Monday, October 29, 2007

2007, the exclamation point!

I left the house last night saying, "I won't even be excited if they win it tonight." In the end, that was not the case. I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong, I was wrong.

More to come later, you can be sure of that. Until then, two questionably pointless things to occupy your time.

First, I'm sure y'all have heard of the Steal-a-Taco campaign, and how Jacoby Ellsbury's (Tacoby Bellsbury) stolen base won everyone in America a free taco. And, perhaps some of you are like me and detest the idea of having to eat a taco bell taco, but hate wasting anything free! You can go here to donate the monetary equivalent of your taco to the California Wildfire victims. Legit? I don't know - but if you aren't going to get a taco anyway, what have you wasted?

Second, Mikey Lowell. Mr. RBI. Mr. Double-off-the-wall. Mr. Billy-Mueller-still-holds-a-special-place-in-my-heart-but-I-LOVE-this-guy. Mr. World Series MVP. Mr. Free Agent. Sign this petition, to keep Mikey Lowell. Will it help? Who knows, probably not. Does it hurt, heck no!

Monday, October 22, 2007

net-working

I received an email yesterday from Sara Bowman*. Sara writes:
"... an acquaintance mentioned your name as a
possible occasional sitter for my 5 year old son. "
Given that I don't know many people here I asked Sara who had recommended me - I'm not one to turn down an opportunity to earn money, but I was curious who was spreading these rumors. Sara writes back with:
"I got your name from a lady named Anna Mathers** - hope that helps"
Nope, Sara, I don't know who Anna Mathers is. Should I be concerned that my reputation proceeds me, without my knowing?!

*name changed to protect the completely misinformed
**name changed to protect the completely unknown

Monday, October 15, 2007

beantown

I knew that moving out of Boston would be difficult, and I knew I'd miss it - no other place has felt quite like home to me as Boston has. But I often wonder if it would be this difficult if this was not the best month to be in Boston. There isn't anything like October in Boston, particularly one when the Sox have won the division for the first time in 12 years. My friends here have quickly learned that I am a fan - and many of the other fans and I have found a few favorite places to watch the games.

On Friday I overheard someone say "ya, I'm heading to the crown right after this to save a table for the game" - he was speaking to one of his friends, and almost simultaneously his friend answered and I interrupted. His friend said "what game?" and I said "oh, you're watching at the crown tonight?" And in fact, he and I shared a laugh, because we had never watched or talked about the Sox before, we just both knew we were from Boston. And in Boston everyone knows WHICH game is THE game!

This afternoon I was studying with a friend of mine, and we were huddled over the computer in my office trying to figure out the mechanism by which decreased dopamine causes the rigid motion of Parkinson's disease when she said "Oh, you even have a red sox notepad" and she laughed. Without missing a beat or looking up, I simply said, "it's not a hobby." I don't think she quite understood. But, if she were from Boston she'd get it - and, especially this month, she'd likely have her own red sox notepad.

Go Sox!!

things i'd forgotten

I forgot what test anxiety is like. I have nightmares, but they aren't necessarily what you'd expect, I don't think. On Tuesday I have my first Neuroanatomy midterm, and I think it would be understandable if my nightmares involved gigantic hippocampi chasing me around, or perhaps me drowning in a large lateral ventricle, or even me shrinking down to a microscopic level and being trapped in one of the basal ganglion inhibitory loops. But no, those are not my dreams. It simply involves me being half asleep and half awake and trying to utilize that time to "study", and possible test questions come to mind. You know questions like:
In reality, I'd much rather be devoured by the optic chiasm, than go through an entire night freaked out that I'm not going to be able to answer any of these test questions I've come up with!!

Monday, October 08, 2007

wanna be my friendster?

In case you didn't already know, I am pretty dang cool! But here's my latest, a conversation with a new friend of mine.
her: and then she totally wrote blah blah blah on my wall!
me: SHE WHAT?! ON YOUR WALL? I mean, really? Why would you do that? Write on a wall? That doesn't even make sense, are we 4?
her: umm...facebook...
I guess it's similar to the first time I heard about skype. I was in Singapore and the lab director there asked if he could "skype me". I was awkwardly unsure of what to do...

Sunday, October 07, 2007

dessert

Simple Baklava
Recipe courtesy: Giada De Laurentiis

1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch of salt
1 stick butter, melted, divided
3 tablespoons honey
12 sheets phyllo dough

Special equipment: 2 mini-muffin tins
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the almonds, walnuts, apricots, bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture is very finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted butter and the honey and stir to combine.

On a dry work surface place 1 sheet of phyllo. Using a pastry brush and the remaining melted butter, lightly cover the entire sheet of phyllo with melted butter. Cover the first sheet with a second sheet of phyllo and brush with melted butter. Continue until there is a stack of 6 sheets of phyllo. Cut the stacked phyllo rectangle into 12 equal pieces (Cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and widthwise into 3 pieces.)

Gently press each cut piece of phyllo into the mini-muffin tin cups. Press 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture into each of the phyllo cups. Gather the ends of each of the phyllo squares and twist to make a sachet shape. Continue shaping the remaining sachets in the other mini-muffin tin. Bake until the edges of the phyllo are golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove the baklava sachets and transfer to a serving plate.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

the best intentions

today, instead of going for a run, I fell asleep on the couch when I sat down to put on my sneakers. I woke up after 45 minutes, drool on my t-shirt, and no motivation to move.

there's always tomorrow.