Feliz Navidad

Just got back from taking Ida to Walnut Creek Park.  She seemed to enjoy it.  She managed to corner a ferret or weasel.  I'm guessing it was a ferret though because it was not afraid of Ida at all and once we got her to leave it alone, it just started following us.  It was a lot of fun but would have been more fun if I could relax with Ida around other dogs.  It's an off leash park with a lot of trails, so for the most part I was fine with her off the leash, but as soon as a big dog would come around the corner I would just get scared that she was going to get into a fight.  But nothing bad happened except for a minute Adam and I thought we were lost and were afraid we were going to get stuck in the park in the dark.

Our neighbors sold us their dog crate (their dog had outgrown it) so now we are trying to crate train her.  Mostly for when we leave anytime that's not for work.  She's used to us leaving for work in the morning so she doesn't do anything.  But any other time we try to leave she freaks out.  She's gotten really used to the crate and seems to prefer to lay in it rather than on the floor.  And now when we leave she knows to go in it, and it's only been maybe the 4th day of training!

In other news (non dog related) Adam and I have been feeling a lot like grown ups lately.  Last week we bought a car.  The weekend before a GIANT flat screen TV.  This weekend we got a cable box and a Roku (thanks to Shaw!).  Our apartment is the most grown up apartment I've ever lived it.

We were both feeling a little bummed about Christmas coming and not being able to see our family, so we went to Wal-mart yesterday and bought a little Christmas tree and some ornaments.  We figured rather than just feel bummed, why not just try to have a little fun.  I'm not sure what we will actually do for Christmas yet, but hopefully something special.  Our friend Tim is coming to visit Wednesday which is going to be great.  I wish I could convince more people to visit, because it sure makes me feel happy when they are here. 

Alright, off to go make a Christmas Tree skirt.  Perhaps there will be a photo update soon.

Adam's favorite new meal (not including the salad)

I've been buying a lot of cooking magazine's lately when I'm at the grocery store so Adam and I have been trying lots of new food. He's generally a little hard to please when it comes to food, but he loves this one I found. So much so that we make it pretty much every week.
 





Chicken Pappardelle with Sun-Dried Tomatoes 

Ingredients
- 8 oz dry pappardelle
- 2 strips of thick sliced bacon, diced
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and minced
- 3 cups cooked chicken
- 1 T. garlic minced
- 1/2 t. re pepper flakes
- 1/2 c. dry white wine
- 1 c. chicken broth
- 1/2 c. heavy cream
- salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Bring a pot of water to a poil for the pappardelle. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

2. Saute bacon and tomatoes in a large nonstick skillet. Add chicken, garlic and pepper flakes. Cook until garlic starts to brown.

3. Add wine, scraping the bottom of the pan. Stir in cream and broth. Add pasta bringing everything to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

We usually add more red pepper flakes and some Parmesan cheese.

blah blah cancer blah blah

What a long weekend.  I feel so old.  When did my life become conferences? Two conferences in three days was exhausting both physically and mentally.

I spent all of Thursday at the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance conference.  I was invited by one of the faculty in the School of Social Work that does her research on childhood cancer survivors.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to see it's a field or work I would like to pursue.  The conference began with an appearance from a guest speaker, Ethan Zohn.  He's that guy that won Survivor: Africa and then got cancer.  I haven't really followed Survivor so I was only kind of familiar with him.  He was a great speaker though and seemed really genuine.  But after that I really didn't care and lost all attention, which made me feel bad.

I spent the rest of the day listening to boring information about clinical trials and steering committee updates.  I was also surrounded by so many passionate cancer survivors that have made their experience their full-time job, but somehow I was not inspired.  It really bothered me that I wasn't feeling motivated or inspired by it all.  It made me feel like somehow there was something wrong with me because I did not have the desire to dedicate my life to cancer.

But after ruminating on it for the next couple of days (and having breakfast with one of my camp friends) I realized I don't have to care.  I guess my feeling is that, yes cancer is horrible and we can all agree on that.  And I think it's important that there are people out there advocating for cancer.  But I would much rather dedicate my life to fixing social problems.  Problems that are caused by people or systems, not just fate and environmental causes. 

So I guess it was a good thing I went to the conference, even if it wasn't for the reasons I had originally anticipated. 

The First Part of a Multipart Installment, entitled

HOUSES IN AUSTIN I THINK ARE 

CUTE & AWESOME

BUT YOU MIGHT FIND UGLY

brought to you by Leeann & Ida

And now a picture of cool trees.

The post my mom has been waiting for

Photos of our apartment! And Ida.  She tends to follow me everywhere and finds her way in to most pictures.  It's taken me a while to get around to taking pictures, mostly because we didn't have any stuff when we moved in.  And pictures without stuff are BORING.

 

Cozy in the couch

OUTSIDE

  

Our building kind of reminds me of a hotel.  At first I wasn't sure if I would like that or not.  But it's really nothing like a hotel (except we do have a pool and free cable).

 

The courtyard area right outside our door.  It's got a couple tables, lots of chairs and a couple grills.

 Ida doing some tanning.

 The grill-we-have-never-used-but-probably-should-soon

 The fence that separates our courtyard from the awesome grocery store next door.  

 The neighbors kitty that Ida likes to bother.

INSIDE

Our apartment is basically and open area of the kitchen and living room separated by a breakfast bar.  This is the view from the kitchen of our living room and awesome reclining couch.

Ida's bed in front of the window.

 

The kitchen

Another view of the kitchen (and dishwasher!)

 

Keeping the pantry stocked courtesy of food stamps.

MY CORNER 

My sewing corner (although right now it's set up more as my work-from-home corner)

BATHROOM

 

BEDROOM

 I need to make some curtains.

 The dresser we pulled out of the trash.  It's clearly nothing special and covered in the remains of sticker adhesive but it's functional.

 My super awesome HUGE closet

 Adam's not-as-HUGE-but-still-quite-SPACIOUS closet

Goodbye September

Failed apartment hunting, sick dog, head cold, campus "shooting".  September was the pits.  Luckily it's now October and all I can think about is the changing of the seasons and how much I love Autumn.  But apparently there have been no signs that the leaves will be changing colors anytime soon or the the temperature will be any less than 90.  I miss Illinois fall.

There is a daycare attached to the Social Work building and the window above my desk looks out onto the playground.  It's nice to hear kids laughing and playing, but I'm slowly being driven insane.  In order to get the kids inside, the childcare worker sings a song.  I hear this song at least 5 times a day. Every day. Guaranteed. 

Walking, Walking (sung to Frere Jacque)

Walking, walking
Walking, walking
Yes we are, yes we are
Everybody's walking, everybody's walking
Now we stop, now we stop

My Ida baby

Saturday morning Adam and I woke up and noticed that one of Ida's back legs was swollen and enlarged.  It was a little surreal how different it looked from her other leg.  She didn't seem to be in any pain and wasn't limping or anything.  I was immediately worried because earlier in the week she had made a mess all over our roommates room, which was completely unusual.  A few days later she had puked a couple times but seemed to be getting better.  I thought maybe she just ate something in the garbage that upset her stomach, but now with her leg swollen I got really freaked out.

We spent all Saturday morning in the hospital waiting.  It was horrible.  Finally the vet came in to examine Ida and noticed that one of her lymph glands was really swollen, which was probably causing poor circulation in her leg.  She seemed really unsure of what was going on and had to consult a book.  I was really hoping we would just go in there and she would tell me Ida got bit or stung by something.  Instead I just ended up being terrified and confused.  She said there could be a variety of reasons causing her gland to swell.  Tick borne disease, bacterial infection, fungal infection or cancer.  I know she's just a dog, but when I heard the vet say "cancer" my heart sank.  She's my baby and it scares me too much to think about.

They took some blood and a cell sample and will be calling us Tuesday with the results.  I'm also going to be in San Angelo for work the next two days which just makes me feel so much more anxious and scares.  I'm hoping an praying it's not something serious because I don't think I'm strong enough to handle anything else.