Flowers and more flowers

Flowers
Jesse and I don't have any Valentine's Day traditions. What I mean is that each Valentine's Day is different. Some years we do nothing other than give each other a hug, and some years we exchange candy. Jesse sometimes makes me "Luv-E Duv-E" mix CDs (I'm up to Luv-E Duv-E Volume IV) with love-themed songs (not the sappy kind... you wouldn't find those songs in his extensive CD collection!) and sometimes we make each other cards. Well, this year, I made a fancy dessert (more fancy than yummy, but it wasn't bad) and he had flowers delivered to me at work! I've never got flowers for Valentine's Day before, never mind delivered ones! The flowers are a bunch of alstroemerias.


He was surprised that I didn't bring them home on Valentine's Day, but my reasoning was that if I left them at work, I could spend the whole of Friday admiring them and I was sparing Jesse the pollen (since he's allergic to flowers). But, with Jesse's permission, I brought them home on Friday so I could admire them over the weekend. Well, when I got home from having my car smog checked and doing the grocery shopping yesterday, I found Jesse feeling miserable and blaming the flowers on his agonies (nausea, sinus headache, chills etc.). So I moved them to my bedroom and cut off all the anthers (pollen holders). We also opened up the windows and it seemed to help him a bit. He's still sleeping, so I don't yet know how he's doing today (hopefully better). You can see the cut stamens in this photo.


More flowers
Then, I woke up at 6:45 am today (Sunday), which is earlier than normal and, for once, was not because some early-morning golfers decided to shout at each other (I live next to a golfcourse and am frequently annoyed by golfers being loud, urinating in public, and/or setting off their car alarms). I don't know why I woke up then, but once I was awake there was no going back to sleep because I was too excited, thinking about a vacation Jesse and I are starting to plan. We've been saving to go on a big trip this year, and had been considering going to Australia (neither of us has been there before). Yesterday, we finally got around to more seriously thinking about our trip, and we're now thinking of going to South Africa! There are parts of South Africa I haven't seen but want to, so our preliminary plan is to rent a car in Cape Town and go for a ~10 day excursion up the west coast then inland to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and back (or, continue to Johannesburg... rental car companies allow one-way trips, for an extra fee). We're thinking about doing this in September or so, which is when Namaqualand will be in bloom! I hope this trip comes to fruition! I've already been thinking about what camera equipment I'll want to take, whether I should get another memory card for my camera, and how much cash I should take (from my trip to Denmark for a conference in 2006, I learned that taking US $ cash is the best way to exchange for local currency). I've even thought about what luggage I should take and which Pick 'n Pay in Cape Town we should go to buy food for the drive. Perhaps some of those thoughts could wait? Oh--one other thing I have thought about doing, while in Cape Town, is to go on a bike ride through the Cape Point Nature Reserve. As long as the baboons don't get us. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this in the coming months.

Quick update on my resolutions

- Losing weight: no go
- More exercise: fine (I ran 4.5 miles yesterday and 4 miles today, for example!)
- Work on PF: bought a splint to wear at night... doesn't seem to have helped yet :-( Will keep trying
- Still not picking split ends
- Blog trolling still way down

So, mixed success, but at least I've stuck to some of them :-)

A few odds and ends

My project this weekend was to make a cover for my stand mixer. Here is the finished project:



I had to learn how to make bias tape in the process, and found this website very helpful for that.

Something else I did this weekend was to finally buy a muffin pan so that I could make my first batch of cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (see previous post). They turned out great! I made the "Tiramisu" ones...

Sorry... did that photo make you hungry?

And that was my weekend.

The week in review

This is the post I never got around to writing last weekend, so this is really about the week starting  January 28th, the best day of the year: my birthday!! I like the fact that my birthday is a celebration of me :-) This year, I was particularly spoiled in the number and quality of gifts I got. I already knew what my biggest present was, since it had been living at the foot of my bed for a few weeks: a stand mixer! My sister and parents got together to buy it for me. Jesse and I already love having it and I have plans to sew a cover for it. Here's the stack of gifts:
In the back is the mixer, of course. Draped on it is an AWESOME T-shirt I got from Jesse that says "Powered by tofu!" on it. I love it. On top are some cards I got. On the floor from left to right at the back are: "The elements of style" by Strunk and White (I do a lot of writing as a scientist; Jesse gave this to me), "Persuasion" by Jane Austen (also from Jesse), "Vegan Cupcakes take over the world" (a cookbook; from my sister), a "Mansfield Park" DVD (from Jesse), a box of notecards (from Jesse's mom) and a book by Andy Goldsworthy of his fantastic natural sculptures (from my parents; do a google image search with his name for an idea of his work). In the front are a pair of silver and garnet earrings from my parents, and an enormous bar of chocolate from Jesse's mom. As I said, I was particularly spoiled this year!

I also had two birthday meals courtesy of Jesse. One was Sunday brunch the day before at our favorite all-vegetarian restaurant, Jyoti-Bihanga. We'd never tried their brunch, which they don't have every week. We were a little disappointed because they seemed understaffed and they were continually out of plates or food or coffee or water or water glasses, and our table wasn't bussed from the previous occupants until the end of our meal. But I feel bad saying anything bad about them, because they do have excellent food and I highly recommend their restaurant. I told Jesse that we'll have to give them one more chance for brunch, then decide if we should just never go to brunch there again, or if it was just a bad day for them. Of course, Jesse and I go out to brunch about once every two years...

On the day of my birthday, Jesse and I made two cheese fondues for dinner: one with Jarlsberg cheese and one with goat cheese. The goat cheese one just tasted like warm goat cheese, so was "okay." The Jarlsberg one was more a classic fondue and was awesome. We dipped bread, broccoli, apples and dried apricots. We don't have a fondue pot: we just served it in the pots we'd heated it in on the stove. I'd been inspired by a recent New York Times article on fondue. For dessert, Jesse made me a (Key) Lime pie (with normal limes, not Key limes). Yum! He baked the crust and filling the day before and it smelled SO good. When it came time to eat it, he made the meringue topping. It was so pretty, I took some photos.



A slice of the finished product:
We so loved the first pie, and Jesse appreciated how simple they are to make, that he made another one this week, with real Key limes that I got at the grocery store last weekend. The second one is significantly more tart (Key limes are more tart than regular "Persian" limes), but I like that. [For my 2007 birthday, Jesse made me the tartest lemon cake with lemon frosting--it was awesome too.]

With my birthday celebrations over, I returned to life as normal, except it wasn't a normal week at all! Starting January 30th, I had jury duty. This is the second time I have been called up to the San Diego County Superior Court in the three years I've lived here. You only have to report for one day, unless you end up on a case or, as I've discovered, you get called into a courtroom where the jury selection takes multiple days. The first time I got called up, I didn't get called to a courtroom until the afternoon, but it was for a murder trial that was predicted to take 2 weeks and I didn't get kicked off until the third day of selections. For murder trials, the lawyers get to kick a LOT of people off, I have discovered. I think I was the 17th person the prosecutor kicked off (if I remember correctly, he had 20 "freebies," so he waited a long time to kick me off, especially considering that I had been in the jury box from almost the very first minute we were in the courtroom). This time, I got called in the very first group to a murder trial as well. One that was predicted to take 4 weeks! I wasn't very excited at the prospect of being on a jury for 4 weeks, I have to say. I knew I'd be working evenings and weekend and court holidays (there are no jury trials on Fridays for example, though the judge assured us that he and the lawyers would still be working) but even so, I'd fall behind in my research. And, I knew other people in the lab would suffer too, since I am frequently sought after by lab members who need questions answered. Well, long story short, I got kicked off by the prosecutor in the afternoon of the second day. I was the 5th person she kicked off (the lawyers don't provide a reason for excusing jury members in this phase of the selection, but I presume the prosecutor was nervous about having me on the jury panel of a case that was going to involve DNA evidence... I'd been specifically asked if I work with DNA, which I do). The murder in this case had taken place in 1997! 

Jury duty took a lot out of me. I had an hour commute each way (drive to park-and-ride, take two trains, and walk several blocks to get there, then go to work by doing the reverse, but taking the train past the park-and-ride to go to campus... Jesse picked me up on campus and took me back to my car later) and even though there were many breaks during the day (they take 1.5 hours for lunch!), I'd be concentrating so hard while in court that I was exhausted at the end of the day and was actually mostly useless for doing lab work in the evening. During the breaks (including the 35 minutes we waited the second morning for a potential juror to show up, which he never did (can you say "contempt of court"?)), I read... first, I read a couple of scientific papers for work, then I switched to a shortish novel, The Life and Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee (takes place in South Africa). I finished all but the last few pages of the book in those two days! I haven't read that intensely for pleasure since I was a teenager, I don't think!

Well, I've gone on longer than I should, as usual! This past week wasn't nearly as interesting, so you won't have to read about it.

Take care.

New Year's Resolutions

No, this is not to update you on resolutions I made at the beginning of 2008. That would be the normal thing to do. I am actually only putting my resolutions into effect tomorrow. Which is my birthday and is therefore a new year of a different sort. I'll explain: at the beginning of the year, I was agitated. I was very much dreading this year. I was in no mood to make declarations about a "new me." So I decided that I would ease myself into some resolutions and try them out before I turned them into rules--a "practice run"--then use my conveniently timed birthday as my new beginning.

Before I get started on listing my 2008 resolutions, I want to write a little about my resolutions from last year. One of my resolutions last year was very successful. I had resolved to eat more whole grains, and fewer white flour/white rice items. I totally did it! I now understand the difference between whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour (the former is for yeast breads, the latter is for everything else, like cookies, cakes, pie crusts) and use at least 50% whole wheat flour (or pastry flour) in most everything I make. I marginally increased my consumption of brown rice (which I really do prefer to white rice in terms of taste and texture, it's just that it takes so long to cook that keeps me from always eating it) but mostly just decreased my consumption of white rice. I haven't been all that good about eating other whole grains... I did use a bit of bulgar (bulghur?) wheat and barley in my cooking this past year, but I don't remember using the other grains I'd previously tried out (quinoa, kasha) much. [Note to self: I should eat more varied grains.]

Another of my resolutions from last year is an embarrassing one to admit in this public forum, but maybe admitting it will be good for me. I pick at the split ends of my hair. Some of you who hang out with me in person probably already know that. I actually used to do it in full view of my coworkers, because I do it when I am deep in thought... and as a scientist, part of my working day is dedicated to thinking! I found that picking my hair helped me concentrate on thinking, because it was mindless and kept me from other distractions. At the beginning of 2007, I resolved to stop this pointless habit, and for at least the whole of January, I did. I had one little slip up on January 1st or 2nd... I pulled off a split end without even thinking about it, then realized that I was going to need to pay more attention. Anyway, I did start picking at my hair again, but stopped numerous times over the year telling myself, "is this really how you want to spend your time? is this really something you should be doing in public?" etc. By the Christmas break, I had re-resolved to stop and, so far, I've been very good and don't even remember the last time I picked at my hair. I still notice my split ends, but when I'm tempted, I tie my hair back. I hope I continue to not pick!

Last year, I also made the classic resolution of losing weight. I failed miserably. I gained weight. I blame a lot of it on my getting really sick in January and the rest of it on depression. While sick, I COULDN'T exercise for almost a week because my body wouldn't have been able to take it. And that got me out of the habit. To state in plain words what I may have alluded to before: I have (what feels to me as pretty bad) plantar fasciitis in my right foot, and have a mild case of it in my left foot. I have some undefined problems (2, possibly related, but that announce themselves in distinct places) with the left side of my pelvis that can cause me a bit of pain and a lot of discomfort. And my lower back is very sensitive and frequently gets tweaked. Once I got out of the habit of exercising through the pain, I found it mentally very difficult to force myself back into exercise. I decided to take a few months off of regular exercise in the hopes that that would allow my feet to get better (I'd had PF in my right foot for about 7 months at that time, now >1.5 yrs; the pelvic problems I've had for years, so they're chronic, life-long problems in my eyes and, anyway, I took time off of exercise when one of the problems first showed up... after about 6 months, it improved enough that I started exercising again). [I did actually run occasionally January-April, but no more than once a week, and even that I stopped for most of the rest of the year; I picked my upper body toning work back up around the mid year... 3 days a week, very consistently. Yay!] I gained a little bit of weight, but mostly lost muscle, so really I gained more fat than a scale would tell me. And then my ongoing aches and pains and my ongoing lack of a "real job" and poor prospects for one led me to depression. And that led me to increase my dessert consumption and pre-dinner snacking. I gained about 7 pounds over last year. This has made a very big dent into my amazing 15+ pound weight loss in 2004 (my 30th birthday was coming up...), especially when added to the 3-4 pounds I'd put on 2005-2006. And that has led to further depression.

I'm really getting away from my original plans for this post, but I do want to record this here: my logical way of thinking serves me well as a scientist. It also makes for a good voice of reason in my head. However, I spend a lot of time thinking about "how fat I am" (yes, for those who know what I look like, I know I'm not very fat by common standards, just well-padded). I didn't used to... it started in ~2003 or so and now I'm obsessed. The voice of reason says "spending so much time thinking about how fat you are and how much you'd like to look better in pants is foolish. If you are this concerned about your weight, why not just lose weight? You've done it before. You know that all you have to do is take in fewer calories than you expend. You know that reducing portion size is what has worked for you in the past. You don't have to deprive yourself of anything... you just have to eat less of everything." And the voice of reason is right. Yet, I have not been able to get myself back into my 2004 habit of eating less. Sigh.

*****

Okay... I stepped away from the computer for many hours at that point of this ever longer essay and have returned in no mood to ramble (originally, I had planned to opine on the subjects of cellulite and physical aging... aren't you glad I'm going to skip that?). Getting to the point: my resolutions!

- Lose fat. Will do by eating less (have been practicing this for the last week at least) and resuming regular cardio exercise (see next item)
- Do cardio exercise regularly [yes, through the pain] (have been exercising almost daily for the last ~2 weeks; has taken my right foot to new levels of pain; see next item) [Note on other forms of exercise: I love toned arms so much (yes, I suffer from vanity), that I have no problem sticking to my weight-lifting routine for my upper body. And, two physical therapists have now told me, and my experience has convinced me they're right, that I am going to have to do "core" strengthening exercises for the rest of my life, to hold my pelvis together. I have been doing these exercises regularly since I went through another round of physical therapy starting in ~August, and appreciate the resulting reduction in pelvic pain enough to keep up with core exercises. So, no problem there either. It's cardio I need to work on]
- Try harder to improve PF in feet (I've also been through physical therapy sessions for the PF, but stopped doing the stretches I learned from my PT when I decided (after my last session) that they actually made things worse. But, I wasn't exercising then, so maybe the stretches will be more constructive now? It's worth a shot, even if (while I'm stretching my calf muscles) my coworkers make constant jokes about my "holding up the freezer" or "holding up the wall" (I am supposed to stretch every hour and I don't have time to always go find "somewhere private" to stretch and I use solid objects in the lab to push against, hence the comments). I need to start icing my foot again (yes, even though ice feels extra cold in winter!) I also ordered a splint today... it's to keep my foot flexed while I am sleeping). Maybe I'll return to doctor and ask to see a podiatrist, at my dad's suggestion. Want to avoid surgery and cortisone shots like the plague.
- Don't pick at split ends (so far so good)
- Do less random blog trolling (also going well--I signed up for my favorite blogs in Google Reader and so now don't actually go to people's blog pages where I may get derailed by juicy-looking links to their friends' blogs etc.)

...maybe I should have finished this earlier... I can't remember my resolutions any more! I probably had some work/career-related ones in mind, but my brain isn't putting them into coherent thoughts right now. Oh well, since I anyway think I've already bared my soul more than I should have in a public forum, I'll stop here rather than try to make up some more resolutions. Maybe I'll write again if I remember them. Or maybe I'll be too busy trying to keep these. By the way, I do recommend the "practice run" approach--for all you know, I practiced a few more and found them too hard to keep so decided not to mention them :-)

Happy birthday to me, and may my 34th year be filled with kept resolutions!

PS. Just thought of a candidate resolution: be more succinct (and use fewer asides) in blog postings and comments on other people's blogs. Oh, who am I kidding? I'll never be able to stick to that one!

You know you live in southern California when...

...you see blossoms on trees in mid January. With apologies to all my friends in the northern climes who are not enjoying winter right now! [Btw, some Californians say that the high cost of living here is due to the "sunshine tax" we have to pay.]

Update on sewing projects

My sewing energy of late has been going into improving the diaper-and-wipe bags I mentioned in a previous post. Following Kirsty's suggestion, I have added a snap to the straps, to allow them to be looped around something like a stroller handle (I also paid attention to a stroller that someone rolled by me the other day and saw how it didn't have a place that the bag handle could just be draped over... what's with that?). Here's the one end of the strap and the back of the snap (pardon my stray hair).
While picking out the pearlescent snaps at the store, I found some magnetic snaps on clearance ($0.97 for 6 sets!) and thought they'd be a nice alternative to velcro for the flap of the bag. They're a bit tricky to work with, because I have to add several additional layers of fabric to support the snaps (they're somewhat heavy). Here are the magnetic sides of the snaps on the body of the bag. In this photo, you can also see where the handle snaps on (on the right).

And here are my latest two sets of bags... the blue ones have velcro to close the flap, and it was so much easier making these than the kinds with the magnetic snaps! But the snaps do look nice and won't get all fuzzed-up like the velcro. These blue bags have a front pocket, unlike the blue bags I made first (previous sewing post).
And here is the overall view of the red and black bags with magnetic snaps to close the flap.
One of the blue bags and one of the black bags are going to Celia, who is a graduate student who works down the hall from me and is due on January 27 (though earlier would be better in her mind!). I met her when she was about 5 months pregnant and barely showing. She worked at the bench next to me for a few months and it's been fun to watch her belly grow. I bought a pack of baby wipes yesterday to give her with the bags...
Wow, that was an interesting photo! I'm also giving Celia two bibs... one is the bib with iron-on vinyl that I showed in my last sewing post, and this is the other one...

I haven't been working on baby bibs lately but will get back to them now that I am getting a bit bagged out (I have two more that just need the final assembly and several more that I have most of the fabric cut for, so I've really been busy with the bags). I haven't quite figured out how to incorporate Kirsty's suggestion of making them so that moisture doesn't go through, other than using vinyl. I'm going to try the sew-on vinyl next and will keep looking for other waterproof fabrics too.

I'm sure your heart is racing after reading such an exciting post :-) But I wanted to document my sewing successes before I give them away.