Such a lazy blogger

I've been such a lazy blogger. I have things to say and pictures to share, but man, I've been so lazy. We went through H-E-double toothpicks to get Emmy back and now that we have her I don't want to do anything but cuddle. It was a major pain in the patootie to get her. The weather broke 20 degrees at night for three days so we were trying to get her out ASAP, however, the vets weren't cooperating. Many thanks for all of the work that my family and Julie did! If it wasn't for them my little pupster would still be stuck in CA...not that she would be complaining, but Edward and I would be.

Anyway, here are some recent pictures of food and my little snuggle-muffin.




This is a Bolivian chicken dish that was sooooo spicy and yummy. I got this recipe from The South American Table recipe book that I got from Auntie Mary who got it from her friend. Oh my gosh, it was so good. Only Edward and I really liked it though because it was so spicy. The recipe called for hot peppers so I bought two habanero peppers. You have to puree the peppers with some EVOO. I left the seeds in one and seeded the other. It was the perfect amount of heat for us. Make sure to wear gloves if you're handling these babies. I've learned my lesson. Over the summer I forgot to wear them and then touched my lip. It was burning for hours. Thank goodness I didn't rub my eye. I'd probably would have had to go to the hospital. These burn like fire. Anyway, the chicken was really good, but all of the onion that I put in made Edward's stomach upset. I love to cook with garlic and onions, but they make his tummy growl and rumble. Oh well. Thanks for the book Auntie Mary! This is a great recipe and I'm sure there are a ton more.


This is an Indian style pork loin that I made last night. A few months ago I did something similar but didn't write down the recipe so I was trying to do the same thing. This time though, I used lots of veggies, which made it so much better.

Indian Style Pork Loin

1 pork loin
3 tbsp Garam Masala
1 tbsp Turmeric
1 tbsp Cumin
1 tbsp Kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
3 tbsp EVOO
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 onion, sliced
3 carrots, cut in chunks
4 stalks celery, cut in chunks
5 mushrooms, sliced


Mix spices together in bowl. Rub over pork. Heat EVOO. Brown the pork in dutch over or heavy pot on medium high heat. Add chicken stock to get the browned bits off of the bottom. Add remaining ingredients and cover. Let cook for about an hour or until the pork is as firm as the flesh by your thumb of a closed fist....of just cut into it to see if it's done.

Emmy pictures:


So when Emmy was home we thought that she had gotten a cut in the backyard while running around. She had been biting at the area by her right hind leg because it was bothering her. When Julie took her to the vet the first time to get her health certificate to fly (we had to get three different certificates) the vet gave her some antibiotics. My parents were taught a way to trick Emmy into eating the pill without noticing (something I'll have to learn eventually). When Julie took her back to the vet for the third certificate the vet took another look at her little furless area. He thinks that her fur loss is an allergic reaction to rabies vaccine that she got at Banfield...which we're banning by the way. So the next time I take her to get vaccinated I will ask for a different brand. These are a couple of pics of the furless area. It has been very dry and flaky so I put a tiny bit of lotion on her. I don't want her to have another reaction so I only used a tiny, tiny bit.

Oh Mommy, I love being home with you!
Oooooh strechy girl!

Getting fit

I've started to really get into Wii Fit and I started "Shrink Your Female Fat Zones". I'm sore today, but I can already see a difference. Yay!

The Chin luck

I have it! This weekend at the RPI vs. Brown hockey game I won the "Guess the attendance" contest. I won a two night stay and four lift tickets to Mount Snow (which I believe was or is where the Olympics will be, but I'm not sure) up in Lake Placid. It was pretty cool. The girl approached us and Ed said that I should do it since he had already won a Browns Brewing Co. gift certificate for the puck shoot (he was like three inches away from winning a car!). Nadeem didn't want to go so I did. My guess was 2757 and I think the turn out was around 2500, which is what I was thinking of saying in the beginning. Lucky for me the other two guys went much higher than my guess. Anyway, I don't know when we'll be going since they are midweek tickets. The hotel hasn't even contacted me yet. We still have the 2 night stay in Boston that Ed won last semester. We have little time for these excursions, but we should go before our Doozer gets back.


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Other than that, I've christen my new Emeril deep fryer that the Levie's got me for Christmas with mozzarella sticks. The sticks themselves were very salty, but the fryer did beautifully. I then ventured into the realm of Lumpia. I don't know what the difference between Lumpia and eggrolls are, but mine sure looked like egg rolls. They weren't cute and neatly made like my Auntie Marvel's. Auntie Marvel, I'm just going to have to keep requesting that you make them at Thanksgiving! I think I may have put too much stuffing in mine, as they were almost bursting at the seams. I also don't know if I had enough oil in the fryer. I had it to the mark that the saftey instructions indicated, but my rolls were too big and not completely submerged so I had to keep turning them. I also had the temperature on the highest setting, but they came out really greasy. They were very tastey, but too greasy for my liking. Ed, Nadeem, and Rolando thought that they were really good and polished them off, but man, I could only eat a couple. It could be my new "diet". My body has adjusted to eating less and lighter food. I guess that's a good thing. I also made wonton skin desserts with the extra wrappers. I cut them in smaller squares, fried them, and the dusted them with powdered sugar. They also finished those off.

After I was done with my Lumpia, I drained the oil into the little filtration system and container. It worked great! The oil is quiet dark now so I think I'll have to replace it. I was hoping to get one more use out of it, but I don't want to risk it. I was supposed to make fried chicken last night, but we went on a date instead (it was great by the way). I don't think that I have enough oil in there for a whole batch of chicken anyway. I think I'll make Edward sweet potato fries instead.

As always, we didn't do much for Valentine's day. There was a big hockey game, which we lost, and then I made a nice dinner for my guys (Ed, Rolando, and Nadeem). I roasted a chicken, made garlic and rosemary red potatoes and Guiness mushrooms. The mushrooms were awesome. They made my throat a little itchy and my face very hot, but they were so worth it. This will be a "signature" mushroom dish for me, as I made it up on the spot. I love when experiments turn out well. The chicken was also a made up dish that turned out well, but the mushrooms make me proud.

Valentine's Roaster chicken

1 roasting chicken
1tbls cayenne pepper
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
4 tbsp butter, cut into chunks
1 bottle beer
1/2 c water

Preheat oven or roaster to 350 degrees. Mix spices in a small bowl. Take out the bag of chicken innards and rinse chicken. Take chicken and place butter under the skin. Rub spice mixture outside of chicken and inside the cavity. Place chicken on a rack in the roaster. Pour in water and beer. If using an oven place chicken on a rack and then into the pan so that the bottom does not touch the liquid. Cover with aluminum foil. Roast/bake the chicken for 1.5 hours or until nearly falling apart.

Reserve drippings for gravy.

Guiness mushrooms

2 packs mushrooms, stemmed
1/4 c (1/2 bottle) Guiness beer
1 tbls cayenne pepper
1.5 tbls cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Saute mushrooms in beer, adding beer as needed so they don't burn. Add cayenne and cumin. Toss until mushrooms are dark brown but not shapless. Salt and pepper to taste.

Garlic Rosemary Potatoes
(Mommy' recipe)

5 red potatoes
1 head garlic, seperated
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
6 tbsp evoo

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dice potatoes and mix with whole garlic cloves, rosemary, and evoo. Spread on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake for 20 minute intervals. After the first 20 minutes take the potatoes out and stir them, make sure the are all flat. Bake for another 20 minutes. Cool before serving.

Here are a couple of pictures from our ski trip where I jiggled my brain.



This is an egg that I made a few weeks ago that I thought looked nearly perfect and had to document.

Insult Haikus

For class we had to write insult haikus that I found to be quite amusing. They haven't been workshopped yet, that's tonight, but I still got a kick out of them when I was reading them to Edward last night. They are just so ridiculous. I don't think I could ever say any of these to anyone. Just as a refresher, the haiku is 5-7-5 syllabic form. The last one does break form with only four syllables in the last line.

Hidden articles
under your dresser about
self help won’t help us.

Bull testicles are
smoother than the skin on your
hairy red jowls.

I wish I could flush
your head in the toilet bowl
to wipe that smirk off.

You remind me of
a jackal with your slanted
eyes and pointed ears.

Jackal, jackal, jack
all you do is scrounge for food
like a beggar man.

When the sun shines your
lips look like forgotten French
fries left in the sand.

Kiss me goodbye for
your heart is so ugly that
I cannot stand it.

You are a baby,
an infant molested by
naïveté.

This is me!

This poem is by Sappho. It is an insult poem, but oh well.

Yes, it is pretty

But come, dear, need
you pride yourself
that much on a ring?

I have yet to get that ring, but I thought this was funny since it seems like I am so focused on it as are my family and friends.

Warm weather

Man, today is so warm! A whopping 50 degrees! It's so sad that I say that 50 is warm now, but it's the truth. I wish we could have gotten Emmy home today, but by the time we get her vet appointment for her authorization to fly and back to Davis it'll be cold again. Boo. I can't wait for Spring. By Friday the evenings will be back down to 18 degrees, which is the no pet flying zone for the airlines. I had a dream last night that my family drove her back to see me and boy was she happy to see me. I must have been in Davis or something because it was sunny and warm...definitely not Troy.

Today while I was driving down a tiny little street on my way to work with my window down, I heard reverberations from the car bouncing off of the houses and it startled me. I haven't had my window down in so long I forgot what it sounded like in a car. When I mentioned it to the guys at Celery Neil said "Only you, Allison," and shook his head. Hah! I guess things like that really do only happen to me.

Poetry Submission

Last night I sent in my first poetry submission (ever) to Poetry Magazine. Apparently the Poetry.com thing I did before was a scam...according to one of my professors. Anyway, this time I submitted to a magazine that the professors and students at my school subscribe to. In class my prof said that I should submit my poem as the shortest haiku written. She also said that we should make a list and start with the hardest place and then work our way down. Since I don't think I'm ready for the New Yorker, I submitted to the next one down. I'm supposed to hear in about eight weeks. Unfortunately, they pay $10 a line, but only pay a minimum of $300. Since my poem is only three lines I won't be seeing any moo-la if it gets selected. Bragging rights will suffice. I don't want to get my hopes up though because I know I'm an amateur writer. I'm not expecting much. If anyone is interested in my tiny haiku, please let me know and I can email it out. The submission guidelines specifically said that an entry cannot be published anywhere prior to submission.

My neck hurts and I want kisses from my doggy.

I need a helmet!

Yesterday I took a day off to go snow boarding with Ed and our friend Nadeem. I was doing really well and doing jumps again. (I haven't gone since I've been here, which was like 3 years ago.) I'm not sure what happened, but I totally bailed and smacked the back of my head on the snow, which was quite icy. I was a little dazed and my jaw hurt from my teeth smashing together. Luckily I didn't have a concussion and knew better than to lay down to rest. After a few minutes I got back up to do the next jump, but man, my brain was rattled. When I got home, however, I could feel the whiplash setting in. I laid down on the bed later on and I couldn't lift my head with my neck muscles. I had to roll onto my side and then push myself up. Today it is pretty painful, especially when I sneeze. So now, I'm on the market for a snowboarding helmet. I need all of the brains I have. Hopefully my neck feels better by Monday since we're planning to go night skiing then. Tickets are only $20 and the place is only an hour away. There is plenty of time for me to get off of work and up there for $20 worth of snow time.

This weekend I also helped host a big Superbowl party. Edward and our friend Cara funded the party and I cooked all of the food. There was A LOT of food for a lot of people (30-40). I made 14.5 pounds of pulled pork, two big bags of kielbasa sausage with homemade sauce (if I can find the recipe online again I'll post the link), BBQ chicken, pierogies, pasta salad, baked beans and nachos. I was unable to get any pictures because people piled onto the food before I could get it all laid out. Hopefully I can find someone who took pictures. It was a ton of fun and everyone liked the menu. Surprisingly, we had left over food, but it's mine, all mine! I only got a little bit of food because I was running around trying to be a hostess even though we hosted it at the RPI pub. It was a good time and I'm glad that the Steeler won. Cara is a big Pittsburg fan so we were rooting for them. I, on the other hand, had no preference and watched very little of the game.

Hungry

My stomach is eating itself. I hope I adjust to yogurt and bananas really fast!

Getting my health on!

It's been two days since I started this new bill of health, which is a nicer way to say I'm on a diet. I've adopted my dad's yogurt and banana lunch plan. Hopefully it will last. When I got home yesterday I was starving and quite grumpy, but am going to try to stick with it. Once my body adjusts to healthy food and not Hot Pockets or greasy chimichangas, I think I will be okay. It took me a week or so to get used to eating non-fatty home cooked meals last year when we decided to stop eating out so much. Even if I ate a good sized portion of home-cooked food, I didn't feel full because there wasn't enough fat in the meal. I did seem to slim down a bit and saved money.

Along with eating better, I started walking in place and doing aerobic exercises while watching TV. I don't watch as much TV as I was since school has started again, but I'm trying to exercise at least twice a week. This weekend I bought little two pound weights to hold while jumping around the house. I felt like such a sissy walking around Target with them because they had little handles so that if you accidentally let go while running you don't take someone out with them and because they are pink. They aren't cool magenta or hot pink, they're light pink. Sissy pink.

We were dog sitting this weekend for Josie the Celery dog and she was looking at me like I was a loony when I was do my grape vines and pumping my arms with my little pink weights. I felt just as crazy. The other day I was able to walk and run in place for an hour while watching HGTV, but with the weights I could only do 10 minutes. Eek. I need to get in shape. I Netflixed Denise Austin's "Shrink Your Female Fat Zones". As silly as the name sounds, it is what caught my attention and made me put it in my queue. I have to send back the chick flick that I haven't had time to watch so that I can start shrinking!

This is basically the start of me trying to be healtier. I've gone back to my vitamin taking. I finally brought them down to the office so that I can have them with my coffee. I'm not sure if taking vitamins with coffee is good, but it is the way that I remember them. I've noticed that I have lost my double chin since coming back to Troy. I suspect it is because I don't eat nearly as much as when I'm home. We hardly snack and though I like to bake, I tend not to eat what I do. Those logs of salami my mom always has in the fridge was bringing me down. They tasted so good! Last week while Edward and I were grocery shopping the lady packing our bags said "You guys are so nutricious! There's not a single cookie or chip in here!" I am quite proud of the fact that we don't eat that much junk. Our cart was filled with veggies and meat so that I could do my normal Sunday prep for the week. What the lady didn't know was that I had every intention to go home and make cranberry muffins, which I actually ran out of time to make, but then made chocolate chip cookies a few days later.

I also came to the conclusion that Wii Fit is decieivng. Upon returning to Troy I was asked to sub for a late-night soccer game with my old team (I have class when their games are so I didn't sign up this semester). After five minutes of running my lungs felt like they were going to burn a whole through my chest. I'm so out of shape! Wii Fit apparently doesn't do as much as I thought. ...I still am searching for it though.

We will have to see if my new lunch and exercise plan stick around, but if my dad can do it, then I can do it. However, you won't see me going on 600 mile bike rides any time soon.

Josie the Celery dog

She got these new boots because the snow and salt hurts her little paw. It is so cute when she tries to walk. That is my boss Neil and his wife Mary Beth. You can hear us laughing in the background. This is the lovely Celery office.

Josie video

Inauguration Speech

In case you are like me and missed the inauguration speech, here is CNN's link.

Journaling

For my poetry class we are supposed to journal everyday. I only plan to do it when the mood strikes me. I started my first entry today and lo-and-behold I missed the inauguration because I was writing it. Though this particular journal was not a freewrite (writing with no editing or even looking at the screen) it was a blurb that came out and may sound absurd and/or arrogant, awkward because of tense shifts, and frantic because of my basic jump-around train of thought. The purpose of the journal is to put on paper ideas that could possibly be put into a poem. Freewriting works well with this because then I don't have to worry about grammar or spelling. It's a pretty cool exercise, but I will try to refrain from putting freewrites down in this blog as they can be confusing and annoying. This week is List poetry. Maybe I'll write a list of all the ways I'm dependent on my computer.

January 20, 2009
Logging on. It’s done everyday as soon as you wake up or sit down to your computer. It’s like an addiction. You dream about it. Just this morning while I was trying to wake up I dreamt that Ed asked me if I was logging into work today. My response was, of course, why wouldn’t I? This makes me wonder: are we addicted to our computers? I wish I could say that I’m addicted to reading or to writing. Something that I deem a little more worthy than logging on to my computer and checking my email. Logging on does make you feel important though. You open your computer or turn on the screen to see if anyone has thought you important enough to write to. Has anyone left you a note on your Twitter? Is there a “You’ve Got Mail” jingle? Are there any new events and invitations on Facebook?
Ultimately, logging on makes you feel important. Can’t we feel important by doing something else? I don’t want to say that we should be doing something more useful, since logging on means getting work done for a lot of people, but our day-to-day lives revolve around it. Well, my day-to-day life revolves around it. I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to go a day without my computer or the internet. “The Internet Is For Porn” perhaps, but it has become a part of my life that I can’t live without. Is this a sad realization or something that has happened to everyone?
Youtube. Oh, Youtube. I’ve been known to say “I’ll Youtube it later”…for instance with Obama’s speech. I was writing this journal. It totally thought that the inauguration was later in the day. See, if I would have logged on earlier and checked the news sites I would have known!

This journal entry was done right after I woke up. I find that I come up with the weirdest stuff after sleeping. I don't think I would have thought of this stuff if I were just sitting on the sofa.

From Jubilate Ango

I absolutely love this poem. We read it in class and I thought it was very cute. I thought I'd share it with all of you. The story behind this poem is that Christopher Smart had "the praying disease" as my professor put it. He would have the urge to fall to his knees and pray when ever and where ever he felt it was necessary. As a result, he was thrown into prison because people thought he was crazy. While locked away, he only had a little cat as his friend. (How sad) I think the inspiration for this poem makes me like it more. This is also an example of a list poem.

Jubilate Agno, Fragment B, [For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry]
by Christopher Smart

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having considered God and himself he will consider his neighbor.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.
For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he's a good Cat.
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
For every house is incomplete without him, and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.
For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel
from Egypt.
For every family had one cat at least in the bag.
For the English Cats are the best in Europe.
For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.
For the dexterity of his defense is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.
For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.
For he is tenacious of his point.
For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.
For he knows that God is his Saviour.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.
For he is of the Lord's poor, and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually--Poor Jeoffry!
poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.
For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.
For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in complete cat.
For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music.
For he is docile and can learn certain things.
For he can sit up with gravity, which is patience upon approbation.
For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.
For he can jump over a stick, which is patience upon proof positive.
For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.
For he can jump from an eminence into his master's bosom.
For he can catch the cork and toss it again.
For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.
For the former is afraid of detection.
For the latter refuses the charge.
For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.
For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.
For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.
For he killed the Icneumon rat, very pernicious by land.
For his ears are so acute that they sting again.
For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.
For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.
For I perceived God's light about him both wax and fire.
For the electrical fire is the spiritual substance which God sends from heaven to sustain the
bodies both of man and beast.
For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.
For, though he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.
For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.
For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.
For he can swim for life.
For he can creep.

Lines 695-768 from Fragment B of Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart.

Works Cited

Smart, Christopher. "Jubilate Agno, Fragment B, [For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry]".
Poets.org: From the Academy of American Poets. 19 Jan. 2009
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15798

Emmy trying to swim

Cousin, are you okay?


You would think that swimming would come naturally to a dog, but not ours. The whole trip was worth watching her try to swim. She looked like she thought she was going to die. It was so funny that we couldn't even say good girl to reinforce her behavior because we were laughing so hard. Julie laughed so hard she that she cried.

Pictures are compliments of Christopher. I was laughing too hard to get my camera out fast enough.

Well gang, we're back

We've been back since Sunday and getting back in the swing of things. It's actually been really, really busy for us. Right after we got off the plane we went straight out to our favorite 24 hour diner, 76 Diner. On Monday it was back to the Celery office for me. It was nice being back there because things run much smoother for me. I don't have to worry about the internet not working or my phone not calling out. It was a relief to be back. That night we went right out to dinner with our friends Nadeem and Rolando to The Olive Garden. The service wasn't all that great, but the food was delicious. Since I only go grocery shopping on Sundays, I refused to go to the market to get supplies on a weekday. Needless to say, we ate out a lot this week. It'll be boring if I go into detail for everything single thing we did week. I'm just going to list it for you.

On Tuesday two of our friends had a birthday, so we went out to a bar downtown to celebrate. Wednesday I had my first class and then a soccer game. Thursday I had class then we went to dinner with Nadeem. Friday we had a hockey game and then to a sports bar with our friends Rolando and Cara. Saturday we had friends over for drinks and then we all went to the game and then to Brown's Brewing Co. for drinks and dinner. And then, and then, and then. And then like usual, we had our Sunday dinner with the normal gang.

Whew, it's been a long week and I think I just wrote "and then" more than I ever have in my life. Hehe.

Additional Pictures

Gualala, CA







Chin family Christmas Eve gathering.







Goodies I made to pass out to our neighbors and for stocking stuffers.






Emmy pictures

How time flies

Well, I've been home for almost a month now, but it feels like I've only been here a week. As always, I'm dreading going back. While I was here I had a great time even though I had to work the whole time. Christmas, ice skating, New Years, meeting with friends, Gualala, and hanging out really makes time go by quickly.

For Christmas we met with both the Chin and Chew sides of the family like always. This year the Levie's and Emmy joined us with the Chew side. I did most of the cooking and am obviously still learning since most of my stuff wasn't salty enough and fairly tasteless.


The big Chin family


The Levie's at our house for Christmas



We got mom a digital camera for Christmas and this is the picture she sees everytime she turns it on...just in case she forgets who gave it to her. I laughed so hard after seeing this picture that it kicked up my asthma.

Right after Christmas we had our annual ice skating day. Unfortunately, I was unable to join the skating festivities, but my mom and I went out to join everyone for dinner at Buca di Beppo. A couple of days after Buca, I went to a sleep over at my Auntie May's new house with Josie, Jennifer, Kimi and Patti. We had a lot of fun. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. We went out to sushi, played games and watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, which is also a book by Ann Brashares whom I admire greatly.

Patti, Josie, Kimi, me, and JenJen getting ready to watch the movie.

A week later we had New Years Eve at our house with Edward, Julie, Davie, our college friend Tim, and my high school friends, Bonnie and Abby. I made fajitas and chimichuri chicken from one of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals cook book that my Uncle David gave me. It was all very, very tasty. The whole party thanks you Uncle David! (If anyone wants the recipes, I can post them.) Then my family had dinner with the Chew side. We had tons of yummy seafood. Christopher and I were very happy campers. Next, we went up to Gualala to visit Davie's family. We all had a great time except that Emmy kept fighting with the other doggies because she thinks she's tough. I also got car sick on the way back down to Concord, which wasn't fun. Other than that, it was a great weekend.







So now I have two days left at home. Boo! I think this vacation was pretty action packed and I managed to get a lot out of it even though I had to work the whole time. I guess being a working girl isn't so bad. Then again, I do work from home and can see my family all the time while doing so. I'll take what I can get!

I have a new update on school. I won't be finishing until the end of May instead of the beginning. Signing up for classes this semester has been tricky business. When I first signed up for classes I didn't know that I couldn't take the same intro to writing class twice. In the beginning we could take the intro writing class twice because there weren't enough writing classes offered. They changed their regulations so that we can take two of the same genre specific classes twice and not intro. This worked out fine in the beginning because then I was able to take Fiction Writing twice. However, for this semester I signed up for the intro class but then was later informed that I couldn't take it. By the time I was told, all of the classes were taken. My only choice was to go into Irish Literature. Even though it's probably a good class, I was not very happy about this. The reading list that the professor sent out didn't seem that bad. Trying to save a little money, I ordered my books online. While doing this I realized that I hadn't paid my tuition so I called the school and found out that it was due that day and I could pay online. I usually get my bill and schedule in the mail, but since I've been home I didn't get it. I've never been able to find our bills online at St. Rose before because they have a horribly set up website. It took me half an hour to find it. When I did find it, it also showed me my schedule. Lo and behold, I was over booked and now I was registered for Poetry and Irish Lit at the same time. So I had all of the books for Irish Lit, but wasn't going to keep the class. I figured they had switched the days or something. I vaguely remember someone mentioning it, or maybe I dreamed it. Anyway, I frantically called my adviser and told her what had happened and also sent her an email. While I was freaking out, I tried to cancel all of the 14 book orders I had placed. I was only successful with two. So now I'm going to have 12 books that I don't necessarily need. I might sell them back, but I might just keep them. Hehe. Anyway, so when I finally got hold of my adviser, we came to the conclusion that it would be better for me to take two classes this semester and then take my last class during the summer. She also said that no classes were changed, but the registrar's office shouldn't have let me over book anyway. I could have sworn I had TWR classes, oh well. There was only one other class that I was eligible for and it was full as well as being a literature class. Only five classes are offered at a time because the school is so small. I am currently enrolled in two classes. Irish lit conflicted and I can't that Intro Writing. That only left one option, which was not a good one. The summer class is a three week long non-fiction writing class that I wanted to take but wasn't sure if I could after I graduated. My classmates raved about it last summer so I figured I would go out with a bang and get as much writing experience as I can. My adviser thought it was a good idea too. Instead of finishing up in the beginning of May, I'll be done at the end of it. It's not too bad I guess. At least I don't have to take another stuffy literature class. Those things suck the life out of reading. I'm already enrolled in one lit class, American Fiction, which sounds really good. I also have Poetry writing. By the time I do graduate I will have taken Fiction, Poetry, Intro, and Non-fiction writing. I'm happy about that because I think my writing will be more well-rounded from learning all of the genres than if I didn't take the summer class. Hopefully it will make this semester easier since I'll only be going part time.