essential elements in today's dinner cooking process (grilling in the dark again...)

twin cars out in the rain, outside the window of the counseling rooms, while i got work done. (if you look closely, you'll see that they're not actually the same car, but they really do look like it.) 

somewhere in that massive pan of sauciness, there is an eggplant, 2 zucchinis, 5 portobello mushrooms, an onion, an accidentally massive dump of granulated garlic, a couple cups of cottage cheese, and appropriately large quantities of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. i wish i could post the smell.

It's 6:30 pm, and I'm playing around with the idea of changing out of my pajamas.

today, two exciting things came in the mail! a new battery for the lemonade computer, and one of those things that connects computers to tv's.  hello hulu!

tonight was a lovely evening with some of the ladies of my graduate program.  i made my spiced turkey burgers, which consist of a number of ingredients, including onions, apples, almonds, raisins, craisins, cumin, cinnamon, garlic, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg, cloves, ginger... and get served with hot mango chutney (this time, i included a spiced yogurt-y sauce option as well).  i also baked a loaf of wheat bread to put them on, and made some jello because i happened to have about 10 boxes of it sitting my cabinet... towards the end of the evening, we got a little silly at times, and i'm pretty sure my house came close to being covered with jello... it's really nice to have friends.

i've never had a planner before. this is an 18 month planner that started in march that i just happened to come across at the right moment.  yay for having another personal item that's so interestingly colored that i'll never lose it!

M and me, in the computer lab, during class.  As she said, "It really captures the essence of our friendship."

Second class of the day (having written a whole paper in between classes). This may also capture the essence of my friendship with R, but I can't quite tell you for sure yet. That's a carrot bag in my hand, by the way.

it's cold in the counseling room today.

This morning, around 11:30 we went for our workout and it was beautiful and warm (we had considered waiting until later in the day, because the weather report said it would be warmer later, but I wanted to get it out of the way).  It's 4:12 pm and it is SNOWING.  Weather is so weird.

Ben bought lightbulbs while I went to yoga today.  Those of you who have been to our house in the last... 4 months?  probably know that all the lights in the chandelier-y thing had blown out... After he put the new ones in, he switched the light switch on and I was so shocked by the brightness that I actually jumped.  

just back from today's workout (i'm training for a 5k)

ben and jerry's frozen yogurt - cherry garcia and half baked, yum:)

ben got new rope today and i made him pose with it like it was a new baby. 

best dinner i've made in a while.  i do love to grill.

ben tried on k's old jacket.

then ben lifted nootka up for a good cuddle.

nootka is finally allowed up on the couch and now she's leaving for indiana!  we'll miss you, nootka (and you too, k!!!!)

Four crazy Janines are better than one!

look! it's my new nose ring.  well, i've had it for a month or something, but still...

So, just as I left Somerville this morning, I snapped a shot when R and her friend D really didn't know it was coming. Anyway, I wanted to demonstrate the handing back of the parking pass with NO TICKET on my car!!! Thanks for meeting up and for the lively conversation. (Thanks also go to K, who is not pictured.)

my mom and i met in boston, and went to the mapparium (which in itself was disappointing) and the mfa. here's a shot that features two of my favorite artists (though not favorite pieces), rodin and renoir.




here's us exhausted from walking around and waiting for the t. (self-portrait by me) we were on our way to v's house, where we spent the night. thanks for your hospitality, v!



silly boy! applesauce is MUCH better in your mouth than in your eyes!!!

then we played before bed time!

(picture to come in a few hours.)

my day was consumed with this book.

Would you still be my friend if I wore my hair like this?  Just wondering...

The last few days' pictures have been taken with Ben's camera because I am too lazy to recharge the battery for my camera, which is pictured above.

Today, I took a break before writing the final paragraph of my paper so that we could go to a "social" for my department. It was a handful of people at Red Hook Brewery, so we got dinner and I got a small stout and Ben got a big one. About 2/3 of my way into my beer, Ben informed me that he didn't have his wallet with him, and so, I would have to drive home. He took the rest of my beer and poured it into his glass. So, dear readers, you should know that my wonderful husband LIED to me. He didn't even hide it well. He took out his wallet to show me his weird new credit card and I DID NOT EVEN NOTICE. But I drove home, and he acted so giddy the whole drive home that I was convinced he was a little tipsy, but when I look back at it now, I think he just must have been reacting out of his mirth that I had not discovered his lie. Of course, as soon as we got home, he showed me his wallet and laughed at me for having believed him. All I have to say is hmph! :-P

Grilling in the first time in what seems like forever: zucchini, summer squash, and some kind of fish... Ok, so it's not a real grill, but we live in New Hampshire and grills are basically illegal here.

Today, we went cross country skiing at Mendum's Pond. It was actually my first time ever cross country skiing and it went much better than my downhill skiing experiences have. The pictures shown here, are best seen in the same window in quick succession, so I function kind of like a flip book. Anyway, it was a fun afternoon, Ben got to check up on the outdoor area that is part of his job's responsibilities to deal with, and it wasn't at all scary... well... not the skiing, at least.

Once upon a time, Ben got me a little puffy blanket at Target for Christmas.  He had been realy excited about it, but left it at our house by mistake when we went to his mom's for Christmas.  So he went to the Target around there and got another one.  I must say, if we didn't have two of them, I can't imagine how we'd survive.  

p.s. This is the kind of post you get when I realize it's 11:30 pm and there's no picture yet.  Sometimes, they're my favorites.

So, my new t-shirt came in the mail today (Thanks to JG for pointing it out to me.)  Sorry about the blurry picture.  I couldn't so much use the flash with the mirror, so.... Anyway, if you're having trouble reading the mirror image, it says "Best Day Ever," which hopefully, by this point, you associate with me in some way...  The shirt, however, contradicts my belief that every day is the best day ever by having a specific date in the bottom left corner.  This date is 11/04/08.  Now - a note on 11/04/08.  This day, was, in fact, not the best day ever for me.  Although it was very exciting that Obama was elected president and I think it was a pretty fantastic day for the country overall, I, unfortunately was not having a great day.  It was a couple days after the wedding and I was very swollen and itchy still, I was on steroids and antihistamines (which made me crazy and unaware of my surroundings for the most part), and Ben left that day for a conference...  Overall, I was kind of a miserable mess that day.  But yes, of course, like every day, it must have been the best day ever at the time.  I am glad to say that since then, there have been many better days.  

Those of you who are on facebook might have noticed that my status today was that I was interviewing one of the coolest people I know today. So, here she is on the streets of Concord, NH with a little tree gnome! It was a wonderful interview (from which I will write a biography of her based on her career development for my career counseling class) and a lovely outing. If you're reading this, J, thanks so much!!! Afterwards, I rushed back to campus, desperately searched for good parking, didn't find any, then went to search for bad parking and luckily founds some quite quickly, and basically ran to my advisor's office, getting there exactly on time for our 3:30 thesis meeting only to find out that I had remembered wrong today and it had been a 3:00 meeting (we had rescheduled from Monday's snow day, and Monday was meant to be 3:30. Thus, the confusion.) and at this point, she had to get ready for her 4:00 class. Oh well, I guess the thesis can get put on hold for one more week...

Class, preparation for presentation using SPSS, more class (including presentation), colloquium, home, west wing + spider solitaire, sleep (this last part happened quite late).

Fill has perfect vision (for a stuffed polar bear), but for some reason, he stole my glasses today.

ps -- snow days aren't as fun when you didn't have classes scheduled anyway.

So, on Thursday morning, I decided it was time to take care of one of the incompletes I have from last semester because of wedding and allergic reaction craziness.  I decided (provided with some incentive from my wonderful husband) that I would try to finish it by the end of the weekend, which seemed improbable (if not impossible).  But.... here it is.  125 pages of original writing, 125 pages of articles, 14 dividers, and one massive binder, mostly accomplished between Thursday at noon and Sunday at noon.  (I'm a little ashamed that with the right motivation, this was that easy to do...)