Lessons Learned While Baking

Don't use a bewitched mixer. Even if it CAN do the nose thing.

So of course it's late at night on a Friday and anyone who would've come to my door would find a) that suddenly no one's home b) the inhabitant is grabbing a large knife and c) aforementioned inhabitant was previously in the process of baking banana bread. This one has Nutella "swirled" in, and looks at first glance like a banana had the runs. I hope the final product is tasty.

You may be asking yourself "Matt, why on God's green earth are you baking on a Friday night?" I have no answer to this question that would make you say "Oh, that makes complete sense." I'm taking it to a Halloween party tomorrow, and wanted to get it done with before I go to the football game (including the biochemistry tailgate party before hand) tomorrow. I'm also planning on making cheesy potatoes, so if you want some, come get some.

I also hosted an impromptu pumpkin carving "party" tonight. As it turns out, Chapel Hill is for all intensive purposes, out of pumpkins. But the dimly (read: not) illuminated "pumpkin patch" on the side of the state highway isn't! Sure, no one was there to take our money, but we left it somewhere safe (or so I'm told). In complete contrast to prostitution, the logic of "if we pay for it, it's not illegal" prevailed. I should mention we were so preoccupied with getting caught because whilst we pumpkin-patched, the state troopers (of course there were two) were chilling in the gas station parking lot 3o yards away. They don't do a very good job.

So this leads to pumpkin carving around midnight. They all turned out fairly well, and should add a nice touch to the party tomorrow. We also baked the seeds. Fan-flipping-tastic!

That's all for now. For the impatient:

-I baked.

-I carved pumpkins.

-It is late.

Currently Listening to: "Amsterdam," by Guster

I Am Iron Man

That's pretty much all I have to say.

I was having some trouble with my car earlier in the week. It was having issues starting without the aid of a jump pack(portable battery pack used to jump a vehicle without the need for a second vehicle). This was especially concerning since I needed it to get to an interview 3 hours away. Long story short, after driving for an hour I stopped to get gas and it started fine after that. The seven hours of driving I did later that day surely helped the battery to get back to a normal state of charge.

Happy Halloween weekend everyone. Don't eat poisoned candy.

Goings-on in Chapel Hill

Since I hate when Eric whines at me, I decided that it's time for an update. It's been a month, so it could be a long one; if you don't like reading these lengthy things, skip to the bottom for a summary.

Things are going well here as far as classes and research are concerned. I really like the lab I'm in for this rotation and am making decent headway on my project. That should make the research talk I'm giving next week a little more interesting. Classes have lightened up significantly since my last post, and I've also found out that I passed at least two of the three exams in the "my-life-is-hell" class from earlier this semester. Hopefully the third one went just as well.

Fall has finally started to give Chapel Hill a tip o' the hat. The leaves are just starting to change, and the weather has been nice and cool lately (although today was in the mid-70's). A few weeks ago I made butternut squash soup. It was excellent. Most of it is now frozen so I can indulge during the winter without the work. (As a side note, I have become a huge fan of my crock pot in recent weeks. Dump everything together the night before, pull it out of the fridge in the morning, let it cook all day, and voila! Dinner for a week! If anyone has any good crock pot recipes, I'm up for some new stuff).

Speaking of fall, I went camping with some people from my program (I'd call them "friends," but I know that offends some readers) a few weekends ago. We were in the mountains about 3 hours away from Chapel Hill, and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was just about the peak weekend for leaves changing colors, and of course I was all about the photos. If you want to see some photos from the weekend, they're here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/msmola/ . This weekend also revealed to me that I've met someone here who serves as an acceptable agent of Nathan's "drink bish!" mentality. This girl hands me a cup full of literally everything we brought (which was an obnoxious amount) and says "Drink. Now," just like Nathan! Only Nathan makes drinks that are palatable. We're working on it.

Whilst camping, we agreed that we should check out the North Carolina State Fair, which just ended today I think. We went Friday night, and were part of the 1,000,000+ crowd that attended the fair while it was open. I have no idea exactly how long it went on, so one million people might not be that impressive. In any case, it was interesting. I'd never seen so many fried foods in one place. There was the usual fried onions, fried chicken, fried pickles (yum), etc. But on top of that, there were several vendors peddling fried candy bars (I had a fried Reese's....it was really good), fried oreos, fried hot dogs (not a corn dog...think crispier), fried BUTTER (as in, a stick on a stick), and other ridiculous things I can't recall at this time. To top it all off, a few places sold burgers on Krispy Kreme (a North Carolina original) donut buns. I split one of the bacon cheeseburger varieties with a friend I have to admit, it was kind of tasty. Not that I'd ever want to eat a whole one or that I feel at all ok with myself for having eaten 2 years of my life. Just sayin'.

In other interesting news, I discovered that in some sad areas of the country, they refer to "pre-gaming" as "pre-partying." I'm pretty sure that whenever I pre-game with people, it's like it's own little party...whatever, California is a weird state anyway.

Speaking of parties, I'm going to a Halloween party next weekend, and I'll probably be dressed up like Target Team Member Matt. It's like a costume but not. Perfect.

If you skipped all that, here's what you're looking for (or not).

Summary:

Went camping.

Went to the state fair.

Still in school.

Science rules.

Currently Listening to: Easy Wonderful, Guster's new album.

I NEED A JOB!!!

It is getting to the point that my main motivation is not even money anymore. Ok, that's a bold faced lie, but seriously. I am dying at home. I need something to do. I hate having to be near my room all day long, because if someone calls about a job I need to get there for some quiet. I want an atmosphere where I can be productive! All I do here is sit around. Sure, there is some job applying, and some follow up emailing, but my time is dominated by waiting. For nothing.

I found a new Facebook game a few days ago. It is kind of like SimCity, but without the whining from disgruntled townsfolk. It is really quite enjoyable, but I have so much time to play it, it is quickly wearing out. Its called Millionaire City if anyone is interested in a harmless diversion. It is not even as addicting and time consuming as many of the other games around.

I have been dreaming a lot lately about what I may get to replace my current mode of transportation. I will soon have a job that pays me a significant amount more than I need to live, so in a few years I will have plenty to buy myself a nice present. I really think I want a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8. I just wish the name was shorter. If my Saturn lasts a few more years, maybe I can replace it with this:

No one posts on the blog anymore. It is sad. I am willing to bet that the 3 contributors who have jobs or school encounter interesting situations, people, and things almost daily, yet they never have the decency to share. I personally have very little to talk about. I could tell you how I cleared some dead branches out of a tree, but that is not too thrilling. Or I could tell you about how close I am getting to having to make loan payments and I am still jobless. Somehow that just seems depressing. I also have had a few interviews recently, one of which was even promising. Oh well, there is not much chance anyone reads this blog anyway since no one writes in it. Welp, back to Facebook I go.

Tangents

I was amazed once again today when I calculated my average fuel consumption after a fill-up. My car got 43.6 mpg over a 403 mile span. One of those miles took half an hour and was located in downtown Cincinnati approaching the 75/71 split where, apparently, people inexplicable loose the ability to not drive like infantile morons. When you see traffic backed up in the direction you would like to go is it logical to zoom along in the lane going the other way then try to merge at the last second? No! Because that makes people want to shoot you in the eye with a crossbow. That's not what I was going to tell you.

I was amazed that my 16 year old car is still out-performing brand new HYBRIDS!!!!!! Even though it also passed 176 thousand miles in this same trip. This is because the car manufacturers do not have to make more efficient vehicles because the gelatinous masses think that it is impressive when a sedan gets 30 mpg highway. Give me a break. I wish the oil ran out tomorrow so people would wake up and realize how pathetic things are. But, of course, that would mean that the supply would dwindle first, sending the world into a killing frenzy with everyone selfishly trying to obtain the last few drops.

On an unrelated (surprise) note I decided this weekend that I am going to win the lottery and start my own car company. Unfortunately, this company will be focused on sports cars, which are not meant to be economical, so it still sucks to be you.

Banana.