Neighbors

Three times this week I saw our neighbor (the one we share a driveway with) weeding her lawn by the driveway. She has a really big lawn too. I can't believe she was actually out there pulling away at weeds, especially at a part no one sees besides us and them. Too much free time? Or an intense hatred for weeds? I will never know.

Yogurt Making

I bought a yogurt maker online. You have to do all the heating of the milk and adding of bacteria, but the machine cooks the yogurt at a constant 111-115 degrees for bacteria growth. Javers, Willa (our temporary roommate) and I tried it out last week and it was mildly successful. The directions suggested cooking for 10 hours the first time. The longer you cook it the firmer and tarter it gets. I think 10 hours was too tart so we will shorten that the next time. Also, Javers heated up the milk too quickly and the instruction book said that can make poorer quality yogurt. He wouldn't eat it, but I added some sugar and fruit and I thought it tasted fine. Plus, it's something we made so that makes it exciting to eat. Handcrafting yogurt makes me feel somewhere inbetween a microbiologist and a French peasant.

Major Purchase

I'm freaking out a little right now. I just bought a laptop. It's a Lenovo T61 Thinkpad. I read some reviews online and the Lenovo laptops got high marks and were very comparable in price to Dell and Sony. I think I chose wisely, but damn, it's never easy to drop $1500.

The hot water is back. My classes started yesterday. I just ate a chocolate covered strawberry.

I miss hot water

Lynn didn't wake up and her brain showed no meaningful activity. She is gone. As usual, this stuff makes me very introspective and entertain thoughts of the fragility of life and so on. It really is wonderful that we have trained ourselves not to think like this all the time because it makes it hard to get on with other things.

So now to "other things." I started my new job on Monday. If you want to know more about it, check out this Supplemental Instruction link. My job title is SI Coordinator and I think there will be some new photos up online in the next week or two. Yesterday was training for me and today I had to help train eight new employees. It was a little intimidating considering I am new to the position and still learning the ropes myself. One of the coordinators, Sandi, had the same job last year so she knew what was going on and helped immensely. It all went pretty smoothly.

Our propane at home went out on Friday. Our tank leaks so we are waiting to get a new one, which is scheduled to come tomorrow morning. Finally, hot water again! I have been taking showers at the fitness center at WSU and it's a total pain in the ass.

I learned earlier today that Lynn, my best friend from elementary school is in critical condition in a hospital in Kentucky. A lawn mower rolled over on top of her. From what I understand, parts of her body were crushed, including her trachea. That means her brain could have been without oxygen for some time. This is all really sad and has definitely been on my mind throughout the day. I am also really thankful my lawn doesn't have any scary steep angles to mow.

Darwin's Choice

The last week or so I have been studying for comprehensive exams I will take in September. This involves skimming through a very large list of books. Today I am reading ecological anthropology tomes and I found an interesting tidbit in Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior (ed. Smith and Winterhalder). Apparently when Charles Darwin (you know, the natural selection guy) was 29 in 1838 he was contemplating marriage. He wrote down a few thoughts on a scrap of paper:

Marry
Children - constant companion, who will feel interested in one (a friend in old age) - object to be beloved and played with - better than a dog anyhow - someone to take care of house - unthinkable to think of spending one's whole life, like a neuter bee, working - nice soft wife on a sofa with a good fire.

Not Marry
Conversation of clever men at clubs - Not forced to visit relatives - the expense and anxiety of children - perhaps quarrelling - terrible loss of time - cannot read in the Evenings - fatness and idleness - less money for books - if many children forced to gain one's bread.

Isn't that hilarious? Darwin did marry and hopefully she was nice and soft and they had a good fire.