The Ball is Rolling!

Before I get started with the update, I want to share an article recommended to me by a friend. I watched a documentary recently called Beyond Belief (about two women who's husband's were killed on 9/11 and decide to do something positive about it and help Afghan women who are also widows from violence), and have become interested in what is going on with the average citizen over there. I thought that this was another interesting case of someone helping the people over there, in this case, Afghan youth. Enjoy!

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On to the update. I've officially been through an average week in my new semester and the future looks bright! I am taking Anthropological Archaeological Theory, Pagans and Christians 100 to 430 AD, and Artifact Analysis. I honestly can't remember the last time I felt this inspired about my field and that I could actually contribute some new ideas to current body of knowledge. Its a really good feeling :) The semester is going to be a lot of work and I have a lot of reading each week, but I'm going strong so far!

I am teaching two lab sections again this semester. My kids are really great, such an improvement from last semester! They answer questions, pay attention, and understand the material...its wonderful! I am so excited to teach them!

In other news... I went to my first ever wrestling match last week. It was interesting to watch and to try to figure out the rules since I know nothing about the sport. It looked painful being stretched and pulled like they were. I was amazed at how much strategy was required, a simple placement of the arm could make or break one's lead. Interesting, though I don't think I'd want to go again.

I received and AeroGarden for Christmas. I decided to plant flowers first, just to make sure I get the hang of it before I try herbs or veggies. It is doing really well and gives me hope that I will be able to actually grow things in my apartment again. Its nice to see something green and alive everyday when it is so cold and snow covered outside... Here are some pictures of my little indoor garden so far :)
















Nothing else much to report. I'm going to the Winter Carnival tonight over in St. Paul. Hopefully I wont freeze my cheeks off (either set). We were supposed to get our end of January heatwave this weekend (a whole 30 degrees), but its not looking promising at a steady 18 degrees outside... I will be sure to post pictures of that next time I post...that is, as long as my camera doesn't freeze...

Spring Semester, Here I Come!

I find it laughable that they term the upcoming semester "Spring" term. Granted we don't have school for most of January, but spring is by no means in sight. I am pretty proud of myself though. For three or four days in a row it was below zero outside and I was comfortable (yes, I wasn't just admiring the cold from my apartment either). We have had a nice high of 20 degrees for the past few days now too --- mmm, toasty. Enough about the nice weather in Minneapolis though.

As I said, the Spring Semester begins this week --- hooray! It couldn't come at a better time. While it is enjoyable and I will be cranky about a week from now, I need a break from my apartment and Netflix. I subscribed when I returned from Michigan and have been quite addicted since. I wont even disclose the number of movies I've watched in the past 1.5 weeks alone.

One of the interesting parts of Netflix is that you can rate movies you have seen too so it can recommend new ones to you. Sad to say, I've ranked over 730 movies. Haha! I knew that I had seen a lot of movies in my lifetime, but I had no idea it was that many! That only includes ones that I have come across on the site too, not ones I've searched for. Terrible. After seeing that it made me realize how much time I waste and how all of those hours could be spent doing something constructive (does blogging count? probably not...). I guess when I think about it though, I am usually doing something else while watching a movie, like finding new recipes or responding to emails.

Speaking of recipes... I have been quite ambitious the past few days in the kitchen. Maybe ambitious isn't the correct word because nothing I made was that difficult, but it sounds impressive I guess... Anyway, this weekend I tackled homemade crackers and corn chips! I'm feeling very domestic at the moment and wanted to see if I could make my own and have them actually taste good. The crackers were a lot of fun. I started with a simple wheat cracker base and added a few extra spices, though I was only working with what I had and have much tastier ideas in mind. I rolled the dough out and used cookie cutters to make shapes instead of plain rectangles. The consistency ended up being similar to Kashi's multigrain/whole wheat crackers or a thicker, less greasy Wheat Thin. I want to give it a few more tries, but I will definitely post my final results as soon as I get them in order.

The corn chips were interesting. The flavor was on, but not the consistency/texture. They were super thin based on the recipe I followed. I have another one I plan on trying soon and again. It sounds like these would be tricky (which is why I said 'ambitious' earlier), but they really are not.

Alright, enough boredem for now. I need a break from the computer and Mea wants her dinner. Until next time...

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Yes, yes, I have been getting a lot of crap since I've been home about not updating my blog enough. I am a very pattern oriented person and like to keep things neat and orderly...if they happen to fall into an obvious pattern while doing so, all the better! Why am I talking about patterns, you may ask? Back in October when I noticed my dwindling blog entry numbers, I saw that it was going 5...4...3... a very obvious pattern. How can I not just let it go 2 and 1? Which is partly why I haven't been rushing to the computer to add more entries. I know, this sounds like a thing a crazy person would do or think of. I always tell people I'm a little OCD and OCP(personality)D, but no one ever seems to believe me. Now you have some clear evidence that I am in fact, a bit obsessive sometimes, haha!

Anywho...while talking about my lack of blogging with my lovely friend from high school, Juli, she came up with a great idea. She said I could do an entry on my New Year's resolution. I told her I didn't have one except maybe to eat a bit more (I've also received a lot of grief about being too thin while home), but after I thought about it some more, I decided my resolution could be to blog more --- nice how that all worked out! This will be my last blog of the year (just so I can see the nice pattern), but I will try to resume in full force at the beginning of January.

January will probably be more fruitful than a good portion of the year because I have most of the month off from school, but I will try to keep it to at least once a week like I initially set out to do. I also didn't think people were reading it anymore (except for Ami because she used by glass bottle tutorial for her x-mas presents -- yay!), which is another reason I didn't make it a priority to update, but now that I know you all are, I will get on it a bit more :)

Alright, moving on to some updates... The end of the semester was a horribly busy time. I had 48 hours to grade 50 exams with 4 short answer/essay questions. Luckily the multiple choice is all graded on the computer, but ugh! the short answers were enough to keep me busy for about 10 hours straight. My friend Linda, a fellow TA, moved into an apartment kiddy-corner from me and we spent the evening (and early hours of the morning) grading the exam with Burt, another TA, over a round or two of Tequila Sunrise. I decided to be pretty nice to my students because I graded them pretty harshly most of the semester. I was very thankful to get their grades in and to be done with this semester of teaching!

Also during that evening I had a visitor come into my apartment. I was grading at Linda's, but would go back to my place periodically to check on Mea. I went back about 11 PM and Mea was fixated in a corner of my kitchen looking at the radiator. I figured there was a mouse or something because the wall and the floor do not connect there and one could easily come up through the wall and sneak in. I check under it and didn't see anything and checked as best I could in the radiator too, but saw nothing. I left and came back around 1 AM to discover all of my kitchen rugs bunched up against the walls and place-mats shoved off the table. I was wondering what the hell Mea had been up to when I finally turned the light on in the kitchen and the answer was hanging from the ceiling. Thats right, I had a bat in my apartment.

After letting out the customary girly shriek, I hurried back to get Burt and Linda to see what they thought. They were quite interested in the bat (I stood behind a wall and stuck my head in the room, haha). We left the light on so that the bat would not get startled later and just left him there. I barricaded Mea in the bedroom and bathroom. When I got back at 3 AM for the night, the bat what just where we left him, so I went to sleep in my bat-proof room.

Called animal control in the morning and they said they don't do bats, so I called my apartment and they had someone come over and collect him. We had some up and down temperatures in Minneapolis that week and it was likely that when it got warm, he woke up, but then when it got cold again, he kept climbing until he got somewhere warm to go back to sleep again. I think Mea was sad to see him go --- looks like she had quite the time with him! There were dusty polka-dots all over my kitchen from where it flew into the walls, floor, and table trying to escape the cat (he was covered in dust from climbing the wall and hiding in the radiator).

I love my apartment, but between the bat and the mold problems I had a few weeks ago, it makes me wonder if I should stay there another year... haha!

Other than that, the semester finished with little pain or grief. I don't have my grades back yet, but it looks promising. The drive home to Michigan was easy and I was lucky enough to make it here between storms. It has been wonderful to be home. I needed a break from the city and from my apartment. I'm quite happy I've been able to spend so much time with my friends and family. Christmas was good too! I received new kitchen stuff, several good vintage finds, and some books and DVDs --- plenty of things to keep me busy for a while!

I am heading back to Minneapolis January 7th. I will be sure to start updating regularly again. Until then, I wish everyone a very Happy New Year and good luck with your resolutions!

Just a Quick Update...

Short, but sweet this week.

My best friend, Ami (I'm sure you all remember her name from our trip to Europe), came out to visit me this weekend all the way from Custer, South Dakota! We haven't seen each other in 5 months! Far too long!

She got into town just in time to go to my FUTBOL game. I play with other Anthropology TAs on a club/inter-mural team called "The Four Fields." We lost miserably, but it was great fun running around and doing something physical for a change. I'm thankful I spent the $9 extra on some shin-guards...it was a pretty physical-contact-intense game!

Friday, once I got home from school/teaching we hung out for a good part of the day, got lunch, then I took Ami to Ikea because she has never been. I ate too many of their cookies while I was there...tummy-ache.

Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and went to the Farmer's Market. It was a great weekend for it! All the fall veggies and such are coming in and were pretty cheap compared to the summer produce. I have a lot of cooking planned for this week. (I may cauliflower gratin tonight, delish!)

That night, we made a trip to a place called Nye's, a Polish polka bar! It was great fun! I actually recognized the place from my trip in 2007 with my mom, we walked past it and I remembered seeing a sign that said "Voted Best Bar by Maxim Magazine." It could very well be! The polka band members are pretty old, I think the youngest guy was in his 60s. The oldest member, Ruth, was well over 90 and rocked an accordion like none I've ever seen! :)

Ami left Sunday morning. Sad now. She's coming back out for my birthday in November, yay!!!

Other than that, I have a really busy week ahead of me with a rough draft due and tons of reading, so I'm done writing for now. Hope all is well with everyone!

The Falls in the Fall

Classes and teaching have been occupying most of my life lately, but I did manage to enjoy a weekend away from homework (for the most part).

Saturday was a busy day. The Anthropology Department held its annual Paleo-Picnic. Events included flint-knapping (stone tool making), archery, and butchering a pig using the stone tools we made that day. I didn't take part in the butchering surprisingly. I lectured about and dissected sheep brains all week, so I wasn't really in the mood to cut anything else up...

The weather was beautiful -- sun shining, about 60 degrees, a gentle breeze -- perfect fall day! I took advantage of the seasonal loveliness and went with a friend to Minnehaha Falls in the afternoon.

The falls are located about 15 minutes from where I live and are nestled within a large, lush park.

The first few photos are of the falls from the top. The water is pretty low this time of year, but the waterfall is still lovely.

I love how bright the colors are on the trees!

This is a sculpture which overlooks the falls. It has some sort of hair, maybe horse hair which makes it a little less cold compared to most sculpture and a little more natural/organic. I like it.

This is a pretty little bridge near the base of the falls. It took a while to get a photo without people in it, but it was worth it.

The last two photos I like because you can see the vibrancy of the Fall here. I love how brilliant everything is.

It was great walking around here too because leaves covered the ground and smelled great! They also made a very definitive crunch, which I always enjoy...


















As you can see, it is a lovely Fall in Minneapolis. All I need now is some apple cider and I'll be a happy camper!