Quiet week, food, and kittens!

August 31, 2012

This has been an interesting week.

Let me start with Tera and her tera-rism of the week. This past weekend we got Tera and the other cats some new toys. They are about 2 inches long, stuffingless little animals. Tera loves to play fetch with them and decided Monday morning that while I was sitting at my computer trying to do some work that this was the time to show me her toy. She lays down on my desk and drops her little skunk onto my keyboard, then smacks at it continually till I pick it up and either toss it to her to chase or just toss it on the desk again. At which time she picks it up and drops it back onto my keyboard. Repeat.

I also went to lunch at BBB and had some super yummies. I had a cup of the tomato bisque soup (very good as usual) and a hazelnut latte.

I tried something new from Trader Joe's this week. That is a super awesome grocery by the way. We just got one in Lexington while I was gone this summer. I went this weekend and got some items and am in love with the store. I got a package of sundried tomato and goat cheese ravioli and a jar of vodka tomato sauce. I had this for lunch one day before class. WOW. SUPER GREAT!!!!! The picture does not do justice for how yummy it is.

Also this week I had my first Advanced Epidemiology class. This is taught by Dr. Steve Browning, the same professor as my Social Epidemiology course. I already posted his info on an earlier post. The level of these courses is extremely high, it is going to be very challenging. I am looking forward to it.

All of my books are ordered but have not all come in yet. I hope the will arrive soon so I can get caught up on my reading. I have kept up with all the assigned articles and been able to participate in the discussions in class but I don't want to get behind on the reading. It is hard to catch up on things when there is constant new reading being assigned.

Speaking of which, Michael caught up on his assignments from when he was ill last week. He got a serious lesson in how hard it is to catch up when you have a lot of homework assigned on a daily basis. He was caught up by Wednesday evening so on Thursday evening we were able to go out to dinner with Granny (Scott's mom) at Cracker Barrel. I have missed Cracker Barrel! I didn't get photos :(  I had the chicken and dumplings with greens (cooked with country ham YUM), pinto beans (which I ate with cornbread YUM), and fried okra. I started liking fried okra this summer. Granny got fried catfish, greens and fries. Michael and Scott both got french toast with sausage, eggs, and split some biscuits and gravy. We had a great but very fattening meal! YUM YUM YUM.

Also of note, Donna is bottle feeding baby kittens. I went over after dinner with granny and got to get some baby kitten time. They are very cute. They don't have homes so if anyone is interested then speak up! If you want baby kittens we can make your dreams come true! I suggested that she contact Woodstock and see if they had room to put them into the adoption program since they are little and kittens get adopted faster than adult cats.

That is all for now. Take care!
~Melissa

Weekend miscellania

August 30, 2012

The weekend was quiet.Here is a picture of the kitties doing what they do best - snoozing on the bed. This is the waterbed, which is so very uncomfortable for me to sleep on. Scott loves it so he sleeps on his bed and I usually sleep on the sofa. The kitties however love to sprawl on the bed during the daytime. The top right corner is Weensie, The top middle is Mai Fun, and the bottom left is V.

This is my porch planter. I haven't filled it in with soil and plated in it directly since I have to take the plants inside for the winter. I pot my plants then place the pots into the planter.

 These photos are of my favorite succulent. I have no idea what it is but would love to know.

 My lime basil! Love this stuff. There are copper butterflies also that I put into the put :)

The bed of ivy beside the house that is starting to creep up over the walls again. 

For dinner Friday night Scott and I went tot he Kentucky Fried Chicken buffet. I LOVE brown gravy and the breading they use on the chicken. I tend to get wings since they have lots of breading. I also tend to get a lot of gravy and eat it with the fresh made biscuits. I have SO MISSED biscuits. Here is my plate. LOTS of gravy!

Afterwards we went home and I played some MW3 split screen with Scott. I can't play much, the level of violence is disturbing to me, but I like to do something with him. He had a couple of shots of the cinnamon whisky in the freezer and I tried it. It is VERY good! Tastes just like an atomic fireball candy!

I snuggled with the dog a bit and we took some photos. This is the dog - he is a miniature dachshund. He was names Otis but we call him Odie or Schnouticus. He thinks I am the center of his world - why i have NO CLUE.

Take care!
~Melissa

BBB yummies

August 24, 2012

Friday. Fayette county public schools were out today so Michael didn't miss another school day. I think he will be well enough to return on Monday. No fever today but his throat was still very sore. No school for him or for me. Michael had a doctor's appointment this morning which Scott took him to. Scott dropped the boy back home afterwards and went to get his hair cut. Right as he was returning home I was heading out with the boy. Michael and I decided to go to Bakery Blessings & Bookstore at the Bar (BBB) for lunch. BBB is one of our favorite places. It is run by a local lady Jan Sullivan, and her mother helps out most days.

Jan is a really neat lady, I have sat and talked with her many times. She is a youth minister by training who decided she wanted to open a place for kids and adults to come and just be safe and comfortable. The books in the shop are all from Kentucky authors, and they come in to speak or sign their books regularly. Jan herself is a young adult christian book author, having published several books to date. there is also artwork from Kentucky artists. Local musicians perform some days and there is free tutoring for kids. Here is a link to BBB on Facebook.

Lunch is served 11-2 and is quite good. Jan makes homemade soups including the ever present tomato bisque which is delicious, vegetable beef which is also fabulous and one soup that changes monthly. Today's option was broccoli cheddar which i had, it was quite good but not as good as the tomato or veggie beef. Michael had a grilled cheese, 2 coke floats, and a slice of caramel pie. I let him splurge on the sugar since he has been such a good sport while sick and with getting lots of shots at the doctor. I had a bowl of the broccoli cheddar soup (which came with a chunk of french bread), I ate Michael's pickle (he hates pickles), and I had a hazelnut Italian cream soda. I took a piece of caramel pie home for Scott and a slice of red velvet cake home for myself for later.

halfway through my broccoli cheese soup, I already ate the French bread and some crackers. That is Michael's dill pickle spear on the side.

 My hazelnut Italian cream soda! YUM.

Michael's first Coke float. Gone. Complete with straw and really neat glass/plastic spoon to get all the yummy ice cream from the bottom of the glass. Michael enjoyed it so much I let him have 2 of them. He's really been a sport with his sore throat due to his tonsillitis. I did have him eat a grilled cheese (on oat bread) and not JUST desserts and sweets though!

 Michael's slice of caramel pie topped with whipped cream. The crust is homemade and very yummy.

Usually I like to go to BBB one afternoon every week for lunch and to just relax for a few hours. There is free Wi-Fi so I take either a book/textbook, articles to read, the laptop or tablet and either work on homework or relax and read for a few hours for pleasure. I usually get iced tea or coffee after eating lunch and relax with my bottomless beverage while I read. I usually have some small dessert or get something to take home also. Jan and her family are very nice. I like supporting a local businesswoman, especially someone trying to both run a pleasant business and do something good for kids and the community. I am not religious myself but I can still be supportive of a good thing. Several of my friends go there now, and Michael and i like to go also. He cannot normally go for lunch but I can hang out and he can walk there to meet me some afternoons after he gets out of school since his High School is right down the street.

We returned home (with the packaged goodies for later) about 2pm. Michael's mom was supposed to get him about 3. There was a death in his mom's family and it is also her weekend to have him. The problem is that his twin baby sisters are sick, as is his Mom. He is already sick himself and didn't want to be stuck in a car for 45 minutes each way with sick people while he was crammed in between 2 car seats with crying babies. He was worried he'd made them all sicker, and vice versa since they are all immunocompromised at this point. After several phone calls it was decided that Scott will meet her halfway tomorrow to trade off the boy and that they will be going to the wake for the family member tomorrow instead of the viewing tonight. That way Michael can be in the front seat since his mom's boyfriend/baby daddy is working, so Michael won't be stuck between the car seats. Hopefully this will allow everyone to have a bit more space and hopefully be a little less likely to get sicker.

So he was with us tonight. We had Taco Bell tacos and they played MW3 for most of the afternoon and evening while I napped. My ankle was hurting a lot, apparently driving is NOT a pleasant thing. I am probably going to have to break down and get the ankle looked at again since it is not healing well. I'll see about doing that on Monday. I got an e-mail that my Thursday class has been moved to another building and room since it is a sizeable class, probably about 25 people. The new building is twice as far away. I cannot possible walk there and back and I'm not sure my ankle is up for bicycling yet. I may have to see about getting a temporary disabled parking sticker till my ankle heals some more. Darn ankle!

Nothing more for today, I will be working on homework this weekend and I am not sure what else. I'll try to get back into the habit of taking photos!

Take care,
~Melissa

Tera-rism and Social Epidemiology

August 23, 2012

To begin, I have just watched Tera (the crazy terrorist cat) go over to one of the printers and gleefully hit the test page button. MULTIPLE TIMES to watch the machine print and spit out a paper. The first time she walked over the machine and just coincidentally stepped on the test page button. It didn't take her long to realize that if she hit the button a paper pops out. I can see this is going to be a future problem. I will have to figure out how to Tera-proof the machine. The only way I can think of to do that currently is to turn the power off. Mind you, this is also the cat that figured out how to open the freezer door.

Today was my Social Epidemiology class. I am not sure I am going to like this class as much as my other Epi classes but it is hard to say so early. Social Epi is more of a social ecology type class - everything affects everything else. Basically that no person or thing lives in a vacuum on this planet and we can't look at the individual epi issues without taking the environment that individual exists within into account also. It isn't as clearly cut as some other epi concepts. However, the class itself will be interesting.

This class, and my Tuesday class (Advanced Epidemiology) is taught by Dr. Steven Browning. My original Epi class was team taught and Dr. Browning taught a portion of that. He has a relaxed teaching style and is quite funny as well. This social Epi class is half PhD students from a variety of disciplines including Biostatistics, Communications, Environmental Health, Health Resource Management, Gerontology, and Medical Students. The other half (including me) are Master's degree students from a variety of specialty areas including MPH Health Behavior, Epidemiology, Environmental Health and other majors who wanted cross-disciplinary studies. 5 of the students are PhD students of dual programs Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Suffice to say, the classroom discussions are intense and at a very high level of understanding. I am looking forward to that part of this course. This is Dr. Browning.

I also met with Dr. Walsh and I got my HIPAA certification forms turned in for her project and also to allow me to be added to her IRB forms. We discussed my portion of the project. I am VERY excited about this. I will be working with suicide data and working on a publication. Dr. Walsh is out of town for 2 weeks but we are going to get working on this starting September 7th when she returns. That is great since it gives me a couple of weeks to get working on things for this school term and get a bit ahead.

The Social Epi class meets 12-2:30 so I wasn't leaving class at a time i could catch a ride. I walked home which was less than fun or ideal on the ankle. However, I took some lovely photos of things I passed along the way.

 These next 2 photos are taken from the end of my street. You all can get a view of what it looks like here.

Dinner was a Meat lover's Pizza from Papa John's, garlic parmesan breadsticks and soda. Not exactly healthy by any stretch of the imagination but very tasty! The guys played some Modern Warfare 3 on the Xbox and then it was time for bed. I let Michael sleep on the sofa since he was still sick. I played an hour of DDO with Rob online then went to bed myself. A quiet evening :)

Until tomorrow, take care,
~Melissa

dogs and cats sleeping together, oasis, 1st class of term

August 22, 2012

Here is the story of my life - dogs and cats sleeping together. For those of you who have not yet met the dog, his name is Otis, we call him Odie or Shnouticus. he is a mini dachshund. The kitty on the right is Tera, the terrorist. I thought this was especially fitting to share given the nature of my first class today. This was taken in the wee hours of the morning since I cannot seem to make my body understand I am not still in Hawaii.

First day of class for the Fall term. Today was my "Public Health Response to Terrorism and Natural Disasters" class with Dr. Sabrina Walsh. I think it is going to be very interesting. She says that she is often called "Dr. Death" because she works primarily with fatality data. that includes the Kentucky Violent Death Reporting System (KVDRS) which she developed, and further work on suicides and SUIDS. I also got with her and talked about the data I will be working on with her this term. We scheduled a meeting for tomorrow at 11:30 to go over more specifics. I am quite excited about that also.

We received cd's on AAP - Agroterrorism Awareness Program. It has a module on it that we are assigned to work through. At the end you get a certificate of completion which we turn in. This was developed by the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center, Terrorism Response and Preparedness group. They have a selection of terrorism information and modules, found at this link. Only a couple are actual links but if you are interested in any of them you can contact the KIPRC for more information.

After class Jeff picked me up and we went to Oasis - our favorite Mediterranean and Lebanese restaurant. I have missed Oasis SO MUCH! I got the vegetarian lover's. I always substitute out more falafel instead of the moussaka. I have included a picture of moujadara - not what I ate but one from the web so you can see what it looks like. At Oasis it is not served on the bed of crispy onions.

Vegetarian Lover $11.95
five of our vegetarian specialties: Grape leaves, falafel,Hummus, Moujadara & Moussaka. Served with a Salad.

Moujadara $10.95
Lentils and rice, cooked in olive oil, topped with sauted onions and served with salad or yogurt sauce

I forgot to take pictures!!! I will have to get back into the habit of that now that I am home and blogging.

Michael is home sick, he has a stomachache, sore throat, headache and fever. Scott is starting to feel sick also. I REALLY don't want to get whatever it is they seem to be sharing. Wish me luck in plague avoidance!

See you soon!

Hugs,
~Melissa

Party and relaxing Sunday

August 20, 2012

It was a fun weekend. Saturday morning I went to the Lexington Farmer's Market downtown with Jeff. We were getting a few things for the party. I want to go take lots of photos another day but this was just a fast trip to get a couple of things. We did run into his dad down there so we talked to him for a bit. We got a GREAT deal on a HUGE box of corn - $10.00 for about 35 ears of corn instead of $0.50 each. The Saturday market is held in the pavillion downtown. Here is an image of it.

Next we went to Kroger's, which is one of the local supermarkets to get the rest of the party items. We made a quick trip of it and I didn't even have to ride int he little motorized cart. We went back to Jeff's new place and organized a bit for the party. We paused for a while and sat on the porch enjoying the neighborhood. A city council person came by campaigning. We went inside and watched Episodes 1 and 2 of Season 2 of Game of Thrones. This is a FABULOUS series by HBO - Here is another link to information about it. This is an HBO series based off a series of books. It is VERY good if you like fantasy. I have been extremely impressed. I think so far my favorite character is Daenerys Targaryen, the Keleesi. I actually like a lot of the characters, but I just think she is really strong.

Jeff's Sister Julie, her husband Greg and their toddler Drew stopped by and visited. I hadn't seen Drew since he was a baby. He is now about 2 I believe. Julie is expecting, another boy! It was good to get to see them.

After that it was about time for guests to arrive for the party. So we set up a couple of folding tables in the back yard and started setting the food supplies out there. Paper plates and saucers, plastic utensils, napkins, bags of hamburger and hot dog buns, condiments, chips, dips, and the like. Witht he help of Jeff's brother John they started up the grill. All in all about 25 people came to the party, some adults, some little kids (Max and Justin are twin 15 month old boys) and several teens/young adults. A couple of Cebu folks came, and we had a great time. We ate and ate and ate. Two highlights were Rob and Scott using a hatchet  to open the coconuts I sent home. This is Rob opening his and winning against the mighty coconut!

Scott and one of the Cebu guys opened the one I sent for Scott and Michael. The Cebu guy showed him how to do it without fighting the coconut for a long time. I think the Cebu guys got a huge laugh out of watching us haole (white) folks try to open a coconut husk.

The second high point was when Joan and Liz brought out a cupcake and flower lei for the birthday cake! We were celebrating my 39th birthday and Hunter's 16th birthday, my return home and Jeff's housewarming. So we had lots to celebrate! The yellow frosted ones were chocolate cake and the pink frosted ones were funfetti (white cake with colored sprinkles baked in) cake. There are mini red roses witht he cupcakes as well. It was a super fun and thoughtful thing to do. Thank you Joan and Liz for making this birthday so memorable with such a fun cake!

We all hung around and ate, talked, threw a frisbee and just enjoying each other's company. It was a lot of fun and we should do it again soon. I was apparently the favored mosquito snack, coming away from the party with 42 mosquito bites. Apparently I am mosquito bait! Scott, Michael, Rob and I went back to my place so i could prop up my ankle and we just talked and hug out for a few hours till Rob went home and we all went to sleep. We are such party animals, hehe.

Sunday was housework, Scott worked more on the Miata, finishing what he wanted to get done. We all did some homework. We ate about 12 ears of corn Saturday and I had brought the rest home. I cut it off the cobs and with Scott's help bagged it and got it in the freezer. I got 11 pint size bags of corn from what was left. One bag is basically a side item in a meal for the 3 of us, so that is a lot of meals of corn! We ordered a pizza for dinner and watched a couple of episodes of Supernatural on Netflix.

That is all for the weekend, happy new week to everyone!
~Melissa

Coconut fun

August 20, 2012

Here are photos made by Rob and his family about the coconut they got from Hawaii. Too funny!!! Thanks for letting me share!

More to come about the weekend also.

Hugs,
~Melissa