Life on Janssen

Book Review: The Lost Symbol

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:52:00 +0000

I was a big fan of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, although I didn't see either of the movies (mental note: add those to our netflix queue). So, I was pretty excited that he had another book coming out that featured the great Robert Langdon.

Mr. H got the book for me as a first anniversary gift. It's the paper year, and I thought it was the perfect interpretation of a paper gift.

This was back in September, and I just got around to reading it a few weeks ago. At the time I got the book, I still hadn't taken the GMAT, so I felt guilty about reading for pleasure. After I took the test on January 23rd, the first think I picked up when I got home was this book.

I'd like to say I didn't put it back down again until it was finished, but that wasn't the case. I'm just not the type of person that can read and read and read for hours on end until I finish a book. First of all, I'm a slow reader. Second, if I don't get enough sleep every night, I get cranky. So, my reading pretty much took place during my commute to and from work. This meant 15-page increments at a time, with a few evenings of reading when Mr H was in class. It took me 2 weeks, but I finally finished.

And, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I still like Angels & Demons better, but I think this one ties with The Da Vinci Code. Mostly because it takes place in Washington DC, and I can relate much more easily with the landmarks.

The Lost Symbol took me through all kinds of emotions. Fear, grief, surprise, anger and relief. Brown does such a good job of describing his scenes that it's so very easy to place yourself in them as a spectator, although a helpless one.

I was slightly disappointed in the ending. It seemed a bit rushed, and it didn't to do the rest of the book justice, but that's all I'll say about that.

It's probably inevitable that they'll make a movie out of this book, too. And, while I haven't even seen the other films to know what their style was like, I'm anticipating this one to have a very Silence of the Lambs-type feel to it.

If you liked Dan Brown's other books, then you're already invested in Robert Langdon, and you can't leave him hanging now. The Lost Symbol is definitely worth reading.

Eggplant and Roses

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:08:00 +0000

The husband and I have rarely made a big deal out of Valentine's Day. With my birthday in January and our (old) anniversary in March, it just seemed too much. So, we don't go gifts or anything extravagant. But, we both love good food, so a nice dinner out is always our preferred way to celebrate the occasion.

This year, we literally waited until the last minute to decide on our plans. Would we eat in? Order in? Go out? As we were driving back from West Lafayette on Sunday morning, we decided we'd go out. Mr. H really wanted to go to Cafe Orchid, which is a great Turkish restaurant right around the corner from our apartment. We haven't been there in a while, so I immediately agreed. We didn't have a reservation, but luckily we stopped by early enough to get a table before the place started to fill up.

The restaurant was decorated for the holiday with balloons and flower petals everywhere. It was really nice. And, I was given a red rose when I sat down at the table!

Unfortunately, the place was a bit too dark (and small) to discreetly take any photos of our yummy food.

We started with 2 appetizers. The cold one was babaganoush, which is an eggplant puree, mixed with various seasonings like garlic, lemon, cumin. In Turkey, it's called patlıcan salatası, which means eggplant salad.

The hot appetizer was fried calamari. You can't go wrong there. If you've never had calamari, you're missing out.

Then, we ordered an entree. We decided to pick 1 and share, because we also wanted to order dessert. Or at least, I wanted to order dessert. Mr. H let me pick out the entree because I'm a bit more familiar with Turkish cuisine than he is. I wanted to pick something he hadn't had before, so I went with Hünkar Beğendi (pronounced "HOONkar BAYendi"). It means Sultan's Delight, and it is another eggplant dish.

The eggplant in this dish is prepared very similarly to babaganoush, but it's mixed with cheese that's sort of like a mild white cheddar. (The same cheese that's often used in Saganaki, yum.) The eggplant mixture is the base of this dish. It is topped with a lamb stew, cubes of lamb cooked to perfection with a delicious, slightly spicy stew sauce. Mr. H loved it.

Finally, we were ready for dessert. I had been waiting for this part of the meal since we decided to eat at Cafe Orchid. We ordered Künefe, which is like a large piece of shredded wheat with a layer of melted cheese (think mozzarella) in the middle, covered with a simple syrup and served with a dollop of kaymak cream (think mascarpone cheese). It is heaven.

We had planned to go out for some drinks after dinner, but we were too full, and Mr. H had to go to work the next day (he works for a German company that doesn't care to celebrate our past presidents' birthdays). So, we went home and watched some pairs figure skating. It was a perfect end to a perfect Valentine's Day.

If only the GMAT was enough

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:07:00 +0000

Remember way back last year when I said I was going to take the GMAT? First, I was going to take it in August, then September, then December. So, when January rolled around and I still hadn't taken the test, I figured I should just sign up, even if I wasn't quite ready. There is nothing as motivating as having paid $250 to take a test on a specific date to get your butt in gear and actually do some meaningful studying.

I gave myself three weeks, and I studied a couple hours every day. This was, of course, on top of the studying I had done sporadically during 2009. I started with a practice test, and I did really well, a 710 (out of a 800)! I felt great about that score, so the pressure wasn't quite as bad anymore. I brushed up on some areas where I struggled. Then, a few days before the exam, I took another practice test. I got a 680. While I was disappointed that the score was lower than the first one, I attributed it to less than ideal testing conditions. I felt pretty ready for the actual exam.

On test day, I was feeling extra nervous. Thankfully, my test time was noon instead of 8am. It started with the 2 essays. A half hour for each. I spent the first 5 minutes writing out a quick outline, the next 20 minutes actually writing my essay, then the last 5 minutes proof-reading. I knew when I was done that I had nailed those essays. But, I'm an engineer so, I was glad I had finally arrived at the math portion.

After I saw the first problem, I wished I could go back to my essays. The math portion has 37 problems, and it's 75 minutes. This means you can spend, on average, about 2 minutes per problem. Well, the first one was about the quadratic equation, and it's solutions. I know the formula for the 2 solutions of the quadratic equation like the back of my hand. But that's not what the problem was asking. It wanted to know something else, another formula that I didn't bother to remember because it can be derived from the formula I do know. The issue, it was going to take me more than 2 minutes to figure it out. I thought I could make up the time on other problems because surely there would be easier questions that wouldn't take me a full 2 minutes to solve. But, I got hit with a lot of problems that would take longer than 2 minutes. At the end, I had to blindly guess at 3 questions because I had 40 seconds left. Ugh, I felt sick. I'm supposed to be good at math!

I took the optional 8-minute break and tried to forget about the last 75 minutes. I still had another section - verbal. I drank some water and ate some crackers, then I went back into the testing room. Luckily, the verbal section was not nearly as painful. And, I still had 2 minutes to spare when I was done.

Then, came the part of the test where you see your score (if you decide to have the test scored, but after spending that money and time, I wasn't about to throw it away). I clicked the "Yes" button to the question that asked if I wanted to report my score, and I saw....

.......

..... a 660. I had decided before the test that my goal was a 650. For my top choice business school, I figured a 650 was the lowest score I could get and feel totally confident about my acceptance. Their middle-80% of accepted GMAT scores range from 590-640. So, I should have been happy about a 660. And, I was, sort of. It puts me in the 82nd percentile, meaning that I scored better than 82% of the people who have taken the GMAT in the last 3 years. That's not so bad. But my math score was just so disappointing. I shouldn't have been surprised. I knew I froze. But, there's no going back, and it's definitely not worth another $250 to try again. So, it's time move forward and actually apply to schools.

Now, I'm writing essays, requesting transcripts and asking for letters of recommendation. All for the opportunity to go to graduate school.

Which really makes me think of this clip from The Simpsons:

Or, maybe I'll win the lottery in the next few months, and I won't have to worry about it!

Florida Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:31:00 +0000

About a month ago, Mr. H and I spent a weekend in Tampa. It was such a great weekend because the weather was practically perfect in Florida and Chicago was having their first real taste of winter.

I was actually in Florida for a whole week because I had to go there for work (no complaining here!). Mr. H flew down on Friday and we went back home on Sunday night.

I realized I could never actually live in Florida, though, because they have giant birds that are always just walking around.

One of the best parts of the weekend was when we went down to Clearwater beach for sunset. There was a group of people playing with the 2 cutest puppies alive along the shore, and then I saw dolphins jumping in and out of the water! I felt like I was all of a sudden living in a Lisa Frank scene.

On Sunday, before we went to the airport, we had an urge to go mini-golfing. So, we looked in the GPS and found a nearby place. It was a pretty neat course. And there were tiny anoles everywhere! Plus, I beat Mr. H so I had a lot of fun. =)

It was nice to miss the first big winter weather of the season, but winter, unfortunately, lasts much longer than 1 week at home. With the weather being so ridiculously cold right now, I'm thinking the large birds might not be such a bad trade off.

High Maintenance Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Once upon a time, my cat Zoey used to have a really nice cat bed, but I don't think she ever once slept in it. Her sleep is very important to her, and she needs to make sure she's completely comfortable, which can be quite difficult for a cat. Recently, I started paying attention to the spots that she deems suitable, and I can totally see now why that cat bed was just not good enough.

She apparently likes to sleep....

Under the Christmas tree.

On a blanket we use to muffle the noise from the heater.

On a chair that's missing its cushion.

Even on a plastic bag.

Thanks, Zoey, for showing me the way.

Chocolate Biscotti

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:42:00 +0000

To me, biscotti always seemed like something that you only buy because it would be too difficult to try making it at home and there was no way it could turn out as nicely.

Boy was I wrong!

We got Mr. H's dad and step-mom a coffee maker for Christmas, and I thought some biscotti to go with it would be a good addition. Mr. H suggested we try making the biscotti, so I did a bit of research and found this recipe. It's basically Martha Stewart's recipe with some adjustments to the directions. I also left out the hazelnuts because Mr. H's step-mom is allergic.

The dough was really easy to put together, but I was a little confused about shaping the logs.

This was my attempt. They were okay, but a little bit flatter than I would have liked.

But once I started cutting them, they looked much better!

It was actually looking like biscotti!

And they tasted SO yummy!

We made these on Christmas eve, and I really didn't have the time to wait for any sort of chocolatey drizzle to set, so I skipped it. Maybe next time, because there will be a next time.

Ringing in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:29:00 +0000

Ready or not 2010 is here. If your neck is already sore from all the looking back and looking forward that you've been doing, I'm sorry I won't be any help.

The past year went by so fast. Overall, it was a pretty mellow year. But there were a few exciting things that happened.
These were my favorite parts of 2009:
* Mr. H and I rang in the new year in the Dominican Republic on our honeymoon.
* I went to our annual Girly Get-Together with some of my college friends in Southern California.
* Mr. H and I made all kinds of yummy goodies.
* We moved to a new apartment with a 2nd bedroom AND a dishwasher!
* We went to Lollapalooza, and it rocked!
* We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary.
* I got a promotion and stopped traveling all the time for work!
* We went to Istanbul to visit my family for Thanksgiving.
* We went to Tampa for a quick trip in mid-December to get away from the Chicago winter.
* We had many wonderful Christmases with Mr. H's families and mine.

I realize that the last few items on that list don't have blog posts about them. This not traveling all the time for work has really cut into my blogging time. But, I'm really enjoying spending the evenings with my husband. In 2010, I'll do a better job of using the nights when Mr. H is in class to get caught up.

There are a lot of other things I'm looking forward to in 2010, too.
Here are the things I'm most excited about:
* Hopefully, we will be purchasing our first home.
* Mr. H will graduate from business school and I will start business school.
* My uncle and aunt will have twin boys!!

And, here are some things I want to accomplish:
* Lose weight. I haven't done so well the last few months with Weight Watchers, but the holidays are over and I need to get back on track.
* Take the GMAT and get accepted to a school. If I want to start school in the fall, this obviously needs to happen first.
* Take lots of vacations. I get an additional 5 days this year. I plan to take advantage of them.

I know the 2010 lists look a little small, but that's what I like about it. I think 2010 is going to be a great year us, and I hope it's a great year for you too!

Oh, Hello!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:53:00 +0000

If I promise not to go a month and a half without posting again, can we just forget this didn't happen and move on with our lives?

*phew* Thanks.

Now, where were we?

Oh yes. Quince.

Have you ever had a quince before?

No? You really should try it. It's a delicious fruit. Kind of like a cross between an apple and a pear, but with its own uniqueness. Did you know we're nearing the end of quince season?

That's what I thought. Do you mind if I keep answering these questions on your behalf?

Great.

Now, back to the quince. If you've never had one before, you should give them a shot. I know they can sometimes be a challenge to find in the US. We got lucky at Whole Foods, but I'm hoping maybe I can find them for cheaper at a Middle Eastern market.

There are several varieties of quince. Most of which aren't really good to eat raw. The ones we got at Whole Foods were really really hard, so I'm thinking they wouldn't be too yummy to eat raw. We baked ours and they were delicious. The recipe will follow soon, but first, I'm sure you're wondering where all this quince talk is coming from.

This year, instead of the same old, traditional plans for Thanksgiving, we were surrounded by a bunch of family at a big dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie..... in Istanbul, Turkey. And yes, we did indeed eat turkey in Turkey. The irony has not escaped me. But more importantly, we were in Istanbul in November, the heart of quince season. And, Turkey is the world's leading producer of quince. It's been a little while since I've been over there outside the summer season, and I had all but forgotten about this delicious fruit. Plus, Mr H really loved the quince dessert, so I knew we had to try to make it when we got back home.

So anyway, enough background information. On to the goods.

We have this pretty cool Turkish cookbook. It has a ton of recipes of my favorite Turkish dishes, which is good. But it was originally written as a cookbook for people in Turkey and was translated into English, which leads to some confusion. I know the names of most dishes by their Turkish name, not the English translation, many times because there isn't a direct English translation. So, it is sometimes a challenge to find and then follow the right recipe.

The baked quince recipe was easy to find, but a bit of a challenge to follow. Here's what we did:

Peel, core and quarter 2 quince.
Remove the seeds and put them in a cheesecloth with 3-4 whole cloves.
Boil the quince with the cheesecloth, with just enough water to cover the quince, until the quince becomes soft.
Put the quince in a baking dish and cover with 3/4 cup sugar.
Sprinkle a dash of cinnamon over each quince.
To the water that boiled the quince, add another 3/4 cup sugar and boil until it thickens slightly.
Pour syrup over quince and bake at 350 until for about an hour.

The actual directions said to bake at "medium" until the quince is "done". We actually took the quince out at half an hour and ate one. It was delicious, but we decided it could use another half an hour in the oven.

Mr H made a mess peeling and coring the quince.

The quince becomes a golden color the longer it cooks. In Turkey, the dish is red. This is either because they have a different variety of quince (not likely) or because they use a kind of sugar that is infused with spices like cinnamon (more likely). Also, this dish is usually served with a yummy dairy product that we don't have in the US. But mascarpone cheese also works well!

If you're up for trying this dish on your own, I found a pretty good website with easier to follow instructions here! Don't be intimidated. We really weren't sure what we were doing, following directions from a confusing recipe, and it still ended up delicious.

Bon Appetit!

p.s. I love my holiday plates!

Oh Deer

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:36:00 +0000

I hate when stereotypes are true.

Especially the whole "deer in the headlights" one.

I mean, why don't they move?!?

Before last weekend, I had never hit any kind of animal. But now, my life has changed. I hit a deer, and it was scary. The whole thing happened really fast. And, I've been pretty much second guessing the way I reacted since it happened.

My friends and I were all okay. The car just had a few dents and a cracked headlight. And, the deer was even able to run away. But, I still feel like I did something wrong. Like I should have been able to avoid the deer completely.

But then again, maybe she wanted to be hit. I mean, she did change directions just.in.time for me to avoid missing her. Maybe deer aren't evolving in a way that makes them aware of the danger of cars so they avoid roads. Maybe getting hit by a car gives them a kind of high, so they're evolving to become stronger, so that they have a better chance of surviving a high speed (okay, 35mph) collision with a motor vehicle. I wish Darwin was still around to answer these pressing questions.

In the meantime, I'm just waiting for Avis to call me back since I was in a rental car at the time!

More Stein please?

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:28:00 +0000

You know that feeling when you finally realize you're a grownup? Maybe it's the day you get married. Maybe it's the day you have your first child. Maybe it's the day you get a paper cut on your tongue from licking envelopes for all the bill payments you have to mail.

For me, it was when I realized I thoroughly enjoyed doing something that I really despised doing when I was younger.

I'm talking about reading Time Magazine, of course. Sometimes there are assignments that you hate doing, but you still realize their value. Like multiplication tables. But sometimes there are assignments that you really hate, and don't care what value they may provide. This was how I felt when we were forced to read Time Magazine my sophomore year in high school, cover to cover, and were then quizzed on minutea from each issue. Why did I have to read the news? Wasn't TV just as good at telling me the news? Plus, it's a little difficult to understand the significance of an article, if you're trying to remember the 4th word of the 7th paragraph on page thirteen. I was just not having it.

Cut to 12 years in the future, and now I voluntarily read Time Magazine, cover to cover, every.single.week. I discovered several months ago that I could use my Northwest Airline miles to get magazine subscriptions. This suited me pretty well because I didn't have enough miles for a free ticket, but I rarely fly Northwest and was afraid the few thousand miles I did have would expire. I got subscriptions to Glamour, Martha Stewart Living and Time.

Time is the only one I actually read. The others just pile up on a bookshelf. But it's comforting to know that they're there if I were to ever get really bored, and we had no electricity.

I really enjoy reading Time magazine, really. I don't skip a single page. My favorites parts of each issue are generally the stuff in the front, though. Short recaps about what happened in the last week. Quotes from people who have usually made fools of themselves. And letters from other Time readers praising or berating the magazine for it's stance on a particular issue.

But, my favorite issues are those with Joel Stein's The Awesome Column on the last page. Nancy Gibbs sounds like she's trying to be my mom and Joe Klein is just a tad too serious. Joel, however, never fails to make me laugh. And considering how depressing most of the other articles usually are, it's nice to laugh when reading a serious news magazine. Even if people give me funny looks because I'm laughing out loud while reading Time Magazine of all things.

Nothing like reading a magazine that you hated as a kid to make you realize you're an adult because you love to read the articles that make you laugh and feel like a kid again.

Where am I?

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:08:00 +0000

I've had to remind myself all.day.long that I'm in California.

Seriously.

After spending the last 5 or so months flying into Pennsylvania every week, it really throws me off to start a new project. This time, it's about an hour east of San Francisco.

Two things are also not helping me remember where I am:

(1) My blackberry doesn't update to the local time.
(2) The retail area around here looks remarkably like the area I stayed in during my project near Phoenix.

Usually, I go to the same city for many weeks in a row. But this time, I won't be. I'll probably be going to Indianapolis next week and Atlanta the week after.

And then....

And then....

No more constant traveling!

That's right. I'm moving on to a new job within my current department. I'm really excited about it because it will be much less travel and much more exciting work.

But, I think I'm going to start paying for everything with my Aadvantage Mastercard so I can keep accumulating frequent flyer miles. It's a serious addiction.

I love Wednesday night

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:14:00 +0000

Have you seen Glee?!?

If not, you really should. It's hilarious.

And how can you go wrong with Jane Lynch?

Seeing her every Wednesday makes me think of Best in Show. Which makes me think of the quote "in those days we wore wool socks". Which reminds me of my freshman year in college. Oh good times.

And, Kristin Chenoweth was in tonight's episode!!!

This makes the show almost fill the void in my life left behind by the cancellation of Pushing Daisies. But, according to IMDB, that's her only appearance. [insert sad face]

Ok, so the show isn't exactly the most realistic thing on TV, but they ALWAYS have great songs from Journey and Heart.

Now I know I've got you hooked.

Flying dolphins and sweet notes

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:30:00 +0000

My mom and one of her friends came to visit last weekend. We went to the Shedd Aquarium, and I was really excited about it. I've loved the Shedd Aquarium my whole life.

My favorite part is the Oceanarium. Especially, when you can catch some flying dolphins.

Or a poisonous frog that looks eerily like something I once got for 20 tickets at a Chuck E Cheese.

Or a pregnant beluga trying to say Hi!

Changing subjects, I came back to my hotel room today to a really sweet handwritten note from a housekeeping staff member, specifically Amy S. It said:

"Dear Guest,

I hope that your stay here as been enjoyable so far. Please let me know if you need anything! [smiley face]

Take Care,

- Amy S. -

Only there was an actual smiley face in the note and not the words "smiley face".

So nice!

Pirates, champagne and too much food

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:08:00 +0000

It's a rare weekend when we haven't made plans to fill up all 48 of our hours away from the work week. But seeing as how last weekend was our anniversary, we had a pretty good excuse to tell people no.

The weekend started with a trip to the Field Museum. When I suggested we go to the Pirate exhibit on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, my husband responded with "This is why I married you."

There was a wedding party taking photos on these steps behind Mr. H's right shoulder. They had seven bridesmaids. Seven!

This was at the entrance to the water exhibit. Did you know that water on the Hale Bopp comet has a heavy hydrogen atom? What does that even mean?

The next day, we had brunch at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts (where we had our wedding reception). It was unfortunately delicious and I ate way too much food. When we got there, the banquet coordinator was the one seating people for the brunch. She recognized us and said "Hi! I haven't seen you guys in while!" and I said "Yeah, it was about 1 year ago today, actually!" And they let us have brunch on the house since it was our anniversary!

Afterwards, we headed over to Heritage Park (where we had our ceremony) to take a photo. There were people there setting up for a party, so luckily we didn't have to make this one another self-taken shot.

But it is a little far away. I guess you just need to pick your battles.

Finally, the afternoon and evening ended like most other Sundays. With football and champagne.

Ok, so we don't really end most other Sundays with champagne. Especially not really yummy champagne that was a gift from a few years ago from Ms. Nonsense. We were saving it for a special occasion!

Now, is observing Columbus Day an acceptable excuse for turning down invitations? Actually, nevermind, I already have plans for that weekend.

Thank Goodness for the CTA

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:03:00 +0000

This post was originally going to be about my favorite sushi restaurant in Chicago, Sushi Mura. It's easily one of my most favorite places to eat, so I thought I'd do a quick plug for it on this blog. The food is always delicious, the service is excellent and Monica (the owner) always makes you feel like family. She's always giving us candy on our way out the door, it seems like. Saturday was gummi bears. Mmmm.

But, I was curious about what other people thought of this place, so I went to check out their reviews on Yelp. They have an average rating of 4 stars, based on 72 reviews. So, it seems other people like this place, too. Actually, that's not much of a surprise, because anyone I've ever brought there (friends, mom, dad, aunt) loves it. But what really surprised me was the number of people complaining about how difficult it is to park in that neighborhood.

Seriously?

Sushi Mura is about a quarter of a mile from the Southport stop on the Brown Line.

I will never understand why so many people insist on driving in Chicago when we have a perfectly adequate public transit system. There's even a mobile website to see how long you have to wait for your bus to get to your stop. (I'm anxiously awaiting the day when this is available for all the trains, as well.)

We try to keep our car trips to situations that involve leaving the city limits or going to Costco. I'm not bringing that much chicken onto a bus. But driving to Wrigleyville for dinner?

(a) Did you really expect parking to NOT be a problem?

(b) Why?

I think this is why Men's Health ranked Chicago #1 on their Fattest Cities in the Nation list in 2006. (Although, we did move down to #13 in 2009!)

But really, wouldn't you rather be making progress towards your destination than be stuck in this:

Ok, so this is the Kennedy on a Friday afternoon at the start of a 3-day weekend, but STILL! Would it kill us to walk a little bit for some delicious sushi? I think not.

One Year Down

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Sunday is our first wedding anniversary!!

Every day, I pinch myself to remind me that it's not all a dream. I really am married to my best friend. I realize how cliche that sounds, but it's true, so whatever. If I could pick from anyone in the whole word to just hang out with (or to even go out and try something new with), I'd pick Mr H 9.8 times out of 10.

We're going to the Field Museum on Saturday. It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and they have a Pirate exhibit going on, so it's probably naive of me to hope that it won't be too busy. Then, Saturday night, we're going out to a nice dinner at our favorite local sushi place. This is all topped off with a brunch on our actual anniversary day at the place where we had our reception. How nice is it that they have an awesome brunch on Sundays?! I'm really looking forward to celebrating the wonderful 365 days since we said "I do".

But, actually, I didn't really say "I do". What I said was:

I Mrs H take you Mr H to be my husband

I promise above all else to live in truth with you

and to communicate fully and fearlessly

I give you my hand and my heart

as a sanctuary of warmth and peace

and pledge my love, devotion, faith and honor as I join my life to yours.

I didn't write that. But I completely meant it. And, I completely mean it when I say that our wedding day was the best.day.ever. The weather was perfect, we were surrounded by people we love and who love us, and I truly had the time of my life.

Not that you could tell or anything from our pictures:

(Pssst, that's ms. nonsense! She was my matron of honor!)

Clean Energy Looks Cool

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Remember way back when I posted about seeing these gigantic objects on the highway?

Well, as it turns out, that really was a wind turbine blade that was headed to Benton County, IN. I didn't give it much thought until a few months ago (okay, it was May), when we actually drove through Benton County on our way to Purdue. When I saw the sign saying we were leaving Newton County and entering Benton County, the memory of the turbine blade came rushing back to me, and I exclaimed "Oh! There's a wind farm in Benton County! I wonder if we'll be able to see it."

I'm pretty sure my husband pretended to ignore me. I get excited about a lot of things.

But, seriously, not two minutes later, we saw these:

And these:

They were everywhere! And, just take a guess at who was the more excited of the two of us to see so many wind turbines, up close and personal (hint: it was not me).

They were HUGE:

Very cool.

Unless.... your car is running on fumes and you're trying to exit the highway to get some gas before you find yourself stranded in Iowa, but you're right behind TWO of these monsters and it takes you an extra 20 minutes to get off the exit ramp.

Hmm, just trying to make a regular left turn didn't work. Maybe if I do a 5 bazillion point turn, I'll eventually be able to turn left.

Sigh.

Definition Fail

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:57:00 +0000

"There's a feeling that the only way to get a bipartisan agreement is to defeat a Democratic proposal on the first hand, and then the Democrats will come to Republican leadership, and then, at that point, they'll know the only way they're going to get health-care reform is bipartisan." - Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa

First of all, the number of commas in that quote makes my head hurt. In this age of Twitter, will run-on sentences ever become acceptable? I hope not.

Second, I'd like to know what sort of dictionary Senator Grassley is reading. The one I have (an apparently silly and out-dated one called Merriam-Webster) defines Bipartisan as "marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise between two major political parties." I bet Senator Grassley's dictionary defines Integrity as "changing one's position to further advance one's own career and/or interests."

A different first anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:43:00 +0000

As we approach our first wedding anniversary, I can't help but remember another event that happened exactly one week before we said "I do". As I was in Indianapolis, getting a last minute trim and making my final hair decisions for the big day, it was raining in Northwest Indiana. Mr H was at his dad's house in Hebron. In all, it rained more than 10 inches in a very short amount of time. We realized things were bad when I had to try 6 different routes to get to my father-in-law's house before I could find a road that wasn't already too flooded. During my many attempts to pick Mr H and his brother up, their mom had called to say that she needed help moving things out of her basement because her house was going to flood!

She was very fortunate that they were able to move most of the valuable and invaluable things up to the second floor. Because within a few hours, her entire basement was flooded and her first floor looked like this:

And, her backyard looked like this:

I had never seen this kind of flooding up close and personal before. It was crazy. I felt really bad for my mother-in-law because she had spent the entire year preparing her house and garden for the wedding. We were going to take our pre-ceremony pictures in her backyard, and she was going to host a post-wedding brunch for the day after. I am thankful that Mr H has a really close family, because his aunt (who lives just a block away and had no damage) offered her house for those things!

As if having a flooded house wasn't stressful enough, my incredibly thoughtful mother-in-law was also going crazy because my dress (as in THE dress) was still upstairs in her home. She was really afraid that the smell and mold would start to get to the dress, but police were stopping people from entering their homes because of all the damage. On the Thursday before the wedding, she was able to convince someone to let her in her house. Although, she did have to take a boat to the front door.

That's my dress and her dress in the big trash bag. They're in her driveway in this picture.

Luckily, her insurance covered most of the repairs and there wasn't any major structural damage. By Thanksgiving, her home was pretty much back to normal. In fact, better than normal. She now has really nice new stainless steel appliances and beautiful granite counter tops!

One week after the flood, it was still all over the headlines.

There had been a levee project in the works since sometime in the 80s, but it kept getting delayed because of funding. Needless to say, funding was magically a non-issue and the levees were fixed. One year later, the area where her house stands is much better protected. But everybody still gets a little uneasy when they see a lot of rain in the forecast.

Highway Hotdog

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:40:00 +0000

Guess what we saw when we looked in the rear view mirror during our drive home from a family event on Sunday????

I made Mr H slow down so I could get a better picture. =)

Ah, the simple joys in life.

Maritime Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:34:00 +0000

One of my most favorite touristy activities in Chicago is the River & Lake Architectural Boat Tour. It's a lot of fun, and you get to learn a lot of interesting facts about the buildings and city of Chicago. For instance, did you know part of the Boeing building is cantilevered and supported by trusses on the roof?

We did this tour a couple years ago during the Air & Water show, but it was cloudy and a little bit rainy all day long. So, I've been itching to try again since then. With yesterday's forecast being in the 70s and sunny, we thought it would be a great day for a boat tour!

So, we headed downtown early in the morning to get on the 10:30am boat. The sun was shining, and everybody was talking about how it was a perfect day to be out on a boat.

Wendella's dock is on the northwest side of the Michigan avenue bridge. It's right next to the new Trump Tower, which is the building on the right side of the above picture. Doesn't it look like a lovely day?

Well, shortly after we left the locks at the mouth of the river and entered Lake Michigan, we noticed some fog rolling in.

Then, it got worse.

And, still worse.

Within a few minutes, you couldn't see a thing.

The city of Chicago is back there somewhere, I promise!

But, then a short 10 minutes later (based on the timestamps of these photos), we were right by Buckingham Fountain, and everything was crystal clear again.

We passed by the Field Museum,

and the Shedd Aquarium (another of my Chicago favorites),

then, the fog rolled in again. This time, it was even worse, and it lasted much longer. It was time to head back to the locks to do the river portion of the tour, but it was impossible to know where we were. I'm not sure if the captain had any sort of equipment that told him where to go, but if he did, then it must not work in dense fog. We kept going (what I assumed was) north, then all of a sudden, the boat dramatically slowed down. We looked straight ahead, and saw a wall.

Seriously. Good thing our captain didn't have an ill-timed sneeze. Otherwise, we might have found ourselves on top of that wall.

Ok, maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic. It was mostly exciting, actually, with just a bit of scary mixed in. We finally made it back to the locks, then the fog quickly disappeared and the river portion of the tour was uneventful, but still fun and interesting!

Maybe, in 2 years, we'll try the boat tour again. Could the third time be the charm for perfect weather?

Cute or Sad?

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:02:00 +0000

I can't decide if this video is really cute or really sad.

This one, though, is definitely cute, with a bit of funny:

What do you think?

Go Banana!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Breakfast display at the hotel:

Does this make anyone else think of Ralph Wiggum?

Speaking of which, I found this totally creepy video on youtube:

Monday Night Birthday Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:39:00 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, my husband recently had a birthday. That was two weeks ago. We both decided to take the day off because we desperately needed a three day weekend, and Labor day was still too far off. Plus, a birthday is an excellent excuse for a day off. We mostly just hung around the apartment during the day, but at night, we took the Red Line down to the southside to see the Chicago White Sox play the Kansas City Royals.

I bought the tickets on stubhub since that's where the ticket exchange is hosted for season ticket holders who try to sell single game tickets. We got a pretty good deal!

Mr H is a big White Sox fan. His mom got him that t-shirt for his birthday!

These poor guys. They spent all this time marking the base paths, then it started to pour.

So, we went to the Bullpen Bar to hang out during the rain delay. We had beer and nachos while we waited. Yummy!

Mark Buehrle was the starting pitcher for the Sox. Lucky us! He has a perfect game going up until the bottom of the 2nd inning.

This was the score after Buehrle's last inning.

This was the score just a short inning and a half later. Thank goodness for the two runs at the bottom of the 7th. Oh, Linebrink.

I heart Paul Konerko.

They won in the end. It was a good night. And, Mr H had a great birthday!

Kitchen Adventures: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. H) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:56:00 +0000

The other fantastic kitchen gadget I bought for my husband's birthday was the ice cream maker that goes with our stand mixer. I've always wanted to try to make ice cream. And, it was almost as fun as making the sausage.

Mr H tried to be healthy with the ice cream making, so instead of half & half and whipping cream (like the recipe called for) we used skim milk and half & half. We picked a French Vanilla recipe because it had minimal ingredients.

But it did call for eight egg yolks. EIGHT! So, how healthy could this really be, really? We used the whites for an omelet at breakfast the next day.

First, heat the half & half (or skim milk, whatever) on the stove top. And, can I tell you how wonderful warm milk smells? Mmmmm.

After beating the egg yolks with some sugar until they're all mixed together, VERY SLOWLY pour in the warm milk. We're not trying to make scrambled eggs here.

Then, put the mixture in the fridge for a whole eight hours. This is why making sausage is more fun. There's more consistent action. Once the mixture is nice and chilled, you can add in the vanilla, whipping cream (or half & half) and a pinch of salt.

In order to be ready to make ice cream, the ice cream maker/bowl needs to sit in the freezer for at least 15 hours. We've decided the freezer is now the storage place for the bowl. Now, we can make ice cream on a whim! Oh, except for the whole "cooling the mixture for 8 hours" part.

After about 20 or so minutes of mixing, everything suddenly starts to become solid (or solid-ish if you use ingredients with very low fat content). We ate a bit right away, and it was delicious. The rest got put into a container and stashed in the freezer. I had a bit more the day, and the consistency was much more like ice cream after it had sufficiently frozen. But, I think next time we'll go with the dairy products we're supposed to use.

Zoey seemed very intrigued by our dairy deliciousness. Too bad, so sad. If she didn't have the world's most sensitive stomach (and she wasn't a cat), she could have joined us.