Anniversary and Certification

I have finally gotten solid proof of completing a certification; behold:

Yeah, I'm awesome. I should also have Inpatient and Mychart finished up today- now there's only STC to go  and I'm good to work. Which is a good thing as people from my hiring group are already starting to get customers, and once that happens I'll have no time to do any more training. So gotta get er done!

Also this past week was Ms. Carroll's and I's (mine? my? stupid possessives...) 5th anniversary. Kind of boggles the mind to think that we've been together for 5 years as it doesn't seem so long.

Anyway, we of course had to give gifts to one another. My gift, continuing a theme from last year, was making her some Dr Who miniatures, this time the 11th doctor (Matt Smith) and his companion Amy Pond.

 And the complete group for full measure. All of the miniatures  (except for the TARDIS) come from Heresy Miniatures, bt dubs.

She probably one upped me, though, by biking out to far away places in the rain to deliver me this:

She even put it in a little basket with Easter grass and wrapped it in plastic. Makes me tear up a bit to think about how good that Nettle Gouda is going to taste paired with the cracked pepper beer...

We also went out to dinner at a fabulous restaurant on the Capitol square called the Blue Marlin and then ended the night with a sold out viewing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Excellent meal, pretty darn good movie and of course amazing company.

We closed out the weekend with modeling (me) and studying (Rachel), though we also had a cozy game night Sunday night. One of the beers that we bought for the game night still has me stupefied; it's called Brown Shugga' from Lagunitas Brewery. It tastes like beer flavored malt syrup, but better than what that description sounds like. It still has a bit of bitter character, but the sweetness is through the roof and the beer itself looks like amber colored glass.

As Lagunitas put it (in very fine print around the bottle), "We believe this Special Ale is Something Unique. Feeding Brown Cane Sugar to otherwise Cultured Brewery Yeast is a'kin to feeding Raw Shark to you Gerbil. It is unlikely to ever occur in nature without Human Intervention. And it looks weird besides. But it has happened and now it's too Late." Truer words never said.

Until next time...

"What ought to be done to the man who invented the celebrating of anniversaries? Mere killing would be too light. Anniversaries are very well up to a certain point, while one's babies are in the process of growing up: they are joy-flags that make gay the road and prove progress; and one looks down the fluttering rank with pride. Then presently one notices that the flagstaffs are in process of a mysterious change of some sort--change of shape. Yes, they are turning into milestones. They are marking something lost now, not gained. From that time on it were best to suppress taking notice of anniversaries."


- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1896

Non-Epic Things: Bread and Beer, paint ball, and a special guest

So I've been posting a lot about Epic, and I'd like to say that no, that is not all that happens out here... though that is a lot of it. A lot of my time has been spent doing hobby things that you can read about on my other blog, but there has been some other stuff. For instance, two weekends ago Rachel and I hosted a very successful Bread and Beer party at our house, celebrating two of life's greatest carbohydrates. Lots of people showed up and brought delicious beer and bread that we are still eating to this day. Man, I love generous people who don't take their stuff away again... I made a pair of loaves of heffenzupf which were devoured quite quickly while Rachel made delicious red velvet cupcakes with homemade icing. Yum!

We've also been working out pretty much daily (well... until this week...) at our gym downtown. It's great because there's almost never a crowd there when we go to work out so if we see a machine, it's ours. Plus they have cable and are very friendly about switching the channels... yay!

This weekend I went paintballing with some coworkers at Apocalypse Paintball. It was a lot of fun and very welty, though I seem to suck at the actual shooting bit. Oh well, just need to practice I guess..

A bit blurry, but that faint pinkish bit is still some paint stuck in my hair. Yay!

Last but not least Rachel Carroll, Girl Reporter saw OBAMA last Tuesday. OBAMA!

He was speaking at the campus and Rachel and a couple of her friends (plus about a hundred thousand other people...) went to go see him speak. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, some pics from the party hopefully later this week, as well as maybe some pics from around Epic again.

A couple of reasons why today is awesome...

1. It was high 60s outside today- I wore shorts and sandals!

2. Got to play plenty of Warhammer, which is always great

3. Rachel got funding from Madison! Yaaaaaaay!!!!

Now I just have to find a job and a place to live...

Until next time...

"The proverb says that Providence protects children and idiots. This is really true. I know it because I have tested it."
- Autobiography of Mark Twain, (used as prelude to bowling story)

Road Trippin' in the Midwest: Madison, Part 2

The last two days were a nice mix of hanging with English prospectives/grad students, wandering around sunny Madison and looking for places to live. On Monday I found three apartments to look at and scheduled showings for them on Tuesday. The first two were rather horrible affairs that reminded me very firmly of dorm life. Seeing our reactions, our agent took us over to another apartment on William ("Willy") Street, an area that we had heard many good things about. It was pretty much perfect- lots of natural lighting, hardwood floors, good amounts of storage, laundry in the basement, a parking spot for my car, and it had lots of good coffee shops and restaurants, as well as a good co-op. AND it was on the bus line. Of course, it was a bit more expensive... definitely up towards the maximum of our theoretical budget. But it its tempting.

The last place that we looked at seemed to be a good middle ground between the two. OK parking options, nice amount of space and a fairly good neighborhood, as well as a pretty good price that included utilities. Still I think we are going to look at more places like our expensive choice before we make a final decision, as it was REALLY nice and probably affordable.

There was also plenty of wandering around the city and getting to know it- so much good stuff here it's unbelievable. And pleny of partying with the English dept., which was always fun.

We drove back really late at night, reaching home at just before 2 in the morning. Fortunately we had my recently re-found copy of World War Z to guide us in. It's an AMAZING audio book that takes everything into account with a zombie infestation, watching its effects politically, socially, scientifically, militarily- and it's entirely serious throughout. Plus, Alan Alda is in it!

Anyway, that's all for now... until next time...

Jane Austen? Why I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.
- Mark Twain

Valentime's Day!

Valentime's Day began on Saturday when Rachel baked me this AWESOME cake:

 

It was made with PEANUT BUTTER and had a WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM CENTER.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.... 

 For my part, I decided to craft another flower for Rachel, this time out of Sculpy Bakeable Clay. I think it turned out pretty well, though I need to work on my wet blending techniques for the paint job on the petals:

  

And yes, there is a second leaf behind the piece of paper.

For dinner we headed out to the Corner Table, which is a great restaurant that we have been meaning to go out to for ages. They use only local ingredients in all of their meals and often host cooking lessons where you cook your own meal and trips to local farms [that are also meals/cooking lessons]. On most Sundays they have a "vino+vinyl" night where you can bring in a vinyl record and a bottle of wine and enjoy your dinner, though on Valentime's Day they simply had pleny of tables and delicious food. Service was excellent- everything came just when we wanted it and not a moment sooner or later, and two entire hours simply flew by as we enjoyed the ambience and our conversation. Highlights of the meal included:

-a "bubbly" ale that tasted like a cross between champagne and a belgian ale

-roasted pumpkin ravioli

-squid ink spaghetti:

-braised pork belly with red cabbage, golden turnips, cream and onions:

 

-trout served with micro greens and toasted bread:

 

-cinnamon panna cotta with honey creme and strawberries on top

-and finally, rice pudding with apple extract and diced pieces of apple on top.

DELICIOUS. I highly encourage you to check it out if you have a bit of cash to spend on a quality meal and happen to be in Minneapolis.

We finished up the night by watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie that I have always meant to see but never did. It's about a couple that decide to wipe their minds of each other because of problems in their relationship, and their fight to stop the process once it starts. Most of the action takes place inside Joel's (the character played by Jim Carrey) head, so it's incredibly trippy as he attempts to hide his memories of Clementine (the character played by Kate Winslet) in deep, ingrained parts of his mind so that they will not disapear. Excellent movie from both a scripting and technical execution point of view; it was incredibly immersive, very weird and altogether enjoyable. I especially liked the fact that they used nonstandard film to shoot the movie (kodachrome I believe, but I could be very much mistaken). And it all takes place on Valentime's day, so that made it even more perfect.

Until next time...

"Buffalo, Feb. 14. Dear Sir: I am only too proud of the chance to help with this the only Valentine I venture to write this day -- for although I am twain in my own person I am only half a person in my matrimonial form, and sometimes my wife shows that she is so much better and nobler than I am, that I seriously question if I am really any more than about a quarter! "
- Letter to an unidentified correspondent from Mark Twain, featured on an internet auction by Bennett Stamps, Baltimore, Maryland, March 2006

Back to the Christmas!

So I have been meaning to share a couple of pics with you people who are not my family and read my blog (eliminating half of my readership in a single fell blow!) that came from Christmas time. The events that are to be portrayed come from Christmas Eve. On that day the Herzl-Betz family always goes to church to enjoy the wonderful service and then heads home to have a small meal and open our presents from the cousins over at my Oma's house, which is just across the driveway from ours.

This year was the second year that Ms. Carroll joined us, and of course she was not due to get any presents. But I decided to make a slight alteration to that agenda.

A large box? Well what could it hold?

Balloons?!?

Oh... it's Up!

Just some silly craziness from me. You know how I like presentation.

Until next time...

"Balloon: thing to take meteoric observations and commit suicide with."

- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927

Anniversary!

Well, this past Monday was my 4th anniversary with Rachel, so I had to find something suitable to mark the passage of time... and what better way than with Time Lords?

 

The minis came from Heresy Miniatures, and they are quite excellently crafted. There's even an Eccleston look alike available if you want to be complete in your collection.

The girl was very pleased. :)

We also spent our anniversary by going to Saffron, which was an excellent mediterranean dining experience. Some highlights: truffle oil with steak, terragon and tahini ice cream, and scallops made amazing-er.

Until next time...

"What ought to be done to the man who invented the celebrating of anniversaries? Mere killing would be too light. Anniversaries are very well up to a certain point, while one's babies are in the process of growing up: they are joy-flags that make gay the road and prove progress; and one looks down the fluttering rank with pride. Then presently one notices that the flagstaffs are in process of a mysterious change of some sort--change of shape. Yes, they are turning into milestones. They are marking something lost now, not gained. From that time on it were best to suppress taking notice of anniversaries."

- Notebook, 1896