Some holiday stuff

My penguin socks kept me warm while I was up in Vermont.
My Dad chose lobster for his birthday dinner (Dec 24th). Those who didn't want shellfish got bacon-wrapped filet mignon. I was not actually told I had a choice beforehand, but had I been asked, I would have had a hard time deciding.
My nephew and Dad made sure to put a chimney-cleaning thing in the wood stove on the 24th, and it worked! Santa fit down the chimney and out the wood stove to bring gifts. Amazing.Not only did Santa fill all the stockings, but he also remembered to put some presents under the tree with all the family gifts.
Now that I've unpacked, done laundry, watched the Patriots game (YAY!), stopped by lab, reviewed proofs of my first paper to be published, and checked on the lab animals, I need to post this, and go pack for New Year's. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!

[I think this is my 100th post too! Stay tuned for #101 in the new year.]

I'm outta here.

Off to VT where my parents have dial-up and you're lucky if your cell phone gets reception.

I hope everyone had a great Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, and Eid-ul-Adha. Happy remaining holidays - Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Boxing Day, Happy New Year!

(Did I miss any or get any wrong????)

A capella

This is an a capella group doing a cute 12 Days of Christmas...One guy breaks out in to the Dreidel song; they all break out in Toto's Africa. Good stuff.

Christmas socks

Random thoughts on dating

One of my friends in grad school is several years younger than me and has vacillated between wanting to date and not wanting to date. She came back from a visit with an old friend all pumped up to date again, responded to a personal ad, did not get a response, and has forsaken dating again. A little while before my brother broke up with his girlfriend, he made the comment that he "just doesn't want to have to date." I totally understand where they are both coming from. It's tiring. You just want to hang out with friends, but you feel there could be more in your life and you go out to look a little for it. It gets old.

An online dating service I am not currently paying lets you see a page of pictures to entice you to pay them. One of the pictures that came up was Mr. Chef (first known as Guy #4, then as closed match #301), who has been active in the past 24 hours. (I would put a link to the old story, but only get an archive web address...Oh, well.) You wouldn't make up your dad being in the hospital just to not see someone again, right? I don't know what to say except, huh.

It makes me think of another guy with whom I kept trying to make plans, but he met someone and did not feel right about trying to get to know two people at once. That is perfectly understandable and I appreciate his morals shining through in all that. But at the end of them email, he added that he still had my number and email if his situation changed. Not to sound egotistical, but I do not want to be a second-choice...at least do not tell me that is what I am.

I am tempted to let my "membership", if you will, auto-renew because there is one person with whom I am communicating who I would like to meet. I could just message him my number, but I am sick and my voice has been relatively absent for almost a week. I don't want him to think I always sound like this.

My roommate has headed home already. It is kind of nice to have the apartment to myself for the week (no offense, SK), but it would also be nice not to be alone alone in the apartment. At the same time, I do rather enjoy sleeping smack dab in the middle of my bed with my amazingly warm feather comforter.

What does "smack dab" really mean?

100 things: 31-40, Holidays

A couple of blogs I have frequented in the past few days (such as here and here, thanks to here, in case you need some reading) have an 8 Random Things meme. I was inspired to do the next set of 100 things, and it is the holiday season. The 'we' refers to various combinations of family members.

31. The Christmas CD I have listened to over and over and over again this year is Sarah McLaughlin's Wintersong. It has a lot of classics, a few new songs, and I like her voice.

32. When we moved to VT, the house's previous owners had planted about 20 Christmas trees in the backyard. After a couple of years, they were big enough that we would walk out in the backyard, pick one out, cut it down, and have it in water within 30 minutes. Talk about a fresh Christmas tree!

33. Growing up, my Mom always made homemade pizza the day we decorated the tree. The crust would rise while we decorated, all the toppings would be laid out, we'd top the pizzas, then we would get to eat in the living room and look at the tree.

34. For many years we had a routine during this holiday season. Thanksgiving was at our house and my Mom's parents (and grandmother for a long time) came. Christmas Eve my Dad's mom and her sister would come up, Christmas morning was quiet, and then the onslaught of relatives started around noon (in a good way). New Year's Eve, my parents would take us out to a nice dinner.

35. My sister and I got a new music box every year. It is the only present I remember being from my parents, and not Santa. When we turned 18, we got the last one and it was a Father Christmas.

36. My parents had their first date, dance, and kiss on New Year's Eve. They always got a little sappy and we pretended to be disgusted.

37. The first year my parents told us we could stay up until Midnight on New Year's, I totally fell asleep in a chair and they had to wake me up for the apple to drop.

38. On New Year's Eve, my family always played the new games we got at Christmas.

39. Even though my sister has been married for nearly 10 years, I was the first child in my family to miss a Christmas when I lived in China. Luckily, I got to spend it with two college friends (KHC & Molly).

40. In high school, I played in the bell choir and recorder ensemble at my church. The recorder ensemble had soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorders and played at a tree farm before Christmas. If the only recorder experience you have is from elementary school, you are really missing out. The sound of all those recorders was amazing (if I do say so myself).

Christmas Spirit

I saw this at Danielle's and can not resist an online quiz. :)

Your Christmas Spirit Level: 65%

You have a lot of Christmas spirit, and it's evident to most people who know you. You love most things Christmas, and you do your best to make sure everyone has a great holiday. While you like the more commercial aspects of Christmas, you truly know what the spirit of Christmas is about. You're all about giving, being kind, and sharing the spirit of Christmas with everyone you know.

Do You Have the Christmas Spirit?

I never said...

...I liked shoveling in the freezing rain. My roommate and spent at least an hour completely clearing our driveway (which is about 2 cars wide and 4 cars deep and had 3 cars in it). This is my car before we started. It was windy too. The front of my car was nearly clear, the back had many, many inches of wet heavy snow.
This is the Mound O' Snow from the bottom half of the driveway that I was doing. The fence is under it. My roommate did the front part of the driveway and the sidewalk in front of our house.Guess what the plows have already done?
That's right, plowed in our driveway.
And why do people think they have places to go when the roads are one car wide and still snow-covered?

Size doesn't matter

My parents paid for 13 feet of Christmas tree this year, and my mother is convinced it is much taller than that. Here is my brother-in-law, standing on an 8 foot ladder, putting lights on:
Here is the final product. If you look at the bottom of the tree, there are a few more ornaments than on the rest of the tree. That is where my niece and nephew picked an ornament out of the box, turned right around, and put it directly on the tree. I am sure my parents have spread them out a little by now.

Lyrics #12

I am not sure this is exactly a holiday song, but I have been listening to holiday music and this was on a mix my sister made for me:

If you were flame
I'd allow myself to be consumed completely
Were you wind I'd wish you to pass through me
But now I know that the skin just veils the soul

Uh-oh

I think there is something drastically wrong with me.

I like walking home from campus at 9:00 at night, down the middle of the street, while (most) people are out shoveling their sidewalks.

I like shoveling.

I don't even mind driving in the snow, as long as there are not a bunch of people who do not know how to drive slow in the snow also on the roads. *

The quiet, white, snow-covered everything makes me happy.

I did not listen to music when I walked to campus this morning so that I could listen to winter.

*This also has to do with the fact that I am not a driving commuter. One woman in our department spent seven hours getting home, rather than the usual 45 minutes. I did spend 5 hours on a 3 hour drive at night in the snow once, with no one else on the road. That was fine - I could take my time and sing in the car!

Orange-pumpkin roulade

I have never made one of those rolled-up cakey things with the filling, which is apparently called a roulade if you go by the name of this recipe. I always figured it was too hard to roll it all up without the cake part tearing. It actually is not too difficult if you follow the recipe! I got this from Self and apparently has a lot of vitamin A making it healthy. It tasted too yummy to be healthy though.

I am an Uber Cool Light-Weight Nerd

After looking up why cereal is referred to as breakfast cereal (Danielle asked!), and seeing a Nerdy quiz here, I had to know...



THEN, I went and took the new version of the quiz. :)

Holiday food

I saw this at Squirl's and Danielle's.

You Are a Gingerbread House

A little spicy and a little sweet, anyone would like to be lost in the woods with you.

What Holiday Food Are You?

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah everyone!

Today my advisor was going through the list of menorahs that she and her wife have had in recent years. Each one has come to a dangerous end. I do not know why they thought that a styrofoam menorah would be a good idea. She likes to burn beeswax candles, which are apparently hot burners, so glass menorahs have shattered. There was a metal one that tipped over. Luckily, they have been smart and are around when this happens and keep the candles away from their Christmas tree.

Most years, my sister, brother, or I have a Jewish friend spend Christmas with our family. The past couple of years, Hanukkah has been right around Christmas. This has been a wonderful opportunity for my nephew and niece to be a part of other religious traditions. After Christmas last year, my sister went to pick my nephew up at school and the teacher asked if she could ask an awkward questions - did my sister and her family celebrate Hanukkah? See, the teacher thought she knew who in the classroom celebrated what holidays, and then my nephew went on and on and on about lighting candles and singing prayers. He apparently still talks about Hanukkah, I am sure letting everyone know that he celebrates it at Christmastime.

The Christmas Tree Saga

I pulled in to the driveway yesterday, and my roommate ("R", for roommate, from now on) was still at work. I wanted to run some errands, but I had a tree sticking out of my trunk. Being the stubborn/determined person I am, I decided I would get the tree in to the apartment, in water, run my errands, and my roommate and I could fix the tree when we were both home. As you can see, it was not very straight when I left for errands,. After wiggling it in the stand, I decided it would not tip over while I was gone.

R and I straightened the tree out as much as we could in the cheap-a** stand I got at the grocery store, bent that very top point over to stick the angel on, and put the lights on.

We even got most of the ornaments on the tree by the time R's boyfriend came over. We had accepted that the tree was a little crooked. We had even used some cardboard to help give one bottom branch more support to hold the tree a little straighter. Well, R's boyfriend is a boy, and so by default, can not let a tree be crooked. He used some wood to try to hold the tree straight, but it was no better, and maybe even worse than R and I had been able to do. Apparently the plastic of the stand was actually bending even though the tree was well within the specs of the stand.

R reminded me that I had a metal tree stand in the basement. I had totally forgotten that I had this stand. We all came to the conclusion that it would be worth it to try to switch stands. It certainly could not be any more crooked! Off came the angel and the most breakable and heavy ornaments. R and I loosened all the screws, R's boyfriend lifted the tree out of the stand, and R and I set up the nice, sturdy, older, metal stand. You can see how the picture above has a green stand and this one has a red stand. Plus the tree looks a little straighter. :)

All of the ornaments and Victorian tinsel went back on. Now we have a nice, straight, decorated Christmas tree.

The lights are on a timer, and you can see our house when you turn on to the street. Every time I get home, I can see the lights in the window and it makes me smile.

I am totally returning the cheap-a** stand.

I thought I grew out of my awkward phase!

You Are Donner

The most loveable and sweet reindeer, you're also a total dork! Why You're Naughty: You keep (accidentally) tripping the other reindeer while flying. Why You're Nice: You're always smiling, even if you've fallen flat on your horns.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

My Turkey Weekend

I headed out to Oregon, with my parents, to see my brother for the weekend. It was the four of us in a cabin in the woods with lots of Thanksgiving food and Thanksgiving leftovers. I ate a LOT of turkey and stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes and squash and homemade rolls and then more of everything. Never mind the wine and beer the four of us managed to go through! We were at the cabin drinking, playing cribbage, and reading by the fire from Wednesday through Sunday and made it back in time to see the Patriots game at my brothers. Here is the view from the deck of the cabin:

Here are some mountain views during our brief outings (we had to get back to drink, read, and play cards!).






My brother and parents:

Good times with jenski's family - my dad got his second finger up just before I took the picture:

On the way back to my brothers, we took a different route and went by a bunch of waterfalls and stopped at the top of a hill overlooking the Columbia Gorge. The wind was so strong that my Mom was uncomfortable going down steps (her balance is not great to begin with) and I had to stop walking a couple of times and wait for the gusts to die down!

One of several waterfalls we stopped at on the drive:

I read one magazine and three books for fun. One is Intuition (Allegra Goodman) ,and is essentially about house easy it is to misrepresent scientific findings and how one post-doc tries to bring it to her labs attention. I forget who the other two were by. The other two were by Patricia Cornwell, whose books I had never read. They were all loaned from friends and it was nice to read some new stuff.

Since I have been back, I have done a lot of catching up with lab, student council, and general personal stuff like bills and figuring out what to get people for Christmas. I had visions of calling boys and going out, but have yet to pick up the phone. I am really bad at trying to date?!

I think that is all for now! I hope everyone got some downtime if you had a holiday weekend. I am off to my parents (probably for some drinking and cards again) to get a tree this weekend and help them decorate theirs.

One holiday down...

...a couple more to go.

I think I am still digesting Thanksgiving dinner five days later! Once I get caught up on work and email, I'll try to post some OR pictures (that's OR for Oregon). It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend with no travel mishaps!

In other news, in case I have not already shared my excitement with you, I got my first publication! This is a big deal because it is essentially the first chapter of my dissertation for my PhD. One publication down; one more to go (hopefully).

Happy Early Turkey Day!

Oh, yes. I fly tomorrow. My parents and I are going out to see my brother, and I will likely not have internet access for nearly a week. My parents rented a cabin with a hot tub near a mountain that just got 10 inches of snow. Snow, wine, a hot tub, games, books, and my parents and brother. It is going to be a wonderfully relaxing loooooong weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The 4-1-1

I have two guys on the drawing board.

I met Restaurant-owner guy. Appearance-wise, he kinda reminds me a little of my high school boyfriend. Kinda. He absolutely loves what he does, which is great. It leaves me feeling a little weary of how willing he is to have a life outside of his restaurants though. We will see. Definitely worth a second date. I am coming down with something and losing my voice, so I hope I did not seem boring.

I also met a friend of a friend over the weekend. (Are you reading, "of a friend"?) I drove to the party, and he asked for a ride back to his bike at the end of night. Who am I to say no? Of course, I totally did not get what was happening. We had a nice chat in the car. When we got to his bike(/scooter thing), he asked if I was going to watch the MLS finals. It finally dawned on me that he may have had ulterior motives for asking for a ride. Apparently, I am a little slow sometimes. Anyway after some awkward how-do-we-continue-this-conversation-pauses, I asked if he would like me to give him my phone number. We did not end up meeting up for the MLS game or that Pats game. We did talk though, and he is cute and seems like a nice guy. "Of a friend" confirmed he is a nice guy and said she was glad he and I got a chance to talk. He and I left it at catching up after the Thanksgiving weekend. He brews beer. A lot. Yum.

Closed matches: 411

[Or 412 if you count the fact that Restaurant-owner Guy just closed the match because we are communicating outside of the internet world now. I have only been home for an hour?!]

400

In 28 days, I have 100 new closed matches. I am up to 400 men that some online dating service thinks are great matches for me. In reality they were just not meant to be for a variety of reasons. I may have mentioned this before, but I get a little worried that I will see or meet men who are oddly familiar, and it will not be until much later that I place them as a match. 400 men is a lot of men!

The end of December will be the end of the 6 months I have paid for this service to find new people for me to meet. I do not plan to renew it. I will reflect more on the experience then, I am sure, but it has been worth it just to get back out there. At that point, I will stop looking, not expect to be swept off my feet anymore, and that is when it always happens. Right? :)

In the meantime, stay tuned for what it is like to date new people during the holiday season...

(Probably not much different than dating new people not during the holiday season.)

Closed matches: 400

A budding young photographer

Rather than work or go hiking with friends on Veteran's Day (observed), I got to (get paid to) spend it with my nephew, who is six. My sister had volunteered to go with my niece and stay at her sister-in-law's house while her sister-in-law had a scheduled c-section. She did not realize my nephew would not have school that day, so I came to the rescue (because my sister said he would pick me over any of the other options - how could I say no???).

We went to the aquarium. I am not sure which my nephew liked more, the aquarium or riding three different subway trains to get there. It was fun! I love giving him my camera for two particular reasons. He loves taking pictures, plus it often prevents a meltdown or a sibling fight. Here are some pictures he took at the aquarium. The Rockhopper Penguin is a little dark, but he had just dropped the camera so I am not sure it was working correctly.
The fur seal is 19-years old and an "elder animal" according to the staff. I hope I can just hop right up out of water like that when I am an elder animal.

Hmmmm...

I was going to title this post "Where to start?", but refrained...because of the "title" of the blog. Really, though, where to start?

I'm back in the online dating game. The current most promising prospect, for meeting in real life at least, owns some restaurants. We'll call him "Restaurant-owner guy". He only claims to be my height. Let's hope he is being truthful and is not actually two inches shorter than what he claims a la "Right-on guy". He seems pretty funny and laid back over the internet, and he has a nice smile and eyes. All good things.

The ex and I are talking again. I would ask not to be judgmental, but go right ahead. I had a bad week; I let part of my guard down; I now have to keep reiterating that we will not be getting back together. I brought this upon myself. He has lent me a new nano that he is borrowing from the marketing department of his company. It does not really have the music on it that I would want to listen to regularly and he will not take it back. Grrr...

Engagement is contagious in my department right now. One friend is a year ahead of me and got engaged last spring and just picked out her dress. Two more friends have gotten engaged recently. One is a year behind me in the PhD program, and his boyfriend gave him a watch when he proposed. My other friend came in to the program the same year as me and her fiance gave her a beautiful antique ring. I may start wearing my great-grandmother's diamond ring to fit in. It is really quite pretty. ;)

Relief?

I knew it would be awkward, but I just spent 42 minutes "breaking up with" the boy. It's done. He's a nice guy. I do not feel nearly as bad as I did when I knew I wanted to stop seeing him but had not told him. I am trying not to feel guilty after talking to him.

He has an excellent point in that the only way that a relationship will work is if you open yourself up to someone (duh), and I know I have a hard time doing that. Here is where I make excuses for myself though - I feel like when I meet the right guy I will not have a hard time opening up, as I have not always had a hard time doing that anyway. The ex never had that patience to wait the 10 minutes it takes for me to really start talking once I have started talking about something difficult. So I stopped trying. That is bad and and I need to avoid that repeating itself. This guy was just not the one with whom to do try and I think I knew that a long time ago and hoped for the best anyway. Lesson learned.

New glasses and hair!

Well, I cut my hair short last spring, but have done something different every time I go back. Short hair is fun that way! Here is the latest style (with all the mousse and hairspray washed out) and my new glasses (again).

Mmmm....meat

I was just going back to look at the various recipes I have lauded on my blog, because I could not remember posting one that had meat in it. Every once in a while someone will be surprised by my eating meat. I am not a vegetarian, but I do cook a bunch of different things and do not feel the need for meat a lot of the time. Plus good meat gets expensive, and I am a grad student after all.

Before I started graduate school I was working as a research technician. We fit in a bunch of long days the summer before I left to get as much data before someone new started who did not know the routine. A group of us were staying late one night to collect data and I was starving. I started talking about this amazing steak my father had grilled for me, along with some portobello mushrooms, that we had with a nice cold beer after moving he an my mom into a temporary living space. The scientist-in-charge (i.e. PI) was looking at me funny and said, "I thought you were a vegetarian. Apparently not."

Then there were two nice dinners out when I had meat wrapped in bacon - venison wrapped in bacon and pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon. I find the latter particularly interesting - why not wrap pig in pig an eat it? Everything is better with bacon too. Or chocolate. Never combined, though.

The short version of this [Jen story*] is that I am in no way vegetarian, but I do eat lots of vegetarian stuff. And chocolate.

*See profile

Sporting my new glasses

I just picked up my new glasses. I am very excited, because it has been 5 or 6 years since I got new frames. I tried to pick out a pair I would want to wear, as it is really better for my eyes than wearing contacts 24 hours a day. What do you think?

Still undefeated!

Belichick tried not to smile until the snap.
The Pats won and now hold the only undefeated record in the NFL.
Brady and Vinatieri hugged.
In that order.

I can never get it to stick together!

I like making my own black bean burgers, but they never really stick together through the whole cooking process. I tried this recipe from Self magazine, but have had the same problem with other recipes. Maybe I do not let it cook long enough on both sides? Admittedly, I added some carrots when I chopped the mushrooms and used the equivalent amount of bread, rather than breadcrumbs, but still?

Although I am sure it is good, I also did not make the corn salsa the recipe suggested. I just ate it with cheese and a bun. :)

I also made peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and those stayed together just fine.

Rise and Shine!

This was the sun rise yesterday morning from my bedroom window. So far this morning is not nearly as colorful.

Lyrics #11b

More from Lyrics #11 because I love the song. :)

We don't want to be the ones, Who lie and cheat and slander
So we hold each other up to a higher standard
And I'll tell you what, I never tried to make it hard
'Cuz when you're hard, just to be hard
The only thing that's hard is you.

Trick or Treat?

My roommate and I are dog sitting while the dogs owners have a baby. I am more of a morning person, so I am fine with getting up early and taking the dog for a nice long walk. As I was falling asleep last night, I thought, "Maybe I'll do the 3-mile loop in reverse tomorrow morning." Thank goodness that is what I did and that I tend to be observant.

I found not ONE,

but TWO

ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS on the sidewalk. In my path.

They are so real with their watermarks and plastic strips and fancy ink. No one was around. It was not in front of a house. There was no wallet. They were a few feet apart. Is there a maximum amount of money that if you find over that, you have to report it? Someone mentioned there might be when I came in to work all excited this morning.

Happy Halloween!

Twice in a lifetime...so far

Last night was amazing.

I stayed up and awake for the whole game...and the Red Sox did great too.

Danielle is keeping me on the ball with the whole Red Sox thing! :) I went to a couple of the Pats celebratory parades when I was working in the city. Unfortunately, just like in 2004, I am supposed to be TAing tomorrow, so the timing of the Rolling Rally does not work out for me. Sad!

In 2004, I was home alone grading lab reports when they won (the ex said he did not 'feel like' coming over that night). This year I guilted my roommate in to staying up with me by telling her she could not go to bed halfway through the final game of the World Series. It is a good thing I was right or she would have killed me. I do not really know what to say. I love that my grandmother has now seen the Sox win two World Series in the past few years. I love that my parents brought us to games when we were little (and the tickets were still affordable), because I know that although I have not had to be as patient as my Gramma, I have still been a fan through the bad as well as the good. I love watching the bullpen drumming away during the games, the looks on the batters' faces when they realize their hit is over the fence, and seeing the team be so happy after their wins.

However, I do not respect their choice in beer for the celebrations. Bud light? Really? :)

Now for the off-season trading.

Enough with the sports posts

I mean, I am enjoying the fall sports season, but it is tiring. I usually multitask during Patriots games, because they tend to win and I can find plenty of things to do. The whole World Series thing has me exhausted. How 'bout a dating update instead?

There's not much to say, really.

I have quickly observed that the online service I use is more of a way for men to find women, and not necessarily the other way around. Any of the guys with whom I initiated contact, I have not ended up meeting for various reasons. All of the guys I have met initiated contact with me. What is the point of me paying for a chance for guys to send me messages? Along these lines, one guy and I were sending messages back and forth and at the end of the last one I gave him my phone number and said to feel free to call. No phone call yet. That was three weeks ago.

The only guy I am in touch with in person is Right-on guy. We've been seeing each other for maybe 4 weeks now. I really need to figure out what to say to him to not see him anymore. He is a nice guy and his cats love me, but I am a little bored and less than impressed with the number of times he uses not-nice language. Do not get me wrong, I swear. A lot if I am in a bad mood. I do not really know how to "break-up with" someone, even though I have always done the breaking up. I guess it is different if you are seeing each other but have not proclaimed yourselves boyfriend/girlfriend? Oiy.

There are three guys with whom I have exchanged communications - the guys who has not responded in three weeks, a guy who owns a couple of restaurants, and a guy whose grandfather was from Spain.

I went to a beer festival yesterday. That is the type of place where I am afraid I will see someone who looks familiar, not be able to place them, and then realize they were a match online. It did not happen yesterday, but it could have.

Closed matches: 370

Lyrics #11

I have my favorite people/bands that I listen to. This is a new song by one of them and I like it. :) It doesn't really resonate, per se, but I like the tune and the lyrics together.

I knew a guy
I thought he was my first love
But he had to decide
Between me and the one before
And she stacked it all up, like a house of cards
Said if he didn't come back, he'd find her flattened on the floor
And though I went and lived in my own hell,
Thought that I would die as well,
I let him go where he thought had to go.

And I never took heavy words for granted
And I never took an undeserved advantage
And I never took the easy way
So why don't you take it a little easy on me now

I am a lame fan.

Now that the Sox are up 13 to 1, I feel it is safe to go to bed even though there are still four full innings left. Is that wrong?

The life of a Boston sports fan in 2007

Not that I usually like to read sports stuff online, but I have my brother and my dad to send me things. :)

The Onion is hilarious in general. I should really start reading their sports section though. Check out these bits on the the Red Sox and Pats

This was in the Globe a few days ago. It's about a man who has been in a coma and wakes up from a 7-year coma and starts asking about sports. This is the advice the doctor ultimately gives the man after mentioning that Curt Schilling has a blog:

"Here's what you do next week. You go to the seventh game of the World Series at Fenway Park on Thursday, Nov. 1. On Friday, you go to the New Garden to see Garnett make his regular-season debut with the Celtics. The Red Sox Duck Boat parade should be Saturday afternoon, which will allow you to see second-ranked BC play host to Florida State later in the day.

"Then on Sunday, you fly to Indianapolis where the unbeaten Patriots will play the unbeaten Colts in a rematch of last year's AFC Championship game. That ought to just about get you caught up. Any questions?"

"Just one," said the patient.

"What's a blog?"

Wicked excited

Danielle asked in the previous post if I was excited about the Red Sox. Well, I am wicked excited. Yes, wicked. My parents were at the game last night?! My Dad reports that, "it was the single most intense event (sports and concerts) that I have ever been too and that includes some pretty interesting happenings in the 60’s." He is a true New England sports fan, sticking with the Sox and Pats through all those long hard years, so I am glad that they got to go to the game and that it turned out the way it did.

When I was watching the game Saturday night, we were talking about how much longer before Red Sox fans will let go of The Curse and general misfortune - I think it will take this year's World Series. :)

Smells

1. Why do my sweaters always smell like a perm when they come out of the washing machine?
I suppose it is because of chemicals used in dyes or processing of wool, but it still brings back memories of all those perms I had.

2. I am using one of those Thermacare stick-on heating pads for my shoulders for the first time. I keep smelling something oddly chemical and that is the only thing I can think of that is different from my usual shower/lotion/hair routine. It is totally worth it because my shoulders are much less tight than usual (after having it on for 6 hours).

The Investigator

I found this here. The only things that concern me are the things about being paranoid and being greedy...and some of the people who are Investigators. Oh, well. That's what I get for being a scientist I supposed.

You Are 5: The Investigator

You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker. You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does. Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations. You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it. At Your Best: You are sharp, inventive, and creative. You have the skills to lead the world. At Your Worst: You are reclusive, weird, and a bit paranoid. Your Fixation: Greed Your Primary Fear: Being useless or incompetent Your Primary Desire: Being competent and needed Other Number 5's: Bill Gates, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Bjork, and Stephen Hawking.

What Number Are You?

Like a Rockwell painting

I had a wonderful weekend seeing all my old neighbors from my childhood that was featured here. One of the sets of parents from the neighborhood was celebrating their 30th Anniversary and their kids pulled off a great surprise party. I went up early with my sister, her family and my parents and we visited some places I remember.

I cut off the sign at the start of the bridge so you could get a sense of how long it is. I think it is either the longest bridge in New England or New Hampshire.














This is the elementary school we went to...only the farthest roof to the right in the picture is an addition they added since we left. It was a great small school house. My sister's class only had 5 students in it. All the children would take turns ringing the bell (where the white circles are now) at the end of recess - one big kid and one little kid.




This is Long Pond - it was past peak foliage, but still beautiful.














Then the Brick Store. My parents used to bring us there after school performances where we could pick out penny candy. The used to sell Swedish Fish and Hot Balls by the piece. Now they will not let you reach in to the jars because they are antiques and they sell everything by weight.
One of our friends asked my sister if she missed the town and our friends. She put it perfectly when she said that she missed growing up in the perfect Norman Rockwell painting and is sad that it does not exist anywhere anymore. (The town we grew up in exists, but not the feeling of being in a painting and how perfect it all really was.)

A scientist in the kitchen

My roommate will laugh at me for posting the following story with this recipe, but here it goes.

Apparently someone my roommate knows was interviewing for a job in a laboratory. The interviewer (P.I.) asked if she liked to cook and how she cooked in the kitchen. Later, after the woman got the job and was working in the lab, the P.I. explained why he asked. He apparently finds that when scientists like to cook, and use a recipe but are not afraid to stray from it they tend to be better scientists. I guess it means you are likely to use a protocol but are not afraid of figuring out how to make it better. I made this zucchini-roni pizza tonight for company and it was good. The jar of roasted red peppers I had on hand was smaller than what the recipe called for, so I sauteed up some vidalia onion and blended them together. I also used the alternative smoked Gouda mentioned at the end of the recipe. The last few pieces of the pizza are in the back right corner of the table:
I also made a quiche with my own mix of recipes right next to the pizza at the back of the table. You can't go wrong with sharp cheddar, bacon, spinach, and onion. :)

Family reunion

My great-uncle used to have the entire family at his house for St. Patrick's Day because his house was on the parade route. When he passed away, my parents started an annual family reunion on Columbus Day weekend, the idea being if it was the same day every year, eventually the California cousins would make it out. The foliage was not quite at its peak this year. The first picture is a stop on the drive to my parents' house and the second picture is the road up to their house looking out my windshield, both pictures from last year's drive to the reunion.

It is always wonderful and exhausting to see my family. I really enjoy seeing my second cousins now that we are older, and the youngest generation grows every year - last year my cousins daughter was only 2 weeks old and she was walking around this year!

Aside from my grandmother, whose husband passed away 30 years ago, and my uncle, who is single for reasons influenced by his mental health, I was the only single one there. I loved seeing everyone but had to disappear a couple of times to regroup with myself. Away from the couples and families. People definitely wanted to know how dating is going and whether I have hit it off with someone yet. But I get tired. One of the reasons I like having my blog now is that I do not have to rehash all of the dating stories to all of my friends, only the ones who do not read my blog. :)

100 things: 21-30, Childhood memories

I just posted lyrics and the little background gave me inspiration for the next 10 things - things I remember from some of my growing up in a wonderful neighborhood in northern New Hampshire. This was really easy to write! I am going to one of the neighborhood parents 25th anniversary party next weekend and can not wait to see all the old friends.

21. I still remember my blowing my first bubble gum bubble - I was probably about 4 or 5 and I was outside near our garden during the summer. I do not remember who I was with, but one of the Dads was coming on his tractor and I ran to show him because I was that excited about my first bubble!

22. We had an amazing sliding hill behind our house and my parents (i.e. the Dads of the neighborhood) installed a flood light for night sliding. We used to have sliding parties and the Dads (of course) would pull us back up the hill in big sleds attached to snow mobiles.

23. I call "sledding", "sliding". I have no idea why.

24. In addition to sliding parties, our neighbor tapped trees and we would have sugar-on-snow parties. SO GOOD. When they built the sugar shack in the woods, the whole neighborhood would go down. Boiling tree sap down until the maple syrup is really thick, pouring it in little dollops on snow, eating it with a fork along with homemade pickles and donuts. How much more New England can you get?

25. We went back one winter to visit after moving. There was a sliding party and I broke my arm...because one of the dad/son pairs on a sled slid right on to my arm. Unfortunately, I did get a cast because it was right near my elbow and did not go all the way through the bone.

26. I was petrified of the woods around the edge of the bottom of the sliding hill. I thought there were bear and evil things. Talking to my sister now, I think our Mom must have said things to scare us so we would not go past the tree line. Clever.

27. I have plucked the little feathers off chickens when it was the time of year to slaughter the chickens. Did I mention we lived next door to a farm?

28. I also used to collect eggs in the hen house with one of the boys on the farm.

29. Said boy on the farm was older than me and was great with kids! He used to tell me which earwig bugs were "good" and which were "bad" and I would only stomp on the bad ones.

30. I used to collect polliwogs in the pond in the summer with the other kids. They were the black ones that you can not see through. We would bring them home and watch them grow legs or start to lose their tails. We did not know how to feed them, so we always returned them after a couple of days.

Lyrics #10

The songs that really stick with me that I love to listen to usually have some memory or person or experience connected to them. Below is the start of one of these songs. It reminds me of a random memory that requires a little background. My family moved right before third grade. It does not sound like a big deal, but I had a hard time fitting in at that age. My sister was starting middle school, where most of the kids did not know each other anyway; my brother was going in to first grade, and kids that age do not necessarily remember who was in kindergarten the year before.

I was not very athletic (to put it lightly), and my brother was in little league. I was in about sixth grade when, during one of his games, I went over to the pond near the field with two little brothers (5 or 6-ish) of one of my brother's teammates. They were looking at the frogs at the edge of the pond, so I started catching frogs for them to hold. For whatever reason, this memory really sticks with me. The little boys where really impressed that a girl would catch frogs,the parents were happy I was occupying the boys, and I felt like I fit in or was needed somehow. I missed the pond and frogs and tom-boy things I would do before we moved to this town, so I guess I was glad I got to share catching frogs with these little boys.

Anyway, the song is about being a tom-boy, basically.

I won't forget when Peter Pan came to my house, took my hand
I said I was a boy; I'm glad he didn't check.

Lyrics #9

This is one of my favorite songs:

I remember thinking
Sometimes we walk
Sometimes we run away
But I know
No matter how fast we are running
Somehow we keep
Somehow we keep up with each other

Phew!

I now know that "Right on" guy has a second bathroom that is the one he actually uses daily. I think maybe the other one is so dirty because he does not see it. Out of sight, out of mind. Not that I could ever forget that I have a second bathroom that needs to be cleaned occasionally. Plus, if you do not frequently use it, and you have cleaned it before, wouldn't it be cleaner? Not that I am being judgmental or anything. :)

I love New England sports. :)

Okay, I really just watch the Sox and Pats, but still. AND, I didn't just start watching them when they started winning either. I wish I could have been here last night.

Trying to remind myself of the not-so-good times

I am far enough removed from my last real relationship to think on the times I had with the ex fondly - the couple of business trips of his I went on; the weekend in Western Mass, so close to my parents but they didn't know I was there so it was like I was doing something wrong; high tea at the Four Seasons; baseball games; Sunday mornings making breakfast together and drinking coffee on the porch. I try to remind myself of the lack of communication and feeling like I was never heard or understood. The time when we were not technically together, but still talking and seeing each other, and I had surgery and he did not come see me for over a week.

I decided, with sort of permission from the roomy, to edit the ex's business school application essays. It is one of those rocks/hard places dilemmas because I knew I could help and not have to offer personal information, and I would feel guilty if I did not help. In the end I did it, but only that - no information about my life or how I am doing or how the PhD is going. All other emails from him I have not responded too.

He knows how to get me though. He actually thanked me, twice, for helping with the essays and being so good to him. He wanted to take me out to dinner for helping (to which I did not respond). He keeps me updated on some health issues he has had. My friend (KHC) suggested blocking his emails, which would be good because I would not read them, but bad because he would not get them returned.

He asked if I would be interested in post-season baseball tickets if he can get them. I wish it wouldn't be wrong to just take the tickets and find someone else to go with. If my team makes it, there is almost no way I could say "no" to tickets?! Never mind the impossible expense as a graduate student, what about the impossibility of actually getting the tickets?

[I refer to it as my baseball team because the ex cared nothing for baseball until he met me. I was even a little distracted the first time we went out because the game was on behind the bar and the bartender and I were talking about it. Oops.]

Are you a Yankee or a Rebel?

This is a fun quiz.

I am only 9% Dixie - the quiz wanted to know if I needed help digging out of the snow. I guess I am somewhat of a true New Englander. :)

Words get boring

So here are some cute pictures playing with the color accent on my camera. :)

(Not my "dog")My niece looking relatively innocent

302

They are dropping like flies people. I got another email today from a guy with whom I've been communicating but we hadn't been able to figure out a time to meet. Turns out he just met someone and they have "really hit it off so far." So he doesn't think it is fair to try to date both of us, even though he really did want to meet me. Bad timing. Blah, blah, blah. He said he would keep my email address and let me know if his situation changed. I do not know how I feel about that.

"Right on" guy has a really dirty bathroom. Disgustingly so. I do not know how I feel about that either.

301

Well, life has gotten in the way of The Chef pursuing any relationship. (Or maybe he is pursuing another?? Probably not.) His Dad was in the hospital last week on a day when we were supposed to go out, and he has been stuck with two jobs at work because his sous chef was fired by his boss, not to mention the second job he works weekend as a server. He is a nice guy, so it is too bad we didn't get to see each other a couple more times. I am sure my sister will be disappointed. The match is not officially closed online, but is closed in reality. We'll count him as #301.

I wanted to go to Japanese hot pot with The Chef last week, so now KHC is going to fill in. She is great company too. :)

As for the other guys, "Right On" guy only said "right on" once when we went out last night. I met one of his two cats and she was very friendly. I am guessing the other one is less so because I did not see her. He claims that celebrity gossip is a secret addiction, but I think it is more than that and it is entertaining. I shared random facts swimming around in my head, which amused him. For instance, today was Belize's Independance Day! I am now known as being good with directions, provider of random facts, and a pretty face, or as he simplified, "not just a pretty face". Way to charm me! Something came up about playing dumb. I told him I supposed that was my job as a woman but that I do not do that. He said he was glad.

Side note, and I am especially sorry to tell this to all of you who know me and my ex in real life: my ex said on two occasions that he wished I would pretend to be dumb. Seriously? You are saying this to a woman who once only had her intelligence when the perm, braces, and body weight were doing nothing for her in those awkward years? Plus I am getting my PhD in the sciences, what makes you think I would want to pretend to be dumb? I am proud of the fact that I am smart! His comment is a little out of context, but he certainly didn't get any that night! Maybe I will return to this topic of "stupid things guys have said to me" in a future post.

Back to the nice date - dinner, walking around in the city, another drink, and a cab ride home. I did not go in when we got back to his place. I was adamant that I was going to go home, as I had told my roommate I was definitely going to be home, and he tried to convince me otherwise. I warned him I am very stubborn. He was surprised, but if he gets to know me even a little better, I think he would have figured it out on his own eventually. Even on little sleep, I was in a good mood today. :)

300

As in closed matches, not the movie (which I haven't seen).

Admittedly, I was at 297 and I just went and closed 3 more so I could hit 300. I kept the pediatrician match open, even though he didn't have a picture; I closed the guy who seemed too businessworld-y and had one good picture out of three. I kept open the match carpenter who has a picture of him and a little girl; I closed the match who I had actually communicated with a while back and put on hold because he really would not have been my type. Too not confident. That was the problem with a previous match too. I actually met him and he just seemed a little uncomfortable in his own skin. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that feeling. I have just grown out of feeling that way (for the most part) and do not have SO much patience with it that I would want to date "it". I do not want to have to build up some guy I just met. I want someone who already likes who they are. I like who I am!

And get this, my internet matching service of choice changed the format all around. I am not receiving matches right now, because really being in touch with 3 guys is enough to handle on top of school getting crazy busy right now. I really should just check in once in a while apparently!

On a related note, Beauty and the Geek started last night with a 2 hour premier. I have to admit, I love that show. The only problem I have is that the woman geek they have is really very pretty already, she just dresses nerdy. The male beauty they have just has a nice body. We'll see how the season shapes up! "Right-on" guy, a.k.a. Guy #5, loves celebrity gossip stuff and he and I chatted about last night's Beauty and the Geek while he was supposed to be playing cards with friends. We have a date tomorrow. He didn't sound excited about saki, so we are heading in to the city and playing it by ear. That's fine with me because I really do not head in to the city enough!

Closed matches: 300

Seriously?

Has my favorite baseball team forgotten how to play now that my favorite football team is playing (and winning I might add)? I suppose I should give them the fact that so many players are injured at the moment, but still! :(

Fun with lyrics #8

As I sit here procrastinating on revising a grant, I have called two of three boys (and left messages), ate dinner (even though I snacked all day and wasn't really hungry), and now I'll post lyrics...then maybe do some work. Maybe.

I tried again, I went last night.
Another date was just night right.
And as I drove myself back home,
A little voice said just be alone,
But sometimes I think I see you in a crowd,
It's not picture perfect, but you're meant for me somehow,
And I'll miss you till I meet you.

I didn't know which song of hers to post, because really I love them all. If you know the song, I certainly gave you enough lyrics to figure it out, but I wanted to put the whole story from the verse there. I don't see it as being sad really, just conveying the need for patience. :)

Fall in New England

Yesterday I went here:


and picked lots of these:
and made this: