Son of a...!

Here I am, it is 3 on Tuesday and I am stuck at 16 pages on a 15-18 page paper. At this point, it is not even about making the page limit, it is about writing a coherent paper that will help me retain my grade describe the poor performance I turned in for the final a week ago. And even more than that, this is the paper I submitted for consideration to one of my associations to present in the Spring of 2008. Augh! This is what I want to write about but I am just stuck! I don't know if it is because I don't have enough information or if I am trying too hard or if I really need to rethink my topic, which I just don't have time for. So here I am, venting in this space and trying to motivate myself to get done in one hour so I can proofread and bake cupcakes as my contribution to tonight's celebration.

oh, and here is a little hint on what my paper is about....

Yes, that is right, I join the rest of the world in writing about J.Lo's butt. My paper is titled, “Butt” What Does it all Mean? The Performance of Latinidad in Popular Culture and its Effect on Latina Identity. of course, this is the third title I have created...

get er dun, part II!

Well, this weekend is starting differently. I just finished everything I need to get done for the classes I teach. I graded all of the final lab assignments(45), the last of the speeches(24), and wrote my final exams (2 versions to help prevent cheating). All I have to do is copy the exams for my classes today at some point and grade the scantron tests and prepare the test key before Wednesday. Easy, breezy, done!

Woo hoo! On the home stretch. I have a paper due Tuesday evening that I need to get working on and I took all day Tuesday off to prepare. Next on the list, X-mas shopping!

get er dun!

i turned in my final and i presented on the paper that i still need to write which is due on tuesday. still have lots of grading for my classes i teach and getting sick again. i just got well from a cold at thanksgiving and here i have a bad headache and feeling queasy. bleh.

Primal Scream

[insert here]

I have a final due at 7. What I have written so far is not good but I have four out of five questions answered. One more to go and then research and present my final paper in class tonight. I can do this in 2.5 hours, right?

big sigh.

It's been a while

Since I did a music blog. As I am taking a break from finishing my final exam.





Soundtrack of my life

So, here's how it works:

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool

1. Opening Credits: Bodels by 311

2. Waking Up: If I Could by Seal

3.First Day At School: When I Look into your Eyes by Andre 3000

4.Falling In Love: Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters

5.Fight Song: If you Could Only See by Tonic

6.Breaking Up: Too Little Too Late by Barenaked Ladies

7.Prom: baby Hold On by Dixie Chicks

8.Life: Girl by Tori Amos

9.Mental breakdown:Blue Jean by David Bowie

10.Driving: PJ & Rooster by Outkast

11.Flashback: Sixteen by No Doubt

12.Getting back together: I Love You by Sarah McLachlan

13.Wedding: Ready to Run by Dixie Chicks

14.Birth of Child: 125 pt. 3 (Connections) by Joell Ortiz

15.Final Battle: Intuition (Todd Terry Radio Remix) by Jewel

16.Death Scene: Pulse by Ani DiFranco

17.Funeral Song: American Angel by George Michael

18.End Credits: Come Original by 311


Wow, some of those are strangely appropriate, at least with the song title I did not change anything up, I swear, I just hit party shuffle in iTunes and started typing.

Okay! Back to work!

As Requested via Email

Hey Lucky,

I was going to give you the Mac n' cheese recipe straight out of the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook since that is the one I use all the time but in typing up the recipe, I realized that I don't use that one at all. I will give you the recipe as best as I remember, the noodle size is an estimate, I usually just use one package and fill the dish, if there is any extra - I'll eat it or put it in Tupperware.



Marz' Mac n Cheese

Ingredients:
16 oz. pkg Elbow macaroni
Approx. 1/4 Lb mild cheddar - shredded(or what ever amount looks good to you)
Approx. 1/4 Lb jack cheese - shredded

White Sauce Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter (or margarine)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350.

Follow the package instructions to boil the noodle. Drain, and rinse noodles. Place half the noodles in the casserole dish and half the cheese on top of the noodles. Or, you can put half the noodles in the dish and then mix half the cheese into the noodles. Keep the other half of the noodles and cheese within reach for after making the white sauce.

For White Sauce: Using a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Once it is completely melted, add in the flour, salt and pepper. Stir the ingredients together; you should end up with a kind of paste at the bottom of the pan (your rue). Caution, be sure to keep stirring so this paste does not burn. Add the milk in, it is best to add it a third at a time, stirring the paste into the milk so you don't end up with lumps, although you can add it in all at once if you really want to. Keep stirring constantly until the sauce starts to thicken up. It will feel like you are stirring forever and then all of the sudden, the liquid will start thickening up. You want it to a consistency of cream.

Immediately pour half the sauce into the casserole dish. Add the rest of the noodles and most of the cheese, reserve a little of the cheese for a decorative topping. Pour the rest of the sauce over the top of the noodles and cheese, covering the dish as evenly as possible. Use the last of the cheese to sprinkle in the middle of the dish.

Put the casserole in the heated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and you have a nice light browning of the top.


So, that is the basic recipe. Sometimes, for a little bit of a kick, I use cayenne pepper in place of the black pepper. Just eyeball the amount, you don't need a lot. Or if I am feeling gourmet, I use white pepper so you can't see the flecks in the white sauce. I also tend to double the white sauce recipe I gave you above so that the dish is extra creamy (2 cups of milk, etc.). You can also put half the noodles in the dish, then a layer of cheese and then a second layer of noodles and cheese and then make the white sauce and pour it over the entire dish at one shot. The sauce will drip down through the dish and it is easier to construct that way. I like to be sure that the sauce is all the way through the dish using the method I describe in the recipe above since once I let the sauce get too thick while stirring and it didn't sink in and the casserole had a weird layer of sauce that baked into it. My brother liked it but I wasn't too crazy about it. But that only happened once.

Hope you enjoy!

Love,

Marz

Shoot me...

shoot me now. I realized that I am listening to speakers in my classes, both the ones I teach and the ones I am in, for the next two weeks straight. And there are very few good speakers, even in the graduate classes!

Bleh

I am suppose to be working on my final due tonight (not really, officially it is but we can turn it in later) but all I want to do is mess around on the internet, reading blogs and pulling research for my paper due in 2 weeks, research that I have no time to read all of it but is fascinating all the same. This is why I took the morning off of work, to sleep in, try to get over the cold I got for Thanksgiving and catch up on my work.

So far I have the page formatted and one sentence written. Too bad it is suppose to be a 10-15 page paper that answers 5 questions in essay form. Maybe writing this will get me motivated.

Hmm, not even I believe that. I am going to take a shower and get my butt in gear. I have 2 hours before I have to be at school.

Oh my...

I leave tomorrow for Chicago for a conference. Here is the weather forecast:

high/low
Tomorrow - 59/32
Thursday - 46/28
Friday - 44/32
Saturday - 50/35

I am packing a coat and thermals and warm socks. I hope it is enough. Wish me luck!

they wax and shine the red sky yet cannot take it with them.

This is the line of magnet poetry that faces me at my desk everyday. And I am procrastinating from writing my 2-3 page paper that is due tonight at 7...


As my father would say, 'animo!

Lordy..

It's October and I haven't posted this month yet. It's crazy. It's not that I have bitten off more than I can chew, it's that I an juggling so much, I don't have time for much else.

To my 3, make that 2 loyal readers - so sorry. I don't even have a cupcake picture to post since I have not baked since mid-August. Right now, I am trying to stay afloat, not get sick and keep my sanity. Sometimes it feels like my priorities are exactly in that order.

How about a picture from my trip to Mexico?

Ah, that's better. I was there! Climbed it too. Later!

Okay...

Lemmee 'xplain.

The office I work out of is a big room with 12 tables for the Teaching Associates and one sort of cubicle for the part timer. Any who, I am the oldest in the room by one year, by the calender. The divide is much greater than that.

If someone is in office hours, the door is open. If no one is, most of the time the door is shut. The problem comes from the really inappropriate, nasty, sexual, sexist and general immature conversations that go on no matter if the door is open or closed.

I just completed my training at the other job for harassment, both the not how to harass and how to handle harassment as a supervisor. Oh My God. It has really been bothering me. I mean, its bad, really bad.

I mentioned it to one of the other TAs when we left to get food and she asked what she could do to help. I came up with the idea that we all needed to be responsible for our office hours when the door is open.

It happened today. When someone is telling a story and is repeating what happened, which involves screaming "She's a cum-sucking whore", yeah, I had to step in. So I used my, 'the door is open, maybe we should watch our language.' It worked.

Then it happened again this afternoon. I always start with, "Is someone in office hours?" I try to point out that I am not being a stick in the mud, I am trying to make sure we are not opening the office up to harassment allegations and more importantly, we look professional. So I used the maybe we should watch what we say line... It didn't work, they quieted down for a moment and then started back up again. And I had to go to my other job so I grabbed my bag and left.

So there is the story behind my comment early, delivered when I returned to the TA office from the other job. Its frustrating. I don't have time nor the energy to deal with this kind of crap. Its so juvenile.

Sometimes...

I really hate my life. I am the policeman of my office. More later.

Okay...

I'm still planning a real post, maybe with pictures of my various trip and B-day. However, considering I am writing this while I am still at work on a Friday night at 7:23 p.m., it may be a little while.

Ah, I love grading papers.



Gratuitous cupcake picture from the Seattle trip.

starting upper left, Blueberry Creme, Cherry Creme, Chocolate with Amarula flavored buttercream, Cookies and Creme, Tiramisu

Hi

I'm still alive, just overwhelmed. Hope to write a little something soon.

Friday

Super tired, preparing for class last night and didn't sleep much. Now I don't want to do anything but haven't finished my hand out for class tomorrow.

Tomorrow night should be fun, right now I am more tired and have too many things to get done to be excited. the Jessica will be there - yeah!

later. And happy 30 to me, tomorrow at 10:00 sharp - when I begin class (hee hee).

Short and Dirty

- Spoke with Ms. S today - finally! My fault, I have had her name next to "call" on my to do list for several days now.

- First day of training for teaching. Yawn inducing and still no lesson plans for first few classes.

- Had a lovely dinner with Meesh last Thursday. She came to campus to buy her books, we had a lovely chat and dinner at Veggie Delight.

- As I mentioned to Ms. S, I have already received some lovely Birthday gifts, Plet helped me organize the party - doing all that icky call around for prices and locations, Ms. S is staying in Vegas and taking care of business - which is exactly where I want her to be right now (there are other years), my big sis hosted me in Seattle and Ms. B sent me "Vegan with a Vengance" (Book love from far away, I love it!)

- Speaking of Settle, I am still planning on posting but until I do, here are a couple teaser pics:
Tiramsu Cupcakes (Sorry T3, they have coffee and alcohol in them!)

Marble cupcakes with an almost perfect yin-yang shape on the bottom, the dot in the top is actually where a bubble and therefore a hole formed in the cupcake, I haven't done anything to this cupcake other than bake it and peel the wrapper off. And yes, that is my chubby hand holding the cupcake. Nice nails though right?

More to come.

Whew Becky!

Okay, will post all about my Seattle trip soon. In the meantime, here are some highlights:

- Ate vegetarian Vietnamese food with my big sis - new favorite! Nothing like a good Pho and spring rolls.
- Went to the Experimental Music Program - amazing.
- Had an almost vegan cupcake and Champagne party with my sis and her friends
- walked everywhere


I like Seattle, not sure if I could live there but love to visit. So green and I love that there is art everywhere. I will post more later with photos. Oh - my sister lives in the Queen Anne neighborhood so we were able to walk to the space needle. Didn't go up since the lines were horrible, I'll have to do it next time.


Okay, I am suppose to be working and since it is my boss' last day, I better get going! (tear)

Shhhh...

I'm not suppose to know yet but I just found out that when my current boss leaves the company on August 15, I am going to be reporting to my previous boss, who is really cool and we get a long like a house on fire.

It's nice to have a little more information about the upcoming semester.

Oh, I also found out that I will be teaching from 10-11 and 12-1 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. (No Julie, you may not come and sit in the back of the class to see me teach. The classrooms are tiny and I am capped at 26 students. Plus, do you really want to spend $5.00 on parking for one hour?)

This weekend

It was an adventure. I guess I failed to mention that I was working the retreat I was at this weekend, rather than attending it. It occurred to me that this means that I will be working ten days in a row. That's last Monday through this Wednesday when I fly out to Seattle to visit my big sis, leaving for the airport straight from work. At least I had from 3:00 yesterday off until I came into work this morning and I have my evenings free. Wee!

I'll try to write more later, but no guarantee.