mmmm...collard greens

Yep, that's right.  I made collard greens and they were yummy!  It was my first time making collard greens, but it went very well.  David hasn't had any yet, but I'll let him weigh in on their yummy-ness when he does.

Here's the recipe.
Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

Collards with Peanut Butter

• Extra virgin olive oil (for pan)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Bunch of collard greens, stems removed, washed and chopped (1 lb?), I also used some rainbow chard I had.  Use more greens than you think you'll need- they cook WAY down.
• Chicken stock (I don't know how much I used, I just kept adding it to make it look saucy and not too dry--but as Mark says- you don't want it to be soup).
• 2-3 Tbsp Peanut Butter (I like Adams)
• Chopped fresh ginger  (about 1 tbsp)  How I was lucky enough to have fresh ginger in the house for this recipe, I don't know, but I'm very thankful.  It added a nice extra flavor.
• Salt and pepper
• Juice of half of a lemon

cook the garlic in a deep skillet until golden brown.
add the collard greens, chicken stock, peanut butter, ginger and salt and pepper.
cover and cook about 5 minutes, until greens are wilted and tender.
uncover and cook at a low bubble until the collards are very tender, at least 5 minutes more. I just kept adding stock as it started to look less juicy/saucy.  You want it to be saucy.
remove from heat and squeeze lemon over the greens.

I then added some cooked brown rice (about 2.5 cups) to this mixture.  The brown rice picked up all the yummy peanut better flavor and the slight tang of the lemon with it was really tasty.

I guess the picture isn't the best--this was after it had cooled down a bit and congealed some.  But seriously.  I would make this again next week it was so delicious.  I had to keep myself to just one serving since I wanted to have some for lunch tomorrow.

barefoot running

I recently finished a book called "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall.  I borrowed the book from a friend and finished it in the course of three evenings.  It was a great story, and told in such a way that reading it was quick.  He interweaves very interesting research data from faculty and researchers with a story about a tribe in Mexico called the Tarahumara, and an epic ultra-distance race between some of the best US trail racers and natives from the Tarahumara.

The premise of the book is that humans have always been running, and up until the advent of super-cushioned shoes, we had very few running injuries.  These days, runners swap stories all the time about plantar fasciitis, shin splints, and knee surgeries.  The reason for all these injuries is that the shoes we now wear to run actually cause us to run in unnatural ways.  These unnatural ways don't allow the amazing bone structure and design of the human foot to perform in the way it was meant to. 

In shoes with big thick soles, we run using a heel strike motion, putting all the force on the bony heel and basically stopping our forward motion because of the angle of our foot.  But when we run barefoot (or semi-barefoot), we strike on the outer part of the mid-foot.  This allows the structure of the foot to absorb more of the impact than when we strike with our heel.  With the heel strike, the impact travels right up to our poor knees.

I'm not going to say that the book made a convert out of me, but the evidence presented was hard to deny.  It made me want to go for a run and use different form.  My understanding is that you really have to work your way up to long distances when using a more natural running form because your body (mostly feet and calves) are not as used to it.  Also, you don't actually have to run barefoot.  Some people have bought and use the Vibram Five-Fingers "shoe/gloves", and others, like the author of Born to run, bought a pair of old school running shoes that have a very low level of cushioning so that you can truly feel the ground under your feet, not just the cushioning.

I have a photo of me from the Rock and Roll half-marathon I ran last summer.  I didn't post this photo on facebook or elsewhere for a reason.  When I saw this photo I immediately knew that I needed to change my form.  It was so embarrassing.  I look at it and just see all the energy being lost! I am practically doing a one-legged squat, stopping my forward motion.  I look like I'm walking!  No wonder my knees were killing me at the end of 13 miles!

This idea of barefoot running or chi-running has really taken off, from what I can tell.  Of course, with Nike/Adidas/New Balance/Asics all creating new models of their highly cushioned stability shoes every year, I don't expect to see a majority of runners moving to barefoot running.

I just want to run like Caballo Blanco  in Born to Run says to run: Easy, Light, Smooth and Fast.  

Here's a little excerpt from the book Born to Run that I especially like about running form.  In this, Caballo is showing the author the natural way to run (pp.110-111):
    "My arms floated until my hands were rib-high; my stride chopped down to pitty-pat steps; my back straightened so much I could almost hear vertebrae creaking.
    "Don't fight the trail," Caballo called back over his shoulder.  "Take what it gives you.  If you have a choice between one step or two between rocks, take three."  ....."Lesson two," Caballo called.  "Think Easy, Light, Smooth and Fast.  You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad.  Then work on light.  Make it effortless, like you don't give a shit how high the hill is or how far you've got to go.  When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smooooooth.  You won't have to worry about the last one---you get those three, and you'll be fast."

Have any of you tried either barefoot running or even just a different running form?  I saw today that USA Triathlon has an article and video on "The importance of run mechanics".  A professional coach recommends a higher cadence, just like Caballo.  But he doesn't say anything about where one should land on their foot-he focuses on the extension of the legs, the forward leaning of the upper body and the rotation of the shoulders.

milk machine

So, I am at a talk on campus, late tonight and as I was leaving the talk, I saw the vending machines. Next to the chips/candy machine, the regular coke and the diet coke machines and the water machine, was: The milk machine.

I am not sure I have ever seen such a thing before. I like it. I mean, why couldn't they have had milk machines back in the day?! Regular, chocolate and "pink"/strawberry were all represented.

I dig it.

my lucky day

I have two stories today, showcasing how lucky I've been.

First, my flight from Seattle to Houston was delayed and got off the ground late.  (No, that is not the lucky part). I was originally going to have about a 50 minute layover- usually just enough time to get off the plane, go to the bathroom, pick up some food and get back on the plane.  Well, because of my late flight, I only had 10 minutes between the flight arrival and my next flight's departure.  I arrived in the E terminal, rushed off the plane, as did others trying to make their flights, and looked quickly at the tv screen to find the gate for my next flight.  Well, what do you know...I arrived at Gate E12 and the next flight was leaving out of Gate E15.  All I had to do was walk across the hallway!  How fabulous.  Of course, no time for bathroom breaks, but I was just happy to have made the flight.

Got to the hotel, checked-in, got my conference registration materials, and went to my room.  Went out to dinner at Mr. B's with a colleague.  Shared a crabcake for an appetizer (yum!), had bacon wrapped shrimp and grits for my dinner (double yum), and bread pudding for dessert (yum, but the one I made for new year's at home was better...if I do say so).

Headed back to the hotel (the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel), and saw that the hotel lobby bar is called the "Bourbon House."  Well, given my post yesterday I couldn't help but belly up to the bar and check out their bourbon collection.  They claim it is the most extensive bourbon collection in New Orleans.  I don't know if that is the case, but they do have an amazing collection.  They didn't have the "Corner Creek" I wanted to try, but they did have Basil Hayden's, which Peter C. recently reminded me about.  So, I asked for some Basil Hayden's.  They bartender said he likes to serve it neat with a separate glass of ice so you can add as much or as little ice as you want.  So, I tried the Basil Hayden's.  It was really nice and smooth-but still with that kentucky bourbon kick--quite good.  We struck up a conversation about bourbon.  He told me about a banana pancake drink he made at home with some Knob Creek, brown sugar simple syrup, dark chocolate bitters (or something like that) and bananas--all shaken up and emulsified and he said it was delicious.  Sounds yummy to me.  He also told me about a whiskey sour he used to make at his old job that was a Basil Hayden's whiskey sour.

Okay, so that was lucky in a way--lucky to have such a bourbon collection in my own hotel.  But the real luckiness came from the rest of the story.  I asked the bartender about Booker's and Baker's--two other bourbons made by the same distillery as basil hayden's (and knob creek for that matter).  He brought the 2 bottles over to me and gave me a look at the bottles and went off to help other customers.  I sat looking at the bottles, and then when he came by again, I asked him if I could take the lids off and smell the Booker's and Baker's.  He said sure, and then said I could even have a little taste of each and gave me 2 clean glasses. So, there I was, with my glass of Basil Hayden's- neat, and a bottle of Booker's, Baker's, and two empty glasses.  I felt funny opening the bottles and pouring myself a little taste, but I went ahead and did it--I wasn't going to waste my lucky day.  I poured the tiniest bit into each glass.  Booker's is something like 128 proof and it tastes like it--strong stuff.  It had good flavor, but it seems like you would only drink Booker's if you were trying to get drunk or something.  Not for me.  The Baker's had a nice nose to it and was pretty tasty too.  It has a higher proof than many Bourbons- I think it was around 100 proof.  Still strong but a little more mellow.  So, I got to taste three really good bourbon whiskeys for about eight bucks plus tip.  LUCKY!

So, I'm sitting there, having my own little impromptu tasting, when the bartender brings me about 1/5 of a glass of whiskey sour.  Apparently, someone else ordered a whiskey sour and the bartender suggested he use Basil Hayden's which the customer approved of.  After he was done pouring the customer's drink, I guess he poured what was left in his shaker into this glass for me.  Totally unexpected.  However, I much prefer my bourbon neat or on the rocks to a whiskey sour.  I could barely appreciate the good whiskey in it.

So, I told the bartender that I had to go to my room because I had to be up ridiculously early (at least my time), for meetings in the morning, but I said I might come down tomorrow night and try a different bourbon.  He told me to hang on for a minute then he went into the back room.  He came back out with a little booklet that said "Bourbon House - New Orleans Bourbon Society (NOBS)", with 47 different bourbons listed.  As you taste different bourbons you get a stamp and when you taste all 47 you become a "Master Taster" and your name is forever immortalized on a plaque in the Bourbon House.  As a member of NOBS, you get a complimentary pour of the featured bourbon of the month.  He gave me this little booklet, stamped my "Baker's, Basil Hayden's and Booker's" and said that now I could come back for a free taste tomorrow night.  He said he wouldn't be working  (so it wasn't just that he was flirting or something), and that they were tasting a bourbon this month called "Heaven Hill" (I think).   So, looks like my luck might run over into tomorrow night as well!

kentucky bourbon

For those who don't know, I am a fan of Kentucky Bourbon.  I'm not sure where it came from, although those sips of mom and dad's manhattans when I was younger probably played into it a bit.  I've tried scotch and don't like it as much as bourbon.

When I was in Louisville last summer for a work conference, I got to do a few bourbon tastings on the Urban Bourbon Trail.  I think I might have blogged about it--been so long I can't remember, and I'm too lazy to go back and look. :)

I can never remember the differences between whiskey types.  I found this glossary, which is very helpful for understanding some of the differences. I look at it now and find the "definitions" interesting, but I'm sure I won't remember the differences later.  Sitting around the lunch table at work a couple weeks ago, we started talking about whiskey.  One of the people there who is a die-hard scotch drinker did not want to believe that scotch is actually a whiskey.  She said she doesn't drink whiskey because it is so low-class(!), so scotch can't be whiskey.  We hated to break it to her, but scotch is a kind of whiskey...made with mostly barley (instead of corn or other mash).  Her comment made a few of us want to cringe --I guess I am low-class (in her eyes at least).  If drinking bourbon means I'm low class, I guess I'm fine with that.

Anyway, while I was in Louisville, I got to see menus full of bourbon brands- many of which I had never heard of before.  I tried some new ones: Rowan's Creek, Pappy Van Winkle, Noah's Mill, Kentucky Vintage, and Old Forester Signature, and some old ones: Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark, Knob Creek (Knob Creek is my least favorite of the three).  I saw a few bourbons that had yummy descriptions (Buffalo Trace and Corner Creek).  I wrote down their names, just in case I happened to find them on a drink menu or even at the liquor store some day.  But I didn't really expect to find these bourbons in Washington state.  At David's office holiday party this year, his boss, who knows I am a bourbon fan, was telling us about this new bourbon he bought that he really likes.  "What is it called?" I said.  "Buffalo Trace," he said.  Huge audible inhale of breath by me, surprise on my face: "No Way!  Where did you find it?"  He said he found it at the liquor store, down on one of the lower shelves.  He gave me a glass of the Buffalo Trace at the party, so I knew I would enjoy having more of it at home.  I was so shocked.  I don't go to the liquor store often, but we had to make a special trip to get a bottle of this.  And then once we got to the liquor store, we saw another bourbon we wanted to try, so we came home with two different bottles on that trip.

This new bottle of Buffalo Trace led to a special bourbon tasting at my house over the holidays.  David and I were the only attendees, but we had a good time. We tasted 4 different bourbons- two new ones, and two bottles that were already in our cabinet.  We did this almost a month ago, so my memory has faded on the details, but I still remember the big impressions, which I will share with you below.

Woodford Reserve and Maker's Mark are the standby's in our liquor cabinet.  The new ones were the Buffalo Trace and the new Maker's 46--the first new bourbon Maker's Mark has come out with in over 50 years.  I'll go through them from left to right, and reveal our favorites at the end.

Woodford Reserve:
When I was in Louisville, I did a tasting with someone from my office.  She prefers Irish Whiskey, but was willing to try some bourbon.  After tasting 6 different kinds, she said that Woodford Reserve was her favorite and she would consider drinking it, although irish whiskey would still be her first choice.
I taste a bit of caramel in this- a mellow sweetness (not truly sweet, but you know what I mean).  A really good nose.

Buffalo Trace:
This has really nice notes of vanilla.

Maker's Mark:
The classic bourbon.  I think this was the first bourbon whiskey I ever tried, and I really liked the brown sugar-ey undertones to it, so I've been drinking it ever since.

Maker's 46:
This bourbon did have the oak-ey flavor that it promised.  It also had hints of caramel and vanilla.

All in all, I thought the Woodford Reserve and Maker's 46 smelled the most similar and the most yummy.  I think the Buffalo Trace was more vanilla-ey than the others.  And, truthfully, the classic Maker's Mark became a bit less shiny with this stellar company.  Having tasted these four bourbons together, I don't think I'll buy Maker's Mark anymore (Sorry, Matt T.).  I'd rather drink one of the other three.  David said that his two favorites were the Woodford Reserve and the Buffalo Trace.  He said both were about on the same level for him.  I think my favorite is still Woodford Reserve, but I also like and enjoyed the Buffalo Trace and Maker's 46.

It was a fun little experiment-like a wine tasting, but more "low-class"  :)

the veil of ignorance

David shared this idea with me--I don't think I had ever heard of it before (although it certainly has similarities to the golden rule) and I think it is really cool and would do a lot toward changing public policy in this country.

Paul Krugman puts the idea into his own words, "We should try to create the society each of us would want if we didn't know in advance who we'd be."

The idea originally comes from John Rawls.  If society was completely changed, and we stood behind a curtain, not knowing whether we would be poor, rich, smart, less smart, male, female, which race we would be--how would we design that society, standing behind the veil of ignorance?  I'm not doing a good job of explaining this, I think.  Let's try using someone else's words...

Here is some text from the Wikipedia article on the concept of Veil of Ignorance.
"It is a method of determining the morality of a certain issue (e.g. slavery) based upon the following principle: imagine that societal roles were completely re-fashioned and redistributed, and that from behind the veil of ignorance, one does not know what role they will be reassigned. Only then can one truly consider the morality of an issue....Since one may occupy any position in the society, once the veil is lifted, this theory encourages thinking about society from the perspective of all members."

I am convinced that some of the policy decisions in congress right now (Hello!  Revoking health care?! ) would not be taking place if each one of those people stood behind the veil of ignorance and considered the issue.  Unfortunately, I think many folks would have a hard time setting aside their well worn ideologies to consider a completely refashioned society. 

It makes me sad that people are so selfish, only considering how something will affect them in their current situation. 

holiday cheer

So, I took a little nap this afternoon since my boss gave us a half day off today.  When I woke up, for some reason I was singing a christmas carol.  I guess I've still got a little holiday cheer laying around :)

Seems like a good time to share some of our holiday fun with you. Just in time to take the ornaments off the tree.

 

 This was what christmas looked like at our house...ornaments and lights on our Norfolk Island Pine, a wreath above the fireplace, stockings hung on the fireplace, and presents around the tree.  David hung our christmas lights on the rain gutters of the house and we had pretty red bows on the stair railings outside.  Of course, since the roof needs to be replaced, those lights may stay on the gutters until next summer when we can replace the roof, to minimize damage each time we go up there.  Yes, we'll be THOSE people. :)

 

 I just love the beautiful colors in these jams, jellies, marmalades, and sauces from Will and Sandy.  Can't wait to try one! 

Funny story about these.  When we got them in the mail, we set them around our tree like the other gifts, not knowing what they were.  One day when I was home working, I heard a loud "thud" over by the tree.  By the time I got up to see what it was, I saw that Sam had one of these wrapped presents in his mouth, and was headed to his bed to dig in.  So, for the rest of the holiday, we had to keep those wrapped presents up high out of Sammy's reach. :)

 We did our normal shellfish (king crab legs this time) and twice baked potato dinner this year, but we did it on christmas eve instead of christmas.  On Christmas evening, then, we ate cheese and crackers, and these yummy little appetizers that I made.  They are called Polenta Cakes with Tomato Jam and Goat cheese.  Pretty easy to make--hardest part was waiting for them to get a little brown/crispy in the frying pan.  David found the recipe on the Seattle Times and brought it to my attention.  Glad he did.  They were delicious!

And finally, a photo of us.  We had a groupon/living social coupon for a fancy french restaurant, and I decided that December 23rd would be a great night to go out to a nice dinner.  So, this is us, dressed up before our dinner date at Le Gourmand in Ballard.

It has been a great holiday.  I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow, and a fun New Year.

baker, baker, bake me a cake

Wowzers!  I am on a roll, baking up a storm!

Today is Kim's birthday.  Happy Birthday Kim!  We are going out tonight to meet them for dinner. So, I asked her husband if I could make her birthday cake.  I generally find baking fun and I wanted to make a special cake for her birthday. 

I found this double chocolate layer cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a cooking blog I sometimes read. This is a "from scratch" cake, for sure.  I followed her directions, mostly. It is a moist chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a chocolate ganache frosting. I decided to bake my cakes in three 9" cake pans (because that is what I have) instead of the two 10- by 2-inch pans she suggests.

 Here we have all 3 layers with raspberry filling gushing out of the sides.  I probably went a little heavy on the raspberry.  I guess we'll find out when we cut into it tonight.

 I did the script on the top and the frosting around the edges.  You can see the edge frosting in the photos below.  David was the master of the little confectionery pearls.  He did such a good job. He also helped out during the making of the cake, saving the day a couple of times.

A little detail shot of the bottom edge of the cake.

Here is the masterpiece in all its glory!  

Happy Birthday Kim!

bread: conquered (for now)

For many years I have been afraid of using yeast in baking.  After making my mom's famous pumpkin biscuits one year and having them turn out like hockey pucks, I pretty much swore off any use of yeast in baking.  Then about one year ago, Emily shared with me her pizza dough recipe using quick rise yeast.  Well, she more than just shared it with me, she walked me through making it.  I got to feel the water to see what temperature she used and everything.  Since that time, I've made her pizza dough recipe a couple of times-always to good end.  Slowly, ever so slowly, has the idea been growing in my mind that perhaps I could try to bake bread with yeast.  Quick breads (like zucchini and banana) don't count since they don't use yeast.  REAL bread.  Whole Wheat Bread.

And so, in true lizzylife fashion, I attempted, struggled (with uncertainty), and conquered the whole wheat bread...documenting the stages of the process along the way.

 Here we have the dough before I let it rise.  I have a wonderful feature on my oven called "proof".  It keeps it at the perfect temperature for the bread to rise.  I kneaded the bread for about 10 minutes.  My wrists hurt by the time I was done!

Here is the dough after doubling in half.  I poked a couple holes into it to make sure the indentations stayed....I couldn't help making it into a smiley face:)

Oh--I made the recipe exactly as written. But I took one reviewers advice when they suggested putting the bread into 2 loaf pans instead of the 3 it calls for.  

I punched it down and then put it into 2 loaf pans to rise again.  I think this is a part I will have to do better on next time.  I had some odd indentations on the bottom of  bread, which I guess means that I didn't pinch it together well enough or maybe missed doing something.

Here are the loaves cooling after about 30 minutes of cooking.  Everything I had read said not to overcook the bread, and to test to make sure it was done by tapping on it to see if it sounds hollow.  If you hear a thud, it isn't done yet.  So- about 3 times during the last 5 minutes of cooking, I took the bread out to tap it, not sure if what I was hearing was a thud or hollowness.  I had to call David over and see what he thought.  We weren't really sure, but thought they sounded hollow with a hint of "thud".   So I took them out. 

I am sad this picture isn't more clear--I didn't take more than one, but you get the idea.  The density is really good inside-not too dense, and very holey.

We are planning to make some grilled cheese sandwiches with it tonight.  Yum! 

One wheat bread down, a million yeast adventures in my future :)  I am looking forward to it.


For those of you who might want to try baking bread, the recipe I used is on AllRecipes.com called "Simple Whole Wheat Bread" by Nita Crabb.  It is rated with 5 stars.  Lots of the reviews say it is a very forgiving bread recipe and a great one to start with for newbies.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

white elephants

Today I participated in my second and hopefully last white elephant party of the year. I went to the first one on Sunday and walked away with a Snuggie.

 Mine is the same color blue as in the photo above from the official snuggie website.  Bright!  Haven't worn it yet...

Then today at the second party, I walked away with some homemade cucumber infused gin, some "Passover sticker fun on a roll" and some "I'm trying to be like Jesus" stickers.  I can think of at least one but possibly two little boys down in Portland who might enjoy the Passover stickers...not sure what I'll do with the Jesus stickers.  I may start putting them on the mail I send to you all!

Overall, I feel pretty lucky with my two gifts..it could have been much worse!  Like the piece of pottery that one of my colleagues got stuck with:

whiplash

I had a bit of whiplash today--not the kind where you actually hurt your neck/head--the kind where you find yourself feeling pretty good only to get knocked back down.

I was on a phone call today with two people with whom I am going to co-authoring a chapter of a book.  One of the women was someone who actually asked me for a copy of my dissertation back in June or July. I was shocked back then when she asked me for a copy.  I was even more shocked when today on the phone she told me, "I'm going to make you famous".  I was like, "huh?"  "What do you mean you are going to make me famous?"  She says, "I am citing all kinds of stuff from your dissertation in this article I am writing right now."  Then the other person on the phone call said, "wow, that makes me really want to read your dissertation!"  That was a definite win.

The part about getting knocked down is not really something I want to go into detail about here.  Suffice it to say that something else happened to make me feel inadequate professionally.

So, it has been a whiplash day.  Grilled cheese and tomato soup made it a little bit better, as did a hug from David, and a dessert of peppermint bark.  I just need a good laugh to pull me out of it completely :)

thanksgiving and seattle snow day

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving.  David and I were lucky to be able to spend it in Portland with my brother in law's family.  We did not want to fly anywhere and were trying to keep costs down, so it was nice to be able to drive down to Portland for the holiday.  We had a great time, ate some great food, and just enjoyed the company.

Prior to Thanksgiving, Seattle had another freak snow storm that shut down the city for 2.5 days with just 3 inches of snow (but plenty of ice) on our hilly streets. I personally don't mind that snow shuts our city down.  I think it is a good reminder that we all should slow down once in a while and take a break.

David took some video of the snow with our camera and then edited it with IMovie.  I wanted to share it here on the blog, because even though he posted it on Facebook, I know not everyone who reads the blog is friends with both me and David on Facebook. Make sure your volume is on because the song he picked is just perfect for the video.

woo-hoo! almost to goal!

I'm so happy!  The top (yellow?) line  is my weight when I started and the line in the middle (blue?) is my current goal weight. The jagged line is my weight over time...I'm three-quarters of the way to my goal!  It kind of makes me want to set a new goal after I reach this goal. :)  Just wanted to share the happy news!

As for what I've been doing to lose the weight...pretty much just eating better.  Keeping track-religiously-of what I've been eating.  I use fatsecret.com to track my food, exercise, progress toward goals etc.  the chart above came from their website.  On the website I told it my current weight, my goal weight and it calculated about how many calories per day I needed to eat (or less) in order to lose about a pound a week.  It makes it so easy to see progress, it is great.

learning new things

I just got back from the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association (AEA).  It was in San Antonio--a great city!  I got to see my step-sister, Stephanie while I was there, which was great.  She took me to a really tasty restaurant on the Riverwalk called Boudro's.  Yum!

But, on to the topic at hand. I leave some conferences feeling like I heard all the same things I heard last year--those are the conferences that just feel draining to me.  But this conference is not one of those kinds.  The AEA conference is one that I leave feeling extremely energized, with tons of new ideas.  There were so many sessions I wanted to attend, and so many that I couldn't attend because of the overlapping times.  The sessions that were most interesting to me this year were ones focused on data visualization, graphic design, and using technology to improve evaluation.

The data visualization folks mentioned the standard Edward Tufte books (which I own thanks to Will Litzler), but they also mentioned a new name I had not heard before: Stephen Few.  I'm going to have to check his books out- maybe see if my local library carries any of them.  Another presenter, Stephanie Evergreen, suggested Ellen Lupton's website (and book?) called Thinking with Type.  She also recommended "Design Elements" by Timothy Samara. 

I was thinking- maybe I have a second calling in Graphic Design?  Not that I am good at it--but I find it so interesting. I hardly have time to keep up with the literature in my own field, so I don't know how I am going to find time to check out all this graphic design stuff.  But, I like learning new things and I really do believe that good design impacts learning and usage of things like the evaluation reports I write.  So, I want to do a better job of communicating my data and my stories to my clients.  

Here is an example of a "Bullet graph". I am not sure if I had ever seen one before, but this type of graph is able to convey a lot of information in a relatively small space.  I like it! 

jpg from community.softwarefx.com

puppy perspectives

Funny name for a post, huh?  But a cute picture, right?

While Sammy isn't a puppy anymore, there are two puppies who are now my "co-workers". My boss and one of our RA's bring their dogs to work with them everyday they are at work.  Yesterday, my boss brought in a dog trainer who spoke to the whole group of us for about an hour. 

I knew there were different perspectives on dog training since I've read a bit about it, but it was interesting to see-in action- how one philosophy put the other philosophy down.  I think there are probably many many different perspectives on puppy/dog training, but I saw a clear delineation yesterday between a "pack leader" approach and a "relationship" approach.  According to this trainer, ne'er the twain shall meet. 

I think my philosophy fits somewhere in the middle, which I found really difficult to reconcile during the training yesterday.  This trainer said to never say "no" to your dog- both literally and figuratively. If the dog is doing something you don't want it to do- just ignore it, or try to re-direct. I believe in ignoring- I think it works wonders for dog behavior.   I also try not to say "No" to my dog, but I find that "uh-uh" works pretty well.  Because I don't say it all the time, he generally seems to listen when I say it and knows that what he is doing is wrong.  It works for us.  But it is essentially saying "no". 

I have lots of other thoughts about dog training- and I'm sure others with dogs have their own philosophies of dog training. Luckily, I  think people don't have as strong opinions about dog training as they do about child discipline.  I feel like people often get told they aren't disciplining their child correctly, but you usually don't hear dog owners telling other dog owners that.  Thank goodness! 

happy halloween!

Today has been a great halloween!  We went to brunch with friends, visited other friends and their new baby, carved pumpkins, ate slow cooker stew and plenty of candy!

 Here are the pumpkins we carved!  Owners are: Liz, David, Kim and Pat (from L to R in picture above)

 Sam enjoyed staring at the flickering lights...or maybe he was just tired of chasing falling pumpkin seeds :)

The back of Kim's frat boy pumpkin had UW Huskies carved into it.  It looked great from the back (and the front)!

it is official!

My diploma finally arrived!

rainy season is officially here

This is the forecast for this week.  Looks like a good week for napping :)

I don't have any big plans for the week, so it doesn't really matter to me that it will be quite rainy.  My only problem is that this weather makes me want to hibernate a little bit.  That means layers of fleece, comfort food and blankets.  I will have to substitute some broth-based soups for the comfort food, if I still want to take off these last 6 pounds.

Even though we went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze this year, we did not buy any pumpkins there.  The pumpkins at the patch were some of the last pumpkins and many were orange and green-not quite ripe yet.  We haven't bought pumpkins from the grocery yet, either.  We can't let Halloween pass without carving at least one pumpkin!  Maybe that will be our activity for tonight.

elections

With election day coming up, I am seeing more and more ads on TV, and articles in the paper.  We've got some pretty complex initiatives that we are voting on here in Washington, and I while I've done some reading on them, I feel like I need to know more.  I feel that voting is a right, and I'm always surprised at those who don't exercise that right.  Yes, it does take a little bit of time to read up on some things, but there are always summaries and endorsements that make it a little easier. 

On another note, I can't tell whether I am coming down with a cold or whether my allergies have flared up.  Sore throat, sour stomach, runny nose, sneezing--no fun.  I actually came home from work early today, around 2, so that I could nap and hopefully let my body heal a bit.  I plan to go to bed early tonight as well.

facebook

So, for all current and potential blog readers, I created a group on Facebook so that I could post my new blog posts when I update.  This way you don't have to go to my blog to check to see if I have posted something new.  This group thing is new on Facebook, but it seems like I will be able to share my blog selectively with the people in this group, which is good.  I don't really want everyone in the world to be able to read it.

Of course, if you have no interest in my blog, please feel free to leave the group :)