I love you Google, but

blogger really sucks to upload pictures too. I'm ditching you for wordpress.

Update your blog reader: The Way I See Today has moved to thewayiseetoday.wordpress.com!

I'll see you over there - with homemade pizza!

Google - we'll figure out a way to make it work. I'm still completely dependent on your email and calendar services. :)

Time!

My exams are done! After a presentation this week, I will (finally) be an Engineer. Yay!

So, to celebrate my glorious weekend of no homework (there was not a chance I was starting to work on that presentation before Monday!) what did I do with all this TIME!? Party it up? Sleep? Work out? Oh-for-three my friends. 

I made bread! Delicious, from scratch, I-know-every-ingredient-in-it Honey Whole Wheat Bread.  The recipe and directions are from Matt at BrewandBake - check out his tutorial on bread making - super informative and helpful! I now know why breads I previously made were so dense - I need to mix them longer, and let them rise way more.

Here's the recipe:

• 2 C Whole-wheat flour
• 2 C Bread-flour (I just used all-purpose, since that's all I had)
• 1.5 C water
• 1.5 t salt
• 1/4 C honey
• 3/4 t of yeast (I'm pretty sure I used way more than this. I used one of those small packages of yeast)

The first step was mixing the whole-wheat flour, 1/2 of the yeast and the water. Let sit for 12-16 hours.

Then, go ahead and add the rest of the ingredients, and mix. Keep mixing! Mix until you can stretch a small piece of dough, like this:

Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 2 hours. Matt's suggestion was an entertainment center/cable box. Conveniently, Back to the Future III was just starting, so the dough and I hung out for awhile:

After a few hours, fold the dough and let rise again. Then prep for baking, and let rise again for a final proof (there is a lot of Time! involved in this bread). Here the dough is, post rising and proofing, all ready to bake:

After 45 minutes at 350, it looked like this:

Great Scott! That's delicious! I will definitely be making this bread again.

Happy Earth Day!

I celebrated Earth Day by taking the bus to the little deli (aka Safeway. ha! take that Subway!) near my house. The bus trip had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that my car shakes while driving at the moment, and everything to do with Earth Day. I promise.

Anyways, I got this delish sandwich: Chicken breast, fresh mozzarella and veggies on this yummy looking multigrain bread!

I will be back for more, yummy sandwich!

I then headed over to Starbucks - where today, for Earth Day they are giving away free Pike Place coffee if you bring a mug. I sure did! (go Flames!)

I even got a little bit of studying in too.

When I left Starbucks though, all this white stuff had appeared:

SNOW?! It was like summer yesterday. When will it end?!

Confession

I love coffee. It's kinda my best friend. But I am a REALLY bad coffee maker. Any coffee I make is at worst non-drinkable, at best meh. I've tried:

• French Press
• Mr. Cheapy Coffee Maker I got when I moved out
• Fancy schmancy coffee maker we got as a wedding gift
• Expensive coffee*
• Ice Cold water *

Nothing works. I am doomed to pay $2 a morning for my coffee**. Except for today, since I'm home studying. I'll suffer through the meh coffee today, but any suggestions for tomorrow?

* I have also, of course tried cheap coffee and warm water, but that doesn't help either

** Another, highly unlikely option, is that the coffee I make at home is actually tasty, but I just like to buy stuff

Who's Cranky?

This lady.

I shouldn't be, after the AWESOME hockey last night (go Flames!).

But I slept awfully - tossed and turned. I tried to blame it on thePuppy, but I can't really be mad at her for trying to snuggle! I was dreaming of thatSTUPIDreport. 

LOTS of studying to do today, and I'm armed and ready with flashcards. Since I didn't get spinning in at 6 this am (due to the crankiness) I'm dashing off here in a bit. It's supposed to be gorgeous out here today, so here's hoping my mood improves!

It's DONE!!!

8 months, a few tears, and countless hours in the computer lab, and now it is DONE!

270 pages, plus last semesters 153. Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams, Economic Analysis, Reactor Optimization, DONE. 

YAY!!!

And now, I'm off to enjoy my last day of classes as an undergrad!

Bad Blogger!

so... so far this is a blog about absolutely nothing. It's a little venty about school, but in my mind, it's going to be much much more than that. So for my -5 readers....

I figure one way to be a better blogger is to tell you a bit about myself. I'm a homebody to the extreme - to me, the idea of heading out to a club or whatevs sounds awful, while a night snuggled up with theHusband, thePuppy along with some wine and PJ's sounds perfect. I'm an optimist. After I finish a term project and write three exams I'll be able to call myself an Engineer. I love to read. I love to cook. I've struggled with my weight since I was about 13. The current stuggle is finding time to work out and meal plan. I'm starting grad school in a month. Probably won't help with the time struggle. I love budgeting. 

I think that's all for now! How about a few pictures?

This is thePuppy. Isn't she cute!?

This is TheHusband and I, on our wedding day. Pretty cute, eh! 

5 Things Left to do as an Undergrad

* Assignment for awfulclass

* Final Report for tonsofworkgroupproject

*Final 1 (classidon'tunderstand)

*Final 2(awfulclass)

*Final Presentation for tonsofworkgroupproject

And then I'm FREE!!!!!!!!!!

(Until grad school starts)

In other news, I downloaded a FREE 20 minute yoga class from yogadownload.com. I tried "Gentle Hatha Yoga #1". I loved it, perfect for destressification. (Yes, I make up words)

Student Life

After a whirlwind week last week (deathproject status update, classidon'tunderstand midterm and nightmare assignment) all of a sudden I feel like I woke up, and have time to breathe this week.

I still have lots to do (continue working on deathproject... 3 weeks and counting, and new nightmare assignment, etc etc) but I actually had time and the mental functioning to get up at 6:15 to go to a spin class today.

I'm sure the whirlwind will begin again, but I'm going to enjoy this minibreak while it's here!

Twilight

I'm torn.

Part of me wants to say these are really bad books, with no plot line besides, girl likes vampire.

But the other part of me, who's read all four books in the saga, Twilight twice, in the last week, whispers that maybe there is something sweet about them. Something that pulls you in. Something that pulls you away from the real world, back to when you were 17 and falling in love, or 12 and wanting and waiting to fall in love. With a little bit of magic/myth built in. 

So I've changed my mind on these books. I do recommend them. And if you didn't like them at first, a second read might be worth it.

And if that doesn't help, this might. It's Twilight, but told through Edward's perspective. A draft released by Stephanie Meyer, it's even better than the other four combined. Midnight Sun is what's really got me hooked on the Twilight Saga. I hope Stephanie Meyer finishes it!

And yes. I am planning on watching this movie on Saturday, when it is released on video.  Updates to follow on how obsessive I have to be to find a copy...

Where Should You Live?

I just took the super-suspenseful Facebook quiz, Where Should You Live?

The results? 

Mrs. A took Where should you live? quiz and the result is US You belong in the United States of America. You like things big, big country, big cities and big people! Your dream is wandering between the skyscrapers of New York, shopping all day long. Or lying on a beach in Florida or California, where the weather is hot and so are the people. You like to be where all the action is.

Reactions:

• Well that narrows it down. Not like it's a big country or anything
• I have lived in the US. Loved it. Would move back in a heartbeat... maybe once this PhD thing finishes (starts)

Where Should You Live?

Homemade Bath Melt

While I love LUSH, I can't always (at all) afford their products (where the bath products are comparatively cheap to their other products!)

So today I made my own bath melt, based entirely on products I had at home. Mix together:

-1 tsp olive oil

-1 C milk

-1 tsp vanilla

-splash (1 tbsp?) of lemon juice

-1/4 cup baking soda

Mix together (the lemon juice and baking soda will react, just like the 'volcano' you made when you were 8 :). Pour in bath and enjoy. Your skin will feel amazing!

Note - most recipes for bath products call for citric acid. I didn't have this, so I used the lemon juice. Citric acid would keep the product stable until you are ready to use it - no reaction until you add the bath water!

Resort Porn

(title courtesy of Private Practice last night. Love)



Mr. A and I have booked a vacation for this spring! After a minor major mishap yesterday, where we realized Mr. A may not be able to get the time off, but relief today where he confirmed that he did indeed take the time off, it's all official!

We're all about the all inclusive resort for this vacation - we're looking for sun, sand, food and drinks!

A few options we considered:


The Grand Pineapple Beach in Negril, Jamaica. (Current expedia rate: $357/night)
-owned by Sandals resorts, without the Sandals price!


The Verandah Resort and Spa, in Antigua. Current rate via eliteislandvacations. com is only $229 a night! (For us, flights were too expensive)

Confession

I first heard about the Twilight books last fall, when the 4th book came out. I was skeptical.... a teenager in love with a vampire? But...

Yesterday, I gave in, and read the first book, Twilight. It's lame, but addicting. A typical page follows:

• I'm in love with him
• But he's a vampire
• That's dangerous
• But I love him

Finally, 80% of the way through the book, something happened. And I was hooked.

I bought the 2nd, New Moon today, and read it all. ack!

These books are really, really bad. They're written for 12 year old girls.

But a nice, easy, read. The "plot" is addicting.

I may have to find a copy of the 3rd tomorrow.

Beach Sun Sand and a little bit of Crazy

So I'm planning some sort of vacation this spring. Beach, sun, sand, drinks, happiness.

That kind of thing. And I'm reading reviews on various all-inclusive resorts. Some of my favorites: 

• Complaining about portion sizes. It's ALL INCLUSIVE. Order two!
• Complaining about sunburn. Really, it's the resorts fault?
• Complaining about employees saying Ola! to greet you in the morning. Apparently in Jamaica, people should never speak Spanish, the tourists want to experience Jamaican culture. Then, raving about the Japanese restaurant onsite.
• Caution: Guys BEWARE! You need to wear pants. ack! Not pants to dinner! oh no!

Things I Love: My Agenda

I really love my agenda. It was free. It has random formulas (formulae?) that come in very handy. It's a little beat up after being carried around for a year. It's tabbed. It's highlighted. It's got connect-the-dots drawings. It's counting down the days until the end of the death-project.

Best of all: today it got a lot of to-do's crossed off.

The Way I See Today # 1: An Unsuccessful Reading Week

Reading week should be a time of relaxation and renewal. Instead, I've spent most of it stuck in the computer lab, or at home reading and researching. I'm not relaxed, but neither have I been productive enough to make the 'not relaxed' worth it.

So now - in the last few hours of my reading week - I can either

a) edit my essay

b) research how to use some software

c) research for a project

d) fold laundry

I have, however, over the past week become smitten with How I Met Your Mother. 

so option e) Re-watch HIMYM episodes, while completing (d) and maybe a little (b) is most appealing. 

There are not enough hours in the day!