divendres, de setembre 30, 2005

Mad Scientist Project: The Sunrise Machine

I've been having some trouble waking up when it's so dark out. At our old place, we put a lamp on a timer in a different room and slept with the bedroom door open. That provided just enough light to gently wake me up (I just hate being in a deep, dreamy sleep when the alarm goes off). In our new place, we don't have a set up like that. For the moment, we have a lamp in our bedroom set on a timer. I put a pink light bulb in it so it isn't as bright, although that kind of gives that charming French brothel look to everything.

Austin, being the engineer that he is, always likes to come up with better solutions. He is currently building me a sunrise machine using the computer to program the lamp to slowly, second by second, increase it's brightness. It's really cool and I can't wait to test it out. You can buy similar devices on the internet, that claim to have the same color and type of light as the sun, but I'm more interested in the gradual increase in light, not proving science. Also, those lamps start at $200.

diumenge, de setembre 25, 2005

Fall Weekend

On Friday, we went up to my parents' to visit since we hadn't been there in awhile. Although they are only about an hour and a half north of us, it felt more fall-like up there and I could even spot bright red leaves on the ground (but not really on the trees so much).




Sean and Angie were also visiting my parents so on Friday night, we went out for a fish fry at a local dive bar. The service was really friendly, in spite of my brother's open criticism of what they had on tap (a typical Sean-move, and not delivered with any sort of malevolence).

On Saturday, Austin, my mom, and I went to The Potters Shed and Brickyard Pottery, two fabulous gems in the middle of the northwoods. It was cool out and rainy slightly so it was even more fun to be in the cozy, artsy shops. Austin and I restrained ourselves from making any purchases, helped by the fact that my mom told us to mention things we might like for Christmas :)

Anyway, it was a very relaxing weekend and I love the feeling that fall is about to burst into its peak any day now . I am still waiting to pick up a pumpkin or two for the front steps; Austin is reminding me that the sooner I get one, the sooner it might turn into pumpkin mush and we don't want that to happen before the trick-or-treaters show up. I've also been burning pumpkin spice yankee melts at home and also simmered some apple cider on the stove last night.

Early Hints of Fall




I saw this leaf out the window, perfectly caught in the pine needles. My parents live so far back in the woods that there were no neighbors to catch me outside in my bathrobe getting the shot before the leaf blew away.

dimecres, de setembre 21, 2005

Top of the Muffin to Ya

Austin has developed a new addiction to Great Harvest scones. They seem to be the right amount of filling and stick-with-ya that he likes in the morning. It is also something he can grab on his way to work since he likes to sleep in as much as possible. We are trying to create a similar product at home to stop the runs to GH and perhaps be more fiscally responsible. This was our first pass:




The resulting scone was really tasty although it seemed muffiny in texture whereas the idea is get a little bit heavier, more floury type of a texture. These scones, batch 1, remind me of the Seinfield episode with "Top of the Muffin to Ya." In that episode, only muffin tops are sold and the stumps donated to a soup kitchen, of course resulting in much hilarity and conflict.

dilluns, de setembre 19, 2005

Girls' Night

My friend, LeeAnne, and I got together in Hudson at San Pedro Cafe and had a wonderful time. There was about a 30 minute wait so we sat at the bar and had chips and salsa plus their famous mojitos which were very tasty. Then we were seated and shared an appetizer, salmon cakes, followed by a shrimp pasta dish. The menu described the Shrimp St. Croix as "shrimp sautéed with fresh garlic and Serrano peppers, simmered in a mild pepper-lime butter sauce, tossed with penne & garnished with Pico de Gallo & Asiago cheese. Served with wood roasted vegetables." The nice thing was that we were going to share it and the server told us that for an extra $2, we could each get the salad and ciabatta bread that come with it and have the pasta divided into two bowls. The servings were still enormous and it was also easier on the finances. Oh, and I forgot to grab a pic of it because we just dove right in before it crossed my mind.

Along with dinner, we had a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and for dessert got the flourless chocolate cake you see below. That's not a carrot decorating it, it's supposed to be a chili pepper since the cake had some chili kick to it, just the right amount to wake up your mouth yet not overpower the fudgey goodness of the dessert (and I must credit LeeAnne on the photo, too).




After dinner, we stayed for a long time chatting and I had some tea. LeeAnne also gave me some wonderful gifts that she brought back from China for me (to be featured soon). All in all, we were at the restaurant for about three hours and it was the perfect night. We agreed to make Hudson our meeting spot, perhaps once a month, and next time we'll try to allow more time to check out some of the little shops and other interesting nooks and crannies. This first time was mostly to see each other and catch up while sharing a fabulous meal.

dissabte, de setembre 17, 2005

Busy Week

I just finished the second week of class. That's usually when people have figured out what they need to do for class but I'm still figuring out where all the various levels of Spanish are at, what I do and do not need to review, and of course, watching the chemistry develop in the class. Each class has it's own collective "personality" so as an instructor, you learn what flies in terms of good explanations, jokes, etc. You also figure out who the funny kid is and rely on him (it's usually a male, not sure why) when all else fails.

Anyway, I'm really pleased with my classes so far. My students seem so hardworking, thoughtful, and just plain nice. I've even had a few thank me for class or tell me that they really think Spanish is fun now. Wow. It blows me away and that's the kind of stuff I need to file away for the bad days.

On top of my very full load of my own classes, a colleague left for a family emergency this week so I took on one of her classes too. The first day was rough since I had limited experience with what that particular level was about, I had the wrong text, and I had no idea where they had left off. It came together, though, and I even started learning some of their names and a little more about them.

So, after a long week for both myself and Austin, we were totally low-key last night, doing our traditional Movie Night. We got a Papa Murphy's pizza (artichoke and onion mix, delish), a cheap but decent Aussie red wine to go with it, and we happened to have "Saw" from Netflix so we watched that. It was a horror flick with an interesting premise but it wasn't terribly well done. The dude from "Princess Bride" was in it and by the end of the movie, his face was so caked with white powder that I was distracted and unable to think about the movie at all. He looked like a doughboy. Was he supposed to look pale and frightened? Ill? Ghostly? I don't know what they were going for but he looked like he had simply dipped his face into a vat of flour, very weird.

Nonetheless, the Movie Night was just what we needed. Today we have the fun project of cleaning out the garage (residual moving junk is in there) so that the cars can live in there properly. Then this evening I will be hanging out with my friend, LeeAnne, downtown Hudson where we will have dinner at San Pedro Cafe. I'm really looking forward to it since I hung out a lot in Hudson when I was in college and I think I've only been back once since then.

diumenge, de setembre 11, 2005

Late Summer Flowers

Farmer's Market flowers from the bird's eye view, definitely worth the $4!

Miau

This will be a Christmas gift for my aunt


Austin's mom and her partner were in town this weekend and one thing we did was take them to a pottery place way out in the middle of nowhere on a farmstead. We found this place serendipitously when out for a drive in the spring and I saw this cat dish last time, thinking it would be a great gift for my aunt. It was still there when we returned so I bought it and am quite pleased with it. I love when you buy a gift that you know someone will really love and it makes you excited to give it to them, perhaps as excited as they will be to receive it.

dimarts, de setembre 06, 2005

Another Semester Begins

Today was the first day of fall semester but I have no classes on Tuesday so I've been doing some lesson plans as well as some net surfing. I found the school in Avignon where I studied language and cooking when I was a junior in college. Below is a great pic of it, in honor of the back-to-school season.

divendres, de setembre 02, 2005

We got out the nice glasses for wine night!

Wine Night

We had some friends over last night for wine and hors d'oeuvres. We like to get together with them and share a really nice bottle. As usual, the wine was good, conversation great, and we managed to eat more than we planned.

Tonight, Austin and I went out for wonderful seafood and romantic atmosphere at one of our favorite restaurants. It was our little splurge before I'm back to the chaos of fall semester and it was well worth it.

dijous, de setembre 01, 2005

85 Pound Surprise

My dad emailed me yesterday to tell me that I'd be getting a surprise housewarming gift via UPS and I should keep an eye out for it. I checked out the tracking number and was surprised to see it was an 85 pound package! Austin went home at lunch so he was able to update me while I was still at work. Dear ol' dad had sent a wine fridge for us! Wow! It is beautiful... smoked glass door, soft interior lighting, and two climates for reds and whites. We are having friends over tonight for a wine tasting along with some hors d'oeuvres so our new 85 pound pet can be properly introduced to society.