Ran across this music and am enjoying it...

Wedding photos!

It took me a while, but I finally have some wedding photos online!

Wedding 090905

Home from beautiful Santa Monica

Just got home from a quick trip to Santa Monica. Flew down on Friday night (hooray for cheap Southwest tickets!), and Julie picked me up and whisked me home. Leisurely morning with her and Michael and then a nice 30-minute walk to the beach for the ultimate tournament (Lei Out). Perfect weather - t-shirt and skirt weather, not too hot, not too windy. We lost all four games but didn't worry too much about it. I'd forgotten how good it feels to play on soft sand under a warm sun. A few of us jumped in the Pacific afterwards - big waves, setting sun - hard to beat. Went out for amazing kimchi quesadillas for dinner. Spent the night with J&M again. Watched Up in the Air before bed - liked it, especially with the un-perfect ending.

Sunday morning started with oatmeal a la Julie, and some modeling of a vintage dress she's thinking of wearing for her wedding. Walked to the beach, played three games and won one of them! Another jump in the ocean, then off to Melody's parents' house for a very Swiss evening. The highlight was a dinner of raclette - slabs of special cheese, melted on a special grill and served with special sides (boiled potatoes, pickles, radishes, sausage & salami). The wine flowed generously and the traditional mountain music (yodeling!) rang out loud and clear.

Up early this morning to catch a flight home. Tough to come home to a cold, empty apartment. The dreary weather didn't help. I spent the afternoon putting our wedding photos in an album, and I got to go for a nice sunset walk in the afternoon when the skies finally cleared up. And I got to catch up with Scott - he presented some of his research at a conference in Capetown on Saturday and said he got great feedback and generally had a nice time down there. He keeps talking about how beautiful it is there. He's back in Kampala now for one more week. It's going to be a long week for both of us.

One of my resolutions is to post here more frequently - at least once a week. Here goes.

1. Winter break was awesome.

• We spent a week in Florida with Scott's family - lots of old family photos and stories - good stuff. I feel like I have a much better context for Becky's side of the family now. We got to see a bunch of cool animals too, both at the zoo and in the wild!
• We spent a week and a half in Duluth with my family - lots of snow! We got a big blizzard that started on Christmas Eve day and continued through the 25th.

2. Winter quarter is off to a solid start... academically speaking.

• Once again, I have Animal Biochemistry and Metabolism at eight o'clock in the morning, five days a week. Part of me is really bored of this class, and part of me really likes the routine. Calvert is a fantastic professor.
• I haven't made up my mind yet about this quarter's nutrition core course: Vitamins and Minerals. This week we should get some material to sink our teeth into.
• I'm pumped for Lipids with Dr. German. His passion for this stuff is palpable and infectious.
• News on thesis research (involving gut microbes) coming soon, I hope.
• I'm already starting to prepare med school application materials. (I won't actually turn in the application until June 2010, and I won't start school until fall 2011.) A long road, but it feels good to be on it.

3. The January downer is that Scott is off in Uganda. Fortunately:

• We get to talk nearly every day.
• He'll be back on the 24th. This trip is only three weeks, two weeks shorter than his trip in May.
• He's doing well, and it sounds like his research is going as well as can be expected.
• He's in Capetown this week for a conference, and he says the place is gorgeous! Glad he gets to have a little fun while he's over there.

4. Recent kitchen adventures:

• Last night: fried liver and onions. I soaked the liver slices in milk before frying them, which mitigated their potency a bit. The fried onions were great!
• This afternoon: almond flour biscuits. In support of my efforts to eat fewer sugars and cereal grains, Scott gave me almond flour, coconut flour & appropriate cookbooks for Christmas. The biscuits were my first recipe. Not what I was expecting (more scones than biscuits) but not bad. Recipe needs some "jazzing up," as a Minnesotan would say. Ketchup?
  
• Tonight: roast cabbage - very tasty! The recipe called for laying a strip of bacon over each cabbage wedge. Having no bacon, I roasted it with olive oil and then dipped it in my leftover homemade baconnaise. Very delicious.

5. Happy new year!