use paint markers. I've found that both Rustoleum and Krylon make paint markers.

After the spray paint dried, I used a DecoFabric fabric markers, bought at Michael's, to highlight the designs. I hope that the paint will not scratch off in my travels--but I get to test that next week.

Apologies

2009-09-18T22:41:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry I'm not posting today. But I'll have extra photos tomorrow. I promise!

Craftacular

2009-09-15T19:46:00.008-04:00

I watched too many movies this weekend: '9' in the theater, and 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'Ghost Rider' on TV. It was way too many movies, and I loved it.

It was not all sitting and watching images, though. I crafted, as well: I built an olive lamp, and I spray painted my suitcase. My lamp is burning as I type this.

I found '9' to be entertaining enough. I had watched the original short beforehand, to decide whether to go see the movie, and I was not disappointed. From the reviews, I did not have great plot expectations, but all I wanted was to find out who made the doll 9 and why, and so, I was satisfied, even though I agreed with the reviewers that the plot was otherwise quite shallow.

My lamp went through two incarnations. The first time, I used a single strand of floral wire to form a stand for the wick. For the wick, I cut a 1/4 inch strip of fabric from an old pair of underpants (worn out, but laundered!). While it worked fine, I thought was too flimsy, and the flame burned very close to the top of the oil. It seems that the fabric was too to wick as much oil as it needed. I threw out the wire and wick and tried again. This time, I braided three strips of wire together, and used a piece of 1/4" diameter 100% cotton cord (bought at Jo-Ann fabrics for $1.49 a yard, only to see it later at Wal-Mart for $0.37 a yard). It resulted in a much sturdier holder, and a better wick, I am pleased with it.

Side note: if any one wants to try making these oil lamps on a larger scale, the best way to get wicks is to buy a string mop head. One mop head costs about $5 at Wal-Mart, and can get a few hundred wicks from it.

The last time I flew, my "carry-on" was checked planeside. I was towards the back of the plane, so as I waited on the terminal ramp for the bags to be unloaded, I noticed that someone was walking away with what looked like my suitcase. But, as the nice announcer says "Many bags look alike", so, I ignored my doubts, and waited for the rest of the bags to be unloaded. The last bag left was a black one, similar to mine--but it wasn't mine. I took it, looked at the luggage tag, and called the woman whose bag it was. No answer. I began walking up to the terminal. I called again, said a brief hello, but was cut off. At the terminal, I told one of the flight attendants at the desk what had happened. They paged the woman on the airport intercom, but had no response. After calling the woman again (a relative answered), I found that she was already outside the security checkpoint. I had a connecting flight, and was already short on time, so there was no way for me to meet her outside and then pass through security again without missing my flight.

The attendants were not allowed to talk on a private cell phone, so I was directed by the attendant to tell the lady to drop off the suitcase at the lost baggage counter at the baggage claim, and then one of the attendants would go down to the baggage claim to return her suitcase.

The plus was that it was much easier running through the airport with no luggage dragging behind. I got on my connecting flight just in time.

I did not want to repeat this incident. I sat on the plane thinking about how this whole event have been avoided, I thought that I had to make my generic looking black suitcase distinctive. My first idea was to paint "Paws OFF!" in large letters on the front, and then paint a bunch of paw prints all over the suitcase. Thought that might be too blatant. The second idea was to take designer brand marks (Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Fendi , etc.), print them all over the suitcase, along with the large "NOT YOURS!" It would be a nice double entendre--I'm riding coach, the "NOT YOURS!" could refer to the suitcase is not anyone's brand, but also to whoever would freaking WALK AWAY WITH MY SUITCASE. Once I had calmed down, I decided that such a message might not show enough class, and that it might be better just to put designs on it.

The weekend I purchased stencils and a can of spray paint, and went outside to spray. I found that typical craft stencils don't work that well with spray paint--the spray area is much too large compared to the small area of the stencil, and there is a lot of waste. The area *around* the stencil opening was completely covered in paint, but the area *inside* the stencil cutout had only a dusting of paint. I eventually grew frustrated and took the dripping wet stencils and threw them in the outdoor dumpster. I didn't want to get spray paint drips inside my apartment.

To try to salvage what I had, I purchased a set of opaque fabric paint pens from Michael's to highlight the patterns. They worked very well.

It didn't occur to me until Monday that I could take a straw from a can of compressed air to direct the paint output. I took the can of compressed air, cut the straw in half, and taped the other half of the straw on my spray paint can. I will be buying another set of stencils and trying to paint again.

Does anyone know where one can purchase extra straws for aerosol cans? The best I could find was LDPE labratory tubing in the 1 mm size (the little tube on my compressed air can was about 2mm in outside diameter). I've heard people using coffee stirrer straws for as straw replacements for WD-40 cans.

I am now a fan of Ladies Home Journal. On Sunday I made Peanut Noodles with Chicken and Carrots. I chopped the raw chicken fine--Campbell's soup size--then dropped them in boiling water. They turned white almost instantly, but I let them boil for about 2 minutes, to be safe. I then used a slotted spoon to scoop out the chicken, and used the same water to boil the soba noodles. When they were done, I scooped out the noodles, and saved the broth. The recipe called for both scallions and cilantro, but since I love cilantro, I left out the scallions and put in half a bunch of cilantro instead. Also, I only had a medium 'grit' cheese grater, and I found that for shredding carrots, I probably needed a grater with larger holes. I think I will invest in a box grater in the future.

The resulting noodles were the best I'd had in a long time. I will definitely make it again.

Here is my lamp with the original wick. It burns surprisingly brightly, but the jar gets very hot.

Burning the Midnight Oil

2009-09-11T18:30:00.037-04:00

I'm going to do a very dangerous thing and write about things not yet accomplished. I have the weekend planned, and it's been a month since I've planned a weekend. I am dedicating tomorrow morning to my wardrobe--it's after Labor Day and the temps today didn't reach 60. While we still have some 70 degree days ahead, summer is over, and I've found that it gets cold fast around here. I will be bringing out my fall and winter clothes, and packing the spring and summer things away. This is good, because I'll still have time to wear my fall colored short sleeved tops, which were necessary when I lived in the Zone 8 South, but which I have, for the past two years (since I moved to the Zone 5 North) missed out on wearing because I brought my fall clothes out too late. Here, October is long sleeved season.

I have a pair of jeans that are a year old and still never worn. I plan to hem them tomorrow.

And then off to the movies! I would like to watch '9'. One of my dearest friends lives 1300 miles away. One way we keep in touch is by watching movies together--that is, we watch the same move, on the same day, in our respective towns, so that in the evening we can discuss it with each other. We've discussed extending the practice to "dinner and a movie", that is, in addition to the movie, we each cook the same recipe in our own kitchens, and compare notes.

Recently, I was given a bottle of higher end olive oil. This was my good fortune. Unfortunately, however, this happened just a week after I had opened a new bottle of my middle-of-the-road quotidian olive oil.

Now, olive oil does go rancid. Luckily, it usually starts changing flavor just as I am finishing off the bottle, so none is wasted. I, however, do not want to risk the high end oil going rancid, which is what will happen if I wait until after I use up my open bottle. Instead, I'll have to use the good stuff right away.

But what about my open, almost unused bottle? And did I tell you about my cheap, two-year old bottle of olive oil that I already have in my cupboard? When I first purchased it, I used it once or twice for cooking, but its flavor was never that good. I put it away in the top cabinet, and have since used it mainly as an ingredient for beauty treatments--sugar scrubs, cuticle oil, that sort of thing. So back to this newly opened bottle of oil--was it to join the half-used bottle in my cupboard? Did I want two spare bottles of olive oil? I asked myself, 'What is the best thing to do with oil?' As a red-blooded American, I answer: Burn it, of course!

I've been chopping onions, crying along the way. To combat the fumes, I've been turning on a stove burner (gas stove), since I don't have any candles.* (I've found that burning a candle near the chopping board helps keep down the stinging.) Why not make an olive oil lamp, old school? All that's needed is a jar, some wire, and some cotton cord. Plus, it would be safer than a stove burner.

Ever wonder see pictures of Biblical style oil lamps and wonder why they were so low and flat? It's because olive oil is viscous and does not wick higher than about 2 inches.

About my snapshot: It's a Mason jar! If you go to the store to buy a mason jar, most likely it will not be a 'capital M' Mason jar, but a Ball brand mason jar or a Kerr brand mason jar. I didn't think Mason jars existed. I thought that they were all generic mason jars.

The jar once held Sam's Club medium salsa. I had intended on saving the jar and lid for holding iced tea concentrate. I'm a big tea drinker, and instead of getting a big pitcher, a concentrate would save space in my 3/4 sized refrigerator. Plus, iced tea and mason jars go hand in hand.

The difficulty was that I could not get the pepper scent from the lid of jar. Not after washing it 5 times in liquid detergent and scalding water. Not after washing it in automatic dishwasher detergent and hot water. Not after soaking it in Pine-Sol. Not after letting it sit in vinegar for an hour. Not after soaking it in peroxide. Not after soaking it milk for 3 hours. No, the pepper scent on the lid was there to stay. As a comparison, I also had a jar of kim-chi (that I was saving for my oil lamp). The scent of the *kim-chi* washed out of THAT lid in only 3 washes of detergent and hot water.

I threw the lid away. But! one can buy mason jar lids at the store for cheap. I bought a pack of Ball mason jar lids. I took them home to find that they don't fit on Mason jars.

The positive is that I now have a lovely Mason jar for drinking iced tea.

I know close to nothing about photography. To take the photo I moved the jar all over the house, putting it on multiple surfaces, at various heights, trying different camera settings, in order to get the light and shadows just so. The photo was taken on a stool underneath my brightest floor lamp, camera setting on "Portrait" with macro enabled, flash turned off. I held a manila folder just out of frame above the jar, to remove the glare from the lamp. The photo still wasn't great, so I used Picasa to change it to black and white and enhance the shadows. It still isn't a prize winner, but the details are there.

Have a great weekend!

*OK, I do have a candle (a Christmas gift), but it's scented and I'm sensitive to scent, so I don't use it. Plus, it drips wax everywhere.

Labor Day weekend

2009-09-08T22:40:00.005-04:00

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. For me, it was a cooking day, actually, a cooking evening. I made almond crusted chicken, green beans, and spinach ricotta quiche. The point of the exercise was to use up leftover ingredients: I had almonds from last year, chicken from two months ago, canned green beans from a few months before that, and spinach and ricotta from the saag paneer I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.

The almonds were already slivered, and I started by chopping half of them--it felt really good feeling them crunch under the knife. But if it's crunchy, you can smash it! The other half I put in a plastic bag and attacked with my potato masher. I'm not sure if it took less time, but the real benefit was that I could pound wildly rather than gingerly mince, mince, mince.

I thought I had two chicken breasts. Upon opening the freezer bag I found out I had three, and thus not enough coating. My hands by that time were covered in raw egg and chicken juice,so I decided against grinding more almonds. This meant I had two perfectly breaded pieces and one that was more covered in paprika than almonds. I ate the half-breaded chicken first, and it was still delicious.

The spinach ricotta quiche recipe indicates that it makes one quiche. It makes two. Assuming you follow the directions and buy a normal sized frozen pie crust, instead of a deep dish crust. Luckily, frozen pie crusts are sold in packs of two, and, I'm told, quiche freezes quite well.

Why did I decide to make quiche from my leftover ricotta, instead of cheesecake? I thought I needed to work on my issues with breakfast.

The casualties from my cooking? Miscellaneous prep bowls and dinnerware, 3 mixing bowls, 2 baking pans, 2 pots, 3 mixing spoons, a whisk, and a colander (Oh the colander! I have a folding colander. Instead of drying out the spinach for the quiche using paper towels, as suggested in the recipe, I decided to press it inside the colander--first pushing down on it with the potato masher, just applying even pressure, then by folding the colander with the spinach inside. This got spinach pulp into all the drain holes, which isn't bad, but also inside all the hinges of the colander, too.) Also damaged, a two inch strip of skin on the side of my arm (I have a small oven, and to fit in both quiches, one of them had to be pushed against the back wall of the oven. Being in contact with the back wall started causing the crust of aforementioned quiche to burn. In retrieving the back quiche to prevent such burning, I bumped my arm into the side of the hot oven. The quiche crust, however, was saved.)

It was just like Christmas!

Happy cheerful music?

2009-09-04T21:48:00.007-04:00

Last night I went to bed excited about writing today. I had several ideas about my blog post, the first, besides the photo, some commentary about the photo, about how planning ahead for these photos has made me see things differently. How, I'm trying to see everything as a possible photo op, and how even as I try to be more aware of the things around me, I feel that I am growing more oblivious. I thought, too that if that subject was too short, I would write about my iPhone, as it and I did not "meet cute", but instead our initial relationship was something of a comedy.

Instead, I'm writing about feelings, about how people pick up emotions from those around them (articles about the phenomenon here and here). I was feeling fine until about an hour ago, but I've talked since then, and now, here I am, trying to work my feelings out by writing. I'm an internalizer of feelings. My fellow converser is an emoter, one whom did NOT have a good day, and whom I think highly of. And now, I'm pulling Kleenex out of the box. I suppose the problem is that my converser was the only human interaction I had all day, and I should get out more.

I tried to counteract this by seeing what cheerful thing online might lift my spirits. Hm...perhaps something about the Disney and Marvel merger? Honestly, though, I don't follow either company or their products too closely, so nothing I found was particularly funny. Kingdom Hearts characters are quite cute--but I've never played the game. And I wonder if people are talking about it at Dragon*Con, or if its all old news by now.

I can lift my mood by music perhaps? I would have liked to see something with a music video with happy people dancing or whatnot, something besides the obviously "Shiny Happy People", but I didn't find anything in a quick search. Some of the Weird Al stuff qualifies, if not actually portraying happy people in the videos, but they do make me smile. But what is funny and happy to *listen* to? Maybe not based on the lyrics, but MUSIC that makes you almost want to laugh? Some of Beethoven's stuff is really lighthearted, but I'm not sure about pop music. Billie Jean is funny because MJ sounds like he has hiccups, and it was pointed out to me that George Michael in "I Want Your Sex" sounds constipated, so now I laugh when I hear it (holding it on the inside, of course (^_-)). So other musical suggestions?

Now to my snap. What is this adorable metal bulldog? Why, it's the hood ornament of a Redneck Rolls, of course!

Fall Arrives and My Fear of Breakfast

2009-09-01T21:26:00.006-04:00

Fall
Fall is officially here: over the weekend, I had several large insects find their way into my apartment. You know that the seasons are changing when outdoor things start moving in.

Last night, the temps dropped into the 40's for the first time since summer. I wore long sleeves this afternoon, and when I had both windows open, I was a little chilly.

Curry is truly a difficult smell to eliminate. I had both windows open again, since after a few days, the curry smell came back. I wiped the kitchen counters again, this time with a more concentrated solution of Pine-Sol. That seems to have done the trick. I also discovered that the space between my refrigerator and my bedroom door collects odors. After I cleaned, the area that smelled like Pine-Sol--and the area where I was smelling the lingering curry--was the space near the bedroom door, NOT the countertops. It would be neat to release colored smoke and plot the airflow in my kitchen.

The nice thing about the weather becoming cooler is that I can use the oven again: I have a single window air conditioning unit for my entire apartment, and even with fans blowing, my place is hot in the summer. Additionally, I have a gas stove, so the windows need to be open when I'm cooking for extended periods--and nothing feels as good as crisp fall air coming in as you're cooking!

Fear
I've though about different topics to write about for this blog, and one topic that came to mind was things that I fear. I used to be an extremely fearful person, and I say that with a touch of pride. I remember going to school every day with my stomach painfully cramped, I was so afraid of school. In class, I would always sit on the edge of my seat, always fiddle. My teachers always commented on my good posture, but it was just me sitting, ready to bolt. I didn't really get over this until I went to college. I attribute this partly to the several minute walk to get to class, but the greatest part to the realization that school was not the end-all be-all of life. Basic stress is easier to deal with when you're not also terrified at the same time.

I've still got a lot of fear in me, of course. But it's been overshadowed in the last couple years by bitterness and anger and depression. Last week, though, as I was writing about my fears of speaking, I realized how long it had been that I defined my life by fear, and I want to get that back. Bitterness, anger, and depression are new to me. I don't operate well in that emotional framework. But fear? That's the devil I know! I would love to be afraid again, to always be on the edge of a breakdown and an ulcer. That's familiar. I'm tired of new. I want to go back to the old.

So, I've thought I would write about things that I was afraid of, to once again frame my life on raw fear. Today, do you know what I'm afraid of? Breakfast.

I normally skip breakfast, and not because I don't have time, or am dieting. This summer break, for example, I stayed mostly at home, I found myself skipping it on purpose, because it was too anxiety producing to think about eating it. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," I hear people say, and since I am such a failure, I cannot bear to make that decision. And those decisions always turn out so badly, anyway. First, there is the thought that if I have breakfast, I'm doing so because it will help me deal with the stresses of the upcoming day. But that sentence assumes that I'll have a stressful day, and I refuse, first thing in the morning, to think that the rest of the day will be stressful.

Second, I find that when I eat breakfast, I'm always starving before lunchtime. It's worse when I eat cereal or instant oatmeal--then I'm not only ravenous, but I get the shakes and generally feel terrible and am unable to concentrate. However, if I DON'T eat breakfast, I'm usually fine until 2 pm or so.

So, if I am going to eat breakfast, it's got to be a big breakfast, a breakfast with protein. But sausage and bacon are full of fat and preservatives, and eggs have cholesterol. So what exactly am I to eat?

Finally, there's the cooking (because I can't eat cereal). If I cook in the morning, then I'll have to clean up in the morning. So, extra time to cook, extra time to eat, and extra time to clean. And what if something goes wrong when I'm making breakfast? What if something burns? I'd have to spend time airing out the apartment, not to mention, if something actually catches on fire, I'd have an emergency on my hands. Breakfast would be ruined. I would have put in the effort, and not have time to eat. I'd have wasted food. And then I'd be in a funk because I burnt breakfast, and wasted food, and was late to work. See? Having breakfast could potentially ruin my entire day. So, instead of potentially ruining my day before it's even started, I just skip breakfast.

In other words: I'm not man enough to handle breakfast. Running away is easier.

First Post

2009-08-28T14:03:00.035-04:00

I am quite excited to be starting this. I just hope that I maintain, if not the enthusiasm, the strength of character to continue with this blog over time. The goal will be to maintain this blog for a year.

Anyway, I've got my iPhone set on my desk, the timer ticking away.

This week was my first week back at school. The summer proved too short, and I was stressed and really unprepared to begin. I've got a paper as part of my summer requirement this year, and it is not as far along as I had hoped. I've signed up for a seminar on "Overcoming Writer's Block" in a few weeks.

I am reminded of my high school AP English class. We had to read On Writing Well by William Zinsser, as well as Strunk and White's celebrated The Elements of Style. But it was Zinsser's book that got the most well worn, that I still think of whenever I write anything, and his quote that stays in my mind: "I like to HAVE written." Writing itself, even in this little blog, even for this short time, causes me pain. I'm nervous, my chest and throat tighten...I just can't make myself do it. Sure, starting last Wednesday I was thinking about writing. I gathered observations, crafted a few sentences, thought "15 minutes, no problem" (And at this point my timer has gone off...time does fly, but I'll keep going). Instead, I'm filled with dread, even as I feel good about starting something, something good. (I've changed over to the timer now...Let's see how long it will take me to finish this post! I'm curious. Rules are the same. I have to stay seated, fingers moving the whole time.)

One of the many exercises that we had to complete in that AP English class was free writing, once again, something from Zinsser. And although I love the feel of pencil pushing on paper, I hated what I came up with when I free wrote, and I hated the look of my scrawl, and I hated my big ugly letters on the ugly notebook paper. I hated that I filled pages in my notebook, and would be satisfied with myself, and then, when I took it to the computer, and typed it up, it suddenly became nothing but a paragraph or two. My cohorts, it seemed, could all put out a page or two in free writing in the same amount of time. They wrote better too, more lyrically, more persuasively, more and better of everything, it seemed.

So, what did I think about writing these past few days? I thought about writing about the first day of school. Normally, I don't mind the first week of school. It's just introductions, and very little in the way of being judged. But I had the summer paper...

I was surprised that the first week went as smoothly as it did, really. The only bit on inconvenience was that on the first day, as I drove into the school parking lot, I realized that my parking pass expired on that day, so I had to make my way to the parking office and wait in line, with all the other unprepared people like me, to purchase a new one for the upcoming school year.

I'm enrolled in a communications class this semester. That means this semester I get to work on two things I need to at: writing and public speaking. The funny thing is, when I was an undergrad, I enjoyed public speaking. Sure, I was anxious when I was waiting my turn to go up to the podium, but when my turn came, I felt in control, and I felt that I could go on as long as I needed to. It was rather fun. Somewhere between then and now, however, I lost all my self confidence. I am surprised to find my voice shaking now, when I speak (horror!), and I imagine that I must be one of those people that is uncomfortable to watch: Poor girl, so nervous!

Perhaps I should frame this in my mind as my semester for self-improvement.

I also spoke about my project to a good friend of mine, and explained my doubts that I would be able to find something to write about for 15 minutes. She suggested that perhaps I take pictures from around town--say, get in the car, drive for 5 minutes, stop in whatever safe area I happened to be near, and take a photo. I thought that that was a great idea, and so, as another goal in for my blog, will be that on Fridays I will include a "Weekly Snap" and I will write a short blurb on what I saw.

I also felt adventurous this week, and cooked on Wednesday: channa masala (chickpeas) and saag paneer (spinach and cheese), using this recipe for channa masala, which I had used once before, and this recipe for saag paneer from Quick Indian Cooking (QIC), which was new. For the channa, I found that I had forgotten to buy a can of chopped tomatoes, and used a can of tomato soup instead. The end result looked very much like a pot of pork and beans. The curries muted out the sweetness of the tomato soup, but it was still there. I would not try that substitution again in this recipe.

As for the saag paneer, I had no paneer (Indian cheese), but had read that ricotta makes a good substitute. It was not a good substitute. I started out following the directions in QIC, carefully scooping out the ricotta and cutting it into cubes, but as I attempted to coat the ricotta in spices, the cubes squashed together and when I tried to fry the glop, it started melting in the pan instead of frying. I also did not have any sort of blender. I gave up and ended up following the directions of this recipe, instead. The result looked like a spinach dip and nothing like the photo in QIC. It was also more bland than I thought it should it be. It was passable, and I would try again, but not with the QIC recipe.

I also have a pound and a half of ricotta left over. I think I will be making cheesecake in the near future.

The next day, I got little done except for kitchen cleaning. I live in a small, not-that- modern apartment. My window is on the complete opposite side of the apartment from my stove. My stove has no vent. To vent the kitchen, I have to use one fan to blow the air from the kitchen into my living area, and a second fan in the window to vent out the living room. I sprayed down the countertops and the cooktop, Pine Sol-ed the outside of the cabinets, as well as the doors to my bedroom and bathroom (which I had kept closed to keep the ENTIRE place from smelling like curry), and yes, even sprayed and wiped down the walls and ceiling of my kitchen. Thankfully, I have a flat ceiling (in all my previous living arrangements, I had popcorn ceilings). My ceiling looks whiter now. And I want to reiterate that when I get a house, I want one with a industrial canopy vent hood.

Now, for the weekly snaps! Both were taken on campus. I am assuming that the first photo was some sort of forestry lab. Four or five other trees along that street had similar climbers. For the second photo, I realized that I walk past these rose bushes every single day, and have never really seen or appreciated them. I'm making up for that now.

(note: end time, including a pause to eat, and some time trying to figure out how to embed the photos 6:54pm)

Welcome

2009-08-25T15:25:00.012-04:00

Hello, and welcome to the blog!

This blog is here for a couple of reasons. First, I'm a Ph.D. student, and as such, I'm going to have to write a thesis--some monstrous 200 page long thing. In the interim, I have to write various papers and reports, and I'm finding that I'm having problems doing the most basic task of writing: putting words together in an orderly, understandable way. I figure that I need the practice of just writing complete sentences.

Second, it has been suggested to me that I take up a hobby. Apparently my life is somewhat pathetic. Now that school has begun, my days go something like this: I go to school, I come back home. Over this past summer, I worked mostly from home, and so didn't leave the house for days at a time. I don't draw, or do anything "craftsy" or "artsy". I cook minimally, so that I have something to eat. I don't listen to music, and until a few weeks ago, I didn't own a TV. I have no pets. I don't collect anything. I don't do anything outdoorsy--gardening, hiking, running/walking. My shopping trips are functional, not recreational. I neither travel nor entertain at home. I don't think I DO much of anything. I'm not sure this is necessarily a bad thing--I mean, I can't really figure out if reality TV show stars do much either, besides be on TV--but it does leave me in a tough spot when someone asks about what I do for fun.

I'm not sure I'd call this blog something I'm doing for fun. This blog is intended as an exercise more than anything else. The goal is for me to write for 15 minutes, twice a week--hence the name 2 by 15. That way, I can get in practice putting words on paper, and I have something scheduled I can do for 30 minutes each week. Basically, my goal is that on Tuesdays and Fridays, I will sit down at my computer with a timer set for 15 minutes. During those 15 minutes, my fingers are to move continuously, and I'm to type whatever comes to mind. If what comes out is coherent--great. If not, well, it's the exercise that counts.

This will be a themeless, subjectless blog, held together, hopefully, only by a schedule. May it last longer than a typical New Year's Resolution.

Welcome.