I made cheesecake!!!!!

When I committed to making cheesecake for class today, I did so having never done it before. Scary, huh? But, it was a good thing because I have always wanted to and now I could not put it off. So, this weekend I did a practice batch. This was the first time I had used a hand mixer in probably 10 years. It was hilarious!! When I first began mixing cream cheese started flying. There were little bits on me, on the wall, on the countertop. I eventually got it under control and everything went pretty smoothly. I made 3 different kinds: classic, chocolate swirl, and chocolate (the actual recipe was for chocolate swirl). When it was all said and done they were quite tasty. My neighbors had some and really liked them and even Brian, who is really picky and mean about my cooking, loved the classic. That's a good sign. This morning I got up and made the batch for class, classic only because it was easier at this point. I managed to keep all of the ingredients in the bowl. Hopefully everyone likes them! And now that I know how to do it, I won't have to sit out desert on the holidays. I can make my own gluten free cheesecake!!!

Things on MY desk....

Since this is the next to last post before the end of the class, I though I would go ahead and delve in to the very popular "what's on my desk" segment. Here goes... (by the way this is my desk at home which will soon become apparent)


* Computer (desktop)
* Computer (laptop)
* Printer
* An external hard-drive that apparently no longer works (I really need to get it looked at)
* Two binders - one for class and one full of journal articles for my paper
* Some weird handle to a suitcase, not sure where it magically appeared from
* A few bills
* A small bathroom mirror
* License plate renewal reminder
* A small purple water gun (my son's bath toy)
* A can of tuna (my son has wanted to carry it around the house and this is where it ended up)
* "Miss Kitty" (She is a little stuffed cat that came from the lounge singer at our hotel in Vegas. She also     gave me my engagement ring and will, at least in a discreet way, be at our wedding)
* A stuffed shark dog toy (for me, not the dog)
* iMac remote control
* A stack of pictures I have been meaning to put somewhere
* A Christmas ornament that did not make it back into the box last year
* A "Magic Plant" stocking stuffer for the big kid


These are all on the actual desk or second shelf. I also have two enclosed hutch cabinets. We will skip those. It's all the normal desk stuff. Let's move on to the top of the hutch...


* A conch shell
* Large dried starfish (came from vacation in Florida when I was 5ish)
* Camera
* Brian's dry cleaning that he will never take
* Clipboard
* Bag of crap from Brian's truck that has been sitting there for at least 6 months
* Two kids hardback comic books meant for the consignment sale


This actually makes my desk sound like a huge mess, but it is not. I am a neat freak. Or at least I use to be. I have been teased so much in the past about my overboard organization (I use to color code my folders and make sure that any dividers and tabs matched, weird shit). Unfortunately, Brian does not share or appreciate my hatred of clutter and now, no matter how hard I try, I cannot escape it. Plus, having a two year old dragging everything everywhere and not picking anything up does not help. I do my best and my desk is the one thing that I can, for the most part, keep as "mine". Obviously, as can be seen in the list, Brian and Derek have managed to park some things in "my" space, but once my "end of the semester is here I have time to clean EVERYTHING" time comes, it will be gone (at least temporarily). 

I never met a mushroom I didn't like

As I was looking around online for Christmas gift ideas, I came across this site: uncommongoods.com.


They have a variety of unusual gifts, home items, clothing, and other random stuff. One of the cool things I came across was a mushroom growing kit. They claim that in just 10 days you can harvest your first batch of up to 1.5 pounds of oyster mushrooms and the kit can yield up to 4 harvests. All you have to do is mist it with water. I am intrigued. I've never met a mushroom I didn't like. Seriously, I could eat them in one form or another (sauteed, fried, baked, raw) at every meal. But, I think that I want someone else to play the guinea pig for this first, so I will probably send one to a friend for Christmas and see how it goes. The user reviews are all really good, so I am thinking it probably works. With shipping, if you actually get 4 harvests, it is about the same price you would pay for them in the grocery store. Anyway, if you are looking for something different, and maybe a little odd, to give someone, definitely check this site out.

Bambi's mom isn't dead...yet

Before anyone starts thinking I am a horrible person, let me explain my stance on hunting. I do not support "trophy hunting." Killing an animal just so you can mount it's head on the wall is not ok. Hunting exotic and endangered animals for their fur is not ok. But, hunting deer or other game animals with the intention of using the animal for food is totally acceptable. It is much more humane than most of the cattle and chicken farming that supplies grocery stores and that we walk in a buy with no thought as to how inhumanely the animals are treated. Deer meat is natural, no hormones or antibiotics, it is also healthy because it is so lean. That being said, we hunt (or at least my fiance does). His family has land in Mason, Texas which is one of the most highly populated deer counties in Texas. They have deer feeders set up in the fields and even have game cameras that take still photos all day of the deer at the feeders. They are very conscious of the population in the area, how many does and bucks there are, how many new fawn there are, etc. They are already concerned about the implications that this year's drought will have and decided to limit the number of deer that the family could shoot. It's quite refreshing to see that kind of concern considering that most people could really care less. All of the guys hunt, but they rarely actually shot anything. And most of them do not eat deer so they are unfortunately just hunting for horns. But, we take the meat for ourselves so it all works out. Our goal last week was to bring home three deer to stock the freezer, but it didn't happen. Brian missed once and then hit one on the last day, but wounded it and it got away. Wounding a deer is very upsetting to everyone, they do not want to see any animal suffer, so the whole group went out to try to track the deer down, no luck. If we can somehow find time to make it back down there before the hunting season ends (Dec. 30th) we will. But it looks like our freezer might stay empty until next fall. On another note, our "vacation" sucked. I was really sick for 2 days, our nice dinner out with no kids resulted in the owner of the restaurant (a woman) practically assaulting Brian (don't ask!) and I had no internet, even on my iPhone, for a week!!!! We did bring home BBQ from the best place in the world though and now I am going to go eat some! 

Vacation (sort of!)

So, after a long week and another possibly failed experiment, Brian and I are heading to Mason tomorrow. The little man is staying with Grandma and Paw Paw and we are spending a week in the middle of nowhere. The drive is about 6 hours, but that is with a stop in Llano for the best barbeque in the world!!! We always stop at Cooper's for brisket and sausage and end up eating it everyday. We will also head to Fredericksburg at some point to stop at Opa's for dried sausage (yes, we eat a lot of sausage of all kinds). But the real "meat" of this trip will be deer hunting. The plan is for Brian to shot 3 deer on this trip, which we will quarter and bring home to fill the freezer with. This will, unfortunetly, take up a lot of my no-child relaxing time because I will have to help Brian cut up and package all of the meat. But, I guess that is a small price to pay for a year's worth of really good, natural meat. Hopefully I will find some time to lay around and read magazines, maybe take some naps, and enjoy sleeping in. An all day rain event would be ideal, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Also, I will have to drive to town on Thursday so I will have internet to do a little Christmas shopping. Then I have to cook a bunch of stuff for Thanksgiving dinner. Hey, I am starting to think that my to-do list for this trip is getting too big.....

The little boy is 2!!!

So, this weekend we had our son's birthday party at his Grandma and Paw Paw's down at Lake Texoma. His birthday is actually tomorrow (he'll be 2). The party ended up being thrown together last minute, not by my choice, and I didn't get to do everything I would have liked. Brian and I hadn't even bought him a present yet!! But, all of his little cousins came and had a great time. Derek blew out his candle all by himself, tore up a chocolate cupcake, and got some cute toys. It was a very long weekend though and a long drive home Sunday night. I managed to get sick again Monday morning (this is the third stomach bug in 5 weeks...has to be the long term antibiotics). Now, after only being home for basically 1 day, we get to turn around tomorrow and head back to the lake so I can run an experiment, then drive to Mason, Texas for a few days, and then back for Thanksgiving. I am worn out!

Phys Sci computer lab

I have always used the Arts and Sciences computer lab in the library. I don't know why, I just have. Every time I go in there I end up sitting for 5 minutes waiting for those crappy computers to load. It's really frustrating when I am in a big hurry. Sometimes they never load and I have to move to the next computer and try again. Well, last week I discovered the computer lab in the Physical Sciences building (we moved our lab there last week). Today, I walked in, logged on in about 2 seconds, and these are nice computers. I am really annoyed that it took me until now to find this little slice of Heaven. I am pretty stoked about it. I hope that the huge asteroid doesn't wipe it out later today. That would suck to have to go back to the slow computers. Although, I guess I wouldn't be around to use them anyway.....