Women's Basketball (Go Lady Bears!)

A month or so ago Jeremy and I finally got around to visiting the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame here in Knoxville. We got some free tickets through freecycle, but it took us a while to have a free Saturday. The museum was interesting, but I don't know if I'd necessarily go if we hadn't gotten the free passes. Although it was nice to see stuff about the Baylor Lady Bears in the museum. Their coach (Kim Mulkey) was inducted sometime in recent years and there were pictures of the 2005 national championship team (my junior year). I did think that there was too much stuff devoted to Tennessee's team, in my opinion.

The Lady Bears and Lady Vols are playing next Sunday here in Knoxville and Jeremy and I bought tickets to the game. I'm very excited! It should be a pretty good game since both teams are ranked high and it's the season opener for both teams. I'm a little disappointed, however, because there isn't a section for the away team's fan. I was hoping to get to sit with other Baylor fans. Oh well. It was funny though, because one day at work I was telling my coworker that I would NEVER go to a Lady Vols game and then two hours later I got an email from Baylor about the game here in Knoxville. Oops, guess I WILL see a Lady Vols game after all.

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Hall of Fame:

Baylor Homecoming 2009

Jeremy and I went to Waco this past weekend for Baylor's Homecoming. It was the first one we've been to since graduating, and also the 100th anniversary of Homecoming there so we figured it was time to go. It was a blast. I'm so glad we went. As a student I always saw the alumni walking around campus Friday afternoon of Homecoming, reminiscing, and now WE got to be the alumni doing that.

This was the first time Jeremy has been back to Baylor since graduation. I went about a year and a half ago, but it wasn't the same. It was a weekend and campus was dead. This time was so much better with all the hustle and bustle of Homecoming activities. We toured some of our old buildings, bought a ton of Baylor merchandise, saw a couple of people Jeremy worked with at the library, and made the all the obligatory remarks about "how much campus has changed."

We also got to see many of our old friends from Baylor, which was awesome. It was actually kind of a whirlwind of a weekend, trying to spend time with everyone we wanted to see. It was great though. I even got to see and talk with a couple of my favorite professors! We also saw the parade, me for the first time ever. I never saw it as a student because it was just so darn early. I said every year that it was for the alumni who come back for Homecoming, so when I come back, I'll go then.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Yes, Samuel Brooks, we will!

My old dorm! My window is covered by the tree (3rd floor up, window just to the right of the last column).


Fireworks over Pat Neff. What recession?


Us with Chris and Meredith at the bonfire. We're so sad they moved back to Houston.


Me with Anali and Claire. We used to get in some good trouble together back in the day. Viva la revolucion!


Roommates and an apartment friend at the football game! I miss these girls.


We're hoping to be able to make it back for Homecoming more often in the future. As we walked around campus, we both kept commenting that we were so glad we went to Baylor. It's so different from the University of Tennessee, and in good ways. The people are so nice and friendly. I had forgotten all about that. Plus campus is beautiful and professors geniunely care about their students. Now it does have its faults, for sure, but I am so happy I went there and made the friendships and connections I did. Sic 'em bears!

I love Fall

It's officially fall here. A cold front came through at the beginning of the week and the weather has been "delightful" as my weatherbug says. It's been cool enough in the morning for me to wear a jacket to work. Unfortunately my office is cold enough for me to have to keep wearing the jacket most of the day.

My favorite part of fall is eating fall foods, especially pumpkin. I made my favorite pumpkin soup this week. I first saw the recipe in the food section of our paper two years ago and had to make it for dinner that day. I later found out it's a Racheal Ray recipe. Nevertheless, it has become one of my favorite fall dishes. I make it with vegetable stock instead of chicken. Also, this time I used 2% milk instead of heavy cream in an effort to be healthier. Neither Jeremy nor I could taste the difference.

I also made homemade rolls to go with the soup. I used my new favorite roll recipe, compliments of Tasty Kitchen. They are divine. And, I actually used the bread basket we got for our wedding as an actual bread basket! Usually I put fruit in it since we don't have a fruit bowl. It works better for bread though. Shocking, I know.



Next pumpkin food to make: Pumpkin bread, or pumpkin pancakes. I can't decide.

It's been a rather busy past week and a half. Last week we went up to Detroit for Allie's wedding. It was a lot of fun, but also exhausting. I'm glad I'll never have to plan a wedding again - so much work! It was great to see family and meet Cory's family though. They were really nice and welcoming. They even took us on their boat!

I told Jeremy when we got home that I needed a vacation from our vacation. Lucky Allie and Cory - they get to relax for a week while the rest of us have to go back to the real world. At least Monday was Labor Day though, that way we got a day to unwind before regular life resumed.

And in my case regular life didn't resume, I started a new job on Tuesday! I am now a program coordinator for CASA. I'm working there part time and at UT part time. So far it's been good and I'm really enjoying it. I've been getting a feel for the job this week - going to court a lot, learning how to use the databases, reading files, etc. I'm still trying to figure out my schedule so I can be there and at UT for the time I need to be each week. I'm really at the mercy of the court's schedule though.

Another Cupcake Taste Test

Back in January, I did a review of the three cupcake shops in town. Since then, I was told that I should try the cupcakes at Cafe 4, a newish trendy restaurant/bakery in Market Square. I finally got around to it yesterday. Yesterday was August 31, the day that all the coupons expire in the school coupon book. I was flipping through it and saw a coupon I had never noticed before - one free cupcake from Cafe 4, no purchase required. I couldn't pass that up so Jeremy and I headed down after dinner for some dessert. I first noticed that the selection wasn't that great. They had standard chocolate or white cake topped with different choices of frosting. I got the chocolate peanut butter and Jeremy got the raspberry truffle.

I was greatly disappointed. The chocolate cake, which was the same on both of ours, was dry, crumbly, and tasted like it came out of a box. Nothing like the light and fluffy cake of Cities Cupcake or like the dense and moist cake of Cupcakery or Magpies. My peanut butter frosting was good, a touch on the sweet side for me, but good. I didn't care for Jeremy's raspberry frosting at all. He thought there wasn't enough of a raspberry flavor, I just thought it tasted bad and artificial.

The cupcakes were a good size for the price, but if I'm going to buy a cupcake, I won't go out of my way to buy one from Cafe 4.

That Good Ol' Baylor Line...

Classes started here at UT last Wednesday so all last week the campus was busy with people moving in, students buying books, freshman trying to figure out their way around campus. Friday night they (who "they is, I'm not sure) had free pool, bowling, table tennis, etc, at the University Center. I'm guessing it was to entice all the new students to spend Friday nights there in the future when it wasn't free.

Anyways, Jeremy and I went and enjoyed some free pool and people watched the freshmen and other students. Watching the freshmen reminded me how much I hated my first semester at Baylor, especially those first few weeks. I was so far from home, so far from my friends, I knew no one. And on top of that, there was this immense culture shock of being in Texas with all those Baptists and it was so hot. Those first few weekends were awkward. You'd hang out with people you met, people on your floor of the dorm, but you didn't really know them so you were forced to meet all these people, kind of picking and choosing who you thought you'd mesh with. Also, a lot of people went home those first few weekends, leaving me and other out-of-staters alone in our rooms.

Man am I glad those days are over and that I never have to be a freshman in college again.

However, the more I thought about new school years, the more I realized how much I loved the beginning of my sophomore-senior years of college. I loved going back to Baylor and seeing all my friends and roommates I hadn't seen in a few months. By this time I had good friends, I knew my way around campus, I had a major I was thoroughly enjoying, and I had adapted (somewhat) to the Texas heat. Life was great.

Jeremy and I are going to Baylor for Homecoming this year and I am really excited. I have only been back to Baylor once since graduating and Jeremy hasn't at all. I know at least two of my roommates are going to be there, along with other friends I haven't seen in a while.

However bad that first semester was, I'm glad I stuck it out. Although, I never thought about transferring closer to home. Now, after experiencing a different university, I am so happy I went to Baylor. It is such a great community and school. I can't imagine what my life would be like had I gone elsewhere.

Ode to My Recipe Box

I got this recipe box on a whim last year. We were at a craft store for something else and saw these on clearance by the check out lanes. They were super cheap so I had to get one, and a couple of extra packets of recipe cards.



I can't tell you how much I love having this. So many of the recipes I make I get from online. But I hate having my computer in the kitchen so I generally put it on the table in the dining room, but I also hate having to go back and forth to the table. Sometimes I will print the recipes, but then I don't have anywhere neat to put all the sheets of paper. I could just put them in a folder, but that's not as much fun. Now I generally make the recipe once, while looking at it online, and if I like it enough, I will write the recipe on a card so in the future I can just bring the card into the kitchen. I'm kind of a messy cook so it works out much better this way. Who cares if the card gets messy, but a computer on the other hand...