grad school

Here's a graph I made representing how long I've been in grad school vs. how frequently i think about how much i might like to have some other sort of job.




















Seriously.
I've been thinking of a new one every hour.

at least.


butcher? baker? candlestick maker?
record producer? I'm good at being the man.
secretary? I can type pretty fast. Detail oriented! (Sometimes)
Nature guide! I totally went hiking one time! I could probably figure out how to put up a tent, no problem. Fishing? meh, i can learn!
Farmer - I may kill all my plants, but that's probably because i'm so preoccupied.
and so on...

oh yeah!

I haven't forgotten about you, promise.

Here's what's happening around here this past month (MONTH!) since i've posted.
1) christmas. Travel to Nashville, went to hot yoga (almost) every day, drank lots of wine, gave and got lots of presents, played with boom-whackers, kathryn stayed 2 extra days, and fun was had by all.
2) new year. We ... watched the ball drop from my parents house... again. (we're so exciting)
3) New semester started - and i didn't even notice.
4) A stomach bug ran rampant among my friends and family (although jason and dave seem to be immune...)
5) evey moved up to the older kids class

So, evey moved up. She's a big kid! she walks, practically runs, and says a new word every day. This weekend the new word was "mine!" hahaha. Here's the thing. I really can't stand her new class. AT ALL. and i am paying WAY too much to have her someplace where i don't love nearly everything about it. Here are my issues with the class - with more to be listed as they happen:

1) teachers seem to hate life.
2) teachers are sitting on inappropriate furniture every time i see them (on top of toy shelves, on the manipulatives table - so that the kids have to play with the puzzles on the floor)
3) teachers don't talk to parents. One day jason picked up evey, and she had clearly just fallen down - dirt all over her face and scrapes on her hands, and tear tracks through the dirt. The teacher didn't even LOOK at him.
4) teachers dont' hold the kids. No i'm not kidding.
5) teachers DO say to screaming kids "oh you're fine, i promise." in a flat monitone voice.
6) there's no free art - no place that kids can go and color whenever they want. They get called in in groups of 4 or so to do a "project" that they get 5 minutes to do and then they go back to the free-for-all room
7) the room has not enough divisions so kids are often running around.
8) there's a gate, a baby gate, going into the hallway. The kids often stand at that gate, often they stand at that gate and scream (to which teachers either ignore, or say "you'll be fine, i promise) and many of them can open that gate. So sometimes the kids escape into the hallway. Granted, there are just 2 other classrooms they could go into - the front door is locked locked, but still.
9) teachers don't talk to the kids. I have seen a teacher talk with a child probably 5 times. They get talked at a bit when we first walk in the door "Oh, evelyn, glad to see you today." (if that, and often we don't get that), but for things like "do you like trucks?" or "what are you doing there?" - none.

basically, if i were observing them with the observational teacher measure that i worked on while getting my masters degree, the classroom would score pitifully low. Which really upsets me, mostly because the baby room was so incredibly accomodating, warm, and loving! Anyway, I know better than to put her in a place like this. So, you might ask, why are you keeping her there?

because 1) i dont have time to look for other places 2) i'm on waiting lists for the 4 other decent schools in the area (third on the list at one of them) 3) when i think about it too much i cry.

so i'll just hate myself every single day when i drop her off, and debate whether i should just scream at all the teachers to get a grip, or to yell at the director for allowing the school to be like this, or politely offer to share my preschool classroom quality knowledge (I got my masters degree in it! I'd say, "i'd be happy to provide you with some information about enhancing the language and literacy environments of all 4 of your classrooms) - hoping that it won't make the teachers hate me and be mean to my daughter.

but evey doesn't hate it, so i guess it isn't that bad. She still seems happy when i pick her up. so there's that.

at least that's what i tell myself.

oops

yeah i was doing so well for a while there updating stuff, oh well.

Today i want to talk about christmas.
Ok firstly, I celebrate christmas in the truly secular sense; I'm not a huge fan of that Jesus fellow. I love the caring, sharing, loving, helping, laughing, music, and general happiness that abounds this time of year. I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

One thing about christmas that i don't like is that it reminds me how terrible i am at making decisions. I always put off buying stuff until the last minute because I always think i will find something better, or more perfect, tomorrow. Then even if i DO decide on something, if there are options - say color or level of quality - then it's a whole other waiting game. I put things in my Amazon shopping cart for months - MONTHS - during the rest of the year. What i do at this time fo year is bring up lots of websites (thanks firefox for you tabbed browsing) and just LEAVE THEM OPEN... for days at a time ... trying to decide if this present or that present is the right one. Sigh.

yeah, i have one open now in another tab. Damn you, decisions!

Yes sometimes I think that future me will be smarter than present me. Buying gifts in an excellent example of that. Planning meals is another excellent example of that - what will i eat for dinner tomorrow night? Oh, i don't know, but i will know tomorrow!

On the flip side, sometimes i think past me is smarter than present me. When I get stuck when i'm writing (which is about all i do now a days), I will often go to previous drafts or other papers on similar topics and steal my own work - I paraphrase! - in order to help me get un-stuck. I think, "man, I was so smart back then, what happened?"

And now back to "Yay christmas!"
ready?
yay christmas!!!

Weekday Lunches

On days that i end up working from home, I'll usually have something other than a peanut-butter sandwich for lunch. Last week, I made an omelet for Evelyn for breakfast, and it looked so good, i made one for myself for lunch. Here it is, with the recipe following.


Spinach Omelet

1 8inch skillet (preferably nonstick)
two eggs (beaten, can add milk or water to thin if you want)
handful of fresh spinach leaves, chopped
1/4 cup diced onion (well a little bit anyway, to taste of course)
one small green pepper, diced (they were especially small at the growers market this week)
sprinkle of cheese
1 tbs olive oil

1. heat oil in the skillet on medium-high heat
2. add onion and peppers and cook until they get soft/translucent (In this case, I forgot about my pepper until after i'd already finished the rest, that's why it's on top - still good, though)
3. add spinach and allow to wilt (takes about 30 seconds)
4. spread the veggies evenly across bottom of the pan
5. add eggs
6. as it begins to set, pull an edge toward the center with a rubber spatula and allow some uncooked egg to run into newly vacated space in the skillet - repeat around the edges. Should take about 2 minutes total cooking time
7. flip omelet over (I usually use a big wide spatula for this)and allow to cook on the other side for another 30 seconds or so
8. sprinkle cheese on one side and fold over.
9. salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Tuesday Dinners

Ok i've fallen WAY behind, but you know how the holidays get.

In case i've never told you before, a couple of friends (also moms) and I get together most Tuesday nights for a dinner exchange. We take turns every week and cook a vegetarian meal for all three families. One woman cooks, the other two babysit, but thankfully, the house where we typically do this has a nice open kitchen so we can still all chat. It is one of my favorite things that I do since i've moved down here. We start around 3:30, and usually have a totally prepared dinner by 5:30. This week i took some pictures of the festivities:

Here are the kids hanging out:


Charlotte helped prepare!


Anne made Veggie-Pot-Pie, and it was absolutely delicious. Here's the finished filling, which went into individual dishes with some pie crust on top:


I will try to steal the recipe from her, and when i do, I'll post that on here as well. As always, thanks for reading!

Peanut Butter Cookies

I make these cookies quite often and anywhere I bring them they are always a hit, except for my sister Kathryn who hates peanut butter and chocolate. These taste like a deliciously rich peanut butter cup (think reeses) only without the processed food aftertaste. They're really small so they're super easy to eat just one more.

My friends Jo and Dave were over babysitting on Saturday, and when we got back we hung out and watched some football. Then So here's my recipe - it's basically the Joy of Cooking recipe with a few changes...


















Always a Hit Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes ~40 1 1/2 inch cookies
Preheat oven to 375

Beat until soft:
1/2 cup butter (as close to room temperature as you can - unsalted)

Add gradually and blend until creamy:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Molasses

Beat in:
One Egg
1 cup Peanut Butter (creamy, and the natural kind makes the best texture!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (it's ok without the vanilla, i made them that way this time)

add and mix until almost combined :
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

add and stir in with rubber spatula
1/2 cups chcolate chps

Scoop into level tablespoons and round that amount into a small ball. Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. To get the criss-cross effect, i take a fork dipped in sugar and press it into the top of the dough twice at 90 degree angles to eachother. So it looks like this "#".

Bake between 10 and 12 minutes.
Enjoy!
These freeze really well, but good luck getting to put any in the freezer - I made them on Saturday and they're all gone already.

movie sequels

I started writing this ages ago, but got interrupted, then it came up in conversation recently, so i felt like i needed to go ahead and post this, even if it's not quite complete.

I'm sure that both of you who read this blog can come up with a really bad movie sequel that just shouldn't have been made. Scream 2 is my first thought. But i think horror movies should be excluded from the 'bad sequel' problem - the original ones are bad too (sorry Stacey). The only thing a sequel saves you is having to create a new scary bad guy.

Anyway, there are some movie sequels that were at least as good, if not better than the original movie. Here, i've listed some sequels that I believe should never have been made - movies where the original was excellent and the sequel is miserable. However, the reason i decided to make this list is that there are some sequels that are better than the original / regardless of how terrible the original movie was, it's worth watching to get the backstory on the sequel.... i think you see where i'm going here:

Great sequels to great movies!
American Tale 2: Feivel Goes West
this movie is so incredible! Forget the original "there are no cats in america" - the newer one has a couple of great songs, is much less tragic, and Dom Delouise is hilarious!

StarWars (episodes 5&6)
5 is probably the best movie ever made. The existance of 5 & 6 makes 4 even awesomer.

Toy Story 2
Woody and Buzz and the gang come back, and it's hilarious. This movie has one of my favorite randomly hilarious lines of any movie "Well, slotted pig, they're standard issue".

Shrek 2
Oh how funny is this movie!?! They really outdid themselves. Granted the first one is hilarious ("It's a thong!"), but the addition of the third character to the comedic interplay of shrek and donkey is priceless ("for you, I could be.")

Awesome sequels - Made the crappy original Better!
Terminator 2.
Although i've actually never seen this one, it is the hallmark in this category. Everyone loves the second terminator movie. I have seen the first one. it sucks.

And i'm spent. I'm sure you can come up with others in this category. Like i said - i knew this was incomplete and that's why i didn't publish it before now.

Bad sequel! bad!

Secret of Nimh 2 (and other similar re-done animated movies)
Really? If it's been more than 10 years since the original movie, then the new one is no longer a sequel. Don't call it that. Re-make the original or pretend that it's not the same characters - it sucks to have all new actors, all new animators, supposedly playing the same characters. Lame on principle.

Terminator 3.
Thanks, chris, for coming up with this excellent and ironic example. Again, i've never seen it, but hear that it is one of the worst movies out there.

Pirates 2 and 3.
Ok Pirates 1 is an amazing movie. No question. Pirates 2 was rather dissapointing - really? a swordfight on a giant waterwheel? Undead pirates i totally buy, but this is not possible. But pirates 3 just took the badness to a whole new level. Not only now is there an actual PERSON of davy jones, but he was in love with a sea godess who just happens to be trapped in someone's body who we've already met, and ... uggh it's just bad bad bad. Like i said, makes the first one worse, just knowing these horrible sequels exist.

ok back to work with me.