31-cent Scoop Night

Yesterday I posted about Ben and Jerry's free scoop day. What's the next best thing to free ice cream? Cheap-as-free ice cream! That is to say, 31-cents scoop night at Baskin Robbins. Yay! Each scoop of ice cream was only 31-cents* (*limit 10 scoops). A bunch of us went down after Institute and it was fun. This time I got two kinds: cookies and cream, and mint chocolate chip. Mmm!

They closed at 10:00, and we got there about 15 minutes before that. The manager was in the parking lot (there was a huge line, of course) and he told us that he wanted us to be the last people through. In other words, he didn't want anyone else to get in line after us, and that we should tell them that. (No, really.) Well, needless to say, we didn't do a very good job at telling people to go away. This picture shows all the people in line after us, that we didn't tell to go away:

(The manager was nice though and let them all get ice cream too.)

Hooray for ice cream!

Fire at the gym!

I went to the gym this afternoon for classes in step and weight lifting. After finishing my workout, I showered, and got dressed in the locker room. As I was finishing up, I thought, "What's that smell? It sort of smells like smoke." I peaked my head out of the aisle, towards the back of the locker room, where the sauna and showers are. I thought the air looked a bit smokey, and I saw a girl talking on her cell phone, and overheard her saying things like "fire in the sauna."

Nothing was happening at this point (i.e., no fire alarms were going off). I wandered down there to see what was happening. The door to the sauna is glass, so you can see in. When I had passed it on my way to the shower earlier, I noted that there wasn't anyone inside, that I could see. But now I couldn't see much through the glass, it was all smokey. There was also a bit of smoke hanging in the air outside it.

This means that in the 15-20 minutes between the time I walked to the showers and the time I saw the smoke, a fire started in the sauna. I don't know how. There's a lot of wood in it, and it gets pretty hot; maybe something spontaneously combusted. :)

Another girl was there checking it out too, and we had a brief conversation about how we wondered what was going on and if it had been reported. I left the locker room at that point to make sure that it had been -- and yes, it had been. (The girl on the cell phone was indeed on the phone with the authorities, and not her roommate or something -- hey, you never know.) As I walked toward the exit, the alarms finally started going off. My first thought was, "Darn, that means I can't get that strawberry smoothie I wanted." (Seriously.) I left the gym (with everyone else), and waited around a few minutes, just to see what happened. I could hear emergency vehicles in the distance that eventually reached us.

Within minutes, there were 5 fire trucks parked in front, along with a few other emergency vehicles. The fire fighters geared up (in full uniform) and walked into the gym, some carrying fire extinguishers, other carrying axes. I lingered for awhile and watched, but nothing terribly exciting happened. I left before everything was in order, since I figured I should probably do some work today.

Not long after returning to my office, I received the following campus-wide email:

Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:06:03 -0500
Subject: Official: Fire in Gregory Gymnasium

A fire occurred today, April 29, 2008 in Gregory Gymnasium (GRE) around 2:30 p.m. More information will follow as it becomes available.

And after awhile, we received the promised follow up information with this email:

Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:21:34 -0500
Subject: Official: Update on Gregory Gym fire

Earlier today a fire in a Gregory Gym sauna resulted in a general alarm and evacuation of the building. The fire was contained in the sauna and the building was cleared for re-entry around 3:45 p.m.

Of course, the people I feel really sorry for are the staff at the gym. I noticed signs up today saying that essentially the entire bottom floor of the gym (including the cardio area, the gym store, the wellness area, etc.) was closed. Based on my own observations, which were confirmed by chatting with my friend that works there, they had a big flood this weekend, caused by a pipe bursting. So they were busy dealing with that mess, and then this happened! Oy vey. It's probably going to be a long day for them.

What I'm most relieved of is that I didn't have to evacuate the gym wearing a towel. Had all this happened about 5 minutes earlier, I probably would have. Do you think this guy did? (My hope is that he was just in the pool.)

Free Scoop Day!

Today was free scoop day at Ben and Jerry's! This means that you go to one of their scoop shops and they give you free ice cream. Yay! I took the bus home, then zipped up to the scoop shop nearest me, which is a short drive up to Round Rock. There was a line, but it went pretty quickly. Deciding which kind to get was the toughest part, but I finally decided on their new cake batter ice cream. It's yellow cake batter ice cream with chocolate swirled. Oh man it was good. (Even if the picture of me enjoying it is a bit washed out.)

I ran a 10K!

I could probably think of a more clever title, but that's really the announcement I wanted to make. :)

The short story: I ran a 10K today! I'm really excited about this and really proud of myself. I set a goal time of 1:15. I did it in 1:03!! Yay! :)

I'm going to resist waxing philosophical about the story of how I used to not really be able to run, but then I set my mind (and body) to it, and now I can. Suffice it to say: when I started my running program during the summer of 2004 (click on this link if you want to check it out), I couldn't run more than one minute without wanting to die; and now I like to run and do so somewhat regularly. I've run a bunch of 5K races (5K = 3.1 miles) and it's a lot of fun.

In the last few months or so, I've been thinking about doing a 10K race (10K = 6.2 miles). I've run 6+ miles probably 5 times in my life. (So for me it's not a regular thing to run that far.) I wasn't really sure how a 10K would go (sometimes 5Ks are tiring for me -- I suspect it's a combination of my never running outside and never running hills; and the races usually involve both, so the different conditions sometimes make it a bit more challenging). Another problem is that there are fewer 10Ks than 5Ks out there, and it seems like the 10Ks are always on Sunday (when I'd prefer not to run).

A few weeks ago, my old roommate Rebecca told me how she and her husband William were training for and planning to run a 5K race at the end of April. They invited me to run it too; that sounded like fun. I looked at the website, and noticed they had a 10K too. Hmm, it was tempting. I wasn't sure about that though, so I didn't commit to either at that moment.

Unfortunately, circumstances prevented William and Rebecca from being able to do the race. But I still occasionally entertained the idea of running the 10K anyway. Finally, I decided to just do it. I checked the website at the beginning of the week, but online registration was closed, so I needed to go in person. The race was part of the Texas Round-Up which is a health and fitness initiative program started 4 years ago by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Basically, the idea is to just promote better health and fitness levels among the people of Texas. The day before the race they were having an expo downtown, and that's where late registration was being held. So Friday afternoon, I headed down and registered. There were several booths set up from many vendors (which means free stuff!), so I wandered around a bit to check it out (and pick up a few free pens).

I wondered if the idea of running a 10K this morning was slightly crazy. I say this because (a) I haven't been training for it (though I stay fairly active doing other things), and (b) I haven't actually gone running in 3 weeks. And before that...I'm not sure how long it's been (over a month though, I think). I like running, I've just been doing other stuff. So I really didn't know how the race would go.

The race started this morning at 8:00am. My awesome roommate, Michelle, decided she wanted to go with me and be supportive. And she was really great to take pictures for me to document the event. Like this one, me and the state capital building before the race:


This is me making my way toward the starting line. (There were mobs of people!)


And I'm off! You can see me in this picture. I'm just to the right of the guy in the orange shirt.


One hour and three minutes later, I returned to where I had started. I felt great! Here's me with the capital again after the race:


And me with my awesome roommate, Michelle!


This is me pretending to be dramatic.


The race was great. Like I said, the weather was perfect. The course was great. Here's a map of it, taken from the website:

Friday afternoon I drove a bit of it to get an idea of what the hills, etc. would be like. There were some pretty hefty hills in Mile 2. (That mile was mostly hills.) But then much of Mile 3 and Mile 4 were downhill or flat. (So nice!) The second half of Mile 4 and into Mile 5 was a mix of small hills and flat, as we ran back across the river and up through downtown. I knew there were some hard hills toward the end of Mile 6, as we neared the end. But it was funny; as I turned the corner onto San Jacinto (from 15th Street) and saw the hills (there were 2), I thought, "That's it? That's not so bad!" They definitely weren't as bad as the Mile 2 hills; they might have been steeper, but they were much, much shorter. They were still tough -- just not as bad as I'd imagined as I was running. I pushed through them, and then once we turned onto 11th Street, it was downhill to the finish line! It was so great! I felt fantastic as I ran the last stretch. I did it!! And I did it much faster than my goal time. (I felt better than I have after some 5Ks I've run.) Michelle took a great picture of me crossing the finish line (the picture at the very top of this post), and as I crossed the line, I jumped and clicked my heels. There was a professional photographer there and she said she got a picture of that. I don't know if she really did, or if I'll ever see it, but that would be awesome if so.

So I need new shoes, it's true. My good running shoes (which are better than my beat up tennis shoes) tend to hit my toes (the toe next to my big toe, on each foot) in an uncomfortable way. Without being too gross, I'll just say that when I run long distances they make my toes hurt, and sometimes my toenails fall off, which has happened multiple times. (Well, so much for not being too gross.) Half way through Mile 6, my toes started hurting, but I guess I sort of expected it. (I'm just glad it didn't happen earlier.) They hurt the rest of the day (and still do), but hopefully, they'll be okay.

I used my "strong" pin to secure one of the corners of my number to my shirt. That was great! I was able to look down and see it and remind myself that I am strong! (I especially needed it on those hills.)

Yay! What a great race!

Campus safety

Quiz: if you were a person who wanted to run around with a gun robbing people, what type of person would you go after? Hint: people with money. Another hint: students don't have money.

Apparently some people haven't figured this out yet.

I make light of a subject that is actually very serious. (Although, honestly, I'm baffled.) On the subject of campus safety (or, recently, the lack of in my neck of the woods), I give two cases.

First, in the last few weeks there have been several thefts in my building (RLM) here at UT. The Cat Burgler didn't steal anything of substantial monetary value (e.g., computers); they were mostly petty thefts (like Kurtis had his Darth Tater stolen). After a few times, it was realized that the suspect was entering people's offices through the ceiling. Crazy! (Did he think he was in a James Bond movie? Or Mission Impossible?) They were able to catch that guy finally, but told us to still exercise caution.

Second, and much more serious. Last week there was an armed robbery in RLM. The week or so before that, there was an armed robbery in the music building (where my friend Bridgid works). Yesterday we got an email that there was another armed robbery on Monday evening, near a building about 2 blocks south of my building. This is getting ridiculous. (Not to mention alarming.)

I heard about the robbery in my building the day after it happened. I came in and checked my email, and a fellow grad student had sent out an email around 7:30pm the night before basically saying, "If you're still in the building, be careful. I just left and it's surrounded by police." Similarly, around 11:00pm another grad student in my research group sent out an email to the research group saying, "Sorry I didn't get this draft of the paper emailed out to you earlier, but when I went back to RLM tonight it was surrounded by police and I couldn't get in until later." There was an article about it in The Daily Texan (UT's student newspaper) that had a short blurb and this photo:

The funny thing is, this is not the robber, but rather this is another of my fellow astronomy graduate students - in the process of evacuating the building as the police directed - but the picture convinces one otherwise. His officemates were on top of this, and within minutes of its being published, printed out a large copy of this picture and hung it on the office door.

This brings me back to the question I posed at the beginning of this post: if you wanted to go through with the hassle of armed robbery, who would you rob? Apparently Mr. Armed Robber thinks robbing grad students is profitable in some way. I read a report not long after the robbery in RLM that explained that the victim was a grad student; Mr. A.R. demanded money, so he complied (I'd probably do the same), giving him all the money he had in his wallet: about 3 bucks. Seriously. He's obviously not getting large sums of money as a result of his crimes.

They still haven't caught this guy (the description in all three instances is the same), but hopefully they will soon. The most recent email said that all 3 victims have been Asian students. I don't know if the authorities think Mr. A.R. has it out for Asians, or if they're just telling us that for our information.

There's been a flurry of department emails as there have been meetings with the college and police and whoever else to make our lives safer. I read an article today in The Daily Texan about possible upgrades in security that are being discussed for my building. Everything from requiring a card swipe to enter to putting an armed police officer at the entrance. After one meeting, everyone in our department received an email asking us to be aware of these main 5 points:

1. Key control
2. Do not work alone, work in pairs if staying after hours.
3. When working after the normal 8-5 workday, keep your doors shut and locked.
4. Do not leave your offices or campus by yourself.
5. Be proactive, ask people that you don't know if you can assist them.

Some of these ideas sound very good in theory, but aren't so easy in practice. (Like working in pairs after hours, considering "after hours" starts at 5:00 and grad students tend to work later than that, since I know very few that get in at 8:00.) In spirit of this, the following sign now hangs on the inside of the computer lab door:

Well, the point is, I hope they catch this crazy man soon.

Another article I read mentioned that UTPD is doing all they can, but reminded us that they can't be everywhere, as there's only a limited number of them, and that we are their eyes and ears and should report anything suspicious, blah, blah, blah. What I think they should do is put the fleet of attendants that issue the parking tickets on campus on the case. Nothing gets past those guys. And I mean nothing. There's no escaping them. The guy would be toast.

In the meantime (since I think my mom reads my blog) I'll mention how I'm being extra careful, not working alone too late, and not walking around campus alone after dark. And my office is like a fortress. So I'm keeping myself safe.

Swingin' at the Youth Dance

Several weeks ago I "volunteered" to be a counselor for the stake (i.e., church) youth conference. Don't ask, I'd rather not talk about it. But someone posted some picture on Facebook, so I wanted to post about one I was in. (Many thanks to Christopher for posting the pictures!)

The Youth Conference was Friday evening through Sunday morning, and Saturday evening they had a dance. This weekend-long event was held the weekend before some major deadlines I had, so I spent most of the dance in another room, furiously working on my laptop. But I did bust away from work long enough to request some swing, and find Cameron to dance with. It was so much fun! This is us dancing.

I've been taking Lindy Hop classes for a bit over a year now, and it's very fun. Problem is, when I go to church dances, no one really knows how to do it. (They don't play that much swing anyway, so I guess it all evens out -- but DJ Rodd is good to play one when I request it.) The day I discovered that Cameron knew how to Lindy Hop was very exciting. Now I steal him for a dance whenever I can. And he's a good sport about it. :) I have lots of fun dancing with him. Thanks Cameron!

Define Yourself

I have mentioned before that I routinely work out at the gym here on campus at the University of Texas. This year, the marketing department at the gym has chosen the theme "Define Yourself" for their posters, fliers, and other materials. I have found their material extremely effective and well-designed. A friend of mine works at the gym (she actually holds an important full time position, not just the person that swipes your card or changes the towels on the ellipticals -- not that those jobs aren't important, but you know), and I saw her at a party a few weeks ago. I told her how much I liked the campaign, and she encouraged me to write an email up so she could pass it along to the appropriate people, so they'd know their work was appreciated. I did so. Here is the email I wrote (and I meant every word of it). (Below that is the part of the brochure with the swimmer that I refer to in the email.)

"To Whom it May Concern:

I'm currently a graduate (PhD) student in astronomy at
UT.  For approximately the last 4 years (having never
really been active before that), I have been a
regular user of the on-campus facilities, especially
Gregory Gym, participating in both informal rec and
TeXercise (and cycling) classes.  I am writing
regarding the promotional campaign currently in place
at UT RecSports, "Define Yourself."

I first remember seeing the "Define Yourself" material
in the flier rack at Gregrory Gym, as the 2007-2008
Program Guide.  One in particular caught my eye: there
is a picture of a swimmer, with the words "Define
Yourself" in big print above him, then various
positive words in smaller print above that.

I find the design and message of this campaign
extremely effective.  I love the message it conveys,
that we are individually enabled to really define who
we are, and do not have to remained confined to labels
others may have previously created for us (or that we
may have created for ourselves).  Just because we are
not someone who would be described as "active" or
"involved" or "adventurous" doesn't mean that we can
never be those things.  We become those things by
doing them - and we can start doing and becoming them
whenever we want, whenever we set our mind to achieve
it.

I have a long list of negative words that can be used
to describe me, as we all do (found in our
weaknesses).  But I have found a lot of motivation and
strength in the idea of keeping close that list of
positive words that I'm trying to strive towards.  I
actually took a few copies of that brochure with the
swimmer on it to be a constant reminder: I hung one in
my office at school, one in my locker at the gym, and
one in my room at home, to remind myself that I want
to - and more importantly CAN - become these things.

At the beginning of the semester the UT RecSports
booth was set up with fliers of information, and were
giving out buttons from the "Define Yourself"
campaign.  Each button had a single positive word
written on it.  There weren't many there, but I did
take one that said "Strong."  I pinned the button on
my hoodie (that I wear nearly everyday), and it is a
constant reminder that I am (and want to be) strong --
not just physically, but emotionally, mentally,
intellectually, and spiritually.  And there are times
that I need that reminder and have been so glad to
have it!

Kudos for coming up with such an effective and
amazingly designed campaign!  Because of the programs
and facilities offered at RecSports, I'm able to
continually challenge myself, setting and reaching
goals that I never thought possible, becoming closer
to the person I want to become.

Thanks!!"

The Desert Museum

Not far off the road between Tucson and Kitt Peak (Ajo Way or Arizona State Highway 86) is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I first heard about the Desert Museum when I was a summer undergrad intern in Georgia and we had an observing run to Kitt Peak. My advisor wanted to take us to the museum, and when we arrived, we discovered that it was closed. The “summer hours” had not yet started, as it wasn’t “officially” summer. We decided it must have been because we hadn’t passed the summer solstice yet (the “first day of summer,” usually around June 21); my memory tells me we were there the day before or something. We were disappointed.

I’ve had several observing runs to Kitt Peak since then, and I often tell myself that I should go to the Desert Museum. I sometimes mean to, and even say optimistic things like, “I’ll leave the mountain at 8:00 am, go to the museum for a few hours, and make my 1:00 flight without any problems.” This has never worked. Instead I’m usually sleeping and then rushing to the airport, wondering why I ever booked a flight so early.

But I went today! In fact, I purposely booked a flight a bit later (well, 5:00; but hey, the museum closes at 5:00) so I could have time to go. I meant to leave the mountain at 9:30, but didn’t actually leave until closer to 11:30. Here are some pictures and random narration (by me) of some of the cool things I saw.

(Although it's first here, this was actually the last picture I took... But that's irrelevant.) I wanted a picture of me and the outside of the museum (this was the inside sign), but no one was around to take it. An old Hispanic man with a handlebar mustache took this picture. It took him a few moments to get the right angle at the right distance, so I just stood there smiling and waiting. I was glad when I realized that I didn't have to worry about blinking when he finally did take it because I was wearing sunglasses.

This was my first view of the museum. The museum is actually mostly outdoors, taking you along a path (sometimes dirt, sometimes paved) around the park, giving you lots of great views of the desert and teaching you lots of neat things, like why many cacti have an "accordion" shape to them. (Turns out it's so they can expand when there's water and contract when there's not. It's a survival technique. Amazing!)


They had this cave experience thing. I missed how it was related to the desert, but I didn't have time to go back and figure it out. (I was on a tight schedule.) It's probably related to how they were talking about how at one point tens of thousands of years ago, the desert was under water. Anyway, the "caving experience" lets you walk around this cave which was totally cool. (Even though I'm pretty sure it was fake.) It was also a nice escape from the heat.

Not only are there a lot of cacti and wide open views in the Desert Museum, there are animals! And the animals are real. I note that because when I first saw this mountain lion ("puma"), I thought it was fake. Nope, it's alive; just sitting on a rock not doing anything.


A prairie dog! How cute!


These are called teddy bear cholla (cactus) because they look so cute and cuddly. Aw! They do look cute and cuddly.


Javelina! (Wild hogs. They have these at McDonald Observatory too; once I almost hit a herd of about 5 once on my way up there. Good thing one of us moved. (I note that it wasn't them.)) There was a big exhibit about them and how to find them. And after awhile, I finally saw some. I saw about six. (Hint: look for them in the shade. Javelinas like to keep cool; who can blame them? The desert is ridiculously hot.)


This was by far the most awesome sign in the museum. It made me laugh.


Here are several random pictures of me and random cacti. (Note that with the exception of the upright photo, all were taken with the timer on my camera. Sometimes trickier than other times.)


I got a bit of a sun today, but it wasn't too bad. I should have stopped in the restroom sooner:


Talk about prepared.

So if you are ever in Tucson, you should go to the Desert Museum. It was cool, and I learned a lot of interesting things. (Don't even get me started on what I learned about how carpenter bees lay eggs!) (I had no idea what those giant black things flying around Kitt Peak were...then I went to the Desert Museum and learned more about them than I could have possibly imagined!)

The extra mile

During a typical observing run, an astronomer spends roughly 98% of their time doing one of 3 things: eating, sleeping, or observing. The other 2% is usually spent getting ready to eat, sleep, or observe.

Because observing runs have a tendency to make me (a) eat more, and (b) sit around more, I try to spend some of my time doing something moderately active. This usually consists of going on walks, walking down and then back up those mountain roads. The road at McDonald Observatory is steeper, but shorter (probably 1-2 miles), than the road at Kitt Peak. The road to Kitt Peak is 12 miles, making a 24-mile round trip. Obviously walking all of it between the time I wake up and the time I eat dinner is out of the question. There are mile markers clearly posted along the entire road, with "Mile 12" being at the top.

My usual routine at Kitt Peak involves starting at mile marker 12 and walking down to either 11 or 10 (depending on how much time I have), and then walking back. Today I was up and ready about an hour earlier than normal, so I decided to go the extra mile, go further than I have before, and walk to mile marker 9. Of course, going the extra mile down, means having to go that extra mile back up too. :)


(I had a hard time taking this picture because there wasn't anything to set my camera on to do a timed shot. And I didn't know my hair was doing that weird thing. But it was windy.)

Here's another picture from my walk today. I tried to look contemplative. But I think I just look confused. Or lost.

Good Sabbath

I've had a bit of trouble sleeping the last few days, mostly waking up earlier than normal in the morning (regardless of what time I went to sleep) and not being able to go back to sleep. Usually when I'm observing (like now) and work all night, I have no problems sleeping during the day. Today was an exception to that, as I woke up around 10:30, after only about 5 hours of sleep and I couldn't go back to sleep. Following a bit of mental debate, I decided that if I was awake and couldn't sleep, I was going to go to church.

The internet is a great thing. By looking at the Meetinghouse Locater on lds.org, I was able to find out when and where each of the five Tucson University wards met. I decided to attend one that met at 1:00 in a church building not far from the University. (About an hour - hour and fifteen minute drive from the mountain.) I had enough time to dress and drive down there. I didn't have a dress, so I had to wear the next best thing, my kahki corduroys and a nice-ish shirt. And tennis shoes. I didn't really want to wear that to church, but it was that or stop somewhere to buy something and I wanted to do that on Sunday less.

Based on when I left, I should have been about 30 minutes early, but I barely made it to church on time. This was due mostly to all the construction that is happening on I-10. They have at least 7 consecutive exits closed (I don't know who thought that was a good idea). Because I was confused as to which exit I was supposed to take to reach the University, I ended up missing it, and had to get off at the next place I could, almost 10 miles later. From there I had to turn around, and take the frontage road back. But I made it.

People were very friendly to me; maybe they thought I was an investigator. :) Mostly I was just glad to be there, to be able to sing, feel the Spirit, and take the Sacrament. It was Fast and Testimony meeting there today (because of General Conference last week), so I enjoyed hearing the testimonies of the Tucson University 4th Ward's members. After the meeting a few other people came and introduced themselves, a few pointed the way to Sunday School if I wanted to stay, and several invited me to the potluck after church. I couldn't stay much longer, unfortunately, as I had to get back on the road to get up the mountain.

I didn't have time to take a nap once I returned, between trying to still squeeze in a walk and a shower before dinner. I'm hoping I don't regret that tonight; I may start getting sleepy in a few hours. Maybe those thin clouds out there will thicken up...

I'll be rich! Oh wait . . .

A few years ago, a friend pointed me to a funny article on MSN (not meant to be funny) about how astronomers were in the top-25 highest paid jobs in the country, which made me laugh. Especially because the "average salary" reported in the article was ludicrous. In reading a fellow astronomer's blog, I found that a similar article had emerged recently, this time on CNN. The article was called "Five Surprising Salaries." Surprising is right! Kurtis has already blogged about this, pointing out what the article missed or may not have taken into account, so I don't want to rehash it. Read his blog, it's interesting.

The short of it is this: the article lists astronomers as having a surprise salary:

"Surprising salary: $95,740. Though maybe it shouldn't be all that surprising considering a doctorate is the standard level of education and there are only 1,700 astronomers in the U.S."

Again, read Kurtis's blog for what they misrepresented (or what we can only assume they misrepresented). Suffice it to say, I'm not making anywhere close to $95,000 a year, nor do I expect to . . . pretty much ever. Just remember, you can't believe everything you read. Even if it is on CNN.

On the road again

Last night I flew to Tucson. We arrived at PHX 20 minutes early, and as I was checking the monitor to get my gate info for the PHX-TUS flight, I saw that there was another Tucson flight that left 20 minutes earlier. That doesn't sound like a long time, but it's about the length of the actual flight. I decided to try and fly standby. The agent said the flight was full, but I may be able to make it on. Long story short, I was the first in the standby line and I did make it on. I was glad I didn't check bags. I made it to my hotel a bit earlier than I otherwise would have.

I stayed in a La Quinta Inn, just off I-19. It's probably one of the more ghetto La Quintas I've stayed at. Oh well. I had to drag myself out of bed in time to take advantage of the free continental breakfast. I had a waffle and grabbed a hard boiled egg for later. I took advantage of the gym and had a brief workout then checked out of the hotel, went over to the University to get my key, then went to find some lunch.

A few months ago at the Utah Lindy Exchange I met some Tucson-ites, and they told me about this burger joint called Lindys. I went there when I went to Tucson in January (right after ULX) and decided to go there again. I tell you, if you're ever in Tucson and want a really good burger (not to mention the tots), go there.


Although I was tempted to order the Big Tex burger again (I actually don't remember what it's called, but it has onion rings and bbq sauce on it), but I was determined to branch out. This time I ordered the "Hawaii Five-O," a burger with pineapple and teriyaki sauce (among other things). Tell me this burger does not look awesome:

Steppin' It Up

I love step aerobics. Only a few people know that about me. It's so random and so 1985 that I usually prefer to not bring it up in casual conversation. But let me just admit it now: I love step aerobics.

I went to my first step class sometime during the summer of 2006. I was trying all sorts of fitness classes at the gym, and wanted to give it a try. I'd never done it before. The first class was a bit tricky, and I messed up a lot. But it seemed pretty fun, so I kept going back. Before not too long I was getting the hang of it. I still go to step classes, and I really, really love it.

During a conversation not long ago with my friend Angela, she mentioned how she's recently found a gym she likes and is trying out fitness classes. She was telling me about a class she had gone to recently that was difficult to follow and get all the moves and I said, "Please tell me that this was a step class." It was! I was delighted. Delighted that she was going to step because I had no doubt that she'd like it soon enough.

I was in Utah this week, and Angela invited me to come with her to her weekly step class. Of course, I couldn't refuse. So we met up on Wednesday night and headed over to the gym. This was the first time that I'd gone to a class outside of my gym in Austin, so I wondered in what ways it'd be different. It was more or less the same, with the exception of a few moves I didn't know before (but they explained them) and a few familiar moves had different names. It was weird to be doing step in a different place than I was used to (for example, carpet instead of hardwood floors), with different types of people (since I go to a gym on campus, that demographic is represented in the class attendance; I'm probably one of the oldest people there). But all in all, it was a blast. I got a good workout, and was able to go to step during a week I figured I wouldn't. Thanks Angela!

General Conference

This weekend I watched General Conference. This is a semi-annual event in my church where members all over the world gather to participate in church business and receive instruction from the general leaders of the church. It is held on both Saturday and Sunday, during the first weekends of April and October. Because not everyone can go to Salt Lake City (where it's held) to participate, we participate wherever we are by watching the sessions as they are broadcast. In Utah, they are shown on network TV and over the radio, and elsewhere (like here in Texas) they are broadcast on certain public access cable TV channels, available over the internet, but also at the church building. Because my roommate and I don't have cable, we watched it at our church building.

I was able to see all four sessions, and it was really amazing. It was neat to be able to participate in the solemn assembly to sustain President Monson as the new prophet and president of the church. As the conference progressed, I too witnessed what Elder Holland called the "settling of the prophetic mantle upon his shoulders." It was amazing. I enjoyed many of the talks, but especially those by Elder Bednar (on faithful prayer, and how prayer is more than asking, but requires a committment to act on our part) and Elder Ballard (on advice to young mothers -- many of the things he said applied to all of us). Additionally, I was a bit surprised by how funny President Monson was! And I didn't even get to see him wiggle his ears in the priesthood session.

I tried something new this conference. I usually take extensive notes while I watch, both to help me understand what is being said and to help keep me engaged (and not fall asleep sometimes). In a lesson I attended during the week before, my friend Margie told about her method for taking notes at conference: she uses two pens, one black and one red. The black is to take notes on the actual talk, quotes she likes, ideas discusses, etc. The red is for her own thoughts and impressions. I decided to give this a try. It wasn't so bad, holding two pens in my hand the whole time, going back and forth between the two. In fact, I found I got a lot more out of it, and my notes are something I'll actually look over in the coming weeks, especially as I made notes of things that I need to or should be doing.

All in all, Conference was great!

The Cod

After returning home from a long session at the gym, I got to work on cooking the cod I bought a few days ago. I decided to try this recipe. Okay, so this recipe is actually for salmon; and even though I don't know that much about fish, I know they're not the same. But the sauce sounded good (I love dill) and I figured it didn't really matter what meat was under it.

Once the fillet was thawed, I got to work on the poaching. I used white grape juice instead of wine. I actually have no idea what difference using wine (or grape juice) made, or if it would have turned out the same if I'd used just water. But since cod is more expensive than eggs, I resisted a similar cooking experiment and just settled for the recipe as it is.


I made the sauce while the cod was poaching. I have a lot of dry dill in my cupboard, so I opted to use it rather than buying fresh. I went with the normal 3-1 fresh-to-dry rule of thumb for herbs. At first I was worried it was going to be way too much dill. (And like I said: I like dill!) It turned out to be fine though. In fact, the sauce was awesome. I have a ton leftover, and will try it on chicken. I rounded the meal off with a spinach salad (with dried cranberries, sliced apples, and a raspberry vinaigrette), and a hearty side of steamed broccoli, with some of that white grape juice to drink. Yum! As I was sitting down to eat, I realized a side of rice would have also really added to the meal, but alas, I didn't think quickly enough. And I didn't want to wait on rice before eating.


So how was the finished product? Like I said, the sauce was amazing. The cod was good too, although it didn't seem to have much flavor of its own. (But from what I've read online, that's one of cod's strengths.) It was hard to tell when the cod was actually done, so I had to go with the recipe to the minute. I imagine this is because I don't have much experience cooking fish. Overall, the meal was quite tasty. I was pleased with my first fish poaching experience. And excited that I have so much sauce left over to try on something else! I imagine that it is particularly awesome on salmon, like the recipe called for. (Especially maybe a salmon with lemon juice all over it, before the sauce is even added. Hmm, I may have to try that!)

Now I just need to decide on a recipe that will use my other cod fillet. I want to try another cooking method; maybe I will bake it. My goal is to keep it simple and healthy. Anyone have any cod recipes they're dying to share?

Feeding just one kid...me!

I used to have eating habits that are much different than they are now. Now I try to eat fairly healthy, getting all my fruits and veggies in, trying to avoid junk food, and above all eating "real" food. That sounds funny, but if you knew me back in the day, it would make more sense.

In college I practically lived off Western Family mac and cheese (don't even get me started on how it's better than Kraft), and Banquet fried chicken TV dinners. My roommates would joke with me, "There's no food in your food!" One day I was at the grocery store buying my normal supply of food when the girl who was ringing me up asked, "So, are you feeding a lot of kids?" Ha! I'm not making this up or exaggerating. It made me laugh, and my roommates felt it vindication for what they'd been telling me all along.

This afternoon I had a conversation with my friend Kevin. He was telling me about the hot diggity dogger he has, and that got me thinking about hot dogs. It's been awhile since I've cooked up a hot dog. One of my favorite ways to cook a hot dog is as a cheesey hot dog sandwich: two pieces of bread, a slice of cheese, and a cut up hot dog, cooked in a sandwich maker (which seals the edges) and eaten with fry sauce. (I am from Utah after all.) I used to have a sandwich maker, but it seems to have gotten lost about 3 or 4 moves ago.

Tonight on my way home I stopped at Target. I was hoping some shirts I saw there a few weeks ago would be on the clearance rack; the shirts weren't there (drat). Instead, I ended up buying a pair of leprechaun green pajama pants (they were only $5 and are so comfortable!) and a sandwich maker. The sandwich maker is exactly like the one I've since lost, and it was a total impulse buy (well, I guess the pants were too) -- not something I normally do. Then I stopped at the grocery store (the main mission was to buy the missing ingredients I needed to make my cod tomorrow) and aside from wandering around for over an hour drooling over the food (I was so hungry; this is why you don't go grocery shopping hungry!), I ended up buying what I needed to make a cheesey hot dog sandwich. And I made it in my new sandwich maker and ate it for dinner...along with some steak fries that I also bought. (Apparently it was impulse-buy day.) Oh yeah. It was sort of like I was a kid again; or at least in college again. :) Now that's out of my system, I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of those hot dogs...

Egg Poaching

Recently I've been trying to cook more, to try new recipes, and to learn new things in the kitchen. (My roommate may or may not love this, since I make her help me eat the leftovers.) A few days ago I purchased 2 cod fillets from HEB (local grocery store). I had no idea how to cook it, so I've been looking online for different recipes. One common way to cook fish, I learned, is poaching it. I've heard of poaching, but I had no idea how to do it. This is why the internet is great; I just googled "how to poach cod" and within minutes I was an expert on the theory of how to do it. (One website even had a video!) I have a recipe that I'm going to try soon that uses poaching as the method to cook my cod. (I'll let you know how it goes.)

As I was talking to my roommate about poaching fish, she asked if it was done in a similar way to poaching eggs. I wasn't sure. Believe it or not I've never poached an egg. In fact, I've never even eaten a poached egg. Actually, I didn't even know how to poach an egg.

Tonight, that changed.

Again, the internet came to my rescue. By googling "how to poach an egg," I found several websites to help me out. I went mostly off this one. It seemed easy enough. So when I got home tonight, I gave it a try.

I was particularly curious about step 4. It says that before adding the egg, I needed to "spin" (i.e., stir) the water to "cool down the water." I'm pretty sure that doesn't do much in terms of cooling. I was curious what difference the swirl made. So I decided to cook two eggs: one with the swirl, one without. First the swirl. The result looked like this:


Not bad. I still wasn't sure what the swirl bought me until I tried it without. Here is the result:


As you can see, the white of the egg went everywhere! I'm now convinced that the swirl has nothing to do with the temperature of the water and everything to do with keeping the egg confined. You learn something new everyday!

So I had breakfast for dinner, adding two pieces of toast and a glass of milk to eat with my eggs. So how did the eggs taste? They were great. I love the runny yokes (I make sunny-side up eggs that way), although it's tricky to get all the water off. All in all, a culinary success.

(Oh...and the egg on the left is the swirl, and the one on the right is sans-swirl. You can see there is a difference in appearance! The swirl is much nicer looking.)

Shiny New Blog

I have a blog! I've been wanting to put up a blog for awhile now, but haven't, due to the fact that I couldn't come up with a name that fit. People had some good suggestions, some of which I tried but were already taken. Yesterday I came up with "The Whole E Bang," which I really liked. The reason is twofold: (1) it's a play off of "The Whole Shebang" (which is taken, by the way), and (2) as an undergrad I picked up the nickname "Elizabeth!" or "E!" for short. The "!" is known as "bang" in computer speak-ese, so you'd say I'm "Elizabeth Bang" or "E Bang." Therefore, "The Whole E Bang" (or simply "The Whole E!") is perfect.

So I finally have a blog. I'm excited. I enjoy writing and rambling about random things (as some of you know, I'm sure); comments are encouraged. :) I'd love to hear from people out there reading this.