Hello... WINTER?

Wow. So, I post about the lovely fall wind that has come in, and HELLO WINTER! It was suuuuper blustery yesterday... I left my windows open and there was dust allll over my bed. I was really sad about that, as you can imagine if you know how much I revere my bed space. Even now, the wind has calmed down, but it's still managing to blow some dust onto my fuzzy comforter. Like I said, sad :( On the upside of things, it's SO nice to wear boots, or a sweater (OATMEAL CHOCOLATE-CHIP!), and still feel kind of chilly. The weather is also proving walking to be superior to biking... no need to add to the wind blowing through my fleece, thanks very much.

So, it was super cold last night in my room, but it was so nice in the morning, when the sun came through and warmed up my room. The oven was actually tolerable! I think I'll love it during the actual winter.

Happy last day of September??? Where did it disappear to...?

Yesterday, in my neuron death class, a "hemispherectomy" was the correct answer to a question. That involves removing half of a brain and a kid basically recovers completely. Love kid brains.

This weekend I feel like baking and cooking... I have a lot of basic ingredients, and I want to properly welcome fall. I'll most likely bake some strawberry shortcake :)

Some things I have recipes for that need to be baked:

Almond birthday cake with sherry-lemon buttercream (I need a birthday to bake for, though... belated to me?)

Chocolate oatmeal cupcakes with maple-bacon buttercream (artery clogging just reading that, but it sounds too good to be true)

Blood orange olive oil cake

I'll definitely be waiting to bake these until I get home... there's much more variety there so that I don't have to go out and buy 23483294 ingredients.

Also, I finished The White Tiger. I need a new book to read (for pleasure/to read in bed)... if you have suggestions, send them my way!

Ah, laundry transfer time.

Stay warm~

Music for today--

iTunes' "Alternative Mix"

The New Pornographers -- Three or Four

OK Go -- 1000 Miles Per Hour

Dizzy Balloon -- Let It Out

Rooney -- Shakin'

The Strokes -- Whatever Happened

OK Go -- Good Idea at the Time

Fall is here.

I've made a decree: fall is here!

It's for sure in the breeze... don't you feel it? It's cool and carries that delicious crispness that has a slight bite when it touches your skin. Funny how I was just complaining about the weather yesterday. The scene I'm in is super cinematic: I'm here typing away at my computer, working on a blog post while the wind comes in and blows my hair away from or in front of my face. I have my flowery L teacup, and I'm drinking darjeeling. I'm listening to Jose Gonzalez's Veneer album, which is perfect to welcome the season: chill, calm, soothing. About time, considering it's a good 6 days past the first day of fall!

Moving on: we are fish.

Every Monday, my lab has its weekly lab meeting when someone from the lab (usually) makes a presentation on their work (I'm going next week!) and there's a small discussion. There is always DELICIOUS food, which I believe I've previously talked about. But something that I noticed, which is pretty funny, is the feeding frenzy that occurs. Before the presentation starts, there's a mad grab for salami, melon, cheese, bread, hummus, carrots, etc. The plates are passed around and whispered for while the presentation is going on... today there was a short break because of some technical thing, and people got up and began grabbing food from the table once again... we are just like the fish that go absolutely craaaazy at feeding time! In the mornings, when you go into the fish room, the fish all swarm at the walls of the tanks, waiting to be fed. Some of them even go crazy enough that they jump out of the little holes in the lids and are willing to suffocate themselves in trying to get food!! I guess we're not very different... Perfect example of evolution, my friends. (I could interject some commentary on motivation and drive, which I've been reading about as of late for my research, but I'll refrain from doing so and spare you hah!...)

In other food news: umami + salt at night is best.

Last night, I made a pot of Shin Ramen. Incredible. I never want something so salty and spicy and umami more than I do when it is past about 12:30 am or so. The spicy ramen satisfies so many cravings... yum. I love emptying that packet of red, MSG-y, powdery goodness into the boiling water. For an actual meal, I'll add an egg, but on its own, it's perfect. SO BAD FOR YOU, but sooo good. Even those freeze dried veggies in that little plastic packet seem so appealing after it's soaked up the broth. Mmmm, reminds me of home.

And finally: bad fish.

My honors thesis literature review is due in 3 weeks. SURPRISE! 12-20 pages, though "thoroughness" is more important then length. Ahhhh.

Oh but there's more...: Mr. Plant

I still don't have a name for my plant. Sadddd... he's been with me for over 2 weeks now! Maybe it's like one of those things where I'm waiting to see his personality first before I name him... sometimes people do that with their pets or babies: they get the pet/baby and THEN they name it. "Plant" is pretty docile... kind of a show-off, though, considering that he's still flowering. He's also a bit of a tough cookie, being able to forgo water for almost a week! James? (after James Bond...? but he's not a very docile guy despite being a show-off and a tough guy...) Lambert? (the sheepish lion? that's TOO docile.) Suggestions are appreciated!

Alors, je dois travailler jusqu'à la première Table Française! MMmmmmm... du veau, pommes de terre au gratin, du fromage, du pain aux bananes et noix... C'est absolument parfait.

-------

update: 9:34 pm--

I've edited those silly little buttons so you can check off what you actually think about the post, as opposed to "funny, interesting" or whatever else the last option was. I have "YAWN," which is pretty self-explanatory; basically, if you didn't like the post, check this box. I also have "YUM," so if you liked the post (you didn't necessarily have to think that the things I talked about were delicious...), check this box.

Oh, the things I do...

There are these little things that I do... Sort of like having habits, but I think they're stranger than habits. A habit would be something like folding your shirt a certain way or always walking a certain path to class. But these things... aren't quite habits. I'll describe them, but maybe it's just me thinking I'm weirder than I actually am :)

I like to know what time it is, just to know. I might not have anything to do, but I really like knowing what time it is, even if I had just checked my clock 3 minutes before the last time I looked. I get a particular satisfaction upon seeing my birthday time, 8:16, specifically when I just look at my clock and, ah! there it is! So silly... Why is that comforting? Is it even weird?

I like to know what temperature it is and what it will be. In happy news, it's supposed to be 67 degrees on Tuesday! It bothers me that my iGoogle always predicts the temperature to be muuuuch higher than what weather.com says. Right now, they're both the same (*sigh of relief), but sometimes they're some 10 degrees off!!! How is that possible?? ... OK moving on from that... Knowing the temperature ahead of time also lets me plan for what I'd wear the next day. I don't particularly like rolling out of bed, brain all fuzzy from sleep and cows, and having to decide what to wear. It takes me a good 5 times longer to think about that in the morning. Plus, I tend to forget things if I have to worry about my outfit in addition to what to put in my bag for the day, what's for breakfast, and my agenda for the day.

Just two things (like I said, they're little), but I thought it'd be an interesting way to start out the post.

Got my first paycheck on Friday..... It may have been my first official paycheck... I've gotten paid for doing various jobs, etc, but not on a regular basis like this. It's a good feeling, I can see why people have jobs (hah).

This weekend, I got back from visiting family. Strange that I had last seen them just a week ago, but it definitely felt longer than that. Something about this Stanford bubble really isolates me. My brain seems to switch between work/friends time and family time so easily, so that I feel like I pick up where I left off whenever I return to one or the other.

To celebrate my grandfather's life, the Woods had a delicious steak dinner... If you've ever been to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, you know what that's like. The steak arrives in front of you, sizzling on a platter, laying in a pool of melted butter. I had a marbled ribeye au poivre... mmmm. Literally one of the biggest pieces of meat ever set in front of me for me alone to conquer. It conquered me. Doggie bagged that one. Oh, and along with the meat, you get side dishes: sauteed mushrooms, creamed spinach, sweet potato casserole, potatoes au gratin... Stomach and heart explosion. Sigh... we're having steak in house for dinner, too. A bit much too much.

OK, enough of this... it's a Sunday, and it's work time!

Enjoy the day~

update: 8:57 pm, quote from Ryan: re: our lives...

Ryan: its like a beard [papa]

Ryan: overstuffed.

Ryan: but delicious

I walked by these benches in the Quad and had an urge just to lay down and enjoy the dappled sunlight. I would have if I was not on my way to do work (it's a rare occurrence for me to get that kind of productive urge, so I have to seize it when it comes along!). It's a beautiful day here on campus, and a nice way to start the weekend. Before I was a student here, I remember these trees being in bloom and taking a picture in front of them. I tried to take a picture with my cell phone camera... it doesn't quite do the area justice, but at least you get some idea of what it looks like. The refraction of the sun on the lens also gives it a more dreamy-rainbowy look, too...

I don't have much to talk about, so I'm hoping that during the time it takes me to write the next couple of sentences, I'll come up with a great topic!

Ah, I know.

I am usually listening to music when I make a post, so I'll add a little list of the songs I listen to during the course of the post! That'll come at the end.

OK, that was lame.

Tonight is our first orchestra rehearsal! We're going to have an incredible program this quarter: PROKOFIEV!! We're playing Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (with a happy ending...), Piano Concerto No. 2, and the Intermezzo from his opera War and Peace. The cool thing is that our soloist for the concerto is one of the best Prokofiev pianists in the world. We played with him 2 (?) years ago, and PBS was doing a documentary on him, he's that awesome. Also, we're playing the Romeo and Juliet with puppets.... It always makes playing a little bit more interesting, especially when it's a 50-something minute piece. We're playing as a part of the Lively Arts program, so we always get a bigger audience that way, which is always a plus. It's sometimes a little sad playing in awful Dink with a less than full auditorium.

Mmm.. wanted to take a nap this afternoon, but maybe I'll just go to bed early tonight.

Senior Night? Entourage? Movie? Sleep?

Hm. Decisions.

Songs for the day [from my Chill 09-10 playlist]:

Norah Jones--Sunrise

Stéphane Pompougnac--The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti (on Hôtel Costes Vol 9)

Angus and Julia Stone--Paper Aeroplane (on Hôtel Costes Vol 10)

Norah Jones--One Flight Down

HELLO, first day of class!

Welcome to senior year.

This morning, I went to drop La Mais key box back off at the housing office, and a lady asked me what year I am, and I responded, "I am going to be a senior." Wrong.

Like I said, welcome to senior year. I am a senior.

Despite my inability to adopt said title, I am very excited for my classes. Today opened with "Critical Issues in Child Health." The professor is an incredible person. She was a ballerina for 10 years before coming to Stanford, and she majored in HumBio. She moved on to get her MD and is now teaching, as opposed to practicing because she wants to be a better mother to her children. Wow. She's incredibly engaging and knew all of our names when we came in to class. We'll be looking at topics that are pertinent to a child's health in the world today, like diseases in children (cancer, asthma) and psychiatric disorders (ADHD, eating disorders). It all makes having 9 am class worth it...

Next, I headed off to Pilates where I was reminded how inflexible I am. And that I need to have better posture (I sat up upon typing that sentence). And that I need to breathe better. And that my abs may or may not exist.

Later in the afternoon, I had Stats... sigh. This class is some 300 people large in a HUGE auditorium where it's next to impossible to hear the professor over the whispering neighbors. I admit; I fall prey to the whispering too, and it certainly doesn't help matters. Anyway, it's one of my last requirements, and at least it'll be useful for my research.

Tomorrow will be a day fillllled with NEURO! "Neural Systems of Behavior" consists of looking at different aspects of behavior and how the brain gives rise to these behaviors... the field of neuroethology, essentially.

Then, I've got my Neuron Death class (which I described in the previous post). Yessssss.

I love the first day of class, filling in my planner with the dates of exams/papers/assignments. I also love people's enthusiasm... I find that it's prime time to meet people who I've seen in my other classes but have never actually introduced myself to. Once you reach a certain point in our oh-so-short quarter, it's impossible to say "Hi, I'm __." etcetc.

Annnnnnd, FINALLY, I get my first meal in house. Yesssss. As much as I love In-N-Out (what I had for dinner last night), I was getting really tired of eating out (it's hard to believe, I know). There are smells wafting in through my window (from Haus Mitt or from our kitchen, who knows) but it smells incredible. Yum. 30 minutes left...

I posted a bit ago about going to Fresno to visit my grandfather. I really don't like seeing family under sad circumstances, but I suppose it's better than nothing. I shouldn't need a reason to go drive to Fresno, but in reality, I wouldn't have gone that weekend just to visit. I can't help but feel a little self-serving just driving over when something goes wrong, when it's convenient for me, when I make time for it in my schedule. Anyway, my grandfather is not doing the greatest, but at least he's around family and is maintaining some level of dignity, as opposed to being in a nursing home, where he did not want to ever be.

I picked Tim up from Santa Cruz on the way and dropped him back off later that evening, but it was nice just to sit and talk about anything. Not everyone gets time for that kind of thing, with real life/school/other priorities in the way; road trips slow things down. Note to self: either make it a priority to talk about anything with friends and/or go on more road trips with friends. (Easier said than done?)

D'acc, ça souffit pour aujourd'hui. À demain, peut-être? On vera. Je n'ai pas autant de temps comme les cours ont commencé... mais je pense que je vais trouver du temps très facilement pour écrire juste un peu. Juste un peu. HAH!

I can't think of a good title.

I'm having trouble coming up with a title. I'll get to that last (though it's the thing I always come up with first, and it usually drives my blog post).

Firstly, in AWESOME news, I'll be taking a seminar called Mechanisms of Neuron Death. Description of the class is as follows:

For Biology majors with background in neuroscience. Cell and molecular biology of neuron death during neurological disease. Topics: the amyloid diseases (Alzheimer's), prion diseases (kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob), oxygen radical diseases (Parkinson's and ALS), triplet repeat diseases (Huntington's), and AIDS-related dementia. Student presentations. Enrollment limited to 15...

That sounds... so incredible. The class is also with an awesome professor: Sapolsky. I'm going to have some incredible classes this quarter... (I'll go into more detail in another post about them)

Walking is a nice thing. I came up with so many things I wanted to post about when I was going to lab... it's apparently only a 10 minute walk, which I find so hard to believe (from home to Gilbert). If that is true, it provides even more incentive to walk everywhere! So much safer, and I get to listen to music or podcasts, and I enjoy my surroundings a lot more.

In lab, more slicing this afternoon. It's so mesmerizing, working on the cryostat. It's super methodical: get my frozen brains, adhere it to cold mounts, prepare slides, put the mount on the stage, and slice away until I get to the brain, at which point I chisel away excess OCT (optimal cutting temperature) while trying to avoid the brain itself (I managed to slice a bit of brain yesterday this way), then I move on to taking 300 µm thin slices and put them on slides (being careful not to drop them into the crevices), and adhere them to the slide by placing the slide on my warm fingers. This last part is definitely harder than it seems because if I tilt the slide slightly, there goes my hard work of trying to align the slices just so, or they slide completely off. I also can't breathe out because then I might blow the slices right off the slide, which might be worse than the aforementioned. Then, I repeat over and over and then I'm done! I store my slices in a -60 degC freezer. I finished processing all of my brains, which is nice... Now I move on to punching. We'll see what that involves...

When I got back to La Mais from lab, there were literally 230948230948 freshmen that I ran into. They were coming back from a President's Reception, and his house is right up the hill. Ugh. Literally salmon swimming upstream (I was going the opposite direction as the flow of freshmen). Aside from being innocent etc (as I said in my last post), they're a touch oblivious, insisting upon walking 3 or 4 people wide along the sidewalk, being completely absorbed in conversation... although maybe I was like that at one time.

In related news, the house is coming together. Soon, we'll have a stocked open kitchen and Juan Jose will cook for us! Yummmm. I'm honestly getting tired of eating out every meal.

This morning, I woke up to a ginormous wasp/yellow jacket in my room. Sigh. I learned something from the person who came to net it for me: spray it with water! If you get its wings wet, it can't fly! Then, you can just throw it outside or squish it or something. That's a nifty trick. But, don't do what I did and hide under the covers. Haha...

Tomorrow for the day, I'm driving over to Fresno to visit my family, mostly my grandfather who's not doing the best. Ah, to get old. The last time I've dealt with something like this was when I lost my grandmother, when I was pretty young (12? 13?) but I remember feeling sad mainly because I saw everyone else close to me being sad. It was the weirdest feeling, to cry and feel some sense of sadness for having lost my grandmother, but it was mainly because I was reacting to the emotions of those around me.

Alright, I think I'm going to try to go for a run in this heat. Hopefully I'll find a shady route? I might repeat the one I did 2 days ago around campus... that one was pretty good and fairly quick.

Have a good one tout le monde~

The little slice that tried to get away...

... BUT NO! IT DID NOT!

I was doing my brain slices this afternoon, and one slice decided to disappear down a hole. Where that hole went? I did not know. With the help of a grad student, we dismantled the cryostat..... and it was a pit of tubes and chips of frozen cutting material. Sigh. Where would my important brain slice be? OH, but with my crafty skills, I found that sucker intact, put it on the slide, and made it stick to that slide so it could never ever escape again.

TRIUMPHANT! Today wasn't the best day in terms of slices... I also cut through a part of the brain while trying to make my cutting block smaller (it's not the best thing, if you were wondering) and the cryostat cut chunks off of the cutting material and maybe brain too. Sigh. I did, however, get through 6 brains, and have 6 more to go.

This morning/afternoon, new Frenchies are moving in... seems like a fun group, and time will tell, I suppose...

In other news, I need to practice viola. Audition on Monday. I'm going to go do that until it's dinner time. Korean, yumyum. But, what to play? I'm working on Bach suites, but I definitely don't have enough time to get those in adequate shape, so I'll probably opt for the tried and true: Arpeggione or Kol Nidrei.

Out with the old/In with the new?

Je refuse!

Oh, freshmen, how young and innocent you all look... so ready for your 4 years at Stanford... so unprepared for how quickly the time passes.

It's ridiculous how quickly 3 years has flown by, and I can't believe that summer is already over. It's a bit overwhelming how much has happened, too, when I think about it. Not only that, how much lies ahead in this year alone.

Maybe this is all because I'm waiting to eat. I'm starrrrrving. We're having 2 pizzas delivered.

*Low blood sugar alert?*

I'd like to talk about the virtues of reading in bed and napping. I mentioned that I'm reading The White Tiger, and while it's a good book, I love the ritual more than anything else. Yesterday afternoon, last night, and this afternoon, I read before going to sleep... and that knocked me out faster than anything else. Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep and will just lay in bed thinking far too much about everything in life, even though just a second before then, when my feet were on the ground, I was exhausted. I think I've found a good solution: take 10 minutes to read in bed! It also takes my mind off of the fact that my sheets are cold and it allows me to warm up the sheets for actual sleepytime. My room tends to get really cold at night, so that minute or so when I'm trying to warm up the sheets can be pretty brutal and seems to take forever.

Napping will be a regular in my life this upcoming year, I think. It's such a lovely feeling, napping in the sun on a comfy bed. Since the morning sun heats my room up so quickly and wakes me up at 8 am, or so, I'll definitely have to try to catch my sleep somehow, and napping is fine by me.

Clearly, I'm just trying to pass time while I wait for the food. Agony. Stomach eating itself.

Oh what a beautiful (afternoon)!

Name that musical:

Oh what a beautiful morning!

In this case, it's afternoon, so I've substituted that in for now.

I am ready for a nap. But here's how things have been going, since there has been quite a lack of posts:

This past weekend I went to the incredible beautiful Carmel. It's hard to believe that there exists a place like this. Pebble Beach and "downtown" Carmel are just so incredible. So quaint and unassuming... As beautiful as it is, I wonder if I would get bored with it. The city of Carmel-by-the-Sea is only 1 square mile, so it's very small. But, it is a lovely little place that I can see why people spend millions and millions of dollars on a vacation home they visit only a few days out of the year.

We had our first rain of the year on Sunday. I love the rain, and I love it so much more with my gigantic windows and view of it coming down through a giant oak tree. So happy for fall to be here!

We have purchased our decorations for L'Amazon Française... this includes almost the entirety of the "green aisle" at Michaels. We were lucky enough to hit upon a sale - 50% off their foliage - which, as our cashier told us, hasn't ever happened (well, in the last 2 years that the cashier has worked there anyway). If you happen to be into silk or polystyrene foam plants, this is the way to go. Find your nearest Michaels and buy to your heart's content! Anyway, we managed to snag about $230 worth of greenery for our little house.... we must fireproof it all tonight and then we'll put it up tomorrow and transform the space into a jungle. Must make door signs later.

Plant still doesn't have a name... I don't really know how successful I'll be on this front.

Here is something that I thought was pretty entertaining:

Good Night and Tough Luck

Off to read and drift into a nap. Book of choice: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

[I've added this silly little option where you can check off what you think of the post. I won't bother putting in negative comments because that would be bad for my ego :)]

SUCCESS part 2!

Ah, yes. The best victory of all is the fact that today is Friday! It's humid and pretty warm, but it's still a very nice day out. At least my new plant thinks so! He sits on my windowsill at the corner of my room. He's a beautiful coral kalanchoe... See his view? He looks out upon Mayfield and Haus Mitt. Watch out Haus Mitt, Plant is watching... [YAYYY I FIGURED OUT HOW TO PUT IN PICTURES!]

He still needs a name. He could follow in the footsteps of Clement the Christmas rosemary (who is alive and well in my backyard at home) as Clement II. What a regal name! He could also be a good KeffJeff replacement, but I think that would bring back bad memories about poor KeffJeff's untimely demise due to my horrible parenting. Word to the wise: don't leave your children in the car for 4 days straight.

Today was basically the last day of training! I am fully prepared as a House Manager to open your door in case of a lockout, file a fix-it, host a party, put out a fire, and check, call and care in a lot of different scenarios involving life-threatening emergencies. I am Red Cross First Aid/CPR with AED certified for the next 3 years! I think that's pretty cool, but it's also a bit of a responsibility...

Another success: I have my own lab desk!! It overlooks the courtyard between Herrin and Gilbert and it has drawers and a chair! I went in to the lab today to slice brains, and I come out with a bunch of finished slides/brains AND my own desk. Victory.

And yet ANOTHER success?? Is it possible?? As my very sad post said from a couple of days ago, my computer's charger cable decided to melt, thus inactivating the charger. All this happened a day after my AppleCare warranty expired. I went into the Apple store, totally ready to burst into tears if need be, but they were very nice about it and gave me a brand new, free charger. Glory be.

And the final success: Sprinkles' dark chocolate almond cupcake.... by far one of the best cupcakes I have ever had. Go get it while you can, because they won't offer it after the 14th (SAD). The cupcake itself is an almond cake, with little slivers of almond and plenty of almond extract. I don't know if you happen to know me and my recent obsession with things that are almond flavored, but I LOVE them. Almond croissants, for example, are my favorite of life. So, this cake was really good; it had enough little almond chunk to let you know that this is what actual almonds taste like, and it had a very fragrant almond cake. Nice and light and airy... Substantial enough to stand against the dark chocolate ganache-like frosting. For some reason though, Sprinkles' frostings always make my teeth hurt when I bite into them. It could have used a litttttle bit less frosting, but it was still an excellent complement to the almond cupcake. It was bitter enough that the sweetness of the cake still stood out, but it was sweet enough to appeal to any chocolate lover: white, milk, or dark. Obviously, I think the darker the better, but it was still very good. Makes me want to go look up a recipe for almond cupcakes... and I'll put my own pure chocolate icing on it, yum.

Dinner with the staffies... I haven't eaten much today, after eating a huuuuge breakfast, so I'm SO excited for this. So excited, in fact, that I may write about it later, hah!

Oh, and this is our house's theme (since I realized I never wrote it out):

L'AMAZON FRANÇAISE

No words. So incredible.

So many successes today, I love it.

SUCCESS.

Happy 9/09/09!!

In other news, La Maison has a theme. And it is incredible.

In other unhappier news, my Mac charger died today. And when did my 3 year AppleCare expire? Yesterday. No joke.

Oh, HELLO, La Mais!!!

I have nested in my new residence, La Maison Française!! I'll get to that in a bit... so, updates from yesterday:

SATURDAY~

AM, mobilized at 10 and went for a little run down to the Marina. Came back, and we headed over to a restaurant called Absinthe in Hayes Valley, on the corner of Hayes and Gough. An incredible French restaurant, Absinthe boasts its claim to chef Jamie Lauren, who was on Top Chef. And, rightfully so. We started out the afternoon with pick-me-ups; I had a delicious Ginger Rogers, which is gin mixed with ginger syrup, lime juice, muddled mint, and ginger ale. It was truly incredible (and beautiful)... Ah, the wonders of being 21! A whole new world has opened itself up to me :) For eats, this is where it gets beyond phenomenal. We shared French onion soups, which are one of my favorites ever. So homey, comforting, and delicious, the beef-based broth, so heavy on onion-y deliciousness, a slice of bread drenched in this amazing broth, with the cheese. OH, that cheese. Gruyere, so melted, pervading the soup in its fatty, swiss cheese-but-better goodness. Then, since it was brunch after all, I had a French toast (the theme of this meal, if you couldn't tell is to eat all things "French." Literally.). But, this was no ordinary French toast; this was a French toast stuffed with ricotta (the other theme of this meal was to eat as much cheese as possible). It came with a berry compote (blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries, yum), fresh whipped cream and maple syrup. The base of the toast, a brioche, was so delicious to start with: fluffy, crisp in all the right places, and not too eggy. But, there was also the ricotta, which imparted another kind of fluffiness, and skewed the sweet of the whole dish towards more of a savory. I feel like good ricotta is like that; you can eat it on its own, and it'll be so sweet and fresh, but depending upon what you pair it with, it can be the sweet or the savory. OK, so enough of that.

We then headed to the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero where Tim and I picked up ingredients for the dinner we were to cook later that night (each name has a link to its corresponding recipe). All of the recipes were from Gourmet Magazine:

Heirloom Tomato Herb Pasta Salad

Grilled Lime-Curry-Rubbed Hangar Steak with Fresh Melon-Cucumber Chutney

Fennel-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Fennel Wedges

Chocolate-Raspberry Clafoutis

Comments on each of them:

#1 The pasta salad was good but had a bit too much raw onion for my taste.

#2 The chutney made this dish. It could be paired with ANYTHING, and it'll make the dish. We put fresh poblano peppers, and I chopped them up. My thumbs were hurting about an hour after doing so, despite washing my hands at least 5 times, due to the capsaicin. Stupidly, I wanted to take my contacts out a good 2.5 hours after cutting the peppers... burn, baby, burn. Even the next morning, I put a contact in... ow. So I had to put the other contact in using my pinkies. THAT takes skill.

#3 I love pork. I don't normally love fennel, but I love fennel like this. Fennel tends to have a licorice-y taste, and I don't like licorice... but cooking it with the pork in a chicken broth, and white wine really cut that flavor, turning it nice and soft. It absorbed the flavors nicely.

#4 I love chocolate. And I love raspberries. More importantly, I love the two together. But, I must admit that this wasn't my favorite ever. My brother loved it, but I guess I'm more used to the traditional clafoutis, which tastes like a yummy pancake. Though, this has more traditional ingredients than the other recipe I usually use, so it would be easier to make in La Mais' kitchen... I'd just have to buy the chocolate and the raspberries. However, it was vastly improved by the 72% Scharffen Berger chocolate that I sprinkled on top. Good chocolate makes everything taste good.

We had tons of wine-- a Pinot Noir to pair with the pork, a Cabernet to pair with the beef, and a Sauternes to pair with the dessert. Yum all around, and just a touch woozy at the end of the meal, I must admit :)

Went to bed after the dishes; passed out pretty promptly.

SUNDAY~

Ah, moving. Ah, Housing messing up, again. THEY DON'T DESERVE A TAG FOR THIS. In fact, they don't deserve a tag at all, so I'm going to delete the tag for Housing. Thankful for my family's presence in helping me move, and for Edelen the SUV Zipcar.

Anyway, all is safe and sound in my new room... love it. So many windows... so beautiful!! :) I'll spend the week arranging things and making it into my space.

That's about it... we had yummy Italian for dinner (looove pappardelle... it has to be one of my favorite pastas). Now, I want to go to sleep. Moving is exhausting. Sorry for the lack of enthusiasm. I spent most of my energy talking about the food from yesterday that today's post about moving would be 1- really uninteresting 2- not nearly as delicious 3- further exhaustion for me to relive those 3 hours.

TOMORROW~

Bidding adieu to the parents until about Thanksgiving time. Sad! It was nice to see them so many times this summer...

Other than that:

Hiking//organizing-slash-nesting//enjoying a good old Labor Day//back on Stanford campus!

Lauren is a happy hippo.

Lauren is a happy hippo. Why? Because she is neither a harried nor a hungry hippo!

Why she is no longer a harried hippo:

TODAY, I finished the MCAT! For 30 days, I will wait for my score, but there is nothing I can do from this point forward until then. I am free! I felt like a true prisoner, having had my fingerprints scanned countless times, my picture taken, my signature taken, and my ID checked time and time again.

Anyway, it's a relief. I had yummy snacks (almond crunch Kashi bar and dark chocolate), but it still managed to drag on...

That is that; what's done is done!

Why she is no longer a hungry hippo:

I must admit, the anticipation of the MCAT diminished my appetite severely. As you may know, it certainly takes a lot to do that, under any circumstance. But afterwards, I was ravenous. My parents were kind enough to take me to a Mitsuwa market near to the test center where we picked up onigiri... yum. I got onigiri with ume, which is a sort of sour plum paste. It's wrapped in nori (dried seaweed); a very complete snack. They were also kind enough to get me an almond croissant, but instead of almond paste, there was a CREAM SURPRISE!!!!! Sort of like a cream filled donut but instead of fried outside, it's delicious flaky outside. I don't really know though, cream-filling isn't my favorite. But, the outside made up for it.

FURTHERMORE, they also got me Kara's cupcakes for consumption.... and they're sitting in front of me now. But, I'll get to that later.

Drove up from San Jose to San Francisco, to meet up with the bro-sky to have dinner. He took us to one of his favorite restaurants, called Pagolac on the corner of Ellis and Larkin. It's Vietnamese in a district called the TenderKnob (Tenderloin + Knob Hill). We started out with Imperial rolls, which are sort of like deep fried spring rolls with a meat filling (beef and pork I think?), and you can dip it in their vinegary sauce. One of their specialties is called 7 courses of beef. And that's what we had. 7. courses. of. beef. It was.... PHENOMENAL. The first course is a beef carpaccio, thinly sliced beef (slightly seared), that had peanuts, raw onion and fresh mint on top. The combination was incredible. If I remember correctly, it was in a sort of sauce that was also vinegary and light. It progressed to a make-it-yourself party. They gave us a hot bowl of water (or broth?) over a flame, plates of thinly sliced raw beef, a stack of rice wrappers, and a side of the typical veggies they give you at a Vietnamese restaurant: thai basil, mint, bean sprouts, lettuce (plus marinated carrots). Shabu-shabu style, we put the beef in the hot liquid and quickly assembled the rest of the wrap: dipped the wrapper in warm water to soften it, packed the middle with whatever veggies we wanted, fished out the cooked beef, rolled it, dipped it in vinegary sauce, add some spices, and nommed. Repeat 6 times. Then, we also do the same thing with grilled beef; the pot of hot liquid was replaced with a hot metal grill coated with buttttttttter to the max. That was awesome. So, if you add it up, that's only 3 courses. Then came the next 3. All at once. Beef on skewers, beef wrapped in pepper leaves, beef wrapping grilled onions... intensity. So good. Finally came a delicious, soothing soup: chicken broth, with little bits of meat and broken fried rice in the soup.... porridge-style. =7.

So, you think that's it? Oh. No. Tim knows the chef, apparently, so he brought us out some fried bananas with coconut ice cream. Which, as I raved about yesterday at our dinner at Red Lantern but did not eat, is a phenomenal dessert. It manages to make bananas savory but it's a wonderful pairing with ice cream. In this case, it was yum. Just take my word for it.

Pair that all with glasses of wine and tea, and you get...

Waddled back, by car, and here I am, sitting on the sofa, beached whale style, while the rest of the family is out for a walk. What healthy behavior.

Oh, and I have the 2 cupcakes sitting in front of me. Tempting... Chocolate, and lemon...?

Tomorrow, the plan is to walk/run around the neighborhood, down to the Marina... I've been waking up at about 8:30 am naturally, so we'll see if I can mobilize that early.

Then, we'll head to the Ferry Building (FAVORITE PLACE OF LIFE) to buy ingredients for dinner. Tim and I will be cooking dinner tomorrow night... I'll be sure to update how THAT goes (Wonderfully no doubt). Mom wants to do "touristy" things, like ride the trolleys and see redwoods and go to Union Square. On vera. In any case, will keep updating.

I have pictures, but will have to figure out where to host them. Once I do, will post.

Je dis à tout le monde de San Francisco, Bonne nuit et à plus tard!

P.S. COME WITH ME TO THIS:

TREASURE ISLAND FESTIVAL: OCT 17-18

PASSION PIT, MGMT, GIRLTALK, MSTRKRFT!!!!!

AND

THE FLAMING LIPS, THE DECEMBERISTS, BEIRUT!!!!!!!

Crêpes complete the world.

Crêpes complete the world. True fact. Well, if not the world, then certainly my tummy and my entire being. I have found a new favorite pastime: missing Manz dinner! Unfortunately, I've only developed it yesterday.... but it's a great one that I wish I had discovered earlier.

If you've never had a crêpe, go out and get one. NOW. Once you get back, come back to this post, and read this and agree with everything I'm about to say after you've had your life-changing experience.

>>It's a complete meal! Well, the savory ones are, anyway. The one I am eating AS I TYPE is from Coupa Cafe. I had a lovely afternoon drinking tea with none other than the lovely Jenna, but by the time we finished, I had missed Manz dinner.... ops (that's pronounced like ups. It means oops, but it's less serious, and it's usually used sarcastically). So, I decided to order a crêpe to go from Coupa: the Denver. In a buckwheat crêpe (it's like a tortilla, but not as thick.... more flexible/pliable), we have scrambled eggs, ham, 3 colors of bell peppers (major points on adding color), and (my favorite part) cheeeeeese. Yum.

>>The dessert crêpes are to die for. Serrriously. Nutella + bananas?? Nutella + strawberries?? Sugar and butter??? Imagine any simple combination, and it's yours. When you have a good crêpe, you know what it's like to be in love. Pure mind-melting deliciousness. My personal favorite is the Nutella/strawberries. It's what I grew up on at home... Mom making crêpes on a weekend morning (or, if it's an extra special day, during the week) and setting out all the different toppings. I would always lay out my crêpe on my plate, spread a line of Nutella down the middle of the crêpe about 2cm thick and lay out my sliced strawberries on top. Like any chocolate/strawberry combination, it's perfect. Sometimes, I'll throw in the occasional raspberry to add some excitement, but the traditional is.... mind-melting. I know Mom used to like bananas and maple syrup... but me... Nutella/strawberries gets me every time. The thin crêpe, sometimes crispy on the edges, has enough presence to hold the fillings in but not too much of a presence so as to be doughy and overshadow the taste of what's inside.

Anyway, that's enough of a rant on those.

So, I will move on to a rant about food to RUNNING!!

This morning, I woke up just in time for breakfast, went down, ate, and came back up to my room. I was exhausted. Before I decided to crawl back in to bed an hour after waking up to take a nap, I knew I had to do something active to motivate me... So, James was kind enough to take me on a 4.3969 mile run. Now, if you know anything about me, you know that I don't really run. My runs are usually (at the most) 15 minutes, flat land... This one involved 2 hills, and .... 4.3969 miles. James was good enough to keep prodding me every time I stopped. Good motivational coach, indeed.

Alright, off I go, back into the real world...

Fingers crossed that my roommate (who moves in tomorrow) is good and doesn't jack all my stuff.