What I do While I am Sitting in Class

Work email
Fun email
Blog Surfing
Facebook
Raise my hand and answer a question
Make a list of all the weekend activities going on until Christmas
Count to 100
Take some notes
Wish I had brought something, anything to eat for dinner
Talk myself into staying past break
Talk myself into leaving after break
Leave after break.

Oh yeah...I did. And it was amazing.

Automatic Smile Recognition

Our new camera has this great little feature called: automatic smile recognition.

It is pretty much exactly how it sounds. The camera doesn't snap the photo until it senses the subject smiling.

The problem...THIS is how you have to smile to get it to register:

Apparently there is such a thing as useless technology.

Unless of course the purpose is to evoke totally ridiculous pictures.

Nigella Express: Episode 20 AND 21

You read that right. This is a Two for One blog post. Nigella is no longer being neglected. We broke out the 'crowd-pleaser' recipes for the trip up North and tested two recipes out on Mom and Dad.

Nate and I love anything with avocado in it, so it was just a matter of perfect timing for us to break out the Roqamole recipe.

Normal quac is good, so imagine adding in bleu cheese, sour cream and some paprika. Delicious. And I don't even really like bleu cheese that much.

The next night we tried out Nigella's Party Popcorn recipe. We had a little bit of a sugar clumping issue, but all in all it was pretty good. Very holiday tasting...

Nate and I are starting up Soup Sunday again now that it is officially soup season, so stay tuned!!

Gone Fishing

We just returned from a good three days up North with my parents. It is always a very fun and relaxing time filled with lots of fishing and good food. This year I was slightly detached from the relaxing with some work and school stuff going on, but it was still great to get away.

Of course my favorite part of fishing involves picking out the prettiest jig to use.

I call this one "barbie":
Debra and Alex will be super impressed to know we taught my Mom how to play Settlers of Catan and Set. She was all about Set....was actually practicing by herself. I sense a good Christmas idea. We also amped up Killer Bunnies with the Orange and Purple booster pack. Things are starting to get out of control for the Carrot Quest.

Anyway, enough dorky stuff.

The vacation was great. Nate got some SERIOUS grief from my Dad for having to accompany Katie and I on the Christmas in the Ozarks trip. I am pretty sure the phrase: "If you ever see me in Branson, you have my permission to club me" came directly from my Dad's mouth.

We hit the weather jackpot, and it couldn't have been more gorgeous. Morning and Night.

Sweet Sweet Technological Innovation

I arrived home at 9:30 tonight after a long (and weird) day at work, an uber boring class where I was lectured at for literally 3 and half hours straight, only to be greeted by Nate slowly moving side to side with something in his hand.

What is this tiny little black gadget that is unfamiliar to me? None other than our wicked cool new camera. I wish I could explain to you how many steps back of photography evolution we took when we moved to our old camera after breaking ours.

The new features are blowing my mind..."burst mode," panoramic mode, video, settings for a whole host of picture opportunities (INCLUDING a gourmet food setting....Nigella eat your heart out).

So as I moved through the new settings I found one whose icon was a cat head. I asked Nate what it was for and he said "It's an animal setting for fast-moving animals."

Well of course, our only animal is Lucy, and I would put money on no one classifying her as "fast." I think it is fair to say her motto to life is: it's not a race, it's a marathon. But I digress.

I grab the camera and snap our light-on-her-feet kitty...

Here is the before shot (read: shotty camera)

Here is the after shot (i.e. sweet new camera)

Such better natural lighting, sharpness, oooohh...so happy.

Oh, I can feel the excitement building for our next food post, but you all are going to have to wait. We are leaving for vacation tomorrow night after class!

Badgerland

I headed to Madison on Thursday to recruit some new Badger talent for work. All employers were greeted with a welcome packets, nametag and a jug of Purell. I am not a germ freak by any sretch of the imagination, but with all of the hype about germs, and after shaking about 100 sweaty hands, I am pretty certain I am going to get the swine flu.



After recruiting was done, I was lucky enough to get to hang with Rachel the rest of the night. Driving through campus, I had crazy urges to roll down the window and yell "You don't know what you have" to students walking to class, students strolling on State Street on a Friday night, people laying on Library Mall, pretty much anyone living in Madison.


Ugh. How can I miss college so much? It is definitely one of those 'if I knew what I know now back then...' moments. The reality is I say I would study less, work less, party more, study abroad, take more risks, but I wonder if I really would? I like to think I would, but the question would remain would I be where I am today if I had taken that path.



If someone could just please invent a time machine we could put this theory to test. With the weeks I have had at work, with school, I would be willing to jump in that time machine and go back to a time when the most I had to worry about was studying for a test and making it to class on time.



I'm glad Rachel still lives there so I can go back to visit her and live vicariously through her Madison life. Who knows...maybe we'll end up there some day.

**New camera arrives Monday...get excited!

Nigella Express: Episode 19

The pressure and guilt for our lack of Nigella participation continues to grow. It isn't that the recipes don't look good because they do, but it just seems like they require too many weird ingrediants, or I'm never in the mood for anything in the book. Let's be honest for something that is supposed to be one new recipe a week, and us only being on Episode 19 put our failure in black and white right up in the subject line.

Well, with this week being how it was (i.e. steamrolled over me) I was a sucker for her "Presto!" section and Nate and I tried our hand at Mexican Scramble.


EPIC visual fail. I'd like to blame it on our ancient camera (new one comes Monday!) but I don't think it can all be attributed to the camera unfortunately.



Nate thought it was good. I thought it was gross. He ate mine. And I ate some Ritz Crackers and a fudgesicle.

My Iron Man

Nate accomplished what many never will even attempt on Sunday when he completed his first half Iron Man.

I could not have been prouder of him through his 1.2 mile swim, 54 mile bike and 13 mile run.
It was a beautiful day for spectating, but hot as all get out for the competitors. I can't imagine what it takes to keep someone going through 6 hours of physical endurance. The will and strength to succeed and finish must be so great.

My country roots couldn't help but to capture this pituresque scene in rural Minnesota. Reminded me of good old Viroqua.

The run was ridiculous. It was a half-marathon on the side of an uber hilly highway with cars speeding past all of the runners. I kept thinking the organizers of the course should have made them all keep their bike helmets on while running, but then they would have all looked a little like Special Ed from Crank Yankers....ahh I am aging myself.


Anyway, back to the superstar...Nate plowed through the run and didn't quit. Here he is bringing it up the last hill into the home stretch:

I admire my husband for his courage to try, his attitude to start, and his perseverance to finish. He didn't quit. He didn't falter. He didn't even ask for my iPod. And I offered it to him every 2 miles.

Here he is with the buddy he trained with showing off his much greater manliness amount of chest hair. Oooo...so sexy. We have a sew job for Mom too because Nate's jersey took a rough beating out there...
Congrats Honey...I am amazed by you and can't wait to see what you do next.

The Early Bird Gets the Book

Library book sales are one of the best things in the whole world. Walking out of the library, I seriously felt a little bit like a pirate with all of my loot. And I also felt a little like a thief because of the ridiculous amount of books I got for nothing.

Look at the titles! The authors! Kate Furnivall, Sara Gruen, Lisa See, Amy Tan, Joshilyn Jackson, Ken Follett----all authors of books that I have previously read and adored.



But you see at the library book sale you pay $.50 a book. FIFTY CENTS. You can't even buy a candy bar for that anymore.



Which means that I got 24 books for $12. Or to bring this point home, less than I would pay for ONE book at Barnes and Noble new.



Do I need these books? No.

Do I care? No.

Does this curb my insane urge to buy a book everytime I am in Target, Costco or any other store that maybe just maybe sells some books? Yes.

You Know What Really Gets My Goat?

Broken cameras that make my blog boring.
People who don't walk up the escalator.
Or down for that matter.
Slow internet.
Minnesota drivers.
Spoiled (aka wasted) produce.
People who ask questions in class when it is clear the Professor is wrapping up and going to let us leave early.
Empty yogurt containers left all over the house.
1/8th full water bottles left all over the house.
Writers block.
When I dream up a great idea for a blog post or i-phone app and don't get around to doing anything about it.
Reading bad books.
That sometimes I get so wrapped up in work that I can't decompress to enjoy the night.
When you pay to go to a movie and the reel gets off so that the picture is cut off or the mouths don't match up with the words you are hearing.
When the first full-day Friday includes a meeting until 4:30. Who does that? Assholes.

Honest Scrap

So, Emily of This Family Squish, must be adding in her own brilliant narrative over what I write when she reads my blog because she recently doled out the "Honest Scrap" Award to my blog. No seriously, this girl makes me cry like twice a week when I read her blog because she is such a good writer.) Which of course means another fun blog game that includes an honor from fellow bloggers.

Here are the rules:
A. Choose 7 blogs that I find brilliant in content or design.
and then:
B. Show the 7 winners’ names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they have won the Honest Scrap award. [Like Emily I'm not doing that part... if you are one of my nominees and you want to participate, take this ball and run. If you have other things that you'd prefer to blog about and time is of the essence, I completely understand.]

Drum Roll please....Here are my 7 blogs of brilliance:
1.Smitten Kitchen

2. Fresh 365

3. Popcorn With a Splash of Vodka

4. Bubble Tea For You and Me

5. Just Being Frank

6. Leslie Miles

7. Think Like Maxwell

C. List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

1. When I eat Wheat Thins I have this weird urge to chew up the crackers and then spit the chewed up cracker back onto another cracker. Hey..it said honest.

2. I sometimes measure out salt or sugar in my measuring spoons and then don't wash them.

3. I like popping blackheads.

4. I worry too much and know that I overshare during those times of worrying. But I also recognize my truest friends accept that about me.

5. When I am bored in class I start by making my to do list for the entire week (like what nights we have stuff going on, when I'm doing laundry, etc..really exciting stuff like that) and then if I am still bored I make a 5 year plan (when I will be done with school, when I will rotate, when we will travel, buy a new car, have babies...etc). Anal, over-organized and totally unrealistic...yet theraputic at the same time.

6) I miss show choir and theatre from High school and really want to try out for community theatre.

7) I have no morsel of regret completely rocking any spiders world with bug killing powder, spray or any household cleaner that may be available.

8) I hold myself to really high expections...and I hold those around me to those same standards which gets me into trouble sometimes.

9) For being raised on the statement: Life isn't always fair, I have taken an odd stance on being the "justice police" in random situations and being outspoken on some weird stuff.

10) I am scared to fail. So much so that I will admit that just to fulfill my 10 honest things about myself and complete this blog game.

Reading, Writing and...Ethics?

That's right. It's back to school for me tomorrow.

Yippee!

That is me pretending it will be super exciting in hopes that it actually will be. In all honesty, I am not completely dreading the return of school, mostly because it is my LAST FALL SEMESTER EVER.

I graduate in May and hope that I will be done FOREVER. No more school unless I am teaching somewhere, which by the way seems super appealing to me after watching the premiere of Glee. Who wouldn't want to teach glee club?

Anyway, I digress.

School's back. Operations Management on Mondays and Ethics on Tuesdays.

Let the procrastination begin!

Wedding Weekend

I haven't been feeling the blog recently. Perhaps it is because my camera is broken, and the only other option I have is a massive old-school camera that is being held together by masking tape.

Or the fact that work has been exhausting recently. For many reasons. And that is all I can say about that.

I am still waiting for Nate to get in here and write his first entry :)


So this weekend has been filled with wedding fun as Nate's friends from college Souman and Kelly got married last night. It was a traditional Hindu wedding and it was spectacular. The wedding sari, the ceremony...everything was perfect (including the amazing weather). We even got to dance to Jai Ho which was pretty sweet. Nate and I were wishing we had memorized the dance prior to the wedding so we could bust out some serious dance moves.

Souman and Kelly's parents were both gracious hosts and you could absolutely feel the love between the two families. Souman's Mom told a precious story about Souman and said the kindest, welcoming words to Kelly. The first fast dance found Souman and Kelly's moms and sisters dancing arm linked in a circle. It was very special to feel and see the love in the room.

Having gone through the wedding process (and it IS a process) myself, and knowing I will never have another wedding day (god willing), I have super mixed emotions at weddings. I am overjoyed for our friends and family that are getting married and starting their lives together. But I feel this weird sense of sadness knowing we will never have all of our friends and families in a room together (except at our funeral...I"m just saying).

Perhaps a wedding vow renewal (a.k.a. excuse to throw a big party) will be in our future so we can truly surround ourselves with those that love and support us.

And of course we can do Jai Ho choreographed dance.

Congrats Souman and Kelly!

Mad Men

Nate and I are really enjoying watching Mad Men...but I find myself being more and more appalled by what went on in the 1960's (or at least what is represented in the show).

Thank god I am a women of the 21st century because I don't know if I would have survived being called "honey," "darling" or "sweetheart" in my place of work.

My all-time favorite is the fact that this 8 year old girl knows how to make the mom and dad's favorite drinks, and they just order them up like they gave birth to this girl to be their own personal bartendar.

Nevermind the incessant drinking and smoking around the kids, or with a child in utero. Nevermind the fact that if dinner isn't on the table when Mr. Dad of the century comes in the door there are words exchanged.

It blows my mind that just 50 years ago, times were so different. Part of me would like to go back to the simpler time of pineapple dessert abundance. But the other part of me (the call my sweethear at work and I'll karate chop your face off part) is thankful that our moms, grandmothers and other women before us paved the way for me to be an independant women, with a career, my own opinions, and the courage to stand-up for what I believe in.