Frankly, My Dear

This ain't no Farmville

2010-04-26T23:11:00.004-04:00

In addition to an overwhelming amount of work this spring, I've also begun/tried to take up gardening. I planted 8 broccoli seeds, and figured I'd never need 8, so I gave 4 of the sprouts to my mom. I planted 2, but didn't have a chance to plant the remaining 2. Those first 2 disappeared. The second 2 I planted in pots a week later, but they don't seem to be doing very well. I either kept them in their egg carton seed pots too long, or didn't harden them off long enough. I may or may not get broccoli out of one of them.

Of the 8 lettuce seeds I planted, I think 5 sprouted. I transplanted them into larger pots (yogurt cups) sooner, and have been at the hardening off process longer, but I do wish I had them in the ground already. Maybe after I finish writing the final paper I should be writing right now.

Of the 4 spinach seeds I planted, only 1 sprouted. It's doing about the same as the lettuce seedlings, as I've been treating them the same. I just sprouted 3 more seeds in a damp paper towel this weekend, because I wanted more than 1 spinach plant. I'm only 1 person, so I probably don't need 4, but now I have 4, if these 3 - that I just put in pots this afternoon - make it.

I also planted 4 tomato seeds, of which 3 sprouted. If they all make it - and 2 are growing better than the third - I will have more than enough tomatoes. Even if only those 2 make it, I will have plenty of tomatoes.

I have never so looked forward to salads.

Let us rejoice and be glad . . . please

2010-04-17T14:54:00.004-04:00

The mood at my home church this Easter was anything but joyful. We tried to celebrate, we really did, but it was a success just to hold back the tears. Five days earlier, two much-loved high school seniors had been killed in a car accident on their way to baseball practice, and the entire community was still reeling on Easter morning. I hadn't known them, though my sister had been friendly with one, and my dad had grown up with the other's father.

And so, though I hadn't known them, I'd spent almost a week reading graphic and heart-breaking local news stories, being moved to tears by posts on memorial Facebook groups, hearing my dad describe repeat the eulogies from the Holy Saturday funeral, and welling up at the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday when Christ's body was removed from the Cross and given to his mother. I can't even begin to imagine what those mothers were going through.

I had thought of trying to talk to one of the priests on Saturday or Sunday about scheduling and making appointments, but the last thing I wanted to do was add one more thing to do to the list of someone who had already had to call the archbishop for a dispensation to have a funeral and distribute Communion on Holy Saturday, who would have to preside at the funerals of two teenagers in five days.

I didn't notice the families of either boy in church on Easter, but Mass was preceded by an announcement about how the community had pulled together in the wake of such tragedy, and we prayed for them during the Prayers of the Faithful. At least a couple of kids there had been their teammates, and while I didn't notice any of those teenaged boys crying, I noticed lots of those teenaged boys' mothers crying.

I couldn't help but think, when we said "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," that it was not so much a proclamation as a plea. Glad wasn't something we could handle on our own. We needed help.

Let us be glad, Lord. Please. Let us be glad.

Googling "Free Stuff"

2010-02-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

I never actually thought it would work, but after spending a huge amount on a major trip to the grocery store this week, I googled "Free Stuff." Or "Where to get free stuff." Something like that. I ended up on a website with the unlikely name of thunderfap.com, which listed lots of links to sites with offers for coupons or free stuff.

So instead of doing homework Saturday, like I intended, I ended up signing up for every one that was remotely interesting to me. If they were all legit - and they all appeared to be - in the next 2-10 weeks, I should be receiving Cream of Wheat, BreatheRight Nasal Strips, CankerMelts, numerous feminine products, toothpaste, Tide, and a California Tortilla for lunch one day this week! Not to mention uncountable marketing e-mails and flyers in the real mail. But I'll gladly deal if it saves me money!

I'll provide updates if any of these things actually show up . . .

Good, Secular Organizations: SecularProLife.org

2010-02-22T00:00:00.001-05:00

As I had mentioned after this year's March for Life, I'm uncomfortable with how strong the religious message of the pro-life movement is - even though I agree with it 100%. Soon after the March, I contacted SecularProLife.org to see how they felt about the issue. Was the religious language alienating? Did it make them reluctant to participate? Less willing to identify as pro-life?

I mentioned the 4 points on which I am uncomfortable with the religious assertions in the pro-life movement:

1) In this country, they cannot and should not be the basis of policy or law.
2) I'd imagine that non-religious pro-lifers might feel alienated by them and/or not be comfortable attending events like March for Life without feeling like they're endorsing something they don't believe.
3) They lack authority in the eyes of a lot of the people we're trying to talk to.
4) You often see someone make an entirely secular argument against abortion only to receive a response along the lines of "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!" Pro-choicers discount all pro-life arguments as religious and therefore irrelevant based on the fact that the most prevalent pro-life arguments are religious.

Here, with her permission, I'm quoting in its entirety the eloquent response I got from Kelsey Hazzard, President of SecularProLife.org.

SecularProLife.org did participate in the March for Life. We stuck out. Quite a few people asked to take pictures of our banner; I caught others trying to take a shot without being noticed. We also had a table at the Students for Life of America conference, where we talked to campus leaders about encouraging religious diversity in their organizations.

I'm actually a Christian too, but like you, I am uncomfortable with the religious overtones at the march. The Catholic language and symbolism used (I'm Protestant) has a more isolating impact than many pro-lifers realize. The atheists and agnostics who make up the backbone of SecularProLife.org would say that yes, the pro-life movement is alienating the non-religious. I've gotten many emails from non-theists thanking me for creating a pro-life group where they can belong. Without SecularProLife.org, many of them would either be lone wolf pro-life bloggers, or doing no activism at all. A group effort has a much stronger impact than the individual efforts of its members; unfortunately, the non-religious pro-life movement has historically not been well organized.

I agree wholeheartedly with point #4. One of our principal missions, aside from making the pro-life movement more inclusive, is to fight the religious stereotyping by abortion advocacy groups. The truth is that most pro-lifers, even the most religiously devout, rely on secular justifications for their position. If I became an atheist tomorrow, I would still oppose abortion because I am well-acquainted with the facts of prenatal development, the principles of human rights, and the effect of abortion on women.

On the question of whether it's better, based purely on the numbers, to focus on the religious: absolutely not! Since you were at the march, you undoubtedly noticed the strong presence of young people. Millenials have been called the "pro-life generation" because this age group opposes abortion more than any other. Another interesting fact about this generation is that a quarter of people between the ages of 18 and 29 practice no religion. The older, more religious pro-life leadership is going to be in for a shock. We're here to help the pro-life movement adapt to these new dynamics.

Feel free to quote me in your blog. You can talk to people in our facebook group, too. Everyone is friendly.
Have a great day,
Kelsey Hazzard
President of SecularProLife.org

I encourage you to visit SecularProLife.org at their website or their Facebook page and support their efforts!

7 Quick Takes Friday Part XXXIV

2010-02-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

1. Okay kids, it's February 2010. That's early-mid 2010, right? So why am I still waiting for the digitization of the 1901 Irish census? Hmmm? Can't Ireland get on this?

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2. Problem: Part of my Lenten fast is to give up Catholic blogs. (As much as I enjoy them, there's more snark and more politics involved than on other blogs I follow (read: genealogy blogs). I end up with an unfortunate tendency to mediate my faith through something not particularly fruitful.) I had intended, though, for Conversion Diary to be the one I kept reading. Jen's posts are always inspiring, helpful, and motivate me spiritually. Seems like God had different plans for her Lent and mine both. (So, maybe not such a problem?)

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3. Cinnamon Popcorn from The Popcorn Factory. I'm in love. I first tasted it when breaking my Ash Wednesday fast, so I might be a tiny bit biased, but it might possibly be the best thing ever ever invented.

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4. Don't look at me like that. I was only eating Cinnamon Popcorn minutes after midnight Thursday morning because I had nothing else in the house. I just moved back into my apartment post-flood, and haven't been grocery shopping since December.

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5. I just finished reading Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. I want to be her. I'm trying to recruit my roommates to plant vegetables in the backyard of the vacant house next door. Read Novella's blog Ghost Town Farm!

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6. A week off for snow meant I had time for the rare pleasure read mid-semester. I miss reading things I like. I sure manage to watch plenty of TV, though.

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7. I'm pretty sure I'm about a million years behind the meme times, but I have recently learned I love when Hitler finds out things.

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Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

You might be a bad Catholic if . . .

2010-02-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

. . . you've ever gotten dressed up nicely on Ash Wednesday, in a flattering skirt and nice top, not because of that stuff Jesus said in the Gospel about washing your face and anointing your head, but because you knew that after a day of fasting, you'd look skinnier than usual and you wanted to take advantage of it.

(No, not this year; I know better now. But recently enough that I should have known better then.)

The Saturday Evening Blog Post

2010-02-06T19:00:00.002-05:00

It's that time again! Head over to ElizabethEsther.com to participate in this month's Saturday Evening Blog Post by submitting a link to your favorite post of the past month.

7 Quick Takes Friday Part XXXIII

2010-02-05T11:45:00.000-05:00

1. DC is on the verge of "Snowpocalypse Part II." It's amusing to watch the natives rush around, going crazy at the prospect of snow. Granted, 2-3 feet is a lot. But the city - and by association, the federal government, of course - grinds to a halt every time. I already get to go home after 4 hours of work, and not a single flake has fallen. Oh Washington.

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2. I'm interested in growing apples from seed. I understand that it's a bit of a crap shoot; you can never tell what kind of apples you'll get. That sounds kind of exciting to me. I also understand that it takes 6-10 years for a tree to bear fruit. My question, though, is how big does the tree get in the interim? I'm an apartment dweller, and will be for the foreseeable future, though I hope to have a home and yard within 6-10 years. Is it possible to start apple trees from seed now, and keep them as potted plants for several years before planting them outside when they begin to mature to the fruit-bearing stage? Or will they get too big too quickly?

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3. You know what's been annoying me lately? Those McDonald's ads that say, "Fruit, meet Oats. Oats, meet Fruit." Does McDonald's really think they invented putting fruit on oatmeal?

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4. Word of the month: Antediluvian. adj Of or relating to the period before the Biblical Flood. Use: "No, Landlord, I will not pay my rent until my apartment is restored to its antediluvian condition."

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5. On that note, I may be back in my very own apartment (whether or not it's in it's antediluvian condition) by Monday or Tuesday. Only displaced for a month! (I briefly described the deluge here.)

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6. I wish my desk had windows. I'd love to know whether or not it's snowing yet. In fact, I may just get up and take a stroll across the office . . . Report: some sort of wintry mix. Not quite snow yet. (As of 11:30am)

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7. Since I have snow on my mind, and since I don't want to sound like one these silly Washingtonians who obsesses about snow, I'll end here and get back to work. Happy Snow Day!

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Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

Politics and Basketball: Only a Hoya

2010-02-01T09:38:00.002-05:00

Sign seen at the Georgetown v. Duke game this weekend:

"Coach K ran Coakley's Senate Campaign"

I love it. Hoya Saxa.

7 Quick Takes Friday Part XXXII

2010-01-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

1. The singer of the "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life" song from March for Life e-mailed me a recording of it. If you'd like to hear it, he's given me permission to pass it on, so just ask!

2. Icky: At a Subway this week, the menu listed an Italian sub, with Salami, Bologna, and Ham. The fine print, underneath, read "All meats are turkey based." Turkey is supposed to be a "good" meat, but when you start making it into things it clearly is not . . . something is not right.

3. To have plantar's warts removed: dermatologist or podiatrist? I'm leaning towards the former, as my most memorable past experience with the latter involved hysterical crying through the entire appointment. I was 17.

4. Also, this is sad. I was at the grocery store yesterday, and blindly navigated my cart to the wart removal section. Then I spent 15 minutes searching for the bread aisle. Dr. Scholl's is going to miss my business if I get these things to go away.

5. I'm unexpectedly taking the day off of work today. I woke up with such a stiff neck this morning, and I can't move my head without a lot of pain. I had a fun weekend planned, and have friends visiting from out of town. This had better be temporary.

6. Is anyone familiar with nuride.com? I signed up for it this week, and I've been using it faithfully to record my trips to and from work by foot or by Metro, but I dunno . . . it seems a little too good to be true, I guess. All I have to do is tell them I rode the Metro, and I can get free stuff?

7. Ow. Ow. Ow. My neck is killing me. I always thought a stiff neck was just, you know, stiff. That doesn't sound painful. But it is highly misleading.

Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

How to Eat Well as a Grad Student

2010-01-28T13:20:00.002-05:00

Or rather: How do I eat well as a grad student?

Because I have NO IDEA. Yesterday, I googled "how to eat well in grad school" and got lots of sites that told me how important it was to be sure to eat well while you're in grad school! But none of them gave any advice at all. I don't know how I got through a year and a half without ending up either super-skinny or hugely overweight. Lots of grad school programs, like mine, pretend that they are a good fit for people who work, even people who work full-time. They are not. It is physically possible to get from a full day's work to an evening class, but it is not physically possible to do so while being able to eat a healthy, home-cooked meal, nor, for most of us, is it financially possible to do so while being able to eat a healthy, restaurant-bought meal. It boils down to two options: skip dinner, or eat dinner out of the vending machine.

I don't work full-time, not quite, which in theory should make this problem easier. Less time at work = more time for cooking, right? Oh, but also: less time at work = less money! Right. I don't know why I've been particularly frustrated by this problem this week, but I have.

Four days out of the week, this is what my schedule looks like:

7:30: Breakfast at home, make sandwich
8-4:30: Work (eat sandwich at noon)
--3:00: Start to get really hungry.
5-10: Ether class or the gym. Class is over by 8, on gym nights I head home by 9:30.
Between 8:30 and 11: Arrive home. Tired. Hungry. Some days, I haven't eaten in almost 12 hours.

Now, I have 2/3 of my meals figured out. Eggs for breakfast, PB&J sandwiches for lunch. Cheap, healthy, and portable = grad student-friendly. But I am entirely at a loss about what I can ever eat for dinner. On class nights it's not too bad. I can suck it up, and eat when I get home at 8 or 9. Not horrible. I'm hungry, but I'll live. On gym nights, since my gym class doesn't start until 7:30, I could eat between work and the gym. But given my current income, it's financially irresponsible to expect to be able to eat out 3 nights a week, and I have yet to figure out how to prepare all three of the days meals before I leave home in the morning. So lately, I've ended up skipping the gym to go home and eat more often than not, and on days when I do manage to work out, I'm cranky and hungry throughout. Then I get home, eat a full meal (you should have seen the astonished looks I got last night when my (temporary) roommates saw how spaghetti I could pile on a single plate), and go immediately to bed, it invariably being almost midnight. Sleeping on a full stomach is supposedly not good for you, either, but what choice do I have?

Those of you who have somehow survived this stage of your lives: What did you eat for dinner?

Observations on March for Life 2010

2010-01-24T12:35:00.003-05:00

I think my favorite person there was the guy on a box outside the Sculpture Garden singing "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pro-choice woman your wife. From my personal point of view, get a pro-life girl to marry you!" It's been stuck in my head for days.

I was a little uncomfortable with the strong religious overtones. I agree completely that all the religious assertions were true, but I have 2 concerns. First, as much as I may agree that, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you" is true, it's not the base of good policy in this country. What we need to be able to create pro-life laws in America are good, secular arguments against abortion. Second, I know there are pro-life people out there who are not religious. I doubt they'd feel welcome at the March, or be able to participate without feeling like they were endorsing something they disagreed with.

It seemed much more crowded this year than last year, but I'm not sure whether that's because the March route was shorter; people were congregating to march at the same place as the rally, rather than several blocks away, so everyone was all crammed together.

I wasn't sure whether to find the huge number of high school aged marchers heartening or not. Teenagers have a pretty strong tendency to a) do what their friends are doing, and b) want to go on field trips. I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of them hadn't really given too much thought to the issue of abortion at all. However, even if that's the case, I doubt that March for Life would turn them off of the pro-life cause; it's more likely to make them default to pro-life views, which is a good thing.

I wish people - and this applies to everyone, not just March for Lifers - would throw their trash in the garbage! There was way too much litter on the ground when I walked down the Mall at 5pm. I wasn't sure, though, whether the "Choose Life" and "Stop Abortion" signs on the ground would turn people off of the movement ("Look at these disrespectful pro-lifers!") or serve as a continued expression of our message even once we'd left.

Having teenagers carry signs that say "Women do regret abortion" and "Men regret lost fatherhood" struck me as a little . . . disingenuous. I doubt that many of those girls and boys were actually regretting abortions. While I know it's true that women do regret abortion, I don't think that presuming to speak for others is an effective way to get your message apart. At the very least, I think that you end up lacking authority in the eyes of others and losing your audience.

What sort of signs should young people be holding? Ones that testify to our missing peers and to having survived legalized abortion. The one sign I saw that brought me closer to tears than any other was the one held by a teenager that said, "17 years ago, January X 1993, my mom chose adoption instead of abortion."

With all of the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people there, I had the good fortune to run into the group from my home parish. I was shocked to find that my 8th grade CCD teacher still recognized me!

Good, Secular Arguments: Why I Don't "Trust Women"

2010-01-23T15:11:00.003-05:00

Much like pro-lifers, pro-choicers spent January 22 blogging. The theme of this year's "Blog for Choice Day" was "Trust Women," which was the mantra of the late Dr. Tiller.

I do, of course, trust women, as much as I trust men (and probably more than I trust boys and girls!). But the issue is irrelevant to the abortion debate. As a rule, we trust people to make the best choices for their lives and their futures. Within certain parameters.

We trust people to make the decision about the best way to support their families. But we don't make theft legal! Because theft is wrong, it's bad for society, it has victims who need to be protected. Yes, we are marginally restricting the amount of decisions we trust providers to make. We don't trust them to decide whether or not to rob a bank, because to allow people to make that choice would hurt others.

We trust people to make decisions about who they want to have sex with. But we don't make rape legal! Rape is wrong, it's bad for society, it has victims who need to be protected. Outlawing rape marginally restricts the rights of men to choose who they have sex with, but it results in a better-protected right of women to make that decision. We don't trust men to make the choice whether or not to rape someone, because to allow people to choose to do so would leave victims in its wake.

Once you've established that the potential cost of misestimating the beginning of life is too great to assume that it's anywhere but at conception, it's clear that abortion hurts people. Yes, to outlaw abortion would restrict the "rights" of pregnant women. But we've established that we can marginally restrict what we trust certain people to do in order to protect the rights of potential victims. We can't trust women to decide whether or not to have an abortion, because to allow someone to choose to do so would hurt the primary victim of an abortion, the child.

We don't subjugate the rights of potential victims to a misplaced desire to trust someone in power to make the right decision for himself, without regard to whether that decision is right for others.

The Pro-Life Deluge Begins

2010-01-21T09:48:00.002-05:00

They're showing up. I saw my first pilgrim-protesters this morning, a group of teenagers and a couple of nuns on a street corner in Chinatown. I overheard my first reference between two people their office building for a smoke. ("March for Life?" one asked, and then I'd passed. No context.) Personally, today I plan to review the rules for political activity for federal employees. (I think they'll say I have to take my nametag off when I walk down to the Mall on my lunch break.)

I keep thinking back to something I heard last year when I did the same. As I walked toward the Mall, on sidewalks crowded with hundreds, thousands, of other pro-lifers, I heard an older man say to his wife, " . . . I mean, I'm against it, but I don't think you should dwell on it. Focusing on things like that is just living in the past." It was clearly abortion he was against, and clearly pro-lifers who were living in the past.

Over the past year, I've wondered, periodically, whether I should have said something to him. What would I have said, if I were of the talking-to-strangers type?

"Living in the past? It's not the past for the 3,500 women who will have an abortion today. It's not the past for the 3,500 children who won't have a future. And I have to ask, sir, since you said you were against it, why are you against it? Do you think it's the unjustified murder of innocents? Don't you agree, sir, that that's something of immense magnitude, something certainly worth 'dwelling on'?"

I've always been a bit wary of the March for Life. I wrote about this last year. What's the point, really? It seems like it makes pro-lifers feel good - as it did to me last year - but that's it. It doesn't change the way Congress votes. It doesn't change the way the White House makes policy. It doesn't change hearts or minds -- at least not when those of us who attend are too shy to talk to other people, even the people who might be sympathetic!

Brussel Sprouts and Pancetta

2010-01-20T12:49:00.003-05:00

A long, long, time ago . . . I can still remember how that music used to make me smile . . .

Wait, wrong post.

A long, long, time ago, I came across this recipe for Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta and Almonds at Sweet Paul. I don't remember how I came across it, as I'd never visited that blog before, and I don't like brussel sprouts. At least, I thought I didn't like brussel sprouts. I certainly didn't like them flavorless and boiled into submission, the way I remember them as a child. (My mother is an amazing cook, but I'm beginning to realize there were a handful of green vegetables that she boiled when she should have roasted, baked, or sauteed them.)

That picture up at top, though, just looked incredible. It looked like something I would actually want to eat. So I saved the link and forgot about it for a good long time.

Lately, amongst my circle of acquaintances, there's been an e-mail meme (did I just use that word right? I mean chain letter, more or less) going around asking people to send 1 recipe to the person at number 1 on the list, add your name to the bottom, send to your friends, etc. So I clicked the "recipes" label in my gmail and discovered that I've only ever saved 2 recipes in gmail. I hadn't tried either of them, but the brussel sprouts caught my attention again (unfortunately, I have a distant memory of the person whose name is at number 1 on the list being a vegetarian, so this pancetta-full recipe is probably not what I will send her).

I stopped by the grocery store and picked up the ingredients:

Brussel Sprouts
Pancetta
Sliced Almonds

Also necessary are

Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

The original recipe gave amounts in "grams," and I don't speak grams. I just used as much as I wanted to. I might have skimped on the pancetta. I'd add a little more next time.

When I got home (and by home, of course, I still do not mean my home), I preheated the oven to 380*. I cleaned the brussel sprouts and sliced them in half (but forgot to remove the tough ends, which you shouldn't forget to do). I hadn't been able to find pancetta in any form except sliced, so I just cut some slices up into smaller pieces, but I imagine that if you were able to find a chunk of pancetta - or whatever other form it is pancetta can come int - it would be an improvement. After that, just add the brussel sprouts and pancetta to a baking dish with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some almonds. Mix together well. Cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so to evenly spread the pancetta around. It's done, according to the original recipe, when the brussel sprouts are al dente and the pancetta is golden. My pancetta never got golden, and I don't know whether that is because it was in a different form or because I undercooked it. If I undercooked it, this recipe is very good even when undercooked!

Many thanks to Sweet Paul!

7 Quick Takes Friday Part XXXI

2010-01-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

1. Right after I wrote my last 7 Quick Takes post a few weeks ago, I started my next one, listing a few topics for Quick Takes that I wanted to briefly expound upon for the next week in which I got around to posting. After a couple ideas, I listed as a topic the surprising ease with which I had reacquired the habit of considering everything that happens as blog fodder. When I went back a re-read the draft after a couple of weeks, I realized that certain skills don't come back as easily. Specifically, the skill of considering whether all possible blog fodder is actually worthy blog fodder. My glasses fogging up when I walk into a building in the cold weather? Really? I thought I should write a whole Quick Take about that, and actually show it to other people?

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2. For Christmas this year, I got not 1, but *2* flannel nightgowns, from different sources (Mom and Rhett). I love them. They're pretty and floral and warm and I find it so freeing to be able to sleep in a dress!

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3. Rhett got me the nightgown because I had pointed it out as pretty when we were in a store, and mentioned how I'd had a hard time finding regular nightgowns, not sexy lingerie. My sister Suellen's take: "Poor Rhett. He sees you walk over to the pajamas, and there you are, standingright next to the lingerie, but nope, you're looking at the old lady flannel pajamas instead!" Luckily, he likes me, old lady fashions and all!

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4. Speaking of old-fashioned, Rhett bought me an apron a few months ago, from the gift shop of the Little House on the Prairie musical, and I hadn't had much opportunity to wear it. Baking pies before Christmas, I had it on, and my mom snapped a picture with her phone. She didn't have his number, so I gave it to her and she sent him the picture, captioned "Baking pies like on the prairie!" But he never got it. She had transposed two of the digits in his phone number. Somewhere out there in the airwaves, or on some stranger's phone, is a picture of me in a blue flower-print apron, baking pies like on the prairie.

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5. And when I say "like on the prairie," I mean "like on the prairie." Since my parents went all-natural, I wasn't allowed to use a store-bought pie crust (preservatives! corn syrup!hydrogenated oils! Oh, the humanity!) I had to make the darn thing from scratch, and it wasn't easy. I don't think pastries are my forte.

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6. I'm writing on Wednesday, before I rush off to get to my apartment to clean up the chaos. I'm doubtful I'll have time to write much more in the next couple days, so I won't have 7 developed Quick Takes.

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7. Wish me luck!

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For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

I crochet?

2010-01-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've posted about my crocheting, mostly because it's been a long time since I've done any crocheting. I tried to bike rather than take public transit most of this past semester, which cut down on a lot of my crocheting opportunities, not to mention that my current apartment is only the very briefest of Metro rides from work when I do take that route. On top of that, I've been driving whenever I make the trip back home to NY, which eliminates what used to be a very fruitful 5-hour bus ride several times each semester. Plus I was just plain old busy. I've only made 2 very simple projects this semester: a baby blanket and a scarf (and I'm just now realizing I forgot to take any pictures of the scarf).

I made this blanket for my cousin's baby, who was born in the fall. For the first time perhaps ever, the blanket was ready before the baby was, and that was because it was so easy. I hate joining squares, and that's the part that always makes the blankets take so long, but I've always found "join as you go" patterns a bit complicated for the kind of mindless, "keeping my hands busy while my mind is elsewhere" crocheting that I often do. I opted for the absolute simplest design I could conceive of, the "big giant granny square" design. I really do like the way it came out, though, and since they whip up so quickly, I may try to make some more, now that I'm thinking about it.

Small Blessings

2010-01-05T11:28:00.004-05:00

As I rather self-deprecatingly remarked in number 6 here, I made the decidedly unclassy, but decidedly affordable, decision to sleep on an air mattress rather than a real bed this year, because mattresses and bed frames are expensive and difficult to move after each year. I've never been so thankful for my thrift.

Yesterday, the pipes in the apartment above our froze and burst, and our apartment was flooded. I'm 400 miles away dropping my sister off at an airport, so there's nothing I can do right now except wait for updates from my roommates, who spent last night in a hotel and are spending today meeting with contractors and trying to vacuum the water out of the carpet.

But my roommate just called me to ask whether all of my linens are dryer-safe, and I learned that of all our beds, mine was the only one that got hit with any water. Mine, the plastic one. It can be dried off with a towel, it won't have to be thrown away, and if, for some reason, it does have to be thrown away, it'll fit in a regular trash can and can be replaced for $100 or less.

This is what we call a "silver lining."

The Crow and the Pitcher

2009-12-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

More awesome animals!

First, Aesop's Fable:

A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into
the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.

Little by little does the trick

(From http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/)

Next, modern science:

How cool is that?

More legs = More brains?

2009-12-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

No, not a post about beautiful, intelligent, leggy blondes.

The octopus with the coconut is all over the internet lately, but I'm amazed by him and I think it's so cool!

The best part, I think, is that the coconut halves they're using are man-made refuse, and so haven't always been around. Doesn't that mean that this is less evolutionary than just octopuses who are smart enough to know shelter when they see it?

Regardless, I love it!

Seven Quick Takes Friday Part XXX

2009-12-18T01:09:00.000-05:00

1. It's been a while since I've done this, or much of anything on this blog, really. Maybe participating in Quick Takes will get me used to this again. I've gotten out of that state of mind where things happen, or I do something, and immediately analyze whether or not it would make good blog fodder. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

2. Since last we spoke, I got a Mac. It's been several months, and I'm not yet a Mac apologist. In fact, I find this computer much more frustrating, much harder to understand, and much more likely to cause a problem when I have a paper due than I ever found any of my Dells. Why didn't anyone ever tell me Macs are unreliable and they suck and PCs are all-around better?

3. I still got almost a month of freedom until I have to go back to work and class and dying a slow death. I'd love some suggestions for good books to read in the interim!

4. I fairly seriously considered the idea of replacing Christmas gift-giving with donating to a charity in the recipient's name. I'm ashamed to say, this was more due to having NO idea what to buy certain people than to any true altruism. I'm still stuck for ideas, and still reluctant to "take the easy way out." More than being reluctant to betray my ideals or some such, though, I'm really just afraid of making it obvious which people were my "problem" people. I'm a ball of selfish contradictions grasping at charity to make myself feel like a good person.

5. Does anyone have any experience using Apple Cider Vinegar to get rid of warts? I've heard good things on the internet, but been reluctant to try it. I'm looking at a full bottle of vinegar, though, and wondering if it would be worth it.

6. Speaking of which, plantars warts + martial arts = embarrassment. I mean, I can't hide them, since we're barefoot and I have to tape over them to prevent spreading them to others, but I didn't realize just how much I'd have to talk about them, and with just how many people. I can't count the number of times I've been asked what's wrong with my foot. Am I hurt? Do I need help? Oh, no, it's just warts. Just warts. Thus, my comfort level discussing them here, with you.

7. As I write, I'm uploading my cd collection to my new computer. It becomes strikingly apparent that I stopped actively acquiring music in the 10th grade.

Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

OED on the new translation of the Mass

2009-12-15T19:51:00.011-05:00

With all the controversy over the new translation of the Mass, something's been bothering me for a while. I have a confession to make. . . I don't actually know the definition of ineffable. Ineffable is THE example to use when you're talking about the new translation, whether you're saying "Why would we want to use a word like ineffable during the Mass?" or "Why do these critics think we're so stupid we don't know what ineffable means?" And I do kind of know what ineffable means. . . but I couldn't define it for you.

So I finally - after all these many months - decided to learn just exactly what ineffable means. And I figured I might as well learn the meanings of all those other words that are coming to a church near you. So I went to the America article "What if we said 'Wait'?" by Fr. Michael G. Ryan that appeared last week, to great consternation, among those excited by the change. I picked out the words he offered as among the most troublesome.

When the uninformed heard a few examples (“and with your spirit”; “consubstantial with the Father”; “incarnate of the Virgin Mary”; “oblation of our service”; “send down your Spirit like the dewfall”; “He took the precious chalice”; “serene and kindly countenance,” for starters), the reaction was somewhere between disbelief and indignation.

And I looked them up. The full Oxford English Dictionary isn't available for free online, but the Compact Oxford English Dictionary is, and its 145,000 words, phrases, and definitions should suit for our purposes. (In shame, I admit I have no idea where my dictionary is.)

ineffable -adjective 1 too great or extreme to be expressed in words. 2 too sacred to be uttered.

incarnate -adjective, often after a noun 1 (of a deity or spirit) embodied in flesh; in human form. 2 represented in the ultimate or most typical form: capitalism incarnate.

-verb 1 embody or represent (a deity or spirit) in human form. 2 be the living embodiment of (a quality).

oblation -noun 1 a thing presented or offered to a god 2 (Christian Church) the presentation of bread and wine to God in the Eucharist

countenance -noun 1 a person's face or facial expression 2 (formal) support or approval

-verb 1 admit as acceptable or possible

And admittedly, consubstantial wasn't in there. But it was in the Yahoo! Education Reference section's dictionary, via the American Heritage Dictionary:

consubstantial -adjective 1 of the same substance, nature, or essence.

That was easy!

As for and with your spirit, I said it just this weekend, when I was at a Lessons and Carols service at an Anglican Church. Actually, I even said, "And with thy spirit," which wasn't normal for them - they only use that phraseology on special occasions, according to my boyfriend, whose alma mater we were visiting. I survived.

Stick a fork in me. . .

2009-12-10T23:14:00.002-05:00

I'M DONE!

(One whole month of freedom! I might even, like, start blogging again. No promises.)

Thanksgiving Pie!

2009-11-30T00:39:00.004-05:00

A friend and I made this cranberry pie for Thanksgiving, based on the recipe posted last week at Faith and Family Live! The recipe Rebecca posted is as follows:

Cranberry Pie:
Crust: use your favorite recipe for a two-crust pie.
3 1/2 c. cranberries, chopped (I run mine through the slicing blade of a food processor just to slice ‘em in half)
1 1/2 T. flour
3 T. water
1 1/2 c. sugar (don’t skimp; cranberries are really tart)
1/4 t. salt
2 T. butter chopped into small pieces
Mix the ingredients together well and fill an unbaked pie shell.
Top with the 2nd crust—use a lattice or cut-out pattern to show off the fruit’s rich color.
I like to use the trick of brushing the crust lightly with water and sprinkling with sugar for a sparkly, golden top.
Bake at 450F for 10 minutes, then reduce to 350F and bake 40 minutes longer.

We added an additional cup of blueberries, both because the filling seemed not particularly filling and because my friend (a baker - I couldn't go making substitutions and additions if he weren't around) thought the additional sweetness would be a welcome addition. We also grated a little bit of fresh ginger into the filling. My friend the baker used an egg wash on the crust rather than water and sugar.

I don't think I'd ever made a pie from scratch before. It was super-easy (full disclosure: I did not have anything to do with making the crust) and turned out wonderfully! The color is beautiful, the pie is delicious, and I would make this again in a heartbeat.

My only caution is that it doesn't travel very well. It's quite runny, and if you can't hold it perfectly straight, you might find yourself doing as I did this Thanksgiving: demanding that your sister pull over, jumping out of the car into a stranger's yard, putting the pie on the stranger's lawn, wiping cranberry syrup off your legs (giving the stranger's grandmother, waiting in her car, quite a show), and then, when realizing that the worst hills in the drive were yet to come, taking off your shoes and using your feet to hold the pie (sort of) still on the floor rather than your lap. And no, that wasn't a trail of blood leading from our car to my aunt's front door, but it was easily mistaken for one. And hopefully, once I get back to school and get this paper handed in (oh, is that what I'm supposed to be writing now? Not blog posts?), I'll figure out how to get cran-blueberry juice out of my car's floor mats.

Tough Choices

2009-11-10T22:16:00.003-05:00

Dinner or Library? Library

Gym or Library? Library

Going out or going to the Library? Library

Shower or Library? Library

Work or Library? Library

Sleep or Library? Library

One Library or the other Library or the other Library? Ouch, got me there.

Alternate titles considered for this post: Where I've been; Why I'm fat and have no friends; . . . and I used to like to read; Why grad school sucks and I hate my life