Enjablog

Ian and I joined a gym a couple months ago and we’ve been going pretty regularly each week. I try to make it to as many of the kickboxing classes as I can, filling in with yoga and strength training on the other days.

The evening kickboxing classes are typically pretty popular, with a full class around 30-40 people. I made it to a couple Friday morning classes with ~5 people, which were fantastic. The morning classes are more kickboxing (with gloves and using the punching bag) vs. the evening Tae bo class.

Last night’s class was crazy. There were at least 60 people in the room. It was so crowded, I was actually worried I was going to kick someone in the head… you know, accidentally. This was already of significant concern to me since I am rhythmically challenged; the density of people in the room didn’t help matters.

The instructor started the class, as he does each Monday, by asking if there were any new people in class. One person raised her hand. How many people are here because of a new year’s resolution? <silence>

Liars.

There’s this aerobic/dance (zumba) class after kickboxing which typically starts lining up a half-hour before the class starts. Last night, the line went across the entire second floor to the stairs. And I passed more stragglers rushing up the stairs as I was leaving too.

Good for them, I guess… but I’m looking forward to the end of the month when things start going back to normal.

Thursday started out with breakfast with Ian’s parents. I got my first stocking and have plenty of Christmas candy to last me until the new year. :)

Thursday afternoon was with Ian’s extended family. The big differences from previous years was the musical extravaganza and birthday cake for dessert. We sang happy birthday to Jesus. It was a fun day.

Did Christmas with my family on Boxing Day. There was dancing, more snorking, and bingo! Plus, Anna had a chance to enjoy the activity book I received the day before.

Mac & Cheese (I made this for Thanksgiving too, but forgot to link the recipe. Thanks to Anna for sending this to me!)

INGREDIENTS
For topping
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 cups panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) or 3 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 6 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1/4 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For macaroni and sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups whole milk
1 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (6 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 pound elbow macaroni

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Make topping:
Melt butter, then stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined well.

Make sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes, then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Stir in cheeses, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax paper.

Make Macaroni:
Cook macaroni in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain macaroni in a colander. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl. Transfer to 2 buttered 2-quart shallow baking dishes.

Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

NOTES: Add a tablespoon of mustard to the roux. I’ve been using progressively more pasta each time and I think for my taste, about a pound and a half of pasta with some ham mixed in was a good cheese ratio (can reduce final baking time to ~15 mins). I mixed whole wheat with regular rotinis and started that when I started the sauce and let it sit in the water to overcook the noodles until the sauce was ready.

Happy Saturnalia, Merry Christmas, Happy [Day 5 of] Hanukkah! :)

On Christmas night, Santa is in a superposition of quantum states, smeared out all the way around the planet, and each quantum state delivers presents to a single child. This explains why it is so important that children are asleep, because if just one child sees Santa, he immediately collapses into a single state, in accordance with Heisenberg. This would mean that no other children would receive presents that Christmas. This theory elegantly avoids all the flaws in the conventional theory. The only problem is that you will have to explain quantum theory to your children before you tell them about Santa.
Sean Smeltzer, Croydon, Surrey, New Scientist, January 16, 1999

I’ve been going through a lot of pictures lately for a couple projects I’ve thought up recently. And among them was this one:

I’m not sure where I got this or why I kept it around as long as I did. But it was my shaking stick. You know, to shake at the kids out in the neighborhood when they’re causing a ruckus or in my way. I’m old inside.

Friday night, 12/12:

Saturday, loafed around and watched a bunch of movies and waited for people to come pick stuff up through Freecycle:

Sunday:

Monday — more giveaways:

Tuesday — Christmas tree decorating with Elf, Justin, and Ian:

Wednesday — SNAME Young Professionals happy hour:

Thursday — Went to the gym. Going to bed.

Invited a couple dozen people over to my sister’s place today to head over for a tour at the Naval Academy. Pretty exciting day!

- Operating and Cleaning Your New Windows. Because, you know, “Open” and “Close” are very complex instructions.
- Developed pictures from Costco of the 2003 graduation that I thought were still in my camera. Now I have no clue what’s in there.
- Flyer for the “I can’t afford a place to live” scholarship. (Sorry, Sonny. Had to share it before shredding.)
- Think Before You Speak. Yeah, that’s an entire booklet I have addressing this.
- My 2001 SNAME Membership card.
- A bar of Dove soap. I don’t think it was mailed to me… so I have no idea how it ended up in that box.
- A brand new, unopened, unactivated credit card that expired in 2007.
- Grand Theft Auto Vice City postcards.

Other finds:
- 2 boxes of unopened mail; ~5 years of Marine Technology and Maritime Reporter
- 2 calendars from 2005
- 12 pads of paper, 20+ new postcards
- 2 AP review books for classes that I never took; 1 LSAT review book, which I also never took
- Sonny’s dimebag

In an attempt to use some of my use-or-lose PTO, I worked a half-day today and came home with energy and a vision. I decided it was time to face my closet.

When I moved into my condo 3 years ago, I unpacked most of my stuff, assigning each item a place. As I got to the end of my piles of boxes, I lost motivation and decided I could get to this stuff “later.” They were in the way, though, so I put them in the closet. You know, for later.

Out of the 6 boxes I emptied, these were some of the highlights:
1. What is a gang?
2. Protect your family from lead in your home.
3. A film camera. I haven’t used this camera in 5 years. I also haven’t developed the film currently in the camera, which has pictures from my friends’ graduation in 2003. I didn’t develop them because the roll wasn’t finished. I didn’t finish the roll because I got a digital camera. So, I put it away in the closet. I don’t even know if those pictures will even develop now… or if I’ll even recognize the people in the pictures… Is it even worth it?
4. An emergency thermal blanket… for my car, boat, or camping.
5. My Smithsonian volunteer ID. I last volunteered with them in 2004 and was supposed to return it within 6 months of quitting.
6. A birthday card from Squidgey for my 23rd birthday.
7. Postcards from my trip to celebrate the centennial of flight at Kitty Hawk… in 2003.
8. Al-Qaida Tactics and Operation Enduring Freedom. I’m almost certain these belong to my brother from before his deployment to Afghanistan. I have no idea why I have them.
9. A Powerpuff Girls Valentine.
10. Two unlabeled floppy disks. I have no idea what’s on them or how to find out.
11. Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker. Don’t remember where I would have gotten this.
12. A canister of pepper spray that expired in 2006.
13. Headphones that have been missing since I moved in 2005. I knew I still had them. I was about 99% sure that it was in one of my boxes in the closet. I am so cheap that I refused to buy a new pair of [$15] headphones because I knew I had a perfectly good pair already. I just couldn’t bring myself to empty out the whole closet to find them. I sure showed me!
14. An issue of Psychology Today that belongs to my brother, dated December 2003.
15. A McDonalds pedometer, circa 2004.
16. Snorkel & mask.

Oh my goodness! I can’t believe I forgot to write about boob tape when I blogged my high school reunion. Must not forget.

On Saturday, there was a picnic in the morning/mid-day at TJ, which I reluctantly passed on so I could actually get stuff done that weekend. Ian and I met up with Elf, Justin, and Catherine for a quick dinner before going to the fancy night out at the Westin. I volunteered to set up a slide show on Dellilah (without previously considering the implications of a laptop around drunk people with finger foods, but it all worked out), so got my hands on some nice pictures from high school.

Much of the evening went as it did the previous night. We were dressed nicer, but the same cliques tended to migrate toward each other. As the evening wore on, the music got louder, and more and more people ended up in the hallway outside the ballroom. And then we joked about how our 20-year reunion would be at Bob’s Big Boy for the early bird special.

After the pseudo-prom came to a close, a group of us went in high school fashion over to Silver Diner for additional reminiscing. Instead of talking about embarrassing high school stories, though, we ended up finding out that my former classmate is the mastermind behind CupcakeFetish. The rest of the night was lost to cupcake-related inquiries. I am so jealous of her life.

Ian and my 10-year high school reunion was Thanksgiving weekend.

Friday night was at RFD in Chinatown — a casual evening that eventually resulted in the center of the room being occupied by the “cool” kids and the introverts clustering off to the sides. Ian had a great idea of writing our Myers-Brigg type on our name tags, since that would probably help us more than reading a name barely associated with distant memories. (It helped that we were standing in a group of 3 INTPs and one INFP.) Unfortunately, that didn’t catch on, so we were left socializing with the people we did remember. ;)

I caught up with a few people with whom I was mostly friends by association — nice people, but fell out of touch once we didn’t have required daily contact. Then, I moved on to talking with spouses. I’m not surprised, but it was interesting to see how much fun the non-high school spouses were having. They weren’t expected to know anyone and had plenty of easy conversation starters. I ended up talking with someone’s wife for half an hour without actually catching up with my classmate!

Embarrassing moment of the evening: Ian and I were in such a hurry to leave once we decided it was time to go that I forgot to close out my tab. Which meant that I left my credit card at the bar. Oops… (Thankfully I was seeing many of the same people on Saturday night, so I just got Elf to close out for me. *phew*)

Happy birthday, BFF! :)