Not bad, not bad

Well, last night I bowled with the Hickorys (some people from the machine shop), and didn't do extraordinarily well or poorly. My average is now 135, and I got a 134, 140, and something else in that range, I can't remember. I had a lot of fun, though. I drank some diet Pepsi because I had to stay up and make cookies when I got home, so I had a nice little caffeine buzz going.

My citrus peels are goners. They had burned while I simmered them overnight, and even the ones that didn't look charred tasted bad because the syrup carried the burned flavor from other peels. So I threw them all away. 10 hours of work... all for nothing. Okay, not nothing - it was a great learning experience. I knew I was taking a risk by leaving the peels to simmer overnight, so I wasn't too surprised when they didn't turn out. I will probably try this again, but not until I get a perpendicular peeler (see below). And I will make sure to do it during the weekend so I don't have to stay up all night babysitting a pot of syrup. :)


Today's Lunch:
FPL Holiday Party! Broiled and deep fried fish, baked chicken, au gratin or baked potatoes, coleslaw, fruit salad, and rolls. Mmmm.

FPL Antiques Roadshow

Tomorrow is our all-lab Holiday Party, which we're having at Rex's Innkeeper in Waunakee.

Some groups like to do skits at our holiday parties. It's at times hard to imagine left-brained, introverted scientists standing in front of their colleagues acting silly... but there are a few that seem to be okay with it. Enough to have a few skits every year.

Our skit is titled "FPL Antiques Roadshow." It's modeled after Antiques Roadshow on PBS. In case you're not familiar with that show (you must have cable!), it's where people bring their unique antique collectibles, furniture, paintings, heirlooms, etc. to an auction house and appraisers tell them what the item is, give them an approximation of its age, and tell them its estimated worth. It's really fun to watch and makes me wish I lived in an old house on the east coast so I could have cool antiques in my attic.

Our laboratory is almost 100 years old and there's a lot of old stuff in the building. The wood furniture alone is probably worth tons of money. So we found a few old items and are using them in our skit.

Our skit, however, has a twist to it. Each item will be an "old fashioned" version of something high-tech that we use today.

First, an old-fashioned laptop (actually a potentiometer).

An old-fashioned flash drive (really a microphone).

This is an antique virus scanner for the laptop (actually a slide rule).

This is an old-fashioned DNA sequencing device (actually a magnifying camera lens).

And, last but not least... this piece of wood is said to be "either an old computer chip or a cow chip... we're not really sure."

The end.

I'm going to be the host of the program, and some people from around the lab will be the appraisers. We're going to ask volunteers from the audience to be the person presenting the item to the appraiser. I'm excited, because I love this kind of stuff.

In other news, I may have ruined my candied citrus peels. I simmered them overnight (stupid, I know, but I was sooo tired and didn't want to babysit them forever) and this morning they looked a little dark and some were stuck to the bottom of the pan. To make matters worse, I used a spoon to look at one and touched it with my finger. The syrup was still boiling hot and stuck to my finger, burning it in the process.


Today's Lunch:
Overly salty "rosemary" chicken breast (I did not taste any rosemary at all) with greasy rice, limp peas and carrots, and a roll with no butter at J.T. Whitney's in Madison. Ugh.

Weekend photos

My day at work on friday seemed to go on forever, so I took a walk out to Picnic Point.

Some geese, chillin' on the ice.

The water pump, manufactured in Evansville.


A path.

Swans, taking a dip.


Saturday morning I volunteered at the Evansville library, helping kids decorate gingerbread houses. In return for my service, I was able to make my own gingerbread house.

My favorite is the little dog.


Sunday was insane. I got up at 7:30, just in time to get dressed and drive to Janesville to volunteer at the homeless shelter there (my court-appointed community service that takes the place of 4 points on my driver's license). After that, I went shopping, then went home.

I spent a couple of hours digging holes to plant my bulbs... better late than never, right? I had about 200 bulbs to plant, and I made these little boxes out of hardware cloth to prevent the rabbits from digging up my bulbs (the idea was from Martha Stewart).

Meanwhile, I worked on shellac-ing my piece of veneer. Now that there are 3 coats on it, it's ready for a test-run in the kitchen.

When that was done, I started making my candied citrus peels. I think I was a bit overzealous when I went shopping for fruit last week. Here's what I had:

• 8 lbs oranges (about 16)
• 7 limes
  
• 5 lemons
• 2 grapefruit

The way this works is the outermost part of the peel (the zest) is removed with a sharp peeler. It is very important to not peel too deeply because the white stuff beneath the colored part of the peel tastes bitter. So I peeled the fruit as thinly as I could.


My hands and forearms seriously ache from that. It took about 2 hours to do all the fruit.

Since I'm not a perfect peeler, I had to scrape the white stuff that remained on each piece of peel. This was a 6-hour endeavor, and by the time I was done it was about 11:30 pm.

Here are the peels:

Tonight I finally get to candy them! I will post the photos.

Today's Lunch:
Went to the Blue Moon with my friend Liz. Had a Blue Moon Burger (burger with bleu cheese, garlic, and raw onion) and some cole slaw. Mom, are you jealous???

Things are looking up

I'm feeling like myself again. I'm happy!

I've become my usual cheerful, fun-loving and optimistic self. Before, I would crave spending time at home with the cat, losing myself in a book or movie. Now, when I make the commute home after work, that's not what's on my mind. I look forward to getting things done around the house or running errands or just seeing my honey.

I've even been more productive at work. Perhaps it's because I've fully realized I don't have to commit myself to one job for my entire career. It's nice to know there can be an end. But in the meantime, I need to do my work and just keep pushing myself to succeed.

I finally have a plan and it's nice to know I can do what I want. I want to join the Peace Corps. I've been working on my application and I got some advice from my career counselor last weekend. I'm not going to start thinking about the house-and-Zach situation until I get accepted (if I get accepted).

Today's Lunch:
Leftover turkey stew with onion, potatoes, rutabega, carrots, and celery (I didn't eat it yesterday)
Apple

Zach's take on the baking business

So a lot of people ask me, "how does Zach feel about all this baking you do?"

Well, I think he secretly likes it.

• Since I'm busy at night, he gets full control of the TV (except for my "shows" - Lost, ANTM, and Grey's Anatomy)
• He gets the mistakes and leftovers - an ugly cookie is still a cookie
• I have a little extra money, which I spend on both of us
• The kitchen stays clean, because I'm more likely to clean it when I've been using it (don't know if he cares about that as much as I do)
  
• I don't bug him as much when I'm busy, but I'm still close enough for him to bug me when he wants to
  

However, there seem to be a couple of downsides. Last night I was baking pumpkin bread, and he kept calling me an "enabler." He also likes to say that I give him baked goods only so he'll get really fat and then no other girl will want to be with him. He's actually pretty buff and spends his day doing all sorts of physical things, so he certainly burns enough calories. And of course, he's just joking. Also, sometimes when I'm cooking something that's really stressful, I'll yell at him and kick him out of the kitchen.

Mel, I threw in this photo just for you, 'cause I know how much you like to make fun of Zach!

Today's Lunch:
Leftover turkey stew with carrots, onion, potatoes, and rutabega
Pear

[bitch]

I just have to get this off my chest.

I take the state vanpool to work 3-4 times a week. This requires waking up at 5:00 and heading out the door at 5:35. I get to work at 6:30, leave at 3:30, and am home by 4:30.

Lately I've had some problems getting out the door in time in the afternoon to catch the van. It's happened a few times in the last month, and each time our vanpool driver wouldn't say anything when I'd apologize for being late. Once, she sent me an email, reminding me that she'd be picking me up at 3:30. Those things are both cool.

What ticks me off, though, is that she printed out this list of "van rules" and distributed them to everyone. One of the rules was that she wouldn't wait for anyone in the afternoon. Still cool. What annoys me is that she didn't have the guts to tell me directly that my being late is not kosher, and instead made this "general" list of rules and passed it around. The same thing happened when I first started riding the van, and made the horrible (sarcasm) mistake of sitting in the front passenger seat on the way home, which is reserved for the backup driver. Instead of telling me that I couldn't do that, she made a list of "van rules" and sent it around to address the issue. Why do people do this?

Oh, and another thing. The van has its own little time zone, which doesn't help. 3:30 in the van is like 3:40 everywhere else. So when daylight savings time came into effect, I reset my office clock to the "normal" time, and I was late for the van because 3:25 on my clock was 3:35 on theirs. Ex-cuuuuse me for using the correct time. So now my office clock is set 10 minutes fast to compensate.

[/bitch]

Ho hum

I have to take all these online courses for work about things like safety, defensive driving, computer safety, ethics, etc. Today I'm going to learn about the No Fear Act. I think it involves whistle-blowing, and how whistle blowers are protected by the government.

Yesterday was very busy. I went to campus to talk to some Peace Corps recruiters, and then I did a bunch of work. Today's been busy, too, though not exciting enough to mention.

Tonight I'm substituting for somebody in bowling. Zach and I have this little "competition" going, and I always used to rub it in how I've had the higher score between us (189). However, he beat my high score last week with a 194. Now I have to kick some serious tail!

In other news... our building's really hot so now I'm sweaty.

Today's Lunch:
2 pieces leftover homemade pizza with pepperoni, green pepper, and garlic toppings
Pear
2 Hershey's kisses

Shellac

Okay, this is a post about cabinetry. You may find it interesting if you're a homeowner or have an uncanny obsession with cabinets. Or, if you're like me, you're probably so bored that you'll read anything.

My house is 65 years old, and has a lot of woodwork in it. The cabinets, trim, floors, and windows are all made of pine or a similar softwood, and all have the same stain on them. When my parents came to visit us last fall, they bought us a couple of oak cabinets from Home Depot. At first I was going to paint the new cabinets because, really, it seems impossible to match stains in the first place, and then when you have a product that's a totally different wood species, well, you're just asking for trouble. But nooo, Zach said painted cabinets are tacky (I beg to differ), and he felt sure that we could match the stain between the two types of cabinets.

So I began trying out different stains. I found one that turned our oak cabinets a color similar to the original pine cabinets, but it wasn't shiny like the stuff on the pine cabinets. I thought that maybe they had put a layer of polyurethane over the stain to make it shiny and durable, but it seemed unlikely. So I brought a piece of the old cabinetry to the Evansville Ace Hardware store, and the nice man who worked there said stain/polyurethane combos weren't around in 1940, and that our cabinets were probably coated with orange shellac.

I was like, "Shellac? What the heck is that?" and the man told me it's a coating that people used to preserve and enhance the color of wood products before the days of stain and varnish.

I bought a can of shellac, brought it home, and started applying it to a piece of oak veneer. In the middle of the coat, I accidentally knocked the can over and shellac spilled all over our carpet. Doh! Fortunately, the carpet is old and scary, so I might as well replace it anyway.

Anyhow, the oak veneer looks very much like the stuff we already have in our kitchen, now that it's shellac-ed. And I'm a very happy camper.

So this weekend I'm going to shellac the remaining cabinetry and the new stuff Zach is working on for our kitchen. I will be careful not to knock the can over this time.

This is a pretty old picture of our kitchen (we have a new fridge, a dishwasher, and new cabinetry beneath microwave). But you can see the color of our cabinets.

Carrot cake

I made a carrot cake for a co-worker, and decorated it with cream cheese frosting. The frosting was so good, I just had to lick the spoon when I was done with it.



Today's Lunch:
Ham sandwich on light wheat bun with yellow mustard
Apple
Chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting

My dirty little secret

I have always been proud of the fact that I've never liked "girly" TV shows. I was never a big fan of Friends, Felicity, Ally McBeal, whatever. But now... I'm obsessed with America's Next Top Model.


Yes, it's embarassing. That show is aimed at the teenage crowd, young girls who dream of becoming models. I'll admit I once dreamed of looking like a model. I used to hate my nose. I've since come to my senses.

Tonight is the season finale, and I've been looking forward to it all week. I've been reading the forums on Television Without Pity, which just adds to my obsession. It's ridiculous.

I'm hoping Caridee will win tonight. I've planned my evening so that I can go home, make pizza for dinner, and sit back and watch.

Today's Lunch:
Ham sandwich with yellow mustard on light wheat bun
Apple
Chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting
Vanilla yogurt

Eggroll burn

I got burned by an eggroll, and now it looks like I have a cold sore.

We bought some frozen egg rolls, and heated them up in the oven. When they came out, I started eating mine right away. It was really hot but soooo good. That is, until oil squirted out of it and burned my lip. It hurt.

The eggroll:

The burn:

Did you want to see that up close?

It hurts.

A great way to use leftovers

Thanksgiving was almost 1-1/2 weeks ago, and we finally finished the leftovers today.

I thought I was practicing some real ingenuity in finding ways to use leftover turkey, stuffing, tough green beans, and venison roast. Here's what I did:

Crystal's Rockin' Turkey Casserole

Cooked turkey: 3 cups
Stuffing: 4-6 cups
Green beans: 2 cups
Turkey gravy: 1/2 cup
Venison gravy: 1/2 cup
Cream of mushroom soup: 1 can

Combine all in a huge bowl. Place in greased casserole dish and bake, covered, at 350 for 50 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10 minutes.

Philly Cheese-Steak Sandwiches, the Midwest version

Roasted venison: 2 Cups
Green pepper: 1/2, chopped
Mushrooms and onion: 1/4 C each (optional)
Cheddar cheese: sliced
Buns: sub buns (hamburger buns work just fine for dainty people)

Cook green pepper, mushrooms and onion in skillet over medium heat until somewhat tender. Add venison and stir, keeping heat at medium, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the meat and veggies are well-combined. Slice buns open and place on foil-covered baking sheet. Spoon meat and veggie mixture on top of buns and top with cheddar cheese. Cook in 350 oven 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and buns are toasted.

I was excited about these recipes because Zach doesn't like to eat leftovers. But if I use them to make a new dish, he'll gobble it right up. I didn't even have to force him to eat the turkey casserole two days in a row.

Today's Lunch:
Leftover Philly-cheese venison steak sandwich
Apple
Gingersnap

Rock Opera Marathon

Lately, Zach and I have been watching a lot of rock operas.

It started with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Zach was surprised that I hadn't seen it, considering I was into musicals in high school. But back in high school, my fellow theater friends were into movies like Grease (yuck), so I never had the chance to see RHPS.

I like how that show has some shock value to it. It explored some topics that I'm sure were quite taboo in the '70s, such as transvestism, homosexuality, and voyeurism. I especially liked Tim Curry's character, Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Before seeing RHPS, I only saw Tim Curry as a chubby, middle-aged guy with a creepy, gummy smile. But he was absolutely stunning in RHPS. Who knew?



Next, I watched This is Spinal Tap, a mockumentary about a band called, what else?, Spinal Tap. This was my favorite movie out of the three (I will discuss the third next). I used to date musicians in college, and I could see some similarity between the band in the film and the bands I used to hang out with. There's just this obsession with music, where the person thinks they're being really creative but their music actually kind of sucks. They just work so long and hard at it that they begin to think it's good, but they're just kidding themselves. Excuse me if I'm being ruthless. Here is a scene from the movie:

[Nigel is playing a soft piece on the piano]
Marty DiBergi: It's very pretty.
Nigel Tufnel: Yeah, I've been fooling around with it for a few months.
Marty DiBergi: It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play.
Nigel Tufnel: It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.
Marty DiBergi: It's very nice.
Nigel Tufnel: You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like - I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really. It's sort of...
Marty DiBergi: What do you call this?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".

Wow man, that's deep.



The third rock opera we watched was Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It's a story about a transvestite named Hedwig, the lead singer of a rock band. The movie follows the band while they're on tour, using flashbacks to reveal the reasons why Hedwig is called Hedwig and what the angry inch is. There were times in the movie where I hated Hedwig, because she was such a diva and treated people so badly, but there were times where I loved her and felt sorry for her. The songs were pretty catchy, too.



Today's Lunch:
Leftover cheeseburger with yellow mustard on wheat bun
Leftover butternut squash with pecan topping
Apple

My experience in court

Yesterday I attended a court hearing in an attempt to reduce the points issued for my tail-gating citation.

The judge sat at the head of the courtroom, and I was seated with about 30 other people in the peanut gallery. The judge called up people one by one, stated their charge, and asked what their claim was. A lot of people pleaded "no contest." Now, I'm not a lawyer or anything, but from what I understood, to plead "no contest" means you do not feel you are guilty but the evidence says you are. I think another reason why it's good to plead "no contest" is to avoid legal trouble after the trial.

Some of the people who went before me seemed to be in really tight spots. I felt sorry for the people who could not pay their $70 traffic fine and would need an additional two months to scrape together the money. Some people were out of job, or didn't work enough hours to have a steady income. I realized how lucky I am to have a good job and be financially secure. Which.. I understand isn't luck alone, as a college education and a good attitude have helped me get to where I am today.

Anyhow, I pleaded "guilty" to the charge on my citation. The judge asked me to explain, so I told him that I was in some ways glad the police had pulled me over and given me a ticket, because I hadn't realized I was driving too close to the car in front of me. It was a nice reminder to drive more carefully in the future. Then I asked if I could do community service or attend traffic school in exchange for the points on my record. After some deliberation, the judge said that instead of my $109 ticket and 4 points, I could do 40 hours of community service and pay $78. It was a great deal! I left the courthouse feeling happy and patting myself on the back for a job well done.

I think people are more willing to help each other if they have a reason to do so. If I had just stood at the podium and asked to get my points reduced without offering something in return, thinking the judge would just see me and decide to give me a break, he probably wouldn't have reduced my points. But I think that by offering to attend traffic school or do community service hours, I was offering him something in return.

Now I just have to figure out what to do for community service. :P

Today's Lunch:
Peanut butter (Jif) and jelly (strawberry jam) sandwich on whole wheat
Banana
3 Hershey's Kisses