Sunday Seven

Lets do an end of the week re-cap of some life events. Some large, some small...mostly...well...all small. Anyway, here are my Sunday Seven (fill in the blank) Events from this past week.

Might I suggest you "fill in the blank" with whatever adjective you feel appropriate? Go ahead, choose. I'll never know. But if you're one of those people who finds themselves playing MAD LIBS, filling in every blank with adjectives like tremendous, splendid, grand, or sparkly...you might want to tone it down for this. None of my life events qualify as 'sparkly'.

1. I've been working like a madman on a lecture I give this week in Graduate Neuroscience (a course I TA) all about the brainstem. Important take-away...without your brainstem, you die.

2. The Mister and I went on a lovely date together to eat delicious seafood. We dressed up all fancy-like and even remembered to keep our elbows off the table. No pictures (thank you dead camera battery).

3. I made homemade bread twice. TWICE. First loaf was an Italian Herb Bread (picture below). The second loaf, an Onion-Cheddar Cheese-Crushed Red Pepper Bread. Both were a hit, and will be made again. Yum.


4. I pulled a muscle in my back during my run outside on Saturday. Boo, to my pulled muscle. Yay, to a seven mile run in 60 degree weather.

5. I received the most lovely gift from the Mister. Scarves, beautiful scarves!!!! He knows what I have a weakness for. Serious weakness. Life conclusion: A girl can never have too many scarves. Never.

6. I received a lovely hand drawn picture from my niece Anika in the mail. Don't worry about my arms...I'm prepping for the upcoming golf season.


7. I finally received a published dissertation from Columbia University that I've been trying to get my hands on for nearly 2 months. I'm only 45 pages in, but so far, it is SO darn interesting. I am easily excited. Especially when it has to do with anything Anatomy-related. I just am.

Food, Glorious Food!

If you've never had my mom's food, you are missing out. Seriously. It should be a crime. EVERYBODY who has had my mom's food, raves about it. Raves. And rightly so.

So, as I sat here at my computer this Sunday evening I began to daydream about my mom's food, and how I wished it would suddenly appear on my desk. And I couldn't help but compile a mental list of what foods I would request if they could magically appear.

So, here are my top 10 favorite foods and top 10 favorite desserts my mom cooks...there have to be two lists. And let me tell you, both of these lists were H.A.R.D. to make. They could have quickly turned into lists of the top 1,000 foods (but alas, this post has to be quick due to the fact that I need to finish prepping a lecture on the brainstem).

Foods (in no particular order):

1. Artisan Bread (Mom makes about 15 different kinds: 9-Grain, Sourdough, Focaccia, Cranberry Walnut...ALL of them do the trick).
   
2. Handmade Bagels (I've attempted to learn how to make these...see pictures below).
3. ANYTHING that comes out of the garden (this is narrow enough, right?).
4. Brick Oven Pizza
   
5. Mushroom Pierogi Soup (Typically only made once a year for Christmas Eve Dinner...so delicious!)
   
6. Polish Cabbage Rolls
7. Vegetable Stir-Fry
8. Borscht Soup with Pierogi's
   
9. Sweet Potato Waffles
   
10. Townhouse Cheese Soup

Desserts (again, in no particular order):

1. Chocolate Raspberry Cream Layered Torte
2. Pumpkin pie (no crust)
3. Fruit Pizza
4. Montessori Cookies (Since these cookies were typically only made for Montessori school events when we were little kids, they picked up this name...they are the most delicious, moist, cake-y, vanilla-y sugar cookies)
5. Snickerdoodles
   
6. Apple Strudel
7. Cherry Almond Scones
8. Pecan Tartlets
9. Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
10. Custard Eclairs
    

So, there you have it...my two lists of foods and desserts that have, in part, made my childhood/early adulthood so delightfully delectable. And, if "Eating Momma-Kroska's Cookin'" isn't on YOUR bucket list...it's not a good list.

Stomach Ache Anyone?

Laughing is medicine. It freshens your soul, lightens your load and gosh darnit, it makes you feel good! I had a long laugh this morning when I saw these pictures on MSNBC's Animal Tracks...so long in fact, my stomach ached after. The good kind of ache.



Seriously...captions should read (for first photo):
"Baby round tailed ground squirrel refuses to help dig family burrow due to extreme fatigue onset by big head."

For the second photo:
"Well, stop eating candy and I wouldn't have to do this."

August 14th...Mark Your Calendar.

These are made from paper. PAPER!

The coolest thing I can do with paper is buy it on a roll and wipe my behind with it. Or maybe it's making a handmade birthday card. Whatever. It doesn't come close to the amazing things, anatomical things, this artist (Lisa Nilsson) is doing with paper.

But this is for sure...I know what I'll be asking for for my next 12 birthdays, and 8 Christmas's...I figure it will take about that long to collect the whole series, figuring I get one per holiday.

Maybe I can start counting August 14th as a holiday...as far as I know it hasn't been claimed by any nation or special interest group as a major holiday. So, today is the day that I officially declare it PhD Student's Day. Honor it by giving that special PhD student in your life a gift. Go ahead. No need to wait.

Cherry Tragedy

There once was a girl. A girl who loved her fruit snacks, but not just any fruit snacks. Cherry Fruity Snacks from Sam's Club. Oh, how they tasted wonderful. Then one dark, dreary afternoon the girl opened a pack, so very hungry for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, and what did she find? STRAWBERRY Fruity Snacks in her CHERRY Fruity Snack pack. Imposters! Oh, the sadness. This was a fluke she thought. But alas, it was not.

Another afternoon...another dark, grey afternoon. The girl opened a different pack of Cherry Fruity Snacks and what did she find? STRAWBERRY...AGAIN! Oh, the tears. The tears. The girl did not like Strawberry Fruity Snacks, no she did not. How could this happen twice, the weak (from low blood sugar) girl thought?!?!

Yet another afternoon...another dark, tornado-y, stormy afternoon. The girl decided that the third time had to be the charm, and nervously opened a Cherry Fruity Snack Pack after an all-too-small lunch...stomach still grumbling. OH THE TRAGEDY, OH THE TRAGEDY...STRAWBERRY HAD STRUCK AGAIN..Cherry was nowhere to be seen!

This had to stop the girl thought. There must be others in this world suffering like she was. Teased with the promise of Cherry, only to find an ugly imposter.


The girl eagerly took out her computer, found the Fruity Snack Pack's manufacturer online, and proceeded to write them a very concerned, yet polite email. The company NEEDED to know how the girl had suffered.

Fast-forward a week. A long, long week. It was a sunny, warm afternoon. The girl felt a little better about having alerted the proper authorities about the occurrences. And the good feelings kept on coming when the girl opened her mailbox and found the following note, with the shown gift certificate:


Oh, how the world began to seem right again!

I cannot wait to go buy more Fruity Snacks...ones that are sure to be packaged correctly...errrr....I mean "the girl" will.

Future Dream House

My future dream house will have floors like this.
It will.
It makes me feel powerful just looking at it.

(Glass floor supported entirely by the combined effort of 180,000 little plastic people.)

Mind Games and Stalking

Sometimes it's all about the minds games. Mind games to ensure one keeps studying. "Okay Erin, study for another hour and then you can take a 10 minute break." "Read one more journal article, then you can go and peruse the BBC and read something awesome." "Knock out one more chapter in this book, then it's time for a run."

"(Fill in the blank), then I get to:

...have a Fruity snack pack."
...call the family in Minnesota."
...start an iMessage chat session."
...watch YouTube dog videos."
...go on a walk with the Ammon."
...throw a fit."

You get the point.

Another way to battle that pesky little voice in your head that tells you NOT to be productive, is to vary your daily study routine. This week...changing my typical study location was just the mind game I needed. I chose to study in the main library on campus (a bit of a walk from the medical school), but the brief walk would wake me up, and the view of downtown could not be beat.


I had sunlight galore (even though in the pic above it was a bit cloudy), and I had a straight line view of the skyscraper Ammon works in. I must have emailed him 3 times in one afternoon, making sure he knew that I was stalking him. That's just what I do.