Rest of my exciting Thanksgiving Adventure

Hello World! (I've spent way too much time programming.)
Went back to the grind today after a lovely long weekend in Columbus. The adventure didn't stop with cooking and eating.
The highlight of Friday was going to the Columbus science museum. Like Des Moines, they also recently moved into a new building. (The parallels with Des Moines don't stop there. Columbus seems to be a scaled-up version of Des Moines in many ways.) I'm such a geek, but I feel like a kid in a candy store when I go to science museums. We watched a movie on the Extreme Screen! about the history of the cowboy culture. Apparently it all goes back to Morocco, went to Spain, was brought to the "New World" by the Spanish and evolved in several different ways throughout South America. The American version actually has its roots in Mexico. That job certainly makes my sit-in-front-of-a -computer-all-day research job pretty dull.
Saturday Marcy showed me a really neat park in Columbus. A great way to enjoy the amazing weather we had over the weekend. Afterwards I experienced my first tea shop. Something like a coffee shop (not the Amsterdam kind) but with tea. I was able to have my first bubble tea. Basically it's sweetened tea with big tapioca balls in the bottom. Different but neat. Afterwards we grabbed dinner and then rented a movie. We saw "What the Bleep Do We Know". It's a documentary that tries to tie psychology, noetics, and quantum physics. It had some wild claims but makes you think. Worth watching if you're into that sort of thing.
Now I find myself at the beginning of "Hell Week", the last week of class before finals. On one hand there's a lot to do, but on the other there exists a light at the end of the tunnel!
Have a good week all!

Marcy and Laura's Excellent Thanksgiving Adventure

As this is the first Thanksgiving that both Marcy and I have ever prepared on our own (my apple pie in Germany last year not withstanding), we decided to document this learning experience for future grad students.

(Times given are in Eastern Standard Time and are approximate.)
10:30 pm (night before) - Finish grocery shopping. (Go late to avoid crowds.) Check.
12:15 am - Check to see that we have enough pans. We do. Check.
10:44 am - Begin cooking

Menu:
Green Bean Casserole
Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes
Dressing
Creamed cornbread
Sweet potatoes
Wheat rolls
Jello
Pumpkin pie
(No turkeys were harmed in the making of this meal.)

Watch Macy's parade.

11:17 am - Melt butter before adding it to corn bread mix
11:33 am - Forgot sour cream in corn bread. Note: Remember all ingredients
11:42 am - Forgot pepper in green bean casserole. See above note.
12:05 am - Corn bread, green bean cassorle (hereafter called GBC), sour cream mashed potatoes ready to go in oven.



1:00 pm - GBC and sour cream potatoes go into oven
1:15 pm - First bottle of wine is opened. It is a German Riesling from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region. Very tasty.
1:20 pm - Clean up a bit.
1:22 pm - Everything else goes into oven.



2:00 pm - Dig in!



2:44 pm - Put leftover away, pour rest of wine
3:05 pm - Start movie
5:26 pm - Eat pumpkin pie
Rest of evening - lie around and be lazy.

http://www.bluemountain.com/view.pd?i=153000353&m=9689&rr=z&source=bma999

We wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving. :-)

Still alive

Greetings all you faithful readers of my way exciting blog! (Ha ha right?) I know it's been a while, but what can I say, as a budding astronomer I'm a very busy person. (Are you all laughing yet?)
Honestly my lack of posts is more directly correlated with the fact that my life is pretty uneventful.
So what have an been up too? Let's see. Last Wednesday the Moscow State Symphony played a concert at Cornell. Last Saturday I saw the movie "Borat". It had its amusing moments, but not something I need to see a second time. I'm more amused by all of the legal trouble the actor's getting himself into. Yesterday we had a exhibit of photography from people who work in Space Sciences. I displayed some of my photos from Germany and Rome, but they were pretty amateur compared to what other people in the department do. It was pretty impressive.
I'm really excited about Thanksgiving break and really, really excited about going back to Iowa over winter break. I've decided not to fly to Germany over break, so I have more time in the Midwest. I'll miss not seeing my Germany people, but I've actually seen more of them in the last year and a half than most of my Iowa people. Plus January isn't the nicest time of year to go to Germany.
So the "game of the century", as my Michigan-alum friends like to call it, starts momentarely. It is certainly the game of the season, maybe the game of the last couple seasons, whatever that means. Michigan vs. Ohio State. Oh right. Iowa lost again today. Don't really know what happened this season. My roommate assured me this morning that next season will be Iowa's.
Ok. I guess that's all I have.
Time to try and get some something done.

What a day!

What a day! The Dem's have control of the House and Senate. Rumsfeld is gone! (Who killed the wicked witch, the wicked witch...) And at 22:30 I am done with my Jackson homework. Ya me.
Otherwise I've been good. Busy. But good.
It looks like I'll be going to Columbus to spend Thanksgiving with Marcy. I'm really looking forward to going back to Iowa over winter break. And I may just make a little side trip to Germany on my way back to New York.
More later. Time to go catch the bus.
Good night!