Finals week

I haven't fallen off the face of the planet... I just feel guilty going out and actually doing something exciting when finals are so close. My first one is in biochem on Sunday, followed by genetics Monday and physics Thursday. So ah... if I'm updating anything before then, it's because I'm not studying when I should be!

Fun-filled festivities

This weekend was a great success... Friday's game night was awesome and we all got the chance to make complete fools of ourselves.

The girls.... and the guys. Clearly we are the refined half of the group. We played apples to apples, Taboo, Catch Phrase, and charades. About 15 deskers showed up, which meant a lot of yelling and at least one annoyed neighbor. Charades was possibly the best part... we had everything from Rosie O'Donnell to the Michelin man to MegaMan. Here is Valentin, in the middle of his rendition of Wall-E....

As a snack, I brought along some hot artichoke and spinach dip. It was really good, and went over really well! It was demolished pretty quickly, so I think I'll make another batch for the next time around.

In other news, my new department at the hospital is AMAZING. All of the staff is really friendly and helpful, and go out of their way to look for things for me to watch. They're used to having Care Extenders around, so there was always something for me to do. A nice change from the last 6 months of volunteering!

Boring as ever

Highlight of my week: 2 midterms today. That's basically consumed my life this week, to the point where I'm not sure what to do with myself now...

Anyway, tomorrow I start volunteering in a new department at the hospital, the cardio-thoracic ICU. I've heard a lot of good things about this department, a friend of mine even said she got to see an open chest. We'll see how it goes.

The agenda for this weekend (other than thinking good thoughts for Marceau!): soccer game and co-worker game night Friday, cooking experiments and shopping trip Saturday, and endless possibilities for Sunday. Which probably means sleeping all day.


The soccer game is the first round of the NCAA tournament, since we've already won the Pac-10 Championship. Jeraldy and I have been going to a few of the games, when we have free time on the weekends. This one was right after work... or I really just love my uniform that much. You decide.


I also found out today my more or less finalized schedule for winter break; I'll only have to work at the very beginning and the very end, which was even better than I expected. At this rate, I'll only have to work two shifts over spring break.

This weekend I'm going to try out an alfredo sauce recipe I found online... it's much lower fat, so I'm interested to see how it'll come out without the 10 sticks of butter... hopefully my guinea pigs approve!

Crazy Week

Thank goodness for the holiday on Tuesday!!! Since they couldn't hold some of the discussion sections for my larger classes but not others, I had classes cancelled on Monday and Wednesday too.




Monday was our bonfire for RSS, down at Dockweiller beach in Marina del Rey. I was driving, so naturally I got lost and ended up at LAX and made it into a fiasco. I eventually got all of my passengers to and from school safely, but not for lack of trying. We did the traditional hot dog roast and s'mores, and a few ridiculous games. We played Golden Cow, which is more of a prank than a game; you tell one person they're the golden cow, and someone is trying to guess who the golden cow is. You say their job is to moo louder than everyone else, and if the person guesses wrong 3 times, he and the golden cow are "out". Everyone else plays along for the first two times and moos as loud as possible, and the third, the "golden cow" moos at the top of his lungs while everyone else is silent... then immediately falls to the ground in embarrassment. We're a mature bunch.





The rest of the week has been spent working or studying for my genetics midterm today. It went..... well, let's not go there. We were studying the inheritance of colored hominy, which is more than I ever care to know about it.

On a positive note, I've basically found the coolest gift idea EVER for little boys. I need to look into it a bit more.... But right now I'm pretty sure I'll be the favorite aunt.

This weekend will probably be pretty boring... My friend is hopefully picking up some goodies for me from an Asian market nearby, since they still carry.....drumroll please..... CHICKEN SESAME RAMEN!!!! That's right. I almost cried with joy when I saw that sesame oil packet.

Other high point of my day: coworker bringing in some caramel apple suckers. Mmm... tastes like All the Best Video!! It's just a food blast from the past!

Culture clash

The executive board of the Regent's Scholars Society went out last night for a "bonding dinner" at BCD Tofu House in Koreatown. This sounded like an awesome idea, until I walked in and realized I was the ONLY white person in the place. The rest of e-board offered to make me an Asian shield and order for me. I was excited since last time, Korean bbq was AMAZING, but I got a little scared when I saw jars for sale labeled "hidden flavor kimchi". Now, I don't know exactly what was hidden, but I was in NO hurry to find out.


These were our appetizers. I have no idea what anything is. I DO know that those fried fish were looking at me. And they did not look amused. I was advised to order a combo meal, which meant that I would get tofu soup and beef shortribs. Somehow during all of this, I inadvertently ordered the seafood tofu soup....

More stuff staring at me. I was stirring my soup, and things started clinking.... there were clam shells hidden in my soup. I have a strict policy not to eat anything that is looking at me, so the shrimp and I had a staring contest which I eventually lost. The trick is to put a raw egg in the soup while it's still hot, so it cooks in the middle. I now had scrambled eggs amidst unhappy shrimp and shells. I was done.

Next time e-board wants to bond, I'm refusing to go anywhere farther than In N Out.

A new twist

Apparently, my blog has turned into little more than competing with Jessie for whose kitchen gets more action.

This time, I shamelessly display a COMPLETE rip-off... The exact same pasta Jessie already blogged about!!!!


That's right. I made the basil avocado pasta, just making a few changes. I added sundried tomatoes instead of bacon, and cheated by using pesto sauce instead of separate basil, garlic, and olive oil. Clearly that means I need to catch up... maybe soon I'll be planting my own basil too?

This is also yet another example of my stellar planning skills... This is a picture of my leftovers. After feeding six people. I decided I'd "cater" our weekly Grey's Anatomy viewing, since it's always a great source of willing Guinea pigs. The funniest part? When I was cooking, I left the front door open and a couple neighbors came by, commenting that they could smell good food from outside. Had I known how much I was gonna have, I would have sent them off with some!

On Sunday, I'm planning to attempt some enchiladas with my coworkers, although I'm a little intimidated after they informed me we could MAKE enchilada sauce... not from a can! Where's my La Comida?!

Mad Scientists

For some reason, I had the CRAZIEST craving at work for stuffed mushrooms. I'm not really sure why, since I'm not entirely sure I've ever had one before... But anyway, One of my friends still lives on campus and always swipes me for free food in the dining hall, so I figured an apartment-cooked meal would be my form of repayment.


Jehan, during our delicious adventure... Just because I was providing dinner doesn't mean I didn't put her to work! Now, the only problem with my brilliant scheme was that I couldn't really find a recipe I liked, so I decided to just make it up. Here is our finished product:



For the stuffing, we used the stems of the mushrooms, spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic, rice, and mozzarella cheese. They turned out REALLY good!! For dessert, we bought some cupcake mix, funfetti of course! Combined with the rainbow chip frosting, I was in a diabetic coma just looking at them.

Not that that stopped me.
At all.



I took a few to my coworkers and sent Jehan home with some, in the hopes I wouldn't consume 10 cupcakes within the hour. There are still a lot left, so I'm trying to keep them out of sight and out of mind....