gingerbread pancakes

Last night I was craving pancakes for dinner, and I attempted to re-launch into the Christmas mood by creating a gingerbread pancake experiment.

The only time I've eaten real gingerbread was two winters ago at Holden, with fresh whipped cream of course :) It was delicious.

The pancakes turned out pretty good, but cooked really weird...fast on the outside and slow on the inside.

I think it's because I accidentally added too much liquid to the mix.

The spice combination worked out though.

Take a pancake recipe or mix and add

-1/4 cup molasses

-2 t. cinnamon

-1 t. ginger

-1/2 t. cloves

uninspiration

The sky today is the exact same color as my car.

silver

and there is freezing rain dumping down from it.

I wish I had artsy inspiring beautiful pictures of the world and everyone I love.

Tomorrow I have one test and three papers due,

and then lots of work in the lab for the rest of the week.

But then it will be Christmas !!

I've kind of lost the holiday spirit...

it's hard to keep it alive when you don't live with anyone to share it with.

I wish I had amazing creative personalized gifts for all my friends and family

but I don't have the time to be artsy and creative.

I've been shut up in my own little world lately, trying to cram in end-of-semester-everything

School makes you very self-centered, all you think about is yourself and all the stuff you have to learn and then prove that you know.

Winter makes me miss last year, living with my two roommates in our crappy dump of a rental house that was too perfect, even with its moldy creepy basement, because of the front porch/sunroom and the little sunny upstairs nook where we could eat breakfast and watch Charmed because it was the only thing on at 7:30 am besides the news.

And my little yellow room tucked into the eaves.

Blasting party music while getting ready to go out.

My roommates still live together, without me, but everything has changed.

I hope I can cram everything I want to do and everyone I want to see into Christmas break, because it is my favorite time of year and I feel like this one is going to go by too fast.

Also, I miss Ben.

Long distance relationships suck life, love, and happiness right out of you.

And just suck in general.

winter run

I am sorry that my posts have been sporadic, weird, and lacking pretty pictures lately!

I have been in 100% paper writing mode.

Semi-successful with it.

The difference between grad school classes and undergrad classes is that the super smart, motivated grad students (most phD already) are NOT PROCRASTINATORS!!!

Back in the "day", (i.e. last spring) my old classmates and I would pull overnighters to put together lab reports and papers the morning they were due, but my new classmates start the freakout process a week or two ahead of time.  Which then rubs off on me.

I don't know if it's better to spend a week stressing out vs. a day stressing out...

We have been hit with the blizzard that has evidently swept across the country!

I woke up to about a foot of wet, melty snow.

It's started to melt already, but tonight's going to freeze so I am expecting to wake up tomorrow to an ice world. YUCK.

Last weekend I went for my first official winter run of the season (aka it was below freezing).

I have tentatively been trying to get back into running; sometimes I feel like my hip bothers me, sometimes it feels like my OTHER hip is starting to hurt, and sometimes it is fine and I think I am hypochondriac-ing everything.  I'd just rather be safe than sorry, but I miss running SO SO SO MUCH!!!

I was never a fast or far runner but I love being outside, connecting with nature, getting my endorphin rush, and all that :) 

Nothing really satisfies my endorphin addiction like running, and running in the cold is my favorite.