Abstract for poster presentation

You can find me on page 156/157.

Comfort smells

I don't like onions very much, but my favorite smell in the world is onions being sauteed.

I'm a smart lady...

...or maybe I have just a teensy bit of common sense.

A couple of weeks ago we "won" tickets to see Trey Anastasio in Charlotte last night. He used to play in Phish and the Great Wiki says in 2003 he was listed as 73 on the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

I say "won" with quotes because C was listening to WCU's radio station one morning, heard about the contest, called a guy he knows that does the morning show & he said yeah, don't worry about calling in, we'll just give you some.

Cool. They'll be at will-call. Twice we were told this.

So being my ultra-cautious self, because it takes 3 hours to drive to Charlotte, I told C to call the concert venue & check to make sure the tickets are there.

I get a phone call from C at 4:30 yesterday telling me he has some good news and bad news. Bad news, the venue has no record of our tickets. In fact, they have no record of ANY tickets from WCU. Hm. Okay. Good news: we don't have to drive 6 hours to go to a concert of someone I'd never heard of (I know, boo me) when C had to be up early this morning for Open House.

I'm a smart lady.

So instead we stayed in and watched The Secret Life of Bees. Great movie; get out the tissues.

My favorite Willie Nelson song

This one's for you Rachel! :o)

Weight loss rewards

A good motivator to lose weight is to reward oneself when certain goals are reached. Buy a book, clothes, whatever floats your boat.

But previously I haven't been able to come up with anything that I really want while still being realistic. Until just a second ago when I determined my reward.

Another tattoo. That's something I can (kinda) afford and would love to have. I don't plan on going all out with my next one...something smaller and less colorful than the one I have now. And what would the goal be? 130 lbs? Run a 5K in a certain amount of time? Hmmmm... *contemplation continues*

A video for you to enjoy

This is pretty easy to do (if you don't count the time involved), but it still amazes me.

Continued

This is where we stayed.

Valentine's Day

Occurred right after we got back from spending more money than we had hoped in Canada, so it was kind of an afterthought.

At least for me, it was. C went and got me lotions, bath bubbles, & a super comfy bath robe...and sadly, I didn't get him anything. He asked me if we were going to celebrate Valentine's Day and I said yes. To him that meant go buy something. To me it meant cards and a home cooked dinner. Perhaps I should be more specific next time.

I will say, I was pretty impressed with the dinner I made. I roasted (using our new roaster C's mom gave us) a 5lb boston butt for 11 hours. Basting every 1 hour. Also used a cool blackening rub I made from several spices. 11 hours. Basting every 1 hour. Annoying, to say the least, but well worth it. I made my own bbq sauce too--so good! Cheese grits...mmmmm...didn't realize it would be so easy. Duh. Grits + cheese = cheese grits. And applesauce. From a jar. Can't get easier than that. So I guess I balanced out the time consuming task of the butt with the ease of the grits & applesauce. I also baked an apple pie/cobbler. Crust bottom cobbler top. Which was okay I suppose--I don't enjoy baked apples very much, but C loves apple pies, so I thought I'd be nice.

Especially since I didn't get him anything. :oP

Living in the past

The majority of the time I think about how things will never be how they used to. It's actually quite sad and I just can't seem to see the joy & memories I will create in the future. I'm so busy mourning the past, I can't enjoy the present.

It mostly comes down to my family. I'll never again live in the same house as my siblings. It's like, "Why didn't I recognize this earlier so that I could enjoy it while I had the chance??" Oh, yeah, I remember, because I was dodging punches from my brother. And my grandmother's house that my uncle is now living in. I have no desire to go in that house because it wouldn't be the house that I remember.

And take, for instance, yesterday, walking around the Natural Sciences building...I thought, "I can't wait until I never have to set foot in this building again." Yet, I know, 5, 10 years from now I'll think, "Those were great times; I grew so much and met such great people, why didn't I enjoy it while I had the chance?"

This leads to my main point & something good that has come from moving forward: being able to search online for recipes by ingredient. HA!

I love being able to do this & clean out the weird pantry stuff I bought for one recipe and then didn't know how to use it any other time. It's the little things people. Of course, I'll find a drawback with anything: my oodles of cookbooks just sit gathering dust.

Honeymoon a la Canada Series

Flying from Seattle to Calgary

Calgary from the air. I thought, "Uhhhhh, where're the mountains??" It was still a 2 hour shuttle drive to Banff from here.

A good laugh

My favorite piece in the world

If this was the only thing I could listen to for the rest of my life, I would be happy. I was supposed to play this at a recital when I was in high school, but there was one part I just couldn't get past. Late New Year's resolution perhaps??

Time sure does fly

We got back from our honeymoon in Canada at 2am this morning. Had to go into work at 12 and was actually excited about it. Got good news that I can start full-time on Monday. Bad news: working on my thesis around my work schedule--I take full blame for that one. More bad news: even though I'm full-time now, I'm still temporary. To go from temporary to permanent, the position has to be re-listed & I'll have to reapply. My boss has to interview at least two applicants. I do have an advantage since I've been in the position for a while now, but it's still a little disconcerting. Especially since anyone who applies and was previously terminated due to budget cuts gets first dibs. Great.

I've forgotten the real reason for this post. Oh! Time flies...I noticed the bulbs popping up around the house. I exclaimed: oh my gosh! And then realized it is almost March. Where does it go?? I remember when a year was an eternity.

Yo-yo dieting

I just got up the nerve to weigh myself. I knew it'd be bad & why I've held off. I've gained about 11.5 lbs since I got married. Which puts me right back where I started.

I'm thinking I should go buy another really expensive dress a size too small and set a deadline to fit into it. ;o)

But then, I've already seen that doesn't work--long term at least.

Diet & exercise. Diet & exercise. Diet & exercise.