HOTPOT

PIE

I decided to take after my father and take up the art, the craft, the joy! of making pies

so I got the best pie book ever, hot off the press



My 5 friends that came to my first pie&coffee event!



ohmygah, pie!  it came out great.



for my first pie I made the appleberry w/ the olive oil double crust..



Served a la mode w/ SO Delicious brand vanilla ice cream 



served with deelishous Chemex coffee

I guess i did a pretty swell job as hostess b/c my friends stayed for like 7 hrs! We played games and did a 500 pc. jigsaw puzzle. What was it like the first time hosting a get together at your own place? If you were like me, you had to prepare a fair bit..get dessert plates and teacups, a houseplant, extra chairs..

Freebird!

Bored of the same old-same old, last friday I shook things up. I dropped my school stuff off at home, along with my inhibitions, and caught a bus back to the campus side of town. Fellow yogis are probs familiar with the mental construct of leaving all your thoughts in something like a basket, outside the door, where you can pick it up after class if you like. Riding along without all my school stuff, and all my school thoughts, I felt liberated, just as I knew thought I would.

I wanted to eat at Freebirds for dinner.

I ordered a Monster-sized veg burrito.

(Its literally called the Monster size, the 3rd biggest, between Freebird and SuperMonster)

And it was awesome.

Next I went to the really lovely starbucks just a couple blocks down. This downtown College Station district called Northgate is pretty cool, kinda historic looking, and quasi-Western, as some buildings are old Saloons.

The barista was super cute! I had kinda approached the counter so his coworker cut off mid-conversation, and I was like, Oh no, I dont know what I want yet. But he was like, Oh no, thats my job, I can suggest the best things..like the Chidazzle. I was is that new? haha Turns out he made it up and I totallly loved it, it was A hot Chai with raspberry and a touch of vanilla. Totally rocked! Mostly because it was not on the menu and because Bo (the baristas name) was just genuinely really nice. We exchanged numbers when he kicked me and my iPad (i watched a movie on netflix) out at 11pm.

And I'm doing the same free-as-a-birding tonight! Except I am starting off at starbucks tonight, with a hot mug of coffee. The chill of autumn is finally extending to Texas. I feel cozy though, wearing my blue and oatmeal cardigans and my favorite tawny umber-coloured scarf from Avoca, which aunt terry and uncle nat brought me. Ya, I came directly from yoga class tonight, but having my school stuff with me is just fine, better than fine actually; I kinda want to read some of the journal articles that I have with me. Its all about the state of mind. I feel like I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing in this moment.

Tonight in yoga, when I heard, "take a few minutes to center yourself," instead of centering on the moment (by sliding my basket of thoughts outside) I observed that my mind began opening my basket instead, trying to sit each thought right-side up, if you will. But I caught myself, I just slid out of my ego for class, which is sooo refreshing.

Know what else directs my attention outta my cranium? FRIENDS. (yes, the tv show, too, 10pm central time nickelodeon :p) I have been making new acquaintances like crazy lately, which I'm really happy about, but I'm hoping to catch up with my the friends I think about all the time in NC this weekend..I've already left about 10 voicemails for friends whose voices I cant wait to hear.

A difficult yoga practice followed by lemon love

Om

       Ohmygah, so fitting that after I mentioned to not worry about feeling squished on the 7 billion person planet (space is not going to be so much of an issue; resources on the other hand...) Yoga Beatz, the yoga flows to music w/ words, class that I like at the Rec tonight was too popular!  Whenever a yoga practice is crowded, I remind myself that it will just feel extra-Indian today.  But it was more difficult tonight for me to not be bothered by swan diving arm collisions, for whatever reason.  I admittedly was not feeling enough compassion for the boy who came in late and rolled out a mat next to me.  I can see should have felt chosen, as a kind looking person, rather than singled out among to be squished out of the 50 other kids in the room.  The one bright spot is that I didn't outwardly express any space discomfort with body language, and kept it to myself (along with my limbs, after one too many swan dives).

When I practice yoga in my apt., I often utilize this super cool cartoon flipbook.  Thanks Aunt Terry!

         After a catching the new Modern Family (guest character named Katy on tonight's episode!) on an elliptical, I hit the shower and biked home.  I always have a snack before leaving, and this week I've been enjoying Lemon LovU bars. What?  You don't know those?  They're like these...

Mmmm Luna bars in my fav flava

              Except homemade!  I made the bar with brown rice krispie cereal, hemp protein powder, lemon juice, fresh ginger, brown rice syrup, and guar gum and frosted them with a lemon juice-coconut butter icing.

Whole pan of awesomeness, cut into bars and wrapped in foil.

Like Luna Bars, LovU Bars have the idiosyncrasy of being eaten icing side-down.

I do love a beet.  And Mom, of course. 

Scooch over..we've reached 7 billion!

       My blog title officially (theoretically) became justified on Monday, when the world's population crossed the 7 billion threshold!  "0.142857.." is the decimal version of the 1/7 fraction and "ppb" is just parts-per notation, like  Hey the amount of chlorophyll-A in this sample is 16.1 ppm would be 16.1 parts chlorophyll for 1 million parts water.  And so I am (and you are) just 1 person in 7+ billion on the Earth today.  Feeling claustrophobic?  Don't.  Did you know 7 billion people standing shoulder-to-shoulder would only occupy the area of the city of Los Angeles?  True story.  Other true stories:  Cool special edition 7 billion series from NPR.

       What else happened Monday?  Well, it was Halloween.  Americans carved pumpkins.

I'm actually gonna eat this pumpkin so the  skull is just an "effect."

     People watched scary movies.  I found a real gem, "Vampiros en la Habana."

A fav scene: The vampire group celebrates with a round of O+ (my blood type).

       And chocolate was eaten

Best brownies eva!

    Katy's new fav brownies

-1/2 C. dates

-1/2 C. raw walnuts

-scant 1/4 C. cocoa powder

-1.5 T coconut oil

Blend the ingredients together in a food processor until the mix resembles potting soil.  Then press into a small baking dish and freeze for 1 hour.  Cut into squares, eat and let euphoria wash over you. Recipe makes about 3 brownies.

squash and costumes..yes its definitley halloween

Yesterday I was so stoked to see a small collection of kabocha squash at brazos natural foods. It's red-orange flesh is rendered sweet and amaaaazing upon simple oven-roasting. 

score!  kabocha

 I think the alluring thing about the bigger squash is that it takes some Umph (and a good heavy knife) to prepare them for baking, which is in turn, really easy.  Having squash around really makes me happy--they totally lend a nice presence--they make me think of being at the State Fair with my family, where I'd see like 800 lb pumpkins alongside really pretty Best in Show squash and also of the Berenstein Bears story in which Papa Bear reads books to the pumpkin he's growing out in the punkin patch.

I placed it on my bar to sit by its squash cousin..a cute lil pie pumpkin that I also have plans to bake this week.

Plusss, these squashes make me think of carving pumpkins with my Dad in our garage.I would draw out a design and he would operate the knife.  I remember feeling impatience on at least one occasion as I got older because I didn't get to actually carve it myself, but I am so glad I never had to skip trick-or-treating because I was in the ER.  And I was always proud of the pumpkins we created.  My favorite one was one we did of a pirate.

The weather is finally cool enough to run comfortably outdoors!  Well it's actually been cool the past few weeks, but it went from mega-hot to considerably cooler in such a short time that I needed a bit of time to get used to it!  That said, yesterday afternoon I wanted nothing more than to go explore on foot! 

I'd just finished watching Harold and Maude and was ready to seize the day.

I went out for a run around my neighborhood and ended up over to the track at the nearby high school, where I ran with my friend Carlos last Sunday.  It's a really nice, springy red track in a big stadium, because track is so big here..jk, I'm pretty sure it actually has something to do with that finely manicured green stuff with white stripes on the inside of the track.  So it's really a treasure to have such a nice track (open to the public!) so close by.  I can hear the sound of silence as I run through the neighborhood here..not like a creepy silence, just a really calm one.  All the streets have "Oak" in the name and many of the houses have big maroon Aggie flags stuck on mini-flagpoles in their lawns, so I got a bit lost on the corner of Oak Briar and Lazy Oaks, but asked a woman walking her dog what street I was headed for and got turned in the right direction.  I loved seeing red, orange, and yellow mums out on people's front porches--my mom, Brother  and I always picked out mums and gourds for our Halloween display when we would go get our pumpkins in the rural areas near our house.  

And for Halloween, I went out last night with my friends and I dressed up as...

Uh, what is she?

I dunno, her camera was out of focus

Hmmm..

Oh, a mime!

All I had to do was add some face makeup, which I took all of $1 and like 8 minutes, to the idea I had for a burglar costume.  I wore black from head to foot, and gloves.  Oh, and I added some red lipstick, too.  I must say I wasn't a very good mime, as I talked a lot.  But I did do some miming throughout the night.  My friend Fenix, who is from Colombia said, "You're a mimo?"  And I was like YES (assuming that mimo=mime in Spanish, which it does).  Fenix said that there are lots of mimes in Bogota, and they are even hired by the mayor to encourage citizens not to behave better:  to not jaywalk, litter, or drive poorly.  I found a news story about it:

            "Initially 20 professional mimes shadowed pedestrians who didn't follow crossing rules: A pedestrian running across the road would be tracked by a mime who mocked his every move. Mimes also poked fun at reckless drivers. The program was so popular that another 400 people were trained as mimes."

Oh, did I mention Northgate (the College Station bar/downtown scene) was cuhhhraaazy!  Now I get the feeling for what Franklin St. at UNC is like on Halloween, minus the fires.  Thousands of people in costume, filling streets and bars really is a sight to behold.  I really enjoyed bar-hopping with my friends The Gingerbread Man + Puss in Boots (Eric and Yuhong), a skunk + a mad scientist (Carrie and George), girl Robin Hood + a vampire (Xin-Xue and Carlos), and two free-spirited oragami people (Jan and Fenix).  I got to enjoy a glass of Dogfish Head Punkin, which I had all but given up on having this season, as it came and went so fast from the specialty wine/beer store.

Jan and Fenix challenged the idea that you had to be something that people could identify and say, "You're a ______?"  which is kinda a standard greeting on Halloween. Jan and Fenix wore black body suits (Jan's even covered his face) and they had dozens of colorful oragami animals and flowers safety-pinned to their front side.  Fenix had some really ornate flowers in her hair and had painted her face too.  They had spent all afternoon doing oragami together, which I just thought was more adorable than anything. 

Well isn't it my lucky day

I can't believe how well this day is going.  I am just shocked.

Yes, I have definitely eaten a couple squares of chocolate already, but that was not by stroke of good fortune

For the first time, EVER, I sat down to my analytical chemistry quiz and knew how to answer every single problem!  Granted, it was my third one, so I am being a bit dramatic with the ever and there were 7 problems, not like 20, but I'm not mentioning this happy event just to make concessions!  I am so so jazzed!   This subject is tough for me, so to appear like I know it by acing a quiz is just great.  For all the professor knows, I do know it!  Ohmygosh, maybe I actually do?!  Could I actually be starting to understand this stuff?    This quiz was on Raman Spectroscopy and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR).   NMR can be utilized by really cool chemical oceanographers, but also by doctors--the property of NMR is the basis for the standard procedure nowadays for getting a good look at the brain, heart, muscle and cancer, without any ionizing radiation--an MRI scan.

So that quiz went down this a.m. at 10:20.  I had gotten to school at about 7:45 to study in my office, but had to evacuate the building shortly before 9, because of a fire alarm, so I did my last hour of study in the library.  I alternated between feeling calm and feeling unprepared, but tried to be brave and think positive and obviously, the positivity won out :D

Then!!  I got a call from the pest guy who had come to check out the situation in my Apt.  He couldn't get any fleas to jump on him even though he said he was crawling around on all-fours.  I haven't mentioned that I have thought that I had a flea problem and have been vacuuming and chloroxing like a madwoman for the past 5 days.  But guess what!!? NO need to apply harsh chemicals to the Apt.--I was so bothered by that, obviously! as I love my lil space and am sorta bent on protecting my health!-- because the apt. doesn't have fleas!!!  I did think it was strange that the lil things weren't leaving any bite marks on me..turns out what I was infested by was a fruit/fungus fly population that has dwindled due to my intense cleaning regimen but will really be gone after maintenance takes care of the refridgerator's water trap that had become full.  Shout out to Brian, the pest guy, for his investigative work!!  He said he would only apply a non-toxic aerosol spray made of pine, as he had seen my toxic-scared notes, bless him.  And he told me to just leave some chlorox in my sink/shower drains once a week (not too often or you will kill off the good bacteria that's there) for a couple weeks.

Gooooood day.

Two other random fortuitous things--
I was emailed today about being "selected" (ooooooh) to participate in a focus group study for the office of graduate studies on Monday.  I guess to make sure we show up for the hour-long discussion or whatever, they have proferred, "a Starbucks Coffee gift card, a t-shirt, and a number of other miscellaneous gift items."  I don't know what's more exciting: the starbucks (which I just enjoyed for the first time in College Station yesterday, or the mystique of the miscellany.  

And 2nd, I saw a poster for a Bollywood Movie Night in the Student Rec Center tonight!  I am stoked to hang out with other Indian culture lovers.  Some Bollywood is incredibly cheesy, but some is just excellent, like my fav, Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na, which I saw at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary years ago.  Whether it actually has a good plotline and has people who can actually act isn't important, I love it all!  

I'm going to my fav Power Yoga class now, then will go to the library to get a new free read since I finished Murakami's After Dark (liked it a lot!).

Happy Friday!!!

baked goods

I did some baking this weekend--creating 2 goods that appeal to my current appetites for chocolate and the oh so seasonal pumpkin.

pumpkin bread

Moist, date-sweetened, and full of  pumpkin-pie spicey glory

chocolate chocolate chunk bread

I would love to be a citizen of a chocolate Death Valley

cute pumpkin sandwiches!

I took these to starbucks this morning next to the University for a special start to the a.m. today. I'd never been there and the vibe was very nice! Lotsa seating and young and old folk.  I paired the punkin sammiches with a soy capp w/ an xtra shot!  in a for-here mug. I read and enjoyed The Onion, my fav fake news site, and laughed audibly.

sandwich components: almond butter!  love justin's honeyed up take on AB

and chocolate! i looove xoxoxo chocolate.  and it loves me back with the heart inscribed on each square  <3

Visit to TAMU-G and a Katy fashion shoot

On Thursday, my Isotope Geohemistry class convened at the TAMU-Galveston campus for a tour of their radioisotope labs and to have a class all together.  There are 4 guys in the Galveston class and 4 girls, including me, in the College Station section and we communicate during lecture time using a live web conference system.  John, my advisor, is going to be teaching the 2nd half of the course, Stable Isotopes and Dr. Santshci just finished the Radioisotope portion.  John, Fenix, Lei, Carrie, and I drove over to Galveston after Houston morning rush-hour.

Checking out the waterfront and vessels at TAMU-Galveston

The beautiful TAMU-Galveston campus, and oceanography building right on the water

They had several excellent mosaics in the sunlit Oceanography atrium!  Which was only slightly more attractive than the dusty old display cases we have.

 All in all, a lovely trip.  We had lunch (Greek) and dinner (Mexican) on the eponymous road called "Seawall" which runs right along the beach.  I knew Galveston is not a shining example of coastal management from my environmental science and oceanography classes at UNCW, and there were many hardened structures along this coastline: little jettys and of course, the seawall, which runs for like 3 miles I think.

Annnnd movie right along to today, where I a) lounged around, b) ran errands like getting the li'l Fit's oil changed & shopping for marvellous groceries at Brazos Natural Foods, and c) popped over to Target.  I ventured there primarily for bakeware and sandals, but ended up getting a bunch of T's and sweaters cuz I was in an unusual get-some-new-clothing mood. 

 I got an Insulated cookie sheet, 2 sizes of mini ramekins, and a loaf pan.

The world of baking possibilities just increased many-fold for me!  I can now make such creations as mini cheesecakes, baked oatmeals, loaves of banana and pumpkin bread, cookies, and scones..so totally stoked! How have I survived without these things?  Baking cookies on the cast-iron skillet was allright, but I think this new sheet will be much more suitable.

Aunt Lucy is my baking benefactor as well as inspiration!  She has made award-winning scones at a competition at her local farmers' market and also bakes for such causes as the Susan Komen foundation.  Thanks for the bakeware support Auntie!!  We have been tossing around ideas via email for a pistachio-rosewater scone that my mouth waters just thinking about.





 Because I know you are so stoked to see me modeling my incredibly hip designer Target clothing, I give you, a rare Katy PHOTO SHOOT.  What makes a katy fashion show unique to high-fashion runways in NYC?  Well, for starters, I am modeling only Tops and wearing the same Plain, black long underwear in every shot.  Play some killa beats whilst you view and scroll slowly for the fullest experience.

No, I haven't gone all corporate.

The Japanese characters and "Tokyo, Japan" totally hooked me into getting this T.

An interesting sweater, a see-through material on the shoulders.  The weather is cooling down to the 80s, afterall.

Geekin it Up. 

Wait, let me get a couple of my textbooks.  Ya, that's more like it.

Sesame Street "LOVE" T and Cardigan in "Oatmeal" (perfect!).

Just trying out a look I might need at some point.  Hopefully not soon.

3 button, three-quarter length sweater.  This look just screams grad student to me.

 This is the point at which I said, this MUST end.  Go do your homework.

 

This week, the world lost Steve Jobs (seriously), but also, a dear pair of shoes.  RIP Blowfish gladiators (12/25/2010-10/12/2011)

So I replaced them with a good lookin pair of synthetic leather footbed goodness.  Unfortunately, Apple cannot make so easy of a subsitution.