My husband is wearing his wedding ring with a rubber band tied around the inside because it falls off when it's cold. This leads directly to two conclusions: 1) he seriously needs to get that resized before he loses it and 2) I'm married!
Yes, I survived not only the wedding, but also the reception, after party at my house, and Christmas with my future step-family and my in-laws. I am now allowed to use acronyms like "DH" and MIL and... um... I think that's it. And, as a bonus for making it through the wedding and the holiday, we have found ourselves in possession of some nifty door prizes including (but not limited to) a 13 piece tri-ply stainless steel Calphalon cookware set, the meat-grinder-pasta-maker stand mixer attachment, and a new last name.
I haven't really been sure about what I wanted to do with my last name, but I finally decided to take Colby's last name as my own because I wanted to. At 22, I haven't really made a huge career based around my maiden name, so other than some annoying paperwork, I couldn't really find any compelling reasons to not change my name. Right now, I guess my name is in flux. My user name for a lot of things has become my J-lo name, which ends up being jkru, but the new name would be j-ho, much less appealing. I guess I'll keep jkru until I find something better. ;)
Since the wedding, I've been shuttling back and forth between Colby's home town and my home town. We live only an hour and a half apart, but after spending appreciable time in what is essentially a rural area, I'm beginning to understand how Colby can keep himself entertained with very little effort, whereas I need stimulus in some form or another. Thankfully they have internet. Since I've been away from my own kitchen, the closest that I've come to cooking is making Colby a sandwich about an hour ago. Most unfortunately, after we make the drive back to Austin (in a much less frenetic pace), I'll be on a plane to Long Beach, CA for the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society to present research that i should be finishing up right now instead of blogging. (Though, in my defense, I'm almost through with my sanity check and the rest is pretty straightforward.)
Later today, we're headed to East Lansing to meet up with friends before we leave and to a hotel that we've booked such that a large number of people will be able to drink and pass out. It should be fun. And, of course, the new year's resolutions include losing weight (because I'm seriously not far into post-adolescence), blogging more frequently with pictures (because I must be the only person who writes a food blog that doesn't post pictures), and rededicating myself to my studies to make sure that I at least get my masters.
31 December 2008
18 December 2008
I'm getting married in the morning...
No, like seriously, I'm getting married today.
It's kind of a surreal feeling. I'm not sure that I'm ready for a wedding, but I'm ready to be married. What I mean by that is that I've been living with Colby for six months now and we work really well together, so that's not scary. What is scary, however, is facing down 100 of my closest friends in a giant white dress. I think that if I had a couple more months, I would be able to enjoy the wedding more. At current, I'm just counting down until the ceremony is over.
I have restaurant reviews of Wasabi and Steve's Backroom. If I had to pick again, it would be Steve's hands down. More later.
It's kind of a surreal feeling. I'm not sure that I'm ready for a wedding, but I'm ready to be married. What I mean by that is that I've been living with Colby for six months now and we work really well together, so that's not scary. What is scary, however, is facing down 100 of my closest friends in a giant white dress. I think that if I had a couple more months, I would be able to enjoy the wedding more. At current, I'm just counting down until the ceremony is over.
I have restaurant reviews of Wasabi and Steve's Backroom. If I had to pick again, it would be Steve's hands down. More later.
12 December 2008
journey (the noun, not the band)
The way that I can tell that I'm about to fall asleep is when I start having a series of different thoughts that are very loosely connected and won't be able to recall thought one when I'm onto thought two. As it turns out, this is also a very good way to determine when one is no longer fit to drive... that coupled with the road signs that I was hallucinating was enough to convince me that it was time to give up the driver's seat to Colby.
We're finally in MI now, after a rather stupidly planned out trip. Though, there's one thing you should know about Colby and me before you judge our trip planning skillz: despite Colby being an old man (as he celebrated the big two three last Wednesday), we are both still young enough such that we're invicible. I've heard that this invincibility fades when you have kids, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. ;) But all proclamations of superpowers aside, we made the decision to drive from Austin, TX to Stockbridge, MI (which is midway between Lansing and that lesser town of Ann Arbor and the town where Colby (mostly) grew up :P) WITHOUT STOPPING. I'll repeat that because I've been told that anything worth saying bears repeating at least twice: we decided to make a 1400 mile drive across the country with not one stop over at a place of lodging and only one real meal break. We started at 530PM central time yesterday and we're currently about an hour out from Colby's house. We've made pit stops along the way, mostly to get gas and change drivers, but we're never doing this again. The plan for the drive back is to take our time and check out the sights on the drive down, something we never really did. I guess it'll be part of our pseudo-honeymoon... which brings me to my latest life-sized epiphany.
This trip home isn't for Christmas or for winter vacation. I've found myself at the stage of live where I truly no longer live "at home" but rather have taken up residence in some other terribly foreign place and am returning to get married, almost exactly one week from today. I guess one week and like an hour to be precise. I can barely wrap my head around the idea, but I plan to spend this week enjoying the vestiges of my childhood before they are taken away from me in an effort to encourage me to grow up. (But don't worry, Colby and I have a secret pact to never grow up all the way. Shh!)
We're finally in MI now, after a rather stupidly planned out trip. Though, there's one thing you should know about Colby and me before you judge our trip planning skillz: despite Colby being an old man (as he celebrated the big two three last Wednesday), we are both still young enough such that we're invicible. I've heard that this invincibility fades when you have kids, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. ;) But all proclamations of superpowers aside, we made the decision to drive from Austin, TX to Stockbridge, MI (which is midway between Lansing and that lesser town of Ann Arbor and the town where Colby (mostly) grew up :P) WITHOUT STOPPING. I'll repeat that because I've been told that anything worth saying bears repeating at least twice: we decided to make a 1400 mile drive across the country with not one stop over at a place of lodging and only one real meal break. We started at 530PM central time yesterday and we're currently about an hour out from Colby's house. We've made pit stops along the way, mostly to get gas and change drivers, but we're never doing this again. The plan for the drive back is to take our time and check out the sights on the drive down, something we never really did. I guess it'll be part of our pseudo-honeymoon... which brings me to my latest life-sized epiphany.
This trip home isn't for Christmas or for winter vacation. I've found myself at the stage of live where I truly no longer live "at home" but rather have taken up residence in some other terribly foreign place and am returning to get married, almost exactly one week from today. I guess one week and like an hour to be precise. I can barely wrap my head around the idea, but I plan to spend this week enjoying the vestiges of my childhood before they are taken away from me in an effort to encourage me to grow up. (But don't worry, Colby and I have a secret pact to never grow up all the way. Shh!)
05 December 2008
I'm FINISHED!
I finished a very crappy paper on the radiative feedback effects of the first stars on local star formation at about 3:00 PM yesterday and that meant that I was done. It sort of made me eternally grateful that I'm not a theorist. That looked like that was no fun to do and even summarizing a paper was a little bit terrible. After having been grilled at my talk (seriously, I don't think anyone else in that class knew what a truncated isothermal sphere was either and the Cosmology kids had a homework assignment on it!) I just wanted the day to be done and it was. I finished some meager tasks (like cleaning my desk) and got a ride home. I went home and promptly passed out at about 6:00 with minor interruptions from Colby. I awoke at 1:00 AM to find that a) I was really ridiculously sick and b) Colby had eaten all of the chocolate chips (GRR!) and so now I had to make some other type of cookie for the office birthday party. I ended up with snickerdoodles
1 3/4c sugar
1 stick butter, softened (or not softened if you have, say, a kitchenaid standmixer)
1/2 c shortening (I used 1/2 a stick of crisco, which works out 1/2 shortening, 1/2 butter)
2 large eggs
2 1/2c flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs cinnamon
preheat oven to 375. whisk together flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda. mix together 1/4 c sugar + cinnamon in a shallow dish and set aside. cream 1 1/2c sugar + butter + shortening until light and fluffy. add in two eggs and try not to spill the egg white down the side of the mixer and onto the floor. (oops). add in the eggs, one at a time, and then turn the mixer setting to low and gently add in the flour mixture. roll the dough into walnut-ish sized pieces and then coat them in the cinnamon+sugar mix. place onto parchment-lined paper for 10-12 minutes and enjoy!
I'm not sure how these turned out because I've never had *real* snickerdoodles. They've always been store bought, but as a cookie, they're pretty tasty. The next step is to try making fuckerdoodles... you know, snickerdoodles dipped in fudge. :) (also, that was totally not my idea, that's Chris' idea.)
1 3/4c sugar
1 stick butter, softened (or not softened if you have, say, a kitchenaid standmixer)
1/2 c shortening (I used 1/2 a stick of crisco, which works out 1/2 shortening, 1/2 butter)
2 large eggs
2 1/2c flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs cinnamon
preheat oven to 375. whisk together flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda. mix together 1/4 c sugar + cinnamon in a shallow dish and set aside. cream 1 1/2c sugar + butter + shortening until light and fluffy. add in two eggs and try not to spill the egg white down the side of the mixer and onto the floor. (oops). add in the eggs, one at a time, and then turn the mixer setting to low and gently add in the flour mixture. roll the dough into walnut-ish sized pieces and then coat them in the cinnamon+sugar mix. place onto parchment-lined paper for 10-12 minutes and enjoy!
I'm not sure how these turned out because I've never had *real* snickerdoodles. They've always been store bought, but as a cookie, they're pretty tasty. The next step is to try making fuckerdoodles... you know, snickerdoodles dipped in fudge. :) (also, that was totally not my idea, that's Chris' idea.)
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