Some days the interesting things that happen are actually interesting

Most of my anecdotes are pretty trivial, or, as some would say, I tell a lot of five dollar stories*.  Stories about my day usually go something like this: I made it to work something like on time, figured out some of my homework problems, learned interesting things in astrophysics, punched the air in kickboxing, came home and wasted time.

With minor variations, my days are just about the same.  So when someone asks me what's new, I don't really have anything for them.

Until today.

On the bus home from kickboxing, I was killing time with a cute little RPG on my ipod, when all of a sudden, SCRRAAAAAAAPE goes the bus and everyone is freaking out.  When I look up, I see that about 8ft in front of me there is a hole in the bottom of the bus.  Apparently what happened is that a loose manhole cover was tipped up enough by the bus wheel going over it to get caught between the road and the bottom of the bus.  It then proceeded to rip a hole in the bus as it was dragged along for several feet.  All of us riding the bus had to fill out a little card saying what happened, I wrote the accident cause down as "rogue pothole".



This day was much better than the time the bike rack fell off the front of the bus.

Now, if the World Series can just end so I can do regular things on Wednesdays, like watch Glee.


*when someone tells a story that has no point and realizes it, they can rescue the story by saying "and then I found five dollars", hence, a five dollar story.

GIANT SLUG

I came home tonight to see this by my door. I have never seen a slug of this magnitude before.

One Year: I've been scooped!?!

I realize, of course, that keeping a blog for anything at all is not particularly unique in this day and age, but I was glued to the tube the other night when I saw this (notice 1:15 to 1:20 especially). Oh great, a feel-good movie about a woman working her way through a cookbook and keeping a blog on it. Given, Julia Child is kind of cooler than Martha Stewart, and I don't have a soul-crushing job (or, at least I haven't discovered it to be so yet). And if, in the future, someone accuses me of copying this movie, I will at least be able to defend myself with the fact that I started this project an entire year before I heard anything about it.

Yes, that's right, I've been baking cookies on a weekly basis for a year now! The time has passed just as quickly as cliches call for, and here I am in perhaps the busiest summer of my life.

Why am I so busy? Well, let's see: I work full-time in a lab, I have three hours of rehearsal practically every evening, and whatever spare time I have otherwise goes into exercise or studying for the qual. I've still found time to sneak in cookie baking, but many of my projects have been uncomplicated to allow me to do other things. Although I'm often late and backlogged with posting, I promise that I'm keeping up this project, and will continue to stay on schedule with my baking.

Last weekend I made the 7-hour drive home to spend the Fourth of July with my family. This is one of the most important holidays on my Dad's side of the family, perhaps because there are something like 8 birthdays that happen in June and July put together. So everyone came home - my drive wasn't the longest, either - for a weekend of sun, soccer, and celebration. It was awesome. It also meant that I did not make cookies on Saturday.

Instead, I came home from rehearsal Monday night and started baking cookies that are perhaps the most interesting thing I've made yet: Cornmeal Thyme Cookies (53). Now, it's very difficult to imagine what it tastes like to put a savory herb into a cookie, and, to be honest with you, I thought that these were going to be disgusting. Or, considering that this is a published cookbook, I thought they wouldn't be better than mediocre.

After mixing everything together - that is, the cornmeal, currants, thyme, lots of butter, sugar, and other normal cookie things - and baking, I found that these are some of the best cookies I've ever had, especially the day after they were baked. Something between the first three ingredients listed made for a fantastic and unique taste, and perhaps it's the unique part that won me over. After all, I have some basis of comparison for most of the cookies I make, but this was totally new, and totally delicious. My friends were equally surprised that these were so good. If you're looking for a different cookie to share with people, this is definitely it.


Yesterday I decided to go with something a little more normal, and whipped up some Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies (54). These are a basic cookie with Dutched Cocoa in the dough and bittersweet chocolate chunks and dried tart cherries mixed in. The product is a couple dozen large cookies that have a very strong chocolate taste. The cherries do not feature too heavily in the overall taste of the cookies, but when you get a bite of one, you definitely notice it. Although I think these cookies are tasty, I would have liked it if the cherries were a stronger taste in them - especially considering how difficult it was to find sour cherries around here. Ah well. I'll chalk these down as good, but they were kind of a waste of money.


Alright, it's time for some sleep - I've got to be up early tomorrow for the start of yet another busy week. Hi ho the glamorous life!