Moldy Tampons (...dot tumbler dot com)

This isn't the normal subject of the blog, so I'll give everyone the tag that Dan Kober has asked for in the past.

Today on my facebook newsfeed I found a story about a woman who found a moldy tampon. 

I'll let you go read that. 

Okay, back?  Sufficiently horrified?  Terrified of what you might have put into your vagina over the years hidden by the little plastic casing? 

So gross - I can't even think about it. 

As many of you know, I use cloth diapers.

Seriously, how cute is he!  Cloth diapers are adorable, also a bit greener than disposables, you never run out, and smell less.  But mostly, so cute!  (Go read that blog entry I linked to above, she's very funny). 

What you may not know, is that before I had a baby to put cloth diapers on, I was using cloth menstrual pads.  I will similarly sing the praises of them.  You never run out, you don't have to buy the every month (and remember to buy them every month), they're so much greener than disposables, you don't have to worry about carrying out a used pad in a bathroom that doesn't have individual trash cans in the stalls, and they're pretty, which surprisingly matters. 

If you're an anti-pad sort of girl, there are also several cup options, such as the diva cup and the moon cup.  (There's also some sort of natural sponge thing but that kind of freaks me out too so we don't talk about that). 

I originally started using cloth pads for environmental reasons and laughed at all the stuff about getting in tune with your cycle and understanding your body.  My relationship with my period was basically one of undying hate.  I had a period to punish me for being a terrible person who deserved to spend 1/4 of her fertile life in pain.  It was something I had to put up with for 7-8 days every month.  I would be in pain, I would pop Advil like candy, I would get those portable heat patches and I would get the fuck through it and try to forget about it until the next month.  


Cloth pads (and some therapy for the terrible person who deserves nothing but pain thing) changed a lot of that.  I stopped dreading my period so much. It's still not my friend (I had a friend in high school who called it "my little friend."  I'm not even kidding.), but it's much less horrible somehow.  I think the pretty patterns help. 

Everyone always asks about washing them (because it's gross to deal with menstrual blood, right).  It's super easy.  Now I wash them with diapers, they get a cold rinse, then a hot wash with detergent, and then some hot rinses (that's mostly for the diapers) to remove any left over detergent.  I usually throw in a little bleach, or some vinegar, or some tea tree oil to kill any nasties.  If you're not also washing diapers, you can just throw them in the washer with a small cold rinse, then either wash them by themselves with a hot wash with detergent and your favorite germ killing liquid, or just add them to a socks and underwear load. 

And really, isn't it less gross than using a moldy tampon?

Falling behind...

Well, it happened again.  I got busy, and stopped updating the blog.  I'm going to try to update it with more recipes though.  I'll probably start adding some tonight that I already posted on facebook.  This whole cooking without dairy, soy, or wheat has been an adventure (and one I'm ready to end), but it's taught me a lot about food.  And we're eating really healthily now, so maybe when I can eat "normal" food again, we will continue making a lot of our own meals instead of convenience foods.

I'll start with one of our new favorite meals: Fried Rice (This, as is everything else, is dairy, soy, and gluten free)

Attempt 1: Made with olive oil, carrots, onions, peas, and sprouted lentils

Attempt 2: Made with olive oil,
a carrot/corn/green bean frozen veggie mix,
onions, and sprouted lentils

1-2 onions, depending on size (I prefer sweet onion), diced
2-3 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 bag of frozen peas
1 cup of uncooked brown rice (and appropriate water - follow packaging directions)
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Powdered ginger
Salt
Pepper
Butter Substitute (Earth Balance Soy Free)
A few Tbsp of Sesame oil or olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup of lentils or dehydrated sprouted lentils (and appropriate cooking water)

Attempt 3: Actually made with sesame oil - really good that way - and the same veggies as the first.

Start the water for the brown rice and the lentils.  Add the rice and lentils (to separate pots) once the water is boiling.  Saute the onions in olive oil or sesame oil, then then the finely chopped carrots. Season with ginger, salt and pepper, and let those cook while the brown rice is cooking. When the rice is almost done, add the frozen peas which have been "defrosting" on the counter, and the chopped garlic and let those cook. Push the veggies to the side of the skillet (or remove if it's a smaller skillet), add some more oil, and then the rice. 

Season the rice with more ginger, salt, and pepper, and a spoonful of the Earth Balance soy free butter substitute. Let the rice fry for a bit.  Then add the eggs and scramble them with the rice and veggies. Then add the lentils.  One last round of seasoning with ginger, salt, and pepper to taste and it's done!  


It's a bit time intensive, the rice and lentils alone take about an hour too cook, but, your veggies will be nicely cooked by the time you're ready to add the rice.  You can chop everything ahead of time if you want to save time. 


We do variations on this meal a lot, including different veggies that we have.  This is the bare bones because we almost always have these ingredients in our pantry/fridge/freezer, so we can make it whenever we want.  

Serves 2 hungry adults with maybe enough for one lunch as a main course.  Serves 4 as a side dish. 


Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we decided just to stay home and have our first Thanksgiving as a family.  It was really nice!  I was worried we'd be sad that there weren't other people, and it always nice to see friends and family, but it was nice not to have to rush off to someplace else or worry about transporting food or any other logistical issues. 

I cooked for several hours and made a pescatarian dairy/soy/wheat free Thanksgiving dinner!  We had salmon (from a sustainable fishery certified by the marine stewardship council), mashed sweet potatoes, quinoa with red pepper, butternut squash, and caramelized onions, and risotto with acorn squash, yellow pepper, and onions.  We also had wheat free rolls (made from a Pamela's bread mix).  Oh, and we also had deviled eggs (I just boiled 4 eggs, so we each had 4 deviled eggs), but we ate those as soon as I made them and did not make it to dinner time. 

om nom nom nom

It doesn't look like tons of food on the table, but we will be eating leftovers for several days! 

Of course, the important part was Alex's first Thanksgiving. 

We all know I'm the star of this blog!

He feasted on sweet potatoes and acorn squash.  It was the first time he had tried acorn squash, he seemed to like it, but more of it ended up on him than in his mouth.  He had fun though and I think he enjoyed sitting at the table with us!

Yes he does have squash in his eyebrow, why do you ask?

Snowy Halloween

We had an early snowstorm here in CT at the end of October. 

The snow was really wet and heavy, and the trees still had all their leaves.  And apparently, the way sap runs though trees changes in the winter, to make them better able to stand up to the snow.  Who knew?  Well all of those factors resulted in trees just going down all over the place, which meant that for the second time this fall, we had massive power outages all over the state. 

We were lucky and never lost power.  Shhh don't tell anyone.

We did lose a lot of trees though.

  The storm actually came while Emily was visiting to watch Alex so I could study for my comprehensive exams (which I took on Friday, eek!).  My plans of studying on campus were quashed, because it wasn't safe to drive to campus because of all the downed trees and wires.  So I took a break so that Alex could enjoy is his first snow!

Alex was not a huge fan, it was cold and wet.  He got to wear his adorable snowsuit though! 

Halloween was on Monday after the storm, and it got cancelled for a lot of the towns.  We still had people come trick-or-treating at our apartment though and we dressed Alex up in his monkey costume from his Grandma Tag!

And we carved Monsters Inc. pumpkins.  Dan did Sully, I did Mike, and I also carved a little Boo in her monster costume for Alex. 

We got through the storm just fine and went on with life, but a lot of people were out of power for a week or longer.  I'm sooooooo thankful that we didn't have to worry about keeping heat or finding a hotel. 

Snowtober... really?

It is October 29 and we are getting 8-12 inches of snow.  We knew it was supposed to snow a bit tonight, which was ridiculous already.  But then it started early, which meant that I had to leave working on campus early, and it took me an hour to drive home from campus. 

And if that weren't bad enough, to get almost a foot of snow in October - they had to come up with a stupid name for it. 

I call shenanigans.

That is all.

The Godfather (Part I)

This weekend, we went back to Ohio for Alex's baptism.  Although we have a church we (well mostly I) attend in CT, all of our families live in Ohio, and we just got our new rector at St. Mark's three weeks ago (as in, we didn't have anyone who could baptize Alex when we bought our plane tickets).  So Southwest was having a sale over the summer, we bought three tickets and picked a date.
So we had to get the baby, and all his stuff, on a plane.  We of course, left later than we planned.  As we were on the freeway, I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone (nooooooooo!).  I use Dan's phone to call my phone, no ringing from inside the car (sob!).  It's too late to turn around, we're already running late.  I accept my cellphoneless existance for the weekend.  Dan drops me, Alex and all of our stuff off at the door, then went to park the car.  I lug our stuff inside and collapse in a heap (baby stuff is heavy!).  And then I hear my cellphone (Joy!).  I manage to hang up on my mom attempting to find my phone in my backpack.  I call Dan and tell him where I am.  Then several minutes later, I remember - the carseat base.  I call him, no answer.  I text him, no answer.  Dan shows up a minute later, no car seat base. Damn. 

We lug our stuff over to the Southwest counter, get our bags checked and all that, and ask about the carseat base.  They do recommend using the base on the plane.  Double Damn.

We head over to security, and are directed into the family/medical line.  Dan decides to run back to the car to get the car seat base, I wait in line.  And wait and wait and wait and move approximately 4 feet.  After about 10 minutes,  I see a man with a car seat base looking at the front of the line - that would be my husband.  I shout his name to get his attention, he comes over, after asking permission from the TSA, and gets in line with me.

At this point I'm starting to feel less favorable towards the "nice" person who directed us to the family/medical line.  I don't think that was meant to be helpful to us.  I think they try to stick all the slow people into one line to let everyone else go faster. 

We're starting to get antsy - we're past the time they should have been boarding our flight, and we're still stuck in security.  We start to get worried about missing our flight.  We finally get through security, which wasn't actually that much of an ordeal for us.  They let me carry Alex through the regular metal detector, although Dan had to use the backscatter X-ray thing.  We speed walk to our gate, and get there exactly 2 minutes after our plane's scheduled departure, and they've already closed the doors.  We missed our flight.  Triple Damn!

Luckily, Southwest is awesome, and they totally got us on the next flight out.  We had time to get some food (sweet potato fries FTW), feed the baby, go to the bathroom, etc.  It's finally time for our new flight, we get to board during family boarding and we need to get the car seat set up.  Turns out there's not quite enough room for the car seat without pushing up on the seat in front of it.  Unfortunately, there was a person in that seat, a person who kept responding by pushing back.  Not helpful guy.  We finally get the seat in.  I am pointedly instructed to put on my own oxygen mask first, before the baby's.  And then we leave.  Alex, at this point, had taken 0 naps.  It was 3:00pm.  At this point during the day he should have had 2-3 naps.  0 naps.  So my flight was spent attempting to amuse a very tired and cranky baby who did not like all of the ear popping and pressure changes, thank you very much. 

We had enough time at our layover to use the bathroom and change Alex's diaper, and then back on the plane.  I made Dan sit next to Alex so he could deal with Mr. Fussy Pants this time.  Alex was totally fine on that flight and slept for most of it (of course).

We made it safely to Columbus, which is where we'll pick up next time.  Class dismissed :)

Roasted Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato, and Garlic with Caramelized Onion Soup

First, I really need to come up with a shorter name for this soup. Second, as an introductory note, I don't measure most things when cooking, so what I'm about to share is mostly estimates. Cooking, to me, is an art, while baking is a science (and thus needs accurate measurements).

Anyway, I mentioned on facebook sometime in the recent past that I had made delicious soup. Well, I'm finally getting around to blogging about said soup. More accurately, I'm going to share the "recipe." I put recipe in quotes because I made it up, and per the note above, did not measure most ingredients. So, here goes...

Ingredients:

2-3 pounds butternut squash, "peeled" and chopped

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 bulb garlic (yes, I really like garlic)

3 cups stock (I used homemade veggie stock that Corinne made, but other stocks, or even water, would probably work)

2 medium sweet onions, chopped

Olive Oil

Seasoning:

Salt (I used fresh ground sea salt)

Pepper

Cumin

Coriander

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2) Peel off the outer papery layers from the bulb of garlic. Chop a small bit off of the pointy end, and stick, chopped side down, into some olive oil. Set aside.

3) Hack the skin off of the butternut squash, as there really isn't a good way to peel one. Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and "guts," and then chop the rest into smallish pieces. Smaller pieces will roast faster and more evenly, but you really do not need to cut it too small.

4) Peel and chop (around the same size as the squash) the sweet potato.

5) Put the sweet potato and butternut squash into glass baking dishes, trying to keep it to a thin layer (I had to use two in the end)

6) Drizzle (liberally--I tend to use lots of olive oil, but I think that's the Italian in me) the sweet potato and squash with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and coriander. Toss to coat.

7) Take the garlic out of the dish, and thoroughly coat with olive oil (I just rolled it around in the dish, but I've used a pastry brush to apply olive oil in the past). Wrap the garlic in foil.

8) Put the baking dish(es) and the wrapped garlic in the oven. Roast for about 45 minutes, making sure the pieces are nice and tender. You can stir it once or twice during this time to ensure even roasting.

9) In the mean time, heat some oil in whatever pot you will eventually use for the soup. When the oil is warm, add the onions. Cook over medium to medium high heat. The goal here is to caramelize the onions. While I've never run in to any issues, apparently this is harder than it looks. So, here are some tips: use a decent amount of olive oil (butter works too), stir immediately to coat the onions, you do not want to saute the onions so gradually lower the heat as the onions cook, finally, the more the onions cook the more you will need to stir to avoid over cooking/burning/sauteing. The onions should gradually turn translucent and then, after some time, start to turn a caramel. If they don't change color, don't worry. You'll know by the smell (sweet and smokey) that they are caramelizing.

10) When the squash, sweet potatoes, and garlic are done, remove from oven. Let the garlic cool (or, work quickly with reckless disregard for your fingers...not that I would ever do that *looksinnocent*), if possible, let the garlic cool unwrapped. Once the garlic cools, remove the cloves from the peel/covering (at this point they should come out with very little effort).

11) Add the squash, sweet potato, and garlic to the onions in the pot. Season with a little more salt and pepper, as well as cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes to let the flavors blend.

12) Add the stock and simmer for 25 minutes.

13) Remove from heat. Let cool. Blend (I left it slightly chunky as I liked having a few pieces of squash and sweet potato, thoroughly roasted, left in the soup) to desired texture. If you have an immersion blender, this is pretty easy. If not, let cool longer and blend, in batches if necessary, in a blender.

14) Return to pot (if you used a blender), warm it up to taste, and serve. This soup is really good with bread.

Thoughts: I had considered adding a splash of white wine when I add everything to the pot, prestock, but didn't. I still think it would work well with the soup. A possible alteration would be to use some cream or milk, added after the soup is blended. However, because of Alex's dairy intolerance, I didn't try this. The soup was rich, with well-blended roasted flavors. Moreover, the cumin and coriander worked amazingly well with the cinnamon and nutmeg. It seems that adding these seasonings at different times allowed the flavors to seep in and ultimate layer well together.

~Dan

An Unexpected Argument for Baby-Wearing, OR, How I Almost Got Run Over

So I had mentioned on facebook the other day that I had almost gotten run over by a car while walking with Alex. It is finally time to tell that harrowing tale.

Alex was being fussy and was not napping well, and the weather was nice out, so I decided that he and I should go for a walk. I strap him in to the Beco carrier and he and I head out. We do a lap around the apartment complex and just as we are getting towards the apartment, he falls asleep. I decide, “hey, why not walk more and give the kid a bit of a nap.” But ,instead of doing another lap, I head down the street for a change of scenery. After walking for a bit I loop around by the Target near our place and start heading back. At this point I reach here:
View Larger Map

Like any thinking person, I push the button for the walk signal and wait for the go ahead. I also stand near the crosswalk, safely away BUT CLEARLY VISIBLE TO ANYONE PAYING ATTENTION. The lights change, the walk signal activates (which includes beeping loudly, mind you), I pause to make sure no one does anything stupid, and then I start to cross…

Once I get about to about the middle of a minivan driven by someone who looks like this person —who was sitting there at the light, looking my direction earlier—she decides to gun it and try to make a right on red. Through the cross walk. Through the walk signal. Through me and the baby strapped to my chest.

Fortunately I was paying attention and my cat-like reflexes and survival instincts kick in, leading to a series of events.

1. I take a fast, large step to get past the car

2. Mid-step, I turn to get Alex out of the way of a direct hit

3. I put my left hand on the death-van that’s trying to run me over

4. I propel, with one arm, Alex and myself off of the van, flipping through the air like Eddy Gordo from Tekken ...you know, except white and with a baby (and less with the flipping and more with the turning).

5. I land safely on my feet, in a crouch, facing the opposite direction from where I started

6. I’m greeted by two things: (a) the look of pure horror on the face of the driver in the car behind death-van and (b) the sight of the van that nearly killed my son and myself finishing its turn, pausing briefly, and then speeding off.

7. I stand, give the van the finger, and finish crossing—all still with the walk signal.

8. Alex wakes up and gives me a look of, “did something just happen?”

9. I call Corinne as I continue to walk home to complain about the crazy driver.

And that, my friends, is the fun story of how I almost got run over while walking with Alex. Had I not been wearing him, I’m not so sure I would have been able to get both, or even one of us, out of the way. Take note, my story is an unexpected argument for baby wearing. Of course, if my kid slept like a “normal” baby, we might not have been there. Either way, we’re safe, and words cannot express how much I despise Connecticut drivers.

~Dan

The Saga of the Overtired Baby

Alex has some sleep issues.  He has never been a huge fan of sleeping, but because it's pretty important to healthy brain development, we've spent much of his first 4 months of life trying to get him to sleep.  He was finally starting to settle into a bit of a schedule, going to sleep around 7:30pm, waking up around 6:30am (for good, he still wakes up several times a night to eat) and then taking a nap around 7:30 or 8am.  That first nap seems to be key.  If he doesn't get a good first nap of the day, he won't nap well the rest of the day, and then he will be a living terror by the evening.  That is what happened today. 

And lo, the infant was tired, so the parents set forth on a journey to lull the child to slumber. 
The child slept but fitfully, and so, when they had returned, they made fit for bed.
The infant was outfitted in the most absorbent of diapers and the cutest, fluffiest of wool covers,
Tonics were given, and then the infant was nursed to sleep.
This was the ritual on most nights, but on this night, this very night, there was a disturbance.

The child would not eat, but would not sleep. 
When wrapped in swaddling cloths, he fussed, but when unswaddled he batted at himself.
He would not consent to be rocked, but screamed when held still. 
The baby cried when nursing and cried when removed from the breast.
It was as if the world was ending. 
Eventually, he gave way to exhaustion, but the battle was hard fought.
And so goes the saga of the overtired baby.

Normally bedtime takes about 30-40 minutes, instead it took about 90 minutes. 

I hear there are babies that sleep.  All the books talk about how much babies sleep.  At that point I just laugh and laugh until people start talking about soothing drinks.

It's a good thing he's so darn cute. 

No Dairy, No Cry

I love cheese.  If you know me, you know this fact about me.   I basically lived on cheese (specifically cream cheese) during my pregnancy.  Unfortunately, Alex does not love cheese, and really does not love it when I eat cheese. 

 What a stinker!

Alex has an intolerance to dairy that makes him very fussy and uncomfortable and have stinky green mucousy poop (becoming a parent means you have to spent at least 20% of your time talking about baby poop - they make you sign a contract before you leave the hospital).  I cut dairy out of my diet and things got a bit better, and then they got worse again, so then I cut soy out of my diet, which is the next big offender.  Cutting dairy out was sad, it meant I had to read labels and couldn't have some of my favorite foods, but mostly just meant I had to find different brands of food.  Cutting out soy meant that I basically can't eat processed food anymore.

Read a label sometime - soy is in everything.  I screwed up on that one so many times because I would make the mistake of assuming something didn't have soy in it.  Cooking spray, olive oil cooking spray, has soy in it. 

I also can't really eat at restaurants either.  If we go out, I get the salad bar at Ruby Tuesdays, because they have an extensive allergen menu (which says that I can have the salad bar and oil and vinegar for dressing), or we get sushi and I get the most basic sushi that is just rice and fish (no dipping in soy sauce, obviously). 

Surprisingly, this isn't as bad as it sounds.  We eat out a lot less, which saves us money.  We also make almost all of our own food now, including bread (YUM!), which is both healthier and cheaper.  I eat a lot of rice and beans and quinoa and tons of fresh veggies.  Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian" has been an amazing resource.  I've stopped just using recipes and started really cooking - making things up as I go along. 

Last night I made a vegan risotto with acorn squash, red pepper, onion, and kale.  I cooked the onion with some garlic first in some olive oil, then added the red pepper, then added the squash, cut into small cubes and a little bit of stock and just let that cooked covered for about 15 minutes (I took this opportunity to nurse the baby).  I added the kale and let that cook for about a minute, then added the rice and some white wine (technically some white zin left over in the fridge).  Cooked that for a few minutes, then started added thing stock, about a half ladle at a time.  I use Bittman's recipe for making our own stock and make a double or triple batch so that we can freeze some, or use it throughout the week.  I made the stock while I was chopping vegetables, and then just ladled directly out of the stock pot into the risotto.  Multitasking!  The risotto took about 30 minutes to cook after I added the rice with pretty continuous stirring (Dan played with Alex).  Season with salt and pepper and then I added a splash of lemon juice for a little acidity.  The squash basically became a puree and added the creaminess that would have been added by butter and cheese.  The fresh stock added a lot of flavor to the rice.  It was delicious!!  I never would have tried risotto without cheese, risotto was basically a fancy delivery method for as much cheese as possible, but this was amazing and super healthy. 

 Pictured here with homemade bread - so good!

We still don't seem to be out of the woods though - Alex is still having symptoms, which suggests that he has another food intolerance.  I thought it might be eggs, because it got really bad after his 4 month shots, but cutting out eggs hasn't seemed to make a difference yet.  I think we need to call in an allergist (and possibly a registered dietician for me).

At least I'm no longer tempted by fried food - it's just not an option anymore.  (Most fried food is fried in vegetable oil which frequently includes soybean oil). 

Caffeine and Duct Tape

Today is the culmination of a very long and difficult week.  Alex, our adorable little 4 and a half month old has not been sleeping well.  This week wasn't significantly worse than usual, because except for 10 glorious days about a month ago, he has never slept well, and 4.5 months of sleep deprivation is starting to catch up with us.

                                       Why would I sleep, Mommy?  There is so much to do!
So we slept in a bit, and I made us vegan banana pancakes for breakfast.  We've already cut out dairy and soy from my diet because Alex has a protein intolerance, and now we're trying to eliminate eggs also, which we think might be causing him some problems.  

The pancakes were amazing.  Unfortunately, the day went downhill from there.  After being happily awake for a little over an hour, Alex indicated he was sleepy.  So we tried to put him down for a nap - this is a fairly normal schedule for him.  He did not nap.  He then got overtired.  So I took him grocery shopping with me and wore him in the Beco.  He eventually fell asleep.  After we got home, I fed him and then Dan was treating us to Sushi buffet for lunch.  After it takes 10 minutes to get a mile and a half, we discover that they're apparently not actually open until 3:30.  So we drive back home (also 10 minutes).  So we've now spent 20 minutes in the car with a screaming baby and no sushi. :( 

When I make us lunch, I find that my daiya "cheese" (dairy and soy free cheese substitute) has gone moldy.

It takes us almost 2 hours to get Alex down for his second nap of the day, because he is still extremely overtired.  

We ended up ordering take out sushi because neither of us could get up the will power to cook, and that took almost an hour and a half to be delivered.

It's 10:30 at night and I'm ready to call this week over.  Here's hoping that tomorrow will be the start of a better week.

Let's start on a positive note!
I did do:
- I found my music for church tomorrow!
- I boxed up my maternity clothes for Chrissy!
- I went to the grocery store and cvs! (should I make that two separate list items?  nah)
- I ordered two new cute (and cheap!) diapers from babyhalfoff.com!
- I finished sending out the job postings for our new organist and choir director!
- I clipped the nails on one of the baby's hands! (He's squirmy, it's hard)
- I did not die from allergies!
(notice shower did not make this list - I'll try harder tomorrow)

Tires are not my friends

So I just had my third flat of the summer. 

Yes, that is correct - three of my four tires have gone flat on me this summer. 

You will all recall my earlier post about my tire going disastrously flat on the 84/384 split and trying to kill me.  That was one.

Then, as Dan and I drove to Torrington earlier in August to visit the UConn Torrington campus where I am teaching, another tire went flat.  This time, I could tell early.  I am not a paranoid crazy person for being suspicious of every time my car starts shaking, it was indeed a flat tire.  HA!  Except oh, we still never got me a tire iron.  So we still couldn't change the tire.  :(  And also we were about 40 minutes away from home and 40 minutes away from Torrington, and we would still have to drive back to Torrington, so really, I needed to get a new tire anyway. 

We called AAA (That's why we pay for it, right?)  The very nice tow truck driver took us to a Sears and they replaced the tire (my front driver's side), and then rotated the tires so that the two Kelly's were on the front (the old tires) and the two replacement tires (mismatched because Sears didn't have the brand we had bought at Town Fair Tire) were on the back.  We eventually made it to Torrington.

So today, I taught my first class in Hartford (which went really well, yay!).  On my way home, on Buckland Street as I'm coming off of the exit, what do I feel.  Of course, it's my tire going flat.  I am totally an expert in what it feels like to have a tire going flat now, by the way.  I knew, I KNEW! 

So of course there is no where to pull off to the side of the road so I pull into the Home Depot parking lot and call Dan.  Because of course, I still don't have a tire iron.  Dan was supposed to purchase a tire iron for me when he went to Auto Zone to get a bunch of car stuff so he could replace his brake pads.  So yeah, he was like 3 minutes away obviously - and luckily had not started taking the wheels off of his car.  So he drove over and brought out my new tire iron and his new hydraulic lift (which I have totally claimed to live in my trunk when not in use) and changed my tire. 

We're going to replace the other Kelly tire at the same time.  Clearly something is wrong with my tires.  Once - well, I was probably due, I'd never had a flat before.  Twice - well, that's just unlucky, an unfortunate coincidence.  Three tires in less than 2 months, that means something is wrong and the 4th one is just biding time. 

So yes, tires are not my friends, they do not like me, and they enjoy costing me lots of money, because of course, I can't get one of the buy three get the fourth tire free deals now, even though the result has been to replace all four tires.  ::sigh::

Back in the Nutmeg State

We just spent over two weeks in Ohio, if anyone missed that.  I think we saw just about everyone that we still talk to while we were there, so yay!  My summer class was cancelled due to low enrollment, so we decided to take a trip back before the school year started.  I started our trip back by going to Chrissy's bachelorette party, which was super fun!  Dan got to end the trip by going to Luke's bachelor party and we arrived home to find the invitation to Chrissy and Luke's wedding in the mail!  Yay!  (The wedding isn't until October, but Chrissy's a teacher and therefore has way more time for parties in the summer). 

Dan's sister Ally is moving to Houston, TX for grad school in Psychology.  She even has classes during the summer so she will be living in Texas for 5 years and only back about twice a year for visits.  We're all extremely proud of her however, and were so glad to get to see her a bit more before she left. 

We also got to spend time with my family for my birthday, which was very fun!  Dad took us to Olive Garden where he had the most amazing potato-encrusted tilapia.  He let me take home the leftovers!  It was so much better than food from the OG should be!  (Not that I don't love Olive Garden, but it's pretty standard middle of the road chain restaurant Italian food.  This fish was amazing - like something you would order at a pricy seafood place).  It was wonderful to get to see everyone!

We got to see Shannon and Dan, who took us out for Sushi and Mini Golf for my birthday (which was totally awesome, thanks guys!!!!).  There is now a sushi restaurant in Grove City!  What is the world coming to?!?  It was pretty good and I enjoyed the "Grove City Roll" that the sushi chef created!  We also got to see several of Dan's friends from high school.  Noah and Heather hosted a barbecue that a bunch of people came to, and then we went to the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy with Noah and Heather and Ken and Kari!  I had gnocchi and Dan got ravioli and then we had gelato (because it was in the 90s).  Then we got eggplant parm and cassata cake to go since it was super hot outside.  YUM!  One of my favorite August in Parma activities! 

I got to hang out some extra time with my family.  Mom took us to the Dublin Irish Festival, which was awesome!  Free admission if you come before 11am on Sunday.  We went to the Episcopal U2charist which was interesting (not a huge fan of using U2 music in place of liturgical music) but at least we could take communion!  I'm thinking about buying an Irish Flute and got the websites of a couple vendors.  Grandma and Rachel got tired, so Grandma and I went over to Aunt Carol's to take a nap, and Mom took Rachel and her friend Marissa home.  Then mom came back and she and I went to watch the Columbus Police and Fire Pipes and Drums, Irish Step Dancing, and my favorite Irish band - Vinegar Hill!  Totally awesome day!  It was nice to get to spend extra time with Grandma and Rachel during the day, and even though Emily is working full time now, we got to hang out a little bit and we got to go to the gym together! 

We also got to visit with Mandy and Curtis, two of our friends from BG.  We wanted to try to actually make it up to BG but most of the people we would visit were busy or out of town that week, so no dice.  Maybe in January.

As wonderful as it was to see everyone, our schedule was jam packed!  It's nice to be home in our own space with a little more time to take it easy.  Except now we are busy trying to plan our classes for the Fall!  We just got back yesterday and we've been pretty busy running around picking up our held mail, going to the bank and the grocery store and doing laundry and unpacking.  And August is the lean month for us.  We took out all our money for the trip in cash, which helped because we still have a little left.  And we were able to stay under budget at the grocery store!  My goal was to get enough food to feed us until the end of August for under $100 and with sales and coupons we succeeded!  Yay coupons! 

I think it's probably bed time now.  I just took the last of the pumpkin muffins out of the oven (we're visiting Sarah and baby Anna tomorrow and pumpkin muffins are Sarah's favorite) so time to wash up and go to bed. 

Corinne

"Summer" Time

One of those crazy misconceptions about being in academia is that you have your summers "off" so you can do whatever you want. Yeah, that would be nice, but not exactly the case. See, (1) we still need some sort of income, (2) school year craziness means there is a lot of stuff that needs done that just gets put off until the summer, and (3) academic work never really stops--books and journals keep coming out (which we need to read), we have to try to get our own stuff published, and, oh yeah, once we get far enough along as grad students, we have to write a dissertation. So yeah, not so much with the breaks. But, with all that said, I am getting the first meaningful slow-down in my schedule since the beginning of July last year. Last summer I taught my first class on my own, which basically ended at the start of the fall semester, in which I taught another class, wrote my prospectus, and took a class. Then, in the Spring, I taught two classes at one of the regional campuses, took one class, and presented at 4 conferences (one of which was technically the summer), which led directly into teaching a class this summer. Now that my class is done, I actually have some time to slow down, take a breath (catch up on some video games finally--I finally beat Zelda after not playing it for over a year), and, oh yeah, continue (start?) to work on my own stuff before I have to prep my class for the Fall (a 200 person lecture class).

But, with all that said, I absolutely love what I do. I really enjoy teaching, and I get to research and write about what I want, which is a good feeling. I'm currently editing a paper I've been working on editing for about 2 weeks now, and I think I'm finally getting close to the end (at 40+pages...), and Corinne and I will be heading back to Ohio soon to visit family and friends before the school year starts. So, although things are still pretty hectic, I completely enjoy what I do, and that is a great feeling. In fact, I actually just intended to make this a short post about my summer class that just wrapped up, but I got a little carried away, plus I haven't posted in awhile, so there was a lot to talk about--way more than I plan on posting about as I'm just too lazy and have probably forgotten most of what I wanted to talk about.

Anyway, I was scheduled to teach Modern Political Theory this summer, and seeing as the term "modern political theory" is so broad as to basically be meaningless, I decided to do things the hard way and get really creative with the course. I centered the class around the question of the roll of capitalism in modern political theory, as well as how these ideas relate to the current economic crisis. I set up the syllabus around political theorists who talk about the implications of government and markets for capitalism, and looked at theorists who praise markets as well as demonize them, and a little bit of stuff in between. I knew I was taking a bit of a risk, especially for a summer class, as this was either going to be amazing or completely tank, with very little chance of any middle ground. Fortunately the class went really well, beyond my expectations even.

I ended up with seven students, all but one of which participated a lot in class and offered really good insights into the class discussions. I really loaded the students with reading, so as incentive (compensation?) I heavily weighed the grades towards doing the reading and discussing them in class and on the class's discussion board, which worked out really well. The students all worked really hard, and were not afraid to offer their ideas--and more importantly--to admit when they did not understand something. I found myself, several times, with really good pedagogical moments when I would ask a question, would get silence in response, and then one of the students would say something like, "I didn't really understand this part because..." and then explain what he (it was an all male class, which was a little weird) thought was going on and where he got lost. This provided a unique opportunity to then go through exactly what was confusing and work with the students to come up with a reading of the various texts. Prior to this class I never had anything quite so rewarding, and I'm still super excited about how the class turned out in the end.

I also had a student who had taken the class twice before with other professors, and for various life-related reasons, ended up not getting credit for the class. He was trying to pick up GPA and wanted to take the class again and needed special permission, which I gave him. This was definitely one of the smarter things I have ever done, as he was one of the hardest workings students in that class, and ended up going above and beyond what I expected for an A, and I tend to have fairly high expectations. It is really nice to have students like this (especially in a small setting where I have a chance to get to know my students) to remind you that the students are human and fallible just like everyone else, and that sometimes life can get int he way of school work, but this says nothing about who these students are or will become. Also, it is a great testament to giving people second and third chances, as you never know when they will solidify your faith in others.

~Dan

That doesn't sound like a present

Background:
So my car tried to kill me.  Well, really it blew out a tire on the freeway right before I-84 and I-384 split.  So I was of course in the middle lane (of 5 lanes) to stay on 84, and suddenly I hear this noise, and then smell this smell and suddenly am having a hard time keeping control of my car.  My brain worked enough to go, OMG, my tire is no longer inflated, must get over to side of road.  So I manage to get over through two lanes of traffic, thanks to a very nice man in a large truck who also pulled over after I got over and helped me change the tire.  Yay for the random kindness of strangers! 

Of course there was no way that I was going to be able to get back over to get on 84, especially not driving on a donut.  I took 384 and my wonderful Droid navigation app got me home safely.

Yay, I survived!  And we're going to get my tire replaced and a couple other things fixed on it and all that jazz.

But now I'm kind of scared to drive on the freeway.  I'm sure a couple times without having a tire blow out on me will help, but starting to lose control of your car at 70mph in heavy traffic is pretty terrifying.

Actual Story:
So I can't get a ride from Chris and Sarah to church tomorrow.  Normally not a problem, I can drive myself.  Except my car is not really drivable for long distances at the moment and also I'm kind of scared to drive on the freeway.  Solution: Ask Dan to come to church with me.

So I ask Dan again tonight (I had asked previously because I'm playing flute tomorrow as well).  This resulted in a pretty hilarious conversation.  I present this in dialogue format in case anyone would like to reenact it.  :)

Me: "So will you come to church with me?"

Dan: "Yeah, how else are you going to get there."

Me: "Because I'm afraid that if I drive on the freeway something bad will happen again?"

Dan: "Well, I guess you would take my car, but that doesn't really fix the problem."

Me: "No, the Fear is still there."

Dan: "I was actually thinking you and mornings and that you won't be awake enough to drive."

Me: "No, mostly the Fear.  And the Cougar."

[Laughter]

Dan: "I know I already got you a birthday present [my Droid Incredible], but I am totally painting a cougar on the hood of your car for your birthday."

Me: "That doesn't sound like a present."

Dan: "But it is, the greatest present."

Me: "No"  :(

Dan: "Ooookay, but I'm still painting shake 'n' bake on one side and El Diablo on the other."

Conclusion:

We're all fine and the car is going to be fixed, but Dan and I are a little nutty.  :)

PAX East

So rewind back to March.  Santa brought Dan and me tickets to PAX East for Christmas, so we splurged on a hotel room and blew off work for a weekend and went to enjoy ourselves! 

We had  a wonderful time!  We got to go to a lot of great panels, we got to go to the Paul and Storm and JoCo concert on Saturday night, which was totally amazing.  We got to meet Wil Wheaton and Mike Krahulik!  Wil Wheaton blessed my dice! We got to play in a Dungeon Delve which was super fun!  We met some really cool people when we were looking for dinner, had dinner with them (Lobster Mac and Cheese = Heaven) and then went and played Rockband with them.

More than any of the really fun stuff we got to do, probably the best part was being around geeky people and feeling totally at home.  We can't wait for next year! 

However, next year, we will probably do a couple things differently...

1.) We will not forget our actual camera and have to buy a new one and then promptly lose it once we get home.  Please see earlier post.

2.) We will just splurge and stay at the conference hotel, or at least a hotel very close to the conference.  See, on Saturday night, we assumed we could take public transportation back to the hotel.  Or catch a cab.  Because it was in Boston.  That's a big city.  A real city.  It's not like we were trying to catch a cab in Cleveland or something.  Except... the public transit was no longer running.  At 2am!  Seriously! And we could not catch a cab to save our lives.  You know how after a concert lets out and there are cabs everywhere, just lined up, waiting to get paying customers.  Yeah, we didn't have that.  Which was dumb, because there were hundreds of people trying to get cabs.  We tried walking around.  We tried getting a hotel to call a cab for us.  It took us over an hour to get a cab.  So yeah, next year we will be staying someplace within walking distance.  It's worth it to not be wandering around Boston at 2am in March. 

Enjoy some pictures!

Corinne with Wil Wheaton!

During the "Watch Mike and Jerry draw Penny Arcade" Panel.  Mike was having a bit of fun while Jerry talked.  One of the least inappropriate examples of Mike's "going off script."

 Penny Arcade fans know what this is.  Everyone else, just think of him as an extreme juicer :)

Corinne and Dan get to meet Mike!  And he signed our book! 

This is Robert Khoo.  He is responsible for Penny Arcade being something other than some jpegs online.  I eventually worked up my courage and asked him to sign my book. 

One of the questions at the Q&A with Mike and Jerry was who would win an arm wrestling match.  They decided to answer it.  Jerry egged Mike on, Mike didn't want to do it.  Mike won.  Oh sweet delicious irony. 

And it all ended with the final round of the Omegathon.  This year, it was a classic video game relay.  If anything went wrong, they had to restart.  So of course something went wrong.  One team was incredibly far ahead when that thing went wrong.  After the restart, the other team won. 

Busy as little Grad Student Worker Bees

If there's anyone still reading this, you may have noticed that I've changed the blog around a bit.  I decided to mess with a new template and made it very very purple.  We are back from Ohio and are back to work.  Dan is teaching a class on Modern Political Theory that is going pretty well so far.  He's also supposed to be working on his dissertation and getting papers out for publication. 

I am supposed to be reading for comps, and working on publications, and preparing for the class that I might be teaching in July and August. What I have actually been doing is conducting a massive cleaning/organizing spree of the apartment.  I'm almost done, so I should have pictures up next week (pictures of where we live, only a year after we moved in!). 

I leave for a week long ICPSR workshop on time series in Ann Arbor, MI on the 19th of June.  This is also affectionately known as math camp in our department.  I'm pretty excited, although a little worried that my stats background will not be advanced enough.  I'm sure I'll be fine though, I'm a quick learner and I'm persistent enough to bug the professor teaching the class if I'm not getting it. 

On Saturday my friend Jamie and I are throwing our friend Sarah a baby shower.  I'm super excited about it (and about Baby Hampson)!  Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures there as well.  I still need to write up a post with pictures from Chicago.

Another post that I have been meaning to do is a recap of PAX East, which was amazing.  The primary reason for the delay was the great camera fiasco of 2010.  So we forgot to bring our camera to PAX.  Because we are idiots or something.  I don't know.  It was even on the list.  But we left with no camera.  And realized as we were waiting for the train near our hotel to take us into the city.  I watched someone else take a picture of his friend and it hit me, our camera, at home, not with us, OH NOES!  So after a quick consultation with Dan, we decided to hit up a Best Buy or other such store, pick up a cheap digital camera, and use that, because decent disposable cameras cost usually around $10 each, it would make more sense, and be easier to carry, and easier to put the pictures on our computer if we just got an inexpensive digital camera.  So we did that.  Best Buy had a camera package on sale for like $50, and we grabbed a larger memory card and thought we were all set.  The camera works fine, we get tons of pictures, very exciting.  We bring the camera to school on Monday to show everyone pictures.  The next day we can't find the camera.  We look everywhere.  We empty all of our bags.  We search the car.  We check our desks at school.  Nothing.  So we decide that we must have left it at school and someone took it, it's not like anyone ever locks our office.  We become very paranoid about leaving our computers in the office. 

Fast forward to two months later, I'm in Chicago and emptying out my purse so that I don't have to carry so much stuff around and I find the camera.  Keep in mind that I have emptied this purse three or four times since PAX.  I have flipped it upside down with the pockets unzipped to get crumbs out.  But yet, the camera is there.  There was much rejoicing.  We do not understand how this has happened, but we're just happy that we have our camera back and our PAX pictures.  Which we will post on the blog very soon.

Now that it is summer I have also been reading a bit more, rereading some of my old favorites (Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies, and the Sorcery and Cecelia Trilogy by Pat Wrede and Caroline Stevermer), and finding new books to enjoy (The Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey and a couple books by Joanna Bourne).  I've also enjoyed the Kindle app for my iPod Touch.  It has made reading and buying books while traveling very convenient. 

I've started playing Kingdom Hearts again, and I've finally gotten off the island and into the story.  It's becoming more fun.  Dan and I started playing Mario Galaxy, which I think we are going to do for an hour or so before we go to bed. 

Whirlwind Ohio

First, congratulations to Ally on being a college grad (and having been accepted to grad school with an assistantship)!

Second, Corinne and my break-neck speed visit to Ohio is coming to close. It's been good getting to see family and friends, and sorry to the many we couldn't see. After a couple of days in Grove City, a couple in Seven Hills, and now off to Chicago. But, oh wait, of course it is not that easy. My dad and I checked my car, and although the brake drums did not want to come off, the breaks are fine...except for the leak we found in one of my brake lines, in addition to the two placed in the engine block where the threads for the spark plugs appear to be cross-threaded. All of this means before heading to Chicago I need to get my brake line fixed, and if they can re-tap the engine block, great, if not, just the brake line. Then, Chicago! Woot.

OK, this has been a rather boring post, but I'm posting, so that's something :P

~Dan

The Second Tagliarina

OK, so we've had this blog for almost a year now (I think), and this is actually the first time that have posted on it. So, hi. Yeah, I kind of really suck at this whole blogging thing, but I'm going to try to work on that and let any of you who are crazy enough to actually care what is going on in my life have some way of knowing. I told Corinne back in January that I was going to start posting on this thing, and it looks like I finally have, and only 4 months later.

Corinne and I are currently on our whirlwind tour of Ohio before heading off to Chicago for Law and Society, where I am attending the grad workshop, presenting a paper, chairing a panel, and generally planning on enjoying Chicago. Plus, you know, I should probably try that whole networking thing seeing as I'll be on the job market in a year or two.

Speaking of Law and Society, I'm still working on the paper that I will be presenting, so I need to hurry up and get that done. Yesterday was a nightmare for working. I could not focus, figure out what I wanted to say, how to say it, or overcome the feeling that I had completely lost my mind and forgotten how to write. Not good when you are facing a deadline and dealing with material directly related to your dissertation. Fortunately I got some good advice, I read a bunch of old Penny Arcade comics, and got some sleep. Today was much better. I got about 4-5 single-spaced pages written, and I think most of it is of pretty good quality, which is a huge plus. Writing academic papers really is a funny (not haha funny, but still funny) thing. Sometimes the ideas flow and I can get a lot of work done fairly quickly (i.e., today). Other times I stare at the screen unable to form a coherent thought and wonder if I will be able to finish (i.e, yesterday). Consistency sure would be nice, but I've yet to figure out how to obtain that.

This post has officially become way too long and too rambling...and probably not too interesting at all. In the future I'll try to have more of a point and be more entertaining. We'll see.

Bad at this whole blogging thing...

I am just terrible about remembering to post. Dan had to remind me 3 times to write up the yogurt story.

So right now Dan is currently in Philadelphia presenting at the APSA Teaching and Learning conference. Yay him!! I've been getting over various illnesses and am attempting to actually be productive. It's been half successful. I really need to get it into gear though because I have a conference at the end of the month and I'm not nearly where I need to be on this paper. Argh!

Classes are good this semester, but between my masters papers, my research papers for classes, the project with Sarah and Jamie, and a new project that I'm working on with my advisor and another grad student, I have 7 papers that need to be written or rewritten before the end of the semester. It will be another busy semester for me, I just need to get energized again.

Dan is teaching at the Stanford campus, two classes back to back on Thursdays. Which means that I am home all alone on Thursdays, which is sad, although hopefully productive.

I will post some pictures once I get my computer back, I'm on the old one right now because I managed to spill water on my macbook pro. Hey guess what, water's not so good for laptops. It was not totally trashed, luckily, and is getting fixed, so I'm back on the Dell, which is still chugging along, if slowly. At least it works and runs the programs that I need, even if only one at a time. Water goes on a second desk from now on, even if it does have a lid. Extra luckily, I have all my data backed up, so I shouldn't have lost anything.

That's about it at the moment. Maybe I'll be better at keeping this current. Probably not though.