A Long Overdue Update....

Well, hello, blog friends! I apologize for being so bad with my updating lately. We can just chalk all of my lack of blogging up to teaching a class with over one hundred fifty students and trying to set up a lab at the same time. Let me just tell you, people, that furniture is expensive! I am trying to decide what sorts of furniture to purchase for my lab space, and it turns out that I am going to spend over $1000 on chairs for my research assistants to sit in... that is just for six chairs! Too bad I can't afford arm rests for them... that would be another $300. Oh, well.

But we have recently had some good news over here in Irvine. Matt recently got a job in Los Angeles as an Assistant Operations Manager for the same company that he worked for in North Carolina. The hours tend to be a little bit difficult at times, though. He just got home from work at 7:00pm tonight and he has to be at work tomorrow at 3:00am, so needless to say he is in bed right now, fast asleep (at least I hope!).

The most recent good news is that my sister came to Anaheim for a work event and was able to spend a few extra days with Matt and I here in Irvine. Given that she will not be able to be in Wisconsin later this week when Matt and I are there, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving this past weekend. That's right, peeps, I made a whole Thanksgiving dinner! We had a fourteen-pound turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy with mushrooms, green bean casserole, wine, and a pumpkin pie with real whipped cream. (Alright, so I didn't make everything from scratch... the pumpkin pie was made by Sara Lee.)

My Thanksgiving spread, with the gravy in the front.

We had a lovely time, though. My sister was here, and my friend Joanne from the department came over, and all four of us laughed and drank and had a great time... and then we visited the hot tub. All in all, it was a fabulous evening, but I cannot even begin to tell you how tired I was that night. Doing all of that cooking is hard work! I could have gone to bed by 8:00pm! It was neat having the experience of making it all. I remember telling my mom on the phone that the stuffing smelled just like hers (that's right, I buttered and cut up forty slices of bread, starting at 7:30am, to make stuffing from scratch), which was really cool.

Look for more updates soon (I promise!) about more of our fun antics with my sister. Here is just a preview: we really wanted to try this restaurant in Garden Grove that my sister's friend recommended to us called The Boiling Crab. We got there on Friday night relatively late, and they told us that the wait was two hours. Anyway, we decided to get the food to go. If you take a look at the website, you will see that although the food looks (and is!) delicious, it is served in an interesting style (with the heads on, let's just say). Pictures will be coming soon....

Love to you all, and happy holidays! Matt and I hope we will be able to see at least some of you Midwest-dwellers soon, and you Southern dwellers not too long after that!