Saturday, April 30, 2011

Finals Week

It is finally upon me: Finals Week. Which means that, instead of being outside and enjoying the nice weather we will (hopefully) be having this weekend and next week, I will be inside a building of some kind reading, writing and studying. In good news, I've already finished my major 20-page paper due Tuesday. Bad news is I haven't started studying for my Spanish final that takes place Monday. Guess what I'm doing all day tomorrow?
Here's to Studying!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Dead Week

I have managed to be pretty productive and finally finished a rough draft of my 20-page, 50% of my grade paper. And a week before it's due too! As far as I go, that's pretty darn good. So I have rewarded myself with my Fitness and Women's Health magazines and Spam-a-lot tomorrow with a friend. I feel like I should be stressed but I'm not...is there something wrong with that?
And because I'm not a ferris wheel, I can freak out about my Spanish final all weekend :)

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Zombie Day

Happy Zombie Day! When all the Christians celebrate the day a dead guy apparently came back to life. To me, it means hanging out with friends and an excuse to have some good food. I was going to try something I never have before - lamb. Or, more precisely, cooking lamb. I got a whole leg of lamb for Easter lunch/dinner. The menu for our Easter dinner was:

Appetizers:
   - Deviled Eggs (by Jess)
   - Cream Cheese Ball (also by Jess)
   - Shrimp Cocktail (again, by Jess)
   - Stuffed Mushrooms (also, again, by Jess)
   - Mango and Salmon Crustinis (by Tyler - they tasted like sushi and were pretty darn good)
Entree:
   - Roasted Leg of Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary
   - Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
   - Green Bean Casserole (a delish recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs, here)
   - Rolls and Butter
Dessert:
   - Chocolate Cheesecake with fresh fruit (made by my dad - soooooooo good)

Here's the delicious leg of lamb resting right out of the oven:
And after my Dad carved it:
It was delicious and turned out not to bad all that hard. I will definitely try to cook a leg of lamb again.

In another post of random cat pictures, Bella decided she wanted to lay in probably the most random spot. My coffee table top lifts so you can eat, drink, read, etc off of it. Bella decided the spaces underneath looked like a good spot to lie...
And, in normal cat way, if it's between something with a purpose to be used by cats and almost trash, the cat will always go with almost trash:
Hmmm cat-bed or box-top? Of course the box-top, cause it's not supposed to be used as a bed. It was a good Easter and I'm still full!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Study, Study, Study

While I'm writing a final paper, I will post some more pictures of my cats (they're cute, I can't help it). Timmy has decided that he has a new favorite position to sit in. I think he's in training.
He like to sit with his paws and arms outstretched...like he's trying to fly. Here he is on top of my desk...
On the arm of the couch...
And my legs. He's so darn cute sometimes. Off to paper writing (because 20-page papers about a legal topics are riveting)!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Blonde Ain't Cheap

I figured it was time to go back blonde, with the weather warming up and all. But since I dyed my hair brown, that's easier said than done. In order to turn brown hair back to blonde, you have to strip the color, which damages the hair and, done wrong, turns it orange. To avoid that horrible outcome, I went to get my hair done professionally. And because I had roots growing in, they had to first do a root touch up, so that all the bleached hair would be bleached the same. Here's a before:
And a during:
My head felt huge with all the foil on. Must be what Charlie Sheen feels like (Ba-dum-bum). But it took almost 2 hours putting all them in.
Ta-Da! Almost 5.5 hours later, I have mostly blonde but still some brown hair. It's a lot lighter than before. Anything lighter would probably cause my hair to fall out. Not cool. So as my hair grows out, it at least won't be as noticeable. And no more dying darker...too much work to dye it back!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Recovery Sunday

This is the story of my life today:
I'm trying to catch up on all the homework I've put off for Little 5. And Delta Sigma Pi's elections are later tonight, which will last a while. I cannot be unproductive this week!

Tuesday was a CrAzY night, fully of drunkeness and ending with a stop sign on my balcony.

Instead of going out Saturday night, I DD'd from 5 to 10pm. I got to see a lot of the alumni and made some money off it as well. I'd call that a successful Little 5.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Getting Behind

Ok, I'll admit, I'm behind thanks to Little 5 Week here at IU. I've been too busy going out, having good food and watching the races to remember to write. But I promise that there will be a post tomorrow, at least explaining my crazy Tuesday night (which will never be repeated). Until then, I will leave you with my favorite sign of the weekend, posted outside the entry gates to the Little 5 stands:

Monday, April 11, 2011

Real Food!

I stopped by the butcher today. I didn't know that Bloomington had one, let alone right in my backyard (if I had one). Its almost right behind my apartment complex. The Butcher's Block was amazing. It had almost any meat you could think of. I bought chicken and lamb, but they also have rabbit, seafoods, bison, alligator, pheasant, beef, turkey, pork and so much more. All in different cuts and ground on site.
They package them in paper too...I know it's dorky but its like I was kind of transported back in time. And I like it. I also feel better buy meat there as everything is local (except maybe the alligator). I'm saving the lamb for finals week to make stew so I can focus on studying...or something like that.

This has nothing to do with meat, but this is really funny and I had to put it on here.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

An Unproductive Sunday

Whatever high hopes I had to get lots of things done today disappeared as soon as it reached 80 degrees here. In my apartment no less. That kind of heat just takes all my motivation. Instead, I grocery shopped and watched episodes on Netfix and Hulu. And took pictures of my crazy cats. Which I will now post here.
Bella all stretched out while I watched Kitchen Nightmares. I stopped throwing the hair tie so she decided a nap sounded good.
Tom watching me as I make Lentil Soup. He has his own designated spot on top of the fridge when I cook, otherwise he's underfoot and constantly yelling and pawing at me.
Tim joined me as I sat down to try and do actual work. He loves to sit like this, whether its on top of my desk or the edge of the couch.

Well, off to studying. I promised myself and episode of Archer if I reviewed all my slides from one of my classes :)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

American Greek Food

I was missing some good Greek food after being able to have the authentic stuff, so I tried Trojan Horse. Their menu looked delish, except for the normal American mistake of having lamb gyros (all the ones I ever saw in Greece were either chicken or pork, not lamb). I ordered the Combo dinner, which had a gyro, moussaka, tabouleh, and spanikopita.

I was really looking forward to some good Greek food but I was kinda disappointed. Mom said that since I've had the real stuff I'm now scarred for life with higher standards. The gyro meat, onions and sauce were there, but there was no actual pita. I got a small pita cut into triangles instead. And the tzatziki was runny. The tabouleh was good but the moussaka looked like it had been made long before I ordered it and was already set. I took a bite and it was decent, but again, it seemed older than an hour or so, so I let Tyler eat it ;) I'm saving the spanikopita for tomorrow.
MMMmmm Spanikopita. Not exactly what the one from the restaurant looks like, but I'm hoping it tastes better than it looks.

I bought a Cretan cook book while I was in Greece and will attempt to make Lentil Soup (should be easy enough) and Halva (the flour-based one, which may be a little harder). I hope to do that tomorrow, so I'll try to remember to take some pictures.
This is what I'm aiming to get tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

Friday, April 8, 2011

My New Favorite Website

While at work (I do actual work there too - but on really slow Fridays I surf the web, so shoot me), I came across a new website that is so entertaining that I feel I am now addicted. Its made by a guy who looks into the most random and interesting things that you've always wanted to know about but never actually sat down to do.

For example, we all know its cheaper to drink at home, but when's the last time you sat down to figure out a Long Island Ice Tea would cost $1.28 to make at home (so one on $2 Tuesday is a deal - and I don't have to figure out how to make it!). This guy has.

I make my own coffee at home and I know in the long run it saves me lots of money. One bag of the "good" coffee from my local specialty grocery store costs around $2.99/lb. Even if I buy 2 or 3 pounds, it pays for itself after 2 cups compared to Starbucks. But this guy found that one pound of coffee can make 3.2 gallons at around 64 cents/gallon. Makes me feel so much better about buying my creamer - the most expensive part of my coffee addiction.

He also discovers if there are actually 360 threads in a 360-thread count sheet, how much gold is in Goldschlager, and how many CDs a Sharpie can label. I want to know what this guy does for a living and how he has so much free time to do things like this. Seriously. Good time management.

Back to work...and blog stalking...

Thursday, April 7, 2011

My Fall Schedule

Advisors are great. At least mine are. I thought that after the summer I'd only have 6 needed credits to graduate. In actuality, it's 15. Like I said, I like my advisors. Without them I probably wouldn't be graduating this December - cause I screwed up my own graduation plan. But with both my summer and fall classes I will be a proud December 2011 graduate :D

Here are some of the classes I'll be taking...all upper level of course.

- PolySci Y490 Politics of Economic Crisis. My required senior poly sci intensive writing class. It seemed the most interesting. It about the current economic crisis (obviously) and how that affects politics across the country.
- PolySci Y360 US Foreign Policy. Its about US foreign policy post-1945. And it randomly meets in the optometry building...odd.
- PolySci Y304 Constitutional Law. Basically what it looks like. I have NO plans on going to law school, but it was above a 300-level and fit in my schedule without being ridiculously early or late. 
- Anthropology P399 Sex & Gender in the Ancient World. Basically what it says its about. We'll be looking at ancient texts and art. There was a content warning in the description, so that means it should be good ;)
-Anthropology P430 Archaeology of Violence and Conflict. By the same teacher as Sex & Gender, but about how violence affected ancient and modern peoples.

So this fall semester shouldn't be too bad. Except that I have to start seriously looking for a job. Like, starting end of July/ beginning of August. Then I'll start to be stressed. But not too much until then.

Welcome to my typical day at my apartment. You can replace "sock" with sweater, backpack, computer, papers, magazines...basically anything I own that isn't hung up or put away. Yet another reason I like my room to be clean.

Monday, April 4, 2011

I Hate Flo

I started my new Pilates Reformer class yesterday (the one that uses the machine). I personally liked it. There were 3 of us there with the max that can be in the class being 6 (the number of machines they have). I've never done Pilates before, so it was interesting. There were some moves that I could really feel working and I was shaking while doing them. I didn't feel some of the others as much, but I think it may be because my instructor set me on low resistance since it was my first time. Next time I'll use more and hopefully get a stronger workout. But I do like it so far.

Flo and I have parted ways. I got a letter Saturday stating that my insurance was up in May and I would not be asked to renew it because I "changed residencies." Which was news to me. I'm technically still at my Dad's house in Illinois because I am still an Illinois resident. However, Progressive considers me an Indiana resident because I spend my school year here. So I asked them how I was supposed to get Indiana insurance with Illinois registration and plates. They told me to re-register my car in Indiana. How do I do that if I'm not a resident? They didn't know.

They said if my Dad had a car in storage and I was on his insurance, it would be ok for me to have my car at school...which really isn't any different than what I'm doing now, except for that I have my own insurance. Long story short, I yelled at the customer service rep for basically penalizing me for being a student and hung up. I then searched for a new car insurance quote, which wasn't super easy because of the three accidents my old car had (none of which were my fault of course). I finally settled with Allstate, who gave me a good price plus multiple discounts. I called Progressive back to cancel my insurance with them. The customer service guy asked why I was canceling, to which I replied that they were trying to "screw me over." That threw him off. I'm glad to move on to a (hopefully) better insurance company. I would recommend NEVER using Progressive. Just from personal experience.  

I saw this on Stumble and the cat looks just like my Tommy...but I'm sure he'd be trying to catch the mouse, not let it own him. This week is looking like it'll be pretty hectic, so I'm off to work out and do some homework before bed. Later!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Dad's Visit

This past Friday, Tyler convinced me to be somewhat social and we went out to the bars. Kilroy's was almost dead, but there were the Jim Bean girls giving away free shots and the Budweiser girls with beer. There was also a ridiculous number of sorority bars crawl and a lot of girls in different outfits (one group looked like the Jamacian bobsled team from Cool Runnings). We did hit up the new bar, Dunnkirk, to check it out. I like it, personally. It can host live bands (like the Bluebird) but there's a second story where you can sit in booths or around the railing and watch instead of standing in a crowd. The only downside is that they don't really serve Long Islands but instead some Apple Pucker mixed drink. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't a Long Island.

My dad came to visit this weekend on Saturday. He came over and we went to dinner at Amol India, grabbed some candy at the shop of Kirkwood and he helped me put my new plates on my car. We just hung out Saturday night and watched some tv, which was nice cause it feels like forever since the last time I saw him. Sunday morning he helped fix some carpet in my apartment and we hit up Village Deli for lunch. It was a nice weekend and I'm glad he got a chance to come over. But with him on his way home, I now need to do homework. But I feel exactly like this:
I'm going to try and focus on what I need to do, but I don't know if I can promise much. Maybe a pot of coffee is in order :)

Tomorrow I'll talk about the new Pilates class I'm taking and why I had to switch insurance companies. Fun times! Off to homework!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Stir Fry!

Last night I made stir fry and had the forethought to actually take some pictures this time. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The stir fry sauce helped a lot.
The makings of our stir fry. The chicken was already cooking. The stir fry sauce you see there is what made the stir fry.
The basically completed stir fry. Thanks to my dad, I do own a wok. And I finally go to use it. It was as easy as cooking the chicken, adding the veggies and cooking those for a while and then adding the sauce at the end. It was yummy!
Tyler thought it was good too. Hence the horribly posed picture. And while we were cooking, Tom was in his cooking-helper spot on top of the fridge (otherwise its like having a 2 year old constantly pawing and meowing at you in the kitchen - if the kid was a cat). We found out that he loves Tyler's hair. I have no idea what he puts in or on it, but apparently it's delicious.
He almost fell off the top of the fridge while going for Tyler's hair. I have a silly kitty.