I invented a new cocktail this evening. I call it the Cosmonaut (because it's like a Cosmo, but not)

2 shots vodka
1/2 shot lime juice
1/2 shot roasted cranberry-clove syrup
3 dashes of Orange bitters

Shake vigorously with ice. Strain and serve garnished with a slice of orange.

The cloves add a nice bit of spiciness that's balanced by the citrus. Overall, a very yummy experiment!

Foods cooked/to be cooked for Christmas Eve/Day:

Manicotti in Red Sauce
Chicken and Spinach Manicotti in Alfredo Sauce
Chicken and Spinach Manicotti in Red Pepper Tomato Sauce (We had leftover filling and homemade shells)
Eggplant Parmesan
Zucchini Fritte (and a lemon-garlic aioli to go with it)
Garlic Green Beans
Biscuits and Sausage Gravy (Christmas Breakfast)
Twice Baked Potatoes
Beef Tenderloin
Cranberry-clove simple syrup
Clementine-brown sugar simple syrup


I LOVE cooking, but this is deliciously exhausting.

so i am trying out the new text entry alternative for Android. (the8pen. com) It definitely has a steep learning curve. but i'm already making a fair bit of progress. The tricky parts so far is remembering where the different letters are. and remembering to add punctuation to the end of words. It has potential for smooth writing once you get the hang of it.

With Laura's increased need for driving flexibility in order to spend more time with family, we were considering buying a new, fuel-efficient car that she could use to get to and from work and cut back on gas. After doing a bunch of research with Consumer Reports and narrowing down our list to 3 or so options, we scrapped the whole thing and signed up for Zipcar so that I could have a spare car when I need it, but we don't end up with car payments, increased insurance, and city registration fees. Not only was this a good short-term solution to our sudden need for a car, but also, the majority of the Zipcar fleet are small, fuel-efficient cars that were on our list.

One of the biggest perks of Zipcar was the opportunity to drive a Smart Car. Ever since I went to Germany with my high school band in 2001 and saw these tiny, colorful cubes on wheels, I wanted to drive one. Even though I knew I would probably never own one, the possibility of driving one was really exciting.

Emphasis on was.

The actual driving experience of the Smart Car is akin to driving a golf cart. I was pleasantly surprised that my bass clarinet fit in the back. Actually the cargo space was significantly more than I expected. The main problem with the Smart Car comes in the "car" part. The engine has enough power to get off the line, but the transmission makes shifting between gears feel like riding a bucking bronco. Also, if you put the fan on to cool down (kind of necessary when it's 85 degrees outside) the entire dashboard shakes and I was a little bit scared of breaking the thing. The ultimate kicker was the lack of power steering or anti-lock breaks. With a decent effort, you could probably pick the car up, but it's a lot of work to drive.

Now that I've done it once, I never have to drive a Smart Car again. Fantasy realized, illusion shattered.

Tonight, Laura and I realized that we tend to drink quite a lot on a regular basis. It's not uncommon for the two of us to finish a bottle of wine with dinner and then have another drink or two before bed. We figured out just why that is:

Kevin: What else do we have to drink? Water is boring. Milk and orange juice are pretty much reserved for breakfast. And pop is a precious, limited resource!

Laura: We're Diet Pepsiholics!

Kevin: Hell, we put booze in our Diet Pepsi just so we can make it last longer!

_____________________

Laura says it's not as funny written down, but I'm still going to post it :)

I can finally write about something that has been hanging over me for the last five months.

I was almost kicked out of grad school, twice.

The biggest requirement for graduate students in psychology is that they complete a trial research project by the end of their second year. They must form a hypothesis and a way to test it, collect and analyze data, write it up in a manuscript, and defend their project before a panel of three faculty that make up their committee.

After several false starts, last winter, I felt that I had finally managed to find the proper direction to take my project. Me and two RAs analyzed copious amounts of data, and I wrote what I felt to be a pretty good paper. It seemed well-received when I presented it in two talks (one at the developmental brown bag and one at a trial research conclusion celebration), so I wasn't concerned going into my defense. At this point, my committee judged my project to be insufficient. It was not of the caliber they expected from a second year graduate student, and did not address many problems that they saw in the theoretical background. I needed to search through the literature and come up with a new coding scheme. That was at the beginning of July.

As any of you who know me at all would know, I was rather preoccupied this summer with the minor event of marrying my lovely wife, Laura. This is not really an excuse, just an aside. My summer was already busy, and it had just become much moreso. I worked my ass off to find literature on spatial language that could work as a new coding scheme. I found a system that my advisor, my 1 RA (since one had left for the summer), and I agreed was a good one.

Then I got married and went on my honeymoon. This left me largely out of touch with my work for the better part of 3 weeks (week of the wedding, week between the wedding and the honeymoon, and the week of the honeymoon). It is at this point that I should inform you, that although my committee members are brilliant women, they are not the best at communicating exactly what they want. So although they had told me (or I understood them as having told me) they wanted to see a comprehensive literature review and methods in order to approve my project, what they meant was that they wanted the entire project in its finished form.

At this point, I wasn't so sure I really wanted to be a grad student anymore. I wasn't sure I wanted to be a professor anymore. I wasn't sure I wanted to do research ever again.

But I wasn't about to walk out of the University of Chicago without getting at least my masters degree. I convinced the committee to give me one more chance. I would finish the entire project from lit review to finished paper in 1 quarter, they would be involved every step of the way to keep me honest, and thus, if I failed, it would be their fault too.

I finished my paper draft the week before Thanksgiving. I met with my committee today expecting to discuss revisions to the draft and set up another meeting for my defense. The committee decided that today's meeting would be my defense! After being thrown for quite a loop, I explained my findings and how I interpreted them. They made some suggestions for how I might look at them differently, but overall, said that I had done quality work. They signed my form, and I can now begin to worry about what I should do for my dissertation and how I can finish my coursework when the one course I have left isn't being taught.

I no longer have to worry about losing half of my family income. I no longer have to worry about searching for a new job. I no longer have to worry that I shouldn't spend too much time with my psych department friends for fear of having to explain that I was getting kicked out of school.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

On a Jim Beam Black gift box, a recipe for Jim Beam Black on the rocks:

1 part Jim Beam Black

Serve in a rocks glass over ice.

Really? If you need this, you probably shouldn't be drinking.

I am now completely plugged in. My Droid arrived yesterday. I've never gone so long without my laptop. This thing is great!

Laura got me Harold and Maude finger puppets!!

Now I'm fighting the urge to put on Cat Stevens and play out the movie.

Tonight was one of the more fun evening's I've had in a long time.

Laura and I arranged to have dinner with Stephanie to catch up and whatnot. She invited Andy at the last minute which ended up being a good way to round out the group. We chilled at the condo for for a couple hours with wine and good conversation, before realizing that it was 8 o'clock and we were getting hungry.

We walked down to the Sit Down, which is the only sushi place I know of that also serves pizza. To succinctly explain how eclectic this place is, the soups they offer are chicken rice, pasta fagioli,  jambalaya, and miso. So yeah, all blocks covered. We got a ton of sushi to go with the wine we BYOB'd from Kimbark.

Since we finished dinner around 9:30, it provided the perfect opportunity to catch the Navy Pier fireworks from the Point. So we started walking down 53rd, when I called Sarah and invited her to join us, which she did, once she dragged herself out of bed :) Made it to the Point just as the fireworks were starting. It's such an awesome perspective, because you know the fireworks are huge and very high above the ground/water, but they look so small from a few miles away.

After the fireworks concluded, we were not quite ready to leave, because we were curious just how cold the Lake Michigan water was. Climbing carefully over the large, uneven rocks, we got down to where we could get our feet in the water. Unfortunately, that proximity also put us in range of some rather large waves.

The park closes at 11:00, so (slightly damp) we headed back home along 55th, planning to catch a bus to make the trip much less effortful. We got sidetracked, however, when we passed the hookah lounge on 55th, where they were advertising "$20 Hookah To-Go." Mostly intrigued by the concept, we popped in and asked just how that worked. It turns out, they sell you the hookah for $15, and set you up with the water, tobacco, and even light the coal for you. This was a great deal, so we got a green hookah and raspberry shishe. Unfortunately, now having a fully lit hookah meant riding the bus was totally out of the question, so instead we walked, smoking the hookah all the way back to Drexel, a good mile plus walk, sharing between the 4 of the 5 who chose to partake. We received many curious looks from passers-by, and some questions from those who obviously thought our tobacco to be of the wacky variety. It's a very surreal experience to traipse around the street holding a hookah and blowing large plumes of delicious smoke behind you. It was definitely a great way to conclude the night.