Snow Day

I woke up early yesterday morning wondering if we would have school. As I peeked outside, it looked like there was not as much snow as expected, so imagine my delight when I saw on the local TV station that school was cancelled anyway! I had come home the night before prepared with some extra grading to get done... just in case... but I was still prepared for my Friday morning classes. No complaints at all. By the time I managed to get dressed to go out and get the newspaper, someone had VERY kindly cleared the snow off of my front walk and steps (Thank you, whoever you are!!!) and the snow was the pretty, soft, powdery stuff instead of being horribly icy.

The quizzes that I was planning to give can wait until Monday, and the Spanish exam that I was supposed to take yesterday afternoon will still be there as well, I have no doubt in the least. I didn't get nearly as much done with my free day as I could have, but I did a little bit of grading and some reading (fun books) and some chatting with my sister on the phone and some catching up on the latest episode of Project Runway. And I tried a new recipe- challah bread. I've been wanting to try making it for some time, but finding the time is often a bit of a challenge. No excuses on a snow day! I would say that it was a success, although the dough didn't rise nearly as much as I thought it would. I had run out of parchment paper, so I baked it on an oiled baking sheet, which made the bottom of the loaf a little darker than I would have liked, but I'll plan better next time. I was quite proud of the six stranded braid (thanks to directions from YouTube), and I'll definitely be making this again soon.

Your Soul Will Want Seconds...

Since I didn't have school today, I decided to try my hand at a new recipe for dinner. I found a great new (to me) sauce at my favorite health food store. Listen to the promise on the package and tell me if you could have resisted it: "Good Korma simmer sauce. Meditating on dinner? Look within. An entrancing serenade of spices, cashews, coconut and the gentle ringing of a sitar. Your soul will want seconds." I did follow the directions very precisely to only stir it in a clockwise direction, and while I didn't exactly hear a sitar playing, it was quite good with chicken and chickpeas and onion, over basmati rice. Eaten while watching a classic Shahrukh Khan film (thanks to netflix)... with mango pudding for dessert. Yum! Now I'm ready to jump back into school again.

First Day of School

Today was the start of the spring semester. My 11th one here at Friends, which is still hard for me to believe. It was a fairly easy day, since Tuesdays are lab days, and I don't have any lecture classes until tomorrow, but I find that I still get butterflies when I meet my classes for the first time (even though I know most of my students already.) When I was growing up, I would usually get a new outfit and a new lunchbox for the first day of school. Although I didn't get any new clothes for today, I did wear my favorite socks for luck. And I took my new (to me) tiffin lunchbox that my sister and her family gave me for Christmas. It's the coolest! It goes very well with my resolution to pack better lunches this semester, so I don't end up ravenous and wanting to stop for fast food on the way home. Today I took a mixture of leftovers from last night (beef stroganoff and roasted brussel sprouts) and fresh veggies. Tasty, filling, and healthy... and way more fun in a fabulous container. I feel like I'm off to a good start!

Out with the old...

I took a huge step this weekend, and finally broke down and invested in a new microwave. The one that I have been using I received as a high school graduation gift, 23+ years ago, from a kind friend in my ward. It was a very generous and high tech gift, and I have used it on a very regular basis all this time- it has accompanied me through college, grad school, post-doc days, and many years since. I was hoping that I could continue using it for 25 years, just on matter of principle, but I came to the realization last week, that this was not to be. As I took down the old and set up the new, I found myself feeling surprisingly nostalgic, and I'm quite sure that I will not feel as attached to this one as I have to the first.

On the bright side, I find that microwaves now are much, much fancier than they were years ago- with digital clock and rotating plate and memory for favorite settings... I'm feeling quite overwhelmed, and am glad for an instruction book that is written in relatively simple terms, as I'm not terribly talented when it comes to working various and assorted electronic items.

And, note to self: microwaves these days are a bit more powerful than they used to be. I'm finding that things cook in about a third of the time that I'm accustomed to. I guess that this is not a bad thing, but it will take some getting used to.

Saturday Evening at the Ballet

I had the opportunity to go and see the Fall Ballet over at school last weekend. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've seen many of their ballet performances over the last several years, and this ranks as one of their best.

The main piece that they danced was "The Prodigal Son", with music by Prokofiev. I was very curious to see how it would be done- somehow I had images in my mind of dancing pigs a la the hippos in Fantasia. I shouldn't have been surprised to see that it was much classier than that. The beginning of the piece followed the parable pretty closely- rebellious/arrogant son asks for his inheritance from his father, takes the money and runs to the city. Once he gets to the city, the dance departs from the parable a bit. A hoard of ghouls tempts the son into raucous living and introduces him to a beautiful siren who finishes off the job. Between the lot of them, he ends up penniless, exhausted, in rags. As you would expect, he crawls back to his family and is welcomed with open arms. I was interested, however, that the part of the parable of the jealous son who stayed was left out altogether. Perhaps that would have been difficult to act out in dance, however, I've always thought that that was a rather significant part of the story.

Anyhow, I thought that it was brilliantly done, and I was amazed yet again at how much can be conveyed without any words at all.

Ireland Photos

My grandfather called me a couple of nights ago and chastized me for not updating my blog- he called me to repentance! I figure that he's right and that I should get to posting some photos from the Ireland trip that I took with my cousin Catherine. It was a wonderful vacation, and the only thing wrong with it is that it was way too short. We were blessed with beautiful weather and the opportunity to meet some very nice people, eat some great food, and see some incredible scenery. My rule is that I have to see the ocean at least once a year, and I feel completely fulfilled in that regard. We didn't spend a lot of time in the cities, and my favorite parts of the trips were when we were out in the countryside. I DEFINITELY will be going back there someday!

Here's a collage of some of my favorite photos... you can click on it to see the pictures a little bit larger.

Christmas Vacation

I'm back from a wonderful Christmas vacation, and am busy trying to catch up on unpacking, laundry, and sorting mail- but I'm afraid that if I don't record highlights of my trip to Washington DC, I'll forget all the best parts! It was wonderful to see family- two of my brothers, my sister, and their families were there- as well as extended family and friends. Here are a few of my favorite things...

- tour of the capitol building (led by one of A's former students- I felt like we really got the inside scoop- it was great!)
- sing-a-long Messiah at the Kennedy Center (soloists, full orchestra, symphony choir of about 200, and more than 2000 in attendance- the music was fabulous, but I have to say that one of the highlights of the evening for me was when the conductor commented, "Everyone knows that altos rule the world!" to great applause and agreement.)
- games of Boggle, Bananagrams, Life Stories, and Hiss
- movies galore- my favorite being the Bollywood movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
- some nice walks (some days being colder than others, but all of them pretty)
- visits to the American History Museum, the Hirshhorn Modern Art Museum, Mount Vernon, and the National Cathedral
- great company, great conversation, and great food. What more could one ask for???

I've included some of my favorite photos from the trip- you can click on them to see them a little larger.