random update

Well, the big "news": I'm not going to graduate this semester. Presumably, I'll graduate next semester, but really who knows? It's research. I'm definitely making progress, and I'm happy with how it's coming together and my level of understanding. And I'll graduate when it's done.

It took me six years to get my undergraduate degree. It is astonishing to me now that I thought I could get a PhD. in less. :)

I do wish I hadn't expended all that time and energy on job hunting. But oh well. There are worse mistakes to make.

Our living room is back together. It's fantastic and gorgeous. See floor and rug and bookshelves and couch back in place.
This wall used to be grimy white wood paneling, and the old shelves against it were falling-apart particle board. We do need to figure out where to buy more of the little plastic swivels that hold the glass into these.
Dogs are still cute.

Perfect Pantry Coffee Cake

Goal: coffee cake with a decadent amount of streusel, made only of things I always have on hand.



Recipe:

Streusel (from Bon Appétit's Streusel Coffee Cake )
1/4 c (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon

Cake (from Challenge Dairy's Streusel Topped Apple Bread )
1/2 c (1 stick) butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c buttermilk
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
(if using unsalted butter, 1/2 tsp salt)

Glaze (inspired by Alton Brown's Doughnut Glaze )
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp dry milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
just enough water to make pourable

Stir together the streusel ingredients and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9 pan with aluminum foil and spray with baking spray.

Cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time. Stir in the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just smooth.

Spread batter into prepared pan, top with streusel. Bake for 40 minutes. (Or until the center stops jiggling.)

While the cake is cooling, whisk together the glaze, adding water gradually until you have something that is just barely a liquid. Once the cake is nearly cool, pour liberally over the entire cake, it should soak in.

It's good to have our whole house again.

The living room floor is finished, and enough baseboards are in that we put everything back in the room that belongs there. It's great to be able to use it normally again, as well as see ALL our books and dvds. And I hooked up my Super Nintendo.

We survived having both the annual judo picnic and the annual math bbq on the same day. Brought Snickerdoodle Blondies and buttermilk pie respectively. Sadly, the blondies were experimental and I don't think they make the cut. Too dry. They're great dunked in coffee or tea, but standing alone too dry for me.

A very agile squirrel left this on our (upper floor) windowsill. I wish I could have seen him maneuvering to get up there with it. The apples are almost ripe, so I guess summer must be almost over..

Home Improvements

Engineered red oak. Cheaper than any of the laminate we liked, maybe a little lighter in color than we were thinking, but looks great in place. We did all the easy parts. Now there's the edge where we have to cut boards lengthwise and the hallway. SO MUCH NICER THAN CARPET.

Vlad likes it. Vlad is also safely off all of his meds - got the bloodwork back this week and he's looking very healthy. Even starting to lose some weight by ineffectively chasing rabbits around the yard. (We have a ton of rabbits this year!)

Gustav also likes the floor.

Yes, this blog is almost entirely an excuse for me to post pictures of my dogs.

We also replaced 5 windows with modern double glazed ones. Including the ones in the bathrooms. I'm so excited about having insulation between me and the outdoors when I shower.

I went to a big statistics conference and gave a talk. I have some ideas for how to have a better time next time I go to a big conference. Luckily it's one where hundreds and hundreds of people give talks, so there were about 5 people in my audience who weren't also speaking that session. It was still pretty scary.

Today I fought in a non-novice division of a judo tournament. Well, 3 non-novice divisions, and the novice division. 8 total fights, won 3. But two where in one division, so I took first in that one. Great fun, no injuries, way less freaked out about fighting black belts in the future.

Jam time

Apricots! The freeze didn't get them this year, and it looks like it's time to pick them and make super awesome jam. In the dead of winter, it's like a little jar of sunshine.
Last week, N made strawberry jam. Not from our strawberries. We haven't actually managed to harvest any yet. We've had a few fruit last until they are starting to look ripe, and then bang - birds, squirrels, rabbits, Vlad, something eats them. :(
I'm starting to get regular tomato crops from my little plants. There were 4 or 5 other ripe ones before these. But I ate them.
The current big house project: replacing the floor in the living room and downstairs hallway. We hated the awful stained carpet. The funky vintage linoleum underneath was too damaged to embrace. What will we replace it with? It looks like since we're below grade, the best thing to do is laminate and put in a floating floor. Laminate won't have any moisture problems, and it's comparatively cheap. But we're super picky about the texture not feeling too weird and plasticky - if we must have fake wood, we want convincing fake wood. Hopefully we'll find some we like soon. Everything has been moved out of the living room except the books - and all the rest of the floor has come up. The books will be a major undertaking.

Vlad has been weened off all his pills - check up in a few weeks to see if he's doing ok without them.

I'm officially in the advanced class at judo, though I sometimes get talked into helping teach the beginners. The advanced class is SO HARD. I'm covered in funky bruises and I have a lot of days with ibuprofen every 4 hours. First tournament where I fight in the senior division (get beat up by black belts) is in two weeks.

leek flowers are a delicate pink

A very random collection of things

This is what leeks look like when they're about to bloom. This is what happens if you never harvest your leeks. I would be so ok with this bed being taken over by leeks and garlic. We don't eat that many leeks now that my free subscription to Bon Appetit ran out, but it would be kind of neat to just have plenty on hand, right there in the dirt.
Both tomato plants are doing great, starting to get little green tomatoes. I have a cherry tomato plant and a grape tomato plant, and the shape difference is even apparent with little baby tomatoes. The basil next to them is doing well enough that I'm already looking forward to more homemade pizzas. mmmm. basil and tomato and roasted garlic. (the little tomatoes I grow just get eaten whole - I buy bigger ones to put on pizzas.)

We've discovered baking potatoes and roasting garlic at the same time. Easy dinner of baked potatoes that may or may not be covered in garlic, and then left over roasted garlic for sandwiches or pizza later in the week.

Judo tournament last weekend: Fought novice division - one person in my weight class, and I had way more experience, so I got first place for the first time. Also my lungs and stomach were far more cooperative so I had much more fun all day. I was so incredibly hyper and talkative afterward that I had to keep wandering around finding new people to talk to because I could tell I was annoying people.

The week before, we went to a WWII style hangar dance. It was fun, but probably not something we need to do again. A good adventure though, and something we'd been talking about doing way back when N did more reenacting. Pics are on facebook.

I went and saw someone's thesis defense. It was good to find out what they are like in our department, and some of our committee members overlap. It's basically just a 1 hour talk, and then time for 30 minutes of questions. It was not a grilling, there were very few questions during the talk and an hour is just not that long considering I've already given 30 minute talks over just part of it. I'm really glad it occurred to me to go - it was just a sudden brainwave.