Tim McGraw

A little delayed, but I needed something to blog about today. Two weekends ago, my friend Ami and I went to see Lady Antebellum and Tim McGraw in concert at the San Manuel Amphitheatre. The venue was far away and traffic getting off at the exit was completely inconvenient, but it was totally worth it. First, we got views like this when we looked to either side of the stage (I'm talking about the mountains, not California's 'finest' country fans):

But more importantly, the concert was AWESOME. I've seen Lady Antebellum before, but this was the first time seeing Tim McGraw live. We had lawn seats, so the seats weren't great, but we still had a decent view of the stage. Exhibits A and B:

Next time Tim McGraw is in town, I plan on splurging and actual getting seats closer to the stage. He sang for an hour and a half straight, with very little talking in between. Phenomenal show. The only sad thing is that Ami recently moved, so now I have to find a new friend to go to country concerts with :(

Tyler's Ultimate

Wow, third post this week. I told you summer was slow :) Actually, I'm just trying to make this blog thing more of a habit, which for me, requires me to work on it almost daily. Let's see how June plays out.

Anyways. As mentioned in the previous post, I like to cook. I watch Food Network shows and want to cook most of the food I see the pros make. Tyler Florence from Tyler's Ultimate is one of my favorites. He calls everything - aromas, textures, etc - "beautiful" which gets a little annoying, but eventually you learn to love it.

The other day I watched the episode where he made Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars. Normally I'm not a huge fan of lemons, but I thought I'd give these bars a try. I had to use my cheese grater to zest the lemons, and I only had an 8" baking pan, but other than I followed the recipe exactly. It came out looking like this:

I had a hard time telling when they were done, so I may have overcooked them a little. Also, the wax paper kept ripping, which made it hard to lift it out of the pan (definitely not as easy as Tyler made it look on TV). I was going to show a nice picture of the plated final piece, but due to the difficulties with the wax paper, the cut up version did not look as pretty. Didn't affect the taste though - I'll make these again :)

Testing Out the Green Thumb

I've never been a gardener. I think flowers look great in the apartment, but I rarely get them to last more than a week. However, I do like to cook. And all the cooking shows I watch (like this and this) and cooking websites I read (here and here) always say that fresh herbs make a huge difference in your dishes. I've bought them a few times at the grocery store, and would definitely agree, but at the store, it seems like I have to buy way more than I use in the dish I need them for.

Enter IKEA. While shopping for frames for a work event, I came across these little plastic containers with dirt and seeds ready to go, just add water. For $2 each, I figured, why not? I'll give it a try. If it works out, maybe I'll search out some more herbs to try. Anyways, I bought the parsley and basil (it's all they had) and added water. I think I almost killed the parsley, but with the lack of wording in IKEA directions, can you really blame me? Anyways, it's been almost three weeks and I haven't killed them yet. Check them out:

I'm guessing that at some point I will have to transfer them to bigger containers, but I'm going to put that off as long as possible because these fit way too nicely on my window sill. If anyone has any tips for making these not die, feel free to comment away.

Summer...

So the school year is finally winding down, which means free time has increased and hopefully the blogging will as well. What will I do this summer? Excellent question. A few definites:

- Check out the free stuff LA has to offer. Like this. And this.

- Become an expert at Zuma's Revenge

- Work out more - it makes the work day go WAY faster. I'm trying to get through this and possibly run a 5k. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

- Go to the wedding of some friends from grad school.

- Go home at the end of the summer and do the ol' Midwestern Tour.

A few maybes/hopefully's:

- Finish sewing Mom's Christmas stocking.

- Try out a new hiking trail or two.

- See Sugarland in concert. But first I have to find people who like country music...

- Play golf. Maybe at one of these courses.

- Go on a road trip. I have no idea where.

- Read at least four books.

Well, those are my summer 'goals' if you will. Let me know if you think I should add anymore. And if anyone wants to come help me accomplish some of these, visitors are always welcome :)

2009: Where did the time go?

So I just looked at this blog and realized that I completely abandoned it for an entire year. Maybe 2010 will be different, maybe not, but there's only one way to find out, right? Since 2009 wasn't exactly the year of travel that 2008 was (and I did not make it to NYC or Vancouver), I thought I'd just break the past year down by monthly highlights. Here we go:

January - welcomed my 26th birthday by taking a trip to the most ghetto urgent care I have ever seen. Also went to U of I for the Region III Lead On. The trip to U of I was definitely the highlight, but the urgent care was memorable as well.

February - Shawn made her first trip out to LA. The trip revolved around food from what I remember: we went out for sushi and I took her to the Griddle Cafe for my first visit there and those were the two highlights of the trip.

March - Pete and Mary made their first trip to California to visit and it was four days of fun. Again, lots of food, tourist attractions, and attendance at the Kids Choice Awards.

April - Went to a wedding in Michigan with the family, attended my first NCCS Nationals event, a volleyball tournament in Kansas City, and Diane and Anne came to visit. Once again, tried out some new restaurants, visited some touristy places, and learned that Diane really likes to read maps. Good times.

May - Mom and Dad came to visit for Memorial Day weekend. It was their third time in LA, so we tried a couple new things, but mostly watched movies, did some shopping and hung out. Their visits are always fun.

June - Attended a conference in Nashville and got to visit Neumann for the first time. I had a little too much fun at the conference and came down with a cold so I was the worst houseguest ever. It was great to catch up though. June also marked the end of my first school year at UCLA. This was my first experience with the quarter system and sometimes it seemed like the school year would never end.

July - Spent two weeks in the midwest, including a reunion in Chicago with my SLT friends, a trip to B-town, Peoria, and time with the fam. Way too much fun to summarize in a sentence or two so I won't even try.

August - August was a pretty relaxing month - no travel (I don't think), no visitors, and no classes so work was pretty easy. Not a bad month.

September - September started with a trip to Vegas to belatedly celebrate Kristine's 21st with the immediate family. Stayed at Mandalay Bay, caught the Beatles' Love and Bette Midler, and did not get sunburned. I was very happy.

October - Started with a trip to Michigan State for the second annual Whall Family Tailgate and ended with a roadtrip to San Francisco to visit Pete and Mary. Somewhere in between there, I moved (yes, again) and got an awesome new roommate. It was a busy month, but I'm not complaining.

November - November was a blur between Mom and Dad visiting, helping to host a student conference, a flag football tournament, and going home for a week at Thanksgiving. Once again, a very busy month.

December - Classes ended early on and due to vacations, furloughs, and weekends, I got to take more than two weeks off of work to visit my grandma in Florida and go home for the holidays. Excellent way to send out 2009.

Well, that's 2009. Who knows what 2010 will bring, but hopefully just as many great memories. And maybe a trip or two...

2008: The Year of Traveling

Ok, I realize I haven't posted in forever. And I have a lot of good pictures from the holidays to post, so bear with me. Instead, this will be more of a reflection post. Over Christmas, my Dad made a list of highlights from 2008. Along those lines, I decided to make a list of places I traveled in 2008. Thanks to the leadership role in NIRSA, and my very generous parents, I got to travel quite a bit. Here's the month-to-month breakdown:


January - Youngstown, Ohio; Home
February - New Orleans
March - Month of visitors
April - Austin, Texas; Home
May - Los Angeles, Home (2x), Des Moines
June - Michigan, Pomona
July - Home, Crown Point
August - Ventura
September - San Diego
October - San Diego
November - East Lansing, Home (2x)
December - Home, East Lansing, Brownsburg, Peoria

Travel goals for 2009 and beyond: NYC & Vancouver. Wish me luck.

Club Sports in the New York Times!

Bill Pennington of the New York Times recently wrote an article about club sports and their impact on the college experience, as well as professional development of the student athletes themselves. The article can be found here. It's a pretty good description of the types of students/clubs I work with as well as my ultimate frisbee experience at Indiana. Check it out!