An Update and The Things I've Learned from Apt. 6

Hello! I'm back! And I'm once again sorry for my long and mysterious absence.  Let me dust off these cobwebs and quickly catch you up on my life...

• Eric and are have been eyeballs-deep in wedding planning and prep...but we're fast approaching the big day (less than 60 days! It's so exciting and surreal and will it just hurry up and get here, thankyouverymuch!).  
• We've coordinated all the vendors we can think of (We're going to have party bus that could fit twice the amount of people we have...but that's what happens when my father insists on a the newest and nicest model. Hey, we're not complaining!).  
• We've designed, printed, and assembled our own Save the Dates and invitations.  I'm pretty dang proud of Eric's design abilities and our quick turnaround on addressing them.

• We've also designed and started working on the day-of crafts, like escort cards and their display, ceremony programs and whatnot. 
• We recently had our engagement photo shoot (only many months late, but whatever!) and are anxiously awaiting the images...! It was incredibly humid that day, so you might get some awesome pictures of my impressive sweating ability and my humidity-poofed hair (I literally felt it increasing in size as the shoot progressed). 
• My mother and aunt have gone all out on planning and preparing for the bridal shower. It's this weekend, and I am so darn excited for the food and drink (it's at one of my favorite restaurants).  I'm also eager to see the final product of my mother's crazy-hard work on dozens of giant tissue paper flowers (one of two photo backdrops....she took an idea an ran with it, DIY-style).
• I also cannot wait to find out what my bridesmaids have planned for my bachelorette celebration! It's a complete surprise to me, and the suspense is terrible!
• My mother has also become a jewelry maker and I helped her make the bracelet I will wear with my wedding dress. Let's just say we're ready for Etsy if we can increase our production capabilities (I'm sensing the cats will somehow be trained to work...)

• I've continued to teach TRX and other fitness classes at the University of Cincinnati, taking on more classes than ever this spring and summer. It's been tremendously fun, but it's been nice to teach and take fewer classes this fall. It means I get home early enough to make dinner and do something each night, even if it is a basic as hanging out with Eric. 

• A few more cookbooks have made their way into my collection, despite the lack of room on my new bookshelf. My two newest?  Piece of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple by David Muniz and David Lesniak (thanks to the marvelous Shannon!) - it has red velvet cheesecake! rhubarb and strawberry coffee cake! rhubarb pudding!  A Year of Pies: A Seasonal Tour of Home Baked Pies by Ashley English.  I have her canning and preserving book and couldn't resist the variety of innovative pies she offered, both savory and sweet.  

• I have so many recipes to share with you! My collection of food awaiting a post is astounding...and I apologize. It will happen. And hopefully my long desired revamp of this blog will also happen, with Eric's savvy aid. 
• My rhubarb obsession is still going strong. I'm going to hit you hard with rhubarb recipes and I apologize in advance if you haven't stockpiled at least 3 freezer bags full of chopped rhubarb like I did. You're going to want to make these.

• Aside from wedding, the other huge event of these past few months was my move from my apartment in Cincinnati into Eric's house in Dayton.  I hate leaving my roommate, Kayleigh, but I have to admit it's awfully nice having all your belongings in a single location. I haven't done that in almost 6 years!
• That means I have a much larger kitchen of my own to play with! 

• And a beautiful bar and liquor cabinet (a wedding gift from my family and made by my incredibly talented and generous uncle) at which I can mix cocktails in style! 
  
  
  

• I have a garden, though I tried to take it easy this year since we had to rip out nearly all the old foliage and I wasn't moving in until halfway through the summer.  But I have some pretty flowers (I only completely killed one, that's victory!) and a few herb plants.  Next year, rhubarb and tomatoes! 
  

• And I have a home with excellent ventilation and central air conditioning!!!  You have NO idea how amazingly necessary these are in the hot, humid days of July, August, and early September.  I had no idea how much of a difference it made in my mood and productivity levels!
• I'm the proud almost-mama of a ridiculous polydactyl (she has thumbs!) cat named the Fonz.  She may be a bit bipolar (bite! pet me! bite! loooooove me!), but when she snuggles onto my lap for a petting session, it just melts my heart. 
  

• I'm almost entirely unpacked and settled (there were many weeks of clutter and random piles of junk sitting everywhere...sorry, Eric!), which is a huge relief. I'm a tidy person, so I want things to be in their place. Just a few more stacks of papers...
• I've got the insatiable urge to start tackling the house's interior -- painting rooms, changing curtains, adding floor rugs, finding the perfect knicknack to put on that shelf...  It's hilarious to me, but I'm seriously excited to make this house our grown-up (but still fun and functional!) home.
• The only drawback is that I'm now commuting an hour each way to and from grad school (nope, I'm still not done, but there's more light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Maybe next spring or summer?).  I didn't think the commute would suck so much time out of my day, but it really, really does. Oof. I'll adjust, and it will get better. 

And in honor of my move, I thought I'd share a bit about my old home and my new one, including the important lessons I learned from living in Apartment #6 for 5 years...

1.  You can totally make too-small spaces work.
You just get creative with your storage.  That might mean you bring in a free-standing cabinet and an industrial grade metal shelving unit to house your food and cookware, but, by thunder, you made it work.  Until your excessive amount of food spilled out of the pantry and found a home on top of and underneath the "dining room" table (which we have never sat at). It's not a Martha Stewart-worthy solution, but it totally works.

top: the dining room/pantry/kitchen storage area of our apartment

bottom: the galley-like kitchen. outstretched arms can almost touch both walls.

and the refrigerator door cannot even open completely.

a wee kitchen where we worked marvels.

2a.  Air conditioners are clutch.
Even when you avoid turning on the AC as much as possible, there is nothing that can replace it on the days when you're dripping sweat just walking from room to room.

2b.  There is no number of fans that can compensate for AC.
Trust me.  We tried it for 4+ years.  Even draped in front of two fans, you're still overheated and sweating.  And your sinuses are constantly dry.

2c.  It's nice to be able to control the heat in your dwelling on nights when the temperature is below freezing.
It means you might not procrastinate your shower for several hours because its just too dang cold inside.

3.  Decorating your home makes you feel like a grown-up.
Alternatively, not decorating makes you feel like a poor college student just on the edge of adulthood.  Lesson for next home:  decorate!

4.  Got mold?  Use bleach!
It won't get rid of the mold, but it'll keep it at bay long enough.  Just to be safe, don't touch it without gloves. And don't remember the episodes of House where the person is almost dead from breathing in fungal spores (Aspergillis, anyone?).

5.  I can play a mean game of Tetris in the refrigerator.
It's not my favorite game to play, but, oh boy, am I good at it.
Make a note:  get bigger refrigerator in grown-up house.

6.  Neighbors are meant to be far enough away that you can't smell their cigarette smoke or hear them talking through your door.
Good thing houses have yards, even if they are tiny.

7.  Bugs can appear at any time and in any place.
The best way to attack bugs on the ceiling?  A Swiffer broom and paper towel combo.  Bonus points if you're casually talking to your roommate when you decimate a bug.  Bam.

8.  A window in the shower is a truly terrible idea.
Seriously. It's absolutely miserable in the winter.  It's fine in the summer, but just weird overall.  Lesson:  do not put a window in the shower.

9.  The lady who occasionally cleans the hallway stairs in the building has more clout with the landlady than I (or any other resident) do.
I'm fairly certain her complaints about the resident (well, resident's boyfriend) who continued to track mud up the stairs almost daily propelled the landlady into evicting that couple.  This happened within a few months of the mud trail starting.  Compare this to multiple residents complaining about no hot water in the mornings (and sometimes evenings) for a year or more, with no action taken. Bam. Beware the cleaning lady.


I've missed you, my friends, and I can't wait to be back here regularly.

A Fall Preview

Well, who knew almost a month has passed since I last wrote?  It certainly didn't feel like a whole month. It barely felt like a week!  As you would guess, I've been busy...so I'll see what I can recall from the abyss of my memory to share with you.

First and most pressing on my mind, I have my first exam on Friday for my crystallography class. 
I need to study. Like crazy. If you couldn't tell, I'm stressing out over this exam, for a variety of reasons, most of which are probably awfully silly.

So the rest of today and tomorrow are for studying. Friday morning we have our school's grad student research forum, where I have to present my poster (from the thermo conference I recently attended) for a few hours.  Since the exam is in the afternoon, I'll probably be skipping my bi-weekly yoga class, which is a huge bummer....

I've been doing better at exercising!
Not perfect, not everyday, but much more consistently. I think much credit for this success should go to the fitness classes at the gym that I've been checking out. Luckily, most of the fitness classes at our gym are free with your membership, so I can just pop into different classes as my schedule and interests dictate. I've been regularly attending a power yoga class during lunch twice a week. I love the instructor and I feel like I've made some progress, though I am definitely not an uber-flexible and mentally peaceful yogi!!!  And I probably never will be. But I've been enjoying the challenges of her practices and I look forward to class quite a bit. I even bought a cushy yoga mat that I keep at work!

I also tried my first spinning class...and I didn't fall off the bike from sheer exhaustion like I had anticipated.  Actually, I really like spinning and want to try to make a class once a week.  Unfortunately, the popularity of spin class plus the limited number of bikes available make it challenging to meet that goal (last week I wasn't able to snag a bike because of the gaggle of girls hanging out at the counter, snatching up bike tickets the moment they were released).   I'll continue my efforts, though!

I even registered for a TRX circuit training class on main campus that I have to pay for. It works out to $3 per class, which is such a deal. I've only done TRX once before, but I loved the workout it gave me. I did not love the extreme soreness of random muscles nearly as much, but I think circuit training will keep me interested and having more fun than just doing my own workouts (because I do such an excellent job of wiggling my way out of my more intense workouts).

Fall foods have captured my attention in the kitchen.
I seriously have so many recipes to try for apples and pumpkins that it's laughable.
 
I made a standard apple pie with a oat crisp crust. Tasty, as always.
 
Inspired by my first apple pie of the fall, I wanted to try a new apple pie recipe (Alton Brown's Super Apple Pie).  It was not exactly my best-looking pie. To be honest, I called the end result the Pie of Endless Frustration, because I'd had a frustrating day at work and the pie also chose to sass me (the crust wouldn't chill and firm up even after a few hours in the fridge, so the top crust of the pie was, um, edited out).
 
I also had the crazy idea to make a pumpkin pie from scratch.  An adorable little pie pumpkin looked at me in the grocery store and encouraged me - you can do it, it's not that hard, I might even make pie taste better (as if pumpkin pie could get any better!).  After a short delay, I muscled my pie pumpkin into cubes for roasting. No problem.  Making the pie filling, though, was a bit of an adventure. I mushed the roasted pumpkin (hmm, this looks like the contents of a regurgitated stomach) and stirred in the evaporated milk and eggs with a bit of patience and effort. The pie tastes quite good, though it isn't any better than one made from canned pumpkin. However, my sad, dull brown color of pie filling didn't even look remotely pumpkin.  I'll be returning to the ease and lovely color of canned pumpkin for future pies. But I'm glad I gave it a go.
 
I tested a new dish - roasted brussel sprouts with shallots, pear, and lemon juice. Very easy to make and quite tasty.  Unfortunately, I don't think I really want to eat more than about 4 brussel sprouts at a time.  So the remnants of this dish eventually made it to the trash can.

I also experimented with veggie "pancakes" - shredded zucchini, onion, black beans, and corn mixed with a mix of flour and egg and chili powder.  To be honest, I had no idea how much flour and egg to add, so I kept plopping another spoonful in, stirring, and guessing.  It worked, though, because there is enough batter there to hold the veggies together and to brown without being a full-blown pancake. I smothered these veggie pancakes in greek yogurt and hot sauce for a tasty little meal.

Despite my desire for fall foods and baked, cheesy dinners, I'm not ready for the fall (and then winter) weather.
As I've aged, I've definitely developed a stronger and stronger dislike of cold, rainy, dreary weather. It no longer means days off from school/work.  It just means I have to trudge outside, drive a car in the sub-optimal conditions (a feat made infinitely worse by the hundreds of moronic drivers in the Cincy area), and be freezing cold all the time.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to my pretty, fun, easy summer clothes and shoes! I'm not ready for months of grey skies and rain, with so little golden sunshine!  I'm not ready for a frigid apartment (being on the end of the building is not conducive to a warm set of rooms)!  I'm not ready for shivering in the shower because the bathroom window lets too much cold air through, even when closed!

What I am looking forward to for fall and winter:
-seasonal produce, like honeycrisp apples and pumpkin out the wazoo!
-holidays with family and friends, seeing everyone, and eating!
-wearing leather boots with a skirt (I've been wanting to try this since last year, but am paranoid about looking silly and ruining my boots with precipitation)
-possibly going to a Tennessee football game with Eric!
-watching football every Saturday
-Christmas shopping. I love it. I know, I'm weird. I also figured out most of my presents for others awhile ago.
-baked mac and cheese, grilled cheeses (ooo! try Trader Joe's Colby Jack slices on wheat/10 grain bread...you will melt more than the cheese!), potato gratin, stews and soups, chili....mmmm!
-the arrival of Yuengling beer in Dayton and Cincinnati on October 31st! Can you tell I'm counting down???
-the return of new episodes of Psych!
-a recently purchased, adorable stuffed penguin with scarf and hat and a matching fleece blanket from Target

Wish me luck on my test on Friday! When it's over, I plan to enjoy my weekend thoroughly!!! I have a potato-fennel gratin planned, as well as brownie-cookies, watching Psych with Eric, and seeing the new store close to being open! So exciting!

An Instant Classic

I've been flipping through cookbooks and cooking magazines a lot in the past few months, searching for new dishes to try, both sweet and savory. My recipe hunting arose from the desire to plan my meals for the week in advance so I don't buy too much at the grocery store. See, I'd developed this rather bad habit of buying too much without really knowing what I would make with it all, and far too much food went to waste.

Advanced grocery planning has worked well so far, except when I buy fruit. For some reason, I can't stop myself from buying too much fruit. The only progress in this arena has been to scale back on the amount of grapes I'll buy for a week; I went from a full bag to 1 or 2 clusters. In the summer, it's even harder to resist the siren's song of all the lusciously ripe fruit, like peaches, nectarines, plums, berries, pineapple.... But I digress.

There have been a few of these recipes I've tried out that, shall we say, won't be reappearing in my kitchen. The Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake comes to mind. The actual slices of meyer lemon in the cake were too tough and bitter to enjoy despite being briefly boiled and then cooked in the cake. Several soups have also been sadly disappointing too. One was too sweet (sweet potato/north african soup, flavored with peanut butter and honey, was just too sweet for me, even without a full dose of honey), others lacked enough flavor to encourage me to polish off the entire batch of soup (tuscan veggie soup, which just didn't have any kick or memorable flavor to it).

But there have been numerous recipes that became an instant favorite. I've even returned to a few of these multiple times already, indicating they're here to stay. Ellie Krieger's Pumpkin Muffins (topped with tasty little pumpkin seeds) survive a month or two in the freezer individually wrapped; just set it on the counter before you go to bed and voila! a tasty and healthy breakfast component. Sorry, I need more than just a muffin for breakfast, so these often get paired with yogurt or a smoothie. Or Ellie Krieger's Asian Summer Rolls, which, by the way, I'm making for dinner tonight. They're perfect for the days you don't want to turn on the stove or oven and you just want to assemble. I fill mine with rice noodles, carrot, green onion, avocado and mint. It's also very critical to soak up as much of the dipping sauce as you possibly can. Trust me on this. Or Whoopie Pies. Hot damn, so tasty and fun. Or Ina Garten's Plum Tatin or Alton Brown's Individual Peach Upside Down Cakes...

Last night, I tested a new recipe and immediately knew it was going to join my repetoire of summer dishes. It may even make a cameo appearance mid-winter, so I can remember what summer tastes like. Best of all, it's incredibly easy to make.
Martha Stewart Living - Campanelle with Corn, Scallions and Arugula
http://www.marthastewart.com/777179/campanelle-corn-scallions-and-arugula

I took some liberty with this recipe, though...
*I didn't add arugula or parmesan cheese at the end.
*I substituted orichette pasta in for the campanelle pasta, since that's what I had in the cabinet.
*I eyeballed the ingredients - 2 handfuls of frozen and thawed corn off the cob (from last summer's crop!) in the corn puree + 3 ears of fresh corn cut off the cob added to the pan. And I didn't cook the corn beforehand. I was unclear about whether I should do that and decided, because it was already 9pm, that I would skip that possibly unnecessary step.
*I substituted a jalapeno for the Thai red chili, since that's what I found at the grocery.

The resulting dish was amazing - a combination of pasta and creamy corn, with a bit of smokiness from the crisped bacon. The addition of arugula and parmesan cheese would probably take this dish to the next level, but I am not a big fan of arugula (though I desperately want to be!) and absolutely detest reheating greens of any sort in a dish.

Random Catch Up (numerical style)

One: Eric bought a new car.
A freak hail storm damaged Eric's old car, the faithful and fun Yellow Dart, to the point that it was considered totaled by the insurance company. Eric decided to part with the Dart and acquire a new vehicle. After searching online and putting in due diligence at several dealerships, Eric finally found The One. And on Wednesday, June 22, 2011, he made it his own.


It is a brand spanking new car, straight off the assembly line in the UK and only in the States for a handful of days before meeting Eric. It is a Mini Cooper Clubman S and it's amazing! Dark grey (darker even than the storm cloud grey I love on cars), with black wheels and a black room, this baby is sexy. Inside, there are several of the "mini's idiosyncrasies", which the dealership covered before Eric pulled out of the lot (wow! I was stunned. I don't know what some of the stuff in my car is after 5 years!). There are some very cool interior accent lights, visible at night, which you can change the color and intensity of. The sound system, by Bose, could literally rock your face off. ;) There is a "hidden" compartment that reminds me of James Bond's car. There is a double moonroom. That's right - double! Only the front one opens fully, but the rear one vents too. To add to it all, this car is fast, handles marvelously, and is very fun to drive (sadly, I cannot drive manual, so this is Eric's impression of driving the Mini). While I'm sad to see the Yellow Dart go....I love this new car! In fact, I kinda want a Mini now....






Two: I gave my very first seminar on my work in front of my department.
Since I already blogged about this, I'll spare you the details. But it is a minor accomplishment. I hope for all future seminars or poster presentations, I'll have more and more of my own data to talk about. And eventually I'll have to learn how to create my own figures, probably in Adobe Illustrator or something. Then I'll be so grown up! hehe!
However, I spent almost 2 weeks preparing my presentation and not doing any lab work. I'll still struggling to get back into the groove of doing lab work and getting a lot of work done (aka I haven't stopped being lazy at work yet). Oof. Maybe next week????


Three: I've made a lot (um, too many?) purchases recently.
More clothing, most of which is too nice to wear to work, where I would likely stain or tear it somehow. One of my coworkers shared a website (6pm.com) with me where I found incredible deals on two of my favorite brands, Patagonia and Fossil. I bought 3 dresses, a bracelet and earrings from the website and was thrilled! I also recently acquired: a Fossil KeyPer purse (in a print I've been obsessing over), several more printed sarongs (that I use as scarves), sandals (Target made bright orange and turquoise versions of a Steve Madden sandal I love), slightly longer but still cute Jcrew shorts, flowy Gap tank tops...and some Target tanks and tees that I can wear to work.

More makeup and beauty produces. I probably need to cut myself off in this department for a long time...
I've bought several Bare Escentuals kits, especially since many awesome kits have been on sale recently. I've bought the 3 other Eye Tutorials I didn't have (2 eyeshadows + a brush + step by step instructions showing me how to do a classic Smokey Eye, a silvery Foiled Eye or a glamorous Rocker Chic Eye). A 2 shadow + gloss kit on sale for $10! that has this awesome opalescent sheen I love. A few other shadow kits on sale. Oof. I didn't realize it was quite that much...
I've also dropped some coin in Sephora, like I usually do. Some nailpolishes, a large bottle of Josie Maran Argan Oil, more Ojon hair products, and a few products I haven't even tried yet!!! (those include Urban Decay's All Nighter makeup setting spray - I thought I'd test it out far in advance of Maureen's wedding! - as well as a Tarte lip stain). Yesterday I succumbed to another of their email promotions; I bought an Ojon hair mask online for $30 and received full size bottles of their Damage Reverse shampoo and conditioner for FREE!!!! Considering I wanted to get those anyway (for special occasion uses), I was awfully stoked.
With all these makeup purchases, I've been wearing makeup to work everyday. Something along the lines of being professional....not that my bacteria or proteins care!
I also purchased some new face/skin care products by DermaE. I've been using their Soy & Papaya Enzyme face cleanser for a month or so now and I love it. The fact that the store had the entire DermaE line on sale for 40% off prompted me to pick up some new procuts to try - a Vitamin A pore reducing mask, a fruit enzyme face scrub, a Vitamin A face scrub, a blemish spot treatment and a lip therapy with hyaluronic acid. I'm going to be beautiful!!!!

Other random things I've bought in the last few months....a paella pan, several books, discontinued body spray, huge candles, fluorescent yellow running shorts, a new pair of running shoes, a running tank top and lots of food.

Yikes! Um, enough talking about that. I feel horribly guilty right now!


Four: I've been working out (sorta) consistently!!!
For the past two weeks, I've actually gone to the gym most nights. And I did at least one workout over the weekend. That's a decent improvement from my previous stint of couch-bound laziness. And the thing is I feel awesome when I get done with my workout. So I'm trying to really stick with it and to not fall off the wagon if I miss a single day (which I have done in the past). This week I even went to a yoga class at lunch time! Hopefully I keep this up!

I also ran two races in one day last weekend. A one mile race in the morning (I ran 8:20-something, which is the fastest I can ever recall running a mile! woot!) and a 5k in the early evening (I ran much slower...). The 5k was followed by plenty of beer and yummy food, since it was a fundraiser for the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton. Eric and Manning did this event last year and raved about it, so I made sure to join them this year. I was so proud, too, that they were first and second in the race!


Five: My roommate and I are renewing the lease on our apartment for another year.
Hooray to not moving and cheap rent! Boo to the dogs in the houses/apartments around us that bark non-stop and to the crazy temperature extremes in our place! Hooray to staying with my roomie, who I have much fun with!


Six: I saw X-men: First Class with Eric and thought it was a solidly good movie.

Seven: I signed up to go to the Gibbs conference on thermodynamics in September.
Yup, a nerd convention. But I haven't been to one since before I did my qualifier (so over a year and a half ago). And this will be the first one where I get to present my own poster!!!!! Woohoo! In the grand scheme, it's a small accomplishment, but I'm still excited. It's going to be a very tough conference for me to understand what's being said, though. Thermodynamics is very mathematically based.....and my brain freaks out when it sees numbers.

Eight: There a several events in the near future that promise to be fun and relaxing.
This weekend, a cookout with my mom's side of the family. That means tons of food, good wine, and laughter. Also, my friend Megan will be in town for a few weeks before she moves to Chicago to start her job as a PT!
Next weekend is my birthday, so I'm excited for whatever I do with Eric (I asked to go out to dinner all dressed up) and with my parents. Dad is also having a family reunion, so I'll go to that for a bit and probably recognize a lot of faces I can't put names to.
The following weekend will be a birthday party with friends (well, I'm still planning it, so it's not official yet).
And the weekend after that is slated to be the Summer Beer Olympics, which are hilarious, stressful, and memorable.

I can't wait for the weekend!!!!! Why do I still have to endure Friday!??
(hmm. My boss just called a "mega-meeting" for tomorrow from lunch until whenever. He's buying food and beers, which is awesome. We're going to be talking about what he wants each of us to do in the lab and how to go about it. But the idea of a mega meeting is still intimidating...)

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!!!!!!,

wait, what am I doing?

This is a question I ask myself about a dozen times a day, most while I'm at work. Bouncing between three or more projects every day is a little crazy, but I like the challenge, even though it's exhausting. Well, maybe I'm not always thrilled about doing it, but it's way better than having a mindless, repetitive job. I like the constant change and challenge, even if it frustrates me.

I know it's been awhile since I last wrote...sorry! As seems to always happen, I plan to do something (you should see my "to-do" lists!) and never get around to it. I don't know what keeps me from getting to things (okay, I strongly suspect TV, exhaustion, and trying to juggling way too many things at the same time), but I really have meant to write.

What have I been up to the last month or so?

~Searching for a new qualifier topic, with increasing desperation.
Okay, it's downright panic right now. I have to submit the first part of my qualifier (a two page document with a rough outline of what I propose to do) on Wednesday. That's 6 days from now. And I still haven't decided on a topic. Considering I spent over a month the previous two times doing what I need to do in 6 days...yeah, I'd say I'm seriously screwed. The stress levels and emotional tumult are increasing exponentially. As is my desire to do any task that does NOT involve my qualifier (This is a often discussed theory held by me and one of my former co-workers, Andy. The theory is that if you have a task you don't want to do, you will do any other task before it. In order to do this undesirable task, you must be presented with an even more odious task. Sadly, I don't have a more distasteful task than a qualifier. I even WANT to clean and organize my closet!).

~Cleaned my closet out.
Please see above for reasoning. I'm not done yet, but it is better!

~Helping my mom prepare food for my Aunt Norma and Uncle Charlie's birthday fiestas.
We had a friendly cook-off (okay, it wasn't a competition at all) where each guest made a Bobby Flay recipe to share. It was like Thanksgiving--soooo much food, all of which was delicious! I ate so much (just like Thanksgiving) I was in pain for the rest of the night and very nearly entered a food-induced coma.




~Made grand plans to get back on the exercise train...and not (yet) follow through on them.
Okay, this is starting to sound like a record. My most recent idea was to go to the gym at work in the morning, then do a workout video (either the Brazil butt lift or creepy yoga) at night. The rationale for this plan is that I am incredibly good at finding reasons not to go the gym at the end of the day...so if I do it first thing, I will not have time to find an excuse. One snag in my brilliant plan-I have to wake up early. I strongly dislike getting out of bed, particularly to perform physical activity. I think I have some work to do!!!!! I really want to get in shape!

~Hung out with my two best friends, Megan and Moe.
Megan was in D-town for a week and the three of us went out to dinner to one of the most delicious restaurants, Thai9. Then we wandered around Target, which is another of our favorite past times. I miss spending time with them!!!!

~Done some baking. And cooking.
I tried out a few new dishes - tart with figs and almond filling, iced brownies (I'd never iced brownies before!), salad of celery root + fennel + apple (didn't get to try any before it went bad, though), and some more stuff I don't remember. :)

~Organized school events.
As the new president of our department's grad school organization (which means next to nothing), I am in charge of running our bi-monthly meetings. And I am co-in-charge of organizing and setting up our monthly happy hours. I did both! Call me the department social director!


I'm going to bury myself in the qualifier for the next week, but once I turn it in, I will hopefully be able to talk about something more fun! I do have a lot of amazing things to look forward to (and write about!) -- hopefully going to a Tennessee football game, seeing Eric's band play at the Air Force Marathon (I love this outside morning show!), running a 5k, trying some recipes from my new cookbook, playing with fall activities (octoberfest, saurkraut festival, pumpkins, apple cider, football watching, earlham homecoming risotto!), some awesome new movies and tv shows coming out, and hopefully getting through the qualifier without losing my mind! So here's to fun...starting in one week :)