Holy Moly!

It's been a bit of time since I last posted, and this one is sure to disappoint. By all means, you few readers are welcome to let me know what I should be writing about or what you've wondered I've been up to. I've been busy, and life is good. So I'm here to share with you conversations I still have with the Ex about once a year. This is from yesterday/today.

Him: I'll be in your city soon. Want to meet up for dinner??
Me: No thanks.
Him: Boo. Really? {insert FB 'sticker' to indicate frustrated emotion} I respect your decision, but wish we could be friends

[This is not the first time he has said that...and a mere 12 hours later he follows up, so I'm not sure what his version of 'respecting my decision' means.]

Him: BTW, why don't you want to hang out? We've both had significant others since we dated. Doesn't that mean we can be friends now?
Me: I have enough friends and don't need reminders of failed relationships. I've thought about them enough. Why do you keep pushing it every so often over the years when I keep saying no?

[You're all asking yourselves right about now why I'm engaging in this conversation, right? Me too.**]

Him: Okay. I give up. I "keep pushing it" because I want to reconnect with an old friend and hope you've gotten over it now since it's been almost 10 years and you've had other relationship. {insert FB sticker to indicate confused emotion.}
Me: Sure, I've gotten over it and moved on, which is why I'm happy with the friends I have.

And I leave you with that to ponder. We've had this 'conversation' before.

Off to spend the day drinking beer with the guy I'm actually dating, to be followed tomorrow morning with my first running race ever (a 5k on campus) so that I can at least have a race experience once before doing 13.1 miles next month. Ack! I need to come up with a running plan for the next few weeks. I've done 10.4 so I'm not too worried, but would like to do at least a 12 or 13 mile run before then.

[**I do have his phone number blocked so he cannot text me. Not sure if he realizes that or not. He doesn't email. Now every so often he'll send a FB message. Why haven't I unfriended him? Because I don't want the email asking, "Why, Jenski, why?" Although now that I write that, an email would be easier to ignore...]

How serious ARE you?

Three things indicating various levels of seriousness for you to judge. It is always nice to be told you are expected to be judgmental, right?

1. I really do love when I feel fully prepared for class or when I finish writing up an assignment. I am enjoying meeting students at all levels - teaching an upper level course with a lab and an intro lab section. I just confirmed with a student that she will do summer research with me. For the most part, I think I am on the right track. But when the weather channel sent out a storm watch alert for later this week and I heard other faculty complaining about the winter weather, MY first thought was, "let's go snow day or delay!"

I never really thought I would be that person (I mean we are only 2 weeks into the semester!), but it is nice being on the instructor side of a snow day. Plus I honestly do not mind the winter weather, I am sure in part because I do not have to shovel or clear trees that fell down in the recent ice storm.

2. Rapunzel had this idea that we would use Nike+ to motivate each other to stay active, although she seems quite good at it herself. We both said, at least in the beginning that knowing someone else could see when we ran made us more likely to run, and we kept trying to just get ahead of the other person (although I was just trying to keep up...). She finished the 30 miles in 30 days a few days early and set up a new 32 miles in 30 days challenge. And she just finished after 11.5 days. I have not kept up, but I did run 30.06 miles in January and already 17.17 miles this month. Not too shabby, but not quite as serious as Rapunzel.

3. BIL guy is coming with me to my parents for a big bonfire and drinking this weekend. On one hand, I suppose it is some-adjective-I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on that technically we have only been [clearly] out of the friend zone since Jan 1 and he is hanging out with my family. On the other hand, he knew my BIL way back and has met my sister and the kids, and we have been hanging out for so long, that it does not feel weird at all. He also has been happy to come from the first time I mentioned it, including when I gave him another out over the weekend. That is mostly all I have to say about that.

Playlist

I have mentioned plenty now that I have been running. I only ran twice last week, but when I did I ran 4.85 and 4.5 miles, and when I have a decent run, I average 11 minute miles. The half marathon I am slowly training for must be completed in under 3 1/2 hours, which I could probably do if I was walking my fast speed. My goal is to to do it in less than 3, and if I can train to run it at 11 minute miles, I should break 2 1/2 hours. When I put it that way, I actually think I can do it. I ran for almost an hour the other day and felt like I could have pushed myself to keep going, but felt like stopping and going home. (I run on campus at work when it is night time.)

I have slowly been building an eclectic playlist to which I can run. It even includes Jim Croce. I had last thought I needed to try running without music because a couple of my runs were terrible, but I think I have realized it is not the music, but running first thing in the morning that is currently terrible for me. Here is the current line-up, clocking in at 3 hours and 4 minutes of music. A couple are better for fast walking (like Tik Tok), but I just count those as built in breaks when they come on my ipod.

Title                                                                         Artist              

Smooth Criminal	Alien Ant Farm
Little Plastic Castle	Ani DiFranco
Long Way	Antje Duvekot
Show Me How To Live	Audioslave
What You Are	Audioslave
Like A Stone	Audioslave
Roam	The B-52's
You Lie	The Band Perry
Walk away	Ben Harper
Crazy	Britney Spears
The Distance	Cake
Last Name	Carrie Underwood
Before He Cheats	Carrie Underwood
Moonshadow	Cat Stevens
Come on Over	Christina Aguilera
A Thousand Years	Christina Perri
The Scientist	Coldplay
I'll back you up	Dave Matthews
You & Me	Dave Matthews Band
Independent Women Part 1	Destiny's Child
Survivor	Destiny's Child
Hunter	Dido
Passerby	Dispatch
My Immortal	Evanescence
Low (feat. T-Pain)	Flo Rida
Got You (Where I Want You)	The Flys
Name	Goo Goo Dolls
Acoustic #3	Goo Goo Dolls
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams	Green Day
I Won't Give Up	Jason Mraz
Time In a Bottle	Jim Croce
Sky	Joshua Radin
What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude	Justin Timberlake
Tik Tok	Ke$ha
Sweet Thing	Keith Urban
I Try	Macy Gray
Girl Like That	Matchbox Twenty
Its gonna be me	N Sync
Nightingale	Norah Jones
Throw Your Arms Around me	Pearl Jam
Every Rose Has Its Thorn	Poison
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of	U2
Leave the Pieces (Album Version)	The Wreckers
Mary	Zac Brown Band
Highway 20 Ride	Zac Brown Band

Expectations

I keep wanting to write about a lot of different things all in one post with some coherent theme. I have the word 'expectations' stuck in my head for some reason, but I am not really sure how this will bring everything together. Let's see how this goes.

An obvious place to start is with the Red Sox. I love them. They are currently playing what could be the last game of the World Series if they win. I am staying up for the whole game, which they are cruising through right now.

Running. I mentioned that I told my friend I would run a half marathon a year from now. He is running it next weekend. It is in Disney World, at night, and there is a big food and wine party at the finish line. I dislike running, but figure if I am going to do it, it might as well be at the happiest/most magical place on earth. Anyway. I looked up Disney's running training and realized that I do not have to actually run the whole race. This may seem obvious, but I guess that if I do something, I want to DO IT. You have to finish the race in 3 1/2 hours, and I could walk it in that, so I will finish. Now to figure out how fast I will be able to finish it. I have been running a couple of days a week to get in shape, but hope I can take advantage of the year to pull off a somewhat respectable time.

BIL guy and I hang out regularly. I guess I should stop saying they are "non-dates", but it still makes me feel more relaxed about it, and we have actually just been hanging out. He is a nice guy, we always have stuff to talk about, and I just upped my text plan because we text a lot.

There were a couple of Halloween events on campus this week. My department won the costume contests at each, as we went as an ecosystem. I was a deer (as in a primary consumer, a.k.a an herbivore). I was just going to put some antlers on a headband.

Then I decided I would whip up some fleece pants. It was an imperfect sewing project in which I just used a pair of fleece pants I love as a template.

The costume worked out pretty well though - I put a big white circle on my shirt today to round out the costume.

What else? My students have generally been great. (Which I forgot that I just wrote about, but it must be true if I wanted to write about it again.) It may not seem like a college professor would say this, but even at this age I feel like they are my 'kids'. I am sad that a couple of them in particular have dropped the course, but understand why. Others who are failing are driving me crazy because they are not trying enough. One who improved amazingly on her last exam gave me a hug. One who is really smart finally pulled off a passing exam score with a 90 (yay!) and then proceeded to not hand in a lab report. He is driving me crazy?!

I cooked up some squash tonight and decided to roast the delicata squash seeds with no particular expectations of them. They were DELICIOUS. I have not tried the squash yet.

Oh! I also went up to my parents' a few weeks ago. I show up after dark on a Friday night, and my mother informs me that "All the leaves have fallen off the trees already." I seriously went to bed sad thinking that I missed all of Vermont's foliage this year. Good thing my mom is crazy. Exhibit A:

I still cannot set up a key part of my lab, which is hugely frustrating but I know it will happen. The plus side is that I am definitely expected to do research and involve undergraduates (and I am looking forward to it), but teaching is what is REALLY important (and thus teaching in the lab). I have been trying to use my time wisely to plan for next semester and think about grant writing because the lab stuff is dragging out a bit.

I guess I also want to throw out there that I think I am happy. Well, I am happy. Considering my only post in August was about how my life sucked, this is a nice change. ;-) Other little things have happened that are not great, but they are fine. They are life. In August these little things would have been awful. I guess I had enough time to feel sorry for myself back then, and now I can roll with the punches. Keep it up, Life!

I'll take it

It is good that I have enough good to even out the car repairs that necessitated a rental car because they could not get the parts early enough in the day. For the record, my rented Chevy Sonics is tiny! Oh, and I need to submit my research paper somewhere. You can send science magazines a description of your paper and they will give you a perspective on whether they think it would be good for their journal. So far, several have suggested that my paper is not a good fit, but not to let that discourage me from submitting to their journal in the future. Okay.

On with the good! I have an on-campus interview next week, and will see turns out another phone interview at another school. I may have choices in this whole job search thing!

I remedied a failed Loft visit with a post-Sandy celebration of buying Loft clothes when their website went online. Best part? I now have dress pants that fit correctly for one of my interview days.

I tried on some of my dress pants at the end of the summer and they were a tad snug. Inappropriately tight. So, I decided more exercising is necessary. I have been jogging every once in a while when it is still light out because it is faster than walking. The time change makes this difficult. Yesterday I left work early and fit in a run. I realized that if I run a little slower, I can run further. Go figure. I did a 2.85 mile route without walking. I am quite proud...and still refuse to become a "runner". Pants are still tight, so the next step is to lay off the chocolate...or not buy more when it is gone...

I am heartened by the results and the numbers from the recent election. And that is all. Except for what I posted on Facebook that I have repeated to myself many times:

I promise to put myself in your shoes and recall the disappointment of my candidate losing if you promise to put yourself in my shoes and understand that this is what I think is best for our country.

My friend told me that he thinks I am ready to be a professor because I handled a small situation well and did not make a big deal out of it. He also told me that he still thinks I have become funnier, except that he feels there is something negative underneath. Like I will crack one day. He is not entirely wrong, as any of you regular readers may know. But at least I am funny.

I have done a couple of research things the past week, which is great. My friend (the grad student in the lab) and I have had some great science conversations. I am often the go-to person because our lab manager is splitting her time with another position on campus. This has been a great experience and just emphasizes to me that I am ready to move on.

I have a job talk that is almost ready to go. It has taken me over a week to get it to this point, but I think about it a lot so when I sit down to work on it, it is relatively quick. What I have NOT done is prepare for meeting with people at the college. It is going to be a stressful couple of days getting ready to go, but I have new clothes (see above point).

The whole point of this is that I'll take it. I am reminding myself of all the good to help let go of the bad and it seems to be working. Go me.

2 Weeks Ago...

2 weeks ago I finished another MS Challenge Walk. I think it was by far my most successful, as far as my legs go. I would link to old posts about walking and the Walk, but I am procrastinating on work right now as it is. You will have to trust me that this was my NINTH year. Next year will be my TENTH (that was some fast math). I have decided that my best secret to training is to freak out that I will not train enough and will be in pain, because that is how I trained this year. I was probably walking 3 to 4 times a week, and 5 to 9 miles each time. My Mom did not train as much as she did her first year she was a walker and did all 50 miles. This year I think she walked about 34 miles...at 2.5 miles an hour.

I walk for my Mom, who was diagnosed with MS something like 30 years ago. I would feel guilty about leaving her to walk alone, and frequently check myself if I get snippy when I do walk with her. The lady is getting severely crazy, like I think she would win the prize for the craziest "normal" mother. Luckily, it is mostly in a harmless way. She did kiss someone at the walk though, which made me really uncomfortable (not like kiss-kiss, but more like she should have just stuck with a hug kiss), and tends to overshare things that make people uncomfortable. All of this to say that she walks SLOW anyway. So on Day 2 of the walk, I told her I could not walk that pace after lunch. She was going to skip ahead to miss the hilly parts due to her knees and blisters. She skipped 6 or 7 miles, to walk the last 4 or 5, and I almost caught up to her. I was probably walking twice her speed. I did 3 miles in less than 45 minutes. I told her it was because I had warmed up for 4 hours that morning walking with her. Hahaha. Sadly, my sister has managed to hurt both of her feet in the past couple of months on the little league field and on a worm in her garage. She walked on the last day to get on the course a bit, and it was nice to have the Mom buffer.

My nephew will be old enough to walk next year, so we finally created a team because it helps with fundraising. When I was walking to meet up with my Mom and my sister, I thought our name should have 'numb' in it. We realized that one reason my Mom gets such bad blisters is because she has reduced feeling in her feet so they get bad before she realizes she has them. We decided our team name should, therefore, be 'Comfortably Numb'. It comes with its own theme song, which two of my favorite female artists have covered.

I do not take many pictures on the Walk anymore, but a couple I did take....

That yellow ribbon has been there long enough for the ivy to grow over it. It reminded me of when SO MANY PEOPLE put yellow ribbons up for the troops during, I think, the first Iraq war.

The road is sometimes quiet.

A noteworthy flower along the way. Mostly noteworthy because it is fall and past the season for a lot of flowers.

Long-stemmed roses CF sent that were waiting for me when I got back to lab after the walk.

Fast and easy...in the kitchen...

...That's what she said.

Some people may be disappointed by the ACTUAL topic of this post: Food. Recipes.

Cooking is a good sign of my mental state, I think. It means I spend some time being creative in the kitchen (again, purely in a preparing-food-sort of way). It means I do not feel pressure of trying to get something done. When I feel pressure to get something done, I usually procrastinate by cleaning/laundry (as can be seen in this previous check list). But thanks to finishing a draft of my manuscript, I can spend some time in the kitchen!

Without further ado, I bring you 'Fast AND Easy' first.

This was brilliantly inspired for by my sister. Even though her kids will DEVOUR sushi and raw shell fish, they are surprisingly picky about every-day food. This, they were happy to eat.

Ramen makes a good base for dinner. In college, I would add in some broccoli when the Ramen was cooking, then add the flavor packet and cooked chicken to the drained noodles & broccoli. I can tell you that this suped-up version is way better than that.

Fast and Easy Ramen - 10 minutes, From the kitchen of Jenski's sister
(Scale up as needed)
Ingredients: Eggs, Ramen, premade coleslaw (or broccoli slaw!) mix
Whisk an egg
Cook Ramen per package instructions
After noodles cook 3 minutes, coax them aside and stir continuously as you add egg(s).
Add a handful of coleslaw mix from the grocery store and as much of the flavor packet as you would like.
Vary as needed/desired.
Serve up your egg noodle soup!

I had a red pepper that needs to be eaten, so I added some of that. I used half a flavor packet and added a couple spoonfuls of curry sauce, and only an egg white because I had eggs for breakfast. When my sister and her kids were here, we also added some sriracha to spice it up. The permutations are endless and easy!

                                               
Second, I bring you 'Easy'. I could add 'Healthy' to that too. The reasons I made this were three-fold:
1.) I have searched out tomatoes in a jar to no avail where I live. Sure, tomatoes come in a can. You know what else comes in canned tomatoes? BPA*. I am happy to have my own source of tomatoes with less BPA.
2.) My town has a pathetic excuse for a farmer's market. The man who tries to get vendors has a smoothie truck there every week. They FINALLY have other food and products, but he is the one manning the veggies for the farmers still! Because I had commented a couple of weeks in a row on the FB page, I felt I needed to go. Well I did. And then bought organic tomatoes for $12/pound. I appreciate fewer chemicals. I do not have an income that allows for costly tomatoes, no matter how delicious or chemical free. Therefore, the tomatoes must go to GOOOOOOOD use.
3.) Ridiculously easy tomato sauce in your crockpot.

Before

 After

My variations on Bean's recipe were few.

Crockpot tomato sauce
Chopped onions
Chopped tomatoes
Pressed garlic
Dried oregano (~1 tsp)
Dried basil (~1 tsp)
Dried thyme (~1/2 tsp)
Salt
Pepper
Sugar (~1 Tbsp, or I added agave syrup)
And I added some chopped carrot and olive oil too.

Mix. Cook on low in crock pot for 8 to 12 hours. I then blended it (which you probably would not need to do if you peeled the tomatoes). Blending it would probably let you hide other veggies in the sauce too though (more carrots than I added, pepper, a little squash...).

Made me wish I had a submersion blender. Then I put the sauce in glass jars with space at the top and stuck them in the freezer. If my sister-in-law and I lived closer together, I would have recruited her canning expertise.

FYI, SIL, At some point I envision a massive canning experience:
Make something in the crock pot overnight. Can in the morning. Set up the crock pot with something else. Can stuff like pickles throughout the day. Can the crock pot recipe #2 at night.

What else did I do between the end of work yesterday and lounging on my couch tonight? Walked 5.5 miles two times, tried indoor rock climbing for the first time, read a National Geographic, made the above recipes, ran some errands, and photographed the sunset. Again.

* If you have not heard of BPA, it is something used in plastics. It is also in those white cavity fillings and receipts. I could write a whole bunch about BPA. I did research on it before I started grad school, and can tell you that prenatal exposure affects mammary gland and neuro-endocrine development (otherwise known as boobs and brains). YOUR exposure to BPA can affect you, your children, and your grandchildren. I figure if I can minimize my exposure, might as well!

Check!

Laundry - Check!
Training walk - Check!
Weeding - Check!
Brew iced tea - Check!
Shower - Check!
Clean bathroom - Check!
Eat lunch - Check!
Rearrange furniture a bit - Check!
Have the Olympics on TV - Check!
Go to the post office - Check!


Now wasn't I supposed to spend the day working on writing a paper for work?


Oops!

Workin' on it

I have recently (okay maybe over the course of the past few months) realized that any muscle I had from working out regularly through the end of grad school and a bit after I moved here has all gone away. I weigh the same I did two years ago, but my clothes do not fit quite so well. I think I have used up the extra space I had in the clothes.

First. I guess muscle really does weigh more than fat.

Second. I sorta try to exercise more.

My employer has a fitness incentive every year. If you fulfill certain requirements, you get $100. It always entails taking a health survey to get the first $50. In the past, the second $50 was yours if you exercised more than 30 minutes at least 3 times a week for something like 10 out of 12 weeks in a row. Easy $100, if you ask me.

This year, the second $50 was to do a wellness check with an outside company that came on campus for this purpose. I figured I should make an effort to still do the 10 out of 12 weeks of exercise.

Things I count as exercise:

• Walking to and from my car because I intentionally park where I do to get exercise because no shuttles go to that lot.
• Stretching when I am in the dark room at work (used for developing film from experiments).

I also intend to exercise if the weather cooperates. My rule is that if it is over 40 degrees (and I may put a maximum of 80 and sunny or 85 and not sunny or something like that), I have to walk and/or run when I get home from work.

All of this is leading up to the fact that on Thursday it was 44 degrees when I got home. I was not hungry. There was still more than an hour of daylight. I had to go outside. So I ran. Two miles. I was not pleased. I do not really want to be able to run. I do not really enjoy running. It is a quick way to exercise, and I almost ran 10 minute-miles (I did not say I was sprinting!) for two miles, so I suppose I should just keep squeezing in those 20 minute runs to turn that fat back into muscle.

{sigh}

In other news, that bacon, portobello mushroom, cheese panini I had for dinner probably does not help, but it was delicious.

Healthify

This buffalo chicken dip I made is DELICIOUS and also by no means healthy. I also have quite a bit left over from the football game that shall not be discussed. I thought about making a buffalo chicken grilled cheese, but one could easily argue that's even less healthy. I thought I would just put lettuce on it to make it healthy.

BUT, then I realized I could just cook up some cauliflower in the microwave in a quick 7 minutes on high (mix half way through), chop it up smaller with a spoon, top with some buffalo chicken dip, and heat. With a side of half a cucumber, I figure that is a lot healthier than some of my other options.

Plus I ran today. It was 45 degrees when I got home, so I had to get outside. I usually go by time and not distance. I ran 19 minutes and fast walked 24 minutes. If it was 45 degrees year round, I thought I might, one day, down the road, after lots of hateful words, sorta become a runner. In the meantime, I will just resent the fact that it is probably the cheapest fastest way to try to get back in shape a bit. Add to that this easy ab/arm addition, and maybe I can get rid of this little belly...and make my back stop hurting...and make my hip stop hurting...

...Maybe I'm just getting old.

Walking legs

Being that I am just a couple of months away (ACK!) from walking 50 miles (for the 8th time!), I figured I should train a bit. The couple of years that I walked with no real issues I was exercising regularly - some mix of walking to and from campus (~3 miles round trip), going to the gym, and regular 4 to 6 mile walks after work. Now, not so much.

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a walk that was just over 6 miles. My legs were tired by the end for sure, but not sore the next day. I think the trick will be doing a 6 mile loop 3 to 5 times a week. I also walk to and from my car every day, but that is only about 1.5 miles.

It would, of course, be nice for walking if it was not over 85 degrees when I get home after work.

Yesterday morning I had good intentions to get out on the road by 8:00. Then I wanted to make biscuits before it got closer to the predicted 89 degrees, so I did that. Then I did a load of laundry so I could hang it out before I headed out for my walk. I made it out the door around 10, and by the time I got back at 11:40, it was pushing 90. At least there was stuff to look at. This guy said hi on my way out by flapping his wings a bit. Per this website, it is a male too.

This barn is just down the road from me and on a land grant sale with the two houses next to it. Not likely a functional barn, but probably where all the barn swallows that swoop around live.

A little over a mile in, this is where I like to stretch. I sometimes do some push-ups too if I am feeling inspired and the bugs are leaving me alone. (As an aside, I get bitten even when I wear OFF Deep woods. Go figure.)

These fields are on opposite sides of the road. Either the corn was planted at different times, or this one is just a better field than the second.

 

Field #2

And that is pretty much all I took pictures of until I was nearing home and saw this killdeer, a shorebird that is oft found far from water.

It was a hot 6.2 miles, and I drank those two bottles of water I had with me...and took a nap late afternoon.

The out of doors

I have some work I need to do, but have taken advantage of the high 60s and sunny weather we are FINALLY getting. Yesterday, CF and I finally went for a bike ride (~15.5 miles, actually). I think this is the first time I have ridden a bike since the summer of 2003 when I went to visit my friend in Africa, not counting the test rides on the driveway after CF gave me the bike for my birthday. I think he probably rides a little faster than we did yesterday, but that is fine. My legs are fine, my butt hurts a little, my hands were red when we finished but are fine now, and despite putting on spf 70 sunscreen, my arms are burned. It was my first real sun exposure of the year, but still.

Today, I came back home to do more garden stuff. I have new neighbors as of a couple days ago, and they totally cleaned out the flower bed on their side of the duplex and started planting flowers! I decided I should not half-ass the planting of my fire pit, so I put sunscreen on that burn and headed out back. I don't have a before picture of the fire pit, but this one has it in the foreground. There were uneven bricks, some broken cinder blocks, fire remnants, and weeds.

I had started half-assing it by planting some sunflower seeds and starting some marigolds in the house that I planned to plant around the edge without cleaning out the pit. The marigolds did well, and I may have planted them a bit early outside, but I am impatient. This picture is from about a week after I started them. They had two sets of real leaves today before I planted them.

 

So I dug through the weeds and around the sunflowers that were already coming up. Threw out all the melted metal that was in there, got rid of the cinder blocks (they're behind the shed), made the circle a little smaller, and put the bricks back! Then I planted a few more sunflower seeds and marigolds around the edge. OH, and I found an acorn that was sprouting when I cleaned up the stones below, so I planted it in the middle of the pit.(My lease says no fires allowed in there, so I figured red and yellow flowers would look nice.)

This is the raised bed behind the house. Last year I planted tomatoes, squash, lettuce, marigolds, and herbs. There wasn't enough sun for the veggies. The stones in the foreground were all full of grass and starting to sink into the dirt, so I pulled them out, pulled the grass, laid down some newspaper to prevent grass/weeds from coming back quickly, and put the stones back. I only did the left half because the part closest to the house was fine (and I am just a renter). In the flower bed, a lot of the green is perennials that a former tenant planted. They are WAY behind on flowering with the cold damp spring we had. I have planted spinach and lettuce back here that are coming up. They don't mind shady, so they grew well back here last year. You can't tell in the picture, but my chives came back, my parsley lived all winter under the snow and is perking up and growing, and the cilantro and dill reseeded themselves.

The seedlings are all over, so I gently pulled up a bunch of cilantro and planted it together. I will have to do this with the dill after the plants are a little bigger.

In the front, I decided pulling up all the mini clover in the top of this photo was not worth it, but did use my dandelion puller to get all of those and other pesky ugly weeds. I planted sunflowers here that are coming up (I suppose I really should have labeled pictures, but trust me...or click to enlarge and play the find-the-plants game), and a rosemary plant in the foreground. One of my friends showed me how much rosemary they had at their house that the previous owner had planted. It had become a ground cover and smelled great as she was cutting it all back while we visited. I am leaving the little label next to in in the event that later tenants will use it. Hopefully it will survive winters - I got a plant that already had strong woody stems.

A coworker gave me a bag of small strawberry plants. I did just plop them in the ground in front with some coffee grounds and I keep them watered. The dirt is rather clay-y, so who knows if the plants will survive. One has flowers that are open though! Again, not the best picture, but here are three of the ten I planted. I gave the rest to CF for his garden.

There were some other random things I noticed while outside, like the little pine cones growing on the tree in the back.

And some mushrooms.

Any one have any gardens started?

Brilliant!

I had two brilliant thoughts today (if I do say so myself). Well, maybe I had more, but these two are shareable (if I do say so myself). I am working on a grant, so I apologize for the format in advanced.

Background One: In case you missed it, another huge piece of glacier in Greenland is gone. One of the things I think I understand is that salt water can be colder. When you have increased temperatures, even if they are seasonal, and you get these huge pieces of fresh water glacial ice breaking into the salty ocean. They will melt, decrease the salt concentration, and the water temperature does not get so cold because it is less salty. Warmer water will just make the problem worse - you'll get more melting glaciers and the water will be less salty and warm up and more melting glaciers and...

Desalination is a way of taking the salt out of water so that you can drink it. This is done on a lot of small islands I think, but now they even do it in the UK! One might argue that the UK is a fairly large island that gets a fair amount of rain.

What do they do with all that salt they take out of the water?

Brilliant Idea One: I think they should put it in the water in Greenland! Now, this is sorta tongue-in-cheek, but seriously. What do they do with the salt?


Background Two: I like to read novels the old fashioned way on paper. Part of this is that I have not accumulated a ton of books because I have cut down on my books as I have moved so many times over the past ten years. There are some that are still at my parents, like Island of the Blue Dolphins and Julie of the Wolves, and some here by some favorite authors like Diana Gabaldon, Isabelle Allende (if you've read her new one, let me know if it was good!), Jane Austen and Bill Bryson. I do not anticipate myself switching to the e-book format soon. However, since I started my post-doc I avoid printing papers out. I read them, take notes in a notebook, and put all of it in my reference manager. This has the benefit of not killing so many trees and having my references all on my computer when I want them. It has the drawback of not being able to grab a folder to write about a specific topic and not seeing my notes with the text. My rotating grad student just got a tablet PC and is really using it well to transition into an electronic notebook and handwriting things to be save electronically.

Brilliant Idea Two: What I would totally invest in is an e-journal reader. Not a kindle or something like that, but something that is geared towards pdf reading, annotating, and reference management. I think a lot of scientists would. How great if you had your whole file cabinet in a handy tablet to take on planes, to meetings, to read on the beach (just kidding about that last one at this stage in my career).

And there you have it. Two brilliant ideas that are now out in the public domain and no longer patentable, unlike what some yogis think is an appropriate thing to do for a practice that is thousands of years old.

Any sympathy?

I am in desperate need of ibuprofen and a nap. I went to a Punk Rope class last night (http://punkrope.com/home/), which was fun and I felt great, but the gym was a little warm. I got home, showered, and sat down with dinner when my feet and hands started getting cold and a head ache creeped in. By the time I had been home an hour, I had barely enough wherewithal to roll off the couch and slowly walk to bed with my glass of water.

I figure it had something to do with the exercise and heat, but between an hour before the class and when I rolled into bed, I had about 40 ounces of water and a glass of milk. I think my fever is back and I have been resting at work for over an hour. Really I need to get my stuff done and go home. :-(

I would have posted some pathetic status on Facebook, but apparently I sound unhappy in my Facebook statuses.

I think I should stop exercising.

What a pleasant surprise

I tend to pick out my clothes the night before, particularly when I go to the gym in the morning. I figure the less I have to think first thing in the morning, the better! I have also started the habit of trying on the outfit to make sure things go together. Sometimes you just can not tell unless it is on, right?

So last night I was thinking I would wear my dark jeans and my black boots and this button down shirt that hes 3/4 length sleeves. [It is that in between summer and fall weather right now where a t-shirt doesn't seem like enough and a long-sleeved shirt feels like overkill!] I put the jeans on and am half way to my "closet" (I'll write more about my apartment when I have internet there and can post in the comfort of my own home)...where was I? Oh, so I am half way to the closet and I think, "These aren't the dark long jeans with stretch that I meant to put on. Which jeans are these? NO. It can't be???" I take them off right there in the hall (I live alone now, I can do that!) and they are my skinny jeans.

These are the jeans I could wear when I first started grad school four years ago! These are the jeans I could not pull past my knees just a couple of years ago! I guess it is worth making time to go to the gym.

Shoes!

If I had a large disposable income, I would probably go crazy buying a few things. Whenever I have a need for several of an item, I feel the addiction. Just this month I bought three new, good pairs of shoes. This type of spending is generally unheard of for me. I am a grad student after all. :-)
I got these great navy sandals to wear with my navy bridesmaid's dress for the end of June. They came with a felt bag.

In addition to having done something to my left shoulder, my left foot has been bothering me. It started when I was doing some walking in NYC, I think, in my old sneakers. Even though they were new sneakers from Christmas, I have been wearing them a LOT for the gym. I figured I should get a new pair and dedicate them to walking and running. [Technically I should probably have a pair for the gym, for walking, and for running. That would would be the shopping addiction creeping in that I try to keep at bay!] I bough new sneakers Sunday. I have had the same style, Brooks Adrenaline, for about 4 years now, but the new upgrades in their design felt funny and led me to these Asics.
THEN, I invested in some good close-toed summer shoes I could wear to lab. These are the ones I felt guilty about buying for the winter, but I wore them ALL THE TIME, so I figured investing in the summer equivalent was worth it.
My Crocs are getting a little worn, so I thought maybe I should replace those as my summer shoes. Lest you think all Crocs must be big and ugly like this (although I admit I loved these too),that is not the case. I have two pairs of Crocs ballet flats, for example. Brown and black. A Wild Oats grocery store was going out of business near me and they were only $10. Turns out they are too narrow for my sister, so I got to keep both pairs.
And my new Crocs just came in the mail yesterday! I wore them today and they definitely rubbed some places on my feet raw. Too bad, because I love them (the way they look) and will continue to subject my feet to the rubbing until they callus up a bit.
Aren't they great? :-)

The box was waiting for me last night, and I had to open them before I headed to the Red Sox game with my roommate and company. I love Fenway. As one of the radio stations here puts it, Fenway is the best bar in Boston.

[My Unofficial] May is Culture Month!

Apparently May really is the National Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month, so maybe I will post about that another time.

For now, I am declaring it Culture Jenski Month! I am going to a museum tomorrow night, next weekend a show, the following weekend a show, the following weekend a good ol' fashioned Memorial Day party. (Is that all of May????) There was an exhibit opening on campus tonight and I totally intended to go. This was the first Thursday since January I did not have to TA though (YAY FOR THE END OF CLASSES), and I totally wasted the day and had to do work and am going to a museum tomorrow! I feel bad for not supporting other grad students.

Oh, well.

Off to get some sleep. If I can get my ass out of bed for yoga, I will have gone to the gym EVERY day this week?! I decided it was time to step it up a little.

I love your colored printers!

While over 25,000 people were doing this:
including Lance Armstrong (in yellow on the right)!I was eating this:
That is a deep-fried turkey people, and it is not even Thanksgiving. YUM.

It was fun cheering people on and seeing exhausted people smile, or people who were walking start running again in response. Having done a 50-mile (3-day) fundraising walk, I totally understand what physical exhaustion means and how uplifting it is to have people cheering you on. If you ever run a marathon, write your name in large visible letters so that people who do not know you can cheer for you! Otherwise the following takes place:

KHC's friend: GO H.P.! I LOVE YOUR COLORED PRINTERS!
H.P.-sponsored runner: {smile and thumbs up}

So many things, so little time

In no particular order, here are probably the last few pictures of the game that I will post...I swear. Just be glad I am not posting all 107. :-)
Members of the Boston Pops.Bill Buckner.
Ortiz - check out my 16x zoom! :)
Steven Tyler singing God Bless America. He is a strange man...
Playing with my camera's color settings...
So what do people know about computers? I think I'll be looking into a laptop sooner than later. My keyboard is working fine now, but only after I let my computer do a system check on start up. Plus then there were two Windows errors right after startup. I am a little concerned. LUCKILY I just bought an 8gb flash drive (for $40 - I love a deal) and backed up all my photos. I do NOT want my computer to crash in the middle of writing my dissertation though!

I may have almost convinced my advisor to "let" me go to the meeting I want to go to. I went into her office today and said, "I know you're probably sick of me talking about the meeting, but guess who is going to be there???" A very well known researcher who works on the same chemical I do is going to be there. I really want to go now. I heard through the grape-vine that today was the deadline to get a travel award but I do not see it anywhere on the web site. If I can find the money, I can go. Cross your fingers!

Tomorrow I visit my nephew's kindergarten class. Hopefully I have cute stories! Last weekend, playing a game didn't provide as much cute kid quips as I had hoped. I tried playing The Game of Things with them, where there are cards with Thing prompts.
Things that are magic? My niece said that "if there is an empty cupboard and someone opens it and pulls a bunny out that was not in there before, but then there is a bunny, and they pull it out. THAT is magic."
Things that you forget? My nephew had a hard time remembering anything he forgets. He did finally say that sometimes he forgets to pick up his toys. Anyone surprised that a 6-year old forgets to pick up toys?

My sewing machine is ready to pick up from its cleaning. Then I'll finish a couple of projects. Then I'll show you everything I've sewn recently!

It was 70 degrees (F) here today! The second my roommate got home, we went and got ice cream. That was my dinner. Then I came home and had a beer. I need to be more careful about what I eat. I have lost nearly 10 pounds since December though, even though I have not really been watching what I eat!

If I tell enough random stories, maybe I can tag this post with EACH of the tags I have so far. That would be great. But I won't. And I will count this as a Jen story...or many Jen stories.

K, I have a lot I want to do before bed, so, um, that is all...

Where do my lungs think they are going?

I feel like a COMPLETELY new person. I even made it to the gym for an almost normal workout this morning. Very exciting! Tomorrow morning is yoga and that will finish healing me. :)

I still have two or three coughing fits a day though. Totally non-productive no matter what I do. Any great ideas about how to stop coughing? My guess is I just have to wait. I debated about going to the health center and demanding an inhaler today, but I didn't make the time. Dunkin' Donuts was having 99 cent lattes. That was way more important.

I have drank probably close to 4 liters of fluids today. Seriously. Do you know how much that makes you pee?