Monday, December 10, 2007

Big Things!

Per this post, the Big Things are finally happening.

That's right.... I'm moving!!

(Not in real life, don't worry. One cross-country move a year is enough!)

But the blog is moving. To here. Re-set your bookmarks, blog-readers and RSS feeds, folks, because this is my last post here.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

One out of two isn't that bad...

When I wasn't feeling well some weekend a little while ago, I decided that part of taking care of myself is cooking yummy, healthy stuff to eat. So I set out to the store to buy all the ingredients for homemade chicken noodle soup and these ginger-pumpkin muffins. I do really enjoy foodie blogs and thought that it would be fun to take pictures of my food to post up here. (Assuming the pictures -- and the food -- turned out yummy, that is!) I chopped and chopped all the veggies for the chicken noodle soup and once that was simmering on my teeny-tiny, pint-sized stove-top, I started to make the muffins. I even took a cool "before" picture of the muffins before I put them in the oven.

The only problem was.... they looked the exact same when I took them out of the oven.

That's right. I forgot the baking soda. Both my roommate and I still ate a muffin each, but they were kind of like hockey pucks: small, round-ish, and hard. Definitely not fluffy. And because the cans of pumpkin had been on the very tip-top shelf at the grocery store, I did not have an extra can. That one can had been very difficult to get; I had to stand on the bottom shelf and then slightly jump up while lunging my arm as far to the back of the shelf to grab the one can of pumpkin that was relatively closest to the front of the shelf. Going back for another can of pumpkin would've been a sure-fire way to end up with a sprained ankle.

Luckily, the chicken noodle soup turned out delicious! The picture is below. It's definitely not nearly as nice as the incredible ones on all the foodie blogs, but I was pretty happy with it.

*Thanks, Mom, for teaching me how to make soups!! You were right; it's a good thing to know.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Thanksgiving, Part Three

Just in case you're thinking that all we did over Thanksgiving weekend was eat, here's the last of my pictures from that weekend.

We went to a hockey game on Thanksgiving night, and our Team won!! They definitely weren't supposed to, and it was a very fun, exciting game with lots of bad calls by the refs that forced our Team to be playing three-on-five a few times. Crazy. Here we are during one of the breaks between the periods:

T and I also went into downtown to see the city's landmark building that is huge. Here he is, very excited to see the building that you can only see in my hometown's downtown:

And here I am, in front of a column. The building was closed, so we didn't get to see the inside, but the outside was fun enough!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Thanksgiving, Part Two

Since we already had the huge pot of hot oil.... we decided to go ahead and fry up a few other things. We went to the store and got everything we thought would do well when battered and fried. The receipt speaks for itself:

After freezing everything overnight, we prepared the batter...

... and then set everything up by the deep-fryer...

... battered them, fried them... and they started to come out golden crispy and yummy...

... to be cut into bite-sized pieces and then quickly devoured by the entire family!

Yes, they look potentially disgusting, but the fried Twinkies were possibly the most delicious things ever. You really should try them once in your life. Once. Probably not more than that or else you might increase your chance of a heart attack by 587%.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Thanksgiving, Part One

The turkey.

In case you haven't known me for that long, you might not know that I beg my dad every year to fry a turkey for me. If you've never had a fried turkey, you're missing out. It's possibly the most succulent, moist, delicious turkey that you could ever imagine. A regular-sized turkey cooks in about 45 minutes, sealing in all the yummy juices.

All you have to do is take a turkey, inject it with some tasty juices, and spear it like this:

Once the oil is piping hot, carefully drop the turkey into the oil, hoping that you didn't fill the container too full with oil. Ours was a teeny bit too full, but thankfully not too much oil bubbled out over the edges. (Note: please, please do this outside and not in a garage... burning down your house is not a fun thing to do on Thanksgiving day... or any day, really)

Let the turkey cook in the boiling and bubbling oil. In case you're curious what that would look/sound like, here's a video (courtesy of T).



And.... voila! Your turkey should come out golden brown like ours:

Carve, eat, eat seconds, and enjoy the fried turkey.

More to come later on other things we fried after the turkey was done...

Advent

ad·vent (dvnt)n.

1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important: the advent of the computer.
2. The liturgical period preceding Christmas, beginning in Western churches on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and in Eastern churches in mid-November, and observed by many Christians as a season of prayer, fasting, and penitence.

Advent was always one of my favorite things at church when I was growing up. It meant shorter sermons to sit through, watching someone light a candle, singing Christmas carols.... oh, and yeah -- it meant that Christmas was close!

Now that I'm a little bit older (and hopefully a little bit wiser), I've been thinking more about the actual meaning of the Advent season. The desire to prayerfully await the coming of Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Christ. Just recently I stumbled upon a list of daily readings for Advent season on the website of a former church on the other side of the country, and I'm going to try to follow it. In case you're interested and would like to follow along, you can find the list here. Should be some good "grounding" amidst the craziness that is holiday parties and cookies and gift buying, etc.

Friday, November 30, 2007

So random.

What's your Christmas Elf name?





My Christmas Elf Name is




Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com



Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Christmas music!

I just realized that I put Christmas music on my work laptop -- yay!

Sleigh bells, here I come.

What is your favorite Christmas CD or song? I'm always looking for more good Christmas music.

Some of my favorites are Amy Grant's "Tennessee Christmas" album, the MW Smith album that has Chris Rice's "Welcome to this World" on it.... and oh! Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas." You can't forget that one. But in my mind, the AG album really should just be on repeat from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Come on... answer! Broaden my knowledge of good Christmas music =)

Thankful.

Yes, I know that Thanksgiving was last week.

That being said, I wanted to share the rest of my list of things that I was thankful for both last week and today:

1. Family who are not offended when I show up in the Hometown wearing sweatpants, a sweatshirt and a baseball hat after having to get up at 315AM to make a 6AM flight. Yup.

2. Getting to see T over the break -- for twice as long as our previous 2 visit weekends, which was long enough to not feel "long-distance" anymore.

3. Deep-fried Thanksgiving turkeys. More pictures to come later, but it's seriously the yummiest thing ever.

4. Not burning down the house or catching anyone on fire while deep-frying the turkey.

5. A hockey win on Thanksgiving day against the Big Bad team from the Up-North Hockey Crazy place.

6. Deciding to not get up at 4AM on Black Friday to go shopping.

7. Instead decorating the Christmas tree while listening to some quality, old-school Amy Grant Christmas music.

8. Sharing the wonders of the Lake House with T.

9. Friends who will pick you up at the airport!

10. An instrument that works... now I just need to start "doing science" again. Yikes.

11. Friends who come search for me behind the big glass window in the middle of the afternoon to see if I want to go get coffee. (S, I still really miss our walks to SBucks!)

12. Having acquired all but about 5 addresses for mailing out Christmas cards in approximately 24 hours. Now I just need to finish the cards...

13. A microwave that works.... as opposed to the old one that died the day I got back in town. Yay for Walmart.

I'll post the deep-fried turkey pictures ASAP! Happy mid-week "hump" day to all.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Thankfulness, day 2.

Things I am thankful for today:

1. Gingko trees. There were a few on my undergrad's college campus, and they were by far my favorite trees on campus. I had never seem them until going to college. They're beautiful when the leaves turn yellow, but they're tricky because all the leaves fall off within 7-10 days after they first turn yellow. So you really have to enjoy the trees when they're showing off all their golden splendor because it doesn't last for long. All that to say, there were 2 gingko trees on my walk to work this morning, and it made me possibly the happiest person in the world to realize that the Big School's campus had them too. Here's a picture from Wikipedia of a gingko tree right when it turned yellow:


2. Friends who will offer to pick you up at the airport. I have been amazed at how friendly my new friends out here are and how supportive they are of each other in terms of airport rides. My coworkers are that way too, which is such a fun thing. Moving to someplace new at the same time as others builds another fun community of those who experienced/survived the move together.

3. California life. It's gorgeous here today. Some days life here feels like a dream. Seriously.

4. Gingerbread lattes.

5. Music. I've been listening to the new Caedmon's Call CD a lot recently. It's incredible. I'm really glad that they brought Derek Webb back for it.

6. Getting to see T tomorrow!!!!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Thankfulness.

In preparation for Thanksgiving this upcoming Thursday, I want to use this week to reflect on what I am thankful for in my life -- and to share them.

I've been thinking about this on-and-off all day long in anticipation of writing this post. I am thankful for my family. And my friends -- new and old. And T.

The thing that I find myself thankful for today is something that I didn't expect when I first starting thinking about this: hymns. Yes, you read that right: hymns. I am thankful for hymns, for the people who wrote the words, for the people who wrote the music, and for the people who are updating some of the music today. Hymns take the critically important pieces of faith and boil them down to poignant truths that I always need to hear. Thus I am very thankful for the way that God works through hymns.

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found; / He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground, / Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all— / Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh, / Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness, / Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died, / The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid— /
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay, / Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day, / Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory, / Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine— / Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death— / This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath, / Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man, / Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home— / Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

Beautiful. Just beautiful. What are you thankful for today?

Saturday, November 17, 2007

I'm ba-ack!

That's right... I'm back. The previously alluded to Big Secret is still in the works, but I have done my "fall cleaning" and all my blog posts are back up.

What's been going on here? A lot.

I spent a week in Salt Lake City at an academic conference and gave a presentation on my research. I saw some interesting work presented there, which was good. It made me excited to do a really good job finishing up my project and getting my Ph.D. -- and then to find a slightly different research field. It's nice to remember that there are areas of research out there that exist outside of my small, narrow field.

The highlight of SLC, however, was getting to spend the week hanging out with one of my best friends from my previous life in the Big City. She's one of those friends that you can just "be" with so comfortably and easily. So fun. I miss her a lot!

SLC was my first trip out of town from here other than going back to see T. It was weird coming back home and not having him here; for some reason it felt like he should've been here. Long-distance is not fun!

On the flight back from the conference, the girl sitting next to me pulled our her NAIL POLISH and started to paint her nails. Um, hello? Noxious fumes? Small, confined space? Not the best idea. What would you have done? I kindly asked her if she minded waiting until she got off the plane after she was through about three nails; she was really nice and apologetic about it. But still...

Then this week has been a super-social, "Jennifer-has-crawled-back-out- from-under-a-rock" type week. But in the good way. I haven't felt that my extroverted side was exhausted. IT was exercised, but not worn out. It was also really good to get back out and continue building my relationships here. I still am amazed at the providence of God in the community that is here. I feel like I haven't been giving my all in terms of engaging with that community and building up relationships, so I want to work on that. I need to learn to be a little bit less guarded with my evening, not-at-work time. I also need to learn to be more productive during my at-work hours so that I can be more giving of my nights. So much to learn. Life is fun!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Winner!

And.... after a very scientific random drawing (pulling a name out of a hat), the winner of the giveaway is JGR! I'll be in email contact with you....

Thanks everyone for playing!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Where did all the blog posts go?

In case you didn't notice, a lot of my blog posts are currently missing. In anticipation of Big (shhh! SECRET) Things that are happening in the next few months, I'm doing some fall cleaning. Don't worry, I'll be back within a few weeks.

And yes, I did survive yesterday's earthquake! It actually was kind of fun.

Fall, Y'all Giveaway!

Wow; I never imagined that I would get this many comments. Due to a variety of reasons, an executive decision has been made, and this giveaway is now closed as of 8AM PST on Wednesday. Thanks for playing!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

It's my first giveaway EVER as a blogger! Shannon, over at Rocks in my Dryer, is hosting the "Fall, Y'all Giveaway" -- the fall version of one of the biggest "carnival" giveaways out there in the blogosphere. (Right, I know. I just used the word "blogosphere." Sorry.)

So what am I giving away? I recently came across an extra copy of the book The Call by Os Guinness. As I am just now starting to get into the book, I can personally say that it's a good one. If you want to check it out, you can find it on Amazon here.

How do you win? To be entered, please leave a comment on this post and include the name of the book you read during high school that was your favorite. I'll close the comments on ... just closed, sorry!, and I'll pick a random number/name out of a hat on Saturday. Please make sure that your email address is accessible in your comment (as in, if you're not a blogger, please leave "joebobsmith [at] gmail [dot] com" in your comment as well). Offer is open to US residents only, and I'll pay postage! Oh, and I'll throw in a copy of one of my favorite mix CD's, so you can also include the name of your current favorite song if you'd like.

So, come out, come out.... and comment! I know everyone likes free stuff.

(Oh, and if you're interested in entering other giveaways for other cool free stuff, check out the Fall, Y'all Giveaway link above!)

Monday, October 29, 2007

Home again, home again.

I'm back from the Big City and currently buried knee-deep (actually, probably at least chest-deep) in work. I'll write more later about what it's like to visit a place you just moved away from 2 months ago. (The short answer: interesting but really weird.) Happy Monday to all!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Reading material.

I'm heading to the Big City this weekend to see T (Thursday through Sunday!) I am not happy to be exchanging this gorgeous, sunny 85 degree weather for rainy, grey 45 degree weather, but my excitement about spending the weekend with T makes up for the less-than-optimal weather.

I am quickly becoming a California girl.

But I don't want to leave you with nothing to read while I'm gone. So here are several fun, interesting and/or thoughtful links for your reading pleasure:
  • If you've seen the news recently, you've probably heard about the Southern California wildfires. Mary has been blogging in the midst of the fires, and she has some incredible pictures. Check them out.
  • Poignant post about rain that reminded me that sometimes hard times make you feel more alive.
  • Has everyone found Postsecret? If not, you can find it here.
  • Curious about what the life of a PhD student is really like? Please check out PhD comics. You can find the latest comic here, and some of my favorites (that are very, very true to real life) are this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one.
  • Last but not least, my next new recipe to try. It's that pumpkin-y time of the year!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

On being green.

I had a haircut appointment yesterday in the Big School's downtown at 10am at a new place. Well, new to me since I'm new to the area. Since it wasn't that far off campus (please note that the Big School's campus is over 8000 acres! So "off-campus" a good walk.), I decided to bike there and then to work instead of driving there and back before biking in to work. I felt very, very "green" today as I biked into downtown, and also very happy to have survived my first bike ride off campus! It also was a gorgeous, sunny day where I could bike in jeans and short sleeves very comfortably, which helped. The only bad part of the whole excursion was realizing that I had to put my bike helmet on over my newly cut and styled hair.... oh well, better safe than not!

But seriously, I felt like the environment loved me.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

SO COOL.

I finally sat down and tried the "photo stitch" program that came with my digital camera. It's an incredibly simple way of creating huge, sweeping landscape-type pictures that are actually a combination of multiple pictures.

It is perhaps the coolest thing EVER.

Here are my three photo-stitched pictures (click on the picture to enlarge it):

From the Bonnevile Salt Flats

At Muir Woods National Monument:

Sunset over the entire Bay Area while camping this past weekend at Mt Diablo State Park:

Monday, October 22, 2007

Camping!

What did you do this weekend? Something fun?

I went camping!

If you know me, you know that I'm a beginning camper. As in, I like to camp but only at real campsites where I'm not required to hug a tree. Which is an opinion that I was threw out when a few guys in the lab started talking about us all going camping. Thankfully, the great state of California has some incredible state parks with beautiful, well-kept campsites...

... including a park that is supposedly the largest state park in California, and which has (again, supposedly) the largest viewshed (area of land you can see from one point) in the world, next to Mt Kilimanjaro. Plus it's only an hour away! So off went the entire lab, on our first California outing.

First thing after setting up our tents: hiking! We went up to this ridge first:

Where T(m) found out where helium balloons go to die.

Me at the top of the ridge at the beginning of the hike:

Between the ridge and the summit, I found my new favorite tree in all of California under which I want to have a picnic:

And finally, we made it to the top! Here I am with M with one of the beautiful vistas behind us (looking south).

And now with the view looking towards Nevada behind me (and lots and lots of wind!)

Our two fearless camping organizers (J and T(m)).

The whole group at the very top of the summit.

The view of sunset from under my 2nd favorite tree on the mountain.

A better view of the sunset.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sunset! (Sightseeing, part 3 of 3)

(Last in this three-part, long-overdue series of my birthday weekend events!)

The last super-fun, totally-California thing that T and I did when he was here was going to the beach to watch the sun set over the ocean. We'd watched the sun rise over the Lake before I left the Big City, and now we were pumped to see it set over the Pacific. We found a great bench at Super-Close Bay overlooking the water, and.... ta-da:





Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Tall, tall trees (Sightseeing, Part 2 of 3)

(Side note: This is the 2nd of 3 posts from my b'day weekend escapades.)

Once we got to the north side of the Big Bridge, our destination was to see the redwoods! We only had a little over an hour to spend there, so we just did the quick loop around the main section of the park. I would love to go back and spend a lot more time there someday!

Here's T by the entrance to the park:

We stopped to take a picture by the tree along the main path that has most of its innards hollowed out. It seemed a little too cheesy to actually stand inside the tree for the pictures, so here we are in front of it:

Look how tall the trees are! This picture doesn't even do it justice.

The tree that we're standing in front of here is over 1000 years old!

View of the trees when you look up: