Becoming a Food-ie

Lately I have really started to enjoy food.

I've always liked the eating of it, but the last 6 months have really started to pique my interest in mixing flavors and becoming adept in the kitchen.

This is why I've fallen head over heals in love with a new show on Bravo.

It's called Top Chef.

Its a bunch of people who think they can really cook well in a reality show competing to win money.

The thing that gets me about this show is that when something doesn't come together they make excuses. They sit at the judging table and complain about the time constraint or the freezer not working, or the ice cream melting in transit.

"History will never accept difficulties as an excuse."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Albert W. Daw Collection

Similarly, as a TA I hear repeatedly from students that the classes are just too hard. They whine to me about how much time and effort they have to put into their assignments.

In response I furrow my brow and say, well, this is engineering. No one said it was going to be easy, but I promise it will be worth it.

I'm so tired of people constantly complaining that things are hard for them when they've put themselves in the situation.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As a full blooded, red headed Scotts-Irish lass I'd like to wish you all the luckiest of days.

For all of you interested out there I thought I'd put together a little St. Patrick's day trivia test. If you can answer all of the questions correctly you may consider yourself Irish for the day.

1) When was St. Patrick born?
2) What are all of the shapes and colors of the marshmallows in Lucky Charms?
3) Where and when was St. Patrick's Day first celebrated in America?
4) What gift do you get if you kiss the Blarney Stone?
5) How do you find a leprechaun?
6) What happens if you ask a leprechaun for four wishes?

Scared of the Dark

I have a confession to make.

When I got to bed at night and walk across my dark room to my bed an embarrasing thought flits through my head.

It is quick and fleeting, but somehow evokes a slight emotional response.

I momentarliy think that someone/thing is going to reach out from under my bed, grab my ankles and drag me under my bed.

Yes, I am 24 years old and this fear still haunts me from childhood.

I blame Fred Savage.

I'm looking into getting the clapper so that I don't have to walk across my room in the dark.

Slight misrepresentation

A co-worker of mine is reading Under the Banner of Heaven and forwarded me this article. I haven't read the book, so don't really have an opinion about it. My co-worker comes in almost every day to talk about my religion and faith, which is fine becuase we are friends and it isn't in a confrontational manner at all.

From what I gather, the story is about two people (one being Dan Lafferty) who have been ex-communicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who ended up killing their sister-in-law and her baby becuase they felt they had a divine revelation from God to do so.

Crazy, I know.

I'm fine with people writing whatever they want to about my religion.

I'm really ok when people really study it and come to their own decision about its tenets, even if those ideas are completely opposite of my own.

What kind of annoys me is when people make stupid comments about people and faith like this:


"I don't believe Dan Lafferty is crazy or a psychopath," Krakauer said. "He is an example of an inevitable outcome of strong belief."


How can an educated person really only look at this one example of ardent faith/belief and use that to stereotype people who have strong beliefs.

If he is going to do that, I'd feel like it would be alright to counter with an example myself.

Ever heard of a little lady called Mother Teresa?

I'm pretty sure you could say she was a person with "strong belief" who somehow managed to avoid the "inevitable" outcome of killing a member of her family.

Jeez, some people.

Prof. Ear Doctor

Hey, if anyone has a free second to think about the ear doctor and wish him good luck today at 11 am Mountain Time, please do it.

He's teaching his first collegiate level lecture today and he's going to rock those undergrads world's!

Katie related Tid-bits

• Yesterday it snowed a ton here in Colorado. Foolishly, I wore my very long, worn out jeans and my new green tennis shoes. After one walk across campus my pants were soaked to the knee and my feet were freezing.
• When the ear doctor took me to dinner I didn't want to be wet and cold so I threw my stuff in his dryer and wore his huge sweatpants, boy-socks, and hiking shoes. It looked ridiculous.
• After dinner I went out with my school friends. We saw a pretty decent band play and had some laughs. It was the first time I'd hung out with these boys outside of school. It was awesome.
• I went to bed last night looking up at the constellations of glow-in-the-dark stars that someone probably stuck to my ceiling 10 years ago. It reminded me of my room from high school and I happily fell asleep missing my family.

What a pain

Just thought you all should know that the weather here in Colorado was so nice this weekend that I actually got a pretty decent sunburn.

That dermal pain should then be added to my aching back from playing intense ultimate frisbee with a bunch of boys.

And my throbbing finger from the blood blister developed from pinching it in my sliding glass door.

Despite my mighty injuries, I had an EXCELLENT weekend.

Thanks for asking.

Donald Trump is cringing

This morning as I was getting ready I was listening to the radio. An advertisement came on the air for the local Indian casino.

Their schtick was pretty much the same loud talking-music booming announcer promising a good time as every other casino commercial. Except for one small thing.

If you come into the casino Tuesday nights they'll give you a free porcelain doll.

What??

Are curly blonde headed dolls really enticements for the players of blackjack?

Maybe the casino should hire someone besides 9 year old little girls to run their marketing department.

The little things

The ear doctor just called me is "boo" via text message.

It made me laugh out loud.

This is how I know we are great together.

That Hansel, he's so hot right now

Today I saw a 65 year old man struggling to climb up a slight incline on a Razor Scooter.

I wanted to tell him that it would be a lot easier if he were just walking because every time he lifted his kicking leg off the ground he would slow down, and actually slide backward a little bit. But I didn't.

Plus, he is 65 and should probably give up the Razor Scooter since not even 10 year olds think they are cool anymore.

Then I thought about a friend from college who loved his Razor Scooter and realize that I was actually seeing a version of him 40 years down the road and it made me smile.

Never stop learning

Last night I finally redeemed one of the many gift certificates the ear doctor has given me as a gift over the past year.

I went down to the seasoned chef cooking school and had my first cooking lesson.

At first I was a little nervous that I would be the youngest person there and no one would be nice to me, but boy was I wrong.

It was SOOOOOOO much fun!

I was one of the younger people there, but it really didn't matter. Everyone was so nice and the food we all made together was AMAZING.

Here is the list of stuff we made last night:

Field Greens with Champagne Vinaigrette

Penne with Roasted Tomato Sauce

Sauted Filet of Salmon with Chive and Oregano Aioli

Perfect Herb-Roasted Chicken

Rice Pilaf

Broccoli with Shallots and Mustard Seed

Rustic Apple Crostada

Doesn't that all sound D-lishious! It was. My favorite was the chive and oregano aioli with the salmon. I willdefinitelyy be making that some time soon.

She ain't nothin but a gold digger

Ever heard of that "Languages of Love" book? I borrowed it from my friend James about 5 years ago and just couldn't bring myself to read it all the way through. After reading the first chapter it just seemed too self-helpish for me.

Anyway, what I did get out of the book was the main tenets of the theory (I think).

The author stated that there are 5 different ways that people show and recieve affection.

After at least 5 minutes of thought I think I've determined my own "Language of Love." I think I am tokens of affection.

Normally this wouldn't cause me any concern, let alone enough to write a post about, but a comment left me on my previous post made me stop and think. Is it shallow of me to feel loved through the recieving of physical tokens? Does that make me some kind of Tiffany's bracelet craving, superficial girlfriend?

Who is to say that recieving a note or little gift is a lesser method of expressing affection than wanting to be around someone or telling them you love them?

Because really, for me, when the ear doctor leaves a little treat or surprise on my bed or under my windshield wiper it is just as good or almost better than when we sit on the couch and cuddle. It means that he was thinking of me, even when we weren't together.

And that means a lot to me.

My take on Valentines Day

Yesterday I ran an informal statistical survey about the importance/legitimacy of Valentines day.

My results were somewhat shocking.

Not one person polled was in support of the holiday.

I asked a wide demographic of people, but stayed mainly with my age range. I polled married people, single people, people in long term relationships, people who date around and all were opposed to the holiday.

One person said, "I'm not really into obligation, and that's all the Valentines Day is"

I replied, "If it feels like an obligation to show someone you love them then you're probably with the wrong person."

Everyone said it was just a holiday invented by hallmark and the 1-800-flowers to suck money out of the public. They said it was dumb and built up too much. They commented that no one should need a specific day to show someone you love them.

On their first two points, I may marginally agree. The holiday is perhaps blown a bit out of proportion.

To the last one I raise my right eyebrow, tilt my head and wonder, "true, but do you actually show someone how much you care everyday?"

I'd bet the answer is no.

I know I don't tell the ear doctor how much I care about him as often as I think about it. I don't tell my roommates how much I appreciate it when they ask my how my day was and honestly care about the response. I don't send my friends all over the country the letters they deserve to keep in touch.

So what is so wrong with having a designated world-wide day to show people that you care.

It's a lot better than letting the time slip by assuming they know.

My Olympic post

Now, I don't want to dis the Salt Lake City Olympic opening ceremonies, but did any of you happen to catch the one in Torino. Holy cow, it was awesome!

Where we had a bunch of singing hand-cart pioneers they had a huge choreographed ski jumper, and Pavorati, and cirque de solei.

I watched the whole thing. (Thank you TIVO for letting me fast forward through the many commercials and boring speeches).

I only have a few comments.

1) What is with our outfits? Why on earth must we cling to the stupid beret for a head cover? Why can't we wear beanies like every other American winter-sport enthusiast does? Seriously.

2) I was so happy to see that at the end the Italian athletes got more screen time and attention. It's nice to not feel like the center of the universe for a change.

3) That torch lighting was AMAZING. Defiantly a high-light.

4) If we are going to send a woman to represent the US in carrying in the flag, I think we could have done a little better than a movie star. She was seriously out-classed by the rest of the women carrying that flag and I felt a little bad for her.

New Shoes

Love, LOVE, L-O-V-E my new shoes

The end of the world as I know it

Woke up this morning thinking about the same thing I think about every Friday morning...yup, you guessed it...the friday doughnut.

Realized that I woke up early enough to actually do my hair and still get one of the chocolate ones (they always go the quickest).

Stepped out of my house and saw the 5 inches of beautiful new snow piled on top of car and wasn't annoyed. Rather, the thought of the doughnut luring me to work really put some ferocity into scraping arm.

Checked watch and saw that it was still early enough to sweep the snow off my front steps so that the mailman would deliver the mail. Sure, that meant probably gettgin stuck with the plain glazed doughnut, or the weird coconut covered one, but felt like it was ok since my roommates would appreciate my work.

Hopped into my car and started to drive to work.

The drive took 25 minutes just to get across town. Saw two sliding wrecks on the way. Nervously looked at console clock realizing that every minute that clicked away reduced chances of even getting said doughnut.

Almost sprinted across the parking lot in eager anticipation.

Rounded the corner to office and stopped dead in tracks.

No doughnuts today.

Can't even start to describe the crushing dissapointment.

Feel too bad about going out of MY way to actually get myself a doughnut, especially as am lugging my rockstar bag filled with gym clothes.

Not so great to be me today

Wow, sometimes I am really impressed by other people.

In a stunningly hurtful and immature move I mistakenly sent an email that was meant for a friend to and entire group. The contents of said email included some very mean and I'd like to think totally out of character sentences. Well, as I'm sure you've guessed, I had clicked the stupid "Reply All" button instead of just "Reply" and this scathing email to the target of my fury.

When I realized what I had done waves of grief and embarrasment flooded over me in such intense waves that I immedaitely was blinded by tears. There were many reasons I was so affected.

First, I imagined myself getting a similar email and the hurt I would feel. It would crush me.

Second, I realized that despite the mature grown-up reflection of myself that I have started to become slightly narcassistic with, I still have those ugly, gross, childish, backbiting, mean, judgemental spots of tarnish looking back at me.

Third, I have put a serious speed bump for our entire group and this project we have to do together.

So I followed this email up with a personal apology asking her for forgiveness.

Not only was her response completely classy, but it was totally forgiving.

This person who I thought was obnoxious and slightly lacking in social graces proved to be way better at them than myself. She showed me how a real adult should deal with problems. She taught me more than I could ever have learned about myself in the span of 2 short hours.

Thoughts

Right now I'm feeling pretty freakin awesome.

This morning I wasn't. I read by friend Bryan's post about being stoked about MIT and I started feeling like my choice of grad school wasn't challenging/impressive enough. I started feeling in the pit of my stomach like I'd opted for the easy way out and that I wasn't really pushing myself. I have so much to offer and I was feeling like my choice to go to CU wasn't going to get me where I should be going.

I just spent all morning working out a hefty piece of code that shows how light bounces around inside a telescope and it rocks. I feel like I'm learning cool things and succeeding at them so the earlier feelings of inadequacy and unimportance have subsided and I realized that my experience and contribution to this field is going to be what I make of it, regardless of where I've picked to go to school.

Oh, and I finally got a REALLY cool bag that can hold all of my stuff. Brown leather with brushed gold studs. Tres cute.

Watch that first step....it's a doooooosey

Ever since Bill Murray immortalized the little guy in that famous movie, Punxsutawney Phil has caputred my immagination.

So much so that last week I tried to see how much it would cost for me to buy some tickets and jet out to enjoy the festivities.

I mean, come on, how can you say no to this:

I can't really think of many more fun things than gathering together at a place called "Gobblers Nobb," joining hands with the locals and dancing in circles to celebrate an almost rodent's prediction of the weather.

Ungrateful

This semester I am taking a class that should be really cool. The whole class (of about 30 students) is broken into 3 groups and in those groups we write up a spacecraft proposal. That's it. For the whole semester.

The only down side is that there is the most annoying person in the whole wide world in my group. They talk about inane topics incessantly and it drives me up the wall.

Yesterday I went to a kick-off meeting for a new club at school (SEDS in case you're wondering) and the annoying-monster was there. They took one look at the 8 foot long FREE sub sandwich the club had provided to anyone who wanted any and said, "um, next time you might want to consider a vegetarian option."

I was floored.

I wanted to turn to them and say, "Hello, it's free food and you don’t have to eat it if you don't want to. Why should an entire room full of people cater to your needs?"

But I didn't. Because I have some MANNERS.