Biscottish?

I decided once again to make a King Cake for Mardi Gras. Unfortunately, I didn't have my recipe handy. I really think I know where it is, but haven't the energy to go and look through the basket. I found an alternate one on the internet and made my way to the grocery. I made the dough, as instructed, waited the couple hours for it to rise and ended up with this: Not risen. Obviously not risen. The dough still tasted good, though. I think the yeast may have been a little...dead. It was on the top shelf under halogen lights in the grocery store. Maybe a little warm for the little guys. I may mention it to the grocery. I'll try to proof the other package before I do, though. Anyway...to not waste what seemed like perfectly good dough, I used my workout time on Tuesday to do some strength training in rolling out the dough to about a quarter-inch thick and cut it into cute baklava shapes and baked it.
Pretty things came out of the oven. They were lighter than they looked and had a not-unpleasant texture. I figured that if they weren't going to be good, at least they could look pretty.
Bring on the glaze...pretty, pretty glaze...
And viola! A yummy-lookin' dessert! What's better is that they actually tasted good, too. I took them in to the office and while I understand that grad students will eat anything, they won't come back for seconds unless it's at least decent. People came back for seconds.

They ended up like very light biscotti. I kept saying that they were biscotti-ish, which naturally turned into biscottish. I didn't taste them with coffee, but I would imagine that to be the matching flavor.

Quote from the process: "I don't know what went wrong, but I'm trying to make it right. The problem is that I can't replicate it if it turns out really good."

A note from Carl...

I got an e-mail from my friend Carl who put up with me on a bike all last summer. His off-season training is significantly different than mine. He agreed to let me blog his e-mail. Thanks Carl!

The subject line was "So, what happens..."

What happens when:

A) for the first time in over 20 yrs, the college campus you
attend closes for two days because of bad weather (lots of snow and ice).

B) you've built a bike dedicated to riding in less-than-ideal conditions....

YOU GO FOR A BIKE RIDE!!!!!

My classes were cancelled on the 13th and 14th, so I took advantage of the respite to go out and ride! No falls -- but a few close calls. Got in 1.5 hrs yesterday (the 13th), and close to 2 hrs today. As I was finishing up, I went by the bike shop for a latte and to chat with the guys before heading home. I left my bike outside the front door (it was a mess!) and stayed for about 45 minutes. When I was ready to leave, I had to take a pitcher of hot water out and de-ice my bike, because the entire drivetrain had frozen solid!! I hadn't taken into account that it was about 18 deg outside....

Pictures are below...

This is Carl. I'm assuming that it's before the ride because the bike appears to be nearly clean and he's smiling. Okay he was probably smiling after the ride, too, but in a different way. You can see the tires and the beginning of ice on the pedals here.
Oh yeah, definitely gunk on the drivetrain. Definitely ice on the pedals. Look at the bottom of the frame!
The back-end of the bike after the ride. It was a little cold and a little wet, which makes for a little ice.
Gunk in the derailer.
I'm just glad I didn't have to clean it. That's the second-best reason to not ride in the snow.

Swim of the Day

I managed to convince myself that swimming was a good idea for the workout tonight. The pool was relatively crowded and I had to wait for a few minutes before a lane opened up. This is one of the benefits of having around fourteen lap lanes in a pool. I have yet to have to share a lane. The workout is below. I felt pretty good after the first time through the main set, but getting there was a struggle. The first time 'round, I went on a 2:30 cycle, but was able to cut that down to 2:15 for the second set.

• 200 SKPD
• 2 x (5 x 150 in the following order)
• Moderate (to establish pace)
• Hard, Easy, Hard (by 50's)
• Easy, Hard, Easy
• Build up intensity
• Moderate, trying to match the time from the first 150 (should be kinda hard)
• 200 Cool Down

2500 yards total.

1995 Chateau Simard

In a recent wine spree, Jeremy not only picked up nearly a case of my coveted Ch. Ormes de Pez. He found ten of the 1999s in a little liquor store in South Bend and rounded out the case (and then some) with a 1995 Chateau Simard (St. Emilion) and a 2003 Phelan Segur (St. Estephe).

While visiting this weekend, we took the Simard to mAmbu (my current favorite restaurant in N-ville). I insisted that Jeremy try the seared ahi--the only dish there that I've had. Not that I've heard anything other than good about the rest of the menu, it's just that the tuna is that good. The menu for the evening had venison carapaccio, arugula salad with fried goat cheese round, and the seared ahi.

The nose of the wine on first pour was incredible. After I got used to it, I was able to classify it as earthy with tobacco and perhaps a touch of chocolate. The first taste revealed a very smooth mouth feel with a flavor that matched the nose. I didn't instantly fall in love with the flavor. It was a little tight and I think I commented that it would do better with food.

I was extremely disappointed in the wine with the carapaccio. The dish was excellent, but heavy on the pepper. We needed a Zinfindel to stand up to the dish. There wasn't any spice in the wine and it clashed terribly. It clashed so much, in fact that I was concerned that I had missed a corked flavor during the initial taste.

My hopes were buoyed when the arugula salad came out and the goat cheese saved the day. The wine and cheese complemented each other beautifully. I tasted a new dimension to the wine--anise. Very nice. Additionally, the wine was opening more now. Hindsight says I should have had them decant for us.

The tuna finally came and while the pairing wasn't ideal, it was a very nice combination. We finished the wine and went on for coffee and dessert, but that's another post.

Here's the label:

In the news...

I've been focusing on a thing for school the last few days and naturally easily distracted over this time frame. Rather than taking time to blog stuff when I read them, I've been e-mailing articles to myself as a reminder of what I wanted to blog. So, a quick dump of articles...most people have probably already read these.

First, Stephen Colbert is now in the freezer section.

Second, Middlebury College in Vermont steps out on a limb and bans Wikipedia as a citable reference.

Third, Purdue shuts down campus for a day. Sissies. The linked article says that the last time classes were cancelled was in 1994, but it was really sometime in the 1996-1997 school year. Not that it really matters, but I remember it quite clearly, as it involved sledding on Slater Hill at 2 am with the windchill around 30-below. There was no alcohol involved, stupid comes on its own at that age.

Workout -- Core and Flexibility

I didn't have a lot of time last night for a workout and I didn't want to go outside, so I did the 30 minute strength/flexibility video from the off-season. The workout was quite reasonable, minimal chirpy "you can do its" from the unnaturally fit instructor. I'm a lot less strong and less flexible than anyone who would be expected to hold any of those positions.

So, with a reasonable workout under my belt, I had fried calamari for dinner. Yum!!

Workout -- Fencing

I managed to make it to fencing practice with the VU club tonight. There were only four epeeists so it was a short night (probably good for my getting other things done tonight). I ran about a mile for warm up, did an augmented core routine, took my lesson, then wrapped up with some free fencing.

The lesson went fairly well, especially in the beginning when I was able to clearly think through what was being asked. My reactions were more natural, but taking last week off hurt my form a bit. Towards the end of the lesson, Doug was having me make decisions on distance, when to/not to attack coupled with disengages and lunges and I got overwhelmed and couldn't put two motions together. After several frustrating minutes, it turns out that I was watching his arm rather than his shoulder for distance and that was messing me up. Problem fixed and the lesson (finally) continued from there. There's really nothing like standing there, knowing exactly what you're supposed to do, being able to recite what you're trying to do, then having your body do something completely different than what your head is telling it to do. Solution: Stop Thinking.

I'm trying to apply things that I'm learning in lessons during free fencing, so I'm in that frustrating phase of trying to fix old habits, losing a lot of points, and implement things that I haven't mastered yet. On the whole, things went well, I just didn't get as many reps in as I would have liked.

St. Valentine's Massacre

Jeremy went to the annual St. Val's Massacre this last weekend and while I'm still waiting on results to link to, I'll go ahead and brag a bit. He won the tournament and renewed his "A" rating. This is helpful in that he'll get a better seeding with a "fresh" letter and should be especially helpful in the seeding at Div. I events (like Tucson coming up in April).

In other news, his blog has linkies for Jamie Tolston's Webshots pages for a few tournaments that she's photographed. Below is one of my favorite shots, which links to the IU Spring Open album. Excellent job, Jamie!

Swim du Jour

I managed to drag myself to the pool tonight and got wrapped up in a set that took me longer than I expected, but was good, nonetheless. Basically, I did a ladder, building from 100 yards to 500 yards in 100 yard increments, then working back down. I've done a simple breakdown of what I was working towards below.

• 200 Warm up
• 100 hard -- I did this in about 1:15, which is not bad for an old lady like myself.
• 200 concentrating on finishing the stroke and not breathing off turns
• 300 relax and enjoy the swim--no breathing off turns
• 400 I was going to relax, then a guy in the lane next to me started at the same time and I decided that I couldn't let him be faster than me, so I swam the first 250 faster than expected, then I relaxed for the rest.
• 500 hard. My legs were cramping as I was pushing off the walls (still not breathing until the third stroke). I think my time for this was 7:05, which isn't fabulous, but I'll take it.
• 400 easy
• 300 relax and concentrate on quickly deteriorating form.
• 200 IM--I was bored.
• 100 cool down

2700 yards total.

A note from the "relaxed" swims where I wasn't breathing off the walls: This involves taking a breath when you see the flags (5 m from the end), usually 3-4 strokes, the flip turn, a glide, then 3 strokes before taking another breath. I can feel the lack of oxygen as I'm coming out of the turn, but can usually control myself long enough to finish the extra strokes without the extra breath. In contrast, when I'm running, I panic when I start breathing hard and usually let up a bit rather than get that "I can't breathe and I might keel over right now" feeling. To me, they're completely separate--one is scary, the other is not. I think it's odd that the one that has the potential for me drowning is not scary. There's got to be a way to get over that feeling when running.

Yes, friends, when I'm not trying to keep track of laps, this is what I think about when swimming.

Today's Non Seq

I had a 15 minute conversation today that fits in with the blog theme.
Transition points:

• "You're like a chipmunk with those books."
• "Have you heard George Carlin's take on environmentalism?"
• (more on G.C.) "...and they read the program and I heard them say, 'Oh! He's a comedian. This'll be good.'"
• "I told her that I considered leaving at intermission. She told me that she had also considered it, and I told her that I was never going to get those three hours back."
• "I've tried to edit the HTML but they just won't go away."
• "They tried to bully me into giving up the URL for free. It was short and pronounceable--a valuable commodity."
• "...and the lawyer said, 'I can't believe two companies would fight over a stupid name like Visteon.'"
• "...but the companies have these guys that go out and try to smooth things over in the dark of the night."
• "I can't wait for the day I don't need to carry my computer to work"

Workout--Trainer

I pulled out the workout video/plan for the off-season training program that Mom and Dad got me for my birthday. I had intended to start on Monday, but was a little distracted then so I finally got on track today. What I did slightly differed from the scheduled plan. It seems that I've overestimated my core fitness...a painful lesson...every time.

• 10 minutes warm up, spinning on the trainer 80-90 rpm
• Core video 1--the same torture I endured the other night. Something about the last sequence where the guy, propped in a plank position on his elbows and toes, cheerily says "hold this until you can't anymore" that, in hindsight, makes me want to cry. Owwww...
• Core video 2--This was more reasonable. It involved the equivalent to deep knee bends, push ups, the traditional "bicycle" ab thing (feet in air mimicking the cycling movement), and other tolerable things.
• I skipped video 3 because I'm a sissy.
• 10 minutes on the bike, eventually hitting 105 rpm, and cooling down.

Overall, a decent workout. I am not currently happy about supporting myself in a sitting position, so I suppose it was effective.

Found

I stumbled upon a twenty dollar bill on the ground this morning. I walked past it, turned around, picked it up and pocketed it.

In the 15 seconds that it took to do this, the thoughts that went through my head went something like this:

1. (notices money on the ground) That's money. How much? Is it worth picking up?
2. (after pattern recognition kicks in) That's a twenty!
3. Someone's going to miss that later today--I wonder if it fell out of their pocket.
4. I wonder if they're looking for it right now. Should I pick it up?
5. I could just leave it for someone else to find.
6. (turning around) This could be a setup. How often do you find a twenty on the ground?
7. I wonder if I could find the owner. What's the threshold amount that you make any attempt at finding the owner of money?
8. The VA hospital is right there. Someone might check at the front desk. No. They'd pocket it.
9. What a pain. Someone else should have found this.
10. (bending down to pick it up) I could give it to one of the homeless people around--it'd make their week! No. they'd spend it on (enter vice here).
11. There's a guy doing a run for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, that'd be a good use for it. No. I was going to donate anyway.
12. (hand in pocket) There's surely a video camera posted somewhere and someone's going to stop me any moment and harass me for being a selfish bitch.
13. What are the chances that someone would go actively looking for $20? Not me. I'd just assume that someone would have pocketed it by now.
14. (hand out of pocket, walking on my way) What are the odds? Lucky me.
15. (smiling) I can have ice cream for a week on this.

At the Opry

I had the chance to go to the Friday Night edition of the Grand Ole Opry last weekend. Essentially the same show as the Saturday night, still broadcast on the radio, still very good. The show was held at Ryman Auditorium, the previous "official" opry house, but now is the winter home of the show.

The whole show was pretty amazing. It started with the obligatory reminder that it is a radio show and there would be a bit of prompting for the audience. When the announcers clap, everybody claps. The music was consistently good and there was a variety of types of country--from Western to Bluegrass to Cajun. Some of the acts that stood out to me were the Del McCoury Band, Emmylou Harris, John Starling & Carolina Star, Joe Nichols, Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, and Riders in the Sky. I ended up downloading John Starling's new album from emusic. It's scheduled to be released on February 20 on Amazon.

There's a certain casualness to the atmosphere that I really enjoyed. The folks performing were very much "on" while they played their numbers, but from my vantage point, I could see all of stage right, including the comings and goings of the artists. People would roll in about a half-hour in advance, perform their set, and leave. Those who weren't performing stood around nearby, listened and talked near stage. During "commercial" breaks, there was some interaction between the audience and the performers--flash photography was allowed (read: encouraged) and some of the artists would ham it up a bit. Very fun.

I had flashbacks during the show of sitting in the middle of Granny and Pop-Pop's living room floor, wrapped in a blanket watching the Opry on television. It seems that it was on every night (and may have been, had they also televised the Friday show). We would make popcorn, drink soda, and stay up late--you know, until 9:30. I think Pop was watching with me.

Idiotarod--Phoenix

I got an e-mail this week from Shawn. The mail was to four of us and said something along the lines of "check this out--Sarah, you're in the cart". I had been volunteered for a race that none of us could actually attend due to its location across the country, but was really tempting. We all geared up for a theoretical trip to Phoenix to participate in the first running of the Phoenix Idiotarod. Basically, four people pulling a "borrowed" grocery cart while someone is riding in or on said cart. There can be modifications to the cart, but it must ride on the crappy hard rubber wheels that take it through the store it was originally intended for. It's everything I look for in a race--short, convoluted, and had the potential for me to participate without running a step.

It seems that there would be a lot of potential for "creative gaming". The rules suggest bringing along a bike lock for the mandatory 20 minute delays at the checkpoints. It has been suggested that you bring along several bike locks for the mandatory waits--for other carts. Other thoughts? Anyone??

Shawn says that he's going to try to get one set up in B-ton. I'm all for it.

Workouts...a bit late

I haven't been a complete slacker, just the blog posting part of me has been slacking. The workouts since the last post are below.

Thursday--did a quick core workout video from the set that Mom and Dad gave me for my birthday. It's an off-season cycling training program that came with yoga and core DVDs. I'm planning to start the 12-week cycle on Monday and try to stick with the program in hopes of improving my bike for the tris. The workout I did was a "bonus" on the core DVD, which included various crunches, leg lifts, and other terrible things that your body isn't intended. Owwww....

Having sorta recovered from that, I had a bit of time on Friday to get a bit of a brick workout in before heading to the Friday Night version of the Grand Ole Opry for the evening. I ran to the gym at a good pace (about 3/4 mile), swam 1200 yards (200 warm up, 1000 swim), then ran back. I think the workout continued when I got home and was ready for the show in 20 minutes. The long swim for the evening was nice in that I was relaxed and I tried to concentrate on finishing my stroke and not breathing off the walls, that is to say that after my flip turns I was trying to not breathe for two strokes into the length. It was a good workout.

Saturday morning, I finally got back on the bike (on the trainer) and did about 45 minutes of spinning at 90-100 rpm while listening to Car Talk. It was an unremarkable workout, but made me tired enough to necessitate a nap in the afternoon. I'll not mention that I was feeling the core workout from Thursday in a pretty major way all day. Gotta love the two day pain delay.

I'm taking today off. I think.

SNOW!!!

With the promise of bad weather, the local forecasters were only off by 24 hours. If you will recall, there was the mad dash to the grocery Wednesday night; schools were called off on Thursday in anticipation (or the flu, no one will really admit). No snow Thursday morning. I was very, very disappointed.

Friday morning, a mere day late, I look out my window and see...

Real snow!!! ...and a town that comes to a standstill because of it. I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. It was a mere inch. There were people out taking pictures of the snow. Had I been faster, I would have taken and posted pictures of people taking pictures of the snow. Vanderbilt still held classes. There were snow angels on campus and a small child throwing "snowballs" which could best be described as handfuls of snow in the general direction of his mother. No shaping involved. These people need help, or more snow to practice with. I vote for the latter.

More Unnecessary Excitement

After the excitement of the grocery, I was starving when I got home and decided that a stir-fry sounded good. I started the rice, and pulled my beloved cast iron skillet out and preheated it while getting the veggies ready. The veggie prep took a little longer than expected and I noticed that the pan looked really hot when I was ready to add stuff. I threw in the canola oil and saw it instantly change colors and start smoking. Oops.

The fan was turned on, skillet put directly under the fan. Bad choice. Oil ignited. Pan back on the stove top. Turned off the offending burner, juggled the other burners to minimize damage to...whatever was going to be damaged. I still have a fire. Not good.

For everyone's information, the flash point of canola oil is 270-290 degrees Celsius. Electric stoves suck.

I managed to arrange things such that the burners were off, the pan was sitting on a burner and not an immediate threat to anything nearby, and found the salt to throw upon the flaming mess. This put out the flame, but there was still a lot of smoke. I was surprised at how long it took for the smoke detector to go off, but it finally did. I ran to tend to the noise, the imminent danger subsided. I tried to open the windows and found that the windows in the apartment don't hold themselves open. I ran to get books to prop the windows open and finally manage this task.

Fifteen minutes later, I'm sitting down to a stir-fry dinner in a smoky apartment. It's a good thing I bought the beer.

An aside: I didn't think to take pictures of the charred salt/oil mess, but in the future, when I try to set my kitchen on fire, I'll consider the blogging aspect and do my best to document the event.

Everybody Panic!

I hadn't been to the grocery since the first week I moved. My calendar indicates that it's been three full weeks. The grocery trips are dreaded and avoided at all costs. I try to be very smart while shopping. I ran out of milk last night and bread yesterday afternoon. The trip was unavoidable. Normally, I would send a Jeremy, but since I don't have a Jeremy around right now, I took a deep breath, make a list, and set out on my own.

A few days ago, the weather tracker on my homepage popped up with a severe weather alert for Nashville. It said that it was going to snow Thursday. Through the week, that prediction has crept up so that we're supposed to expect snow sometime tonight. I'm thinking that it's really nice that they're planning ahead and alerting the public to winter storms.

Unfortunately, this isn't one. It's supposed to snow an inch. Max.

With all the fuss about the upcoming storm, people are doing what they do when there's imminent severe weather. Get out and go to the grocery. While not exactly in full panic mode, there were many, many people stocking up for the "storm". Lots of bread, milk, and eggs being bought. Most people don't know what to do with eggs that don't come prepared on some sort of biscuit from a drive-thru window, but there's some sort of internal list that includes buying eggs in case of bad weather. I think there's a glitch in the code.

With the obvious impending doom, I assessed my basket and threw in a six of beer for good measure, but skipped the eggs. We have to have priorities. At least I know what to do with beer.

Black Hole of Super Bowl

To demonstrate the separation between myself and "reality", I checked my work mail this morning and read through the subject lines and senders to decide which to blindly delete (road closures on base, etc.), I found one with something like "GO BLUE DAY!!" I paused, and thought for a second, dismissed it as a Navy something-or-other, deleted it, and carried on to read my other mail. As I was reading, I suddenly remembered this Super Bowl thing. Right...Indy's playing...go blue...Colts...got it. All I've heard/read is that Marvin Harrison's being forced to talk to the media on Media Day...and did.

I have to ask myself, "Self, do I miss the hype?"
No.

Will I watch the game? Yes.
Go Colts!!...err Blue....err...sigh.

I got rhythm...

"I don't got rhythm"

I went fencing tonight. Normal drills, footwork, minor amounts of push-ups and sit-ups. Good stuff. We broke up into groups of four, worked on time drills where one person starts out down 0-3 with a minute left in the bout and has to come back for the win. It's a good drill--makes you think and be sort of aggressive. The other side is interesting, too, being up 3-0 and trying to hold your own through the rest of the bout.

After this, I was in line to take my lesson and happened upon a bit of a jump rope drill where you had to move your hands and feet in different ways at different times. For each swing of the rope, you switch your feet three times, making you lead the jump with a different foot each time. It was difficult. It took a little more rhythm than I am used to. Fun though.

I think I was at practice for 2.5 hours.
Now for dinner, a little work, and some sleep.