My Favorite Soup

So, as many of my friends know, I absolutely love chicken tortilla soup. If I had to have a favorite meal, it would be chicken tortilla soup. It would probably be what I'd ask for as a last meal. So, since I've been out on my own for this REU I've been doing my own cooking. For this weekend I bought the supplies to attempt a chicken tortilla soup. And OMG guys, it was super easy!! I bought most of the ingredients canned and/or processed (onions, I'm talking about you) but it turned out really well I feel.

1/2 can shredded chicken

    drain and toss in the taco seasoning* 

1/2 can whole corn

1/2 can black beans

    drain and combine with chicken

~1 cup medium salsa

dash chili powder*

dash garlic powder

dash onion flakes 

dash salt 

dash pepper

    combine to mix

    put in large pot and heat

1 can diced tomatoes/green chillies 

1 can chicken broth

~1/2 cup canola oil

    heat to boil and then let simmer

    add additional spices as needed

    serve with shredded cheese and tortilla chips on top

Notes: 

• *I couldn't find a small sized container of taco type seasoning so I bought Mrs Dash, Fiesta Lime Seasoning Blend-- its pretty much just a taco seasoning with Lime flavor so I feel that it worked and added a nice lime element as well
• In the future I would consider adding more broth and/or tomato paste to increase the amount of broth and to thicken it

My Nails Are a Party

I painted my nails today and they are super sparkly. Also today was the first official of my program here in South Dakota. I'm still pretty confused about what I'm actually doing for my project. And it been super hectic here.

Lazy Day

Today I had a very lazy day since my program starts on Tuesday because of the holiday. I was able to explore the school a little and the "Surbeck Center" or the student center attached to my dorm building. So, now I feel like I have a handle on where things generally are, like laundry and the like. Also, I was able to test out the kitchen setup for lunch. However, now that I am settled in and know the full limitations and potential of the kitchen I feel like I need to go shopping again. Things so far are going well. The campus is beautiful, the program is very kind and helpful, and the other REU students are great. I hope the full summer goes this well.

Things I'm really digging on day 2:

• Collapsable silicone strainer
• There's an ice machine down in the laundry room

I miss my Jon and Wash dearly though.

Norsouth Dakotalina

I safely navigated through the airports and arrived in the middle of nowhere beautiful South Dakota. I'm settled in my dorm room and I'm I was able to meet up with the other girls. Things so far are very nice, but after a long day of travel I'm stupidly tired.

My morning started with a 6:00 am flight from LAX. That involved getting up really early, and a wonderful pancake breakfast. At LAX I was quickly to my gate, and I volunteered to Courtesy Check my carry-on because the plane was so full. That just meant that they sent it to my final destination (basically as checked baggage) free of charge AND that I didn't have to deal with it until the end of the trip. Once, in Rapid City I was picked up from the airport by the fantastic Dr. West (my program coordinator) and taken to check in my dorm, by way of a nearby grocery store. After getting a little settled in I was able to meet up with some of the girls from the program and we went to a local favorite for ice cream. When we got back the four of us met one of the other girls and we chatted for an hour or two before crashing.

Last Night

It's been awhile, and blogger seems to have changed quite a bit in my absence. Tonight is my last night before my next big adventure. Tomorrow I'm off to South Dakota for a 10 week summer REU (Research Expereiences for Undergraduates). So that's why I'm back on meyrific, because hopefully I'll have some fun to share.

BB Cookies (again).

Its been a new year and the Brown Butter cookie recipe has changed again. So I've modified the old page and to be a bit clearer I'll repost again here:

Original Brown Butter Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter
1.5 cups Brown Sugar
2.5 cups Cake Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1Tbsp Vanilla Extract
Sea Salt

Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter
1.5 cups Brown Sugar
2 cups Cake Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa Powder (Hershey's Special Dark)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1Tbsp Vanilla Extract
Sea Salt

Brown butter on the stovetop. Combined butter and other ingredients in mixing bowl and let chill. (Dough should have a claylike consistency) Roll into walnut sized balls and top each with sea salt. Bake at 325 F for 13-15 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

Cookies Redux

Over the summer you guys may remember a little post about Brown Butter Cookies. Well, they've kinda become my specialty. As everyone seems to love them.

So, now with a little more experience under my belt I'm revising that post and recipe. So, anyone interested in recreating these cookies can find the recipe here.

Winter Break

News:
Fall quarter is over:
I finished finals yesterday. And now I can de-stress.

Cataclysm is out now:
And now that I'm done with finals I can actually leveling. Also, the new quests and the new zones are awesome. I have however, gotten horribly, horribly lost more times that I can count. But no amount of thoroughness from Blizzard on maps and world-building could probably fix that.

Freelancer:
Last night I rolled a character up for my Freelancer game. The rules for Freelancer got streamlined significantly from the last game we played where I was, "The BEST President Ever!" This time I'm more of a combat capable-marksman as opposed to a powerful telepath. Should be interesting, seeing as the rest of the group has already been at this most of my fall quarter, and I've been unable to participate since I've been at my dorm on the weekends. So I'm very excited about starting in on a new Freelancer game!! One of the greatest strengths of Freelancer is that its not as bogged by rules like D&D can get.

Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat

Via my friend Tim:

Summing Up

I haven't blogged in a while now that school has been back in full swing. Here's a run down of some of the things I'm up to.

Since last school year I've switched dorm building and I am much happier by far. I actually know people now and have a fairly consistent group of people to hang out with and eat meals with. On the weekends we generally have stuff planned since so many of us stay on campus. Friday and Saturday nights are movies. Thursdays are Settlers of Catan (Trying to get a win for my 20 before 20). Saturday midday is D&D. And Sundays are reserved for homework (although I also do homework on Fridays sometimes).
I should note: most of my friends are guys. Go figure, especially since I out nerd most of them. Also, via the hall Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament, I can also claim the title of "Queen of Smash"... mostly since I was the only female in the tournament.

Classes are good too. My core classes are a lot of work and my non-core classes are easy (Yay! 96% on a Psych test I didn't have to study for). So it's fairly balanced.

Overall D&D is going well in most regards. Although our DM utterly fails at hiding his joy of killing off PCs, which the mindset that D&D is the DM v. the PCs is something that I hate in a DM. And our group is approximately 10 people which bogs down the whole game. But I enjoy D&D far too much to let either of those things deter me. Also watching another style of DMing and more experience in general is great for making a transition into DMing.

Although now I'm just ranting.

Bach

I know I've been insanely busy these past couple of weeks since I've been back to school. But I must say that I've been having a fantastic time this year. I've met so many new people inlcuding a handful of other chem majors and gotten to know some of the people in my dorm building. I've even joined/started a D&D group. While I've made new friends in the dorms I'm trying to stay in contact with my friends not at Cal Poly via various Internet functions whether it's ichat or WoW or Facebook. 

That being said, I wrote this about a month ago:

"Often times in WoW there are players that you get to know through the game that live who knows where, that disappear from the game. While this is a normal occurrence for people to take a break from the game (I've done it before), the catch is that since you only know them in the context of the game that they seem to disappear off the face of the earth until they log back into the game. That sort of unreliability saddens me, because there's a handful of people that I only really know in the context of the game. Some of these people I've added on Facebook and who I would be able to contact and then there are others who I know almost next to nothing about (here's looking at you Bach) but get along with smashingly in game."

Turns out that Bach is leaving WoW. And by doing so, as I described above, essentially means that he may well cease to exist to me. Which is hard to react to.  As most of you may know I use a "Voice Over IP" program that allows us to talk to other players while playing the game, so in a way I know him very well, and not at all. How am I supposed to react-- the most I know about him is his character name and basic personally, yet I still miss him. It's been two years. I understand his reasoning behind a decision like that, but it still makes me sad (and confused honestly). And it's a hard feeling to describe that you can bond to someone so closely it seems or feels to me and yet never know them.

New Dorm

Three days into the new school year and I'm pretty well organized and comfy in my dorm room. And same as last year here are some picutres so we can compare the size difference.

Tweeting

I'm on Twitter now! 

Well, actually: I'm using my twitter now! I started it like 2 years ago and then never touched it again, until now. So, look for my randomness there. Anyone want to bet on how long I can keep up being a Blogger and a Twitterer. 

Derailed by LoL

As I posted on Facebook awhile back my laptop, Zoey, is fixed now! Yay! I tend to go a bit stir-crazy wtihout my laptop.

Also since I took the time to setup my desktop these last couple of weeks I've somewhat joined the LoL (League of Legends  which is from some of the people that created the Warcraft 3 map/game DotA) bandwagon that my BEDA group/gamer friends created. Unfortunately the Mac version of the game just started Beta testing, so I won't be able to play any at school until it releases. The best feature of the game is that the game revenue is based on micro-transactions within the game, meaning that the basic game is free to play. Let that sink in.

Free to play.  And its found here.

It's great for me since I'm fairly casual now, also its a great way to get people to try your game. Which reminds me of a conversation I overheard this weekend, which went something like this:

Dude, have you heard that Lord of the Rings Online is now free to play.
Orly?
Yeah, I think I'm going to give it a try. You?
Probably not, I haven't really heard anything good about it.
But it's free! FR-EEEE!


The downside to playing the "free version" is that I don't have as many playable characters to choose from.  However, I always have the option to buy more "heroes."

Wow, I was totally not planing on making this a post about LoL. Long post, woo!

I start school again for the fall this Thursday, which means that I move in on Wednesday. So, I'm currenlty procrastinating packing. Actually I'm just bored of folding laundry. I absolutely hate the stunningly boring chore of (folding) laundry. Sorry, I had to hit the Dr. Horrible reference. I don't mind the rest of laundry, and I really need to have all my stuff packed up for Wednesday. And yes, my school has us move in the day before classes start. My next post will probably be from my new dorm room, with pictures of it to follow soon. Also, I have a bunch of pictures I need to actually put on my computer and deal with, things like cakes, cookies, and living room forts that I've been meaning to post. Those should also come soon.

BLOGOVERSARY!

Actually my first  post was the 12th of last September, so Sunday was my official "BLOGOVERSARY." It's been a whole year. I'm a sad though that I forgot to post on my actual "BLOGOVERSARY."  About a month ago I made sure to verify the date since I knew it was coming up and then I made an iCalendar event. I even set up an "alarm" so that my computer would email me the day before and remind me. Then Zoey crashed last week. Speaking of Zoey, she should now be the hands of the Apple Repair Center, where the Dr. House of Apple Geniuses will figure out whats wrong. The from the local Genius the fix seems to be replacing the logic board (also known as a motherboard). Hopefully, whatever the problem and whatever the fix, I will have my laptop back before I go back to Pomona next Wednesday.

On a seperate note I've been on the Internet less without my laptop. In my absence I've finished a novel for 1/12th of 1/20th of my 20 before 20-- You Belong to Me by Mary Higgins Clark.

Bad News

Today's blog post is brought to you by my brother's Macbook. Because....

Zoey is sick everyone! My poor baby. Zoey, my two-year-old Macbook Pro, is extremely ill with graphics issues. I should be taking her into the good Dr. Geniuses at the Apple store later this week. Wish her luck! As currently I'm working on updating my Desktop so that that clunker can fulfill my Internet needs while Zoey can recover.

Playing with Design

I changed up the banner again. Since after my BEDA banner I screwed up the original one and  then the design didn't work. So now I have a new design, and its not pink this time. I'm happy with it and I hope you all like it too.

Raiding with Meyr: Glory of the Hero

Sunday again. Which means raiding, right? Apparently not today.

So instead Ronter, Bach, Stiix, Xenrii and I decided to work on our Glory of the Hero achievement. Which rewards a cute red proto-drake mount.

Like my Purple proto-drake but more red.

Not that I need another mount because my purple drake is actually faster. Still I really like achievements. And it was a lot of fun. And a good challenge on some of the more difficult ones. Maybe next week we'll actually raid.

Or we could always finish Glory of the Hero.

Type-Battle!

While I am no expert typist I feel that I am at least average in skill/speed-- especially for someone my age. However, I found this little "game" for improving my typing. Check it out if your looking for a challenge that with prove to be a useful time-waster.

The End

Today is the last day of my second BEDA event: Blogust! Meaning that for two months I've blogged every single day. Some days I haven't had much to talk about and others I've ranted about something or another. This also means that I can cross another entry off my 20 before 20 list. And that I'm even closer to 150 total posts having passed 100 a couple weeks ago. Its been exciting. I almost failed yesterday. My brother has been a great help making sure that I blog everyday and people like  my BEDA buddies Mike, David, Marlon, and Matt help keep me motivated to write something everyday.

My goal while not to blog everyday, is to make a concerned effort to blog regularly. The reason being is that by blogging everyday I find myself losing quality in my posts. Especially in the summertime I often feel like I have nothing new to talk about.

Thanks for reading me ramble through a month, again! Next year I'd like to see more people take up the challenge--especially if I can do it twice.