Raspberry Scones

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter-chilled
1 cup raspberries
1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in bowl.
Fold in butter. Add raspberries and milk. Stir to form soft dough.

Turn out dough on lightly floured surface. Knead gently 8-10 times.

Brush with milk, sugar, and cinnamon. Cook at 425 for 15 minutes.

Simple Fruit Salad and Sautéed Squash

Ingredients

1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup cherries (pitted and halved)
1/2 cup grapes
1 peach pitted and diced
1 cup vanilla yogurt







Ingredients

1 medium summer squash
1 medium zucchini
olive oil
dill
thyme
rosemary
garlic
salt pepper

Honey Raisin Bread (Machine)

Ingredients

1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup milled flax seed
3 tbsp vital wheat gluten
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cup raisins

Golden Flax Bread (Bread Machine)

Ingredients

7/8 cups warm water
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp molasses
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp milled flax seed
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tbsp non-fat dry milk
1 1/2 tbsp fast rise yeast

I apparently am not good at keeping up with blogging..

So brief recap of the past 2 months that I have absolutely failed at blogging.

1) I finished my internship at Mac...was said to leave...and am now back at ISU.
2) I have continued running and am now up to 8 mile long runs...I officially registered for the Des Moines marathon
3) I now have my two cats (Olive and Butler) living in my apartment with me.
4) I am working on learning how to cook.
5) I finished the application process, had two interviews, and have been nominated (though not in writing) for the Peace Corps departing June of 2011 doing something related to education.


These five things pretty much everything that I have missed blogging about and pretty accurately describe what my future blog posts are likely to be about.

Its Been a While...Tara's Visit, Pride, and Biking

So these next few posts will be a bit out dated. Two weeks ago my friend Tara came to visit me in the cities. It was really great to get to see her again. We jammed a lot of stuff into our weekend, but it didn't feel all that hectic or tiring.

Her visit coincided with the Twin Cities PRIDE Festival...so this was our staple source of entertainment for the weekend. The first day we drove down to the festival, and parking was a nightmare. We ended up forking over $10 to park because it was too frustrating to try and find a free space. It was well worth it though and we wandered around the booths and just enjoyed the nice weather for a few hours. I also got a temporary tattoo from the Target booth and it has lasted for close to two weeks already...which is neat but also leads people to question my personal hygiene.

After checking out Pride we headed to the Mall of America. The last time I attempted to visit the MoA I walked in and promptly walked back out. This time I actually did some shopping and spent a few hours wandering the monstrosity that is the MoA. It did help that this time I had a purpose for being there...shoes. I had up until this point been running in a pair of water shoes...they were comfortable but still water shoes. And since I had officially decided that taking up running was something I wanted to do and to keep up with it was necessary to buy some real shoes for the sport. This is where DSW Shoes comes in handy...I got two pairs of nice running shoes for $106 which is pretty darn good considering that the shoes were New Balance and Saucony. I also bought myself two nice scarfs that were on sale in one of the other shops we wandered into.

On Sunday we headed back to Pride but this time we were ambitious and decided to bike the 9.8 miles to Loring Park. It was a nice ride and the Mid-Town Greenway was awesome. It is like a bike highway...complete with on and off ramps and everything. Very nice. The second day of Pride was amazing. We got there just in time to grab some food and find a spot for the parade before the first people went by. The parade was huge and very awesome. I was genuinely surprised by how many churches had contingents marching in support of gay pride/rights...It was very nice to see. After the parade we grabbed a prime spot at a table near the pond/lake to sit and people watch while eating some freshly battered corn dogs. We also took the opportunity to work on rehydrating because it was quite roasty out. This was also when I realized that I had developed a bit of a sunburn. After grabbing some ice tea from Dunn Brothers we got back on our bikes and started back up the hill that would take us back to the Mid-Town Greenway.

Instead of biking straight back we veered off at Lake St. and headed over to the Minnehaha Fall. I have decided that this is one of my favorite places in the Twin Cities. The pool below the falls is so neat (I will post a few pictures later). I could sit down there and read for hours.

It was sad to see Tara leave but it was a great weekend overall. I am looking forward to having other friends come to visit in the future.

Fingerprinting for PC & Running Update

This was much easier than I was expecting. The hardest part was finding the cheapest place to do it at. If you are in the town of a PC regional office they will do it for free...unfortunately I am not. The first place I checked out was the Minneapolis Police Dept. However, they charge $15 per card and since we have 2 cards I felt that was a bit ridiculous. After some searching, my word of advice to anyone at this stage and in a similar predicament would be to check out if a large university near you has a police or security station. The University of Minnesota Police Department charged half of what the city police department would have.

Next step mailing everything back and hopefully being invited for an interview. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I also wanted to update everyone and let them know that I can now officially run 4 miles. Woot!

When Mommey Came to Visit

Biking, biking, and more biking...that is the brief version of my weekend. If that sounds interesting then keep reading. If not you can consider that your update...though I will add that the long version will also include sushi, an art festival, a waterfall, the dead sea scrolls, and a few other things.

So mom took an extended weekend vacation to come and visit me (and I will admit to get Kyle to the MSP airport in order for him to fly to Germany but I would like to think it was all for me). I am not going to do this chronologically but instead based on topic.

1) Glee...mom had never seen it so of course we watched the entire first season. Pretty sure she loved it.

2) Biking...we biked most of the weekend. First we biked the chain of lakes section of the grand rounds bike trail. (See here for more information http://minneapolisparks.org/grandrounds/dist_CL.htm)) We also biked to the Minnehaha Falls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnehaha_Falls) and to the Stone Arch Bridge and the Science Museum.

3) Stone Arch Bridge Art Festival...very, very cool. Lots of really neat art exhibits and tons of people.

4) Sushi...mom had never had sushi before. I think she liked it even though it definitely has a unique texture and flavor.

5) We also went to the Science Museum of Minnesota to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. It was expensive but I think totally worth. I would highly recommend checking it out if you are into religion or history.

Peace Corps Update

I have officially been assigned a recruiter! I got an email from her this morning that included additional information and to let me know that I could direct any questions I have to her. It also included several attachments: 3 additional forms for me to fill out if they apply to me (luckily only one did) and 3 descriptions of possible assignments I may be qualified for. Drumroll... I may be qualified to work as a University English Teacher, in Youth and Community Development, or in Health Extension.

I was also told that a packet including the forms for my formal background check, finger print cards, and additional forms was on its way in the mail and that I should return all paper and electronic forms by July 2nd.

More about my time at Mac

Things are still plugging along at Mac. I have started working on the Student Organization Advisor Handbook and have continued to meet with people regarding the 1st six weeks newsletters. I met with the Associate Dean of Students, the Protestant Chaplain for the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, the VP for Student Affairs, the Director of the Lealtad-Suzuki Center (which is the programmatic arm of the Department of Multicultural Life) and the associate director of the Career Development Center. These meetings have all been wonderful, highly informative, and really valuable to my overall experience at Mac.

things I have learned in my meetings:
1. I love student affairs and it is most definitely the career for me
2. the students at Mac have a distinct culture
3. the people here are super supportive
4. every school has its political stuff
5. there is a profound difference that exists between trying to achieve peace by pursuing justice and trying to achieve justice by pursuing peace

other things I have done since my last update:
I ate at an excellent restaurant called Fasika...sooo yummy. It is an Ethiopian restaurant and the food is delicious. I also discovered that eating stew with your hands at a restaurant is really fun.

I also tried out Izzy's icecream parlor. I had the strawberry icecream with a grapefruit sorbet izzy (a teeny tiny scoop of icecream) on top. It was quite good. The grapefruit sorbet had a good kick to it.

I also got around to some of the much needed maintenance on my car and got the oil and transmission fluid changed. I drove about 30 miles for the transmission fluid because there was a place in Cottage Grove that did a great job but also was about 1/4 the price other places quoted me at.

random thoughts for the day: almost everyone has heard the saying "if one door closes, another one opens", right? Well the other day, I was wondering if trapdoors count...if so I think they should post warning labels.

things on my updated to do list: eat a s'more cupcake, run a 5k in under 32 minutes (no reason for the 32 just like the number and think its a good goal)

Its Official.

I was definitely having some second thoughts for a while about whether or not I really wanted to apply to the Peace Corps at this point in my life. I have had the vast majority of my application done for close to two months and only had a few sentences left to finish on my essays, but for some reason I just kept putting it off. I recently realized that there is no ideal time to join the Peace Corps. You will always be leaving someone behind. You will always miss your family and friends. There is always the potential that you will miss a friend's wedding, a sibling's graduation, a birth, a death...the list goes on and on. Eventually you have to hit a point where you decide to apply anyway. For me that point was a week ago.

It only took me a day to finish both of my essays and this time I really thought critically about why the Peace Corps, why now. I think that my essays are stronger for it. I sent out requests for my letters of recommendation and 2 of my 3 letters have already been returned. I ordered transcripts from Madison and Iowa State and mailed them to the Chicago office. I also completed the 100 question initial health screening survey. Then I hit submit. It is done. The process is started.

Total time invested to date= 19 hours
Total cost so far = $25 for transcripts from Madison and Iowa State

Picking up some old hobbies.

So in addition to running I have decided to pick up some old hobbies that I used to really enjoy in middle and high school. The first in jewelry making. I came across a bag of old broken jewelry pieces that I bought a few years ago with the intention of making some new pieces but that I never got around to. I plan on creating some really neat jewelry from them. As I finish pieces I will post photos. The really exciting one though is that I have started drawing again.

I went through this phase about 6 years ago where I got really critical of my abilities and pretty much just stopped drawing because I was being so hard on myself. I used to absolutely love drawing so since it is supposed to rain all weekend I trekked across the street and bought myself a sketch pad and a set of graphite pencils. I didn't realize exactly how much I missed drawing until I sat down this morning and just started sketching. I have spent the last 5 or so hours doodling away and it has been awesome. I am going to post the four things I drew this morning that are all still works in progress. The first one I did just to get the feel for shading again and figure out what each of my pencils would do. The next three I started to challenge myself on different technical aspects of drawing. Enjoy. :)

PS. I also finished and submitted my Peace Corps application.

Riverview Theater and Sushi

So it is an extremely small world...sort of. Turns out my cousin Allison lives about 6 blocks away from me and another woman from Pittsville is only about 15 minutes away. Since it is such a small world the three of us decided we needed to do something together, so we decided on dinner and a movie. We went to the Riverview Theater (http://www.riverviewtheater.com/) which was really awesome. It is an old 50s style theater that has stadium style seating. It only plays one movie at a time but is only $3. It was definitely worth it. Afterwards we split up for a bit and Ana and I walked across the stone arch bridge in Minneapolis.

Later we met up at Wasabi for happy hour sushi that was actually amazing. I would highly recommend it. I tried the spicy tuna, spicy salmon, spider roll (yuck), alaska roll, and the tempura shrimp roll. All very yummy, with the exception of the spider roll. I have decided I am not a fan of eel.

Running!

So running is not nearly as bad as I thought it was. I have found a few articles online that talk about how to safely build up your endurance and running speed so my plan for the next few weeks is to try and run 2-3 times a week and also do some cross training.

This week and next week when I run I will start out by doing 25 minutes of walking 1 minute and then running for 1 minute and continuing to alternate for the entire 25 minutes (not including warm up and cool down). The following week I will then do 1 minute walking followed by 2 minutes of running. The next week will be 1 minute walking followed by 3 minutes running and so on and so forth until I can run a mile without need to take breaks. I will also keep building my endurance this was and once I can sustain about a 10 minute mile for 2 miles I will start to work on building the distance I can run as well.

Last night I started doing my walk 1 run 1 technique and it was actually quiet easy to do. Lets hope it stays that way. I will be doing cross training the rest of this week until Monday as I will not be able to get to the gym during the time they are open.

Wish me luck!

Running...??

I have decided to start getting in shape. I will be running a two mile race on July 3rd and 5K the end of July. If those go well I will start training to complete a half marathon.

Today was day 1 of "Get Autumn in Shape" I biked 3 miles in 12 minutes and then ran/jogged/walked 3 miles in 45 minutes. Not the best time but its a start.

Week 2, Memorial Day Weekend, and a New Roomie

Week 2 seriously flew by. I ate at a few more restaurants began to really get a lot done on the 1st 6 weeks newsletters and did more research for the Org Advisor handbook. The real excitement from this week was Memorial Day weekend and the arrival of my new roommate.

Since it was a long weekend I decided it would be the perfect time to head home. The drive was actually shorter than I thought it was so I was able to get home by about 3:30 Friday afternoon. On my drive home, my mom called and said that I should invite some friends over for a campfire, so Ashley A and Melissa came to visit and roast hot dogs and s'mores. It was a nice, low key, and fun evening.

Saturday afternoon Mom and I decided to go for a bike ride at Sandhill. Good idea...but poor planning on our part because we went at 3 which incidentally is probably the hottest part of the day. I was a bit miserable and we ended up taking the short trail and only going about 8 miles.

Sandhill Day 1 stats miles=8 time=1 hour wildlife=3 deer, 4 chipmunks, and 2 geese bugbites=1 deer fly

We also went to visit Carmen and the rest of the Kumm clan out at Dexter Campground and enjoyed a campfire and a peanut butter, chocolate, marshmellow pudgie pie. It was a bit too sweet for me so Breanna and I shared.

Sunday we were a bit smarter and went for our bike ride around 9am and beat the major heat. This time we did the trail backwards and got to see a great deal more wildlife.

Sandhill Day 2 stats miles=12 time=1 hour 20 minutes wildlife= 1 deer, 1 muskrat, 1 indigo bunting, 3 geese, and 2 swans bugbites= 2 deer flies

After we got back and showered up we headed over to Nate's graduation party for lunch. They had quiet the spread of food and by the end of it I was stuffed! Melissa gave me two books to help keep me occupied this summer "What is the What" and "Seven Splendid Suns". After Nate's party we headed to Wisconsin Rapids for cousin Tori's graduation party. This one had less impressive food but was definitely the hopping place to be. We played volleyball for a while and several people took advantage of the home made slip and slide to cool down.

That evening we had yet another bon-fire and this time were joined by Jack and Kari and their three boys Hunter, Trace, and my god-son Tristan. The boys are cute, and hilarious. Tristan decided that he would like to have a smore, so he began to cook a marshmellow. However, one bite into the s'more and he decided he no longer wanted it. About 20 minutes later he wanted to make another one even though he had not eaten the first one. Then he started to make a hotdog. Making the hot dog took quite a while because with his small arms he couldn't actually get the stick very close to the fire. However, because he did the slow technique when the hotdog was done it was quite hot. So he had grandma hold it to cool down while we went on an adventure to find kitty cats. When we came back from looking for cats the hotdog was no where to be found. Jack had eaten it while we were gone which led to a bit of an upset Tristan.

Best quotes of the night: Trace walks into the garage and says "why does it smell like mice in hear?" Mom "that is probably the elk" followed immediately by Tristan "there are probably mice in hear"

Tristan "I smell coyotes!"

The boys and I walked over to Kumms house to look for more cats and as we were walking over Hunter said "Can we be over here?" Trace said "What if they see us?" and Tristan avoided the front door so that "that way no one can see me" I still haven't figured out what they were so worried about.

The next morning before setting out to head back to the Cities, Mom and I went for another bike ride and this time were joined by Melissa and Ana. We went the whole 14 miles on this one and it was quite fun and a good way to start my day.

Sandhill Day 3 stats- miles=14 time=1 hour 25 minutes wildlife= 1 indigo bunting, 1 deer, 3 turtles, 1 snake, and 1 swan bug bites=3

Costa Rica Back-Blog Part 5: Snorkeling Adventure

On the 4th full day in Montezuma all 4 of us took a day trip to Isla Tortuga to go snorkeling. We took motorboats from Montezuma to Isla Tortuga and the trip took about 40 minutes. Once we got there gear was handed out and we jumped into the water. This was the first time that I had ever been snorkeling and I thought that it was great fun. The area did not have a lot of coral or bottom dwelling life but there were lots of neat looking tropical fish. By the end I was getting pretty good at holding my breath to dive down to the bottom to get a look at fish further from the surface. I never did get good at expelling the water from my snorkel before breathing though...so I inhaled a good amount of salt water. Yuck!

We then headed in to the Island where the cooks had been working on making fresh grilled fish, potatoes,and rice for lunch. It was very good. We were supposed to go out for a second snorkeling adventure in a different part of the bay but the waves were coming in too strongly for it to be safe so instead we hung out on the beach. The sand was very pretty and the water was quiet warm. I spent a good amount of time just relaxing in the water. Kaitlin and I also met some neat guys from France who were spending two weeks in the country exploring.

Around 4 we then packed up to leave the island and were told that because the waves were so big and there was a storm coming we would not be taking the boats all the way back to Montezuma, instead we would take the boats as far as Tambor and the take a shuttle back to Montezuma. As we re-entered the open water it was clear that this was a good idea. Our boat came pretty close to capsizing at one point when when we were hit broadside by a particularly large wave.

The upside of stopping in Tambor was that the guides then took us on a short boat tour through the mangroves where we were able to see puffer fish and an osprey.

Costa Rica Back Blog-Part 4: ATV Adventure

On the third full day that we were in Montezuma, Kaitlin and I rented an ATV for six hours. We picked up our ATV (which cost $50 for the 6 hours) at 8am and began making our way to the other side of the Nicoya Peninsula. We traveled along the coast from Montezuma to Cabuya and then cut inland towards Mal Pais and Santa Teresa on the Pacific Coast. We saw a lot of really cool things which are listed below. We also stopped for some very yummy bakery at a shop in Mal Pais and checked out the impressive waves before moving on further up the coast. We are not sure exactly when we got "lost" but it was a bit of an adventure. Somehow we completely missed going through Santa Teresa and ended up all the way up by Manzanillo (which is close to 10 km north of Santa Teresa). From there we cut inland for a while and got to see some of the rolling hills/mountains in that area. This was also when our quad decided that it really did not like hills and began to really struggle and cut out while going uphill. Since we did not want to get stranded more than 30km from Montezuma or the nearest gas station we began to head back towards Cobano. In Cobano we stopped at a Soda to rehydrate and to get some lunch-which was very yummy.

Highlights of the trip (which are pictured below).

1) Biggest tree in Costa Rica- which I think is some sort of Mangrove (which is why it looks like several trees) covered in strangler figs.
2) lots of beaches
3) the random bridges and rivers
4) Bathing at Your Own Risk (Crocodiles) signs next to rope swings
5) the cows
6) Kaitlin's canine friend
7) the bakery (no picture because I was too hungry)
8) big waves (which is really just a repeat of lots of beaches)
9) the iguanas
10) tarantula (no picture because it would have freaked Kaitlin out)

Costa Rica Back-Blog Part 3: Horseback Ride to El Chorro

On our second full day in Montezuma all four of us went on a five hour horseback ride along 7 beaches to the waterfall El Chorro. El Chorro is one of only 7 waterfalls in the world to fall into the ocean. One of the beaches was called Playa Grande and is 1.5 miles long. Here my horse and I got to do a full out gallop. The final beach on the way to the waterfall is called Playa Cocolito and the water there is know for its clear blue-green color. This was the highlight of my trip.

My horse Jaguar.

Playa Grande

Playa Cocolito

El Chorro Waterfall

Rocky Beach

Driftwood Beach

In the Woods

Crab Tracks, Capuchin Monkey, Interesting Bird, Eagle, and a Ground Crab (thanks to Amy for the pic of the ground crab-mine didn't turn out)