The Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Having Short Hair

10. I get to sleep in SO MUCH LATER in the morning.  It literally takes 1 minute to do my hair
9. I no longer find my hair in my food.  Or all over the floor.  Or in my underwear (how does that
     even happen?)
8. My hair never looks greasy.  This is dangerous.  My oily hair was previously the main motivator
     for me taking showers.  Now?  I think I could go a week and no one would notice.  Well, Karl
     might notice....
7. People rub my head ALL THE TIME now.  Maybe because it's so short and it feels cool?  I really
   don't care what the reason is.  I'm just happy that I'm guaranteed a head massage at least once a day.
6. I can actually see my earrings now!
5. I have awesome bed head in the morning.  It makes me laugh every time I wake up.
4. My bottle of shampoo is probably going to last me twenty years.
3. My dad alternates between calling me "Butch" or the plucked chicken.  He thinks he's really funny.
2. My hair looks the same all day long.  I used to do my hair all nice for work, and when I came home
    at night it would look like a pile of death.  Snip snip, problem solved : )
1. Let's be honest, I'm really lazy and short hair is easy : )

Food food nom nom nom

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos

What you need:

Ø  2-3 sweet potatoes (depending on how much sweet potato: black bean ratio you want)

Ø  1/2 teaspoon salt

Ø  2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Ø  One half of onion, diced

Ø  2 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed

Ø  1 Tablespoon minced fresh green chile

Ø  2 teaspoons ground cumin

Ø  2 teaspoons ground coriander

Ø  One 15 oz can of black beans

Ø  1/3 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves

Ø  2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Ø  1 teaspoon salt

Ø  1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Ø  1-2 teaspoons cinnamon

Ø  Fresh salsa and/or mexican shredded cheese

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with the salt and water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, warm the oil in a medium skillet or saucepan and add the onions, garlic, and chiles. Cover and cook on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender, about 7 minutes. Add the cumin and coriander and cook for 2 to 3 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a food processor, combine the black beans, cilantro, lemon juice, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cooked sweet potatoes and puree until smooth. Transfer the sweet potato mixture to a large mixing bowl and mix in the cooked onions and spices.

Lightly oil a large baking dish. Spoon about some filling in the center of each tortilla, roll it up, and place it, seam side down, in the baking dish.  Bake for about 30 minutes/ until piping hot. Serve topped with salsa or cheeese. I used a little of the cheese inside the tortilla instead of salsa.

Voila! Donezo. Yummy dinner.

Enjoy!
~Nors

Hi. So I don't have energy for a post...

yet, but in the interim here is a for-fun vlog of mine that I did a while back.  It's about SPACE!

Most of my videos are not as 'production value'-esque, but this one does at least have some artistic merit (maybe).  The first thirty seconds or so is a sort of joke with an online friend, and the rest is just sorta scenic :)

Hope u lyk! Less than 3 to you all dear friends~

Keith

PS Larger screen is better than this tiny embedded one!  FYI

Friday Five.

FRIDAY.
Friday is the 5th day of the week therefore I will be posting 5 things about this week. Just because. Here I go. Here I go.

1. Yesterday, I pretty much performed an entire autopsy on my own. The medical examiner was there helping me out, but I took out all of the organs and pretty much dissected all of them myself. IT WAS SO COOL. On another note, I performed an autopsy on a 10 day old decomposing body last week. All I can say is: so. many. maggots.

2. This week I officially decided that I am obsessed with The Big Bang Theory. I can't stop watching it and drinking wine. Science nerds and alcohol? What's not to like?

3. I went to a pottery painting place in Boston earlier this week and painted this alien (on the right). There is also a dinosaur that I want to paint the next time I go. You can also bring alcohol and food to this place. I'm sure we have places like this back home but I had never been to one so it was awesome!

4. I made sweet potato and black bean burritos for dinner this week and still have let overs. So delicious.

5. I got pulled over for the first time EVER this week and received a wonderful $155 ticket. Thanks, New Hampshire State Police. I appreciate the warm welcome to your state!

Just a quickie...

Hello friends!

Today is my day off so I thought I'd show you some picture evidence from my life...

This is my room!

Here's a view of Wexford...

Here's the other side...

Here's a picture of the last time I saw Jamie, which was on his 30th birthday in Columbus, OH... where he is working at OSU until they send him to Switzerland to work.  Which will be at the end of this month!

Here's a picture of Jamie singing at an open mic night...

I was there too!

Here's a picture of the flowers that were delivered to my office yesterday...

So, there.  Proof.  That I am alive! and very well! And a short note to those that don't already know this...I'm insanely happy and completely in love! 

Things I'm looking forward to; a short post

1. (and most immediately) Eating breakfast tomorrow.  I love breakfast.

2. (ooo..possibly more immediate than 1) Sleeping on my bed tonight that feels like angels holding me up with their softest feathery wings.  It's that good.

3. Starting teaching tomorrow night again after summer break.  (Actually I'm not really looking forward to this, but if I keep saying that I'm excited, then maybe it will be better than I think.  ... and I suppose not being a useless - but crafty! - lump every night will make the weeks go by faster.)

4. Going back to Grand Rapids in 2 weeks for a FOUR DAY WEEKEND!  And part 2 of this item is that I will probably be going to my cottage in Northern Michigan for most of that time.  And I haven't been up there in probably a year at least.  Wahoo!

5. Seeing Jeff.  In 2 weeks when I come home.  And every time after that.

6. Seeing YOU GUYS!  Soon?  And DEFINITELY when I'm on break in November and December.  I'll be busy getting my soul slowly sucked out of me at Victoria's Secret during most days.  So any and all friend time but potentially delay the soul sucking.

7. When I come home - eating at all my favorite restaurants, and visiting every brewery in Grand Rapids.  Seriously, I need to make a list.  Maybe a spreadsheet.  I WILL NOT LEAVE ANY WORTHY PLACE OF EATING AND DRINKING UN-VISITED!  Come with me?

8. My show on September 22.  Come one! Come all!

9. Eating the delicious salad and half a sweet potato that I just made for dinner tomorrow.  (hmm...a lot of these center on food.)

10.  Continuing to read this blog, and write it too!  <3

I am a Sthientist...or something like that.

First of all, I am really happy that "The Knights of Aquinas" is back up and running. Especially now that we are even more spread out, and grown up!  <3 I am excited about this.

Which leads me to my next point... that I am SO PROUD of all of you... look at us all following our dreams and being big kids now. 

So, I guess I will fill you in a little bit about my new life as being a gainfully employed lady... I am very thankful for this opportunity, as much as I enjoyed being a bum and living with my parents and not paying for anything... This is def a better life choice. (maybe.)

I officially started on Aug. 6th, I was hired with Lancaster Laboratories a company based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (~1.5 outside of Philly).  I had to go for a week of orientation/training out east which was a good experience, a lot of reading SOPs (standard operating procedures) and filling out human resource forms (give me a hellz yea for a pay check, real benefits and 401K plan!!). Speaking of which, as my dad just reminded me, I am currently getting paid right now even tho I am home relaxing. (yay for holidays!) 

I also was trained in really complicated techniques like using a balance, pH meter and pipettors (yes.. seriously).  

I have since moved in to my cozy little apartment on the outskirts of Kalamazoo (about 10 minutes from work and 6 minutes from my sister/brother-in-law). So it is a good location and really enjoy it. Nora got to see it and look at the ducks off my little balcony (picture below) :) 

 A little more decorating has been done since these photos were taken, but you get the idea... just your typical hand-me-down sofas (for free), the table and chairs I got from Craigs list, (I loved the black iron-rod chairs)

Coffee table and small round table were purchased at a yard sale... really nice quality and inexpensive.

My stools (another garage sale purchase from ~4 years ago).

The tv-stand was $10 at the yard sale... and that is my foot and a glass of wine. Where you will most likely find me if I am at my place... drinking alcohol in front of the tv :P

Let's see.. what do I actually do at work?

I am currently working at Pfizer's Animal Health and Veterinary Medicine department in downtown Kzoo.  I work with the "Discovery Biopharmaceuticals" team of about 6 people. My role is to essentially keep cell-lines alive and maintaining them for other people throughout the department... this involves not contaminating them, and feeding them (media) pretty much every other day, counting them so that they don't overgrow and re-plating them into new flasks of different sizes and volumes as needed... That is kind of an overview of the consistent daily routines I do.. I also have to work with large scale bioreactors of cells (~3L of cells which are grown in a large spinner flask) and 10L of cells which are essentially grown in a giant bag.  It has been going well so far, I am partially familiar with this kind of work (from my internship at Van Andel), so I feel confident doing most of the work which makes it enjoyable. I feel like I have already learned a lot and look forward to getting more responsibilities in the future.
 
I guess that pretty much sums it up for now...<3 Miss you all.

-Becs