Not too many people comment on my blogs which sometimes makes me sad. But then I am made aware of the fact that people are in fact reading my blogs. What is odd is that males tend to read and comment via other than posted comments like calling me or mentioning something in conversation while females actually write comments. I will think on that further and come up with some kind of far reaching sociological explanation... or not. Anyway, Eric and Ryan sometimes read and make comments. But yesterday I got a phone call from the friend in Seattle.... he says I am in the good (I think I meant to write good graces but oh well you all got the gist... these mistakes are what happen when I go without an editor!) and that I made a wise choice. I was actually kind of shocked to get the phone call as I had not anticipated a phone call being generated by the post.
In other news, my ex called yesterday to tell me that all is going super fantastically well with he and his new girlfriend and they are "talking about things that people our age talk about when they are in a serious relationship." Two months people, they have been dating two months. It is never easy to hear that from your ex, no matter what. Ryan tried hard to talk me off the ledge ... they are of different religions they have to gauge if this is going to work at all... what will the wedding look like.. church or temple or outside or what? Wait, I know the answers to all those questions.
Amber and I just practiced some weapons. Baby steps in the weapon world for me.... those things are dangerous!!
Now I must grade some of my students' Methodology-s, write a program evaluation, and prepare the outline for my defense. Other people practiced their defense.... based on the lectures I have been to in the last month given by world renowned scholars, such preparation is not professional. ;)
Monday, May 4, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Ah-la-la-la-la-le-lu-ah and the phone story
Two weekends now I went to Oregon/Washington for Kim's wedding. It was a good time. I got to stay in a hotel and got a good amount of work done on my thesis. I think this is a useful thing for me to know- I get a lot of writing done in a hotel room. Expensive way to get writing done, but I will store that knowledge for later. I also got to see Amanda and her boyfriend, Scott, while there and that was good as well. What I did not do, and will pay for a while for, is call another friend I have who lives in Seattle- only a two hour drive away. He is not very happy with me as a result of my failure to call. This is because he (like me, actually) is the kind of person who will drive two hours to and from a place to meet someone and hang out for 15 minutes. I did feel bad about not making the call as I had previously mentioned him possibly coming to the wedding with me. But as it turned out I flew in Friday night and out Sunday morning and I had a thesis that needed to be done by the next Tuesday. Knowing if I called he would certainly come down and that I would feel bad cutting the visit short I didn't call. Unfortunately this did not go undetected as Amanda then went up to Seattle and visited with him and there was no hiding that I had been in the region. I got a phone call the next Sunday while I was at Kilties that totally called me out. I apologized but I don't think I am back in the good. Meanwhile, when I got back I had to deal with Ryan who was not at all happy to drive down to get me from O'Hare. Pretty sure my friend from Seattle would have picked me up from O'Hare if he could.
I guess I can say this: my thesis defense is scheduled for Tuesday. I would like to say that my thesis is done, but I don't know if this is the case as it is likely to see revision before it is signed and submitted to the department. My committee has a copy of the monster but I have made some changes since that copy. I am looking at family structure and I defined it as single parent, two biological parent, or other. In my initial analysis I used other as the comparison category but that doesn't actually tell us much. It didn't occur to me until I was talking to Eric two Thursdays ago while folding clothes that I could use single or two parent families as the comparison category and be able to say something. But this change meant a bit of work to revise the table and the text of my paper so I did that yesterday and will have to present revisions to my committee at my defense. I don't know if such a thing is typical, but it is what my adviser suggested and at this point my adviser is God of the situation- what he says goes. So it seems that this is good. I have been taking on an attitude of "don't count the eggs before they are hatched" in all things related to my thesis. I am fully aware that my committee could decide I am not done and give me a list of things that must be done which will delay my official completion. This could mean I don't actually graduate.... they are collectively God of that (hmmm.... how polytheistic of me). But I got my graduation regalia yesterday in the mail and the parents are coming to town for graduation so it appears that I am walking if nothing else.
The job search is sucking. I am frustrated by the bad application formatting and the repetition in the process. It is so hard to put effort into the applications when my experience is that few of them will even be considered. Eric applied for a job in Madison and a few days later received an email from a staffing company in Philadelphia saying that while he was qualified for the job they decided not to forward his application. Not an encouraging message to get. But of course we have no choice but to press on.
Amanda came to visit Wisconsin this week. I picked her up from the airport on Monday night. We went to lunch at Ryan's shop on Tuesday then to the Milwaukee Art Museum- I really like that place. Then her friends came and picked her up and took her to town in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin that I will not name. I guess it was not quite to her liking so she escaped and came back to Milwaukee last evening and Eric joined us for a trip to Lakefront Brewery for the tour and fish fry complete with Polka music. It was great! My second time on the tour, this one was more entertaining, and my first time at the fish fry which was yummy and fun. Will have to see about going in the summer to see the crowds. Today we got up, I made breakfast, Eric finally showed up, Amanda packed up, we went to the Public Market for a quick lap, and took Amanda to Amtrak and off she went to Chicago to meet Scott at his aunt's house in Evanston.
Aha! The phone story. This is a funny one, I think. So I have been sick this week: coughing, sneezing, nose stuffy. Went to see the doctor on Monday- no Swine Flu for me, but I was on anti-biotics that did not improve my health as quickly as they usually do. Point is I had not been sleeping as well as I might due to waking up for various reasons chief among them coughing. Well Wednesday night I settled in for some better, cough-less sleep and kept sleeping through my alarm. I didn't wake until 8:30 and needed to be in class by 9:00. I quick got up and dressed, it wasn't until I was putting on my shoes that I realized that it was raining outside. Well, at this point my only hope of making it to class on time was to ride my bike so I did that and ended up with soaked jeans by the time I arrived at school. So, being sick, I was unhappy with this (unavoidable, given my mode of transportation) outcome and I was locking up my bike which of course did not want to cooperate and I ruched to class. Well after class I was meeting with my advisor to discuss the above issue with my thesis. I returned to my office to hear that one of the department secretaries had called for me. That is odd since she would normally just walk down the hall instead of calling. So I headed back down the hall to see what she wanted and here she came down the hall. "The police called, they have your cell phone," she said. Hmmm. That's interesting I had not noticed that it was gone. So I head back into the office and call the police department as instructed. So I get on the phone with the officer who has my phone and he tells me he called my mom!!! In California!!! Immediately I am calculating what time it must have been in CA and contemplating the fact that I got tattled on. "She didn't want to talk to me at first," the officer tells me. "But when I told her who I was, who I work for, she was more willing." I bet! As it turned out it wasn't until about 10:30 Milwaukee time, 8:30 CA time that this all took place so my mom was at a school and was not happy to be on the phone because that doesn't look good. So the police officer on the phone asks me a bunch of questions: my address, office phone, office number, so forth. Then I hang up, tell my office mates the deal and resume what I was doing on the computer. The office phone rings, I answer, and it is my father!! Letting me know that the police have my phone. "Thanks, Dad," I say and hang up. My office mates are laughing, "Was that really your Dad?!" Yes, yes it was. So I got my phone back and all is back to normal-ish.... I mean as normal as my life gets.
I guess I can say this: my thesis defense is scheduled for Tuesday. I would like to say that my thesis is done, but I don't know if this is the case as it is likely to see revision before it is signed and submitted to the department. My committee has a copy of the monster but I have made some changes since that copy. I am looking at family structure and I defined it as single parent, two biological parent, or other. In my initial analysis I used other as the comparison category but that doesn't actually tell us much. It didn't occur to me until I was talking to Eric two Thursdays ago while folding clothes that I could use single or two parent families as the comparison category and be able to say something. But this change meant a bit of work to revise the table and the text of my paper so I did that yesterday and will have to present revisions to my committee at my defense. I don't know if such a thing is typical, but it is what my adviser suggested and at this point my adviser is God of the situation- what he says goes. So it seems that this is good. I have been taking on an attitude of "don't count the eggs before they are hatched" in all things related to my thesis. I am fully aware that my committee could decide I am not done and give me a list of things that must be done which will delay my official completion. This could mean I don't actually graduate.... they are collectively God of that (hmmm.... how polytheistic of me). But I got my graduation regalia yesterday in the mail and the parents are coming to town for graduation so it appears that I am walking if nothing else.
The job search is sucking. I am frustrated by the bad application formatting and the repetition in the process. It is so hard to put effort into the applications when my experience is that few of them will even be considered. Eric applied for a job in Madison and a few days later received an email from a staffing company in Philadelphia saying that while he was qualified for the job they decided not to forward his application. Not an encouraging message to get. But of course we have no choice but to press on.
Amanda came to visit Wisconsin this week. I picked her up from the airport on Monday night. We went to lunch at Ryan's shop on Tuesday then to the Milwaukee Art Museum- I really like that place. Then her friends came and picked her up and took her to town in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin that I will not name. I guess it was not quite to her liking so she escaped and came back to Milwaukee last evening and Eric joined us for a trip to Lakefront Brewery for the tour and fish fry complete with Polka music. It was great! My second time on the tour, this one was more entertaining, and my first time at the fish fry which was yummy and fun. Will have to see about going in the summer to see the crowds. Today we got up, I made breakfast, Eric finally showed up, Amanda packed up, we went to the Public Market for a quick lap, and took Amanda to Amtrak and off she went to Chicago to meet Scott at his aunt's house in Evanston.
Aha! The phone story. This is a funny one, I think. So I have been sick this week: coughing, sneezing, nose stuffy. Went to see the doctor on Monday- no Swine Flu for me, but I was on anti-biotics that did not improve my health as quickly as they usually do. Point is I had not been sleeping as well as I might due to waking up for various reasons chief among them coughing. Well Wednesday night I settled in for some better, cough-less sleep and kept sleeping through my alarm. I didn't wake until 8:30 and needed to be in class by 9:00. I quick got up and dressed, it wasn't until I was putting on my shoes that I realized that it was raining outside. Well, at this point my only hope of making it to class on time was to ride my bike so I did that and ended up with soaked jeans by the time I arrived at school. So, being sick, I was unhappy with this (unavoidable, given my mode of transportation) outcome and I was locking up my bike which of course did not want to cooperate and I ruched to class. Well after class I was meeting with my advisor to discuss the above issue with my thesis. I returned to my office to hear that one of the department secretaries had called for me. That is odd since she would normally just walk down the hall instead of calling. So I headed back down the hall to see what she wanted and here she came down the hall. "The police called, they have your cell phone," she said. Hmmm. That's interesting I had not noticed that it was gone. So I head back into the office and call the police department as instructed. So I get on the phone with the officer who has my phone and he tells me he called my mom!!! In California!!! Immediately I am calculating what time it must have been in CA and contemplating the fact that I got tattled on. "She didn't want to talk to me at first," the officer tells me. "But when I told her who I was, who I work for, she was more willing." I bet! As it turned out it wasn't until about 10:30 Milwaukee time, 8:30 CA time that this all took place so my mom was at a school and was not happy to be on the phone because that doesn't look good. So the police officer on the phone asks me a bunch of questions: my address, office phone, office number, so forth. Then I hang up, tell my office mates the deal and resume what I was doing on the computer. The office phone rings, I answer, and it is my father!! Letting me know that the police have my phone. "Thanks, Dad," I say and hang up. My office mates are laughing, "Was that really your Dad?!" Yes, yes it was. So I got my phone back and all is back to normal-ish.... I mean as normal as my life gets.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Politics and the Economy
At a time when we have a President who has called for bi-particianship it seems to me that there is even more particianship. My perception is likely clouded by a) the lack of attention I paid to politics when Bush was President due to my semi-perminent state of cringe, and b) the enormous amount of attention Obama gets in the media- as the grandpa I was sitting in the spa with last night pointed out, there has not been a day since he took office that he has not been mentioned on the news. I have no problem with particianship and the fact that our two parties have differing opinions, but the benefit of having differing opinions is that each can challenge the other which can lead to better ideas and decisions. Unfortunately differing opinions seem to be leading to stupidity. Republicans seem to be morally opposed to agreeing with Democrats, not on the principal of the idea but instead on the principal of agreeing. Further it seems to me that Republicans are getting dumber. Last night I was watching CNN and a Republican legislator from Bakersfield, CA (complete with a background with changing images of Bakersfield) was complaining about how stimulus funds are being spent. The governor of Ohio, I believe, he said is going to spend a load of money $23 million or so on a study rather than projects that apply the shovel to the ground and provide jobs for hardworking people... or something like that. Hello! Wake up! Get your head out of your butt!!! Obviously this guy doesn't know what a study is and for this I think the voters of Bakersfield should send him to school. Someone has to do a study. Actually a bunch of someones are often involved with a study. And these people get paid. If there are not studies to be done, these people may not have jobs. So doing a study provides jobs for people. Educated people, people like me, thank you very much. And this is what I am concerned about. In case you have not been paying attention the past 10 or 20 years we have this little problem with immigration and we Americans are snobs and don't want to do menial labor. So why are we so intent on providing menial labor jobs? In the US our educational institutions are factories of knowledge. We need to provide jobs for these people who we have already subsidized through funding to institutions of higher learning, and financial aid and subsidized loans to students. Where is this in the economic recovery plan? I am not hearing about it. I am hearing about cleaning up trash, and re-paving highways. How many Republican lawmakers want those jobs for their children. I am not knocking these jobs, they are vitally important to the infastructure of the US. Increasing the number of them, will, duh employ more people. I just see an imbalance of focus on these jobs to the exclusion of other jobs.
On Thursday I had an "ah-ha" moment when I was at a lecture given my Saskia Sassen, a world famous sociologist who is most known for her research on globalization. I had been having a funny feeling about the bailouts being given to the financial sector and the fact that it seemed that as the US economy tanked so did the world economy. Dr. Sassan was talking about the tension between the national and the global, which people seem to want to see as exclusive of one another but they really can co-exist. She pointed out that the bailouts given by the US government were not bailing out a national system but instead are bailing out a global system. Ah-ha. That is totally the case and why should the US carry the responsibilty in this area? Which goes to the G-12 (that's the right number, right?) and all that happened at that meeting...
Okay. All for now. Off to the wedding festivities! Another friend willingly surrenders her last name.
On Thursday I had an "ah-ha" moment when I was at a lecture given my Saskia Sassen, a world famous sociologist who is most known for her research on globalization. I had been having a funny feeling about the bailouts being given to the financial sector and the fact that it seemed that as the US economy tanked so did the world economy. Dr. Sassan was talking about the tension between the national and the global, which people seem to want to see as exclusive of one another but they really can co-exist. She pointed out that the bailouts given by the US government were not bailing out a national system but instead are bailing out a global system. Ah-ha. That is totally the case and why should the US carry the responsibilty in this area? Which goes to the G-12 (that's the right number, right?) and all that happened at that meeting...
Okay. All for now. Off to the wedding festivities! Another friend willingly surrenders her last name.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
One thing, and then another
I have written a few blogs in the last couple of weeks but I am trying to follow the adage "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." Not an easy task. Especially when some others do say not nice things. Apparently I said something not nice, in a moment or five of anger about a month ago that will continue to cause me problems for a while. But maybe we will get to that in a future post, maybe not.
My grandmother died on March 27 which is somewhat ironic since my grandfather (opposite side) died on September 27, 2008. In six months I lost two grandparents or 50% of my grandparents (oooh, yeah too much statistics and data analysis lately). That sucks. Now, this may be difficult to understand or some might find it harsh, but my grandma dying was a good thing in a bad way. Different people experience death and the resulting mourning in different ways and I think anger was the most prominent stage in my mourning process for my grandmother. She was old and she was in bad health. But she didn't do much of anything to fight her dissintigration into bad health and instead sat in her house and did not much of anything. A crossword, some reading, ordered stuff from catalogs, and waited for people to come visit her when she could have been hanging out at the senior center or with her great grandchildren or daughter and son-in-law. But after grandpa died and she moved to Bishop, she just seemed to have lost her desire to live and for this I am angry. But I think I am getting over it. I guess she got what she wanted... the chance to be with grandpa again. I just wish that her family had not had to experience her giving up on life as a result.
Tomorrow is Easter and this means that I can eat meat again. I was doing pretty good on this vegetarian thing until Wednesday and then I was over it and wanted some meat. A little chicken, fish, a good taco- come on!! Hopefully eating meat again will not make me sick. Eating vegetarian wasn't all bad, I just got a bit tired of all the beans I was eating in order to get some protein. I didn't eat as many eggs as I thought I might and really it was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Eric was pretty supportive in that he ate what I fixed, but when we went out he always got something with meat in it. Yesterday I really wanted some of his pasta with chicken in it!!! I am hoping as I merge back into omnivore status that I will not overdo the meat consumption just to make up for lost time. One thing I learned from my experience is that there are plenty of meatless meals that are good and so I plan to keep some of these foods in my diet. I was disappointed that I did not seem to have lost much weight. In that way I kinda wish I had observed Passover instead as I always seem to lose weight when carbs are removed from my diet. It is clear I love carbs.
I am working away on my thesis. Right now I am in problem solution mode as I am trying to maximize the number of cases on which my analysis is based by dealing with missing data issues. Somehow my analysis is down to 9000 some cases from 16000 cases so I need to see where all the cases went. Then I need to get on my horse and analyze this data. Then revise what I already have written, get it reviewed by the profs on my committee, revise, and put a bow on this hog! (Midwest humor?) Hopefully I will graduate on time. My dad told me yesterday that my parents have not bought their plane tickets yet.... oh, I just shake my head at that. Maybe they think I won't graduate and somehow we will know that in a reasonable amount of time before, or maybe they are just procrastinating like I did in making my reservations for the hotel in Vancouver where I will stay for Kim's wedding this coming weekend. Yikes! Kim will be married in seven days!!!
Both Eric and I have been applying for jobs. I think he really did apply for a job in Antarctica. If he goes without me I will be sad and maybe a little ticked off. But on the other hand I am cold here in Wisconsin and do you know how much the coats they suggest you have for being in Antarctica cost? Over $500. And I am tired of being inside here and hate the cold wind, how much worse will it be there? So maybe I should be happy the Norseman may go without me.
Tonight, another basketball game (go Bucks!) night. Keeping a positive attitude about it.
My grandmother died on March 27 which is somewhat ironic since my grandfather (opposite side) died on September 27, 2008. In six months I lost two grandparents or 50% of my grandparents (oooh, yeah too much statistics and data analysis lately). That sucks. Now, this may be difficult to understand or some might find it harsh, but my grandma dying was a good thing in a bad way. Different people experience death and the resulting mourning in different ways and I think anger was the most prominent stage in my mourning process for my grandmother. She was old and she was in bad health. But she didn't do much of anything to fight her dissintigration into bad health and instead sat in her house and did not much of anything. A crossword, some reading, ordered stuff from catalogs, and waited for people to come visit her when she could have been hanging out at the senior center or with her great grandchildren or daughter and son-in-law. But after grandpa died and she moved to Bishop, she just seemed to have lost her desire to live and for this I am angry. But I think I am getting over it. I guess she got what she wanted... the chance to be with grandpa again. I just wish that her family had not had to experience her giving up on life as a result.
Tomorrow is Easter and this means that I can eat meat again. I was doing pretty good on this vegetarian thing until Wednesday and then I was over it and wanted some meat. A little chicken, fish, a good taco- come on!! Hopefully eating meat again will not make me sick. Eating vegetarian wasn't all bad, I just got a bit tired of all the beans I was eating in order to get some protein. I didn't eat as many eggs as I thought I might and really it was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Eric was pretty supportive in that he ate what I fixed, but when we went out he always got something with meat in it. Yesterday I really wanted some of his pasta with chicken in it!!! I am hoping as I merge back into omnivore status that I will not overdo the meat consumption just to make up for lost time. One thing I learned from my experience is that there are plenty of meatless meals that are good and so I plan to keep some of these foods in my diet. I was disappointed that I did not seem to have lost much weight. In that way I kinda wish I had observed Passover instead as I always seem to lose weight when carbs are removed from my diet. It is clear I love carbs.
I am working away on my thesis. Right now I am in problem solution mode as I am trying to maximize the number of cases on which my analysis is based by dealing with missing data issues. Somehow my analysis is down to 9000 some cases from 16000 cases so I need to see where all the cases went. Then I need to get on my horse and analyze this data. Then revise what I already have written, get it reviewed by the profs on my committee, revise, and put a bow on this hog! (Midwest humor?) Hopefully I will graduate on time. My dad told me yesterday that my parents have not bought their plane tickets yet.... oh, I just shake my head at that. Maybe they think I won't graduate and somehow we will know that in a reasonable amount of time before, or maybe they are just procrastinating like I did in making my reservations for the hotel in Vancouver where I will stay for Kim's wedding this coming weekend. Yikes! Kim will be married in seven days!!!
Both Eric and I have been applying for jobs. I think he really did apply for a job in Antarctica. If he goes without me I will be sad and maybe a little ticked off. But on the other hand I am cold here in Wisconsin and do you know how much the coats they suggest you have for being in Antarctica cost? Over $500. And I am tired of being inside here and hate the cold wind, how much worse will it be there? So maybe I should be happy the Norseman may go without me.
Tonight, another basketball game (go Bucks!) night. Keeping a positive attitude about it.
Friday, April 3, 2009
April (snow?) showers
Okay it has been a long time, a long long time. I will try to make up a few here soon, we will see. What is going on? A lot. I finally got my thesis proposal to a good point and defended it and now I am on to the actual thesis work, thank heavens. Lots to do in a short amount of time. Lots of stress as things are really coming to the end here- of many things... but how many? Here is the current countdown
29 days until the goal I made for having my thesis done.
35 days until I have to be done
45 days until graduation
58 days until I am homeless
Yeah so I gave notice on my apartment when I paid my rent this month. That was scary enough, but then they put a For Rent sign in the yard so I get to have the reminder every day. Somehow I need to find a job and new place to live before those 58 days are up. It is going to be pretty difficult I fear.
Eric and I celebrated out semi-anniversary and that was nice. It has not been an easy six months in either of our lives, what with deaths, a layoff, and my thesis, but I think it has gone very well.
Eric was in a horrible mood today. I don't know what his deal was and I hope he gets over it. I was talking to Jamieson about guys and their tendency to get into a funk that is impermeable to intervention and can only blow over. But he did make me some tea while I was working on my thesis which was very kind.
29 days until the goal I made for having my thesis done.
35 days until I have to be done
45 days until graduation
58 days until I am homeless
Yeah so I gave notice on my apartment when I paid my rent this month. That was scary enough, but then they put a For Rent sign in the yard so I get to have the reminder every day. Somehow I need to find a job and new place to live before those 58 days are up. It is going to be pretty difficult I fear.
Eric and I celebrated out semi-anniversary and that was nice. It has not been an easy six months in either of our lives, what with deaths, a layoff, and my thesis, but I think it has gone very well.
Eric was in a horrible mood today. I don't know what his deal was and I hope he gets over it. I was talking to Jamieson about guys and their tendency to get into a funk that is impermeable to intervention and can only blow over. But he did make me some tea while I was working on my thesis which was very kind.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Goodbye weekend, goodbye. A ramble.
What a weekend. Finished the second (near-final?) draft of my proposal. Made cookies. Went running in the rain. Graded student assignments that were decent to good, maybe three bad ones in the batch. Had an enjoyable dinner with some Soc people, though I will note that the only thing worse than a group of people who can't stop talking shop is having people from outside the shop come and make the group talk about shop, especially when the group intended to escape the shop. Hit the town with Eric and some of his boys and was joined by Tiffany and Melissa in full pursuit of intoxication- fun ensued. Headed out this afternoon for lunch at Fratello's got soaked so I came home and stayed here for the rest of the day staying dry and warm trying to prepare myself for my students' midterm on Thursday and bracing for the incoming literature reviews. I have been combing the Internet this weekend for things to do, jobs, and information about Summerfest. Didn't come up with much, but had a good time doing it. One more week of school before a week "off" and my trip to Los Angeles. Speaking of this trip, this is how it came about: Two Thursdays ago I was in my professor's office and we were talking about the Literature Review grading and I recalled that last semester I graded the Lit Reviews on the plane to and from Fresno where I had to go for my grandfather's memorial service and how well that dedicated time worked for getting the grading done. That led me to think about maybe going to CA for break, and then asking myself, why not? Then I asked Eric who I expected to blow the idea out of the water, but instead he said, sure. So now we are going. Yay! But I looked at the weather forecast and it is predicting rain- BOO! I hope that will change as it will but a snag in the plans to go to Knott's and the beach.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Limbo
I completed the second draft of my thesis proposal today so I feel somewhat elated but am fully aware that there will probably some additional revisions and it probably is not yet to defensible quality- which sucks. I need to get the proposal done and defended so I can get on with the analysis. But for now I am going to enjoy an opportunity to feel a little bit good about things and get some things done that I have let slip. I did a bunch of laundry but my apartment could use some TLC and I haven't done much baking lately so I might try a little of that.
I went vegetarian for Lent and it has been... okay. Eric and I went to Woodman's to grocery shop on Sunday. It was an interesting shopping trip. There is, of course, plenty of food available for vegetarians but making this change in my diet has made me (and as a result Eric) much more aware of what I (we) eat. Since Eric doesn't actually buy much when we go grocery shopping and has little food that is his in his house (most of it being left over from occupation by is cousin or aunt), my diet impacts his diet heavily. In the frozen dinner section there were precious few meals without meat, I had never noticed this before. Woodmans has a whole row including frozen foods for the health, vegan, and organic foods so that was a good place to go for yummy stuff I can eat. I got a few dinners and two Amy's burrito type things. Everything I have eaten so far has been good, except for the Jeweled Rice I made but that is because brown rice is sometimes difficult to deal with.
Eric and I are heading to Los Angeles for Spring Break in ten days. Yay! I am hoping for temperatures of 60+ each day we are there. The only things on the schedule so far are Knott's Berry Farm and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. We also try to take in some ethnic foods of various kinds. Eric wants to go to a noodle house. I think he will find they are similar to those here in Milwaukee. I want to visit the ocean but I don't know if it is going to be warm enough for a good beach trip. Eric chuckled at me when I said that- he reminded me that he went in Lake Michigan on New Years Day- water temperature maybe 35, air temperature 20, wind chill making it about -10. I guess it will be warmer in California than that!!
I went vegetarian for Lent and it has been... okay. Eric and I went to Woodman's to grocery shop on Sunday. It was an interesting shopping trip. There is, of course, plenty of food available for vegetarians but making this change in my diet has made me (and as a result Eric) much more aware of what I (we) eat. Since Eric doesn't actually buy much when we go grocery shopping and has little food that is his in his house (most of it being left over from occupation by is cousin or aunt), my diet impacts his diet heavily. In the frozen dinner section there were precious few meals without meat, I had never noticed this before. Woodmans has a whole row including frozen foods for the health, vegan, and organic foods so that was a good place to go for yummy stuff I can eat. I got a few dinners and two Amy's burrito type things. Everything I have eaten so far has been good, except for the Jeweled Rice I made but that is because brown rice is sometimes difficult to deal with.
Eric and I are heading to Los Angeles for Spring Break in ten days. Yay! I am hoping for temperatures of 60+ each day we are there. The only things on the schedule so far are Knott's Berry Farm and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. We also try to take in some ethnic foods of various kinds. Eric wants to go to a noodle house. I think he will find they are similar to those here in Milwaukee. I want to visit the ocean but I don't know if it is going to be warm enough for a good beach trip. Eric chuckled at me when I said that- he reminded me that he went in Lake Michigan on New Years Day- water temperature maybe 35, air temperature 20, wind chill making it about -10. I guess it will be warmer in California than that!!
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