Amazing salad

I read about Mark Bittman’s simple summer salads on a blog I follow, and I was motivated to find the list for myself. The list of 101 Simple Summer Salads appears on the NYTimes website as part of “The Minimalist” column. So far, I have made salads #1, #2, #6, #14, #21, #23, #33, and #40. None of them have been bad, and some of them have been truly amazing. I would definitely put salad #2 at the absolute top of the list. The text describing this salad reads:

2. Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing.

I never thought I’d describe a salad as astonishing, but it was incredible. Simply amazing!

(I adjusted the exposure and contrast on this photo after taking it... Both of the bright photos I got were blurry.)

Discovered something cool

I’ve started tracking the length of my knitting…  It’s in the sidebar!

You can get your own at www.knitmeter.com! 

Getting ready for fall?

It’s hard to believe it’s already August 21.  Really hard to believe…  The summers always seem to go slowly at the beginning, while I figure out what I’m doing for the summer and really get started, and then go so quickly at the end. 

This year was a little bit different because of prelims.  I had a wonderful two weeks of writing and doing little else.  (The little else is what made it wonderful – I had totally blocked off that two weeks to work and discovered that when I’m not engaged with 12 million other tasks, I quite enjoy my work and some time off when it’s done.)  After that I realized just how fried I was after all of the grading and prelim prep of the winter semester, and spent a while trying to work but not accomplishing anything, and then another little while working on my various summer projects.  After I got my prelim rewrite I discovered the negative of having prepared for the whole semester leading up to it: I had absolutely zero desire to ever see the document again.  Having overcome that (but wasted a lot of time trying to work in the meantime), I finished the rewrite.  I was finally starting to get productive again when I was struck down with the flu (as I posted earlier).  Ironically (though unsurprisingly to everyone who knows me), this bug was actually exactly what I needed.  I slept, read complete novels and memoires in mere days, slept more, and drank lots of fluids.  Even though I was tired and physically ill, I felt great emotionally!  Once I was able to walk around again (and dropped that lovely hacking cough), I got back to work, but that was only a few weeks ago.  I’ve been getting things done since then, and can hardly believe how the summer seems to have flown.

I suppose, in retrospect, that this summer really is no different from previous ones.  The formula tends to be:

1. get totally burned out during winter semester
2. pretend not to be burned out and attempt to work at the beginning of the summer
3. recognize burnout and relax a bit, maybe even take a vacation
4. get ready for fall because it’s almost here

Someday I’ll learn, and maybe even avoid the burnout, but I doubt it…  It doesn’t seem to be in my nature.  

Fun in Ann Arbor

Here are Alicia and I enjoying ourselves at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase.

Sometimes I find myself getting a little down on Ann Arbor. This is the beginning of our ninth year here, and it’s not that big a town. That said, there is more to do here than I give it credit for. We went for their open mic night, not sure of what we’d find. It was definitely worth the $5 ticket (and the $2.75 bottomless popcorn). They schedule the evening well, with the newer folks toward the beginning and more experienced folks toward the end. Everyone was pretty good, and we had a nice time. They also host touring comics who are often quite hilarious – we’ve seen a few folks there – and I’d recommend checking out the schedule when you’re in town.

Back to the blog

I haven’t posted here in a long time, but I’m coming back.  I still post on the medical school blog, but I feel strange posting my random thoughts and ramblings on the medical school’s admission’s website.  I’ll try to transfer my old posts over to this site (and back-date them!), but everything new will go here. 

Welcome back!