So.
It's been awhile.I got a bike!
It's been a couple of weeks now, and I'm happy to report that I'm riding it quite a bit: to work, the farmer's market, for fun, etc. It's not the cushiest ride (read: I'm not used to riding regularly and will probably get over it) but it's super, super light and zippy. Of course, this is my first road bike and the only one I've ever owned that is the correct size, so take my recommendation as that of a biker noob. A very, very happy biker noob!
In other news, work has been keeping me pretty busy, and I am actually very pleased with this situation. I am slowly learning to recognize that not having enough to do makes me antsy, and I am more productive on each task when I have several things going at once. Boredom is not my friend. This is good news for my current situation. I am: teaching (lab TA), writing (draft #2 of the same paper I've been working on for.ev.er), experimenting (proof-of-concept type stuff, gearing up for real experiments), and doing lots of background research to help with experiment planning. I'm in a nice place in my studies right now where I'm finally feeling confident and knowledgeable enough to use the freedom my NSF fellowship grants me. I'm starting to ask my own research questions, and design experiments around them. It's been fun... hopefully something comes of it :) I'll keep you posted.
I've also been loving the cold (all relative) weather for knitting. I FINALLY finished this hat after working on it for what seems like months and days and years and decades. It was a really fun project, my first using the doubleknit technique, but daaaaamn small needles will suck up your life. Soon after putting that down, I started my first-ever sweater and I am so happy to report that it's coming along nicely. The yarn I picked out is probably the best thing ever, so you should be really, really jealous.
Speaking of unbridled jealousy, you're also envious of all the amazing food I made this weekend. I started the week with almond cupcakes with chocolate mousse frosting, which meant by Friday the cupcakes were gone and I now had an abundance of mousse. Knowing no other way out, I baked cookies. Now, I have mousse-filled peanut butter oatmeal choc chip cookie sammiches. Yeah. And dinner tonight! Nick helped me with this amazing recipe from my new favorite cookbook, Veganomicon. Skip the bad photography and go straight to the recipe. Or, if you don't believe me, take this freakishly accurate description of the mole sauce from the blogger cited above:
"But let me just tell you: it's totally worth tracking down the cookbook just for this recipe. Holy motha. And I didn't even use the GOOD shit when it came to the a) chocolate and b) chili powder. I used Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips and shitty 99-cent chili powder. And yet, AND YET, I wanted to fill my bathtub up with this and roll around in it buck-nekkid except for maybe a small hat made out of tortillas. I can only imagine what would've happened if I had splurged and bought some fancy chocolate and some good chipotle chili powder. My nipples probably would've caught fire."
Yeah.
posted by Amber @ 9:08 PM
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