My neighbors are assholes.
26 February 2011
Passive-Aggressive Maps
My upstairs neighbors helpfully left me a map of where I should park my car when it snows, or when it isn't snowy. They also printed a huge sign that said "DO NOT BLOCK DOOR" (My car was not, in fact, blocking the door), put it in a sheet protector, and taped it to the door. Then tried to pass it all off on the landlord (it wasn't-among other things, the landlord knows that there are supposed to be six parking spaces, not five).
My neighbors are assholes.
My neighbors are assholes.
15 February 2011
Birthday Weekend
I turned the big 2-8 on sunday, and had a wonderful weekend celebrating the oncoming rush of middle age. I usually do pretty low-key birthdays, and expected it to be more low-key than usual as I am in a new city and can count the number of people I know on two hands. But it was lovely, My lab surprised me on friday with ice cream cake at lab meeting, and some of us went out after work. On Sunday, I went to see The King's Speech and to dinner with a few people, and talked on the phone until I was hoarse.
In the meantime, I filled the weekend with the things I like to do-cooking, of course, reading, and curling up with the simple cat and the helper cat for some quality time
When I cook, I like trying things I've never done before, so this week I tackled two: ricotta cheese and croissants. The cheese was very simple, and way better than store bought. I used it to make lasagna for dinner:
Croissants were harder and very time consuming, but not as bad as I expected them to be. They turned out great, delicious and buttery. And now I have 6 regular croissants and 15 pains au chocolate (pains aux chocolate? I don't remember french grammar) wrapped in foil in the freezer to be toasted on those mornings when I need a treat just for getting out of bed! Happy birthday to me indeed
In the meantime, I filled the weekend with the things I like to do-cooking, of course, reading, and curling up with the simple cat and the helper cat for some quality time
When I cook, I like trying things I've never done before, so this week I tackled two: ricotta cheese and croissants. The cheese was very simple, and way better than store bought. I used it to make lasagna for dinner:
Croissants were harder and very time consuming, but not as bad as I expected them to be. They turned out great, delicious and buttery. And now I have 6 regular croissants and 15 pains au chocolate (pains aux chocolate? I don't remember french grammar) wrapped in foil in the freezer to be toasted on those mornings when I need a treat just for getting out of bed! Happy birthday to me indeed
02 February 2011
100 books in 2011
As a goal for 2011, I want to read 100 books. This should not be very hard for me, as I read pretty fast. So to make it more of a challenge I am not counting books I have read before (unless they are for PSBC, as we read deeply and in depth) or books written for teenagers.
My progress so far, with my notes:
1. The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova.
2.Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood. This one is so, so, so good. The Sequel/companion to Oryx and Crake, which I read in December. Margaret Atwood is maybe my favorite author.
3. Faithful Place, Tana French. Sort of sequel to The Likeness and In The Woods, which were beautifully written but bleak as hell. This one is cheerier (although still dark) and a better story, with the same lovely words.
4. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read them, Elif Batuman. Funny! Not sure how enjoyable it would be to someone who doesn't read russian books, but I loved it.
5. Purgatorio, Dante Alighieri. I read half of this in december, but it was hard so it counts.
6. The Scarpetta Factor, Patricia Cornwell.
7. Bite Me, Christopher Moore. Also very funny.
8. Devil in the White CityEric Larson.
My progress so far, with my notes:
1. The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova.
2.Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood. This one is so, so, so good. The Sequel/companion to Oryx and Crake, which I read in December. Margaret Atwood is maybe my favorite author.
3. Faithful Place, Tana French. Sort of sequel to The Likeness and In The Woods, which were beautifully written but bleak as hell. This one is cheerier (although still dark) and a better story, with the same lovely words.
4. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read them, Elif Batuman. Funny! Not sure how enjoyable it would be to someone who doesn't read russian books, but I loved it.
5. Purgatorio, Dante Alighieri. I read half of this in december, but it was hard so it counts.
6. The Scarpetta Factor, Patricia Cornwell.
7. Bite Me, Christopher Moore. Also very funny.
8. Devil in the White CityEric Larson.
28 January 2011
Haiku
My sister and I email (almost) every day. Needless to say, with both of us in big-girl* jobs, they can get a little repetitive. Today we described our days in haiku.
E's day:
Heart Ninth Ward Awards
I have a sinus headache
Macaroni and Cheese
Mine (I did two!):
Woke up late today
Pandora thinks that I love
the crap band coldplay
It is not snowing!
one cara cara orange
was my meager lunch
*postdoc counts as a big girl job, right?
E's day:
Heart Ninth Ward Awards
I have a sinus headache
Macaroni and Cheese
Mine (I did two!):
Woke up late today
Pandora thinks that I love
the crap band coldplay
It is not snowing!
one cara cara orange
was my meager lunch
*postdoc counts as a big girl job, right?
17 January 2011
Things I cooked this weekend
1. Bess Feigenbaum's Cabbage Soup
There's always something about cooked cabbage that I don't quite like-I don't know what it is, it isn't the taste or texture. Anyways, I decided to give this soup a shot and found it pretty good! very filling and rich, despite having no meat or even broth in it. Just a lot of tomatoes and cabbage. I simplified a little by cutting the carrots and onion super tiny in the food processor before I started and using crushed rather than whole tomatoes so I could skip the immersion blender step. I added some chopped dill at the end, and topped it off with creme fraiche. It's deliciously unique tasting, and while there is still that weird cabbagey-ness, it was diminished enough that I had some leftovers for lunch today and froze rest instead of immediately removing all traces of the dish from the house like I did last time I cooked cabbage.
2. Cardamom-Oatmeal pancakes, adapted from here
While they look beautiful in the NYT pictures, and sound simple enough in the recipe, these were a pain in the ass to make. I think the recipe made seven or so pancakes, and I had two that turned out well. Those two were delicious, but the other five were soggy on the inside and burnt on the outside and just gross.
3. Pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and pecans, for my lab. I told them offhand that I baked when I was stressed out, and they have since been threatening to ruin my experiments or sabotage my rig to build stress and induce baking. This will hopefully ward off such talk for a while.
4. Tagine-style Chickpea and fruit stew with cilantro-mint couscous.
My own cobbled together recipe-another vegetarian dish, warm and spicy and filling. Good for cold winter nights!
There's always something about cooked cabbage that I don't quite like-I don't know what it is, it isn't the taste or texture. Anyways, I decided to give this soup a shot and found it pretty good! very filling and rich, despite having no meat or even broth in it. Just a lot of tomatoes and cabbage. I simplified a little by cutting the carrots and onion super tiny in the food processor before I started and using crushed rather than whole tomatoes so I could skip the immersion blender step. I added some chopped dill at the end, and topped it off with creme fraiche. It's deliciously unique tasting, and while there is still that weird cabbagey-ness, it was diminished enough that I had some leftovers for lunch today and froze rest instead of immediately removing all traces of the dish from the house like I did last time I cooked cabbage.
2. Cardamom-Oatmeal pancakes, adapted from here
While they look beautiful in the NYT pictures, and sound simple enough in the recipe, these were a pain in the ass to make. I think the recipe made seven or so pancakes, and I had two that turned out well. Those two were delicious, but the other five were soggy on the inside and burnt on the outside and just gross.
3. Pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and pecans, for my lab. I told them offhand that I baked when I was stressed out, and they have since been threatening to ruin my experiments or sabotage my rig to build stress and induce baking. This will hopefully ward off such talk for a while.
4. Tagine-style Chickpea and fruit stew with cilantro-mint couscous.
My own cobbled together recipe-another vegetarian dish, warm and spicy and filling. Good for cold winter nights!
12 January 2011
10 January 2011
New Apartment
Life here is good but busy! I started work a week ago, and am loving the new job so far. It is very, very different than my old job, in good ways. My scientific adventures have been thus far limited to safety training, observing the rest of the lab at their set-ups, wandering through the Ivy League's University of Phoenix Online-level bureaucracy, installing stuff and cleaning up my rig and finding creative ways to break electrodes before they make it into my slices. Better luck tomorrow?
So even though I put these on a facebook a while ago, I realized I hadn't posted any pictures here of my new apartment. Which is silly because I LOVE my apartment, even though large parts of it are unfurnished and will continue to be that way for the next few months.
My Bedroom: identical to all of my previous bedrooms. Little but cozy! I love it.
The Office: The last room with unpacked boxes. Wah.
The third bedroom will be a guest room,someday. Currently, it is the cats' room.
Living Room, complete with sunny bay windows! Eventually, I will replace the pile of boxes with a TV, restain the tv stand and endtable, move the ugly chair into the office, paint the walls and buy curtains and real furniture. For now, I spend most of my free time curled up here with a book
Books: arranged by color. naturally. The dning room will also be painted and curtained, and the dining room table (not visible, currently covered in junk) will be refinished or painted.
The kitchen has kindof a stupid layout, with a big empty kitchen proper with a stove, fridge, and rolling dishwasher, and then a little pantry with cabinets and counters and a sink. It's not super efficient but that said I love having all the space and more than 18 square inches of counters. I'll probably get a little island for the kitchen which will give me a place to chop and prep things closer to the stove.
Last by not least, my balcony, currently snow covered...one more thing that makes me look forward to spring.
So even though I put these on a facebook a while ago, I realized I hadn't posted any pictures here of my new apartment. Which is silly because I LOVE my apartment, even though large parts of it are unfurnished and will continue to be that way for the next few months.
My Bedroom: identical to all of my previous bedrooms. Little but cozy! I love it.
The Office: The last room with unpacked boxes. Wah.
The third bedroom will be a guest room,someday. Currently, it is the cats' room.
Living Room, complete with sunny bay windows! Eventually, I will replace the pile of boxes with a TV, restain the tv stand and endtable, move the ugly chair into the office, paint the walls and buy curtains and real furniture. For now, I spend most of my free time curled up here with a book
Books: arranged by color. naturally. The dning room will also be painted and curtained, and the dining room table (not visible, currently covered in junk) will be refinished or painted.
The kitchen has kindof a stupid layout, with a big empty kitchen proper with a stove, fridge, and rolling dishwasher, and then a little pantry with cabinets and counters and a sink. It's not super efficient but that said I love having all the space and more than 18 square inches of counters. I'll probably get a little island for the kitchen which will give me a place to chop and prep things closer to the stove.
Last by not least, my balcony, currently snow covered...one more thing that makes me look forward to spring.
03 January 2011
In Which the P.Sister Book Club compares Ke$ha to Dante
The PSBC is about 1/3 of the way through our Devil and God reading list. We've gotten derailed several times-dissertations, moving, trips to france (Guess which one wasn't me!). But we're back on track and currently reading Dante's Purgatorio. Today's discussion:
Elizabeth: so
am I just not reading closely enough to notice the torture
Elizabeth: or is it just literally like,
you have to climb to redeem yourself.
me: well
to continue your thought
I think it is a sort of metaphysical mind over matter
in that
once you know you are saved and headed towards god
the pain and suffering don't really matter
me: sort of like how an addict will walk through fire for a hit of coke
Elizabeth: I suppose you're right.
Elizabeth: Jesus is your drug?
me: your love is my drug
is a song
about god
Elizabeth: Ke$ha is a prophet
I always said.
me: Ke$ha is the dante of our time
Elizabeth: so
am I just not reading closely enough to notice the torture
Elizabeth: or is it just literally like,
you have to climb to redeem yourself.
me: well
to continue your thought
I think it is a sort of metaphysical mind over matter
in that
once you know you are saved and headed towards god
the pain and suffering don't really matter
me: sort of like how an addict will walk through fire for a hit of coke
Elizabeth: I suppose you're right.
Elizabeth: Jesus is your drug?
me: your love is my drug
is a song
about god
Elizabeth: Ke$ha is a prophet
I always said.
me: Ke$ha is the dante of our time
panda cow!
From my mom comes this: A cow with panda markings! Side note: Mad props to the Washington Post for clarifying that the cow was not, in fact, part panda
My favorite animal mixed with the animal I most feared as a little girl! So many mixed feelings!
My favorite animal mixed with the animal I most feared as a little girl! So many mixed feelings!
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