Happy New Year!

Hello! I'm back in a chilly Alabama and happy to see Dan and Hannah again...Had a great Christmas in Long Beach with some sun, family, and good food, miss the Tran family mucho already...  

Here are a few pics (way too many of the Endeavour visit)..and here.. from my LBC trip...I petered off on the camera train shortly after the trip to see the Endeavor...the 150 pictures of that will give you a clue as to why...Click here to see a time lapse video of the shuttle moving the 12 miles from the airport to its downtown home..I couldn't find the exact one they showed in the exhibit...but you get the idea...

ALSO here are some pics from our first experience of the ZOKU...DIY popsicle making (check out details here) - super delicious...a family present from Dan for Christmas!!  He also got one for his niece and nephew for Christmas so hopefully we can have virtual Popsicle parties!

Dan and I spent a nice and quiet NYE at home, we did stay up until midnight but didn't watch any Moon Pies or Balls drop.. but we did get to relax at home, have my Mom's egg rolls for dinner, and be content to be warm, happy, and loved!   

We've been keeping busy with SCRABBLE games...Dan is up 3 games to 1 so far, and each time he wins he insists on playing "We are the Champions" on his new Fender Telecaster...pictures to come soon...time to beef up on my wordplay!  In addition, we've been doing a bit of home sprucing as well - installed a new ceiling lamp (need to make a lamp shade still), ripped out all the veggie plants (hit hard after a frost during Christmas break, but the herbs are still holding on strong!), planted some kale seeds (now drowning in a winter storm), and put up new art from Simon (visit his webstore and buy some affordable art HERE!!).  We'll probably take down the Christmas tree soon and chuck the thing in the corner of the yard to create "habitat" for the birds...excited to have the space back in the front room!  Pictures of general home sprucing to come...

Happy New Years to all, hope the holidays were great!!!

A video of a tortoise at the California Science Center that I took and made me smile...

xo

Season's Greetings!!

Hello all!  

I write to you from a pleasant Southern California abode!  The Tran family household in fact!  I got here late Wed night and will be here enjoying the holiday with the family until Friday.  I only come home once a year so it's jam packed with food food food...and sprinklings of movie watching at home, and a few outings.  Today we're off to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor at the California Science Center!  I'm super excited to see it up close and in person after watching the various news coverage and such!

It's been a fun few last weeks since the last blog post!  

I think I forgot to mention a while back that Dan passed his Oral exams in early November...he is now considered a "Ph.D.c"  or a Ph.D. candidate now..which means he doesn't have to take another test for the rest of his academic life!  PLUS!!!! he gets business cards now!  Ha!!  So the biggest hurdles are over for him - no more classes, no more tests, now it's just research - in the lab, in the field, and writing at the desk!!  Just how he likes it (For real!)!!  

As of Dec 14th I am officially a Master!!!  My thesis was turned in and approved, much help provided by Karrie and Rick for gathering up signatures for me as I was in Alabama at the time.  That was a rather stressful time - these small tasks must happen in a specific order and then you wait to see if you did everything correctly...I made it by the deadline and WHEW!  What a HUGE-OLA relief!!  I'm so very much more calm and just all around beaming with happiness!!

The above lead to an especially exciting Dec 17th - which was not only my birthday (My first Bday as a Master!!!!) but also pre-Christmas for Dan, Hannah, and I.  Since I was spending actual xmas with the Fam in the LBC we decided to combine birthday and pre xmas celebrations before I left town.  It was pretty fun to open gifts and be surprised by each other's gifts!!  It was also great fun to torture Hannah with her wrapped gifts as she momentarily attempted to tear open some gifts, only to have her give up and go sit on her bed...Silly Hannah...

Anyhow, we spent the rest of the day lounging about - with birthday brunch (which is just breakfast with booze) and a lot of cooking with my new cookbook from Dan - How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman...It's a beast of a book and so much fun to flip through.  I'm not a big reader of books, but at night before falling asleep I very much LOVE to fall asleep perusing cookbooks, getting ideas for future meals and learning about new fun ingredients...This book promises to keep us both quite happy and busy for many nights!

Various pictures from the last few weeks in T-Town... All for now, I'll update with a few LBC pics...just now catching up!!!

xo, ct

pics..mostly of Hannah..

Here are some pics of Hannah, a few of our tree...Dan comes back Saturday - yeah!  His trip to Iceland has been successful thus far - chilly, but they were able to get the field work done which is really all that matters.  Lotsa snow on the ground which meant they had to hike in a bit!

Anyhow, it's a short post, but enjoy the pictures of Hannah..these are mostly for Dan to enjoy while he travels back home, but you get an overdose as well..

Here is a video of her enjoying her Thanksgiving cupcake..the link might not be live for a few minutes yet...

xo

Yum Yum day!!

Happy Tday everyone!!!!  We are spending the day walking around town with Hannah, cookin up some food (we're providing mashed potatoes, popovers, and brussel sprouts!), then having our orphan Thanksgiving dinner this evening at Jamie's...Should be delicious!!  

A few things:

- Alabama lost to Texas A&M - we were sad, but we're still #2 - let's hope we stomp Auburn and Georgia in the SEC finals!!

- It was Dan's Bday on Tuesday!!  We celebrated by spending the day in Birmingham - it was great fun as the pictures will reveal...

- We just booked our hotel in New Orleans in February for the ASLO conference!!!  Yeah!!!!  Dan presents a poster on his Iceland stuff and I just tag along for the ride...Can't wait for our first trip to the Big Easy for a whole week!!  We'll likely drive down and leave Hannah at home under the care of our very loving friends...

- that's all for now, have a wonderful turkey day!!!

Some pictures from the last few weeks..

xo

Been waitin'...

It's been over a month since the last post...and as that last post hinted, the month of October was a big one!  A lot of fretting and working paid off for us here in T-Town...

For one, this finally happened:

Yeah!!!  A five year epic journey finally ended with my thesis defense in Moscow, ID.  I took a week off from cool Alabama Fall weather and entered the entirely different Fall realm that is the inner Pacific Northwest.  I was greeted by so many vibrantly colored leaves that smacked me right in the retina.  Happiness!!  It was quite a mixed bag being back in Moscow.  I figured I'd be nothing but elated, but it turns out there was a lot of bittersweetness mixed in as well.  Memories from grad school proper came flooding back...

Remember when...

We had a (read: many) late Thursday nights of Long Island Iced Teas at the Ale House?  

Fresh pesto rolls from the Co-op?  

Buying sticks of grilled chicken from the Saturday Farmer's Market?  

Walking Hannah through the calm neighborhoods of Moscow?  

Trudging up the 6th street hill after a long day in the lab/office??

The smell of the fresh cedar chips walking by Line St and 6th st??

sigh....

Then came the corrections to my memories and new realizations...

Was the Student Rec Center really THAT close to our office?

Is it usually that quiet around campus after 1pm in the afternoon?

Was there always this bone chilling wind running through Moscow?

The Red Door is now Gnosh!
They painted those balconies green!
It's time for winter wheat planting in the Palouse!

more sighs...

Overall it was just a wonderful trip.  I got the defense out of the way half way through the trip and got to relax with Kristin and the kids for most of the rest of the trip.  The kids are HUGE...I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of them, and my overall lack of pictures of the whole trip.  But I guess that is a testament to my fretting and then my uber relaxation due to the main point of the trip...

sigh and pause.....

So now, after my big hurdle, there is Dan's great accomplishment of finishing comprehensive exams.  Not all the results are in, but we are pretty darn sure he passed.  He got to check out the Neil Young-Alabama Shakes show at the Amphitheater as well - a mini comps break the day before his last set of questions.. This week he'll have his 2ish hour oral exam where he gets to sit in a room and have his committee pummel him with questions that will demand succinct answers until his brain is the consistency of baby food...

and let us not forget...

Hannah's big October consisted of getting a vomit-inducing hot spot on her face.  Hot spots are common in dogs - in starts with a scratch or bite that the dog continues to scratch at, it gets infected, then in a matter of hours it grows...it went from the size of a quarter one morning to a baseball later that evening when we got back to work.  She wore the cone of shame for a while and also got a visit to the vet where he gave her a shot of cortisol to dry up the nastiness and then a shot of antibiotics followed by a 10 day bottle of antibiotic pills...I also tended to her wound twice a day with some warm water and apple cider vinegar and blow dried the area to speed up the healing process...Playing Florence Nightingale helped me feel like I was doing something to help her heal.  She was in pretty miserable spirits for a bit,  but that maybe due to the embarrassment of the cone of shame (borrowed from and doctored up by Jamie see pictures later)...

Now it is November...Dan's Bday month, and a new month all around for the fam as a whole.  Now that most of the hard stuff is over we've vowed to be outside more, make more short weekend trips around the Southeast, get back in shape, do more cooking and gardening.  This first weekend back in town we've enjoyed the nice Fall weather with a nice 7 mile hike at Oak Mountain State Park followed by a fantastic early dinner at Little Donkey, which is soon soon coming to Tuscaloosa as well. Yippee!!  Hannah is absolutely tuckered out after the hike and it's so satisfying to see your dog so tired.  We spent Saturday watching a nail biter of a game between Bama and LSU (and in case you're wondering, the Bama win apparently clinches this race as well..) Whew!  We finally got a good game and thank goodness our quarterback finally manned up...

all for now!
pictures!!
xo

hi-o!!

whew...well it's been quite a while no??  Too long indeed...it's been busy here...

Dan has been gone on his Iceland sampling trip - but he'll be back Wed afternoon!  All has gone well for him - with great weather and successful field days...let's hope the return trip goes fine with all the samples!  The last 10 days without Dan has given me some quality time with my thesis and presentation.  It's less than a month away and I'm so excited for it to be over, but anxious about actually defending after all this time!! Regardless, it'll be all over after the hour presentation and Q&A with the public..then maybe another half hour to hour with just the committee alone to go over any corrections and edits...let it be known, 2pm PST on Oct 26th Chau will be walking on air.  Until then however, a raving lunatic....Dan is also taking his written exams that same week which means the whole household will be out of sorts in October.  Dan has a whole week of writing for 8 hours each day..sigh, I think we are both quite excited for November!

Pictures from the last month or so!

Recipes worth trying:

okra chili - made with deer meat and added about a cup of yellow corn meal to thicken it up and boost the flavor - I'm going to insist on doing this for all my future chilis!!  This one was delicious!!  I didn't have tomato paste - so I added some ketchup, and instead of a dark beer I added a can of frozen miller high life (don't judge me)...some frozen okra and tomatoes from the garden, and a cup of the pinto beans from below instead of kidney beans and bingo...dinner for days...

pinto bean masala - sounds odd but this is amazing with white rice, a few spoonfuls of jarred pasta sauce, and slices of mozzarella melted on top...best leftovers ever

pear cake/tart - the important thing is to underbake the thing, and dump as many pears as you can in it - don't mess with the pinwheel design...I think I used 6 pears for one of the tarts (I've made it twice in one week!)

xo

roll tide roll...

Here are some pictures of today's events - a brief walk to a new dorm on campus (we needed a reason to walk Hannah) and yard work!!

I went to Coweeta Thursday for the night - only 10 more trips up until the end!  Woo hoo!!  I love going to the field but the drive up there is killer - 5.5 hours to drive up, spend the night, wake up the next day and sample for 3 hours, then drive back to T-Town...the day spent in the lab washing rocks isn't the best either, but it does make you feel like you accomplished something for the month!  I also can't complain much about the rock supply that has transformed our backyard!!

Did you happen to see Alabama whoop up on Michigan (41 to something that we don't really care about)??  We streamed it online so we got to watch it in the comforts of our own home.  The week of hosting got us kinda tired so we abstained from the usual Alcove tailgating - maybe next weekend!

Dan is busy studying for comps, prepping a seminar lecture for Friday, and getting ready for his Sept 22nd trip out to Iceland - just a 10 day stint, but it will be a field and lab-packed trip!!  Lately we've been renting DVDs from the library (they're free!!).  Tonight is the original Alien - eeps!  But we have been revisiting old favs - Total Recall (The original) and Point Break to name a couple..  For some reason we've been in to the oldies - if only they had Willow and some Beverly Hills Cops...that'd be great...

all for now, Happy Labor Day!!

ct