R.I.P. Foxy

1999-2015

You were always so sweet and docile, unless the neighbor’s dog was messing with your sister. Then, the fighter showed full blaze!  You got into all sorts of trouble by following her example that I know you would never have done on your own. You had a rough beginning until finding a forever home with us, but I hope you enjoyed life while you were here. I’m sorry that tumor felled you today, and I’m sorry we didn’t know about it until it was too late; as it showed no sign of bothering you at all until the very end, I will choose to believe there was not much discomfort. Rest in peace, Foxy.

Life From the Mediterranean

For years, we’ve encouraged my mom to start a blog. For years, she resisted. She finally decided to do it, and she really jumped in! She has a great layout, fabulous photos, and it really looks nice. Please take a moment to stop by to check it out.

http://entrelamer.blogspot.fr/

24 Hours of Booty

For the past several years, my sister has participated in the 24 hours of Booty bike ride to raise money for cancer research. Her goal this year was to ride 175 miles, and she managed to not only meet but exceed her goal. In the rain. While dealing with 2 flat tires. Geesh!  The donation page is still open for business, so please feel free to show her some support if you are able.

Fall 2014 class schedule

Classes are starting today. Here’s what Alex is taking this semester: 

French:  He took Latin in high school and did not learn a single thing in the two years he took it. He was enjoying it and starting to learn some at the beginning, then the teacher left to join the Peace Corp about 2 months into the year. The replacement teacher had a hugely different teaching style and he struggled through it. Then even that teacher did not return for the second year, so he had to take the class online to finish the language requirement for graduation. It was that, or start over again with Spanish; as he had to have 2 years of the same language, and he didn’t want to start over again with another language he did not really care about learning, he plodded through. He just didn’t learn anything.

Since we have family living in France, including his cousin who was born there, there is a chance he might actually be able to use a knowledge of French. Although it is not a required class, he opted to take it anyway. The class meets four days, plus he has both a scheduled lab and an open go-when-you-like lab outside the lecture times.  This is a 50-minute M/T/W/R class, plus labs. 

Intermediate C++: He did so well in the intro class this summer, he’s taking the next level of it. This is a 75-minute M/W class. 

Intro to Java: This is another computer language class that also builds on what he learned in the C++ class.  This is a 75-minute T/R class. 

CG Characters Production:  Doesn’t this sound fun? “Using computer 3D graphics programs as a medium, emphasis will be placed on 3D design, creative expression and communication of ideas.” I believe this class was picked partly from a desire to learn it and partly because he has had the teacher before.  This is a 105-minute T/R class. (It’s still only 3 credits, so I do not understand why it is an extra 30-minutes longer than typical twice a week class length.)

20 Years Ago Today

When I got up this morning, I reflected that it was about the same time of day I was getting up on this date 20 years ago. Except then, I was heading off to the hospital to give birth. Today, I only had to suffer a day of work. (Although it was a tough day, and the work lasted longer than my labor did, so I’m not sure which day was more difficult!) This afternoon, the baby lost his teenager status. *sniff* There’s no denying he’s an adult now. Statistically, anyway... 

I hope this doesn’t mean I’m supposed to be old now, because that will not be happening for a long time.  I’m sure my own parents will agree with me!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

My mother is too far away for an easy visit. I was working today and due to the time zone differences, it is too late to call her, so I will not be able to speak with her on her birthday. I hope she knows I thought of her several times today, and I hope that as her birthday fell on a weekend, she got to do something special to mark the day. Love you, mom!

Dumpster Diving

A few years, I picked up a job doing some pharmaceutical audits. A certain drugstore got into trouble for HIPAA violations when it was discovered some of their confidential patient information had been chucked into the dumpsters rather than correctly processed in a manner that kept the patient’s name and prescriptions completely confidential. They had to pay enormous fines and submit to random store visits for auditing. They were required to do it for 3 years, and they voluntarily extended that an additional 2. There are teams of auditors from the audit company who fly/drive to areas to meet with a local person contracted to be the dumpster diver. Basically, they don’t mind doing employee interviews and looking around at things, but they don’t want to be the ones getting dirty, so they hire us to do it. They do it for 2-3 months, but since divers are local, we only have a few days. This year, I had 4 days/11 stores.

I feel like a CSI/detective/someone who actually did something with that Criminology degree she went to school for. Due to confidentiality agreements, I cannot say which drugstore pharmacy we audit, nor which stores or even cities I’ve been in, and I definitely cannot mention any results of the trash examinations. Completely separate from any patient data, I was pleased to find someone’s wallet one year, so police were called to return it to them. I’ve found a number of people are not pregnant; I’m guessing the use of the test right at the store probably means that was good news for them. I’ve found it is amazing how many people bring their own bags of trash from home to dump into store dumpsters. I don’t know why that is better than just putting it in a can by the street, unless they live in an area not served by waste pickup. But mostly, I’ve learned that I find it perversely fun. It would not be exciting to do on a regular basis but for a couple of days a year, I really enjoy it. Except, of course, for being in a big metal heat radiator in the middle of summer in the South. That part is definitely not so fun.

Joyful Temps

You know it is going to be a fun day to be working outside when it is 80F (heat index 85F) and 97% humidity and it is only 7:30 AM. Highs are expected to be around 97F (heat index 108F). I was planning to take water bottles, but I think I’ll take some towels as well!

Summer Classes, updated

I was a little wrong about those summer classes. It turns out he signed up for the accelerated summer courses, so they were only 6 weeks rather than the whole summer. He's done already!

Results:
Composition - passed! whew. He was doing great the whole class, did not do well on the final exam, and ended up with a C+. At least he passed it. And had fun during the term admonishing his teacher on the correct use of less/fewer. His grades might not reflect it, but he really has learned proper grammar. He just is not a good essay writer.
Edit: He looked it up and thought he saw it say C+. When checking his GPA weeks later, however, it showed a B for the class. Perhaps the grade he saw previously was his final exam and not the overall class grade. I don't know, but I'm happy for the B!
 
C++ programming - 103%. Nice!  A week ago, his grade was 112%. I joked that he was slacking off the last few days, and his answer was, "It's not my fault all the assignments had a maximum grade of 100."

Since he wants to work in computers, not be an English professor, I suppose these grades are appropriate.

R.I.P., my Brandi girl

1998(?) – 2014

When I adopted you in May 2000, they knew you were at least 2 years old but could not give any better estimate. I had a mental picture of you before I even went to the shelter, and I knew you were the dog for me the moment I saw you. I thought I was getting a companion for the little boy, but that was a silly idea. He was simply born a total cat person, and your personality turned out a canine version of me. I will always remember taking you on hours-long walks, frustrating chases through the neighborhood when you’d dug out of the yard and we couldn't catch you, and your never-ending desire to be wherever your people were. As long as no car rides were required, of course, since those did not agree with your tummy. The old age that caught up with you this past year was hard for you to handle. I’ll miss you, but now you can rest in peace.

Summer 2014 classes

Since the summer semester is short (3 months instead of 4), and he needs to pass his Composition class in order to be eligible to take some of the other required subjects, Alex is sticking to only 2 classes for this semester. He's retaking the Composition class that he bombed last fall, and taking a C++ programming class. Two weeks in, and both are going quite well so far. Here's hoping it stays that way!

Spring semester grade report: A. Finally!

First rule of driving? Don't hit anything.

Eleven years I’ve had this car, and driven it safely that whole time. Today… crunch. 

There’s a super busy road that runs through downtown, right past the campus of one of the local universities. On the edge of said campus is a Starbucks that does not have a parking lot nearly large enough for the traffic it needs to handle. It is well-known throughout town as always creating a traffic hazard. It does not help that the store is right at a traffic light. Today, I was stupidly going down this busy road, in the right-hand lane, and was stopped at that traffic light. I was the third car in the line. The light turned green. What does that mean? Generally, it means apply pressure to the gas pedal and move forward. That is what the other two lanes next to me did. That is what my lane started to do. Then the driver at the front of the line decided he wanted to pick up a coffee. Except the lot was full, so he had to stop in the street. The driver ahead of me saw this, and applied his brakes. I did not see that we had gone from, “It’s green now, let’s drive” to “Let’s block up the road” until a nanosecond before plowing right into the car ahead of me. Thankfully his feet were still on the brakes so he did not also bash into the person (the thirsty jerk) ahead of him. 

Fortunately for him, it was just a tiny dent near his tail light. Unfortunately for me, my front end bent into and poked a hole in the radiator, plus damaged the A/C system. I will have a good week’s worth of auto body work. Yippee. At least insurance will cover all but the deductible. It looks like just a little bang up, doesn’t it? Looks can be deceiving.

Spring 2014 classes

Remembering that he is in college, not middle school, I reminded him occasionally that he needed to find out when to register for classes, but I did my best not to pester him. Apparently I was reasonably successful, as he forgot to do it. Since he ended up selecting classes on the last day allowed to register, he ended up with only two classes: Precalculus Trigonometry and Intro to Multimedia. "Multimedia" apparently means "Flash" since that is all they are scheduled to learn about.

As for last semester... he got a B for the Psych and Algebra classes. Composition? Well, he'll be trying that one again.

Christmas dinner 2013

I wanted to keep the Christmas dinner a little more simple than the Thanksgiving meal. Alex requested seafood, but had no particular idea what. Lots to work with there…

I started with an appetizer course of spinach dip and a cheese plate. I used this recipe as a base for the dip, but then used greek yogurt instead of the sour cream and mayo. I also added some additional spices. It didn’t end up quite as creamy as I’d hoped, but it was still tasty. The cheese plate was composed of fresh mozzarella, Brie, Kerry Gold Dubliner, and Prima Donna Maturo. These were paired with pretzel crisps, crackers, and Veggie Dippin’ Chips.

For the meal itself, I picked up a 2 lb bag of mixed seafood. It contained scallops, shrimp, calamari, and mussels. I used this recipe, although with quite a bit more Old Bay. (maybe mine has lost its strength?) I used a regular onion and left out the snow peas. I think my seafood was not completely thawed out, so I ended up with rather a lot of liquid that I don’t think I was supposed to have. The milk part also did not thicken as much as I expected. As in, not much at all. I really debated whether to even add it or just leave it as a garlic sauce, but ended up mixing it in anyway. I am SO glad I did. The overall flavor was amazing, and I’ll definitely be making this again! I’m sure it would have been fine on the angel hair pasta the recipe calls for, but I skipped that part and made some 7-grain medley I had. It appears that mix is no longer available for sale, which is a bummer since it was such a nice, healthy mix of grains. It also worked well to help soak up some of the delicious seafood liquid, as did the baguettes. I baked some sweet potatoes so I could have some form of vegetable and made sure to keep them just the veggie without any heavy butter, cream, or sugars added. I should have made a salad or some other type of green veggie, but I didn’t. We had plenty of food.

I was not sure what kind of dessert I wanted to make. I was torn between a cheesecake and a key lime pie. I did not want to make both, since I knew we would eat both and we did not need that much dessert floating around. I found this recipe that sounded rather like a lime cheesecake. Voila! Perfect! Well, turns out not really. It was a nice, creamy, mild pie with only a hint of lime flavor. It’s nice, but I doubt I’ll make it again. It would have been better with a stronger lime flavor, which perhaps the suggested brand has. I used what I had, and was not impressed. But hey, we had some Lindor chocolates so it all worked out.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Mom's Happy Thanksgiving

My siblings and I had great fun surprising my mother this year. My brother decided to go visit my parents for Thanksgiving, taking his girlfriend and their 6-month-old baby. My sister decided to visit as well. The thing is, we all kept it from mom. My sister talked to Dad to make sure it was okay and that he would be able to pick her up from the airport. Then she talked to my brother about what time her flight would arrive. My brother then sent mom an email claiming that as the time of HIS arrival. (He actually flew in about 2 hours later, which of course Dad knew.) Mom was so completely surprised and overwhelmed when my sister walked out of customs and said hello, and it was fabulous.

Mom often wants things that either she can’t get or are simply too expensive over there, but overseas shipping costs are prohibitive for just sending things on a whim, so we usually end up loading our luggage when we travel. To keep the secret of my sister’s flight but still find out what Mom wanted, I emailed her to say I had picked up a job that required me to send something overseas. Since the postage was not an issue, did she have anything she was especially wanting right now?  She had a list of things, so my sister and I went shopping for them, and I mailed them up to her to take over. 

We also decided to include presents since in our family, “Christmas” occurs whenever it is convenient. So on actual Thanksgiving, mom had two of her three children celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in her house. I finally learned how to use Skype, and my dad hooked it up to their TV so Alex & I there via webcam, and it was really like having the entire family there together.

It was a lot of time and effort to get it all organized, but as far as I am concerned, it was totally worth it. I doubt any of us will forget this Thanksgiving any time soon.

Thanksgiving 2013

Once again, I had quite a fun time preparing a mountainous spread of food for Thanksgiving. As per usual, it was heavily carb-laden. Also as per usual, I split up the leftovers and put the majority of them in the freezer for later (more balanced) meals.

• Turkey – I stuffed it with carrots, celery, and onions, then rubbed it down with olive oil and seasonings. I cooked it breast-down for the majority of the meal. I tried to turn it over near the end to get the breast side a little browned, and it was already so tender that it started to fall apart, so I scrapped that idea. Transferring it to the plate also caused it to inwardly collapse, so it looks a bit disfigured in the photo. It surely did taste good, though. And now I again have homemade turkey stock in the freezer.
• Stuffing – Ironically, I found a small package of the stuffing from last year tucked away in the freezer. Thawed, baked, served, nice and easy!
• Sweet potatoes – I used the same recipe as last year.
• Mashed potatoes – I baked them, then added garlic, used limited butter and sour cream, and it was delicious. I don’t have an actual recipe for these, so they vary a bit each time I make them.
• Cheesy macaroni – Alex’s favorite item. I used the same base recipe as usual, with additional garlic and seasoning modifications like I always do.
• Cranberry sauce – I was so pleased with how it came out last year that I did the same thing again. This time I did not bother grating the apple since I knew I was going to puree it. I did not get it made ahead of time, so it was not chilled as fully as I wanted. Still yummy!
• Green beans with orange essence –It was supposed to have candied pecans on top, which worked out the first time I made the recipe, but unfortunately I burnt them beyond edibility this time so I had to leave them off.

I went a little overboard on the desserts this time.

• The pumpkin pie came from Costco’s bakery. They make them from scratch, they have the homemade taste as a result, and they are inexpensive.
• Nutella pie – Alex loves Nutella, so this was something I made for him. I bought a chocolate Oreo pie crust and cut out 25% of the sugar, but otherwise followed the directions. I should have reduced it even more, as I thought rather unpleasantly sweet. Alex still loved it, and I am sure I’ll be asked to make it again. I will completely leave the powdered sugar out as I think the whipped cream, cream cheese, and Nutella will be sufficent sugar. I think the fruit on it would be nice, and might put it on next time even though I know Alex would prefer it without.
• Beekman Boys’ Cranberry Apple Pie – I found the recipe in a magazine and thought it sounded good. I was not successful in finding it online except for a copy of the magazine page. I bought a pie crust. I made the mistake of just using a 12 oz bag of cranberries and two apples from my Costco package without measuring either of those items. It ended up with enormously too much topping that completely overwhelmed the poor custard base. I basically had enough topping for two pies but smooshed it all onto the one pie. I’ll have to make it properly sometime as it definitely had potential.

Overall, it was a buffet with much more food than needed, and those extras were helpful over the next few busy days when cooking was not particularly an option. I hope you and yours had some good food as well.

First day of college

First class starts at 11 and last class gets out at 5:15, so he's there for a while. Most of his classes apparently did not do much, so he does not have a good idea how easy/difficult they will be. They don't hand out a syllabus anymore, they put them on "the blackboard" which is an online system, so he has to pull those off and take them back on Wednesday so they can review it. It seems they mostly did cursory reviews of what the classes will be, what expectations are, and a bit of 'introduce yourself'. I know the difference between high school classes and university classes was an enormous difference in how we were treated. I've gotten the impression over the years that community colleges tend to be in the middle, with many teachers treating it as more of a grade 13 than a university attitude. After just one day, he said he could probably agree with that, but that again, he would have to give it more time.

Composition:  He had a reading assignment for English, and he has to log in to take some quiz today to prove he read it. He knows one of the other students in his class, so that could be convenient for note sharing, etc. This is a 50-minute M/W/F class.

Psychology: He thinks he will really like the psych teacher/class based on personality first impressions. This is a class he wanted to take in high school and it never worked out. He's read some psych books (high school summer reading options) and some of our TV shows involve psychology, plus so much of that subject is just fun and somewhat 'common sense', so I was fully expecting him to like this class. Hopefully that isn't just me projecting how much I liked those classes. As obviously did his aunt, since she majored in it. This is a 50-minute M/W/F class.

Algebra:  I wish he had had time to do the tests to see if he could test out of any of the classes, since the math class is possibly too basic for him. Even not using any form of math other than basic functions for the past year, he was doing all the "review" stuff in his head. Either it will get harder, or he has absolutely no excuse not to get a good grade. The teacher explained the school rules about not having cell phones during tests, and if you so much as put your hand in your pocket, it will be assumed you are trying to cheat. Enough people DO cheat, I can understand the reason for that rule. The teacher went on to say that if it were up to him, cell phones would not even be allowed on campus. I'm sure you can all imagine how well that went over with this techno-geek.  This is a 75-minute M/W class.

So, long and short of it, nobody did enough to give him a really good idea of how the classes will go, but neither did any of them immediately scream for him to get his schedule changed. There certainly have been middle/high school classes where he's known the first day that he was going to hate it, so I figure that while the start is tentative, it isn't bad. Me trying to remember that he is in college and to let him take his own responsibility for whether he goes to class or not, whether he does the assignments or not, etc, because those are all his problem and I should not be nagging him about it? A little more challenging.

School starts Monday

Alex attended orientation at the community college today. Once Orientation was over, they had people to help him pick out and register for classes. We had thought about it before hand, and since a) he has never been a school-loving kind of kid and b) he has been out of school for a year and c) he is still working his part-time job, we thought perhaps starting with just 3 classes would be wiser than jumping right in at 4-5 classes as is a typical load. Thus, he is registered for Algebra I, Composition 1, and General Psychology. They are all Mon/Wed/Fri classes, so he has all of Tues/Thurs for assignments, studying, and working.

There are two types of programs he can do there. One is the basic AA degree that you get when you want to then transfer to another college for the BA/BS degree, and one is to earn him an AS specializing in the computer field. The AA is primarily general education classes with a few electives, while the AS is a few general education classes with a bunch of computer classes. We picked to start with the AS, but will have to speak with a guidance counselor to see which is actually better for him. We figured to get him started, he would have some of the same general ed classes, and any computer classes he took as part of the AS could count as the electives if he switches to the AA/Bachelor route, so there was no harm in choosing the AS for starters. 

Here's to his first semester of college classes! 

 

Thanksgiving 2012

I chopped a lot of veggies on Wed to make prep easier, and somehow still spent a good portion of the day in the kitchen on Thursday. Bummer. We certainly ended up with a crazy amount of food. I was trying to keep it reasonably balanced, but it ended up carb-heavy after all. After we ate, half the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and turkey went into the freezer for future meals.  Here was our bounty this year:

• Turkey – baked breast-side down as usual to keep the white meat more moist, rubbed down with a little olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Yum! Boiling the carcass has generated several gallons of broth for future meals.
• Stuffing – I cooked a half roll of Italian sausage, then sautéed a skillet full of onions, mushrooms, garlic, chopped carrots, celery, yellow squash, and zucchini. I added all this to a bag of Pepperidge Farm bread chunks. There was enough moisture from the veggies that I did not need to add any moisturizing broth or water. I have never added sausage before, and was surprised how just that little bit really added a lot of flavor.
• Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries – the sugar and raspberry balsamic vinegar hardened into tooth-breaking crystalline texture (like the red shell of a candied apple), which promptly melted and ran all over the place when added to the sprouts. The result was okay, but I do not expect to make it again.
• Green beans with mushrooms – I had an idea in mind, and this recipe is fairly close to what I envisioned. I was less than enthused about my results. They were edible, but not exciting.
• Sweet potatoes – I cut out half the butter and sugar and didn’t miss it at all. Even Alex liked them, and getting him to eat sweet potatoes is usually a challenge.
• Mashed potatoes – The bag from Costco suggested cooking them in the crock pot. I set the timer to cook them overnight. I doubt I will do that again. The potatoes turned yellow and smelled funny in the morning. I creamed them, added sautéed garlic, and baked to reheat just before serving. They turned out pretty tasty, but the color was still a bit dingy.
• Mac & Cheese – I used this recipe as a base as usual but added additional seasonings and used a healthy dose of pepper jack for some extra seasoning.
• Cranberry sauce – I doubled the recipe, reduced the sugar by 1/3, added a grated apple, and included the zest from the orange I juiced. The apple was not grated as much as I thought and I didn’t like the visual appeal when it was done, so I used the immersion blender to puree it. I also made it the day before and then served it chilled. I liked it last year, but I thought it probably the best part of the meal this year.  Alex did not share this opinion.
• Pumpkin pie – I bought a frozen pre-made one months ago when they were on sale but it’s just been occupying freezer space since so I baked and served it. It was good, but I like the seasoning combo from homemade a little better.
• Death by Chocolate – I bought the ingredients, but Alex made every bit of it himself. It is layers of double chocolate brownies, chocolate pudding, devil’s food cake, and whipped cream. He found some snack-sized Butterfinger bars left over from Halloween, and he shredded them for a garnish on the top. Isn’t it pretty?

We certainly have much to be thankful for as we reflect on the blessings of the past year. I am not sure just why we choose massive amounts of food to celebrate our thanks, but since I love to cook, it is a vessel I enjoy using.

AP Exams

Besides taking his Network+ exam, Alex also struggled through three AP exams this week. Yes, it was a busy week! He tested for English Literature Composition, Government, and Statistics. He has no idea how he actually did on them. Unlike the IT tests that give instant results, AP exams take a few weeks to give results since they all have free-response and essay areas. This is only the second year his school has offered the AP Stats, he has not been happy with the teacher, he has struggled with grade (hard to tell how much is the teacher and how much is just not understanding the material) so he wasn’t expecting a great result for that. He actually was surprised that he knew more than he thought he did, but there were still topics they never discussed in class so he was obviously guessing on those. It will be interesting to see how his exam scores actually break down.

When one of the teachers asked how he thought they did on the stats test, Alex said that since it was only the second time they were testing, and nobody passed last year, he did not feel he had enough statistical data to make a reasonable estimation of their chances of passing. Cute.