2 Week Intensive

Well my 2 week class is finally over! It only took 4 weeks to complete. But my last paper is turned in and everything should be all done.

It really was a fantastic class, I enjoyed it immensely. I'll admit that the readings were a bit numerous, but they were good ones and I feel like I learned things that I needed to know by reading them. And I didn't like the way our teacher gave us our first assignment a week before class started and made our last one due a week after class ended, but it's all done now so whatever. This course has given me much to think about and I'm glad that I took it. 

Stir-fry

It has been a long time since I've posted something that I've cooked. In some cases that's because I've rediscovered sandwiches and thus haven't been cooking and in others it's because I've been too busy/lazy to upload pictures from my camera--I'm hoping to remedy this in the very near future. At any rate. Yesterday I cooked!

I had some broccoli in the fridge that was dying to be eaten and my favorite way to eat broccoli is stir-fryed. So, stir-fryed it was. While it was cooking I also found two baby carrots and part of an onion that looked like it was on its way out so I added those too, just for kicks and giggles. And since I didn't really want to eat my stir-fry over rice, as would be traditional, I ate it over a baked potato. I know it sounds a little weird. But broccoli goes on baked potatoes sometimes, and potatoes and carrots go well together, and onion goes with any of those. So why not stir-fry on a baked potato?  It was delicious.

Oh, and when I had the leftovers for dinner tonight they were delicious too.

Auto Correct

I love Word's grammar check. This was my favorite one from the paper I wrote today:

..."would we be serving"...

green squiggly underline

suggestion:

..."would we are serving"...

Yeah, because that makes more sense.

By the way, my sentence had something to do with "would we be serving people better by doing such and such?"

Daily Commute

When I got home from work tonight to my dismay I found that there was a dishwasher parked next to the pillar I chain my bike to on the back porch. Turns out that dishwashers are surprisingly light, though they make pretty terrible sounds when you drag them across concrete. Despite having to relocate a dishwasher at 9:45 at night, I got home a solid 15 minutes earlier than the earliest I'm normally home, and I was about 25 minutes before the time I get home when the bus is late (which it usually is). I'm a huge fan of biking. Of course, I do give up on my reading time, but I am getting some solid exercise. And somehow I feel like the books will still get read whereas the exercise might not happen otherwise. Overall, my new commute is a success so far. We'll see how it continues. 

Thunderstorms

This past week or so we've been having a lot of thunderstorms. And very traditional ones too. I must say that I enjoy a good thunderstorm and I especially love these east-coast ones. Thunderstorms in Arizona are exciting because the lightning is so incredible, but these ones are great because of the quintessentialness of them. And we get such rain. I do love the rain.

Chestnut Hill Reservoir

So now that I am the proud possessor of a great bicycle I decided to take it out for a spin on Saturday after a pretty impressive thunderstorm (more on that later). On Friday after picking up my bike I road about 6 miles to get it home and run the errands that I needed to; I figured that after that much riding after not having ridden a bike in about 18 months that I would be pretty sore. I woke up Saturday morning sore alright, but not in the places I had expected. See, I figured that my legs would be sore from all that pedaling, or some other muscle related to biking kinds of motions. Nope, my arms hurt. A lot. Every muscle between my elbows and just above my shoulders screams in pain every time I move them. Apparently I grip the handlebars really tightly? Part of my inducement for a ride on Saturday was to help keep those muscles limber. It did result in them still being sore today... But anyways, my ride was fantastic. I kept it short and pretty flat. I rode down to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir near my house and then road on the trail all the way around it and back. It's a beautiful lake. Wow. And even prettier in the post-rain evening.

Chestnut Hill Reservoir

Waterworks Museum

Double rainbow!

Bicycles: a resolution

My bike made it to Massachusetts. I picked it up today from the bike store in Cambridge. It felt so good to have my bike back. It's been nearly a year and a half since we've lived in the same state. It felt amazing to fly down the road and feel the wind in my hair. I road approximately six miles today, and only had to get off and walk once. Part of my problem had to do with the fact that I was riding in the heat of the day and today was very hot. Also, I'm fairly certain that tomorrow I will be quite pink. I could definitely feel myself burning. I also managed to forget the key to my bike lock on my desk--it's surprising how many businesses will allow you to bring your bike inside and  leave it in a corner while you patronize their shop.

As always, I meant to take a picture of my bike to share with you, but it's dark now, and I forgot earlier.

To make up for not taking a picture earlier. Here is one now.

Where the riches of ages are sold

Of late I have been on the hunt for a good bakery where I can buy nice loaves of sandwich suitable bread. Mostly, I've been buying from Panera Bread, because they can slice it for me. But last week I stopped by another bakery near Harvard Ave. They were very busy, which I took to be a good sign. And they had a very nice looking loaf of sourdough bread that I would have liked. But they couldn't slice it for me. Sandwich bread is really only good to me if it's sliced. I can't slice evenly enough to make a good sandwich. But the bakery had one redeeming quality. They also sold rosemary focaccia bread. And for only $4. And their rounds were bigger than the £2 loaves I used to buy at Portobello Road. So I bought one. I mean a bigger loaf of bread for the same price? Yes, please. Sadly, the bread was rather stale. It must have been a day old loaf or something. Nothing like the delightfully fresh soft ones I'd get at market. And it didn't soften up overnight like my £2 ones used to. I may have to try one more time before I write the place off though and go a little earlier in the day; in all fairness I used to go to market first thing in the morning and I went to the bakery here in the afternoon. I do miss my £2 focaccia though.