Hansel and Gretel at LA Opera

After singing in it, this time I get to watch!
Eric likes the spirits, instead of the traditional angels
Hansel and Gretel with the gigantic mushroom

I love this picture of Jaimin eating corn. I told Jongmin that she's going to be a genius!

I'm done with christmas shopping!

Well, pretty much. it took me two hours or so on the web while my gel ws running and voila! Everything has been taken care of. Great thing considering I don't really have time to go into the stores like I normally do. Now I just sit back and wait for the gifts to arrive...

I have decided that I need to start getting fit again. Esp considering that in a month or so I'll be negotiating those wonderful hills in westwood around the perimeter of UCLA. EHD and UB seem to have reached some sort of a happy medium for me. As for me, I am still wondering how I am going to crap a thesis out in 8 weeks or so. Paper 1 is almost done. Am finishing up expts for paper 2, and the intro, well that is an animal all onto itself. I just don't quite know how to approach it. Sigh. I think I'll read a little more and hopefully it will all come to me.

Roger tells me that he has finally found the repressor of micromeres! yay! looks like we are going to graduate together after all.

this thanksgiving we had a really yummy turkey from Honeybaked. I've always found the big bird a little bland, but it was really really good. the toad was back, and was as annoying as ever.

may or may not go to rehearsal this week. Depends on my mood. I still have one free pass.

Cat-o-poly

Eric got this for me. Insted of building houses I get to make litter boxes and instead of buying land I buy cats!

I've figured out a way to edit out the commercials from my downloaded tivo recordings. Now I can enjoy them on my video ipod with no interruptions. ha!

I have been feeling super gaseous today. Wonder if it's due to all the extra yogurt and fruits/veggies I've been consuming lately.

Omnivore's dilemma

I've been reading Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Well, I started reading it and am now listening to it on CD, which, by the way is a really fantastic thing as it keeps me entertained while I drive. I have found it really interesting to read about how/where we get our food. But mostly I've been thinking about how the animals we eat are treated. I don't think it's wrong to eat animals, it's the way the animals have been treated that bothers me. While I don't think that I'd ever become a vegeterian, I have to admit that after reading/listening to this book I'd definitely pay a little more attention to where I get my food. It's not about eating organic, in fact, most industrial organic farms use just as much energy and don't treat their animals any better than conventional farms. But rather, I would look to a more responsible way of eating, look for the free range chicken or the grass fed beef. Simply because, it's not morally right to subject animals to a lifetime of suffering before they become our dinner. It's sad when the little lab rats we do research on probably get treated than the animals we eat.

writing a paper is laborious.....I find myself staring hypnotically at my aromatherapy candle often

I have been kicked off the lab responsibilities list. yay!

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

Our Holiday Concert

Chorale concert flyer

I'm going to graduate.....sometime soon!

My committee meeting went over well. they were happy with what I have done and have given me to green light to think of a date for my defense, with the stipulation that I 1) do this other binding site mutations that I have been dreading and 2) have the two research papers submitted and the intro written. Those are not necessary trivial things, and makes the whole timing thing a little weird now, and we'll only really decide what to do after EHD hears from UCLA. But it's such a relief to feel that my committee is ready to let me defend, and for the first time I actually really feel that very soon I will be the proud holder of a PhD.

Am seriously freaking out about the committee meeting next week and the idea of finishing before the end of the year. I have a reasonably good feeling about setting at date for the defense at my meeting, but am really worried about whether I will be able to get all the massive amounts of writing that I will need to get done before then. I haven't even started on the intro and the second paper yet. Yikes! I'm just hoping that EHD is going to be on my side come next week...

Arian approached me about a paid gig at his church. All bets are off till my committee meeting. He also told me that Don will be back at UCLA next week. Pretty good considering he had a quadruple bypass surgery 8 weeks ago!

Dems are in...

and Rumsfeld is out! yay!

Anoter picture of us in our costumes from Don Giovanni

We had our first chamber choir rehearsal today. it was certainly intense, singing through a lot of music during the three hour rehearsal. And being in such a small group I really felt I had to pay attention to my sound and how it blends with the other sopranos (there were only 4 altogether for a while, before Julie showed up, which helped immensely). Not to mention having to read all that new music (even though they weren't particularly difficult) in such an exposed fashion that I felt John could hear every single mistake I made. Yikes. Overall though, I was very very impressed with the quality of the singers and the level of musicianship. Everyone is such a good reader and so sensitive and responsive to John and the music. I'm really excited about working with a group of such talented people! Our first concert is in a month, and we have 2 rehearsals before that.

committee meeting in a week. EHD wants to know what I will discuss. Sigh. But I think that things are well, except for the part I have to crap out an entire dissertation in such a short time.

Eric gave me this for my birthday. I know, I'm getting household appliances now. My old vacuum had died and I hadn't vacuumed for almost a month. We used the Dyson today and like everyone says, you wouldn't believe the dust. And especially the cat hair. This baby can even remove the cat hair stuck to the curtains! BBB is having a $100 gift card rebate this week. yay!