While I do not have a strict goal like last year, I've decided to keep up with keeping a list of the books I read just for good measure.
1. Ham on Rye by Bukowski
2.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, May 23, 2011
Everything in Moderation
Cook Cook Cook...
Life has been terribly busy lately, and I haven't been cooking very much. But the few things that I have had time to cook lately have been rather adventurous!
Zach and I rarely eat shrimp... I used to make a very rich (and delicious) shrimp pasta that was full of butter, oil and garlic. Now I have made a revamped version of this dish...
Oooohh.... Israeli Cous Cous with shrimp, mushrooms and grape tomatoes. No butter, No oil. Unbelievably good, less than 350 calories per serving. BOOYA!
Instead of using any butter or oil I sauteed the shrimp and mushrooms in Butter flavored PAM spray. I added lots of garlic powder, salt, and pepper for flavor, and a good chunk of low fat grated Parmesan cheese. yum yum yum.
On the other end of the healthy spectrum we have: party food. Some friends of ours had quite the big hurray a few weekends ago as their last party in their fratty apartment. I, per usual, was not planning on showing up to this even empty handed. So Zach and I showed up, with beer and snacks in tow! I made... drum roll.... home made SOFT PRETZELS. Oh my goodness. How amazing. They were just so delicious. Slightly difficult to make- but absolutely scrumptious and extremely cheap!! Some of the pretzels were a little on the ugly side- the old ladies at
Auntie Ann's make making that signature pretzel shape look far more easy than it is! These were not low calorie- low fat - low carb or low anything- just a wonderful party snack. I most certainly plan to make these again!
Let me know if you want recipes!
Life has been terribly busy lately, and I haven't been cooking very much. But the few things that I have had time to cook lately have been rather adventurous!
Zach and I rarely eat shrimp... I used to make a very rich (and delicious) shrimp pasta that was full of butter, oil and garlic. Now I have made a revamped version of this dish...
Oooohh.... Israeli Cous Cous with shrimp, mushrooms and grape tomatoes. No butter, No oil. Unbelievably good, less than 350 calories per serving. BOOYA!
Instead of using any butter or oil I sauteed the shrimp and mushrooms in Butter flavored PAM spray. I added lots of garlic powder, salt, and pepper for flavor, and a good chunk of low fat grated Parmesan cheese. yum yum yum.
On the other end of the healthy spectrum we have: party food. Some friends of ours had quite the big hurray a few weekends ago as their last party in their fratty apartment. I, per usual, was not planning on showing up to this even empty handed. So Zach and I showed up, with beer and snacks in tow! I made... drum roll.... home made SOFT PRETZELS. Oh my goodness. How amazing. They were just so delicious. Slightly difficult to make- but absolutely scrumptious and extremely cheap!! Some of the pretzels were a little on the ugly side- the old ladies at
Auntie Ann's make making that signature pretzel shape look far more easy than it is! These were not low calorie- low fat - low carb or low anything- just a wonderful party snack. I most certainly plan to make these again! Let me know if you want recipes!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
There once was a little pup named MURPHY!
WE GOT A DOG, WE GOT A DOG, PRAISE THE LORD, WE GOT A DOG.
After years of pinning at every little pooch we see dolled up in designer sweaters with matching booties being pranced around the city, Zach and I are finally proud DOG OWNERS!
Oh what an adventure it has been!
The process started a few months ago when I (in a moment of extreme wanting) googled "dog adoption" and came across adoptapet.com. The website is kind of like a facebook for pets that need adoption, including a picture and short description. I looked through profiles for weeks, even sending initial emails on some, but not following through. Until the week after my birthday, when we came across a very special little pup. The description was for a small beagle-chihuahua mix 12 week old puppy currently in foster care in Tennessee. He already had his shots, but wasn't big enough to be fixed yet and had the cutest little face! Zach and I acted fast! We filled out an online application and a few days later had a phone interview with someone from the company and with the little pup's foster mom. After a few questions and a quick paypal transaction we were the proud owners of a little dog! The next issue was getting him to us.
The adoption agency uses a pet delivery service (how funnny is that!) that would bring us our little puppy from Tennessee to a town about an hour outside of the city on the last friday of April. But since they were driving the entire way and making other stops, he wouldn't be getting in until about 1 or 2 AM Friday night. What a conundrum! We decided to rent a car for the night, go out to dinner (and drive 2 hours to the nearest walmart ) before driving up to the pup deliver location.
Around 11:30 pm we received a call saying that the van o' pups was about 2 hours away from the delivery point, so we headed out! We were to meet the van in EAST parking lot of Exit 14 off some highway a little over an hour north of the city. We drove up there, we got off of the exit saw the NORTH parking lot, the WEST parking lot and the SOUTH parking lot- but the EAST parking lot was no where to be found! Zach and I drove around for a little thinking that we were crazy in our attempts to find the missing lot- but to no avail. We finally chose one of the other lots to wait in. We waited and waited inspecting every car that drove past. Finally, at about 1:30 AM on April 30th 2011, a large, white van drove into the parking lot and pulled up next to us. We got out of the car and walked over. A large woman asked us what dog was ours while a scruffy man went in to the back of the truck then opened the side door and produced a small dog. The woman handed us a manilla envelope with some papers in it and told us to have a good night. We walked away, pup in hand, and got into our car as the big white van disappeared into the night. Although this interaction was the closest thing that Zach or I had ever experienced to a late night drug buy, we left he parking lot with a little puppy all of own! This is the first picture we have of him. He looks so small and scared with his ears back!
The past two weeks have been full of many adorable moments, a lot a little accidents, attempting to get him to walk on a leash, a few visits the the vet, a first visit to a dog park, a lot of snuggles, a little barking, one shower (murphy did not like that) and a lot of fun. One of our first discoveries was that he is definitely not part chihuahua. We, and the vet, think that he is some sort of beagle -lab mix. Right now he is 17 weeks old and weighs about 18 lbs. Originally we thought he was going to be about 20-25 lbs fully grown but it's actually going to be closer to 50 lbs! So no little annoying yappy citty dog for us, we have ourselves a full sized pup! Although this limits up with regards to travel (can't have a 50lb dog on the subway or train!) we are still so excited to have him!
Zach has been working very hard to train the little guy, he's pretty good with sit already! And we start puppy classes tomorrow! He is still a little shy when we are at the park, but he is much more comfortable with us and is showing us his personality! Here are some wonderful pictures of our little pup:
Look at that smirk!
Murph is a nap connoisseur...
He also enjoys lounging on the couch.
Murph is already an excellent fetcher. Particularly with Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Beaver.
Look at those eyes...
After years of pinning at every little pooch we see dolled up in designer sweaters with matching booties being pranced around the city, Zach and I are finally proud DOG OWNERS!
Oh what an adventure it has been!
The process started a few months ago when I (in a moment of extreme wanting) googled "dog adoption" and came across adoptapet.com. The website is kind of like a facebook for pets that need adoption, including a picture and short description. I looked through profiles for weeks, even sending initial emails on some, but not following through. Until the week after my birthday, when we came across a very special little pup. The description was for a small beagle-chihuahua mix 12 week old puppy currently in foster care in Tennessee. He already had his shots, but wasn't big enough to be fixed yet and had the cutest little face! Zach and I acted fast! We filled out an online application and a few days later had a phone interview with someone from the company and with the little pup's foster mom. After a few questions and a quick paypal transaction we were the proud owners of a little dog! The next issue was getting him to us.
The adoption agency uses a pet delivery service (how funnny is that!) that would bring us our little puppy from Tennessee to a town about an hour outside of the city on the last friday of April. But since they were driving the entire way and making other stops, he wouldn't be getting in until about 1 or 2 AM Friday night. What a conundrum! We decided to rent a car for the night, go out to dinner (and drive 2 hours to the nearest walmart ) before driving up to the pup deliver location.
Around 11:30 pm we received a call saying that the van o' pups was about 2 hours away from the delivery point, so we headed out! We were to meet the van in EAST parking lot of Exit 14 off some highway a little over an hour north of the city. We drove up there, we got off of the exit saw the NORTH parking lot, the WEST parking lot and the SOUTH parking lot- but the EAST parking lot was no where to be found! Zach and I drove around for a little thinking that we were crazy in our attempts to find the missing lot- but to no avail. We finally chose one of the other lots to wait in. We waited and waited inspecting every car that drove past. Finally, at about 1:30 AM on April 30th 2011, a large, white van drove into the parking lot and pulled up next to us. We got out of the car and walked over. A large woman asked us what dog was ours while a scruffy man went in to the back of the truck then opened the side door and produced a small dog. The woman handed us a manilla envelope with some papers in it and told us to have a good night. We walked away, pup in hand, and got into our car as the big white van disappeared into the night. Although this interaction was the closest thing that Zach or I had ever experienced to a late night drug buy, we left he parking lot with a little puppy all of own! This is the first picture we have of him. He looks so small and scared with his ears back!
The past two weeks have been full of many adorable moments, a lot a little accidents, attempting to get him to walk on a leash, a few visits the the vet, a first visit to a dog park, a lot of snuggles, a little barking, one shower (murphy did not like that) and a lot of fun. One of our first discoveries was that he is definitely not part chihuahua. We, and the vet, think that he is some sort of beagle -lab mix. Right now he is 17 weeks old and weighs about 18 lbs. Originally we thought he was going to be about 20-25 lbs fully grown but it's actually going to be closer to 50 lbs! So no little annoying yappy citty dog for us, we have ourselves a full sized pup! Although this limits up with regards to travel (can't have a 50lb dog on the subway or train!) we are still so excited to have him!
Zach has been working very hard to train the little guy, he's pretty good with sit already! And we start puppy classes tomorrow! He is still a little shy when we are at the park, but he is much more comfortable with us and is showing us his personality! Here are some wonderful pictures of our little pup:
Look at that smirk! 
Murph is a nap connoisseur... 
He also enjoys lounging on the couch.
Murph is already an excellent fetcher. Particularly with Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Beaver.
Look at those eyes...Sunday, May 1, 2011
2011 GOAL
This year I decided to make a real New Year's resolution: Read at least 50 books.
So far, I've been a reading machine! Here is a list of the books I've read so far and my rating out of 10. I'm rating on how much I personally enjoyed reading each book, not how well it was written or the content, just how much I liked it!
I DID IT! :)
So far, I've been a reading machine! Here is a list of the books I've read so far and my rating out of 10. I'm rating on how much I personally enjoyed reading each book, not how well it was written or the content, just how much I liked it!
- This is Where I Leave You. - 7
- Sarah - 8
- Politics - 3
- Pretty Little Mistakes - 3
- Ender's Game - 8
- The Sparrow - 9.5
- Kissing in Manhattan - 6
- An Invisible Sign for Me - 4
- Squirrel Seeking Chipmunk - 9
- Names my Sister's Call Me - 8
- Water for Elephants - 7.5
- Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest - 10
- The Imperfectionists - 6
- I am the Cheese - 7
- Stone Virgin - 7
- Choke - 7
- Walks with Men - 5
- A Father's Words - 7
- The Brightest Ring of Angels Around Heaven - 6
- True Colors - 9
- Something Borrowed - 9
- Her Fearful Symmetry - 7.5
- Cat's Cradle - 8
- The Things We do for Love - 6
- ZERO - 8
- Good In Bed - 9
- The Reliable Wife - 7
- Something Blue -8
- Not Another Bad Date - 8
- The Solitude of Prime Numbers - 8
- Commencement - 9
- Fire Fly Lane Girls - 9
- The Sunflower - 6
- In Her Shoes - 9
- Half Broke Horses - 8
- The Handmaidens Tale - 9
- Drinking Closer to Home - 9
- The Dive from Clausen's Pier-9
- The Empress of the World -7
- Bound -3
- My Meloncholy Whores - 5
- St Patrick's Day Murder-7
- My F-ing Birthday-7
- Ghost - 6
- Tabitha at Midnight-3
- Tell All-5
- The Cinderella Deal - 9
- P.S. Your Cat is Dead -8
- Rush - 9
- I'm Not Myself These Days - 7
I DID IT! :)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Spring is Here!
Spring is slowly start to inch its way into New York City. With it comes three types of days:
The Algebra Regents (New York's state-wide exams that all high-schoolers must pass to graduate) are 7 weeks away. That is an utterly terrifying thought. In a mere seven weeks I need to finish the algebra curriculum and some how review enough so that my students are able to pass the exam.
The exam is weighted drastically, so much that in order to 'pass' a student only needs to answer half (15) of the multiple choice questions correctly. Yet, there are a hand full of students who struggle severely as they prepare to take the exam for the third or fourth time.
The school I work at treats the exams differently than most schools. Our philosophy is to 'get the exams out of the way asap so that as upperclassmen, students can take more interesting, less straight forward classes' I agree with this mentality, most of the time. The tricky thing is that the students still need to take the tests (some schools are exempt) and really do need to know the material to gain access and be successful in a college or university. Moreover, if a student finishes his or her science regents early, then they can take a class like "Forensics" where they solve a murder mystery using science (each quarter a teacher is killed!) or "Special Effects Science" where they study the chemistry behind special effects stuff used in movies. But, if a student finishes his math regents early he just takes more advanced math as we do not yet have any math electives offered at my school. I would love to teach a math elective on Algebraic Proof, or The History of Math, or maybe Diet Home Economics (heavy on the real life econ, light on the cookies and sewing).
Although I find myself wanting to teach more interesting classes in the math department I feel as if I should most certainly not be complaining. I have such a large amount of freedom at my school in what and how I teach! I listen to horror stories from other MfA fellows and feel bad for them. I am so very lucky to be at my school. The students are great, the administration and support is great and I love what and how I teach. I would never want to leave or do anything else in new york city. (I suppose if they put an elevator into the building- it would be the best school in the world!)
On the topic of teaching, I have started to teach Sex Ed to a small group of 9th grade girls. So far it's going really well, but we only just begun a few weeks ago... more to come.
- Super rainy, thunder storms
- Grayish blah days
- The random BEAUTIFUL day that makes everyone want to go outside!
The Algebra Regents (New York's state-wide exams that all high-schoolers must pass to graduate) are 7 weeks away. That is an utterly terrifying thought. In a mere seven weeks I need to finish the algebra curriculum and some how review enough so that my students are able to pass the exam.
The exam is weighted drastically, so much that in order to 'pass' a student only needs to answer half (15) of the multiple choice questions correctly. Yet, there are a hand full of students who struggle severely as they prepare to take the exam for the third or fourth time.
The school I work at treats the exams differently than most schools. Our philosophy is to 'get the exams out of the way asap so that as upperclassmen, students can take more interesting, less straight forward classes' I agree with this mentality, most of the time. The tricky thing is that the students still need to take the tests (some schools are exempt) and really do need to know the material to gain access and be successful in a college or university. Moreover, if a student finishes his or her science regents early, then they can take a class like "Forensics" where they solve a murder mystery using science (each quarter a teacher is killed!) or "Special Effects Science" where they study the chemistry behind special effects stuff used in movies. But, if a student finishes his math regents early he just takes more advanced math as we do not yet have any math electives offered at my school. I would love to teach a math elective on Algebraic Proof, or The History of Math, or maybe Diet Home Economics (heavy on the real life econ, light on the cookies and sewing).
Although I find myself wanting to teach more interesting classes in the math department I feel as if I should most certainly not be complaining. I have such a large amount of freedom at my school in what and how I teach! I listen to horror stories from other MfA fellows and feel bad for them. I am so very lucky to be at my school. The students are great, the administration and support is great and I love what and how I teach. I would never want to leave or do anything else in new york city. (I suppose if they put an elevator into the building- it would be the best school in the world!)
On the topic of teaching, I have started to teach Sex Ed to a small group of 9th grade girls. So far it's going really well, but we only just begun a few weeks ago... more to come.
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