Cooking, card games. and quizzes (and the immortality and pre-existence of the human soul) Oh My!

Have been making food the last couple of days. It was starting to get necessary- I really don't feel like cooking, most of the time when I get home from classes, and it's easy to just be able to yank something out of the fridge or freezer and shove it in the microwave. That said, I'm not yet ready to utilize Spencer's method, which is to just buy hot pockets en masse and live off those for weeks at a time. So! Chilli beans and rice it is.


I actually already had a bit of leftover rice, so I made the beans last night and ate them to today after step with the last of that rice. Then made new rice while I ate my dinner!





Food! So now I have about half of each in the fridge and freezer, respectively. That should keep me going for a while. Also, I'm almost halfway done with my 25 lb bag of rice. (I typed bog rice there first. That's not what I meant.)

So there's that. Other than cooking, it's mostly just been classes and homework out here, with some fun game nights with friends in between to break it up. Beer pong ftw! Munchkin, Settlers of Catan, and San Juan have all been introduced to me in the last couple of weeks, and there is the possibility of D&D this weekend. We will see. As I wrote to a friend of mine earlier, "I think when peoples' four-day-weekend plans involve a Risk marathon, there's really no j/k needed when referring to them no lives." And it's true.

We had a linear quiz on Tuesday that I thought went better than it actually did. That said, I did better than the four people that sit around me, and there are only 11 of us in the class. And while that's nice and all, it doesn't really do much for my 13/20. Sigh. Well, I think he drops our lowest quiz grade, so this'll just have to be my one fail!grade for the semester, y/y?

And at any rate, he only assigned us 13 more proofs to do over the long weekend. Le sigh. Also, while I'm complaining about him, he let us out ten minutes late today. So there.

As for soul statuses, ( I always think that 'status' should have a better plural form. Stati?) medieval philosophy was really cool today. Not that it isn't usually, because it is. Pretty much made of awesome. And there's no one thing about it that makes it great, just the overall effect- enthusiastic professor, challenging subject matter, educated/intelligent classmates that care about this stuff and really want to understand everything about it, an atmosphere where questions and comments are encouraged.

And the fact that the material is cool is just icing. We spent our 75 minutes today studying a brief bit out of Plato's dialogue Phaedo. I'd read the assigned bit beforehand, so I was able to follow along without having to scramble for notes. So. Much. Fun. As we went through the arguments presented, we got to pick at them and discuss them, and argue about their soundness and which conclusions Plato might have been assuming. (Bad!Plato!)

Aaaaanyway. Take home message? Linear algebra bad, philosophy good, food good, college furloughs technically bad but really? Good. Non-slanty bathtubs bad, geeky world domination games good.

Sleep, good.

Almost done with week one...

I really love muscle memory. I haven't taken step in almost a year now, but I didn't even have to think today before my body fell back into the patterns we were doing. Which, okay yeah, were the most basic intro patterns. But! It required very little attention and went well. Unlike the abs part of the class, which was a sharp reminder of just how little ab work I've done in the last six months.

But anyway. Muscle memory is fun. Math classes not so much. No, I lie. The classes are kinda fun. Even abstract linear algebra, which is a TTR long class, is interesting and fun to be in. It's just, you know, the mass quantities of homework (Proofs! Many of them!) and the frighteningly impending tests/quizzes that aren't cool. For example, here are some of my recent notes:


Linear notes. It should be taken into account that we're all learning the really weird notation as he's scrawling it across the board.


Diff notes. Partial differentials this semester! More difficult than I was anticipating, to be honest.


Stats notes. Very easy class, conceptually. And the math isn't
tricky either. Just a lot of homework on with which to be getting.

Why my life has to be consumed with things like that, rather than things like like this:





It's beyond my understanding. Truly.

But mostly, I'm just complaining. After all, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it (Fred). I asked a girlfriend to day, as we sat pounding our heads against a linear proof, whay we chose to be math majors, again? After all, there are apparently majors where you can graduate in four years with your bachelors, and still go out and like, party every night. I have heard stories of such things. It makes me think I'm doing something wrong here. (Not the not partying, which I'm happy with. But I bet these drunken, hypothetical (business!) students have time for adequate sleep too. Jerks.)

At any rate, she told me we were math majors because we're crazy. So at least there's (an explicitly defined) madness to the madness.

WI, Day of Posting Lameness (Actually the End of Day 8)

No post tonight, but soon, to wrap up the trip. Tomorrow, with lots of pics. But it's now 23:52 here, and I require sleepage before the major goings-on of tomorrow. Sufficed to say that much fun has been had the past few days, and it will be recounted. Here is a sneak preview:

Exciting, no?

WI Days Five (I promise this time) and Six

It should preliminarily be noted that I'm running on three hours of sleep- mosquito bites made me too crazy to fall asleep last night until about 3 this morning, and then I got up again at six. Don't ask why, I've no idea. At any rate, I'm starting to get a bit sleepy now, so I thought I'd blog before I tottered off to bed.

A bed all to myself, since I'm at Oma's tonight and most of tomorrow, spending time with her and working on her computer. Norton is installed and is now running a nice full system scan, then there are major Windows service pack downloads to do tomorrow. Still haven't figured out why her hard drive thinks it's full, though...

Yesterday was fun and exciting in a shopping kinda way- we were originally going to go to the mall, but time got away from us a bit and we ended up going to Plato's Closet and Savers instead. I'd never heard of either of them, but J knew of Savers, and was blown away by Plato's. I admit, it was pretty fun. Jay got a long sweater top thing ($10), and a pink homecoming/prom dress
($8) that she bought herself, and I snagged two pretty new t-shirts ($3 & $6). So that was fun. I didn't find anything that particularly stuck my fancy at Savers, but J got another couple of tops there, I think. Bad memory is what I get for blogging late :)

Also, I keep reading "savers" as "slayers". Too much Buffy.


Girls before leaving for the shopping expedition.


J in her $8 dress. It's even nicer in person.

Then we had barbecued burgers and chicken for dinner; Oma and AK come out, and it was a very pleasant evening. Cooking for big groups is fun, especially when lots of people are working together.

Sadly, it was our last time with UD- he left this morning to go back to out of town work. I missed him by just a couple of hours, since I was up so late futzing with Norton. Oh yeah, that was the other thing I did yesterday, was fought with Norton and Windows Updates to get the second vista service pack so that stuff would run right. Anyway. That finally sorted itself out around nine last night, and I was up many hours later to watch it complete its first full system scan :)

So it was just me and AJ for quite a few hours this morning after I got up around 6. I showed her around norton and some of her new stuff I'd downloaded last night, and then we went to work ripping her music and syncing her iPod. So much tech, so little time!

While the girls were still abed, we went out to Walmart to pick up some meat for our grand afternoon meal with cousin Mike and his girlfriend. It was the girlfriend's birthday, so J and Sylvie decorated the living room and we got a very attractive meal together:


Isn't it pretty! So summery, which is what I loved. Corn, little bowls of fruit, shredded meat, buns, and coleslaw (not pictured). And nametags on the place settings!


The nice meat mix: boneless pork, zucchini, bouillon, wine, and some other stuff I'm forgetting. It was absolutely delicious.


The Decorator and The Chef! (Timelord Names?)

The visit was a lot of fun; after lunch and birthday cake we sat outside on the back porch for hours, just enjoying the day and learning about the restaurant industry. Fun stuff.

But now AK is at AJ's, since there's airport travelling to be done by AK in the morning before AJ goes to work. Aaaaaand, we're back at the beginning of the post! Still waiting for the scan to finish; contemplating just slapping on some hydrocortisone, leaving the scan to finish itself up on its own, and heading to bed.

Mmmph, right, I think that's a plan. G'night!

WI Days Four (continued) and Five (not really)

It's Four and Five! (Sorry. Had to be done.)

Aaaanyway. Yesterday (day four) was just so marvelous that it required more blogging than yesterday's entry gave it. So, Oma and AK showed up and stayed the afternoon. I had spent the morning fighting with the printer:



It's an extremely attractive printer, except when it's refusing to print anything black, or giving me messages like this:



UD was finally the one who figured out how to lift up the right bits of plastic to yank out the wedged piece of mangled test paper. It should be noted that this miraculous (embarrassing) discovery came after AJ and I had poked and prodded and tweezered at the thing for literally hours. Ahem. But never mind! So now there is a functioning printer.

The girls went out after lunch, where they went kayaking:



After that, it was water-skiing and tubing off the back of the boat, which UD drove. (Do you drive a boat? Steer it? Helm it? Also, the conjugations of "to ski" are weird.) Here they are getting the boat down into the water:



The fun activities didn't start until after the boat stopped looking like this, though:



Meanwhile, the sensible people were up on the back porch, watching from comfy deck chairs:



And Oma graciously posed for a pic for her entry in my phonebook:



After dinner (meatloaf with rice and salsa!) everyone either went home (Oma and AK) or out to see Angels and Demons (everyone else but me). I antisocially elected to remain at la casa and fiddle with the printer some more. I didn't get the wireless printing working (it required a disc I did not possess) but I did get to curl up with a couple eps of NCIS, and scurry around with the dog in tow closing the windows when another storm rolled in.

The storm receded mostly by the time we went to bed, but cackled wildly back to life around 1:00 this morning; I was just going to sleep, and there were pretty awesome, sky-brightening flashes of lightening out my window. Not, you know, directly out it or anything. Certainly farther away than the cracks of thunder and lightening that woke up (except UD) everyone in the house around 2:00 or so. Tremendously, unbelievably loud. Very awesome.

And now, I would tell you all about the fun we had today (shopping and burgers and Norton, oh my!) but it's 23:10 here and I'm pretty much toast. Sleep now. More blogging and pics tomorrow.

WI Days Three and Four

Sylvie, practicing before the concert.


Fluting!


Los padres VDH's, in Oma's sunroom thing.


AK, sewing up the wrists of one of J's new (goodwill!) hoodies.

So! Day three come and gone. We went to Sylvie's concerts in the morning and early afternoon- there were individual instrument ensembles first, most of which were really neat to watch, and then the full orchestra concert after lunch at Subway. It was really imprerssive and fun to listen to.

Came back to the house after the concerts, and hung out with Thor for a while (funfunfun!) until we both had to leave for evening activities.

Then off to the VFW for a fish fry dinner. First haddock in 4 years! It was very exciting. And delicious! With hot chocolate once we got home, it was quite a splendid day.

Which leads us into today. Got up at 8:30 CT, ate some cereal, then set to work on setting up the printer/scanner/copier/fax machine/teleportation device. UD finally managed to get off the right panel to remove the crumpled piece of paper stuck inside, and we've been in business since then. Now Oma and AK are over here and we're having meatloaf for lunch; it's all very nice. J and Sylvie are ou for a movie tonight, I think, and I may fiddle with the printer some more.

Ooh, and there was a big thunderstorm last night. Very exciting, except for the bit where we kinda dozed through it. Never mind, it'll be better next time.

Oh, and it's 13:41 CT.

WI Day Two

Jay hanging out with Lulu our first morning.


Goodwill clothes (shorts and shirt), part 1


Goodwill clothes part 2 (homecoming dress!)

Above are jut a few of the results of yesterday's great shopping expedition. We tried Kohl's first, but Jay didn't see anything that called to her, so we hit up the large Goodwill next door. Together, we got a coat, a jersey (Packers, of course), a skirt, a homecoming dress, a top, a pair of shorts, and three hoodies. Lots of win.

Then Applebees for lunch, where is took us all a really exceptional amount of time to figure out what to order. Not that we're indecisive! There was just... a lot of stuff on the menu.

I spent a good bit of the afternoon hanging out with Oma; we took a walk through Riverside Cemetery, and I fought with her computer for a while. I think I'm going to install norton on it this afternoon, see if I can't get that to sort it out.

Had nice chilli for dinner, watched the Daily Show, chatted with Gina. Suffered through J's late-night "relationship discussions" with her (ex?)boyfriend.

Dunno quite what the plan is for today. AJ and Sylvie are off doing work/school things right now, but likely we'll see Oma and AK this afternoon. Weather here is lovely. Lake flies, not so much.

Also, time here is now 11:40. Blogger seems quite determined to keep me on Pacific Time.

WI Day One

Airport pic 1

Morning all! Jay and I are safely stowed away in the Grand Old Cheese State (GOCS?). We got up around 6:00 CT (4:00 PT), stumbled downstairs, had breakfast with AJ (and Lulu, peripherally) and are now showered and ready to head out and start the day. Have to drop Sylvie off at her camp, and then We're seeing Oma at some point. There are plans!


Airport pic 2

Flight yesterday went well- it was only 3.5 hours, nicely on time, and with no luggage (of ours) lost. They even gave us pretzels and soda! Not, you know, a can of soda or anything, but cherry coke is cherry coke. Jay dozed a lot of the flight, at least after we'd done some calculus together. Differential-equations fun for the whole family! I got a lot of sudoku puzzles done, and tested my phone's music-playing ability out to the utmost. Fun, quick, direct little flight. With pretzels!

Right, off to do...things. Bed is comfy. Dog is kept shut out of our room. Pretty red barns are rustic and kinda red. Lake is nice.

Oh! And speaking of the lake. Jay and Sylvie took a late night (22:00?) dip out in it last night. Jay: "Warm, but the air was cold. [Bugs] weren't actually on the lake, they were just everywhere on the dock."

So there's that.

edit- It is actually 7:44 here. The computer/internet is confused. Poor thing.

Please children mind the gap...

Miracle people with marvelous hair
And a knack to do anything better than anyone
I got a home with electrical air
And I live in a world
Smaller than anyone

Two years today since we moved back to the States. March 3oth, got up at around 4am for the taxi from the BnB we were staying at to the airport.


Breakfast at the BnB. Tea! And toast in proper toast racks!

I got a line on a new frontier
I got a line on a new America
All of the people are vanishing here
I could be huge,
If I could just get home

It doesn't actually seem like two years: rather longer, actually. Probably because I've done an awful lot in that time; three-and-a-half semesters of college, meeting so many new people, living in two cities and three residences (some, admittedly, longer than others). It doesn't seem...reasonable that all of that's happened in only a two year span.

I got a friend from the new frontier
And Galen, she says, this is not America
You need a girl with electrical hair
And the words that you wanted was al-u-min-i-um

Revising. Bin. Ground floor. Pants. Holiday. Layby. Sweets. All are differently nuanaced or used in ways I still have to think about. not that big a deal, and amusing more often than annoying. The funniest ones will trip you up, though. My English teacher staring at me when I referenced revising for math. Cilantro/coriander.

I'm entirely in favour of the English practice of saying "sorry" to someone who runs into you, no matter who's fault it is. Automatic apology is totally the way to progress as a culture.


Then there are the things you just can't find. Last caramel slice eaten, March 20th, 2007.

I was in bed with
The girl at the end of the world
She says I'm goin' home.
And you should come home too

Would I move back to Britain right now? No. I love Chico: the weather, my school, my friends, the professors, the atmosphere, my apartment. I like being close to my family, and especially getting to know some of them for the first time. I like being with people who are closer to being my peers than many 20-somethings in Britain would be right now. I'm very happy here

Would I move back to Britain once I've graduated, to work and/or raise a family? Yes. I miss the culture and the attitudes and the way of life. I miss the food, the sense of humor, the people. The tea. The much smaller number of people-with-guns. Agas. The lower bread prices. The more sane news coverage. The public transportation. The BBC. The proximity to Europe.


Mumsy! And an aga!

There are also heaps of US things I'm sure I would miss if I moved back. Goodness knows I love being near family and being able to get a good hamburger. But net, I think Britain wins. I like the culture more there; I think it feels more like home.


Last couple of days in Britain: out to dinner at a pub with good friends.

I'm at the end of a new frontier
Here at the edge of the flat earth ending
I'm getting off to get lost in the air
At the end of the world where the light is bending


Two years ago...


And now

My 'I Don't Have to Run' Day

Stew came out fantastic. Meat just fell apart, which was what I was hoping for but not expecting. I'd cut the potatoes into smaller hunks next time, though; they cooked through fine, but they were too big to eat without breaking them up with the spoon. Also, I'm hoping if I make a few of them quite small, they'll cook down and thicken it a bit; it was a little thinner than ideal.



Still, it tasted wonderful, the carrots cooked perfectly, and the meat turned out much better than I'd expected, having read about tough the cut it. Definitely something I'll make again. It made enough for me to have two bowls last night, plus a tupperware full for today. It was a little oily, but I was able to skim the leftovers this morning, after they'd been in the fridge overnight. Overall, though? Success!





Spence was napping when I went to take the pics, though, so these ones are from my phone. They're...a little sad, comparatively. Ah well.

Meanwhile, back in Chico, it's raining again. Still. More. I walked to campus to meet up with a friend to study for tomorrow's linear algebra test (which? not going to be fun) but she gave me a lift back (after we hit taco bell. starving mathematicians in training gotta eat). I have to run over to the student admin building tomorrow to get some transcripts ordered to send to the REU campuses that require official transcripts. And... it's supposed to rain all of tomorrow, too. Sigh.

On a lighter note, it's that time again. Yes, time for New Words Teddy Has Learned In College (the parent-friendly edition). Up today we have:

Peripatetic

Philippic

and

Rebarbative

I was going to try to go with all words that started with P, but rebarbative was too good.

Right. Words delivered, my work here is done. *Teddy wanders off to eat stew*

I can do the laundry,

and make dinner while I'm on the phone...

Saturday, day for errands and housekeeping. Started last night, really; finished the last batch of rice when I got home (from a rugby match, but that's a later story) so I made another pot. Had that for dinner, along with the last of the jar of masala sauce J got me for Christmas:


So that was nice. Only had about 1/4 of it; half went into the freezer, and the rest into the fridge for consumption in the next few days.

So, that was last night. Got up this morning at ten, went to the bank where I got quarters for the laundry that seriously needs to get done today, came home, and started...



Stew!

I bought a little over a pound of top round (labeled London Broil) steak at Winco about a month ago for two bucks; took it home, stuck in the freezer, and stared researching what it was I had purchased. I got the crock pot for my birthday last year, and haven't really had a chance to try it out. Pay no attention to the oatmeal experiment behind the curtain. Soooo, stew!



My crock pot is only...3 quarts, I think? So the amount of meat I was able to slice away from the fat on the steak was just about perfect. Put down a layer of 3 eighthed (well, quartered isn't accurate) potatoes and covered it with a bunch of Spencer's baby carrots chopped in half, about a third of a head of chopped garlic, 2 cups (or, one large Star Trek mug) of beef broth, and the meat cup up into little hunks.



So now it's sitting down on the kitchen table, cooking on high for a few hours. I stabbed the meat for a while to tenderize it (and because it was fun). Spencer was looking at me very oddly. Also, it should be noted: raw beef and coffee are not really smells that go well together.

What I really don't like about cooking with the crock pot is that I can't fiddle it; I like to mess with my food while it's cooking (stir, taste, add to, poke with spoons), and that's really not a good idea with the crock pot. Sigh. So I'm upstairs, trying to resist the temptation to take off the lid and stir the stew every five minutes.



I started at 12:45, so I'm gonna give it about 6 hours on high and then see how it's going. I don't know how many times I'll have given in and poked at it before then, though :)



Right, load of laundry is now in. Kitchen smells all garlicy, yay!

Just got an email form the other professor I asked to write me a rec letter for the summer REU programs to which I'm applying; he says he'll do it. Thank goodness. All but two of the campuses require 2 rec letters, and I've only had (minus this semester) two math professors. Now, they've both agreed. Phew. I'm applying to seven programs, including the one here at Chico. I'd be really, really happy to get accepted to even one of them, though I have no idea how many applicants they get. Hmm, need to arrange to get transcripts sent on Monday...

But, I promised a rugby story. Yesterday I had a bunch of tests, which is nice in that you can leave when you're done. So, I was loitering in the hallway, waiting for my next class to start, when a girl I know in a we-keep-ending-up-in-classes-together-let's-be-friends kinda way, saw me and bounced over. She's a bouncy kinda person, in a very non-annoying kinda way. She asked what I was doing at three, and upon learning I was free, told me I should come to see the Chico vs. BYU women's rugby match; she's on the team, and was pretty excited about it.

So, I said sure. Friday afternoon, gorgeous day, nothing better to do with my time. And... it was a lot of fun. I left a half time (rugby is played in 40 minute halfs. Who knew?) but it was fun to watch and easy to follow. Not a lot of people there, lots of really pretty dogs to pet, and I think we were winning when I left. I'll have to ask her on Monday how it went. But it was a really good time.

Right. Gotta write back to nice letter-writing professor now with pertinent info. He's really big into grad school/research/self-starters, so I had figured this would be right up his alley. Nice confirmation, though.

Hope everyone's having a nice weekend! *waves to Mom and Dad on their hol* Will post pics of the stew when it's done.