Welcome spring!

Kath and I went for a walk this afternoon to enjoy the beautiful warm weather. We ended up in a neighborhood that was new to us... a quiet, homey area with a mix of cute little houses and giant bohemoths. We love looking at houses and imagining what our first house will be like. One of our major no-nos is a split-level. We've made that decision already.

Then, to top it off, we enjoyed a great springy dinner... Barefoot Contessa chicken (marinated in a paste of chopped rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil.. plus salt and pepper), balsamic broccoli (also from the Contessa), and tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad... it was so yummy.

We were supposed to have thunderstorms today, but no such luck. I'm hoping for tonight. I do love spring in Iowa... the budding trees and flowers... and the thunderstorms.

Kath is watching basketball, and I'm doing some reading for Tuesday. The kitties are all sound asleep on the couches. It's a peaceful spring evening in our little home.

A little break

I turned my thesis in yesterday. Not quite complete.. some formatting issues and EndNote stuff, but the writing was done. It was exhausting, and I am happy to have a break for one day. I have to get ready for my defense next week, but that will start tomorrow.

Kath and I went shopping at the outlet mall yesterday. I needed some new clothes that are clinic-appropriate... after years of grad-school drudgery. :) She needed some shirts for teaching. We were both successful... Katherine and I both commented, though, on how nice men's casual clothes are compared to women's. I mean... they make nice, relaxed t-shirts and shirts for guys.. no too tight tops with teeny capped sleeves... just casual comfortable clothes. So, two of her shirts for teaching came from the men's section at Banana Republic... small polo shirts on a wicked sale. I found success at the Eddie Bauer outlet. Yay!

The kitties and I are just hanging out out today. I slept in until 11 and they slept with me... after taking a nap yesterday for an hour and falling asleep while we were watching Harry Potter at 9 pm last night. They're all napping again. :)

Katherine's been doing the bulk of the work around here lately... and I was supposed to make Easter dinner last night.. but that didn't happen (we're going to have it on Sunday - Barefoot Contessa grilled chicken recipe)... but I wanted to do something, so I thought I'd make pannukokkua (Finnish eggy pancakes) while Kath went to tutor. Katherine has issues with food "textures", so pannukokkua is not her "favorite" meal, for that reason (but, basically all we have in the house right now are eggs and milk). I told her my plan and she said, "Oh, that's a great ideal. I'm not that hungry tonight!" Hee hee.

Maybe I'll make Katherine something special tonight. She certainly deserves it. She came in yesterday morning when I was frantically finishing up after my all-nighter (which I don't do well with) and kept me calm through that last hour of making tables of contents and copies, etc. I'm very lucky.

I don't know when it happened...

but spring is here! Yay!

I'm sitting at the Java House 5 min from our house... I just walked down here to begin my last big day of writing.... it's gorgeous out... warm... no snow... just that damp, fresh smell of spring in the air... I have my coffee and just ate a yummy blackberry turnover (one of my favorite Java House pastries)...

and I'm going to "finish" my writing today. After today, it will be "tweaking" and editing and all that jazz.

I"m so excited I can barely write. :)

Also, after my last post, I thought I'd share that I am wearing clothes. :)

The Schlub

Katherine looked like a cute leprechaun today, in a green shirt, green pants, shamrock socks, and shamrock pin.. (and she made corned beef and cabbage for dinner too)... all in all, very festive.

Me, not so much. These days, I'm happy if I shower. We went to church on Sunday and it was the first day in a couple of weeks that I work an actual matching, complete outfit.

So, tonight I was apologizing to Katherine that my appearance and dress has fallen by the wayside... that I had become such a schlub during my furious writing blitz.... that I'm not what you'd call "cute" these days.

Poor Katherine. She tried to console me... "You're cute... You're not a schlub. You put clothes on..."

Yes, folks. This is about as good as it gets these days. I manage to put clothes on. :)

Coffeeshop eavesdropping

I am writing at the Terrapin, a local coffeeshop. I am occasionally routed from my CaMKII-induced trance by two couples discussing one's upcoming wedding. The other couple consists of their minister and the music person. Apparently the couple getting married wants a completely nontraditional wedding or as close to nontraditional as possible. The minister (fairly young guy) keeps posing "traditional" scenarios, and the bride-to-be says she wants anti-whatever the scenario is.

I am now wondering if I would be more productive at home, where Katherine is watching basketball. I would not care about basketball. But this, this is amusing.

One more week...

"Just give me just one more week...

I've been sitting here so long
Wasting time, just staring at the screen
And I was wondering should I rewrite that line
Then I thought maybe it says what I mean

One more week... only one more week... one more week..

Cause I can't take this much longer"

Lyrics courtesy of Phil Collins, modified by moi

This is the Erica Bain in me coming out.

I was reading Yahoo News when I saw the picture of NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer at his "apology press conference" with his wife standing next to him. For those of you who don't keep up on political "news", Gov. Spitzer was recently identified as being a client of the Emperor's Club, an exclusive escort service, in the process of a federal sting. Apparently, this is particularly juicy as Gov. Spitzer was elected on a strong reform/ethics platform after a career as the NY atty general where he focused on Wall St. crime, but did happen to take down a prostitution ring during his tenure.

I just can't help but think that if I was his wife, and my spouse spent, as some estimates go, close to $80,000 on escort services, I would be MAD! Furious. Not only because of the betrayal that I would feel, but I would also think... you blew that money that could be spent on our children's college education on .... what?!!!

So, if it were me, I would not be standing next to my spouse. I would make them take their lumps in the press alone. I do realize that people's relationships are personal and private and certainly Mrs. Spitzer may feel differently than me, but at that moment, no stupid political advisors could convince me to be the supportive spouse. (I just can't help but feel that those political advisors are behind the scenes, treating people like puppets.... "You need to be there... if the public sees that you are standing by your spouse, then maybe the fallout won't be so bad..., etc.") No sirree. I would be sitting at home, watching the press conference on TV, and eating a giant bag of Frito Lay Sour Cream and Onion Chips.

I suppose I might forgive them, though, if they brought a bag of chips home for me after the press conference. I would've finished the first one off by then. But I still would not stand next to them, all put together, in any press conferences. IF I did show up, it would be in my bathrobe and pjs, my hair all matted and unshowered, with chip crumbs all over me.

A closer proximity equals a higher probability

Katherine discovered that the indoor tennis center, located just a 15 minute walk from our house, has a cardio/weight room that is covered on our semester gym pass. We went there today to work out, and it was great. Instead of the old, stuffy, busy weight room with packed cardio equipment and buff, intimidating looking guys in muscle-shirts using all of the weights, it was a bright, window-filled, airy partition with older (grad student looking) users and plenty of free cardio equipment. And new weight-lifting equipment. This is going to be a huge boost to my motivation to work out. Now, we can just walk down there after Kath gets home from school, or I can head down early in the morning. In the past, it just seemed like such a hassle to drive into the gym in the evenings and pay to park in the garage, and then have a hard time finding equipment to use because everyone likes to work out at the same time.

Plus, doesn't it just seem wrong to drive to the gym? Granted, it is still winter and icy out, but.... drive to get exercise. It just never seems quite right to me.

The Lives of Others

Katherine and I watched a really good movie last night. The Lives of Others won the Oscar last year for Best Foreign Language Film. It's about the Stasi, the secret police in East Germany who spied on everyone considered to be a threat to the Socialist Party.... and about one officer in the Stasi who is trying to find incriminating evidence against the state's only accepted playwright... I didn't realize this level of control was exercised in the former GDR.

We give it two thumbs up, though... one thumb from each of us. Hmmm.. Harcourt and Halt... it does have a Siskel and Ebert-ish ring.

Does taking forever and a day to get a real job make me younger?

I was thinking about this tonight as I looked at a picture of Katherine's cousin, his wife, and their little baby... I don't feel like I'm old enough to be a responsible adult and have a "real job" and children and the like.... I still practically feel like I'm 22. Maybe a little more mature and capable, but definitely not almost 30. I asked Katherine if she thinks of me as being almost 30 and she doesn't think so either. So then I thought... maybe the advantage to taking 16 years post-high school to get a real job (4.5 years of college, 8 years of med and grad school, then 4 years of residency) is that I will feel perpetually young! Maybe that means that when I'm 34, I'll still feel like I'm 22 and just starting my life as an adult. But, on the other hand, maybe you never feel old and grown-up and responsible and mature... maybe you never feel like you're old enough to have children... maybe this is how I'll feel when I'm 80... I'll still feel like I'm 22.

At least, when I'm 80 and ask Katherine if I still look like I'm 22, she better say yes. :)

Hmm... I had to edit a spelling mistake after the fact, after Katherine read this post and laughed and said..."Don't ask, don't tell. Maybe it's a good policy in some instances after all." Hmph.

Edie Carey is conducive to thesis writing.

Katherine spent Saturday organizing our CDs. Realphabetizing them. And listening to old CDs that we hadn't listened to in a while. I rekindled my love for Melissa Ferrick. Joe terms her music my "angry women's music", which is funny and slightly true. I discovered her during my slightly unsettled, angsty years. :) I fell out of love with her during these past few, very content years. But yesterday, I remembered what an amazing guitarist she is. We listened to some Melissa Etheridge, as well. Katherine and I started dating shortly after attending a Melissa Etheridge concert in Chicago with my sister and a friend. Now, if that's not a cliche, I don't know what is. We also pulled out Katherine's soulmate in another universe, Elton John. She introduced me to the greatness of Elton, and I introduced her to the "greatness" of Cher. She doesn't like to admit it, but she does appreciate Cher now. And the Beatles... I did not know much of their music until Katherine. We went to see A Hard Day's Night at the Bijou on one of our early dates.... I do so love Ringo.

So, thanks to Saturday, I now have some Edie Carey on the Bose while I'm reading and writing. I have about 3 weeks to finish the remaining 2/3 of my thesis. I have a feeling that I will become reacquainted with many of my old CDs.