Maybe it's because an Athenian is in Lexington this week? Saw Miss Courtney on Monday night & we went to dinner at one of my favorite spots in Lex. Such good times!

And last night, my new honey came over & cooked dinner. This shrimp pasta with peanut sauce was really good. Also, just the peanut sauce would be awesome if you were making spring roles or some kind of satay. YUM.

Back to work, I guess... I'm trying to get a new paper drafted & plan my research methods class that starts in January. (Note to self: It would be good to check on when school actually starts...) That's about the it!

Edited to add: Annnnnnnnnnnd done.

Took about an hour, but it's sunny & like 70 degrees today so I didn't even mind the wait.

Rest of the weekend involved getting caught up on house-stuff, errands, and a couple of rounds of disc golf. (Can you believe that I am actually playing something that could kinda be construed as a sport? Okay, maybe not a sport, but definitely an outdoor leisure activity...) The weather was awesome this weekend so it was great to be outside.

And there was a little cooking. A beef stew from Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh, which turned out awesome. Really simple, with interesting spice combination (cumin, cayenne pepper, fresh mint, and pumpkin pie spice, which I didn't have but concocted out of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and ground cloves). I hope this is a sign that this cookbook is going have some great ideas--I'm all for fast and fresh particularly if it tastes good.

That's about the it. Tomorrow, the university is closed for election day--yip, yip! Let's hear it for a paid day off! After voting, I have plans to catch up on tv with my bff. Huzzah!

A fellow Orphan from our annual Thanksgiving fest in Athens showed me around town tonight. I loved the trip out to Coronado Island because as a Marilyn Monroe fan, I have a fond spot in my heart for the Hotel Del Mar. We had cocktails in the patio bar & then I dipped my toes in the Pacific before we watched the sunset.

Had a good weekend. Spent time with my new honey. Found a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant that was really good. Watched The Bank Job. Lost my driver's license at the park, which was returned to my front door by somebody totally awesome. (soooooo grateful).

And saw Sugarland last night. Nice writeup in the local paper here. My friend and I decided that the covers they played were a big shout-out to us since they did two REM songs (Nightswimming--accompanied by the crowd blowing bubbles--and The One I Lovev) and one by the B-52s (Love Shack, natch).

And now...time to get ready to go to the airport. Again.

BRILLIANT.

I do desperately wish that I knew how to embed the video, but I ain't got those skills, so a link will have to do.

Even better, it sounds like tomorrow won't be too long of a meeting day, so maybe (crossed fingers) there might be time to sightsee a little...

Yip, yip!

On the upside, I think I'm going to go to the Ann Taylor Loft this weekend because I have some savings cards that expire soon & it feels almost, like, patriotic to spend money right now. Plus I seem to have an expanding social calendar, so some cute clothes would even be functional, right?

So the weekend currently appears to include: picking up my last CSA box of the season (sigh...I will miss that. How long til April?), going out to dinner & to hear some bands play at a benefit concert, choir rehearsal (at 10am, which is nearly unbearable to consider right now), a likely "staying in" date on Sat. night, and more church than you can shake a stick at on Sunday (regular service and something called "Evensong" at 5pm...our choir is singing like 8 things which has me a little freaked out since I've only been rehearsing with them for about a month). Somewhere in there I'd like to find some time to be outside because it is supposed to be gorgeous this weekend.

Well, I suppose I should go find some grown-up clothes to wear to the office since I have a meeting at noon. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Anyhoooo, I'm in D.C. for a grant review. We've got a big stack of applications so it's going to be a long day. But at least this time, I remembered about the restaurant Raku, which is across the street from the hotel in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. SO good. For $25, I had their deluxe bento box, which had 7 piece of sashimi, beef teriyaki, a spring roll, some kind of puffy shrimp dumpling things, seaweed salad over mixed greens, and shrimp & veggie tempura. I hadn't had lunch, so I ate it all & was in heaven.

Had a quiet weekend...got caught up on TV, took care of my friend's pup-ster, but had an awesome date on Sunday. Hiking at a nearby nature preserve, and then cooking dinner together. It is usually a good sign if I am willing to share the kitchen. :-) Next date is Friday, so we shall see...

A few more pics are after the jump...

It really has been a great time though. The weather has been amazing & we've eaten most meals outside. These are the kind of days that lull unsuspecting out-of-towners into believing that the Pacific Northwest is the promised land. Anyway, I spent Friday afternoon hanging out with my mom. On Sat., we had a fairly relaxing afternoon playing board games on the deck before driving to Seattle to have pub grub at a local microbrew before heading to the Intiman Theater to see their production of All the King's Men. After church yesterday, we went down to Tacoma to the zoo--tigers and otters and elephants, oh my! It was such a beautiful day to be outside. Afterwards, we did happy hour at one my favorite waterfront restaurants from my college days. Also: BBQ chicken nachos = heaven. We made a Greek feast last night--souvaki, tzaziki, hummus, and homemade pita breads--yum. And then today, Mom & I went shopping at the outlet mall. All started out well--I found five sweaters for less than $75 & was feeling all proud of my bargains. We wandered around the mall a bit more & then were heading out through the Nordstrom Rack when it happened. I re-entered the store and saw a rack of winter coats and was stopped in my tracks by the cutest black winter coat from Burberry. It fit perfectly and with my mother offering helpful advice like, "You have a good job. You can have that," it became mine. I remain in shock that I spent that much for a coat today, but I loved it.

The rest of the economy may have been tanking, but dammit, I did my part today.

I fly back to the bluegrass tomorrow. Short trip, but great nonetheless. I cross my heart that there will be pictures soon. I think I may have gotten some cute pics of seals & otters, and a pair of monkeys that were staring out of their enclosure at the people as if we were the ones on exhibit.

First off, attending a fabulous wedding.

That would be the one and only picture that I managed to take on my recent trip to Athens. I wish I would be better about that. But at least I got an important one, right?

So I got back from Athens late on Sunday & then drove to southern Indiana for a retreat related to a yearlong leadership program that I'm doing. Apparently Ike had blown through & the power was out all over, so by the end of the afternoon, we were heading back to Lexington. It ended up being an interesting couple of days & I think I doubled the number of people that I know on campus. YAY!

Went to my second choir practice at church. It feels good to get back to that. Plus I've met a couple of people who are my age-ish, & we're going to go out after this Wed's rehearsal.

I'll spare you the details about work & just say, I'm swamped but I think it's gonna be okay.

This weekend so far has largely been about getting my life back in order after the chaos of travel. Farmer's Market this morning (again I say, YAY!). There's fewer vendors now that it's fall, but there were still lots of things to choose from. Went for a long walk this afternoon---I am soooooooo loving the fall weather.

Let's see, what else...I am cooking a korean-style pork tenderloin tonight. I hope it turns out yummy. Just going to do rice, a salad, and probably some zucchini. Gotta save room because we're headed to Oktoberfest tonight. Anyway, I wanted to link to it (I think it's from Mark Bittman's blog), but hell if I can find it, so here's the recipe:

Combine in a plastic bag, 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce, 2 TBSP sugar, 1 TBSP chopped ginger, 3 TBSP rice vinegar, 1 TBSP sesame oil, 4 cloves of minced garlic) and add pork tenderloin. Let it marinate in the fridge for about 8 hours. Heat grill to medium/medium high & grill pork for 20-25 minutes (don't throw out the marinade). Meanwhile, place leftover marinade in a saucepan & bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes & serve with the pork.

Now that the food talk is out of the way, house babble is after the jump....

And now, on with the food talk. I made this Chickpea Salad with Ginger. last night. I must admit I was skeptical when I was making it--cumin & ginger & lemon, really? But it was really tasty. (I cut the recipe in half, which means you just need one can of chickpeas.)

Dinner tonight: edamame, gyoza (from a frozen bag), and an asian noodle & veggie salad. Basically I cooked udon noodles, chopped up red & yellow bell pepper, cucumber, carrot, & onion, and then dressed it with that Korean style-dressing.that I tried recently. This was not entirely the original plan...I was going to roast salmon, but when I cut the piece into smaller filets, there was something yucky going on. Not sure what it was, but ewwwwww. Better safe than sorry.

Watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day last night. If you're looking for something silly & frothy in the spirit of old screwball comedies, this is the movie for you. Loved Amy Adams & Frances McDormand. And the guy from Pushing Daisies is in it too! The costumes, sets, & the score are divine. They did a great job capturing the spirit of the book.

I think tonight will be about catching up on my dvr. I had to get up at my usual weekday time & go to campus, and am just kinda too tired to get motivated to do much else.

While doing some reading related to work, I realized that kids that are graduating this academic year, were likely to have been born in 1986 and 1987. I'm not sure why, but that has just blown my mind.

I have also realized that I'm nearing obsession about the Up series. I've watched the first three (7-Up, 7+7, and 21-Up), and plan to get the rest from Netflix. I'm sure that I could easily Google to find out what has happened to this cohort of British people over the 40 years of the series, but I am trying to resist. Even just in watching the 1st 3 in the series, it is fascinating to watch how, particularly for the upper class kids, their predictions about education & employment at age 7 were often right on the money.

The new 90210 is just kinda blah. I liked seeing the old characters, but that's about it. It lacks the camp of Gossip Girl and the craziness of One Tree Hill. Oh well.

But there is other new TV to look forward to...I'm going to give Fringe a whirl, which I think starts next week. Yip yip!.

I also love the fact that my parents were avid watchers, who kept watching even after I moved out to go to college. I think they made it to season 9.

In non-90210 news, I did make the trek to Cinci yesterday--the chair has been ordered and my fridge is full of cheese from Trader Joe's. Mmmm...cheese....Watched Gossip Girl (such delicious camp!) and One Tree Hill (it pains me that I still watch the latter, but it's a habit that I can't seem to break...yes, I actually am a 14 year old girl still...) And most importantly, I have exercised three out of the last four days. This is huge progress, although the total darkness at 6:30 this morning put a damper on my plan to hike around the neighborhood. So I guess it's back to the treadmill on weekdays. Ah well...