Short AT Hike

Okay, okay, I have not been blogging much. Life has been busy. D and I went to a wedding celebration last weekend. It was a ton of fun. Great to see friends I haven't seen in a while and some three legged racing funniness. In conjunction with this trip , we got the chance to hike a short bit of the AT. (Note: I have always thought it would be fun to hike the AT, especially after reading A Walk In the Woods, but really, I won't ever do it.) Here are a few photos of our adventure. Part of the fun is that we got to see a really cool waterfall...
What do you see in the stream?
I think he thought we couldn't see him. His camouflage is pretty good, huh?

Good Things

I have several posts in the works (or at least the ideas are in my head). But I wanted to post some of my recent photos of good things going on around here...

at the beach (look at the blue sky!)

early tomato blossoms

Mr. Plant blooms (maybe it's Mrs. Plant?)
This is one of Grum's plants and it's the first time it's bloomed for me. It's a begonia of some sort. It loves the light from the window, all of the leaves face that way and see how close the blooms are to the window. The wax plant also did amazingly well this year as I had over 10 pods of blooms this year!

a lovely bouquet (what do you this of this rustic herb bouquet?)

Music

Because I haven't posted in awhile and because I was just enjoying some music while eating dinner, I thought I'd share some of my musical opinions. I worked with a postdoc who liked crazy music. We used to listed to some loud music in the lab by artists like Propellerheads (which I love because they did the theme song to one of the James Bond movies and I like James Bond movies) and The Prodigy and Blur. Some of it is from Britain because that's where he's from and others were just things he heard in clubs. I typically prefer folk music. I am currently loving Justin Roth who I found out about through a friend who teaches guitar. My two favorites are She Dances and Fatima's Waltz (I believe after The Alchemist). You can find him here or on iTunes. He does some awesome guitar work.

Hiking Fun

I traveled at the end of last week. Where was I? On Saturday, March 20th, I hiked this mountain with my sister and D. The weather was lovely - sunny and warm but not too hot. I enjoyed getting some vitamin D as I'm sure I'm lacking it from the long dark winter. It was a somewhat of a strenuous hike with some scrambling sections, but the views were awesome and well worth it.

I also enjoyed some awesome eating. Cafe Forte on Saturday night and the Good Egg on Sunday morning. Both are highly recommended if you happen to be in this desert location.

Beautiful bathroom

I have been busy recently. I was especially productive about a few tasks I have been avoiding or haven't had time to complete around the house. I finally cleaned the floors in my house. I really love having clean floors and they look beautiful. I also got around to hemming and putting up these curtains in my bathroom. I moved the mini-blinds that were there to the kitchen to replace one of two blinds that had broken. The set of blinds from the kitchen that were still okay, I moved to the dining room. Everything looks great and new. Spring cleaning is fun. I also took a photo of a flower I have in my bathroom. It reminds me of a pillow my friend made. (See point 4 in the link for photos of the pillow.)
I have several big tasks to complete at work this week, but I ended up coming home early today to check on my basement. There has been a lot of rain in New England and so I don't think there are any dry basements in this region. Luckily mine isn't that bad and I don't store anything down there. Plus, the rest of the week is supposed to be glorious. I can't wait. Hope it's sunny where you are.

Reading

I've recently finished two great books. They receive my highest recommendation. The first is a pretty standard novel, that I found out was also read by a fellow blogger, FSP (female science professor). The books is A Gate at the Stairs. It's set in a college town but the story largely revolves around a student who becomes a nanny for a couple adopting a child. It was quite good and did really pull me in. I think the ending could have been done better, but it was okay.

The other book is A Homemade Life. My friend, Jill, gave me this book for Christmas after she mentioned it during a phone conversation and I thought it sounded wonderful. This is not your typical novel. Molly Wizenberg writes a blog that is in someways the basis for the book. The blog links her life to recipes. The book does the same. I have now made two of the recipes from the book. The ginger lemon scones are awesome. D and I ate some this morning from a batch I made more than a week ago. And I also made a dish that involved poaching salmon in apple cider. It was also delicious, though I wasn't quite patient enough to wait for the sauce to reduce as it should have.

Something new

Last weekend, I went on a New England adventure. D had planned the trip and we stayed in an adorable inn. The inn had amazing breakfasts, despite some mixed reviews online. We both had omelets the first morning (mine had a bunch of veggies in it and D had assorted veggies, spinach and mushrooms if I remember correctly, along with cheddar cheese). The second morning I had delicious whole grain pancakes with blueberries and D had a breakfast burrito. There was also a fun buffet with good pastries and fruit... yes, we ate a lot, but it's a good thing since the skiing was exhausting. The town where the inn is located is home to one of the infamous Winter Olympians (can you guess who?) so there was much signage cheering him on. We hit one local store and when we were paying, some of the staff was checking the scores for women's skiing. We didn't partake in the downhill events, but rather spent the better part of two days cross country skiing. Those of you who know me, might know that I learned to down hill ski in high school but haven't done much of it since. (I did go with friends once in 2007. And had fun, but it's just not my favorite sport.) I had never cross country skied. I had a bad NordicTrack experience in the distant past. Those things are only for super coordinated people. This adventure went well. It took a bit for me to get the hang of it and I think that was at least partly influenced by the bad conditions the first day. Things improved on the second. We woke up to light and lovely snow. And we also overhead some folks talking about different trails than what we had originally tried. So, even though I had trouble with the down hills (too narrow, sometimes too many uncovered rocks and branches, possibly somewhat unkept equipment), it was a lot of fun overall. I was very sore on Sunday night. But have recovered nicely. And I am also now back to my gym routine and Pilates - it was a rough month including being sick and having some weird rib injuries (did you know you can basically pop a rib out of place... yes, it's as painful as it sounds.) . Things are looking up. But I'm still very busy at work.

Don't you wish...

you were taking my friend's science course. He has crafted an entire exam based on the Olympics! I was proud to help him craft a question for a concept that he wasn't quite sure how to test. How fun. Watched the opening ceremony with friends on Friday. Had to leave before it was over, too tired. So I missed the snafu with the lighting of the flame. Have watched the updates but not time to see much else.

Recent Thought

Women are high school teachers. Men are college professors. Discuss.

Unique Pizza

You all know that I'm a pretty unique person. I invented this pizza after my friend Beth told me about her butternut squash pizza and after I started making a casserole with these ingredients. My pizza is topped with caramelized onions, butternut squash (slightly precooked in the microwave), blue cheese and candied walnuts on top of Trader Joe's herbed pizza dough! Delicious!

(I store this Trader Joe's product in my freezer and thaw it a day or so before I use it.)

The Numbers

This is my 100th blog post. (I love numbers.) When I made my last post, I noticed that I had 49 posts in 2008 and 49 posts in 2009. I thought that was interesting especially since the time the blog was active during both of those years is not equal. I did not post much last year. I will try to be a bit better this year, but no guarantees. The only other real number of interest from 2009 is that I ran 40 some odd more miles in 2009 than in 2008. I know, I'm crazy for keeping track of these things. But perhaps this explains the lack of blog posts?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I hope you all had a wonderful season! I have been meaning to post some holiday photos for quite some time. I had fun a few weekends ago. I did my traditional baking. It was snowing outside and I had the oven on all day. This year I made Cherry Shortbread Cookies, Dark Chocolate Ginger Crinkles, Russian Teacakes, and lots of Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. I took a hint from my friend Kyle and re-purposed some of the large cookie tubs I get from Trader Joe's. The only problem is that they had labels on the side that are impossible to remove. I covered them with wrapping paper. This is the finished product.
I decorated my tree, too. I think it looks great. The only thing missing is garland of some sort. I saw a fun one yesterday - it was fake popcorn and cranberry strings. I only wish it had been slightly more realistic. Might get something next year. Here's the shot with the flash:
I also had lots of fun going through all of my ornaments. Here are a few that I selected to put at the top of the tree. Some of you might know the symbolism to these. I have several that are like the kangaroo - a gold fish, a small blue dove and a white cat (with blue and purple sequins). I asked my mom about these because I know they are some of the oldest ones, but didn't remember where they came from. My mom remembers them being from a store that my grandma shopped at near the town where my mom grew up. It sounded a bit like the ornaments were tied to wrapped packages - a different one each year. The unicorn and bell are both more symbolic. I really enjoyed having all of the ornaments this year!

It's beginning to look...

a bit like Christmas. Over the weekend, D and I went on an adventure. I had gotten it in my head that I wanted to go to a local tree farm and cut down a Christmas tree. Thank goodness he was willing to humor me, especially since it meant he had to do the cutting and the ground had a good covering of snow/ice. It was a fun adventure. I also now know I should bring work gloves among other things. Here is the leaning tree. It has since been straightened (my geometry gene wasn't working over the weekend). The tree is slowly getting decorated and my ornaments we collected every year when I was younger are on there way here. Thanks Mom! I can't wait to open the box since I only remember one ornament.
Also, D and I made some delicious stuffed mushrooms over the weekend. The stuffing is rather like a hummus. It is quite tasty and so I'll share the stuffing recipe with you. I modified it from a book called Cooking with Pumpkins and Squash by Brian Glover.
Defrost two one lb packages of pureed butternut squash (the recipe tells you to roast the squash, but sometimes that just takes too darn long, so this short cut is perfect for the holidays). Puree one can of garbanzo beans (minus the liquid). Combine these ingredients. Add 1 T olive oil, a small bunch of chopped thyme, 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, 1 chopped garlic clove, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, juice from 1 lemon, 2 T chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. You can just puree the whole lot if you have a large food processor, or you can combine a small amount of the earlier puree with these last ingredients in a smaller food processor. Everything should be well combined and smooth. This is delicious on crackers. It was pretty good in the mushroom caps (add and cook at 375 for 10-20 minutes). And I had it as part of a simple salad tonight. There is a yogurt sauce that goes with it, however, I cannot attest to how good the sauce is, so I won't report the recipe here. See I told you I wish I was a food blogger.

Insulated

Last year during a power outage some of the pipes that supply hot water to my baseboard radiators froze. They froze in a corner on my house that has always been cold. I had used towels and a small blanket to try to insulate that area but it always seemed that cold air was blowing in. After reminding my landlord about this again this year and proposing a solution that he hated, he decided to have a contractor do the work. It's much warmer in that room now and the hole to the outside in the basement has been filled with insulation. Here's the work in one corner (they ended up doing all the corners in the living room):
You see the funny colored wood cut out next to the upright post? That had basically just been a hole in the floor, though it didn't go all the way through to the basement. They added insulation and closed up the hole. The contractor also ran caulk (in brown) along each side of all of the posts in the room. I'm hoping that I don't have the same freezing problem this year.

In order to be even more insulated, I've just finished the plastic on my windows. I have 5 new windows in my place - upstairs. But there are a total of 8 old windows. These are old windows where I have to slide the screen up and a second pane of glass down in the winter. Yet, cold air still blows into my house. I've done the plastic trick each year and it seems to help. I also do passive solar heating, meaning I open the blinds during the day and close them at night. This works especially well since I have a southern exposure in 80% of the windows. Here's a photo of my handy work.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I was visiting friends from grad school. It was fun, the food delicious and the chance to catch up wonderful. But, I ended up driving quite a bit; I must give a shout out to the toll transponders... what an awesome invention.

Sometimes I wish...

I was a food blogger. I made a delicious dinner tonight. Simple whitefish with lemon and herbs accompanied by orange-glazed brussels (is that "s" at the end really correct?) sprouts and carrots. There is also some Arborio rice cooked in broth which was left over from last night but made a nice addition to the plate. Here's a picture:
(Okay, so I'm not the best food photographer, but it was delicious.) This is my first attempt at cooking fish in parchment paper. I've always wanted to try that but never had. It turned out quite nicely. And I must say it's a little funny that I just had parchment paper lying around. I can't remember what I purchased it for, but there it was in the cabinet just waiting to be used.

Otherwise, I had a fun day. I slept a lot last night. I needed it. This morning, I worked on an assignment for my students. I am about half way finished. I need to do some of the calculations myself before deciding exactly what I will ask them to do. That can wait until tomorrow morning. This afternoon, I did my part to stimulate the economy. I shopped and shopped some more. I had some brilliant ideas for holiday gifts for friends and family. And so I got a significant amount of gift buying done. It was fun. I sometimes need some retail therapy, even if I'm not buying things for myself.

Blooms

I have been neglecting my blog recently. I have been busy at work and in my personal life. But many of the things that have been happening are not things I want to blog about or I feel like I can't blog about them (especially when it comes to interactions with students). Things are blooming around here. It's especially nice since there's a chill in the air on some days. Here are a few recent blooms:
I think my cacti must be Thanksgiving cacti. They bloomed at about the same time last year. I'm looking forward to the white blooms opening on the mixed cactus. See the coral and pink flowers above. You might also be able to spot a white bud or three that haven't yet opened. The larger cactus (entirely pink) is in full bloom. It's lovely.
These were a big surprise. There was a dozen but I didn't think to snap a photo until some of them were a little droopy. They are absolutely beautiful. And even a few weeks later now, 1 or 2 of them still look great! I have them in the cut out between my kitchen and dining room. I can gaze at them while I do the dishes.

Yelp!

I verbally yelped when I heard about Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win on Friday. It was surprising. But I think it speaks to the change that's possible with him in office and the hope he brings the people of this country and perhaps even more importantly, the world.

I also yelped earlier in the week about this:


I looked back at my blog and the date corresponds to almost when I posted buds on the Christmas cactus last year. Funny.

Also, I was delighted to see:
on the curtain in my living room today. Can you tell it's a little lady bug.

Otherwise, things are going well.

Still Smiling

So I gave the guy (not my student, but the guy I'd been on a date with) from my "What they do, not what they say..." post a few weeks ago a second chance. We had a movie and dinner date last weekend. And yesterday, we spent the good part of the rainy day together. We had wanted to go hiking but decided on indoor activities instead. So, we went bowling. This was New England style bowling. I had never been candlepin bowling before - apparently this has been around since the 1880. It's like normal bowling, but with thinner pins and smaller balls without holes. In each frame you bowl three balls. It was hard to get the hang of and I was beat the first two games (in fact the first game I only got 22 points). My date made the observation that I seemed to do better when I was really following through with my throw; this proved to be completely correct once I started paying attention to it. By the last frame, I got a strike and then knocked all 10 pins down on the second ball of the extra frame. At the beginning, I was worried how it would all work out, but I would totally go again. We also had pizza at my favorite place and baked some awesome cookies (oatmeal with chocolate chips instead of raisins) at my place. It's going surprisingly well. And my prior comments about him can now be considered false. I think this will likely be the last time I blog about him. I just want to enjoy the moments.

Extensions...

I have two comments about extensions. First off, I do not grant them unless it's an emergency. If my students can't get things in on time, I don't think they will be able to meet deadlines in the real world. There should be some sort of penalty. But I do understand that they have a lot of demands on their time. These could be things that I also think are important or things that I don't think they should be spending time on in a million years. So I just make it a policy that I don't care why a paper is late, I just give it the late penalty.

The other extension connection is something I recently observed. It's the cell phone is an extension of the hand/ear of the current student. I have a classroom near my office and I happened to be walking back to my office as a class was letting out recently. At least 90% of the students pulled their cell phones out immediately after walking out of the classroom. They were texting, getting messages and making calls. It makes it really hard to navigate a hallway when it is full of students who are not paying attention to walking or where they are going. And it is very annoying.

Delicious

I just made the best dinner in just about 30 minutes (take that Rachel Ray)! I made pan seared scallops with walnuts and spiced carrots. (Note: I think this would work equally well with chicken or shrimp. Chicken could marinaded and then go in the oven and just be finished on the stovetop.) It was not pretty to look at so no photo. But it made me very happy. Add a glass of red wine and I'm thinking I'm not going to work any more tonight. Yesterday was a marathon at work - approximately 7 am - 10 pm. That's too much work, especially when I worked 5 plus hours on Sunday and at least a few hours on Saturday. I was also up at approximately 4 am this morning, ate something, tried to sleep a little bit more but gave up and went to the gym and then to work. Plus I dealt with some fun student issue today with my chair observing. Nothing like nerve wracking! Everything smears together when you work this much. You forget which key goes in which lock, and you haven't even had anything to drink.

PS: Sorry to disappoint about the Roomba and the puppy. A puppy is on the wish list. I just have to figure out how to get around the clause of no pets in my lease. There is a good bit of pet damage in my apartment. And my neighbors (we share a landlord) have a dog. I don't think this will be too difficult a task. And, surprisingly, I actually don't mind vacuuming.