Recent successes

Over this spring break, I have accomplished so much, relaxed so much, and had so much fun. It's been a wonderful week.

Most recently... today I made gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, with delicious cookie dough and cookies, thanks to GingerLemonGirl, whose blog has inspired me to do so much more GF baking and sharing (the recipe is called the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, though I found it needed a little more flour and xanthan gum). I ate too much dough and too many cookies, but followed it up with pulled pork barbecue over rice and broccoli, so I hope that evened it out!

Then, after our Naw Ruz celebration this afternoon which was lovely, I came home and made.............. (drumroll here)............ gluten-free onion rings and chicken fingers!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who know me, you know that I've been talking about these for over three years. Two lovely friends bought me a deep fryer for my birthday 2 1/2 years ago because I talked about it so much, and the deep fryer has sat on my shelf since then, calling out and saying: "When are you going to use me??" Today, I pulled it out, wiped off the dust and put it to use. The result? Deliciousness. The onion rings were much more of a challenge, but eating onion rings fresh out of the fryer, after wanting them for 3 1/2 years, was worth it.

Then came the chicken fingers, which are also extremely tasty. Plus, they were relatively easy and could definitely be repeated, with more adventurous flavors. The thing that worked the least well this week was, ironically enough, the homemade honey mustard sauce. It's the simplest, straight out of a cookbook, but I didn't realize how spicy Dijon mustard is! Have no fear, I fixed it, and it's now delicious.
In addition to cookies, onion rings, chicken fingers, and pulled pork barbecue, I have also made mango wraps, pesto, and buttermilk pancakes this week. I assisted in the making of leek/zucchini/cheese frittata and espresso chocolate mousse.

I've also purchased ballet attire and attended my first two ballet classes in ten years (extremely sore after the first). I love it, and I will continue. I can't stop smiling in the evenings after class, I just enjoy it so much.

In addition to all this deliciousness and joy, I've spent good, fun time with math people and non-math people alike, caught up with friends, played many many games, wrote a talk, caught up on homework, did some spring cleaning, and relaxed. I must say this was one of the best balanced breaks I've had in a long time! And there's still another day left!

Spring Break is a-comin'...

Well, people have already left. People are getting ready to leave. It's funny how Spring Break starts earlier and earlier each year... people can't actually wait for the break to begin to leave.

I took the night off to have some fun. It was quite enjoyable :). Saw "Definitely, Maybe...". It was enjoyable, but I walked away thinking, "That was a bit strange." Nothing particularly strange about it, but that's what I was thinking. It felt kind of like I watched it with a huge group of friends, mostly because there was a rather large group of friends sitting behind my friend and I talking/commenting throughout the movie. Not obnoxiously, sometimes humorously, but still it was there.

On the drive home, I had the very deep thought of... "Shoes, they're strange. Well, they're just shoes."

Tomorrow, I have a feeling I will be teaching to a very small group of people. It might be fun to have just a small group and get back to more individual interaction with students.

I'm looking forward to not travelling this Spring Break. I've done enough travelling over the past few months. I'm going to cook, take a ballet class, clean and play my french horn, play with people, sleep some, read a lot, write a talk, do a little bit of homework, and just enjoy myself. Live in the moment. Practice Anna's presentation. Take long walks. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm reading Geography of Bliss right now and enjoying it. I'm enjoying taking little sips at a time. I've realized that I don't like speeding through books. While I was sick, I read two whole books, each in a day. I felt like they had sped by, and I had missed out on something. The characters came and left my life too quickly. I wanted them to hang around, to really enjoy their story. I'm just going to take books slow, so I can really enjoy them and get as much out of them as I can.