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!