London Leftovers (Last and Longest)

One more. These pictures, not fitting into any real overarching category, cover most of our other activities. In the interest of getting to make another bulleted list, though, they’ve been jammed into little sub-categories all their own!

• Harry Potter – Though we didn’t make it out to Oxford or the craggy grounds of Scotland (the two sites where much of movie-Hogwarts was filmed), we did come across a few minor movie/story locations. In the upper left picture is the Australia House (if you’re a part of the British Commonwealth, you get a “House”, not an embassy), used for Gringots Wizarding Bank in the movies. Next is the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background, where the Death Eaters were very rude to some muggles in the 5th movie. Lower left is The Market Porter Pub on the edge of Borough Market (see the food post), the exterior of which was used for the Leaky Cauldron in Prizoner of Azkaban. Finally, Khristy pushes her trolley through Platform 9 ¾. Unfortunately, platforms 9-11 were under some serious construction during our visit, so 9 ¾ has been temporarily relocated to its less natural location seen below. Plenty of people still find it and line up for their photo ops, though.

• “The City”: technically, “London” really just refers to a very small square near the Thames. When you go to Westminster, Kinsington, Notting Hill, etc…you’re really going to different cities/towns. As the colloquial “London” has come to refer to the collective Greater London Area, “The City” is used when referring to the original small square. Our very first activity upon arrival was a self-guided walking tour through The City, which takes you through the legal district, narrow alleyways off of Fleet Street, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the origins of the England’s financial center, and eventually to London Bridge. In the first picture are the Royal Courts of Justice. It looks like something from Disney World, but as Britain's highest civil court it plays host to some serious suits. Like Dan Brown's plagiarism case and Paul McCartney's divorce hearings. Next is the original Twining’s Tea Shop, a tiny tea store built in the beginnings of England's tea craze (and still family run!). Lower left is the financial district, with its interesting contrast of old and new. The older buildings in the center and on the left are the London Exchange and the Royal Bank of England, with modern banking skyscrapers behind them. Finally, a shot of Tower Bridge as taken from London Bridge. Interestingly, London Bridge itself is pretty bland. It used to be lined with shops and homes (think Ponte Vecchio in Florence), but has been torn down and rebuilt several times since those glory days. Most recently, it was sold to a rich American who had it shipped brick by brick to Arizona, then rebuilt it there. Seriously.

• Westminster – on the second day, we did a walking tour through Westminster, London’s political capital (and hot wedding spot for princes and rich brunettes). Starting near Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, we went down Whitehall street, which passes the Ministry of Defense, Downing Street, and the Horse Guards before spilling into Trafalgar Square. Below are Big Ben/Parliament, a parade of horses pre-changing (and solo soldier post-change), then Khristy by the Abbey courtyard.

• Tower of London/Tower Bridge – Embarrassingly, I didn’t know what the Tower of London really was before our trip. I sort of thought it was related/connected to Big Ben. Woops. It was actually the monarch’s residence and military complex during London’s medieval heyday. More importantly, you might remember it as the castle that Robin Hood attacks near the end of the Disney movie. Now, you can tour it and many of its medieval relics (knights’ armor, knights’ weapons, and, pictured below, a giant ledger book that kept inventory of something that I definitely didn't forget. definitely). After the Tower, we crossed the iconic Tower Bridge and headed West along the Thames, stopping to take Khristy’s picture with the bridge and the HMS Belfast. [first picture from Google]

• Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Park - Given my royal roots and relatives, I expected a warm welcome and some special treatment when visiting Buckingham Palace. The guards only seemed annoyed and confused though—I think because my nerves ruined the “Royal accent” with which I explained things. Even lovelier than the palace were the surrounding parks--pictured below are Khristy in St. James Park (London Eye in the distant background), and a rainy Hyde Park picture from the following day.

• Notting Hill/Portobello Road Market – Finally, I insisted we do some shopping. The scenery here was quaint and the market lively, but it was really crowded, making it hard to absorb or enjoy the experience. I’ve been trying to think of crowds that compare (Asheville Mall on Black Friday? Trader Joe’s during Peak Hours?), but even those don’t quite match in density. I kept thinking of the scene in Notting Hill (I watched 3 weeks’ worth of British movies and shows before the trip) where Hugh Grant strolls through the market content and unimpeded. Pfft. (Also, why did his character like Julia Roberts so much? She wasn’t that nice)

The end! Wish you all could have been there. Even if royalty voices might have led to a few “I don’t know those crazy people” moments.

In lieu of all being there, maybe we should have tea time over the holidays. Here is Stephen Colbert learning how to have a proper tea (whole thing is funny, but tea doesn’t start until 5:10. Also, don’t feel too bad for Hugo, in later segments they start getting along better): http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/380598/april-06-2011/my-fair-colbert---hugo-vickers

Bildungsroman: hooey style!

Back so soon! Here I am camped out at the Moe’s next door to my Laundromat. It has come to my attention that it is hotter than the surface of the sun in there, so it’s nice to find another spot to sit during the forty-minute wash cycle. And for those worried about thieves and hooligans, the Moe’s is literally right next door, so all I have to do is set a timer, and the machine stays locked till I get there.

So, burrito and drink in hand, my first “week” of classes is over. I technically haven’t had one of my classes as Monday was Labor Day, but my professor for that class is also my professor for textiles, my advisor, and she interviewed me before I was accepted, so I have a pretty good feel for her (I think).

Orientation was last Thursday, and my program came to a grand total of 13 people, one of whom is male! The jury is still out on whether I like that or not, but there is an awful lot of talent in this group! One young woman was the milliner (hat maker) for an (I forgot the name…not proud) Elton John produced show. I imagine that the hats and headpieces were amazing. Once I get a little bolder, I really want to ask her for pictures! Well-endowed in the head department, I have always had a desire to make hats for big-headed people. Maybe she will make me a hat.

Another woman is/was (not sure if she stepped down for school) the manager of the Ralph Lauren Editorial Archives. The company is working on archiving all of his designs from the beginning, and it is her job to help keep up the library.

Then of course, there are the people who are looking for a life change. Another woman worked at the Irish embassy for the last five years, but wants to pursue her love of Costume History.

And before I go any farther, “costume” is another word for dress or fashion. When I took history of costume at Meredith College, Andy asked, “so, is this the history of Halloween? The history of disguise? The history of things that happen at the end of October?” Wanted to set the record straight before we moved on.

This program is a little bit daunting because hearing my fellow students talk, they had actual positions in their life. Not so much “sales associate” in a gift shop. But I am no country bumpkin, despite my propensity for being barefoot!

These classes truly will be fascinating! Let’s go day by day:

Mondays: Literature and Methodology in Costume Studies. Haven’t had it yet, so I can’t tell you much, HOWEVER I was attempting to get ahead in my readings. I was so very proud of myself. Highlighter in hand, I went to town, when I come upon a word: “bildungsroman.” No big! I’ll make a note to look it up later. Keep reading. The author repeats it eight times in the next two pages. I had nobly decided to read in the park, so I had no way to look it up either! I had to quit and go back to my apartment just to look it up!

And the Verdict! A bildungsroman is a novel about the psychological and moral growth of the main character. Ta-dah!

Tuesdays: History of Costume: Prehistory-18^th Century. The Meredith College equivalent of this class was the reason this program sparked with me. So I had the bar set pretty high! The teacher, who previously worked at Parson’s under Tim Gunn, was very nice, and seemed genuinely interested in our story, and what led us to this point. You can tell she loves the subject very much. Our big semester project is to choose a work of art from a NYC museum and write a 10 page paper, and a twenty minute presentation about the costume in this piece. Another project involved chronicling how one aspect of dress (textiles, jewelry, hats, etc) develops over time. It will be a weekly assignment where we bring in images of that particular piece of dress from each time period we are studying. And lots of reading. Lots and lots of reading.

Wednesdays: History of Textiles in the Ancient World. While this class sounds fascinating, it is the teacher’s mission to have every student leave the program with a solid grasp of textile identification. As such, she is making this a part of the class. For those with a design background, this will be mostly review. So in that sense, the jury is still out on this class, but in regards to the rest of the class syllabus, it sounds fantastic. One project will be finding modern day equivalents to the popular fabrics of a time period. Our linen is vastly different from the linen of ancient Egypt, for example, so this class will explore that concept in greater detail. The teacher, also my advisor, is great. Nice, well-spoken, funny, but you can tell she is also no-nonsense which is the sign of a good professor: approachable, but expects the best.

Thursdays: History of Fashion Photography. ONCE AGAIN, I felt out of my element at the first class. After introductions and passing out the syllabus, we started our first lecture, and upon presenting the first picture, the professor says “Now, I bet you all can tell me who shot this picture…” And almost in unison, a large portion of the class chants “Avedon.” Now, if I don’t even know if I spelled that right, what does that tell you about my knowledge of this person’s existence?? But once again, I told myself, I’m here to learn, and that’s what I’m doing!

So those are my classes. They are only once a week, but they are all two and a half hours long. Across the board at NYU grad students have Fridays off, so once my laundry is done, I am taking my readings to a park to get started.

That’s all for now, but I have decided at the end of each blog post I am going to include a recipe I tried this week and my pedometer count.

C-hoo-linary Cuts:

Throw Trader Joe’s frozen Broccoli, artichoke hearts, and sliced pre-made bacon onto a cookie sheet, with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. While that is roasting, make some pasta (any kind in your cabinet), and mix in a hunk of goat cheese and some anchovies (FOR REAL!). All in all, it’s awesome. It’s better when you don’t set off the smoke alarm. Working on that one.

(basically as good as a cook book, right?)

Pedometer count: 243,180 steps. To give a point of reference, when I was training for my 5k (3.12 miles), I averaged around 6,500 steps. I’m including this because in the last month, I do believe I have walked more than I did in the previous six.

Exciting, fun things! Dalva invited me to come see Wicked with her if she won tickets in the lottery this afternoon. I should know around 5:30 if I will be seeing it. AND, Vicki won Stephen Colbert tickets for next Tuesday. She can invite two people, and one spot is taken by her friend, who went with her to see Jon Stewart. I politely informed her that she doesn’t have to take me, but I wouldn’t speak to her for a week if she doesn’t, haha! But really.

August in N-hoo York

Well, it is officially September! My second month in NY, and it's been a busy few weeks! The theme of which being "WOW, that is EXPENSIVE!" But let's start with my apartment!

As Vicki says, "it is very 'Manhattan.'" Read: Compact.

Here is our entrance hall:

You can see Vicki's boots, and my umbrella handle left in their positions from when they were lined up against the wall, should we have needed to evacuate because of Irene. Last Sunday there were more boots and two "go bags." This is also where we planned to camp out should all of our windows shatter into 1000 pieces.

Many of you have seen the pictures of my room, but I will post one:

My room is genuinely very cozy. It has been/will be a struggle to keep it clean, however. It doesn't take a whole lot of clutter to block your walking path. Most of my furniture is from Ikea, which is a blog post in and of itself, but to sum up...

Getting to Ikea, I walked a lot. Much more than I intended. Hours more than I intended. But I saw some beautiful neighborhoods (Park Slope and Red Hook were particularly beautiful), some interesting stores (one in particular was called a "Sidekick Store." They sold unitards and helmets with flames.), and some stunning benches (walked a LOT). Building these things was another adventure. But even when one falls on her semi-assembled dresser, and breaks important hardware connectors, and the drawers are crooked, and the figures from the ikea instructions are laughing at you...you SOLDIER ON!

Now, back to the theme, NY is a very obscenely expensive place to live. Discussing with a friend from NC, we decided on average, you could pay at least one to three dollars more for an item when grocery shopping. And don't get me started on rent. So when one is faced with funding the next three weeks on the remains of your Biltmore fortune, you have to get creative! Walking has been lovely! Walking is free, and there are some lovely lovely places to do so! One favorite of mine was walking through Fort Tryon Park to the Cloisters, the medieval collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met essentially rebuilt a castle at the very northern tip of Manhattan.

I chose this destination as they have a "suggested price," not expecting everyone to pay that full price. So, having done this before at the Natural History Museum (more on that later), I was prepared to pay two dollars, and vow when I am rich to come pay forty dollars to make up for it (I might have been over thinking it). When I get up to the counter, I give my shpeel (sp?): "Hi! (best smile) I am a broke student, so for now, I can only pay a little bit."

Out falls my grocery money onto the counter.

I end up paying nine dollars, which is more than I anticipated, but in hindsight, the experience was worth it. Here are a few links to pictures:

The Building! Click Here!

The Park! Click Here!

In the Cloisters (and this WILL sound goofy, but bear with me) they hold the largest collection of Unicorn tapestries than (I THINK) any other museum. Here is why that is significant: in many works of art the unicorn is seen as a symbol for Jesus. So in these tapestries, the story of his death is portrayed as a hunt. We are scheduled to visit this site in our textiles class, so I will probably have much more to share then.

Speaking of, my advisor/textiles professor actually listed Fort Tryon Park as her favorite hideaway in the city, as it is very quiet and peaceful. So if you don't believe ME....well, she's got a ph.d. That's all I'm sayin'.

The Natural History Museum was really cool! They recently opened a planetarium, and while you had to pay to see the show, they had plenty of exhibits around the planetarium that had astronomy fanatics entertained.

The Building! Click Here!

(I am very awful at remembering my camera/blogger makes is interesting to post pictures, so please excuse the links)

The planetarium is actually located in the sphere, and the museum uses the sphere as a bench mark to help illustrate scale in the universe. It is rough to explain, so COME VISIT! And we'll go! Other highlights: life-sized model of a blue whale (astounding!); T-rex skeleton right when you first walk in.

Walking highlights: NY's park system is truly astounding. Fittingly enough, Central park was my first big park stop. They have an Alice in Wonderland statue that held special meaning for me (thanks Meredith College!). The High Line park is an park built on an elevated train track. Walking it, you can see where they maintained the old railway tracks, but you are high enough the see the water and enjoy the foliage they have planted up there (not to mention the iced coffee Amy and Sam recommended). And this week specifically, Washington Square Park has been a lovely hangout. Vicki and I people watched today (with our little piggies in the fountain).

One of the cool things about NY is the history that is there even when a Starbucks has taken its place. Out walking after the hurricane, I chose a street that took me right by Theodore Roosevelt's birthplace.

Now, my writing is getting worse, and my subject is scootching into September, so I'll cut off there. (Not quite as organized as Andy, but who is really?)

London: Food

London has its reputation for bad food, but pre-trip research suggested the cuisine has greatly improved over the past 5-10 years. Using Yelp and our knowledgable housemate, we were able to find some pretty cool and delicious places. Some highlights (in chronological order):

• Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese – a tavern on Fleet Street that has been there since the 1600s…our first meal, and probably our most authentically British. Steak & ale pie, cold vegetables, and chips/fries. Very cool environment, though: in the main entrance there’s a table by a fireplace where Charles Dickens liked to sit.

• Towpath café – breakfast the second day, this was a café along a canal’s walking/biking path. Along with pastries and coffee, we tried some breakfast porridge.

• Gordon’s wine & cheese bar – for lunch near Trafalgar square on the 2^nd day, we got a cheese plate and some mushroom lasagna in this 120-year-old cavernous pub. Check out the cellar seating area...

• Fish & Chips – found a place with really good fish in the West End. Complete with mushy peas, which I decided I like better than regular peas. Not that I'll ever make or order them anywhere else, but just for the record.

• Borough Market – trying to save money, we found it economical to eat at markets by combining several snacks into a meal. Here, we went to several different stands and got Chorizo and Rocket Rolls (in England, it's not arugula, it's "rocket"), mango smoothies, and some really good coffee.

• Wahaca – one pattern among all the restaurants was that the less English the staff could speak, the better the food. Our last meal was a "Mexican market" place (imagine tapas-size dishes but Mexican-style food) with really good tacos and quesadillas, followed by simple but delicious desserts. Pictured below are the tostadas (shrimp and scallop ceviche in the foreground, chicken guajillo in the background) and vanilla ice cream with roasted pumpkin seeds and a salted caramel sauce...

London: Museums

Once you torture your wallet getting to London, it’s actually pretty cheap to keep yourself entertained. Nearly all of the city’s biggest museums are free, allowing you to walk in and out at your leisure. They charge for audio tours, but we found some free ones in itunes that you can download and play on your ipod. Earbuds in tow, we made it to four of the museums...

(Disclaimer: the elevated-vantage-point picture for the British Museum and the external shots of the Tate & National Gallery are from Google. None of ours quite captured these--probably because I complained about taking too many pictures)

• British Museum – a giant venue full of archaeological artifacts from the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman Empires. Most notable are the Rosetta Stone and a collection of marble sculptures that used to adorn the Parthenon. There’s some controversy here because Britain basically stole everything in the building. Greece, for example, would really like the rest of its Parthenon back. For a while, the British argued that Greece didn’t have any museum space in which to properly show these sculptures. Over the past few years, Greece actually built such a space, so…Britain changed its argument. Now, they claim that these artifacts are so connected to the history of Western architecture and art that, really, they belong to all of us now.

• Tate Modern – a former power plant, this really cool building was emptied out and converted into a place where you can debate about what counts as art and what doesn’t. Walking through all the exhibitions, I kept thinking of an essay that reviewed a “modern” novel, saying something along the lines of “it should never take more effort to understand a piece than it does to make it”. There were a few things here that violated this rule. Some exhibits were really cool, though.

• National Gallery – Britain’s biggest collection of paintings, they’ve got over 2,300 works covering a span of about 800 years. This is also a popular place for afternoon tea, with a tea room/café that overlooks Trafalgar Square. Pictured is our "cream tea": lighter (and $15 cheaper per person) than a full afternoon tea, it comes with just tea, a scone, jam, and clotted cream. The scone in the picture looks a bit ho-hum, but was amazingly delicious with the cream & jam. Possibly my favorite thing we ate all week.

• Victoria and Albert Museum – technically a museum of “decorative arts and design”, this seems to be where you store anything really old but not so ancient/historic that it belongs in the British Museum. Victorian dresses, Islamic rugs, Asian swords, and more! One highlight here was listening to a pair of little girls walk around the museum, reminding me of home movies of Amy and Emily. The older would lead the way, narrating her findings, “I found….some people lying down!” (effigy casts of Henry II and family), “I found…a castle!” (casts of gothic spires), etc., followed by the younger echoing her enthusiasm: “some people!”, “castle!”. In the center of the museum is also a really pretty courtyard and fountain, very popular among London’s still-in-diapers crowd. Pictured below are the courtyard and Leonardo da Vinci's notebook, followed by replicas of Medieval tunics and a knight's gauntlet that you could try on.

London: Logistics

I figured this would be an efficient venue to share some London anecdotes and pictures. It was a great trip overall--we should definitely go there as a family sometime. Maybe on our way to Italy.

Rather than detail the events of each day in succession (which would probably read, "we did this, then we did this, then we did this, ..."), it’ll probably be better to focus on activities by category. First: logistics!...

Our red-eye flight was really not too bad—airlines have definitely upped their entertainment game. In addition to a pretty good selection of free on-demand movies and shows, ours also offered a bunch of games, including some like trivia, poker, and chess that you could play with other people on the flight. Even though it seemed like the trivia had a bit of a European bias (all the sports questions were about cricket or soccer), we managed to set the all time high scores for our plane:

We really lucked out with our accommodations for the week. One of Khristy’s former co-workers who used to live in London recommended a guest-house in Islington, a neighborhood in North London. The narrow-but-tall (4 tiny stories) house had several bedrooms, but only one other person (a local and friend of the owner), was there during our stay. She was very friendly and helped offer restaurant suggestions all week.

Not only was the house itself beautiful(and remarkably inexpensive, relative to other options), but it was a short walk away from Upper Street, the restaurant-rich main road in Islington. We found out after the trip that this 1-mile street actually has more restaurants than any other street in the UK. What luck! More about these restaurants in the food post in a couple days.

For transportation around the city, we invested in 7-day travel cards which give you unlimited bus and subway rides. This turned out to be a great decision—we would have spent ~3x as much had we bought tickets individually. Plus, in the rare event that we got on the wrong bus or train (never ever my fault, of course), it didn’t cost us anything extra to correct our mistake. The buses went everywhere…there are over 700 routes, and trying to figure them out was impossible until I found a life-saving iPad app that would tell you which buses you could use to travel between any two points. Meredith: If there’s a New York version, I’d highly recommend it. Here I am calling the app's developers to tell them what a good job they did:

Still to come: museums, other sites, and food!

Happy Birthday, Beulah!!

Little baby Pigalettia turns FIVE years old today! Taking a nap before she gets this party started...

This is a momentous day. My very first "This ain't no donkey ride" post! I figured between Haiti, and the Skyfest boogie last weekend, I had something to write about. I've already told each of you a little about the Haiti trip, but pictures are worth a thousand words, (or at least a hundred). In a nutshell, the trip was pretty amazing. There were no hitches getting there. All the flights were on time. We had to 'hide' our instruments and supplies in everyone's luggage, because the customs people in Haiti are fairly corrupt, and if they sense anything valuable coming through, they take it, or extort money from you. Nothing like that happened, and everyone's bags made it. We had a 3 hr ride to Grand Guave in a minivan, (luggage packed on top, thirteen people in the van!). Port Au Prince is pretty much a hell hole. Very crowded, extreme poverty (lots of 'tent cities'), and very dirty. Grand Guave was a bit better, but every bit as poor. No infrastructure to speak of. No running water, no electricity, no plumbing. The house we stayed in was basically a cinder block structure with cement floors. (the nicest place around- we had tent cities on either side of us). We had bunk beds with air mattresses, and fans. Thank goodness for the fans. It was HOT. Mid to upper 90's, with no cool down at night. The house (which Jim Early called the 'Osama Bin Laden' compound), had water coming in from a well, which we purified. We worked in different sites every day, with two days up in the mountains, (about 2200 ft). The ride up was definitely no donkey ride. It was a small flat bed truck, in which we packed all our supplies, and 23 people! The ride was 1 to 1.5 hrs, standing. The dental set up was basically two beach chairs, and plastic chairs for us. With no electricity, or water, or suction, we used 'miner' headlamps, and gauze. A lot of the extractions were surgical, requiring flaps, cutting away the bone with hand instruments, and gut sutures. The work was very challenging at times. Sterilization was done with Birex, Chlorox, and rinses. We worked everyday, except the last, which we worked till lunch, and then were rewarded with a couple of hours at a local beach, (clean, beautiful). We ate barbecued lobster tail there. It was so interesting being in, and interacting with another culture. The people were incredible. It's amazing to me, given the depth of poverty, and the challenges they face, how they manage to eek out a tenable existence. Their daily lives seem to center on getting clean water, (a few wells throughout the city), and sustenance. The women and children get the water, in 5 gal paint buckets, (40+ pounds), which they carry on their heads! Because of this, they walk with amazing grace. They take their faith seriously, (50% Catholic, 25% Protestant, with Voo Doo mixed in), and seem to have an unshakable hope for their future. The children are the same everywhere,, funny, playful. As you all my know, because you've done similar trips with Eddie, it also impressed me how much our team bonded. To do such hard work in such difficult conditions made us depend immensely on each other. It also struck me that during the hardest times, I noticed I was incredibly content, happy, and felt very alive. The only illnesses/injuries, were Gloria Cobb, who got sick, (vomiting), and me, when I stabbed my thumb when a tooth broke. The Dr's gave Gloria some Phenergan, which helped, and me a round of antibiotics, just to be safe. The entire group unanimously said they would go again in a heartbeat. We laughed, we cried, and came back blessed. Sorry if I rambled on. Thanks for listening.

The next week, I got go play. Went skydiving at the Skyfest Boogie in Chester. I've enclosed two links. One is a 4-way my friend mike taped with a camera on his helmet. It has me coming out of the plane after him, flying down and docking on his left. The other is my helicopter jump, when I borrowed his helmet/camera. (including the low level 'this ain't no donkey ride' up). Love you all....Can't wait till HH..Daddy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl6gFIS110g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ucfdzPwIU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvrr75Fh9zg

Chocolate WOW

This recipe on Serious Eats sounded reminiscent (in elements) to the awesome ones you made over Easter!

Photograph and original illustration by Jessie Oleson (aka Cakespy).

I would make this, but I'd probably have to eat the entire pan. Could you pass along that icing recipe? Those were so good, and seem like a relatively easy dessert to make for a potluck or company.

For the sake of balance, here's a chocolate "dessert" I've been making a lot lately — essentially hot cocoa, but without so many calories! Sort of scratches the itch for a sweet something to end the day without getting a sugar/carb buzz right before bed:

- Roughly 1 TBSP cocoa powder

- Optional: almond milk, skim milk, light coconut milk, etc. (something to add a bit of creaminess)

- Sweetener: you could use regular sugar for this and just use it in moderation, OR I find xylitol works well, doesn't have a funky aftertaste, and is good for your teeth!. (Some people use stevia or flavor drops.) The idea is that you're not using nearly as much sweetener as pre-made cocoa mixes would include.

- Boiling water

Just put the first three ingredients in a mug, then pour in the boiling water and stir. Voila!

Another idea if it's nearing bedtime and you've got the munchies: just make a cup of hot tea. It'll keep your hands and your mouth busy, and (be sure it's caffeine-free) should help you feel ready to go to sleep.

Hope you all are having a good Wednesday! Let me know if you need any other recipes that mostly just involve boiling water!!
— Em

Customer Service warning and request

All right Busey ladies. Do not, do NOT order makeup products from Karin Herzog. Dottie Mama ordered some in March and still has not received her products. Even though the website still accepts orders, with some investigating we have discovered that NO ONE is receiving their products.

I write this A) to warn you; B) to be seen by the random google search; and C) to ask you to spread the word! They are swindlers! BEWAAAAAARE!

The Bends

24 days down! You’ve all been very nice to check in every so often and ask for updates, so you will probably find several parts of this post redundant. Hopefully there will be a little new info for everyone, though.

The biggest change since 2 weeks ago (can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since the last post…it feels much more recent) has been starting physical therapy, which I’m actually really enjoying. My orthopedist recommended 2 places—a small therapy studio in Carrboro or a new UNC therapy center in Chapel Hill…I looked at the websites for both, and was ready to call the UNC site (they had lots of pictures of fancy new therapy equipment) until I saw the google reviews for Carrboro’s Balance Physical Therapy. Everyone raved and raved about Balance’s staff and therapy programs—reviews so laudatory that I started to suspect they were written by the therapists themselves to try and get more business. I put that cynicism aside and made an appointment (they are also a closer drive and have more PHDs on staff), which I think was a good choice. It’s a very small facility, but everyone is really friendly and knows their stuff. It also manages to incorporate just the right amount of Carrboro-hippy vibe—free hot tea is served in the waiting area, and one therapist brings in her two golden retrievers who go around and make sure everyone is doing ok.

I work mainly with Chad, a therapist who grew up in/near Boston (we complain together about how much it costs to fly there these days) and got into physical therapy after suffering a few sports injuries of his own. The main goals at this stage are to get my range-of-motion (knee bending) and quad strength back. Most of my trips at this point, then, go roughly as follows…

• 15 minutes of massaging the knee and leg, getting my patella comfortable and kneading my IT Bands (these run along the side of the thigh and help with stabilization—they often tighten up after ACL surgery, doing extra stabilization work since the ACL isn’t contributing yet). This part’s pretty great.
• 15 minutes of knee bending. I lay flat on a soft table, my leg up on the therapist’s shoulder. He’ll push the knee back and lower his shoulder, bending my leg a little farther each time. As we get to my flexibility limit, this starts to really hurt (I try to remember to take a pain pill before each appointment), so I’m not particularly fond of this part. This is when I want golden retriever time.
• 15 minutes of quad firing. I sit up some, legs still flat in front of me, and just flex my left quad as hard as I can, taking breaks as it gets tired. We’ll also do single-leg-raises, lifting my leg up while keeping it as straight as I can. If I can keep it completely straight (i.e., the knee doesn’t start coming up before the foot…aka no ”extension lag”), this is done without the brace on.
• 15 minutes of exercise bike—not as advanced as it sounds. I don’t actually peddle away, but rather start with my left leg extended, then peddle as far as I can forward, then back down, then as far as I can backward. Repeat for a while. It’s another way to push my bending limits, letting my right leg boss my left leg around to try and get its flexibility back.
• Wrap up with new walking instructions and brief practice. For example, my first trip I was told to start letting my left foot hit the ground as I walked, putting as much weight on it as I could safely bear. Next time we unlocked the brace for bending-while-walking, mimicking a normal gait but keeping the crutches for most of the weight-bearing. Now I’m up to unlocked brace and one crutch, though I have to move very slowly and deliberately.

In between appointments I’ll do as much as I can on my own (“biking” at the apartment fitness center or RTI gym, leg lifts on the couch/floor, knee bends, etc). So far I feel I’ve kept with it fairly well—between my Monday and Wednesday appointments this week I gained 20 degrees of bending range, which impressed/surprised the therapist. And just a few hours ago I actually managed to peddle all the way around on the exercise bike!—which means in the coming days I’ll probably be able to use one like a normal person, building a little muscle back and getting some much-missed cardio activity.

So things are going pretty well. There are still a few lingering negatives. I’m still struggling to get comfortable in bed, resulting in many less-than-satisfactory nights of sleep, but it’s better than it used to be. I’m also a bit saddened by the amount of atrophy I’ve already suffered. This week’s lovely legs picture shows the contrast in calves:

You’ll notice the knee is still pretty swollen—apparently it will stay that way until I’m walking without crutches and without a limp (a few weeks away?). All in all, though, I’m making a lot of progress and am pretty close to ditching the crutches and brace. It won’t be long before I can walk on a treadmill and use an elliptical machine, and if I keep up this pace I should be able to bike in Hilton Head without any problems. Just in case I can’t, I’ve gone ahead and ordered one of these for Meredith to tow me around:

Getting ACL-limated

Day 12 of my ACL-rehab donkey ride. It’s been comforting that every day is consistently a little better than the day before—at any given point I can remind myself “It’s only going to get easier”.

The big milestones (ditching the crutches around 4 weeks, ditching the brace around 6 weeks, and running around 3 months) are still fairly far off, but I hit several minor, intermediate goals this week, including:

• Sunday night – tinkered with my golf-club-bungee-cord contraption and figured out how to sit down and stand up on my own. This was crucial—I might not have let Khristy or Daddy leave, otherwise.
• Tuesday – showered! I’m allowed to take off my brace and shower now (the only time it’s ok to take it off), which is very nice. Though it takes a long long time to get in there safely and I have to be careful around the stitches (lovely stitches picture below), it feels very refreshing.
• One of the days (they all blend together when you spend each of them in the exact same spot and posture) – figured out how to get in the car! Another liberating step. I’ve driven to the mail boxes a couple times, which will hopefully be good practice for Monday, when I have to drive myself to the doctor. I might see if I can go to Trader Joe’s tomorrow to practice a farther trip (…and get some bananas).
• Saturday – while laying down, I lifted my leg an inch off the pillows, using only my quad muscles! This is one of the big therapy exercises for the first month. I’m not exactly clear on the biological reasons for why this is so difficult/impossible right now, as they didn’t actually do anything to my quad, but it certainly takes a lot of straining to try and lift it.

Pretty good, right? Here’s the stitches picture I referenced earlier—be sure and look at it when you’re getting ready to eat a big meal!

There are still some issues, though. I think they would be best presented in another group of bullets…

• Though I’m allowed to take off the brace and bandaging to shower, that also means I’m in charge of putting it (and the ice-pump-wrap) back on. I do not like this responsibility, because (a) it’s quite difficult to reach the straps and bandaging close to my ankle, and (b) I’m never sure if I put them on 100% correctly, which leaves me perpetually wondering if my amateur bandaging is at all responsible for any subsequent pain/swelling. Speaking of swelling…
• Swelling. I’m sure everything was pretty swollen last week, but I couldn’t see it under the layers and layers of wrapping. Now that some of the bandaging has been removed I’m constantly noticing how swollen my ankle is (very swollen). I almost e-mailed my doctor (would have been the 3^rd time since my last appointment), but some internet research tells me the ankle swelling is pretty standard. The swelling has also subsided ever so slightly the past couple days, helping to quell my paranoia for the time being.
• Some sleeping struggles the past couple days. I’ve had a hard time getting comfortable in bed, resulting in a few straight nights of 20-minutes-asleep, 40-minutes-awake cycles. I don’t really mind the pain/discomfort when I’m out on the couch distracting myself with games and movies, but it becomes frustrating at night when it hurts just enough to wake you up, but not so much that I can wake up and play QRank (which, you might have noticed, I have been housing this week). Being stuck in one position becomes aggravating, too—I’d eat three onions if it meant I could turn on my side and bend my knees in bed. Speaking of bending…
• No bending. I had thought that the point of my brace was to make sure I didn’t bend my leg, as this might interfere with the way the ACL and hamstring healed. It turns out that, even without the brace, my leg still knows the rules. I got doc approval to carefully experiment with bending…one remarkably short experiment session later, I realized leg-bending is pretty much impossible at this point. Like the quad lifting discussed in the Progress section, I’m not sure what recovery-biology makes this so difficult, but it’s another thing to look forward to improving upon in physical therapy.

Still reading? Good attention span! Skimmed everything and just happened upon this sentence? You are my least favorite family member (not really—you must be busy. And I haven’t updated my rankings in a while).

That’s how things stand with week 3 about to start, sure to bring its own milestones—stitches come out, physical therapy starts, I visit my office, and more!

I’d like to thank everyone once again for all your help last weekend, though. It was really, really touching how kind and eager-to-help everyone was. You all tie for first place in the leg-lift-and-hold standings. Thank you all so much.

Easter Reflections - It's not what you think!

It is always such a joy to spend time together as a family and for us at least, it is never enough time. You all are such amazing and delightful adults and we look at you and marvel that you came from us, but we are incredibly grateful! Thanks for making the effort to come home for such quick visits. I know that you pay for your time away for the rest of the week so your visits are even more of a sacrifice.

Yab, I hope that you did not do terrible and permanent damage by coming here this weekend. You know that we would all drop everything and come to help if you need us.

Em, I am so sorry that you have to drive so far to retrieve Piggie and to make amends to her for being gone. Tell her that she was missed all weekend - it is not a holiday without Pigaletta!

Goose, it feels like you have been out of town or entertaining guests every weekend since Christmas. I don't know how you keep up with all the normal, everyday demands when you don't have time to refresh on weekends. I forgot to ask when you fly to Washington.

Hooey is the luckiest. She gets to spend all of her free time with her Mama and Daddy. It does not make sense that she keeps announcing that she is running away to New York.

Mattie has slept the rest of the day - you all wore her out!!

PS: The other lucky part for us is that we have some amazing leftovers - thanks for all the food prep!

Hoppy Easter! We love you!

Granola Bar Challenge: Accepted!

I would also like to accept the chicken tortilla soup challenge, but I am currently unable to find my slow cooker. I suspect it may have succumbed to the same fate as my other appliances that mysteriously wound up not at all where I left them. The investigation is still underway.

In the meantime, I did take a not very creative pass on the Flour Bakery Granola Bars. Joanne Chang includes this recipe in her newish cookbook. While not quick, it's very easy and well worth the effort. The only thing I did differently was dial back the sugar in the jam, as I like my fruit bars (and come on...that's what these really are) on the tart side. My bottom layer browned very quickly (they were a little overdone after 25 minutes in the oven), but this actually gave the bars a caramelized/brown butter flavor that I really liked. I may have eaten 6 bars in a 24 hour period. I don't recommend it. Luckily, coworkers took the rest off my hands.

Finally, I now have a lot of millet. I'm looking forward to making these (maybe with raspberries?), but all other millet suggestions are welcomed!

Recipe (Note: You're supposed to process the toasted walnuts with the oat, flour, etc. mixture.)

Labels Testing

Thought I'd try and contribute by doing the leg work of Emily's "tagging" idea. I've added a "gadget" to the right that should let us look at all the posts by a specific person, a close analog to everyone having their own "section" or "page". Whenever you write a post, if you add your name (pen name, signature, whatever you choose) to the "Labels for this post" section, then it will automatically categorize the post by author. I'm trying it with an "Andy" label to see if it shows up. Stay tuned.

Maprie is excited bout broggin