today was the last day of late night drop in hours for the semester, thank goodness. i worked from 915-7 today, which still isn't all that bad, but i did feel a little guilty about leaving the kids home alone (especially re: potential imminent death). we just went for a brisk mile walk, and now i'm trying to decide whether it's worth cooking, or if i should just eat leftover fried rice and/or a pile of cheese and crackers. i'm kind of a bad grown up when left to my own devices.
slothed around this morning, unpacked a few boxes, then headed out to get dim sum in princeton. it was pretty tasty, though they didn't have cheong fun, which is my most favorite thing, and thus i was sad. bao and scallion pancakes and sesame balls were all good, though. still, i'll have to seek out another dim sum locale to satisfy my rice noodle pancake cravings.
got a couple more things for the house: hair catcher for bathtub so i can bathe my stinky hounds, pan lid organizer, veggie seedlings to hang upside down in the backyard (don't judge - the planters came to the house. if they make anything grow, it'll have been worth hanging bags off of sticks in the yard). grilled for dinner: just picked, local asparagus, potatoes, hot dogs.
i'm still a little twitchy about being here and not at one of the many scrabble events this weekend (especially since scrabble is generally climate controlled and my house is not. it's very humid here). but, it was much better for me to stay here in terms of my levels of sanity and the rustiness of the scrabble. i had a two hour nap in the middle of the afternoon - hard to do that at a tourney.
We have arrived in New Jersey. Our stuff doesn't arrive until tomorrow, and our Internet doesn't get set up until Tuesday, so no long post today. Just saying we are here, and it still feels surreal. Went to Princeton, ate at Tiger Noodles, got some groceries, and now ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
mthgeek is out running. I'm sitting on a dog bed on the living room floor. It'll be better once the couch and bed are here.
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I made it through HR New hire orientation today, but just barely. It makes me crazy when people read PowerPoint to me. I wore new shoes that are the loudest shoes I have ever owned. I should have tested them somewhere other than my carpeted office before committing to them.
I lugged my laptop home from the office today, so now I can flashcard on my phone, watch Netflix on my iPad and chat with people on the lappy.
I am not usually attracted to the Asians, but this one was irresistible, and I brought him home:
To save me from this sad specimen:
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So I tried to very carefully menu plan so that I could make it through these ten days or so without buying too much food, particularly perishables, since I'm not sure how frequently I'll get to the grocery without a vehicle. I somehow talked myself out of staying in town tonight for dinner (I really want to try Ajihei, a sushi place, but I already spent a lot of money on my hair today. it'll wait for another time).
So, I came back to the cottage and went to make pasta with onions, sausage, sun dried tomatoes and walnuts (a pretty standby meal for me). Got water in pot, turned salt shaker over the water, and it was empty. I had assumed there would be salt and pepper in the shakers - silly me. So, no pasta. Went to next meal of interest - pork and sweet potato quesadilla - I managed to forget tortillas at the store. Sigh. Okay, how about beans and rice with onions and garlic? The knife that came with this place is rusty. This is unacceptable. I will have to go and procure a knife because it is dangerous (not to mention kind of gross) for me to try to cook with a knife that's this bad.
So, I ended up with another standby meal: hamburger teriyaki donburi. Sadly, I didn't buy sugar (I usually use sugar and soy sauce over the ground beef), but truvia was fine. No cutting needed. Good thing I brought my rice cooker with me. The rest of the meals I have planned:
Keema beef curry (I think I bought everything I need - doable once I get a knife)
Israeli couscous salad with mango chutney dressing (haven't located Israeli couscous yet)
Spinach quinoa salad with dried cherries and walnuts (will probably do tomorrow)
Ravioli with Brussels sprouts and bacon (need knife)
So, one out of seven meals that I planned was viable. I guess I'll wander out to the Mexican grocery tomorrow during work and grab some tortillas and to the kitchen store for a working knife, and steal some salt packets from the convenience store by me. Or I'll just eat stand by things like fried rice, hamburger donburi and hot dogs every day.
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I'm here in New Jersey, a little more permanently this time. I'm glad that I brought my little Bluetooth speaker - no TV channels here, and it would be way too quiet without my phone playing me music (Follies, concert cast).
The trip here was uneventful. Had a minor attack of panic/sadness leaving my house in Maine. It is mostly packed at this point, and should go on the market while I'm gone. Had a California burrito from Loco Cocos, then set off on bus to Logan to plane to Newark to car service to here.
The cottage is perfectly fine for a short stay. I think it's just one unit, though there are two garages, so maybe someone lives below me in the first floor - if so, they have a separate enhance that I didn't see. In the door is just a stairway, which leads into the living room to the right, and the kitchen to the left. A short hallway to the left dead ends in the bedroom, with a bathroom just to the right. It's compact and straightforward. The bedroom has three closets, a desk, a nightstand, and a dresser. I unpacked all my clothes and am sitting on the bed right now. The living room has two chairs, bookshelf, closet. No couch, so I'll probably spend a lot of time on the bed. Bathroom has a stall shower only, which is fine. Kitchen has gas stove, fridge, microwave, coffee maker, utensils, pots, pans, glasses, dishes. I have a grocery list that's fifty items long, mostly because I have none of the staples that I'll need (like dish soap, toilet paper, garbage bags, coffee beans, spices - I will be conservative with grocery shopping, but I also need to buy enough so that I will cook rather than ordering delivery every day). I do foresee cooking more than eating out, both to save money and to lose some of the weight that i have put on during this crazy month. It's a 15 minute or so walk to my office from here, so at least I'll get a nit of exercise every day.
In terms of (inanimate) things from home I'll miss most in this interim time before all of our stuff arrives and we move to the real house: couch, chef's knife, TiVo, my pillows, my bathrobe.
Things I brought to try to keep myself sane: slippers, rice cooker, wedding picture with mom, Kim, nana and me, favorite sheets, knitting, small stuffed bear that I've had since I was very young (snowball).
I have enough clothes to last about a week, maybe a week and a half, I do have in unit laundry at least. I'm not sure that the clothes I brought make that much sense as outfits, but hopefully along with whatever I've left in my office these last few visits, I'll be able to cobble professional dress together.
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i have been to the dentist four times - once to get the crown, and three times to get it adjusted. am really hoping it's right this time. nausea may well be due to taking a whole lot of ibuprofen this morning to combat tooth soreness.
not sure what to do about rerouting the mail. i'm moving somewhere for two weeks and then somewhere else permanently. probably i'll just have everything forward from maine to permanent address as of may 20.
i am so sad about leaving this house. and going back and forth between really excited and completely terrified of new job and responsibilities (especially til a director is hired). i know it was time to be gone from UNH - i wasn't learning anything (didn't really in the past three years or so), plus this location will give me more freedom to get around on my own than maine did. but still. big changes. and i really need a haircut.
- california burrito
- eat chicken curry pita, fries and cider at coat of arms
- go to maine diner
- go to miyake
- take dogs to dog beach
- go to farmers market
- take pictures of view next to bridge
- have coffee milk stout at portsmouth brewery (it probably wont be back on tap before i leave tho)
- go to lexington scrabble club (likely to happen on 5/17 - we'll see)
5/2 - more packing, scrabble with
jmallick, eat burgers.5/3 - morning packing, fly to princeton, move into temp housing
5/4 - work, go grocery shopping with debbie
5/5-6 - something with
sr_orangepants5/7-11 - work. scrabble club if jason is willing to carpool me.
5/12-13 - sleep
5/14-16 - work. fly back to maine
5/17 - people packing up breakables in house, UNH party for seniors, maybe scrabble club in lex
5/18 - honors convocation at UNH, movers load stuff. maybe miyake in portland?
5/19 - graduation
5/20 - drive to new jersey (possibly with dogs)
5/21 - work. movers drop stuff off while tim supervises, probably grocery shop.
and at that point, i will be mostly permanent in new jersey. phew.
I forgot my phone charger in my office, so we'll see if I can make do on one charge for two days. Seems unlikely. At least I have my laptop with me, too.
Tomorrow is apartment/house hunting day. I think I'm seeing six places, with the gracious help of
sr_orangepants and also a realtor. I'm so stressed out about housing. There are a million moving pieces: whether or not mthgeek and dogs will be here full time or part time, whether or not our house will sell, how we'll get a move in date to correspond with a move out date at the current house (Princeton will pay to move all my stuff, but only once, which means we might have to put it in some halfway house space or something between now and then. I hope not). In any case, things are moving ahead. I have moments of sheer panic and moments of sheer happiness. Tomorrow will hopefully help swing the balance toward the latter.
last day in portland. braved the rain to grab a maple bacon bar at voodoo and enjoyed it with a stumptown mocha. set out around 1015, hit the yarn store again and grabbed a corned beef sandwich at kenny and zuke's to take on the plane tomorrow. met wisemonkey and olaugh at the food carts, but sadly, many of them are closed on weekends. we found some hawaiian kalua pork, and they had brought half of a porchetta sandwich from city market, so we made do with that. the kalua pork was salty and tender. the porchetta was a crazy good sandwich - big, thick chunks of melt-in-your-mouth pork, plus mayo, lettuce, tomato, peppers, and who knows what else, all melding together between two slices of ciabatta.took a cab across the river to cascade barrelhouse and met up with
mthgeek and winterene. i mostly knitted and watched others drink crazy sour beers. i did try one chocolate raspberry and one cocoa gingersnap, both of which were pretty strange in the realm of beers i've tried. from there, we walked to hawthorne street and had an encore helping of potato champion, plus a margherita pyro pizza. the pizza crust was perfect, hot from the brick oven on the cart. winterene also let us try his whiffie - a deep fried empanada-like, lard-crusted pie, this one stuffed with four kinds of berries, and his chocolate banana scone. the whiffie was strangely addicting. i'm glad that i only had the one bite of his, since i could've easily eaten a whole one on my own and squandered the space in my stomach that i was reserving for other things.we walked down hawthorne from about 12th street to about 39th, stopping for browsing, shopping and eating. we were drinking french press coffee at a shop called Hazel Room, which was attached to a little arts cooperative, when suddenly an event sprung up around us. there was apparently a launch of a jewelry line to aid women involved in human trafficking/prostitution -- we got to hear three or four speakers on the subject, including a guy who's running for mayor, for about 45 minutes. again, got a bunch of sock knitted while passing the time.
managed to disentangle ourselves from the gallery/coffee/reception and wandered into a candy bus. A woman apparently bought this small school bus off of craigslist and decided to refashion it as a candy store. you walked into the bus, and there were shelves and tables of candy. it was mimi the candybus' first anniversary, and we decorated a cupcake in her honor. from there, we wandered down the street to waffle window, and had the best brie/bacon/basil belgian waffle, ordered from a little window in th side of a cafe.
eventually, we were hungry enough for dinner and followed yelp's advice to chiangmai, a small, unimposing thai place that specializes in northern thai cuisine. we ordered four entrees and ate about 3.5 between the three of us:
- Sai oua pork sausage - handmade, well spiced without being spicy, plus some sticky rice, mint and peanuts
- Gang om - marinated, flavorful beef stew, with more sticky rice
- Pad Thai - best ever. it was wrapped in a super thin egg omelet, which meant getting a bit of egg in every bite, which i think can get lost when the egg is cooked in. the balance of flavors was just right for me - not too sweet and not too fish saucey. the tofu was flavorful and cooked well, and everything just came together perfectly.
- Khao Soi - an encore from last night at Pok Pok. This one was spicier than last night's, and the chicken was served on the bone (though it fell right off the bone with tenderness). The broth was warming and comforting, and the noodles were fresh, with a good balance of fried to soft.
one of the best things about portland is that all of this food over the course of the day probably cost as much as a regular dinner in boston. you really can eat well and cheaply in this city.
i made it home around 9, laid in bed, and eventually convinced myself to get up and pack. left the hotel this morning at 445am, grabbed a bucket of day old donuts at voodoo, and hit the airport. this was a much needed break from reality for me. i think it's going to make the rest of the semester fly by, and we'll see where that leaves me once the dust settles.
Woke up lazily, Tim brought me stumptown, knitted and drank coffee in bed. Walked to brunchbox food cart and got greasy breakfast sandwiches. Eventually made it out to yarn store and powells, browsed and bought some cards to send and some Madeline Tosh, which is my current yarn of choice. Met John and Cecilia, headed to food carts:
Noodle house - chewy homemade Asian noodles stir fried with chili sauce, curry, veggies and chicken. Classic asian comfort food. Flavors could have been a little more exciting, but good overall.
Nong's Khao Man Gai - the only thing they sell is hainnanese chicken and rice, and they had the longest line of any food truck. This stuff has been featured in a number of magazines. It was as good as I could have imagined it, simple, well proportioned rce to chicken to sauce. I could eat it all the time. Might get more today - seems perfect for this rainy day.
Took a brief detour to hotel, booked travel to Princeton, picked up coat. Took bus to SE. Stopped at Bermongers and admired their well thought out collection of bottles, all of which you could enjoy there or buy to go. Got tim a sour brown and a spike and jeromes collaboration ale, and myself a sweet cider. Walked up to Potato Champion and had really good fries - thin, hand cut, crispy and brown on the outside, moist on the inside, with accompanying sauces - rosemary truffle ketchup, garlic anchovy mayo and satay. So good, especially when my fry consumption has been fairly low this trip. Another bus to Upright Brewing Company, a fairly small craft beer maker in the basement of a random building. Met up with tim and some math people, drank beers, met up with carl, played scrabble.
Last stop of the night was Pok Pok, a super popular Thai place, where winter also joined our group. Its so popular that, after the wait to get in started to get unmanageable, the management established a bar across the street where you could order drinks and appetizers. The restaurant calls the bar when your table is ready and you transition from one to the other. This is brilliant - customers basically pay the restaurant to wait for 2 hours by sitting in the bar eating and drinking. Tims math group split from our scrabble group so we wouldnt have to wait for a table for nine. We had a bunch of appetizers and played fry your brain (a scrabble variation). I won on AAIITV (everyone was stumped when the next letter was an I, though there are four letter steals - I might have gotten some without the time limit for guessing and also without being exhausted from the long day), and EILOVWZ (another E came out of the bag and the only possibilities were words that had been used already). time went pretty fast, and soon we were across the street eating amazing Thai food:
Kai Yaang - rotisserie chicken
Khao Soi - curry noodle soup with freshly pressed coconut milk
Muu Paa Kham Waan - spicy boar collar (too spicy for me to have much, but delicious)
Kung Op Wun Sen - clay pot with prawns, pork belly, bean thread noodles (I couldn't eat this one because of oyster sauce)
Tim and his friends were sitting next to us, so I also got to try their Brussels sprouts and pork belly. Everything was unique and flavorful and just what I was hoping for. My favorite was definitely the noodle soup, with two kinds of noodles, some heat without being overtly spicy, the smooth richness of the coconut. Yum. I admit that I'm now craving pad Thai, though, after having other Thai dishes two nights in a row. May go back to esan tonight and just enjoy my standby food.
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We started the day at Stumptown, which is practically next to our hotel. Excellent. Took a cold press coffee with cream to Saint Honore bakery, where I found a pastry I had never had before. It was basically a croissant dough with a salted, caramelized top. It was very rich, and the chewy-crunchy-salty top was so amazing. Crossed town to southeast - I don't think I had been there before - and visited Fizz, a modern take on an old fashion soda fountain. they had tons of homemade syrups including salted caramel, lavender, Meyer lemon and salted lime. You chose your syrup and had it made into a soda, phosphate, cream soda or milkshake. I finally decided on a black cherry cream soda - super good, though a little rich. Lost a game of scrabble, then headed to Powells to meet wisemonkey and olaugh. Didn't really look around much, so I'll try to head back there today. Walked over to food carts and had an order of penne with vodka sauce and sausage and an order of gnocchi with sun dried tomatoes and other fresh tasting stuff. Nibbled on macarons, Lost a second game of scrabble, did a bit of shopping, and walked across the bridge back into southeast for beers at Hair of the Dog partway into the beerage, I had to step outside and talk about scrabble ... After about 45 minutes, it was too cold to be outside and I put my phone on mute and finished my cider indoors.
Tmi went back to conference, and I hung out in the room, watched Rio on tv, wrote postcards and knitted my sock. When he was released from work, we wandered over to e-San Thai, where I had apps and larb, then ate half of a mango tango donut from voodoo. That brings us up to date.
Tomorrow maybe more powells, more food carts, more time in southeast. Scrabble at a market, dinner at pok pok if it isn't too busy, and more beer and coffee.
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Thursday: if it's not too rainy, the Japanese Gardens. food carts. pearl district.
Friday: southeast during the day? scrabble with carl and dave in the early evening. dinner with tim.
Saturday: no idea. wander aimlessly. maybe scrabble.
Sunday: leave really early.
every day: Voodoo and Stumptown. we're staying a block from them, so it'll probably be irresistible.
Pack: headphones, scrabble set and score sheets, new socks i'm knitting, camera, iPad, chargers, gym clothes and shoes, umbrella, travel mug, water bottle.
i got a shiny new backpack to tote around. i'm finally giving in to the fact that day tripping with my timbuk2 is hazardous to my back, at least the way that i pack stuff for wandering around.
i think the iPad's telling me what percent of the book i had read and what was left to go made me keep reading. once i hit 75% or so, i pretty much knew i'd have to stay up to finish it.
work was rough today. i really dont' know how to function on 2.5 hours of sleep. i did a lot of staring. luckily, tomorrow is a work from home day, which means if i read until 4am tomorrow, at least i can sleep in.
yesterday, she started limping around and favoring her right hind. we really can't afford another surgery. if she doesn't get better, maybe we'll just start toting her about in a wagon.
update: vet says most likely an ACL issue. recommends PT rather than surgery, plus painkillers. i wish our house had fewer stairs. i'm building my arm muscles carrying her up and down from the bedroom.
Today: gym, grocery, make pad Thai, start cleaning, watch more Grey's Anatomy, write a letter
Tomorrow: clean, make gumbo, gym, knit, chipotle, beauty and the beast 3d
Sunday: clean, chili, guacamole, people come over and watch football/play games.
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My second one of these, and it's still quite a fun and quick knit. I added a couple of pops of color with some orange and some blue/magenta/purple. Full pattern details on ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/k8knits/s
 burberry cowl |  slip cowl |  dashing |
- burberry inspired cowl (on the left) - i did one of these and love the way it sits. i think the high variegation of rios will look great in this cowl, and i'll have something to match my dashing mitts (on the right). rav project link. or is this the tuesday night cowl? now i can't remember. they seem pretty similar to each other.
- a plain garter stitch cowl - i have russian joined a bunch of odds and ends of purples and greens together, including some berocco jasper, cascade, karabella aurora 8, random stuff i dyed when trying out some potential yarn bases, and who knows what else. i'm hoping for something along the lines of this scrap-happy scarf (ravelry link), minus the fringe.
- slip stitch cowl (in the middle) - another one that i just did and love, and i still have more random scraps left that could easily be incorporated into another one of these. my rav project page.
gingered cranberry sauce
sugar and spice roasted butternut squash
maple mashed sweet potatoes
wasabi mashed sweet potatoes
cornbread stuffing
homemade bread
roasted beet salad with ricotta salata and lemon vinaigrette
spinach salad with goat cheese
pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream
chocolate espresso snowballs
we have somewhere between 10 and 12 people coming over this weekend. it's almost like we're hosting a party, but it's only the people who we know well enough that we haven't really even bothered cleaning. i guess i'll do a little bit of that tonight. most of them are going to a beer fest, and so they'll only really see the house when they can barely hold themselves upright. i guess maybe i'll just move breakable things out of reach.
i'm also cooking them all chili. keely is in charge of a veg version. i'm also thinking of doing these:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/beef-b
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/smoky-t
they clear a bunch of stuff out of my pantry. the squashes in particular are multiplying on my counter.
tim got an ipad yesterday because he had a small pot of money that had to be used for research and supplies, and it seemed like a good supply to have. i'm not researching productivity apps for him. few of the note-taking apps offer a free trial version, which makes me sad because most of them are 5-10 bucks. last night i wrote a note to someone in my handwriting and emailed it as a picture. it's almost like a handwritten letter, right?
i went to minneapolis and came back. it was great, although the scrabble left me feeling all empty inside. it's probably good that i'm taking a couple months off.
and yet, i am insanely jealous that i can't be in poland playing at the world championships. this is ridiculous, as i don't like the international scrabble lexicon, and i don't particularly want to be in poland. but at the same time i want to be at that kind of event. maybe new orleans will be that kind of event for scrabble this year. i hope it is. i guess i have a lot of control over that since it's partly my event.
i'm wearing my long green tunic hoodie sweater and jeans today. i love fall.
i got two fillings in my front teeth today. my family is blessed with questionable teeth. i tried to drink coffee through a straw this morning and also dribbled it all over myself.
i think i'm going to make smitten kitchen's chocolate cake with wine tonight. sounds simple enough, and i'm making tim make risotto for dinner, so i should contribute something.
i think i need some new lj icons. these are all so old.
I spent much of this weekend doing the things I love most. I finished off a hat. I played three games of Scrabble and ate a lobster roll. I watched some grey's anatomy, some chopped, and probably some other things. I made it through about 10 magazines, putting recipes in my iPad so i could recycle the magazines. i baked and cooked. i stripped wood off of the deck with a power washer (oops). i listened to beauty queen sister a bunch of times. i took apart the big desk upstairs and replaced it with a smaller desk, thus opening up some more space in the study/library/tim's dressing room. my goal is for the chair to function as a chair instead of as a blanket holder.
Today is fall break day, which means low student traffic, so i'm actually getting through a lot of paperwork stuff too. fewer magazines, fewer student files, and less clutter. and the colors are starting to change. good stuff.
i made this for dinner last night:
make mirepoix-ish thing
pour three cups of water over it
mix in turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, ginger powder, 2 cloves minced garlic, salt
bring water to boil, pour in 2 cups of israeli couscous, pour in a large helping of raisins and currants, turn off heat, cover, and let sit until the couscous is tender (i went and sat on the couch and watched baseball, and then remembered it was on the stove. i guess that was about 15-20 minutes).
stir in some chopped up cucumbers and carrots, frozen peas, chickpeas... or whatever things you have running around. peppers would probably be good (if you like them), and chopped up snow peas, or edamame... you get the idea. you could even add some chicken.
add zest of one lemon, juice the lemon, mix the lemon juice with some olive oil til it looks vinaigrette-ish, pour that over too.
taste for seasoning, eat.
i also had some pizza.
i'm doing a ropes course with my students this weekend. i hate giving up part of my weekend and i'm all bitter. until i get there, and then i have so much fun and i love my job again.
i did this tuesday: walk 5 minutes, jog 3, walk 2, jog 3.5, walk 2, jog 4, walk 2, jog 4.5, walk 2, jog 2, walk 5. felt pretty good.
i did this yesterday: walk 5 minutes, jog 3, walk 2, jog 5, walk 2, jog 3, walk 2, jog 3.5 ish, walk 5. i almost died in the lungs. too hard at the end of the work week.
i ate a ridiculous amount in chicago. that will get its own, backdated post, hopefully tonight when i have time to think about it. i also broke my record points on foursquare. and got a lot of clothes for my birthday. i will have to keep up the exercise if i want them to keep fitting, especially if i continue to have eating weekends like i did in chicago, and there are at least two of those coming up (minneapolis at the end of this month, and vermont in november).
friday - arrive. charlie trotters with tim for dinner
saturday - hair cut. no other plans yet. tim will run. hopefully scrabble with jeremy. hopefully see the nephews. maybe chinese food.
sunday - tim will run. maybe jeremy's trivia. probably out to dinner.
monday - brunch? fly home.
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