Waffles for Dinner

A few nights ago, Michael made me waffles for dinner, and he was thoughtful enough to make one into the shape of Ohio. Awwww.













Ok, fine, so it was just chance that it looked so much like our great state, but still, pretty awesome.

My husband the punk

Today's conversation of the day:

Me (after tooting in front of Michael): Sorry I'm gross.
Michael (comfortingly): No, you're not.
Michael (two seconds later): You're not sorry at all!

What a punk.

In Honor of Our Recent Nuptials

In honor of our recent nuptials (first of all, HOORAY!!!, and second of all, maybe I should actually blog about that sometime?), I thought I'd post a little retelling of one of my favorite dates with Michael, back when we were both still living in Provo.

This was about two weeks before my most recent birthday in August. We knew that we were going to be apart for my actual birthday, since I was going to be starting school in Ohio and Michael was going to be finishing in Provo, so Michael wanted to do something special ahead of time. A few days before the big date, I got a handmade card in the mail from him, formally inviting me to this date. Adorable.

The actual activities of the night were a surprise, but when I got to his apartment, I saw that all his roommates had taken off, and the table was set with candles and fancy china he had borrowed just for the night, and there were roses on the table. We had a delicious dinner of a homemade vegetable pasta, stuffed grape leaves (they’re one of my favorite foods but it’s almost impossible to find good ones in Utah!), and sparkling juice. And we toasted to us and clinked glasses and said mushy things.

After that romantic dinner, he whisked me away in the car to a still-secret location for the rest of our date. And as we wound our way up Provo Canyon, past gorgeous summer scenery, I started to figure out where we were going. About a month and a half before this particular night, I had mentioned that the Sound of Music was my probably my second-favorite musical ever. And that weekend, there was an outdoor performance of it in Park City! The scenery was amazing—being nestled in the mountains was the perfect, perfect setting for everything. We laid out a blanket and snuggled up together and watched a great performance.

After the show, when it was dark, we took a long-cut back to the car (they had a shuttle bus since the parking lot was far away, but it was warm and the sky was full of stars…) and it was the most romantic thing ever. I thought the date was over at that point, but then he told me he had one last surprise for me—a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, my favorite food EVER! Then we fell asleep cuddling on the couch (don’t worry, I woke up in time to get home before the Honor Code fairies caught me), and it was just the most perfect date. So well-planned and romantic! Lovey lovey love :)

Removable Bottoms

Did you know that there's such a thing as a tube pan with a removable bottom? I did not, until tonight. I made a delicious, decadent chocolate velvet cake batter, grabbed a tube pan from Michael's cupboard, and stuck it in the oven. A few minutes later, I was met with a curious burning smell. About a half cup of the batter had already leaked out the bottom and was turning into a molten, smoldering mess on the bottom of the oven.














And here's Michael, cleaning up my dumb mess. What a stud!

P.S. We are attempting to rescue the remaining cake batter, now placed in a sturdy, trustworthy bundt pan. Don't know how it'll turn out, given it cooked for five minutes, cooled off, and is now being baked again, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Food

Lately I've been realizing that I don't want to eat things that make me feel full, like peanut butter or oils or whatever. I want to eat whatever lets me eat a lot.

Lunch today was fat-free cottage cheese, a drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette, and a green bell pepper, cut into strips for dipping. All told, it was under 200 calories, but it took me like ten minutes to eat and now I practically have a food baby. It was awesome. My sister told me that every time she makes macaroni and cheese, she adds a frozen bag of broccoli—it's delightful with the cheese and it means that one regular helping gets to be twice as big as it would be if it was just pasta and sauce.

I just don't think cookies and peanut butter are very good bargains. I mean, I love them, with my whole heart, but seeing as how the whole moderation thing doesn't work for me (I always find myself eating like ten cookies, or six tablespoons of peanut butter, or a whole bag of Child's Play), I think I just need to buy lots of calorie-light foods. Maybe diet pop, fat free yogurt and cottage cheese, vegetables, fruit, and fat free Cool Whip should become the staples of my diet.

Soon I will blog about New Orleans and wedding plans.

Personhood Revisited

So the Personhood Amendment failed in Missisippi, thank goodness.

For a little wrap-up analysis, I enjoyed this article. Here's an excerpt of something I found particularly disturbing:

If Personhood USA doesn't have popular support even among conservatives, at least they have high profile politicians willing to pay them lip service. The degree of disconnect between what politicians say they believe and what voters actually want has reached nearly comical levels. In the Mississippi gubernatorial race, both the defeated Democrat Johnny Dupree and the victorious Republican Phil Bryant publicly supported the Personhood amendment. As Salon's Irin Carmon points out, it was difficult to find more than a handful of public officials willing to publicly declare that they were opposed to personhood in the state. Out of step support for the measure doesn't stop there, though; GOP Presidential field (with the exception of poor forgotten Jon Huntsman) has reached a general consensus that personhood is a dandy idea. Even Mitt Romney, who this side of the airing of the last episode of The Wonder Years was speaking out in favor of abortion rights, has said he would sign personhood legislation into law as the country's executive.

Not to sound like a campaign ad, but if candidates of a major party feel compelled to align themselves with an ideology that is too extreme for even America's most conservative state, something is amiss.

For now, at least, let's hope politicians have gotten the hint that people simply aren't interested in inviting the government any further into our reproductive organs. Let's enjoy the rueful sense of victory that comes from being declared more important than a fetus by ballot initiative. And let's ponder the irony of an organization that believes that life begins at the moment of conception, yet doesn't believe that the game ends after they've clearly lost.

Sighs all around.

School

We started out school with an intensive anatomy block. We did several hours of dissection on most days, in addition to getting lectures on anatomy, embryology, and histology. We also have an ongoing clinical skills curriculum. It's been fun and challenging and engaging. I loved learning about new things and I especially loved learning about things that were so clinically relevant. Things like the pattern of innervation in the arm and hand are super important to know!

Last week we had the final exam for anatomy (along with the Post-Gross Toast, an annual party the first year med students put on after the last test in the anatomy block; this was also the first time Michael and I have gone to a bar together, and a lot of diet Coke and cranberry juice were had by us). So this week has been the first week of the Cell block. A sampling of our first few lectures: Protein Biochemistry, Plasma Membrane, Myoglobin and Hemoglobin, and Enzyme Biochemistry. YAWWWWWWWWWN. So far, it's all just been a rehash of stuff I learned in O-chem, biochem, and nutritional biochem. That's bad enough. But I really have to say that going back to basic science after getting a little taste of clinical relevance is just torture. In undergrad, I loved basic science classes! They were interesting and I was good at them! But now, I just can't make myself give two hoots about it. I think after this Cell block, and the Host Defense block, we'll start doing a lot more interesting things again (neuro, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, etc). But I can make it through five months of boring classes! I guess. Thank goodness we have an ongoing clinical skills class; otherwise, this would be ten times worse!