First real paper

On Wednesday I met with my advisor/boss, and she told me to start writing my first paper (well, on my thesis work, I have already published 3 papers thus far, but didn't have much to do with the writing of them.) So I stayed home on Thursday, did a little bit of writing, a lot of laundry, and a medium-sized amount of baking (chocolate chip cookies & cheesy breadsticks).

(I resume writing several hours later....)

Today, my friend M trekked up the hill to my house. Usually, I come down to her house, and we walk to a coffee shop for our Saturday morning girl talk, coffee, and browsing the foofy stores at the South Side Works. Well, just the kitchen place mostly. She runs the cooking blog that I follow (see link to spryte's place at right). She is our friend Jon's wife, and she moved to Pittsburgh shortly after D & I moved in to our first apartment. They live about a block from where we lived then, although they have a house, so it's certainly better than that apartment was :)

She's originally from Wakefield, Massachusetts, although she spent a long time in San Diego and subsequently, makes a lot of really good mexican food. Her kids are pretty cool too, and D & I always have a great time at their house. We made our first, "We're getting married" announcement after dinner at their house, & she has pictures on her blog (it would be around early November, & we ate yummy chicken enchiladas).

We also do a wine tasting once a month at their house, which has been fun the last two months. This month is Riesling, so today we were discussing possible food pairings - yum!

Anyway,.... After M went back home, I decided to make her sister's mini-quiches, since I had bought the pie crust for them, and I had a bunch of small amounts of vegetables left from last night's pizza improvisation. So I made the quiches with broccoli, red onions, feta, cheddar & bacon. And I got to use the silicone muffin/cupcake baking containers that my mom gave me a couple of years ago. I was first dismayed because I had forgotten that my muffin tin got destroyed last year, but I gave them a try, and they rock. The quiches slid right out when I turned them upside down. I don't think I'm going to get another muffin tin now, even if they are a bit hard to clean.

I also put the Christmas box away today, and the sleeping bags & air mattress that were out when we were hosting friends. So my house is starting to look like a living space again, slowly. I can't wait until we put in the kitchen cabinets downstairs, and once the heating system is done (Jan 26) some stuff can go back into the 3rd floor.

In the downer category, D lost his job yesterday. But we've done a good job saving & will be okay while he looks for another. It's actually strangely good timing, because he'll be home to deal with a lot of the house improvement that has to happen (meeting contractors, building inspector, wiring the outlets, electrical inspector), and I won't have to stay home from work for it. So I'm hoping this won't actually impede our house progress much.

Darn, I can't stop eating mini-quiches now. :)