That is, let another year go between blog posts. Who am I kidding, I'll never be a real blogger because I think of too many other things to do. Anyway, lots of life changes recently: got married, moved states, new jobs for me and the señor. Of course, you all know this anyway. I wonder if anybody looks at this page anymore, being that there's been no reason to for a good year now?
This would be a good place to generally share things again, being that I haven't yet got friends in my new home. We'll see.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Rewards
The school I work at has a chef program complete with pastry classes, and for a couple hours every day they sell their class creations just around the corner from my office. I've been resisting all semester long.
This morning I walked past as usual with a longing gaze. As I got closer to my office I saw a sign announcing flu shots. I hate HATE HHHAAAAAAATE needles but a flu shot is a pretty good idea for someone who spends time around lots of stressed-out people, many of whom currently work in the health industry, handling things they've been handling (and I suspect they may sometimes cough on their homework assignments on purpose). So I made an internal pact that if I got a flu shot I could also get a little box of 6 handmade chocolates.
It seems like a good compromise to me. Also having a bit of fancy chocolate at my desk helps me to resist all the free, low-quality Halloween candy spread out over the campus. I'll hoard that box for a good week, too.
My arm hurts.
This morning I walked past as usual with a longing gaze. As I got closer to my office I saw a sign announcing flu shots. I hate HATE HHHAAAAAAATE needles but a flu shot is a pretty good idea for someone who spends time around lots of stressed-out people, many of whom currently work in the health industry, handling things they've been handling (and I suspect they may sometimes cough on their homework assignments on purpose). So I made an internal pact that if I got a flu shot I could also get a little box of 6 handmade chocolates.
It seems like a good compromise to me. Also having a bit of fancy chocolate at my desk helps me to resist all the free, low-quality Halloween candy spread out over the campus. I'll hoard that box for a good week, too.
My arm hurts.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Yep
The first week of class is seriously kicking my ass. I've got a billion people on my wait lists, people having to stand during my lectures, more students whose names/faces I have to learn in one room at a time than ever before, and an algebra class that I'm doing the prep for hours before class every day already.
It's pretty fun.
But the real reason I got on here is that after I finished clearing all of my new students' photos off of my camera (gotta learn all of those new names/faces somehow), this was the picture I found, that I did not take.
For those of you who don't know, B.L. is an enormous cat who is adorable playing with milk rings and terrified of everything.
It's pretty fun.
But the real reason I got on here is that after I finished clearing all of my new students' photos off of my camera (gotta learn all of those new names/faces somehow), this was the picture I found, that I did not take.
For those of you who don't know, B.L. is an enormous cat who is adorable playing with milk rings and terrified of everything.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Mr. & Mrs. C
My parents visited from MO this weekend, just left this morning. We did the usual stuff - farmer's market, kitchen store, other various strolling and window shopping. I took my parents to my school to show them where I taught and we checked out my new office. Didn't do any gardening activities because the mosquitoes are so bad this year, even DEET won't keep them off. Mumsie helped out with the big Saturday cook-off; took Pfather out to a couple bookstores and a couple good beer spots and had a variety of IPA's on hand at the house. Did a bit of eating out. Got my mom hooked on the Inspector Linley series from PBS's Mystery!
My parents and I made some more stained-glass looking mosaics (pics at left with and without flash - m&d's on left, mine on right). I couldn't find any good glass at the local craft stores so instead I went to St. Vinny's and bought a bunch of clear, colored glasses and plates that we broke into pieces. As such, the shards were of varying thickness and degree of curvature, which made grouting pretty difficult. Still, I think they turned out well and I'm hoping they'll garner a bit of cash for a friend's cancer benefit next weekend. I also took a couple pics of the mosaic I made for the class I took with S, on the right.
I was going to go to work today, but really I need a recovery day, to re-organize my room (they brought up the matching low, long dresser to my other dresser), and to help pack gift baskets for the benefit silent auction. Tomorrow I will plan my chem class for the fall - shouldn't take long - and with any luck start planning the algebra class, which I imagine will take a good week. I suppose I should change out of my PJ's and get to it.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The most popular part of my life...
...seems to be what I eat. To be fair, we do eat really well around here. I took a photo of our refrigerator this week, just so you can see the serious level of organization it takes to pack that much food in one average-sized fridge.
On the menu:
I purchased some aluminum baking cups for the primal muffins this week and it worked WAY better - I think the eggs are what made them stick so bad to my non-stick muffin tins. I'm going to try to re-use the ones we pull off without ripping. We'll see if that works. I am very much enjoying the cut, 1/4-watermelons available at our grocer. Small enough for us 3 to finish easily and also we get to see the apparent fruit quality. I tend toward choosing less-ripe melons because the light pink-whitish bites are my favorite.
Finished editing lab experiments, mostly finished my department's website work, turned in my final grades, have gotten a bunch of chores done around the house. Now I need to run a bunch of "big box store" errands this afternoon.
Had a nice cocktail with ladyfriends G and M last night at Restaurant Magnus. The Finn's #7 Cup and Batida were tasty-tasty and not too sweet. The Dodsfall Manhattan was okay, but with a sort of apple-juicy aftertaste (no, I did not have 3 drinks, we all traded sips). It's always hard for me to deviate from a plain ol' dry martini, but the last couple times I've been rewarded with an interesting mixed drink.
Tomorrow night I'm invited to dinner with K & S - I'll have to take over some of the carob zucchini bread for dessert. I'm supposed to also play some Wii games, we'll see.
All in all I'm very much enjoying my rather laid-back "home vacation" aka the 3 weeks between semesters. I've still got a lot of prep work for my algebra class but I'm going to worry about that next week.
On the menu:- "primal" peanut butter-banana muffins
- "half-primal" (1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/2 coconut flour) carob zucchini bread
- cheeseburgers with caramelized onions
- apple seaweed salad
- black beans in homemade beef stock
- rosemary roasted potatoes and chicken
- creamed herb zucchini
- mexican-style grilled corn
- smoked, dry-rub ribs
- sausage, onions and peppers with fennel root (I think the sausage was made by roomie D? El señor B was on a freezer-clearing binge)
- watermelon
I purchased some aluminum baking cups for the primal muffins this week and it worked WAY better - I think the eggs are what made them stick so bad to my non-stick muffin tins. I'm going to try to re-use the ones we pull off without ripping. We'll see if that works. I am very much enjoying the cut, 1/4-watermelons available at our grocer. Small enough for us 3 to finish easily and also we get to see the apparent fruit quality. I tend toward choosing less-ripe melons because the light pink-whitish bites are my favorite.
Finished editing lab experiments, mostly finished my department's website work, turned in my final grades, have gotten a bunch of chores done around the house. Now I need to run a bunch of "big box store" errands this afternoon.
Had a nice cocktail with ladyfriends G and M last night at Restaurant Magnus. The Finn's #7 Cup and Batida were tasty-tasty and not too sweet. The Dodsfall Manhattan was okay, but with a sort of apple-juicy aftertaste (no, I did not have 3 drinks, we all traded sips). It's always hard for me to deviate from a plain ol' dry martini, but the last couple times I've been rewarded with an interesting mixed drink.
Tomorrow night I'm invited to dinner with K & S - I'll have to take over some of the carob zucchini bread for dessert. I'm supposed to also play some Wii games, we'll see.
All in all I'm very much enjoying my rather laid-back "home vacation" aka the 3 weeks between semesters. I've still got a lot of prep work for my algebra class but I'm going to worry about that next week.
Friday, July 30, 2010
This week
Yesterday I gave the final exam for my summer session. Spending a good 5-6 hours per day, 4 days in a row every week, for 8 weeks, with my students meant that I got to know them really well and was able to get most of them through with a passing grade. It also meant that by this week, I was dead out of patience, even snapping a few times at roomie D and el señor B. I really like my summer students and I am really glad to not see any of them perhaps ever again.
Today I have to grade those final exams and edit the lab experiments for the fall semester. Then I've got 3 weeks to get ready for next semester, in which I will again be teaching chemistry, and also ALGEBRA!!!! and also be the director for an engineering transfer program. I'm pretty nervous but excited to try some new things and have a full-time salary again, at least for a while.
This week I finished a 3-Monday night mosaics class with my friend S. She made a really cool serving platter and I made a window hanging. It's fun to do crafty stuff even just a little. We were trying to have craft night once a week this past winter but once spring hit we got too busy with gardens and yards and the like.
Also enjoyed many evenings with el señor B, roomie D, popcorn and re-watching Deadwood. It sounds a little boring but I'm a homebody at heart and would rather be sitting at home with a couple choice friends rather than go do something "exciting". That said, have been going out on the occasional martini/beer date with lady-friends, and that has also been nice, and of course there is still Zumba.
To wrap it up, on this week's tRBC menu:
summer vegetable gratin
garden greens with bacon
sausage and olive-stuffed italian peppers
slow-cooked pork roast
el señor B's veggie slaw
homemade sour cream (a little sourer this time, but we still haven't got it quite down)
beef and broccoli stir-fry
mashed root veggies
smoked salmon with soba and yu choi
"primal" (no flour) "pumpkin" (can't find pumpkin right now, used a sweet potato) muffins
Yellow squash, zucchini, italian frying peppers, kale and collards all came from the garden. For the second week in a row I forgot that we have shallots from the garden and bought some.
The muffins turned out really good, although with 6 eggs to 1/2 c. coconut flour were more soufflé than pastry and stuck like mofos to my non-stick muffin pans, even though I had larded them liberally. I think I'll try a modified version with almond flour and the teensiest bit of wheat flour this weekend, and might get some silicone muffin pans.
Today I have to grade those final exams and edit the lab experiments for the fall semester. Then I've got 3 weeks to get ready for next semester, in which I will again be teaching chemistry, and also ALGEBRA!!!! and also be the director for an engineering transfer program. I'm pretty nervous but excited to try some new things and have a full-time salary again, at least for a while.
This week I finished a 3-Monday night mosaics class with my friend S. She made a really cool serving platter and I made a window hanging. It's fun to do crafty stuff even just a little. We were trying to have craft night once a week this past winter but once spring hit we got too busy with gardens and yards and the like.
Also enjoyed many evenings with el señor B, roomie D, popcorn and re-watching Deadwood. It sounds a little boring but I'm a homebody at heart and would rather be sitting at home with a couple choice friends rather than go do something "exciting". That said, have been going out on the occasional martini/beer date with lady-friends, and that has also been nice, and of course there is still Zumba.
To wrap it up, on this week's tRBC menu:
summer vegetable gratin
garden greens with bacon
sausage and olive-stuffed italian peppers
slow-cooked pork roast
el señor B's veggie slaw
homemade sour cream (a little sourer this time, but we still haven't got it quite down)
beef and broccoli stir-fry
mashed root veggies
smoked salmon with soba and yu choi
"primal" (no flour) "pumpkin" (can't find pumpkin right now, used a sweet potato) muffins
Yellow squash, zucchini, italian frying peppers, kale and collards all came from the garden. For the second week in a row I forgot that we have shallots from the garden and bought some.
The muffins turned out really good, although with 6 eggs to 1/2 c. coconut flour were more soufflé than pastry and stuck like mofos to my non-stick muffin pans, even though I had larded them liberally. I think I'll try a modified version with almond flour and the teensiest bit of wheat flour this weekend, and might get some silicone muffin pans.
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