It makes me feel old, but I don’t remember the luxury of google docs when I was in undergrad. But now that I’m back in school, it seems like this is the way to conduct all group projects. And is just me, or does it remind anyone else of the old TV show Ghostwriter when you can see someone else in your group typing in the document??

Pretty Baby, Ugly Baby

It seems like a lot of my friends and “friends” (= bloggers that I follow and feel like I know, but obviously have never met) are having babies these days. Seriously, everyday there are more baby pictures taking over my facebook news feed! And while some are totally adorable and make me smile, some are just not attractive. At all. And it kinda makes me feel bad for their parents / my friends.

So then I wonder why some babies are born without the gift of physical attractiveness. I guess some of them grow out of it and become cute, because the proportion of ugly babies to ugly adults doesn’t seem to be constant. And do their parents realize that they’re ugly? Probably not. So I suppose we should all learn to smile and wave at all babies, regardless of level of cuteness, and not react as did Kramer

Canine Canines

This is regarding your dog’s dental care. Harley went to the vet today for a dental exam. Apart from having a lot of teeth worn down to nothing, the others all are in good shape…. except for one infected bad guy who needs to come out. So there goes $500….. yuck. Harley is grateful that I have a few work opportunities this semester, so he doesn’t have to go out and get a job

Read ‘em and Leave ‘em

And to end this random collection of thoughts… I have had an explosion of magazine subscriptions in 2012, thanks to air miles that aren’t enough to buy a plane ticket, but can buy me lots and lots of magazines. I now subscribe to Time, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Better Homes and Gardens, Real Simple, New York Magazine, Health, and something else I’m forgetting. The stack on my nightstand is getting insane! The rare moments I get for leisure reading have been consumed by books (and I have stacks of those too!), and the magazines were worried about their impending neglect.

Then I had a thought. Cardio machines at the gym are a great use of magazine-reading time. It’s also a motivator to get me to the gym. And the best part? It forces me to stay on the machine until I go through the magazine cover-to-cover, after which I can leave the magazine at the gym for the next exerciser. Win-win! No more piles of magazines around my apartment, and no more pounds creeping up on me… (hopefully!)

My biochem textbook arrived in the mail
Biochem will likely be my most challenging class this semester. Lucky for me, I have two more biochem classes after this one to savor.
So… our first exam is two weeks from today, and I have yet to really start studying. I’ve been rationalizing this procrastination by the fact that my textbook still hasn’t arrived in the mail, so how can I possibly study?
And then I opened my mailbox today and there it was. Wrapped in brown paper, rolled up and stuffed sideways in the mailbox. Ready to be helpful. I hope! We’ll see how successful my studying goes. I foresee many flashcards in my future….

I started back up with my personal trainer
My last training session was December 6. So yeah… that’s been 6 weeks. Now, I haven’t been completely sedentary in that time. There were regular dog walks, a nice bike ride with my dad, and a few sessions with free weights. So getting back to a “real workout” won’t be that bad, right?
Wrong! We started with a few sets of squats, and then added the cable-weight-machine-thing and my quads completely locked up. hahaha. Sad.

I’m still emit “old” vibes
All of you who know me are well aware of my “old lady” persona. The fact that I wear matronly clothes, enjoy friday craft nights, am almost always fast asleep by 11pm, avoid alcohol and foul language, and lack in the hair and make-up department. Oh, and how about that AARP has already made me a membership card…. TWICE!
Well today continued the trend. A friend discussed with me his new idea for a tattoo. My disapproval for tattoos has always been clear, but evidently he had really thought this one through and felt it wouldn’t be a meaningless/regrettable choice of body art. Quote of the day? I just feel like if I can get your approval on this tattoo, that I’ll be able to get my mom to approve.
Classic.

Whole Foods sells clementines in bulk
So maybe this isn’t a huge deal to you, but it is for me. I HATE having to buy 3 or 5 pound containers of clementines, only to find that I took home a bad bunch. While I love sweet, juicy, clementines, I feel like lately there have been more dry, sour ones instead. I always think to myself, Gee, why can’t we just buy them by the pound, like every other fruit? And then… I stopped at Whole Foods today on my way home from the gym, and it was like they read my mind. There they were – a huge pyramidal display of Spanish clementines, just 99 cents a pound. I picked half a dozen or so that looked like winners to me, and have them sitting on my counter (in Pyrex… of course).

And so… that’s my day in a nutshell! Hope you’ve all had a wonderful Wednesday

* (because 7 is my lucky number)

• the maintenance man coming by this afternoon to fix my toilet and shower
• Trader Joe’s amazing pesto pizza for dinner
• comfy christmas gifts from the boyfriend (sweater, scarf and pillow pet!)
• my 3 hour class this afternoon finishing an hour early!
• possible part-time employment this semester
• discovering Amazon’s trade-in program and making over $40 this afternoon!
• my korean planner serving me well in these first days of 2012

We finished 2011 with a bang! Nice to be home with the family, watching the New Year’s celebrations on TV.

I baked my last treat of 2011, courtesy of Southern Living’s recipe: Chocolate Velvet cupcakes with Browned Butter Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. Delicious!

We spent our last day of 2011 doing fun things such as thrifting and antiquing – where I picked up my first piece of Danish Kobenstyle enamelware! The New Boy asked if I was starting a “new collection”. haha. Tempting as it may be, I rarely see this stuff, nor do I have the money or space for a new collection! In the meantime, I love the color of this piece, and can envision some pretty yellow flowers inside!

  I still have a few days left in TX before we load up the Matrix and head back to NC for the next semester. My sister has volunteered to make the trip with me – so a nice sister road trip is in the works!

No specific resolutions for 2012 – I might work on monthly goals instead. My planner is already excited for daily use

Happy New Year’s everyone!

It finally got cold here (under 50 degrees) today, just in time for Christmas. My Minnesotan grandmother is visiting this year for Christmas, and cannot believe how much Texans overdress. Honestly, I am a little surprised at runners wearing tights and fleece headbands when it’s still 55 degrees. Really?

Things have been going well here. Nice to have the family together and school over. My sister, now a college graduate, is frantically looking for jobs until she starts grad school next fall, and is not enjoying my scheduling/controlling of holiday activities. She vetoed the gingerbread village activity! The horror…

In tradition with Christmas Eve, Jenna and I do our best to prepare a variety of appetizers while we watch a movie. This year, the film chosen was “Midnight in Paris”, and the menu will include:

• baked brie
• sausage balls (Dad’s request)
• mini quiches (the only thing that remains on the menu every year)
• pierogies
• nut logs (a new dessert – looks like baklava but in roll form?)
• fruit plate

I’m currently listening to my grandma’s “Crooner Christmas” CD while proofing dough for cinnamon rolls. Every year, I have big dreams goals of baking something wonderful for Christmas morning. And yet, each year something seems to go wrong. Like the year I wanted to bake cinnamon rolls from scratch and left out the yeast. Or the year I made this huge strata, with too much nutmeg, to the point that no one would eat it. haha.

This year… I’m putting all my hope in Pioneer Woman and making a small batch of her acclaimed cinnamon rolls (although the family has voted for cream cheese frosting instead of her maple variety). Wish me luck!

I’ll leave you with some pictures of the dogs. Did I mention that there are 6 dogs in the house this holiday season? This includes the family trio (Sheff, Neuman and Annie), my Harley, Jenna’s Sullivan, and the current foster Buttercup, who is recovering from surgery this week. It can feel like a boarding kennel here sometimes, but we’re managing

she makes the cone look good, right?

if the dog beds are all full, lay on the stairs

Merry Christmas everyone!

1. Today is the first day of my winter break!
2. The sun is out
3. I started by day with a Dunkin Donuts latte, using a coupon
4. Breakfast was delicious, homemade french toast
5. My DVR is full of my favorite shows ready for my viewing
6. I addressed all my Christmas cards, ready to send
7. Holiday-themed postage stamps
8. Pulling out my new 2012 planner from Korea and starting the fun of organizing/decorating
9. The New Boy puts a smile on my face
10. Dinner out tonight, courtesy of Groupon
11. Getting to see my mom this weekend

What is making YOU happy today?

As soon as Thanksgiving is over, I find it acceptable to listen to Christmas music. Which is a relief, because for the past few weeks, while driving in my car I have had to skip over my radio presets #2 and #3 because they had already switched over to holiday music.

Today is a misty day outside (slightly London-ish) and has been perfect for studying and getting ready for the end of the semester.

I’ve had Spotify on my computer playing Michael Buble’s new Christmas album, as well as the Christmas album from She & Him. I have my Christmas decorations up in the apartment and several new Christmas candles ready to burn.

Ohhhh.. and a big screen TV!

Yup. I inherited the nice 42” SONY flatscreen from the farm, as an excuse for my Dad to upgrade to a 46”. Not a bad hand-me-down at all! We got it set up last night when I returned to Chapel Hill, as well as my holiday decorations.

Today has mostly been filled with studying. And laundry. And a 3rd trip to Walgreens to finally get our Christmas pictures. I won’t post it on here, because that would ruin it for those of you who will get one in your mailbox. Harley is recovering from a sweet potato tater tot – induced vomit, but is otherwise doing well. He’s now sporting a Christmas-green bandana.

Today I had a nice little to-do list all ready to go.

First up, take Harley to our locally owned pet shop “Phydeaux” to pick out his 1 year rescue anniversary present. Yes, one year ago today my mother found Harley, dying on the side of our road in Tennessee. Today he’s a healthy, thriving boy, a registered Canine Good Citizen who makes everyone smile when they see him.

So… we headed out for a walk (I love that I can walk everywhere here!) and got to the store… only to see CLOSED. Harley’s head dropped in disappointment.

OK, not really. We just walked home. (and made a mental note to check store’s hours)

A few hours of studying later, I headed out for my dentist appointment. Excited that I could walk to the dentist’s office too, I set out. I got to the building, found the office number on the directory, but discovered an empty office with no name. iPhone came to the rescue, and told me that the dentist had MOVED location, to the other side of Chapel Hill! So now…. walk back to my apartment, get in the car, call the dentist and tell them I’m running late, and drive to new location. Thankfully, I made it in time and was able to get my cleaning and exam without having to reschedule. I had the usually lecture on flossing, but other than that was giving the thumbs’ up.

Next, I drove to Walgreens to pick up Harley and my Christmas card photos. Drove 10 miles to the Walgreens (Chapel Hill skimps on a lot of chain stores… the only Walgreens is right in campus with no parking), only to discover that I didn’t bring my photographer’s copyright notice with me, so the nice Walgreens employee cannot release the photos to me. Ugh.

At this point, I was just mad. 3 strikes in 1 day. Not acceptable! Turns out though, Dunkin Donuts was just next door, and 6 glazed munchkins seemed to make things feel better. Emotional eating? Yes. A dietitian emotionally eating? Yes. It happens.

The new Boy in my life (that’s a WHOLE other story…) was helpful via text messages, reminding me to keep breathing when I told him I wanted to “punch something” (not really… that would just end up hurting my hand). But really… a donut does the trick

So… I took Harley back to the pet shop when I got back (he won another walk so he was happy). He picked out a large beef saddle bone, and some peanut butter chewy treats. And in a few more hours, after I’ve gotten some more studying done and perhaps contemplated dinner, we will head out to Walgreens for our second attempt.

And tomorrow I get to drive 6 hours to the farm and enjoy Thanksgiving with the family.

Keep breathing everyone. The holidays fly by, but let’s enjoy it and not let the little things get in the way!

Here’s a little update:

• Fall is here and the colors are beautiful! Here’s a picture from our (Harley + me) trail walk yesterday:

• School is winding down for the semester (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it is “gearing up to start winding down”). There are still a bunch of exams, projects, presentations to get through in the next 2 weeks, but then we can coast for a while. And did I fail to mention that I have a full month off from school! I haven’t had a month off since middle school in Australia, and that was only because it was our summer break!
• How amazing is it that Thanksgiving is in less than 2 weeks!? This year, my family is back at the farm, just the 4 of us, along with 3 canines. Harley has been told he will get to meet his insane cousin, Sullivan, and I don’t think he’s quite sure what to make of him:

• And I suppose, if Thanksgiving is just around the corner, than Christmas is sneaking up right behind. Since we’re not exactly rolling in the money anymore, Harley and I will be channeling our inner Martha Stewarts again and making some homemade gifts. Did I mention that we’ll also be driving 20 hours back to Texas for Christmas? So exciting
• As for this weekend, there are social plans (dim sum, a cappella, etc), and scholastic plans (learning a statistical programming language, critiquing an epidemiological study, and writing a presentation on new federal policies regarding school nutrition). Hope you all have a great weekend!

I dislike:

• finding a hole in my “new” (=thrifted) pair of jeans
• researching auto insurance policies
• being stood up at a coffee shop for my summer internship interview
• my passive aggressive DVR spontaneously deciding not to record Glee
• my professor spilling her beverage on our group’s 5 page paper in class

I like:

• finding out that my classmates all wear thrifted clothes too
• settling on an auto insurance policy, and getting a discount for paying in full
• spontaneous dinner at whole foods with the roommate
• brian williams deliver the nightly news
• the incredible power behind my apartment’s heating unit
• planning a holiday potluck for fellow grad students
• finishing some major projects and tests this week, and the free time that comes along with such accomplishments