Totally loving Emotionalism by The Avett Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rDFkgP9ADk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On73Ui9S22A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy-gwgJPW2c&feature=related

originally spotted on posie gets cozy

62/100

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

The ones I have tried are in red

Good thing I have R. and Erin around to remind me of like 5 things I missed

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Originally spotted at Chocolate & Zucchini

Master Plan in bullet form!

I have a couple of big benchmarks coming up in fall 2008:

• First committee meeting. In 2 weeks!
• Qualifier: Basically you submit a 3-year grant proposal to your committee. If approved, you have 30 days to write the full grant. You turn this in, and defend your work(presentation/grill session) two weeks later. Once completed, you are considered an "official" candidate of the PhD program. Whatever that means. I must complete this by March 2009.
• Small local meeting in Oct
• Meeting in New Orleans in early Dec.
• Fellowship application due in Jan. Contingent on completion of the qualifier.

I'm also a student representative for the department, along with another student (we interface between students and faculty, plan student activities etc.) and I help set up micro labs for the medical students. It's going to be a lot.

So I sat down yesterday and tried to map out how I want things to work. I'm not too worried about the committee meeting coming up - I have the presentation started and I've made pretty good progress research-wise. It's a good way to get a feel for the members of my committee because there are a couple of people on there who I don't know very well.

I'd like to complete the qualifier right before Thanksgiving; around Nov. 21st. To do this, I would need to hand in my proposal in early October. Which gives me all of September to write it. This is really the most difficult part of the process, because you have to do an extensive lit review and come up with a unique idea of the appropriate size to test. I'm sure writing the document will be hard, but once you have the proposal submitted things are at least on track. October seems really soon! But instead of constantly thinking about all this, I want to get started. I think if I get up in front of my committee in two weeks and verbalize this plan, it will keep me from procrastinating.

I don't have any idea what is involved in the fellowship application. The deadline will be posted on Sept. 15th, so I don't even know when it's due. I think I'll put this one on the back burner for now.

I want to make the process as streamlined and panic-free as possible. I'm not good at cranking things out last minute (hence the committee presentation that is already mostly finished). I will have to work at keeping the lack-of-confidence monster at bay (Is this idea good enough? Will my committee rip me apart? What if I fail? How do I compare to other students? etc).

I know from the past that when I get super busy like this I tend to totally disengage from the rest of my life. I don't spend as much time with my husband, I'll avoid trips to visit my parents and won't commit to any social events that might take time away from working. Months will pass in a total blur. I really don't want this to be the case this time around; I want to enjoy the new house and fall weather, take time to celebrate our anniversary, and attend our friends' wedding in October. We'll see how all this works out!

It's beautiful out and my friend is coming over for dinner. Homemade ice cream on the menu.

News bulletin

These wonderful peep-toes are on sale at Target for $26.99:


I tried them on in the store. They were surprisingly comfortable and seem pretty stable for such a high heel. They were a little bit wide so you might want to try them on if you're interested. A total steal!

We scored these two chairs for $20 at an estate sale this morning:


I especially love the rocker:


The house had an overpowering cat piss smell so we immediately started removing the upholstery before they could be granted entry into our place:


The innards:


straw, horse hair and burlap - mostly disintegrated:

Here's what we ended up with:


We also found this sweet wall o'drawers that was originally in a hardware store. I want it very badly but it's too expensive:

I'm sure "cant files" are something hardware store-ish but I'm imagining many things that could possibly live in something labeled such.

I'm off to school and then we're doing rotisserie chicken/Sam Adams/Olympics this evening. Enjoy the weekend!

Another old photo I just found. This was probably Christmas ~1981, at my Grandma's. I think I'd like to have that dress again, it's almost back in style. That's my brother on the left, complete with magnet-buckle belt holding up blue cords.

Scenes from my weekend

Placed the great garden stakes my labmates got us as a housewarming gift.

I love them! They're by from artisan hands

We replaced our oil furnace with one that uses gas, and had the oil beast removed

I finally got the kitchen curtains made

My Folklore collection by Lucien, purchased from bee square fabrics

And I bought frames for the prints that will hang in our pink bathroom

Little papercuts from my folk lover

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!