TLC is awesome.

I had a hard time making it to the conference today. I woke up early, went out to CVS to get a lint brush & some other necessities I had forgotten, but then I turned on the TV. We don't have good cable at our house, just a few channels, so I have not seen, "Flip this house" or any of the other home improvement shows that they have on there. I almost didn't make it out of the hotel. I'm watching it now, before I go to bed.

Yesterday, my friend Kate picked me up at the house, and I was pretty efficient about the packing thing. We printed out maps, and got everything in the car. About 1 hr outside of Pittsburgh, I sat up in the back seat, and realized that I had left my poster in the entryway of our house. Luckily, the doors into that area are unlocked (there is another door into the main house that was locked). So my friend Nelson, who was leaving later in the day, agreed to pick it up for me. Disaster averted. But I'm still embarassed that I overlooked that.

We got to DC around 5, checked into our various hotels, and headed out to dinner. Pretty good wraps (but expensive) on 14th & P streets, and then Kate & I headed to a condo that many friends were staying at. Drank far too much wine (but not enough that this morning was bad), ate some very good cheese, and enjoyed ourselves. I walked back to the hotel at 2 a.m.ish, took a nice hot shower, and climbed into bed.

The conference today was good, although I had a little problem finding the poster section. But I talked to two very enthusiastic people at their posters (who I have to remember to e-mail later) & I'm excited to present my stuff tomorrow. And then I can relax and have some fun :)

Hope you all are having a good weekend & love you too!

Happy Compromise

Well, my poster is done! Woohoo! I must've published it to PDF 15 times this afternoon, as I discovered new typos & spacing I didn't like in the stairwell on the way to the printer-guy (my friend Tom). But, I finally got it in, so it's out of my hands now. And I confirmed my reservation with the Georgetown Suites

I did not, as I feared sometime yesterday, make the reservation for the wrong month. And I gave a copy to Susan Erickson, the scientist I'm rooming with. I feel a bit bad that I'm not riding down with her, but I'm afraid I would run out of conversation in the first hour, and the rest of the week would be uncomfortable. Best to save topics for the week we'll be rooming together. Ooh, I need a haircut.

But, I'm off to D.C. on Friday. Again, woohoo! I love the city, and I can't wait to take a real subway again. To walk/jog along the Potomac in the morning. And see at least one museum.

In wedding news, Drew & I got to sit down tonight & talk about plans. And we found a compromise, an option that we had discussed, and I had thought about independently, before. So....

We'll hold off for a bit, and get married sometime next late summer/fall. I don't think we realized how many people would want to be there with us, or how many we wanted to have there (once that option was opened up). So this way, everyone has time to plan. We'd like to have the ceremony & reception in our back yard, and by the fall we should have the downstairs kitchen, upstairs bathroom, & back deck done. (The heating system people will be here on Friday to figure out where to put ductwork for the 2nd/3rd floor forced air).

Sorry again for the abrupt announcement/reversal of plans. I still don't think my decisions through all that well (or rather, I think them through carefully, then rashly pick something because I'm sick of being indecisive). And I'm still too impatient, I 'm trying to work on that. But I think it will be good overall, and I'll probably recruit a lot of help with planning/decisions, so stay tuned :)

I still love you all, and thanks for your encouragement & love. Can't wait to see you there, if not before!

Hold the phone....

So, I'm very glad that I said the date wasn't set in stone (i.e. don't make any travel plans yet). Drew's dad wants us to have a big ceremony, and his step-mom wants to officiate. So, if we do that, we're going to have to wait until after I graduate. Which won't be for at least two years. And I'm not going to be able to plan something like that at that point, since I'll have to find a job. So I don't think this is going to happen anytime soon, and it's pissing me off that we can't just have our wedding the way that fits us - I know this is supposed to be for the family, somewhat, but we're not those people. And I don't actually enjoy those weddings. I kind of just wanted something simple, and functional (kind of like the two of us & our relationship, not showy, not flashy, but strong & practical). So we've got some more talking to do. Sorry to have jumped the gun by announcing this yesterday.

I couldn't figure out who to call first....

so I'm posting it here, for all of you to read. Plus, I'm monstrously busy at work this week (preparing my poster for SFN's annual meeting - I leave on Friday), so I'm not sure when said phone calls will be made.

But... Drew & I are getting married. :)

We're going to the courthouse here in Pittsburgh next month (almost definitely Dec 18, but I don't want to carve the date in stone quite yet). We'll have a ceremony/reception sometime next year in our back yard (incentive to get the deck done!), but we/I didn't want to actually wait that long once we decided.

So, um... Yay! I am actually really excited, especially since we decided to do it soon, but I'm never sure how or whether to tell people. It seems very personal to me, so I haven't mentioned it at work, but I needed to tell you guys :)

I'll make a round of calls tomorrow between making graphs and writing copy furiously. Maybe if you're lucky, I'll even post the finished poster, so you can all have a sleep aid (ha!).

Old & New Friends

So, yesterday was Turkey day at our house. Everything came out well (unlike the pumpkin bread, which I cooked not enough, but is still okay if you toast it long enough), and we sat down to stuff ourselves with turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing, homemade gravy, kale & onions, & lingonberries. I only made it through one plate, but it was probably a 10-pounder. I was a little stressed out, because our friends Mike & Marilyn were having a party, and I wanted to go to that too - but D & I both drank more than was advisable on Thursday, and Friday nites, and so we weren't really in a partying mode. I would usually have skipped this one, but these friends are moving to Nashville next Saturday, so this would be the last time we get to hang out with them for awhile.

This makes me sad - they are very nice people, and we haven't hung out enough with them. We still have their wedding to look forward to, but aren't sure when that will happen. (They're moving because of financial strain - more jobs for Mike in Nashville than here). So, it was important to me to go. We went, we drank very lightly (I ended the night with 4 glasses of water), and we picked up a new friend. Marilyn is a bit of a collector, and i had previously admired her cookie jar collection. But, they're moving with one carload of stuff, so she's had to get rid of almost everything. Ebay, yard sales, etc are all over, & now she's giving stuff away to charity, or whoever will take it. So I took her cookie monster cookie jar (I needed one anyway), and we're going back today to pick up a cafe table (tall) & 3 stools. I think this will work well in the downstairs kitchen once it's finished.

And I made sure they know that whenever they come back to Pittsburgh for visits, they should stay with us - we have the room & love hosting out-of-towners.

Early Thanksgiving

My friend Daniel has a turkey that has been in his freezer for just about the maximum amount of time. So, he brought it over last night, and I'm roasting it today. I'm therefore chained to the kitchen, but I got my lab work done early this morning, and got the bird in the oven at 12:30, stuffed and seasoned. Now for repetitive basting.

The good news is that I have to do a bunch of computer stuff to get my poster ready for SFN next week. So, I can do that while I'm making turkey. If I ever stop reading random stuff on the internet.

D & I are also thinking of starting a contest to identify what kind of tree is in our back yard. It has weird, pear like fruit (tastes somewhat like pear, but not one that you would actually like to eat) that is round-ish and orange. So far we're not having any luck with scouring the internet for identification.

"make this again" crockpot chicken adobo-ish soup thing

D & I went ot a costume party last night at our neighbors' house. It was fun & we dressed up for the first time - as Beaker & Dr. Honeydew melon. No-one recognized me for a few minutes as I had a bald cap & lots of green makeup on, which was pretty cool. We also entertained some old friends who were in town. We stayed up too late, but had lots of fun.

I was pleasantly surprised that I woke up early, went to the grocery store with Ruth (friend in town, she and her husband slept over our house & reported that the futon is very comfortable), and got a crockpot dinner ready. I figured something soup like would be best, since we usually need comfort food that's easy on the guts the day after a party. I had also seen this recipe in D's "Big Book of Slow-Cooker Recipes", and wanted to try it out.

The name is something along the lines of turkey & mushroom & rice soup, but I improvised (of course) because I did not have turkey, but I did have chicken. Chicken breast, 1 onion, 4 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp fresh grated ginger, 2 cups sliced mushrooms, 2 carrots (sliced), 1.5 cups bok choy, 28 oz chicken broth, 2 T soy sauce, and 1 T hot sesame oil, cooked on high for 4-5 hours. Then mix in pre-cooked rice (recipe called for instant, I used 1 C brown basmati (dry weight, I think this is 2 C cooked), and cook for additional 1 hour.

It was pretty good, and I'm glad I bought some crusty bread to go with it. It was a little bland though, & I even added some fresh rosemary and pepper during the last couple of hours. I was worried it would be too salty, since the recipe called for low-sodium stuff & I used full strength, but in the end I should have added some more salt too. Maybe some cayenne or wasabi powder would be good too - it was missing something. But D pronounced it good, and said it goes in the make-this-again pile.

I also picked up two nice big pieces of beef on a buy one get one free deal, so there'll be beef stew sometime in the future (twice!). And I donated $10 to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, so I feel good about that. Which more than makes up for the moral failing I've demonstrated by eating Milk Duds all day :)