Hey, I actually felt an earthquake for pretty much the first time ever! I slept through the 6.something '94 Northridge one, which was a bit disappointing. But being up on the 4th floor means the 5.6er in Alum Rock gave us a nice rocking. Nothing fell but the shaking was definitely noticeable. Actually, I was tutoring at the time, and am quite glad ( Read more... )

I tried doing some more baking experimentation today, having gotten tired of my usual honey-banana-spice bread. I've been meaning to try making a non-sweet KDI-free bread for a while anyhow. So I hunted down a gluten-free, dairy-free pumpernickel bread recipe courtesy of Google, and tried replacing the eggs with flaxseed gel and the egg whites with ( Read more... )

So we just had a stupid firedrill. Fire drills are annoying in general, and particularly so in the US. In Cambridge at the Chem dept. we had a nice polite recorded British voice telling us to evacuate over the intercome instead of the god-awful ringing. But anyhow, this was a particularly ( ironic firedrill... )

Submitted the paper today (the whole writing process went amazingly fast this time), had a good-bye group pub lunch, Daniel had his last presentation-for-visiting-profs thing. Almost everything is packed, so there's just some creative squeezing left to do to keep all our bags inside the weight limit. And tomorrow at o'dark hundred we're heading ( Read more... )

Had my viva today. The examiners were fine with the thesis, so I corrected the various inevitable typos and things, added start-of-chapter quotes for amusement and got it printed and rebound. Unfortunately, the entire theory sector is gone on holiday or to various conferences so there's no one around to go pubbing with ( Read more... )

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Unbelievable as it seems, we've only got 4 weeks left before we head back to the states for good. My thesis is done (though I can't turn it in until my advisor shows up from holiday on Wednesday). The blackberries are ripe, and apples are showing up on the trees -- sure signs that it has in fact been pretty much a year since we arrived. It's rather ( Read more... )

We've got the Harry Potter book! Now, brace yourself ( Read more... )

Today I ate The Perfect Strawberry ( Read more... )

It's past 10pm and it's not yet entirely dark outside. I like summer.
Just thought I'd share...