Apartment #2

My Room - I know, it's huge. Plus I have a balcony!

My beautiful loaves of bread! Just wheat with a touch of maple syrup.

My successful popcorn experiment!

I know it's been hard this past week without any update from me, but sometimes that's just the way things go. I've been quite a busy little bee this week, quite successfully avoiding schoolwork I need to get done this summer. So, let's start at the beginning of the week...Sunday!

I have now moved into my permanent summer housing (pictured above), which is not quite that lovely studio, but is big, well-located, and has a balcony - SCORE! I have no chairs and get no wireless, so I've taken to camping out on the floor in front of my laptop, who has only a two-foot ethernet leash.

Monday, I acquired a library card (wow, that feels like ages ago) and am waiting to run out of distractions so that I can distract myself further with Princess Mononoke. Let's skip Tuesday, because nothing exciting happened...and Wednesday. Thursday, I went to the zoo with Nicole to hear the music that is there every Thursday evening. I actually felt older for the first time since starting my job, because the vast majority of the audience was composed of young families (children under 3). The zoo is only a ten-minute walk from my house!

The Fourth!!! I went running and got lost...nothing new. Stanford in Washington House had a BBQ, from which I pilfered the extra mixed nuts - I need to start being thriftier with my food budget. Then, I met people in the house and we hung out all day, watched Independence Day, drank Mojitos, went to the fireworks at the Lincoln Memorial. Good Times.

That was fun, but Saturday was even better. I found a closer, cheaper farmer's market - spent the same amount of money as last time for quadruple the amount of food! I proceeded to make bread, which turned out ok, but nothing to get excited over. Next week is cinnamon oatmeal (raisin?). Nicole and I met up - pretended to do an hour of work - and then headed to the Smithsonian Cultural Festival, at which we learned all about Bhutanese culture (I have this awesome picture on my phone, but don't know how to get it on my computer) and how to can fruit Texas style. Then we GORGED ourselves (not exaggerating) at a restaurant in ChinaTown prior to viewing Wall-E. Before I get into how wonderful this movie is, I just have to share our experience: We get in 5 minutes late and there are literally no seats but the nosebleed first row. Being smart Stanford students, we reason that the ground of the handicap space is a perfectly good alternative. After getting settled and watching the previews...the fire alarm goes off! No biggie, we get back in ten minutes later and find out that the guy behind us had cotermed in Earth Systems some years back! Small World. Ok, so the movie was wonderful, cute AND should have made everyone think twice when they threw out their popcorn bags and drink cups! That is going to be our world PEOPLE; that's really scary! Saturday is almost over, I promise. We walk back to my apartment from the movie theater, scouting out bars with good music and salsa dancing, both of which we identified.

Today - Ack! it's already Sunday??? I woke up sick - although, I forgot to mention I've been sick the past three days with a cold. Decided I would still go swimming but skip the Flow Hatha Yoga. Bought more groceries - I am cutting myself off, now. No more dry goods until I finish what I have! I do have to say, that the organic foodmart near my house has a wonderful dry goods section, so I bought popcorn. I have no popper, so I did it the old-fashioned way in a skillet! SOOO YUMMY! Life is good.

Although I failed at working on my thesis or a number of other droll tasks, I managed to have a very productive week in the most important areas of life.

-Catch ya later!

I'm Reading: Animal Dreams