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)