Passed! Phew...

So, as you all know by now, I passed my dissertation defense. Yay! It was a roller-coaster day. An hour and a half before the defense, Alison & I found out that our car was not worth salvaging, because of the extreme amount of rust through the undercarriage of the car. We were completely overwhelmed and upset, so I went into the defense after crying through lunch. I felt like 1) if I failed, it wouldn't be the worst think that had happened that day and 2) even passing wouldn't make me feel better. Luckily, #2 was incorrect. I did feel much, much better. And my parents are helping us buy the car--we still have to pay the full amount, but our payments are going to them. While it's not the ideal situation to be in, it is better than the alternative. And now we have a cute and jaunty car that will fit in small city parking spaces. Yay.

We went to the beach last weekend, and now we are back in Philadelphia. I have a little under two months before I start my post-doc, and would like to accomplish some major revisions to several papers, including an R&R that has been sitting on my desk for four and a half months. So far, I have read half an article and completed only a fraction of even my non-work-related to do list. I am okay with this for now, but will not be happy if my lack of productivity carries into July.

Quinoa

We finally tried making quinoa this Spring, after months of talking about it. Our first attempt was a disappointment. Following the instructions on the box led to a bland, wheaty version of coucous. But I tried making it again last week, this time spicing it up. And it was excellent:

I served it with roasted vegetables, a regular favorite. They don't look great in the picture, but they were. Roasted veggies are super-easy to make. It just involves tossing vegetables with olive oil, salt, and herbs (usually rosemary & thyme) and baking them in the oven at 375. Here I included sno peas, shitake mushrooms, onion, carrots, an orange pepper, asparagus, and parsnips. I also love shallots in this dish, but the shallots at our local produce store were looking mealy. I cook the peppers & onions first, then add carrots, parsnips, and mushrooms, and add the asparagus and sno peas last.

The quinoa involved cooking 1/2 cup finely chopped onions and 1/4 cup finely chopped carrot in 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil (I know--this decreases the meal's healthiness. But it increases the taste! And in future renditions, I would halve both quantities). Once the vegetables brown, add 2 minced garlic cloves and some salt. Stir, then add quinoa. Stir briefly, then add 2 cups water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for @15 minutes.

Voila! Excellent quinoa & roasted vegetables!

*As you can see, I have set up my new computer. Yay! I also turned in my dissertation and initiated my completely non-vegetarian status by eating a burger last night. Oh, and I cut my hair. New haircut picture below:

Number 3!

My dissertation is due tomorrow. So naturally, I am procrastinating. Here's something fun to amuse you, as it did me. It's from Google trends, and shows the relative frequency of searches (above the timeline) and news stories (below the timeline) for each of five social sciences. I've added a key below.


Dark Blue: Psychology
Red: Economics
Light Blue: Sociology
Green: Anthropology
Gold: Political Science

Try this!

Last night Alison made guacamole...with mango! It was excellent, and we are having the remainder of this magical food treat tonight, with some chicken-lime-cilantro fajitas. But by itself with chips is also an excellent way to eat said guac. (And if I haven't posted it before, we also have an excellent recipe for guacamole with pomegranate and pear.)

Fedex tells me my computer will arrive tomorrow. I won't have time to set it up until I send in my dissertation (Thursday), but once I do, I hope to start posting more pictures of food and recipes.

Sometimes I wish I had entrepreneurial skills, because opening a restaurant or bakery would be so much fun.

Final week

This is my official final week of work on my dissertation (pre-defense, anyway). I have heard back from both of my chairs, with approval to go forward after making a few changes. I am pretty happy with my version now, and I'm sure it will be even better once I make these changes. Yay. I am particularly proud of my qualitative chapter, because I have less experience with this kind of work, and because it's coherent despite being twice as long as the other chapters.

Of course, I may have more to do after the defense. I'm not sure how common it is to have changes from the committee, but I will need to format it for the grad school at the least. And then of course, many drafts of changes before journal submission. But that should be fun, actually.

In other news:

1) My food poisoning finally ended after a week and a half. Thank god.

2) I have been contacting my interview participants to update their contact info, and find out what the seniors are doing in the Fall. I have heard lots of good news (jobs, college, and an engagement--which might seem too early, but this young woman had a child in December, and she had been hoping her boyfriend would propose when I met her in October). I am happiest about one particular senior who had been the best prepared of all the working class/poor teens I interviewed--ambitious, smart, accomplished. She wants to get a ph.d. in psychology eventually, but had been arguing with her mother over college. Her mom wanted her to go to community college nearby. But she won the argument, and is going to a great state university. Yay!

3) I had a real weekend at home for the first time in a very long time (a year or more?) while waiting to hear back about my dissertation. We went out every night, slept late in the mornings, did a little shopping, and cooked yummy meals. It was really fun, and needed.

4) We also saw the Star Trek movie. It was great! I love Zachary Quinto even more now. Although I did spend the first part of the movie waiting for Spock to cut someone's head open. Also, I thought the actors who played Sulu & Checkov were great.