I'm about 100 pages into The Fountainhead, so seeing has how there are probably 700 pages in that book, that'll most likely go under the February pleasure reading category :-)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
January's pleasure reading: part 3
Not taking as many classes really frees up my weekends to do some pleasure reading! I read the last book by David Sedaris that I own but hadn't read yet. It's called Barrel Fever and Other Stories and it was a collection of stories and essays that were a mixture of autobiographical and fictional stories. This one was much better than Holidays on Ice but still not as good as the other books I've read by him. Actually 2 of the essays in here were also in Holidays on Ice, but that's okay -- there were plenty of other different stories.
I'm about 100 pages into The Fountainhead, so seeing has how there are probably 700 pages in that book, that'll most likely go under the February pleasure reading category :-)
I'm about 100 pages into The Fountainhead, so seeing has how there are probably 700 pages in that book, that'll most likely go under the February pleasure reading category :-)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Seattle-bound!
"On behalf of the SFB Program Committee, we are pleased to inform you that your abstract has been accepted for a poster presentation". Yaaay, Seattle, here I come!!
I'm even more excited because one of my friends is also going to the conference so I have a buddy to room with! :-) And one more state off my list of states to visit (maybe even 2 more depending on where I change flights)! Seattle looks like a really interesting city -- I hope I can go see some of the sites, like the Space Needle, while I'm there. Monty is a big fan of seeing the city when you go to conferences so I'm sure he won't object. Plus the conference is from April 21-24 and the 24 is a Saturday so perhaps I can stick around an extra day :-D
I'm presenting during 2 poster sessions so I'll have a lot of time to see other posters and speak with other presenters. The conference I went to in July had some excursions planned during the off-times so maybe I can sign up for some of those type of things at this conference (assuming they offer little side-adventures). It is also particularly nice for me to have a hard deadline for myself; now I have definite time points to work towards which always seems to work well as a motivating factor for me. Oh, now you need to have some data to present in front of the major biomaterials players in the whole country... so GET TO WORK! Not that I need motivation to work on things I'm interested in, it's just nice to put a bit of pressure on.
In other news: still working on my review paper but it's getting closer and closer to the light at the end of tunnel, surprisingly enjoying doing all the statics homework required by TAs (it's a good refresher), excited about the lab course I'm taking, and of course, spending time with my wonderful and loving husband (of more than 7 months!)
I'm even more excited because one of my friends is also going to the conference so I have a buddy to room with! :-) And one more state off my list of states to visit (maybe even 2 more depending on where I change flights)! Seattle looks like a really interesting city -- I hope I can go see some of the sites, like the Space Needle, while I'm there. Monty is a big fan of seeing the city when you go to conferences so I'm sure he won't object. Plus the conference is from April 21-24 and the 24 is a Saturday so perhaps I can stick around an extra day :-D
I'm presenting during 2 poster sessions so I'll have a lot of time to see other posters and speak with other presenters. The conference I went to in July had some excursions planned during the off-times so maybe I can sign up for some of those type of things at this conference (assuming they offer little side-adventures). It is also particularly nice for me to have a hard deadline for myself; now I have definite time points to work towards which always seems to work well as a motivating factor for me. Oh, now you need to have some data to present in front of the major biomaterials players in the whole country... so GET TO WORK! Not that I need motivation to work on things I'm interested in, it's just nice to put a bit of pressure on.
In other news: still working on my review paper but it's getting closer and closer to the light at the end of tunnel, surprisingly enjoying doing all the statics homework required by TAs (it's a good refresher), excited about the lab course I'm taking, and of course, spending time with my wonderful and loving husband (of more than 7 months!)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
#3: Whole-Wheat Mac-n-Cheese for the Family
This week's recipe was one I mentioned wanting to make right after Christmas but I had never made it; that was the one Keegan picked for me to make this week.
Mac-n-cheese isn't too complex but the sauce in this recipe was made with chicken stock, milk, cheese, and dijon mustard. When this is mixed with the pasta, I added cauliflower so this was a way for Keegan and I to eat something we don't usually eat :-)
Even though the recipe didn't call for much mustard it was sure easy to taste in the final product! The sauce was a nice consistency and there's not really anything I would change about this one!
Mac-n-cheese isn't too complex but the sauce in this recipe was made with chicken stock, milk, cheese, and dijon mustard. When this is mixed with the pasta, I added cauliflower so this was a way for Keegan and I to eat something we don't usually eat :-)
Even though the recipe didn't call for much mustard it was sure easy to taste in the final product! The sauce was a nice consistency and there's not really anything I would change about this one!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
January's pleasure reading: part 2
Well this month I exceeded my expectations! I read another book yesterday/this morning, although granted a relatively short (134 pages) book of essays.
I have mentioned David Sedaris a few times on here and the second book I read this month (other than two Harry Potter books which I don't really count seeing as how I read them while on the treadmill) is called Holidays on Ice and it's a collection of Christmas-related stories.
While this book still had some funny moments, I didn't enjoy it as much as all the other Sedaris books I have read (Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames). There were six stories in the book and only 3 of them dealt with his life and 3 of them were just funny little stories about cynical observations he's made about the Christmas season (like the materialistic tendencies of people). I personally enjoy his stories about his own life because, like Firoozeh Dumas, so much seems to happen to him! He also grew up in North Carolina so it's funny to read things about North Hills Mall and Cameron Village and D.H. Hill Library (one of the campus libraries at NCSU).
One of the things I did notice in the book is that he tends to use a lot of stereotypes and makes observations that, while sometimes humorous or funny only to a certain extent, aren't strictly P.C. But I guess since he's gay he feels it's okay for him to use them? That's one thing that's always confused me, like how black people can call each other derogatory names (either in total seriousness or jesting) but if other people do it it's racist. Not that I have the desire to call people things like that, I'm just saying it's a bit of a double standard. I guess it's like how older siblings can torment younger siblings but when unrelated kids torment the younger siblings it's time to step up... ?
So in short, for anyone who wants to read Sedaris books, I would read one of his others first (Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked were the first two I read) to get a feel for his style. He didn't have the excessive use of stereotypes in the other books, I think because they are all based on his life and the stories in this book containing the stereotypical humor were not the autobiographical ones. I think there is only one other Sedaris book I haven't read; it's called Barrel Fever and I received it for Christmas, along with Holidays on Ice, so I'll probably write a post about that one in the coming months. :-)
I have mentioned David Sedaris a few times on here and the second book I read this month (other than two Harry Potter books which I don't really count seeing as how I read them while on the treadmill) is called Holidays on Ice and it's a collection of Christmas-related stories.
While this book still had some funny moments, I didn't enjoy it as much as all the other Sedaris books I have read (Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames). There were six stories in the book and only 3 of them dealt with his life and 3 of them were just funny little stories about cynical observations he's made about the Christmas season (like the materialistic tendencies of people). I personally enjoy his stories about his own life because, like Firoozeh Dumas, so much seems to happen to him! He also grew up in North Carolina so it's funny to read things about North Hills Mall and Cameron Village and D.H. Hill Library (one of the campus libraries at NCSU).
One of the things I did notice in the book is that he tends to use a lot of stereotypes and makes observations that, while sometimes humorous or funny only to a certain extent, aren't strictly P.C. But I guess since he's gay he feels it's okay for him to use them? That's one thing that's always confused me, like how black people can call each other derogatory names (either in total seriousness or jesting) but if other people do it it's racist. Not that I have the desire to call people things like that, I'm just saying it's a bit of a double standard. I guess it's like how older siblings can torment younger siblings but when unrelated kids torment the younger siblings it's time to step up... ?
So in short, for anyone who wants to read Sedaris books, I would read one of his others first (Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked were the first two I read) to get a feel for his style. He didn't have the excessive use of stereotypes in the other books, I think because they are all based on his life and the stories in this book containing the stereotypical humor were not the autobiographical ones. I think there is only one other Sedaris book I haven't read; it's called Barrel Fever and I received it for Christmas, along with Holidays on Ice, so I'll probably write a post about that one in the coming months. :-)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
#2: Livia's Hot Dog-Pasta-Broccoli Bake
So far, so good. I'm keeping up with my goal to make a new recipe per week! This week I let Keegan flip through my cookbook and pick the one he wanted me to make and he chose a recipe that is made with turkey hot dogs, broccoli, garlic, whole wheat pasta, and Parmesan cheese. It sounds sort of like a little kid's meal but the cookbook is a family cookbook so I guess it makes sense to have a recipe with hot dogs :-) My guy's a kid at heart!
I think if I make this meal again I will use only one clove of garlic (even though the recipe calls for 2-3) because I feel like I'll have bad breath for awhile. At least Keegan has the same breath so he won't have to suffer through it! The recipe also served 4-6 so it was a lot of food for the two of us. Keegan has half of it left to take to work for lunch this week!
I think if I make this meal again I will use only one clove of garlic (even though the recipe calls for 2-3) because I feel like I'll have bad breath for awhile. At least Keegan has the same breath so he won't have to suffer through it! The recipe also served 4-6 so it was a lot of food for the two of us. Keegan has half of it left to take to work for lunch this week!
January's pleasure reading
This year I hope to read a book for pleasure every month and although I had planned to read The Fountainhead first, I bought another book from Barnes and Noble (yesterday!) on an impulse.
In high school I read a book called Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas and I loved it! Her style of writing is really unique and she has so many funny ways of describing all the situations in her life. So anyway, I knew she was going to be writing a second biography and from time to time when I went to bookstores I look for her books. On Saturday I took a gift card given to me for Christmas by one of my brothers-in-law and lo and behold -- I found another Firoozeh Dumas book!
This month's reading was called Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen. Considering I read the entire book in less than a day, to say I enjoyed it is putting it mildly. Her books are just chapters based on funny things in her life and I have to wonder how anyone can have so many amusing things happen to them in the course of their lives. I mean, maybe things that happen to me are also amusing I just don't have the words to describe them in such entertaining ways. It reminds me of David Sedaris and his books (which, coincidentally I have several I received for Christmas that I haven't read).
For example, she was writing about after she had given birth to her first child and her mother came to stay with her for two weeks to help her out. Apparently her mother believed that eating watermelon is good for breastmilk but as the author had had a C section, carrying a watermelon from the store across the street from their house was out of the picture (and I think her husband was out of town).
"One day I awoke to find an enormous watermelon on my kitchen counter and my mother smiling like Sylvester after he had finally eaten Tweety.
'Where did this come from?' I asked.
'From the grocery store,' she said.
'How did you get it home?'
'Nice man help me.'
My mother explained that the store was having a special: all melons were the same price, regardless of weight. She had noticed an enormous, only-in-America-size watermelon, and bonded with it in a way that only a frugal immigrant can. She then did what any self-respecting mother would do. As she described it, 'I looked for a strong man.'
According to her, she asked an unsuspecting soul in the fruit aisle if he could 'Peh-leaze help for my daw-ter eat vater-melon for baby.' This kind, perhaps frightened, gentle giant of a man then carried this super-size fruit across the street, up two flights of narrow stairs, and placed it on my kitchen counter.
'Did you offer to pay him?' I asked.
'I said to him, 'You are verry, verry kind man' and offered him addas polo.'
Not surprisingly, the kind man had turned down my mother's offer of lentil rice, lest he then be asked to clean the chimney."
There are so many other situations in this book that are hilarious, including descriptions of her childhood in Iran, going on a family cruise, and weird foods she has sampled throughout her life. I highly recommend this book (and Funny in Farsi!) to anyone!
In high school I read a book called Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas and I loved it! Her style of writing is really unique and she has so many funny ways of describing all the situations in her life. So anyway, I knew she was going to be writing a second biography and from time to time when I went to bookstores I look for her books. On Saturday I took a gift card given to me for Christmas by one of my brothers-in-law and lo and behold -- I found another Firoozeh Dumas book!
This month's reading was called Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen. Considering I read the entire book in less than a day, to say I enjoyed it is putting it mildly. Her books are just chapters based on funny things in her life and I have to wonder how anyone can have so many amusing things happen to them in the course of their lives. I mean, maybe things that happen to me are also amusing I just don't have the words to describe them in such entertaining ways. It reminds me of David Sedaris and his books (which, coincidentally I have several I received for Christmas that I haven't read).
For example, she was writing about after she had given birth to her first child and her mother came to stay with her for two weeks to help her out. Apparently her mother believed that eating watermelon is good for breastmilk but as the author had had a C section, carrying a watermelon from the store across the street from their house was out of the picture (and I think her husband was out of town).
"One day I awoke to find an enormous watermelon on my kitchen counter and my mother smiling like Sylvester after he had finally eaten Tweety.
'Where did this come from?' I asked.
'From the grocery store,' she said.
'How did you get it home?'
'Nice man help me.'
My mother explained that the store was having a special: all melons were the same price, regardless of weight. She had noticed an enormous, only-in-America-size watermelon, and bonded with it in a way that only a frugal immigrant can. She then did what any self-respecting mother would do. As she described it, 'I looked for a strong man.'
According to her, she asked an unsuspecting soul in the fruit aisle if he could 'Peh-leaze help for my daw-ter eat vater-melon for baby.' This kind, perhaps frightened, gentle giant of a man then carried this super-size fruit across the street, up two flights of narrow stairs, and placed it on my kitchen counter.
'Did you offer to pay him?' I asked.
'I said to him, 'You are verry, verry kind man' and offered him addas polo.'
Not surprisingly, the kind man had turned down my mother's offer of lentil rice, lest he then be asked to clean the chimney."
There are so many other situations in this book that are hilarious, including descriptions of her childhood in Iran, going on a family cruise, and weird foods she has sampled throughout her life. I highly recommend this book (and Funny in Farsi!) to anyone!
Monday, January 11, 2010
#1: Better Pancakes
Last night I made my first new recipe! It was new to us but not really that original. One of the cookbooks I received for Christmas has a recipe for pancakes that uses pancake mix but adds to/alters it a bit. It changes the numbers of eggs and amount of milk used and then adds sliced bananas and blueberries to the mix before cooking. Neither of us had ever had pancakes with bananas cooked right in. Tasty!
The only down side to the recipe is that it made more pancakes than we really needed and the blueberries were pricey because they aren't exactly in season :-)
The only down side to the recipe is that it made more pancakes than we really needed and the blueberries were pricey because they aren't exactly in season :-)
Friday, January 8, 2010
Home stretch
Monty says I'm on the "home stretch" of my review paper! Yesssss! I know I have a lot to do to get there but I at least have a clear view of what remains to be done. Seeing as how Monty will be in Japan all next week, I have plenty of time to work on it and I think I'll have draft #11 for him when he gets back. March 31 is my hard deadline for myself to have submitted it for publication. I will also have begun work on a paper about the system I'm starting to design. Maybe I will have that finished by this time next year, hah.
Monday, January 4, 2010
New year, new goals
I'm not really sure that I ever make "resolutions" but I do try to make a list of goals for myself for the coming year so I guess those could be called my resolutions. For example, I am more specific than "I want to save more money", stating certain dollar amounts in my budget and I think that helps me meet my goals.
But this year a few of my goals and resolutions are to:
But this year a few of my goals and resolutions are to:
- Make one new recipe per week to help us eat foods we don't usually eat
- Reach my target weight of 125 by March 1; 10 pounds, 2 months!
- Contribute certain percentages of my income to my money market account, our joint money market account (once we set it up), and my IRA
- Save a month's worth of rent at the grocery store over the course of the year (this year we saved $789.13, which is almost a month's rent!)
- Read a book per month for pleasure (first I will re-start reading The Fountainhead)
- Submit my review paper for publication by March 31
- Make specific time for Keegan and I to spend quality time together, like planning a small trip for our one year anniversary; we each get so wrapped up in our own deadlines and work that it's easy to fall in to ruts
Sunday, January 3, 2010
2009 in review
I've seen many of my other friends making a list of important events from each month in 2009, so I've been thinking about all the things that happened in my life this year:
January:
- First snow day of the winter!
- Wedding invitations were ordered, one big thing off our to-do list
February:
- Wedding preparations are in full swing, finding/ordering bridesmaid dresses, premarital counseling, picking food, flowers, etc
March:
- Alice and Keegan buy their wedding rings for each other
April:
- Keegan and Alice go to Hilton Head with Keegan's family for Easter
- Alice's cousin and his wife have their second daughter, born April 7 :-)
- Alice's grandfather has one of his knees replaced, BME in action!
May:
- Alice finishes her first year of Ph.D. study!
- Alice turns 23!
- All wedding invitations are mailed at the beginning of the month
- Keegan and Alice celebrate 3 years together
June:
- After more than 11 months of planning Keegan and Alice get married!
- Keegan and Alice take their first vacation together, a honeymoon in Bermuda
- Alice attends a conference on self-healing materials in Chicago
- Alice's middle/high school Girl Scout troop held their reunion; the troop began in 1987 and the last girls graduated high school in 2008
July:
- Keegan and Alice drive to Vermont for July 4th weekend for the big Brochufest family reunion
- Keegan and Alice join other Dukies on a trip to West Virginia to go white water rafting at the New River Gorge
- We go to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; this was Alice's very first midnight movie!
August:
- Alice begins her second year of Ph.D. coursework
September:
- Keegan turns 24!
- Alice opens a retirement account, wahoo!
October:
- Keegan and Alice celebrate their first Halloween as a married couple :-)
- Alice has health scare that requires trip to emergency room
November:
- Keegan and Alice celebrate their first Thanksgiving as a married couple
- Keegan's mom goes on a 2 week trip to the Galapagos and Peru, so Keegan spends a week living at his family's house, taking care of his siblings while his dad travels for work
December:
- We went to see The Nutcracker at Memorial Auditorium
- Keegan and Alice celebrate their first Christmas as a married couple!
- Keegan's company meets their huge December 18 deadline for their Lightner project; the project is extended through another phase, to be completed in May 2010. Yay!
Can't wait for 2010
:-D
January:
- First snow day of the winter!
- Wedding invitations were ordered, one big thing off our to-do list
February:
- Wedding preparations are in full swing, finding/ordering bridesmaid dresses, premarital counseling, picking food, flowers, etc
March:
- Alice and Keegan buy their wedding rings for each other
April:
- Keegan and Alice go to Hilton Head with Keegan's family for Easter
- Alice's cousin and his wife have their second daughter, born April 7 :-)
- Alice's grandfather has one of his knees replaced, BME in action!
May:
- Alice finishes her first year of Ph.D. study!
- Alice turns 23!
- All wedding invitations are mailed at the beginning of the month
- Keegan and Alice celebrate 3 years together
June:
- After more than 11 months of planning Keegan and Alice get married!
- Keegan and Alice take their first vacation together, a honeymoon in Bermuda
- Alice attends a conference on self-healing materials in Chicago
- Alice's middle/high school Girl Scout troop held their reunion; the troop began in 1987 and the last girls graduated high school in 2008
July:
- Keegan and Alice drive to Vermont for July 4th weekend for the big Brochufest family reunion
- Keegan and Alice join other Dukies on a trip to West Virginia to go white water rafting at the New River Gorge
- We go to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; this was Alice's very first midnight movie!
August:
- Alice begins her second year of Ph.D. coursework
September:
- Keegan turns 24!
- Alice opens a retirement account, wahoo!
October:
- Keegan and Alice celebrate their first Halloween as a married couple :-)
- Alice has health scare that requires trip to emergency room
November:
- Keegan and Alice celebrate their first Thanksgiving as a married couple
- Keegan's mom goes on a 2 week trip to the Galapagos and Peru, so Keegan spends a week living at his family's house, taking care of his siblings while his dad travels for work
December:
- We went to see The Nutcracker at Memorial Auditorium
- Keegan and Alice celebrate their first Christmas as a married couple!
- Keegan's company meets their huge December 18 deadline for their Lightner project; the project is extended through another phase, to be completed in May 2010. Yay!
Can't wait for 2010
:-D
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