happyhappy award

My bloggyfriend Vanessa from Caramel Covered photographs sent me the Happy 101 award a few days ago.

I always feel kind of cheesy talking about myself with these tags, but happiness is good, so here we go!

The rules for this one are:

1. List 10 things that make you happy.

2. Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

I have tons of things to be happy about right now, since it is Christmas Vacation!!! My most favorite time!

1. Being on break, which means spending alll day in pj's, baking cookies, reading for fun, wrapping pretty presents, and staying inside all day guilt-free when it is icy outside.

2. Getting to see some of my best friends soooooon!

3. Being in love, even if it is mostly far-away love.

4. Having fun with my silly sisters. 

5. Playing my piano, which I only get to see a few times a year!!! Even if my little sister comes up and starts banging on it too whenever I sit down.

6. Reading at night in my bed to the glow of Christmas lights

7. Being able to RUN again after months of my stupid hip injury!!! (knock on wood it is really healed)

8. Knowing that I am on the right track in life, even if I can't see the end and sometimes get frustrated with the way things are.

9. Oatmeal for breakfast, made by my slowly perfected special recipe.

10. Looking forward to New Year's maybe even more than Christmas......

Now I am supposed to "tag" 10 blogs that brighten my day, but since that includes every blog I choose to read (and every blog written by all of you reading mine, you guys are just so hilarious and inspiring) I just can't pick and choose

sooooo

I am going to cop out and tag EVERYONE who reads this and would like to keep passing on the award :) because you make me happy and keep me amused and sane.

  

home for the holidays !

                                     

[pics from my road]

I finally made it back to IL and the cornfields, after one of the top 5 most stressful bad-weather-driving experiences ever (what's up, eastern blizzard)

plus a pitstop in Indiana for the annual Dutch family Christmas gathering, during which much Heineken and  cookies were consumed,

and the Christmas light palm tree my uncle built sparkled in the front yard while the real banana tree was transplanted into the bathroom for the winter.

The weather isn't too frightful yet, but tomorrow we are supposed to get freezing rain plus regular rain, to erase the little bit of snow that is on the ground.

In preparation for being iced in tomorrow, my mom and I spent approx. 4.5 hours shopping today *whew* and I almost feel ready for Christmas!

twas the night before Christmas(break)...

...and I have another colorful recipe to share.
Not because I have been cooking 24/7, but because nothing else exciting has really happened in my life this week!

Seriously. My schedule since Monday has been: wake up, go to the lab, spend all day on Excel (I am definitely the Excel MASTER now....trust me), mayyybe work out, go home, inhale dinner, wonder how it is suddenly 9:30 pm, repeat. Uck.

Luckily, however, I hit upon inventing the most DELICIOUS soup recipe I have ever made (aka better than the only other delicious soup recipe I have ever made) and can now say, the BEST way to clear out your fridge before a long break is to cook all the produce in a pot, then blend it into a creamy soup (ala babyfood style).  In this manner, I present to you

THE BEST Butternut Squash Soup EVER

(please ignore my failed attempt to make an artistic yogurt swirl)

Ingredients:

-one butternut squash

-2 apples

-a few carrots and celery sticks

-1/2 red onion

-vegetable broth

-olive oil

-nutmeg (generous sprinkle)

-allspice(another generous sprinkle)

-salt

Directions:

-Peel and chop squash, microwave ~5 minutes until somewhat soft

-Saute onion in olive oil in your biggest pot

-Chop/peel the apple, carrots, celery

-Add the squash and rest of the chopped produce to the pot

-pour in Vegetable Broth until fruit/veg are barely covered by liquid

-simmer away while you make a quick batch of Pumpkin Cornbread

-Season soup with salt, nutmeg, allspice to taste

-Blend in a blenderrr in batches until creamy, adding more broth if it's too thick
-freeze leftover soup so you can eat it all winter long and never have to crack open a can of nasty Campbell's again.

Tip: when blending hot soup, DO NOT SEAL THE LID ON THE BLENDER. The hot liquid will build pressure.

Note: If you love cornbread, you HAVE TO TRY THE PUMPKIN CORNBREAD.

So yeah,

I am also driving to Indiana tomorrow to kickstart Christmas Break with a family get-together at my Aunt and Uncle's house.  Which is always craaaazy fun :)  I will also get to see my sister, who's flying in from ABERDEEN!

where she has spent the whole semester with the hot Scottish rugby players.

I have missed making fun of her so much!

There is also supposed to be a snowstorm tomorrow. Of course. Hopefully I can outdrive it!!!

Speaking of driving, I have definitely NOT had a chance to clean my apartment or pack at all OR (worst of all) check out new books on tape since finishing finals.

AHHHHHH

oh well.

[rainbow pic by sistah, edited by moi :)]

red cabbage is my new favorite color

I get so excited when I'm cooking with vivid foods...especially PURPLE ones. Like eggplants.

Avocados are nice too. I've never chopped up a red cabbage before but I HIGHLY recommend it, purely for the aesthetical value :) They are so pretty on the inside! Purple and white swirls. I only refrained from a cabbage photo shoot because the lighting in my galley kitchen is horrible for pictures. Tonight I made this warm red cabbage salad and it was delicious.  Sort of like, sauerkraut's flamboyant cousin from Jamaica.

Dear Mama, make this recipe. Hans will die, it is that good.

Warm Red Cabbage Salad

(adapted from 101cookbooks.com)

-1/2 c. walnuts

-1 t. brown sugar

-salt

-2 T olive oil

-1 red onion, diced

-3 garlic cloves, minced

-1 pound red cabbage, cut into thin ribbons

(one small/medium cabbage)

-1/2 t. dried rosemary (or 1 t. fresh)

-2 oz. golden raisins (or generous sprinkling if you have no idea how much that is)

-1 1/2 T. balsamic vinegar

-feta cheese

-parmesan cheese (shredded)

Directions:

-roast walnuts in a dry pan on medium heat for a couple minutes

-add sugar and a sprinkle of salt, and stir until sugar melts, then immediately transfer nuts to a separate bowl

-Saute onion in the pan with olive oil, then stir in garlic and cabbage. Sprinkle with more salt.

-Stir until cabbage begins to soften (a few minutes)

-Stir in raisins, rosemary, and balsamic.  Keep cooking until it seems done (aka cabbage isn't too crunchy, but do not overcook), about 5 more minutes.

-Add feta and walnuts, and stir in the pan

-garnish with parmesan cheese

YUM

christmastime finally!

My neglected apartment is in shambles

I have fallen off the face of the earth from my friends and family (sorry!)

and I have not done ANY Christmas shopping

(I am spending all my $$ on gas to drive home, anyway.)

But I am fiiiinally DONE with my first semester of grad school!!!!

I accidentally slept in an extra 1.75 hours today but I feel like I deserved it.

Now it's off the the lab (aka "salt mines" as my advisor is calling it this week...hmm sounds like fun.)

to finish up my research-assistantshipping

(which might be busy and intense)

Starting to wonder if a lucrative career could be made out of Geography Art...

via weheartit

gingerbread pancakes

Last night I was craving pancakes for dinner, and I attempted to re-launch into the Christmas mood by creating a gingerbread pancake experiment.

The only time I've eaten real gingerbread was two winters ago at Holden, with fresh whipped cream of course :) It was delicious.

The pancakes turned out pretty good, but cooked really weird...fast on the outside and slow on the inside.

I think it's because I accidentally added too much liquid to the mix.

The spice combination worked out though.

Take a pancake recipe or mix and add

-1/4 cup molasses

-2 t. cinnamon

-1 t. ginger

-1/2 t. cloves

uninspiration

The sky today is the exact same color as my car.

silver

and there is freezing rain dumping down from it.

I wish I had artsy inspiring beautiful pictures of the world and everyone I love.

Tomorrow I have one test and three papers due,

and then lots of work in the lab for the rest of the week.

But then it will be Christmas !!

I've kind of lost the holiday spirit...

it's hard to keep it alive when you don't live with anyone to share it with.

I wish I had amazing creative personalized gifts for all my friends and family

but I don't have the time to be artsy and creative.

I've been shut up in my own little world lately, trying to cram in end-of-semester-everything

School makes you very self-centered, all you think about is yourself and all the stuff you have to learn and then prove that you know.

Winter makes me miss last year, living with my two roommates in our crappy dump of a rental house that was too perfect, even with its moldy creepy basement, because of the front porch/sunroom and the little sunny upstairs nook where we could eat breakfast and watch Charmed because it was the only thing on at 7:30 am besides the news.

And my little yellow room tucked into the eaves.

Blasting party music while getting ready to go out.

My roommates still live together, without me, but everything has changed.

I hope I can cram everything I want to do and everyone I want to see into Christmas break, because it is my favorite time of year and I feel like this one is going to go by too fast.

Also, I miss Ben.

Long distance relationships suck life, love, and happiness right out of you.

And just suck in general.

winter run

I am sorry that my posts have been sporadic, weird, and lacking pretty pictures lately!

I have been in 100% paper writing mode.

Semi-successful with it.

The difference between grad school classes and undergrad classes is that the super smart, motivated grad students (most phD already) are NOT PROCRASTINATORS!!!

Back in the "day", (i.e. last spring) my old classmates and I would pull overnighters to put together lab reports and papers the morning they were due, but my new classmates start the freakout process a week or two ahead of time.  Which then rubs off on me.

I don't know if it's better to spend a week stressing out vs. a day stressing out...

We have been hit with the blizzard that has evidently swept across the country!

I woke up to about a foot of wet, melty snow.

It's started to melt already, but tonight's going to freeze so I am expecting to wake up tomorrow to an ice world. YUCK.

Last weekend I went for my first official winter run of the season (aka it was below freezing).

I have tentatively been trying to get back into running; sometimes I feel like my hip bothers me, sometimes it feels like my OTHER hip is starting to hurt, and sometimes it is fine and I think I am hypochondriac-ing everything.  I'd just rather be safe than sorry, but I miss running SO SO SO MUCH!!!

I was never a fast or far runner but I love being outside, connecting with nature, getting my endorphin rush, and all that :) 

Nothing really satisfies my endorphin addiction like running, and running in the cold is my favorite.

GUESS WHO'S BACK?????

dun dun dunnnn....

THE MICE!!!

I can't believe it.

I start to relax, get a bit lassaiz-faire with the kitchen cleaning, turn my attention to finals week,

and they strike

violating the sanctity of my kitchen counter

sick.

Well this time, I am out to kill

2009 crow relocation program

I am in the library like a good student, trying to make more progress on the never-ending endofsemester papers, and right outside the window I hear a "whooooshBANG" like a firework or rocket or antiaircraft missile.

Luckily I know exactly what's going on (otherwise I would surely be freaked out and crying from the loud sudden bangs)

It's just the launching of the anti-crow pyrotechnic noisemakers

seriously, a direct quote from Penn State Live

photo

"The Penn State Office of Physical Plant (OPP) crow relocation program will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7, and will continue until 9 p.m. The campus community can expect to hear loud noises in the early evening as University employees launch anti-crow pyrotechnic noisemakers. These activities will continue in the evenings Monday through Friday until the crows move to less problematic locations. Pyrotechnic operations may continue for several weeks until this objective is met." (great timing, right before finals.)

"Once the crows have vacated a location, crow effigies will be hung to dissuade the crows from returning. Light towers will be erected in the targeted relocation woods east of the Visitor’s Center to make the area more appealing to crows."

In addition, the College of Agricultural Sciences is employing propane cannons at two locations, the Dairy Barns and the Organic Materials Processing and Education Center (OMPEC). These cannons produce a loud bang to scare crows away from those locations. The cannons may be used for most of the day, seven days a week throughout the rest of the fall and winter." no crows will be harmed by the detonation of the cannons

Ummm...how ridiculous is this???!??

all to avoid a bit of crow poo outside the visitor's center.

oh wait, there's even a video so the pyrotechnics can be experienced by the masses not lucky enough to be right next door.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/12/07/video_relocating_crows_on_camp.aspx

let it snow lalala

...you know you spend too many hours on excel when your wrist starts to hurt and you have to buy a mouse for your laptop to stave off carpal tunnel. agghhh.

When I woke up this morning,

it was snowing!*~*~*

Nice small December flakes. Much better than gloppy clumpy October snow.

I was in a really good mood this morning, and expressed it by snuggling up in my cozy cave apartment with Pandora Christmas music, baked apple pie oatmeal, Nutcracker Sweet tea, holiday scented candles,

and proceeded to set the mood SO WELL that I accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

But it was still fun.

Oh, I have successfully put up lights in my living room!

Hooray!

[nice camera angle that makes my ceiling look so tall! in reality it is barely over 6 feet...which makes nailing lights and painting very easy.]

Why do days go by so fast on the weekends when you are by yourself and aren't busy at all???

Tomorrow = LOTS OF PAPER WRITING!!!!!

a tiny bit what I do all day

I make maps!

 

The top one is a study site map for a project I'm working on in which we will simulate different types of fires that could burn the Yosemite Valley.  The results will be used to help managers and the Forest Service restore the natural fire conditions (aka "pre smokey the bear") and open up the gorgeous views that have been overgrown with lots of little brushy trees since we (humans) started suppressing small wildfires.  

The bottom is a map of Pennsylvania; the contour lines (aka pretty color stripes) show the depth of shale deposits below ground that contain lots of natural gas. I am digitizing the contour lines (aka turning them into digital data on the software program) so the picture can be turned into a 3D model. 

The software that geographers use to display and analyze "spatial data" like all this stuff is called ArcGIS (GIS="geographic information system")

It is NOT just a pretty map-making program.

It's like the spatial equivalent of Excel or SPSS.

All the symbols and layers of information that you plug into the data frame are linked to a table that displays the attributes (aka location, size, demographic data, anything) and you can use this data for different types of spatial and statistical analyses. 

For instance, last year I did a project comparing population growth in cities across the U.S. to water use over the past 10-20 years to see where population growth was most affecting water scarcity.

The top reason why I love geography is that I am an EXTREMELY VISUAL person.

I love being able to see where things are, how they are distributed, and understand problems through a broad spatial scale.

Landscapes, not microscopes!

happy hoo-lidays

I actually found something possibly cuter than Sheepy!

photo

Best of all, you can find them here
ADORABLE!

ta da!

I put up lights!!

and then, literally 4 seconds after I took this picture,

so excited and happy,

the lights made a big flash and blew the power to my room

they won't come back on :(

I'll have to re-try my luck with another strand, maybe after it has a chance to warm up from the storage hall.

Fa lalalala

Yay December!

photo

I am looking forward to more sparkly lights, blue tinted snowy twilights, the type of snow that falls slowly in big flakes through still air, Christmas cookies, picking my forlorn knitting projects up again, and 2.5 weeks until break!

back to school!

I am fiiiinally back in PA after a long long drive today! It was very unexciting except for my mini panic-attack as I couldn't find my camera while I was unpacking the car. EEEEEK!!!

Thank goodness it finally appeared again and was not sucked into the vortex of lost items (like my first iPod RIP)

I don't know if I am really ready to dive into the last two weeks of the semester, but I have no choice so here we go!

It was reeeally nice to relax at home and get away from school for awhile. Thanksgiving is great because you know you will get an even bigger and better holiday in just a month!  More time for sleeping in, reading books for fun, drinking gallons of hot tea and eggnog, eating way too many sweets and holiday foods, basking in the glow of sparkly Christmas lights (LOVE those xmas lights!!! I need to put some up in my apartment!), seeing old friends, and being silly and ridiculous with sisters:

Ellie this one is for you:

After the Thanksgiving festivities I roadtripped to Chicacoland to see Ben

[and that was when my camera ran away :( ]

We dove right into the Christmas season!!!!

Kind of went overboard, I realize now that I am typing this all out...

It was a quick visit but so much fun!

We listened to nonstop CHRISTMAS MUSIC on the radio! And participated in a massive gingerbread house contest at church! And went to the Glen Ellyn holiday walk, in which all the little shops downtown open for the night and pass out cookies, cocoa, hot cider, and everyone mills around under the sparkly lights lining the streets. This town is tooooo cute.  I also watched Elf for the first time and then we tried to go ice skating in Millenium Park downtown but everyone else in Chicago had the same idea so we didn't.  I wasn't even disappointed because I was evidently already saturated with holiday cheer. 

I am so sad I couldn't find my camera for Chicago!!!! It was a beautiful sunny day and I love that city. 

The Art Institute was all decked out for Christmas with really pretty leaf wreaths around the lions.

We walked through the park and across the new bridge to the modern wing that I hadn't ever seen

I'll just have to steal a picture...it obviously looks better in the summer! Now there is no green.

photo

Soooo pretty. I do not like modern art but I do like Monet :)

I could go to the Art Institute every single day; it is too overwhelming for one visit. My eyes always get so overstimulated!

aaand now I'm hoping to polish up my paper for tomorrow! (ugh)

I am too exhausted to deal with the mountains of clothes and stuff that are currently dumped in my room.

Multiple mugs of Sugar Cookie Sleighride will be consumed tonight.

Thanksgiving break thus far

Dreary November weather.

Cold, cloudy, rainy, wind sweeping over the plains like we live in OK.

I have spent way too many hours planted in front of my computer trying to drag out a paper. Homework on breaks is not good. No motivation plus no time constraints=much wasted time and mental agony.

Drinking several giant mugs of tea every day to combat dreariness and chills.

We have 25 boxes of tea at my house, I counted. Very nice.

I have started running again, and have discovered that I am very slow now.

The days are blurring together.

Today is for baking.

ways to wreck a turkey cake

My sister introduced me to the HILARIOUS blog Cake Wrecks, which features hideous and alarming cakes-gone-wrong. They do special features for all seasons! (veteran's day was good...)

Here are some of their recent posts on "top ways to wreck a turkey cake"

-"by sketching out your next art car for Burning Man"

-"by confusing turkey with Demon Snuffleufagus...from Rio"

-"by anthropomorphizing a mushroom cloud"

-"by angering the Tiki gods"

all credits to cakewrecks.blogspot.com

go there for more laughs!!!

home again, home again

I made it back to Illinois!

right before dark.

I definitely miss the cornfield skies; mountains are amazing too but they obstruct sunset colors!!!

p.s. books on tape are AMAZING

I actually had so much fun chilling in my car all day, getting wrapped up into the characters :)

Roadtrippin

ughhh I HATE packing!!!

I did not inherit my mother's and father's inherent OCD intense tetris-style packing additudes.

Maybe that's why it is a huge mental issue...I am just braced for my mom to come in, declare me a hopeless case, and unpack everything from my boxes and bags to repack so it is "better" :)

oh well.

I think I am finally ready to make the cross half-country trip home tomorrow!
(we get the whole week off for Thanksgiving! wooo)

The car is loaded with misc. objects and a case of Yuengling

(for Papa, not me... although if I get stranded and need a beer I'll be covered, bring the party...)

I have my bags packed...

snacks ready to go...

(yup definitely took me longer to prepare le rations than to pack all my clothes)

semi-trashy books on CD...

And I even swept the kitchen floor to discourage the muisjes if they happen to attempt a comeback.

(update in case you were wondering: I have NOT seen any mouse evidence since the super-trap and spray attack. Yay! for now. I am sure they will be back.)

I am going to try an experiment while driving for double digit hours all by myself tomorrow. Since I get sooo stir crazy sitting in a car/train/bus for long periods of time, I am going to drive wearing running clothes and every few hours or when I am getting sleepy pull over, find a safe looking area or fancy neighborhood and run a little bit!

I'm pretty excited for this, we'll see how it goes...I think it will be a great way to keep energized AND move around a little.

Well I'm going to eat a pumpkin scone, have a phone date and head to bed so I can get up in the "buttcrack of dawn" !!! (to quote Mr. D, HS band director)

Rainy Day

photo

Today we ended our weeks-long drought with a nice, back-to-normal PA downpour. All. Day.

It was an uneventful day; hard to believe it even happened at all and wasn't a dream

I have lots to do before my roadtrip home on Saturday eek!

procrastination

Last night I was just explaining to Ben how I don't really have "celebrity crushes" because I am only attracted to guys in real life...

But that was before my sister who is studying in Aberdeen acquainted me with the

SCOTLAND RUGBY TEAM

Just a few of them:

...so Laird-y

Hugh Grant's twin

all photos from the Scotland Rugby Team