March 29th

I have set my dissertation defense date. it is March 29th. The only writing I will do between now and March 14th will be on my dissertation or on grading. I hope everyone who is reading this will have a good next few weeks.

new things to do on a snowy weekend

There is a lot of snow outside, 26 inches. This is what our backyard looked like this morning (and it continued to snow for another several hours).

Right now the snow reaches up to the bottom of the table and the chairs just look like big mounds.

Some friends in the neighborhood went out for a walk and stopped by for lunch. It was quite unexpected but luckily J had decided to start a major cooking endeavor (salad + beef stroganoff) so we were oddly ready for guests. Ready food-wise but certainly not cleanliness wise. Good thing the good food distracted them from the not-so-clean bathroom.

While J was engaged with his cooking adventure, I got it into my head to do some craft work. It was a "green" (or really pink) craft project that was easily finished in one day. I used old plastic mesh bags (the ones that hold onions and citrus fruit) and a size H crocheting needle to crochet a dish scrubber. I got the pattern off of a website called crochetpatterncentral.com but I can't seem to get the link up right now.

The pattern I used originally called for 1" strips of old plastic bags but I wanted something with really scratchy scrubbing power. I read in a post somewhere that someone made scrubbies by balling up the plastic mesh bags that hold onions. Well, I put one-and-one together and voila!

Will this little pink scrubbie put the pads by Scotch-Brite to shame? Well, the test will be with tomorrow's dishes. I have to admit, even if they don't, I'm still quite excited about this. It was a great way to use up those baggies that were lying around.

I'm not so good with following instructions or patterns so it isn't exactly a round. It is more of a spiraling coral-shape. In fact, it makes a nice hair ornament.

Custard love

I love English custard sauce. It is one of the things I look forward to when I visit England. Even really bad custard sauce is still delicious in my book.

(picture from: http://www.recipetips.com/images/recipe/sauces_and_bases/creme_anglaise2.jpg)
It is delicious, lightly sweet + vanilla-y, runny sauce that the English put on lots of things (like English trifle)

(picture from: http://www.baking911.com/images/trifle.jpg)

I looked up a recipe online (it's a joy of baking recipe) and learned that if you add different thickening agents, you have standard pastry custard or bavarian creme. I mentioned this to J. He said, "And they went to war with each other? You'd think all custard eating countries would get along."

A world united by custard. I can live with that kind of peace and love.