Today I went back to see Duke's nutritionist for the second time; she was just as helpful as last time and patiently answered a lot of my questions about portion sizes, what constitutes a "good" meal, etc. We also went over my food log to talk about the meals that I've been eating since visiting her the first time. I think just writing down everything I ate, knowing that someone other than me was going to read it, was a motivating factor in eating better. Accountability or whatever.
Essentially what I've changed about my diet is eating a good breakfast and planning more efficiently for lunch. I always had the idea that lunch was some sort of sandwich or something, fruit, and something crunchy. But actually it doesn't matter what the individual items are as long as they have the necessary nutritional value. For example, eating a CLIF bar, then some cheese, and an apple is a perfectly balanced lunch, even if it's not really the norm for lunches. And not that I'd want to eat that all the time, but it's nice to know.
Even though I don't have another appointment with the nutritionist scheduled, I'm going to continue with writing down what I eat to see how that helps keep me in check. Things I noticed in the past two weeks:
-I eat breakfast, have a morning snack, then lunch around 1, but then nothing until dinner at 7. Keeping track helped me realize that some sort of afternoon snack would prevent me from being starving when I get home, unable to wait for Keegan to get home from work to eat dinner
-I stay longer at work and get more accomplished; when 4:30 rolls around I'm not getting ready to leave because I'm hungry and tired and just want to lay around. I leave closer to 6 most days now and I'm not dying when I get home
-Easier to stay focused in general
-No crazy binge-snacking (ie eating half a box of cereal or Cheez-its)
-I make more conscious eating decisions; for example, the weekend after my first meeting with Nancy I bought some flavored Triscuits and I still have the same box. They're really tasty but have more fiber and I eat them with cheese or craisins or something so I'm not just eating a lot of nothing.
-I sleep better
-I pay less attention to total calorie consumption and more on what individual things I'm eating at each meal/snack
-I'm not hungry for random junk after dinner
Anyway, I think today I'll weigh myself and then see how/if my weight changes between now and two weeks from now to see how my weight is influenced by these new eating habits.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
July pleasure reading, part 2
A few days ago I requested Ender's Game through Duke's library, and although I haven't heard anything from them about when that will be there, I did check out The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I saw that Orson Scott Card had complimented this book so I checked it out.
This book was very different from the Twilight series, and I'm happy about that. This book is her novel "for adults" and essentially it's about this alien population that takes over the planet by being implanted into human bodies. I know that sounds pretty stupid, but I also didn't even know what this book was about when I started reading it. After these "souls" are implanted, they retain all the human's memories and everything, but the reason they came to Earth is because they felt that humans were barbaric and basically couldn't be trusted to run their own lives. This story was told from the perspective of the soul and the human it took over, because the human refused to be taken over completely. This soul/human searches out other native humans to live with to help protect the "native" human way. In the story the soul comes to realize that they shouldn't have wiped out the human race because not all humans are vicious, cruel, war-mongering types.
Anyway, the story line was creative and it kept me interested but it's not like the story really made me think or reflect or whatever it is good books should cause their readers to do.
I also checked out the works of Jane Austen on Thursday when I checked out The Host. I've only ever read Pride and Prejudice (which I should read again because it's been 6 years) and I loved it. So I want to check out some more of Austen's work. I know the book contained Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park, but it may also have contained Northanger Abbey. My next books are going to be Jane Austen books, and I guess Ender's Game whenever I hear from the library :-)
This book was very different from the Twilight series, and I'm happy about that. This book is her novel "for adults" and essentially it's about this alien population that takes over the planet by being implanted into human bodies. I know that sounds pretty stupid, but I also didn't even know what this book was about when I started reading it. After these "souls" are implanted, they retain all the human's memories and everything, but the reason they came to Earth is because they felt that humans were barbaric and basically couldn't be trusted to run their own lives. This story was told from the perspective of the soul and the human it took over, because the human refused to be taken over completely. This soul/human searches out other native humans to live with to help protect the "native" human way. In the story the soul comes to realize that they shouldn't have wiped out the human race because not all humans are vicious, cruel, war-mongering types.
Anyway, the story line was creative and it kept me interested but it's not like the story really made me think or reflect or whatever it is good books should cause their readers to do.
I also checked out the works of Jane Austen on Thursday when I checked out The Host. I've only ever read Pride and Prejudice (which I should read again because it's been 6 years) and I loved it. So I want to check out some more of Austen's work. I know the book contained Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park, but it may also have contained Northanger Abbey. My next books are going to be Jane Austen books, and I guess Ender's Game whenever I hear from the library :-)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Arizona immigration law
Reading on the news sites today I came across this article. I particularly like this quote:
"Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving," said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. "We have no alternative. They have us cornered."
You are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, what do you expect? To not be affected by this law? Maybe try entering this country through the proper channels if you want to avoid this situation.
Also, when reading this article I was interested by this statement:
"Opponents say the law will lead to racial profiling and trample on the rights of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Arizona."
What exactly are the rights of people in countries illegally? I would think that you understand when you decide to sneak into a country ILLEGALLY that there is a significant risk that you will be subjected to whatever punishment is associated with that crime if you are caught.
I do not understand the drama associated with this law. A law like this was bound to be passed at some point or another, especially given our completely ineffectual president. A state's gotta do what a state's gotta do.
"Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving," said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. "We have no alternative. They have us cornered."
You are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, what do you expect? To not be affected by this law? Maybe try entering this country through the proper channels if you want to avoid this situation.
Also, when reading this article I was interested by this statement:
"Opponents say the law will lead to racial profiling and trample on the rights of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Arizona."
What exactly are the rights of people in countries illegally? I would think that you understand when you decide to sneak into a country ILLEGALLY that there is a significant risk that you will be subjected to whatever punishment is associated with that crime if you are caught.
I do not understand the drama associated with this law. A law like this was bound to be passed at some point or another, especially given our completely ineffectual president. A state's gotta do what a state's gotta do.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Things I always want to say (but shouldn't)
Today I was just getting to the top of that hill near the student health center and one of the entrance to the gardens when this woman puffing on her cigarette cuts in front of me while talking on her cell and, I swear, if she were walking any slower she would have been going backward. I realize that it's her right to smoke and everything, but a little bit of consideration, please.
So anyway, I'm semi-out of breath from walking at a quick pace through the gardens and up that hill and even more irritated by my fresh air being tainted by this person. And she was not a slight woman, so I had to wait for the right opening to be able to get around her bulk at all. There were so many things I wanted to say to her, but I held my tongue and just thought about all the things that I really want to say to people sometimes.
To large people smoking: You're still fat, and now you have lung cancer.
To perfectly fit people who use the handicap parking permits of their relatives/friends/whoever: A mental handicap (i.e being a dumbass) does not qualify you for special parking.
To people who hit those little handicap door opener buttons when their hands are completely free: How lazy can you possibly be? Is the energy you spend pulling open that door really going to strain you?
To Croc-wearers: Oh my god, did you even look at them before you bought them?
To non-farmer/construction drivers of gigantic F350 trucks: Compensating much?
To large people who supersize their meals in fast food restaurants (or even eat at fast food restaurants at all): Are you sure you want to be doing that?
To young people who bitch about the "unfairness" of there being rich people: Get a damn job. See how you feel about the government taxing the "rich" (i.e. anyone making more than the poverty line, including graduate students) when you're the one losing significant portions of the paycheck you worked hard to earn. Of course, generally those who bitch about the "injustice" are not the ones that actually work for anything...
Well now I look like I need some sort of anger management program. But I feel better :-)
So anyway, I'm semi-out of breath from walking at a quick pace through the gardens and up that hill and even more irritated by my fresh air being tainted by this person. And she was not a slight woman, so I had to wait for the right opening to be able to get around her bulk at all. There were so many things I wanted to say to her, but I held my tongue and just thought about all the things that I really want to say to people sometimes.
To large people smoking: You're still fat, and now you have lung cancer.
To perfectly fit people who use the handicap parking permits of their relatives/friends/whoever: A mental handicap (i.e being a dumbass) does not qualify you for special parking.
To people who hit those little handicap door opener buttons when their hands are completely free: How lazy can you possibly be? Is the energy you spend pulling open that door really going to strain you?
To Croc-wearers: Oh my god, did you even look at them before you bought them?
To non-farmer/construction drivers of gigantic F350 trucks: Compensating much?
To large people who supersize their meals in fast food restaurants (or even eat at fast food restaurants at all): Are you sure you want to be doing that?
To young people who bitch about the "unfairness" of there being rich people: Get a damn job. See how you feel about the government taxing the "rich" (i.e. anyone making more than the poverty line, including graduate students) when you're the one losing significant portions of the paycheck you worked hard to earn. Of course, generally those who bitch about the "injustice" are not the ones that actually work for anything...
Well now I look like I need some sort of anger management program. But I feel better :-)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
July pleasure reading
I've just now started using Duke's library to check out books for pleasure reading. I have (no joke) 15 books checked out right now, but they're all for research purposes. Last week I put a request in for a book and I was able to pick it up on Thursday. It's called Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert. She's the author of Eat, Pray, Love, which I read earlier this year. This book wasn't like her first book; it was autobiographical, but not in the same sense as EPL. In EPL she's just gotten divorced and decides to take a year to travel to learn more about who she is, and at the end of her year of travels she meets a new man and falls in love. In the years between EPL and Committed they had agreed never to get married, but because he is not an American citizen they're not able to live together in the US. He's eventually denied entry into the US and they're forced to get married so he's able to enter the country again. It takes about 10 months for everything to get straightened out, so they pass this time sort of roaming Southeast Asia, waiting for his fiance visa to be granted.
This book was pretty interesting just because she spent most of the book describing more the history of marriage than stories about her own life. She did write about how on their travels she would speak with local people and learn more about how marriage is perceived around the world to help her try to figure out why she's so wary of the whole institution. It did actually give me a lot to think about with regards to my own marriage, and I think it's good to reflect periodically.
One of the best things that she talks about in the book is the way that she describes how marriages fail when you begin to look outside of your relationship for things you should be looking for inside your relationship, when you find yourself confiding in other friends things that you used to share with only your spouse (here she references work by Shirley P. Glass). I think this is sneaky and I can see how it would happen easily. While Keegan is the only person that I share everything with, sometimes I miss when I had a several close friends that I felt I could talk to about anything. There's nothing I can't talk about with Keegan so I have no need to confide with a friend about anything, but I still think it is nice to confide in friends about at least a small number of the things you also confide in your spouse. I think there's something almost stressful about making your spouse your ONLY friend -- plus, sadly, there may come a time when your spouse is no longer around. I know with the prospect of Keegan working in another office I'm a little intimidated about what would happen if I had an emergency and I really needed someone to be there for me. I love the folks in my lab, but I don't really get the feeling that if my car broke down, I had to go to the doctor/hospital, or a close relative died that I would be able to rely on them for anything. Maybe this is a cynical view, but although we hang out together sometimes, I'm not sure if there is a line between being friends and being coworkers. Then again, I'll spend five years of my life surrounded by these people, and I'm not sure you can spend that long with anyone and not end up their friend :-)
There was a quote in her book that I found interesting; when she asked her friend why she wanted to get married and she said that a wedding "will unequivocally prove to everyone, especially to myself, that I am precious enough to have been selected by somebody forever". Isn't this sort of the wrong reason to get married? I think that is true with all people who get married though, at least to some extent, they let the whole world know that they are loved enough to be loved forever by one person. But isn't that a bit selfish/prideful? Should it really matter to us if "everyone" knows that we are loved?
She also dedicated a section of the book to looking at the relationship between infatuation and love. She writes, "Infatuation is not quite the same thing as love; it's more like love's shady second cousin who's always borrowing money and can't hold down a job". This is so true, just looking back on my previous relationships that were sort of whirlwind in nature -- it's easy to get wrapped up in the superficial things and then sort of gloss over the rather dark details of a person.
It was also interesting to see her perspective on how religion/Christianity shaped marriage, essentially that Christianity initially tried to stomp out marriage but that in more modern times the faithful have taken the view that Christianity is the only pathway to a loving and stable marriage. She has some citations for that claim and I found this highly interesting as well. Another interesting topic she brought up was something called the "subversive" family, in that a family unit is something that no government can control. Try as they may, a government cannot monitor what is said/done in the home and the conversations that go on between family members/couples behind closed doors cannot be censured or controlled in any way. I think this was also related to her point/citations about religion, that although many religious institutions seek to control private life there's really nothing they can do to control an independent family.
All-in-all an interesting read. Since I read it in 3 days, I might re-read it before I turn it in, just to go over the finer details again :-)
This book was pretty interesting just because she spent most of the book describing more the history of marriage than stories about her own life. She did write about how on their travels she would speak with local people and learn more about how marriage is perceived around the world to help her try to figure out why she's so wary of the whole institution. It did actually give me a lot to think about with regards to my own marriage, and I think it's good to reflect periodically.
One of the best things that she talks about in the book is the way that she describes how marriages fail when you begin to look outside of your relationship for things you should be looking for inside your relationship, when you find yourself confiding in other friends things that you used to share with only your spouse (here she references work by Shirley P. Glass). I think this is sneaky and I can see how it would happen easily. While Keegan is the only person that I share everything with, sometimes I miss when I had a several close friends that I felt I could talk to about anything. There's nothing I can't talk about with Keegan so I have no need to confide with a friend about anything, but I still think it is nice to confide in friends about at least a small number of the things you also confide in your spouse. I think there's something almost stressful about making your spouse your ONLY friend -- plus, sadly, there may come a time when your spouse is no longer around. I know with the prospect of Keegan working in another office I'm a little intimidated about what would happen if I had an emergency and I really needed someone to be there for me. I love the folks in my lab, but I don't really get the feeling that if my car broke down, I had to go to the doctor/hospital, or a close relative died that I would be able to rely on them for anything. Maybe this is a cynical view, but although we hang out together sometimes, I'm not sure if there is a line between being friends and being coworkers. Then again, I'll spend five years of my life surrounded by these people, and I'm not sure you can spend that long with anyone and not end up their friend :-)
There was a quote in her book that I found interesting; when she asked her friend why she wanted to get married and she said that a wedding "will unequivocally prove to everyone, especially to myself, that I am precious enough to have been selected by somebody forever". Isn't this sort of the wrong reason to get married? I think that is true with all people who get married though, at least to some extent, they let the whole world know that they are loved enough to be loved forever by one person. But isn't that a bit selfish/prideful? Should it really matter to us if "everyone" knows that we are loved?
She also dedicated a section of the book to looking at the relationship between infatuation and love. She writes, "Infatuation is not quite the same thing as love; it's more like love's shady second cousin who's always borrowing money and can't hold down a job". This is so true, just looking back on my previous relationships that were sort of whirlwind in nature -- it's easy to get wrapped up in the superficial things and then sort of gloss over the rather dark details of a person.
It was also interesting to see her perspective on how religion/Christianity shaped marriage, essentially that Christianity initially tried to stomp out marriage but that in more modern times the faithful have taken the view that Christianity is the only pathway to a loving and stable marriage. She has some citations for that claim and I found this highly interesting as well. Another interesting topic she brought up was something called the "subversive" family, in that a family unit is something that no government can control. Try as they may, a government cannot monitor what is said/done in the home and the conversations that go on between family members/couples behind closed doors cannot be censured or controlled in any way. I think this was also related to her point/citations about religion, that although many religious institutions seek to control private life there's really nothing they can do to control an independent family.
All-in-all an interesting read. Since I read it in 3 days, I might re-read it before I turn it in, just to go over the finer details again :-)
June pleasure reading
On our trip I read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as well as a bunch of National Geographics. It was a crazy month and even though I did get to read HP for fun, that was nothing new, I just took it with me so I'd have something to occupy my time in the car that didn't involve paying a lot of attention to what I was doing. :-)
Friday, July 16, 2010
Daily nutritional values
Today I had an appointment with Duke's nutritionist and it went really well! She is very nice and approachable, so that is good. She was also filled with helpful suggestions for improving my diet to help me get back on track with my eating habits and everything. I figured since sometime in the future Keegan and I would like to have some kiddos that I should get in the habit of eating well now so that when preggo time rolls around I'm not scrambling to learn how to eat better and how to raise a baby at the same time.
Anyway, her first recommendation was to start with breakfast. I never eat breakfast, generally because I'm one of those continuous snacker types that will just munch on stuff all day even if I'm not hungry. So I sort of avoid that situation by just not starting to eat until later in the day. But I'll start off tomorrow with her recommendations and move from there. I'm going to have to add a bunch of stuff I don't buy that frequently to our grocery list, but hopefully my working with this nutritionist will also help Keegan :-)
So for my breakfasts I'm going to go with different combos of cereals/milk, yogurt, fruit, nuts, and cheese. (Sidenote: is cottage cheese good? Does anyone know? Do you eat it plain or what?) Hopefully by starting out my day better I'll have more energy to exercise when I get home from work (or I can try to start going in the mornings again). Also this fall I signed up to take the weight lifting for women gym class; I will need to have lots of energy for this class I'm sure, and I'd like to be able to extend my gym time by running after the class. This will be a bit weird, for me to be at the gym in the middle of the day when I'll need to be in lab, but I will definitely be able to make up for this class time by staying later/arriving earlier. Plus since I have to take another course hour to be able to take the class at UNC that I actually will find useful, I have a legitimate reason to be at the gym.
One thing I did notice about this fall is I will have to be on campus early 4/5 days every week. MWF I will have the class at UNC at 9a.m., which involves catching a bus at Duke at 8a.m. and Tuesdays I have class at Duke at 8:30a.m. Well, whatever. I'm most productive in the morning anyway. Like today for instance, I was here at 8:15 and I was able to plan experiments, meet with the postdoc in chemistry to devise how to do the experiments, submitted my revised review paper, and had the appointment with the nutritionist. And in 30 minutes I'm going to actually start the experiments over in French. Good day all around.
Anyway, her first recommendation was to start with breakfast. I never eat breakfast, generally because I'm one of those continuous snacker types that will just munch on stuff all day even if I'm not hungry. So I sort of avoid that situation by just not starting to eat until later in the day. But I'll start off tomorrow with her recommendations and move from there. I'm going to have to add a bunch of stuff I don't buy that frequently to our grocery list, but hopefully my working with this nutritionist will also help Keegan :-)
So for my breakfasts I'm going to go with different combos of cereals/milk, yogurt, fruit, nuts, and cheese. (Sidenote: is cottage cheese good? Does anyone know? Do you eat it plain or what?) Hopefully by starting out my day better I'll have more energy to exercise when I get home from work (or I can try to start going in the mornings again). Also this fall I signed up to take the weight lifting for women gym class; I will need to have lots of energy for this class I'm sure, and I'd like to be able to extend my gym time by running after the class. This will be a bit weird, for me to be at the gym in the middle of the day when I'll need to be in lab, but I will definitely be able to make up for this class time by staying later/arriving earlier. Plus since I have to take another course hour to be able to take the class at UNC that I actually will find useful, I have a legitimate reason to be at the gym.
One thing I did notice about this fall is I will have to be on campus early 4/5 days every week. MWF I will have the class at UNC at 9a.m., which involves catching a bus at Duke at 8a.m. and Tuesdays I have class at Duke at 8:30a.m. Well, whatever. I'm most productive in the morning anyway. Like today for instance, I was here at 8:15 and I was able to plan experiments, meet with the postdoc in chemistry to devise how to do the experiments, submitted my revised review paper, and had the appointment with the nutritionist. And in 30 minutes I'm going to actually start the experiments over in French. Good day all around.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Recovery?
Wahoo! My IRA is again worth more than I put in to it (finally)!! This is pretty dull to update about, but considering at one point it was worth about $1800 more than I put in, it's nice to be on the green side again (even if only by $130). Our joint mutual fund is about $40 shy of being worth what we paid for it, so I guess that is good too (especially since we'd like to use that money to buy a house in a few years).
I would like to open an individual mutual fund so I'm not just leaving a bulk of my savings sitting around in a money market account that earns no interest, but I haven't really had the time to sit down and decide which might be best for me. I don't want to go with the same fund that Keegan and I have money in because it just seems a little too much like putting all my eggs in one basket. Or whatever. I'm painfully ignorant of all the investment options out there, even though I'm probably doing more than other people my age (stocks, mutual funds, IRA, etc). I'm not sure how much risk I want to take now, even though now is the time to be taking investment risks because I have plenty of years to build up wealth, but I also want to have money available for the house, a new car (when mine passes on, hopefully not for another 7-8 years), babies, and vacations. I'm worried that if I make risky investments now that I won't have time to replenish my savings when I(/we) do need it.
Are there any good books out there that really help young people diversify their savings? I read "Smart Women Finish Rich" but I think there are probably more detailed books out there that help someone dive into investing without spending ages learning the jargon. I dunno, maybe I'll just have to spend some quality time in Barnes & Noble, loitering around the investment section.
I would like to open an individual mutual fund so I'm not just leaving a bulk of my savings sitting around in a money market account that earns no interest, but I haven't really had the time to sit down and decide which might be best for me. I don't want to go with the same fund that Keegan and I have money in because it just seems a little too much like putting all my eggs in one basket. Or whatever. I'm painfully ignorant of all the investment options out there, even though I'm probably doing more than other people my age (stocks, mutual funds, IRA, etc). I'm not sure how much risk I want to take now, even though now is the time to be taking investment risks because I have plenty of years to build up wealth, but I also want to have money available for the house, a new car (when mine passes on, hopefully not for another 7-8 years), babies, and vacations. I'm worried that if I make risky investments now that I won't have time to replenish my savings when I(/we) do need it.
Are there any good books out there that really help young people diversify their savings? I read "Smart Women Finish Rich" but I think there are probably more detailed books out there that help someone dive into investing without spending ages learning the jargon. I dunno, maybe I'll just have to spend some quality time in Barnes & Noble, loitering around the investment section.
Friday, July 9, 2010
I have so much to do this weekend. Our vacation was wonderful, but now there's a lot that needs to be done around the house to get it back into some semblance of a place that people can actually live in.
My weekend to-do list:
- Clean house
- Do laundry (seriously, our room is filled with dirty clothes that were dumped unceremoniously from two large suitcases)
- Clean showers (I did this fairly recently, but I think we have hard water or something that leaves a lot of iron in the bottom near the drains)
- Print pictures from our trip to put into a photo album (I have already been asked by several relatives to bring pictures to show them. Because it's not like I have to go to work and catch up or anything)
- Find the dishes I bought and took with me to undergrad so I can give them to my sister, who wants to use them when she goes to school (I know they're somewhere in the attic, but there's a lot of stuff up there and the thought of going up there when it's been 100 degrees the past few days is pretty uninviting)
- Go to the at&t store to get my SIM card moved to Keegan's old iPhone (If it will fit -- this is actually very good timing because my phone has taken to cutting off randomly and it loses battery power extremely rapidly. One 10-minute conversation and it's got no bars left and beeps at me incessantly, I'm not exaggerating)
- General errands (groceries, etc)
We are also planning to hang out with some of Keegan's friends from undergrad, but I'm not sure when that is going to be. I'd also like to be able to go to a girls' night with some of the BME ladies, but I guess I'll have to see when the other social activities are taking place.
I received feedback on my paper, so I'm making the revisions for resubmission. I'll almost finished because there wasn't a lot that was suggested for changing (yay!). Also, I was able to successfully image my capsules (which are indeed capsules!) so now I can progress to altering the protocol to fit my needs. I'm also looking at branching off in another direction, so we'll see how that goes. The post doc in chemistry I've been working with seems genuinely excited by my idea and says he gives it his "enthusiastic endorsement", so that makes me feel good.
I want to begin making lists of the meals I plan to make each week. I used to do this the first few months we lived together, but I've since stopped planning. I think it will help us to eat healthier and more cheaply because we'll be less likely to just get Subway or pick something random up at the store if we've already got a schedule of the dinners I'm going to make in a given week. That will help with making the grocery list too, so it's better all around! Tonight we'll be having Zatarain's yellow rice with grilled chicken and green beans. Mmmm, I can taste it already! I guess I'll need to pick out a few new recipes also. I plan to restart P90x this weekend too, since we'll be around for a while now and I won't have any excuses not to stay on track :-)
My weekend to-do list:
- Clean house
- Do laundry (seriously, our room is filled with dirty clothes that were dumped unceremoniously from two large suitcases)
- Clean showers (I did this fairly recently, but I think we have hard water or something that leaves a lot of iron in the bottom near the drains)
- Print pictures from our trip to put into a photo album (I have already been asked by several relatives to bring pictures to show them. Because it's not like I have to go to work and catch up or anything)
- Find the dishes I bought and took with me to undergrad so I can give them to my sister, who wants to use them when she goes to school (I know they're somewhere in the attic, but there's a lot of stuff up there and the thought of going up there when it's been 100 degrees the past few days is pretty uninviting)
- Go to the at&t store to get my SIM card moved to Keegan's old iPhone (If it will fit -- this is actually very good timing because my phone has taken to cutting off randomly and it loses battery power extremely rapidly. One 10-minute conversation and it's got no bars left and beeps at me incessantly, I'm not exaggerating)
- General errands (groceries, etc)
We are also planning to hang out with some of Keegan's friends from undergrad, but I'm not sure when that is going to be. I'd also like to be able to go to a girls' night with some of the BME ladies, but I guess I'll have to see when the other social activities are taking place.
I received feedback on my paper, so I'm making the revisions for resubmission. I'll almost finished because there wasn't a lot that was suggested for changing (yay!). Also, I was able to successfully image my capsules (which are indeed capsules!) so now I can progress to altering the protocol to fit my needs. I'm also looking at branching off in another direction, so we'll see how that goes. The post doc in chemistry I've been working with seems genuinely excited by my idea and says he gives it his "enthusiastic endorsement", so that makes me feel good.
I want to begin making lists of the meals I plan to make each week. I used to do this the first few months we lived together, but I've since stopped planning. I think it will help us to eat healthier and more cheaply because we'll be less likely to just get Subway or pick something random up at the store if we've already got a schedule of the dinners I'm going to make in a given week. That will help with making the grocery list too, so it's better all around! Tonight we'll be having Zatarain's yellow rice with grilled chicken and green beans. Mmmm, I can taste it already! I guess I'll need to pick out a few new recipes also. I plan to restart P90x this weekend too, since we'll be around for a while now and I won't have any excuses not to stay on track :-)
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Anniversary adventures!
Keegan and I spent the past week on vacation, partly to celebrate our one year anniversary, and partly just because we wanted a vacation :-) Luckily we were able to plan this trip around attending the big Brochufest (my name for it, not the official title) in Hardwick, VT that is always held the Saturday the weekend near July 4.
Weekend/Monday travel day
Our adventure started on Friday, June 25. Keegan and I left around 5 to drive to my dad's house in Hillsville, VA. We hadn't been able to see him in awhile and since we were already driving up north anyway, we were able to stop in a visit a bit. It was nice to just hang around, watching TV (the World Cup and NCIS marathons), chatting, and generally having a good time. We also played some mini golf and toured around the area a bit, visiting a nice home-made candy store.
Also my dad does live in VA, he lives in western VA, so our trip to Rhode Island on Monday wasn't shortened by starting at his place rather than ours in Raleigh. We got up at 3:45 and were on the road by 4:15 on Monday morning. We're aware this is extreme but we wanted to be there to enjoy our first evening of official vacation! We arrived in Newport around 5 p.m. and got all checked into the hotel. Our room was small, but we weren't expecting a giant room in a hotel that was a historic building. In fact, the bed filled most of the room, but MAN, it was comfortable! After arriving, we set out to explore the town and find something for dinner. There was a crazy thunderstorm that only lasted about 10 minutes and we were able to watch it from inside the pub we found for dinner. After eating dinner, we (naturally) found the first creamery in the place and had some very tasty locally-made dessert, mmmm. (Side note: we had decided the end of May that we wouldn't be eating any more ice cream until we were on vacation because we'd been entering the dangerous "Let's buy some ice cream -- I mean, it's half price!" region) While we enjoyed the treats we walked down to the coast line to take in the Rhode Island coastline. Coming from North Carolina beaches, it's insane to see a coast that has no sand and is all rocks and cliffs. I knew it would be like this, but it was still neat to see it first-hand. We wandered the town a bit more then worked our way back to the hotel.
Tuesday
We started out the day on Tuesday by wandering the town some more on our way to see The Breakers, one of the big Newport mansions we had come to tour. As a couple who has been to the Biltmore, we can certainly recommend these houses to other people who enjoy touring old/obscenely opulent homes. The house, grounds, and view were gorgeous! Also, since The Breakers is the most popular house to tour, The Preservation Society of Newport provided audiotours to this house so people could walk it at their own pace, lingering where they wanted. There was also a lot of extra info on the audiotour that you could spend more time listening to. It took about 90 minutes for us to walk through the rooms on the tour and listen to all the extra information.
After exploring our first house, we walked about half a mile down the Cliff Walk to the The Chanler Hotel where we had lunch at their restaurant on the cliff face. The view was stunning, and that's really why we went there, but the food was also quite tasty! We were definitely in need of some sitting time after standing stiff and mostly still for such a long time in the house.
The passes we bought (the "Newport Mansion Experience") were $31 to tour 5 homes, which was an insanely good deal considering just a ticket to The Breakers is $19. Also, the tickets never expire, so we could have come back in years and still been able to go in to any of the houses we wanted. For our second house, we toured Marble House, another ocean-front home. The inside of the home is ENTIRELY marble, which was beautiful, but a bit overwhelming also. This house (and others) also had a room where gold leaf had been used on the walls instead of paint or paper or plaster. It is was it sounds like -- thin leafs of 24 carat gold were used to cover the wall and all of the sculptures worked into the ceiling and along the walls. This house also had an audio tour, since it was pretty popular. There was also a little asian prayer room type thing that the owner had put right on the water, which was neat, but looked a bit ridiculous and out-of-place. But whatever, when you've got so much money you have to cover your walls in actual GOLD I guess you can do whatever strikes your fancy.
The third and last house we toured on Tuesday was called Rosecliff. This house was also very grand, but didn't have a guided tour. It had been owned by a variety of people but all the interior decorations that were original to the house were sold off during the Great Depression, so it was a bit of a shell of it's former self. The preservation society has been able to restore some of it's glory and fill it in with stuff from other homes and stuff that has been donated.
After touring this last house, we hiked the Cliff Walk, which is something I wanted to do even more than touring the houses. The walk was a lot longer than we thought it would be and it took FOREVER, but the views were absolutely amazing. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life and I can't wait to get the pictures off my camera so I can post them on Facebook for everyone to enjoy! We were able to see the sunset at the very end, which made it even more beautiful. The houses on the water are so spectacular and it was neat to be able to see the more residential side of the town than the side that's geared towards all the mansions' visitors. There was then a 4.5 mile walk back to the hotel after the end of the 3.5 mile Cliff Walk, so we easily walked 10 miles on Tuesday. Which we celebrated by eating our weight in more locally-made ice cream :-D
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning we saw our last two houses. My favorite house that we toured, The Elms, also had an audio tour and while it was spectacular also, it was less in-your-face about it. There was still marble and gold accents, but it was much more subdued and instead the house was filled with windows that let in the light and the views of the huge garden in the back. It seemed more like a place someone would actually live (granted someone ridiculously wealthy) and it was less crowded than The Breakers so I could linger looking at everything I wanted to see. :-)
The last house we toured was called Chateau sur Mer and it is the oldest of the houses we saw. This tour was nice and small, which was good, and the house also still contained a lot of its original furnishings, making it even more interesting.
Keegan and I highly recommend visiting this town if you're interested in this sort of stuff! After finishing our tour, we drove to Chelmsford, MA, about 2 hours away, to spend time with Keegan's aunt, uncle, and cousins on our way to Bar Harbor, ME.
Thursday
We hit the road on Thursday morning around 5, trying to make it to Bar Harbor with plenty of time to take in part of Acadia National Park. We got there around 10:30 and then we drove the Park Loop Road, a 20 mile loop that circles Cadillac Mountain (among other things). We were able to park and hike a lot, right along the coast, which was really nice after spending all that time in the car. Plus it was only 70 degrees and completely sunny so it was really easy to just stand there and take it all in. We spent about 6 hours in the park exploring this road and the trails around it. Then we went to Bar Harbor to check into our hotel and look for some dinner.
For dinner we found a little Italian restaurant where I had -- no joke -- the best pasta of my life. I'm really drooling about it right now just remembering it. It was chicken broccolini, but with garlic and some sort of four cheese sauce that most likely took 5 years off my life, but oh man. Keegan and caprese chicken that was also amazing, and we shared some herbed goat cheese brushetta. Then, of course, we found some more local ice cream about 4 hours later for a late treat. We were able to look into the local shops and take another little walk called the Ocean Walk that just went around the harbor a bit.
Friday
On Friday we had breakfast at our hotel and then went to hike around Cadillac Mountain before making the drive to North Conway, New Hampshire. In the winter months, the Cadillac Mountain is the first place in the United States to be touched by sunlight, which I found pretty interesting. The views of the ocean and surrounding park from the top were breathtaking and just going to this park has even further intensified my desire to visit more national parks. After taking that trip with my grandparents a few years ago, I knew I wanted to explore more of the United States, but after seeing Acadia I'm already plotting family vacations in my mind... a bit premature, I know, but I can't help it!
Last weekend and drive home
We drove to North Conway, NH to spend the night before heading up to Hardwick, VT for Brochufest on Saturday. We stayed in North Conway so we were able to drive the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains on the way up to the reunion. The drive is very scenic and we'd heard about how beautiful it was from Keegan's family and some of the members of my family. We were able to hike a bit and enjoy more of the 70 degree weather before spending the day with his dad's side of the family. After the reunion, we drove to Gloucester, MA to spend time with one of Keegan's cousins at Keegan's aunt's family's (whew!) beach house. We were able to just relax on their porch, walk the (teeny tiny) beach, and spend time with some of Keegan's cousin's family on his mother's side. They were all really friendly and with the house having 9 bedrooms, there were a lot of folks around! We watched Boston's insane fireworks show and then hit the road Monday morning at 6a.m. 15 hours later, we were home!
2877.5 miles from Raleigh to Raleigh and 13 different states visited. What an adventure! Our trip was rather whirlwind, but it was still relaxing because we were together and not worrying about all the stuff going on in our lives back home. Now I get to tackle the laundry we brought home, and eat through all the preserves and taffy we bought in Maine (MMMMM!!!).
Weekend/Monday travel day
Our adventure started on Friday, June 25. Keegan and I left around 5 to drive to my dad's house in Hillsville, VA. We hadn't been able to see him in awhile and since we were already driving up north anyway, we were able to stop in a visit a bit. It was nice to just hang around, watching TV (the World Cup and NCIS marathons), chatting, and generally having a good time. We also played some mini golf and toured around the area a bit, visiting a nice home-made candy store.
Also my dad does live in VA, he lives in western VA, so our trip to Rhode Island on Monday wasn't shortened by starting at his place rather than ours in Raleigh. We got up at 3:45 and were on the road by 4:15 on Monday morning. We're aware this is extreme but we wanted to be there to enjoy our first evening of official vacation! We arrived in Newport around 5 p.m. and got all checked into the hotel. Our room was small, but we weren't expecting a giant room in a hotel that was a historic building. In fact, the bed filled most of the room, but MAN, it was comfortable! After arriving, we set out to explore the town and find something for dinner. There was a crazy thunderstorm that only lasted about 10 minutes and we were able to watch it from inside the pub we found for dinner. After eating dinner, we (naturally) found the first creamery in the place and had some very tasty locally-made dessert, mmmm. (Side note: we had decided the end of May that we wouldn't be eating any more ice cream until we were on vacation because we'd been entering the dangerous "Let's buy some ice cream -- I mean, it's half price!" region) While we enjoyed the treats we walked down to the coast line to take in the Rhode Island coastline. Coming from North Carolina beaches, it's insane to see a coast that has no sand and is all rocks and cliffs. I knew it would be like this, but it was still neat to see it first-hand. We wandered the town a bit more then worked our way back to the hotel.
Tuesday
We started out the day on Tuesday by wandering the town some more on our way to see The Breakers, one of the big Newport mansions we had come to tour. As a couple who has been to the Biltmore, we can certainly recommend these houses to other people who enjoy touring old/obscenely opulent homes. The house, grounds, and view were gorgeous! Also, since The Breakers is the most popular house to tour, The Preservation Society of Newport provided audiotours to this house so people could walk it at their own pace, lingering where they wanted. There was also a lot of extra info on the audiotour that you could spend more time listening to. It took about 90 minutes for us to walk through the rooms on the tour and listen to all the extra information.
After exploring our first house, we walked about half a mile down the Cliff Walk to the The Chanler Hotel where we had lunch at their restaurant on the cliff face. The view was stunning, and that's really why we went there, but the food was also quite tasty! We were definitely in need of some sitting time after standing stiff and mostly still for such a long time in the house.
The passes we bought (the "Newport Mansion Experience") were $31 to tour 5 homes, which was an insanely good deal considering just a ticket to The Breakers is $19. Also, the tickets never expire, so we could have come back in years and still been able to go in to any of the houses we wanted. For our second house, we toured Marble House, another ocean-front home. The inside of the home is ENTIRELY marble, which was beautiful, but a bit overwhelming also. This house (and others) also had a room where gold leaf had been used on the walls instead of paint or paper or plaster. It is was it sounds like -- thin leafs of 24 carat gold were used to cover the wall and all of the sculptures worked into the ceiling and along the walls. This house also had an audio tour, since it was pretty popular. There was also a little asian prayer room type thing that the owner had put right on the water, which was neat, but looked a bit ridiculous and out-of-place. But whatever, when you've got so much money you have to cover your walls in actual GOLD I guess you can do whatever strikes your fancy.
The third and last house we toured on Tuesday was called Rosecliff. This house was also very grand, but didn't have a guided tour. It had been owned by a variety of people but all the interior decorations that were original to the house were sold off during the Great Depression, so it was a bit of a shell of it's former self. The preservation society has been able to restore some of it's glory and fill it in with stuff from other homes and stuff that has been donated.
After touring this last house, we hiked the Cliff Walk, which is something I wanted to do even more than touring the houses. The walk was a lot longer than we thought it would be and it took FOREVER, but the views were absolutely amazing. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life and I can't wait to get the pictures off my camera so I can post them on Facebook for everyone to enjoy! We were able to see the sunset at the very end, which made it even more beautiful. The houses on the water are so spectacular and it was neat to be able to see the more residential side of the town than the side that's geared towards all the mansions' visitors. There was then a 4.5 mile walk back to the hotel after the end of the 3.5 mile Cliff Walk, so we easily walked 10 miles on Tuesday. Which we celebrated by eating our weight in more locally-made ice cream :-D
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning we saw our last two houses. My favorite house that we toured, The Elms, also had an audio tour and while it was spectacular also, it was less in-your-face about it. There was still marble and gold accents, but it was much more subdued and instead the house was filled with windows that let in the light and the views of the huge garden in the back. It seemed more like a place someone would actually live (granted someone ridiculously wealthy) and it was less crowded than The Breakers so I could linger looking at everything I wanted to see. :-)
The last house we toured was called Chateau sur Mer and it is the oldest of the houses we saw. This tour was nice and small, which was good, and the house also still contained a lot of its original furnishings, making it even more interesting.
Keegan and I highly recommend visiting this town if you're interested in this sort of stuff! After finishing our tour, we drove to Chelmsford, MA, about 2 hours away, to spend time with Keegan's aunt, uncle, and cousins on our way to Bar Harbor, ME.
Thursday
We hit the road on Thursday morning around 5, trying to make it to Bar Harbor with plenty of time to take in part of Acadia National Park. We got there around 10:30 and then we drove the Park Loop Road, a 20 mile loop that circles Cadillac Mountain (among other things). We were able to park and hike a lot, right along the coast, which was really nice after spending all that time in the car. Plus it was only 70 degrees and completely sunny so it was really easy to just stand there and take it all in. We spent about 6 hours in the park exploring this road and the trails around it. Then we went to Bar Harbor to check into our hotel and look for some dinner.
For dinner we found a little Italian restaurant where I had -- no joke -- the best pasta of my life. I'm really drooling about it right now just remembering it. It was chicken broccolini, but with garlic and some sort of four cheese sauce that most likely took 5 years off my life, but oh man. Keegan and caprese chicken that was also amazing, and we shared some herbed goat cheese brushetta. Then, of course, we found some more local ice cream about 4 hours later for a late treat. We were able to look into the local shops and take another little walk called the Ocean Walk that just went around the harbor a bit.
Friday
On Friday we had breakfast at our hotel and then went to hike around Cadillac Mountain before making the drive to North Conway, New Hampshire. In the winter months, the Cadillac Mountain is the first place in the United States to be touched by sunlight, which I found pretty interesting. The views of the ocean and surrounding park from the top were breathtaking and just going to this park has even further intensified my desire to visit more national parks. After taking that trip with my grandparents a few years ago, I knew I wanted to explore more of the United States, but after seeing Acadia I'm already plotting family vacations in my mind... a bit premature, I know, but I can't help it!
Last weekend and drive home
We drove to North Conway, NH to spend the night before heading up to Hardwick, VT for Brochufest on Saturday. We stayed in North Conway so we were able to drive the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains on the way up to the reunion. The drive is very scenic and we'd heard about how beautiful it was from Keegan's family and some of the members of my family. We were able to hike a bit and enjoy more of the 70 degree weather before spending the day with his dad's side of the family. After the reunion, we drove to Gloucester, MA to spend time with one of Keegan's cousins at Keegan's aunt's family's (whew!) beach house. We were able to just relax on their porch, walk the (teeny tiny) beach, and spend time with some of Keegan's cousin's family on his mother's side. They were all really friendly and with the house having 9 bedrooms, there were a lot of folks around! We watched Boston's insane fireworks show and then hit the road Monday morning at 6a.m. 15 hours later, we were home!
2877.5 miles from Raleigh to Raleigh and 13 different states visited. What an adventure! Our trip was rather whirlwind, but it was still relaxing because we were together and not worrying about all the stuff going on in our lives back home. Now I get to tackle the laundry we brought home, and eat through all the preserves and taffy we bought in Maine (MMMMM!!!).
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