Before I left for school yesterday, I ran up the attic stairs to get a picture of the constant state of snow flurry. This (naturally) doesn't do justice but there you have it: my dutiful contribution to the midwestern IT SNOWED documentation (weird yet true: this is a color photograph).

12 and 13

Twelve Things I Did in 2012. 13 days late. In 2013.

1. Moved to Iowa

2. Had quite a few visits from dear friends and family, including but not limited to a Roommate of Old (in OK) and a Grantford (in IA)

3. Acquired a brand new niece

4. Biked many miles in the woods

5. Helped my husband and brother and Casey from Craiglist move an antique piano across a vast expanse of rugged terrain in extreme heat.

6. Did not run any races for the first time in many years

7. Finished my first semester of graduate school with a decent GPA

8. Had an extremely memorable Christmas (ask me about it. it's a whole story that involves firetrucks and ambuli).

9. Took many a road trip on a limited segment of I-35 (between Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma)

10. Took a plane trip to Atlanta

11. Euthanized many mice for the good of medical research and still feel weird about it

12. Made my first ever of my entire life Year In Review List and ended it with a total cop-out item*.

And this would be a great place for resolutions. Or intentions. Or a To Do list for the year. I used to take these very seriously, write them down on December 31 and roll them up and slide them into a Pringles can that would be extensively taped up and packed away with the Christmas things and not opened until the next December 31. I did that for several years but I think I abandoned it in 1999, or shortly thereafter. 

So anyway. I tried to think of resolutions this year, for the first time since I dropped the Pringles can tradition. I went back and forth between really annoying ideas that could feasibly double nicely as cross-stitch pillow fodder and ideas that aimed really low, for an esteem boost. The whole ordeal annoyed me so I dropped it. No resolutions, no To Do lists. 

Except poaching an egg. I want to learn to poach an egg well, but I feel weird about having two egg posts in a row.

*I made this list a few weeks ago, when I was supposed to be studying for finals.

I know I swore off Food I Made photographs but this is a little different

This is a miniature public thank you to my dad on his birthday.

He has probably inadvertantly passed on a great many things to me (my mom has, too, naturally). One of the more trivial things I long aspired to pick up was his ability to nonchalantly throw together a plate of literally perfect scrambled eggs. Weird and potentially uninteresting yet true.

This isn't terribly signficant in the scope of things I could thank him for or mention at all. But it just occurred to me this morning.

Happy birthday to my dad, and thank you for unknowingly teaching me how to make a pretty delicious plate of food.

it was an accidental monument

For some reason this board had the same ink on it from 2009 to last Sunday. Spring 2009, when I was putting in the final throes of biochem studies and creeping round the corner to a long spring/summer/fall of job hunting. Recording my running times on the board and seeing this fellow who brought me coffee in the mornings and went on long bike rides and grilled vegetables for us in the evenings (it worked out).

I wasn't exactly attached to the writing on my white board... I just kind of forgot about it and kept moving it from place to place with me. And now I've erased it and I'm studying... the same things. Again.

I promise I'm not trying to be majestic. It was just a monument to the recent past that took me by surprise when it was unearthed. It kind of reminds me of this project... (which I'm not entirely uninterested in emulating, at least tangentially) but I'm unwilling to do an accompanying self portrait.

That's all. Be well.

What Has Been Up (According to My Phone)

This is the Jori History of the last month according to my phone. It tells of the most important things, I guess (If I had a fancier phone, they'd be fancier images. As it is, they're pretty rough. Forgive me.)

Anyway. This is a tour of my last day of work (commemorative Western blot) (it's GAPDH, in case you're curious), moving my brother in with us, moving ourselves hundreds of miles, acclimating our dog to the journey, toasting the Grand One Year at our favorite burger/shake joint, Tiberius's first canine houseguest (and unrequited love), and exploring the new territory Jori/Jeremy style. The snake and bikes-in-Jeep photos warrant their own narrative, trust me.

Welcome to carpet, Tiberius

Where the whole room is your blanket.

I could post about our 500+ mile move, or about any of a number of timely things, but now that I've been a Stay At Home Jori for two whole weeks, all I can think of are about nine different posts exclusively about my dog, who is currently without his collar and thus: Stealth Puppy.

titanic

This was a post I wrote a couple weeks ago and accidentally left in draft mode, so it's a bit late. Sorry! 

There are probably rules against shooting food in black and white, but as my brother and Jeremy both pointed out, actual Titanic pictures would have had no choice.

Anyway. Special thanks to Corbin (a lifelong studier of the ship and its sinking) for inviting us to join him for a first class multi-course lunch, complete with hors d'oeuvres and Titanic/iceberg shaped ice, on the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy.... which suddenly sounds morbid, but it wasn't. He made food that they actually served on the Titanic! And made it one hundred percent vegetarian! Cheers to him.

On a separate, but more important note: who would like to make me these and deliver them to my lab? Slightly chilled, please.