Well, we're now in the beautiful southern state of Oklahoma. The locals (i.e. family) keep trying to convince us that 30 degrees is cold, and we keep telling them that it is a heat wave for us. Maybe we'll start listening to them though as we're both starting to feel the colds that are going around. I've been having trouble with congestion for about a week, while Chris seems to have it starting. Oh joy.
We made it down to OK with relatively little problems. We had the typical construction zones and the Illinois State Police shut down the highway right outside of the Joliet refinery. Who knew that a tandem trailer dropping the second trailer in front of an oil refinery could cause such havoq? I mean, they had the bomb squad out, about every highway patrol there, the hazmat team...and we got diverted around a really neat lake. We got to watch a very pretty sunset at 4:15 pm as the sun came through the clouds and washed over the snow. I've got a few pics on my phone that I'll add once we get back to Chicago later this week.
Since it has been a few weeks I'll catch everyone up --
the term ended well for me at Westwood. I successfully managed to get most of my students through earth science despite their best efforts of not passing. I also managed to successfully get everyone through my physical science course, though those students honestly tried to fail. I had one student go on and on about how I needed to give everyone the 10% of the grade from the quizzes that everyone (save one student who actually did the homework) failed. I figured that since I let them use the homework they did on the quizzes taken directly from the homework that it was their choice to fail that 10% because I honestly couldn't have made it any easier. They have asked me to teach there again, and at this point it looks like I'll be teaching a section of Earth Science and a section of Physical Science starting in January. Hopefully though I'll get a new job and be able to quit both the cafe and Westwood. Keep praying that it happens because I have an interview on January 4. Hopefully I'll get a second interview and then offered a position. :)
Chris finished up the term well. He managed to get all of his stuff done in a timely manner, which is good seeing as the university is starting a remodel of one of his rooms. He then had all of last week off (yay! for not having to be at the train station at 430am) and has all of this week off. They have closed the campus in all reality for this week, so he really couldn't go to work if he wanted to.
Christmas has been good for us. It is nice to see family, though everyone seems a bit disappointed that I'm not quite sporting a sizable baby bump yet. As opposed to looking incredibly skinny I just look like I've put on a few pounds. I've got a few pounds yet to put on, that the doctors and us are trying to work on putting on. We did go to the OB on Tuesday last, and the heartbeat was nice and strong. We go for the ultrasound this coming Thursday, so we'll see what comes of that. We're really looking for a healthy baby, not sure about the gender thing yet. Back to family though, everyone is quite excited for us, which is fun. Having not seen everyone for about a year though makes this time here sweet. We miss those we've lost this past year (or two) and are excited about the new additions to the families through marriages and babies. Families are truly amazing units of people, and ours are definitely blessings. Anyway, we're now ready to start our day with more family and maybe do some baking and cooking (like that's unusual for us). Yay Braums!!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Well, the term is basically over for both Chris and me. Chris has been doing clean up of the labs all week, and has been successful. He hasn't killed either of his minions, and comes home more relaxed for the most part. I'm slowly getting to the point where all my grades (except the finals) are done. I'm getting sick of students asking what they can do to "not fail" my class -- when I tell them that they should have done the work all term, they just look at me. I think I'm going to tell them, "well I'd really like some blue diamonds set in platinum for Christmas" just to see what kind of response I'd get. I think most of my students would laugh a lot, but there would be a few who took me seriously, and I'd probably get in trouble.
The cafe is going well. We're slowly picking up business. We tend to have busy enough Thursdays that I've threatened to not go in until after 1 simply so I don't have to deal with the girls. There are way too many females working at the cafe though, and life is hitting most of us hard. It isn't too much fun, so I simply try to go, get my stuff done, and then leave.
I joined the YMCA here last week so that I can start swimming. Having been a graduate student I got to use the UIC pool during the winters, and realized that I really miss swimming when it is cold outside. So I've now swam several times and like getting back in the water. I think I'll do some more cross training though with riding stationary bikes and whatnot -- i'm just not brave enough to go bike riding when we've got snow on the ground.
We did get snow this week -- twice! They've had to plow both times, so we've gotten at least 2 inches both times. We're supposed to get about 6 inches this weekend depending on the lake effect snow that happens. We made a snowman last Saturday -- Chris made the bottom, I made the middle and top. So, its part Chris, part Carolyn & 100% a baby snowman. It was small enough that I could carry it up and perch it on our balcony.
Last Sunday we also went to the MSI for our yearly Christmas tree visit. The Museum also has the Jim Henson muppets exhibit. It was really neat because they also had a gingerbread MSI with all the Sesame Street characters outside it. The main tree in the rotunda was also decorated with ornaments to look like different muppets. We'll go back soon and see the special exhibit, we've just got a few friends who'd like to go, so we're waiting on them. Not sure how much longer I'm willing to wait. Here is a picture of Big Bird at the MSI and Chris with the Kenya tree.
The cafe is going well. We're slowly picking up business. We tend to have busy enough Thursdays that I've threatened to not go in until after 1 simply so I don't have to deal with the girls. There are way too many females working at the cafe though, and life is hitting most of us hard. It isn't too much fun, so I simply try to go, get my stuff done, and then leave.
I joined the YMCA here last week so that I can start swimming. Having been a graduate student I got to use the UIC pool during the winters, and realized that I really miss swimming when it is cold outside. So I've now swam several times and like getting back in the water. I think I'll do some more cross training though with riding stationary bikes and whatnot -- i'm just not brave enough to go bike riding when we've got snow on the ground.
We did get snow this week -- twice! They've had to plow both times, so we've gotten at least 2 inches both times. We're supposed to get about 6 inches this weekend depending on the lake effect snow that happens. We made a snowman last Saturday -- Chris made the bottom, I made the middle and top. So, its part Chris, part Carolyn & 100% a baby snowman. It was small enough that I could carry it up and perch it on our balcony.
Last Sunday we also went to the MSI for our yearly Christmas tree visit. The Museum also has the Jim Henson muppets exhibit. It was really neat because they also had a gingerbread MSI with all the Sesame Street characters outside it. The main tree in the rotunda was also decorated with ornaments to look like different muppets. We'll go back soon and see the special exhibit, we've just got a few friends who'd like to go, so we're waiting on them. Not sure how much longer I'm willing to wait. Here is a picture of Big Bird at the MSI and Chris with the Kenya tree.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Random Lack of Motivation
I'm sitting at a computer trying to come up with a powerpoint for my physical science class tomorrow. It is over earth science stuff so it should theoretically be easier than making pie, or cinnamon rolls in my case as pie is ridiculously easy for me these days. I have less than no motivation to actually do it though. It doesn't help that my class refuses to do anything I say and I'm quite sick of putting energy that I simply don't have into them. For example, I told them the first day that they would have homework assignments that they needed to do. I would not collect the homework assignments, but there would be quizzes and all quizzes would be direct homework problems. Plus if they had done the homework, they could have the homework out while they took the quiz and USE their homework to help them on the quiz. I have 2 of my 20 students who have caught on. They regularly get 85% or above, while the rest don't even get 10%. The "rest" are also curious about how to improve their grades in my class. We have 5 class meetings left and they are just now wondering what to do to improve their grades? One of the girls who regularly does the homework has actually started asking her classmates why they don't do it since they keep failing the quizzes. You know it is bad when the students are asking other students why they are being stupid.
The other really hard thing about coming up with this presentation is that approximately 1/3rd of the students have had or are taking earth science with me. We spend three weeks in Earth Science talking about rocks, so spending any time at all with rocks in physical science seems like a complete waste of time to me. They didn't learn the material in the three weeks that we spent on the material in Earth Science so why would I expect them to learn the material in the one day physical science stuff? I suppose I'm just super cynical right now, but this really isn't rocket science.
Anyway, I should go start because I know that the quicker I get started the sooner I'll be done. Maybe I'll be done and go to my small group tonight. This might be some motivation if I felt some deep connection with them, but I'm quite disappointed as of late because I don't really. We've been meeting as a small group for a bit over a year now and neither Chris nor I really feel "more connected" to them. We'll see where this leads, but it doesn't help my motivation to only go to sleep and forget to do anything else. I'm almost curious what my physical science class would do if I turned up tomorrow and simply told them that I forgot to prepare anything for class.
Well, off to start banging my head against a wall to see which is actually a harder substance.
The other really hard thing about coming up with this presentation is that approximately 1/3rd of the students have had or are taking earth science with me. We spend three weeks in Earth Science talking about rocks, so spending any time at all with rocks in physical science seems like a complete waste of time to me. They didn't learn the material in the three weeks that we spent on the material in Earth Science so why would I expect them to learn the material in the one day physical science stuff? I suppose I'm just super cynical right now, but this really isn't rocket science.
Anyway, I should go start because I know that the quicker I get started the sooner I'll be done. Maybe I'll be done and go to my small group tonight. This might be some motivation if I felt some deep connection with them, but I'm quite disappointed as of late because I don't really. We've been meeting as a small group for a bit over a year now and neither Chris nor I really feel "more connected" to them. We'll see where this leads, but it doesn't help my motivation to only go to sleep and forget to do anything else. I'm almost curious what my physical science class would do if I turned up tomorrow and simply told them that I forgot to prepare anything for class.
Well, off to start banging my head against a wall to see which is actually a harder substance.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Carolyn Free Cinnamon Rolls
Update on the mac-n-cheese: no one could really tell it was made with rice pasta. The only thing anyone said that was bad: maybe make it with bacon in it next time. Oh well. Can't be perfect, but if it was that close I will be making it again.
Today I made cinnamon rolls successfully. I made them back in March once. And I sort of have made them a few more times, but they always end up being more cinnamon struessel muffins of some sort rather than cinnamon rolls. After working in the cafe and selling everyone plate sized cinnamon rolls that smell amazing, I've decided that I need to make cinnamon rolls again. I think I've figured out the problem. The really cool thing is that they'd be easy to do dairy free, as well as the everything free that they are starting out.
Recipe:
1.5 C Rice flour
1 C Tapioca flour
0.5 C Yuca flour
1 tsp gum
1/8 tsp gelatin
2 TBSP sugar (i used vanilla sugar since I thought it'd be interesting)
1 TBSP baking powder
3 eggs
1/4 C oil (or butter if you don't want to do dairy free. Butter works best)
Add TBSP of milk until moist like a pie crust dough (I used rice milk and it turned out really well)
For the center:
6 TBSP Butter
1 C sugar
2 TBSP cinnamon
For the icing:
2 C powdered sugar
3 TBSP vanilla
2 TBSP Milk
For the dough -- add ingredients in order making sure to mix well after each liquid addition. When done then roll out dough on a floured surface (or parchment paper since I don't like to use excess flour that costs $3/lb). Mix the center ingredients together and then spread out on the flat dough. Roll to create a log. Cut into pieces using a sharp knife. BAKE IN A MUFFIN TIN at 350 for ~10 minutes. (The muffin tin helps keep them together as well as make them into muffins if things haven't gone well.) Ice when you take them out, or when you are ready to eat them.
Today I made cinnamon rolls successfully. I made them back in March once. And I sort of have made them a few more times, but they always end up being more cinnamon struessel muffins of some sort rather than cinnamon rolls. After working in the cafe and selling everyone plate sized cinnamon rolls that smell amazing, I've decided that I need to make cinnamon rolls again. I think I've figured out the problem. The really cool thing is that they'd be easy to do dairy free, as well as the everything free that they are starting out.
Recipe:
1.5 C Rice flour
1 C Tapioca flour
0.5 C Yuca flour
1 tsp gum
1/8 tsp gelatin
2 TBSP sugar (i used vanilla sugar since I thought it'd be interesting)
1 TBSP baking powder
3 eggs
1/4 C oil (or butter if you don't want to do dairy free. Butter works best)
Add TBSP of milk until moist like a pie crust dough (I used rice milk and it turned out really well)
For the center:
6 TBSP Butter
1 C sugar
2 TBSP cinnamon
For the icing:
2 C powdered sugar
3 TBSP vanilla
2 TBSP Milk
For the dough -- add ingredients in order making sure to mix well after each liquid addition. When done then roll out dough on a floured surface (or parchment paper since I don't like to use excess flour that costs $3/lb). Mix the center ingredients together and then spread out on the flat dough. Roll to create a log. Cut into pieces using a sharp knife. BAKE IN A MUFFIN TIN at 350 for ~10 minutes. (The muffin tin helps keep them together as well as make them into muffins if things haven't gone well.) Ice when you take them out, or when you are ready to eat them.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Mac and Cheese
I believe that this winter I'm going to get fat, despite the fact that I'm working on growing a parasite. I'm kind of supposed to, but I may go a bit overboard. Tonight I'm attempting to make a mac'n'cheese bake thing. Chris liked how I started the sauce -- with 2/3rds a stick of butter melting to sautee the onion. Then I added some milk and LOTS of cheese. I added some Muenster, Brie, and white cheddar cheeses. I purposely made it kind of runny since I didn't cook the pasta before pouring the cheese sauce over them and putting them in the oven for 45 minutes. We're about 10 minutes away now, and it looks tasty. I just took the cover off so the cheddar I topped it with can brown a little.
I got the idea from a magazine today that a lady at work as reading. It had all these "roots" in it, and so I vaguely remembered it. I've been wanting to try making my own mac'n'cheese for a while now though, so that kind of gave me the extra push that I needed to step out and do it. :)
So far this week has been good, and it was SHORT! I have to work Friday and Saturday, but that's okay. Chris doesn't so we only have to get up kind of early on Friday morning, and we'll get to sleep in until 430 or 445, so that's almost an extra hour of sleep by not having to get Chris to the train. Hopefully the cafe will pick up the pace some. It was quite dead today, as in we got a total of about 20 people in the seven hours we were open. Oh well, we'll have slow days. Overall the cafe business is picking up, so that's helpful.
I got the idea from a magazine today that a lady at work as reading. It had all these "roots" in it, and so I vaguely remembered it. I've been wanting to try making my own mac'n'cheese for a while now though, so that kind of gave me the extra push that I needed to step out and do it. :)
So far this week has been good, and it was SHORT! I have to work Friday and Saturday, but that's okay. Chris doesn't so we only have to get up kind of early on Friday morning, and we'll get to sleep in until 430 or 445, so that's almost an extra hour of sleep by not having to get Chris to the train. Hopefully the cafe will pick up the pace some. It was quite dead today, as in we got a total of about 20 people in the seven hours we were open. Oh well, we'll have slow days. Overall the cafe business is picking up, so that's helpful.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Bring on the Turkey
Well, it is now getting close to Thanksgiving. I've been meaning to blog about several things since my last post on Halloween. It has been crazy here though. Working in the cafe has taught me a lot, and while I enjoy it, I know it is a temporary thing. At least I hope it is a temporary thing. It is nice to successfully make drinks for people every day, and for the most part hours are good -- I get to open during the week, and close on Saturdays. Opening is way more fun than closing, but really both are completely manageable. One thing that was nice about the cafe happened on Thursday -- we went to Phoenix and Las Vegas from the 11th to the 16th, and I had the 17th off, so Thursday was my first day back at the cafe in a week. I walk in and Bill, the manager, says, "Carolyn's back!" In checking with him he basically had to go back to running the cafe 24/7, as he had done before they got me my keys. The cafe being under staffed and underpaid is going to get old kind of quick. I realize that we are in essence volunteering our time, and getting a bit of pay for doing so (that's how I look at it because it helps me mentally to do so), but we need people to work, be trusted, and trained. I'm also not really liking the politics of the place. I'm never big on politics, and as usual with a church organization, there are so many layers of politics it makes the US Congress look like child's play.
Enough about the cafe, more about the trip. We went to Phoenix first to get some friends married. We got to help with set-up and be the general errand people for the bride the day before and wedding day. Well, Chris got to be errand boy, and I got to help in the kitchen. Her parents hosted the rehearsal dinner and it was fabulous. Her father is Mexican and so they did Mexican food that was to die for (all what Chris thinks, and what I had was quite good as well, but not truly "traditional" with all the mods I make to it). Her parents also have an orange grove in their backyard. The fruit wasn't ready but it was definitely on the trees getting there. We may get a box of oranges come Christmas, and they are the best oranges. Friday we also frantically went around the mall looking for a suitable shirt and jacket for Chris, as he was the "stand in best man" in case one didn't show up, and they had one in mind. It was craziness, as the bride was tense since this guy was having car troubles in Tucson and wasn't sure if he would make it -- she thought he was trying to ruin her wedding. The ceremony was held at a golf course and was great. There were a few lingering golfers, but for the most part they were gone by the time the wedding started. There were only 50-75 people in attendance and it was great. She wore red shoes with her dress, and he wore personalized skate shoes that had the wedding date on them, hopefully with the anniversary written on the backs of his shoes he won't forget it. They had a sand ceremony -- kind of like a unity candle or something -- each had a color of sand (hers was white, his was red) that they simultaneously poured into a central vase. Then the idea is that you cap it and save the mixed up sand somewhere. Neat idea, especially for a place that has a LOT of sand. Sunday we flew to Vegas. Back in May the Bride asked us to go to Vegas with them, so we did. My allergy card managed to scare a few kitchen staffs. The Mexican restaurant we started at (it was in the hotel, so it was close when we decided that we were starving) was probably the best. I talked with the chef as he was having drinks at the bar, but he told me it was completely doable to eat there and not get sick. The waiter though, with all my questions (what do you put in this, do you shred the cheese or does it come pre-shredded, what do you use for this spice -- type of questions) apparently scared the poor kitchen staff. The created a salad for me and gave me salsa to put over it. For Monday we basically walked around the strip. I got up and went to the hotel gym and then we walked around through casinos and shops and more casinos and more shops. In all of our walking around we got tickets for Blue Man Group. We went to the later showing and were able to get 2nd row, center seats -- as in Chris got squirted with goo at one point, and we had to wear ponchos. The giggly girls in front of us who came in wearing expensive clothes didn't like when we called them shields and screamed when we got squirted with stuff, or had stuff thrown at us.
A few pictures from the trip though --
Enough about the cafe, more about the trip. We went to Phoenix first to get some friends married. We got to help with set-up and be the general errand people for the bride the day before and wedding day. Well, Chris got to be errand boy, and I got to help in the kitchen. Her parents hosted the rehearsal dinner and it was fabulous. Her father is Mexican and so they did Mexican food that was to die for (all what Chris thinks, and what I had was quite good as well, but not truly "traditional" with all the mods I make to it). Her parents also have an orange grove in their backyard. The fruit wasn't ready but it was definitely on the trees getting there. We may get a box of oranges come Christmas, and they are the best oranges. Friday we also frantically went around the mall looking for a suitable shirt and jacket for Chris, as he was the "stand in best man" in case one didn't show up, and they had one in mind. It was craziness, as the bride was tense since this guy was having car troubles in Tucson and wasn't sure if he would make it -- she thought he was trying to ruin her wedding. The ceremony was held at a golf course and was great. There were a few lingering golfers, but for the most part they were gone by the time the wedding started. There were only 50-75 people in attendance and it was great. She wore red shoes with her dress, and he wore personalized skate shoes that had the wedding date on them, hopefully with the anniversary written on the backs of his shoes he won't forget it. They had a sand ceremony -- kind of like a unity candle or something -- each had a color of sand (hers was white, his was red) that they simultaneously poured into a central vase. Then the idea is that you cap it and save the mixed up sand somewhere. Neat idea, especially for a place that has a LOT of sand. Sunday we flew to Vegas. Back in May the Bride asked us to go to Vegas with them, so we did. My allergy card managed to scare a few kitchen staffs. The Mexican restaurant we started at (it was in the hotel, so it was close when we decided that we were starving) was probably the best. I talked with the chef as he was having drinks at the bar, but he told me it was completely doable to eat there and not get sick. The waiter though, with all my questions (what do you put in this, do you shred the cheese or does it come pre-shredded, what do you use for this spice -- type of questions) apparently scared the poor kitchen staff. The created a salad for me and gave me salsa to put over it. For Monday we basically walked around the strip. I got up and went to the hotel gym and then we walked around through casinos and shops and more casinos and more shops. In all of our walking around we got tickets for Blue Man Group. We went to the later showing and were able to get 2nd row, center seats -- as in Chris got squirted with goo at one point, and we had to wear ponchos. The giggly girls in front of us who came in wearing expensive clothes didn't like when we called them shields and screamed when we got squirted with stuff, or had stuff thrown at us.
A few pictures from the trip though --
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Reformation Day!
Since it is the end of October, and I haven't blogged since the beginning of October I suppose I should fill everyone in a little. It has been a busy month, and even though I originally planned on blogging about the NYC wedding back the first weekend of the month, all of a sudden it is the last weekend of the month and October is over. This month has been filled with all sorts of emotional roller coasters. We've had both good news and bad news, and news that is double edged. The double-edged news is why I'm able to sit down now.
On Friday Chris's grandfather passed away after a long battle. It is really an answer to prayers that he finally did, and that everyone let him. Since about 2003 grandfather has been having issue after issue, and hospitalized multiple times for any number of things. It was almost a yearly occurrence in October to start, and then it grew to August and October, and then every few months, and then every few weeks, etc. For the past few years grandfather has been living in a nursing home. He didn't really have his mind at the time, and only ever seemed to have about three good days a year. This is "double-edged" news because it is great for grandfather to be gone. It is a good thing he is finally at peace and no longer in pain. However, for those of us left behind, well, we miss him. I'm unable to get to OK for the funeral so Chris drove down solo yesterday. As a family we will continue to miss him, especially as we are heading headstrong into the holidays. I'm reminded forcibly of when my own grandmother died. Her battle wasn't nearly as long as this one has been, but it was just as violent of a roller coaster, simply compressed into about two years versus seven or eight. I was glad when she died, simply because I knew she was no longer in pain. Since I do believe in a life after bodily death, and she had talked about going to angels, so it is simply a good-bye for now. Like saying goodbye to a friend that you don't really know when you'll see again. However, the part when I decided that I was missing my grandmother, was when I started to have problems and really be sad. If we focus on the situation around us, and the people left behind, then we see death as a bad thing, if we focus on the fact that it is just a temporary good-bye, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
Another good thing that has happened is that I've started working at the Trinity Cafe. It is open seven days a week and is a lot of fun. It will be more fun once business picks up. We had a "soft opening" this week and overall it went well. I think we did better than the "average" that we'll need each person to spend, we just need more people. The "grand opening" is Nov 9. We didn't want to send out any advertising this close to the elections, which is why we are having the grand opening later. It is interesting being a barista, and they are essentially putting me in as assistant manager. I'll hopefully get a key this week so that I can open and the managers can go home.
Anyway, I hear my pumpkin pie in the oven almost ready to go, so I should go check. Knowing me once I get up from the computer I'll forget to get back, so I'll just post this before I go.
Hope everyone has a great day as this one here in Chicagoland is shaping up to be.
On Friday Chris's grandfather passed away after a long battle. It is really an answer to prayers that he finally did, and that everyone let him. Since about 2003 grandfather has been having issue after issue, and hospitalized multiple times for any number of things. It was almost a yearly occurrence in October to start, and then it grew to August and October, and then every few months, and then every few weeks, etc. For the past few years grandfather has been living in a nursing home. He didn't really have his mind at the time, and only ever seemed to have about three good days a year. This is "double-edged" news because it is great for grandfather to be gone. It is a good thing he is finally at peace and no longer in pain. However, for those of us left behind, well, we miss him. I'm unable to get to OK for the funeral so Chris drove down solo yesterday. As a family we will continue to miss him, especially as we are heading headstrong into the holidays. I'm reminded forcibly of when my own grandmother died. Her battle wasn't nearly as long as this one has been, but it was just as violent of a roller coaster, simply compressed into about two years versus seven or eight. I was glad when she died, simply because I knew she was no longer in pain. Since I do believe in a life after bodily death, and she had talked about going to angels, so it is simply a good-bye for now. Like saying goodbye to a friend that you don't really know when you'll see again. However, the part when I decided that I was missing my grandmother, was when I started to have problems and really be sad. If we focus on the situation around us, and the people left behind, then we see death as a bad thing, if we focus on the fact that it is just a temporary good-bye, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
Another good thing that has happened is that I've started working at the Trinity Cafe. It is open seven days a week and is a lot of fun. It will be more fun once business picks up. We had a "soft opening" this week and overall it went well. I think we did better than the "average" that we'll need each person to spend, we just need more people. The "grand opening" is Nov 9. We didn't want to send out any advertising this close to the elections, which is why we are having the grand opening later. It is interesting being a barista, and they are essentially putting me in as assistant manager. I'll hopefully get a key this week so that I can open and the managers can go home.
Anyway, I hear my pumpkin pie in the oven almost ready to go, so I should go check. Knowing me once I get up from the computer I'll forget to get back, so I'll just post this before I go.
Hope everyone has a great day as this one here in Chicagoland is shaping up to be.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
New Jersey Aquarium
Last Wednesday we flew to Philly to meet up with Josh and Anna for a day (or two) of fun before the wedding mayhem began. We had a bumpy ride, but made it safely. Thursday morning when we woke up it was windy, rainy and grey. I didn't run :( and we didn't get a chance to do a lot of outdoorsy things, but we did make it to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. We got on a train about a mile from Anna's place and got a tour of Jersey. As always, train tours are interesting, you get to see a bit of industry and main street for the different towns. We also got to see a lot of the river (the Delaware), and the river was white capping most of the time.
Once we made it to the aquarium we were across the Delaware from Philly, just a bridge away.
Inside the aquarium there were all sorts of fishes, frogs, penguins, seals, sharks, and hippos! We spent a lot of time with the hippos, Jenny and Button. At first the two hippos were simply hanging out, sleeping, as hippos do most of the day.
We went through the hippo area to the jellyfish and shark tanks. There was also an octopus, a really big octopus, that was hiding from the world. We managed to see just his tentacles, but those were quite large.
After the shark tank we decided to go check on the hippos again. The aquarium had underwater viewing, which I had seen for bears (at brookfield) and heard about happening other places, but never really seen. It was really neat to see the hippos in action under the water. As hippos can spend about 18 hours a day in the water, and up to 10 minutes at a time (if inactive) underwater, what they do underwater is a big deal.
After we eventually left the hippos and went to see the other stuff. We got to see really neat corals and fishes! The penguins were also neat and outdoors. After seeing the penguins waddle around, we went back inside (it was also starting to rain again by then).
We rounded out the day with more hippos and got to listen to a hippo talk. The keeper also gave the hippos kale so it was fun to see them eat.
After the aquarium we got to hang out with Anna and Josh and simply rest some. This was good as we had a busy weekend before us. I'll write more about that in my next post, with more pictures of course.
Inside the aquarium there were all sorts of fishes, frogs, penguins, seals, sharks, and hippos! We spent a lot of time with the hippos, Jenny and Button. At first the two hippos were simply hanging out, sleeping, as hippos do most of the day.
We went through the hippo area to the jellyfish and shark tanks. There was also an octopus, a really big octopus, that was hiding from the world. We managed to see just his tentacles, but those were quite large.
After the shark tank we decided to go check on the hippos again. The aquarium had underwater viewing, which I had seen for bears (at brookfield) and heard about happening other places, but never really seen. It was really neat to see the hippos in action under the water. As hippos can spend about 18 hours a day in the water, and up to 10 minutes at a time (if inactive) underwater, what they do underwater is a big deal.
After we eventually left the hippos and went to see the other stuff. We got to see really neat corals and fishes! The penguins were also neat and outdoors. After seeing the penguins waddle around, we went back inside (it was also starting to rain again by then).
After the aquarium we got to hang out with Anna and Josh and simply rest some. This was good as we had a busy weekend before us. I'll write more about that in my next post, with more pictures of course.
Monday, September 27, 2010
It is Wedding Time!
Now I'm currently waiting to go pick up my dress for my brother's wedding, which is this coming Saturday. I'm praying and hoping that she did a good job with it and didn't mess up my Vera. That and I'm pretty sure I'd be toast if I messed up the dress, but that's besides the point. We are leaving in 2 days, as in 48 hours will have me and Chris on a jet plane heading east. :) We'll get to stop by and see friends for a day or so (Chris will get to have 2 days with them, as Friday I have wedding things to attend to) and then we'll do the wedding. The rehearsal is Friday night, and then the wedding is Saturday afternoon with the reception starting at 5. I'm really excited about seeing my family and seeing this all come together. It has been a busy few months for all the planning, but as is typical with a wedding, it is nice to see the finished product. You'd better believe that next week there will be several more wedding pictures. I have a charged battery and will take the charger with me to NYC. :)
I think I have my food stuff figured out for this week in NYC -- its quite simple really. Simply survive off of S'Mac. I'm not sure if I posted anything about S'Mac after my NYC trip two weeks ago, but let me tell you, the stuff is simply amazing (so its so good I'm writing about it twice because I'm salivating thinking about it). Its good -- no fantastic -- mac and cheese. They can make it gluten free (check one) and then add only stuff you want (check two) plus they don't believe in preservatives (check three). It comes out in a cast iron skillet (they use separate ones for gf pasta -- check four) and is creamy, cheesy goodness. I ordered mine and then had it halfway done before my friend parked his car. I hadn't really eaten a lot that weekend, but still, that's how tasty it was. I originally ordered the larger size hoping to take some home with me on the plane the following day. I ended up simply eating it all, so I starved the next day on the plane. I may only make it once in my several days in NYC, so I'll order several things "to go" and eat mac and cheese all weekend. Ah, I better be careful though or I won't fit into my perfectly tailored dress.
Overall this past week was interesting. On Thursday Chris sliced his thumb open at work. He ended up with 5 stitches in it, but it is healing nicely. We're planning on taking them out this week while we're in NYC, because we're pretty sure we can do a decent enough job, if not better job, than what they've done. The doc who sewed him up, well, let's just say I hope he was a first year resident or an intern. I've done better stitching just about any time I've had to sew anything.
Still no permanent job offer for me, so I'm working more at the college next term. The term starts Oct 12 and runs until Dec 16. This means that I'll be free for the holidays at least. I''ll do two sections of Earth Science and one section of Physical Science -- Yay for physics and chemistry. :) I'm excited enough about the Physical Science that I started working on powerpoints for the course today. I'm done with the first one, now I've only got a few more to go. I can only dream about hearing the screams. I'm also kind of concerned because it looks like several people will earn bad grades this term -- something about missing tests and not turning papers in. Who knew right?
I also figured out how to make a chocolate cream cheese frosting/icing to put on stuff. I made some more of my friend Katie's vanilla velvet cupcakes and wanted to try a different frosting, but didn't have any butter. It turned out really really well -- ultra creamy. I may not ever make a frosting with butter again, I may convert to using cream cheese or a comparable cheese. That makes it healthier right?
Well, time to go see if I fit into my dress at all I suppose.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Blissfully Quiet
This week has been blissfully quiet. We were able to get back to our regularly scheduled lives. It was interesting to say the least. We got to get up at 4 to have Chris on the train at 430. Then I attempted to go back to sleep until I needed to be up for work, or house cleaning. I mainly ended up resting more or less though, so it was an interesting week. We also got to attend small group for the first time since the beginning of August. It was quite nice to see everyone. We've got several new additions to the group, as well as a new baby (who was a week old), so interesting to say the least.
This week several new seasons of shows came out on DVD as well. We've got to catch up on all the TV from the past year. Its so nice to only be a year behind the times. ;)
I was asked to teach a third section of sciences at Westwood for the October term. This is quite a blessing really. I'm having a difficult time getting a job and with the weddings having to only work Tuesdays and Thursdays will be nice. I'll make comparable money to what I did at UIC, so it is a blessing, like I said. Plus I don't have to take days upon days off for the weddings after just starting a new position. :) I've also recently remembered that our church is opening a coffee shop with the new site in October. They will be looking for baristas, so my barista dream may come true yet. I'm still looking for a full-time position that uses my Masters to its full extent, and it will come. Eventually and in the right time. We've got absolutely no reason to believe otherwise, in fact, full faith and reason to believe that it will happen that way and all prior evidence points in that direction as well.
Anyway, with the whole 4 am wake-up time I'm going to get to bed.
This week several new seasons of shows came out on DVD as well. We've got to catch up on all the TV from the past year. Its so nice to only be a year behind the times. ;)
I was asked to teach a third section of sciences at Westwood for the October term. This is quite a blessing really. I'm having a difficult time getting a job and with the weddings having to only work Tuesdays and Thursdays will be nice. I'll make comparable money to what I did at UIC, so it is a blessing, like I said. Plus I don't have to take days upon days off for the weddings after just starting a new position. :) I've also recently remembered that our church is opening a coffee shop with the new site in October. They will be looking for baristas, so my barista dream may come true yet. I'm still looking for a full-time position that uses my Masters to its full extent, and it will come. Eventually and in the right time. We've got absolutely no reason to believe otherwise, in fact, full faith and reason to believe that it will happen that way and all prior evidence points in that direction as well.
Anyway, with the whole 4 am wake-up time I'm going to get to bed.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Yuca Experiment
Well, Chris decided to experiment with Yucaroot tonight. We were having meatcakes (hamburgers sans buns) and while at the grocery store he decided to pick the yuca up. We've been talking about trying it for a while now, just hadn't ever been able to find it. So we boiled it this time with hopes of making mashed yuca, similar to mashed potatoes.
It naturally has a sweet taste and a texture similar to a potato. We probably needed to boil them longer than we did as they were kind of hard and didn't exactly mash well. The mashing wasn't a problem for the mixer though. So then what to do with them once we got them mashed. We split up our mashed yuca into two parts. We couldn't decide if we wanted to do simply butter and salt like mashed white potatoes, or brown sugar and cinammon like sweet potatoes -- so we made both. With the salt version though we learned that copious amounts of salt simply brings out the naturally sweet yuca, so having a strong cheese makes a good counter balance. We had some gorgonzola that we needed to use so we threw that in, and it was quite tasty actually.
This means we're looking forward to a winter of yuca in this and yuca in that I imagine. It will be great!
We're starting to get cool here, and the weather has been great. I went on a quick trip to NYC this past weekend and it was truly a whirlwind. In the future I won't go to NYC when the U.S. Open, Fashion Night Out kicking off Fashion Week, and during September 11. It was difficult to get cabs and do anything. I was in NYC for less than 48 hours, and managed to do a fair amount. The highlights were getting to hang out with my family, getting to go for a run (and a bit lost after listening to Lauren) with my brother and mom, and then getting to eat Mac and Cheese from S'Mac. I could eat the Mac and Cheese as it was rice pasta, and the shop has no soy or yeast. It was amazing too! I'll probably write a review for it on facebook, so look for it there with a picture of my amazing mac and cheese. I went to NYC for Lauren's shower. It was held at a country club in the burbs that was really really nice. They currently have a flower from Nola Jane on top of their roof though, as it went overboard when Nola got sick of it being in her hair. We got to go to Times Square at night, which was neat seeing it all lit up, and near Times Square was the M&M World. It was neat to go in and see all the M&M Merchandise and colors of M&Ms.
Anyway, i need to go shower as I kind of smell. I went for a run today when it was 83. It had been a while since we experimented with foods and this was quite successful, so I felt I should journal/share it with everyone in case they ever wanted to try yuca root.
It naturally has a sweet taste and a texture similar to a potato. We probably needed to boil them longer than we did as they were kind of hard and didn't exactly mash well. The mashing wasn't a problem for the mixer though. So then what to do with them once we got them mashed. We split up our mashed yuca into two parts. We couldn't decide if we wanted to do simply butter and salt like mashed white potatoes, or brown sugar and cinammon like sweet potatoes -- so we made both. With the salt version though we learned that copious amounts of salt simply brings out the naturally sweet yuca, so having a strong cheese makes a good counter balance. We had some gorgonzola that we needed to use so we threw that in, and it was quite tasty actually.
This means we're looking forward to a winter of yuca in this and yuca in that I imagine. It will be great!
We're starting to get cool here, and the weather has been great. I went on a quick trip to NYC this past weekend and it was truly a whirlwind. In the future I won't go to NYC when the U.S. Open, Fashion Night Out kicking off Fashion Week, and during September 11. It was difficult to get cabs and do anything. I was in NYC for less than 48 hours, and managed to do a fair amount. The highlights were getting to hang out with my family, getting to go for a run (and a bit lost after listening to Lauren) with my brother and mom, and then getting to eat Mac and Cheese from S'Mac. I could eat the Mac and Cheese as it was rice pasta, and the shop has no soy or yeast. It was amazing too! I'll probably write a review for it on facebook, so look for it there with a picture of my amazing mac and cheese. I went to NYC for Lauren's shower. It was held at a country club in the burbs that was really really nice. They currently have a flower from Nola Jane on top of their roof though, as it went overboard when Nola got sick of it being in her hair. We got to go to Times Square at night, which was neat seeing it all lit up, and near Times Square was the M&M World. It was neat to go in and see all the M&M Merchandise and colors of M&Ms.
Anyway, i need to go shower as I kind of smell. I went for a run today when it was 83. It had been a while since we experimented with foods and this was quite successful, so I felt I should journal/share it with everyone in case they ever wanted to try yuca root.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Labor Day
Well, we've successfully survived our first month of mayhem. Chris has started his new position, I'm currently just teaching, and we've now done two of our five weddings for the year. :)
The new position requires Chris being on the 430 train, so this is taking a bit of adjustment. It doesn't help that we have so much unusual stuff going on so a routine is difficult to start. Hopefully next week (as in Monday 13) we will be able to get into a routine enough that we stop going crazy. He's managing the stockroom, and so far the first two weeks of the semester went well. He's got the usual complaints about training his replacement and stuff, but that's just kinks to be sorted out.
I'm working at Westwood still. I'm teaching Earth Science again this term. I've been asked to teach both Earth and Physical Science next term, so that would take me to Christmas in terms of having a job. It doesn't pay well, but the work is fairly straight forward and allows me a LOT of flexibility (which is a blessing right now with all the weddings) and possibly a different part time job. As opposed to having to take a ton of time off for all the weddings I've got this fall, I'm simply scheduling different times to have the classes. :) I'm actually thinking of doing a barrista gig for a while since I'm already up at 430 with Chris, being at work by 5 wouldn't be such a big deal. Plus it would be nice to be on a similar sleep schedule.
The zoo is mostly done now. I'll go back in October for extra money, but that will be all. It ended up well, we got a TON of surveys and I didn't kill anyone. Chris still contends that I need to find a research position so that I can not have to deal with the general public -- my patience for not trying and not reading have gone down significantly. So, me doing a barrista thing may not work so well, but we'll see.
I still need to get my dress altered for John and Lauren's wedding. I haven't had time with the zoo gig. The zoo ended last Tuesday and then I had to do nothing but wedding stuff for this coming weekend.
As one of our crazy things that have happened the past month -- we had friends get married here. Chris and I were the best man and maid of honor, so it was really quite fun. We got to play Barbie and Ken. It was a nice ceremony that was close to here. It was nice to see everyone and here are a few pictures from the wedding.
The wedding cake! It was apparently delicious, and most people ate about 5 slices. The top two layers are a chocolate gluten free, with the bottom layer being a carrot cake. Chris salivated over the carrot cake, and couldn't believe it was gluten free!
I suppose if you make anyone up enough they look good, right? This was before the ceremony. It was outdoors and about fifteen minutes before the ceremony it started sprinkling, so we got to play inside a few more minutes.
What else do you do at a wedding? I'm starting to get Chris to dance with me some, and from this angle you can kind of see the intricacy of my hair. It only took a lady two hours to get my hair done...
Anyway, 430 comes early in the morning so I'm going to go now. I realized that the past few posts have mainly been picture posts without much commentary. One of these days I may go back and update the posts, but it will be next week at the earliest. I'm off to New York this coming weekend for Lauren's shower. I'm looking forward to meeting my mom, Ida, Nola Jane, and Maegan there. We'll have an interesting weekend that will hopefully bring its own sets of pictures and stories.
Have a good week.
The new position requires Chris being on the 430 train, so this is taking a bit of adjustment. It doesn't help that we have so much unusual stuff going on so a routine is difficult to start. Hopefully next week (as in Monday 13) we will be able to get into a routine enough that we stop going crazy. He's managing the stockroom, and so far the first two weeks of the semester went well. He's got the usual complaints about training his replacement and stuff, but that's just kinks to be sorted out.
I'm working at Westwood still. I'm teaching Earth Science again this term. I've been asked to teach both Earth and Physical Science next term, so that would take me to Christmas in terms of having a job. It doesn't pay well, but the work is fairly straight forward and allows me a LOT of flexibility (which is a blessing right now with all the weddings) and possibly a different part time job. As opposed to having to take a ton of time off for all the weddings I've got this fall, I'm simply scheduling different times to have the classes. :) I'm actually thinking of doing a barrista gig for a while since I'm already up at 430 with Chris, being at work by 5 wouldn't be such a big deal. Plus it would be nice to be on a similar sleep schedule.
The zoo is mostly done now. I'll go back in October for extra money, but that will be all. It ended up well, we got a TON of surveys and I didn't kill anyone. Chris still contends that I need to find a research position so that I can not have to deal with the general public -- my patience for not trying and not reading have gone down significantly. So, me doing a barrista thing may not work so well, but we'll see.
I still need to get my dress altered for John and Lauren's wedding. I haven't had time with the zoo gig. The zoo ended last Tuesday and then I had to do nothing but wedding stuff for this coming weekend.
As one of our crazy things that have happened the past month -- we had friends get married here. Chris and I were the best man and maid of honor, so it was really quite fun. We got to play Barbie and Ken. It was a nice ceremony that was close to here. It was nice to see everyone and here are a few pictures from the wedding.
Anyway, 430 comes early in the morning so I'm going to go now. I realized that the past few posts have mainly been picture posts without much commentary. One of these days I may go back and update the posts, but it will be next week at the earliest. I'm off to New York this coming weekend for Lauren's shower. I'm looking forward to meeting my mom, Ida, Nola Jane, and Maegan there. We'll have an interesting weekend that will hopefully bring its own sets of pictures and stories.
Have a good week.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A quick Trip in the beginning of August.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Lemon Meringue Pie
Well since it will cool down to sixty tonight I'm going to make a lemon meringue pie. I think I finally got the hang of spelling meringue as well as it no longer turns red when I'm done spelling it. :) I'm excited and it looks like it will be a pie crust, lemon curd filling, with meringue on top! Now I think the trick will be getting them to stick together. I'll try and post pics once I get them done.
Not much has been new this week. We did have an interesting Thursday, but other than that it wasn't a bad week. We "tested" Chris's new work schedule for August when he takes over the department. That had us getting up at 4am so that he could be on the train by 4:38. He then gets to work by 6. He also got off at 2, so often had a lot of time in the afternoon to get stuff done. We made it and our bodies started adjusting. I got to the point where I could kind of sleep through him getting around, but most of the time I just got up and got stuff done. Surprisingly at 5 am not much is going on so you can get a lot done. For example, on Friday I got my entire class done in about 2 hours, which is significantly less time than it normally takes me. We have also determined that we will be needing a second car soon. Our schedules are going to be synced up significantly less and having only one car won't work for us. :( We still have our bikes and whatnot, so hopefully we'll have a mild fall and late arriving winter (hopefully winter comes this year), and can use those as necessary.
Our Thursday was an interesting day. The electric company cut the power to the University and so Chris got to work on back-up generators for a while. The problem was that the fume hoods didn't work in the labs. This meant that all the volatiles that typically go up the hood were staying in the room and possibly causing a lot of problems. The department head canceled labs and even the research groups got to go home early that day. Chris got to go home and soon there after got a call from me. I got stung by something at the zoo and ended up in the er. I don't know what stung me, but I started wheezing and itching so the zoo ambulance rushed me up the street to the hospital. The docs didn't do much (like I thought) and I'm quite perturbed by the whole experience. We were going to do a voice over for the video at church that night, but didn't manage to make it in time as it took Chris forever to get to me in rush hour traffic. I talked with my allergist and apparently this means we're going to be doing more allergy testing. Oh Joy. I'm going back to the zoo tomorrow for the first time, hopefully no buggies will bite me.
One fun thing from this week was a wedding the 17th. Our friends Erica and Rob (from church) got married and we had a blast at the wedding. It was a good day overall and we got to spend some time with the "athletic" people from our church. Here's a picture of us at the wedding, I think it turned out well. :)
Not much has been new this week. We did have an interesting Thursday, but other than that it wasn't a bad week. We "tested" Chris's new work schedule for August when he takes over the department. That had us getting up at 4am so that he could be on the train by 4:38. He then gets to work by 6. He also got off at 2, so often had a lot of time in the afternoon to get stuff done. We made it and our bodies started adjusting. I got to the point where I could kind of sleep through him getting around, but most of the time I just got up and got stuff done. Surprisingly at 5 am not much is going on so you can get a lot done. For example, on Friday I got my entire class done in about 2 hours, which is significantly less time than it normally takes me. We have also determined that we will be needing a second car soon. Our schedules are going to be synced up significantly less and having only one car won't work for us. :( We still have our bikes and whatnot, so hopefully we'll have a mild fall and late arriving winter (hopefully winter comes this year), and can use those as necessary.
Our Thursday was an interesting day. The electric company cut the power to the University and so Chris got to work on back-up generators for a while. The problem was that the fume hoods didn't work in the labs. This meant that all the volatiles that typically go up the hood were staying in the room and possibly causing a lot of problems. The department head canceled labs and even the research groups got to go home early that day. Chris got to go home and soon there after got a call from me. I got stung by something at the zoo and ended up in the er. I don't know what stung me, but I started wheezing and itching so the zoo ambulance rushed me up the street to the hospital. The docs didn't do much (like I thought) and I'm quite perturbed by the whole experience. We were going to do a voice over for the video at church that night, but didn't manage to make it in time as it took Chris forever to get to me in rush hour traffic. I talked with my allergist and apparently this means we're going to be doing more allergy testing. Oh Joy. I'm going back to the zoo tomorrow for the first time, hopefully no buggies will bite me.
One fun thing from this week was a wedding the 17th. Our friends Erica and Rob (from church) got married and we had a blast at the wedding. It was a good day overall and we got to spend some time with the "athletic" people from our church. Here's a picture of us at the wedding, I think it turned out well. :)
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Fire Game, B'Day, etc
Well, it was a good birthday overall. I had to work, but it was at the zoo. We have deemed them "Zoorthdays" for those of us lucky enough to get birthdays in the summer. We get to pick an activity or two that we don't normally have time to do and those of us working all go and do it. For example, in June Katie picked the dolphin show. I picked the carousel as I've only ridden it twice this summer! That goes to show just how busy we are, as I rode it almost daily last summer. We also went through the butterfly tent and it was really pretty, as always. Here's a picture (taken by Jess E) of four of my co-workers and me on the carousel.
Last Thursday we went to the Fire game. Our third for the season. We had quite a bit of fun, even though the Fire lost on a stupid penalty kick. The game was good and well played. We got to see Findley (from the US national team) play against the Fire. We're slowly definitely becoming Fire fans. We had 5th row seats and it was great being so close. We could really tell when people were faking it, hence the ability to say the penalty kick was stupid. It was the third time Findley had tried to get a call in the box and he finally got one. The Mexicans behind us said something that I imagine translated roughly into, "That's a stupid call worthy of South Africa" refering to the horrid reffÃng the World Cup had. Linda and I ended up wearing a similar color of purple, so we took a picture. The other one is a good one of Chris and me. A couple of pics from the Fire game:
This past weekend we also saw the end of the World Cup. I suppose my mania will go in the closet for a few more years. Though Chris is becoming a Fire fan and I'm slowly converting him to soccer as a great sport. He has thought that for a bit, but in taking him to the games and getting him to cheer and explain things, he's really starting to like the sport. :)
It has been brutal this week in terms of heat. We've had to run our ac, but we're glad for the window coatings that may or may not be legal. We kind of applied them regardless of the condo association. They haven't said anything, and we've even noticed a difference on our electric bill. For running the ac so much it should be much higher than it has been. We are actually able to turn the acs off during the day and it doesn't get horrid hot inside the condo, which is a drastic change from previous years.
Hoping all is well with you and that you keep cool during this heat wave.
Last Thursday we went to the Fire game. Our third for the season. We had quite a bit of fun, even though the Fire lost on a stupid penalty kick. The game was good and well played. We got to see Findley (from the US national team) play against the Fire. We're slowly definitely becoming Fire fans. We had 5th row seats and it was great being so close. We could really tell when people were faking it, hence the ability to say the penalty kick was stupid. It was the third time Findley had tried to get a call in the box and he finally got one. The Mexicans behind us said something that I imagine translated roughly into, "That's a stupid call worthy of South Africa" refering to the horrid reffÃng the World Cup had. Linda and I ended up wearing a similar color of purple, so we took a picture. The other one is a good one of Chris and me. A couple of pics from the Fire game:
This past weekend we also saw the end of the World Cup. I suppose my mania will go in the closet for a few more years. Though Chris is becoming a Fire fan and I'm slowly converting him to soccer as a great sport. He has thought that for a bit, but in taking him to the games and getting him to cheer and explain things, he's really starting to like the sport. :)
It has been brutal this week in terms of heat. We've had to run our ac, but we're glad for the window coatings that may or may not be legal. We kind of applied them regardless of the condo association. They haven't said anything, and we've even noticed a difference on our electric bill. For running the ac so much it should be much higher than it has been. We are actually able to turn the acs off during the day and it doesn't get horrid hot inside the condo, which is a drastic change from previous years.
Hoping all is well with you and that you keep cool during this heat wave.
Monday, July 5, 2010
4th of July
For the third I had to work and Chris didn't. He managed to take his tux pants in to get them altered. The tux is quite nice and I should post a pic of it sooner or later. This week was quite nice. I had another adverse reaction with my allergy shot, but that was the extent of our excitement. The allergist saved me with epinephrine. I don't like epi, it really isn't cool. It also wasn't a good idea since I'm really close to only having to go weekly for a shot. Now I have to wait a few more weeks for that arrangement.
This week should be fun -- we've got a soccer game to augment our world cup mania that is wrapping up. We've been upset with some of the reffing, but overall it has been a good cup. Let's go for Germany to beat Spain, Netherlands to beat Uruguay, then Germany to beat Netherlands and win it all! That's what we want to happen since we've got everything else eliminated.
We're also getting ready for wedding season here. We've got one next weekend and that starts the craziness. I've also managed to get slightly sunburned -- but that's what the 4th of July is for.
Toy Story 3 is also a great movie. We went and saw it for the 4th. We didn't really see any fireworks as we had a ton of rain shortly beforehand. It was kind of sad to see the end of the series. I can't wait for them to come out on DVD. It was neat to see parents of people who were kids with the first one taking their little ones to the movie.
That's about all the time I've got tonight. I've got to get some rest since we plan on biking a lot this week. Chris fixed his bike and we did bike yesterday. We took an adventure through limestone trails. It wasn't the most fun ever because of the wind, but it was nice to go out with Chris.
This week should be fun -- we've got a soccer game to augment our world cup mania that is wrapping up. We've been upset with some of the reffing, but overall it has been a good cup. Let's go for Germany to beat Spain, Netherlands to beat Uruguay, then Germany to beat Netherlands and win it all! That's what we want to happen since we've got everything else eliminated.
We're also getting ready for wedding season here. We've got one next weekend and that starts the craziness. I've also managed to get slightly sunburned -- but that's what the 4th of July is for.
Toy Story 3 is also a great movie. We went and saw it for the 4th. We didn't really see any fireworks as we had a ton of rain shortly beforehand. It was kind of sad to see the end of the series. I can't wait for them to come out on DVD. It was neat to see parents of people who were kids with the first one taking their little ones to the movie.
That's about all the time I've got tonight. I've got to get some rest since we plan on biking a lot this week. Chris fixed his bike and we did bike yesterday. We took an adventure through limestone trails. It wasn't the most fun ever because of the wind, but it was nice to go out with Chris.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
World Cup Mania
Unfortunately the USA is now out of the World Cup. We've watched all the US games and managed to watch a good portion of the other games as well. Currently I'm actually streaming the Argentina-Mexico match, well streaming the radio at least. The game is on ABC and I just didn't want to deal with people to see the match. Both teams have been playing really well, so it will be unfortunate which team gets to advance. While it was great that the US made it to the Round of 16, I was kind of hoping they'd make the quarter finals again. Once again though, it seems Ghana has our number and is a young up and coming team. Maybe they'll go on to win the whole cup and we'll have a host of records broken -- like the first cup in Africa being won by an African side. While I'm saddened that the US is out, I'm glad that I'm not so emotionally involved with other teams. The possible exception being Germany. But even watching the game this morning I didn't have the same desire for Germany to win as I've had for the USA to win.
We watched the Germany-England game this morning. England looked like they had velcro on their cleats and were bogged down while Germany looked fluid and fast. It was kind of ridiculous. Twice this cup Germany has scored 4 goals in a game. This is ridiculous for most youth competitive teams, so having four goals against you in the world cup seems incredibly excessive. Portugal beat North Korea 7-0 though and that was definitely excessive.
The past week has brought heat, t-storms and tornadoes here. Fortunately the past few weeks of course I've been talking about weather for my Earth Science course. We got to go outside several times and look at clouds. The zoo has been the zoo and we're getting TONS of surveys. We regularly get about 500 surveys a week. We're managing to keep on top of the surveys and the databases. It wasn't something I thought the team of RAs would ever get together, but am quite proud that we did manage it. We can now color when we have free time as opposed to cutting stuff, copying stuff, and entering data.
Chris is in the midst of summer school. We forget how much work goes into summer school, and is is wearing us both out a bit. Well, its now halftime for the game so we're going to get some stuff done and I won't be at the computer.
Hope everything is well and cool where you are.
We watched the Germany-England game this morning. England looked like they had velcro on their cleats and were bogged down while Germany looked fluid and fast. It was kind of ridiculous. Twice this cup Germany has scored 4 goals in a game. This is ridiculous for most youth competitive teams, so having four goals against you in the world cup seems incredibly excessive. Portugal beat North Korea 7-0 though and that was definitely excessive.
The past week has brought heat, t-storms and tornadoes here. Fortunately the past few weeks of course I've been talking about weather for my Earth Science course. We got to go outside several times and look at clouds. The zoo has been the zoo and we're getting TONS of surveys. We regularly get about 500 surveys a week. We're managing to keep on top of the surveys and the databases. It wasn't something I thought the team of RAs would ever get together, but am quite proud that we did manage it. We can now color when we have free time as opposed to cutting stuff, copying stuff, and entering data.
Chris is in the midst of summer school. We forget how much work goes into summer school, and is is wearing us both out a bit. Well, its now halftime for the game so we're going to get some stuff done and I won't be at the computer.
Hope everything is well and cool where you are.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Just a few minutes
I want to procrastinate working on my powerpoints for Earth Science so I'll blog instead.
The pasta I wrote about last time turned out really really well. We're going to make more in fact. It was a nice buckwheat pasta and it was tasty with tomato sauce. I know that isn't how the Koreans or Japanese traditionally eat the buckwheat pasta, but it was tasty none the less. Today I'm going to try to make a simple rice pasta. It shouldn't be too difficult, but it will be me going at it alone instead of with Chris's help. We'll see how big of a mess I make. I just need to remember to keep the dough small.
I've got a day off of the zoo and am not going to the University since I'm not sure if my boss would be around. I also am going to go downtown tomorrow to watch the US beat Algeria and advance to the round of 16 in the World Cup. We've been watching a lot of World Cup lately. We managed to have someone taking pics of us at the sports bar across the street during the US-England game. During the US-Slovenia game I was told off by Linda for being too loud. Chris had said I couldn't have a vuvuzela and now both Linda and Tom (co-worker of Chris) agree. They were surprised that Stoops in TX couldn't hear me.
After making pasta I did a triathalon. It was a lot of fun. I had a late wave start for the swim and so it was interesting. We had to be out of the transition area (where you keep your gear for the other legs of the race) by 645 since the elite people started at 7. My swim wave started so late that those people were done before I even started swimming. I did quite well though. My overall time was 1:30. I did a 14 min 750 swim, a 46 min 23k bike, and a 24 min 5k. I had 6 minutes in transition time as well so that's great. I participated in it with Jolene. Chris and her boyfriend, Tim, came out and cheered us on. It was quite a bit of fun wondering when I was going to see them and where they would pop up. I surprised them several times by how quickly I was riding and running. Afterwards we went to breakfast (well, lunch) at Mimi's cafe and I didn't get sick. They have a gluten free menu and I just had an omelet, but still that's something. I couldn't have the muffins (which is a tragedy) and then I couldn't have the potatoes. One of these days I'll figure out what I can eat and go from there.
Other than this not much is going on. We haven't had anything damaged by the recent storms, we haven't even lost power. There have been some great lighting storms and if only I had a good camera to catch the lightning it would have been perfect. Friday it was great because in my Earth Science course we were talking about weather. It made the perfect day to discuss what creates weather and how weather might be different from climate.
Anyway, I should get on my earth science lectures and go with the topics of fronts and wind patterns that we'll talk about this Friday.
The pasta I wrote about last time turned out really really well. We're going to make more in fact. It was a nice buckwheat pasta and it was tasty with tomato sauce. I know that isn't how the Koreans or Japanese traditionally eat the buckwheat pasta, but it was tasty none the less. Today I'm going to try to make a simple rice pasta. It shouldn't be too difficult, but it will be me going at it alone instead of with Chris's help. We'll see how big of a mess I make. I just need to remember to keep the dough small.
I've got a day off of the zoo and am not going to the University since I'm not sure if my boss would be around. I also am going to go downtown tomorrow to watch the US beat Algeria and advance to the round of 16 in the World Cup. We've been watching a lot of World Cup lately. We managed to have someone taking pics of us at the sports bar across the street during the US-England game. During the US-Slovenia game I was told off by Linda for being too loud. Chris had said I couldn't have a vuvuzela and now both Linda and Tom (co-worker of Chris) agree. They were surprised that Stoops in TX couldn't hear me.
After making pasta I did a triathalon. It was a lot of fun. I had a late wave start for the swim and so it was interesting. We had to be out of the transition area (where you keep your gear for the other legs of the race) by 645 since the elite people started at 7. My swim wave started so late that those people were done before I even started swimming. I did quite well though. My overall time was 1:30. I did a 14 min 750 swim, a 46 min 23k bike, and a 24 min 5k. I had 6 minutes in transition time as well so that's great. I participated in it with Jolene. Chris and her boyfriend, Tim, came out and cheered us on. It was quite a bit of fun wondering when I was going to see them and where they would pop up. I surprised them several times by how quickly I was riding and running. Afterwards we went to breakfast (well, lunch) at Mimi's cafe and I didn't get sick. They have a gluten free menu and I just had an omelet, but still that's something. I couldn't have the muffins (which is a tragedy) and then I couldn't have the potatoes. One of these days I'll figure out what I can eat and go from there.
Other than this not much is going on. We haven't had anything damaged by the recent storms, we haven't even lost power. There have been some great lighting storms and if only I had a good camera to catch the lightning it would have been perfect. Friday it was great because in my Earth Science course we were talking about weather. It made the perfect day to discuss what creates weather and how weather might be different from climate.
Anyway, I should get on my earth science lectures and go with the topics of fronts and wind patterns that we'll talk about this Friday.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Pasta Making
I realize that it has been a few weeks since I blogged anything. Fortunately many people don't follow this blog weekly so most won't even realize it. I'm waiting for pasta to set before I can cut it so I have a few minutes to sit down and write.
For the most part summer has started with a bang. In the end of May we did stuff with friends for Chris's 30th birthday. We started the weekend going to a Fire game on Thursday night. Then Friday night Chris had friends over for a wine and cheese party. Then Saturday we went paintballing so that everyone could get shot. It ended up being an experience and I'm still wearing a few of the bruises. One of the bruises in my thigh still hurts when I run. Sunday night we went downtown and simply hung out for the most part. Then Monday we took a train out of the city and got to rest before a busy week.
I've also started working at the zoo and at a place called Westwood College. I'm teaching Earth Science on Friday nights from 6-10. It is going well I think. I'm not the "traditional" teacher, and most people seem to prefer how I teach to the "traditional" way, so that's a step in the right direction. The zoo is crazy. We are taking about three times as many surveys this year as we did last year, and we've got a few in the works that we are trying to get ready to roll out by the end of the month. It isn't that difficult to get a nine hour day in there if that tells you how much stuff we have to do.
We had our 5th anniversary this week. It was Thursday and it was a lot of fun. I went for a bike ride and a run, and then we went out for supper. We went to the Chama Gaucha restaurant. It is a Brazilian steakhouse. We went there for Mother's Day and hadn't been back since. The manager remembered us though so it was quite interesting. I didn't get sick for a second time, and I even ate the bread on teh table! There is something to be said about being able to eat the bread on the table.
Today I didn't have to work since tomorrow I'm participating in a triathalon. I'm quite excited and nervous, all at the same time. I'm scared to admit what time I will be getting up in the morning, but hey, it's all worth it. My friend Jolene and I are doing it, as well as a few other ladies from the church. We'll see how it goes. It has been much more fun to train for than a half marathon is. I do a lot of the stuff as cross training anyway, but this way it is required. Hopefully I'll make a good time.
Not much else is new here.
We had our 5th anniversary this week. It was Thursday and it was a lot of fun. I went for a bike ride and a run, and then we went out for supper. We went to the Chama Gaucha restaurant. It is a Brazilian steakhouse. We went there for Mother's Day and hadn't been back since. The manager remembered us though so it was quite interesting. I didn't get sick for a second time, and I even ate the bread on teh table! There is something to be said about being able to eat the bread on the table.
Today I didn't have to work since tomorrow I'm participating in a triathalon. I'm quite excited and nervous, all at the same time. I'm scared to admit what time I will be getting up in the morning, but hey, it's all worth it. My friend Jolene and I are doing it, as well as a few other ladies from the church. We'll see how it goes. It has been much more fun to train for than a half marathon is. I do a lot of the stuff as cross training anyway, but this way it is required. Hopefully I'll make a good time.
Not much else is new here.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Master Carolyn and such
Since grades came out this week I officially got my masters degree in Chemistry. I'm currently looking for a position that will use my degree and such. I was able to get an adjunct teaching position at a community college near me. I will be teaching Earth Science on Friday nights from 6-10. It should be interesting. It will probably be like teaching high school again to some sort as the college is for less "traditional" types of students I've been told. This means that starting Memorial Day weekend and going for 8 weeks I will be working three jobs! It should be interesting to say the least. I wanted to teach two sections of earth science so that I didn't have to work at UIC for the summer, but couldn't make the time fit with hours I need to keep at the zoo. One of these days I'll have one job that I make enough money in so that I only need one job, and I'll be using the snazzy new chemistry degree I've got as well.
Other than that, this week hasn't been super exciting. The weather has been rainy and so we've not been riding bikes. Though today was great. Jolene and I rode about 22 miles to a town called St. Charles. It was neat to be on the flooding Fox River. As we rode, we could see the dirt and sediment from where the water was last week. It was especially nice coming back because the trail had cleared up quite a bit and we were able to get a good cadence going -- we did 19 mph for a while there into the wind and it was GREAT! Maybe tomorrow I will be sore.
This week I also made a rosemary foccacia loaf, a chocolate pound cake and red velvet cake. Neither of the cakes are as "creamy" in texture as regular flour stuff, but they taste close enough that they will work. :) Sweet success in the kitchen like that is always a good thing. For the foccacia I used chickpea flour and it turned out really well. I'm going to investigate how hard it is to grind up chickpeas because I could do that myself. I've also started researching pasta making methods as we're wanting some variety in pasta and my mom got me a pasta attachment for my kitchen aid for completing my masters. It looks snazzy and should be all sorts of fun. I just have to figure out some easy way to dry the stuff.
This week should be interesting -- tomorrow my office mates are throwing me a party and I get to meet with my advisor. It also looks like it might be sunny some of the time so we'll be able to ride to the train station some. We'll see what happens I suppose. I hope that everyone has had a good week and has a great week coming up. Enjoy the wonderful spring weather -- whether it brings tornadoes or brilliant blue skies.
Other than that, this week hasn't been super exciting. The weather has been rainy and so we've not been riding bikes. Though today was great. Jolene and I rode about 22 miles to a town called St. Charles. It was neat to be on the flooding Fox River. As we rode, we could see the dirt and sediment from where the water was last week. It was especially nice coming back because the trail had cleared up quite a bit and we were able to get a good cadence going -- we did 19 mph for a while there into the wind and it was GREAT! Maybe tomorrow I will be sore.
This week I also made a rosemary foccacia loaf, a chocolate pound cake and red velvet cake. Neither of the cakes are as "creamy" in texture as regular flour stuff, but they taste close enough that they will work. :) Sweet success in the kitchen like that is always a good thing. For the foccacia I used chickpea flour and it turned out really well. I'm going to investigate how hard it is to grind up chickpeas because I could do that myself. I've also started researching pasta making methods as we're wanting some variety in pasta and my mom got me a pasta attachment for my kitchen aid for completing my masters. It looks snazzy and should be all sorts of fun. I just have to figure out some easy way to dry the stuff.
This week should be interesting -- tomorrow my office mates are throwing me a party and I get to meet with my advisor. It also looks like it might be sunny some of the time so we'll be able to ride to the train station some. We'll see what happens I suppose. I hope that everyone has had a good week and has a great week coming up. Enjoy the wonderful spring weather -- whether it brings tornadoes or brilliant blue skies.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Mother's Day Weekend
For Saturday we went to a White Sox game with the group from church. The Sox ended up winning so that was a nice change from the rest of the season. We got to see some rowdy people kicked out by security -- they had been heckling the right fielder and security came for them. It was funny to see them wonder what they had done. It was funny to listen to them trying to get under the opponents skin, but they apparently went a bit far. It was a fairly cool game -- in the mid forties with a nice wind. We busted out the beanies for the game! Here's a picture of us at the game:
We stayed the night in the Palmer House Hotel. It had a GORGEOUS lobby, they really don't make lobbies like that anymore. Overall it was just a hotel and quite loud for our tastes -- there didn't seem to be any sound dampening in the hotel. Today for Mother's Day we tried a new Brazilian Steakhouse -- and it was good! I haven't gotten much other than a nasty headache (and it could be much much worse) so we may go back. We didn't think about what they fried the plantains in until after I had put one in my mouth. We then thought about it a second and realized they probably fried them in an oil that I shouldn't eat. We'll go back to the restaurant and see if I don't eat the fried stuff how I feel. The manager was great even though he remarked, "And you don't really eat anything ever." upon seeing my card. The waiter asked, "Allergic to all of these things?" when he looked at the card, so we'll add that to my collection of stumping the wait staff at a restaurant. However, this does increase our number of Carolyn approved restaurants to three, so we're stoked -- I mean that's 50% more places I can go out to! The other really neat thing about this place was the rolls -- they were made of yucca root flour! This meant I could have the bread that was put on the table! How cool is that?
Anyway, we've taken a part the fridge and need to put it back together and get to bed. We'll see how this week goes, but after the weekend it promises to be more mundane.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
May already?
Well, softball season is going full swing. Bad pun, but hey, its late. I'm actually blogging now as I am rather wired and tired all at the same time. It is finals week and I took a final today. I also thought I was going to get an allergy shot after my final -- but I ended up with 4 shots instead. After the first one, I itched a little and so the doc suggested we do a second as he knows that I'm more than willing to speed things up on the shot department. Well, apparently the second one was a bit much. I got ended up getting 2 epi shots (one for each arm), an antihistamine, and some prednisone before I left the office. I also believe that my doc didn't want me playing softball. He didn't believe that I play a mean benchwarmer/sub. He kept me for observation for a long time and I ended up missing a train able to make me even close to time on the game. Overall the epi is doing wonders, though my body is really sore now. Last week for softball I got to play second base. I had my shining moment for the season with an out! Apparently you have to run around base defensive players (I think the people not hitting are considered defensive players) when the ball is near them. I stood in the way of the 200 lb man running from 1st to 2nd, got bowled over, didn't really realize what had happened but he was out! Everyone on my team was worried that I took such a bad hit. He hit my butt though and so I just kind of rocked on my feet. Who knew that you couldn't knock a soccer player over by running in to them?
This week is finals week at the university. This means that Chris is working on getting the labs ready for the summer session that starts the second full week of June. I'm taking finals -- I took one today and should end up with an A in the course. I take my next one (and FINAL one) on Friday at 8 am.
I also have an interview with Argonne tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll be able to get enough sleep that I can be coherent enough to make them give me a position. It would be doing inorganic chemistry in air sensitive environments (I really like working in air sensitive environments actually -- the big gloves are GREAT!! and I'm just a nerd like that) on batteries. We'll see how it goes.
Really not much is new here. It is getting warmer and looking much like Spring. If anyone wants to come visit let us know.
Anyway, I should probably go. Not much is really up or exciting here.
This week is finals week at the university. This means that Chris is working on getting the labs ready for the summer session that starts the second full week of June. I'm taking finals -- I took one today and should end up with an A in the course. I take my next one (and FINAL one) on Friday at 8 am.
I also have an interview with Argonne tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll be able to get enough sleep that I can be coherent enough to make them give me a position. It would be doing inorganic chemistry in air sensitive environments (I really like working in air sensitive environments actually -- the big gloves are GREAT!! and I'm just a nerd like that) on batteries. We'll see how it goes.
Really not much is new here. It is getting warmer and looking much like Spring. If anyone wants to come visit let us know.
Anyway, I should probably go. Not much is really up or exciting here.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Fire 2, Dynamo 0
Last night we went to the Chicago Fire game. Chris has been telling me for two years now to simply pick a game I want to go to, get tickets, and we'd go. I've been wanting to see a MLS game since the league started and I finally got to go! We had tickets to the Miller Light Party Deck. It was a deck behind the southern goal. It has some GREAT seats and great views of the goal area. We went with John and Linda and froze our butts off. It was about 50 degrees with a nice stiff 30 mph wind and rain. Thankfully the deck was covered and we only got the rain being blown on us. We have decided that going to more Fire games is definitely the way to go. I also think that we have found a Chicago team that can win games! (A small feat considering the Sox, the Cubs, the Bears and the Bulls all seem to be failing miserably lately. The Hawks have been winning for the most part, but are always forgotten about.) Anyway, here are a few pictures from the game to demonstrate our seats and the game in general.
Kick off. Fire is in white and Dynamo is in Orange.
It was nice to see the pros couldn't form a wall 10' feet back and had to be moved by the ref, much like the 10 year olds. :)
This is where we stood, they thankfully lowered the net once the game started.
The Dynamo keeper. He did this a lot since the ball was blown to our end of the field regularly. It was a long game for this keeper and he wasn't happy having his goal so close to the enemy party deck.
Kick off. Fire is in white and Dynamo is in Orange.
Clinic
Well this past week was a busy one. I finished up my presentations and quizzes so all I have left are my finals. After that I will have a Masters of Chemistry. I'm still looking for a job so if you know of anyone who needs a Master level chemist please let me know!
The past several months we have done some volunteering at the church helping make quilts for "the Clinic." This clinic is exactly what it sounds like -- a free clinic for under served people in the area. Our age group also took over the clothing closet that was a part of the clinic. We've been sorting clothes for a few weeks and Friday night we set them all up. It was quite impressive the amount of clothes that people donated. I went early on Friday and then Chris came and helped after he got off of work. Overall it has been an interesting couple of months getting to serve with people our age and getting to know them more while we serve. Here are a couple of pictures of the clothes at the clinic:
This is Chris trying to figure out if we could throw the shirt away or not. Our general rule was that if it was too holey/stained/abused/etc that we could simply dispose of the garment. I walked over to Chris to see what he and the guys around him were discussing and it was whether or not to throw the shirt out. The entire collar is yellowed from sweat so we decided that none of the guys would wear it and that we didn't need it in our piles of clothes. Notice you can sort of see the piles of clothes on the tables at Chris's back. Some of the tables were so piled with clothes it was difficult to see someone standing behind the table.
More clothes sorting and stacking. Notice the boxes on the right hand side of the picture -- about 4 o'clock in the afternoon this family came in and said, "I've got 25 boxes of Large, X-Large, and XX-Large polos that someone donated, where do I need to put them." We had several stacks like this shown, but it was amazing that so much stuff was donated for the cause!
The past several months we have done some volunteering at the church helping make quilts for "the Clinic." This clinic is exactly what it sounds like -- a free clinic for under served people in the area. Our age group also took over the clothing closet that was a part of the clinic. We've been sorting clothes for a few weeks and Friday night we set them all up. It was quite impressive the amount of clothes that people donated. I went early on Friday and then Chris came and helped after he got off of work. Overall it has been an interesting couple of months getting to serve with people our age and getting to know them more while we serve. Here are a couple of pictures of the clothes at the clinic:
Sunday, April 18, 2010
1 week of biking down
Well, we made it most of the week riding our bikes to the train station. This means a bit earlier get out the door time for us, but overall it is a lot of fun. Come Friday though when it rained we decided that we could just drive in for the day. It is funny because each week gets a little easier. Hopefully this week won't be so windy and we'll have less of that to deal with.
Today was quite nice. It was in the upper 50s and sunny so it felt quite warm. It was however quite windy and therefore a bit cool. I went to softball practice and got to get out in it for a while. It looks like the weather forecast for the week is quite similar, so we'll get to ride our bikes all week. Hopefully the rain and our allergies won't get us down and exhaust us so much that we have no energy come the end of the week.
Next weekend is a big weekend at the church. We are going to help set-up for a clinic they hold each year. It is a free clinic for underserved people. Our age group has taken over the clothing area, so it has been interesting. We sorted clothes last week and will help put everything out and ready on Friday night so that Saturday it will be good to be sorted through by all sorts of people. It has been interesting sorting clothes with everyone and getting to know them a bit better.
This past week I also went to see my GI doc. She basically doesn't know what to do with me and is helping me find a GI doc closer to Naperville so that I can start going there instead of having to do everything through UIC since I'll be graduating soon. An interesting thing that happened though -- I was joking (but not entirely) with her that if I found a job in the downtown Chicago area that sticking with her as a doctor would be good, so if she knew anyone that needed a Masters level chemist to let me know. Apparently her husband works for Abbott (a HUGE chemical company) and is looking for people. We'll hope and pray that something comes through. That would be a temporary position first, but Abbott likes to hire from within so getting my foot in the door is a good thing and a step in the right direction. It would also mean kind of a long commute for me so we'd be looking at buying another car. Anyway, it was an interesting doc's visit. She said I looked like I was having lots of histamine problems. Go figure! Both the allergist and she joked this week that I could basically take as many antihistamines a day that I wanted to, but not to take more than 240 mg of sudafed. We'll see. It would be nice to breathe, so we'll see how much I take.
Anyway, I need to get to bed so I hope that everyone continues to enjoy spring and remember that pollen is a plants way of reproducing and it is really really important, so don't curse it out too much.
Today was quite nice. It was in the upper 50s and sunny so it felt quite warm. It was however quite windy and therefore a bit cool. I went to softball practice and got to get out in it for a while. It looks like the weather forecast for the week is quite similar, so we'll get to ride our bikes all week. Hopefully the rain and our allergies won't get us down and exhaust us so much that we have no energy come the end of the week.
Next weekend is a big weekend at the church. We are going to help set-up for a clinic they hold each year. It is a free clinic for underserved people. Our age group has taken over the clothing area, so it has been interesting. We sorted clothes last week and will help put everything out and ready on Friday night so that Saturday it will be good to be sorted through by all sorts of people. It has been interesting sorting clothes with everyone and getting to know them a bit better.
This past week I also went to see my GI doc. She basically doesn't know what to do with me and is helping me find a GI doc closer to Naperville so that I can start going there instead of having to do everything through UIC since I'll be graduating soon. An interesting thing that happened though -- I was joking (but not entirely) with her that if I found a job in the downtown Chicago area that sticking with her as a doctor would be good, so if she knew anyone that needed a Masters level chemist to let me know. Apparently her husband works for Abbott (a HUGE chemical company) and is looking for people. We'll hope and pray that something comes through. That would be a temporary position first, but Abbott likes to hire from within so getting my foot in the door is a good thing and a step in the right direction. It would also mean kind of a long commute for me so we'd be looking at buying another car. Anyway, it was an interesting doc's visit. She said I looked like I was having lots of histamine problems. Go figure! Both the allergist and she joked this week that I could basically take as many antihistamines a day that I wanted to, but not to take more than 240 mg of sudafed. We'll see. It would be nice to breathe, so we'll see how much I take.
Anyway, I need to get to bed so I hope that everyone continues to enjoy spring and remember that pollen is a plants way of reproducing and it is really really important, so don't curse it out too much.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Spring has Sprung
Well, we've both been hit by allergies this past week. Waking up stuffy and unable to breathe isn't fun, but that means things are green and colorful around here. I like seeing all the pretty colors, especially the new green color that a lot of trees are currently wearing.
This week it will be warm enough for us to ride bikes to the train. :) This gives us quite a bit of freedom in terms of getting to and from the trains, as well as saves us money from not having to park the car at the train station.
Speaking of bikes, I've decided to do a triathalon. I've found another lady my age who wants to do a tri, and so we're training together. We rode bikes yesterday -- we went about 15 miles, were gone for just over an hour, and had several forms of resistance training we dealt with. We were riding in 30+ mph wind on a sandy surface, sound like fun anyone? It was quite funny though because when she showed up to load up the bikes Chris suddenly had errands to run.
Lately Chris has been working on a lot of computers. He is trying to build himself a new one as his current one is working on giving up this life. The computer people at UIC apparently decided to not install fans or vents on computers they bought for the Chem department, so Chris has had fun experimenting with getting those working again. We're just trying to figure out what kind of person would think a computer without a cooling system at all would be a good idea. We don't really try and figure it out too much though because the answer could scare us.
Besides for that not much has happened this week. I took a biochemistry test and it went well. I'm pretty sure I did above average, so I should be set for the class. If I did well enough then I could theoretically not take the final, so we'll see. I've got presentations coming up in my biotech class as well. It should be interesting. I'm not super worried about it though. I'm more excited because this means that I will be DONE!! Come a month from now I will be Master Carolyn, with a M.S. in Chemistry. That means I'm still looking for a job, so we'll hope and pray that something breaks soon. I keep applying places, but with no call backs or anything. I'll put out more applications and resumes this week though and we'll see what happens. Something has to give soon. Its just another life lesson to see exactly how God is going to provide. Not sure how that's going to happen, but know it will.
This week the allergy shots didn't react as badly as last week. They itched like several mosquito bites, but that was it really. There was a little swelling, but that's definitely better than the huge welts I got the first week. The immunologist says that I've got a sensitive immune system that doesn't like to be messed with. I'm glad it too him so much schooling to figure that out -- I want to get paid for that kind of assessment, but not sure I want to do the M.D.
Anyway, I'm off to a week of bike riding in the new life that is everywhere. Hope you are enjoying spring as well where ever you are.
This week it will be warm enough for us to ride bikes to the train. :) This gives us quite a bit of freedom in terms of getting to and from the trains, as well as saves us money from not having to park the car at the train station.
Speaking of bikes, I've decided to do a triathalon. I've found another lady my age who wants to do a tri, and so we're training together. We rode bikes yesterday -- we went about 15 miles, were gone for just over an hour, and had several forms of resistance training we dealt with. We were riding in 30+ mph wind on a sandy surface, sound like fun anyone? It was quite funny though because when she showed up to load up the bikes Chris suddenly had errands to run.
Lately Chris has been working on a lot of computers. He is trying to build himself a new one as his current one is working on giving up this life. The computer people at UIC apparently decided to not install fans or vents on computers they bought for the Chem department, so Chris has had fun experimenting with getting those working again. We're just trying to figure out what kind of person would think a computer without a cooling system at all would be a good idea. We don't really try and figure it out too much though because the answer could scare us.
Besides for that not much has happened this week. I took a biochemistry test and it went well. I'm pretty sure I did above average, so I should be set for the class. If I did well enough then I could theoretically not take the final, so we'll see. I've got presentations coming up in my biotech class as well. It should be interesting. I'm not super worried about it though. I'm more excited because this means that I will be DONE!! Come a month from now I will be Master Carolyn, with a M.S. in Chemistry. That means I'm still looking for a job, so we'll hope and pray that something breaks soon. I keep applying places, but with no call backs or anything. I'll put out more applications and resumes this week though and we'll see what happens. Something has to give soon. Its just another life lesson to see exactly how God is going to provide. Not sure how that's going to happen, but know it will.
This week the allergy shots didn't react as badly as last week. They itched like several mosquito bites, but that was it really. There was a little swelling, but that's definitely better than the huge welts I got the first week. The immunologist says that I've got a sensitive immune system that doesn't like to be messed with. I'm glad it too him so much schooling to figure that out -- I want to get paid for that kind of assessment, but not sure I want to do the M.D.
Anyway, I'm off to a week of bike riding in the new life that is everywhere. Hope you are enjoying spring as well where ever you are.
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